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To Everyone -
I hope you’re all doing well. This letter will be short because I don’t have much time to write right now, I just wanted to let you all know how I was doing. And ask for the same in return (Tonia, I hope your cold has cleared up by now).
I’m taking a little break from my regular job and have been doing a lot more adventuring lately, in order to build up my arsenal of toy ideas. When I get back to the toy factory, my higher ups will be extremely pleased, I think. A small vacation should be good practice. The thing is, I met an adventuring buddy. Don’t remember how, I just woke up one day and he was standing there. So now we’re searching Mondstadt together. He knows the area since he was born and raised there, but we’ve discussed traveling to Liyue sometime soon. His name is Bennett and he’s pretty cool.
I think I’ll be able to visit really soon, maybe even in a couple weeks, when I’m done adventuring but just before heading back to the toy factory. I will write once more to let you know, but hopefully it all goes according to plan.
I miss you guys.
Ajax
PS - Don’t even think about it, Teucer
He hopes he doesn’t get his little brother in trouble. Childe isn’t sure their parents know he stowed away on a ship to find him, but maybe mentioning his location is a bad idea anyway. He doesn’t think Teucer will do it again, but he can’t be too sure about it. In any case, the letter is short but sweet and to the point, just as it needs to be. Just as he’s giving it one last read-over, the door to the inn swings open violently. Childe’s instinct is to go on the defense, whirling around from his chair and blocking with his forearms. But before he can consider grabbing his weapon, he sees that it’s just Bennett. And he’s holding something.
“I did it!” he shouts. “I finally did it!”
Childe sighs in relief - and frustration - before he relaxes into a more casual stance.
“What is that?”
“A frog!”
Childe has a visceral reaction to frogs. They’re not his favorite. But he’s not going to let anyone know that.
“Wow,” he laughs. To be fair, Bennett had been trying to grab one with his bare hands for weeks now. So this is kind of an accomplishment. “Congratulations. Your reflexes must be getting quicker.”
“About time,” Bennett says. “I wanna be as strong as you eventually.”
Childe laughs again, this time more in embarrassment than anything. The only people who really say that about him are his siblings - most of the land know him as a pretty bad guy - and he feels bad that this poor bastard doesn’t know any better, either.
“Well,” he stammers. “You’re on your way. Just keep training.”
“What are you doing in here, anyway?” Bennett asks. “Why aren’t you out training yourself?”
“I’ll head out in a minute,” he tells him. He doesn’t see any reason not to be somewhat open with his new adventuring buddy. He waves his hand at the paper on the desk behind him. “I was just writing a letter back home.”
“Back home?”
“Snezhnaya.”
“Right,” Bennett says. “Who are you writing to?”
“My family.”
“What family?”
“All of them,” Childe shrugs. “My mom, dad, brothers, sister.”
“You have brothers and sisters?”
“Two brothers, just the one sister.”
“What are their names?”
“Teucer, Tonia and Anthon,” he says. That’s okay, right? He doesn’t even divulge his own real name. But he doesn’t have any nicknames for them, and Bennett is fairly unassuming.
“And you leave them to go adventure?”
“It sucks,” Childe nods. “Sometimes I even feel bad.” This isn’t free therapy though, so Childe tries not to dump anything on this guy. “But it’s okay, let’s g-”
“That’s okay, the entire Adventure’s Guild is my family and I have to leave my siblings and parents all the time. My older brothers and sisters are always there when I get back, though.”
Childe nods for a moment, then cocks his head to the side. Older brothers and sisters? It’s strange to Childe because he is the older brother and he’s always wondering if he’s setting a good example for the younger ones. Is Bennett being influenced well by his own makeshift family?
“Bennett,” he says suddenly. “How old are you?”
“Around thirteen.”
Childe’s face falls. Why is he so stupid? He forgot other people could be kids. He thought it was just his own siblings. Why was he standing here acting like Bennett was in his forties? That’s an exaggeration, but he always sort of considered him to be the same age and now…
He has one other issue, too.
“Around?”
“Well, they don’t know how old I was when they found me,” he says.
“Oh, right,” Childe nods. He forgot Bennett was an orphan.
