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| Later that day |
“This is a bad idea. A really bad idea”.
The familiar building that housed all of Teyvat’s mint loomed over the traveller. It stood imposingly before him, and Aether felt like an ant compared to its sheer presence. On another day, Aether might’ve stopped to appreciate the architecture fully.
Right now, it just served to remind him of the impending battle.
Aether clenched his fists, “I know.”
Paimon narrowed her eyes.
“But you’re still planning on going.”
“Yeah.”
Aether could feel her glare burning holes into the side of his head. She inhaled a breath before responding.
“Alrighty then...Paimon doesn’t know if this hasn’t sunk in yet, but Childe challenged you to a fight. You know, for no reason? After what happened last time, this has gotta be a trap. You said it yourself: he seemed ‘different than usual’. He’s definitely gonna pull a dirty trick or something. AND you’re fighting him for the second time! Why would you— why would he…”
Paimon faltered, confusedly scratching her head as she huffed in frustration, “Paimon feels like she’s missing something…”
Aether glanced at his companion. She looked genuinely perplexed as if this was the hardest she’d ever thought about anything. He felt a little bad.
“Don’t worry about it, Paimon. Just wait for us out here. Make sure, uh, they don’t wake up.”
They both spared a look at the several unconscious guards lying sprawled around them. Aether had been so caught off-guard by Childe’s sudden reappearance; it didn’t dawn on him until later that the Millelith heavily guarded the area. He should’ve told Childe to at least pick a more inconspicuous spot. It’d probably wasn’t a good idea to battle in the exact location as their previous bout, but he doubted Childe was thinking straight, given his unusual demeanour earlier.
Well, there was nothing the traveller could do about it now. Thankfully, the guards seemed physically uninjured, but Aether could imagine it was not a good day for them.
The sun hung low in the sky, its golden belly starting to dip below the horizon. Despite Childe’s ultimatum, Aether couldn’t convince himself to come any earlier, spending most of the day training and internally panicking. By the time he had gathered himself, he didn’t realize how much time had passed.
Strangely enough, though the agitation remained, he also felt oddly determined. Maybe that was the three months of bottled-up frustration talking?
“Wait, what if...things go badly this time?” Paimon didn’t hint at it directly, but Aether understood the unspoken question on her mind.
“Then you get some of the Millelith from the harbour to come help if that happens. I should be fine, though. I’ll keep him under control. I hope.”
Aether hadn’t meant to say that last part out loud. Paimon worriedly stared at him, but he tried for a reassuring smile to calm her nerves. He wasn’t sure if it ended up being more for her or himself.
He exhaled deeply, steadying his breathing and mentally steeling his mind.
Time to talk some sense into an irritating ginger.
____________________________________________________________________________
Aether feared he might’ve miscalculated a little.
This Childe was an entirely different beast, fighting with a ferocity markedly absent during their first spar. The weary traveller had no sense of the time that’d passed since the beginning of their battle, but it was enough for his limbs to shake, for his breathing to come out in struggling wheezes, for his body to ache like it hadn’t in a while, protesting against its injuries.
Like the conscientious fighter he was, Aether had wholly forgotten to switch his element to Geo, putting him at a severe disadvantage against his ranged opponent. Every time he tried getting close enough to use his palm vortex, he risked receiving multiple arrows to the face. Childe was certainly not making it easy to do so, either.
The harbinger fired six more arrows in rapid succession, each infused with incredible elemental energy.
Aether narrowly managed to avoid them, the wave of the sixth arrow knocking him off balance and making him land on a sore spot on his back.
He winced, stomach dropping in terror when he heard a whale’s call, barely able to scramble out of the way and escape the untimely fate of being pancaked by the massive creature.
Aether couldn’t afford to get rattled, not now. And with a spectacle as breathtaking as that, it’d be scarily easy to lose focus.
The whale dived back into the transitory ocean, waves splashing and disappearing in a heartbeat. The weight and thrum of its exit were immense, the noise belying its nature as an illusion and shaking Aether to his bones.
Childe staggered a little, that last attack expending much of his energy.
It was subtle, but his movements were starting to slow as well. Aether had earlier summoned his energy to create a huge tornado, catching Childe majorly off guard. It had dealt quite the number, and it seemed like Childe hadn’t fully recovered from that counterattack.
Unfortunately, that also served to anger the harbinger further.
