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Childe was facing a dreadful, horrible problem. He was a junior in college and was staying on campus because when you’re studying abroad (thank you very much VISA card) it’s a lot easier, and provided for free. At this point, he’d grown used to the routine of showing up early, unpacking his minimalistic amount of luggage (somehow less than his in-state roommates), and trying his best to befriend his new roommate once they showed up too. But this year… for the past two years, after a slightly embarrassing encounter, he’d been staring hard at Zhongli, another student in the same year as him who he’d yet to speak with. Of course, discluding when he’d smacked right into him rounding the corner to leave his history class freshmen year. But that hardly counted because the full interaction entailed Zhongli apologizing and Childe, absolutely floored by the attractive guy that he’d just made a fool of himself in front of, then borderline running away without saying a thing back.
So now, imagine his surprise when he dragged his suitcase, backpack slung over his shoulder, and found that not only was his roommate there, but the roommate in question was Zhongli. He nearly let his jaw drop, fortunately stopping himself and saving face, and then stumbled in, fumbling around with his clothes as he did his best to calmly unpack. If he had any less self-control, his face would probably be bright red and hot. But he definitely was a little flushed, though it couldn’t really be helped when Zhongli was sat on his own bed and observed his increasingly flustered roommate. Maybe he did need to work on that emotional control.
Once he finally got his various shirts and pants stacked up in the closet, plus long-sleeved clothing hung up, he was done. Not completely, still needed to put his sheets on the bed, but there was no way he was going to do that while Zhongli was sitting right there, doing nothing to try and disguise his blatant staring. And gods that guy did not give a shit if he was just going to be sitting around his room all day or not he would still dress in a way that made him look what could only be described as devastatingly handsome. There was a tan trenchcoat hanging on the post of his bed, which Childe guessed he had been wearing in the dicey fall weather, and he could imagine how good it had looked over the black turtleneck tucked into off-white pants with a brown plaid pattern, held up with a darker brown belt. And with a quick glance at his face, he definitely had some reddish-orange eyeshadow dusted on the outer corners of his eyes. Gods. He had what Childe assumed were rectangular reading glasses around his neck, held by a delicate golden glasses chain.
“Hey,” Childe waved slightly, realizing that fuck he had just unpacked for like five minutes, and then stared at Zhongli without saying a word the entire time .
Zhongli nodded in acknowledgment but didn’t respond. This prompted Childe to awkwardly pull out his phone and pretend that he had something to be doing on it but he was actually still just looking at him out of the corner of his eye. But he was saved from the situation when Zhongli pulled back his sleeve to reveal a sleek watch and checked the time, grabbed his coat and walked out.
The second the door closed, Childe threw himself on the bed and let out a dramatic sigh of exasperation. His hands smacked against his face and he slowly pulled them down, stretching out his skin slightly. How the hell had they been in the same room for nearly ten minutes and only one word was exchanged. He was fucked. He had to be.
By the time they’d both settled into their daily routines, Childe was sure he was gonna lose his mind. Now he understood, Zhongli had to stay active and healthy, he was the same way, but waking up every morning half-hard and then rolling over to see Zhongli doing yoga could not be good for him. But it couldn’t get any better for him, because of course. Their classes worked out in a way that ensured Zhongli was always home when Childe was, besides twenty minutes pretty later on in the day, around three, letting him get some very important alone time. Because if he didn’t get that he might just start to wake up with some nastiness going on in his boxers.
But on top of it all, he was sure that Zhongli hated him, or at least, really didn’t like him. They were always home together but Childe could probably only fill about half a notebook page with all the words spoken between the two. Nearly all their “conversations” would be Childe trying to spark a discussion, in turn, Zhongli would give a minimalist response, and Childe would shut up, embarrassed with how disinterested he seemed in interacting with Childe at all. The only time he could think of Zhongli saying something to him first would be him asking Childe to pick up his side of the room a bit (he swears he’s normally a lot more organized) or asking him to quiet down when Childe would talk to himself a little too loud. And that really sucked. But honestly, it also made him kinda angry because what the fuck dude? Childe didn’t do anything to make Zhongli hate him.
