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“This is the true Story of the Yakshas,” Zhongli said, his chopsticks closing around a soft bum he bought to his soft lips.
“What do you mean by ‘True Story?’,” Tartaglia wondered.
He had abandoned since long to manage using his chopsticks but he hesitated what would be less an outage to Zhongli’s grace and love of tradition? Using the spoon of his soup he managed to hide, or using his fingers?
“If you ask any Liyuan, they would wonder what you are talking about, because the version the citizens know is different. With more romanticized parts, and some additions. Quite funny.”
Zhongli smiled as he bit in the bun. He was so glad to have been invited in the Liuli pavilion once again. There was no better food in Liyue, except that one pot Tartaglia cooked him a few days ago, when he invited him over, in his little apartment above the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.
“But why? How they end up believing this? Wouldn’t it be Rex Lapis works to guide them to the truth?”
Zhongli giggled. “Would it? I’m the one who taught them that version.”
Tartaglia almost choked in the slice of meat he had stolen with his spoon.
“Ah! Childe! Are you okay?” Zhongli worried, holding out his hand to gently tape the back of his friend.
“Yeah! I’m fine!” Tartaglia rubbed the sauce around his lips with the side of his hand, and accepted the napkin Zhongli handed him out. “But what would you do that?”
“I think it’s quite amusing,” Zhongli replied. “Don’t you ever feel the urge of inventing an unbelievable story and see if people will believe you?”
“Well…” Tartaglia stirred the pot with an absent look. “My baby Teucer believes Ruin Guards are toys, and I managed to bring him in a facility, made him see destructive beam, embracing Foul Legacy to protect him, and destroy an armada of Ruin Guards without him noticing anything.”
But that wasn’t funny. That was his duty.
“Do you feel better, in this regard?” Zhongli genuinely wondered.
“Yeah.”
“You shouldn’t take the boat back to Snezhnaya if you don’t feel able to do it,” Zhongli insisted.
Tartaglia nodded. His thoughts were darker as he fished another slice of meat with the spoon.
He wished Zhongli would do something more significant to hold him back. But did Zhongli only want to hold him back? He doubted about it. They were friends, but Zhongli didn’t share his feelings. Which was fine? Tartaglia had no friends, so gaining a friend was already a win!
Especially when it was the most precious friend he would never have…
“I wanted to express my thanks for sharing your last meal in Liyue with me,” Zhongli said. “You could have done anything else.”
“Could have, yes, but I’m enjoying my time here! I’m glad to have this meal with you!”
“Have you thought about the Lantern Rite Festival, though? You could stay a bit more, and share this moment with us. The tradition of the Lantern Rite is interesting as well. Citizens made lanterns, and write their wishes in the lanterns, a secret between them and the Adepti… A plea for those lanterns to fulfil their dearest desire.”
“What do you mean?” Tartaglia said.
“Do you need help with the food?” Zhongli wondered, seeing him fishing again.
“I’m doing just good!”
Zhongli sighed slightly. “I meant: us Adepti can hear the message written on the lanterns.”
“You can… that’s special!” Tartaglia said.
“It is. But it is our duty to listen to our citizens and to reply to their call. We are connected to them. And the way the Liyuans use the Lanterns in the festival is directly calling us. Oh, naturally, they don’t expect us to reply to every call. Some are selfish, other are just childish vows… Not that we won’t listen. We do.”
“You too?” Tartaglia asked.
“Yes.”
“And it only works for Liyuan?”
“No. The same way as, if you’d stuck incense in rock and call my name, I would hear you, if anyone create a Lantern in the ancestral way, the vow will reach us. Sadly, lately, citizens had also started to search more meaning in this Lantern release, and we receive poetry, citation, drawings… And, of course, I love art! Although… hm Linling should work harder if she’d like to spare our poor ears, but I’m afraid to lose citizens’ wail of despair in the cloud of lanterns with this need of doing lanterns equal to the ‘worth’ of the Adepti.”
“Not that it matter for you,” Tartaglia said. He sunk his spoon in the pot. “You’re not Rex Lapis anymore.”
“Alas, I will always be Rex Lapis, and I will always be Morax, the first Adeptus. I asked to your Queen her help to be retired, but if I see someone about to fall from a cliff, should I close my eyes because I have no longer a Gnosis? No.”
“You’re not wrong… Talk to me about those lanterns, I see you’re burning of telling me how they decided to popularize them and how they were created back then, and how they are created now.”