“But I just say I’m thirteen. I have to go.”
Childe is taken off guard by the nonchalance.
“Wh-what?”
“My hands are starting to itch really bad…”
“Maybe you’re allergic to the frog.”
“Oh no.”
He doesn’t even sound that worried. He’s certainly unsurprised, and Childe frowns. This kind of thing always seems to be happening to him, huh? Maybe it’s just because he’s unobservant - or maybe it’s because he’s young and doesn’t know anything yet. What a revelation. Childe always considered him to just be a bit of a bumbling fool, but no. He’s actually just a kid.
When he leaves, Childe just stands there, staring at the door. Thirteen. That’s so young. Is it okay for Childe to be adventuring with someone so young? Are people going to think he can’t make friends his own age? To be fair, he wouldn’t care, since he kind of hates so much of the Fatui, but he doesn’t want a reputation as a creep or anything. He’ll settle for dumbass, since he truly is one at this point, but there’s nothing fishy going on here. He just… forgot.
Forgot that kids exist outside his family.
It’s fine. It’ll be okay. No one’s going to say anything. And even if Childe is kind of a bad guy, he’s not that kind of a bad guy. He’s not going to hurt Bennett. In fact, he’s sort of already planning exactly how to keep him from getting hurt at all anymore. There’s a sort of code of honor that goes along with adventuring, that you have to take a hit for your comrades from time to time. He always thought Bennett was just following it, but now that he thinks about it, he sure doesn’t want a thirteen-year-old to be standing in the way of hilichurls for him.
Then again, Childe sure did stand in the way of hilichurls at thirteen, and he was all alone. He just did it for fun. It toughened him up, probably. Maybe it’ll do the same for Bennett. Best to just forget this epiphany ever happened. Continue as normal. It’s fine! It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter. It’ll all be okay.
Their first big adventure after this not-revelation, Childe finds himself grappling with the idea that an adult of his age should be encouraging a child like Bennett to take the brunt of the hilichurls’ fire or allow the electro slime to shock him just so Childe is free to clear the rest. He never worried before when Bennett would volunteer; he just allowed it to happen, as any adventurer would. You’re supposed to compromise with your teammates. And when someone says they’ll do something, they better do it - or at least try. Bennett usually succeeds, which would be great, except what he promises to do is get hurt. All for Childe’s benefit.
“Bennett,” he says one day. “Where’s the rest of your adventure team?”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t you say you had an adventure team?”
“Yeah,” he nods. “I had one.”
“You don’t anymore?”
“Well… I guess you could say that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m technically the only member left,” he says. “They let me keep the name as an established group in the Mondstadt guild, but only because they feel bad for me. Everyone else had to drop out.”
“Why?”
“Well…” He rubs the back of his head. He’s sitting on the ground with his legs out in front of him, the soles of his shoes touching as he grabs his ankles and waits for the food to be done cooking. They decided to camp out for the night, but of course, they lost one of their tents, so Bennett already set up a little blanket outside for himself. “Most of them left because they just couldn’t handle it anymore.”
“Adventuring?”
“Adventuring with me.”
Childe furrows his brows immediately. What? Why would they do that? Bennett is a little excitable but so is Childe. None of the other people were able to handle that?
“Why?”
“I guess you haven’t noticed but I’m pretty unlucky.”
“I haven’t.”
“Really?”
“Luck is just a construct,” Childe says. “The reason you’re unlucky is because that’s how you choose to see it.”
“How else could I see it?”
“I see it as life throwing opportunities at you to get better. Stronger.”
“What if I don’t want to be stronger?”
“Why wouldn’t you want to be stronger?”
“I’d rather be weak with lots of luck than strong with none of it.”
Childe considers this. He supposes it’s a good point: if he’s weak but doesn’t need to use strength, does it matter? Well - yes. But that’s a personal thing, he realizes. If Bennett doesn’t want all this, then…
“You know, you don’t have to be an adventurer.”
That was the wrong thing to say. Bennett looks back and frowns. He looks exactly like Teucer, except he isn’t Childe’s actual brother. But that’s when it hits him like a train again: this kid is so young. As young as his siblings. And right now he’s ranting about something but Childe is too busy thinking to hear it. What if Bennett was his little brother? If this kind of stuff was happening to Teucer, Childe wouldn’t think twice about supporting him.
