Chapter Text
“Teucer, are you sure about this?” Tonia came to stand next to him on the pier. “Like, really sure?”
“Sure about what?” Teucer knew exactly what his sister was talking about, but he really didn’t want to have this conversation again, especially since they were so close to meeting Ajax and his husband as soon as their ship from Liyue arrived.
“About not telling him about your job.” Tonia put a hand to her head as she repeated for the thousandth time, “I have a feeling he would understand completely. You’re both adults. And you both trust each other, right?”
“I do, of course I do. Ajax is the best big brother a person could ever have. And that’s exactly why I can never tell him I joined the Fatui. He’s just a kind and hardworking toy salesman, I couldn’t expose him to the kinds of things I see and do on a daily basis.”
“You never know, he might be able to handle the truth.”
Teucer shook his head. “No, I want to let him believe I actually work for the Fishing Association. He loves fishing.”
“He also loves honesty, believe it or not,” Tonia stared balefully out over the horizon as she muttered, “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation again. You two should really just talk it out.”
“That’s unlikely to happen.”
“...I know.”
Teucer caught sight of a familiar figure frantically waving at them while jumping up and down on the deck of an incoming ship. He and Tonia both waved back as a tall man with dark hair grabbed Ajax by the jacket to keep him from diving into the ocean and swimming the rest of the way to them.
Despite her earlier frustration, Tonia laughed slightly. “I’m so happy Zhongli came with him for this trip. He’s good at keeping Ajax entertained and out of trouble.”
The ship pulled into the dock, and their brother was soon racing down the gangplank to wrap them both in one of his signature squeeze-you-til-you-drop hugs.
“Teucer! Tonia! I’ve missed you so much!” Ajax touched his forehead to each of theirs in turn. “You’ve both grown!”
“Big brother, I’ll have you know I’m exactly the same height I was when you were here last year.” Tonia was laughing again, despite the severely limited amount of air she was getting at the moment.
Teucer made a futile attempt to free one of his arms so he could compare his and Ajax’s heights, but he was no match for the strength of his brother’s affection. “I’m taller than I used to be! I bet I’m even taller than you now!”
“Oh really? We’ll see about that!” Ajax gave them another rib-cracking squeeze before finally releasing them back onto their own feet. “Also! What’s this I’ve heard about my little baby brother’s new job?”
Tonia, leaning against a railing for support while she got her bearings back, gave Teucer a significant look.
“Oh yes, I’m working for the Fishing Association! It’s been great!”
Tonia’s grip on the railing tightened.
Teucer decided this would be a good time to deflect the focus off of himself by asking, “How about you, how is the toy selling in Liyue going?”
“Also great! Like I mentioned in my last letter, I’m here for a big toy convention for an upcoming major event. Lots of changes in store for Snezhnaya’s…toy industry! We can’t fall behind the likes of Fontaine, you know!”
There was a cracking sound as part of the railing splintered off in Tonia’s hands.
“Oh yes, that’s right!” Teucer glanced at Tonia. “Everything okay over there?”
Their sister was glaring at them as if she wanted the ground to open up and eat them both alive.
At that moment, Zhongli arrived to greet them and temporarily send Ajax off to finish dealing with their luggage.
“How are the two of you doing?” Zhongli had inevitably become a bit of a hugger himself ever since marrying their brother, but he had the wherewithal not to leave people gasping for air. At least, not from the intensity of his hugs. “The last time we saw each other, Tonia, I believe you were preparing for another term at Sumeru Academia? And Teucer, you had an interest in becoming a circus ringmaster?”
“That was years and years ago! I’m surprised you still remember that from when I was eleven and thought tigers were the most amazing creatures in all of existence.”
“Actually, my lovely husband is the most amazing creature in all of existence.” Ajax returned to the group with record speed just in time to refute eleven year old Teucer’s opinion of tigers, before turning to said husband to ask, “Zhongli, you ungodly beautiful creature you, is the large box with the gold patterning yours? I don’t recall seeing it when we were packing.”
“The box is actually ours, I purchased it for us upon our arrival in Snezhnaya.”
