Chapter Text
It’s a loud day at Wangshu Inn. Xiao can usually ignore the noise, but today there seems to be more of a commotion than usual. He’s about to teleport to somewhere quieter when—
“Please, you have to help!”
The voice is a familiar high pitch, and he stops. If that floating creature is here, then that must also mean…
He waits for the sound of her voice. He doesn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he did promise her that he would help if she ever needed it. That is, if she ever called his name. She had only done so once, for the most trivial of matters, but still…
Instead, another voice — a deeper, male-sounding one — chimes in. “I’m not sure what happened. She was fine after she drank the potion! But then when she came back she fainted… Was the domain too tough on her?”
Fainted? The traveller? His brows crease in worry and, despite his better judgement, he teleports to the upper balcony and then makes his way for the stairs. As much as he wants to, it would be too startling if he appeared right in the lobby — and despite the amount of traffic around the inn right now, he desperately wants to find out what’s happening. Especially if it’s something that’s happened to Lumine.
Lumine, the closest one he could get to calling a companion. He respected her for sacrificing her own sense of self-preservation to save Liyue Harbour, but it wasn’t just that. She was brave yet careless, coming back to spend time with him, continuing to bring him offerings of almond tofu even after he said it wasn’t necessary. Who dared to spar with him — “for fun!” she had once proclaimed — and grinned at him even after his hits sent her flying. The only one who didn’t seem to care about his karmic debt, his hands stained with centuries of blood and death.
He doesn’t understand her. Maybe she pities him, the sole remaining yaksha and lonely adeptus, after having heard of how no one brings him offerings. And yet, if that’s the true reason… Perhaps he doesn’t want to understand after all.
But that isn’t the issue here. As he descends the stairs, he sees Paimon fluttering about worryingly, next to some human male standing in front of the reception desk — except the human is holding something, someone in his arms, and as he approaches he realizes it’s her and she looks so small curled up against him, like she’s sleeping peacefully—
Something tightens in his chest at the sight, and he has to force himself to calm down before he snaps unnecessarily.
“Xiao!” Paimon’s voice is, for once, a welcome distraction. “You’re here! Please help! Lumine… She just suddenly fell over and won’t wake up!”
“We’ll have a doctor check her out,” Verr Goldet says patiently. “And of course, since it’s the traveller, we can lend a room for her to rest in, free of charge.” She turns towards him. “Xiao, would you be able to take her up? I’ll just have this gentleman here sign some papers—”
He nods, secretly grateful as he turns his back and bends so that the other man can place her on him in a secure piggyback position. She feels so light — has she always weighed this little, especially when the force of her sword is so formidable? It’s been a while since he’s seen her, after she left Liyue — he wonders if she’s been alright, what she’s doing back here. If she would have come to see him before she left again.
Paimon follows them up the stairs. “Tell me: what happened?” he asks her instead, taking each step carefully. He feels Lumine’s breath on the back of his neck.
“It’s exactly as I said!” Paimon comes to float in front of him, expression anguished yet somehow animated. “We came here with Timaeus to help him test out his second batch of smoldersleet potions, and everything seemed fine and dandy while we were fighting… But when we went back to report to him, Lumine suddenly just fell over and wouldn’t wake up!”
He doesn’t respond, unsure how. Realizes that he doesn’t actually know what to do in this situation — even after their spars together, he’s never seen Lumine completely unconscious, in such a vulnerable state. “Has anything similar happened before on your travels?”
“No.” Paimon shakes her head fervently. “Sometimes she gets really beaten down, then she’ll get better after some food, or after spending some time around a Statue of the Seven... but she’s never outright fallen like this!”
“What was she fighting?” He tries a different approach.
“Paimon doesn’t really remember…” She pauses, scrunches up her face in thought. “There were a lot of monsters! Hilichurls, slimes, even some Fatui and some giant robots… But Lumine was able to defeat them all, as she always does!”
They’re almost at the room now. “And what about these potions? Is there a chance that… they were poisoned, or tampered with?” The last few words are almost ground out between his teeth, lest it’s true, and Xiao swears in his head that if that’s the case, he will personally make that human pay.
Paimon’s eyes widen. “No! No way… Timaeus wouldn’t do that! The first batch of potions was totally fine… and this time we even saw him mix in every single ingredient we collected!”
