this isn’t exactly a fanfic but not exactly a list of headcanons either. it’s basically an “I suck at writing but I’ve already planned out an entire story”. is there a beginning, climax, and satisfying ending? no lmao
xiao and hu tao get together and have a family. hu tao is 19 at the start of this fic if you’re wondering. I just really needed to get this story out my system…hehe…and reply to this post if you can figure out why the story is called Butterfly Baby
mild spoilers, also this was written on 2/7/2021 so some stuff might seem incorrect after more story quests come out. also major character death if you read the alternate ending
• hu tao and xiao start hanging out together (aka hu tao comes to bother xiao and eat almond tofu with him whenever he stops by wangsheng inn)
• xiao eventually grows fond for hu tao but makes many attempts to keep her at an arms distance, all of which were in vain
• xiao and hu tao are both in denial about being in love but obviously xiao takes his denial to a whole other level
• xiao doesn’t visit the inn for 2 weeks but eventually caves and goes back because he missed hu tao the silky texture of almond tofu
• ganyu finds out after overhearing verr goldet (desk lady at wangshu inn) reporting back to ningguang about her observations
• ganyu thinks it’s an exaggeration until she goes to wangshu inn for some business affairs sees xiao and hu tao chatting over some almond tofu and tea
• xiao pretends to not notice ganyu peering from behind a wall
• xiao brings it up during ganyu’s adepti training (ganyu story quest) and she just looks away and apologizes
• xiao knows she wouldn’t tell anyone so he doesn’t bother making her feel even worse than she already does
• xiao and hu tao start actually dating (in secret) but it’s hard to keep at least a few people from noticing an adepti and a funeral parlor director walking near the outskirts of town
• xiao once again tries to distance himself because he feels like he’s not worthy of her love after all the people he’s killed and that an adeptus can’t be with a mortal, hu tao shuts that argument down with “but I don’t care”
• hu tao is a bit hurt that he thinks it matters if she’s a mortal
• she laughs at the rumors that she’s dating an adeptus even if it’s true
• zhong li eventually hears about the rumors and is pretty sure it’s true because hu tao comes to his statue everyday and recently brought up questions about love
• fast forward 10 months of hush hush dating and he finally proposes. no ring or anything fancy, just a simple “do you want to get married?” while they stood at the peak of guyun stone forest
• hu tao says yes without even thinking about it and immediately kisses him and starts excitedly talking about wedding plans that she totally hasn’t been thinking about for the past 3 months
• xiao comes to ganyu to ask for help with wedding planning and ganyu nearly looses her head when she hears him say “so I’m engaged now..”
• hu tao somehow convinced zhong li to help her with planning
• zhong li isn’t too shocked about the engagement but hopes that xiao knows what he’s getting himself into
• hu tao, with a lot of effort, convinces xiao to move into the wangsheng funeral parlor with her
• xiao has a tough time adjusting to mundane life (haha get it because- no? not funny? ok I’ll stop)
• it doesn’t take much negotiation with ningguang to secure a venue at yujing terrace
• xiao would’ve preferred a private wedding at jueyun karst but didn’t know how to ask cloud retainer about it
• one month of planning later and they get married at yujing terrace
• basically everyone in Liyue attends the wedding including traveler
• the adepti got their invites delivered from ganyu and watched the wedding from afar
• I know nothing about Chinese weddings so uhhhh that’s for the reader to dream about
• hu tao throws a flower ball made of silk flowers into the crowd (customs of liyue, volume 1)
• may or may not have forgotten about contraception during their wedding night…..
• too embarrassed to go down to bubu pharmacy get morning after medicine
• hu tao prays to rex lapis that she won’t get pregnant
• zhong li, sipping his tea: I pretend I do not hear
• xiao doesn’t know if he should tell hu tao about zhong li being rex lapis so he just hopes he’ll never have to reveal that secret
• xiao nearly breaks his skull on the wall when he realizes what he’s getting himself into
• people of Liyue are still in shock about an adeptus marrying a mortal (since they were never confirmed to be dating beforehand) and nearly explode with buzz when the funeral parlor director starts growing a baby bump
• “have you seen the wangsheng funeral parlor director? last time I saw her, it looked like her belly was growing a bit. do you think she’s pregnant? oh my archons, a half adeptus baby? I can’t believe it!”
