𝙂𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙀𝙮𝙚𝙨 [ 𝘼𝙐 𝙕𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙘𝙝𝙞 ]

4: Stone flowers

Faint sunlight streamed through the window panes, filling the room with a soft light, strong enough to wake the redhead. He rolled over the bed several times, trying to remove the sheet that had tangled around his body, causing a too strong pull to make him fall to the floor along with the fabric.

He shot to his feet, rubbing his back in sudden pain. Childe realized that it was daylight, going to the window to close the curtain.

"Wait... What day...?"

His stomach knotted, it was Thursday. Working day. He glanced up at the wall clock, gasping at the time the hands showed.

It was twelve o'clock.

All the sleep he had left disappeared at that very moment, he observed that he had gone to sleep with his clothes on, and that the box of chopsticks that Zhongli had given him was on top of the dresser. Childe grabbed his work clothes and stuffed them into his old high school backpack, he congratulated himself on being careful with it and that now he didn't look as horrible as he could.

Apart from his clothes, all his belongings were also in his pockets, so he just washed his face and teeth to run out the door with his backpack in tow.

He arrived at the bus stop, where to his bad luck the next one would take fifteen minutes to come. Childe gasped from running to the bus stop from his house, the people around him looked at him strangely, but said nothing.

Childe leaned his arm against the lamppost, trying to catch his breath.

"Shit, how could I have fallen asleep?"

He pulled the cell phone out of his pocket, unsurprised to see more than fifty messages from Aether, and sure Scaramouche would have sent him if it weren't for the fact that he had it locked. Childe didn't stop to read the rest of the messages he had, nor did he read Aether's, he concentrated on writing to the blond that he was on his way.

He put the device back in his pocket, still noticing how the rest had their eyes fixed on him, they were not very discreet.

"I must not look very good if they don't take their eyes off me" he thought about what had happened the night before, at his dinner with Zhongli. Shit, he actually had dinner with him at McDonald's. Childe sighed, it had been real. He thought of the gift Zhongli had given him.

"You said you didn't know how to use them, so I've taken the liberty of buying you some, so you can learn."

That's what he said, did Childe tell that to Zhongli? At some point it should have happened, probably in one of his talks while he was serving his food. Certainly his abilities with chopsticks were nil, and he had tried so hard to learn how to use them, but the patience his friends had with him had long since run out, even Aether. When the bus finally arrived, Childe paid the money to the driver. Luckily Zhongli had paid for the dinner, because had he paid, he wouldn't have had enough.

He had to stay standing, squeezed by the amount of people there were. He held onto the bar as the vehicle pulled away. Childe had to endure several elbows and shoves, but he reached his destination unscathed.

Upon entering the door, several of the customers who became aware of his presence muttered things if they shared a table with someone or to themselves, fixing their gaze on the redhead. Childe had noticed this behavior since he went outside, which made him feel a bit uncomfortable. Perhaps as a teenager he would have loved to be the center of attention, but he had matured very quickly, and he no longer felt that longing for the world to revolve around him.

Aether walked into the dining room, making a face Childe couldn't describe. The blonde handed the tray to another waiter apologizing and walking briskly towards Childe.