Can't Stop Loving You | Childe x Zhongli | Genshin Impact [COMPLETED]

Arc 2: Chapter 23: Confession

To Zhongli's despair, the wedding was brought forward and everything was pretty much done. He knew Irina had done nothing wrong, but he couldn't help but hate her for it. Everything had returned to normal, the gap between them seemed to be bigger than ever. It was almost like Tartaglia was avoiding him. There was nothing Zhongli could do to stop the wedding.

He found himself drinking alcohol alone in a small store late at night. "Getting drunk makes me forget stuff I want to forget sometimes," Venti had said. Zhongli decided maybe he'd test it out.

He wasn't quite sure how long he had been sitting there, or how much he had drank, but the pain definitely was not going away. The more he drank, the more he could only think of Tartaglia. Yet he continued drinking, convinced that he just didn't drink enough.

"Oh thank god I finally found you."

Zhongli frowned slightly. He recognized that voice, he turned his head to see a small, blond lady walking towards him and sitting directly opposite him. "You." He muttered quietly, with a hint of loathing.

"Me." She said, completely unfazed. "Right, so I am here to talk."

"Talk? Why not talk to 'your' Tartaglia."

"I mean no harm, Zhongli. You saved my mother. And no point talking about this to him. Anyway, I know you like him."

"No I don't." Zhongli denied quietly.

"Oh yeah? It is kind of obvious, you know. The way you look at him and the despair on your face when you see me with him. For some reasons, he seems to be completely blind to all of it." Irina said, rolling her eyes. Zhongli remained silent, but his eyes stayed glued to the table. "Anyway, I am here to talk about the both of you."

"Oh. To threaten me to stay away? To mock me?" Zhongli sneered. He didn't know he was capable of sneering. Clearly the alcohol was bringing out parts of him that he had never seen before.

"Haha very funny. Will you shut up and listen to me?"

-

Childe stared at himself at the mirror. He tried for a smile, but it looked incredibly fake. He dreaded the next day, when the knot was going to be tied. His heart was somewhere else, but he really didn't have a choice. Tartaglia thought back to the two short days he and Zhongli and shared back in the wild. Initially he had thought maybe they could talk about things while they were out there, but with the snake and everything...

He had avoided Zhongli, unable to face him. His heart ached whenever he was reminded even just slightly about Zhongli.

Sighing quietly, he resigned himself to his fate and turned off the lights. Childe had to get some sleep, the next day was going to be a very long day.

Just as he laid down and closed his eyes, he was jolted back up by pounding on his door. He honestly felt irritated. He had only just decided to try to get some sleep and now someone had to come disturb him. Tartaglia wondered who it was, he was fairly sure Irina didn't knock the door like that. Perhaps her father...?

Childe opened his door and someone slammed it open before flinging themselves onto him. He almost lost balance and crashed onto the floor as well. The first thing he noticed was how strong the smell of alcohol was, just who was this drunkard?

Then he heard him muttering his name over and over again and immediately recognized the voice. "Zhong— Zhongli?! Have you been drinking? What the fuck?" Childe grabbed onto him to keep him from falling, using the other hand to switch on the lights again. Zhongli pushed himself away from him and slammed the door close, locking the door rather clumsily before turning back to Childe.