Chapter 3 - Getting to Know Each Other

It was early in the morning, around seven, when Aether wanted to call suddenly. The two of them had been texting for about only a week, and this would be their first ever call. Despite being somewhat reluctant, Xiao still decided to go with it.

"Wanna play a game?" Aether asks almost immediately after the call went through.

His voice had somewhat taken the other off guard. He wasn't expecting the other to have something to do while they were on call. More importantly he wasn't expecting that to be the first thing out of the other's mouth.

"What type of game?" Xiao questions, curious as to what game the other had in mind.

"One sec! Let me find it!" The blonde exclaims, answering the other as he begins searching though his camera roll for the photo he has of it.

Moments later, a message popped up on Xiao's phone screen that was from the man he was talking to. It was a photo of some sort of number game, it was numbered one through one hundred forty-six and next to each number was a question. There was a wide variety of topics for the questions, for example, 'The Basics' or 'Hobbies/Favorite Things'.

Xiao briefly looked over the questions that were in the photo. He noticed there were two sections that he thought would be off limits, 'Sex & Sexuality' and 'Sexual'.

"So, you wanna play? Of course, if you don't, that's okay too!" Aether states, sounding slightly nervous.

"Yeah, sure. It seems interesting." Xiao responds, putting the phone call on speaker via his end so he could both talk to the other and look at the photo.

"Yay! Do you wanna go first?" The blonde asks, doing the same as Xiao without knowing it.

"Sure, I can. Um, number three." Xiao agrees, giving a question number for Aether to answer.

"Three? I think I'm about five foot four inches! Um, seventy-eight!" Aether exclaimes, excitement clearly showing in his voice.

"I'm bi, actually. Ten." Xiao states.

"That's cool! My birthday is February eighteenth. Anyways, just curious, but seventy-nine!" Aether

"I'm single. Fourteen." Xiao gulpes before answering, it wasn't necessarily an intimate question, but it was definitely a more personal one.

"I like going to clubs, though I also like playing video games. Six!" Aether said enthusiastically.

"I believe I'm an Aries. One." Xiao states.

"I'm twenty! Hmm, same question!" Aether

"I'm twenty-two. Eleven." Xiao bluntly states, as he has so far during the call. His voice never wavered once as of now.

"I only know English sadly, but I want to learn Japanese! Number eleven too!" Aether explained.

"My first language is English, but I'm also fluent in Chinese. Six." Xiao told the other.

"That's so cool! I'm an Aquarius! You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but eighty-nine." Aether asks nervously, worried that he might make Xiao too uncomfortable.

"No, I'm not a virgin. Same question I suppose." Xiao answers honestly despite being taken aback by the question. He wasn't expecting to be asked something like that by an almost stranger.

"I'm not either! Eighty-four." Aether responds.

"Somewhere quiet, where it's just the two of us alone together. There we just spend time enjoying each other's company. That would be my ideal date. Twenty-eight." Xiao explains, reminiscing on imagining him and his future partner on the date of his dreams.

"Aww! That sounds really nice! Uhm, I would have to say this one moment from my childhood before my parents started acting weirdly towards me. Basically, we were playing in a park by our house at the time just enjoying each other's company. Just me, my sister, my mom and my dad. Twenty-eight." Aether responds, missing the time when he was little before things changed.

"Uhm, when I was finally able to move out of my parents' place." Xiao states, not giving more information than needed to try and not bring back the painful memories.

"Because of the new freedom?" Aether guessed, curious as to why that was his most fond moment.

"Not really, my parents weren't the greatest people in the world, so being able to leave them behind was nice." Xiao confesses to the other, sighing slightly after he finished his statement.

"That makes sense. I'm sorry about your parents though. I can't imagine what you must have gone through." Aether tries to console the other, offering words of, hopefully, comfort.

"It's not your fault, you didn't do anything wrong." Xiao began, wanting to add more to what he said but was cut off before he could.

"Well, I know that, but still it's terrible to have to deal with." Aether offered, yawning after finishing his sentence.

