Vixere

Vixere
Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/28094556.
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/M
Fandom: 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game)
Relationship: Tartaglia | Childe/Ying | Lumine (Genshin Impact), Tartaglia | Childe &
Ying | Lumine (Genshin Impact)
Character: Paimon (Genshin Impact), Ying | Lumine (Genshin Impact), Tartaglia |
Childe (Genshin Impact), Teucer (Genshin Impact), Fatui Members
(Genshin Impact), Xiangling (Genshin Impact), Zhongli (Genshin
Impact), Diluc (Genshin Impact)
Additional Tags: Attempt at Humor, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Compliant,
No Smut, Headcanon, Friends to Enemies to Lovers, Lots of romantic
tension, Mild Swearing, So much denial, So much obliviousness,
insufferable idiots in love, Romantic Tension, started before 1.4 update
Series: Part 1 of Ad Astra
Stats: Published: 2020-12-15 Completed: 2021-05-13 Chapters: 35/35 Words:
348648
Vixere
by mitsuboo
Summary
Every constellation in the sky tells a story of someone's future. When one shares a star with
another, their paths intertwine forevermore. There is no avoiding loving this person. They
are soul mates, bound by destiny.
In which the biggest threat to the Fatui happens to be Childe’s soulmate, and he does
everything in his power to prevent the inevitable relationship between them.
Notes
See the end of the work for notes
Viatrix and Monoceros Caeli
Chapter Notes
hello! This fic is in the process of being re-edited because I feel like my writing has
gotten better since creating this <3
Nothing in the plot will change, just some prose.
Thank you for giving Vixere a chance!
See the end of the chapter for more notes
La Signora,
You have taken something from my friend and hurt the pride of Mondstadt. Prepare to face your
death, I do not forgive easily. This is war, La Signora, and nothing will stop the eternal meteor of
justice.
Watch your back.
- Lumine
P.S. you’re a bitch
“Well, she’s not wrong.”
“That is not why I showed you the letter, Tartaglia.” La Signora had nails like a cat and a smile
like a snake. She was as cold as Snezhnaya’s highest mountain and smelled faintly of overbearing
perfume. Hissing, she snatched the parchment out of Childe’s hands, "Are you really that dumb?"
Not particularly, and the question was rhetorical anyhow. If he knew anything, he knew that La
Signora was a bitch - in his opinion, at least. She did not visit his office in order to share a
splendidly hilarious letter, he was aware of that, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy it. An insult
to La Signora was a compliment to him, something that brought out the sun behind the clouds and
brightened his rainy, boring days. The hatred burning behind her scowl was merely a warm
campfire in his heart of hearts.
“Yes, yes, I know,” he leaned on his desk and put a gloved hand to his chest, “but I do appreciate
the laugh.”
The 8th Harbinger had blessed the 11th with a visit, something neither of them enjoyed. The
Tsaritsa, in her infinite kindness, insisted that La Signora contact Tartaglia and warn him of the
possible wrench in the upcoming plans. The wrench in the form of a tiny girl who looked as if she
could not even lift her sword. Thus, La Signora’s irritation level was high, and her patience for
Childe’s mask of politeness rather low.
“I’m happy to have amused you so.” With a roll of her eyes and a sigh, she rubbed the bridge of
her nose, “The traveler will most likely come here next in search of the gnosis.”
“Yes, I know.”
Sure he did. She leveled her gaze with his and continued to ignore the quip, “She was a weakling,
but with her vendetta against me,” the letter crumpled in her fist, “she might be a challenge to your
presence here.”
If he did not have a presence in the first place, then this conversation would not need to happen.
Tartaglia had been warned at least 37 times about the dangers of staying in the open in the way he
did. No heeding to such warnings had ever been made by him, providing a true testament to the
codename ‘Childe’ - he was as arrogant as one.
The arrogance returned in the form of a furrow-browed stare and pursed lips. He looked at her as
if she’d told him she collected toenails and hilichurl spit for her breakfast. “What are you saying,
Signora? Hm?”
The ‘hm’, spoken so innocently with the tilt of his head and a tight smile, said all she needed to
know. His skin wasn’t easy to dig under, but she knew all the right spots. “You know what I’m
saying.”
“I really don’t.”
His chuckle was easy, his voice breathy. He furrowed his brows together and stared, waiting for
an answer that would not come. La Signora was pushing his buttons on purpose. Probably for
laughing at the ‘P.S. you’re a bitch’ part of her letter. But how could he not?
Lumine, the mysterious traveler who solved all of Mondstadt’s problems, was sending
threatening letters to one of the Harbingers. She used standard mailing and couriers, which had to
be the most asinine part of it all. La Signora received the letter from a very confused Fatui recruit -
it was a mystery how the courier found her - while stationed in her latest location, and nearly
ripped it up - if not for the command from the Tsaritsa to inform Tartaglia of the storm arriving. La
Signora argued that the weak traveler was not quite a storm, but more of a soft morning snow,
harmless and fun to play with.
Yet, orders were orders. She told Tartaglia of the traveler’s next move, and her business was
finally done in this ostentatious bank of his. “You know what I mean,” a tight-lipped smile and a
sparkle of mischief in her eyes. She put a hand on her hip and turned towards the door, “Be careful,
won’t you?”
As if she truly cared whether Tartaglia was careful or not. He could go jump off the highest
mountain in Liyue and she’d open a bottle of wine to celebrate.
Childe - Tartaglia - had to simply remind himself of the latest command from the Tsaritsa herself.
‘Please try to not kill each other’, and her voice was so soft and her eyes so warm, how could he
disobey? He could not kill La Signora, not then.
“Oh, and,” he nearly flinched in annoyance as she whipped around to face him with the most
demure of smiles possible, “you should keep a better eye on your staff. I see they’ve been slacking
off lately.”
“Great,” another breathy chuckle meant to disguise his annoyance, “I’ll talk to them.”
“See that you do that.”
The sound of her heels on the marble flooring was near maddening. He followed her out of the
office, “Pleasure, as always, Signora.”
It was not. She deigned to acknowledge him with a haughty huff, crossing her arms and allowing
her guards to lead her down the staircase. They wouldn’t be seen on the Liyue streets as she left,
going to wherever she was stationed nearby. La Signora did not tell him, and he found that he truly
didn’t care.
Uncrossing his arms with a sigh, Childe closed the double doors behind him. He couldn’t stand
another minute in that room, with her perfume permeating the air and threatening to choke him
where he stood. There was not ever a time when La Signora did not make him angry in some way.
He walked down the stairs and thought of her words, the letter, and the traveler.
For someone described as so positively weak, this Lumine seemed to have confidence in her
abilities to carry out her vengeance. It was funny, in a way, and almost refreshing. Someone needed
to threaten Signora with goofy letters every once in a while - the Tsaritsa stopped him from doing
so after the 15th letter goading Signora to fight him to the death.
The bank was empty of customers due to the arrival of the 8th Harbinger. He thought he caught
Ekaterina watching La Signora’s exit with admiring eyes and parted lips. If only she knew the
personality underneath the demure facade, she’d never look at her that way again. Sliding up to her
desk, he leaned on the counter and rested his chin in his palm. Casual, laid-back, and not at all
burning with fiery hatred.
One aspect Childe appreciated about the receptionist was her bold nature. He supposed that to
work in customer service one must be that way naturally. Ekaterina didn’t hesitate to have rowdy
citizens kicked out, or to ever look him in the eye. Now, her gaze slid away from where La Signora
had stood, leveling him with the formal pleasantries she always held, “Master Childe?”
To the point, like the end of a blade. One could not hesitate in battle. “That woman tells me that
she’s noticed some staff slacking off.”
A subordinate would not dare to refer to a Harbinger as ‘that woman’, the banter between the
higher ups always seemed to take the recruits by surprise. She put a hand to her chest and sighed,
cheeks still pink with admiration, “I’m afraid I don’t know. She didn’t speak to me.”
“But have you noticed anything?” He waved a casual hand, “You’re around everybody else far
more than I.”
She thought for a moment with a thin finger to her chin, eyes turned upward. The guards at the
front of the bank opened the doors to allow citizens back inside for their various loans and
accounts, now that the coast was clear of icy women wearing very little clothing. “You know, I
have noticed some of the other receptionists tittering about some old woman that can read the stars
and tell fortunes, it’s even spread to the guards,” she eyed a muscled man besides the door, “but I
believe it’s just simple office gossip.”
Simple office gossip, as if they were a simple bank in the middle of a simple town. Right. He
smiled, “La Signora’s probably just offended that they’re not cowering in fear like her own staff.”
“Right, as always, Master Childe.”
Right, as always. He liked that. “Keep an eye on them for me, okay? If it starts interfering with
things then don’t hesitate to let me know. This week is going to be busy with the Rite of
Descension coming up.”
And he would be busy with tracking down this ‘Lumine’ character, the honorary Knight of
Favonius. He couldn’t imagine what could be sillier than the title of ‘honorary knight’, as if she
simply wasn’t good enough to be a real knight.
Rumors were like feathers on the wind, so easily plucked out and kept to himself. He was a
master at chasing them down and finding the truth behind each one, but this Lumine was a master
at staying on the down-low. She’d spoken to Fatui agents in Mondstadt, and it was reported to
Childe that she was looking for a missing person, but would not say who. It was enough, though,
enough for him to have something over her head.
And she, apparently, was weak. She was held down by two Fatui agents while La Signora
stabbed the anemo Archon, and she could do nothing about it. Suffice to say, Childe was not
impressed, and not expecting very much at all.
But her threatening letter was good. He’d have to remember that, maybe frame it and put it up on
his wall like a motivational poster. ‘Eternal meteor of justice’ had a ring to it that brought a smile
to his face.
Whoever this traveler was, she had taste, and style, even if weak. He couldn’t wait to meet her.
“And,” Ekaterina interrupted his thoughts, “a few of them have been late to work because they go
ask her about the weather, and we had one guy quit yesterday because his future was supposedly
anywhere else but here. Oh, and another receptionist has claimed at least three of our customers are
her true love because that star reader said something about him having brown eyes.”
Right. Brown eyes and weather and quitting on the spot, he’d heard something about that for the
few seconds he paid attention to work earlier. Sighing, he pushed away from the counter and shook
his head, “I guess I have no choice but to talk to this lady, she’s causing more trouble than I
thought.”
“Be careful, Master Childe,” the receptionist covered a subtle smile, “she might tell your future
too, and charge you 3,000 mora per minute.”
He sighed. La Signora was most likely writing the Tsaritsa a letter at this very moment,
highlighting his absolute failings as a Harbinger/bank manager and the wildness of his staff. He
could not bear the feeling that thought gave him. It would be worth 3,000 mora a minute to get that
woman off his back about how he ran his business.
“I’ll be back,” he smiled, “I’m just gonna have a little talk with her. Probably nothing will come
of it.”
How little he knew.
“Okay, so, tomorrow is the festival, Rite of Descension thing, and we talk to Rex Lapis. Then we
head straight back to Mondstadt.”
“Right! Well… not the Mondstadt part,” Paimon remained unusually critical this evening, hands
on her hips and pout on her lips, “Paimon thinks we should stay in Liyue until this whole thing is
figured out!”
Lumine grimaced, “What if we just say hi, and then warn him, and take our leave? He’s an
Archon, I’m sure he can defend himself.” Venti had been low on power anyhow, surely a powerful
Archon could defend himself against another Harbinger. Lumine had much better things to do than
play bodyguard for some rock-god.
Truth be told, Lumine’s heart was elsewhere. She was smitten. She was head over heels. She
could not get him off her mind. She was in love. And she could not bear to be away from him any
longer.
Huffman.
A Knight of Favonius. With his cloud-like hair and his steady eyes. With his soft voice and gentle
hands. With his sense of justice and duty. With the way his eyes glazed over her as if she was not
even there.
Paimon could see right through her, “Lumine just wants to go see that knight again, right?”
“What? No. Never.”
Reality came in the form of a swift kick in the head from a floating elf. Lumine bent over and
covered her hair with both hands, while Paimon landed on her back and pummeled her skin with
tiny fists, “Paimon thinks you’re being a slacker! Huffman doesn’t even know you exist!”
A girl could dream, and she could do so without a floating creature pulling at her hair and
complaining about her utter lack of motivation for the quest she willingly undertook. But Lumine
had not known that Liyue harbor was so far away, and she did not know she would dream of the
knight with every passing day of travel.
She shook the elf/fairy/emergency food off her back, nearly throwing her at a nearby tree in an
attempt to release her hair from the tiny fingers of death. Paimon had a grip like a baby, she never
let go. Huffing as her guide regained her flight and shot into a wide arch above her, Lumine shook
a fist, “You know I’m kidding!”
“Paimon can’t tell!” she whizzed through the air in a panic before catching herself against some
invisible current, “It’s not part of Paimon’s paimonial programming!”
Paimonial programming. Paimonial needs. Archon help Lumine's levels of patience. “What the
hell does that even mean?”
In the silhouette of the moon above, the fairy put her hands to her hips and huffed. Slowly,
hesitantly, she floated down to Lumine’s level with the grumpiest of frowns on her face. She put
her hands out, squishing her cheeks between her palms and glaring, “Lumine is going to Liyue.”
“We’re only a mile away, of course I’m goin-”
“Lumine is going to get that plain-jane, boring-ass, knight out of her mind!”
“...Did you just say ass? I’ve never heard you swear befor-”
“Lumine is going to protect Rex Lapis!”
Right. Right, Rex Lapis. Not a kind hearted knight patrolling the streets of the windy city. Rex
Lapis, and the gnosis. And vengeance, most importantly.
Paimon released her cheeks and floated away. Sighing, Lumine followed the fairy’s path in the
darkness of the night. The moon in Liyue seemed to be brighter, more willing to shine down on the
citizens below. In the distance, nestled between a river and a mountain, was the golden glow of the
city of mora and contracts.
It was exciting, almost, to have something to take her mind off Aether. If she could not help her
brother, helping her friends was the second best choice. While she did not know this Archon, he
was in danger, and he needed her nonetheless. He’d have to accept her help whether he liked it or
not.
“I’ll try to focus,” she felt like Venti, sweet Venti who was far too lazy for his own good, “you’re
right, this is important. I can’t let that thing with La Signora happen again.”
Paimon floated stiffly for a moment. Her hands fiddled with her dress anxiously, while she stared
ahead of herself at the golden city on the mountain. It was so close, but the Rite of Descension
would not happen for another day yet, Lumine was never quite in a hurry. “Did Lumine send that
letter?”
“Oh, yeah I did.”

“W-What?” Paimon was on her in an instant, hands squishing her cheeks and eyes wide with
disbelief once more, “Paimon thought you burned that!”
A bitter laugh muffled by the grip of her guide's hands. She was starting to get a headache from
Paimon's rough touches and hair pulling, but the thought of her masterpiece of a letter sat in her
chest gleefully, “She needed to be warned.”
“No she didn’t! Lumine could have just kept those feelings to herself!”
She closed her eyes and sighed, “She stabbed Venti, thus I will stab her.”
Returned the hair pulling and the tiny fists against her back - the screaming and insults that made
Lumine imagine what having a little sister would be like. She had always been the youngest of
two, the one most doted on, the one who would be lecturing Aether when he made asinine
decisions like sending a threatening letter to an attempted murderer. Without him, the chaos and
mischief was left up to her.
He was gone now. Not forever, of course, nothing was infinite. Even stars burst every once in a
while.
“We’re going to be late if you keep assaulting me,” Calmly, Lumine reached over her shoulders
and pried Paimon from her hair, holding her above her head like a rabid child, “It’ll be fine. I mean
what I said about the eternal meteor of justice.”
She kicked the air wildly, “That’s so stupid! Paimon told you to not put that!”
It wasn’t stupid, it was poetic. She was like a meteor, appearing out of the dark velvet of the night
and crashing down in her chaotic way - she at least imagined herself that way, the reality was most
likely far different. “I think it really made a statement, don’t you?”
“A statement of Lumine’s stupidity!”
A statement nonetheless. “She’s not so scary.”
“She’s terrifying! She froze Paimon!”

That she did. Perhaps she was a bit scary, but Aether would never let himself think of such things,
and neither should she. Huffing, she pushed past her guide and continued down the path, “There
are 11 of them, right? It might not even be her that we meet this time.”
“Oooh," her eyes widened, "Lumine is right… It might be someone scarier!”
It might. “I can handle it.”
“Oh, you’ll send them another goofy letter?”
Precisely. “Was it really that goofy?”
She put her hands on her hips and sent the traveler the flattest look she could muster, “Lumine
could do comedy skits at the Angel’s Share.”
The elf spoke as if that was a bad gig. Diluc paid well, the tavern was warm, and the drink was
good - even if Diluc would not let her have any, she found her secret ways to sneak a sip. Sighing,
she continued on towards the golden city, “Well, it’s already sent, no going back on that.”
“Just don’t do it again!”
There could be no promises made there. Quiet, Lumine kept on, with Paimon trailing behind her
head in her questioning way. The river ahead of the path glowed blue and black against the moon
and stars above - it was beautiful, but it was not Mondstadt.
At this time of the night, when Lumine would usually be asleep, the Liyue harbor was alive with
activity. Carried by the wind were the scents of smoked meats and spices, a temptation for anyone
approaching from the wilderness. Lumine found her stomach grumbling as the gates drew closer,
and larger, and taller.
A bridge stretched out across the river. Floating lanterns hung from poles, illuminating the people
traveling to and fro. It had to be close to midnight, yet the harbor city was as alive as Mondstadt
during lunchtime. It was busy with constant bustle. She had not even taken a step onto the bridge
yet, and she already felt as if nobody could ever notice a soul such as her in this crowd.
Except for the frail old woman sitting in the grass, smiling right through her.
Lumine’s wandering gaze met her’s, and she froze upon contact. A guard stared into the distance
from his post at the bridge, and this old woman seemed to not exist to anyone but Lumine in that
moment. The grass was wet with midnight dew and humidity from the river, she could not imagine
sitting on the ground like that could be comfortable.
Paimon floated at her waist and gripped her hand. Lumine ignored the fairy hiding behind her
back and took a step towards the figure on the ground, “Excuse me, are you okay?”
The smile only grew. Creepy. A shudder went down her spine at the sight. “Yes, my dear. Are
you?”
“I’m... “ a bit warm, it shouldn’t be warm this late at night, it should be windy and skin raising,
“I’m fine. Thank you.”
The old woman giggled and fiddled with the sleeves of her qipao, “How polite. The stars told me
that you were coming, my dear.”
The stars. The stars told her that she was coming. Grimacing, Lumine stepped closer and
whispered, “Are you the geo Archon?”
“Not in the least. Sorry.”
And Lumine had almost felt relief at her job being so damn easy. Of course she wasn’t the geo
Archon, it wasn’t the Rite of Descension quite yet. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair and
ignored the curious looks of the guards at the bridge, “Okay, well I should go-”
“Would you like to know what your stars say?"
Lumine stiffened, “I don’t have any mora on me.”

“I’ll give you a discount.”
“Really,” she waved a hand, “I have zero, absolutely none. No amount of discounts could help
me.”
The woman’s smile grew larger, “We can start a tab. Sit.”
“I’m really oka-”
“Sit.”
She was like a grandmother commanding a petulant child. Lumine found herself lowering to the
wet grass and folding her legs over each other. Paimon zipped around her head and landed into her
lap, pulling Lumine’s arms around her waist to hug her like a stuffed doll.
The guard at the front of the bridge nearby watched with suspicious eyes, “She’s a con artist, girl.
You better get out of here.”
Of course she was, what else could she possibly be? Lumine would just simply avoid her tab like
a normal person. “Shut up,” the old woman snapped at the guard, “or I’ll tell your mother about
your gambling problem.”
He shut his mouth rather quickly, Lumine could respect that. And con artist or not, this woman
could be a source of information. Ignoring the dew gathering around her legs, and holding Paimon
close, she ignored the guard’s cynicism and leaned in, “Okay so, I’ve started my tab. What do my
stars say?"
Caught like a fish on a hook. The woman offered an enigmatic pause - a held breath, and a sparkle
in her eye. Paimon groaned in anxiety and covered her face at the deafening silence.
“Do you know of constellations, traveler?”
Lumine half expected her to say something about the stars needing money or food. Taken aback,
she sat up straight, “You mean the shapes made from star patterns?”
“Yes, and… no,” she looked at the velvet backdrop above, “some in this world are blessed with
their own constellations. I have recently seen yours light up the sky at night.”
Her constellation. Her little dipper, as some worlds named the shapes in the sky. She squinted and
leaned back to look at the stars, “Where is it?”
“You can’t read the sky, dear, you can’t see it.”
Of course she couldn't. A total con artist. Snorting, Lumine sighed and returned her gaze, “Okay,
so you saw my constellation. What’s it say?”
“Paimon doesn’t wanna know,” she wiggled in her lap, “this is creepy, stars can’t talk!”
The old woman grinned widely, “No, they’re quite the conversationalists, in fact! I see your
constellation, my girl,” her eyes caught Lumine in place, gluing her to the ground, “And yours
shares the sky with another.”
Aether. Of course it was Aether, who else would she share a sky with? Despite the healthy
amount of skepticism, she found her heart skipping and closing up her throat as if she'd swallowed
a rock. She gripped Paimon tighter against her chest and leaned in, enraptured, “Tell me, where is
he?”
“Here. In Liyue, my dear,” another childish giggle, “your starmate, or as other cultures call it,
soulmate.”
A pregnant pause.
“What?”
They were not on the same page. Lumine’s cheeks burned hot with fire, as if Amber had shot her
with an arrow and let her be eaten alive by flames. Paimon snickered in her lap, ignored as Lumine
covered her face and groaned. Her heart dropped down to her stomach and nauseated her with the
sheer sickness of disappointment. Not Aether, obviously not Aether. She had allowed herself to get
her hopes high again, crashing them down at speeds never before seen.
“Your soulmate,” the fortune teller went on with a soothing voice, “your constellation is close to
his, you share many stars with each other. Do you know what that means?”
Annoyed, she lifted her head from her hands, “That you don’t know where my brother is?”
“Right! And, no as well. It means that you’re stuck with this person forever.”
“And…” she could hardly stand to humor the woman any longer, “so, what does that even mean?
The stars should know two things, though, and one is that I am loyally dedicated to Huffman-”
“Who doesn’t even know you exist.”
“Yes, Paimon, but not for long. Secondly, I am not looking for a soulmate, or uh s-starmate, right
now,” she took a steadying breath, closing her eyes to the smile of the fortune teller, “I’m looking
for my brother.”
“Well... I don’t know where he is.”
She did not sound at all ashamed. Most people had the courtesy to sound at least a little sorry for
her. Sighing, Lumine stood from the grass and wiped the dew from her dress, “Then I’m sorry, but
you really don’t have much to tell me.”
“You…” she seemed to have never been brushed off so quickly before, “You don’t want to know
about the person the literal universe has destined you to be with?”
Those buzzwords were simply meant to catch her attention. Lumine huffed and turned away, “I’m
kind of busy, and I don’t have any mora anyway.”
“Girl, really, I can see your futur-”
“It’s fine,” Lumine put up a hand and offered a bitter smile, “I don’t really have time to get
conned again-”
Paimon grumbled, “For the fourth time in a row.”
“Right, for the fourth time in a row.”
The woman panicked. She attempted to push herself up off the ground, her old bones preventing
her from standing before the traveler passed by the bridge guards. Lumine raised a hand as she
retreated, “Sorry, I really don’t have any mora.”
“I-It’s only 3,000 a minute!”
Paimon whipped around mid-air, hands on her hips and lips turned into a scowl, “That’s a terrible
deal! Go con someone else!”
Nobody in Liyue was dumb enough to take her up on it any longer. She was far too old for the
locals to believe, and far too expensive for their stingy tastes. Travelers and tourists were her main
source of income as of late. She tsked, “Kids these days. Nobody believes in stars anymore,” she
sighed and glanced longingly at the mora pouch on her hip, “At least those Fatui folk still come by.
And…”
And there, walking up the hill of the bridge towards her, came the biggest Fatui moneybag in
Liyue.
Perhaps she was sort of a con artist, in some way. Old women had to do what they needed to get
by these days, in this economy. It did not mean she lied, the stars told her their stories as they
always had, she simply had to pick her targets wisely.
She knew his name, Childe, Tartaglia, and a blurry truth hidden behind the other two names. The
stars were not always so clear, especially about a man like this. They preferred the good-hearted to
speak of, negativity was so demotivating, and they would not shine nearly as bright if they told her
stories of men like this. She watched as he passed the golden eyed girl, not even sparing her a
glance.
If only they knew. Kids these days.

“Master Childe,” she spread her arms in greeting as he approached, “your subordinates have been
very generous to me lately, I’m happy to see you.”
The golden eyed girl was gone. Lumine was her name, as the whispers on the wind told her. She
did not even notice destiny passing her by as she retreated into the city. Childe took no notice
either, his eyes only for the nameless fortune teller selling pretty half-truths on the side of the road.
He looked nice, almost gentle. If she were a young girl who did not see the past the fortress of
proprietary around him at all times, she might be charmed. “Granny, it’s been a while.”
“It’s been never, technically,” she put up a wrinkled finger in correction, “you’ve never come to
see me, Master Childe. But I do know you."
His smile grew. He tilted his head, staring, “Oh?”
“Your constellation, boy. I know your constellation! And…” a mischievous chuckle, “well, I
know your staff at the bank.”
“You’ve been sucking them dry, granny. Don’t you know it’s mean to play with people’s hearts?”
The audacity of this boy. Granny never lied, she did know his constellation and what it meant. His
was about as bright as the traveler's, nearly blinding her every time she looked. Smiling at him as if
he were a newborn baby, she stepped closer, “It’s their choice if they want to give me mora.”
His smile fell into a blank stare, “Your predictions are distracting them. I’m going to have to ask
you to stop.”
She froze. She knew this day would come, but not now, not when she still had a Mahjong match
to bet on tomorrow.
“O-Oh?”
His smile returned, but it was the opposite of comforting. “Yep, hopefully they’ll stop going on
about soulmates and stars soon.”
The Fatui thought themselves hardened, unmanipulated by the clever locals of Liyue. Childe
knew better than to underestimate the human nature of the icy Snezhnayans, they wanted love and
entertainment and fulfillment as much as any other citizen of Liyue. And being foreign, they were
not so against the mechanisms of this fortune telling conwoman. To his staff, she was interesting,
she could never lie, and she told them stories of the stars.
As their boss, it was his duty to put an end to the manipulation.
“Well," she sighed in defeat, "As a parting gift, would you like me to look into your future? I
know you have a constellation brighter than most.”
He thought of the staff at the Northland bank, with their dreamy eyes and their office gossip. He
could get his fortune and prove it entirely wrong, which would dispel the excitement of the Fatui
agents almost immediately. If only she did not look at him in that infuriatingly condescending way,
like a challenge.
He’ll bite. She caught him, he’d allow it.
“Sure, granny. How does it work?”
Just like Lumine, he did not believe her. He was above the magic and storytelling of an old
woman from Liyue, and she could not blame him for that. Sneznayah was not a land of ancestors
and futures, it was a land of snow and day-to-day survival. But they had stars, a sky clearer than
anywhere else in Teyvat. And constellation fortune telling was a practice dating back to the olden
days, even originating somehwere in Sneznayah itself. A Harbinger had to appreciate tradition and
culture of the Tsaritsa and homeland, did he not?
Closing her eyes, she offered her hand to him, “Not everyone has a constellation, but every
constellation has shared stars. I can follow the path of your stars and get a hint as to where your
future leads,” she opened one eye to appraise his expression, “usually, this is for soul mates and all,
but I assume you’re not much into those things, right?”
He smiled secretively. This man always had something processing behind his eyes, and was not
often easy to read. He raised one brow and sighed with the smile still lingering, “Just tell me…”
what was something he could control with very little effort on his part? It was the Rite of
Descension tomorrow, Liyue harbor would be filled with new people, and possibly the traveler
herself, “Tell me if I’ll make any new friends tomorrow.”
An odd request, but one she could acquiesce. With the expanse of night behind her eyelids, she
focused on the shape his stars created. His hand was cold in hers, and she could feel his eyes
analyzing her every move.
A pause. The sound of the city behind them bustled, drowned out by her own heartbeat in her
ears. His stars were bright, burning, and mingling so steadily with another constellation that she
could hardly make out the shape.
What did this man expect? Something incredibly vague that could be changed in half a second?
She may have a habit of overcharging mora, but she was not a liar. And if there truly was a
prediction for this man, it would happen one way or another. She paused, and bit her lip, tracing
another line on his palm as she worked out the connection between stars.
The answer came to her like an arrow in the back.
“Tomorrow, you will meet your soulmate.”
Childe stared with barely concealed amusement. She had said those words a thousand times in her
lifetime, but never before had she been so nervous. “I thought we weren’t doing the soulmate
stuff.”
A hesitant shrug, “I’m just telling you what I see. Her constellation is so intertwined with yours
that I can hardly see anything else.”
He paused for a moment before finding his words, “Don’t sweat it, granny. What next, we have
10 kids and live happily ever after?”
He was mocking her. She took a deep breath to steady her shaken nerves and closed her eyes once
more. Mentally, she followed the intertwined path of stars down, digging into each and every one
that would reveal itself. A golden house, a mission, quaint moments between something bigger
than either of them. Anxiety began to culminate in her stomach as she reached the end of their
combined paths.
“You cannot escape this girl, you cannot escape the future she’s building, Master Childe. I-I’m,”
her eyes flew open in fear to watch his face for any sign of violence, “I’m sorry.”
It is not the world of Fatui and cryo.
She would just keep that little tidbit to herself, to save her own windpipe from being crushed by
Tartaglia’s rage. “And it’s not 10 kids,” she faked a smile, “only nine, my apologies.”
“Darn,” he pulled his hand away and snapped his fingers, “I really prefer even numbers.”
“S-Sorry, Master Childe…”
He still did not take her seriously, but she knew how serious this matter was. The path his stars
led down connected with the golden eyed girl’s, Lumine’s, in a battle that would end the incoming
storm from the North. It was not what the Harbinger wanted to hear, she knew. She had simply not
expected his future to be so bright, so full of love and adventure, so opposite of everything she
would assume about this man.
Ignorance is bliss, as they say. What he didn’t know won’t hurt him, and even without her fortune
telling, destiny would still fall into place in it’s perfect way.
Hesitant, she watched as he pulled a pouch of mora from his pocket, and deposited it into her
willing hands. His smile was easy, but it did not dare to reach his eyes. His mind was elsewhere,
that much was obvious, but she could hardly tell where exactly. “How am I going to meet this
girl?”
There was an easy answer to a multifaceted question, “You really don’t believe me, do you?”
“I’m not sure,” he shrugged without losing his easy composure, “But if it doesn’t come true, then
my subordinates might finally be focused. Really, one of the bank guards can’t function without
knowing his future for the day.”
She smiled bitterly, “Yes, he’s paid for quite a few of my meals. But it’s a bit insulting that you
don’t believe me.”
“Oh, sorry about that.” He was so nonchalant, so easy going. But so utterly dangerous under that
layer of charm. “So how do I meet her?”
It was blurry, but it was there. Reading his and Lumine’s constellations became easier by the
minute, with the pattern revealing itself before her mind. She shut her eyes tightly once more and
gripped the pouch of mora to her chest, “She’s got golden hair, and golden eyes. You’ll save her
life, somehow.”
Somehow. It was just specific enough for him to be able to avoid. Don’t speak to any blondes,
don’t save any lives, he did that nearly every day. “Thanks granny. Remember our deal, okay?”
“Right,” relief flooded her system as she let the stars disappear from her mind, “No more business
with the Fatui.”
The sound of the city came back, no longer dimmed by her predictions. The bridge had cleared
out a bit, but the streets remained bustling with activity. Childe stuck out like a sore thumb, he was
hard to miss, and she assumed he preferred it that way. She watched as he turned away from her
and raised a hand in goodbye, “Golden hair and golden eyes, I’ll remember that.”
It was obvious that he was skeptical, like most people. But he paid damn well. She managed a
nervous smile, “You’ll meet her tomorrow, whether you like it or not.”
It was almost a threat.
“We’ll see about that.”
It was always an odd feeling when there was a festival in the harbor. Half of these tourists had no
idea who he was, the other Harbingers would prefer it that way. But as Childe slipped through the
crowd, a restless feeling stirred in his stomach, the old woman’s words repeating over and over in
his mind - and he wanted to fight something, to be noticed, on center stage in this sea of nameless
faces.
Frowning, he left the bridge and walked towards the bank. Extra lanterns and stalls were set up
through the streets, and prices were continuously being gauged with the arrival of clueless tourists
and visitors. Childe pulled himself up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Golden hair and golden eyes. He would save her - like some white knight. That poor girl, whoever
she was. He could almost laugh at the absurdity of it all.
He did laugh. He stopped at the edge of the balcony, leaning on the rails and watching the crowd
below with a grin on his face. He liked a challenge, no matter how small. And the fortune teller
had given him one - to prove the stars were utterly incorrect. It wouldn’t be too difficult.
He wondered who this girl could be. Resting his cheek in his palm, he thought of the possibilities.
Hardly any locals of Liyue would have blonde hair, but the trait was commonly found among
locals of Mondstadt and Snezhnaya. He could see himself finding some cute girl from his village in
Snezhnaya to please his mother and father with, the Tsaritsa always encouraged familial
relationships with her Harbingers, relationships were not at all frowned upon. It would be difficult
for the girl, whoever she was, but there was no need to worry anyway. He was not going to let this
fortune teller be proven right in the first place.
A flash of golden below caught his eye, a shade far different from the paint on the buildings of
Liyue. He followed the head of hair as she weaved through the crowd, stopping and squinting at
her map, glaring at her surroundings, and moving on with hesitancy.
“Hey,” Childe nodded towards the door guard, “see that woman there?”
Nadia was her name, a bubbly woman who was kind to everyone she met. He had always
appreciated her measured smiles and willingness to make friends, but she was also one of the most
distracted of his staff. The fortune teller had told her of her true love just last week, she nearly
buzzed with energy every time Vlad walked by. “Master Childe?” She tilted her head as she left her
post and joined him on the balcony, “What woman?”
“That one,” he pointed to the head of blonde hair below, now squinting even harder at the map in
her hands, “the one making the constipated face.”
“Yes and…” Nadia cleared her throat and followed his finger, “what about her, if I may ask?”
He could not help the frown on his lips. He could not help his suspicion about the fortune teller
and her intentions, nor the ominous look she wore when so ardently nit-picking her words. He
hated being out of the know. “If I’m guessing right, then that woman might be my soulmate.”
He knew Nadia would appreciate such a thing. Her eyes widened behind her mask, her fists
clenching into excited balls as she rocked on her heels, “Y-Your star mate? Your constellations
intertwine, you mean?”
“Yep.” His nonchalant affirmation seemed to calm the woman down. She sighed and took a step
back, a hand to her chest.
“How exciting, I’m happy for you Master Childe.”
He rolled his eyes, “Well, I’m telling you this because I’m going to prove granny wrong. Even if
our constellations are connected in some way, the sky is always changing.”
“R-Right. Of course.”
Below, the golden haired girl sighed and folded her map. She was followed by something floating
around her head, pulling at her ear and nearly yelling over the energy of the crowd. The girl
scowled and ducked into an alleyway to escape the fairy, out of the Harbinger’s sight. He sighed
again, “Nothing’s going to come of her predictions, so stop visiting her.”
“...Yes, Master Childe.”
He offered a tight lipped smile, “You may return to your post now.”
Nadia nearly ran from him. She pushed her back against the bank’s wall as if it was her lifeline,
clutching her chest with wide eyes. Her cheeks were pink, and her lips moving in a silent prayer.
He almost felt bad for ripping out her hope of true love underneath her, but she needed to learn a
lesson. The stars did not determine her future, her actions did. And her future was serving the
Tsaritsa.
Childe returned to watching the crowd bustle below. There was no other sign of blondie and her
fairy friend, not any longer. And that was perfectly fine.
He just needed to not interact with this woman in any way, shape, or form. He had business
tomorrow that didn’t involve soulmates or stars or fortunes. One of La Signora’s recruits would be
with him at the Rite of Descension to point out the hero of Mondstadt, and thus the games would
begin.
He would most certainly not meet his soulmate tomorrow.

