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“Didn’t keep you waiting, did I?”
Xiao doesn’t dare turn around. Has he finally lost it? Has the karmic debt finally found his one true weakness? Has it finally stooped so low?
“Xiao?” A hand on his shoulder, light. Footsteps, even lighter. “Darling, I’m sorry.”
And then he’s looking into those beautiful green eyes, big enough to hold the sky and more. Venti kneels in front of him, hand on Xiao’s cheek, not quite smiling.
“I’m so sorry. I took too long, didn’t I?”
“One hundred eighty-two thousand, five hundred sixty-seven.”
“What?”
“I have called for you,” he can barely whisper now, hand coming up to rest on Venti’s wrist, “one hundred eighty-two thousand, five hundred, and sixty-seven times.”
Venti’s eyes glisten. Tears pool along his lower lashes. “I’m so sorry, Xiao. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to leave you. I promise.”
“I was afraid,” Xiao reaches out, catching the tears on his thumb, “that you were gone. That I would have to call your name every day until the day I joined you.”
The sob is heart-wrenching—torn from Venti’s throat and pushed into Xiao’s to stick there, to press out from within as Venti buries his face in Xiao’s neck. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—”
Venti’s arms squeeze around him, pulling them flush. His own trail up—like they still can’t believe he’s real.
He’s here.
“You’re alive.” Xiao gathers Venti in his arms until Venti’s curled in his lap, until there’s not a single centimetre of space between them. “You’re alive. Thank the gods, you’re alive.”
“I’m here, love. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.” Buried in each other, folded in, pressed together in a tangle of limbs and tears.
He never wants to let go again. He can’t let this fade, too. He can’t let Venti die. He couldn’t bear to suffer through a life without Venti. Not again. Never again.
Barbatos is staring at him again.
Xiao is never one to back down from a challenge, but this feels less like a fight and more like…something else. He doesn’t quite know. But it doesn’t feel like Barbatos wants to fight him.
He hasn’t tried to approach Xiao since that first time.
Perhaps it’s because of Morax—how he looked at Barbatos any time he seemed to drift near Xiao.
But Morax must be too distracted. Or let down his guard. Or something.
Because Barbatos is in front of Xiao again.
His smile is sly but small. A glint in his eyes. He looks Xiao up and down. Licks the rim of his cup. The cup that always seems to be in his hand. “Now, why does that old blockhead want to keep me from you so bad? I think it would be fine if we talked, just a tad.”
If only he had his spear—something, anything to grip.
“Hmm. Not a fan of the rhymes? I can stop, but I might slip up at times.” He blinks. “Ah…ehe…” A pretty blush spreads over his cheeks. He scratches at one with a finger. “Like that…”
“They’re excessive.”
Barbatos laughs. “Like you standing over here and being broody isn’t excessive?”
“I am not—”
Barbatos raises a brow, taking a long and loud sip.
“I am simply doing my duty to protect Liyue and all those in it.”
“Listen,” Barbatos takes a step closer, voice dropping, “Xiao. This is probably the safest place in the world right now. Seven of the most powerful beings in Teyvat, all in one place? There’s not much that could threaten us.”
“Get to your point.”
“Ooo, getting short with an Archon, are we?” There’s a spike of something that shoots through him, but Barbatos giggles and dances his fingers light over Xiao’s collarbone. “I like it.” A hum. “My point is: I think you could stand to relax a little; for a few minutes, at least.”
“My duties do not allow me to relax. I must be prepared at all times.”
“Not even for a few minutes? Obviously nothing’s happened in the two hours we’ve been here so far, so…”
“Which only increases the odds of something happening with every minute that passes.”
Barbatos groans, stomping his foot like a child. “Oh come onnnn! If we keep standing here, Rex is gonna notice and get on my ass again!”
Xiao blinks. Such…crass language from an Archon?! At a formal meeting, nonetheless! His brows furrow. “Why are you under the impression I wish to speak with you in the first place?”
