What's this feeling || Xiao x Aether

A Stopped Heart Beat

I have Albedo now 😩 I love him sm. Don't get me wrong, him in this story is not it but like him in game- ugh amazing. Anyways, have fun reading!

———

"She's fallen into a coma. We are not sure of the date when she will awaken or if she really will ever regain her consciousness."

The room was almost silent. The sound of the tiny hands of the clock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tok. The sound of a few cold droplets of water falling from the sink. Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound of the heart rate monitor, beeping at a tremendously slow rate. Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound of unsteady breathing from the almost lifeless girl beneath him.

The blunette lay on the hospital bed, not a single inch of movement aside from her chest moving up and down in unrhythmic patterns that matched her unstable breathing. She was hooked up to all sorts of machines. A chamber encased the outline of her mouth and nose, helping air flow into her system. Her head was bandaged, and her leg, suspended in a high cast. All Xiao could do was stare endlessly at the dark bloodied and bruised face of his "sister".

"Sir? You've been standing here paralyzed for the past 5 minutes. You should take a seat..."

Xiao ignored him, well, really he couldn't control it. He couldn't move. The sight of the once, perfect and clean face of the blunette had formed into a battered and bloodied mess. He heard the small voice of the blonde who had accompanied him, but couldn't be bothered to decipher what he had said. The blonde's voice was shaky. That's all he could recognize.

Xiao could almost feel something pulling at his limbs. They felt almost like binds. Forcing him to not move as they tied him down in place. Encaged. He felt like an encaged animal. Helpless. One of the brightest stars in his life now looked like a measly laser pointer in the galaxy.

"Xiao..."

Xiao's eyes snapped towards the direction of the voice, his piercing golden eyes settling on his blonde companion. Small tears prickled at the corner of the blonde's eyes as he continued to speak. "You should sit down next to her... I'm sure she'd enjoy the company close to her." He flashed him a weak smile. It still made Xiao's heart flutter slightly but, in this situation he couldn't be blinded by the other male instead of paying attention to his own family.

The darker haired male sat down in the chair next to the hospital bed, the small screeching sound of the legs grinding on the floor was heard for just a few seconds. Xiao took out his hand to grab onto the one of his unconscious sister. It was cold, unlike her. Her hands were always warm and welcoming whenever they'd touch him or caress him... but now they felt like the cold, eery wind from a graveyard.

He could feel the slow pulse in her wrist as he slightly tightened his grip on her hand, his own fragile hand trembling. He lowered his head, small droplets of tears falling down onto her hand. "I'm sorry" He mumbled. "Please... don't leave me alone. Don't run away from me. Not again."

The blonde's heart broke at those words, hot tears fell down his face as he wiped the few of them away and walked closer to them. He knelt down and held onto both their hands then smiled, a bright, reassuring smile at Xiao. "Don't worry, you don't have to be afraid of being alone ever again. I'll always be right here by your side."

And that statement wasn't a lie. Everyday before school, Aether would ditch his sister at her house and run over to Xiao's so they could walk together, the only time they were ever separated was during classes they did not share, then right after the bell, there Aether would be waiting for Xiao outside his classroom door.

Only a few people had heard about the accident with Ganyu and those few people offered tons of support. Barbara had given them a 'get better soon!' basket, Zhongli had offered to help buy necessities for anyone in the family (truthfully, using Childe's wallet) and Kazuha had dropped by the hospital to send short haikus and small candies to Ganyu once she had awoken from her coma.

Even Lumine had made a few gifts to send Ganyu, handcrafted by herself and her two friends, Noelle and Amber.

———

On one of their same usual visits, the two got prepared to go into the hospital to check on the blunette. The two entered the hospital side by side and spoke to the receptionist who let them go to visit Ganyu. It was a quiet visit again, Xiao sitting next to Ganyu's bed while staring at her healing features while Aether watched or sorted out the many gifts. Xiao still had his hand tightly linked to the girl's.

They sat in silence, the only sound being the ruffling of gift bags. Then suddenly, Xiao froze.

The heart rate monitor had begun to grow slower. Beep....

Beep.

Beeeeeeep.

A long pause and then the bar on the monitor went flat.