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The sound of snow crunching under his feet and the cold, harsh winds whipping his hollowed cheeks were the only sounds he could hear. He could not even register his family’s frantic voices calling out to him, asking him if he was ok, where he’s been; his mother’s voice filled with relief. But for some reason, they did not come too close to him.
Slowly, Ajax looked at his parents. His mother looked as relieved as she sounded, but there was a hint of fear in her eyes. Why was that? His father was steps away behind his mother, and looked at him with disbelief and again, fear.
With the same slow, almost mechanical motion, he turned to look at his older siblings. They only looked at him with a greater fear and confusion.
Why?
What has he done?
He found his voice.
“Mama… why do you look at me like that?”
For a while, no one answered him.
Something in him snapped.
He didn’t know why.
He never snaps at his family.
“WHY WON’T YOU ANSWER ME?!”
Even he could not recognize his voice.
Something emerged… somewhere behind him.
He felt it.
He felt something… off about him.
His mother gasped, falling over, looking at him with complete fear now. His siblings were completely petrified.
Why??? Why???
“You… you’re not welcome here.” A sturdy, firm voice said.
Ajax whips his head to the source of the voice.
His father.
His father has said it.
“You’re… not my son.”
Hearing that, strangely… Ajax did not feel anything. He stood there unmoving. Wide eyed.
His mother recovered, moving closer to him. “You can’t say that, dear. He’s still our Ajax, and he always will be!”
Ajax only stares at his mother, cautiously walking up to him. His only thought— was how hungry he felt.
His mother stood in front of him, and pulled him into a tentative hug that got tighter and tighter.
She trembled, clutching him as if he would disappear if she let go.
He did not embrace her back.
Childe lets a paper plane fly into the ever bustling Liyue Harbor. He watched it fly where the warm winds took it. Eventually, it lands on the waters, soaking it completely. It sinks to its watery grave, but the Snezhnayan doesn’t
see it happen. It is too far.
“Childe.”
He registers his name a little too late. He blinks, then looks over his shoulder.
Zhongli stood there with a small smile. The setting sun painted his face with hues of warm orange and yellows perfectly like a beautiful autumn picture.
“I hope I did not make you wait too long.”
Childe smiles back before nonchalantly hopping off the precarious ledge he was sitting on.
“Nah, I just got here. How’s the daycare doing?”
The ginger walked ahead at a steady pace. Soon after, Zhongli matches his pace, walking side-by-side with him.
“It is doing very well. The children are wondering when their gēge will come and visit again.”
Childe laughs. “I guess this big brother can visit them soon. Today was my last day of uni for the year, after all.”
The Liyuen man looked at Childe, the small smile still present. “They would like that very much.”
“Just them?” Childe teases.
Zhongli lets out a small huff, giving him a small smile. “And me, as well.”
Childe shoves Zhongli lightly with an elbow, chuckling, grinning ear to ear.
Zhongli allows it, smile widening.
They walked shoulder to shoulder, heading towards the daycare Zhongli worked at.
Zhongli sneaks a sideway glance at the younger male, who still had a grin plastered on his face. In the two years he’s known Childe, he’s always been a bright and cheerful person.
That, anyone can see.
But under the careful façade the ginger wears and sturdy walls he has built around him, Zhongli soon realised that Childe’s smiles never quite reached his eyes.
“Mama…”
His mother slowly pulled back to face him properly.
Ajax grinned. But it wasn’t a happy one. It wasn’t a sad one either.
“What’s wrong with me?”
He looks at his mother with inhuman eyes devoid of light.
“Can you tell me?”
His mother looks at him with a tinge of fear.
He wanted to cry.
“Please tell me…”
But he couldn’t.
“Why can’t you tell me…”
He had no more tears left to cry.
“CHILDE GĒGĒ !”
A hoard of children yell out his name as they crowd by his feet, looking up at him with pure adoration.
“You’re back!! You haven’t visited in yearssss.” Little Meng complained.
Childe chuckled, ruffling the small boy’s hair. “It hasn’t been that long. You know I won’t forget about you guys.”
“You say that, but then you leave us alone for so long!” Little Lulu puffs her cheeks.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Big brother has to do important adult stuff. You know how it is.”
“Hmph! Adults always say that. Why can’t they just sit down and play so they won’t have any problems?” Little Fei said with his nose up high in the air, arms crossed.
Childe titters.
