Chapter Text
Xiao didn't understand it. Not at all.
Highschool. What most kids called hell on earth, what most referred to as prison, what most thought caused the most suicides.
So why was he sort of enjoying it?
Maybe it was his boyfriend Aether.
Actually, that's behind them.
It was his ex boyfriend Aether. They had broken up nearly three years ago, and yet Xiao felt like he was trapped in time. He hasn't moved on. Sometimes he likes to think Aether didn't either, since the blonde never seemed to date again.
They were friends though, even after it all.
The breakup was friendly. Aether said he didn't think Xiao was ready for a relationship, Xiao guilty agreed. He didn't think he was ready to treat Aether the way the blonde deserved.
He tried, he truly did, but it was freshman year when they got together. Aether had to start every conversation, every interaction, because Xiao was too nervous.
They had "sex" once, Xiao constantly was smacked with the reminder that Aether's the one he lost his virginity to.
They were stupid and young and it wasn't like they weren't in love, it just happened. Xiao regretted it to this day, because he felt like he forced Aether somehow. He remembers a weird guilt. He figured he fucked up, he didn't think he'd regret being intimate with his first and only lover.
That was the past, way way far being them now. They were completely different people now.
They were seniors. They were big kids, about to graduate. Adult life was smacking them in the face, telling them to wake up and get ready to work the rest of their lives away.
"XiaoXiaooo!"
Well, maybe other people besides his ex made it bearable as well. Who knows, teenagers minds swirl open pots waiting for new information.
Xiao perked up from his studying at the calling of his name.
Watching the figure come closer, he recognized the blue braids. It was Venti, one of his closest friends.
"Hey, stop moping around the library!" Venti called before pausing a few feet away, a smirk on his lips. "My bestfriend Aether would be very disappointed if I told him you tried to hook up with me but you're still too attached to him."
"I did not try to hook up with you." Xiao dismissed quickly as he closed up his books and fetched out his folder. This was Venti's usual teasing ever since the incident a week ago, but did he need to shout it in the library?
"I was upset and you were there. I was very hopeful in my ability to get over the only person I've ever fallen in love with, sorry."
"I'm sure you were. Seriously man, it's been three years! Get over it already."
Throwing his work into his folders he shook his head. "I can't when I see him everyday." Xiao sighed as he zipped up his backpack, throwing it on his shoulders and willing to follow Venti wherever.
"I've known him since 5th grade. It's hard for someone like me."
""Like you', so different. I guess, he's certainly grown into his face and body since you dated. Your loyal runs into your soul, I think you must have promised to marry him." Venti hummed as they made their way out of the library.
"Hey, the breakup was friendly, maybe you can ask him out again!"
Xiao shook his head as they walked the vacant hallways of the school. Venti took the lead, Xiao simply being dragged wherever because it's not like Venti ever said where they were going.
If Venti wanted to murder Xiao, Xiao was sure he'd be a goner.
"I don't think so. I don't want to limit him from who he could meet. I'm sure there are people better fit."
"Come on man, that doesn't mean you should sit and stare. Who knows, it's been three years and he's denied every confession he's gotten!"
"Maybe his experience with me scared him."
"No way, he's not stupid. Maybe just try to get back what you had, it's depressing to sit and watch you stare at him all sad while it's obvious he wants to talk to you." Venti pouted, grabbing his bestfriends arm and tugging on it.
Xiao shook his head again, he could give himself whiplash.
"I still don't know if I'm ready to give him what he deserves."
"You've gotten a lot better man. These last three years you've grown, if I tried to talk to you about this in freshman you would have crushed my balls and told me to kill myself."
"I would not have!"
"If you were pissed enough you would have."
Xiao scoffed as they turned a corner. "Your impression of me is incredibly disrespectful."
"Haha, you deserve it! Oh, heyyyy Aether, speak of the devil and he'll appear!"
Xiao glanced forward to see Aether walking next to Chongyun, a younger classman. Sophomore that is, he's seen Aether hanging about the boy and his boyfriend. Not to mention the moments they chat, Aether's talking about younger classmen.
