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Despite their numerous interactions, Aether still couldn’t get a good read on Ekaterina. The woman was always polite whenever he visited the bank, albeit somewhat short with Paimon, but he still had the suspicion that she didn’t care for him. She caught sight of him as he approached the desk and though he couldn’t see her face, he was certain she was curious about his visit. Specifically, because Paimon wasn’t with him.
“How can I help you, Traveler?” Ekaterina gave him that same false smile she always did, her eyes returning to the work before her almost immediately. She never used his name.
“I was wondering if Childe was in. I wanted to invite him to dinner.” There wasn’t any need to keep the details a secret.
“Without your little friend?” So she had noticed Paimon’s absence.
“Yes. She’s off with other friends of ours and I’ve been on the receiving end of their experimental cooking too often lately.”
The short exhale from her nose was the closest Aether had ever heard to a laugh from her. “I suppose I can’t blame you. I’ll let him know of your offer.”
Only a short while later, Aether caught the sound of familiar footsteps. He turned to find Childe striding toward him, an ear-to-ear grin on the harbinger’s face.
“Comrade! Ekatarina tells me you’ve invited me to dinner. Without Paimon no less. Finally tired of her company?” Aether frowned at the suggestion and the Shneznayan quickly laughed it off. “I’m only kidding. She’s off with your chef friend, yes? From the stories you’ve told me I can see why you weren’t too keen on joining them.” He came to stand just a few inches from Aether, patting the other man on the shoulder.
“I don’t think my stomach could handle any more experiments.”
Childe hummed. “So what made you decide to come see little ol’ me?”
Aether rolled his eyes. Childe might have been trying to hide it, but it was quite clear he was excited to see him. “Do I need a reason?”
“I suppose not. Though there are plenty of others you could have chosen. Zhongli for example.”
“Paimon would just say he could join in.”
“I see. So you're relying on her distrust of me to get out of a culinary adventure? I suppose I can’t fault you for it. Even if I am a bit disappointed.”
“Do you want to eat or not?”
Childe laughed, the hand on his shoulder slipping onto his back slightly after a couple more pats. “Of course I do.”
********
Childe had expected Aether to have a venue in mind, but it seemed any place with normal food would satisfy him. So they ended up at a small noodle shop on the opposite side of Liyue harbor. Childe quite enjoyed the food here, but rarely had the time to get so far away from the bank. He couldn’t have asked for a better excuse. He would get a meal and get some work done – gathering information on the traveler. If none of that information proved useful, it wasn’t his fault. “Have you eaten here before?”
Aether shook his head, carefully looking over the short menu. Unlike his sister, he was always more indecisive when it came to food. “Surprisingly no.” Paimon almost always made him eat at any new restaurant she spotted.
It consisted of only three main dishes and a couple of appetizers. Simple food aimed mostly at the dock workers who were more interested in expediency than taste, but Childe had found the taste wasn’t half bad either. “Anything catch your interest?”
“It all sounds good.”
Childe laughed, light and airy. He found that with Aether many of his laughs were actually genuine. The blonde was a gentle soul, soft at heart, but certainly no pushover. Easy to tease, but capable of firing back if he so chose. At first, Childe hadn’t really taken him for much of a fighter. Aether just seemed a bit too soft, but that had proved to only be on the surface. The blonde held his own quite well in a fight, pushing back in ways few others ever did. He pushed those thoughts away before the itch for a fight got too strong to ignore. “I suppose you could get one of everything. Maybe you’ll grow a bit.”
Aether was several inches shorter than Childe, even with the higher heels on his boots. The blonde leveled him with an unamused look, before turning back to the menu. “Now you sound just like Lumine. She was so smug once she was finally taller than me.”
“You’re just so fun to tease.”
“That’s the same excuse she always used.” Aether’s tone fell subtly at the end of the sentence.
He really does miss her. Childe could understand his feelings. Not a day went by when he didn’t miss his siblings. Even though he had seen Teucer just a few months ago when the boy had snuck down here to see him, it still felt like far too long.
********
The pair stood under the shop awning shoulder to shoulder, matching frowns tugging at their lips. Childe groaned in annoyance. It had been perfectly sunny when they’d arrived to eat and with no warning at all, the bottom fell out. He could scarcely make out any details on the buildings across the street, except to tell that they were there. A glance at Aether told him the blonde felt the same. They were going to get soaked.
“Want to stay at the inn with me? It’s a lot closer than the bank.” Aether supposed Childe might have had somewhere he was staying, but figured that would be near the bank as well. The thought made him curious. Of course, there was the Tea Pot, but it was hardly furnished and while Paimon might tolerate a sudden guest at the Inn, she would not appreciate such in her home – it was her home too even if she didn’t do any of the work.
