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
elementary school
- xiao enrolls for first grade in september 2007 bc he wasn't allowed out of the house and was illegally kept from school when he should have been attending kindergarten/first grade
- at the same time, xingqiu, chongyun, hu tao, and xiangling (age 5) all start kindergarten
- xingyun become friends day 1 and have all their elementary classes together
- xiao meets hu tao in second grade (september 2008) bc hu tao skips first grade, and then guizhong finds out that hu tao lives next door
- since xiao is a huge recluse, he probably didn't make friends in first grade, which ofc worried guizhong, so zhongli and guizhong give hu tao permission to come visit when she feels like it, which is how she ends up climbing through his window w/a bit of almond tofu like, "hiya, neighbor!"
- and it's the start of their beautiful best friendship c':