"Oh, hey Xiao, we were looking for you!" Aether smiled at him with a small wave with his free arm, Chongyun nodding in agreement and holding Aether's other one for dear life. Quite like how he looked with Venti.
Flushing at the smile, Xiao swallowed down a possible voicecack before replying.
"For?"
"You study...weird demon stuff, don't you?"
Xiao was unamused, sighing before nodding reluctantly ad Venti snickered beside him. "Yes, I research exorcisms for class projects, and yes my father is spiritual."
"Chongyun here comes from a family of exorcists!" Aether announced like he was a proud dad, "He just wants to talk to you about some stuff, since you're the oldest. His family isn't too into talking, but I know you aren't either, so if you don't–"
Xiao shook his head. "It's alright, if it's for you I'll do it."
Turning his attention to Chongyun, the boy looked sort of nervous.
"Hm. When will we talk?"
The blue haired boy didn't seem to have a time, so Aether took the lead again.
"I planned to go to the public library with him on Friday after school, so why not then!"
Xiao nodded immediately at the idea of spending more time with the blonde after school.
"Sounds good."
"Alright! I'll pick you up, just go home since I have to pick up stuff after school. Your house is only like 5 minutes from here, so you okay with that?"
Xiao tried to not heat up at the fact Aether still remembered where he lived and how long it took him to bike home.
Sometimes, a long time ago, when Aether was still in track, Xiao would ride his bike slowly and Aether would try to catch up running. Xiao didn't laugh a lot back then, but he remembered thinking that was the best time of his life.
He shook his head. No need for that.
"Yes, good, okay."
It was contradictory, but Aether understood.
Aether flashed him another smile before walking past the two, brushing his shoulder against Xiao's gently.
"See you Friday."
Xiao jaw trembled at the contact, ever so slightly from the shiver that was sent down his spine. He was hopeless, he usually punched whoever dared knock into him. It didn't help he knew that was Aether's way do showing affection.
Sure, his temper was better, yes, extremely better, but some habits never fade. Such as pining over his ex, and beating up people who did nothing wrong.
There was a little giggle beside him moments layer.
"Man, you look so gay!" Venti finally bursted out laughing, barking like a dog and wheezing like a fish out of sea. "There's no way he doesn't know you like him still!"
Xiaos eyes widened at Venti's shouting, slowly glancing back to see Aether pause at the corner. He saw the movement exactly, he froze in place as Chongyun glanced back at him with almost a knowing look.
They weren't even that far away, and Venti was already yapping his mouth off.
"You asshole, I hope you fall off a fucking cliff!" Xiao shouted as he grabbed Venti, throwing the small boy over his shoulder before running off down the hallway away from the scene.
He did not want to see if Aether turned around for confrontation. He prayed Chongyun said he had no idea what he heard.
...Xiao was about 5'6, making Venti a whole 5'3. Maybe it was dramatic to say he threw him over the shoulder, he more wrapped an arm around the boys waist and threw him along as he started running.
Xiao was never in track, but he sure as hell could run like the police were on his tail when he was embarrassed. He picked up the talent from the track prodigy that was his ex boyfriend, who had the scary habit of chasing.
—
"What was that, huh? Tell me, why did you do that." Xiao hissed as he held Venti's ear, just as his father has done to him many, many times.
"Waaah! XiaoXiao, mercy, mercy! He's gonna know youre still hopelessly in love with him someday, I need to save you before we graduate!"
"Stop calling me XiaoXiao, that's like saying demon-demon." Xiao huffed, "Anyway, he doesn't need to. If he's happy with us being apart, then so be it, he knows he's the one who has to approach first. If he didn't, we wouldn't be hanging out together Friday."
"Youre so stupid for having straight B pluses. Talk to him!"
"No."
Xiao let go of Venti's ear, crossing his arms as Venti rubbed his throbbing lobe with a pout.