Chapter End Notes
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Soulmate
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
Snezhnaya had many wonderful qualities that made it the best country in Teyvat. Many of them.
Some would argue that there were too many.
It was cold, and heartless. It did not humor the weak. It could bring even the highest of emotional
walls down, as the conditions of the country itself forced vulnerability in it’s survivors.
Vulnerability between family members was, by far, the most common trait among it’s citizens.
When stuck inside of a cabin for a week straight while a blizzard raged outside, certain
conversations happened.
Aside from the deep love of family and the strength of it’s people, there was one more aspect the
Fatui, Snezhnayans, and Northerners were known for.
They were incredibly terrible gossipers.
It was natural, almost, to entertain oneself with the business of others. Even the Harbinger’s held
a mass amount of knowledge about the people around them, it was a trait ingrained into each
Snezhnayan local since childhood. When one watched their mothers, aunts, uncles and
grandparents gossip endlessly with the local fishmonger over their neighbor’s recent divorce
because there was literally nothing else interesting happening, certain habits grew. Some of them -
the Harbingers, for example - used these habits for bigger purposes, but most of the time it was
delegated to idle entertainment.
Childe caught the thumbs up out of the corner of his eye. Perhaps La Signora was right, his
recruits did need more discipline.
“Stop it,” a Fatui agent elbowed the man in question and hissed, though he could be heard easily
from Childe’s vantage point, “don’t give the Harbinger a thumbs up! What the hell is wrong with
you?”
The agent floundered for a moment, “H-He’s meeting his soulmate today!”
“Don’t give him a thumbs up! Just, uh… bring him some congratulatory cupcakes or something.”
“Oh, good idea.”
As wrong as these men were - he would not meet his soulmate today - he does like cupcakes.
The news of Childe’s prediction spread through the bank like wildfire. He arrived this morning to
catch the eyes of every tittering receptionist lingering on him as he passed by. Even Ekaterina sent
him a secretive, slightly encouraging smile. He wondered how the gossip had traveled so quickly,
if the staff got together at night for drinks and traded secrets without telling him. It seemed as if
every Fatui in the city knew of his foretold fate.
And that was good, in a way. Then they’d know to not put stock into such silly things like fortune
telling and stars when it didn’t come true.
He leaned against a wall, his arms crossed over his chest as his agents spread out across the area.
The guard who had given him the cheeky thumbs up was attempting to not smile in excitement. It
was natural for the Fatui to want to gossip about each other, he supposed, many of them were
homesick in this foreign city. If only the one destined to meet his true love was not the most
dangerous of all the Harbingers - it would be a lot more fun if he wasn’t.
The excitement of the Rite of Descension distracted the locals from the ever lingering presence of
Fatui. Wide eyes and excited chatter filled the scene before him, with children running between
legs and waving sparklers in the air. Across the pavilion, he spotted one of La Signora’s agents
approaching through the back of the crowd.
Childe offered a smile and pushed himself off the wall. If he was approaching, it meant he’d
found the honorary knight of Favonius. Brushing past his agents, he met the man halfway and took
solace in another abandoned alley. The show would not begin just yet, not with the excited chaos of
the crowd.
“Sir,” La Signora’s agent offered a short bow, he was as straight pinned as a needle, the result of
that woman’s particular type of handiwork, “I have located the target.”
He raised his brow, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at the gaggle of people
surrounding the pavilion. In fluid motion, they moved from one wishing spot to the next, and took
their carefully chosen places to watch the performance. “Where is she?”
“There.”
There. There, as if that helped. Childe frowned and followed his finger to the farthest corner of
the crowd. “Where?”
“She’s blonde, wearing a white dress. She has a…” he cleared his throat awkwardly, “an imp
following her around.”
An imp. He saw her, floating above the heads and looking haughty. Wherever the imp went, this
traveler had to be. One man moved aside to let her pass and approach the offering monument, and
he could finally, completely, see her.
It was rare for Childe’s heart to drop so drastically into his stomach. It was rare for something to
get so utterly under his skin that he felt a mild jolt of panic. It was rare for him to find it necessary
to reassure himself.
Just because she’s blonde doesn’t mean she’s my soulmate. And just because granny told me the
stars said so, doesn’t mean she’s telling the truth.
He had pointed to her last night and predicted that it was her. There were no other blondes in the
city, besides a few Snezhnayan officers and regular merchants. He’d met all of them, this was the
one person fitting that description that he’d not yet met.
The traveler, the hero of Mondstadt, stood out nearly as much as him. He watched as she put her
hands together and lowered her head in a silent wish, while the fairy floated around her head in a
lazy arc. Wordless, he stepped away from La Signora’s agent with a wave of his hand, “You’re
sure that’s her?”
“Yes,” he nodded, “I helped hold her down when we went after the anemo Archon.”
So he would know. She was so weak that this simple recruit could keep her down - thus, she
could not possibly be his soulmate. There was no way he would put up with a woman like that. He
bet that she could not even open pickle jars by herself.
But she is the honorary knight for a reason, one he found himself curious about. He slipped
through the crowd and kept his easy smile on his face, careful to not bother any of the locals that
would cast suspicion upon him. In the middle of the pavilion, Lady Ningguang began to quiet the
excitement with a flex of her hand.
He watched as the traveler - Lumine, he reminded himself, she went by Lumine - raised her head
and smiled at the sky. The woman next to her giggled, “Happy with your wish?”
“I don’t know,” He could hear Lumine’s soft answer from his spot in the crowd, “We’ll see if it
comes true.”
Something ate at him inside, that natural Snezhnayan instinct to want to know everything about
everyone. He took another step towards her, but immediately caught the eye of the floating imp
above her head. Quick as a crystalfly, the imp zipped towards his face and held up a tiny fist,
“Heya buddy, you better watch yourself! Paimon sees you eyeing her!”
He froze, a smile on his face. Slowly, his gaze moved from the fairy, to the traveler at the
monument. She turned and walked off without realizing her friend’s confrontation. He had to laugh
at the utter obliviousness displayed, “Eyeing who?”
“Don’t act polite,” she growled as best as a tiny girl floating in the air could, “Paimon knows
what you want. You pervert.”
Pervert. Pervert? He hadn’t even taken one glance at her ass.
“Mister pervert is lucky that Lumi took Paimon’s knife away!”
Lumi was a cute nickname, like something he’d name a kitten, or a goldfish. Taking a step away
from Paimon, he put up a hand in surrender, “Hey, I’ve got a knife you can borrow if you really
want one.”
“Yeah! To cut you with!”
It was fortunate for Paimon that he kept an array of weapons on him at all times. In both of his
boots, under his scarf, in his sleeves, on his thigh - once he kept a poison dart in his pocket, but it
stabbed him through his clothes far too often, but at least he had built up a resistance to that certain
kind of poison as a result.
The dagger he pulled out was sharp and silver, lined with gold. It’s handle was made of jade
carved artfully into a curve. Paimon’s eyes widened as he held it up the light, “Do you want this
one? It’ll make quite a scratch.”
“Y-Yes… to stab mister pervert with, of course.”
“Of course.”
Paimon swiped the jade dagger from his hands. She held it between her palms, eyes wide with
power and madness. She laughed, and swiped it through the air, nearly tripping over her own legs
as she did so.
And immediately, she began to sink. It was just as he thought, the weight would make her drop
like a rock in water. Childe took a step past her as her body lowered like a deflated balloon. “W-
Wait! What’s happening to Paimon?”
The dagger was far too heavy for a little fairy, and from what he could tell from first impressions,
she was rather prideful. She could take the easy way out if she wanted, or she could be greedy and
let him speak to the traveler alone, “Is it too heavy? You can just let it go, you know.”
“No!” She screeched while lowering through the air, “Paimon won’t let anyone else have it! It’s
hers now!”
Just as he thought. He hummed and glanced over his shoulder, “That might sell for a small
fortune too.”
“Paimon’s never letting it go! Lumine will have to just carry her from now on! Lumi-,” now on
the ground, the fairy’s eyes widened, “W-Where did Lumine go?”
Childe knew exactly where Lumine went. She was in the middle of the crowd, on her tiptoes in an
attempt to catch a glimpse of the ritual as it began. Sending Paimon another sly smile, he went on
his way, abandoning the fairy to her greed.
Obstacle #1, completed and finished.
The crowd began to simmer down - besides the panicked squeaks of a fairy dragging a heavy
dagger across the ground - as Ningguang prepared herself. Childe slipped past another couple and
brushed through the people, to the spot where Lumine waited. She arched her back to gain a better
view, her hand over her eyes to shield the sun away.
And very casually, very subtly, he took the spot at her side.
“You know,” the sound of his voice made her jump in surprise, but he went on with a smile, “they
say that Rex Lapis wears a very silly hat because he’s bald and is embarrassed about it.”
Lumine looked at him oddly. She stared as if he’d just proposed marriage to a complete stranger
on the street. Her brows were furrowed, lips parted. And dear Archon, she had golden eyes. The
most honey-brown color he’d ever seen.
There were no others there with a description such as hers. He could not help but wonder what the
old fortune telling woman had up her sleeve, putting him in this specific situation with this specific
girl.
“I didn’t even know he wore a hat,” she was hesitant to respond, slowly turning her face away
from his and looking at the ceremony ahead.
“I don’t either. It’s just a rumor.”
“A… rumor about an Archon wearing a hat to cover up his baldness?”
A very silly hat, to be precise. He stared ahead of himself and avoided the golden honey gaze
digging into every inch of his soul, “Yep.”
Lumine turned away once more, “I think if I was an Archon I would just not care about going
bald.”
He mused for a moment, “I think even Archons have insecurities.”

A thoughtful pause. Lady Ningguang’s voice filled the air above the whispers and light
conversation of the crowd. Lumine lifted her chin and sent him a side glance filled to the brim with
suspicion, “Are you hitting on me or something? Or have we met before and I just don’t
remember?”
Was he hitting on her? Was he, the 11th Harbinger of the Fatui, hitting on this tiny elf of a woman
with the biggest doe eyes he’d ever seen? This woman, who’s one companion was an easily
manipulated fairy that he’d disposed of in exactly 15 seconds? This woman, who was a whole head
shorter than him even in heeled boots, thought he was hitting on her?
She simply did not know any better.
“Neither,” he sent her a grin that barely masked the annoyance underneath, “I’m just a…” a
sudden gust of wind that blew his hair back and caught his attention, “a dragon.”
There was the swirl of geo elements in the air, the rushing sound not unlike a hurricane. Lumine
was oblivious to the chaos beginning to ruminate around her, “You’re a dragon?”
“No,” nonconsciously, he rested a hand on the small of her back and stepped forward, shielding
her from the now anxious and excited crowd of locals. It would be easy to be trampled in the
abrupt destruction caused by the overgrown lizard falling out of the clouds, “There’s a dragon.”
“A dragon?” She stood on her tip toes and peaked over his shoulder, “Oh, oh! A dragon, I see.”
“Lumine!” Paimon’s voice jolted her from her shocked reverie, but the sound was not coming
from above her as per usual. Amidst the panic, Paimon dragged a dagger across the ground
towards Lumine’s feet, “Paimon was tricked! Paimon was duped! Why…” she glanced around in
shock, “Why is everyone acting all weird?”
Why was Paimon acting weird? Quickly, Lumine scooped her up into her arms like a child, to
save her from the crowd that was beginning to trample around them. “The dragon died, I-I think
it’s…”
This man, this odd man with his hand still on the small of her back - she’d have to cut his hand
off if he kept it there for one second longer - was the one to answer. It was almost as if he read her
mind, finishing her sentence with a heavy exhale and a glare that could kill, “Rex Lapis is dead.”
She caught sight of the Tianquan kneeling in front of the corpse. Her own words echoed the
stranger’s, “Rex Lapis has been murdered! Seal every exit, do not let anyone escape!”
“Huh,” he put his hands on his hips now, just in time to save all of his fingers being broken by the
traveler, “that’s interesting.”
“Interesting? You think it’s interesting? What the hell- Paimon,” Lumine wrenched the dagger
from her tiny fingers, “Where did you get this?”
“Mister pervert gave it to Paimon, give it back! It’s hers!”
“This is why you couldn’t float?” She seethed, “Who is mister pervert, and why is that dragon
dead?”
Paimon pointed at the man. The man smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. “Not a pervert, but-”
But a pervert. A weirdo. A danger. “This is mine now.” Horrified, she clutched the dagger to her
chest and took a step away. Released from the heavyweight, Paimon floated from her arms and
took her usual spot above her head, fingers digging into Lumine’s hair. Both girls glared with the
fury of a pyro mage, “If you’ll excuse me, I have a job to do.”
That was good information. That was exactly what he wanted to hear. Taking a step towards her,
he raised a brow, “What kind of job exactly? I can probably help you.”
She waved the dagger in front of her, “I am not above murder!”
“Neither am I, that’s something we have in common.”
“Uh,” Paimon glanced at the nearby gaggle of Millelith whose eyes landed on their too-loud
conversation, suspicion rising with every passing second, and every mention of ‘murder’, “Paimon
thinks that perhaps we shouldn’t speak of those things right now. Seeing as there’s just been a
murder and all.”
It was the best idea Paimon had ever come up with.
“Childe, by the way,” he gripped Lumine’s wrist and yanked her away from her spot in the
crowd. His Fatui agents began to swarm the shocked bystanders and move them aside to allow the
Harbinger and his newly acquired acquaintance to make their escape. Not very far behind were the
Millelith, eyes glued to his and Lumine’s forms, “that’s my name.”
He was not running, but she seemed to hardly be able to keep up with him. Stumbling over her
own feet, she allowed him to pull her by the wrist towards an alley, “Childe? Like, really.”
“Like, really- oh, watch out,” he pushed her head down as a spear whizzed through the air, “you
really should be more aware of your surroundings, Lumi.”
Infuriating. Absolutely infuriating. She had known him for only two minutes and he was already
grating on her nerves. Or perhaps it was the stress of the Liyue military racing towards her with
weapons drawn. She wouldn't know.
Time to ditch this man, whoever and whatever he was.
As quickly as her legs would take her, she yanked her wrist out from under his hand and turned on
her heel. Paimon gripped her hair like a lifeline as she rushed towards the panicked entourage of
locals. They hardly noticed her slipping between their bodies and making her way to the bushes
and alleys ahead. Childe froze, and watched. The Millelith rushed past him like waves on the
shore. As much as he did not want to chase after the woman predicted to be his soulmate, he did
not want to disappoint the Tsaritsa even more.
And besides, she was running in the opposite direction of safety.
He sighed and glanced at a Fatui agent, “Go open up the bank and wait for me, okay?”
“Yes sir!”
Lumine dropped down from the raised pavilion, landing in the rock garden below. With anxiety
building in her throat, she pushed on towards the next harbor ahead. If she must, she could stow
away on a ship and leave the city for as long as she needed. But this was simply not a change of
plans she was prepared for. She could be elusive when she desired to, but she was not at all
secretive. It was becoming a known fact about her that it was one of the seven who took her only
kin, and if the Millelith knew anything of her story, she would be the number one suspect. She
could not afford that, not now.
Liyue harbor was abuzz with panic and gossip. Merchants dropped to their knees in shock as the
news spread across the city in a steady wave. Children cried and doors were locked shut. The
festival has come to its abrupt end, culminating in a group of guards chasing a young girl through
the streets.
She turned another corner. Footsteps pounded behind her, yells and commands for her to
surrender. She crossed through another rock garden, and vaulted herself over a wall onto the harbor
below.
And she was going absolutely the wrong way.
An entire new battalion of Millelith approached with weapons drawn. The group that chased her
joined them, cornering Lumine against a wall. One option was to go right into the water, but she
knew she could not swim nearly fast enough for that.
The only other option was to fight. It was one against six. Paimon groaned in anxiety and buried
her face into her shoulder, “Paimon hates this part.”
She did too. These were not treasure hoarders, but men and women trying to protect their city.
Sighing, she summoned her sword in front of her and readied it, “I didn’t kill the dragon.”
The captain of the battalion pointed the tip of his spear at her, “Then why did you run?”
“...I don’t have critical thinking skills.”
“You’ve got that right, girlie.” He was a shadow over her head, jumping from the ledge above her.
As graceful as one could possibly be, he landed between the Milileth’s spears, and the point of her
sword. “You need help?”
Lumine had ever seen someone so comfortable seeming at the end of a spear. He glanced over his
shoulder and grinned - and she felt something akin to disgust crumple and rot in her stomach.
This asshole. This jerkwad. This stupid man with his stupid bow, shooting stupid arrows at the
stupid soldiers and grinning a stupid grin the entire time. He thought he was some sort of charming
vigilante, her savior, her hero.
Disgusting.
“I can take care of myself!”
Her proclamation was paired with a swipe of her sword, a side step and a twist that brought her
blade to the torso of the soldier. He stumbled away, and she put her boot to his stomach, kicking
him into the water of the river. Behind her, Childe notched another hydro arrow to take down the
soldier charging for Lumine.
She glared at him from the corner of her eye, “I told you, I can take care of myself!”
Instead of hitting the soldier, she attacked the arrow whizzing through the air. It splashed apart
and dampened her hair with a sudden burst of water, followed by a twist of her waist and a quick
takedown to her attacker. She elbowed him, pushing him into the water to join his comrades in
floating downstream.
Childe straightened his posture. His eyes widened, and lips parted in surprise, but he would only
allow it for a second. Composing himself with a breathy laugh, he twirled his bow around his hand,
“Getting possessive, are we?”
Getting possessive. Of all the things to say. He should have dropped to his knees and begged for
mercy. Her glare was murderous enough to match the fury of the fire in her chest - because this
damn man took it upon himself to save her. She hated being saved, she was the one who was
supposed to do the saving.
“What do you want from me?”
His smile grew. He rested one foot on the back of a passed out soldier as if he was dirt on the
ground, “To help, dear honorary knight of Favonius. I know you didn’t kill Rex Lapis.”
Of course, he was standing beside her the entire time, talking of silly hats. She lifted her chin in
suspicion, “The Fatui helped us get through the crowd. Why did they do that?”
“Oh,” his eyes widened innocently, bow still twirling in his hand as if standing in a group of
nearly dead Millelith was a normal Sunday morning for him, “I’m the 11th Harbiner of the Fatui,
Tartaglia. Or Childe, if you prefer.”
Strained silence. Panic reverberated through the city streets, but the harbor where Childe and
Lumine stood was silent and peaceful, a far cry from the hurricane of anger forming in Lumine’s
mind.
To reiterate, she had no critical thinking skills.
She lunged at the Harbinger, blade drawn and eyes furious. Aiming for his neck, she vaulted
herself up to reach his revealed jugular, and all it would take was one slice, one hit, and a small
fraction of her vengeance would be carried out.
If only he did not catch her wrist and deliver a swift takedown.
It was as if he was expecting the assault. Her blade clattered onto the wood of the harbor beside
her. His hands clenched both of her wrists above her head as her back landed on the ground. His
knees rested on either side of her waist, legs pinning down hers. Above them, Paimon zipped
around in a panicked flurry.
Honey golden eyes met blue. Her scowl met his sly smile. If looks could kill, Childe would be
obliterated.
“This is disappointing,” his voice was nearly a purr while he held her down, “but I suppose
Signora was correct, you’re not very strong at all.”
Signora. That bitch. He struck a chord with his words, deepening her scowl even further, “How is
this helping me?”
“I’m simply defending myself, girlie.”

Defending himself her ass. She’d show him what she could do, even if her sword was out of her
hands and Paimon’s panicked squeals gave her a headache.
Lumine moved suddenly. She lunged towards his neck, digging her teeth into his shoulder
through the material of his coat. With a sharp hiss, he yanked his body away and rolled off of her.
Lumine was in action in an instant, now on top. She was not nearly as physically strong, but she
knew her determination would win out. She pinned his wrists and scowled down at him, “Why’re
you doing this?”
“Doing what?” His hair was in his face and his chest rose with a sudden gasp, “Being pinned
down by you? That was all your doing.”
He almost looked excited by her hands bruising his wrists. She continued her steady glare, “What
do you want from me?”
“Look,” his excitement dimmed as he furrowed his brows and offered a soft smile, an expression
that was almost apologetic, “I’m not a bad guy… Okay, maybe I’m kind of a bad guy, but I truly
do want to help you. We’re in the same boat now, you and I.”
A Fatui harbinger and an honorary knight of Favonius, sharing a boat. Lumine released his wrists
and sat up, straddling his waist for a moment as she observed the passed out soldiers surrounding
them.
If the Millelith were suspicious of her, they’d surely be even more suspicious of the Fatui,
especially a Harbinger.
And he almost looked sincere. Almost.
She put her hands on her hips and stared down at him, “What do you propose?”
Certainly not marriage, yet with how she straddled him he was tempted to make an offer simply
to make an honest woman out of her. Sighing, he rested his hands on her hips, and swiftly nudged
her off. She fell to the side and scrambled away as he sat up, “We’ve been here for too long, the
Millelith are sure to start searching.”
“Well I’m innocent.”

He leveled his gaze with hers, “And will they believe you, princess?”
Princess. Princess. She could have strangled him, especially for being correct. The sound of even
more soldiers approaching proved his point. She huffed and pushed herself off the ground,
allowing Paimon to nestle against her shoulder once more, “I suppose not, but that doesn’t mean I
want the help of a Harbinger.”
She didn’t want his help, she said it so bluntly. He froze for a moment, finger to his chin and eyes
upturned in thought. If she didn’t want his help, why force it? Let the Millelith arrest her, it would
prove the old woman wrong in the best possible of ways. Childe was the one who decided his stars,
not some invisible force in the world.
And even if she was the traveler, he could simply face the adepti himself. She didn’t necessarily
need to be in the picture.
“Okay,” he held up a hand, “fine, I’ll leave you alone. Good luck with the Millelith and all, I’m
sure they’ll be gentle.”
She squinted suspiciously, “Oh, hell yeah, I’ll break out of jail in a day tops.”
So fakely confident. It was kind of funny. Her shoulders shook like a small dog’s, her wrists were
so slim he could have snapped them in an instant. She had the most doe-ish eyes he’d ever seen,
and the most rosy of cheeks. How she lifted a sword in the first place was far beyond him - perhaps
it was alien magic.
Now that he got a good look at her, watched her eyes widen and her lips part, he realized
something. He could not allow a woman like that to die in a jail cell.
She had to die the proper way: By the hand of an old god in a very mysterious place. That was the
dream, obviously. If he got to choose, it would be old gods, several of them at once, preferably.
He stared at her, racking his brain for a moment. He wasn’t too aware of the inner workings of
women, especially those destined to be his literal soulmate. The women at the bank were simply
subordinates, and the women on the street were simply locals. The women in Snezhnaya were his
comrades in arms. And the other categories that remained were his sister and mother, who he
would never want to terrify the way he did Lumine.
It was not often Childe was absolutely clueless about a subject. But Harbinger duties didn’t often
involve manipulating the opposite sex, at least not his duties. He went with the first thought to
occur, “You know they have a jail on top of a mountain, right? If you try to break out then you’ll
fall to your death anyway.”
That was not true. That was not true in the slightest bit, and he knew that. But a ‘normal’ jail
didn’t sound at all interesting, a jail on top of a mountain so high that one would die upon escape
was positively badass. And he liked those types of things. And Lumine would be eaten up in any
jail she ever went to, no matter the height.
And there was one specific aspect about Lumine that Childe had pinpointed in exactly two
seconds. There was no way he could have known that about her, no way he knew what specific
button to push, but he’d pushed it. He pushed it far and well, and Lumine could not help but clutch
her hands to her chest.
He stood up straight with realization. She was petrified at his words. The honorary knight of
Favonius was afraid of heights.
The grin spreading on his lips like butter on toast tipped her off instantly. She huffed and built her
wall up around her once more, “I know what you’re thinking, and it’s not true. I’m just… I have to
pee, that’s why I was making that face.”
He knew better. “You’re afraid of heights, princess.”
“I climb mountains all the time,” she rolled her eyes and huffed, arms crossed over her chest, “and
I am certainly not afraid of a jail on top of a mountain.”
“You’re terrified, I see it in your eyes!”
“Childe, Harbinger,” her eyes leveled his with a flat gaze, “I will murder you in your sleep if you
continue this.”
She was pretty when she threatened him. Too bad she would die a horrible death in Jueyun Karst.
“Come with me if you want to avoid jail.”
With narrowed eyes, Lumine stared. The Millelith had not arrived yet, and she had not yet
decided if it was worth it to join this man on whatever asinine plan that was visibly forming behind
his eyes. “What if I want to go to jail? I’ve never been before.” She actually had, once, in another
world, because she accidentally stole someone’s baby, Aether bailed her out rather quickly though,
“And why are you so insistent? Do you like me or something?”
“You’re okay,” he mused airily, “it’s more so that you’re the hero of Mondstadt, and I kind of feel
bad for letting you get arrested.”
She clenched her fists, “You think I can’t handle jail?”
“Oh, probably not,” he laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, “you’re too… sorry, but you’re
really short.”
“Height does not determine survivability!”
He could argue that all day. Sighing, he held out a hand, an offer of temporary peace for her to
take. Paimon glared at him from her spot on Lumine’s shoulder, still angry about the dagger trick.
And how could she not be? He’d be angry too, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the
honorary knight of Mondstadt dying a ‘heroic’ death in Jueyun Karst while he figured out the
whole ordeal concerning the geo Archon. It would be the easiest possible solution, and he would
not have a future alongside his soulmate.
Suffice to say, his soulmate was the Tsaritsa’s future. That was his true love, that was the path his
stars took, and it would not involve this honey eyed girl for much longer.
If only she was not so damn difficult.
It was a quiet moment, with tension so thick he could cut it in half. She took a step towards him,
leaning up on her tiptoes and looking him in the eyes. With a whisper, he felt her hot breath on his
neck, “Make me.”
Make her. Make her, he could do that.
She was challenging him for the fun of it. He knew that. He would bite.
Without another thought, Childe leaned down and wrapped his arms around her waist. Both
Lumine and Paimon yelled in sudden shock as he vaulted the traveler over his shoulder and snaked
his arm around her thighs. Her stomach dug into his shoulder, her hands pounding on his back as
she kicked and squirmed and screamed. “Let me go! Put me down this instant!”
His fingers tightened onto her thighs as he smiled, “I’m sorry, but if you keep being loud then
we’ll be caught in no time.”
“I will rip out your eyeballs and stuff them in your ass!”
That sounded exciting. She could certainly be colorful, he respected that. But he could not
possibly focus on the stream of sweet threats escaping her lips. He had a bank to sneak back to, and
a plan to get rid of her to undertake.
She pounded on his back and continued the complaints as he ran to an alley and peaked at the
empty street. Her knee attempted to dig into his stomach, but was halted with another readjustment
on his shoulder. She gasped, “Do not look up my skirt.”
He wrinkled his nose and sighed, “Ew, that would just be weird.”
“You’re weird! You’re the weird one!”
“I’m not looking up your skirt,” he peaked around the corner and frowned, “Nothing to see,
anyway. Sorry.”
“Excuse me?” Her cheeks burned red and hot, “There’s so much to see!”
“I’ll just take your word for it.”
Her fists would leave bruises, and Paimon’s squeaking would leave an even worse headache. Yet,
he knew that if he must rid the world of his soulmate, this was the most honorable way; pissing her
off and making memories, only to send her to her death. If she could not just go away peacefully, it
would be in a glorious battle with the adepti and a few bruises on his back from her fists.
He could give her that much. If she truly was his soulmate, she deserved something.
Lumine calmed after a moment, arms falling limply against his back as he crossed the empty
street. Paimon followed with her soothing words and soft hands, calming the traveler in her infinite
anger. Childe walked up the stairs, whistling along the way, “Isn’t this fun? I’m basically a taxi
service.”
A whisper, barely heard from her spot over his shoulder, “I will set fire to your house and watch
you burn alive.”
“You’re pretty funny, girlie.”
“I’m not kidding…” a pause, “uh, Harbinger?”
“Yes?”
“Where are we going?”
“To Northland bank.”
“Why?”
“For safety.”
“Anywhere you are cannot be safe.”
“Hm,” he tilted his head as he approached the last flight of stairs - Liyue had far too many stairs
for his own taste, “It really depends on who you’re running from.”
“Example?”
“Like the Millelith.”
“So you admit you’re enemies.”
“Never,” he smirked, nudging the door open with his non-occupied shoulder, “but we’re not
exactly friends either. Can’t be popular with everyone, you know?”
“Oh I’m sure that you know.”
Snarky woman, she was rather feisty. He stepped inside with her over his shoulder, and ignored
the sharp punch delivered to his lower back. Another bruise from her hands - Paimon was helping,
but she did not hit nearly hard enough.
“Here we are, princess, it’s…”
It's absolute hell.
It’s every eye of his staff member on him. It’s the glittering excitement of the receptionists. It’s
the knowing smirks underneath the Fatui masks.
Every one of his recruits knew his proclamation. He would prove the star reader wrong, he would
not meet the golden eyed, golden haired woman destined for his heart. Childe’s future was not
destined by stars, or words, or shapes in the sky.
“Oh… she’s… she’s very pretty, master Childe.”
Ekaterina should know better. She had to know better, but the barely contained smile on her
cheeks told him otherwise. His gaze fell flat as the chorus of gossip began to whisper through the
room.
He’d done exactly what he did not want.

