𝙍𝙚𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 [𝘼𝙐 𝙕𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙘𝙝𝙞 +18]

3: Blame it on the kids

"What am I gonna do? Jumping from a seventh floor? No thanks," Childe smiled, walking into the bedroom, turning to face him, still smiling. "I'd like to live my miserable life, you know?" He closed the door before Zhongli could say anything, leaving him in the middle of the hall. Zhongli sighed without moving from his position. He could see for himself that Childe was someone conflictive, but now the worst thing he did was ask seafood into the Huo Guo. Zhongli thought that it was suspicious that the FBI asked for a middle-range agent to take over a supposed serial killer sentenced to life imprisonment, without mentioning the fact that the attempt to cajole Childe was too unreal for anyone to believe a lie like that.

Zhongli sighed again, looking at the still-closed door of the bedroom. He barely received instructions on how he was supposed to deal with Childe, it was like they had left him to his fate. But honestly, he didn't care too much about it, Zhongli preferred taking his own decisions and using his own methods instead of following the instructions of some incompetent with too much power. Anyways, all was too suspicious.

Zhongli knocked on the door, knowing perfectly well that the redhead was probably going to get angry. After a few seconds, Childe appeared frowning, looking at him with very notable anger.

"What do you want?" Childe asked, crossing his arms and leaning in the door frame, his frowning increasing with each passing second.

"You should try on your new clothes," Childe's eyes widened a little because of his words. Zhongli was not unaware of that. "Something happens?"

"No, it's nothing..." Childe hawked, straightening his posture again. "I thought you were going to annoy me with the investigation and all of that. I'm going to try the clothes, sure..." Childe was going to close the door, but he stood still for a few seconds, returning his gaze to Zhongli's eyes. "Know that I'm not going to put any effort, I'm not going to play at being a detective,'' he hissed, closing the door after saying those words. Zhongli fell silent, sighing and turning to go to his bedroom.

Zhongli closed the door the second he was in his bedroom, reluctantly taking off his shoes and hanging the coat in the closet door, then lie face down on the bed; bouncing several times on the mattress. It wasn't even six in the afternoon, but he felt exhausted. He didn't expect long and nice conversations with Childe, not even that he was going to respond to him anyway... And in part, Zhongli was surprised to be wrong, although Childe's aggressiveness and inappropriate comments made Zhongli prefer the option he had expected.

Zhongli has lived alone for a long time now, he barely had any good relationship with anyone but Hu Tao and Yanfei. It seemed things won't be any different with his new partner, plus they would have to be together all the time for an indefinite amount of time. The best thing they could do was try to search for things in common between them, although Zhongli was not sure if Childe would have any other hobby —apart from fighting with other recluses—, but minding the extreme limitations in prison he doubted that it would be the case.

Zhongli sighed, turning to lie on his back, staring at the ceiling. They were both quite young, they should understand each other, right? Even if it was only a little. At least Childe didn't seem to be a scrapper as he had initially tried to be (disregarding certain moments), although, of course, it remained to be seen.

He took the phone out of his pants pocket when he felt how it had started to vibrate. Hu Tao was calling him. Zhongli answered the call with a yawn, switching to speaker mode so he wouldn't have to constantly hold the phone to his ear.

"How are you Zhongli?" Hu Tao greeted him in her typical cheerful tone. Zhongli looked at the ceiling, letting out a long breath.

"Tired," he answered, hearing a laugh.