Vulnerabilitea

"Remind me to never go into a magic bubble ever again." Diluc muttered, and received sounds of agreement from most of the other individuals in the room.

"Wait… where did Venti go?" Jean asked, fully pushing herself off of the floor and looking around her office (currently destroyed), "Did he-"

"Ah, it would appear our beloved bard went for a little swim~<3!" Alice picked Venti's hat up off of the broken window edge, looking out down into the lake below. The others quickly (with a few small pained noises) joined her and Nicole at the window. They could easily see Dvalin climbing out of the other side of the lake and shaking the water out of his wings, but there was no sign of-

"Looking for someone?"

Paimon let out a little squeak of surprise as they turned around and, sure enough, Venti was sitting cross-legged on top of Jean's desk, looking quite frankly unimpressed.

He was also, quite frankly, soaking wet.

Varka and Paimon immediately burst into laughter. Venti let out a sigh, though the look in his eyes shifted to being somewhat amused as he hopped off the desk and held his hand out toward Alice.

"Miss Mage, my hat if you'd please."

"Oh, but of course~!" Alice said, skipping over Venti's hand entirely and placing his hat back onto his head herself. Venti's arm fell back down to rest by his side as she brushed his bangs out of his eyes as well. She paused for a moment, fingers hovering in front of his forehead, opening her mouth to ask something-

"Bard." Diluc said, drawing both of their attentions, "…Are you alright?"

"Oh, don't worry about lil ol' me!" Venti did a small twirl and a bow as a gust of wind surrounded him, drying his clothes and ruffling everyone's hair. "I was intending on a swim later anyways."

"Were you now…" Diluc crossed his arms, "Somehow, I doubt that…"

"Ehe, does this seem like a face you should doubt?"

Before Diluc could answer, Alice suddenly clapped her hands together.

"Well if everyone is alright- go on now, shoo!" She said, waving them out of the room, "It's time for my darling Klee to have a little play time!~<3"

~

"Hh'Nnt—chiew!" Venti doubled over a little, his hand pinching his nose shut. Slowly, he blinked, and rubbed at his nose with his sleeve, letting out a quiet groan.

He barely kept himself from startling as a mug lightly bumped against the side of his head.

"You alright there, Barbatos?" Varka asked, "You've barely touched your drink."

The 'that's not like you' went unsaid, but Venti still heard it loud and clear. Offering Varka a smile he hoped passed as normal, Venti immediately made the decision to down his entire drink in one go.

Said decision, as bad decisions tend to go, immediately rewarded him with a coughing fit.

If Varka hadn't been concerned before, he certainly was now, taking Venti's mug out of his hands and setting his own down on the floor beside it. He hovered his hands near Venti, unsure of what to do.

Eventually he settled on just resting his hand on Venti's shoulder until the fit passed.

"Venti… are you alright?" He asked again, though much more seriously than before. Venti glanced at him, then gently laughed, placing his hand overtop of the Grandmaster's.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm fine." He said, "Just went down the wrong pipe I guess."

Varka raised an eyebrow, for one, because Venti had never choked on a drink in all the time that he had known him, and two, he was fairly certain Venti didn't actually have 'pipes'. Oh, the other's human body was enough to fool most people who were unaware, but once you knew, once you paid attention… well, suffice to say that there was many things missing.

Seeing that Varka looked unconvinced, Venti looked around for a moment, before settling his eyes on Diluc.

"Oh Master Diluc!" He called for his attention, standing up and slipping out of Varka's grip to head over in Diluc's direction. "Would you mind getting me a refill?"

Varka watched him go, suspicion in his gaze. But well, who was he to question the word of the god of freedom?

…He'd still keep an eye on him though. Just in case.

~

Venti wasn't sure why Alice had suddenly called for him to meet her within the magic bubble. Wasn't she supposed to still be in solitary confinement anyways? Just how had she managed to get permission from Jean to arrange a meetup?

Well, actually, knowing Alice, it was entirely likely that Jean didn't know.

Still though, stepping into the magic bubble and being unable to sense anyone other than himself and Alice? That was slightly concerning. That meant she must've either purposefully selected a time when no-one would be in here, or had forced everyone else to vacate, which did not leave him with a good feeling.

Ugh. He really hoped she wasn't about to test another magic spell on him. He wasn't really sure he could handle that in his condi-condition-

"HhH'NTt—iew…" Venti paused, fingers still pinching his nose shut, waiting to see if there was another one coming. His nose still itched…

His vision was suddenly obscured as a pair of hands covered his eyes.

"Guess who~<3!"

"Alice, we're the only ones in here."

"Hm, I suppose we are!" Alice's hands removed themselves from his eyes, sliding up to his forehead. Venti stiffened as Alice clicked her tongue. "Tut tut. That's no good~:(. You could really do to take better care of yourself Barbatos."

"How many times do I have to tell you that it's Venti?"

