TURBULENT / XIAOVEN

twenty one

authors notes: wow!! another very quick update bc recently ive been watching a lot of paul dano movies and the way he acts is literally SO good its crazy but also watching movies and observing them helps me write most of the characters in my fics (esp xinyan, venti and xingqiu.. the other charas are all based off of ppl from my life lolzies.. if any of my irls read this: heyyyyy ahahha....)

ALSO!!! xiao talks about some of his autism symptoms in this chapter (not directly, i dont think) uh but pls dont make fun of him bc majority of xiaos symptoms are from me, the autistic author so... be nice Plz.

im trying to build up the romance btwn xiao/venti but im not. a very romantic person in general so it wont be very good but i prommy ill try and not make it rushed like my last xiaoven fic....

oh yeah this chapter has some symbolism so if u are not a critical thinker, please try ur hardest to use those sexi brain cells i know u have Ok? <3

ok love u all, mwuah mwuah ALSO IM FINALLY HEADING HOME THIS WEEK WOOOO NO MORE BAD WIFI!!!! ok now bye

cws— implications of abuse, implied ableism against xiao, nsfw jokes, implication of abusive parents, internalized ableism & homophobia, past murder

lmk if i missed any!

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it's easy for xiao to say that yes, he believes that everything is fine and that nothing bad would happen but god, he really can't hold onto that small string of optimism when nothing seems to be looking up at this point. 

it's been a week since he's finally gotten over his fever and it seems like everyone was waiting for him to get better to just pile a bunch of shit on him. first, albedo had to check up on his eyes, or eye, would be more correct at this point. it's not as if it was a nuisance, it was just the fact that albedo had brung up the topic of xiao getting a prosthetic eye when he could care less about it. i mean, albedo could've sewn his eyelids shut and he really wouldn't care. 

it does seem like most of the small group that he was with never really knew what to do without xiao. which is fair, he supposes, he always leads and without a second doubt they do whatever he had said to do. it's not a great system, he'll admit, but he can't blame them, especially those like qiqi and chongyun– they're kids. 

but he can't stand how much they come to him for answers as if he was an all knowing god not just some nineteen year old who's traumatized to hell and back. 

xiao is in the bathroom, brushing his teeth in the morning when he hears loud footsteps running into the bathroom. he assumes it's one of the many, many children that's housed into the large store when he recognizes one of the voices as xinyan. 

"xiao!" she shouts as she stands next to xiao, who was still brushing his teeth. 

xiao stares at xinyan to find venti standing next to her, waving timidly at him. 

"what?" he asks as he continues brushing without another thought. 

xinyan grins as she jumps on her tippy toes, "we found out that they're going on a mission to get some supplies in a few days!" 

xiao glances at her with a lifted eyebrow before he spits into the sink and wipes his mouth, "so? what does that have to do with me?"