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Today was supposed to be another ordinary day for the Wanderer. However, the meddling Lesser Lord had forced him to go outside to keep himself occupied for the day. She claimed that he shouldn't be alone on this special day.
'What an absurd idea. It's just another day. Why would I or other people go out of their way to do something on my birthday?' The Wanderer thought to himself.
As he tried to escape from her foolish plans, he ended up getting dragged by a bizarre cooking interest group. One of them was wearing an Akademiya uniform, so they must have been students. In the end, it seemed that Buer had won and successfully roped the Wanderer into one of her silly antics.
The Wanderer tried to recall the events within the group. The student in Liyue attire asked, "Why don't you try to make one of your favorite dishes?" The Wanderer could not think of any particular dishes that he could call his favorite, so he made the first dish that came to his mind. Before he knew it, he was faced with a plate full of Candied Ajilenakh Nuts. He had no desire to eat this dessert for himself, but he could at least bring it to someone who would enjoy it.
The woman in the Akademiya uniform found herself gawking at the quality of the dish and asked the Wanderer to help her with her research paper. She claimed that she would make sure to credit him greatly in her paper. The Wanderer denied the offer, stating that he had no desire to be associated with the Akademiya. He could only scoff at the thought of his name being in an Akademiya research paper.
The one in the Mondstadt Adventurer's Guild uniform was excitedly eating up the dessert, begging the Wanderer to cook another dish. The Wanderer had decided to make his specialty dish, Shimi Chazuke. The one in the Yoriki Samurai uniform's eyes widened in amazement, claiming that he never had Unagi Chazuke with such a bitter and unique flavor before. He requested the Wanderer to teach him how to prepare the dish in such a way.
'Mortals always have such amusing reactions to the most trivial matters' However, the Wanderer did not hate the time he spent with the group.
After bidding his farewells to the group of students, he found himself wandering towards Gandharva Ville. The forest was a quiet place as he enjoyed watching the untroubled finches that lived in the area. Finally, alone, the Wanderer could finally find himself at peace. He was thinking to himself about ways to respond to Buer to show his dissatisfaction. He occupied himself with practicing his signature raspberry-blowing technique. In response to his own action, he unknowingly had a tender smile on his face. He noticed a pale green light flashing from the corner of his eye. "Committed to memory. Grow, grow, grow!" was all he heard before turning his head toward the direction of the voice. He heard a glimmering sound and the light finished flashing and quickly disappeared. He was well familiar with this notion. He got up quickly to look for the culprit and found a tap on his shoulder from behind. He turned around and saw the little Lord winking at him with her tongue playfully sticking out at him.
"Why are you here? ...And why did you say 'grow' to me?" He asked in an irritated tone.
Nahida only giggled in response to the tone of his voice. "Well, it is your birthday, so you technically are growing. And, I wish for you to grow more smiles just like the one you just gave earlier." Nahida beamed in delight.
A choked sputter was all the Wanderer could muster in response. 'When was he smiling? He could not even tell.' He gingerly tipped his hat to cover his face, as the soft cyan radiance slowly pulsated on his chest. Nahida gave a knowing smile in return.
After the Wanderer had calmed down, Nahida grabbed his arm without the intent to let him go.
"I'm glad that I've finally found you. Let's go to the Traveler's teapot, there's a surprise waiting for you!"
The Wanderer tried to pull his arm back. Nahida's grip on his arm only tightened. "What are you trying to drag me into this time?" He stared at her with a wary look.
"C'mon, c'mon, let's go! Just this once — I'll make sure you love it!" Nahida tried yanking his wrist with her minimal levels of physical strength.
The Wanderer sighed as he could not bring himself to say no to her request. He let go of all his resisting strength and grabbed her hand instead, allowing the little Archon to lead the way. Nahida pulled out a Realm Dispatch and held it out to the Wanderer. His fingers barely brushed the item as the two were immediately surrounded by smokey clouds.
The two fledglings had both spawned in front of the Traveler's mansion. The Wanderer took the opportunity to take in the scenery of the exterior area. He noticed the overly familiar place had gone through significant changes, as it was heavily decorated with more ornaments and furniture than usual.
