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Lumine stumbled into her house, swaying from side to side. She collapses onto the couch and calls out. “I’m home…”
Venti pops out from the other room and runs over to her. “Welcome back! Rough day?”
He sits down next to her and rubs her head. His tone concerned and calm. “Were you doing a particularly frustrating commission? Or maybe you were helping someone who kept disrespecting you.”
She doesn’t talk for a few minutes, looking extremely exhausted and beaten. “It was both… I had to help keep Albert away from Barbara and he kept telling me that ‘you don’t get it! You would do the same if you were me!’ His words, not mine.”
“Ugh not him.” Venti scoffs and readjusts his posture. “He’s always harassing and stalking the poor deaconess. I’m surprised the church hasn’t filled a restraining order on him!”
“They can, but do you really think he would listen to it?” She sighs and facepalms.
“True… what else did he do?”
“He also told me to mind my own business, yelled at me in anger when I kept him from Barbara when she walked past, and then tried to coax me to join his fanclub. I rejected the last one obviously, but I’m still pissed at him.” As she elaborates more about how horrid the commission was, the more he understands why she’s so exhausted.
“I just need to unwind… Can you get the wine and two glasses?” Lumine asks.
“Sure! And I’ll get you a blanket as well, and some snacks.” He leaves the room and grabs the finest wine he has in the cabinet, the two best glasses he has, and some crackers and fruits.
Once he puts the wine, snacks, and glasses on the coffee table, he leaves the room again and grabs the fluffiest blanket in the closet. Right now, Venti’s trying to find the best everything he said he would bring his lover. Only the best of the best will do.
He returns to the living room and drapes the blanket over her and gives her a tender kiss on the lips. “Here you are my love, I’ll pour you a glass.”
“Thank you Venti.” She smiles weakly, she really is out of it.
He pours her a tall glass of red wine and hands it to her. She downs it and asks for more, and more, and more. All the while he’s grabbing more wine as well for himself. By the time the drinking is done, the two are blissfully drunk and laughing.
They try to leave the couch, but stumble to the ground. It takes them 5 minutes to stand up properly and walk to the kitchen. Venti pulls out a random potion, one he has for hangovers than his drunken mind somehow remembered he had. Lumine notices it and tries to grab it.
“Gimmeeeeee!” She slurs.
“I guessss a little bit won’t hurt.” He uncorks the bottle and lets her drink a bit from it.
“Ugh… this isn’t wine!”
He down the potion, the bitter taste making him gag a bit. Luckily he stomachs it and puts the bottle away. “I feel you… eulgh.”
The two stumble into bed, somehow not falling down the stairs in the process. Subconsciously after they fall asleep, they manage to navigate themselves into a comfortable position and fall into a deep blissful sleep.
The light of the late morning rouses Venti from his slumber. Rubbing his eyes and trying to soothe his headache, he yawns. His messy hair came completely out of his braids while he was intoxicated, meaning his hair is extremely tangled.
He gets out of bed and gets water, the light and slight nausea making him feel even worse.
Once the nausea and headache start to clear up, thanks to the potion, he showers and changes into his day clothes, which wind up just being a sweater and some loose shorts. Venti also attempts to tame his extremely tangled hair, which takes over an hour. An hour that was extremely painful and frustrating to him.
After he braids his hair, he walks to the bedroom to see if Lumine has woken up yet. He opens the door to the room and notices she doesn’t seem to be in bed. Right as he goes to close the door, he sees some movement from under the blanket.
He carefully approaches the bed, as he doesn’t know what’s moving about under the blankets. He slowly grabs the blanket and lifts it up, gasping at the culprit.
A tiny golden spirit, akin to that of his wisp form, was knocked off their feet and was sitting down on the bed. The little nubs for hands in between their legs and their eyes dazed and half closed. The cloak they had on was very similar to the one he has in his wisp form, but it was colored gold with blue accents.
To say this little creature melted his heart would be an understatement. Venti picks up the little spirit and holds them gently. “Hello there little one. How did you get in here?”
