The morning after the news of Havria's death was announced, the atmosphere was somber, and it cruelly reminded Ajax of what occurred the day the news of A-Qiu's death spread around their small own.
Ever since then, Guizhong was holed up in her domain, Cloud Retainer had disappeared to train for days on end, Mountain Shaper and Moon Carver had completely disappeared, Madam Ping was alongside Guizhong, and Morax was in an urgent meeting with his people.
He had gone to the meeting early in the morning; Ajax remembers the feeling of cold lips being pressed to his forehead, as Morax whispered a promise to be back as soon as he could.
They had stayed inside Ajax's cozy cottage, until the public panic had settled down.
And besides that, Ajax's cottage was more comforting than the cold cave walls of Morax's domain.
However, even the house was comforting, they had stayed together mostly for mutual comfort for their shared despair.
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Morax had cried after he had come back from the meeting.
Although he wasn't as close to Havria as some of the other adepti, Havria and him had still shared some good times together, and were good friends and allies.
And so, the news of her death still wracked Morax with grief; it pained him terribly.
But as always, he had managed to hold in the pain he felt at the news of her death, and had remained stoic in front of others' eyes.
But Ajax knew the truth.
He knew it painfully well when Morax came wobbling back to their home, clumsily holding onto his well-maintained composure, golden tears welling up in his warm eyes, threatening to spill over long eyelashes.
He had not uttered a word, but, it was not necessary.
Until Morax had gotten there, into the comfort of their house, their home, Ajax had been attempting comforting himself as well as he could.
Which mainly consisted of drowning his own sorrows by doing menial household chores.
For some reason, he had not found it in himself to go out and fight. The itch to do so, had mostly faded out when the news of Havria's death hit, and for the first time in a long time, the abyssal creature had stopped stirring inside of him.
And so, he had stayed home and was now in the kitchen, making some pirozhkis for him and Morax.
Pirozhkis; savory and warm.
A reminder of his homeland, of the small moments, the days where his mother would silently slide a plate towards him after a particularly rough day, a comfort after a cold day. A food that he too would make for Tonia and Teucer whenever he visited them, shared with laughs and over lively conversation.
Ajax guessed that the sight of him donning a frilly apron (one that was bought as a gag gift from Guizhong on one of their many escapades to the market), humming to himself while he made pirozhkis was enough to cause the man to fall apart.
To shatter.
But, Ajax understood why Morax had succumbed to his emotions, after holding them in after so long.
He understood when Morax wobbled over to him, body trembling as he buried himself into Ajax's shoulder, sobbing like a small child.
For Ajax, Zhongli had been his comfort.
YOU ARE READING
~𝒜𝓃 𝒜𝒹𝑒𝓅𝓉𝓊𝓈' 𝐿𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝒲𝒾𝓈𝒽~ (𝒵𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑔𝒸𝒽𝒾)
Fiksi Penggemar(Zhongchi)~ After the Gnosis incident, Childe decides to take a much-needed break away from Zhongli. However, how was he supposed to react, when all of a sudden Lumine showed up outside his apartment sounding terribly mortified, "Childe.....Zhongli...
