Chapter Text
[Childe's POV]
Tartaglia trudged up the slick rock outcropping to the entrance of the cave he'd spotted from the trail. Why had he agreed to head up this research trip to Sumeru again? Ah, right. Because Dottore had managed to disappear, alongside all of the documents the Tsaritsa needed. Scholarly pursuits were not his forte, and all of this skulking around in the shadows was making him ill at ease. To top it all off, he'd had headaches all week, a bout of chest pain last night - although that quickly passed - and stomach issues from the food here. And it was raining. If there was some sort of cosmic joke on his behalf, Childe would just as soon be let in on it.
Regardless, this place was safe..ish. Dry. Looked like the entrance to what had once been some sort of temple, if the rising pillars and broken stone tablets were any indication. Whatever it may have been in the past, right now it was a perfectly serviceable shelter from the veritable monsoon outside. Adequate space for Childe to start setting up the camp-roll he'd brought with him, as well as a cooking pot, ingredients, and a simple tent from the magic pocket he'd been gifted while in Fontaine last. He'd have to thank Lyney later.
While he was setting things up, getting the fire going to cook with, he picked up sounds of someone moving deep in the recesses of the ruins, where he hadn't yet ventured. The footsteps were light, but deliberate, and he could generalize that the owner of said footsteps was likely a male. When that owner appeared, Childe felt a jolt of something in his chest, blue meeting dead-ocean as the young man who had emerged from the depths stopped short.
Tartaglia was already halfway to aiming an arrow at the man's chest.
"Who are you?" he asked, drawing the bow. "Did you follow me here?"
The man put up both hands, showing he was unarmed. "Relax, friend. I'm simply a wandering scholar, seeking knowledge and shelter from the rain. My name is Arashi."
Slowly, Tartaglia lowered his bow, the hydro forming the arrow shimmering then disappearing. He felt an itch somewhere in the back of his mind, like a dull sort of recognition, a sense of what could only be considered deja vu.
"Do I.. know you, Comrade? Have we met before?" he asked, canting his head to one side in the manner of a confused puppy.
"No, I don't believe so." Arashi stated. "I simply wish to borrow your fire to dry my clothing. I'm afraid I'm quite soaked. If I may?"
The stranger moved only at Childe's hesitant nod, as the Harbinger was trying to parse the strange sensation. Standing before him was a slight man, shorter than he was by a good few inches. The outfit was in the style of the ascetic monks of Inazuma, but the white and blue styling had bits of Sumeru fashion as well. Of note was the man's giant hat, with two silken hangings draped behind. Only a brief inspection was needed to figure out the stranger - Arashi - was equipped with an Anemo vision in a Sumeru-styled case, pinned to a sash that hung directly over his heart. Odd choice, but Childe didn't tend to judge others for their fashion sense or lack thereof. He figured he might as well be sociable.
"What were you looking for in those ruins? I assume they are the ruins you're looking for?" he asked, settling down cross-legged beside the fire to start boiling the ingredients he had for stew.
“What do you think? Of course they’re the ones I'm looking for, or else I wouldn't be here.” Arashi scoffed.
"Did you find anything?" Tartaglia glanced at the stranger as took his place across from him, not answering his snark.
Arashi sat carefully, eyes darting from place to place, taking in the whole camp. Tartaglia could appreciate someone who was aware of their surroundings. Add one mark of respect.
"Nothing useful." Arashi said finally. "The tablet I was searching for didn't survive the ravages of time. My employer won't mind me searching elsewhere so long as I don't come back completely empty handed."
Tartaglia nodded a bit. He poked the fire with a stick to encourage the coals, then drew back to cough, wincing as the action ravaged his throat. "Nnn." Yes, it hurt. But he'd had worse than this.
For a while, the two sat in silence. The expression on Arashi's face was primarily unreadable, but then again, Childe didn't really have much luck with deciphering social cues. He was about to open his mouth to speak, when the stranger beat him to it.
"That cough sounds awful. Had it long?"
Childe's eyes narrowed a fraction. Sociable did not mean divulging every bit of sensitive information. "I'm fine," he said warily. "Just a little under the weather."
Close enough to the truth without giving away too much. Tartaglia still couldn't get that feeling out of his mind. It was like he'd done this sometime before, had this same conversation.. what was this?! His teeth grit in frustration.
"After the storm, I'm headed back to Sumeru City. The Akademiya to be specific. Don't suppose you know the way from here, Comrade?"
Again, the expression on Arashi's face was impossible to interpret. He seemed to be deep in thought, if Childe had to put a name to it. His own thoughts were interrupted by another bout of coughing, this time so bad it left him gasping for air afterward. Not the greatest timing.
"I have.. studied herbal remedies for many maladies." Arashi started. "If you wish, I could examine you and try to cure that cough?"
