#zhongli fancfic | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thesparklingwriter · 2 years

Text

don't dwell on the past

'"Please forgive me," he says, kissing your hand lightly.'

tags: pet names, Zhongli is very pure, soft Zhongli, fem!reader, Zhongli and reader are in a relationship, reader and Zhongli fall out, reader tries to sleep on the couch, someone remind me to come back and edit this

masterlist | ao3 link | taglist | next

please do not repost or edit my work. reblogs are greatly appreciated !

i'm also taking ideas for the rest of the flufftober days, feel free to leave any suggestions in my asks, no matter how self-indulgent they may be!

You and Zhongli rarely fall out. To be more exact, you rarely fall out over anything serious. And even when you do, screaming matches and insults are never thrown about, and today is no exception. The problem is that sometimes, quiet, rational words don't do enough to show how you feel, and you wish you could have a good old scream at a wall, just to get rid of the tension. You love Zhongli, you truly do. But he can be really out of touch with you sometimes.

"I really don't like it when you intervene when I'm fighting." you say to him, after a silent journey home. You prefer discussing things at home than out where everyone can hear you. It's probably why you like living in the mountains so much.

"I know.” Zhongli sighs. He'd moved by instinct, driven by his desire to keep you safe. He has to manually override the urges he's gotten used to condoning as an archon, and he tries his best for your sake. Either way, he doesn't want you to think he's making excuses for himself, so he tries to word things carefully. "I should have made more of an effort to respect your wishes."

You nod. "Sometimes it makes me feel like you don't think I'm capable."

"I don't think that. Not at all. I like protecting you because I know it's a luxury, and it’s something you’re more than capable of doing yourself. But I understand." Zhongli says softly. You nod, thankful for his ever-reasonable response, and scold yourself for getting so frustrated. He was only trying to keep you safe, but it felt like he was undermining years of your experience. "I shall think of a compromise so this doesn't happen again."

Zhongli always gets formal when it comes to disagreements. He's driven towards an end solution, to the point when you sometimes have to tell him that you want to feel a little bit sad. Bottling up the emotions doesn't make you feel all too great, especially when it's because you feel unreasonable. "Can we talk about that tomorrow, please?"

He looks at you, sensing that today is one of those days when you want to be upset for a little while. He nods. He'll oblige you for a while longer, but he won't let you go to sleep angry at him. Just as you never let him sleep angry at you. He wonders whether you know you do it, how you always make sure he's okay after an argument, or whether it's a habit burned into your sheer being. He doesn't care. He loves it anyway.

But he also senses that this has been brewing for a little while. There was two weeks ago, when a Fatui skirmisher was about to hit your blind spot and he shielded you. Your complaint on that front was quick surface level—you admitted that you forgot to cover your blind spot. And then there was the week after that when you were in a domain, and he panicked yet again, generating a pillar directly in your line of sight. You'd taken a while to calm down from that one. And finally today. You were going to go out on your own for some practice, but Zhongli couldn't bear the thought of you getting injured, especially against Sumerian enemies you had no experience with. He promised he would only intervene when you told him to, but once again, he panicked and petrified all the enemies in a mile radius.

You understand that he's protective of you, but archons, he can be a little suffocating sometimes.

"I'm going to clean up and get changed," you say to him. You know he'll hover downstairs for a little while and give you your space before joining you in bed. But today, you don't want to be so easily swayed. Maybe a night on the couch is in order.

You grab a light cover from the closet and make your way downstairs. You meet Zhongli halfway, who's in his archon form. You frown to yourself. Zhongli's archon form finds itself displayed to you on various occasions, some of them as domestic as wanting to change a lightbulb, but there are times when it has significance. Like him wanting to release himself of some tension. Is he beating himself up over this that badly?

"Where are you going?" He asks, eyes laced with confusion.

"I think I'm going to stay on the couch tonight. I'm going to think about some things."

Zhongli doesn't seem entirely pleased with that, but he doesn't dare tell you otherwise. He has to give you your space, he reminds himself.

"Alright," he says softly. "Sleep well." He omits the 'love' he usually adds at the end, for fear of making you feel obliged to follow him up the stairs. Your feelings are always his priority. He knew what he was getting into with you, and he refuses for his ignorance or inability to control his own instinct to ruin things.

"You too."

He goes into the room you share before deciding that, if you're not joining him, he'd rather not be painfully reminded of your absence, so he changes course and heads to a spare room with his change of clothes. Usually, he talks to you as you wash your face, or you braid his hair for him before you get too tired, but there are no such intimacies happening today. You've been upset with him for a grand total of three hours and he already misses you.

He quiets his thoughts and crawls into bed. Bad call. The bed in this room wasn't chosen with his eight-foot-tall form in mind. He'll either have to shift back and deal with the repercussions or spend the entire night with half of his body hanging off the bed.

