Chapter Text
it’s a tuesday when good old mr lin walks into the store.
“ajax, good to see you.” a pleasant, raspy voice speaks from a metre away.
ajax’s head snaps up from his economics assignment. “lin shu shu!” he rushes to stand but mr lin raises his hand to stop him. “i haven’t seen you in a while. how have you been, dear boy?”
ajax tells him everything, from what he had for breakfast, to how his store is doing. “this old lady came in at like 7pm yesterday and bought like, the most crusty copy of fifty shades of grey. she also tipped me fifteen dollars.” he purposely leaves the black-mask man’s existence out of his barrage of words.
“and how’s the progress on the student debt?” mr lin stands with his hands clasped behind his back, eyes crinkling in a jolly smile.
“very good, actually.” ajax grins at him. “it’s thanks to you, shu shu”
“don’t be ridiculous.” mr lin takes a good look around. “you’re keeping yimin’s memory alive, after all.”
“why are you so nice to me, mr lin?” ajax had asked one night. “i’m not even really doing anything. i don’t deserve it.”
the smile disappears from mr lin’s face, replaced with what can only be described as grief. “my wife, yimin, asked if i could keep the shop open. use it to help others.” he smiles tenderly at ajax. “i have kept my word.”
ajax stifles a sob. “i won’t let you down.”
“my dear boy.” mr lin pets him on the head. “as long as you are well, it is good enough for us. i only wish you graduate happily.”
“anyway.” ajax snaps back to present time. “i simply came to check up on you. don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything, alright?’
“yes sir.” ajax mock salutes, and mr lin chuckles. “you should rest, it’s getting late.”
mr lin moves his arm to check his wristwatch. “ah yes.” he gives ajax a hearty pat on the shoulder. “i’m proud of you, son.”
he hasn’t heard that from anyone in years. he didn’t deserve it then, and he doesn’t deserve it now.
the door swings gently shut. ajax has to focus so hard to not cry that he reads the same paragraph seven times.
- 𖧷 -
“this is so stupid.” ajax whines to scaramouche in their dorm. “how can you set, like, 7 assignments due the week before break for lantern rite?”
“don’t fucking ask me.” scaramouche’s lying on his bunk, leg propping the other up, scrolling through whatever shit on his phone.
ajax huffs. “where is your load of assignments, hmm?”
scaramouche honest to god cackles. “due the week AFTER lanten rite break. suck it, history major.” ajax throws the closest item on his desk at him. a bottle of hand sanitiser? the fucker dodges cleanly, eyes not even leaving his phone.
“it’s not fucking fair. professor chen is insane.” he wants to smack his head on the table, but there’s simply not enough space for an ajax-sized head smack. he settles for the corner of his laptop. “and they’re all weighted? please end my suffering.”
“i’ll visit you in hell. or the library.” scaramouche replies nonchalantly. “you have two weeks. i wish you nothing but the best of luck.” ajax would believe him if he said it with just a single ounce of emotion.
“thanks scara.” ajax sighs, turning to his laptop.
“Describe and analyse the processes by which a distinctively Liyuen identity was created and changed over time. What historical forces and events helped to forge this identity? In what specific ways has this identity been contested?”
“Word requirement: 6,000”
ajax chooses to smack his head against the wall instead.
- 𖧷 -
“life kinda sucks.” ajax announces to the bookshop. “it kinda sucks right now.”
the man looks up from the book on his lap. is he reading a fucking light novel? “is that so?” he closes the light novel on his lap and leans forward. “what assignment are you doing now?”
“economics problem set.” ajax monotones. “it kinda sucks.”
“i know what the word ‘suck’ means, but i do not know what those particular words mean when put together. nevertheless,” the man raises an eyebrow at ajax’s typed out answer. “i can deduce what you are trying to tell me.”
ajax snorts. “you live under a rock, man.”
“your answers don’t seem to make coherent sense, ajax.” the man comments. ajax curses his stupid brain. he hasn’t actually completed a single thing since the man walked into the bookstore about half an hour ago. he’s just spent his precious thirty minutes being hyperaware of his presence, ears picking up ever slightly heavy exhale or the simplest twitch of a finger. not a single question done, with his eyes on his peripheral, occasionally stealing an ever elusive Full Glance.
“oh yes mr historian, please help me with my immigration and domestic labour market problem set.” he mocks as he deletes the paragraph of gibberish he typed while thinking about the man’s hands. how they’re always gloved.
the man sighs. “it is not my specialty, unfortunately.”
ajax echoes his sigh. “figures.”
