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Venti ducks into a dimly lit alleyway to escape the crowd and neon lights of the new found city he finds himself in. The blaring noise and saturated light overstimulating him.
Catching his breath and attempting to soothe his newfound headache, he leans against an orange brick wall and eventually sits down. The concrete is horrendously filthy and his clothes are light colored, but in that moment, he didn’t care. All he wanted was a moment of respite.
Away from any people.
The crowds of the outside streets lay as a contrast to the dark and bare alleyway. Instead of bright lights, there’s just a broken lamp and a small sign for a hidden club.
He sits back up and starts to walk down the wide and dingy road. With each step, he feels more and more uneasy, like he’s being watched.
The feeling of unease lets up for a moment as a rat pops out of a nearby dumpster. Giving him a moment to laugh.
After he begins walking again, the feeling returns. But stronger this time. A gunshot breaks up the ambiance of the alleyway as Venti is left with a moment to dodge.
He somehow gets away with the bullet just barely grazing his arm. He turns back to his attacker, and sees a cloaked man holding a small handgun.
The hair of the figure is a dark brown and piercing green eyes stare Venti down as another shot is fired. This time, Venti gets shot in the arm. A pained screech is torn from his lungs as the searing pain of the wound sets into him.
He desperately covers the wound with his arm and starts to run in the opposite direction to the assailant. Weaving through gunshots and around trash cans, he makes his way to the other end of the alley. Only to find a dead end once he gets there.
“Hey, boy.” The figure snarls.
Venti is too scared to even glance in the figure's direction.
“I said, Hey Boy!” The figure says it even louder, like they're expecting Venti to respond with anything other than fear.
Timidly, Venti slowly looks behind him, a face of pure fear written all over his face.
“Aw yeah,” the figure laughs. “I adore the face of absolute terror and helplessness my victims have right before their death.”
“Now.” The figure points the gun right to Venti’s temple and tightens his finger around the trigger.
“Any last words?”
Right before he could even choke out any words, a blade is thrown right near the Cloaked man’s head.
“Let him go.” A familiar voice said in a cold and sharp tone.
“And what of it?”
“I said.” The voice belongs to a girl with golden hair and eyes, her outfit colored in muted and darker tones. Her knife came back to her and she spun it around a few times on her fingers. “Let him go.”
Her tone was a lot sharper now and was sending chills down Venti’s spine. Something about her felt so familiar, yet so different at the same time.
Within a split second, Venti is let go from the man’s grasp and the girl knocks the gun out of the man’s hand before stabbing the man straight in the neck.
A choked out, yet muted yell erupts from the man as his vocal chords sever. Then, the girl knocks him down and thrusts her knife right into his heart. Killing him in under 1 minute.
The girl then turns her attention to Venti and walks over to him. “Are you ok?” Her tone is a lot softer and more concerned.
He’s still too scared to say anything, but that particular tone is all too familiar to him. He hesitantly shows her his gunshot wound, causing her to gasp.
“We have to get you to a doctor, now!”
Right as she says that, more people appear out of the shadows and ambush the two. The girl quickly moves Venti to safety as she fends off the assailants.
Venti looks to the side and notices the same gun that shot him. He picks it up and accidentally fires it off, killing one of the enemies.
The girl gets caught off guard by that direct hit, not expecting that shot to hit. Same thing with the others. Using this as leverage, she slashes two of the enemies square on the wrist and kicks them to the ground.
Venti panics and finds a way to reload the gun, grabbing the nearest bullet casing he can. He fumbles around trying to insert it into the slot on the bottom of the gun. Eventually, it slides in and he cocks the gun.
He points it at the two people writhing in agony on the ground and shoots them both in the head. The gunshots make his head hurt a bit more, but nevertheless, he persists.
As the girl kills the final assailant with the heel of her boots, she turns her attention back to Venti.
“You alright? Your arm is still bleeding.”
He looks back at his arm and sees the wound she’s referring to. With the adrenaline he felt while the fight went on, he had completely forgotten about the bullet hole in his arm.
His breathing grows more heavy and panicked. Like he’s moments away from breaking out into tears.
