Chapter Text
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Childe doesn’t find it easy to avoid Kaeya in the next few days. But it isn’t impossible.
They spend so much of their time together that Kaeya’s absence almost feels like a missing limb. He just doesn’t know what he would say if they do see each other. He doesn’t know what Kaeya would think of him now.
He doesn’t know if Kaeya would still want to be friends.
The other Harbingers had called their close friendship an anomaly, something so strange and unfathomable. Perhaps, they would be proven right with the risk Childe has taken.
Maybe he shouldn’t have done it after all.
He groans into his hands as he crouches by one of the weapon racks in the training yard. Kaeya had tried to stop him in the dining hall that morning only for Childe to run away again. It was getting harder and harder to avoid Arlecchino, and it would soon be impossible once Kaeya actually put his effort in it.
Childe peers between his fingers to stare at the floor at the thought. What if Kaeya just didn’t care? Perhaps, he really isn’t going to put any effort into speaking with him at all. Maybe Childe has just, once again, ruined one of the few good things in his life.
“Tartaglia, what are you doing?” Childe hears several footsteps approach, and he looks up to see three of the older Harbingers approaching.
“He’s being a fucking idiot again, that’s all,” Scaramouche says with a sneer on his face.
Childe scowls at them all. “Fuck off,” he says, matching Scaramouche’s contempt with his own. He isn’t willing to indulge any of the Harbingers in their usual games and verbal spars, not when it just keeps reminding him of Kaeya and his wit.
He misses Kaeya so much.
Sandrone and Capitano frown at his tone, and when Scaramouche moves to attack him for his words, Capitano stops the sixth Harbinger. “Where’s your other half?”
Childe had been prepared for the possible attack from the Harbingers, but he is not prepared for such a question. He bites his lip at the mention of Kaeya, for it could only be Kaeya that they are talking about.
“Somewhere,” he mutters in a sulking tone. He wonders if he is wrong to avoid Kaeya, but then he remembers Kaeya’s look of confusion after their kiss and how it feels too much like a rejection. He knows how much Kaeya has been hurt by those who he’s loved in the past. He knows how wary Kaeya can be of attachments. Childe only has himself to blame if Kaeya chooses to cut ties between them because Childe has gotten too attached.
“Oh? A lover’s quarrel between the Innamorati?” Sandrone sounds amused as he bends down to peer at the Eleventh and youngest Harbinger. “Is that why Arlecchino has been more curt than usual?”
Capitano scoffs. “As if you haven’t been just complaining about Colombina choosing Signora’s over yours today.”
“Oh do shut up, darling, I don’t want to hear it,” Sandrone stands straight, giving the captain a droll stare.
Childe wants nothing to do with whatever politics there currently are between the Harbingers. He brushes his palms over his trousers as he stands to leave, but he is stopped by Capitano’s hold on the back of his collar.
“Why not spar with us, Tartaglia?” Capitano chuckles. “I’m sure our vanguard would need some practice while we’re all in between missions.”
“Now, now, captain, the boy’s quite heartbroken,” Sandrone drawls. “We wouldn’t want an unfair fight with our youngest now, would we?”
“Just say he’s fucking useless without the twelfth and--”
Before Scaramouche could finish his sentence and before Sandrone could come up with his next retort, Childe slashes at them both with a hydro polearm. Scaramouches hisses as he dodges the hit quickly. Capitano only gives him an unimpressed look behind the shield he’s summoned. The Puppet doesn’t bother dodging, and Sandrone only throws his head back and laughs as he wipes at the slash on his face with a thumb. Childe only gives all of them his most feral and dangerous grin.
“Well, well, it seems our darling Tartaglia is not quite so broken, after all,” Sandrone says as he licks at the blood on this thumb, and the wound on his faces closes quite easily with the use of his own hydro skill. “Shall we see how well you’ve grown in our absence?”
“Bring it on!” Childe says as he breaks his polearm into his two shortswords. The familiar call of battle makes his heart race, but he finds that a part of him still aches at the missing partner at his side. Still, sparring with the other harbingers should be able to help him forget his little problem with Arlecchino.
At least for a while.
He should be fine while it lasts.
------
He isn’t fine.
Besides sparring with the harbingers, his days avoiding Kaeya are spent clearing out hilichurl camps and treasure hoarder camps that come too close to Her Majesty’s Imperial City. By the time night falls, he is exhausted enough that he doesn’t seek Kaeya’s familiar warmth beside him or his partner’s soothing voice as he reads to him before he falls asleep.
