Chapter Text
Alright, Ajax was just going to go out and say it.
He didn’t ‘get’ the whole appeal to sex. Never has. Back when he was younger it was a more acceptable stance, but getting tossed into a military regiment at 14 meant you got exposed to shit at an early age – innuendos, dirty jokes, raunchy songs sung over bottles of firewater they passed around the campfire in the dead of night. It was all his company could ever think about, apparently, and Ajax tried to see where they were coming from at first, but he gave up after they laughed when he tried to ask.
“You’re just a late bloomer,” one of the hydro skirmishers told him past the rasp of his mask. “You’ll understand eventually.”
Well, ‘eventually’ never came. Ajax outgrew his company, then his regiment, and soon enough he was kneeling in front of the Tsaritsa herself, receiving a title and delusion one after the other: Tartaglia, eleventh of the Fatui Harbingers.
The promotion came with all sorts of benefits – his own sleeping quarters, the privilege of choosing his underlings, and a work allowance with enough zeroes at the end to make anyone’s head spin. Don’t get him started on the pay. Lets just say his family will never want for anything and leave it at that.
The less obvious benefits took time to notice. Ajax was an attractive young man by most standards, a fact that caused him no small amount of trouble back before he became Tartaglia. Nothing bad happened when he was still underage, thank the Tsaritsa, but as soon as he turned 18, he was suddenly fair game. Women, men, it didn’t matter, they propositioned him all the same. After enough time out in the Schneznayan snow, people learned to take whatever they could get. This was where his previously mentioned attractiveness became a very real issue for him. Whenever someone was off the clock they were getting piss drunk and either gambling with the others or trying to find someone to spend the night with. Ajax thrived in conflict, but Skirk could never have prepared him for the minefield that was people drunkenly flirting with him
But it was all a thing of the past after his promotion. His Harbinger status kept all but the bravest or stupidest pursuers off his back, and the once-in-a-blue-moon confession was a lot more manageable than a proposition every other night. He couldn’t deny that most of the people who approached him were pleasing to the eye, but even so, he never felt anything toward them aside from general discomfort. So he always turned them down.
He had overheard several rumors about himself as a result of his persistent rejection. His men swore up and down that he was some kind of experiment from Dottore, others argued he was Sandrone’s latest puppet, but no matter how wild the theory, it always had something at the root of it: he turned down some of the most ‘attractive’ people in the Fatui, so there must be something wrong with him.
Maybe his time in the Abyss messed him up, twisted something up in his head and left it like that. He couldn’t really say that he minds. Just from observing the people around him, he can reach a conclusion as certain as a blade to the throat: relationships, romantic or sexual, just aren’t worth the trouble. More than one person has had to be reassigned because of some fallout between them and someone else in the company. Archons, he had to stop a murder when one of his underlings caught her partner with his pants down in some other woman’s tent.
He may have let her get a few good hits in before he interfered – betrayal was betrayal, after all.
Back to the point.
Ajax had never seen the point of any kind of intimacy. So it made his libido something more of an annoyance than something he wanted to share with someone – a problem solved and cleaned up in less than five minutes. He never had to worry about any workplace crushes or messy affairs.
And then he went to Liyue. His archon had entrusted him with obtaining Morax’s gnosis for her grand plan to go against the heavens, and Tartaglia is nothing but loyal to his warrior tsaritsa.
He hadn’t expected for Liyue to be so much fun . A whole new roster of underlings, debt collections, and a large array of performances to attend. Even the people had their own sort of charm – reasonably cautious, but that caution was always quickly tossed into the harbor when he pulled out a hefty bag of mora. Some of them even warmed up to him, jokingly offering a discount if he would go on a date with their daughter (or granddaughter, depending on how old the vendor was). There was always a level of polite humor in the suggestion, so Ajax had no problem laughing it off, declaring himself married to his work. The vendor would laugh, and then they would proceed like the interaction never happened.
