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snzzone · 1 month

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Streaming t//diapt - Uru//shihara

Hi. Idek what to say about this one

summary: ur//ushihara makes a discover about his strteaming audience and his roommates demand that he capitalizes immediately.

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The summer heat continued baking down on Sasazuka, and it was the perfect excuse for Urushihara to stay put in his closet, the one sad fan whirring and blowing warm air against his damp skin. The laptop continued generating its excessive heat which was decidedly preferable to the resident NEET to the fresh summer air. As Urushihara scrolled through the bountiful sea of videos, he recognized a familiar screen name: his own.

Darklord666 Clip 1

So he’d gotten popular enough to have fans clip his best hits. A smirk spread across his face. So much for his streaming hobby being a “fruitless endeavor.”

3.k views. One week ago.

Damn, that’s more than ten times the amount of followers he had last time he checked, and this video had gotten this many views in the span of a week. He clicked the video and adjusted the volume and leaned in to watch which one of his builds or jokes had taken off.

📹

“Oh this sucks. The hair colors are so limited.” Urushihara pinched the bridge of his nose and sniffled. “Guess you guys will have to point me towards some…cuhh-uh…hKSHhh’ieh! tssch! Ugh. wait”

He adjusted his headset before reaching around offscreen until he produced a tissue. “HehkShhhieh! Ihhshhh’ihh!”

“Rec me sombe custumb condtedt,” he amended. “Oh…yeah, it’s ndot a—hYSHhh’ieh! ndot a cold, just allergies.” He blew his nose.

“Wait, I can get it through the game? Is it free?” He sniffled. “Oh and thanks.”

📹

Comments:

dandelion222: what is he allergic to

S.finder: @dandelion222 He said later in the stream that it’s dust

snzgirl: bless him <3

sneezy123: god hes so sexy

supersnzr: the video quality is so bad but the content def makes up for it ;)))

Okay that was odd. He can’t see what was particularly sexy about that clip. He’d been sneezing for half of it. He frowned and clicked the next recommended clip.

Darklord666 Clip 2

📹

“hyhSHhh’yyu! Tschh’iu! hpt’chhhu!”

Urushihara fixed his headset that’d been displaced during the sneezing fit and gripped it as another sneeze shook him forward. “hh…hehhh….wa-waihht…ihhgKSHhh’ieh!”

He wiped the screen with the hem of his raglan shirt. “Ugh,” he sniffled, “fail. You didn’t see that.”

📹

Urushihara’s frown deepened. What the fuck? Why did this one have even more views. He skipped over the comments in favor of clicking the next video.

Darklord666 Clip 3

📹

“Yeah I wanted to do hh- rags t-to…wait…hehh…” Urushihara abandoned his sentence and squinted his eyes, nose scrunching in the lowlight. “HehhkSHhhihh!” This time the spray was visible and he hadn’t bothered to turn away from the laptop this time. “IhhSHhhiehh!”

“Oh hey thanks for the gift sakurablossom7.”

📹

Comments:

asters_in_bloom: heyy good find but maybe you shouldn’t put their screen names on these clips…

S.finder: @asters_in_bloom Others have commented the same thing. Going forward I’ll be sure to fix this.

asters_in_bloom: @S.finder ok but you didnt????

Dustyboi: i need him. im subscribing immediately. id pay him sm to sneeze all over my—

Urushihara stopped reading. Immediately. That didn’t stop autoplay from playing the fourth clip. The closet door abruptly flung open and he nearly tumbled out again, but managed to catch himself this time. He let out a groan of disdain before the inevitable scream fest began.

“Urushihara!” Ashiya pointed at him as if he’d finally tracked him down. “Please stop talking to your friend “Chat” and come help me fold the laundry for once! Or if you’re going to sneeze nonstop, perhaps you should dust this time.”

“You’re just gonna complain that I’m doing it wrong,” Urushiahara complained, removing his headset. The sound of the clip did not stop, and it was then that he realized his headphones weren’t even plugged in. He blushed and paused the video.

“Why are you sitting here watching video tapes of yourself?”

“I’m not.” Urushihara shuddered and closed the computer. “Just figured out why I got so many gifts last stream.”

Oh he’d fucked up. Royally. He could feel the way the atmosphere in the room had shifted, the way Ashiya’s mind had shifted into budget mode. “Gifts?”

“Money.”

“And why is that? How much money did you make?”

This was humiliating, and yet something about the situation warranted sharing. He should want this to die a secret, but there’s a certain catharsis in discussing it. Without moving his eyes to meet Ashiya’s, he finally answered, “Apparently people like seeing me sneeze.”

“There are people who enjoy—”

“Like, dude, you don’t understand. They really really like it.’

Ashiya furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth as if he was going to ask him to get off his ass again.

“I don't even understand,” Urushihara added. “Like I made 1,500 yen last stream.”

