+ zhongli x reader long fic!
[ prologue + notes here! ] [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]
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+ general notes: we’re finally getting this plot machine working! i’m glad you guys are paying attention to the little details ?
+ warnings: excessive drinking of alcohol
12 Mondstadt winds
It started just with putting your head in your hand and dejectedly staring down into your wineglass. Venti had been trying to tell you stories you just didn’t care to hear, his awkward laughter punctuating each sentence, and you’d been utterly unresponsive. With frustration, you knocked back the wine, and when it began to loosen your tensed muscles, your resistance to drinking more continued to slip.
The bard did not help.
“Wow… you can really hold quite a bit down for a m‒er, uh… you’re a strong drinker!”
The tavern walls were spinning, and you couldn’t hold your head up for the life of you. “I… I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Oh, uh… try… not to?”
“What is going on here?”
You’d put your head down, eyes shut to block out the bright lights of the tavern. A pounding was creeping up in your skull, and you’d begun to realize far, far too late with a fire in your stomach that you’d drank too much.
“I told you‒” a sigh of utter disappointment cut the words short, “why can’t you just listen?”
“Ehe…”
“Head to the Knight’s headquarters right away and make yourself useful for once; she’s not going very much farther than that in this state. We will need a room for the night. After… adepti help me, I don’t even know what I’m going to do with you, bard.”
You groaned as a hand smoothed across the back of your shoulders. You picked up your head, dizzily looking up into pots of honey. “Zh… Zh…”
“I should’ve known better to think even leaving you alone with the bard was such a good idea,” Zhongli muttered more to himself than anyone else, hardly even speaking to you. “I guess I will continue to suffer the consequences of my actions until I learn better. Now, let us get you into a bed. Some water will do you good, too.”
The world was flipping around, all upside down and twisting side to side, and you didn’t realize how weak and useless your muscles were until there was an arm sliding beneath your slack knees. The other found your shoulders, and the movement of Zhongli lifting you into his arms was not quite the romantic experience you thought it would be. You groaned, head rolling loose on your neck.
“I don’t… feel so… good…” you struggled out, stomach aching. You were in Zhongli’s arms, one side of your body pressed to his chest, and you sloppily linked your arms around his neck.
“I can’t imagine that you would,” Zhongli whispered. “But, I’m going to take you somewhere safe where you can lie down and rest. Sobering tea would do you no good at this stage; it will have to be sleep that remedies this.”
You hadn’t realized how hard you’d gone in on the dandelion wine until you felt your head pulse with agony from Zhongli’s every movement. You squeezed your eyes shut, summoning all your strength to hold onto his neck as he took you away. Your fingers messily clutched at the tufts of his hair at the back of his neck, a few catching the longer length of his ponytail. As your headache and stomachache only grew, you heard the thud of his footsteps on cobblestone streets and the distant buzz of nightlife around the both of you. As he ascended stairs, you felt cool winds brushing across your blazingly hot body, alcohol warmth burning in every bloodstream within you. Then, the whispers of the wind and the sound of distant talking, laughter, and shouting were cut off by the ease and creak of a door opening and shutting.
“Mr. Zhongli? Venti came ahead of time and told us you needed a room for the night… she had one too many drinks, is that right?”
“Unfortunately so. I made the mistake of thinking that bard was anything but a bad influence.”
You groaned, feeling every soft reverberation of Zhongli’s voice in his chest.
“It was best we stayed in the city for the night; we had been hosted at Master Diluc’s winery, but… again, that bard…”
“It’s quite alright. There are a few guest rooms we always have unoccupied. You can find them further down the hall; last three doors, two on the left, one on the right. Make yourself comfortable, and if you need anything else, we will be glad to help,” the light, airy voice reassured.
“Thank you, Grand Master.”
There were more footsteps and the jolt of Zhongli moving again. You were beginning to feel the fatigue pulling at your consciousness, and you let out a dissatisfied whimper when you felt your body lie to something soft and Zhongli’s arms slid away from you.
