Work Text:
No light
Blue eyes have historically always symbolized peace. They were the mark of a childhood spent without the ever suffocating threat of war. Blue eyes were connected to those with calm minds. Often seeing the color in the wide-eyed wonder of children, so curious and innocent and asking questions that has their parents spluttering out apologies and attempting to tug their child away.
Maybe that was why the foreign diplomat caught his attention. His eyes were the brightest blue Zhongli had ever seen, but they held no joy. No spark of light from Celestia.
No light in your bright blue eyes
They say that eyes are the windows to the soul. And what an empty void those eyes showed. A yawning abyss peeking out behind a lopsided smile and a laugh.
It was easy to ignore while helping a wayward traveler clear out the monster camps not far from the harbor. Zhongli could easily push the thought from his mind as easily as he could shove his spear through the soft belly of a hilichurl. Focus on the fight. Stay alive. All that mattered was the battle; anything else melted away into a blessed white noise. A head full of cottony static, an old comfort of centuries gone by. Just the movement of his body and his opponent. An easy, familiar rhythm to fall into.
I never knew daylight could be so violent
A calm shattered by a manic laugh and a grey blur with a shock of bright orange hair charging past Zhongli to tackle into the thick of the fight. The sun glinted off the blades of water Childe held in his hands, a mesmerizing counterpoint to the blood that splattered to the ground.
A revelation in the light of day
A mortal life that could burn so brightly, and could be extinguished just as easily. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.
You can't choose what stays and what fades away.
Zhongli found himself hopelessly caught in the orbit of the Harbinger, the walking pile of contradictions fascinated him.
And after all was said and done, after Signora had sauntered off leaving a yawning chasm in his chest, he only had eyes for the man that stalked out of the bank. The thought that this might be the last time seeing those eyes left an emptiness that ached more than giving up his gnosis did.
I'd do anything to make you stay.
No light.
No light.
Those blue eyes housed in a gruesome display of betrayal. A snarl of half formed threats, of aborted pleas for the reason, of dull eyes hiding the hurt behind a veneer of anger. Zhongli waited for the vitriol to slow, for the hands grasping his collar to loosen, for the shoulders of the ginger to slump in defeat.
Zhongli only hesitated but a moment more before he dared to speak.
"Tell me what you want me to say."