ChiLi - The Unexpected Marriage of Zhongli
Childe has noticed the shop before. It sits directly across the street from his favorite yarn haunt, The Fiber Factory. Childe has never been inside the shop before. He's never been much of one for tea. Childe and soothing things during school are non-mixy things.
But it's October finally, and the door of AdepTea is propped open and there is this scent wafting out of the shop. It's deep and rich and chocolatey with a sharp tang of peppermint and Childe must have that. Whatever it is.
Childe wanders into the shop following his nose. He bumps into a patron, mumbles an apology and props himself against the counter where a teapot is steaming away next to a little pile of sample cups. Childe pours himself a little, takes a sip, and moans in delight.
When he comes back to himself, he looks up into an amused pair of shockingly gold colored eyes and Childe flushes. The man behind the counter quirks a small amused smile at him and Childe grins back helplessly.
"I'll have a very large of whatever this amazing, heavenly concoction is. Please and thank you."
The man has sharp cheekbones, carefully styled black hair with hints of brown and a nametag that says 'Zhongli'. "Anything else I can get you while you wait?" he asks as he moves to take a canister off the wall. It's a silver, square canister, and when Zhongli opens the lid, Childe gets a lungful of that heavenly smell again.
"Are you sure that's tea?" he wonders, watching Zhongli measure out several scoops into a tea strainer.
"It's our White Chocolate Peppermint Rooibos. It's seasonal, and one of our best sellers," Zhongli tells him with a smirk. Childe gets the feeling he gets this reaction rather a lot this time of year.
Childe is not ashamed.
He watches Zhongli pour boiling water into a to go cup and dip the strainer in, hitting start on a timer. He takes a moment to look around the shop. It's got dark, hardwood flooring and shelves with rows of large silver canisters lining the wall behind the counter and halfway down the wall to the right of the counter. On the left is a pair of hot drink dispensers with little sample cups for tasting. There are little cards with what type of tea is in the dispenser alongside a sample of the loose leaves.
Childe tries them both. He likes the grape fruity herbal one that's iced, but not the hot green one. It tastes a bit too much like muddy grass and he ate enough of that playing lacrosse in high school, thanks.
He peruses the small shelves next to the sample table. It houses a display about the benefits of herbal remedies and each canister extols the virtues of the herb inside. Apparently he could dabble in making his own teas if he wanted. There are a pair of armchairs by the front window and two little tables nearby. The rest of the shop is littered with tea sets, mugs, books, strainers. All the things one would need to tea properly.
Childe flips open one of the books on the history of tea and gets so absorbed that when a hand appears in his peripheral holding a cup he jumps and drops the book. He stoops to pick up the book and when he turns around Zhongli is standing there smirking, amusement dancing in his eyes.
He's even prettier up close.
"Thanks," he manages, taking the cup from Zhongli.
"I threw a couple ice cubes in to make it a tolerable temperature."
"Thanks!" Childe exclaims and takes a sip, moaning. When he looks up, Zhongli is staring at him. Childe blushes and holds up the book. "I think I'd like this, too."
Zhongli rings him up, amusement in his eyes again and tucks the receipt into the book before handing it over. Their hands brush and Childe thanks him before turning to leave. He's already making plans to come back.
With the way Childe's brain works, he devours the book in only a few short hours. He mourns the end of his tea by peering into the empty cup for longer than is strictly necessary. He pulls an all-nighter because he gets distracted researching tea online and forgets about the paper he has that's due the next day. When he does remember it's two in the morning and he's already dragging.
He stumbles his way through his morning classes blearily, remembers nothing of either lecture, but takes notes that will probably take as much time to decipher as it would to just go back and redo the reading. Kaeya is always amused by Childe when he is sleep deprived, and is helpful only to the extent of steering his best friend around objects that if run into, would injure him.
By one he's gonna die, he knows it.
He makes it halfway to his usual coffee haunt before turning tail and heading for AdepTea. He practically falls into the shop, earning a disgusted look from a pair of little old ladies sitting at one of the tables and an amused look from Zhongli behind the counter.
When Childe slumps over to the counter Zhongli asks mildly "What can I get you?"
"Something to make the world not seem like a horrible place?" Childe asks.
"Since you're new to this whole tea thing, I'm going to take pity on you" Zhongli tells him. "But next time I expect you to be able to answer the question without help."
"You are a god among men" Childe tells him fervently. He roots around in his bag and produces a knitted scarf in heather brown. It doesn't have an elegant pattern to it, but the yarn is soft and warm and he finished it this morning in a bout of crazy during one of his classes. "If you sell me some of that chocolate peppermint goodness from the other day and teach me how to brew it, I will love you forever."
Zhongli shakes his head in amusement as he scoops several different teas into a strainer and sets it into a cup. He pours boiling water into it from the dispenser by the sink and sets a timer. He turns to the shelf behind him and grabs a tin off the bottom shelf and opens the lid. Childe can't help himself, he leans forward and inhales the rich aroma with a look of bliss on his face.
"How much would you like?"
"How much is it?"
"We have a minimum of 100 grams. It's $12.95 per hundred" Zhongli explains. That seems steep to Childe, but Zhongli explains that it's just over three ounces and that that amount of tea can make up to twenty cups.
The timer goes off and Zhongli removes the strainer from the cup and plops a couple of ice cubes into it to make it drinkable and slides it across the tabletop. Childe inhales and there's something earthy and orangey and it makes him slump a little.
"Let's start with that much, see if I can do this brewing tea thing right" Childe says.
