Sisyphus is happy : Zhongli x reader

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"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."
― Albert Einstein
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Zhongli doesn't know nor understand what you hold beneath your skin, that draws him like a moth to a flame. He is a god and you are nothing but a mere mortal who will wither like the herbs in your small garden come winter; destined for death and to be forgotten in the long history of mankind. Yet he cannot help himself but love you with his every being.

He watches you stir in your sleep, mumbling about things he could never really understand, your eyes fluttering open as they slowly focus on him. Amber eyes commit to memory every flutter of your lashes. "I felt like I had a really long dream," you would say with a small voice, sleep laced and full of thought.

"What was your dream about?" He asks, voice firm and automatic. Zhongli knows that gods are nothing but selfish in their own ways, for he too is. He is selfish in the way that he will never let you go.

"I don't know. I already forgot, just that it was very long and important, and that I should remember it." You are no longer looking at him, rather at the closed window, the noise of the waking city seeping through. There's a shine of recognition in his eyes, a glint that you could not recognize - it was there for a moment and gone in a flash.

Then like a perfectly practiced play, you act your part of the loving wife to his perfectly normal husband, this time as Zhongli. Mr. Zhongli, consultant of the WangSheng funeral parlor.

He knows that it is nothing more than the perverse play of house, but when he sees you and your welcoming arms, a table neatly set filled with his food, a seat not out of obligation nor power, rather love.

It takes a burden off his shoulder knowing that somewhere in this vast land where he is nothing but untouchable, there is home. It sweeps the small guilt of what he did to you under the rug, and in this home he can pretend that you are both a normal couple living in Liyue.

There is you, though you don't remember and he had forced you to his side.
There is you and this small quiet house where he plays house.

There is you and the three seasons before you sleep and descend to a dream.

Dream.

Dream of walking an endless mountain.