The Adeptus and The Oni (*platonic* Itto and Xiao College AU)

Chapter Seven: Reunion

//Content Warning: Mentions of death, Mentions of family member's death//

The next day around noon, Xiao had just picked up his bag for class and was about to open the door to leave, but he was soon interrupted as Itto opened the door from the other side.

"Oh hey, Xiao, about to leave for class?" The Oni asked.

"Yeah, but never mind me, why are you back so early? Shouldn't you have class until 2?"

"The instructor had to cancel class today, so I'm back early! Ain't that great?" Itto said excitedly.

"I guess. Anyways I'll be on my way now. Don't die while I'm gone, Itto; if you do, I'll have to call up my old roommate." Xiao retorted.

"Alright, alright, I'll try my best. See 'ya later!"

The Adeptus then promptly passed by his roommate to get to class.

•••

A certain green-haired Yaksha sauntered down the sidewalk leading to the Performing Arts building of Liyue University, or LiUPA for short. As he reached the steps leading up to the building, he glanced up to the entrance and saw someone he recognized about to enter the building.

"Venti? Archons, I haven't seen you in forever!" Xiao exclaimed. "You said you'd still be at school even after moving in with your brother, but I haven't seen you in weeks! Where've you been? How's your brother?"

Surprised by the sudden bombardment of questions, the bard turned around quickly to respond rather despondently, "Oh, Xiao. Yeah, it's been a while, hasn't it? How's it going?"

"You didn't answer my question, Venti! What's up with you today? You seem so down ... is it ... about your brother?" The Adeptus asked, concerned.

After a moment of unnerving silence from the usually upbeat bard, Venti suddenly broke out into tears. Xiao, surprised by this, ran up the steps to his old roommate.

While trying to comfort his companion, Xiao mumbled, "Forget about class, let's go somewhere else..."

A few minutes later, the two of them were sitting in a nearly empty cafe near campus. They sat there in silence only broken by occasional sniffles from Venti as his sobbing subsided.

Breaking the silence, Xiao finally spoke up, "Hey, if you want to talk, I'm right here."

Sniffling throughout his speech, the bard finally responded, "My brother, he was sick, and he- he's always been very frail. But, recently it- it got really bad. So I moved in with him at the beginning of th-the semester to take care of him. He started doing better after I moved in, but then, suddenly, it got so bad he had to stay in the hospital. And- and h-he didn't last much longer after that..."

"Oh Venti, I didn't know... I'm sorry about that. I know you were really close to him-"

Cutting the Adeptus off, Venti suddenly burst out, "WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE HIM? HE WAS ALWAYS THE MORE DETERMINED TWIN. HE WAS SO AMBITIOUS THAT IT INSPIRED ME! WHY?" The bard paused, transitioning back to a more fragile tone, punctuated by sniffles once again, "Wh-why? He was the one with goals in life, yet he was the one who couldn't even achieve them. Why, why did he have to die?"

Ignoring the looks they were getting from the barista taking a break in the corner of the cafe, Xiao got up from his seat to comfort his companion once more.

"I ... I know how you feel. It's alright Venti, the pain will fade over time. It'll all be alright ..."

<<Thanks for reading! This chapter got a little sad, didn't it? Sorry if Xiao is a little OOC. Let me know what you think. See you guys on the 10th!!>>