🌟 bulleted headcanons + quote format (courtesy of @rulaineyu, whose works inspired me to write again in the first place!)
🌟 a romantic reader insert
🌟 gender-neutral, slightly effeminate reader, no pronouns mentioned
genre: fluff, slice of life
content warnings: mention of childe getting into fights (canon-typical, mentioned in passing); overworked reader in zhongli's
author's note: my first ever writing post!! this is an extended version of some headcanons that I sent to an author I look up to a lot (surprise: it's still rulaine)!
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Childe
[After you express how much you enjoy seeing Childe's embroidery, he takes care to notice when your clothes and blankets need repairing, and takes the time to visibly mend them with designs he knows you'll find cute.]
Between his weekly sparring matches with you and the vast number of fights he gets in as a Fatui Harbinger, Tartaglia's clothes get destroyed pretty quickly
Seeing his same jacket somehow clinging to its last strands of life for months on end, you kind of got the sense that he wasn't just paying someone else to mend it indefinitely...but his talent for sewing really reveals itself when one day, you notice a small embroidered likeness of a hydro slime on your jacket where it had gotten a tear
He admits that he put it there; the hole was too small to warrant a patch but too big to sew together again without changing the flow of the fabric, so he chose to cover it up with a little embroidery
You clutch the jacket close to your chest, giggling as you tell him that you love it, it's adorable, and that this is your favorite jacket now
He laughs a bright, starry laugh, grinning at you as he tells you that he's glad it makes you happy
It's not long before little embroidered slimes and flowers and crystalflies start popping up everywhere on your more worn items; blankets, sheets, jackets, and nightclothes, all decorated with slightly silly, simplistic renditions of your favorite things
"You always smile so brightly when you see my embroidery, so I tried to leave it in as many places as I could. It's more fun than mending things the normal way, too!"
Zhongli
[Zhongli picks up on your morning routine, and as a morning person himself, he gets in the habit of preparing variations on your usual breakfast and morning beverage around the time you wake up. You tell him you'd rather wake up with him still cuddled up in bed with you, and after a contemplative nod, he resolves to simply gather the ingredients for your breakfast the night before, and make it with you in the morning.]
You live a pretty busy life
Some would say that your place of employment is overworking you, but you genuinely enjoy the work, so it's more or less fine
It's a bit less fine when you forget to eat breakfast, or when you're missing a second lunch for your suddenly-a-ten-hour-shift (does anywhere in teyvat actually have labor laws?)
Concerned for your health, Zhongli gets up precisely an hour before your alarm, and by the time you wake, the entire house smells like your favorite breakfast
You wander sleepily into the dining area to find your breakfast still warm, plated with meticulous precision, at your usual spot
When you ask what the occasion is, Zhongli replies with a smile
"It seemed that you did not have enough time in the mornings to prepare your preferred meals... So I thought it might be nice if you were to wake to something that you wouldn't typically have the time to prepare yourself."
You smile and thank him for his efforts, and for the kind thought, but you mention that you would prefer to wake up with him still in bed with you
"I see... Well, in that case, perhaps we could both get up earlier, and cook together. I will try to prepare everything the night before, so it will not take as much time out of your mornings."
Kaeya
[Kaeya is pretty liberal with his affectionate touches, but there are moments, just sitting together in silence, his fingers gently over yours, where you can really feel his love for you. With him, these peaceful moments of true quiet are almost more gentle and tender than any offhand flirt or casual remark on your beauty could achieve.]
Kaeya isn't exactly a loud person, but he is a very...attention-grabbing one. At times, it seems as if your charismatic boyfriend could draw an entire room's gaze to your relationship in an instant, and in fact, he often does
In public and with his friends, he certainly makes a bit of a show out of his PDA. You swear that if you had a mora for every time he complimented you in public, you could buy the Golden House itself
But the moments when you feel loved the most are actually unrelated to that
It's the quiet moments, away from everyone, sitting next to each other in the comfort of your home, when the playful act you both put on fades from your minds.
Just you and him and the warmth of each other's hands as a reminder that you're there for one another.
Sometimes you try to get up before he's ready, and he gently grabs onto your hand— not tugging, a grip just firm enough to hold it
"Maybe... we could stay like this a little longer."