So about a month into them rooming together, he started to be a bit of an asshole. First, it would just be “accidentally” leaving a few pieces of clothing or shoes on Zhongli’s side of the room, who would respond by either scolding Childe or tossing them onto his bed. So then Childe decided to push it a little further by playing music or watching videos out loud on his laptop whenever it seemed like Zhongli was trying hard to focus on his work. He left the door open whenever he passed through, let his laundry pile up, and invited over Hu Tao (apparently a mutual friend) without warning.
“He finds you endearing,” She told him one day, when he went to hang out and drink in Hu Tao’s room with her. Yanfei, her roommate (slash lover? He wasn’t sure) was studying at the library so their room could break the vow of silence it normally held. Law students.
“And that’s a good thing?” Childe asked, tipping back his can to try and get the last bit left.
“Well…” she trailed off for a moment, black painted nail tapping at her chin, “I think it just is. He’s interested, I think, but he’s a really reserved guy. So I dunno,” she shrugged.
“That does not boost my confidence,” he concluded, tossing the can into the trash bin.
“Listen I don’t know what to tell you,” she sighed, “it’s like I said, he’s reserved so I can’t fully tell you what he thinks. I’m not in his head and it’s not like he talks about you frequently. He doesn’t talk about anybody frequently. Except old dead guys,” Hu Tao made a face and Childe couldn’t help but criticize her.
“You want to be a mortician.”
“Yeah but he talks about old dead guys in a boring way,” she exclaimed in exasperation.
Childe went to his own room not too long after, decidedly more confused than anything else. He probably was hurting his chances with the way he was acting but he couldn’t help it. Childe wasn’t normally an attention hog but this was different.
“I’m back!” Childe entered his room, unnecessarily announcing his presence with a sing-song tone. Zhongli, who was absorbed in his book, responded with a soft grunt.
“What are you reading? Is it good?” He asked, tossing his jacket on the bed and leaning in close to Zhongli at his desk.
For a moment, it seemed that he wouldn’t respond, but then he removed his glasses and closed his book, piquing Childe’s curiosity.
“Why are you so desperate for my attention?”
Oooookay… Childe could work with this? Maybe? This was definitely an unexpected reaction though so he had to think on his feet.
“Who says I am? What’s so wrong with just wanting to talk with my roommate? Why are you so dead set on ignoring me?” Childe didn’t exactly do a good job at appearing very nonchalant, but he did still manage to throw off Zhongli.
“I believe… I believe there’s a bit of a misunderstanding that has occurred,” Zhongli spoke slowly, turning around so that he was sitting with his legs spread and his chest against the back of the chair, now making strong eye contact with Childe.
There certainly was some misunderstanding between the two because what the hell was going on?
“You feel that you’ve been ignored?” Zhongli started. He posed it as if it were a question though it seemed clear that he already knew the answer was yes.
“No,” Childe denied regardless. He didn’t owe Zhongli this conversation after being ignored for so long. Perhaps it was counterproductive and childish, he knew that, but Tsaritsa be damned he wasn’t going to give in to Zhongli’s charming appearance and sultry voice that quick.
“Childe,” there was a warning in his tone, as if he was speaking with a little kid who was about to be disobedient and break a rule. “I do not appreciate liars. I find it obvious that you are acting out in some way that I can only imagine stems from you feeling ignored. So beyond that, I need you to understand that I am not trying to ignore you. In fact, I find you to be…” Zhongli cast his eyes to the side for a moment, trying to find the correct words. “You’re distracting. Not because of your antics, not entirely.”
Childe backed up, sitting on the edge of his, nope, Zhongli’s bed.
“How do you mean?” Childe found his voice as quickly as he could. It was difficult to consider how he should respond and participate in the conversation when Zhongli’s piercing gaze seemed to see right through him. Before he could be graced with more words from Zhongli, an irritating beeping noise cut through their bubble.
