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"Today's lesson is," started Venti, undiluted delight and simple glee lighting the corners of his face, bringing out the dormant streaks of teal in his sea-green eyes. He dragged his thumb over Xiao's cheek, a pert little smirk tugged at his lips when he felt a subtle weight leaning into his cupped hands, the adeptus leaning with a tentative trust into his touch.
"Patience," he finished smugly, planting a hasty kiss on Xiao's forehead, right above the iris star central on the ivory skin. The yaksha huffed a warm breath that interweaved between Venti's slender fingers, ones that were more used to holding the strings of harps and lyres than a delicately feline face.
"What does the lesson entail?" Though his words were curt and blunt, his expression spoke volumes, open and eager. He didn't growl, or hiss, or spat. Which Venti had the pleasure of witnessing when they first reunited, he had to charm Xiao into a stubborn silence, barely muttering a few words when spoken to.
How far they've come, here now where they both sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Stone Gate, a patch of land with winding rivers and bamboo bridges connecting Liyue to Mondstadt. Venti's legs dangling over the edges and Xiao kneeling before him, the latter's sharp-edged jade polearm sitting discarded in the grass behind them, having been chucked thereafter Xiao near collapsed from the writhing agony of the surging karmic depth hounding him moments earlier.
That was another story entirely, the promise they both made. To call upon one another whenever. Xiao would have never imagined he would ever be in a position to call upon an archon, in this or another few thousand years. Yet he had never been so grateful and reluctantly joyous to be resting his head in the bard's sturdy and gentle hold. Such bliss, a steady and nonwavering thing, unlike the victory of battle, which was short-lived and intense.
"The rules of the game are simple," Venti hummed, pressing his fingers into the other's cheeks, pinching the velvety skin lightly. He earned a violent scowl in return, returning it with a prompted snicker. "Whoever kisses the other first loses, the one who holds out the longest shall be dubbed the winner."
"And the prize?"
Venti made a sure of thinking, lightly squeezing Xiao's cheeks when he heard a guttural rumbling building in the other's lower chest. "One doesn't embark on a journey for the reward, it is for the lessons taught along the way." He grinned, drawing closer to the illuminated beast's alert but slightly bemused expression, hovering over pinkish lips. "Lessons within lessons, pitstops towards a destination, such as this-" Venti then captured the bewildered person in a kiss.
Xiao's hands instinctively went to brace the bard's back, a gloved hand at the nape and the other gripping feverishly at the waist, gripping in the threadbare silk of Venti's blouse. It was as they have done many times before.
'Longing kisses' Venti had told him, though he thought the name was a bit too simplified for the amount of nipping and clawing and zeal that came along with the long-lasting kisses that explored beyond the lips, along lines of jagged and pearly whites, tangling with warmth. His hands loosened in their hold, suddenly gripped by the fear that he might bruise this 'delicate' deity that definitely wasn't capable of cutting mountains into halves with nothing but air.
He hauled his head backward, blowing away steamy wafts of shared breaths for the cool breeze provided by the many waterfalls of the area. His cheeks roiled with a persistent red upon realizing that the few seconds of demonstration might have been more than just...a few seconds, the bard was partially on his lap, the hands previously on his face had drifted towards his shoulder and neck, fireflies of fiery reds blooming from under the skin where the fingers lay. "I win," Xiao said, bull-headedly, flustered and barely composed but too stubborn and competitive to fall into the feeling.
"What? No-" Venti retaliated with a dramatic pout, still not moving from where he was awkwardly sprawled over Xiao's form ", That didn't count, you kissed me back anyway! Besides, that was just a demonstration since you're always so straightforward and obvious about things-That isn't the point! I implore you for a rematch!"
"You're terrible with accepting defeats," he said smugly, clearly amused and entertained by the ex-archon's flabbergasted demands. A quick heft from his arms had Venti fully seated and straddling his lap, cape caught in-between.
Venti clicked his tongue, flicking his lover's nose only to nearly have his finger bit off. He knew Xiao would ever hurt him, he knew it from the sure and delicate shared touches and the keen eye that was always trained on him as long as he was in sight, so he was free to tease and jest to his heart's content. As he'd done many a time even when Xiao thought Venti wasn't aware that he was watching, a graceful but vulgar gesture always proved him wrong. "A rematch. For better prizes."
His arms tightened around Venti's waist, interest suddenly piqued. He only tilted his head slightly, absolutely stone serious as he said ", Why would I want 'better' prizes when the best one is right in front of me?"
"Would you ever deny me a request to pamper you?" Venti cut in, clearing his throat in an attempt to clear away the evidence of blush on his cheeks.
"I'd never deny you anything," he confirmed, reveling in the slight halt of the bard's tongue.
He worshipped the anemo deity in a different sense than how he served the geo archon. It wasn't as selfless as worshipping, their relationship was far more selfish and intimate than that. It was the need to smother one another in affection to keep the creeping memories at bay, to simply call upon one another without a valid reason other than to bask in their presence. It was selfish and an indulgence but he didn't mind one bit. As long as he could keep Venti for just a crack longer.
"Oh jeez, sometimes you're more of a romantic than I am," Venti commented lightly, sliding his hand upwards into a head of dark hair, cupping the back of Xiao's head so they could see eye to eye ", So I presume a rematch isn't out of the question then?"
