Always and Forever / ZhongChi

Chapter 11 - One Wrong Turn

I kicked at the cell, slashed at it with my twin hydro blades, I even tried shooting at it with my bow, and they had taken the mask that provided me with a delusion, they even tried to take my vision, but thank celestia, Zhongli had stopped them, they tried to snatch Zhongli's, but of course him being an archon and all, didn't have a real one for Scaramouche to snatch. So that brought us to where we were sitting, huddled in the corner of the cell closest to the side of the mountain, the skirmishers only had one sleeping bag for us, they didn't want us to die before they got to whatever it was they were planning. Zhongli was shivering, and he leant his head on my shoulder, I nudged him off of me,

"If you're gonna sleep, sleep somewhere else, not on me." Zhongli looked hurt by this, since I was huddled in the sleeping bag, he had no way to keep warm, I glowered at him, he was freezing up, even with his warm clothes. I reluctantly took my beloved red scarf off and draped it across his shoulders,

"You'd better give that back when we get out of here, Zhongli." He nodded, smiling at me, I looked away from him, he made it really hard for me to hate him.

We spent around a day and a half stuck in the cell, we were forced to sleep in the sleeping bag together, and we started to get closer again, but we were treading on eggshells, one wrong step, and it would fall apart again. The skirmishers that made sure we wouldn't escape seemed interested in our relationship, when they thought we weren't looking, they would watch us curiously, until one day, I woke in the middle of the night, the skirmisher that was guarding us was sleeping, and everyone else seemed to be gone, where the hell were they? That was when I noticed Zhongli was gone, whatever they were doing, he either sacrificed himself for me, or Scaramouche decided that he was less valuable as a hostage than I was, I swore under my breath as I got out of the sleeping bag, I stuck my arm between the bars and grabbed the keys to the cage from the skirmisher's belt and unlocked the cell. I ran, it didn't take me long to find him, they looked like they were getting ready to perform some kind of sacrifice, Zhongli was laying on the ground, he seemed to be unconscious, and that's when I noticed Scaramouche raising a sword, getting ready to hit Zhongli with it. I ran towards them, pushing Zhongli out of the way, I felt the sword enter my body through my back, and it exited through my chest, Zhongli was apparently not unconscious, or at least he wasn't anymore, Scaramouche swore,

"You stupid, useless, kid! It wasn't supposed to be a fatal wound! You ruined the ritual!" I smiled up at him as I coughed up blood, Zhongli was clearly terrified, he scooped me up in his arms,

"Childe! Childe you can't die! Your family needs you, Childe!" I shook my head as I watched the tears fall from his eyes,

"It's okay, you'll be okay Zhongli. Just...Take me back to Liyue, I want to see the beautiful city you created one last time, can't you do that for me?" Zhongli nodded, he was really pretty in the moonlight, if I wasn't dying, I would probably kiss him. He continued to sniffle as he held me in his arms, I brought my left hand to his cheek, I hadn't taken off the ring he had given me, and he was still wearing his. I kissed him, and prepared myself for what would come next,

"I love you, Zhongli...I could never hate you..." My hand dropped from his face, I closed my eyes, and I blacked out as I listened to his sobs.