“I’ll make it up to you guys, I promise. How about I become the bad fatui agent this time?” He offers, trying to appease the small group of children.
The children brighten up immediately, taking up their styrofoam swords. The two little boys shield Little Lulu, putting up a brave front, chests puffed out.
“Don’t worry Lulu! I will protect you from the big bad fatui ghoul for I am the strongest!” Little Fei bravely declared.
“No, I will protect you Lulu! I’m stronger than Fei!” Little Meng exclaimed.
“I don’t need any protecting!” Little Lulu stomped her foot, but it fell on deaf ears when the two boys then ran towards Childe, smacking him with the toy swords.
“Admit defeat!!”
Childe drops to his knees and grunts, raising a hand in mock surrender, the other clutching his stomach for added effect.
“I give! You two are really strong CCG investigators… it seems I won’t be taking the fair maiden today!”
“You’ll never ever have her! We’ll keep beating you, you bad ghoul!” Little Meng grinned up at Childe.
Childe grinned back.
“That’s right. Keep fighting and protecting who is precious to you!”
The three children smiled brightly at him.
So innocent and pure. Like freshly fallen snow.
Ajax stared out the window watching the snowfall, seeing only through his left eye. A red bandana was hastily but carefully wrapped around head, covering his right eye.
His hands were tied together, the rope burning his wrists, but he doesn’t really feel it.
He hasn’t eaten in a while.
What did he want to eat?
None of his mother’s cooking roused his appetite.
Strange, because it always used to.
He heard his parents talking to two men outside their house.
“He’s inside. I— We had to tie his arms. We didn’t— we don’t know what to do. Heavens, he gouged his eyes out right in front of us. He hurts himself—”
His mother choked back a sob.
Ajax tunes them out, focusing on his hunger.
He thought he might go insane.
Maybe he already has.
Maybe he could eat his arms. Whatever his teeth can sink itself into. ANYTHING to rid him of this painful hunger.
He faintly heard the sounds of footfalls approach him.
“Get up.”
Without question, Ajax shakily stood up.
His father roughly grabbed him by the upper arm. Ajax stumbled, but was forced to follow him.
His younger siblings, who were too little to understand anything that was going on, held onto Ajax.
“Where is brother going?” Tonia asked, lips quivering. Behind her stood Anthon and a tiny Teucer.
“This doesn’t concern you three. Back in your room.”
Their father’s cold voice made them flinch, but somehow, Ajax found the strength to give them a small smile, shooing them.
It did not look convincing. Tonia’s eyes became glassy with unshed tears threatening to spill from her cherub cheeks.
His father grunted, hurrying them along. He carelessly threw Ajax’s arm towards the two men they had been talking to. He fell face first into the thick snow.
“Take him. He does not belong with us.”
One of the men grunted. The other spoke in a gravelly voice. “Come with us. Peacefully. You don’t want to know what happens if you refuse.”
Ajax slowly pulled himself up, not bothering to brush off the snow that had stuck to his face, which left a burning cold sensation.
Ajax took a step forward. The two men gripped their weapons tighter, flanking him. One of the men tossed a sizable bag of mora to his father.
His mother was openly sobbing. “Don’t take my boy away from me… dear, this was not what I was expecting…!”
“What else are we supposed to do?! Sit around here and wait until he goes insane from hunger and eats us all?!”
His father was huffing and puffing, face red with anger. “We’ve kept him here long enough. I have a duty to protect this family. It is time you do yours. Let him go.”
The ginger walked further and further away from his family, his house, everything he’s ever known before he fell down into the wretched unknown.
His parents arguing sounded so distant, until he could not hear them anymore.
The last words he heard from his father echoed in his mind.
“He is not family. He is a monster.”
Childe sighed, making a dull thump sound as he plopped onto the colorful padded flooring of the daycare. The children were fast asleep.
“Thank you for entertaining the children today. They have been restless for so long, and I could only do so much,” Zhongli said, kneeling down to tuck Childe’s hair behind his ear. It had become more unkempt from his scuffles with the rambunctious youngsters.
Zhongli hesitated. But he asks.
“You mentioned having younger siblings before. Is that why you’re so adept at handling children?”
At this, Childe stiffens. It wouldn’t look like it to any regular person, but Zhongli notices subtle differences about Childe’s behavior. He quickly relaxes.
“That’s right. I love them to bits.” Childe whispered, his voice distant. “Why… I could just eat them up,” he added morbidly, but his tone was light and joking.
