Look Me in the Eyes (and tell me that it's me) [Zhongchili]

Chapter 7 - Knightly Inclinations

Following their museum date, Ajax and Zhongli are inseparable. If Ajax isn't meeting Zhongli for a post-study coffee on campus, he's attached to his phone, waiting for the buzz that sends his heart leaping and his hand reaching to swipe into Zhongli's latest text, ready to read it, absorb it, consume it.

"You're in love." Yoimiya kicks his leg under the library desk.

"I am not!" protests Ajax, but then his phone buzzes again and he's swiping back into his messages before he can stop himself.

Zhongli: I came across this wonderful fellow while perusing the local market today. It reminded me of a certain someone and I wished to share it with you.

Attached is a picture of Zhongli standing by a market stall that's piled high with a mountain of faceless rag dolls. He's holding up a doll that has been crafted to look as though it's dressed in a bogatyr's armour, a strip of orange cloth folded across the top of its head in mimicry of a shock of ginger hair.

It's him.

It's him, dressed as a warrior of old.

Zhongli saw a warrior—a hero—and thought of him.

Ajax's heart bubbles and he's in the middle of typing a reply when Yoimiya kicks him again.

"Really? 'Cos you're smiling an awful lot for someone who isn't."

"It's not— I'm not— Look." He angles the phone towards her. "Zhongli found this. It looks like me."

"Mhm hmm." Yoimiya looks at him over the phone, beaming.

"What? It's not like he—"

The phone vibrates again and Ajax snatches it back.

There's another photo.

Zhongli is sitting at the desk of what appears to be his home, research papers piled high around him. At the back of the desk on the left side of the image, propped against the wall, sits a little figure with orange hair. Filling the right hand side of the photo is a blurred close-up of Zhongli's face, his expression indecipherable through the distortion.

Zhongli: Naturally, I decided to bring him home with me. :)

"Not in love, I see." Yoimiya taps his leg with her foot again, accompanying it with a dramatic side eye.

"Shut up." He nudges her back and she hums knowingly, a wry smile on her face as she returns to her task of highlighting key terms from her pile of lecture notes.

Maybe he is in love.

Just a little bit.

Ajax stares at the picture once more and, if she's noticed him doing it, Yoimiya has the grace not to call him out on it.

The doll has a piece of grey fabric rolled into its hand, imitating a sword, and although it has no face, it's easy to imagine its expression: confident with a hint of cockiness, bold but kind, watching over a village, defending the innocents from wild animal attacks and bandit raids.

Like a knight.

That's how Zhongli sees him. His knight in shining armour.

Ajax, Knight of Snezhnaya.

It has a good ring to it.

*   *   *

Ajax's texts with Zhongli don't stop, and neither do the dreams. Every night now he finds himself playing the role of Tartaglia, either committing a series of heroic acts, chatting with a friendly companion, or sparring against his comrades, mentoring them in the ways of the blade when he inevitably wins.