Fine, okay then. He wasn’t in love with the woman, and she was the traveler anyhow, this was a
necessity. If only his recruits did not look at him with such ardent excitement. Might as well own
up to it.
“Everyone, this is the hero of Mondstadt, Lumine,” he spun around and showed a very confused
Lumine to the watchful eyes of his subordinates, “and her imp, Paimon.”
Hanging from his shoulder, Lumine weakly raised her head, and waved a hand. The sight of her
frustrated smile caused another ripple of whispers through the bank staff. “Golden eyes,” one
receptionist tittered, “a-and she’s adorable.”
Lumine’s smile fell in half an instant, “I’m not adorable, I’m death embodied.”
Paimon huffed, “Is nobody going to acknowledge Paimon’s adorableness?”
Not at all. “Wow,” a guard whispered, “the old crone truly does tell the future.”
Enough was enough. He’d have them all do 150 push-ups once Lumine left. Sighing, he hoisted
her higher onto his shoulder, earning another stream of obscenities from the blonde, and a swift
kick to his arm from Paimon. His laugh remained airy and casual as he carried her up the staircase
to his office. The eyes of his recruits remained on the girl over his shoulder, who gave a long
soliloquy on exactly how she would filet his liver. He’d go for the kidney, personally, the liver
could be rather fatty and difficult to cut depending on the person.
And he could not hardly wait to let the recruits know of their actions, exactly how disrespectful
they were being. And exactly how wrong they all were. There could be some other golden eyed,
golden haired girl in Liyue that had not even crossed his path.
Or, more realistically, this was not even his soulmate. It could be a coincidence, or a simple lie.
The guard pushed his office door open and stepped aside. Shifting Lumine over his shoulder, he
moved so that her head would not bump against the door - and continued to ignore the feeling of
her fingers attempting to pinch his skin through his coat. “I’m gonna barf on you.” A warning, one
he believed.
He rolled his eyes, “Fine, I’ll let you down.”

Lowering her to the floor, his fingers left her thighs, and the scent of flowers lingering in her hair
dissipated. She stumbled away and gripped Paimon close to her chest with a gasp, eyes wide and
lips parted. “I told you, I’m not above murder.”
Great, neither was he. Taking another step back, her bottom hit the edge of his desk and she
jumped at the impact. Childe watched his stack of documents tip over, spreading across the table
like jam on bread. He wasn’t going to look at those anyway. “You okay?”
“Don’t look so innocent!” Paimon was screeching from her spot in Lumine’s arms, “Paimon
knows what you’re up to!”
“Ah,” he could not help the smile, the sparkle in his eyes that betrayed the utter amusement.
Stepping away, he pushed the double doors closed to leave the three of them alone. His office
smelled of incense, something manufactured to smell of evergreen trees and mint on the morning
breeze, “And what am I up to?”
“Terrible things,” Lumine attempted to sound casual as she hoisted herself up and sat on the edge
of his desk. She refused to look his way, instead choosing to stare at the ink drawing of mountains
on his wall.
She did not expect the office of a savage kidnapper to look normal. It was not at all what she
thought would belong to a Fatui Harbinger, though she was not quite sure what she expected in the
first place. Perhaps a wall of blood encrusted axes and shrunken heads, something along those
lines. Crossing her legs over each other, she made herself comfortable and tried to dim the fires of
anger in her stomach, “Aren’t tables in Liyue supposed to be really short?”
“I prefer having bad posture.” He crossed his arms and smiled. He would not let his eyes graze up
the exposed stretch of skin on her thigh. It was almost as if she was sitting on his desk like that on
purpose, if only she did not wear an innocent expression that betrayed the utter ignorance to her
own body.
“So what do you want from me?”
To the point, blunt, he could respect that if he were not attempting to manipulate her into doing
what he wanted. Blunt honesty did not often serve secret purposes. “I want to help you. I told you,”
a smile, an innocent hand resting on his chest, “I’m not entirely bad.”
Paimon was like a rabid dog gnawing at the bit, “Lumine doesn’t like bad guys! She’s getting
married to Huffman!”
Huffman. Who in Archon’s name was that? No matter, and not a big deal at all - though he had
not seen a ring on her finger. Lumine squeezed Paimon even tighter as if to strangle her, a hand
covering her mouth and a scowl that could utterly kill, “You know to not tell our business to
strangers!”
“Paimon’s just trying to hel-“
The fairy was muffled and drowned out once more. Childe watched with interest as the girls
struggled like siblings. His brother held and wrestled with him in that exact way more times than
he could count. “That’s great, I’m really happy for you. Now if you allow me to help, you can go
back home to Hoffmen.”
Lumine stiffened, “Huffman.”
“Heffner?”
“Whatever,” a roll of her eyes, “what’s your plan?”
Finally. “Do you know of the adepti?”
She was attempting to hide her emotions, avoiding his eyes as best as she could. Everything with
her was a performance of pride, it seemed. “I’ve heard of them.”
Of course she had - ignoring the fact that he’d only heard of them just two months ago himself,
“If anyone can clear your name, it would be the adepti. But you’ll need…” He had planned to have
the sigil of permission on hand when speaking to the traveler, but the traveler had gone and ruined
every conception he thought he might have of this meeting. She sat upon the very desk the sigil
was inside of, her eyes flickering to everywhere in the room besides his face.
Finally, after each picture on the wall was thoroughly stared at, she shifted her eyes to his and
locked their gazes. He did not falter as he continued speaking, he would not dare. “The sigil of
permission, that’s what you need.”
A raised brow, “And that is?”
Before he could answer, Paimon held up a fist, “How much does it cost?”
She ruffled her hair, “Good question. So, Harbinger, how much does it cost?”
“Very good question,” Childe offered a smile meant to reassure her, his brows furrowed as he
rubbed the back of his neck, “it’s free, just for you.”
“For me?”
“For you, honorary knight of Favonius.”
Lumine would not be so easily swayed, not this time, and not by someone like him. If Aether were
not around to weed out the bad guys, she must do it on her own. She uncrossed her legs and swung
them like a child, leaning on her palms and staring at the ceiling in thought. Her brows furrowed,
her lips pursed. She looked as if she wanted to believe him, but could hardly stand her luck.
But then again, it was her only option. And she’d gotten free stuff from people all over Teyvat.
How would this be any different? And this Harbinger was not the one who stabbed Venti. Besides,
she had always found Aether's tendency towards distrust a bit annoying.
There simply remained one question left unanswered, “What were they all gawking at earlier?”
He froze, “I’m... afraid I don’t understand, girlie.”
How could he not realize that every one of his subordinates stared at her as if she was a talking
corpse? She could not hear their whispers, but she knew gossip and secrets when passed in front of
her. “They all acted kind of weird when you carried me in.”
“Oh,” he grimaced for half a second before shaking his head, “they’re all insane, don’t pay
attention to them.”
Right, though she could imagine going insane when working for the Fatui. She watched as he
walked around his desk and unlocked a drawer, fishing through the papers - and snacks, she
noticed, he had snacks locked in his drawer - for the sigil. She twisted her waist around to catch
him furrowing his brow and muttering under his breath, “It’s around here somewhere.”
“You know, a sigil of permission sounds pretty important. Shouldn’t you keep it somewhere
safer?”
He ignored her utterly correct advice, “Oh, here it is, underneath the… hm, I should get that
cleaned.”
“I don’t think I want to know.”
“Nope,” Cheerfully, Childe held the golden scroll up, careful to not crumple the pages between
his fingers as he handed it to Lumine, “You’ll find them in Jueyen Karst, kotyonok.”
Hesitant, she took the scroll and held it to her chest, “Do I want to know what that means?”
Even if Childe did not realize it, his smile betrayed the mischief in his words. It seemed to be the
only time his eyes portrayed his true emotion, when endlessly teasing someone else. She could
only imagine what kind of face he wore when fighting a true battle. “It’ll just make you angry.”
It was probably a curse, he was calling her a rude word in Snezhnayan. Huffing, she hopped off
his desk and made for the door with Paimon clinging to her arm, “Thank you for your help,” she
turned and sent him a flat look, “but you really should know something, Harbinger.”
What could she possibly tell him that he didn’t already know? He raised a brow in curiosity,
“Oh?”
And the bomb was dropped. “You stare to the left when you’re avoiding questions or lying. You
really should work on that.”
Lumine shut the doors behind her before she could catch the smile fall into a deep, annoyed
frown. And she was fortunate for that, the look in his eyes could kill. His mother had told him the
same thing long ago. He thought he had taken care of that habit already.
Leaning back into his chair and popping a sour candy into his mouth, he rested his arms behind
his head and sighed, “Soulmate my ass.”
The staff of the Northland bank had to be the weirdest group of Fatui she’d ever met. It almost
didn’t matter that their entire operation was illegal.
“Madame!” The door guard saluted her, standing straight to attention and floundering to get the
doors open, “Let me help you! Do you need assistance carrying anything home?”
Before Lumine could answer, the nearby receptionist tittered behind her desk, “Oh, lady Lumine,
did the boss give you his account number?”
His account number? And to hear Childe referred to as boss, the thought was odd. He could not
have been much older than her. “W-Why would he do that?”
“Oh,” she winked, “so it’s not really at that point yet, right? I understand.”
At what point? Before she could question it further, another Fatui recruit scrambled to approach
her and Paimon at the entrance. His fingers were twisted together in a pleading show of respect, his
lips parted in excitement, “My lady! Do you need an escort home?”
What in Archon’s name was going on? No Fatui had treated her like this before, usually they
snapped and insulted her until she left them alone. Taking a step away, she pulled Paimon closer to
her arm, “I’m actually sleeping outside of town in a camp, but thank you-”
“Madame Lumine! Madame traveler,” another guard, “may I ask what you wish for us to do for
you?”
“N-Nothing! What-”
“Lady Lumine, do you require food? Mora?”
Paimon interjected, “Yes, we do-”
It was the catalyst, the last utterance before ultimate bewilderment. The guard dropped to his
knees and lowered his head as if she had a sword to his neck, “I am at your disposal, my lady!”
“I… I really don’t think you are.”
Paimon pinched her arm, “Just let it happen, come on! They’re practically begging to do what
Lumine wants.”
“I don’t want them to do what I want!” Had they confused her for someone else? She took another
step towards the door in an attempt to catch her reflection in the glass, observing if she had
changed into an entirely different person. But it was the same eyes, the same face that stared in
bewilderment back at her.
Perhaps Childe was not lying. These recruits truly were insane.
“I’m gonna go,” she jabbed a thumb in the general direction of out of here, taking a step
backwards from the eager expressions of the Fatui, “thank you, though, really. You’re all very
kind.”
“My lady, when will you be back?”
She gave a very intelligent sounding ‘uhhh’ sound, “Hopefully never. Come on,” she yanked at
Paimon’s dress, “it’s time to go.”
“But if they’re offering, then Paimon thinks-”

“Lets go!”
Lumine ran before she could catch the exchanged glances. Confusion and misunderstanding,
furrowed brows and frowns, whispers of ‘that isn’t good’ passing between the most gossipy of the
staff. Nobody dared to stop the traveler, simply because nobody would dare to argue against
Master Childe’s woman. That was a surefire way to be transferred to Scaramouche’s team (sending
recruits to Scaramouche had become Childe’s favorite form of punishment as of late).
Lumine would know none of those, of course, as she planned to never return to that bank again
unless she absolutely must.
A day later, it became a must, as all frustrating things in her life eventually did.
Monday, 12:32 p.m, the sun shone down on a cottage nestled into the side of the mountain.
Lumine was half a mile away from Liyue harbor, where the Milileth continued their search. And
she knew that she did not have very much time to waste.
If only this old man was not so damn rude.
“You come to our land? And you pick all of my crops? And you dare to ask where Jueyun Karst
is?”
She’d tried to give him the carrots back, and it was certainly his own fault for planting them on
the cliffside above his house instead of in an actual garden. She’d climbed that cliff with sweaty
palms and a racing heart for those carrots, and gotten yelled at for it. “Listen, I’m sorry about your
veggies, but I promise that I’m not here to disrespect the gods of this land.”
“You are!” He waved his cane around, nearly hitting her in the head, “Nobody enters Jueyun
Karst! And certainly not some disrespectful little tart!”
“Tart?”
“Tart! You’re a tart!”
She was a dessert with jam and fruit inside? Bewildered, Lumine put her hands on her hips and
glared, “I have a sigil of permission, I’m allowed to go in th-”
“Those don’t exist anymore!”
“I have one right here-”
“Liar!” Another swing of his cane, one that would have knocked her entirely over if she had not
backed away, “You’re disrespecting our gods!”
It was absolutely no use. And his carrots weren’t even that good. Paimon yanked at her hair and
pulled her back towards the road, “Paimon thinks he’s having a bad day.”
A terrible one. But the odd thing was that he was not the first person to yell at her for asking
directions.
In her travels thus far, the people of Liyue were kind and hospitable, if a bit reserved. She had
asked for directions before with absolutely no problem, but the second Jeuyun Karst left her lips,
canes and geo were thrown at her as if she’d committed sacrilege upon the rotting corpse of Rex
Lapis. And it made sense, in a way. Liyue was far more in touch with their Archon than Mondstadt
was. Some stranger from another land wishing to enter the restricted area of their territory would
have irritated her as well. If only they would stop trying to hit her with rocks everytime she asked.
“Asking around Liyue harbor won’t work,” Lumine thought aloud while walking down the
cobblestone road, the lights of the harbor in the near horizon, “the Millelith are still out searching
for us.”
Paimon zipped around her head, “Does Lumi know anybody who might help?”
Not at all. Xiangling was nowhere near the harbor, and all of her trusted friends were in
Mondstadt. She’d not gotten much of a chance to speak to anybody in Liyue before being accused
of dragon murder. There was the star seer, that old woman who claimed she could find her true
love. But Lumine owed her about 9,000 mora, and she had not spent her life dodging every tab and
debt she ever had for nothing.
That left the final option. The most disgusting option. The option that sent a shiver down her
spine.
Northland bank.
It had only been a day. Not even a full 24 hours yet, and she was already crawling back to him.
“If only Aether was here,” a sigh, as she shut her eyes to the bright world around her, as if she
could shut out her troubles completely, “he had more of a sense of direction.”
Paimon gasped, “Oooh, so that explains it!”
“What?”
“Why Lumine can’t tell which way is North!”
Preposterous. Absolutely idiotic. Lumine may have trouble with finding places, but she knew
where North was. “I know my directions!”
“Oh yeah? Where’s North?”
A pause. She took a deep breath and squinted at her surroundings. Mountains, mountains, and
more damn mountains. Liyue was far too rocky for her tastes. “Well, it’s… it’s over there.”
“That’s South!”
Like the old man from earlier, she began swatting at the fairy in the air. Paimon screamed as
Lumine’s hands nearly grabbed her by the waist, threatening to pull her from whatever it was that
helped her to float. Stumbling forward, frustration began to rise in her throat, “If you’re so damn
good at directions, then why don’t you ever help me?”
Another air dodge, another squeal. “Paimon has better things to do!”
“You just float around and eat food all day!”
“It’s very tiring!”
Like hell it was. Lumine sighed and straightened up, face pointing in the direction that was
apparently South. “I don’t think you’re right, I think that’s West.”
“Huh? Why?”
“The, uh… the sun. You know, the sun rises in…” Aether had tried to teach her this once before,
“in the West.”
“...Paimon doesn’t think that’s correct.”
“Of course it is.”
“That’s not how the saying goes.”
“Of course it is, Paimon.”
“Lumine is really wrong…”
“I’m never wrong.”
She huffed and put her hands on her hips, “Lumi needs to just go ask that dirty little Harbinger for
help.”
Childe, the one who’s mask of propriety was barely hanging on by a thread. The one she had
straddled for a minute straight until she realized just how embarrassing doing that was. The one
whose neck she literally dug her teeth into.
“Never.”
“Come on…”
“I’d rather eat my own tongue.”
“The Millelith are gonna make Lumi be tortured far more than that if she doesn’t go to Jueyun
Karst…”
A prison on top of a mountain, falling to her death from heights unknown. No matter how often
she forced herself to climb and glide, she still despised the look of the ground below. “Someone
around here has to be willing to give me directions,” defeated, she slumped against the trunk of a
tree, “I don’t want the Harbinger’s help. Or to see his weird bank staff again.”
Paimon crossed her arms over her chest in thought, “Then who else would be willing to help us?”
Who else indeed. She could make the journey to Wangshu inn and ask Xiangling, if not for the
fact that Xiangling had gotten her lost at least four times in a row once. The chef’s sense of
direction was far worse than Lumine’s. She wished Aether was there, she wished he was at her side
to pat her head and calm her down. It was always he who dealt with people, her big brother who
knew his way around everywhere they went, and always made sure she stayed out of trouble.
Lumine had never been anywhere without Aether. Every world they visited, she remained stuck to
his side like glue. Without him she felt utterly, completely, devastatingly useless. “I’m not the
smart one, Paimon,” she sighed and rested her head against the tree, “Aether is. I’ve never had to
actually take care of myself before. I’m gullible and naive and I stress eat, like, all the time now.”
“Well,” she put her hands together and swayed in the air, attempting to look coy, “Lumi does trust
really easily. We’ve gotten scammed a few times…”
“Five times.”
“Yes, and… well, there was that thing with Kaeya.”
“I really did think his grandfather was a pirate.”
“And that dirty trash goblin of a Harbinger is probably tricking you.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
“And-”
“You don’t have to keep going.”
“Hey,” she clenched her fists and huffed, “Paimon was about to say something nice! If Aether
was Lumine’s impulse control and the one that kept you out of trouble, then Paimon can try to be
that too!”
Paimon already was that, to an extent. She had her moments of complete obliviousness, the same
as Lumine, but generally the fairy was far more distrusting of strangers than her. Lumine simply
wanted to see the good in everybody, while Paimon wanted to see what food and mora they could
offer. It wasn’t quite like her and Aether’s dynamic, but it was as close as she could get.
Her new little sister, this annoying imp that she fished out of the ocean. Sighing, she sent her a
smile, “Okay, I’ll let you watch my back.”
“Don’t fake smile,” a lecture and another haughty huff, Paimon had been getting good at scolding
lately, “Everybody has things they’re not good at! Except for Paimon, who is perfect. Lumi just
needs to remember,” in a flash, she zipped up to her face and cupped her cheeks, “it’s okay to be
guillible and naive and a bit dumb! Paimon loves you for who you are.”
“...I never said I thought I was dumb.”
The grip on her cheeks tightened, “What matters is that Lumi is always authentically herself! Go
and ask that Harbinger for directions and don’t be ashamed about it! Who cares what he thinks?”
She was right. She was far more correct than Lumine ever wanted to admit. It felt like a fire had
been started in her heart, pushing her into motion and giving her the courage to look like an idiot -
which does, in fact, take a lot of courage. “You’re right. He’s the one sending me there in the first
place, so he has to give me directions!”
“Right!” They were nose to nose now, determination burning between them like a bonfire, “Go
sneak into his office and steal his snacks! Rub your butt all over his desk! Demand compensation
for the emotional damage just looking at his face has caused you!”
“You’re right! I demand a refund on my time spent speaking to him!”
“Go, Lumi!” It was a battle cry that echoed through the trees. She stood and ran to the road, only
half a mile away from the harbor. Paimon followed at her shoulder with little fists pumping in the
air, “Lumi is strong! And independant!”
“I’m independent! I’m gonna steal all of his snacks!”
“He can buy more anyway!”
“I’ll send him a hateful letter!”
“The most hateful!”
“I won’t let him take advantage of me!”
“Never!”
“I won’t- uh,” she stopped in the middle of the road, frozen, “I don’t remember how to get to the
bank, to be honest.”
“...How has Lumi still survived this entire time?”
Lumine thought for a moment. She’d asked herself that question many times before - so had Jean,
and Amber, and Kaeya. Her survivability rate in the wild was a local mystery in Mondstadt.
“Truthfully, I have no idea.”
Paimon groaned, “Come on, let’s go ask for directions again.”
Childe never had much trouble sleeping at night. As a boy, he apparently would doze off as soon
as his head hit the pillow, and very rarely threw fits from exhaustion. His mother had called him her
‘little angel’ - he had to be the easiest of all of her children.
And then he got more energy. The calm baby turned into a shy boy. And the shy boy became
restless, yet he still slept at night. Even when the shy boy turned into an absolute hellion, even
when Morepesok became his constant battleground, he still fell asleep instantly - no matter whose
blood was on his hands that night.
It had to be the first night in his life that he laid awake staring at the ceiling.
Absolutely infuriating.
All because of her.
He stuffed the pillow onto his face and groaned, hoping to suffocate the memory of soulmates and
stars and honey colored eyes out of his mind. If only he could go into his memory and grab it by
the throat, break it’s neck and leave it forgotten on the ground like sidewalk trash. It haunted him,
it sat in his brain and poked and prodded with endless intensity.
Not Lumine, particularly. He didn’t care much about Lumine, other than the fact that she was on
a journey meant to get her out of the way of the Fatui’s plans. As long as that went well, she should
not even be on his mind. Not at all. Not even one bit.
It was the prediction. It was that old woman and her stars. It was the fact that she was so damn
presumptuous to assume that Tartaglia would be taken by something so little as a soulmate.
She had to be lying.
Throwing the pillow aside, he sat up from his bed and stared out the window. Silver moonlight
streamed in between the curtains, his room decorated in the traditional Snezhnayan style rather
than the Liyue manner. Sighing, he ran his hands through his hair and rubbed at his eyes. He had
never been more awake.
That woman. That fortune teller and her lies. He’d simply have to speak to her again, that was the
only solution to this challenge.
Childe yanked on his jacket and boots, nearly running out of the hotel and into the golden lit
street. Even at 3 a.m. the city remained alive, but the crowd was much more to his taste. Nobody
out at 3 a.m. cared about the other people out at that time, and he found it was rather relaxing that
way. There was a difference between Tartaglia, the Harbinger in the eye of a constant storm, and
Ajax.
Just Ajax. Just some idiotic 22 year old going for a walk at 3 a.m, trying to find an old lady he
needed to have an argument with.
Not that he’d ever admit that he was Ajax in that moment. He could not be that boy for very long.
All he needed were a few simple seconds of real life, of that shy boy from Morepesok with
freckles. Ajax, that kid who made an amazing seafood soup and really loved his mother. Ajax, who
tried his damndest to learn the fiddle even though everybody in his family hated the sound. Ajax,
and the smell of evergreen in the air and campfires in the snow. Ajax, who was practically dead by
now.
He couldn’t handle being him, not any longer. With a sharp exhale against the warm Liyue air, he
straightened his shoulders and continued down the street. He was Tartaglia, and he was on a
mission for the truth.
The Mahjong parlor was always packed at this time of night. Some of his own subordinates spent
their nights in the smoke filled rooms, but it was not particularly his favorite pastime. If he were to
gamble, it would only be on himself and his hydro, not some pieces on a game board. But he knew
that the old lady was there, she always was after the tourists had left.
It had to be the dimmest building he’d ever been inside. The hunched over figure of an old woman
caught his eye towards the back of the room. She was silhouetted by the candle beside her, and
gripping a cup of something hot while staring with interest. Boldly, he slipped between the game
tables and made his way to her. It took a moment for her to see him, but when she finally flickered
her eyes to the figure approaching her spot, her body physically tensed. She locked her shoulders
and gripped the cup against her chest, “I-I haven’t been doing any business with them, just like you
wanted.”
“It’s not that,” to the point, blunt, he preferred every conversation that way. He took the seat
across from her and leaned his elbow on the table, “I want you to know that you’re wrong.”
The fear dissolved into bewilderment. Shadows from the candle flickered against her face like
ghosts dancing across her skin. The entire building was a soft orange, barely noticeable to the
outside world. But of course they could not hide entirely, the Millelith had always been aware of
the gambling underground in Liyue. It was part of the city’s lifeblood.
She looked down at her cup and sighed, “Young men are always so arrogant. You think you
know everything.”
No, she thought she knew everything. He was at least aware that the stars in the sky did not
decide his future. “I didn’t meet her.”
“Yes you did, Tartaglia. Don’t lie to me.”
His eyes always flickered to the left. He had to work on that. “Look at my constellation and tell
me what you see.”
“Fine,” grumbling, she set her cup down and held out a wrinkled hand, “but nothing will have
changed.”
“Maybe it'll be a better number of kids this time.”
“There will be a big family in your future,” she ran her finger across his palm and closed her eyes,
letting out a deep breath. In the background, a cup smashed as laughter and merriment echoed
through the room, “and the traveler, of course. Constellations don’t change shape easily.”
Lumine was on her way to Jueyun Karst to die an honorable death to an old god and get out the
way of the Fatui. He sighed, “Just tell me where my soulmate is right now.”
“That’s easy,” she smiled, “in your office at the Northland bank.”
“So… the cleaning lady? Or perhaps a thief…”
“The traveler.”
Lumine was miles away by then. He pulled his hand back and stood up, offering the old woman a
short bow of his head, “I think your powers are getting blurry, granny.”
She took another sip of her tea, “You can tell yourself that if it makes you feel better, I don’t
mind.”
He would, and nobody could stop him.
And more importantly, nobody could stop him from sprinting down the street at full speed,
rushing up the stairs to the bank, and bursting into his office yelling ‘I caught you!’
Lumine. He caught Lumine, sitting in his chair and ruffling through his papers.
“Oh, hey,” she cast him a boredom filled glance, “You really should be sleeping at this time of
night, it’s not healthy to stay up late.”
And Childe - he more so felt like Ajax in that moment, though - simply stared.
“You okay?”
Ajax squinted. Lumine grinned.

“So, I need directions to Jueyun Karst. Can you help me?”
Chapter End Notes
Thanks for reading! Don’t hesitate to share genshin headcanons with me, I’d love to
hear them!
Incredibly Regretful Beginning
Chapter Notes
“So, I need directions to Jueyun Karst. Can you help me?”
Directions to Jueyun Karst. It was three in the morning, and she wanted directions to Jueyun Karst
from him, of all people. She was either dumb, or playing along with his game. He found that he
could not quite tell.
Standing up straight and running a hand through his hair, he tried his best to smile. For the first
time on this night he felt exhaustion creeping up on him, as if the anxiety inside of him had finally
been laid to sleep. Lumine watched in the dim light of the moon as he closed the office doors, “I
never would’ve thought you’d need help with that, of all things.”
She leaned back into his chair and rested her feet on the desk, with Paimon snoring happily in her
lap, “I’m a bundle of mysteries, Harbinger. You can’t predict me.”
He knew someone who could. Another possible explanation was that the old woman and Lumine
were working together to distract him with an abundance of absurdities. It would not be the first
time that was attempted. Suspicious, he took a step towards the desk, freezing once he felt
something crack and break underneath his heel.
“Did you…” looking down, his smile dropped into a blank stare, “did you break my window?”
“I had to get in somehow.”
His eyes shifted to the only window in the office, a tiny square cut out from the wall and made
from a wooden screen in the Liyue style. He’d never liked it very much, it let in far too much of
that humid sea air that stuck to his throat and grated it like sandpaper. Now that Lumine had
smashed the wooden screen to bits, even more of the breeze filtered in, rustling his hair back and
smelling of spices.
Lumine offered a bashful grin. Paimon snored even louder from the spot in her lap. “Sorry about
that.”
“No,” he put his hands on his hips and appraised the damage, “it’s fine, really. You’re right, you
had to get in somehow.”
She didn’t have to get in, but she did. Their eyes met in the dim of the moonlight. Lumine seemed
to practically glow in this setting. Blonde and pale and dressed in white, he couldn’t miss her in the
dark. As he set about lighting a candle with a box of matches kept in a drawer, she began her
explanation, “So, I’m here because I have a wonky map. See,” she unfolded a crumpled paper until
it took over his entire desk, “it’s all wrong.”
With the candle giving him a better view, he leaned over the map. It had notes and scribblings of
ink over all of the edges. Bubbly handwriting and drawings of flowers littered certain places,
labeling where herbs and plants grew specifically. On top of Mondstadt, particularly, was a large
heart and the words ‘H & L’. He could have burst out laughing at the absolute teenage-girl-ness of
it all if he were not sleep deprived.
He settled for a smile and traced the road lines to Jueyun Karst. It was correct, printed and
published with the title on top of the great mountains. “There’s nothing wrong with your map, it
looks fine to me.”
“No,” she shook her head and pursed her lips, “I’m getting lost all the time because of this thing.”
The way the map was published originally seemed perfectly accurate. It was her notes that were
odd, labeling Springvale in the wrong place, and Liyue Harbor as far more South than it actually
was. In the corner of Liyue, she wrote ‘oceanid’, but the location was several inches West of where
the oceanid truly resided.
He smiled to himself and laughed. That was yet another thing he figured out about Lumine. 1.
Afraid of heights, and 2. Absolutely terrible at directions.
His soulmate had to be the cleaning lady in his room before her. It had taken several minutes for
him to arrive at the bank from the Mahjong hall, the cleaning lady was probably doing a late night
job, and left right before Lumine broke in. Or, perhaps it was a thief who was scared off by the
traveler literally breaking his window to bits.
The fact of the matter was simply this: his soulmate is not Lumine. If Childe were to ever marry -
if he ever decided to care about that kind of stuff - it would be to a woman who could climb
mountains with him, and at least tell East from West. Not this oblivious, dim headed girl who
reminded him of a yappy dog.
Then it was decided. He knew himself, of course. He knew that if there was a chance the fortune
teller was correct, he was simply missing the bigger picture. The most obvious conclusion, though,
was that she was a dirty liar who was pulling his leg in an attempt to con him.
And Lumine needed to get out of the picture before it was finished. Whatever was happening with
Rex Lapis was something that should not involve her.
“Here’s how you read a map,” he dragged his finger from Liyue harbor to the road line, traveling
up to the mountains in the Northwest, “just follow that road, don’t take any detours.”
Her eyes widened, “T-That’s a road? I thought that was a river.”
There was nothing even close to a river like that running in that direction. He stared in disbelief,
“I thought you were a traveler.”
“I am.”
“...What direction does the sun rise?”
She huffed, “I am not having this discussion again today.”
Again. That answered his question. But this had to happen somehow, and he knew it would be
dumb to kill her himself. While he tended to prefer the hands-on and entirely blunt approach of an
arrow to the chest, killing the honorary knight of Favonius would only inflame unrest between the
Fatui and Mondstadt. And Pantalone would attempt to slit his throat if he ruined his current
diplomatic operation in Mondstadt. The Tsaritsa would be rather angry if they started trying to kill
each other again, bless her gentle heart.
So, she had to die ‘accidentally’. The plan came to him like fire on paper, “What if I sent
someone with you?”
“Like,” her eyes narrowed and she slipped her feet off his desk, sitting up straight as Paimon
snorted and snored against her arm - he didn’t know a fairy could produce that much drool, “A
guide?”
A nod, “Like a guide, someone to help you get there.”
“I don’t know if I want to travel with a Fatui…”
“I’ll send my best guy,” he was his own best guy, so technically it would be his second best guy,
“you’ll be in good hands.”
Suspicious, she stared with narrowed eyes. The candle cast shapes against her skin with it’s
flickering, mingling with the sliver of light of the moon from the broken window. She was simply
odd looking. She didn’t have the strong features of a Mondstadt native, nor the softer features of a
Liyue local. She looked closest to Snezhnayan; pale, with high cheekbones, but that wasn’t quite
right either. She was simply Lumine, unable to be categorized correctly by any of Teyvat’s
standards.
And she had so many facial expressions. She switched from suspicion, to a thoughtful muse, back
to suspicion. He watched it flit across her face like a dance, until finally she sighed, “I guess. I just
hope he doesn’t push me off a mountain.”
He knew she could glide, he’d seen the wings attached underneath the cape part of her dress.
Laughing, he went on, “Paimon could push you off a mountain at any time, how is this different?”
“It’s far different,” she shivered in disgust, “I only force myself to climb mountains out of
curiosity, and even then I almost vomit every time.”
That was an amusing scene to imagine, the honorary knight of Favonius as a shaking, vomiting
mess. He sort of envied the officer he’d send along getting a front row view to the amusement.
“When I fought Dvalin,” she went on quietly, “I was running on pure adrenaline the entire time.
Venti, Barbados, you know, he sent me flying through the air on a glider... I’m pretty sure I died a
little bit inside.”
None of the Harbingers had known much about the Stormterror incident. Getting into his lair had
been a goal of theirs for a while, and only until the elemental currents died down could they
explore. By then, the dragon was set free from his suffering, and not seen again. It had been a point
of great contentiousness for La Signora and Childe, who had their different arguments on the
matter. Signora wanted every tiny detail to be completed, and not having a full report on the battle
with Dvalin drove her crazy. Childe was simply pleased that the job was done in the first place. He
was more of an act now, think later kind of man.
The reminder brought him back to the moment. He stared at the traveler in his chair, this frail girl
in a sundress-type thing who couldn’t tell what direction she was facing. Even her glare was
funny.
“Did you take care of Dvalin by yourself?”
He was genuinely curious, she could see it on his face. Lighting up, she straightened her shoulders
and nodded, “Basically. Venti helped a bit, but he felt really bad for hurting his friend. I ended up
doing most of the work.”
“And…” he racked his brain to remember the rest of the important Favonius knights involved,
“did anyone else help?”
“Not really.”
Childe stared. Lumine stared back, eventually breaking into a shit-eating grin. He could not help
but return it, though his intentions were far from proud or braggatory. More so, he found it funny
that this elf of a woman took down an entire dragon.
How he wished to have seen that.
“Just how powerful are you, traveler?” He imagined a lot of screaming, a lot of missed sword
swings, some tears. La Signora had told him in detail of how easily she was held down.
Lumine’s grin fell, she seemed nearly irritated that he would dare to question her strength. “I used
to fight Gods, you know. That’s how I got into this situation in the first place.”
“I… I’m sorry,” he wasn’t, “but I’m having trouble believing you.”
It was sudden. She erupted out of the chair and slammed her hands onto his desk. Paimon vaulted
forward out of her lap and rolled across the floor in a scream of shock and squeals. Lumine ignored
the harshly awoken fairy at her feet and glared - though he still found that expression hilarious on
her face. “Do you want to fight, pretty boy? Let’s go, right now. Right here. Let’s go.”
As much as he’d love to, he’d probably kill her. Again, diplomacy was so boringly important.
But he appreciated her willingness.
“So,” a calm smile, “you think I’m pretty?”
“Lumi!” Paimon shot into the air like an arrow, immediately yanking at Lumine’s hair and
kicking her shoulder, “Why do you always do that? Paimon was having a wonderful dream!”
“I want this trash goblin dead!”
Was he a trash goblin, or was he pretty? He couldn’t quite decide what she thought of him. The
look in her eyes was an attempted murderous glare, but underneath the layer of anger, that honey-
brown told a different story. He had always been good at reading people - and choosing to not
acknowledge the reading half the time. This time, he wanted to acknowledge it, to understand and
comprehend just why she looked so utterly upset, as if she was about to cry from anger.
It was still funny. And it would just get better, for Childe could hardly believe that she defeated
Stormterror. Lumine, who was endlessly bullied by her fairy friend, who hid something bigger and
far scarier underneath her confrontational anger.
It was like she was trying to make up for something. Interesting.
And it was decided. “I’ve changed my mind, actually. I’ll be your guide.”
Her glare dropped in an instant. Paimon froze mid-smack, eyes wide and lips parted. Both girls
stared at him as if he’d just committed murder, chaos frozen in time.
What in Archon’s name was he thinking?

