#xiao needs a hug

[that-one-gay-writer1227]

30-Day Writing Challenge day Three: Texting/Messaging/Letters (Xiao x Reader)

Sumeru city. You were commissioned all the way to Sumeru city for your job as a sketch artist for clothes designs. You worked for a small shop in liyue harbor that took jobs from all over Teyvat. Given your position of a much higher rank, your boss Mr. Lei preferred to keep you and your team on base but as of recently, things have been shorthanded; thus why you got the notification earlier this morning.

You were at your smaller apartment, packing a few small bags you'd set on your bed so that you could fill whatever you could. You've never been to Sumeru, what were you supposed to pack? Is it hot, cold, wet, or dry? As you were doing your best to keep your clothing folded but moving hurriedly to make the trip in time, you hadn't even noticed a certain yaksha appear right behind you. You went to turn around, running directly into him.

You looked up to meet his ever-golden eyes with a wide smile, "Hey Xiao, I didn't notice you were there. what brings you here?" He didn't answer for a moment as he looked at your luggage confused.

"Why are you packing?" Was all he asked monotonously. Underneath his tone was a hint of anxiety, but he was so damn good at masking it that anyone that didn't know him would've missed it. You looked back at your bed and then at him once more realizing he was focused on.

"Oh...I have a commission in Sumeru that I can't turn down. The Akademiya is hosting a gala, and they hired me to make some of the girls' designs and to send them in. It'll only be a couple of weeks I promise." Despite your explanation he still seemed to be upset at your response.

For the past nine months, you and Xiao have been friends. After meeting one day when you found yourself late for work, he saved you and your job. Little did you know, your tardiness would be the spark that started this newfound friendship, and 'something more one day' you hoped.

Not many people got to befriend this adepti, and you knew that. Something about him was sad underneath his cold exterior. You could tell that there was more to the surface and that you wanted to be the one he let his walls down for. That's why you hated the idea of leaving like this. You'd just finally got to the point where he felt comfortable with you, and it made you feel guilty.

"It can't be helped. You have to fulfill your duties, though I will miss our talks," He responded after a moment of silence. His face broke your heart. You didn't want to hurt him, so you came up with a solution.

~~~~~~~~

The first letter you received from Xiao wasn't exactly a long one, that's for sure.

You took the single sheet from its envelope, noticing that it was only a few paragraphs long. Xiao's handwriting was incredible, maybe that's just part of living for thousands of years. You learn how to write so beautifully.

A small smile breached your face as you read the first paragraph. His wording and conversation felt a little shy and awkward. He stumbled over himself a few times and the letter felt a little dry, but his message was still there. Hidden, but there.

The bottom line is that he was thinking of you, and he cared. you set your sketchbook and bag down on the table of the inn you were staying at and grabbed a few pieces of paper to write your reply.

The reply was simple. You explained how you were, and about our day. Archons how your day had been shit. You were feeling self-conscious about your work and underestimated the number of people that were wanting a design. You wrote down about how you spilled some of your drink on some of the older designs and how you had to redo them by the next day.

You didn't want the letter to be all bad, so you wrote about how you saw this really pretty bird. It had landed on your book while you were finishing one of your sketches. The birdie had jade green feathers, a few black feathers, and some blue. You wrote about how it had reminded you a little of xiao. You were sure he'd find a bit of humor in that, and if not then oh well. You wrote about how you missed him and couldn't wait to come home to see him again.

Sealing the envelope you walked down the hall and dropped the paper down the mail chute, closing the door with a thump.

~~~~~~~

The 8th day was a little better than the last few had been. You had gotten all the designs remade and got through a sturdy handful of clients.

Once again it was evening time and you went back to your room at the inn. Seeing another letter from your favorite Adeptus. You opened the much larger envelope and took out what seemed to be about four pages and a flower that was preserved.

reading through the letter, Xiao mentioned that the flower reminded him of you, and he asked Zhongli if Ms. Hu Tao would have anything that would preserve the plant. Much to his surprise they did, and Ms. Tao had the flower preserved and packed away for you.

