literallyeristrocratic

[literallyeristrocratic]

|| ⏾⋆.˚ shooting star

pairing: guardian angel!kazuha x reader (f)

fandom: genshin, wc: 1.4k, tw: reader has a boyfriend (vv little about him though poor bf). lyrics are from here.

──✩₊⁺⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧──

I. BABY, THIS LOVE IS LIKE A SHOOTING STAR

「　baby この恋は流れ星 　」

It always felt as if your life was a glass block distanced away from the rest of the people around you. Bubble-wrapped, layers of heart-felt packaging of luck and destiny separating you from the rest of the world – you seemingly never got very sick, never got very hurt, and things sailed at a relatively steady, if slightly slow rate for you. Sometimes you looked up into the night sky, at the streetlights that outshone the stars and wondered why your life seemed so…devoid of change. It wasn’t bad at all, it made your life so much easier, but sometimes, as things happened to the people around you, something struck an offtone key in your heart. A pang of something – hope? Wishfulness? Something you couldn’t really say. A longing, perhaps. A wish for something that felt like it belonged to you in your every dream, but when you woke up, it wasn’t yours.

Sometimes you wonder if your life should have been different.

At least that’s what you thought, your eyes catching on something white in the distance. You turned slightly, the weight of your bag putting you slightly off-kilter as you tilted your head to look at what the sunlight had momentarily shone on. There was nothing there.

You rubbed your eyes and continued walking out.

The sun shone on your shoes, making the slight dust on the otherwise immaculate shoes visible. Your eyebrows furrowed together slightly, resisting the urge to bend down and clean it off. Taking your phone out, you scrolled down, sighing a little as the dusty fingerprints on the screen. Footsteps over the asphalt ground, the faint scratch the only melody to your day.

That’s when it happened.

You couldn’t remember it exactly too. A gust of wind and carbon monoxide, a sharp piercing shriek from someone’s mouth - was it your mouth? -  and a slender hand pushing you back with a force you felt clearly in your torso. The hand was warm, you faintly thought. It seemed to leave a seared handprint on the left side of your chest, near your heart.

A white flash, a streak of red, then, so much, too much red. You dropped your phone, the glass shattering on the floor. As you watched the glass break into shards and your peripheral faded to black, you murmured that you still hadn’t gotten the fingerprints cleaned off yet, hadn’t backed up your information yet and your data subscription had just been renewed this month.

II. DISAPPEARING AMONG THE DUSTY AURORA

「　輝いてもすぐ消えてゆく　」

The doctor told you that you’ve been lucky when you woke up. Bags of grey and green lay under her eyes and your reflection was clearer in her eyes than her own self. You stretched slightly, the muscles of your arm still tense. It hurt. The police officer came over quickly, noting down a few details of your name, what you’ve observed and your general injuries. It was brief, he was obviously spacing out as the handwriting on your report grew messier and messier, more of a decoration than an actual list of information.

“Um, do you know what happened to the person in front of me?” Who saved my life.  You asked suddenly as the officer’s pen slowed down to an illegible scrawl. The pen halted and the officer paused. “Do you mean this boy?” White hair tousled, dusting over pale eyebrows and a pair of amber, warm eyes – but what was most striking about him was perhaps the scarlet curl of hair. It simply drew attention. You couldn’t really tell from the photo itself and maybe it was your own imagination, but he seemed to smile at you. That’s a pretty face. “Yeah, this is the one.” You nodded, your eyes still caught to the strand, as if they was snagged by a hook.

The police officer gave a sigh. A brief exhale, a breath of warm air in the cold hospital that seemed nearly visible under the white, fluorescent lighting.

“He’s one of the casualties, miss.”

He looked at you. “Do you happen to know him?” 

You blinked. “Oh I see. I don’t know him.” Your own voice didn’t seem to belong to you, it was too far. Faintly, far? It seemed as if the words came from through a glass window, the sound refracting and twisting into something that was foreign. Why? You’ve never ever met this boy before. Why was the left side of your chest, the part he had touched briefly like a breeze passing by, hurting? Why?