He desperately tried to cover up the wave of regret washing over him. Turning away so Lumine
could not read his face, he stared out the window instead, “I’d really like to see what you can do,
traveler.”
And it was not a lie. He would like to put her in the worst possible situations and see how she
reacted, if she disappointed him or not. And the end result would be an escort to Jueyun Karst, a
death by the adepti/elements/challenges - whatever decided to take her life there - and then the
continuing of the Fatui’s grand plan for whatever it was the Tsaritsa wanted.
One problem: if Lumine was truly his soulmate, then he just put himself into a terrible situation.
Traveling, with her, across the country. Just him, her, and Paimon.
The solution: she, obviously, was not his soulmate.
It was not common for Childe to regret the words he spoke, but in this moment he found himself
grappling with the feeling of absolute absurdity. Reassuring himself that the fortune teller was a
lying conwoman, he forced a casual smile onto his face and turned back around to face the
bewildered traveler, “I think it would be fun.”
And of course, as Lumine was compensating for something - he wasn’t sure what - she had to
take the challenge.
“You’re on, Harbinger,” both she and Paimon smiled conspiratorially, “take me on the most
dangerous route to Jueyun Karst imaginable.”
She was stoking the fire. He could respect her confidence, finding himself genuinely excited for
the journey ahead. Thoughts of soulmates and stars and destiny had disappeared, replaced with the
anticipation of testing Lumine’s strength.
He was expecting to be entirely disappointed.
“Meet me near the Northern gate in two hours. It’ll be quite a long journey ahead of us, girlie.
Don’t be late.”
Lumine would be late if she damn well wanted to be late.
She would not be, but that's besides the point.
“Nobody ever discusses anything with Paimon. Why is that? Is she not respected? Too small?”
Too small. Definitely too small. “I’m really sorry, I just get so heated up sometimes,” Lumine
truly felt bad for accepting Childe along on the journey without asking Paimon first. She had to put
up with the Harbinger as much as Lumine did, and a smaller body meant more pent up rage -
Paimon was probably like a floating bomb. “He challenged me and I just couldn’t let that slide.”
She sighed. Paimon felt as if she’d aged years just from being thrown off Lumine’s lap in the
middle of an argument with a Harbinger. Waking up to two competitive idiots challenging each
other was not nearly as entertaining as she thought it would be - and she was about to endure that
for an entire journey.
Zipping around to get into her face, she huffed and rested her hands on her hips. Lumine froze
mid-step as Paimon glared, taking up every inch of her vision, “That filthy gutter man is just going
to stab you while you’re sleeping!”
“Don’t be silly,” she patted the pocket holding the sigil of permission, “he wants to help us, and
maybe challenge me a bit but I’m sure it’s all friendly fun.”
“Lumine thinks a Harbinger wants to have friendly fun?”
When put that way, it did sound rather stupid.
But he was so calm. He had been calm at the Rite of Descension, when helping her out, when she
literally broke into his office and stole his snacks - he had not noticed the snacks part yet, though -
and when she called him a trash goblin. He had plenty of opportunity to kill her in the last 24
hours, he didn’t seem like the type to connive.
“Paimon knows what’s going on in your head…” her voice dipped so low it almost sounded like a
threat, “Lumi’s being too trusting again. Didn’t we talk about this already?”
They did. Paimon would be her impulse control, the distrustful one, but she was not Aether, she
didn’t have the people skills he had. Lumine had to try, at least, to not believe everything she’s
told. She thought she had been doing well, she’d even insulted Childe without blowing up in
anxiety from her sheer rudeness. That was progress.
Yet, the fact remained that Paimon was right. And she had no idea what the Harbinger had in
mind. Sighing, she stepped back and avoided her eyes, “I don’t know why I agreed. I guess it’s
either him or some other weird Fatui officer, though.”
“Or Lumine could learn directions.”
“I know directions- Look, I don’t want to have this argument again.” Another sigh and a roll of
her eyes, “we only have an hour left before meeting him. It’s already said and done, and…”
“You’re excited to challenge him, aren’t you?”
“So much.”
“Right,” Paimon rolled her eyes and floated away, hair flapping in the wind as she moved through
the air, “Paimon thinks you’re both making decisions while sleep deprived.”
That, also, seemed to be true. Lumine had not expected Childe to burst into his office at three in
the morning yelling ‘I caught you!’. She wondered exactly who he thought he would catch, as it
obviously was not her. She hated to be a disappointment, but she needed a place for the night, and
fully planned to sleep in his chair until morning.
No sleep would be had, neither for him, nor her. Two hours was not very long to prepare.
She walked down the street and eyed the bakeries and food vendors opening for the morning. She
would only buy what she could not get in the wild, such as salt and pepper and soy sauce. It was all
her mora could get her, and was never a problem as she usually hunted well enough. She wondered
if Childe would be the type to bring an entire bag of ingredients and make huge meals every night -
Xiangling had almost spoiled Lumine by doing that.
But then again, Childe was probably some mechanical, heartless creature like Katheryne. He
probably just kept the snacks in his drawer to make him look more human.
When he burst into his office, the first thing Lumine noticed were the dark circles under his eyes,
and the absolute monstrosity of a bed-head he wore. He didn’t have the mask in his hair, and
lacked the usual attire, making her think he rolled out of a mattress and ran through the street to
catch whoever it was he was looking for. He seemed nearly as sleep deprived as she was.
Their journey started in an hour, now. She’d wasted the first hour just walking around Liyue
harbor arguing with Paimon, and ducking into alleyways to avoid the Millelith.
She could hardly believe what she was about to do. To go on a journey with a Harbinger. Her
concerns lie more in whatever form of entertainment he was planning, rather than if he would turn
on her. She could easily beat up some lanky ginger, no matter how tall and experienced he was.
She’d find a way.
“Paimon just thinks that you look terrible,” it was a soft scolding, the kind that was laced with
concern, “The Harbinger did too, as if neither of you had gotten any sleep.”
She hadn’t, but she couldn’t see how that mattered. “Good, if he’s sleep deprived then he’ll have
his guard down.”
“But you’re sleep deprived too!”
“I’m used to it,” she laughed as she snuck around the corner of the street, slipping underneath the
bridge to avoid the watchful eyes of the guards, “I bet he’s spoiled, he probably never travels by
himself.”
Paimon could hardly be convinced. In a rare moment of reflection, she floated at Lumine’s
shoulder as she trudged through the shallow water under the bridge. In the distance the sun began
to rise, casting the shadows of the guards and passersby onto the ground at her left. She hoped that
she was at the correct gate.
Paimon sighed and dropped her weight onto Lumine’s shoulder, “Just promise Paimon that if he
tries to kill us, you’ll be at least a little bit prepared?”
She was always at least a little bit prepared. And on the off chance that she was not prepared, she
was a mastermind at resourcefulness.
Or so she liked to think. Aether told her that she was a mastermind, but she had a feeling that he
was just trying to make her feel better about herself. He always did stuff like that, as she imagined
most big brothers did. Little sisters were quite impressionable that way.
It was an absolute shame that the sun rose so early, she would be able to sneak out of Liyue much
easier if not. She recognized the familiar shadows of the Millelith against the sand, mingling with
another shape leaning against the side of the bridge. It was 45 minutes until the determined
meeting time, yet she could pinpoint the sharp angles and lines of the Harbinger’s form on the
bridge above.
He was here just as early as her. Perhaps he was almost as impatient for the challenge as she was -
or he had much less to pack than she did. What would a Harbinger even pack for a journey? Bones
and blackmail letters, most likely, and a vial of his enemy’s blood? That seemed plausible.
Lumine froze and watched his shadow shift and move in the reflection of the sunrise. He stood up
straight, face pointed to the sky as he whispered, “Lumi, is that you?”
The shape of her body stretched out across the riverbank. She raised a hand in greeting, “Who else
would be meeting you by the bridge at this time of day?”
“I don’t know, really. A troll, perhaps?”
A troll. She felt like one with her heavy eyes and growling stomach. “Do you want to meet by the
pond up ahead?”
“How romantic,” he laughed. She watched his shadow shift against the sand, his head glancing
towards the Milllelith standing guard nearby, “See you there, lover.”
A laugh, one that was not at all familiar. It was older and wiser, accompanied with an under the
breath statement, “Young love, it’s cute.”
She listened to Childe laugh above her, “Isn’t it? We’ll have at least nine kids.”
Nine kids. His laugh was like bells on the wind, a hint of something fuller and far more emotional
underneath. Lumine followed the movements of his shadows to the edge of the river, until he
finally appeared from the side of the bridge entrance. He wore his uniform, now, rather than his
pajamas, and spread his arms wide as if he intended to hug her. “You’re early, babe. You wanted to
see me that much?”
Lumine pushed herself up the rocky hill to meet him. He chose a blindspot away from the eyes of
the Millelith. She and Paimon shared the same murderous glare, “You’re early too. If I can tell the
time correctly,” a glance at how high the sun rose in the sky, painting the world orange, “it’s about
45 minutes before you said we’d meet. You must be excited.”
“Mind blowingly so.” His smile was like the sun, like a giant ball of gas blowing up and
destroying an entire universe. He was terribly bright, especially for five in the morning.
Did this man wake up and sing to birds? Did he dance through the forest and interact with
squirrels? How could anyone be so bright this early?
“You know you’ll be fine, right? I heard your talk with Paimon,” his gaze flattened in a serious
look as he flickered his eyes to the glaring fairy, “I promise, on the honor of my family, I won’t
stab you in the back.”
“You won’t stab me,” Lumine sent him a glare, “but you might gouge me, or disembowel me.”
“I actually don’t like disemboweling,” a grimace, “it’s really messy, and I hate doing laundry.”
“Aren’t you charming…”
“I try,” he chuckled under his breath and steered her towards the directions of the road, far enough
from the prying eyes of the Millelith, “though I’ll admit I’m surprised you agreed to this.”
She was too. It was not something Aether would do, he’d try to stop her from it. She put her hands
on her hips as they began their journey, “I’m a very surprising person. I could slit your throat right
now and you’d never see it coming!”
Paimon groaned, whether it be from sheer embarrassment, or barely concealed fear. With a smile,
Childe glanced over his shoulder, “Try to resist the urge before we get to Guili plain. There’s about
three ruin guards there I want to see you up against… Aren’t you excited?”
Not at all. She was usually excited all the time, but she would not dare to show it in front of the
Harbinger. “Come on,” he laughed again, holding her wrist as he pulled her through the pathway,
out of the sight of the Millelith and to the staircases built into the road. Impatient, as she thought he
would be, yanking her by the wrist down the hill into a frantic stumble. He smiled against the
dawning sunlight, with Lumine dragged behind him like a little kid.
“Excited to be put against three ruin guards?” She tried to sound sarcastic, “I’m ecstatic.”
“Are you?”
“Not at all.”
“It’ll be nice!”
“Nice?”
“Yes, like a picnic.”
Like a picnic. His title fit him, ‘Childe’, the man who yanked her along the stoney road towards
the image of the ruins ahead. She imagined that it was like what having an overactive son would be
like - making her all the more against the idea of having one. It did not help that his legs were far
longer than hers, he covered far more ground than she ever could.
Perhaps he was sleep deprived. He was absolutely manic.
And nervous.
Nervousness did not sit on him well. It rested over his shoulders like a too-heavy blanket,
suffocating him under its warmth. Lumine allowed him to pull her along the road as she watched
the tensity of his back and the stress in his neck. His excitement fell silent while he half jogged.
She and Paimon shared a curious glance at the sight of the literal Harbinger yanking the hero of
Mondstadt across a Liyue road.
What in Archon’s name was wrong with him?
“Paimon thinks he’s on drugs.”
Lumine resisted the urge to laugh out loud at the whisper from her friend. Paimon gripped her
hair as her body was dragged through the air by Childe’s pace, barely keeping up with the
excitement. Lumine found her feet and yanked her wrist away, “Are you on drugs?”
He twisted around with a furrowed brow, “Excuse me?”
“Drugs. Are you on drugs?”
“Not at all, in fact. The only drug I’m on is the adrenaline of an approaching battle.”
“You’re terrible.”
“A bit, yes. I’d surprise you, though, with how unterrible I am.”
“I wouldn’t believe it.”
“It’s not like I didn’t expect that,” another shiny smile with a hint of bashfulness, “what else
would you think? I understand your point of view. The future is quite unpredictable…” he put his
hand to his chin in thought, “but it’s our actions that decide what happens next, don’t you think?”
This man had to be some sort of forest princess in disguise. Or perhaps a mountain sage who
drank from wild, mossy streams. It was the only explanation.
Mildly disgusted, Paimon floated by his shoulder, “How much sleep did Mr. Harbinger get last
night?”
“None at all, why do you ask?”
That explained that.
It was unfortunate that Lumine was in the exact same state. She followed behind, far more
comfortable to watch his back rather than he hers. She and Paimon shared a knowing smile as
Childe led them down the dirt road. The Wangshu inn was a silhouette in the distance, a man-made
mountain with it’s very own horizon.
So started the journey of the Harbinger and the Traveler. “I could get used to this,” Childe put his
hands behind his head and closed his eyes to the morning breeze that kissed his cheeks, “it’s nice
to be away from town for a bit.”
Lumine thought the opposite. She was in the wilderness so often that cities were refreshing,
though she often found herself stifled after a day of enclosed buildings and artificial smells. “Do
you not travel very much?”
“I don’t usually have the time,” he glanced over his shoulder with a look in his eyes she could not
determine, something pleasant and nostalgic, but guarded against explanation, “I’ll travel for debt
collections sometimes, but nothing like this.”
“This may not be debt collecting, but it’s still for work,” she kept her eyes on his back, “I imagine
that dims the fun for you a bit.”
“Just a little, but it’s still nice.”
Hours passed with idle chatter in the air. A statue of the Geo Archon had caught Childe’s
attention - he had a hood, not a silly hat, yet he still insisted that he was bald underneath it. During
the journey, Paimon gave a rousing speech about the taste differences between native Liyue
flowers, and Lumine resisted the urge to fall on her face from sheer exhaustion. It was an unspoken
battle between her and Childe, to see who would collapse first. And it would not be her.
Guili plains was a mostly flat area, dotted with towers and camps and ruins. It was one of the
more inhabited parts of the wild in Liyue, basically crawling with Millelith guards. As they passed
underneath the shadow of a guard tower, Lumine took the spot at Childe’s left to use him as a
shield from their watchful eyes. He only chuckled and ruffled her hair, “Don’t worry, they probably
have no idea what happened yesterday.”
She yanked back, nearly tripping over her own feet if not for Paimon pushing against her
shoulders, “News travels far more quickly than you think, I just want to avoid having to fight them
again.”
“Yeah,” he sent them a bored glance, “they are pretty boring.”
The journey continued with ease. Lumine did not pry into his life, and he did not dare to pry into
hers. With a practiced wall between the two, they discussed the semantics of sword sharpening, as
one does, and listened to yet another lecture from Paimon - this time it was about the taste
differences in fish, which Childe, very surprisingly, had many opinions of.
Lumine noticed that he was calm. He walked beside her with precise casualty, as if she were a
lifelong friend. It was nice, in a way, to have someone other than just her and Paimon along for the
journey. She reminded herself to keep her guard up nonetheless.
It was nearly lunch by the time they approached the ruins. Childe’s shoulders seemed to loosen
even further as the broken and abandoned walls rose up over the hill. He sighed in satisfaction and
sent his half-asleep companion a smile, “There they are, there’s actually about eight ruin guards in
there, but I won’t make you fight all of them.”
Lumine had her eyes half closed, her mouth mid-yawn when he started to speak. Forcing herself
to focus, she stood to attention and glared the best glare she could muster, “I’ll fight all eight, I’ll
do it.”
“Well, five of them don’t activate. I haven’t figured out how to get them to wake up yet…”
She would not admit it, but three was a far better number. “O-Oh, well… next time, I guess.”
“Next time,” he clapped a friendly hand on her shoulder, “come on, I’m excited to see what
you’ve got.”
It was the one moment in the journey so far that Lumine would allow his hand to stay on her
body. Exhausted, she felt as if her knees would give out any moment, yet Childe’s grip on her
shoulder as he steered her towards the ruins kept her awake enough to move on. A concerned
Paimon held onto a lock of her hair with furrowed brows and a frown.
“Paimon thinks that maybe we should take a nap first?” She tilted her head, “You know, to get
ready for the fight?”
The dark circles under his eyes were just as bad as Lumine’s, “I feel fine.”
“Sure you do…”
“We’re fine,” Lumine nearly growled as she spotted the first ruin guard ahead, sitting under a
crumbled stone gazebo, “I can do this, I’ve done worse.”
He smiled, “You used to fight Gods, right?”
“Right! Don’t condescend me,” forcing the exhaustion aside, she pushed a finger into his chest,
“I’ll show you something you couldn’t imagine even in your wildest dreams.”
“Oh,” Paimon buried her face in her hands, “Don’t tell Paimon that Lumine’s going to try that
again.”
“What’s that?”
The fairy huffed, “The stupidest thing you’ll ever see.”
The promise of Lumine’s words and Paimon’s dread only drilled itself further into Childe’s mind.
He kept his eyes on the traveler, grinning even more as his heart skipped a beat. She was so feisty,
so determined and competitive. Nobody around him dared to challenge him like this anymore, it
felt like it had been forever since someone promised him something new.
He doubted that it would live up to her words, but he was excited nonetheless. “Come on, girlie,
show me what you’ve got.”
Lumine took a step forward, and put her hands on her hips. The ruin guard remained still as she
bent down to find a large rock broken off the side of the walls. “I found this out one day when I
accidentally dropped my sword.”
“Lumi didn’t drop it,” Paimon’s voice was flat, “you gave it to Amber when she dropped her
bow.”
“And Amber had absolutely no idea what to do with it-”
“So Lumi found a rock…”
These girls really knew how to hype up a story. He exhaled in anticipation, “And?”
“And,” Lumine held up a stone larger than her hand, “I figured out how to oneshot a ruin guard.”
He could not help but grin, “That’s impossible.”
“It’s really not. I’ll show you.”
“She cheats,” Paimon whispered as Lumine approached the guard, “she uses anemo to make it fly
harder.”
“Ah, I see.” He didn’t know she even had a vision. She had absolutely nothing on her person that
would betray that information. He wore his hydro vision at his belt for the world to see, never
understanding why some people chose to hide theirs. And to use anemo to vault a rock through the
air and oneshot a ruin guard, he couldn’t imagine that anyone’s vision would even be strong
enough for that.
Lumine despised the sounds ruin guards made. It was like a foreign language coming from a
corpse’s mouth, covered up by the noise of turning gears and rusted bolts groaning. She flinched as
the guard lit up with energy and pushed its body off the ground. They had a pattern. One stomp,
turn around and use the missiles, then clap its hands. She could not allow it to use it’s missiles, or
she’d drop her rock. Feeling Childe’s eyes on her back, she ran down the stairs of the gazebo and
listened to the sound of the ruin guard’s feet crash upon the stone.
She turned around, and grinned. Paimon groaned somewhere behind her, “Don’t miss this time,
got it?”
“I’ll try!” She closed one eye and aimed for the weak spot.
Childe cupped his hands over his mouth to be heard over the mechanical groans of the monster,
“It’s okay if this doesn’t work, I won’t judge you!”
“Shut up!”
His expectations were to the floor. Lumine was entirely too caught up in proving herself, he
wouldn’t doubt that she was exaggerating her rock-throwing prowess. He watched as she took a
deep breath, and reared her arm back. With a flash of sea-green anemo winding itself up around her
body, she threw the projectile in a clean arc through the air.
The rock hit the ruin guard square in the face. It stiffened, spider-web cracks traveling across it’s
glowing core. The stone wedged itself inside, and the long mechanical limbs began to jerk and
drop.
It fell to its knees. Quieted as quickly as it had woken up. Lumine stood over the monster corpse
with her hands on her waist.
Stunned silence settled over the ruins like a blanket.
Childe’s heart was in his stomach. He felt as if he’d swallowed a wasps nest. And Lumine was
gorgeous in this lighting.
“Told you I could do it… W-Why’re you staring at me like that?”
He composed himself and glanced away so she could not read the flurry of emotion crossing over
his face, “That might have just been a lucky shot, you should try it again.”
“Fine,” haughty, she brushed past him, “whatever it takes to prove myself to you.”
He watched her go with the wasps in his stomach still stinging every inch of him. She searched
the ground for another rock and mumbled in tired annoyance. She did cheat, and the fight he
expected was entirely too anticlimactic, but the ruin guard was beaten, as he asked. He never said
how she had to fight them.
If she threw rocks at ruin guards, how did she fight other enemies? Did she hit slimes with a
broomstick and plant banana peel traps for hilichurls to trip over? It was positively comical.
His heart was doing a gymnastics routine. He assumed he was just tired.
“Hey,” Paimon pinched his earlobe and pulled it, immediately catching his attention, “stop
staring at Lumi. Don’t think Paimon doesn’t see that look in your eyes.”
“What look?” he pulled his head free from her fingers and smiled, “Can’t I be impressed?”
“Not like that!”
“Like what?”
“Like that!” She clenched her little fist and waved it in the air, “Keep your disgusting emotions to
yourself, sewer troll!”
Sewer troll. The nasty nicknames were just getting better. Ahead of them, Lumine held up a
sharpened stone and yelled, “Hey sewer troll, do you wanna try it too?”
Archons, he wanted to try it so bad.
“You’re on, princess, we’ll see who takes ‘em down the fastest.”
As Childe jogged to meet her, and they shared the same excited, anticipating grin, he realized that
he was, for the first time in forever, having fun.
He reminded himself to keep his disgusting emotions to himself.
Childe discovered rather quickly why Lumine had trouble with directions.
She was incredibly attention deficient.
“Look at those, wow. Wow! What kind are those? Oh, gosh, look at that fish, Paimon look at that
fish.”
“That is a darn good fish,” Paimon floated at the edge of the water, hands on her hips, “Paimon’s
never seen such a tasty looking fish before.”
“We’ve got to get it,” Lumine abandoned her calla lilies on the riverbank and dropped to her
knees beside the water, “I heard that if you stick your hand in the water long enough, fish will start
coming up to you.”
“Ohhh, try it! Paimon’s getting hungry!”
Childe watched the scene with a mixture of amusement, and disgust.
He was not a tight-laced man. He was not strict, hardly anybody in his family was. His father had
taught him how to laugh and enjoy life’s flow, control what you can and let the rest happen. But
there were rules to nature, to the universe, to the animals and plants and skies. He respected those
rules as best as he could.
And one of the biggest rules of all was: Do not put your hand in strange bodies of water.
Not that he’d stop her. And that rule mainly applied to Snezhnaya and it’s frigid temperatures.
Losing one’s hand to hypothermia was not a very nice way to go. While there were no poisonous
reptiles in Snezhnaya, the cold was far more dangerous. In Liyue, one could bathe in the water
easily, while risking stepping on a very angry snake.
Again, though, it was not as if he planned to stop Lumine. It was nice to take a break and sit
beside the pond for a minute, even if Wangshu inn was only a mile away and there was absolutely
no need for her to catch dinner for the night.
“Oh, I felt something brush across my fingers,” she squealed, “it was slimy!”
“Ewww… keep going, Paimon thinks it’ll be fine, she’s watching for snakes.”
Did they always do this? It had been happening all day since the rock fight with the ruin guards.
He won the challenge, of course, having cheated a bit himself - catching her leftover anemo
currents and using a burst of hydro to give the rock a little more oomph. It was after the challenge
that he discovered just how distracted Lumine could truly be.
First, she had to pick sweetflowers. After the sweetflowers, she chased down a bird for lunch -
she did not catch it. After the bird, she took a quick detour to speak to a traveling merchant for 15
minutes, while Childe attacked a nearby hilichurl camp. After the merchant and hilichurl camp, he
felt that he was finally beginning to understand how to travel with someone like Lumine. She
wandered off the road and got lost for a minute while chasing after something shiny, and Childe
simply entertained himself by attacking whatever monstrosity made the unlucky decision to come
across his path. It worked, in some odd way.
And it explained entirely why Lumine could never tell where she was going. Her mind and her
eyes were everywhere at once, and never on the actual destination. Even with the shape of
Wangshu inn in the distance, she still seemed confused as to where to walk next.
It must be nice, he thought, to run around and do whatever she wished. As much as he loved his
job, he didn’t have freedoms such as that. Watching her kneel besides the pond in an attempt to
catch a fish in the worst possible way made him smile nonetheless. She was so carefree, and she
could afford to be that way.
He sat down beside her and sighed, folding his legs over each other. It was serene, peaceful. That
was something he appreciated about Liyue, as odd as the warmth and pleasant breeze were. “You
know, if you tried that in Snezhnaya your arm would freeze and fall off.”
Lumine sent him a wide eyed stare, still leaning over the water with her arm halfway immersed,
“Really? Like, really fall off?”
“Really.”
“Woah… so, if you’re a hydro user, you’re more prone to get frozen, right?”
“I guess,” he shrugged thoughtfully, “But I don’t usually have much trouble with that.”
Paimon landed on Lumine’s back, using her as a chair, “Paimon heard that Snezhnaya was really
cold all the time.”
“You’re right, it’s like a constant blizzard.”
“So how do you not ever get frozen there?”
“I…” good question, he just simply never had that problem, “I don’t know. I think I move too
fast.”
“You know,” Lumine spoke with her face close to the water, peering down into it’s depths for any
sign of her fish, “I heard a rumor that hydro users are always slimy.”
“...Slimy?”
She glanced up at him, “Yeah, wet all the time. And growing moss and mold because of the
excess moisture.”
Who in Teyvat told her that? He narrowed his eyes, mildly bewildered, and mildly resisting the
urge to laugh at the absurdity of it all. “I assure you that I’m not excessively moist.”
Lumine glanced at him as if she had trouble believing him. He wondered if he looked excessively
moist, he oftentimes was quite damp when using his bow in a battle, but it was from the water
droplets of his arrows, and never had been a problem. She sighed and turned her head away,
looking at the water, “I think we’ve been scaring the fish away by talking.”
“Fish have ears?” Paimon slammed her palm onto Lumine’s back in shock, “Where?”
“...That’s a good question…”
Where the girls lacked book-smarts, they abounded in humor. He laughed again, throwing his
head back and enjoying the warm sun on his skin. Lumine yanked her hand out of the pond and
flicked water onto him, “Shut up, slimy!”
“You’re the slimy one,” chuckling, he pulled a damp tendril of grass off her arm, “you should
know better than to try to catch fish like that.”
“I’m hungry.”
She had only snacked on apples and sunsettias on the journey. He had stolen a meat skewer from
a hilichurl camp he cleared out while she picked fruit nearby, but it was all either of them had, and
they’d been walking and fighting all day.
And neither had slept in over 24 hours. It was pure adrenaline that kept them awake.
“The inn is really close by,” he glanced at the shape of the building in the distance, “we can stay
the night there.”
The day had gone by in a flash, like an arrow through the sky. It seemed just two hours ago that
he was meeting her outside of the harbor for this regretful, surprisingly fun adventure. Now, the
afternoon was beginning to settle down into the peace and calm of evening.
Lumine wiped her arm off on her dress and stood, brushing the sand particles from her legs,
“Okay, I haven’t seen Xiangling in a while.”
He followed suit, “Is that the chef? She once threatened me with a meat cleaver because I didn’t
use chopsticks.”
“Sounds about right.”
“We can get a room for the night as well,” he crossed his arms over his chest and smiled into the
distance, “maybe they’ll have that nice upstairs room available this time.”
“...Sure, that nice room. That’s fine.” Lumine began to walk away from him. Paimon floated at
her shoulder and patted her neck soothingly, her whispers unknown to Childe as he followed. She
pushed herself up the rocky hill and back towards the road where they had taken their detour, her
hands clenched into tense fists.
He was not an oblivious man. He had a tendency to read someone like a book, even when he
didn’t care in the least. The annoyance that dropped down upon Lumine so suddenly was as
obvious as a target on her back. “Are you okay?”
She was not. He recognized the sigh that came from her lips. That was the same sound his mother
made when his father walked through the house with snow covered boots. Tonia had started
making that sound when she turned 12 as well, always when he picked her up and spun her around
- she secretly loved it, though, he knew the sigh was just for show.
Yet, Lumine’s sigh was real. He wasn’t tracking snow through the house, and he wasn’t being an
embarrassing older brother, but she had given him the sound he knew women to make when they
were angry.
“Lumi?” He quickened his pace to catch up with her, “Really, are you okay?”
She whipped around to face him in sudden anger, fists clenched with the sunset shining golden on
her skin. She glared, and took an angry step towards him, “If you’re going to travel with me, you
need to know one important thing!”
He was not at all phased by her anger. Crossing his arms and tilting his head, he smiled, “And
what is that?”
“I do not spend mora on silly things such as inns, and beds. You can stay there if you like,
Harbinger, but I will be camping outside for free.”
“Okay,” he quipped, “but why’re you angry?”
“You assumed I have mora! Not everybody is a rich kid like you, I-I bet you’ve never had to
sleep on the ground! You just think everyone around you can afford the same fancy hotel rooms!
Well,” she stomped her foot, “we can’t! Paimon spent all our money on sticky honey roast last
week!”
“P-Paimon didn’t mean to!” The fairy delivered a light punch to her arm, “It’s not her fault she
can’t count!”
“How is that not your fault?”
“Lumi,” he put a silencing hand on her shoulder, not able to resist the smile spreading on his lips,
“I’ll pay for the room, don’t worry.”
“Like hell you will!”
This woman could not possibly be his soulmate. This woman who was offended over the idea of
spending mora, who reminded him far too much of his mother when she was angry, who took
down ruin guards with rocks and a bit of anemo. This woman, who tried to argue with him at every
little corner in the road.
He sighed, and put his hand on her back, nudging her in the direction of the inn, “Just let me
handle it, girlie.”
“No!”
Paimon floated beside his shoulder, “Paimon’ll let you handle it, she’ll take the most expensive
room they have!”
“Sure, whatever you want!”
“No!” Lumine jerked her body away and glared at her companions, “I don’t want your pity!”
He rolled his eyes, “You’re being really prideful, and I assure you that usually it would be cute,
but I’m actually really tired right now so my patience levels aren’t as high for this kind of stuff.”
Lumine gasped in anger. Every mannerism reminded him of his mother, and sister, and
grandmother, and his cousin twice removed. It wasn’t so close to resembling the women of his
family that she looked like them, but he got the idea that Lumine would fit right in with his little
troupe. She’d be right beside his mother, lecturing him for getting into a fight for no reason.
He could see it now. Heavy coats and snow in her hair, sitting beside a campfire and laughing
with his sister. He could see her and his father trading stories, Teucer sitting in her lap, hot
chocolate and warm stew. The homeland would wrap itself around Lumine and hide her from the
world.
Perhaps, just perhaps, Lumine might be a bit good for him. Just a little. It was impressive, her
pride and her competitiveness, her willingness to throw rocks at ruin guards, her laugh and her
sense of adventure.
She was kind of beautiful.
The realization made his heart and brain and every other functioning organ drop into his stomach
in some sick cocktail of dread and anger. It felt as if he might burst apart, his skin tingling and his
chest thumping and his knees vibrating in some sort of sick anxiety. He despised that feeling. He’d
never had a feeling he despised more.
But he could not despise Lumine. She didn’t ask for this.
It was not as if Childe did not have hormones, or normal human desires and wishes. He noticed
attractive women as much as a man usually would, but he never quite acted on those observances.
To have a lover would be a distraction from his real goal, and not something he’d ever been truly
interested in. He simply did not care.
And even now, he couldn’t bring himself to. If Lumine truly was beautiful to him, then that
would not be the end of the world. He simply had to not allow himself to fall in love with her.
Don’t fall in love with Lumine. The future was still in his hands.
“Come on,” he nodded in the direction of the inn ahead, “I promise I won’t make you pay me
back.”
She watched him for a moment. Her lips were curled into a frustrated frown, her eyes stoney and
glaring through his body. Like a rope fraying and snapping down the middle, the tension dropped
out of her shoulders, and she sighed in absolute defeat, “If you’re paying, then I want the most
expensive room they have too.”
Relief. Sweet, dear relief, underneath the frustration and the stubbornness she could let her wall
down. He wouldn’t have been able to sleep that night knowing she was camping outside out of
sheer spite.
“Come on, zvezda moya, let me take you to dinner.”
Plan A: failed. He is beginning to think that Lumine’s constellation is, maybe, perhaps, just a tiny
bit, intertwined with his.
Plan B: commenced. No matter what the universe had decided, he would do everything in his
power to not fall in love with the traveler.
Chapter End Notes
childe: you can't just throw rocks at giant monsters, yell at me, and make me start
thinking you're beautiful!!
lumine: feralness go brrrr

