When I arrive at Windrise, I walk over to Venti. He plays a very calming song on his lyre as he floats a few feet off the ground. As I near, he finishes his tune and floats down to my eye level.

"Hiya Xiao!" Venti exclaims, taking the few steps he needed to take to wrap his arms around me and put his head on my shoulder.

"Hello Venti," I say, keeping my hands at my side as I had no urge to hug anyone back.

"Someday, I'm going to get you to hug me back," Venti pulls his head from my shoulder and gives me a little kiss.

"No you aren't," I mutter, glancing away as some blush came to my cheeks.

"Aww, I can't believe that you're blushing! But moving on!" Venti grabbed my hand and starts to run at the huge tree, I was caught a little off guard but follow him without a word.

Once we reach the trunk, I look at my boyfriend, cocking my head slightly to ask what we were doing. Venti sits down and I do the same, I fully turn my head towards him, telling him speak.

"Sooooooo, I know Zhongli is like your father figure and all-" Venti starts, he holds the hand placed next to his.

"He's not my dad," I interrupt, pulling my hand away slowly.

"Fine, Zhongli is your leader, teacher and whatnot," Venti starts once more, he then steals my hand again.

"So I think we should tell him that we're dating each other," The anemo archon only stares into my eyes, and I stare back. I had the sudden urge to lean in and close the gap, but I decide against it.

"Are you sure?" I ask, shaking my thoughts from my head.

"Of course, I'm the one who proposed the idea, ehe," Venti grinned and scooched closer to me, his grin faded to a smile as he pulled out his lyre.

I lean against his arm as he begins to play the tune that brought me to him.

"I guess we could tell him tommorow," I say, closing my eyes while enjoying the tune with Venti.

...

"How are we going to get to Liyue so quickly?" Venti asks himself "Oh! By flying!"

I frown.

"Oh c'mon, it'll be fun!" Venti laughs, grabbing my hand. I tighted my grip on his hand, prepared for gravity to disapear below our feet.

"Don't worry, it's not scary!" Venti grinned, forming some anemo in his right hand.

"I'm not scared. I just normally tele-" I was startled by the ground suddenly detaching from my feet, Venti made the updraft strong, making us float up at a quick pace. It wasn't a long journey, around 22 minutes by foot. So floating was a quick 5 minutes.

"And we have arrived!" Venti shouts as they were at the gates of Liyue.

"Da- I mean Zhongli works at the funeral parlor, you should be able to visit him," I explain as we walk side by side.

"Why don't we go in together?" Venti asked, grabbing my hand as we entered the city.

I glanced down at our hands, frowning slightly. If Zhongli passed by, he would know about out relationship.

"You know I haven't come out," I look up at Venti, allowing him to let my hand go as I was told that doing so would not hurt the other's emotion as much.

"Oh ya, that's fine!" He smiles, letting my hand go.

But I grabbed Venti's wrist after a few minutes of walking.

"YOU'RE HOLDING MY HAND VOLUNTARILY!!" Venti exclaims, even though I simply grabbed his wrist.

"There's the parlor," I say, leading Venti towards the said parlor.

"Oh," Venti deflates as he gets tugged to the door.

"Do we just knock?" The archon asks.

"Yes, I will," I state, beginning to raise my hand to the wooden structure.

"I would say that I would be doing the knocking, thank you very much," Venti scoffs, an unusual characteristic for him.

"You just said something slightly formally, are you sick?" I ask, putting the back of my hand to his forehead.

"N-no, I'm fine!" Venti turns red in the face as I pull my hand away.

"Are you sure?" I ask once more.

"Ya! I'm totally finee," He says, quickly knocking on the door to the parlor before I could muster up a response.

The door almost immediately opened, a young girl with a black hat and two long pigtails smiled at us, Hu Tao was her name.

"And who died today?" She asks happily.

"No one actually, we wanted to talk with 'Mr. Zhongli'!" Venti told her, the Hu Tao nodded and stepped aside, letting us in.

"Aiya, Xiao, you've come earlier than normal," Hu Tao says as she closes the door.

"So who's this? Your boyfriend?" She says in a teasing voice.

"Yeah! We're about to go tell Zhongli!" Venti grins as he grabs my hand.

"Oooo, well good luck! I'll be eavesdroppinnnng," Hu Tao says in a singsong voice and waved us goodbye.

"Actually, Xiao here is gonna stay outside too," Venti grins as he lets go.

"Okay, come with me," Hu Tao says as she grabs my wrist and pulls me to her office. "We'll hide in here 'till Venti closes the door, so we won't be seen by Zhongli,"

After Hu Tao closes her door, Venti slams another door open, most likely Zhongli's.

"Venti? What are you doing here?" Zhongli's calm voice is heard from his office, then a door is slammed shut.

"Okay, let's go eavesdrop," Hu Tao whispered, I don't nod but follow her out of her office, the two of use lean our ears against the door as a conversation forms.

"I am here to simply tell you that I've fallen in love!" Venti exclaims, he would probably place a hand over his heart in an over-dramatic way.

"Would you like chamomile or jasmine tea?" Zhongli asks calmly, as he completely ignores what Venti had said. "Wait- you what?"

