#zhingli fluff

[thesparklingwriter]

don't dwell on the past

'"Please forgive me," he says, kissing your hand lightly.'

tags: pet names, Zhongli is very pure, soft Zhongli, fem!reader, Zhongli and reader are in a relationship, reader and Zhongli fall out, reader tries to sleep on the couch, someone remind me to come back and edit this

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please do not repost or edit my work. reblogs are greatly appreciated !

i'm also taking ideas for the rest of the flufftober days, feel free to leave any suggestions in my asks, no matter how self-indulgent they may be!

You and Zhongli rarely fall out. To be more exact, you rarely fall out over anything serious. And even when you do, screaming matches and insults are never thrown about, and today is no exception. The problem is that sometimes, quiet, rational words don't do enough to show how you feel, and you wish you could have a good old scream at a wall, just to get rid of the tension. You love Zhongli, you truly do. But he can be really out of touch with you sometimes.

"I really don't like it when you intervene when I'm fighting." you say to him, after a silent journey home. You prefer discussing things at home than out where everyone can hear you. It's probably why you like living in the mountains so much.

"I know.” Zhongli sighs. He'd moved by instinct, driven by his desire to keep you safe. He has to manually override the urges he's gotten used to condoning as an archon, and he tries his best for your sake. Either way, he doesn't want you to think he's making excuses for himself, so he tries to word things carefully. "I should have made more of an effort to respect your wishes."

You nod. "Sometimes it makes me feel like you don't think I'm capable."

"I don't think that. Not at all. I like protecting you because I know it's a luxury, and it’s something you’re more than capable of doing yourself. But I understand." Zhongli says softly. You nod, thankful for his ever-reasonable response, and scold yourself for getting so frustrated. He was only trying to keep you safe, but it felt like he was undermining years of your experience. "I shall think of a compromise so this doesn't happen again."

Zhongli always gets formal when it comes to disagreements. He's driven towards an end solution, to the point when you sometimes have to tell him that you want to feel a little bit sad. Bottling up the emotions doesn't make you feel all too great, especially when it's because you feel unreasonable. "Can we talk about that tomorrow, please?"

He looks at you, sensing that today is one of those days when you want to be upset for a little while. He nods. He'll oblige you for a while longer, but he won't let you go to sleep angry at him. Just as you never let him sleep angry at you. He wonders whether you know you do it, how you always make sure he's okay after an argument, or whether it's a habit burned into your sheer being. He doesn't care. He loves it anyway.

But he also senses that this has been brewing for a little while. There was two weeks ago, when a Fatui skirmisher was about to hit your blind spot and he shielded you. Your complaint on that front was quick surface level—you admitted that you forgot to cover your blind spot. And then there was the week after that when you were in a domain, and he panicked yet again, generating a pillar directly in your line of sight. You'd taken a while to calm down from that one. And finally today. You were going to go out on your own for some practice, but Zhongli couldn't bear the thought of you getting injured, especially against Sumerian enemies you had no experience with. He promised he would only intervene when you told him to, but once again, he panicked and petrified all the enemies in a mile radius.

You understand that he's protective of you, but archons, he can be a little suffocating sometimes.

"I'm going to clean up and get changed," you say to him. You know he'll hover downstairs for a little while and give you your space before joining you in bed. But today, you don't want to be so easily swayed. Maybe a night on the couch is in order.

You grab a light cover from the closet and make your way downstairs. You meet Zhongli halfway, who's in his archon form. You frown to yourself. Zhongli's archon form finds itself displayed to you on various occasions, some of them as domestic as wanting to change a lightbulb, but there are times when it has significance. Like him wanting to release himself of some tension. Is he beating himself up over this that badly?

"Where are you going?" He asks, eyes laced with confusion.

"I think I'm going to stay on the couch tonight. I'm going to think about some things."

Zhongli doesn't seem entirely pleased with that, but he doesn't dare tell you otherwise. He has to give you your space, he reminds himself.

"Alright," he says softly. "Sleep well." He omits the 'love' he usually adds at the end, for fear of making you feel obliged to follow him up the stairs. Your feelings are always his priority. He knew what he was getting into with you, and he refuses for his ignorance or inability to control his own instinct to ruin things.

"You too."

He goes into the room you share before deciding that, if you're not joining him, he'd rather not be painfully reminded of your absence, so he changes course and heads to a spare room with his change of clothes. Usually, he talks to you as you wash your face, or you braid his hair for him before you get too tired, but there are no such intimacies happening today. You've been upset with him for a grand total of three hours and he already misses you.

He quiets his thoughts and crawls into bed. Bad call. The bed in this room wasn't chosen with his eight-foot-tall form in mind. He'll either have to shift back and deal with the repercussions or spend the entire night with half of his body hanging off the bed.

You can't sleep either. You never realised how much you relied on Zhongli's calming effect on you to sleep so peacefully. It's almost embarrassing how much you rely on him, even after a year of being together, to the point when you miss him when he's in a room away from you. You decide that if Zhongli doesn't come downstairs in the next ten minutes, you'll go to him. There's really no point in dragging this on any further. Your need to be a little bit sad has blossomed into feelings of loneliness, and you can't take the extra pain.

