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It started, as many things did, with a headache.
Zhongli blinked up in brief disorientation at the ceiling above him. For a moment, he wondered why it wasn’t his bedroom ceiling in Liyue, before remembering he wasn’t in Liyue—something that hadn’t happened in centuries. He traced the pattern of the morning Snezhnayan sun streaming in through the blinds across the wood panels on the ceiling, the ceiling of Ajax’s family home. He instinctively reached out a hand to feel around for a warm body next to him.
To his surprise and mild disappointment, the bed was empty beside him. He let out a quiet sigh, dragging his hand across the sheets up to pinch the bridge of his nose as a particularly intense wave of pain passed through his head. Since stepping down from his position as Archon, he’d learned his mortal form was quite prone to headaches. He wasn’t too surprised that after a day of travel from Liyue to the countryside of Snezhnaya, one such headache had made itself known.
What was surprising was the shiver that wracked his body as he continued staring up at the ceiling. The house wasn’t cold like everywhere else in Snezhnaya, but he still felt a sort of chill deep in his bones—deep enough that he knew he wouldn’t be able to escape it no matter how many blankets he burrowed under. Zhongli sighed again, closing his eyes, and pulled the sheets up to his nose. He’d retained his heightened sense of smell since stepping down from Archonhood (unlike his dearly missed resistance to extreme temperatures), and as he breathed in the scent of his partner, he focused to see if he could pinpoint how long it’d been since Ajax left. Just a few minutes, it seemed.
The muffled sound of children’s laughter came through the door from somewhere else in the house, perhaps the kitchen, followed by the pitter-patter of feet down the hall. Zhongli blinked. If Ajax’s siblings were up, then maybe it wasn’t as early as he’d initially thought. He specifically remembered Ajax mentioning that they liked to sleep in on the weekends, and unless he’d slept through an entire day, it should still be Sunday.
He started to sit up to see if he could peek through the blinds to get a better look at the sun, but his head felt exceedingly heavy and he groaned softly, lying back down in defeat. His muscles and joints felt tired, a persistent ache present in them as if he’d just walked off the battlefield. Stretching out his hand in front of his face, he flexed his fingers in confusion. He hadn’t gone through any physical exertion the day before besides traveling. So why were the tips of his fingers glowing the way they only ever did when he was exhausted, lacking the energy to contain the overflow of Geo energy in this mortal body?
Just as he was considering attempting to sit up again—if only to take note of any more strange symptoms that had set in between the time when he’d gone to bed and now—he heard the sound of muffled voices behind the door.
”Why not?” A small voice complained. Teucer.
”Because!” Ajax’s voice said. “You can’t just go into somebody’s room when they’re sleeping!”
”Well how come you can go in?”
”Because I’m his boyfriend,” Ajax proclaimed smugly, and Zhongli couldn’t help but smile under the blankets. “Go help mom with lunch.”
Teucer started to complain, but Ajax seemed to hurriedly shush him, and the door creaked open. Ajax quickly slipped inside and closed it behind him, taking extra care to turn the knob so the lock didn’t click.
Zhongli watched quietly from his cocoon of blankets. Was Ajax… trying not to wake him? Zhongli was surprised that he’d managed to leave the room without alerting him in the first place. Perhaps that could be attributed to the unusual exhaustion Zhongli was currently experiencing.
He didn’t have a shirt on, and his hair was a mess like he hadn’t bothered to brush it before rolling out of bed. Zhongli felt his heart squeeze at the care with which Ajax slowly stepped away from the door so as not to make the floor creak, and he wondered if his boyfriend was always cautious around others sleeping or if it was just for Zhongli. He kind of hoped it was just for him.
When Ajax finally turned, they immediately locked eyes with each other. “Oh.” He blinked. “Good morning.” They stared at each other for another beat, Zhongli silently taking in the pretty image Ajax painted standing there bathed in the sun’s rays, before Ajax cleared his throat. “You have, uh, horns.”