Is that why he doesn’t consider leaving Bennett behind to be an option?
“No need to get angry,” he says, probably cutting him off. “I was just saying that’s always a choice you can make. If you want to be an adventurer, I’ll be here for you. When I can be, at least. Like I’ve said, I’ll have to get back to the, uh, other job soon and won’t be around for a while. But you’ll be the first to know when I can adventure again.”
Bennett seems to light up. Man, it doesn’t take much to get him excited. It doesn’t even sound like a real promise. It is, it’s all true, but Childe isn’t always convincing.
“Really?!”
But Bennett doesn’t seem to have the ability to lie, so he’s not good at spotting it himself.
“Of course,” he says. “You take the tent. I wanna sleep outside.”
“If I take the tent, something will definitely happen to it and then we’ll have no tents.”
“Then we both sleep outside.”
Bennett has never had anyone be on his side before. That’s what Childe has deduced. There’s a storm that night that blows their tent away. Bennett is correct that he has awful luck. That’s also what Childe has deduced.
But he doesn’t really care. The band of treasure hoarders that flank them within minutes of discovering their lost tent is a great opportunity for Childe to practice his agility, jumping from man to man to man, leaving Bennett in the middle to take on whoever is left. The hilichurls that destroy their food supply is just a chance to learn how to cook new dishes - and recognize which berries are bad for you, something that Bennett is intimately familiar with. When an abyss mage sneaks up on them in the middle of the night, Childe is quick to act, jumping in front of Bennett and putting out the pyro enemy’s flames with his water.
But one thing Childe has noticed is that Bennett has become more and more sullen the past few days. He isn’t sure why; Childe has been having a great time adventuring. There’s only two more days left before he has to go back to Snezhnaya, so he thought these last hours would be bittersweet. Instead, they’re just bland.
Childe is about to ask what’s wrong in a quiet moment they find by a fire when a mitachurl comes out of nowhere. He swings his ax back before either of them can react and Childe’s instinct is to roll into Bennett and push him out of danger.
So that’s what he does. And boy, does he pay for it.
They manage to fend it off, but the second they’re safe, Childe crumples to the ground. There’s a gash in his side, on his ribs, that’s bleeding pretty profusely. He realizes it’s a little hard to breathe suddenly, and Bennett has to help him to a rock nearby. He starts bandaging him up and Childe says they should be heading back to Mondstadt anyway. It’s time their adventure starts wrapping up and he’ll see a doctor once they get there.
That’s when they run into an old member of Benny’s Adventure Team.
“What are you doing here?!” a voice shouts. Childe immediately reaches for his bow but Bennett is on his feet with his sword out before he can do anything. Childe can’t see his expression, but his voice sounds jovial:
“Royce!”
“No, no, no, no no, no… No!”
“What’s going on?” Childe asks. He looks up at the stranger, who appears to pale in fear. “Is there a problem?”
“There is!” he shouts. “What is Bennett doing here?”
“Benny’s Adventure Team has found a new member!” Bennett says. He’s mostly excited, but there’s a hint of vindication in his voice, which makes Childe surprisingly proud. “We’re exploring together!”
“For how long?”
“A few weeks!”
Royce turns to Childe.
“And he’s probably like this because of you, huh?”
“I guess,” Bennett says morosely. “The mitachurl just…”
“Popped up out of nowhere, huh?” Royce asks. He looks at Childe again. “He’s going to get you killed. Don’t you know about his reputation? You must not be from around here.”
“I’m not,” Childe says. He’s still kind of struggling with his injury, so he doesn’t want this conversation to turn into something he has to run away from. “Maybe it’s best for us to part ways.”
“It is,” Royce nods. “But that includes you. You need to ditch Benny’s Adventure Team and find your own.”
“Why?”
“Because Bennett is the worst person you could possibly be around!” he yells. “He’s going to get you killed! And he’s not even that good at adventuring!”
Childe shouts something but he isn’t sure what. All he knows is he’s on his feet with his bow out, pointing directly at Royce’s face when he turns and runs. He shouts after him:
“I can’t help Bennett’s luck, but I can help him forget bastards like you!”
