oh no there is only one bed!!! or you and childe have to share a bed FINAL!!
utc mentions of violence, suggestive stuff, strong language. thank you for reaching this far. this has been a blast to write.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
stone gate
“oh, stop that, y/n,” said tartaglia as you pulled off his clothes. “aren’t you being too brash? we’re still outside.”
you pinched his cheek, pulling so hard that tears fell from his eyes. “can you please shut up for once? you’re bleeding.”
tartaglia watched as you checked his wound, your face gone from angry to serious. it wasn’t anything to be honest, merely a scratch. he had far worse injuries than this, and funnily enough, you had been trying to stab him just a few moments ago.
he smiled, finding it refreshing to be cared by you again.
tartaglia didn’t even had the opportunity to fight the hillichurl. before he could stand up, you had already grabbed it by its neck and begun scolding it using its language.
it was shocking to witness, to say the least, and it brought him back to that time when he first met you, when he was the receiving end of your spitefulness. in retrospect, he still received that look of yours everytime you met, but that hillichurl sure will be shocked seeing it for the first time.
he could only pity the hillichurl, and perhaps, maybe, a side of him felt envy too. you left quite a horrifying impression, but still lovely all the same.
you started to wrap his wound with a bandage, your hands slow and gentle. he never did see you use them on yourself, always for other people. he noted the cuts on your face and the bruises on your hands, all left unattended.
he brought his thumb to your jaw, studying your wound.
“what?” you asked, looking up at him. when you spoke, his eyes fell on your lips, still swollen from his kisses. drops of water slithered temptingly at the corners of your face, to your neck and collarbone, sliding to the inside of your shirt like a tease.
“a bit hungry, that’s all,” he said, licking his lips. “i should fix up your bruises too.” he brushed a thumb on your skin and it delighted him to see you shiver under his touch.
“they’re nothing. they’re just scratches,” you said, turning back to his arm.
“i know,” he said, smiling. “i just want to do it for you.”
—
the two of you sat next to each other by the bonfire, cuts and bruises all cleaned and bandaged now.
you had made the fire using the hillichurl’s bow as kindling, and childe cooked some of the fishes he caught earlier. he said he’d prepare one of his specialties from his hometown, but when you checked the pot, it look like a monstrosity entirely out of this world.
“the ingredients aren’t right, but this would do,” he said, pouring you some soup in a bowl. the fish that floated on it still looked alive, eyes and mouth opened so wide that you could almost hear its screams of agony.
“you dropped these,” he said, bringing you back from your growing nightmarish thoughts about his dish.
childe handed you your vision, and jia’s delusion as well, both glowing bright under your presence. “you ought to be careful next time,” he added.
you glanced at them for a second, before grabbing the vision and putting it in your pockets, somewhere far away from your skin. you placed the delusion around your neck, its strange, menacing buzz vibrating against your chest. childe looked at it with a small smile, but said nothing.
“it seems like a waste to throw it away,” you murmured, stroking jia’s delusion with your fingers. “i mean, after jia spent all his life trying to find it.”
you didn’t need to explain anything to him, but the words just came out of your mouth. “and having an anemo element helps me a lot with my travels.”
you actually used the delusion more often than your vision, and it felt like a sin against the heavens. the effects were bad at first and you almost threw it away along with your vision, but your body eventually gotten used to it, unlike with your vision.
you also had a bit of help on how to utilize it more safely from that fatui spy that always frequented the church, inexchange for quality snacks and trinkets. though he still did advise using caution.
“it’s as if i’m bringing jia with me in my travels too. he always wanted to be an adventurer, you know,” you added, before sipping the soup. it didn’t taste bad, it was rather well-seasoned.
“and you keep your vision in your wallet?” he said, chuckling. he lounged next to you, listening to you speak.
“it’s annoying, that one. i don’t like it being near me,” you said. “it makes me think of you, which is even more annoying.”
childe’s expression looked proud, as if you wanting him dead was an achievement. “i don’t mind it.”
