Freedom (Jean x oc) *Completed*

Chapter 3

"Master! The flowers are blooming!" Amell who had just learned how to cook a respectable chicken mushroom skewer cavorted the field of glowing flowers in the cape of night. He knelt down beside a gentle rosebud amongst the white ones, softly caressing its petals, he flinched against its ardent stem. "I-it bit me..." he moaned in pain. 

Zhongli's eyes grew cold during the wintery nights but there was a benign light in those golden pupils of his as he watched Amell sympathetically. Amell wondered how Zhongli could illuminate the surroundings by his body alone but it was possible with him and the young boy didn't question it as if it were normal.

"Enjoying the flowers, Amell?" he asked with a smile, his thoughts flooding his cornucopia of memories from a thousand years ago. 

"As long as you are then I'll be the same," Amell squeezed shut his index finger to coddle the ungenerous effect lingering on it. He rushed by Zhongli's side, his bed of cyan hair reaching his master's thigh. "Oh but don't go near that one. It hurts people, master."

"Amell," The young boy straightened himself up after hearing his name being addressed sternly. Almost as if the man's strict appearance were a hallucination, Zhongli crossed over the flowerbed and picked up the odd one: the red flower, his steps silent yet discrete. "Was it this one who hurt you?" Zhongli asked.

Amell nodded, faltering when his master raised his voice at him. It wasn't one of anger but Amell couldn't deny it boomed like thunder at times. 

"Once Snapdragons are cooked, they won't harm you anymore." Zhongli got down on his knees, showing Amell the flower's intricacies from a close-up view. "A friend of mine-"

"You have friends?"

"-years back made a funny story about how these flowers are much like humans. They bite but when we get used to them," Zhongli enclosed his palms around its dome-like structure. "they get used to us. It's a give-and-take wherein both sides benefit from each other, very much like nature's way of dealing with things. Someday, you will be like this flower, Amell. You will give and take eventually."

"If the master says so then I'll follow..." Amell honestly didn't know what to say. 

Amell had acclimated to Zhongli's faraway stares but his frown when he turned around was slightly different, almost sad and then he smiled again. 

"In time... you will surely change."

~*~

"Good work today, Amell. Your performance has been stellar thus far." Jean wasn't rare to praising people she seriously respected. Amell's hands behind his back clung to the curtains of her windows, believing her compliments were aimed at his abilities. She continued on, rearranging her ribbon simultaneously. "With you constantly by my side, our work is done faster and there doesn't seem to be a trace of missing data when we go over the material. Your efforts should be rewarded with a promotion."

Forgive his expectations but he'd thought a higher pay was to be expected. Nonetheless, the shower of praises being hurled at him was no different than a promotion. He'd honed himself ever since traveling with his master. It was only until Zhongli had left that he realized how helpless he was without guidance. The difficulty it posed scared him to death and then thunderclouds mercilessly met his body. 

Amell breathed a triumphant air out his nostrils, lowering his gaze on the floor. "I couldn't have done it without any misgivings, Acting Grand Master. Thank you for your kind words." He actually wanted to say more but they weren't in a close relationship yet.