Archive of Our Own ^beta

He said he’d go away for a while due to work. This was true.

He also said they’d keep in touch, and that things would be back to normal afterwards. This, however... this wasn’t true.

The “he” in question was Xiao, his boyfriend. For about a week, they were able to keep up with the daily conversations; the good mornings, good nights, all the lovey dovey stuff one might expect in a relationship.

However, the past month has been filled with dead silence in their messages, with a string of Venti checking in every few days, only to give up on receiving a response two weeks later.

Yet even now, Venti idly sits in a restaurant with his friends, staring at the pages of unanswered texts before a hand reaches out to pull his phone away from him.

“It’s not polite to be on your phone this much during lunch,” teases Kaeya, though his concern pierced through his uncovered eye.

“S-sorry,” Venti apologized, biting his lip in apprehension.

Barbara glanced at his phone and back at him. “Still no response?” she inquired.

Venti shook his head. “I haven’t texted him for a while now either,” he affirms. “I don’t know what’s going on eith-” his statement gets cut off at the sight of a new message lighting his screen. There's a collective gasp when they read the name of the sender.

It was Xiao.

“Quick! See what he has to say!” Barbara exclaims, clutching her hands in front of her.

Kaeya’s head tilted in curiosity as he crossed his arms. “I’m rather curious as well,” he said.

Meanwhile, a tight knot began to form in Venti’s gut looking at the message. He braced himself as he opened it, squinting in both eyes in an attempt to not see as much at once. When he opened the message, he felt his entire body grow slack and freeze; each part of his body suddenly becoming heavier.

This isn’t going to work out. Don’t message me in the future. Goodbye.

A tightness in his chest began to grow as he flinched away from the phone. For a few moments, the surprised and angered exclamations from his friends were muffled, as if he were trapped in a soundproof room.

“Venti. Venti!” Kaeya shook him by his shoulders, jolting him out of his stupor. All Venti could do was stare at him helplessly, shaking his head. With desperation clouding up his mind, he lunged for the phone at the center of the table, only to get held back by Kaeya.

“Let me go!” Venti cried, grasping at empty air as he got picked up and thrown over a shoulder. “I need to ask him why! Let me talk to him!”

His protests were left unheard as Kaeya carried him out of the restaurant, Barbara staying behind to pay and reassure the bystanders that everything was okay (it was very much not okay).

Kaeya proceeded to place Venti into the backseat of his car as gently as he could without letting him escape. At this point, tears were streaming down his face as he tried to kick Kaeya off.

“Stop this, Venti!” Kaeya ordered, pinning him down. “There’s nothing you can do about this.”

A series of whimpers escaped him as he calmed down, allowing Kaeya to sit next to him with a sigh.

“Relationships, huh?” Kaeya nudged him, trying to get Venti to smile to no avail. At the sight of his blank gaze as he sniffled and drew his legs to his chest, resentment started to build up within him. “That fucking asshole,” he whispered bitterly, wrapping his arms around Venti and pulling him closer to him.

For the past month, he has watched the brightest star in the room fade away to a husk of what he used to be. The one who would constantly make jokes and pull pranks only to serenade everyone with his music hours later is now sitting in the backseat of a car with puffy eyes that won’t stop its flow of tears.

All because of some guy who couldn’t keep his word.

Barbara returns not long after with a box and Venti’s phone in tow. She hands them both to Kaeya as she settles in on the other side of Venti. “I got you some apple pie,” she said gently. Venti's head raised at that statement.

“Apple... pie?” he whispered, gazing at the box in Kaeya’s lap.

“Do you want some?” she asked, her voice soft as if she was consoling a child. Venti nodded his head weakly.

Together, they shared the apple pie; the two of them trying to keep Venti’s thoughts occupied with anything other than what just transpired.

By the time Kaeya dropped Venti off at his apartment, it was nearly nightfall.

“Thanks, you two,” Venti thanked them quietly, though still at higher spirits than before.

They both nodded. “Let us know if you need anything,” Kaeya says with a serious tone.

“Yeah, we’re here for you!” Barbara added, handing Venti his phone, which he hesitantly accepted. If there were any other place to receive that message, he was glad he got it when he was with his friends.

After that day, to those around him, Venti was back to normal. He was once again the ray of sunshine that bounced through every room to light it up, the friend who crushes everyone in hugs at every chance possible, the one who could make anyone he wanted happy. If anyone brought up their concern for him, it was brushed off and reassured that everything was fine.

To Venti, however, he was still just as broken as before, except this time, he was able to hide it. While during the day, he was who everyone remembered him as, some nights end with him dragging himself out of the bar or crying in the comfort of his apartment while downing shot after shot, desperately finding a way to feel once more yet simultaneously block the pain one year later.

It was one of those nights when he stumbles out of the bar, bracing himself against a lamp post, when he sees him. Just a few meters away, Xiao stood with his back turned away, seemingly unaware of the heavy rain pouring down around him. Venti stepped to the side, trying to confirm that he really was here. And he was.

Xiao was here, after so long.

With someone else in his arms.

All he could do was watch as Xiao pressed a kiss on the stranger’s head, pulling their jacket closer to their frame with a tenderness that seemed all too familiar. All he could do was listen as the stranger spoke and Xiao chuckled in response with that same warm tone. All he could do was back away slowly, eyes not believing what he was seeing, before sprinting away, not stopping until he shut the door behind him and sunk to the ground.

“Why are you so shocked by this outcome?” Venti reprimanded himself, pinching himself repeatedly as if he were in a dream. “He left you for a reason.” But for what reason? It was at this thought where he pushed himself off the ground and went to his slowly dwindling alcohol cabinet, taking out a bottle of wine. His mind grew more clouded as he drank out of the bottle, pushing down every thought possible while doing so until his vision grew blurry and he blacked out.

In the morning, he wakes up at the kitchen counter, a sight not so uncommon anymore. As his mind regains its coherency, bits and pieces of the night start to come back.

Venti thinks back to when he saw Xiao with someone else, shielding them from the pouring rain just like how he used to with him on their nights out. Holding them like he used to hold Venti before he broke his heart into shards of ice.

He looked so… happy.

Like everything was perfect.

Like he did not tear Venti’s heart out of his chest a year prior.

Despite the time that passed since their breakup, it took every fiber of Venti’s body to not run up to him and ask him where everything went wrong. To run towards the possibility of being in the stranger’s position once more, in the comfort of his arms, his gaze, his entire being.

But no. Xiao has moved on.

Instead, he idly plays with the empty wine bottle, hand wrapped around its neck as the eyes long dried of tears squeeze shut. Here he is, still a mess one year later, and there’s Xiao, life put back together and looking happier than ever. His grip on the bottle tightens.

In the fleeting effects of the drunken haze, a strangled cry echoes through the room. A flick of the wrist, and glass is strewn across the floor, catching the reflection of the morning sun; the beautiful light streaming in from the window looking too much like the one he lost, in terms of self and his loved ones.

He buries his head into his arms, and one last tear falls to add to the countless ones that have fallen before.

It’s just not fair.