“What do you mean they really like your—”

“You know how Sasaki Chiho looks at Maou when he does literally anything? Or how Sariel looks at—”

“Please speak no further.” Ashiya sighed and tilted his head. He raised an incredulous eyebrow. “To summarize, people are giving you money because of your incessant sneezing?”

Urushihara nodded.

“And you’re sure Chat is not paying you to cease and desist?” Urushihara opened his laptop and showed Ashiya the comment bold enough to make not just one but two demon generals blush. “No…further evidence requested. Excuse me.”

Ashiya left the apartment. Perhaps it was all too much for him. Though Urushihara had at least eight thousand years on the guy, Ashiya had always been more old fashioned. Explaining that there in fact other people out there who would spend their free time watching other people play a game rather than playing it themselves had been a headache in itself. It was much easier to let him think he’d been video calling some guy named Chat.

Urushihara quietly decided he was done streaming for the foreseeable future and ordered another delivery of a few bags of chips and a bottle of iced tea he could easily hide in the closet. He would’ve completely erased all memories of today were it not for what happened when Ashiya returned.

***

“Dude, what the hell?” Urushihara cried when Ashiya yanked the closet door open once again. He was holding a bouquet of flowers with a sticker with a brightly marked down price. “What the fuck.”

“Do you remember the incident when Miss Sasaki brought his highness lilies?” Ashiya asked. A dark aura spread across the devil’s castle as his eyes zeroed in on the fresh chip bag in his hands. “I see you ordered delivery while I was out.”

“You’re a demon! Why are you trying to pimp me out to the sneeze fetish community?” he whined, fighting against Ashiya’s grasp on the door.

“You call Chat this instant! It’s time you started contributing financially!”

This was a mistake. All of it. Urushihara’s eyes were already starting to water from the putrid scent of the flowers Ashiya was continuing to wave in his face.

“It’s time you learned the value of money. His majesty slaves over a hot grill all day, serving the people of Sasazuka, and he does not do it so you can waste all his—”

Speak of the devil. Maou entered the apartment. Surely he’d stop this human rights violation.

“Dude, help!” Urushihara called out.

Maou looked between his two demon generals, one holding lilies up to the other one's face as he shrunk back into the closet.

“Did Chi send those?” he asked obliviously.

“Ashiya is trying to pimp me out to strangers online!”

“He is exaggerating!”

Maou’s posture sagged. “What’s really happening?”

“Welcome home. As it happens, my liege, though his phrasing is crude, it is not far from the truth.” Ashiya moved a step back from the closet and faced Maou. He briefly explained the situation to Maou while Urushihara tried not to sneeze. It was becoming more difficult by the second. He brushed a few bright yellow flecks off of his shirt as Ashiya explained Chat’s sadistic tendencies.

“Okay, that…” Maou sighed and shot Urushihara a sympathetic glance. Hail Satan. “I get that we need the money, but—”

“He spent a day’s wages on Sims expansion packs.” Ashiya handed him a folded receipt from his pocket.

Fuck.

“You’d better fuckin call Chat!” Maou hissed, pointing at him. “You think I’m made of yen?? I was saving to take Alas Ramus to the movies damnit!”

Urushihara sighed and opened the streaming app. He had indeed acquired another fifty followers since his last stream.

“Dude, pleaseeee—”

“Let’s go, tech squad. How much yen can you make in one stream?”

“My record is uh…”

“2,000 yen, sire. I’ll bet with these he can double it.’

“Don’t come out until you’ve made at least 2,000,” Maou sighed.

“Hi and welcome back to my channel. How are we doin’, chat?” He glanced up at the two demons standing over him and accepted the bouquet from Ashiya. He didn’t even have to take a whiff for the onslaught to continue. The scent alone was enough to drive his nose crazy. He couldn’t keep from scrunching it and sniffling, though each sniffle would bring in more of the sickly sweet odor. “So I got some of the expansion packs y’all rec…recommended. How about I make the, uh…cat—wait, I’mgonnasnNDSChhh’iuhh! H’KSChh’ieeh!”

Maou handed him a tissue pack, glare still intact.

“We had a cat once. I was really allergic to it.” Urushihara blew his nose into a one-ply tissue before continuing. “No, that’s not why I’mb sneezing now. ‘Mb allergic to a lotta stuff apparently. Anyway…hahhhkSHhh’iew! Anyway, thangks for the gift, uh, Dustyboi…”

Save me, Dustyboi.

“Mby roombate can really stretch out 500 yen, y’kndow. Thanks, s-sakurabl-...hehYSHhh’iehh! Ihhpshh! Tschh! heh’ESCHhh’yew!”

Ashiya had moved on and went on to make dinner in the background. Maou sat in front of the TV with the volume on zero but with the captions on, though he seemed far more interested in Urushihara’s performance.

