Chapter Text
Day 0:
Fuck.
"You have to be kidding me," Xiao murmured as he desperately fumbled through his bag for his keys, but the jingling sound that Xiao was looking out for has yet to be heard by him. Finally, he gave up and resorted to banging on the door.
"Ganyu? Ganyu, you in there?" He yelled, the knocks on the wooden door getting louder by the second. "Ganyu!"
He glanced at his watch, and sighed in resignation as the minute hand ticked closer and closer to his designated streaming time. He prays that Ganyu and Zhongli hasn't left the house yet, but the possibility of that happening seemed to grow with every second.
Finally, he decided to call Ganyu. He quickly fished out his phone and punched the saved number on his contacts page. The device rang for a few seconds before the girl picked up.
"Ganyu, where are you and Zhongli right now?" Xiao asked, cutting to the chase with no greeting or whatsoever.
"Uh...why are you asking that?" Ganyu asked, her voice crackling over the line. "We're at the airport already."
"Shit," Xiao cussed. "I'm locked out of the house."
"You left your keys in the house? Again?" Ganyu groaned. "We're going to be in Liyue for a month. What are you going to do?"
"I don't know, but I do know that I am missing a stream right now," Xiao sighed, looking at his watch again. "Or I could break in through the windows."
"NO!" Her shout startled the poor adeptus until he almost dropped his phone. "I am not replacing the window again, thank you. Go find someone to live with. You know, a friend or something."
"I don't have one-" But before Xiao could finish his protest, the girl had already hung up on him. Xiao groaned.
Apparently they had to go back to Liyue to deal with some of Zhongli's business. And with it, an invite back to Liyue for a second interview for a game company. They had went for the first one a few months back, when an advertisement came out wanting to interview immortals that have lived during the messiest times of Teyvat. For a good amount of Mora too.
Now, to them, Mora doesn't mean anything, but Xiao just wanted a new laptop - preferably a gaming pc so that he could stream better without much lag - and Zhongli wanted a new rock statue - Xiao has no idea what he sees in it, but he knows much better than to judge the god of Geo and rocks - and finally Ganyu wanted funds for their windows - the ones that Xiao keeps breaking because he had to keeping breaking into the house for the forgotten keys that he left, of course.
But he also remember regretting it because the talk was really, really long. Honestly, how was he supposed to talk about every single thing that happened in the past 200 years? He can barely even remember what homework he was supposed to do for school. (Yes, they all enrolled into Teyvat High out of boredom. Luckily the school decided to overlook the fact that they were immortals and let them in because a) they looked 18, and b) there was mora to earn from them.)
"Hey Xiao!" A melodic, high voice rang out right beside his ear, and Xiao jumped.
"What the hell - Venti?" Xiao spluttered, massaging his ear and praying that his eardrums hadn't burst. A giggling figure stood before him, and as he rocked back and forth with laughter, his twin braids that were dyed blue swayed back and forth violently, his jade eyes squeezed shut with laughter.
Venti, namely Barbatos, Anemo Archon of Mondstadt.
Like Xiao, Ganyu and Zhongli, this god of an immortal also decided to want to live out his days in Teyvat High too. Unfortunately (maybe fortunately), he also decided to be in Xiao's music major too. Xiao wasn't the slightest bit surprised at his choice, considering that he used to be a bard. Despite being someone he knew for thousands years, Xiao actually doesn't interact with Venti much, just like Xiao with every other people in their major.
(People do go up to Xiao to ask for his autograph and pictures, considering that he was a pretty popular streamer, but he would usually turn them down. He doesn't find any meaning it doing so.)
So it was a surprise that Venti decided to approach him all of a sudden. And also out of nowhere.
"Why are you here?" Xiao asked.
"Uh...my dorm is around the corner?" Venti said. "What are you doing standing outside your dorm and doing nothing?"
"I-" Xiao contemplated for a second whether to tell Venti anything. Then he finally relented. "-left my keys in the dorm and Ganyu and Zhongli are not going to come back in a month."
