Chapter Text
“Do we really need so many mint?” Xiao grumbled, even as he obediently squatted to inspect the quality of the mint in front of him. It was not of the highest quality, but it should do well enough.
Venti tsked from a few feet over, hunched over inspecting another mint of his own. “Of course we do! It has to be enough to be grinded into some lovely colours for Albedo, and so few certainly would not be enough paint for his experiments.”
“Experiments,” Xiao said drily. Bland as his tone might have been, Venti could hear the question anyway. The little bird had always been more curious than he cared to admit.
“Well, you see, this is what he told me.” Lowering his voice a little and changing his intonation - presumably to match that of Albedo’s - he continued. “Every region has its own specialty, so logically, we should expect that common plants like sweet flowers and mints have their regional differences as well. At the moment, I am, in particular, interested in the difference in the artistic outcome that mint of different nations might create. Perhaps a slight change in the gradient or texture could be expected?”
Venti gave a soft laugh. “You would think that he would wait for an answer, but I think he had gone off into his own world wondering and rambling by that point, so poor little me couldn’t even get a single word in before he was speaking again.”
Given that Xiao had never and would probably never meet this Albedo, he did not know his voice, so it felt a little pointless to have the bard imitate his voice. Still, Venti kept up the theatrics. “Regardless, since you are making a detour to Liyue before returning to Mondstadt, if you would please bring me some paint grinded from Liyue’s mint and only Liyue’s mint, I would greatly appreciate it. Of course, if you—well-travelled bard as you are—have trusted friends from Natlan, Fontaine, or Snezhnaya who could provide me with paint made from mints in those areas as well, that would be even better.”
Xiao hummed. “Did he not care for Inazuma and Sumeru mint?”
Venti stretched, tossing a handful of mints into the giant bamboo basket on his back. “Well, of course he wanted them too, but he was returning from Inazuma with me, remember? He already had the Inazuma ones, and he had his friend—Tighnari I believe—sending some over from Sumeru, so it was the others he lacked.”
“Did you give him the trusted contacts from the other nations then?”
Venti wrinkled his nose, bending back over to pick at more mints. “I fear my contacts in those regions are unfortunately a little… outdated.”
Xiao winced. Right. Venti had been asleep for quite some time not long ago, so he supposed Venti hadn’t yet made his way to re-visit every nation after the incident 500 years ago where…
Xiao stood, heading over to stand next to Venti, angling himself so he sheltered the bard from the sun, if only for a moment. Wordlessly, he handed him his waterskin. He was never good at providing comfort of any sorts, but… “Do you want to take a short rest?”
Venti gazed up at him, a soft smile on his lips. “It’s all right,” he said softly, hands reaching to hold Xiao’s in his loosely, thumbing over the back of it in a soothing gesture. “Unless you are tired and want to rest? It is you who is recovering, remember?”
Xiao shook his head. “I’m fine.”
“Mmm, that’s good,” Venti replied, reassured, as he returned to the mints. “Do you know what Klee said after that?”
Xiao shook his head minutely as he too returned to work.
Pitching his voice to make it sound remarkably similar to that of an innocent little girl, Venti went on. “Is it because the Mondstadt blues are not quite right for big brother Kaeya’s hair?” Venti let out a little giggle. “And honestly, I would have thought it was just a little girl’s rambling because she herself was concerned with the perfect colour of her Kaeya’s hair since he was one of her favourites, but then Albedo started blushing. It was not the most obvious, but a bard’s intuition is never wrong about romance, and I definitely saw the tip of his ears turn pink!”
Xiao tilted his head towards Venti. “You said something, didn’t you?”
The bard gave him a cheeky grin back. “Why, of course! To be fair, I merely asked if that was really so, but I was then—quite abruptly and rudely, might I add—shooed out of their room.” Venti wiped a tear dramatically. “By Albedo too, who is rarely so openly rude to people. Hmph, it only confirmed my suspicions.”
Xiao paused, studying a sweet flower next to the mint he had just picked. With how small the centre portion was, it likely was not as sweet as some of the others might be, but its petals were beautifully arranged, almost entirely symmetrical. He wondered idly how it would look in Venti’s hair, next to the Cecilia he so loved to adorn himself with.