“i shall leave you to your work.” the man stands up slowly. “i feel like i am distracting you, and you barely have time as is.”
ajax opens his mouth to disagree, before realising he really does have a lot of work to do, and slumps. “7 days. alright then, see you soon.”
“i will see you soon, ajax. all the best with your assignments. i shall bring you a caffeinated hazelnut mocha next time.” the bell tinkles softly as the door closes behind him.
silence is really loud without the man flipping through books beside him. or maybe it could be the economics assignment that’s making his laptop pant with the might of a thousand exhausted horses.
“god fucking damn it.” ajax says out loud to the empty bookstore, before beginning to actually do his assignment.
- 𖧷 -
“oh wow.”
ajax looks up from second history essay of the week, to see rosalynne frowning at him.
“you look like shit.”
ajax laughs, devoid of emotion. “i haven’t slept in 32 hours. this essay is a bitch.”
“damn.” she comments, rather unhelpfully, and takes a seat across ajax. “and yet you’re the only history major in the library. where else is everyone grinding?”
“you’re just not looking properly.” ajax highlights a line of text. he rereads it again, only to realise it’s useless. “xingqiu’s on the second floor, and ekaterina is three tables away.” rosalynne leans to stare behind him. “she came in with a mora meat, and i honestly want to cry.”
“what’re you looking at now?”
ajax spins his laptop to face her, putting his head in his hands. “zhongli xiansheng may be one of the most legendary historians of all time, but i’m too stupid to explain his quotes.” his hands muffle his groaning, making him sound egregiously stupid. “please end me.”
rosalynne hums. “why don’t you ask sexy well-educated history dude from the bookstore?”
“he won’t answer me anymore. he said it’s cheating.”
“you can just call it, additional resources.” rosalynne snaps her fingers. “tertiary research.”
ajax snorts, leaning back on his chair and folding his arms. “we wish.”
rosalynne chuckles before getting up. “4 days left to lantern rite!” she turns to walk out of the library, ruffling ajax’s hair as she goes. ajax flips her off.
He takes a sip from his waterbottle. The water’s lukewarm. The words from his textbook are swirling in his mind, taunting him. He slams his head on his keyboard.
“Just 4 more days.” he murmurs to himself. “4 more days…”
- 𖧷 -
3 days pass in a blink of an eye.
it’s as if the universe is taunting him. he spends 26 hours cooped in the library and suddenly the entire campus is covered in red and gold. streamers line the buildings and trees, and giant red banners with liyuen calligraphy hang from the walls. there are red lanterns hanging from streamers pulled between buildings and along the walkways, the perfect glow to contrast the night sky. students have set up stalls in the plaza to sell sparklers. there’s an upside down liyuen letter pasted on the door of the library.
“it’s lantern rite tomorrow.” ajax says to himself. “shit.”
well, logically he only has half an essay left to go. if he stays awake for another 4 hours, he’ll probably finish in time for lantern rite, but he’s got to tend to the bookstore, and it’s a wednesday, which is the man’s day to visit.
“i should stop calling him ‘the man’, probably.” ajax whispers to himself as he walks past the stalls to the dorm building. he’s probably the crustiest he’s ever been and archons, he hasn’t washed his face in two days.
“ajax!”
he turns to his right, slowly. that voice has never boded good news, but he’s too tired to do anything about it.
”xiangling.” he says defeatedly, making his way to her stall. there’s all kinds of dishes lining her stall, including a very, very suspicious pot of bubbling green stew.
“seaweed whopperflower stew!” xiangling beams excitedly when ajax shows interest (stares in confusion) at her dish.
ajax gives her his best grimace. “sounds great.”
“i know! no one’s bought it so far though. wonder why.” she sighs. “fried radish balls with sweetflower are selling like hotcakes though!”
“i bet they are.” ajax says, albeit slightly patronisingly.
“history majors got it bad, huh.” she passes a stick of fried radish balls to the customer behind him, not breaking conversation. “saw xingqiu while i was setting up. it looks rough.”
ajax slumps. “i haven’t left the library since yesterday.”
“at least after you hand them in, you have all week to celebrate lantern rite! oh, right-” she disappears behind her stall. she pops back up with a red bag in hand. “go find someone to set these off with!”
ajax accepts it cautiously and takes a peek inside. firecrackers?
“student association gave all stall owners some for free.” she winks. “hope you enjoy your first lantern rite!”
ajax takes back every bad thought he’s ever had about xiangling’s eccentric dishes. “you really didn’t have to.” he starts, but xiangling interrupts him.