The world returned to the usual, distant hum a few minutes later, but the weight on your chest didn’t seem to lift. You reached out for your phone on the small lacquered table beside your bed. A swipe on the home button revealed so many missed calls and messages full of worry. 

[ Are you okay? ] You could nearly imagine your best friend’s worried expression as she spammed you with messages. 

[ Where are you?? I’m sorry, I’m sorry, just reply to me okay?? ] Your boyfriend’s 34 missed calls flashed as a notification at the top.

A silent laugh escaped your lips, a pop of sugared lemon soda, and the pain on your chest lifted, if slightly, as you set about replying to them, fingers gliding over the clean, bright screen.

III. EMBRACING ME LIKE THE BRIGHTEST STAR

「　抱きしめてくれた 　一番星のように　」

Somewhere a little far but not so far from where you lived, a brown-haired woman stared at a pale white cat. The cat had a particularly fair coat of fur, it seemed paler than the snow, as if a mite of dust would tarnish its ivory, nearly colourless outline.

“This is your ninth life already, cat.” The woman looked up to the night sky, her face imperceptibly hardening. It seemed nearly impossible to tell her expression outright in the dark, but the gruff words did not disguise the slight anxious tilt of her voice. “It’s been eight already. One more, and you’re really gone.”

The cat mewed once, as if nodding in accompaniment. “You also know that, don’t you?” The woman glanced at the cat, a puff of air exhaling amidst the jingling of her piercings. “That was your second last life, Kazuha. You could at least try to not die. And every time, every single life, it’s been for her. Every time.”

The cat blinked, the amber eyes glinting with some emotion that a cat shouldn’t possibly possess. I know, it seemed to say. The woman looked away. When she turned back, the cat was gone. In its place was a boy with a head of snowy hair and a strand of red looking at her with a pair of golden eyes that seemed warm yet distant. She reflexively shied away from his gaze, before mentally slapping herself and facing him directlyy.

“I didn’t risk my life to tie the red string of fate from you to her for this, cat.” She grumbled, her left hand still tracing out of habit the scar on her left thigh. It ran from the top of her calf to halfway above her knee. “I know, Beidou.” The boy said, tilting his head slightly, the ivory hair strands falling over his nose. He toyed with the red strand of hair, before smiling slightly, the corners of his mouth turning upwards, as if he was thinking of something, or perhaps someone. The smile melted his countenance, as if the sun melting away the snow.

“Hey, hey, don’t go smiling like that in my direction.” Beidou flicked his forehead, leading to a faint laugh from the cat and the captain alike.

She suddenly quietened. “...Hey, Kazuha. Are you sure you want to spend your lives away like this? I know you’ve had nine lives, but this is already the last. Perhaps a premature death…was always destined in her life anyway.” The last few words were said with especial care, as if walking over eggshells.

She looked at the boy. “Kazuha, are you sure…?”

The boy smiled. “Beidou, you know how your name means the north star?” The woman looked quizzically at him, her eyebrows stitching together. “Yes?” 

Kazuha lifted a hand to the sky, pointing at a star in the midst of the countless others. It wasn’t the brightest, it wasn’t the most outstanding, but for some reason, since young, Kazuha could always pick out that star from no matter the distance.

“She may not be the north star, but she’s always been the most important star to me.” He looked at his hand before looking at Beidou. His eyes glittered, reflecting the glitter of the galaxy and the star he loved so much.

“And I think, if I can just keep my star safe for a little longer, isn’t that worth more than my entire nine lives?”

──✩₊⁺⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧──

info by me!

thank you thank you thank you for reading this!!

cats have nine lives. kazuha here's role is related to a cat yokai (think cat -> human briefly, he's still a cat though).

the red string of fate connects people (lovers) together, it's the sort of connection that no matter which life you're in, we'll always be together kind of bond. forcing your way to attach this string will not end well.

beidou 北斗 means the big dipper (the star pattern) and the north star is a distance up from it. artistic liberties sorry TT.

