Whether or not they are directly linked, or the characters know each other, I think of my stories as all having happened within the same little world! In my stories. I frequently mention things that have happened in others I have written, but most of them should be able to be read stand alone without issues.

Also, while I try to keep it very close with Genshin lore, I don't know every single bit of lore, and can't remember it all. So, some things are slightly different, there are also some things that are only guessed. I'm just here to write stories for people to read, should they choose!

As for my version of travel time, everything is small, and close together in the game, so I spread it out a little. It should take time to get places! (More dramatic that way rofl)

Thank you to my husband for being my proofreader!

As always, thank you for reading, I hope everyone enjoys it!

Feel free to leave a comment :)

Happy Halloween, Alhaitham!

It was happening again. How could this possibly be happening again? Where there was a curtain blonde, there was surely an answer…

"Kaveh."

The blonde looked up at his name, and jumped off the couch excitedly. It was fitting, considering the tail. He watched closely as it bounced when Kaveh came around the coffee table.

"Haitham, you're home! Look at this tiny little pumpkin, isn't it cute?"

Kaveh held up a pumpkin that was about half the size of his head with a face painted on the front of it. Though the face was smiling, Alhaitham found the triangular eyes, and semi-toothy grin unnerving.

He put his hand across the face, and pushed it away, "Kaveh."

The architect finally paused when he heard his name the second time. However, he wasn't confused as to why Alhaitham had said his name twice, and was otherwise speechless, he knew exactly why. It was also why he gave Alhaitham a sweet smile, and batted those long lashes at him.

When Alhaitham didn't speak again, the blonde pouted, using every trick in the book, "You… you don't like it?"

Kaveh was playing a game, then. Although Alhaitham knew that pout wasn't real, he ignored his better judgment, and took Kaveh's bait.

"I said nothing of the sort. However," well, he partially took the bait, "When I laid down two hours ago, I'm quite certain that our home did not have a Chiroptera infestation, nor did you have a fluffy white tail, and… rabbit ears."

Alright, so he didn't actually take the bait at all, but that pumpkin face really did bother him. Kaveh turned, and set the pumpkin down on the table, left to stare at Alhaitham. He was only able to tear his eyes away from it to stare at where Kaveh had the two sides of his unbuttoned shirt tied together, revealing his muscular midsection.

His mind partially shut down, and the words that came out weren't what he meant to say, "You've forgotten how to use your shirt."

Kaveh's eyes narrowed at what he seemed to have taken as some sort of challenge, then he smiled sweetly again, "Lumine showed me how to do this!," he walked closer to Alhaitham, and whispered in his ear, "Like it?"

"..."

Yes, he liked it. As if in a trance, Alhaitham reached for the knot, only to have Kaveh quickly move away.

"Well, now that you're awake, I'll get dinner going!"

Alhaitham watched the white fluffy tail walk away. Why did Lumine do these things to him? It had to be on purpose. He'd learned early on about the traveler's terrible sense of humor. It was nearly as bad as Cyno's, but vastly different. Alhaitham felt it was time to add her to his list of sadistic people, and she was teaching Kaveh.

He looked up at the bats Kaveh had hung from the ceiling. They were a poor representation of the creatures, not more than an outline. There was also white gauze hanging from the beams, sporadically placed, and more of it decorated the curtains, and doorways.

Next to some of the doors sat more pumpkins on the floor, each with a different, and disturbing face. They all seemed to stare at him, with their soulless eyes, and sinister grins. He'd have to talk to Kaveh about those, or make them disappear.

On the coffee table sat the usual centerpiece, but it was surrounded by a ring of autumn leaves, something of which they did not have in Sumeru. Alhaitham wondered where Kaveh had gotten them. He reached out, and felt one, only to find that they were some sort of material. At least he wouldn't have to work around decaying leaves in his home.

Really, Alhaitham could admit it, other than the cold, and unfeeling faces of the pumpkins, he didn't mind the decorations. Kaveh always did a nice job in anything he decided to do, which was never a surprise. The architect's capabilities were boundless.

This was obviously some sort of new holiday from their traveler friend, he supposed he'd better go ask. When he entered the kitchen, Kaveh only spared him a glance before he turned back around, and started stirring something vigorously. He suspected the blonde knew exactly what this was doing to that rabbit tail, and therefore, what it was doing to Alhaitham.