People were more reserved about their relationships in Liyue, and Ajax couldn’t think of a better example of that than one resident funeral consultant: Mr. Zhongli himself. If Ajax was attractive by most standards, Mr. Zhongli checked all the boxes. Striking eyes, silky hair, a seemingly endless knowledge on the history of whatever topic was being discussed. Sure, he was a bit financially moronic, but it added to his charm. The first time Mr. Zhongli had forgotten his wallet with Ajax they had racked up quite the bill at the Third-Round Knockout. The consultant’s surprised face, followed by the quick flash of pure defeat in his eyes as he realized, was enough entertainment for Ajax to comp the meal. The memory was still a reliable way to get a huffed laugh during long hours of paperwork or reading his underling’s progress reports on the forged sigils of permission.
Did he feel bad about what he was planning? A little, but hey, Morax was a godkiller. If he really cared about his people, he’d show up in their time of need and save them. Then, after he was weak from fighting Osial, Ajax would swoop in – most likely in his Foul Legacy – and steal away the gnosis. No one knew of his transformation here in Liyue, so maybe people would suspect, but they would never be able to know for sure unless Ajax let the cat out of the bag.
It was all going to plan. Until the impossible happened: he started getting feelings.
It started pretty small, in the grand scheme of things, a quick moment of eye contact between him and Mr. Zhongli during dinner. Ajax had made one witty comment or the other and had actually won a small chuckle from the man across from him – no small feat. Their eyes met across the table, and Mr. Zhongli held this… warmth , like he was looking at someone he genuinely liked. And that was new for Ajax. He’s seen all kinds of looks before, the greedy and the fearful and everything in-between, but never warm, not unless it was from Tuecer or Tonia.
Mr. Zhongli wasn’t under any illusions like Teucer and Tonia, though, he knew full well just who Ajax was – and yet he still looked at Ajax like he was something worth adoring.
Ajax couldn’t meet Mr. Zhongli’s eyes for the rest of the night. And it only got worse from there. He became hyper-sensitive to Mr. Zhongli’s very presence. Just standing near him was enough for Ajax to be on high-alert, paying attention to every move. Every gesture, from the way Mr. Zhongli hummed to let a vendor know he was listening to the way the seabreeze tugged at his hair.
They were in a crowd browsing the day’s goods one day when someone bumped into him and almost knocked him over – embarrassing, for a warrior like him, but even he had moments where he could be caught off guard. Right when he was about to catch his balance, Mr. Zhongli reached out, as if without thought, and tugged him close. They were roughly the same height, but he stumbled yet again, his head landing on Mr. Zhongli’s chest.
Ajax could feel Mr. Zhongli’s voice shake what few surviving brain cells he had. “Ah, my apologies, Childe. I didn’t mean–”
“It’s okay!” Ajax says, his voice just a touch strained as he pulls away from Mr. Zhongli. It was strange, he’d never seen Mr. Zhongli do anything more strenuous than carrying whatever he purchased (with Ajax’s money) that day,.
So how was Mr. Zhongli absolutely ripped under that tailcoat?
It haunted him.
For a while.
So maybe with this new, strange obsession with mr. Zhongli, it wasn’t so surprising what happened next.
Ajax gasped when Mr. Zhongli’s lips latched onto his neck, squirming from where he’d been pinned against the bed. A dark chuckle emanate from Mr. Zhongli’s throat, close enough that Ajax could feel it on his bare chest.
“Eager, are we?” A hand – was it gloved? Ajax couldn't tell, dizzy from the feeling of Mr. Zhongli’s lips moving against his neck – snaked down, down, down, until Ajax bucked up into the touch.
A whine escaped Ajax’s mouth when Mr. Zhongli pulled his hand away. He wanted more – he needed it. His whole body burned, but it was like pure magma where Mr. Zhongli made contact with him. Where Ajax couldn’t stop moving, Mr. Zhongli remained firm and steady, a rock against the tides of Ajax’s need.
The scent of incense, wine and glaze lillies – a scent uniquely Zhongli – clouded Ajax’s reasoning with a heavy haze of lust. “Not to worry.” Mr. Zhongli promised, bringing his hand back where Ajax needed it. “I’ll take good care of you…”
Ajax woke up in a daze with a stain on his boxers and the grim realization that this has become a Problem. But how did it become a problem? This had never happened before! What made Mr. Zhongli different from the others? Was it his smile? The dry, once in a blue moon humor that made a sly smile stretch across his face? The endearing forgetfulness? The look? Oh fuck, it might have been the look.