Zhongli’s eyes widened. He lifted a hand up to feel his head where Ajax was staring. Sure enough, his horns had come out, and as he felt along them, he realized he’d punctured the pillow. Maybe that was why his head felt so heavy when he tried to sit up.
He glanced back at Ajax, whose eyes were wide as he looked between Zhongli’s horns and his glowing fingers. “Damn,” he whispered under his breath.
Zhongli did his best not to pout. What was that supposed to mean? He abruptly hoped he wasn’t making him uncomfortable, what with all these visible reminders of his ex-Archonhood. Their past was a little messy—Zhongli’s fault—and the last thing he wanted was to ruin what was supposed to be his first time officially meeting the family.
Ajax slowly walked over and sat on the bed. ”What else have I yet to learn about you?” He murmured. His blue eyes flicked between Zhongli’s horns and his face, and he smiled in a way that Zhongli would have called shy were Ajax anyone else. “Um, can I touch them?”
Zhongli blinked. No, would have been his immediate answer for anyone else.
But Ajax wasn’t anyone else.
He stared at Ajax for a moment, just to be sure that he was serious, because sometimes the jokes he made went over Zhongli’s head. Ajax cocked his head just slightly, maybe wondering why Zhongli wasn’t saying anything. For some reason beyond the itch in his throat, he didn’t quite trust his voice this morning, so he opted to simply nod in response.
Ajax’s smile widened. Slowly, he reached a careful hand forward. His touch ghosted over Zhongli’s hair, and Zhongli sat perfectly still as he ran his fingers down the length of his horn. He didn’t even say anything about the hole in the pillow. Instead, he just watched in quiet awe, entranced by the way Zhongli’s horns glittered in the sunlight.
”They’re really pretty,” he finally murmured after another quiet moment. He looked back at Zhongli’s face then and winked. “Just like the rest of you.”
Zhongli cleared his throat. It was probably time to speak. “Thank you,” he rasped, immediately wincing at the hoarse, sand-papery feeling in his throat.
Ajax’s expression fell. “Oh. You sound terrible.” Zhongli didn’t even get a chance to defend himself before Ajax’s gentle touch traveled down his horns to brush his sweaty bangs away from his forehead. “Shit.”
Zhongli blinked. “What?”
“I knew something was off. You’re burning up. Do you feel hot, or cold? How’s your head?” Ajax asked. “Did you wear a jacket on the boat yesterday?”
Zhongli shook his head, the sudden barrage of questions making him dizzy. “No. Why?”
Ajax’s touch slid down to cup his warm face. “I think you’re getting sick.”
Zhongli frowned up at him. “What?”
“I think you’re getting sick,” he repeated, his other hand coming up to tuck Zhongli’s hair behind his red ear. “You’re all red, and you sound awful. And you slept in all morning, which isn’t like you at all.”
”Sick,” Zhongli echoed incredulously. “I don’t get sick.”
Ajax snorted. “Yeah, maybe when you were a God. Welcome to being mortal, sweetheart.”
He felt his heart do something funny at the pet name, something it hadn’t done in a long time until Ajax came along. It did it again as Ajax watched him for a quiet moment, letting him digest the fact that he might be ill, before carefully leaning down, his lips hovering over Zhongli’s.
Zhongli’s breath caught at the sudden proximity. But before he could close the distance, Zhongli turned his head to the side and Ajax’s lips met his cheek.
Ajax made a sound of disappointment as he pulled away. “What?” He pouted. “What’s wrong?”
Zhongli shook his head against the pillows. “If I’m sick, then you shouldn’t kiss me.”
Ajax’s hand on his cheek gently tilted his head back to face him again. He grinned down at Zhongli, his smile crooked and handsome. “Just one?”
It was almost impressive how quickly he got distracted, especially when it came to Zhongli’s mouth. “Ajax.”
His smile only widened. “Mm. Love when you say my name.”
Zhongli sighed. Ajax’s touch slid down from the side of his face down his arm to take his hand, inspecting his glowing fingers for a moment. Those weren’t particularly new to him; they tended to do that after every time they got physical. He seemed to put two and two together and looked back up at Zhongli with a frown. “You’re tired.”
