𝚂𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙰𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 [𝚐.𝚒 𝚟𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚡 𝚐𝚗!𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛]

XIX

A halted knock to your door had you raising your eyes from the book you were focusing on, a page pinched between two fingers. Opening the door you saw Aether on the other side. Bruises were under his eyes signifying a lack of sleep and exhaustion looked like it was seeping into his bones. Paimon wasn’t floating beside him as usual, hovering like a mother hen and asking him to eat or sleep, much like Ariel does for you.

He hardly opened his mouth before you were shuffling him inside, pushing his shoulders till he fell back against your couch. He sighed as his bones popped.

“Rough week?” You plopped onto the spot next to him, placing your book on the coffee table in front of you.

Aether merely nodded, doing his best to sink further into your couch. You couldn’t doubt how comfortable it was after the long day it looks like he had, and it’s barely even noon.

You hummed. “Wanted a place to rest from the commission vultures?” Aether only nodded again while leaning his head against the back of the couch, letting his eyes drift shut. You chuckled and got up to go make the tired boy some tea. “Yeah I feel ya. It seems like the same lady needs the same things delivered everyday ya know?”

You make the tea in silence, the only sounds being the clinking of glassware and Aether’s soft breaths as he finally relaxed. You shuffled back over with the mug of calming tea placing it in Aether’s waiting hands. He looked at you gratefully and you nodded before sitting down next to him again. “You can always run away here if you need to get away alright? I won’t bother you unless ya want me too. Mkay?”

Aether nodded, taking small sips of the hot tea so he wouldn’t burn his tongue. Seeing as there would be no more conversation, you curled into the couch and picked up your book once more, thumbing to the page you left off on.

The two of you sat in silence while Aether finished his tea, and when he did you stiffened up in shock. He leaned into you, leaning his head on your shoulder, practically in the crook of your neck, and curled in your side. Hesitantly you wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer and hugging him loosely.

“Anything you wanna talk about, kid, or no?” You mumbled to not disturb the peaceful atmosphere. Aether didn’t answer for a while and you took that as a ‘no’, going back to your book.

“I’m tired.” It was a whisper, one you almost didn’t catch.

“I’d imagine so.”

“I just want my sister back. I just want to leave.” He shuffled closer to you and you hugged him tighter.

You rubbed a hand up and down his back in soothing motions. “I know, kid.”

Silent tears gathered in the crook of your neck but you paid it no mind. At the point in the game you were at, Aether already went through three nations of unnecessary bullshit only to find out nothing about his sister. Even though you gave him the option to help this time, and did your best to give him all the canon information you could (not messing it up with any fan theories), you still felt bad he had to deal with Mond’s issues.

The poor boy went through so much and all he wants to do is find his sister and dip. Of course it wasn’t so simple on his sister’s side, and you were sure the pain of losing her home in Teyvat was extraordinarily damaging, but you could help but feel bad for the person in your arms doing his best to silence his sobs with no idea what's going on.

You wish you could tell him more, but you just didn’t know and that hurt quite a bit.

“Everything hurts.” You snapped from your thoughts when he choked out a whisper, sniffling as heavy tears rolled down his youthful face.