What Are The Best Hu Tao X Zhongli Fanfiction Stories To Read?

First place I'd check is Archive of Our Own, without a doubt. The tagging system over there is just unbeatable for finding exactly what you want, especially for niche dynamics within a pairing. You can sort by kudos or comments to find the real standout stories. I've found some amazing slow-burn character studies there that really get into the aftermath of the Archon War and their shared history. A lot of people sleep on Twitter threads and commissioned fics, though. Some of the most inventive, out-of-character takes I've read on their relationship came from an artist's thread that evolved into a full narrative. It's more ephemeral and harder to search, but the creativity can be wild. I'd also lurk on specific Genshin Discord servers. They often have dedicated fanfiction channels where writers post WIPs or snippets you won't find anywhere else. The feedback is immediate, which shapes the stories in a really interesting way.

Hu Tao and Zhongli’s dynamic is genuinely fascinating because it plays with contrasts: youthful, mischievous energy against ancient, stoic wisdom. I’ve seen a few stories that dig into the 'found family' angle, where Zhongli’s role as a former archon watching over this chaotic funeral director becomes almost paternal, but with this layer of mutual respect that keeps it from being cloying. There’s one called 'Contracts and Cocoa' that I stumbled on— it’s a modern AU where she’s a quirky college student and he’s her incredibly dry, history-professor neighbor. The charm is in the small moments: she drags him to bizarre festivals, he patiently endures her antics while subtly ensuring she doesn’t accidentally summon a ghost or something. It’ s less about romance and more about this odd-couple friendship that somehow works. Another angle I’ve enjoyed is fics that treat their relationship as a mentorship, but reversed. Like, she’s technically his boss at Wangsheng, and he’s this unknowable deity in plain sight. Stories that explore Zhongli learning about mortality and change through Hu Tao’s blunt, life-and-death philosophy hit different. There’s a short series called 'Seven-Day Vigil' that imagines Hu Tao planning a funeral for a certain someone from Zhongli’s past. The tension isn’t dramatic; it’s quiet, built on shared silences and the weight of his history contrasting with her practical, forward-facing approach to endings. Those fics often feel bittersweet, like you’re watching two people from opposite ends of time find a common language.

A lot of discussion around Hu Tao and Zhongli fiction orbits the dynamic shift between their canonical, mostly professional acquaintance and the sheer gravitational pull of their archetypal roles. You’ve got the funeral director and the ancient god of contracts and history—it’s a playground for juxtaposition. The most common route is exploring their shared connection to death and memory. Hu Tao, who treats the afterlife with cheerful irreverence, versus Zhongli, who carries the literal weight of millennia of loss. Fics that dig into that contrast are everywhere, often framed as quiet, introspective character studies. Maybe they share tea after a difficult funeral, and Zhongli reveals a sliver of grief for someone he knew centuries ago, leaving Hu Tao to reassemble her view of him. Then there’s the ‘found family’ or mentorship trope, which honestly feels more natural to me than forcing a romantic angle. Zhongli as this weary, retired archon secretly looking out for the eccentric, energetic director of his own funeral parlor has such a warm appeal. He becomes this silent guardian, maybe subtly guiding her away from dangers she’s unaware of, or providing obscure historical context for her unusual poetry. It’s less about dramatic plot and more about these small, accumulating moments of care that redefine their working relationship. I’ve also seen a surprising number of crossovers or AUs that transplant them into entirely different settings but preserve their core dynamic. Coffee shop AUs where Zhongli is a regular customer and Hu Tao is the relentlessly peppy barista. Fantasy AUs where she’s a necromancer apprentice and he’s the immortal king watching from the shadows. The tropes that stick are always the ones that highlight their contrasting energies—her chaotic life-affirming energy against his ordered, timeless solemnity. It’ s less about whether they fall in love and more about how two people who symbolize different facets of mortality somehow make each other feel more grounded, or more alive.

Weirdly, that specific crossover request has me stumped. I've been in the Genshin fandom since day one and I read a ton of Tartali and Xingyun stuff, but I've literally never stumbled upon a dedicated Hu Tao/Zhongli crossover fic. Maybe it's because their dynamic in-game is already so... defined? Like, she's his boss who pesters him about funeral discounts, and he's this ancient being humoring her. Putting them in another universe feels like it would either have to completely reinvent their relationship or just transplant the same jokes into, I dunno, a coffee shop AU, which doesn't seem like enough of a hook for a crossover. Your best shot is probably combing through the Genshin tag on AO3 with the 'Zhongli/Hu Tao' relationship filter and then manually scanning for fics that also have a fandom tag for something else, like 'Honkai: Star Rail' or 'Persona 5'. It's a slog, though. Honestly, I think the ship is more of a background or minor pairing in bigger ensemble crossover fics. Like, someone writes a massive 'Avengers meet Teyvat' story and Zhongli and Hu Tao are just... there, maybe exchanging a few lines. Finding one where their romance is the central plot in a crossover setting is gonna be a real deep cut.

