Work Text:
The sounds of solid water hitting metal rang throughout the Golden House as Childe unleashed all his fury and betrayal on the former Lord of Geo. Signora keeping things from him was nothing new. The woman had always been shady and secretive. But Zhongli? Childe hadn’t even thought the man capable of lying, and yet there he was, Childe’s target hiding right under his nose, sharing meals with him, spending his money, sauntering around in the guise of a mortician with a pretty face. It hurt, and Childe was going to make him feel his pain.
And if he noticed Zhongli wasn’t putting up as much of a fight as he could have been, well that was just the icing on the cake now, wasn’t it? Was he really that much weaker without his Gnosis? Or was he letting Childe win? Before he ended the ex-Archon’s miserable existence, he had to know. Zhongli stumbled backward from a narrowly-blocked slash of a Hydro blade.
“Are you holding back? That’s only going to make me angrier, you know,” the Harbinger taunted with a playful venom in his voice.
“So, if I say yes, you’ll fight even harder?” Zhongli asked.
“If it’s the truth, then yes.” Blue eyes were hard and cold as a Snezhnayan winter as they locked onto the mortician. “Or are you just that weak without your divine powers?”
Zhongli took a moment to catch his breath, blood the color of cor lapis dripping from the multitude of wounds littering his trembling body. “What if I were to say it was both?” he finally asked. “Would you still…”
Sensing a lull in their battle, Childe lowered his weapons. He was, after all, in much better shape than his opponent. “Would I still what?” he spat. “Don’t tell me the oh-so-articulate walking encyclopedia that is Mr. Zhongli has run out of words.”
Another moment of silence as Zhongli contemplated whether he should say it out loud. Whether he should make it real. Golden eyes finally met Childe’s as he made his decision. With the former god no longer putting on an act, the pain in them was clear to see with how deep it ran. “Would you still grant my wish?”
Childe scoffed. “Wish? What wish? And why would you even have the audacity to ask anything else of me?”
Zhongli’s spear vanished as he wrapped his arms around himself in a feeble attempt as some kind of solace. “Even though I am no longer the Geo Archon,” he said, “I always have been and am still a being of the earth. As such, and having lived as long as I have, I have recently found myself longing to return to it.” He took a step toward Childe as the ginger tried to process the meaning behind the cryptic words. “I have witnessed the triumphs and tragedies of this world for over 6000 years. I have seen nations rise and fall. I have loved and lost over and over and over again.” He continued his strides toward an unmoving Childe as his words began to sink in. “I’m tired, Childe.”
No… He couldn’t mean…
“The test I designed for Liyue was an assurance to myself that my people would be able to thrive without me. There are so many old friends waiting for me,” Zhongli continued. “I’m ready to see them again…” He was toe to toe with Childe now. An empty smile stretched across his face as he took hold of one of the human’s wrists gripping tightly onto a blade of water. “Surely you understand my meaning by now.”
Childe just shook his head, any anger he felt toward the Adeptus washed away by worry. “Zhongli… No…”
“Childe. Tartaglia. No, Ajax…” Zhongli gingerly lifted Childe’s arm so the tip of his blade was resting right where his Gnosis used to be, still smiling as tears gathered and glistened at the corners of his eyes.
“My wish is to die.”