Final Christmas || Scaraven Modern AU

15

Quick shout out to Aspen ! !!

november, venti's pov

"Well, time flies by quickly, hey?", I say, turning my face to Scaramouche as the scorching sun beats down on it.
"Oh, yeah" he responds flatly, as if he has something else to say but doesn't
We've been talking for maybe twenty minutes after we arrived at the beach.
Nahida and Ei decided the weather was insufferable enough, so they invited us down and let us take Faruzan and Layla — Nilou apparently had other plans — along with us, who were off sitting on their own blanket and chatting away.
Well, Faruzan did most of the talking.

Over the past couple of months, not much has changed, other than life subtly getting more tolerable
Scaramouche and Ei are finally on good terms, though their familial bond is lost to time they almost seem to be friends.
And as for me, I've kept living how I do, except I stay over with Scara more and drink at the bar less. And to be honest, it's... kind of nice not throwing up every night.
As for things between us.. uh... I'm not even sure. But I really want to bring it up with him...
I just don't want to ruin his fun today

"Uh— We've been here a while, should we actually go in?"
"Oh! Yeah, yeah."
I step up and the soles of my feet are instantly burning on the hot sand, so I bolt straight to the water before it gets too unbearable, getting a few rocks and shells stuck in my feet on the way.
I look behind me and Scaramouche is shockingly unbothered by the heat, it makes me flinch every time he takes a step. Does he just not care??
He reaches the water and walks onward, I try to follow but the moment my feet struggle to reach the bottom I pause, and call out to him.
"Scara can you come back here?!"
"What is it? You can swim over right!?" . . . His face drops into one of confusion. "You can swim right..???"
"Ahahaaa..." I look to the side and nervously fidget. I was never taught to swim.
I expected a sarcastic mockery, but he just sighs and smiles, swimming back toward me and holding out a hand. "Come on, I'll keep you up."
"I'm so sorry for the tr—" "No, no. Really. Hold on."
I nod my head in embarrassment and grip onto his hand with my own.

scara pov

Knowing what I know of his parents, I can't say I'm too surprised he wasn't taught to swim. He probably won't be opening his eyes under water either.
Regardless, I drag him along while slowly pacing further out until he gets a fearful look on his face from the water depth and asks to stop there.
By now I'm slowly letting go of him as he mimics my treading and starts to float on his own. Which turned out to be a grave mistake, because the moment he got the hang of it, his arm reaches behind him and within seconds a wave of water has hit me right in the face.

"You know I can drown you if I want to." I say, meaning to be joking but the way his face falls tells me I might have not used the right tone.
"No— no Venti I'm kidding I'm not gonna do that—" I say awkwardly laughing and placing my hand on his slippery shoulder.
"OH. Right." he smiles and giggles back and smirks, "Well in that case—"
As he's winding up another wave I take the chance to dive under the water and pop out behind him, hitting him with one of my own
We continue back and forth for a while until we're both hit with one even bigger, and looking to our side is Faruzan who had swam over and splashed with all her might, as well as Layla trailing slowly behind her.
Faruzan looks back and pulls her up by the waist before she can get too tired and drift off.
She stays and chats for a little about god knows what gossip before taking Layla to the shallower waters else she might doze off and drown.

Venti is starting to slow down a little, so while I'm not particularly tired, I offer to go back to the shore, to which he exhaustedly sighs and nods his head
The entire way back, I notice no matter how much I've slowed, my heartbeat remains quickened. I try to keep my eyes in front of me, but I can't help looking back at Venti and moving a little closer, as if something is drawing me to him.
I don't let it show on my face but I want to be closer to him. Closer than we are. I still remember back in July when...

We reach the sand and with the water weighing us down, we trudge back to our blanket.
I'm only getting more nervous by the second, I really don't think I can keep this to myself for long
I frantically look around for any sign of Nahida and Ei, but they're busy buying themselves lunch. Now... there's no other time but now.
With much resistance, I open my mouth. "Venti I— can we talk about.. something..."
His head shoots up and his eyes widen
"U-uh, yeah, w- what is it?" he looks pretty nervous.. am I being too intimidating?
I sigh quietly, there's no way to do this other than being straightforward.
"Venti do you remember.. back in July when you got really drunk?"
"Oh. I um.. yeah... I'm sorry..", now he just looks devastated, shit, I didn't want to make him feel bad—
"No uh, when I walked you home, and you were probably really out of your mind but um... uuuh...."
I cant bring myself to find the words, my entire face and chest is burning more than the sun does on my skin
When I squint back at Venti I suspect something came back to him because he covered his face in his hands
"I- Oh my god I'm so sorry I'm sorry that was so weird of me I'm sorry you should have just left I'm—"
"Ah no-" I cut him off, "Don't apologize. I uh.. I actually.....
I haven't been able to stop thinking about it." I say turning my head away in embarrassment. There was more I wanted to add but... I'll leave it at that.
"Oh.. um... to be honest I don't uh, remember that night too clearly..." he says, his tone becoming very quiet,
"But um.. if I could, uh.. if I did that again, would you mind..,,?"

I turn my head back to see him also looking the other way, arms resting on his knees and face buried.
"No, uh.. I wouldn't at all." I say, finding it in me to look at him now as he slowly turns back to me, looks around for the sight of anyone, and putting his hands over mine he kisses me with the force of so many months of built up tension, and I do exactly the same.
I wish I could stay like this but I quickly break us apart because I know if we do this now, and in public, things are gonna go south. And so we reluctantly hold onto our thoughts until later that afternoon. It was the first time we had both been at peace with exchanging very few words, not because anything was hidden, but because everything had already been said.
Ei, who's driving, drops Venti and I back at his apartment on the assumption that I'll be walking back later. Which I will, but...

Still not a word is spoken, though it's awful trying to keep so many things in, not words, but desires. At least we're finally alone.
The elevator dings, the door swings open, Venti who is squeezing my hand looks at me, still silent. I grip his waist and stumble back onto his couch as his arms wrap around my back, kissing as his chest digs into mine. We shift repeatedly as our lips and tongues reveal everything they needed to express.
As he pulls away catching his breath I plant kisses on every inch of his face, every muscle of his neck and every scar littering his still damp arms and shoulders, and regaining his energy he pushes me over and does the same.
Once he's too tired to continue he lies down at my side, holding onto me as if the world will end, and whispers a quiet and breathy "I love you"
And to that, I smile and whisper, "I love you too"