#huxiao

-x-

“I’m possessed,” a young man cries. On his knees, Hongfei prostrates himself on the cold ground. “Please, I need your help!”

Hu Tao tries not to roll her eyes. Every single day, some fool or the other appears in front of her business, wailing about evil ghosts. People claim they’re possessed over anything these days. Maybe she should just invite them all to a real haunted house and show them what a ghost really is. 

“I’ll do anything,” Hongfei wails again, blubbering like a child who dropped their ice cream. He’s still on the ground, kissing the cobblestone path and making a scene in front of the funeral parlor. Attention is great advertising, but not like this. 

“Anything you say?” Hu Tao mutters, glancing around quickly. Unfortunately, Zhongli’s out, and it doesn’t look like Lumine’s suddenly going to pop in. Her other helpers are still in training, still unable to handle these kinds of customers. There’s no one to pawn him off to.

She really needs another assistant. Maybe Zhongli can clone himself. 

“You shouldn’t promise anything.” Hu Tao leers, leaning down and dropping her voice to send a shiver down the man’s spine. She smiles darkly, adding just enough malice to scare. “You never know what you’ll owe.”

“T-That…” Hongfei shakes like a leaf, his eyes fearful. He swallows loudly. “W-what’s the price?”

“Mmm, I’ll let you know,” she chirps, straightening up and pointing at the mountain nearby. It’s an old trick, but it works well enough on ‘concerns’ like his. “First, we need to do a couple of tasks.”

-x-

It is far too easy to frighten Hongfei. Even as he’s collecting rocks and pinecones for a bogus charm, the scaredy cat jumps at any sudden noise or shadow. While she chants a made-up song, he squeezes his eyes shut and curls into himself, as though the ghosts will take him if he watches. It’s kind of adorable and she wishes all of her possessed clients were so easy to handle. 

“And with this…” she announces, hopping on one foot and then the other, “you’re free!”

He stands there for a long second, too afraid to confirm. When she claps, his eyes shoot open, and he peeks around hesitantly. “T-the ghosts are gone, r-right?” he stutters, his hands curled into his chest, his legs tense and ready to run. 

“What, you don’t believe me?” she asks, raising a brow.

“N-no!” He smiles, relieved. Rubbing the back of his head as he relaxes, Hongfei sighs. “That’s a relief.”

“Mmmm… yes.” Hu Tao taps her chin as she studies him. He’s ‘cured’, not that he was possessed in the first place. Yet, she hasn’t slept in coffins since she was a child for nothing. There’s a touch of death lingering around him, something bordering on the occult without quite reaching it. 

Odd.

Perhaps he had just narrowly avoided getting possessed. 

“Just one thing left to do,” Hu Tao says, dragging his attention back to her. “Where did you get possessed? We need to purify—” When he shudders, she corrects, “I need to purify it.”

“Oh. Good.” His relief is audible. “It’s, uh, up in the mountains…it was terrible, a merchant had an accident and I…” Hongfei trembles. “I ran. I think the ghost killed him.”

“Which mountain?” she asks. It’s been a while since she’s gone on a hike. She could use the work out.

-x-

If she didn’t know any better, she’d have thought that the ghost was following her now. Hu Tao can feel a heavy stare as she makes her way through Liyue’s marsh land, a pair of sharp eyes tracking her every move. It’s not new. She’s noticed it a lot these days, a lingering gaze that tickles her neck as she works. Only when she’s with Zhongli is the persistent observation gone.

It’s easy to guess who it is. The stare is more protective than hostile.

If she turns around now, she’s certain she’ll spot Xiao’s figure in the distance. A single wave and he’d disappear, embarrassed. It’s rather charming, honestly, the way he keeps an eye on her, the way he guards her from harm. Hu Tao smiles as she keeps walking, her gaze glued straight ahead. 

It’s cute, but she’d rather have him by her side than leagues away. All she needs is an opening.