“No… don’t go…” you pried your eyes open, catching Zhongli’s forearm as he moved to give you space.
“It is best I find you some water‒”
“No,” you insisted again, barely functioning as you fought heavy eyelids and mumbled out, “e-every time… I-I have you… y-you leave… again…”
There was utter silence for a moment. Your eyelids fell shut, but you felt the edge of the bed dip, and just one finger graced your cheek. His whole hand slowly enveloped it, and a sigh carrying the weight of a thousand words spilled out of him. “My flower…”
“Please… I-I wanted t-to…. Just spend… time with you… here,” you continued to admit, words strained at best both from the melancholy and the alcohol.
“There isn’t anything quite like intoxication to bring about such blunt admittances, is there?” Zhongli murmured. “I can do nothing but apologize, and when you are sober, I owe you yet another. I, too, find myself wondering how I end up… not spending this precious time with you as I had hoped. When the moment is right, I can explain to you better just what I mean by that. For now…” another sigh unfurled from his lips, long and thorough, “just rest, my flower. I will not depart from your side again until you are confident that it is alright that I do so.”
/
You felt secure despite the ache of fatigue and dull hangover when you slowly came to. You weren’t sure at first what you were feeling, but your bleary eyes pried open, fighting sunlight that shone across the floor and highlighted the fine dust in the air. On the table beside you and the bed, a pair of gloves lied motionless. The long, amber sheen of an elaborate jacket hung over the back of the chair at the quaint table, a starkly white tie draped atop it. Then, you realized the owner of all these things was there, too.
A chest was pressing into your shoulder blades firmly before deflating, the motion as languid as dripping molasses. Arms encircled you, breaths tickling your hair. In the slender bed definitely meant for one, Zhongli had somehow found his way into it with you. You were stirring, but upon realizing he was still quite asleep, you tried to still.
In the sunlight, in the embrace of his arms, in the whispery noises of only his breath and your own, you existed in pure serenity. You felt safe, safer than you ever had, so completely and utterly sure that as Zhongli’s, you were untouchable. He cared perhaps even more than he let on, and that care meant he’d never let even so much as a hair on your head come out of place. It made your heart ache painfully, and you were falling, falling, falling. You didn’t understand how this man had come to be such a perfect existence, too perfect not to slip and fall head over heels for. You wondered how every woman, and for that matter, man he passed didn’t simply swoon at the sight of him. Zhongli was everything, and then some, too good to be true.
You tried to save this memory, too, locking it in the back of your mind. The cruel truth was that this wouldn’t always be the case. As much as you were growing to love the idea of calling yourself his for the rest of your lives, more than willing to marry him now, you knew the bitter truth would destroy it. You knew, even if you managed to dodge and weave everything threatening to undo your entanglement with the man, something would eventually shatter the perfect life you fought to put together.
Zhongli shifted, knees brushing up against the backs of your calves. He let out a breath, arms tightening around you, nose burying into the hair on the back of your head. Then, he quieted again, and you were fighting back tears and the lump in your throat. Zhongli’s stir elapsed back to slumber, and by the time he was completely still and relaxed once more, you’d managed to stomach your anguish.
You had a few more days in Mondstadt. You had who knows how long until the vision hunters were in Liyue. There was a still a bit of time left to savor this‒Zhongli embracing you, the warmth of his body keeping your own comfortable. As you readjusted your head, you saw a glimpse of the ends of his trousers. His long legs stuck far beyond the edge of the thin blanket over the two of you, and on the small bed, you two had little room to spare, if any. Still, it was a moment in time you would never, ever forget. It was a sanctity you could only dream of, perhaps even better than touching the celestial plane itself.
/
“I must apologize to you, my flower. I did not know my absences brought you such turmoil, and I will ensure that I do not ever leave your side longer than ever necessary unless I have no other option. I must ask you again to forgive me. I will do everything within my power to stay by your side.”