The dream had felt so real. It was like Mr. Zhongli was actually there, doing those things to Ajax. Pinning him down, running his hands along Ajax’s body, strumming him like an instrument to some sensual tune. And all Ajax could do was take it, kept in place by Mr. Zhongli’s unreasonable strength–
He looked down at his crotch, where a very conspicuous tent was forming again.
This. Was. A. Problem. Even more so because he had dinner with Mr. Zhongli tonight. Could he even face the man after this? Just the memory of that dream was enough to do… this. What would happen if the man himself were actually there? He didn’t want to find out.
So, in his first act of cowardice since he left the Abyss, he ran. Well, more like he never showed up. He deliberately took on a massive workload and instructed Ekaterina and the rest of the staff not to disturb him, staying in his office long into the night, staring at paper after paper until the words started to blur together.
When he opened the door he was the only one there aside from the security team. A letter sat on the floor right in front of his door. He recognized the quick but efficient handwriting as Ekaterina’s
The consultant came by to ask after you. Told him you were busy.
He was gonna give that woman a raise, he swore it.
The next few days went along the same line, with the dreams getting worse every night. He had to… relieve himself more often than not once he woke up – he had touched his dick more times that week than he had in the last six months – and with that came the guilt. How would Mr. Zhongli react if he knew Ajax was having these thoughts of him? If he learned how badly Ajax wanted those gloves to run along his scars and trail down his abdomen–
It wouldn’t go well. It just wouldn’t.
So Ajax kept to his routine of avoiding Mr. Zhongli. This would all go away with time, he was certain of it. He just needed to get over this uncomfortable infatuation with Mr. Zhongli and things would go back to the way they were. A harbinger and a consultant with a healthy amount of distance between them, no closer than what the other was comfortable with.
So why did something in Ajax’s gut twist at the thought?
But there was something Ajax failed to account for, and that was Mr. Zhongli’s persistence. At the end of every late night was a letter from Ekaterina explaining the man had dropped by and asked after him. Her letters got more annoyed the longer it went on, Ajax could sense it in how deep she dug the pen into the paper.
Ajax started at the stack of papers on his desk and sighed. He was in for another long night, it seemed, and for once it wasn't by choice. How the hell does Pulcinella do this every day without losing his mind? Ajax’s body hums with pent up energy, he hadn’t gone on any collections all week and it was starting to affect him. Maybe he can load up on those tomorrow, set out early in the morning and spend the whole day harassing moronic treasure hoarders whose eyes got too big for their wallets. An excuse to let loose some misplaced aggression, archons, that sounds like paradise right now.
He got through a quarter of the papers before someone approached his office – Ekaterina, she was the only one of his employees that stomped in heels. He leaned back in his seat and sighed, waiting for the inevitable knock on the door.
He wasn’t disappointed. “Sir,” her voice came in muffled through the door, but the barrier did nothing to tone down her exasperation. “The consultant is here again.”
“Send him away, Ekaterina.” She had no problem doing it before, so why announce it now? Is this her way of telling him to face the music?
“I did, but he’s refusing to leave this time. He says he’s willing to wait.”
The pen Ajax had been idly spinning in his hand flew out of his grasp and hit the floor in a deafening clatter. “...That might be a while, Ekaterina. I’m a little swamped over here.”
“I’m aware, sir. I told him as much, but I’m afraid he insisted. He was making conversation with the door guards when I left to inform you. What are your orders?”
He wasn’t stupid, Ekaterina would throw Mr. Zhongli out his ass if Ajax gave the word, but wouldn’t that be a little harsh? Maybe harsh was what Ajax needed, the ghosting route obviously wasn’t working the way he wanted it to.
But what if Mr. Zhongli took it the wrong way and never talked to him again? He didn’t want that, he just needed some time to get himself under control again.
“Sir?” Ekaterina pressed.
Ajax hung his head. “Let him wait.” It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say these papers would take all day. Mr. Zhongli was a patient man, but that patience had to have some limits, right?
His estimate had been correct: it was closer to one in the morning when he finished up the last stack of paperwork. Ajax made sure to rummage around the collection files before trying to leave, snagging a few for himself and leaving a note for whatever poor secretary had the morning shift.
