Chapter Thirteen: White Lies

He tilted his head up to look at the wooden counter a few feet away, and his voice was smaller than he expected, afraid of spooking the trembling girl behind the safety of the object.

"Yan, are you alright? Calmer?"

Aiden was answered by silence, and he took that short moment to get to his feet, kneading his fingers together and keeping his gaze at the wall across him.

"I'm not going to talk about what happened until I know you're fine," he sighed, hoping that his voice was as even as he thought it was. "My company buys herbs from you sometimes, so I'm going to tell you what to do. Is that alright?"

A few moments passed before he continued, careful in every word that he spoke. "Your shop has ginseng and chamomile, right? I'm not sure if they go together, but the medicinal department in the Headquarters purchase them to treat witnesses or suspects when they have panic attacks. I think they should be boiled in water or something, but you know better than me."

Another minute passed before he saw a head of pink hair rise from beneath the counter, and he let a small smile cross his lips as he did so.

"I have chamomile tea," Yan replied at last, her fingers curling around a sachet as she frowned down at the shelves. "I know how to prepare it. Ginseng is normally either chewed or stewed to make soup, but most people choose the latter."

She's rambling in order to calm herself down, he thought, but he was relieved that she was starting to stop trembling as much. "That's good. I'll continue talking while you stew the ginseng, so don't worry."

There was still a visible shake that ran through her hands as she dipped the packet of tea into a cup of hot water, and he took the opportunity to mumble out another sentence. "Are there any other herbs that would help?"

Yan set the cup down with a loud thunk before rummaging for a ginseng root. "You don't need to treat me like that, you know. It's fine to talk about it. I tried to kill Fabio because I thought it would stop people from leaving, but I've realised that he's been suffering too. I have no right to take his life."

"That's true, but..." He trailed off, not knowing how to phrase his sentence in a way that wouldn't hurt her. "How long has this been happening?"

She bit her lip at the question. "I found out that I could see ghosts when I was ten. Of course, no one believed me, so they either didn't believe me or left me alone. I wouldn't expect you to understand me, but I was sick of the treatment."

Aiden looked down at his hands, unsure of how to tackle her statement. "It's true that I can't understand your type of loneliness," he breathed, "but sometimes, being surrounded with so many people isn't really satisfying either."

He paused for a second before stepping back, folding his arms behind him and every bit aware of the tingling sensation that had remained at the tip of his fingers.

"I didn't mean to talk about myself," he offered with a slight flush. "Sorry."

"No, that's fine." Yan shook her head, taking a sip of her tea with a grim expression on her face. "I think I'll be fine if I give it time. Could you just...stay for a while? I think it's because of our past lives, but I don't want to lose you."

Her words were clipped; matter-of-fact, even, but he could hear the telltale again in her subdued voice—and his mind dithered back to the fact that he was starting to disappear entirely.

Lacia had always been an enigma—he'd never trusted the woman much, but he had never been able to afford the risk either and he'd chosen to follow her plan.

And he'd realised, due to the witch's talking, that he could have been lied to.

"Please," the teenager added, snapping him out of his daze. The look in her grey eyes was as steely as their colour, and her attempt to keep her tone calm was ruined by a waver at the end of the word.

He had been betrayed by Lacia. Yet, no one knew about that besides the two of them, and he couldn't leave Yan alone. Something in her one visible eye was telling him that she needed someone by her side at that moment.

"I don't plan on leaving," he answered, well aware of the fact that his words were more than likely a lie.

§

The comfort of her room was the only thing Lillian appreciated about the military.

She had been given a spacious area to stay in—and such luxuries were reserved for executives, really, but being the daughter of such a high-ranking general had its own advantages and she planned to make full use of it.

It wasn't that it made her like the place any better. Sure, it was well-furnished, but Hoenn's base had an air of coldness and systematic way of working that she was more than familiar with. The people in the building were too familiar with killing and bloodbath for her liking.

Lillian realised that she was being a hypocrite for thinking that. After all, she was more well-versed in death than most of the soldiers in the building she was staying in, but perhaps being desensitised to it was more of a blessing than a curse.

Becoming a thoughtless machine or a weak person who couldn't defend herself, however, differed from her tastes, and she mused that it was the difference between her and other people of this world.

With that, she got up from her bed, slipping on a pair of shoes and unlocking the door.

Her father wasn't a stupid person. He was far from it—and she suspected that he had an inkling of an idea about the reason she came back. It was the reason why she hadn't been given a key to the entrance of the base yet.

"Guess I'll just take a walk," she sighed to herself, peering down corridors of white walls that had been coated with peeling layers of paint. "There's nothing much to do here."

She didn't have a destination in mind; in all honesty, she'd been planning to wander around the building for the rest of the afternoon to see if the layout had changed from what she'd remembered, but seeing the light on in one of the rooms got her attention.

A frown slid over her face as she realised that it was one of those empty chambers that her father often used to store prisoners, and she pushed the door open to see her brother inside.

"This place hasn't been cleaned properly yet," she noted, wrinkling her nose at the stench of dried blood and glancing at the faded crimson smears on the room's grey walls. "Aren't you a mercenary? Why are you still here?"