Urushihara blew his nose again, knowing he’d have about a minute before he’d have to blow his nose again.. “Sorry guys, I’mb ndot gonnda be…able to…hh…st-stop sneezi’gg. Hehh’KSHhh’iehh! Mby roombate got flowers that I’mb allergic to. Yeah it’s that…it’s that bad. Anyway, here’s Silverfish the cat. We’re gonnda—H’ESCHhh’iew!—add himb ind…”

Urushihara finalized the Devil’s Castle on the Sims and sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes. “Yeah, Ashiya’s throwi’d himbself at Maou again. Just like in real life…”

“What did you say, you creatin?” Ashiya yelled from the kitchen which was, of course, part of the same room they were all in.

“Yeah they’re both hombe,” Urushihara said into the mic casually before losing control of the sneeze he’d managed to keep back for almost a full minute. “h’ESHhhu! Fugk…Ugh, thank you for the gifts. Mbaybe I cand afford better tissues now.”

“Oh no, he has to pay off his debt first. Otherwise he’ll have to sell some of this streaming equipment,” Maou called from the living room portion of the room.

That did it. If Maou understood one thing about this world, it was appealing to the consumer.

“Thangks for all the gifts, guys. Wow. Three-thousand yen!” Urushihara coughed and sniffled again. “Btw guys, I’m gudda be uploadi’gg a recordi’gg of this streab to mby chandel and all future streams. I’mb gudda…sndeeze…ah-agaid…Ehhshhh!-KShhh’ih! H’KSHhh’iew!”

He muddled through another twenty minutes of gameplay before people started expressing genuine concern in the comments. Suddenly there were about ten people regularly writing “bless you,” and “are you okay?” in the chat along with others calling him “poor thing.”

“H’KShhhieh! It’s okay, I’mb used to it. This is—hah…ieSCHhh’iew! KSHhhh! dothi’gg cobbared to whed we had the cadt I swear.”

In the background, Ashiya began setting the kotatsu for dinner. Somehow between the horny viewers and the sympathetic ones, he’d made five-thousand yen.

“Okay…sorry guys. I godtta go. I’ll…I’ll be back tomborrow.” He gave a peace sign which he knew was ironic coming from him, but nobody needed to know that.

“Five-k yen is gonna drop tonight, okay?” He then walked the bouquet to the trash can. Ashiya got up and stood in his way.

“Save this one for tomorrow. He pulled a single lily out and left it on the table.”

“Doesn't it suck busting your ass to make money only for someone else to spend it?” Maou asked with a smirk, crumbs sticking to the inner corners of his lips.

Urushihara shrugged and went to wash his swollen face in the bathroom knowing that eventually the video of the stream would surely gain some income and exposure too. Next he’d report the accounts stealing his clips and make his own video compilations. And then nothing will come between him and owning his very own Switch.

#PLZ #I love this #my mans fighting for his life in stream #snzfic #uru/shihara

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snzzone · 7 months

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Swirl

after. MONTHS. i have finally completed this Wanderer fic everybody clap

word count: 5k

Of all the people that Aether had been expecting to see as a participant at the Interdarshan Championship, the Wanderer was not one of them.

The Hat Guy name was completely unexpected as well, and it had honestly taken everything in Aether’s power to not burst out laughing the instant that the other was introduced on stage by that name. The fact nobody else seemed to think of it as strange made Aether outright think he was hallucinating for a moment, but a simple glance at Paimon’s equally as confuzzled expression dismissed that idea.

After briefly talking to the other contestants, Aether tracked down the Wanderer to the side of the stage-

Turning the corner, he caught sight of the Wanderer ducking his head into his hand, once- twice- three times, his hat giving off a faint jingling sound with each movement. Aether raised an eyebrow, but was cut off by Paimon before he could even begin to form a sentence. He remained in silence, watching as Paimon and the Wanderer snarked at each other, taking his time to analyze the Wanderer’s appearance.

Nothing seemed… obviously wrong, but Aether just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was just ever so slightly… off. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He… somehow looked slightly paler, maybe? Or maybe not, he was a puppet after all- could his skin even get paler?

Aether probably shouldn’t ask him that.

Learning that Nahida was the reason the Wanderer was in the Akademia, and was going by Hat Guy no less, wasn’t much of a surprise. Still, Aether took the small lull in conversation that followed to ask his more pressing question.

“Are… you doing alright?” He asked, slowly, rolling his eyes when, as expected, the Wanderer glared at him.

“Tsk, I’m doing fine. There’s no need to concern yourself over me- hey- hey! What are you doing!?!” The Wanderer hissed as he attempted to back up as Aether strode forwards, only for his back to end up hitting the boxes behind him, practically trapping him as Aether tilted his hat back slightly, and leaned down to lightly press their foreheads together. Aether hummed as the Wanderer went completely still- staring at the Traveler with something in between confusion and anger. Even Paimon was floating off to the side, silent in shock at Aether’s seemingly spontaneous movement.

