The Boy Who Cried Fox

Ignorance

He was there, standing in front of the graveyard he visited every year. As he was blindly walking around, he soon found himself before the same gravestone he saw every time he visited the graveyard every year. On it, the writing faded so much to the point it was barely legible. Zhongli stared at it until he heard a voice.

"We're proud of you Li darling."

"MOM!" Zhongli woke up with a start. What in Teyvat was that? Then something wet rolled down his face. Looking in the broken bathroom mirror, he saw that he was crying. Burying his face into his knees, Zhongli began to let everything out. All this anxiety, the fear and most prominent, why was Childe dating him? Before Childe began to glue himself to him, he was friendly with Lumine. But now what? Noelle came into his room and saw her heartbroken brother. Her gaze softened as she sat next to him and comforted him.

"Don't worry Li. They're safe." She reassured him, rubbing his back. Zhongli feebly nodded. Finally able to calm himself down, he received a text.

Kaeya

K: Hey! Tartar sauce's birthday's next week! We have a planning committee or whatever Jean wants to call it. Just, can we use your dorm?

Z: Sure. I'm pretty sure they're not in today. Well, Noelle is for now.

K: Aw...I wanted to see Bedo.

Z: Soon, Kaeya, soon.

K: Aight. See you in about 5 minutes!

So it was Childe's birthday next week. Good thing he prepared something in advance, just needed a bit of work on it. Zhongli got out of bed and went to fix himself up. By now, Noelle was already gone. Halfway brushing his extremely tangled hair, however, the door burst open. Still tying it messily, Zhongli got down and saw Kaeya at the door frame.

"Hey Zhongli!" Kaeya came in and slapped his back.

"I didn't expect to see you here so soon!" Zhongli flinched at the intense contact. He then went back up to finish getting ready and then came back down, to which half of the people he knew were in.

"Thanks a lot for letting us use your dorm. Not all of us are comfortable and we have roommates." Jean waved at the brunette. He nodded and went to pick up Azhdaha.

"You own a cat?" Yoimiya ran forward and began to pet Azhdaha.

"A gift from Azhdaha. Bright idea to name it after himself." Zhongli put Azhdaha down and the cat ran all the way to Kazuha.

"Well, we have a few ideas. We wanted to hold it at his place so someone needs to be in charge of distracting him. No, sorry Zhongli but you can't do it." Jean explained the situation. They needed a good 3 hours of Childe not being at his place. And Zhongli was given the difficult task of avoiding him all week.

"We all know how easily he gets jealous and if you don't want more noises at night, Kaeya." Zhongli tried to bargain with the request and accidentally let slip the...incident.

"You fucked?" Lumine, who was there, dropped her phone, to which Aether managed to catch it. Awkward silence filled the room as Zhongli shifted away. They went back to the main topic, that being Childe's birthday. They made some good progress, with most of the input from Zhongli because boyfriend.

"Alright. Today was productive. Thanks again, Zhongli and we'll see you soon. Remember, ignore him." Jean waved as everyone filed out of the cramped living room and went off. Now alone, Zhongli went back to working on Childe's present.

The next week was hell. Not only for Childe, who being touch starved and having his boyfriend ignore him. Zhongli was suffering just as much, maybe even more. Without Childe to protect him, it made him an easy target for Baizhu, Jiafei and the Harbingers. Al'Haitham, who was part of the meeting, became his replacement Childe for the week, minus all the romantics. Aether was the one to distract Childe on the day. And well, it was quite something having Zhongli ignore Childe. On one meeting at the lunch room, Zhongli came in, hair messed up and entirely red.

"What happened?" Kaeya got up but Zhongli just sat down.

"Childe...is horny..." Blushing madly, the brunette told them that after his class, Ed Sheeran dragged him to an empty classroom and began to grind and grope as well as plead. He managed to get away with no problems but that experience was quite something.

"Just one more day, dear, one more day." Lisa reassured him. But even that was hard as halfway through lunch, Childe walked up to them and placed both hands firmly on Zhongli's shoulders.

"I'll be taking this." Childe attempted to carry Zhongli away but Diluc distracted him by throwing an apple at him. As they argued, Zhongli slipped out of the scene and darted for his dorm. When Childe looked for him, his search came to a fail as the brunette had barricaded himself in his dorm. Finally the day was here. Aether knocked on Childe's front door.

"Hey Chi-Goddamn. You alright?" Aether grimaced at the sight of Childe. He looked as if he'd been crying, hair messier than usual and clothes looking as if they hadn't been washed in weeks.

"I'm fine. What did you need?" Childe rubbed his eyes and leaned on the door.

"Let's go!" Aether dragged him out of the house and into the street. The two disappeared from view and once they did, Kaeya gave them the okay sign. They dashed into the house, with Zhongli closing the door.

"Alright, Lumine, lookout, Kaeya, Lisa, Ningguang and Beidou, you start with decorations, Diluc, Thoma and Xiangling, the food, Kazuha, Yoimiya, Ayaka and Ayato, the backyard if you please, Miko, Ei, Al and Venti, you guys are on presents, Hu Tao, Xiao and Ganyu, the music and Zhongli," Jean ordered everyone about before turning to the brunette. "I believe you know what to do."

"Yes, I do." Zhongli nodded and went up to Childe's bedroom. All he had to do was sit on his bed and wait. Not the most exciting but now, when he has been ignoring his boyfriend for a week, he has never been so impatient.

"He's coming back!" Lumine yelled into the living room. Jean nodded and they all went to hide.

"That was completely useless, Aeth. All we did was walk around." Childe groaned as the blonde opened the front door.

"No it wasn't." -Ae

Words: 1092