Chapter Text
He couldn’t be bothered looking at his phone right now, choosing to tap against the sides in sync with his music. Childe knew that two things were residing on that phone, or more specifically, his Discord app; one an offer, one a demand.
He inhaled, paused and exhaled in time with the beat of his song, head tilting back as he surveyed the open area in front of him. It was the middle of Tuesday, an hour before the lunch rush. The suburb’s tiny shopping centre had a respectable café that was the only business here that lasted, and you could see how the tables were half-filled at this hour when every other store barely had more than a handful of customers.
Childe knew he stuck out like a sore thumb with his bright orange hair. That was the point though.
He navigated his Discord messages and brought up the reason why he was here.
you’ll be able to find me; my orange hair is very hard to miss in Liyue.
And the confirmation,
I look forward to seeing it in real life.
Childe was shocked when several days ago when he had woken up to a message from Zhongli about an offer to meet up. Given that the streamer zealously guarded his identity and physical appearance, Childe never entertained the thought of them meeting up.
But here he was. At this café.
As he stared at the message logs, a notification for the Fatui server appeared and he quickly shut his phone off and dropped it into his waist bag that he had dropped onto the table. It was just a simple notification for some other game starting soon but he still wanted to avoid it.
Just as he was about to spiral into angrier thoughts, a hand lightly touched his shoulder and a very familiar voice cut through his headphones to say
“Hello, Childe, it is good to meet you face to face.”
He slid his headphones down to his neck as he shot up and spun around, facing not a poorly drawn 2D dragon but a man. A man with very strong Liyuen heritage and culture, from his very dark hair to the cut of his clothes. His eyes were amber, framed with red eyeshadow. Despite the Liyuen heat, Zhongli wore a black shirt with black pants and a brown overcoat that reached beyond his knees. He reached forward with a black-gloved hand. Childe took a moment to realise he was waiting for a handshake.
“Wow, Zhongli-xiangsheng, you don’t look like how your voice sounds like.”
The red eyeshadow crinkled as Zhongli inquisitively tilted his head. “What did you expect then?”
Childe opened his mouth and closed it again. “Uhh…” He said, staring at his eyes. “I guess the colour of your eyes? I didn’t realise your dragon and you shared eye colours…”
“Yes, I get a lot of remarks about my eyes,” Zhongli sighed, stepping around Childe to take the other chair at the table. As he moved, Childe saw that Zhongli had rather long hair, and kept it tied at his nape. Zhongli perused the menu, one hand reaching behind him to draw his ponytail over his shoulder. The tips of it were a dull yellow amber, matching his fit and eyes.
Childe felt a little plain in his jeans and oversized white graphic T-shirt. Normally he’d be wearing a thick bomber jacket but Liyue was so hot that item of clothing was usually left in his wardrobe for months on end. His eyes flickered over Zhongli’s face and saw that Zhongli only wore one earring, like himself.
“Hey, we’ve both only got one earring,” he laughed, flicking the little red gem that hung from his left ear.
“So we do,” Zhongli noted, studying Childe. “I do not recall you wearing it during your streams.”
“They’re uncomfortable with my headphones on, so I take them out.” Childe picked up a menu for himself, despite having already read through it and chosen his drink. “I’m surprised you wanted to meet up. You keep your identity a secret.”
“I promised a friend to keep my identity a secret while streaming, but friends don’t count.”
Childe blinked and smiled. “Thanks, Zhongli-xiangsheng. You’re my friend too. Thanks for trusting me with this.”
His words got a raised eyebrow. “I do not think you’re the type to tell the world.”
“I know some people,” he said, bitterness thick and his mind returning to the messages he had only received a few days ago…
“Shall we order?”
Childe shook his head free of the thoughts and smiled at Zhongli. “Yeah, I was gonna get the avocado and salmon salad.”
“Likewise,” Zhongli placed his menu down. Childe noticed that Zhongli had perfect posture, back straight and hands placed on his lap. On the other hand, Childe slouched back in his chair, one leg up so his ankle rested above his knee. Everything about Zhongli was picture perfect. “Childe, it is very nice to see you in person. I was very elated when you agreed to this meeting; I have been turned down on other occasions.”
“They missed out then,” Childe grinned and turned to the waiter as they stepped up, quickly ordering their dishes. He turned back to Zhongli and asked if he wanted anything to drink, and got a refusal in reply. “Just water then,” he told the waiter and bid them goodbye.
Their conversation paused for a second. “Have you been to many restaurants lately?”
