Chapter Text
As Zhongli carried Venti down the dark streets, restricting his movement and stopping him from calling for help, Venti couldn’t help but think about how this was exactly how any victim in a horror film would meet their end.
He had given up on trying to wiggle out of his arms because if he was held any tighter, Venti was afraid he would pop. The muffled shrieking was also out because Zhongli figured out that if he held Venti by the neck, the pressure on his vocal cords acted as quite the effective deterrent to screaming.
Venti couldn’t make a raunchy joke about choking because he was quite frankly terrified of how Zhongli was possibly planning on keeping him trapped overnight. For all Venti knew, he would simply place a large rock on top of him and revel vindictively in his suffering.
…or maybe not, but the point still stood that he could do virtually anything and Venti would have barely any power to stop it.
Zhongli eventually came upon a building and climbed the stairs to an apartment door. He unlocked it and stepped inside, turning on the light in the process of taking off his shoes. Venti glanced around and noted how boringly normal it all looked. Back in the day, Morax had quite the lavish abode, quite a downgrade in Venti’s opinion. Though at least it all looked less gaudy.
He was then unceremoniously thrown atop a kitchen counter, uncomfortably close to what appeared to be a knife block.
Was this the end for him?
Zhongli opened an overhead cupboard and grabbed something from within it. Venti looked at it curiously and took a few moments to identify it as tea. The man very suddenly locked eyes with him and tilted his head. “There are no easy exits for escape here.”
“I’m totally getting murdered tonight, aren’t I?”
Unable to understand Venti’s words, he continued on as he went through the motions of making tea. “And if you do somehow manage to escape, know that it will only hurt you in the long run.”
“You’re not helping your case here…”
Zhongli went through the entire (slightly long) process of making the tea and Venti was too terrified to move even a little. He traced Zhongli’s movement in the dimly lit kitchen, noting how serene he looked as he leaned on the counter waiting for the tea to properly steep. After the initial warnings, he didn’t even so much as glance in Venti’s direction.
Eventually though, the tea was steeped to his liking and rested at an adequate temperature. He poured it into a cup, sipped it and nodded.
Then he placed that cup down in front of Venti.
The bird tilted his head in confusion and stared down at the steaming vessel. Was this some sort of test?
Zhongli poured another cup for himself and stared at Venti for a few moments. “That is for you.”
Venti looked between the cup and the man standing a short distance away. Did he poison it when Venti wasn’t looking or something? Or maybe he added some sort of sleeping drug? He squinted suspiciously at the dark liquid.
“Though I cannot claim to have the taste buds of a bird, I have had the pleasure of knowing multiple. Therefore, I would assume this to be to your liking.” He sipped from his own cup.
He leaned forward and sniffed at the tea. It smelled nice, but it didn’t tell him anything.
Zhongli sighed and reached toward the cup. “If you do not want to drink it then I will simply-”
“No!” Venti bit his fingers.
He drew his hand back “Tch-!” As he rubbed at his hand, he glared down at Venti. “Remember that I am doing this purely out of the kindness of my own heart.”
“As if you even have kindness in your heart in the first place.”
Out of pettiness alone, Venti finally started to drink from the cup, which was honestly rather weird with a beak.
Though he’d never admit it aloud, the tea was really good. He tried to look as nonchalant as possible when he grabbed the rim with his beak and tilted it all the way back in the same fashion that one might chug a stein of beer. Most of it made it into his mouth, so he deemed the action a success.
“Wh- Have you no respect for yourself?” Zhongli seemed genuinely appalled as he watched the spilled droplets of tea dribble down his chest feathers. Without hesitation, he grabbed a tea towel and started to gently dry him off.
Venti froze under the soft touch. A shiver went down his spine as he was once again reminded of how nice it felt to be pet like this. Or perhaps it was simply just nice to be given this sort of caring attention so casually, especially when it was by Zhongli specifically.
He found himself almost mourning the lack of touch as soon as the hand was removed. In fact, he almost considered spilling more tea just so that he would do it again…
Hm.
Venti paused this train of thought as soon as he realized he was having it.
This was…perhaps something he could store away in his mind to deal with later…or preferably never.
He blinked up at Zhongli, ever the refined presence as he poured another cup for himself. He had since gone back to ignoring Venti’s existence, (though not before placing a singular tea cake in front of Venti as some sort of peace offering,) which was probably for the best at this point.
