Work Text:
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A Genshin Impact Fanfiction
Precise Measurements
By: Knowlee Raven
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Tapping his finger on his notepad app on his phone, Venti watched as the memo he just composed moments earlier appeared on his screen ready for him to look over for the dozenth time since he had left his apartment to head to the nearest grocery store. While he knew he had everything listed correctly and accurately, his anxiety still wanted to make him think he was missing something. He sighed. Sometimes he hated his brain.
Temporarily stowing the device away as the store in question had come into view, Venti passed through the automated doors for the building. After making his way in a little bit, he made sure to grab a shopping basket to use before he began his little journey. And what was that journey? Well, he was going to attempt to bake a cake for the first time in his life.
And why, pray tell? Why, it was for his lovely and beautiful girlfriend Lumine whose birthday was today and he wanted to make her something special. In previous birthdays he had given her other things like personal gifts that held a deeper meaning to them than just being mindless trinkets since she liked for things to have a purpose. Sure, he could just follow that trend and do the same this year, but after hearing her speak something to him some time back, it made him think that he should do something a little different this year.
Just remembering the sad tone in her voice that night when she told him how she felt, made his chest hurt and fueled his desire to get rid of what made her upset. While, and she had even admitted this herself, the problem wasn't really bad and wasn't anyone's fault, she still felt a bit ignored. Plus she and Venti knew that it was a possibility that Aether, her twin, felt the same.
Since they were born on the same day and shared the same birthday by consequence, growing up they always had them put together. Which made sense then and still does somewhat now, but as they grew older and started going on their own, separate from each other, the tendency to keep their celebrations together made Lumine feel like it was hard to truly separate from her brother. He remembered her telling him that she didn't mind sharing the birthday with him as that wasn't the problem, the issue was with people not seeing her as 'Lumine' but as the 'twin sister' and subsequently never let her do her own thing every year since her brother's birthday was on the same day and 'it makes sense to just share the party instead of having to have two of everything'.
While Lumine tried to keep quiet about it and not let it get to her, deep down she still wanted that degree of separation. Venti remembered too during that conversation that she jokingly voiced how 'she didn't even get her own cake' during their parties and somehow that confession stuck with him. Cake was essential to having a birthday and so to not have your own that's made just for you and no one else was depressing.
And thus began Venti's search for a good recipe to use and since they both liked apples, well more so him than her, but she still ate them, he decided that an apple-flavored cake was the way to go!
Speaking of those fruits, because of his choice to make that flavor of cake, that happened to be on his list. Seeing them on the shelf, he grabbed a small bag of them to put in his basket. Some would be for the recipe and, his face breaking out into a smile, the rest would be snacks for later. With a little spring in his step, Venti turned to glance up towards the ceiling to find the sign indicating where the baking supplies were. It took a few moments, but once he caught sight of where he needed to go, he began making his way over.
Upon reaching the start of the aisle, he pulled his phone back out while keeping an eye out for things that matched what he had typed out. As he walked down the aisle, occasionally grabbing something on his list, he jumped a little when his phone vibrated with a message from the birthday girl herself. Goofily smiling, Venti tapped on the message to see what she wrote him.
"Venti!! Come save me from work! I wanna go home!! :<"
His grin softened as he typed a response. "Alas, my fair maiden, I cannot. Though I wish I could whisk you away on the winds, that is unfortunately not within my power."
Almost immediately after sending that one, he quickly typed out another. "Perhaps in a different life that could have been the case, but now that is no longer an option. :<"
Another text made it to him. “Well, I guess I'll have to save myself then, seeing as you're no help. :P”
Venti knew there was no real malice behind her words. It was just simply a part of their banter. Or their flirting, as some of their friends like to call it. Which honestly, he couldn't argue against. His fingers wrote out a response. “I have no doubt you will. You are definitely more of the 'knight doing the rescuing' than I have ever been. I'm more of the damsel. Lol”
He could practically hear her laughing on the other end. “That you are.” A few seconds pass as Venti sees the three dots appear on his screen for a moment before her next message appeared. “So what are you up to?”
