Chapter Text When Ajax woke up the next morning, he felt incredibly comfortable. He couldn’t remember feeling so well-rested since his childhood. He could feel the warmth of the sunlight on his body, the breeze gently coming inside through an open window, the birds outside chirping was then, that he remembered that this wasn’t his own bed and the events of the day before started slowly seeping back into his consciousness. There was a warm weight on him, and when he opened one of his eyes lazily, he could spot long, brown and amber hair fanned out partially over him and to the side of him. He opened his other eye and rose his head from the pillow a little to see was asleep on top of him. With his head resting on his chest, an arm thrown over him. Ajax’s arm around his back. As he observed him, he quickly realized that the other had let go of his transformations completely. At least he guessed it was could see one of the beautifully curved horns, feeling the other pressing into his chest. It didn’t hurt though, they didn’t seem to have a sharp point. Upon closer inspection, Ajax could see a small golden filigree ornament at the end of the horn, with a little yellow jewel hanging from it. Maybe the horn itself was sharp, but this acted like a protection?The gods hair was so, so long. It looked like all of it was long, save for the bangs framing his face, and like there was a lot more hair, which would result in a much thicker ponytail than he usually wore. There was a silky shine to it, making it look incredibly soft. What little he could feel with his arm draped around Zhongli, it was even softer than it swallowed dry when he could see the long, dark lashes resting on Zhongli’s cheekbones. His signature eyeliner had smudged a little, making it look more like a smoky eye than the sharp and sleek line it was usually. He was beautiful. Indescribable divine looked so relaxed. Completely at ease and soft with sleep. It made Ajax’ heart hurt. He wanted this every day, for the rest of his life. Very, very carefully, cautious not to wake Zhongli, he moved his head a little more. Pressing a tender kiss to the top of his head, into his silky wished he could touch him. Caress his back or his face, let his hands run through his hair. Wake him up with a loving kiss. Maybe then they would cuddle some more, enjoying tender touches and kisses, before they would slowly get up to start their day. He would watch Zhongli style his hair and draw his eyeliner with practiced ease honed by millennia. Then maybe they would eat breakfast together, talk about their plans for the he’d be at work trying to pass the time until he could finally leave for lunch and see his beloved husband— He had to stop. If he kept indulging himself in these fantasies, one day he would slip up. And that could have catastrophic consequences. He couldn’t lose Zhongli. He would never, ever know what he truly meant to that was fine. He would just take his love for Zhongli and would use it to be the best friend he could be. He didn’t have anyone else after all, and the adeptus had admitted that he had been terribly lonely before they met. So he would do his best so the brunette would no longer feel was a soft, rumbling noise that he noticed only now. It sounded almost like a cat’s purr, just a little deeper. It was then that he noticed that he could feel the vibrations on his chest. Did- Did Zhongli­—?The fatuus could feel the heat crawl onto his face, and he was very sure he was visibly blushing at the delighted realization. Zhongli purred. While sleeping cuddled up against him, resting on his chest. Did dragons do that when they were comfortable, just like cats? Oh by Celestia, why was that so cute? This man was an adeptus, a god, a former archon, for Celestia’s sake! He shouldn’t find him adorable, wouldn’t that be an offense to someone like him?He laid there for a while, listening to the adeptus softly purring, almost nuzzling his chest in the process. Then, he could feel the other stir with a soft, sleepy noise. First, Zhongli opened his eyes just a little bit, sleepily murmured “good morning, my love”, and with a mildly disgruntled sound moved his face into Ajax’ chest, hiding from the laid completely still, heat on his face getting worse, all the while he could feel his chest constrict painfully. Zhongli had dreamt of his deceased lover. And now he had to upset him, tell him that it was only him, and not… whoever he had been dreaming of.