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“What are you doing?” Diluc asked as he entered the locker room, the sound of his shoes clacking on the tile reverberating throughout the space. Childe stretched his arms out above his head, listening to the satisfying cracking sound from his tired joints.
“Preparing,” he responded plainly, pulling his arms behind his back in another stretch.
“For… what, exactly?”
“A fight.”
Diluc stopped. His somewhat blank expression quickly twisted into dissatisfaction, reaching up to massage his temples.
“Really? Haven’t I told you to stop getting into fights? Hell, hasn’t everybody? ”
“Not everyone. The girl challenging me hasn’t.”
“Well clearly. What I mean here is, don’t get into another fucking fight. ”
Childe rolled his eyes. It’s not like it would last long anyway, what, with the girl challenging him being like half his height and body mass. Her arms were like sticks too, and he’d probably be able to snap one of them with just a little bit of force if he really wanted too. He didn’t, though, just to clarify.
Which was another reason he was so adamant on actually engaging in combat with this girl. He wouldn’t actually hit her or anything, probably just pick her up by the collar of her shirt and place her on the ground, thereby sending her down and winning. It wouldn’t be hard to start it and get it over with, so why shouldn’t he? And plus, he’d been itching for a fight since his last suspension, so why not feed that craving in a way that wouldn’t actually hurt anybody?
But if he explained that to Diluc, he’d probably have the exact opposite viewpoints, saying it was a waste of time or pointless. In a way, he was right, but it was just some harmless fun! What was the problem with that? This ‘preparing’ was little more than a quick stretch anyway, it wasn’t like he was training to actually fight somebody.
“Ugh, why do you have to be so stubborn?” Diluc asked, sitting on the wooden locker room bench next to him and placing a hand gently on his shoulder.
“Yeah, and you’re any better.”
“That’s-“ Diluc let out a sigh. “Whatever. There’s never any reasoning with you. It’s not my fault if you get expelled, anyway.”
“Aww, but wouldn’t you miss me?”
“You wish, dumbass.” Diluc stood up from the bench, striding over to the locker room door. Right before he left, he turned backwards, holding firmly onto the doorframe.
“Who decided they wanted to fight you, anyway?”
“Some girl, I think her name was Kokomi.”
Diluc’s eyes went wide, and he let out a short chuckle.
“Why, you know her?”
“N-not exactly…” he said, still clearly trying to hold back laughter. “And you’re sure you wanna fight her?”
“…Yeah, why? It’s not like she could do much damage, right?”
Diluc shook his head as he finally left the locker room, covering his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Whatever, it’s your funeral,” Childe heard him mumble as he stepped out into the gym.
Huh. Strange.
By the time Childe arrived at the designated meeting place behind the school, a sizable crowd had already gathered. He even noticed Diluc standing by the school’s brick wall, talking to a girl with blonde hair and a ponytail. It was rare he showed up to anything interesting, let alone something like a fight, so he was a bit surprised.
His opponent stood crossing her arms in the middle of a circle of people, her pastel hair tied back into space buns. How this girl expected to land a hit on him, he wasn’t sure. As he stepped into the ring of people, the crowd’s chatter dimmed to a whisper.
“Childe,” Kokomi addressed, greeting him warmly and with a smile.
“That’s me!” He replied, smiling and turning up the charm for the crowd of fans. Kokomi uncrossed her arms, tucking them politely behind her back. Everything about this girl seemed to radiate cutesy, girlish innocence, and he was getting more excited by the minute to see what she thought she could do to him. She walked up to him slowly, bouncing a little bit with each step.
“I’m ready whenever you are!” she chirped happily.
“So am I, but uhh… are you sure you don’t wanna back out now? I’m pretty tough, and you don’t wanna underestimate me. I’d be happy to give you a head-start of you’re feeling nervous, though! You know, get a few starting punches in before the real fight begi-“ His little speech was cut off by a sharp pain in the side of his jaw, and he was quickly sent sprawling to the concrete.
The first thing he felt was a sting in his palms and knees, and he assumed he’d probably skinned them up pretty badly. Still reeling from that fall, he looked up at his assailant and tried to prop himself up on his arms, only to be greeted with a swift kick in the stomach. He let out a groan of pain, rolling on his back in an attempt to recover from that.
He tried one more time to stand back up, but between wincing in the pain of that kick and the cuts on his hands and legs, his efforts were in vain. Regretting every choice that had led him to that moment, he stared up towards Kokomi, who was still standing there with a smile on her face. How had such a strong punch came out of that girl ? Archons, what the fuck were they feeding her!?
A spectator off to the side started counting down from 5, and he realized if he didn’t get up, he’d lose. And he didn’t think he could bare himself if he lost this. Using as much of his strength as he could, he propped himself up on his elbows, his skin digging painfully into the concrete.
“4…”
He scrambled for purchase with his legs too, trying to set his feet correctly as a sort of structure to balance himself on. ‘ C’mon, Childe, stand up dumbass!’ he taunted himself in his own mind, trying to bully himself back onto his feet.