Nahida tugged at his hand and ran towards the door of the mansion, with the Wanderer dragged and forced to run behind her. As the two entered the building, they found it to be pitch dark. After a few seconds, the lights were flashed on and firework confetti flew across the room. Paimon flew towards the Wanderer's face and blew a party popper near his face. He swatted the fairy away from him. She snickered in response.
"Happy birthday, Wanderer!" Three voices in unison cheered out.
The Traveler waved at Nahida and Wanderer and directed them towards the fancily decorated table.
"The attendance may be low today, but we'll make sure this will be the best party you've ever had." The Traveler gave the Wanderer a grin.
The Traveler then ran into the kitchen to grab something. They reappeared at the table with a big cake in their hands. The cake was blue, black, and gold in color as if to mirror the colors in his attire. On the top of the cake, the words "Happy Birthday" were intricately written in white frosting. The cake was embellished in green Dendro-styled leaf designs.
The Wanderer only stared in awe at the confectionery. 'Did they really put this much effort into making a cake for me?' The Wanderer could not fathom the meaning behind this enormous act of generosity.
As the Wanderer looked in all directions at the cake, from front to back and even upside down, the Traveler gave him a confused look.
"...Did you put poison in this cake?" The Wanderer asked cautiously.
"No, why would I do that? I'm not that cruel to strike you down on your very own birthday." The Traveler responded with slight mischief in their voice.
"Did you make it sickeningly tooth-achingly sweet?" The Wanderer continued to pester with his questions.
"No, it's matcha flavor- ...Look, stop being so difficult. If you don't want it, I can just throw it out. Though, that would be a huge waste since Nahida spent a lot of time decorating the cake. I'm sure she would be really sad to find out you don't want it." The Traveler added in an attempt to rile him up.
The Wanderer then looked at Nahida, who was silently watching the ordeal unfold. As of on cue, Nahida feigned her most innocent-looking disappointed face towards the Wanderer.
The Wanderer winced and could only grumble to himself. The Traveler stood up from the table to try to take the cake away. "Wait." The Wanderer spoke with a commanding voice. The Traveler stopped in their tracks and awaited his answer. "Fine... I'll eat the cake that the two of you so graciously have offered to me." He crossed his arms.
"Yay!" Nahida cheerfully clapped, satisfied with the Wanderer's answer. "Now, this is something I learned from watching the people in Sumeru. I want to give it a try!"
Nahida got up from her seat and stood up on her chair.
"1, 2, 3, Go! Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday to you~♪" A group of Aranaras spawned into the room as Nahida began to sing.
"Huh? You're breaking out into a song?!" The Traveler fidgeted through their inventory and rushed to pull out their lyre gadget to play alongside Nahida's singing.
"Happy birthday, dear Wan~der~rer~! Happy birthday to you!" Nahida sang with a large smile on her face, along with the Aranaras dancing along.
"Ooh oooh! Paimon wants to try singing too! Are you 1, are you 2, are you 3, are you—" The Traveler stopped playing their lyre.
"Paimon! We are NOT going through hundreds of numbers!" The Traveler cut off Paimon in an exasperated voice.
As the three continued their music, the Wanderer's mind began to wander.
'This ballad... How long has it been since I've listened to it? Surely, it was not with the Fatui. Snezhnaya's tunes were far too somber for such music. Ah, I remember now. The people at Tatarasuna would sing and celebrate my birthday back then. Katsuragi would always be out of tune when he was singing along... What an uplifting melody.' The Wanderer could not help but reminisce about the good times.
The Wanderer would snap back into reality when he realized Nahida was calling his name.
"So, what did you think of our music?" She excitedly awaited his response with sparkling eyes whilst holding an Aranara in her arms.
"Not bad. Your voice was really made for this kind of thing. And it seems playing an instrument is one of the few things the Traveler is good at."
The Wanderer heard a light scoff from the Traveler at his backhanded comment. Nahida jumped for joy at the compliment.
"Now that we finished the birthday songs, let's go cut open the cake! What are you waiting for?" Nahida ushered.