So Zhongli walks him through the steps of brewing a proper cup of tea. Explains that if he gets confused there are directions on the back of the packaging as he scoops tea into a blue, foil lined bag. He sticks a label to it and Childe pays for his tea and a strainer and a little scooper. Zhongli hands him his bag and Childe loops the scarf around his neck and takes the bag.
"Thanks," he says and takes his bag of tea and his to go cup and leaves the shop.
Zhongli watches him go, fingering the heather yarn with a small smile.
Childe is ashamed of himself when he's run out of tea three days later. He feels an expensive addiction coming on and he can't be fussed because it is A) delicious and B) the facilitator of said new addition is very, very pretty.
"Where are you going?" Kaeya groans because it is seven in the morning and no self-respecting college student is up this early unless they have a class. And no self-respecting college student has an early class on purpose.
"I have a mighty need," Childe says, like that explains anything. He stuffs yarn and needles in his bag and crashes out of the apartment with no regard to Kaeya's tender feelings.
He's already gone by the time Kaeya decides that yelling at him is worth the effort.
Zhongli likes midmorning in the store. The crush of the early morning rush is over and the regulars that run their errand on their lunch breaks aren't out yet. Zhongli can take a while to just breathe in the unique scent of the tea shop and remind himself why it is that he opened the place at all.
He loves tea. He loves everything it does and everything it means. It's soothing and tea doesn't nitpick you over the fact that you're headed into your late thirties without a wife and five kids to show for it. Also, the shop is away from Mt. Aozang.
He chose Lisha to capitalise on all the university students who were both getting into tea because of the trend, or already know tea. They spend a lot of money on iced beverages in summer, fall and spring and hot in fall and winter. Students are also a source of cheap labor seeing as most of them only want something part time for some extra spending money.
It's just across from Liyue Harbor so he gets all the news from tea sellers in the city without being in the city. A AdepTea is also the only true tea shop in city that is locally owned and operated. There is a single Teavana at the mall across town, so he has very little competition. He's got a prime location in the historical shopping district just a few blocks from campus and regular clientele.
Zhongli looks around the shop with a small smile and that's when he notices him. Childe is sitting in one of the armchairs in the nook by the window. He's got a mug on the little table in front of him and he's knitting. Zhongli cocks his head and squints and he thinks it's a bright purple cat figure, but he can't be sure because it doesn't have any ears yet.
Zhongli wanders over, takes a glance at the mug. It's empty. There's a little brown dragon sitting on the table with gold button eyes. The yarn matches the scarf Childe gave him. The scarf Zhongli has loosely looped around his neck every morning since.
"Childe?" Childe starts and looks up. He smiles sheepishly and Zhongli quirks an eyebrow at him. "Don't you have classes today?"
"No. It's Thursday." Childe says. "I'm finishing up all the loose ends and then next year I get to hit it hard because it'll be my doctorate year."
So he's twenty-five at the least. Zhongli feels better because while still more than ten years younger, it makes him feel less like a creep knowing that Childe isn't a freshman or something.
"What are you studying?" Zhongli asks curiously. He should be working on restocking before the noon rush. He heads in the direction of the storeroom, but makes sure that Childe knows he's still listening.
He needn't have bothered, Childe follows him. "History, Myths in Literature that sort of thing. I want to teach so that I can get paid to argue about things I like and have a nice office, hence the Phd."
Zhongli nods. Makes sense, before opening the shop he was a highly paid corporate lawyer. Boy, did Ningguang not take him leaving well. On top of not married and no kids he was taking his fancy law degree and opening a tea shop.
"Wait" Childe says, leaning on the counter. "What is that?"
Zhongli looks down at the large five pound bag of tea he just cut open to pour into the tin he's got sitting in front of him. He smiles. "Coconut Ginger Rooibos."
"It smells awesome. What's a rooibos?"
"It's an herbal type tea made from a pea plant from Africa." Zhongli explains. "The White Chocolate Peppermint you like so much is a rooibos."
"Does it have caffeine?"
"Not typically, no."
"Huh."
For the next hour Childe quizzes Zhongli on tea as he restocks the shelves. Zhongli tells him about the differences in types of tea, what they're good for. Zhongli gives him the same treatment he gives all new customers. He pulls down the teas and he lets him smell the leaves and explains about them. By the end of the hour Childe' pockets are several hundred dollars lighter and he leaves the store with a thermos with a built in infuser, an infuser mug and nearly a dozen different teas he wants to try.
Zhongli watches him leave the store with a small smile. He does like to introduce new people to the joy of tea. He runs his fingers over the soft yarn of the beanie hat that Childe had left him. The color is a perfect match to his scarf.
It takes him a couple of days to notice the small bright purple cat propped on the shelf between two teapots and the little brown dragon tucked into the gap between the register and the counter where customers put their purchases to check out.
He doesn't move either of them.
Childe quickly becomes a regular fixture around the shop. He usually pops in for a midday fix. He favors the black and oolong teas and some of the greens during the days. The ones that have high caffeine content and flavor to match. He likes the more delicate white teas and herbals, but those are the ones he buys to take home.
He tells Zhongli very seriously that those are weekend and days off teas. On the days he has classes he wishes to be tense so he has coffee in the morning and tea with lunch. Zhongli is a classy tea drinker and drinks whatever he's in the mood for. Whatever he's in the mood for become the samples of the day and the two teas (one iced, one hot) are on sale that day.
Childe starts leaving little knitted animals everywhere. There's a pair of tiny foxes wedged in the shelves with the single herbs. A green turtle sits elegantly on a tea tray next to an expensive yi-xing tea set. A yellow duck has been stuffed inside one of the iced tea pitchers.
