genshin oneshots (requests open)

cursed winds of stone 1 : as the wind dies down

[ TW: character death, graphic descriptions of blood/injury, vomiting ] 

"You've been staring at your Vision for hours," Beidou says, sitting beside Kazuha on his bed. "Something on your mind?"

"It won't respond to me," he replies. "The winds are all wrong."

"What do you mean?" She leans over, trying to see if something's wrong with his Vision. It looks fine.

"It won't listen to me." He sighs, setting the orb in his lap. "Anemo is hard to control. As a symbol of freedom, it doesn't want control. Especially when something's wrong. Especially when something is wrong with its Archon." Beidou still looks confused. This time, Kazuha has to force the words out, dreading the idea they could be true.

"Something bad happened to Venti."

"Fuck."

Beidou finally understood.

"And you're sure about that?" she asks, still appearing perfectly strong.

"I wish I was less certain."

Kazuha slides his fingers over the glassy surface of the Vision. "We have to find him quickly."

🍃

The wind, as Kazuha claimed, led them to a strange domain hidden in Mt Tianheng, and Anemo energy opened the door for both him and Beidou.

Inside the domain was freezing. Wind blew over the path, the two of them shivering just slightly.

"Are you sure something's in here?" Beidou asked, her eyes traveling around the long corridor.

"Everything I know is telling me it's here," Kazuha mumbled. He felt sick, as though a hand were squeezing his lungs. "At the end of this hallway, the path splits in two. You go to the right."

She didn't question him, taking her claymore and preparing for a fight as she turned. Kazuha went the other way, sword in hand and heart pounding in his chest. The farther he went, the stronger the sick feeling became.

He came to another corner, and the feeling was so strong that he could taste blood. There was far too much of it here. He could taste it, blood that choked his senses and stained the floor.

Another corner.

A statue lay half-crumbled, jagged edges sticking up towards the ceiling. A Statue of the Seven, in the image of..

Barbatos.

Blood covered part of it, the bit still standing. From the highest point of the spike it dripped down, beginning to dry and turn brown rather than red. Shreds of fabric lay near it- green, white, more white, more green. A hat with a wilting Cecilia flower in it, stained with blood.

Kazuha felt sick. His heart beat faster, his stomach dropped out of his body.

Drips led him from the ruined statue to a platform a little ways away, more bloodstains on the ground under a body.

"Beidou!"

Venti was leaning against the platform, his clothes torn and nearly ruined. Blood stained his head, his hair was a tangled mess. Blood stained his hand, lying on the floor, a cut on his upper arm. His tights were nearly ruined and his shoes were nowhere, his knee bruised and scraped and another cut on his thigh. Actually, most of his leg was scraped up..

Kazuha didn't want to look at him. He tried to take his eyes away, a task that was impossible.

His shirt was ruined. Blood streamed from a huge dent in his stomach, staining nearly half his front red and covering his hand where he'd tried to stop the flow. Crimson colors, dripping onto the floor and making him sick to his stomach.

He turned and threw up onto the floor, the disgusting taste of bile stuck in his throat. Heavy footsteps sounded in the hall.

Fuck.

"Beidou, help me!"

Venti really shouldn't move, but if they wanted him to stay alive there wasn't any choice. Tearing off some of his own clothes, Kazuha wrapped the fabric as tightly around the wound as he could and tied it.

"Fuck. Venti, talk to me, gods-"

He wrapped the bard's arm around his shoulder, trying to pull him to his feet. Kazuha could hear how fast, how shallow his breathing was. He was barely conscious. Cursing himself over and over and over, he begged Venti to wake up as he dragged him back the way he'd come.

The footsteps quickened and then stopped as Beidou reached the two. "Shit," she hissed under her breath. "Kazu, here. Give him to me." She took Venti's body in her arms, carrying him with as tight a grip as she could risk.

"Venti, can you hear me?"

"..Who.." His voice was barely audible, too weak. Beidou gritted her teeth, cursing at herself as much as Kazuha was.

"You'll be okay," she told him, trying to walk as fast as she could. "Just focus on breathing. Whatever you do, don't close your eyes."

She knew it was a lie. A horrible lie, but she clung to it like hope, running as fast as she could out of the domain. Every pained whimper from Venti fueled her to go faster. Crimson soaked through fabric and stained her clothes.

Kazuha could barely breathe, could barely keep up with Beidou. The wind pushed them forward, urged them to keep going. In turn he begged the wind to let Venti keep going, at least until they could get help.

He was sobbing in Beidou's arms, weakly gripping her clothes, tears staining his face and mixing with crimson red blood. Every time he tried to force his eyes open, the dark dragged him back and pain seared his mind, making any coherent thoughts impossible. He couldn't even remember what happened. All he remembered was rough, sharp, pain ruining his body and red coating stone.

The dark pulled harder and he gave up fighting.

They were so close to the harbor. Time seemed to stop, Beidou felt the grip on her relax and then her knees slammed into the ground.

Her eyes were wide open, fingers already moving to check his pulse.

"Venti," she all but whispered.

"Venti, look at me."

Kazuha feels everything inside him shut down. He's barely a foot away, on his knees, his hands shaking as he tries to process what's happening. He knows exactly what's happening, but it won't process.

"Kazuha.." Beidou can barely conceal the shudder in her voice. He knows what she's going to say.