He just stood there, on the edge of the cliff, playing the lyre for hours.
At first, I thought maybe I should pull him back. Humans are fragile after all. Falling off a cliff that high would certainly kill one. But I didn't. I got too absorbed in hi...
Now that I'm done with Xiao's problem, I can finally-
"No."
Before I realized it the bottle flew out of my hand. As I turned around I was faced with Xiao's disapproving look.
"Come on! I haven't had a sip of alcohol in months!"
"No is no."
"But why?"
"Albedo said that you shouldn't drink till you completely adjust to this body." He said putting away the bottle of dandelion wine.
"No way! He never told me anything like that!"
"You can ask him yourself if you want to."
"I will! Hmph!"
How dare he! He sure as hell never said anything about not drinking! It's been months! Does he expect me to hold back even longer?
Just after Venti stormed off to Dragonspine...
"Will this really work?" Istaroth appeared beside Xiao.
"Albedo could lie to your face and you would never know. He'll be fine." Xiao reassured her.
"I wasn't talking about that. I was asking whether it is even possible to keep him away from his favorite drink much longer."
"I have my ways." Xiao smirked as he looked at the wine bottle in his hands.
"Ugh, you lovebirds. I really can't stand it much longer."
"Who told you to watch?"
"Who asked you to sit around kissing in my lab?!"
To this, even Xiao couldn't find a retort.
"By the way, Xiao, Don't you feel bad about fooling your lover?"
"He deserves it. Who told him to do something so reckless? It could have easily cost him his life." He grumbled in annoyance.
"I can't disagree with that. I'm really tempted to beat some sense into him, but I'll have to wait till he gets his body back first." Istaroth sighed.
"Speaking of which, don't you have some work to do, Istaroth?"
"Are you chasing me away?"
"Think of it however you want."
"Hah. Fine, I'm leaving. Make sure he doesn't drink even a sip of alcohol."
With that, she turned around and walked away, still mumbling...
"Only you and Barbatos would dare chase me out like this. One day I'll-"
"I can hear you you know."
"Argh! Stupid yaksha!" She directly disappeared.
Xiao looked at the place she had disappeared and chuckled before turning back to look towards Dragonspine.
"I should probably go and talk to Master Diluc before he returns."
He disappeared in a put of light green smoke.
On Dragonspine, Albedo's camp
"You can't be serious!"
"You really can't drink for a while."
"You never told me about this before!"
"Would that have changed your mind?"
"No, but-"
"Just drink for a little longer. You could do it for three months, you can do it some more."
"But how much longer is it?!"
"I don't know." Albedo said with a straight face.
"What?!"
"It depends on how well you adjust. You just need to come up for checkups now and then. I'll tell you when it's okay to drink.
"You can't do this to me!"
Ï'm not the one doing it. If you want to blame someone, blame Xiao. In the end, it was he who-"
"Why the hell would I blame Xiao? He has absolutely nothing to do with this! It was my decision to go through with it!"
"Suit yourself." albedo shrugged his shoulders and turned around.
"Hmph! I'll just come back in a few days! Let's see how long it will take for me to adjust to this body!"
Just like that, Venti left Dragonspine, leaving behind Albedo and...
"Your lying skills seem to be getting better by the day."
"Well, I did try telling him the truth."
"He'll probably have the urge to bury himself somewhere if he ever finds out."
"Then we'll just have to make sure he doesn't. Isn't that right, Kaeya."
"You can count on me!" The cavalry captain grinned.
"One can always count on captain Kaeya to keep a secret." The alchemist let out a soft chuckle.
"Is that really something you should be saying, Albedo?"
And just like that, after going over three months without alcohol so he could save Xiao, Venti ended up having to go even longer without his favorite drink.
Little did he know that this extra time was a result of his own reckless actions, and Xiao's unwillingness as well as Istaroth's inability to beat him to a pulp.
I reckon if he knew, he would have rather chosen to be beaten up than to be separated from his favorite pastime.
Just something extra:
Xiao and Venti on vacation
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