Work Text:
Maybe this hadn’t been his best idea, Childe conceded.
In his defence, picking a fight with Lumine had – at the time – sounded amazing. She was the toughest fighter he knew, able to beat up a gang of delinquents with minimal effort, and who’d even earned Zhongli’s respect. Fighting her, was simply too tempting. And given her track record, she would be giving a fair fight they could both enjoy. No downsides, if she just agreed. But she held no interest in it, so Childe had resorted to slightly underhanded methods.
However, and as always, Childe had fucked up. Because it was one thing to taunt her slightly to get her to throw the first hit. And another one entirely to make fun of her brother, for that same reason.
He could still vividly remember Paimon’s face as he uttered the words ‘Isn’t your brother an easy pick? I heard he cried when his boyfriend dumped him.'
Needless to say, the punch he received came as soon as he finished that sentence. There was quite a bit of bleeding afterwards, and a trip to the hospital soon followed.
That girl may be tiny but her hits landed hard. He could still taste de blood in his mouth, and the soft ache of the bruises that littered his body.
And Lumine?
She was glaring at him from behind her older brother, like a possessive tiger defending her home. Her face had quite a few scratches, some gauze on her cheeks. She looked roughed up, but…
‘I’m sorry’ Aether signed, anxiously. ‘We’ll help cover the hospital bills’.
Now, Childe felt bad for using Aether as taunting material. Even after he’d insulted him to hell and back, he was trying to settle this peacefully. If it had been anyone other than Childe, they would definitely have taken advantage of him.
No wonder Lumine became a feral cat when it came to him.
“It’s alright,” Childe reassured the twins. “If you really want to make it up, another round would be nice.”
Aether became even more nervous, and Lumine just hissed.
“Dream on it,” she said. “If I fight you again, it won’t end in just a hospital visit.”
Childe really wanted to fight her.
But, alas, he was stuck in a bed, a sprained wrist, a black eye and internal bleeding. Fighting, for the time being, would be a hazardous task.
‘You sure you don’t need help?’ Aether signed.
Childe just smiled at him.
“Don’t worry, friend,” he said. Lumine brisked up at the word ‘friend’. “It was a good fight; I have no complaints about the outcome.”
‘You should stop picking a fight, Lumine,’ Aether told her. ‘Apologize’.
Lumine did not apologize. Aether tried his best to get her to, but since Childe did taunt her, he wasn’t expecting any sort of apology. Aether simply sighed.
Just before he left, however, he assured Childe he would get a friend of his to come to check him. A nurse, seemingly the best in the ward.
“Make Barbara upset and you’ll cry,” was Lumine’s last warning.
And rude. Childe may be an ass, but he’d never insult or be unpleasant to a health worker. He was raised better than that, at least.
Not that she had to worry much, to begin with, because it seemed like the nurse was running busy. It was well past the afternoon when he heard the rumble of her steps and her raspy voice from the other side of the door.
Carrying another patient.
“Why didn’t you come here sooner?” she asked, opening the door.
“It’s not that serious, I just-“
“It is! If you had come here a few minutes later, we’d be in serious trouble!” she exclaimed, her exasperation giving her an octave higher to her voice. “You can’t just ignore a broken rib!”
“Sorry…”
“I’m so sorry, sir Tartaglia,” she said. Busy like a bee, she was helping the boy sit down, while already checking Childe’s information and vitals. “Aether commented to me about your situation. A fight with Lumine?”
“She lands quite a punch,” Childe laughed.
“And you survived?!” the boy on the bed next to his exclaimed. “Wow-! You must be crazy strong!”
The words punch out a bit of air from Childe. He was, is, really strong. Lumine may have beaten him, but that’s because the little gremlin is a beast. Childe had won many street fighting tournaments and could work his way through a mob with just a few bruises and minimal blood loss.
He knew he was strong.
But that didn’t make it any less exciting when someone said it out loud. Especially someone he just met, and with such an earnest and impressed tone.
Childe had no choice, no other option than to turn towards the stranger and stare. And then stare again, because holy fuck.
How can anyone be so cute?
