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

Chapter 13 - Adrenaline

Chapter CWs: Unwanted advances | Drunken behaviour / violence / general creepiness

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"It's so nice to have a night off from studying." Yoimiya sets her drink down on the counter and shifts her bar stool forward. "It feels like all we've been doing lately is reading and reading the same things over and over."

Ajax and Yoimiya sit in the student bar following the week's theatre session, Ajax with a standard house beer while Yoimiya enjoys a mystery concoction as bright and bubbly as herself. It's busy for a weekday evening, although unsurprising that a wealth of other students have come to drink away their exam preparation troubles. With all the tables already occupied, Ajax and Yoimiya sit tucked in the corner of the bar beside the wall.

She was the one who'd suggested it, insisting that Ajax looked like he needed some time to relax and let go, and she wasn't wrong. After his chat with Tonia, Ajax spent the following week on high alert, his initial anger fading into a constant vigilance. Although she bounced back quickly, Sasha seemingly giving her no more trouble, still he watched and waited, observing her mood each day when she arrived home.

The dreams hadn't helped, either. The hours not spent worrying about Tonia were instead filled with questions about Zhongli's identity, Tartaglia's identity, his own identity, and how much remains to be revealed regarding each.

A nice night out with Yoimiya to forget it all is just what he needs.

"You're telling me," Ajax replies. Although his studies have, admittedly, fallen by the wayside lately, Yoimiya doesn't need to worry about that. "Just think, a couple of months and all this will be over and we'll be at our big jobs in the big city. I'm putting dibs on buying the first round of drinks when we go out to celebrate!"

Yoimiya's face falls and she puts her glass down, staring at the bubbles rising in the liquid. "About that... There's something I've been meaning to tell you."

"Something to tell me?" This can't be good. Not when Yoimiya is making that face. "What's on your mind?"

"I'm not going to be staying in Snezhnaya." Yoimiya looks up at him. "I got a text a few weeks ago—not from Pops, but a family friend. She thought he was having trouble with his hearing—more than he was before, anyway—and that he seemed to be having a hard time with the customers. So, I sent him a message to ask him about it. He's been coping fine for the past few years, so I thought maybe she was overly worried, but..." She gives a slight shrug. "Anyway, we had a chat, and we decided I should go back to Inazuma once I've finished studying. I'm going to help run the shop while Pops takes some time off and talks to his specialists about his options. Sorry, Ajax. I guess we'll have to hold on those drinks for now."

Yoimiya is leaving. After three years of comradery and friendship, Yoimiya is leaving, leaving a Yoimiya shaped hole in his life. For three years she's been there to bounce ideas off of, to drag him back when he's about to do something egregiously stupid, to share their silly shenanigans and to support each other's wild ambitions and projects.

But now she's leaving.

Sure, he can always text her, but it won't be the same.

Everything is going to change.

"I'm sorry to hear about your father," he says. "I was looking forward to you sticking around for a while longer. We've had quite the few years together."

"Well, hopefully at some point I can come back. There's a new procedure the doctors think might help, but it's not available to everyone yet. If we save for a few years though, we should be able to speak to a private doctor, and after he's recovered... Well, I'm not against coming back to Snezhnaya!"