He sighed, but remained transfixed on the tail. It wasn't that he was attracted to the tail, exactly, but rather that it looked soft, and fluffy… he wanted to touch it, and the person it was attached to.

"Kaveh, what are the new decorations for?"

"Hm. Now you want to know?"

"... Yes."

"Ah, I see," Kaveh said, looking over his shoulder, "It's just… you didn't really seem interested in it before."

Alhaitham stared on, "It's not that I wasn't interested, but more that I was caught off guard, and became distracted."

Kaveh chuckled, "Well, maybe you should work on your focus more, Haitham. Who knows what you'll be doing the next time you become distracted."

He crowded into Kaveh's space, and it was his turn to whisper in the blonde's ear, "And what sort of things might I be doing, exactly?"

Kaveh twirled on his heel, eyes wide, and cheeks turning a beautiful shade of flustered red, "You-! You know what I meant! You could be fighting, or something!"

Alhaitham smiled, and the blonde turned back to whatever he was doing. Speaking of-

"What are you making? That smells more like sweets than dinner."

Kaveh pointed at some apples sitting on the counter, "I'm going to cover them with caramel!"

"... Why? Apples are already sweet enough as it is, and adding candy will only make them unhealthy."

"It's not about being healthy, Haitham! It's about… making them into something different!"

"I assume this is another one of Lumine's holidays?" At Kaveh's nod, Alhaitham continued, "Why is it that every one of these holidays has an abundance of sweets?"

Kaveh huffed, "So people can enjoy themselves with a sweet treat, Mister Boring."

"I have all the sweet treats I need."

"But you've never tried these before!" Kaveh pointed out, holding up a freshly coated apple.

Alhaitham hummed, "That's not what I meant. Kaveh, what exactly do you plan to do with these? There are far too many for us to eat, even if you gave some to Cyno, and Tighnari."

"I'm going to take them to Lambad's, and hand them out to people…"

With that, Alhaitham took in the blonde's appearance once more, "You're going to go to a tavern dressed like this?"

People already "looked" at Kaveh more than Alhaitham would like, and the silly architect seemed to be blind to it. It wasn't because Kaveh dressed provocatively, but because he was just too beautiful for others not to notice. There were more than a few people Alhaitham had put the fear of the Archons in with a glare. He'd been doing so since they were still students, and he had no plans of stopping any time soon.

Kaveh stopped what he was doing, crossed his arms, and raised an eyebrow, "And if I do?"

The architect kept such a straight face that Alhaitham couldn't decide if he was being serious, baiting him, or both. He decided to go with what he felt was the safe option.

"You're always self-conscious about how you look. Are you sure you'd like to go out in something so revealing?"

He thought he'd had it, too. However, Kaveh was on a roll.

The blonde simply raised an eyebrow, "Really? I always had a feeling you got more jealous than you always led on. Are you jealous, Alhaitham?"

Yes, he was jealous. This was for his eyes only.

"Jealousy is a biological glitch that I don't indulge in."

Kaveh nodded slowly, and turned back to the apples, "I see. Well, since you don't indulge in jealousy, which I know of a certain ex-client named Bruno who would disagree, but, I suppose I can wear whatever I want. What would it matter to you?"

That was enough. Alhaitham stepped around Kaveh, removed the pot of melted candy from the burner, and backed the blonde up to the counter while sinking his fingers into that fluffy tail. He knew his look must have been as predatory as he felt.

"W-what are you doing?!"

The blonde sounded innocent, but it had already become extremely obvious that this was anything but. The small smile on Kaveh's face let him know that he had in fact been baited into this, and lost. He might as well continue with where this was going.

"If you insist on being stubborn about it, I'll just have to make sure you can't wear it," Alhaitham said, already tugging at the clothes.

Sometimes, he didn't mind losing.

~xxxxxxxxxx~

"Why isn't anyone taking the apples?" Kaveh pouted, looking over the second floor railing at Lambad's.

When he turned back to his friends, he noticed that they hadn't eaten any either. Instead, they stared at the caramel covered apples Kaveh had given them.