Some undetermined amount of time passed, and over the course of this time, Zhongli had moved to the nearby dining table and left Venti to watch him from the counter a short way away. He considered flying over, but the distance enabled him to further ponder the predicament he had gotten himself into.
Venti still had no clue how he had gotten stuck in this form in the first place. His chief theory was still that he needed to fulfill some sort of criteria within himself to be free of this metaphorical cage, but there were absolutely no clues as to what that could be other than that weird dream about falling from the sky to the earth below. For now however, he just needed to focus on getting through the night.
Zhongli finished his tea at some point, though Venti didn’t notice until he was scooped up unceremoniously. He squawked out of surprise and tried to flap his wings, but Zhongli was holding him too securely for it to do anything.
“Both my legs and my wings work just fine. This is just unnecessary.”
As expected, Zhongli didn’t understand his words and went through almost his entire nightly routine with Venti in his arms. The bird couldn’t find it within him to protest beyond a few snarky comments which Zhongli very easily ignored on account of the fact that they just sounded like normal bird noises to his ears. He was only set down once and that was so that Zhongli could change to sleeping clothes, which Venti turned his eyes away from out of respect for his privacy
When he was (begrudgingly) scooped up again, Venti could hear the man speaking to him quietly.
“Know that if there was a better method of keeping you contained, I would take it…if only to ease your own inevitable discomfort.”
Venti didn’t like the sound of that, but he didn’t voice anything aloud, he simply just tried to suppress his climbing tentativeness with each step.
Zhongli turned off all the lights on his way, leaving only very dim, clouded moonlight to illuminate the apartment. To Venti, it may as well have been pitch black, but he knew that Zhongli’s freaky lizard eyes enabled him to see better than normal in the lack of light, meaning Venti was quite literally in the dark about anything that Zhongli was planning.
The man stopped abruptly in what Venti guessed to be the bedroom. He didn’t move for a few moments as if he were considering something, then he took a few more very slow steps and cleared his throat. “Rest well…for both of our sakes.”
What was that supposed to mean? Venti shut his eyes tightly and prepared for the worst.
No matter what sort of torture was about to be thrown at him, Venti was ready for it.
Zhongli adjusted Venti’s positioning in his arms and then just. Layed down in bed with Venti held tightly against his chest.
…
What.
He wasn’t sure exactly what he was expecting, but this was…definitely not it. He tried to wiggle out of the man’s grip, only to be held tighter against his body as if he were some sort of plushie. Honestly, he was caught so off guard by this action that he didn’t even think to verbally protest it.
Venti swallowed awkwardly.
This was fine.
Totally normal in fact.
He was just laying in bed.
Zhongli’s bed…
on top of him…in his arms…
…
He was surprisingly warm. It was comforting.
…
Venti almost wished he could stay like this forever. That he could go to bed like this every night as if it were the norm.
…
…
…
No.
This was actually incredibly normal!
Venti could be so totally incredibly normal about this because it was completely normal and not weird at all. This was nothing out of the ordinary because it was super normal and maybe if he keeps telling himself that, he won’t have to deal with any unwelcome thoughts about how nice it was to be embraced like this.
Zhongli had no way of knowing that the bird he was hugging to his chest was actually Barbatos in an unwilling disguise. It was totally normal for people to sleep with their pets in the bed. Not that Venti was a pet, but the principle still stood. This was normal. Venti totally wasn’t freaking out, because he had absolutely no reason to be freaking out right now. On account of the fact that this was entirely normal.
His heart was beating abnormally fast. He almost wondered if Zhongli could feel it through his feathers, but they weren’t cuddling nearly close enough for that.
Of course, this wasn’t cuddling though.
It was simply just…Venti curled up in his arms on his chest.
Yeah. Totally normal.
He shut his eyes tightly and tried to calm himself down by focusing on the air going in and out of his body, but it slowly morphed into him feeling the rise and fall of Zhongli’s chest underneath himself and matching his breathing accordingly. Both of their breaths started to slow with this method, causing Venti to assume that—in the short time it took for him to calm himself down—the man below him had somehow managed to fall asleep already. He couldn’t exactly be too surprised though, because Morax, against all odds, had always managed to sleep like a rock whenever Venti saw him (pun intended.)
