genshin impact one shots!/requests open

mocking laughter / zhongli (angst)

| zhongli x reader
for my zhongli simp friend bc i wanted to pain her😁🙏
THIS IS SO SHORT IM SORRY........... I HAVE NO IDEA FOR WHAT I WANT TO WRITE SO I JUST END UP WRITING ANGSTS???
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cor lapis eyes glazed over a familiar figure, who laughed cheerfully in the distance, the symphony of the laughter rang in his ears — like it mocked him. zhongli could still hear your laughter. it was a gorgeous melody, a never ending sound playing in his head. he couldn't get himself to forget it. it seemed as if barbatos themself wanted to stop and listen to a tune resonating such warmness.

yet something like that, something to express joy and happiness brought him so much suffering. it hurt. it hurt too much when he would remind himself that something akin to that from you wouldn't ever be for him, or towards him. your laughter became more distanced and farther as you walked through the bustling streets of liyue with another man.

zhongli was the one who pushed you away, so why did it hurt him so badly?

he could still recall it. the sun was beginning to set, the skies painted in chrome orange and pink, the picturesque sight wasn't anything forgettable. the different smells of leaves and plants surrounding the two, an aroma of nature still lingered in his senses whenever he'd recall. it was so vivid — so memorable, yet for all the wrong reasons.

your lips pursed, opened, then paused. the words you wanted to scream out were nowhere, as if they were stuck at the very bottom of your throat, unwilling to come out. "i like you, zhongli." the words just spilled out, bursting out your heart.

so badly he wanted to scream out the words he couldn't say, so badly he did. but he couldn't — he wouldn't. it would just hurt him more. zhongli was fragile. perhaps he did seem mysterious and stoic, but he really was so weak and hurt, all of the deaths and perishing of those he'd loved he had to experience wouldn't ever heal. thousands of years of just being able to live on forever while we watched everyone he knew slowly disappear from him, forever leaving his grasp was just too much for one person to handle.

"i... i cannot return your feelings."

zhongli looked at your dejected and hurt expression, as your eyes grew glossy before you managed a small smile, walking away from him. your figure became smaller and smaller. it wasn't easy to just watch you disappear away like that. he desired so desperately — he yearned so immensely to call out your name, grab your hand, pull you back and tell you just how much he loved you. but he couldn't. he simply could not.

as you disappeared from his sight, zhongli stood still, still glancing at where you had left. maybe he was expecting for you to be there still, waiting for him. you weren't, and he knew so.

the wind gingerly flit against his body, as zhongli gazed at the moon now. it was dark by now, as he still stood at the same spot, as if he were glued there. although the sky was lacking light and a bit gloomy, the stars would still shine. that was what you were to him — the star that would shine his dark and empty night, but you would no longer. his sky was nothing without that star.

"perhaps it would have been better if we had never met."