He made a whining noise, "And why haven't you guys tried them?!"

Tighnari picked up the item in question, "... I don't know about this, Kaveh. Don't get me wrong, they look, and smell good, but I would like for my teeth to remain attached."

"What? Why wouldn't your teeth stay attached?" Kaveh asked.

Seriously, his friends sometimes said the strangest things. This holiday definitely wasn't going how he'd planned. If he'd had time, he would have gladly made something chocolate, but this was such short notice this time, and he made due with what he was able to find.

He thought he'd at least be able to get Alhaitham to eat one. The man would eat anything, as long as he could hold a book while doing so. This went for many things in the silly scribe's life. Kaveh huffed, and crossed his arms as he sat back in his seat.

"There's no need to pout, Kaveh. Surely you could concoct some other type of confectionery," Alhaitham said, not looking up from his book.

"Even if I had the items on hand, there's no point now! Halloween is almost over…"

Tighnari looked at the apple again, then back to Kaveh once more, "I still don't understand what Halloween is supposed to be. Children walk around dressed in different costumes, while accepting sweets from random people? That sounds like a recipe for disaster."

Kaveh sighed, "It's supposed to be harmless fun."

"What kind of costumes?" Cyno asked.

It was an odd, random question for someone who had been completely quiet the entire time, but Kaveh had asked Lumine the same question. That was how he'd come up with his little rabbit costume, which had served his purpose a little too well.

"The Traveler said that they dress up like zombies, ghosts, animals, and even something called superheroes, who are similar to people with Visions, apparently," he explained.

Cyno crossed his arms, with one hand holding his chin, and said nothing else. Tighnari gave him a nervous side-eye, then picked up the apple, and with only a little hesitation, nibbled on it. He didn't bite enough off to get any of the fruit beneath the sticky layer of caramel, but Kaveh was ecstatic.

"See?! It's delicious!"

His friend gave a small smile, and nodded before turning his attention to Alhaitham, "They are, don't you agree, Alhaitham?"

Kaveh snorted, "Alhaitham hasn't tried one. Instead, Mister Boring said 'Indulging in copious amounts of sugar in conjunction with consumption of fruit will, in all probability, result in gastrointestinal turmoil.'.

He felt like his Alhaitham impression was getting better. However, the smugness he felt from that melted away when the silver-haired man set down his book, picked up Cyno's apple, and took a large bite.

Kaveh's jaw dropped as he watched the scribe slowly chew. Alhaitham's face remained neutral throughout the entire thing. It seemed like twenty minutes must have passed before the man finally spoke.

"Delicious."

That was it. He didn't say anything else, didn't describe it, or what he liked about it. Only that it was delicious. Kaveh suspected he was lying, and opened his mouth to argue, but was cut off by Cyno.

"Why did the zombie eat brains?"

Tighnari sighed tiredly, "Zombies don't eat brains, Cyno-"

"Because it wanted food for thought," the General finished proudly, ignoring Tighnari.

Everyone stayed silent, but as usual, that didn't deter their friend.

"Get it? Because zombies are mindless-"

"They're not mindless!-"

"- Therefore, if they eat brains-"

Tighnari slapped his hand over Cyno's mouth, "Don't you finish that sentence!"

Cyno tried to pull the Valuka Shuna's hand away, and keep talking. They spent the next thirty minutes watching the General attempt to tell more jokes, only to continuously have his mouth covered by Tighnari.

It was quite entertaining to watch, and Kaveh found it even more amusing for the fact that the two putting on the show frequently complained about his and Alhaitham's arguing. Archons knew they would never get to live down that pet-name bet.

Overall, the day hadn't turned out so bad, and he was thankful he'd at least spent the time with friends. He would have time to plan better for the next year. He glanced over at Alhaitham, who had stopped reading to watch their friends, and noticed that the caramel apple had been completely eaten.

"Wait… You really did like it?"

Alhaitham raised an eyebrow at him as if it was a ridiculous thing to say.

"Of course. I know you're fully aware that I don't lie, Kaveh."

Liar!

"Don't lie?! You-!"

xxxxxxxxxx

Do you think Alhaitham is going to make Kaveh remove those pumpkins before he'll be able to sleep? lol