Consciousness returned to Ren not as a gentle tide, but as a sudden, jarring snap. One moment, he was in a deep, peaceful, and dreamless void. The next, his eyes were open, and he was staring up at the ornate, unfamiliar, and incredibly luxurious, wooden ceiling of a grand, imperial bedchamber.
He sat up. There was no pain. No aches. No lingering exhaustion. He felt… perfect. Better than perfect. He felt a new, quiet, and powerful energy humming in his very bones, a faint, familiar echo of a warm, sunlit storm.
A small, choked gasp from the side of the bed drew his attention.
Ganyu was there, asleep in a large, plush armchair, her head resting at an awkward angle, her face pale and drawn with a week's worth of pure, unadulterated worry. His sudden movement had woken her.
Her amethyst eyes fluttered open, and the moment they focused on him, on his sitting, conscious form, a profound, explosive, and utterly hysterical, wave of emotion erupted from her.
"REN!"
She was on him in an instant, her hug a desperate, frantic, and slightly unhinged, cage of pure, terrified relief. But the hug was just the prelude. The storm was yet to come.
She pulled back, her hands gripping his shoulders, and the biggest, most thorough, and most terrifyingly loving, rant he had ever experienced in either of his lives began.
"A WEEK!" she cried, her voice a high-pitched, trembling, and utterly hysterical, torrent of words. "You have been unconscious for an entire WEEK! Do you have any idea?! The moment I take my eyes off you, the absolute second I am not physically attached to your person, you are off on another death-seeking, suicidally reckless, and completely insane, adventure! What is wrong with you?!"
Her voice grew louder, her gentle, adeptal composure completely, utterly, and spectacularly, shattered. "I should tie you down! Yes! I should tie you to a large, very heavy, and completely immovable, stone! Or maybe I should just bubble wrap you! I will wrap you in a thousand layers of the finest, most protective, bubble wrap Liyue has to offer, so you can't even bump into a wall without me knowing!"
She was not just angry; she was hysterical, the accumulated terror of watching him almost die, twice, in the space of a few weeks, finally, unstoppably, boiling over. The tears that she had been holding back for a week began to stream down her face, a testament to her profound, terrified love.
Ren, in the face of this loving, hysterical, and slightly unhinged, storm, did not flinch. He simply waited for the first, furious wave of her rant to pass, and then he reached out and gently, calmly, took her trembling hands in his own.
"I'm sorry, big sister," he said, his voice a soft, quiet, and steady anchor in her emotional hurricane. "I didn't want to make you worry. I only ever wanted to help."
His simple, sincere apology, the quiet, unwavering calm in his glowing azure eyes, was the one thing that could break through her hysterical panic. She looked at him, at his safe, healthy, and very much alive, form, and the anger, the terror, all of it, just… broke.
A deep, shuddering sob tore from her chest, and she collapsed forward, her head resting on his small shoulder, her own storm of fear finally giving way to a flood of pure, heart-wrenching relief.
"I'm the one who should be sorry," she whispered, her voice a broken, muffled sound against his tunic. "I… I failed. I came here to keep you safe. That was my only job. And I failed. You almost… you almost…" She couldn't even say the words.
Ren gently, comfortingly, patted her back, his small hand a steady, reassuring presence. "No, you didn't," he said, his voice full of a quiet, profound, and utterly unshakable, conviction. "You didn't fail at all."
He waited until her sobs began to subside, and then he looked her directly in the eye, his own gaze full of a love and a trust that was absolute. "The only reason I ever feel safe," he said, his voice a soft, powerful, and undeniable, truth, "the only reason I was brave enough to do any of those things… is because I knew you were here with me. You are my home, Big Sister Ganyu. You are the reason I am never truly afraid."
His words, a simple, profound, and utterly heartfelt, declaration of his love and his faith in her, were the final, healing balm to her wounded, terrified heart. She looked at him, her beautiful, tear-stained face full of a love so immense it was a physical, tangible thing.
She said nothing more. She simply pulled him into another hug, a hug that was no longer frantic or hysterical, but was instead a deep, quiet, and infinitely gentle, embrace, a silent, mutual promise of a brother's trust, and a sister's unwavering, and now very, very, vigilant, love.