Barbatos freezes. His eyes go wide, then fall. Come back up like crescent moons. “Then I will bother you no more!”
He takes a step back.
And he disappears in a gust of wind.
—
It’s he who stares at Barbatos this time.
There’s a half-glance in his direction, but nothing more. Nothing except smiles and laughter that seems so...fake.
No one else seems to notice. So maybe Xiao’s just reading into things too much. Because as the seasons changed, he’d thought of emerald eyes and sly smiles far too often for it to be normal.
Far too often for it to be anything but...interest. He hasn’t really felt or indulged in curiosity much for...as long as he cares to remember. And yet…
There’s something about Barbatos that demands attention. Even when he’s not present, apparently.
And no, Xiao realizes. Barbatos’s avoidance of Xiao during this meeting is too consistent to be anything but deliberate. He has so carefully made sure to not meet Xiao’s eyes, not even look in his direction much more than necessary.
Fair, given how their last encounter ended.
Xiao was a bit...harsh.
He’d like to rectify that, but Barbatos hasn’t yet given him the chance to.
Well.
Xiao breathes in deep. He pulls on something inside him, just the tiniest bit. Just enough for no one but them to notice the breeze wasn’t quite natural.
And it works.
Barbatos pauses, cup halfway to his lips. His eyes flick up. Land no higher than Xiao’s Vision.
And then that gaze is gone, like it was never there. He laughs and takes a drink. Joins in with a rhymed quip that leaves several of the others groaning.
Fine.
He can wait.
With every ounce of stealth available to him, Xiao stalks out from behind Rex Lapis—he doubts Rex Lapis doesn’t notice, but he can hope—and he goes toward the edge of the mountaintop. Finds a tree there. Waits, looking over his shoulder, until Barbatos finally meets his stare.
Xiao rounds the tree, out of sight.
—
“Would it be remiss of me to assume that was an invitation to join?”
“That is exactly what it was.”
Barbatos steps into sight, soundless. His wings flutter behind him and a single feather falls. “Didn’t keep you waiting, did I?”
He watches Barbatos catch the feather on a breeze. It slots neatly into his hand. “I have patience. Time does not mean the same to me as it does to mortals.”
“Centuries pass in the blink of an eye.” His voice is…somber. Rueful. The smile on his face has no light.
“...Yes.” He shifts only slightly when Barbatos lowers himself to sit next to Xiao. “And though it may seem contrary, I find that lessens the griefs and sorrows I suffer.”
“Really?” Barbatos hums, picking at the grass tickling Xiao’s knee. He still holds the feather. “How odd…perhaps the griefs and sorrows of little birds and godlings are far too different, then.”
“Perhaps.”
A pile of grass is forming on Xiao’s knee. Settled there by the lithe fingers of the godling himself.
He seems content with his self-appointed task.
What said task is, Xiao couldn’t say.
“I was harsh, when last we met.”
Barbatos pauses, just barely. He sticks his nose up, not looking at Xiao. “Were you? I can’t quite recall.”
“If you could not recall, then why did you so adamantly avoid me during the meeting?”
Barbatos crosses his arms, still not looking at Xiao. “Well, didn’t you say you had no desire to speak with me? I was only doing what you wanted.”
“No, I asked you: why are you under the impression I wish to speak with you in the first place?” He leans in, hand splayed against the ground by Barbatos’s hip. It’s far too bold and truly an indecent way to approach an Archon, but the pink that dusts those pretty round cheeks is worth it. “So, tell me. Why are you under that impression?”
Barbatos’s voice is barely above a whisper: “Trade secrets, little bird.”
He leans in closer. Drops his voice. Uses his other hand to tilt Barbatos’s chin up. “Tell me, little Archon.” He can almost taste the gasp Barbatos lets loose, feel the way his pupils expand, his eyelids flutter, his throat trembles. “How did you know?”
