"Why did I choose to do this again?"
Alastor asked as he effortlessly carried Hu Tao on his shoulders. The day before, a family had come baring news of how the grandmother had died. The family had already contacted their Feng shui master, a little while before contacting the funeral parlor.
At the moment, Hu Tao was busily gathering flowers for the funeral.
Now, Alastor, who had unfortunately gotten involved because of Hu Tao, was serving as a sort of ladder for the funeral parlor director as she searched for white chrysanthemums.
A day after they first met, Hu Tao had stalked him to the point he could no longer ignore her. The young lady had been ever so delighted when Alastor yielded, and happily involved him in her business. Admittedly, Alastor's involvement was useful, as he did help detect any lingering spirits around― unlike a certain exorcist. Although that was the only thing he signed up for, yet he still got roped into Hu Tao's shenanigans.
A few days has passed, and Hu Tao's new hobby was pestering Alastor.
"Ooh! Look, I found a few over there!" She excitedly rejoiced, tugging at Alastor's hair as she forced him to move forward. Said demon's eye twitched, as he bent forward, causing Hu Tao to scream. Before she fell, he had floating chains catch her and gently place her on the ground.
The pyro lancer pouted, huffing childishly before she traversed through the trees and zeroed in on the multiple white chrysanthemums. She grinned brightly, waving the flowers as if they were a flag.
"Why couldn't we just buy the flowers? It'd save us from the hassle." He sighed, running a hand through his dark hair and narrowed his eyes at the young lady.
Hu Tao's eye twitched, smiling up at him. It was eerie, Alastor knew that. "Because a certain Consultant has been wasting our money on useless trinkets. The funeral parlor might go broke if we buy the flowers." She murmured, caressing the white petals of the chrysanthemums.
Alastor tilted his head, "But the family who asked for the funeral will be paying for the flowers? Why bother―"
"No! No! No! I might be managing a business, but I'm not that cruel to have a family waste more of their needed money on flowers. If a family comes to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, I will make sure to at least pay for the flowers as my condolences." Hu Tao declared, looking rather offended at Alastor.
The demon couldn't help but smile at her. Such a noble thing to do from such a mischievous girl. "So I'll pay for it. Flowers aren't that expensive." He nonchalantly declared, unconsciously grabbing Hu Tao and effortlessly carrying her. His arm was wrapped under her legs, as Hu Tao's arms loosely wrapped around his neck for support. "Close your eyes."
Hu Tao silently followed as heat blew around them. She opened her eyes again and found that they were no longer in the forest but rather her office back in Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. "Are you really willing to pay for the flowers?" She asked, gently landing on her floor as she looked up at Alastor with an expectant look.
The demon faltered for a moment. Rather than Hu Tao, he saw the image of a another girl covering Hu Tao. His breath hitched and his pupils shrunk for a second.
'Nuwa jie-jie.' He thought of the genius yet mischievous girl from his past. Unconsciously, Alastor's hand reached towards Hu Tao, and pushed back a few stray strands of her hair.
It caused the Funeral director to freeze. The look in his was of nostalgia and... Greif. But she understood that his hand, which she had always thought would be cold, were as warm as her own. For a second, they were only quiet as Alastor contemplated on the likeness Hu Tao had of an old friend.
"Don't worry. I am more wealthy than I look." He assured her, chuckling softly. Hu Tao felt a kind of... Brotherly affection from his tone. She was an only child, yet it was so palpable that even she could understand it.
Hu Tao nodded as Alastor gently patted her head. Her blinding smile made Alastor's heart stutter for a moment. 'Ah... This is why I don't like coming to Liyue... The people remind me too much of them.'
"Al-xiansheng." Hu Tao, called out.
"Gege."
"Xiansheng."
"Gege!"
"Xiansheng!"
"Xiansheng."
"Gege."
Hu Tao froze, pouting as Alastor smirked at her. "Don't call me Xiansheng. It makes me feel old." He explained to her, leasing her out of her office and watched the busy parlor. Alastor tilted his head, curious of Zhongli's workplace. The man has yet to come back, as he suspected that Zhongli was a bit busy back in Mond.
He assumed that Zhongli would be spending Mora on useless trinkets back in Mond, and he pitied Hu Tao for that. Said girl was staring at him, before she offered a soft and affectionate smile.
"Gege." She tried, and naturally, it felt better than the previous honorific. Alastor's breath hitched at that. It has been a long time since anyone has referred to him as 'gege'. It felt nostalgic, but he welcomed such words and patted Hu Tao's head a praise.
"That's better."
At the same time, one of the employees came bolting towards Hu Tao with a frantic look. "Director, will Consultant Zhongli be returning? We need his knowledge regarding some of the incense that the Yi Family has provided."
"Incense? What's the issue with that?" Hu Tao asked, brows furrowed as she followed the employee towards the special incense that has been given to him. From what was explain, it was owned by the woman who had passed away, and it was stated in her will that it would be used upon her death.
The incense sticks were relatively normal, but there were a few that seemed different from the rest. "These ones are the usual sage we use, but the ones provided to us are... We haven't identified it yet and are not sure if it is appropriate to be used."
Hu Tao crossed her arms over her chest as she observed the incense sticks lying on the table. There were also some candles that she had identified as the deceaseds favorite kind of candle.
"Madame Hu, the funeral is scheduled to be in a week and we are still unaware of when Mr. Zhongli will arrive."