Zhongli looked back at him quietly. Was it that obvious? Surprisingly, he found he didn’t really mind being obvious, if it was Ajax. It was in his nature to always be on his guard, but here in his lover’s childhood bedroom, it didn’t seem to matter much at all whether he was being too vulnerable or not. Was there even such a thing as being too vulnerable in a place like this?
“Is that also why you suddenly have horns?”
A little smile tugged at the corners of his lips at the bluntness of his partner. “I suppose so. I’ve never…been sick before.” He still wasn’t quite convinced he was even sick. It felt foreign. “It seems to be more difficult to maintain this form in this state.” He broke off on a cough, eyes screwing shut at the uncomfortable scratch in his chest. It tugged at the edges of where he felt the vacancy of his Gnosis most intensely, and he barely held back a pained groan, sucking in a deep breath before he could break into an ugly coughing fit.
“I’m gonna get you some medicine,” Ajax decided aloud. “And tea. Then you need to eat something.”
Zhongli shook his head. “I’m not hungry,” he murmured.
Ajax huffed, his gentle touch smoothing down Zhongli’s hair. “You still need to eat. Mortal body, remember?”
“Yes, but—”
Ajax shushed him. “No buts. It’ll be yummy, I promise.” He tried for an encouraging smile, but Zhongli could tell he was worried, fingers fiddling with the ends of Zhongli’s hair.
“You don’t need to worry,” he said, rather bluntly. “I’ve come back from near-death countless times. This illness won’t kill me.”
Ajax groaned in that way he did whenever Zhongli said something particularly tone-deaf. “I know that, just—” he cut himself off with a sigh. “I mean—just because you’re not gonna die doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck that you’re sick.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t apologize. I didn’t mean it like that. I just—” he frowned. “I wanted you to have a good time here, that’s all.” He sighed again, his fingers drifting from Zhongli’s hair back to take his hand. “I should have been more attentive.”
Maybe it was the appearance of the horns that was making him so worried. Zhongli would have liked to suppress them for his sake, but when he searched for the strength to do so, he came up flat, the seemingly endless reserves of Geo energy he possessed whirling around out of his control, dancing just out of his reach.
Ajax’s thumb smoothed out the furrow in his brow that had appeared, and Zhongli blinked out of his stupor. “You okay?” Ajax murmured.
Zhongli nodded. He lifted a hand to his head to check if his horns were still there (they were), before a cough wracked his body and he winced.
Ajax squeezed his hand as he caught his breath. “I’ll be right back.” His eyes seemed to twinkle then as he thought of a way to tease. “Don’t turn into a dragon while I’m gone.”
Zhongli huffed. “Fine.”
When Ajax slipped out of his childhood bedroom where his ex-Archon boyfriend was currently lying sick in bed, he nearly tripped over Teucer and Tonia huddled by the door. “Hey—!”
Teucer jumped up to cling to Ajax’s leg. “Is Mr. Zhongli awake?” He asked excitedly as Ajax hurriedly shut the door before either of them could peek in. They’d surely lose their minds if they saw the dragon horns adorning his head, and then he’d never be able to get them to quiet down. Tonia at least had the maturity to look ashamed at being caught eavesdropping.
“He doesn’t feel good,” Ajax said, quietly so as not to disturb Zhongli.
Tonia’s expression fell. “Oh no.”
“Oh no!” Teucer gasped loudly. “What do we do?!”
Ajax swiftly took his small hand and led him away from the door, Tonia worriedly trailing after them. “I’m gonna brew some raspberry tea and make chicken soup. You guys wanna help?”
“Yeah!” Teucer pumped a fist in the air.
“Of course,” Tonia nodded. She reached a hand up to feel down the braid in her hair, and Ajax realized with a start it was the same one Zhongli had done for her last night.