“figured you need some love this lantern rite season, since you’re away from family. now shoo! i have a stall to tend to.” she sends him a cheeky smile, but there’s some warmth behind all that.
ajax’s eyes widen in surprise, and he breaks into a soft smile. lantern rite doesn’t mean the same thing to him as it does to his liyuen friends, but the thoughtfulness behind the red bag warms his heart to the point of bursting. “thank you, xiangling.”
“you’re welcome, now go! don’t you have work to do?” she sends him off with a hearty laugh. he laughs as he continues his way to the dorms, but not before buying some fried radish balls.
- 𖧷 -
after a quick shower and to-do list check, ajax makes his way to the bookstore, laptop and red bag in hand, to find the man and mr lin chatting in the bookstore.
“ah, ajax.” mr lin says good-naturedly when the bell rings. “we were just talking about you.”
an ambitious crossover event indeed.
“please don’t disgrace me infront of our customer.” ajax sighs as he pulls another stool over. mr lin shakes his head and stands up, gesturing for ajax to sit. “it’s time for me to leave anyway. it’s been a pleasure chatting with you, zh-“
“goodbye lin xiansheng.” the man interrupts smoothly, a warm smile on his face but a dangerous glint in his eye.
thankfully, mr lin doesn’t seem to catch it, and just smiles at ajax before leaving.
“you look like you haven’t slept.” the man turns to ajax, the dangerous glint replaced with concern.
ajax snorts. “astute observation as always, xiansheng.” the man’s eyebrows raise slightly at the honorific, but he ignores it. he plops onto the chair, sighing. “just a bit more to go.”
“the hazelnut latte i bought for you is caffeinated, thankfully.” the man offers the steaming cup. ajax bows and accepts it with both hands.
“you’re the best, xiansheng.” ajax sips gratefully.
“i am surprised you even know what ‘xiansheng’ means. but i am not opposed to it.” the man shifts to squeeze his shoulder. he yelps. “dude, i’m holding a drink!”
“very stiff.” the man frowns, eyebrows knitted. “are you at least almost done with your work?”
the concern in that makes him smile. “half an essay to go.”
“that is good then.” the man nods, letting go of ajax’s shoulder.
ajax sips his drink tentatively. “what were you talking about with mr lin?”
“we talked about how you ended up working here. we only chatted for a few minutes.”
“i see.” he doesn’t ask about how the man told mr lin his name. he knows better than to ask questions about that.
he sighs. “i’ll be done in a few hours. i probably won’t be good company till then.”
“it is alright. i was reading a book, anyway.”
ajax looks over to find that yes, there is a book in the man’s lap. it’s definitely not from the shop, because it looks… otherworldly. there is no title, because the cover looks like it’s made of those “rocks of pure geo”, only found in museums.
he only remembers that because the shine of it looked oddly familiar, even in the display case.
“what book is that?” he asks, voice shaking.
if the man notices the change in tone, he doesn’t show it. “an old book series called a legend of sword. it’s a reinforced copy.”
yeah, reinforced with a long gone stone of pure elemental power? “i see.” he doesn’t pry. any further questions seems like it would breach eye flashing, ground shaking territory. he tries compartmentalise this incident along with the others and the almost constant deja vu feeling — packed carefully in the “i will find out eventually” box in his mind.
“you should start on your work.” the man’s voice snaps him out of it.
“oh, right.” ajax pulls out his laptop slowly. “when i’m done, we can set off some firecrackers.”
“…”
“xiansheng?”
“…did i hear you wrongly?”
ajax turns to see the man staring at him in surprise. “oh, xiangling gave me some firecrackers. i figured we could set them off together.”
the man doesn’t answer, he just stares at ajax. shit, he shouldn’t have just assumed the man would want set off firecrackers with him. stupid. ajax shifts uncomfortably in his seat and averts his eyes. “i mean, if you don’t want to-“
“no, i would love to. thank you, ajax.”
ajax looks at the man. his gaze is soft, one might even dare say, affectionate. ajax feels his heart accidentally skip a beat.
“n-no problem. they’re just firecrackers. we can set them off at midnight.”
“i look forward to it.”
they settle into silence after that. spurred on by the firecrackers, ajax types at the speed of light. the man looks up from his book to give an amused smile at ajax’s enthusiasm.
- 𖧷 -
“i’m done! xiansheng, i’m finally done!” ajax presses save about 4 times before slamming his laptop shut and putting it aside carefully before jumping up from his seat. “i’m done! i’m free!”
he is done. he is free. he could die happy now.
the man chuckles at the display. “yes, you are done. congratulations, ajax.”