Zhongli doesn't have the heart to move any of them. He feels like he's being invaded but he doesn't do anything about it, because every time he finds a new one it means Childe has been back to the shop.
It's not just small knitted animals that appear as well. Childe forces wearables on him as well. There's a cable knit sweater in milky brown that Childe insists makes his eyes seem even golden. A heather brown cardigan to match his hat and scarf. By the time December rolls around Zhongli has been outfitted for the cold in brown, gray, yellow and a singular (horrifying) orange and red striped sweatervest.
Thankfully Zhongli doesn't feel obligated to wear the sweatervest. He shoves it to the back of his closet and prays it stays there until it decays.
One morning just after his last final of the semester, Childe makes his way to the tea shop wearing a giant cardigan he purposely knitted two sizes too big. It's dark red and matches the hoodie he's wearing underneath it. He has a coat, but it's still warm enough that layering up is still the way to go. He can't fit this cardigan under his coat.
He skips across the street to The Fiber Factory for yarn because it's time to finish up the Christmas gifts (he's a poor college student with a hobby, he makes all the gifts he gives) and spends some time gabbing with the ladies sitting around having class. It's an advanced class, which really makes it a sit around and knit (or crochet) with your friends and gossip class.
Then he makes his way across the road to AdepTea and when he steps inside the shop it looks like an old folks home threw up inside it. He looks around at all the ladies (and a few guys), most over the age of fifty, and sees a lot of Fiber Factory bags.
Right, he forgot. The Yarn Crawl.
Childe uses his youth and leanness to his advantage to make it to the counter. Zhongli pins him with a look and Childe is dumping his bag, his shopping and his cardigan in the storeroom. He pulls on a blue apron and dives into the fray.
"Oh my goodness!" a voice cries over all the voices a while later. "Jean! Jean, look at this! Look at how cute it is!"
Jean is a blonde woman standing next to the sample table trying to drink her weight in iced Strawberry Grapefruit Xue Long green tea.
"What is it, Lisa?" Jean asks when she crosses the shop to the dirty blonde woman, Lisa who is brandishing one of Childe' little animals.
Jean cooes over the cute little animal and the ladies chatter about how perfect they are for stocking stuffers for the little kids. When Jean and Lisa make it to the register they have nine of the handicrafts between then.
"How much are these?" the dirty blonde lady asks. She's buying chamomile and a tumbler to put it in as well.
Zhongli stares at her and looks around at Childe, who shrugs. "Five?" - Childe shakes his head - no, "six dollars."
The two ladies happily shell out the six dollars apiece and when the crush of people is gone and it's just Zhongli and Childe in the shop there isn't a single tiny knitted animal to be seen anywhere. Well, except for the little brown dragon by the register. That one Zhongli had said wasn't for sale.
"Six dollars?" Zhongli asks, raising his eyebrows. "Really?"
"What? That pays for your labor and gives you some profit. If we split it seventy-thirty they'll pay for themselves and keep me in yarn," Childe replies with a grin.
Zhongli doesn't understand the fascination but it did clear out the shop and he knows Childe will probably just repopulate it anyway. "Alright, deal. I'll sell them, but you keep up with supply and demand on your own."
"You got it!" Childe replies cheerfully, because score! More money coming in means more money for things like actual food that doesn't come in a box.
That night Zhongli meets Ajax. Of course, Zhongli doesn't know that his name is Ajax. He just knows that after figuring out what that strange sound was, he spends an hour running around the shop trying to catch a Hedgehog.
Fast little bugger too.
Once Zhongli's got him cornered he sacrifices an apron to the cause and sets him in a box that once held a tea set he's got out on display. Ajax stares up at him from his prison like Zhongli's just gone and destroyed everything. Zhongli sighs because anyone could have left their hedgehog behind and now he's going to have to make found pet flyers.
He spends several hours online researching what hedgehogs eat that night. He feeds it and then spends the whole night restlessly wondering if he's going to get up in the morning and find that the hedgehog has escaped into the house.
Childe on the other hand flips his lid. He goes to feed Ajax and his best tiny friend is gone. He tears apart his room, screams for Kaeya and the pair of them tear through the apartment looking for Ajax.
Kaeya gets it, he's in veterinary school. Small animals are his thing.
When Dainslief shows up for movie night he gets roped into helping look and he is reminded, again, that if he ends up married to Kaeya this will probably be a recurring theme in his life.
It's nearly midnight, Childe is starting think Ajax's dead in a crack somewhere when he spots it. His cardigan hanging innocently by the door. He narrows his eyes and recounts his footsteps from that morning. He'd grabbed his cardigan off the bed, not the rack by the door.
Crap.
Ajax loves pockets. He will spend whole days with Childe riding around in his pockets with a handful of dried fruit for company and no one is ever the wiser. If Childe' sweater was in range and Ajax was out of his terrarium this morning then Ajax likely ended up in his pocket.
…Which he took off at the tea shop.
Ooops.
Childe is hopping from foot to foot outside a AdepTea when Zhongli gets there. He looks anxious and he's blowing into his mittened hands and Zhongli sighs. That answers the question of who the hedgehog that had done a faceplant in his granola this morning belongs to.
"I left Ajax here by accident" Childe blurts out as soon as Zhongli approaches.
Zhongli's eyebrows crawl upward, but he doesn't say anything, just lets them into the shop. He flips on the lights and sets the shoebox that was under his arm down on the counter and takes off the lid. Ajax appears and Childe cooes over him in joy because his hedgehog is content and unharmed and traveled in style in a cloth lined box.
"Thanks for looking after him." Childe says with a grin Zhongli's direction.
