The Grim Reaper is Often Beautiful (Xiao x Venti)

Chapter 6: To Celestia

Thump-

Xiao collapsed onto his bed and sighed to himself. Everyday when he got home, he'd think over everything that happened. Most of the time this period lasted up to 5 minutes, but with the new factor in place- Venti, Xiao could lay down and drown himself in his thoughts for hours.

Venti's braided hair that flew in the spring breeze, his eyes dazzled like jewels, and his body seemed almost listless at times. True beauty.

Xiao shut out those thoughts and opened up his phone to check Instagram... it's not like he ever bothers to do his homework anyways.

Xiangling on her 10th cooking competition of the month... Chongyun being featured once again in Xinqiu's pranks... Itto's horrible graffiti... Beidou for some reason is on an illegal trip to Inazuma with Aether... Lumine formed a cult? Oh Yae Publishing House has new light novels...

There was one post that really caught his eye-

"THE FUTURE IS HERE! Rex Lapis' Restaurant- Now hiring!" An ad for the local restaurant in Liyue?

Future...

Xiao went back to his lecture with his teacher. They were right, he had to start thinking about his future sooner or later and he couldn't escape it. Perhaps Venti falling that day made Xiao realize his own mortality.

What do I want my future to be like?

He suddenly thought of Venti, a memory of him smiling.

After saving the picture and scrolling through all of his home pages' photos and stories, Xiao rubbed his eyes and checked the time- no way, 3am already?

The sun was already starting to shine, making the sky a shade of pink.

He quickly shut his phone after realizing this and closed his eyes.

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Venti looked down at his shoes as he walked along the halls of Teyvat Highschool.

"Hey Venti!" Someone called from a classroom.

He put on a flashy smile, "Greetingsss!"

Although the student didn't know it, Venti had dropped the smile right after a quick laugh and wave. He wasn't double faced or heartless, no, he was something else.

He was soon to be guilty.

As Venti dragged his feet to a familiar yet haunting door that lead to some staircases, he also reminded himself not to have any second thoughts, not again, not this time.

At least that's what he told himself every time.

Pushing open the door like he already accepted this fate, he was then shocked to see a familiar face- golden, sharp eyes, dark hair with turquoise streaks, and a short figure.

Xiao.

He was standing on top of the stairs like he'd been expecting Venti, and there was some dark circles under his eyes- although light, it was visible that he'd gotten only a few hours of sleep.

"Venti," Xiao spoke, his voice was rough, but it was spoken in a soft tone, "I won't let you go this time."

Venti chuckled to himself, "Ha! I should've known you'd be guarding here..."

"W-what's so funny?" Xiao asked, he was confused about Venti's sudden laugh, "Are you sick?"

Seeing Xiao like this, oblivious, overly worried, and so cautious. Venti liked that about him, this boy was rumoured to be some edgy thorn that hated everyone, but figuring him out was as easy as singing the ABCs.

"No I'm fine, don't worry about it- now let me go to-" Venti tried to push himself and run up to the roof, but Xiao stopped him mid-way.

"You're staying down here till dismissal!" Xiao grumbled, he was oddly very- no, INCREDIBLY strong. Venti struggled to worm out of his grasp.

"Ughhh...." Venti groaned and gave up as he was carried like a package to his classroom.

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Xiao carefully placed Venti on his seat and people stared judgmentally at him. Not anything could ever damage Venti's god-like reputation and Xiao's was already broken beyond repair, so he didn't really care about the scene, as long as Venti was safe, he was fine.

Besides, over their conversations, Xiao had grown to know Venti more than anyone, the poet's other side that he hid from the public was only private to the two boys.

"Xiao, I'd like to speak to you." The teacher called from across the room, Xiao obediently came up to his desk and asked, "Yes, sir?"

"About uh, the task for University ? Did you finish it yet? I'd like to know, at least, your progress."

Ah... Xiao had completely forgotten about that...

As he awkwardly avoided the teacher's gaze, they sighed, "That's fine, Xiao, but do you have any ideas yet? If you want, you can ask Zhongli, Ei or Ven-"

That's right!

Venti. Xiao wanted to save Venti from falling each time. He wanted to stay close by his side.

He wanted his future to be with Venti.

In a sudden rush, Xiao ran to Venti's desk and frantically shook him, "Tell me, what school are you planning on attending to?!?!"

"Wha-" Venti head rocked, and he was beyond confused about Xiao's weird question, "Umm, School of Celestia, wh- ow my head, why?"

Celestia was the number one top school for only the best students, no way Xiao could make it to that one without a special talent. But he didn't care about that, that could be solved later.

Finally, Xiao released Venti and quickly wrote down something on a slip of paper. He ran, quite swiftly, to the teacher and presented his slip.

They were surprised, "School of Celestia? Are you sure?"

Xiao nodded, "Yes, I'm 100% sure."

"Well," they slightly smiled and spoke with some worry mixed with a bit of hesitation, "I'm glad you aim high, Xiao. You know, I always knew you had a special talent somewhere... it's going to be hard but, you can do it."

"Thanks..." Xiao mumbled to himself, he was grinning inside, although he didn't show it- he definitely was inside.

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