Zhongli frowned.
“How about you have dinner at my place tonight, qīn’ài de?”
That seemed to do the trick. Childe quickly focuses his attention to Zhongli, a blush starting to form on his pale face. Unexpectedly, Childe is weak to pet names and would blush and stutter if Zhongli ever used one. The Liyuen man found it adorable.
“Pwh— wha—uh?” Childe sputtered unintelligently. “D-don’t be saying that out of nowhere! Archons, you caught me off guard!”
He took a moment to collect himself before clearing his throat. “Yes, yes. I would like that. Thank you…” Childe looks away, eyes closed. “… qīn’ài de.”
The tips of Childe’s ears go red.
Zhongli smiled.
Childe stood in front of his house, shifting from one foot to the other.
He has not been here in at least 5 years.
This was the only time he finally got a chance to visit his family after all this time. Did his parents even still think of him as family?
He felt nervous. Only because he thought of his precious younger siblings.
Do they know about him?
Thinking back to the day he left, it seemed they did not.
Hopefully, it would stay that way.
The sound of the creaky door opening snapped him out of his thoughts.
There stood his mother, who looked like she had aged considerably. She had more gray hair than the last time Childe saw her. Deeper eyebags, too.
She beamed. “My baby. Welcome home,”
Childe forced a smile.
The pair of lovers entered Zhongli’s home, carrying bags of random trinkets and food things.
On their trip back to the older’s home, they took an unexpected detour to the night market, despite Childe’s protests because he knew Zhongli would just spend every single mora on useless things. In the end, Childe did pay for all of the expenses.
Childe and Zhongli automatically toe off their shoes expertly.
Zhongli makes his way to his dining table where the surface is clear of any items. He dumps his purchases of the night unceremoniously.
“That was quite heavy…” Zhongli wipes a sweat from his brow.
“I told you I should carry it. These don’t weigh a thing to me.” Childe followed, placing the paper bags on the table, unloading all the food and leaving the trinkets.
“I couldn’t. I have to help however I can. It would be rude not to. You were already carrying twice as much as I did,” Zhongli rubbed his sore back.
“You alright? Take a seat first and rest up, old man.” Childe guided Zhongli to his couch. Zhongli slightly bounced once he fell on the couch ungracefully, grunting. He slings an arm across his tired face.
“…” Childe looked away, scratching the back of his head with uncertainty. “… I can cook for you for now. Just rest.”
Giving no chance for Zhongli to reply back, Childe briskly, and uncharacteristically, left for the kitchen without a word.
Zhongli was a little confused. Childe has mentioned to him before that he could cook, and he thought nothing of it. That is, until he found out the ginger was a ghoul.
Can he actually cook human food? Was he trained to be able to cook human food so it was easier for him to blend in society? He can stomach it pretty well, there must have been some sort of harsh training for that.
Too deep in thought, a fragrant smell wafted through the air. He hadn’t realised time had already passed by considerably.
Childe appeared a short while after, carrying a small bowl of the fragrant soup. He grabs a stool nearby and kicks it lightly towards Zhongli by the couch before sitting down and handing him the bowl.
Zhongli peers into the soup. It is colored deep red, peppered with different kinds of vegetables on top.
“Don’t worry, it isn’t blood.” Childe laughs a little too softly.
Zhongli lifts a spoonful to his lips, blows on it, and sips. Childe watched him with bated breath.
“This is… quite exquisite… Childe, I had no idea you were an amazing cook.” Zhongli complimented.
Looking relieved, Childe’s shoulders slumped as he exhaled deeply. “Haha no I’m not. But I’m glad it still tastes fine. I haven’t cooked human food in… a long time. I wasn’t sure if I still got the measurements and ratios right.”
“It is quite an excellent feat, considering you yourself can not taste it as you cook. What else can you cook?” Zhongli asked curiously.
“Not a lot. That, pirozhki, pelmeni… I think that’s it…”
“When did you have to cook human food? I can imagine these aren’t for you. Why bother knowing how to cook them?”
Childe laughed again, with more feeling. He was starting to sound like the Childe he knows.
“What is this, 20 questions? I’m supposed to ask you a question next, if that’s what we’re playing.” The Snezhnayan dropped his head, bangs obscuring his eyes.
“I cooked for them,” Childe says after a while. “Them, as in, my younger siblings.”
Zhongli was even more confused now. He cocks his head to the side.