They’ve finally made it. Xiao pushes the door open unceremoniously, revealing a basic double bed next to a lamp on a side table. On the far side is a full desk with a chair, situated before a large window allowing lots of natural light in, as well as a trunk he recognizes for storing food and ingredients. There’s also a door in the corner which he presumes leads to the bathroom; the whole suite seems quite similar to his own room in the inn, not that he uses it that often. Regardless, he hears Paimon ooh-ing and aah-ing at the amenities.
Wordlessly, he sits on the bed so that Lumine is seated on it too, and unlatches her arms carefully from around his neck. Turns to face her as he lowers her down carefully and—
Two bunny ears stick out prominently from her head.
He blinks in disbelief. Were those always there…? No, he definitely would have noticed them earlier. But then… did that mean they’d magically grown in the time it took them to get here? That didn’t make sense either…
He hears Paimon gasp and shriek, “What are THOSE?!” Looks up and meets her gaze — okay, so he isn’t crazy and he isn’t seeing things. But then…
As if on cue, Lumine starts to stir. He watches as she lets out a soft groan and brings her hand to her face, then slowly cracks open her eyes to meet his, before beaming up at him. “Xiao,” she whispers — but it sounds different, or maybe it’s just how she looks laid out below him right now, the sight alone making shivers run down his spine and—
She pulls his arm with surprising force and he falls forward over her, his elbows making contact with the bed on both sides of her head so that he doesn’t crush her. Or at least, he’s trying not to — she wraps her arms around him and rubs her face aggressively into his chest, then grabs the back of his head, and pushes so that his lips meet hers.
It’s an odd feeling, but it’s not unpleasant — far from it, actually — and he freezes as he tries to figure out what to do next. His mind screams out that he should get away, he needs to protect her from himself — but she’s so soft, and her arms around him feel so warm and so right. And now she’s biting his lip and her tongue is in his mouth and wow, it’s as if his body was meant for hers—
As his own tongue starts to move and wrestles with hers, he vaguely realizes that she’s tugging at his shirt very insistently. Almost like she wants him to take it off.
Suddenly he hears Paimon shriek yet again in the background, and what happens next can only be attributed to pure instinct: he wrenches his face away from Lumine’s and jumps backwards away from her grasp in one motion — blinks twice rapidly, leans against the wall for breath, his heartbeat loud in his ears. Barely registers Paimon hiding in the corner with her eyes covered, before his vision comes back to the bed: to Lumine resting back on her elbows still watching him, eyes wide yet unfocused, with those damn ears still on her head.
What the fuck just happened?!
“Xiao,” she whines, low, as if begging him to come back. Sits up suddenly — “hot,” she complains — and begins pulling her dress over her head as he watches, speechless. Tosses it to the side and off the bed before zipping down her boots and kicking them off. He’s never seen so much of her skin before; he should be like Paimon and close his eyes too, but her gaze is still on him and he can’t tear himself away from this view and—
“It would be wonderful if—oh, Lumine, you’re awake!” The male human appears in the doorway alongside Verr Goldet, and Xiao can’t tell whether their timing is a miracle or a curse. “Glad to see you’re doing well! Maybe we don’t need to—oof!”
Before he can react, Lumine has jumped off the bed and run at the human, and now she’s hugging him and rubbing her face all over his front, just like she did with him. Xiao blinks, feeling suddenly overwhelmed—
“Lumine!” Paimon’s cry anchors him to reality and the true problematic situation at hand. “What’s wrong with you?!” The fairy, now out from her hiding place and in the hallway, turns towards Verr Goldet. “She’s acting funny! She did the exact same thing to Xiao too! It’s not like her to ignore Paimon like this…”
“Lumine.” Not even Verr Goldet’s calm yet authoritative voice seems to do anything. Instead Lumine seems to double down and hug Timaeus harder. When she also starts to pull at his shirt, Xiao decides that he’s had enough — he can’t help himself from marching over, reaching under her arms, and pulling her away. She glances up at him before — oh, Archons — proceeding to wriggle her ass against him, and as he glares down at her, his peripheral vision sees—
Lord Barbatos. She has a tail, too.
Before any other thoughts can enter his brain uninvited, he makes the executive decision to toss Lumine back onto the bed before marching back out and shutting the door.
“Alright,” he grits out, eyes narrowed at Timaeus, no longer capable of caring if his adeptal energy affects him or not. “Just what did you put in that potion of yours?”
“N-nothing special! I used the same base as last time, gathered all the ingredients Ying’er told me to, and mixed them exactly as she specified—”
“Ying’er? From the Harbour?” Verr Goldet sighs. “Oh, dear. She does know of some potent mixtures. We’d better give her a call to clarify then.” She pauses. “I think it may be a good idea to call up the Yuheng as well, have her come over to brainstorm a solution? What do you think, Xiao?”