Venti usually did too, however he needed to actually fall asleep in the first place in order to rest soundly, and that was often an entirely different ordeal. He found that some nights felt as if his mind never quite wanted him to drift off into slumber, and tonight was definitely going to fall in that category.
With Zhongli asleep (or at least very close to it) Venti tried to readjust his positioning, but he was still met with a bit of difficulty as the arms around him were by no means light upon his body. Still though, he managed to move just enough to get comfortable.
He breathed deeply and tried to organize his thoughts. If he could just make it through the night, then Venti could pretend this never happened and figure out a way to escape. From there, he could just never show his face in Liyue ever again. Simple.
Time passed. Venti wasn’t sure exactly how much, but the clouds had shifted and there was more moonlight in the room now. He had managed to more or less chill out, but every time he calmed down too much, another thought about how he reveled in the sensation of Zhongli’s arms around him would make his panic spike again. He had resorted to disconnecting himself from the situation entirely. After all, he didn’t need to worry about controlling his emotions if he simply just didn’t feel his emotions at all.
Super easy.
He looked around the room now that he could see better. Though he had kind of made fun of how different this place was from Morax’s old lodgings, it was admittedly rather quaint. The decorations were eclectic in a way that suited Zhongli oddly well.
On top of the dresser, there was a small artisan vase with what looked to be plum blossoms coming from the top, and surrounding it were miscellaneous souvenirs that came from the many festivals Liyue had hosted over the years. Additionally, there were multiple pieces of art lining the walls, none of which matched the others in style. There was a scroll, for example, that looked to be a replica of something an artist would make over a thousand years ago, yet almost directly across the room from it, there was a child’s drawing in crayon that couldn’t have been made more than a year or two ago. Despite the mismatch however, it all somehow fit together perfectly maintaining the proper feng shui expected in any well decorated house.
Even the bed that Venti was currently situated in told a story. Though he could not claim to be anything close to a historian when it came to crafts from Liyue, he knew that the bed itself (which was rather large considering Zhongli was the only one normally using it) was rather modern, yet the blankets were made in a pattern that mimicked more ancient styles, not to mention how exquisitely carved the bed frame looked.
Someone who did not know Zhongli as personally as Venti did might find this mix of styles odd; one might assume he would have a more uniform taste. But as much as the man absolutely despised when Venti pointed it out, Zhongli had always been a something of a hoarder. It was in his nature after all.
Unlike Venti who flowed constantly with the wind and kept all his memories solely in his mind or on his person, Morax liked to have something more tangible, thus he always kept a physical history in the form of collected objects.
“Sentimental old man.” He couldn’t help but mutter it under his breath.
It hit him that he was metaphorically, spiritually, and very quite literally surrounded by Zhongli. Something about it felt weirdly personal, beyond the obvious in that he was wrapped in the man’s arms right now.
But since this was drifting awfully close to ‘thinking about it’ territory, he didn’t chase that thought further.
He shifted his gaze to Zhongli himself. It was a little hard not to when his face was right there. He looked so unnaturally peaceful that Venti could almost believe he was faking it, yet he hadn’t moved at all once his breathing had slowed. In the moonlight, he looked ephemeral, like he could almost disappear in a blink of the eye.
It made Venti think about how he hadn’t truly met up with Zhongli in a long while. Sure, they had seen each other a few times in the company of others, but the interactions were painfully short-lived compared to what Venti preferred.
(He wholeheartedly blamed Morax for that.)
After the Geo Archon had “died” Venti went about life for entirely too long trying to come to terms with the idea that he was the last of the original seven. He thought he would have to carry the burden of memory alone.
When he learned the truth, Venti was almost more hurt than he had been when he first heard of Morax’s death. Though he certainly wasn’t entitled to know everything about his life, he felt that it was owed to him that he should at least know when the man was going to fake his own death.
At first it was pure pettiness keeping Venti from dropping in on him, but as the days went on it slowly simmered into something else. There were always other things to worry about and Venti could never quite bring himself to just show up out of the blue, despite the fact that was something he used to do all the time without remorse.
But things were different now. For the both of them.
He sighed and closed his eyes, curling his long neck in towards himself. He still wasn’t particularly tired, but he figured that he would at least try to fall asleep.
He held that position for a long while, feeling the tendrils of drowsiness finally start to overtake him.