After picking him up from the pier (and making out for an hour behind a stack of storage crates, because they hadn’t seen each other in two weeks, and how was Ajax supposed to keep his mouth off him when Zhongli was so warm and sweet and pliant against him?), they’d headed straight back to Ajax’s family home, where his siblings were practically bursting at the seams with excitement to meet Zhongli. Because, despite the many letters and gifts they traded, they’d never actually met in person—something Teucer was always extremely upset about whenever Ajax returned home with no Zhongli in tow.
In one such letter, Tonia had mentioned how she didn’t like her hair because it was so unruly, and how she wished it was straight and silky the way Zhongli’s was in the pictures she’d seen of him. Zhongli wrote back like he always did, and promised to do Tonia’s hair in a traditional Liyuen style.
“To show her that her hair is beautiful,” Zhongli explained simply when Ajax asked why.
And he didn’t forget, either. As soon as the excitement of finally meeting him in person had calmed somewhat, and after dinner had been made, eaten, and put away, Zhongli did her hair.
Ajax watched Zhongli’s steady hands move easily through his sister’s mess of red curls. Sitting on the same couch, in the same house Ajax had grown up in before the Abyss. He wondered how the hell he’d gotten so lucky.
When he finished, Ajax swore he’d never seen his sister smile wider.
“I’ll heat up the water,” she said before running off to the kitchen.
“I’ll—uh—I’ll help!” Teucer announced and ran after her.
Ajax sighed. He wondered if it would be too selfish of him to just leave the cooking to them and go cuddle with Zhongli instead. His heart sank as he remembered the way Zhongli turned his head away when he’d tried to kiss him earlier, his pretty face flushed red, amber eyes just a tad bleary when he tried to glare at him.
Zhongli didn’t say anything about it, but Ajax knew the vacancy the Gnosis left hurt. He could only hope it wouldn’t hinder his immune system too much. This whole mortal thing was still pretty new to Zhongli, and Ajax would be lying if he said it didn’t make him nervous. If anything happened to him, he didn’t know what the hell he’d do with himself.
“Brother?” Teucer called from down the hall, peeking around the corner. “Are you coming?”
Ajax forced a smile. “Yeah, yeah.”
When Ajax returned to his room just fifteen minutes later, having been kicked out of the kitchen by Tonia and Anthon, who both insisted that he’d do more harm than good there (when had they grown up?), he knocked quietly before cracking the door an inch. “Hey, I brought—”
His words died on his tongue as he realized Zhongli was fast asleep.
Zhongli’s face was flushed, lips slightly parted as his breathing came heavy and labored, his hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. As awful as Ajax felt about having to wake him up, he knew that Zhongli would only feel worse later if he didn’t take his medicine now.
Setting the tea, medicine, and a damp towel on the bedside table, he sat on the bed by Zhongli’s hip. “Hey,” he called softly. He reached a careful hand forward to take Zhongli’s clammy hand and squeeze gently. “Baby. Wake up.”
He squeezed his hand again and Zhongli stirred slightly with a grunt, one amber eye cracking open against the afternoon sun. Ajax smiled. “Hey. Didn’t expect you to fall asleep.”
When he first gave up his Gnosis, Zhongli didn’t know how to sleep. He told Ajax after the fact, after Ajax was done sulking about being lied to (because he wasn’t so much of an idiot as to walk out of Zhongli’s life over something as trivial as pride), that those first few weeks had been—
“Hell?” Ajax echoed softly.
Zhongli nodded. They were sitting atop a stone pillar in the Guyun Stone Forest, one of Zhongli’s own from centuries ago. Zhongli’s eyes seemed to glow gold with Geo energy in the moonlight, the tips of his fingers and the ends of his hair glowing just the same, remnants of the spar they’d just had.
Because Ajax insisted on it. And Zhongli agreed, for once. Ajax wondered if it had anything to do with them not speaking since the handing over of the Gnosis.
“I didn’t know how to sleep. Cloud Retainer had to teach me,” Zhongli said quietly.
