Chapter Text
Childe didn’t believe in luck, not particularly.
Good or bad, the Harbinger didn’t think that luck was something that had a place in the world. Instead, he was confident that everything happened in life because it was earned. People who supposedly had “bad luck” just weren’t trying hard enough to get what they wanted, or they framed their life in a way that was out of their control. Childe had been a nobody, a simple Snezhnayan boy with ambition, but that ambition had been focused into providing for his parents and siblings. His encounter with the Abyss was fortuitous, and it had both its negatives and positives, but above all, it showed Childe that everything was within his grasp, if only he had the strength to take it by force. He had worked hard to get where he was, and as the 11th Harbinger, he wanted to believe that he had so far enacted the Tsaritsa’s will to the best of his ability. There was no luck involved in how he got there, only a trail of corpses.
But that wasn’t to say that Childe wasn’t interested in learning about more of what the world had to offer. As firm as he was in his beliefs, he liked to think of himself as incredibly open-minded. This was the basis of his journey to Mondstadt, after overhearing the tales of a particularly unlucky member of the Adventurer’s Guild named Bennett. Usually, he wouldn’t have paid anything like this any mind, but the stories that he had overheard had piqued his interest, particularly the one where his incredible bad luck seemed to perpetually attract the strongest monsters. “If luck is real, then his bad luck might just be my good luck,” Childe mused to himself. If he could spend time around this man who had the ability to seemingly make monsters appear out of thin air, then maybe he would have some use in taking this Adventurer along with him in his travels.
When Childe first stepped foot upon the cobbled streets of Mondstadt city, he was immediately startled by the commotion in front of him. He could only stand and watch, a gloved hand touching his chin as the scene unfolded in front of him; a young man lay splayed out on the ground, surrounded by broken plates and various pieces of meat. Stray dogs had gathered around him, preferring to eat the spilled food over paying any mind to the fallen man. They walked all over him, pinning him in place, but he seemed far too good-natured to shoo them away. This pulled a chuckle from Childe’s lips, and he took a few steps closer. The click of his boots over the stones below his feet caused the dogs to scurry - perhaps they could sense the lingering scent of the Abyss that always clung to him, and had decided to stay as far away as possible.
The ashen-haired man let out a groan and put a hand to his head once he was free from the weight of the dogs walking all over his body, and he squinted up at the Harbinger in mild confusion. His emerald eyes seemed to sparkle under the midday sun with a vibrant life force that was in stark contrast to Childe’s own dull blue hues. He was covered in bandages, as well as fresh wounds from where shards of broken plates dug into his arms and legs. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was the young man he was looking for.
“I haven’t seen you around before,” he said, slowly struggling to his feet. Crimson blood dripped from his injuries, something which caught Childe’s attention immediately.
As much as Childe loved watching him put in the effort to stand on his own, he knew that people were watching, and that he should at least try to look like he had some shred of humanity. He offered the injured stranger an outstretched hand, which he eagerly took, smudging blood across the Harbinger’s palm. “I’m just visiting for the day, actually. My name is Tartaglia, or Childe, if you prefer. I’m actually here on a mission; I’m looking for someone with the Adventurer’s Guild named Bennett. Would you happen to know him?”
“Huh?” He blinked slowly in confusion, as though Childe’s mission was one that he couldn’t possibly comprehend. “You’re looking for… me?”
“If your name’s Bennett, then yes, I am.” Childe offered him a friendly smile.
“Yeah, it is! I mean - what did I do this time? I tried to clean up that Hydro slime mess the best I could, I didn’t think it would blow up like that! Or is this about the singed wood panels on one of the houses in Springvale? I promise I’ll get around to replacing those as soon as I can.” Bennett rubbed the back of his head and looked up at Childe apologetically, his expression quickly turning from excitement to guilt.
Hearing of all these misfortunes, which likely had only occurred recently, Childe couldn’t help but laugh. It seemed as though he’d found the one he had been looking for after all. “Well, it’s kind of about both of those things, but neither of them at the same time. I’d overheard from others about a particular… condition that you have. Apparently you’ve got something called bad luck, but what I’m interested in is what they said about you also having the ability to attract monsters. Would you say that’s true?”