A Blooming Friendship
Lumine had to wonder what zvezda moya meant. It was probably an insult, that bastard.
“Ooooh, you two look terrible,” Xiangling laughed in that way of hers, the way that dissolved the
anger away from her insult, “you look half dead, chopsticks.”
Chopsticks, that was even better than zvezda moya. At least she understood what it meant, if not
the reason. Casting a glance to Childe, she could not help but smile, “You kind of do.”
He returned the look, “You look worse.”
“I don’t know. You’re both pretty bad.”
They were. No matter how much either of them denied it, they both had pale faces and dark
circles. Childe’s hair stuck up in a million places, mirroring Lumine’s. Xiangling wiped her hands
on her apron and delivered a swift hug to Paimon, burying her face into the head of silver hair. “I
didn’t think I’d ever see you two together.”
Xiangling had been on her food tour since she last met with Lumine, taking some time to cook at
Wangshu. It was her idea of a vacation, cooking in an entirely different kitchen than her own.
She’d only been there for several weeks, but already attracted the attention of foodies everywhere.
Childe looked at Lumine, and Lumine at him. She tilted her head, eyes wide, “You know her?”
“Yeah,” he put his hands on his hips and grinned, “this is a favorite spot for the Fatui.”
“Xiangling, you let the Fatui in here?”
That didn’t seem much like what the boss lady would approve of. She grinned nonetheless,
Paimon still in her arms, “If they’ve got mora and taste buds, they’re good with me.”
Of course. Xiangling would not hesitate to use extremist thugs as a taste testers. She turned on her
heel and carried Paimon up the stairs to the top of the inn. Childe began to follow, with Lumine
behind him, “We’re paying customers, thank you very much.”
Paying. The very word drew a shiver down her spine, yet another worry that began to culminate in
her gut like poison. He was paying for the rooms, for the dinner - he was taking her to dinner. He
called her something in Snezhnayan that she didn’t understand, and on top of the sundae of
absurdities was the cherry on top. His nickname from Xiangling was ‘chopsticks’.
Chopsticks. She eyed him suspiciously, “So what’s with the nickname?”
“I have many names, Lumi.”
The comment caught her off guard. She forgot that he also went by Tartaglia, she’d not called
him that even once. “Did you choose chopsticks willingly?”
He smiled at the orange sky above, “I didn’t choose any of them.”
“So what’s it mean?”
“I believe that they’re utensils used by the locals here in Liyue.”
A sigh from her, and a bark of laughter from Xiangling and Paimon at the top of the stairs, “No,
why’re you called that?”
Before he could answer, the chef grinned, “You’ll see. We keep forks and knives at Wanmin just
for him.”
Ominous. So ominous. She could hardly take it any longer. Irritated, she hurried to overtake
Childe and join her friend ahead. As nervous as it made her to have her back to him, she preferred
it over having to see his smile any longer. Especially after how he looked at her earlier. She would
have punched him for that look in his eyes, the one she couldn’t decipher in the least.
Arriving at the inn, Lumine rushed in after Xiangling in her attempt to create room between her
and the Harbinger. Casual as can be, he followed with his hands in his pockets, casting a glance to
the boss lady behind the desk. “I’ll get us a room, zvezda moya.”
There was the name again, coupled with the use of ‘us’. He’ll get them a room, both of them.
Hopefully separated by thick walls.
She shot him a glare sharp as a dagger. He laughed and leaned on the desk as she turned away to
follow Xiangling into the basement kitchen. Paimon floated out of her arms and zipped to the food
shelves with the uncaged excitement of a foodie with four stomachs.
The second he was out of eyeshot, Xiangling whipped around to grip Lumine by her shoulders
and stare with the intensity of Guoba’s stomach after eating a pepper, “Tell me why you’re running
around with a Fatui Harbinger.”
She thought she didn’t discriminate against tastebuds. It was nice to know that her friend cared
for her safety, at least. “He wanted to see if I was strong.”
“You saved Dvalin,” she shook her shoulders, “is that not a good enough resume?”
“Apparently not.”
“He might kill you!”
“I don’t think he will…”
She and Paimon shared a flat look. “Lumi’s being naive again. I thought we talked about this,”
the chef sighed and clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction, “men like that are the jeuyun chilis of
society. They look delicious and shiny, but when you bite into them your mouth burns!”
“He is not delicious, nor is he shiny. And I did bite him, he’s not spicy either.”
“E-Even I wouldn’t taste that! Lumi... I saw the hydro vision at his belt,” Xiangling glanced at the
entrance nervously for any signs of Sneznhayan eavesdroppers, “is he… you know?”
She sighed, “He’s not slimy either.”
The chef looked as if she could not believe it. Perking up at the sound of footsteps descending
down the stairs, she turned to approach the counter and begin working in her attempts to remain
free of suspicion, “Just be careful,” it was a whisper hissed across the room, “who else would hunt
boars with me if you were brutally murdered?”
Lumine shrugged, “Literally anybody else, I imagine.”
“Y-You’re right, but the fact remains!”
Paimon floated lazily to Lumine’s shoulder, leaning her arm against her body and sighing. The
sound of boots on the wooden stairs drew closer, revealing Childe around the corner as he peeked
into the kitchen. His eyes shifted over Xiangling at the cutting board, to the food stock and the
hearth in the middle. It was as if he’d never seen an industrial kitchen before. “Hey, I got a table
and put in our orders, Lumi.”
The once calm and satisfied Paimon erupted like a volcano. She was like an arrow being shot
from a bow, zipping through the air and attacking the Harbinger’s face with angry little fingers. As
she often did to Lumine, she gripped his cheeks and pulled him close, “You did what?”
He yanked himself away, “I ordered food?”
“W-Why would you do that? Why? Sewer trash doesn’t know what Paimon likes!”
Behind Lumine, she heard the sound of an order slip being passed to Xiangling from the pulley
system, and a soft whistle from the chef. “This’ll be fun…”
Childe went on, “I ordered everything.”
“...Everything?”
“Everything they have to offer, yes.”

That was one way to earn Paimon’s heart. As quickly as the anger arrived, peace prevailed. She
was docile as a kitten, then, gently floating back to a bewildered and mildly shocked Lumine,
whispering, “He ordered everything, Lumi...”
“I-I heard…”
From the outside, one would not be aware of the dread Lumine felt. One could not see the horror
and terror in her eyes, the anticipation for her own set of morals dooming her to this fate. Childe
gave her an odd look and gestured to the staircase behind him, “Let’s go eat, you look sick.”
“I just…” her heart raced as she squeezed a dreamy Paimon closer to her chest, “I was going to
make myself feel better by washing all of the dishes after dinner.”
His brows furrowed, “Make yourself feel better?”
“Yeah,” exhaling slowly, she stared at the floor in her attempts to avoid the manic laughter from
Xiangling in the background, at least one person was having fun with the huge meal order, “I don’t
like not working for my food.”
Paimon groaned in sudden annoyance, “Just accept the gift Lumi! How often does this happen?”
Not often at all. Childe offered a smile, “I do get it, though, I was raised that way too. But there’s
no need right now,” approaching, he wrapped an arm over Lumine’s shoulder and led her to the
stairs, “it’s the Fatui’s mora I’m spending here, doesn’t that make you happy?”
“Perhaps... just a bit…”
“Great! So we’ll sit,” he followed Paimon up the stairs with Lumine under his arm, “eat, and
discuss rock throwing techniques again.”
“And…” she gulped her dread down thickly, “the plan for tomorrow?”
“Right, that too.”
He led her to the middle level, where a table sat on the balcony awaiting their arrival - with forks
and knives placed neatly in rows, instead of the traditional chopsticks. The evening was settling
into the day and turning the world dark, a welcome change from the stifling heat of the afternoon.
Sitting down, Childe took the spot across from her, while Paimon explored the balcony area in her
ever-present curiosity.
Exhausted, she felt as if her knees might give out from the moment’s rest the chair offered. She
appreciated that they were not sitting on the ground like the other tables, she might possibly have
leaned back and fallen asleep before dinner ever came. Sighing and rubbing her eyes, she tried to
ignore the height of the balcony, “Okay, so, how far away are we from Jeuyun Karst?”
He rested his elbow on the table and stared her down, “About a day’s walk. It’s not too far.”
“Okay… and then what?”
“We talk to the adepti.”
“Okay, and… then what?”
“And they…” a pregnant pause. He looked over her shoulder to the mountains in the distance, his
face blank, “I don’t know what they’ll do. I hope they at least challenge us, that would be fun.”
Fun. Right. The Harbinger had an odd idea of what fun meant. She sighed and mirrored his
position with her cheek in her palm and eyes in the distance. His gaze flickered back to her, and his
lips erupted into a sly smile that she tried her best to ignore.
“That’s the plan, now we can move on.”
“To rock throwing techniques?”
Lumine didn’t sound excited in the least for that subject. They were in the country of literal geo
and she, somehow, was not interested in the ancient art of rock throwing. She was basically a
pioneer in it, with how she took out the ruin guards. It was fortunate for her that the Harbinger had
something else entirely on his mind, “So I was looking at your map earlier after I killed that
mitachurl-”
“When did you do that?”
“You were chasing a bird at the time.”
“I see…”
“Anyway,” he put up a hand and chuckled, as if embarrassed, though the sparkle of mischief in
his eyes betrayed the truth, “I saw that you drew a big girly heart over Mondstadt.”
Also, her and Huffman’s initials. She was aware. “I assumed you would be polite enough to not
comment on it.”
He was not. “Is the H for Hufflemon?”
“Huffman!”
“Huffmac.”
She could have killed him. She could reach over the table and smack the smirk off his lips, send
him flying over the side of the railing to his death below. Feeling slightly nauseous, she glanced at
her right where the wooden rails sat between her and ultimate death. It was as if he picked this spot
specifically due to her rather obvious fears.
Asshole. He was a smug asshole. Sighing against the forming headache at the back of her neck,
Lumine buried her nose into her hand and shut her eyes, “I give up. What about Huffman?”
As most things about Childe were, his response was entirely too unpredictable. He straightened in
his seat and sat to attention, eyes wide with curiosity, “What’s he like?”
“Y-You…” she lifted her head, “you want to know about him?”
“He’s your beloved, isn’t he? Why wouldn’t I?”
Technically not. Besides the fact that he did not know she existed, Lumine could also name a
million reasons why Childe should not find anything of interest in her beloved. Yet, if he was
asking, she could oblige. Unable to form her scrambled thoughts, she stared at the walls of the inn
for a moment, as an excuse to not look at the excessively high-up position this table was in.
After a beat of patient silence, she rested her cheek in her hand once more. She watched Paimon
dig into a potted plant and talk to herself, looking for hidden treasures. Lumine’s mind wandered,
and rambled, and ran. Childe was far more patient with her thought process than she would have
assumed.
“He’s…” she tapped her fingers on the table and bit her lip, cheeks growing warm, “he’s kind to
everyone he meets. He’s responsible, he has a steady job. He has nice hair… He’s handsome.
Gosh, sorry, the dam’s broken now.”
Childe leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. He stared at her as if
interviewing her for a job position, “Go on, I don’t mind.”
If he didn’t mind then neither would she. “He’s dedicated to his line of work, and he’s willing to
put himself in danger for the lives of others. He’s tall, and his eyes are like warm chocolate cookies
on a Sunday morning.”
“They’re that nice?”
“You have no idea.”
He apparently did not. He raised a brow as if he was skeptical, but ultimately satisfied with the
description. Sighing, he tipped his chair back and glanced at the horizon of mountains in the
distance, eyes lingering there, “He sounds like a good guy.”
Dramatic, she put her hands over her mouth as her cheeks turned bright red, looking almost as if
she wanted to melt in her seat, “Oh, you have no idea. He’s so good…” looking up with a bashful
smile, the dusting of blush on her cheeks caught the air in his throat and trapped him in place, “He
just doesn’t know I exist, is all. But one day he will. You can’t rush love.”
Deep breaths, Tartaglia. Subtly, he inhaled through his nose, keeping his eyes level with hers, and
exhaled. He needed to reclaim himself from whatever predicament the sight of Lumine blushing
and smiling like the sun itself put him in. With his arms still crossed, he continued to balance on
the back chair legs and attempt to act casual, “You’re right, you can’t. Unless you’re soulmates…”
a wicked grin blooming into fruition on his lips, “I know someone who can tell you.”
Everyone had a price, Granny had to cave into a bribe to lie to Lumine. The plan was beautiful,
perfect, absolutely wonderful. His saving grace, and the silver lining on the clouds. He felt like a
genius, if not for Lumine’s nonchalant shrug, and the words that struck a very particular chord
inside of him, “No, I talked to one the other day, she said my soulmate, or uh starmate, is in Liyue.”
The front legs of his chair smacked back onto the ground. He sat up straight, eyes wide and arms
tense, “Did you already talk to that old woman?”
“Yeah,” now Lumine was the casual one sitting back in her seat, “she told me he was in Liyue,
and our stars were intertwined or something like that. I didn’t listen past that part, though.”
Thank the Tsaritsa. Thank every Archon in Teyvat. She didn’t know.
Relief flooded his body like waves on the shore. He closed his eyes and sighed, running a hand
through his hair. Chuckling, he revelled in the feeling that Lumine had absolutely no idea what was
really happening. “Well, I believe our futures are decided by our actions. You never know what
way the stars will shift.”
“Yeah,” she rested her elbow on the table, “I’m not gonna allow anything like that to control my
life. I’ll marry Huffman one day, and I might even invite you to the wedding.”
A genuine laugh now, something ecstatic lining the tone of his voice from sheer relief, “I’ll try
my best to make it.”
He wouldn’t, but that was besides the point.

“‘You have entered the misty realm of Jueyun. For worldly affairs, return East…’ Lumi, who’s
having an affair?”
The traveler was an absolute mess this early in the morning. Her hair stuck up in odd places, her
socks were on backwards, the flower in her hair remained upside down. She clutched her mug of
coffee closer to her chest and shut her eyes, “It’s not like an affair between two people, it’s a… a
job, or something we have to do. Like, ‘I need to take care of my affairs today’.”
Paimon giggled, “Paimon knows, she just wanted to see if you’re awake.”
“Wonderful.”
Childe watched the interaction with interest. He held his own cup of coffee, though he was far
more awake than the traveler. When asked why he was not a walking zombie, he answered with a
monologue about life in Snezhnaya and how a true warrior was ready to awaken at any time. This
monologue was promptly ignored by both Paimon and Lumine.
Xiangling was kind enough to lend them coffee cups for the journey, made from bamboo and
expected to be promptly returned. Childe’s generous tip last night had sparked some sort of
generosity in the chef as a result. And perhaps it was, also, because Xiangling had traveled with
Lumine before and knew how she was in the mornings. She felt bad for Childe, and the
monstrosities he would witness in the journey ahead.
Though he found that he did not mind it in the least.
First, it was Lumine’s sheer grumpiness. Her grunts and under-the-breath complaints proved to be
a mild amusement, until it became absolutely hilarious when a hilichurl jumped out at her, and she
delivered a swift punch to it’s face.
They had only been in Jeuyun Karst for about 30 seconds by then, and Lumine was already
fighting. Stepping back and inspecting her knuckles, she glared at the monster, “You made me
spill my coffee a little.”
Just a little. The hilichurl earned a kick to the neck no matter how much coffee was spilled.
“Stop looking at Lumi like that,” a tiny shaking fist in his peripheral caught his attention, “what
did Paimon tell you yesterday?”
Keep your disgusting emotions to yourself, sewer troll. He was aware. Taking another sip of
coffee, he watched Lumine step on a hilichurl and dig her heel into it’s wrist, throw back a shot of
her drink, and deliver a kick to it’s ribs. His heart skipped a beat, the wasps in his stomach
returned. “I’m sorry Paimon, but how could I not watch her?”
“Paimon gets it, Lumi is like a war goddess come down to bless humanity with her beauty-”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but-”
“But Mr. Harbinger needs to stop staring like that!”
He sighed, “Like what? You still haven’t told me.”
“Like that!” She hissed and punched his arm, “It’s disgusting!”
He had no idea how he was staring. He thought he was a simple bystander, not gawking at her in
the least. He certainly was not eyeing her bottom or chest, and he was not falling to his knees in
deep love with the woman either. Paimon seemed to be overprotective, when he was simply
watching the show with the amusement of a man in love with the idea of battle.
It was that simple. She stabbed a hilichurl with the jade dagger he gave her, and he sighed in
satisfaction. “This is even better than watching the sunrise.”
Lumine’s ears finally perked to attention. She stood up straight, her coffee now spilled and
discarded on the ground. Glaring, with dark circles under her eyes and the worst bed head he’d ever
seen, she scowled, “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Xiangling had tried to warn him about Lumine in the morning. The sight was better than he
imagined.
She stomped ahead of him down the pathway, shoulders slumped and eyes flat. He jogged to
catch up and stay at her side, “So, printsessa, are you ready for today’s challenge?”
“Challenge?” She rubbed her eyes and frowned, “You’re still challenging me, even after the ruin
guard thing?”
“Yep, and even after… that.” He glanced over his shoulder at the destroyed hilichurl camp, “as
beautiful as that was, I’d like to see you in action with a sword rather than your heels.”
The heels were nice as well, not too high and not too showy, perfect for stomping on monster
necks and kicking in ribs. He could appreciate a woman who knew how to deliver damage without
a weapon, but the slice of her sword was what captured his attention. He’d only gotten a glimpse of
it the other day in Liyue harbor.
Lumine yawned and pushed her bangs back. They stuck up comically, but she could not bring
herself to fix them. She truly was a sight to see in the mornings, with her dark undereye circles and
her killing glares. “What if, hypothetically, I didn’t have a sword? What if all I had were my
appendages?”
“Then that’s perfectly fine. I know you can figure that stuff out,” like how she threw rocks at ruin
guards, and held her coffee in one hand while round-housing hilichurls, “but I’m still curious what
you’ll do in a fight that actually challenges you.”
“So… you want me to fight an adepti?”
Again, an absolutely beautiful thought, but most likely would not be productive for either of them.
He put his hand to his chin in thought, following her down the pathway littered with shattered
houses and overgrown trees. Jeuyun Karst was beautiful, wild and untamed. Lumine passed
through the tendrils of abandoned forestry and mountain as if she were raised there.
He watched her for a moment. She cast a nervous glance to the mountain nearby, grimacing.
Childe did not have many fears, personally, but he preferred to never fight in enclosed spaces. He
didn’t enjoy having to reign himself in so as to not destroy the world around him, which was
exactly why he chose to spar in those places. It was the same logic as him using a bow, if he was
not a master at it, he would work until he could be.
The same must go for Lumine. He was a kind man, generous, caring; he would help Lumine
overcome her weaknesses, just as he helped himself.
“Today’s challenge,” a wicked grin that drew both Paimon and the traveler’s immediate ire, “is to
fight a mitachurl.”
She turned to face him with an arrogant huff, “That’s no big deal.”
So she said. He knew that she would react that way. Holding up a finger, he tilted his head, “But,
you’ll fight one on… that mountain.”
That mountain not being a true mountain at all, but rather a large hill. It was still rocky and steep
enough to steal the color from Lumine’s cheeks as she followed his finger. That hill, that height,
that particular spot in the distance where she spotted a camp of relaxing hilichurls.
Childe had a good eye. She caught the shape of a mitachurl shifting against his wooden shield. It
was not the size, or the sounds, or the strength of such a beast that scared her about this challenge,
it was the location. Childe picked the nearest cliff, with the camp of monsters sitting right on the
edge. One swing from the mitachurl’s shield, and she would fly off the side.
Her fingers shook. Her knees grew weak at the thought. She could remember her first time falling
as if it was yesterday, endless wind rushing up past her ears and deafening her to every other sense.
The wings ripped from her back still ached with phantom pain. And she awoke without Aether at
her side.
She looked at the Harbinger. He smiled innocently, and she could not help the flicker of rage in
her chest. Aether would not refuse, Aether would not be terrified by such a challenge. Aether would
accept it with grace, and blow his expectations out of the water.
“Fine, but if I fall and die, you’re the one scraping my body off the rocks.”
He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled, closing his eyes and tilting his head, “I wouldn’t have
it any other way. Now go on, comrade, show me what you’ve got.”
Comrade. She’d heard the Fatui call each other that in Mondstadt before. The rage simmered
away as she perked up, “I’m your comrade?”
“If you don’t disappoint me, then sure, we’ll be the best comrades there ever were.”
The best comrades there ever were. She could not help but laugh at the cheesiness of it all,
“Okay, fine. If I don’t disappoint, then you’re stuck with me as your comrade.”
His eyes widened in mock surprise, “You’d want to be stuck at my side?”
Lumine’s gaze flattened in an instant, “I want you to pay for Paimon’s meals, her four stomachs
really dry my wallet out.”
“I can do that.”
“And,” another haughty correction and confident smile, one that locked him into place and froze
the world around him, “I want you to help me with something.”
That was interesting. That had to be one of the most interesting things she’d ever said. In the day
of travel so far, never had Lumine asked him for anything. He, already, thought her predictable, far
too arrogant to allow help from others. His curiosity flickered into life, “And that is?”
“I hate to ask the Fatui,” she grimaced into the distance, “but I need help finding someone, and I
imagine your group’s, uh… diplomacy stretches rather far.” Lumine looked as if she despised the
words spilling from her lips, “the truth is, I cannot find him on my own.”
“...Who?”
Lumine shot him a sly grin, “I’ll tell you after I absolutely blow your mind.”
Before he could argue further, Lumine broke into a run. He watched as she sprinted up the hill
and flexed her hand at her side. Out of thin air, her sword precipitated into her hand and moved into
action at the first glance of a poor hilichurl. One could not even scream before Lumine delivered a
smooth gash to it’s chest.
Paimon had disappeared moments ago, disgusted with the idea of more challenges. Childe smiled
and walked up the hill to the edge of the cliff where Lumine promptly kicked a hilichurl off. She
ducked under an arrow, and lunged to impale her assailant. The mitachurl behind her reared up for
a dash attack.
He could warn her, but she did not need it. As quick as could be, she dodged the dash and stuck
the mitachurl in the back, abandoning her sword in it’s thick hide for a moment to pick an
abandoned club off the ground and bash it over the head of it’s previous owner. In another flash,
her sword was retrieved, and flying at the wooden shield in her attempts to break it apart.
“Come on,” she yelled over the chaos, sending him yet another smile that froze him in place - she
was good at doing that, almost as if she had cryo that affected only him. “I know you don’t want to
just stand there!”
He didn’t. She already knew him well.
He summoned his bow and notched a hydro arrow, closing one eye as he aimed for the
mitachurl’s head. A clean shot, and Lumine was lining the beast up perfectly for him. It was as if
she read his mind. “You sure don’t disappoint, girlie.”
Her breath was ragged from the excitement of battle, “So are we comrades? Are you going to
help me?”
“I’m forever…” he exhaled and let the arrow loose, watching it tear through the air and lodge
itself in the mitachurl’s skull, “I’m forever in your service, my printsessa.”
She laughed and pointed the end of her sword at him, just freshly ripped from the chest of a
monster. Her hair was wild, her dress was wrinkled and messy. Her smile made her eyes shine in a
way he’d never be able to forget. She knocked the air out of his lungs, and he felt as if he would
stay breathless forevermore.
“You’re stuck with me, Childe. Remember that.”
Dear Archon. He realized it like a punch to the face. He might, actually, be stuck with her.
This could not be happening.

Moon Carver
Unfortunately, it was happening.
It took an hour to walk to the spot where Lumine would meet Moon Carver. Her tired morning
mood began to clear as the sun began to shine, and far less hilichurls were stepped on during the
journey. Childe kept at her side as they walked in comfortable, after-battle silence, imagining what
these ancient beings would be like.
It turned out that the adepti were not very interesting at all. Childe was sure he once had jerky
made from something that looked like Moon Carver.
And it was all well and good until the deer opened his mouth.
“You are aware, Harbinger, that that woman is your starmate, correct?”
He froze. His entire body felt as if it had been encompassed in ice. Every drop of blood in his
system tingled with sheer anger and rage at the words that barely reached his ears. Lumine ran
ahead to meet the Millelith tracking her, if he had not lingered behind, then the talking deer would
not be saying such disgusting things.
Looking over his shoulder, he forced a tense smile, “You think so?”
The deer opened his mouth as if he was laughing. He tossed his head around as the battle raged
ahead of him, Lumine entirely out of earshot. “Go in peace. Your future is already set in the stars,
Ajax.”
Wonderful. He desperately needed to kill something to let off some steam.

Mountain Shaper
Lumine insisted upon using the trail to go up the mountain. She would not climb the rocks, even
though they were faster, and Childe was stuck at her side as they walked up this absolutely boring
pathway through the mountain.
He played along with Lumine’s plan to convince the terrified man that they were messengers. He
threatened to kill him for his insolence - which was incredibly fun - and promptly assisted her in
breaking apart the amber chambers to find this man’s brother. It was after that, that Mountain
Shaper appeared to him.
Childe would have to make notes of the appearances of the various adeptus. They were all
animals, and rather boring ones at that. He hunted a bird that looked like Mountain Shaper once, it
was for his parent’s anniversary dinner. It was delicious.
“Human,” the bird seemed to spit out it’s words, catching Childe mid-step as he turned to follow
Lumine down the path. She was escorting the terrified men to the bottom of the path where it was
safer, not having seen that Mountain Shaper appeared. “I have choice words for you and that
woman’s insolence… but to end the lives of two souls made for each other, I could not live with
that dishonor.”
Two souls made for each other.
It was difficult to not be snarky to an ancient god. Desperately, he wanted to cut him down for
being the second adeptus to bring this up.
“Lumi,” annoyed, he called down the path, “I found Mountain Shaper, come back up here.”
“Okay, hold on!”
The bird threw its beak up in arrogance and stared him down with beady black eyes. He met its
gaze, hoping that it could read his anger as easily as it read his future. “Explain yourself, human!
You and your starmate have trespassed on this sacred land and undermined a divine punishment!”
Him and his starmate. He, definitely, was going to start hunting more birds that looked like that.
Cloud Retainer
Cloud Retainer was far more tactful about the stars.
Perhaps Childe was in a good mood from helping Lumine cook three dishes, or perhaps it was the
fire pillar puzzle and how he made her angry by not listening to her instructions. Neither of them
had pyro, so they relied on matches, with Childe lighting them, and Lumine telling him which ones
to light. It went as well as one would think.
He was in a good mood, at least, until Cloud Retainer - also a bird - informed him, very haughtily,
of the state of his constellation. “Your future is deeply intertwined with that girl. But I sense… a
denial inside of you.”
A bird was trying to be his therapist. He could have laughed from the sheer frustration of it all.
Fortunately, as it had been happening all day, Lumine was out of earshot from the conversation.
She was attempting to grab Paimon from some chaotic trap she’d gotten herself into, while Childe
spoke with the fancy, arrogant bird, and was informed for what felt like the millionth time that day
that: he was wrong, and Lumine was his soulmate.
It was depressing, in a way. He found that he could not argue with the adeptus this time. He could
hardly bring himself to glare.
Wangshu Inn
It was two days of travel through Jeuyun Karst for the trio, two days of fighting monster camps,
and two days of Lumine avoiding every mountain in her way. Childe did not think about work even
once during the journey.
It was a modern day miracle of a whole other type. Simply because Childe, now, could not deny
it any longer.
Lumine is his soulmate. That much is for sure. To ignore the words of the adepti would be to
ignoring the universe itself, and he was not dumb enough to do that. Yet, Childe was determined,
and if the universe decided who he would love, he would fight against that tooth and nail. His
future is his own.
How could he possibly conquer the world with his strength if he had to watch over Lumine all the
time? It just didn’t work.
She walked ahead of him on the road, Paimon at her shoulder and her dress swinging around her
knees. It was later in the evening, when Lumine seemed to have the most energy. From the last two
days of camping in Jeuyun Karst, Childe quickly discovered that she was not a morning person.
He also discovered several items of interest that would be reported to the Tsaritsa upon immediate
return. Several of them being what kind of food Lumine likes - very salty meat - and her weakness
for pretty flowers, fighting mitachurls (she enjoyed taunting them) and searching through
abandoned houses.
Aside from the basics, her battle sense was spectacular, and she enjoyed doing fancy tricks with
her sword. Childe attempted to tell her that she should not do fancy tricks with sharp weapons, but
he quickly grew to learn that Lumine had zero interest in listening to him.
Absolutely zero. Her exact words were, in fact, ‘you’re crazy, Harbinger, I know how to use a
sword’.
Wangshu inn appeared as a silhouette in the distance, as it always did. The edge of Jeuyun Karst
neared with a sense of relief from Lumine, who seemed glad to be away from the mountains.
Childe found that he enjoyed the mountains, the weather was far less stifling.
Lumine was a good camping buddy as well. She prepared well, she set up a tent well, and she
started campfires well. She didn’t snore at night, and she didn’t stab him in his sleep, which he was
appreciative of. By the time he, Lumine, and Paimon exited the boundaries of Jeuyun Karst, the
feeling between them was something terribly casual, and absolutely horrendously comfortable.
As if they were two centimeters away from friendship. So close that he could almost touch it.
“Was it just me, or was Cloud Retainer like… kind of a badass?”
He thought for a moment. He didn’t know if he could consider a bird in that context. He’d seen
weirder in his life, but did feel the slightest bit nauseous that she spoke into his mind, as if she saw
every inch of him. The adepti made him feel naked and exposed.
Besides that, each one of them had said exactly what he did not want to hear. “Why do you say
that?”
Lumine slowed in her pace to take the spot at his side as they walked, “I just respect a woman that
builds her own house. I think I would do the same, and anyone who entered must face trials of
strength before we speak.”
“So,” he imagined it for a moment, “let’s say I come over for dinner-“
“What’re we having?”
“What?”
“What’re we having for this hypothetical dinner?”
“Oh, well… I’ll go out to sea, first of all, and catch 100 crabs.”
“Crabs?”
Ahead of them, Paimon groaned, “Crabs sound good right about now.”
They did. Lumine seemed to live off solely meat and mushroom skewers. “So imagine a 100 of
them. I’ll cook a hundred buttered crabs for our dinner together.”
“Alright, so,” she resisted the urge to laugh as they walked on, “you come to my home with 100
crabs, you’ve got to fight a battle and solve a puzzle before I even speak to you. When you finally
get through it all, me and Huffman and our two adorable children make you answer a very cryptic
riddle.”
“I’m cooking all of these crabs for your family and you still make me answer a riddle?”
“I can’t make exceptions for friends.”
Friends. That’s what they felt like now, friends who told dumb jokes and shared stories and
fought monsters together.
It was almost as if he placed another brick on his wall, making it just the slightest bit higher.
Crossing his arms and sighing, he looked at the road ahead, “I don’t really have friends, to be
honest.”
If Lumine was hurt, she did not show it. “There’s nobody in the Fatui you’d call a friend?”
“They’re coworkers.”
“Back in Sneznhaya?”
Not in Morepesok, not at Zapolyarny palace. The Tsaritsa was kind to him like a friend, but he
would not dare consider her as such. The other Harbingers didn’t care much for him, and he felt
nothing in return.
He sighed in thought, “I’ve got my brothers, but they’re still… you know, my brothers.”
Lumine stiffened at the word. She glanced away and exhaled a soft breath into the warm air, the
moon above shining down on her skin. She was ethereal at night, that was another thing he’d
notice during their camping trip. “I kind of feel the same, or felt I guess. My brother was my only
friend for so long, but now I have a lot more. It’s nice, even if I miss him a lot.”
“Oh? You’ve never told me about your brother.”

