Gehenna's Gate

Tenacity

Xiao's reaction had been about what Vena had expected. Every muscle in his entire body had visibly frozen, his face a mixture of disbelief at first until it quickly morphed into anger- pure unbridled hatred. The look in his eyes could kill, and Vena was thankful those emotions weren't directed at her.

While the man before her had only ever treated her with the outmost amount of tender love and care, she knew full well what he was capable of if he deemed it necessary. Previously, Xiao had wanted Damon dead just for laying a hand on Vena... if it was true that he or his father had something to do with the murder of Vena's father... Then hell would be something like a mercy to them compared to Xiao's wrath.

It was obvious he'd quickly buried the emotions deep below to deal with at another time, knowing Vena needed him right now and that his anger would get in the way of comforting her if he didn't suppress it for now, but oh, had his plans for Damon changed immensely in just a matter of seconds.

Death would be far too kind of a fate for Damon or his father.

Instead, Xiao urged the girl to come back to the apartment with him to get some much needed rest after the day she'd had, or she could tell him all about it instead if she wanted.

Once he'd unlocked the door so they could head back inside, Vena's lips parted to apologize for potentially scaring him earlier when he returned to find her missing, but the words fell dead off her tongue the moment her eyes focused on the dinner table.

Azure eyes widened, flicking back and forth to every single item that was laid out before her, her lips parted in disbelief as she went over to get a closer look.

In the middle was a large stuffed animal of a dog, it appeared to be a German Shepherd. It was surrounded by various other items- bags of her favorite candy, dill pickle chips, a tropical scented candle, a small black box, a few books stacked on top of each other, a fuzzy purple blanket, and a bottle of her favorite flavor of Mountain Dew.

She was so caught off guard by all the items that at first, she didn't even think to question how he'd managed to pick all of her favorite flavors, scents and colors. All she could manage was to spin around on her heels and stare him down for a few silent moments.

The man was stood a few feet away from her, simply leaning himself against the kitchen counter with his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants as he admired her adorable expression.

"I- w... what is all this?" Her mouth felt dry, guilt once again running through her veins at the realization that this probably wasn't all cheap either.

Receiving gifts was always something she struggled with. Even though it was a voluntary thing to do, she couldn't help but always feel undeserving of such love and care, such a pure gesture was wasted on her in her mind.

"Your favorites." It was obvious the man was working hard to suppress the grin cracking at the corners of his mouth, deciding to come over and join her instead.

Gently, he picked up the black box first, turning toward her before pulling the top open to unveil a slender silver bracelet that had a pendant of a crescent moon in the middle- one of her favorite things to doodle or draw. She'd always loved the moon and been fascinated by its quiet beauty.

"Xiao-" Tears stung at the corner of her eyes as she bit her lip, trying to hold the flood gates from breaking open, even if it was for a much happier reason than earlier.

The corner of his lip lifted, wasting little time in removing the jewelry from its container and gesturing for her to hold out her wrist so he could put it on for her.

"You really shouldn't have." Vena blinked rapidly a few times before frowning, successfully fighting back the tears this time although her voice did still shake ever so slightly.