“Good- Good morning, Zhongli,” he said, trying to keep his voice could feel the other man go rigid. Then, with the blink of an eye Zhongli had moved away from him, almost doing a backwards roll in the process. Ajax tried not to let it hurt him too much, thinking of how gently they had been touching each other last evening.“I-I apologize, this was not my intention at all. I… I must have been a little cold during the night. Normally I’d just wake up and get more blankets… I guess I must have felt your body heat and just… acted on instinct without waking up. Not that it is any excuse for this inappropriate behaviour.” The adeptus said, voice still a bit rough with sleep, not meeting his eyes.“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not bothered, you didn’t do anything inappropriate.” Ajax said gently, hoping to calm the other a little bit. It wasn’t like he had been touching him inappropriately or he had been naked or so after all.“You… could have just pushed me off. Or… I don’t know, punched me.” The other man replied sheepishly, fidgeting with the sleeve of his laughed softly. “Yeah right, and then you wake up and I get hit with the wrath of the rock,” he bristled. “I would never.”“I told you, it’s not a problem. Whenever I go home, I sleep with three siblings piled on top of me. And it’s understandable that if you’re cold, you’d seek out warmth. Us snezhnayans are very warm. If you live in a place that cold, you don’t have a choice, you just have to make warmth yourself. I think they even said something in school about how our average body temperature is different from the rest of Teyvat… So I don’t blame a coldblooded dragon for cuddling up to a human furnace.”The god looked at him a bit confused. He looked so different like this, with all his transformations gone. Faint, almost translucent scales scattered in a few places as a reminder that the person in front of him was truly a dragon. It was only then, that he noticed the scaly tail curled around Zhongli, amber fur on it’s tip. “You… didn’t mind?” he asked carefully.“No? If I can be of help to you by being warm, then that’s fine. People have friendships in lots of different ways, if you want cuddling to be part of our friendship, it can be.” As if he wasn’t just saying that because he was selfish, because he had enjoyed it way too much. Because he was so weak for Zhongli, and he couldn’t help but greedily wanting everything that he could get.“Oh. Then… then thank you.” The adeptus said quietly, brushing his hair out of his face. He frowned, apparently only now realizing that there was too much hair. He sighed. “I dropped everything, didn’t I?”Ajax hummed. “I mean you were asleep, so of course you would.”“Normally I don’t, not when I sleep at my apartment. But I guess it was much needed rest, I usually wake up a lot during the night. I didn’t do that once this night.”“That’s good though, isn’t it? You need proper rest too. Even if you’re an adeptus and a god who doesn’t need as much sleep.”The god hummed softly, and after Ajax blinked, the funeral consultant sat in front of him again, hair noticeably shorter and all his divine features gone.“Would you like to eat breakfast here? Or would you prefer to get something in the harbour?” He asked while getting up from the mattress, grabbing his cor lapis hair ornament from the nightstand.“I’m fine either way, I usually don’t eat a lot for breakfast anyways.” Ajax replied, stretching and getting up as well.“You can use this bathroom to get ready,” Zhongli said, taking a brush out of the bedside table and brushing through his Ajax emerged from the bathroom, all freshened up and clad in his day clothes, Zhongli was ready as well. He had hurried, trying not to occupy the bathroom for too long, so he was a bit confused to see that the other hadn’t been waiting for his turn.“There’s a second bathroom just on the other side of this one” Zhongli explained at his questioning gaze, pointing to another door on the other side of the bedroom. “The architects that made this palace considered that I might have a partner or even Children one day, they felt it would be useful to have two master bathrooms.”“How luxurious,” the ginger said. Did Zhongli maybe even have a partner while living in this palace? Did he— no, he would have mentioned if he had children at some point, wouldn’t he?“Luxurious and pretty much unused, like many other things in this palace,” Zhongli mumbled almost inaudible, before starting to walk towards the opted for just some tea, while Zhongli made a quick soup.“What are your plans for the day?”