modernity - xiaoven

57.

i am getting so close to the end of this book. which means i can soon go back and edit earlier chapters because holy shit i didn't know how to write these two-

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as the two left xiao's room, lumine sighed at the sight of venti sitting on the fridge, and zhongli telling him to get down.

"alright dumbfucks so i know how the universe is going to be fixed."

"how?" xiao asked, looking at the woman.

"i'm going back to the past. i'm able to do it without aether, it just takes time. and, if all goes to plan, unfortunately, the timeline will reset and your lives in this universe will be drastically different."

"and we wont remember anything, will we?" zhongli asked, locking eyes with lumine.

"right on. now, i'm going to be collecting my belongings i need to leave. i'm going to be heading to my old place. xiao, you're coming with me, because i also need to visit his grave."

"i... am?"

"yeah."

...

"you do know aether'd forgive you, right? you were manipulated."

"i don't want to talk about this right now."

"well we'll talk about it before i leave, xiao."

"fine."

"now, let's get going. i'm parked out front. you go claim a seat while i talk to these two."

xiao nodded, heading outside and to lumine's car.

he laid across the backseat, as he glanced around it. as he had expected, there was the huge photo album that the twins had always had, underneath the front seat.

now that he understood what was in it, he sighed. it had been filled with photos from their journeys across worlds, and he'd taken that away from lumine for years, and he felt worse than he did when he was on trial.

when lumine got in the drivers seat, she sighed as she noticed the way xiao was laying.

"sit up and buckle up, i have no concept of road laws and i intend to break them all while driving, and i'm not murdering you just yet."

"what?"

"nothing. now sit up and get your seatbelt on, while i break road laws in ways even yanfei doesn't know is possible."

----

"how the fuck did we get up here?!"

"xiao, that's for me to know and you to find out."

"lumine, we're on your roof."

"yep."

"and we've run out of gas."

"mhm."

"what the fuck are you going to do?"

"push the car off the roof."

"how is that supposed to work??"

"gravity, and it should land on it's wheels, and if they pop i can replace them, we have spares in the garage."

"lumine, what the fuck."

"shush, xiao, and let me do this."

xiao shook his head, as lumine got out of the car and motioned for him to do the same.

once he was out of the car, she pushed it slowly off the roof, before jumping down. once she and the car were on the ground, xiao also went down.

"i'll go get an extra gas canister from the garage." he said softly, shaken up from the past 5 minutes.

"mkay! i'll go grab my shit from the back room, really quick and then it's time to head to see aether."

"yeah."

as they went their seperate ways, xiao ran a hand through his hair. the past few days had been chaotic. he'd gone from cuddling with his boyfriend, to being the reason that his boyfriend and his past self, had switched bodies.

as he entered the garage he'd spent a few years of his life hanging out in, he spotted the red canister and grabbed it, before noticing it was empty. sighing, he grabbed the other one, and went to refill the car.

lumine came outside moments later, holding two golden swords, and a completely different outfit than the one she was wearing.

"shut up, i love the dress, hate wearing it all the time."

"i didn't say anything."

"yeah yeah. let's go to the cemetery."

xiao nodded, and the two got into the car.