The Flame That Burns Eternal (xiao x female yaksha reader)

~CHAPTER 7-Stolen Touches~

"Hey... hey, stay awake, okay?" Xiao says as he throws his spear to the side and drops to the ground beside me. At least, I think it's him. My vision is blurry and I feel on the verge of passing out. But I'm confident I could recognize him anywhere. However, in the far recesses of my brain I notice there's no more shooting pain up my back. I see Xiao slip on his mask, wincing slightly. I stretch to reach for mine, which fell on the ground a few feet away, twitching in pain. Xiao notices and grabs it off the ground, hooking it to his waist. I feel my eyes start to droop as my cheadache becomes worse.
The world is a blurry haze, as Xiao comes and kneels beside me.
"I'm gonna take you back to your domain, okay? Karmic energy can't get in there."
He slowly slides one arm under my legs and another under my shoulders, just above the wounds, which are covered in leaves and ground muck now.
As he lifts me off the ground, I flinch as the skin on my back stretches.
"Sorry." He murmurs, his mouth right next to me ear.
I feel a blush creeping onto my cheeks and scold myself internally. If Bonanus and Menogias were here, I would never hear the end of this.

We teleport to the domain, and Xiao looks around the empty cave.
"Do you not have anything in here?" He asks, his voice gentle still, as he eyes the vines hanging from the stalactites.
"No." I rasp, laughing and wincing as it sends pain shooting down my back.
He sighs and nods, his hair brushing my cheek as he gently lowers to me the ground.
I settle onto the cold floor, my chin on my knees as my eyes track Xiao as he glides across the cave, to a bundle of something I didn't even notice in the corner.
"I think this is the herbs and bandages." Xiao says, his voice echoing through the cave. As he turns around, I notice the red staining his shirt and smeared on his arms and gasp.
"Was that from me?"
He looks down and nods.
"I'll have to wash it off later."
I shrug, glancing behind me as he lowers himself to the floor with the bandages.
"I can do it." I say, holding my hand out for the bandages.
He scoffs.
"On your back? By yourself?" He pushes my hand away and I hear him rip open the package.
It wasn't like we hadn't done this before. You don't get enslaved together or go through the Archon War without it. But for some reason this time, I couldn't quite place what is was, but it felt different.
I force myself to hold still, hands digging into my calves, as he uses a cold wet cloth to wipe the blood and the forest rot off of the wounds.
"Is the karmic stuff gone?" I whisper, feeling that talking too loudly would be inappropriate.
"I think so." He says.
"I think having you here helped it in a way." I realize how that sounds and scramble on. "Because like- it stopped hurting when you came."
I feel his hands freeze lightly above my back before continuing.
"I'm glad." Is all he says

I want to bang my head against the wall, but somehow find the strength to refrain from doing so.
A bloody rag lands next to me with a loud wet flop.
"I think you're done." I hear him say, as he spreads some cool paste on the gashes and layers some bandages on top.
"Is that all?" I feel him trail a hand lightly down each of my; our; matching scars down my shoulder blades and force myself to step away and turn around.
"I think so, thank you." I say, rolling my shoulders back as I try to meet his eyes.
His eyes are on my neck, his brow furrowed.
"No it's not." He gestures to the lesion on the right side of my neck.
"I was gonna get that, it's fine Xiao." I brush my hair in front of it, and take another step backward.
"It's right by your jugular."
I sigh. I can see he's not gonna let it go.
"Fine." I say. "Can we at least make it a little more comfy here though?"
"It's your abode." He says, sitting on the ground and gesturing for me to sit beside him.

Fair point.

I close my eyes and furrow my brow, feeling moss sprout up beneath my feet. When I open my eyes, its covered the entirety of the cave floor, making a sufficient cushion.
"Neat trick." Xiao comments, looking throughly unimpressed.
I settle next to him, watching out of the corner of my eye as he dips a cloth in a bowl of water.
I involuntarily crane my neck away from him as he reaches out, and he glares.
"Stop moving."
"You're the one who made me stay."
He sighs and brushes my hair away, dipping the cloth again. I flinch when he dabs at the cut, flinching into his hand.
"You're getting blood in your hair, stay still." He sounds a bit exasperated now.
After I do this for the third time, he threads a hand into my hair, forcing my head to the side and to stay still.
I breathe shakily and he pauses.
"Am I hurting you?"
"No." The breath had nothing to do with pain and everything with the fact his hand is currently intertwined in my hair. And the fact that I can feel his steady breathing on my neck.

A few agonizing minutes, which felt like hours, later, he sits back on his heels and untangles his hand from my hair.

"Done." He says.

"Had that thing got you any closer to your jugular,I don't know if you would have been okay. See how close it was?" He traces where the vein would be and I feel heat creep up the back of my neck.
I have no clue what he is doing. The flirting for fun is supposed to be my thing, and also I've never known Xiao to be this touchy, ever.

"Thank you, again Xiao." I say, scrambling to get the red off my cheeks and a respectable distance between us. No matter how well we knew each other, I needed to maintain the distance between us. My lapses of judgements tonight, near death or not, would not be tolerated by me anymore.

I fling my hands out and cast some glowy lanterns around the domain, before curling up against a wall to try to get some rest, sleep or no. Xiao nods curtly and goes to leave, since its nighttime.

Despite my reservations, he has been incredibly kind and helpful in treating my injuries. I can't send him out into the cold night alone, after all, he is my best friend. And I want to spend as much time with him as possible, as a way of trying to atone for the 2,000 years of suffering I had caused him in my absence. I just will not allow anymore touching between us. Not necessarily NO touching, but no gentle, cut the tension with a knife touches like earlier. Even as all these thoughts run through my head, I find myself saying,

"Xiao, stay."

WOOOOOO HOOOO 1235 WORDS BABY!! I fed the simps well I hope. Next chapter out soon ;)