✔ choosing you - old ver.

choice fourteen

"so you're telling me he's sick?" hu tao looked to ganyu who just came back from grabbing a thermometer. 

"I'm assuming, though I'm not sure how long he's been walking." hu tao chuckled. 

"he's more of an idiot than I thought!" ganyu nudged her, telling her to stop. "

can you grab his phone? it's on the counter." ganyu asked, pointing to the counter. hu tao sighed, walking over. 

"Jean has called him 10 times," she said, walking back and reading his notifications. 

"albedo texted twice, and those where both send 30 minutes or so ago." ganyu tapped her chin. 

"call mrs. Jean back, I'll call xiao." hu tao nodded, tapping on Jean's missed calls, which led the phone to immediately call back. ganyu walked away, calling xiao at the same time hu tao was calling Jean.

"Mrs. Jean?" hu tao said, looking down at venti who looked miserably sick. 

"hu tao? is venti there? you're calling on his phone- is he?" hu tao nodded her head, even though jean couldn't see it. 

"he's here, but I think he's down with a fever. He looks pretty bad." hu tao could hear jean putting shoes on. 

"he has a fever? I'll be right there, please take care of his for a couple more minutes. i'll be right there." hu tao practically had question marks surrounding her head.

 "alright, a fever is nothing to get too worried about mrs. Jean," hu tao said, "he's going to be fine!" she smiled, jean not answering. 

"just, take care of him." she said after a few seconds. 

"be right there, Hu tao." the call abruptly ended, leaving hu tao just as confused. 

"did she hangup on me?" she asked herself, frowning when she found out she did. "jeez venti- your mom is worried now." hu tao huffed, venti not responding back.

"xiao?" ganyu said nervously.

 "what?" xiao said, the anger in his voice clear. 

"uhm.." ganyu stuttered, continuing on. "v-venti caught a fever and I'm just wondering if you knew what happened-" xiao cut her off his his words. 

"I don't care. I never want to see him again, and you guys shouldn't either." xiao seemed even more angry than he did when ganyu first answered the phone. 

"but xiao! fevers can be serious! you can't just leave him, we can't leave him here! people have died from fevers before.." she lowered her voice. she always thinks ahead..right? 

"ganyu, like I said," xiao took a breath. "I don't care if he dies from an illness!" he almost seemed more sad than angry, but ganyu still tried to reason. 

"xiao? what happened between you two! this is-" ganyu paused when she heard nothing from the phone. she removed it from her ear and her face saddened when she saw he hung up. 

"xiao..."

+

"ganyu! you're back! what happened?" hu tao asked, replacing the wet towel on venti's head. 

"something happened between xiao and venti.." ganyu said quietly, kneeling down besides hu tao. 

"what about Mrs. Jean?" She asked, hu tao nodding. 

"she should be here in a minute or so-" ganyu looked over at the door which had just been rung. hu tao smiled. 

"that's probably her!" ganyu stood up, walking over to the door and opening it. ganyu saw jean, covered in a thin jacket, her hair placed on her shoulders and her face full of worry. 

"mrs. Jean..He's just over here," ganyu pointed to venti laying on the couch. Jean walked in, taking her shoes off as quick as she could, and turning to venti. 

"ven.." she said quietly, walking over and kneeling down. "thank you both for taking care of him. I should take him for the doctors before this gets out of hand.." hu tao stood up, tilting her head to the side. 

"why does he need to go to the doctors? It's just a fever Mrs. Jean." ganyu nudged hu tao again. 

"that's rude to say Hu Tao.." she whispered, hu tao apologising to ganyu. Jean walked over, slipping her shoes on again and walking back over to her son. 

"Thank you again, I'm so sorry this happened." she leaned over picking venti up. she turned to the two high schoolers and bowed her head. 

"come over for dinner sometime, alright?" she smiled, quickly shuffling out of the door before either of the two said anything. Hu tao looked to Ganyu, who looked at Hu Tao. 

"what just happened?" hu tao asked, ganyu shrugging. 

"she may be seriously about illness, i'm not sure." hu tao shrugged, leaning on Ganyu. 

"erugh," she stuck her tongue out. 

"I'm tired." Ganyu sighed.

"go to bed then," she suggested, though immediately getting denied by hu tao.

+

xiao sat in his room, after finally deciding to go home. His phone was on his desk, after he angrily set it there after his call with ganyu. he was about to cover himself with covers before he heard talking from downstairs. 

"Zhongli, how did you get that Lyre? and why would you have me give it to him?" Xiao sat up, walking to his door and opening it quietly. 

"Childe, I told you. Theres no point in questioning my choice." Xiao went to the top of the stairs and sitting down to be able to see both Childe and zhongli standing in the living room, seemingly fighting. 

"there is! Now your son may hate me!" Childe fought back, surprising xiao with his actions. 

"my son?" zhongli questioned. he grabbed onto chilled shoulders, not hard enough to actually injure him, but still-enough to make him listen. 

"he's your son too, Childe. Please remember that. Theres a reason I had you give the Lyre instead of me." zhongli said firmly, Childe titling his head down towards the floor. 

"sorry." he said. xiao water the two of them, weirded out by the fact Childe said sorry. but more than that, He was confused about the Lyre. how did Zhongli get that Lyre? And why did he give it to him? all of the confused xiao, but one thing he knew.

he didn't want to have to see that lyre, or venti again.


+

hihi >:D I'm thinking this is turning out to be more of an angst story ;-; with a happy ending? maybe? anyways yeah! it's is much nicer typing on a computer, and I can get these chapters done so much faster than before. thank you all for suffering with me while I waited for my screen to be replaced, I appreciate it! hope you're doing well and I'll hopefully see you sometime again this week or next!

- author xing