“Your siblings? But… ghouls reproduce the same way as humans, do you not? Doesn’t that make your family a family of ghouls?”
Childe slowly reaches out to grasp Zhongli’s hand tenderly.
He looked up, smiling wryly, feeling worn out all of a sudden.
“Who said I was born a ghoul?”
The moment he stepped into his house for the first time in 5 years, he was greeted by an onslaught of tiny things hugging his legs and torso.
Sweet Tonia, Anthon and Teucer cried tears of happiness, clinging onto him for dear life.
“Brother!! You’re finally back!” Anthon wept.
“We missed you so much, but Mama and Papa never talk about where you are,” Tonia cried, looking at him with the same look she gave him all those years back.
“Yes, my princess. I’m back. What a beautiful young lady you’ve become.” Childe said, his icy heart slowly melting. “Anthon and Teucer… you both are growing well. Make sure you eat your vegetables so you can grow big and strong to protect Sister Tonia and our family.”
Tonia blushed at the compliment. Anthon and Teucer puffed their chests proudly.
All three of them suddenly started tugging on his heavy Fatui issued winter cloak.
“Brother brother! Will you stay with us now? Forever?”
“Brother, come on and play with us!”
“Brother Ajax, can you cook your delicious borscht for us again? We miss it a lot!”
Ajax.
He felt his left pinky finger twitch slightly under his glove.
That name he hasn’t heard in a long time.
It almost felt so foreign to hear.
He had been granted the codename “Childe” and “Tartaglia” one of the titles of Her Majesty’s 11 Harbingers. The most elite of elites. The cream of the crop.
“Ajax” was not a name he associated with.
Not anymore, not now, not ever.
“Yes, boy. Why don’t you fix you and your… siblings… something to eat? I’m sure you must be starving.”
Their father approached the small group, arms crossed, sneering at Childe.
Childe almost sneered back. Almost.
“Dear! I’m sure Ajax is tired from his trip. Let me cook.” Their mother quickly offered.
“Awwww noo but we always have Mama’s cooking! We want Brother Ajax’s!” Anthon whined childishly.
“Hush, you! Let—“
“No. I’ll do it.”
His voice shocked both his parents. Only his younger siblings started cheering, jumping up and down in joy.
“Go wait in the living room. I’ll cook your favorite borscht in a blink of an eye.”
He gave his siblings a wink, before they all giggled and scuttled away.
Childe turned to the kitchen, before his mother’s voice stopped him.
“Ajax, baby. Are you sure? You… you don’t have to listen to your father.”
“That man is not my father.” Childe said cooly, not caring if his father heard it or not.
Heavy footsteps approached him before he was grabbed by the collar. His father glared at him in disgust, shaking him roughly. “Listen here, you insolent brat. I never wanted you back here. You’re only here because this woman begged for it. If it weren’t for her, I would have outed you a long time ago!”
“If it weren’t for her, I would have killed you a long time ago.” Childe easily said. Like it was a sentence you’d hear everyday. Nonchalance was in his tone, his eyes dull and reflected nothing.
His mother let out a small gasp, covering her mouth with both hands. Only the faint sounds of his younger siblings running around the house could be heard for a few moments. Neither men broke eye contact, both quietly sizing each other fiercely.
“… As I’ve always thought…” His father lets go of his collar harshly. “… you’re nothing but a stain in this world that needs to be erased.” He shoves past Childe.
Childe mechanically moves, preparing ingredients for their meal.
His mother opened her mouth, but closed it after a while. She wrung her hands together.
After a while, she wordlessly left Childe alone.
“Ah. So that was it.”
Zhongli said nothing, waiting for Childe to continue.
Certainly, artificial ghouls were not unheard of. He had enough knowledge to know that artificial ghouls or a half-ghoul; born from human and ghoul parents are stronger than a regular ghoul, but chances of either succeeding is slim to none.
This must be why Tartaglia was a ghoul with such a high rating and an internationally feared one, at that.
But this information of Tartaglia being an artificial ghoul… Zhongli doubted anyone in the CCG actually knew this. This bit of information surprised Zhongli, but he does not show it on his face.
“I was born like you. A human.” Childe started.
Childe rarely opened up about his past. He always seemed adamant to not talk about it with Zhongli. This might be his only chance to ever hear his boyfriend’s past, so he leans in closer, listening intently.