"Thank me by helping" Zhongli tells him. So Childe does. He helps Zhongli prepare for the day by setting out new merchandise and quickly wiping off the counter. Zhongli opens several tins of tea to make the day's samples. One is a deep, earthy yellow tea that Childe stands over just to breathe it in. This one Zhongli brews hot and sweetens with just a little bit of rock sugar to take any bitter edge off.
The other tea is a fruity tea that Zhongli blends together from Strawberry Creme White tea and Wild Orange Wulong tea. This one will be iced and he doesn't sweeten it. The strawberry is strong enough to cut through the wulong well enough to not need it. Ajax climbs out of the box to investigate the tins because it smells very interesting.
Zhongli won't ever admit to doing it, but he fishes bits of dried strawberry out of the tin and scatters them on the counter for Ajax to eat. It's all organic, and Zhongli does it all the time, so he knows it won't hurt the hedgehog.
"What else can I do?" Childe asks after taking the broom to the floor.
Zhongli gestures to the large cast iron teapot sitting in the drying rack. It's black with gold brushed elephants on it. "Make up a pot of the White Chocolate Peppermint?"
Childe nods and gets to business. If there is one thing he's learned since October it's how to brew this particular blend of tea. He busies himself with measuring things out and pours the water into the teapot. He sets a timer and digs around under the counter for the little sample cups Zhongli keeps by the samples.
Zhongli is in the back room of the shop when Childe stands up. The timer goes off and he quickly pulls the strainer from the teapot and puts the lid on. He turns to take it over to the tea tray where Zhongli has set up an area where people can set out cast iron pieces to create their perfect tea set. He stops and clears his throat "Hi! We're not open yet."
There's a tall, pretty looking dark haired woman standing just inside the door of the shop. Next to her is another woman, blonde hair, not quite as tall, but radiates elegance and class. They have similar looking wedding bands for Childe to know instantly that they're married.
"Oh, I know." the blonde woman says. "Is Zhongli here?"
Childe walks over to the display and sets the teapot down on a trivet gently. He futzes with the warmer for a minute, trying to get it going "He's in the back."
Zhongli appears and he takes one look at the women darkening his doorway, his face hardens and says, "No."
Ningguang raises a singular eyebrow at her brother and says "You always say that."
"And I always mean it," Zhongli says straight to the point. He walks over to Childe and gently moves him out of the way to light the warmer for him. Childe smiles gratefully and sets the teapot overtop of it. Then he goes to put out the sample cups. "Ningguang, this is my busiest time of year, I am not closing up the shop just to spend a week being judged by our family."
"We're not that bad, Zhongli," Beidou says, flopping into a chair.
Childe' eyebrows go up and he makes inquiring eyebrows at Zhongli, who rolls his eyes impressively. Ningguang observes this and says. "It's Christmas, Zhongli."
"What has that got to do with anything?" Zhongli asks, because holidays have never been his forte anyway. Besides it's the busy season and he is no longer a high priced corporate lawyer anymore.
"You can bring your boyfriend with you," Ningguang says.
Zhongli stops giving Ajax more bits of dried fruit to stare at his sister "Boyfriend?"
"Of course!" Ningguang gestures at Childe who looks around behind him with wide eyes. "I'm sure the whole family would be interested in meeting your young man."
Childe mouths 'young man' to himself as Zhongli tries to wiggle out of visiting for the holidays. "I really can't afford to close the shop, Ningguang," he tells her.
Childe makes up his mind and bounces his way around the counter. "Besides!" he says brightly "I'm headed home for Christmas tomorrow." He gives Ningguang serious eyes "And if I can't convince him to close the shop to come home and meet my dad, you've got no chance."
Zhongli is staring at him and Childe reaches over and presses a kiss to his lips. "I've got to get to class, babe. I'm leaving Ajax here, don't kill our hedgehog."
Zhongli makes an huffs, "I would never."
"Good," Childe beams, gives Zhongli another kiss and leaves the shop.
Zhongli watches him go and eventually meets Beidou's shocked gaze. Her mouth is open in surprise that his brother-in-law wasn't actually Ace. Zhongli just rolls with it. He smiles at his sister-in-law and then turns back to his sister.
"Still no."
In the end Childe leaves Ajax with Zhongli, who agrees to hedgehog sit under an assault of sweet kisses bestowed upon him by Childe. Who has decided that they're dating and is also completely shameless. So Childe gives him Ajax's small house, food and a brightly wrapped present with a tag on it that says Do Not Open Until Christmas.
It takes barely a day for Zhongli to find the hats. Teeny tiny hats that look suspiciously like they would fit Ajax perfectly. There is a navy one that matches the one Childe wears on a daily basis. One in the heather brown of the hat and scarf Childe made Zhongli. There's one in red and white candy striping and a green one with tiny reindeer antlers and a tiny red puffball for a nose on it.
Zhongli is amazed and he can't resist. Ajax wears his reindeer hat a lot while he stays with Zhongli.
The days after Childe leaves seem longer.
Zhongli has set extended hours for the store up until Christmas Eve so he doesn't get home until late and when he does he feeds himself leftover food from Wanmin and Ajax eats on the table next to him wearing a red hat with a little jingle bell atop it so that he tinkles gently while he eats. He decides halfway through the meal that what Childe doesn't know won't hurt him and reaches for the haphazardly wrapped gift.
When he gets it open he has to smile because it's a pair of mittens and they match the ones Childe wears. Childe made him matching mittens.
Zhongli tries them on for size and grins a little when they're a perfect fit.
