The Spark [Xiao x Aether]

All over again ||

"You're forgetting that Gods are immortal. They're unable to die, and even if they somehow still find a way to leave this world, their power still stays. Your sister and a certain other Gods were holding me in pain for several decades, even after their passing I'm still stuck with my karmic debt, forever."

Aether backed away and looked deep into his eyes while his were full of confusion.

"So your karmic debt can't ever be cured huh...and neither can we ever escape the danger my sister put on this world..." He sounded so helpless as those words came out of his mouth, it felt as if he was slowly giving up on this journey.

Xiao looked annoyed at the sudden tone change in his lover. Not once did he ever see him give up so easily. Back then the roles were reversed and the Adeptus was the one who didn't have any hope for life, but eventually the traveler managed to show him he wasn't alone and that life had some meaning. Seeing somebody who had such mindset not so long ago end up in this depressing state made the boy feel very bad for him.

He gently put his hand over his partner's mouth, not allowing him to talk, he had a very strange gaze but at the same time it didn't feel like he was mad or anything.

"Somebody like you shouldn't be using such helpless tone when speaking. You always encourage people to push forward when they're at their lowest, I believe there's still a way to fix this."

Still without being able to speak, the traveler looked away from his boyfriend's sharpening gaze.

"Look, what I'm saying is you shouldn't give up just yet-" before he could finish he was aggressively pushed away by the blonde, making him almost fall to the ground. He wasn't expecting such reaction at all.

"You don't get it, there's nothing we can do about this. You yourself said it. The power of Gods lives on forever. Nothing could break it. Eventually both of us will die someday despite being immortal! You're gonna get killed by your karmic debt and as for me, my own sister is forever gonna attempt to kill me. We should just give up..."

It seemed like the recent battles have affected the boy mentally. No. This entire journey has been affecting him since the very start. From the moment he landed in Teyvat everything started going downhill, he lost all his memories, his sister betrayed him for an ancient nation that got wiped out ages ago, and now the girl is trying to get rid of him.

The more this journey had been going on, the more hurt the traveler felt. His heart was aching more than ever. He felt as if there was no way to climb back up to the top. He was at the lowest point possible in life.

"I never expected you out of all people to give up so easily. Aether, what would Paimon think if she saw you right now? She will wake up eventually to what? To your dead body laying on the ground?"

"She would eventually die too..." the boy leaned against the rock behind him and sighed, looking to the ground. He put his hand against his heart to hear it beat, it all felt helpless. If he wasn't alive in the first place Teyvat would have never been in any kind of danger.

"Listen..." the Yaksha started one more time, hoping he wouldn't get cut off by his lover's sudden thoughts about death.

"...the reason I ever fell in love with you was because of how you never gave up. Back when I had similar thought that you have now I never would have thought I'd live for so long, but I was wrong. You came into my life, and my point of view in everything changed. You make me do things I never even tried pictured myself doing."

For a second he stopped to lean onto the wall beside the blonde. He hated seeing him like this. Xiao wasn't sure if this was a side effect from the nausea but he was still willing to try cheer his partner up.

Aether helped him a ton of times whenever he felt down, it was now time he helped the other.

"You're the reason I wanted to learn more about mortals, you made me try communicate with some of them and eventually I learned a thing or two. I always hated the idea of mortal romantic relationships but here I am."

"I'll never regret deciding to focus on you, Xiao. There's many things I regret in this life but this will never be one of them. Maybe eventually we'll be reunited in the afterli-"

The traveler was once again cut off by a hand covering his mouth, this time it wasn't as gentle as before. He was practically pinned against that rock unable to move unless he decided to get violent.

"Quit talking about dying! I don't want you to die!" He yelled pressing his forehead against the other's. That look that the Adeptus currently had in his eyes was full of fear. "We'll find a way to get rid of the powers of the gods one day, and that's a promise."

A small tear left one of Aether's beautiful golden eyes. The Yaksha wiped it away with his hand.

"Don't make promises you can't fulfill."

"I swear to you I will fulfill it one day."

"Hm...right..."

The boy was so exhausted from the nausea he felt that he passed out into his lover's arms.

There was a big chance that what he said about dying was simply because he felt unconscious, but Xiao still felt like such words shouldn't be coming out of the boy's mouth.

He held him close for a while before picking him up to try find a comfortable place to rest, rocks near river weren't such comfortable place. As he was carrying the traveler he felt a strange wave of deja vu rush through him. This reminded him of the time he got carried by the blonde back when he tried killing himself to end the effects of the karmic debt. Tables really have turned haven't they?

The boy's body was quite light, despite being a male he didn't weigh so much. He was very skinny, probably from all the fighting he did on a daily basis. Or it had something to do with the place he came from.

Back when the Yaksha saved him from the first time when the Jade chamber was falling apart he immediately noticed this, unlike other people he had saved, he was the lightest out of them all. Aether was even a tiny bit taller than his partner, yet he still felt as light as a feather.

Eventually after some long walking, Xiao found a nice spot for them to rest. He thought a little about just teleporting the two of them to Wangshu Inn but he didn't have the strenght. The nausea was slowly catching up to him aswell, the healing the blonde supplied him with had slowly started to wear off.

He sat down and put his boyfriend's head on his lap, the ground was quite rough and he didn't want him to get a headache once he wone up.

The Adeptus started going through his hair, undoing his braid incase it ends you causing a headache. He started playing a bit with his hair, admiring every single part of him.

'I wonder if you like this as much as I liked it back then...' Xiao whispered quietly as he was slowly losing consciousness.

He kissed his partner on the forehead and eventually he fell unconscious aswell. Neither of them knew what would happen if they woke up, will one die while the other still has to wait for his day to come to join his lover? Will they wake up afterall?

The two boy's didn't know, but they were too exhausted to care. They needed some urgent rest.