“Say,” Venti murmured, leaning in conspiratorially. “Now that we know this, what do you think is the best strategy to try to get the two of them to, you know, get on with it?”
Xiao’s cheeks heated up at the sudden closeness. “I don’t think—”
“Now, where was it that the little crane said the best mints were?” A familiar musing voice from a distance away interrupted. “I simply cannot obtain a worse mint than Moon Carver when he can barely spot the quality differences between those wondrous plants on a good day.”
Instantly, Xiao’s eyes shot towards Venti, the panic visible within them. Venti barely had time to comprehend what might be the concern when Xiao had already grabbed his hand, pulling him along urgently. “We have to go!”
Yanking Venti along with him, they were immediately off, ducking towards one of the ruins in a distance laying behind a light actuator. Venti wondered briefly if it was perhaps one Xiao was familiar with.
With how fast he was forcibly pulled along, they were within the ruins in no time, back facing the walls by the entrance as they stared ahead at the three empty pedestals. Some scholar or adventurer must have been by already.
“Why can’t we just teleport away?”
Xiao shook his head vehemently. “Jueyun Karst is rife with spiritual energy, so it is difficult to discern our individual traces while we are in the area. However, if we were to suddenly disappear, the emptiness left in our wake would be noticeable, even to Mountain Shaper.”
Venti hummed. “So we stay here?”
Xiao didn’t reply for a moment, as though lost in thought. “But… you’re an archon. Maybe, it would be obvious anyway.” With their hands still clasped together, Venti could feel Xiao’s pulse quicken.
Venti gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “Nah, I don’t think so,” he reassured quietly. “He’d have started yelling at me if he knew I was here, hot tempered as he is.”
Xiao frowned. “Hot tempered…?”
There was a mischievous twinkle in Venti’s eyes as he tilted his head cutely. “Ehe, hot tempered when he meets me anyway!”
Even as Xiao shook his head at that, a soft smile graced his lips at the thought of Venti’s mischief. The bard’s eyes flicked towards it instantly, the urge to press his own against the yaksha’s lips filling his mind instantly.
Venti looked away. “Maybe we can start grinding these mint while we—”
Xiao shook his head vehemently. “We might get caught,” he whispered, just as Venti heard the beat of giant wings coming closer. Xiao pressed a finger to his lips. Shh.
The two immortals fell silent, waiting with baited breaths as the giant crane outside rumbled around, loitering around the area for what felt like an unnaturally long time.
“Hmm, these mints…” There was a long pause. “Someone skilled has plucked them, and yet there are no human footsteps about.”
For a long moment, Mountain Shaper said nothing. Venti was just about ready to suggest that perhaps he had gone off already, when there was a sudden thundering of flapping wings. “By the command of the adepti, show yourself now, snooping thief of mints!” he bellowed fiercely.
Xiao’s eyes began flitting around frantically, searching for an escape. Desperate to soothe, Venti moved to face Xiao, free hand reaching for to grab the yaksha’s hand in a gesture of comfort for a moment before he transformed his body into that of his original form in a gentle swirl of wind.
For a moment, Xiao only stared at him. Thankfully, Xiao too soon followed his cue, transforming into that of a little finch. It was a new form he had yet to see before. An adorable one.
The wind wisp couldn’t resist taking a second to nudge forward, pressing his forehead into that of the bird. Much smaller than Xiao’s true form, the little teal creature was small enough to be hidden beneath Venti’s hat.
Unfortunately, they had no time to waste as they heard the (now much larger than them) crane shuffling closer. Their transformation must have shifted something in the air. Leading the way, Venti flitted off immediately, rushing towards a little hole in the back wall. Behind him, he heard the little finch hop after him.
Squeezing through the tiny opening that would be hard for a larger creature to even take note of, they circled around the mountain behind the ruins, sneaking to the back of it where they would not be as easily spotted before finally taking flight.
Once in the air, Venti happily nestled onto the bird’s back, letting Xiao lead the way instead. After all, this was Xiao’s territory, and he would be much more familiar with where to go when hiding from Mountain Shaper’s meddlesome beak. The sudden rider made the bird swerve a little, but he recovered quickly enough.
He was right it seemed, for Xiao flew without meandering straight down towards a little ruin near Taishan Mansion. It had been a long time since Venti last visited the area, but someone must have been by lately, for the water levels had been lowered and the domain unlocked.
