intertwined by fate || xiao x venti

ch11: i miss you

Xiao wakes up sprawled across the floor, next to his spear and some broken glass shards from the bottle Venti left for him. He moves away from the shattered pieces, grabs a small towel and picks them up. The glass edges prick at his skin, but he's used to the feeling, and he barely notices.

His spear is back in place, and the glass is gone, so he flops back on his bed and buries his face in the pillow. There is a crunching sound as he flips onto his back, and he picks up the pillow to see a picture that Venti took of him while he was trying wine for the first time. Then another picture, of when he spit it out and Venti was laughing so hard that his drink came out of his nose.

Venti...

The next photo is labeled, "I'm the Best Therapist :)" and it shows when Venti took Xiao out for breakfast one morning and let him rant about his problems. Xiao said nothing important, of course. His thoughts are too personal, and he couldn't explain them to someone even if he wanted to...but even so, he enjoyed talking to the archon. 

Xiao genuinely starts to smile when he sees the picture he took of Venti performing for some guests in Liyue, but the smile fades.

Xiao turns back around and stares up at the cracked paint on his ceiling. He sprang up from where he was laying down and that's when he realized,

I think that I... love Venti...