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Xiao was allowed one personal item. A stuffed dragon that he latched onto like a life line. His former mistress would laugh at him at his only choice of possession. “Whoever heard of an adeptus needing a stuffed animal?” Her taunts fell on deaf ears.
He was just a child back then and the doll was his one comfort from a past life. The one thing that wouldn’t be taken permanently from him.
Leverage to keep him in order. He would be allowed to have the dragon when his punishments were over. Allowed to hold the toy when his job was completed, weight comfortably on his chest. To pretend if even for a moment that everything was alright.
He didn’t sleep as well without it. A foolish thing to rely on an item made of cotton and fluff. But it was hard to not associate safety with it.
His punishment usually came when his friend was taken from him after all.
~~~
He was still just a child Morax was reminded upon seeing Xiao clinging to a ragged stuffed animal as though he would take the toy away from him.
He was told only once that it was supposed to be a dragon. Hard to tell with how worn and dirty it was.
Xiao might put up guards, hardly talk unless forced to, but it had been the one thing he opened up about if only briefly and to ask if it was allowed. Of course the answer had been a resounding ‘yes’. Morax wasn’t stupid, he could tell how much the item meant to Xiao.
The archon wonders how often that attachment was used against him…
He’s told that Xiao carried it around with him everywhere like a mortal toddler might, once told that he was allowed to have the comfort item with him whenever he wanted.
Guizhong finds it adorable, a sliver of hope that there was still emotion to the otherwise emotionless adepti.
Morax only sees the potential hazards.
Because the doll is crusted over in dirt and grime. Blood stains and who knows what else matted into the fur. Morax can’t help but think of how much nicer it would be for the boy of the stuffed animal was clean.
“He could get sick from it…”
Morax can’t help but agree with his wife. He’s quite concerned over the state of the plush Xiao clings to so desperately. But bringing up the idea of washing it seems like a terrible idea.
So instead he takes it gently from Xiao’s grasp when he is sleeping, adding it to a load of laundry already being washed. He rinses the plush first trying to get off the worst of the gunk and grime. The water runs black for far too long.
The half dragon scowls. Nope, this was definitely the right choice.
He should have the toy washed and dried long before Xiao wakes up. It will be a nice surprise. No doubt the boy hasn’t had his friend clean since he got it. It’s a wonder the plush is still intact though Zhongli is glad for it. He sets the washer to a low spin and leaves it set on a timer.
.
.
.
Xiao sleeps lightly. He always has. A combination of not physically needing to sleep as often as a human might, and terrible old habits where he needed to be ready in an instance notice. He knows almost instantly when the geo archon steps into his room.
It takes everything within his will power not to tighten his hold on his stuffed animal when he feels Morax gently lift it from his chest, away from his hands, away from him.
It’s fine. It has to be. His master wasn’t cruel. He wouldn’t be punishing Xiao for no reason after all. So he lays as still as he can be pretending to still be asleep. Waiting for something. A command to get up, a slap, a sharp pang of geo, anything to be awoken and told what he did wrong.
He waits, heart racing.
Morax leaves his room without anything else happening.
Xiao sits up, weighing the consequences of leaving his room when he’s been told to stay and get some rest. He feels twitchy without the familiar weight of his dragon buddy. Can’t sleep despite the exhaustion that clings to him.
He’d be disobeying either way, he tells himself, slipping out of bed and starting to wander around the manor, searching for his companion.
He should have stayed in his room. Clearly, he was going to be punished he just didn’t know when. Maybe once Morax figured out he wasn’t sleeping. It had been Guizhong who had told him to rest and he knew his master wouldn’t go against something she had said.
Morax had promised he wouldn’t be hurt here, then why would he have taken his friend? Even knowing that he had been lying, Xiao would feel better if he at least knew where his master had stuck his toy so he could go and reclaim it once everything was over.
His heart rate doesn’t spike the longer he can’t find it- no. Not at all. That would be stupid.
He feels like a child wanting to cry over a lost toy. Morax always says that he still is a child, despite the idea feeling absurd. Maybe it would be fine to just ask.
His fingers curl in front of him, the habit of squeezing the stuffed animal when stressed no longer helping when an essential component is missing. He blinks back frustrated tears. He would have never cried with his old mistress. She also wouldn’t have taken his friend and then left him to figure out what he’s done wrong. The dragon always stayed in his room, waiting for him to return, bloodied, and battered.
Xiao walks into the wash room, listening to the unfamiliar sound of machinery humming- and stops.
Guizhong tried to explain how it all worked to him before but the adeptus had honestly lost track about what she was saying half way through. It wouldn’t matter whether he was listening fully or not, because he knows enough about the machines to know that his friend should not be inside of the front loader.
He pounds on the door watching with horror as his friend is spun around and around.
He thought he was good. He was doing good he hadn’t broken a rule. Not that he knew of. But he must have done something horrible.
Xiao sobs trying to open the washing machine.
It won’t open. It’s locked. His friend is locked away. Submerged in water- drowning.
“Xiao, you’re awake.”
The adeptus flinches. He hadn’t heard Morax coming up behind him too lost in his own racing thoughts. His master sounds almost as startled as he feels, but that’s can’t be right.
He should bow, should turn his attention to his master, but he can’t take his eyes away from the machine as it continues to hold his friend captive.
The horrible whirling noise keeps up, and Xiao keens.
“Xiao.”
“M been good!” He shouts to be heard over the horrible- horrible noise of it all, the first thing coming to his mind is to defend himself.
Morax doesn’t need a reason, doesn’t need to explain his actions but Xiao can’t help the gut wrenching feeling of betrayal. But please- please, not his friend anything but that. “Take ‘em out! Please!” He begs lowering his head to the floor.
“’M sorry. Please. He’s mine- please!”
They can’t breathe in there, doesn’t Morax know that?
Maybe he doesn’t, but Xiao sure does. The feeling of suffocating. Of water rising above his head and gasping for breath in between sessions before his head his forced back underwater. He deserves the punishments not his companion.
If Morax wanted to dunk someone under water, wanted to drown someone even, why wasn’t Morax doing it to him? He would deserve it.
Xiao finds that he can’t breathe despite the available oxygen. His friend is hurting and Xiao doesn’t know what he’s done wrong. Morax promised not to hurt him anymore then why-
He realizes with a dawning horror that Morax didn’t go back on his word. He promised he wouldn’t physically harm Xiao. Of course there was a catch.
Pathetic. Truly pathetic. If his old mistress could see him now.
He sobs, trying to stifle the noise. He’ll be good. Just please- please. He knows it’s dumb. Knows just how pathetic it is to be clinging to a possession made to soothe a child. But his heart yearns for something he can not have and it’s cruel to give him hope only to have it stripped away from him the moment he came to expect it.
Why did he even bother to hope that his life would be any different?
.
.
.
Morax stares at Xiao in a growing mixture of horror and guilt. This was not meant to happened.
Morax stops the cycle. It takes a moment for the mechanism to unlock now that the machine is off. He opens the door and takes out the sopping wet dragon. It’s cleaner at the very least.
He wants to dry it, doesn’t even get the chance to as lightening quick hands snatch the doll from him.
“Mine!” Xiao hisses, something feral in the way he scrambles away once he’s gotten ahold of the toy. There is a puddle of water forming on the ground as he clings to the stuffed dragon desperately.
Morax just raises his hands slowly.
“Xiao…” He tries, only to be met by a flash of green as the adeptus teleports away from him.
It was foolish of him to ever think that he could remove the precious item without it’s owner noticing. He will have to go an apologize to Xiao later. For now with shaking hands, he turns back on the washing machine.