Childe liked to think he didn’t have much of a conscience. He didn’t enjoy needless slaughter of
innocents, lying, or manipulation, but he never lost sleep when he did have to do those things. His
morals and preferences were not so strict that they poked and prodded at him, but the line he cast
out for her did.
She had to know that nothing she told a Harbinger was confidential. She was naive, but not
stupid.
“Aether,” she cast him a smile, “he’s my twin. Bet you never guessed that there was another one
of me around.”
He rolled his eyes and thought of how he just watched her try to catch fish with her bare hands,
“There’s no one quite like you, Lumi.”
“And don’t you forget it! My big brother is positively boring compared to me!”
Her big brother. So she was the little one, if only by minutes or hours. She nearly matched
Teucer’s energy and penchant for dramatics, he could imagine being in Aether’s shoes, “Is that
who you want the Fatui to look for?”
She deflated like a balloon. He’d seen that look in her eyes, barely hidden behind the arrogant
compensation. Now, she wore it on her shoulders like a shawl. “Yes, how did you know?”
“You got this look on your face when you mentioned him,” he explained casually, “It was just a
wild guess.”
“A damn good guess… if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you have extra info on me!”
If she didn’t know any better. Ahead of them, Paimon shot a glare over her shoulder, echoing
Childe’s exact thoughts. Lumine was far too trusting, so much so that it was worrying. He
wondered what would happen if he were not the Harbinger in Liyue, if it was Scaramouche or
Dottore. She’d most likely be six feet under by this time. Which, obviously, would be far easier for
him if that had happened.
That was an idea, a possibility, an option. As much as he disliked killing those who don’t deserve
it, especially those who could help him grow stronger, there were times it was simply necessary.
Perhaps, one day, it would come to that point with Lumine.
“You know,” the traveler interrupted his thoughts with a sudden sigh, “you’re pretty depressing.
It really bums me out that you don’t have any friends.”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Paimon freeze mid-float, and whip around to face their
conversation with wide eyes. Ignoring the fairy, he put his hands on his hips and smiled, “Sorry to
bum you out, it’s not like I mean to.”
“Lumi…” a warning, “don’t do what Paimon thinks you’re about to do…”
Whatever it was continued to go promptly ignored. Lumine mirrored his stance and took a step
towards him, lifting her face to meet his eyes and grin. She smelled of lavender.
“I’ll be your friend.”
Paimon was on her in an instance. Hair was pulled and ears pinched. A squeal escaped the
traveler as she attempted to fight the imp off her head, “Paimon told you to stop being so trusting!
What did Paimon say?”
Childe could not stop smiling. Her words did not come as a surprise, she was so incredibly
predictable, yet they still had their desired effect. He threw his head back and laughed as Paimon
assaulted her, “You should listen to Paimon.”
“No!” That seemed to be her favorite word, now yelled amidst certain chaos buzzing around her
head, “If he wanted to kill me, he would've done it by now!” Grabbing ahold of Paimon, she held
her little body still in her hands, “Just look at him. He’s pitiful, he needs a friend like me.”
She looked. Childe raised a hand in greeting. Whipping back to face Lumine, she whispered, “He
is kind of pitiful…”
“Look how lonely he is… how sad…”
“Yeah Mister sewer troll is kind of… depressing, in a way.”
“I can hear you both.”
Lumine put a hand to her mouth to cover her smile, though her eyes shined with unconcealed
amusement, “Hm, I bet what the adepti said to him were all insults. Like, when I was away and
they spoke to him,” she shared a grin with Paimon, “they probably told him how much of a loser
he is.”
“Ooh,” the fairy nearly fell backwards from laughter, “they were probably like ‘hey loser you
smell like mold and you’re moist all the time!’”
He was not moist all the time. Neither of them chose to believe him.
Despite the laughter at his expense, he could not help but join in. He was the middle child of his
family, the older and the younger one, Ajax was no stranger to teasing. Lumine’s attention warmed
over him like a campfire in a blizzard. Partly from the sound of her laugh and the shine in her eyes,
and partly from the knowledge of what the adepti truly said.
It was funny, almost, how wrong she was. This woman had no idea of her future, of her stars and
whose they connected to.
Childe could not help it any longer. Sighing, he summoned his bow and pointed the end at her,
making her freeze in place with wide eyes, “Spar with me, won’t you?”
Her sword was in her hand before he could take another breath. His heart skipped a beat, Paimon
rolled her eyes, and Lumine took a fighting stance, “You’re on, loser.”
He had to do something about those wasps in his stomach, and the way her smile squeezed every
inch of air out of him. He had to do something to stop this nonsense in it’s path, and to never think
of it again.
Huffman was his only hope.
Huffman & Lumine
“So, the last adepti is at the Wangshu inn… huh, I didn’t think adepti would want room service.”
Lumine laughed at herself, “I wonder why he can’t have his own place, did he get kicked out?
Couldn’t pay rent?”
“It must be that.” Childe nodded along, “It’s rather difficult to be poor, isn’t it?”
“Oh, shut up.”
Another laugh, one of the hundreds they shared that night. Lumine was far too easy to be with - if
one could look past the wall of pride and determination surrounding her at all times. Fortunately,
Childe also had a wall of pride and determination surrounding him. The resulting effect of their
company on each other ended with both walls cancelling out, and a weird sense of comfort laying
over them like warm blankets in front of a fire.
Lumine walked ahead of him down the road. As she crossed over a bridge, she pulled herself up
on the side and balanced on the thin railing. She stretched out her arms like a child, “This has been
fun, thanks for not stabbing me in the back yet.”
He laughed, “Metaphorically, or physically?”
“Physically,” her balance tottered as she glanced over her shoulder at him, “I’m not sure about
metaphorically yet. I may be comfortable with you, but that does not change your occupation.”
This woman was a bundle of mysteries. He took her hand to give her more balance on the railing,
his glove unable to smother out the warmth from her fingers. She stared down at her feet and
smiled as she took another wobbly step across the handrails, using him as her leverage. “You’re
very wise to remember that, but we are comrades. now”
“I’m friends with everybody,” she frowned at her feet, “but that doesn’t mean the entire world
knows everything about me.”
And it did not mean just anyone could get through the walls she built, not even him. He was
observant enough to tell that she had not broken them down yet, even if she had shown him her
super secret sword tricks - which were as impressive as they sounded. Even with the layer of
comfort surrounding them, both of their guards remained up.
Still holding his hand, she stretched out her leg and wobbled forth on the railing. He felt as if he
was escorting an old woman across the street, an old woman who snickered and smirked down at
him, “I’m taller than you right now.”
“Not for long.”
“Don’t you da-”
Childe wasn’t sure what he was doing. Perhaps it was some sort of embarrassing big brother
mentality, or perhaps he found a new hobby in disputing everything Lumine said. Nonetheless, he
wrapped his arms around her waist and picked up from the railing, twirling her around against his
chest. She buried her face into his shoulder and bit down through the material of his jacket, her
hands gripping his arms. She was like a dog, just a bit of roughhousing earns her teeth to his skin.
She truly was feral.
Laughing, he set her down and she stumbled away dizzily. The frown on her face held no true
anger, despite her attempts to glare murderously. “Y-You shouldn’t just grab people, I could have
easily killed you just then!”
He steadied her, “A true warrior must always be prepared for a surprise attack.”
“True warrior my ass!” She hit his shoulder and huffed, “You’re just jealous that I was taller for a
minute!”
“Hm… A true warrior never gets jealous.”
“You’re annoying!”
“Did you...” he glanced at his shoulder, “did you try to bite me again?”
She did. He hated doing laundry, it was such a tedious chore. And Lumine really dug her teeth in.
She grinned and brushed past him, “That was a warning, next time I’ll stab you.”
Childe could not help but believe it. Shaking his head, smiling, he followed after her towards the
Wangshu inn. The sun had been stolen away by night, and the world was quickly turning into a
calm dark blue. It was amazing to him how the evenings in Liyue looked. In Sneznhaya the night
was pitch black, inky and thick with something unknown. Liyue suited him well, he thought. He
would not be there for a very long time, but he would enjoy what little he did in the region of geo,
even if the air was a bit too warm for his tastes. The food was good, the city was fun and lively,
and the people were polite. And it had the Oceanid - he adored the Oceanid.
Childe and Lumine walked through the receiving area of the inn, heading to the elevator to await
it’s arrival. As it lowered, he took a step back, the sound of his movement catching her attention.
She looked at him with curious eyes, tilting her head, “Don’t tell me you’re stabbing me now, of all
times?”
“No,” he put up a surrendering hand, “not at all. But I can’t go any further with you.”
She nearly pouted, catching herself last minute and masking her expression with blankness,
“Okay, I do appreciate your help, though. I think the adepti all liked you more than me.”
The adepti simply wanted to push his buttons and bully him into realizing something he
desperately wished he didn’t know. He wouldn’t consider that liking him. “No problem, Lumi, I’m
happy to have helped. Just tell me about the fourth adeptus when I get back.”
“Where are you going?” She ignored the elevator as it touched down for a minute, now facing
him fully with curious eyes.
He could not possibly tell her ‘hey I’m going to Mondstadt to convince Huffman to wife you’.
She’d cut out his tongue and feed it to dogs for even thinking such an idea. He faked a smile and
stuffed his hands into his pockets, trying to look casual, “Nowhere special, just a Fatui thing.”
“Just a Fatui thing...” she narrowed her eyes, though without Paimon floating at her shoulder the
effect was far less suspicious-looking, and more so like she needed glasses. Paimon acted as her
distrusting side, without the pixie the threat in her words had trouble coming to fruition. “Am I
allowed to ask?”
“Nope! Not unless…”
Now she truly did need Paimon. She had gone ahead about an hour ago to zip back to Wangshu
inn and order all the food she could get. She seemed to trust Childe enough to leave him alone with
Lumine. He found that sweet, in a way, even if it was dumb. Lumine attempted to look even more
suspicious with her hands on her hips and her lips twisted thoughtfully, “Unless what?”
“Unless…” a pause for anticipation, “...you tell me why you were looking to meet the Geo archon
in the first place.”
Her brows furrowed as if she was confused that he would even ask such a simple question. “Oh,
well… I mainly wanted to warn Rex Lapis about his gnosis being stolen like Venti’s.”
“And that’s all?”
“No,” another sigh as she turned towards the elevator, “but you haven’t unlocked backstory
privileges yet.”
He slid up to lean against the railing beside her, “And how do I do that?”
“You won’t.”
“I bet I will.”
“I bet you won’t.”
Lumine had a habit of being wrong about the simplest of things. He did not need her to tell him
why she wanted to meet the archon, he had spies who were perfectly suited for finding that
information - his polite question had simply been one option for her. Sighing, he pushed off the
railing as she stepped into the elevator, “I’ll be back in a few days. Meet me in Liyue harbor, and
we’ll try to figure out how to get you to see Rex Lapis."
“You’re sweet,” she smiled sardonically, “whatever would I do without you?”

“Oh, you’ll survive somehow.”
She would have no other choice to. Lumine watched the scenery pass her by as the elevator lifted.
Childe was left behind below, watching her ascent with a smile she could not read. It was a rare
moment that Lumine was okay with being high up, if there was a wall between her and the long fall
down.
She stepped off and made her way to the boss behind the counter. Paimon’s shouting could be
heard from the kitchens below where Xiangling temporarily cooked. If she and Childe were parting
ways, she would ask Xiangling to go back to Liyue with her and make sure she did not get lost
along the road. She certainly would irritate her less than Childe.
Sighing, she approached the counter and scratched the cat, making small talk until she could
finally bring up the subject of the adeptus. Her mind lingered on the Harbinger, what he might be
doing, and what his intentions were.
But he was helping her, at least, and that was all she could ask for. She would accept even the
Fatui’s help for finding Aether and dispersing the brewing storm in Teyvat. She would do whatever
it took.
Childe was not looking forward to meeting Huffman.
The journey to Mondstadt took three days on foot, even with the necessary shortcuts and the lack
of battalions to feed. He found, though, that the journey alone might have been exactly what he
needed to clear his mind. It was as if with every mile he drew closer to Mondstadt, a window had
opened just a crack more, letting the smoke out of the room. He could think clearly, he knew what
the future lay in store clearly, and he knew who he was very clearly.
Tartaglia, 11th of the Fatui Harbingers, was going to get this job over with and forget about
Lumine forever. It did not matter if they were becoming comrades, friends in arms, or even the
slightest bit comfortable with each other. He was not a terribly sentimental man when it came to
matters other than his family, and he could easily let go of the doe-eyed, blonde woman who
stomped her way into his life.
This was all for work. He reminded himself as he traveled: this is all for work. He would find
Huffman, somehow convince him to go to Liyue, Huffman would take Lumine to Mondstadt, and
then Childe could figure out the nonsense going on with Rex Lapis in peace.
He would need a vacation after this. Perhaps a trip out to sea for a while, he’d always enjoyed the
feeling of the freezing Sneznhayan water on his cheeks.
The country of wine and dandelions lived up to it’s name. He had visited it once before on a
mission, but never spent much time there. It was far more flat, with the mountains being more of a
backdrop than a true feature of the land. With rolling plains and a lake that gleamed blue in the
afternoon sun, he found himself craving the famous dandelion wine. Perhaps he and Huffman
would hit it off and share a bottle, if he was so wonderfully interesting as Lumine described him to
be.
Childe traveled through Wolvendome, past Dawn Winery where he spent the night, and arrived in
Mondstadt late in the evening of the next day. It was positively quaint compared to Liyue’s bustle,
with nearly empty streets by 11 p.m. and hardly any vendors still open for the day. The guards cast
him suspicious glances as he passed by, but he ignored any eyes lingering on the delusion pinned
to his chest.
He caught a knight of Favonius passing by for a late evening patrol. “Excuse me,” a brilliant
smile laced thickly with saccharine friendliness, “Could you tell me where the Goth hotel is?”
The knight was a big bellied man with blonde hair. He grimaced, looking him up and down for a
moment before muttering, “Right. More Fatui, that’s exactly what we need… Okay,” he sighed
heavily, “go up the stairs to the third level, and it’s to the East. You’ll see some of your kind up
there.”
“Thanks,” he set a small pouch of coins in his hands, “your diplomacy and cooperation are much
appreciated.”
The knight attempted to not look pleased by the bribe, “Yeah, whatever…”
The third level, higher up in town, towards the East. He knew where to avoid now if he wanted to
bypass having to explain his reasons for being in Mondstadt to Pantalone. He wasn’t quite in the
mood to deal with his coworkers.
Childe walked as if he owned the streets. He took the steps two at a time, not sparing a glance to
the man searching for coin in the fountain, or the drunkard sitting at a restaurant table. Down an
alley on his right laughter and music reached his ears, illuminated by the golden glow of lights. It
had to be a bar, most likely the only place open for the night owls of Mondstadt. Sticking close to
the wall, he made his way to the light like a moth to a flame. A tavern open after dark, it had to be
the most patrolled part of the city by the knights of Favonius.
Chairs and tables were scattered about the front. Several glares were directed to the Snezhnayan
style of his clothes, the vision at his belt and the delusion on his chest. It was not very well hidden,
who or what he was associated with. Diplomacy and trust was far more cared about in Mondstadt
than in Liyue. They had little interest in contacts and gain, but rather how the Fatui made them feel.
Which was terrified, obviously. He smiled in return as warmly as he possibly could.
It would be just his luck that Huffman slept at night and did patrols in the mornings. He’d have no
choice but to either camp out, or to visit Pantalone for a room. He despised the latter option, any
opportunity to be away from the other Harbingers was a good thing for him.
Taking a seat towards the corner, he crossed his leg over his knee and tapped his fingers on the
table. Several of the patrons shifted their bodies away from him, continuing to go ignored as he
kept his eye out for a knight. Lumine had said, very specifically, that Huffman had eyes like warm
chocolate chip cookies on a Sunday. The only problem was that he wasn’t sure what those looked
like - perhaps she meant they were delicious, which was a whole other category of weird he would
not have expected from the traveler.
A knight walked by who was rather short, and very blond. Not Huffman. Another knight patrolled
the area, but he was far too old for Lumine - not that he’d judge her if she was into older men.
Sighing, he rested his cheek in his palm and closed his eyes. The journey had tired him out, but not
enough to go to Pantalone for a room. He needed to be back in Liyue soon, preferably with
Huffman not far behind.
The sound of approaching boots caught his attention, coming closer, and closer through the quiet
street until a wall of dark clothes stood at his table. Childe sat up and smiled to inspect the
newcomer. Brown-ish eyes. They weren’t what he’d call warm chocolate cookies, but they were
brown. And his hair was nice, long and bushy and thick. He looked like the kind of man women
might call ‘handsome’.
“Huffman?”
The glare on his face squeezed even tighter. He narrowed his eyes, lips turning down into a
mildly disgusted scowl. “Diluc.”
Childe’s high hopes dropped to the ground. He slumped, resting his cheek in his palm again, “I
see. Well, if you ever become Huffman, give me a call.”
“You’re a Harbinger.”
It wasn’t a question. Childe resisted the urge to be snarky, “I am, the 11th. Tartaglia,” he offered a
hand that went unshook, “or Childe, if you prefer. And you…”
And he looked like the kind of guy Childe would happily leave Lumine with. He might keep her
feral-ness at bay, and judging by the glare he wore he would keep her far away from any Fatuu.
That was exactly what Childe needed, someone to babysit his soulmate while he tended to far more
important matters.
He finished with a friendly smile, and pulled his hand away, “And you look really angry. Did I
take your seat? Sorry about that.”
Childe made no move to get up. Diluc did not either, standing over the table and crossing his arms
with a glare that could kill. A pyro vision hung from his belt. Childe could almost feel the heat
coming off him in waves.
Perhaps it was nature, the way of the universe and the flow of the world. Perhaps it was the
simple fact that water and fire could not coexist. Historically, hydro users and pyro users did not
get along. In Childe's experience, the battles between them were not even fun to attempt. It would
be like a sauna with the massive amounts of vapor created from fighting a good pyro user.
Diluc sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Listen. We don’t need another one of you here,
Pantalone’s already got the whole city on edge. I don’t know what you’re planning-”
“Huffman,” Childe interrupted, impatient and having heard this speech far too many times in his
line of work, “I’m looking for a knight of Favonius named Huffman. Once I talk to him, I’ll leave.
Trust me, this isn’t related to- well, it isn’t directly related to the Fatui.”
Diluc stared at him in angry bewilderment. Tilting his head, the tensity in his shoulders grew,
“Why do you want to speak to him? I’m no fan of the knights, but I dislike the Fatui even more.”
“Join the club,” he leaned back in his chair lazily, “I’m doing a favor for someone, my friend
Lumine. You might know her-”
There was no chance to finish the explanation, Diluc was into action immediately. Gasps and
screams erupted into the air as he summoned his claymore and held it to Childe’s neck, eyes
furious. Patrons scrambled away in fear, while the Harbinger merely stared.
His blood began to boil with excitement. His muscles tensed. His heart raced. Diluc was fast for
using a two-handed sword, but Childe knew that he was faster. He dug his fingers into his palm in
a weak attempt to hold himself back from what every cell in his body urged him to do. He could
not fight Diluc just yet.
With the tip of the blade at his neck, he sat back comfortably, looking unbothered. “Something
wrong?”
Diluc was nearly growling, “What have you done with Lumine?”
“Absolutely nothing, thank goodness. Except speak to her, if that counts.”
The tip dug further into his skin. His heart raced in his ears, and he could not help the smile
blooming onto his lips. Diluc’s glare deepened as he ignored the yells of a knight calling for back
up behind him, “What’s your motive with her?”
Once again, absolutely nothing, nothing that would hurt her at least. He put his hands up, smiling,
“I’m trying to find Huffman so he’ll date her, then that’ll keep her out of Fatui business in Liyue.”
A pregnant pause. Diluc’s eyes widened. He blinked once, then again. His lips dropped into a
confused frown, rather than a murderous scowl. “You’re telling the truth, aren’t you?”
He was. His eyes did not flicker around even a little bit. “Plus, she’s my friend. Can’t I do
something nice for a friend?”
He pulled the sword back and let it disappear into thin air, “Why do you keep saying she’s your
friend?”
“Because she is,” Childe shrugged nonchalantly, “she told me just a few days ago that she was my
friend, and that I was stuck with her forever.”
The sudden groan caught him by surprise. Diluc buried his face into his hand and scowled,
shoulders slumping and eyes shut closed. He looked, and sounded, like an older brother bemoaning
the mistakes of his little sister. Childe knew that face. He wore the same expression every time
Tonia announced she had a new boyfriend.
“I keep telling her… Dammit,” he was muttering under his breath, “I keep telling her to stop
trying to make friends with everybody she meets.”
“I think it’s charming,” Childe retorted, “but ultimately, a distraction for our little job in Liyue. If
I could just get this Huffman fellow to keep her busy for a while…”
“Why? So you can destroy millions of lives?”
Not exactly. No lives were to be taken in this plan, if everything worked out well. The city of
Liyue might even prosper afterwards. “No, so that she’ll leave me alone so I can take a vacation in
a monster filled ruin.”
“Sounds fun,” his tone was laced with sarcasm, unamused at the cheeky Harbinger sitting at his
table, “you’ll have to find Huffman on your own, though, I refuse to help your kind.”
“Understandable. He’s probably already on his way,” Childe peered around his body to catch the
night guards running through the alleys, “with you pulling out your sword, and all. Thanks for
that.”
The glare returned, “If I hear of you and your kind hurting Lumine in any way, I will hunt you
down.”
“Why? Are you in love with her?”

“Not in the least,” he offered a humorless laugh, “but I know that she’s far more scared of this
world than she lets on.”
Childe narrowed his eyes as the lust for battle returned. His muscles tensed and his fingers dug
into his arms, desperate to lunge at something worthy of a fight. His knee bounced with energy as
he tried to subtly exhale the feeling away, “Lumi doesn’t need you to be her white knight.”
“She doesn’t need you either,” it was another threat, with narrowed eyes and tense hands. Childe’s
lips parted in surprise as Diluc went on, “Everytime you mention Huffman, you look angry. Care to
share why?”
Dammit. “...Not in the least.”
A hesitant group of knights gathered behind Diluc. He ignored their presence and took a step
back, letting a tense silence fill the air between them. Childe’s eyes met his in an unwavering glare.
He hadn’t wanted to fight this bad in ages.
“Once you’re done with your business here, get out of Mondstadt and don’t come back.”
“Fine,” he retorted almost casually, “it’s a deal. If I do come back, though, I expect a good fight
out of it.”
It was a shame that he didn’t have time then. Another spark of anger flashed between the men, a
confrontation inching so close that he could almost smell it. The invisible idea of Lumine was the
only thing keeping their hands from summoning their swords. Diluc and Childe both knew:
Lumine would wipe the floor with their asses if they tried to kill each other.
That almost sounded fun. He was tempted to start a fight just for the sake of seeing Lumine
angry.
Stiffly, Diluc turned and walked back into his tavern. The customers sitting outside had cleared
by now, leaving Childe alone with the group of nervous knights. He sighed and ran a hand through
his hair as the lust for battle in his chest began to calm.
The only knight that did not hesitate to meet his eyes stepped up. He was tall, brown hair and
brown eyes, wearing his armor with pride, like Childe wore his delusion. On anybody else, his
posture and the lift of his chin would look arrogant, but this man simply looked knightly. There
was no other way to describe it.
“Is there a problem here?”
Childe gestured to the door Diluc just slammed, “Ask him, he’s the local.”
He furrowed his brows for a moment, “Master Diluc should not take these things into his own
hands. I see you are a Fatuu,” his voice held no malice, just blank observance, “but we’ve not met
before. It is an honor,” he bowed shortly, “I am Huffman, a knight of Favon-”
Childe was out of his seat in an instant. He grabbed him by his shoulders, cutting off his
introduction with wide eyes and an excited gasp. “You’re Huffman?”
“Y-Yes, I don’t underst-”
“You’re…” he took a closer look, “You’re Huffman?"
"Y-Yes?"
This man was positively boring.
His hair was perfectly put into place, perfectly sculpted onto his perfectly chiseled face. His eyes
were warm like chocolate chip cookies, but they held nothing of interest. He was of average height,
average build, and was, generally, a good looking man with a stable job.
Which was perfectly fine for any other woman. But this was Lumine.
Lumine, who stole his dagger and snuck into his office at night. Lumine, who sparred with him so
fervently that she glowed like an angel with a weapon in her hands. Lumine, who stepped on the
necks of hilichurls and punched cryo mages in the face.
And Huffman. Huffman? Huffman. Childe could not say anything about the man.
Perhaps he was more interesting once one got to know him. Sitting down, Childe pulled out the
chair across from him, “Sit, please, we’ve got many things to discuss.”
Bewildered and mildly offended, Huffman simply glanced over his shoulder at the group of
knights following him, “It’ll be fine, return to your posts please.” With a myriad of glares and
concerned gazes, the knights dispersed their separate ways. Huffman sat down as if he was afraid
the chair would explode. “What is it? If you wish to speak to the acting Grandmaster, then I’m sure
there’s a much better way to-”
“No, I’m here to see you,” he leaned back into his chair, “What’s it take to get a waiter out here?
Let’s get some drinks.”
“I-I really shouldn’t drink on the job.”
Childe ignored him and twisted around to look into the window, waving down a terrified looking
waitress who caught his eye behind the counter. Frantically, she wiped her hands on her apron and
rushed to the door. He sighed and looked back to Huffman, “It’s my treat, no worries.”
“May I ask...” he glanced at the waitress coming out the door as if he was lost as to what was
happening, “what would you want to talk to me about?”
“You’re humble, that’s good. Yes,” he rested his arms on the table, “two firewaters, please. Do
you have lemon juice? Put some lemon juice in mine, thanks.”
Huffman frowned, “That sounds… absolutely disgusting.”
“It’s an acquired taste,” he informed as the tittering waitress scurried away. Once the door shut
behind her and they were alone, he leaned in with his elbow on the table, and his eyes wide, “So,
I’m a friend of Lumine’s.”
“...I’m sorry, who?”
The nerve of this man. The nerve of such a boring guy, to question who Lumine was. Childe
resisted the urge to glare, “Lumine, the honorary knight of Favonius. The one who stopped the
Stormterror thing.”
“Oh,” he lit up in realization, “Yes, I know her. I didn’t think she had such… interesting friends.”
“She’s friends with everything, you know. But her heart,” he put a hand on his chest and smiled,
“that only belongs to one man.”
An oblivious pause. The sound of the tavern inside drowned out the noise from the summer
crickets. Huffman blinked, and stared, and tilted his head in confusion.
Childe felt as if he was constantly surrounded by oblivious people. First Lumine, then this man.
That Zhongli fellow he was to meet with next week might be the worst of them all.
“You, Huffman. It’s you.”
“Oh,” his eyes widened in shock, “Her heart belongs to me?”
Childe could have melted from sheer annoyance at the audacity of this man. “Yes, and she really
needs your help in Liyue right now. She’s having a hard time, and having you there would make it
so much easier.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand-”
“You need to date Lumine.”
“What?”
The front door swung open with the waitress coming through, her hands full with a tray of drinks.
She stopped at their table and set down two glasses of clear liquid, Childe’s with half a lemon on
the side. He ignored Huffman’s asinine bewilderment and began to doctor the glass with the lemon
slice, “I need you to travel to Liyue and take Lumine on a date. She’d be thrilled, for one, and
secondly she would stay out of trouble with you at her side.”
“I…” Huffman put his hand in his hair and leaned on the table, “I’m really confused. I can hardly
remember what the honorary knight even looks like.”
Like an angel come down from Celestia to bless humanity with the honor of looking upon her. It
wasn’t that hard. “Just give it a try, won’t you?”
“I…”
“Huffman,” Childe attempted to look serious, with furrowed brows and a disapproving frown, “I
did not think the knights of Favonius were so… honor-less. I was told in my reports from the
agents here that you were all kind and chivalrous, spotless to fault! I can’t believe what I’m hearing
right now…”
“We’re already short staffed here as it is… I can’t just leave and go to Liyue…”
Of course he could, Childe would pay for his lost wages and the journey there. He sighed, taking
a sip of the firewater and sitting back, “Fine, I guess she’ll just have to die alone, then…”
“...Die alone?”
He hated this part. It was no secret that he was not the best at manipulation, no matter how much
the other Harbingers tried to train him. One could not teach a warrior the art of thievery. He sighed
and allowed the sting of the firewater to loosen his tongue, “Yes. She’s sick, you know. She
caught a terrible disease, and all she wanted was to see the man she fell in love with before she
died…”
“...She fell in love with me?”
“Desperately.”
“I never knew…” he thought for a moment, “I suppose I can take a week or so off.”
Perfect.
Childe downed the rest of his drink and stood, pushing the chair away with the ugly noise of it’s
legs scraping on the ground. He stepped back and fished a few gold mora from his pocket, “Great,
meet me in Liyue, I’ll have my agents keep an eye out for you when you arrive.”
He scrambled to stand, “Will the hero of Mondstadt be okay until then?”
“Oh, she’ll survive. She just really wants to see you.”
“I-I’ll try my best to be there!”
“I believe in you, Hufflmon.”
“It’s Huffman, sir…”
“Right. Are you going to drink that?”
“Uh…”
“You shouldn’t let things go to waste,” he reached for the drink and grinned, “you never know
when the opportunity to change your future might crop up, Hoffmen. This trip to Liyue will be a
wonderful thing.”
He sighed heavily, “I just hope the traveler is okay.”
“Oh, she will be.”
Huffman proceeded to take a week or so off, and set out on his journey a day after Childe left
Mondstadt. He was not only completely average, but also incredibly oblivious. Somehow, he did
not notice the Fatui agents tracking him throughout the region.
The day for Huffman's arrival finally came. Childe had only gotten back into Liyue a day earlier,
and was settled into his office when Ekaterina handed him the report from his trackers. Huffman
was nearing, and the time was nigh. “And Lumine?”
The receptionist bobbed on her heels anxiously, “We’ve been keeping an eye on the traveler…”
“What’s she been doing all week?”
“Well,” an amused sigh, “she arrived back about five days ago, and has begun what the pixie calls
‘a food tour’. Our spies have been watching her move about Liyue, and preventing her from going
too far.”
He raised a brow, “How so?” Hardly anything could prevent Lumine from doing what she
wanted.
“Oh, just a few hunters and agents following her around… They don’t do anything lethal, of
course. They’ve just been scaring her into going back into the harbor.”
Probably threatening to throw her off mountains, or to pay for her meals, something terrifying like
that. He put his feet up on the desk and leaned back into his chair, satisfied with the work done.
Everything was beginning to fall into place, “Wonderful. And what has she been doing around
town in my absence?”
Ekaterina shuffled in place. She put her face down, clearing her throat awkwardly. “Well, sir…
regular things for a lady of her age, I suppose.”
It was almost comical how he had no idea what women did with their time. “And that is?”
“For one, she boarded the Pearl Galley without permission, was kicked off, then boarded it again,
and left the boat very upset about something called the ‘exploitation of women’s bodies’ and
‘illegal boat sex’.”
He paused to let the words sink in. Illegal boat sex. Sighing, he went on, “Is that all she did?”
“No, sir. She covered the town in missing person posters, and has been cooking at the Wanmin
restaurant with the chef there. Just yesterday,” her cheeks turned pink, “w-we actually went out for
drinks... She can really throw ‘em back, sir.”
Childe tensed and sat up straight, shocked, “You got drinks with the traveler?”
“She’s very kind once you get to know her,” Ekaterina put her hands up in defense, “I apologize if
I was not supposed to do that, b-but she was so nice! It was me, and her, and a few other
receptionists. We didn’t go in uniform, of course, if that’s what you’re worried about…”
He was not worried, he was angry. He traveled all the way to Mondstadt to find Huffman to cure
the future laid out before him, and there were his recruits befriending her. Diluc’s words from days
ago echoed in his mind: “I keep telling her to stop trying to make friends with everybody she
meets.”
That was a problem.
Sighing, he ran his hands through his hair and closed his eyes, “Did she at least tell you anything
of interest on your girls night out?”
“No,” she thought for a moment, “Except about your journey together, it sounds like it was very
fun, Master Childe.”
It was. He slumped forward in his chair and rested his forehead on the desk, “That’s all,
Ekaterina. Thank you.”
“Of course, Master Childe. I’m… I’m very happy for you, she’s a wonderful woman.”
He needed to fight something. So desperately, he needed to get these problems out of his mind
and just kill something. Ekaterina left with a sly smile and a romantic gleam in her eye, her beliefs
in the entire starmate ordeal most likely bolstered. He had entirely failed at convincing his staff that
the old lady was wrong.
He even failed at convincing himself. That was how much of a failure he was.
Sighing, Childe stood from his chair and left the room. There was a festival in the street below,
the remnants of a wedding parade that just passed through. He left the bank to get some air and
blend in with the crowd as another nameless face in the sea. Liyue could be stuffy, but it knew how
to bustle, how to hide people.
He leaned against a wall and watched everybody pass. The couple of the hour had already left for
the tea ceremony, but the remaining guests enjoyed themselves in the street. A lively band
followed passersby with dizis and pipas in hand, playing music for all to hear. Past the crowd,
Childe caught several merchants complaining about the lack of customers during the festivities.
A flash of blonde, a glimmer of a white dress. Her fingers were outstretched as she twirled, falling
into the arms of Xiangling with a laugh that could melt the iciest of hearts. Childe locked his eyes
onto her, and watched through the crowd. She twirled again, and stumbled forward. Xiangling
caught her by the wrist once more while Lumine complained. He could not hear what they said,
but he saw the gleam in her eyes, the smile on her lips. She was happy, having fun.
And she would have even more fun tomorrow when Huffman arrived. He could finally get her out
of the way, change his future, and put this entire ordeal to rest. Perhaps he’d spar with her every
once in a while, but she would most certainly not be his soulmate any longer.
If only she did not freeze him in place with those annoyingly big doe-eyes.
Lumine spotted him. She stiffened, mid-stumble, hunched over for a moment before whipping her
head back up to stare at him through the crowd. Her lips broke into a wide grin, “Childe!”
It was made worse by her pointing at him across the street. Heads turned in her direction as a
result of the yell. Her cheeks went pink from the sudden attention, and she put her face down as she
slipped through the crowd to approach him. Xiangling had gotten into an argument with a merchant
over the quality of his food, while Paimon was nowhere to be seen.
“Excuse me,” she brushed past another man, ducking under a woman’s arm, and shoving her
body between two others. Finally, she popped out from the tight group of people to stand in front of
him, fingers flexed as she rocked on her heels, “Hello. How was your quest?”
His quest? As if he was slaying a dragon and saving princesses. He laughed, “It was fine, how
was the last adepti?”
“Mean,” she wrinkled her nose, “but much cuter than you, I could actually look him in the eyes
without hurting my neck.”
“Oh, I’m so glad you hit it off.“ He could not help but grin. Her nose was red, her cheeks were
red, her hair was sticking up in every direction. “Say, Lumi, are you drunk?”
“Hmm… Yes. Incredibly so.”
“...I see. That’s not very safe, you know.”
“I know,” she took the spot at his side and sighed dramatically, falling against his arm as if the
street was her theater, and he was her prop to lay on, “I was drinking because of you. I thought you
had left me forever.”
His heart skipped a beat, annoyingly so. “You were that sad?”
“No,” she smiled up at him, “Not at all, I was celebrating your departure.”
“Ah, that’s what I thought.”
“You think you know everything, don’t you?”
She was not a mess, per say, but more so a pile of discarded laundry on the floor. She was
crumpled and a bit odd, tired, exhausted, but something familiar nonetheless. He could almost
laugh at the poetry entering his mind when she looked up at him. He’d always been a descriptive
man, but never when it came to women. Lumine shone a light on sides of his mind he was not
aware existed.
And he did not know everything, he would admit that. “Why do you say that?”
Her hands gripped his arm, her head still resting on him. She let out a soft sigh as she stared at the
passing festivities, “You think we can’t be friends, but we can.”
His heart in his throat, her warm hands on his arm. He sighed and closed his eyes, letting the wall
behind his back cool him off, “I never said we couldn’t be friends. Where’d you get that idea?”
“I see it in your eyes! Paimon warned me,” she gasped and squeezed his arm, “she said that you
act weird around me, and I think it’s because you hate me.”
How little she knew.
Childe could not help his laugh. He put his hand over his mouth, stifling the bubble of laughter
that threatened to spill out. Lumine’s murderous glare only proved to inflame the tickle of humor in
his throat. How little she knew. How oblivious could she possibly be?
“Oh gosh,” finally, he let out a sharp laugh, “I brought you a present back from my journey, and
this is how you treat me? You wound me, printsessa, you really do.”
He felt her fingers dig deeper into his arm, now more so giving him a twisted burn rather than
holding onto him. She pulled back, eyes wide and lips parted. “What’d you get me? You know you
don’t have to do that kind of stuff.”
There was a feeling Childe got when he sent gifts home to Teucer. That warmth in his stomach
when he received thank you letters, that excitement at knowing there was a boat full of toys
heading his sibling’s way. His mother had always told him that it was kinder to give, than to
receive. He liked to think himself a generous man, he had traveled all the way to Mondstadt just for
this feral woman who was supposed to be his enemy.
Of course it was for extremely selfish reasons, but it was still a gift. “I know I don’t have to.”
“But?”
He blinked in surprise, “But?”
“But,” she giggled, “why did you do it? Not that I’m not appreciative, but you don’t have to do
anything like that.”
The look on her face brought another bubble of laughter up his throat. He covered his smile with
his hand, “I know, Lumi, but I just wanted to. I have my reasons.”
“Selfish ones, I assume?”
“Incredibly so.”
“Right,” her gaze flattened with a joking sigh, “Well, then if you’re being selfish in this weird
way, you’ll have to be incredibly unselfish to make up for it.”
He could hardly believe what was happening. Lumine, the hero of Mondstadt and overall ray of
slightly manic sunshine, was trying to be the 11th Harbinger’s friend. She was determined, if not
naive. He could respect a woman who knew what she wanted, even if it was something as unwise
as his friendship. He had to give in. Childe could not resist the urge, he’d hate to miss whatever
went on in her mind. “How would you like me to do that?”
“I want…” a grin, a sparkle in her eye. She stepped back from his arm and offered her hand, an
upturned palm full of promises, “a dance.”
A dance. She wanted to dance. The street band had moved up a block, barely heard from their
spot in the crowd. The sound of laughter and joy reached his ears, a sound he did not think the
locals would approve of him being a part of. Especially with her, this woman accused of murdering
their god.
It was kind of funny, actually. An interesting thought.
Still, nothing about it made sense. “You could ask any other man here to dance, and you’d never
be rejected. Why me?”
“Because we’re friends!”
“What if I can’t dance?”
“I’ll teach you!”

