[Childe x Zhongli] One Day You'll Love Me Again

CHAPTER 03: wanna break your heart worse

An urgent knock suddenly startled him awake.

In an instant the Harbinger's mind slid into fight mode automatically—vision and delusion humming and crackling respectively in anticipation as water began to pool around his flexed, gloved finger tips—that is until he recognised his surroundings at a routined and quick glance.

Sighing quietly, the redhead slowly relaxed back into the pillows as his muscles began to loosen and the liquid evaporated into thin air.

"—Master Childe, we are about to arrive at the harbour," the captain's gruff and considerably muffled voice informed him from the other side of the robust door as the Snezhnayan slowly rubbed the sleep from his eyes with the heel of his hand with such a hearty yawn, his jaw made a cracking sound.

Disorienting midday naps seriously were the worst.

He grumbled sleepily, though the captain wouldn't be able to hear him of course.

Quietly clearing his throat, Childe shouted out a quick affirmative as he slowly sat up, the blanket pooling around his lower limbs as he felt the ship tip to the right, most probably steering the boat in Liyue's direction.

Listening to the quickly departing footsteps after a quick 'Yes, sir!', Childe scrunched up his nose and sniffed tiredly as he squinted at the dust specks dancing in the blinding afternoon sun rays filtering through the window of his cabin only to reflect off of the wooden walls across from it.

Damn, he hadn't planned to fall asleep.

Not at all.

No, his sole goal had been to rest his tired, dry eyes for a minute or two since he had been feeling a bit drained as of late. And now look at him, he must've slept through majority of his journey, geez.

Exhaling slowly, he flexed and cracked his fingers a few times.

Ah well, nothing he could do about it now.

Grunting—voice raspier than usual from his impromptu nap—he stretched until his back and neck popped in a pleasant way, relieving him of some of the pressure that had built up in his uncomfortable sleeping position. He would've lied down differently if he were planning for a nice nap.

As Childe pushed the thin blanket off of himself, he let out a quiet huff as he scratched his lean stomach with his blunt nails, quickly noticing his damp shirt that clung to his equally sweaty body with a grimace.

Great, he hadn't even set foot in the harbour and the unpleasant, much too hot and humid weather had already greeted him prematurely like a sneaky assassin.

He pouted blearily as he felt his damp hair cling to his face as well.

Why of course.

In moments like this he really missed the merciless cold of his homeland that he had just left. At least he could bundle up more if he felt too cold but what were one to do if they couldn't strip any more clothes in this heat?

The Liyuen people most probably wouldn't really appreciate him walking around naked, now would they? Even his unbuttoned Fatui uniform was already pushing it.

But honestly? Any clothes was already too many in Liyue's searingly hot climate if you asked him.

Now that he thought about it, this actually felt a bit reminiscent of the first time he had arrived in the Geo Archon's domain, no? Suffering from the stifling heat as he had been donning his much too thick Snezhnayan Fatui uniform—black fur trim adorning the hood of his coat and all—unwilling to shuck it off in front of everyone at the very first sign of the unrelenting continuation of the sweltering weather, even after having passed Inazuma and its similar climate in an identical state.