~#~ Chapter 3 ~#~

Wriothesley was sitting at his desk when a loud crack sounded in the room beneath him. He frowned as he stood up and headed down the stairs only to find vestiges of smoke hanging in the air. He stepped out into the middle of the room, trying to ascertain what had happened and found himself pushed violently to one side as Neuvillette and two unknown men appeared in the spot where he'd been standing. The larger of the two men was clearly unconscious and dropped heavily to the floor which pulled the smaller man clinging to him off his feet. Neuvillette slowed his fall the best he could before backing away suddenly when the other man let out an aggrieved shout and lashed out at him like a cornered animal.

Neuvillette turned to find Wriothesley watching him with a bemused expression on his face. His hands were crossed across his chest and one eyebrow was barely visible beneath this hair. "I assume, by the unorthodox means of entry, that this isn't an official visit." He shook his head in exasperation. "What, in all Teyvat, have you got yourself into? I'd expect better of you, oh mighty iudex."

"Unfortunately there was insufficient time to make an appointment," Neuvillette grumbled. "And as for my companions here, this," he waved an arm towards Zhongli. "…is the lord of geo. Although he's not…looking his best, I'll admit. He needs rest and lots of it." Wriothesley reached out and pulled Neuvillette towards himself as Xiao curled into a ball against Zhongli's side and lay there, with wisps of black smoke curling slowly out of him. Neuvillette looked down at him and frowned. "I may have inadvertently upset that one, but it was a necessity and one which I hope to be forgiven for over time." Xiao failed to react to his words so he simply shrugged. "They…we humbly request your hospitality for an indefinite, but hopefully brief, stay."

Wriothesley rolled his eyes at the other man. "Whatever. You know where my room is, bunk down there for as long as you want. In the meantime, do you think he'll let us move him," he waved his hand first at Xiao, then at Zhongli, "…upstairs to the couch? Although truthfully, he looks like he should be in a bed himself rather than on the floor?"

"He…" Neuvillette considered his words carefully. "It is doubtful he will move far from the other. If we move one then we may well succeed in moving them both."

Wriothesley nodded. "Go and fetch some blankets, this may go smoother if you're not here upsetting the small, angry one."

Neuvillette wandered away up the stairs and disappeared from view. Wriothesley crouched down on the far side of Zhongli where Xiao could see him and addressed the smaller man softly. "This is your master, right?" Xiao's limbs had seized up once he'd stopped moving and by now he was so worn down that he could barely move but he managed the briefest of nods. "And your master needs protecting, at all costs?" Another nod followed by a slow blink. "And part of that is allowing other people to care for him when you cannot?" A third tiny nod came in reply. "Well, I assure you that he's safe with me and I'm going to take care of him, while you can't. I know you might not think much of Neuvillette at the moment, but you obviously trusted him enough to…break yourself to get you all in here. Trust that he came here for the right reasons. Trust that he came here for me."

Xiao clasped his arms tighter against himself and closed his eyes with a quiet groan. Wriothesley took that as the permission he needed and leant down to scoop Zhongli off the floor. He carried him up the stairs, deposited him gently on the couch and then looked around for the blankets which Neuvillette had been sent to fetch. He stood there for a moment, fully expecting Neuvillette to wander back into the room and then, when that didn't happen, set off to find him.

Wriothesley pushed the door to his quarters open and rolled his eyes at the sight before him. Neuvillette had got as far as pulling the linen cupboard open, had obviously knelt down to pull some blankets out and then his body had betrayed him. He had remained in a mostly-kneeling position but had pitched forwards onto the blankets, fast asleep. "Well, this is new," Wriothesley chuckled. "So, I guess I've got to put you to bed as well. What a weird evening." Wriothesley stepped over to his bed and flicked back the covers before returning to Neuvillette. He awkwardly manhandled him into a position where he could lift him and then carried him to the bed and laid him down. He pulled Neuvillette's boots off, dropped them to the floor beside the bed and then tucked the bedcovers around the sleeping man. "Weird, weird evening."

He stepped back to the linen cupboard and pulled out several blankets. Being military issued they weren't the softest but they were warm and offered comfort to a weary soul on a chilly night. Wriothesley pushed the cupboard door shut quietly and turned to head out of the room. He switched the light off on the way past and pulled the door to behind him as he passed into the corridor that led to his office.

As he expected, neither Zhongli nor Xiao had moved since Wriothesley had left them. He took a moment to study the peculiar appearance of the man on the couch as he tucked a couple of blankets around him and then crept downstairs and crouched a reasonable distance in front of Xiao so as not to startle him if he was drowsing. The smaller man was still emitting small wisps of smoke but these had lightened from a dark black to a murky grey with a hint of blue. Xiao opened his eyes and peered at him warily.

"Do you want me to help you upstairs?" Wriothesley asked quietly. "Or would you rather remain here for now?"

Xiao managed a tiny headshake and began to tremble. Wriothesley was unsure if he was cold, emotional or just plain wrung out so simply covered him with the blanket and left him to his peace.

~#~

Wriothesley went back to his desk and finished his paperwork. He then checked on his three insentient house guests before setting out into the fortress to eat and carry out his evening rounds.

When he returned, he locked the door behind himself, checked on Xiao, checked on Zhongli and finally wandered into his bedroom where Neuvillette was slumbering. He dragged the comfy armchair from the seating area at the far side of the room and placed it near to the bed. He grabbed another blanket from the cupboard, placed it on the chair and then went to the bathroom to carry out his nighttime ablutions. He returned with a glass of water, which he put on the nightstand and then slumped lazily into the chair. After a moment, he kicked off his boots, rested his feet on the end of the bed and then covered himself with the blanket and quickly fell asleep.

