Chapter Text
Ajax knew that he would need to get his hands dirty in order to survive in Celestia, but he didn’t think that he would see so much blood. Within the two months, Ajax had to have witnessed at least thirty people die, half of which were killed during an ‘interrogation’. Right after he had agreed to the contract that Morax proposed, he had seen the man brutally murder three of his subordinates by letting the police get away practically unscathed. It wasn't spoken, but Ajax knew that it was a warning to him to not mess up.
Ajax felt lucky that Morax hadn’t forced him to kill or torture anyone yet, not that he would have a major problem with it. Ajax prepared himself for what he would have to see and do in order to keep his cover. He didn’t really care much for the lives of most people anyways. That wasn’t why he did the job that he did.
The first month after Ajax had agreed to the contract with Morax, he didn’t see the man much. Instead, he was shadowing one of Morax’s subordinates, a short, emo-looking, Asian by the name of Xiao. Xiao was one of the Adepti, a group of executives that act as Morax’s second in commands.
At first glance, Xiao seems like a teenager going through some kind of emo phase. After all, he wore a structured black blazer with cyan lining. One of his shoulder pads had 2 small white spikes coming out of it, his pants were laced with gold embroidery similar to Morax’s, and his belt often had chains on them. He would often carry around a yaksha mask, which matched with dyed hair. He had the same golden eyes Morax did, which made Ajax wonder if they were related.
Despite his appearance, Ajax came to realize that Xiao was a lot different than he had originally thought. The short man never really showed any emotions when he did anything, but always has a rather sad aura whenever Ajax would see him. He wouldn’t do anything that was unnecessary and made decisions that required the least amount of effort while being the most effective. He had seen the smaller man take down people twice his stature so quickly, Ajax was sure that he would lose his life if he ever pissed Xiao off.
Ajax clearly remembered the first time that he had seen Xiao kill someone. Actually, he had witnessed five deaths that day. The two of them had been ambushed by some street thugs who thought that they were rich businessmen. Ajax knew that there would have to be bloodshed in order to get out of the situation, but he didn’t think that Xiao would have killed all the men before Ajax would even get a word in.
“Call Hu Tao.” Xiao was completely unfazed by the fact that he was drenched in blood. “Get her to clean this up before the contact arrives.”
Ajax didn’t have time to be shocked. He did what he was told, and hurried to follow Xiao.
The two of them sat in silence as Hu Tao came in and cleaned up the scene. Ajax still didn’t understand how burning everything actually worked, but he learned best not to question anything the girl did.
The contact that they were waiting for had finally arrived. Ajax's eyes widened. It was Signora. Why was she here? What business did she have with the Mafia? Ajax’s list of questions grew longer when he saw who had come with her.
The man wore the same thing that he did the night they met. The man wore a long black trench coat that was likely made out of some sort of leather that matched his boots and gloves. He wore a white shirt with a black handkerchief that had embroidery with a red gemstone in the middle. He had dark red eyes that matched his long red hair.
“You’re late.” Xiao’s voice echoed in the empty warehouse. He didn't move from the place that he had been sitting and continued to stare at the book he was reading.
“And here I thought that you would have enjoyed the extra time to clean up,” Signora responded as condescending and sarcastic as she always was.
“So you were here.” Xiao looked up from his book towards Signora. She wore a similar outfit from when Ajax had seen her last? Xiao had noticed Ajax’s reaction to Signors and the Red-haired man’s appearance. “You know them?”
“Information is key in the underworld. And La Signora’s one of the best.” Ajax claimed himself down. Signora had told him that they might bump into each other during his time undercover, so they had prepared a cover story just in case. “As for my reaction,” Ajax continued. “I did not expect to see the red-haired man again.”
“I did not expect you to come either Diluc,” Xiao turned his attention back to the two people who had just entered the warehouse. Ajax was glad that the man wasn’t suspicious of him, or at least didn’t care enough to keep on pestering him about it. “As far as I know, we don’t have business with you.”
“I hired him for tonight,” Signora responded. “It wouldn’t hurt to have some muscle, especially considering the business that we have today.”
Xiao scoffed. He signaled to one of the other members who quickly disappeared for a brief moment, only to reappear with a beaten Kaeya. “I still don’t understand why Morax decided to let him live. Normally, he would have just tortured them to death.”
“From my understanding, the police have agreed to turn a blind eye to almost all your operations for the life of the detective. Weren’t you having a rat problem anyways?”