As they neared where Xiao was clearly headed, Venti flew off, rushing ahead to coalesce back into his human form immediately as he tumbled onto the ground. Holding his cupped hand out, he reached out for the landing little finch. To his delight, Xiao obliged, gently descending to perch onto his palms.
Resisting the urge to give the little bird a kiss, Venti bent his fingers to stroke the feathers on his neck gently. Yet instead of shying away and hopping off (as Venti was certain would happen), Xiao only tilted his head, shuffling over obediently as Venti moved to hold him in one hand while the other moved to preen Xiao’s feathers.
The wind around them was so gentle it was almost still, with only the barest whisper of a caress as the world quietened around them. Everything beyond Venti’s hand blurred as his sole focus sharpened onto the little bird cupped safely in his palm. Carefully running his fingers through the feathers, he stroked Xiao’s plumage, searching for feathers that might be loose or out of place, gently rearranging them or removing them as he saw fit.
With the soft lapping of the water at his feet and the tranquility of the land around them, there was a serenity that settled like a comforting blanket over them. It was so easy to get lost in working through the feathers after all, and the way Xiao had sat snugly upon his palms only exacerbated the floaty feeling within him. It must have been soothing for Xiao as well, for his eyelid kept slipping shut, even as he struggled to keep them open. Every time he unconsciously pressed himself onto Venti’s wandering fingers, it was a challenge not to snuggle him to his chest and disturb the peace.
He wasn’t sure how long they stayed there like that, but eventually, the spell was broken as Xiao seemingly had enough of the physical affection bestowed upon him. Given that he had always struggled between the discomfort and desire of such touches, it was a miracle in itself that he had let Venti hold him for such a long time.
“Mountain Shaper won’t find us here?” Venti murmured softly, not quite wanting to break the tranquil moment.
Xiao hopped off Venti’s palm, transforming smoothly back into his beloved yaksha. “He’s a bird. He’ll follow his instinct and search up. Besides… Taishan Mansion is a sensitive matter to them. Neither he nor Moon Carver like to frequent this place.”
Venti hummed, taking in the information. Useful thing to know the next time he offended them! Adepti’s could be huffy little creatures after all. Awfully easy to offend sometimes, they were. “That was fun!”
Xiao wrinkled his nose. “We were nearly found.”
“Well, we weren’t!” Venti giggled. “Besides, nearly getting caught is half of the thrill.”
Xiao didn’t roll his eyes, because that was just not what he does, but the energy he exuded felt like he did anyway. Still, he pulled out a fairly sizable pestle and mortar from his adeptal realm, setting it by the water.
Unloading his own basket on the ground behind, he began to pick out the parts of the mint they wanted to keep, tossing it into the mortar.
Obligingly, Venti settled down to do the same. “Why are you in such a rush to hide anyway? You’re an adeptus yourself. You need no permission to be here.”
Xiao frowned. “I am… they would not be most pleased with my current state, I suspect.”
“Worried they’d fret?” Venti teased.
“They hover and nag…”
Venti laughed, tapping Xiao’s nose with his finger playfully. “Tsk tsk, what a thing to say about your fellow adepti.” Lowering his voice to imitate Xiao, he added. “You have no respect for the ways of the adepti.”
Xiao pushed his head down a little at his mocking. “I don’t sound like that.”
“You wouldn’t know! You can’t hear yourself.”
Xiao made a little noise of discontent at that, and Venti let out another giggle before deciding to stop teasing Xiao (for now). He hummed quietly, letting the music flow over the lake, the valley, and the two of them as they worked quietly in tandem. It was a moment or two, before Xiao’s quieter voice joined his, the little purr of a harmony accompanying the familiar well-loved songs.
Venti had visited many places in his lifetime. There was no nation he had not set foot on, and barely an area he had not had the good fortune to at least brush past as a little wisp. In all his travels, there were inevitably beautiful sounds to be found, from the rush of the waterfalls of Fontaine to the unusual crickets in the Chinju Forest.
And yet despite all he had seen and all he had heard, the sound of their voices entangling together in a perfect harmony was still the most beautiful sound he had ever experienced. In all the times he had had the privilege to experience it, it never once failed to wash away every stain of negativity from him.