There was a small knot of tension in his gut the closer he got to the lobby. Surely Mr. Zhongli wasn’t still waiting, right? That’d be crazy, even for the money-dense consultant. Ajax let out a tiny sigh when he rounded the corner and saw the waiting room barren of anyone besides the skeleton crew left to watch the place this late at night. The two guards at the door gave him the typical salute as he passed by, a salute he sluggishly returned, murmuring a quick “at ease,” before grabbing the doors and swinging them open.
There was something beautiful about Liyue at night. The few lanterns still lit casting the cool stone warm shades of orange red and yellow. He strolled down the streets idly, marveling at how quiet a harbor town like this can get. It wouldn’t stay this way for long, in three hours the fishermen would be setting out to catch their daily haul, merchants rising early to do inventory before opening their doors. Even in the moments of sleepiness, there was the promise of activity to come.
See, his first mistake was letting his guard down when he saw Mr. Zhongli wasn’t in the lobby. He should have known better than to assume he was home free. He was just about to turn the key to his apartment when a dreadfully familiar voice spoke up from down the fifth-floor patio.
“Childe?”
Ajax damn near leapt out of his skin, whirling around to face Mr. Zhongli like a kid caught sneaking back into the house. His mama used ot say distance made the heart grow fonder, he used to say that was a load of shit – but fuck, Mr. Zhongli looks incredible right now. The distant glow of the lanterns made his irises stand out in the dim lighting of the patio, a late night/early morning breeze gently tousling the shorter locks of hair hanging in front of his face. But his expression… Ajax couldn’t make sense of it. It was sort of pinched? Like there was a rock in his shoe or something.
Mr. Zhongli stayed quiet for a moment, waiting for Ajax to speak – but his voice abandoned him somewhere between getting startled and taking a moment to inappropriately admire how good Mr. Zhongli looked in this lighting. “You’ve been avoiding me,” Mr. Zhongli continued, “may I ask why? When I think back on our previous interactions, I am unable to discern anything I said or did that may have upset you.”
“Avoiding you?” Ajax parroted, unable to smother the panic in his chest completely. Shit, shit shit shit. Keep it cool, Ajax! Fake it till you make it! “Mr. Zhongli, I’m not sure how you got that impression, but I’ve been really busy at work – completely swamped. The paperwork was as tall as my head some days. I only finished up ten minutes ago.” That much, at least, was true.
“Yet no one else in the bank showed any sense of urgency today, or for last week, for that matter.” He took a step closer, his expensive boots clacking on the fine wood of the patio. It rings in Ajax’s ears like a gunshot. “I did not fail to notice the pitying looks the workers would send me, either.” Another step. The cold wood of the apartment door pressed against Ajax’s back as he leaned back on instinct. Mr. Zhongli caught the action and stopped dead in his tracks. “Childe, did I do something wrong?”
“No!” Ajax looked around. While the area was suitably empty of eavesdroppers, it hardly felt like the right place for a conversation. “Look– can we talk about it inside?”
Mr. Zhongli considered it, then inclined his head in a silent gesture of ‘lead the way’. Ajax forced himself to turn his back on Mr. Zhongli and finish unlocking the door. He never hunted often – more of a fisherman, if he was being honest, but this didn’t feel very different from a hunting dog staring down a rabbit, the way he felt Mr. Zhongli’s eyes burn into his back as he led the man into his apartment.
Ajax had been to funerals with a livelier atmosphere. Heh, it was even more fitting since Mr. Zhongli was a funeral consultant. Maybe Ajax could get a quote from his boss – the little girl? Hu-Tao? That sounded right. He might get a discount, since he’s about to do half the work, digging his own grave.
Mr. Zhongli made no move to sit down, and to be fair, neither did Ajax. After a full twelve-ish hours at the desk, he couldn’t bring himself to sit back down even if he wanted to.
Ajax coughed into his hand, breaking his gaze from Mr. Zhongli to examine literally anything else. ”Well, I’ll say it right now: you didn’t do anything wrong. This is a me problem.”
“Are you perhaps ill?” Mr. Zhongli was suddenly much more alert, scanning Ajax for any signs of sickness. “It’s unwise to push yourself when you’re feeling unwell, Childe. I know a few herbal teas that might–” he went silent as Ajax raised a hand.
“No, I wasn’t sick.”
