Shadows
written 14 april 2026.
He’s beautiful, Xiao thinks. The moonlight falls over his lover’s sweet sleep, so placid and graceful even nightingales weep.
Venti breaths oh-so lightly, his chest hardly rising before it soon falls; the stray hairs, pulled loose from his braids by the day’s blustery adventure, are barely bothered by the faint, almost floral, breathing.
Xiao reaches out to caress his face, the shadow he casts changing Venti’s hair from deep and radiant midnight blue to dark and unfathomable Abyssal black, and just like that, Xiao stops, his throat choked on curdled blood.
A lock of hair falls in front of Venti’s face. His brow furrows, and Xiao wonders if it’s a dream.
(Or could it perhaps be…?)
Embarrassed, Xiao withdraws— or at least, he tries to. Venti, still fast asleep, reaches out.
“Xiao…” he mumbles, drowsy as he blindly searches with his hand. “Where’d you go, Xiao?”
I’m right here, Xiao thinks, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Yet, he remains still, waiting for the moment Venti finds him.
But he doesn’t. Venti curls up, his breathing altered, and all at once, Xiao knows— oh.
This is a nightmare.
“Don’t be gone,” Venti quietly pleads, and Xiao’s tongue bitters. “Please, don’t have died; I can save you; I will save you; I—”
Xiao takes his hand, quietly, tenderly, and Venti flinches.
“I’m here,” the yaksha says under his breath.
The nervous wind subsides; yet, Venti still weakly trembles.
“Don’t go,” the Anemo Archon whispers, and he pulls Xiao downward. “I love you.”
The moon is bright tonight, but it seems Venti would rather hide within its shadows. Xiao allows himself to fall into bed beside his lover, lets his hand press into Venti’s chest, where his Gnosis once thrummed with power and life.
“I’m here,” he murmurs, and as he does so, Venti’s panicked heartbeat slows. I love you.
Moments later, he follows Venti into dreamland.