Chapter Text
“What happened to you?” Y/N questioned as they welcomed their slightly battered boyfriend in their home.
Before leaving that early morning, Zhongli had told his beloved—and sleepy— lover that he would be heading the Wangshu Inn to give a friend of his some medicine since he hadn’t been feeling well as of late, and stated that he would be back mid-afternoon. Y/N didn’t really pay any mind to it since his travels to Wangshu Inn had become a sort of routine of his-and theirs as well- that Y/N had gotten used to, but what they weren’t expecting was to see the often well-kept and elegant Zhongli covered in dirt and painfully holding onto his shoulder.
“I ran into some trouble on the way back from the inn,” Zhongli stated nonchalantly in an attempt to calm his extremely worried lover.
Y/N couldn’t find the proper words to say to Zhongli, they didn’t want him to feel any worse than he already did by panicking around him. So, they calmly grabbed his uninjured and guided him to the living room, where Y/N urged Zhongli to sit while they went to grab some ointments, gauze, and other essentials.
Upon their return, Y/N sits next to Zhongli, urging him to turn his back to them, and then starts carefully and gently tending to his wounds.
“You didn’t have your shield up?” they asked in order to keep Zhongli a little distracted and to get a proper gist of what had happened.
“I did; however it had fallen at the exact moment one of the treasure hoarders hit me with his weapon.”
Y/N replied with a simple hum and continued to tend to his injuries, saving the shoulder for last. The couple fell into a comfortable silence, and once Y/N was done, they had asked if Zhongli felt a little better.
He tried to move his shoulder a bit; but was met with a flash of pain, “Only when I move it” he hissed.
Y/N sighed and tried to stop the former from making any unnecessary movements that could potentially bring more harm to him, “Just don’t move too much, alright? Or else you won’t get any better. “ Y/N chastised. However, despite their warning, they placed a soft kiss on his bandaged shoulder.
Zhongli chuckles at his lover’s actions, “First, you reprimand me, and now you kiss me. You are giving me very mixed signals, my dear,” he says as he turns to face them.
“It’s called balance you stubborn bastard, besides, a kiss is supposed to make the pain go away or help you feel better at least,” Y/N replies while rolling their eyes.
Upon hearing Y/N’s statement, Zhongli then starts to sport an arrogant look, which was quickly replaced with a pained expression, “In that case, you’re gonna have to give me another one here” and points to his forehead, to which Y/N leans forward and complies with his request.
Y/n pulls away and looks at their boyfriend with an unamused face, “Is that better?”
Zhongli maintains his pained expression, “Not quite, I’m afraid it still hurts here”. Zhongli’s out-of-character playfulness continues on a few more times, with him pointing to various regions on his face and his lover following suit with gentle kisses littering it.
“I think you’re fine now, Mr. Zhongli, its time for you to rest now,” Y/N says as they get up from the couch and prepare to put away all the medications, but it stopped by Zhongli’s hold on their wrist.
“Wait, just one more. Here,” Zhongli says in a lower tone and points to his lip.
Although taken aback by his sudden change of tone and atmosphere, Y/N, not one to pass up on kissing their boyfriend, leaned down and gave him a quick kiss. However, what was supposed to be a peck, turned into something more, as Zhongli uses his uninjured arm to hold onto the back of Y/N’s neck in order to deepen the kiss.
Their heated kiss went on for a while; however, Y/N had started to feel uncomfortable from leaning down for quite some time. As if sensing their discomfort, Zhongli pulls away from the kiss and stands up from his seat.
“As per my dear doctor’s orders, I’ll head into the bedroom now,” he says and a small peck onto Y/N’s neck, “don’t keep me waiting, my dear.”