Falling for You

Chapter 21 - One last thing

 3rd person POV

 "Two more of them? Two more of what?"

 'I expected him to be shocked, yes, but what was this reaction?' Zhongli though looking questioningly at Kazuha.

 "Two more troublesome archons! As if didn't have enough on my mind already with the Raiden Shogun and her random walks through the city. Now, in front of me, I have not only an archon who should be dead but also another one who looks like he's dying."

 "Oh, shut up!" Zhongli suddenly said in a rather annoyed tone, shocking the other two.

 "My apologies, that wasn't directed at the two of you, but rather at a certain someone who seems to be having a lot more fun than he should." He sent a glare in Venti's direction.

 "He's awake?" Xiao asked in shock.

 "His mind certainly is. He's rolling on the floor in laughter." Zhongli said, more annoyed by the second.

 "How about we handle this situation first." Kazuha interrupts the two, pointing at Venti.

 "Ah, yes you're right."

 "So what exactly do you want me to do?"

 "Just place your hand on his back and release as much anemo energy as you can muster," Zhongli said in the most casual tone possible.

 The other two on the other hand couldn't have been any less casual about it.

 "Morax, are you crazy?!" Xiao roared in anger.

 "Might as well stab him while I'm at it," Kazuha commented, agreeing with Xiao.

 "It seems like the two of you are forgetting who we're talking about here. He's the Anemo Archon, even if we found ten more Kazuhas, nothing would happen to him." Zhongli looked at the two disapprovingly.

 "So why am I doing this?"

 "We need to give his body a shock big enough to allow him to wake up. The biggest wounds on him are not the ones you see right now, but the ones on his wings. His wings should start to heal the moment he puts them away, but since that didn't happen, he ended up in this situation with his body using up all its energy to try and heal them like this."

 "Aren't his wings put away, though?" He points at Venti's clearly wingless back.

 "Xiao did that when he brought him here. He needs to do it himself for it to work."

 "So it's my fault that he's like this?" Xiao shuddered.

 "It's not. Even if you didn't do this, he probably wouldn't have had enough energy to do it himself anyway and you two would have both frozen to death on Dragonspine." The old archon said, allowing Xiao to let out a breath of relief.

 "Let's get it over with then."

 Kazuha carefully put his hand on Venti's back and closed his eyes. His vision started glowing as the wind gathered at his palm, forming a small vortex, which slowly got bigger as more and more wind gathered at his palm.

 "Ugh, that's my limit," Kazuha grunted after a few minutes.

 He might have been at his limit, but the vortex on his palm was already the size of Venti's back. Gathering that great amount of pure condensed elemental energy was a big feat for a human.

 "Now inject it into his back."

 "Are you sure he'll be fine?" Kazuha asked one last time.

 "He said so himself." The old archon reassured him.

 "Here goes nothing."

 Kazuha lowered his hand, injecting all the gathered anemo energy into Venti.

 Contrary to his expectations, nothing happened. All the energy just disappeared as if it never even existed.

 "Was that supposed to happen?" He asked Zhongli doubtfully as he took a few steps back.

Zhongli's POV

 Instead of answering, I just looked at my friend with an equally doubtful expression.

 Was this supposed to happen?

 It was at that moment I heard his urgent voice in my head.

 "Morax, shield!"

 I moved immediately, grabbing both Kazuha and Xiao, putting up a shield around us.

 The next second an explosion occurred. Large amounts of anemo energy spread out, destroying most of the room. As the dust settled I could see the windows blown into smithereens along with the door which flew of who knows where. Even the walls didn't stay intact, crack running along each wall like spiderwebs.

 The only thing which was still whole was the bed. On it sat Barbatos, wings spread in full glory, and had it not been for the lack of tattoos, I might have thought he appeared in his archon form directly.

 "Xiansheng!" A shout came from the side, Ajax appearing by the door, followed by Ningguang and Beidou.

 "Mr. Zhongli what happened-" Beidou's voice cut off as she caught sight of Barbatos.

 Ningguang wasn't in a better situation either, gaping in shock.

 I released the shield and the moment it disappeared Xiao was already standing by the bed.

 "Venti, are you okay now?" He asked gabbing Barbatos' hand, fearing he would hurt him should he grab anything else.

 "Almost, only one last thing."

 When he said that, my eyes went to his wings, finally noticing the awkward angel one stood in.

 "If I may." I motioned to his wing.

 "Go ahead, just do it fast will you?" He gave me the green light and I directly stepped behind him.

 "This is gonna hurt," I warned.

 "Just get it over with." He gritted his teeth.

 I grabbed his wing with both my hands and with one swift movement, set it back in place.

 "Argh!" A muffled shout came from Barbatos as his wing cracked back into place.

 After it was finally standing normally, he directly put his wings away, before falling over in exhaustion. Before I could move to catch him he had already been caught by Xiao and was now leaning on his shoulder.

 "Windrise..." He muttered before passing out.

 His meaning was obvious: take me to Windrise.

 "I should take him to Windrise." Xiao stood up, ready to leave.

 "Just a moment Xiao." I stopped him before going to the room next door and returning with a set of green clothes.

 "He left these here last time." I handed the clothes to Xiao.

 "Thank you. You too." He thanked me before thanking Kazuha.

 "No need. Just treat it as me returning a favor." He chuckled looking at Barbatos.

 "Favor?" Xiao asked confused.

 "That's my secret with the bard." He smiled.

 Xiao, seeing that he wouldn't get an answer, just teleported away directly, leaving only the four of us in the room.

 "Xiansheng, are you hurt anywhere?" Ajax asked sounding extremely concerned as he looked around the destroyed room.

 "I'm fine, Childe," I reassured him before turning to the two women.

 "We should probably talk. Would you mind moving back to the living room? This place isn't exactly fit for talking."

 They both nodded and we all moved to the other room.

 "So about that..."

 How should I explain this...?