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“For the last time, no, I’m not going to fight with you. Leave me alone, mortal.”
Tartaglia practically pouted, “But Xiao, you’re the strongest adeptus! We have to spar at least once!”
Xiao rolled his eyes, “I said no, and if anyone were to hear you say that you’d be killed. Besides, I had to recently clean up your mess, why the hell would I indulge your stupid request?” He turned around to leave, “Begone from my sight.”
“Do you just not wanna fight me because you’re smaller than me? Are you worried about the unfair advantage I have over you?~”
The young adepti turned around silently, muttering some words that Tartaglia couldn’t make out. “So are you gonna f-” A wave of pain hit him and he fell to the ground.
“Ngh, that’s unfair how come you had to fight dirty.” Tartaglia groaned.
Xiao glared at him, “Maybe that will make you learn your lesson. Now, begone from my sight and don’t come back here, you fox.”
Fox? That was a new insult, but Tartaglia paid it no mind, instead opting to leave for the next adeptus he could coax into fighting. The day was young after all, and he had too much energy to kill with no outlet. The next adeptus on the list to ask was Mountain Shaper, they seemed strong, maybe not as strong as Xiao but he would live.
Not soon after leaving Wangshu Inn, he noticed that people kept… staring at him. Was he perhaps more charming than usual? He was confident in his looks, but these didn’t seem to be those kinds of stares. Now curious, he checked to make sure he wasn’t wearing his clothes on backwards and then he understood the pain from earlier. He now had a big, fluffy fox tail.
Frantically, he touched his head and to his dismay there were two soft fox ears. Tartaglia groaned, of course that new insult meant something other than calling out how cunning he was, that adepti was a pain in the ass alright. Forget trying to fight an adeptus, he needed to get Zhongli to fix what his kid did to him.
Zhongli was back at his house, calmly drinking tea and getting lost in his knitting. When he heard Tartaglia’s footsteps he perked up, happy to see him back home again so early in the day. Once he looked at him however, he understood why he returned so early.
“Welcome home. I see you’ve gotten into trouble again, who was it?”
Tartaglia grimaced, “Your stupid kid Xiao, all I wanted was a good fight!”
Zhongli chuckled, “I see… well that explains your current appearance. I wonder how long he set it to last…”
Tartaglia sighed, “I hope not very long, I can’t go out in public looking like this!”
All his lover did was hum in amusement and get up to pet the ears, which twitched against his will.
“They’re very soft, I must say Xiao did a wonderful job with this particular curse. Do you happen to be able to hear any better than usual?”
Tartaglia groaned, “I don’t know, maybe a little? But I came here to have you fix this not ogle me, I wanted to fight an adeptus today!”
Zhongli only hummed, still fascinated by the fox parts adorning Tartaglia. “Well, there’s certainly something I could do, however I think you look cute like this. I’ll have to thank Xiao next time I see him.”
His tail flicked in anger, “Oh you senile old man, can you stop being enamored with this and help me? It’s not funny!”
Zhongli brought their lips together, stroking Tartaglia’s ear as he did. “Are you quite certain you wish for me to remove the curse? If you’ll indulge me, I think you would be an excellent cuddler right now.”
If anyone else had asked Tartaglia that, he would’ve told them to fuck off, but since it was Zhongli… he sighed and nodded, allowing the archon to drag him to his bedroom and settle in with him in tow. Zhongli held him close, nuzzling his head ever so slightly as the warmth made him close his eyes in contentment.
Maybe Tartaglia could indulge him for a little while longer, just maybe.