Genshin Impact One-Shots

Heizou | Under The Warm Rays

"Hmm... what a pity. I really thought I found all the necessary pieces for this area."

Hidden in the shadows, you quietly observe your detective friend for a moment longer, faintly smiling at the way he furrows his brows in deep thought as his finger is resting against his lips.

You decide to make your presence known after a while of watching him walk back and forth, move puzzle pieces around, and snapping them into place with ease.

He looks up upon hearing your footsteps and raises a hand in greeting, gesturing down to the mess on the table.

"Would you like to join me?" he asks, going back to snapping in ten more pieces—all fitting perfectly.

You aren't surprised by his ability to take a gander at a puzzle piece and immediately know where it's supposed to go at. "Call it intuition, if you will" is what he'd say.

You shake your head. "You're doing another box of..." you trail off and pick up the empty container, turning it over to read the front, "...1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle."

"Of course! What else am I supposed to do during my free time? I mean, I have a fun puzzle and this to keep me busy." He picks up a bowl that's filled with some deep-fried food and shoves two deep-fried shrimps into his mouth.

"Mmm...!" He beams. "Hehe, I never get tired of eating this."

Your expression softens, and you're reminded just how lucky you are to be with the male right now. Heizou can be tiresome to deal with at times, constantly leaving to who knows where whenever he feels like it.

As his dear friend, you often get concerned when you visit the Tenryou Commission and are told that he isn't present. You're aware of how busy and hardworking he is, constantly receiving and solving numerous cases, but you can't help feeling sad every time you leave the place with an empty space beside you.

So to finally be able to see him, his healthy and safe state, makes you very happy.

"I know that expression." He drops the puzzle pieces and snaps his fingers. "You're thinking about how much of a hassle I am, how relieved you are to finally see me, and..."

Heizou suddenly leans forward a bit, gazing into your eyes. "...Hmm. You're sad. Why?"

You laugh softly. "Shouldn't you know the answer to that?"

He leans back. "Hey, a detective can only do so much. Besides, I'm pretty sure it's my first time seeing you show sadness while having that expression you always make whenever you see me."

You almost forgot how he excels at his profession; you have always been jealous about his skills in accurately and quickly reading people with a simple gaze.

"Okay, okay. It's just... I missed you a lot. I feel like we barely see each other anymore ever since you decided to work for the Tenryou," you admit sheepishly.

Heizou picks up a piece of deep-fried food and walks around the table to stand in front of you. He hovers it near your lips. "Here, eat up. You haven't eaten anything yet, right?"

You slowly take a bite, eyeing him with furrowed brows. He smiles in response, mumbling a "thought so" before leaning against the table with crossed arms.

He slowly takes a deep breath. "I know I don't show it, but I always think about you whenever I'm out there, searching for clues."

Your eyes widen in surprise. This is the first time you're hearing about this.

"In other words, yeah, I missed you too."

To hear him share his honest thoughts melts your heart as happiness washes over you. Usually, just getting to see and talk to him makes you forget all about the sadness you have been feeling.

Today happened to be different, but perhaps it isn't such a bad thing for your sadness to be detected.

The detective pushes himself off the edge of the table and abruptly grabs your hand. "I'll tell you what, let's go get some food at your favorite place and then we can spend the rest of the day talking at a scenic area."

You don't get the chance to reply back as he laughs and dashes out the door, the blazing sun greeting you two. He looks back from over his shoulder, giving you a lopsided grin.

Smiling warmly, you allow yourself to be pulled along, mesmerized by the way the breeze flows through his plum red hair, his olive green eyes sparkling with so much warmth as the warm glow of the rays reflect in them.

-♡-

This is inspired by one of the hangout endings where Heizou is pulling the Traveler along with him. It's definitely one of my favorite hangout photos; his tiny tongue sticking out is too cute.

Also: good luck to anyone pulling for Kazuha and/or Klee!!