Zhongli giggled. “You know me well,” he said, closing his chopsticks on a bamboo shoot. He held it out to Tartaglia’s plate. “Tell me if you need something else,” he said as he fetched meat and ham to install them in Tartaglia’s dish. “I will explain you everything with delight, but first, I have a present for you.”
“A present?! I’m excited! Who gave you the money for it?”
“Well… you,” Zhongli replied with surprise.
Tartaglia laughed, and looked at him tenderly. He should be outraged to have bought his own present, but he didn’t mind, in fact. Zhongli tried to please him, and that was what mattered for Tartaglia.
Zhongli retrieved a long box wrapped in red paper. He held it out to Tartaglia and expected to have to urge him to accept the gift, urge him to open it now, but the gift was snatched away from his hands, and Tartaglia ripped off the wrap with excitation.
Zhongli smiled, though, and looked at him with fondness.
Tartaglia reached the elegant wooden box, and lifted the lit with excitation. For a second, a terrible second, he lost his smile, then he smiled back even more. In the little box, there were two chopsticks, carved in red and gold with a Phoenix and a Dragon.
“Wow, wow, wow! Look at this! Thank you so much!!!” Tartaglia’s fingers closed around the Dragon, and he lifted it to look at it under the light. “I will have a precious little piece of you in Snezhnaya now. And as soon as I will be sad we’re not spending time together, I’ll look at them, and remember you being concerned because I can’t use chopsticks.”
“I am concerned. You master every weapon but not chopsticks? This is a mystery.”
“Bet, if it was to fight, I would use them so well!” Tartaglia giggled.
“I don’t step in that bet: you could anything into a weapon.”
“Yup!”
“Even your smile,” Zhongli added with a low sigh.
Because his smile was currently murdering him more than any vain attempt Tartaglia made when he ran after chimera, thinking he could close his hand around the Gnosis.
Not because he saw the smile vanish, and suspected this smile hid disappointment; but because Tartaglia smiled as he said he would come back to Snezhnaya…
The boat left the Harbour after having spurted a crowd of people coming from all over Teyvat, being excited for this festival. The boat left, sailing back to Snezhnaya. Zhongli sadly looked at it. He should have run to this boat, he should have climbed on it and asked Tartaglia to come with him. He was retired, the Qixing and the Adepti would look upon Liyue. Why would he stay here? He could go with Tartaglia and, no matter if he didn’t love him back, he could at least be by his side…
Friendship was enough if it means they could be together. He just wanted to spend the remaining of Childe’s life by his side, so why was he standing on the wharf, looking at the boat sailing away?
Lanterns were already peppering the heavenly canopy, pretending to be stars. And he could hear the sound of the pleas, the wishes, an echo to the laugh and hope of his citizens, a cruel echo of his loneliness…
On the wharf, Childe was doing his best to prepare a lantern.
Everything he accomplished was always meant to be perfect, but today, he was making extra-effort. If something could be more perfect than perfect, then it would blossom in his hands.
And this lantern really has to be perfect.
He didn’t know how it would work.
He just had to… hope? Hope that everything would go along his way.
Please, Tsarista, Goddess of Love, bless my path… he thought, as he gathered the golden ink and the brush he bought today.
He wished, wished as hard as he could. And he held out his hand, dip the tip of the brush in the gold, then started to paint on the lantern.
“Rex Lapis, I love you; come meet me if you love me back.”
Tartaglia pressed his lips on the lantern, and let go of the lantern.
“Please, hear my plea…” he whispered, as he looked at the lantern merging with the other, just a dot amongst the immensity.
A wish that could be drowned in the ocean of prayers Zhongli underwent.
A thick rain had decided to perturb Liyue’s Harbor celebration. How many citizens worried it was a bad omen from the deities?! They hadn’t a God anymore, and they accepted to turn themselves towards the Qixing rather than the Adepti, so perhaps this whole Rite was taken as a perjure per the deities, the Adepti, and they showed their vengeance that way?!
Many lanterns had been released today again, but no one could see them.
The pleas were more discreet, but still present.
Today, just like every other day, Tartaglia crafted a lantern on the wharf, and picked up gold paint to write on it. If he didn’t know Zhongli heard every call, he would have abandoned the first day but for now, he wanted to believe Zhongli didn’t ignore him on purpose. Perhaps he didn’t hear him?
