TURBULENT / XIAOVEN

thirty

authors notes: holy shit.... we are on chapter thirty..?!?!? umm thank u all to who have read this far!! im planning for this to hopefully be fourty two-ish chapters plus the epilogue and smut soooo !! also a lil bit about ventis backstory bc i have not elaborated about it ever!?!?!? ty to the one commenter that reminded me abt that.... ily

also who r yall pulling for? i want cyno but im at like 70 pity with no guarantee so hopefully him or jean comes home.... pls

lily qotd: emil finishing a book on vc and then proceeding to cry for 30 minutes straight and then immediately saying "theyre so chongyun and xingqiu"..... gays i think we are about to die

cws- mentions of death & homophobia i think theres more but i am a sleepy guy so i will check in the morning

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nobody is really quite sure what to do. they all recognize that xingqiu is going to die soon and then what? so many questions run through their heads: what will they tell his family (if they're even still alive at this point)? who will take care of chongyun? nobody understands chongyun like xingqiu does, they hardly understand how chongyun works around this world. they're all aware chongyun can live by himself to a certain extent but he still needs help.

xingqiu understands him though, everyone understands that. so when chongyun begins speaking about something that he's always been so neutral about, xingqiu knows something is off.

xingqiu is barely waking up from a nap when he awakes to chongyun's wide puppy eyes staring at him. xingqiu yawns before the young boy begins speaking rapidly.

"xingqiu i've been thinking about this for a while and i don't really know if you'll like it because i don't know if you're the type of person to like it but what if we got married?"

xingqiu blinks at him slowly before resting his hand on chongyun's forehead.

"are you sick?" xingqiu asks as he lifts chongyun's bangs away from his face.

"huh?" chongyun frowns, "no, i'm perfectly healthy."

"then why are you bringing up marriage?" xingqiu questions as he lays his head back on the soft pillow to stare up at the ceiling.

"well, i thought since you know, we love each other we should get married, you know." chongyun says softly as xingqiu goes to grab his hand.

"listen, i love you so much chongyun. i really do. but i don't want to do this, especially to you."

chongyun frowns, "you don't want to... marry me?"

xingqiu sighs, "i do. but not like this. i don't want you to marry me and then when i die in the next week you feel like you can't ever fall in love with someone again. i don't want that for you."

"i..." chongyun hesitates, "i'm sorry."

"it's not your fault." xingqiu says as he reaches up to ruffle the younger boy's hair.

chongyun lies down next to him as xingqiu keeps petting the boys hair, "sleep with me, will you?"

chongyun nods as he rests his head on xingqius shoulder, "of course."

the house is quiet as not many people speak loudly due to xingqiu. diluc had spoken of how when he was thought to be turning that loud noises hurt him and he was so so angry at everything. it was better to be safe than sorry so not much speaking was happening. of course, that doesn't prevent many of the couples from whispering in their rooms.