Ajax snorted, but he couldn’t help staring at the unfamiliar dark circles under Zhongli’s striking eyes. “I’ve never heard anything more ridiculous. What do you mean you didn’t know how to sleep?”
Zhongli shrugged. “I mean I understood the concept of it, but had never put it into practice.” He glanced at Ajax out of the corner of his eye. “Is it really that shocking?”
Ajax pursed his lips. “Well, I mean…yeah? I mean, you look like a human, and you mostly act like one. You eat, and work a nine-to-five. I guess I kind of assumed you slept, too.”
Zhongli shrugged again. They fell into a comfortable silence, only filled by the chirping of crickets in the brush and the waves lapping at the shore.
Later that same night, they ended up kissing. Which made all the other events of that night significantly harder to remember, because Ajax always just ended up thinking about them kissing. But it always stuck in the back of his mind, the image of Zhongli, unable to sleep for weeks.
His smile softened. Even if it was out of pure exhaustion from being sick, he couldn’t help being proud of him for falling asleep so easily. A human, proud of a God. What a funny concept.
Zhongli blinked sleepily, glancing around as if assessing his surroundings. He lifted the hand not held in Ajax’s up to feel his head, deflating slightly when he felt his horns.
Ajax snorted. “What? What’s that look for?”
Zhongli glanced up at him. “I’m slightly disappointed at my current lack of control,” he murmured, voice hoarse.
Ajax hummed. “No need to be disappointed. You’re sick.” He released his hand to retrieve the medicine he’d prepared, pressing the pills into Zhongli’s palm. “Take this. My mom swears by it.”
Zhongli took the pills he was offered, letting Ajax lift a glass of water to his lips to swallow them easily.
Setting the water down, Ajax handed him the mug of tea. “Here. This is raspberry tea with lemon and honey. It’ll help your throat.”
“Thank you,” Zhongli murmured.
Ajax shook his head as Zhongli took a careful sip. “Don’t thank me.”
Zhongli raised a brow at him. “Why not?”
“Because I’m your boyfriend. You don’t need to thank me for taking care of you.”
Zhongli let him take the mug from his hands and set it back on the bedside table. “I see.”
Ajax huffed. “Do you?”
He fell silent the way he sometimes did when he decided to seriously mull something over. Ajax was used to it, and he let Zhongli think as he set about quietly brushing his hair away from his sweaty forehead. Taking the damp towel, he gingerly draped it over Zhongli’s forehead, tucking it around his horns because he wasn’t sure if it’d be uncomfortable against them.
Zhongli didn’t say anything for another quiet minute, then another. Ajax twirled the ends of his golden hair around his finger as he waited, until eventually he wondered if maybe Zhongli had gotten lost in his own world again.
“Hey,” he murmured. “Whatcha thinkin’?”
Zhongli turned to look at him from where he’d been staring into space. “What?”
Ajax smiled. “You’re thinking about something.”
“How can you tell?”
“You went all quiet on me,” Ajax answered. He let his touch travel up from Zhongli’s hair to cup his face. “So? What are you thinking?”
Zhongli’s eyes flitted down to his lips, and Ajax had his answer. He leaned in close, tilting his head just so.
Zhongli made a soft sound of distress. “Stop.”
“Stop what?”
“You’re teasing me.”
Ajax blinked. “Am I?”
“You are.” Zhongli frowned. Terribly cute. “You’re acting like you’ll kiss me, but we can’t because I’m sick.”
Ajax hummed low in his throat. “Baby, there’s not a fucking force on Teyvat that could stop me from kissing you. You think I’m gonna let a little cold get between us?”
Zhongli glanced away. Shy. “But I don’t want you to get sick.”
“I won’t get sick,” Ajax murmured. If he didn’t get to kiss Zhongli right now he might actually lose his mind. “Promise.”
Zhongli glanced back at him. “How can you be so sure?”
Ajax’s other hand slid up to the other side of Zhongli’s face, his thumbs brushing under his eyes. “My immune system is pretty strong from growing up in the Abyss.”
Zhongli blinked. “Oh.”
