Behind the career || Stripper Au

15: too much for a day.

Art cc: weyowang on twitter

Zhongli's perspective:
"I GOT THE JOB!" I said as I jumped onto Hu Tao.
"OMG YES!!!!!" She said super excited while getting off the bed to start jumping around the whole apartment. We are in her apartment, school ended I graduated and here we are now!
Life is finally going uphill for me! Or so I thought
Until a certain day I needed to go and get the groceries.

"WHAT?! HE HAS A BOYFRIEND?!" I yelled loudly. My mom came running out and looked at me. Before looking at the poster.
"Oh you know Tartaglia?" She asked.
"KNOW HIM?! I MADE OUT WITH HIM JUST SOME MONTHS AGO!"  I yelled as if she wasn't standing right in front of me.
"Ok geez don't need to yell.. why not go and catch up with him?" She said trying to sound nice. She has tried to be nice to me a lot the last months tho I will never forgive her..
"Yeah yeah whatever." I said walking past her. I could her the slight sniff sound she made before sobbing.

Tho I don't care. My biggest goal right now is to atleast make him understand that it was a misunderstanding! I need to!

Childe's perspective:
I though coming back to Liyue would  be a good idea. The first day I bump into Zhongli and the second he is sitting in front of me drinking coffee at the café he used to work for.
"Uhm, this is awfully cringe.." I said trying to make conversation.
"Ah, uhm can I explain?" He asked
"You know you have no chance now I have a boy-."
"A boyfriend I know, let me atleast explain please." He said.
"Alright."
"So..."

"Oh... I see, well I'm sorry for assuming." I said knowing that my boyfriend wasn't actually real, and that it was just a distraction to try and make me move on from this beautiful being in front of me..
"Uhm.." it got really silent as I though of when we made out last year. My cheeks quickly got red and I got all flushed. I still love him even after all this time don't I. I do. Uh.. I can't.
"You know Zhongli it was really cool to see you. And I hope that you have a good life.." i said.
"Not even friends?.." he asked
"Oh.. sure." I said knowing damn well we're going to end up in each others pants sooner or later.

We exchanged numbers since I got a new phone and my number was Snezhnayan now. and we both parted ways. I can't believe I met him again. It seems he is jealous about me and (bf/n) it kind off feels good to know I'm not the only one that is still clinging to the little hope. I wonder if he still works as a stripper. Or if his life in that career is done. I hope. I pray and I do everything. I might go later to that stripping hub to see.

"Babe!!" I heard his annoying ass voice as I came home..
As usually I faked a smile and tried my best to look like I cared for him.
"We need to talk.." he said looking all serious out of nowhere.
"Alright." I said sitting on the couch. He sat in front of me on the other couch and looked at me straight in the eyes.
"So what's up?" I asked making some weird ass poses with my fingers.
He sighed before saying: "I want to break up." He said quickly.

"WHAT?!" I said slamming my hands on the table. And quickly getting my ass off the red couch.
"I found someone who actually doesn't act THAT THEY LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO!" He started to raise his voice.
"DO NOT RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME!" I yelled back making him shiver slight. He started crying oval shaped water droplets slowly one by one running down his cheek before falling onto his chest.
He looked at me and slapped me as hard as he could.
"I hate you Ajax.. I fucking hate you." He said before storming off to what I was assuming was to pack his bags.

Why did it kind off feel like a relief that he might be gone soon. Is it true that I really don't like him...no I don't. He was just a distraction after all. If I could go back in time I would. I would've sat down at the locker bench's inside that stupid staffroom in the café and I'd have listened to his explanations. I wouldn't have just ran away like a pussy...
But I did. I was scared, scared that, that was actually real and not a dream. And it was real, from that day on. I started facing my problems Instead of just ignoring them and running away. But I always hided from the biggest problem the one that bothered me the most. The one that I only just found out that I can't live without.

"I'm going back to Snezhnaya." I heard my ex say as he came downstairs with 4 different luggages.
"Please do." I said sarcastically rolling my eyes.
"I can't believe I loved a jerk like you, no wonder that other guy left you to rot. I should've done the same.." he said, that crossed the line I got up from the couch again and pushed him outside the door before slamming it in his face and locking it. tho he wasn't right he wasn't fully wrong either.. Zhongli said they had tried him and Baizhu. But that it didn't work out. I still have some hours before the club opens. Perhaps I should play some VALORANT to get my mind off stuff to forget everything for just some minutes or hours. To just forget my love life that clearly seems to go against me. I just wish I hadn't ran away and just wish I had told him that I'd listen to him even if he was lying. I'd do anything to wake up next to Zhongli instead of alone.

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A/n: next chapter might be the last one and then I'll have the epilogue! I appreciate that you guys have read till now and I apologise if this chapter was somewhat weird because of the amount of time skips tho I hope it was understandable and I hope you enjoyed!