“What if-”
“Stop,” she took his hands and grinned, intertwining her fingers with his. They fit like pieces of a
puzzle, perfectly sized for each other. “Just dance with me, it’s an honor, you know. Consider it a
thank you for getting me a gift.”
A thank you for the gift. The only thank you he wanted was her getting out of his way of the
gnosis. “How is forcing me to dance a thank you?”
“It is,” she nodded heavily, “you know it is, because I am a wonderful dancer, and it is an honor.”
Another compensation, another laugh at her expense. “I don’t think I believe you, printsessa.”
“You’re just saying that because you don’t know how to dance, is that right?”
“I know how to dance.”
“I don’t believe you, Harbinger.”
“I give you such cute nicknames, and you don’t even try for me.”
“That’s not true, I called you a loser last week.”
“My point has been proven.”
“Just dance with me, loser.”
As the lady wanted, he would deliver. With both hands on her waist, he picked her up and twirled
her in the air above his head. She squealed in surprise and leaned her hands on his shoulders. The
street festival moved further away, leaving him more room to set her down and take her hands,
breaking into a simple waltz. To the left, then to the right, one hand on her hip, the other with his
fingers entangled with hers. Lumine stared down at her feet with wide eyes as she tried to keep up
with his pace.
And perhaps Childe was being cruel. Perhaps he was showing off, moving with such grace
through the street as she struggled to move along. His mother had taught him how to waltz long
ago, hand in hand, and smooth as butter.
Soon enough, Lumine began to understand the pattern, she was intelligent like that. She grinned
up at him, making another wave of warmth pass over his body. He returned the smile as his feet
slowed to the muffled music a block away.
“You know,” a murmur under his breath, the scent of lavender from her shampoo, he wanted to
be stuck there just for a moment more, no matter how dangerous it was, “I’m doing this as a last
hurrah before your gift gets here tomorrow.”
Lumine blinked in confusion. She raised a brow, her cheeks tinted pink, “What kind of gift makes
it so I can’t dance in the street with you?”
“The best kind, girlie,” he took a step back and twirled her, then steadied her with a soft hand on
her hip, “you’ll love it.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” another chuckle as the pace of the waltz slowed, and their chests moved closer
together. He could feel her hot breath on his neck as she stared up at him, forcing him to avoid her
eyes, “Now, it’s getting late. Where’re you staying?”
Lumine’s voice was a light whisper underneath the festivities down the street, “In a camp right
outside of town.”
Of course she was. “How about I get you a hotel room?”
“No way.”
Another twirl, slower this time, more reverent. She pressed her body against his and laid her head
on his shoulder, while he slid his hand to the small of her back. She was warm, and she fit so
perfectly against him, as if molded from clay for each other. He sighed and attempted to ignore the
obvious, “You’ll want to be well rested and refreshed for tomorrow.”
“There’s a cold lake stream nearby I can bathe in.”
“Please let me set you up in a hotel?”
“No.”
“Stop being stubborn, Lumine.”
With her head over his shoulder, she glared at the wall. Her fingers dug into his hand in mild
irritation, “I’ll never stop.”
He believed it. “Okay, sure, sleep outside… But I think it might rain tonight.”
Lumine’s head perked up, “Rain?”
“Yeah… there might be some rock slides from the mountains…”
“Oh…”
“And the hotel has this really nice room available…”
She pulled back to rest her hands on his shoulders. With the golden lights of the evening, she was
illuminated. She smiled, tilted her head, and stole every last breath from his lungs with one small
expression.
This woman was far too powerful. She needed to be neutralized.

“I’ll let you, just for this night, for Paimon’s sake.”
How he adored winning.
“Good girl,” he tucked up her chin before pulling away and holding her hand, “let’s go, you need
to be well rested for tomorrow.”
It would be a busy day. His last hurrah was over, and the future would change drastically.
Or so he hoped.
Lumine was far more tired than she let on. He walked her to a hotel with his hand on her back, and
ardently ignored the glares of the locals as he passed. Xiangling caught her eye at one point and
sent an obnoxious thumbs up, with Paimon floating at her shoulder with a mouth full of food.
Childe bypassed the glare of the pixie, fortunately, and directed Lumine to the grand hotel.
He stayed in this hotel as well, as most Fatui in Liyue on missions did. Lumine said her exhausted
goodbyes and accepted the key to her room, offering a quick squeeze of his hand before
disappearing around the corner. She needed to sleep in a bed sometimes, he thought, she didn’t take
good enough care of herself - she danced with a Fatui Harbinger in the street and forced him into
friendship with her, she really did not take good care of herself.
Huffman arrived in Liyue at six in the morning. Childe was awake, drinking green tea on the
balcony of his room and reading reports. The agent who slid him the note was quiet, and
respectful. Huffman was a mile away.
Wonderful.
Under normal circumstances, he felt that he would regret last night’s actions. To dance in the
street with one’s soulmate was incredibly romantic, but he supposed he could give himself that. If
he were to never be with the woman the universe destined with him, he’d at least have one small
experience of it. That would make his mother happy, just that one sliver of normality and destiny.
But the time had come for a great change in the stars. He was ready to move the celestial bodies,
more than ever.
Childe met Huffman at the Northern gate around 6:30 a.m. - the knight of Favonius looked even
more average than before in his regular traveling clothes. He wore a scarf, little bits of leather and
steel around his legs and torso. He raised a hand in greeting as he approached, though his eyes held
sadness.
Of course, he thought the honorary knight of Favonius was dying. Childe only hoped that
Huffman was the forgiving type.
“Hi,” a big smile, a friendly shake of his hand, as was the common greeting in Mondstadt, “You
came at the right time, Lumine’s doing well today.”
“Oh?” Huffman perked up, “That’s good to hear.”
“Yeah… she’s actually responsive today,” Childe faked a tsk and a shake of his head, “poor girl,
usually she’s a vegetable.”
He gasped in horror. With a hand over his mouth, he shook his head as if he might cry. Guillible
loser, he was as oblivious as Lumine was. Perhaps they truly would be good together. With another
dramatic sigh, Childe turned to go into the city, “Let’s go see her. She might be resting right now,
but she’ll be happy to see you.”
“Gosh,” another sad sigh, “I told everyone at the Favonius headquarters. Outrider Amber is
completely broken up.”
Wonderful. Another loose end to tie. He’d have to play this off well. He wouldn’t be surprised to
hear of the knights planning Lumine’s funeral for her.
Childe led Huffman through the city. He explained the aspects of the buildings and the markets
as he did so, small snippets of ‘Lumine loves that food stand’ and ‘that’s Lumine’s favorite dress
shop’. In reality, he had no idea if Lumine liked any of those things, but it painted a bigger picture.
If they fell in love with each other, then he doubted that either of them would care much for his
deceit. Nothing would matter where it concerned Lumine in the end, anyway.
He took Huffman into the hotel and brought him to her room. “Go ahead, knock. She’d be ecstatic
if it was you.”
“A-Are you sure? Well-”
“Actually, wait,” he froze and brushed past him, “I should check on her and make sure she’s not,
you know… lying in her own vomit.”
Huffman’s eyes widened, “I didn’t know it was that bad!”
“It’s terrible,” Lumine in the morning is terrible, “really, she’d be horrified for you to see her like
that. Let me see if she’s ready.”
If Lumine answered the door with her bed head and dried drool, she’d surely murder him on the
spot. He wanted Huffman to fall in love with her, not see her for the bridge troll she truly was. He
knocked on the door as the knight shambled down the hallway, making himself sparse to the sick
woman in the room.
Another knock. The sound of grumbling inside of the room, feet hitting the floor and something
rolling across the ground. He listened to the string of profanity escape her mouth as she stumbled
to the door, and swung it open, revealing the bridge troll he knew he’d be met with.
“Hey beautiful.”
She sneered. There was dried drool on her cheek. Her hair stuck up straight, her eyes lined with
dark exhaustion. Pillow marks were indented onto her skin. “What?”
“You sleep well?”
“I was, until someone knocked on my door at the asscrack of dawn.”

She was glorious. He could have held her in his arms and been entirely satisfied with life. “I
brought your gift.”
That was enough to light her fire. Her eyes widened, lips parting. She patted down her hair and
stepped back, “Okay, where is it? I don’t…” she gazed around his legs, “Is it invisible?”
It could have been, with how boring it was. He grinned and leaned on the doorframe, “Brush your
hair and wash your face, then I’ll show you.”
“And what if I don’t?” Her eyes narrowed.
“Then you’ll regret it.”
“Don’t tell me what I’ll regret.”
“Fine, I’ll just tell Huffman that you didn’t care about your date today.”
A pregnant pause. Tension filled the air, so thick he could have sliced it. She stared up at him,
and took a deep breath. He watched the emotions flicker across her face, denial, and confusion, and
anger, then back to confusion. It culminated into this expression that looked as if she’d swallowed
a whole lemon. “E-Excuse me?”
“Huffman. He’s in Liyue right now.”
“You…” she attempted to process his words, “you knew he was coming?”
“Of course.”
“That’s your gift?”
“Yes!”
Lumine stepped towards him and wrapped her arms around his neck. Standing on her tip toes, she
buried her face into his shoulder, squeezing him as tightly as he could. He put his hands on her
back and offered a comforting pat while she nuzzled against his neck, “You’re sweet, Childe, thank
you so much.”
“I mean,” he hoped she couldn’t hear how quick his heart began to race from her touch - her lips
were so close to his skin, he could feel her breath on him, “I didn’t carry him here, I just knew he
was coming to see you. And I thought I might warn you first.”
She pulled back with a sweet smile, “I appreciate it a lot, thank you so much.”
When she looked at him like that, thanking him with her sweet voice and her sunshine smile, he
knew he would have trouble with his actions. He was a human being, he had a conscience and a set
of morals as strong as anyone else's. To betray someone who was genuinely good, a true warrior,
he knew it would test him.
It was exactly why she needed to get out of the way now.
“Go wash your face, girlie.”
"Okay, thank you." The final blow was Lumine leaning up on her tip toes, and pressing a soft kiss
against his cheek.
She truly was too trusting. This poor girl.
Lumine pulled back and closed the door. He listened to the sound of her frantically rushing
around her room and talking to a barely awake Paimon. Last night was supposed to be the last
hurrah, not the kiss on the cheek that burned him to his core and punched him in the stomach. He
could only sigh and turn away, go find Huffman, and leave.
Hopefully, the next time he saw Lumine, it would be only for business.
Huffman waited in the lobby of the hotel. Childe passed him by without a spare glance, “She’ll be
down in a minute.”
“W-Wait, is she okay to leave her room?”
“Sure.”
“Sir, are you-”
Childe whipped around, glaring as he held onto the front door. He exhaled slowly in his attempt
to release the anger, the regret, the frustration. “She’s fine, just take care of her. Don’t let her get
into trouble.”
The knight tilted his head, “Trouble?’
“Yeah, take her back to Mondsadt,” he commanded, “get her out of here as soon as possible.”
Huffman didn’t understand, he never would. And hopefully, he would listen to Childe’s warning
and get Lumine out of Mondstadt. Perhaps she would settle down and they’d never see each other
again, leaving him free to choose his own future. He would tell his mother of this interesting
woman he met, move on, and die a glorious death in battle one day.
It was an absolutely perfect idea.
Childe left as Lumine rushed down the stairs to meet Huffman. He could hear her awkward laugh
and the sound of her heels on the marble flooring. He greeted her quietly and steadied her shoulders
to keep her from racing to meet him. Her delighted laughter was the last sound Childe heard before
he went into the street.
And it was over. Plan finished, done. He could finally celebrate removing the biggest obstacle.
Lumine was, obviously, not sick.

Huffman did not question this, because he is a very polite man, and did not want to make
assumptions about her state of being.
But Lumine was, obviously, not sick at all.
Like an excited child, she held his hand and dragged him through the streets. Paimon disappeared
into her pocket dimension for the day to give her privacy on her date, which Lumine appreciated.
As she dragged Huffman from food stand, to storefront, to the harbor, she repeated her sheer
amazement at the fact that he was even in Liyue in the first place.
“I can’t believe you came to see me,” another excited giggle, with shining eyes and a grin that
could stun, “That’s really sweet of you.”
“Well I couldn’t just let you…” how to be tactful without flatly admitting that she was dying, he
wasn’t sure, “I couldn’t let you be alone.”
She smiled over her shoulder again, “That’s really nice, thank you. I admit that I wasn’t expecting
this,” another laugh, “but there’s a few interesting things we can do.”
“Whatever you want, honorary knight,” he nodded along seriously, “I’m here to be your
companion.” Until she died, that is. The other knights made him promise to not let her be alone,
and even Amber and Kaeya would be visiting in a day or so. Yet, he hoped that if she continued
feeling so spry he might take the Harbinger’s advice and bring her back to Mondstadt. It was where
she belonged, not this city of commerce and contracts. She deserved to be free like the wind, in the
city she saved.
And she seemed to have enough energy for travel. She wore a sundress, and held his hand with a
perfectly strong grip. She looked back at him with a smile as she led him down the harbor, fresh
sea breeze brushing wonderfully against her cheeks, “That’s nice of you, thank you. I feel like I
can’t stop saying that.”
“I’m just doing what anyone should do, honorary knight.”
She sent him another odd look before shrugging it off with a shake of her head. She was
determined to remain happy today, to enjoy he first date ever with the love of her life. She would
not let any odd comment ruin her good mood. “So, I was thinking for the first part of our day, we
could get some breakfast, then we could go for a walk-”
“You want to go on a walk?”
“Of course! The water around here is beautiful to walk along, and there’s quite a few hilichurl
camps we can attack as well.”
“Y-You want to attack a hilichurl camp?”
Lumine wavered for a moment in her confusion, “...Yes? Why wouldn’t I?”
“Excuse me, honorary knight,” he shook his head as if he regretted life itself, “I don’t mean to be
rude, but would not fighting be hard on your constitution? I know you feel good today, but that
doesn’t mean it will last... “
It was so incredibly odd how he looked at her. And he kept calling her honorary knight, never by
her name. She took a step back and frowned, releasing his hand, “Did Paimon tell you I was
hungover? Because I’m really not, I only had one glass of baijiu.”
“It’s your… illness, my lady.”
Her illness? Did Barbara tell him of her trauma and stress disorder from losing Aether, or the
phantom pain from her wings? Huffing, she crossed her arms, “I don’t really want to talk about that
right now, sorry.”
“I-It’s fine! I apologize for bringing it up…” he forced a smile that made a blush rise to her
cheeks, “if you want to fight a hilichurl camp, then we shall do just that. You deserve it.”
Lumine wasn’t sure exactly how she deserved it. If it were not Huffman, she would have felt
patronized for that comment. Letting it slide, she brushed past him and took his hand once more,
“Yes, let’s go, you don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this day.”
Forever. She’d been waiting forever, since she first saw him in his armor. Yet, it was not only his
face that drew her in, but his sense of responsibility, and his dedication to work. A weaker girl
might fall for Diluc, who prowled the streets at night. But Lumine chose to love the man who
fought justice in the daylight. He was not ashamed of his job, he loved to help people, and he
quickly earned her attention with his bravery against the army of slimes planted by her and Diluc.
Even now, as he watched Paimon engorged herself on three plates of food, he was brave.
As he walked down the beach riddled with deactivated ruin guards, he was brave.
As Lumine summoned her sword and ran after a hilichurl, he was brave.
Soon, this bravery that Lumine fell in love with quickly, and completely, turned to horror.
Lumine walked over the unconscious body of a hilichurl as if it was dirt beneath her feet. In her
pretty sundress, she ducked under a wooden club, twisted, and kicked the assailant down. The
monster fell into the sand, and was promptly beheaded by her sword. And another, a samachurl
beginning a spell, Lumine trapped it underneath her summoned geo with a smile brightly plastered
onto her face.
She was brutal. She was ruthless, and efficient. Huffman had barely taken down one of the
monsters when the arrow cut through the sky towards him. Lumine raced to his side and lunged to
grab the arrow before it could make it’s mark. With one twinge of her hand, she broke the shaft
apart, and sent him a smile, “Watch out, you almost got hurt!”
He did almost get hurt. He almost got an arrow to the chest, if not for Lumine. Swiftly, she took
down the archer with a clean swipe of her blade. “Isn’t this fun?” She laughed over the yells of the
monsters, “I could do this all day!”
She did not look sick. She had enough strength to roundhouse monsters, grab them by their necks
and toss them in the water. She was glowing with a certain kind of energy in battle that a dying
woman would simply not possess.
Huffman watched, useless. Paimon floated at his shoulder boredly, as if she was used to the brutal
sight. “Lumi’s really good at this stuff, huh?”
He gulped, and nodded.

The pixie went on, “Paimon bets that Lumi could utterly crush you in a sparring match.”
“...Y-You may be right.”
“Lumi’s pretty dominating, right?”
Right. Dominating.
“She’s not about to die, is she?”
The pixie tilted her head in confusion, “Die? Noooo, Paimon thinks she’s got a few good years
left in her, maybe.”
A few good years. Whether she died next week, or two years from then, he would not be in a
relationship with someone like that. He could not. It would be dishonorable to pretend to like
Lumine, even if she was on her deathbed.
“Honorary knight,” he caught her attention from the edge of the camp, “We really need to talk.”
It was not often that Childe had cause to celebrate. But today had been productive, one of the
most productive days in Liyue so far.
A meeting with Zhongli was set, Lumine was distracted, and he could imagine the gnosis in his
hand, that was how close he was to his goals. The Tsaritsa would be pleased with his efficiency,
and perhaps Lumine would be popping out boring little kids soon, far too busy to challenge the
cryo archon any longer. He truly was a genius.
He sat at a table with several of the recruits, listening to their idle conversation. He invited the
Fatuu that were most involved with the plans to celebrate with him at the tea shop below the bank.
While they were not privy to every detail, the smile on Childe’s face told them all they needed to
know. He’d won, he always smiled like that when he won.
“A toast,” one of the agents who had been tracking Lumine stood, “to Tartaglia, and his grand
plans.”
A chorus of agreements and clinking glasses filled the air. He raised his own cup of tea and
sighed in satisfaction. He adored his job, even with the coworkers and the needless killing. He
loved the feeling of winning a difficult battle.
It was a shame that the satisfaction dissolved in half an instant.
Lumine took the empty seat next to his. She sighed and waved down a waiter, “Excuse me, I’ll
have the strongest drink you’ve got.”
The strongest drink, and that sad sigh. Huffman was nowhere to be found. Dumbfounded, Childe
stared in disbelief as she gave her drink specifications - extra liquor, she was in mourning,
apparently.
And he, too, was in mourning. Mourning of his sanity.
“Where’s your date, girlie?”
As if she had forgotten he was there, she twisted around to face him with wide eyes. He froze
upon noticing the red lining her eyes, and the splotches of flush across her nose and cheeks. She
smiled, though it resembled more of a grimace, and rested her elbow on the table, “He left for
Mondstadt.”
Childe thought he was clear on the instructions. “Without you?”
“Yeah,” another sigh and a soft thank you as the extra strong drink was placed in front of her, “he
doesn’t like me.”
He knew there was something wrong with that man. Nobody could be that boringly perfect.
Anger flared in his stomach as he watched Lumine rub at her eyes, “Why not?”
“He said I’m emasculating.”
Emasculating.
Emasculating?
He thought Lumine, this woman in a frilly dress with flowers in her hair and doll-eyes, was
emasculating?
“Did you… step on a hilichurl again?”
“Yes.”
That was it.
Childe could almost laugh at the absurdity of it all. Lumine had a way of bringing humor into his
life, like stepping on monsters and getting ditched by men because she made them feel small. Yet,
what felt more absurd than that was the fact that it was a problem for Huffman. He laughed and
took another sip of his tea, “Sounds like he needs to grow up.”
“I guess,” another sigh, “if how I fight is a problem, then I’ll never find someone who likes me.”
If only she knew. “Trust me, you’ll be fine.” Staring at her over the rim of his cup, he watched the
slope of her nose and the shape of her lashes, silhouetted by the evening sun. A breeze blew
through her hair and wafted towards him, smelling like lavender and the sea. She had to have been
out at the shoreline, it was one of his favorite scents in the world.
Childe closed his eyes for a moment to think. To remember. Ruminate on just what he’d do now.
Just minutes ago, he was celebrating Lumine’s departure and subsequent lack of meddling.
Plan B: halfway failed. Huffman did not work, and Lumine was still in the way. But he was not in
love with her, and that made things far easier.
“Childe, you’re a good friend, even if you’re kind of weird. So...” her voice tore him from his
thoughts. She stared down at her drink, finger tracing circles in the condensation on the table. She
was beautiful, it was exactly why he was attempting to not look at her, “so, thank you. I guess
you’ve taught me to not judge a book by it’s cover, o-or I guess a Harbinger by the rest of it’s
military group.”
She really knew how to push his buttons.
Plan B: halted, just for tonight. He couldn’t think of another option after Huffman’s failure, not
right now.
“Don’t you think you’re getting a little too comfortable with me?”
Her eyes widened. She had the wisdom to look bashful for a moment, avoiding his eyes and
twirling a lock of hair around her finger, “Well, perhaps if you’re comfortable with me, then you
won’t end up stabbing me in the back. Right?”
“Life never works the way you think, Lumi.” He reminded in sing-song.
And he earned a well deserved punch to the arm. She attempted to elbow him, moving closer to
push him out of his seat, and failing terribly. “I won’t let you betray me, and if you do then I’ll
make your life hell!”
Another laugh as he tried to hold her assault back, “So you’re only friends with me on the off
chance that I’ll like you enough to not betray you?”
“That’s not the only reason,” she explained, “but it is a perk, right? You understand the benefits
of perks, don’t think I don’t get why you put Huffman in front of me today.”
She had to know he was up to something, she was not as dumb as her obliviousness let on. He
ignored the remark and grabbed her wrists, holding them up between their bodies and smiling, “A
man’s gotta do his job somehow. Can’t have you constantly distracting me.”
“So you think I’m a distraction?”
“You broke into the bank at three in the morning and got me to come along for your road trip.”
“That was your decision, Harbinger.”
It was, but that was beside the point. “If you just marry Huffman and go back to Mondstadt, the
bank would not risk anymore break ins.”
Her eyes narrowed, “What do you really want, Childe?”
“Hm?” He laid the innocence on as thickly as he could.
“Are you after the gnosis too? I can tell when you’re lying,” her eyes grew serious, her brows
furrowed, “and I trust you to not lie to me. I’m sure we can come to… well, something civil in the
end.”
Perhaps. If she went back to Mondstadt and stayed out of the Fatui’s business, that would
certainly be civil. Nonetheless, he had no idea what lay in store for the body of Rex Lapis and the
gnosis, or even how he could come to obtain such a thing. He’d not figured that out quite yet.
And she trusted him to not lie to her.
Another pang from his conscience, another bundle of wasps in his stomach. He released her wrists
and sighed, “I don’t know what I’m doing Lumine, I know as much information as you do about
this whole thing.”
That was not what she was looking for. “And? You promise that we’ll figure something out and
stay friends? I don’t enjoy losing people.”
Of course she didn’t. He wasn’t sure how he got grouped into her ‘people’. He imagined Diluc
was part of that, the knights of Favonius, the Outrider, Xiangling. All of them were good people.
And once again, he was the black sheep.
Not that he minded, it was just incredibly confusing how he ended up there in the first place. The
power of soulmates had to be stronger than he thought.
Forcing himself to lock his eyes with her, to not look to the left and betray himself, he smiled, “I
promise that this will end well for everyone, I won’t betray you.”
“Good,” she giggled, “and if you do, then I’ll kill you.”
“You couldn’t stand to, girlie.”
“I’d try my best!”
He smiled, “And by the way, you’re not emasculating.”
Lumine sent him a pointed glare over the rim of her glass, “You’re just saying that because you
like to battle.”
He liked to watch her battle, to be at her side, to see every ebb and flow of her sword as she
moved through her enemies. Soulmate or not, he would never become tired of that. And he would
especially never be emasculated by it.
Huffman was an idiot, apparently. He sighed and rested his cheek in his palm, “Lumi, you can
trust me, Huffman wasn’t good for you.”
“Then who would be?” She frowned.
Certainly not Childe, he was a terrible person who would betray every inch of their friendship at
some point.
“...Maybe a mitachurl. I’ll find you a monster boyfriend.”

“Oh, you’re too sweet.”
“I know,” a dramatic sigh, “it’s one of my many wonderful qualities.”
“I hope you know that even if I get married and become an old granny, I’ll still bother your little
group of thugs.”
He knew. He had a feeling nothing could stop this hurricane.
“Yeah, well, you make things interesting, at least.”
She did, and he would never change that about her. If only she would just leave him alone, the
world be a far simpler place. And perhaps there was a way he could achieve this without having to
go to Mondstadt.
That fortune teller liked mora, and Childe had mora. If he could bribe her into lying to Lumine
about her starmate, perhaps she would become distracted. She could date someone in Liyue, stick
around to spar with him on occasion, and be entirely focused on the man she dated. If Childe went
a step further and paid the man to be with her, that was even better.
Fullproof, water tight. Plan B Alternative: commenced.