And if she doesn’t have one, well, she just has to make one. Hu Tao smirks as she spots a stone staircase in front of her. The top step is just high enough to hurt if she falls. When she falls. Whistling, she starts walking up it, her boots scraping against the stones as she all but skips up. On the second to the last, she trips, falling backwards. 

A dangerous gambit, sure. But one that pays off massively when she feels a gust of wind, a blur of green bursting through the air, and a pair of muscular arms wrapping around her chest and legs to catch her. 

“Adeptus Xiao,” she greets in a sing-song voice. “What a coincidence! Didn’t expect to see you here.”

Xiao grunts, meeting her smile with a disapproving glare before setting her down. “That was dangerous.”

“Not as dangerous as you,” she counters cheerfully, shooting finger guns at him. “You saved me so quickly.”

He looks away. It’s not enough to hide the tell-tale red in his ears. “I was nearby.”

What should she call this behaviour? Shy? Bashful? Standoffish? None of them seem to fit. He’s awkward, certainly, and withdrawn. His ‘rescues’ have happened far too many times to be chalked off as mere coincidences. 

A thought hits her: perhaps he doesn’t realize just how much he watches out for her. Perhaps he’s so used to staying away that he doesn’t recognize that he’s no longer doing that.

Well, she’s always liked a challenge and these ‘chance’ encounters are the silver lining to any day. If she presses too hard, he might just skitter away like a baby deer. Clasping her hands behind her back, Hu Tao hums. “What a coincidence.”

“It is,” Xiao agrees readily, not catching on. 

 She smirks before wheedling, “Since you’re already here, would you help me with something? Please?”

“That…” Xiao steps back. As usual.

Luckily, she knows how to get around that. She bites her lip, her shoulders drooping. “It’s dangerous…”

He stiffens. His hands grip his spear tightly, and Xiao glances at their surroundings as though searching for a monster before sighing. “Fine.”

“Perfect!” Before he can react, Hu Tao hooks her arm through his, linking them together. He fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Maybe she should take up fishing.

-x-

If she lets him, Xiao can take her to her destination in a flash. She’s seen him run before, effortlessly bounding across the plain from one fight to the next. It could be fun, flying through the air, watching the world pass in a blur. 

But it’s so rare to get Xiao alone, and rare still to get him to stay, so Hu Tao walks. Slowly. Her arms crossed behind her head, she ambles along the path in a casual stroll. If he minds, he doesn’t say anything, merely glancing at her a few times before softly sighing. 

“What are you here for?” he finally asks, apparently accepting his fate. 

Hu Tao smirks, raising her arms and wiggling her fingers to mime a ghost. “Death.”

Unfortunately, he doesn’t laugh, just giving her a blank look. 

“What?” she pouts, her mind already racing for another joke. Hu Tao shrugs nonchalantly. “It’s in the job description.”

Xiao sighs. “The job is…?”

“A lingering ghost,” Hu Tao explains, giggling when he doesn’t look satisfied with her response. He won’t ask, he never does, but the question is clear on his face despite his attempts at remaining stoic. As they walk through the plains, she glances at the Wangshu Inn in the distance. It towers over everything in this flat land, utterly impossible to mix. 

They’re close enough that she can feel the Inn’s haunting now, a young ghostly girl. “Not her,” Hu Tao adds when Xiao follows her gaze. 

“Why not?” he asks.

“No one paid me,” Hu Tao replies cockily. When he shoots her a disgruntled stare, she bursts into laughter. “She’s not hurting anyone,” she explains, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Besides, she has her conditions. All she needs is a friend and she’ll go. I think she found one recently.”

Xiao purses his lips, considering her response before nodding. “And your ghost?”

“Wants to haunt someone. Maybe they can’t pass on. Or won’t. Maybe they’ve been here too long. We’ll find out.” Hu Tao glances at the inn once more, her eyes drawn to the roof now. Usually, it’s the one place she can find him, his lone figure perched on the roof. 

For all that he avoids people, he still chooses to live in a place crowded with humans. Perhaps Xiao wants something too, he just doesn’t know how to get it. 

