Chapter 1
Venti's late to present his and Xiao's research. More running and running.
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"AH I'M LATE I'M LAAAAAATE!"
Venti shouted as he sprinted full speed on the grounds of Teyvat University, carrying different kinds of papers for his and Xiao's thesis defense. It really is a bad idea to drink all night when you have a report to do the next day. He blames Kaeya and Rosaria's persuasion to drink at Angel's Bar, Diluc's tavern.
"I will not drink with those two again if something important comes next! Holy shit is this karma? This is karma isn't it?!" He mumbles multiple curse words towards himself and the other two culprits and does not give a shit about the stares he's getting as he hastily walks(runs?) towards his classroom.
After a few turns and stops at the wrong rooms, he finally reaches his destination, wondering why his classmates are not yet settled. Childe is busy flirting with oblivious(not really) Zhongli, Ei is eating her sakura dangos—already? it's not even lunch yet—Yae's busy teasing the poor Gorou, and Kokomi's not helping him but instead laughs at his misery.
"Hello everyone! The most famous musician is now here!" It's not even surprising how he can manage to shout the greeting in a loud voice after running half a mile just to reach his room.
Did I forget to mention it? Venti's the most famous musician in Teyvat Uni. There's no instrument he can play beautifully, and he excels at the lyres for some reason.
"Venti!" Aether greeted him. "Good thing Mr. Decarabian is not here yet or he'll throw you one of his heavy books. Let me guess, you're late because you drank last night, no?"
The bard visibly shuddered at the thought of Mr. Decarabian throwing his encyclopedia-like book on his head. He will die for sure. "U-uh yeah. How did you know?"
He swear he saw Aether contain his giggle. The blonde teen took out his phone, going over his gallery, and found a piece of let's say...a blackmail material.
Venti's half-blue-green eyes widened. He's so shocked to the point of not speaking at all. On Aether's phone is a video of him holding a liquor bottle, visibly drunk, and saying drunk things.
"Whooo! Go Venti! You can drink one more bottle!" a girl's voice said, which Venti could assume was Rosaria.
"Say, who do you love Venti?" judging by the voice again, it's Kaeya. Those sons and daughter of bitches. How dare they take a video of him-
"I *hic* love? It'sssss Xiao--" surprised by the loudness of his voice, he quickly snatched Aether's phone and immediately lowered the volume before anyone other than them hears what he was saying.
"Archons! You scared me there! Handle my phone more carefully would you?" Aether said. Venti didn't say another thing but continued to listen to the video by his ear.
"I *hic* supeeeeer love Xiaoooo~ hehehehe *hic* *hic*" he could feel his face reddening, how could he easily say that while he's drunk?! AND IN FRONT OF THE BLACKMAILERS--
"Something wrong?" a familiar voice said behind him.
The twin braided teen jumped in surprise and flew the phone out of his hands, him and Aether panicking as it was about to fall to the ground and break.
Xiao easily caught it, he must've clicked the lock button as Venti saw the screen on black. He sighed internally as he wouldn't have to see Xiao seeing that embarrassing video of him.
"T-thanks Xiao. Venti dude are you sure you're okay? Don't worry about a...thing. I've got it covered." He showed him a worried face. Aether went back to his seat and Xiao was just staring behind Venti's green cap. "Why are you late today? We were supposed to have the thesis defense but good thing the professor isn't here yet. Are you already prepared?"
My heart isn't prepared for anything-! "Oh yeah, I've got the papers and stuff for the defense. Don't worry about it ehe." Scratching the back of his head, he gave Xiao a sheepish smile and excused himself so he can (get away from him or he will be a stuttering mess instead) review his materials for the defense later.
Xiao's expression remained blunt, unbothered by the weird behavior the bard is giving off. He doesn't pry into people's personal lives and doesn't give a shit about it, so he leaves them be.
The class is still rowdy and loud as ever until the devil of a professor Decarabian comes into the scene, a cigarette candy in his mouth as a replacement for a real cigar. Or else the Celestials (the school's higher-ups) will bring upon him the consequences.
"All right shut the fuck up you kids. Time for the fucking homeroom and for the defense after the attendance. We will go by topic-based order. Be ready for the panelists that will come in later."
Venti kept reading all of the difficult stuff to understand so he can deliver his part well.
Xiao sensing this, approached Venti and put both of his hands on each side of the back of his chair. "Need a hand?"
