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Venti and Aether are walking through the whispering woods when they get to the path where they first met.
Aether takes a deep breath “Wow, this brings back memories” Venti nods “Hah, remember the face I gave you when you scared off Dvalin?”
He laughs a bit “Probably the first and only time I’ll see you mad”
“Hopefully the last time, I never want to get mad at you!”
“Awww thanks”
Venti points cutely at Aether “You’re too cute to get mad at anyway~” Aether blinks “Uhh thanks?” He laughs lightly.
The bard feels the wind blow past, sighing wistfully “It’s times like these I simply wish to turn back into a Wind spirit and glide along the currents”
“Are you telling me you can’t?” Aether asks, Venti sighs again “When I became an archon, I was no longer able to take my wisp form. But, I do have another form I can still take”
“Oh? What’s it look like?”
“Ehehehe~” he looks at Aether, his face all red “You sure you wanna take a look?”
Aether begins to fidget “Well, with you looking at me like that, I’m having second thoughts”
Venti giggled “Hehe~ You asked for it didn’t you?~”
The traveler blushed a bit, Venti was a bard after all so he’s normally on guard for those types of things.
Venti wears an innocent smile, which was concerning “Oh you’ll be fine, it’s rude to do that while some other wisps are watching anyway”
Aether looking around, then back at Venti “Is this form similar to your statue?”
The bard hums “Well…… imagine the Statue with fewer layers, still wearing clothes but not as heavily”
First this that came to Aether’s mind was pictures Venti’s bathing suit, “Oh, that’s not that bad I suppose”
Venti turns his finger “Turn around and close your eyes” he was still a little red.
Aether nods and turned around closing his eyes “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do” he says, Venti laughs as the sound of the wind increased slightly “Ah there’s not much you wouldn’t do so that’s a little too much freedom for me Haha~” he completes his transformation “Ok you can look now!”
He opens his eyes and turns around “H-“ his face was filled with pure shock, Venti stood there in a little more then a bikini. He takes a good long stare at the whole ensemble before saying “Thats…. A lot of skin”
Venti smiled “Nothing you wouldn’t do~ Want to see my favorite part?” He sways a little from excitement.
“considering you’re a bard I’m worried, but go ahead”
“Stop getting so suspicious of me! I’m not that dirty…” Venti says before he unfurls his wings in full view of Aether “What do ya think?~”
Aether gasps “Oh my gods!” He runs over to them examining them “They look so soft and clean! May I touch them?”
Venti nods “Of course, try not to cut yourself on the floating metal though!”Aether nods, gently touching the wings “These are gorgeous, now I know why you like gliding so much”
“Hehe~ I could take you gliding someti- Uh-“ his feathers shiver as Aether strokes them ‘This feels just like being preened’ he relaxed into his touch “That feels nice…”
Aether nods “Getting brushed by someone else’s hand is truly a relaxing experience, do you fly with them often?”
“No. Simply for the reason that someone will find out and try them out themselves~” Venti suddenly went red slapping Aether away with his wings, knocking him back.
Aether falls on ground “Ah! What was that reaction!” Venti turns to him, very flushed “Oh, let me help you up! Sorry about that” he pulls his wing close and helps Aether up.
He brushed off his clothes “So sudden, did I hurt you at all? I swear I was being as gentle as I could be”
“No it wasn’t that!” He helping the dust off “It’s just, some spots are more sensitive to being touched than others!” He still flushed scarlet red.
Aether blinks, his brain loading “Huh? Oh- OH! I’m so sorry I didn’t know that” he blushed a bit, keeping his hands on his lap.
Venti laughs “It’s okay! I should’ve told you. Uhh so now that that’s out of the way” he looks at wings, and pouted “Awe they got dirt stuck in them… You wouldn’t mind preening them a bit would you?”
“Uh, yeah sure, I’ll be more mindful of the” his face turns a bit more pink and he coughs “… sensitive spots”
Venti nodded “I’ll make sure to tell you where they are don’t worry!” He points to a spot near his shoulder “that’s one,” he gestures right on the start of his secondary feathers “Never touch that” and under his wing where you’d assume the armpit would be “Don’t touch that spot, that’s just weird. That should be it.”
He nods “I can do that!” he starts to brush out the dirt from the feathers, being gentle regardless of where it was.
Venti relaxes a lot, his wings fall limp in Aethers lap as he daydreams a bit.