"I was hoping you'd forget about it," muttered Xiao, averting his eyes to avoid that elatedly mischievous look that was sure to be Venti's main expression.
"And give you the prizes right away?" He snickered ", Ehe, trying to play tricks now are we? Well, if you find yourself so keen for such games, then you'll have to play to earn your prizes-"
"What do you-" Xiao's sentence ended abruptly in a baffled complaint, Venti slipped from the enticingly warm circle of his arms like water through slivers of sand and was prancing off on the edges of the cliff, singing a bawdy tune as the illuminated beast stared in utter bemusement, the bard paused a good distance away, tiptoeing the very tip of the weathered rock.
Venti winked, one hand on his hat before falling backward onto the gushing waterfall below.
This of course made Xiao jolt upwards, miffed confusion giving way to alarming worry. The wind whipped past him, and he was standing on a slippery rock at the base of the cascading falls not a breath later, frantically whipping his head around to see if the deity was truly stupid enough to splatter himself on a rock. Worse, if he was dragged under the currents-
"I'm insulted that you think I'm that clumsy," came a voice from above him, and behold, there was Venti. His gliders snapped open and wispy bits of wind kept him floating in the air, lounging in the sky as if he owned it. Perfectly at ease and perfectly safe. "Come on now, how about a game of chase?"
Xiao shook his head in disbelief, on the verge of scolding the archon or smiling from the sheer stupidity of the situation. Deciding to indulge in such baseless entertainment, he leaped effortlessly into the air, the weightlessness making his stomach feel that usual dizzying wave of adrenaline. His hands shot outwards, once again catching the unexpecting Venti in their snug hold.
"I win again," he piped ruefully, the atmosphere still and heavy around him, they were still being thrown upwards by the jump.
"It's literally unfair how good you are at everything," Venti sighed, dramatically stretching his arms and legs so that he was a motionless pile of limbs, legs, and head dangling precariously on the edge of Xiao's hold.
His feet met the ground in a silent confirmation, barely jostling a hair on both of their heads. A flippant smile paired with that insistent search of jewel-swept eyes told Xiao enough of Venti's intention, the question that would soon follow. Fortunately and unfortunately for Venti, Xiao didn't need verbal cues to read the bard like a book and he shall be saved from whatever teasing remark that the ex-archon was most definitely planning to add. The adeptus hopped back into the air, loosening his careful but tight grip so that Venti was once again thrown into the air with a victorious whoop.
He couldn't help but smile, to adoringly admire, to simply imprint the fleeting movements and dizzying emotions to his immortal memory. He allowed himself his exception and distraction from his perpetual contract, this selfish little desire to keep Venti for himself.
He didn't utter a single word of his thoughts, only pushed it to the back of his mind just as his feet pushed against air and be propelled through the air, snagging Venti before he could fall. It was a quick movement, so fleeting that it looked like he teleported in darts from one location to another. He remembered a time when it used to be dizzying, how it made him ill. That time has long since passed, he easily flitted from one spot to another, launching the bard higher and higher, always catching him at the last moment.
Venti's face was fully drowning in exhilaration, adrenaline calling out to him like a whisper of freeing joy, an opportunity to bask in the beating wind and sprays of water wetting his face and clothes, to cling onto the corded muscle of an ancient and contained illuminated beast, to let go and feel his stomach flip in exuberant spins, hollowing out that dreaded weight with ringing hoots.
He glanced at the person trailing him, flashing a grin to meet Xiao's small smile, so delicate and fragile but so open for once. He wasn't aware of how exactly tangled and loose his braids were, how his face was flushed with a pink as bright as his springing mood. How absolutely tight the leash was on Xiao's restraint as to not grab that face and kiss it senseless.
So for all his competitiveness, he kept that leash in a careful watch, reveling instead in the warmth of the body he cradled for simple moments, relishing the touch of Venti's fingertips on his bare shoulder and neck. He'd never admit to the faint but very pigmented blush on his face.
Venti's glider snapped out after he was tossed high enough to ascend to Celestia, Xiao nearly got a face full of iron and taut fabric if his reflexes were just a tad bit muddier. Unsure of what to do, Xiao had started to fall rapidly towards the face of the Earth. He was a second away from slimming into his usual plunging position to safely land when his feet started to lose their weight, feeling for a stabilized surface that wasn't there. Venti cackled from above, once again, descending with bouts of wind keeping him afloat.
His hands cupped Xiao's face, his chest flaring in flustered warning when the yaksha leaned into his touch. Venti slowed their descent, leaving them suspended slowly in the late evening, the sun having been blown out like a candle wick to drape murals of sleep-ridden stars blinking awake, stringy dots of clouds fading into the dull blue of the sky.
Xiao released his hold on that rigid control and pulled Venti forward via his collar, gloved fingers scratching the fabric of silken fabric. The kiss he stole was quick but efficient. Not a peck on the lips that Venti loved to tease him with, not the heavy and drawn-out kisses under the hooded gaze of darkness, but one that drew them closer to sharing breath, lingering long after it had ended.
Venti smiled against his lips, a subtly smug purring voice that whispered ", I win."