The arms atop him provided a comfortable weight and with the way he was laying his head, Venti could almost hear a heartbeat, though he wasn’t sure if it was his own or Zhongli’s. He felt warm all over, both from his feathers providing adequate insulation and from the body heat emanating from below him.
It really was nice…
…they should do this…
…
…more often……
———————
Venti woke up as soon as he hit the ground with a soft thud. He let loose a few quiet curses while turning himself upright.
By the looks of it, Zhongli hadn’t even noticed. The man had seemingly sat up quickly with Venti still on his chest and launched the bird completely off the bed like a neglected stuffed animal.
Typical.
Instead of immediately hopping onto the bed and yelling angrily like he initially wanted to, Venti scooted himself under the frame and bided his time as Zhongli slowly climbed out from under the covers.
He waited until the man had stood up and took a few steps away from the bed. Then he quickly darted out from under the bed frame, hopped up with a gust of anemo, targeted the first beakful of hair he could grab and clamped on before letting gravity do the rest of the pulling.
“Agh-”
A hand quickly found itself around Venti’s neck, but he refused to let go of the hair in his beak.
Zhongli slowly turned his head to look Venti in the eye.
“Do not play games with me so soon after waking up.” He furrowed his brow. “Let go.”
As his mouth was currently tightly shut, Venti opted to shake his head no. He would be grinning widely if he didn’t have a beak right now.
“You cannot stay like this forever.”
Perhaps, but he figured he could stay like this just long enough for it to become especially annoying.
Seeing that his hair would not be freed from Venti’s grasp any time soon, he simply sighed heavily and balanced the bird precariously atop his shoulder.
Zhongli was actually surprisingly good at going through his morning routine whilst ignoring the large vibrant blue-green creature that should have by all accounts been a significant distraction. It was almost impressive how little he appeared to care. Similarly, Venti felt the need to commend himself for actually managing to balance on the man’s shoulder for the duration of this morning routine considering how he made no efforts to make it easy.
After finishing his morning tea (which unlike last night, he didn’t try to share,) Zhongli stood up and headed for his bedroom, walking quickly and jostling Venti in the process.
Once in the room, he drew the blinds over the window and paused for a few moments.
Then he immediately started stripping his clothes off.
“Ah wait-!” Venti opened his beak, causing the hair to fall from it and subsequently for Venti himself to fall backwards onto the floor.
Flapping his wings frantically to cushion his fall only partially worked. He hit the ground with a prominent noise and landed in such a way that all the breath was knocked from his chest. He shut his eyes quickly and tried to hold his wings in front of them for good measure.
“A little warning would have been nice.” His breath heaved slightly as he tried to regain the air behind his ribcage. “The phrase ‘you knocked my breath away’ isn’t supposed to be literal!”
And he can do that easily enough without taking off his clothes.
…
…is what Venti would hypothetically say if wasn’t acting completely and utterly normal about all of this.
Some amount of time passed, though Venti hadn't been tracking how long. He felt gloved hands gently wrap under his body and neck, lifting him up off the floor. He hazarded a peek and saw that Zhongli was now wearing his normal everyday suit.
“I do hope you haven’t injured yourself...” He looked Venti over with a careful eye.
“As if you’d actually care.” Venti glared at the man, though the intensity was probably negated as he was currently tucked like a baby in his arms.
Zhongli walked out the door with Venti in tow soon after that.
It was still rather early in the morning, so the streets were fortunately mostly empty. The less people to see Venti being gently cradled the better.
They headed to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and went inside to find Hu Tao standing across the room with her back turned to them. She was looking at the large cage that Venti had been trapped in, but at the sound of the door opening and closing she turned around.
“Hey, G’morning!”
“Good morning Director Hu.”
They approached one another, and Hu Tao looked down at Venti with a smile. She reached out a hand to pet him and he begrudgingly allowed it, trying to ignore the fact that he enjoyed the sensation.
“How did you sleep last night?” Though she was clearly talking to Zhongli, she continued to pet Venti. He wriggled around a little only for Zhongli to press him even harder into himself. “Little Birdie didn’t give you too hard of a time, did he?”
“Not at all.” Pressed against his chest, Venti could feel the way his voice rumbled as he spoke. The vibrations were actually kind of soothing. “I would go as far to say that I slept very well.”
