Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Venti, please, for the love of… try to pay attention.”

“Sorry,” Venti says sheepishly, feeling the gaze of several students on him, some disapproving, some amused.

His teacher sighs. “Guys, I know it's the first day back and you're all probably tired, but I'm gonna need your attention for just five minutes. Just give me five minutes.” He turns back to the whiteboard, adding on, “If you're gonna zone out, at least pretend that you're listening.”

Venti offers another “sorry” before Mr. Selby starts talking again.

Amidst the sound of his teacher’s voice coupled with the occasional swipe of marker on whiteboard, it doesn't take long for Venti's mind to go elsewhere.

Over the course of spring break, he'd hardly seen his best friend Dvalin - hell, he hadn't shown up to school for around a month. The previous night, however, Dvalin had messaged the group chat, saying he'd be back at school the next day.

Venti isn't really sure how to feel about it. It'll be good to have Dvalin back after not seeing him for so long, but he's not sure how welcoming Kaeya and Aether will be. He shouldn't have to worry too much, but considering the quiet conversations they've had at lunch in Dvalin's absence… it's better to be safe than sorry, is all.

“Right, that's it. You guys can have the rest of the class to fill out those sheets, and if you finish early you can have free time. I'll introduce your projects tomorrow.”

Relative silence falls over the classroom as the students get out their pencil cases and hand out worksheets. Mr. Selby sighs from his seat at the front of the class.

“...You guys can talk, you know. Please talk. It's so quiet in here.”

Chatter starts up around the room.

“What's up with you?” Aether asks, sliding a worksheet over to Venti before passing along the stack. “You're more spacey than usual today.”

Venti offers a laugh, then a shrug. “I dunno. Just thinking. Dvalin's coming back today.”

The blonde frowns a little. “...Yeah. And you're worried about that?”

Venti spins his pencil around his fingers before fumbling it. He slams his hand down onto the desk immediately to stop it from rolling away with a dull thunk. Venti cringes slightly at the noise, shoulders tensing. He glances around, checking that the rest of the class is too engrossed in their own conversations to notice the sound. He sets down the pencil, face flushing a little, and drags his attention back to Aether. “... I dunno, more so about Kaeya. They were bickering a lot before spring break.”

Venti glances down to the other end of the long table to make sure no one in particular saw his little pencil accident.

The classroom is spacious and pretty long lengthwise, with the desks arranged in a U-shape facing the whiteboard. Venti's back is to the majority of the other students, but everyone he wants to talk to is within his line of sight, meaning he's in their line of sight, meaning they might have seen him fumble that pencil and look kind of lame. … Shit.

Venti inwardly curses his decision to sit on the inside of the U-shape, but then again, it makes it easier to talk to Aether… and it meant he didn't have to squeeze in on the outside with the rest of his classmates.

Aether catches Venti's gaze and smiles to himself before returning to the topic at hand. “It'll probably be fine. They've had weeks to cool off, and we've all kind of missed Dvalin. It'll be nice to have him back.”

“...I guess.” Venti feels a little doubt slip into his tone. Even though he does feel a little happy about the return of his best friend, he can't exactly say that he missed him.

“I mean, yeah, you're right! Anyway, give me your eraser, I wrote the date wrong.”

The rest of the morning unfolds rather typically. Worksheets in Socials and a rather relaxing English class brought Venti to lunch, where, contrary to his messages from the previous day, Dvalin did not show up.

Shortly after, Venti entered the pits of hell - his math class - only to discover that there was a sub. A very annoying one, in fact.

“And you, have you finished that problem yet?” The sub - Ms. Something-Or-Other - leans over and peers down at Aether's workbook. After a beat, she looks up at Venti with a slightly patronizing glance. “Um, you, can you help him, please?”

Aether grits his teeth, not looking up. “He's helping me understand this question. I don't need help with the others.”

Venti suppresses his annoyance and tries hard not to glare at the teacher, putting on a cheerful voice. “Yeah, he's doing fine.”

Kaeya, whose face is buried in his own workbook, looks up and behind him at Venti and Aether, both of whom barely suppress sounds of annoyance as the substitute walks away after one more skeptical glance.

The sub badly explained the assigned questions in the book, then circled the room like a hawk pestering various students who were trying to understand the answers. Venti would do anything to get his old teacher back - she had a much better method of teaching. Assign the pages, teach the parts students struggled with, then leave them to do their work for the rest of class.

To have Ms. Chen back, Venti would probably kill someone at this point. Well, not really, but he couldn't stand the sub for one more minute.

“I can't believe we're stuck with her for the next two days. Where the hell is Ms. Chen?” Venti groans, slouching onto his desk.

“I know, I kind of want to slap her.” Aether mutters, dusting off eraser shavings from his book. “Won't shut up when I'm just trying to work.”

Kaeya turns his chair around so he can drop his workbook on top of Venti's. “So… I know it might be a bad time, but guys, this question is killing me.”

Venti just sighs and picks up his pencil.

* * *

“Venti, my love!” Someone cries out dramatically as Venti crosses the threshold to his film class. Venti responds with equal enthusiasm, dumping his bag on a desk. “Lyney, sweetheart, I've missed you so! Oui oui, wherefore art thou and shit.”

Venti and Lyney had an ongoing bit of constantly showering each other in affection, be it with cheesy words or with sitting in each other’s laps all the time. His friends - except Scaramouche - got over it pretty easily, and now no one bats an eye when the two are overly mushy.

Lyney lets out a laugh and sits down next to the disgruntled purple-haired boy. “Can you guys shut the fuck up? It's been a long day and I'm tired. I'd go home right now if Miller wouldn't beat my ass,” he grumbles.

It took Venti a hot minute to figure out where to sit - the seating arrangements had changed, again, so instead of the usual big curve of desks facing the whiteboard, there were a few clumps of four to five tables around the room. He sits at a group of five desks, across from Scaramouche and Lyney.

“Hey, Scarapookie, I just had the worst math class of my life, and you don't see me treating everyone like garbage,” Venti responds, feigning hurt and placing a hand on his chest. Scaramouche levels a glare at Venti, who laughs, palms up.

Scaramouche's sour mood has always been kind of an enigma to Venti. He'd sort of befriended the guy through bad jokes and banter, and some days Scaramouche just came in and barely said a word to anyone for the first half of class. Earlier in the year, before Scaramouche and his boyfriend made it official, it was highly likely that his bad mood was because he got jealous over Kazuha talking about some other guy during lunch.

Venti sits down, glancing at the entrance to the room. “Are Xiao and Hu Tao not here yet?” The two of them had a habit of coming in barely before the bell rang, mostly due to the fact that Hu Tao takes a while to pack her things - especially when she's talking to someone, which is all the time. Venti found it strange, considering how much of a go-getter she was, but he'd gotten used to it quickly.

Scaramouche sighs, while Lyney offers a shrug. “Knowing those two, they'll probably be late,” Lyney says lightly.

