She holds her head with her small hands as the wind breeze in the plains, flipping her talisman around. Yellow leaves flew around her as I walk avoiding the puddles. In her hand is a notebook, trying to remember why she is there. Yet, she is still walking in circles, unsure of what to do. I walk past the grasses as the wind once more breeze violently. Her notebook dropped into the marsh puddle. She looked at her note, can't do anything, and doesn't do anything either. She looked down at it and seemed sad, but I am unsure if I should laugh or help her.
"Aether..." emotionless, yet every time she talks, she fills me with emotions. "Why are you here?" She puts her finger on her lips. Didn't she give me a letter to come here? "I... Don't remember" I give her the letter she gave me. "Maybe it's true..." I pick up her notebook, but the traditional ink made it almost unreadable in contact with water. I rinse it off with anemo and give it to her. She looks even more miserable; she tried her best to read what it says in there, but after several attempts, she gave up. She gave it to me to read by myself. She says that it is important, but when I ask what it is about, she shook her head and raised her shoulder.
I sit at the single tree near the ruin at the plains. Qiqi sits on my lap. I try to read it; her handwriting is not good to begin with, challenging but it's doable. "About Aether," the first line shows; she looked at me and nodded. This must be the one. "Aether is the mysterious blond-haired guy" hmm, this is how she is supposed to remember me. Next line, "Some people want to take advantage of me, some are terrified of me, but Aether is not like any of those people." I stopped, my heart skips a beat. She looked at me, waiting for me to continue. "He is kind; since we first met, I have had a warm feeling inside." Before I read the rest, she took the notebook and threw it again in the water; the notebook sank, all in the blink of an eye. I look at her in confusion, but she looks back at me as confused as I. "What's going on?" she speaks slowly. I cannot believe it, what was she trying to hide from me but If I ask about it, she will probably forget about it too.
Qiqi pulls my clothes, we sit under the same tree again. She still sits on my lap, but this time, no one says a thing. She looks in awe at the sunset like it's the first time she looked at it. She holds my hand and point at the sun. I smiled at her; she had forgotten about what happened 10 minutes ago. Troubling thoughts keep passing my mind, will you one day forget about me too? I wonder, will one day you looked at me like a stranger once again? My heart aches the more I think about it. She shakes my body, didn't realize that the night sky is starting to show. It seems I have spaced out for a moment. Her cold hands hold mine and pull it to her head. Forcing me to pat her.
"Aether?" I looked at her. "Did you know?" About what? "Neither do I. I already forgot." Her hand is still holding my hand on her head. She releases my hand and stands up. She gradually hugs me, her small body push mine until my head fell to the ground. The tree blocks the light of the stars; all I can see is some light and her small face. She closed her eyes and lay her head in my chest, "Warm, very warm, Not the kind of warmth that makes me feel rotten and disgusting and closer to death. The other kind of warmth. The one that happens inside my heart." she sits in my stomach, and her face is right in front of me. "Aether, tell me, what is this feeling?" She touches her chest. I touch her small cheek slowly. Pulling my face to hers and kiss her. Cold, her lips and her tongue feels lifeless, but her hands grab my face, and she doesn't want to let it go. "I also feel the same thing when I am with you, Qiqi" I smiled at her.
"I love you, Qiqi" She looked surprised for a moment but then tilted her head. "What is love?" I scratch my head; it is hard to explain it. Let see, her cute face, her funny expression, her honesty. "Why do you look at me like that." I look another way. "Qiqi, when I am with you, I feel calm; when I am with you, I can't help but smile at anything you do, and when I am with you, I feel warm. Didn't you feel the same? "Hmm, maybe that's true. Aether I, in the past, my only thought was: I must stay alive even though I didn't know what to live for, but now, I think I know. I want to live with you for the rest of my life." "Me too" For the first time, I see her genuine smiling face.