Another arrow flew, a streak of bright blue barely whizzing past Aether’s ear.
“No getting distracted, Aether,” Childe snarled, his tone sharp and piercing.
Aether opened his mouth to retort, finally taking the short pause as a chance to speak, but Childe altered his stance and aimed his bow above him. Blue circles appeared underneath the traveller’s feet, warning him of the imminent arrows that would soon follow.
Aether gritted his teeth and refocused, manoeuvring around the rain of arrows and strategically dancing closer to the ginger.
Childe’s fingers continually plucked his bowstring, the distinctive twang resounding off the walls. “You sure...took your time,” Childe managed in between panted breaths, “didn’t you?” He nocked another arrow; voice strained with concentration and what seemed like annoyance. “Funny, I thought I...specifically told you...not to keep me waiting,” even with the distance, the traveller eyed the tension in his face, exertion evident in the harbinger’s hunched figure.
Keeping his eyes trained on Childe, Aether almost considered apologizing for the delay but quickly discarded the thought. Not only would he waste precious seconds trying to formulate a response and stupidly get himself hit, but he also didn’t feel like apologizing. Childe had made him wait for months. Making the harbinger wait half a day was nothing compared to that.
Step by step, breath by breath, the distance between them closed until Aether was facing Childe’s back. Once he confirmed his position was ideal, he made a beeline towards Childe, calling upon the winds to aid his speed. With luck, he could knock the harbinger’s weapon out of his hands, finally giving himself the upper ha—
Childe suddenly swivelled to face him, waving his hand and causing waves and tides to surround him spherically. The abrupt move pushed Aether away once again, knocking the air out of his lungs for a few seconds. He rolled into a somersault to stop his momentum and glanced back up to Childe’s shadowy figure, temporarily hidden by the raging tides he had summoned. The traveller clicked his tongue in disappointment. He should’ve known it wouldn’t have been that easy.
The tides subsided, and Childe appeared anew in its wake, his clothing a darker shade of grey and with a glowing electro delusion replacing his hydro vision. More noticeably, however, was the huge, intimidating spear now brandished by the other, his previous bow seeming like a child’s weapon in comparison.
Oh Gods, not this again.
The pointed fatui mask now concealed the harbinger’s face, but the traveller could assume the expression the ginger wore.
Bracing himself, Aether got ready to dodge the rapid-fire charges as Childe slowly raised the tip of his polearm to point imposingly at him. A lovely gesture.
The traveller barely had the time to blink when the harbinger materialized before him, Aether jumping to the left and avoiding the subsequent strike by a matter of milliseconds.
Childe didn’t allow him a moment of rest. Again and again, he charged, Aether sprinting and scarcely managing to evade the strikes. The harbinger’s speed was slightly more sluggish this time, but the disorienting nature of the strikes coupled with Aether’s growing exhaustion threw him off, causing him to lose visuals of Childe.
He had vanished.
Where had he gone?
Aether panicked, failing to notice the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.
He heard the crackle of electricity before he felt it.
In a split second too late for Aether to react, Childe was right behind him, and a burst of electro energy struck the traveller, travelling throughout his entire body. Quick, blinding, nearly instant, but to Aether, it felt like an eternity.
A strangled cry tore its way out of Aether’s throat at the spasming pain, yet he somehow managed to twist his body and slam the handle of his sword full force into Childe’s masked face.
Childe made a pained yelp and ungracefully jumped away, holding his concealed face in his hand and stumbling.
It took everything in Aether’s power not to drop to his knees right then and there. He clutched his torso as he willed himself to breathe. The initial shock of the strike was gone, but the pain had jumpstarted nearly muscle in his body, his hand inadvertently gripping the handle of his sword so tightly his knuckles were white.
Was Childe truly trying to kill him this time?
Once Childe lifted his head to Aether, he froze, his stature becoming rigid. Aether couldn’t explain it, but he hesitated. Childe hesitated. His hand stopped midway between them, almost as if he was going to ask, “Are you okay?”.
Alas, it seemed that the harbinger shelved whatever thoughts he was thinking, his hand clenching into a fist and swiftly returning to his side.
From a distant spot in his mind, Aether begrudgingly knew that Childe did not intend to kill him. Though he wasn’t sure whether he’d preferred that over whatever the ginger was attempting to prove now.