Even though he’d anticipated this already, Venti's mood dips a little. Despite Xiao's indifferent demeanor, Venti knew he didn't like being late. More specifically, he didn't like the feeling of being in trouble - which Venti could definitely relate to. Aside from that, he just really wanted to chat with Xiao. And Hu Tao, too. He did have Socials with the two, but Venti rarely ever got to talk to them in that class.

Almost as if the conversation summoned them, Hu Tao comes flying into the room and dumps her stuff on the other desk adjacent to Scaramouche, who grumbles and pushes her stray lunch bag out of his space. Following her is Xiao, walking at a more sensible pace. Venti feels his smile become a bit easier.

“Chat, did you miss us? Woah, someone's grumpy today. What's up, Lyney, Venti?” Hu Tao asks, grinning.

Lyney and Hu Tao chatter away in the background, while Xiao takes the seat to Venti's left with a sigh. “Long day?” Venti asks sympathetically, watching as Xiao runs a hand through his hair. His yellow eyes glance up at Venti. “Mmh. Sort of. I'm just tired.”

“I feel that,” Venti says, stretching a little. “I had an annoying sub today who wouldn't shut up and kept nagging everyone. Like, how dense do you have to be? I'm trying to solve a question, but I can't do it properly if you're sticking your ass in my business!” Venti's earlier annoyance had dissipated slightly upon seeing Xiao and the others, but it's not hard to remember the suffering he went through last class. He wasn't as mad, though - his indignation came more from a need to entertain Xiao.

Xiao has just enough time to let out a soft snort of laughter before Mr. Miller, the teacher, walks into the room and sits at the front of the class.

Venti internally laments at his conversation being cut short and turns to listen as the rest of the class quiets down.

* * *

“Guys! Wait up!”

Venti turns around in surprise, hearing the brash voice of his best friend. Kaeya and Aether stop walking as well, and all three of them watch as Dvalin runs across the street to catch up to them.

“Hey, Dvalin,” Aether says as he reaches them. “We thought you weren't coming to school today.”

“Oh, yeah. Nah, I slept in, so I just came in for afternoon classes.” Dvalin shrugs and Venti suppresses a pang of irritation at the slight smugness in his tone. “Anyway, you guys wanna go to Shimura’s?”

Shimura's was a convenience store a couple blocks away from Venti's house, and throughout high school, the four of them had made a habit of hanging out there after school.

Venti glances at Aether and Kaeya briefly before replying. “Yeah, sure, I’m down.”

The walk to Shimura's isn't long, but Venti was out of step. It felt stilted and awkward, like seeing a distant cousin for the first time in a year in the midst of a random family gathering that neither of you actually wanted to attend. It takes a few minutes for everyone to warm up, but soon enough it's as if Dvalin never left. Venti's earlier annoyance is forgotten, and for the afternoon… he's just happy to have his best friend back.

* * *

“I'm home!” Venti calls, shutting the door behind him and stepping out of his shoes, not bothering to untie the laces. “Anyone here?”

The foyer of Venti’s house got cleaned recently - over the weekend, Venti’s mom had gone out to IKEA and went scouring for furniture. Venti was still getting used to the feeling of putting his shoes on a rack instead of just lining them up against the wall. It did make him feel a lot neater, though - and it made it easier to sweep the area when he did chores.

“Hi, Venti!” His mother's voice calls faintly from the back of the house, where her desk was. “Dad's not home yet, but he should be back around dinner.”

While she spoke, Venti made his way into the kitchen and set down his lunch bag on the counter. “You have practice tonight, right, mom?”

Venti's mother sang barbershop and acapella often as a hobby - it's clear where he got his fondness for music from.

“Yes, it's with the chorus for church.” She responds, walking over and pressing a kiss to Venti's forehead. “I'll leave around 6:00 or 6:30.”

“Mmkay. I'll just be in my room.” Venti heads upstairs, turning to the first door on the left. It had paper letters taped to it, spelling out his name. He walks inside and closes the door behind him.

He sets his bag down next to his desk, throwing his socks in the hamper. Venti’s room had also been cleaned - it used to be insanely messy, with random knicknacks and remains of art projects cluttering the floor. He had to be careful about where he stepped, especially at night, otherwise he’d likely get stabbed by a stray piece of cardboard or something similar.

Over spring break, his Aunt Alice - a friend of his mother’s, but close enough that he called her Auntie often - came over to visit. Once she saw the state of his room, she immediately enlisted her son and Venti’s schoolmate, Albedo, to help him clean it. Venti gave some of his old toys to Alice in hopes that her daughter, Klee, would like them.

Cleaning his room had been therapeutic for Venti, and once he was finally able to see the carpeted floor again, he felt a lot better. It felt like he was someone who was put together, and took care of themselves, just from having a clean living space. Recently, his desk had become cluttered again, but it’s fine, he’d deal with it before it got too bad.

Venti flops onto his bed, reaching down to a mess of cables to plug in his phone.

“Here's some things I wish people told me when I was losing wei-”

“Am I the asshole for-”

“Genshin Impact's new character-”

For around 10 minutes, Venti just lies half off his bed, scrolling on YouTube. The rest of the evening he spends lazing around with no work to attend to. He eats dinner with his dad, making small talk about this and that. It's a calm, nice evening… but as he gets into bed, he doesn't feel at all relaxed or content.

He just feels… numb.

There's no viable explanation for it, but he feels off, weighed down by nothing in particular. This isn't an uncommon occurrence, either - it's been happening a lot lately. Lying in the darkness feeling a weight in his chest on a day where nothing should have caused it.

In the dark of Venti's room, a white-blue light turns on and Venti just lies there on his phone, surfing the internet and writing various things to get his mind off the emptiness that crept up on him.

The phone only turns off when he can hardly keep his eyes open.

* * *

When Venti wakes up, the irrational numbness from the night before lingers. But he forces himself up and out of bed with the sound of his alarm, going through the motions until he feels almost like a functioning human being again. Brushing his teeth, getting dressed, idly braiding his hair in the mirror.

The walk to school is a peaceful one, only interrupted by the sounds of cars honking when Venti goes by a busy street. Once he gets to school, he heads to his first class and paces up and down the hallway until the teacher lets him inside. Aether, Xiao, and Hu Tao all arrive in the minutes before class starts.

“I need you guys, in groups of two to four, to make a short video on the French Revolution.” Mr. Selby says, writing on the whiteboard. “Ooh, that's a nice marker. Ahem. It doesn't need to be too long, maybe five minutes maximum. I've posted the rubric on Teams, and we'll be watching them in class on Monday.”

Venti's eyes slide automatically over to Aether, and they nod at each other, a silent agreement to work together. Venti glances down the table at Xiao, wondering if he'd want to work with them as well, but… nope. He's already talking quietly to Hu Tao.

“You know, you could just… ask them to work with us,” Aether says, not missing Venti’s gaze. “Selby did say groups of four are fine.”

“No, it’s fine,” Venti says, tearing his eyes away and looking at Aether, smiling a little. “It’ll probably be easier with just us, so we can film it after school or something.”

“... I mean, if you’re sure, then okay.”

The rest of Socials isn’t very eventful - Venti and Aether just agree on how they’ll split their research, then start working. They get distracted talking to each other and the others at their table, and soon enough Venti is seated in his English class.