“...Forgive me, Childe, but I’m finding myself rather lost. You say it’s nothing that I did, and you say you’re not sick, then what else could it be?”
There it was again, that warmth, or at least a shade of it. Mr. Zhongli was looking at him with such open concern, desperation, almost. Like the thought of losing Ajax’s company was a terrible thing.
Things that had been simmering in his chest for the last week came bubbling up to the surface. He threw caution to the wind the same time he tossed his hands in the air and exclaimed, “it’s because you keep looking at me like that! You entertain my jokes, you keep inviting me to meals, and you look at me with that damn expression on your face!” He strode up into Mr. Zhongli’s space and jabbed a finger into his chest hard enough to make the man sway backward. “I was fine with what we had before, but then you looked at me like that and suddenly I’m no different from some teenager who just found out what his dick could do!”
What he said caught up with him seconds later, the regret came even quicker. He tried to step away, put some distance between them so he wasn’t so close when Mr. Zhongli rejected him and he was gutted like a trophy catch, but Mr. Zhongli grabbed his wrist before he could. Mr. Zhongli’s grip was firm, but not enough to bruise. Ajax could try to break away – and Mr. Zhongli would probably let him, he’s always been the gentleman – but he just stood there like a spooked animal, praying that if he didn’t move Mr. Zhongli wouldn’t go in for the kill.
“I think I have an understanding of the situation now,” Mr. Zhongli said in the heavy silence between them. Ajax stubbornly kept his eyes away from Mr. Zhongli’s face. He didn’t want to see it, the regret, the disappointment, or worse, the disgust.
His breath hitched when Mr. Zhongli’s other hand reached up and cupped his cheek, gently turning his face until he had no choice but to meet the other man’s eyes.
Any air in Ajax’s lungs got punched out the moment he registered the look on Mr. Zhongli’s face. There was no disgust, no disappointment, and certainly no regret. The man holding his wrist and face in either hand was smiling , and not the small, polite one he often donned while walking the streets, this smile was deep enough to make laugh lines appear on Mr. Zhongli’s face. And his eyes, they– they look at Ajax like he hung the moon or something. “Childe,” his voice shook with some untold feeling, “am I right to take this as you confessing some level of attraction toward me?”
Ajax bites his lip and forces his eyes to look at the ground. His cheeks burned with embarrassment, and maybe just a little bit of excitement. He wasn’t misreading things, was he? Mr. Zhongli sure seemed happy about this turn of events. “I… never felt this way before. About anyone. And it freaked me out, so I thought if I gave myself some time I would get over it.”
“Attraction can’t be treated like a common cold, Childe.” There was a real note of humor there, and Ajax scowled at it. Mr. Zhongli cooed at his flustered response. Cooed. Ajax tried to pull his wrist from the other man’s grip and put an end to his humiliation, but Mr. Zhongli tightened his grip. “Look at me, Childe?” There was a flash of satisfaction in Mr. Zhongli’s eyes when Ajax did as he was asked. “Good. Thank you. Now, may I kiss you?”
Ajax’s brain short-circuited at the thought. A kiss? He’d never given them much thought before, his only point of reference was what he heard from the other soldiers, but the thought of a kiss right now, a kiss with Mr. Zhongli, made a familiar heat start to stir in his belly. Mr. Zhongli runs a gloved thumb over his jaw, waiting for an answer. “Yes,” Ajax practically gasps, “yes, Mr. Zhongli, please–” he cuts himself off with a tiny hitch of breath when Mr. Zhongli leans in close, close enough that their breaths mingle.
“I think,” he murmured, “you can call me ‘Zhongli’ at this point.” And then his lips were on Ajax’s, a gentle press of mouth on mouth. It was new, it was perfect, it wasn’t enough.
The noise Ajax made was nothing short of desperate as he stepped closer into Zhongli’s space, trying to recreate what he’s heard and move his lips against Zhongli’s. The sounds went right to his stirring cock, the feeling only amplifying when Zhongli reciprocated with a chuckle. “Slowly,” he speaks against Ajax’s mouth, “the night will last a few hours more.”