“Checking you for a fever.” Aether quietly explained, as it was, Aether didn’t feel any heat- in fact, if he had to guess, he’d say that the Wanderer was running slightly colder than most people. “Something just felt… off. Figured you might be sick.”

“I don’t get sick.” The Wanderer huffed, “I’m not some kind of weak mortal, remember? Now get off me.”

The Wanderer forcibly shoved Aether back, Aether stumbling slightly with the motion, bumping his head against the Wanderer’s hat, knocking it further askew. With Aether out of the way, and his hat no longer shading his face, the Wanderer ended up getting hit in the eyes with a stray ray of sunshine. He let out a high pitched gasp- and Aether watched with slight concern as he turned to the side, stifling four sneezes into complete silence.

“Bless you.”

“Snf, unnecessary…” The Wanderer muttered under his breath, readjusting his hat so that the sunshine could no longer hit his face as he wiped his nose with the back of his hand- which had Paimon grimacing in disgust. Aether tilted his head to the side.

“Unnecessary since you were nearly a god, and are as close to blessed as can be, or…?” He trailed off, smirking a bit as the Wanderer re-centered his glare on him. “Either way, you might want to take things easy-”

“Enough idle chit-chat- you’re better off wasting your time with the other contestants.” The Wanderer interrupted, crossing his arms. He maintained his glare for a minute, before his expression shifted to a small, slightly evil looking smirk. “Someone’s about to get very unlucky, can you guess who?”

“Ugh, how is anyone meant to relax with you around?!” Paimon groaned, floating along beside Aether as he turned and walked away. “We’re going to need to keep an eye on this one…”

Aether couldn’t help but to agree, albeit, it was for a slightly different reason than Paimon thought. He still couldn’t help but feel like something was up with the Wanderer, and given that little… display he had given, Aether wasn’t going to drop this subject so soon- he hated to say it, but he genuinely was concerned for the other. There was a point to the fact that the Wanderer couldn’t get sick, he was a puppet afterall, he likely wasn’t susceptible to the same things that people were. But still, there was something off, and if it wasn’t a normal illness, then, well, what was it?

Past-enemy that he was, Aether still didn’t want the guy to end up passing out in the middle of a competition because of some mystery condition.

There was going to be a lot to keep an eye on during this competition, but it shouldn’t be too hard to pay a little bit extra attention to the Wanderer’s actions, would it?

Aether was just about ready to strangle the Wanderer.

He was astoundingly hard to keep track of. It had only been 20 minutes since the first round of the competition had started, and he had already lost track of the Wanderer’s position no less than 3 times. His only saving grace had been the trackers given to each participant to trace their movements during the game- and even then, it had taken him five minutes to find the Wanderer’s exact location again.

Mainly because he hadn’t expected the Wanderer to be sitting at a table in the corner of a cafe’s terrace.

Aether walked over to him with as much false-calm as he could muster. He’d left Paimon behind to keep an eye on the other contestants- someone needed to record the rest of the competition while Aether investigated the one participant who was not participating.

“What. Are you doing.” Aether deadpanned, coming to a stop in front of the table as the Wanderer lifted his head to acknowledge his presence.

“What does it look like?” He said, lifting his cup of tea to his lips to take a small sip. “You were the one who said something about me ‘taking it easy’, right? I’m just taking your advice. Not that it’s necessary, but it sure beats running around like a clown in a circus. I’m no clown.”

Aether let out a tired sigh, pulling out a chair to sit down across from him.

“Says the one going by the name ‘Hat Guy’. Why are you drinking tea anyways? It’s like, a million degrees outside right now- wouldn’t you be better off drinking something cold? They do make cold teas, you know.” Aether watched as the Wanderer stiffened almost imperceptibly at his question, something he wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been looking for anything to give an indication of what was up with the Wanderer. “Is your throat-”

“I’m fine.” The Wanderer hissed, setting his cup down on the table with an audible clack- Aether was concerned for a moment that the cup would actually crack from the force of it, but it thankfully seemed to be undamaged. The Wanderer leaned forwards, resting his elbow on the table, holding up his face with one hand. “Really, I don’t understand what in the world has you so concerned anyways-”

Aether reached across the table, and snapped his fingers in front of the Wanderer’s face, summoning a small flash of light with the motion. It wasn’t an ability he used often, his few remaining powers from before landing in Teyvat reduced to nothing more than small, harmless sparkles and flashes, but in this case it served it’s needed purpose.

The Wanderer’s face twisted in a way that Aether was starting to rather easily recognize, as he leaned back and away from the table.

“Oh- fu-hH... fuck y-hIHH-” The Wanderer’s head snapped forwards into three completely silent stifled sneezes, followed by another short, hitching gasp, the final stifle escaping his forced silence into something more vocal. “Hh’nNxti!”

“That, is why I’m concerned.” Aether said, “I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen you sneeze before.”