“In groups, you will be creating a puppet show. Chat GPT will create a script for you with your prompts, and it's your job to film and act it out in any form you like - paper, animation, anything. It must be three acts with one scene each, and you must star in your show.” Mr. Reeves says, pacing at the front of the class. The front row of desks was empty except for the one Venti and his friends occupied, so Mr. Reeves often sat on the desks or propped up a foot on the chairs while he talked. “By the end of today, you should have a group and a script ready to show me and I'll give you the go-ahead to start working.”

He claps his hands together. “Let me know if I can help. Get busy!”

Venti glances at his two seatmates, Lumine and Kazuha. “We're definitely working together on this and I don't care what you two say,” Venti says brightly.

Kazuha laughs softly and Lumine rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Guys, let's do a stop-motion! Tone-deaf has a shit ton of clay at home, and Kazuha builds miniature stuff all the time, right?”

Kazuha shrugs, ignoring Venti's sound of protest at the nickname that was most likely fed to her by Paimon, her younger cousin. “I mostly paint models, but I could probably throw together a set with your help, Lumine.”

“Okay, fine, I'll handle the actual puppets,” Venti says lightly. It shouldn't be too hard - just something simple that can be moved around. Bowling pin people should be enough.

The blonde takes out her phone from her maroon backpack and starts up Chat GPT. “Do you guys have any ideas for a theme?”

Venti's eyes brighten. “How about…”

* * *

“We've been talking about this project for a while,” Mr. Miller says, leaning back in his chair, “and we're finally gonna do it. In groups of…” Mr. Miller pauses for a moment and quickly counts the people in the class. “Maybe four or five people. You'll be making a shot-by-shot recreation of a movie trailer of your choice.”

He sighs and sits up. “Now, obviously, you'll have to be smart about it and think about the amount of actors you have and how much editing you can do. And please, nothing with too much gore, I don't want to get in trouble with your parents. You guys can use the rest of class to figure out your groups and choose a trailer.”

Well, it's not exactly hard for Venti to figure out who he's working with. The rest of Film is spent goofing off with his friends, looking at trailers and joking around.

Aether and Lumine had to go somewhere - Venti doesn’t remember the exact location - after school, so Venti makes his way home with Kaeya and Dvalin. None of them speak much, all tired from the day.

Once home, Venti sits in his room, messing around on GarageBand while Dvalin lies on his bed playing video games.

Dvalin's family lives a ways away from their school, so his parents just pick him up from Venti's house. The arrangement had been in place since 8th grade, but sort of dissipated in the past few months - this is the first time in a while Dvalin's been over after school.

Venti completely tunes out Dvalin's loud exclamations and comments as he plays his game, closing GarageBand and instead choosing to focus on organizing things for all his projects.

Venti and Aether had agreed in class that they'd split the research and then film together over the weekend.

In English, it didn't take long for Lumine and Venti to come up with an unhinged prompt. After a few minutes, Chat GPT had taken their ideas and ended up with a story about breaking and entering Peppa Pig's house to steal an item called the “Single Part”. Venti, Kazuha, and Lumine are aided by Mickey Mouse, who then gets kidnapped by Peppa at the end of the story. It was Venti's job to handle the ‘puppets’ - clay models - for him, Kazuha, and Lumine.

In Film, Lyney had brightly offered the idea of doing a Despicable Me trailer, and Venti and Hu Tao had both excitedly hopped on board before Xiao and Scaramouche pointed out the fact that they couldn't recreate flying cars and the weapons they use. They had kept looking through trailers until Hu Tao suggested the Inside Out trailer, and they all agreed it was doable.

Thus, Venti was cast as Joy, Xiao as Sadness, Lyney as Fear, Hu Tao as Anger, and Scaramouche - very reluctantly - as Disgust.

Hu Tao also begged to take the role of Riley, forcing Lyney and Venti to play Riley's parents… and the three of them ganged up on Scaramouche to force him to play the helicopter pilot in the mom's daydream. Xiao would be handling most of the camera work, and they'd all split the editing.

Venti laughs softly to himself as he recalled the rather violent protests Scaramouche had made to his character assignments, cussing out Hu Tao - the most family-friendly of which had been “Who fucking died and made you casting director?!” Hu Tao had giggled and responded with “if a casting director did die around here, I’d be the first to know about it,” referencing her family’s funeral parlor business.

Venti was often curious about what sort of work running a funeral parlor entailed, especially because the closest he’d come to seeing Hu Tao working there was coffin designs on her desk. He’d asked her if she could set him up with a part-time job there, and she’d said maybe. Venti suspects she probably forgot about his request, busy with one of her recent hyperfixations - an indie video game she’d introduced to both him and Xiao.

Soon enough, Dvalin packs up his things and bids Venti goodbye, leaving him to his thoughts. He’s glad for the quiet.

Later that evening as Venti climbs into bed, he's nervous, all the things he needs to do running through his head. For the first time in a while, he’s excited to start working on his projects, hoping things in class go smoothly. He lies in bed, wide-eyed, and somehow his thoughts slow down enough to let him go to sleep.

The next morning, however, Venti wakes in the darkness with an itch at the back of his throat.

Chapter Text

Oh, shit.

Venti rolls over and checks his phone. 4:26 AM. He lets out a half-groan, half-sigh and sets down his phone again, rolling over and more snugly tucking his blanket around himself.

Under no circumstances could Venti miss the next few days of school - as nice as it sounds, it'd be unfair to ditch his group mates and leave them to do group projects on their own. I can't afford to be sick. Not now…

He rolls out of bed and to the bathroom, not bothering to turn on the light as he gets a glass of water and downs it. Then he goes back to his room and crawls into bed, snuggling into the sheets.

Venti closes his eyes, slowly falling back asleep and praying that when he wakes up, the itch will have subsided.

Three hours later, when his alarm rings, it's progressed from an itch to a full-on sore throat.

Venti lies in bed staring at the ceiling and he knows he won't be going to school. Even if he tried to power through it, his immune system probably wouldn't hold out - he'd be too tired to go on past lunch, and he doesn't want to infect any of his friends.

Slowly, he drags himself out of bed and trudges downstairs, brushing his teal-tipped hair out of his face. “...Mom?” He says hoarsely, finding his mother in the kitchen, packing what he assumes to be his lunch. “...Throat hurts.”

Venti's mom looks over at him. “Oh, no. Do you have a fever?”

Venti shrugs. He doesn't feel abnormally warm, but it's also possible that he's just too tired to notice.

“You should probably stay home today, then. Better to head it off early than risk it getting worse.” She says matter-of-factly. “I'll email the school.”

“And my teachers,” Venti adds quietly. “Selby, Reeves, Chen, and Miller.”

“I know. I've got their names written down. Go back to bed, all right?” Venti lets his mom press a kiss to his forehead before he shuffles back upstairs, feeling guilt settle in his stomach.

He picks up his phone from his side table as he climbs into bed, opening his messages app.