Venti blinked. "Oof."
"That's the only thing you're going to say?" Xiao raised an eyebrow, amused despite his situation.
"I mean, what else am I supposed to say? I'm sorry for your carelessness?" Venti giggled. Xiao found himself chuckling along - now that's surprising. No one has really managed to get a laugh out of him these days.
"Do you know anyone who doesn't mind me staying at their place for awhile?" Xiao finally asked. "I...well, don't really know anyone here." He said the last part quite reluctantly, the words sounding stupid to his ears.
Venti laughed again, and Xiao felt himself turn a little red. "Don't make fun of me for-"
"No, no, I'm not," Venti wheezed. "Just that, wouldn't you want a few friends to elevate your boredom?"
"You know exactly why I don't make friends," Xiao scowled. Yes, part of the reason was because he was an introvert at heart and hates interaction in the first place, but he doesn't want to lose people either. Having an immortal life meant that there were mortals that he cherished that came and went from his life, and it was depressing to see people that you care about die over the years.
So he kept to himself.
He wonders why Venti would rather subject himself to this never-ending grief cycle than isolate himself.
"Yea, I know what you mean," Venti hummed. "But I feel that loneliness is more painful, from what I seen." The eyeing from Venti after that came after made Xiao roll his eyes.
"Ok, since poor you don't have a dorm, why don't you stay in mine? We may even become friends, you know! Then for the rest of eternity you won't feel so lonely anymore!"
Xiao just made a face, one of slight incomprehension and surprise. "Fine," he said, mostly on the fact that he had nowhere to stay for now.
"Great! Follow me~" Venti skipped down the corridor, and Xiao followed.
***
"Welcome to my humble abode!" Venti bowed as they approached his dorm room. "It may be a little messy in there, but don't worry, it doesn't cause despair." He grinned, and turned the doorknob to let Xiao in.
A little messy? Xiao thought as he eyed the clothes left strewn on the couch, the takeout boxes that were discarded on the table, and the books that were stacked haphazardly at the side. This-
"Uh...maybe it's very messy," Venti chuckled nervously as his eyes darted in between Xiao's judging face and the living room.
"And so you say?" Xiao sighed, walked over to the table, and started picking up the empty takeout boxes and stacking them into a pile.
"What are you doing?" Venti closed the door behind him as he entered.
"Cleaning up your place? What does it look like I'm doing?" Xiao cocked his head at him.
"No no no, let me do that, you're a guest here anyway!" Venti shook his head, braids flying as he did, then he rushed forward and snatched the boxes from Xiao, grinning at him. "And don't you have a stream to go to?"
Oh sh- "Uh, can I use your bedroom? If you don't mind, that is."
"Sure. It's that way."
Xiao rushed into Venti's bedroom, which was covered in shades of green and blues, just like Venti himself. Music posters and notations lined the walls and were scattered in a messy manner, but it was kind of aesthetic, in a way.
And unsurprisingly, there were clothes strewn all over the bed, even hanging on his chair. Xiao grunted in resignation and piled all the clothes up together, throwing all of them in a corner for now. Then pulling out his school computer - yes, he had two separate laptops for streaming and for school, but this will have to do for now - from his bag, he set it down and quickly logged into his account, pulling up the countdown for his stream.
A glance to his watch told him that he wasn't late. There was still one minute to his designated stream time.
Of course, his chat was already blowing up, some complaining that they were worried that he wouldn't come since he got online last minute, others were just rambling on about his previous stream...
He watched the timer tick down to 10, and he huffed out a breath, his mouse hovering over the camera button. The numbers flicked from 3, to 2, then 1, and then he clicked.
The first thing he saw was himself, and he cringed at the quality of the camera. While most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference, he knew that this laptop's built in camera was eons away from the usual equipment that he used. He could bet that the mic wasn't any better either.
