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The world, fuzzy, cozy reality, felt like a sugary dream as Xiao lay on Zhongli's chest, eyes closed and breathing softly against bare skin muscled from the multitude of battles fought in the distant past.
A nice dream, so different from Xiao's usual bitter nightmares that plagued both his waking and sleeping mind, a hum of silence and comfort unlike the screams of the damned.
His heart felt unchained from doubts and lingering burdens, free to spill moonlight from its depths out of his silvery mouth, flowing like water and blood out of a broken dam.
Yes, Xiao was inebriated; he knew, yet couldn't bring himself to care as he nuzzled like a small cat against his lord's chest, face flushed and warm all over, his heart willing to burst out of its seams to spill out all over the bed.
"Are you well, my bird?" Zhongli rumbled, his voice vibrating through Xiao like soothing waves crashing through his drunken brain and sending pleasant tingles all throughout it.
"Mhm," Xiao mumbled, his arms loosely draped over Zhongli's tall, sturdy figure, and still hazy from the few glasses of wine he had drunk earlier, which felt now like both a curse and a blessing.
Zhongli chuckled, a low sound from his throat as if the earth itself was speaking, and Xiao chirped a tittering string of chords in reply, his words blurring into one another like ink smudging into paper.
He mewled when he felt Zhongli's sharp teeth catch on the helix of his ears, nibbling gently, bringing a light red to grace the curved flesh with a renewed wave of heat unfurling like a blooming rose.
Zhongli's teeth traced a path down from Xiao's ear to his also naked upper half, kissing so faintly on his pale skin as if he were being kissed by a ghost or a feather sent from above.
They were lit by a dim golden light from the tattoos glowing on Zhongli's arms, and the curling green tattoos that swirled around Xiao's arm and waist, reminiscent of his avian form.
"Kiss me," the Almighty Yaksha said, a whine creeping into his voice as he kissed Zhongli's face sloppily, even chewing on his chin for some strange, wine-induced reason, pouting all the while.
"Of course." He replied, laughing merrily at the yaksha's antics, his hands roaming up from Xiao's waist to his face, leaving a trail of light touches to smolder upwards.
Zhongli dipped his face down to meet Xiao's, a hand pulling away the yaksha's wandering mouth from his chin and cheeks, where Xiao had left a few bite marks, barely noticeable.
He kissed Xiao, slipping his tongue in to explore and claim his sweet insides, which tasted like sugar, syrup, almonds, and apricots, all evidence of the yaksha's most beloved food, or more accurately, dessert.
Almond Tofu.
"Sweet as ever, my bird," He murmured against Xiao's lips, a hint of the dizzying, slightly bitter sensation of alcohol swirling in his mouth as they swapped tastes, from Almond Tofu to wine.
They parted, both breathing heavily in the almost-dark, and Xiao leaned forward, sticking out his tongue, and then pecking Zhongli on the cheek, chirruping and peeping like a finch.
Xiao's eyes were wide and golden pools of molten sun, filled with a honeyed dream and fruity wine, similar to Zhongli's own cor lapis ones, but his were more orange and had a yellow geo symbol acting as his pupil.
A peng's eyes. A dragon's eyes.
"Beautiful, my bird," Zhongli praised, kissing his face all over, under his eyebags, on his forehead tattoo, his cheeks, everywhere, "as radiant as the sun itself."
"Mm, I like the moon more," Xiao said sleepily, closing his eyes against the sudden onslaught of affection, yet not protesting it or rejecting it, but releasing a contented warble in response.
"Why?"
"It is quieter... and it reminds me of Wangshu Inn... and... it's pretty, like you." Xiao's added comment made him flush, and Zhongli just grinned like a young schoolboy at Xiao's heart-tuggingly sweet words.
"Not so bright?"
"Mhm... less... harsh."
Zhongli rubbed circles into the small of Xiao's back with his thumb, humming a tune that he remembered Guizhong had once sung, one without words but only emotions, layered thickly atop one another.
It was a melody that she had hummed in the not-silence of the plains filled with Glaze Lilies under the pearlescent moon shining above them on those peaceful nights.
She had once regaled him with tales of romance and star-crossed lovers, and perhaps this time he was finally able to have his own love story and a happy, 'perfect' life.
One without bloodshed, fear, and the horrors of war so ingrained in his being. One with his loyal yaksha, who clung to him limply and was already half-asleep, chittering softly as he subconsciously cuddled into Zhongli.
"My bird?"
"...Yes?" Xiao's eyes had a question in them, and his head tilted like a bird's as he looked up through his eyelashes to speak without words, but just a mere glance at Zhongli.
"I love you," Zhongli stated, smiling as he wrapped his arms around the other, kissing his lips with a gentleness unfit for his previous reputation and current build.
"Mm, love you, too," Xiao answered, a hesitant, shy smile lighting up his face and crinkling his gold-colored eyes into sunny crescents that practically glowed with a rare joy.
A smile Zhongli would savor until the end of time itself. One that shone like gold, and every treasure Teyvat had to hold, and even then, it still was above all those, in its own kind of realm of valuability.
Perhaps this was the effect of love on perception. To warp and twist it until it became glass, and maybe, even though it was glass, Zhongli didn't mind these pink-lensed glasses as much as his past self would've.
But... his past self did have quite the crush on Xiao even back then, though in the past, he had more of a struggle with the concept of emotions. But love had been there, too.
Love...
A sweet thing.