“I don’t see a problem just killing them all,” Xiao murmured. He gave another signal, and the man who was holding Kaeya pushed him toward Signora. “If I see him on Celestia terrority-”
“Hai. Hai.” Ajax really wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. He had enough headaches trying to make sure that he didn’t die. He didn’t need Kaeya to go ahead and get killed in the process. He tried to sound as bored and sadistic as possible. “The police don’t get involved or they die. I think we can all understand that. If there isn’t anything new to be discussed, I much rather spend my time not looking at a half-dead cop.”
There was a moment of silence before anyone did anything. Xiao was contemplating whether or not to kill Ajax and how to explain to Morax that he just lost his new toy. He ended up deciding that he would much rather not lose an eye, and let the man live. Signora was too busy trying to maintain her composure and not send a snarky remark back at Ajax like she normally would. Kaeya was too busy trying to not die or interrupt Ajax’s mission to actually do anything.
“I agree with the ginger.” The person who broke the silence was Diluc. His voice was“If there is nothing else to discuss, I will take my leave.”
Diluc then proceeded to haul Kaeya up from where he was tying and dragged him out of the warehouse. Signora bowed and quickly followed Diluc out of the warehouse, leaving Xiao and Ajax alone.
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After the incident, Ajax was left to his own devices. Xiao, before leaving to debrief the situation, told Ajax in a not-so-friendly way that he was out of line to speak, and that the only reason he didn’t kill him right then and there was because he didn't want to deal with losing an arm. Ajax mentally noted to never cross the small man in fear that he might actually lose his life in the process, not that he didn’t enjoy the prospect of fighting the shorter man.
Sometime later, Ajax had received an invitation to dine with Morax. It had already been two months since he had joined Celestia, and a month since Kaeya had been released. What happened after, Ajax did not know the details of, but he did receive a not so welcomed letter from Signora letting him know everything was fine.
The invitation that Ajax got was rather luxurious. The card was made from a rather unique type of cotton cardstock laced with a golden border laid out nicely on a tray that was left outside of Ajax’s apartment. Ajax sometimes wondered if Morax just made gold given the amount of gold lacing he had seen around the Liyue office and how much was embedded in their clothing. The invitation came with a bottle of osmanthus wine on the right of the invitation and a black rose on the left.
If it was any other circumstances, Ajax might have thought that Morax was trying to court him, but considering that the person who sent Ajax the invitation was one of the most feared crime bosses in all of Teyvat - and not to mention his target - he decided it was best not to let his mind wander.
The invitation read as follows:
Wanmin Restaurant
8:00 PM
Do not be late
Ajax looked at the time. It was 6:30. It had an hour and a half to get ready and travel halfway across the entire city, which itself would take nearly an hour. It was not enough time. Ajax immediately scrambled around his apartment to put away anything that he did not want to be seen and put on the tuxedo that he was given the first week he was undercover. The tux was similar to the one that Morax wore but tailored to fit Ajax’s slimmer and slightly shorter stature.
Ajax finished cleaning up his apartment to make sure that nothing seemed out of the ordinary if his apartment got raided for any reason. He looked at the clock. 7:03. The GPS said it would take an hour and five minutes by car to get to the restaurant.
Ajax sighed. He grabbed the keys from the table and sprinted out of his apartment to the stairs. Waiting for the elevator given he lived on the 12 floors would take too long, so instead, he opted to jump down the middle of the staircase. Was it faster? Yes. Was it practical? No. But Ajax would risk a few bones in order to not have to deal with Morax being angry.
Luckily, Ajax was able to get down the stairs without breaking any bones thanks to a spring-like pulley that was used the other day for construction. He made his way to the garage, got onto his motorcycle, and speeded out of the parking garage. Ajax is sure that he broke at least 15 different laws in a span of thirty minutes. He was sure that Keqing wouldn’t mind too much given the nature of his mission but laughed a little knowing that she would have to deal with a lot of paperwork because of him.
Ajax had finally arrived at the restaurant. He gave his motorcycle to the valet, readjusted his suit and hair, and walked into the building. He was greeted by a blue-haired Chinese girl, who looked way too young to be working at a high-end restaurant. She introduced herself as Xiangling and guided him up the building, to a private room. The girl then told Ajax that she hoped that he enjoyed his stay, and to tell the man in the room that another server would be with them since her shift ended at 8. The girl bowed and then left Ajax alone in the hallway.
Ajax took a deep breath, and opened the door to the room. Inside, was a round table, two sets of silverware, an empty bottle of osmanthus wine, and a rather very angry-looking Morax. If looks could kill, Ajax would be dead a hundred times over. He was able to move just enough to glance at his watch. It was 8:02.
“You’re late.”