"Hey guys," Xiao started, in his bored, calm way, which somehow, his audience liked. "Sorry for the horrible quality, I'm not using usual equipment today."
A chorus of "it's fine"s and "oof"s came up on the chat, until one particular comment caught his attention.
helpme34: lol ur not in ur usual room either
"Yeah, I know," Xiao winced. "I-"
Before he could finish though, the chat was blowing up again, going at a terrifying speed, that seemed to increase with every second.
kalyeowo: OMG DO U THINK HE'S IN HIS GIRLFRIEND'S HSE OR SMTH
eatThisbish: bruh he's gay, it's probably his bf's
qwertyuiop88: YO HE HAS A BF? WHAT???
JIo4: WAIT SERIOUSLY NO WAY-
helpme34: omg how could we not have known
derekins: LAJHFLKJAHSDLKJHF
ineedxiao_simp: ALKWFKLJADHVLKJAH YAS
"What the fuck guys, I do not have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, for that matter." Xiao implied, his cheeks heating up way too fast. "I was just locked out of my house, and then I need to stay at a friend's place for a while..."
qwertyuiop88: NAH HE'S LYING
deadalwaysK: IKR LOOK AT HIM HE'S BLUSHING
OriphusAlways: he's blushing!!
Genstan: LMAOOOOO HE'S SO REDDDDDDD
xiaosohot: JKAHSFLHD AKJFLHAFLJ YES YES YES HE HAS A BF
"If you guys don't stop, I'll not stream today," Xiao deadpanned, and the chat visibly slowed down.
"Finally," Xiao breathed. "Now, as said last stream, we are going to try a new game..."
The rest of the stream went smoothly, save a few viewers that kept making conspiracy theories about his love life in the chat. Xiao tried his best to avoid them.
But there was one question that remained in his head when he was halfway through the game.
How did Venti know his streaming time?
***
Venti hummed a quiet tune under his breath as he cleared up the area. He doesn't really like cleaning up, it's so boring and tiring. In the end he just decided to use the winds to pick all the remaining trash and clothes up, throwing them and piling the clothes back into the laundry basket.
"All done!" He plopped back onto the couch, fishing his phone out to...aha, indulge in his guilty pleasures.
And that included...Venti couldn't help but let his gaze flick towards his bedroom, and grinned to himself.
***
Xiao turned off his laptop, and closed it shut. He let himself let out a sigh - he doesn't even know what it's for - as he sinks deeper into his seat. That was tiring.
"You done?" Venti's voice chirped from outside, and the door cracked open, just a bit, for Venti to peek in at the adeptus.
"Yup." Xiao nodded. "Thanks for letting me use your bedroom. Archons, I got so many comments about the change of scenery."
"Like?" Venti prodded, his grin a little too wide. Xiao winced. "It's nothing."
"So, what do you want for dinner? Just, don't choose something bitter." Venti asked, his phone whipped out in less than a second. "I can order takeout for the both of us, if you would like to ask."
"You're rhyming," Xiao pointed out.
Venti just gave him a hurt look. "What's wrong with rhyming? It's fun, like flying!"
Xiao gave him a i-dont-think-so look, but refrained from rebuking. Instead, he answered his last question. "I don't eat, you know that."
"Ok, almond tofu it is!" Venti giggled and typed that into his order. Xiao stared at the archon, whose smile was so blinding bright, his sparkling green eyes narrowed to accommodate his grin.
"Uh...Xiao?" Venti blinked at him and waved a hand in front of him, trying to get him back to reality. "You're staring."
"Um-" Xiao shook himself out of it. "How do you know I like almond tofu?" He asked, trying to cover his staring up.
"Morax told me once," Venti shrugged. "By the way, is it ok if you take the couch? I don't have an extra bed or room...oh, wait, you can take my room if you like!"
"It's fine," Xiao waved away his offer. "It's my fault that I'm inconveniencing you anyway. I was the dumbass who left my keys in the house."
"Ehe, if you say so."