The spirit opens their mouth to speak, but their voice is very hard to hear. He uses some of his powers to be able to hear them better. “I should be able to hear you now. Can you repeat that?”
“Venti, it’s me Lumine!” The spirit calls out and smiles.
“Lumine?! Wait how did…” the realization that the little spirit is Lumine, his brain short circuits. How the hell did she turn into a spirit?!
“Remember the potion you use for your hangovers?”
“Yeah, what about it?” He inquires.
“Apparently it has the secondary effect of turning me into a spirit when I ingest it. But it also helped stop my hangover, so I really appreciate that.” Lumine laughs.
“Ah, so that’s what happend.” He breathes a sigh of relief after he finds out she didn’t revert to a spirit form because she got hurt.
“I don’t think I’m able to work today, nor be able to do much of anything today. I’m powerless like this.” She laments, which gives Venti an idea.
“You know…” he starts, changing the way he’s holding her in order to cradle her. “You're unable to work today, so I’ll be the one doing everything for you today! And besides, you’ve been really stressed lately so I’ll be pampering you today as a form of stress relief.”
She seems surprised at his offer. He’s right, she has been incredibly stressed and overworked. This kind of rest day has been long overdue. She leans into his armpit and relaxes.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He coos.
“It is… I’m going to just relax and turn my brain off.” Lumine stretches in place and sighs happily.
Venti walks her out of the bedroom and to the living room. There he sits on the couch and pets Lumine. She happily leans into it and squeaks, her face having a more relaxed and happy expression than she’s had all week. Hell, all month.
She grabs his hand and nibbles on his finger, making sure to not hurt him by accident. All of her actions only serve to melt his heart even more. His usually stoic and caring girlfriend being reduced to a clingy, silly, and affectionate mess makes him want to dote on her even more.
She takes a break from nibbling on his finger and hugs it. “I’m like a little pet like this, all weak and defenseless. Is this what it’s like for you when you're in your wisp form and I dote on you?”
He smiles tenderly and pets her. “Yep, just like this. The feeling of being weak, yet protected and cared for is one I absolutely adore.”
“I always wondered what that felt like, and I love it. I love you Venti!” She kisses his finger and nuzzles it.
“I love you too, Lumine.” He kisses the tip of his finger and pokes her with it.
Eventually, she feels her stomach growling, as she still hasn’t eaten anything yet. She closes her eyes and groans. “I’m hungry… can you bring me something to eat pleaseee?”
“Of course! What do you want?” He places her in the front pocket of his sweater and stands up.
“Hmmm… I’ll leave it up to you.” She relaxes into the pocket and leans onto him.
“Ok then.” Venti rubs her head and opens the fridge.
He pulls out some dough and sausages and puts them on the counter. Next, he pulls out a baking tray, puts a baking sheet on it, and puts oil on it. Then he rolls the small sausages in the dough and puts them onto the sheet. When the sausages are all gone, he puts the remaining dough away and throws out the packaging.
Venti hears the over beep and he puts the tray inside it to bake them. Once he closes the oven, he looks down at Lumine, who had fallen asleep and had started snoring slightly. It was quiet, but still audible enough for him to hear it.
He pulls out one of the chairs from the kitchen table and sits in it. He places his hand on her head and carefully pets her, trying not to rouse her from her rest. Her eyes are like thin, long, horizontal ovals, and her little arms are clinging to his shirt.
“You really have been tired lately, haven’t you?” He laughs gently.
“Rest for a bit my dear, I’ll wake you up when the food’s cooled down.”
When the oven beeps minutes later, Venti grabs a pair of oven mitts from on top the counter and pulls the pigs in a blanket from out of the oven. He places the tray on the stove and takes off the oven mitts, putting them to the side.
He lets them cool for a few minutes before mixing Lumine some chocolate milk. It’s always been one of her favorite drinks, in fact, it’s her comfort beverage. He pours a medium glass of milk and grabs a small spoon and the chocolate syrup. He then squeezes the chocolate into the milk and mixes it in. Once he finishes stirring the milk, he puts the milk and chocolate back into the fridge and checks on the pigs in a blanket.
