TURBULENT / XIAOVEN

thirty five

authors notes: haiii... filler chappie sowwy    .... but anyway ive been kinda crazy about literally anything but genshin so im sorry if this update is AWFUL but hey!!! diluc backstory + how kaeya died cos. Uh. i felt like it. teehee! also i thinkkk i am gonna end the fic earlier than expected? maybe? i still have One thing to get to before i officially end the fic but after that then it is donezo (+ the epilogue & smut. Oops)

lily qotd: i feel Crazy that ive read over 100k words beta reading this fic but how do The Readers feel that theyve read over 80k words on a silly xiaoven fic ..

cws — mentions of murder, cancer, & past family deaths

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as venti watches xiao drive away with chongyun in the car, he can hear the others begin to shuffle inside. venti wasn't necessarily close with everyone except for fischl and qiqi but still, it seemed as if nobody seemed to really care about what was happening. either that or they were blocking their emotions out. as venti makes his way to the room that he and xiao shared, he hears diluc and zhongli talking softly through the door. perhaps he was a bit jealous of them– he and xiao didn't really have time to just talk with how hectic things had been recently.

as diluc and zhongli lay beside each other on the bed, diluc suddenly asks, "were you scared when xiao had gotten his eye scratched out?"

zhongli breathes shakily, "god, i was so horrified. i felt like i had suddenly become religious and started praying that xiao would make it. he had been through so much, i don't know what i would do if he didn't make it."

"i'm glad he did make it." diluc says softly and almost mournfully.

"and your brother?" zhongli asks, "you brought him up a few times and you've never told me what happened. i don't know if you're uncomfortable about it, which is fine, i just‐ i'm curious, that's all."

diluc taps his fingertips on his own thigh, "no, i'm comfortable with saying what happened, it's just so fucking stupid. it's all my fault. "

zhongli brushes his hand against diluc's own scarred one as he interlaces their fingers, looking into diluc's eyes, "it's not. i don't know what happened but i know it wasn't your fault."

diluc laughs softly, "i could've literally murdered him and you still wouldn't believe it was my fault?"

zhongli clicks his tongue, "well, that's the one exception."

diluc laughs softly, "i was hoping so. i would scream if you said it still wasn't."

"yeah, i think i'd be crazy if i still didn't think it was on you."

"right," diluc nods, “i mean, i still think it’s partially my fault he would always complain about how tired he was which i always brushed off because everyone was exhausted. i mean, it’s not odd to be exhausted, i’ve seen kunikuzushi faint because of exhaustion, like, multiple times. still, it’s just- i never believed him until he like, collapsed one day and became so sick that it was just irreversible, we couldn’t help him anymore.”

"i'm so sorry." zhongli says. he'd nearly forgotten about any sort of sickness in this type of situation, he was so busy constantly thinking about not dying from zombies but he couldn't imagine that also combined with any kind of illness hanging over his head.

diluc nods, "albedo said it was cancer, probably bone cancer due to how he died. it's so dumb, he would still be here if anybody paid attention to him but since he was always so smiley and outgoing and he didn't have any huge symptoms, nobody really noticed."

zhongli frowns, "it's not your fault. he must've thought that it was exhaustion as well. it's not as if you could have rushed him to the hospital for specialized care and such."
diluc nods as he sniffles, "no, i think he knew he was dying. he just didn't want to worry me– kaeya was always like that."

"what do you mean you think he knew?"
diluc fumbles with his fingers as he leans into zhongli's body,

"it's… when we were young, this woman told us strange things about how we were going to die and we thought she was fucking around because we were seven and a lot of people thought she was crazy too because you just can't go around telling people stuff like that. even though kaeya brushed it off, i was scared. horrified. i had to live with the fact that kaeya would die before me and i had to accept it. there was nothing i could do."

"she could have been wrong, it could have been a coincidence, diluc." zhongli says as he wraps an arm around diluc, warmth enveloping the redhead.

"it couldn't have been." diluc says in a near whisper, "she said my dad would get murdered. he did. she said kaeya would die from an illness. he did. she said that i would die at my lover's hand."

diluc cups zhongli's face in his hands as he whispers, "please don't hurt me. okay?"

zhongli holds dilucs hand in his before pressing a kiss to his knuckles, "i would die before i would ever lay a hand on you."

hours pass by with the two lying in silence, the only sound between them were the soft breaths of each other and the cool wind blowing outside. the floorboards creak near the door and immediately diluc jolts up as the door opens.

"where's gege?" a soft yawn comes from qiqi as he drags her socked feet against the hardwood floor.

"xiao is dropping chongyun off at his house." zhongli says.

qiqi frowns as he rubs her eye with the palm of her fist, "why?"

both of the men pause. what would they say to her? that xingqiu was gone from this world so chongyun obviously had enough and wanted to leave as well? did she even know that xingqiu was dead?

"chongyun wanted to see his family again, that's all." diluc says and qiqi nods, understanding his simple words.

qiqi turns to leave before she pauses, turning back to look at diluc.

"your hair is longer," she says as she looks at diluc. his hair was no longer the choppy mess that it was when zhongli had initially met him, it was now overgrown with strands flowing over his shoulders, "it's pretty."

"thank you." diluc says and with those two words she leaves the room.

zhongli looks over to diluc, his eyes almost sparkling as he looks at the redhead, "she's right."

"hm?"

"that it's pretty. well, you're pretty." zhongli says and dilucs cheeks flush at the sound of zhongli complimenting him as if he were some naive child.

"you like it?" diluc asks as he combs through the tips of his hair with his fingers.

"of course i do, it's you."