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“It seems we are at an impasse,” Childe said calmly, lips slightly curling into a sneer. His blue-haired opponent grinned, eyes flickering with the silent gleam of thought.
“Perhaps not. My cooldown will end eventually, and it doesn’t take much to leave you Frozen; a perfect opportunity for me to shatter the ice and do enough damage to end you.”
“Ah, but you forget, dear Captain. My elemental burst doesn’t leave a Hydro effect on me, and we are on dry land. Anyway, the second you try to move, my arrow enters your body and does enough riptide AOE to finish you. I’m afraid there is no winner, sweet Kaeya.”
Teeth flashing dangerously, Kaeya made no moves but merely huffed a breath of air. “Then what do you propose we do, Ajax?”
The use of Childe’s birth name was a clear warning, yet a simultaneous invitation. Quirking his lips into a grin, Childe leaned ever so slightly forward and ran the tip of his tongue over his bottom lip.
“Follow my lead?” the ginger offered with a smirk, and he leaned closer still to Kaeya, the Captain’s sword digging into his throat harder and drawing a thin but steady line of blood. Within seconds, the warm red liquid was pooling in the hollow of his collarbone, but they were both too enraptured with Childe’s actions to care.
Kaeya didn’t show affection, mostly because it had never been shown to him. But when Childe’s lips slid over his, firm and insisting, he couldn’t help but become pliant, the grip on his sword faltering as Childe expertly worked his mouth open and gently ran his tongue over Kaeya’s.
Why hadn't he ever kissed Childe before? It was bliss. His entire body relaxed into Childe’s, his sword clattering to the ground as Childe moaned lightly into their kiss, a breathy sound that had Kaeya weak.
Too weak, apparently.
An arrow pierced his side, and as Kaeya stumbled back in mild confusion and pain, he saw Childe’s eyes reflecting soft sympathy.
“Never let yourself be distracted,” Childe breathed, syllables sticky with sweetened pity, his eyes still soft as he laid the now-gasping man gently on the ground. Cracked lips touched Kaeya’s forehead, which was now beaded with sweat and smeared with dust from their fight.
“Childe,” the Calvary Captain mumbled, but the ginger merely shushed him in quiet tones.
“Such a good opponent,” Childe praised. “You did so well, Kaeya, almost had me beat.”
Kaeya’s heart fluttered at the words.
And then it stopped beating.
Sighing, Childe stood up with a final look of disdain cast down at Kaeya’s still-warm body, laying on the mess of grass and dirt and blood that had become their battleground.
“So strong… until he wasn’t,” Childe said out loud, his disgust at the other man’s defeat palpable.
But then he was leaving, his back turned, not aware that the dust under Kaeya’s head had become mud in the last few seconds of the man’s life.