Chapter Text
“I cannot believe you actually got a yaksha to go with me!”
Lumine smiled at Bennett and patted him on the back. Paimon was floating next to them, eating berries. They were standing in front of Wangshu Inn, and Bennett was about to pass out from excitement.
“It was not that hard, you know, he usually doesn’t decline my requests.”
“Paimon didn’t think he would accept a request like that!”
The elevator wasn’t working so they took the stairs, the boy skipping every second one so he would be on the top quicker, but Paimon was floating I front of him to show him that she is faster than him.
They soon reached the top and were greeted by a beautiful view and a dark-haired man leaning on the fence on the edge of the platform.
“Xiao! We are here, I am very glad you took the time and accepted my request.” The man turned around, and Bennett’s excitement suddenly vanished. Golden eyes looked at him from head to toe, and he felt a bit uncomfortable. Even Paimon looked a bit scared.
“You finally arrived.” “We surely did! Xiao, this is Bennett, and Bennett, this is Xiao. He is going to accompany you for these few days, to make sure you stay safe.” Lumine pushed the boy forward, and he, not knowing what to do, waved at the dark-haired yaksha. Xiao nodded, and once again spoke to Lumine.
“You do know I am only doing this because you asked me to, right? And I’ll never do something like that ever again,” he said, raising his voice just a bit, but still enough for Bennett to sense.
“And I’ll probably never ask you to do something similar ever again, but Bennett is such a promising young adventurer, I think he would enjoy travelling around Liyue while knowing he will make it out alive.” Lumine gave Bennett a worried smile. “And Xiao, don’t be too harsh on him, okay?”
Paimon crossed her arms on her chest. “Paimon doesn’t want Xiao to scare Bennett!”
She turned towards the yaksha, who nodded. “I can try, I suppose.”
And so, Bennett was left alone with the ‘Viligant Yaksha’ himself.
-
“Would you mind going outside with me now? I want to start travelling towards Liyue today, and I saw some hilichurls camps in the distance when we arrived here, maybe I can finally find a treasure!”
Bennett was getting increasingly impatient, he wanted to explore the outside! He saw some weird giant flying insects on his way here with Lumine, he was wondering if he will see them again. And he wanted to check if maybe he will have more luck with treasures in Liyue than in Mondstadt.
Xiao sighed loudly. “I don’t think I have a choice, do I? I must go around with you because apparently you need someone to protect you. Can you not protect yourself?”
Bennett was a bit embarrassed, but he had to admit that it was safer for him if someone went with him, as he got into dangerous situations often because of his bad luck. But before he could answer the yaksha already went towards the stairs leading to the bottom of the Inn.
So he ran after him. There was an uncomfortable silence between them. But it was their first time meeting after all, they had nothing interesting to talk about and Bennett did not wish to start a conversation by talking about himself.
So they walked out of the Inn in silence. After they spent some time walking in a (hopefully) right direction, Bennett finally spoke.
“Do you often have to walk with people to protect them?”
“I thought you heard before; I’m doing this only because Lumine asked me to. I do not want to walk around with a kid to protect him when he should be at home if he can’t protect himself, so I won’t be doing this ever again.”
The tone he said that in made it sound like a warning, and Bennett felt a bit bad, knowing that Xiao saw him as a kid, completely unable to protect himself. He could protect himself! He could… but Lumine saw him returning injured from his adventures too many times and she insisted on getting him someone who can help him if he gets into a battle because of his bad luck. Because one boy could not defeat a whole camp of hilichurls, it was hard for him to battle more than two monsters at once, so he usually just tried to run away from them. And Lumine told him that Liyue was even more dangerous and told him she will someone who possessed more power and could fight off monsters easily to go around Liyue with him.
But he didn’t want to spend the rest of the trip in silence! Xiao might be unwilling to have a nice talk with him right now, but if they intended on spending the next few days together they should get to know each other.
“I’ve heard you are really strong. And I’ve heard you saved Liyue with Lumine!” Bennett smiled at Xiao, who gave him an unimpressed look. “It must be amazing to fight together with someone like you or Lumine, I wish I could be like you two one day…” he got a bit lost in his own thoughts, thinking about how much more he has to train to be more powerful, maybe then he would be able to defend himself from his bad luck. But Xiao wasted no time snapping him out of his fantasies.