This was definitely an unfamiliar situation for Bennett. As Childe spoke, he picked absentmindedly at the shards of porcelain embedded within his arm. The Harbinger was hyper-focused on this, eyes narrowing as he studied the droplets of crimson that spouted from new wounds and ran down pale skin. Bennett didn’t seem to notice this acute observation that he was under. “I do have bad luck, and it shows itself in all sorts of ways. But I try not to focus on it too much, since drawing attention to it only makes others want to spend less time around me. I think the monsters are probably the worst part, since it happens so often. I can’t even have a picnic with my friends out in the wilds without hilichurls attacking us!”
Childe wasn’t quite convinced of this “bad luck” just yet. Having picnics out in the wilds was a bad idea to begin with; surely it wasn’t unusual for people to run into hilichurls there. But Childe had nothing better to do that afternoon, and so he decided to humour Bennett just for a little bit. “Is that so? I see. Alright, I have an offer to propose to you then, Bennett.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the adventurer, who returned his gaze with curiosity. “I want to help you out. I’ll cut to the chase: I like fighting monsters. And if you can bring them to me, then it’ll make my life easier. Of course, if this is a normal part of your life, then that means I’ll have to follow you around for the day. But in return, I can compensate you for your time. So... I spend the day with you, and in return you get a bag of mora at the end of it. How does that sound?”
Bennett’s expression changed to one that made him look like he had won the lottery. He looked up at Childe in disbelief, a stupid grin on his face. “You mean - I get an adventuring buddy and I get paid for it?! Maybe my luck’s finally turned around! Or maybe I bumped my head a little too hard when I fell on the ground…” He didn’t want to let himself get too excited, and so he turned back to where he had fallen to make sure that he wasn’t having some sort of out-of-body experience. He probably should have been more critical of the strange man who came up to him asking to spend the day with him, to see if there were any ulterior motives that he might have had. If he liked fighting so much, Bennett doubted that he would win in a duel if he ever tried to turn his blades on the adventurer, but if he had murder on his mind, surely he wouldn’t go through all this effort first? Any reservations that Bennett had quickly went out the window. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt like he could trust Childe.
“I promise you that this is as real as the mora in my pocket. Now, are you ready?” Childe knew, in the back of his mind, that he probably should have offered to help Bennett patch up his wounds, or at least make sure they were free from splinters, but that sadistic streak in him was ever-prevalent. He assumed that if it bothered him enough, Bennett would have done it himself. Even if he asked for help, the Harbinger wouldn’t refuse.
“I think I’m all good to go. I’ve got my map, my compass, my sword …oh, and this!” Bennett pulled out a pin and placed it on Childe’s scarf. It was a red thumbs-up, the meaning of which was lost on the Harbinger. “There. Now you can consider yourself an honorary member of Benny’s Adventure Team!”
---
Bennett seemed to have a particular spot in mind when they had first set foot out of the city. While their journey started on well-worn paths, Childe quickly noticed that they had begun to trek over grassy hills and plains. He kept his eye on the white-haired young man in front of him, who seemed so fixated on his map that he never bothered glancing up. Several times, he stumbled and fell, his foot getting snagged on rocks or tree roots. He began to wonder to himself if Bennett really was unlucky, or just clumsy and oblivious. Childe was content with watching, wanting to see how everything would play out rather than trying to hold Bennett back. His mind kept returning to their first meeting, seeing him covered in blood like that - if it happened often, Childe figured he should probably stay around. It was a guilty pleasure of his, though it probably wasn’t as much of a secret as he thought it was. After all, he killed people on the battlefield for a living, and it was unsurprising that the rush of excitement that came with victory was inevitably conflated with blood and gore.
“Ah, we’re here.”
Bennett’s voice pulled Childe out of his thoughts, and he stopped walking just to look around at where they had ended up. It didn’t seem special in any way, which was why he asked, “Where is ‘here’, exactly?”
The adventurer looked back at Childe with a grin, lifting up his map over his shoulder to tap his finger against a large red ‘X’ marked on the worn piece of paper. “There’s an old cave system down below us, just under our feet. I was told that the ground had recently given way here due to the trees being cut down, which means that a previously-unexplored section of the cave has been opened. Think of all the long-lost treasure that could be down there! The only thing is, I need to try and find where that entrance is…” Bennett dropped his gaze to the ground and began wandering through the grass, looking under every pebble, stone, bush, and clump of moss.
