#its child safe finger paint dw | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

favoniuscodex · 3 years

Text

embrace. [zhongli x reader]

prompt: lifting someone up out of excitement + zhongli // in which you take a commission and disappear for a few months. all zhongli wants is to be able to hold you in his arms again -- is that too much to ask? pairing: zhongli x gn!reader warnings: disappearance, description of injuries. it’s angst to fluff, okay? word count: ~1.6k words a/n: the spirit of sad zhongli consumed me and i really wanted to write this angst piece i guess. happy ending tho, dw. this is the power of the forehead zhongli pics.

Despite the countless years Zhongli had lived, it felt as if it had been eons since he last saw you. Each morning, he would awake to the other side of the bed being empty, your side of the still neatly made while the former archon’s half of the sheets had been jostled to the high heavens from his restlessness due to your absence. He had become accustomed to your brief absences as you were an adventurer. Your commissions often forced you away from his side for days at a time.

However, there had never been an absence as worrisome as your current one. For the last month, you had gone completely off the grid. Nobody had heard from you, nobody even knew if you were alive. What should have been a simple mission led to your complete disappearance. Zhongli had even gone as far to recruit Childe in the search for you, but even his Fatui connections had turned up nothing.

All Zhongli had left was continuous use of his resources to seek out any lead that might bring you home, but in the cold nights spent alone, Zhongli couldn’t help but bitterly weep over the fact that if he was still an archon, he would have found you by now. Stuck in this mortal form with limited powers, Zhongli feels the sheer vulnerability that ingrains itself within human DNA as he dresses up for work every day. He feels the hollow fear that paints his insides and dries quickly whenever he looks in the mirror. It leaves a film that feels as if it will never go away.

For once in his life, the almighty Morax feels useless. He detests experiencing such mortal woes, but he can almost hear Guizhong’s amused laughter in his ear about how Rex Lapis had fallen so hard and felt so desperate over the company of a mere mortal human.

She would have loved you, he realizes one day as he eats his breakfast alone. Before Zhongli can stop himself, tears are falling onto his plate as unfamiliar emotions consume him once more.

One month turns into two. Two turn into four. Four turn into six and Zhongli only grows more bitter. Even with the limitations of this weakened form he took on when he gave up his archonhood, his memory is still as strong as ever. Zhongli cherishes the way he can tell others stories about you, but despises the way your smile shines in his mind every time he closes his eyes. He detests the way his hand feels bare without yours in it. Most of all, Zhongli hates the way he can’t hear the three little words he had come to adore fall from your lips once more, even if their memory echoes around in his head.

In the mortal-centric world that Zhongli now traverses, there is little time for grief. Life moves on and unfortunately, Zhongli realizes, everyone expects him to as well. Work continues on as usual at Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, but Hu Tao’s pranks are softer and his colleagues are kinder in their words. Eventually, people stop asking about you. No news means nothing has changed and Zhongli can see in their eyes that they have no hope of your return.

He wonders if the mortals pity him for his loss.

Zhongli wonders if they would still feel differently if they knew he was Rex Lapis.

Rather than letting empty nights consume him as he sits in your shared home alone, Zhongli takes on more work. Hu Tao initially voices her concerns, but a sharp, yet desperate glance from Zhongli has her holding back her words and instead has her placing more paperwork upon Zhongli’s desk. If Zhongli can’t be efficient in searching for you, he might as well busy himself until you return.

You will return, he reassures himself. You have to.

Zhongli lies in bed with a new lover: Grief. It wraps her seductive arms around him, pulling him into her misery, entrenching him in the bitter aftertaste of love that has long since reached its expiry date. He hates her, yet she refuses to leave the bed, resting on your side and holding him close. If he squints, the hollow void of Grief materializes itself in the shape of you.

Zhongli requests more paperwork to avoid her company.

However, eight months after your disappearance, Zhongli’s outlook on the world flips on its head once more. The desolation that rages inside him is briefly distracted as commotion occurs outside of Zhongli’s office. The funeral consultant’s door is closed, yet the sheer noise of shuffling and yelling that appears to be coming from the desk of the receptionist causes him to poke his head out the doorframe.

