Kaiden turned his head toward the direction of the new voice and saw a small teen emerge from a room beyond the lounge area.
She had the same silver-colored hair as Aria and bore a strong resemblance to the woman in general, though she was much less developed. Kaiden guessed her age to be around 12.
"He did what?!" Aria asked angrily. "I told him to stop; he'll ruin his future!"
As if fate wanted to prove her right, her phone rang with a comical timing. She picked it up, and her face went pale immediately. "Yes. Yes… Argh… I'll be right there."
Once her call was finished, she exhaled a long, tired sigh. "That little brat got caught with weed in his pocket. I'll have to go to the police station as his legal guardian."
"Is it serious?"
"No, he only had a very small amount on him… They'll likely let him off the hook with a slap on the wrist."
"Good, can I help?" Kaiden wanted to be of assistance because he believed Aria to already have more than enough on her plate, she didn't need a rebellious teen to act out against her.
"No, I'll deal with it…" his girlfriend shook her head but then paused, thinking of something. Aria uncertainly muttered, "Could I maybe…"
Seeing her reluctance to finish her sentence, Kaiden nudged her along. "Yes?"
Feeling how badly he wanted to help her, Aria breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at him warmly before elaborating, "Back when I worked in the bar, I used to hire a babysitter for the night, but I told her not to come when I quit. She won't make it on such short notice. Could you maybe watch over Lux?"
"I don't want…" it was the little sister who spoke up this time. She wasn't comfortable being left alone with an imposing adult man who was a complete stranger for very understandable reasons.
Aria smiled, "I didn't introduce you two yet. Kaiden, this is Lux, my much cherished younger sister. Lux, this is Kaiden, my handsome boyfriend. Although I only met him recently, I trust him a lot. He is an amazing guy."
Lux's eyelids fluttered wide open at the sudden and world-shattering revelation. She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly without a sound managing to escape her lips.
"Big sis has a boyfriend?!" she finally managed to squeal frantically while intently eyeing the man with newfound interest. Her previous inhibitions towards him as a person had immediately vanished, showing how much Lux trusted her sister's word.
"Yes!!" Aria squealed back with similar excitement levels, though she did calm down quickly as reality hit her with a cold slap, reminding her she had to go to the police station. "So, Kai, could I trouble you with this?"
"I would be glad to help."
"I don't know how long I'll be away; you might have to spend the night here…"
"No problem at all." Kaiden was not here for a booty call; he genuinely wanted to see what was going on in his lover's home life and if he could make it better somehow. Instead of being annoyed by the sudden 'task,' he was happy to be of assistance.
"Thank you!" Aria hugged him tightly for a good dozen seconds before quickly departing from the home, leaving Kaiden alone with Lux.
Kaiden did have a little sister back in the Ashborn residence, so he wasn't completely clueless as to how to deal with her, but this situation was vastly different. They were strangers and in a home that resembled a horrible crack den to boot. Trash was littered all across the place.
"Any plans for tonight, Lux?"
"No…" she replied shyly. Now that her big sister was no longer around, the young girl became a lot more reserved, especially since the rather tall Kaiden towered over her so ominously.
"What do you usually do in the evenings?"
"I chat with my friends on the phone."
"How about we do some cleaning?"
Lux winced while glancing at the stinking trashpiles. "Don't wanna..."
"You know that your sister is an amazing person, right? She deserves to come home to a clean place after all she'd done to keep this household going."
It was unreasonable to expect a young child to be responsible like that, so he didn't think her to be a freeloading, ungrateful girl or anything like that. However, Kaiden still wanted Aria to have at least this much comfort in her life.
"Yes…" Lux felt very guilty when he put things that way. She knew that the babysitter came at night because her sister was working even at that time to earn enough money, allowing Aria to remain their legal guardian instead of having the child protective services take them away from her.
"You know what, let's make a deal. If you help me clean this place, I'll take you out to eat dinner at whichever restaurant you prefer."
Her eyes immediately lit up with a greedy shine. "Really?! Even Mcd*nalds?!"
Kaiden couldn't help but chuckle amusedly. A child like her didn't have the developed tastebuds of an adult, so his offer, which could've seen him lose hundreds of dollars if she had gourmet tastes, ended up being just a dinner at a cheap fast food chain.
"Sure. You can get a Happy Meal with that toy gift in it."
To Kaiden's surprise, the little miss didn't like what she heard. "That's for kids! I'm a grown-up already!"
He did his utmost not to laugh at her declaration, worried Lux would take it as him looking down on her. No kid liked to be treated as one.
With that, the mood in the home turned energetic. The pair did their best to clean as much as they could, but it was entirely unrealistic to do a complete overhaul of this place in one go. That being said, they could at least make it more liveable. The pair started by hauling the already-filled trashbags to their intended dumping place, after which they did the dishes.
The sink was full of used plates, so Kaiden and Lux elected to use teamwork, with the man doing the scrubbing and the girl doing the wiping down and putting away parts of the task.
"So you like my big sister?" Lux asked curiously once they'd comfortably settled into the motions of the dishwashing process, and she was no longer afraid of Kaiden.
"Yes, very much so."
"What do you like about her?"
Kaiden could tell that she was just at the age where romance stuff interested her greatly. Her sister getting a boyfriend all of a sudden was big news, which no doubt occupied a great part of Lux's thought processes right now. She was fishing for more juicy details, and he happily accommodated her curiosity.
"Her beauty speaks for itself, she is one of the most gorgeous women I've ever seen, however, that's just the superficial stuff. Aria is an outstanding person who sacrificed a lot to provide for her loved ones, something that makes me admire her greatly. On top of that, she has a cheery personality, providing me with an abundance of joy from simply being around her. Her gorgeous smile makes my heart skip a beat every time she graces me with it."
"Hmm…. I see. So she's just one of the prettiest girls, not the prettiest?" Her question was laced with unsaid accusations. Lux couldn't believe that her beloved big sister was not the most beautiful woman in the eyes of her boyfriend.