“Do as you must.” He hears rattling and Paimon’s alarmed voice from behind the door, feels the doorknob moving in his palm. Thanks himself for having the foresight to lock Lumine in like that, even if that means he has to keep standing here for who knows how long. He’s certain he’ll have to go back inside eventually, but for now…
He sighs, slumping against the wall. It’s going to be a long day, he just knows it.
It’s nighttime when both Miss Ying’er and Lady Keqing arrive. The doctor had already checked Lumine out and given her a clean bill of health — as much as he could, at least; they had to tie her down during the examination, and she didn’t seem capable of understanding or answering their questions. At the very least, they’d been able to give her some sleeping medication, even though they were unable to diagnose the cause of her behaviour or her new animal characteristics. Xiao just wants some damn answers.
“Thank you again for coming.” Verr Goldet leads the two women as well as Timaeus towards Lumine’s room, smiling at the sight of him. “Ah, and this is Adeptus Xiao — he isn’t normally present around so many people, but he’s been ensuring that Lumine remains in her room.”
“It’s an honour to meet you, Adeptus.” Ying’er bows her head and he nods in return. “Let’s go in and we can see what’s happened to the traveller, shall we?”
The room is dark when they enter, save for the light from the small bedside lamp. Lumine is fast asleep in the bed, in what appears to be the same state they’d left her in. The chair from the desk is still pulled up to the bedside.
“So, my hardworking alchemist.” Ying’er glances towards Timaeus. “Tell me again, line by line, what you put in the concoction that you made earlier today.”
“Of course!” Timaeus nods enthusiastically. “I wanted to make something revitalizing this time since Lumine complained of constantly running out of stamina in combat. So I mixed in some snapdragons and a rabbit tail, and then I also ground in some boiled silk flower essence, and then—”
“Wait.” Ying’er’s voice is soft yet sharp. “I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to repeat that. Boiled silk flower essence…?”
“Yes!” Timaeus’ nod seems even more energetic, somehow. “We gathered some silk flowers, extracted the essence by grinding them up, then simmered it over low heat until the water boiled off — just like you specified! And then I added it into the potion and Lumine drank it!”
Ying’er has an odd expression on her face. Xiao thinks it might be regret. “Timaeus. That recipe for silk flowers… It was meant only as a reference.” She sighs. “Silk flower extract isn’t something that can be used lightly. As an essence meant for romance, it’s only to be used in making perfumes, not… to be ingested. Not to mention the fact that it was mixed in with a rabbit tail — and that explains why the traveller has transformed into our very own bunny girl now.”
Timaeus looks as if he’s seen a ghost. “Oh, Lord Barbatos. I—I’m so sorry!”
“That’s alright. In fact, I should apologize.” Ying’er smiles but it’s thin. “I should have been clearer in my notes. I didn’t know that such a mixup could occur…”
It’s silent for a moment as everyone takes this new information in. “So then…” Keqing clears her throat. “How can we revert Lumine back to a normal state?”
“As I mentioned, silk flower essence is meant for romance. The effects are very strong, such that to my knowledge, no counter-potion exists. Therefore, the only option available to us is to find the person that can re-invoke the radiant dignity within the traveller,” Ying’er states with utmost confidence.
It’s silent for a moment as everyone struggles to comprehend. Verr Goldet eventually speaks up. “And what, exactly, does that entail?”
“Hm. Well.” The young perfume maker pauses awkwardly, for once seeming to lose her usual composure. “Please pardon my language as there is no better way to say this. It may sound unreal, in fact. Yet the only way she can revert back is…” She pauses.
“For her to have sex with the person she loves the most.”
It’s quiet before a cacophony of sound breaks out — from Paimon’s horrified shriek of “WHAT?!” to Timaeus’ panicked pleas of, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it could lead to this! I’m sorry!” to Keqing’s gasp of, “How in Teyvat is that even possible?”
“I’m certain that’s what’s happened. I swear on my entire perfume making knowledge.” Ying’er’s voice has regained some of its firmness. “And the effects would not have occurred if it wasn’t true. So there must be such a person in the traveller’s life.”
Xiao remains silent, but the thoughts in his head are loud. The person she loves the most…? But it seemed as if everyone loved her. Whose affections would she be likeliest to return? Was there truly someone special that she had in mind, a favourite?
