Chapter Text
Zhongli could smell the familiar scent of wine, something that didn't too often frequent the apartment he lived in. The usual Liyue architecture was slightly disrupted, the lounge suit was moved just slightly and the mat crudely flicked up at the corner.
"Where did you go my love?" Zhongli called, soft voice travelling through the house.
"Morax!" the youthful cheer called back.
Zhongli walked towards the voice, his brow twitching in his wary state. There, in the bath, was Venti with a bottle of Dandelion Wine in hand and an empty one on the floor near the door. Venti perked up at the sight of Zhongli, a wide happy smile spreading across his face.
"You found me," Venti cooed as if there was nothing wrong.
"How much have you drunk?" Zhongli sighed, reaching to place the fallen bottle elsewhere.
"Well, Childe and Kaeya were meeting up and Kaeya decided to pass on the bottle I asked for from Diluc... Theeeeen... They walked me here!" Venti smiled.
"So how many is that?" Zhongli fought the fond smirk on his face.
Venti made a shuffle to get out of the tub, the last of the wine apparently having been consumed as the bottle fell onto the profile with a horrid clatter. Venti stopped and startled at the noise. Immediately Zhongli reached over and picked the archon up, allowing him to wrap his legs around him and nuzzle his nose into his chest.
"You need to eat and sleep this off," Zhongli smiled as Venti hugged him closer.
"No! I made a mistake, I dropped the bottle," Venti pouted, the drunken supper falling into a more emotional state.
"It's alright, I'll deal with that. You just need to get some rest, Barbatos."
Venti remained slightly cuddled up in Zhongli's arms as they walked into the bedroom and the Geo Archon managed to tuck him into bed. Venti was dozing the moment he hit the pillow. The outer layers of his robes been stripped and folded alongside his hat.
Zhongli quietly went about cleaning up the apartment, there was really only the bottles to clean and the mat to realine. The archon then followed his nightly routine to set what he needed out for the morning, find his nightclothes, brush through his long hair, and go back to Venti.
Midway through settling in the sheets, a question stopped Zhongli dead.
"Would you still love me if I was a worm?" Venti asked, rolling to face Zhongli.
"You’re high as shit but yes I would...
the f*ck?"
Prompt: Person 1 says “would you still love me if I was a worm?” Person 2 replies with “you’re high as shit but yes I would, tf”.