His hearts aches, and he doesn’t know why he still insists on avoiding the Twelfth Harbinger when it’s only making him miserable.
If he is to believe the other harbingers, it seems that Kaeya is just as upset as he is.
But the Fatui are liars, and the Harbingers are the worst of them all. Surely, Kaeya must only be happy now that Childe no longer clings to him, now that Childe no longer burdens him with his constant presence.
“Of course he’s upset,” Colombina says as she parries his next strike with her sword. He doesn’t know why she’s agreed to spar with him, but he’ll take any fight he can get to distract himself from Kaeya. “You run away every time he enters a room. If you keep this up, Pantalone’s bound to kill you.”
“He can try,” Childe grins as the other harbinger follows her parry with quick strikes that even he has difficulty keeping up with. “I’d welcome the challenge.”
Colombina frowns as she tries to disarm him. It still surprises him even now how the Little Dove can look so gentle but be so deadly. His sword flies through the air, and he pants in exertion as he drops his hand to his side.
“One more,” he demands from the older harbinger.
Colombina’s lips press into a thin line, and her eyebrow arches at him. “You’re too reckless on your own,” she points out, as if Childe doesn’t know this for himself already. Then, she tilts her head to the side and looks past his shoulder. “You’ve let him rely on you too much.”
Childe tenses as he realizes who is behind him. Kaeya’s footsteps are as light and silent as always, but his voice sends a familiar thrill through him. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Like he has done in the past few days, Childe tries to run away, but Colombina seems to have been expecting that already because she stops him with a hold around his wrist. When he tries to use his hydro vision to reform his body and escape, she only uses her delusion to freeze him in place. “Stay, Childe,” she tells him with a bell-like laughter. “Stop being so childish. Arlecchino, I’ll leave him to you.”
“Thank you, my lady,” Kaeya says as he gives her a genuinely grateful smile. Childe has missed that smile. He’s missed all of Kaeya’s smiles. “As promised, I owe you a favor.”
“Of course.” With those last words, Colombina leaves them on their own.
“Hi,” Childe says, a little awkwardly, still with half of his body frozen to the ground. “Are you going to let me out?”
“That depends, Tartaglia,” Kaeya says with an amused smirk. “Are you planning on running away again?”
“I won’t,” Childe says resolutely, staring at Kaeya who only gives him an affronted look. “I won’t!”
Kaeya chuckles before he extends his arm towards Childe, holding his pinky out. “Pinky promise?”
“This is so stupid,” Childe says with a nervous laugh, but he does as Kaeya asks and hooks their fingers together. “Pinky promise. Happy now?”
Kaeya hums. “Well, you still owe me a prize.”
“A prize?”
“A day of whatever the winner wishes to do,” Kaeya repeats, smirking as the realization spreads on Childe’s face. He remembers the night of their victory, remembers feeling the thrill of their little competition as he charges through the noble’s estate only to find Kaeya at its heart with the leaders of the nobles’ resistance already apprehended. “We made a bet, remember?”
“Right,” Childe says, and he doesn’t try to run when Kaeya waves a hand to destroy the ice into a flurry of snowflakes. He doesn’t know what Kaeya is planning or where the situation is headed. He’s felt nothing but fear and anxiety about their friendship in the last few days that he just feels exhausted now when he’s facing Kaeya.
Kaeya doesn’t look upset or worried. Childe wonders if he should be prepared for the heartbreak that Sandrone mentioned.
“Shall we go?” Kaeya asks him.
“Sure,” Childe acquiesce, like he always does to any of Kaeya’s demands. This time, he does it without any challenge or fighting. This time, he doesn’t run away. “Wherever you want to go.”
He is the Tsaritsa’s Vanguard. He should never have ran away in the first place.
Kaeya brings him outside Zapolyarny palace and outside the city. Their trek is spent in comfortable silence, and Childe can almost pretend that it is just like any other outing they’ve had before. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that they are heading to the lake near the city. The snow crunches under their boots as Kaeya pushes past the last line of trees that borders the lake.
Her Majesty’s Everwinter means that the lake is completely frozen solid. However, there is already a small camp set up by the shore, and Childe perks up at the sight of the fishing gear waiting for them there.
“You told me you liked ice fishing,” Kaeya points out. “I had to ask around about it.”
“But you won,” Childe says, turning to Kaeya with his furrowed brows. “We’re supposed to do something you like, Kaeya.”
“We drink enough times,” Kaeya says with a laugh. “And if you like this so much, then I want to try it too. I’ll leave it to you to teach me.”