Aether smiled, thinking ‘I wish I still had my wings, then maybe me and Venti could fly together!’ he finishes cleaning the dirt and straightens some of the feathers.
The Archon looks up at him “You’re doing a lot better than I thought you would for your first time preening! Are you sure you haven’t done this before?”
“Oh uhh, can you keep a small secret?”
“Yeah what is it?”
“I used to have wings myself, along with my sister, they were different from yours but they still needed preening nonetheless”
Venti goes stary eyed “How many feathers did they have? How many primaries and secondaries,” he gasps “I can imagine little pin feathers already- wait. Did they even have feathers?”
“They closely resemble to dragonfly more then a bird,” he says recalling older times “Lumine was always flying fast so I often had to help clean hers just like this”
“Oh……. Aether! You got me so excited! I thought they had feathers like mine and I was about to teach you all sorts of techniques!” He sighs “But alas, it was not destined to be…” Venti was slightly disappointed but still in awe.
He waves his hands “Bah! Having 6 wings is better for speed and agility anyway, and I don’t have to do a full outfit change to get them out”
“Are you insulting my outfit?” Venti says with slightly furrowed brows.
Aether shakes his head “Oh no not at all! I love your outfit I really do! It’s just not practical to wear basically anywhere”
The bard scoffed “Well of course it’s not. I almost never use it anyway except for when I make big entrances!” He looks away from Aether. Pouting a bit, before he slowly places a wing on Aethers lap, signaling he wants him to pet it.
Aether laughs a bit “Well, even during big appearances I don’t think anyone will take you seriously, don’t get me wrong it would certainly be an entrance”
Venti murmurs to himself “Vanessa took me seriously somehow” he spoke normally “Eh, your right… Haha~”
Aether was petting his wing while he speaks “I can picture it now, ‘Barbados the wind god’s second coming is in a slut’s outfit, and demands to have every wine in town!’”
“You know I can change back anytime right-“
“Wait not right now!”
“Hehe~” Venti puts his hand near his face trying to hide his laughter a bit “I knew it~”
Aether smiled “I like your wings, they suit you I don’t want them to leave yet” he gives a sad pout as he pets the wings.
“Hah! I knew you’d like them~” he lays his back onto Aethers lap, places his wings on top of himself like a blanket “Go ahead~”
Aether hugs Venti while petting the wings “This is nice~”
“Too bad nothing lasts forever! I don’t want to make the wisps jealous” saying this he leans out of the hug.
Aether whines “Awww, will you bring them out later? I have a preening brush at home and I can get you food”
“Haha~ what do you think I am? A bird?“ Venti goes back into his normal outfit
Aether sighs “I’m just trying to tempt you, you did say it felt nice and it’s getting to that time where you get wine and food”
Venti gives a suspicious look “Don’t get me drunk just so you can get another look! I know that face”
Aether blushes, waving his hands “It’s not like that I swear! I just think your wings are cool!”
“Oh so your just in it for my wings? Not even meee?~” Venti pulls a sad face, sticking out his bottom lip.
Aether gives a defeated look “Come on you and the wings are a package deal! It’s like a two for one goodie bag!”
“I’m just a bard on sale that you can buy at any general store?! The audacity!” He was obviously joking and laughing, it was fun.
Aether whines “Venti please… just come home with me… stop doing this”
“I can’t just switch into that form any time I want you know~ That specific time was saved just for you”
Aether was practically laying on the ground now “Agghhhhhhhhh this is fine, I’ll find something else to pet then”
Venti stands up reaching his hand out “Come on get up”
Aether sighs “Fineee I’m getting up” he takes his hand and stands up. Venti giggled “Awe you look so sad! Come here” he hugs him.
He is almost certain he can see two feathered wings hug him as well, he feels it too. Is it just an illusion?
“Thanks, I like hugs”
“Me too hugs are great”
“Wanna go back to Mond?”
Venti nods “Yeah let’s go!” He looks up and sees a faint blue glow, he catches a small glowing feather, he smiles ‘Thank you Dvalin’ he holds it out to the Traveler “Aether, I have something for you”
“Mmm? Oh!” Aether takes it “Its one of Dvalin’s right?”
He nods “Oh let me do something!” He takes the feather and places it just above Aethers left ear “That looks better on you!”
Aether blushed “Thank you Venti, I’m glad to be your friend here”
“Of course~” he silently laughed to himself ‘Haha they blushed!’ He takes Aether’s hand “Now we can go back!”
They walk back to Mondstadt where Aether desperately wants Venti’s wings back.