Chapter Text
They’d been at it for hours now, yet had made no progress at all. Aether’s blade was stained with the faintly glowing pink blood, and Venti’s claws bore none of Aether’s own blood. They were both growing exhausted. They were practically at a stalemate already.
Aether crawled behind the shrubbery and chunks of destruction laid around, knowing he could never really stay hidden from a god with dominion over the winds. Even if Venti’s mental function was atrophied briefly by the corruption, Aether knew to stay on his toes. Venti was unpredictable.
But he was distracted, now, his back turned to Aether as he inspected ruins from another age. Knowing it could very well be a farce, Aether took a deep breath and charged, ready to maneuver to the side if Venti was baiting him out. His blade plunged through Venti’s back, and the Archon screamed in agony, fuchsia-pink blood pouring from the stab wound as Aether tore out his blade and moved to strike again.
Venti met his blade with hard claws, a frustrated smile on his face. “Darling,” he moaned mockingly, “do you have no respect for your own lover?”
“You’re not my lover,” he growled, leaning into his blade.
“Oh, how high your expectations are~!” Venti broke away from the exchange and swiped for Aether’s shoulder. He parried the attack and aimed for the chest. Venti prepared to grab his blade, but the sword dropped and a hard knee went into his exposed stomach in a feint.
He fell backwards, grabbing Aether’s upper arm as he fell. Aether flew over his head with a startled cry, and, still attached through Venti’s grip, dragged Venti off of the cliff they’d battled on. The two fell together until Venti suddenly hugged Aether to his chest and barely broke the fall with his wings. The two landed harshly, but the otherwise fatal fall was still stopped.
Aether rolled away. “Asshole,” he grumbled, standing up slowly. Venti was still on the ground, still recovering from the shock of the situation.
Aether’s idea of purifying Venti finally blossomed when he noticed the blood pouring from his wounds.
He could purify that, specifically that.
A cocky smile broke through his hard expression. He stumbled over to Venti and fell to his knees. Aether wasted no time, straddling him and cutting himself on his blade. Hopefully whatever property of him that’d worked to purify Dvalin’s tears would be in his blood.
He watched as a thin stream of his blood poured from his arm onto Venti’s most prominent wound, the blood spilling onto his chest and streaming down to the sides.
Venti screamed and jerkily moved to grab his head, holding his hair in fistfuls. He screamed and screamed and thrashed and jerked around as much as he could, but it was too late to resist anything. His blood faded back to red, his eyes, hair, and chest piece faded back to teal. The horn and tail and everything else retracted or dissipated, and Aether collapsed to the side.
He stared at Venti’s lidded eyes, a loving smile on his lips. He was so glad Venti was going to be okay. He was so happy that this hell was over with.
“Aether?” Venti whispered from beside him, a hand clutching where his blood leaked out. Aether smiled. “Hey,”
“I’m sorry,”
“No, don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault that any of this happened,”
“Still, I–”
“Shh. It’s okay. I’m just glad that you’re… You again,”
“Yeah… Me too,”
“We, uh… Are kind of fucked, though,”
“Yeah…”
“Hopefully,” Aether groaned, “Diluc will show up soon enough. He was watching from a distance to make sure things stayed under control and you wouldn’t make it anywhere where you could hurt people,”
“I hurt you, though,”
“Oh, come on! That was bound to happen. It’s not your fault. There’s nothing to be feeling guilty for,”
“But…” Venti slid a little closer to him. “What if you die here? What if you bleed out because I was so irresponsible that… I didn’t stop this from happening to me before it was too late to do anything?”
“It’s okay, Venti. Even if you are guilty of not trying to stop things hard enough… I… I forgive you. I love you.”
Venti exhaled through his nose and closed his eyes, inching a little closer to Aether with the little strength he had left. They held each other close as they passed out from blood loss.
–
And they woke up next to each other in a soft, comfortable bed, covered in bandages. Or rather, Venti woke up, Aether was still out cold. He did seem to have lost more blood, as it’s a bit hard to do more damage to a corrupted god than they can do to you. Venti felt guilt coursing through his system thicker than the poison had. Aether was okay, sure, but the momentary relief didn’t outweigh the horrible waves of guilt.
“Venti,” Diluc walked into the room, arms crossed. Venti lowered his hand from where he’d been caressing Aether’s cheek and laid back down, staring off into nothing, pretending he was looking at Diluc.
“Yes?”
“Say, you aren’t going to turn back into that… Thing… and trash my winery, are you?”
“I… I don’t know,” he said quietly, the shame evident in his tone. Diluc sighed. “Whatever. Just… Don’t lay another finger on Aether,” He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have no clue what I was thinking putting you together like this, but… I’m a little worried he’d be lonely waking up without you, so, just… Behave yourself. I know you’ve both gone through a lot, and I’m sure you feel horrible, but don't just pray for the best and turn away from what happened. If you feel anything’s going wrong in you, tell me. We’re locking you away. You care about Mondstadt, obviously, yes? This is for the best of all of your people,” Diluc lectured him, words coming out harsher than how he probably felt. Venti didn’t mind. His blood went cold at the thought of being locked away like that, all the work Aether put in gone to waste, but, as Diluc said himself, it would be necessary. And Venti would go along with it.
However, he was feeling okay. Well, he was horrible, feeling light-headed from the blood loss and in so much pain from his wounds, but, he could feel the corruption, the poison, was truly, honestly gone. He smiled softly. It was all Aether’s doing. Aether saved him, even if it would have cost his life. Aether loved him.
So he rolled over on his side and stared at Aether’s sleeping face. He wished he could do something about his pain, but, it was something he had no say in. But he would make sure Aether felt loved. He deserved it after how much he struggled to save Venti.
Even the abyss couldn’t come between them. Venti was sure of this. Aether was his whole world.