Venti awoke to the screeching sound of a kettle, its high-frequency pitch deafening his ears like Zhongli had just talked to him for hours.
What time was it? 8:00? 11:00? 12:00? Not even he could tell.
So he stayed put in bed. Staring at the ceiling before realizing he should probably stop being a lazy ass.
"Oi, Venti!" The bard jolted upwards once a certain adeptus came walking into the room, sword in hand as she glared at him with a deathly gaze.
"... Hey!"
"Get up. We're going to go... pick some flowers."
"Eh?"
[Name] wasted no time pulling the bard by his ankles, swinging him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes before sauntering up and out the hotel like it were a normal occurrence.
"EH?! [NAME]?! I HAVE LEGS YOU KN—"
"Legs are worthless when the brain is ineffective."
"MEAN!"
Yet he did not fight back, struggling for two seconds, Venti slumped like a fish, allowing you to carry him out and into the streets of Liyue.
Maybe people were laughing at him. Or maybe they thought he was lame. Whatever! At least he got to feel your arm wrapped around his back. Heh, he really could get used to this.
And then the adeptus stopped moving.
And then she dropped the bard onto the cold, hard, concrete floor of Liyue.
"What was that for?"
"Nothing."
☆
"Why do we need to pick flowers again?" Venti asked incredulously, watching you rip some qingxins violently from the Earth, not hesitating one bit once the bitter juice came dripping from the stem.
"For the Lantern Rite, dummy. We need to help somehow, you know?"
"I think my presence as Lord Barbatos! Is worthy enough!"
"Jump off."
Venti fell silent— and for a second, you thought he jumped off the side of the mountain.
You spared him a glance, sighing once you saw his 'charming' close-eyed smile, patting himself on the back for managing to make you worried.
☆
"I love you!" Was a phrase commonly heard by Venti. Whether he was walking amongst the citizens of his city, or infiltrating the land of Geo for his own enjoyment (ahem, right now). The bard swore he could never get away from those three words being thrown around.
Again, and again, mortals would use the phrase so freely. Each day they'd go out, telling their parents a brief "I love you!" before leaving. Every day they'd kiss their significant someone and whisper I love you. Everything in this modern world was about love, it was like there was no other emotion!
And every day, Venti would sit and ponder. What is the true, true meaning of love? Saying you had 'butterflies' in your stomach or your heart 'raced' was not enough of a viable reason. For someone like him, a man of poetry and whimsical words, love was not such a simple term.
And yet, that was the only thing to describe his emotions when he looked at you. Whether you were ignoring him, or looking over him, or looking beside him or anywhere but him, he swore— on his life, on his power and on his memory—
This. This is love.
The bard paused, observing your features as you began to pick silk flowers. Standing on top of this mountain, with just the two of you, with the sky and the sun, all he could see was you.
Your eyes, they showed his reflection when he gazed into them. Your features and lips, your battle-trained fingers and face.
He swore (yet he knew it was not kind to swear), that this, this is love. These were the butterflies, these were the marathons his heart would run and this was the love he felt for you.
"Can you help me carry some of these?" You handed him a bundle of flowers, interrupting his long, long train of thoughts.
Clumsily holding the silkflowers and qingxins, he followed aimlessly behind you. Following you to... pick more flowers? Just how many did you need?
No matter. That was not the cause of his concerns right now.
☆
[LIYUE HARBOR]
"Okay, see you soon!" Paimon waved, floating ahead of [Name] and Aether as the three left Liyue Harbor to go on some errands. Something along the lines of a Snatcherstar?
Eh, whatever.
'I wonder where that unlucky boy is?' Venti hummed, glancing around before shrugging.
☆
Wallowing in his own thoughts, the bard began pacing through the docks of Liyue, unconcerned once a bunch of pigeons frantically took flight at his presence.
Love, love was found everywhere. It was found in the sky and the grass, in the birds and the plants. Love was taking care of someone's room just because you appreciate them, love was watering the plants you passed by every day because you wanted to see them prosper.
'Is this how Mr. Zhongli feels?' Venti thought blankly, watching some children run by him as if he were nothing but a statue. One day, those children would be teenagers— then adults, then elders.
It moved so fast. Life moved so fast. As if it were just yesterday, the bard remembered the first time he met you. How you were beside Rex Lapis' side, how you seemed to be more serious than all of Liyue combined—...
Yet now you weren't like that. Your icy exterior melted and revealed the true you, a you so deserving of that pyro vision that hung on your figure, a you that Venti came to...
To love?
He paused, mouth agape before curving into a sly smirk.
'I'm saying love as if it's some new term.'
☆
[400 YEARS AGO]
"[Name]?" Venti glanced up at you, stopping mid-strum on his lyre as you didn't bother to gaze back at him.
"What is it?"
He tilted his nose up at the dimming sky and arriving stars. The scent of the wind was so comforting under Vennessa's tree, along with your colored eyes and amber vision.
