"murder", he says | xiaoven x reader

chapter twenty three

xiao is sitting up in bed, scribbling notes on the day he's had as you sleep soundly next to him, arm loose around his waist. he sighs softly, laying his journal down and as he goes to lie next to you, there's a soft knock on the door.

xiao frowns- who would need them at this hour- not enough to call whoever they needed by name but enough to come to their address at 2am. he opens the door, further confused when venti stands there- clothes a mess. hat lop-sided, shirt untucked and corset completely discarded. he reeked of alcohol, too but it was quickly covered by the smell of sweaty copulation that still sat in the room. xiao should open the window.

"youre safe! that's so goo- I should keep my voice down, right? can I come in? you can say no-" venti starts, rambling and swaying tiredly over the doorframe. xiao places a gentle hand on his back to bring him in and close the door behind him.

"why didn't you go back to your home, venti?" xiao asks, just above a whisper. whilst his company was enjoyable, it was questionable.

"I was on my way- before I realised that I should check on you... on the walk here I found a man convinced he could beat anyone in a drinking competition- I had to take part, of course. especially when the prize was enough mora to buy me either the finest wine or the cheapest and strongest. i won, obviously but that liyuean spirit hit me like- like..."

"like a spirit does, you should lie down." xiao says, venti looked an absolute disaster- so much so that xiao wouldn't be surprised if he said that he had already used the prize money and drank everything he bought with it.

"I will, I will- this your bathroom?" venti asks, dropping his arms filled with pieces of his clothing on the floor as he stumbles over. he gags and covers their mouth as he goes.

"please do not vomit on the floor-" states xiao before venti falls onto his knees. that didn't stop him, however. he happily made his way to the bathroom on his hands and knees instead. Once he gets there they lay their head on their arms on the toilet bowl. his eyes close and he looks like he's concentrating to not throw up.

xiao peeks in at him to made sure he won't die in the next 5 minutes before he fills a large bottle with water with ice from the kitchen and retrieves a spare pair of clothes. he sits on the edge of the bath behind venti and hands him the items.

venti offers him a quick thankful smile and sips on the water slowly. xiao hesitates in his thoughts for a moment before he decides to reach forward. ventis eyes follows his hands curiously as they hold his braid and starts to gently undo it. Once the first one is done, he moves to the second and briefly massages his scalp before dropping his hands.

"you still feel sick?" xiao asks- noting how pretty venti looked with his hair down.

"a bit- probably will" venti says, xiao reaches up to him again and uses the spare hair ties on his wrist to pull ventis hair from his face and tie it into a bun. xiao daresay he looked even cuter.

you've been awake for a while, now but decide to not interrupt. xiao seemed to have it handled and you're definitely not opposed to them having alone time. also, dealing with vomit is not your forte.

xiao makes sure ventis fringe is back as he coughs up whatever went down the hatch that day. venti grimaces everytime he realises there's still more to go. he leans back and into xiao once his stomach settles and closes his eyes, taking deep breaths. xiao offers them more water and he sips at it slowly again.

"'m ready to sleep" venti mumbles, eyes drooping.

"you should change out of your clothes"

"can you help?" venti asks. xiao has no qualms and helps them change their clothes. he just hopes that venti goes to people he trusts when intoxicated.