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Xiao knew his vision does not really represent him as a person. It was rumored that each vision’s users were somehow similar to their elements, and Anemo was supposed to represent freedom.
And Xiao’s circumstance is furthest away from the term “freedom”. Being a yaksha that has been alive for far longer than what a mortal could even imagine, while also being chained down by the contract he had with Rex Lapis. It’s not exactly the freedom one could imagine.
The yaksha shook his head as he stared up at the sky, eating the almond tofu that the boss had offered him a while ago. His eyes wandered around, looking for his constellation as he noticed an extra presence around him.
But he didn’t summon his lance, because he knew who it was.
“Xiao~! I’ve come to visit!” A cheerful voice rang out, as a figure floated down and sat with him on the rooftop. The said male stared at the other with a blank look and nodded. “You could at least have a bigger reaction!!”
“Hi, Venti.”
“That’s not a big reaction!!”
Venti’s reaction made Xiao smile slightly, with the latter patting at the empty space next to him, signaling the other to sit closer to him. The bard beamed with happiness as he scooted closer to the yaksha and leaned against him. Xiao jumped in shock as he looked at the archon who was leaning on him, but was reluctant to push the other away. Smiling, his hand ruffled Venti’s hair as they both continued to stargaze while sitting on the rooftop.
The tattoo on Xiao’s arm glowed brightly under the night sky, reflecting against Venti’s face. The bard stared at his tattoos, playfully poking them. He stopped once the other glared at him, making him flinch in fear. Noticing the bard’s reaction, Xiao quickly reached over to rubbed the other’s arm, making sure that he was able to convey the fact that he wasn’t upset at him. Venti, who now has calmed down, smiled up at Xiao as he leaned in to give the taller a kiss on his chin.
Venti’s collars were glowing faintly beneath his shirt as if it were responding to Xiao’s tattoos.
Soulmate tattoos, something that was given to the people of Teyvat by Celestia. It was rare for an Adeptus to get their own soulmate tattoos, even rarer for an archon. For both of them to be each other’s soulmates, was the rarest thing that could even happen in the land of Teyvat.
Xiao stared at his own tattoo and looked towards Venti, who was slowly dozing off while looking up at the sky. He couldn’t hide the smile that was growing on his face, as he brushed away the bard’s bangs and gave his forehead a soft kiss. The latter looked back up at Xiao and yawned.
“Hm… I’m pretty tired…”
“Get some rest, Barbatos. I’ll watch over you.”
“I told you to call me Venti… But sure! You said it…”
As if on cue, the bard laid down across the other’s lap and closed his eyes. Xiao slightly jumped in shock and sighed in endearment. He couldn’t get upset at the other unless he had really pissed him off, he loved Venti way too much. Even more than he could admit himself. There were even days where he thanked the archons that Venti was both his soulmate and his lover.
He couldn’t think of another person that he could possibly fall in love with.
-
Venti sat on the edge of Starsnatch cliff as he strummed his lyre, sighing. He wasn’t sure what to play as nothing was on his mind at the moment. Turning the lyre back into his fake vision, he laid down against the damp grass as he eyed the sky.
“It’s going to be Xiao’s birthday soon…”
He whispered to himself as he drew out some of the constellations he recognized in the night sky. One of those was Jean’s constellation, he let out a chuckle as he remembered the weird things that the knights had to do for the people in Mondstadt. One of which he was roped into helping the knights to find a missing dog, and it was. Well, that’s what he should expect from a land of freedom.
He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. He jerked up immediately, clutching his heart as he looked down. The tattoos were faintly glowing, hinting that Xiao was nearby, but he was fixated on something else.
His eyes widened as he saw that the time he had left was not enough. Venti frowned, looking at the small bar he had at his right arm. It didn't tell him how much time he had left, but he knew. He knew it wasn't enough. His eyes looked away from the bar as if he were rejecting the results, but the bard knew that he was running out of time. He cannot deny his fate.
His brain sifted through all the happy, sad, and precious moments he shared with the yaksha like a movie reel. The other might be dense at some moments, but Venti knew that deep inside he cared a lot about everyone. Oh Archons, he really did love Xiao that much, huh?
Looking down onto the ground, his fist grabbed the damp grass and he laughed in pain. "... Why? I haven't even been here for long…" The archon's voice was soft, but the pain lingered in the air.
The wind blew softly around him as he stared back out at the open sea. He was on the verge of tears, he had so much more to do. He wanted to explore Teyvat more, he wanted to go visit Liyue more, he wished to stay with Xiao for just a little longer.
