The Spark [Xiao x Aether]

A very long sleepless night

Venti and Aether spent almost the entire night chatting about what had been going on in their lives while they were away from eachother. The bard was happy to see his friend was in such good mental state after dealing with many problems all at once, seeing that he also found a lover made the boy even happier for him. What surprised him thought was that Lumine wasn't with him, usually the two would always visit the guy with the cape together. But this time it was just the traveler.

The boy didn't know how to explain anything regarding what had happened in that battle, he didn't even wanna mention the battle. Some things are better off gone and forgotten forever. He made an excuse saying how his sister couldn't come due to personal matters and moved on with the conversation.

It was about 2am when the blonde boy finally decided to come back, He had to check up on his partner, there was definitely something up with him. Leaving in such hurry wasn't normal at all. There was a small chance that he was already asleep but waking him up to explain himself was very necessary, unless he was sick.

The traveler opened the door to their room with his key and closed it behind him, to his surprise his boyfriend wasn't asleep. He was staring out the opened window, glaring at the night sky full of stars.

"Xiao...!" He yelled, happy that the guy wasn't asleep.

"Oh, you're back."

Aether walked over to him, next to the window trying to look at the sky aswell, he noticed how beatiful the sky was. There seemed to be thousands of beautiful stars. The Moonlight brought light to their room, it was a very interesting thing to see.

"What's going on with you? You left so fast..." he looked his lover deep in the eyes, but he didn't look back, instead he continued to stare at the stars.

"Don't worry, everything is alright. There's no need to worry." The Yaksha's tone was cold.

"Are you upset that Venti dosen't know you? Or are you upset about the alcohol part..."

"..."

"Okay we'll talk about this tomorrow...it's too late now and I'm sure you need some time to yourself."

He started heading towards the bed but before he could walk away a hand managed to grab his arm pulling him back to the window. Xiao held his partner's hand tight as he continued to stare outside the window.

"There's nothing to talk about...I'm just upset about him not knowing what he did for me that night. What if it wasn't even real to begin with? It could've all been just a dream..." The Adeptus finally managed, as his eyes finally met his partner's.

Aether grabbed both of his hands and smiled softly.

"Even if it was only a dream, it helped you a lot didn't it? It was your own consciousness back then telling you to fight for your own life. And if it wasn't a dream it's still okay, maybe it's better if he dosen't know you. You can make a fresh new start without it being strange after he knowingly saved you."

The boy looked down to the ground, the words made him feel a little better but something still seemed to be bothering him.

"He's the Anemo archon isn't he?"

"Huh...what makes you think he is?"

The traveler was shocked, barely anyone in Teyvat knew of his friend's identity, and those who knew were only close acquaintances he knew for years. It made no sense as to why the Yaksha knew of this. Venti was very good at acting like a mortal among his people, everybody saw him as one drunk bard who was enjoying life to the fullest, so how did the boy who only ever saw him twice in his life know about him being none other than lord barbatos himself?