7:32 AM

Venti: I got sick 😭 pls let me know if you need me to do anything for the socials project, I can start research at home if you need me to

I think selby already posted the project on teams so I should be able to see it

sorry bae 😔💔

Aether: YOURE SKIPPING ON ME??? Kaeya said he plans to skip math as well i cant believe you guys

Venti: YOU THINK I WANNA BE SICK? IM SORRY 😔

Aether: no its fine I'm messing with you

can you work during class today or do you need to rest?

Venti: my mom said I should go back to sleep so idk if ill be awake

but just text me if you need stuff

Aether: allright, hope you feel better soon

Do you need me to tell lumine? You guys are working on something together right

Venti: nah its okay, I'll message her myself

also pls send me the math pages we need to do today, ty 😘

Aether: kk, I'll let kaeya know then

Venti: thanks pookster 🤩

It takes Venti a couple of moments to find Lumine's contact, since they didn't text often and mostly either called or talked in class.

7:38 AM

Venti: heyyy bestie so uh I'm sick and am not coming to class, can you & kazuha just text/email me if there's anything I can do from home pls and thank you

Lumine: 🖕

Venti: 😭😭

Lumine: no its fine I gotchu

im pretty sure kazu and i are just gonna work on the sets today so if you've got the clay, you can just start the puppets

idk how tall we're gonna need them but I'll text you later 🤑🤑

Venti: ok rhanks

*thanks

Venti sighs. He rereads the messages, finding it amusing how both twins had similar reactions to his news. While he knows they - Lumine mostly - hate being lumped in as twins, it always seems funny to him how similarly they act.

One more person and then he can go back to sleep.

7:41 AM

Venti: hey xiao so I got sick and I won't be in class today

if yall can just do some planning for the project rhatd be great :’)

please let me know if there's anything I can do at home though, I can start editing any scenes you guys get done or anything I just feel really bad about getting sick at a time like this

Xiao: That sucks. Don't worry yourself over it too much, I'll keep you updated.

Rest well. I've got it under control. :)

Venti: if you're sure 😭 tysm

Venti shuts off his phone and tries going back to sleep, ignoring the guilt starting to take root in his mind.

When he wakes up again, it's a little after 10:30 and his throat is still scratching. Groggily, he drags himself out of bed and over to his computer, checking his phone for any messages from his friends - maybe a question or a call for help. Nothing so far…

Venti unlocks his phone and opens his messages app, scrolling through his conversations. Xiao, Lumine, Aether, Dvalin, Kaeya, his mom…

Oh. I didn't tell Dvalin that I'm not going to school today.

Venti presses the screen and opens his messages with Dvalin, fingers hovering over the keyboard.

The seconds tick by with Venti just sitting there, contemplating a message.

After a minute or so, he just turns off his phone and sets it down, the prospect of having to deal with Dvalin too daunting. The feeling is strange and rather irrational - what could Dvalin possibly say, how could he possibly react, that would be bad enough for Venti to feel this kind of dread?

Whatever.

He opens Google on his computer and tries to do some research for his project with Aether, but he can't focus. His mind keeps drifting off to easier things such as YouTube or zoning out entirely.

Eventually, he gives up and just lies in bed, doomscrolling.

Nothing productive gets done that day.

The next day, Venti wakes up with his throat aching a bit less, but his nose is stuffed. He laments the loss of regular breathing but spends the afternoon working on the clay puppets required for his English project.

At least I'm not being completely useless. Venti thinks to himself, setting down the clay and blowing his nose before balling up the tissue and tossing it in his garbage can. I’ll need to replace the bag soon.

Over the past day, he'd been trying not to think about his friends working away at school, but it was hard.

He felt horrible for leaving them to do the work on their own and many thought tracks ran through his head - what if he got in trouble for skipping out on them? What if his teachers were upset with him?

Venti knows these are baseless anxieties, but he can't get them out of his head - not to mention the other whispers circling in his mind.

What if Aether gets mad about having to do all the research? What if Xiao can't handle Hu Tao and the others? What if Lumine and Kazuha get fed up with me for not helping them?

What if, what if, what if…

What if I fall behind?

Fear seizes Venti in its claws and his lungs tighten. He breathes in and out before coughing a few times - the cold hasn't left his lungs alone either.

He could not, would not, fall behind. If there's one constant in this world, it's time and the fact that it doesn't wait for you. It's like running on a treadmill without a stop button - if you don't keep walking, you'll get flung off. Or like riding a bike up a hill - if you stop pedaling, it’s even harder to keep climbing.

Venti picks up his clay and goes back to making puppets, ignoring the discomfort from his warm, sick body.

Later that evening, Venti is resting when he gets a message from Lumine.

1:04 PM

Venti: hey so the puppets ended up around like 6cm tall hope that's good, just text me if you need smt else

6:48 PM

Lumine: uhhhhhhhh

i think we'll need them closer to 8 or 9, i measured the sets today and they're like 15ish so if you can make them taller that'd be great 🙏 thanks bro

Venti: oh sure yeah nw

I can probably only manage 7 or 8 though

Lumine: Yeah, 7 or 8 is fine thanks 🤑

Venti stares at the phone in his hand. To increase the height of the puppets, he'd need to add more clay to the base of their bodies and adjust the heads so they didn't look disproportionate… and he'd already added on outer layers of clay for their clothing.

Frustration and tiredness and guilt well up in him all at once and his vision blurs. Venti wipes his eyes, cursing softly, and stares at the figures sitting on his desk. He can't do this. Not now.

…it'll have to be done tomorrow.

The next day, Venti can barely think.

His whole body seems to be on fire, and his head is pounding. When Venti tries taking a deep breath, it feels like a needle has been poked through his lungs. Or more accurately, stabbed.

I’m… supposed to talk to my therapist today…

Celestia knows Venti won’t be doing any effective therapy work, but he’s already postponed it once, and he knows his mental state is fragile - if not already crumbling into pieces. He needs to talk to someone, anyone, honestly…

God, who the hell made thinking so damn hard…?

Venti spends the whole day in a sort of haze, slipping in and out of awareness. The only things he can register are the fog in his head, the warmth around his neck, and the guilt and stress swirling around in his chest.

At some point - after school is over, presumably - Venti is roused from his daze with the sound of a fist pounding on the door downstairs. He hears his mother answer the door, and a couple of voices - Lumine… Kaeya… who else? There’s two… no, three other male voices.

“Venti, your friends are here to see you!” His mother calls up the stairs.

…To see him?

Aware of his loose, half open pajamas, he wraps a blanket around himself and stumbles out of his room, blinking tiredly to see the people standing at the entrance of his house. “...Hey, guys.” He mumbles with a tired smile on his face, raising a blanket-covered arm in greeting.

Once he clears the sleep from his eyes, Venti recognizes Lumine and Aether, as well as Kaeya, Diluc, and Albedo. The twins and Kaeya all make sounds of greeting at once, their voices tumbling over each other. Albedo just offers a wave, and Diluc a nod. It’s strange to see Diluc, Albedo, and Lumine… Venti usually just walked home with Aether and Kaeya, as Albedo had extracurriculars almost every day. Lumine typically walked with her other friends, and Diluc usually took the bus.

