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Zapolynary Palace was a quiet place, the halls often filled with eerie silence, and rarely with soft yet chilling singing. The silence made all agents who wandered the halls wary, standing in wait for someone to either bring them comfort or put them out of their misery. This was, all until that fox came along.
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Childe zipped through the hall away from Dottore’s lab. His maniacal laughter echoing through the palace as bloodied paw prints revealed his path of escape. The raging doctor was following him quickly in pursuit while yelling every curse one could think of. In this new form he was much more agile and a lot faster, meaning he could easily outrun the doctor and lose him through the winding halls of the palace. Still laughing lightly to himself, he tucked himself away into the tight space between a wall and one of the ornate pillars that decorated the palace. He waited there for a minute before the doctor came looking around, quickly continuing on after finding no immediate traces of the miscreant. He didn’t understand why Dottore was so mad at him. All he had done was tear up a few documents and maul a few of scientists that helped in his laboratory, it was all a fair punishment for tricking him. He decided it was a good idea to remain tucked behind the pillar, he had a feeling Someone would come looking for him.
As if the universe had read his mind he heard hushed voices coming from down the hall. A few seconds later he saw the 9th, Pantalone, and the 7th, Sandrone, walk into view. They talked in hushed voices about the “carnage and destruction” a little fox had left. He huffed lightly to himself. “Carnage and destruction”? Really? What he had done was only a reasonable reaction to being unexpectedly turned into a fox! Dottore had told him the potion would make him stronger, giving him access to abilities he couldn’t have gotten before. Technically he was correct about the latter, but that didn’t mean Childe was happy about it. Now that they were closer he could hear their full conversation. Pantalone had his signature smug smile as he spoke to the 7th,
“That eleventh is always causing problems, did Dottore truly think it was a smart idea to give him the small body and agility of a fox?”
Sandrone hummed her agreement at the statement, “The doctor may be smart but he lacks critical thinking sometimes. Either way, Pierro has already found out and he’s sending out agents to track the Eleventh down. Should we join in their search? It’s sure to be exciting to see what mischief our little fox can brew up.”
Pantalone laughter sounded through the room at that, nodding his head in agreement as they continued on their walk.
Childe scoffed and stomped his paws in annoyance. What did they take him for? Nothing but a miscreant out to make trouble? He wasn’t acting any different then how anyone else would if they were in his situation. He made up his mind at this comment. He would henceforth bring as much havoc around the Zapolynary Palace as his little body allowed!
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The incident had occurred 4 days ago. He has been a fox for FOUR DAYS NOW. To be honest, it hasn’t been the worst thing he’s experienced. He’s small and agile meaning he can get around the palace much faster than the agents and harbingers. He’s been able to rummage the kitchen for food, destroy priceless paintings, tapestries, and sculptures, attack unsuspecting agents, and drag blankets under Capitano’s bed to create a den. (He doesn’t quite know why he’s suddenly had the need to create a den somewhere he’ll be safe, but Capitano’s room is the only place he’s ever felt truly safe in the palace, so it would have to do for now.He wished Capitano himself was there but he was still on his mission in Natlan) Most of the other harbingers had been trying to track him down and capture him, to put a stop to his mischief, but he’s been able to get away from them for now. The only harbinger that had managed to come close to catching him was Columbina. Her soft singing had left him relaxed and lured him in close enough for her to grab at him. Had he not been a trained warrior with inhuman reflexes he would have been caught and his reign of terror brought to an unfortunate end. Luckily enough he managed to move quickly away from the grabbing hands and darted off again in a panic, running into multiple agents along his way. All he left with a parting gift of a hospital visit.
Today, he was running around the rafters over the Tsaritsa's throne room. She knew Childe was there, and he knew that she wouldn’t do anything about it. To her, the chaos created by the little fox was amusing and a refreshing change of pace. Currently she was in a meeting with Pierro and he was the one made to report Dottore’s little prank and the rampage through the palace as a result.
