Chapter Text
eightweeks takes too long, fifty-six days has never felt like an eternity until now. today is ajax’s twenty-third birthday, and capitano won’t be back for another nineteen days.
though he feels unhappy, he’s used to it.
when he wakes up the morning of his birthday, he walks to the kitchen after getting ready to be somewhat presentable, he can feel the bags under his eyes.
hes fully prepared for everybody to have not known his birthday, its okay! he dealt with it for eight other birthdays, whats one more added to the list?
what he doesn’t expect is for nobody to be in the kitchen when he arrives, usually there’s columbina or arlecchino. sometimes both, chatting away or making out on the countertop. sometimes even pantalone grabbing a snack after pulling an all-nighter trying to formulate a plan on how to bring down the wine industry of mondstadt without having that ragnvindr nut job going on a fucking rampage. again.
he sighs, pops his back and gets to working, he makes pancakes for himself and the other seven.
he sets different plates out, flopping two pancakes onto each except one, added two more to pulcinella’s, pierro’s, columbina, pantalones plates. he grabs a salad plate, adding sliced apples to the right side, along with cherries he pit himself and oranges. a handful of grapes in the bottom left of the plate, cantaloupe in the middle and a bowl of salt since he knows sandrone likes to make her cantaloupe sweet and salty. he doesn’t know why, but whatever makes her happy.
he adds a thin layer of butter on sandrone’s pancake and sets it to the side, along with her fruits. arlecchinos pancakes are left naked with a small ceramic bowl of butter on the side of the plate just incase shes craving some.
he cuts columbinas four pancakes into quarters, arranging them into a circle and covers them in a hazelnut spread, topped with powdered sugar and straberries, with a bowl of honey drizzled fruits in the middle. he covers pantalones in blackberry jam, stacking them back on top of each other. he drowns pulcinella’s in syrup.
he goes fast, re-creating all of their favorite pancakes from muscle memory.
he gets started on the tea for sandrone, and pierro.
and he sets out a strainer and makes coffee for pulcinella and the other harbingers.
columbina likes hers with a concerning amount of sugar and milk, he always tops hers with little chocolate shavings and a cinnamon stick. since he started making her coffee, she’s refused to let anybody make it for her, claiming “tartaglia does it better”. he doesn’t mind, it’s fun for him.
pulcinella only likes a little bit of sugar and milk, just enough to get rid of the extreme bitterness. arlecchino likes hers straight black, he sets an extra out with a little bowl of sugar and another with milk and a little spoon. this one is for pierro, he has no idea how he likes his morning coffee, so he just gives him milk and sugar in a little bowl and hopes for the best along with a teacup, just in case pierro doesn’t like coffee.
ajax doesn’t make any for himself, the last time he had coffee it made him so tired he passed out for five hours.
he grabs a cart and placed the plates on the trays.
he walks around the castle, dropping the pancakes off at their doors, knocking on them four times each and announcing softly that he has breakfast.
none of them emerge from their rooms. he frowns, are they out?
he decides to water the flowers in the old garden in the back of the courtyard that nobody ever goes to anymore, now that they have the new garden by the west gate.
he lays on a hammock, soaking in the suns warmth. he creates small hydro animals, making them run around in circles, little foxes chase little mice. he smiles softly before flicking his wrist harshly to make the water disperse.
he shifts to get comfortable again and rests his eyes, his nasty mind finally quiet.
his quiet is promptly ruined by his hammock being rudely shoved, he yelps loudly, scrambling to get off, summoning his hydro blades within the blink of an eye.
columbina just giggles, he sighs and flicks them away once again.
“good morning birthday boy! thanks for the pancakes, let’s go!” he doesn’t have anytime to react as columbina launches him over her shoulder, walks him over to the north gate, and shoves him in a large coach. there’s five black horses pulling it and he knows it’s pantalones.
he soon realizes he’s just been thrown in with the rest of the harbingers (minus pierro) and is so genuinely confused.