You can't sleep either. You never realised how much you relied on Zhongli's calming effect on you to sleep so peacefully. It's almost embarrassing how much you rely on him, even after a year of being together, to the point when you miss him when he's in a room away from you. You decide that if Zhongli doesn't come downstairs in the next ten minutes, you'll go to him. There's really no point in dragging this on any further. Your need to be a little bit sad has blossomed into feelings of loneliness, and you can't take the extra pain.

"yn?" You sit up, glancing at the staircase. There stands Zhongli, his hair untied, his pyjamas rumpled as if he'd been tossing and turning all night. "May I talk to you?"

Always so formal, you think, before standing up and approaching him.

"I know I'm often overbearing when it comes to your safety," he says softly, taking your hands in his. “And I know it can be frustrating for you. But I promise I will do whatever it takes to restrain myself from inciting this sort of complaint from you again.”

You should be focusing on his words, but you're more distracted by the fact he's on his knees before you, looking up at you with such an earnest gaze.

"Please forgive me," he says, kissing your hand lightly. You slide your hands out of his, and into the hair between his horns. He smiles blissfully, glancing at you through relief-filled eyes. “I can’t bear to spend the night without you by my side.”

"I can't stay mad at you," you sigh. "You're forgiven. You can get off your knees now."

Zhongli chuckles, standing up and pulling you into a hug. "I have a feeling you're trying to hide how much pleasure you found in that."

You roll your eyes and lead him upstairs by his hand. "I'm not hiding anything."

"Fine then, remind me of what I said." Zhongli crosses his arms, and you ignore him, sitting him down on the bed so you can reach his hair. He thinks your ritual of braiding his hair is for his sake, but in reality, if you don't do it, you end up with half of it in your mouth in the night.

"No need to dwell on the past," you quip, leaning down to kiss his neck softly. "All is forgiven, remember?"

a/n there's a whole section that got removed between reader being upstairs and coming back down, I'll fix it at someone point but i blame ao3

#zhongli #zhongli fancfic #flufftober #zhongli flufftober #genshin fanfic #genshin fluff #zhongli x reader #zhongli x you #my beloved <3 #headcanons #fanfiction #ao3 fanfiction #thank you for all the likes and reblogs i was scared this blog would stay buried #zhongli fluff #zhingli fluff #31 days of Zhongli fluff #tswzhongliflufftober

152 notes · View notes

senpiecakes · 2 years

Text

I'm Sorry, I Can't Look at You Anymore

— Summary: You love them, but it seems like their heart still longs for someone else.

— Themes: Angst, breaking up, can’t get over their ex, hurt and no comfort

— Warnings: Major character death (reader dies on Scaramouche’s part), mentions of murder/violence on Scaramouche’s part, not really a person on Xiao’s part but more of an idea, mention of death in Kazuha’s part, some Genshin Lore spoilers

— Characters: Zhongli, Xiao, Kazuha, Scaramouche

— Notes: First time doing a Genshin thing (Genshin Player haha point and laugh), anyways I hope you guys like it :) Also Scaramouche is my favorite one.

— Aftermath: I'm Sorry, I Can't Look at You Anymore 2

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zhongli’s eyes always wandered. You knew that for as long as you knew him. Gaze longingly staring out into the sea, up at the sky, even at others, but never at you. No matter how many walks down Liyue Harbor, how many silent nights with each other you and Zhongli shared, his eyes were always drawn away, voice so distant and touch so cold. You wondered if it was your appearance, the way you dress, the way you acted was off putting enough for Zhongli to not even dare look at you with the same fascination he would with everything else. Hell, he was touchier with the vendors than he had ever been with you. You began to shrink away from him to figure out within yourself what was wrong until he would notice and pull you back in- and that was enough to affirm your fears. It became an exhausting cycle of you drawing away only for Zhongli to pull you back into his game of loveless submission. It was until Lantern Rite that you decided enough was enough.

“I can’t do this anymore, Zhongli.” You said it in your most silent tone, your voice carried away by the winds, the happy cheers of the crowd and the tumultuous fireworks. But Zhongli heard you. For the first time in your relationship with him, Zhongli heard the pain and exhaustion in your voice. He felt your trembling fingers under his own. He saw how beautiful you looked. Your face illuminated by the soft glow of the lanterns, eyes tired and glossed over, cheeks a soft shade of red. He saw your pained face and marveled in it. The bit that hurt the most were the Glaze Lillies he had given you were pinned to your hair- in a manner Guizhong always did those many years ago. No matter how long he stared, you knew that in his gaze, he saw someone else. You understood now that his love had once belonged to another. His silence was enough of an answer for you to walk away. Only this time, Zhongli didn’t dare to take you back even though you begged the gods for him to do so. One more time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xiao is known to be distant. The last standing Yaksha forever fighting to repay a debt many knew one could never achieve. His work was grueling torture, so he’s bound to build walls around himself. Before that however, he was free. Perhaps it was fate that led him to you when you came bounding up into his life with the same freedom he once had, now a sullen dream he wishes he could devour. But you, vigilant as you were, tried to break down his walls that he had built so precariously in your attempt to get closer to the adeptus. Xiao knew better than to let you be associated with him- he would only burden you with his karmic debt and you would only burden him with your mortal life he would try so desperately to protect. As much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to keep you safe.

