⊱ 𝐀𝐍 𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐃𝐕𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 ⊰

Your eyes reluctantly opened to slits before they widened and you bolted upright, causing a sudden jolt of pain in your head. Your hand shot up to your head and you sucked in a breath through gritted teeth.

"Ow...!" You groaned.

...

....

.....

"That did not happen," you whispered to yourself, staring ahead at the wall in disbelief. Pieces of the previous night began flooding into your brain to create an entire picture.

"Must've been a dream. Shit, my head hurts..."

You reached over and grabbed your phone to check your notifications, as well as the time. It was 12 in the afternoon, and you had a message from Childe.

Childe😼
Hey, I know this is short notice, but do you think you could do me a favor?
sent 11:49 am

You

Depends, what is it?

sent 12:13 pm

Childe😼
I have to go to a family dinner tonight, and I really don't wanna go by myself. Can you come with me?
sent 12:15 pm

You
Sure ig. What should I wear?
sent 12:15 pm

Childe😼
You look good in anything, it doesn't rlly matter
sent 12:16 pm

You
Tryna flirt with me sir?🤨

Childe😼
Maybe 👀
sent 12:16 pm

You
Interesting...
So what time are you picking me up
sent 12:17 pm

Childe😼
6?
sent 12:17 pm

You
Got it.
See ya then ^^
sent 12:17 pm

Childe😼
See ya, girlie 😘
sent 12:18 pm

You

Childe's strange behavior aside, you felt like you were going to throw up your guts, so you ran to the bathroom. After ten minutes, you were sure all of the acid was gone. 

M/n banged on the door, "Y/n, what are you doing!?"

"Um, using the bathroom!?" You retorted.

"Well hurry up, I need to get ready for work!"

"Okay, jeez!"

You marched out of the bathroom and back into your bedroom. You went back on your phone to reply to whatever Childe responded with.

Childe😼
Because why not
sent 12:19 pm

You
Okay well anyway
I've decided I'm going to wear a chicken costume
I think that'll be the best way to make a good impression on ur family
sent 12:32 pm

Childe😼
Girlie...
sent 12:32 pm

You
What.
sent 12:32 pm

Childe😼
You know you don't have a chicken costume...

You
I'll buy one rn
I'll do it
don't test me.
sent 12:33 pm

Childe😼
it wouldn't arrive on time and ur too lazy to find one in an actual store
but nice try
sent 12:34 pm

You
...Fine, you win this time
Anyway I'll see you later
sent 12:34 pm

Childe😼
Yep!
sent 12:34 pm

"Mom, I'm going to Ayaka's house at around 6!" You called while you passed the bathroom.

"Fine!"

━━━━⊱✿⊰━━━━

"I still can't believe your parents let you live alone. Is that even legal?"

"Doesn't matter. They're rich."

"That's true..."

Childe rang the doorbell and you tried your best to straighten your posture, smoothing down your casual dress so you were ready to meet the unbelievably rich parents of Ajax. Shortly afterward, you were not greeted with what you expected.

"Big Brother Ajax!"

You stared as the kid who looked like an exact copy of Childe jumped into the older boy's arms.

"So... Teucer?" You guessed.

"Yep! Teucer, this is Y/n, a good friend of mine," he introduced.

"Hi! Ajax talks a lot about you!" Teucer said, which caused Childe to panic.

"Okay, Teucer, that's enough, let's go inside," Childe laughed nervously, pushing him inside.

"Oh?" You smirked as you followed them in. You were a bit less anxious about the situation.

Childe led you to the dining room, where his parents and other siblings were waiting. Teucer hopped into his seat between Tonia and Anthon, while you and Childe sat on the other side of the table. His parents had their seats set on the ends.

"Ah, Ajax," his mom said. "And... Ajax's friend."

"My name is Y/n," you smiled politely. "Thank you for having me."

"You can call me Yona," she replied. "And this is Ivan. It's a pleasure to meet you."

You nodded, while Ivan seemed relatively blank in terms of facial expressions. Your nerves were once again tested because of this. You felt like you were meeting your boyfriend's parents or something, but Childe was just a friend. Still, his family was intimidating. Especially since you knew they had enough money to either ruin your life or fix it. You decided you'd only speak when spoken to.

"Introduce yourselves," Yona sighed, looking to her children.