At first Venti felt a bit nervous about answering this question as he hated lying to her. Though in this case it was nothing more than a white lie and not something horrible or life changing, so he knew the probability of him getting away with it was high. Still, even with that conclusion, it left him at a loss as what to say. Thinking for a few more moments, eventually he found something vague he could send and have her be none the wiser. He began composing it...
...only to have himself fling his phone into the air in fright when he heard someone call out his name. “Venti!” He squeaked in terror, barely managing to catch the device before it hit the ground. That would've been a disaster. Not to mention a lot of mora he'd have to spend that he didn't exactly have at the moment.
He turned towards the direction of the voice to see two of Lumine's and, by slight extension, his friends heading towards him. The nervousness returned somewhat. He really hoped they wouldn't catch on to what he was doing and tell her about it. It wouldn't be a surprise if she knew.
“What are you doing here?” One of the friends, Amber, sent him a curious expression that immediately had him on edge. Though he knew she wasn't meaning anything by the look, Venti knew her well enough to know that when she was trying to figure out something, she wouldn't relent until she learned every detail of what was going on. The last thing he wanted to do was spill his guts, so he was a bit grateful that he had learned the age-old art of dodging questions. That skill was definitely going to come in handy in this situation.
Noelle, the other girl who was definitely more soft spoken than Amber walked up next to her with a basket in her hands that held what they were going to purchase. “Are you perhaps doing some last minute shopping for tonight's party?”
Venti nervously twirled one of his braids in his hand, trying to come up with a response. Before he could however, Amber spoke first, turning her gaze towards her companion. “I don't know about that. Venti was in charge of getting the music for the party, not the food, that's our job.” She turned her attention back to him. “So I'm sure Venti's here for another reason entirely. Getting some lunch, perhaps? But then...” She took note of the aisle causing Venti to panic for a short second. “...Why are you on the baking aisle?”
“Ehe...well...” Venti had to come up with something fast. Otherwise if he didn't, the suspicion on him would only get worse. “You see, there was a recipe I wanted to try and make. Unfortunately I didn't have any of the supplies needed for it so I came out here to get them.” There, that worked. It wasn't entirely a lie, nor was it the whole truth either.
He glanced over to his left to see the last remaining ingredient on his list. Instantly he felt relief. Now to get it and get out before they could interrogate him more. “And here I see the last thing on my list, so if you ladies will excuse me, I need to get going. Just as you said, there is a party this evening and I'd hate to be late for it because of not getting an early start on this. Especially since my lady is one of the stars for the big event.”
Making his way over as quickly as he could, he grabbed said item off the shelf, putting it into his basket, while making his way out of the aisle to head towards the cashier. And though he was trying his best to get out of there, he still made sure to give the two girls a goodbye wave. “See you at the party!”
While Venti knew he was out of the danger zone, his anxiety had yet to fully go away. Not even after checking out, bagging his items and walking out of the store. For while, yes, he wanted to avoid having a conversation with them, he wasn't lying when he said he wanted to get this done before the party. Cause if he didn't, then his gift would be for nothing.
As he rounded the corner and his apartment complex came into view, he had a fleeting thought form in the back of his mind that told him he never responded back to Lumine's text.
~~
Pouring the mixture into the cake pan, Venti relished in the apple smell that came from the batter. If it wasn't for the fact that he knew he couldn't eat the cake in this form, he definitely would've sampled it by now. But he knew he had to wait until Lumine got home and saw the cake for herself before he could get a chance to try some. And while he knew he would suffer during that wait, the pain would be worth it if it brought a smile to her face.
His own smile breaking out on his own, Venti put the pan into the preheated oven and set the timer for an hour. Now with that part out of the way, he needed to find something else to do. Turning around to see the mess he left upon the counter top and knowing that he had flour in his hair from a mishap that happened when he opened the bag, some cleaning was definitely in order.
His green eyes took a look at the clock hanging upon the wall to see that even with the party on the schedule and Lumine's normal time getting off from work taken into account, Venti would have plenty of time to get those things done. He'd probably even have time to have a drink or two before the party even took place. He laughed a bit, his smile turning into a smirk. Perhaps he shouldn't do that. Lumine wouldn't be too happy if he got drunk before her party happened. It was best to save that for the event itself.