“Hm. I do have a debt collection that I should get done soon. Katya said the debtor was last seen hiding in the ruins in Guili Plains.” Ajax said, fiddling with his took a sip of his soup. “Should I come along? I’ve been meaning to gather some herbs that grow around there, that the parlour uses for embalming practices. You could get your collection done, I can get the herbs, if there’s any problems I’d be close and could help as backup.”“If you’d like, of course.” As if he would ever say no to a chance of spending more time with the adeptus.“One of the realm entrances is there, so we could exit instead of using the teleport network. It would save a bit of time.”“Sounds like a plan to me. Let’s go once we finish breakfast? Better get it done before the debtor has time to move far.” Ajax stretched his fingers a bit. He was a little bit sore after their spar yesterday, but nothing that he couldn’t handle. His shoulder was hurting too, but he would just ignore it. He was used to these pains after god nodded, taking another sip of his soup. “I could always cage him in when needed.”“Should I put you on Northland Banks payroll as my personal bodyguard?” the fatuus asked with a soft laugh. Wouldn’t that be brunette hummed softly. “I’m not sure director Hu would be happy with me pursuing a side career. Not that she needs to know that funeral consultant technically is already only a side career.”“To be fair, you retired from your main job.”“That I did, so I guess funeral consultant is my main job now after all.” Zhongli chuckled, finishing the last of his soup. “I’m done.”Quickly, Ajax took the last sip of his tea, then got up with a nod. “Me too.”“Just put it in the sink, I will take care of it later.” Zhongli said, waving his hand in a dismissive motion.“Are you sure? I don’t mind washing up quickly.”“I am, we don’t want your debtor getting away, do we?”A while later, they were walking through Guili Plains together, keeping their eyes out for the herbs and debtor.“Ah, I can spot some over there. I will catch up with you in a bit,” Zhongli said, walking off to the right. “Do call my name if anything happens and you need assistance!” he called from a distance, only turning back around after Childe gave him a thumbs-up in kept walking further ahead, until he could spot a new looking camp between some of the ruins. That could very well be who he was looking for. Quickly, he summoned one of his hydro blades and kept it in his hand, hidden behind his back. Careful to be very quiet, he approached the to see someone had been faster than him.“Dammit,” Childe cursed, staring at the body that was very obviously the debtor, fitting the description Katya had given him. Considering the whole camp had been turned upside down, all the crates emptied and only the body and tent had been left alone, it had probably been treasure at the state of the body, it had probably been a few days, maybe even shortly after he had been sighted in the first place. With how everything had been left, there was no point in trying to collect anything. He probably wouldn’t even find the treasure hunters in the area anymore.“Done already? That was quick,” Zhongli said from behind him, walking the last bit of distance up to him.“Wasn’t me. He’s been dead for a few days. I think treasure hunters got him,” Childe said with a sigh. “Well, nothing left to do for me.”“I will notify the funeral parlour later to get this sorted,” Zhongli said, looking over the body. “Debtor or not, he deserves a proper burial.”Childe shrugged. “Just bill it to the Northland Bank as usual. I found the body after all. And I doubt his family has the money to bury him, considering how much debt he took up with us.”Zhongli nodded. “How kind of you, I will pass it along to the ferrylady.”“Did you get your herbs?” The ginger asked. Maybe at least one of them would be able to do what they came here to get done.“Some. But I need a few more. There should be some patches between the ruins, I remember there being some last year.” Zhongli said, carefully walking between the ruins.“That’s fine, take your time. I’m not in a hurry, considering my job here is done,” Childe said, walking into a different direction. Maybe he would find something useful. Maybe the treasure hunters were still close after walked for a bit, looking around every now and then to spot Zhongli’s dark hair from afar, making sure he didn’t go too far he noticed movement between the ruins a bit further ahead. He summoned his hydro blades and slowly walked over, careful not to draw attention to he got close enough, he could see a young woman with long, grey hair sitting with her back against one of the walls. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. She looked up at him with light blue eyes, like washed out blue of the liyuen sky after heavy rain. They were tinted slightly reddish and a little puffy, clearly she had been crying.“Are you okay? What happened?” He asked carefully, letting his hydro blade disappear. This woman didn’t look like there was anything he had to worry looked up at him confused. “I don’t understand,” she said.“What don’t you understand?” Ajax asked, leaning down a little.“I apologize, I don’t understand you. Whatever language it is that you speak, I do not speak it.” She said softly, shaking her was weird, because Ajax understood her perfectly. And he did speak the common tongue to her. The languages that he did understand fluently were common and snezhnayan, liyuen enough to get around, though that was slowly but surely felt out of his depth. How was he supposed to help this woman, when she – for some reason – did not understand him? Only one person could help him now.“Zhongli? Would you be so kind, I’m having a… language problem here?” He called, putting his hands around his mouth to make the sound travel farther.“Zhongli?” The woman looked up to him wide-eyed. Wait, so she did know him?It only took a minute or two for the adeptus to come hurrying over. “Childe, what’s the matter? What do you mean a language pro-“ he abruptly stopped, staring at the woman on the floor.“I can understand her. But apparently she doesn’t understand me, though I spoke common with her. It’s… very weird.” Ajax explained, furrowing his brows in confusion, crossing his knelt down in front of her. “Guizhong? Is that you? How…”She surged forward, wrapping her arms around the god, hugging him tightly. “Zhongli! Guili Assembly, it’s all gone! How long have I been gone? It took me a long time to get back my consciousness, but for everything to fall to ruins?”The adeptus carefully returned the hug. “3700 years, my friend. The plains flooded shortly after your death. But how can this be, how are you alive…?”“I did not die. I simply returned to my original form as a dust sprite. I luckily retained my memories and spent all this time gathering strength to gain back a consciousness and corporeal form. This man, I do not understand what he said, is he a friend of yours?”“This is Childe, a dear friend of mine, yes. You do not understand him because he spoke the common tongue, he is not familiar with the ancient liyuen language.” Zhongli explained gently, then turning to Childe. “Childe, this is Guizhong, my old friend.”“But how do I understand her, if she speaks ancient liyuen?” Childe asked, raising a brow.“The geo sigil I gave you. I made it so you would be able to understand ancient liyuen, because the library holds many books written in it, and I didn’t want you to only have access to the other ones. It works for the spoken language as well. Ah, wait,” Zhongli said he took one of Guizhongs hands, doing the same what he had done the day prior with Childe. “Now we should all understand each other. Much easier.”“3700 years…” Guizhong whispered in disbelief. “Where is everyone then, are they safe?”“Don’t worry. We travelled until we reached the coast, there we established Liyue Harbour. Liyue has prospered in all this time, just as you wished. Though many of our friends are no longer with us, I have to warn you.” Zhongli said, squeezing her shoulder. “The archon war was brutal, and only very few adepti survived, much less any gods.”The goddess softly shook her head, then she smiled slightly. “You look a lot different than you used to do. And you act different! Did the mighty dragon calm down after all?” She asked in a teasing scoffed. “I did, I guess. You do not know how Liyue is these days, so I think it would be best if you would stay in my realm for a while. I can get you accustomed to how things are now. I can teach you modern liyuen and the common tongue, so you will be able to communicate.”“Tell me if I can be of any help,” Childe said carefully. He didn’t want to intrude. But if Zhongli could use his help, he would do so, when the knowledge that Guizhong was alive after all these years was gnawing away at his insides. She had been Zhongli’s friend. Best friend, probably even. She knew him much longer than he did, much differently than he did. Maybe was even the person he how was he supposed to compete against her? Having her back, would he even still be important to Zhongli? Would he be needed still? Or would he… would he just become unimportant and a bothersome third wheel that nobody wanted around?Had he gotten so close to Zhongli only to lose him now, like this?