“Hey, Tone-Deaf!”

“Are you doing better, Venti?”

“What’s good, dude?”

The five of them don’t stick around very long. However, the limited interaction forces his brain into awareness, and he manages to pull himself together for an hour of talking with his therapist, Fern.

Venti had been seeing Fern for… a while. Around 3 years, actually.

An incident in the summer between 6th and 7th grade led Venti to hesitantly reach out and ask his parents for a therapist. Fern was the first one they connected him with, and he was so desperate for any kind of support that he accepted her and started talking to her without meeting any others.

Venti had a taste of depression before, in 5th year, but he hadn't thought to ask for professional support. He thought he was fine, that he could handle it - he thought that it wasn't bad because he wasn't diagnosed, and besides, he had a friend who helped him through it.

Fern diagnosed him with borderline clinical depression shortly after they met.

Venti liked Fern. A couple of his friends - Dvalin, namely - had plenty of stories about therapists who were creepy, or annoying, or had too much toxic optimism. Fern wasn't like that at all.

She didn't try poking or prying into any of Venti's business unless he felt like it, and for the first year or so, Venti simply used therapy as a vent. A relatively safe place to talk about anything that had happened in the past week. Additionally, he didn’t need to address her formally, which made it a lot easier for him to relax during sessions.

Recently - around the start of the school year - Venti had been feeling good enough to try something new. He started trying to learn more about his brain.

Venti was curious why he acted and thought the way he did, why he had the insecurities and fears that he did. For example, why was he so afraid of his friends leaving him? A lot of sources online said childhood trauma or something from the parents, but Venti didn't have anything close to an abusive household growing up. The worst it ever got was yelling from his dad or lectures from his mom.

If he felt like exploring, he'd either ask Fern questions or he'd let her prod his brain about the tougher things, like why his self-esteem was bad. There were still some things he couldn't really trust her with, even after years - but she had been a reliable source of support for the past few years of his life.

Today, he just spent the hour talking to Fern about the past week - about the projects, getting sick, and his guilt over leaving all the work to his friends. Fern reminded him that he was doing the right thing to stay home, and that she was sure Venti's friends would much rather have him at home than trying to help at school and getting them sick as well.

Venti goes to bed that night with his head and heart feeling a little bit lighter.

He had a little spark of hope about returning to school on Friday. Venti's throat had stopped being sore overnight, but unfortunately, he got slapped in the face with a cough and a running nose.

However, his head was much clearer than it was the day before, so Venti managed to do his research for his and Aether's project. The two of them agreed to meet up on Sunday at Venti's house so they could film the video together.

He texted Xiao a little after 11:30, when he knew everyone would be on their lunch break. He'd barely spoken to Xiao since their conversation a couple of days before, and he was eager to know how the project was coming along. Sitting in his chair, swiveling it slightly, he waits for Xiao’s response.

11:36 AM

Venti: hey, did you guys manage to film any stuff? :D

Xiao: On Wednesday we just did location scouting, but we're probably just going to have to film it in the classroom using desks. The cafeteria should be good as well.

Yesterday, because you were sick, Hu Tao said we might as well replace you with Scaramouche and film the family scenes, but he wasn't in class.

I offered to take the role, but it was too hard to film a three-person scene with three people, so we didn't get much done yesterday either.

Venti's heart slowly sinks as Xiao's messages show up on his screen. They hadn't managed to film anything in the two days Venti was gone. He was a little frustrated, but mostly at himself - if he were there, the others wouldn't have had to work around those casting issues.

Venti: oh man that sucks 😭 I'm really sorry

if scara doesn't show again today, maybe just film some of the solo shots for Riley and the dad?

Xiao: He'll be here. I messaged him yesterday after school, and apparently he had a last-minute appointment he didn't tell us about. We'll try to get a few shots done today.

Venti: oh okay, good luck then!

Xiao: Thank you. Feel better soon.

Venti: already do, I should be there Monday 😘

Xiao: Haha, okay ^^ See you.

Venti sighs in relief. Even if they did miss out on two days, Xiao seems to have it under control.

Luckily, Lumine and Kazuha were a competent pair. Venti redid the puppets and they assured him they had the sets done. All three agreed they would be ready to start ‘filming’ - taking photos for the stop-motion - on Monday.

Venti had all three of his projects under control - but his math work was a different story.

He hadn't been checking the assigned pages daily, and when he hesitantly opened Teams, he saw he had 6, soon to be 8 pages overdue.

It was too much to do at once - just staring at the pages stressed him out. However, that meant Venti didn't get anything done, and the work continued to pile up.

It's fine. I'll just… do it in study hall. 

It'll all be fine.

At least, he hoped it would be.

Chapter Text

“I’ve got the puppets done!” Venti says, slamming down two small boxes onto his desk. He opens the top one gently and proudly lifts up a little clay model of himself. It’s simple, rather resembling a bowling pin with a teal-green sweater and pigtails.

Lumine looks at it and nods approvingly, peeking into the box to see miniatures of herself and Kazuha. “At least you weren’t at home lazing around all day! These are really cute, Ven.”

“Tehe, thanks- Ven?” Venti stops half chuckle, giving Lumine a look at her latest attempt at a nickname.

Lumine laughs. “Oh, shut up, if you ditched us for three days, I deserve the chance to test a nickname or two.”

The smile on Venti’s face slips a little bit. He knows that Lumine is joking with him, but it still hurts a little to hear her word it like that when the sickness wasn’t something he could control. Maybe Kazuha sees something in his face, because he quickly changes the topic. “I did some work on the sets while you were out, Venti,” he says with a gentle smile. “Would you like to take a look at them?”

“Oh, for sure!” Venti says brightly. “Where are they?”

Lumine stands up. “They’re in my locker, I think. I can grab them, if you want?”

“That’d be great, if you don’t mind,” Kazuha smiles softly. Venti sets down his little clay puppet, and Lumine turns to look at him. “Actually, Venti, why don’t you come with me? There’s a couple of things I’ll need you to help carry.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. See you in a bit, Kazuha.” Venti brushes his braids over his shoulders and follows Lumine out of the room. The two of them leave the classroom and walk down the hallway, the only sounds being their footsteps echoing off the walls and the chatter of students in their classrooms.

“... Hey, so… are you okay, dude?” Lumine asks, avoiding Venti’s gaze as if she’s trying not to seem too concerned.

“Okay? Well… yeah. I’m not stuck at home anymore, am I?” Venti asks, smiling. He’s a bit confused at Lumine’s question and sudden shift in demeanor, but he doesn’t comment on it, knowing it’ll probably make her uncomfortable.

“I was just wondering. You seemed kind of off after I...” Lumine mumbles. “You know, when I mentioned you missing school and stuff, I was just joking. I don’t mean to actually make you feel bad.”

Venti looks at her in surprise, shocked into temporary silence. He looks up and then down at his shoes as the two of them descend down a flight of stairs. “Yeah, I know. Don’t worry, I’m… I’m dealing with it. I’m not upset with you.”

