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[ THE TAIL IS VALUED FOR ITS CONTRIBUTIONS ]

I see. Has it not been illuminating enough?

Or perhaps too illuminating.

[ Thumpthumpthumpthump ugh. Finally he just says: ]

Tea was pretty sure. I — wanted more information.

[ Just stares at him, and these weird hedging non-answers, and the tail thumping, and ]

Oh!

Do you have a crush?

[ He hates that word. ]

I don't know. I don't think you use that word when it's somebody you apparently knew your whole life!

Ah, forgive me. I didn't mean to trivialize.

You're possibly in love.

[ Doesn't like that word either, it turns out! ]

Look, what you call it doesn't matter. I'm still gonna say I don't know. I've only got five memories of him, almost all of them when we were kids together.

And how do you feel here and now? After all, isn't that the most important part?

[ ...Tightening his grip on the countertop again. ]

I can think of more important things.

You dodged the question.

[ Silence for a long moment, even from his obnoxious tail. Then, steadily: ]

First memory, meeting him in an orphanage. Second one, being taken in together by this innkeeper. Third one, we're teenagers, I'm making cookies, he's impressed for some reason — I get really irritated.

[ Beat. ]

Fourth one, I run into him for the first time in years, and I'm... all over the place. It's good to see him again, a relief, but it's also something I was dreading. We fight off some assassins, and for a few seconds it's — perfect. He knows me, I know him, we're fighting like two halves of the same person.

[ A slightly longer beat. ]

But then I open my mouth, and we aren't fighting together anymore, just each other, and I don't want to piss him off but it's so easy. It hurts, but there's something horribly satisfying about it, too.

[ Muffled thumping resumes. ]

Kind of goes from Why the hell haven't I seen this guy for three years to Oh.

Edited 2022-09-16 19:26 (UTC)

Mmmm . . . I see what you mean about things being piecemeal.

Even so, you still avoided answering the question directly . . . I think that's telling.

[ Just. Sighs in response to that. You and Doc and Tea, all wanting it to be — cute. He supposes he'd like it better if it were cute, too. ]

I know we grew up together. I know we lived together, at least for a while. I know his opinion was really important to me. I know we stopped talking for three years.

[ Slowly: ]

I don't think it was because of this. [ He might have replayed the alleyway memory, just for himself, a few times since he shared it with Tea. ] I'm pretty sure I would've been worried about different things if it had been.

[ But. ]

...I just. Don't want to do that again. Especially not here. [ A very sardonic smile. More than a little brittle. ] How're we supposed to avoid each other for years in a place like this?

So don't.

One of the very few benefits of this place is its ability to wipe the slate clean. Approach things with him authentically. Don't lie, don't hide, but don't push him away either.

And -- if you wanted to give this a chance -- isn't now as good a time as any? How do you think Zhongli and I arrived where we did after several thousand years of avoiding it?

[ So don't. Like it's really that easy. Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump. ]

Maybe I should ask you again sometime when you're not 'craving changes'.

[ Okay, that earns some laughter. ]

Why? Because you don't want to hear it?

It won't be changing much, I'm afraid. After all, I didn't go after that old boulder just now.

Right, you just waited several thousand years first. Sounds good to me.

Hey! I didn't wait.

That blockhead just needed character development before he could figure it out.

[ Well, he wasn't expecting that! Startled laughter. ]

You — sorry, what now?

I wrote him a love ballad some thousand years ago.

He critiqued my rhyme scheme and said nothing else about it.

[ Well, the laughter dies abruptly. Sure would like to not be able to imagine how that'd feel, but. ]

...Sorry.

[ And if it hadn't, obviously, worked out okay in the end, he'd be a lot sorrier. ]

[ Laughs ]

Don't be sorry. I love him because of who he is, not in spite of it.

Anyway, take it as a lesson -- shoot your shot, for you can't possibly be shot down as hard as I was.

[ Gonna just... stare at you for a moment, Venti, before: ]

Pretty sure my apology stands unless it didn't hurt.

[ And if it didn't hurt, well. Good for you, frankly envious, but. ]

Oh, it did. I moped for . . . half a century, maybe?

I was overdramatic in my youth.

[ BECAUSE HE'S NOT DRAMATIC NOW, CLEARLY ]

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