The Boy Who Cried Fox

The bet (2)

"But why?" Childe wasn't sure about playing his best friend for a bag of money. And not to mention the countless amount of times Zhongli made him flustered one way or another,

"It's fun, Tartaglia!" Sandrome rolled her eyes til she finally looked up at him, judging his posture..

"And we know you need the mora for your siblings with the babysitter and all." Capitano was now pulling all of the strings. His siblings and the need to take care of them, Childe's 2 weaknesses.

"Yea sure." Childe shrugged and took the bag from Pantalone. But he felt his conscience telling him to take it back. But oh well, guess it's too late now for take backs.

"You were easy to convince. I'm surprised you didn't object." The black haired male had a look of amusement as he handed the bag.

"I mean, we only knew each other for 3 weeks plus. It's not gonna be that bad." Childe shrugged before walking away with the mora. "How much?"

"A thousand. You'll get your next batch when you two actually start dating." Pantalone leaned back with satisfaction. "Don't worry, we'll tell your little Lumine."

Childe nodded before walking away.

"Are you sure about this?" Columbina, who was sitting on a bench next to Arlecchino, seemed unhappy with this decision they made.

"Of course, Dameselette. As Tartaglia said, they've only known each other for 3 weeks. And Pantalone still hasn't settled his revenge on him." Sandrome snapped back at the girl perched on the bench. The albino next to her protectively wrapped her arm around the smaller one.

"Oh stop you guys." An unknown voice was heard through the argument that was beginning to brew. "Thanks for eliminating the competition."

"It was our pleasure, Princess." Pierro replied to the voice.

Childe was starting to regret his decision. Yes Zhongli was his friend but playing his heart didn't seem right. Still thinking about giving the mora back, he remembered the fact his parents were abroad and it would be some time till they got the next batch of mora and that he would be behind on paying Albedo and that wasn't really fair to that blonde boy. But this wasn't right. Several times he walked back to the roof only to come back down. After a while, he made his way to the bathrooms to let out some regret.

"Why, why, why did I take that?!" Childe had his head in his hands and he trembled over the sink in front of him. "I'll just give it back. Maybe I can get mora another way."

He got up to look for Pantalone. But to no avail, he could not find that bank anywhere. So with a heavy heart, Childe took the money back with him.

C: Now I have to find a way to win Zhongli over.

Childe was so deep in thought that he hadn't even noticed that he was on top of someone.

"Uh, Childe? Can you get off me?" Zhongli's voice snapped Childe out of his mind as he stared into those endless amber eyes.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry princess." Childe got off and helped Zhongli off the floor. Not exactly the way he wanted to start his relationship goals but it was a first. "Hey, we're sitting at the tree outside tomorrow. Wanna join?"

"I don't see why not. It would be my pleasure." Zhongli gave a small bow before making his departure. Childe watched him as he met up with Noelle and the others, all excitedly talking as they left the school.

C: They might be a problem. I'll see to that.

He left to his dorm to try and think of ways to impress Zhongli. His first thought was to go to the internet. With a little bit of digging and looking for the right info, you could find out anything about anyone. So that's what he did. Turning on his narwhal themed laptop that Kaeya, Diluc, Aether, Jean and Lisa gave him for his birthday, he went and searched up Zhongli, which was hard as he didn't know his last name. But no matter how long he looked for or how detailed his search was, there was virtually nothing about him. Sighing in frustration, Childe plunged into the soft blue comforter on his bed (yes it had a narwhal on it). How hard is it to gain information about one person? He would ask Pantalone but they seemed to have some sort of history and he would probably badmouth Zhongli.

"Maybe I could ask Venti. He told me most of the things last time." Childe went back on his laptop and texted Venti through Discord.

Barbaratatoes: Sup Childe

TarTarTaglia: Do you have any info on Zhongli?

Barbaratatoes: Why you wanna know?

This was gonna be hard. Venti was being vigilant. Childe took a while thinking of a suitable lie.

TarTarTaglia: He's my best friend, isn't he?

Barbaratatoes: Why don't you ask him?

Childe now swore to the Archons that Venti was making this difficult on purpose.

TarTarTaglia: Because what if I want to surprise him?

Barbaratatoes: Fair point. Here.

And with that, Childe got his age, likes, dislikes, hobbies and a bit of his history with Pantalone. He thanked Venti before going down to enjoy dinner with his dorm mates, not like he had a choice.

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