✔ choosing you - old ver.

an extra choice

a little extra for what we've achieved! thank you all for the reads and support! 

( REVISED AUGSUST 26TH 2022 )

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"why don't you do better? alatus, you're disappointing my family! my family i spent so long building and perfecting! and A isn't good enough!" she yelled, voice echoing through the empty hall ways of the one story too big house. the little boy, the one exposed to so many grown-up topics, the one who matured too early. the one who was yelled at and mentally abused. the one who was just only in sixth grade. 

"but mom! i got the best grade in class! i'm doing eighth grade math!" he tried to protest, holding paper up and pointing at the messily written, 'GOLD STAR ALATUS!' by his advanced math teacher. 

his eyes started to water, feeling deprived of the parental love he needed. feeling deprived  of the support from his only family he needed. "why don't you love me?" he cried, his mother's face only changing to be more and more disgusted with her child. 

"because you're not doing what i asked you to! i don't care it's eighth grade math! i don't care if it's one hundred times harder than what you're doing! you have to get the perfect score each time. that's what i got, that's what your father got, that's what our entire family gets!" she yelled, continuing to try to explain her point to her young son.

"b-but, i am doing good! everyone tells me! why won't you?" he pleaded, the poor boy just wanting some recognition from her. anything. 

"you..." she started. she had the look of regret, but annoyance at the same time. "whatever. you did good." she said. if her son was older, he would have known she was forced to say it. he would have known she didn't mean it. he would have known she didn't love him. 

"really..?" he said, the tears stopping slowly, a smile forming on the once sad and upset face. "aha!" he laughed, jumping up and down. "mom thinks i did good! i love you!" he cheered, happily skipping out of the room.

"i hate that kid." she muttered, a little too loudly.

xiao's eyes shot open as cold sweat dripped down his face. he sat up, staring at the plain white wall in front of him, catching his breath. he put his hand to his face, closing his eyes.

"what are you doing?"

xiao immediately turned his head, seeing venti beside him. his hair knotted and messy. seems he had just woken up too.

venti stared at him, not saying anything, just staring in confusion. like he was saying 'what happened?' or 'are you okay?' xiao broke eye contact, feeling too embarrassed to respond. he was worried of what his boyfriend would think of him. 

"xiao?" xiao looked back up at venti, the boy finally trying to voice his concerns for the younger. xiao sighed, running a hand through his bedhead. "i'm fine. go back to sleep, venti." the german-japanese boy leaned over, reaching his hand over to meet xiao's face. "w-what're you doing?" xiao stuttered, getting even more embarrassed now venti was getting closer to him. it felt like he was reading xiao's mind- everything he knew that venti didn't would eventually be found out. 

"it was a nightmare. nothing too serious." xiao finally admitted, looking down, trying to find anything more interesting than venti's beautiful face.

 venti let go of xiao, he sighed heavily. "jeez, it did take you a while to admit that. what about? ghosts?" he teased, giggling a little. xiao continued to look down, clearly not happy with venti's statement.

"sorry, wrong time." venti cleared his throat, now himself being embarrassed. "would you like to talk about it?" venti suggested, knowing it might be a little hard for the chinese to give in.

"sorry ven, i don't want to bother you with that kind of stuff," xiao said quietly. "it's nothing you should worry about. things are in the past right?" he smiled, despite the nasty nightmare he had about his family, venti always made him calm. 

"what do you mean..?" venti frowned. he set his hand on top of his boy friends. "xiao, i want to be burdened with all your burdened with. and vise versa. we're dating, and i want to know everything. even the bad things," venti continued talking, making the younger somewhat uncomfortable, but leaving him feeling loved at the same time. 

"you're my world xiao, so i want you to tell me anything. everything. i love you!" he said loudly, probably waking the neighbours thanks to the cheap thin walls of the apartment complex.

xiao's face turned a shade of red he's not often seen in. "i-i mean," he doesn't mean to stutter, but when he's talking to venti he can't help it. he gets embarrassed. "it was just about my mom. she wanted a perfect family, you know? but it became obsessive, abusive." he shrugged, venti nodding understandingly. 

"i love her, she didn't love me. i wanted recognition from her, she wanted straight A's." he finished, deciding to make the story a lot shorter for his sake and venti's. venti was visibly upset, but xiao knew he wouldn't say anything else on the matter. 

"let's," venti paused before getting up and standing. "let's go make something to eat?" he suggested, not knowing exactly what he should do to help xiao. 

xiao smiled softly at his boyfriends silliness, before standing and nodding his head after grabbing onto the taller boys  hand. "sure, ramen? onigiri? oh, what about shrimp crackers?" xiao kept suggesting foods, as he was getting more and more hungry. 

the german laughed lovingly. "whatever you want i'll make!" 

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thank you for all the support on choosing you! this was an extra chapter i wrote that doesn't exactly relate to the story. a different timeline if you will. 

thank you again!