Chapter Text
Love, overpowering and blissful, conquered Zhongli’s heart, every day and every night.
He was hopelessly in love with a mortal. It would be taboo if anyone told the Gods what to do. Barbatos was always sneaking down to Tevyat anyway, harassing one of Zhongli’s own adepti as both a goose that would follow him relentlessly and a human who would pursue him just as doggedly, leaving the name Barbatos at the door. A god of contracts, Zhongli was tied up in red tape from the start. Though he may have spent his days in the heavens tying up loose ends for virtuous mortals and his devoted followers, his eyes were always on one of Barbatos’.
His name was Diluc, a human being with phoenix blood running through his veins. Zhongli could scarcely take his eyes off of him. He could talk about him for weeks on end to his retainers, to the other gods (except those who he knew could not keep the secret), to anyone who would listen. Diluc was something of a legend, a hero of the people, using a secret moniker to set things right among them. He did get attention from the other gods, but no one cast blessings down quite as mightily—or as frequently— as Zhongli did. He always won his battles, emerging victorious, good over evil, though he blasphemously attributed his win to no god, nor himself. He was merely lucky to be alive. Zhongli liked him for this— though he was always getting him out of trouble, Diluc never let his resourcefulness wane lest it come back to kill him. Diluc threw himself into fights almost as if he wished to die a hero— though Zhongli knew better. It was simply to carry on the legacy of his father. He was no martyr. He only did what was right.
And that is why Zhongli could not leave him alone.
His love was blinding him, as if a cupid’s arrow had pricked his skin. He was losing clarity with his want. Perhaps if he brought him to the heavens… perhaps if he courted him properly, having what he wanted would quell his appetite. Gods were the epitome of man, so every emotion they felt, they felt in extremes. It was why they would put warriors in the stars and smite with the passion of a thousand scorned lovers.
(It almost was a tragedy they were in charge of this world, to be honest.)
—
Diluc didn’t have time to make it back home to his winery before the earth paved itself before his very eyes, pillars of stone ascending to the heavens as platforms of stairs. It had to be an illusion— was he dead? Had the man he fought earlier actually succeeded in killing him? A grand voice announced himself as he started walking down the steps, though his only two words were troubling.
“Fear not.”
“… any sane person should fear this a lot, I’d think.” Diluc said back, quietly. He observed Zhongli with a keen eye. The color of his tinted arms, lit up with gold veins ending with purely golden hands. This had to be the god of stone and earth, Rex Lapis. Morax. Whatever was proper to call him.
Diluc did not disbelieve in the gods, he merely didn’t put his wellbeing in their hands. His unusual good luck he attributed to years of training. So when Zhongli descended, he crossed his arms, leaning back on his heels to see what the god wanted with him. A challenge for a well-known warrior? Maybe. The fact that he wasn’t kneeling and praying was impious, but had Diluc done so, Zhongli would have been disappointed. This man kneeled for no one, and he absolutely shouldn’t kneel before his lover-to-be.
“Diluc Ragnvindr,” A voice spoke that both came from Zhongli’s lips and from the heavens themselves. “I have come to take you to the place you rightfully belong.”
“… So I am dead.”
“Not at all,” Zhongli corrected him. “I, Rex Lapis, have grown quite taken with you. Enough that you don’t need to walk these mortal grounds any longer.”
Diluc stared at him, blankly. “You’re not known to joke.”
“Nor was I joking.”
“So… you’ve been watching over me?”
“Constantly. Each time, my love has only grown. They will sing songs and dance on this day at the steps of my temples, for it is the day I finally—”
“But our relationship isn’t that of equals.”
“… pardon?” Zhongli seemed surprised his speech had been interrupted, even more that Diluc seemed to be rebuffing him.
“I’m mortal, you’re a God. I only know you from books of prayer and statues of your form. You know me through your ability to watch humans. We don’t know each other the same way— I’ve been instructed to worship you my entire life, but you only know what you’ve seen. You haven’t spoken to me once. Don’t you think that lovers should see eye to eye, rather than treat the other like an idol, for different reasons?”
Diluc was sensible. He didn’t want to profess any love without being certain it was going to be reciprocated fairly. Without making sure he loved the other person first. He was willing to disobey a god to teach them a lesson about romance. All of these things should have upset Zhongli.
Instead, he was enamored even more.
He approached Diluc with an unreadable expression, before sweeping him off his feet and into his arms. There were things that humans understood that gods did not, patience being one of them. As Zhongli held onto Diluc and stepped back onto the stone stairs, each step disappearing back into the ground as his foot left it. The steps lead up to a gold light that would take them to Zhongli’s home among the clouds. Diluc knew better than to strike a god, but he did complain quite loudly at being literally taken to the heavens. He had a winery! He had people who relied on him! He had business to attend to that didn’t involve gods and—
Shh. As the doors opened to Zhongli’s palace, with shimmering jade walls and glittering jewels laid into them, Zhongli finally set him down.
“You’re right. We cannot see eye to eye on the ground, as a human and a god. Therefore, you will stay with me until we truly understand one another… and hopefully, you will return my feelings once you see how serious they are.”
Diluc needed a second—a minute—an hour— a year to process this. A god loved him enough to basically kidnap him to his abode in the sky, and the only lesson on the chalkboard was to learn to understand each other, and with a huff, he realized how little Zhongli understood if this was how he was going about it.
“Rex Lapis—”
“Zhongli. Please.”
“Zhongli…” Diluc said quietly. “I demand a way to communicate with my winery so it doesn’t fall into corrupt hands while I’m away.”
“It will be done.”
“And show me my room, and then leave me alone in it.”
“…?”
“If you need a teacher, I will happily instruct you how not to woo a mortal, since it’s a lesson you’re in such dire need of.”