It’s not exactly the suavest thing he’s ever said, but it was instinct. And the truth. Maybe Bennett will always be unlucky, but he won’t ever be lonely. Childe will make sure of it. When he turns around, Bennett is fuming. He doesn’t blame him. He puts his bow back on his back and then reaches out to pat his head, but Bennett pulls away. Childe winces.
“Why did you do that?!” he shouts. Childe looks around in confusion.
“What?”
“Why do you keep doing this?!” he repeats. “Stop sticking up for me like that!”
“What?” Childe asks. “What are you talking about? Isn’t it a good thing?”
“Not when I can help myself!”
“You probably can but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to, too.”
“Well, I don’t want you to!”
“You don’t want me to defend you from a guy like that?”
“No!”
“Why not?”
“Because he was my friend!”
“Friends don’t speak about each other like that.”
“My friends do! They have to!”
“I don’t.”
“Well, we’re not friends, are we?”
It hurts for a moment, which Childe finds alarming, because he doesn’t usually care if people don’t like him. But that tends to be because he doesn’t like them, either. He likes Bennett. He doesn’t want Bennett to feel that way about him.
But then he realizes he isn’t considering Bennett a friend anymore, either. He’s considering him a brother.
Maybe he’s not Teucer, but he’s Bennett, and that’s enough for Childe.
“You’re right,” he says, which takes Bennett off guard. “We’re not friends. We’re teammates. That’s stronger than friends.”
“Then as my teammate, you should let me handle my own fights myself.”
“But you barrel head-first into everything to take the brunt of the pain without asking if I’d like to now and then.”
“Because I know if I do it, the plan will work out. The bad luck follows me, so if I t-”
“Luck is not real, Bennett!” Childe shouts. “You’re not unlucky, you’re just reckless!”
“ I’m reckless?!” Bennett asks. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“If you want me to stop being reckless, you have to stop being reckless, too!”
Childe is stunned.
“What?”
“You’re standing here with this gash in your ribs because you were reckless!” he shouts. “You pushed me out of the way but I was already running! I would have made it out! You didn’t need to defend me, but you did it anyway because you don’t mind getting hurt any more than I do! We were good at adventuring together because you were so brave, unlike the other guys from my team, but now you’re just being a coward!”
“I’m not being a coward!” Childe shouts immediately. “I’m just saying you’re like, eleven!”
“I’m thirteen!”
“You’re a kid!”
“You’re the one picking fights with everyone you meet! You’re the one who will start a fight over anything! What happens if you get seriously hurt one day? What is your family gonna do? What am I gonna do?”
If Childe were the crying type, he’d definitely cry right now.
“Well… I…”
Bennett seems to quiet down, too. He sees how affected Childe is by the statement, and probably thinks he went too far. But Childe doesn’t mind. He’s never minded a confrontation. Even an emotional one. Not that he’s any good at those.
“I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you and I’d have to stop adventuring with you,” Bennett says. “I’m already looking forward to when you can go out again because you’re the only one who will stick with me. I guess that’s selfish of me. But I really don’t want to see anything happen to you.”
Childe stares at him a moment. He already misses Bennett, too. This kind of sucks: no matter where he goes now, he has a little brother to miss.
“It isn’t selfish. I don’t want to see anything happen to you, either. But if I have to be more careful, you do too. We both have to be more careful.”
“Alright, fine,” Bennett says, crossing his arms. Then, under his breath: “Coward.”
“You're annoying,” Childe says but a smile creeps onto his face. He stumbles toward the rock again and Bennett helps to finish patching him up without another word. When he’s done, he suggests they stop and rest for an hour or so before heading back to town, and Childe agrees. He reaches into his backpack for his writing supplies, but can’t seem to find them anywhere.
“Must be my bad luck,” Bennett says. “You probably left them behind somewhere.”
“That’s alright, I’ll be home soon enough,” Childe assures him. “Maybe someday you can come visit.”
“Really? You’d really let me come visit?””
“Sure,” Childe says. Then again, it’s kind of superfluous to bring Bennett back to Snezhnaya because Bennett already feels like home.