Childe immediately playfully scowled at his table partner. “You know the answer to that. I have to ask for a fork and knife and I die from embarrassment.”
Zhongli chuckled, leaning forward to rest his arms on the table. “Perhaps I could teach you?”
“I mean…” Childe scratched the back of his head, looking to the ground. “You could…”
“Great,” Zhongli said cheerfully, “The next week, same time, at the Wanmin Restaurant?”
Childe stared at Zhongli, caught off. Did he just say they were going to do this again? Would it become a reoccurring event? “Sure,” he said, straightening up and beaming. “We could do this weekly, even.”
The corner of Zhongli’s eyes crinkled as he gently smiled. “That sounds lovely,” he said, just as the waiter pulled up to their table, arms laden with plates. Zhongli inquired about Snezhnayan dishes and Childe got pulled into a long conversation about how the weather influenced diet in his frozen homeland. Despite not being the one talking, Zhongli ate his dish incredibly slow, choosing to study Childe as he tried to think about how his culture came to be.
“You could just look this up online,” he said, having just trailed off as Zhongli took a bite of his meal. His amber eyes returned to Childe, Zhongli sitting back in his chair as he listened. “I’m sure there are more reliable people who can explain it more clearly.”
Zhongli immediately nodded. “Yes, I could,” then, he smiled down at his dish, “but they are not you.”
It made him chuckle into his hand. He shifted his weight forward, to the table, leaning his head on his palm. “Flatterer. I know I’m not the most eloquent.” He speared a piece of salmon with his fork and ate it. Zhongli took a long sip of his water.
“What of Snezhnaya’s national dish?” the Liyuen asked, leading Childe on.
It was a pleasant lunch. They paid and walked to the nearest train station. They took different trains and as they stood pressed up against the station’s walls to avoid the sunlight cooking them, he realised how much he missed talking to someone. He knew it was no different from talking on voice call as they had been doing for months, but to see a friend in person?
It was wonderful.
“Hey Zhongli,” he said, breaking the momentary silence as they waited for their respective trains to arrive. “Thanks for inviting me out. I really enjoyed it.”
“It was a joy to meet you, Childe,” Zhongli said as he slipped his jacket off his shoulders, folding it neatly over one arm. It revealed the rest of the white shirt he wore; the shape of his arm was far more defined. “I look forward to Tuesday, and next week, at Wanmin.”
“Yeah, absolutely,” Childe said, just as a train pulled up to the station. Zhongli stepped forward but kept his body angled to him. …Thanks, man. It’s been some time since I’ve been outside. It means a lot, he tried but couldn’t say. “Safe travel home.”
“As with you.” Zhongli smiled and boarded the train.
Childe didn’t immediately pull out his earphones as the murmur of residential Liyue provided a soundtrack that he didn’t know the mood to. He felt contemplative and loud music would ruin it.
Why was he so thankful?
Was he that lonely, as Ekaterina put it?
He knew he wasn’t one to make friends and his job kept him at home. He wasn’t one to join a sport or a hobby group. There was no one to interact with. Zhongli was the first person he met online that he had then met face to face.
The question wasn’t why was he here. He, the Eleventh Harbinger, had been selected for a task by the Tsaritsa of the Fatui to move to Liyue to scope out new talent. It wasn’t a fruitless task; Scaramouche was proof of foreign talent joining the Fatui as he was born and raised in Inazuma and moved when he joined.
Childe was to be active in the Liyuen scene and try to recruit people for the Fatui. Except, he had run into a problem: Snezhnayans were happy to learn Liyuen, but the language of Snezhnaya wasn’t a popular subject to study in the city of trade, business and everything economic. Childe’s frozen homeland wasn’t a trading opportunity, after all.
The question everyone was asking was: why was he still here? He’d been here for two years and little to show of it. There was an uptick of Liyuen interest in Fatui activity, but nothing substantial to justify him living so far away from home.
His train pulled up and he pulled out his earphones as he stepped on. He didn’t want to listen to several people breathing in close quarters. When the screen of his phone lit up, new messages were waiting for him.
He chose to open Discord instead of willful ignorance. Signora had already said her part so there weren’t any new messages from her but Scaramouche and Dottre were in his DMs, asking about the news.
The Tsaritsa had asked him to return home.
The question he was asking was…
Why did he have to return?
💧🔶
Exactly a week later found them standing outside the promised place, waiting to be seated. Childe was wearing essentially the same thing as their first meeting only with a slightly different white shirt, while Zhongli was wearing a turtle neck and a vest. They were quietly chatting when someone bounced up to them.