“I can make it back to the bank unless you’re just not ready to part with me yet.” Childe grinned at the glare Aether leveled at him. They were starting to form a familiar routine. He would do the teasing and Aether would glare back at him or make a smart comment.
“I don’t mind either way, but I doubt Ekaterina would think kindly of you if you leave puddles all over the bank floors.”
Now that. That was something Childe had not considered. Sure he was one of the Tsartitsa’s harbingers, but that didn’t mean he was untouchable. Ekaterina could be quite the force to be reckoned with, he’d seen her tear many of the new recruits to pieces for their mistakes. So far he’d managed to stay out of the line of fire, but leaving muddy puddles everywhere was a surefire way to get himself in trouble. “Alright, but no complaining when I get your floors wet.”
The inn was only about a five minute walk away, even less in their hurry. Despite that, Childe was still soaked when they got there. Compared to him, Aether was only slightly wet. Was it his anemo abilities?
Seeing Childe’s hair stuck to his face and clothes clinging to his body, Aether couldn’t help but laugh, perhaps a bit more than was really nice.
“You’re only dry because the rain didn’t have time to reach you.”
Aether snorted at that. Was that the best Childe could come up with? “Then explain why your entire body is soaked.” With one final laugh at Childe who had simply stuck out his tongue in response, Aether went over to the dresser to pull out some spare clothes. He tossed a t-shirt and some shorts in Childe’s direction. “Those are a bit oversized on me, so hopefully they fit.”
Childe held them up, looking doubtful. At least they would be dry. The thought was barely in his mind when a towel smacked him in the face and another peel of laughter from Aether filled the room. Pulling the towel from his face, Childe turned to glare at Aether. “Is that any way to treat a guest?”
“Considering it’s you? Yes.”
Childe sighed, shaking his head. “I’ll just assume Paimon’s atrocious manners have rubbed off on you and forgive you this one time.” They both knew that Paimon would have thrown the towel a lot harder.
It turned out that the clothes did fit. The shorts were a bit shorter than they were meant to be and the shirt lifted up to show his stomach if he raised his arms very much, but they would do until his own clothes dried. Aether had changed as well and the matching outfit was a much better fit.
Only now that their little game had ended did Childe realize the problem. There was only one bed. “Does Paimon float while she sleeps?”
“Huh?” It took Aether a moment to catch his meaning. “Oh, no. We just share a bed since she’s so small. Plus she gets cold easily at night and always wants me to warm her up.”
“I suppose I’ll be sleeping on the floor then.” Childe meant it as a joke. He’d slept in plenty of worse places in his life. At least the floor was dry and shielded from the wind.
Aether simply looked at him like he’d never even considered the thought. “You can if you really want to, but I don’t mind sharing.”
“It’ll be like the nights when Teucer comes to stay with me, though I guess you’re slightly taller than him at least.”
Aether rolled his eyes, but couldn’t hide his grin. He pulled his feet up, patting the side of the bed closest to the wall. Once Childe was no longer at risk of crawling over his legs, Aether stretched back out, pulling the covers up over his shoulder. Childe settled in as well, careful to keep some distance between them.
After exchanging ‘good nights’, Aether blew out the candle.
Only fifteen minutes or so later, Aether started shifting positions periodically.
“Archons, you wiggle just like Teucer too.” That earned him an elbow to the stomach, but not hard enough to hurt. In the silence that followed, Childe felt Aether shift back until his back was touching his arms. “Is this your way of asking to be the little spoon?”
“Do I need to move back over?”
Quickly, Childe slipped an arm over the traveler’s side, pulling the smaller boy up against his chest. “Too late. You’re stuck here until morning.” It was unexpected, to be sure, but far from unwelcome. Any time he got to visit back home, Childe often spent the night with at least one of his little siblings in his arms. This felt a lot like that. Despite their conflicts, Childe had always been fond of the traveler – even of Paimon though he would never let her know. In a way, it was like having another little brother, albeit one he got into actual fights with. Did Aether feel similarly? He certainly enjoyed Childe’s company to some extent, today’s events had made that clear enough.
Aether did, in fact, feel similarly. Having Childe behind him reminded him of all the times he and Lumine had shared a bed during their travels. She always insisted on being the big spoon, given she was a few centimeters taller, and Aether didn’t see any reason to refuse. He preferred that position anyway, except with Paimon. She was always the more mature of the two, feeling like an older sister despite the lack of difference in age. Lumine had spoiled him, having a hard time telling him no, which he often used to his advantage. Now he simply had an older brother wrapped around his finger as well.
This time they were both sound asleep in minutes.