maid • kaeya

xxiv

• two months later •

• third person •

A eruption of laughter echoed through the hallway. "Go on and fuck your boyfriend, HAHAHAHA!"

"Oh fuck off!!" The man was shoved back. "Piece of shit!"

"Yeah yeah, let's not awaken the entire hotel," he slurred, pushing his friend back into the door. "Bye~!"

Leon groaned, his head hot as August ran off towards his own room. God, he had drank way too much; he was definitely about to get a scolding from Luca.

Leon pushed open the door, stumbling in with a small giggle. He lifted his head, expecting Luca to be fast asleep, just like he usually was at this time.

His eyes narrowed in the dark. And then, they widened, his body freezing.

Leon immediately went back out of the room. "August!" he yelled.

"Fuck off!" August replied, also drunk out of his wits. And then, he escaped to his room.

"Oh I'm gonna kill him," Leon huffed, shutting the door behind him. "Ugh..."

"They took her."

"No they didn't," Leon replied. "It was a nightmare. Go back to sleep." He collapsed onto the sofa, his head about to burst.

Luca began to scramble through the various sheets of paper on the desk, his breath heaving, repeating himself again, and again, and again.

"They took her. They took her! They've taken her!"

"What are you on about..?" Leon grunted. He was about to pass out and this guy just had to be spouting nonsense.

Leon glanced over to Luca in the dark.

It was only now he realised that he was... sobbing.

"Taken who?"

Finally, it seemed, Luca had found what he was looking for.

Leon squinted. It seemed to be about five different papers. Luca began to check them frantically, as if someone could have tampered with them or something.

"Luca," he called, standing. Leon attempted to approach him in his drunkenness and the pitch black night, trying his best to clear his mind when Luca's was clearly clouded. "Hey."

It reminds me of when his wife died. Leon's eyes narrowed.

"Wake up!" Leon exclaimed, grabbing his shoulders. "No one's been taken!"

Luca pushed him away, staring at the papers. "The words are gone. She's gone."

"You can't fucking read with no light, Luca. Who's gone?"

"My daughter," he cried, tears trickling down his cheeks as his voice cracked. "They took my daughter."

"Who did?"

"First they took the one who loved me most, now they took the one I love most. Just because she has my blood. How could they? Why do they hate me so much?"

Luca wept, hiding his face in his hands, his tears dripping between his fingers.

"I don't want to live like this. I can't live without my daughter. She's the only one I have left."

"Lucky she's still here then, isn't it," Leon commented. He grabbed a tissue, delicately wiping away the tears at Luca's soft face. "I've been telling you that we can't keep doing this. The negotiations aren't getting anywhere. We need to get rid of him now."