Neuvillette's POV
"So, why did you show up so early anyway?"
"I was bored and figured you would be here earlier anyway. I didn't expect Ajax to be here since he is in no way a morning person." Zhongli explained.
Yes, he wasn't.
That's exactly why I put our meeting so early since you wouldn't think that he would be here.
It's not that I don't trust Zhongli to give Ajax his privacy, but after Snow so grumpily kept her eleventh back at their base for the past few days, I didn't want to risk having Ajax be snatched away by Zhongli mid-conversation.
Like he is obviously itching to do right now.
"If you just sit still for a bit so we can go through everything we need to go through, you can go and do whatever it is that you want to do with Ajax. So now, stop fidgeting already. It is getting incredibly annoying."
The insistent tapping of his foot finally stopped after that.
"Sorry. I just haven't seen him for a while." He muttered.
And you act like this?
You look like you would make a run for it the second I said we were done.
"Snow would make fun of you for ages if she saw you like this." I chuckled.
"And I can always make fun of her for continuously putting up that cold front. Anyone who has known her for some time can see it crumbling more and more every year." He waved off my teasing.
"Well, it was obvious it would crumble when you so easily charmed her eleventh."
"She placed him in my line of sight."
"Thinking that you, mister marriage-is-a-bother, would at most remove her subordinate from your side and send him back."
"I don't think you should be commenting about my ideas of marriage, mister I-see-no-reason-to-get-married. Marriage is a bothersome thing. You can see that too since you too are stuck with mountains of paperwork, so I wasn't really wrong. But you... Look who found a reason for marriage."
Uhm...
Marriage is a bit...
We've only properly known each other for like a week.
It is way too early to talk about marriage.
And...
"You said you would teach me how to plan a date, did you not? Or would a confession come first?"
I'm really no good when it comes to things like this.
Zhongli looked surprised by my question for a second only to start chuckling moments later.
"Well, that really depends on the people involved, but the first date can often serve as an unspoken question. Asking someone out on a date is pretty much a confession already even though you have to confess out loud eventually."
"So..."
"Ask him out to dinner, or if you prefer that, cook him dinner yourself. And just in case this wasn't already obvious, you should do this while his kid isn't around or it would just come over as you being a nice person."
Oh...
Well, dinner at home would be preferable for safety reasons, but to do it without Sigewinne around...
She won't be at home tomorrow but...
"Say, Zhongli, how trustworthy am I while under the influence of Baizhu's little herbal mixture?" I asked.
Aside from the fact that I can take care of myself just fine and that my behavior is close to my drunken behavior the two of them haven't told me anything about my conduct while influenced by the medicine and I never remember what happened.
However, they did mention that I always remember my previous behavior while under the influence so I always assumed my conduct was just so horrible my sober mind didn't wish to acknowledge it.
If this is indeed the case, I will have to ask Wriothesley to stay at another location for a day.
"Your behavior is fine, don't worry too much about it. You just have a little less energy, that's all." He shook his head dismissively.
Is it though?
For some reason, I don't feel like I should trust him, but at the same time, he has no reason to lie about this.
So it should be fine for Wriothesley to stay. Still, I should inform him of the circumstances soon.
But now, we should get on with Zhongli's side of the contract so he can go and pick up Ajax before he gets himself into more trouble than needed.
"So, Zhongli-"
"You can give her however much she wants." He cut me off.
Well, this is not too unexpected.
But...
"You don't expect her to fully let go of Ajax, right? We both know that that is not possible."
"I know, but if you could get her to agree to only leave him with his harbinger duties it would be great." He sighed.
It took quite a bit of effort for me not to laugh.
So essentially, all three want the same thing.
Now all that's left for me to do is to make them all believe they profited from the deal.
That and Ajax's vacation plans, but he will have to deal with Zhongli himself.
Hmm. That ended surprisingly quickly. I thought we would sit here arguing about mora amounts for at least an hour-
Wait.
Did he tell me to figure it out myself so he could run off earlier?
...
"Zhongli."
"Yes."
"Fine. You win. Get out."
