Work Text:
Childe and Zhongli have a
working relationship
when they are first introduced.
They are friends, Zhongli has been teaching Childe about Liyue and it’s customs.
At first Zhongli was thankful for the company and free food, encouraged by the attention and flattered by the respect Childe would show for the information he shared.
The two would while away hours on end talking over any and everything subject while sharing a meal; the two men were very much opposites and yet the people of Liyue harbour came to never expect one without the other.
Zhongli thought himself a well learned man, thousands of years old and he wasn’t surprised when all this time spent with Childe ended in a silly little crush on the younger man.
He wasn’t even surprised, not really, when the flittering of butterflies turned to a tumultuous storm in his stomach at the sight of the Fatui agent.
Falling in love with Childe was both inevitable and impossible but that was what the man was.
He was a horror story whispered behind gossiping hands, a loving, doting brother, an avid historian and an impulsive adventurer.
There was no moment that Zhongli doubted that falling in love with the man wasn’t the most amazing thing to happen, the most real and human experience he could ever have hoped to have. However he knew, with a bone deep and stone sturdy certainty, that Tartigalia wouldn’t love him back.
And that was alright, he wasn’t owed the other man’s love when he already had so much of his time and attention. He knew Childe better than he knew some of the ageless beings he’d fought beside during the archon war and duty was the most important thing to the Cryo archon’s soldier; love wasn’t an option.
Being so knowledgeable and full of acceptance Zhongli didn’t expect the bloody petals that came so suddenly and painfully one wistfully idyllic day they had spent down in the fields of the Guli plains.
It was his first true shock in centuries. He wasn’t pining, he acknowledged that he wasn’t loved back and logically he knew that the best he could hope for would be a friend to last a mortal lifetime.
Zhongli knew the history of Hanahaki; how the legends had travelled like a disease from Inazuma when both countries were just fledgling nations. The petals had never been seen on Liyue shores before then but while not prevalent it still occurred often enough to be easily recognised.
He knew he would never burden Childe with the knowledge and if he could manage he would take the secret to his grave. However that choice was cemented much sooner that would be than he ever expected.
Months pass as Zhongli hides the bloody petals and wracking coughs; Childe questions him several times about his odd behaviour but the faith he’s held in the man ever since their reconciliation after the Gnosis incident remains unshaken as Zhongli reassures him that it will pass.
It doesn’t pass and Zhongli knows soon instead it will be his turn for the greatest mortal experience. An end.
Zhongli had missed a meeting, it could have been hours ago or minutes but he knew that the time he was supposed to be by Childes side had passed.
A brief thought crosses his mind as he lays where he fell when his shaking footsteps had finally faltered watching the sunlight dance through the trees;
I protected him from me, from my love . His resolve hadn’t wavered in the past months no matter the pain and heartache, the suffocating petals or the growing dread of not knowing what was to come. He’d never had to fear being mortal and before he could really enjoy it the inevitable had happened.
Hopefully he would pass peacefully under the swaying branches, fall into a deep slumber and dream of a life of shared love.
Fate ever the unpredictable force of life had other plans.
The enticement of sleep was ripped away as his body was violently jerked upright, hands scrabbling at his face and a desperate voice breaking through his hazy thoughts to jolt the man back to the last moments of his reality.
“Zhongli please! Wake up please!” Childe was here, face strained with pain and voice cracking uncharacteristically. “Why didn’t you tell me? Zhongli please!”
Zhongli could never ignore the man he was willing to die for; he forced his hazy gaze to Childes face and raised shaking fingers to skate across the man’s cheek.
“Why are you crying?” He murmured words slurring through stiff lips. Never had he imagined being so human could feel so much like stone. Already his lower body was cold and unresponsive more reminiscent of his statues than a man.
“Who Zhongli? Who did this to you?” Childe always the fighter was mad, no not mad furious and he was glorious in his fury. “Tell me who it is you’d die for.”
Zhongli could only force out the smallest smile head drooping.
It’s always been you. he thinks in chopped, lagging thoughts. He knows even at the end he would never let the words hurt his love. They will never pass his lips.
Mouth painted red, blood soaking unguarded and now a coldly sticky stain across his chest Zhongli breathed his last with a final thought:
It will always be you .
———
Childe would have to live the rest of his life knowing the man he loved could never be saved, never be avenged because whoever Zhongli had loved; well he had loved him to his dying breath taking the secret to his grave.
Forever protected from Childe’s heartbroken revenge.
He would never know it was he who broke Zhongli’s heart.