Chapter Text
“For the last time, no.”
Childe stood outside his office, facing one of the newer Fatui recruits.
“Please, Tartaglia, just one ch-“
“I might’ve considered it if this was the first time you asked,” Childe cut her off. “But now you’re just being annoying. Please leave me the hell alone.”
The girl whimpered, taking a few steps back before running all the way down the hall. Childe sighed; he knew that he had a pretty face (and was maybe even a little proud of it), but somehow it bothered him when someone became interested.
He kind of felt sorry for her, but it was the fifth time she’d asked Childe to go out with her. His patience had started to wear off a while ago and all he wanted was some peace and quiet.
“I didn’t expect you to be such a heartbreaker.”
Childe jumped, suddenly aware of the presence behind him. Capitano stood only a few feet behind Childe, but he seemed to fill up the whole hallway. The younger harbinger coughed. “Well, wouldn’t most people be after rejecting somebody four times?” It was an attempt to make Capitano laugh– and one that clearly had failed, making Childe feel twice as awkward.
“I suppose. I doubt she’ll even dare to come near you after that.” Capitano commented in his usual monotone voice, only moving his head to look down at Childe.
“That’d be great if she wasn’t currently assigned to me.” Childe said, rolling his eyes. “She’ll probably make another attempt tomorrow.”
Capitano let out a deep breath, his mask betraying no emotion. “Sounds like she won’t take no for an answer. Good luck.”
The Captain walked off towards his own quarters, the air still tense as he left Childe alone in the hallway.
——
Exhausted from a long day of work, Childe collapsed onto his bed. It was his first time training new recruits and he found it awful. They were whiny, arrogant, selfish, stubborn, and overall just unbearable. He never imagined he’d actually hate being a harbinger until he had to deal with newbies.
When he had first been recruited into the fatui, most of his time was spent with Pulcinella instead of other kids his age. The harbinger had insisted on training the young fatuus himself. Besides, it’s not like he had much to learn from the introductory combat lessons after spending months trapped in the abyss.
Pulcinella was like a second father to him. He had seen potential in that scrawny teenage boy where his parents hadn’t, and now that boy carried one of the most feared titles across the seven nations.
It wasn’t like he didn’t enjoy his job; traveling to new places and fighting new enemies was always exciting. It was just the recruits that bothered him. He was rather surprised at how many people didn’t know how to use a sword in the rugged terrain of Snezhnaya.
Childe sat up, reluctantly starting his nightly routine. The sooner he got to sleep, the sooner he would wake up and have to deal with those brats again. Just a few days with them had made the mountains of paperwork Pantalone had to sift through on a daily basis not sound half bad.
Every harbinger had a different area they specialized in, and had jobs that they would perform around Zapolyarny palace when they weren’t off on their respective missions. Pantalone took care of the financing, Arlecchino ran the orphanage, Dottore and his clones oversaw any medical procedures...
Pulcinella took care of political issues, Sandrone was in charge of housekeeping, Pierro worked closely with the Tsaritsa, and Columbina... mostly followed people around and made them as uncomfortable as possible.
Until last month, Capitano was in charge of training all new recruits and Childe would take them on short missions in the area once they were capable enough. However, there was an especially large amount of recruits this season and Childe was forced to help prepare them for battle.
He had looked forward to working with Capitano at the beginning. He had always admired the Captain’s strength, strategy, and skill greatly and hoped he could use this opportunity to get to know him better. Unfortunately, Capitano was just as stoic as ever, and rarely even talked to Childe outside of work hours.
His thoughts kept racing like they always did, making him wish that his head would just shut up for once. He needed to be able to focus tomorrow so he could actually make some progress.
Finally, Childe gave into his exhaustion and went to sleep.
——
Childe woke up few days later, relieved to have a day off from working with recruits. He still had some other things he needed to get done around the palace but it didn’t matter. He would finally be able to have some time to himself, which seemed to be getting rarer by the day.
He buttoned up his red collared shirt, not bothering to put on the harness he usually wore over it. He wasn’t planning on fighting today so he didn’t really need it either. The little bits of jewelry did get worn though, since it felt weird to leave his room without them on.
Closing the door behind him, Childe started walking past the other harbinger’s rooms that lined the hallway. All of the doors were closed except for Sandrone’s, who had purposefully removed her door to make it easier for that massive robot of hers to actually fit through it. She needed the modified ruin machine to be able to walk around, due to being paralyzed from the waist down. Apparently, the removal of the door was only one of many modifications made for accessibility of the tenth harbinger.
Sandrone rarely was in her room anyways, so not having a door on it didn’t matter. Most of the time she would end up falling asleep in her office or Dottore’s laboratory while working on one of her projects. She actually worked with the doctor quite a bit due to their shared interest in mechanics and engineering, which was probably why she was angry after Childe had accidentally destroyed Dottore’s old ruin guard research facility a few months back.
“Tartaglia, are you even awake?” Capitano asks, waving a hand in front of his face. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past minute but you haven’t been responding.”
Childe hadn’t even realized that he had zoned out. “Sorry, I was just lost in thought a little. Did you want to ask me something?”
Capitano shakes his head. “I was just passing by when I noticed you staring at the wall. I wanted to make sure you were alright, especially since you’ve been rather quiet in the past few days.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m just a little drained from the new job.” Childe replies, shrugging.
“I understand. The recruits have a.. lot of energy.”
Childe snorts. “That’s a bit of an understatement. It’s more like babysitting than training at this point.”