Childe grins. For the next few moments, they don’t speak of the many things between them. They do not talk about the kiss during the banquet or Kaeya’s tears the night before that. Childe certainly does not ask about where Kaeya’s been the last few days, when all Childe has done is fight and avoid the other.
For the next few moments, they are back to normal, and Childe teaches his best friend how to fish.
With Kaeya’s control over cryo, it is easier to cut a hole in the ice, so much so that Childe ends up teasing him about cheating. After that, it was a matter of setting up their lines and cutting up baits. Kaeya has always been a quick study, and Childe enjoys teaching Kaeya all that he loves about ice fishing.
Kaeya catches Childe’s hand in his as Childe reaches to cut Kaeya’s bait for him. “Colombina’s right,” Kaeya murmurs with a frown. His thumb brushes over the hastily bandaged cuts on Childe’s knuckles and fingers, things he didn’t really deem necessary for the healers to look at. “You are really too reckless without me.”
“I was giving you space,” Childe says, giving Kaeya the explanation, the excuse that the other had never asked for. Kaeya hums, but he says nothing else. Childe gives him one last questioning look before going back to preparing their bait. He decides to risk asking Kaeya of his own activities the past few days. “What about you then? What have you been doing without me?”
“Cleaning up,” Kaeya says, with a sudden dullness in his eyes and voice.
“Oh? The traitorous rats in the Fatui?” Childe feels the same anger in him at the thought of them, at how he’d almost lost Kaeya.
“No, not this time,” Kaeya fiddles with the line as he talks, the only sign of nervousness from the usually composed Arlecchino. “The Kreuzlied came to Snezhnaya.”
“The what?”
Kaeya looks up from where he has wrapped the fishing line around his fingers. Childe unwinds it from the tangle that Kaeya has done and hooks the bait before giving Kaeya the rod back. “I forget that you’re not from Mondstadt, and you pay little attention to anything else.”
Childe pouts at the other Harbinger. “Insulting me now, my love?”
“I’m teasing,” Kaeya says with a chuckle. “It’s an underground information network. It originated in Mondstadt, but it has spread all over Teyvat throughout the years. Apparently, they reached Snezhnaya while we were taking care of our own assignment.”
“So stopping them is our next assignment?”
“No,” Kaeya answers, plucking at the line on his rod while he stares at where the hook disappears into the water. “How long does it take for a fish to bite?”
“Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours,” Childe grins at the horrified look on Kaeya’s face, and he continues on. “Sometimes never.”
“And you just wait? You?”
“Kaeya,” Childe whines and pouts as he adjusts his hold on his own fishing rod. No fish has bitten either of their bait, and he might have been scared of Kaeya getting bored, but Kaeya’s smile makes it clear he’s joking. “Why do you think I enjoyed listening to my father’s stories while we were fishing?”
“I learn such lovely things about you all the time,” Kaeya says with a soft smile. Childe’s words die in his throat, and he swallows them down, feeling his heart clench at Kaeya’s words. He wonders if they are going to speak of the banquet night now, except Kaeya’s expression has turned sad and distant, and Childe remembers the night before the banquet instead.
“What is it?” He asks, leaning forward and wondering if it would be too much to take Kaeya’s hand in his own, to press kisses all over his face, and to assure him that Childe will never leave his side again.
Would that be something that Kaeya wants? Would the other Harbinger prefer that he keeps his distance?
“Diluc has joined the Kreuzlied,” Kaeya says, and Childe sees Her Majesty’s everwinter reflected in the star in his eye. Childe feels the same cold of that winter in his veins, like someone has pushed him into the lake below them.
Amidst the frost in his veins, he thinks that it is no wonder Kaeya was crying that night.
“Is that what the Jester wants?” Childe says, and instead of freezing winter, he feels the raging tides of anger and indignation. “For you to chase him away from Snezhnaya?”
For Childe, Snezhnaya has always meant home and family. However, he’s been with Kaeya long enough to know that Kaeya holds another home in his heart, no matter how much he might deny it, no matter how much Kaeya insists that he doesn’t deserve it.
For all of Kaeya’s grief and longing, Childe feels the same sorrow. For all of Kaeya’s resignation and bitter cold, Childe feels righteous anger instead.
“My dearest sworn brother has long left our borders,” Kaeya says with a twist to his mouth and bitter venom in his words. Kaeya makes a frustrated noise before he sighs and takes a deep breath instead. “The First simply wants me to check if he’s left any clues I might recognize in his destruction of our strongholds. I just...I realized that he’d hate me even more once he realizes where I’ve gone.”
