❦ genshin oneshots ❦

ganyu- rhythm amidst the reeds

gender neutral reader!
angst!

I met you while I was taking a stroll in Dihua Marsh. You were like Pied Piper, drawing me in with the sound of your flute, your figure danced in tune with the melody.

You noticed my staring and the music stopped.

"A-ah pardon me—!" I stuttered.

"No, it's fine." Your voice was as melodious as your flute.

Jumping off the rock from which you stood, you said, "Came to watch? I'm Y/N, what about you?"

"...Ganyu."

"Well, Ganyu...how about I play you another song?"

So, whenever I was free, I would sneak out to hear the flute that made my heart skip a beat. You were a guilty pleasure that I kept on coming back to again and again. I didn't know it at the time, but I had fallen in love.

However, you would sometimes stare up at the sky with an aloof expression, your mind evidently elsewhere. If I asked you about it, you would answer with something vague and shrug me off. And so I sensed that there must be something going on that was deeper than meets the eye.

We were simply lying on the grass one day when you suddenly looked at me and said, "Don't fall in love with me, Ganyu." It caught me off guard. But the sad look in your eyes told me that you already knew how deep I had fallen.

Why? I thought.

How naive I was back then.

Because when arrived to Dihua Marsh and you weren't there, I knew something was wrong.

You were without a Vision, and you weren't a fighter, maybe you ran into a group of hilichurls?

But I searched every camp that I could find and there was no sign of you.

I remembered your address and ran back to Liyue Harbour. But when I arrived, your door was open.

And from the time I saw your cold body lifeless on your bed to the time I saw your coffin being lowered into the ground, I asked myself, Why? Why didn't you tell me that you were sick?

And I asked myself why I didn't see the signs.

Even from the day we first met, you were thin and pale. The times where you'd look up at the sky absentmindedly.

But you played that flute so eloquently, and you smiled so widely, you being sick never struck me as a thought.

Your flute leaned against your grave.

I picked it up and began to play.