content warnings: diluc's gets very mildly yandere-ish, with some references to injury and death. he just has an anxious attachment style really. slight implication of disordered eating in thoma's but it's very blink and you'll miss it. aside from that, all fluff <3
written with a gender neutral reader in mind, but there are some mentions of perfume, jewelry, etc. and kaeya's refers to them as beautiful.
THOMA: ACTS OF SERVICE.
He speaks the language of anticipation. Fresh sheets and dinner in the oven at the end of a long day. A hand knitted scarf every winter and fresh bouquets of wildflowers on your table in the spring. His love and attention aren’t abstract things; he weaves them into the fabric of the world itself until you can feel his presence all around you, as clearly as the clean air that follows a storm.
More often than not, being with Thoma feels like hanging out with a friend. He’s charming and talkative, but reserved in his affection, like there’s some hidden boundary he’s afraid to cross.
It’s not just that he’s beholden by the rules of propriety as a representative of the Kamisatos (although that is a part of it)–he’s also just a bit too empathetic for his own good. Thoma never wants you to feel pressured by him and by his political authority, physically or emotionally, and so in most cases, he leaves it to you to make the first move.
But quiet acts of service are a different matter. He learned a long time ago to recognize people’s needs without being told, and what’s the harm in cooking you a fresh meal when he notices you aren’t eating enough? Or lending a hand on household chores when he notices you’ve been stressed?
He tells himself that you don’t need to know it’s him; he can ease the pressures of your life from the shadows, let you think that your clothes folded themselves by magic and that the new scarf that arrived on your doorstep after your old one grew threadbare was a gift from a secret admirer.
But really, it’s obvious. It’s obvious in the polish of everything he does and in the prideful way he carries himself when he notices you seem less tired and stressed.
It’s most obvious of all in the way that Thoma loves you; he doesn’t need to lead the way, only to see you happy and content in your life, for you to understand how ready he is to support you on the path to your own dreams.
KAEYA: WORDS OF AFFIRMATION.
He’s a liar and a sweet talker–that’s what they all say. Maybe if they hadn’t, you would’ve become used to his shyness sooner. The way he avoids your gaze when his words come out too sincere, how a brush of your fingertips is enough to leave him stammering. It’s as if his heart moves faster than his mind, leaving his words to spill out half-coherent and all too tender.
Kaeya is a bit of a conundrum as a lover; while he’s always verbally affectionate and full of praise, when he truly cares about someone, it’s like he can go from his usual smooth-talking personality to shy and stuttering in an instant.
He is, unsurprisingly, a huge tease. There’s nothing he loves more than getting you flustered when you’re out in public together–whether that means loudly talking you up in front of all your friends, or secret words of praise and admiration whispered so only you can hear them. Give him time, and he’ll learn exactly what it takes to leave you flustered.
It’s when you get him talking about himself that Kaeya loses his composure. While he’s become used to lies and deflecting, it’s important to him that you understand he wants to trust you, wants you to know the true self that lies beneath his lazy and irreverent public persona.
He’s been so lonely for so long that sometimes his heart spills over with longing and affection for you. But he’s not used to expressing his feelings genuinely, and so his words become clumsy, less self-assured than usual.
As charming as his flirting may be, there’s something equally endearing in his stammered confessions.
They become more, not less, frequent the more time you spend together, too, until you find yourselves together every morning, Kaeya’s lips falling half-open as he searches for a way to express how beautiful you are to him with your hair tangled on the bedsheets and your eyes still heavy with sleep.
CHILDE: QUALITY TIME.
He loves with his whole body, hands and lips and eyes and ears. Not a sensual lover so much as a sensuous one, like you’re a vessel made to be filled with his boundless energy and adoration. Even when you fall asleep, he lies awake, drinking in your image and the sound of your breathing like wine: so precious that it leaves him lightheaded. Even when he travels, he carries the memory of your presence with him like a locket around his neck: so familiar that no matter how far he goes, it brings him peace.
No matter how much Childe wishes he could spend every waking moment with you, the Fatui always show up again with some new assignment to drag him halfway around the world.
It can be lonely loving him, sometimes, when it seems that you spend more time apart from each other than together. He writes you the sweetest letters, sends you souvenirs and photographs from lands you could only dream of, yet still, it’s nothing like it is when you’re together.
