DEAD TO ME [tartaglia]

009 - I'LL BE WAITING

CHILDE WAS FROWNING. You remember it like it was yesterday. That day in the snow when you told him you were engaged, he frowned, then he turned to you with a bright smile as if he never frowned at all.

You didn't get a minute of sleep that night, you twisted and turned in your sheets, trying to relieve the ache in your heart that never seemed to dull no matter how much you shifted positions. That smile almost erased everything you thought about his feelings for you those past few months, but that fear in the back of your mind that everything Keqing said to you about him was true never left.

Childe continued on as usual. He acted as he should have, he smiled pleasantly whenever the topic of your wedding was brought up, and constantly reminded you how happy he was for you. Though no matter how much he smiled at you and shot you congratulations, he never asked you anything about your wedding. Maybe he just wasn't interested, or maybe he felt that he would crumble at the mere mention of your fiance's name, or the type of flowers you wanted to bring with you down the aisle. You hoped with all your heart that it wasn't the latter.

Then one day, he quit speaking to you. You called his cell multiple times, then when that didn't work, you resorted to calling his house. When you tried talking to him at school, he'd simply walk the other way. You even wrote him letters, and none of them ever earned you any reply.

After the news of your engagement you'd say you tried to be content most days. But with the loss of your closest friend, the reminder you let your life get away from you tore a hole in your heart that you were sure could only ever be refilled again by him.

Most days, you felt like you grew up faster than all your high school friends. Your parents gave you away and stripped you of the girlhood that was so rightfully yours for the sake of a merger, the man you married constantly neglected you, only ever speaking to you for the sake of berating you, and the sister you spent your entire life protecting turned her back on you like it was nothing.

You carry this knowledge with you as you wake up, get dressed, and go to work for the first time since you left your husband, and for the first time in your life, your reaction isn't to grieve, its to get even. The heart they filled with rue and anger only tightens, it tightens so greatly that it feels as if it's about to pop when your assistant informs you of a gift in your office sent directly from the residence you ran from.

A good number of exquisite vases filled to the brim with the stems of fluffy pink astilbes are sat upon every desk in the room, and employees from behind you gather to marvel and whisper at the sight of the flowers.

"Do you think they're from Lord Scaramouche?"

"No, they're from Mister Childe. I'm sure of it. That boy has had eyes for the young Miss since they were children, and now he's taking her from her husband. I saw it on the news."

"How shameful."

To others its a grand display, a romantic one, even. But as you stare blankly at the pink, feathery plumes you only feel as though you are being mocked. These flowers had nothing to do with Childe or his residence, they came straight from the home you left, and the man you left in it. This was not a romantic gesture, but a message.

If your memory serves you right, astilbes have a common meaning in the market. They mean patience and dedication towards whoever they're given to, like a big red sign that says I'LL BE WAITING, and they were all over your office. He intends to tell you that he will be waiting. It's a warning.

He's sick.