“How commemorative, now we have something to remember the first five minutes by!” Ajax took Zhongli’s hand as he leaned against him. “Everything else is all sorted out, by the way.”
“Let’s get going then, shall we?” Tonia gently but firmly steered them off the pier and toward their transport back home.
They continued catching up during the four-hour trip to their family’s house. The siblings swiftly reverted to how they always were when they were together, talking over each other, suddenly pointing to interesting things along the road, and generally just becoming boisterous children again. Meanwhile, Zhongli sat next to Ajax, leaning on his shoulder and sometimes joining in on the merriment and teasing.
Upon arriving at the house, they all piled out and were sorting through the luggage, when a Fatui agent carrying two packages arrived outside as well.
Teucer tried to wave the agent away, but they resolutely stood their ground and informed him, “I have an urgent delivery for-”
“Oh, what have we here?” Teucer interrupted them by lunging forward and snatching one of the packages out of their hands. “Why, it’s the custom fishing lures I ordered last week. Looks like they’ve finally arrived!”
Why on earth was he receiving work-related stuff at home? Teucer looked down at the package, then quickly looked back up again. “Wait a sec…why’s this addressed to the Eleventh Harbinger?”
“Because this is the one for you, sir.” The agent plucked the package out of Teucer’s hands and replaced it with the second one. “And the other is for the Eleventh...”
Ajax cut across while they were still speaking, “Who has a perfectly serviceable mailbox at the Zapolyarny Palace, I’m sure.”
Teucer might’ve shivered a bit at the quietly irate “how dare you disturb us” tone on his big brother’s voice. Had he always been this hostile toward the Fatui? No matter what Tonia said, there was definitely no way he could tell Ajax that he didn’t actually work for the Fishing Association.
His brother glared down the agent holding the Eleventh’s package until they finally excused themselves and beat a hasty retreat. Why hadn’t Teucer been able to pull that off earlier? If he had, he wouldn’t have had such a close call just now.
“Sorry you had to deal with that, little bro.” Ajax, back to his usual, cheerful self as soon as the agent was gone, threw an arm around Teucer’s shoulders. “Those Fatui can be so indiscreet at times, right? I bet you that someone will be having words with that agent about there being a time and a place for delivering private packages. Hopefully we won’t see any of them around here again.”
“Yup!” Teucer realized he was still holding his package, and quickly stuffed it up his shirt before his brother noticed. “Oh, it looks like Zhongli and Tonia are still moving all the luggage inside, we should help them.”
“Right you are, let’s go!”
Ajax went off to assist his husband with a giant, dragon stuffed-animal that was in the process of escaping from the trunk in which it’d been transported, leaving Teucer to team up with their sister carrying boxes inside.
“I’m telling you, just admit the truth.” Tonia hissed at him the moment they were out of earshot. “Otherwise there’ll probably be more incidents like that, and everything is going to be super awkward and weird.”
“I can’t, I just can’t.” Teucer followed her down the hall to Ajax’s room. “Did you see the look on his face when that agent came up to us? I thought he was going to revert back to how he used to be before he became a toy salesman, and turn them inside out and hang them out to dry!”
“Look, the longer you put this off, the harder it’s going to get.” Tonia’s voice took on a weary tone as she added, “Trust me, I’ve seen it happen before. Before you know it, years’ll go by and you still haven’t brought yourself to say anything, and I’m going to be stuck in the middle until the end of time.”
She set her box down with the rest of the luggage piled outside the room, then sat down on it and rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand.
“Sorry. I just feel like if I tell big brother Ajax, I won’t be able to look him in the eye again. Or worse yet, he won’t be able to look at me in the same way.” Teucer put down his box next to hers and took a seat as well. “But just think about how upset he’d be if he found out I joined the Fatui and told him I had a different job all along, because I was trying to keep him from the darker side of the world? It sounds ridiculous just saying that out loud.”
“It sure does,” Tonia muttered, “it suuure does.”
“But look on the bright side! At least he and Zhongli will only be visiting for a little while, and then they’ll go back to Liyue and we won’t have to pretend any longer!”
“Yeah. Pretending.” Tonia slumped to the side so she was leaning against Teucer’s shoulder. “This is going to be a long three weeks.”