"yn?" You sit up, glancing at the staircase. There stands Zhongli, his hair untied, his pyjamas rumpled as if he'd been tossing and turning all night. "May I talk to you?"

Always so formal, you think, before standing up and approaching him.

"I know I'm often overbearing when it comes to your safety," he says softly, taking your hands in his. “And I know it can be frustrating for you. But I promise I will do whatever it takes to restrain myself from inciting this sort of complaint from you again.”

You should be focusing on his words, but you're more distracted by the fact he's on his knees before you, looking up at you with such an earnest gaze.

"Please forgive me," he says, kissing your hand lightly. You slide your hands out of his, and into the hair between his horns. He smiles blissfully, glancing at you through relief-filled eyes. “I can’t bear to spend the night without you by my side.”

"I can't stay mad at you," you sigh. "You're forgiven. You can get off your knees now."

Zhongli chuckles, standing up and pulling you into a hug. "I have a feeling you're trying to hide how much pleasure you found in that."

You roll your eyes and lead him upstairs by his hand. "I'm not hiding anything."

"Fine then, remind me of what I said." Zhongli crosses his arms, and you ignore him, sitting him down on the bed so you can reach his hair. He thinks your ritual of braiding his hair is for his sake, but in reality, if you don't do it, you end up with half of it in your mouth in the night.

"No need to dwell on the past," you quip, leaning down to kiss his neck softly. "All is forgiven, remember?"

a/n there's a whole section that got removed between reader being upstairs and coming back down, I'll fix it at someone point but i blame ao3

[izumiini]

✎ summer drabble

Eula, kaeya, diluc, ayato, zhongli

✉ ; things they would do/ how they would act in summer with you...

☏ ; mention of bath, suggestive if you squint (ayato, kaeya), fluff, mention of dehydration (zhongli). Not proof read.

✄ continue under the cut ✄

➴ eula

Your own personal ac, isn't familiar with physical love but would get used to it and often hugs you when in private.

Her cryo helps you deal with hot days, taking her around with you so not to suffer from the burning heat.

Eula who would take you somewhere calm and cool, like a lake. She noticed how you were feeling because of summer and decided to take you here.

She would use her vision to make the water cooler, just enough for you not to get sick. If you thank her for this, she will say ;

“ hmph, using me as your personal cooler, mark my word! Veangance will be mine!”

➴ kaeya (dedicated to @tiredsleep )

Another ac, but a make it a tease.

Kaeya would get clingier at summer, always making you give in his cuddles by using the excuse of cooling down.

Another one who would cool the water when taking a bath with his, accidentally freezing it.

He's always teasing you, telling you to give him a kiss and he will let you use him as your ac. Of course, one kiss for ten minutes if yoh want and hour you have to kiss him six times.

If you whine about his behavior, he will simply tease you;

“ you can't have anything for free, plus my deal is generous. A kiss for ten minute of cold hugs against the blazing sun, I'd say it's quiet a deal.”

➴ diluc

He would pout be sad if you avoid him. Sometimes he look at kaeya with envy, his vision was keeping you away and he wished to have any other one.

His vision may come handy in winter, but summer is another story.

You don't mean to avoid him, but his pyro vision makes you unbearably hot and no one likes being hot in summer.

You try to be as close to him, but you still stand a two feet away from him. You crack up jokes to lighten his mood but it didn't seem to work very much.

At night, he would leave the window open and would not cover you with a blanket. Till now it has proven to be successful.

But still, sometimes you hear him mutter;

“ two more months before summer ends, i hope winter last much longer...”

The neutral one. His vision doesn't affect him much, maybe he will be a tad bit hot/cold depending on the season but nothing like cryo and pyro.

After the long hours of work, ayato likes to join you in bed at a cool summer night. He hugs you from behinds and kisses your shoulder.

When given free time, he would take you on a walk. But this time with less clothing than his usual formal attire, he says it's too hot and he can't bear it.

Taking you to chinji forest, he would only stare at you as you admire the view letting gasp and aww of wonder. Asking him about his day, his work, his health as he often neglect it.

Ayato would always tease you sometimes, the heat of the summer won't save you;

“ mmh? My day you ask? It was neutral, but seeing your smile made it brighter. Oh? Are you flustered? Fufufu, don't worry i only speak the truth. My, you have gotten redder now..”

➴ zhongli

Another neutral who isn't affected.

Zhingli lived through many summer, he knew the season all to well. And given his archon body, he —of course— was never bothered by the heat. The same can't be said about you,

Zhongli tend to forgot a lot sometimes but he always remind you ti drink water, mortal like immortal, all need water to stay alive. Even if his need of water is close to nothing the same cant be said about you.

Aa such, instead if his wallet, at summer zhongli bring a bottle of water with him everywhere he goes.

When you begin to overheat, he gives you the bottle with a smile. –Drink–, he says.

Zhongli would also ask hu tao how to deal with the hot nights of summer, even ask baizhu for medicine against heatstroke.

Overall, a sweet lover who is better prepared than you at something he isn't bothered by;

“ my love, you seem to be dehydrated, here. A bottle of fresh water, doctor baizhu recommended to drink two bottle per day. I shall leave the window open tonight..”

©— izumiini 2022.