TURBULENT / XIAOVEN

five

authors notes: oh dear lord my back hurts and its like midnight ill edit this shit tmrw

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the plushie is held tightly in xiao's arms as shenhe smiles at the two as they exit the room.

"you couldn't help yourself, huh?"

xiao shakes this head, "nope."

shenhe softly laughs at the two boys before ruffling xiao's hair. she examines the boys– xingqiu stands tall next to xiao. xingqius hair rests just above his shoulders, the tips touching the edge of his skin. his shirt and pants both cover all of his skin except for his neck, of course. the backpack on his back bunches up the fabric on his shoulder. shenhe looks to xiao and he looks so exhausted, especially for someone so young. xiao's mixture of black and dyed teal strands are tied up in a small ponytail at the back of his head, a few strands falling out of the ponytail. looking down at his clothing, xiao only has a small tank top on that shows both of his arms in full, showing off the large tattoo on his left arm along with small scars that were barely noticeable unless you stared hard enough, like shenhe was doing now.

"too much skin," shenhe quietly murmurs. xiaos head perks up at what shenhe had said and quickly begins looking down at his tan arms. shenhe moves past the two boys and walks back into chongyuns room and begins searching through his closet, the sound of hangers clacking together as she finds more clothing for xiao.

shenhe lets out a quiet gasp as she pulls out a soft black hoodie with a small embroidment on the left side. shenhe quickly moves to the living room where the boys were standing by, confused by shenhe's actions.

"take off the backpack." shenhe says and xiao promptly follows.

shenhe smiles softly as she pulls the jacket on xiao's body and zips it up more than halfway.

"don't want you to get bitten, you know?"

xiao nods, "of course."

shenhe nods back at him, before glancing at the two and then outside the window near them, "off you two go then?"

the two nod and shenhe quickly blurts out, "wait! will you let chongyun know i'm alive? i don't want him to worry. let him know that his auntie shenhe is fine and well, alright?"

xiao nods, "will do. stay safe."

with that last message, the two are out the door and on their way back.

as they walk further and further away from the small home, xingqiu looks down at xiao, who seems somehow more carefree than usual.

"so... what happened in the bathroom?" xingqiu quietly asks and xiao perks his head up to glance in xingqiu's direction before averting his gaze away.

"what do you mean?"

"i mean you're both acting quite flirty which is odd considering your age gap but if you like her, i'm not judging! i'm a very open minded person, xiao, i don't care." xingqiu says, shrugging as xiao kicks a pebble across the pavement road.

"flirting? she was just being nice, i don't understand. it just seemed like she cared for me." xiao says, his eyebrows twitching and his lips slowly downturning, confusion overcoming him.

"is that what she was then? a mother figure to you?"

"my mother never loved me," xiao says simply as if it were words that weren't difficult to admit, "the only love she had shown me was that type of love that would eat you alive. it wasn't like how everyone else loved- it was full of anger and hatred."