Kaeya x Zhongli: Of Clouds and Lotus Blossoms.
“Are you well, little one? Is there anything I can do for you?”
So many words, so many tears, race to Kaeya’s lips. It’s taking everything within him to keep from breaking down, but there’s almost nothing left. He grips his sides and bows his head, trembling, fighting to hold back the tears when all he wants to do is cry. Every fragment of his being is commanding him to let go, to release, but he’s fighting. Fighting to keep himself together. He’s shards of glass, scattered all over the floor, and he continues to break but he’s trying. Trying to breathe, trying to stabilize himself, trying. When all he wants to do-
Is cry.
The softest hands cup his face once more. Eyes of night and dawn meet his.
“Please do not despair, small lotus flower. If there is a need that must be met, I will make sure it is met. Your friends have nothing to worry about, either.”
Paimon squirms in Xiangling’s arms. The young chef mumbles something about dinner, pats the pixie’s head and goes back to snoring. Kaeya pulls away from Zhongli, his inner and outer world an incomprehensible, maddening, wonderful mess. “You just don’t get it, do you?” the Knight hisses, eyes flashing, heart racing, life suddenly becoming a frightening, miraculous whirlpool. His voice still doesn’t feel like his own.
“You could have been killed back there! Does your life mean nothing to you?”
Zhongli frowns, looking as though Kaeya had once again brought up him not having any Mora. Innocence and hurt collide with radiance that defies all boundaries. “When it’s measured against yours, my life is a trivial trinket.”
So that’s it, then.
Everything within the Knight shatters.