Lumine glances at Venti, checking his face for any signs of dishonesty. “Look… I know we don’t talk much outside of school, but… if you need anything, my DMs are open.”

Venti smiles at Lumine as she opens up her locker and takes out grocery bags that he assumes hold the sets for their puppet show. “Thanks. I'll be all right. Anyway, come on- we’ve got a show to film, don’t we?”

* * *

“Come on, I’m just joking,” Dvalin snorts. “You guys are so sensitive, can’t you take a joke?”

“Definitely, I’m just joking, like how your parents were when they tried to have you,” Kaeya retorts. It's a badly worded, pretty childish insult, but Venti can still hear a note of actual irritation in Kaeya’s voice.

“Yeah, can you shut up?” The typically placid Aether looks up from his phone, trying not to glare at Dvalin. “No one cares about your jokes or what you did while you were skipping today.”

Dvalin just lets out a bark-like laugh, loud and obnoxious. “Skipping is fun if you do it with the right people. Let’s all skip third block together.”

“Hell no. I’m not skipping with you,” Kaeya mutters.

“Nope,” Aether says offhandedly, looking back down at the game on his phone.

“No,” Venti says tiredly, taking a bite of his food, glad to be nestled in a little corner of their lunch spot. “I have work to catch up on.”

Dvalin gives Venti’s shoulder what’s supposed to be a playful shove, but there’s such little resistance from Venti that he wobbles around a bit. “Consider this, Venti: if you skip class, you don’t need to do the work.”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass.” Venti says around the food in his mouth.

Dvalin lets out an exaggerated sigh. “Boooring. You guys are such goody-two-shoes.”

Venti feels a sudden burst of anger, his grip tightening on his poor spoon. He’s a goody-two-shoes for having good attendance and decent grades? He’s a goody-two-shoes for actually having his shit together, unlike a certain undisciplined, pessimistic, self-centered-

Breathe. Dvalin’s got his own problems. It’s not Venti’s place to judge what he does with his life.

Aether and Kaeya continue to bicker with Dvalin about one thing or another, and at some point, Venti can’t handle it anymore. It’s like all their fighting is a huge, loud wind, whistling around his head and pressing against him on all sides until he’s about to explode.

“Can you guys stop fighting?” Venti speaks up, his voice strained. “You’ve been taking shots at each other for the past half an hour. It’s driving me insane.”

“We’re not fighting,” Dvalin says immediately, looking at Venti with some mix of confusion and concern, which only makes Venti more irritated.

“Yeah, this is just how we show our love,” Kaeya adds, Aether nodding. Venti wants to laugh at how ridiculous their immediate switch-up was. The conversation resumes its flow, but after Venti's interruption, the bickering seems more like genuine banter than badly disguised fighting.

Still, for some reason, the sounds of their voices, the previous tension, and the noise from other students echoing in the hallway… it's almost too much.

“I’m gonna head to class.” Venti says, packing his lunch bag and throwing his backpack over his shoulder.

“What? But there's still 15 minutes left in lunch,” Kaeya says, looking up with a bit of surprise in his expression. “Are you good?”

“I'm fine. See you in a bit.” Venti musters a smile before walking off, not giving a chance for Aether or Dvalin to interrupt him.

It's exhausting having to listen to that on his first day back… it barely took a week for Dvalin, Kaeya, and Aether to start fighting again. At this point, Venti's too tired to deal with their bickering - he'll just have to trust that they're all mature enough to speak up if things go too far.

Venti's feet carry him to the other side of the school and he sits down in the hallway, across from the closed door of his math class. He alternates between scrolling on Spotify and watching other students passing by in the hallway. While waiting, Venti catches a glimpse of a certain black-haired student and immediately looks down at his phone until the sound of his voice fades back into the crowd.

The door to his math class opens and Venti inwardly jumps with joy to see his usual teacher, Ms. Chen, and not the annoying substitute from the week before. Venti drags his bag inside and sits down, looking at the trees outside the window while he waits for Kaeya and Aether to show up. At some point, he sees a crow sitting on the branches of what he assumes to be a pine tree, and he just watches it move around, hopping from branch to branch and tilting its head in a regular birdlike fashion.

His peace and happiness quickly fizzle out when class starts and Ms. Chen announces a unit test.

“Why didn't you guys warn me?!” Venti hisses at Aether and Kaeya as the class gets out their workbooks to do last-minute studying. Ms. Chen usually gave the class anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour for studying, depending on how long she thinks the test will take them.

“We forgot,” Aether mumbles sheepishly, digging around for a pencil. Kaeya laughs awkwardly. “I remembered during lunch, but you left before I could tell you. Sorry, buddy.”

Venti doesn't have much time to be irritated and he settles for giving them both a dirty look, skimming the workbook to see what the topic would be. Luckily, it's a short unit, so even though Venti missed a ton of pages, the test shouldn't be that hard…

And it wasn't. It took Venti about 20 minutes to get through the one-page test, and he spent the rest of the class staring at his overdue pages, getting more and more irritated.

Aether tries to help, but Venti can barely hear him. The stupid fucking math is taking up every single ounce of his brainpower.

By the time Film rolls around, Venti is barely hanging on. He's irritable and exhausted from being mad and he barely offers any greeting to his friends.

“You okay, dude?” Scaramouche asks curiously, eying the way Venti takes an almost violent sip from his water bottle and slams it back on his desk.

“I'm fine. Just tired.” Venti mutters, the anger slowly draining out of him, aware of his friend's eyes on him. Lyney and Hu Tao seem satisfied by his answer and go back to what they were previously doing - messing around on their 3DSes, probably. However, Xiao still seems slightly concerned, and Scaramouche is still giving him a look.

Venti meets Scaramouche's gaze until he can't handle it anymore and suppresses a snort as he looks away. A bubble of amusement works its way through Venti’s irritated mood, and Scaramouche smiles slightly. “Finally, it was getting weird watching you be depressed.”

“Weird?” Venti says in mock offense. “I'm so sorry my distress is strange to you!”

“Yeah, whatever. You're not like this normally, so… like, get better soon.”

Venti studies Scaramouche's face for a moment somewhat curiously, feeling a bit of warmth in his chest and face.

He then cuts off the stupid train of thought that was forming in his head, reminding himself that Scaramouche has a boyfriend already and therefore would have no interest in… anything.

Venti settles for giving Scaramouche a ‘thanks’ before the class starts.

Venti's group sets up their camera in the cafeteria. Luckily, they don't need to record audio since they'd just be lipsyncing to the trailer.

They do multiple takes of a few scenes, laughing together when Scaramouche misses his cues or at Lyney's overexaggerated Fear impression.

Despite the laughter, Venti can feel himself getting more and more stressed. The lights from the cafeteria are getting to him, and he fumbles with the camera as he tries to check footage from their latest take, swearing under his breath. Were the other students in his school always this loud?

Steady hands grab his wrists and pull them away from the device. “I've got it,” Xiao says quietly, offering a small smile. “Do you need a break? You've been off all class.” Xiao lets go of Venti barely a moment after his hands are off the camera.

