To be young and in love (Xiaoven)

chapter 7

Xiao felt chills down his spine, he turns around slowly to find Venti with the corset already on, but with loose strings. Venti turns his back to him and Xiao takes the strings and pulls them tight.

Venti groans in pain, "ugh, I think that's good,"

"Are you ok?"

Venti chuckles, "Yes I am,"

Venti wraps the loose string around his body, his eyes quickly shift to Xiao, who's standing there staring.

Venti smiles and looks down at the ground as he finishes tying the knot, "You have a tattoo?"

Xiao is snapped out of thought, and looks at the green tattoo on his arm, "Oh yeah," Xiao points down at the teal zigzag line around his thigh, "And you have one too,"

"Yeah, I have two. This one and one on my chest," He unbuttons the first three buttons of his shirt to reveal a matching teal mark that was in the shape of a rhombus that had smaller triangles around it.

Xiao gulps, he can feel his whole face getting warmer and warmer.

"But yeah I got them when I was 18. Jean doesn't really seem to mind them and they're pretty easy to hide, but I didn't know you had one. When you're around me you always wear long sleeves,"

Xiao rolls up the rest of this sleeves to show more of it, "Yeah, I don't show it often,"

"Why not?" Venti grabs Xiao's arm to get a closer look and traces it with his fingers.

Xiao just shrugs, his heart racing, and his thoughts go blank.

"I think you should show it off more, it's beautiful,"

Xiao felt like he was struck with an arrow through his heart. The words, "it's beautiful", just made him blush harder, he couldn't do much other than look away in embarrassment.

"I have another one, I'm surprised you haven't noticed it yet," Xiao licks the tip of his finger and rubs the middle of his forehead. The foundation rubs off and underneath is a small purple diamond.

Venti blinks in confusion, "what, how have I not noticed that? Your foundation is really good. Why do you cover it up?"

"I... don't like it's meaning and the story behind it, it reminds me of something I don't want to remember," Xiao breaks away from Venti's grasp and finishes getting dressed.

"Wait that means you wear that foundation all the time,"

"Yeah, it's smear proof, and the day you came over I purposefully didn't take it off,"

Venti puts his hand on Xiao's shoulder, "Xiao, I don't want you to hide his things from me anymore, I want to be someone you trust, ok?"

Xiao gives him a small smile in response and nods.

"Aww," Venti giggles, "I love that smile," Venti flashes a brighter smile.

Xiao blushes and averts his eyes, "are you dressed yet, I think we should go,"

Venti's skips to the door, "Yes I am, and might I add you look very handsome," he opens the door and leaves.

Xiao covers his face with his hands and lets out a lovestruck sigh. Venti is going to be the end of him.

Xiao quickly puts on his blazer and walks out of the fitting room, right outside are Kazuha, Venti, and Aether talking and Jean on her phone.

"Took you long enough," Kazuha smirks.

"Yeah yeah," Xiao scoffs.

"Alright boys, let's go," Jean gestures as they all follow her back to the first room with the backdrop.

"Ms. Jean said that she already had a vision for what this photoshoot was going to look like," Xu politely smiles.