In his distraction, Bennett failed to notice the once-dormant ruin guards coming to life behind him. Gears whirred into action as glowing eyes were illuminated, waking from their centuries-long slumber hell-bent on destruction. Childe didn’t even think to warn him; just the sight of an enemy to destroy was enough to make him spring into action. Blades of pure Hydro energy formed in his hands, and he threw himself at the pair of mechanical constructs with the intent to reduce them to scrap. His ever-shifting weapons carved into the ruin guards with ease, and he was ready to deal the finishing blow to the two of them in tandem, when all of a sudden -
“I found it, Childe, it’s right here!”
Bennett’s voice pulled him from his focus, and before he could realise what was happening, Childe lost his footing, the ground beginning to fall away. The ruin guards were the first to fall into the tunnel below with the soil and grass, the unmistakable grinding of metal on rock resonating and echoing through the depths. Then went the Harbinger, quickly orienting himself so that he landed upright on top of the head of one of the now-defunct ruin guards. Finally, the sickening sound of a soft, fleshy body smacking against the ground met Childe’s ears and he winced, thinking about the state that Bennett must be in if he had a hard landing. He stepped down from the ruin guard and made his way over to the adventurer’s limp body, this now being the second time that he’d seen him flat on his back. He was surprised to find himself feeling worried for Bennett’s well-being, but he chalked it up to wanting to see if he really could attract monsters.
Childe knelt down beside Bennett and placed two fingers on his jugular to check for a pulse, waiting with bated breath until he felt it steadily thrumming against his fingertips. Satisfied that his adventuring partner hadn’t been killed, he took the time to look up at the hole that had been created, no doubt some sort of domino effect that had been started by the thundering footsteps of the ruin guards and the small hole that Bennett had found.
“It’s a wonder you’re not dead,” Childe mused, though he wasn’t sure if Bennett could even hear him.
To his surprise, he was answered with a cough and a gentle grip on his wrist, which caused him to glance down at the battered adventurer. The young man smiled weakly. “I think life likes me to test my faith in it. Maybe it doesn’t want me, but death doesn’t want me either.” Bennett used his hold on Childe to sit up in the pile of soil that had fallen down with him. Bennett let out a deep sigh, followed by a grunt as he popped his dislocated joints back into place.
The Harbinger was absolutely fascinated by the sight of him, how he so easily fixed his dislocated limbs as though it were nothing at all. Childe, wide-eyed and silent, had to wonder if he did this often, seeing as such an occurrence was brushed off without even so much as a cry of pain. He remembered the first time that he had dislocated his own shoulder while fishing up a particularly large catch, and the agony of trying to put it back into place was something that he’d never forget.
“You know, I wasn’t going to say anything, but I guess I’ll go ahead and say something anyway: I don’t want you dying on me.” Childe’s voice was stern, emotions masked with bitter coldness reminiscent of his icy homeland. “You’ve got a lot of dirt now in those wounds from earlier; shouldn’t we go back up so that you can clean them off? There’s a river not too far from here.” Injuries were all well and good, but there was nothing about an infection that appealed to Childe.
“I’ll be fine waiting until we get back, don’t worry about me. I’m pretty sure I’ve got a good immune system from all the times this has happened before,” Bennett insisted.
“What - you mean - this happens often to you? This exact thing? It seems like a pretty specific situation to find yourself in, and in all my experience out in the world, I can’t say I’ve ever had anything similar.”
Bennett nodded as he slowly got to his feet. He stretched his arms and legs to try and get them moving correctly again, and a sharp pain in his knee made his breath catch in his throat. “ Ow - uh - m-hm. You have no idea how many holes I fall into with ancient ruins in them. Most of them are just filled with booby traps, though, and never actually have any treasure left.”
“Is that right? I would have thought that ruins sealed away for hundreds, if not thousands of years would at least have something important in them.” Childe stood up behind Bennett and looked in either direction of the tunnel, one of which was being blocked by the ruin guards that had made the trip down with them. The other direction was a long, dark corridor that didn’t seem to have any indications of being a ruin, just a natural formation. But Bennett was determined, and he led the way into the darkness with the flame that surrounded his sword.