In this much longer letter, Xiao wrote about missing you, and how he wanted to see you the moment you got back to liyue.

Today's letter felt much more relaxed and genuine. You could tell he was significantly more comfortable with writing nightly messages as you call them.

This was letter number 7, and you felt thrilled that you and he could share the letter-exchanging experience. You knew you were going to keep your letters until the day you left this existence since they reminded you just how much he cared when so many others didn't.

You took a seat at your desk and began writing, as you did so routinely and as you would for the following week until you returned to the one you hoped felt just the same for you.

[clj-art-blog]

DFQC and XLH in Lucheng | Aside from all too important and not so important matters and missions

[howlingday]

Sun: Hey, Jaune! Want a hug~?

Jaune: Yes... Please...

Sun: Ha! I'm just kidding! Get fucked!

Jaune: THAT'S NOT FAIR!

Sun: Whatever! I'm the best blond dick, and there's no way you're gonna beat me in any sort of popularity contest!

Yang: Suck my dick, Sun!

Sun: Whip it out, bitch; I'll make you wanna marry me~.

[habizuh-studios]

We need to talk about Lang Qianqiu more. What do you mean he was a crown prince? What do you mean his whole family and more were massacred in front of him by what he assumed to be his own teacher? What do you mean that until that point, he'd looked up to his teacher so fucking much, he had admired him and wished to be like him, he wanted nothing more than his approval? What do you mean that after his parents death, he was forced into the role of king and had to sort out politics and had no time to grieve? What do you mean that in the little time he had, he sought out his families (presumed) murderer and stuck him to a coffin with forty-nine (49) wooden nails? What do you mean he loves his family? What do you mean he ascended to godhood? What do you mean one of his best friends died? What do you mean people don't understand his character? What do you mean he has a kind heart and a good soul, respects honor and has a bit of pride? What do you mean that he doesn't have anyone to love and his parents death were a lie? What do you mean that he feels so fucking guilty for what he did to the wrong person, that he chases the culprit for 3 fucking books off-screen before showing up again? What do you mean that after his parents murderer turns into a ghost fire, he takes care of his son? What do you mean that he's trying to forgive the same way his teacher did? What do you mean that he's trying his best, he's fucking trying, he's well-respected and kind, but no one truly understands him besides his teacher, who he has a rocky relationship with at best? What do you mean that his teachings were so ingrained that after 400 years, he still calls him his guoshi? What do you mean he has a tiger in the manhua? What do you mean he's handsome? What do you mean he's protective and eager to serve? What do you mean he probably has PTSD and nightmares? What do you fucking mean? What the fuck do you mean?!

[djbluefire]

I could fight off the brain rot no longer, now my brain is mush and this show is torturing me

[m1d-45]

Let it be known that I love writing fluff, and I listen to character audios sometimes. SO! I came up with a cute idea for sagau imposter au. I heard somewhere that Xiao's adeptus form is a bird, so I wonder, what kind of bird? And that got me thinking. Xiao being a little song bird, or perhaps even a cardinal.

Now imagine: while looking for the imposter, Xiao stumbles upon them sitting beneath a tree, just feeding some birds. Said birds are absolutely loving the attention since the creator of Teyvat is giving them food and love!

Xiao watches, rather curious. The creator he knows hates birds, because they always dive and cause problems for them. But now... these little birds have completely abandoned any fear they may hold for human beings, happily landing on the hands and shoulders of this supposed imposter.

So he decides to test something.

Xiao turns into a small bird and approaches cautiously. In his smaller form, he's vulnerable to attack. But the person before him doesn't try to hurt him. Rather, they smile and call him "little friend" as they offer food to him. In his distrust, he bites them with his sharp beak.

His heart shatters when he sees divine blood spilling from the wound.

He's about to fly away, get as far away from here as he can. He found the true creator, and instead of worshipping them, he bit them! He caused them to bleed, he shouldn't even be near them-!