Venti pulled his beret off as he sighed to himself, “Even as an archon, I still can’t escape this cursed matter we call fate.” Whispering softly to no one, he felt a streak of tears falling from his eyes. Hand reaching out to wipe his tears, he realized one of them had formed into a solid object. His eyes glanced down and noticed a crystal had formed in the shape of his teardrops.
He started to laugh to himself softly, the tears kept falling from his eyes. The crystal in his arm was infused with anemo energy, as he held it tightly in his hand, and crushed it. The crystal shattered as it dispersed into nothing, and flew away along with the soft breeze in the air.
Venti looked up at the night sky, tears still falling as he shut his eyes tight, forcing a smile onto his face as he slowly opened them up again. Still in denial, but he knew that he was forced to accept the fate that Celestia had given to him. Even though he still had the smile on him, the tears that were still spilling down his cheeks, the hands that gripped onto the ground, and the air that he breathed in sharply through his teeth, said otherwise. He didn’t want to let go, not just yet.
Finally acknowledging the presence, the archon sighed, and wiped away his tears. "Xiao, you haven't left Liyue in a while. What brings you here?"
-
There were always times where Xiao wouldn't know what to do. When a kid in Liyue told him he was a good looking Adeptus. When a young lady was hitting on him in the streets of Liyue. Or even when that Snezhnayan was trying to hit on his master. He didn’t really mind or care for those.
But this time, it was regarding his soul mate. The same archon that was supposed to represent freedom.
Xiao was picking some cecilias, while walking towards the edge of the cliff. That's when he saw the back of his lover. His movement stopped as he noticed the figure was shaking. A visible frown turned into a gasp. It was as if his brain stuttered, and with a gulp, he tried to walk closer to said figure. The realization of the situation almost made him drop the flowers.
Venti was in pain. He might also have been crying for a while too.
His protective instinct made him step closer to said archon, but he stopped. What was he going to say? What can he do to comfort the other?
What were they going through?
With a sad look on him, he started to think. What could Venti be sad over? What could the other be upset over? The cat he encountered? The fact that that particular tavern owner didn't allow him to drink in the tavern again? Or maybe the fact that he had stolen an apple from the store again?
The thoughts were banished when he heard the young Archon called his name. Guiltily, he walked towards him and gave him the faux bouquet he had tried making out of the Cecilias.
"Woah! That's a big bunch of Cecilias!" Venti smiled as he took over the bouquet and sniffed it. His smile was soft, it was the one that Xiao loved to see.
He soon had thrown the guilt and the visual of his lover in pain to the back of his head.
"I picked them when I was walking here." He replied, slightly monotonous. The other grabbed his hand and give it a soft kiss. Xiao's tattoo glowed in reaction to it, as Venti looked up at him with the same smile still plastered on his face.
"Thank you, I really appreciate them." The bard's voice was soft, as he looked down at the Cecilias. His eyes weirdly focused on it, making Xiao tilt his head in wonder. He looked at what the archon was doing to the cecilias, although it was faint he still noticed it. He was infusing them with anemo energy. A soft smile plastered on his face, but his eyes were hollow. Xiao felt like he was feeling a sense of unfamiliarity from the other. Loneliness? Sadness? Or was it a sense of melancholy? He couldn’t figure it out. The other then moved to do something, which shook Xiao back to reality. But his eyes widened as he noticed what Venti was doing.
He threw the cecilias off the cliff and leaned forward to see if they were flying around. The cecilias floated in the sky, making it seem like it was raining cecilias.
"But wh-"
"You kept them in a bouquet, that's not free at all!"
Before Xiao could even finish his question, Venti had already replied to him. This made Xiao abruptly stop his train of thought and started a new one.
Venti was right. Cecilia was the representation of freedom in nature after all. A small and fragile essence, yet it only grows where the harshest winds blew. It was a strong soul in a tiny frame.
The yaksha’s eyes dropped onto the bard next to him, the same phrase could be applied to him too. He always wondered how carefree the other was, considering he was the god of freedom. But at the same time, how much pain and suffering had he put himself through? He’s heard about the friend that Venti lost about two thousand years ago, how he would have felt if he remembered that mortals don’t have the same lifespan as the two of them.
Xiao then realized that Venti had kept one flower in his hand as he played around with it, laying against his arm. The glowing tattoo reflected off his face, and he noticed the blank and soulless eyes that Venti had. Shaking his arm, he wanted to get Venti’s attention. The other blew the last cecilia away and looked back at Xiao with a smile.