“What, so I’m not allowed to sneeze now?” The Wanderer leaned forwards again, gripping the edge of his hat with his hand- possibly to be ready to shade his eyes from any future flashes of light. “I didn’t take you to be so controlling, Traveler.”

“No, no, it’s not that.” Aether rolled his eyes. “Of course you can sneeze, you’re clearly photic after all-”

“I am not-” The Wanderer paused- practically biting his own tongue as Aether held his hand out again, fingers poised to snap. He tugged the edge of his hat further down. “...So what?”

“I’m just saying, being photic doesn’t explain why you were sneezing even before me and Paimon started talking to you-”

“Paimon and I.”

“You have no right to try and ‘proper-grammar’ me right now. I expect that kind of stuff from Nahida, not you.”

The Wanderer’s only response to that was a cocky smirk as he picked his tea up again. Aether sighed.

“Don’t think you can distract me that easily. I know there is something up with you today.” He said, maintaining pointed eye-contact with the Wanderer.

“And I think that you’ve finally gone paranoid. Tell me, do I really frighten you that much?” The Wanderer said, laughing a little- cutting himself off with a barely restrained series of coughs that had Aether’s face switching from irritated back to concerned in an instant.

“I knew it. You’re sick.”

“I am not- Like I said earlier, I can’t get sick. …The tea just went down the wrong way.” The Wanderer avoided eye-contact, staring off to the side. They were both well aware that that excuse was complete bullshit- despite having picked his cup back up, the Wanderer had yet to sip any of his tea again, there had been no tea in his mouth to have gone the wrong way. Aether was about to call him out on it-

His communicator went off.

“Aether, you need to come see this!” Paimon’s voice rang out, and Aether let out a sigh.

“I’ll be right there.” He said, waiting for the click indicating that Paimon had hung up, pulling out the device to check the other contestant’s locations as he stood up before glancing back at the Wanderer. “Don’t think I’m going to drop this. We will be talking about this later. I’m not afraid to drag Nahida into this if I must.”

The Wanderer scoffed.

“Be my guest.”

It was only after the first round of the competition had wrapped up, that Aether realized that, with all the contestants' trackers turned off for the day, he no longer had any way of finding the Wanderer. He searched around the main stage- not surprised to find absolutely nothing, not even the slightest trace of the other.

The only other place he could think of to check was the Sanctuary, which meant, of course, getting Nahida involved. To be completely honest, Aether hadn’t truly planned to bring Nahida into this so early, he was kinda hoping that the Wanderer would cave in first, but there was no chance of that happening if he couldn’t even find him.

“...Nahida?” Aether called out, letting the doors of the Sanctuary softly close behind him. He stepped in, glancing around. There was nobody in the main room, which meant that Nahida- and the Wanderer, if he was here, were off in one of the side rooms. Sighing, Aether decided that he would check the library first- outside of the small garden that had been installed, the mini-library was the most common place where Nahida could be found.

He gently knocked on the door before entering, letting out a small sigh of relief upon hearing Nahida’s voice call out “Come in!”. Aether stepped into the room, taking a moment to take in the room before focusing on where Nahida was seated on top of a chair covered in pillows, multiple books open on the table in front of her.

“Oh- Traveler! I hadn’t been expecting you!” Nahida hopped down out of her chair, walking over to greet him. “I’d been kinda hoping that you were the Wanderer- he hasn’t come home yet.”

“He hasn’t?” Well, that got rid of the possibility of finding him here. “Do you… have any idea of where he could be?”

“Hmm…Nope! I can tell he’s in Sumeru, but his exact location is beyond me. …Why? Did something happen?”

“Well… There’s something just, a little off about him?” Aether tilted his head to the side, wondering how best to explain the vague feeling he had, before deciding to just settle on presenting his main theory to her. “I think he might have come down with something- like a cold.”

“That…shouldn’t be possible.” Nahida’s brows furrowed as she thought. “Being a puppet, he shouldn’t be able to get sick.”

“That’s what he said too…”

“But-” Nahida glanced up, like some kind of realization had just struck her. “I did think there was something a little off about him too, the last time I saw him. I just thought that I was imagining things.”

“Considering that I’m also sensing something off? Unless two people can have the same hallucination, something is definitely up.” Aether said, “When was the last time you saw him, by the way?”

“...About 2 days ago, actually.” Nahida hummed, glancing off to the side. “I didn’t think much of it- he’s spent a week in the forest without coming back before, but now that you also think there’s something up… Hm. Maybe I should try and find some way to check in on him…”

“I mean, he’ll… probably show up for tomorrow’s round of the competition, right?” Aether asked, “You could always come to see-”

“Ah- no. Unfortunately, I can’t go, there are some… other things I must take care of.” Nahida let out a forlorn sigh. “But… you’ll be there, won’t you, since you’re a commentator and all? You’ll continue to keep a close eye on him, right?”

“...Well, he can be rather hard to find sometimes, but… I’ll do my best, Nahida.”