The precious few seconds of respite he got passed as the harbinger sheathed his spear and started rising in a brilliant beam of Electro energy, a ring of electricity circling Aether in the process.
Archons, this was the attack he’d been dreading the most. He’d barely managed to dodge it in their first fight, and he didn’t think he had the energy to in his current state.
He frantically surveyed his surroundings, trying to spot something, anything that could help him counter the blow. He felt heat prickle against his sensitive back and noticed a wall of pyro energy encircling the entire Golden House.
Had that always been there? Aether couldn’t speculate what was even causing it.
He unclasped his hand, remembering that Anemo reactions could draw in other elements.
The bare skeleton of a hastily thought-out plan sprung in the few working parts of Aether’s mind.
Pyro and Electro…
There was no time to think of better ideas. Not that he could’ve, anyway. His brain was fried enough as it was.
Aether held out his hand next to the wall and watched vigilantly for Childe’s cue. If he was going to pull this off, his timing had to be perfect.
Sure enough, Childe vanished. Aether called upon the winds and started charging his vortex, the turquoise winds quickly being dyed red from the pyro wall’s vertical flames.
Come on, come on…
The violet ring grew more erratic around him. He had a fraction of a second left.
Show yourself!
In a flash, the harbinger appeared before him, but the electro energy radiating off of his spear swirled into the pyro-infused vortex, triggering a powerful elemental reaction: overload.
The bang of the explosion— Childe’s body blown back, landing on the ground— Aether charging, sword in hand.
The dust settled.
Aether was on top of Childe, straddling his hips, one hand on the other’s shoulder as he poised his blade above Childe’s head. The harbinger groaned beneath him, a pained grimace on his face from the aftermath of the blast.
Oh.
Aether could see his face. The mask that’d been obscuring it had disappeared, lying discarded a few feet away.
Childe squinted, rapidly blinking before he focused on the weight pinning him down, his eyes widening.
Aether’s breath wavered.
His hands wouldn’t stop trembling.
In the beginning, he’d been willing to fight in honour of their promise. He figured the harbinger just needed to let out some steam, that perhaps this was just his strange way of greeting Aether again.
But Childe continued pushing him to his limit, hadn’t allowed him a chance to talk, and Aether’s patience had been worn thin. He scowled at the ginger or at least the closest expression his confused emotions would allow him. For once, Childe was silent, staring in a combination of surprise and begrudging awe.
What’s going on with you?
Aether felt his gaze slowly travel to the ginger’s eyes, almost wanting to find an explanation there. Childe’s eyes looked so tired, and despite himself, the traveller felt his heart clutch. There was something akin to desperation lining them, like the other was frantically searching for an answer— an answer only Aether held. Aether studied the dark bags hanging under the ginger’s eyes and the newly-formed gash on his right cheek. It’d been in self-defence, and rightly so. Childe had hurt him. Hurt him badly.
But...
Aether hadn’t meant to hurt him back.
He also didn’t mean for his hand to brush against the ginger’s cheek, his gloved fingers slowly lining the edge of the bruise. His sword hand lowered as he rested his blade onto the cool ground, silver steel glinting in the low light of the Golden House.
Childe tensed up under him. Cautious blue eyes zeroed in on Aether’s fingers as he gently caressed the other’s face, from the bruise to the bags sitting under his eyes— the edge of his brow— his sweat-beaded forehead— the grime on his jaw, before finally resting in messy ginger locks.
The conflicting feelings Aether’d harboured for three months, the frustration of fighting with no purpose, the pent-up lump of anger in his chest— he felt them start to dissipate as airily as an ocean breeze with a sigh that came from deep within his soul.
“Idiot,” he breathed.
I missed you. Just talk to me, please.
Aether noticed his reflection in the ginger’s eyes. If he could be a little more selfish, he could pretend that he was the only one Childe was thinking about at that moment. It would almost sate the ache in his heart.
Blue eyes widened, emotions indiscernible flashing in them as if the ginger had just had an epiphany of his own. His breathing came out in quiet gasps. A hand, which had landed on Aether’s thigh, subconsciously tightened its grip.
Time froze. Neither of them dared move an inch.
What was this?
Aether looked curiously at Childe’s reaction. He could feel the erratic pattern of Childe’s breathing beneath him, his chest rising up and down, and Aether realized his own breathing had quickened in tandem.
