+ zhongli x reader long fic!
[ prologue + notes here! ] [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]
[ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ]
+ general notes: this chapter is so short, but you’ll understand why when you read it. this marks the beginning of some INTENSE chapters. please make yourself comfortable, grab some tea or osmanthus wine, sit back, and just prepare yourself. more at the end. happy reading!
13 freedom
“It pains me to admit this, but I have business in the morning I simply cannot put aside. Would it be alright if I left you on your own just for a few hours after dawn? I will return as soon as matters have been resolved.”
“Aren’t we supposed to head back to Liyue tomorrow?”
“We will leave when we are ready, and there are just a few loose ends I need to tie up by visiting Master Diluc at the Angel’s Share in the morning. It is no rush.”
“Oh… Zhongli, that’s really okay. I know I… said some things, but I just…” you’d floundered for words. Just what? Wanted him to stay? He’d done just that ever since. “Really, I’m not worried. I’ll patiently wait for you tomorrow morning.”
When you awoke the next morning with plenty of room to stretch, it still felt a little off. No breath on your hair or arms intertwined around you were there to greet you, and you’d just lied in bed, trying to catch the subtle scent of Zhongli. Then, you rolled over, noting the change atop the bedside table.
A windwheel aster sat alone in a vase, and beneath the crystalline cup, a slip of parchment had been left. It piqued your curiosity quite a bit, and so, you set aside the flower, picking up the parchment.
Meet me in Windrise after dawn. You will know how to find me.
~ Zhongli
Your curiosity surged even more. Windrise? Didn’t Zhongli just say he had a bit of business to attend to? With the letter the only thing you could think about, you hurriedly dressed and set out. Zhongli had been acting strange ever since you’d arrived at the winery, and you were trying to make heads or tails of whatever it was going on. Plus, you two were already pushing back the clock; you were supposed to have been already gone. What had kept you two?
You’d felt a little uneasy encroaching beyond Mondstadt’s gates in just plain clothes with no weapon and no vision. You very well stuck to the dirt path, making birds fly off as you walked alongside the meadows of emerald green. You knew you were to head into the fields of Windrise, but where exactly were you to find the man in question?
Sunlight sparkled as a cloud drifted by, uncovering the sun just as you saw a gentle breeze kick up something distinctly pink in the grass. Upon closer inspection, you saw a petal, and then another, and your eyes drew zigzags as you connected the dots. A trail of silk flower petals wound deep into the tall grass, and you knew this was the marker you were looking for. You gingerly stepped out into the field, trying to anticipate what you would find further ahead. The petal trail continued until you stood beneath a great tree of sprawling limbs that rustled with every small breeze similarly tousling your hair. A Statue of the Seven was adjacent the tree, and a pace ahead of it, you saw the silhouette that could only belong to one man.
“Zhongli?”
He turned from the way he’d been facing, and upon seeing you, a smile bloomed across his face without a sliver of restraint. He took steps closer until it was the two of you under the tree, his golden irises so striking it was like looking into them for the first time all over again. “My flower,” he sighed, words drenched with nothing but… dare you say… love?
You felt the name send the same embarrassed flush across your cheeks. No amount of hearing it would ever make the feelings dull, it seemed.
“It is time that we spoke. The marriage is now planned and set in motion, and in time, you will stand by my side completely and utterly as my other half. Yet… I cannot help but hope…” Zhongli seemed wordless, one hand curling into a fist as he thought. It was not like him at all to be that way, and you patiently awaited him to gather his bearings.
“When you came to me that very first night in Liyue, all I could ask myself was: what was I doing? While a contract binds anyone who agrees to it, yes, there are times even a contract cannot make actions morally right. Who was I to force someone to become my solace? I felt… ashamed, the slightest bit regretful, even. You had a future that had nothing to do with me, yet I stole it away from you without any regard for anything but my own melancholy. I… was selfish.
“It is only to my benefit that it does not seem that my interference in your future has put you off. I cannot lie to you; there are feelings inside of me I can only attribute to strong words. When I think of ever letting you go even in the slightest, I just want to wrap you tighter in my arms. If I may infer, I do believe that you, too, have come to feel something akin to these emotions, as well. I had only dreamed of courting someone so flawlessly and finding myself feeling such remarkable ways, yet you find a new way each day to make my heart race, my flower.
“Despite the contract still binding us, I felt that there was more left to be established. When you had asked about being married in Liyue, I had truly considered it, but I… I did not want it to feel so… stiff. Forced. Controlled. It only seemed right we enjoyed the occasion somewhere where the contract mattered far less and the truth mattered far more. Here, in the land of freedom, I ask that you set any worries of the contract aside.”
It was all too much to fathom. Zhongli knelt, knee touching the ground, and the long ends of his jacket touched the soil underfoot, too. A melody wafted from the tree above you, harp strings plucking languidly, the sound caressing you as it rode the breeze. You stared in just absolute awe as Zhongli uncovered a small, black box, one earthy orange ring twinkling in the sunlight drifting through the tree cover.
“The truth is that I wish to take your hand in marriage, so that I may spend the rest of my life at your side. Would you do me the honor of marrying me?”
You were so overwhelmed, all you could do was throw yourself into his arms. Zhongli caught you, folding you in his grasp easily, and against the lapels of his jacket, you breathed, “Yes. Yes, yes, yes!” You pulled back, peering up into his eyes, the playing harp still filling the breeze with music.
Your eyelids fluttered closed just as Zhongli’s breath fanned over you. The sweetest, gentlest touch like that of a feather met your lips, and Zhongli shifted before his lips pressed over yours with more confidence. You were on the very verge of crying, ready to die of incredible elation right there in his arms. Zhongli pulled back, cleared his throat, and shifted to take out the ring.
It slid on over your finger with ease, and as you studied it closer, you noticed it was a simple band of cor lapis etched with a line of gold embedded into it.
“I did not know what you wanted as a proper wedding ring, so consider this but a placeholder. Now that everything else is arranged, we can take the time for you to pick whatever ring it is you would like.”
“Zh-Zhong… li…” you were breathless, swooning, far more of a blushing maiden than you’d ever expected yourself to become. He pulled you to your feet along with him, and you gripped onto the lapels of his jacket for stability.
“Now, we must set out and head back to Liyue before it is too late, my love.”
Too late. It was already far, far too late, but you were afloat on the high of love.
My love. You’d never thought you’d hear such a name out of his lips, and now, it was all you ever wanted to hear him say.
+ end notes: we did it!! we got him to call us his love and he traditionally proposed!!! also zhongli monologue!!! and the kiss!!! there will be more monologuing in the future too lmao. the implication here is when venti got u drunk he was supposed to just keep u distracted long enough so zhongli could set this up but he fucked it up the first time since u were wasted, that’s what they were talking about and everything when zhongli was gone that one morning. just wanted to make that clearer. anyway… we’re going back to liyue with a ring on our finger what could possibly go wrong?
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