That smile made Xiao’s heart jump, and it wasn’t a good type. He felt that there was something that Venti was hiding behind that smile, but he didn't dare to ask what it was. He was reminded of how the other looked before he blew the flower off his hand. Xiao then subconsciously reached out to hold the archon's hand, hoping that he was able to offer a slight comfort with such a simple gesture.
The two sat in silence, and it wasn’t until Venti suddenly jerked up that either of them moved.
“Venti?”
“A-Ahaha… Xiao, didn’t you stay for too long? You should leave!”
The yaksha was taken aback by how harshly Venti pushed him away from himself. His hand reached out, wanting to hold the archon’s hand, but the other had raised his hand. Venti’s face was slightly hidden away from Xiao due to the angle, but the taller one could still see a bit of Venti’s face.
The archon’s eyes were shut tightly in pain, and Xiao wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but there was a faint glow of a bar on his arm. His arm was shaking from how harshly the yaksha was holding him, and he inhaled deeply in pain. Both the pain in his chest and how harshly Xiao was grabbing him had triggered his fight or flight response. But the other had questions to ask before Venti could even do anything.
“What’s that?”
Xiao went over and tried to grab Venti’s arm, but with a blast of Anemo energy, Venti pushed Xiao far away from him. The yaksha looked up in shock, but his eyes widened at the sight in front of him.
The archon looked furious. He had accidentally summoned his wings behind him and gritted his teeth. This was the first time that Xiao felt fear after the archon war, he gulped and reached out for his lover. Venti only pushed himself back further from Xiao, and almost toppled over the cliff.
“... Go.”
Venti’s voice was soft and low, and yet it sounded resentful enough for Xiao to understand that he had to leave. The bard looked down onto the ground, hands clutching onto his chest, but Xiao was drowning in his own feelings and nodded. As he stood up from where he was once seated at, brushing the damp grass off his pants, the taller walked away from Venti.
After a few steps, he looked back at the smaller figure, still clutching his chest in pain.
“If you want me gone so bad, you could’ve just told me.”
Venti looked up from his position, and his expression made Xiao grimace. The archon’s eyes widened with shock, and his lips were trembling. It was as if he had things to say to the person in front of him, but he couldn’t find it. His eyes were filled with dread, as one of his hands slowly reached out to the other.
Mercilessly, he smacked the hand away from the other. Why does Venti’s manner make him look like he was in pain, when Xiao was the one that felt pain in his heart? What a selfish god, he thought to himself as he walked away from the archon.
“Xiao… Time’s running out… Please…”
-
The next time they met was during Xiao’s birthday.
It was surprising to see people remember his birthday, really. Not even himself remembers his birthday. Mona, who also joined the party, explained that she had looked into the constellations of everyone she knew and wanted to give Xiao a surprise. He nodded and just stood at the side of the balcony like he always did.
His master had also mentioned that he was allowed to take a break for today, which made the yaksha slightly uncomfortable. He didn’t always take his mind off his job, which was basically looking over Liyue’s safety. Tartaglia, the lord forsaken Snezhnayan, patted his shoulder and said that it was fine, he promised to make sure the Fatuus wouldn’t get out of hand. For today.
So that’s how he ended up in Mondstadt, walking around with Kaeya next to him. He has always wanted to visit the said city, but never had the time to actually visit it. He could always ask his lover but… Xiao shook his head slightly at the thought of the said person as he shifted his attention back to the blue-haired guy.
“Say, I heard that a bard wanted to talk to you?”
The green-haired sighed. “Venti?”
Kaeya nodded and point out that Venti was at Starsnatch cliff, and started to fall into deep thought. The yaksha tilted his head in confusion, why the sudden seriousness? Noticing the other’s confusion, the cavalry captain only gave a sentence that had raised Xiao’s awareness.
“I heard from Diluc that he’s been missing from town more and more, and every time he goes back to the tavern he looked like he was in pain. Each time more than last.”
That made Xiao bolted away from Kaeya, and rushed towards the cliff as quickly as possible. He ignored all the hilichurls he had encountered and jumped away from all the slimes he has met.
And when he reached the top of the cliff, and there he saw.
Venti was standing there with a cupcake in his hands, seemingly waiting for the other’s arrival.
“Xiao!! Over here!!” He screamed out to the yaksha, waving at him. Extremely annoyed, Xiao rushed towards Venti and grabbed his hand, not caring about the cupcake that had fallen onto the ground. “I- Xiao, I tried my best to bake tha-”
“Did you call me here, just so you could give me a measly cupcake?”
Xiao didn’t realize Venti was struggling to hold himself up to stand, but instead, he was focused more on his apologetic expression. The bard tried to explain himself, but Xiao didn’t give him the chance to.
