Ode to Moonlight《Kazuscara 》

Final Chapter 17: Joy of Returning

Mona and Kazuha walked into Liyue Harbor through the main entrance. There were a lot of people gathered around and talking, probably for the Lantern Rite. The atmosphere was light and cheerful, the complete opposite of how Kazuha was feeling. 

The closer he got to finding Kuni, the more the knot in his stomach tightened. What if Kuni didn't want to see him? What if Kuni wasn't even here? No no stop overthinking, Kazuha told himself, everthing will be fine.

Mona took out her hydromancy circle thing again and looked at it while making her way through the crowd.

'What's with people looking at things while they're walking? They could trip and fall and break an arm and die- no stop this train of thought Kazuha.' 

"According to the stars, Scaramouche should be at Yujing Terrace near the Yuehai Pavilion." Mona said.

"And.. where is that?" 

"It's near the highest point in the city. We should find it if we just keep climbing stairs."

And so they did. They climbed all the stairs they could find, but they never led to where they looking for.

Mona groaned as they climbed Liyue's red stairs for the umpteenth time that hour. 

"Liyue is more confusing than Mondstadt! I can't tell where these stairs lead at all!" Mona complained.

"Yeah..." Kazuha agreed. He was getting tired. And they were running out of stairs to climb. They could ask a random person how to find it, sure, but none of them wanted to. Kazuha said it would be embarrassing, and Mona said it would be a disgrace to the art of hydromancy.

Mona took out her hydro circle and sat down on a random chair outside of a restaurant they found. She sat there for a few minutes, tapping the circle and doing other weird things Kazuha couldn't understand. 

"Go buy me something to eat," she said to Kazuha, who was now going to order something at the restaurant. He came back a few minutes later and gave Mona a salad. She ate it while continuing to look at her hydro circle. 

"Oh, come on! It's on the other side of the city!" Mona suddenly exclaimed. "We're at Wanmin Restaurant, it's near Bubu Pharmacy!"

She got up and stretched, then they ran as fast as they could. When they got to platform at the bottom of the stairs to the pharmacy, they turned left to go to the other stairs instead. Kazuha could see a point higher than any other at the top of the stairs. 

Kazuha used his anemo vision to go faster. Mona, however, trailed far behind since she couldn't climb stairs while sprinting. 

When he reached the top of the stairs, he looked around quickly. Immediately, a small figure with indigo hair caught his eye. Kazuha's heart pounded in his chest and his breathing became heavy.  

There was a man with orange hair next to him, but only Kuni mattered to him in that moment. He ran to Kuni, using every last ounce of anemo energy he had to push himself forward, trying to get to Kuni faster, if only but a second earlier.

"KUNI!" 

Kuni turned around and his eyes widened when he saw who called him. 

"Kazuha..?" he whispered right before Kazuha touched him, and then they vanished in a burst of anemo, leaving two baffled hydro users behind.   

____________

Kazuha and Kuni teleported to a field filled with white flowers, the petals flying upward as they landed. Kazuha landed on top of Kuni, pinning his arms down so that he doesn't escape, not that Kuni wanted to.

"Kuni... it is you, right?" Kazuha whispered, tears already forming in his eyes. 

Kuni couldn't believe what was happening. Why had Kazuha suddenly appeared? Was he just dreaming? There was no way this was actually happening, right?

"Why... why are you here, Kazu?" was all Kuni could get out.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? Why did you leave?"

"I... I'm sorry.. I didn't.." Kuni said, his voice brittle. Kuni didn't know what to say. His reason for leaving seemed so stupid and worthless compared to being with Kazuha. If he were to decide now, he would rather have stayed clueless about who - or what - he was. 

Without even knowing it, he started to cry. Kazuha put his arm on Kuni's cheek and wiped the tears away. He looked away from Kazuha, and Kazuha chuckled softly at his reaction. Kazuha moved his thumb to trace Kuni's lips, making Kuni's face flush. "Can I kiss you?" he whispered. 

Kuni could barely process what he said, but he nodded slightly. Kazuha leaned down, pressing their lips together gently. Kuni wondered why he let this moment wait so long. The Fatui promised to get him a 'heart' so that he could feel emotions, but he had forgotten that he had feelings before, even without a heart. 

In that moment, Kuni felt something he hadn't felt in a long time. True, unbridled happiness. He would normally deny feeling anything of the sort, but when there's Kazuha... well, he wasn't who he was normally. At least not who he thought he was.

When they parted, Kazuha's face was dusted pink and he grinned, a sight that made Kuni's heart skip a beat. In the distance, there was a loud bang and everything was lit up with a bright orange hue. 

"The fireworks!" Kazuha gasped as he got off of Kuni. Kazuha moved to the side and sat on the ground, his back leaning against a tree, and Kuni sat up too, making him feel a bit lightheaded from doing it so quickly.

Many more fireworks erupted above Liyue, and Kuni realized they were somehow on one of the mountains surrounding the city. He didn't have time to question it though, as he tried to capture the fireworks in his memories. Even if they don't last long, his memories would keep them for eternity. 

As he was captivated by the myriad of multicolored fireworks, he didn't notice Kazuha looking at him adoringly out of the corner of his eye. Kazuha rested his chin on his hand, looking into Kuni's eyes that reflected the fireworks.   

'He really hasn't changed after all this time, hm?' Kazuha thought to himself. He remembered the times when they looked at the stars in the night sky together, Kuni being so entranced by them that he forgot about everything else. 

Kazuha reached out and placed his hand on top of Kuni's. That action startled Kuni, and he turned to face Kazuha quickly. Before he could react, Kazuha leaned forward and kissed him nimbly. 

Kuni felt heat rising up his face and he lightly pushed Kazuha away, who just laughed, not offended in the least. Kuni went back to watching the fireworks.

"You like the fireworks, hm?" Kazuha said teasingly.

"Yeah, they're nice I guess." Kuni responded, his voice lax. 

Kazuha smirked. "They were made by Yoimiya. You remember our promise, don't you?" 

Kuni froze for a second. "What- What I meant to say was that they're terrible and they're the worst I've ever seen! Inazuman's have such bad taste if they think these are good!"  

"Mhm sure whatever you say, mr. fireworks lover." 

"I do NOT love fireworks," he looked away while crossing his arms and proceeded to mumble, "I love you."

As soon as Kuni said that, he regretted it. He hoped Kazuha couldn't hear that, but unfortunately for him, he miscalculated the level of Kazuha's hearing.  

Kazuha intertwined their fingers, holding Kuni's hand tightly. Without a trace of mocking intent in his voice he whispered "I love you too." 

(A/N)

wrote a poem for this since i forgot to make kazuha write any since the beginning lmfao

the end of the book is here

we are all queer

sadly we don't have any beer

:)

i have an idea for another book so i might write that soon

Word Count: 1254

Date Posted: March 22 2022