-x-

The cranny isn’t easy to find, but she has an adeptus with her. It takes little cajoling to convince Xiao to carry her, his feet lightly bouncing from rock to rock as they search around Jueyun Karst. She feels like she’s flying. It’s almost enough to forget why they’re here in the first place.

The sight of a destroyed cart and a bloodied hand pulls her out of her fun. Hu Tao winces before pointing. “Over there!” 

Xiao’s moving even before she finishes talking, the wind rushing past as he bounds down the rocky cliffside to the valley. He’s quiet as he sets her down, his hand lingering on her waist before he pulls away. She can still feel it now, a heavy, comforting weight.

It’s not like this is her first dead body. It isn’t even her first mangled body. Still, she smiles, her fingers lightly pressing where his had just left. 

Then she gets to work. The ruined cart, the broken body, she had expected as much from Hongfei’s description. If only he had told someone to come and bury the body, it wouldn’t have been ravaged by nature and wild beasts. Hu Tao crouches next to the dead man, quietly whispering a prayer.

However, the ghostly presence she had sensed earlier isn’t coming from him. Hu Tao scans the grassy hillside, pepped with sharp rocks and wild flowers. There has to be something else, something more here. There has to be—

She stops when she spots dull yellow against the green. It isn’t a flower. Brushing aside the long grasses, she finds a worn doll against a rock, its blue frock stained with dried blood. Considering how frayed it looks, the doll is old. The child who left it behind had died here a long time ago, far longer than the merchant, no traces of their body left behind save for this single doll. 

Ghostly fingers brush her skin as she touches the doll. This is it.

She’ll have to put them both to rest.

“Adeptus Xiao,” Hu Tao asks, utterly serious as she turns to him. “Can you break that cart into pieces?”

He nods, his lips a straight line. It’s like he read her mind, turning the cart into a small pyre. A cremation is the best she can offer, out here, away from the parlor. 

“You will be remembered,” she tells the doll, reverently lifting it. “You will be mourned. Everyone deserves a proper goodbye.”

With her other hand, she pulls out sticks of incense, another prayer already on the tip of her tongue. 

-x-

They stay there until the fire turns into a smoulder, until all that is left is ashes. Xiao doesn’t say a word the entire time, merely watching and helping as she directs. Before long, two ghosts disappear, their spirits returning to the cycle of reincarnation. 

Softly, he breaks the silence. “I forget sometimes you’re a funeral director.”

Hu Tao chuckles, bumping her shoulder to his. Surprisingly, he allows it, not moving away. “I’m not doing my job right then. It should be impossible to forget.”

He gives her a disgruntled look but doesn’t comment. Crouching, Xiao grabs a fistful of ashes, watching as the wind gently blows it away. “Do you really think that?”

“Of course.” She rests a hand on her hip, gnawing at her lip as she contemplates the situation. “Maybe I should sell more coffins.”

“Not that.” Xiao’s gaze is locked on his now-empty hand. “Do you really think everyone deserves to be mourned?”

Something about him seems small. For as long as she’s known him, he’s been alone, that stark figure in the distance fighting unseen enemies to protect Liyue. Here, he doesn’t look like an avenging god. Here, he appears almost human, with his fears so easy to read. 

“Yes,” Hu Tao replies without hesitation, crouching next to him. She covers his hand with hers. When he looks at her, she grins. “And if your time comes before mine, I promise to give you a proper farewell.”

His eyes meet hers. Then he squeezes her hand once before letting go. “I see.” 

“Anddddd,” Hu Tao drawls cheekily, bumping their shoulders once more. “You can get two for the price of one if any other adepti are thinking of crossing over.”

Despite the look Xiao gives her, his lips twitch in the shadow of a smile. A small one, but a smile nonetheless. She laughs as she stands up. Who would have ever thought she’d get the last yaksha to smile? Unlike the imposing figure of her childhood, he’s closer now.

It’s nice. Really nice.