Ajax grinned. He almost had him. “Yeah.” He let his breath ghost over Zhongli’s lips as he continued at a whisper, “and if I get sick, you’ll just nurse me back to health, won’t you?”
Zhongli’s hand was clammy where it tangled in Ajax’s hair. “I suppose so.”
“So can I kiss you?” Ajax breathed. Never hurt to be sure, especially when it came to Zhongli. Because he was important like that.
“Yes,” Zhongli whispered. He tilted his chin up at the same time Ajax leaned the rest of the way down, and their lips finally met.
He always tasted good, but with the honey on his tongue, he was the sweetest thing Ajax had ever had the pleasure of having. He tilted his head just so to deepen the kiss as Zhongli’s fingers tugged lightly in his hair, Zhongli’s other hand sending tingles across his skin where it slid up his torso.
The Geo energy emanating from him seemed to spike, and Zhongli gasped, harsh enough that Ajax pulled away to look into his eyes glowing gold.
“It hurts, doesn’t it,” he whispered against his lips, running a hand over his sternum where the Gnosis had been pulled out. “You should have told me.”
Zhongli shook his head. “It doesn’t,” he whispered back. “Not when you kiss me.”
Ajax hurriedly pressed their lips together again, reveling in the sweet sigh Zhongli let out. Zhongli’s touch moved from his hair down his back, and Ajax couldn’t help grinning when he felt the beginnings of claws prick against his skin.
“Don’t laugh,” Zhongli mumbled.
“‘M not laughing.” Zhongli started to move his hands away. “No, no. It’s alright. Scratch me up. Let your grip dig in.” Zhongli whimpered, and Ajax hummed, fixing the damp towel over Zhongli’s forehead before dipping his head to nip at Zhongli’s neck. “Once you’re all better, I can’t wait to book a room at that fancy hotel I showed you yesterday.” Zhongli gasped as Ajax continued at a growl against his skin, “I’m gonna fu—
“Brother!” Teucer’s voice called beyond the door, and Ajax’s eyes snapped open at the same time Zhongli shoved him off hard enough he tumbled to the floor.
He hit the ground with a thump and a little yelp. Zhongli gasped, immediately peeking over the bed down at Ajax.
Ajax flashed him a sheepish grin and a thumbs up as he called back through the door, “Y—yeah? Need something?”
“The chicken soup is ready!” Tonia’s voice said. “Is Mr. Zhongli awake?”
“Yeah, he’s up. Give us a sec, yeah?” Ajax straightened up, reaching out to fix the damp towel where it had started sliding off Zhongli’s face. His voice dipped into a murmur as he asked him, “are you good to go out there or do you wanna eat in here?”
Zhongli was staring at his lips. “My horns might shock them.”
“Oh, yeah. Well—“
“Ajax,” Zhongli whispered, voice dripping with want. And Ajax was a weak, weak man.
He ducked down to kiss him once more. Zhongli sighed into the kiss, almost like he needed this just as bad as Ajax did, and Ajax cupped his face to deepen the kiss before he could think too hard about that.
Tonia and Teucer started arguing outside the door. Realistically, Ajax knew he had to pull away from the closeness of Zhongli at some point. But for now—
“We should stop,” Zhongli whispered against his lips.
“We should.” Ajax kissed him again.
“What will you tell them?” Zhongli asked between kisses. “About my horns?”
Ajax hummed. “Whatever you want me to.”
Zhongli sighed. He let his head fall back against the pillow, gaze drifting to the ceiling behind Ajax. “Don’t tell them everything.”
“Okay.”
Zhongli’s eyes flicked back to him. “I still feel terrible.”
Ajax snorted. “Yeah, I bet.”
He smiled. “Not as terrible, though.”
“Oh? What helped; the tea or the kisses?”
“Mm,” Zhongli leaned up to press a quick kiss to the corner of Ajax’s mouth. “I’ll get back to you on that.”
Ajax laughed as Zhongli lightly pushed him away. "I'm sure you will."