Always and Forever / ZhongChi

Chapter 34 - Introductions

A/N heyyy guess whos trying out posting once a week!! sadly i cant say what days i will post because idk either lolll at first i wanted to do wednesdays and then it was fridays or saturdays and now its just like anytime between sunday-saturday i may post so🤷

 pov

We had been back in Liyue because Mei's winter break had ended, and we were going to Mondstadt over the weekend because Zhongli hadn't seen his friend in a while. We arrived in Mondstadt, and Mei seemed really excited, since she'd never been anywhere besides Liyue and Snezhnaya. Zhongli had written a letter to Venti, telling him to meet us at the gate to go to dinner together, but he wasn't there, and Zhongli seemed to know exactly where he might be. He grabbed my hand and we walked with Mei to a building with a sign labeled 'Angel's Share' Zhongli walked in and it was a tavern, and I followed in with Mei,

"Should we really bring Mei in here?" Zhongli nodded and pointed out a young short man in strange looking clothes sitting at the bar, downing glasses of wine. I looked from Zhongli, to the man at the bar, and back at Zhongli,

"Are you sure that's the right guy?" Zhongli nodded and smiled at me, then walked up to the bar and sat down next to him. I walked to the bar and sat down on the other side of Venti, and Mei sat on my lap, Zhongli smiled at Venti,

"Hello, Venti." Venti looked up and Zhongli and a crooked smile appeared on his face, and he spoke in slurred sentences,

"Zhongli! It's been forever since I've seen you...It's been so lonely! You should come here more often." Zhongli smiled and rested his left hand on the table in front of him, the engagement ring I'd bought him glinting on his finger, next to the black ring we'd used as our wedding bands. Venti did a double take, apparently he didn't remember being at our wedding,

"You're engaged?" Zhongli laughed softly,

"No. I'm married, Venti. You were there." Venti thought about this for a second,

"I don't think I've been to any weddings recently..." I smiled at him,

"Because it wasn't very recent. It was around 7 or 8 years ago." This seemed to surprise Venti, now that I'd said it, it sort of surprised me too, had it really been that long? Mei looked up at me,

"Papa, I'm tired." I nodded and kissed her forehead,

"I know, Mei. I am too." Venti looked over at me and looked back at Zhongli,

"This is the man you kept coming to me for advice? He sure is one fine specimen, but he's got a kid." Zhongli nodded and smiled at him,

"Maybe this would be a meeting for when you're not black-out drunk. We'll meet again, Venti." Zhongli stood up and I did too, setting Mei back down on the floor, I waved to Venti,

"This didn't go as badly as it could've, hopefully you'll be more likeable when you're sober." Zhongli chuckled and held my hand,

"Trust me, he's just as annoying as he was tonight, but you get used to it, and he is quite a close friend, so he is important to me, even if he annoys me every chance he gets." Venti smiled mischievously and waved to us as we exited the tavern. We stayed in a hotel room that night, and in the morning we were off to grab some breakfast with Venti, who would be sober, but probably suffering a terrible hangover. Venti had apparently decided to come with us to Liyue, and just as Zhongli had said, he was annoying. But he was very good with Mei, Zhongli said he'd always been good with children, and as annoying as he was, I couldn't help but like him, he was just the sort of person who was difficult to dislike. After a couple of weeks, Venti returned to Mondstadt, and Mei had started calling him 'Uncle Venti', because he would probably turn out to be a close family friend, and close family friends are always close enough to be called family.