Stretching his arms above him to work out the kinks he formed in his muscles during the past half hour, the musician decided to get started before he got distracted by something else.
~~
Looking down at her phone on the off chance her boyfriend had finally decided to respond, she frowned when she still saw his last message showing up on her chat log with him. Sighing, as she pocketed the device, she hoped he wasn't up to something. But based on what Amber and Noelle had mentioned to her when they came across him at the store and how he sidestepped their questions, Venti was definitely up to something. And while normally that wasn't a bad thing, as his typical schemes did ultimately end up for the better, though there were the rare occasions when it didn't, when it came to food and recipes, that was a ticking time bomb.
It wasn't that Venti wasn't good at cooking, he could make wonderful dishes that he was familiar with and had done dozens of times, but when it came to experimenting, things could go awry...fast. One example she could think off the top of her head was him trying to make a simple dish that nearly anyone could make, but just cause he wasn't used to it, he nearly burnt down their entire kitchen. She inwardly cringed at the memory. At least the damage wasn't too bad and was easily fixed, but after that it made her hesitant to let him try anything new unless she was there to supervise.
And if her friends’ words were correct, she was afraid that Venti might have a repeat of that same incident and she wasn't there to help him if it went wrong. It was that reason there that she was able to convince her boss to let her leave work early under the pretense of being concerned that her boyfriend was about to do something stupid and using her friends’ words as backup. And surprisingly it worked. She knew to pay her boss back for his kindness, she would need to work extra hard when she came back to work after the weekend was over.
Reaching her and Venti's apartment, she pulled the key out of her pocket, hoping and praying to anyone that would listen, that her boyfriend had not destroyed the place. Holding her breath, she removed the key from the now unlocked door and opened it. “Venti?”
Closing the door behind her, she was glad to see there was nothing destroyed...yet anyway. Either way it was a good sign. Suddenly she heard cursing coming from the kitchen and her heart raced a bit. Apparently she had spoken too soon…
Dropping her purse and keys on the couch, she walked as quickly as she could to the aforementioned room, only stopping once she saw Venti looking at her with a shocked expression and attempting to hide something behind him. She raised an eyebrow as she glanced about the room. Well, there wasn't anything out of place, but now she was curious as to what he had behind his back. “Venti, what are you doing?”
She could see the blush form on his face. “Um...nothing, my cecilia flower! Just something I need to throw away… Hehe. So...what are you doing home early? I thought you wouldn't be back for another few hours.”
Based on his laugh, she definitely knew he was hiding something. That was his nervous one he only made when he had been caught. But considering that nothing was amiss, it made her curiosity only grow more. Had he finally succeeded at making something new? “Well, when you didn't respond to my last text I got concerned. Then Amber and Noelle said you were acting weird at the store and that just made me worry more. So I was able to get my boss to let me leave early to check on you. Of course I'll have to pay him back later, but that wasn't my concern at the moment.”
“Oh?” Venti's nervousness disappeared for a moment, his ears turning pink as he looked at her with confusion. She smiled. Though they had been dating for a while, she still found it sweet that he got a bit flustered whenever she did something out of concern for him. A tiny part of her felt upset by it however, knowing that at times he felt he was undeserving of that love even though she and others tried hard to convince him otherwise.
“Yes, I needed to make sure my loving, though at times, stupid boyfriend hadn't destroyed the kitchen like last time.” Walking around the island in front of her, she grew closer enough to him to wrap her arms around his waist and lay her head on his chest. She could hear his heartbeat quicken just a bit.
“Ah, yeah, that wasn't a good time… I can't blame you for being concerned, but I promise nothing happened. This time anyway...” She felt one of his hands touch her back in a gesture to return her hug and she squeezed him back in return.
“That's a relief.” Hearing him laugh at her words, she used the fact that he was distracted to try and see what he had behind him. Unfortunately she only got so far as seeing a small glimpse of something brown and smelling something with the scent of apple before Venti got wise to what she was doing. “No, you can't see that.”