“Y-yeah,” Childe answered in a daze. “I know my way in a fight…How about you? How you’d get those, friend?”
The boy laughed. He was covered in bandages, a cast on his arm, and he still laughed. Childe had been in those things more than a few occasions and he’d cried like a baby to Tonia. Yet, this boy who looked like a bunny was laughing away like it didn’t.
Childe suddenly had an itch to know who this person was.
“I was trying to help a cat down a tree,” he explained. By his side, Barbara sighed loudly and started to look through her inventory of medicine. “Diona’s pet got stuck, and I figured I could help her out. But…I think I scared him and he attacked me! I fell down, and I hurt myself.”
“And, then,” Barbara continued, very obviously angry. “He headed to school like nothing was wrong!”
“I had an exam!” the boy tried to argue.
“You had a broken rib!”
“And you could still walk?” Childe asked, mouth agape. The boy laughed again, and holy shit. The boy had a dimple. A cute little dimple on the left side of his cheek. Childe wanted to poke it so bad.
“I’ve had worse,” the boy confessed. “I have a weird pain threshold.”
“You don’t have a pain threshold,” Barbara huffed. She plopped a few pills in an empty cup and handed them to Childe. “You’ll be good to go in a day of rest, sir Tartaglia. You should stay overnight, just to be safe”.
“Do you think I can go home soon too?”
“You,” Barbara turned around, fire in her eyes. “Will stay here at least three days! Next time you get in trouble, come here before your lungs collapse.”
After that, she turned around and left.
“Lungs collapsed?” Childe couldn’t help ask.
“Well, the ribs are near the lungs. So, if you break them, there’s a slight chance you’ll puncture it,” the boy explained with a grimace. “We got here in time to get it fixed, but-…Yeah, just my luck”.
Childe couldn’t help smiling.
“Tartaglia,” he said, stretching out his hand. “Call me Childe. You’re a strong one, friend. I like you”.
The boy stared at Childe’s stretched out hand. A bit perplexed like he couldn’t believe what was happening.
“I’m Bennett,” he replied after a second, hesitantly taking his hand. “Everyone calls me Benny. You sure you want to…stay here?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Childe asked.
“I don’t have the best of luck,” he replied. He looked incredibly troubled. Childe couldn’t phantom why. “Last time, my roommate got into trouble with a delinquent in the ward next to us. Maybe you should-”
“A fight?” Childe asked, quickly perking up in excitement. “I’ve never been in a hospital fight.”
Bennett was stunned for a moment. His eyes showed clear confusion, but it eased up afterwards.
“They’re not as epic as you’d think,” he continued to talk. “Kinda hard to be, when you’re both sick.”
Childe laughed. Yeah, sounds fair.
“You’ve been to many fights, Mr Childe?”
“Just Childe is okay,” he replied. “And, quite a few, yes! Lumine kicked my ass, but I can hold my own against Kaeya and Diluc, and once even lady Noelle-”
“You’ve fought against Diluc!?”
“And won!” he smiled. “Once, then lost. I’m waiting for the tie-breaker.”
Childe didn’t miss how Bennett was leaning forward slightly. As much as his injury let him, at least. A rush of pride quickly filled him, ad he continued to share his stories.
Somehow, they ended up trading stories around the scars each had. Childe’s were mostly from battles and fights, while Bennett’s came from accidents from very surreal and dangerous situations. Childe couldn’t help admiring him for some of them.
It came as a pity when curfew started and they had to tone it down to let other patients sleep.
“Thank you,” Bennett said just as the light was going out. “You’re really nice, Childe.”
That took him by surprise. Childe hadn’t been considered “nice” in a long while. He was used to being described as ‘violent’, ‘unstable’, even by his closest classmates he was just ‘a child’.
Nice was…Was an adjective he’d forgotten could be used to describe him.
He was sure the look he had on his face was absolutely stupid. He felt out of breath, and his cheeks heated up.
Bennett was so cute, so friendly and so strong, yet here he was saying Childe was the one who’s kind.
Needless to say, Childe didn’t get a wink of sleep that night.