Slowly, he dared his other hand to the side of Childe’s head, almost cradling it. Childe’s lips pursed, repeatedly opening to say something, his words held back by an emotion Aether was struggling to understand. Aether almost wanted to laugh. Of all times, why now was Childe restraining himself? When there was so much left unspoken between them?
He found his gaze locked onto ocean blue eyes, almost willing them to speak, to say whatever it was that plagued him. With each quickening breath, Aether felt a tug in his heart, buried, forbidden words bubbling to the surface and settling on his tongue, words he thought he’d only get to say in his dreams.
If...if Childe couldn’t find the words, then Aether would say it first— would tell him.
Aether’s head lowered, his braid cascading over his shoulder.
The soft puffs of Childe’s breath caressed his cheek. He belatedly noticed that Childe had faint freckles dotting the bridge of his nose, like someone had dusted the tiniest smidge of cinnamon powder all over the ginger’s face. They looked nice on him. Aether wanted to kiss them.
He held his breath, voice barely above an intimate whisper.
“...Childe, I—”
As if on cue, any pretence of calm was shattered as Childe seemed to remember he was still in a stab-first-talk-later mood, harshly pushing Aether off him and rolling away to resummon his lance.
Aether blinked, quickly getting up and gawking in disbelief. What? But he won! He had his sword aimed over Childe’s head, for Barbatos' sake. Yet the other still wanted to continue this?
Why?
Aether had been so, so close to spilling it— the words hanging heavily on his heart for months. But just like their last battle, Childe refused to listen, like the ginger idiot he was.
Anger burned anew within his chest.
Oh.
Aether was seriously ticked off now.
Childe looked to be sorting out some internal conflict, his expression a strange mix of confusion and uncertainty. However, when his eyes trained back onto Aether, his gaze hardened, and the traveller knew Childe wasn’t satisfied yet.
“...One more time. Show me what you got.”
His tone left no room for discussion, but that was fine, more than fine. Done was Aether with discussion, newfound determination seeping into his veins.
Childe didn’t need words right now— what he needed was a smack upside the head, and Aether would gladly give it to him.
The traveller glowered back, eyes blazing in annoyance, and charged.
The harbinger raised his spear, Electro energy crackling around him. Aether could see it written in striking blue eyes, what Childe was imploring.
“Don’t you dare hold anything back.”
Oh, Childe wouldn’t have to worry about any of that.
This time, Aether wouldn’t.
____________________________________________________________________________
Aether won.
But he had utterly spent his energy.
He simply lied there next to the exhausted harbinger, on the cold polished floor of the Golden House. It was pretty quiet when they weren’t trying to beat the crap out of each other.
Aether managed to sit up, resting his head on his knees for a few seconds before sparing a glance at the man beside him, who was blankly staring at the ceiling above, perhaps computing how he lost for the second time.
Now that Aether somewhat cleared his mind, he wasn’t sure what he felt at the moment. Satisfied? Meh. Sad? Not particularly. Pissed off at a certain ginger? Well, he just worked through that.
Ah, he was tired. That’s what it was.
Too tired to rationally think about anything else other than standing up, stretching as far as his injured muscles allowed him, and extending a worn-out hand towards Childe. Aether was sure he looked like a sorry sight: exhausted, unsteady on his feet, and covered in bruises.
The other seemed to break out of his daze, steadily sitting up and gawking at the traveller’s hand as if it was an enemy itself. Aether hadn’t much patience left to deal with Childe’s reluctance in his state, his previous injury starting to flare up. There was only one thing the traveller was concerned about at that moment.
“Come on,” Aether tiredly urged, “We’re going back to my room. I have to treat the cut on your face.”
It was a weak reason, Aether was well aware. After all, hadn’t the harbinger gifted him with a worse injury? He still felt the strain in his back as he bit back a wince.
But after what had just transpired and Aether’s stone-cold victory, he wasn’t done with Childe. There was no way in hell he was going to let the ginger leave him again so soon, not when the other had been absent from his life for months. As tired as he was, Aether could be stubborn when he chose to be.
Childe’s eyebrows knit together, a bewildered look gracing his worn features, “Wait, what?”
“You heard me. Get up.”
Slowly but surely, gloved hands grasped his, and the traveller mustered his remaining strength to haul the ginger to his feet.