His mind stills when they pet his feathered head.

They murmur kind words to him, apologizing to him. They believed that they had startled him, that he bit to protect himself. They forgave him, they felt no hatred towards him, no anger or disappointment. Instead, they offered some chopped almonds, hoping he'd prefer that over bird seed.

He sang for them as he perched on their shoulder.

After that, he did his best to secretly protect the creator he'd harmed. He would adopt his smaller form and sing for them when they felt sad, and he'd use his human form to guard them from a distance. Yes, it made his chest ache whenever they looked at him with fear when they saw his more human form, but the yaksha only shook it off. It only made sense that you'd be scared. He was a frightening person, one that had tried to harm you before. He refused to try and change your feelings towards him. He didn't have the right.

He would be content to sing for you as a harmless bird.

-sibling anon (sorry if this is out of character for him I just like the idea)

oh….. he’s so soft…..

xiao hovering near the edge of the crowd, at first, drawing your attention since he doesn’t seem to be eating any of the seed you’d passed out.

when he finally hops within arms reach, you reach to nudge some of the food next to him closer, only to quickly whip your hand back. the birds around (on) you all flutter at the sudden movement, but you inspect your finger, the blue blood of teyvat welling up. your instinct is to stick it in your mouth, but that doesn’t seem safe considering a bird bit it, so you dab at it with a napkin.

the bird cries and flaps his wings, distraught, and your heart hurts. poor guy, you probably scared him, moving so quickly.

you pull out some chopped almonds from your pocket. the plan was to have them as a snack, but now… you put a few in your palm and close your hand around it, reaching forward to gently run two fingers over the birds back.

the other birds in the area seemed receptive to that, and this one does too, calming down considerably.

you take your hand back, opening your palm to drop the almonds on the floor, nudging them close before backing off.

“there you go,” you murmur, as the bird dips down to inspect the food. “i won’t hurt you.”

you allow yourself a silent cheer when it eats one of the almond pieces.

you see the small bird fluttering around you often, always on the edge of your vision. it’s easy to identify, the purple patch of feathers on its forehead easily standing out, and you’re always certain to push some food over to it. almonds, not birdseed.

the bird is a dark blue-teal, the underside of its wings a softer blue. it’s like no other bird you’ve seen in liyue, something that quickly catches your attention.

you brush some dirt off you as you stand, noting the way the bird immediately looks up from its food, unlike the others, to flap up into the tree you were sitting under.

you crack a smile, carefully reaching a finger for it. you’re slower this time, cautious of its skittish nature, but it lets you approach. when you carefully pet over its head, the birds eyes close.

your smile grows, and you try not to laugh at how confused the bird seems when you pull your hand away.

“i have to go,” you explain. “the millelith… they’re getting too close again. i won’t be able to see you again, little friend.”

the bird chirps, nearly indignant, and you do laugh this time. putting a small piece of almond on the branch in front of it, you wave goodbye to the other birds, seeing the blue one hadn’t touched the almond.

you frown. hopefully it’ll be alright….

xiao watches you until you’re out of sight, and even then, he stays on the branch.

you…. he’d forgotten you were being hunted by the millelith. he’d forgotten the order to look out for you. he’d forgotten the qixing called you a criminal.

who could blame him? it was easy to forget everything at your side, when you carefully ran your fingers over his feathers, scratching at his jaw with the edge of your nail. yes, he was vulnerable as a bird, but it was easy to be vulnerable with you. it was easy to be open, to sing as best he could in this form, to allow himself close enough to see the way your eyes lit up whenever another bird landed on your outstretched finger.

xiao dropped to the ground, morphing back into his human form. predictably, the birds cawed and flew away quickly. he watched them go, his mind contrasting it with how readily they flocked to you.

you…

he turned to the branch he was on, to the small almond piece left behind. the small symbol of your care, of how you recognized that he didn’t touch the birdseed and instead offered him your own food to eat. normally he wouldn’t lower himself to eating off the ground at all, let along bird food, but almonds weren’t awful and you seemed so happy when he ate..

xiao looked back to where you’d gone, to the sandbearer trees swaying in a soft wind.

he allowed his form to fall away and spread his wings, taking flight on the same breeze that urged you along.

perhaps he’d forget his orders for a little while longer, if it meant he could spend that time with you.

perhaps he’d forget his orders for a little longer, if it meant he’d get to spend that time with you.

