~#~ CHAPTER 6 ~#~

Venti squeaked in fear at the sheer volume of elemental energy pouring off Neuvillette. "Let me up," he pleaded. "This is private and I…I should not be here. Please. Let me up."

"Give me a moment to stabilise them both," Neuvillette replied quietly. "I am not going to cause you harm."

After a short time Neuvillette removed his hands and cradled Zhongli against his chest to allow Venti to slip out from underneath him. He took Venti's place, snuggled Zhongli against him stomach and nodded up at the smaller man. "I thank you, Wind Spirit, for looking after them while I was unable. Had I the slightest suspicion of what was happening, I would have been here sooner. This should not have been endured alone." He directed the last comment down to Zhongli who lay placidly in his arms with his hands fisted in Neuvillette's tailcoat.

"He didn't know," Venti answered quietly when it became obvious that Zhongli wasn't going to. "And he stubbornly kept going until he literally couldn't stand upright any longer. Xiao brought him here then came to see If I could stabilise him while he came to get you. I…I had to tell him. He had no clue."

Venti turned to where Xiao had been standing, only to find an empty spot where he'd been. Once it had become obvious that Neuvillette meant no harm to either Venti or Zhongli, he had simply wandered into the other room and curled up on the couch to recover from the day's excursions.

Zhongli pulled against the handfuls of Neuvillette's tailcoat and buried his face in the soft material. Neuvillette smiled gently and ran his fingers through his soft, brown hair. "It is of no consequence now," he said softly. "I am here for as long as I am needed and then we will be leaving for Fontaine. It is unlikely that we will return but you may visit us, should you wish to. I would offer you my protection and Fontaine would represent no threat to you."

Venti's eyebrows raised in shock. "You are not at all like I pictured," he replied. "And I would like to visit your fair city at some point. The wine, I am led to believe, is flowery and sweet."

"I would not know," Neuvillette shrugged. "As I do not imbibe alcohol. I will drink tea, on occasion, but other than that I drink only water."

Venti shrugged. "Well, that's your loss and it means there's more for me. I…Look, I'm sure you two have things to discuss. I'm going to check on Xiao, I'll leave you alone for now." Venti turned to leave and then turned back. "I'm glad you're still with us, you old blockhead."

Zhongli remained hidden against Neuvillette's stomach but raised an arm to wave it in Venti's general direction. Neuvillette smiled tenderly. "Thank you again. We will see you later."

~#~

As soon as Venti left the room, Zhongli began to shake. Broken sobs followed as he clung to Neuvillette. "I'm sorry," he croaked. "I didn't…It was not my…I would never…"

Neuvillette simply dragged him out of his hiding place against his stomach and pulled him into his lap, tucking Zhongli's face against his neck. The angle was awkward with the two of them being similar in height while Zhongli was in his tall, male form but Neuvillette hugged him tightly with one arm and kept up a firm, rhythmic stroking, up and down his back, with the other. "Shhh," he murmured. "It is alright. I am here. I am not leaving. It is alright. I am here." He kept up the litany of quiet mutterings while Zhongli worked through his rolling emotions and eventually the distraught dragon fell quiet in his arms. Neuvillette kept up the stroking, long after the broken sobs had stopped and, eventually, he felt Zhongli relax in his arms. "You did well to hold that back as long as you did," he murmured. "Are you feeling better?"

Zhongli reached down to press at the area where he now knew the egg was sitting. "Not really. I'm the God of War; I should not cry, let alone curled in someone's lap like a small child. I'm embarrassed," he admitted. "And tired. And…this is all my fault. I'm not barren and…it was not the end."

Neuvillette leant down and pressed a gentle kiss onto the middle of his forehead. "No, it was quite the opposite," he murmured, completely glossing over Zhongli's comment about how he shouldn't cry and studiously refraining from mentioning that Zhongli had made no attempt to extricate himself from Neuvillette's lap. "It was the beginning. A new beginning if you will. I take it there'll be no arguments about me taking you home now? To our home, in Fontaine?"

"You almost got me a couple of weeks ago anyway," Zhongli admitted quietly. "…before I knew…when I was struggling to stay like…this." He waved his left hand down his body and groaned. "I left it too long and…we all nearly paid the price."

"We did not though," Neuvillette replied, just as quietly. "We are here, we are alive, and we are together. Now, will you let me help with the most immediate and pressing problem we have here at the moment?" He waved his hand down Zhongli's body in the same manner that Zhongli himself had a moment before. "Neither of you can stay like that."