Childe gets back into town just after New Years and the first thing he does is go to the shop. He tells Kaeya it's to pick up Ajax, but they both know he's lying. Ajax is just a small part of why he's headed to the shop. Zhongli is the main reason. Kaeya lets him lie though because he thinks it's funny that after years of Childe mocking him for being all confounded over someone he finally gets the chance to return the favor.
So Childe rushes off to the tea shop shortly after he gets home to laughter from Diluc, Kaeya and Dainslief piled up on the couch.
Zhongli is helping a woman with a stroller and two small children with sticky fingers with a gift exchange when Childe gets there. The baby in the stroller is out cold, but the two little girls keep touching things and every time they leave another fingerprint a muscle in Zhongli's jaw jumps.
Childe shouldn't find it adorable, but he does.
Childe ducks behind the counter, deposits his bag and digs for the suckers he knows Zhongli keeps behind the counter. "Hi hon!" he says and pecks Zhongli on the cheek. Zhongli huffs and the muscle in his jaw jumps even as he gives Childe a helpless little smile. The tired looking mother giggles at them.
Childe rounds the counter and crouches by the two little girls "Hey, would you guys like a sucker?"
He has two sets of eyes riveted on him and both little girls nod. He leads them off to the chairs at one of the tables and sits them down. He lets each girl pick a color and then extracts a promise that they will sit still until their suckers are gone.
"You are," Zhongli begins once the woman and her children have exited the shop. He rounds the counter as he speaks and walks toward Childe, "amazing."
Childe stands to meet him and grins when Zhongli cradles his head in his hands and rubs their noses together in an eskimo kiss. He's delighted and he shows it by bouncing on his toes once and throwing his arms around Zhongli's neck to pull him into a real kiss.
Apparently Zhongli has decided that he's okay with Childe' decision that they're in a relationship.
He can work with that.
The ladies at The Fiber Factory all adore Childe. It isn't that you don't find many young men who knit or crochet. It isn't that he buys his yarn there. It's the fact that Childe is always willing to stop and talk with them. He can argue over patterns and colors with the best of them. He knits those cute little animals and his hats are wonderful.
So naturally, when they hear that Childe has been spending a lot of time at a certain tea shop. In fact, that he has been spending a lot of time with a certain sarcastic tea shop owner, they naturally all get together to wander down the street and peer at Zhongli.
He spends the whole time wishing that they'd at least come into the shop and buy things. That would make feeling like an exotic animal at the zoo a little easier. When he complains Childe cackles and tells him to be careful what he wishes for.
When the ladies start coming into the shop to window shop his merchandise and talk to him, he regrets ever saying anything. Archons above these women find him cute. It's like he's lost all his strong dignified aura just because he's dating Childe. They take his quiet nature as something to find adorable.
He hates it.
So, naturally, eventually he has to venture into The Fiber Factory one day for Childe. Childe is having a crap day and asked him to pick up a yarn order. He doesn't want to, and he stands on the sidewalk outside the shop perfecting his poker face for long enough to garner the attention of the ladies in the shop.
They've started taking bets on how long he's just going to stand there when he finally comes in.
"Good morning, Zhongli," Noelle chirps. She's grinning from behind the counter and Zhongli feels like he's in hell.
"Noelle, Ganyu," Zhongli nods at the two friends that own the shop and studiously does not look at the gaggle of women seated around the table in the middle of the room. If he doesn't look at them he can pretend they're not there.
"Did you need something?" Ganyu asks sweetly.
"I'm here to pick up Childe' order," Zhongli says, finally venturing away from the door. He edges past the table and he's surrounded.
"I have it in the back" Noelle says. "I'll go get it, back in a jif."
Zhongli shifts from foot to foot uncomfortably while the chatting starts back up at the table behind him. They're talking quieter than they usually would and Zhongli knows they're talking about him. Especially if the bouts of cut off giggling is anything to go by.
"Did Childe lend you his mittens, Zhongli?" one of the ladies asks. Zhongli hasn't bothered to learn the names of any of them aside from Noelle and Ganyu. "I helped him with the pattern you know. Poor boy just can't get the hang of knitting fingers."
A couple of the ladies coo about Childe and his knitting as Zhongli extracts the mittens from his pocket. He fingers the soft yarn and says "He gave them to me for Christmas."
One of the ladies giggles in a high pitched way and hides her face behind the afghan she's working on. The woman who had asked about the mittens in the first place speaks again. "That's so nice. Childe was wearing his yesterday. I made my husband and I matching scarves this year."
Zhongli tries not to color as the women start talking about couples sweaters and how to tell couples hats and mittens apart. He knows his ears are red as he looks down at his mittens. Childe knitted a red band around the wrists if his and a gold one around Zhongli's so that they can tell him apart.
He does his best not to smile helplessly because the last thing he needs to give these women is anymore fodder for gossip.
When Noelle finally returns with a cardboard box nearly overflowing with skeins of yarn Zhongli flees as quickly as he can, followed by laughter.
He finds himself investing in a terrarium for Ajax in February. He stores it on a shelf in the shop next to the little stereo he keeps there. Because apparently he is co-parenting a hedgehog. Childe comes by in the mornings on his way to classes for his morning tea and drops Ajax off.
Zhongli doesn't understand, but he actually likes Ajax so he doesn't say anything.
He meets Kaeya one morning when Childe has an early class and had to skip coming to the shop. He sends Kaeya to drop off Ajax and Kaeya (who is used to Childe) bemusedly does it. Mostly he does it to sate his own curiosity, but he will also be telling everyone he knows what Childe' tea shop owner is actually like.