“He doesn’t matter. Kaeya, he---” Before Childe can finish his words, Kaeya’s line goes taut. Kaeya fumbles with the rod in surprise, and it slips from his grasp. Uncharacteristically, Kaeya dives for it, and Childe barely catches him, pulling him back until they roll onto the cold snow on the lake’s shores, their fishing gear abandoned on the ice.
Childe groans into where his face is buried in the fur around Kaeya’s neck, and he feels himself relax when he feels Kaeya shake in laughter, hears the amusement in it, loud and clear and oh so genuine.
Childe raises his body away from Kaeya’s, balancing on his forearms and caging Kaeya underneath him. Kaeya smiles up at him, so wild and free. So perfect and beautiful.
“We’re both such disasters, aren’t we, Tartaglia?” Kaeya whispers in the still winter air of the forest, as if they were both keeping a secret from the empty world around them. His laughter dies as he reaches to cup Childe’s face in his gloved hands, and Childe feels so very warm and flushed despite winter’s cold all around them. Kaeya’s thumbs brush underneath his eyes, and he closes them, relishing and leaning into such gentleness.
“Kaeya,” he whispers. “Don’t.”
“You didn’t let me give you an answer that night.”
Childe opens his eyes to see Kaeya staring straight at him, his eye dark and unreadable. “You don’t have to give me anything.”
Kaeya’s lips quirk into a smile. Framed by the snow and soft fur, he is every bit as beautiful and divine as he was under the moonlit night. In the cold of Everwinter, Kaeya is his home just as much as Snezhnaya is.
“But I want to,” Kaeya says, still a little breathless from laughing and still with that same breathtaking smile, and Childe feels whatever aching, broken part of him cling onto those words like a lifeline. He does not care if Kaeya’s laughing, does not care if the other harbinger is simply preserving whatever bonds they had.
Their kiss this time is a little less hurried, a little less desperate on his part. Softer and kinder. Childe closes his eyes and covers Kaeya’s hand on his cheek with one of his own. He lets Kaeya lead the kiss, in the same way Kaeya always acts as the lead in their dances and battles. In the same way that he always follows.
When they part, Childe is left breathless and awed, like that first breath he took when he finally clawed his way out of the abyss.
“You are the sweetest dream I could ever have,” Kaeya says in a voice so soft that Childe wonders if he’s even meant to hear it. It is not the words of love that Childe had given Kaeya, but Childe treasures them all the same.
Childe collapses into Kaeya, his head on Kaeya’s shoulder and his hand pressed over the other’s heart, feeling it beat so wildly under his hand. He closes his eyes and prays to his Archon for time to stop for them.
If he is Kaeya’s sweetest dream, then he never wants them to wake up.
------
The doors to Tsaritsa’s audience chamber opens, and the easy conversation with Kaeya stops for a moment as Pulcinella gestures for Kaeya to go in. Kaeya smiles over his shoulder as he does, and Childe laughs in response, feeling something warm bloom in his chest at such a lovely sight.
The doors close shut, and instead of leaving with the rest of his subordinates, Pulcinella stops in front of where Childe is seated on the edge of the balcony overlooking the palace gardens. “Childe,” he says in greeting. “I see the two of you have finally made up with each other.”
Childe grins at his former mentor, feeling a burst of pride in him as he remembers his last conversation with the Fifth Harbinger. “More than that,” Childe says. It’s been days since their fishing trip, days since they came back laughing and pushing at each other with no catch to show for their day out. It’s been days, but Childe still feels as giddy as he did when Kaeya had kissed him by the lake’s shore.
He wonders if it shows. He wonders if Pulcinella can tell. He wonders if he should hide his true feelings on the matter.
His smile drops at the thought. Perhaps, the last few days of peace had put his guard down too much. He’s forgotten how duplicitous most of their colleagues are.
Pulcinella chuckles, but his smile is sharper. Childe tenses when the older man places a hand on his shoulder. “Perhaps you’ve learned some useful things from Arlecchino, after all.”
“Why is everyone so interested in us?”
“You should ask Pierro that,” Pulcinella shakes his head as he removes his hand from Childe’s shoulder. “He insists that the Innamorati must be kept together for them to be stronger. Another one of his cryptic words, I imagine, but what the First decrees, we all follow.”
Knowing that the First Harbinger had been the one pulling the strings and trying to get the two of them together leaves a sour taste in Childe’s mouth. He hasn’t gone for another one of his reckless hunts around the city since he’s made up with Kaeya, but he suddenly feels the urge for it now.