In most things, Childe is the most distractible person you’ve ever met. He’s so enthusiastic about everything that it does, but it’s like his high energy betrays him, dragging his attention away as quickly as it comes.
You’re different, though. From the day you met, his attention was all yours. Even in a crowded room, it was like the two of you were the only ones around. He was all questions, desperate to learn everything about you.
The tone of his antics changes around you, too; while Childe feels an intrinsic, personal sense of pleasure in the strength of his own body, he becomes much more of a show-off around you. He wants your eyes on him at all times, the same way his linger on you, completely unashamed to be caught staring.
Childe is very much a physically affectionate lover, but it’s not so much that he needs to be touching you at all times as it is that he’s content to go wherever his moods lead him. Sometimes that means holding you close; others it’s as simple as running, dancing, or even sitting quietly listening to you speak, his eyes full of worship.
No matter how much time you spend apart from one another, it’s like all that distance is forgotten the moment you see each other again. He gives himself to you fully: a playful, genuine kind of lover, present in every moment.
AYATO: GIFTS.
He’s an old fashioned lover: not bashful, just patient. When you’re together, he sometimes moves so slow that it’s hard to believe he likes you as much as you like him. But it’s the moments that come between where he reminds you what you truly mean to him: bouquets of your favorite flowers quietly delivered to your doorstep, kimonos cut from silks softer and more delicate than you knew possible. Let love come as it will and someday, he promises, all the good and beautiful things in this world will be yours.
It’s no secret that the Kamisatos have more money than they know what to do with. Even if they weren’t one of the wealthiest families in Inazuma, Ayato doesn’t exactly get many opportunities to go out or spend on frivolous things for himself.
And that’s not to mention the gifts they accumulate as thanks for Ayato’s hard work. They have entire rooms in their home filled to the brim with fine art, expensive liquor, furniture and clothing crafted by Inazuma’s best artisans. Someday, he promises himself again and again, he’ll figure out the best way to put them to use.
He finds his answer when he meets you.
Ayato moves very slowly in relationships. Considering how sensitive his work is, it’s difficult for him to find someone he can trust, and he prefers to take his time putting you at ease while confirming your loyalty.
Even if that weren’t the case, Ayato is a busy man. It’s not that he doesn’t want to spend every waking moment with you–he just can’t.
But what he can do is have little gifts delivered to your door: bouquets, bottles of perfume, the expensive jewelry he saw you eyeing last time you walked through the marketplace together. Proof that he’s thinking of you, even when his mind ought to be busy with other, more responsible things.
He’s not an easy man to love (or so he tells himself)–but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t make you feel like the precious, treasured thing you are.
DILUC: PHYSICAL TOUCH.
His chin, resting on the crown of your head. Your face, buried in the collar of his coat. His fingers, skimming your cheekbones, running down your arms: desperate, needy, afraid. The only time he’s fully at ease is at night, with your body folded against his chest. His every breath is a whispered prayer to you, his home and his place of worship.
Diluc is all too aware of how easy it is to lose the people you care about. Between his father’s death and his falling out with Kaeya, he’s extremely anxious in his affections, even though he does everything he can to hide that side of himself from you.
He doesn’t want to come across as possessive, or for you to feel stifled, but still, he can’t keep his mind from racing when you’re apart from one another.
Every time you’re reunited–whether it’s been weeks or mere hours apart–he greets you as if you've been separated for years. The embrace of a long lost lover, the kind of kiss that poets write ballads about and that generals go to war for. He's a romantic to the bone, and it shows.
Things are different when he returns to you as the Darknight Hero, though. Hunting the Fatui is an emotional high to him, so intense that he can forget himself. It’s only once he’s home, safe with you, that he’s able to come back down to earth. It’s at these moments when he’s the most desperate and unreserved in his affection for you.
On more than one occasion, he’s come home a wreck, terrified of finding you missing, hurt, or worse. He spends those nights carefully inspecting every inch of your skin for injuries, kissing even the smallest bruises and cat scratches until he’s absolutely sure that you’re safe. The whole time, he whispers small reassurances, although it’s not always clear whether they’re directed towards you or to himself.
Over time, though, even those old wounds close as his trust in you grows. Every time he comes home to you, holds you safe and secure in his arms, his faith grows stronger. Your presence alone is all he could ever ask for.
