✔ choosing you - old ver.

choice twenty five

"I'm going to school what the hell do you think?" Ei questioned, Venti standing up on his own. 

"Well duh," He crossed his arms. "But i thought you went to a different school!" He huffed, Ei setting her hands on her hips and sighing. 

"I was, but i moved!" She took a breath to compose herself, before smiling. 

"So 'Barbatos'," She said, "I see you've gotten close to Alatus." Venti looked down the hallway, then back to Ei. 

"Well firstly his name is Xiao, not Alatus, and secondly, yes i have." He sighed, trying to stand his ground and hide the fact he's excited to see his old friend.

"Fine. So you're friends with Xiao?" Venti nodded. 

"Yeah..friends, you can call it that." He smiled, leaving Ei confused. 

"What does that mean?" Venti shrugged. 

"I dunno?" Ei sighed, crossing her arms. 

"You're being more annoying than i remember. Anyways, Is he doing fine?" She asked, like she was genuinely worried. 

"Uh? I mean, I guess so? I don't really know I don't ask him as often as i probably should.." Venti frowned at the thought.

"What? Aren't you dating? You should at-least be more-" She immediately stopped her sentence. Venti stared at her before bursting into a fit of laughter, catching the eyes of some passing students. 

"You already knew? What's with confused face a second ago then?" He continues to laugh, Ei waiting impatiently for him to calm down.

"I was confused because I wanted an actual answer since the rumours are bad here about you two. I mean, you should have expected this if you wanted to keep it quiet and under wraps." She shrugged continuing on. 

"I mean, even I saw you guys at the music rooms! You're so obvious, and as the most popular and the prettiest boys in schools, there's going to be people who will-"

Venti smiled. "I know. I have no issue with people knowing, I think Xiao does. That's why I've been trying to be more friendly out in public but, it's hard!!" He complained, Ei sighing.

"Yeah well, you kind of just have to deal with it." She set a hand on Venti's shoulder. "You'll be fine, just..get together already. 'Kay?" Venti sighed, shrugging. 

"Maybe."

+

Xiao set his bag down on the little hill where the cherry tree was. Venti mentioned it by text once before, and today they agreed to eat lunch here. He sat down, leaning his back against the tree and closing his eyes.

He felt something fall on his face, and he reluctantly opened his eyes to see a cherry blossom on his nose. He lifted his head, the pink coloured petal falling slowly to the ground. "Sorry." He apologized to the petal who was now laying on the green grass.

"Who're you saying sorry too?" Xiao flinched, flipping his head quickly towards the voice. 

"Oh, Venti." He breathed out, his heartbeat slowing. 

"Hello~" He smiled, sitting down by Xiao and leaning his head against the other with a sigh. "Well it's a pretty day, right?"

He closed his teal eyes, Xiao staring at him. 

"Yeah." He said plainly, the other boy letting out a small and barely audible laugh. 

"Yeah.." He agreed, Xiao finally turning his gaze else where. " if you're tired, go ahead and sleep. We can eat lunch at break." Venti smiled, not saying anything to the other boys idea. "I'll take that as a yes." His face didn't change as he closed his own eyes.

"Hey, Xiao?" Xiao opened his eyes, looking at the blue sky. 

"Hm." He hummed, Venti leaning his head off of Xiao's. He turned his head, seeing Venti leaned over digging in his bag for something. "What are you looking for? "He asked, Venti staying quiet.

Xiao was surprised when an envelope suddenly appeared directly in front of his face, Venti having a smile as he presented it to him. "Go ahead and open it now." Xiao stared at him for a moment before taking the envelope slowly. 

"Who is it from?"

Venti sighed, leaning his head back against Xiao. "Me of course." Xiao nodded, tearing open the envelope to get the the actual letter. His heart was pounding as he did, thinking of every possibility of what this letter could be. 

 "Right." he responded, unfolding the letter to see the writing (which was definitely venti's) in a long few paragraph letter. 

"Why can't you just tell me all of this.." He sighed, starting to read the letter he was given.

hello dear Xiao-xiao!

good day to you, and i know it's a little awkward to read a letter from me haha~ but, i really can't say this out loud without getting extremely embarrassed! so writing it is? i just wanted you to really know, i like you! a lot, and i'm pretty sure you've known that for a while. if you haven't, dang..

i think the first time i heard of you was from venti. venti realllllly like you! he always talked about you when he'd visit me in the hospital. if he never said anything, i wasn't allowed to play outside. everything made me sick, and i was very fragile. i still am in some respects. but since he loved you so much, it made me curious, who was this xiao? 

i saw you for the first time at venti's funeral. you had shorter hair, and you seemed very angry but your eyes were still so pretty. i could understand why venti fell for you. after that i never saw you again... and i kind of forgot about you momentarily! then i came to this school. 

i saw you, and i immediately fell in love all over again. i guess twins have the same type? you were even prettier than when i first saw you. really! i couldn't help but stare at you all of class. i..don't know how you ended up liking someone like me, but i'm so glad. i'm so so so glad. i hope we can be happy together...forever. 

i've been slowly getting over venti's death using 'healthier' ways than before, as my mom says, and i hope you don't get upset or anything. i really love you too much for you to leave me! 

so xiao tartaglia, will you be my boyfriend? like, officially? i know it's been more friends with weird additives right now, but i really want to call you my boyfriend. you know? uh, so will you? 

- venti   

Xiao re-read the letter one more time, his face red and flushed. "Venti..." The boy only smiled, his eyes closed once again. He looked peaceful, the wind blowing his hair, making it the slightest bit messy. 

"So?" he said quietly. "What do you say Xiao?" Xiao could only stare. As much as he wanted to answer right away, nothing would come out. Venti continued to smile. "Want to start dating?"

+ 

hi everyone ! it's xing and I'M SO SORRY-

i know i've been dead with this story for quite some time and i'm honestly just trying to throw an ending in here, and get it over with so i can have more fun with different shows and stories and JUST OTHER THINGS

so, yes, thank you all for the support, i love every one of you T-T

(ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ ♥