“happy birthday, you little shit.” pantalone grabs him in a headlock and nuzzles his knuckles into his head.
he can’t help the laugh that escapes him.
he’s just so happy.
one of his eyes is squinted closed, his smile hurts his cheeks, he can barely see.
thsres still that gnawing at his heart that says ‘capitano’s not here.’
he calms down as the coach starts moving and fixes his shirt and hair, sitting on the bench next to columbina and across from dottore.
he looks out the window and watches as the coach passes by the town, and eventually into the city.
”why are we here?” ajax asks them.
“for your birthday, obviously.”
he feels slightly anxious, nobody has ever celebrated for him. he never felt important enough to tell anybody in liyue as well, he doesn’t want to mess this up for them, and he doesn’t want to ruin anything. he doesn’t know what to do nor does he know why they’re here.
pulcinella pats his arm.
he frowns slightly but gets out anyways when they stop.
his eyes drift over to a stray kitten, half dead from exhaustion and hunger and his heart breaks. columbina looks where he’s looking and gasps.
“look at the kitty! arlecchino please please, pretty please!” arlecchino sighs and nods. columbina looks over to ajax and smiles softly. he can’t help but smile back.
“i’m gonna train you to go hunt birds for your new mama, isn’t that right cutie?” ajax comes up to her arms and uses his hydro vision to heal its infected cuts and wash off any fleas.
the little thing meows and cuddles into columbina’s boobs and she nearly loses her mind with the cuteness aggression. arlecchino just smiles softly at her girlfriend.
pantalone hands him a pouch and pulcinella clears his throat. “we shall come right here at four thirty, happy birthday son, go buy what you want.” ajax stares at them blankly for a second before nodding as the others walk off.
he opens the surprisingly heavy mora bag, and nearly throws the thing in shock. there’s gotta be at least four million mora in there at minimum.
he closes it back up and sets off.
he walks down town square at first, walking by the toy shops for teucer, tonia, anthon and ivan. he buys a small kite from a stall for teucer, a cube with six colors, he tests it out and finds the cubes to move in rows of three. he nods and puts it in his bag.
he moves on and sees a little stuffed bear for ivan, hes only four years old. he walks a little more and into the shopping district.
he sees a stuffed fox toy. its fat and round, its face is flat and it looks more like a pillow, and he stares at it from the window for a moment before walking into the toy shop, buying it and squishing it against his chest. he smiles at the texture and feeling of the pillow. he bites his lip to prevent any kind of noises of pure joy at the squish, and stuffs it in his inventory bag, rubbing the palm of his hand with his fingers to try and get rid of he urge to flap his hands.
he walks some more and passes a jewelry store, but his eyes catch onto a pair of silver earrings, tonia would love them, but his parents would probably just pawn them.
he buys them anyways.
he gets to the more luxurious stores, passing fur coats and other things. he thinks for a moment, he does need new gloves, his ripped a few months ago.
he grabs the cheapest pair he could find of a material that didnt make his hands feel like they were burning off, that didnt make him physically recoil at the texture.
he nods and throws it in his bag, letting the bag magically sort it, he doesnt think too much about it.
he buys a new pair of boots, as his are starting to fall apart. he gets to the forge and sees a claymore standing tall. it looks sharp and dangerous.
its gorgeous.
its black and has gold lining the blade and up the blade stsrting from the hilt. towards the tip is two lines parallel to eachother with gold running up the tip at an angle.
“ah, she’s a beaut, that’s called a prototype archiac.” he snaps his eyes to the blacksmith. he’s about sixty years old, definitely a hardy snezhnayan local. “she’s not that great, only a four out of five stars ranking. we have rarer, stronger and bigger ones in the back.”
ajax follows him into the back of the smithery, theres weapons upon weapons.
his eyes catch onto a red and black claymore it’s sharper and longer than capitano’s, looks hardier and definitely stronger.
