Work Text:
Being Zhongli’s Omega meant that his nest was never going to be nothing but fancy. Zhongli’s clothes were mostly made with expensive fabric like silk, fancy cotton and other names he wouldn’t be able to remember. When he stole his clothes or Zhongli borrowed some, he had to be careful to not rip those uncomfortable buttons…
He had to give up using the Menogias made archon - extremely handsome - clothing, because he would feel too bad to ruin it! Even when Zhongli insisted, Childe was feeling heavy with responsibility at the thought.
Now, his nest had more than half of Zhongli’s wardrobe, which made him very proud of himself. He was willing to let go of some of his price for the thought of making Zhongli’s life slightly more difficult. Because his lover had been enjoying his retirement quite a lot, split moon-envoy rescue aside, that is.
Childe was beyond rejecting the comfort of a nest, but getting clingy toward it only meant that his time to succumb to heat was approaching and the thought made him wish to not see the light of the next day.
Should he pray to his former colleague and goddess reborn to not give him cramps, at least?
He sighed, moving his stuff around Zhongli’s house and hunting for some more, Zhongli-scented stuff.
He could get creative, looking at Zhongli’s trinkets and feeling which ones gave him more of a Geo Archon vibes, even if the Geo Archon lied to his face and used him in the past. In the past, Zhongli crafted him a single fake mora to keep as some kind of protection… and now it was part of his nest too.
Yet, it was not the only peculiar thing in his life as mated to a former god.
***
He was sure the earth had never smelled so fresh and delicious to him. He wasn’t even pregnant, he just felt a craving when he was close to his heat.
“Please… spare me the sight.” Arlecchino’s voice stopped him as he was sniffed a bunch of dirt he dug out while spacing out.
“Do not concern yourself with what I am doing…” Childe pouted, feeling like she was kinda on point but he was also feeling like he could barely control this weird cravings.
“I am not.” Arlecchino placed her arms over her chest, sighing. She had gathered many years of experience in dealing with children, so she wasn’t impressed. Her eyes were barely readable behind those cross shaped pupils, which was a sight that could unsettle many.
Not him though, not him.
Arlecchino was also the Alpha that used to place her wrist against his neck to help him escape a mission in pre-heat, making Zhongli jealous despite her not even fancying male omegas.
“I just feel like… everything about the soil is juicy and smells so good.” He confessed, letting go of his conquest to stand back up. “And the grass sings, and the mountains feels like sleeping giants… I love it… and hate it.”
He sighed, as a Harbinger, feeling so much was just going to be a problem. If his senses weren’t focused on battle, then that could bring serious failure and a stain on his name.
“You’re hardly to blame, aside from the bad choice in partner.” She shook her head, simply walking at his side as they slowly but surely completed their shared mission of a simple intel exchange. “After all, who knows what other surprises the gods hide.” Arlecchino sounded uninterested in the topic, letting her eyes wandering to the landscape around them.
Liyue was beautiful.
“I’ll ignore the first part… but all of this is still confusing.” He didn’t even know why he was telling her everything. It felt like it was easier than talking to his own mate, even if being mated simply meant his thoughts were an open book already.
Arlecchino simply hummed to herself.
“I’ve grown more fond of water, lately.” She allowed herself that only slip. Her eyes were now carving into his, silently telling him to not ask for details. “Even if it was never her… I still find myself to sit down and listen to the sound of the rain.” Even if one could be prone to associate that to the “Hydro Dragon”, for Arlecchino had a different meaning entirely.
“Does it ever stop?” He asked. He was talking about that subtle yearning, that prickling at the skin.
“Well, bites are forever unless you get rid of them… do you want for it to stop?” Arlecchino closed her eyes for a moment. The sky was getting very cloudy over their heads as they talked. It was
“Yes… or not.” He scratched the back of his head. It felt wrong to refuse the concept, his heart tugged at the thought. It was something unique of their bond, something that Childe wasn’t ready to receive but he also couldn’t refuse. Maybe it was also something about bonding at such a young age. Everything about his bond with Zhongli felt natural and unnatural, like being made anew everyday, a metamorphosis even when Zhongli himself was hardly just a “man” or a “god”.
He sighed.
Arlecchino stopped at his side.
“Try ask him if it’s different for him.” Surprisingly, a suggestion.
“Oh… I kinda don’t wanna know.”
He would probably feel his stomach drop if Zhongli felt any bond to the abyss or something like that.
“By the way… your vision is morphing too.” She pointed at it, making Childe gasp. The hydro was slowly mixing with some shade of golden. It was like someone poured two different paints together but found a way for them not to mix. It left him breathless.