Kaeya gets to the shop with forty-five minutes to spare before he needs to get to his own class. He steps inside the fragrant shop and peers around curiously at all the tea accessories around the shop. He grins at the sight of Childe' knitted animals all over the place before he heads for the counter.
Zhongli finishes ringing up a woman with a gigantic philosophy book under one arm and turns his attention to Kaeya. His eyes land on the little carrier in Kaeya's hand with Ajax inside it, and smirks.
"You must be Kaeya."
"That would be me," Kaeya says, and slides Ajax's carrier across the counter.
Zhongli unlatches the door with practiced ease and reaches in. Ajax has no problem being handled by Zhongli. Zhongli means he gets to explore the counter and sometimes he gets to ride in Zhongli's apron pocket when he's stocking the store. He also gets yummy bits of fruit for snacks, so he likes his new co-owner.
Kaeya watches Zhongli deposit Ajax on the counter and slide the tin of tea he has yet to put away after showing it to the lady now sitting in an overstuffed armchair in the corner. He pops the lid open and a strong fruity scent colors the air as Zhongli scoops some out to pick out a few bits of fruit for Ajax.
"What is that?" Kaeya wonders, because he can't pinpoint the smell.
"Dragonfruit Devotion," Zhongli says, fishing around under the counter. He retrieves a little box and pulls out Ajax's navy hat and carefully fits it on his head. "It's one of today's sample teas if you'd like to try it" he gestures to the sample stand.
Kaeya wanders over and fills one of the little sample cups to try it and then turns back to Zhongli who is watching him with knowing eyes. "So… you're dating my best friend."
"So it would seem," Zhongli says mildly. He never actually agreed to date anyone, but by now it's a moot point.
"I have instructions to invite you to Wing Thursday," Kaeya says. "And to not accept no for an answer."
"Wing Thursday?" Zhongli asks.
"Buffalo Wild Wings has half priced wings on Thursdays. We all go late at night to eat more than we should," Kaeya explains.
"I see."
"So you'll come."
"Well, since I have no choice."
"Good," Kaeya says. "It's the one by campus. Be there at ten."
Zhongli watches him go and when he's vanished around the corner he looks down at Ajax and says: "When did hanging out with a bunch of college kids become my life?"
Ajax wiggles his nose and nudges a piece of fruit Zhongli's way in comfort.
Eating food with Childe' circle of friends is pure chaos. Kaeya and Dainslief get into a fight so Diluc sits between them affably eating the celery off their plates with a put upon expression on his face. They do this on a fairly regular basis, so it isn't unusual. They bicker and since Diluc is too classy to bicker, he ends up in the middle.
Childe pulls Zhongli down to sit next to him at the end of the table. Zhongli is grateful for the escape route when Lumine and Aether arrive with Bennett and Razor. HuTao slides into the space between Bennet and Lumine and spends the whole night aggressively murdering his wings and looking at the entrance seemingly waiting for someone.
Keqing and Xiangling appear with their usual aplomb. Meaning that Keqing very loudly announces their arrival and her opinions and Xiangling happily plows her way through a mountain of wings, eating five for every one of Keqing's, not noticing HuTao's eyes on her.
Childe insists on splitting several flavors with Zhongli, and Zhongli doesn't mind. He doesn't actually notice because he's busy fending off the interrogation that Lumine launched as soon as she'd sat primly down and turned her whole body to face Zhongli with grim determination in her eyes.
She's terrifying. He likes her.
At the end of the night their server gets a gigantic tip because everyone pitches in with whatever loose change they've got on them to go with the tips included in their bills. They pile a bunch of crumpled ones and fives in the middle of the table along with a fistfull of quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies. Zhongli isn't sure how much it is, but he knows it's got to be more than forty dollars.
They were rowdy, loud and ate a lot of food. She earned it.
Zhongli decides that Childe has decent friends and he won't mind doing this again next week. He tells Childe this and Childe grins and kisses him in reward when Zhongli drops him off at his door. Zhongli goes home full of chicken wings and a pleased feeling in his chest over this thing with Childe.
Overall it's a good night, but that might just be the heartburn talking.
They stay in for Valentine's. It's their first and Childe just wants to spend it alone. Zhongli takes this into consideration and decides to invite Childe over. He'll cook carbonara and from scratch rolls and they'll watch movies and snuggle.
He didn't even know he liked snuggling until Childe started showing up for movie night twice a week. It is now something he doesn't ever want to give up.
"We need to have a discussion," Zhongli says conversationally while he whisks the sauce.
"We do?" Childe wonders, because as far as he knows things are going great.
Zhongli gives him a completely deadpan look and states, "My apartment is not your personal storage facility, Childe."
"I don't know what you mean," Childe replies. He's trying for innocent, but innocent on him always looks mischevious.
"There is yarn everywhere, Childe. Everywhere."
"That's an exaggeration."
Zhongli looks pointedly at the bookcase behind Childe and he swivels around to face it. The bottom two shelves that had at one point held actual books now hold baskets of yarn. The yarn is organized by color.
"There's one by the couch, Childe."
Childe shrugs and grins winningly at Zhongli. Zhongli raises a single eyebrow at him. "Okay, so I might have a yarn problem."
"I have yet to see you use any of these, Childe," Zhongli says as transfers the noodles to the strainer in the sink.
"I will!" Childe says defensively.
"No more yarn until you use some of this," Zhongli tells him. "You can't tell me you don't have just as much at home."
Childe makes a face. "But it's yarn."
Zhongli smiles at him. "I know, baby."