“Really?” She seemed genuinely surprised. “You—the man who snaps to attention the moment I even take a step towards you while not looking my way—slept well with this little noisemaker in your vicinity?”
“Indeed.”
Hm.
Though he wasn’t privileged to see it very often, Venti had only ever seen Zhongli sleep like the dead. This was the first he’d heard of the man potentially being a light sleeper. But perhaps Hu Tao was simply mistaken.
That being said, Venti had slept quite well too, at least once he actually fell asleep.
“Alright then…” Hu Tao shrugged. “And he didn’t…I dunno give you any trouble during breakfast or anything?”
“Nothing I couldn’t accommodate.” He replied casually. “Though there was no ‘breakfast’ to speak of.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t feed him? You’re killing me here…”
“I don’t believe it’s necessary to-”
She tutted and made a grabby motion for Venti. Zhongli handed him over without any hesitation, and she proceeded to turn him towards herself and hold him upright under the wings in the same way one might hold a baby under the arms. It was not lost on Venti that this conversation was also sounding increasingly like one someone would have about an infant.
“Are you hungry?” Speaking in an over the top baby voice, she held her arms out and away from herself so she could look at him with exaggerated pity, “Is mean Mister Zhongli starving you?
Ever the performer (and not one to turn down an opportunity to poke fun at Zhongli,) Venti hung his head sadly and pulled out his best puppy dog (hatchling bird?) eyes.
“Yes. Hungryyyyyy…Starvinggggg.” He flopped over in her hands. “Dying! Killing Me!” A few of those words were borrowed directly from Hu Tao’s voice. “Help!”
The funeral director looked up at Zhongli with a triumphant smile. “See?” She looked back at Venti with a huge smile. “You’re a funny little bird.”
Venti could vividly imagine Zhongli rolling his eyes in the background.
“What d’you want to have for breakfast?” She tilted her head and looked up at the ceiling. “Actually, what do birds like you eat? Seeds?”
“No…” If he had the opportunity to beg for anything right now, Venti would rather not waste that opportunity forcing himself to eat miscellaneous seeds.
“Bugs?”
“No!” Definitely not his ideal meal.
Zhongli cleared his throat from behind him. “If I had to assume, I am sure that he would be content with frui-”
“Fish?” She interrupted, clearly in her own world. “Do you eat seafood?”
Once again, Zhongli cleared his throat awkwardly and spoke with a bit of emphasis. “As I was saying, I believe that fruit would-”
Though he would have been very happy with just an apple, now that the option was presented, Venti couldn’t pass up the opportunity to annoy Zhongli even further with his request.
“Fish!” Venti exclaimed. “Hungry. Fish!”
Hu Tao smiled mischievously. “Ooo~ A bird of culture I see.” She turned Venti around to face Zhongli. “At least someone here recognizes the superior form of food. I’m almost getting hungry myself.”
Zhongli looked between them both with barely hidden disgruntlement. “I am willing to watch over the parlor while you two go out for breakfast together.”
“Pfft. As nice as that might be, I have some clients scheduled to arrive soon.” She put on a sad expression but she didn’t actually sound very sad. “Oh nooo. Looks like you’ll have to take him out for food in my stead.”
He sighed as if he expected her to say that. “If I must...”
“Woah. Don’t sound too excited now.” Venti rolled his eyes.
“You must.” She held Venti out to him, but he didn’t make any move to take him. “We can’t have our parlor mascot starving to death now, can we? As fitting as it may be, it would be rather sad after all we’ve been through together.”
“It’s been 24 hours at most. Have we really been through all that much?”
(They arguably have. But Venti couldn’t help being a contrarian.)
“If you say so.” Zhongli finally took Venti back, tucking him under his arm before he could try to wiggle away. “Would you like for me to pick up food for you too?”
“I don’t care either way.” She shrugged and then swatted at the air. “Now shoo. I’ll be rather busy for at least an hour or two, so don’t worry about speeding back.”
“I shall keep that in mind. Farewell for now.”
After that, he turned and went outside with little fanfare, pausing as soon as the door to the parlor fully closed behind them. He stared off into the distance and shook his head, speaking under his breath through gritted teeth.
“If they didn’t know any better, one might assume you were doing this to torment me personally.”
He said this line with such vitriol that Venti couldn’t help but laugh loudly.