Chapter Text
The Aquabus glided through the waterway without so much as a bump. Smooth and quiet. Oliver didn't mind it at all — he liked looking at the water. He liked watching it pass, it was very peaceful. He turned his head and looked at Venti sitting beside him on the bench, also staring out at it.
But Venti's face was hard to read. Like something was sitting on him.
Oliver tilted his head. "Venti?"
A small moment of silence. Then Venti glanced over. "Huh? Oh!" He blinked. "What's up?"
"You looked kind of out of it just now."
Venti waved a hand and laughed. "Ehh. I just miss my wine," he said, then gave Oliver a wink. "You're cutting into my private dandelion wine time, you know!"
Oliver giggled and rolled his eyes. He knew full well about Venti's relationship with his wine. But he also knew that probably wasn't what Venti was looking like that for.
"You sure?" Oliver asked.
Venti nodded. "I'm sure,"
Eventually, the Aquabus eased into the dock at the Court of Fontaine. The town rose into view from the distance, and Oliver's eyes went wide. "That is definitely not Mondstadt," he said.
Venti laughed, standing up beside him. "Definitely not, haha."
The buildings were sleek. Modern. Nothing like the old stone and wood of Mondstadt's buildings.
"Enjoy your stay!" Aeval called, as the Aquabus spun around in the water and backed slowly into the dock with a soft clang.
"Oh, we will!" Venti giggled. He reached over and took Oliver's hand. The two of them walked down the steps and out onto the platform together. "The hotel should be somewhere close by. Once I know where it is, I can just teleport us in."
They descended the terminal steps and stepped out into Fontaine's ground level.
Oliver was still in awe. He turned his head slowly, taking it all in. "This place looks like the future or something," he murmured. He looked forward and realized Venti had gotten several steps ahead of him. "Hey, wait up!" He jogged to catch up. "Did you figure out where it is?"
"Mm-hm!" Venti nodded, pointing toward a building sitting right at the edge of town. The town itself was built on raised terrain, and at that edge there was nothing — just open sky and water stretching out below, held back only by a barrier. The hotel was at the edge, so a nice view if you stayed at the top.
"That has to be expensive," Oliver whispered, the two of them standing at the front of the building now, craning their necks up at it.
"Yep!" Venti giggled. "That's exactly why we—" He grabbed Oliver's shoulder without warning, and in a rush of wind and pale light, the world rearranged itself.
As always, zero notice from the bard. "AHH—?!" Oliver stumbled forward and landed hard onto something soft. "OOF."
Venti's laughter rang out immediately.
Oliver pushed himself up slowly and found himself on a bed. A very nice bed. A very, very expensive bed. He looked around. Hotel room, no question. And — he noticed it right away — a balcony. He got off the bed and went straight for it.
"Wanna go out there?" Venti called after him. "The view's worth it I think."
Oliver slid the door open and stepped out.
It really was. Mountains stacked up in the distance. The Aquabus waterways wound out toward the horizon, connecting to whatever other districts Fontaine had beyond. A soft breeze moved through, and for a moment Oliver felt completely still. "Venti, what floor are we on?"
Venti had followed him out and was leaning easy on the railing. "No idea," he said. "I just looked for a room with no active booking."
Oliver turned to look at him. "But what if someone comes in?"
"They won't," Venti said simply. "Apparently the hotel has this one closed off. So they'll never know we're in here~,"
Oliver shook his head. "How do you even know that? We literally just got here."
Venti grinned. "I am Barbatos~." He winked.
"Oh, now you want to use the god title," Oliver laughed.
Venti's smile softened. "Go take a shower, stinky-boy~"
Oliver gasped. "So mean~."
Venti laughed. "Shower's on the right side of the room," he added helpfully. "Need a hand with anything?"
Oliver was already heading for the bathroom, rounding the corner of the bed. "Hey, I can shower myself you know,"
"You sure you don't want me to come bathe you~?" Venti called after him.
Oliver stopped in the doorway and leaned back against the frame. "Venti." His face went warm. "Stop being so bold, and being a tease!"
"Okay, okay. Go. I'll be right here."
Oliver disappeared into the bathroom and pulled the door shut behind him. He stood there a moment, smiling at nothing. "That bard is going to kill me one day," he muttered to himself.
He turned to survey the bathroom. Toilet to the left, sink to the right, and the shower straight ahead at the far end of the room.
