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Golden irises scanned thin columns of text running down the page. Zhongli let out a low hum.
He was adjusting to mortal life. It was repetitive, dull, and filled with paperwork, but he had not been this content with his life in a long time. A few centuries at least. Leisure was a rarity among the gods. Daily routine was commonplace for any being, but the weight of scanning all of Liyue, monitoring its citizens, keeping an eye out for movement that shouldn’t be there, granting protection and blessings and inspiration became tiring. As Morax, he was bound to Liyue and that would not change, but his contract as its Archon, as its savior, as its guide, was over. An entire nation no longer looked to him in their times of need.
That was the Qixing’s duty now. The age of the Archons was over in Liyue and Zhongli could be free to relax with a hot cup of calming tea, listening to tales mortals spun about the formation of Liyue and their gods. Much was fabricated, and many inferences were made that didn’t match the history of Morax’s footsteps, but there was no need to correct them. Human lifespans were short, their memories shorter, and the only remnants of ages past lived on through tales and allegories that only held grains of truth. The grains of the Legend of Liyue were as fine as salt washed up on shore after a storm. As fine as the dust that rises beneath a weary warrior’s feet.
Human memories and their stories slowly forget the gods of old. Zhongli would let his name, Rex Lapis, fade as well. Guizhong and Harvia lived on through the Adepti and Rex Lapis would as well.
A series of gentle knocks at the door pulled Zhongli from the documents in his hands, eyes drawn up to observe his new visitor.
Aether smiled from the doorway, one hand waving at him while the other was still hidden behind the wall, “Hello, Mister Zhongli.”
The consultant put down his papers, gesturing for the Traveler to enter the room.
Aether approached Zhongli’s desk, hands behind his back. “How are you, Mister Zhongli?”
A slight sigh slipped past the former Archon’s lips. “I have told you, Zhongli is perfectly acceptable—nay, I prefer it. Friends call each other by name, do they not? Or was it presumptuous of me to assume such a relationship?”
“No, no, no! I definitely hope you consider us friends,” Aether glanced down briefly, “Sorry, it's just since you are—were—an Archon I’m not sure how to address you.”
“I am neither an Archon nor a person of higher standing. I am merely a consultant for the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. That is all.”
Aether nodded, resolved tension leaving his shoulders, “Then, how are you, Zhongli?”
There was an odd sort of thrill that zipped up Zhongli’s spine at the lack of honorifics. The illusion of closeness? Even the gods used honorifics amongst themselves so it wasn’t as if it was a foreign concept, the gods being the ones that demonstrated many early mannerisms that mortals adopted. Maybe it was the fact that it had been so long since one last dropped honorifics for him knowing who he was, few gods over the last few centuries seeing themselves of equal status and of mutual understanding to dare such a brazen address. He wondered how the Adepti would address him now. Granted they could or would find him in this form, of course.
“I am doing well. How have you been faring?” Zhongli’s hands folded as Aether took a seat in the ornate chair across from him, the elegant carvings of dragons and lotus flowers blocked by the braided man’s back.
“All the better for seeing you.”
A warm heat filled Zhongli’s stomach. It was mere pleasantry, such a reaction was unwarranted.
“Is there a purpose for your visit? Business or pleasure?”
“Pleasure,” Aether responded instantaneously, “I have come upon new knowledge of this world.”
Zhongli’s head tilted slightly, relishing the sparkle in Aether’s eyes. The Traveler always looked so eager when discovering new aspects of Teyvat. The former Morax could not help his pride when those golden eyes were reflected upon the landscape that he had carved millennia ago.
“Do tell,” Zhongli’s deep voice rolled off his tongue as he leaned back to relax slightly more against his chair.
Aether smiled, “I heard that in this world there is a tradition where on this day people give chocolates to those they hold dear.”
Zhongli nodded his head in affirmation. “This is true.”
“Do you have anyone in mind?”
“I do not follow such human traditions,” a slight pause, “I care not for things so sweet but I suppose I should become accustomed to such activities as I no longer watch the land through the eyes of an Archon, but that of an ordinary citizen.”
Aether deflated slightly, hands pulling out a small box, containing what Zhongli could only assume to be chocolates, from behind his back. The box was crafted of sandbearer wood with simple yet elegant carvings along the sides and lid, Qilin prancing along the edge with a dragon wrapping itself protectively around the lid. A glass square sat in the middle of the lid, granting a view to the contents inside. Small dark squares sat inside, glazed and tempered to perfection, and each chocolate was half wrapped in thin paper, undoubtedly to prevent them from sticking to one another and the container.