“Sometimes I get lucky and I find a treasure chest, but most of the time they’re empty. Although one time, I did find this really cool sword! I thought it was the best thing that I’d ever seen, and I was sure that it would get me a ton of mora. But I took it to Wagner, and he said that it was just a regular old rusty sword that someone had tossed into the lake. It wasn’t even worth the metal it was made of.”
Bennett seemed to do a lot of adventuring, but had so very little to show for his efforts other than bumps, bruises, cuts, and scars. Childe had every reason to believe that Bennett worked hard trying to get treasure: he had intel on valuable locations, he knew how to get there, and Childe was more than willing to come to the conclusion that he had experience working his way through even the most complex of traps, given how often his body seemed to take a beating. And so why didn’t he have anything to show for it? Maybe his intel was off, or the traps re-armed after the places had already been looted. Childe didn’t want to believe just yet that it was possible for someone to consistently try their hardest, only to come up empty-handed every single time. He didn’t want to believe that bad luck was true.
After walking straight to the point of his heels beginning to burn, Childe began to grow doubtful that there was anything in the direction they were currently headed. “Bennett, are you sure you - ?”
“ Shhh , look up ahead.”
Bennett pointed ahead of him to what appeared to be a dim fire flickering in the distance. He extinguished the flame on his sword and began to creep closer to the source. Silhouettes of powerful mitachurls danced across the walls, and Childe felt his pulse quicken at the thought of combat once more.
“It’s a good thing we saw them before they saw us,” Bennett whispered. “Now we have the element of surprise.”
As careful as he was to try and sneak up quietly to the mitachurl camp, this was Bennett, after all, and misfortune was bound to befall him. He hadn’t noticed the shimmering trail of ice left behind by a Cryo slime that had been dragged along by the mitachurls, rendered invisible due to the darkness around them. None the wiser to the danger that loomed, Bennett took another step forward and lost his footing on the ice, letting out a sharp yelp of surprise and falling flat on his ass. Out of pure instinct, Childe rushed forward and slapped his hand over the other’s mouth to try and muffle his cry, but it was no use. The massive hilichurls were alerted to the pair’s location, and roused from their slumber, began to approach rapidly.
“Are you okay to fight?” Childe asked, pulling Bennett to his feet. He didn’t want to let his Delusion be immediately known if he didn’t have to use it.
Bennett nodded and drew his sword, looking back at Childe with that hopeful glimmer in his eye. It seemed as though the Harbinger wasn’t the only one who enjoyed combat.
With a mighty roar, one of the mitachurls charged directly at Childe, who quickly jumped out of the way, leading the beast to slam shield-first into the wall, causing a thundering resonation throughout the cave. Bennett followed up with a swing of his flaming sword, catching the shield of the mitachurl on fire, which only sent it into a fury. He slammed the shield into Bennett’s limber and impressively-malleable body, which seemed to take the hit remarkably well. Childe had to pause for a moment to admire how Bennett had already prepared himself for the shock, and was able to catch himself after stumbling backwards. The Harbinger was ready to follow up with another attack when he suddenly paused, taking a moment to notice what felt like small pebbles falling onto his head. Just as he looked up, one of the larger icicle-shaped stalactites came loose from the mitachurl’s impact with the wall. Bennett. Bennett –
“Bennett!” Childe cried out his name frantically in an attempt to warn him, but it was too late. The stalactite fell from where it had been so precariously positioned, falling directly on the unsuspecting Bennett’s head and instantly knocking him out cold, crumbling his pale body onto the damp floor of the cave.
It wasn’t that Childe felt like he had a duty to protect Bennett. No, it was just convenient that he looked like the hero, beating the shit out of overgrown hilichurls while Bennett took a nap beside him. His body fell into a familiar rhythm, fighting off the oncoming attackers with ease. He made sure that none of the Mitiachurls got close to Bennett, ever-aware of the unconscious adventurer’s presence. Each attack was more vicious than the last, weaving in arrows in between slashes with Hydro melee weapons. It wasn’t long before all four beasts were dead at his feet, the blood and gore that hadn’t been spattered across Childe’s once-grey outfit quickly oozing across the cold ground. After admiring his work, the Harbinger turned to collect Bennett’s body, lifting him up into his arms. With how long they had been walking, he figured that it was likely dark by now, and with how unfamiliar he was with Mondstadt, he was sure that he wouldn’t make it to help in time to save Bennett. His thoughts were cold and rational as he weighed his options. He knew that his best bet was to bring him to the mitachurl camp and see if there was anything he could use to patch him up.
