Chapter Text
Sun was starting to go down when Lumine finally pushed the door to her apartment, dropped grocery bags on the floor, and took off her shoes and coat. It was no surprise to her when, on her way to the kitchen to put away what she just bought, she entered the living room and saw it empty again. At this point, she was starting to wonder if she wasn’t just imagining her ghostly roommate. What a peculiar situation, she had to admit.
Months ago, she was desperately searching for an apartment that was within range of her budget and would accept her application, and she almost gave up. It was then she found this strange offer. A co-living offer, good location regarding her work, quite a spacious apartment and mostly cheap renting cost in exchange of a single task: keep the apartment clean.
The girl thought at first it was a weird scam, but still curiosity got the best of her. Why would this person would make such an offer when they could very well hire a housemaid to do the job more efficiently? It’s with a slight mistrust she contacted the man in question.
His name was Xiao, and he was apparently a doctor working in the nearby hospital. Lumine would probably always remember this calm and deep voice, its sounded sweeter than any other she heard before. The man on the other end of the line replied to all of her questions without the slightest hesitation and explained the situation.
He said he bought this apartment not too long ago, but because of his profession he was unable to take care of it. He obviously thought of hiring someone to do the job at first, but changed his mind. Since he was barely there, he might as well let someone live in there with him. He didn’t care to make profit out of it, and chose to rent it cheaper due to his only need. It looked too good to be true, but somehow her instincts told her to still go for it.
A small sigh escaped her lips at the thought of it. Lumine was indeed glad she followed her gut; the place was nice to live in, not too annoying to keep clean, and she didn’t have to worry about not getting along with Xiao. But this had to be the only negative side of it.
He wasn’t lying he said he was barely living there; it was even a wonder why he would buy an apartment if he was so married to his job. But somehow, she hoped she would get to know more about this man, hoped she would have a tiny bit of company from time to time. Sometimes she felt cold, thinking about how she was supposed to share this place with someone just to be met with loneliness.
This nice and spacious apartment that was looking so welcoming was losing its color and warmth. Somehow Lumine didn’t even feel in her own home, a place she was just staying in because it was convenient and nothing more. A place she didn’t dare to touch, to fit to her taste; it felt wrong to do so. A place she didn’t really belong in. She couldn’t call it a home. She was just here to look after it and nothing more, she realised. Though, she was even starting to doubt if she was really doing it properly. The man was silent, never saying anything in the rare times he was there. Never showing any kind of appreciation, if it was meeting his expectations and such. His gaze only looking cold and distant.
Another sigh. Lumine felt tired, so so tired. Her mind spiralling down in dark places she would normally try to lock away. Maybe it was just the exhaustion after a long day, maybe it was because of a slight cold she was starting to feel. Yet she couldn’t keep this negative thoughts at bay; some days it was too strong to fight against. Her own insecurities eating at her in the slight cracks they could get.
A shiver ran though her body, her muscles starting to ache. The girl had barely finished putting away everything and she felt like her whole body was screaming to rest. With how her mind was quickly going down and the physical exhaustion was eating at her remaining sanity, she decided to drop down on the sofa, her favorite book in the hand. She placed her mug of hot tea on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
Ah.
A little collection of mugs was slowly growing on the small table. That’s right, Lumine remembered with a sense of defeat. She had some cleaning tasks to do, but truthfully she wasn’t feeling in a great state since a few days prior, and she barely had the energy to even cook before crashing down in her bed. It was as if her body was unable to recharge its battery and was constantly running low on energy. Soon enough she felt in a dazed state, head growing heavy, unable to focus on anything anymore. Last thing she remembered was dropping the book on the coffee table before darkness claimed her.
It was only when an orange and pink hue was covering the sky and basking the room in a soft and warm light that Lumine finally awoke. Even with the rest she just had she still felt like she got hit by a truck. Her muscles were still aching, and worst she felt sticky with sweat. Fever, she realised. She groaned at the thought, feeling bad wasn’t enough of a bother, she was starting to feel gross as well. She tried to get up to go take a shower, but her head started spinning and pounding against her skull. The girl took a moment to get her senses back and heard unusual noises coming from the living room. Was Xiao finally home? Last time she saw him was three days prior; it was rare for him to be gone for a few days, but an exceptional situation at his work could require him to stay over.
“I hope he won’t be mad”, she muttered to herself. The blond knew she didn’t do her share of their contract these last days - she had been feeling too extremely exhausted to do anything these past days. Would he be disappointed in her? Would he yell at her? Tell her how incapable she is? Or would he want to break the apartment-share? With her current state, all of her insecurities were flowing back to the surface — but she had to go explain herself, go tell him what happened. Maybe, hopefully, he would understand.
As Lumine walked into the living room, she got struck by a picture she didn’t expect to see. Everything was way cleaner than what she remembered: the couch was back to normal, cushions perfectly aligned, the coffee table cleared of her mugs and tissues — and standing in the middle was Xiao, sleeves up, with her said mugs in his hands. As he turned around to go to the kitchen he noticed Lumine, who was still frozen in place.