He refuses to let the other Harbingers and their schemes get in the way of his love for Kaeya.
Pedrelino certainly had nothing to do with Childe’s feelings and how it has developed throughout the partnership. He ignores that traitorous part of him that whispers how it was Her Majesty and the Jester who had always assigned the two of them together on their missions, until Childe could no longer imagine not having Kaeya to watch his back.
None of it would change the fact that Kaeya has become an irreplaceable part of his life--that Childe now sees stars in his dreams of the nightmarish abyss, that he now feels comfort in every cold touch from his beloved prince.
It would not change the fact that every story he’s made and told since Her Majesty had given them new names has been for Kaeya and Kaeya alone.
“That’s wrong,” he tells Pulcinella and laughs at the furrowed brows and confused look on the older man’s face. He bares his teeth in a mockery of a grin and reminds the Harbinger that there is a reason that they have all left Kaeya to keep him in check. “I follow a different star than you all do.”
Pulcinella’s form tenses, and Childe remembers how his old mentor had beaten him back then when he was first conscripted in the Fatui. He wonders how it would be if they faced each other now, if he’ll manage to win against the other. It would be a great challenge. “Careful, Tartaglia,” Pulcinella warns him, his old nickname replaced by his formal title. “Some might construe your words as treachery.”
“Let them,” Childe scoffs. “I am Her Majesty’s loyal soldier, born and raised in the Everwinter within her borders. She is my Archon just as long as I am Snezhnaya’s child. But Kaeya? Kaeya is a choice I made, no matter what schemes you’ve all done.”
Pulcinella chuckles at his words, and Childe feels like a child again, being told that he is too unruly for his own home. But then, a soft look passes on the older harbinger’s expression, as fleeting as Her Majesty’s gentle words. “I’m sure Her Imperial Majesty will be pleased to hear of your convictions.”
Before Childe can answer, the doors to the audience chamber opens. Kaeya tenses at the threshold as he notices they’re standoff. Pulcinella nods his greeting at the Twelfth Harbinger before giving Childe one last pointed look. “You need to learn the schemes you despise so much. Do it for the choices you’ve made.”
Pulcinella leaves them with those parting words, and Childe slowly relaxes before turning back to Kaeya. “Shall we go?”
“Not yet,” Kaeya says. He gestures towards the doors to the throne room. “Her Majesty wishes to speak with you.”
“With me? What could I possibly tell her that you haven’t already?”
Kaeya gives him a hesitant smile. “You’d be surprised,” he says with a pondering look as he fixes the mask on Childe’s head. “She gave me her blessing for us both. Maybe she wants to give you the same thing.”
“Alright,” Childe says. He hasn’t seen Her Majesty for a long time, and he suddenly feels nervous and unsettled all at once, not knowing what she’ll ask of him. “Wait for me?”
Kaeya grins at him. “Always,” he responds before pulling Childe for one quick kiss.
Childe smiles into the kiss. He knows the choices he’s made. He doesn't regret any of it.
------
When Childe wakes that night, it is with a knife in his hand, already intent on attacking the intruder in his room.
But just like the night of their return to the palace, it is only Kaeya that stands by his bed, face shrouded in the shadows of the room. “If I wanted you dead, love, you would be already,” Kaeya teases as he leans over him before taking the knife from his hand.
For a moment, Childe thinks that it is a repeat of that night, that perhaps Kaeya is seeking comfort just as Childe always that. But there is something wrong with this picture. Kaeya is not in his bed clothes at the moment but instead wears the uniform of a Fatui recruit.
“Kaeya?”
Kaeya gives him a look of amusement. “Who else?” He asks. “Do you let other people into your room so easily? Am I not as special as I thought?”
Childe huffs at the tone, and because Kaeya is never one for unnecessary things, his clothing means that this visit isn’t as casual as either of them would like it to be. “How can I help you?”
Kaeya grins at him, but there is something strained and a little manic in that smile. It reminds Childe of himself, and he wonders if they are starting to pick up each other’s habits, learning from each other as Pulcinella has pointed out. “I need to break into Dottore’s workshop. Will you come with me?”
“Alright,” Childe agrees far too easily considering they are talking about another colleague. It should scare him how easily he trusts Kaeya, how much he’d be willing to do for him. Perhaps, Pulcinella was right to question his loyalty. “Let me get dressed. Should I wear a uniform like yours?”
