She could sense tension rippling in his body. His grip had tightened against hers, though he didn’t hurt her. Anguish, there was so much anguish on his face as he spoke:

"He burnt her wings, so she would never be able to return to her home planet." Aselia gasped at his words and placed her other hand on his arm and lightly rubbed. She wanted to ease the pain he felt, even a little bit. He continued:

"And I am sure I am a product of r*pe because she wouldn’t go to him willingly." He closed his eyes, trying to hide his tormented soul from her. Aselia’s already wounded heart melted at his words and she placed her hand on his face, reassuring him she was there to split that pain with him.

He gradually opened his eyes and shifted them to focus on Aselia, hers held as much sadness as his. She then said: "Xiran, don’t let things you had no control over drown you in guilt. And I am sure you are nothing like your father."

"I am not so sure about that. I have too much of his anger inside me. I am still part of him and I detest that with every fibre of my being." He spat those words with disgust evident on his face, his eyes reflecting the hatred he held for his father.

"We all have demons and flaws inside us. Don’t let one fault overshadow your goodness. And believe me, you have a lot of it inside you." She smiled reassuringly at him, and his anguish dissipated at her smile. He averted his gaze and continued:

"What I really wanted to tell you was, my mother was the embodiment of kindness and purity. My father dimmed her light with his constant torture and abuse. She stayed with him for us, for her children. She wanted to shield us from him and in return, I couldn’t protect her. She died for she couldn’t take that suffering anymore, she lost hope. And I was too weak to save her from his clutches so I ended up losing her." His voice had become heavy with emotions and as he shifted his gaze on her she could see tears shimmering in his beautiful eyes.

"I can’t lose you too. I couldn’t protect her but let me protect you. I am not that weak anymore and I am certainly not a child. So let me be there for you to share your sufferings, pain, agony, misery, grief, heartaches, or whatever it is that you feel. Don’t shut me out. That much I request of you." A lonely tear slid down his cheek and mixed with her blood. It seemed like a bullet had pierced her heart. She wiped it with her shaky hand. His lips quivered and he felt he was choking on his emotions.

"Don’t cry, don’t make me more guilty than I already am." She propped herself on her knees and hugged him, he buried his head in her belly and hugged her back as if his life depended on it.

"I am sorry you had to go through this." She whispered to him stroking his hair, trying to calm him down. For she had realized he was as broken as she was. To witness his mother going through abuse at the hands of his father, was no joke. She now understood why his brother was abusive to women as well.

"Did he hurt you too?" She asked him softly. This was something he only talked to Rivan with. The fact he was sharing his deepest darkest secrets with her indicated the level of trust he was placing in her.

She cupped his face and raised his head so he would look at her, his arms still wrapped around her waist. His eyes swirled with emotions he could no longer hide from her. His vulnerability which he revealed to no one and his burdens which he carried alone. She could see them all, today.

"Tell me," she asked again, although she already knew the answer to that.

"Yes!" she trembled at his answer, not from fear but from the wave of hatred that surged through her. And in that instant, she decided not only was she going to kill his brother, but she was also going to kill his father as well. The world would be a better place with these monsters gone. Along with the Phantom, his father had made it to the top of her kill list.

She pressed her lips to his forehead and hugged him again. How she wished to take away those torturous memories from him, only if something like that existed. She had no clue how close she was to someone who could actually do that. And how many dilemmas he had faced to take away her memories of that incident involving his brother.

"Where? Where did he hurt you?" His whole body stiffened at her question and he clutched her shirt tightly. No words came out of his mouth, there was an emotional blockage. He had never spoken about it with anyone, Rivan knew for he had seen it. And, Aselia wanted to know so she could inflict the same torture on his father, one day.

"Let’s not talk about this anymore. What he did to me is not relevant anymore." He finally spoke after a long time. His voice was shaky.

"It’s relevant for me, it’s more than relevant. But I won’t press you if you are not comfortable." Her heart ached and she knew she could never hate him, not now, not anymore, not ever.

He didn’t speak and only revelled in the comfort she provided by being this close to him.

"You should sleep," she said, warmly.

"Stay with me," he whispered back not letting her go.

"I will, lie down." He lay down on the bed and cradled her in his arms and legs. Engulfing her, taking in her sweet fragrance. She nuzzled in his chest and traced his back with her fingers. So he would relax a bit, his body was still tensed, too tensed.

She glanced at him after a few minutes and he was already asleep. She traced his handsome face with her fingers, his face was calm almost serene now. Although she didn’t understand how she will betray him and leave him when the time will come.

She still felt strange in herself, disgusted too, for not hating him. Instead, she felt like protecting him. He was her organisation’s enemy, he had killed her comrade and yet she felt no hate for him.

’What have you done to me? Xiran. What am I going to do about you?’ She whispered to herself her hands caressing his face. Traces of her blood were still on his face. She stared at him with longing in her eyes, drinking in his charisma.

After an hour she decided to get up and take a bath. She carefully slipped away from his arms, covering him with a blanket. She went upstairs, showered, and changed into fresh clothes.

Feeling relaxed she headed downstairs and checked on him. He was still sleeping, peacefully. There was a huge bookshelf in his room. So she began to check the books. A few of her favourite books were there as well. She grabbed three and took them out to the living room. As she sat down to read, her stomach grumbled loudly. Indicating she hadn’t eaten anything.

She decided to salvage the fridge and found the ice creams they had brought but never got around to eating. She took out one and grabbed a spoon from the kitchen before settling back on the sofa with her book and ice cream.

Two hours passed like this and she felt hungry again. The ice cream didn’t fill her tummy. She decided to cook breakfast.

Now, that would be a real challenge for her. For once she has zero cooking skills. Secondly, she had hurt her hands and were bandaged. But she wanted to try. Having no proper home or anyone to teach her, she never learnt how to cook. Especially at headquarters, all she did was a train or was sent away on missions. She barely had time to even eat properly.

But she had to try, at least now she knew sausages didn’t take 30 minutes to saute. And she had seen Xiran make breakfast. She took out sausages and bread from the fridge and heated them to the best of her knowledge. They didn’t look that bad once she was done with them. At least they weren’t burnt. She placed them on different plates and served them with the white sauce she found in the fridge.

After that, she prepared some cranberry juice and took out a bottle of blood Carios had left in the mini-fridge. There were two refrigerators in the kitchen, the small one was entirely for blood storage. While the larger one was for other food items.

She arranged everything neatly in a tray and decided to take it to Xiran. Hoping he won’t have a heart attack, learning she cooked him breakfast again...