The Spark [Xiao x Aether]

All over again |||

"It may come out as hypocritical, but lately I've been wondering about what would've happened if I never even had a sister to begin with? If she was never there maybe I could've had a normal life in Teyvat without all the fighting and injuries. Sometimes I wish I could just 'remove' her..."

Those words felt weird when coming out of mouth like his. He spent a long time looking for the former abyss princess all over this world. All of his friends knew about how much he missed her, almost everyday he would mention her to Paimon.

It's weird once a person takes time to think about how many changes in life happen over such short period of time. So much stuff isn't the same as it was before. But could that really be seen as a bad thing? Aether was still taking his sweet time to get used to life without worrying about his sister, just as he finally started to calm down, it turned out she was the bad guy all along. It hurt the boy. But he moved on from the pain a long time ago, if there was anything he should be sad about, then it should be the small number of options on what he can do about the leftover power Lumine left in this world.

After marking the blonde girl as his enemy, the blonde started experiencing drastic changed in his life. He managed to fall in love with somebody, the world opened his eyes and made him understand that Lumine wasn't the kind of a person he thought she was, he lost his best friend because of her, his lover's karmic debt just keeps getting worse and worse, and now she wants to get rid of him.

Slowly, the boy started developing hatred for the former princess of the abyss.

"If my memory does not fail me, I remember you telling me that certain tree roots that grow under Sumeru are in control of this world's memories and dreams." Started the Adeptus after a long pause to think.

"Irminsul, yeah. What about it?"

"...do you think the tree is capable of altering the present?"

...

...

...

A sudden idea popped into the blonde's head. How could he have not thought about this before? The nation of the Dendro Archon was known for the tree capable of storing people's memories. When one gainst enough trust from lesser lord Kusanali to enter Irminsul, they could possibly alter the past. The traveler was well acquainted with the nation's god. But there was one huge issue about this.

"That's a good idea, but it's very dangerous. Playing with time is something you only have one chance with. You mess up once and everything's over..." Explained the blonde as he started to actually think this might work despite all the risks.

"...do not respond if you're uncomfortable answering, but have you messed with the past before?"

Xiao was curious about whether his lover ever changed the present or not. There were many things Aether was hiding from him connected to his past, the Yaksha never got to know where his partner had been before Teyvat, for some reason his memories were erased and he didn't have the answer for that.

The traveler was forced to hide all the changed he made to this world using Irminsul, if anyone knew anything about it then everyone would get confused. People wouldn't know what was real and what wasn't anymore. The Adeptus assumed that the reason his memories were erased was from the tree under Sumeru.

"I have. I've got many regrets from it." He responded after an entire minute. He knew he shouldn't tell his boyfriend anything too detailed about it but just this simple sentence was enough.

"So changing the past is something we can cross off of our list...but is there really anything else we could do? Lumine could eventually kill you in your sleep if you aren't careful enough..."

It was a hard decision to make, the blonde wasn't ready to mess with time again. It could have great consequences, but yet again, it was the only way he could get rid of the former abyss princess for good. What made the situation even worse was that he needed to be quick, every second that passed by, he kept feeling weirder and weirder. It was as if something invisible kept touching him, like that thing he murdered before he passed out.

"It's worth a shot..." Aether managed after thinking about all the other ways he could deal with this. There were no other ways, this was the only possible way to get rid of the blonde girl.

The Yaksha got up to his feet and and reached his hand towards his partner.

"We're going to Sumeru then. Can you walk?"

The boy grabbed his hand and got up aswell. His legs started shaking a little at first but after standing for a while with Xiao's support, he was able to catch his balance pretty quickly.

"Careful now."

"Don't worry, I got it." The blonde looked his boyfriend deep in the eyes and smiled as he let go off his hand.

As he was looking at him, he noticed a very worried expression, the Adeptus seemed so nervous about something that he couldn't even take time to look back at him. Aether assumed he was just worried about messing with the past, it wasn't something anyone could do. If one thing goes wrong then it's all over.

In reality, the Yaksha was worried about how things will go, but there was something that made him even more afraid. It was the word's his lover said about giving up before he passed out. They stuck hard onto the boy's heart, even though he knew the traveler was unconscious, he was still scared that might have been true. Was the blonde really thinking about death recently, has he attempted to kill himself before?

It hurt hearing someone so happy and cheerful all the time say all those things.

Losing his partner was something Xiao didn't even want to think about, he lost too many people. If he lost Aether he would surley lose himself, just looking at the boy made his heart feel weird. Talking to him made him feel at ease, his presence meant everything to the Adeptus. If one day he suddenly vanished, the boy could perish aswell.

Ever since the traveler and Xiao met, the boy felt at ease, his karmic debt started to fade slowly. But whenever he left him, it would come back. Neither of them really understood what it was, but neither did they complain.

Of course, the only reason the Yaksha fell in love wasn't just to use him for his own peace. There was far more he admired about the blonde.

His eyes...

Personality...

Way of words...

Beautiful blonde hair...

Voice...

Everything about him sticked out to the Adeptus, in his eyes, the traveler was his only light in life. When nobody reached out to him in his lowest point, Aether did. It was that, that made him fall for the boy so easily.

Nobody would ever like to lose such an important person in their life, but if Xiao lost him, he would lose himself mentally. His lover meant a lot to him, ever since yesterday, he couldn't stop overthinking everything he had said.

"Hey, don't give me that look with silent treatment. We talked about this before, if something is bothering you, do tell me. This will be a difficult situation we're getting ourselves in, I want you to feel comfortable too, you know?" Said the boy as be interrupted the Yaksha's overthinking. He assumed the reason he had such expression was because of the possibility of failing their mission.

"I am comfortable. I'm just worried about you."

"Huh?"

"...Please take care once you're messing with Irminsul. Effects of former god powers work in every corner of the world. There's still a chance she could come out of nowhere to get you."

Aether though this was very sudden, they haven't even reached Sumeru yet and the boy was already nervous. He figured his boyfriend just wanted to comfort him in his task.

"I will." The traveler smiled.