“Ah,” Zhongli didn’t look away from Childe as he pressed a button on the side of his watch. “I’d hate to break off our conversation, but I had planned to go to the store, and I really shouldn’t put it off.” Zhongli was always dressed as though he expected surprise outings to be thrust upon him, so he didn’t need to change out of the black button-down and dark brown pants.
For once, it was Childe that said nothing in response, he only watched Zhongli quickly put away the things on his desk and slip on some nice shoes. He felt almost like a dog in a kennel, watching its owner prepare to leave. He wasn’t even spared a glance as Zhongli shut the door behind him.
“I’ll be back in a bit.”
There was no good way to describe the shame that Childe was experiencing, palming at his pants, sunk comfortably into Zhongli’s bed, absolutely drowning in the smell of expensive cologne, the smell of Zhongli. It only took a few minutes after his roommate’s departure for him to crumble. Fucking Zhongli, always able to keep his composure-he bit his lip, barely keeping in a noise-to the point that he was almost certain that he could be six inches deep in Childe-long high whine that was hopefully not too loud-and he would barely make a sound. But clearly, panting like he’d just run a 5k, Childe wasn’t quite so well composed. Already sick of teasing himself, he tugged down his boxers, just enough to slip out his dick. He didn’t care to go slow, there was no way of knowing when exactly Zhongli would get back and he could not get caught like this. He picked up the pace, going as fast as he could without it hurting and his free hand traveled quickly up his chest to pinch his nipple, causing a bubbling moan to escape. It wasn't long till that free hand was scratching harshly at his chest, leaving red lines in the wake of his nails.
“Hng ah-” Childe clamped a hand over his mouth and his whole body tensed as he came after less than a few minutes. It took about as long for him to come out of his dazed state as it took for him to actually get off. Embarrassing. What was more embarrassing was the realization that he had gotten cum all over his shirt. It wasn’t a nice one at least, since he wasn’t Zhongli so only hanging out with Hu Tao meant he was just wearing some off-white graphic t-shirt. But still. Maybe he could get it to wash out but that was highly doubtful.
He came back to the room after a thorough session of handwashing and wrinkled his nose. It really did smell like he had jacked off. Probably because he had. And that made Childe feel pretty embarrassed to think that the room most likely smelled like that every time he took care of an issue and he just hadn’t noticed because he normally used hand sanitizer so he could powernap after. Yeah yeah, it was kinda gross but whatever.
Now that he had been made aware of the smell though, he didn’t want to let Zhongli come back, acutely aware of what Childe did, so he cracked open a window and retrieved the cologne from Zhongli’s hygiene bag (yes, a hygiene bag) and spritzed it a few times in the air. Hopefully problem solved. And so of course, just to make sure he never got a break…
“Zhongli?” The door opened and a slightly irritated-looking Zhongli came into the room, almost slamming the door behind him.
“Store was closed. Apparently a gas leak if you’d believe it,” he said with a tight smile and set his shoes down by the door.
“Oh, sorry about that,” Childe responded awkwardly.
“It’s fine…” Zhongli replied, but he was giving him a weird look. Oh right. He forgot to put on a shirt.
“Oh, shoot sorry, I was kinda warm,” he scrambled to get a shirt on, cringing at his awful lie, enhanced by his shiver at a wayward breeze blowing in the room.
Zhongli said nothing, his silence spoke for itself as he quietly went and closed the windows, double-checking that they were locked.
“You know, I have a thing for gingers.”
Childe’s whole body froze for a few moments. There was no way he’d heard that right. But when he did move and looked over at Zhongli, his slightly amused facial expression confirmed that no, that was exactly what he said.
“In reference to your question earlier,” he continued. How do you mean? Childe recalled. “It’s not that I have been trying to ignore you, I told myself I wouldn’t have any sort of college romance. But freshmen year, some stupid boy that seemed to be exactly my type, in terms of looks at the very least, slammed straight into me. And then I just couldn’t stop looking,” Zhongli seemed to recall the memory with much more fondness than Childe did.