Ajax makes a noise of protest, trying to pick up where they left off only to gasp when the hand holding his wrist let go and snaked around to the back of his neck, squeezing with just the tiniest bit of pressure. Not enough to hurt, but enough to send a thrill down Ajax’s spine. Were it anyone else, Ajax would spear them through with a hydro blade for trying to touch such a vulnerable area, but when it was Zhongli it sent a head-to-toe thrill through him. Zhongli’s gloves were cool against his steadily rising body temperature, high quality leather creaking in Ajax’s ears when Zhongli tightened his grip a touch, testing Ajax’s response.
“You said you had never felt this way about anyone – am I wrong to assume this is your first time?”
Ajax shook his head, eagerly staring into Zhongli’s eyes in a silent plea to hurry up. He was dying over here, he needed more. More kisses, more touches, more .
Something flashed in Zhongli’s eyes, something darker, more possessive. Fuck, what did Ajax have to do for that side to take over? “I suppose we should try and go about this slowly, then. I want this to be pleasurable for you, Childe.”
“Ajax. My real name, it’s Ajax.” If he could call Zhongli ‘Zhongli’, it was only fair he evened the score.
Zhongli tested the name on his tongue, sending another flash of fire through Ajax. “Well then, Ajax,” he let go of Ajax’s neck and stepped away, Ajax wanted to weep at the loss of contact. “I believe we should move this to the bedroom.”
Ajax barely got the chance to open the door before Zhongli was on him again, grabbing either side of his face and damn near kissing the breath out of him as they moved further into the room. The back of Ajax’s knees hit the foot of the mattress, but Zhongli continued pushing until they both fell onto the bed with a whumph.
Ajax gasped into the kiss when Zhongli’s thigh pressed between his legs. Zhongli took the opportunity to slip his tongue into Ajax’s mouth, exploring idly as Ajax’s head swam with the newness of it all. He was never one to back down from a challenge, however, and tried mimicking Zhongli’s movements, pleased to hear a satisfied rumble in Zhongli’s chest.
They could stay like this all night and Ajax would be content, but then Zhongli shifted, the thigh between his legs rubbing up against his crotch, and the promise of something better started to take root in Ajax’s mind. He cautiously rolled his hips against Zhongli’s clothed leg and gasped into their kiss when a bolt of pure pleasure coursed through him.
Zhongli pulled away from the kiss and leaned back on his heels, observing Ajax laid out on the bed, flushed and dazed like a drunkard. “Is this okay? I do not wish to overwhelm you for your first time with another.”
Oh, but Ajax wanted to be overwhelmed. If he was like this after making out with Zhongli, what would everything else be like? He was eager to find out. Still panting to regain his breath from their kiss, he reached a hand down and slowly unzipped his pants.
Zhongli eyed the action hungrily, but stayed where he was. Trying to break that composure was going to be fun. “I need you to say it, Ajax.” Zhongli told him, his voice just a touch more strained than it was before.
“Yes,” Ajax breathes out, “please, please touch me. I want this, I want you. ” Were he in his right mind he would have been scared by how much he meant that. He had gone his whole life without thinking of anyone else like this, but now Zhongli is here in his bed, with swollen lips and a noticeable tent in his pants. Ajax hoped he looked half as appealing to Zhongli as Zhongli did to him.
Zhongli let out a shaky breath and reached down to help Ajax out of his pants. Ajax held his breath as Zhongli’s hands brushed against bare skin now – the touch charged with the promise of what was about to happen.
“We’ll start slow tonight and work our way up to more… intense activities later,” Zhongli announced, holding eye contact with Ajax. His gaze was resolute, unwilling to bargain, so Ajax didn’t even try. He’d accept anything at this point, even grinding on Zhongli’s thigh again. Anything that might smother the heat burning him from the inside out.
Ajax propped himself up on his elbows and reminded himself to breathe, watching Zhongli’s fingers dance closer and closer to the fly of his boxers with desperation. He shudders a sigh when Zhongli touches him for the first time, pulling his cock out from its confines. That shudder turned into a full body flinch when Zhongli ran a thumb over the tip, the cool metal of his ring a shock to Ajax’s system. It was so different from the times he would touch himself to the thought of Zhongli, he wasn’t in control here. His pleasure left in the hands of someone else, someone more experienced, and the way Zhongli was working his cock was nothing short of masterful.