[literallyeristrocratic]

Caught between tomorrow, part one ||| pre-aq zhongli x reader ||| fluff, implied drugging ||| wc: 2.1k

Notes |||

Hello this is my first time doing tumblr fanfiction stuff kindly don't kill me if you don't like it. And. Oh yes forks exist in Liyue now. Because I said so HA the wonders of free will.

Summary |||

The reader and Zhongli go out to a nice restaurant after a shopping raid trip. You then suddenly feel very sleepy.

Zhongli’s ochre-tipped silken hair gleamed in the waning sunlight as he inclined his head in your direction and a gentle, mildly teasing smile broke across his slender face. “Come on, moonflower, our reservation begins at eight and we cannot quite afford to tarry the entire evening.”

You groaned and quickly hastened your pace, falling into step with him, huffing as your hair fell over your eyes messily. “It’s not my fault that you have long legs and walk way too fast,” you grumbled, shooting him a pretend-stern glare. Upon seeing the little concerned furrow between his brows and the genuinely concerned look in his amber eyes, it immediately melted off your face, replaced with a slight giggle. Your heart quickened with the barest hint of guilt. He always did seem to worry about you so much, even over the smallest things. “I didn’t mean that,” you promised. “You walk at the perfect speed. I’m just being weighed down by all these shopping bags, which I totally brought onto myself by buying so much.”

He didn’t look convinced, and slowed his pace regardless, until the bustling streets of Liyue harbour and the vibrant colourful stalls set up along the pavement were no longer such a blur. Like the perfect gentleman he was, he wordlessly slid the bags from your grip to his, despite the significant number of shopping bags he was already carrying prior to the action. “Is that better? I apologise for not considering the weight-“ “Wait, no, it’s fine!” You yelped, cheeks pinkening as he extricated your fingers from the grasp you had been holding over the handles. “No no no, I can take them! Please, I look like a total freeloader.”

He huffed a small snort of amusement and exhaled through his mouth, golden eyes twinkling at you. “Don’t shortchange yourself. You don’t look like a freeloader.” Before you had the chance to retort, he continued in his calm, serious tenor. “You look like a thief.”

You choked on your breath and gave him a deeply affronted look. “HEY. WHAT-“

“Do not yell here. Public disturbance is against the law,”

“YOU JUST CALLED ME A-“

“I’m going to have you arrested.”

“YOU EVIL FU-“

“Oh, look, we’ve arrived at Xinyue Kiosk,”

You shut up then, because a mouthwatering aroma was emanating from the arched entrance, and suddenly the prospect of getting to eat golden shrimp balls was more important than your utter devastation at being insulted so brazenly by the Funeral Parlor consultant. Your hand found Zhongli’s immaculately tailored sleeve and you tugged at it imploringly. “Can we go in already. Why are we standing outside so awkwardly. Please. Please. Please. I’m so hungry. Please.”

He slid you a gaze of faux reproval, his eerily liquid pupils dancing in the light of the lanterns strung up around them. With the slight golden sheen to his marble-smooth skin and the faint patterning of scales around his eyes, you could’ve sworn that he almost looked inhuman for a moment. You suppressed an unwarranted shudder, goosebumps leaving trails up your arms. “Surely my moonflower is aware of the etiquettes that surround restaurant reservations.” He reprimanded lightly, having smoothly shifted the shopping bags on one wrist up his forearm to free up his slender leather-gloved fingers and flick you on the forehead. You flushed, and reached up, grabbing his hand and curling your fingers around his. At his attempt at hiding his smile, you turned even redder. “What? My hands are cold!”