Aether couldn’t help but feel worried when he couldn’t immediately spot the Wanderer at the competition’s main venue in the desert. What if something had happened to him- what if he’d passed out in the woods somewhere?

He had informed Paimon of his suspicions about the Wanderer’s condition last night, so he wasn’t all that surprised when she shot up into the air to get a better vantage point to look around, only to sink back down to float beside him with a small shake of her head. No luck on that front then.

There was a small beep from their devices as the second round of the competition began, and Aether quickly flipped to the section displaying the trackers on the participants.

The Wanderer’s title of “Hat Guy” flickered on the screen.

Huh. So he was in the desert- within the competition grounds even, just like everyone else.

Why hadn’t he been at the venue, then?

Highly suspicious (and also worried), Aether decided to check in on him, first.

…Only to be severely side-tracked by stumbling upon a half-passed out Tighnari.

He’d been just about to run back to the main venue, for both water and possibly a medic team- when he very nearly ran into the guy he had been initially searching for. The Wanderer looked no different than he had the day prior, but something was setting off even more alarm bells in the Traveler’s mind then there’d been yesterday.

“Here- give him this.” The Wanderer held out a completely full water bottle- but that was not the first thing that Aether took note of.

“Your voice is… a lot rougher today.” He noted, “Is your throat okay?”

“I’m fine.” Somehow, this sentence sounded weaker than it had the day before. “My voice is the same as always, the stress of the competition is just making your poor little mortal body hear things. That’s not important though- just give him this.”

The water bottle was practically shoved into Aether’s hands. Paimon clicked her tongue.

“Are you sure it’s okay to give Tighnari this? What if you’re contagious?” She asked. Aether had to admit, it was a good point. Whatever was up with the Wanderer, he didn’t want to be giving it to Tighnari. The Wanderer tsked.

“I’m not contagious, I don’t even get si-....sick…” He trailed off, a dazed expression on his face- and Aether knew instantly what was about to happen. There was a brief silence- the Wanderer’s face twisting as he seemed to be trying to resist the inevitable, before his eyes fluttered shut with a hitching breath. “Hihh…hIH- hEH’xNtiu! Hh- hH’nxt! HN’xTii! Heh- hiH’IsHKiu!”

It seemed he wasn’t capable of stifling into silence anymore- not to mention the one that had completely gotten away from him at the end, complete with a small gust of anemo that surged forth- shockingly cold, for a desert wind. Aether barely suppressed a shiver.

The Wanderer, for his part, recovered fast, straightening himself back up and readjusting his hat as he sniffled.

“Not sick, huh?” Paimon said, prompting a glare.

“...I just got some sand up my nose, that’s all.” Okay, his voice definitely sounded a bit hoarser than before, there was no way the Traveler was imagining that. “...I didn’t even drink out of the bottle though, if you’re going to be that paranoid about it. Barely even touched it outside of handing it to you just now.”

Aether… supposed he could believe that- not the sand part, there was no way that was true, but the water bottle being fine was probably true- and speaking of which, how on Teyvat had he completely forgotten about the half-passed out person behind him-

He only took his gaze off of the Wanderer for a mere second, but by the time Cyno arrived, and the Traveler finally felt like he had a moment to turn around… He was gone. Again.

As Cyno helped Tighnari to his feet, Aether flicked open his device- thankfully, it seemed like the Wanderer hadn’t left the area, as his name was still flickering on the screen. Still though- possibly sick-and-in-denial puppet or not, Tighnari currently took priority- Aether could only hope that the Wanderer didn’t vanish into nowhere again while he was helping Tighnari back to the venue.

…Except he did.

Sure enough, after making sure Tighnari was safe and sound, Aether opened his device again- only to find that ‘Hat Guy’ had seemingly vanished. A brief round of asking around revealed that he had also withdrawn from today’s competition- but that didn’t ease Aether’s worries in the slightest.

The Wanderer could’ve gone anywhere. He could be fighting in the forest, or walking through the desert- and he could collapse out there, and no-one would be any the wiser.

Hearing that the Wanderer had fought some guys, before vanishing again, was at the same time both relieving and concerning. At the very least, whatever was going on with him, he didn’t end up passing out mid-battle.

Kaveh took up most of Aether’s attention shortly after, however- he did make note that the Wanderer seemed a lot more quiet than usual.

This was doubly affirmed when Nahida showed up- the Wanderer in tow… and every single response the Wanderer gave was in nothing but a whisper.

It seemed like, for some reason, he expected that none of them would notice.

One shared look with Nahida and Paimon confirmed that all three of them did, in fact, notice.

“Alright, Mister.” Nahida put her hands on her hips, looking up at the Wanderer with a serious expression on her face. “Now that all the other stuff is out of the way- what’s up with you? And don’t think you’re going to get out of this by just vanishing like you did last night.”

