A/N: There will be slight depictions of blood and burns, and also a description of a nightmare. Proceed with caution.

Xuan had girlfriends before. In fact, he really liked a lot of them.

A lot of them didn't like him back.

So many of them would come to him after only a week of dating and break up with him on the spot. Some were more sympathetic than others, but the general rule was that they dumped him in the middle of the school hallway and didn't try to even look at him after the fact.

The only girl he dated that didn't dump him went missing after a month.

So, he was cursed, basically. He hadn't dated a soul since junior year of high school, so scared of rejection again.

Which is why his crush on Yuuhime was horribly wrong.

He knew he had a crush on her. There was no denying it. But he knew that's all it would ever be.

His phone went off. He looked down at it; Raven had sent out an alert.

Near the city edge, miramon had been spotted. Xuan jumped up and ran off.

He had duties as a ops chief that he used as a mask for why he shouldn't love her.

***

Yuuhime had never really known what dating was like. She'd never gone on a date, after all, since she was but a child the first time she was controlled.

This caused her to wonder if she should really go asking Xuan to go on a date with her if she didn't know what she was doing.

All she knew is that she wanted to kick off something more with him. She couldn't deny it; he had a pretty face and was so kind and made her want to laugh!

"I love Tang Xuan!" She would silently announced to herself. She was ready for the next step.

...though, she was NOT ready for Li Guang to bombard her with questions about him, or "sunflower" as she'd established.

"What's his hair color?"

"Similar to yours."

"And he's in the union, right?"

"Mhm."

"Is he-"

"No."

"I didn't even say-"

"I said no."

Li Guang groaned and flopped over. Yuuhime rolled her eyes.

"You gotta tell me! It's eating me up!!" She said dramatically.

"I won't." The other said defiantly.

The red head pouted. Yuuhime shook her head and stole a bite of popcorn.

"Where'd you get this popcorn?" She examined a piece, "It's really good."

"Oh, got it from a movie theater," Li Guang popped a handful into her mouth, "They specialize in the stuff."

She grabbed the remote and turned on the news, "Wonder what's going on today?"

On the screen, a news lady stood in front of a devastated cityscape. Espers in the background were helping citizens get to safety and healing them. Even further back, miramon were being driven back.

"...Officials say the destruction may cost a pretty penny!" The news lady boasted.

"It looks real bad..." Yuuhime sighed. Li Guang nodded with her eyes stuck to the screen.

"Anyways, now-" The news lady was interrupted by shouting.

"Move it! We have an emergency on our hands!" Yuuhime recognized the voice as Lewis'. She saw he was leading a group that consisted of Li Ling, Ye Suhua, and Leora, the last two she only knew from the news and Xuan talking about them. Li was carrying someone on his back, Suhua trying her best to beg him to put the person down so she could examine them.

The cameraman ran over once Li finally put the person down. Yuuhime could already feel her heart dropping just at the colors the camera could capture.

Tang Xuan lay on the ground, horrible blood running down his face and burns all over his body, his clothes ashen struck.

Her heart was beating so hard, it felt like it was trying to escape her rib cage. Despite her best efforts, her breath shook like an earthquake, her eyes tearing up so much they would make a waterfall proud. Her whole body got hot with sweat and the horrible, terrible, awful feeling of absolute fear. She couldn't feel she hands of Li Guang grab her when she almost fell to the ground when she tried to get up. Nor could she hear her trying to ask her what was wrong, trying her best to help.

***

Xuan woke up in a fluorescent white room. His head was banging on itself, causing a nauseating feeling to the rest of his body.

"Ugh..." He groaned as he tried to get up, only to give up because his muscles groaned for him to lay back down.

"Oh my-"

"Holy HELL Xuan!"

He peered over to see Li and Suhua standing over him. Li gripped the sides of the bed while Suhua quickly ran out, presumably to get more doctors.

"Are you ok? How are you feeling?" Li's voice shook with fear as he asked the questions Xuan was sure everyone was wondering.

"Everything hurts," Xuan murmured, "But I'm awake and I can somewhat talk..."

Li looked relieved just at the fact that he was even actually awake, "Do you remember what happened? Something really beat you up."

Xuan tried to remember for Li, but his mind was a blank for the time being.

"I only remember before, sorry."

"It's fine, don't sweat it," Li bit his lip, "I'm just happy you're ok."

"Does anyone know anything?" Xuan asked nervously.

"I'm not sure," Li sighed, "All I heard was your voice calling for help before going completely silent. I think all of us were but Leora too far away to see what happened, and even then she didn't get a good look."

Xuan suddenly remembered something, "Where's Mona?"

"She's missing," Li said with anger in his voice, "Two of my friends..."

"Oh my gosh..." Xuan suddenly remember something.

***

"Are you sure you're ready?" Li Guang asked Yuuhime as they stood face to face with the union's hospital wing.

Yuuhime nodded. It had been a week since she'd seen the horrible scene play out in front of her, and although she was still shaken, she badly yearned to hold Xuan in her arms.

In that week, she accidentally broke down and told Li Guang about her feelings towards Xuan, and her fears surrounding his injuries. Apparently, Li Guang knew someone who lost her lover to the Cube Miracle named Norah, who actually greatly helped Yuuhime feel better with her singing and own personal experiences.