“Did you know the most sensitive part of the cock is near the tip?” Zhongli asked, though Ajax was too out of it to register what he asked. All he could focus on was his Zhongli was tracing his hand along the underside of Ajax's straining cock, pausing near the tip. “The frenulum is typically covered by the foreskin, but with the right pressure–” He pressed in and Ajax yelped, jerking away from the stimulation and moving up on the bed. Zhongli clicked his tongue with a furrowed brow. “That won’t do,” he declared, “Ajax, I can’t teach you pleasure if you flinch away from it.”
He wanted to be good for Zhongli, but everything was so new , his body would keep flinching away if they kept going like that. For a moment, Ajax resented his inexperience, but then came a much more tempting idea. He closed his eyes and took a breath. When he opened them, he forced up all the bravado he had and declared, “then make sure I can’t get away.”
He was so used to being the hunter, to having all the power. But in every dirty dream with Zhongli, he was never the one in control. Everything else so far had been better than anything he could have dreamed up, so how would it feel to lose control for a little bit? To be at someone else’s mercy? Zhongli better appreciate this, it wasn’t every day a Harbinger was eager to submit.
Something cracked in Zhongli’s composure, Ajax saw it in the way his eyes flashed gold. It didn’t take a genius to realize Zhongli had some kind of adeptus blood in him – the man was just too ethereal to be fully human – but the expression on his face was downright ravenous before he put it back behind his mask of propriety. Ajax wanted to see it again.
“Keep me where you want me, do whatever you want and force me to sit there and take it.” Zhongli’s free hand, the one not on Ajax’s cock, spasms, like he had to stop himself from grabbing Ajax and shutting him up. Ajax was so close to getting what he wanted. He went in for the final blow. “Teach me, xiansheng.”
He gasped when Zhongli released his cock, grabbing Ajax’s hips and forcing him onto his belly. One hand lets go to snag his flailing arms, bringing his wrists together near the small of his back. A flash of light illuminated the room, and when Zhongli pulled his hand away Ajax found a tiny shield of geo energy keeping his wrists together. He was turned back around and crowded up against the headboard, able to do nothing but retreat as Zhongli quickly ate up the ground he gave. The cool wood dug into his back as he had no choice but to stare into Zhongli’s eyes.
“We will agree on a safeword, in case it truly becomes too much for you to handle.”
Ajax pouted playfully. “Aw, don’t count me out just yet, Xiangsheng. I’m resilient. Whatever you do, I won’t break.” Though he wouldn’t exactly mind if it was Zhongli doing the breaking.
“All the same, a safeword would do both of us good. I won’t proceed without one, Ajax.”
“Fine.” He racked his brain for something they could use. “How about ‘squid’?” He distinctly remembered a time when Third-Round Knockout accidentally gave them another table’s dried squid appetizer. The look on Zhongli’s face had made Ajax snort water at the time.
Zhongli closed his eyes and sighed. “Yes, I think that will work.” Ajax had no time to celebrate his little win against Zhongli, for the man had placed his hand on the inside of Ajax’s bare thigh and erased any thoughts of teasing him. “Now, back to the lesson.”
Ajax’s breath hitched when Zhongli pulled back and started to lean down. “What are you– haaaah?!” With his hands tied behind his back he could do nothing but watch as Zhongli, proper, dignified Zhongli, lowered his head and licked a stripe up Ajax’s cock. It was different from a hand, warm, slimy, leaving a cool trail where the saliva was left behind. If Ajax weren’t already against the headboard he would have jerked back again from the sensation. The way he was now, he had no choice but to watch Zhongli as he proceeded, licking at Ajax's slit and tip like it was some kind of treat.
“Saliva is hardly proper lubrication, but in the absence of other options it will have to do.” Zhongli said, his voice sending vibrations through Ajax’s cock.
“Wh- wait- '' Ajax thrashed when Zhongli took him back into his mouth and sank down halfway to the base. The tight warmth encasing Ajax nearly drove him mad, and that was before Zhongli hummed, sending vibrations right down to the base. He bit his lip to cut off the rest of the startled whines, wriggling uselessly as Zhoingli went deeper down. The sensation alone was almost too much, but watching Zhongli take him all the way down, his nose brushing against the hair at the base of Ajax’s cock, was enough to make him buck up into Zhongli’s tight warmth. Zhongli took the sudden movement without complaint and swallowed around him, making Ajax nearly wail as the heat around him got even tighter.
