Summer’s humidity settles against skin like a sticky hug with light rain thrumming against the paper umbrella. Zhongli observes small hands fidget with a vision, a faint blue glow flickering from its glassy exterior. The child is rather insistent on looking away from him with mud covering her scowling expression and scraped knees.
“A vision,” he comments, a measured gaze with a hint of curiosity rolling across his face. “Is that not something to be happy about?”
“What’s there to be happy about it?” she snaps back, fingers curling around the gift into a shaky fist, “My brother is stuck in another region now after nearly dying and this got dropped on me on that exact day. It’s nothing cool or legendary, just stupid. ”
“Surely, he would be proud, no?”
The girl sniffs, wiping at her eyes before muttering in a quiet voice, “…He is.”
“It’s still a useless rock to me,” she abruptly continues on, tossing the vision and angrily gesticulating at the air. “I couldn’t fight those knights off and he just TELEPORTED me out of there so I wouldn’t get caught.”
“Perhaps it was the conviction that mattered,” Zhongli simply interjects, placing it on the grass next to the child.
He passes the umbrella to her, the rain sinking into his scalp and drenching through his coat. She flinches before hesitantly latching onto the wooden handle. Watery eyes peer out from under, a mix of child’s naivety and distrust glimmering through.
He gently smiles as her, holding out a gloved hand.
“And perhaps, you need someone to talk to over a hot cup of tea.”
_ _ _
OKAY THE MENACE IS FINALLY OUT, I REPEAT, THE FERAL CHILD IS FINALLY OUT. Gods, I adore her. Ah, the shenanigans now begin. Fr Rai and Miuna being the most gremlin siblings ever (I love them, I adore those two, gods the amounts of ANGST I DUMPED ON THEM). Also rip Timmie's pigeons, if my Ganyu wasn't enough, there is now a rogue child eying them intensely.
-> Got the drip marketing background from @/chie_zuu on twitter!