He takes a bite out of one of them and determines they’ve cooled down enough to eat. He finishes the small treat and pokes Lumine with his finger. “Wakey wakey~…”
She’s slowly roused from sleep and once she’s awake, she yawns. “Hm? What’s going on…?”
“Lunch is ready my dear!” Venti takes her out of the pocket and places her onto the table.
“Ok…” she yawns yet again.
He brings over a plate of 4 pigs in a blanket and puts a straw in her drink. He then picks up one of them and lifts it to her mouth. “Say ahhh~!”
She takes a bite and turns to Venti, giving him a look that screams ‘really?’
“What? Your little hands can’t really grab anything so I kinda have to feed you.”
She finishes chewing and knocks the pig in a blanket out of his hand. “Lemme at least try!”
Lumine attempts to pick up the food with her nub like hands, but fails because she has little to no grip without her fingers. She pouts and turns away from Venti.
“Aww… I told you your little hands won’t be able to grab much of anything. But, I’ll stop teasing you about it.” He picks back up the food and feeds it to her.
She's still pouting even while taking huge bites out of the pig in a blanket. Eventually, she eats all four of the pigs in blankets he set out for her to eat. Venti then picks her up and lifts her to the straw for the chocolate milk.
She drinks a good chunk of the milk in the glass and then sits back down on the table. “Can you bring me seconds? I’m still hungry…”
“Of course.” Venti takes the plate and gives her seconds.
In about 5 minutes, the rest of the pigs in blankets were gone, as both of them devoured them. Lumine pats her full belly and sighs happily. “That hit the spot… can I have the rest of my chocolate milk?”
He picks up the glass and angles the straw so she can drink it. She finishes the milk and sighs contentedly. “Thanks honey! God I’m so full… and sleepy again…”
“Hey hey hey… don’t fall asleep again just yet.” He pokes her cheek.
He picks her back up and carefully carries her back to the couch. “I wanna play with you for a bit, any suggestions?”
She yawns and points to some paper and pencils. “Maybe tic tac toe? Or possibly some drawn charades?”
“Alright then.” He grabs a stack of paper and a few pencils and puts them in front of Lumine.
Lumine holds the pencil using both of her stub like hands and by leaning her body into the pencil and readys her to play. Venti draws a 3 by 3 grid on the paper and picks up a pencil. “Do you wanna be X or O?”
“I’ll be X.” She answers and crosses out the center of the grid.
“Alright then.” He draws a circle in the top right corner.
She crosses out the middle top spot, making Venti circle the bottom middle box. She hardens her eyes and then puts one in the bottom right corner. He responds by putting an O in the top left. Lumine crosses out the middle left box and Venti circles the middle right box.
“A stalemate!” Lumine huffs. “Another round!”
The two spend over an hour just playing tic tac toe, trying to edge out the other. The two getting more and more competitive with every result. It’s only when Lumine’s drowsiness leads to an opening that a victor is declared.
“Andddd… I win!” He laughs, leading to Lumine pouting and trying to play fight with him.
“That wasn’t fair!” She grumbles and tries to punch his hand with her stubs for hands. His heart melts even more and he laughs harder.
“I’m sorry dear, but an opening was given to me so I had to take it.”
He pets her and kisses her forehead. “Let’s take a break ok?”
She nods and motions to bring his face closer to hers. Once his face is right in front of hers, she runs up and kisses his lips. She stays there for a good minute, making sure the kiss lasts for the right amount of time. When she backs up, Venti goes into his wind wisp form and hugs her.
The two cuddle for the rest of the day, only leaving it when he had to make dinner for the two of them. Which was Mac and cheese and some chicken cutlets. After the two finished eating and getting ready for bed, he goes back into his wisp form and the two cuddle for the rest of the night.
Falling asleep in each other's arms.