"Ah, it seems that even the most chill guy in Tevat can be surprised, ehe," Venti giggles.

"Well I am surprised that you're capable of loving someone romantically, and that you didn't blow it off right away," Zhongli says calmly.

Venti gasps over-dramatically.

"Are you sure that you can treat this person well?" Zhongli asks Venti seriously.

"Yeah, Xiao agrees, that's why he's my boyfriend," Venti giggles, as if he wouldn't be killed in the next second.

Silence follows, then someone shuffles their position.

"How are you treating him?" Zhongli's tone is harsh and serious.

"With all my love and affection, of course!" Venti exclaims.

"Are you treating him like a human or like a wounded creature?" Zhongli interrogates.

"Like a human, but if he's looking extra down I give him a kiss and play a tune!" Venti says happily.

"Well do not ever, and I mean ever, ask him about his past, if you do not think of him positively at any point then leave, you must know that he has gone through. He has had his fellow Yakshas die, you must not judge his personality as he may seem tough, but he can feel emotion and pain," Zhongli starts, and everyone in the parlor knew he would keep trying to get Venti away from me.

"I know, I treat him well, you know me-" Venti starts.

"And that's why I'm worried," Zhongli interrupts.

"But you know that I know-" Venti tries to speak.

"Form a contract with me," Zhongli orders.

"Um, okay?" Venti chuckles, trying not to act scared in the face of the overly protective god of contracts.

"Xiao is more than you may realize to me," Zhongli begins. "You, Venti, are very blunt and take life as a joke-"

"I do not, well, okay, maybe but-"

I use the argument's noise to crack the door open, I see Venti's hat and Zhongli on two different couches that faced each other. But I can see Venti's expression slightly when he turns his head to look at nothing whatsoever.

"This is no excuse for you to treat Xiao as a joke. If you do anything remotely bad to him, you will feel the wrath of the rock," Zhongli's voice is more serious than anyone has ever heard it.

When Venti actually assumes a serious expression, I know this is getting serious. I have a throught of intervening, but a part of me wants to see what Venti is like when contracted by the god of contracts himself.

"Xiao is broken, and if you aren't here to heal him, then you don't deserve him. Therefore, my point being is, our contract shall be this: If any harm of any kind befalls Xiao on your behalf, I have the right to come and personally punish you and forbid you from seeing him again," at this Venti is actually listening intently, and nodding along. The seriousness isn't something I've seen much. "But if you treat him, if it is even in your capabilities to treat him, with respect and all the love you and your wine-filled brain can muster, then I will approve of this relationship. Although, I am hesitant to actually assume you are telling the truth."

"I agree to this contract. And I am telling you the truth, no lies," Venti smiles. "Don't wanna suffer the rock, now, do we?"

Zhongli sighs, nodding, seemingly more content. Venti leans back, the tension between them doesn't disappear, though.

"How do I know you're right for him?" Zhongli asks, staring into Venti's eyes.

I can't take the interrogation anymore. Seeing Venti this serious isn't something I want to get used to, and Zhongli has never acted like this before. I wouldn't admit it but I'm genuinely scared somebody is going to die. I love Venti, and I know him, he won't last under this for much longer before he starts making awful jokes and then Zhongli ends up kicking him out and forbidding the relationship.

Maybe it's my overreactive imagination suddenly kicking in, but still, it doesn't seem too far off. In an attempt to save Venti, I step in.

Zhongli looks at me somewhat disbelievingly. He probably didn't expect me to be here, or to show up. Maybe part of him still thinks Venti is joking. Actually, that sounds like the most likely option.

I walk over to where Venti is seated across from Zhongli. Zhongli looks, now that his surprise has faded, curious in a sense. Disbelieving, maybe? To prove that I truly love Venti, I hug him, there and then.

I've never been one for physical contact, so this obviously surprises the two archons.

Venti can't hug me back, because I'm hugging him from behind, but he manages to lean his head back and smile at me. It's a warm smile, one nobody has given me since I met my Anemo archon. If they had, it was way in the past. I felt my love for him in this moment accentuate. I feel that I have to prove to Zhongli that Venti is good for me, it's a sudden almost unfamiliar protectiveness- I haven't felt this since the other Yakshas.

"Well, then," Zhongli is almost smirking now, all of this emotions may be subtle, but Xiao can catch them. "I don't think I've ever seen Xiao voluntarily hug someone."

Venti's grin widens. Zhongli sighs.

"Don't break our contract," Zhongli says simply, sitting up and heading out of the room to leave the two anemo users alone.

"That's an approval, right?" Venti asks enthusiastically.

"I think so," I can almost feel my lips curl up.

Venti jumps up with that specific Venti energy he always seems to have, and kisses me on the cheek. He then grabs my hand, and leads me out towards the Liyue streets.

"I can't believe you hugged me!" Venti yells to the world.

"You'll never let that go, will you?" Xiao rolls his eyes.

"Nope!"

Little do they know, Zhongli watches from behind a pillar like a full-on CIA agent spying on confidential information. He smiles, glad that the last Yaksha has finally managed to let go of some of his pain, and accept love.