Zhongli spent a few more moments with Ajax in his mouth, running his tongue along what he could and swallowing around him a few more times. He pulled away from Ajax’s cock with a lewd ‘pop’, reaching up to wipe away extra spit from his mouth with the back of his hand. Ajax watched it all in a daze. He’d been so close to cumming right then and there, and the loss of Zhongli’s mouth reduced him to begging. “No, no, no ,no. Xiangsheng, you can’t leave it at that. Please–” He whined as Zhongli wrapped a hand around his cock again, giving it a single pump. The sensation was still a bit rough, but it went a lot smoother with Zhongli’s spit.
Zhongli must have deemed it acceptable, because he pulled away and readjusted himself on the bed, replacing Ajax against the headboard and putting him between his legs. His bound wrists pressed against Zhongli’s crotch, feeling his cock twitch against Ajax’s hands as he wriggled around trying to find a comfortable position.
Zhongli leaned in, placing his chin on Ajax’s shoulder as he whispered into his ear. “You look fit to eat, Ajax. How delightful that I am the first one to see you like this.” his hand returned to Ajax’s cock, starting up at a leisurely pace as he stroked him. His other hand was wrapped around Ajax’s abdomen, keeping his back pressed possessively against Zhongli’s torso. “If I had my way, I would be the last, as well.”
“Yes.” Ajax gasped. He wasn’t sure what he was saying it to: Zhongli’s words or the return of the heady pleasure racing in his veins. His legs thrashed around with every pump, but then Zhongli interlocked their legs, too, forcing Ajax’s legs apart with them. He had no choice but to sit still and take what Zhongli gave him. The realization made him whimper, pressing up against Zhongli’s torso as he watched the man’s hand work on his cock with lidded eyes.
He lost himself in the steady pace, moaning whenever Zhongli switched things up and ran a thumb over his leaking slit or squeezed the base. His moans only grew louder when Zhongli started leaving marks on his neck in the form of sloppy kisses, licking at the sweat building on the nape of his neck. The sensation sent a full body shudder through Ajax, one smothered by the way Zhongli had him thoroughly bound. His hips bucked up into Zhongli’s hand without his say-so, his body just as desperate as he was for something more.
Zhongli’s mouth paused on his neck, “patience, Ajax,” he chided against the back of Ajax’s neck, “pleasure is at its best when it's drawn out.”
And draw it out Zhongli did. It didn’t matter how much Ajax would beg, buck, or whine. He was unassailable, keeping pace and idly murmuring dirty nothings into Ajax’s ear.
“There, just like that. It wasn’t so hard to listen, was it?”
“You’re doing so well. So pretty, desperate and wanting. I truly am blessed.”
“Oh, you will look so beautiful when you cum. I’ll burn it into my memory to remember for as long as I live.”
Eventually Ajax gave up on trying to struggle, falling limp and only twitching every once in a while as Zhongli kept pace. The hand keeping Ajax pinned to Zhongli’s chest lets go, moving to gently tease Ajax’s lower belly, tracing circles in the space between Ajax’s cock and navel.
Ajax was unsure of how long he had been on the edge, but when he finally tipped over he almost sobbed in relief, spilling white all over the bed and over Zhongli’s hand. It hit so much harder than before – enhanced by the fact it was Zhongli bringing him to orgasm, not his own hand. His body went tight as a wire for a few moments before he slumped against Zhongli’s unreasonably toned chest. He closed his eyes and nuzzled his cheek against Zhongli, forcing himself to get his breathing under control. Zhongli nuzzled him back, breathing in the scent of his hair as he pulled away from Ajax’s now-spent cock and started rubbing patterns into his thigh.
“You did wonderfully, Ajax.”
The praise settled into Ajax's head like a warm blanket, coating his thoughts in pleasant haze until he realized that Zhongli was still hard against him. He tried to sit up, but Zhongli was quick to stop him. “Wait, you havent– I can–”
“Your pleasure is my pleasure,” Zhongli told him as he pulled Ajax back against his chest. “But, if you truly want to, you can please me next time.”
Next time, those two words float around in Ajax’s head and whisper all kinds of dirty things.
First things first, he needed to get lube.