a thousand paper cranes - xiaoven au short

.chp2.

as night falls , the neighbourhood he lives in gradually falls silent. everyone goes back into their home , going to rest for the night in order to greet the next morning with ease. xiao sits on his bed , a stack of papers in front of him. picking up a piece , he picks up where he left off.

"176 , 177 , 178..."

he continues to fold and fold , till his eyes are hazed over because he kept kept rubbing his eyes to stay awake.

"that's 300.. i should sleep now..."

his words slurs from drowsiness, struggling to keep his eyes open.

gently scooping up the cranes , he walks towards the door where a paper bag hung. carefully , he pours the cranes in , watching them fall into the bag. on the way back , he turns off the lights and crawls into bed.

.

"xiao!! xiaooooo!!!!" a voice calls out.

xiao turns around , trying to find the direction the voice came from.

"yahooo !! xiao , over here !" the voice calls out again.

finally being able to sense the direction of the voice , xiao turns around to see venti, standing in a patch of glowing dandelions.

venti , who stands in between the tall dandelions , waves at xiao to come over. without hesitation , xiao runs over , immediately enveloping venti in a hug which knocked them over in the process. together , they laid in the grass , laughing to their hearts' content.

their laughter soon dies down , hand in hand , they both stare at each other.

"venti.."

"i miss you, so , so much"

venti smiles softly at xiao , his eyes slowly tearing up.

"xiao.."

stretching his hand up towards the sky, he lets out a hollow laugh.

"while birds fly free in the sky, here i am, my wings clipped. how i long to fly with the birds, the feeling of freedom to do what i want." he sighs

venti hesitates , gripping xiao's hand tighter.

"xiao..

.

.

.

free me. "