timeline
bc on the astronomical chance i actually get around to writing these, bear in mind this obviously has, like. a billion spoilers lol. esp since at least XV relies on hidden pasts for tension.
age notes
before we begin, here are some preliminary notes abt the characters' ages:
- xiao n venti are the same age
- for the sake of keeping track of dates and ages, we'll say they were both born in the year 2000
- xiao was held back a year, so he's in the grade/year below venti
- hu tao is two years younger than xiao
- however, she skipped a grade at some point, putting her in the same year/grade as xiao
- yanfei is a prodigy and passed the bar exam at 18
therefore: xiao starts college at 19, hu tao at 17, and venti at 18.
childhood
- xv meet when they should be starting first grade (sept/oct 2006)
- they're living in mondstadt at this point
- xiao's living with his (abusive) biological parents
- venti's living w/relatives bc he's being bounced around from house to house
- they're neighbors, although xiao never sees venti's face
- venti's caretakers are neglecting him, allowing him to wander around for long hours all the time
- usually, he wanders over to starsnatch cliff to pick cecilias and make flower crowns
- occasionally, venti passes xiao cecilias over the fence/wall or something and sings for him c':
- "these are my favorites; aren't they pretty? i'm not sure what they're called, but they blow where the strong winds blow"
- he has a crush on xiao, but doesn't realize that's what it is at that age (bc he hasn't realized he's gay yet lol)
- they live as neighbors for a little under one school year before xiao gets adopted by guizhong n zhongli
- guizhong is xiao's, like, biological aunt in this au, so she n her husband zhongli are visiting her sister's family at some point that winter, which is how they meet xiao
- guizhong has been sussing out the vibes in the home, which are. definitely not top-tier, but this is also her own sister!! surely her sister is not abusing and severely neglecting her own child, right??
- not to mention that she's probably lacking in any solid evidence of something being amiss enough to warrant social services to take them seriously…
- venti is lowkey the reason guili end up w/evidence of xiao being abused
- like, zhongli's having a breather outside when he sees this tiny kid playing in the weeds next door entirely unsupervised and decides to chat with him
- venti's just like "yeah sometimes i hear xyz yelling from the neighbor house, and the neighbor boy tells my xyz other things abt it later, and—" etc.
- then, on the way back home, zhongli tells guizhong everything that venti told him
- guizhong gets a custody case going, which results in massive court drama
- a bunch of shit probably also happens to xiao until child protective services finally takes him, all of which obviously traumatizes him to the point of repressing it for years
- venti also gets a little traumatized seeing xiao taken away, although through the years his feelings get really muddled with time and the trauma is left half-processed