"It's whatever. It's not like it's the end of the world. Thirteen." Xiao states

"Uhm, I really like egg noodles with butter and parmesan cheese. One-hundred eight." Aether answers.

"Confidence I would say is a turn on for me. I don't really know what would be a turn off." Xiao replies to the question.

"Confidence? That's interesting! It's your turn!" Aether exclaims.

"Number eighteen." Xiao told the other.

"Probably 'Crazy Stupid Love'. Same question!" Aether answered.

"Hmm… probably 'Train to Busan'." Xiao stated.

"Ooh! I've not seen it yet! Is it good?" Aether asks, curiosity in his voice.

"Yeah, it is. Maybe we could watch it together at some point if you want." Xiao offered to the other.

"Yeah! That sounds like fun! It's your turn!" Aether smiles despite knowing the other wouldn't see it.

"Uhm… eighty-three." Xiao asks.

"Someone sweet and caring. Does his best to meet my needs and I would do the same for him. Someone who will reassure me when I get anxious about something. I also want someone that's overall caring but treats me rough when we're in bed. Just stuff like that, ya know? Eighty-five!" Aether explained his idea type.

Once again, Xiao was taken aback by what the other was saying. He still didn't understand how he could be so open about sexual stuff and things like that. Sure he was asking most of the same questions, but that was only because the other was asking him first.

"That's sweet, and yeah, I have. Uhm, seventy-nine." Xiao comments on the others' ideal type.

"I'm single! Eighty-seven!" Aether admitted almost excitedly.

"Mmm, not as of now. Ninety-one." Xiao answers whether he has any romantic interest in someone else.

"No, sadly, but there's a couple piercings I want! I want a tongue piercing and a septum too! Eighty-three!" Aether exclaimed, yawning again. He wasn't necessarily tired, but he kept yawning for some reason.

"Someone similar to what you said, just not with the dominant part. Eighty-seven." Xiao replies.

"Hmm, not really. Well, there is someone, I met them at a nightclub a few days ago; though I doubt I'll see him again, I didn't even get his number. Anyways, number ninety-one!" Aether sighs, annoyed at the fact he didn't get the mans' number.

"I have a few tattoos on my arms and front, they're hard to explain how they look though. Basically they're green and somewhat look like clouds with a few points around the edges. You would have to see photos of them or see them in person for the description to truly make sense. I don't have any piercings though. I suppose number twenty-three." Xiao asks.

"Yeah! I'm a phlebotomist at a plasma donation center, so I basically work with machines and people's blood! Same question!" Aether explains.

"Yes, I do. I'm a police officer actually. Number twenty-seven." Xiao

"Yeah! I have a cat named Paimon! She's annoying at times, but very sweet." Aether smiles at the thought of his precious cat.

"How cute." Xiao thought out loud, not even realizing it.

"Twenty-seven too!" Aether exclaims.

"No, but I've always wanted a cat though." Xiao deadpanned to the other.

"Awe, well hopefully you can get one!" Aether hoped for the other.

"I do have a question though, not related to the game. Earlier you mentioned your parents started to treat you differently, I was wondering if you knew why at all? Of course if you don't want to tell me that's okay too." Xiao inquires, curious as to what Aether had meant by what he said.

"I don't mind! They never really gave me an answer as to why, but they just said that I had changed. It started happening when I was maybe ten. They were very nurturing towards me, but then they gradually stopped asking about things like my day as if they didn't care about me. They still fed me and housed me, but it just seemed as if it was more like a chore for them and they didn't really care about me. At least that's how it seemed to me." Aether describes the situation about his relationship with his parents and how they changed towards him.

"That's awful, I'm sorry you had to go through that. If I might ask, how did you change, do you know?" Xiao asks.

"I'm not really sure. I had overheard something about becoming more shallow and having mood swings. At that age I believe I became more flirtatious as well. There were a few other things but I can't think of them now." Aether half ranted about the situation.

"Do you know of anything that could have caused the change?" Xiao inquires.

