Work Text:
Baizhu hummed happily as he quickly walked back home. He hadn’t meant to stay at Bubu Pharmacy for as long as he did, but it couldn’t be helped when a last-minute patient collapsed right in front of him just as he was about to leave earlier. He grumbled internally, but still got to work on treating the man. It was now late into the evening as he made his way home when he was supposed to be off in the early afternoon. Normally, going home was a neutral experience for him, but today, he couldn’t wait to get there. It had been a while since all of his boys were together, and even though they had all been working today, they were all meeting up at the end of the day to sleep before having tomorrow off to spend time together.
“I’m home!” He called as he bent down to pull his shoes off and let Changsheng slither off him to go relax herself. He frowned slightly when he didn’t get a reply, but a light from the living room told him where they were.
“Sorry I’m late, there was a-” he began, before cutting himself off abruptly. “What happened?” he asked instead when he saw the state they were in.
“It’s just been a long day.” Zhongli replied from his position on the couch, with dark circles starting to creep onto his face. Childe was flopped next to him, way too tired to even speak, and simply grunted in agreement. Diluc was sitting on the other couch next to them, with his head lying on the back of it, throwing an arm over his face as another spike of pain flashed through his head.
Baizhu knew it was going to be rough on them to get everyone here, and to have them finish enough work so they could take the next couple of days off, but he didn’t think they would have been worked his hard. Zhongli looked as if he hadn’t slept for days, and his eyes were slightly unfocused after reading over so many contracts for the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. Childe wasn’t his energetic self like he usually was when one of them got home, and Baizhu could see bandages peeking out from under his sleeves and the gap in his torso. Baizhu didn’t even want to think of what Diluc had to do with ensuring everything with the Winery would be okay, in addition to his more secret activities, but it had clearly done a number on him.
“Why don’t you all go to bed?” Baizhu suggested keeping his voice soft and gentle so he wouldn’t cause them any more pain.
“It’s too early love, we still have some work to finish up first.” Diluc groaned, his voice sounding way too scratchy for Baizhu’s liking.
“It’s close to midnight though.” Baizhu informed them as he internally debated whether he should laugh or cry at their current situation.
“What?!” Zhongli and Diluc both gasped at once, whipping their heads to look in his direction which caused Diluc to flinch. Childe made a noise of some kind before he seemed to relax even further into the couch, clearly not planning to move again.
Baizhu sighed at their reactions, “Here I thought I was bad at keeping track of time today.” He scolded lightly. “Come on.” He urged grabbing Zhongli’s hand to drag him to his feet.
Zhongli was thoroughly unhappy with the thought of moving, but a sharp look from Baizhu had his resistance melting. He knew better than to upset the doctor, especially when it came to doing what he said for their wellbeing. He let Baizhu help steady him on his feet, but before he could pull him into a hug, Baizhu had slipped out of his grip to go to Diluc.
“Come, up.” He instructed, “I’ll get something for that in a minute.” Baizhu pulled Diluc’s arm off his face, and kissed his forehead. Diluc grumbled in protest, but the pain was slowly easing as Baizhu rubbed at his temple.
“Get him up.” Baizhu waved in Childe’s direction. The Harbinger didn’t even flinch at the words. Zhongli walked over, and lightly ran a hand up Childe’s back, forcing a shiver out of him. His eyes fluttered open at the attention, and with Zhongli’s insistence, he was able to stand, but was still leaning heavily on the former Archon.
Baizhu messaged Diluc's head for another few seconds before switching to tug on his arm. "Come on, into the bed." A collective groan followed his words from them having to move, but the idea of flopping onto a bed was definitely appealing. To Diluc's credit, he only swayed slightly as he stood up. With the help of Zhongli, who was still heavily supporting Childe, the four of them managed to wobble their way to the bedroom.
The second they were close enough to the bed, Childe unceremoniously dropped onto it with a satisfied and only slightly pained grunt. Baizhu carefully helped Diluc to walk closer to the head of the bed, before fussing at Childe to move off the edge of the bed before he falls off. The Harbinger groaned but still dragged his body higher up anyways.
"Have they eaten?" Baizhu asked Zhongli as the other two settled. "Have you eaten?"
