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Xiao always had a normal schedule. Wake up, kill monsters, eat, sulk around for an hour, sit still for an hour, maybe the traveler needs me? kill monsters, sleep, repeat. But one day, the schedule was ruined, as, when Xiao was eating the last bits of his almond tofu on the roof of the Wangshu inn, he glanced down at the land and found a familiar person walking on the bridge that leads to the very inn he was sitting on top of.
The human- no, it wasn’t a human, the geo energy was too strong from this person. Was it Rex Lapis, or, Zhongli? No way, what would he have to do here? Xiao finished his tofu quite quickly that day, curious about this figure.
The Yaksha teleported down onto the inn’s overlook. He used the overlook as it was supposed to, as he overlooked people eating and conversing at the tables, and feasted his eyes on the brown-haired figure.
It definitely was Zhongli, the power radiating off the figure familiar and similar to the element of geo. Xiao was quick to teleport to the man.
“Zhongli,” Xiao said, allerting the older man of his presence.
“Ah, Xiao, it is good to see you again,” Zhongli said calmly.
“Have you come for my assistance?” Xiao asked, bowing slightly to the former god.
“No, you may go back to whatever you were doing, I am merely here to meet an old friend,” Zhongli said as he continued to walk towards the inn.
“Old friend?” The curious Yaksha asked.
“Yes, if you would like to meet-,” Zhongli starts.
“I will not, I bid my farewell,” Xiao exited the area, he felt a little guilty for leaving Zhongli so suddenly, and he normally did not do that, but social interaction was a spook.
Questions whirled in the short boy’s head as he spied on the ex-archon; Zhongli has a friend that’s still alive? Have I met the person before? Are they even a person? What do they look like? What country did they come from? What’s their name? Are they dead inside?
And most importantly: Why is Zhongli meeting them?
Well the answer to that question is simple: It was the 16th of June; Venti’s birthday, and Zhongli had proposed bringing a bottle of Othmanthus wine to Venti while visiting Xiao.
The old brunette entered the inn, eyeing the architecture and little artifacts scattered around the place.
“Would you like to rent a room?” The lady at the front desk asked politely.
“No, I am merely visiting a friend, have you seen a loud bard wearing green?” Zhongli asks kindly.
The lady thinks for a little bit then finds the information, “Yes, he was nearing the roof, so he should be on the highest balcony,”
“Thank you miss,” The old man excused himself and headed up to the highest, windiest balcony, a very typical place for Venti to be.
“There you are, ya old blockhead! You took so long, I thought you were dead!” A boys voice called.
And there we have it, the Anemo Archon and the ex Geo Archon meeting each other for wine and over 6000 years of a weird, ‘you’re annoying’ and ‘I know’ friendship. The two discussed about their countries, Zhongli expressing his thoughts in beautiful riddles that took a minute longer to say than normal talking, and Venti blabbering at whatever came to mind in quick, loud sentences that made little sense.
While Zhongli had walked up the stairs to the balcony, he failed to realise bright yellow eyes staring into his back, following his every move. When Zhongli had made it to the balcony, Xiao quickly found himself in the doorframe to the said balcony, trying to see his mentor's friend.
His eyes landed on a short, loud boy in green, he had dark blue hair tied into two braids in the front, the tips of the braids the color of anemo, he seemed to be calling Zhongli an ‘old blockhead’. The boy was quite loud with no extent on energy, very unlike the fascinated boy spying on him.
“I have found that singing for the people of my country as a bard has made a little name for myself!” A green person exclaimed.
People of his country? Could this be another archon? Well it seems that they are a bard.
“I’m guessing you still go by the name of Venti on the streets?” Zhongli asked the shorter person.
“Of course, Mr. Golden Eye, I wouldn’t know what other name to go by,” The green bard said.
They seem stupid, and too energetic, how does Zhongli survive all this? All the sudden, terrible nicknames? If this person is an Archon, then Zhongli must’ve suffered for a very long time.
“Venti, you never cease to amaze me,” Zhongli said sarcastically.
“I know right? I’m just as amazing as a bird taking flight!” Venti exclaimed. This boy sure is stupid.
“But how is your country, old blockhead? You retired from your position and now I’m the only OG Archon War winner left!” The bard seemed to deflate at the end of his sentence.
So he’s the Anemo Archon. I guess we can relate for our visions.
Xiao was fascinated by the bard, but wouldn’t even admit it in his own thoughts. He questioned why the Archon had a vision hanging on his belt, he questioned how his attitude could stay positive even after Zhongli called him an idiot in his polite Zhongli ways, he wondered if the Archon was acting his stupidity or if he was actually that impossibly stupid.
