Ignite

puzzel;

-flashback-

⸻ Tuesday, 3.52 pm, 1 year ago

"Venti, Heizou, Kazuha!" Ningguang called from outside the dorm. Beside her was a brooding Xiao with a backpack full of his things. He was still thinking about his friends who had gone from this world. Because the school did not permit students to have a dorm to themselves (in case something were to happen and they couldn't call for help), students had to share the dorm with at least another person. This meant that Xiao not only had to deal with the loss of his friends but also find a way out of his introverted shell and speak. 

But Hell, it was hard. 

__

The three young boys let their teacher and Xiao into the dorm, Kazuha offering drinks, to which the guests declined. Venti plopped onto a sofa opposite Xiao and beside Kazuha, while Heizou sat to the left of Ningguang. Xiao sat gingerly on the chair furthest from the others. 

"So, due to some circumstances, Xiao will be moving in with you all," the teacher said carefully, not wanting to make anyone uncomfortable. The boys nodded knowingly. Talk spread fast in their school. 

"Xiao, I'll show you the two empty rooms. You get to pick," Heizou said warmly, standing up and gesturing to a door. Xiao followed him silently. 

The rooms were all side-by-side and the same size. There really was no difference except for the shade of the walls. Heizou had picked a light brown, Kazuha the beige and Venti... the pink, to which he had decorated heavily with posters and artworks, if not that then instruments scattered across the room. The other rooms were a pastel green and white. Xiao obviously picked the green (who would pick white like who is that basic?? I'm sorry to all the white-wallers). He chucked his bag on the ground next to his bed then met Heizou and the rest outside. Ningguang took her leave and Venti suggested a tour. 

There really wasn't much to see that Xiao hadn't already. After all, all school dorms were the same. However, Kazuha gave him tips like how to make the warm water last longer in the shower and which tiles to avoid because they were wobbly. Xiao thought Kazuha was pretty chill and he wouldn't mind sharing a dorm with him. Heizou was smart and disturbed Xiao rarely. 
In fact, Venti was the only one that actively spoke to Xiao, offering to show him a newly-opened arcade or go for karaoke together. Xiao didn't mind. It just reminded him painfully of his old friends. He rejected each and every one of Venti's offers, not because he despised the guy, just because he thought it would be awkward with only 2 of them. And he was petrified of the thought of breaking down from his mental stress. 

Venti, being a social butterfly, caught on to this quickly. So the next weekend, during breakfast, he suggested all of them go out for lunch together. There would be more people, which would reduce the tension. Heizou didn't mind and Kazuha was free the whole weekend.

"Come on, Xiao. It'll be weird if it's just us and we left you alone! And Ningguang will think we're leaving you out!" Venti begged, poking his roommate's arm. Xiao, not wanting to disappoint them, agreed. Just this once, he told himself. 

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"OH MY GOD, WHAT DO I WEAR?!" Venti yelled from his room. It was near lunchtime and they had planned to head to the nearby mall to eat. Xiao was reading on his bed, but when he heard Venti's cry, he put down the book and wondered if he should change. Was it normal amongst them to change clothes for every hangout, or was it a Venti thing? 

Heizou had left the house early for a doctor's appointment and would meet them directly at the mall, so Kazuha had to deal with Venti's outfit choices, which apparently, he was used to. 
Xiao joined them in the living room and watched Venti pull out three different sets of clothes. He then launched into an entire essay about each set, as though a stranger on the street would interrogate him about his choice of clothing, and he needed to be heavily prepared. 

As he rambled on, Xiao noticed a guitar pick necklace on Kazuha's neck. 

"Kazuha, you play the guitar?" he asked. Kazuha turned to him and bobbed his head, instinctively touching his necklace. 

"Yeah! I play too, don't you, Xiao?" Venti said. Xiao shook his head. He never had any interest in musical instruments. In fact, Menogias was the only one who played in their friend group; and even then it wasn't the guitar. 

"I'll teach you," Kazuha proposed. Xiao smiled - for the first time in days - and nodded. After that, the conversation between the three of them eased. Venti ended up wearing green cargos and and his second favourite oversized sweater, which Kazuha had suggested. 

__

They picked the cheapest restaurant they could find to save Heizou's broke ass. Talking became easy. Xiao no longer felt a weight in his chest when he saw Venti play with his pasta the way Bosacious used to; no longer felt the need to compare Kazuha's contemplative silence and quiet observations to Bonanus' soft monologues. 

"Xiao, what're you thinking?" Heizou asked, wiggling a piece of veggie under said man's nose. Xiao took the chance to chomp the vegetable (Heizou laughed) and shrugged off the question. 

He hadn't really been thinking. He was just feeling happy. But something felt missing - like he was so close to finishing a puzzle but he wasn't sure how it was supposed to look like, so he couldn't assume he was done. 

He would still exchange Heizou, Venti and Kazuha for his old friends back. He was still willing to do anything for them to reappear. 

And he didn't feel like he deserved to be part of the happiness that his new friends had. They were something and... he just wasn't.

So when would he stop feeling like this? 

*(^u^)*

thank you for reading!! it's almost exam season for me so im gna post as many chapters as i can before i go on my longest ever hiatus (actually ive been pretty inactive ;-; im so sorry)

also should i do a venti OOTD? if so, do yall hv any outfit suggestions or requests? 

once again, tysm for reading, it means a lot <333

- kiironing