Leone's golden eyes were heavy with some kind of unreadable emotion—if she didn't know him better, she would have thought that he was about to cry—and she refrained on commenting about how unusual the prospect of it was.

"My employer wants to keep an eye on me for a few days," he muttered, choosing to dodge the deeper part of her question. "He wants to make sure that I'm not going to give information out. That's why I'm staying."

She raised an eyebrow, taking a step closer to her younger brother and staring at him. "So why are you in this room, then?"

"Why the hell not?" he snapped back, but his expression softened after a few seconds. "This was the room where I tortured him in. It's amazing how someone so strong could be reduced to such a state in just a few days, you know."

Lillian let out a murmur of agreement. "Maybe he wasn't as strong as you thought," she suggested. "Humans are often like that. Maybe your friend abandoned you because he wasn't strong enough to take care of the both of you.

When the boy tilted his head in confusion, she gave a noncommittal shrug in response. "Nowadays, society forces us to wear a mask. To at least look acceptable. It's just what we choose to hide that's up to us—I think you would know that better than most."

Her brother pressed his lips together before gathering his features into a scowl. "I hate it when you get philosophical."

"At least I'm right," she sighed, and she remembered the question that had been left at the back of her mind. "I also wanted to know what happened to the guy you tortured. I think the information would be useful to me.

She kept her voice in the businesslike tone that he was used to. It wasn't the time to go all soft on people.

He flinched at her words, narrowing his eyes before his frown deepened. "You'd have found out anyway. I was the one who captured Fabio Lucrum and held him prisoner for four days to torture information out of him."

"He was the guy you paid to work for you, right?" He let out a grunt. "I got him to tell me that. He may have been a respected mercenary, but no one has ever withstood my methods. I'm not going to apologise to you for that—if there's anyone I should say sorry to, it's him."

"You're right," Lillian answered. "I had suspected that Hoenn had taken him. I'm not the type of person to accept an apology from someone like you either."

Leone dropped to a sitting position, looking at the stains on the wall as if the blood was his own—and for the record, it might as well have been. "Well, thanks to him, I know your plan now. Don't worry, I left you out when I told my employer the information."

"So you do still care," she replied. "Do you hate me for causing Faust to end up at the Hoenn base?"

"No," he admitted, tucking his knees under his chin and aiming his gaze at the greasy floor instead. "Causing him to end up like that was my fault. I'm disgusting."

She didn't quite know how to respond to that. Leone wasn't one to respond well to kind words—his entire demeanour rested on harsh words, and he'd only known of a world filled with death and hatred since he was a child.

"Yes, you're disgusting." Her golden eyes was cross as she held out a hand, and he flinched at the harsh words. "But you're also my brother. Do something about what you did instead of mulling over it. That's the only way you can repent."

The two of them glared at each other for a minute, neither of their stares backing down for a while, but she couldn't afford to let him win the argument.

Her expression didn't change when he pressed his palm into her own, accepting the help up and staying quiet for a few more seconds before speaking. "If I'm disgusting and merciless, then you're selfish and arrogant. You hardly care about anything other than your goals."

"Maybe that used to be true," she bit back, "but I think I've found people that I can care about. Focusing on my goal is still my main priority, though."

"You were dating that knight, weren't you?" He raised an eyebrow. "I'm going back to my room. It's expected that I'll be able to leave tomorrow, so see you next time. I don't want to stay with that asshole a minute longer."

Leone turned back as he rested his hand against the door's icy knob. "Don't get too caught up in your own goals, by the way. You'd turn out like me."

She didn't miss the thank you that hung in the air between them.

§

She was on the way to the canteen when her father spotted her.

If she could, she would have avoided the man, but she knew for a fact that she wouldn't be able to get away. Damien Albus was a military general, for Arceus' sake, and the very person who had trained her in the art of strategising.

"Are you staying for good?" he asked as he approached, and his tone was as even as that of a strangers. "You don't seem like the type of person to do that."

Lillian shrugged in response. "I don't know," she hummed, looking up at him with a calculating gaze. "I guess I'm just going to stay here for a while. I'll decide on it when I want to."

"Alright," he conceded. "But I'd still like you to return to your room for now. Kalos vermin might invade the Headquarters any second, and I don't want you to get caught up in the battle. I may seem controlling, but it's the only way."

"I was on my way back," she lied, knowing very well that her room was in the other direction. "I just felt like taking a walk."

His icy eyes landed on her face, as if seeing straight through her lies, and she had no choice but to stare back with an unamused glance.

"I'm arranging to have you sent to Sinnoh," he stated, changing the topic with a deft shift in his expression. "You may have settled down here, but it won't be safe with everything that's happening. I'm ensuring your safety this way."

She gritted her teeth at that—had her father always been this domineering?—but something in her told her to force a smile and reply to the man in a routine of unsettling ease.

"Yes, Father." Her tone was placid. "I understand."

§

sometimes i ask myself if i like leone or lillian more

but in the end i like yan because she likes herbs and this is my second year researching about herbs for projects

i was tempted to put magnetite in but it's taken as a powder and it's kinda gross so i didn't

Thank you guys so much for 3.6K reads and 600 votes!! :0 You have no idea how much this means to me <3

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