Red Strings (Xiao x Reader)

Prologue

What exactly is Xiao wrestling with?

Some say he is fighting against his past. Old grudges, unfulfilled dreams, unsettled debt.

Others might answer that he fights an endless war against the hateful remains of defeated gods from the Archon War. A fight that is endless and can never be won.

Both of these suggestions are true, but neither is a complete answer, for there is one fragment of his tale which Xiao has never revealed even to many of the adepti.

Because even a being like him was once a carefree soul. Someone who believed in fate, love, someone who desired to be with another. Someone who had a hope for the future.

Not anymore.

The history of Liyue is a long one. It is filled with festivity and wonder just as much as it is tainted by murder and grief. Many names are remembered and worshipped, whilst others are forgotten. But there are two names in the nation's past who never even made it into the history books. They are neither celebrated through song nor whispered with fear and distaste. Two names, remembered only by the Vigilant Yaksha himself in chill autumn nights as he perches upon the many ruins in Liyue.

One of these names plagues his mind with painful memories of his past. The crimes he had committed, the lives he had taken, the deeds he had been forced to perform. It is a constant reminder of his sins, following him through eons of slaughter from his past and haunting him throughout more.

The other fills him with bittersweet flashbacks. It tugs at his heartstrings and takes him dangerously close to the verge of tears. Xiao insists that as an adeptus, he makes little of human emotions, but not understanding something doesn't change the fact that it exists, after all, adepti are no less prone to feelings than any mortal.

Sometimes, on moonless nights, under the shelter of the shadows, Xiao would let this long forgotten name slip from his tongue, into the silence of the night.

"(Y/N)."