WITH LOVE / XIAOVEN

five.

authors note: waow i've gotten so much love on this story thank you guys T___T it makes me so happy! i'm gonna start putting authors notes at the beginning of each chapter bc i wanna communicate with you guys!! anyways today is my last day of highschool and im super happy so enjoy this new chapter! (btw this was originally one huge chapter but i split into two so i hope that's fine!)

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venti nervously laughs after he hears what xiao said, it must be a joke right? right? he must've been joking or maybe it was a prank. but xiao isn't one to necessarily joke about something like this- it'd be odd for him to joke about something like this. even when this would not be the first time for them to sleep together, all those incidents were by accident. this was the first time they would purposely sleep together. but it had to be a joke, right? right?

once he enters the room, it's as clear as day that it is unfortunately not. the bed lays in the middle of the room in silence, freshly made and waiting for someone to lay on it. 

"well," venti sighs as he looks to xiao, who seems deep in thought as he stares at the bed, "what do we do now?" 

"i'm gonna go talk to xingqiu and chongyun- are you coming with me?" xiao says as he begins tying his shoes. 

venti wants to go but he's not in the best shape to go suddenly walking around especially after the plane ride to inazuma but still, he wants to spend time with xiao. even if venti himself is dressed strangely in comparison to xiao with his all black outfit. 

venti slips on his slides with a grin and nods to xiao. once xiao locks the hotel room door, he must notice that something with venti is off- he's much more clumsy than usual and tired. he's more off beat than usual, it must be the insane amount of people walking through the halls and how crowded it was. so xiao does the only thing that makes sense to him. 

venti's heart nearly freezes the second he feels xiao intertwining their hands together. all venti can hear is his own heartbeat in his ears, he can hear xiao on the phone but it feels far away, muffled as if he was covering venti's ears. they walk together, hand in hand, around the hotel. xiao glances at venti and venti can't help but obsess over xiao's features. 

there's something about his eyes. once he looks at venti, it feels as if the whole universe is held in his eyes. his lips are so chewed up- all the anxiety that he has nowhere to put, being dealt with like that. even if xiao doesn't take good care of himself- venti wants him. 

maybe i should kiss you tonight. you're already holding my hand. what's one more step? 

"venti." xiao's voice wakes him from his jumbled thoughts. venti can hear him apologizing, saying something like, "sorry the plane really messed him up. he's not used to it." 

venti stares at the two people in front of them- the taller one has darker blue hair with a soft, sincere smile on his face. the shorter one next to him has a blank stare on his face- venti would find this terrifying if only xiao does not look the exact way. his pale blue hair is messy and fluffed up as if the boy next to him just woke him up. 

they're all introducing themselves when xiao asks exactly what he came here for: "how many beds do you have?" 

"uh, two?" xingqiu says, confused by xiao's question, "but we're probably going to share one bed since it's big enough for both of us."