May this promise last a lifetime

Chapter 55 - A weird relationship

Neuvillette's POV

 "So, why did you show up so early anyway?"

 "I was bored and figured you would be here earlier anyway. I didn't expect Ajax to be here since he is in no way a morning person." Zhongli explained.

 Yes, he wasn't.

 That's exactly why I put our meeting so early since you wouldn't think that he would be here.

 It's not that I don't trust Zhongli to give Ajax his privacy, but after Snow so grumpily kept her eleventh back at their base for the past few days, I didn't want to risk having Ajax be snatched away by Zhongli mid-conversation.

 Like he is obviously itching to do right now.

 "If you just sit still for a bit so we can go through everything we need to go through, you can go and do whatever it is that you want to do with Ajax. So now, stop fidgeting already. It is getting incredibly annoying."

 The insistent tapping of his foot finally stopped after that.

 "Sorry. I just haven't seen him for a while." He muttered.

 And you act like this?

 You look like you would make a run for it the second I said we were done.

 "Snow would make fun of you for ages if she saw you like this."  I chuckled.

 "And I can always make fun of her for continuously putting up that cold front. Anyone who has known her for some time can see it crumbling more and more every year." He waved off my teasing.

 "Well, it was obvious it would crumble when you so easily charmed her eleventh."

 "She placed him in my line of sight."

 "Thinking that you, mister marriage-is-a-bother, would at most remove her subordinate from your side and send him back."

 "I don't think you should be commenting about my ideas of marriage, mister I-see-no-reason-to-get-married. Marriage is a bothersome thing. You can see that too since you too are stuck with mountains of paperwork, so I wasn't really wrong. But you... Look who found a reason for marriage."

 Uhm...

 Marriage is a bit...

 We've only properly known each other for like a week.

 It is way too early to talk about marriage.

 And...

 "You said you would teach me how to plan a date, did you not? Or would a confession come first?"

 I'm really no good when it comes to things like this.

 Zhongli looked surprised by my question for a second only to start chuckling moments later.

 "Well, that really depends on the people involved, but the first date can often serve as an unspoken question. Asking someone out on a date is pretty much a confession already even though you have to confess out loud eventually."

 "So..."

 "Ask him out to dinner, or if you prefer that, cook him dinner yourself. And just in case this wasn't already obvious, you should do this while his kid isn't around or it would just come over as you being a nice person."

 Oh...

 Well, dinner at home would be preferable for safety reasons, but to do it without Sigewinne around...

 She won't be at home tomorrow but...

 "Say, Zhongli, how trustworthy am I while under the influence of Baizhu's little herbal mixture?" I asked.