It had taken everything‒everything‒not to melt, not to let your knees buckle, not to just gape at him. Zhongli, with shoulders back and a hesitance in his eye, had wholeheartedly apologized for leaving you all those moments for your first few days together in Mondstadt. You’d almost fainted, golden eyes seeking any shred of forgiveness, and after the apology, you found Zhongli quite literally did not separate from your side unless you asked him to.
When the larger details of the plan were finalized at the winery following that, you two returned to the city’s walls. And, you felt as if you were dreaming. Anything that so much as caught your eye as you stopped to look at it on a shelf in a store or in a display case was yours only a few moments later‒jewelry, clothes, flowers, trinkets, little material possessions that you didn’t need one bit, but you could see something shift in Zhongli’s eye every time you took another gift with an elated smile. His fingers would brush your collarbones whenever he draped a new necklace around your neck, making you shiver as goosebumps crept across your skin in the most delightful tingle. You dined on meals fit for a king, ornate bowls and gold-rimmed wineglasses the very minimum of Zhongli’s dining standards. There was always the rich smell of melting fat, buttery pastries, the savory scent of oil and cooking wine. A thousand different flavors graced your tongue in only a few days, Mondstadt winds tousling your hair and making your seashell earrings quiver. Zhongli would sip the smallest bits of Osmanthus wine in between thoughts, his fingers cradling the glass as gently as he often cradled you. You felt like you two were royalty, spending leisurely hours walking the edge of the lake as Zhongli told you anything you wanted to know, his knowledge running even deeper on, well, just about anything, than you even had initially perceived. His words were slow, voice carried by the wind, and there was no rush in him at all to be done talking to you.
Most of all, you found the invisible boundary between you and him was breaking. A hand in yours here, an arm around your waist there, a brush of his thumb along your lower cheek just for a fleeting moment. A hand outstretched, awaiting you to step out of your chair after a meal. Slender fingers wrapping around your own hand securely. One night, you’d even stopped at the edge of the lake as the sun set over Mondstadt’s horizon, and you’d just lied your head against his chest and watched it go down. The satin fabric of his tie was smooth on your cheek, and Zhongli stood as tall and firm as ever. Nothing seemed to be able to move him just like a boulder remained unmoved through thousands of eons of time. On the final night you were to spend in Mondstadt before making the trek back to Liyue, you’d been looking at a set of solid silver bangles in a display case when you looked up.
Zhongli seemed to grow closer with every touch. He was standing directly beside you, and when yours eyes met his, you could even feel his breath tickling your cheeks. In the evening light, the sound of others talking and footsteps on the cobble, you decided it would’ve been the best moment.
Yet, as you began to stretch onto your toes, Zhongli turned his head. The romance was shattered just like that, your heart suddenly throbbing like someone had stabbed you directly in the chest. Had he really just turned away from a kiss? Maybe you were the one rushing things now. However, it was vague whether he’d seen your intentions at all. He seemed so unperturbed while you felt nothing but disappointment welling up in a sickening pressure inside of you.
“Would you like these, my flower?”
Zhongli’s fingers trailed your waist as he stepped forward to look better at the bangles. You just stared up at his side profile, and his eyes drifted over every other piece of jewelry before the two of you.
Internally, you told yourself it was for the best. You were desperately infatuated with the man beside you, and your little bubble of sweet heaven in Mondstadt would perhaps be the highest point you’d ever reach with him. Now, you’d begun dreading even setting footstep back in Liyue. You’d heard it, just the faintest whisper, but you’d heard it over your shoulder one moment not long ago when you two had headed to the riverside.
“They say electro vision hunters are going all across the continent! My brother just returned from Liyue, and he said there’s rumors they’re hiding out there right now.”
You’d clutched a fistful of Zhongli’s jacket tightly with white knuckles, but he’d been talking, too swept up in his recollections of histories to notice. In the end, you couldn’t even tell him.
-
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