like the wind that flows through your hair

𝚅𝙸. 𝚂𝙷𝙾𝚆 𝙼𝙴 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙲𝙾𝙻𝙾𝚁𝚂 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚄𝙽𝙸𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙴

As Zhongli met her eyes, somehow—maybe it was his gaze that transmitted the purest adoration and deepest reverence—she knew. Before he uttered a single passionate word, his eyes gave away his beautiful soul of which he finally demolished the barriers before her. She listened, stunned and breathless and hanging onto his every word. His powerful confession shook her core and brought elated tears to her gleaming azure irises. He had never looked more breathtaking to her than he does now as he told her that he loved her.

‎‏‏‎Her heart threatened to tremble and burst right then in her chest from the overwhelming wave of emotion that flooded it like a euphoric tsunami. The pulse of his heart under her warm palm was fast and strong which amazed her because the ex-archon was always calm and collected. Somehow, his unconcealed nerves made him even more endearing. With every word, Zhongli unraveled her more and more until she couldn't take it any longer. She needed him now.

The air thinned. The clock stopped.

Ayaka's crystal blue eyes were mirrors of his own desire. Zhongli had barely finished his last phrase before the princess tossed her arms around his neck, yanked him towards her and kissed him like she wanted to inhale his anxiousness, his love, his sweetness as purely and inevitably as if she were a newborn fawn taking its first shuddery breath of the world. She kissed him like the ocean waves kissed the shore—timeless, certain, unrelenting. Never roughly as if to win a battle, but only tenderly seeking an eternal, intimate union of their hearts. She knew that from this moment on, there was no turning back nor would she want to. All of her trivial reservations and hesitation were abandoned the instant their lips clashed. Gone. Replaced only by passion and unapologetic wanting. This ethereal feeling like she was levitating and floating in the air out of her body. As she threaded her fingers through his soft hair, a single, glittering teardrop carrying all that cannot be placed into words slipped from the corner of her long eyelashes.

"Zhongli... Am I dreaming right now? Because I have never been so happy in my life," she whispered, low and breathy, in a voice overcome with genuine emotion and enveloping his being with its warmth.

‎‏‏‎ ‎The youthful princess wove her fingers between Zhongli's affectionately, admiring the way they slid into place as if they were meant for each other. She closed her eyes as a kaleidoscope of flashbacks immersed her mind of their first memories together when she still gazed at him from afar, unaware of the seed of fondness blooming within her and wondering how anyone could be so exquisite.

‎‏‏‎"I fell for you the moment I laid my eyes on you, a magnificent archon with the world at his fingertips who walked with grace and candor and yet carried a buried sorrow deep within his eyes that I longed to soothe. Women flocked around you. I thought I stood no chance and would be content just to catch a glimpse of you occasionally. Yet, you saw me through the crowd and I became irrevocably captivated day by day.‏‏‎

"Since birth, I have lived for my country, always minding my duties to my people and praying every day that I am living up to my name as their White Heron Princess. I was terrified to walk the same lonely, colorless path that my mother did. However, you...you not only were a rainbow that lit up my world. You opened my eyes to all the colors of the universe and showed me that every streak of stardust could be mine if I only reached out. You gave me meaning and freedom in a sense that had always been foreign to me. So, now I reach out to you, my darling, and take the leap of faith I am finally ready for."

‎‏‏‎Ayaka stared unyieldingly into her precious archon's eyes, drinking him into her senses, and in this moment she was a fearless, unstoppable warrior princess. She spoke with a determined yet gentle expression and held his face in her warm palms with the utmost adoration like the caress of moonlight on the Inazuman cherry blossom trees.

‎‏‏I love you, Morax, my precious Zhongli. In all your shapes and forms, whether you are tough or vulnerable, young or old, scarred or whole, for my feelings are timeless. I will love you until the day I die, and if there is a life after that, I shall love you then. You have bewitched me, body and soul. I am yours, so don't ever let me go.