“Of course, moonflower.” He murmured, faint amusement passing over his face and little crinkles appearing around his eyes. His sincere smile brought out your own, and you grinned back, squeezing his hand. Before either of you could say anything, a waiter appeared from the entrance, bowing deeply and leading you and Zhongli past the warm lights and soft chatter of the main restaurant into a curtained-off cozy private dining room. Your shoes clacked loudly against the polished wooden floor, and you winced in embarrassment at the sound, which seemed to break through the hazy spell of the languid evening. “Sorry,” you mumbled, eyes averted, but Zhongli hardly seemed to notice as he helped you sit down. You studied his effortless grace, tracking his movements as he walked over to the opposite side of the table to sit facing you, and idly wondered how his footsteps seemed to produce no noise, as if he was a half-formed apparition rather than flesh and blood. The thought elicited a tiny giggle from your lips before you could contain it, and he looked up curiously, warm swirling eyes meeting yours. “What is it that has you in such high spirits?”

You widened your grin cheekily and winked at him. “You.” His own smile extended, and he reached out to cup your face, the leather brushing your cheek. “I should hope so, after I went through all the trouble to bring you here. Did you know there’s a one-year long waiting list for this restaurant? Xinyue Kiosk is one of Liyue harbour’s oldest businesses. They’ve been operating for centuries. The founder, Wei Min, was the great-great-great grandson of Wei Qing, who fought as Rex Lapis’ first general in the Archon War.”

You stared into his eyes as he went off into his history lesson tangent mode, watching in fascination as the colours subtly shifted, from amber, to gold, to a warmer orange, to a deep fall, to- Wait, what? His eye colours were changing? You blinked again, the reverie-like state ruptured, and his eyes went back to a yellowish ochre, like the back of a newly-minted coin. You must have been daydreaming again. Your attention snapped back at the feeling of his thumb stroking your jaw, and you sat up straighter, trying to pretend that you had been listening the whole time. “Uh-huh. Uhm. Archon war. Food. Yes.” You muttered seriously, and his eyebrows drew together in a pinched, rueful sigh, in which he was definitely concealing a laugh. “I suppose history isn’t my moonflower’s main area of interest here. I apologise.”

You blushed at the nickname and abruptly changed the topic, still hung up on how his hand felt around your jaw. “So, uhhh, do we not have to order?” Zhongli raised an elegant arched brow. “You really were not paying attention to my words, were you? I did explain how Wei Qing’s philosophical beliefs impacted the restaurant management system his great-great-great grandson came up with, which included having diners order well in advance to their reservation.”

You coughed slightly, feeling your ears turn red. “Did you really?”

He tilted his head at her, his gleaming silver earring dangling over his shoulder. “No. I just made that up.”

You sat up indignantly, arms crossed. “Hey! You can’t do that! You’re trying to make me look stupid!”

“Of course not. What could I possibly gain from that?“ he asked, soft lips twitching into the barest curve.

Before you could come up with a sufficiently clever retort, the same waiter as before walked in with heaping plates of lotus dumplings, silken almond tofu drizzled in glaze lily syrup, crisp fatty honey-roasted duck and, what caught the largest share of your attention, a mouthwatering rendition of your favourite dish, battered and fried golden shrimp balls. If it hadn’t been for the ever-serene and graceful consultant sitting in the picture of dignity across from you like hewn jade, you probably would have been salivating over your lap. Platters upon platters of steaming dishes were spread out on the lacquered wooden table, perfuming the air with tantalising aromas. You restrained yourself from physically attacking the food and thanked the waiter, before turning to Zhongli. “You’ve outdone yourself this time. This is possibly the best food you’ve ever taken me out for.”

