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Venti was sitting atop the railings of Wangshu Inn’s rooftop by the time that Xiao came home for the night. He had a few bottles of wine that were sitting unopened on the floor- as he was saving them for when Xiao came back so that they could drink together like they often did. Venti’s eyes lit up when he realised that Xiao had returned to the inn. Xiao turned towards him and gave him a small smile. “Care for a drink?” Venti asked. He came down from the railings and picked up a bottle of wine from the floor, extending it to Xiao.
“I might have a glass,” Xiao replied. Venti opened the bottle and poured two glasses; one for Xiao and one for him. Xiao took his glass and took a small sip. He could immediately tell that it was dandelion wine from Mondstadt- Venti’s favourite. Xiao looked over at Venti, who had almost completely finished his glass. “I hope these bottles didn’t cost too much,” Xiao mentioned.
Venti shook his head, “I simply played some music at Diluc’s tavern for a few nights- convinced him to give me them for free. He’s like stupidly rich so it’s not like it’ll harm his business or anything.” Venti finished his glass and poured another. “Besides, I often find that there are more customers at Angels' Share when I’m playing- so if anything I helped his business,” Venti giggled.
Xiao took another sip of wine. He didn’t want to drink too much, as he knew that he had a very low alcohol tolerance. In the past, it’s only taken him about a glass to get drunk. He certainly could not get drunk tonight, as he had to keep watch of the marsh and make sure that the Inn was safe.
“You can drink a little more than that, you know?” Venti teased as he sipped his own glass of wine. Xiao’s expression turned into that of a grimace. He knew that he could drink more, but he didn’t want to. Xiao had never liked the feeling of being drunk either- he hated the lack of control that he had over his own body.
“I have to keep watch of the marsh, Venti.” Xiao stated. “And you know I'm a lightweight. I don’t want to get drunk today.” he mumbled, staring out at the view below the Inn. He had been out fighting for hours beforehand- and yet his job still wasn’t over.
“Mmm.. I know. I just think that it wouldn’t hurt for you to let loose every so often. You’re always so tense and sometimes kinda stern- you should really relax for a bit.” Venti suggested. He had already finished two glasses of wine, and continued to pour himself another glass. “And I find that drinking is one of the best ways to do so.”
Xiao took another small sip from his glass. It tasted nice, and the wine itself wasn’t too thick. Overall, it was pleasant. But Xiao just couldn’t keep drinking. “Have the rest of my glass or something,” he stated- holding his glass out towards Venti- who was nearing the end of his third glass.
“Drink it yourself, darling.” Venti told him, rejecting his offer. “C’mon- just have a break for tonight. Zhongli technically isn’t even your archon anymore, it’s not like he has any control over you.” Venti stated as he finished his third glass. This time, he didn’t pour another though.
“Zhongli isn’t the problem. I feel guilty for not doing my duty.” Xiao sighed heavily. He stared at his glass before deciding to take another very small sip. The glass was still at least three quarters full by now. Maybe Xiao would drink the rest- he could already feel his pain lightening slightly.
“Just drink it, Xiao. I can tell you want to,” Venti giggled. And he didn’t mean that in a pressuring way- he could genuinely tell that Xiao wanted to drink the rest of the glass. He couldn’t understand why he was holding himself back so much.
“Maybe you’re right. I don’t know,” Xiao mumbled. He stared at his glass for another few seconds before ultimately taking a big gulp of the remaining liquid. The glass was now about half full.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Venti encouraged him. Xiao proceeded to drink the rest. “Do you feel more relaxed or anything?” Venti asked, chuckling at the fact that Xiao had actually drunk the whole glass.
“Not yet. My pain has lessened a lot, though. That’s always a relief.” Xiao replied. Now, he was staring at the stars in the sky instead of the marsh down below- trying to distract himself from the wave of guilt that fell over him once he had decided to actually finish his drink.
“If your pain was bad, you could have told me. I’d happily play you a song, you know?” Venti told him. Xiao nodded in reply, still staring straight up at the stars.
It took about fifteen minutes for the alcohol to take effect on Xiao. Venti didn’t think he was completely drunk- just maybe a little bit over tipsy. His words were slightly slurred, and he looked incredibly sleepy. Venti had only seen Xiao drunk a few times before- and each time, he was always the sleepy, clingy type of drunk. Which was funny- because normal Xiao was the complete opposite of that.
“Do you wanna head to bed, Xiao? It’s getting kinda late.” Venti asked, turning towards Xiao- whose posture had completely changed. Usually, Xiao stood very upright, and he was very stiff. But he was now slouching, which Venti noted made him look very strange.