And he dares to call me scheming.
Who does he think I learned it from?
As soon as those words came out of my mouth he got up and grabbed his jacket, ready to leave.
Sigh...
To think this is the same guy who has been gently rejecting Ajax's advances for what? About 4 years now?
Ajax considered them to be dating anyway so he didn't lose out, but my dear brother sure screwed himself over if this is how he truly felt all this time.
"What happened to: He's still young, he should date someone closer to him in age?" I chuckled.
He froze in place, the corner of his mouth twitching.
"There are only so many times one can reject someone they love."
"Have you ever thought that maybe you shouldn't have been rejecting him in the first place?"
He might have been doing it out of kindness, but Ajax most definitely did not appreciate it.
At least now that they finally stopped with the useless back and forth I don't have to listen to Ajax complaining about it every other week.
Speaking of Ajax, he is one stubborn guy for sure.
Zhongli's rejections may have been gentle, but they were rejections nonetheless.
To still chase him regardless of that for 4 years Ajax either has to be a masochist or he also noticed that Zhongli's rejections were obviously half-hearted.
Hmm...
Considering it's Ajax we're talking about here both of those options are viable though I hope it's the case of the latter being true.
As for Zhongli's rejections...
To give a few examples:
Ajax always showed up in his office unannounced saying that he was bored and he wanted to hand out with Zhongli, who in turn told him that he was busy and Ajax should go and find something else to do.
Up to this point, it went well in terms of rejection, but the thing is...
Ajax always stubbornly stayed behind and sometimes even fell asleep on the couch in Zhongli's office.
Let's just say that not once was he kicked out and Zhongli's office now has a few blankets tucked away secretly in his desk.
Another example would be cases when they met out on the street. These meetings somehow always ended in dinner and Ajax charming his way back to Zhongli's house even though my dear brother (apparently) tried to reject his advances.
All these and many more were followed with Ajax showing up in my office saying: If he likes me he should admit it. Tsk! Stubborn bastard!
To this day I wonder if, in the past 4 years, I should have pointed out at least once to Zhongli, that one doesn't usually sleep with the person they are pretending not to like.
But well, Ajax did ask me not to go pointing out the obvious since he was profiting from it big time.
For their relationship to be made official like this...
I suppose even Zhongli couldn't think of a retort to having a ring tossed at him and being told to propose soon or else.
Even Ajax was bound to lose patience with this unofficial thing they had going on.
However, it does make me wonder just what is the border between official and unofficial.
Especially since the two have done absolutely everything aside from putting a name to their relationship. Ajax has been living with Zhongli for the past two years for god's sake.
To give a brief description of their relationship...
It went something like this:
Snow stuck Ajax to Zhongli's side for reasons to me still unknown and Zhongli had nothing interesting going on at that time so he didn't send him away.
At some point, Ajax took a liking to Zhongli and after getting permission from Snow, asked him out incredibly straightforwardly.
Zhongli rejected him because, as he later told me, he thought Ajax should date someone closer to his own age plus he wasn't interested in the reckless harbinger.
His disinterest didn't last long though.
Ajax stubbornly insisted on that date and pretty much followed Zhongli around in his free time, bugging him left and right. After a few weeks of this, Zhongli relented and went out to dinner with him. This somehow ended with Ajax's first trip to Zhongli's house.
I still wonder how he managed to charm his way in there as Zhongli rarely welcomes visitors outside of his own circle into his home.
One dinner turned into two, two turned into three, and for about two and a half years Ajax managed to get his way no matter how many times Zhongli tried to reject him.
Though, these rejections obviously weakened with time.
A clear no slowly became an 'I don't have time now', or in other words, ' I will have time later', and no matter how much Zhongli insisted that he did not like Ajax, his actions showed a clear difference.
It was after two and a half years that Ajax first tried to propose, deciding to fully skip the dating step if Zhongli was so stubbornly against it and just jump him with an engagement.
This didn't work out so well for him. The first attempt was sabotaged by Snow who out of pure shock from hearing his plans from a 3rd party called him at just the wrong moment.