“I did not sign up for small talk. And believe me, you do not want to be like me.”
Bennett wanted to apologize, but Xiao lifted his hand, as a sign to not speak, and the boy closed his mouth. He gave the yaksha a puzzled look, but soon realized why Xiao shut him up. There were some hilichurls on the road, not very far away from them.
“As I have to keep you safe I’d rather not have you alert every single camp of hilichurls we see because of your loud talking.” Bennett nodded, Xiao might be a bit harsh but he told him the truth, and it was understandable.
But Bennett’s bad luck always screws something up. The moment Xiao told him to be quiet he took some steps forward and feel over a small stone. Small stone! He never saw anyone fall over a small stone. He gasped loudly when he fell, scraping his knees and hands on the pebbles on the floor. But it was enough to alert the hilichurls. Xiao sighed, grabbed Bennett by the shirt and pulled him up, then dashed towards the hilichurls to fight them.
The boy felt bad for letting Xiao fight the monsters by himself but knowing his bad luck he would probably get the yaksha hurt sooner or later if he tried to help. So instead he quickly bandaged his knees, then grabbed his sword as he saw a hilichurl run towards him. And Xiao was too busy dealing with other monsters, so he had to take this one down by himself. A good start to show Xiao that he can defend himself!
The hilichurl tried to hit him by swinging his club at him, but Bennett dodged and managed to hit the hilichurl first. The game of dodging and hitting went on for a while, and when the monster was finally defeated the boy noticed Xiao standing there with arms crossed on his chest.
“Took you long enough,” he said in a coarse tone. Bennett lowered his eyes, trying to hide how disappointed in Xiao’s reaction he was. He really thought that maybe the yaksha would at least tell him that he did a good job fighting off one hilichurl, but in that short amount of time they spent together Bennett already realized that he won’t be getting any compliments from the man. He just wished Xiao would be a bit less harsh.
They spend the rest of the day walking towards Liyue, Bennett stopping at times if he noticed a chest lying somewhere, but in it it was either cabbage or something similar that did not help him. He could feel Xiao staring judgingly at him every time he, instead of a treasure, pulled useless items out of a chest.
The sun started to set, and Bennett knew they will have to sleep outside, as they were not close to Liyue yet, which was kind of his fault, because he stopped at every corner, admiring flowers of the foreign nation, or stopping to fight a hilichurl or two to get to the chest.
“It appears that we were not able to reach Liyue in a day.” Xiao’s harsh voice reaches Bennett while he tries to find a good place to set a small camp at.
“Well, I am sorry, but if I visit another nation I want to get the most out of it!”
“Stopping every 5 seconds to look at literal weed?”
“I am pretty sure those were flowers and not weed, but yes.”
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.
“Do you know how to set up a camp?” “Do I look like I ever had to spend the night outside? Sleeping?” Xiao snapped at Bennett, who just shrugged.
The boy still did not understand why Xiao was in such a bad mood. He knows Bennett for less than a day, he didn’t even experience how bad his bad luck can get, he had no reason to be mad at him!
He managed to set up a small, improvised tent, and there was not much space. Wanting to give the yaksha a place to sleep, Bennett poked the man’s arm.
“You can take the tent, I’ll sleep on the grass.”
“You think I sleep?” Xiao hissed at the boy, and Bennett took a steep back. He doesn’t sleep? How was he supposed to know that?
“I’m sorry, you just looked tired…” Xiao just glared at the boy.
“Well, I do not plan on sleeping. I’ll stay outside and… guard the tent? I don’t know what else Lumine would want from me.”
“Knowing my bad luck you will be attacked at least twice during the night, I think you should at least move farther away from me for the night.”
“Nonsense,” Xiao said disbelievingly. “Nobody just has bad luck. If bad stuff happens to you all the time it just means you are usually at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Isn’t that exactly what bad luck is?”
“No it’s not, and stop asking me about that stuff, just go to sleep.”
“Are you always mean to the new people you meet?”
“I am not being mean.”
Bennett couldn’t believe it; the man who was acting so cold towards him did not realize that he was being a bit mean? They spend the rest of the evening without saying anything, except Bennett saying ‘goodnight’ to Xiao, who did not respond.
The boy fell asleep wondering what he did wrong to make the man who met him for the first time and didn’t even believe that he had bad luck dislike him so much that he refused to talk.