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

XX

Aether stirred awake in a place he was not familiar with. He was on a couch, not the scratchy inn sheets, and he was surrounded by warmth and home, not the stale air he normally woke up too, when he could get proper sleep at all. When he tried to sit up, he felt achy, his joints creaking in ways that made him groan.

But other than that, he found himself feeling more refreshed than he had in a while. He felt clear and clean, a strange sensation but that’s the only way he could describe it as. His hair was in tangled knots when he tried to run his hand through it and the sun peeked through the blinds of the window to light up the room in a soft orange glow.

It was then that the memories of everything that happened yesterday had rushed back to him. How exhausted he was, how Paimon tried to help but the more she talked and pestered, the more her voice and enter being began to grate on his every nerve. He remembers how he snapped and after seeing her crestfallen face he suddenly felt like crying. He told her to stay with Amber, that he needed a minute, and he tried to say it in the softest way possible but based on his little fairy’s expression, she was still sad.

He remembers how his heart began to burn with so many emotions he couldn’t identify all of them and he remembers the strange sensations roaming his body, but most particularly the agonizing pains in his back.

He remembers running away hoping to find someone to help him. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t really like feeling like shit, but the only person he thought to go to was you. You had helped him, told him things nobody else could, smiled at him like nobody else had. You ruffled his hair and swung your arm around his shoulders and laughed with him, so, so similar to Lumine.

It was most definitely unfair for him to think like this. You were not Lumine and it was terrible to treat you as such, like a replacement for someone you were never trying to replace, but right now, all he wanted was a touch of that same warmth that she held, that you held.

It was how he ended up knocking on your door. You took care of him, gave him good food, let him sleep in silence. He didn’t have to worry about his sister while still feeling her presence, he didn’t have to worry about feeding Paimon, knowing she was okay. For the first time since he first awoke in this world, he felt his muscles relax as he leaned against your leg, his feet stretching out along the couch to get comfortable in a way that he just couldn’t in the inn.

Now that he was awake, his head was clearer than it was yesterday, and because of that, the guilt of using you so disgustingly came back to him. After you told him he could always come to you, he still thought to think of you as his sister, as someone to give him that same comfort.

He hardly noticed when the guilty tears slid down his cheeks, blurring his eyes. He simply sat on that couch, staring, lost in thought.

That was how you had found him. You walked in, hair a mess and sleep clothes rumpled. He looked at you and horribly enough, felt that feeling well up inside of him when you rushed over, pushing his messy hair away from his face and cradling his cheeks gently as you wiped away his tears. The same thing he felt when you ran your fingers through his hair or set down that bowl of soup, or when you ushered him to the bathroom to get clean.

The warmth soon turned to a burning, swirling inside his chest with his guilt and sorrow. It was an ugly, disgusting feeling that he wished he could rip from his chest, but all he could do was cry harder. You didn’t hesitate to bring him to your chest, humming something over and over that he couldn’t identify. You stroked a hand up and down his back, an arm around his shoulders to hold him to you. He leaned his head on your shoulder, remembering the breathing you had him do yesterday to calm down.

When he pulled away after his breathing had calmed, your eyes flit around his face with worry. A hand still resting on his arm.

“I’m okay.” He mumbled. He noticed a shine in your eyes, like you were relieved that he even spoke.