“So then think how I felt when I watched as that same boy walked into my room and I realized that he would be my roommate,” he continued, “that the boy who the very thought of would interrupt my studies time and time again was going to be sharing a space with me. Now don’t get me wrong, I did and do like you very much. However, I wasn’t going to let you distract me from my work, and I figured if I talked to you at all then I very well may risk failing my no-romance objective. But you just had to be insistent,” Zhongli started to slowly make his way from the window to where Childe sat, dumbfounded as ever, on his bed. “Your acting out could have easily been ignored by me, but once I understood that all you wanted was some attention, I liked you even more.”
“I’m-you like me?” Come on Childe don’t fucking fall for this shit. Not that it was a lie but give in this easy? After he gave him the cold shoulder for over a month? Not fucking fair at all.
“No, hold on,” Childe’s quick change of tone brought about an emotion that had been unseen before onto Zhongli’s face. Confusion. “You don’t-I thought that I had done something. And then I was pissed off, I hated you ignoring me and I spent weeks trying to get you to say anything to me other than to scold me!” He hadn’t meant to start nearly yelling, but it was true. Of course, combined with pent-up hornyness it had been a fucking nightmare.
Zhongli, who was still standing less than a foot away from where Childe was huddled up, simply stared. His face was a blank slate, that confusion long covered up, making him once again impossible to read.
And then he took a step towards the bed. And then another. In a brief moment he was as close to Childe on the bed, as close to straddling him without touching him as he could be.
“Sounds like you’re feeling pent up,” he spoke in a hushed voice, so close that Childe could feel the words hit his lips.
“Fuck you,” he offered back weakly.
“Hm,” Zhongli just hummed and closed the distance. The response from Childe was immediate. His hands were traveling wherever they could, whole body moved to be flush with his roommate, and he wasted no time biting at Zhongli’s lips. That sparked something deep in Zhongli, a growl rumbled deep in his throat and he practically pounced. As Childe’s head hit the pillow he noted dully that it was likely pure luck his head hadn't made contact with the wall instead. Of course, noted dully, as his thoughts were occupied first and foremost by the mouth ravaging his own. To distract himself, hold on to some kind of control, he untucked Zhongli’s shirt and ran one hand up his chest and the other up his back, following his spine. He felt the way that the muscles twitched lightly under the touch and heard Zhongli’s sigh into the kiss. Good.
Unfortunately, it took only a moment for all the power he felt he might have gained to go out the window. Zhongli nipped unexpectedly on Childe’s lip, causing him to break the kiss and roll his head back, whining lowly. He realized his mistake as soon and the lips latched onto his neck.
“Oh, Zhongli-hey-” he dug his nails into the skin on Zhongli’s back as the sharp canines sunk carefully into his neck, he just barely avoided breaking the skin. Tingles raced up his spine when he felt the pressure, suction, on the tender area. His breath was already starting to come out in puffs. Childe had never shared any sort of intimate experiences, despite his persona that was often compared to a fuck boy. Hookups just weren’t on his radar and he’d never been in a serious relationship. But Zhongli-
Childe’s thoughts temporarily escaped from him with a whimper as a hot tongue trailed up the side of his neck, contrasting with the cool air of the room.
Zhongli was obviously experienced to some degree. In the back of his mind, he was just barely able to recall Hu Tao mentioning that he’d had a long-term girlfriend that broke things off with him after high school. Something about going to colleges on opposite sides of the world. As those teeth again dug in, right on his collarbone this time, he had to think that he couldn’t have done what she did. No way would he be able to end things with this guy.
“Childe,” Zhongli called to him, mocking that sort of sing-song tone that Childe had announced his arrival back to the dorm with earlier that day. But with the words ghosting over his skin and the low rumble of his chest vibrating against Childe’s, the slightly silly tone still managed to have the desired effect. Childe shivered.
“Yes, Zhongli?” He finally responded when he realized that Zhongli was awaiting patiently.