After getting permission for the proposal from Snow, he tried again only to fail once more. This time it was Xiao's fault, distracting Zhongli with work just before Ajax could say what he wanted.
Xiao's disapproval of Ajax had been clear from day one so it wasn't all too surprising that Ajax's plans were sabotaged by him four more times.
The 7th attempt not succeeding was my fault. I showed up in Zhongli's office uninvited.
(Ajax made sure to complain about my interruption for the next month or so.)
After all of these unsuccessful attempts, Ajax had tried proposing countless times over the past year only to fail again and again for various reasons.
At some point even I tried to help but it was as if the heavens were against it as well as a whole building blew up next to them, interrupting it once more.
Now he just tossed the responsibility over to Zhongli it seems and my dear brother finally stopped denying his feelings.
I also suspect that Ajax gave him some kind of ultimatum but I cannot be sure.
But...
"Are you two gonna actually sit down and discuss things or are you both gonna just admit that the 4 years of will-they-won't-they that has been going on was really just the two of you dating?"
"Neuvillette... That-"
"We are done. You can go now." I cut him off.
I didn't need an answer.
He needed to know that he needed an answer.
The two of them really had to just sit down and talk for a while.
"Now go and pick Ajax up before he gets himself arrested."
I just need that useless drunkard captured, not Ajax. Zhongli showing his face should be enough for him to escape with just a simple warning if everything goes well.
Zhongli mumbled something I couldn't quite understand before leaving the way he came in.
Now I was finally left alone.
Sigh...
And to think this is just the engagement.
I really hope I don't end up having to give them couples therapy or something at one point.
Well, That will be a problem for the future. For now, let's take care of things that are to happen for sure.
Making sure that Zhongli was indeed gone and no one else was speaking through the hidden entrance, I pulled out my phone to call Alhaitham.
While I cannot directly tell Wriothesley which way he should look to make the situation as safe as possible, I can certainly create hints for him to find.
Alhaitham's involvement isn't necessary in this case, but it will certainly make it more convenient.
As I was thinking about how exactly I should go about this I felt my phone slip slightly from my hand. This caused me to make one small mistake that I didn't think too much of and yet the consequences...
Instead of initiating a simple voice call, the small slip made me press video call instead.
Now, Alhaitham's usual long response time would have normally given me enough time to end it but this time a single second later-
"Ugh! Kaveh, what the hell is wrong this time? You left ten minutes ago. Ten! Can you not-"
I came face to face with Alhaitham, still in bed and shirtless.
"..."
"..."
For a few seconds, we just stared at each other in stunned silence before-
"F*ck. You're not-"
His voice cut off and the room on the screen spun as the phone fell from his hand. This was followed by a loud thud and a curse when Alhaitham more likely than not fell head-first off the bed.
"My apologies! I'll- Please just give me a moment!" Alhaitham's voice sounded from the other end.
"I'll just hang up-"
And call you back simply on voice call. That would have been the end of that sentence had he not interrupted me midway.
"There is no need for that! I will be there in a second!"
His words were followed by footsteps and rustling of clothing and true to his words, mere moments later, he reappeared, now wearing a shirt.
Still, that shirt did not hide the reddening bitemark in the crook of his neck.
...
I did not need to see that.
I did not need to know what he had been up to.
Let's just pretend I saw nothing.
This is still preferable to the incident with the car.
Phew...
"Something I can help with, Monsieur?"
"Stop with the- Never mind. I need you to go and bring Sedene some cake. Preferably as soon as possible."
"Huh? Cake? What- Oh, of course. I will be there in half an hour. Anything I should tell her?"
"No, but the cake should be white chocolate and strawberry flavored."
In other words, it is a hurried request.
As for the contents of the request...
I glanced up at the small hidden camera in the corner of my office.
She most likely knows what I wish to ask of her already.
~
~
Fun fact: Alhaitham did actually check the caller ID before picking up. It's a pity he saved Neuvillette and Kaveh's numbers under a name all too similar.
Kaveh's contact: No need to pick up
(Kaveh's contact was previously saved as: He forgot his key again)