The Captain doesn’t reply, which Childe has gotten used to after working with him for a while. The silence hangs in the air for a moment before Childe turns and continues making his way down the hall.
“Do you have anything planned for your day off?”
Capitano had been walking beside Childe for a few minutes now, which he admittedly hadn’t noticed. It was almost as if he was trying to mask his footsteps with how quiet they were.
“Not really. I figured I’d just wander around the palace a little.”
Capitano had stopped walking, so Childe paused to turn and look at him. The uncomfortable silence had returned, making Childe painfully aware of all of the small noises that filled the long hallway.
“Would you mind if I joined you?” Capitano asked, gesturing towards the younger harbinger.
Being around Capitano outside of the training grounds was already strange enough, so Childe wasn’t really sure about how he would feel if he were walking around with him one-on-one for an unspecified amount of time.
“No. Not this time, at least.”
Capitano’s head perked up a little.
“Wonderful. Lead the way, then.”
Fuck. He forgot that ‘no’ actually meant ‘yes’ in response to that question. It looked like he was stuck with Capitano for a little while.
——
Capitano stayed quiet as they wandered through the maze of endless hallways and doors. Childe probably would have forgotten he was even there if it weren’t for his large figure reflecting on the polished floors of the palace.
They had been walking for about twenty minutes when Childe came across a door he felt like he would have remembered seeing before. It was rounded, unlike most of the other doors in the palace, and covered in intricate designs of stars and planets. It had a large silver handle on the right side with foreign letters inscribed into the metal.
“Do you know what this room is?” Childe traced the handle’s carvings with his finger as he waited for a response.
“I think it’s the observatory. I haven’t been inside it personally, so I could be wrong.”
The door creaked with age as Childe pushed it open. He walked in, careful not to step on the dozens of half-opened scrolls that littered the floor.
It was definitely an observatory. The room had two levels, with a large spiraling staircase that led up to a window that spanned part of the ceiling and north wall. Several telescopes were scattered across the room, and maps of the stars covered the walls. A large desk was placed on the side of the room with an enormous bookcase behind it.
“This place hasn’t been used in quite a while, from the looks of it.” Childe remarked, noting the layer of dust that coated the desk. Capitano nodded silently.
“This was the office of the harbinger Isabella. After she died, there was no reason to keep it in working condition. Most people probably don’t even know of its existence.”
Childe definitely didn’t. He had never even heard of this Isabella.
“This room was similar to Dottore’s laboratory, then?”
“Yes. Isabella was an astronomer, probably even the best of her time.”
“How did she die?”
Capitano sighed. “She contracted a foreign illness only a few years after she became a harbinger. She refused to tell anybody about it, believing that her research was more important. Unfortunately, by the time the Tsaritsa became aware of her ailments, it was too late. She perished only a few weeks later.”
Childe brushed off one of the couches nestled underneath the stairs and sat down.
“Isabella was no close friend of mine, but her loss was still difficult to bear. She was a brilliant young mind, and had so much more to offer to the world. Her works were never published and her name has since been forgotten to time.”
Capitano took one of the books off the shelves and gently flipped through the pages before setting it back down. “I’m sure her works are considered confidential now, but I think as a fellow harbinger you would be able to read them.”
“Did you know her at all? What was she like?”
“I worked with her once, and she was a rather capable fighter as well. She used a Catalyst, wielding an Electro Vision and a Dendro Delusion. She enjoyed battles of strategy and skill.”
Childe walked up to Capitano and picked up the book he had set down earlier. It was hand-bound with a grayish-blue cover, reading Les Découvertes D’Isabelle—VI. He flipped through the first few pages.
The book itself was actually more of two books in one: the first part of each entry detailed any notable discoveries that Isabella had on that day; the second part was kept as more of a journal, describing what her life was like as a harbinger.
“Not much happened today, although I did hear some strange growls come from the west wing as I passed by this morning. At first I was concerned, thinking a wild beast had gotten into the palace, but when I found the source of the noise it was none other than Il Capitano asleep at his desk, snoring loudly. I do hope he learns to be a bit lighter on his training some day, as he’s constantly nodding off at meetings because of how tired he is.”
Childe giggled to himself, imagining the scene as it would have played out all those years ago.
“I remember that,” Capitano commented, reading over Childe’s shoulder. “She kept bothering me about whether I received enough sleep for a month straight after that.”
Taking notice of just how close the Captain was to him, Childe closed the book and put it back on its shelf.
“I should be heading back to my office now. Thank you for inviting me along with you, I found it rather enjoyable.” Capitano started making his way towards the door.
“Wait–”
The man stopped to turn around, waiting for the sentence to be finished.
“I’m glad you came with me. It really helped me be able to relax after a busy week.” Well, at least the last few minutes did. Capitano’s ongoing silence made most of the trip rather stressful.
The Captain nodded. “See you tomorrow.” Childe stared at the door like a deer in headlights until Capitano’s quiet footsteps could no longer be heard.
Tomorrow. More training with those recruits again. More silent Capitano. More stressful work hours with no breaks. Just thinking about it made Childe lose interest in any more wandering.
He looked back up at the bookshelf filled with textbooks and journals, and found himself picking up the first volume of Isabella’s works. Childe never was very fond of reading, as he found it rather boring and repetitive to sit down
with a book for hours on end. However, these books were filled with the lives of the people around him and not some random protagonist with godly powers.
Childe dusted off the book’s cover and placed it under his arm as he made his way back to his room.