"I've done this before, right?" He frowned at it. "I've taken showers. I know I have." Venti had told him he came from another world, and a lot of things didn't line up — gaps in his memory, things that felt familiar but came out sideways. But showers. He was pretty sure showers existed where he was from. "Yeah. I know this."
He pulled his shirt over his head and let it fall to the floor.
"Venti's still got something wrong though," he muttered, stepping out of his pants. "Even my own head feels wrong. Some things just... don't piece together right." He looked down at the pile of clothes. "He said your subconscious will not.. mess up. But I think mine is a little broken,"
He looked down at the file of the clothes, "And these clothes — I wouldn't normally wear something like this, would I?" He then turned to himself in the mirror. He blinked. "And this face... Something feels off,"
He shrugged. "Whatever."
He stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain closed.
He leaned forward and turned the valve.
He didn't realize that the shower head was facing directly to his face, and he wasn't thinking to check beforehand. The water blasted him directly in the face at full pressure. "WAAA—?!" He spun the valve off in a panic. He stood there dripping, eyes wide, hair plastered flat.
He was genuinely glad Venti wasn't in here. He would never, ever hear the end of it.
He took a breath. Reached up, angled the nozzle away. Then, he tried again.
This time he let the water run slow until it warmed up. When it finally hit right, Oliver let out a long sigh and let his shoulders drop. "Ohhhh. Okay. Yeah." He stood under it for a moment. "Ven was right. I smelled bad."
He looked down and noticed two bottles sitting in a rack. He reached for one, hoping it was shampoo, opened the cap, and sniffed it. "...Okay. I think this is it." He squeezed some into his palms and started working it into his hair.
Then a pain hit without warning. Sharp and sudden, right through the middle of his head. "Ahh—" He flinched and leaned into the wall. "Ow—" He straightened again, blinking. "That was weird—"
And then he stopped moving entirely.
Then his eyes widened. He stopped lathering his hair. His eyes darted around.
"How?" He said quietly. He blinked again. "How?"
He lowered his hands slowly. His eyes moved around the small enclosed space like he was checking whether any of it was real. "I thought this only happened at night when I sleep here," he said. He stared at the curtain. "Should I tell Venti?" He pondered. He stood there, frozen. He didn't know what to do. "Why do I suddenly remember?!" He yelled quietly to himself.
Oliver blinked. "No.. Why- Why now?!"
He went to bite his nails by instinct and got a mouthful of shampoo for it. "Blah!" He spat. "That's disgusting—"
He made up his mind, standing there in the steam of the previous hot water. He wanted to tell Venti. He needed to. Because something was wrong on his end — really wrong. Doctor Barclay was missing, and he was in some dark room, and there were no answers anywhere. Venti wouldn't fully understand. Oliver didn't fully understand it himself. But keeping it in felt worse than letting it out. Even if Venti looked at him differently after. Even if finding out what Oliver actually looked like where he was from changed things.
He figured it's best to let Venti know, and not have this useless going back and forth, going all over Teyvat to figure something out that was right under their noses.
Oliver didn't finish washing his hair. He stepped out of the shower.
In his urgency, he forgot something fairly important.
Oliver pulled the bathroom door open. "Venti! Venti—!"
"Huh?!" Venti had been sitting at the edge of the bed and spun around fast at the sharpness in Oliver's voice. "What's wrong, Ollie—" He went still. His eyes traveled slowly from Oliver's face downward and then back up. A flush crept across his cheeks.
"Venti, there's something urgent I have to tell you!" Oliver pressed. "I remember something, I just—" He stopped. He noticed the way Venti was looking at him. He followed his gaze. He looked down at himself.
Oh.
"YIP—!" Oliver slammed the door. He stood in the bathroom alone and pressed a hand over his face. "I am such an idiot." Venti's laughter came clearly through the door, which made it worse.
He got his pants back on. Left his shirt. Then tried this again.
Venti was still laughing when Oliver came back out, sprawled across the bed dramatically. "Quite a show~." He stuck his tongue out.
Oliver willed the heat out of his face. This was important. This actually mattered. "V-Venti. I need to tell you something. It's urgent."
The laughter cut off. Venti sat up. The teasing drained out of his expression completely. "Woah. Ollie? What is it? What's wrong?"
"Venti — I remember. It just came on, out of nowhere, but I remember. I remember where I'm from."
Venti gasped, and suddenly sprung up from the bed, and stood on the ground. "You... you do?!" The bard looked shocked. "Please, tell me!"
