Centimeters [Childe/Tartaglia x reader]

Chapter 9

Word Count: 1509

In Y/n's POV

"Welcome to my humble abode once again!" exclaimed Childe as he pushed open his door dramatically.

"There's nothing humble about this," I said, referring to all of him.

"If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all, girlie," sneered the ginger as he places his hands on his hips now.

"Aw, but teasing you is so fun, hehe," I remarked, grabbing ahold of his nose between my thumb and index finger, shaking his head a bit for him in the process.

"H-hey... that's my line..." whimpered Childe as he held his, slightly red, nose.

"Anyways, that food ain't gonna cook itself now, hm?"

"Right, right..." murmured Childe as he let his bag down by the counter. "Make yourself at home— this will take some time."

"Mm, remember all those different dishes your mom would try making? Even if she messed them up here and there, they always ended up tasting so good..."

"Haha, yeah... just thinking about 'em is making me wanna drool..."

While Childe was busy making lunch for us, I decided to wander around his place for a bit. I hadn't really gotten to look around much last time since we were too busy doing our projects. Upon going into his room, I almost tripped over something hard on the floor, looking at said item, I found a thick book laying there. Sitting down on his bed to read it, it happened to be a photo book.

The pages were filled of him and his siblings as babies or young children. I knew Childe had some older siblings, but by the time we became friends they were already off to college and so we never got to formally meet one another. But in older photos, I assumed the bigger boys and girl in the photos were them. Seeing him genuinely smile like that made my heart all warm and fuzzy. Flipping towards the end of the book, I saw a few photos of us from high school. Some from study sessions at the library or his childhood bedroom, others from school dances our parents— my parents —forced me to go to— it made me wonder what changed from then till now.

"(Y/n)! Food's almost ready! Come in here!"

"H-huh? Oh, uh, right... coming!"

Setting a bowl of food down in front of me, I patiently waited for him to sit down as well. The bowl was filled with a soup with a slight minty aroma coming out of it. The dish also had octopus and crab as its main centerpiece as well as a few Calla Lily petals doused in it.

Looking up at the ginger sitting across from me, his eyes were glued onto me, most likely waiting for my initial reaction to his dish.

Picking up the spoon, I dipped it into the soup and sipped it. It tasted really good, actually. You could tell that he threw in some additional spices, most likely from Snezhnaya, into the soup to give it more flavor.

"So... how does it taste? Not necessarily traditional, I know... but I always used to make these Calla Lilly Seafood Soups whenever one of my younger siblings got sick... and then later on, I added my own twist to them and now it's become what's in front of you."

"It tastes... amazing, Childe... Thank you."

"It feels nice to be able to share a meal with someone else..."

"Oh, that's right, you live alone, don't you?"

"I mean, it's not terrible— I can sleep and wake up whenever on off days cause I have no obnoxious roommate to keep me up, I don't have to abide any anyone else's rules about cleanliness, I can bring anyone home whenever— not that, that ever really happens... hehe— and I can use the bathroom with the door wide open."