Childe sighs, put upon, but agrees to curb his yarn habit until he actually uses some of the yarn he already has. Later, when they're snuggled up on the couch under a quilt Zhongli's mother made and they're sharing cheesecake out of the pan, Childe says: "Does this mean you don't want me to make you anymore things?"
Zhongli smiles and presses a kiss to Childe' head. "You can make me all the things you want to."
March arrives and with it come spring and that week long break from school all students worship: Spring Break. Childe packs away all the knitwear because it gets too warm for scarves and mittens very quickly. Zhongli gets in all the new spring goodies at the shop and spends approximately two days tearing his hair out because of inventory and taxes.
Childe lets him go out of his mind over it all for about a week before he drags him out of the shop.
They drive into Liyue Harbor and wander around in town for the afternoon. When they sit down to eat Childe decides to broach the subject. He waits until he's halfway through his Sweet and Sour before he gets the guts up to say anything.
"Sooo…"
Zhongli looks up from his meal and raises his eyebrows at Childe. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't need to because Childe just blurts it out.
"My Dad is coming to visit over Spring Break."
"Okay," Zhongli says.
"And I want you to meet him. Him to meet you?" Childe sighs and drops his head into a hand. He pouts to himself and looks over at Zhongli who is watching him.
"Okay," Zhongli says again.
"That's it?" Childe wonders.
Zhongli smiles at him and something inside Childe settles. This is going to be fine. Dad's cool with it, Zhongli is cool with it. Dad knows about Zhongli so it's not like there's going to be any big surprises. Well, barring strange incidents and Childe making a fool of himself. That's inevitable though, so Childe decides it doesn't count.
On the drive back home Zhongli holds his hand over the gearshift and Childe can't help but smile because his boyfriend is okay with meeting his Dad. The boyfriend that never really agreed to being his boyfriend. At least not out loud.
The end of March comes and with it what Childe has started calling The Visit. Kaeya mocks him a lot because it's just his dad. Childe just gives him angry eyes and continues cleaning the apartment.
Mr. Tartaglia arrives on Tuesday. It's mid-morning and Childe is manic. He's bouncing with nerves and when they go to lunch he just can't sit still. Mr. Tartaglia sits through it because this is his kid and he's got practice, but eventually he's had enough.
"Childe, stop."
Childe stares at his dad, "I can't help it."
"Kid, I like this Zhongli guy already solely based on how damn happy he makes you," Mr. Tartaglia tells him.
Childe nods. He knows this.
"Just remember that you've gotta let me have my fun."
"Dad!"
"What?" Mr. Tartaglia asks. His innocent face is much more believable than Childe'.
Childe snorts.
Zhongli will never admit, upon pain of death, that he's nervous… But, well, he's nervous. Zhongli is the alone kind of person. He's never been in a relationship and he hadn't thought about relationships, let alone meeting his significant other's parents. Now he's trying to muddle through the day trying not to over analyze how badly this could all go.
He wants Mr. Tartaglia to like him.
He goes through an entire pot of the Apple Lemon Pomegranate rooibos he carries all on his own. It's soothing and he likes it a little better than chamomile. He loses patience with a trio of giggly teenage girls who wander into the shop and have to pick up everything in sight. He rearranges the books on tea, first in descending order of size, then by subject, and then he returns it to the way it was before. Alphabetically by author.
By the time four o'clock rolls around Zhongli has twisted himself around, straightened himself out and then decided it's all for naught. Mr. Tartaglia will like him or he won't and Zhongli just has to remember that Childe adores him and that's what matters.
He decides this just in time because Childe and his father enter the shop right as the clock rolls over on four-fifteen. Mr. Tartaglia is of a similar height to Childe, and he has a similar facial structure. His facial expressions are certainly similar enough that Zhongli can see the resemblance. This is all that Zhongli gets to see before Childe bounds across the shop and throws himself into Zhongli's arms.
Zhongli catches him because by now it's reflex and he can't help smiling and rubbing their noses together in an eskimo kiss like he always does before Childe kisses him in return.
"Hi!" Childe breathes at him.
"Hey," Zhongli returns.
They pull apart and turn to Mr. Tartaglia who is smiling softly at them. Childe tugs Zhongli forward and introduces them. "Dad, this is Zhongli. Babe, this is my father, Tartaglia."
"It's nice to meet you," Zhongli says, and offers up a hand to shake.
Mr. Tartaglia takes it. His grip is firm, his hand warm and dry. "It's nice to meet you too."
The rest of the visit goes well. They spend a lot of time wandering around seeing the sights in the city. Childe drags Mr. Tartaglia to all his favorite restaurants. Mr. Tartaglia eats a lot, but he keeps it healthy because otherwise Childe will get all his co-workers to gang up on him to make sure he's eating right when he gets home.
Again.
Zhongli spends quite a bit of time with them. He isn't always around, but this visit feels more like Mr. Tartaglia came to visit them than just to visit Childe. It's really nice. Zhongli likes the feeling of having someone visit just because they actually might like him and not because they want something.
His family always seems to want something. To nag about not being married, to con him into visiting home… legal advice.
Once Mr. Tartaglia has left, Childe flops onto the couch next to Zhongli with a sigh. Zhongli has his feet propped up on the second hand coffee table Kaeya and Diluc found at a garage sale back in junior year. He's got his eyes closed and his head leaned back. Childe snuggles into his side and Zhongli wraps an arm around him.
They're silent for a few minutes until Childe says: "That went well, I think."
Zhongli tips his head to rest on Childe', "It did."
"He likes you."
"I hope he did."
They bask in being together for a few minutes and then Childe says, softly enough that Zhongli almost doesn't hear it: "I love you, you know."