"I-I...," Oliver didn't know where to start. How could he start? Should he start with the experiment first? Should he explain about Doctor Barclay, and how he's missing? Should he go all in and say he went into the universe of a video game?
"I-I-I," Oliver stammered. "I'm from... I'm from another world," he started.
Venti nodded quickly. "Yeah, yeah, we already had that part—"
"But I'm connected to a machine."
Venti's expression shifted. His eyes sharpened. "A machine?" he repeated.
"Yes — I fall asleep on this machine and it pulls me into this universe. And Doctor Barclay, he was the one who built it, who founded the whole - the whole thing, but Venti, he's gone missing. I don't know where he is. And I'm in some dark room somewhere, I'm trapped and I—" Oliver blinked.
His voice stopped.
His expression went flat. His eyes slid slowly relaxed.
A moment passed.
He looked back at Venti. "What were we just talking about?" He blinked, looking confused.
Venti's breath caught. "You were— you were just—" He pressed his hand over his mouth. "Oh my word," he whispered, staring at Oliver. "You were right in the middle of it. You were about to tell me everything."
Oliver looked genuinely lost. "...I was?"
"And then your brain erased, just like that!" Venti stepped closer.
Oliver's his eyes darted around. ".... It did?"
"Yes!" Venti said. "You said you were trapped in a dark room! And... something about a Doctor! You also said you were hooked up a machine!"
Oliver went still. The blankness on his face gave way to something closer to fear. "Venti... if what you're saying is true... that sounds terrifying. What do you mean I'm trapped?"
Venti closed the space between them and pulled him in. "I don't know what it means yet. But this is deliberate. Someone is interfering with your memory — messing with it on purpose. And I think it's this Doctor Barclay you mentioned."
Oliver pressed into the warmth of Venti's arms. "What am I supposed to do? I'm scared."
Venti rubbed slow circles on his back. Pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Hey, hey. Breathe for me, honey," he said softly. "Your heart's going a mile a minute. Shh. It's okay." He pulled back just enough to look at him. "I'll figure something out. And... there's something else. Something I've been holding onto that I should have said a while ago."
Oliver looked at him. "Huh?"
Venti let out a slow breath. "I saw when you appeared," he said. "I was in my tree when a beam of light just — dropped from the sky out of nowhere. It faded, and when it was gone, you were there in its place. Glitching and flickering, morphing, until finally you were just... you. I watched you walk to the river and look down into it and say something about your reflection not looking like you. Then you started heading toward Mondstadt." He gave a small, almost sheepish laugh. "I don't know why I didn't come over. I just thought I'd meet you in town instead. So I waited at — well. My statue." He chuckled. "I forget sometimes that you know I'm Barbatos. So I can freely say that around you,"
Oliver stared at him for a moment. Then let out a breath. "The way you built that up, I genuinely thought you were going to say you had plans to kill me."
Venti blinked.
Then burst out laughing. "No! No no no — hahahaha! Not even close!" He shook his head, still giggling. "I only brought it up because the way you arrived made it obvious you weren't from around here, but I didn't want to say it right away when you looked so out of it. I didn't want to make it worse." He sighed. "I make dumb decisions sometimes."
Oliver smiled and leaned in to kiss him, soft and warm. "I'm grateful for you, Venti. You've stayed with me through all of this. I don't think most people would have done that."
Venti waved him off with a grin. "Oh, come on. Mondstadt's not full of tyrants, you know~. Plenty of good people there would have looked out for you. I can't take all the credit for that."
Oliver kissed him again. "Venti?"
Venti pulled back, expression soft. "Yeah?"
"Thank you,"
Venti hugged him close, pressing a slow kiss to his neck. "We still have work to do. We have to figure out who Doctor Barclay is and where he went."
"But how?" Oliver asked.
Venti settled into him, warm and steady. "I don't know yet, baby. I really don't. But we'll get there." He kissed Oliver on the lips again, brief and gentle, then looked at him with a glint of mischief. "In the meantime — do you want more kisses? To calm down?"
Oliver very much did. And with Venti this close, pressed up against him while he stood there half-dressed, he was aware he might want a little more than that. "I want to," he said. "But I still need to take my shower." He paused and reached up to touch his damp hair. "Wait. Why is my hair already wet?"
"Haha! Right!" Venti stepped back. "Looks like you got pretty far into it, actually. You kind of bolted out of there mid-shampoo. That's when you told me everything." He tilted his head with a soft smile. "Go finish. I'll be right here when you get out, Ollie."