HONK
HONK
The sound of a car horn alerted Xiao that Saturday morning, he runs outside to find a black SUV with Venti in the passenger's seat waving to him and a blonde woman in the driver's seat.
The back window rolls down to find Kazuha and Aether waving at him.
Xiao grinds his teeth, what the hell are they doing here?
He goes over and opens the back door, Aether scoots over to the middle and Xiao sits down where he sat.
"Hi Xiao!" Venti smiles brightly at him.
Xiao gives a small smile in return, "Hi Venti,"
The blonde woman in the driver's seat adjusts her rear view mirror to look Xiao in the eyes, "Ah so you're Xiao, it's nice to meet you. I'm Jean, Venti's manager,"
He blinks, he knows that his manager chewed him out about him. It just made him all the more nervous.
"So where are we going," Aether asks.
"We're going to a local photography place downtown, we will have makeup and outfits done there," Jean replies.
The drive over was calm and relaxing, although Xiao could feel the tension between him and Venti's manager, it was like an angry parent was watching him.
When they pulled up to the building and walked inside, they were immediately greeted by a man.
"Oh welcome! My name is Xu, are you here for your 12 o'clock appointment?"
"Yes," Jean nods.
"Right this way then!" The man leads them to a back room that had a singular beige backdrop with three stools in the middle of it.
He led them to a rack of clothes against the wall. There were 4 outfits, three of them were the same black slacks with a black blazer and a white shirt. One of them was a white blouse with buttons on the forearms and frilly bits on the end of the sleeves with a brown corset with gold accents and teal shorts with gold accents to match.
Xu handed out the outfits, Kazuha, Aether, and Xiao with the all black, and Venti with the white blouse outfit.
Xiao raises a brow, everyone else seems ok with this, except for him. He started internally panicking, he really didn't want to have pictures taken of him, but he couldn't bring himself to tell Venti that. Venti quickly took notice of Xiao's discomfort.
"Hey Xiao, are you ok?" Venti puts his hand on his shoulder.
Xiao just nods.
Venti giggles, "It's ok to be nervous, I was nervous on my first photoshoot too, but I'm super happy that you're here," Venti smiles.
Xiao tenses up, that smile was going to be the end of him, he couldn't say no to him after he said that.
"Follow me to the fitting rooms, now there's only two so you'll have to take turns," Xu leads them to the fitting room.
"No need, two can share, we need to be done soon because I have a meeting at two," Jean responds.
Kazuha whispers something in Aether's ear, he nods and they head into the fitting room together. That just leaves Venti and Xiao, Venti groans and whispers something under his breath that Xiao couldn't quite hear.
In the fitting room, Xiao turns away from Venti, avoiding all eye contact as possible. Venti quickly got dressed but was stuck on his corset.
"Hey Xiao, can you help me tighten this corset?"
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.
"Yes, I have already talked with Venti and we have a vague idea of what to do already, and with that being said, I need Venti to sit in the middle chair, Xiao to his left, Kazuha to his right, and Aether you will stand behind directly behind Venti." Jean directs.
They quickly go to where they are told and Jean runs over to them with her big blush brush to put highlight and blush on all of them, "Now this will make all of your skin pop and give you a natural glow. Now, we don't have to worry about what you're looking at because we are going to blur your eyes out, so I want your body language to convey all of the emotion."
She finishes putting on the makeup on everyone and takes a step back, she ruffles Xiao's hair a bit, moves a hair that was out of place on Kazuha, and unbuttons the top button on Venti's shirt.
"Now what I need now is for Aether to put your forearms on Venti's shoulders. Xiao and Kazuha face your torso towards Venti. Now, Xiao, put your right arm behind Venti and put the other one on his chest. Now Kazuha put your left arm behind Venti, like Xiao, and put your right hand holding Venti's face,"
They all follow Jean's orders to a T, Jean comes in and makes a few minor adjustments so that they wouldn't look stiff.
Jean pulls out some mascara to put on Venti, "Don't blink,"
Jean steps back again to look at them, "Now this isn't a painting so don't be afraid to move a little,"
Kazuha and Aether become less tense with those words, however Xiao stays frozen by Venti's side, his heart beating faster and faster.
Venti whispers into Xiao's ear, "I'm sorry,"
Xiao breaks from his daze, "What?"
"Sorry that this position is kinda awkward, ehe," Venti chuckles nervously.
Xiao blinks, "No it's... fine, really."
Venti sighs and smirks mischievously, "Watch this," he moves his head a little bit and licks Kazuha's hand.
Kazuha jolts his hand away and wipes it on him, "Ew, what the hell,"
Venti giggles hysterically at Kazuha, who is still wiping his hand on his Venti's shirt, "seriously gross, Venti shut the hell up,"
Venti starts laughing harder, he couldn't help but crack up over how upset he was.
Venti looks up and smirks at Aether.
"Oh no, don't even think about it," Aether narrows his eyes.