In short, Yuuhime had gained another friend.

"Ok," Li Guang took her hand and squeezed it, "I'll be right there the whole time, too."

She nodded and they walked into the hospital.

Inside was bustling with life. There must of been many casualties after the last attack.

"We'd like to see Tang Xuan," Li Guang said to the man at the desk.

"Room 418, on floor 4."

"Thank you," The two girls went to the elevator, shared with a bunny eared woman and some other visitors.

"Is that Heng Yue?" Yuuhime whispered to Li Guang, who responded with a nod.

She smiled a little. She looked like her childhood crush, Mountain Rabbit, from one of her childhood movies. Even if it was silly, this random Esper sharing an elevator ride with her made her feel better, even if it was only a little.

Once on their floor, they saw this floor was a lot less crowded. Only a few doctors were up on this floor, she could count only 2, and about 3 nurses going in and out of a few select rooms.

"Are you two visitors?" Suhua asked, walking with a tall man.

"Mhm!" Li Guang said, "We're headed to room 418."

"Oh! He just woke up, you came just in time. Me and Ahmed were just going there, we can take you."

Yuuhime couldn't stop herself from smiling at this news. Maybe that meant he was feeling better.

"Thank you," Li Guang said with a smile.

The four of them walked into the room of 418. Inside, she saw Li sitting beside Xuan, who was propped up in his bed. When he saw her, he smiled widely.

"Yuuhime!" He peeped at her. She took his hands in hers and blinked back tears.

"Are you feeling better?" She whimpered.

"Now that you're here, I am." He murmured with a soft smile.

She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. It felt so unbelievably good to see him in person again.

"What even happened?" She couldn't help but ask. Xuan sighed.

"I'm not entirely sure. I only have bits and pieces I can remember." He glanced at Li, who was looking down at this time.

She could tell something happened that made him anxious. How she wanted to hide him in her web of arms, protect him forever!

"I'll be here for as long as you need." She affirmed. He smiled at her, his eyes gleaming in the artificial light.

***

Li had fallen asleep in the arm chair near the window. Xuan, on the other hand, could barely close his eyes.

He'd already told Li about what he saw before he blacked out.

He and Mona were pushing some weaker miramon near a dead end, where they could more easily kill them. Everything was fine; in fact, they'd managed to get rid of all but one tiny flower shaped miramon.

"I've got this," Xuan had said as he swung the final blow to the tiny monster.

Laughing he swung around to face Mona, "We should get going back so-"

A defying blow from something sharp pierced his forehead and his shoulders, causing him to fly back. He had screamed out, it hurt like nothing he'd ever felt before. He tried to get up, but he felt a strong boot kick his side into a now brightly lit fire.

How had it gotten there? It wasn't there before, was it? He felt his face practically melting to the heat of the strange fire. He groaned, trying to yell for help.

He heard someone speak up before everything went black.

He stared at his arms. They were bruised and burned, in an array of red, blue, and black. That was another thing he was confused by; his Esper transformation gave him to power to self-heal himself when needed, but he was only able to heal a few scars and bruises.

He felt so weak. What made him feel so weak? It was strange, he hadn't felt weak in a long time.

Was this what he felt like before his transformation? It wasn't an awful feeling, but it was...unsettling.

He heard someone fumbling with the door. If it was a doctor, especially Ye Suhua, they'd nag him and make him go to bed. He was hardly tired, but he still hid under his covers and fake slept.

When the door finally opened, it had been very loud and whoever opened the door paused. Li made a sort of snore, but was still asleep. After a moment more than Xuan could stand, he heard the door's soft click as it closed swiftly but silently. Whoever came in had light footsteps, but he could still hear them as they walked closer to where he lay.

As far as he could tell, whoever came in just stopped and stood over him.

Silence followed.

For an uncomfortably long time.

He wondered if Li would wake up any time soon.

The sun wasn't anywhere in sight.

Of course, the blinds made it hard to tell if it was up or not.

He could see the clock on the wall from where he lay.

It was 2:57 AM.

He clutched his blanket in his hands.

He could hear the person's breathing.

He could always hear it, but he lost things to think about.

So now,

It was the only thing

He

Could

Hear.

It scared him.

Why?

Perhaps...

It was because it was hard.

Or maybe it was the fact that it was the only sound.

Where had Li's snores gone?

Had they gone?

Was he losing it?

He felt his hands shaking.

It was just a doctor. It had to be.

The clock buzzed to alert him it was 3:00 AM.

But it wasn't...?

"Morning, Xuan," Li stood over his bed. The morning light flooded into his room. And the clock, it wasn't 3:00 AM, it was 7:30 AM.

"How are you feeling?"

Horrified, that's what. He must of had a nightmare.

"Sore," He answered. He clutched his hands all night long it seemed, as they were the most sore and had little fingernail indentations.

"Any better from yesterday?"

"Yeah," Xuan let a yawn escape his throat. Nightmares were tiering.

"Are you up for some breakfast?" Li walked over to a wheelchair and pushed it over to the side of the bed.

"Oh, heck yeah." Xuan was starving. He had no idea what they gave him while he was out, but whatever it was definitely didn't fill him up as much as he would have liked.

Slipping onto the wheelchair, he couldn't help but feel special, like he was a king on his way to war.

"Onward steed!"

"Eh?!"