TURBULENT / XIAOVEN

six

authors note:  oh heyyyy ahaha !!!! trying not to lose motivation for this fic or else im gonna scream and also not to mention im currently having a sexuality crisis so i feel FUCKING INSANE!!!!! also this chapter is shorter than usual. my bad LOL enjoy it tho <3

_________________

xiao can’t help but feel, well, fucking insane the second he sees zhongli. it was all so odd– his brother who had been missing for almost a decade had finally shown up and when he did, it was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. how fun. 

zhongli stares at xiao in shock, “oh… oh is that really you?” 

xiao’s nervous. he’s not even sure that’s how he should describe it. he looks… different. actually fuck that, he knows he looks extremely different. his hair is way shorter, his voice is almost as deep as zhonglis which says a whole lot, and his whole demeanor has changed since when zhongli had last seen him from when he was ten years old. 

xiao nods, “yup, it’s me.” 

zhongli stares at him for a bit before furrowing his brows, “why is your voice so deep, jinpeng? don’t tell me you’re on drugs or something, oh god.” 

while zhongli is stressing out, rubbing his temples in pain, xiao groans, “no, i’m not, really! i mean besides my prescriptions, no!” 

zhongli nods slowly, “uh-huh and do you mind telling me who this… weird guy is behind you?” 

xiao whips his head around quickly to see it’s just xingqiu standing there awkwardly, observing the two interact. 

“that is xingqiu.” xiao says, gesturing to him. xingqiu stands there and waves awkwardly at xiao’s brother. 

zhongli nods slowly, “uh-huh, nice to meet you xingqiu,” zhongli leans down to xiao’s height, “who is he? your boyfriend? last time i thought you had a crush on ganyu but it’s been nine years so that could have faded but still, what is the relationship between you two? and out of curiosity what happened with you and ganyu?” 

xiao covers his face with his hands, “i am not discussing this with you, especially considering it has been nine years since i’ve seen you and this is the first thing you want to discuss.” 

“so you two are dating?” 

“god no.” xiao says, “he’s just a friend and he has a boyfriend anyway. also, about the ganyu thing, we did date and it did not work out, thank you for asking though.” 

“aw, i’m so sorry, jin,” zhongli says as he ruffles the shorter mans hair. 

“whatever.” xiao scoffs, “she’s married to some lady now so it’s not as if it was going to work out due to the whole gender thing, you know?” 

zhongli furrows his brows, “aren’t you also…?”

xiao stares at him and no words are being exchanged until he asks zhongli, “what gender do you think i am? just asking out of curiosity.” 

“a woman…?” zhongli says, unsure until he looks into xiao’s deadpanned eyes and realizes, “i’m stupid, aren’t i?” 

xiao promptly nods, “you are. yep.” 

zhongli groans, “i’m so sorry. just explain everything i’ve missed during my nine year hiatus with the family.”