"Hmm… not off the top of my head. I never really had any trauma so i don't think it was that. Otherwise I'm not sure honestly." Aether answers.

"I'm sorry you had to deal with that though. I can't imagine what you must have gone through." Xiao consoles almost, compassionate with what Aether must have gone through.

"It's not your fault! Anyways, I think it's your turn!" Aether exclaims again, a small smile on his face with the fact the other was curious about things that happened in his life despite not usually asking about things like that.

"Uhm, I think I've asked mostly all the questions that I feel comfortable asking, do you happen to have a different one we could use?" Xiao asks, slightly uncomfortable at the thought that the other didn't have another one they could use and they would have to continue using the current one.

"Oh, yeah! One second, let me find it real quick!" Aether

Moments later a message popped up on Xiao's screen from Aether, it was another picture message. It looked similar to the last one except there were more categories to choose from. Scanning over it, some of the questions were the same, but there were definitely more questions to choose from in the categories that were previously there, for the most part at least.

"Does this look good?" Aether asks, wanting to make sure Xiao was okay with it.

"Yeah, my turn, right?" Xiao half guesses, making sure it was his turn to ask.

"Yep!" Aether exclaims again, excited that the other wants to continue the game they were playing.

"Hmm… I just realized I don't even know what you look like, so one-hundred eighty-six." Xiao told the other, both nervous and excited to see what the other man looked like.

"Okay! One sec!" Aether exclaims again, beginning to search through his camera roll to find one of his favorite photos of himself. Sadly, he didn't find it in the thousands of photos he had saved on his phone, so, he decided to just take a photo of himself rather than waste his and Xiao's time searching for the photo.

Just as Aether said, a second later a picture message popped up on Xiaos' phone screen as a notification. The photo was of a beautiful blonde man who has gorgeous golden yellow eyes. His face wasn't thin but it also wasn't chubby, it was somewhere in between the two. The photo was taken from an upward angle, so he could see the blonde's long hair that was seemingly put into a braid. Xiao just kind of stared in disbelief that he was talking to such a good-looking person and that someone as nice as Aether wanted to be his friend.

"You okay? You haven't said anything in a hot sec." Aether inquires, worried that the other man thinks he's unattractive or something along those lines.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. You're really good looking by the way. It's your turn now." Xiao complimented the other, genuinely meaning what he was saying.

"Thank you! I guess the same question! I'm quite curious as to what you look like too!" Aether exclaimes, curiosity could be heard in his voice.

"Let me take a photo real quick." Xiao said as he went to the camera app on his phone. He decided to take a photo from a similar angle to the photo that the blonde had just sent him of himself. From the angle you could barely see that his hair was shorter in the back but you could see his longer bang-like pieces of hair in the front, some of the hair in the front was a darker green and other parts of it were a more teal color. Once he was satisfied with the photo, he sent it to Aether, who immediately gave him a reaction of a seemingly shocked coughing fit.

"Holy shit, you're handsome as fuck!" Aether chokes out between coughs.

"Oh, um, thank you." Xiao barely managed to get out, a blush growing on his face since he wasn't used to compliments like that.

"Like- damn, Dude. Anyways, it's your turn now!" Aether excitedly said, an unknowing blush creeping on his face as well at the attractiveness of the other man.

"One-hundred thirteen." Xiao inquires, shifting a little where he was seated at on the couch.

"I prefer comedy more than horror, honestly. Twenty!" Aether answers, there was a smile on his face unbeknownst to Xiao. He really enjoyed calling the other. He thought Xiao had a nice voice that was very calming in a way. It was more on the deeper side and a bit raspy, but he felt like it suited him.

"I quite enjoy doing Mixed Martial Arts in my free time occasionally." Xiao responds, admittedly, he was becoming slightly bored, though he figured the other was enjoying this game sort of thing, so he decided to say nothing about it.

The game continued on for another two hours or so. They had to change their reference for questions a few more times due to the fact that they were running out of questions they were comfortable with asking the other.