"A little bit yes, I made everyone Bamboo Soup earlier. There's still some leftover for you." Zhongli informed him. Baizhu frowned at the vagueness of "a little bit," but decided not to push it at the moment, he supposed he was just happy that they had all eaten something that day when all of them were clearly so exhausted. "There's leftover enough for all of us." Zhongli amended at the look on his face.
"Good." Baizhu said simply. "Strip them, I'll get the food."
Zhongli nodded and dropped his outercoat a second later. It felt like a massive weight was removed from his shoulders with that simple movement. He wanted nothing more than to drop into the bed and sleep for the next century, but he could never even consider sleeping until he knew his boys were okay. He was already relying on Baizhu to handle their ailments, so the least he could do is make sure they are awake to listen to him, and comfortable enough to sleep later.
Diluc had already figured it out and started to shrug out of his coat, but Childe was still as unmoving as a corpse. "Come on, Baobei, take this off." He instructed.
"Stryna me naked..." Childe slurred when he felt Zhongli tugging at his jacket.
"Oh Archons." Zhongli huffed at the comment, as Diluc started laughing. Even exhausted out of his mind, Childe was still cracking jokes and innuendoes every chance he got. "Not like that! Baizhu is going to need to examine you." He immediately knew how that sounded as he groaned and Diluc started snickering more.
Zhongli retaliated by slipping his hand under Childe's jacket and softly raking his nails down his back. Childe gasped and his back arched involuntary at the feeling.
"Evil." Childe muttered, but he wasn't complaining. He loved the attention to his back so much. Now that he was slightly more awake, he flipped himself onto his back and started to wiggle out of his jacket. It definitely would have been easier to just sit up and take it off, but Childe was committed. Zhongli still helped him remove it, and his shirt, wincing when he saw how much of his torso was covered in bandages.
"Stop." He commanded when he saw Childe wince from the pain caused by his wiggling. Thankfully Childe had already taken off his boots when he got home so he wouldn't suffer the wrath of Baizhu from having his shoes on the bed. Childe sighed when Zhongli unbuckled the strap that was snuggly secured to his thigh. Zhongli messaged the area a few times to help restore the blood flow.
"Lift your hips. Don't-" He wasn't fast enough to cut off Childe wiggling his eyebrows at his words. Zhongli sighed but helped him pull his pants off anyways. Once he was finally stripped, Childe finally wiggled the rest of the way up to the bed and flopped next to Diluc.
"You're not going to cause me any trouble, are you?" Zhongli asked Diluc as he approached him.
"I would never." Diluc teased with an entirely too innocent face for it to be believable. To his credit, Zhongli was able to help him strip without any interruptions until he tried to leave and Diluc grabbed his tie to pull him close. He captured his lips easily, as he pulled him into a lazy kiss. "Let me return the favor."
"Hang on, let me help Baizhu first." Zhongli said as he tried to pull away.
"He's going to yell at you, you know?" Diluc reminded him, tugging a little harder.
"Patience my little flame." Zhongli chuckled at the expression on Diluc's face from the new nickname and took advantage to slip away and join Baizhu in the kitchen.
"Why are you in here?" Baizhu immediately asked, as he continued to stir the soup as he reheated it. He had some tea brewing for Diluc's headache too, and bandages and an ointment for Childe set off to the side as well.
"Helping you." Zhongli only half mumbled; loosening his tie the rest of the way and pulling off his vest. He hung it on one of the kitchen chairs and dropped his tie on top of it before sliding up behind Baizhu to hug him from behind.
"Oh clearly." Baizhu teased, "So very helpful." His words held no bite, as he brought a hand up to scratch at the base of Zhongli's neck when he dropped his head onto his shoulder.
"How are they?" He asked.
"Exhausted, but okay. They might fall asleep waiting for us." Zhongli said into his neck.
"That's okay. This will take a few minutes anyways. You should join them."
"No." Zhongli answered firmly, as he held on tighter. "They're okay, I'll help you...just give me a minute."
Baizhu huffed and continued to fuss over him for another few minutes, but eventually gave up when it became apparent that Zhongli would remain firm in his ways. He knew Childe and Diluc would be curled up waiting for them on the bed, so he needed to ensure Baizhu was doing okay as well. The doctor had worked all day and then insisted on taking care of them without even sparing himself a single thought and Zhongli wouldn't stand for it. He might have been exhausted himself, but he was determined to help as much as he could.