***
Despite himself, he had to admit curiosity was gnawing at him. Once he came back home and his mate had settled for his usual cup of tea, Childe was hardly able to hide the curiosity prickling over his skin.
“Tea at home? That’s surprising.” Childe opened the conversation before Zhongli could bring his mouth over the ceramic to take a taste. He moved like a strike of lightning, a punch of orange settling at Zhongli’s side and looking at him in a fakely seductive way.
“You’re home, so I much prefer take my tea here with you.” Zhongli looked at him, endeared and eternally fond. His gaze was melted gold, sweet honey on the Omega’s skin. “I noticed earlier that this time you spared some clothes for little old me.”
“For now, yes, because most of your clothes aren’t that comfortable until I’ve put them between comfy sheets, all those buttons, pins, stones…” Childe wasn’t trying to complain, just stating a fact. He was like very lucky that his Alpha’s taste allowed him to have a nice looking nest. He didn’t really care that much, but since he had it… he was glad.
Zhongli simply chuckled, smiling on the porcelain.
“Also… I have a question…”
The former archon raised an eyebrow.
“Do you… feel any different? Like I know your vision is fake and everything and you’re a former Archon… but I wondered if you’re like, bothered in a different way?”
“Bothered?”
“Like, our bond.”
Zhongli looked at him, concerned. He placed his cup down, taking his hands to hold them close to his chest.
“Our bond doesn’t bother me at all, Ajax.”
Childe blinked.
“Oh no— no, I didn’t mean like that, sorry. I meant… are you feeling like usual? No strange affinity, or craving to jump in the water?” Childe had experience in that field, for his nightmares about being in the water and the Narwhal looming over him with its huge shadow. It was in the past… but still. “Abyssal related nightmares…”
“Oh…” Zhongli took a moment to think about it, chin resting on his hand. “I didn’t notice anything weird.”
“I see…”
“I guess… The only thing that changed is about my powers.”
Zhongli had retired from some time, so the occasions for him to show off his powers weren’t as many as the past, even if he was always ready to help his friends in the moment of trouble.
“Really? Like how my vision changed color…?”
Zhongli lifted one of his hand. He summoned a shield around them, which seemed like the usual shield.
Then, crystals of geo and hydro started to fall around them. The Hydro crystallize reaction was now surrounding them with even more wet shield.
“You’ll ruin your tea, Zhongli…”
Zhongli smiled, stopping it. “If I manifest my powers, there’s a certain chance for this to happen.” He looked so proud about it, even if it felt like something he would also find incredibly messy. As long as he was spared by the Abyssal nightmares… and everything else.
“So… does it bother you, or…?”
“I find it extremely endearing.” Zhongli placed his cup of tea down, patting his lap with eager hands. “Come here, I missed you.”
Childe raised an eyebrow. “I’m literally nesting in your bedroom since last week.” Still he walked toward him, sitting on the older man’s lap as if he simply belonged there, relaxing against the warmth of his mate’s body. It felt good to just being this close, without any sexual activity going on.
“Do you want to know what else our bond enhanced?” Zhongli smirked dangerously, a hand reaching under Childe’s shirt.
The Omega felt a vibration of energy, heat reaching his groin as it felt like someone was writing on his skin with a pen on fire. That burn brought him pleasure, his cock throbbing and making his pants feel tighter.
“Zhongli…” He gripped the other man’s by the shoulders, confused and now incredibly aroused.
“Look.” He pulled up his shirt, showing off a mark on his belly. A mark with the symbol of Geo. At first it looked like the usual - it was something they often did in and outside the bedroom - but then the Omega blinked and noticed that the rhombus had some shade of blue.
Geo and hydro mixed together. The two elements that control everything about creation.
Childe didn’t want to blush like a schoolboy, but Zhongli had been very smooth with that move.
The Omega didn’t wait for his man to say one word more, moving to bite into his skin and make a mark of his Riptide appear exactly where it was impossible to hide. Childe gasped when the mark of his elemental power revealed a trace of yellow, of geo.
“So… this is really happening, to us.” He was so shocked himself to forget about his own arousal even as Zhongli’s hands moved on his hips.
“Indeed.” Zhongli’s lips went to attack his own neck, making him sigh as he was still taking in that his very own powers were now mixed in geo.
The possibilities…
“We need to test, more Xiansheng—”
He said between kisses, trying to push the man away.
“Now?” Zhongli stopped, looking at him like a kicked puppy, if that expression was even possible for him to make.
“Yes! I am still a Harbinger of the Tsaritsa, I need to master this new power and report to her Majesty.” Childe had found new motivation all of a sudden, eager to explore the limits of that new talent of his. His bond was special and he had no idea that such a thing could happen.
In the end, Zhongli let go of him.
“Very well.”