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The sight before him was beautiful.
Orange hair caught the light just perfectly, turning its color into a blazing gold that complemented the pallor of freckled cheeks. Ocean blue eyes were wide with delight as his muse ran a careful finger over the back petals of a glaze lily, a rare and ancient flower said only to grow in places where gods had once been.
Snap.
“Are you taking pictures of me again?” Ajax didn't laugh, but he sounded amused, looking up from his cradling of flowers to meet Zhongli's amber eyes. The older man hummed, watching with fascination as the piece of plastic printed from the pale blue camera with a trrrrinkkk, revealing a pale, egg-like shade that stood out aganist its pure white borders.
“Mmm,” Zhongli rumbled. “I'm not looking to apologize, if an apology is what you are looking for. I find that you are quite photogenic, so I like to take it upon myself to take pictures of you.” He glanced up, stony face with a smile in his eyes. “Does that bother you?”
Ajax catches the smile, throws his head back, and laughs. It's a beautiful sight. As soon as Zhongli plucked the plastic from the printer he angled the camera towards his lover and snapped another picture.
“Jeez, I'm flattered, but you don't have to take pictures of me every second,” the redhead snickered. Zhongli smiles back. “But I want to.” He flips the first polaroid over in his palm and watches with fascination as the egg-white color faded into golden sunset, glaze lily blue and blazing orange.
“You are a beautiful subject for photography.” The amber-eyed man hummed, removing the second print and patiently waiting for the picture to be revealed. Ajax blushes into his oversized sweater paws, and, being close enough to do so, swats playfully at Zhongli's face.
“O-oh, shut up.” He grumbles, but doesn't say anything else. Zhongli is glad. He loves Ajax, but the moment the redhead goes on a laughing-it-off spiel about the older being prettier, he doesn't know if he would be able to hold back from kissing him into the ground and trambling several glaze lilies in the process.
The brunette hums, admiring both pictured before tucking them into his bag and placing the camera in his lap, leaning back to sit and watch the view. Ajax had gone from blushing and watching him with a shy grin to peacefully playing with the outer white petals of a glaze lily as golden sunset slowly turned into blue night.
“I love this place,” Ajax admits after a long moment of silence. “I mean, you wouldn't expect a place like this to exist in modern Teyvat, but I'm glad it does.” He sighs, looking behind him to briefly admire the extensive field of glaze lilies and the giant, mystical tree that glowed with fireflies and geo crystalflies.
Zhongli hummed softly, thinking of a time, long ago, when there was a funeral parlour consultant that fell in love with one of the Tsaritsa's chaotic Harbingers, when battle and bloodshed still existed across Teyvat and Visions manifested and the Gods thrived in a time that slowly fell into the hands of humans, and when they wanted nothing more than to love each other.
He thought of a time when the two found ancient Nantianmen with an equally ancient dragon sleeping in it, and the Harbinger fell in love with the abandoned gap between giant mountains and insisted they were to get married there, even if it was a hassle to have a ceremony and celebration in such a remote place.
He thought of a time when the two spread their love, joy and unity across the mountains and nature weeped with awe, growing the most beautiful of glaze lilies that bloomed with a soft, fragrant scent that captivated the guests and beautifully described the couple's union.
(He thought of a time when he was Zhongli, the funeral parlour consultant with a Geo vision, who fell in love with a Harbinger named Childe, and who watched as nature decided it would always wait for the boy who loved the tiny ponds and half-lakes he found in their gaps just as much as he loved open seas and eternal frostlands.)
There was once a time when he and his Ajax were different people.
And today is another time when they, again, are different people.
Despite all the hardships, the agonizing three thousand years of waiting for his beloved, his Ajax, his everything, to come back, to hold him again in his arms and tell him everything's going to be okay, Zhongli..
He looks at the photos in his hands, and then at a humming Ajax, beautiful and free, eyes filled with light and body scarred by falling from trees and tripping on rocks like the clumsy man he was, shoulders relaxed and hands dripping with pollen, and he thinks of a bright future and another hopeful tomorrow, spent with this man, and he thinks,
..it was all worth it, for this one man.
FIN.