Childe was relieved to see that the fire was still burning brightly, and he silently thanked the strength of the mitachurls, which allowed them to bring so much wood down with them. He wondered to himself why they would bother setting up camp this far into a cave system, especially since it didn’t seem like it had anything important in it. Maybe Bennett was right, and there really was treasure down there. Or, more likely, this was another dead end of an adventure, and they would leave without any treasure. Whatever the outcome may be, Childe was, for the moment, incredibly satisfied. He’d never seen so many mitachurls grouped up in one place before, and fighting them was a refreshing challenge.
He set the unconscious adventurer down on a rug next to the fire, assessing his injuries with a steady hand. The impact from the stalactite had made a nasty gash in his forehead, which bled profusely. “What are the odds that rock would have landed on your head?” he muttered with a huff, mildly amused despite the circumstances. Childe rummaged through Bennett’s bag looking for medical supplies, disappointed to find only a single flask of water and a handful of wrappers from bandaids. He certainly didn’t make things easy for him.
Childe’s first course of action was to wash the dirt from Bennett’s wounds. With the help of his Hydro Vision, he cleaned out each one to the best of his abilities. While he was at it, Childe decided that he might as well try to fix Bennett up completely, and leaned in close to try and find any splinters of porcelain left behind from earlier in the day. It was in this silence, this shared intimacy they had together that Childe was acutely aware of Bennett’s breathing, slow but rhythmic. His gaze roamed from deep cuts to the expression on the other’s face; it was peaceful, not yet aware of the pain that he would be in when he woke up. He didn’t know if it was just the rush of adrenaline influencing his thoughts, but he couldn’t deny that he felt a certain attraction to the adventurer that he couldn’t quite place. It was almost physical in nature, as though Bennett himself was magnetic. He remembered the way those bright green eyes looked at him with excitement, as though no one else had ever wanted to spend time with him before, and the complete trust that he had in him in the heat of battle, even though they had only just met. It was an instant connection. Maybe it was nothing more than being impressed by Bennett’s strength and resilience, or that he was useful to Childe in some way.
The Harbinger pushed Bennett’s shirt aside to see if there were any other wounds that he couldn’t previously see. With his chest now exposed, Childe ran his fingers over scarred skin, each mark both new and old shimmering in the orange firelight. Blood smeared beneath his fingers, nearly black in the darkness like liquid onyx, and his pulse began to quicken once again. Nothing seemed too serious, and it was a relief that bandages weren’t necessary, but there was still so much blood that it couldn’t have possibly been comfortable.
The last thing that needed tending to was Bennett’s head wound, which was the worst of the injuries that he had sustained. Childe pushed back white hair to take a look at the scope of the damage. A trail of crimson ran down his forehead and dripped from his cheek, and it took every ounce of self-control for Childe to try and contain himself. “Sh-shit…” His throat tightened as he licked his lips, and he was glad that Bennett wasn’t conscious to see this reaction to the sight of blood. He looked around for a cloth or something similar to clean up the mess on his face, but unable to find anything, he had to make the difficult decision to cut off a piece of his outfit and douse it in water. With a steady hand, Childe was careful to avoid the wound itself, wiping away the blood on Bennett’s cheek first.
The sensation of cold water was what caused Bennett to stir at last, coming to consciousness in a daze. He awoke to the sight of Childe leaning over him, and though the Harbinger wouldn’t admit it, there was concern in that dull, blue-eyed gaze of his.
“D… ugh - did we find treasure yet?” There was a certain reserved excitement in Bennett’s voice, despite the state that he was in.
Childe found his enthusiasm charming, and he shook his head with a fond smile. “No, nothing yet. But we did find a bunch of mitachurls. You hit your head pretty hard, do you remember what happened?”
Bennett furrowed his brow, trying to recall his memories from the moments before being knocked unconscious. “Uhh… I remember seeing you with your Hydro weapons! You were such a badass, swinging them around like nobody’s business. Then I - uhm - I think I got hit by a shield. It sure feels like it.”
Rolling over to his side with a grunt, Bennett pulled down the side of his shorts to have a better look at the bruise that painted half of his body blue and purple. “Oof. Yeah. Definitely a mitachurl shield. But I don’t remember anything after that.”
