No Matter What

7

I stand there dumbfounded as Childe rushes to turn over the dead body in my house. I watch as he straightens out the man's lifeless body so that he's on his back with his arms to his sides, and something in me snaps.

I shake my head drastically, then back up to the side table, where a matching vase to the one now in pieces across my floor sits. I grab it and point it at Childe from a distance.

"I'm calling the police," I say, trying to control my breathing. Childe looks up at me. His expression is quite normal for this hectic situation, like he's done this several times before.

"You can't do that," he says.

"Sure I can," I nearly interrupt, keeping the home decor pointed firm. We enter a staring contest, and Childe lifts a now bloody pair of hands up.

"I can't go to prison right now," he says.

"There is a dead man in my living room!" I tried my best to keep my voice down, but I've reached my breaking point. "We have to call the cops right now!"

"If you do that, Zhongli," he says, "you're going to prison too." My eyes search his, heart so fast it makes me weak in the knees. "You'll be locked up for murder. Good luck getting out of that one."

"You set me up."

"What..."

"You set me up," I say again. This time, I chuck the vase in his direction. He dodges at the last second, the corner nicking the side of his head as he groans. While he's distracted, I charge at him. I don't care if I have a bad arm, I'm taking this asshole out. "You wanted to frame me for your crimes!"

I punch him with my good arm, straddling him as he knocks backwards against the floor. Just a few minutes ago, we were in this position for much different reasons. Now, the thought makes me sick.

It's not hard for him to control me. With only one arm doing it's best, he grabs it with ease, a tight grip I can't seem to wiggle from, then sits up so that I'm in his lap and our eyes are level.

"Zhongli," he says. "This has nothing to do with you." He takes the hand that isn't controlling my punches, and places it under my chin, forcing me to focus on him. "I'm not a bad guy... at least, I'm not that type of bad. Okay, yeah, I got myself in a situation, but I promise you, this has nothing to do with you. I would never lead someone to an innocent person's home. I... I thought he was dead. And I'll explain everything later, like I said. But I really do... I like you a lot, Zhongli. And maybe you don't feel the same anymore, but I mean, you asked me out, right? I didn't force my way in. I know it's hard, but you're gonna have to just trust me right now. Please. I don't want you to go down for this too. I promise my intentions were never bad."

I pause. Of course, I'm still pissed. I want to know what's going on, but he keeps telling me later, later, later. I don't think I want to stick around long enough to know later. But, what can I do? He just watched me kill that man. Technically, I have nothing on him. It's not like I watched him beat this guy as bloody as he was. The only one that looks bad right now... is me.

"Let's..." I sigh, holding my chest. "Let's...get him to my car."

Childe tries not to smirk as he nods and helps me off of him. We both have the same idea, rolling him up into the carpet beneath him—it's something I've seen done a hundred times in movies.

"Daddy?"

Just as we get the body completely wrapped, I hear my son's voice at the top of the stairs, followed by a set of little feet.

"Shit," I curse under my breath. "The lights! Get the lights!" I point frantically at the light switch behind Childe's head, and he rushes to turn them off. Before I know it, I'm sat on the floor in the dark with a potential criminal and a dead body, while my son stands at the bottom of the staircase staring at me through the darkness.

"Daddy," he says, wiping his eyes, "what are you doing? It's so noisy."

Only our silhouettes and eyes can be seen through the light illuminating through the curtains, but if ever I was going to have a heart attack, it would be right now.

"Sorry Nugget," I say, trying to keep my voice from shaking so much. "I didn't mean to wake you up. I was just... hanging out."

"Who's that?" I see Xiao's little finger point into the darkness beside me and I know he's seen Childe's shadow.

"Oh," I say, "this is my...friend. He was just visiting. We were playing games. We must have been too loud, sorry about that baby boy. Go back to bed, we'll be more quiet."

"But why you are playing games in the dark?" Xiao asks, head tilting.

I pause, mouth opened.

"We were just about to play hide and seek," Childe saves me. "But it's for adults only. So you have to go back to bed and maybe we can all play the one for kids together in the morning. It's too late for kids to be up right now."

"But I wanna play..." my son pouts.

"If you sleep now we'll play for as long as you want tomorrow," Childe says. "I promise."

I shoot him a glare in the dark. I really don't like Childe making promises to my son. I don't want him anywhere near him anymore. Also, if something else goes wrong tonight, I may not see Xiao again. Oh gosh... I might not see my son again... I could go to prison for murder, and my son would see me in a different light. He'd think everything about me was a lie, that I'm actually some monster....

"Okay..." Xiao says, then hurries back up the stairs, his little feet pattering quickly. I'm frozen until I hear the door close behind him. That's when I let out the breath I was holding and burst into tears. I never cry. I never allow people to see that emotional side of me, but the thought of losing my son drives me to uncontrollably tears. I try my best to keep quiet, not wanting to draw my son's attention back to the bottom of the stairs where he'd witness his strong father, reduced to a sobbing mess.

"Hey," Childe says softly. "You won't lose him, I promise. I won't let that happen. I'd never let that happen to him, or you. I'm going to get you out of this, I just need you to hold out and trust me."

I feel his hand start at my back and immediately yank away. "You're the reason I'm in this mess to begin with!" I whisper-scream, sniffling and aggressively wiping at my tears. "Let's just get this...thing out of here, now."
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