Freedom

Part 2

In my other Xiao fanfic (a cute ((is it biased to say that? ah well)) little slice of life where he raises a Liyue child) I have Lumine as the traveler so i thought for this one, it'd be cool to switch it up and have Aether. In hindsight, when I play, I have Lumine set as my traveler so if I get Aether's mannerisms a little off, bear with me. thaaaaanks,

Anime4us

P.S If you guys want me to post the other fic on this platform as well, lemme know. It's a slice of life where Xiao gets stuck raising a little girl. It's quite amusing if I do say so myself. You can find this and that piece under my Ao3 account: Anime4us.  

Chapter 2:

"Hey!"

You groaned at the voice trying to rouse you. It's the first time you've slept this well in ages and you know that if you open your eyes, you will have to catch up with all the pain and beeping and people trying to tell you that they know what's best—

"Hey! Don't ignore Paimon!"

"Five more minutes..." You plead, earning a furious noise in return.

"You called us here!" The voice states.

You know you won't be falling back asleep any time soon. Maybe it's a new doctor that's here to take a crack at your illness. You just want to tell them to go away. It's always the same. They start out super optimistic and it starts to go downhill, and after a few months they don't even visit anymore because they have no breakthrough to tell you or your parents about. There is no scientific formula that exists yet for your strain.

You groan, lifting your hands to your face and rubbing at your eyes. Fine, fine, you'll get up, but it doesn't mean that you have to be happy about it. The nurses usually know better than to wake you when you're sleeping, lest it be for meds, they usually let you be. Letting out a deep sigh, you open your eyes slowly. They shut right away, a direct correlation to how bloody bright it is. When the hell had your room gotten so fucking illuminated? You recoil from the light like a bloody vampire, throwing your arms up to protect your sensitive eyes.

"Are... you ok?"

That's a guy's voice. Another doctor? Sure, you suppose it isn't weird for them to come in pairs. At least two heads are statistically better than one. That's what they say anyways. It takes you a couple long seconds for you to get your eyes open long enough to focus on the back of your own arms.

"How rude! Don't just ignore us!"

The woman is throwing a tantrum. You want to play the cancer card and tell her off. In fact, you drop your arms and are about to do just that when the sight before you knocks the breath out of you. You gape at the two forms in front of you like a fish out of water. How was.... This just couldn't be possible...Standing before you were... Aether and Paimon? One of the twins from your favorite game and his... emergency food.

"Hey! You just thought of something rude, didn't you?!" Paimon practically shrieks, causing you to wince.

Aether crouches down in front of you, holding out a pouch for you. You blink at him, still stuck in your stupor. He cocks his head before opening the pouch and dumping some in his hand.

"Ah! Aether, don't waste water like that!" Paimon demands.

"It's just water. I'll take a sip if you're worried about poison." He states, ignoring the annoying pixie over his shoulder.

Bless this boy's heart, he thinks you're worried about poison. Nope, just having an existential crisis. Now that you think about it, your throat is dry and even though it's something you've dealt with nearly all your life, you take the water skin with a gentle word of thanks before chugging a ton of it. It tastes off... but you're not quite sure how to describe it other than the fact that it's not the water that Mary brings you when you're shoving pills down your throat.