"Don't you miss Liyue?"
Venti was one to talk, considering he too has left Mondstadt for centuries to adventure with you. Though during those times, he never felt... homesick. Maybe you were different, maybe you missed the golden leaves and towering peaks.
"No."
The bard's jaw dropped.
"Eh?"
You came up beside him, sitting down next to the empty roots of the tree.
"I don't miss Liyue because I have you," You grumbled, barely coherent as you purposefully slurred your words.
"EHHH?!" Venti gasped, covering his mouth in feigned shock. Was this perhaps a declaration of your loyalty to him, Barbatos? Hah! Just wait until Rex Lapis sees—
"I think... Liyue is too dark," Poking at the ground beneath you like it was the most interesting thing ever, you side-eyed Venti, "... and you make me happy."
For the first time in his life, Barbatos swore he was speechless.
His face felt warm, thank gosh that the night sky masked the redness creeping up his ears and cheeks. The speeding tempo of his heart and the endless array of thoughts he had went flying out the window as soon as those words left your lips.
He opened his mouth to reply, "you make me happy too."
Nothing came out.
☆
"Make sure not to die!" Venti called joyfully, sending you off on one of your nightly patrols around Mondstadt. After what had previously happened, the bard was able to recover his voice and gleefully wave you away.
And after all of that, he flopped to the ground, landing on his bottom with a hard thud! as he began to ponder.
You make him happy, you make him so happy that not even words could describe it— and words were his forte! What was the correct adjective? Euphoric? Pleasant? Likable?
Though his mind could not come to a conclusion, the bard subconsciously realized,
I'm in love.
And it only took 400 years to realize!
☆
[PRESENT]
The moment Venti confirmed his feelings was the moment you saw him in his true form.
Before Decarabian, before the eye of the hurricane and before the sea of clouds. This day, approximately 106 years ago, Venti was not feeling his best.
If anything, he was feeling his worst.
This day, he had remembered his first bard friend. He remembered Decarabian's lover, he remembered the Ragnvindr that fought by his side for freedom. He remembered so much and wished to forget it all.
So he reverted back to him, the true him. The him that was small and but a wisp in the wind, a him that was nothing more than an insignificant spirit.
But you found him.
And you immediately recognized him.
☆
[106 YEARS AGO]
'Someone's coming!' Venti flinched mid-air, turning around so quick he swore he got whiplash.
Coming face to face with [e/c] eyes and a confused expression, the wind spirit jolted once you glared down at him as if he were a pest.
And then your gaze softened. As if you were looking at the cutest cat on Teyvat, or the prettiest flower in all of Mondstadt.
'Don't be weird don't be weird don't be weird," Venti gulped nervously, shuffling away slowly mid-air as you crouched down to his level, observing him fondly.
"Venti?"
'Shit.'
"..."
You reached your index finger out to his little hood, tapping it gently before standing up altogether.
"I'll see you soon," You walked past him, glancing back with your hands in the pockets of your newly-bought Mondstadt clothes.
You smiled at him, turning away once you confirmed that he noticed.
Venti was paralyzed. From what? Your smile? Maybe, but he had seen that sight a number of times before.
He was paralyzed because you knew. You knew it was him, that his cheeky bard-self was this little wind wisp. How? How did you know?
He had never told you before.
This. This minor interaction that you probably didn't even remember, this brief moment in time, in the galaxy, in the stars—
This was the moment Venti first spoke the three words.
"I love you," He called quietly, knowing you couldn't hear him. He said it to the sky, to the nearby wisps and the silhouette of your form.
He does. He loved you then, and he loves you now.
☆
[PRESENT]
Venti would be lying if he said he never wondered whether you loved him too.
If anything, the bard was perfectly okay with being just friends with you. He knew that he didn't share a connection with you like how Xiao or Zhongli did, but that doesn't mean he'd stop the festering feelings.
He was free. He was truly free to feel this growing love. There was nowhere to him but by your side, and if that wasn't cheesy enough, then he doesn't know what is.
But even so, Venti swore to never tell you. He would never tell you how he felt because he didn't want you to feel burdened by the thought that he loved you.
The bard stopped in front of the door to his hotel. His hotel that Aether rented, his hotel that the two of you shared.
One day. One day Venti will tell you he loves you to your face. Maybe that day, you will be by someone else's side. Maybe, he will not be there to say it.
❝ Just remember, whenever the wind brushes past your cheek or your eyes— ❞
❝ That's me thinking of you. ❞
"I love you," Venti muttered again. 106 years later, in the confines of this Liyue hotel's walls.
This time, he said it to himself. He said it to the presence you left in this small room, he said it to the water cup you gave him when he had that terrible hangover.
And that open door— wait, what?
"The heck? Are you confessing to yourself in the mirror?"
☆☆
[a/n]: how r yall feeling