But whatever Xiao was thinking made him tired, he pulled an all-nighter last night, killing monsters near the border of Dragonspine, which luckily wasn’t too far away from the inn, but when he got back to rest his body, it was morning and he had to continue his schedule.
So we’ve got a tired emo anemo short boy, his back and head leaning against the door frame as he slept moderately peacefully. After about another hour, The two old friends said goodbye, but on the way out, Zhongli saw his friend (son) laying against the door frame.
“Xiao?” He asked, the slightest bit surprised, but when his son didn’t respond, he realised that he shouldn’t disturb him. So he left.
“I wonder, where should I play- DAmN!” Was Venti's response to seeing him, as he almost tripped over the body.
“Why is a pretty boy sleeping here?” He mutters to himself, crouching down to his eye level when he realised… THE BOY WAS SHORTER THAN HIM.
“I guess I’ll wake him up an ask!” The green bard grinned and started pocking his arm.
“Wha..?” Xiao woke up, his eyes still half-closed.
“Aww, you’re so cute~ But you were sleeping on the floor, it makes you look commute!” Venti exclaims, and Xiao was now wide awake.
It takes a little bit of time for the Yaksha to understand what the bard had said, and when he did, he turned bright red.
“I’m not cute, or weak,” He says in his most threatening voice.
“WOAH, your voice is so low!” Venti gasped.
“Leave,” Xiao ordered.
“No,” Venti grinned as Xiao scowled.
“So why are you here mister? I sure hope you didn’t get a splinter,” The bard says.
No response.
“Hello?”
No response.
“Why are you ignoring meeeeeeeeeeee,”
No response.
“I’ll give you some of my wine if you answer my question~”
No response.
“So he doesn’t like wine, no one likes wine like me, I’ll never be understood,” A sigh “…How about food?”
“Almond Tofu,” A voice says. Xiao’s voice.
“Okay, one almond tofu coming undeway!” Venti shouts loudly, loud enough for people in Liyue Harbor to hear an echo.
Venti does some bard magic and gets the almond tofu ingredients for free, then he made some in the kitchen. He quickly brought the food to Xiao, who was surprisingly still there.
“Here ya go!” He says happily.
There was no verbal response to what Venti had said, but Xiao slowly began eating his food, happy for more as his meal was interrupted earlier.
“Soooooooo~” The bard starts, “why were you sleeping against the doorframe? Isn’t that kind of lame?”
A short silence.
“Because I was tired,” Xiao says, trying to end the conversation quickly, but a certain archon could not let that slide.
“I don’t buy that one bit! I know there’s more to the story, who do you think I am? A stupid… Uh, whatchamacallit..?” Venti scratches his head, trying to find a word, and leaves Xiao questioning if the other was making a joke or not about being stupid.
“Why do you want to know?” Xiao asks as he gives a death glare for disturbing any sort of peace he had left.
“You have a reason to be this emo, right? I want to know before night,” Venti says.
“My friends died,”
“Oh…”
“Yeah,” Xiao muttered, still eating his tofu.
“Well imma leave now that I got my answer~” Venti grins, stands up (as he was squating) and floated off the balcony like a little fairy, the tips of his braids glowing a green-blue.
Unbeknownst to Xiao, Venti stayed around the inn, as he was curious of the other boy as well; it had been a while since they last met. Of course, Xiao had forgotten of their short time together in the far past, like the Traveller did. The anemo archon stood on the very top of the roof of the inn, he claimed a certain flute in his hands.
He carefully moved a hand across the smooth, slim piece of wood as his fingers found their place as he began his song. He played the song at least twice before his eyes found Xiao move into view, looking peaceful as he continued to play.
Before Venti decided to play his flute, Xiao was happy that the loud, peace-disturbing bard had left, even if he was the Anemo Archon, the only one that could feast his hands on that god-forsaken flute and sooth the karma from the masked Yaksha.
Xiao would not say it out loud, but he doesn’t respect Barbados as much as the other archons, as even though the god could help him as it says in the last paragraph, Barbados hasn’t played the flute in a very long time, long enough for a normal person to go insane, like his friends did.
Because of this, Xiao has grown grumpy and cold towards others, with the exception of Zhongli. But the sudden flute was needed for the short emo. Xiao had lost most control of his body as he headed towards the very balcony he was spying on earlier that day to get a better listen.
Then the song stopped. Xiao looked at Venti, and Xiao then processed that it was Venti, Barbados, who was playing. I mean, who else? It must have slipped Xiao’s mind. Or… He knew that it was Venti playing and still felt at peace in his presence.
