Work Text:
It was late.
Venti was sitting on the sofa, all alone, watching hours pass by as he awaited the return of his boyfriend.
He was supposed to be here two hours ago, and yet, there were no signs that he would be coming home anytime soon.
Usually, Venti wouldn’t mind so much. Most of the time, when Xiao came home late, he’d just go to bed anyway, leaving Xiao’s dinner in the fridge for him to heat up when he made his return.
But today was Xiao’s birthday.
And Venti desperately wanted to give him a present.
The past few years, it had been easy. Xiao had taken the day off- and the two of them would spend the day out somewhere, usually returning home either drunk or exhausted. Either way, neither of them would mind. Venti enjoyed Xiao’s company, and Xiao enjoyed Venti’s.
But this year, Xiao was unable to take the day off. The two of them had forgotten to account for birthdays when planning which days they’d take off work for their big trip this year, where in about two month’s time, they were planning on visiting Mondstadt again. They often did this at around the same time every year, allowing Venti to visit his family for his birthday- since he spent the majority of his time in Liyue, now.
But what was the point in living in Liyue when his gorgeous, handsome boyfriend couldn’t even come home on time? He understood well enough that Xiao’s work was tough, and that it required a lot of time- but you would have thought they’d give him a bit of a break for his birthday, no?
And that was when Venti heard the sharp sound of a key being inserted into the front door’s lock, closely followed by the click sound it made when turned. His head immediately bolted up, peering over the top of the sofa in hopes that the person entering his room was in fact his boyfriend, and not an intruder.
“I’m home,” Xiao’s raspy voice sounded throughout the house. This was then promptly followed by the sounds of ruffling as he took off his long coat, placing it onto the rack that they had conveniently placed in the hall. Then, while Xiao was taking his shoes off, Venti jumped off of the sofa, darting into the hall.
“Hey.” Venti grinned as he made his way towards the front door.
And for a second, Xiao was taller than Venti. After all, he usually wore those same platform boots to work that made him appear to be a few inches taller than he actually was. Sometimes Venti wondered why, but had never thought to question it. He understood well enough that Xiao was embarrassed to stand out too much, and being as short as he was, he probably already did stand out a lot in the job that he was in. Most of the guys working there were tall, muscly men. But Xiao wasn’t particularly muscly, and he most definitely wasn’t tall.
“Ah.” Xiao looked to his side, where Venti was now standing. The corners of his lips tilted upwards, a small smile making an attempt to suppress his exhausted expression. “Hi. I expected you to be asleep by now.” He took one of the boots off of his feet, and then promptly took the other off, causing him to turn significantly shorter than the man standing next to him.
Venti abruptly shook his head. “We haven’t celebrated yet- you’ve been out since 9 o’clock.”
“Celebrated what?” Xiao tilted his head to the right, a little confused.
“Your birthday?” Venti questioned, furrowing his eyebrows as he did so.
Xiao’s eyes widened, a pretty pink colour making its way onto his cheeks as they did so.
“You forgot your own birthday?” Venti chuckled, stifling his laugh behind his hand.
“I-” he stuttered, suddenly taking one or two steps backwards as heat filled his cheeks even further. “Maybe?”
“Oh my god, Xiao.”
Xiao buried his face into his hands, clearly embarrassed by the situation.
“You wouldn’t forget my birthday- so why do you forget yours?”
“Well, yours is actually important.” Xiao blankly stated.
He had always had this attitude that he was worth less than other people. And Venti never really understood it- because how could you be that ethereally beautiful and still be worth less than others? How could you be so kind and loving and caring, and yet still not believe you have that much self worth?
Venti groaned slightly at that, and moved to put his hands on Xiao’s cheeks. Usually, when he did this, he’d kiss his boyfriend immediately after. However, this time, he just squished and pulled at Xiao’s cheeks.
“Vwenti what are youw dowing?” Xiao mumbled out, his words sounding incredibly messy as Venti continued to play with his cheeks.
“You matter just as much as I do, you know?”
Xiao tried to let out what somewhat resembled a sigh, muffled due to Venti’s teasing. “I knwo, I kwnow- can youw swtop thaert nnow?”
Venti grinned in response, pulling his hands straight back off of Xiao’s face.
“Good boy.” he teased. “Now come with me to the living room,” Venti started his journey towards the other room, but quickly stopped when he realised that Xiao wasn’t following behind.
“ Why?” his lover questioned.
“What do you mean, ‘why?’, I have a present for you.”
“Can’t we do that in the morning?” Xiao groaned lightly.
And Venti knew he was exhausted, absolutely shattered, but if he did this in the morning, then it would feel nowhere near as special as it would if he did it today. Even if it's currently 11:30pm.
“No. Your birthday is today.”
“But you should really get some sleep- it’s getting late, Ven.”
“Don’t care. Neither of us have work tomorrow, so we can stay up as late as we want.”
Xiao sighed lightly, letting Venti grip his wrist and drag him into the living room. Despite the fact that it was April already, it was still fairly cold in Liyue- and especially at night.
“Okay- sit down there, and I’ll bring you your present.” Venti signalled a nod towards the sofa, and Xiao obediently sat down on his usual side.
Venti then returned about 5 minutes later, and to Xiao, it didn’t seem like he even had anything. There was nothing in his hands, and there were no wrinkles or bumps within his clothes.
“Close your eyes, love.” Venti instructed, making his way to stand in front of Xiao.
Xiao obliged, squeezing his eyes shut, not questioning Venti like he usually did.
And so Venti lent himself down in front of Xiao, keeping one knee on the ground, and another bent in the front. He opened the box that he had been keeping behind his back, revealing a shiny, glittering, silver ring. He couldn’t help the smile that grew on his cheeks as he did so, tilting his head upwards towards his lovely boyfriend.
“You can open them now, sweetheart.”
And when Xiao did, he suddenly felt a hot flush rise straight back up to his cheeks.
“Will you marry me?”
Xiao’s tired face once again twisted into a smile, his stomach anxiously turning over and over.
“I will.”
Venti’s grin grew even wider, picking the pretty ring up out of the box and sliding it onto Xiao’s ring finger. He noticed that his skin was a little rough, but didn’t bother to mention it right now. He could force Xiao to use hand cream more often as much as he wanted in the future- but right now, he was just focused on Xiao’s giddy expression.
“It’s beautiful.” Xiao stated, twirling it around his finger, admiring all of its beauty.
“Just like you, then.” Venti teased, bringing himself back up from the floor and sitting straight back down onto the sofa, right next to his now fiancee.
“You’re cheesy.”
“You love it.”
Xiao released a soft chuckle, reaching up towards Venti’s cheek to press a small kiss there. However, his tired body seemed to slip a little, causing his lips to press into Venti’s neck instead. And Xiao couldn’t really be bothered to change positions again, so he simply let his head linger on Venti’s shoulder, nuzzling into him and inhaling his scent.
They stayed that way for about fifteen minutes, just silently adoring and appreciating the other. And when Venti looked over to Xiao to ask if he wanted to go to bed, he found that Xiao was already fast asleep.
And so, Venti grabbed the blanket next to them, unrolling it and laying it out on top of the both of them. Sleeping on the sofa wasn’t particularly comfortable, but after seeing Xiao’s peaceful, sleeping face, Venti decided that he didn’t really mind that much.
And the two of them stayed like that, each other in arms, cuddling up against one another, as they dreamed throughout the night.