Childe had been waiting for what felt like an eternity, his patience wearing thin as he kept checking the time, his mind racing with a thousand thoughts.

Where were you? It wasn't like you to be this late, and every passing second seemed to stretch longer than the last.

He tried to focus on something else, to distract himself from the gnawing worry that maybe something had happened to you. Had you run into trouble? Was everything okay? The possibilities churned in his mind, each more unsettling than the last.

Gosh, maybe he was becoming too clingy, too needy.

Leaning against the headboard of the bed you both shared, he ran a hand through his hair, the usual frustration and exhaustion from his Fatui duties mixing together into a heavy weight he could hardly shake off. His shoulders slumped, weighed down by more than just fatigue.

Childe glanced at the door once more, hoping to see you walk through it, but there was only silence. The room felt too big, too empty without you. On top of it, his fatigue was like a weight pressing down on him, the kind that made his eyelids heavy and his body yearn for rest despite his best efforts to stay awake.

He told himself he would just close his eyes for a second, just a brief moment to rest. "Just for a few seconds," he murmured under his breath, as he leaned his head back against the headboard and closed his eyes.

Just a second, he told himself. Just one...

But those few seconds stretched into minutes, and the minutes into hours. He drifted into dreams that were hazy and indistinct, a blur of images and emotions that he couldn't quite grasp.

In his slumber, he wasn't aware of the world around him, much less your quiet arrival home. The sight that greeted you was both unexpected and profoundly touching.

Childe's form was tucked under the blanket, his arms neatly folded beneath the pillow like a child finding comfort in sleep. Strands of his hair fell delicately across his face, adding a touch of disheveled charm to the scene. One leg was bent at the knee, tangled in the covers, and his hand curled slightly like he'd been holding onto something before slipping into sleep.

The man who faced the challenges of Teyvat with unwavering determination now lay before you, as gentle and delicate as a sleeping kitten.

It was strange and beautiful, how still he was. The strength in his body, always brimming and on edge, now subdued into something soft. He seemed younger in sleep, untouched by war or pain. Like a boy who had never saw The Abyss, never joined the Fatui, never picked up that blade.

In this moment he looked more like Ajax, the person he was before the weight of the world turned him into Childe. If only he could always be like this—free from the burdens of duty and war, unguarded and at peace.