“I… was like a normal and ordinary kid. I used to be very meek and weak. I went ice fishing with my father, he told me stories of the great unknown that lay ahead of the frozen ocean. I went shopping with my mother in my small village’s marketplace. I helped my older siblings with house chores. Helped my younger siblings with homework. The things a normal child and brother would be doing.” The ginger shifted in his seat, the small stool apparently not too comfortable.
“It was foolish of me, really. To want something more than what I had. Greedy. Ungrateful.” Childe grips Zhongli’s hand harder. Zhongli rubs circles onto his lover’s hand soothingly, which helps him calm down. He continued.
“One night… a snowy night… I left home with nothing but a small dagger and a loaf of bread on my person. I wanted to go on an adventure, like what my father always told me. I wanted a little thrill in my life full of boring routines, so I told nobody and left in the dead of night, planning to come back after a few hours. But I… was over enthusiastic. Before I knew it, I strayed too far from my route and I couldn’t find my way back home. The snow quickly covered my tracks, and it was all I could see no matter where I looked. White, just pure white.”
Childe chuckled.
“To make matters even worse; like a scene straight out of a storybook— a pack of wolves found me. I was scared out of my wits. I did what a normal kid would do; run. The wolves hunted me down. My lungs burned. My feet ached. But I didn’t dare stop, not even for a few seconds to catch my breath. Before I knew it… somehow, I… I fell. Down, down. It almost seemed endless, the pitch black and me falling for what felt like years.”
With a heavy sigh, Childe licked his lips and continued. “Long story short… that hell hole made me into what I am. I don’t know how— but honestly, the things I felt there, the things I saw there… no child should ever experience it. Hell, no one in this damned world should experience it. To this day, I don’t know what the fuck it was. Time passed by differently there. There’s a part of me that knows I’m a fucking monster; an anomaly.”
At this point, Childe was breathing erratically. Zhongli gently pulled the ginger towards him and embraced him. “You needn’t talk anymore.” Zhongli brushed Childe’s hair soothingly with his hand repeatedly, like calming a frightened pet.
For a while, they simply laid there, Childe awkwardly on top of Zhongli, embracing each other. Only the ticking of Zhongli’s wall clock and distant hustle and bustle of the night market filled the silence.
Childe is the one who breaks the silence. “Thanks,” he says sheepishly. He cleared his throat, but made no move to sit back up. Zhongli didn’t know what face Childe was making at the moment, as the younger male rested his cheek over Zhongli’s heart.
“Anyway… after all that…. I was able to escape, and somehow I wound up at my house. My family, they were cautious of me. They looked at me with fear. I didn’t know why. But, my mother convinced everyone to take me inside. It was… a horrible time for me to say the least. A ghoul under a house with seven humans… you could only imagine how tough it was for me. I did everything I could to stave off my hunger. In an act of desperation, I took my right eye out and ate it. I even thought about eating off my whole arm, but my mother became aware of what I was doing before I could do just that, so she had my hands tied with rope before covering my right eye… err well, eye socket...”
Childe drifted off, eyes focused on Zhongli’s intricately designed coat, tracing the patterns with a left index finger. His eyes were swirling with so many emotions, it seemed like a bottomless pit of suffering and despair. His eyes never seem to shine anymore, something Zhongli noticed when he spent time with his lover, even if it was a bright and sunny day. But somehow, his eyes right now had an eerie glow to them, despite it being 20 minutes past 10 with only a dim light illuminating the apartment.
“You should have seen them. They were all terrified. But I never blamed my family. I did this to myself. But my father… he eventually decided he needed to remove me from our family. So… he sold me away to the fatui and the rest was history.”
Zhongli said nothing. He couldn’t say anything. He knew Childe had kept his whole life story a secret, yet he did not mind and was fine with waiting patiently for his boyfriend to open up to him. This was definitely not what he was expecting, though.
He simply embraced the younger, to which the latter reluctantly reciprocated, clutching Zhongli’s polo shirt tightly.
Tonia, Anthon, and Teucer all groan at the taste of the delicious borscht their beloved older brother had cooked for them.
They all wanted seconds, and soon, thirds. Their father said nothing, simply drank a spoonful of the soup and eyed Childe menacingly. Their mother, however, praised him for his cooking skills. Childe scratched the back of his head, ruffling his already messy hair a bit more.
Everything was going smoothly, until Teucer brought up an innocent question.
“Brother! You have had nothing to eat!”
At this, his mother was opening and closing her mouth like a fish, trying to most likely think of an excuse or explanation.
