the moment that exact thought found its way into your head, was the moment you woke up.

your breaths were short and shallow, slowly becoming longer and calming you down from the dream. you looked around you and saw that diluc was still sound asleep besides you on the couch, he had not moved an inch.

a small smile made its way on your face as you were being glad he was still sleeping, you looked to the wall and spotted the analog clock which read that it was close to seven in the morning.

it was fine to stay awake now, you could await for aether and paimons arrival that way. you stood up from your comfortable position on the couch and walked to your bag that was next to the couch.

crouching down, you opened it silently and carefully in case diluc woke up. you stuffed your hand in it and went all the way to the bottom of your bag.

you felt your electro amulet was still there and sighed relieved, right next to it was your device from snezhnaya.

childe told you to contact him last night with his hand motion, you didnt forget about it and pulled the device out of the bag.

taking one more quick glance at diluc, he was luckily still asleep. just to be safe, you stood straight up and turned your back at diluc, just in case.

turning the device on, you saw the familiar white screen litting up the dimly lit room, mere seconds later you saw the familiar homescreen with one incoming message from childe.

you opened the application that was installed on the device and read the message.

Childe
Was that guy the
one overseeing you?

you facepalmed internally. you thought it was already obvious enough. besides, he shouldnt just go around and acting alll friendly with you when you were litterally undercover in the first place.

shoving the thoughts away, you decided to reply nicely to him since the man can be very dense at times, even if he often outsmarts his enemies.

y/n
yes he is.
please keep that
in mind next time.

you took a deep breath as your back was still turned to diluc, 'that is one problem less.' suddenly you heard a knock on the door, coming completely out of nowhere.

snapping your head to the noise, you instinctively held your device from snezhnaya closer to your chest, hiding it in a way.

you crouched down and stuffed the device back in your backpack, all the way down before you silently made your way to the door of your temporary residence.

now extending your hand to the door handle, you opened it swiftly and waited for the door to fully open to reveal the one knocking on your door at seven in the morning.

the familiar long blonde hair that was braided, the golden eyes that shined through the dimly lit apartment you were in right now, the sight made the corners of your mouth curl upwards.

"aether! youre back!" you stated the obvious, before you had a chance to ask where he had been, you were getting jumped by a certain floating girl.

she lunged at you as you took a step back, stopping right in front of your face with sparkles in her eyes, "n/n! you wont believe this!" she exclaimed happily.

just as she was about to tell you everything that happened while you all were separated, you held your hand up and tried to silence her a bit.

you have her a sheepish smile as you spoke up, "its seven in the morning." you said as you were wondering if she had slept at all.

"besides, diluc is still sleeping." you said and turned around slightly, taking a glance over your shoulder to look at the sleeping diluc.

but your eyes saw something else as you searched for diluc, the couch was empty and there was no sign of him. you fully turned around and scanned the area in hopes of finding him.

he appeared from the kitchen, unbothered making his appearance with a cup in hand, holding the handle carefully with his gloved hand.

aether laughed at his entrance and paimon just called him a weird grown up while having a conversation with him.

"goodmorning." he said in a low voice as he turned to you. he then shifted his gaze to aether and paimon who were both standing in the doorway.

his expression turned from a calm sleepy one to one filled with confusion, his eyebrows furrowed as he tilted his head slightly, "how did you two know we were here?" he questioned.

aether spoke up, his smile never wavering. "kathryne informed us, she knew the four of us traveled together." he said as he put both his hands on his hips, looking at diluc.

paimon floated right past you into the house you were staying at, turning around and inspecting every corner of it, she didnt seem very impressed by it.

the blonde boy followed his floating guide and you instinctively shut the door behind them, they wouldnt leave soon anyways.

"let paimon tell you all about what happened!" paimon said as she turned around to face you with her hands behind her back.

you nodded at her and told her to continue, she opened her mouth and spoke up, "at first we met with the adepti like childe told us too!" she said and aether nodded in agreement.

"there was moon carver, xiao, mountain carve-... no, mountain... mountain shaper?" she questioned herself, looking downwards and running her hand through her white hair, trying to focus on the difficult names.

diluc was listening patiently, leaning his back against the wall as he continued to sip from his cup of whatever was inside of it.

you stood besides him, eager to hear about everything that went down in the past twelve hours as you four were separated.

but paimon was currently stuck on the names, aether turned her way and reassured her, "the names are not important." he said and gave her a warm smile, telling her to continue nonetheless.

"right." the girl said and continued her rambling, "we cooked adepti food to offer to the last adepti too, but they never came out of their hiding spot." paimon told you all and started pouting a little.

aether besides her commented on it, "that is also why it took so long. it turned out the last adepti, cloud retainer, was in a domain." he said as he looked at both diluc and you.

the girl besides him nodded vigorously, "thats right, luckily we could clear the domain and talk with the last adepti." she said as she recalled the past events

her expression changed from an excited one to a worrisome one, "they werent very happy to hear about rex lapis assassination though..."

"cloud retainer wanted to wipe out the entire population of liyue." aether finished paimons sentence. your eyes widened as you heard the news.

"surely you changed their mind... right?" you spoke up, hoping that wouldnt happen anytime soon. diluc besides you also anticipated in a positive answer.

the moment that paimons face lit up again was the moment you were sure liyue wouldnt be completely annihilated, "sure did!" she said confident.

aether chimed in, summarizing their journey before paimon would continue giving unnecessary details, "we cleared our names now, were not suspected of assassinating rex lapis." he said with a smile on his features.

"even better, childe gave us more information." he continued his speaking, ready to tell you all about the next step in his plan of meeting with the seven archons.

before he carried on, he turned to you, "sorry for putting you all through this." he said and held the back of his neck, giving you a sheepish smile as he closed his eyes.

"i know you just came for your identity b-" he wanted to continue but you interrupted aether, speaking up yourself. "its fine, besides, its rex lapis his dead, i cant just leave now." you said with a small smile displayed on your features.

of course you had ulterior motives. you wanted to know exactly what the fatui was planning behind your back and why you couldnt know about it.

part of you also wanted to stay in liyue for a certain red haired male, but you were far from admitting that.