Chapter Text
“Childe?” Zhongli knocked on the Harbinger’s apartment door. They did not have a formal arrangement, but it was common for he and Childe to meet at the Wanmin Restaurant on Friday evenings. When he did not find the young man at their usual table, he found himself curious as to what may have kept him. “Are you home?”
No answer.
Perhaps he had taken a commission. Boredom found Childe easily and he often alleviated it with the Adventurers’ Guild when he did not seek out Zhongli’s company. Childe had shown a desire to see more of Liyue when they last shared a meal, so maybe he took a commission farther away and had yet to return.
Neither Ms. Katheryne at the front desk nor Lan at the commission board had seen Childe in the past week.
A growing feeling of unease rose in Zhongli’s chest. If Childe were going to leave the city he would have gotten Zhongli. He had been amenable to Zhongli’s offer to be a tour guide and Childe wouldn’t have left without him.
The Northland Bank.
Childe must be at work.
Zhongli did not run, but he did walk as fast as he was able, hopping up the steps two or three at a time as he headed up to the higher terraces of the city. Zhongli slowed his pace when he approached the guard outside, nodding in greeting as he entered the bank.
“Hello, Mr. Zhongli,” Ekaterina, said, polite as ever behind the front desk. The young Fatui straightened her back and smiled at Zhongli. “Welcome to the Northland Bank. How may I help you?”
“Have you seen Tartaglia today?” Zhongli asked, remembering to use Childe’s formal name. It wouldn’t do to use his nickname around his inferiors. “We had a meeting today and he never arrived. I wondered if some business had turned up he needed to attend.”
Ekaterina frowned. “He didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“Tartaglia said he would be gone from Liyue Harbor for a week,” Ekaterina said. “He did not tell us where he was going, and asked not to be disturbed.”
“Thank you for your assistance.”
Zhongli left the bank and ran.
He knew exactly where that reckless fool had gone.
Zhongli arrived at the Wangshu Inn out of breath. Even with the added speed of his true form, the transformation to and from his mortal body exhausted him if done too quickly. Zhongli’s muscles ached after being molded and reshaped so swiftly, but he had no time to waste.
“Excuse me, but has a young man named Childe checked in?” Zhongli asked at the desk. He ignored the lingering pain and reminded himself to be polite. “I am a friend.”
“Yes, he did in fact! A couple days ago.” The owner nodded and pulled over her registry, opening the page to his booking. “He should be in his room now, if you’d like us to call him.”
Zhongli dropped his shoulders in relief. “That is fine. I wouldn’t want to wake him.”
He thanked the owner for her time and went back out onto the balcony of the Inn. If Childe was in his room, that meant he had not challenged Xiao to a fight. The young man had to have come to his senses when he arrived at the Inn, and chose to enjoy his stay instead. Zhongli stood at the railing and looked out over the dark marsh. He did not believe he had been to the Dihua Marsh yet in his current form. Zhongli should visit Xiao before he reprimanded Childe for sneaking out of the Harbor without him.
If he hadn’t wanted Zhongli as a tour guide, he could have told him to his—
Xiao’s energy exploded in the distance. The Bane of All Evil had appeared in the Dihua Marsh and Zhongli threw himself over the side of the railing, not bothering with a glider. He hit the ground and ran toward the elemental burst deep in the marshlands.
He prayed to Celestia that Xiao had found a demon to slaughter and not a foolish Harbinger that allowed his bloodlust to override his common sense.
Zhongli’s prayers were denied.
A bloodied mass, near unrecognizable as human hit the ground after a nasty kick. It tumbled and rolled until it stopped. As Zhongli ran closer, the scent of Childe’s blood filled his nose. It coated the grass and Xiao’s spear, seeping into the muddy water.
Childe’s body pushed itself onto his knees, eyes glassy and wide. Xiao launched himself forward with the final blow.
“Stop!” The command ripped itself from Zhongli’s lips as threw himself forward to intervene. He caught Xiao’s spear, sliding back an inch in the mud from the force, and shoved the blade down into the grass. Xiao’s mask dispersed as he looked up in confusion. “I believe Childe has learned his lesson about challenging Adepti to battle. I am asking you to end this confrontation here.”
His words left no room for disobedience.
Xiao had always been granted his freedom to obey or not as he pleased, but Zhongli would not give him that choice with Childe’s life on the line.
The Yaksha narrowed his eyes before they opened again in recognition. He dismissed his spear and stood back at full attention. “Master Rex Lapis! What are you doing out here?”
Before Zhongli could answer, Childe pitched forward into the mud.
“Childe!” Zhongli shouted. His voice sounded wrong; raw and ripped straight from his core. Zhongli knelt to pull his face out of the mud before he suffocated, taking stock of his body. “Do not sleep.”
“Do you know him?” Xiao asked, taking a step back. “I…He summoned Abyss monsters! He was trying to attack the marsh.”
“Silence,” Zhongli said. He would deal with Xiao after Childe had been attended. The man under his hands had been broken in every sense of the word. Split bones punctured the skin and blood seeped freely from the cuts and slices of Xiao’s spear. “Childe. Tartaglia, please. I need you to open your eyes.”
Zhongli pulled off his gloves with his teeth and placed his fingers against Childe’s neck to find his pulse. There was so little blood left in him, but his heart must still be beating.
It had to be beating.
“Tartaglia, wake up.” Zhongli could not find a pulse. He growled and held his hand near the man’s mouth and nose. No pulse. No breath. No life. Zhongli felt a wave of dread wash over him. He smelled Glaze Lillies, though none bloomed around him. “No. No, you are not permitted to die. I will not allow it!”