Nahida had found the Wanderer last night? Huh. Looks like there’d been some interactions Aether had missed out on.

“Heh, and what do you plan on doing about it?” Wanderer whispered- leaning down slightly with a smirk on his face- how he could act so confident when something was clearly wrong, Aether had no idea. “You can’t keep me here.”

Nahida’s eyes flashed with green light.

Without any other pre-warning, vines sprung out of the ground, wrapping tightly around the Wanderer’s ankles. The Wanderer let out a curse- his voice breaking halfway through in a way that sounded outright painful, as he immediately tried to fly up out of the vine’s grip.

Only to be pulled right back down to the ground- with enough force to make his hat fall off. Aether reached out and caught it before it could hit the ground, but-

“HN’xTii!” There was no pre-warning as the Wanderer snapped forwards with a sneeze, only just barely stifling it into his hand. Aether had only a second to realize that it must’ve been in response to the sun, before the Wanderer was sneezing again, thrown into a small fit. “HH-hH’nXtiu! hEH’xNtiu!! HihH-hH’NXt!!”

“You know stifling isn’t good for you, right?” Nahida commented, even as a stray gust of cold wind made her shiver. Aether had to agree- those stifles had sounded desperate and almost painful. The Wanderer didn’t respond, one hand hovering over his nose, as though he wasn’t sure whether or not he was going to sneeze again, while his other hand went up to shield his eyes from the sun by covering them entirely.

“...Give me my hat back.” He eventually sniffled, and he sounded so terrible that Aether genuinely considered giving in for a second.

But only for a second.

“No. Not until you tell us what’s going on.” Aether said, crossing his arms, the hat in his grip jingling as he did so. “Nahida confirmed that you shouldn’t be able to get sick, so don’t even try that argument again, we’ve already been over it. But, there’s clearly something wrong, and we’re not going to let you leave until you tell us what it is.”

The Wanderer, still gave no response, instead standing there silently, vines wrapped around his ankles and hand over his eyes.

After another minute of a silent stand off, Nahida gave a tired sigh.

“Well… we did give you ample time…” She muttered, “Paimon, could you come here for a moment? I need your help with something.”

Wanderer’s whisper of “what do you think you’re planning?” was outright ignored by all three of them, as Nahida brought her hands together, summoning a small flower- considering Aether couldn’t immediately recognize it, it was likely one native to Sumeru. Nahida carefully crushed it up, until it was nothing more than petals and pollen in her hands.

With nothing more than a short and simple telepathic message, she dumped the pile into Paimon’s waiting hands, and Paimon was off on her little mission. Slowly, being careful not to make any sound, she floated up, until she was above the Wanderer’s head-

And then she dropped the pile of petals directly on top of him.

“Wha-” The Wanderer’s breathy exclamation of confusion was cut off as his breath instantly caught on a hitch. “Hehh-hiIH- hiH’IsHKiu!!! Hh’shKiu! Hih-heH’inKshiu!!”

The sudden gust of ice cold wind blew the petals and pollen away, and both Paimon and Nahida found themselves fleeing to hide behind Aether’s back to escape the biting cold that came with it. Aether noted, faintly, that the lines on the Wanderer’s body were glowing an icy blue, instead of their usual anemo teal- and that, when the Wanderer’s eyes cracked open with small tears, they were glowing the same colour.

“B-Bu’er, wh-hh…why would y-you…Hh…” The sunlight landed directly in the Wanderer’s eyes, and he ducked his head, clearly fighting against another fit, if the tense way he was holding his shoulders was any indication. Was he holding his breath? Aether was pretty sure he was.

Finally taking slight pity on him, Aether walked forwards and gently placed the Wanderer’s hat back onto his head. The Wanderer’s hands immediately went up to pull the brim of the hat down, shielding his face from any more beams of light.

“Uh, where did the ice come from?” Paimon questioned, and Aether turned to look at her in confusion, before following her eyes down and- yep, sure enough, that was ice on the ground. In the desert. In the middle of the day. Yeah. Okay.

“Wanderer?” Nahida slowly moved forwards, still shivering a little, clearly unused to being exposed to any kind of colder temperature. “This is extremely abnormal. You have to tell us what’s going on.”

The Wanderer shook his head, still looking down, shoulders tense. Aether leaned down to Nahida and whispered to her conspiratorially;

“I think he’s holding his breath so that he doesn’t sneeze again.” Considering for a moment, he then added on, “Probably embarrassed by the fact he sounds like a kitten-”

“I do no-hH-hIH’ksh!! H’nXti!! Hh’NxTiu!!! N’xTt!! Heh-hHiKshiu!!!” The Wanderer’s protest was cut off by yet another kittenish fit- as well as another gust of ice cold air, his hat getting knocked slightly askew. Aether watched in slight fascination as the patch of ice on the desert floor grew slightly wider. Fit finished, the Wanderer gasped slightly for breath. Nahida, despite shivering, walked forwards, grabbing one of his hands and pulling him down slightly so that she could fix him fully with her expression of concern.