“wolfs gravestone, a five out five stars. she’ll be expensive. i’ll take her at a discount though, seeing as we have a harbinger in house tonight. one and a half million mora, half off.” the blacksmith smiles gently. “you know.. there was a harbinger a few years back who protected my grand kids from some treasure hoarders.” ajax nods, to have him continue with his story. “they told me of a tall man with orange hair and dead blue eyes.” he blushes.
“oh.. it was nothing, just doing what anybody else would do.” he smiles and grabs money to pay for the weapon.
“free, for the savior of my dear grandchildren.” he frowns and drops a million mora on the counter. the man hands him the greatsword with difficulty.
ajax picks it up, he’d have to do some fixing for capitanos monstrous hands, and argues with the man for a good five minutes about whether he should pay for the adjustments or not.
he drops another half a million and raises an eyebrow.
“you’re a good kid son, any parent would be grateful to have you.” he nods and swallows down the tears that want to surface at the prospect of loving parents.
“thank you.”
the man gets to work on the claymore, elongating the hilt, making it thicker and then rewrapping.
he can barely fit his hand around it. perfect!
”now, son, i gotta know, if you can barely fit your hand around it now, why do you want it?” he blushes again, more intense this time. “ohh, you got it for somebody else?”
he nods and plays with the hem of his shirt.
“a special somebody, eh?” he grins.
ajax wants to die.
“i mean..” the blacksmith ‘awe’s and ajax looks up at the time.
“thank you for the claymore sir, but i have to get going now. thank you so much.” he finally dodged the situation and the blacksmith laughs loudly as he drops the claymore into the expanse of his bag. it’s light, and he watches boats come into the harbor for about thirty minutes before heading back to the place where pulcinella told them all the meet back up.
he’s the third one there, and pantalone is the last one there, probably having spent more than ajax.
“okay!! food time!!” columbina leaves the kitten in the coach, under the watchful eye of an pyrogunner, but not before threatening his life.
they head to restaurant of ajax’s choosing. its not too expensive, he knows the owners, they were friends with his grandmother. he walks in, the bell rings and he shivers in delight. a little old lady walks out and has ajax bend down so she can grab his cheeks.
“ajax! dear boy you’ve brought friends! come, sit, sit!” the other harbingers (with the exception of pulcinella) stare at him at the newfound knowledge of the birth name.
ajax just helps the granny put two tables together. they hear shouting in the back. a man, he’s asking who ajax is. she huffs and goes into the kitchen. “he’s nadya morozov’s son you forgetful bitch!”
they all place their orders and enjoy a lunch together.
“so.. ajax..?” childe’s head shoots up while he has half a pelmeni in his mouth, eyes wide, dottore snickers and continues, “i heard you bought your little brother a ruin guard plushie.” ajax stuffs the rest of the pelmeni in his mouth and swallows harshly.
”hm, well kinda? why?” he asks, taking a sip of water while the masked harbinger wipes his hands,
“where’d you get it?” ajax hums softly.
“i made it, why..?” ajax answers, reaching over to grab another pelmeni.
”i want one. i will commission it if need be.” dottore answers as calmly as physically possible and ajax just stares at him with a knowing feeling in the back of his mind.
”um.. no worries, it’ll just take me a few days.” he nods and they finish their food. pantalone jumps when he looks at the time.
”everybody finish up, we have a reservation in twenty minutes.” pantalone announces and the entire table starts shoving food in their mouth at an unholy pace, they leave ten minutes later. (ajax drops a tip of a million mora).
they all walk down to the harbor while conversing amongst them selves, it’s a strange sight.
seeing most of the harbingers in one spot, conversing and acting like normal people, instead of wreaking havoc, murdering, planning, scheming, etc.
ajax’s smile just barely reaches his eyes.
instead of walking towards the fancier, richer part of their capital city, they walk west; towards the harbor. he doesn’t question it.
not aloud, at least.
ajax breathes in the scent of the salty air, he can hear everything around him. merchants yelling, merchandise ships docking, unloading, and setting out again. seals barking, children laughing and running. civilians conversing amongst themselves, teenagers out on dates, new parents trying to find baby toys and clothes for the upcoming winter.
