picks him up. plops him on his lap. proceeds to hug him by the waist. he will not elaborate
ㅤㅤㅤ @spoopysinㅤㅤ/ㅤㅤUNPROMPTEDㅤㅤ/ㅤㅤalways accepting!
ㅤㅤthere is urgency here, in the city of tears—for there’s never enough time to spare. life starts before dawn’s sunrays; at 3 a.m. hydro buses cut through the first dew’s silence, hasting others to work in their fancy suits and elegant dresses. stores’ doors open so loudly one can hear them from their high-up hotel room, and people are already chattering as if just a few hours of sleep are enough for them to be completely recharged. clacking and clicking, wall engines are turned on, chimneys burn wood and iron, and machinery starts pumping oil and worries into the heart’s city. hurry, hurry, the clock is ticking, we cannot stop! work, work, work! for justice, for advancement, for modernity; fontaine is where people fight against the unstoppable force of clocks and their ticking.
ㅤㅤthere is a lot of noise here, in the city of waves. aether grumbled from their shared bed—they had laid down two hours ago. just two hours ago, mind you. this was way too much. getting up, he decided to close the windows, as if that ought to block out all the buzzing from outside. if there was one important lesson he had learned in all his years in teyvat it was that, whatever commotion was happening in the world, it could wait for some more. as if to protest the traveller’s decision, he heard a prolonged low-pitched roar from the engines, howling almost abysmal in nature. they shook the bedroom in a quake.
ㅤㅤthere also lies despair here, in the city of promises. sometimes, in the form of dreams, others, in the form of promises, but either way, they’d call those future anxieties ‘prophecies’. fears of tomorrow and its stars-written fates. but today, that despair is in the shape of an embrace.
ㅤㅤtrembling arms found his waist in the mid-lit dark of spring, and they snaked around his body as if he were a life jacket. cold yet sweaty palms are burrowed on his chest, yearning, looking for something the caeling couldn’t quite understand at first. it was almost as if was being pulled down with childe… or rather, as if he was desperately asking to be pulled up. aether looked back from his shoulder to his companion, surprise and confusion finding the answer to the silent puzzle in a pained expression. dark circles under his eyes, sickening pale skin, sweat dripping from his exposed torso. ah… he’d recognise those symptoms anywhere. night terrors.
ㅤㅤ“childe…” he calls, but he knows the other can’t listen, even if there’s no distance between their bodies. the embrace tightens, yet it does nothing to calm the harbinger’s frenetic breaths. aether caresses the hands around him, drawing circles and other figures against little freckles. he breathes in, then out, hoping that the motion would signal for tartaglia to do the same. it worked. good. “ajax.”
ㅤㅤhis response is but a throat-dried hum, but at least there was one. there’s a little relief in aether’s sigh—perhaps that’s why he cares not if he’s carried back to bed as if he was but a mere teddy bear. he’ll let childe have his way—just for today, though. sitting comfortably on his lap, the caeling lets the core of his chest emanate a comforting warmth to ease unquiet hands. breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. yes, there we go. blue eyes were finally opening up, focusing through the adrenaline-driven haze. a smile finally waltzes through aether’s tanned face like a golden comet. he leans back, just enough to plant a kiss on his cheek so his shoulders would relax.
ㅤㅤ“i’m here… let’s enjoy together.”
ㅤㅤthere’s urgency, there’s noise, there’s despair, out there, in fontaine. it looms over their heads, waiting to fall in a soul-crushing weight. everything that separated them from divine catastrophe was a thin, man-made glass. they both knew that. but just for today, there was no reason to dwell on prophetic nightmares—the only thing aether wanted to drown in was his kiss. so kiss they would. kissing they were. in urgency, in noise, in despair.
ㅤㅤuntil there were no more hours left.
