✔ choosing you - old ver.

choice eight

"oh.." hu tao said, now sitting on xiao's couch. "so they're really dead?" xiao looked down. hu tao looked over, patting his back. "hey, it's not your fault." xiao covered his face with his hands and leaned into hu tao. she was shocked, but she still wrapping her arms around the shorter boy. to xiao, her embrace felt just like a mom. 

he doesn't remember his, but hu tao wrapping her arms around him just like he imagined a mother would. hu tao looked down at xiao, trying to not say how shocked she was at his sudden need for comfort. hu tao wasn't one to comfort people, she wasn't ever good at it, but at this moment, xiao needed anything, and what she was doing, was helping him. 

"xiao.." she said quietly, patting his back. "if there's anything you want to talk about, please, tell me." for once xiao nodded, and just stayed where he was with no resistance towards hu tao's hug.

for maybe thirty minutes, hu tao talked to make xiao feel better, while his head laid on her lap, looking up at her. 

"so then yanfei said 'well the law states that you can't-' blah blah blah! she's really into the law talk! she's so cute when she starts blabbing on about the law." hu tao said, her face turning red at the thought of yanfei. 

"you must really like her." xiao said, shifting his weight to grab his phone which had just 'pinged' hu tao looked down and xiao who was looking at his phone. 

"who is it?" she asked. xiao flipped his phone, showing a contact named 'annoying braid'. hu tao read the messages displayed from today.

annoying braid: xiao!

annoying braid is typing...

hu stared as he typed, xiao finally pulling it away so he could see. 

"what did he say?" hu tao asked. 

"he asked to come over," he started. "he's not coming over." he said with a stern voice. hu tao smiled awkwardly. "be nice about it, xiao." xiao grunted, texting the boy back.

me: no, you can't maybe another time.

venti pov:

I watched as xiao started typing, hoping he'd say yes. I was bored, and I had nothing to do.

cute emo boy: no, you can't maybe another time.

I grumbled, letting my phone drop onto my chest. "why not?" I thought, picking my phone up.

me: why not???? I'm super bored

cute emo boy: and?? go do homework or something

"what a jerk," I muttered, shutting my phone off. "well I'll hangout with aether then." he got up, tucking his loose hair behind his ears while he picked up a jacket. he started to walk out the door, something popping into his head to remember to grab his phone. he quickly turned, grabbing his phone and running out of his room, seeing his mom setting her shoes in her cubby with glee attached by her hand.

 "mom?" venti said, taking his shoes. 

"mhm," she hummed, helping klee with her shoes. 

"I'm going over to aethers, lumine may be there too." jean nodded, picking klee up. 

"be careful ven, it's supposed to start raining soon. bring an-" venti had already bolted out, leaving the door open. "I swear that kid.." she muttered, closing the door with one hand, klee in the other.

venti ran down his street, turning a right down "stormterror street" aether lived with his older sister lumine, and they current adopted sister paimon. 

they live alone, they're parents where overseas for a long-term work job, but they called often, every other day if they could. venti walked down, seeing aether and lumines houses and he smiled, walking up the the yellow door. he knocked loudly, the door immediately opening and venti saw lumine poking her head out. 

"ah venti!" she said, a smile on her face as she fully opened the door fro him. 

"hiya lumine! how are you?" he asked, walking in and quickly taking off his shoes. lumine shrugged. 

"why are you over here?" venti stood up, brushing off his clothing. 

"xiao wouldn't let me come over, so I thought you and aether would be better." lumine raised an eyebrow.

 "i'm honoured, but isn't xiao the kid who tried to kill a boy in middle school?" venti looked up at her. 

"kill? no, xiao wouldn't be able to kill someone." he giggled, trying to get rid of his own guilty suspicions. 

"er, sorry to pry into this but what's his last name?" venti made an 'erm' sound before pointed at lumine. 

"Tartaglia." he finally came up with he name, remembering the time where he looked at xiao's name tag in one of their classes. lumine grumbled, walking past venti. 

"he's the one- short bullied kid. the poor guy didn't have any friends. I guess he finally snapped...back then anyways." venti stared, confused at lumines words. he seemed to be pretty popular at school, yet pretty feared by some people. but venti understood why- he looked intimidating when you first meet him. but he couldn't imagined him..trying to hurt somebody- physically hurt someone.

both of them stayed quiet, aether suddenly walking walking out with paimon in his arms.

 "whats with the silence? welcome venti." he said, looking at lumine before smiling at venti. venti nodded, smiling at him as well. 

"thank you aether!" he said, walking towards the male twin. lupine watched as venti and aether walked away, shrugging and grabbing a box of goldfish and walking to her room.

aether set paimon down on his floor, the toddler clapping her hands and walking around the twins room. 

"so venti," aether smiled, looking towards the braided haired male. "how's school? I know you just started this school this year didn't you?" he asked, venti shrugging.

 "I don't even know.." he muttered, falling onto his back. "it's good, though of course schools pretty boring. but-" he sat up again, aether still listening while keeping a distant eye on paimon. "I've met some good people, like xiao and hu tao- ganyu as well." aether nodded. 

"sounds solid, xiao seems only famili-" venti sighed heavily, interrupting aether sentence. 

"if your going to talk about what he did in middle school," venti looked down. "i'm not believing or listening to it." aether shook his head.

 "that's not was I was going to say- though that is a good point." venti crossed his arms. "yeah, yeah, sorry. it seems familiar just from before middle school." venti thought for a minute silently. his eyes suddenly widened before he looked up to aether.

"is he guizhong xiao?"

a/n:

Guizhong was Zhongli's wife which they had xiao together. Zhongli took Guizhong's name, and xiao's last name WAS Guizhong. She passed away, and Zhongli married Childe after which changed xiao's last name to Tartaglia.