* STARS

✤    ✤    ✤     mona’s touch is distracting, almost as much as her laugh, and he frowns. it settles on his face as he looks over to her. when she flicks him, he clicks his tongue, annoyed by her daring familiarity. ❝ it was merely a suggestion. you’re free to drink however you choose. ❞ freedom is the most important thing in mondstadt and if mona wanted to drink it like a heathen with no manners, then so be it. but he would voice his offense. because why would he not? especially with her.

diluc looks away, eyes finding anything to look at but her. they eventually choose to simply look at the glass between his fingers. she speaks again and he scoffs. what a terrible joke that is. is she toying with him? if so, then it’s in poor taste. memories of the way she would look at kaeya when they were children fill his head. the pink of her cheeks much reminds him of those days and part of him longs for them. this is what he deserves for trying to be considerate. he would remember that the next time the urge strikes.

he raises his glass back to his lips; it’s nothing more than an excuse to be silent for a moment. to compose his thoughts as he takes another drink. and then another. not until after he polishes the glass off and setts it back on the wood of the counter does he finally speak. ❝ not hardly. ❞ he wishes to be petty. to say, ‘ why don’t you go ask kaeya? ‘ but he holds himself back. he doesn’t know if that childhood longing still persists, after all. and if it does, he never wants to know. diluc has put any feelings he may have once had behind him as he grew. 

                 before she has a chance to truly take off in her teasings ,  mona notes just how diluc shuts down when she suggests the obvious .   what had been a nursing delight from tipsy stupor now descends into a dreary gloom that canvases her expression with a darker tint .   flush is replaced with a ghostly white drain ,  pale complexion letting crystalline eyes drop to the counter space and drag a finger around her glass without so much as uttering a word .                   she had always liked diluc more than kaeya ,  always having been so direct  &&.  upfront about his feelings or what was wrong .   he had a habit of being personal ,  of including you in his thought process so that you weren’t kept in the dark or left behind like how kaeya often prevented her from understanding his full picture .

                 frustration grows as the silence boils between them ,  bottles up years of neglect  &&.  intentions lost to the wind .   freedom ,  they said ,  was what mondstadt stood for .   in her mind ,  in the current moment ,  mondstadt represented a growing tumor of blowing off progress in order to flow with the motions  &&.  forget about history .   glowering down at her drink ,  mona pushes the glass away ,  deciding it best to stop now before she further makes a fool of herself .   isn’t that was spurred diluc to egg her on ?   why did he care so much anyways ?   he clearly feigned interest for the sake of old bonds .   mona’s never been one deserving of personal attachment ,  seeing how everyone who ever got close always fell so far away or ended up getting hurt .

                 her voice is soft ,  distant ,  COLD .                                 ❛      i shouldn’t have come .      ❜                  it’s obvious how he despises her now that she’s had a moment of reprieve from her mora problems to open up her eyes .   whatever the case ,  he’s holding something like a grudge between them ,  wedging her further from himself the more she tries to make amends .   she sought warmth in his arms ,  &&.  just like his predictable brother ,  he shunned her with a cold forlorn shoulder that refused to welcome her inside .

{▩} his amber hues wandered and shined a bit studying her expressions and gestures, between the rather solemn and quiet demeanor plus her short stopped fidgetting motions, he could tell she felt awkward, if not a bit out of place. this was not her usual self, nor was it anywhere close to her norm.

professionally, Zhongli would bow with respect, before showing his own solemn respects for the late mother or maternal figure to this young woman. “ well , all funeral requests must be placed through Funeral Director Hu Tao , assuming she has not already attempted to contact or entice you already … ”

he knew Hu Tao could be a bit abrasive when it came to these clients, but she always meant well and always had a sound mind when it came to the respectfulness needed to allow the dead to move on, and allow the living the closure needed.

“ … and it is Director Hu Tao who will approve the request , and give you a contract with an invoice and a detailed funeral plan . ”

                                ❛      ah ,  hu tao ?   well ,  yes     --  she specified i’d be getting a generous discount due to our personal standing in friendship .   i ,  well ,  i don’t mean to BOAST per se ,  it’s just that she made a habit to call me her ‘bestie’ ,  &&.  promised i’d be able to afford this ,  if there would be any price on it at all .      ❜                  vivid memories of wandering the outskirts of jueyun karst flashed across mona’s gaze ,  of when they admired the amber glow of solidified geo housing ages old memorabilia ,  which hu tao had made a connection towards mona’s grief .   something something ,  preserving the dead was a means of letting their spirit wander in purgatory forever instead of letting them find freedom in a proper celebration of their death .   thus funerals were often a means of honoring their passage ,  hence why one couldn’t just let their body be bound to the mortal plain for too long .

     they bend down a fraction, leaning forward to allow the affection to happen; SCRUNCHING their nose as mona taps it. he also allows the patronizing tone she gives while scolding him for being so late (it WAS his fault after all, not paying attention to how low the sun had gotten).

     and as usual, childe doesn’t understand MUCH of what mona’s saying. he’s never been good at deciphering anything when it came to astrology, content to simply nod along. “ a bit harsh, don’t you think? not that i don’t deserve it. ” a SHEEPISH smile appears as they stand back to full height.

    while witnessing the begging had always been AMUSING it was pointless, childe had always seen that her loans had been approved immediately and the invitation for meeting up this time had been met with the same enthusiasm.

