Another day Another Love Story {Xiao x Aether}

>~1~<

Ground stuff to know before we start reading,

Bold is me, the writer talking

Italic is the character's thoughts

~~~~~~~~ Means a time skip/jump

Aether POV

Paimon and I have been with Albedo in DragonSpine for quite some time now.

"Hey, Albedo?" I asked while standing behind him. We were inside the dead body of a dragon, Durin's body I believe, around its still beating heart. I asked Albedo to come with me to this place Paimon and I found because whenever I get near it I feel... odd. Not myself, and I've told Albedo to be careful around me here because I once did black out and nearly hurt Paimon. She was scared of me for a few days, saying she never knew I could act like that. The things she doesn't know I can do.

"Yea?" He responded looking back at me while he was crouched down near the heart. Paimon flew closer to Albedo, which I told her to do if I started talking.

"Can I- can I leave this to you for now?" I asked my breathing getting short. He nodded and I started walking away.

"Aether!" Albedo yelled just as I left the body, I turned around. His face was too far for me to read, he signaled for me to walk back and I did.

I'm not going to no stop him from doing his science stuff.

Then he signaled for me to stop, then walk backward again. "What's this for?" I asked clearly annoyed. "Aether," He looked at me and then started walking towards me. "Whenever you are 10 meters away from the heart it just... well it stops beating!" He looked at me with a sparkle in his eyes. "And for some reason whenever you're near it you feel weak... Right?"

"Yea and I did once blackout and attacked Pimon!" I yelled. That's the only reason I asked Albedo for his help, if I'm losing hold of my sanity I need to know why and how.

"My hypothesis is that Durin is using your body as a vessel. We know Dragonspine is a bedground for crazy and unnatural things. Such as the woperflower, maybe this is... I wonder if it's attracted to you because you aren't from this world?" He thought for a moment.

"That or because I'm a killer," crap, I said that out loud. "I mean like, I've killed countless monsters. Do you think that's it?" I turned around to leave this red-soaked place, I couldn't breathe. Albedo and Paimon were following behind me, my eyes were focused on the ground. I turned around to look at my footprints, for some reason I had an urge. Then I looked to Albedo, and back to my prints. My prints were bloody red, I felt heat rush to my head then my chest down to my feet. "Crap," I said falling to my knees, then the top half of my body gave up on me and I fell into the snow...

"Aether!" Paimon flew over to me. "I'm fine.." I said pushing her away, "Aether" Albedo came over and helped me up, wrapping my arm over his neck.

"Sorry," I said as we started walking to his camp, "I just got light-headed all of a sudden." I could feel Albedo rub my knuckles with his thumb, like he does for Klee whenever she doesn't feel good. "Don't apologize."

I must have fallen asleep because we were at his camp and I was sitting in a chair, "Paimon can you get him some water." Albedo said once he noticed I was awake. I leaned forward and pinched my eyes groaning in the process. "Here," He handed me the cup of water, "Thanks," I said not drinking it. I can't, I held my head unable to muster another word.

"Are you in pain Aether? Drink the water." He said and I drank it, then I felt a pulse leave my body.

"AH!" I held my stomach.

Albedo POV

Aether fell to the floor. "Paimon!" I turned to look at her. "What did you give him?"

"W-water!" she floated away from me and to Aether who was on the ground in pain. I ran over to him and took his pulse, it's beating too fast. I turned around to my lab equipment, "Paimon come here! What did you give him!" She flew over to me and pointed to a glass of.... Oh no. I ran to Aether called my sword and slit Aether's wrists, blood was flowing out of him. "ALBEDO WHAT ARE YOU--!" she started pulling my hair. "PAIMON!" I yelled. Aether was calming down, his breathing evened. "I was working on something that could duplicate something, for example, if poured on a flower another would bloom next to it. However, Aether drank it, meaning his blood would multiply." I held him in my arms. Paimon flew over the poodle of blood, and cried, "Aether... Paimons sorry!"

BOOM BOOM words of loud noises

The camp was shaking, crap I forgot I also used (whatever that thing is that attracts monsters I swear in a world quest it was some kind of dust) in the mix. It's not like I can hide Aether he needs to bleed more, gods how much did he drink anyway? I picked up Aether's body and held it close to mine, I pushed Paimon behind me and dragged Aether to the back of my cave. I told Paimon to wait near him, I crept towards the opening, then I saw a group of Samachurls, Hilichurls, slimes, and 3 Mitachurls.

Wonderful I rolled my eyes.

Aether POV

I opened my eyes and saw myself laying in a pool of my own blood, "what the" I whispered. I felt the ground shake, I looked up and saw Albedo fighting, "Nuh" I tried to get up but my wrists were hurting. That's a lot of blood. Is that my blood? I looked around and saw Paimon looking at Albedo, he was outmatched. I managed to get to my feet but fell on my knee, and a Mitachurl saw me and started running towards me and Pimon. That's when I blacked out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I awoke standing over a Samachurls corps with the Festering Desire (the sword Albedo gave Aether in an update, 1.2?) stabbed through its mask. I was gasping for air, then I was smashed over all the bodies of the hilichurls. "Aether!" I heard Albedo yell, I landed next to him. "Ahh, what happened? Wha-" I looked at my wrists they've stopped bleeding but my head was pounding, a Mitachurl was charging towards us and Albedo used his vision to shield us. He was at his limit, what is going on, I could feel myself fading,

If you can not bring yourself to kill speak my name

"xiao" I said weakly, and with that his green smoke appeared. He looked around, probably trying to get a grasp on the situation, then in almost an instant, he took care of every monster in the way.

I felt him lift me up, "Paimon stay here, I will return. Aether needs medical help back at the Inn."

He teleported me to the Inns balcony, Xiao walked into a room and gently placed me in a bed.

He left and Verr came in and started to tend to my wounds on my wrist and side, I was scratched all over. Xiao left, probably back to Dragonspine.

This is a time skip -> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Verr left and it was just me and my thoughts. I didn't hurt anyone right? Gods why, why is this happening? I started to cry a little, then I felt a gush of wind. I sat up and looked to my right, it was Xiao and Paimon. I let out a relieved sigh when I saw Paimon. She flew towards me at super speed and hugged me as tight as she could. "Paimon was so worried!! Thank Celestia that you're ok!" I looked to Xiao who was watching us and mouthed 'thank you' to him and he nodded.

Paimon fell asleep in my arms and Xiao started walking towards us and sat in a chair by the bed "thanks for coming to our rescue." He nodded, started stroking the bandages on my wrists, and then told me what had happened. I was more focused on the warmth of his touch than on what he was saying. He noticed I wasn't listening, "Mortal bodies are fragile. Don't push yourself."

"Huh," I said, that came out of nowhere. "Albedo told me what happened with the thing you drank and what happened after." He stopped stroking my wrists, "you'll be good to go tomorrow." he said, then disappeared. I felt heat rush to my cheeks, but feeling the heat leave my wrists... I just want his touch...

Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be up soon. That is if I don't forget.