“Well, funny thing.” Childe looked over to where they had been fighting, if only to distract himself from the tantalising view that was Bennett’s body. “When that mitachurl charged at me, it knocked one of those stalactites loose. I’d say it was pretty bad luck that it just so happened to land on your head.”
“Bad luck is kind of my whole deal. I thought you knew that already.” Bennett positioned himself on his back once more, and as he became more aware of his surroundings, his eyes widened with shock upon seeing Childe completely covered in blood. “W-wait a second, you - are you okay?! You’re covered in blood! Oh, I’m so sorry, are you hurt? This always happens when I take people on adventures with m-”
Childe was quick to hush Bennett with a finger to his lips to silence his profuse apologising. “It’s fine,” he promised. “It’s not my blood. And don’t worry, most of it isn’t yours, either.”
There were a few slow blinks from the adventurer, and his attention was drawn slowly to the finger at his lips. He didn’t know when Childe got so comfortable being this close to him. Realising exactly this, Childe pulled away soon after, leaving Bennett suddenly and surprisingly longing for his proximity. He didn’t seem like the kind of man to necessarily want to be close to someone, but it was that closeness that Bennett needed in that moment, and he intended on getting it somehow.
“Well, as long as you’re safe,” the adventurer concluded. He let them sit in awkward silence for a moment, to see if there was anything else that Childe wanted to add, but when all he did was stare into the fire, Bennett decided to shuffle a little bit closer to him. “...I’m cold,” he murmured softly.
“You lost a lot of blood,” Childe replied in a matter-of-fact tone, hugging his knees and continuing to stare straight ahead. Those feelings were returning, pooling in his stomach like restless butterflies. He could sense that Bennett was trying to get closer to him, but all of a sudden he didn’t know if it was a good idea. Despite how often Bennett saw combat, and how decorated his body was with scars, he still had that youthful innocence and lust for life in his spirit. Childe was almost worried that he would bring him down with him if he decided to stay close to him. Affording him the chance to get physically closer would open the door for Childe to consider becoming more emotionally vulnerable, and with what he had been through, and how volatile he was, that was the last thing that he wanted. He was one of the Fatui Harbingers after all, and it had been drilled into him that he couldn't see any human other than those who could match him in combat as an equal, let alone open up to them in any way. Emotion was weakness, and Childe wasn't weak. But at the same time Bennett seemed so genuine, so concerned about his well-being, that he could already imagine a possibility where he spilled his life story to him.
But as his mind began to wander, he slowly became aware of the weight at his side. Turning his attention to his left, he registered Bennett as being pressed against him, his gaze locked on the dancing flames in front of them.
“Thanks for saving me,” Bennett said at last. “Again, I think. I’m sure it would have been a while until I could have stood up after being knocked over by those dogs earlier.” When Childe didn’t respond, Bennett chewed at his lower lip, wondering if there was something he could say to break the other’s silence. “Um… y’know Childe, I don’t usually care what people do in their personal lives, as long as they’re nice to me. And you seem nice to me so far, but… when I was putting that pin on you earlier, I saw something that looked like a second Vision under your scarf. That’s a Delusion, isn’t it? Are you… part of the Fatui?”
Childe let out a huff of laughter at the question, pulling the aforementioned Delusion out from under folds of clothing. “You’re very observant, Bennett.” It shimmered with Electro energy in his palm, drawing from the power of the dead god contained within. “You’d be correct. I’m one of the Fatui Harbingers.”
Bennett didn’t know much about the world outside of Mondstadt other than archaeological findings, but he was aware of the influence that the Fatui had on Teyvat, if only from their shady dealings in Mondstadt. The title of ‘Harbinger’ seemed important, and Bennett quickly began to wonder just who, exactly, was sitting beside him. The violet glow of Childe’s Delusion flickered in Bennett’s eyes along with the light of the fire. “Does the Fatui want something with me? I’m not really interested in recruitment. If I damaged something of yours, though, I can try to pay you back.”
“No, this was a personal mission,” Childe insisted.
Despite how distant he suddenly appeared, throughout their conversation Childe made no attempt to push Bennett away. The pressure against his side was comforting, and the last thing that he wanted was for it to leave so soon.
