Can't Stop Loving You | Childe x Zhongli | Genshin Impact [COMPLETED]

Arc 2: Chapter 17: Holding On

"Hey." Zhongli said quietly from behind. Tartaglia seemed to jump a little, surprised by his voice. He turned around after a short while, his eyes refusing to meet Zhongli's.

"Hey." He greeted back quietly, "I'm just, uh, making sure things are going fine."

Zhongli could tell he was acting that way because of the incident from the previous day. Even he himself didn't know how to act about it. He thought maybe they'd pretend it didn't happen, but clearly not.

They stood in front of each other for a few seconds, hearts filled with words they didn't dare speak out. Their air was as tense and awkward as it was silent, neither were sure how to go on from it.

Then Tartaglia peeked up, meeting the amber eyes he had loved so much. He didn't expect Zhongli to be looking right at him and immediately broke eye contact. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out and he could only close them.

Thankfully for Childe (not so much for Zhongli), Irina entered the scene, calling out from afar. "Tartaglia, are you done? Let's go look around Liyue for a bit!"

His head snapped upwards, towards where her voice came from. In his heart, he said a silent thanks to Irina for coming. Childe didn't know what he'd do if he continued standing there. He didn't know if he could keep himself from spilling everything out. "I, uh, need to go, I'll see you around." He said, quickly leaving the scene.

Zhongli moved his hand slightly in an attempt to stop him, but let him go in the end. He watched Childe run off with his girl, seemingly oblivious to what he felt. He found a chair and sat down heavily, brushing his hair in an attempt to make himself better. The wedding was only so few days away, how could he possibly win him back like that?

Looking at how nicely the location was decorated for Tartaglia's wedding with someone else, he had to hold back to urge to destroy everything. Zhongli didn't want to go down that path.

Then he noticed a piece of paper, seemingly printed out from a Kamera. It was Tartaglia and Irina smiling happily at the entrance of Liyue, where both of them once stood almost a year ago. They seemed so happy, their smiles so genuine. If this made him happy, Zhongli had to let it happen. Looking at the unfinished decorations, he sighed and resigned to his fate. Zhongli started working, if the wedding would make Tartaglia happy, he'd do everything he could to make it the best for him. Even if it meant he couldn't be with him.

-

"Hey, Tartaglia."

"Yes?" Childe asked politely. He didn't really like someone he barely knew calling him by that, but he had no choice. Most people, stranger or not, would call him Childe, but they were going to be together for life, so he figured that it'd be better to start getting used to it.

"You don't like anyone else, do you?"

Tartaglia paused, blinking in surprise. It hadn't been that obvious, had it? Plus Irina didn't know about the both of them and she definitely wasn't there when they shared their moments. She couldn't have figured it out, could she? Inside, he was panicking slightly. He didn't want to break this up. "Why do you ask?"

"Just... I don't know. Curious." She said, shrugging.

Tartaglia couldn't tell anything from her words or body language. Either way, he couldn't answer yes so he shook his head and said firmly, "no. Definitely not."

"Really?"

He swallowed slightly. Why was she asking like that? Childe knew that they were both out on the streets of Liyue, strolling leisurely, but he felt like he was being interrogated. He felt nervous, anxious, like a young child that just told a lie and was waiting if the lie was going to be detected. "Of course. No one in Liyue interests me." That was one big fat lie, but he did his best to speak firmly and tried to believe it.

Irina looked at him with an incomprehensible expression without words. He couldn't tell if she believed it or not, but Tartaglia kept a straight face, hoping for the best.

Thankfully, she smiled a split second later, "I see, I see. Anyway, look at that! What are those?" She said, changing the subject. Irina pointed to a bunch of red flowers being displayed at a flower shop.

With just a look, he recognized them as silk flowers. Irina pulled him closer and he noticed the other glaze liles on display too.

"Oh they are beautiful."

"These are silk flowers. Those are glaze lilies." Tar taglia said, "beautiful, aren't they?"

"Oh! Those are even prettier!" Irina said, turning to look at the glaze lilies.

This was way too familiar. Too familiar. Memories were flooding back and his heart started pounding rapidly against his chest. He could hear blood rushing in his ears as he desperately tried to block them out. The more he tried to block them out, the worse it became. Childe resisted the urge to scratch himself, to run away or do something to distract himself.

Irina noticed that he seemed to have stiffened up as well and looked at him worriedly. "Tartaglia?"

"I—I'm fine."

"No you're not. Are you sick? Lets just head back first."

He didn't protest. Tartaglia didn't want to stay anyway. He just wanted to curl up in his bed with Zhongli holding him tightly, telling everything was going to be okay.

-

Tartaglia couldn't take it anymore. He had to go see Zhongli. He felt horrible for leaving him like that previously and after that flashback, he wanted nothing more than to speak with him. It didn't have to be anything serious. It could be something stupid, as long as it was just the two of them, it'd be fine. Childe had told Irina he was staying in his room, but he lied. He slipped out of his window and went to search for Zhongli.

It was late at night, definitely past two in the morning, but Tartaglia wasn't resting until he found Zhongli. The man wasn't home or at the funeral parlor. He had no idea where he was.

That was until he stumbled across him at where the wedding would take place. Tartaglia noticed him sitting at a table, seemingly working until he noticed that Zhongli was nodding off. Was he here working the whole day? By the looks of the number of customized pieces made by Zhongli, it seemed like that was the case.

Zhongli didn't notice another person entering the place. He was too busy trying to keep himself awake. He was already sleep deprived and this wasn't making it any better. He started tilting sideways, his eyes closing on their own and he found himself leaning against something. That was fine. His head felt so heavy, it was nice to have something else supporting it. Then he seemed to realize something wasn't right and his eyes snapped open. Zhongli sat up right and looked up to see Childe next to him, looking right back at him.

"Oh, it's you."

"Yeah it's me."

"... I was under the impression that you were avoiding me." He blurted out. Zhongli hadn't expected himself to sound so hurt.

Tartaglia certainly did not either. "I... Well. I wasn't. Sort of."

"It's fine. You're here now. Do these look nice?" Zhongli asked, pointing to the decoration pieces.

Childe nodded, "they are quite pretty, but let's get you home, okay?" His heart ached knowing that Zhongli was here slaving away, working for Tartaglia's wedding with someone else. Especially since the one he wanted to be with was Zhongli.

Zhongli blinked a couple times, "I'm fine."

"It's late, plus I don't think you ate properly, did you?" Childe said, frowning slightly. "I know the wedding's around the corner and there's a lot to be done, but don't treat yourself like this, okay?"

Zhongli seemed to pause slightly, then nodded once. "Alright. Thank you."

"No, thank you." Childe shook his head. "I'll bring you back, kay?"

There were soft chuckles and smiles along the way back to Zhongli's place. They even took a detour just because Zhongli insisted on doing so. When they finally arrived at his home, they were reluctant to part ways but they knew they had to. There was a friendly hug before they finally said goodbye.

Little did they know, a blond woman had seen all this, and was definitely starting to suspect something.