#gensin

Alhaitham as a Boyfriend

He’s so dumb. 

Not intentionally so, but one can hardly blame a man who spent most of his life buried in books to know anything about romance.

He had no idea what a “crush” was.

Kaveh nearly bludgeoned some sense into him when he noticed how Alhaitham looked at you, trailed after you like a lost puppy, and was always acutely aware of your relationship status. Alhaitham claims you were interesting, enjoyable to talk to, and he simply made sure you were single to avoid any misunderstanding with how often the two of you hung out. Kaveh nearly strangled him out of frustration when he claimed these were all normal ways to act and feel about someone.

He knew exactly how to respond to your confession.

“Yes,” instinctively spilled from his lips when you asked him out on a date. He understood the concept of dating and what a relationship entailed, but it wasn’t until the moment you confessed that he realized how desperate he had been for such a status with you. He ignored Kaveh’s smug expression when the news finally got around to him. 

He’s painfully honest… at first. 

Alhaitham has always been a blunt man, but while he doesn’t mind the general public viewing him however they wish, he does value your opinion and learns to dial back his tone when discussing sensitive matters. However, patience is key, and dealing with someone like Alhaitham does not become easy overnight. 

He learns to be gentle. 

Not like that you perv, but emotional sensitivity has never been his forte, and the last thing he wants to do is have you be hurt and confused. Sweetness is a foreign concept to his mannerisms, so more often than not, this results in quiet moments of comfort rather than unprecedented blossoms of romance.

He’s always open to communication.

The deeper you delve into your relationship, the more Alhaitham realizes just how much of his personality can be ill-suited to close relations. He regularly makes sure he hasn’t said the wrong thing or done something to make you question his affections for you. At the end of the day though, Alhaitham is still Alhaitham, and sometimes he can be too quick to defend a comment before realizing how it can impact you.

He enjoys PDA.

It’s nothing excessive of course, but your hands are almost always glued together out in public. Rationally speaking, he claims, the streets of Sumeru can be crowded on any given day and he does not wish to lose you in the sea of people. When the streets are empty, however, and you tease him for refusing to drop your hand, he rolls his eyes and doesn’t say another word.

He’s not jealous.

Why would Alhaitham be jealous? You chose him. A rational, blunt, and sometimes clueless man who definitely knows less about romance than the barista who wouldn’t stop telling you how beautiful you were. He definitely didn’t think about that longer than necessary.

He trusts you wholeheartedly.

Despite him totally not being jealous, at the end of the day, he knew you would never betray your relationship. Such a silly notion never once crossed his mind, especially when he knew you extended the same trust to him.

He’d be the first to say he loves you.

It was pure logic, really. The extended bouts of longing for your company in your absence, the constant craving to hear your soft voice, the desire to grasp your hand and never let go; to never have you leave his side… it didn’t take much research into the concept of “love” for Alhaitham to rationalize that was how he felt about you. His confession came as a pleasant surprise to you, and you were eager to return the words to him. Kaveh nearly died of shock when he heard Alhaitham say this to you in his presence for the first time.

He can be very domestic.

When Kaveh finally got his own place, Alhaitham was quick to invite you to live with him. This morphed into lazy nights of quiet cuddling as you dozed off in his arms. Hugs from behind and featherlight cheek kisses were common as well. In short, if you were both home, Alhaitham was always all over you.

He can’t wait to marry you.

The thought would surprise him and the question later you (only because the idea didn’t occur to him sooner), but the moment Alhaitham laid eyes on you, he knew he wanted to be yours and for you to be his forever.

— — —

Check out part 2 of this ongoing series here! https://www.tumblr.com/cherrygourds/813658320450830336/genshin-boyfriend-headcanons-part-2

Also check out where else I'm a moron on the internet on my Twitter, Ao3, and Wattpad @CherryGourds :)

Artwork by Merumouse (ToyHouse) (NOT MY ART)

Character is called Luiem (I bought him on TH ((resale)))

(Putting notes above cut, as under cut is more credit) (will add more notes over time)

Genshin oc, but I will be also putting him in other fandoms/stories/etc. Will be making notes, there will be specific notes for fandoms I shove him in and general notes. Will add notes as I go along.

Notes: 

-He/They 

-Bisexual

-25 Years old

-Had an abnormal entity mimic his look (Entity is Null). Doesn't know how to feel about that. (depending on the world/au/fandom is depending on if he gets along with them or not)

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Genshin specific notes:

-Cryo, Sword or Claymore (mostly uses sword).

-From Mondstadt, briefly lived in Inazuma (when he was a young teen), before moving to Sumeru, where he got his vision.

-Often helps out in the Grand Bazaar. Mainly just cause he likes all the singing/dancing, and helping out is an excuse to be there.

-Works sort of a jack-of-all-trades, Does all sorts of work, bodyguard work, detective, transporting goods, etc. He struggles to stick to one sort of job, as he gets bored easily. 

-When the abnormal entity copied his look he was semi curious, but now is annoyed at them, mainly because they can't see eye to eye. No idea why they hang around him, knows he needs to try to keep them out of the way, since he's not sure what people would do to them given they're not exactly a known entity/being. 

-Adopted a Rishboland Tiger when it was just a cub, thinking it was just a particularly large kitten. Now just has this giant overgrown cat, but knows he can't put it in the wild as she never learnt to be wild.

-His Rishboland Tiger is called Honey, and she's smaller than most tigers as she's a runt. She's often found glued to either Luiem's or Null's side.

Ruby: Jaune, I'm going to cry if you don't look! Little Ruby wants you to look at her~! (Whispering) And so do I...

Ruby: I promise, I'm wearing a shirt this time! If you don't look, it means you hate me~!