His father poured a generous serving of borscht in a bowl, and slid it towards Childe wordlessly.
Childe slowly takes the bowl in his hands. He raised it up to his lips and downs the soup in only a few seconds, not even stopping to catch his breath.
His mother stares owlishly at him, while his father remained passive but he could tell he was getting under his nerves.
He places the now empty bowl on the table, and turns his attention to his siblings.
“I already had a small bite to eat before coming here, so I didn’t plan to eat any of the borscht. After all, I made it especially for you three,” Childe explained with a grin on his face.
“Brother Ajax is always so kind and thoughtful, he loves us thisssss much!” Tonia spreads her arms out as much as she could, emphasising what she meant.
“Silly Tonia. I love you more than that. I’ll love all of you immeasurably.”
His siblings looked at him with such bright eyes. So beautiful and untainted.
Zhongli and Childe stayed their positions until midnight. Zhongli never let the younger go, patiently waiting. He stroked his love’s hair, humming an old Liyuen tune to soothe the younger.
Finally, Childe lets out a huge sigh and moves away from Zhongli. The dark haired man immediately felt colder.
“Thanks for listening to me, Zhongli. I didn’t really expect to pour my whole life story onto you like this,” Childe looked sheepish, cheeks slightly flushed, looking away from him.
Zhongli smiled his usual tiny smiles. This side of Childe was always so adorable. Sometimes he even forgets his lover to be a highly feared ghoul.
He pinches Childe’s cheek lightly. The Snezhnayan gave a small “ow”, swatting the offending hand away from his face.
“Hey now, don’t you start treating me like one of your daycare kids.”
Zhongli laughs.
To Zhongli, Childe was his light.
His special qingxin flower.
His everything.
Childe walked out the front door, putting on his heavy grey fatui issued winter coat.
He had bid his mother goodbye already, after hushed tones of “Are you really alright?” and “How are you feeling?”
The ginger was touched by his mother, who wasn’t the same… species… as he would still feel empathy for him. Would it be a stretch to still call it love? He supposes a mother’s love truly knows no bounds.
His beloved younger siblings cried, begging him to stay, even clinging onto him as he walked out the door. His heart ached, but he had to leave soon. He must get the borscht out of his system. Their mother chastised the children, telling them their dear older brother needs to go back to work. Childe promised he would visit them for longer next time, hoping it will appease them, at least for the time being.
He was about to leave when a voice grated his ears.
“Ajax.”
Suddenly, his skin felt very itchy, like there were a hundred hairy caterpillars on his body.
He doesn’t turn around, but doesn’t move either.
He stood. Listening. Waiting.
After moments of tense silence, just before Childe thought about moving, the discomfort-inducing voice cut through his thoughts, as if he had sliced him cleanly in half with a quinque.
“I don’t want to see you step foot on my property again. You are forbidden to come back here.”
A harsh slam echoed.
Childe stood there, breathing out a long puff of misty air.
He watched it scatter into nothing.
He moved.
Childe thought back to the time Zhongli came to his rescue after being attacked by CCG investigator Keqing.
That was truly the only time someone else, aside from his mother, ever came to his aid. Showed him compassion. The fatui surely never did. They only took him in because he was free manpower. No one would miss him if he ever fell in battle.
Did he deserve the way Zhongli treats him?
Does he deserve love?
No.
Probably not.
He won’t lie; he has killed hundreds, if not thousands of humans.
When he’ll die, no doubt he will be punished in whatever afterlife awaits him.
Childe does not answer Zhongli, too lost in his own self-deprecating thoughts. He hears Zhongli clear his throat.
“You’ve suffered ever since your fall. You’ve faced precarious times all by yourself, without your family’s support or anyone’s. I can not begin to imagine the kind of life you have lived; one filled with loneliness, pain and self-loathing.”
Childe just stared at Zhongli with unblinking eyes.
“But you’re not alone anymore. You have me. And I will walk this world with you together. You have my heart and soul, qīn’ài de, and that will never change. Who you were before, who you are now, and who you will be in the future… is the same Ajax I know and love dearly.”
Childe was stunned.
For the first time in a long time,
Ajax smiled a genuine smile.
At least, in this life right now, Ajax knows will not die alone with no one to mourn his passing.
At least, in this life right now, Ajax knows will not ever walk alone anymore.
At least, in this life right now, Ajax finally found true happiness.