Falling for You

Chapter 14 - Did it again

Xiao's POV

 "Talk you say... What do you want to talk about? I can tell you a bunch of interesting things that have happened in the recent years around Modstadt if you want."

 "Venti..."

 "For example, there was this one time a little kid named Diona nearly succeded in freezing over the whole winery, there was also-"

 "Venti, I'm pretty sure you know what I want to talk about."

 "Do I now? Hahaha..." He let out an awkward laugh and turned his head away.

 "I spoke to Childe after you left."

 After I said this I expected some kind of reaction, but once it actually came it was completely different from anything I anticipated.

 "Hah?! Why would you ever talk to that fighting maniac of a fatui? You didn't agree to have a duel with him, did you? From what I heard, anyone who has ever agreed to one of his duels, whether they won or lost, they never escaped his harassment."

 His face showed an expression of complete shock and worry as he looked at me.

 "No, I didn't agree to a duel. Why would I bother to duel a little human brat? We talked about this." I pointed at the mark.

 "Oh, that's okay then." He let out a sigh of relief.

 "That's your only reaction?"

 "What other reaction should I have?"

 "You don't want to know what he said?"

 "Of course I do, I'm really curious actually. With Morax beside him, Childe might actually know more about it than I do, he is the one with actual experience after all."

 "How would you know about that?" I asked before I knew it.

 "About what?" He asked back innocently.

 "Well about..." About the fact that Morax had marked someone before, but how can I...

 "Ah! You're asking about how I knew about the fact that Morax had a lover before? I have known him for quite a long time you know, it would be more surprising if I didn't know. The other archons knew too, though with most of them, besides me and Morax, changing over the years, I'm not sure how many of them still know that old story."

 He continued to mumble some more, but at this point, my mind was already in too much chaos to listen.

 "Venti."

 "Yes?"

 "Can you repeat what you just said?"

 "That I knew Morax had a lover before?"

 "Not that one."

 "That I've known him for a long time?"

 "Just a little further."

 "About how the first seven archons all knew, but besides me and Morax they all changed, so I'm not sure they still know?"

 "That one." Exactly that.

 "What about it?" He looked at me with an extremely confused expression.

 "Venti, you're an archon?" I managed to ask after a while.

 "Yes, and?" He was still very confused.

 "I didn't know." 

 "You didn't know?" Now he was more baffled than confused.

 "No one ever told me so how would I know?" Am I psychic?

 "No one?"

 "No one," I confirmed

 Hearing my confirmation, he just looked at me with an even more shocked expression, before directly falling over.

 "God damn it, I did it again!" 

 'Did it again' refers to Venti doing things that would shock Xiao speechless over and over again, like the whole mark situation, going to Inazuma and back in two hours, and now this.

 After writing this, I'm pretty sure I just imagined writing it the first time and didn't actually do it. I might be an idiot though, so please don't judge me.