“3…”
He finally managed to push himself onto his palms, ignoring the stinging feeling of dirt and concrete particles in his scratches. As much as he ached, he was not going to lose this. He just couldn’t.
“2…”
As the seconds counted down, he nearly staggered to his feet, but he doubled over again from the pain from being kicked in the stomach. But he still wouldn’t give up. Again, he pushed himself up on his elbows, then his palms, stabilizing himself with his legs.
“1…”
He was almost on his feet. Almost. With barely enough time left, he finally managed to balance himself correctly on his feet, and-
“Time!”
Shit.
Right after the spectator had finished counting down, Kokomi extended an arm down to him, kindly helping up. It was almost like rubbing salt in an open wound, proudly exclaiming her victory while also being kind and considerate. Like:
“Hey, I just beat the shit out of you, here, let me help you stand up off the dirty ass ground while I’m still standing here completely untouched.”
That type of condescending slap in the face. And speaking of his face, his jaw still ached really badly from that punch, and he could feel it throbbing. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was broken, at this point. He turned towards his newfound aggressor, scoffing as he rubbed the side of his face in pain. She was still smiling, that cheery innocent look still very much present in her eyes.
“You are pretty tough!” She started, letting go of his hand despite him feeling like he would keel over without the additional balance point, “But so am I.”
“Yeah, no shit,” he retorted, crossing his arms. She still had a sort of expectant look on her face though, one that screamed ‘Apologize.’ Childe let out a sigh, assuming she wouldn’t let him go patch himself up until he did.
“Look, I… I’m sorry for underestimating you, okay? You happy now?”
She gave a nod, before turning on her heel and bouncing off to go speak to some girl standing off to the side with short purple-ey hair and a black hoodie.
Childe let out another groan as he staggered up to the side of the building, settling himself down on the ground next to the wall. It was an uncomfortable choice of seating, sure, but he wasn’t sure how far he’d be able to walk without a little bit of rest.
‘That sure was a fight,’ he though to himself, still trying to massage the pain out of the sore parts of his body. Which was pretty much everywhere.
After a minute or two of what felt like pure pain and suffering all over, somebody sat down next to him. He turned his head, letting out some of the tension in his muscles when he recognized the familiar face next to him.
“Hold still,” Diluc said, beginning to wrap a roll of bandages around his hands. Childe did as he was told, holding his palms up to make them a little more accessible. They sat in silence for a while, Diluc tending to his wounds and making sure he wasn’t too badly injured. Childe winced a bit when Diluc got to his jaw.
“Ah- Ow, that still hurts like hell.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s not like- broken or anything, is it? Do you think?”
“No, it’s not broken. It’ll leave a pretty bad bruise, though.”
“Okay, well I kind of just assumed that.”
“A fair conclusion to come to. That was a strong punch if I’ve ever seen one.”
“I know, right! What the fuck was her deal, even?”
“Who, Kokomi?”
“No, The Tsaritsa herself. Of course Kokomi, you idiot.”
Diluc let out a short breath, continuing to patch up Childe’s face.
“Well, I would have told you that you were about to get into a fist fight with the captain of the girls wrestling team, but you just seemed to eager. I don’t want to ruin that for you.”
“She’s the captain of the what now!?”
“I just said, the girl’s wrestling team.”
“Really? Then why would she even want to try and fight me in the first place?”
“You’ve got a reputation for being strong. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wanted to fight you just to prove she could.”
“Well jeez, now both my ego and my bones are crushed, and it’s your fault.”
“How is it my fault?”
“You could have at least told me what I was getting myself into!”
“I said it was your funeral.”
“Damn you, I’m starting to feel like you just wanted to watch me get beaten up.”
“Maybe a little bit of that too.”
Childe scoffed, elbowing Diluc lightly in the side. It wasn’t like he could hit him much harder in his current state, anyway.
“I can’t stand you.”
“Would you just shut up and let me help you?”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Okay, so I’ll just let you suffer out here until your body heals itself.”
Childe regretted saying that. He needed the help. Badly. Everything was sore and painful and the bandages stung and he overall just felt like shit.
“No, wait, I’m sorry. Stay.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Silence filled the air again, neither of them talking until the bandaging process was over with.
“So, what did you learn from this?”
“Fuck you mean, ‘what did I learn?’”
“That’s not an answer.”
Childe scoffed again, this time more like a groan than something dismissive. He tried to think about it a little bit, the scenario he’d been through a few minutes before, that was. Eventually, he managed to conjure up a response for Diluc’s question.
“Don’t underestimate people who look unassuming?”
“Not quite what I was thinking, but I guess that works too.”
“Well what did you have in mind, genius?”
Diluc took his arm, squeezing it a little bit. He buried his face in Childe’s shoulder, his voice low and soft.
“Stop getting in fights, you dumbass.”
Childe let out a breathy laugh, still sore all over despite the pain slowly subsiding.
“I’ll try.”