“Ah Lumine, you’re awake-”
”I am sorry, I am sorry…”, the girl kept on mumbling repeatedly. Her words were getting more and more muffled by the tears. Was she hurt somewhere? Panic swirled in Xiao who rushed at her side.
“Lumine? What’s happening? Are you hurt?”
“I-I am s-sorry. I am useless… I d-didn’t clean the… apartment. You-you even had to d-do it for me. I am so-sorry.”
Xiao couldn’t process what she was saying, his mind blanking. He didn’t know what to do, where emotions were concerned he had no idea on what to do or what to say to comfort the other. So he did the only thing that came in mind: he put his hand on her head and started caressing slowly, hoping this would smooth her sudden outburst. Perhaps it was the surprise from his gesture that made her tears stop. He took it as encouragement, and words started flowing out of his mouth.
“I am… not sure why you feel so distressed about this, it’s not a big deal. You’re sick, it is more important for you to recover than to worry about this kind of thing. I only did a few so you would feel in a better environment to recover. It won’t be as good as when you do it though... So don’t worry about it. You’re not useless.”
He expected to see her tears fully stop, he expected to bring her comfort with his words, but to his surprise tears started flowing again.
“Eh? Did I say something I shouldn’t have? I-I didn’t mean to hurt you-”
“No!” Everything stopped. “No, that’s not it-that’s not it…”
Xiao waited patiently for her tears to finish, he steadily continued to pat her head, afraid that him removing his hand would start another outburst. He watched her as she tried to form her thoughts into a coherence sentence, but being held back by her tears. He didn’t know how long it lasted, though eventually she started calming down.
“I am happy,” Lumine finally managed to say between two sniffles, “you finally said it. For the first time since we started living together… you said I was doing a good job. I am pathetic but… it made me happy. I am sorry…”
“Were you… worried because I never commented on… this?”
“Mn.”
“I see. I am the one who’s sorry then.” As she looked at him with surprise all over her face, his hand stopped moving, only to look her in the eyes, showing all his sincerity. “I am sorry for not saying anything until now, I didn’t want to make you feel like I was monitoring you and I didn’t know if it was my place to say anything at all, neither how to approach it. I always thought you were doing an amazing job, without you the apartment would be lifeless and in a terrible state. So thank you for being there.”
It was probably the closest they had to a conversation since she started living with him. They were barely meeting, and the only few times they did, he looked so exhausted he was just going straight into his room, never sparing her a glance. Or that’s what she thought. She never expected to hear him say all those things she slightly wished to hear.
It was probably just a silly thing, but for her it was like lifting a heavy weight from her shoulders. Exhaustion hitting her like a truck, she felt her head slightly spinning. Xiao seemed to catch on it and led her to lay on the couch.
“Rest for now, you seem to have caught a bad flu. You need rest and calm. When was the last time you ate?”
“Probably… yesterday evening?”
“So almost 24 hours then?” he sighed, though not looking really surprised at the fact, “I will go cook something quickly. Do you want to drink something in particular while waiting?”
“Water… just water. I am thirsty…”
“Sounds about right. Be right back then.”
It only took a few seconds for him to come back with a glass of water, and put it between her hands before going back to the kitchen. A flu, huh? That was explaining why she felt like shit. She couldn’t remember the last time she caught one. In fact, she didn’t remember the last time she got bedridden due to sickness. Lumine suddenly realised something.
“Xiao?”
“Hmm? What is it?”, he replied still working in the kitchen, his back to her.
“Did you… did you bring me to bed? I think I remember falling asleep on the couch…”
“Yes I did. When I came back home this morning, you were lying on the couch while shaking from the fever. It’s best to sleep in a bed for a better recovery obviously. Wait…”, realising something on his own as well, “I entered in your room without your permission. I am so sorry.”
“W-what?”, the girl could feel her cheeks reddening from his pleading eyes, “It’s fine don’t worry! Thank you for taking care of me, especially after you came back from work. You must be tired and exhausted from taking care of others, and now you have to do it at home too…”
“It’s my turn to say to not worry then.” A small chuckle left his lips, “It’s not a big deal, and I have a few days off from work. I will have plenty of time to rest later on.”
“Then I am just ruining your precious days off…”
“No, you’re not. Enough with that bad habit of yours, I am taking care of you because I want to. And I don’t have anything better to do, in fact I don’t even know what I will do during this free time. So it’s fine.”
Lumine had nothing to counter his point, instead she laid down the sofa to make herself comfortable while waiting for the food, feeling the exhaustion from the sickness hitting her back. After a while, Xiao came back with food ready. While she didn’t feel hungry at all, Lumine still forced herself to eat a bit. She could feel the unapproving gaze he was giving her, but he made no remark about it. Instead, he just gave her medicine to help her reduce the fever and the headaches, and left to clean the dishes.
The girl could feel sleep claiming her and yet she fought it as she observed him from the sofa, a smile unknowingly gracing her lips. It felt new. It felt weird, but strangely comfortable and pleasant. They barely interacted for weeks, if not months, and now he was here taking care of her as if it was the most natural thing in the world. She had to admit…
She liked it.