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It is a bright sunny day when Childe tags alongside Zhongli to a treasure filled domain.
He falsely thought they were going to fight. Don’t blame him, that’s what people mostly do when they visit domains. He means— sure, there must be some people doing different things (like how some people go to a bridge not to cross it, but to jump down from it), but generally speaking one would expect a battle to happen in a domain.
As time passes, it’s obvious no fighting is going to take place.
They reach the domain after a long hike. It’s located upon one of the highest peaks in Jueyun Karst. Childe needs to shield his eyes from the blinding glimmer as Zhongli opens the gate. Mountains of shining artefact and gemstone laid as far as the eye reaches. He hasn’t seen this much riches before, not even in Golden House. That’s saying something.
“Whose domain, is it?” he turns to Zhongli who stares at him with an unreadable expression. There is something wrong about it. Zhongli is never apart from his calm and collected act, except this stance looks weirdly practiced somehow.
Childe decides not to pursue his thought.
“Mine,” Zhongli answered simply, still holding the same expression.
They get into a staring contest and Childe wait and wait and it takes him a shamefully long time before it clicks that Zhongli is not going to add anything further.
The short answer surprise him more than the answer itself.
He never thought about it, but he guesses it makes sense Zhongli would have a domain full of treasure. He is a dragon after all and dragon hoard. Still, it’s doesn’t surprise him more than the one-word answer. Zhongli is always eager to explain anything, have an essay over everything, so this short reply is incredibly out of character.
“It’s impressive,” he throws a comment, not really knowing what to say. Maybe dragons like to brag about their hoard to their dragon friend and it’s considered good manner, but human don’t generally show off their wealth without being branded some type of snob. He is not used to this dragon thing. “It’s uh… You can feed a family for hundred years with this. Maybe thousand.”
He must be saying something right because Zhongli’s tense shoulder goes slack slightly.
“Yes, and I can still provide more should it be necessary in the future,” he says with a meaningful looks Childe can’t quiet decipher and goes on a long speech about how well he is going to take care of his family, how his mate is going to be showered with so much affection and love and yadda yadda yadda the point is that this dragon is horny.
Damn.
Good for him though. Took six thousand years but at least he is finally there. He is so lucky he is not human, because Childe is only 24 and his parents is already pestering him about marriage. Can’t imagine himself being six thousand without a ring. His mother would summon him a spouse out her sheer will, because apparently being a high-ranking officer in your country is less of an achievement than landing a spouse.
Anyway—
He is relief Zhongli is being himself again. Tense Zhongli somehow making him tense, too.
“I know you’ll be good to them,” he encourages. “With this much treasures you can have ten kids.”
Zhongli’s eyes flashes with awe. “You sure?”
Childe’s parents have much less and they have seven kids, so why not?
Though now that he thinks about it, he shouldn’t encourage others to have many kids. Kids are responsibilities, and with this economy— oh well, whatever. It’s just lip service anyway. Besides, what does he knows about dragon kids and dragon family.
He grins. “Up to you. Some people prefer smaller family, some prefer bigger.”
“How about twenty kids?”
This dude really pushing it.
Childe hum noncommittally. He doesn’t want to dampen Zhongli’s newfound spirit, but also doesn’t want to get blamed in case Zhongli really build a twenty-kid family, plunge into eternal poverty, and watch his dragon wife leave him for much younger dragon.
Does that happen in dragon drama?
Not that Childe would know. Unless he gets divine intervention, he is going to die in eighty years top, so he is not going to be there for whatever drama unfold. Still, he would like not to have his name sullen in his death.
For some bizarre reasons, they are having a debate on how many children Zhongli should have. They settle with let’s see it as it goes.
As the talk end, Zhongli led them to a massive corridor, now with more ease in his steps. It reaches to a clearing. Childe can’t see it, but he can hear running water so there must be a river nearby. At this height, he can easily touch the clouds.
Are they going to fight here?
Childe let a small hope bloom in his heart.
“I want you to watch me,” Zhongli declares in a grave voice.
Ok. No fight.
He motions for Childe to sit on a wooden chair. It’s beautifully decorated with flower craving, coming in a set with another chair and table. He sits dutifully, not knowing what to expect but can sense that it has to be something related to Zhongli’s sudden desire to spawn.
Zhongli stands motionless for a minute, catching eye contact before a glimmer of blinding light engulf him and from within a massive dragon emerges.
Childe oooohhhh and clap his hand excitedly.
He doesn’t even know why he is clapping. Is it rude? He has no intention of being rude. He is just that awed, he can feel his mouth hanging. He has seen Zhongli’s dragon form before, but this is the first time he has seen him transform. It’s captivating. He wishes he could fight the dragon.
Oh, well.
Zhongli takes to the air in a smooth move and Childe claps some more. “That’s so cool. You are cool, Zhongli-xiansheng!”
He glides gracefully through the clouds, swiping the air in an elegant maneuver. At some point he let his body goes limp and nearly hit the ground before taking off again with a hard strike, piercing through the sky. Childe is not even a dragon, yet he understands the appeal. Zhongli must be popular among the dragon ladies.
Childe halts.
Showing off his hoard… the flying maneuver… the… mating dance?
Wait. Is HE the dragon ladies?
Is Zhongli trying to court him?
Oh. Shit.