Was there a chance that person could ever be him?
Wait. No. No way in hell. He shouldn’t be considering that possibility but it’s too late now. The voices in his head are laughing at him, cackling with downright glee, and instead of death they’re talking about her and telling him yes, give in, take her claim her own her she would look so beautiful under him while he gives into his deepest darkest desires and he wants her name out of their filthy mouths and spilling out from his own—
“Well, then.” Verr Goldet’s voice cuts through the wall of noise both inside and outside of his head. “It certainly sounds unreal but, as you know, we’ve all dealt with things that seem even more so.” She sighs. “Paimon, you are the traveller’s closest companion, right?” Said creature nods. “I am sorry that you have to hear all of this. But you know Lumine the most, so we’ll need your help, alright? Can you think back on your journey and recall if Lumine has mentioned anyone special? Or has spent a lot of time with any one person in particular?”
“Well…” Paimon scratches her head. Xiao doesn’t know if he can listen to this, but at the same time some twisted curiosity keeps him rooted in place. She huffs. “Paimon doesn’t like Childe, especially after what he tried to do to Liyue Harbour! But he and Lumine did spend a lot of time together when we were here…” She scratches her head. “…I guess looking back on it now, those were considered dates? Oh, and he has a nice brother who’s very sweet unlike him, and we promised him we’d meet his family some day!”
“The Eleventh Harbinger? Oh, Archons… Tracking him down is going to be hell.” He hears Keqing mutter under her breath, and Xiao secretly hopes that they’re never able to find him.
“Oh, we also spent a lot of time with Zhongli xiansheng in Liyue! He took us to some nice places too… although Lumine ended up having to pay for a lot of the visits.” Paimon laughs sheepishly. “But! I remember she did ask him for a lot of advice! I guess she looked up to him a lot… which could also be considered… admiration.”
Keqing has a notepad out now and she nods. “It might be good to have Zhongli here anyway so he can help us think of more potential contacts to reach out to—” and for once, the name of his adoptive father, although not the one he knows him as, makes Xiao sick to his stomach.
“Paimon also remembers Kazuha! He and Lumine spent a lot of time together while we were travelling on the Alcor.” Paimon’s voice turns sheepish again. “To be honest, I’m not sure what they spent a lot of time doing since I didn’t hang around — but I remember they danced a lot together! Oh, and he saved us in Inazuma! We wouldn’t have left Tenshukaku alive if he hadn’t blocked the Raiden Shogun’s sword with his own — that was really cool!”
His heart clenches. Lumine had been in grave danger… and bound to Liyue, he had been unable to do anything about it, hadn’t even known of this near-death instance until this moment. He’s so useless.
“Speaking of, Xiao…” His heart stops for a second at Paimon’s words. “You also saved Lumine too, didn’t you. When we were on the Jade Chamber!” She nods as if proud of him. “Lumine really appreciated that, you know. That’s why she always makes you almond tofu and comes to see you whenever we’re in the area!”
Ah… of course. There it is — he knew there must be some other underlying motive for their frequent visits, and it all came down to feeling indebted to him. To wanting to repay the favour — nothing more, nothing less. It leaves a surprisingly bittersweet taste in his mouth.
He moves to exit the room, but is stopped by Verr Goldet. “Well, Xiao? What do you think? I understand it may not be my place to ask this, but since you’re here already… would you be willing to be the first candidate to assist the traveller?”
He wants to say yes, that he’s more than willing, he’d do whatever it takes to bring the real Lumine back, the memory of her lips on his still so vivid. But instead: “There’s no point,” comes out, full of self-contempt for being selfish, wanting what he can’t have, while also not being worthy enough to help her even through this. “With so many other people in her life… there’s no way that I’m the one she loves the most.” He steels himself as he turns towards the doorway, facing away from them all. “I’m certain that I will be of no help during this operation.”
“Xiao…” Paimon sounds crestfallen, but Verr Goldet hums understandingly. “Of course. If that’s what you truly believe.” He hears her turn back towards the others. “Lady Keqing, please let me know if you require any assistance locating any of the listed individuals. I suppose we should also reach out to the Knights of Favonius in Mondstadt as well—” And just like that, he’s free to go.
As he shuts the bedroom door behind him, he heaves a sigh. His eyes take a second to adjust from the dim lighting in the room to the well-lit hallway of the inn, and yet the increased brightness does nothing to make him feel better. Not like Lumine does — not like she did.
He leaves the inn, somewhat regretting that he’d stayed behind that morning after all.