Tartaglia chuckled despite himself. This scholar had some nerve, that was for sure. Didn't he see the outfit? The badge? The Delusion on his scarf? He was either ignorant, brave, or exceedingly stupid. All of which were laughable.
"No. I'm fine. I don't need some suspicious figure giving me a false diagnosis. As I said. I'm under the weather, that's all."
Arashi did not seem convinced. As a matter of fact, he seemed.. worried? About a Harbinger? Again, brave or stupid. The scholar didn't answer his refusal. Tartaglia leaned over to stir the stew in the pot, adding in the meat he'd hunted earlier. Wild fowl seemed plentiful here. They were also delicious stewed with sunsettias, dried chilies from Liyue, and various veggies.
Another cough ripped through Tartaglia as he pulled back to adjust his bedroll. Arashi watched him through the steam from the cooking pot, and Childe couldn't get over how those eyes made him feel. What was this inexplicable sadness overwhelming his senses? Wait. His cheeks felt warm. Reaching up, he touched them, pulling away wet fingers. Rubbing his eyes just confirmed it.
"Wait.. why am I crying?!" Now he was irritated and extremely confused. Crying in front of a stranger? Not his best look. He quickly scrubbed his eyes with his hands.
"Perhaps.." Arashi started. "It is a symptom of a heart remembering what the mind has forgotten, Ajax."
Tartaglia froze. His thoughts started running off the tracks. How did this stranger know his name? His hand crept to rest lightly over the metal of Polar Star, fingers curling around the smooth surface. "How.. do you know that name?" His voice was deadly calm, but no less dangerous.
The scholar was clearly startled by his own words, quirking a brow as though confused himself. "I.. don't know. I may have heard it from my employer.." "
Who is your employer then?" Tartaglia asked, his hand not having left Polar Star's surface.
"Ah.. Lesser Lord Kusanali." Arashi said with a nod. "She's also the one who sent me here to research this tablet."
Childe's hand relaxed. The Dendro Archon of Knowledge? Well, that explained it. He wasn't entirely comforted by the fact the Dendro Archon knew his name, though.
"I see. You might have wanted to lead with that." he stated, pulling his hand away from the bow. "That sounds like an important commission. I'm sorry if I've ruined it."
The tension eased by degrees, and Arashi sighed. "No. You haven't. I've just been chasing after broken tablets." He peered across at Tartaglia, seeming to study him. "You.. really don't look well. I think it might be best if you lay down."
Childe snorted. "Again. I'm just under the weather. Nothing a little of this hardy stew won't fix once it's ready."
A sudden, intense wave of dizziness slammed into Tartaglia with the speed and strength of a Ruin Grader hopped up on coffee. Which, coincidentally, was also what he felt happening in his chest. His heart had started lurching, then beating rabbit-fast. He felt nauseous, and had to put his head down, bracing himself with both hands and breathing heavily. His entire body felt simultaneously cold and impossibly warm, shivering all over while sweat dripped from his nose. Whatever that was, he hadn't liked it one bit. Nor the fact that it was taking him this long to recover from it. He knelt there, head down, panting, trying to get himself under control for only Archons knew how long, before he felt a cool touch against the side of his neck, and lifted his head to see that Arashi had crossed over and was crouching beside him.
"Just under the weather?" The scholar shook his head. "Not with a pulse like that, and a temperature that high. Let me look at you, Harbinger."
Stubborn was in his blood, but he wasn't an idiot. He couldn't really speak unless he wanted to pitch forward into the dirt. Even nodding was risky, but he did so anyway, his chest now feeling like it was caught in-between two boulders, both squeezing so hard that breathing was a challenge. Speaking was a no-go.
Arashi's cool fingers made quick work of unfastening his top, and the scholar pulled several things out of a pouch he'd been wearing at his side. Tartaglia hadn't noticed it, or he would have questioned it sooner. Pausing, Arashi seemed to be hyper focused, before pulling out two vials, and a paper packet, mixing the contents of one of the vials and the powder from the packet into the empty vial and shaking.
"Powdered Lotus head with an infusion of mint leaves and tonic water." he murmured after shaking it for a good minute. "It'll taste terrible, but it should help. Here. Drink."
The scholar held the resultant mixture to Childe's lips, and he swallowed painfully past his sore throat.
"That.. is.. VILE." Childe complained once the taste was out of his mouth. Even so, he could speak now, and the pain in his chest and head was slightly subsiding. Not gone, but not dire, either.
"That's medicine?"
"Yes." Arashi said. "Thankfully, I keep a stash of powders and infusions in my pouch. Lesser Lord Kusanali insisted. But now I must ask. Are you a complete moron?"