“Mr Zhongli!” the girl shouted, clutching her tiny clipboard with both hands. Her hair was dark indigo-black hair that was tightly braided back in an elaborate braid that made it look like she had two bear ears. She wore a dark shirt with a red panda that reached the edges of her short pants, and a hoodie that shifted from dark blue to white. Her face looked extremely familiar. “Welcome back!”
“Good morning, Xiangling,” Zhongli said, smiling warmly down at her. “How is your restaurant? Ah, this is Childe.”
She looked at him and grinned even wider. “Welcome to Wanmin Restaurant! We’ve been waiting for you!”
“Have you?” he questioned, puzzled. It wasn’t until he saw movement at her heels and saw the red panda trotting around did he recognise her from her stream. “Oh, you’re Xiangling! The one that does a lot of cooking streams.”
She bent down to pick up Gouba. When he’d first seen him, Childe thought that Gouba was just a dog that looked like a red panda, but he later discovered that no, it was an actual red panda. “Yes! My family owns this restaurant, and I work here when I’m not streaming. Zhongli said you’ve recommended this place as a good place to start with traditional Liyue food! And,” her eyes started to sparkle and Childe braced himself for the enviable, “a good place to learn how to use chopsticks!”
Childe sighed through Zhongli’s chuckle. “Yes, yes, come on, let’s start the torture.”
Zhongli chose to order several smaller dishes, all loaded with what Childe would call finger food, like dumplings, or small sushi rolls. The Liyuen picked up a pair of chopsticks and they settled into his hand without a second thought. Childe took a moment to prepare himself and picked up his own.
He didn’t even look at his grip, knowing that it was nothing like Zhongli’s.
“You’re not holding them steady enough. The bottom stick is supposed to be stationary, while the top one moves. See how your sticks cross at the back? See if you can move your grip so they’re almost parallel.”
Childe finally delegated to look. Like Zhongli said, past the point where he was holding, the sticks crossed over. Zhongli moved his own, and as he said, they never crossed over.
No matter how he shifted his grip though, he could never hold them straight. It kept him occupied until the food arrived, and he enviously watched Zhongli sample a Jade Parcel.
“Hmm…” Zhongli watched Childe struggle for a few seconds longer. “Here is another tip; the bottom stick is supposed to be held stationary by the side of your ring finger, have your thumb holding it down, and the end of it resting between the web of your thumb and index finger.” He pointed to the relevant places on his hand, and Childe realised that Zhongli only moved the top stick. He had said it before, but Childe hadn’t realised how to keep the stick still; he had thought that it was just something you did while controlling the top one as well.
“Oh,” he said and awkwardly shifted the stick into a similar place. His ring finger refused to shift though, and he stared at it with an increasingly strong frown.
“Here,” Zhongli set his set down, keeping it balanced on his bowl of rice. He shifted around the table and quickly fixed Childe’s grip, including the top stick. Now the two touched only at the tip, rather than where he had his grip previously. Zhongli moved his fingers to show how Childe would open and close the chopsticks.
He did it a few times himself as Zhongli returned to his place and continued to eat. It was easier, but he could still feel the stiffness in his hand. “Huh, that wasn’t too bad.” He reached forward for the Jade Parcels, very slowly picking it up between his chopsticks. He accidentally squeezed too hard, water and oil almost bursting across the plate. Childe winced but brought it over to his plate, then up to his mouth. The taste hit his tongue and he beamed at the flavour. He was about to compliment the food when he heard a click and looked across at Zhongli, who was holding his phone up to Childe.
“Hey,” he protested, “Why did you take a photo?”
“You looked cute,” Zhongli said, flipping the phone around to show the picture. “You look very happy learning how to use chopsticks.”
Childe looked at the photo and had to agree, he was grinning. He tried to reach for another piece of food to change the topic, only to realise his grip had shifted. Sighing he tried again, only to stick his hand out to Zhongli to adjust his fingers. It was met with a chuckle.
💧🔶
Outside the restaurant, Childe caught Zhongli staring at the photo he took of Childe. “Hey, if you want, you can post it. Just tag me.”
“If that is alright?”
“Sure,” Childe shrugged, then paused. “As long as I can take a selfie with you and post it. I’ll put a sticker over your face, but I have a picture of you now.”
Zhongli smiled and moved closer to Childe’s side. Childe opened up his selfie app and chose his favourite filter that put neon cat whiskers and ears on them. After a few takes, they took a picture that looked nice and he quickly edited a dragon sticker over Zhongli’s face, making sure to cover up everything. Zhongli gave his seal of approval and they posted their pictures, tagging each other.
