When you awoke, you were surprised to find yourself on a comfortable bed, not only that but as you swallowed you realized your throat was uncomfortably dry. And you were tired, exhausted.
As you stood up you felt a wave of nausea hit you, but you just ignored the warnings your body gave you and stumbled towards the door. As soon as you opened it you locked eyes with Zhongli.
He looked up at you with surprise and a small cup in hand.
Almost like an animal, you sniffed loudly, moving your head up and down as you did. Smells nice. You wanted to say but found no energy to do so. Instead, you stumbled around, usually, a scratch in the back of your mind drove you. This time it was the desire for something, you were furiously looking for something. You didn't know what it was.
"What are you--?" Zhongli began but paused as you grabbed hold of a flower vase, he stared in complete disbelief as you removed the flowers and poured the water into your mouth, most of the water spilled on the floor, on you. But the little water that you managed to drink made your eyes widen.
You didn't notice or care when Zhongli quickly stood up and with one quick motion took the empty vase out of your hands, "don't do that." he sighed softly, once again sorrow flashed in his eyes as he put down the vase a fair distance away.
You didn't struggle against his grip and instead eyed the vase, Zhongli led you to the table he was sitting as earlier and motioned for you to sit down, you didn't know why you listened to him. But a few moments after he came out with a small glass of water.
"Here." he reached it out, once again you turned the glass upside down spilling water all over you, this time Zhongli laughed. You shuddered, being soaked was uncomfortable.
You looked at Zhongli and silently observed as he drank his tea, as he placed the cup down on the table. You wasted no time and reached over and grabbed it, you tried to copy his actions and brought the cup to your lips before quickly placing it down again.
The tea was warm, bitter and made your tongue hurt. Your reaction made him laugh again.
"What happened to you--" he paused once again, stopping himself right before saying your name.
"Y/N." he hesitantly tried, the name stung.
"Y/N." you repeated with a silent nod, you knew it was your name.
"Can't remember." was all you said as you looked around the room again, you were still thirsty.
Zhongli didn't say anything more as he stood up and a few moments later came back with a can of water, he watched silently as you drank the water copying what he had done before. You found it came surprisingly naturally to you, as if you had done it before.
"Can I--" you paused, surprised at the strength of your own voice, "eat?" you questioned. Once again, something you had no previous knowledge of. But you somehow knew you needed a memory locked in your mind.
Zhongli blinked with realization, "forgive me, I completely forgot."
While Zhongli was gone, you looked around and observed the room you were in. He had told you to sit down, and so you didn't dare move. Listening felt good, you realized. Felt natural, as if you had done it before.
A bowl of soup was placed in front of you, completely snapping you out of your thoughts. You stared mindlessly at it, it smelled nice. The smell made your stomach hurt, saliva pooled in your mouth.
A loud knock stopped you just before you began trying to eat.
"Stay here." Zhongli said with a short sigh, he stood up and you watched as he opened the door. A cheerful voice spoke, but you lost interest and turned back to your food.
Eating was strangely easier, muscle memory guided your actions as you ate the soup. It tasted absolutely delicious, so much so that you tuned out everything around you.
"Please, Childe don't start." Zhongli sighed from behind you, the closeness of his voice made you turn around and stare at him.
The man next to him was surprisingly tall, wore strange clothing and had the most unique color of hair, ginger. As you scanned him you saw a small glowing blue gem on his waist, vision. You corrected yourself.
"What's your name princess?" Childe cocked an eyebrow and took a seat next to you.
"Y/N." you replied robotically.
Zhongli sighed again, "I take it's to your liking?" he asked, nodding towards the empty bowl.
You nodded with a smile.
"You weren't kidding..." Childe looked at you with slight surprise, you silently stared at his vision.
"What are you gonna do with her?" he curiously asked, you slowly reached down to your pocket and grabbed hold of your own vision. It felt warm in your hands.
"She'll stay here until she remembers." Zhongli replied, staring at you with mild interest.
You took the vision out of your pocket and compared it to Childe's, completely unaware that he was staring at you and your vision in complete shock.
"Dendro?" Childe burst in a mix of disbelief and surprise.
Zhongli merely nodded, "When it regained it's color I knew it was only a matter of time" Zhongli explained vaguely.
You stared at him curious what he meant, but you didn't quesiton him.
"Not much of a talker are you, princess?" Childe hummed with faint amusement.
"I like soup." you stated as the two men silently stared at you.
Childe burst out laughing while Zhongli averted his gaze, a smile tugging at his lips. "I know," he merely said.
"Can you use that?" Childe curiously asked, staring at your vision.
"No." you said.
"Yes." Zhongli interjected.
"No?" you more questioned than stated.
Childe chuckled and with the shake of his head began talking again, "why don't we test it?" he suggested.
Zhongli looked at you hesitantly, "Childe, she didn't even remember how to drink water. How to eat, that she needed to eat." he sighed.
"Y/N what is this?" Childe ignored Zhongli and pointed at your vision.
"Vision." you quickly replied.
Childe sent Zhongli a triumphant smirk.
"That doesn't--" Zhongli began with slight annoyance, "what do you want to do Y/N?" he looked towards you.
You froze, what did you want to do?
You spoke the word before you even had a chance to think about it, "remember." you instantly replied.
"Well if she used it before, using her vision again will maybe jog her memory?" Childe suggested Zhongli narrowed his eyes, knowing fully well that Childe only wanted to test your strength and get another chance to fight.
"Come on." Childe half grinned, he leaned towards you and glanced at your vision before abruptly standing up.
