𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒘 [hiatus]

𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐝, 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞.

It was you. It was really you.

Zhongli was feeling all sorts of emotions. He was happy, relieved, excited - but also nervous.

He was about a hundred per cent sure that it was you, and he was elated. He now knows that your soul still wandered the mortal realm, eventually getting reborn in where he assumed was Inazuma and finally, ending up back in Liyue where you truly belonged.

He was fidgety and unfocused for the rest of the day, which was uncharacteristic of him. Hu Tao had noticed her employee's strange behaviour and was rather curious about what prompted such behaviour, leading to their current scene - where Zhongli was being interrogated by Hu Tao.

"What's up with you today, Mr Zhongli? You're acting all fidgety and distracted, which is so out of character for you." She questioned, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Ah... I've just seen someone I hadn't seen in a long time, that's all." He replied, his gloved hands resting on his lap as his amber eyes stared at his boss, a blank look on his face.

"Hmm... are they a woman?" She asked, growing more and more interested by the second.

"Yes." He was growing cautious of her, finding her questions starting to get more and more intrusive.

"Oh, why didn't you just say so earlier Mr Zhongli! I would've let you have the day off to catch up with them! And maybe even get some, if you know what I mean." She threw her head back as a resounding laugh came out of the girl. "Well, have fun catching up with her! Tell me how it goes!"

With that, his excitable boss was gone. Zhongli could only let out a small sigh of relief as she left, standing up to prepare to go home.

"He, Mr Zhongli!" A familiar voice called out to him as he took his usual nightly stroll after dinner. He turned towards the direction of the voice, an inkling of who it was. "It's me, Childe!"

"Hello, Childe." He greeted. His inkling was right, it seemed. "How can I help you?"

"More like how can I help you," Childe chuckled. "Anyways, I've got some tickets to a concert of sorts. Wanna come? It starts in half an hour's time."

"Oh, sure. I have time." He blinked, following Childe to the venue holding the concert.

It started in half an hour, just as Childe had said. So far, it was nothing special in Zhongli's opinion. The songs and dances were good, but it wasn't anything that he hadn't heard before.

Of course, until you came in.

You probably came in about twenty minutes after the concert started, as was most likely according to the plan. Upon seeing you, Zhongli had suddenly sat up straighter, his eyes following your every movement. You held a lute in your hands, eyes closed as you strummed it carefully.