half a mind on leaving, the other should have been on the ruins themselves. to observe and understand had been the sole purpose of braving this mechanical nest of ruin, but instead the harbinger found himself distracted by hachidori’s presence. it hadn’t been the first time the elusive scholar had stolen all of his attention, barely passing his assignments was already difficult enough without his striking gaze burning holes into the back of childe’s neck.
he was not a scholarly person by nature, he didn’t learn well through means of books and lectures. what made the concept of academics harder still was not being able to engage with peers, being isolated in an unfamiliar environment. he thought that after four years in the abyss he would be used to the solitude, but he was still an extrovert at his core. the fact that the only meaningful connection he’d made was by accident, and with another recluse in turn … someone seemed to be playing a sick joke on him. this was the best way he learned : in the field, his hands on a weapon, dirt beneath his boots. hachidori just made it so much harder to concentrate.
feet scuffed at the edge of another crumbling vestibule where more dormant machinery lie. the old worn sandstone was covered with half decayed etchings in markings both familiar to childe and not. some parts of the messages were clearer than others, but from what he could understand, someone had written their foreboding into this monument like a final tombstone. even now it was as if the very walls were entrenched with the despair of the cataclysm – thousands, possibly millions of lives ruined under the might of celestia’s wrath. he didn’t believe it to be fair, this plight of gods upon mortals, the sight of their destruction wrung sympathy even from him, a being whose veins were flowing with decimation.
he was instinctively seconds from shoving the other’s touch off him, fingers poised as claws, near curling into fists until the wind was promptly knocked out of a winding attack by that voice. it’s not an itching under his skin, nor a burn like he was about to be hurt. it was a helpless coil of energy pooling in the joints of his fingers, ready to strike at the nearest unwilling victim. the sensations of it could not distinguish between friend or foe ( childe still remembered the sight of the medic’s wrist, bones crushed beneath his fearsome grip before he'd been extracted. it would never be the same again. childe’s apologies were useless, empty sentiments in her eyes. ) the touch was soft, yes, but when childe squeezed instinctively, he could tell just by feel alone that would not be enough to hurt him. he felt his heartbeat decelerate, following orders, waiting. eventually he stepped away to cut the contact naturally, in a gentler manner.
‘ i’m curious about what you’re looking for. ’
childe’s cautious expression broke, slowly, like watching a crack in ice getting bigger over time, letting the light behind it seep through. maybe it was a reflex over his earlier nervousness. he looked younger when he smiled, a little less haunted, shades of that boyish charm peeking through. childe did love oddities, and to say that he didn’t attract them in turn would be a lie as well. there was a swift gentleness in hachidori’s tone, like someone had taken a rose and quickly shed a few of its thorns ; still lovely despite its prickly nature. he tilted his head, wolven turned puppy dog if only for a second. ‘ if you don’t give a shit about what i’m studying then why are you curious about what i’m looking for ? ’
talking to hachi was easier than he anticipated, despite his rusty communication. all too soon he was falling once more into neutral tones. where once wordplay had flown back and forth, easy and unassuming, misleading others with his village boy background, now he was staggered and awkward. but not with hachi, no. the words flowed easily, he could hear the honesty in the other’s voice, was compelled to do the same. the etchings in abyssal near them were crooked, glowing with a faint trace of elemental energy, but his gut told him that these were bygone words of someone much older than them. centuries even. “ there is no toward. you now call upon the dead. ” and the words shook as if they who transcribed it did so quivering in fear. it was a solemn thing, this piece of history. “ i can read this. i’ve always been able to read it. ” since that first unfortunate death. since ajax had fallen in, and the host had climbed back out. “ - i don’t know why, or how. but i want to know. visiting these ruins is the only lead i have right now. ” once, pierro had said they had a harbinger who specialised in abyssal exploration, but the spot had remained vacant for centuries. it was something he’d fixated on for a little while, scrounging about zapolyarny trying to find this harbinger’s research, but all he’d come across each time was a dead end.
it was only then that childe looked up from the ominous text to regard hachidori, expression a little more open than before. “ i’ve answered one of your questions, now you can answer one of mine. ” depthless blue eyes scanned over hachidori’s face, sizing up the ominous perfection of it ; symmetrical features, and jewel like eyes, near doll – like. no wonder other students of the akademiya found him intimidating, to be so strikingly beautiful, and equally scathing. my type. some intrusive thought floated to the forefront of his mind. he splashed it away, making it dissipate like bubbles. “ ‘ the odyssey of rugiaevit ’ …” the book, borrowed over fifty times, lovingly annotated. for a moment, he thought about asking why he’d loaned it over and over ( couldn’t he just buy a copy ? ) but instead, he asks : “ what do you like about it ? ”