“What do you want?” He asked with that sultry tone. He shifted just a bit, slotting his legs between Childe’s keeping the ginger’s legs apart, and placing his hands on either side of Childe’s chest, holding himself up. His eyes trailed up and down, nearly eliciting another shiver as he swore he could feel the gaze of those eyes all the way up his chest.
“Would you like me to touch you?” Zhongli questioned, teasingly gliding a finger up Childe’s left side, from his hip to his shoulder. “Or how about,” he continued, “we lose this?” He dragged up the front of Childe’s shirt, stopping it just short of revealing his chest. “Hm? Would you like that?”
“Alright, now you’re just fucking with me,” Childe hissed, smacking Zhongli’s hand away. He sat up, forcing Zhongli to lean back, and wrestled his shirt off as quickly as he could. The moment that he was back down, Zhongli’s hands were feeling up his shirt, going up until-
“Ah-hey!” He grabbed Zhongli’s wrists, who had a clear fear across his face. “You didn't-ha-do anything I just need to catch my breath,” Childe panted, tongue almost hanging out. “Not all of us have experience under our belt.”
Zhongli flushed just slightly, “I-my apologies. I’ll admit that I got carried away there for a moment. I can-” he went to move his legs out of Childe’s way, but Childe pulled them back firmly, brushing against his dick and very quietly whining at the feeling.
“Don’t, please. Just-” he flopped his head down again and let out a long sigh. “Okay. Get those hands back on me.”
Zhongli smirked, “So very eager, I would love to see you beg.”
Childe responded with a panicked noise but Zhongli stroked his face in a soothing manner.
“Some other time, it's okay,” he shushed him gently and went back to flicking at Childe’s nipples with his thumbs. He then bent down and went for the neck.
“Mmm, tha-t’s more like it,” he hummed shakily. Unstabled hands ran up Zhongli’s torso, fingertips butterflying lightly against the skin. Zhongli moved further down from the collarbone, down his abdomen, to the naval and… two fingers hooked under the waistband of his boxers and shorts. Childe, who’s eyes had been closed, looked down at Zhongli after he had stilled, making eye contact with the brunette, who immediately smiled.
“There you are, mind if we get these out of the way?” He smugly requested. Well, perhaps not smugly to most, but Childe could hear it in his voice, see that glint in his eyes.
“Go ahead,” Childe gave a confident response, though he likely wasn’t masking his nerves well.
Zhongli took the green light and slid one hand under the ginger’s lower back, lifting his hips from the mattress, and used the other hand to pull down his clothes, leaving Childe to kick them off once they were around his ankles. And shit, he was staring, hard. He had no reason to believe that he was small, no he knew that he wasn’t, but maybe Zhongli had changed his mind. He was fairly certain that he hadn’t been with a man in a while, if ever, and so that made him wonder if there was any chance that he realized he didn’t want to do this anymore.
“I’m sorry, I'll just-” Childe interrupted himself with a moan as a result of Zhongli abruptly wrapping a firm hand around his cock and stroking down.
“Oh Archons,” he sighed shakily, voice muffled from behind his hand. A wave of heat washed over his whole body and he started scratching up Zhongli’s back, attempting to remain grounded. Zhongli just grinned and continued moving his hand as he moved his head up, connecting lips with Childe. The kiss was steaming hot, tongues clashing together only moments after the kiss began. Teeth carefully poked at his lips and Childe, with only some shame, whined loudly into his mouth.
“Well now, don’t disturb the neighbors,” Zhongli pulled away and shook his head in mock disappointment. “Keep quiet, or I’ll be utilizing certain methods to force some silence.”
Childe’s eyes fluttered, rolling back just a little, but he managed to keep quiet. That was not something he expected from himself, but it wasn’t like he’d had any opportunities to figure that sort of stuff out. He was very curious now, but he wasn’t going to ask for help with any of that. Not yet.
The speed of Zhongli’s hand on Childe had been increasing steadily, but he hadn’t noticed until heat coiled tight in his abdomen. He did his best to keep the noise volume down, stuck between panting and mewling to avoid any abrupt moans.