[dragynkeep]

y'know it's so interesting that for all the show runners claim bees was planned until the beginning, they consistently pair yang with weiss for all her emotional beats.

weiss could've easily joined ruby when blake ran away in v1 while yang ran after blake herself but instead they get the introspective talk about weiss's ideals & how they contrast yang.

it's weiss & yang that're doing school activities together & having fun during v2, as well as being paired together for the vytal tournament in v3 despite the fact that bees are supposed to be fantastic fighters together? it's yang that weiss heroically saves during the end of the fight & it's them who run to each other during the fall of beacon.

then we have their parallels in v4 where they're trapped in their own traumas & homes in different ways, weiss fighting out of the trauma that kept her trapped there as yang works through the trauma that blake & adam gave her during the fall of beacon. this culminates in not only their renunion during v5 but weiss being the emotional support yang needs when confronting her abusive, neglectful parent because she understands her.

weiss consistently recognizes yang's emotional pain during v5 & allows it to sit comfortably with her, allowing yang that space without feeling guilt or being reprimanded for rightfully being angry at yet another person who abandoned her: weiss allows yang to feel. without guilt, without restraint.

for all these claims of "it was planned since the beginning" & "freezerburn wouldn't work, they would divorce within five minutes" & "weiss isn't yang's type": the show says the exact opposite. what we see on the screen is completely different to whatever lip service is said by the showrunners & fans alike.

at the end of the day, it wasn't blake that did the emotional work with yang & it wasn't blake who yang never even once considered blaming for leaving unlike blake, who came back to her willingly. that was weiss. wouldn't work together my ass.

[xlmibby]

if you're a hopeless romantic like me and want to watch xiao and lumine be happily married in love, i think you will enjoy the new xiaolumi fic i posted on ao3 a few moments ago! well, at least i hope you do. anyway, thank you so much for reading~ 🫶

[the-earth-priestess]

i like the idea of wispti being the only wind wisp that was really interested in humans of early mondstadt. the others were more content to play with each other and other nonhumans.

i like the idea of barbatos being a god born of hope for a brighter future for his favourite humans. a god born to see a dream fulfilled when the origin of the dream couldn't see it come to life. a god who carries hope inside him as if carrying a torch comprised not of flames, but of a soul.

i like the idea of nameless wanting nothing more than for venti to live on and be happy. and so i fully believe his last prayer would have been something like "thank you for being my friend. forget me if it hurts too much."

they want the best for each other. venti wants nameless' dream for a free mondstadt to remain alive. nameless wants venti to be happy on his terms. they love each with such devotion but they were separated by death and loss and grief.

and yet their friendship helped empower the people of mondstadt. it's a story about love and hope and happiness. it's a story about fighting for what's right. it's a story about living on when it hurts.

[captain-crackship]

I feel like the new episode was specifically a middle finger to HTDM.

The Herbalist was HTDM personified and WBY confronting themselves showed how much they’ve grown since Beacon-- a common criticism of HTDM’s is that they haven’t. Meanwhile Ruby was broken. Another criticism of HTDM’s is that Ruby is always too cheerful and is never affected by anything. But this episode, and really this season, shows that the opposite is true. Ruby is broken. She’s been broken since Beacon and hasn’t let it show. She had to be the strong leader her team needed.

But her team has moved on from their trauma. Their crucibles forged them into stronger warriors. They’re made of sterner stuff. Ruby hasn’t moved on. Ruby kept everything inside. And as a result, it seems that her team has moved on without her. Do they really need her now? Do they really need such a weak leader? No. They’ve left her behind.