"Oh, until it stops being fun of course~:)." Alice finally removed her hands from him, leaving his hair slightly messed up. He didn't bother to fix it as Alice moved around to stand in front of him. "Still, the point stands. You're worrying your people you know~<3."

Worrying? People were worried about him?

"Why?"

"Do you really think you're that good at hiding it?" Alice asked, summoning a pair of chairs for herself and Venti to sit down on. She crossed her legs as she sat down, a teapot pouring tea into a cup that appeared floating beside her. "Practically everyone in Mondstadt has figured out that you're sick."

She held the cup of tea out to him. Venti didn't take it. She leaned back and sipped from the cup herself.

"…Did Varka put you up to this?" Venti finally asked, deciding there was no harm in sitting down in the chair Alice had provided. Alice hummed.

"I suppose he might have. Jean may have also played a hand in it. And Diluc. And Kaeya. The Traveler too, left me a note and everything. Albedo, Durin-"

"Okay, okay." Venti was quick to cut her off, "It's really not that bad, they don't need to be so w-worried…"

He trailed off, and a small spark lit up in Alice's eyes.

"Ah, going to sneeze, are we?"

Ugh, for some reason Venti hated when she specifically called him out on it.

"Hh… hihH…" He tried to swallow it back, but the itch was just not going to take that laying down. "Hhh- hH'NNntT-chiew!"

"My my… that sounded like it hurt." Alice said, "Are you sure you don't want some tea?"

"Snf… ugh. I'm good, thanks." Venti sighed, "Anything else I should know about this intervention?"

"Well, for one, people want you to stop doing that. Oh, and here comes an example!"

"Doing whha- hhH'NTX-chiew!"

"Stifling of course~<3!"

Venti stared at her with incredulity.

"Alice you know I can't just-"

"Ah ah ah!" Alice waved a finger in front of his face, "Have you forgotten where we are?"

Oh. So that's why there was no other people around. But still-

"I'm not sure that'd be exactly… safe." He said, "For the bubble, I mean."

And for her, but he didn't want to risk offending her by saying that out loud. She probably knew that's what he meant all the same.

"Oh, please." Alice waved a hand, "You doubt our capabilities! We made this bubble strong enough to withstand anything I'll have you know!"

For some reason, Venti suddenly had the odd feeling that Alice might have purposefully planned to use the bubble for this at some point, but still…

"Oh, there you go again!"

"HihH'NTT-iew!!"

"Oh dear, Barbatos, surely you're not developing memory issues! I've heard those can happen when one gets older, but we really did just discuss the stifling thing, did we not~:(?"

Venti glared at her.

"It's not that easy-"

"Well then!" Alice suddenly stood up, her chair vanishing from underneath of her, "Let's make it easy!"

"Wh-" Venti startled as a pair of ropes suddenly appeared around his wrists, tying them down to the arms of the chair. "Alice-"

"Now all we have to do is wait." Alice sipped from her teacup, glancing up and raising an eyebrow when Venti's body suddenly flickered. "Don't try to teleport away now. Nicole helped with those ropes~."

Venti squirmed a little. Sure, he was reasonably sure that Alice was correct on it being safe for him to not stifle here, but, but still!

His nose twitched.

The itch in his nose was growing stronger again.

Venti glanced up at Alice, who had, at the moment, turned to pour herself another cup of tea, adding in two sugars. She would be sure to somehow notice that he had to sneeze again, like she always did, and-

He summoned his wings.

"Oh?" Alice turned back towards him, finding that her view of him was now completely obscured as his wings folded in front of himself to hide him from her view. "What's this? Is Barbatos, Anemo Archon, God of Freedom, feeling shy?"

He was not feeling shy, thank you very much.

Though he was certain if he tried to voice that, his voice would tremble with the hitching breaths he was now desperately trying to hold back, so instead he remained silent.

"Hmmm~" Alice paced around him, trying to find a way to look at his face. "Now now, how to get you to come out of hiding… Ah~!"

She reached out and gently plucked out a wayward feather from Venti's wings, and the itch in Venti's nose suddenly flared.

Ah, fuck-

"HhEH’ETSHchiew!!" His wings flared out, and Alice had to jump back to dodge them, a gleefull laugh escaping her as a galeforce wind swept through the area, knocking down some of the trees. Venti didn't even get a second to feel upset about it, because now that the itch in his nose had found it's way to freedom, it was not going to let up until all of it was out. "hH-hiHhh'EtSHhieww!! hH'ITsHhiiew!! hh-hhH'EIShhiew- hH'ESH-ieww!! 'TSHh-iew! Hh… hihh- hEH'TtSHhiew!!"

"There we go~<3!" Alice exclaimed, and Venti managed to open one eye enough to see that her body was glowing with what he could only assume was some sort of protective spell. She laughed again. "Doesn't that feel so much better?!"

"hH'ISHhhiew!!"