TURBULENT / XIAOVEN

thirty three

authors notes: ....i am SO sorry. this chapter took quite a bit to complete due to the whole health complications im having & the usual chronic pain but!!! this is a longer than usual chapter! however it is a more emotional chapter than usual so plz prepare tissues </3

lily qotd: emil forcing me to listen to the same spanish song while i beta read this made me bawl like a fucking Baby and i dont even know spanish. girl.

cws– suicide (nothing explicit of the process)
___________

everyone wakes up to screams the next morning. it's strange to hear such loud noises when all they've been doing for the past year or so was being as quiet as possible due to the fact that nobody knew exactly how zombies worked. sure, they knew the basics like- you get bit, you get turned. of course like everything, there's always exceptions to that rule, like diluc, for example.

venti rubs his eyes with the palm of his hand as he looks to xiao who lays beside him, asleep, with the sun shining through the curtains of his window. venti watches as xiao's chest rises and falls with each breath he takes. qiqi is held in his grasp, her head resting on his chest.

qiqi mumbles as she slowly wakes up, rubbing her eyes with her small fist. she blinks up at venti before she yawns, waking up to such horrifying screams.

"baba," qiqi yawns, "it's about xingqiu."

venti frowns, it didn't really sound like xingqiu. the voice was softer and higher pitched than xingqiu.

venti yawns, "it's... it's not him."

qiqi shakes her head, "no, but it's about him. he was being weird last night."

venti nods, deciding to not question her any further, "alright."

venti pushes on to xiao's shoulder lightly, "xiao."

xiao groans, shoving his head deeper into the pillow. venti wasn't even sure if xiao was awake, xiao always moved so much in his sleep that it was basically normal for him to kick venti in his sleep. venti leans forward to xiao as to give him some sort of sweet good morning kiss in all those movies he had seen as a kid when xiao suddenly jolts up and bangs his forehead against the others.

"oh my god, venti," xiao groans as he presses a hand against his own forehead, "were you trying to be romantic?"

"no, i just- well, maybe i was! what's it to you?" venti huffs, crossing his arms.

xiao laughs as he presses a kiss to venti's pouted lips, "i love you."

venti nods, his face flushing, "love you too."

as xiao slides out of bed with venti, he grumbles as venti takes hold of his hand, "how long has the screaming been going on?"

venti shrugs, "a few minutes or so. i don't know what's going on but qiqi said that it was about xingqiu."

the two walk down the stairs to find chongyun screaming as he rocks back and forth on the rug in the living room. just like the two of them, venti sees the others coming out of their rooms with sleep laced all over their faces. nobody knows what's going on but the sight in front of them is heartbreaking.

xiao sits in front of chongyun on the rug, waiting as the other slows down his rocking. he does not.

"chongyun." xiao whispers softly and only then does chongyun's screaming come to a pause and the only thing coming out of his mouth are soft whimpers, as if he were attempting to hide it from the others.