Pyrrha and Penny are dead. Beacon has fallen. Atlas is no more. Salem, a seemingly unstoppable force, has two of the four relics and is halfway to destroying Remnant.

That is the pressure Ruby is under and since landing in Ever After, her facade has started to crack. Her psychological wounds are wide open. Her pain is there for everyone to see. HTDM jokes about wanting Ruby to snap this volume and they very well might get their wish.

But in the face of all of that, I’m hopeful for Ruby. This is a healing volume, after all. And when she does eventually snap and her trauma is laid bare for all to witness... Her team will be there. For her.

This whole time Ruby has tried to be the strong leader her team needed when they were at their lowest points. Now that Ruby is at her lowest point, the roles are going to switch and her team will be the ones to help her heal, to grow and move on. They’ve never left her behind and they’re not going to when she needs them most. Ruby has had the weight of Remnant on her shoulders and now that she’s buckling under the pressure her team are going to be there to help support her.

Her team came out of their crucibles stronger because of Ruby. Ruby is in her own crucible now. And she will come out stronger because of her team.

[echoes-ofdawn]

I am Bosacius And my destiny Is to make the ultimate sacrifice

[truly-morgan]

[Hanahaki disease AU]

SongXueXiao | Mo Dao Zu Shi Hanahaki AU 17-04-2021

[#songxuexiao hanahaki disease] 

Where xy noticed he was coughing up petals only a couple of months after starting to really live in yi city with aq and xxc. He hates the purity of the white petals, because he knows to who they seem to connect and /no way/ he's in love, he hates him, he hates everyone. 

He figures hiding it from two blind people would be easy and he could pretend he just has a condition which makes him cough heavily sometimes (little does he know that aq did notice it and wonder who it could be at first). It takes months before he accepts that “ok, /maybe/ I fell in love". But he won't change his way just for that, he will still be xy (which anyone but him would notice how he did change, much gentler with both xxc and aq). 

He keeps hiding it and never tells xxc because he knows that whatever he does, the man would never see him that way anyway. Maybe dying by flower isn't so bad, he could die in the worst way than that. 

Then came sl. He isn't sure exactly how he actually managed to convince (or rather blackmail) sl to just not say anything and just live with them. It makes everything harder since sl does see, so he has to hide to cough out all the petals and flowers he manages to repress around him. And the growing is just overall worst now that sl is here because he can /see/ how the two men act around each other despite clearly not being sure what to do. 

He hates sl. Hence why he feels even worst when black petals join the mix, utterly confused as to why there was such a change (he also hates how easily he seems to fall in love with anyone slightly being good and affectionate to him). 

But he knows he cannot tell them, because there is no way either of them would accept him (especially sl). He knows he’s not enough for either of them and it would only make it worst to say it. 

So he hides it even more than before, always able to have his worst coughing moment away from them, since he can feel them coming. 

One day, as he’s supposed to stay down and heal from a rather bad injury, he feels it coming. And it feels like a bad one too. So he gets up to leave, only to have aq stop him, saying he needs to stay down to heal or else it could turn bad. 

He tries to shrug her off, but she keeps on gripping his robe tightly. He finally opens his mouth to argue back, to tell her to piss off. But it doesn’t happen. 

Instead, this is when flowers decide they can escape, sending him into a violent coughing fit, feeling himself choking on all the flowers and petals, his body shaking and hurting from all the coughing. It’s so bad that it attracts both cultivator attention, running out from the room where they were meditating. He can hear xxc asking worriedly what is happening, but all he focuses on is how his gripping at sl sleeve, making his fits worst. 

His lungs are burning and he’s honestly starting to believe he will die like this. 

He can feel sl eyes on him, seeing him kneeling in the mess of black and white flowers on the ground. He barely hears sl murmur what it is, describing the flowers for xxc by habit of describing anything to him (they truly got used to describing everything for xxc). He’s a bit too panicked to really register anything of that. He jumped when he felt hand grabbing his face, a voice trying to gently soothe him. It took a while before the coughing stopped and only then did sl ask what (or rather who) this was all about. The man probably already knew, seriously who did xy know other than them? Or at least, knew /and/ didn’t want to just kill on the spot? 

