Flowers apart

a f t e r (bonus chapter [1])

"So let me get this straight," Xiao started. "Everyone went through a reincarnation except for me?"

"Uh, if you put it that way?" Venti shrugged. "I don't know, but everyone from my past seemed to exist here in the future, some with just different colour hair and eyes, so yea, most likely."

Funnily enough, after Venti's sudden return, everyone – as in the security - freaked out enough to call up the police and Jean, resulting in both Xiao and Venti being put under temporary house arrest inside Venti's plush, cosy stand-alone condo. Lumine and Aether disappeared to who-knows-where – but no one was searching for them right now anyway, so Venti can only hope that the two has escaped unscathed to another universe already before they realise that Venti's disappearance and appearance was connected to them.

They say that locking them in was for safety, and that Xiao was a suspicious person considering that he has never shown up in Venti's modern life before until he went missing.

But since Venti seemed oddly comfortable enough with the 'stranger', they decided to let them stay together for the time being in the house while the world around them goes crazy trying to sort out everything else.

And so what did the two lovers did? Catch up with each other of course, snuggling up on the couch and pretending like the world wasn't melting all around them just because of them. If Venti tries hard enough, he could pretend that it was just another peaceful summer, another peaceful day with his boyfriend, and he wasn't under house arrest-

"By the way, I'm curious, what did you do to warrant their suspicion exactly?" Venti asked, shifting his head slightly so that he could lighten his weight on Xiao's shoulder.

"Hm...you didn't give me the exact date, so when the news of your disappearance went up I roughly guessed that you had already went back. Then a month after you went missing, I started showing up at your house. Loitered around a bit everyday...I even tried to pretend to be paparazzi in a crowd once," Xiao chuckled, and Venti lifted an eyebrow, visibly amused and trying to hold back his laughter with the imagination of Xiao grabbing a camera and scouting in a crowd. "You tried to pretend to be paparazzi?"

"What, desperate times call for desperate measures," Xiao retorted, then relaxed back into Venti. "But then when the paparazzi stopped coming, I couldn't really hide anymore when I walked around your estate. So they got suspicious of me. Then today I think security really got ticked off and ordered me to leave, but then your cheeky ass finally arrived and swooped me away from trouble. Temporary, of course," he poked at Venti's stomach as he said, making Venti pull away instantly to avoid the tickles.

"H-hey, stop it!" Venti laughed as the finger mercilessly attacked his stomach, and no matter how hard he tried to escape, Xiao would always pull him back and continue his relentless tickle assault.

"I surrender, I surrender!" Venti shouted in between giggles, and Xiao, who was smirking in victory, finally stopped.

Suddenly, a familiar tune drifted out of Xiao's pocket, and Venti, who was half-sitting on Xiao's lap, could feel the subtle vibrations coming from his phone.

"Wait, is that 'Non-existent'?" Venti pointed out as he heard his own voice singing to the melancholic melody. Xiao's ears were tipped red as he drew his phone out and cancelled the alarm.

"Oh...so you set my songs as your alarm ringtones!" Venti teased, edging closer to Xiao. "That's so sweet!"

"That song was dedicated to me, wasn't it? Even if you didn't really know me?" Xiao cut in.

"Uh...yes?" Venti said a little slowly, not really knowing what he was trying to say.

"I guessed as much. And that's so sweet~" Xiao cooed just like Venti did, and Venti made a face before bursting into laughter. "Hey, that's not fair! You can't use my words against me!" he cried.