Down the hall, he sees a frantic head of ginger hair, which quickly matches Zhongli’s eyes with its own cerulean ones. Childe, Zhongli notes with confusion. The two of them were friends, certainly, but not close enough to make impromptu visits to the other’s place of work.

“Zhongli!” Childe bellows down the hall and Zhongli wonders what situation could possibly result in Childe feeling the need to disrupt the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor in such an uncouth manner. Zhongli’s bewilderment grinds to an abrupt halt as Childe utters his next three words.

“We found them.”

The next moments are agonizingly slow, despite the immediate rush Zhongli throws himself into, hastily getting his things together and heading out the door. A simple nod from Hu Tao gives him the permission he needs to leave, but Zhongli would have fought Celestia if it meant he could see you again. The paperwork that rests on his desk is long since forgotten as he follows Childe’s hurried pace, the two of them nearly breaking out into a sprint as Childe guides Zhongli to your location.

When Zhongli sets eyes on you, you’re resting in an infirmary bed in the back of Northland Bank, one typically used for fallen Fatui agents. Amidst the Tsaritsa’s décor, your innocence looks out of place, but Zhongli’s heart swells nonetheless. Your figure is exhausted as your chest softly moves up and down, eyes shut in an uncomfortable rest. Bruises and scars mottle your skin, along with bandages that encase your arms and legs. Even with all of your injuries and your battered state, Zhongli swears he’s never seen a more relieving, beautiful sight.

You’re alive. Quietly, Zhongli moves to sit next to you and reaches out for your hand, but hesitates before he can take it in yours. The two of you had been apart for so long. You were in front of him now, yet your sleeping status still left a divide between the two of you. It was clear to Zhongli that you had been through hell and back, so he withdraws his hand, not wanting to bother your rest, and instead elects to sit on a chair near your bed.

Childe wordlessly excuses himself before Zhongli can issue his thanks, but the archon knows that Childe is more than aware of how much Zhongli appreciates the gesture of the Fatui both rescuing you and allowing you to recuperate on their premises. No debt goes unpaid, but Zhongli would have paid any amount of Mora just to see you safe again.

As Zhongli shifts his weight, the wooden chair lets out a noisy creak and, much to Zhongli’s horror, your eyes flutter open groggily at the noise.

“Zhongli,” You croon, moving to step out of the bed. At that moment, Zhongli realizes you’re farther in the healing process than expected, likely due to the work of one of the Fatui’s Vision-wielding healers. You stumble over to him and Zhongli immediately stands, capturing you in his firm arms before you can fall.

“Darling, you should rest,” Zhongli chides, but the look of love in your eyes as you glance at him silences his complaints. Warmth floods through his chest as your body heat merges with his. You are here. You have returned.

Before he can stop himself, Zhongli lets out a relieved laugh before lifting you up and twirling you around in a hug. You let out a noise of surprise before giggling along with him. As he sets you down, you use the opportunity to plant a kiss on Zhongli’s cheek before wrapping your arms around his torso, hugging him tightly. Your firm yet gentle touch reminds him of his godhood. With you, Zhongli feels unstoppable.

“I missed you,” You murmured, leaning in to listen to his heartbeat. “I thought of you every day.”

Once again overwhelmed by the utterly unfamiliar, utterly human emotions, Zhongli’s eyes well up with tears as you begin to hum a soft Liyuean melody as you hold him close, his hands rubbing small circles on your back as he returns your gesture. For all the times he had wished to hear those three little words from you again, Zhongli realizes what he desired most of all those months you had been missing: the ability to say the words to you himself.

Rather than be his typical longwinded self, Zhongli realizes that for all of the complexities that entrench the current situation, only simple words are needed to convey all that he feels in this moment. Therefore, rather than reciting affirmations that would rival that of the most glorious of weddings, Zhongli smiles softly and presses a kiss to your hair as you continue to listen to his heartbeat.

“I love you,” He murmurs and, as you bury your face in his chest, he feels you smile in return as you trace a heart with one of your fingers onto his back.

For all the months you had been gone, he now has a plethora more to make memories with you and Zhongli is determined to keep you safe throughout all of them.

#writing endings is hard lol #might remove the primogem banner if this doesnt show up in tags eventually #zhongli #genshin impact #zhongli x reader #genshin impact x reader #//zhongli

1K notes · View notes