The Traveler handed the Wanderer a mini dagger to allow him to cut the cake. The Wanderer slowly made precise cuts, as if he was afraid of the cake falling apart. He carefully took a bite, afraid of its fragility. He felt a sweetened flavor in his mouth, which was then later engulfed by a bitter aftertaste.
"Wow, my bad, I have truly underestimated you, Traveler. It seems you are capable of showing consideration in that brain of yours."
The Traveler only gave him an "I-told-you-so" look in response to his convoluted compliment.
"This cake was a huge success!" Nahida exclaimed in triumph.
After finishing up the cake, Nahida runs to another room to pull out neatly wrapped present boxes.
"And now, it's time for my favorite part! Opening up birthday gifts!" Nahida giggled gleefully.
The Wanderer paused, as he examined the small present box. It was a green box elegantly enclosed with a white ribbon. He shook the box to try to guess what it was. He heard a thudding sound within the box.
"...You didn't put something strange in there, did you?"
Nahida lightly giggled in response. "You don't have to be so wary all the time, Wanderer. Not everyone wishes to approach you with ill intent. I hope you'll remember that as a life lesson. Anyways, just hurry and open it already!" Nahida was eagerly pushing the present box towards Wanderer.
He eventually relented and carefully tore open the wrapper and untied the ribbon. He peered inside the box. Inside was a small doll, slightly smaller than the size of his own hand. The doll had white hair tied in a side ponytail with green highlights and her signature leaf headpiece. The doll's large distinctive green eyes peered back at the Wanderer with a kind smile on its face. It was a doll of Nahida herself.
The Wanderer then looked back at the eyes of the gift giver. Her eyes gave him a reassuring look.
"Here's a little Nahida doll. I tried to pick up sewing. It was difficult at first, but over time, the steps methodically came to me as naturally as solving a jigsaw puzzle!" Nahida recounted her tales.
"Another one of Nahida's analogies..." The Traveler and Paimon laughed to themselves.
Nahida then turned towards the Wanderer and continued with a serious but gentle voice. "This doll can be a matching companion for your other doll buddy. Or simply a friend you can talk to if you ever find yourself feeling lonely. If you ever choose to wander far from Sumeru, this doll can serve as a reminder that I am watching over you and supporting your journey every step of the way."
The Wanderer tried his best to not lose himself to his emotions in response to Buer's words.
"...I guess the doll itself isn't too shabby. Not as good as the one I made though." He tried his best to not let his voice crack. "...How about I teach you sewing another time?" He offered, reaffirming his confidence.
Nahida immediately brightened up at this reply. "Of course, you better remember to hold up to that offer in the future!"
"Relax, we have plenty of time to fulfill it." The Wanderer was now back to his usual composed self.
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Back at the Sanctuary of Surasthana, Wanderer lay in bed that night, unable to sleep due to his thoughts pounding in his head.
'Do I truly deserve this happiness? Will this newfound happiness be taken from me?'
And most importantly.
'Will they be here with me next year?'
His intrusive thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Nahida opening the door. She walked over to him, sitting by his bedside.
"How was today? I hope you had fun." She gently stroked his hair in an effort to calm him down.
"Don't worry, you don't need to say anything. I know how you feel. Sometimes, I find myself feeling the same way as well." She gave the Wanderer a melancholic smile.
"Sometimes, I would think to myself... Am I really worthy of all these happy things occurring to me? Am I really doing things right? These thoughts would take over and plague my mind like a huge clouded rainstorm." Nahida's smile transformed into one of encouragement.
"However, I learned that acceptance is the best step to take. I accept you just the way you are, Wanderer." She got off the bedside. She moved her hand to the top of his head and on his forehead.
"There, there. You're doing great. Have a headpat."
"I'm glad you were created and placed into this world. Don't let anyone believe and tell you otherwise. Not even yourself." Nahida wrapped her small but warm arms around him.
"Thank you for being born."
"Sweet dreams, Wanderer." She then left the room and closed the door behind her.
The Wanderer felt a sudden drowsiness take over his body. He clutched the Nahida doll in his arms, as he found himself closing his eyes, allowing a single tear to spill down his cheek. That night, the Wanderer had the most pleasant dreams he's ever had in a while.