Baizhu could tell that Zhongli was dead on his feet and was about to fall asleep any second, but he still appreciated his insistence on having his presence here. It was a little difficult to move around with how tight Zhongli was holding onto him, but it's not like he really needed to go very far anyways. He sighed, his boys worked so hard all the time; they really needed a break, and they didn't even realize that most of the time. Thankfully they had just started learning how important it was to their professional careers that they also took care of their physical and mental health, but they still had a horrible habit of overworking themselves.
It didn't take long for the soup to heat up and the tea to finish brewing. Baizhu convinced Zhongli to let go enough for him to reach up and grab a cup and a bowl for each of them. Zhongli's shoulders had slowly slumped more and more as he waited, despite saying he was going to help, but Baizhu didn’t mind at all. Zhongli always worked so hard to check in on all of them that he often times neglected himself to do it. He might be a god, but he still needed to rest and recover the same way as humans did.
Once everything was served up, Baizhu loaded it onto two trays and placed them on the counter. He brought his hand up to scratch at Zhongli's scalp again as he talked softly. "Wake up, Li."
Zhongli mumbled something incoherent, but slowly loosened his arms and held onto Baizhu's hips instead. "Come on, you all need to eat before you sleep." Zhongli sighed at his words, but still released him, and blinked a few times to try and clear the sleep from his eyes. Baizhu watched him closely for a moment, as he steadied himself before handing him one of the trays.
They walked the short distance back into the bedroom and had to stop themselves from awing once they entered the room. Diluc was sitting upright in the bed with lounge pants on, but his head was lulled to the side as he relaxed against some pillows. Childe had thrown on what appeared to be one of Diluc's shirts considering how large it was on him and was curled up against Diluc's side. It was an adorable sight that they didn't want to disturb, but the fact remained that they needed to eat before they fell asleep. Baizhu would be forever grateful that they had tomorrow off as he set his tray down on the side table.
The two of them both quickly stripped out of their outer clothes that seemed to weigh even more than normal. Zhongli grabbed a comfortable pair of pants and a shirt, but before he could even begin to put them on, Baizhu had stolen his shirt and slipped it over his head.
"What? It's comfortable." Baizhu commented as Zhongli rolled his eyes and grabbed another shirt. He quickly threw them on as Baizhu started to wake up Diluc.
"Hey handsome." He said when Diluc cracked an eye open in response to the shake on his shoulder. Diluc would have rolled his eyes if he didn't think his head would explode at the movement. Baizhu seemed to understand the message though as he smirked at him. "Come on, drink this and eat." He whispered in his ear.
Diluc sighed, but carefully sat up anyways with the help of Baizhu. The warmth from the cup that was placed in his hands felt nice, but his head still pounded anytime he tried to move. He gave the cup a tentative sniff, but found the aroma to be very pleasing, he hummed as he took a sip.
Zhongli had started the process of trying to wake Childe up, but he was clearly losing as something close to a whining no escaped from him while he curled up tighter.
"Love you have to eat first." Zhongli coaxed, gently rolling him over to force him to uncurl himself. Childe made a sound that definitely sounded like he was dying, but he knew he wasn't going to win this fight, not will all three of them being there. Besides he would feel way too guilty if he even tried to ignore them.
Childe let Zhongli sweet talk him for another minute before opening his eyes and stretching out his limbs. "There's our boy." Zhongli purred.
"Unfortunately, I am still alive." Childe muttered as he stretched.
"It most certainly is not unfortunate." Baizhu scolded gently in response. Whatever sarcastic reply Childe was about to make was cut off by Zhongli kissing his cheek and tugging him into a sitting position before sitting next to him.
Baizhu handed one of the trays back to Zhongli for him to place in his lap, and carefully sat down next to Diluc with the second tray. Anymore arguments about not wanting to eat were immediately silenced with a single look from Baizhu. They all knew that look and knew better than to even attempt to argue with him.
They ate their food in a comfortable silence; just enjoying each other’s company after a long day. Childe still looked like he was on the verge of falling asleep, but the rich flavor of the soup was enough to keep him going. Diluc had stopped squinting now that he had drank most of the tea in his cup. Baizhu's shoulders had started to slump now that he was finally sitting down. Zhongli was now the most awake due to his break earlier and was keeping a watchful eye on all of them.
It didn't take long for everyone to finish munching on the food and finish their teas. Zhongli immediately stood up and gathered all of the dishes, waving down Baizhu who had just started to move to do it. "Just relax, I'll be right back." He whispered to him.
