i know it's been a while but i still think of you / remember all the things we said all the promises

[monoceroscaeli]

[The last thing he remembers is falling asleep next to Aether in their shared bed in the apartment in Reverein, getting comfortable as he always had in the last few months or so since he'd moved in. He was looking forward to the next day's adventures, trying to provoke Aether into sparring with him, taking his little dragon baby for the weekend so Venti could go out drinking, and all in all enjoying himself.

When he wakes, he finds himself in a warm bed- alone.

At first, he thinks he's dreaming, looking around the room to the familiarity of his bedroom back in Snezhnaya, blinking away sleep. Is he...really home? It's been so long, it feels like it's not real, as if Reverein was reality and this was just a mirage. His body doesn't feel as if he's been lying in bed for ten months, and if anything he feels refreshed, as if he'd gotten a great night's sleep. Tartaglia slips out of bed, throwing a blanket over his shoulders from the chill that's seeped into the house from the snowy weather outside, his body not quite remembering the cold. And yet, at the same time, it's familiar, like an old friend he hasn't greeted in some time, making his way downstairs. He finds the fireplace lit to help keep the house warm, sunlight beginning to shine in from the windows, a new day upon him. Everything is just as it was when he'd fallen asleep, his siblings in their own beds still, his mother in the kitchen tending to what he assumes is the preparations of breakfast for the family. That means he's got to get ready too, because duty calls- and the work of a Harbinger is never over and he's sure he has to be at Zapolyarny Palace to report for duty.

But the gap between when he'd fallen asleep to when he'd woken up throws him off, unsure now of when he's supposed to show up, as the trek there would take a few days. Best to show up anyway, so Tartaglia takes the morning to spend with his family before he heads out into the snowy landscape, wondering if he'll still wake up suddenly back in Reverein next to Aether.

It's a delight to see his family again, but at the same time, there's a part of him that wishes as he shuffles through the snow that he'll suddenly wake up next to Aether. But that reality never comes, and his next assignment is to do a little set up in Sumeru for their new bank before he heads to Fontaine. It seems that he's really returned home, though Childe is bewildered that he's managed to retain his memories from that other world. He was sure he'd forget like the first time it happened, playing through memories as he travels, until finally arriving in Sumeru City.

The city is live and bustling as he imagined it would be, and after taking care of a few matters with the Northland Bank, it's time for him to move on. But traveling to his next destination means taking the long route around through the desert, so a commission is sent to the Adventurer's Guild to find a guide through the desert. The appointed place made to the Guild is to have the commissioned meet their client in the newly opened Northland Bank, where Childe waits for someone to take it up to lead him through the desert to Fontaine.

Little does he know that he knows the one who will take the commission- rather intimately.]