couples therapy: a chilumi fanfiction

chapter 13: the five stages of fighting your crush

Tartaglia turned down Signora's invitation to an after party at one of their usual clubs, one of the ultra-luxurious ones where he could get wasted and kiss some hot models. Despite some pointed comments, no one objected.

The Tsaritsa stayed silent.

He couldn't even look her in the eye.

How did she know? How did she find Lumine so quickly? This wasn't the introduction to the Fatui that Ajax wanted for Lumine. He wanted her to become friends with them first before she learned about the fight club. And then she would join and spar alongside him.

He got back to his apartment on autopilot. Everything felt muted, his thoughts consuming his mind. He didn't even notice the weird stares he was getting until he glanced in the reflection of the metro window and noticed a nasty cut she had made on his cheek. He would have to figure out how to cover that up.

Unlocking the door to his apartment, Ajax threw his bag on the ground, ignoring the greeting of his roommate Kaeya. He entered his room, slamming the door shut before locking it. Thank goodness his bedroom had an ensuite; he desperately needed a shower.

15 minutes later, a clean Ajax lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling. A single tear fell across his cheek before he fell asleep.

Stage One: Denial

When Ajax woke up, he prayed that it was a dream. That he didn't fight his beautiful, wonderful fake girlfriend. That he didn't make her cry. That he got extremely blackout drunk after an amazing round and that these new memories were merely drunk fabrications.

The now slightly-healed cut on his face was a harsh slap in the face.

The stage of denial didn't last long. It would've been a whole lot easier to deny it to himself, but he had to face the facts. That didn't mean he wouldn't deny it to everyone around him. If asked, he was not in an illegal underground fighting ring. Hell no.

As he left his room for some much needed food, Kaeya shot him a glance of concern. "Hey man, you good? You were really out of it last night."

"Yeah," he nodded. A lie. "I just had a bit of a rough evening, nothing much though." Another lie.

"Alright," Kaeya mused. "I'm really fucking hungover, so I'm going to watch reality TV all day. Care to join?"

"Sure," he attempted a grin. "Let me grab a shirt and some food first."

The distraction that The Circle: Liyue provided made it easy for him to deny the fact that he had fought her. At least for the total runtime of all three seasons.

Stage Two: Anger

After the final episode of the third season had finished, Ajax had moved onto the second stage. Ignoring his roommate who was passed out on the couch, he began to feel anger towards his situation build up in the all familiar way in his core.

Before he could even react, he was grabbing his workout bag (not his fighting bag - he kept those distinctly separate) and was headed out the door and down the stairs towards the building's small gymnasium. It was open 24/7, so it didn't matter that it was nearly one in the morning. It wasn't like he was going to be able to sleep much that night anyways.

His noise cancelling headphones drowned out any of the background noise caused by the machines, leaving him with his own thoughts. Not that there was much noise to begin with - the gym was completely empty aside from himself.

He dragged out his loyal, faithful punching bag, wrapped his hands, and began to hit it. With every punch, an anger inducing thought entered his mind.

Why would she do that to me? I thought I could fucking trust her.