Art: @Aerinon on Twitter

(Fluff??)

"Restore order through slaughter, purge evil through battle, to this, we dedicate our lives."

"Why do you know that?" Xiao turned to Y/N, slightly surprised. The oath the yakshas swore to follow.

"This is one of my favorites. It truly shows the loyalty the yakshas had." She picked up a Qingxin flower that was on the ground, and handed it to Xiao with a smile again. And he took the small flower from her hands.

"What's the point in reciting it to me?"

"I wasn't necessarily reciting it. I just felt like wanting to say them. Do you have a problem?" Xiao shook his head, no.

Lately Y/N has been slightly aggressive. But it didn't feel wrong. Wether, it felt more right, and true per say. He liked it. He liked a lot of those hidden features of her. If the nice facade of her's was fake. And the passive aggressive one was her true one, then he's slightly happy she's showing her true self.

They were on top of Qingyun Peak, next to the Zhongli statue. And Xiao had to stop her from vandalizing Rex Lapis' abs into looking like blocks of squares instead.

"You see the wind that's blowing up, and the small land in the air?" Y/N pointed.

Xiao squinted his eyes to try to focus his perspective, onto the sky. Then nodded.

"If you ride the wind up, a few rock steps will appear. If you follow those up, you'll find your way up to the small round land."

"Is that so."

"At least try to act interested, really." She huffed upset. And played with the qingxin. Xiao stared at his flower, noticing a heart on it.

"Why did we come to the mountains again?" Xiao turned his attention on to her.

"Hm? To look at the sunset of course. There are not any monsters around here, so we're not here to kill any."

Xiao slumped his shoulders while he sat on the grass.

Y/N gave a hum in contemplation. "Let's head back to my mountain. The bottom of it."

"The bottom?" He's never thought about the very bottom of the mountain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The floor in front of the mountain, was large. And was a large grass plain. Xiao didn't understand why they were here.

"This whole place used to be a village. The people here were very kind."

"Were?" He asked.

"They're all gone now. They would come to the shrine and pray for the evil near them to be abolished by me." She walked across the plain, and picked up a ragged doll. She knew who this doll belonged to. But she was gone too, so Y/N could only grip onto the memories.

The owner of the doll was a very kind child. Her grandmother and her would come pray every day.

"I just wanted to show you the place. I don't have anything else to say, if you're wondering."

"I wasn't..." Xiao saw her pained face. He knew she had something to do with the events that might have happened here.

But they're all history in the books, where no one knows what really happened other than the village people, and Y/N. She seems to know quite well about the people here.

"Ok, let's go. I've had enough of looking now."

'But you're the one who said to come here... really. She doesn't know how to hide her feelings does she? And she gets bored easily...' Xiao sighed, while following Y/N back up the mountain.

"What happened in the village?"

Y/N stopped suddenly. And he couldn't see her face, it was dark and covered by her bangs.

"I wonder what happened too. Only they would know." Her voice was shaking slightly, and Xiao knew not to ask further questions, while they continued up. It was quite obvious she knew something. And it wasn't good. Perhaps... death?

Every time these two spend time together, just the two of them. It feels as if it was a world of their own. Where no one knows what, and no one knows about what. A certain wall created between them sometimes. And it pains them both to not be completely honest with each other a lot of times. But they know when to talk and when to talk about it. Maybe it creates comfort.

Y/N looked down at her hand, and noticed she brought the doll with her. She didn't throw it out, she simply held onto it tighter. The dry sound of the burned sand inside the doll would fill her ears.

'Li Hua. I hope you Rest In Peace with your grandmother.' She probably couldn't have heard her thoughts, but she said it inside her head nevertheless. It just felt right to.

"Say Xiao." Her sudden call made him snap his head up to the familiar voice of her's. And he gave her a look telling her to continue.

"Have you ever spent time with me without actually thinking about our deal, and just genuinely came over to have fun?"

Now that was a question that tripped him up. And mostly because it was unexpected.

He scoffed lightly. "No. I don't come here for... fun." More like he thinks he doesn't deserve it. But who said he was only one in grief because he killed people, hm?

"iS tHaT sO." She said in Xiao's manner like earlier in mockery. But all fun in games. Until he takes it seriously and personal. Then stomp off. Of course he didn't do something like that because he was being petty. Nope.

No matter how much he spends time with her, and she tells him about other events. He never knows about her. They're all stories of what happened in the past, all history. Nothing about her. That talks about her true self. Almost like she seals it away. Maybe she does. But he's really not the right person in position to ask.

They never realized they made it back to her shrine until they actually step foot in it. The tip top of the mountain. Where she lives the most. Not many mortals are able to come inside because it's just too high, and tiring. And therefor there's a smaller shrine at the bottom in front of the village.

"I sometimes come here for fun..." Xiao muttered. And that brought a smirk up her face.

"That's great to hear, well why don't we continue having fun then. I can teach you how to make other Liyue food."

"...." Xiao didn't like that. He's too lazy to do so many things in cooking. Mixing things, counting how much, and etc. Other than almond tofu that is.

"Fine."

"Let's get started then!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No you have to mix the dry ingredients with the dry ingredients. And the wet ingredients with th— what are you doing?!" Y/N grabbed his arm because Xiao got his spear out.

"I'm going to mix them."

"With a spear?!"