Tartaglia was taken aback by the audacity of the comment, and was unable to answer for a good few minutes as he tried to adjust to the fact that a perfect stranger had just dosed him with meds and insulted him in the same breath.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me. You are clearly ill. And yet, here you are, out in the rainforest doing Archons know what for whatever twisted agenda or whoever you're taking orders from.. and refusing treatment out of sheer stubborn pride!"
Arashi sounded.. angry. In a tone that Childe could have sworn he remembered from somewhere else, but.. "You could die out here! If I hadn't been here, you might have passed out into the fire and burned to death! You're not invincible Ajax!"
And there it was again. That shot to the heart that had nothing to do with the illness in his body. That pang of recognition that had no place being there. It felt awful and sorrowful, happy and angry all at once, and Childe had no idea why. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself up to a slightly better position.
"And why do you care, Arashi? I'm a Harbinger! Forget the fact you know my name, why do you even care what happens to me?!"
The scholar was dead silent, gone so still that Childe didn't think he was even breathing. Then, he let out an explosive sigh and scrubbed his hand through his short, neatly cut hair. When had he taken off his hat? Maybe while Tartaglia was checked out..
"I care because.. I just do. Alright? I'm not even sure why. But the point stands. You're not a fortress. You're a boy with too much power and too little time to waste it."
What Tartaglia felt wasn't the rage he thought it should be. It was.. light amusement? Maybe with a dash of wry irony. Like they were old buddies trading stories around a campfire, not a Harbinger and a scholar trapped in a cavern outside ruins in Sumeru rainforest during a monsoon. The confusion added to everything else, resulting in Childe staring daggers at Arashi, trying to figure him out.
"I think it might be smart to keep your opinions of my life choices to yourself, Comrade." he said. Low. Soft. Dangerous. "Or you're going to end up dragging something out that you don't have a powder to deal with."
Arashi shrugged. "Fair enough." he said, seemingly nonchalant. "My judgement, although accurate, will stay behind the doors of my own mind. However." He eyed Tartaglia critically. "You are not well. You are still shivering, and I rather doubt a single small dose of herbal remedy is going to lower that fever enough to let you 'sleep it off' without danger. So regardless of whether you do or do not trust me, you're going to let me treat you or I'll tie you down myself."
Again shocked at the audacious statement, Childe gave an incredulous laugh. "That's a bold claim. Just what makes you think you can take me on like that?"
Arashi didn't answer for a handful of minutes.. then bypassed the question entirely by pressing another vial into Tartaglia's shaking hands. "Drink. We can fight about it later."
Oddly cowed, Tartaglia did exactly as asked. At least this medicine was.. sweeter. Why did he inherently trust this strange scholar who knew his real name? He still couldn't get past that bit, but the medicine he'd just been given was making him far too sleepy to put too much thought into it. Besides, when he tried to reach for an answer, his head just hurt more. Whatever.
"If you just poisoned me, Comrade, you'll have the Fatui to repay.." Childe warned, already feeling his strength fading as he slumped to the ground entirely.
"If I wanted to kill you, Ajax, I already would have. And I wouldn't have treated you earlier. Think a little before you jump to unnecessary conclusions, idiot." Arashi 's words went mostly unheard, as the Harbinger was already drugged asleep, collapsed onto his side, expression entirely relaxed, and breathing slowing.
"Sweet dreams, you insufferable moron." Arashi muttered, turning away from Tartaglia to look through his bags.
[Arashi's POV]
Arashi settled his mind from its initial panic long enough to consider - REALLY consider - the incredibly irritating problem that his former colleague presented. He hadn't exactly lied to Ajax. Just omitted some important things. Nahida had sent him here to gather rubbings from broken tablets referencing the three Moon Sisters, and what he might find out about the Leylines. There weren't many places other than Nod Krai that held that information about the sisters, but the Leylines? That was everywhere. In truth, he'd almost been done with sketching out some valuable insight from one of the tablets about the Abyss interference before the Archon War.. when he'd seen Tartaglia's fire from the back of this cave.
Just his luck. Running straight into a colleague who couldn't remember him, looking like the Tsaritsa stole all his warmth and left him for dead.
Childe had looked.. well, awful didn't exactly cut it. Pale and shaky even before the near collapse, and 'pale' was being generous. If Arashi had to guess, it had to be something to do with that damnable Abyss-tainted thing inside him. As well as, one might assume, being so close to the Abyss-touched relics in this ruin. All in all not a great combination. He had been uncharacteristically worried. Enough so that he accidently called the idiot by his real name. Thankfully, he was more than adept at lying by now. On one hand, he would probably survive the night if he just left him here.. on the other, leaving him here would just invite worse dangers. That, and what little conscience he had wouldn't let him live it down. So alright then. Abandon the search for knowledge to care for the boy whose motto in life seemed to be 'how much trouble can I make for others today?'. Even if that was the case, there wasn't a lot he could do for him.
