Though they had spoke about what happened the other day, Xiao still wasn't entirely sure what was happening in the thing that was his tentative friendship with Venti. He'd kissed the man. And Venti kissed him as well, but, nothing had really changed. Venti didn't change the way he was acting around him, and as Xiao didn't have the usual 'Mortals are harmed if they're around me too long' excuse, he remained in the teapot with him.
Aether was around less frequently now, as he was in the process of making his way to Sumeru. He had also been leaving for Inazuma more often, with the excuse of visiting another Anemo vision holder. Though Xiao knew nothing about the man in question, it was not as if Aether couldn't defend himself, and Venti said that the man was safe. Speaking of Venti, while he'd said that the ex-Archon hadn't been acting strange at all, that was partially incorrect. He'd been blanking on the simplest of things, his head in the clouds, and sometimes when they'd go down to Mondstadt, Xiao would see a flicker of resignation in his friend's eyes.
When the little girl from Xiao's first day in Mondstadt approached them, waving a bouquet of the flowers that Venti explained glow, he'd watched as the man didn't seem to recognize her at all.
"Why are you staring Xiao?" The chipper voice came from right next to his ear, and he noticed that the blue-haired man had moved as he'd been consumed by his thoughts. He plopped down right next to Xiao, resting his head on his shoulder. That was the difficult part of his feelings for Venti. He wasn't entirely sure if the way he acted now was just Normal Venti Things, or if he was acting like this because of his feelings for Xiao.
"It's nothing." Venti tilted his head, frowning a bit.
"You're lying." He was half-pouting now, his arms crossed as he pulled away from Xiao's shoulder. Xiao noticed now that his hair was loose, falling around his face in waves longer than his own. He thought for a moment about reaching a hand out to pull his fingers through it, but thought better of it when he took in how actually distressed his friend's body language was. He was rigid, and though he'd gotten good at schooling his facial features over the years, he was a bit less aware of how honest he was with just his body language.
So Xiao stopped, mused over what exactly he wanted to say, and watched Venti's face. He was worried if he was being honest, but if he were to say that he knew that the other man would deny anything immediately. As he thought, his face morphed from rigid concern to a little more classically irritatingly Venti.
"Are you forgetting things?" Ok so while Venti could easily deny that as well, he hoped that maybe they were close enough that he would get a straight forward answer. And thankfully, he did.
"Oh, I, uh." He laughed nervously, pulling his hands off of Xiao's arms and back to his own body. It was as if Xiao was watching the man deflate in real time, he shrunk in on himself, his arms wrapping around his body, subtly defensive. "I suppose I have lost...certain things." He scrambled for words after having said that, coming out desperate. "But nothing all that important! Only little things, like people I don't see a lot, or names of plants and places."
Xiao nodded, deciding that it was probably best if he didn't freak the Archon out over something that could very well be just a lapse in memory. This did sound freakishly similar to tales of erosion his Lord had told him over the years. It started with lapses in memory, nothing big, but it gradually got bigger, more important things and knowledge lost. All of it lost until they were not even the same person they'd been, having only the memory of being a God. Stripping them of everything that made them still somewhat human.
Xiao was a bit afraid, but as the other had been a absentee Archon for the past basically forever, he hoped it wouldn't affect him so soon. Even if it was selfish, he had such a want to just have Venti, for a little longer. He didn't know if he could take losing another person he loved, especially in a way as traumatic as watching them literally fade away before your eyes. He'd seen it before in mortals with memory issues when they got older. It horrified him.
YOU ARE READING
The Winds Bring with them Change (Volume 1)
同人小说Xiao had never known freedom. He has always had someone behind him, controlling his every move. Even when under contract from Morax, he was not free. He struggled his way through decades alone and in pain, hating himself more every day he awoke to h...