“Zhongli,” he whimpered. His face was flushed red hot, and a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. Childe was squirming, he felt so incredibly close, and Zhongli could tell. The pleasure was mounting quickly.
“Please, I want you-inside,” he stumbled through the words, muffling a wail from behind his hand at just the thought.
“I understand,” Zhongli slowed so that Childe could think, process the words, “I would give anything to make love to you,” Childe reddened at the cheesy phrasing, “but I worry that this would be too soon. Especially considering the fact that you don’t have experience with this.”
“Okay,” he mumbled, mouthing at the back of his hand. Yeah, Childe could wait.
“Here, let me,” Zhongli rolled Childe over, who blindly followed, and gently pushed his head down into the pillows with one hand and gripped his hip with the other, keeping his butt up.
Childe wanted to question him, but the pillows made it just a little difficult to do anything other than struggle to gulp down air. His ears perked up at the sound of a zipper. Then the mattress weight shifted and Zhongli was undoubtedly off the bed.
“Stay put.”
After some shuffling sounds he was back on the bed. There was a pop, followed by the sound of a zipper. Childe was dumbfounded as to what exactly Zhongli was going to do until there was a lubed dick between his thighs. Fuck. He hugged the pillows tighter against his face and shivered. Trying to assist as best as he could, he held his legs together, tensed. And finally, he got a noise other than a simple sigh or shaky breath.
“Fuck, good,” he felt Zhongli’s hands tremble on his hips as he spoke. He thrust into his thighs a few times, breathing heavily until Childe groaned loudly and he grunted. “Sorry my love, I don’t mean to ignore you.”
A hand reached forward to wrap around his cock again, eliciting another noise that was, fortunately, damped by the plush.
“You’ve been doing so good so far,” Zhongli’s sultry voice trembled as the speed of his thrusts increased. “You’ve certainly made up for your earlier stubborn behavior,” he sped up his hand as well.
Childe was growing overwhelmed. He had already come close once, so it didn’t take long for him to get close again. His legs quivered, evidently a good feeling for Zhongli, who rutted forward out of pace, grunting again.
“Hnnn,” Childe struggled to keep his volume level low. His thighs were starting to burn, finding it more difficult to keep upright. If not for one of Zhongli’s hand holding tightly to his hip, he probably would have collapsed on the bed already. His whole body was hot, there was no way to differentiate between the sweat and drool on the pillows, making his whole face damp. He could feel more sweat mixing in with the messy lube on his legs, dripping down them onto the bed. He just realized how gross his sheets were going to be.
“Are you close darling?”
Childe lifted his head from the pillows but the only response he was able to muster was a long moan. Zhongli quickly shoved his head into the pillows again, and the harshness of the shove sent a shock down his spine. He bucked forward and let out a silent cry. The heat, the words, the presence of Zhongli, it was getting to him.
“Fuckfuckfuck-” he rutted into Zhongli’s hand one more time until he released. His whole body was met with a tremor and all the pleasure crashed over him. He was uncertain how close Zhongli followed, but the second that he let go of Childe’s hips, he dropped onto the mattress. How long it took for his mind to clear was lost on him, but it was longer than it had ever been before. His mind began to clear up when a warm, damp rag swiped at his inner thighs to clean up the lube there. He rolled over, looking up at Zhongli with a dopey grin on his face. Zhongli chuckled lightly.
“Could you find it in yourself to move over to my bed?”
Childe sighed dramatically, but pulled himself up and, with some help from his partner(?), took wobbly steps to the other bed and threw himself down on it. And that was when he noticed…
“You’re in actual pajamas? Like not the fancy silk n’ shit,” Childe scoffed in surprise to see that Zhongli was wearing a black tank top and grey sweatpants.
“Yes, and you’re in nothing.”
“Get me something then.” Zhongli quirked a brow at that and his smile dropped.
“I mean-” Childe scrambled to get up until fabric smacked him in the face. Pants.
“Zhongli?”
“Hm?”
“There’s gonna be a next time, right?” Childe asked, spooned by Zhongli under the sheets.
“Of course.”