Neuvillette carefully laid Zhongli down on the bed and, like he had when he first arrived, crouched beside him with one hand on the egg and one hand on Zhongli's forehead. He began pouring energy into both of them and Zhongli closed his eyes, concentrated hard on the positioning of the egg and just a few seconds later, he became the female, Neuvillette-type, human-dragon. Despite the egg not feeding directly from his body, like a human baby would have done, he had positioned it carefully inside his vessel's womb where there was space for it to expand and grow prior to the shell hardening just before it was due to hatch. He rolled slowly onto his back and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "Gods, that's better," he exhaled deeply and then reached up to pull Neuvillette down into a deep and almost desperate kiss. "Thank you."

~#~

Neuvillette kicked off his boots, stripped off his many extraneous layers of clothing and then climbed into the bed. Lying with his back to the wall with Zhongli cuddled up to him, he let out a deep, contented sigh and then a chuckle. "This is not how I expected today to turn out when I got up this morning."

Zhongli leaned up to kiss him. "I second that," he replied with a tired smile. "I was pretty certain that I wasn't going to make it to the end of the day so this…" He ran the back of one fingernail down the side of Neuvillette's face as he spoke. "…is infinitely better."

Neuvillette rolled Zhongli until his back was flat against Neuvillette's front and then buried his face in Zhongli's ridiculously thick and lustrous hair. His right hand snaked around Zhongli until it rested on the miniscule bump in his abdomen and he sighed again. "This is considerably preferable to court."

~#~

When everyone awoke the next morning, the discussion immediately turned to how to smuggle three of the most powerful beings in all of Teyvat, out of Liyue without being seen. Neuvillette alone was hardly inconspicuous, Zhongli needed to remain concealed and Venti…Xiao solved the problem of Venti immediately after breakfast when he simply snatched hold of him and disappeared, reappearing almost two hours later carrying two thick travelling cloaks. "Compliments of Mondstadt's finest," he announced as he hung the capes over the back of one of the armchairs in his small sitting room. "How are you feeling now?"

Zhongli was comfortably sitting with his feet tucked beneath him in the corner of the couch where Xiao had spent the night. "I am much improved, Xiao. You saved me." He paused briefly and spread his hand across his stomach. "You saved…us."

Xiao's eyes tracked the movement of Zhongli's hand for a moment before his gaze fell to one side. "I pledged to protect you for the rest of my days and, as far as I'm concerned, that pledge extends to any offspring you may produce in the future. I will protect you, and yours, until I am no longer able to do so but I…may I be blunt?"

"I have never limited you in that regard," Zhongli frowned slightly at the question. "Speak as you will."

Xiao's nose wrinkled slightly as he looked back to meet Zhongli's gaze. "I…do not wish to follow you to Fontaine. I will come if you should call for me but I am needed here and will continue to be, especially with you…missing."

Zhongli nodded his understanding. "I was going to offer you the option of a cessation of your contract but…" Xiao's eyes flew wide and he let out a gasp as he began to tremble. Zhongli immediately took the hand off his stomach and held it up to stop him. "Xiao, stop. This is exactly why I didn't make the offer because you need a purpose and…Liyue needs a protector. You have served me for thousands of years and are the last of your kind, you accept no reward but you deserve some recognition, so I am willing to add a caveat to the end of your contract to give you the option to protect Liyue, as you see fit. As you see fit. Do you understand?"

Neuvillette chose that moment to step into the room. He looked between the two of them, realised that he was interrupting something and immediately did an about face and disappeared back into the bedroom. Zhongli watched him go with a brief smile. "This is your home," he said softly, turning his attention back on Xiao. "And it will remain your home for as long as you wish it to be. So, you will remain under contract but live your life, do your job, and…speak, as you see fit. Are we agreed?"

"Agreed." Xiao nodded towards the bedroom. "Shall I tell him that he can come back in now?"

~#~

Zhongli and Neuvillette remained in Xiao's suite for several more days to allow Zhongli time to recover his strength. The egg was still sapping his elemental energy but, by the time the pair were due to leave, he was physically stronger and more stable than he'd been for weeks.

Passage had been booked on one of the small boats which travelled past the dock attached to the Wangshu Inn, northwards into Chenyu Vale. Once in the vale, Zhongli and Neuvillette were to make their way by raft to Yilong Wharf, remain there overnight and then get on a larger boat across to the Lumidouce Harbour and into Fontaine the next morning. It wasn't a tidy plan, in any respect but it was arranged to be as none-physically taxing as possibly in deference to Zhongli's recent problems.