“Nice,” Childe rolled his eyes at Zhongli’s Tweet about them going to Wanmin and Childe learning how to use chopsticks. “I’m really glad I reached out to you.”
“I am too,” Zhongli put away his phone and they walked to the local train station. Childe closed the Twitter app and then paused, finger hovering over the Discord messages. He didn’t realise he had stopped walked until Zhongli called his name and he looked up. Zhongli was several paces ahead of him.
He slipped the phone into his pocket and caught up. “Sorry, just saw some notifications.”
“Oh? May I enquire?”
Childe regarded Zhongli for a moment. For all that they had been talking and gaming for the past few months, they had mostly only talked about superficial information about themselves or about their own countries, or whatever Zhongli was fixated on. This was veering into more personal and solemn information about himself, and for a moment he wasn’t sure if he should divulge it.
But. Zhongli had trusted him with his appearance and identity. Perhaps it was time to offer Zhongli a similar token of trust.
“Well,” he began, scratching the back of his neck. “…I’m at a bit of a crossroads.”
Zhongli stayed silent, willing to listen.
“I’ve been in Liyue for two years now, y’know? And well, not much to show for it. I’ve mostly stayed inside, not going out much, just streaming. Not one for social gatherings. So, uh, I’ve been given,” ordered “the chance to go back to Snezhnaya.”
He didn’t know what to say next, so the two of them walked in silence.
“Do you want to go home?” Zhongli asked. Childe didn’t speak, not wanting to deny but not willing to confirm. Before the other man could ask another question, a tumble of words poured out of Childe.
“It’s – well, I do miss my family. But here’s the thing – they live in a rural town, where sometimes it’s hard to access it from the Capital. If it was to move back to them, I would say yes in a heartbeat. But they want me in the Capital, where I’ll be with the rest of the team.”
He paused.
“I guess, that, these past months playing with you and meeting up with you, make me realise that… I don’t like my fellow Fatui members. When I joined I guess I was too focused on gaming to see that I didn’t click with any of my members. No, not click – we grate against each other. Lately, just talking to Signora or Dottre or Scaramouche exhausts me. Ekaterina is the only Fatui I can talk to and she’s not really with them anymore. I don’t know man.”
Childe scowled down at his feet. Zhongli had stopped them where the sidewalk was momentarily transformed into a lookout, peeking out between the layers of buildings, giving them a breathtaking view of Liyue Harbour, the sparkling sea and the Guyun Stone Forest, set in the distance. He wasn’t interested though and chose to lean against the rail with crossed arms.
He was already feeling embarrassed for spilling like a broken dam. Why did he have to sound so… tongue-tied?
“Would staying in Liyue Harbour be different from staying in the Capital?”
“Yeah, ‘cause I have you.” As soon as he said the words Childe nearly died inside. Instead, he pretended to have forgotten he said the words by finally observing the houses around him.
When he looked back over to Zhongli, he was watching Childe with a small smile.
Childe’s head snapped forward again. “I mean, that, uh, I get along well with you. And – it’s not like you’re good enough when compared to them, I mean like, I consider you a proper friend.” He wanted to vanish into thin air. “Yeah.” He finished.
“Could you not leave the Fatui and return home?”
Finally, a topic Childe could talk about without making a fool of himself. “Nah, Morespoke isn’t my style. It’s a very tiny community, barely a village, and you’re snowed in half the year. The internet there isn’t very good.”
“I already talk to my family enough anyway. I can call them on their landline and chat with them any day, and when the signal is strong enough I can video call Tonia’s phone. It’s a system I’ve been happy with since I moved away to university. I don’t think I could live there for longer than two weeks now.”
It took Childe a few seconds to see where Zhongli was leading him. It made him laugh without a sound. “Huh. I guess I could…” he shook his head and stood up straight. “Thanks, Zhongli, for the chat, and helping me out.”
The two of them continued their walk once more. His phone didn’t feel so heavy in his jacket’s pocket anymore and there was a lightness in the way he walked. It felt easy to slip into humming a nameless song. The decision he had been telling himself was stupid was the one he wanted all along.
“Childe?” Zhongli called. Childe quirked an eyebrow in answer. “I also consider you a proper friend.” He said with a slight smirk.
“Oh my god,” Childe moaned, once again finding the little flowerbeds and pots fascinating.
“If you are not against the idea, I could introduce you to a few people I know. I am sure they will love to get to know you.”
Childe waited until he didn’t feel so embarrassed then looked back at Zhongli. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
Zhongli smiled in reply.