Every day, he released a message.
A wish.
One of the last fragments of hope he still had.
And if Zhongli never reached him, then, when the Rite of Lanterns would be over, he would walk back to Snezhnaya without regrets.
Under the rain pasting his locks against his round face, Tartaglia held out his painted brush.
“Zhongli, I love you. If you love me back, I’m waiting for you at the Third-Round Knockout”
As the days passed, as the lanterns gleamed in the sky, he started to say where he was. Perhaps Zhongli hadn’t found him first time? And the second day, he started to call him ‘Zhongli’ immediately because using Rex Lapis name was useless. Yes it was important in his mind because he acknowledged Zhongli as his whole, but it would be easier to reach Zhongli by calling him by his name!
Tartaglia freed the lantern, looked at it merging amongst the other vows.
He hoped Zhongli would hear his vow…
He stepped away so he could head back to the Third-Round Knockout. With a bit of chance, Zhongli was already there.
Tartaglia’s elbows were pressed on the barrier, the rain still covering the town in grey hues. He looked at the empty streets, for the time grew colder, and everybody preferred to be inside. They hoped of a better evening, they hoped they could release their vows tonight. They had so many wishes, hope…
And Tartaglia started to lose his.
He was drenched, the coldness was tickling his uncovered skin, and he wondered when he was allowed to leave?
He didn’t want to miss Zhongli because he left too fast.
But it had been one hour since he released the lantern.
Perhaps that was a sign or… Or… WAIT!!! Zhongli said there was thousands and thousands vows. Perhaps people sent some from place where it didn’t rain. Wait… While training, he gathered so many materials because lot of them were part of mobs. Wait a minute!
Zhongli had a headache. Working grew difficult, and hearing Hu Tao was painful. There were so many wishes. He tried not to listen to all of them for it would be impossible anyway. Sometimes, he could sense despair, hear a word that grabbed his attention, and so, he immediately focused on them, but most of the time, the wishes merged together.
“Dear Rex Lapis, I wish for my dog to, with your blessing, and for my beloved to always eat the sound of the waves in the food is quite correct but have you tried to give me more iron or fine prayers towards my beloved and please spare my grandfather from the love of my life.”
Yes, that was the constant chaos he heard.
If this might be funny, he was used to this every year, for two weeks, constantly. To add that he was used to this also around the Rite where he used to come above the harbour to deliver his prophecies. And he could hear call of despair at any moment. He still remembered that day, where he chilled with Tartaglia. Tartaglia laughed and was so beautiful, bathed with joy and the rising Sun, an Angel… He leaned on his lovely face, pushed away a losing thread appearing like a sunset, and was about to silently ask for those joyful lips to become his when a wish darted his mind. A call of a parent who couldn’t find their little girl anymore. And he apologized to Tartaglia and made his best for the vow to reach Xiao instead, keeping his cover, but making sure an Adeptus could come in aid.
They never talked about that almost kiss again.
And so, yes, this could appear fun, but it was his duty, it was his daily routine, and all of this stopped being funny long time ago for him.
Right now, this unstoppable cacophony was a problem all alone, and he doubted any of his tea could lose the feeling until the end of the Rite…
But he loved his citizens.
He just wished he could find the switch off button of… this.
“Rex Lapis, I wish I could…”
“Rex Lapis, if you’re still here…”
“Any Adeptus, can you…”
“I wish…”
“My deepest vow…”
“I plea the Adepti for…”
“Zhongli.”
“Yes, Director Hu?” Zhongli said, rubbing his temple.
“Hm? Is it something wrong?” Hu Tao asked.
“You called me.”
“No?” She laughed softly. “Are you fine?”
“Yes, I thought you had called me.”
“Oh,” She leaned towards him with a smile. “Perhaps, you’re hearing voice?”
She smirked when he looked at her.
“Today, I wish… Zhongli. …and also for my family to… Zhongli. … and my commerce to be prosperous! Zhongli. … and food to… Zhongli. I love her. Zhongli. He is happy so I don’t mind but… Zhongli.”
“I need…” Zhongli whispered.
“You need?”
He focused on his name, his name waltzing in his head. At first, it had no voice, no tone, but as he focused on it, he could hear the voice, the despair in it as the word echoed.
“I need to leave,” he said.
“Sure! But you will need to… Oh, well.”