“Is—is that so? Well… I suppose you wouldn’t like these chocolates I made.” A nervous, uncomfortable chuckle slipped past Aether’s lips. “I’ll just have to give these to someone else, then.” Aether’s brows drew together in thought as he looked down at the bag. “Perhaps Sir Kaeya wouldn’t mind… Or even Childe—”
“I’ll have them.”
Zhongli startled himself with how quickly the words slipped past his lips. He was not partial to sweets, and preferred salty snacks a great majority of the time, but the thought that Aether had made these…
Zhongli was also uneager to admit to how his fist immediately clenched as an ugly swirl of emotion brewed within his breast at the mention of the sweets Aether had poured his effort into going to the Captain of the Knights of Favonius (despite having never met the man personally) or the Harbinger. The suffocating clawing within his chest surprised the former Geo Archon, he had never felt this towards mortals before, certainly not towards Childe.
Zhongli assumed he was wary of Sir Kaeya for the simple fact that he did not know him. That’s right, he had heard numerous rumors of the handsome knight that could spin silver words into anybody’s heart in the nation of Mondstadt. It was simple courtesy to look out for your friend’s emotional well-being. From Kaeya’s description, Zhongli couldn’t shake thoughts of Kaeya flirting with Aether, sweet words whispered to the Traveler as the Captain led him to—
No. It was far safer that such a gift was not presented to the knight on this day.
The former Archon’s eyebrows furrowed.
The matter of Childe...
Zhongli thought of Childe as a convenient acquaintance, dare he say friend, made during his transition from Archon to mortal disguise. Childe had even been making an eager effort towards winning back the Traveler’s good graces.
That should be good, right?
Somehow the thought left him even more uneasy than before.
When strolling through Liyue he had, on multiple occasions, seen the Harbinger with his arm draped around the smaller boy’s frame. Zhongli vividly recalled an instance where he found the pair by the docks, Childe’s gloves hand resting on Aether’s supple waist, thumb rubbing hypnotic circles on the exposed flesh.
Something seemed to burn beneath Zhongli’s skin.
Aether looked up, startled surprise painted across his features, eyebrows raised but a confused glint flashing in his honey irises. “Huh?”
“I said I’ll have them. Your chocolates.” Zhongli cleared his throat, his fist raised to cover his mouth. “You said you made them yourself, didn’t you? It would be a waste if you gave them to someone else.”
Precisely. A gift’s point was defeated if it was given to anyone but the recipient. And it was a solid contract, if the gifter was to make something with another in mind, it was his responsibility to accept it. He may no longer be the God of Contracts, but he was by no means going to abandon them going forward.
The feeling Zhongli attributed to being a variant of nausea returned when thinking of Childe accepting the chocolates from Aether’s small hands.
Zhongli wasn’t privy to human emotion, thoughts of such undesirable characteristics were unsavory to the highest degree. Was he developing such things in response to casting aside his Archonhood? Was this some form of punishment for leaving his post?
Remembrance of a tugging in his gut when Childe’s long fingers wrapped around Aether’s slender wrist as the Fatui tugged the Traveler behind him in search of materials for the Rite of Parting told him it ran much deeper than that.
“Alright then,” Aether’s eyes glinted as he held out the box, “would you be so gracious as to accept my valentine?”
Zhongli reached across the desk with both hands, fingers grazed Aether’s hands as he carefully took the box and gently set it before him. “I accept it with pleasure.”
A gentle glow lit Aether’s visage, a soft pink warmed his cheeks and Zhongli felt a warmth settle in his chest.
Zhongli was under no illusion that Aether would continue his stay in Liyue for much longer. He had come to this world and to this land in search of his sister and of the Archons in an effort to find her. As soon as Inazuma’s borders reopened, Aether would be among the first to make the crossing to the island nation. Inazuma was too dependent on trade for its Archon to dictate the movement of every creature within and beyond its borders to further her plans. It was only a matter of time. Mortals were not eternal, despite the chasing of their god.
Still, for whatever time remained, Zhongli was content with being in the company of the Traveler. Even if he could not help directly with the whereabouts of Aether’s twin, Zhongli would assist in the form of information about Teyvat and any history that could be useful in Aether’s quest, his former position as the oldest Archon granting him knowledge that Aether frequently asked about. There was still so much unexplored by the Traveler that he would undoubtedly have questions, granting some promise of a return visit long after Aether’s footsteps left Liyue’s borders on his journey. Barbatos had spun a tale of song and rhyme, free as wind and as flowing as the breeze, of the Traveler and his visits to Mondstadt after one of the Four Winds was granted his freedom.
Aether would return one day to Zhongli’s company with new stories and fascinations to tell, eyes wide and an excited grin on his lips.
And that was enough for Zhongli.