Venti shakes his head, watching Xiao press a few buttons and load up the past takes. “No, no, it's fine. I already feel bad enough being gone last week, and we need to get as much done as possible today,” he says, forcing a little laugh.

With Xiao's concern comes that same little fuzzy feeling from before. Venti frowns a little, trying to think of a viable explanation for it. Is he really just this affection-starved, to the point where his friends simply caring for him is enough to make his heart flutter in a way it shouldn't?

That's probably it, yes. He's just affection-starved. Scaramouche and Xiao are just his friends. Just friends. And receiving concern from them is normal. Friends do that all the time.

Good friends do, anyway.

Venti quickly suppresses the strange feelings and refocuses his attention on filming. Throughout the rest of class, he catches himself staring at Scaramouche or Xiao every once in a while. He needs to remind himself - Xiao is just being nice, he's just a really good friend, it means nothing. If anyone, Venti probably likes Scaramouche - but he's taken already, so that doesn't matter either.

The rest of his first week back is more of the same. Venti scrambles around to keep himself afloat on the steady wave of work, rants to his therapist, and fights back random bursts of irritation towards his friends.

The only classes he feels sane in are Film and sometimes English - and even then, barely. Working on the stop-motion with Kazuha and Lumine is soothing and repetitive, although Venti does feel stress coming on whenever he remembers just how much is left for them to do, even if they manage to finish ‘filming’. Voice-overs, and the editing…

The people in Film are the main reason Venti even wants to go to school. Lyney's flashy attitude means attention is rarely on Venti, so he gets a chance to breathe and recollect himself if he's overwhelmed. Hu Tao is more determined than ever to get scene after scene done, meaning Venti doesn't have to go ordering everyone around. Xiao's reassuring and quiet presence is a welcome support to lean on, and Scaramouche's witty comments temporarily distract Venti from any other stress that might have crept up on him.

One day, a Tuesday, after one particularly loud bickering session at lunch between Kaeya and Dvalin, Venti walks home by himself. Aether had tutoring, Dvalin had an appointment, and Kaeya had to go downtown with Diluc.

Venti takes out an earbud and puts on a fantasy video game’s OST, leaving one ear open so he can still hear what's going on around him as he walks home. It's a little lonely, but Venti also feels more relaxed than he has in… a while. Since spring break, probably.

The sun is bright in Venti's eyes - the clouds from earlier in the morning have since moved on - so he takes a slightly different path from the one he usually does, where there's more trees and therefore more shade.

As he crosses the street to get to the park - cutting across it is faster than going around - he spots a familiar backpack and familiar teal hair. After confirming that he’s not about to run up to a stranger, he takes out his earbud, jogging slightly to catch up. “Xiao, hey!”

Xiao turns around, yellow eyes widening slightly as he sees Venti. “Oh, hi. I didn't expect to see you here.” He pauses for a few moments, letting Venti catch his breath, before he continues walking. “Aren't you walking with your friends?”

“I would be, but they're all busy. It's fine, though, it's nice having a break from them nowadays,” Venti says vaguely, waving a hand with an air of nonchalance. “What about you? You don't live this way, do you?” Venti almost never saw Xiao walking home the same way as him.

“No, I don't, but apparently the bus I normally take is getting delayed, so I'm just taking a different route home,” Xiao replies, shrugging slightly.

“Would you wanna hang out at my place for a bit?” Venti offers impulsively, desperate for a chance to hang out more with a friend that didn't make him feel drained after every interaction. At his suggestion, Xiao looks slightly surprised. “I mean, if you don't have anywhere to be, of course,” Venti says sheepishly. “There's a bus stop near my house. You could check if it’s the right route.”

Xiao considers this for a moment, pulling out his phone and showing Venti the bus he was planning on taking. “Is your house near here?”

Venti feels a little jump of happiness as he realizes that yes, it’s the same one that goes by his house. “Yeah, it is. So would you wanna…?”

A bit of hesitation shows on Xiao’s face, but it’s gone so quickly that Venti isn’t sure it was really there. “Sure, if I’m not imposing.”

“Of course not!” Venti laughs. “I’ve told my parents about you, they know you’re chill. You’re welcome anytime.”

Xiao seems somewhat embarrassed at the compliment and accepts it with a nod. The two of them walk to Venti’s house in comfortable silence, broken occasionally by one topic or the other.

Once they reach his street, Venti swings his backpack around to his front, digging around in the front pocket to find his keys. He unlocks the door and steps inside, holding it open behind him for Xiao. “Hello? Anyone here?”

Silence greets them as Venti removes his shoes and sets them down on the shoe rack. “I think both of my parents are still at work, so it’s just us here,” Venti says, glancing up at the skylight above the foyer, then back at Xiao, who is putting his shoes on the rack next to Venti’s. “Wanna hang out in my room?” Venti asks, one foot already on the carpeted stairs.

Xiao nods. The first and last time Xiao came over to Venti’s was earlier in the year, in spring break. Venti’s other friends had been there, so they all hung out downstairs - Xiao hadn’t seen Venti’s room. Thank god Aunt Alice made me clean it.

Venti leads Xiao up the stairs and into his bedroom, sitting down in his gaming chair. “It’s not much, but it’s home,” Venti says sheepishly, watching Xiao’s gaze travel over the numerous posters, drawings, and photos hung up on the walls.

“... You’ve got… a lot of stuff.” Xiao says softly, turning around slowly to look around at Venti’s room as Venti stands up to open a window. Two of them had the shutters down, and Venti tugs on a string to pull up the shutters on the third, letting the sun in. He has to stand on his toes to reach the actual window before grabbing the handle and pushing it open with a muted pop.

“Yeah, it’s sort of accumulated over the years,” Venti laughs. “My auntie made me clean my room over spring break, though. You’re lucky you don’t need to see it messy. It was like a war zone.”

Venti looks over to see Xiao give a half shrug, now looking at Venti’s large bookshelves. The bookshelves are only partially filled with actual books - the bottom row of it has boxes that serve as drawers, and Pokemon card binders as well as various old toys are visible peeking out from them.

Venti and Xiao settle themselves on Venti’s bed, and the two of them talk about random topics while Xiao looks at Venti’s 3DS. Over spring break, Venti had mentioned how he was getting bored of the few games he had, and Xiao had offered to mod it for him.

“I can definitely mod this,” Xiao says, powering off the DS and handing it back to Venti. “I just need my adapter, since you’ve got a MicroSD card.”

“Oh,” Venti says, pretending he knew what that meant. “Will I still have enough space for more games even if it’s a MicroSD? My uncle replaced the card two weeks ago, and he said it gave me more storage.”

Xiao nods. “Of course, you’ve got 128 gigs. You could have whatever games you wanted. MicroSD just means that it’s smaller than a normal SD card would be, but their performance overall is the same.”

“Ohh,” Venti makes a sound of understanding. “All right. I was just worried about it since ‘micro’ made it seem like it’d have less space or something.” He lets out a soft chuckle, sitting up. Then he notices Xiao’s attention has been captured by something in the corner of Venti’s room.