You glanced towards Zhongli, he grumbled something to himself before giving you a reassuring nod. Like a giddy child, you followed Childe.
Liyue was breathtakingly beautiful, your shoulders drooped as your bottom lip slightly parted from your upper one. The city was bustling with activity, people walking back and forth, talking and laughing loudly.
It was so colorful, so full of life.
"Out of the way."
Something hard bumped into you, you quickly took a few steps backwards and stared at the elderly man with a mix of confusion and fear.
The man merely sneered before quickly walking away, you remained motionless wondering if you should really be here.
"The city is different from how you remember it." Zhongli hummed from behind you, he was staring in the direction of the elderly man before slowly looking back at you. "Pay him no mind."
You let Zhongli lead the way, Childe walked through Liyue like he owned the place. Anyone that dared look in his direction was certainly not bold enough to speak against him after seeing the killer grin that was on the ginger's face.
Only after crossing the bridge out of Liyue did you feel more at peace, you hadn't seen so many people, so much life in so long. How long? You had no idea, the fact that you had been in Liyue before was something you were confident in, however.
The grass felt soft against your feet, you curled your toes and softly smiled. You had put on the clothes Zhongli had given you, but not the shoes. If Zhongli had noticed, he hadn't said anything.
"First of all--" Childe paused, "can you make this grow?" he turned towards you with a small flower in hand, it was clearly picked way too early and would die within a few hours.
You didn't answer and instead just grabbed the small flower, it felt cold and empty in your hands. Whenever you tried helping it, it was as if the plant shut you out.
Curiously, you tilted your head. It's cold, you thought again. Suddenly the flower began growing, it tilted upwards, towards you and grew warmer in your hands. The warmer feeling you realized, was life. Life you could give and manipulate with your vision.
It suddenly bloomed, mere inches away from your face. The blue flower gave off an incredibly nice smell, it almost made you want to eat it.
"Would you look at that." Childe mused with a cocky grin, he snaked towards you and put a hand against your shoulder.
"You're warm." you squeaked in surprise.
Childe gave a short laugh, he reached over and gently picked the flower out of your hand. Even out of your hands, the flower still moved, towards you. You pouted like a child that had, had their toy taken away.
"You remind me of my little br--" Childe began but was suddenly silenced as the flower hit his face, he visibly stumbled backwards before you could hear his muffled laughter.
Even Zhongli looked like he was trying not to laugh, however, a flower was a flower and did little damage. Childe merely peeled it off his face and sighed realizing it was broken.
"Can you fight then?" Childe curiously asked.
"I don't know." you answered truthfully, you hadn't believed you were able to use your vision but to your surprise, you could.
"Can you use a bow?" Childe pressed, when you didn't reply he reached to his back and gave you his own.
"Let me show you..." Childe trailed off taking a few steps closer to you when suddenly he hit an invisible wall, Childe narrowed his eyes to behind you. You followed his gaze and watched Zhongli stare back at Childe with crossed arms.
"Y/N, try this instead." Zhongli hummed after a few silent seconds, he walked towards you and seemingly out of nowhere handed you a polearm.
It felt surprisingly light in your arms, more so than you had anticipated. You didn't realize vines already snaked around the polearm until they curled around your fingers.
"Thank you.." you whispered, he nodded and walked back to where he had been sitting, Childe rolled his eyes before readying for a spar.
"I hear you were quite affected by the death of Rex lapis." Childe began as he suddenly slashed a dagger of hydro against you, absentmindedly you ducked.
"He's not dead." you shot back, Childe chuckled before suddenly twirling around, you once again ducked the dagger but was suddenly thrown off balance as Childe swept your legs.
Your vision spun, from upside down you stared at Zhongli. His expression was unreadable.
You threw your legs upwards before quickly getting back to your feet.
"Were you a fan of him?" Childe asked with a smirk, you didn't reply and wondered how you were going to counter attack instead.
"Childe." Zhongli warned from behind you.
"I'm just wondering if she likes Liyue's dear deceased archon."
A strange sense of rage fueled your next actions, you suddenly leapt to the side, taking his surprise to your advantage you smashed the spear against the ground, with supernatural strength you flung yourself into the air, the vines around your spear grew into spikes that were thrown against Childe.
Through the barrage you could see him grin like a mad man, that was until you leaned towards the spear and flew downwards, your feet hit the ground with a loud thud.
But you weren't done, Childe gave a cold smirk. "Not bad." he taunted with a laugh, you raised your right hand backwards and slashed at him once again. Just as he was about to block you threw the spear to your other hand, vines grew from it, letting you grab hold of the spear much quicker. Without wasting any time you attacked with your other hand.
The flicker of surprise in Child's eyes stopped you immediately.
Childe didn't waste the opportunity and instantly had you on the ground, you let him.
"Why did you stop?" Childe questioned pointing his bow towards you. "I was going to block it anyway," he added.
"I don't know," you replied with a shrug, your back ached. Pain was new to you, but this pain barely affected you.
"Well damn." Childe sighed, taking a few steps backwards, "she knows how to fight," he began with clear disappointment "and doesn't know Rex lapis." he clicked his tongue and sent a smirk towards Zhongli.
"Very helpful, Childe." Zhongli mumbled, you didn't know if it was sarcasm or not. He stood up as you gave him his spear back after removing the vines.
"Thank you." he mused, the spear vanished into thin air a few seconds later much to your awe.
However, as you passed Zhongli his eyes fixated on where your neck and shoulders met, although he could've imagined it. He could've sworn the skin morphed in color.