“what the fuck are you talking about?” you asked, almost sputtering your soup.
he beamed at you, sitting straight. “i think it’s cute that you think about me all the time. you shouldn’t feel bad about it,” he said. “a lot of people want me dead, you’re one of the few who actually tried.”
“that’s messed up,” you said, but not entirely surprised. “well, i mind. i feel horrible about it.”
“because you love me?” he said, and the way he spoke about it so casually made you almost drop the bowl.
you looked at him incredulously. “because it’s murder? are you insane?” you cried, yet your heart was beating fast, and it quickly dawned on you that asking childe if he was mad was like asking if fishes could swim.
“that doesn’t matter,” he said, his mental condition of no apparent interest to him. “i love you too, so any attention from you works for me.”
a strange noise started emerging out of your throat. it sounded terrible.
“are you choking?” he asked, patting your back. “the fish still has bones, comrade. you should be careful when eating it.”
“you just said something weird,” you said, still coughing.
“really?” he asked, innocently. “care to repeat it for me?”
you put down the bowl and glared at him, the back of your ears burning. “i swear to the gods, i will erase you with my own hands.” you tried to sound threatening, yet your voice sounded too small in your ears.
“i’m beginning to see a pattern here. are you going to fight me again?” he leaned closer to you, a teasing grin on his face. “perhaps a kiss will follow? ”
you knew he was trying to fluster you and it was working, much to your irritation.
“but before you do that,” he said, watching as you start to pull out your dagger again, “i have news about the person who had sold your friend fake delusions.”
—
childe was brief about the news and didn’t hide the implication that he had punished the culprit severely. it sent a chill on your spine, how he spoke about it as if it was an ordinary thing, taking someone else’s life.
you were afraid to ask any further. you never even thought about the man that tricked your friend. when you look back to that night, you knew jia understood what he joined in the moment he made a deal with the fatui. the search for a delusion was the only thing that made him feel truly alive, and while it angered you that he had to be a fool, he was aware of it all.
“they won’t be deceiving anyone anymore, ” said childe, a frigid smile on his lips.
“this entire thing, it runs deeper than a single person tricking another person,” you started. you hesitated to point it out, not when childe thought he was serving some twisted sort of justice.
“one might say,” you said carefully, not entirely looking childe in the eye, “creating delusions in the first place is the problem. isn’t the fatui the root cause of this?”
you watched childe’s reaction, a part of you hoping he had the heart to agree. “isn’t your tsarita behind all of this? why people fall under the delusion’s warped power?” you added.
childe’s face didn’t betray anything but you knew you struck a nerve. his eyes looked.. empty, depthless, and you finally got a glimpse of a part of him that actually terrified you, because right now, you knew he was too far off to be saved.
he reached for the delusion wrapped around your neck, the tip of his forefinger touching it. “perhaps,” he said, his tone severe. “but is this problem no different to the heavens not granting visions to people like your friend?”
he leaned closer to you, until his lips pressed against the skin under your ear, just next to your pulse. “do you know what delusions are made of? what my god is capable of, my young adventurer? her ambition runs beyond any of us.”
his hand slid through your hair, grasping a handful. it didn’t hurt but his hold was firm. he tugged at it, gaining more access to your neck. you could sense that he was very, very angry– the way he tried to control his breathing, how his kisses felt so deliberate, the way his teeth hovered dangerously against your pulse.
and still, it made you impossibly warm. perhaps, this was what your late friend felt upon touching his perfect delusion for the first time. the feeling couldn’t be possibly described by words alone.
you laughed, and he stopped, his breaths like a threat touching your skin. you were such a huge, fucking fool.
“what?” he asked. how did he feel so cold now, and you so, so warm?
“you hate it when i talk badly about your god,” you said, cupping his face and looking at him in the eye. you brushed your thumb against his lips and he stared at you, his body so rigid that he looked like a doll stuck behind glass windows.