“Dottore… he was wrong in his experiments… to… mess with the eleventh. Now we… we can not find the eleventh, although we know he is still in the palace.. he has proven too much for us to handle. You have my deepest apologies, your majesty and I accept any punishment you see fit on behalf of our doctor's foolishness.” Silence filled the room and she thought about his words. It was a thick and nervous silence, enough to put even Childe on edge even though none of her rage would be directed at him. The first sound that filled the room was soft laughter from the throne. The surprise Pierro held was practically radiating like a blazing fire, Childe had to hold back a snort at him. Pierro has been around the Tsaritsa for far longer than Childe has, centuries longer even. Yet, the minute something breaks out of his control, especially regarding the eleventh, he turns into a nervous puddle at her feet. The Tsaritsa rose from her throne and walked towards the door to her own personal chambers, leaving Pierro alone with no response besides her amusement. His body visibly relaxed as he released a sigh of relief and left the throne room. Now Childe was left all alone with no entertainment. He refused to admit it, but after four days of destroying everything he could, he was bored. He didn’t mean for it to go on for this long. He expected a group of highly intelligent and trained harbingers to be able to catch him. But apparently they couldn’t. He was the eleventh, the youngest, newest, and least experienced among their ranks, and not to mention, HE WAS A FUCKING FOX… and they still couldn’t catch him or atleast put a stop to his chaos. At this point, he was bored and annoyed with them. Although being a fox wasn’t that bad, he still wanted to be a human again. He wanted to walk around without being hunted down by every agent in the palace, he wanted to eat normal meals instead of raw meats, and most of all, he wanted Capitano back. His boyfriend had been gone on his mission for months now, and before that, Childe had to go on vacation to Fontaine to buy a special birthday gift for Teucer. They hadn’t seen each other in months, he was sure that Capitano had been sending him letters constantly(ever since Capitano had been told about Childe being found nearly dead in one of Snezhnaya’s forests after the events in Fontaine, he would send him letters twice a week to check in on him), and now since he was a fox, he couldn’t read or respond to them.
In short, everything was wrong and Childe hated it.
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12 days. For 12 days he has been a fox.
He turned himself in to the harbingers on day 7 after spending three days moping around in his den underneath Capitano’s bed. They scolded him then promptly handed him over to Dottore so he could be turned back. Apparently, Dottore had been ordered to work on a cure while the others hunted him down, and he had made what he was sure would be a cure. Unfortunately for everyone, it did not turn him back, instead it had caused him to grow in size. While he had previously been the size of a regular fox, now he was the size of a husky. This of course, made everyone more annoyed, including their little fox, who proceeded to tear apart one of Dottore’s weaker clones as retaliation(he was promptly put in time out). Dottore quickly began to rework his supposed cure.
After Dottore’s first failed cure, everything was terrible. Now he was too big to fit underneath Capitano’s bed and into his den. He couldn’t sleep in his den. This was the worst feeling he’s ever experienced. He had ended up moping about Capitano’s room for the next five days, just sulking and waiting for Dottore to get his ass together and fix this mess.
he had been doing his usual sulking when he heard an unnatural amount of commotion outside. It sounded like Pierro talking hurriedly to someone.
“—-octor’s working on a cure for him right now. It’s almost finished and he’s not in any danger. Dottore just needs some more time.” Pierro’s voice grew louder as he and his mysterious companion approached the room. A short huff was all Pierro was given in response as the door opened and Childe shot up, growling at the people trying to invade his territory(wait, why was he territorial about a room that didn’t even belong to him?). Pierro wasn’t the one to enter, instead it was Capitano entering the room. Childe stopped growling almost immediately and opted to run and jump at the Captain, landing in the man's arms as he let out a surprised grunt. Childe’s tail was wagging violently as the fox licked all over Capitano’s helmet and tried to cuddle up against his neck. Capitano was met with the sight of his room in a mess. Papers were strewn across the floor, his bed was completely devoid of blankets (he swore he could see one under the bed), and ginger fur littered his unmade bed which had obviously been the foxes sleeping spot. Pierro had left them alone to figure everything out between the two of them as Capitano walked further into the room and sat on the edge of the bed.
”I heard you’ve been causing quite the chaos here in the palace while I was gone. I hope you weren’t too bored being stuck as a fox my dear.” Capitano breathed out as he scratched behind the ears of the little fox in his arms. Childe didn’t respond, instead leaning further into his boyfriend and purring loudly. This would have to do for now, they could clean everything up later, they could deal with cure later, but for now he would remain here, finally settling down in the arms of his beloved.