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“...and scene.”
At the signal, Hu Tao smiled and walked off the set, wiping a lone drop of sweat from her eyebrow as she spoke to the other actors. Zhongli hardly moved from his position, gazing down the bridge as if watching a lover part from him. His body was as still as the strongest mountain, and his heart could only yearn when his final line left his lips in a somber, nostalgic tone.
Her butterfly’s embrace, he repeated to himself. What a wistful metaphor.
They finished recording a tender moment between a woman who was unafraid to risk her life to protect everyone she loved and the consultant whom she trusted with all her being. She stood firmly in the shadows cast by the buildings obscuring the light, while the warmth of the setting sun caressed his face. He felt her presence, her trace, deeply—the brush of her hand over his, her laugh, her sparkling eyes when her partner mulls over useless trivia. Without a camera, he could still visualize the way her hair flows behind her, the gentle blow of the wind against the dried flowers she wore proudly on her hat.
Though they were simply faces for these fictitious entities, he felt so immersed in this fantastical world that he’d forgotten he was an actor. It took her voice to be able to ground him.
“Everything okay?”
“Ah, Hu Tao—” Zhongli nearly tripped over himself as she leaned towards him curiously, her hands behind her back. “I’m fine, I was just... pondering something.”
“Oh, well, I was gonna ask if you wanted to have dinner with me and Keqing. Ajax said he’s coming, but he’ll be running late.”
The invitation answered his subconscious question of whether it would only be the two of them. Disappointed as he was, in his current state, Ajax was his lifeline. Any chance to get closer to her he would take, but words failed him every time, and it was frustrating. It would be nice of his roommate to have his back. “I... should have time, yes. Where?”
“There’s a barbecue place Keqing’s cousin works at called Liuli. They’re having a discount for parties of at least four.”
“I’m familiar with it. Are we going now?”
“Yeah, we’ll change back and head out. Keqing’s waiting in her car—the AC vents are chipped ‘cause she and Ganyu kept using them as bottle openers.”
“That’s... really innovative.”
“Right? Totally different from their characters.”
“Okay, well—” He stepped to the side to let a crew member carry a foldable chair back inside. “I’ll tag along, then.”
“No worries!”
Hu Tao waved goodbye to the crew as she left with him, resisting the urge to kick the leaves that were stacked into piles. He found it cute, imagining the smile on her face that would form while destroying said piles—before fishing out his phone and ducking his head to hide the blush that crept up his cheeks. After typing a quick message to his roommate, they went into separate rooms to change into their regular clothes and rejoined at the entrance leading to the parking lot.
“I never mentioned this before, but every time we're filming together, you always stay true to your character and how he acts. Sometimes I really think I'm working with an old god. How do you do it?” On their way to Keqing’s car, she asked a question weighing on her mind that Zhongli wasn’t quite ready for.
“...I just have to really get into my character’s mindset, I suppose. I watched a lot of movies and shows in a similar setting, and was always intrigued by the 'wise god' characters. I wanted to become just like them, down to their abilities—but growing up made me realize acting and special effects are the closest I'll ever get to having those powers I was so charmed by.”
“Oh, like method acting? I try doing that too, but it’s kinda hard. I guess some people are just naturally better actors than others, haha.”
“Actually, today in particular... might be my favorite performance of yours.” He looked over the sea of cars, trying to get lost in a place that wasn’t Hu Tao’s pretty eyes. His next words he spoke in earnest, almost tinged with romance. “I think you portrayed your character’s resolve to sanctify Tao Dou very well. The poem we recited together as you walked away... was very touching. That might've been the first time I missed the director saying 'cut'.”
Hu Tao smiled at that. “You think so? I helped out with the poem, actually. I wanted an excuse to say ‘carmine’—it’s my favorite word.”
“Oh, really?”
“Just ask Rina. She’s the one that convinced me to.”
Once they caught sight of a car with a bumper sticker that read I AM CAFFEINATED, they instantly recognized it as Keqing’s. She rolled down the window, the smell of the lavender air freshener hitting their noses. Ganyu was taking up two-thirds of the back, playing something called Block Buster. “There you are. What took you lovebirds so long?”
“L-lovebirds??”