Zhongli quickly washed all of the dishes and put them to the side to dry off through the night before sneaking back into the bedroom. Unsurprisingly, Childe had returned to his curled up position, securely tucked into Diluc's side while Diluc was speaking softly with Baizhu.
"Are you feeling better?" Baizhu whispers, starting to rub his temples again.
" 'm fine." Diluc stubbornly insisted, but his head dipped backwards all the same. Baizhu smirked, he was about to get up to get himself better situation on the bed when one of Diluc's arms wrapped around his waist and pulled him close.
Baizhu squeaked in surprise enough for Childe to crack an eye open to figure out what was going on, but Diluc wrapped his other arm protectively around him and that was all it took for his eyes to slip close again. Baizhu's face heated up as he smacked Diluc's arm for surprising him like that, but Diluc didn't seem to mind.
Zhongli smiled at them as he watched. It had taken them so many years to all get together, but now that they had, Zhongli knew that it wouldn't matter if Celestia itself tried to interfere, nothing would pull them apart.
Originally Childe had tried to push them away, completely overwhelmed with all of their love and affection. It was something that he so desperately wanted, but he was terrified of losing them or having them see the side of himself that many others had called a monster. None of them ever saw him as a monster though. All they saw was how hard he fought for something he was passionate about, and how far he would go to protect those that he loved. He still struggled to return their affections in words sometimes, but they could all see how much he adored them. They helped him to slowly believe their words and accept their love without feeling as overwhelmed, and Childe would never be able to express how grateful he was.
Diluc, on the other hand, had a habit of blurting out how much he loved them whenever he saw them smile, or laugh, or every time he first saw them in the mornings, and they flashed a sleepy smile at him. He loved with everything he had, but it took a while for him to open up to them. It was intimidating, every family he ever had in his life had either died, left him, or their relationship was left broken. They patiently stood by his side and wiggled their way under his walls. The first time he blurted out that he loved them it felt like a damn had burst, and now his love surrounded them every second of the day.
Baizhu was a little different. He knew he loved them immediately, and he told them quickly, but he didn't think it would last. Afterall, he was in poor health, he worked strange hours and would have to randomly leave without any warnings. How could anyone put up with that? Some days he was super active and could do anything, other days it was a small miracle if he even made it out of the bed. It was too unpredictable. Of course, they never saw it that way and would adjust their plans as much as they needed to in order to adapt to his needs. It was as if it was as easy as breathing. Every time he mentioned that he had to go to a nearby town they would just remind him to be careful, make sure he had everything, and then patiently wait for his return. They were always still there whenever he came back, and it warmed his heart more than he would ever be able to tell them.
One might think that it was difficult for Zhongli to fall in love given everything he had been through in his long life, but that was not the case. There was something about his boys that tore down his walls. His boys had each been through so much in their lives that he wasn't able to protect them from, but now that he had found them, he would do everything in his power to keep them happy and safe. Their smiles meant everything to him and even on his hardest of days when he felt the erosion pulling him apart, they were always there to help carefully piece him back together.
Soft snores coming from Diluc and Childe as exhaustion finally took over them shook Zhongli from his thoughts. Baizhu noticed the small shake of his head and reached a hand out to him. Their eyes slowly met and Baizhu almost gasped at the sight. Zhongli was so exhausted that his control had started to slip slightly. His eyes glowed more amber than normal as his pupils shrank and became close to thin slits, his nails became longer, and his hair looked fluffier than normal. The biggest give away to his control slip was his tail slowly forming. Originally Zhongli had been so self-conscious of it, but now he knew his boys found his dragon form to be adorable and never stopped him from showing it.
Zhongli took his hand and let Baizhu guide him to lay down next to Childe. Baizhu would never be able to sleep if he didn't know they were all safely in the bed. Zhongli flopped down heavily and Baizhu released his hand so he could wrap his arms around Childe, but before he could begin to fall asleep, he felt Zhongli's tail lay across Diluc's waist and sneak up behind his back. It tucked them all in closely as Zhongli fell asleep. Baizhu hummed, with the support of Zhongli's tail and Diluc's warmth sinking into his body, he felt himself relaxing in record time. Baizhu might not know what the future holds for him, but he knows it'll be okay so long as his boys are with him.