"I'm Tonia."

"I'm Anthon!"

"It's nice to meet you," you said, your smile growing at their purity and innocence. In truth, you were a bit envious.

You didn't want to be rude, so when dinner was brought out, you ate pieces of everything, but you also didn't want to seem like a pig, so you only had half of it before stopping. Dinner was quiet, no conversation to be had. You felt so incredibly awkward, but at least Childe helped slightly by occasionally bumping your leg with his under the table or sending you a smile. You felt a bit better, knowing you were helping a friend.

So while the room was filled with a silence you could slice with a butter knife, your mind drifted off to the "dream" you had in order to entertain you somehow. You wondered if it was trying to tell you something about Gorou, or if it was even a dream. You wanted it to be, but when you thought about it for more than two seconds, it probably wasn't. You had a hangover in the morning, so obviously you drank. Maybe you were remembering the events wrong. You had no idea. But there was no way Gorou would've been so nice to you without a reason.

Your brain snapped out of your thoughts when someone cleared their throat, and you realized it was Childe.

"Hm?" You hummed, noticing he was staring at you.

"I'd like to show you something," he said, standing up and holding his hand out to you.

You took his hand and let him pull you outside to the backside of the house, and you were amazed by what you saw. A garden, so big that it had a fountain in the middle. There were pathways that would allow you to properly observe all the plants. You gasped.

"This is amazing!" 

"I know, right?" He smirked with amusement, still holding onto your hand. "They spent quite the sum of money to get this done."

"I bet!" You grinned, running out of his grasp to look at the flowers that sparkled under the moonlight as it gazed down from the sky. "It's so pretty..."

He frowned slightly as he walked up to you, "You are too, y'know."

You blinked before looking over to him, "...I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that."

He chuckled, "There's a bench over there, if you wanna sit down."

You glanced over and noticed the bench not too far away, "...They turned their backyard into an entire flower park."

"Pretty much."

You both went over and sat down, letting silence engulf you for a while. It was peaceful, with crickets playing their own music in the background. You saw that Childe looked a bit upset, so you decided to ask.

"Is something wrong?"

He took a moment to respond before sighing, "Being here just makes me... sad."

"Why's that...?" 

"I miss my siblings all the time. I rarely get to see them in person, and I know my parents don't care," he said, twiddling his thumbs.

"I'm sure they care at least a little..."

"They're the reason I'm not living here."

"Oh..."

"Yeah. They literally paid me to stay away from them," he chuckled bitterly, staring at the ground. "They thought I'd be a bad influence since I got into fights pretty often, so they sent me off. I always wondered when I'd get to see my siblings again, and it's only because of them that I got to come here."

"You should go back in and spend some time with them, then," you suggested.

"That'll just make it harder to say goodbye."

You wanted to say that was a stupid excuse, but you knew he didn't need a comment like that, so you kept quiet. He looked over at you, into your eyes.

"But part of me is glad I had to move away since... I got to meet you."

He smiled slightly, and it was nice. You were glad he could find the light in a dark time. You smiled back until you realized he was moving closer to you, his eyes staring into yours. You could feel his breath fanning your face. You gasped and put your hand up to make a barrier between you and him.

"Woah, uhm, okay then!" You laughed anxiously, scooting backward to create more space. "Haha, sorry, but... Scara. Boyfriend. Yeah."

You wanted to get run over by a truck after that. You couldn't even form proper sentences; just fractions of them. Childe wasn't sure how to describe what he was feeling, but it wasn't good. At all. Like you were constantly stomping on his heart with every word you said. He didn't cry, though. Instead, he said his thoughts.

"Y/n, I like you," he whispered, though loud enough for you to hear. "And after a while, I realized that I didn't want you to be taken away if I had even a chance... I know you're dating Scaramouche, but you can break up with him if you want to."

You realized that must've been what he wanted to tell you before, and you felt bad rejecting him, but you didn't want to hurt him. You actually cared about him, so if you didn't love him, you were going to tell him that. You knew it would've been more painful later.

"Ajax... If I do break up with Scaramouche, I don't... I don't want to do the same thing all over again. I'm sorry, but I don't love you that way."

He was surprised by your use of his real name, but it let him know you were being serious. He nodded and smiled before standing up.

"Let's go in, shall we?"