~#~

Wriothesley awoke before anyone and went about his normal business once he'd checked on everyone. He returned to the office almost an hour later, with a large, covered box of food items and a bag containing numerous bottles of water. He placed the box and bag on the low table in front of the couch where Zhongli lay and then sat at his desk to work through the new day's paperwork.

A confused-looking Neuvillette wandered into the room a short while later. He was missing his overcoat, waistcoat and cravat as well as his boots and had undone the top couple of buttons of his shirt. Wriothesley smirked to himself at his friend's unusually-dishevelled state, "You've been out for about sixteen hours," he said softy and pointed towards the box. "There's food and water on the table. Take your fill."

Neuvillette opened the bag and pulled out a bottle of water. He unsealed it, took a sip and then held the bottle up and stared at it for a moment before setting it aside. After discarding the water, he rummaged in the box, pulled out some sort of wrapped, pastry item and looked around for somewhere to sit. There were only two options for seating in the office and both were currently occupied, so he ended up perched on the end of the couch, near to Zhongli's feet. "There is a ridiculous lack of furniture in here," he grumbled light-heartedly.

"Budgetary restraints," Wriothesley replied with a grin. "That, and the fact that I don't usually entertain guests, let alone three, nigh-on lifeless ones, at a time."

Neuvillette took the jibe in the manner it was meant and refrained from replying as he finished his pastry. He folded the wrapping into a neat square, put it on the table beside the food box and then leant over and pressed his hand against Zhongli's forehead. He closed his eyes and sat there for a moment before pulling his hand away and sitting up with a nod.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Wriothesley was studying Neuvillette intently. "Whatever happened yesterday, I can't help but think it didn't go to plan."

Neuvillette shrugged. "It did, then it didn't and now we're here. I…he is wary of verbalising exactly who and what he is so it would be inappropriate for me to say much but safe to say, he is no threat, needs to be protected while he is in this state and Xiao…Wait, where is Xiao?"

"Assuming you're talking about the angry little attack dog, he's out cold downstairs," Wriothesley replied. "I don't know what he is so I couldn't tell you how he is. He's cold to the touch but seems to be breathing well and isn't smoking any more, which I'm taking to be a good sign."

Neuvillette nodded. "Good, that's…good. I pushed him too hard to get us here. Harder than he knew was good for him, but we needed to get somewhere…discreet. Dragging a dead weight along with us didn't help."

"He hasn't moved, at all, as far as I'm aware," Wriothesley pointed towards Zhongli as he stared across the desk. "Not even a twitch. If it wasn't for the occasional breath, I'd have said he was no longer with us."

Neuvillette frowned at Wriothesley's comment and sat for a moment, waiting for Zhongli's next breath. This didn't come for almost a minute and was shallow and slightly ragged. Neuvillette placed his hand on Zhongli's head again and this time he shrugged when he pulled his hand away. "I am certain he's not in any immediate danger and that he just needs time to recover his energy levels."

"And he can do that without any sort of sustenance?" The conversation had gone from strange to even stranger over the course of the past few minutes and Wriothesley realised that he must have been further out his depth than he thought. "He's not eating or drinking and is barely brea…oh." He stopped and looked Neuvillette dead in the eye. "He's basically hibernating. Can he…can he do that?"

Neuvillette shrugged again. "I have no idea. I just know that he is, for want of a better description, out of power. I gave him all I could which solved…well it solved the immediate problem but…" He threw his hands in the air in frustration and slammed them down onto his knees. "I. Don't. Know."

Wriothesley raised an eyebrow at Neuvillette's outburst. He was normally the most unflappable, stoic man to have ever walked Fontaine but today he was emotional and snappy. "I don't think sixteen hours was enough," he replied softly. "If I promise to keep my eye on the other two, would you please go back to bed?"

Neuvillette looked lost for a moment as he looked vacantly around the room. "I don't…maybe…yes, you're probably right. Come and get me if anything…"

He stood up and strode from the room without finishing the sentence and Wriothesley watched him go with a sad shake of his head.

~#~

Several hours later, Neuvillette wandered back out of the bedroom, stopped and smiled. Whereas previously, there had been far too little seating in the office, now there were two couches and a well-worn but particularly comfortable-looking armchair, along with Wriothesley's usual desk and chair. Neuvillette grabbed another pastry from the box and dropped down into the chair with a sigh.

"Feeling better?" Wriothesley had been downstairs checking on Xiao when he heard footsteps in the room above. He bounded back up the stairs, two at a time and arrived back in the office just in time to see Neuvillette claiming the armchair. "There's no change in either of them, just so you're aware."

Neuvillette nodded as he munched on his pastry. He waved his hand in a circle covering the new couch and his chair.

"Glad you approve," Wriothesley replied and then chuckled as he watched Neuvillette reach across the table to open, and reject, another bottle of water. "What's wrong with it?"

Neuvillette wrinkled his nose at the drinks. "It is…something to do with the bottles. I shall stick to the water from the sink. That is, at least, tolerable."

~#~

After a quiet request from Neuvillette, late in the afternoon, Wriothesley arranged for a rare visit to the surface the next day to collect some clean clothes and some of Neuvillette's toiletry items. He offered his bed to Neuvillette again that evening and slept in the chair like he had the previous night.