Kaeya’s affections are loud but his love is quiet. It’s clear to people the nation over when Kaeya’s found a new skirt

• Kaeya’s affections are loud but his love is quiet.

It’s clear to people the nation over when Kaeya’s found a new skirt to chase. He doesn’t exactly leave a trail of broken hearts in his wake- no he’s far too busy to actually take the hearts he’s playing with- but he makes it clear when he’s found a new person to pique his curiosity. He’s not big on gifts but he’s big on touch. On connection. On tucking your hair behind your ear and pressing the pad of his thumb to your lip. On bantering with you so well and so easily that even the archons must blush to hear him. Even once his interest has snowballed into open romantic intent, his affections are loud. Maybe especially so. His winks and open arms are emphatic, his flirtation boisterous beyond all belief. Kaeya’s not one to be ashamed of his blatant adoration. Hugs, kisses, handholding- no form of pda is off the table for him. Of course, it’s all the more fun if you get shy and embarrassed, he’s a tease if nothing else, so he’ll push the envelope quite far if he knows it won’t make you run in the other direction. At least, not if your running isn’t the fun push and pull kind. His hand in yours becomes his hand on your lower back- which often becomes him not so subtly patting your backside in full view of the market and other knights. He’s quick to tease and be teased. Quick to touch and be touched. Sweet and sharp words dance on his tongue as he masterfully tries to play you to his tune while all within his vicinity are forced to listen in. The cavalry captain has no shame in sharing his affections for you with all the world to see.

But when he loves? When Kaeya decides to bare the vulnerable frost of his heart to you and pray, just pray, that you don’t find the truth of him disfigured and destitute? It’s quiet. As quiet as his head on your shoulder and those three words a broken whisper against your skin. As quiet as a tear racing down your nape and a plea on his lips. When Kaeya loves, he loves soft. He loves unobtrusively. He loves as delicately as a winter’s night. The snowscape of his feelings so fragile and yet- so impossibly beautiful that the world becomes silent save for your hearts beating in the silence of one another’s. When Kaeya loves you it’s a cool palm cupping your warm cheek and a shy smile on his lips as he tells you that he’d be lost without you. When Kaeya loves you, it’s with a ring of kisses around your heart as he whispers that every moment of suffering was worth it if it all lead back to you. When Kaeya loves you, he loves you like a man finding his way home for the first time. A heart is a home and yours is his.

• Diluc’s affections are quiet and so is his love.
  

Dilucs affections are as muted as the flicker of a candle flame. He’s a dangerous man  with a deadly purpose in life and the last thing he wants is to be the reason for a target being painted on your back. He shows you his affections with the rise of his hip bumping against yours when the two of you walk side by side through the city. Just a little closer than what would be considered polite. Diluc shows you his affections with his hand holding yours for a fleeting moment, gloved thumb gliding longingly over the rise of your knuckles, before he pulls away without a word to hand you a drink, or a dish, or little gift that he had thought you would like (and that had brought you to mind when he’d lain eyes upon it, but everything makes him think of you- you’re always with him no matter where he goes or what he does). His affections shimmer softly, every act so intimate and filled with adoration that to look upon them as an outsider feels intrusive beyond words.

When Diluc loves it’s just as quiet- at least to the rest of the world. His love for you rages in his eyes and his touch. You do not doubt the blaze of his feelings for you- as undeniable as an inferno. Especially when he gazes upon you like you’re the only person he’s ever wanted for his own. The only reason that he might be diverted from his path of destruction. Diluc knows the dangers of a flame that burns too hot and he would not let himself turn you to ash in the light of his unquenchable devotion. He would never forgive himself if he were to burn you with his touch or his love. And so he gentles it all for you. Fans it into something that would be unrecognizable if you did not know him so well. A solar storm transformed into sunshine. A wildfire soothed into lamplight. His love is only quiet in the same way one cannot hear the roar of the sun.

• Childe’s affections are loud and so is his love.
  

You’re not sure how you caught his attention but there’s no getting away from it once it breaks over you like a mid afternoon shower. One minute you’re high and dry and the next you’re soaked through with more affection than you thought possible. There’s gifts and hugs and puppy eyed looks full of love sickness. Childe takes your hand in his and makes it clear that he’s not really one to play games. He’s not a fan of the politics of romance and he’d much rather get to the fun part where he can take all the hugs he wants. It doesn’t matter if you’re shy or unsure of him at first, the two of you can work through it. He sweeps through your life, a sudden storm of endless passion and sentiment. If you want to run, that’s fine, but there’s no getting away from his strong armed attempts to woo you. Unless that proves to be the absolutely wrong tactic- in which case he’ll happily change methods. Give him a chase and he’ll hunt you down with glee. Or accept his affections and he’ll be just as happy to spoil you whenever he can. Either way, you’ll always find yourself the subject of adoration when you’re together. He’s not afraid to make a fool out of himself for all to witness, so long as he’s your fool.

His love for you would be scary if, you know, he didn’t love you so much. It’s almost oppressive at times- like having the weight of the ocean pressing down on your shoulders. Childe does not leave room for doubt when he loves you. Not in your mind or in the minds of anyone else who so much as looks at you. He wants you to wear his colors and you find yourself unable to say no when he asks so earnestly. He wants you draped in jewelry bought with his money and you can’t say no when each piece has his name and his love carved into the metal. Each shining gift is a bit of love and you are beneath the tide of it. Childe’s love is wanting and he wants you and you and you- until you’re not sure if you’re drowning in him or he’s drowning in you. But it’s not always like you’re being swallowed by a storm. Most of the time it’s a gentle shower, leaving your heart clean of any fear. Childe loves you. Childe protects you. Childe devotes his everything, all of it, to you. There is no room for denial when his love for you is as wide and deep as an ocean swell.

• Zhongli’s affections are quiet but his love is loud.
  

It actually comes as a surprise when Zhongli expresses his affection for you. He seems so stoic, so unconcerned, that you don’t even notice when he hooks his pinky with yours as the two of you walk down the street together. You wonder when he’ll let go, surely having done this on accident, but he doesn’t. Instead, when you don’t pull away, he moves his hand so he can twine his fingers with yours. It’s almost disorienting at times, the way he shows his adoration of you. Never announcing his intention or actions and simply moving as if his gentle touches were natural. A reflex of his being in your presence. He acts like he’s been doting on you all his life, and a relationship so deep seated doesn’t need to be announced in flashy words or actions. Feeding you from his plate, kissing the back of you hand, even going so far as to kiss you sweetly when he drops you off at home. His affections aren’t loud because they’re just… there. As if this was simply how the two of you had always been for all of your existences.

For someone who shares affection with you so silently and steadily, his love is shockingly loud. Despite the assuredness of his actions, you can’t miss the blush of his cheeks when he tells you how ardently he feels. It’s enchanting, the way his lovely amber eyes dart away in a wildly uncharacteristic show of uncertainty. Like quaking earth, his love shudders before you, a landslide of emotion cultivated over hundreds of thousands of years. His devotion is as unwavering as steel and he tells you a hundred times a day in a hundred different ways that- of the thousands of years he’s been alive- the ones he’s shared with you have been his favorite by far.