“I think that that song was pretty literatus, do you agree, Alatus?” The archon asked in a mellow tone.
“It was… Ugh, nevermind,” Xiao turned away, his tone was switched from a mesmorised to moody as he was taken from the peace and brought back into reality.
A giggle stopped Xiao from entirely leaving the area.
“Would you like me to keep playing, my dearest adeptus Xiao?” He asks.
“Why are you calling my name so formally? And I’m not yours,” Xiao blushes slightly, turning only his head towards the archon.
“Eh, I like to do things that are unimportant! I’m the god of freedom, so I can do what I want,” The happy boy gives a smile to the depresso boy.
“I guess…” Xiao mutters, then enters the inn, leaving Venti to himself.
“Oh I am so talking to him tomorrow,” He grins to himself.
So the archon did. He chatted with Xiao (Venti bribed Xiao with almond tofu to talk), they learned more about each other. Venti learned that Xiao had some disrespect for him, so everytime Venti visited Xiao, he started by playing his flute. Xiao always teleported to him right away when this happened.
So, several months pass, and they were friends- even if Xiao would not admit it.
“I’m the god of Freedom, I can do what I want!” Venti huffed, beginning to walk away from Xiao. Venti started an interesting conversation and then was like ‘haha no loser, byeee’ so Xiao was like ‘no don’t leave we have to finish talking’ but Venti was still gonna leave.
“What does freedom really mean when demanded of you by a god?” Xiao asks, suddenly serious.
“Well that was random, but I will not leave anyone so curious! Freedom cannot be demanded by someone, even if that someone is a god. Freedom is only given, and the feeling of giving such a thing can be compared to acsending to celestia,” Venti says, keeping his smile on as he slowly walks back towards Xiao.
“Then can you give me more freedom?” Xiao asks, making direct contact to the boy standing in front of him.
“Of course,” He giggles.
“I’ll give you the freedom of choice…” Venti smiles at the shorter boy.
Venti then leans in.
…
Four years later, Venti and Zhongli had the same type of meeting for the same reason, Venti’s birthday, and Xiao once again, eavesdropped. But new information was shared! Venti knew that Xiao was spying.
“It’s been a while, Venti, how’s Mondstadt?” Zhongli asks calmly, taking a sip of wine.
“It’s great! Not much change, same ol’ Knights of Favonius, no one’s changed ranks, the headmaster is still gone though,” Venti sighs and shakes his head.
“Where is the headmaster? On a quest to achieve?” You could tell that Zhongli’s interest was peaked as he asked some more questions.
An hour passed of normal conversation when a certain question popped up.
“How are the brothers Kaeya and Diluc? I heard that their relationship was going…” Zhongli paused to find the right phrase. “Down the mountain.”
“You silly landfill! The phrase is ‘going down hill’!” Venti corrects, taking a gulp of wine.
“I know of such a saying, I was simply exaggerating it to emphasize their breaking relation,” The geo archon explains.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOH,” Venti ooooooooooooh’s.
There was some silence.
“What was the question again?” The boy asks cluelessly. Zhongli pinches his forehead as he gives a long sigh.
“What?” Venti says defensively.
“Anything seems to slip your mind unless there is wine included…” Zhonli mutters.
“Wine? Did I hear wine!?” Venti asks excitedly.
“Yes, you heard wine, and I would like to hear the answer to my question,” Zhongli says.
“What question?” This earns another sigh.
“How is the relationship of Kaeya and Diluc-” Zhongli starts.
“Say no more!” Venti starts to stand on his chair.
“Diluc is stupid for not letting such a bard as me play in his tavern! He even knows of my true identity! I heavily dislike him, he’s so stern!” Venti declares.
“I was simply asking about relations, like how I asked about other sibling relations, lie Jean and Barbara, and how the Knights of Favonius were going,” Zhongli says calmly.
“Well you’ll get no answer for I have somewhere to be!” Venti says from his chair.
“Oh? And where is this place?” The geo archon asks.
“Somewhere!” He says, keeping the same dorky smile and enthusiasm.
“Well then, I will dismiss myself from this meeting, have a good birthday,” He says, taking a leftover bottle from the table. Obviously, the bottle was empty but neither gods were even tipsy.
Venti was creating a wind gust when he visibly remembered something, so before he left, he snuck in a sentence.
“Oh yeah, and, old blockhead,” Venti starts, Zhongli’s head turns toward him. “I may or may not be dating your son, ehe~”