“Wanderer. Please.” She said, “Tell us what’s wrong.”

Silence.

And then the Wanderer tsked, pulling his hands out of Nahida’s grip, readjusting his hat again.

“You’re all worried over nothing.” He hissed, “I just… got hit by a Fatui member's attack. Ice shot, y’know.”

“That’s not nothing!” Nahida gasped, “Are you hurt?!”

“Of course not!” The Wanderer’s voice broke again, and he coughed, before continuing. “I’m fine. It’s just… a little elemental residue. It’ll go away in a bit.”

“It doesn’t seem to be going away.” Aether noted, ignoring the glare the Wanderer shot at him. “In fact, you’ve seemed to be getting worse.”

Nahida snapped her fingers, before pointing at the Wanderer accusingly.

“I told you stifling was bad for you!” She said, “You’re just keeping the remaining elemental energy inside of you!”

The Wanderer tsked again- not confirming but also very obviously not denying her observation. Nahida put her hands on her hips, staring up at the Wanderer with an unimpressed expression.

“So, then… how do we fix this?” Paimon asked. Nahida’s expression did a complete 180 as she turned to smile at Paimon.

“It’s simple, really, he just needs to kitten-sneeze it out!”

“Not a kitten sneeze.” Wanderer muttered, but was steadfastly ignored, even as he continued. “I can’t just turn Sumeru into a winter wonderland. Besides, it’s not like I can just sneeze on command-”

The vines that had been gripping his ankles let go, only to move shoot upwards to wrap around his wrists instead.

“What are you-”

“So that you don’t stifle!” Nahida explained, simply; “And besides, we can always get rid of the ice afterwards. Now, Traveler?”

Both Nahida and Paimon moved to hide behind Aether once more, and the Wanderer didn’t even have a second to protest this development before Aether was snapping his fingers in front of his face, summoning a bright flash of light.

The Wanderer’s breath hitched immediately, unable to get out a single complaint before he was pitching forwards into another fit of kittenish sneezes, his hat falling off from the force of them.

“HhiH’IsHKiu!! Heh’Shkii!!! HahH…heH’ishiu!!! ‘Kshi!! H’inKshiiu!!” The swirling burst of anemo and cyro was almost enough to make Aether stumble back as he summoned a geo shield to protect both him, Nahida, and Paimon. The ice spread across the ground, steadily increasing and covering an eight foot radius. A few snowflakes appeared, and the Wanderer’s next hitching breath was visible in the cold air. “HiihH- Ishhiu!! HihH’inkshii!! H’eshii!! ‘Kshiu! Hh’iKShiu!!!”

The Wanderer gasped for breath, and it was only after a minute passed with no further sneezes and accompanying burst of freezing anemo that Aether slowly lowered the geo shield. Carefully, to avoid slipping on the sudden layer of ice surrounding them, Aether strode forwards, picking the Wanderer’s hat up off the ground and placing it back on the others head for him, yet again.

“Are you okay?” He asked, slightly adjusting the hat as the Wanderer’s hands were still tied. The Wanderer’s eyes blinked open, hazy with tears, and Aether noted that the fading glow was back to it’s usual teal.

“Was th-” The Wanderer’s voice, which quite frankly sounded painful, gave out on him. Aether figured that, with how vocal his little fit had been, that only made sense.

“Here, here, let Paimon say it for you!!” Paimon floated up beside him, slipping into her ‘best’ impression of him. “‘Was that really necessary?’ That’s what you were gonna say, right?”

Based on the Wanderer’s pissed off scowl, yes, that was exactly what he had been going to say.

“It was very necessary, in fact.” Nahida shivered, and Aether reached down and picked her up so that her bare feet weren’t touching the cool ice. “It would’ve taken a week at the rate you were going, and you would’ve only gotten worse over that time.”

She snapped her fingers, the vines disappearing, and the Wanderer instantly crossed his arms, looking away from them.

Nahida let out a sigh. Aether, after a brief moment, sighed as well.

“C’mon.” He said, adjusting Nahida slightly and turning around. “Lets head back to the Sanctuary and get the both of you warmed up- I’ll even make that bitter tea that you like so much. At the very least, drinking something hot will help your throat.”

A small, cool breeze hit the back of Aether’s neck, and he just barely kept himself from yelping, turning slightly to see the evil smirk on the Wanderer’s face.

Aether’s only response was to roll his eyes.

#snz #snzfic #gen/shin im/pact #wan/derer #tra/veler #na/hida #AWOWIEODIDDJDKDK BARK BARK #AMAZING FIC 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥#I'm too lazy to write a coherent comment but DAMN ROSE YOU ARE TALENTED #KITTEN SNZ SO CUTE CUTE CUTE #The last bit is my fav part lmaooo #it's so him

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