• xiao asks zhong li if he can go out an order a crib, rocking chair, baby clothes, etc for him
• zhong li obviously says yes
• fast forward 9 months and hu tao goes into labor just an hour before the funeral parlor was closing for the day
• zhong li rushes hu tao to her room and tells the undertakers to fetch the midwife
• hu tao calls for xiao and of course xiao is there within 10 seconds
• midwife nearly shits herself when she walks into the bedroom and sees an adeptus
•the midwife nervously asks if xiao was the father
• there was a popular (false) rumor going around that hu tao had an affair with zhong li and the baby was his, mostly because people refused to believe that hu tao was pregnant with a half adeptus baby. these rumors were only fueled further when zhong li was overheard asking a shop keeper if he should order multiple sizes of baby onesies just in case.
• zhong li just nods his head and xiao looks away in shame
• midwife gives helps deliver the baby while thinking “if I fuck this up, this adeptus is going to kill me”
• surprise! the baby is completely fine and healthy
• ganyu asked the qixing if she could take a day off (much to the shock of everyone who knew she wouldn’t even take her yearly vacation leave)
• ganyu has never ran so quickly down Liyue’s streets and nearly kicked down the funeral parlor door
• she’s super excited to know that there’s going to be another half adeptus in Liyue but is also incredibly worried about the idea of a half yaksha child
• I can’t come up with a name for the daughter so ill just call her daughter
• zhong li is named the god father and ganyu is the named god mother
• xiao and hu tao take the baby down to jueyun karst
• ganyu and cloud retainer both think the baby is such an adorable and precious little thing
• the rest of the adeptus are just like “xiao wtf…but ok”
• refer to my posts about xiao as a father if you want some more cute details but I don’t wanna just write a copy paste of my past post
• everyone at Liyue harbor is gossiping about it
• hu tao is a very fun and free mom and teaches the kid to become a tiny ball of chaos with the pyromania of klee and the sneakiness of yaoyao. aka the kid is now unstoppable
• pyro vision because of course
• hu tao teaches her daughter how to master pyro, how to write poetry, and most importantly, how to become a funeral parlor director
• the daughter actually prefers swords over poles and gets classes from the guhua clan, and more specifically,
• zhong li was very eager to give the kid a vision and was managed to get the pyro archons permission
• xiao confronts zhong li about the vision it in secret
• xiao: you gave her a pyro vision. do you know how destructive she will be?
• zhong li, taking another sip of tea: ✨ I pretend I do not hear ✨
• hu tao overhears the conversation and puts two and two together
• hu tao and xiao have their first ever argument ever since they got married
• “why didn’t you tell me before?”
• “because it was a secret!”
• back and forth until they hear the baby waking up and crying
• they agree that there’s no point in arguing now and go off to calm down the baby
• they end up living a happy life as a family of three, and after hu tao’s death, xiao continues to raise the child as much as he can (with the help of zhong li and ganyu)
• their daughter becomes the 78th director of the wangsheng funeral parlor
• osial somehow wakes up during one lantern rite
• xiao was distracted by a different, much smaller, demon
• the guizhong ballista and jade chamber had been repaired by now and were better than before, and they were able to defeat osial without sacrificing the jade chamber again
• however they didn’t get to the jade chamber fast enough and a small part of Liyue was destroyed
• one place in that part of liyue being the wangsheng funeral parlor
• xiao is overcome by grief because he believe it was his fault that he wasn’t able to protect this family
• he finally succumbs to the corruption
• what he didn’t know what was that hu tao did indeed die in the destruction, but his daughter (currently age 12) was still perfectly well and alive
• ganyu takes in the daughter
• zhong li took over the post as director after hu tao’s death and became the 78th director
• zhong li continued to teach the daughter about how to properly run a business and conduct flawless funerals
• the daughter becomes the 79th director of the wangsheng funeral parlor when she’s 18
• she also becomes the new demonslayer of the adepti, following in her father’s footsteps
• even through the trauma of witnessing her mother’s untimely death and being given the news that her father’s had also died, she made it through and raised a happy family of her own, while wearing the hat that her mom passed down.
ok…so that was longer than expected. let me know what you guys think! see any typos or anything off? please mention it! if you guys have a header for hu tao please do share~
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