“I told you my motives from the beginning, I don’t think there’s any reason to hide something like that. I promise you’re not in any trouble with the Fatui, nor am I going to try and recruit you. That being said…” Childe turned his attention to Bennett once more, who was looking up at him like a kid listening to a bedtime story. The corners of his lips turned up into a smile. “I’d say this mission was a successful one. I had the chance to fight both mitachurls and ruin guards, and we weren’t even looking for them. I doubt that you knew all this was here, seeing as you nearly knocked yourself out on the way down. It’s just too bad that we couldn’t get you your treasure. I know the next best thing, though.”
Bennett's face lit up like a child on Christmas morning. “Cookies?!”
“What? No, not cookies. Here, just as I promised.” Childe rummaged through the small bag at his hip and pulled out a pouch of mora, placing it in Bennett’s outstretched palms.
Bennett accepted the pouch as though he had been handed the most precious jewel in the world. A gasp escaped him when he felt the weight of it in his hands, and he pulled at the drawstring to take a look at the coins inside. He was speechless - he knew that he was going to get compensated for the trip, but he didn’t think it would be this much. He spent a few minutes of gawking at his reward, poking through the coins while checking the denomination on each one. “Is the Fatui really this loaded? I didn’t even do anything, I just brought you along on a normal adventure!”
“I had intended on giving you this amount when I first asked if I could tag along, but since it looks like we’ll be staying the night in this cave, I’ll have to get more funds from the Northland Bank tomorrow.” Further compensation, as well as a more selfish reason; a chance to spend more time with Bennett. “The Bank’s in Liyue Harbour, so it’s a bit of a trip. It might be easier if you come with me, if you have the time to spare. But I understand that an adventurer as busy as yourself might have better things to do, so I can courier it to you without issue if you prefer.”
“What do you mean, ‘better things to do’? That sounds like the most exciting adventure I’ve ever been on!” Bennett exclaimed, nearly jumping to his feet. “I’ve never left Mondstadt, let alone made the journey all the way to Liyue Harbour. I heard there’s a ton of ruins along the way, do you think we could stop there, too? I’m sure my ability to attract monsters doesn’t just stop at the border!”
“Alright, alright~.” Musical laughter filled the cavernous space as Childe took amusement in Bennett’s eagerness to join him. The Harbinger tried to calm him down by placing a hand on his shoulder, pulling him closer at the same time. “Be careful or you’ll open up those wounds of yours again - the ones that aren’t already profusely bleeding. I want you to use this mora to get some medical supplies, okay? You’ll have more than enough left to do what you want after that.”
He didn’t really understand why he felt the need to be so protective towards Bennett. He knew that the adventurer was capable of handling himself, at least for the most part. Despite all the trouble he found himself in, he always managed to get out of it, albeit with a few new scars to remember the occasion by. Childe found himself worried that Bennett would get himself gravely injured before he even had a way to fully take advantage of his uncanny ability to attract monsters. Looking down at the smaller man, who returned his gaze with so much excitement and trust, was almost enough to penetrate through to his icy heart, where before only his sister and brothers had his utmost devotion.
“Are you still cold?”
Bennett shook his head. “I’m better now, thanks. But uh… can I sleep like this, maybe? No one ever lets me get close to them, they’re worried my bad luck’ll just rub off on them. But you seem to like my bad luck.”
“I do like your bad luck, even if I don’t really think that’s what it is. Just a bunch of coincidences.”
Bennett was warm, so incredibly warm in a way that commanded his attention like nothing else in that moment could. Childe ran a gloved hand up and down the adventurer’s upper arm, painting a picture in his mind of the scars that he felt there. “You can sleep like this, if you’re sure you won’t get a kink in your neck or something.”
“Mhm.” The nod Bennett gave was paired with a nuzzle closer into Childe’s side, and those damned butterflies came back once more. He sighed, trying his best to relax, but it was impossible to clear his head of the memories of the day, every specific instance where Bennett looked up at him with those shimmering emerald eyes, every utterance of his title. He had to wonder what it would sound like for Bennett to say his true name, to moan out ‘ Ajax ’ as he -
Childe quickly shut down those thoughts as soon as they cropped up in his mind. He knew he had no right to get so ahead of himself like that. Bennett was a useful subject to study, and at most someone with whom he could fight monsters. Nothing more.
But he’d be lying if he said those thoughts didn’t keep him awake that night.