The girl rips a piece of black cloth off of her skirt and ties it around the wound to stop the bleeding. After that, she picks him up in a bridal carry and rushes him to a hospital.
The rest of that evening was a blur of lights and sounds for Venti. Everything blended together and it felt hard to see. Eventually, he passed out.
When he woke up, he was in a hospital bed, being treated for his injuries. His clothes replaced by a light blue hospital dress and oversized white fuzzy socks. The inside of the hospital was mostly filled with grey tones, but had some color on the wall. It was much less overstimulating than the outside world.
He sits up and winces, his arm was in a lot of pain. While it was bandaged, he still felt the pain, and even slightly loopy. It felt like a weird mix of sober and drunk, a mix he wasn’t too familiar with despite being an alcoholic.
A nurse opens the door to his room and comes in with some food, which she sets on the side table. She then turns her attention to Venti.
“You're awake, that’s good. Any pain or discomfort?”
“My arm really hurts, and my head feels weird.” He puts his hand on his head.
The nurse writes something down on her clipboard. “I see… we put you under to get the bullet out of your arm, we got it out and bandaged up the wound.”
He nods and drinks some water, holding the cup with his non injured arm. It feels good, but has a subtle plastic taste to it.
“We can let you go by the end of the day at the earliest, is that ok with you?”
Venti thinks for a moment and nods. “Yeah, that’s ok with me. But where will I go?”
There’s a knock at the door and a familiar voice is heard from the other side. “May I come in?”
The nurse turns to the door. “Who is it?”
“The one who brought him into the hospital. Is it ok if I enter?”
The nurse turns back to Venti. “Is it ok if I let her in?”
He nods. “I don’t see why not.”
“You can come in.” The nurse says as she refills Venti’s water.
The door opens and the same golden haired girl that saved him yesterday is walking into the room. Her clothes are a lot more bright and colorful, but in a way he’s more used to.
“Ah! You're awake!” The girl squeezes his hand and smiles at him.
The nurse laughs. “Lucky timing with your intrusion, the patient and I were discussing living arrangements post hospital visit.“
“He can stay at my place, I have a spare room I’ve been meaning to use.” The girl responds.
“What do you think?” She asks Venti.
He thinks for a moment before hesitantly agreeing. “Ok, I’ll live with you.”
“Alright, then that’s settled.” The nurse clicks her pen again. “But before we discharge you, we need to vaccinate you.”
“What?”
“Yep, you're behind on every vaccine and your patient record was only just created.” The nurse writes something down on her clipboard.
“Have you received any vaccines before?”
“Wait!” The girl panicked. “Shouldn’t I leave the room first?!”
The nurse looks at her blankly. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“Ok right… Well, call me back once you're done.” The girl leaves the room leaving Venti alone with the nurse again.
“Back to the matter at hand, have you received any vaccines before?”
“Not that I can recall.” He says.
“Hmmm…” the nurse writes some more on her clipboard and goes to ring someone.
She’s on the phone for a minute and turns back to him. “You need over ten shots, so you’ll need to come back in two weeks. We'll give you five today.”
“F-five?!” He’s shocked by the amount of vaccines he needs, and that’s just what he’s getting now. How many epidemics have happened from when he fell into the time vortex and now?
The nurse readies the first shot and Venti looks visibly nervous. The nurse catches on as she finishes prepping the first shot. “I can get your visitor to come back into the room if you want.”
“Can you get her?”
The nurse nods and calls the girl's name, which leaves Venti stunned. “Lumine Solarstar? You can come back into the room now.”
Lumine? He knew that name all too well, and feels tears well up a bit in his eyes when he hears it. The nostalgia and longing he feels for her welling up to the surface makes it hard to not get emotional.
“I’m her- Hey are you ok?” Lumine rushes over to Venti and squeezes his hand.
“I-I’m fine.” He assures through the tears.
“You sure?” Her tone shows one of concern, one he always remembers fondly.
“I’m sure.” He wipes away the tears and smiles.
“I’m sorry to interrupt the moment, but the shots are all ready. Are you ready to begin?” The nurse says holding an alcohol wipe.