The powder and infusion he'd given him might help steady his heart and knock out the fever, but Childe needed real help from an actual doctor, and Arashi was very much not that. He might have some knowledge from sessions with Nahida, and a bit picked up from Tighnari, but he wasn't equipped to deal with something like this. Drugging Tartaglia was one way to bring his heart rate down, but his pulse was anything but healthy. If Arashi had to wager a guess, it'd be that the idiot had been walking around with symptoms for quite some time. Long enough that he very definitely should have known better. He'd had the 'you're not invincible like me, Ajax' argument with him before, back when he was still Scaramouche. He didn't really have any idea what to do then, either. At least now he actually had some medical knowledge. Enough to know that whatever was affecting Tartaglia? Was serious.
The one thing Arashi would not do was send him back to Dottore. Knowing that madman, he'd open him up and implant something even nastier inside. Given his past.. affiliation with Childe, he'd just as soon not have that on his conscience either. The play, it seemed, was to keep the moron alive tonight and lug him to Birmastan or Tighnari in the morning .. likely Tighnari. The botanist was closer to this cave than the Sumeru hospital. He'd likely receive better care from the tighnar too. The Fatui weren't exactly well-received in these parts.
His resolve sorely tested, Arashi rummaged in his bag to grab a few things. More lotus head powder. More mint extract, but also some romaritime petals and some nilopata lotus extract from the stems. Childe's aliment wasn't at all Eleazar, but the extract had some strengthening properties and might come in handy if the idiot's breathing faltered again. He also, on thinking about it for a bit, added a few drops of naku weed extract. The last of it that he had on him. Stuff tended to have a mildly paralytic effect. It kept you where you were put, and that’s something Arashi was invested in making sure happened. Having the idiot run off half-cocked on some wild assumption that he was ‘just fine’ after this would only put him into even more danger.
As he mixed the medication up into a paste with the mortar and pestle he kept in that pouch, he fell to thinking. Childe had been looking at him for a while like he'd grown another head. Or maybe a tail. Or both. Was he.. actually starting to remember? That was impossible. Nahida had said as much, after she finished scolding him for not consulting her first. But still. That expression. The kicked, confused puppy look. That wasn't the look you'd give a total stranger.
He'd been trying to be careful. Avoiding the Harbingers. Especially Tartaglia. But all his careful planning went right out the window the moment the moron decided to set up camp near the ruins. Unfortunate timing, perhaps, but he had to wonder if maybe the Heavenly Principles had a bit of a nasty sense of humor. Or maybe it was his mother - Ei's - influence. Either way, he was irritated.
"Of all the people I could have possibly run into, it had to be you." he muttered to himself, scooping the medication paste into a small pill mold attached to the bottom of the mortar. "Anyone else would have made my life easier, but Teyvat just seems to have fun wasting all my time. Time I could have spent looking for information."
He squeezed hard, producing a few pills at a time until he had a small handful. Now just to set them on paper to dry, which he did. He then crossed over to the sleeping Tartaglia, checking his pulse and listening to him breathe.
His heartbeat was still irregular, although slower in sleep. His breathing was worse. At least he was still breathing. Granted, Arashi did know some basic revival techniques from Nahida and Tighnari, but he'd prefer not to use them. The sleep might do Childe some good. He left him to it, and pulled out his journal, jotting a few things down to show Tighnari tomorrow. The botanist worked better with a strict list of symptoms rather than vague descriptions.
His pen paused as he watched Tartaglia sleep. Had they been close before? Close enough to override a fundamental law of Teyvat? Of Irminsul? Honestly, Arashi didn't really remember too much significant about the time he'd spent with him. A few trips to see his family maybe, and a brief stint where nightmares caused by Dottore's tampering had driven him into Tartaglia's arms. By necessity. It hurt to admit, but he'd needed someone during that time. Someone who didn't, wouldn't, judge. Which left a vast majority of the other Harbingers out of the realm of possibility. Leaving Tartaglia as the logical choice.
Arashi felt himself biting his lip at the thought, and quickly shook himself out of reverie, finishing the note he was writing on Childe's breathing. The more detailed the symptoms listed, the better the information Tighnari could gather. But surely, surely.. even an Abyssal creature like what resided inside Childe couldn't simply push past the tampering he'd done with the World Tree. Just in case.. he kept that bit to himself and out of his notes. Focus on the medical facts, not the hypothetical, possibly mythical, oddities. That done, he shut the journal, and checked on the stew Tartaglia had been cooking. Too bad it was going to go to waste. He took it off the heat to cool so he could dispose of it later, given he didn't need to eat. Then, he sat back down, leaning a bit against the wall of the cavern, and settled in to watch the idiot he'd spent time with in the Fatui, his previous colleague, attempt to sleep off a fever strong enough to cause, or worsen, arrhythmia.