But xy was stubborn and he didn’t want to tell, because the pain of growing flowers was better than one of rejection, he didn’t want that. 

He only stopped arguing when he felt something hit his forehead, looking up at sl confused, only to look down at what had fallen into the mess of black and white petals and flowers. 

A dark red flower lay on his knee. 

He looked back up confused, sl saying nothing as he simply looked back down at xxc instead, who had reached into his sleeve to take out a flower similar to the one sl had just thrown at him. Xxc gently took his hand, placing the flower securely into it “Had we known about it we would have told you earlier”. 

Xy wanted to cry (and he did, but he would deny it if anyone were to try and remind him of it). He had never believed something like this would happen. He had imagined many outcomes, but never one where xxc (and sl!) would confess to him about also loving him. Only then did he allow himself to confess, still looking like a scared animal ready to flee at any sign of it being a bad joke. 

But this was not the kind of thing xxc would do. So he believed it. 

Of course, it was hard for something to settle down correctly between the three (especially since xxc and sl had already something going on from back in the days), coupled with xy insecurities about it (but again he would deny having any, abandonment and self-worth issue? Who's that). 

But they were getting somewhere and this is all that xy need to know, not coughing up flowers anymore.

(note: This hanahaki AU is more of a “you’ll cough them up until you finally confess or die” than a “the flower stops when the other person starts loving you too”. XY never had that before and he’s stubborn so it got bad, where sl and xxc already knew what it was like and could deal with it better).

Original

[clj-art-blog]

DFQC & XLH | In the sudden (so desirable) embrace of his beloved wife.

+chibi bonus

Moon Lord Supreme Dongfang Qingcang, who needs to be hugged and kissed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

[howlingday]

Jaune: Guess the series is over now, huh?

Blake: Mhm, though I can't say I saw the ending coming the way it did.

Jaune: Kinda wish there was a big bang finale at the end.

Yang: Those bombs made a pretty big bang, especially when The Brothers showed up.

Jaune: Yeah, but I thought maybe you guys would be fighting and struggling at the end there, and you'd start getting beaten down, but then I'd show up at the end to help and cut off Salem's hand, freeing you and allowing you the time I gave you to use the power of teamwork and a simple soul to seal her away for good.

Jaune: (Sighs) I could have been a good character for once...

Weiss: Jaune, what are you talking about? You already did that! Don't get me wrong, that finale does spund fucking dope and probably would have been the best fucking climactic showdown of the entire series, but it still would have just been a big flashy metaphor for something you've already done.

Ruby: We've all fucked up, Jaune. I was suffering from depression while Weiss fought cartoon physics and Blake and Yang got... either hooked up or fucked or something?

Weiss: (Coughs) Fuckingfinally (Coughs)

Ruby: The fate of the world was literally at stake and not once did you break under the weight of it all, never did you turn your back on your friends, and despite all the hate people might still have for you even after all how much you've proven yourself, and you have proven yourself, YOU were still the one who hung on to the end, Jaune. I fucking cracked, and in my darkest hour, YOU were the light that helped guide our friends to me simply by being the voice of reason and compassion. And sure, quiet fortitude might not be as entertaining as over the top anime showdowns to the most butt-rock of songs, but most people can't have those things anyway.

Ruby: But they can be like you, though, and I hope they try because there's no place in this life where humility, self-reflection, and resilience won't serve you well. You're a top-tier character, Jaune Arc,

AND YOU FUCKING EARNED THIS

[kiwikiwii]

oily prince's (previous) love interest

[wehearthewildernessandithearsus]

Do you ever just think about Red Like Roses part 2 and about how Summer didn't want her daughter to follow in her footseps cause she didn't want her to suffer the same pain as her?

Yeah I've been thinking about this a lot lately...