Venti nods and Lumine squeezes his hand a bit. “Just squeeze my hand if it hurts ok?”
The nurse rubs the wipe on his non bandaged arm and inserts the first shot. He winces and squeezes Lumine’s hand, it hurts, but having Lumine with him made it more bearable for him. The nurse puts a bandage where the syringe was inserted into him. This repeats four more times, leaving Venti’s arm numb at the end of it all. It hurts and feels like it’s limp and unmovable.
The nurse checks off some boxes on her checklist and clicks her pen closed. “You're good to go, the hospital washed your clothes so you can change back into them.”
Venti nods and stands up to change. The nurse and Lumine both leave the room to give him privacy to change. He runs into an issue with his corset however, and he opens the door a bit.
“Um, I need some help with my corset. I can’t tie it properly.”
“I got you.” Lumine walks in and closes the door.
She grabs the strings of his corset and tightens it, leading to Venti gasping a little bit. It was a little tight, but mostly comfortable so he wasn’t going to complain. Once she ties the corset in the back, she carefully hugs him a bit.
“Is it too tight, or good enough?”
Venti, who is burning a bright red in the face, manages to push out a coherent response. “It’s a little tight, but it’s still comfortable!”
Lumine lets out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. Let’s get you out of here ok?”
“Ok.”
The two finish the process of discharging Venti from the hospital and walk back to Lumine’s house. Which just so happens to be a huge penthouse on the top of a tall apartment complex. The living room is larger than the knights of favonius' headquarters lobby, and the kitchen is bigger than the size of Good Hunter, which while isn’t saying much, is still really big.
Her house is decorated with a variety of colors ranging from saturated, to more pastel tones. Despite the large size of the living room, it looks lived in and cozy. The large white couch has an array of pillows and plushies on it, and the lights are more warm and softer on the eyes.
He settles in and sits on the couch, his gaze never leaving Lumine. She drapes a blanket over him and hands him a cup of water. The water this time tasted more like what he was used to, the plastic taste nowhere to be seen. His arms still hurt, but the warmth of the blanket made it feel easier to move around.
Lumine sits next to Venti and starts to cuddle with him, nuzzling into his neck and holding him tightly, yet carefully. He leans into her and turns around to face her, gazing into her eyes for what feels like the first time in forever.
“So, why were you missing for so long?” She asks.
“I fell into a time warp and wound up here, how long was I gone?” He leans more into her touch, wanting more.
“So that’s what happened…” She thinks for a moment before continuing on. “You were gone for about 2,000 years. I was so scared you were killed I became an assassin to find who took you and end them myself.”
Lumine moves her head from his neck to kiss his forehead. “Looks like it was a good idea considering my last hit just so happened to try to kill you.”
“Is it true, is it true your love travelled alone through ages and worlds in search of me?”
“It is, and where did that sort of poetic line come from?” She jokingly laughs, so does Venti.
Once he’s done laughing, he looks guilty. “I’m sorry for all this Lumine, I didn’t expect to be sent this far into the future and for the effect it had on you.” He sighs and leans even more into her.
“It’s ok, but that doesn’t mean I’m not letting you off easy.” She laughs. “You're trapped here until you're better!”
Venti laughs and kisses her on the lips. “Fine by me my beloved captor~.”
“Oh right!” She remembers something she wanted to ask him. “Were the lights and noise of the city too much for you?”
“Yes, it was extremely overstimulating for me. I’m used to crowds, especially loud ones, but this was like nothing else for me in terms of intensity.”
“I see, wait here a second!” Lumine wraps the blanket around him as she leaves to go grab something.
When she returns she places some headphones on him and some sunglasses. “Ta da~! I had these lying around and thought they could help you with the lights and noise.”
The headphones muffled her voice a bit, and the sunglasses made the world a bit less colorful. But the next time they go out, he’ll wear them. It might just make the outside world more bearable.
“Thank you.”
“Anytime my captive~!” She squeezes and kisses him.
The two sleep in the same bed that night, Venti resting on Lumine’s neck, her chin on the top of his head. It was one of the best sleeps Lumine’s had in centuries. One she much needed.