“what did she ever do you, childe?” you asked breathlessly, as you leaned towards his mouth.
it was your turn to make him all hot and flustered now, you thought, as you parted his lips with your tongue. he opened almost immediately, letting you taste him this time.
he tasted like the meal he cooked, peculiar yet rich, terrifying but surprisingly delightful. yet, it felt as if you’re only hitting the surface of his true identity. your movements were gentle, your kisses slow and long as your fingers traced lazy patterns at the back of his neck, trying to pull him back; your friend who always shared his warmth with you, who comforted you when you cried, and unabashedly told you that he liked you everytime you met.
you drew out a short gasp from his lips when you scratched his scalp. you noted this in your mind, mapping his noises and sensitive spots so you could find these treasures anytime you wanted.
you tried to ease him with your soft licks and soothing touches, and when his shoulders relaxed, you moved to his jaw, nuzzling your nose into it, trailing slow, wet kisses down to his neck. you feel him hitch his breath, his arms wrapping around your back.
you kissed him as if you were caressing him. where was your friend who shared such uncanny kindness beneath his fake smiles?
“y/n,” he called your name feverishly, rubbing his face in your hair, embracing you tight. “what are you doing to me?”
and once more, he was back from the cold, your impossibly warm friend warm again.
—
“where are you going after this?” asked tartaglia after packing up his things. he still had plenty of work to do, and it was time to return to the harbor.
“after my commissions? liyue harbor,” you replied, putting out the fire. “the rite of parting is coming soon and adventurers always receive generous commissions there during the event. it’s the perfect opportunity to earn a lot.”
“you shouldn’t go to the harbor,” he said, hastily. “it’s unsafe there.” he did not want to elaborate any further, but there may not be a liyue harbor anymore if his plans did not go smoothly, and he couldn’t tell you that.
“it can’t be unsafe, it’s liyue harbor,” you said, frowning. “and i want to see the geo archon myself. jia thought highly of him. perhaps he could grant me wisdom on how to save more money.
"i also heard that the traveller and her little friend are on their way towards there. i want to meet her again.”
“you’ve met the traveller?” he asked, genuinely curious. he had heard plenty of reports about the traveller named lumine, how she rescued monstadt from stormterror and harnessed powers despite not having a vision. she had skirmished with the fatui a couple of times too and defeated them all, to his growing interest.
a stranger and a warrior, he’d like to meet her someday.
“once,” you said, “i asked her to pick some apples and acorns for me even though they were right next to me. i wasn’t really serious, but she did it anyway.
"she’s a kind person though i can’t say the same about her floating friend. she wants to explore teyvat to look for her brother, and i thought, here’s someone i could look up to,” you said, your eyes glimmering. it was cute.
“can’t you believe it? she’s a foreigner in these lands and yet i could feel that she’ll travel the entirety of teyvat before i even could. she’s awesome.”
tartaglia chuckled. “i’ll look out for them. they seem to be a fun bunch.”
then, his expression turned serious. “but, really, i advise you not to visit the harbor for the mean time. there are,” he started, trying to find a good explanation, “rumors that something serious is going to happen concerning the arrival of the geo archon.”
you looked at him, your eyes narrowing in suspicion. “the geo archon is a god. threats are nothing to him.” he could sense that you knew that he was going to be involved, that he was the threat, but did not want pry.
“okay, but don’t miss me too much,” he chirped, trying to distract you. “i’ll be very busy too, running errands and doing shady fatui stuff, as you call it. so you won’t see me at all,” he laughed teasingly. “i’d hate to see you sad and lonely because of me.”
you closed your eyes, taking the bait. “i’m not going there for you you, you dumbass. i’m there for money,” you said, “and the geo archon, the traveller, the good food. why should i be looking for you?”
