Admiring the View
pair: Xie Wu x Female Reader
wc: 1k
summary: just a quick little something something about crushing on Xie Wu...because I mean, who doesn't?
an: Im literally dying to make a POJ fic...but I have way too many ideas and not enough time. I make make this into a little scene series. Anyways...I cannot wait to read the fics that will come out for this drama. The casting ate down fr!
masterlist
She was supposed to be listening.
That had been the entire purpose of slipping away from the compound, of ducking past the watchful servants and the restless soldiers, of pressing herself into the rough bark of an old tree just beyond the training grounds where voices carried more clearly than they should. Changyu had asked her, no, trusted her to find out what General Xie Zheng was planning. There was someone to be saved, something urgent woven into the quiet tension of the camp, and Y/N had nodded with all the seriousness she could muster.
But now, crouched behind the tree with her breath held and her heart doing something entirely unhelpful she couldn’t remember a single word that had been said.
Because he was there.
Xie Wu stood just slightly behind General Xie Zheng, as he always did not quite in the center never drawing attention yet impossible to ignore once your eyes found him. His presence felt like something solid and unyielding, like a blade sheathed but never truly at rest. Even now, as the general spoke with Xie Shi Yu and Xie Qi, his posture remained perfectly composed. One hand resting near the hilt at his side the other loose but ready, as though the world might tilt into danger at any moment.
Y/N swallowed, pressing her fingers into the tree’s bark as if it might anchor her back to her senses.
It didn’t help.
Her gaze traced him without permission, lingering on the familiar lines of his armor. Dark steal and metal layered and significant and worn just enough to tell stories of battles she could barely imagine. She thought not for the first time that no one had ever looked as right in armor as he did. It didn’t swallow him like it did the others. It seemed to belong to him as if it had been forged with his shape in mind.
And the scarf.
Her lips pressed together in a small helpless smile as her eyes drifted to it. That deep black and red fabric wrapped around his neck no matter the season, no matter the weather. She had seen him in rain and heat alike, the cloth always there shifting slightly with the wind like a quiet declaration of something she didn’t yet understand. She loved it she loved the way it softened the sharpness of him just enough, loved how it drew her eyes back to his face every single time.
She remembered the first moment she had seen him, truly seen him.
She had met him a few times, under his false uidentiy when Yan Zheng was still hiding in Lin'an. But there was a particular moment when she saw Xie Wu for the first time that her heart fluttered.
It had been chaos in her villiage. Smoke, shouting, the panic of being displaced and unsure if safety even existed anymore. And then there he was, stepping through it like something carved from steadiness itself. Eyes sharp, movements precise. He hadn’t looked at her first. He had looked at everything else; the exits, the threats, the smallest movements others would miss.
He had a face born of iron and steel, almost like he was crafted by hand. Someone had to have deeply loved his soul before placing him into the body of one handsome man. His beauty was otherworldly and very hard to explain, her mind couldn't even put into words just who exactly she was looking at.
He possessed a very alluring look to himself. He looked as if he were a character from a story book.
She had thought, absurdly, that he was beautiful.
Not in the way of gentle things or easy smiles, but in something far more inexplicable. Something quiet and observant and utterly unshakable.
And now…
Now she couldn’t seem to look away.
A faint shift in his stance made her breath hitch. He tilted his head just slightly, eyes narrowing as Xie Zheng spoke as though weighing every word every possibility. He always listened like that. Like silence was his weapon, like understanding was his shield.
Y/N’s heart fluttered painfully in her chest. She wasn't sure if she was even breathing anymore.
He noticed everything.
She knew that.
Which meant...her stomach twisted slightly at the thought, but he had probably noticed her too.
The thought should have sent her scrambling back toward the compound it should have reminded her of the task she was failing at so spectacularly. But instead, she stayed where she was barely daring to breathe as she watched him, as if the simple act of observing him was something fragile she didn’t want to break.
Because he hovered.
Not just here not just in formations and strategy discussions, but around her. It had started subtly, so subtly she thought she imagined it. A step closer when the path grew uneven. A quiet shift to stand between her and a passing group of soldiers. The way he would appear at her side or just behind her whenever tension crept into the air.
Like now.
Even here, even in conversation he had positioned himself just slightly angled. Not fully facing the general, not fully facing the others…but enough that if something happened..if something moved he would be the first to react.
The first to protect.
Her chest tightened.
She thought of Changning, small and frightened clinging to her when they had found them again when the Sui clan took them hostage. It had been Xie Wu who carried Changning. Xie Wu who had cut down the last of the men who dared touch either of them. Xie Wu who had stood there, silent and blood streaked, holding a trembling child and coaxing her not to panic with a gentleness that had undone something in Y/N she hadn’t known existed.
That had been the moment.
Not the first sight, not the armor or the scarf or the sharpness of his gaze.
That moment.
And now her feelings had grown into something she didn’t know how to name.
A crush felt too small.
Admiration felt too distant.
This was something deeper, something that settled into her chest and refused to leave; something that made her notice the smallest things. The way his shoulders relaxed just slightly when he thought no one was looking, the way his gaze flicked toward her even in crowded spaces, the way his silence never felt empty when he stood near.
He spoke to her as if she had always been there.
Not awkward, not distant, not formal in the way others sometimes were. Just…steady. Familiar. As though her presence required no adjustment.
Her fingers curled tighter against the tree.
She had never had this before.
Never felt this strange pull, this constant awareness of someone else. This quiet hope that lingered in the back of her mind no matter how much she tried to ignore it.
And sometimes..only sometimes, she thought...
Maybe he felt something too.
A sudden shift snapped her attention back. Xie Wu’s head turned slightly, his gaze sweeping the area with a precision that made her heart leap straight into her throat. She froze, pressing herself flatter against the tree, barely daring to blink as she ducked behind the tree as quick as she could.
His eyes lingered.
Not directly on her not enough to expose her but close enough that she felt seen anyway.
And then, just as quickly he looked away.
Her breath left her in a shaky exhale.
A faint, almost embarrassed smile tugged at her lips as she relaxed again, her gaze drifting back to him without resistance.
She was supposed to be listening.
She was supposed to remember every word for Changyu.
Instead, she remained hidden behind the tree completely and hopelessly distracted, watching Xie Wu as though he were the only thing in the world that mattered.