"If I had the option, I'd unlove him like I should have 3 years ago." Xiao announced with unnecessary sureness, "Hell, if I could I'd unfuck him, just so he wouldn't be burdened with the memories."
"I wish I could give you some of my wiseness." Venti whined as they exited the building.
Now that Xiao thought about it, where the hell were the two before headed?
Not his problem.
"I don't know if you know, but Aether wouldn't trade what you had for money. He did like you, you know, having stupid underage sex with you was his choice."
"Was it? I can't really remember. All I remember is a soul crushing guilt."
Venti shrugged as he skipped along the sidewalk. "Maybe you thought he would think you were using him for his body, you were stupid back then. If he regretted it, then why did we all hear how happy he was?"
They continued on their journey towards what Xiao now realized was the nearby ice cream place. It was barely 10 minutes away, and with how fast Venti was skipping, it was about 5.
He nearly forgot Venti really was his friend, he definitely needed some of that dessert right now.
"He was happy?"
"Overjoyed you finally opened up with him and took it to the nest step, as bad as you were at it."
Xiao frowned. "I wasn't that bad."
"I dunno, by my standards you probably would have been, but Aether was jumping and was throwing around imaginary confetti, so not that bad."
"Wow, I'm so thankful you're judging my sex ability."
"What, how would I know? Unless you wanna have sex XiaoXiao~"
"Haha, aren't you a funny one."
"I'm being serious!"
"As serious as my relationship is with Aether yeah. Suck on my toes."
"Gross, where'd you learn that phrase from!"
Xiao chuckled lightly, not replying until about 5 minutes later as the bell on the store jingled at their entrance. He needed some Almond and fast.
"My stepdad." He hummed, "He's annoying, but sometimes he's funny as he is disrespectful."
"Jeez, it's so scary seeing how much you've matured! You would have killed Ajax had he said that to your dad ages ago."
"I still want to sometimes, the man did take me in while I was practically a shoebox back alley baby."
"You were not."
"The way that home looked, pretty much."
Venti sighed and rolled his eyes as he walked to the front, simply ordering for the both of them.
Per routine, he turned around and searched for a table near a window, thankfully finding one away from everyone else. Wasn't life full of opportunities today.
A few moments after he settled down, he heard a chirpy voice beside him. "Here ya go!"
Giving a nod as thanks, he took the ice cream from the braided hair boy and began eating it immediately. It was wonderful, exactly what he needed.
He saw Venti sit down and focused on eating, his thoughts filled with his chores. He had to vaccum when he got home, and take care of the dog.
"Sigh. Did you do the homework?" Venti asked as he absentmindedly licked his ice cream, already glued to his phone on the other side of the table. Xiao didn't mind, he himself had done a lot of talking today.
"Yeah. Why, need it?"
"Me, Albedo and Aether do, yeah."
"Hm? Albedo?"
"Apparently he was 'busy with Aether and forgot'. That means the two were doing science homework and Albedo knows I'll read this off to you when I ask to make you jealous."
Xiao sighed as he pulled up the pictures in his phone after pulling it out of his pocket. He knew this would happen, it did everytime, so he just started taking pictures of all of it.
"He has a grudge against me from the time I punched him still doesn't he. How does he even know I'll be jealous."
"Very much so. It's not like you aren't obvious, I told you this before."
Dismissing the words, he sent the pictures to Venti, who narrowed his eyes before a lightbulb idea played on his face. A very, very intimidating expression for the man.
"I should add you to the groupchat!"
That sounded like alot of social interaction.
"Unnecessary."
"Okay, I will! Just send the pictures there."
Rolling his eyes, he accepted his fate and watched as he heard a little ding from his quieted speakers.
Opening the new chat called 'Xinyans amazing crowd', he simply sent the pictures before closing the app and going back to his usual Instagram page.
It revolved around alot of Aether's and Venti's photos, along with an occasional ass pic from those sketchy meme accounts he follows to fit in and not look like he was stalking his friends.
He did every once and while see other people's photos, like Ei's bladework practice, his dad's at a gun range, Kokomi playing with fish.
