Aʜ, ᴍʏ Wɪɴᴅʙʟᴜᴍᴇ! [Vᴇɴᴛɪ x Isᴇᴋᴀɪ'ᴅ! Mᴀʟᴇ]

XVIII

Iɴᴛᴇʏᴠᴀᴛ

Venti nearly kicked the cathedral door open while he carried M/n, Ashes ran by looking for  Barbara and when he found her, Barbara led them to a private healing room to check M/n's condition. He was still sound asleep and didn't appear bothered by all the movement, he was just snoozing away and his dream was full of strange flowers.

"Will he be alright, Barbara?"

"Yes, it's a classic issue of overexertion. What happened?"

"We don't know, we found him like this and there was a dead Fatui agent not too far away from him. So we're assuming he was practically fighting for his life, M/n isn't the best with close range because he uses a catalyst. He usually acts as defense when we run into those types of situations."Ashes explained and Barbra couldn't help but agree, she understood the weakness of being vulnerable to close-up attacks.
"Did one of you bandage him up?"

"As I said, we found him like this. He couldn't have done this himself. Barbara, could you get Jean, Kaeya, and Diluc while we stay here with him?"Barbara nods and before she leaves, she tells the two men where a fresh set of bandages are so that they can change the dirty one. When Barbara leaves, Venti grabs the nearby bandages and sits them on the nightstand.
"I'll go ahead and change them now, so he won't get an infection."

"You know what you're doing right?"

"Of course, I used to help Bennett out all the time, and as unfortunate as he is I've become quite skilled with this."Venti smiles, it was a bit bitter as he turns to remove the blood-stained cloth. Just as he unravels it completely, he gasps. Ashe nearly drops the book he pulled from the shelf nearby and immediately turns to see what made Venti gasp.
"Is...Is that a fucking flower growing out his wound?!"

"What do I do?! Do I leave it in or do I pull it out?!"

"That sounds very sexual."

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME, THERE'S A FUCKING FLOWER GROWING OUT OF M/N'S SHOULDER!!"Venti screams with rosy cheeks from the comment made about his choice of words.
"Wait! That, it looks like the one in Lumine's hair."

"Maybe we can find a book that has the name of the flower. I can't go into the library for a while since M/n and I got caught making out behind one of the bookcases."Ashe rolls his eyes at the sheepish Archon and decides that he would go after the others return. The Archon taps the flower and M/n flinches from the sudden sensation. Suddenly, the flower recedes into the wound, M/n lets out a pained groan, and his face twists from pain. Venti could only watch in horror as it collapses into the blood and out of sight. The Khaenrian male sighs, veering back into a blissful sleep.
"Good thing you didn't try to pull it out...Le-Let's clean his shoulder up."

"Yeah.."Ashe leaves the room for an instant and returns with a small bowl of water and a rag. Venti soaks the rag then wrings it out but not completely, he cleans what blood he could before dipping the rag into the water to wring it once more so he could repeat the process. However when all the blood was whipped clean, there wasn't an open wound, it was close and the flower left its outline.
"Holy fuck it left a mark."

"It looks like a tattoo above a scar. Damnit I wish I could have gone with him and none of this would have happened. I'm sorry my dear Windblume, I didn't protect you."

"Don't beat yourself up over this, Venti. This was out of your control. Speaking of out of control, where's Xeno?"

"He's been helping out Lumine with her commissions."Ashe sighs in relief because he had a feeling this could have been something Xeno did but that would go against Venti but since he's been occupied with helping Lumine he wouldn't have the time to do anything sneaky.

After a while, the two sit in silence pondering as to why M/n was attacked until the door swings open displaying two scared older brothers; Kaeya and Diluc, and a worried Jean.
"Is he okay!?"

"How bad was he hurt when you found him!?"They fired off too many questions for the other men to answer, their questions abruptly end when M/n whines as if in pain.
Beads of sweat roll down his face as his hands grip the covers underneath his palms.
"F..Fire..ca-can't..Ngh.."

"M/n?"Kaeya was visibly afraid of what was happening in M/n's dream and for once he had no idea what to do, so he kneels next to the head of the bed. All he could achieve with unsteady hands was to cards his fingers through M/n's hair.
"Sshh you don't need to remember, you're fine, no one will ever hurt you again.."

"Kae..Kaeya, hot.. It's hot... Inteyvats.. Burning..ca-can't breathe..."Kaeya cools his hands to help break M/n's fever while the other watched the older brother tenderly care for his beloved little brother.
"Inteyvat? What's that?"

"A flower from our homeland.."