𝒜𝒻𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓉𝓎 | Xiao x Reader

...𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝙷𝚒𝚖

Xiao silently closed the book he'd been reading all night, realizing that it was already late into the morning. This one, like the first, had both brought back memories and provided him comfort. It was a strange sensation, but not one he disliked in the slightest. After all, any peace he could get now that you were gone would be welcomed.

He gently set the book on his bedside table, along with the first one. He'd have to thank the traveler later for lending them both to him, but for now, he had duties to fulfill. There were always more people that needed his help during the day.

Still, as he went about his morning and prepared to set out for the day, he couldn't stop thinking about the books by that author.

Like the first, 'The Medic' had paralleled yet another one of your lifetimes almost to a tee. Again, the dialogue between the Adeptus and his now-reborn lover had been very similar to his own with you, when you'd returned to him the first time. Not only that, but the lover had come back as a medic that saved the Adeptus, just as you'd done for him.

He didn't think much of it though; considering it did make sense for them to come back as some sort of doctor for the sake of the story this author was crafting. He just found the coincidence interesting.

Though he'd never heard of the writer of these books, he knew he would be inclined to praise them for their accuracy, should he ever actually meet them. Everything the Adeptus in the story had felt was exactly what he'd gone through with you, and it took talent to imagine something like that when one had not been through it themselves.

He knew the stories had nothing to do with him or you. After all, very little history had ever been written involving you. Most of it focused on the Adepti or Rex Lapis himself, and not the deities that had helped them.

You had lived so many lives and done so many things that it made sense for some of those experiences to be paralleled in books like these. Though Xiao couldn't understand why, stories about immortal/mortal relationships were extremely popular with the people of Liyue.

To him, they'd always just seemed sad.

Nothing could be worse than what he'd already lived through though; that was for sure. These books couldn't make him feel any more horrible, and that was why he was so grateful for them.

They brought peace in a way nothing else in his life could at the moment while he awaited your return. So, he was willing to overlook any quips he might have had with the stories and the romances they promoted.

Finally pulling himself from his own thoughts, he grabbed his spear, which had been resting against the nearby table, and teleported into the marsh to do his job.

If there was one constant in this world, it would be the fact that people always needed him. Everyone in Liyue relied on the Adepti so much, even if this was technically considered the age of mortals. Though the only human he ever really wanted to protect was you, both of you had made contracts long ago to do this, and he was going to uphold that promise no matter what.

So life continued the same way it always did. Every night he read one or both of the books over again, and then every morning he went out to fight monsters and protect mortals. He would return late in the evening, and the cycle would continue.

As much as he always appreciated the stories and the memories that came with them, it almost felt as if they were starting to lose some of the peace they brought.

He would never grow tired of reliving your lives with him; not for as long as he lived. But the more he read these books, the more he longed for you to come back. He wanted you to return so badly; to see you alive and in his arms again. He would have given anything to make that happen, and these stories only brought out that need even more.