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Ajax was new in town, his parents had sent him to the military, and the military had sent him to Liyue Harbor, far away. It seemed that no one really wanted his company, but that was fine—as long as he could learn how to fight, it was fine. He was 8 years old now, old enough to fend for himself! Well, he still had Miss Ekaterina, his au pair girl, who came with him to Liyue.
"You shouldn't always be so wild, Ajax. You scare the other children," she told him just a day after they arrived in the port city, after receiving a complaint about his behavior.
With a big pout, he turned away. Unfortunately, he had to go to school here, too, and with school came the same problems he had in Snezhnaya. It wasn't his fault that the other kids were bullies—he had just shown them boundaries. Ekaterina wouldn't know that, but he didn't want to know her anyway. It was nothing he couldn't handle himself. They had called him a stupid redhead and made fun of the way he held his chopsticks at school during lunch. It wasn’t his fault those sticks were too thin, why couldn’t they just use forks?
"Go and try to make friends," Ekaterina ordered in her 'do as I say or there will be no dinner tonight' manner—She truly was a scary woman.
After half an hour, he gave up. These Liyuen were stupid, just like their chopsticks. He had already resigned himself to his fate of getting nothing for dinner as he walked around the beach outside the harbor. Maybe he could find a line and a stick to try to fish with.
Lost in thought and angry at everyone but himself, he kicked a rock on his path as hard as he could to relieve his anger.
"Ouch!"
Startled, he looked up and saw a child, probably his age, squatting in one of those Liyue dresses and holding his head. Ajax must have hit him with the rock.
"Oh, no. I'm sorry. I didn't expect anyone to be here!" he shouted, running to the other kid.
To his surprise, it turned out to be a boy, apparently his age. Soft basalt hair that ended in amber tips, teary golden eyes with red eyeliner, and… horns… Wait—was that a tail?!
"… Are you a dragon?" Ajax asked, reaching out to touch the horns.
The other boy backed away from his touch and out of nowhere a small rock from above hit Ajax's head.
"OUCH! HEY!" Ajax exclaimed and tried to indicate where that stone came from, but above him was only the blue sky. “Where did that come from?”
“You threw a stone at me, so I threw one at you too!” The other boy said solemnly, “Auntie Ping always said that there must be order in the world.”
Ajax's head snapped back to the other boy, who was now standing on his legs—and yes, that was a tail. The boy was now standing upright in front of Ajax, and the first thing the Snezhnayan noticed was that the dragon boy was smaller than him and gorgeous. So pretty, he forgot what he wanted to retort originally.
"Wow, you look stunning. What's your name?" He asked instead.
It was not every day that he met a beautiful dragon, who was able to throw rocks from the sky.
The brunette crossed his arms in front of his chest, reluctant to answer.
Only now did Ajax notice the dark scaled hands with golden claws instead of fingernails.
In awe, he stepped closer, trying to take a better look, but the other took a step back.
"I—I won't tell anyone I don't know my name," the dragon said and retreated even further.
Ah, this makes sense, Ajax thought. Ekaterina always told him too to not tell weird and foreign people his name. Such a pretty dragon though was hardly a peculiar thing and if he was lucky they didn't stay strangers for long.
He recalled the lessons of his Au pair and bowed to the dragon.
"Ah, of course. I'm Ajax, and I'm from Snezhnaya," he introduced himself. "I hope we can be friends!"
The dragon boy looked a little confused as he studied the redhead thoroughly.
"… Aren't you afraid of me, Ajax from Snezhnaya?" He then asked.
"No? Why should I be?"
The dragon boy pointed to his horns and tail with his clawed hand.
"Are you kidding me? I think it's pretty cool. At home, my dad always told me about dragons and how they're strong and big… But you're so small and petite…," he couldn't help but tease.
The dragon's cheeks flushed, and a big pout spread on his face.
"I'm not small! I am Morax Zhongli and I will one day be the strongest dragon of all of—"
Zhongli interrupted himself as he noticed Ajax laughing.
"You are adorable! Let's train together, and together we will become both the strongest!"
Ajax's mind was set. With this new friend, he would show all these bullies who the best is. He took Zhongli's hand in his and over his wildly beating heart, he said, "Are you hungry? Come, I'll show you how to fish, or maybe we'll find some crabs."
"I hate any kind of seafood," the dragon retorted but did not draw away his hand.
"Hmm… maybe I have enough Mora to buy some Mora Meat. Come! It's my treat!"
This was the start of a great friendship.