“Mm.. maybe.” Xiao replied after about thirty seconds. “Can I have another glasss?” he asked. Venti raised his eyebrows.
“No. Let’s go to bed,” Venti stated, grabbing Xiao’s hand and leading him towards his reserved room at the Inn. When Xiao had first started living here, Verr Goldet gave him the room. At first, he declined- stating that he didn’t have a use for it, but it seems that it could be put to good use at times.
“ ‘m not tired, Ven.” Xiao complained when they reached the room. His face had started to turn red from the alcohol- maybe it hadn’t fully taken effect on him yet.
“You look exhausted. Get some sleep, love.” Venti responded. He got Xiao a pair of pyjamas, and handed them to him. “Go get changed.” He told him, expecting Xiao to argue back or something. Xiao didn’t typically wear pyjamas or comfy clothes- but Venti didn’t see any point in him sleeping in his usual outfit, which had loads of different trinkets and accessories.
“Don’t know how.” Xiao was completely out of it at this point. Venti sighed.
“Do you want me to help you get changed?” He asked. Xiao nodded. “Okay- come here.” Venti stated. Xiao moved towards him and stood still as Venti changed him into his pyjamas. “Now go to bed, I’ll stay with you.”
“Mmkay..” Xiao mumbled, getting into the left side of the bed. Which was strange to Venti- because he had previously always insisted on sleeping on the right side of the bed. He practically never slept on the left side. In fact, this all seemed very weird to Venti. He absolutely was not used to seeing Xiao like this.
Venti ignored however strange this was and just got into the right side of the bed. He wrapped his arms around Xiao’s waist as they both fell asleep.
The first thing that Xiao noticed the next morning was that his head hurt incredibly bad. It was enough for him that his entire body was constantly in pain, he really didn’t need any more of it. He wriggled himself free from Venti’s grasp and walked around his room a little, seeing if it might alleviate the intense headache that he had- but if anything, it just made it worse.
Venti woke up a few minutes later, realising that Xiao was out of bed. He sat up straight, staring at his lover- who was pacing around the room. “Xiao?” he asked- wondering what on earth he was doing.
“Mhm?” Xiao responded, suddenly standing still.
“Come back to bed- it’s cold.” Venti told him. Xiao chuckled a little bit, noting that even laughing caused his headache to get worse. He returned back to his bed, opting to sit up instead of laying down.
“How are you this morning? You were so out of it last night,” Venti told him, moving himself closer to Xiao so that he could snuggle against him for warmth.
“My head hurts.” Xiao replied. He leaned into Venti’s touch.
“I’m not surprised. I’ll go get you some painkillers from downstairs in a minute,” Venti told him. If he was honest, he didn’t really want to leave bed yet- but Xiao always came first. And he always will.
“Painkillers don’t do anything for me.” Xiao tried to remind Venti- who completely ignored him.
“They don’t do anything for your karmic debt, no, but they’ll almost definitely fix that headache.” Venti responded. He eventually pulled himself away from Xiao and got up out of bed. “Let me get them now- I’ll be back in a second.” he stated, leaving the room.
Venti returned again in less than ten minutes, a packet of paracetamol in one hand, and a glass of water in the other. “Verr Goldet had some spares- she told you to get better soon,” Venti told his partner- who was still sat in his bed. Venti first passed the glass of water to Xiao, who took a sip of it so that his mouth wasn’t quite so dry. Then, Venti popped two pills of paracetamol out of their metallic packaging and passed those to Xiao too. He promptly swallowed them, hoping that they’d take effect soon.
“Thank you, Ven.” Xiao mumbled. He knew that he should probably get up soon, but he didn’t really want to. His bed was so incredibly warm and soft- he didn’t really want to leave.
“It’s no problem.” Venti smiled, climbing back into bed next to Xiao. “I’ll make sure to give you less wine next time. I think that was a little bit too much last night.”
“Mhm.. I don’t even remember most of what happened last night.” Xiao responded, leaning closely into Venti as he sat down.
“I’ll save you the embarrassment and not tell you, then.” Venti giggled. He pressed a small kiss to Xiao’s cheek.
“Okay.” Xiao replied.
The two of them spent the rest of the morning in bed, wrapped up warm underneath the sheets. They both knew that there were better ways that they could be spending their time- but it didn’t hurt to be a little bit lazy sometimes. And besides, Xiao was still recovering from his hangover, so it’s not like there was much that he could do anyway.