He shuddered again, hearing the almost growling voice of his long-time crush. "T-that would be nice."
"Which part do you need help at?" oh my archons his breath is on my neck-
"Here, here, this, and that." after pointing out the parts he had difficulty understanding some of his parts, Xiao hummed. Seems like he already knows what to tell him.
"For this part, here's what you're gonna say..."
"Uh-uh..." stop beating so fast my heart-
"This one's kinda tricky but it's manageable. You just have to combine this and this..."
"Ohh I see..." His stopped his internal monologue midway so he can continue listening to Xiao's explanations.
"And both of these have the same explanation but you have to reverse the other so you can explain it well. Did you get it?"
After listening to the dark green-haired beauty, he already understood his difficult parts and he's now able to understand them properly.
"Wow! I didn't know it was this easy. Thanks Xiao!" He beamed, giving Xiao his best innocent smile towards the other. For some reason, Xiao's heart fluttered at the sight. What is this? "N-no problem at all. Let me know if I can help you more."
"Will do!"
He then left Venti's chair to go back to his own.
Why the fuck did his heart jump?
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After almost blowing up the whole defense Venti miraculously survived after forcing himself to focus on the paper, not on Xiao's entirety of being, the panelists gave them a perfect score as they managed to defend their paper correctly. They got compliments for being able to explain their research very well. It's like they complement each other's boons and banes.
"Good job on the presentation," Xiao said. "do we have practices for the choir month?"
"Wait, we have practice?"
Xiao's eyebrow rose. "You're the president of the music club. Why are you asking me back my question?"
Oof. I almost forgot about that part.
"Ah-hahaha wait lemme check for a bit—" Venti looked up the calendar on his phone. There, an event has been added for tomorrow, June 7: Music practice.
"We have one. Not sure if this is for the choir month but we do have practice nonetheless."
"I see. Thanks. I'm gonna go ahead now. Are you still gonna stay here for a bit?" Venti looked at Xiao's things. He already finished packing up all of his stuff and is ready to leave. Meanwhile, Venti's things are all over the place but not really messy. "I'm still gonna go with the others. You can go ahead now if you want."
"Alright. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah."
Venti waved at Xiao's retreating figure, not knowing why he was doing it. Not long after Xiao headed out, Venti also did. He went outside, looking for Zhongli and Childe.
He saw them under a pine tree, eating ice cream with Childe. "Zhongliii! There you guys are!"
Childe waved at Venti. "Hey, Venti! Do you have anything specific you wanna go to?"
"As long as we're not drinking till evening, we're good. I have music practice tomorrow." Zhongli stood up. "Very well. Let's go to Wanmin's then. I heard Xiangling's the one cooking so why not try her best dish for today?"
The two agreed and followed Zhongli. Both chatted for a bit, Venti's mind wandering to something else. He hadn't noticed Childe stopped walking in front of him, causing him to bump his back. "Ow, Childe don't suddenly stop walking out of nowhere-!"
He was cut off as he looked where Childe is currently staring at. Xiao and Lumine were together in one of the outside seats in Wanmin Restaurant. "Oh, Xiao and Lumine are here. Let's go say hi to them."
Even before Zhongli could continue walking, Childe immediately grabbed Zhongli's arm. "L-let's not bother them nor go inside anymore, sensei. Let's just go somewhere else-"
"You guys go. I'll go home instead. I forgot I had something to do ehe. Kazuha will kill me if I don't clean up my room and kick me out of the dorms. Bye bye! See you guys next week!" He quickly sprinted off, leaving the two silent and confused.
"Childe," Zhongli worriedly looked at his (boy)friend, "why did Venti ran off like that?"
Childe sighed. Sometimes Zhongli's obliviousness is either cute or just plain stupid at this point. "Zhongli...You do know that Venti has a crush on Xiao, right?" Nodding, urging for Childe to go on. "If you see your crush with someone alone in a place like a restaurant, what would you feel?"
The taller man gave it a complete serious thought. The thought of Childe having someone alone in a place makes him—annoyed—for some reason. "Of course, I would get displeased by that."
"You become jealous, right? That's why Venti left. Let's just leave them be then." he then dragged Zhongli out of the scene, still wondering why Venti had to leave in a haste like that.
Unbeknownst to them, golden eyes were watching the whole time. An amused huff came out of the mouth.