Hu Tao nodded, gently picking up the strange incense stick, before Alastor took it from her. The employee gasped as Alastor inspected the incense stick, before turning towards the two employees of the funeral parlor. They were stunned at his actions, as he sighed and handed the incense stick back to Hu Tao.
"It's sandalwood. It's commonly used for meditation, but I don't know if it's alright to use it in a funeral." He explained, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared out the window.
Hu Tao was subtly impressed, and turned to the awed employee. She took necessary action and ordered necessary procedures for the incense stick. She then turned towards Alastor, who avoided eye contact with her as she grinned brightly an idea popping into her head.
"You're really knowledgeable huh? Wanna be my consultant? You can replace Zhongli!"
Alastor shook his head, amused by the enthusiasm in Hu Tao's voice. "Xiao Tao, I'm a demon. Working in a funeral parlor isn't appropriate for me." He reminded her.
Hu Tao visibly slumped, slouching as she frowned at the fact. She shook her head, huffing, crossing her arms, and looking away from Alastor like a child. It only amused the demon more, as he picked her up again, and brought her out the funeral parlor. "Let's go buy those flowers. I promised I would pay, remember? After that, let's get a snack."
The funeral Parlor glanced at the two, only a few looking back. After the past few days, they had quickly gotten used to Alastor carrying Hu Tao around. Some even found it cute as to how Alastor treated Hu Tao like a younger sister.
After a while, Hu Tao ended up whining on how he was treating her like a child, and hopped of him and took the lead.
Alastor was merely smiling at his selfishness.
Hu Tao wasn't Nuwa. They looked and acted similar, but they weren't the same person. Hu Tao was Hu Tao. Nuwa was dead.
Alastor understood this, and yet he was selfish enough to substitute his jiejie with an innocent mortal.
.
Alastor stared at the white and yellow flowers Hu Tao was picking out. After thousands of years, he had found funerals rather boring and bland. Perhaps it was because he was an infernal being, or perhaps it was because he has seen many people die. Regardless, he had lost the understanding of it's sentiment, but silently praised anyone who would honor the dead.
As an immortal being, Alastor has grown numb when it came to death. He was the last of his clan, and one of the last people of Fu Hua's disciples. He felt alone, nevertheless if there were other immortals around him. Making enemies was not unorthodox, and he was far to used to his own paranoia.
"Inazuma's necessities for funeral flowers seem better than the Liyuen tradition of white and yellow flora." Alastor commented, as Hu Tao hummed softly as she arranged the chrysanthemums. She turned to him, a questioning look.
"They have flowers known as the dendrobium. Also known as the lycoris radiata or the red spider Lily. It's a flower that literally means death and is mostly seen on battlefields because of fallen soldiers."
"Really? Wouldn't that mean that when gathering those flowers, you are stepping on places where people have died? That seems disrespectful." Hu Tao blinked in surprise.
"I guess so... Rumor has it that the plants are watered using blood, that's the cause of it's crimson petals." Alastor tilted his head, "I own a few dozen actually."
"Hah? You own flowers of death?! How morbid." Hu Tao teased, and gained herself a soft chuckle from Alastor.
"Well, as a demon, I have my own dark quirks. Randomly collecting flowers with dark meanings is one of them. Aside from the Cecilia, the Dendrobium would be my favorite." He admitted.
"Haiz...gege be thankful it's me your talking to. Others would be freaked out." She giggled and walked towards the counter where a nice young lady was checking on some snapdragons. Hu Tao pointed out the chrysanthemums she has decided on and ordered a proper funeral wreath.
"That will be 386,468.5 mora."
Hu Tao froze, inevitably turning into the statue as she stared at the young lady. Once again she was reminded that their funds has subsequently went down due to a certain someone's bad habit of spending money on useless trinkets. Internally, she was sobbing for her business nearly going bankrupt, while Alastor gave her a gentle pat to the head.
Said demon casually took out 3 bags of mora and dropped them on the counter. The young lady blinked in surprise, but courteously prepared the funeral wreath. Hu Tao was staring at the three bags of mora, blinking in shock before snapping her head towards Alastor. She was about to demand for answers, but Alastor pressed a finger to her lips with a sly smile.
"I wasn't joking when I said I could pay for anything by now. Might as well spend my money since I have no need of it." He confessed, as Hu Tao gave him an awestruck look with stars gleaming around her.
"C'mon now, we'll drop this of the parlor and get ourselves some food. Buy anything you want, I'll pay."
"Are you sure?"
"Zhongli might as well make you bankrupt, I'm just helping out. Don't think of it as kindness though," he added, a strained grin on his face. "I'm just bored and have nothing to do."
Hu Tao was grinning like a fool as she hugged Alastor's arm. "Thank you gege!
Alastor shook his head in resignation. He was getting used to her eccentricity and enthusiasm. Perhaps that's why he found her so odd yet endearing. Her personality and over all lack of fear for her own end. He found it refreshing.
"Don't get used to it, Xiao Tao."
―
author's notes:
This is what I know for the honorifics or something in chinese:
Gege - older brother
Xiansheng - is the equivalent to "Mister"
Xiao - not referring to the character "Adeptus Xiao or Alatus". From what I can gather, some people refer to close friends or younger family members with Xiao (小) which means small.
Basically, Hu Tao is calling Alastor older brother while Alastor is referring to Hu Tao as "Little Tao". Or something like that. I'm not too sure but I caught the gist of it.
To differentiate Xiao (the character) and Xiao (the nickname), the character's name won't be italicized while the nickname will be italicized.
Take note of this for those who may get confused in the future as to why Alastor is calling Hu Tao by his nemesis's name.