like the wind that flows through your hair

𝚅. 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙼𝙰𝙺𝙴 𝙼𝙴 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻 𝙸𝙽 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴 𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙷 𝙻𝙸𝙵𝙴

"I..."

Zhongli began, unsure of how to properly weave the complexity of his feelings, halting only by the soft press of her fingers on his chiseled cheek and the sweet whisper of her voice urging him to continue. He closed his eyes, enjoying her soothing touch.

When his hands laced with hers, he noticed just how small they were now that her palms were pressed into his. He could wrap his fingers around her entire hand. There were no awkward pauses. No second thoughts. No worries of what he was doing wrong... Only him and her and their hands fitting together like puzzle pieces.

She was looking up at him with such an inviting warmth that he wanted to kiss her, but he needed her to hear his confession first, and so he opened his diamond-shaped amber eyes to face her completely.

"It was never real—any attraction I had for you... Or so I lied to myself," he said, his voice serene and distant to his own ears. 

"That's why it took me so long to realize it because I am not used to feeling this way. I am not used to the butterflies, the way I wanted to break that young officer outside in half for staring at you. I am not used to seeing a future with anyone because until we met, I did not know if I had one. Yet, I see my future now, and it is incredible," he said resolutely, taking her delicate hand and slipping it inside of his shirt to settle over his racing heart.

"I am in love with you, Kamisato Ayaka. And I know that love is just a drop in the abyss, and that tomorrow may be doomed, and that one day even bedrock turns to dust.

"However, I have lived long enough to know that what we share and found, I cannot replicate with another again. This love, this feeling, is just you and me. I could travel Teyvat and the seven lands; I would still have to come right back here if I wanted true love. It's not that nobody else wants me, or you, but that we were born to spark and run the same course. We are the protectors of one another, confidants, and true friends. The trust I give you, that you give me, is what keeps us safe in this world, in this life. So whether this heart beats another day or another hundred years—it is yours.

"Before you, I have only ever really loved my late wife, and you are both very different from each other. You are some holy blend of divinity—as if the universe made someone who it knew if I ever met them, I would know for sure that they were unique in all of Teyvat. So, I am so happy to have met you, and I am scared too; there is such joy and such pain. I have never wanted any form of eternity until now. I never saw the point.

"I love you in the way a puppy loves—devoted, playful, trusting. I guess I should be ashamed of that somehow; aren't we all supposed to be tough? Yet, I prefer to be strong; strong enough to risk being broken all over again, to love again, fully knowing my fragility. I have known heartbreak enough to shatter my mind, to leave my soul feeling like dust in the wind and my body unwilling to live. But, my love, you are worth my life, and all that I have left is yours.

"You are the epitome of everything I have ever looked for in another human being. It's hard to say though easy to show, from the moment I laid eyes on you...everything—every instance has been about you. You don't just matter, you are...everything.

"So, stay. Be in love with me too. Be brave enough to take my hand." 

He repeated, boldly and confidently, as he awaited her decision with hues that burned with enough passion to blot out the sun.