She looked up at him, her lips forming into a pout. “And why not? I'm the birthday girl should I not get to see it?”
“Eh, well… you see…” She saw him scratch the back of his head before ultimately sighing and moving to let her see what it was he made. Lumine pulled away from him just a little bit to get a better look. She was a little confused as to what she was seeing but upon looking at the ingredients he had yet to put away into the cabinets and seeing what it vaguely looked like, her heart skipped a beat when she realized exactly what he was doing.
“I remembered you mentioning before about wanting to have your own things when celebrating your birthday since you felt like people were just celebrating you as the twin instead of you as the person, so I thought I'd make you something that's considered an essential part of celebrating birthdays, so… tada! Here's your birthday cake! It's apple flavored!” She turned to Venti when she heard the disappointment become etched in his voice at his next words. “The cake didn't rise properly in the oven, that's why it looks more akin to an apple pie… Ugh, baking is really quite complicated...”
She smiled, touched that he remembered such a thing. It was simply an offhand comment she had made during a moment of sadness she felt with her birthday nearing and she didn't think he'd take it that seriously. But knowing he did and had even gone to the trouble of making her something made her love him even more. So while he was still off in his little world, Lumine reached up, grabbing his face in her hands and kissed him. At first she could feel his confusion before he returned her gesture wholeheartedly.
They swapped a few more kisses before pulling away, Lumine staring into his eyes to emphasize her next words. “Even though it didn't turn out the way you wanted, it's still perfect. Especially since you made it just for me. I'm touched that you even remembered I said that.”
Smiling, he laughed a bit. “Well, if I didn't remember what you told me, I wouldn't be a very good boyfriend now, would I?”
Lumine laughed in return. “That is true.” She then turned away from him to find a spoon to take a bite out of the gift he gave her.
“What are you doing?” She could hear his confusion return. Before she could answer him, she found what she was looking for and held the spoon up in her hands triumphantly like she had found a glorious treasure. Lumine pulled the apple cake (pie?) over towards her.
“Well, obviously I'm going to try your gift. It may look different, but how do you know it's bad until you taste it?” Based on the look on his face, he was finding it hard to argue with her logic. She put the spoon into the confectionery, getting a good piece of it, before bringing it to her mouth. Lumine could feel Venti's nervous gaze as she took her time chewing and swallowing the chunk of pastry.
A few moments passed before she gave him her verdict. “It's good.” Lumine was even a little surprised at her admission. Though it had the flavor of a cake the texture did feel like she was eating a pie. It certainly was something she could see herself eating again. Perhaps Venti could start making his more often as a desert during their regular meals. But then again, it would take away from the specialness of this moment.
His eyes widened, a small smile forming. “Really?”
She nodded. “Yep, it is.” Lumine sat the spoon down next to the pan and turned to face her boyfriend once more, grabbing his hand in the process. After turning, she gently tugged him along, leading him out of the kitchen. For giving her such a thoughtful gift, Lumine wanted to thank Venti and while her idea would cut into their other plans, honestly, she didn't care. This was more important.
“Um… where are we going? Shouldn't we be getting ready for the party?” While she couldn't see his face, she knew if she did that she would find Venti's expression on his face to be very cute. It was also the reason why she decided to focus on her mission instead of looking at him. Otherwise she'd just do it here and not where she wanted to. Luckily for her, their bedroom wasn't too far.
“We'll get ready in a minute. I need to do something first.” They entered the bedroom, Venti moving to stand in front of her upon getting in a few steps further. Titling his head to the side, his expression changed into a confused one. Oh, yep, Lumine was right in her previous thought. He definitely looked cute.
“Oh, what's that?” He squeezed her hand while she shut the door behind them. She smiled as she made her move and started to kiss him again, Venti taking a few seconds before responding. Though before it could get any further, she pulled away and gently pushed him down onto the bed.
He looked up at her, wonder momentarily appearing in his eyes only to change into something a bit darker upon hearing her next word after she climbed up into the bed after him. “You...”
Needless to say, they were fashionably late to the party. Shockingly, none of the other parties' attendees were surprised...