Zhongli pulled Childe out of the muck and put him on his back. Cracked ribs poked through his chest and his eyes were open. It hadn’t been a minute. There was time. Zhongli shoved his bare hand over Childe’s chest and forced a pulse of healing energy into the still form.
A heart could beat again.
He broke a rib in half from the pressure, but a few more pulses repaired enough of the damage that he felt a pulse form under his palm.
Zhongli slowed the healing energy to a safer level and kept it steady. What little blood Childe had continued to flow and he tilted the man’s head back, pinching his nose. Zhongli lent him his own breaths until the lungs followed suit. The man’s eyes stared unseeing above, but they fluttered as he coughed and breathed again on his own.
“Retrieve a doctor,” Zhongli said, refusing to take his hand off Childe’s chest. Xiao stood, dumbfounded as he stared at the scene before him in the mud. Zhongli barked, “Now!”
“Sir.”
Xiao ran toward the Wangshu Inn.
Zhongli put a hand in Childe’s hair and gently put the young man’s head in his own lap to get it out of the mud. While he waited for Xiao to return, Zhongli focused on the task of repair. His last Yaksha had ripped Childe apart and if he had arrived even a second later, there would have been nothing to repair.
“You fool,” Zhongli whispered. He dropped his head and leaned his forehead against Childe’s to feel the man’s weak breath on his face. His chest felt like it had also been ripped apart. “Tartaglia, you had best wake up or I will be very cross.”
Continuing his disobedience, Childe remained asleep until the doctors arrived. Zhongli reluctantly let go of Childe into their care.
He followed behind the group as they tended to Childe’s wounds on the move, aware of Xiao with a lowered head behind him. Zhongli did not address the young Yaksha until after Childe was behind closed doors with the doctors for surgery.
“You declared that you would no longer spill mortal blood,” Zhongli said. His warnings to Childe had been exaggerated to protect the young man’s pride. Zhongli had not believed Xiao would kill Childe, but the Adeptus would not have held back either. To see Xiao go so obviously for a killing blow raised Zhongli’s fury. “Was that a lie?”
“No, sir,” Xiao said, his head low and his breath heavy in fear. “The man. He wasn’t…he was a monster. I thought he was an annoying mortal at first, but he drew on the Abyss for power and transformed into a demon.”
Zhongli turned his head. “A demon?”
“Yes, sir,” Xiao said. “I do not know who that mortal is to you, but he is from the Abyss.”
“His name is Tartaglia and he is mine,” Zhongli said, turning back to watch the room that held Childe. It was unfair to blame Xiao for Childe’s foolish actions—especially if what he said was true. “Abyss demon or not, I am asking you to leave him alone.”
“If that is what you desire.”
“Tell everyone else he is not to be touched,” Zhongli said. “I do not want this to happen again.”
Xiao nodded and left in a flash, leaving Zhongli alone to wait and hear what the doctors said.
Even in his sleep, Childe was a stubborn one.
Zhongli flipped the page of his book, not reading the words. His jacket and clothes had been sent away for cleaning, leaving him in borrowed pants and his white undershirt which had somehow survived getting soaked in blood. Childe slept next to him in the bed, covered in bandages that held him together.
The Harbinger Tartaglia had not woken in two days.
In that time, Zhongli had calmed. Xiao had apologized and begged for forgiveness once more. Childe was alive and healing. The worst had passed. Zhongli turned another page to give his hands something to do. For once, he envied the mortals’ ability to sleep. It would make the time pass faster and free Zhongli from his thoughts.
He did not wish to admit how badly he had been scared when he thought Childe dead.
The other Adepti would have called Zhongli a fool for worrying about a man sent to kill him. He had no illusions about why the Eleventh Harbinger of the Fatui Tartaglia had arrived in Liyue Harbor. He first approached Childe as Zhongli, curious about what sort of man the young and overly ambitious Cryo Archon had sent to “slay” him.
Zhongli met a charming young man with the bloodlust of a demon hiding behind his friendly smile. Childe was a walking contradiction that piqued Zhongli’s curiosity. His desire for violence was real, but so was his kindness.
Childe enjoyed treating for meals and buying gifts. At first, Zhongli believed Childe suspected him as Rex Lapis when the man was so free with his Mora. The Harbinger could be trying to win him over in order to lower his guard.
That was not the case.
It was true that Childe freely spent his money when he was with Zhongli, but he also was generous with the others around Liyue Harbor. It was not uncommon to see him tip Xiangling extra or buy toys and snacks for the children that played in the streets.
The man who killed those who broke contracts and did not pay their debts, was generous with his Mora and genuinely found Zhongli entertaining with his longwinded stories and knowledge.
Zhongli found himself charmed and enjoyed spending time in his company to learn more. Childe was entertaining and he only hoped that “Zhongli” was as equally good company as the man claimed.
He closed his book and stood over the man asleep in the bed. At some point during their dinners and walks through the city, “charmed” had turned into “enamored.” Zhongli had stopped seeing Childe as an amusing and interesting mortal, but as a companion that he did not want to see harmed.
Tartaglia became someone he wished fell under his dominion and not that of another Archon.
Zhongli reached down and petted Childe’s hair, feeling it against his bare fingers. He sat on the edge of the bed and allowed his fingers to trail down the side of his face. Mortals were so very frail. Zhongli felt like he would break Childe if he pressed too hard.
Lashes fluttered on the sleeping face and Zhongli took his hand back. He stood and held his breath until soft blue eyes focused on his face.
Childe had woken up.