“Is that a guitar?” Xiao asks curiously. Venti nods, then realizes Xiao’s not looking at him and wouldn’t notice. “Yeah, it is.” He stands up and brings the black case over, grunting slightly at the weight before setting it down on the bed and opening it with a click. Inside sits a classical guitar and a small plastic bag with guitar picks.

“I didn’t know you could play,” Xiao says, reaching out to touch the guitar before pulling back his hand, as if he wasn’t sure if he was allowed.

“You can hold it,” Venti says with a small smile, watching Xiao carefully wrap his hand around the neck before settling it on his lap, his arm resting on the body. “And I kind of play. This is my mom’s old guitar. My dad has an acoustic and an electric downstairs.”

“Kind of?” Xiao echoes, looking up at Venti.

“My dad tried teaching me, so I know some basic chords, but I prefer other instruments. Violin, piano, flute, things like that. You know, when I first started the flute, I couldn’t make any sounds with it for a week. It was terrible.” Venti laughs, before looking back at Xiao. “What about you? Do you play?”

“A bit. I’m not that good at it, though.” Xiao strums the guitar a couple of times experimentally - making sure it's tuned properly, Venti assumes - before he starts to play.

Venti listens to the song. It sounds familiar, a loop of a few chords, but he can’t quite place it without the lyrics. He takes a guess. “Is that that one song that's been circulating on YouTube lately? Riptide?”

Xiao nods, his hands stilling, and smiles a little shyly. “I listen to it a lot, so it’s one of the only ones I know off the top of my head. Any others I’d probably need to google the chords for.” He glances out the window a little awkwardly. “I know it probably seems like a generic choice, but it’s… it’s a soothing song.”

Venti shakes his head to indicate that he doesn’t find it generic at all. “Keep playing,” he says encouragingly, and he sits there, watching Xiao and listening to his playing.

What the hell does he mean, he’s not good? Venti thinks to himself, half affectionately and half exasperatedly. An idea comes to him as he realizes Xiao’s place in the song, and he hesitates for a moment before he pulls out his phone and googles the song’s lyrics.

He clears his throat softly, so he doesn’t distract Xiao, and waits a few beats to make sure Xiao’s at the chorus before he starts singing along.

Lady, running down to the riptide

Venti sees Xiao’s eyes shoot up in surprise and suppresses a laugh, continuing to sing.

Taken away to the dark side

I wanna be your left hand man

It took Xiao a couple moments to re-compose himself, but within a line or two he was back on tempo, strumming along.

I love you when you're singing that song and

I got a lump in my throat 'cause

You're gonna sing the words wrong

Venti doesn’t have anything beyond the chorus memorized, so he turns to the lyrics on his phone and keeps singing, but he’s looking at Xiao more than the screen. Watching the way his hands move on the fretboard and strum the strings. The focus in his eyes. The way his bangs fall over his face slightly, as he looks down at the guitar in his hands.

I’m really lucky to have a friend like him.

All too soon, Venti reaches the last lines of the song and Xiao stops playing. Venti almost wishes he’d recorded that moment, so he could have it with him forever, but even without a video, he knew it’d be imprinted in his brain for the rest of his life.

After a few moments, Venti breaks the silence. “I can’t believe you. Not that good? Really?” Venti asks teasingly, resting his chin on his hand and feeling his braid tickle his forearm. “I swear, you’re just like Barbara and Lumine.”

Xiao tilts his head in slight confusion and Venti quickly clarifies. “Aether’s sister and her friend. Barbara sings and Lumine plays the piano, but they’re both always so adamant that they aren’t good at what they do.” Venti pauses. “Actually, I guess Lumine isn’t that humble.”

“Yeah, that’s right, turd nugget! How’s it feel to know I learned Symphony No. 5 faster than you did? You owe me a McFlurry!”

“The McDonalds near here had a broken machine last time I went, can I just get you bubble tea or something?”

Xiao chuckles softly and Venti can’t help but smile at the sound. “Thank you. I… haven't practiced in a while, so I was worried I wouldn't do too well.”

“You did great. You should play more often,” Venti says. He's sure his grin is getting a little manic now, but he can't wipe it off his face. Seeing a whole new side of Xiao wasn't something he expected at all, but… he's really glad it happened. He's proud of his friend. Proud to be his friend.

“... Maybe I will. I’ll think about it.”

The rest of the evening is a welcome distraction from the recent chaos in Venti’s life. Venti gets to hear Xiao play a few more tunes - some he recognizes, others he doesn’t. He manages to convince Xiao to stay for dinner, and the two eat together, talking about random subjects like their friends’ antics and Rhythm Heaven, which Xiao promised to add to Venti's 3DS.

When there's a lull in the conversation, Xiao checks his phone. “It’s almost 8:00. I should probably head home soon.”

Venti feels his heart drop a little. Of course, Xiao had to go home at some point. “Right. Want me to walk you to the bus stop?”

Xiao hesitates before nodding slowly. “If you’re able to, that’d be great.”

“Sure, it's not far. Let me just grab my keys,” Venti says as he stands up, his chair scraping softly against the floor. “Is your stuff still upstairs?”

“Oh- yeah, I think so. I can-”

“Don't worry, I got it!”

Venti jogs upstairs and grabs Xiao's backpack, doing a quick sweep of his room to make sure Xiao didn't leave anything else there by accident. I guess even if he does, I can just bring it to him tomorrow.

Venti grabs his keys off his desk and runs back down the stairs, his loud footfalls echoing through the house. “Here you go! If you're missing anything, just text me and I'll look for it and bring it for you tomorrow.” Venti chirps as he holds out Xiao's bag.

The two of them pull on their shoes and step outside. The sun has already partially set, leaving the sky in a pale gray-blue. The houses around them are dark against the evening sky, but the lights inside them as well as the streetlamps keep the area from being too dim.

Venti sighs contentedly as he feels the relatively cool air on his face, the gentle breeze whispering around him and ruffling his hair. He walks with Xiao in comfortable silence, letting the quiet sounds of trees rustling and the distant sounds of cars wash over them.

It's strange, the stark contrast between this and whatever comes after a hangout with Dvalin. This light feeling, like he could fly away on a leaf, tired but content, versus the drained exhaustion…

It's strange because Dvalin is supposed to be his best friend, someone he'd been with for almost five years. Xiao, on the other hand, he'd only known for… how long?

Actually, he'd known Xiao a lot longer than he thought. Around two years.

Venti is stunned for a moment at the passage of time, at the realization that it's already been a while since he started high school. He then slips back into step, choosing not to think about Dvalin or the idea of losing his best friend or anything except the soft crunch of his and Xiao's shoes hitting stray pebbles on the sidewalk.

When they reach the bus stop, Xiao's bus is already pulling up, so they only have time for a rushed “Bye, see you tomorrow” before Xiao gets on and it drives off.

Venti walks home quickly, not eager to be out in the growing dark by himself, and texts Xiao a quick message before he goes upstairs to take a shower.

8:07 PM

Venti: thanks again for hanging out today!! I had a lot of fun :D

get home safe, see you tomorrow :3c

Xiao: So did I. Thank you for having me. ^^

See you tomorrow. Sleep well.