Venti's Soulmate
"Xiao, Xiao!" Venti almost yells, running over to his friend. "Did you see that guy? He's basically my soulmate!" Venti throws himself into Xiao's arms.
"Venti you say that about every hot guy that walks in." Xiao sighs, pushing Venti off of him.
"Ok, but when am I wrong?" Xiao scoffs at Venti's words, having heard them at least five times this week.
"About other people, almost never. About yourself, however...that's a different story." Xiao looks over to Venti, who's giving Xiao a hurt look.
"Venti, how many of those guys have you dated?" Venti shakes his head and Xiao goes back to the drink he's making. "My point, he's not your soulmate."
"Just because you're dating your soulmates doesn't mean you can be mean to me, Xiao." Venti puts on a serious face but Xiao knows from experience that Venti's joking.
"You don't work here, Barbados."
"I know Zhongli, but you love it when I come to help." Venti smiles at his older brother, taking off his apron.
"Don't you have a class to get to? With Professor Tighnari?" Zhongli asks. Not so subtly telling Venti to leave.
"Ugg, fine. We'll hang out later Xiao." Venti calls while running out of the building.
He makes it to class right as role call starts.
Venti had already emailed Tighnari about going by his middle name, so there shouldn't have been a problem.
"Barba"
"Venti!!" Venti calls out, interrupting the black and green-haired teacher. "Sorry, it's Venti. I sent you an email?"
"Ah, yes. Thank you...Venti." The odd way Tighnari says Venti's name makes his skin itch.
Zhongli assured him that Tighnari wasn't transphobic. But Venti's wearing a crop top over his binder and short shorts. What can he say, it's not even autumn yet!
Venti shrinks down in his chair, his face red hot with embarrassment.
Some guy with a dark blue asymmetrical bob gives Venti a pat on his shoulder. The universal 'I'm trans too, and that sucked.'
"Anyway," Tighnari starts, looking around the classroom with a smile. "Who wants to guess what this class is!" He asks, doing jazz hands and giggling.
Zhongli assured Venti that Tighnari wasn't crazy too. But so far...it seemed like Zhongli was wrong on both accounts.
"Some kind of botany?" Some red-haired guy raises his hand to ask.
Who raises their hand in a class this small? Venti looks up and can't help but stare.
It's the boy from Zhongli's tea shop. The one Venti gave a free coffee to.
"Very good Diluc. But what kind?" Venti can see that praise kink from a mile away.
Doing a once over, a real once over this time, Venti decides two initial things, besides the praise kink. One, This boy is fucking pretty, and two, he was out of Venti's league. Way out of Venti's league.
Diluc shrugs, sitting back in his seat like he wants to not care but does.
Venti can see right through that boy, metaphorically that is.
"Let's turn this around. Where do you live, Diluc?" Tighnari's question seems to have startled Diluc, who now has an uncomfortable look on his face.
"On my family's vineyard?" Venti can see the way that Diluc shifts in his seat. He doesn't like having attention on him.
"Ah, grapes. What do we do with grapes and other fruits?" Tighnari hasn't opened the floor for anyone else to answer, still focused on Diluc.
But Venti's had enough. "Are we making wine?" He asks, trying to sound excited. Venti loves to drink, at bars, at home, and now, in class.
"Very good Venti." Venti nods, watching Diluc slide down in his seat.
"But some of us are only 18?" The kid who patted Venti's shoulder says, raising his hand.
Seriously, who raises their hand anymore?
"But I've thought of this, Xingqiu. We're learning about how things rot and ferment. Not explicitly how to make alcohol." Tighnari's smile never leaves his face and it's getting on Venti's nerves.
"And before any asks, if you want to split hairs, then yes, these courses would be considered as 'dissemination of information' by the Akademiya. But what are they going to do — lock me up? I dare them."
Not sure that he could survive an hour of this nonsense, Venti puts his head down, only half listening to the things happening around him.
Xingqiu seems to have taken notes on the orientation, taking a picture, and handing the paper to Venti.
