Blissful Bite ─ Venti x reader

39. ; THANK YOU FOREVER

INTERLUDE FOUND ; 099 of the anemo archon.

Freedom, just like hope, is something people create to feel a surge of control in their circumstances. Both sides of a product sought in dark times.

Yet, he didn't understand how this hope led to inhumane actions, covered with the word hope and conjoined with true freedom. That wasn't what freedom was. It would never be, and yet it was abused to bend to the agenda of those who thought they'd free one in exchange for the world.

The mint haired woman with animalistic traits hovered over the injection. She laughed with a sense of insanity in her core, so sweet as she came off. It was a facade, and it slipped. When Venti came in, he was forced to witness how Sucrose, a close friend of Y/n, injected the young woman he believed to be the last hope with poison. Leaving her with a last impactful breath that took her away.

"Supernaturals and humans don't belong together." she muttered with the most bitter expression he has seen one of his windborn children yet since Rosalin.

"She trusted me so much. It was her demise. She even collected her own poison." The wicked creature said, Venti was going to yell at her, leash out. He couldn't. He knew he couldn't. She was still one of his children.

"Why..?" he asked breathless, tears verged in his eyes. He wasn't sure whether it was shock or.. grief for something that could have been.

"To protect her from you. You're selfless in the most dangerous ways one could ask for."

The girl from Liyue, who grew up to find terror and fate in Monstadt, wasn't supposed to be anguished this way.

He didn't want her to go through all of this.

Klee came in before Venti could say something—scream at the her, questioning her integrity, intentions, and ethics. He wanted to take her hand and pull her aside, tighten his grip, ask what it was about, why she wanted to erase it all.

A faint grip brushed his skin. He turned around, his eyes fell on Y/n.

S̶t̶r̶o̶n̶g̶. weak, Y/n.

L̶i̶v̶i̶n̶g̶, dying Y/n.

Lovely, oh bittersweet soul.

"Don't you think that we can dream of a world where we can rest instead of fighting for survival one day...?" she whispered. It was quiet and inaudible. Barely enough for him to gather her faint breath. She smiled, so sweet, so genuine, her cheeks were puffy and filled with color. The breath that passed his cheeks a last time like a caring embrace or the way she'd cup his cheeks, but now she'd be gone in a matter of moments.

"I'm sure, one day there will be one world like this." he muttered, stroking her cheeks. He held her like she was the only solid thing in the world. In the end, she always was between all the uncertainty.

"Liar," she laughed, "You've never been good at concealing your desperation and neither at lying."

"Don't," he whispered, "save your blessed breath."

"I won't. It's not long enough to hold onto something that was lost long ago when my decisions backfired on me." she mumbled, letting her chest heave a last breath before every sound in her died down. Then everything was silent.

Her body was still warm. It was, it has to be.

He wanted to choke on his tears when even her heartbeat stopped its fluttering noise.

"Klee, get out," Venti exclaimed, her brows furrowed. The blonde sensed something dark lingering in his voice. She felt her limbs go numb, just like his.