He picked up a pair of engraved dragon chopsticks with deft fingers and offered you a smile. “You haven’t even tried it yet, moonflower.” You shook your head. “I’m still completely sure.” He laughed and handed you your set of chopsticks, which were detailed with preening phoenixes. Upon watching you try and fail miserably at picking up a dumpling, he reached forward and dexterously captured it himself, bringing it up to your lips. You dipped your head and bit through the glazed dough, the rich flavour of meat and water chestnut exploding on your tongue immediately after escaping its floury prison as you suppressed a sigh of delight. “Stop showing off!” You complained in jest, but his cinnabar lashes merely dipped over sculpted cheeks. He reached for your hand and carefully adjusted your grip on your chopsticks, moving your index finger onto the upper one and your thumb so it rested across both. “There, try again; Press down with that finger, and-“ this time, a fried shrimp ball slid away from you futilely. You narrowed your eyes at it in an unappreciative glare. Zhongli politely disguised his chuckle by clearing his throat and hovered a hand above the cutlery tray, as if contemplating offering you a fork, before pushing it away and gathering his own chopsticks again. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to continue assisting you for now, moonflower.” The Funeral Parlor consultant seemed to take incredible quiet pleasure in feeding you, picking out the juiciest shrimps and the best parts of the golden crab and lifting them to your mouth with one hand, the other wrapped around your palm under the table. His hold was constant and reassuring, a warm rooted anchor preventing you from getting lost in your thoughts.

Eventually, once you had both eaten your fill and more, the dishes were cleared, and an intricately painted tea set with a crimson dragon and phoenix soaring around each other on the centerpiece teapot was brought forth. It was filled with steaming sweet oolong tea, and Zhongli poured it out into a cup and offered it to you, before doing the same for himself. His fingers curled around the cup’s rim, and his eyes shifted as if he’d gone into some sort of nostalgic trance, like they always did when he talked about history. “The Liyuean tea ceremony is unique from its Inazuman counterpart, though they are occasionally mistaken for each other. It is generally performed at weddings, and the bride and the groom kneel and offer tea to their relatives, starting with the groom’s family. Though it is beginning to fade into obscurity nowadays, with this generation and their lack of interest in tradition.”

You sipped your tea as you sorted through his words to process them, getting caught on the last few. “Wait. I thought you were part of this generation.”

Zhongli’s molten gold eyes turned curious, and the look on his marble face was indecipherable as he cocked his head ever-so-slightly and seemed to be trying to track your face. “Yes,” he agreed noncommittally, lifting his cup to his lips and taking a reserved sip. You frowned and resolved to question him further as you mirrored his action, though the air suddenly felt too warm on your skin and your mind was drifting into a hazy lull. The lantern light was pressing against your corneas, giving you a headache, and the teacup slipped out of your fragile grasp as you pressed a hand to your forehead, wincing. Your skin was flushed and clammy to the touch, and embarrassment clouded what was left of your mind, wondering what your beloved companion would think of you. He had a gentle hand on your neck now, brushing slowly up your jaw, and his eyebrows were furrowed again in the telltale sign of his worry. You opened your mouth to assure him that you were fine, but a long yawn slipped out instead, and you felt him move your teacup out of the way right before your arm gave way and your head slid down to rest on the table. You attempted to turn your head to look at him, feeling sluggish and fatigued. He was stroking your hair languidly and saying something, but you couldn’t make out the words. The light made his pupils look like they had slits down the middle, like a lizard’s. (or a dragon’s, a needling voice at the back of your subconscious whispered) A mere trick of the light nonetheless, it made him look decidedly not human, and you let out a delirious giggle at the thought of the quiet yet amicable consultant being anything other than just that. Your eyelids felt far too heavy to keep open anymore, as if they were being tugged down by some invisible force, and you blearily saw Zhongli’s beautiful lips move again, this time in a more easily recognisable pattern.

“Just go to sleep, moonflower. It’ll be alright, I have you.” His soft, rich voice was the final push you needed to stop fighting the drowsiness, and your eyes slipped closed in weary acceptance.

[literallyeristrocratic]

Request criterion ||| [ to be edited ]

□ I'm going to be so honest I don't actually give a fuck you can send whatever and I'll do it if I want

□ I am very biased I will be doing my favourite characters first

□ That's like. It yeah

□ WAIT I FORGOT no incest thanks

□ And don't argue about ships with me I'll eat you

□ I write gay stuff and straight stuff and lesbian stuff and in between stuff too

[literallyeristrocratic]

Eris ||| Minor ||| Multifandom fanfic blog [AKA I write what I want] ||| Requests open

Hi what else do I put in an intro I don't know