snow.
tartaglia x gn!reader
warnings: liyue + inazuma spoilers
notes: happy holidays to all, and to @light679, the one who has supported me through it all. i thought that you deserved a little something nice, so i obliged. thank you for everything you've done for me. merry christmas. <3
you and him met when you were just little school-children, playing tag in the heaps of cold, powder snow.
"you're it, ajax!" you caught up to him, your cheeks stinging in the bitter cold, pushing him on the shoulder to "tag" him.
"hahah!" he giggled, "you got me, but i won't be it for long!"
ajax always had a competitive nature, no matter how frightened of the world we was. he told you about his ambitions of becoming an adventurer while you laid in the snow together. ajax, however, was a hesitant boy, even if he was playful. he told you how grateful he was for you, you were kind and caring- you were warm.
you tumbled around in the snow during recess, you and your little friend group running around like headless chickens, ajax specifically targeting you, just so he could get his revenge.
of course, childhood memories stay as memories. blissful moments such as these, they don't last for long. the boy you knew, he disappeared. he was gone without a trace.
unbeknownst to you, ajax had returned a bloodthirsty warrior, a self-proclaimed "weapon of war," referred to as "tartaglia." of course, living in the home of the tsaritsa and her beloved fatui, you caught wind of the heinous crimes that had been committed in liyue.
but the fatui plotted on an "ever-grander" scale, the archon setting the "weapon" up to ultimately fail. the tsaritsa, the archon of love, was a cold, cruel woman. a semi-omnipotent god with an army at her own disposal. even the people of snezhnaya were unaware of her next plans, what she had wanted to do next, or why she was allegedly taking the archons' gnoses.
it's no shock that the death of la signora was tragic to the people residing in snezhnaya. the people had grown dull and tired, their childhoods a long, lost hope. men slaved away in coal mines and ladies worked at home, a snap away from losing their own sanity. the children no longer played outside, none pelted eachother with snow anymore, snowmen never being built by smiling, cheery kids. the region had grown duller as you, too, grew up.
the harbingers were popular, as one could expect. you watched a dark and grey crowd swarm, their worn-out and hoarse voices shouting and crying out from the group.
"tartaglia! tartaglia!" they cheered. the fatui were the only hope for the snezhnayan people, the cold region's people rejoicing as they finally gained the attention the lovely tsaritsa deserved.
pushing through the malnourished crowd, you witnessed a tall ginger man with piercing blue eyes handle ladies' babies and attempt to push back a crowd of starving, overworked men and women. of course, you couldn't help but think he looked familiar. that's when his gazed locked with yours.
the stare went on for what felt like a minute or two, the legendary war criminal making eye-contact with someone just as common as the others. you gathered a clump of snow in your hand, launching it at the man's face.
the swarm went dead silent as the snow slid off his face, his cheeks flushing pinker as his skin met the cold snow. the snow had a deeper, more bone-chilling temperature than the air that you breathed. the mob stared at you, distaste and fury in their eyes, the silence choking you, eventually being broken by the harbinger's loud laugh.
"that was great!" he cackled. "who threw that?"
his eyes met yours again. "was it you?" he said with a grin, highly unexpected of a grown man in the fatui. you gulped and nodded, his laugh becoming even more boisterous.
"i think we should have a snowball fight!" he snorted, coming down from his laughter-high. the mass of people groaned, going back to their miserable shifts at work. grown people had no time for child-like behavior, they had a job to do, bread and butter to earn and money to make.
"tartaglia" launched a snowball straight at you, making you giggle. you could barely hold it together as you weakly threw one back while he continuously catapulted you with clumps of hard-packed snow.
"how's that, huh?!" he teased. "you sorry n-now?!" he snickered, getting hit in the abdomen with one of your snowballs. your hands were going numb as you laughed along with the criminal, both you and him weakly launching loose handfuls of snow at eachother.
"ohh, archons-" you giggled, "tartaglia" coming up to shake your hand. you lifted up your head, holding in more laugher.
"truce?" he asked. you obliged, sighing and chuckling. "truce."
"so, what's your name, you?" he smiled politely.
"it's Y/N." you replied, watching as a fond smile grew on his face.
"i think i know you. my name's ajax."