Childe rummages through his wardrobe. “I don’t think you have one,” Kaeya points out, and of course, he would be right. However, Childe does find his old uniform as an agent and wears that instead. Kaeya sits at the edge of his bed, playing with the knife he took from Childe. It shouldn’t be so impressive to see Kaeya handle the weapon so easily, but it is anyway. “Aren’t you going to ask why?”
Childe laughs, but he decides to play Kaeya’s game. “Why?”
“Her Majesty gave me some answers regarding Mondstadt as a reward for our victory,” Kaeya answers, and Childe finds that he is surprised to actually get one from Kaeya. “It isn’t enough. I need to know more.”
“Okay,” Childe says as he faces Kaeya once he is dressed. “Let’s go.”
“You’re not going to tell me to stop?”
“Do you want me to?”
“No, I would do it anyway,” Kaeya stands up, and he returns the knife to Childe, who pockets it as soon as he gets it. “I just thought you’d find it wrong.”
“What’s wrong with it?” Childe laughs, and he cups Kaeya’s face in his hands before giving him a kiss. “Dottore’s an asshole anyway. Let’s give him something to actually be pissed about.”
Their little side mission goes considerably well. This late at night, there are few people actually guarding Dottore’s workshop, and those who are present are easily taken care of between the two of them. Childe waits by the door as Kaeya looks through the files and other records left inside for whatever he is looking for.
This scheme against one of their own reminds Childe of the Jester’s interest in them and Kaeya’s own words before falling asleep the other night. Without thinking too much of it, he asks Kaeya, “What did you mean the other night, when you said Pedrelino was from Khaenri’ah?”
“I said that?”
“You don’t remember?” That startles a laugh out of Childe. “I guess we were both pretty tired. Maybe I heard wrong.”
“No,” Kaeya says and he fixes the records and files back into place, always so meticulous and composed. “You heard right, probably. He told me things I’d only expect of someone from Khaenri’ah.”
“Is that why he’s so interested in what happens between us?”
“Did he ask you anything?” The look of worry in Kaeya’s eye and how quickly he comes to him should be alarming, but Childe finds it comforting instead to know that Kaeya cares. He still feels the warmth of blood from the guard that they had to dispose of in his palm, but Kaeya takes his hand so easily in his own, unafraid of the darkness they both share.
“Pulcinella told me some things.”
Kaeya opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, they hear alarms blare, and they know that their time is up. Childe grins at Kaeya before bringing their interlaced hands to his lips, and kissing the tips of Kaeya’s fingers as he lets go. “I’ll race you to my room?”
Kaeya smirks at him. “Let’s set the same bet as before.”
“You’re on,” Childe replies. Kaeya quickly moves to the open doors of the workshop. When Childe tries to follow, he finds some ice holding his feet into place that costs him some time. Not enough time for him to be found but just enough to give Kaeya that head start. He realizes what Kaeya is doing as he tries to catch up to him, realizing that they’re taking a more convoluted route back.
A more convoluted and visible route. An alibi.
His utterly brilliant Kaeya laughs and taunts as he leaves ice patches for Chide to slip on or tries to stop his movement with walls of ice. The alarms grow fainter and fainter as they move to the opposite side of the palace. Childe plays at Kaeya’s game, using his own vision to try and trip Kaeya, and it is easy to forget that they are running from a crime they had just committed.
Childe laughs as he finally catches up with Kaeya near their rooms. He wraps his arms around Kaeya before backing him into the door of his room. Their kiss is interspersed with laughter and breathless gasps from their run. Childe nips at Kaeya’s lips before dipping lower, kissing a line from Kaeya’s jaw down his neck, relishing the drag of Kaeya’s fingers through his hair.
He fumbles with the doorknob beside Kaeya, but before they could enter the room, they are interrupted with the sound of someone pointedly clearing their throat.
“Do neither of you lovesick idiots hear the fucking alarm?”
Childe pauses, grinning at the look of disgust and disbelief in Scarmouche’s face. “It’ll sort itself out,” he says without any concern as he reaches for Kaeya once again, but Kaeya stops him with a hand on his chest.
“I’m sorry,” he says, charming and polite. “We were a bit distracted playing around. We’ll check it out. Please, lead the way.”
“You win this time,” Childe says as he laces their fingers together, and Kaeya’s answering smile just then becomes his sweetest dream. Behind Scarmouche’s back, the Innamorati share a look and a smile that spoke of the secrets and bonds between them.
For this, they need neither Archons nor stars to bear witness, not when the name of lovers has always been theirs to claim.
------