Ethereal | Venti x Zhongli

Chapter 5

Venti's POV

The walk back to his house was pretty awkward for me. De facto, I'd been prepared to hear nonsense coming from that jerk but it was much worse than I'd anticipated. Facing Zhongli without feeling shameful wasn't doable for me.

Isn't he gonna ask about anything? Or question what happened? Even if not, I'm sure deep down he must think lowly of me... heh. You're not to blame, Zhongli. It's obvious you'd change your opinion about me and assume I'm just what I appear to be.

"Venti..." Gulping down my unsaid worries, I awaited his words of judgment. "Y-yeah...?" He stopped me, holding onto my shoulder and leaning closer to me. Whaa...? Is he gonna kiss me just like that? Is this even the Zhongli I know?! "Your braid is loose." A glitch occured on my face. My eyes widened, eyebrows raised and I couldn't help blinking in awe. "My what is what." I muttered. "Your braid... uhm. I can help." He untied it and then gently tied it again, doing his best. I did hesitate a lot but eventually I gazed in his direction.

My mind was misleading me this whole time, there was not a hint of a negative feeling on his face. Just a soft smile. Definitely not the expression I assumed I'd see. "A-ahaha! Thanks..." A drop of sweat rolled down my forehead. "You're welcome."

"Are you... not gonna question me about anything?" It'd be totally in place to ask, honestly. He scratched his head. "Should I?" He sighed. "In my mind, I'm in no place to question you. If you want to tell me anything, you're free to do so. But other than that... I just hope you're okay."

"I am, thanks to you. I was dreading going to get my stuff... you saw that shithead, argh, he's just the worst." I shivered. "I messed up big time giving him the benefit of the doubt. I ignored my gut feeling and accepted his invite to stay with him. He must've gotten the wrong idea about me. I. Am. Not. A. Whore. For Baal's sake!" I huffed in anger. "It's true I slept with a number of people but it doesn't mean I'd sleep with just anyone, alright. I have my pride." I spoke with my head up high.

"I did tell you, right... that at times I treated sleeping with people as a deal of sorts. I've never meant for things to end up that way. I'm sick of it." It felt good to get it off my chest. Zhongli gave off a strong air of trustworthiness. As much as I hated ranting, not ranting to him would be a missed opportunity. There aren't many people like him in this world. Patient, unassuming and genuinely kind. "And I've been for a while now actually... Sometime before I went to crash at that dude's place, I made up my mind to abandon this lifestyle. I tried to give that dude cold cash but he insisted that there was no need... that we were cool. I thought 'Great! Maybe he is a nice dude after all' but nope. Haha." I want to blame him. However, at the end of the day, it's on me.

"Did he hurt you?" Deep concern was written on his face. I shrugged. "Sort of. I'm fine now. It did mess with my brain though..." I smiled reassuringly, "It's aight, it wasn't that bad, but since then my view on my own self has been warped, I guess." Just suck it up and forget. I wish it could be that easy. "That concludes my rant! Finito." I sped up, going past him. "Ah, we're getting close, ri-" My shirt got tucked on.

The tall man spoke a quiet apology under his breath. His face was turned to the side, cheeks lightly dusted with blush. On top of that, he was trying to hide his embarrassment through occasionally coughing. How... How is it even possible to be this cute? And what's making him act this way? I want to know. "What you told me left me wondering. Why did you try to initiate something back then if you decided to not do things that way anymore?"

"Shit. Tha-that's... a good question." Nervous laughter followed my words. "Why? Why... Because I was drunk, obviously. There was another reason too... hehehe." I put my fingers together and mumbled. "My drunk self thought there'd be no harm in doing it with a gorgeous man like you, haha... something like that?" I bowed my head down. "I'm sorry! Really, really sorry." A moment had passed before I peeked at him. His blush was stronger. Don't tell me... did that actually make him happy or something? Whoa.