Zhongli smiles in wonder and gazes down at the man in his arms. He pulls him closer and presses a kiss into his hair and says: "I love you too."
Classes end, Childe defends his thesis and gets his doctorate and gets hired on by the historical society in Liyue Harbor. Childe is excited because he gets to work in the museum and talk about mythology all day.
The lease on the apartment ends at the beginning of June and after a talk about how all his yarn needs to live in the same place, Childe moves in with Zhongli. It's an adjustment because together they have a lot of books and Childe brings more yarn into the house than common sense, or so Zhongli says.
Childe rearranges their tea paraphernalia. Between the two of them they have duplicate tins of approximately half their teas. He goes out one day and buys a glass, corner display case to show off the nicest of their tea sets. They have thirty between them and Childe thinks it's a travesty to just box them up and store them.
Zhongli rolls with the changes. He clears a corner table of the dead plant Ningguang gave him at Thanksgiving for Ajax's habitat. He goes through all the books for duplicates, tracks down another bookcase and reorganizes.
Childe continues to knit. Now that it's summer he's taken to making blankets (in addition to all the hats) to donate to a couple of local charities. At the beginning of July he participates in the semi-annual yarn crawl. Zhongli is inundated with a thousand ladies driving around the county from shop to shop again.
Zhongli is trying to avoid summoning a meteorite at everyone when Beidou and Xiao appear in the shop. Beidou looks absolutely gleeful and waves as she and her son take up seats at a little table. Xiao is scowling and grumpy because they've been driving all morning and Beidou hasn't let him stop to eat.
Halfway through the afternoon Childe comes into the shop. Zhongli is ringing out the last set of ladies from the most recent wave when Childe comes in. He's carrying two huge, overflowing bags of yarn and a grin.
Zhongli sighs, "Really?"
"Really, really!" Childe chirps as he deposits his stuff in the back room and then comes over to press a quick kiss to Zhongli's cheek. He's extracting Ajax from his terrarium when a loud female voice comes from the other side of the shop.
"See! I told you he had a boyfriend!"
Both Zhongli and Childe turn to stare at Beidou and the ladies give the table she's sitting at with Xiao a wide berth as they leave the shop. Xiao has a long suffering look on his face as if he's finally accepted his fate to be embarrassed by his mother on a regular basis.
Childe can't help himself, he smiles at Beidou sunnily and says: "I'm not his boyfriend, I'm his fiance."
Everyone turns to stare at Childe. Beidou and Xiao in shock and Zhongli with a sort of wondering look in his eyes that tells Childe they'll be revisiting that statement at a later date.
Childe is okay with that.
Zhongli doesn't bring up their apparent engagement at first. He fields phone calls from Ningguang, his mother and the rest of the family demanding to know why he hadn't told anyone he was seeing anyone. Why didn't he call to tell them that he was getting engaged? When was the wedding? Would they be invited or should they just expect to see an announcement in the paper?
It takes several weeks for Zhongli to bring it up. Mostly because his family is his family and he can't get a word in edgewise and doesn't want to deal with it at home too. Eventually though he's dealt with the family and he's ready to talk about it.
Right when Childe' false sense of security was settling in, too.
Zhongli makes an after dinner pot of tea and joins Childe in the living room and settles in to stare at him disconcertingly until Childe acknowledges him.
"Okay, what?" Childe demands.
"We're engaged?" Zhongli asks. His voice is mild.
Childe stops and looks at him, but he can't read anything in his expression. He picks up his tea cup and fiddles with it a bit, sipping nervously. "You don't want to get married?"
"Childe," Zhongli says calmly. "We've been dating for nearly a year and we never actually said we were doing it."
"You don't want to date me?" Childe asks.
"That isn't what I'm saying," Zhongli says. "Marriage is big, we need to talk about this."
"We do?"
"Yes."
"What is there to talk about?" Childe asks. "I love you, you love me, we already live together. We're co-parenting a hedgehog."
Zhongli sighs and he knows that Childe will continue to talk this in circles unless Zhongli stops him. "Drink your tea."
Childe lifts the tea cup to his mouth and sips. Zhongli watches him with a zen expression on his face until Childe gets to the bottom of his cup. Then his gaze sharpens when Childe hears the clinking and peers into the china trying to figure out what that sound it.
"Are you serious?"
Zhongli grins.
"Are you kidding me right now?!" Childe demands, fishing a white gold ring out of his cup and drying it with the edge of his shirt. It has a trio of square diamonds embedded in it and it's classic and masculine. Childe looks up at Zhongli with wide eyes, "Are you? Really?"
Zhongli slinks off his feet so that he's kneeling in front of Childe, whose eyes go as wide as saucers as he lets Zhongli take his limp hands.
"Childe, ever since the first time you walked into my shop I have wanted to know you. As I have gotten to know you you have crept into every crevice of my life until I no longer recognized it. You are the air I breathe and the light at the end of my tunnel and I love you. Will you marry me?"
"Yes," Childe breathes, eyes still wide, but with his eyes glittering.
Zhongli smiles and takes the ring from Childe' limp hand and slips the ring on his finger. He kisses both of Childe' hands and then leans up to rub their noses together. Childe grins, remembers himself and cradles Zhongli's head in his hands to kiss him properly.
"I am the luckiest bastard alive," Childe says. "You let me steamroller you into a relationship and I feel like I won the lottery everyday."
Zhongli smiles and says: "I love you too, Childe."
They get married in October, exactly a year to the day of Childe first walking into the shop.
Mr. Tartaglia officiates, Ningguang provides cake.
And they live Happily Ever After.