Modern Times (Xiao x Aether)

33) Swings (1)

After they finished eating they decided to take a walk around.

"Xiao it's really pretty here! Have you ever been here before?" Aether asked as they walked along side each other.

Xiao shook his head, "No."

"Really? How did you decided on coming here?"

"Um.." Xiao hesitated for a moment, "Ganyu told me this place was really good since there were a lot of stuff to do, and I didn't really know where else I should take you, but I really wanted to take you somewhere nice- " Xiao speaks very quickly nervously.

"Wait, what was that?" Aether asked, not hearing the long sentence Xiao had just spoken.

"Look." Xiao quickly points at a ice cream stand randomly, trying to distract Aether.

As looked over to where Xiao was pointing, his eyes lit up, he pulled on Xiao's arm, "Let's go get some!" Basically drags Xiao to the stand. In the end Aether walks away happily with a big ice cream cone, making Xiao 5 mora poorer, but that didn't bother Xiao.

"Xiao, where should we go next?" Aether asked as he chowed down onto some delicious ice cream, yes Aether bites his ice cream.

"Um.." Xiao looked around trying to think of something. "We can just walk around, if you'd like." Aether said happily.

"Alright, sure." Xiao replied, smiling as he watched Aether eat his ice cream happily.

They walked around together, Aether was finishing his ice cream. "Xiao! They have a ferris wheel over there!" Aether says enthusiastically pointing in the air where the ferris wheel was. Xiao looks at Aether, "Do you want to go there?"

"Can we?" Aether asks squealing,  even though his eyes are lit up, just by looking at his eyes Xiao could tell he wanted to go.

Xiao chuckles seeing how excited Aether was just talking about the ferris wheel, "Let's go then." he smiled. Aether quickly, wasting no time grabs Xiao's arm and starts running towards the way the ferris wheel was.

After running awhile they finally reach the front of an amusement park, "Woah! This is an amusement park!" Aether says looking around at all the people. Xiao stood there silently, also looking at all the people.

"Xiao? Are you alright?" Aether looks back at Xiao after realizing he had been silent for so long.  Xiao took a moment before saying, "Yea, there's just a lot of people.."

"Oh!" Aether looks around at all the people around them, "There is a lot of people isn't there?" Aether says, noticing how nervous Xiao was.

Aether stood in front of Xiao holding both of Xiao's hands, "We can go somewhere else! Somewhere with less people, if you'd like." Aether tells Xiao, trying to calm him down.

"No, it's alright.." Xiao says, but Aether could still tell that he was nervous.

"Let's go somewhere else for now! We can come back later when there's less people!" Aether says holding Xiao's hands, pulling Xiao away from the crowd.

"Hm.. where should we go now?" Aether asks, walking in front of still holding his hand and leading the way.

"I'm not sure." Xiao replied following Aether from behind. "Hm.. let's just keep walking around for a bit then." Aether tells Xiao glancing back at Xiao and smiling.

They continue walking around for a bit until they see a park in the distance. "Let's go there!" Aether says excitedly pointing at the park.

"Okay." Xiao answers back and they start walking towards the park.

As they enter the park Aether gets excited and started running towards the playground. Aether sat on a swing and waited for Xiao to catch up. When Xiao catches up to Aether at last, he takes a seat on the swing besides the one Aether was sitting on.

Aether giggles with joy, "I really like swings." he says to Xiao. Xiao couldn't help but smile back seeing how happy Aether was finally.

"Xiao! Let's swing and see who can go the highest!" Aether says.

Xiao stays silent for a moment staring at the ground before finally admitting he doesn't know how to swing.

Aether gasps in a joking way, "Really? How come?"

"I didn't really go to the park when I was younger." Xiao answered honestly. Aether thought for a second, "I can help you learn! It's really easy, I'll even push you to give you a head start."

Xiao was hesitant for a moment, not really wanting to since he didn't really care for trivial stuff like swinging, but was willing to try for Aether. "Alright then." Xiao nods accepting Aether's offer.

"Okay then!" Aether laughed hopping off the swing and standing behind Xiao ready to push him. "Are you ready? You just have to swing you legs back and forth."

Xiao nodded, signaling to Aether he was ready, but in fact he was nervous and hadn't a single clue on what to do.

Aether starts pushing Xiao but he barely moves an inch as he sat on the swing stiffly, "That's okay.. we can try again!" Aether says a bit embarrassed thinking it had been his own fault that Xiao barely moved.

"Alright." Xiao replies and Aether struggles trying to push Xiao again. This time Xiao tries to do what Aether said but failed.

They tried a couple more times before Aether got tired and decided on taking a break. "How about you watch me swing first?" Aether suggested after sitting on the swing beside Xiao's for a few minutes.

Xiao nods in agreement, "I probably should've showed you how in the beginning." Aether says feeling bad.

"It's fine, you did good." Xiao tells Aether.

"Okay! I'll show you now!" Aether says more determined.