Look, diving deep into crossover fics is my favorite hobby, especially when you want that lore-heavy feel. Archives of Our Own is honestly the first place I'd check. The tagging system there is a lifesaver—you can filter for the 'Genshin Impact' fandom, then add 'Hu Tao & Zhongli' or 'Hu Tao/Zhongli' as the relationship, and finally slap on the 'Crossover' tag. The real trick is searching within that for keywords like 'worldbuilding' or 'lore expansion' in the additional tags. I found this one massive 'Lord of the Rings' crossover last year where Hu Tao was a spirit of the Undying Lands and Zhongli was, fittingly, a mountain spirit; the author had clearly done their homework on both canons. Sometimes, though, the real gems aren't on the big archives. I've had more luck on specific Discord servers dedicated to lore-heavy Genshin fic. People there often share links to Google Docs or smaller sites where writers do these incredibly detailed, novel-length crossovers that they're too shy to post publicly. You gotta ask around in the right channels, but the payoff is usually a story with footnotes. My current read is a fusion with 'Bloodborne' where the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor deals with cosmic horrors, and Zhongli's contracts are with Great Ones. The atmosphere is just unbeatable.

The pairing has a built-in contract clause, really. She's the wacky funeral director obsessing over marketing death, he's the ancient god who's seen it all and kinda wants to retire. That contrast is gold. A lot of stories lean into the 'Zhongli is endlessly patient with Hu Tao's chaos' angle, which is cute, but I think the more interesting ones flip it. What if his weariness isn't just amused tolerance, but a genuine ache that her morbid fascination inadvertently soothes? She treats death as a lively business, while he carries its weight eternally. Her irreverence could be the one thing that lightens his burden, not because she understands, but precisely because she doesn't. I've seen a few that explore him secretly enjoying how utterly unimpressed she is by his grandeur—she just sees 'weird consultant with expensive tastes.' That dynamic also leads to a specific plot type: the 'contract' fic. They're both bound by rules—her business, his divine oaths. Stories where they enter a literal or metaphorical contract, maybe for Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's PR, end up dissecting obligation versus genuine care. It's less about romance and more about two isolated figures finding an unexpected anchor in each other's weird professionalism.

The appeal's less about plot and more about the emotional space between them. She's this vibrant, life-embracing force of chaos and he's millennia of stoic, weary stability. Fans dig into that gap. Is he secretly amused by her antics, or genuinely concerned? Does she sense the ancient grief he carries under the calm? Most stories I've clicked on use a conflict where Hu Tao stumbles upon something from his past—a relic, a forgotten poem, a place he sealed away—and her relentless curiosity forces him to confront memories he'd rather leave buried. It's not world-ending drama; it's intimate, personal history clashing with present-day pestering. That push-pull, the way she can disarm his defenses just by being her persistently annoying self, creates a tension that's weirdly sweet. You also get a lot of fics playing with the professional tension of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor director and the consultant who knows way too much. Like, she's technically his boss but he's a literal archon. Who has the real power in that dynamic? Stories that explore the funeral parlor's darker duties, or Liyue's spiritual balance, let them work together as a strangely effective team, which builds a different kind of compelling friction.

Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for found family tropes, but the best fics about Hu Tao and Zhongli aren't the ones that amplify their differences—they're the ones that find the quiet space where those differences stop mattering. I've read a dozen where she's dragging him to some weird festival and he's giving a five-paragraph lecture on its historical inaccuracies, and yeah, that's fun for a bit. But what sticks with me is when the story slows down. Like, there's this one where Hu Tao finds him on a bench in the harbor at like 3 AM, just watching the lanterns. She doesn't make a joke. She just sits, and he starts talking about erosion, not in a grand 'I am a god' way, but like he's tired. And she listens. That's the dynamic that fascinates me; her frenetic energy isn't always a counterpoint, sometimes it's just the thing that fills the silence he's lived in for centuries. He's stability and memory, she's chaos and the present moment, but in those stories, they meet in the middle where both of those things are just... lonely. The contrast becomes the reason they can understand each other, not just banter. That said, a lot of writers do lean hard into the comedy, which can feel a bit one-note if it's not done carefully. The 'grumpy old man and his hyperactive gremlin daughter' tag is basically its own genre. It works because it's rooted in their canon dynamic—her constantly trying to get a rise out of his impeccable composure. I've seen fics where she teaches him memes, or tries to get him to endorse the parlor on social media, and his deadpan responses are golden. But the ones that really nail it also remember that Hu Tao isn't just 'random.' Her obsession with death and the afterlife is philosophical, in its own way. So when Zhongli responds with actual, millennia-old wisdom, it's not just him being stuffy; it's two different kinds of understanding the same profound truth colliding. He's seen it, she theorizes about it. That's a much richer contrast than just 'loud vs quiet.' It makes their friendship feel earned, like they're the only two people in Liyue who can actually have that conversation, even if her side of it involves ghost jokes.