                 &&.  there it was ,  his belittlement towards himself ,  often chiding any flaw they may feature .   why they saw to spotlight those moments of his creases never clicked with mona ,  mostly grinding at her patience as though he had just sullied his suit with mud for the fun of it .   hands bind to hips ,  fists resting on bodice’s curve ,  tone shifting from daunting to now a concerned lilt .                                 ❛      harsh ?   speak for yourself !   you just admitted to deserving a reprimanding for something you may not have even had control over !   who’s to say you weren’t held back from a previous engagement ,  or maybe caught up in some harbor theatrics that sidelined your walk to our arrangement ?   honestly ,  childe ,  you mustn’t go faulting yourself for EVERY little thing .      ❜

                 is she speaking from experience ?   especially so ,  but that didn’t matter in the grand scheme .   eyes previously hardened by patronizing are softer than the gentle sea’s waves ,  misty-eyed  &&.  clearly devoted to giving the harbinger the benefit of the doubt .   they hadn’t shown up late on purpose ,  no one was that lazy .   &&.  she couldn’t tack that trait onto the fatui agent responsible for the awakening of osial !

                 no ,  childe was anything BUT lazy .

hmm?  sure  —  !  what’ll  it  be  today?  gathering  materials?  exploring  a  dangerous  mountain?  wandering  through  a  long  forgotten  dungeon  to  retrieve  some  lost  family  heirloom?

or …  a  BREAK  from  all  of  that.  a  break  sounds  nice,  actually.  (  he  has  been  stuck  doing  so  many  commissions.  )

                 well ,  she dares say marveling the teyvat countryside sounds like a wonderful expense of their time ,  traveler !   in fact ,  she’ll even bring her pendant for seeking proper chakra within the cliffside should they wish to sunbathe for a while .   oo ,  maybe she could weave a poppet for them to read a constellation from !

{▩} - the visitation was quite unexpected… as always, Liyue’s walls have ears and word travels quite far and quite fast. he had heard stories about an illustriously dressed astrologist, a profession that was not unknown to him, but not a practice he knew by his own hand. truly a gift passed down from master to student.

though she was before him, and greeted him by name, her approach and her tone clearly indicated loss… he had seen it many times before, even before working at the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.

“ my deepest sincereties, miss . ” deeper voice held softer tones towards her loss , he had to pick his next words carefully to be certain he handled her unfortunate departure in the most respectful way possible.

“ what can the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor offer to you ? would you like a burial , cremation , or even a rite of passing could be performed as per Liyue tradition . ”

                 mona remained quiet ,  dangerously so as she listened to whom her friend hu tao had recommended she seek for guidance under her stead .   it takes the remaining of her khaenrhi’ahn lineage to muster her courage ,  to remind herself of astrologist’s admonished will to see everything to its end .   her mother wished to belong to the stars ,  so be it .                                 ❛      cremation might be best sought ,  though i’m sure she would wish for her to be burned so that her ash may flow up into the night sky to join the stars .   if it’s not too much trouble ,  that is .      ❜

                 mora was also a troubling topic ,  not much left in her mother’s will beyond what little mora had sustained them prior  ;      seemed poor money management ran in her blood .   diminishing hope was quickly snuffed out by the reality this would be costly ,  let alone weigh heavy on debt if she failed to reach the negotiated amount .

                 fingers thread back a few stray red hairs that fray from ear’s shell ,  the shorter letting palm linger on their freckled cheek just to tarry  &&.  let them consume her affection in its rawest form .   glove slinks to press a fingertip to their nose’s tip ,  hum content to patronize them for their tardiness for their designated rendezvous .

                                ❛      silly as always ,  you with your smell of fish .   nattering on like a narwhal’s horn may be your guiding light !   you’re lucky i find you endearing ,  or i would’ve manifested the worst projection of your body’s hydration in a simple astrologist’s spell .      ❜                  head cants ,  slits her eyes as she harrows at them ,  making sure he’s not gawking for too long .   after all ,  this WAS their little reunion back into the good graces of liyue since the harbor incident .   ( lucky for mona ,  she had been in mondstadt at the time . )

                 when mona first forms a crush on someone ,  it’s a fluttery lightweight feeling that leeches onto her heart ,  weighs her down .   her mind fogs up  &&.  focus lacks ,  like she’s falling asleep into a lucid dream state .   the world goes numb around her ,  the light of day or night refracting off the surface of their skin almost like a halo’s glow ,  a sign that her specified crush is an angel in disguise .

                 she doesn’t care about mora ,  about status ,  or even looks .   she’s enamored with who they idealize themselves to be ,  who they are as a person .   the lead in her heart only worsens the more head over heels she trips over them .   the feel of their fingers tracing her forearm ,  of their breath ghosting places foreign like the back of her ear ,  or maybe the bite of their vision creeping along her fragile form .