#destinyrcigned

“Yeah, no, not happening. We’re booking it.” In saying so, he liberally scoops Zhongli in his arms and begins to stride away. 

⚜┆  ❝I did not expect to see you again.❞ Under happier circumstances he would have delighted in this; the reunion of an old friend, of someone whose face he watched turned from a child to a teen to a man, a feeling perfectly suited to his tempestuous nature, his searing vision. In many ways this could have burned his skin in a familiar, comfortable, happy sensation, but now it only scathed him.

Thoma had been standing on the docks on the other side of the water, taller and wiser than he’d remembered. Diluc saw him first, because Thoma didn’t know what -or who- to expect from out of Inazuma. His face carried a smile as he looked around, but as he turned and their eyes meet and suddenly Thoma wasn’t smiling anymore, Diluc knew he wasn’t expected and probably wasn’t welcomed. The board creaked in agony as his boots clicked across them. It felt more comforting when he’d managed to finally step on dirt, faced before their escort. He stood behind Aether like a silent shadow, like who he was meant to be, speaking only out of obligation but not one who was on a vacation - and he wasn’t. 

It was absurd to think Thoma had been the escort Captain Beidou had spoken about. He remembered looking up at the stars last night and thought they looked like they were laughing at him. Well, they certainly were playing a joke on him now.

He wonders who his biggest fan is...

Oh?

“I see~” No wonder the guy’s so grouchy today.

Chrom, Mondstadt babysitter & relationship advisor 

  ❛   i would enjoy your company, if you would care to have me.   ❜  

Klee hums happily, bouncing along Mondsadt’s streets as she looks up towards the clear blue sky. Ah, how pretty - it reminds her of the river... Oh, she should go fishing today! The weather is perfect and it’s almost lunch time... She can imagine the beautiful, freshly cooked fish, put on nice warm toast and finished off with some tomato sauce.... 

Spotting Kaeya, she grins and runs up towards him. “Kaeya gege~ Can we go fishing today, pleeeeease? I promise I’ll be good and I won’t hurt anyone and I’ll make sure that no one’s around, please please pleeeeeeeease?”

It wasn’t uncommon for Zhongli to be seen with an expression that could be mistaken for one more aloof, with how reserved the man had ALWAYS been. He remembers easily, how Guizhong once told him that he could afford to express more often while they sat out under the sun’s welcoming rays one early evening so long ago. While he’d sworn to at least make the attempt to follow her plea, though there was progress, to say he was expressive in his emotions would not have been FULLY true. The evolution in the geo archon’s behavior only began to change after the sudden departure of his beloved friend, who fell when the archon war broke out. A loss so painful, that it had caused such a stone-hearted man to desire to see everything in the sense his dear comrade once had.

Never again.

The battle they’d had to endure was brutal, neither of them having gotten out fully unscathed when the sudden presence of a stonehide lawachurl caught them mildly off guard in the midst of exploring some old ruins within the edges of Liyue’s land. While the lawachurl had ultimately perished, he doubts Itto is in any condition to take another enemy like that on, or any for that matter. The determination sets in at that thought, his gaze setting more firmly on the wounded man as he speaks, his gaze seeming rather blurred judging by how Itto’s head was mildly swaying for a moment.

❝ … You are not dead, Itto. This is no heaven. ❞

Undoubtedly, the blood loss had made this man loopy. His lips purse, hand grazing over without quite touching one particular gash embedded in Itto’s side. Arataki had always been quite the durable one, yet even wounds like this could do a man in without treatment. Kneeling down, he’s swift to lift the man to lean against his shoulder, one arm secured around the oni’s wastw for support. Hurry, before more show up. If there was a stonehide not even far from the entrance, there was certainly more hilichurls waiting somewhere not far from it. ❝ We need to escort you to a doctor immediately, however. Do you think you can remain conscious until then? ❞

Everything is taken into consideration here, taking step by cautious step east to where Qingce Village had been. While the harbor was a ways off, he knew there had been a doctor or two residing in the village. His own injuries could wait, masked well underneath layers of dark clothes that absorbed the growing bloodstains. Bright, cor-lapis hues narrow in concentration, his eyes scanning the environment . Most of the walls of the ruin-filled cave had seemed ready to collapse with the lawachurl’s constant charges, the cracks alone displaying how another blow might bring it down. ❝ Qingce Village isn’t too far from our current location, so I’ll bring you there where you can rest. You’ve done well to hold the enemy off, so take time to regain your strength and recover. ❞

Morax wasn’t going to let another innocent soul pass on.

Itto’s consciousness wavered to and from alertness before sharpening abruptly at the scent of blood, tensing before he realized it was his own. For a moment, a jolt of fear had laced the Oni’s body was that it had been Zhongli’s blood, something about that curdling his worse than the notion that he could be bleeding out, himself. If he lost Morax again, what the hell would the point even be? No... he’d already lost the god once, no matter how much of a farce it was, and he’d be damned if it happened again. Maybe the entire ordeal that had culminated in the god’s loss of godhood confused him, but Itto didn’t care. No matter what name or form he took, Itto was hellbent on remaining by his side and just making sure he was safe, happy... What that said about him, he didn’t know, but what he could was the thought of losing Zhongli for real petrified him. 

The conflagration they’d been embroiled him had been much tougher on him than he’d thought they would be, almost wondering if he’d have to resort to his Aragoto state just to make sure they pulled through alright. But, if one thing could be proven, it was that the two Geo-users fought synergistically together, but in shows of bravado had Itto’s peacocking displays made him open and reckless, letting down his guard one too many times when he thought the Stonehide Lawachurl had been incapacitated by a particularly devastating blow Itto had unleashed in the wake of one of Zhongli’s offenses, wanting to prove himself with bombastic surety that he wasn’t weak, that everything he’d done to that point to be someone worthy of his Vision wasn’t in vain. Itto wanted to be strong enough for him, strong enough to fight alongside him as an equal, to protect him--

Yet, as reality rushed to greet him, the Oni groaned when Zhongli adjusted him, seconds away lodging a protest before the other man’s scent wafted into his nostrils and his body sagged pleasurably from how soothing it was to him. Funny... once upon a time, Itto had been small, staring up at one of those immeasurably, larger-than-life statues of Morax like he was totally untouchable, only for him to be this close and in such close contact with him. Like music to soothe the savage beast, it was a panacea to be supported by someone and something so solid, incredulous to be near someone he never thought he would be in all his wildest dreams...

“SHIT, MORAX-SAMA--”

The menacing groan of the trashed cave’s vaulted ceilings collapsing in a dusty avalanche of stone disgorged as rubble that fell from the plate Itto caught, the wide table of stone cracking as the Oni snarled from exertion, having thrown Zhongli beneath him so the man wouldn’t be crushed under the deluge. His joints creaked and Vision blazed from the amount of energy he poured into his limbs to lighten the slab, thousands of tons of rubble propped otherwise by his immense strength as an Oni. Respiring like a livid bull, Itto caught Zhongli’s gaze pleadingly. “H-Hey, use your power t’get rid of this. I can hold it, but--GUH--” he roared when more of the plates above buckled, amassing even more weight to the already staggering load. Because he’d be damned if he let this be the thing that did away with him, dammit! Gritting his teeth, until his jaw creaked, he sputtered, “Dammit, I’m not gonna lose you! Not this time, and not for real! Fuck, just--GO!”