TURBULENT / XIAOVEN

twenty six

authors notes: dottores real name got revealed but like... im still calling him dottore idgaf (also the fact that dottore is canonically nonwhite... LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOO !!!!!)  also kunikuzushi leaks... ueueueueu im cryogn

erm. also this is kinda another filler chapter sorry lol but hey!! more insight into how the little group was formed!! i prommy more eventful chapters will be happening soon !!

lily qotd: i know hu tao the type to write one direction fanfic at her fathers funeral I JUST KNOW IT!!!!!

cws— past abuse, mentions of murder & mentions of death. lmk if i miss anything!

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the car ride to the store is silent and hu tao really wishes it wasn't. i mean, she understands why nobody wants to talk to her during the few hours that they are stuck in the car but it hurts to just feel like she's not even there. she hears venti and xiao talk to each other quietly and first off, holy shit has xiao's voice gotten way deeper since she last saw him and secondly, he seems happy and it's nice and she genuinely means that. she really does, she'd never seen him be this happy before, not even as a kid. 

it hurts for her to say that even as a child xiao was never happy besides the few times their parents had gotten him to laugh. they always had such a hard time with getting xiao to show emotion. she had overheard their mother sobbing to zhongli as she had said that there was something seriously wrong with him and she hoped that something was wrong with him otherwise he was just… like that. 

she always felt bad for him, deep down. she remembers the way their parents talked to him– yelling at him, saying things like "how could you be so stupid?" all he ever wanted to be was understood. and yet, everything he ever did was wrong. or at least in their parents eyes, it was wrong. 

xiao wasn't an awful child or even a slightly bad one, hu tao remembers that and sure, maybe she's only four years older than him so it doesn't really count but he was a good kid, she knows that deep down. she remembers him telling her about liyue's history when she needed to calm down from a panic attack (he always knew way too much for his age) and when he would hug her so tightly even though she knew that xiao hated hugs. 
he's sweet, he always has been. she just wishes their parents didn't split him open and tear all that love and tenderness in his heart, leaving him with only a hollow shell of himself. 

once they arrive at the store where they were apparently staying, xiao was met with familiar faces. qiqi came running to him the second he stepped foot in the store, yelling, "gege! xiao gege!" 
xiao crouched down to hug her at her height. behind qiqi was xinyan who was panting rapidly as if she was chasing her which judging by how exhausted both xingqiu and chongyun also were, she was. 

"qiqi was so worried about you that she almost forgot her stretches," xinyan laughs softly as qiqi's arms wrap around xiao’s neck to hug him. xinyan lifts her eyes from xiao to look at the presence behind him. 

she jumps back, her hand already going to reach for her back pocket of the jeans she was wearing. 

"don't." xiao says as he stares up at her, still sitting on the floor with qiqi resting her head in the crook of his neck. 

"why is she here?" xinyan shoots a look to hu tao before looking back at xiao, not catching the unheard gasp from hu tao. 

"she's coming with us to my mom's. she was headed the same way, apparently." xiao says as qiqi steps away from the hug to run to venti, zhongli, and diluc who came by with bags in hand. 
xinyan nods slowly as she watches hu tao carefully as if she could attack at any moment. she wasn't sure what to make of hu tao.