When the fighting stops and the music starts

Chapter 1 - The Beginning

Childe studied himself in the bathroom mirror. His lip was split and bleeding, his right cheek red and scuffed from the kiss of a fist and a line of blood running from his left nostril, he looked pretty roughed up but the other guy had come out of it a lot worse that Childe had. 

The lighting in the bathroom was pale and yellowish, one of the bulbs above the vanity permanently out. The landlord was supposed to fix it, along with a lot of other shit, but didn't really give a fuck. The apartment was shitty but at least it was cheap. Childe had lived in plenty of worse places over his twenty three years.

His phone rang, and he answered it quickly. At two in the morning, it could really only be one person calling.

"Hello Childe," Kaeya said, that same smooth charm in his voice. "How are you tonight?"

"I'm fine. What's up?"

"Straight to business, huh? Well alright. I'll cut to the chase: I have a client for you."

"Sure," Childe said. "Just tell me when and where."

He needed the money, after all. While he preferred to find his own marks and avoid Kaeya's finder's fee, Kaeya usually found men who could pay a lot more than anyone Childe would encounter on his own.

"This is a special case. He's looking for a long term thing, and it requires some discretion."

"Long term," Childe said skeptically. "You know that's not what I'm good at."

"He's an antique broker," Kaeya continued, as though Childe hadn't said anything at all. "Not antiques like your grandma's old tea set. Antiques like the Favonius Warbow, which recently went for three million dollars."

"Huh," Childe murmured. Three million dollars was a sum of money he couldn't even imagine.

"This is your ticket out of here, Ajax. He's got money and he wants someone to spend it on. Someone challenging and interesting."

Childe stared grimly at himself in the mirror. Challenging and interesting were two ways to describe him—and it wasn't what clients usually wanted for more than a single night.

"What's the catch?" he asked.

"He's looking for a Dom/sub arrangement," Kaeya said, and Childe's throat tightened. "Not 24/7, just the sex. I know it's not really your thing, but for this kind of money... I just thought you might appreciate the opportunity."

Childe gripped the porcelain sink with his free hand, avoiding his reflection in the mirror. He'd done plenty of weird things for clients, but this was different. He did his best not to think about the last time he'd been tied up and fucked, because when he did it made his stomach churn and his usual fearlessness disappear, replaced the wild terror of a hunted rabbit.

But Kaeya was right. This was an opportunity that wouldn't come again, a chance to pay off his debts, send some money to his mom, maybe even find himself in a place where he could start thinking about tomorrow, rather than spending all his energy just trying to survive each day.

"Okay," he said, then cleared his throat. "I'll do it. Just tell me where to go."

Zhongli met him at the restaurant located at the top of the skyscraper that housed the Wangshu Inn. It was the kind of place Childe would have to save for a month just to afford drinks and an appetizer.

Zhongli had a commanding air, like he was used to everyone doing exactly what he said, and when he told the waiter to give them a table by the window in a restaurant where it took a week's notice to get a reservation, they were immediately seated in a nook where two floor to ceiling windows came together to give a gorgeous view of the city at sunset.