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Horror was written all over his face when he stared at the broken vase. The white pieces were mocking him in the contrast they offered on the dark carpet. The damage down was irreparable and nothing he could ever repay. Everything in this mansion was worth more than his whole being. He only started his new life here and already ended it because of this dumb miscalculation.
Footsteps behind him didn’t tell him anything good, it didn’t help they were cushioned by the carpet. It felt like death approaching him, the punishment was coming closer and closer. No way to escape from his fate here because the evidence was laughing at him from the floor.
“Oh, it’s you.” The voice was too calm, and he wasn’t able to detect any anger in it. Was that a trap? He couldn’t tell what kind of person Zhongli was. That kindness of him surely wasn’t endless. “I didn’t recognize you with your new clothes and hairstyle.” Zhongli was one and a half step behind him and leaned forward to take a look at the mess on the carpet.
Now it would be over for him.
“Xiao?”
He didn’t look up. Was someone else here? Did he- oh. The man was talking to him.
Xiao.
That was the name he was given by Zhongli. A name he took on but wasn’t used to hearing yet. His endless nightmares didn’t call him Xiao, even less the way Zhongli did. A gentle voice, almost caring but Xiao shook this thought away. There was no way he cared about him.
“Did you break the vase?” Zhongli asked eventually, to break the silence between them and even the question didn’t give anything away, Xiao flinched back and underlaid the urge to protect his face with his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized quickly. “It was an accident but I take every punishment you have prepared for me.” Xiao’s hand sunk back down next to him and a brief flashback of his old master appeared in front of him, overwriting Zhongli in front of him.
He could already hear the words for the punishment. A month on Dragonspine, the only things to eat were snow and frozen berries with mint. He pressed his lips into a thin line to not let any sounds escape.
“No, no,” Zhongli said and the illusion in front of Xiao’s eyes disappeared with the soft, almost amused voice of the other man. “It’s all right, come here.”
It took Xiao a few times to blink to process the words. There would be no punishment? The time he needed to realize it, were the seconds Zhongli needed to close the gap between them.
He took Xiao’s hand and looked at it closely, throwing Xiao completely off and painting his face in a soft red. A helpless sound escaped the smaller man and let the embarrassment grow inside of him. “You are not hurt right? The vase is the only thing that broke?”
Xiao stood there, paralyzed and dumbfounded. He didn’t know how he was supposed to react here. Was Zhongli actually worried about him here? Worried over someone who robbed countless lives and destroyed even more futures? “I’m fine-” How did he deserve that?
“Ah, I have to apologize now,” Zhongli interrupted Xiao’s staring and let go of his hand. “I did not intend to interfere with your personal space but I wanted to check if you were all right.”
“So there’s no punishment?”
Zhongli looked at Xiao with raised eyebrows. “There is no way I would punish you, Xiao,” he answered and took a brief glimpse of the broken pieces on the floor. “Even less over a trivial thing as breaking an ugly vase.”
Xiao felt relieved. Maybe it really was the best decision to make a contract with that man. His future felt bearable now.