Gehenna's Gate

Aqua Regia

"Are you sure you're ready for this? There's no need to rush." Xiao's low voice reached the girl's ears, smooth like velvet across the air.

"I'm fine." Vena faked a smile, fingers still delicately trying to pick off the remnants of dry make up from her face so she could wash it.

"Vena." Footsteps approached from behind her, her name called out almost as a warning, that he knew better.

"I'm okay," She stressed the word, finally removing the last bit of mascara from her eyelashes as she went to drench a hand towel in water to wash her face.

"The pain's better than it was earlier, Kokomi gave me more medicine, remember? I need to know what's going on."

Xiao leaned against the wall beside her, arms crossed over his chest as a dark eyebrow raised, his eyes half-lidded, clearly unamused.

"I meant your mental... You technically died, Vena... You can take a step back from all this and let us handle it, you know?" Xiao urged, wanting the girl to rest and not worry about things she wasn't ready to handle yet.

No, I'm done being the damsel in distress.

Vena proceeded to wash her face, enjoying how nice the warm water felt against her skin, cleaning off all the left over makeup, blood and tears from the previous night's ordeal.

Not that he was wrong, anyway. She had been almost murdered by two different people, after finding out a whole other supernatural world lurks in the shadows alongside her own, and that she wasn't even fully human as the cherry on top. Not to mention, who knows what else possibly exists or what this all means for her. To say she was running on fumes would be an understatement, but she wasn't going to back down anymore. She'd hidden herself away from everything she'd considered too difficult to handle for far too long. It was time to start facing it all head on.

"I'm stronger than you think." Vena turned around to give him a reassuring smile after she'd finished drying her face.

"I don't doubt that for a second, gorgeous." Xiao returned the sentiment, although his eyes lingered on her visible bandages and wounds for a moment after.

Vena's face lit up a bit at the pet name, swiftly making her way toward the door to leave, hoping to hide her growing blush.

Feeling a little bold, the girl slid her hand into Xiao's as she passed him, gently pulling him along with her out the door as they headed back to the main room where everyone was waiting.

The man simply made a soft yet amused sounding noise, allowing himself to be tugged along by her wherever she wanted to go.

Vena pushed through the door, her step faltering a tad once she'd quickly realized the various different down and worried faces scattering the room, also noting how quiet everyone was.

"We're just waiting on Miss Ei." Mona was the first to speak.

Vena slid into a spot on one of the couches, Xiao following to sit beside her as he nodded his acknowledgment at Mona.

There was an obvious white-haired elephant in the room, yet Vena seemed determined to keep her gaze centered on the door, still unsure how she felt.

Scaramouche was looking particularly annoyed today, while Mona almost just seemed sad and uneasy sitting next to him.

It was clear the tension was high and everyone was feeling some form of discomfort.