"With a spear. Why not?"

"Because it'll get messy, do you not know what a spoon is??"

"I don't need to know about no spoon." Xiao folded his arms in a stubborn way, while his spear disappeared.

"You're stubborn on the most random things." She sighed, taking out a large spoon for mixing. They were currently making some crystal shrimp. Xiao was able to wash the rice at least. And mixed stuff too. :)

Xiao sat in the corner of the kitchen watching Y/N do all of the things, while he was slightly sulking because he couldn't do it right.

Once the crystal shrimp was done, she brought it over to the sulking Xiao.

"Xiao~ it's ready. Why don't you try it?"

"...no."

"Are you sulking? Poor boy." She pinched his cheek teasingly again, while holding the dumplings in the other hand. And he swatted her hand away with a small glare.

"Oh come on... try it. You're the one who mixed all of the ingredients for everything. I'm sure it tastes great."

"No."

"Ooh. It's because you don't want to eat anything else other than almond tofu, is that it? It's not good to be a picky eater." She sighed mockingly, and shook her head in a disapproving way. And Xiao had an 'urk' mark looking upset.

Y/N held one of them in her fingers about to eat it, when Xiao grabbed her wrist and turned it to his way. Leaning in and ate the dumpling from her fingers. His ears perked up as he moved his eyes up to look at Y/N. She froze. She wasn't expecting him to STEAL HER FOOD. And... and... like that. But I mean... she didn't mind. Probably...

"Hey! That was mine! Give it back!" She set the plate down and tried to open his mouth again, and pinched his cheeks again.

"I already ate it, you can't get it back in one piece anymore." Xiao smirked with a satisfied look, with a tongue stuck out again. He looked so cocky at the moment. Which was a rare look, to see a cocky Xiao.

"Well? Did you like it?" Y/N inquired after their mini fight. And they calmed down.

"It was decent."

"iT wAs DeCeNt—" She mimicked again. She really liked doing that.

"Did you want me to say it was disgusting?"

"No matter how hard you try to convince yourself, my crystal shrimp is always good. No. Delicious." Y/N looked proud about her food. She then stood back up dusting her hanfu again. Motioning Xiao to stand up as well. "Come on, we'll be making your favorite almond tofu now." To those words, Xiao's eyes lit up happily. He looked excited.

This time, Xiao actually knew what to do and was better at it. So much so, he told Y/N to sit down and he'll make the dish for her.

Y/N smiled fondly while watching his back cooking, and standing in the kitchen.

"If you ever get married, and have kids. I'm sure you'll be a great father, and they'll enjoy you making them desserts every now and then." Y/N said, wholeheartedly. And Xiao almost cut his fingers with the knife.

"I— I don't plan on getting married, or having kids anytime soon." He composed himself, to not get the teasing. But she could see the vibrant red blush on the tip of his ears. To this, she stifled a laughter.

"Mhm. Keep saying that until you get down on one knee and ask them to marry you." Y/N teased again. She was mainly just joking.... Right?

Xiao turned his head to her very quickly, giving a quick glare and turned back around. He couldn't hide his embarrassed expression. He just couldn't, especially around her.

He was done. And the almond tofu looked like dreams. With a few small colorful pearls. And pearly white tofu.

"Wow, Xiao. This looks great. I'm guessing if it's something you like, you'll be able to make it." Y/N took a piece of the tofu, as Xiao sat down with his plate in hand.

"My almond tofu is the most superior than all almond tofus. Because they contain dreams. It's called 'Sweet Dream.'" Xiao boasted.

And Y/N hummed in enjoyment. She definitely looked content with everything about the dish. And Y/N could taste the dreams. Well not sure if you could really taste dreams.

"This is really good Xiao. Why don't you make almond tofu for yourself?"

"I never have to. I'm not accustomed to eating so frequently like the mortals do." He placed a piece inside his mouth as well. "And it's better to eat food made from.. other people..."

"I get it. It's kind of lonely making your own food, and eating it." He shrugged at her comment and continued eating.

He suddenly felt the need to ask a question, so he coughed into his hand to get her attention. And Y/N looked up from her plate.

"If I were to ever get married, would you support me?"

That question totally threw her off. While her eyes lit up just as much as Xiao's when someone mentions almond tofu.

"Of course! Do you have someone in mind? I'll let you get married on my mountain at my shrine! Seems traditional, right?"

Xiao shook his head. "I don't have anyone in mind... yet." He said the last part very quietly.

"Oh. So this is a 'what if' situation? Well. I'll just have to hope whoever you ever plan on marrying in the future won't hurt you in any way. Then I'll support you." She smiled.

"That's good to know."

"Sorry. Did my comment from earlier bug you? I just had a sudden thought in mind. Hehe."

Xiao looked down. With a small smile again.

"No. I liked that comment. It made me happy, and proud..." Xiao thought he'd never feel emotion. But here he is, being a typhoon of emotions at the moment. And most importantly, it was happiness.

"Well I'm glad to know you feel that way, Xiao." Y/N had a fond smile his way. And Xiao loved it when she would smile his way, like that.

"But I meant what I said, got it?" Y/N made sure. And he nodded. Then stole a piece of her plate of almond tofu. His was long done.

"Ah— hey! Again?!"

A/N: Hi again. I had another idea, and here it is. Let me know if you liked the small little fluff content. :)