Venti snorts and looks back at Xiao, who was just smiling like an idiot at Venti, "They're no fun,"
"You can lick me," Xiao mumbles.
"What's that?" Venti asks.
Xiao's ears turn red, "I said DON'T lick me,"
Aether snorts, "Down bad tremendously,"
Venti blinks in confusion, "What?"
Aether smirks at Xiao, "Nothing,"
"Alright I need you to all get back into your positions because we're about to start, now please do multiple poses because we don't want the same thing over and over and we want more options," Jean yells from the camera.
The camera clicks and the lights around them flash as the first picture is taken.
They all reposition themselves effortlessly, except for Xiao. He had a hard time finding a place to put his hands where it wasn't awkward and he had no idea where to look or what facial expression to make.
Venti notices and puts both of his hands on Xiao's face, "Hey, it's ok, don't be too nervous. Just do whatever feels right to you," He smiles as another picture is taken.
Xiao's face goes blank as he stares at Venti, all of the rest of the world melts away.
Venti smiles and faces back towards the camera, Xiao blinks and looks back at the camera too as another click happens.
Xiao realizes what's happening and faces away from the camera, digging his face in the crook of Venti's neck.
After a few more clicks of the camera, Jean looks back at all of the pictures taken, "Alright I think that's enough for now, you can separate, and Venti come here,"
Venti springs up from his chair and dashes over to Jean.
Xiao sighs in relief, as if he's been holding his breath this whole time.
"Dude, you're the worst down bad case I've ever seen in my life," Aether laughs at Xiao.
Kazuha snickers, "Did you see the way he was awkwardly fumbling,"
Aether chuckles, "Yeah and he said that Venti can lick him too,"
Kazuha puts his hand over his mouth in attempt to cover his obvious smile, "Dude, oh my god,"
Xiao puts his hands in his face, "I get it, I get it, can you shut the fuck up already,"
Jean yells from across the room, "We still have some promotional pictures we have to take before we can go, but we have the album cover ready."
After about an hour of taking dozens of pictures with different props, angles, and poses. Jean finally has to run off to her meeting.
"Alright that's a wrap, thank you boys for modeling, and Venti I'll send you the final pictures later," Jean says walking out of the room.
Venti stretches and stands up from his seat, "Ehe, that was fun, thank you guys for helping me out and thank you Xu for being a wonderful photographer this afternoon,"
"It was my pleasure," Xu smiles, "I must get going, I must have a word with Ms. Jean for a sec. You were all wonderful models today!" He says walking out of the room.
"So Venti, do you have any plans after this," Kazuha asks.
"Hmm, not particularly, but before we make any plans I want to change first. This corset is killing me," Venti takes Xiao's hand, "Come on Xiao, I need your help with it," And drags him over to the fitting room.
Kazuha and Aether snicker to themselves as Venti pulls away Xiao.
In the fitting room, Venti unties the knots of his corset and faces his back at Xiao, "I need you to loosen the back strings,"
Xiao shakily his loosens the strings, and Venti lets out a deep breath, "Oh finally,"
"If it's so painful then why do you wear it,"
"Because it's a fashion statement, and I look hot in it," Venti states matter of factly.
Xiao snickers, "Ok sure,"
As much as Xiao didn't want to admit it, Venti did look hot in it.
"And look and this too," Venti grabs Xiao's wrist and brings him over to a full length mirror. He lifts up his shirt to look at the skin indentations the corset left behind, "Funky, huh,"
"I guess, but wearing one is really bad for you,"
Venti takes off his shirt and puts on his regular clothes, "Eh, whatever, it's not like I wear them much anyway,"
Xiao shrugs and starts changing into his normal clothes.
Venti comes up next to him and puts his hand on his head and brings it outward to measure his own height, "Hey am I taller than you?"
"You probably are, why?"
"Because I thought you were the same size as me,"
"I wear insoles to make me a little taller,"
Venti snickers, "For real?"
Xiao glares at him, "Yes, I've always been made fun of because I'm short, so I've kinda always done it,"
Venti wraps his arms around his neck, "Aww don't worry my little Xiao, you'll always be tall in my eyes,"
Xiao freezes, "My? LITTLE?"
"Yes my LITTLE Xiao,"
Xiao feels his face get a little warm, "Oh God,"
Venti giggles and runs to the door, "Hurry up, 'kay?"
Xiao nods as he finishes getting dressed and Venti leaves.
Xiao walks out the door and walks over to the other room where they took the pictures.
"Alright, now that we're all here we should go to get food," Venti suggests.
"Actually, I have something I need to do today," Xiao looks at his phone.
"Oh well, are you two free then?" Venti gestures to Kazuha and Aether.
They both nod and Venti smiles, "Ah good!"
"Sorry, but I have to go now," Xiao says, texting someone.
"Ah well, have fun then," Venti waves to him as he departs.
"Ah that's too bad, I knew how much you wanted to hang out with him," Aether sighs.
"Yeah, but that's ok, next weekend we're all doing something together so that's something to look forward to," Venti smiles.