Their lips touch. He shudders, drinks in the hot air that skates over his skin—the wine that smells so acrid, tastes so sweet on Barbatos’s breath. And Xiao feels the answer, rather than hears it: “Because you only look at me.”
—
“You’re beautiful.” Xiao trails a finger down Ven—ah. Barbatos’s cheek. He just isn’t expecting the way Barbatos frowns. The way his hands still where they’re picking leaves out of Xiao’s mussed hair.
“And what if I told you this wasn’t my true face?”
Xiao sits up. Barbatos doesn’t look at him. Xiao’s fingers press gently against his cheek until he does. “This face is nice. But that is not what I said was beautiful.”
It’s captivating to watch how the blush spreads over that milky white skin. How the dark marks Xiao’s left stand out against it. He busies himself with untangling Barbatos’s braids until he speaks up again.
“How do you know? What if I’m a terrible, evil god who’s done bad things?”
Xiao closes his eyes, pressing his lips to Barbatos’s forehead. “I see your soul. It is not tainted with the bad karma of evil deeds. Not like those I fight. You are a good person, Lord Barbatos. And I see you.”
“You know…you can call me Venti even when we’re not,” he gestures, cheeks blooming, “y’know. I’d prefer it, actually.”
Venti. Venti, Venti, Venti, Venti, Venti. Venti.
His lips move from Venti’s forehead to his hair—soft and fluffy. “Venti.”
There’s a happy little hum and Venti wiggles forward to lay his head on Xiao’s bare chest, pushing them back until Xiao hits soft earth.
Xiao cards a hand through Venti’s hair, getting those last few leaves he missed. “It appears you convinced me to relax after all.”
Venti’s fingers dance over Xiao’s skin. “Well, what I had in mind at the time was me taking you to some quiet place and playing for you as you laid your head in my lap, but I like this too.”
When Venti laughs, Xiao just blushes harder.
—
If Rex Lapis notices the white feathers added to Xiao’s everyday attire, he doesn’t address it.
The tiles of Wangshu’s roof are cold and hard—but warmed beneath their bodies and bearable with the soft pile of Venti in his arms. Trading kisses back and forth.
“This feels like a dream.” At Venti’s soft hum: “Having you here. Kissing you. Holding you. Everything. I feel I’ve dreamed this thousands of times before.”
“If this is a dream then I’m going to be very angry when I wake up…” It’s muffled into Xiao’s chest, Venti burying himself further in. “And then I’ll immediately come find you so it’s no longer a dream.”
Xiao drags his fingers through Venti’s hair. “Call out to me and I will find you. Anywhere. I will come to you.”
“And I’ll play you a million songs in apology.”
There’s a question in the back of his mind, pulled to the front. But does he dare ask? Does he dare risk upsetting Venti when he just got him back?
A finger prodding his chest. “You got something you wanna ask?”
He trails his own finger up and down Venti’s spine—tracing every bump, how it curves into Xiao, how it rises and falls with every breath. “How did you know?”
“You’ve got your question face on.”
“...My question face.”
Venti nods, eyes sparkling with laughter. “You just make this face when you wanna ask something but don’t know how.”
Warmth flutters in his chest.
The fact that Venti knows…that he can read Xiao so easily, even after all this time.
“Why did you sleep for so long?”
The sparkle fades. Venti’s fingers trail along Xiao’s collarbone, light. “Everything just gets so overwhelming sometimes. And I get tired from fighting. And Mondstadt doesn’t actually need me. And I get scared about losing myself over time. A lot of reasons.”
“Okay.” Xiao presses a kiss to Venti’s forehead. “Okay. Thank you for being honest with me.”
He can feel the smile against the thin silk of his shirt. “Anything for you, Liebling.”
Xiao’s nearly asleep, lids drooping and heavy, when Venti shifts against him. “Hey, Xiao?”
“Hm?”
“Let’s get married.”