She smiled. She hadn’t the time to ask him to work more in exchange, he already left, not even taking his vest, stepping outside in his cream shirt that already started to take the colour of his flesh as it was instantly drenched by the unstoppable rain. Now, everybody was running away from the wharves, only a few of them still finding joy in this cold clamor. But he an towards the wharf. Hoping.
Hoping…
Ah! If he had to reach Snezhnaya, he would cross the sea without a second thought. He would cross the World for Tartaglia, and he hoped Tartaglia could understand how much he was loved since he wasn’t the first one to do such madness just to see him. Something in the despair of this voice, however, told him Tartaglia never left, told him Tartaglia was in Liyue, within his reach.
As the despair grew, he ran faster, and reached the wharves in the shortest amount of time never no one had reached them. He saw a trail of lanterns, allowed himself a gulp of air to swirl down his lungs, then sprinted again. He had to reach him, he had to reach him!
The sound of Zhongli’s shoes echoed with the tinkle of the rain, merging with the hammer of his heart.
And he reached the quay from where came the procession of lanterns.
Tartaglia was there, under the rain, droplets rolling along his peach skin peppered with freckles like a forbidden constellation, his hair appearing darker damp, pasted to his round cheeks; shivering under the soft lights that bathed him in such an ethereal way.
And Zhongli couldn’t breath anymore…
“You called?”
Tartaglia turned the head, and smiled, seeing Zhongli, framed with the rain, the darkness of his hair being a stark contrast against his linen skin peppered with discreet mole, his amber eyes so piercing and yet tender, and the mystery of the muscles now unshrouded by the wet fabric.
“You’re here!”
“You too.” Zhongli walked towards him. “Why you hadn’t told me you stayed?”
“I wasn’t sure you wanted me to stay,” Tartaglia replied.
“Wouldn’t I want my fiancé to stay?”
“Wh… what? Who’s that now? I didn’t know you were engaged? I wouldn’t have done all of this… with whom?” Tartaglia bit his lower lip. “Not to seek revenge and win you over them in a fair fight, uh,” he said in a mumble. “Unless you found that sexy,” he added even lower.
Zhongli smiled as he approached Tartaglia. He landed the tip of his finger on the waist, waiting for Tartaglia to look at him, to give a sign of consent in any way before circling said waist with his hands.
“Wouldn’t I want my fiancé to stay?” he repeated.
“M…Me?” Tartaglia asked with surprise. Zhongli nodded. “When did it happen? Is it an accord with Tsarista? I… I wouldn’t say anything against her will but…”
Tartaglia couldn’t say anything anymore as he felt Zhongli’s forehead against his forehead. He switched his hand to caress a cheek.
“I asked it to you.”
“When?”
“The chopsticks.”
Tartaglia blinked in disbelieve. “It was a wedding proposal?!”
“Yes,” Zhongli said. “I thought you knew, you looked so happy.”
“I was confused and wondered why you were giving me that, but played it happy because I didn’t want you to be upset!” Tartaglia protested.
“So we are not…”
“No!” Tartaglia said. “I mean! Yes! Yes, I want to marry you! I wanted you to hold me back because after all of this, how could I know if I was a pawn or something more?”
“You are something more. You are everything. It is true you played a role, and you played it perfectly, but I cared for you as a friend, and more, before your role was requested. You’re not a pawn in this chest-board, as I am and will always be Rex Lapis, you are, and you will always be…” Zhongli gently gathered the second hand to bring it at his lips, pressing soft kisses on the knuckles that had hit so often and so hard they were callous. “… my Queen.”
“So… ask me again?” Tartaglia whispered.
“Childe… Dear Tartaglia, 11th Harbinger of the Fatuis, Childe, would you make me the honour to become my Queen, to walk by my side until the end of our time?”
Tartaglia smiled. “Only if you, Zhongli Xiansheng, would make me the honour to bless my life until the last moment. Make me the honour to really retire? Come with me? You’ll love my babies sibling so much!”
Zhongli smiled. “Yes, I’d be happy to come in Snezhnaya and met your family. Become a part of it. I’d be happy to follow you wherever Tsarista will send you. I just need you in my life, every second.”
“Each second is yours.”
Zhongli moved the long lock that covered the soft face, and he approached his lips from the taunting one. Tartaglia smiled, and pressed his lips forwards, joining them with that relieve of knowing they would keep walking together, walking on the same path.
It was a burst of light, more precious than any lantern, in the darkness of Liyue under a rain not so cold…