Chapter 5 - A Surprise Visit (TW; self-h*rm)

There was a buzz at Xiao's apartment entrance door, which startled him. He wasn't expecting anyone to come over, at least, not that he remembered. He stood up from his desk chair and walked out of his work room towards his front door. Not knowing who could be visiting him, he checked through the screen that connects to the camera in the lobby to see who wanted to be let into the building.

Shit!

Aether was standing at the door and he had something in his hand. Xiao stood there with his jaw slightly slacked, surprised. He promptly unlocked and opened his apartment door after buzzing the other man in. About a week had passed since they last saw each other, so it was a nice surprise. However, the timing was terrible.

Xiao couldn't help but admire the other once he reached his apartment door, there was a lump stuck in his throat. Aether was wearing an extremely light pink, oversized sweater that showed most of his collarbones with how wide the neck of it was, and, assumingly, very short shorts, the color unknown to Xiao. As well, he wore black and white sneakers.

"Heya!" Aether exclaims before continuing, "Sorry for stopping by without notice, but I was wondering if you were hungry at all? I made too much food and I'm not going to be able to eat it all by myself."

"Oh, um… now's not exactly the best time." Xiao stated, sounding worried for what seemed like no reason to the blonde.

"It'll only take like thirty minutes, I swear. So please?" Aether asks, making eyes almost like a puppy when they want whatever food you have with you. This made Xiao hesitate to answer. Finally, after a minute or so of thinking, he agreed to let the other in.

"I made steak with potatoes, carrots and green beans. Sounds appetizing, right?" The blonde half-exclaims at the end of what he said. He was moving towards the kitchen as he spoke. Once he reached his destination, he set the container of food onto the stove. As he turned to face Xiao, he noticed something he wished wasn't what he was thinking it was. There was a stream of blood running down the other mans' leg from beneath his loose fitting shorts. Xiao either didn't notice or pretended to not notice.

Aether spoke again, worry present in his voice, "Xiao… you're bleeding…".

"Shit." is all Xiao says as he hurries to the bathroom which is right down the hall from the kitchen. Aether followed him to see what happened.

His suspicions were confirmed.

There were at least two dozen cuts on his thigh where his shorts covered. Several of the cuts were oozing blood, the amount ranging from a little to a lot. Xiao began cleaning them with a rag that has hydrogen peroxide on it, Aether could tell from the smell and the fact there was a bottle on it on the counter. Aether, who's dad was a nurse and he had trained him in some medical stuff, pushed the man's hand away. Xiao gives him a confused look.

"Where are your wash rags?" The blonde asks as he gently grabs the wash rag that was in Xiao's hand and places it on the counter.

"In the closet behind the door." He answers, wondering what the other is going to do with the new rag he was retrieving.

He watched as Aether took the rag, closed the closet door, and ran the rag under warm water. He got on his knees in front of the other before speaking, "Can you hold your pants up, please?"

Xiao just nodded and did as he was asked to do. He hissed a bit as the rag pressed against the fresh cuts. The blonde's other hand moved behind Xiao's thigh to allow him to press on the cuts to stop the bleeding with more leverage.

"You're doing so good for me. I'm about halfway done." Aether praised, as he continued to work his way down Xiao's thigh, doing his damn best to clean every cut that was on the pale skin and stop any bleeding that was still happening.

"Why are you doing this?" Xiao asks curiously, balling his fists at the pain he felt.

"Because even though we haven't known each other that long, I still care about you as a friend. So why wouldn't I do this?" He answers the other's question as he continues to clean the wounds.

"I guess that makes sense. Though, why not use the hydrogen peroxide?" Xiao questions, taking glances at the man that was cleaning him up, watching what he was doing.

"Warm water is better for cleaning wounds, things like hydrogen peroxide are actually detrimental for a healing wound as it doesn't help with healing and rather prevents healing." Aether answers, still working at the wounds, he didn't have many left to clean. It wouldn't take long since none of them were actively bleeding anymore.

"Oh… I didn't know that. I'll have to remember that. If you don't mind me asking, how did you learn this?" Xiao hissed out when Aether accidentally dabbed a little too hard at one of the cuts.

"I don't mind at all! My dad is actually a nurse and he taught me a lot of the stuff he knows just in case of an emergency." Aether answered, eyes focused on the last two cuts he had to clean.

Xiao didn't say anything and just nodded to what the other said, finding it nice of the blonde's father to do that for his son.

"Finished! You did so good for me." Aether praised as he stood up from benign on his knees. The praise making the other's face blush slightly on his cheeks.

"Did you wanna go eat some food now?" The blonde asks, as he asked, a rumble could be heard from Xiao's stomach.

They begin making their way back to the kitchen, there's something almost awkward about the situation to the two of them, neither of them felt too uncomfortable from it though. Xiao had pulled out two plates from one of the cabinants. They both got something to drink as Aether plated and warmed up the food. Then they sat at the dining table and began eating. No words were really exchanged between them as they ate, they just sat there in silence.