the sun is starting to set. ajax is pushed towards the front of the group, a steam boat is starting to coming into the harbor.
columbina takes ajax’s arm, wrapping her own arms around his. “c’mon! let’s go get dessert!” he nods at her, they buy baklava from a nearby bakery and bring it back to the other harbingers.
at least, where the other harbingers were at.
columbina giggles and runs off in a random direction.
leaving ajax alone.
in the middle of the harbor, without a way to get back to the palace.
maybe he was right all along.
he stares at where columbina vanished at and sees pantalones glasses pop out from behind a brick wall before being harshly yanked back as a kamera is set up. his head tilts as tears want to start welling up in his eyes, they left him alone and are now recording him? what sick prank has he fallen into? everything goes silent.
his brain is moving a million minutes an hour.
pulcinella pops out and motions for him to turn around.
he does so, he blinks the tears out of his blurry eyes and his eyes meet a large silhouette. his left arm twitches backwards, and his feet glue themselves to the concrete.
the tears return, except they’re starting to flow. he sniffles and wipes his tears with his bare wrist. he looks back up to the man, he thinks he may be hallucinating, but capitano just opens his arms slightly. moving his hand in a “come, i’ll catch you” way. zhongli is standing a few feet behind the harbinger, mindlessly taking in his surroundings.
he starts walking towards him, speeding up ever so slightly until he full on sprints into his arms. ajax giggles as capitano’s foot shifts back, to help catch himself. “hello birthday boy.” the whisper is quiet and tender, just like every other word the older has ever uttered to him. the older takes off his mask to kiss him.
ajax desperately clutches onto his back. capitano hunches over him and kisses his face until ajax is laughing loudly. capitano is smooshing his now chubby cheeks.
capitano kisses his lips slowly, letting him warm up to it.
its not like they could get very far though, ajax cant stop smiling. “you planned this all, didn’t you?” ajax can’t help but ask.
“unfortunately i didn’t, but i got in touch with pulcinella and he made this all happen.” capitano kisses his neck and shoulder just ever so softly.
the sun is hitting just over the horizon, making ajaxs hair and skin glow a soft gold, capitano thinks he looks so beautiful. so warm and inviting, so soft.
the other harbingers come up behind him and he genuinely feels like he could pass out from the excitement of it all. capitano puts his mask back on and squishes ajax one more time.
pierro has entered the scene now, and is escorting zhongli to a separate coach. the market has now lit up with the night settling in. capitanos hand has settled in ajax’s as they walk silently.
they walk quietly through the city, they almost pass a breeder handing out malnourished, matted, fuzzy pups. ajax’s gentle heart can’t stand the sight, there’s only one left.
it’s tiny, barely moving. he wants to take it to the palace, but he doesn’t know how the tsaritsa will react, it’s gonna stay small, right? he gets to his knees, picking the small thing up while capitano watches in silent adoration.
“that one wont be any good, you should just let me take it home and put down. wont be a good work dog at all.” ajax’s head shoots up at the implication that this breeder kills the dogs that he doesn’t sell.
“no thanks.” ajax picks it up, holding it to his chest and leaves. they stop by a grocery store and get dog food and two bowls.
”what are you naming it?” capitano asks, gently touching it’s little nose as it snuggles to ajax’s chest.
”hmm.. sacha? sacha sounds good…” capitano runs a hand through ajax’s curls and ajaxs nimble fingers pick through its fur, untangling some mattes. “we’re gonna have to cut these out.. i’m sorry baby.” he gives the puppy a good scratch behind the ear while whispering to it.
ajax tries to heal anything that might be wrong little by little, it’s way too small, definitely not eight weeks yet. maybe six at the most?
”you’re too tiny, little sacha.”
capitano notices that this feels too domestic, yeah, maybe giving ajax a chance was a good idea. the little smile on his freckled face tells him that maybe his life doesn’t have to be so dark any more.