“oh, i’m so fucking happy man.” ajax checks his phone, face breaking into a large grin. “it’s 6 minutes to midnight! we can go set off the firecrackers in mr lin’s back garden.”
“would he be opposed?” the man tries to say, but ajax grabs the red bag of firecrackers and disappears behind the wall of bookshelves. the man chuckles and follows after him.
“ajax, calm down. we have a few more minutes.” his mild scoldings hold no weight to them, because he’s clearly on the verge of laughing. ajax steps into the back garden, breathing in the fresh and slightly chilled night air. as chilled as liyue can get in summer, anyway.
“the sweet, sweet smell of freedom.” ajax sighs happily. suddenly, he feels two hands on his shoulders, squeezing between blade and his neck. soft, gloved hands, but warm against his cold shoulders.
“you are indeed free from your assignments for now, so you should relax.” ajax feels hot puffs of breath on the nape of his neck, as the man leans in to squeeze his shoulders. he has to fight everything in him to not tense up again. “all that laptop work has made your shoulders so tense.”
“a sign of modern times, xiansheng.” he replies shakily.
the man sighs. “it would seem so.” he lets ajax’s shoulders go. ajax lets out a shaky breath of relief.
xiangling left them matches in the bag. she’s really the best. ajax grins as he sets its contents on the floor. “which one do you want to set off first? there’s red and yellow. should we each light one?”
the man nods and sets the red firecracker into the ground, stabbing the wooden end into the soil with strange efficiency. an experienced man.
ajax tries to do the same with the red one, except it refuses to stand upright and it instead chooses to lean dangerously to the right. he tries to glare it into submission — the damn thing looks like it’s about to fall over.
he must seem quite agitated, because the man breathes out an amused sigh and goes to help him. immediately, like receiving the touch of a god, the red firecracker stands immediately with one stab. and stays standing. if ajax weren’t about to set it on fire, he’d break it over his knee.
traitor, he hisses at the firecracker for making him look incompetent.
“it will be midnight in a minute.” the man says from where’s he’s squatted, infront of ajax’s firecracker.
“you should take off your mask.” ajax’s eyes light up with newfound opportunity. “what if it sets on fire?”
the man chuckles. “i commend your persistence.” he hands ajax a matchbox. ajax pouts as he accepts it.
“let’s light it now.”
the man strikes the match in one go. ajax takes a few, stupid tries. he’s not thinking about how stupid he looks right now. they both light the firecrackers and take a few steps back.
in a few seconds, the firecrackers explode with light. frankly, there’s no difference between the red and yellow firecracker — they fill mr lin’s back garden with a dazzling yellow light, sparks flying off and landing on the soil. above them, massive amounts of fireworks blow up the sky. ajax can do nothing but stare in awe at the firecrackers infront of him, and the extravagant display in the sky — there’s nothing like this in snezhnaya. it’s magnificent.
“xiansheng! xiansheng, are you seeing this?” he can’t even tear his eyes away from the firecrackers as he reaches for the man’s arm in excitement. “it’s so bright!”
at the lack of a response, ajax turns his head slowly.
the man’s gold eyes are glinting at him. the light from the fireworks and the firecrackers illuminate his face as he stares at ajax, cheekbones raised over his mask in what can be only described as unadulterated fondness.
ajax can’t help but stare back. the crackling of the firecrackers become muted in his ears as his vision is just the man, and only the man. his chest begins to ache, but he can’t look away. the man looks gorgeous as the fireworks dance in the reflection of his eyes.
he doesn’t even know how long they end up staring at each other instead of the firecrackers, but eventually the light illuminating them dies down.
“ajax.” the man breathes out softly. “you should go home and rest.”
that snaps ajax right out of the weird staring trance he was in. “oh, right.”
the man brushes ajax’s hair out of the way with a gloved finger, and ajax’s heart is literally about to beat out of his chest.
“i wonder if you’ll ever forgive me.” the man whispers suddenly, but ajax hears it like a shout.
“…what?”
the man’s hand drop back to his side and he shakes his head. “it is nothing.”
ajax opens his mouth to ask again, but the man covers ajax’s hand that’s gripping on his sleeve with his own, pulling it down to hold it tightly. “you need rest.”
for the second time, ajax thinks the man is excellent at avoiding the subject. it very much works — he’s too preoccupied staring at their joined hands to think about questioning more, lest the man lets go.
the man pulls him back into the shop and he follows, brain almost short-circuiting when he feels a gloved thumb brush over the back of his hand.
he packs up the shop in a daze, leaving the mess for future ajax to clean up. they lock up the shop and go their separate ways, whispering a soft “happy lantern rite” in goodbye.