“because you like me,” he said, grinning.
you turned away, a small blush on your ears. you fell silent for a moment, taking deep breaths.
then, you turned back, that stubborn, determined look in your eyes that drove him madly inlove with you. “so? what if i decided to look for you?”
“huh?” he said, surprised you even admitted it.
“what if i want to see you?” you said. “and try to fight you again? and kiss you afterwards and argue with you again? what if i want to do all of them?”
tartaglia could feel his heart flutter again. it’s not like it stopped beating so fast everytime he sees you in the first place. he just learned how to ignore it, because then, he won’t be able to talk with you like this. he’d just start kissing you out of nowhere and it would only piss you off.
“i’m sick of running away, you know. jia told me i was a coward and you told me i wasn’t. you were right,” you said, turning his words into your weapon.
“if i’m going to travel the entirety of teyvat like a true adventurer, then i could face my feelings for you.” you looked so annoyed saying it that he almost howled in laughter seeing your face.
“is this a confession?” he asked, trying to make you falter but no, you glared at him straight on.
“no. this is a promise,” you said, pointing your dagger at him. your face was all red and your hand shook as you spoke the words out loud.
he could feel the smile on his face cracking, and his heart felt strangely lonely.
“i may not even see you ever again if you go there, comrade,” said childe, smiling sadly. he did not want to hear a promise from you. you were too kind to carry a burden like that, and he knew how heavy promises were. he carried so many of it that he had enough.
“so, instead, promise me you won’t go there,” he said.
tartaglia began to walk away, wanting to hear no more. why do you stubbornly resist him everytime he was being genuinely worried about you?
then, you started crying.
—
you always cried when your emotions got too heavy inside that they just burst forth into tears and overt passionate confessions, much to your humiliation.
besides seeing pigeons die, childe always got you crying like a toddler. it was as if his face was made to be a towel to catch up all your pent-up frustrations when things get too confusing for you. right now, you wanted to kill him and kiss him at the same time, and it was just too much.
“childe!” you yelled at his back. “i will find you and fight you and i will kiss the living shit out of you, out of pure spite. i swear and promise this to the seven gods, you bastard. you can’t do anything about it.”
your heart was in your mouth and here you were, making the weirdest promise to the most maddening man in teyvat who won’t even spill any of his own secrets. you wouldn’t be surprised if the archons decided to strike you with lightning at this very moment. this was downright blasphemy.
was this was jia felt when he tried to seek for something he couldn’t have?
you watch childe, his shoulders shaking before he turned around and let out a loud laugh. a big, long laugh that made his entire face crinkle upwards, a laugh that made you forget that he was a cold-blooded harbinger with empty eyes, someone who had too many scars and blood on his hands for his youth.
and, for a moment, you did not see him as childe with his different masks and deceiving smiles, but just a boy, laughing his heart out because of you.
when he finally stopped laughing, he wiped the tears off his face and took deep breaths. he was so far away from you now, and the distance seemed like a prelude to a farewell.
“my name is tartaglia. i don’t wanna see you make promises to my codename. it’s unfair,” he said, smiling.
“perhaps someday, i can tell you my real name but that’s enough for now. i’ll tell you once you’ve kept your promise. this is my own promise to you.
"in liyue, contracts are set in stone. in snezhnaya, we keep our promises close to our heart, and we keep it at all cost,” he said, raising a hand, his pinky up. you raised yours as well, copying the gesture.
he started chanting a song in his language and you listened carefully, he sounded so far away that you had to tilt your ear hear his voice, whispering the foreign words so you could remember it.
after he was done, he said, “now go, y/n. find me, fight me, then kiss the living shit out of me out of spite. i hope we meet again someday.”
then, he turned, and he was gone. and for once childe, no, tartaglia, he was the one running away, and you were the one going to seek him.
you wiped your tears with your knuckles and turned to the marshes. the bastard didn’t even said goodbye.
for now, you needed to collect some horsetails, you thought, heading deeper within dihua marsh’s fields, the statue of the geo archon glowing bright nearby.