Ruby: Jaune, look! She's waving at you~! Jaune! Jaune, look at where the doll is!

Ruby: Jaune, look at where I put the little doll of me on me! Please~?

WHY DO ANEMO WIELDERS DESERVE THEIR VISION THEMATICALLY

First things first,

What is Anemo?

Coming from the old Greek word for wind, anemo is the... wind element. In Genshin, it's associated with the concept of freedom.

In game it caused the SWIRL reaction when used alongside cryo, pyro, electro and hydro, it also transfers their effects on other enemies.

In game, most anemo users can be used as crowd control.

Now, air itself is associated with swiftness and flow. It's transparent, and we barely notice it despite its abundance.

Weirdly enough, I always associated wind with knowledge as well in a way. Due to the fact that it's EVERYWHERE, a wind God could know anything and everything spoken like advanced eavesdropping.

Now that I got all that out of the way.

SUCROSE

She's quiet, like the air, and shy. But that feels like a weak reason.

She is an alchemist. In fact the first thing she does with her vision, is to test it out by boiling it.

Anemo is one of the only two elements that has an almost universal reaction [SWIRL] the other one being geo's CRYSTALLISE, and guess what element the other alchemist wields.

JEAN

She's the head of the region. She also demonstrates extreme loyalty to Mondstadt. not much else to reason, she lives for the people of the wind and so she got the vision of the wind.

XIAO

He always stood out to me amongst the rest of the Liyue cast for reasons I'll explain in a bit.

Xiao doesn't remember how he got his vision since it was so long ago.

He was enslaved by another god and forced to commit horrible acts in his name. He was freed by Rex Lapis during the Archon War. So he could have gotten his vision because of his desire for freedom.

Another reason could be because of his illuminated beast form. The Genshin Wiki suggests two possible forms for him since we haven't actually seen him, a Peng [Large bird from Chinese folklore] or a Garuda [A Hindu diety who freed his mother from his snake headed half brothers, King of the Birds] can you tell which one I'm more familiar with? lol.

Both are birds, in a way. Garuda is a humanoid with a bird head and wings, and while Xiao is a Liyuen character, his status as a Yaksha stood out to me. In Hindu lore, Yakshas are used to refer to benevolent demons deities, so I always associated him closer to Hinduism because of this.

So while he, as a Liyuen character, has a chance to be a Peng. I'm kinda rooting for him to be similar to Garuda because of his roots.

Back on anemo, he's a bird. wind. I'm so smart. B)

SAYU

She's a ninja and ninjas are swift, it also ties in the invisibility aspect of the wind. And eavesdropping.

HEIZOU

Heizou has his own form of justice. Sara lets him get away with it because he's that good at his job, so he has more freedom with the law.. But that's weak-sauce.

The eavesdropping/knowledge aspect could work for a detective as well.

His dad's a martial artist master and he definitely learned under him a bit, so swift movements I guess.

That being said, Heizou didn't want to follow in his dad's footsteps, he got his vision when he found himself a purpose and 'broke free' from his father's expectations, unless I misinterpreted his story. Feel free to comment if so. <3

KAZUHA

Oh. My. Gods. HE IS SO WIND CODED I SWEAR TO THE EVER-LOVING HEAVENS.

FREE SPIRITED

NOMADIC

WANDERING SAMURAI

GOES WITH THE FLOW

SWIFT

FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM IN INAZUMA

ESC-FUCKING-SCAPED INAZUMA

THIS BOY COULD BE THE REAL ANEMO ARCHON AND I WOULDN'T EVEN BAT AN EYE

BARBATOS WHO?

ALL HAIL KAEDAHARA KAZUHA!

I would be burned at the stake by the Church of Mondstadt but I spoke my truth.

FARUZAN

Ok, I was worried that I won't get anything from her, but she gained her vision from getting herself free from Deshret's tomb.

She is totally justified.

WANDERER

OK

So this boy spent most of his life being bound by his betrayals. He tried to free himself from his past with a retcon, but its like... freeing yourself by taking a VERY drastic decision... I hope I wasn't the only one who read it that way...

He 'frees' himself, not by binding himself to his past, nor by 'running' away from it, he embraces it. He accepts what happened to him, and the things he's done, but he's more at peace with what happened.

In a way, he's free from his past. he's still facing the consequences of his actions and all that [Nahida's just rehabilitating him even though he's her prisoner and I think that she's the sweetest thing in the world], but he's no longer weighed down by all those emotions.

I love arcs like that. I love it when people heal. I love his arc.

LYNETTE

She's quiet, she's a spy that once again ties to the eavesdropping aspect, and she was freed, along with Lyney. I'm doing research for Lyney separately. So...

She could also be tied to the crowd control aspect in Genshin.

She's the magician's assistant. In a lot of magic tricks, the assistants draw the eyes away from what the magician's doing in the background by making a big show of unveiling a prop.

That's right, if you watch certain tricks and keep an eye on the magician and not let your eyes be drawn to the assistants waving the tablecloth, you could see the magician switching out the gun or whatever.

The crowd control thing also works with the spy aspect. So yeah.

so....

I was able to give Doylist reasoning for the elements assigned to each of the characters. However, not a Watsonian reason.

It may just be a case of Celestia yeeting random visions to anyone who passes a trial or impresses them. and it's a game of chance.... unless you can find other similarities.

Honestly, if everyone in each element had something in common with those of the same element, it could leave little room for variation in the cast. You could get creative if all anemo vision holders were people who have a strong sense of freedom, or fights for the freedom of others, but I'm glad they didn't go this route.

So... yeah, I'm gonna start resaerch on geo, and sorry about the long ass post but Genshin has a large cast.