He is sure he reads about this somewhere. Zhongli doesn’t say anything though. If Childe asks and turns out Zhongli is just doing weird brotherly dragon thing, there is no hole deep enough in Tevyat that Childe can crawl into. The embarrassment is going to follow him for the rest of his life. But also, what if Zhongli really is courting him? Doesn’t he deserve an answer? Doing all that just for the person not to notice, that’s going to be embarrassing.
Who should he embarrass here? Himself or Zhongli?
He’ll just wait until Zhongli word his intention. That’s the least he should do.
Right?
And why can’t Zhongli court a human through human way. Why can’t he just pop a ring and write a love essay. Heck, why can’t he just say marry me or whatever. Produce a marriage certificate, maybe. He is the god of contract, what even is this. Why should he do all this dragon—
“So?”
Childe clutch his chest. Holy Tsaritsa, he doesn’t notice Zhongli’s dances (???) had ended.
“What do you mean so?” he bites back.
“You know what I mean,” Zhongli retorts.
Zhongli really has the uncanny ability to put his responsibility on others. That’s great and all but why does it have to be Childe every time? He still has that flashback of Golden House barter from time to time, he doesn’t need a renewal.
“You are six thousand years old, Zhongli,” Childe barks. “Act your age.”
The insult doesn’t affect him in the slightest. “I am six thousand, I can do whatever I want.”
Childe actually has six thousand different insults to match that, but he reminds himself that by the end of the day he and Zhongli are still (allegedly) friends. While friends can still roast their friend, they don’t roast them to death. With that in mind, Childe mutters bitterly. “Have fun being virgin for another six thousand years then.”
He blinks. “I am not a virgin.”
“That’s not the point.”
Zhongli let own a long breathe. After Childe’s heart beat slowed down a notch, he can sense that Zhongli is actually as tense, if not more than before. He hasn’t caught a break since the time they step out together today. Childe would pity Zhongli if he doesn’t pity himself more.
“I’ve never done this before,” Zhongli made a strange swiping gesture with his hand, as though he wanted to rub his face but held at the last second.
Childe scoffs. “What? Dances?”
He flinches. “You know.”
Okay, now Childe feels bad.
“You are not making it easier for us,” Childe grumbles, yet relents. He is aware what rumors float about himself, but he wants to believe that he is a pretty decent guy. He doesn’t torture people. Doesn’t torture anything, really. He kills and that’s it. He is not about to start torturing Zhongli here. “I do enjoy watching you, yes. It was beautiful. You did amazing.”
“You love the treasure, too,” Zhongli adds carefully.
“Sure. Definitely the highlight.”
“So?”
“So you should understand that I am not a dragon and maybe speak in language I, a human, would understand.”
Zhongli gives him another long stare. He wishes Zhongli would stop. It’s giving him the heebie jeebies. They never had these many silences before. Even when they did, it was never awkward. A first time for everything.
“Hypothetically, if I ask you to marry me,” woah, why he sounds like— “Would you say yes?”
Childe sighs. “Why hypothetically? You can just ask me.”
Zhongli divert his eyes –just for a split second, but Childe is quick enough to notice the underlying something within it; deep and buried under layers and layers of meticulous act but it’s undeniable there.
He is scared.
Childe’s heart melt. That alone make Zhongli so… human. Maybe even more than most human.
“Hypothetically, if you ask me to marry you, I’ll say I’ve never thought about you that way before,” Zhongli let out a horrifying strangled sound and Childe continued his speech faster as not to torture the man. “BUT, now that you mention it, I can think about it and I will think about it, though for reference human don’t ask each other to marry out of nowhere. There are steps to it. And ah— it’s not like I was completely opposed of being involved in a romantic relationship with you. I just don’t let myself think about it because I thought you are not interested yourself. That could make things complicated.”
Good job, Ajax.
Pretty neat response, wasn’t it? Even he is proud of himself.
Zhongli mulls over his words, contemplating. “Now that you got the time to think about it, what do you think?”
What the—
“You want the answer now?!”
Wasn’t he scared just a second ago? Is it the case of overcoming fear or is it doing things that should be done despite said fear? It’s admirable given a different context, but Childe doesn’t appreciate the fact that Zhongli got himself involve here, what the fuck. Childe just gave him the perfect excuse to back away. At least to take things slow. He takes his words back. Whatever he is, Zhongli is not human.
Zhongli shrugs. “Yeah. So?”
Can he stop with the ‘so’.
“I—” Childe fumbles. “I don’t know. I mean we haven’t even date. We can try dating first, then m-maybe we can try marriage later.”
What is he saying
“What does dating entail?”
“Getting to know each other? Like we go on dates, I guess? Like normal people? Uh. Hang out, dining. You know. Stuff.”
“We’ve done that plenty. What’s the step after dating?”
Childe’s mind goes blank.
“Can we skip straight to marriage? Here, sign this. No, no. Not with that. With your blood. It’s a stronger contract. Right down here.”
His blood dried on the paper, sign with his full name. Right next is Zhongli’s, sign with the gazillion name he has. Zhongli murmurs some ancient Liyuen words Childe don’t understand and the contract emit a light, the same shade as Zhongli’s dragon transformation. He had no other words to describe it, except ominous. Zhongli turns at him, for the first time today actually starting to looks more like himself. A happy version of himself.
Childe stares at the contract some more.
What just happened.