Actually, he liked Kokomi, even if she was one of Aether's friends. While he would he fine getting to know her, there was no way he would start a conversation first. He stepped out of his comfort zone a long time ago, but there's a half-comfortable zone around his comfort zone he liked to stay in.
He opened the group chat again from all the notifications out of curiosity. He didn't have anything better to do while eating ice cream and his friend was in the exact same chat.
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘟𝘪𝘢𝘰! 𝘐'𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺!
𝘈𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘹 𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺?
𝘏𝘪𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘺𝘶𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘈𝘭𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘰.
𝘖
𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦
𝘐𝘬𝘳, 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘹. 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺, 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪'𝘥 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦.
𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘦. 𝘚𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘪 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶.
𝘒𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬
𝘈𝘺𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘮 𝘪𝘵 𝘈𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳
𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪
Xiao barely understood who was talking to who, he wasn't used to messages by this quickly on his screen. He vaguely knows they talked about him, which made him both flustered and mildly disappointed that Aether apparently did not tell everyone about what he would consider a date.
Xiao, being who he was, simply put in his penny by replying with the ‚':[ face.
Sadly, the group chat blew up even more, the quiet pinging noise coming from his speaker constantly. He considered putting his phone on silent for the night.
Did he like using old chatting formats? Yes, because everyone hates them with a passion and it was amusing watching them freak out.
"Xiao."
He glanced up.
"Never use that face again."
He laughed lightly at Venti's uncomfortable expression.
"Sorry, let me copy you."
Winking one eye with weird perfection, he stuck his tongue out slightly, perfectly mirroring Venti's playful expression with ease. Seeing it so often made it easy to make a carbon copy of it. He also then threw up a peace sign, a common trait of Venti's.
When he was done looking like an idiot, his stoic expression came back to him as he licked his ice cream again, admiring Venti's shocked face.
Venti inhaled, then started wheezing. Hard. Then he was laughing, tears in his eyes.
"I caught that on camera."
Xiaos face fell. He noticed Venti's propped up phone facing him perfectly.
"No you did not."
"I did, and guess where I sent it."
Glancing down the open group chat, there was a 12 second video.
Playing it, he saw his own face make the stupidest expression he's seen.
𝘸𝘰𝘢𝘩, 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵. 𝘐𝘴𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘦. Was Xiaos reply to the video, before he closed the group chat he hoped to never have to see again.
"I'm upset now. Here I thought I could be comfortable without being made fun of." Xiao groaned, standing up from the table and grabbing his ice cream.
"Stoppp, I think it was cute!"
"You sure are hilarious." Xiao scoffed, before waving his hand. "Sorry, I actually have to go, me and Kazuha are practicing for music class."
"Damn, you and Kazuha?"
"Yes. He's tolerable, even if he spews out nonsense poems."
He was one of the friends he kept from his time with Aether. He was a good kid, so he partnered up with him in music. Maybe he lied a little, he also just practiced strumming with the white haired boy.
"Alright," Venti wanted, "Buh-bye! Stay safe, I like you alive!"
—
"Welcome." Kazuha smiled at him, letting the green haired man into his home after it only took Xiao 3 knocks to get him to answer.
"Hi. You got my guitar still?"
"Of course. Also, I have some news..."
Xiao kicked off his shoes and dropped his bag off next to the door, the usual symbol that he was comfortable where he was.
"Hm?"
"Meet the new member..."
Xiao glanced up to see Aether waving at him. He immediately recognized the golden hair sitting on the couch in his spot, feet crossed like he was an innocent angel.
"Hey, weird to see you so soon again. I play bass!"
Xiao felt like turning around and leaving. He liked time with the blonde, but he didn't want him to see how bad he still was at guitar.
"You've gotta be shitting me."
In the 3 years they've been broken up, he and Aether have never really bothered each other. Now he was everywhere suddenly, in what felt like a day or two.
Maybe he should take Venti's blabbing as a warning, but Xiao didn't think about it. Venti was good at behind the scenes work, wasn't he.