Your faint smiles - Xiao x Aether [Complete]

Part 23 - [Unedited]

"Here." Xiao handed lumine a glass of water before sitting down on his previous position. Lumine tiredly took the water and chugged it in.

"Hah." She release a sigh as the water emptied. She just woke up from her third nightmare so she was mentally tired. She was now afraid to sleep.

Lumine raised her knees and hugged her legs. She wanted to see aether so badly. She couldn't even remember how she ended up on Xiao's home. All she could think about at that time was to reach out for help. But she never thought that her feet would bring her to the man's house.

"Aether...." She softly mumbled as her eyes squanted. Tears were threatening to fall once again. Xiao sighed irritatedly and lean on the chair. He was tired of seeing the woman constantly waking up from nightmares. He thought that she have a very strong mind and hard feelings, but he never thought that she was this weak mentally. What really happened? He was itching for an answer but he decided to wait until the blondie calms down.

"Thank you." Suddenly lumine spoke up making xiao look at her.

"There is no need." He answered before retracting his gaze. He stared at the twinkling starry night. He remembered the first time he had sex with aether, He gazed at the same starry sky after what they did. His heart suddenly felt heavy when he remembered aether once again.

'Aether.' He unconsciously thought.

Lumine blink away her tears and stared at xioa, Her expression was serious. She knew that xiao wanted answers so she decided to tell him. After all this man was aether's crush.

"Xiao, Right?" She uttered.

"Hmm? Yeah." He answered and stared at lumine.

"I know you want to see him—"

"Where is he?" His voice suddenly turned cold making lumine shiver. And for some reason the temperature of the room suddenly turned cold adding to her stressed mind.

"H-He.... Can't be with you for the time being—"

"That's bullshit." Her words was once again cut off by xiao. She could feel her veins popping out from irritation. Can't he just let her finish her words?

"He can't be with you because he's been captured." She calmed herself down and told xiao the reason.

"What do you mean captured?" His heart froze when he heard what lumine said.

"That's right xiao, Aether had been c-captured." Her voice cracked as she mentioned the word captured. The memories was still fresh from her mind making her close her eyes. She mustn't cry, No matter what happened she will bring her brother back.

Xiao felt like his world crumbled when the word 'Captured' sink into his mind.

"W-What did you say?" His voice gradually shaken as he stood up. His eyes was wide open and his heart beating loudly to the point that he could hear it.

He knew how horrible it is if a seku is captured. Ganyu told him how much suffering they are in if they land on the scientist's hands. And he was hoping—No, He was sure that aether won't experienced it. After all, aether had been running since childhood. But now he had been captured? Aether must be in so much pain! This won't do! He must do something.

Lumine lowered her eyes because xiao was emitting intense killing intent that even made her scared. Xiao's breathing hitch as he thought of the possibility of what was aether experiencing today.

"No....We must take him back!" He suddenly snapped and grabbed lumine's arms.

Lumine wince by the sudden pain. But she didn't complain for she was still a bit scared.

"It will be hard xiao, We will face a country if we want to take him back." She spoke as she stared back at xiao.

"I don't care." His voice turned extremely cold and his grip tighten around her shoulders. Lumine bet that her shoulders are now very red and close to purple.

"I will take him back."

^°^°^°^

"Good job honey! You did very well." The scientist's soft voice entered his ear as aether was pulled out from the water. Som part of his skin was torn off from his body making him very terrifying to look at.

Just now he was dipped into a pool full of piranha, he was bitten so Many times that you could see his bones from his left thigh, and his skin hanging and was close to snapping from the tissue. But despite all of it, aether felt nothing. He was puzzled wether he should be worried that he wasn't feeling anything or should he be worried for the future experiments.

Right now the scientist was experimenting his pain, Because she still have doubts concerning seku feeling nothing. But it seems like the records were indeed true. Earlier she watched as aether was eatin but the man didn't beg to be freed nor did he showed signs of being in pain. So she added a couple of minutes before pulling the blondie out.

She stared at bloody body of aether and the bones that was visible from the naked eye. She could see the torn tissue and the hanging skin. She suddenly felt the urge to throw up. The man's appearance was simply horrible and horrifying.

"L-Let's clean you up first." She uttered in disgust.

^°^°^°^

"There, We will continue later honey. So get some plenty of rest okay?" She spoke as she closed the door before locking it. The soldier stood beside the door and gaurded it.

Aether with his back on the soft mattress, stared At the white ceiling with so little emotions. His heart have already gone numb. With little human contact, aether didn't know what was happening in the outside world. He couldn't even tell what time it is, for he was only seeing two colors: Blue and white.

He closed his eyes tiredly and was about to hit the hay, but he suddenly heard the door creaked. So he opened his eyes to see who it was. It can't be the woman scientist, since he only see her after eight hours and it's only been a couple of minutes.

His blood froze when he saw who it was.

"Dain."

^°^°^°^
A/N: Hello! How are you all? (´∩｡• ᵕ •｡∩')  I hope you are okay <3

A/N: Lmao, On the process of writing this chapter, I accidentally fell asleep xD. I awoke after my father called me out to feed my brothers.

A/N: No matter how I tried to skip an update, I found out that I can't ToT. I mean I'm Very tired because all of this answering but my brain keep saying "Bitch start writing and don't keep your readers waiting." And boom, I found myself with my phone typing a  scene xD.

A/N: Anyway! Have a good night/day <3 I am very happy that I took your time to read this chap ( ◜‿◝ )♡