Chapter 1 - Xiao

It was a regular, boring Tuesday afternoon. The sun was blindingly shining through the windows of one of the police department buildings in the busy city it resided in. Cars were bustling past the building, people on their way to go wherever they needed or wanted to.

Inside the building, to say the least, was somewhat hectic. People walking throughout the building to, usually, either go on break or go to talk to one of their colleagues. Other people that weren't walking around were sitting at their desks either talking to coworkers, answering calls or messing around 'till their scheduled break time.

However, there were very few, like Xiao, who took work very seriously and almost never messed around. Half the time, he never even takes breaks during their scheduled break time, and instead, continues to do his assigned work.

Most days all Xiao did was sit around and go through reports. This was mostly because he was one of the hardest workers when it came to going through and filing paperwork. So, he was hardly ever pulled away by the high-up's from the thing he did best. That is, unless they were extremely busy.

"Xiao! Can you come here for a minute?" Kokomi asked, standing in the doorway of her office and the main work area.

"Of course, Ma'am, one second." Xiao stated in a voice he only used when talking to one of his superiors. The pitch of his voice was a bit deeper than his regular voice and sounded more serious and almost stern in a way.

"I'm assuming that you don't know why I called you in here, right?" The blonde woman asked, her voice soft as she spoke. Leaning over her desk, she had both arms in front of her, hands folded so one was in a fist with the other hand wrapped around it.

"No, Ma'am." Xiao answered calmly, voice less rigid than before, but still low in pitch. He moved to sit down in the open chair that was on the opposite side of the desk that the woman sat at.

"Well, we wanted to talk to you about you getting either a raise or a promotion. We're not too sure as to what position you would get if you were selected for a promotion, but we'll be figuring that out at the next meeting. We, well, at least I, wanted to get your thoughts on it!" Kokomi excitedly stated, glad he had nothing but good news to give to the other.

"I would be perfectly happy with just a raise. I quite enjoy what I do and have no real interest in changing it." Xiao stated, voice still calm. He was gracious for how generous his superiors were.

"Perfect! Our next meeting is overmorrow, so we'll be talking about it then and I'll tell you our decision!" Kokomi exclaimed excitedly.

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Xiao replied back, still as calm as before.

"That's all I needed to talk to you about. You're welcome to go back to what you were doing now! Just please tell Beidou to come here when she has a moment, please. Anyways, in case I don't see you again today, have a nice rest of your day!" Kokomi happily spoke, a bright smile on her face, the smile causing her eyes to squint.

"You as well." Xiao spoke out as he stood up from where he was sitting and moved to leave Kokomi's office. He then proceeded to walk over to Beidou's desk where he informed her to go to Kokomi's office when she had a moment. Then, he proceeded back to his own desk.

As Xiao sat back down at his desk, he decided to check his phone for any notifications before going back to work. To his surprise, there was a text; however, the message was from an unknown number. It read: "Hey, Cameron! This is Aether from last night!"

Xiao just stared at his phone, confused. He didn't know this person texting him nor did he know who they were looking for. He sat there for a few minutes, debating with himself if he should respond back to this person or not. He finally decided to respond back to them after he finished up with work, which was about an hour away.

Finally, after his scheduled work shift ended, he pulled out his phone again and opened up the message from the unknown number. Calmly, Xiao responded with: "Sorry, but I'm not Cameron. I'm pretty sure they gave you the wrong number."

Seconds later, another text showed up from the same person. The message said: "That asshole! Sorry to bother you!"

Xiao's thumbs set to work typing another message to send to the stranger: "It's okay. You didn't know it was the wrong number."

Yet again, seconds passed and another message from the stranger popped up: "Btw, you seem really nice! Would you mind if we became friends? Ofc if you don't want to that's fine too!"

Xiao froze in his seat, staring at his screen in disbelief. Friends? He hardly had any friends outside of Beidou.

Despite being reluctant about it, he typed back: "No, that's fine. My name's Xiao."

Xiao turned his phone screen off as he began packing his things up to be able to leave work. Once everything he needed to take home was packed up, he said his goodbyes to Beidou and left out the back door where her parked car was. Walking to it, he got into the driver's seat and placed the key in the ignition and turned it, starting the car. He then began his twenty minute drive home.

About twenty minutes passed when Xiao pulled up to his apartment building and parked in one of the spots by the front of the building.

Xiao grabbed his things for his car and proceeded into the apartment building, heading to the 2nd floor towards his own apartment. Unlocking and opening the door, he steps into the open dining room that connects to the living room. He closes and locks the door behind him. Xiao then sets his thing down and heads towards his bedroom which was in the back room of the apartment.

Laying down on his bed, he pulls his phone out of his pocket, seeing a text from who he now knew to be someone named 'Aether': "Omg! You have such a pretty name!"

Typing back to the other: "Yeah, thanks. You too."

Another message popped up on his screen from Aether, he could see this conversation going for a while, however, he wasn't quite in the mood for that: "Aww! You're so sweet!"

Moments later, Xiao fell asleep, his phone resting on his chest with his hands over top of it.

The next day, Xiao woke up around five in the morning as he usually did. He showered and got dressed and then went to brew his usual morning coffee. As he sipped on his coffee, he pulled out his phone, which had about half the battery left. He saw another message from Aether: "Good morning!"

He responded: "Morning."