“Xiao.” You would call out to him, so carelessly, unabashed by your need to be by his side. And like a loyal dog, he would be there in the blink of an eye. He didn’t mind at first with how frequently you called out to him- whether it be to take a walk or to pick a Qixing flower from the highest peak of the mountain, Xiao would be there. It took a while for him to realize that maybe this was the closest thing he had to freedom, that you were the sweetest dream he could ever have to the once happy life he held before being bound to eons of debt. But Xiao knew better. The more and more you called, less and less would Xiao appear. He was afraid of you. He looked into your eyes and saw how carefree you were, how happy, unconfined by something as terrible as death and destruction. He saw his old self in you and was terrified. Terrified that he might one day tie you down in his karmic debt and he would have to relive his most painful days through you- an individual he swore to protect. You had no knowledge why he left- no matter how many times you called his name, he never showed. Unknown to you, he yielded back to his chains of being the Vigilant Yaksha for the sake of protecting your soul and his own.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kazuha was a peculiar individual. You knew of him from his famed poems, gentle manner and his reputation for being a runaway as well as a criminal from Inazuma. This strange boy piqued your interest once he became a member of the Crux Fleet, a crew you came to know as your family. You yourself was wanted from Inazuma for speaking against the laws of the Raiden Shogun and actively participating in strikes against her orders for Eternity until you were eventually caught and had to become a fugitive. Once this had reached the ears of Kazuha, he too became intrigued by you. He saw your passion, your courage, your willingness to fight for what’s right. You found yourself becoming closer with the Ronin, exchanging stories from your past down to Kazuha reciting you his poems in his most romantic tone. You fell for him, and you fell hard. It was difficult not to and Kazuha noticed that. He let you in his life freely until one day he showed you a masterless vision. You yourself were visionless and he had hoped to see that maybe the vision would glow once more in your hand. Your disappointment from the empty husk of electro was unmatched with the empty stare Kazuha looked at you with.

“You’re not the one I’m looking for.” His words came to you like a gust of wind knocking your breath away. The Vision barely sparked in your grasp and with that, Kazuha turned to leave you. He had high hopes that you would be the one to resonate with the Vision of the person he once held so dearly. You both were so passionate, so brave, but Kazuha thought that maybe you lacked the vigor his companion once had. You didn’t understand it then- you were left so confused and hurt by the suddenness of his leaving, especially with how loved he made you feel. The wordlessness and rapid disappearance of Kazuha from your life made you question if his words that seemed so genuine were even genuine at all. Maybe you were only a pawn in his attempt to bring back someone he knows he could never get.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scaramouche barely tolerated you. You were by his side just as fast as you were gone- just like he had before you. Scaramouche made it clear that he only let you stay for his own selfish needs, that he wouldn’t care if anything had happened to you, that you are just dead weight. But deep down, he would cut down an army for you just like he did for him before. And you knew that too, so you stayed because you thought he cared for you, not knowing he held onto you for a memory that drifted away from him. It was until you were kind to him, gentle and patient that Scaramouche felt something he had promised to lock away so many centuries ago. The way you looked at him with kindness, taking in all his stinging words and managed to smile at him all the same made him feel angry. Disgusted. Hurt. You were too much like the person they took away. You brought back the feeling of longing and joy he once taught Scaramouche to feel. But now it’s a burden and with that, so are you; it was clear Scaramouche wanted you gone.

“I hate you.” He would say. So full of disdain that the venom he spat at you day and night almost burned down to your bones. It made you run away but he clung onto you again and again. All because you were too much like him, so courageous and stubborn. You thought it would change. How naïve could you be?

“I HATE YOU.” Scaramouche would yell as he stood over your shaking form, wondering where all the courage from before had gone. Even now in your most vulnerable, you managed to look and sound like him with your wide eyes and pitiful pleas for mercy. It drove Scaramouche mad with rage as he finally cut you down like the army he had promised to fight for you. So merciless in his attempt to rid of the past that had burdened him for so long- only for it to come crawling back in the form of You. His eyes were cold like steel, staring down at your unmoving body, his once malicious smile now replaced by an unapologetic frown. Only then would he kneel and laugh, crazed, telling you to get up over and over again.

“Come on, Katsuragi, let’s dance like old times, yeah?”

2K notes · View notes