“I tried my best to bake… I didn’t know how to even cook, and I had to ask for help from Barbara.” Venti’s tone was soft, and he was panting slightly heavily. That’s when the yaksha noticed something was wrong.
“Venti?”
“Remember, around a month ago… When you got upset at me? For asking you to leave?”
Xiao’s grip tightened at the mention of that certain memory. He nodded, and all of a sudden Venti’s leg gave up on him, making him fall forward. Xiao, trying to catch Venti in his arms, kneeled down and held him. The latter looked up, and that’s when he saw the gnosis at his chest faintly glowing.
“Barbatos, what is all this?” He brushed Venti’s hair and noticed a stream of tears falling. Holding him closer to his chest, he whispered once again. “...Venti. What’s up with you?”
“I know we’re soulmates and everything but… It seemed like Celestia had other plans for me.” Venti wiped away the tears, once again pretending everything was alright. “You lived a good life without me, so why won’t you just leave me be?”
Xiao felt Venti’s hand reaching up to his cheeks, he seemed to be wiping away something on his face. “Why do you weep for me, weren’t you annoyed?”
“...I am.” Breathing in sharply, he continued. “I’m annoyed at you for not telling me what’s wrong. For leaving me in the dark for so long. What in the world is wrong, Venti?”
There was silence in the atmosphere around them, just soft wind blowing. It took a moment until Venti finally answered him. “Xiao, I’m tired.”
That made Xiao remembered something, a certain someone had once said. They go by the name of “Guizhong.” And before they have dispersed into nothing in his master’s arms, they said the same thing. “Zhongli, please put me to rest.” He remembered that before Guizhong had turned into nothing, there was a faint glow on their arm. And that’s where he checked Venti’s arm.
He was right, there was a bar on his arm that glowed faintly, seemingly reacting to Xiao’s tattoos. But it wasn’t the case. “Venti, what’s this?” The yaksha’s voice shook slightly, he wasn’t sure if it was from the shock or from the anger he never knew he had for himself. Hands gripping onto the weak archon tighter than before, Xiao held him closer to him.
“Well… You see…” Venti chuckled weakly as he explained himself. “Our lifespan isn’t the same as you, isn’t the same as mortals as well. It’s not even lifespan, as the reason why I’m able to roam Teyvat was that I heard the pleas of the people in Mondstadt…”
“What are you saying, I don’t get i-”
“The pains are simply just a reminder that my time to wander around has come to an end, and I should go take some rest once again.” His smile was small as he looked at Xiao, wiping his tears away once again. “You’re going to be fine without me.”
“Venti, please.”
Venti jerked in pain, holding his chest tightly.
“You’re going to be alright, yeah?”
His tears started to fall once again as he realized that his body was slowly getting lighter and lighter. Xiao’s eyes widened as he tried his best to hold Venti closer to him as tight as he could. He wanted to scream out how he wanted to stay with the bard longer, how he wanted to hear the other’s voice he’s singing the ancient folklores, and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with said archon.
“You’re strong, Xiao. I know you can do it by yourself.” Venti slowly sat up, still clutching his heart, and leaned closer to the yaksha as he planted his lips onto the other’s.
“Happy birthday, Xiao. I love you.”
As if it was an entire joke, not giving Xiao enough time to react, Venti’s body has disappeared right there and then. This left Xiao sitting there appalled as he slowly touched his lips, Venti had kissed him. He then felt a solid object in his other hand, as he slowly opened it up.
It was a crystal in the shape of a teardrop, infused with Anemo energy. It was the last and only proof that Venti existed. Without a word, he held the crystal close to his heart. His head lowered, not wanting to be seen by the rest of the world.
The rain started to pour as Xiao felt his tears blurring together with the surrounding raindrops. His cries were lost in the downpour, his hand trembling as he kept screaming out for Venti’s name. He remembered the first time when he met Venti, he remembered when Venti started to include him in his little drinking party with Rex Lapis, he remembered when Venti tried to confess to him clumsily, he remembered when Venti celebrated his birthdays with him.
Birthdays. Xiao opened up his tear-filled eyes to look at the drenched cupcake that was thrown aside due to their little dispute a while ago. He reached out to the said cupcake, and felt that there was something rock-solid in the middle of the cupcake. He laughed weakly to himself, putting a solid in something as soft as a cupcake sounds like Venti.
When he pried it over, he felt his tears falling faster than ever.
There was a ring in the middle of it. Two of them, actually. Xiao immediately understood that they were promise rings, and each had their names carved on it. The yaksha laughed in pain as he clutched onto the rings and the crystal tightly.
“Venti… I love you too much… I’m sorry…”