"Here, I think he'll quiz us on this stuff later," Xingqiu says, waking Venti up from his dosing.
"Thank you, Xingqiu was it?" Xingqiu nods, a small smile playing at his features.
"Yeah. And that's my girlfriend, Chongyun." Pointing to a kid with ice-blue hair and a skirt, Xingqiu smiles fondly. "It was nice meeting you, Venti. We'll see tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow? I thought it was Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?" Venti asks, placing the paper in his bag.
"Tighnari said that he'll be here every day cuz he only teaches this course. And he wants all of his classes to show up every day for the first week so we can get to know each other." Sighing Venti nods, disappointed at this new development.
He really should have stayed awake.
"Then, yes. I'll see you tomorrow." Venti says, putting on his best smile.
Xingqiu smiles at Venti, a genuine smile, and then leads Chongyun out of the room.
Venti doesn't follow at first, giving the other students a head start. Pulling out his phone, Venti starts going through his contacts.
After being in this mess of a class Venti texts the one person who can make it all better.
(Venti) 'hey'
(Zuzu) 'What's wrong bestie'
Laughing at his phone, Venti stands, and starting to walk out of the empty classroom.
(Venti) 'I didn't even say anything?'
The sun blinds Venti for a moment after walking outside. The sun also makes it hard to see his phone screen.
The phone buzzes, signaling another text from Kazuha, but Venti doesn't even have time to start walking off in the direction of his and Kazuha's dorm before his phone is ringing.
"Y'ello?" Venti says, accepting the call.
"Xiao told me you found your soulmate," Kazuha says, theoretically getting straight to the point.
"He can't keep anything a secret, can he?" Still walking towards their dorm room, Venti ultimately smiles at the interaction.
"I'm one of his soulmates, of course, he tells me everything. And he said you might be a little upset after your class with Tighnari." Shaking his head, Venti smiles at Kazuha's words.
Of course, they were looking after him. Venti loves his friends, more than any soulmate.
"Tighnari was fucking crazy. We're basically doing a class on wine production. And when I corrected him on my name, he had that 'ok weird kid' voice!" Huffing, Venti can finally see the dorms. Picking up speed, Venti almost runs to the building.
"Yeah... Zhongli really dropped the ball pitting you in that class." There's a pause that tells Venti Kazuha's not telling the truth.
"What is it?" Kazuha starts to speak, another lie before Venti interrupts him. "Nuh uh Zuzu. What is it?"
"I'm just thinking, give the guy a break. He's not crazy, he's just eccentric." Kazuha says as Venti ascends the stairs to their dorm.
"You weren't there, he singled the guy out when he was clearly uncomfortable, and he sounded really disgusted when he said my name, not to mention we're doing a class about how to make alcohol. Some of those kids are only 18." Venti's opening the door by the time his speech is over.
He walks into finds Kazuha laying in his bed with Xiao and another boy cuddling with him. Kazuha's soulmates.
Sending a soft glare toward Kazuha, Venti moves across the room to sit on his bed.
It's a simple dorm, nothing as lavish as the apartment he shares with his siblings Zhongli and Ei.
"He's-"
"He's living with every parent's nightmare." Kazuha interrupts sternly. "His kid, you know her, Collei?" He pauses for a moment, letting Venti nod. "She's terminally ill. She's got Eleazar. Every day is a miracle, give the man a break."
"Holy shit, I'm an asshole." Sighing Venti's chest caves a little, only for Kazuha to throw one of his stuffed animals at him.
Hailing from the Inazuma district of Teyvat, (a large country made of smaller districts(large neighborhoods)) Kazuha has many sea-themed stuffed animals gifted to him from family and friends.
Venti, hailing from the capital Celestia, is the giver of most of the stranger sea animals.
Some custom made and others hand-made, (those were the funny-looking ones) Kazuha loved them all.
"You're kinda an asshole, but only cuz you didn't know. Anyway, tell me about this soulmate of yours." Kazuha says with a smile.
"Oh my God, he is so out of my league!"