Seven Months in Heaven [Zhongchi/Tartali]

Chapter 1 - An Accident, A Letter and a Lawyer

By order of the Liyue Qixing, all members of the Fatui who are non-essential to the day-to-day operations of Northland Bank are to leave Liyue by the end of the month.

Please note: Harbingers do not qualify as essential staff.

Childe crumpled the letter in his fist and tossed it into the wastepaper basket beside his desk. Harbingers do not qualify as essential staff? They could've just sent him a note with Tartaglia get out written on it and saved all the fancy language.

He resumed his pacing.

Childe's status in Liyue had been on tenterhooks since the Golden House incident which, admittedly, had been his fault. The incident which had incited the letter, however, had been completely unintentional on his part.

One week prior, the final day of the Lantern Rite celebrations had been in full swing. Food stands lined the streets, the sweet and salty aromas of their goods mingling so that a taste of the air allowed Childe to sample their flavours, tingling on the tip of his tongue. He had been making the most of the evening, holding a freshly packed mora meat in his left hand and a grilled tiger fish skewer in his right while the buzz of the crowd hummed through him. A man with long, dark hair with golden tips had called out to him at one point, but Childe had made the decision to ignore him.

As he'd been about to take the ramp to the docks to see what was on offer down there, the cry of a child distracted him.

"I can't believe I missed them! It's not fair!" bawled a young girl, face scrunched, red and damp with tears. Two equally young boys stood beside her, patting her on the shoulder.

"It's okay, Lulu, they'll have more next year."

"But I don't want to see them next year, I want to see them this year!" She dissolved into a fresh fit of sobs, interspersed with snotty snivels that she wiped on her sleeve.

Childe must've been staring, because one the boys turned to him and waved.

"Hey, over there! Can you tell the other adults to do the fireworks again? Lulu missed them because her parents made her do chores, which is really, really mean!"

They had come to the right person, because while Childe considered himself to have few weaknesses, the mere hint of an unhappy child was his ultimate foil. The girl looked at him, crying paused and eyes drawn wide with hope, and Childe was defeated. He walked over to their group and squatted down to match their height as three pairs of eyes fixed on him.

"Well," he said, "that doesn't sound very nice of your parents, Lulu."

"No, it isn't!" The other boy piped up, "Meng and I even went to ask special permission for her to come out with us, but they still said no. My name's Fei, by the way."

"Nice to meet you all, my name's Tartaglia, but you can call me Childe."

"Mister Childe, can you make them do the fireworks again?" asked Fei.

The children stared at him, filled with dreams of an evening of fireworks and fun, and if there was one thing Childe didn't do, it was let the dreams of a child go unfulfilled. Besides, it was hardly a difficult request to carry out - sure, he wasn't supposed to use his Harbinger status to access Fatui supplies for external purposes, but if it made these few children happy, what could be the harm?

Childe shook his head. "I don't think I can ask them to do that, but what if I said that I have my own special fireworks to put on a show for you guys, how does that sound?"