Childe & Lumine
Chapter Notes
“Honorary knight, I just think-”
“You know my name, right?”
“L-Lou…?”
“Lumine.”
That had to be the worst rejection she’d ever gotten.
“I just don’t think a woman like you, and a guy like me really match well. You’re… uh, you’re a
bit too terrifying.”
Terrifying. Huffman called her terrifying. He had no idea what terrifying looked like if he thought
she was the description.
“To be honest, you’re rather emasculating as well.”
Emasculating. That was worse than terrifying.
Lumine had been rejected before. Childe had the idea that she could ask anyone to dance, and
they’d say yes. But that was far from the truth, as Lumine had a great deal of experience in getting
rejected - in various worlds and dimensions as well, there was not a species alive she had not been
rejected by.
First, those frost giants on that frozen planet when she was 17. She was far too warm for him.
Secondly, those brave warriors of the jungle planet at the age of 18. He had Aether inform her
that her muscles were far too miniscule for him, and if her thighs could not crush heads then he
was not interested.
Thirdly, the sort-of fishy people from the water planet. He smelled, so she wasn’t too broken up
over him. Nonetheless, it still hit her self esteem like a slap to the face. If a fish-alien-thing could
not like her, then who would?
It was when visiting Teyvat that Lumine decided to not fall in love with the first kind man she
met. It was a habit of hers that caused Aether a great amount of stress, how easily she adored
others. He always reminded her that she was too trusting, too focused on the positive, and she’d be
far happier if she saw a man for what he truly was. While she did not plan to do that anytime soon,
she promised her brother that she would not get her heart broken on Teyvat.
That promise was very quickly broken.
She couldn’t blame Huffman for feeling emasculated by her, she was quite terrifying when she
wanted to be. She had only hoped that he could look past that part of her personality, and perhaps
join her in battle. But dreams rarely did come true, and her heart was broken for what felt like the
millionth time.
It was exactly why she spent the next day at the Northland bank. She could not focus on her
broken heart if she was constantly furious.
“Childe, you’re being a terrible person again.”
“Well,” the Harbinger shrugged with his palms upturned, eyebrows raised and head shaking, “I’m
sorry, but I don’t really know what else you’re expecting.”
Lumine didn’t either. She hardly ever did with Childe, he was unpredictable, and mildly
frustrating. It was, perhaps, why she tried so hard to be his friend. She hated not having the upper
hand over someone.
The Northland bank was a luxurious building. It was a bit too high up the stairs for Lumine’s
comfort, but once through it’s guarded doors she often felt comfortable enough to make herself at
home in Childe’s office. Since Huffman left a week ago, she’d spent every other day laying across
his small sofa and reading books, even if he was not there.
She wasn’t exactly sure what he did when she wasn’t there. Ekaterina would often tell her the
location, but Lumine never knew where that was. He simply left his office unlocked for her, and a
pillow fluffed on the couch - though she’d take the plush chair in his absence, pretend she was the
boss and Paimon was her secretary, it was incredibly fun.
This day was an exact week from her date with Huffman. Lumine’s mood was especially low, and
her patience nonexistent. She watched Childe lean over his desk and write something down,
murmuring locations and numbers under his breath. After a moment of silence, she finally gave a
frustrated huff, “I’ll go and clear his debt myself, I’ll take five part time jobs.”
“Five?” He shot her a quick glance, one hand leaning on the desk, and the other holding his pen.
He was left handed, she’d never noticed before. “That would be quite a lot of work in comparison
to what you’ve done so far.”
“What? Save Mondstadt?”
“No,” he stood up straight, “switch between my couch and Xianglings.”
“Frankly, I prefer Xiangling’s.”
She got more snacks at Xiangling’s, and it smelled like spices in the apartment above the
restaurant. She knew her friend did not mind her incessant couch hopping, but Lumine was kind
enough to not overstay her welcome. Childe rolled up his parchment into a scroll and placed it on
the pile of waiting documents, speaking as he worked, “Then go to her place, it’s probably much
more pleasant there.”
“Well yeah,” she snorted and laid her half-read book on her chest, “there’s much less criminal
activity there. But I can’t go see her, the restaurant is super swamped right now and… frankly, I
don’t feel like helping out.”
“Oh,” he raised a brow and grinned, “You don’t want to help out at Wanmin, but you’re willing to
take five part time jobs to get an old man out of debt he put himself in?”
“That would be for a good cause.”
“And what cause is that, girlie?”
“Destroying your evil little bank one customer at a time.”
“He has a gambling problem, Lumine,” with a sigh, he gathered up the documents and moved
towards the door, “he’s getting what he deserves. Now, stay here while I go give these to the
recruits.”
She would not stay there. She would not obey even one command from him. Rolling off the
couch, she was hot on his heels, down the stairs and to the lobby below. As she followed, he sent a
flat gaze over his shoulder. It did nothing to dispel the smile on her face.
“You’re a bad listener,” he muttered, “that’s not very charming.”
Lumine laughed, “Oh no, I’m a great listener, just not to you.”
Of course she wasn’t. A group of Fatui recruits waited in the side room of the bank lobby, though
Lumine knew she could not follow Childe that far. “Stay here.” He commanded lightly, with a
playful ruffle of her hair as if she was his pet dog. He walked away before she could kick his shin
in retaliation.
With a sigh, she settled into a chair near Ekaterina’s desk and peaked at the meeting room from a
distance as the Harbinger began to shut the door behind him, “Huh, I think I beat that guy up last
week. The overgrown one with the hammer.”
“The vanguard?” The receptionist asked, “Yeah, he talks about you quite a lot. Seems like you’ve
stolen his heart, traveler.”
“Ew.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” she giggled with a delicate hand over her mouth, “we all know who the one
for you is.”
Huffman, of course. She’d spent 10 minutes of the last lady’s night with the bank staff ranting
about how beautiful his face was. Yet, Sneznhayans were natural gossips, they had to know how
her date went by now.
That was the last thing Lumine wanted to talk about. She was more curious about the meeting
Childe was in behind that closed door, and why he had so many scrolls to give out. Probably even
more debts to be collected, she’d had a few of those hunters come after her before - though she
never spent mora, so she wasn’t exactly sure why. She was beginning to think that they liked to
fight for the sake of it.
Huffing and turning away, she counted the tiles on the floor in an attempt to distract herself.
Northland bank was good about helping her with that, whether it was inspecting every inch of the
room, or listening to the poor victims of the illegal loans beg for mercy. When she was not on
Childe or Xiangling’s couch, she was helping the families who had been affected by the Fatui bank
deals.
Not that she didn’t think these people got themselves into these problems, it was more just to
annoy Childe. It worked.
And for some reason, he would still take her to dinner afterwards. He was weird like that.
“How long do you think he’ll be in there?” She asked Ekaterina, leaning on the counter and
resting her chin in her palm. The receptionist lit up with barely concealed excitement at the inquiry,
as she often did when Lumine asked about her boss.
Everybody at the bank was simply odd. They looked at her so reverentially, with fear and wonder
in their eyes. The Fatui in Mondstadt just insulted her. Ekaterina smiled like a mother would at her
daughter, “Oh, do you have plans with Master Childe?”
“No,” Lumine frowned and averted her face, “Not in the least. I’m just bored, and I don’t know
where that man who got into debt is, so it’s not like I can go help him right now.”
“Ah,” she nodded, “you’ve been getting better at looking through our contacts, Lady Lumine. I
put an extra lock on our filing room so you can’t get in anymore.”
Spectacular. She sighed once more and pushed away from the desk, “If Childe asks where I went,
tell him to mind his own business.”
“I-I don’t think I can do that, but I’ll just tell him you went for a walk.”
That was exactly what she was doing. Even with the constant distraction that the Northland bank
provided, the air remained stuffy. Lumine was grateful that Huffman left Liyue, she wasn’t sure
what she’d do if she ran into him in the streets.
There was the big possibility that she would see him next time she went to Mondstadt, but she
hoped to be completely over the man by then. As she walked to the door, waving goodbye to the
dutiful guards and receptionists - they called her Lady Lumine, or Mistress, which she had always
found odd - she thought of possible ways to heal her broken heart.
Aether was good at that, healing her. He knew just where to take her, just what to do. He would
pick the most dangerous monster he could find, and let her loose. As much as it bothered his older
sibling sense of proprietary and concern, he knew it was the best cure possible. That, and a new
sword. Lumine loved new swords.
But she didn’t have any of that now. She didn’t have the mora to buy a new weapon, and she
couldn’t find any swords worthwhile in the wild. There was nobody to track down a monster,
nobody to lead her there. She couldn’t even tell North from South, she certainly could not find a
powerful monster on purpose. Even the Oceanid she had found by chance.
Xiangling was busy, and Childe was busy. She knew nobody else in Liyue to travel with, besides
Paimon, who was taking a nap in her pocket dimension.
Sighing, she took the stairs to the street below. Her mind wandered as she looked at the street
vendors and food stands. She’d shared chop suey with Huffman at that place last week, she’d
looked at flowers at the other place with him. The sights of Liyue began to turn bitter from the
memory.
Lumine did not realize she was glaring as she walked. Moving down to the harbor, she brushed
past sailors and deckhands, and stood at the water. Aether always believed staring at the sea or the
clouds would heal a bad mood, but Lumine did not feel healed at all. She simply choked on the
smell of the fish vendors, and felt her hair frizz up into a wild poof from the humidity.
It was a rare glare on her face, one that actually looked threatening. Oftentimes, she failed at such
a thing. Yet, today, with her puffy hair and her heart dropping into her stomach, she achieved the
angry ‘leave me alone’ look with absolute perfection. Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned
on one leg and huffed for what felt like the millionth time, “I’m giving up on love.”
“Giving up on love? A pretty girl like you?”
Lumine nearly jumped from the sudden voice. She caught herself with both hands on the railing,
leaning over it with wide eyes and a gasp. Her heart skipped a beat as the voice crawled down her
spine and shivered through her limbs. Exhaling deeply, she shut her eyes, “S-Sorry to jump like
that, I didn’t…”
She looked up at the newcomer. Thinning grey hair and a face of wrinkles. She was beautiful, and
would have been even more so in her prime. It was the fortune teller from weeks ago when she
arrived in Liyue.
If Lumine remembered correctly, she owed her about 9,000 mora - her rates were 3,000 a minute.
What a rip.
The old woman’s smile held the traveler in place. She stared her down, but her eyes were not
filled with anger at her debts. Leaning on the railing, she sighed at the sky above, “What’s made
you so bitter, Lumine?”
The dread sunk deeper into her chest. Before, she was downhearted from Huffman, but that
feeling quickly turned into fear. She had absolutely no mora, and she despised the thought of
asking Childe for help.
“How do you know my name?” She might be a secret Fatui agent, with the amount of information
that organization had on her now - which, obviously, was her own fault, “And what do you want?”
“So rude,” the old lady tsked, “I told you before, I’ve seen your constellation light up the sky.”
Her constellation, right. She read the stars, but could not tell her about Aether. Lumine relaxed
and placed her elbow on the railing, staring out at the sea with a suspicious frown.
An uncomfortable silence fell between the two women. Lumine listened to the sound of Paimon
popping into existence at her shoulder, stretching her arms and yawning like a cat. Finally, she had
decided to reappear. She disappeared for a bit due to her extreme annoyance of Childe, saying he
‘tired her out’. Wherever Paimon went, Lumine had no idea, she’d never met anything like her
before.
The pixie rubbed at her eyes and smacked her lips, “Hey, what’s- ah!” She zipped away from the
old woman in an instant, “L-Lumi doesn’t have any mora! Leave us alone!”
The fortune teller giggled with a hand over her lips, “No worries, little one, no worries. I’m not
here to collect.”
“I thought you were a conwoman.” Lumine sent her a distrustful glare, though she wished to
believe otherwise. Even cons had families and goals, it was when her mora was involved that it
became a problem.
“We don’t do deals with cons, lady.” Paimon floated into Lumine’s arms and nestled the back of
her head against her shoulder, staring at the water with furrowed brows and eyes filled with
concern. She sat on the railing and kicked her legs, while the old woman watched.
Another awkward pause. The fortune teller almost looked embarrassed, “I see you’re both giving
me the cold shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” Lumine offered a defeated sigh, “I don’t mean to be rude, really, but I was just
ditched on my first ever date with this guy I really like, and I’m a bit torn up.”
“I thought that was last week?”
“My gosh,” bewildered, she and Paimon shared a look, “does everyone in Liyue know each
other’s business?”
“Yes, most of the time. But I, for one, know your future.”
Paimon crossed her arms and avoided looking at the woman, “Paimon and Lumine are perfectly
fine, it’s Paimon’s job to not let Lumi be conned again!”
Again. For the sixth time, specifically. Paimon was far better at spotting those types of things, but
not as good as Aether. It was difficult for Lumine, as she had been a tourist her entire life, and
tourists were often the victims of such crimes.
“I’m not asking for money,” the fortune put up a wrinkled hand in surrender, “Master Childe has
been taking splendid care of me lately.”
Her words caught Lumine and Paimon’s attention. The pixie darted into the air over the traveler’s
shoulder, “Childe? That loser?”
“I wouldn’t say he’s a loser, but…”
Lumine’s gaze flattened, “He’s taking care of you?”
“It’s more of a bribe,” she grimaced, “but yes, I’m paid quite well to keep my mouth shut.”
Being paid to keep her mouth shut, a bribe. Paimon and Lumine shared a wide eyed glance, both
thinking the exact thing. What reason did Childe have to bribe an old fortune teller? The Fatui
certainly had their fingers dipped into odd places, but never the business of old conwomen.
Lumine could not help herself. “Why is that?”
“Oh, as you can imagine, I can’t tell you.” She stated the obvious.
“I know, but… Childe doesn’t have to know.”
The old woman glanced over her shoulder and whispered, “Men like that have a way of finding
out, my dear.”
Lumine snorted, “You say it like he’s the mafia boss.”
“Well…”
She didn’t want to delve into that subject. Childe was a complete dork, the man who threw arrows
when he got tired of using his bow. The man who snored in his sleep and avoided chopsticks at all
costs. While she did not underestimate his strength, she saw him for the absolute nerd he was
underneath the lust for battle and power.
And, he was her friend, in some odd way. She wanted to think the best of him, hoping with every
inch of optimism that he would not stab her in the back at some point.
“So, are you his grandmother,” Lumine turned to face the star seer, “or does he just have a thing
for older women?”
She waved a hand, “Oh, goodness, no. I just know who his soulmate is, and he’s paying me to
keep quiet about it. Isn’t that funny?”
It was funny. It was hilarious. The word soulmate struck a certain chord in Lumine’s chest,
wiping away the irritation and sadness, replacing it with the utter hilarity at the thought of Childe’s
soulmate.
That poor woman, whoever she was. Paimon put both hands on her own mouth to stop her
laughter and guffaws from escaping, “T-That loser? Paimon thinks his soulmate has to be someone
super ugly, like… like-”
“Like a hilichurl in a dress,” Lumine snorted, “or some poor masochistic woman, probably in her
50s, twice divorced and looking for a rich sugar daddy.”
“That’s… a very specific thought you have there.”
“It’s the only kind of person I can imagine liking a Fatui Harbinger.”
“Right,” sarcasm laced her words, “well, you’re very wrong, young lady. Too bad I can’t tell
you.”
What a tease. An absolute frustration. Lumine huffed and turned away to face the railing once
more, while Paimon glared at the woman flatly. “You can’t just tell Paimon and Lumi something
like this, and not give details. That’s cruel.”
“Yes, well,” she tilted her head and smiled, “he’s paying me not to. Says it distracts from his
work, or something like that.”
He would say that. He was a workaholic if she ever saw one, though more towards his own goals
than the Fatui’s. He was worse than Aether in that aspect, and she thought her big brother was the
most determined person she’d ever met. Childe took the cake, but it seemed to only be when his
strength was involved.
Lumine gave up, defeated. She sighed, “If you can’t tell me who the poor woman is, could you at
least tell me who my soulmate is?”
“Hm.... it’s 5,000 mora a minute...”
“What?” Paimon exploded like a volcano, “That’s ridiculous! Your prices have gone up!”
“A woman’s got to make money somehow.”
Lumine rolled her eyes, “I thought Childe was paying you.”
“It never hurts to have a little extra, don’t you think?” It was an innocent enough question,
coupled with a wrinkled smile that spoke of every secret she kept. “But my contract with Tartaglia
does not prevent me from at least warning you.”
That caught Lumine’s attention. “Warning me?”
“Yes,” her smile dissolved as a serious tone took over, “Watch out, Lumine. I don’t know
everything about your future, as the stars are not so talkative of such serious matters. But this, I do
know... If you kill your enemy at the Golden House, you will never find love again.”
The old woman spoke as if prophesying. Lumine felt the words weigh down her shoulders, hold
her to the ground and sink into her skin. The air left her lungs, and her tongue grew heavy. Paimon
gripped her arm like a child in barely concealed fear and curiosity.
Over the fortune teller’s shoulder, a Fatui agent emerged from the crowd. He was too far away to
hear what was said, but his target was obvious. Lumine did not recognize the shape of his face
underneath the mask, he did not work at the bank, and did not know her.
“I know,” the old woman glanced at the approaching agent, “I didn’t say anything. Can’t I talk
about the weather without you parasites following me everywhere?”
“Sorry, ma’am,” the Fatuu raised a hand and smiled, “Harbinger’s orders. Why don’t you allow
me to escort you to the tea shop?”
The tea shop, somewhere far away from Lumine, and this conversation. With an insolent huff, the
fortune teller took a step away, but not before Lumine gripped her wrist and whispered, “Are you
okay? Do you need help?”
“I’m okay,” a soft whisper filled with amusement, “he won’t hurt me, young lady. And I haven’t
done anything wrong, either.”
She had not. Lumine’s heart raced in her ears as she watched the Fatuu and the fortune teller walk
away. They approached the crowd in the center of the town, nobody noticing the agent directing
her to the tea shop furthest away from the harbor.
Paimon was unusually silent. She twisted her fingers together and leaned her head on Lumine’s
shoulder. Her voice, too, was a whisper, as if her heart raced just as quickly. “Paimon thinks that,
perhaps… that loser Harbinger might be scarier than Lumi thought.”
This would be the part where Aether confronted him. Aether would keep Lumine away from the
problem, and talk to Childe personally to get to the bottom of this. In this moment, she felt a twinge
of resentment, regret. She was not a kid, and she was not dumb. She could handle this, yet he
always shielded her from the realities of mankind, as if she was far too fragile.
She was not fragile, and Aether was not here to make her feel that way. But, she did not want to
deal with it in the way her brother would, because she was not him. She was Lumine, and she was
smart, and she was confident, and she could handle some loser Harbinger who didn’t even handle a
bow with the correct posture. He was nothing.
“It’s fine,” she reassured Paimon with a smile, “whatever that was about, I’ll take care of it.”
Paimon looked as if she did not believe her, “How so?”
In the best way possible, of course. Lumine had her tactics, her ways. He would be terrified by the
end of the night once she was done with him.
Dear Asshole,
How dare you send your thugs to stalk an old woman? How dare you bribe her? How dare you
keep secrets? Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. You should be ashamed of yourself. get
on your knees and kiss my feet and ask for forgiveness, or I shall cut you down before the next
sunset!
And, if you are wondering, she did not tell me who your starmate is. I asked so that I could warn
the poor soul, but she would not budge. The fortune teller - do you know her name? Because I
don’t - did nothing wrong. The only wrong done here is the fact that you have someone destined to
be with you! That poor person, whoever they may be. I bet they’re hideous, terribly ugly,
incredibly boring, with a very large nose to boot. I’d love to meet them one day! Once I marry the
love of my life, we can double date.
Anyway, go screw yourself. If you do not apologize to the old woman, and myself, by tomorrow, I
will slit your throat with your own arrow. I, also, will hide your corpse so you cannot have a
proper funeral. That is the future you face if you do not obey my orders.
With Much Love, your friend Lumi
P.S. I replaced the snacks in your drawer, and added an apple as well. You should eat more fruits
and vegetables from now on, or you’ll get sick.
“God dammit, Lumi,” a scowl that could kill, eyes filled with anger, poison in his voice, “you’re
making this really freaking hard for me.”
It was as if she read his mind, as if she knew every crevice of his being. With every step he took,
she was one ahead. She met the fortune teller, she learned of his bribing, and his agents that
followed her. It would not be for long, the old woman would be left alone once Childe left Liyue,
but he fully expected Lumine to be out of the picture by then.
The traveler was like a stubborn ink stain on cloth. She would not disappear, no matter how hard
he tried.
All he asked was that she stay out of the way for this plan. It was all he wanted, for Lumine to
stop meddling in the Fatui business, and to allow him to get the gnosis. That was what the Tsaritsa
wanted, and it was what he would do. Paranoia began to creep into his mind as he re-read the
utterly adorable letter. If she came into contact with the fortune teller, what other trappings of his
had she run into? Was it by mere chance, or plan?
Was she aware of his meeting with Zhongli? Was she aware of his assumptions about Rex Lapis
and the Qixing’s involvement? What other secrets could she so easily discover about him?
Childe opened the snack drawer. And she certainly was not lying about the apple. He supposed
that she was right, he should eat more fruits and veggies.
Grabbing his pen and sighing, he pulled out a blank piece of parchment. He often wrote home to
his family, penning yet another letter would not take much time. His next appointment was due to
arrive at his office any minute then. He kept the message short and sweet. He never wrote letters
that succinct to his siblings and parents, but with the many threats lacing Lumine’s words, he felt
she deserved as little words as he could possibly manage.
And this would work out in his favor, as well, with the knock on his office door and the agent
waiting on the other side. Folding the paper into its shape, he stamped the wax seal, “Come in.”
The door opened with hesitance, revealing a senior agent transferred from the field. Childe had
requested him a day or so ago, rushing him away from whatever assignment La Signora had him
working on to serve Tartaglia in Liyue. With an awkward clearing of his throat, he stepped inside
the office, and closed the doors behind him.
Childe blew on the hot wax sealing the envelope. His eyes flickered up to appraise the newcomer,
a man of average height with brown hair fluffed up by the mask he wore. He was built in the same
way as Huffman, with the same strong jawline and sun-kissed skin.
“Y-You requested my presence, Master Tartaglia?”
“Yes,” he waved the envelope in the air and leaned back in his chair, “I have an assignment for
you, recruit. La Signora informed me that you’re quite cunning.”
“I-I suppose...”
Childe smiled at the pink dusting his cheeks, “How about you take off your mask for me?”
In the Fatui, it was extremely rare for recruits to take their masks off when in uniform. When
acting out of uniform, they could wear and look however they pleased. But when working on their
assignments, discretion and caution were needed. Nobody showed their faces beside the
Harbinger’s themselves, and some of them - Dottore, for example - chose to hide their faces no
matter what.
Shocked, but not about to argue with a Harbinger, the soldier pulled his mask up over his hair.
His eyes were wide, brown, and his nose was straight. He looked far too nervous, and avoided
Childe’s face with every passing second, obviously uncomfortable.
He would do just fine.
“Alright, so I had a receptionist buy some clothes,” Childe leaned down and picked up a box of
traditional Liyue outfits, heaving it up onto his desk and standing from his chair, “from now on,
your name is… Andreas. You’re a postal carrier. Your target is Lumine, the traveler and hero of
Mondstadt.”
He knew the name. Nearly every Fatuu did. His eyes widened in shock, “A-And am I to…
neutralize her?”
Childe put up a hand, “No, no. You’re to date her.”
“E-Excuse me, sir. Did you say date her?”

“Yep,” a confident nod and a smile, “you’re getting paid double for this, by the way, she can be
quite a handful. You’re going to have to be all… I don’t know,” he tried to think of how to describe
Huffman, “good. Be a good guy, be sweet to her, convince her to leave town for a bit while I take
care of some things here.”
And do not ask anymore questions. This man was trained well under Signora, he knew to not pry.
Giving a salute, he took the box and gazed down at the outfits provided, “I-I’m going to go change
now, if you give me leave to start my mission.”
“Yep, go ahead, just keep her away from the Wangsheng funeral parlor for tonight. Oh, and,” he
smiled, “if you end up liking her, don’t hesitate to keep her. I don’t mind.”
“Y-yes sir…”
It was an easy enough mission. Don’t let her near Wangsheng, don’t be rude to her, and distract
her from every problem in Liyue. “Oh, and,” he held up the sealed letter, “give this to her, won’t
you? Remember, you’re a courier, I paid you to take this to her.”
He attempted to have more confidence, with another sharp salute with one hand, and holding the
box in the other. “Yes sir!”
Wonderful. Everything would finally start falling into plan.
And he had a meeting with the funeral parlor consultant in an hour, hopefully without the
meddling of Lumine.
Or so he thought. As with most things involving the traveler, nothing went the way he hoped.
It was not tomorrow's sunset quite yet, but Lumine was famous for her impatient nature
concerning these sorts of things.
“Do you think I should write him another letter?”
“No! Paimon thinks that’s a terrible idea! Paimon didn’t even want you to write the first one!”
Of course she didn’t. Paimon never supported her rudely worded letters, and she’d sent many in
her lifetime. And while the time limit for Childe’s chance to apologize was not near quite yet, she
found herself anxious to speak to him.
That old fortune teller was keeping his secrets, and while she would usually respect such matters,
having her followed through the streets of her own city was going too far. As much as Lumine
disliked people who gouged prices, she disliked bullying far more.
She almost didn’t want to admit that Childe was being a bully. But the truth was obvious. The
entire Fatui organization were bullies, covered by a thin layer of diplomacy.
She needed to write another letter. She needed to tell him what she thought of all this, how she felt
about harassing old women. And she did not quite understand, either, why the subject of his
starmate was such a closely guarded secret.
“He’s probably embarrassed,” Lumine spoke suddenly, scaring Paimon into mildly choking on
her street food, “his soulmate is probably super gross, and he’s afraid I’ll make fun of him.”
Paimon coughed on her snack, “B-But that doesn’t give the loser an excuse for having that creepy
old lady followed around!”
“You’re right… I’ll write another letter-”
“No! Stop it with the letters!”
“Fine,” a defeated sigh, “I’ll give him time to apologize first.”
It was something, the best she could compromise on. Paimon rolled her eyes and continued
chewing on the kebob of meat and veggies, “Paimon thinks he’s just slimy, he’s always been
slimy.”
“It’s because he’s a hydro user, they’re always kind of wet somehow…”
With a mouth full of food, Paimon nodded along. Lumine rested her cheek on the cool marble
table of the restaurant and shut her eyes. The bustling of Liyue never stopped, and she was not
spared a glance in her despair and frustration. It had been an hour since the encounter with the
fortune teller, and she had been able to think of anything else.
His soulmate, and hers. She never thought she’d have one. As curious as she was about it, she
knew that it would only hurt her to find out. Her priority was Aether, finding the unknown God,
not romance. And she assumed Childe was the same way, she could not ever see him caring for
someone like that.
It was odd how the universe worked, who it set in front of it’s people. Lumine sighed as she felt
the eyes of someone on her back, staring her down through the smattering of restaurant tables.
With her heart skipping a beat, she sat up and turned around to face the source of the feeling,
“Childe?’
It was not the Harbinger. She wasn’t sure whether that was fortunate, or unfortunate. It depended
on who this man staring at her was, with his nervous hands clutching an envelope, and his brown
eyes filled with expectation.
She sent him a polite smile. He returned it, taking that as an invitation to approach. Paimon glared
like a dog protecting her food, “Ugh, another bother. Why can’t Paimon just ever eat in peace?”
“Nothing is peaceful when you eat,” Lumine wiped a bread crumb off the table and laughed, “and
besides that, nothing is peaceful in our lives in general.”
“You sure are right about that, Lumi.”
“Why, I would even say,” she eyed the man as he stopped beside her chair, smirking up at him
with folded arms, “that the letter you’re carrying is a declaration of war.”
His mouth opened as if he was about to argue, but was shut immediately. Nodding, and smiling
along, “Are you Lumine, the hero of Mondstadt?”
“I am.”
“Master Tartaglia of the Fatui hired me to bring this to you,” he held out the envelope with the
signature red stamp on the front, “he said to look for a pretty blonde woman, but you are so much
more than pretty.”
A sweet talker. It was a bit more forward than she was used to. Suspicious, she took the envelope
and broke the seal, leaning down beside Paimon to whisper the content to her pixie friend.
Dear Lumine,
No.
Love, Childe
P.S. don’t believe everything you hear.
“That bastard, that absolute moron. I’ll kill him, I’ll rip out his eyes and stuff them down his
throat.”
The courier grinned, “I must say, that’s pretty attractive.”
Pretty attractive was not what she wanted to hear in that moment. She wanted to hear Childe own
up to his terrible actions and apologize, though she doubted that would ever happen. He was a
Fatui Harbinger, what else did she expect? He had said it himself.
She crumbled the letter into a ball and huffed, “Thank you for delivering this. I’m sorry, I don’t
have anything to tip you with.”
“How about…” he paused in thought and slid into the seat beside hers, “a date?”
A date. A date. This man was hitting on her. He called her beautiful, said she was attractive, asked
her on a date.
Terrifying.
Absolutely terrifying.
Lumine and Paimon both stared with wide, shocked eyes. A blanket of awkward silence fell over
the table, nearly smothering the group in it’s sheer humiliation. The back of her neck began to
sweat in anxiety, her hands grew clammy, her knees shook.
Lumine had never been asked on a date before.
“Paimon,” a barely concealed whisper, laced with fear, “what does one say to something like
this?”
“P-Paimon doesn’t know! Paimon’s never been on a date before!”
“You’re no help!”
“Sorry!”
She wasn’t sorry. She was soaking up Lumine’s anxiety with the biggest grin she’d ever worn.
Fear of the unknown came off the traveler in waves as she stuttered, and fiddled with her fingers,
and bounced her knee.
Usually, she was the one asking the man out, never the other way around. Aether had been asked
out before, though, and she desperately racked her brain to remember what he would say.
It was probably something very cool, very suave, like, “Oh, sure, sure. What’s your name?”
“Andreas, my lady,” he took her clammy palm and kissed her knuckles, “and you’re Lumine.”
“I aaaam…” she drew out the word awkwardly and yanked her hand back, “it’s n-nice to meet
you.”
“No need to be nervous, I’ll treat you well.”
He was so forward. He was so flirty. She’d never been flirted with before. Out of breath, all
Lumine could offer in return was a speechless nod, and pink cheeks. Her heart raced as he took her
hand and stood up beside the table, “Are you free right now?”
Paimon was trying her best to not laugh. She did not succeed. With a snort and a guffaw, the pixie
disappeared in a cloud of white constellations. Lumine gasped in shock, “Get back here!”
There went her only support, though Paimon would not have helped much. Pausing for a
moment, she recalled that this odd man awaited an answer. She wished she could channel Aether’s
energy, Lisa’s, or even Kaeya’s. She had no idea how to act when flirted with.
He raised a brow in question. She gulped, “I suppose so, yes. Where are we going?”
“Oh, I know a place…”
He did not know a place.
That was the problem there, he had no idea where he was taking her. La Signora sent this
particular agent due to his resourcefulness. But little did Childe know, the unnamed agent in
disguise had never stepped foot in Liyue. He had found Lumine from sheer luck and a bit of asking
around, and he did not dare to question the 11th Harbinger any longer than he must.
‘Andreas’ had no idea where this Wangsheng funeral parlor was, what part of town he was in, or
where to begin with this fake date.
He took Lumine’s hand and led her down the stairs, to the street below. It was bustling with
evening traffic as the world grew dark above. “We’ll have fun, I’m glad you agreed.”
“Yeah, me too…” An awkward chuckle, and her attempts to avoid his eyes at all costs.
But naturally, since the universe despised Childe, his hired Fatui agent led Lumine right to the
funeral parlor, exactly where she was not supposed to be.
He did not notice where he was walking, instead making small talk with the traveler. He
discovered that her favorite color was yellow, her favorite food was meat skewers - and she was
incredibly nervous, as nobody had ever asked her on a date before. He attempted to act interested,
though his mind rested more on the mora he would earn from this job. “I think there’s a restaurant
down here, Lumi. Can I call you that?”
She shifted uncomfortably at his side, her arm brushing against his as they slipped through the
crowd, “I guess… I mean, sure, if you’d like to.”
What an easy woman, so easily flustered. He expected the enemy of the Fatui to be more strong
willed, but she was like a docile kitten at every flirtatious grin. She was putty in his hands, it
seemed.
But to repeat, this man knew nothing of Liyue, and had no idea if there was a restaurant ahead. He
simply expected to run into one eventually, at some point. And Lumine took no initiative to direct
him elsewhere.
The streets began to clear as they walked up a flight of stone steps. The air of this certain district
was far more quiet and serene, much better taken care of than the market streets. Lumine glanced
around with wide eyes, “I don’t think I’ve ever been to this part of town.”
“Oh,” he laughed in an attempt to cover up his mistake, “I must have taken a wrong turn, it looks
pretty barren here, doesn’t it?”
It did. Lumine stopped in her tracks, observing the new surroundings. A few of the Millelith
stood around, watching passersby with suspicious eyes. At the end of the street, an ominous
building loomed over the pavilion.
Andreas began to turn to leave, but a flash of ginger hair caught Lumine’s immediate attention.
Her heart began to race once more, drumming in her ears. Her hands grew clammy, her knees
shaky, but it was not due to her date’s flirting. As he began walking down the steps, Lumine pulled
back, “I-I need to check something out, can you hold on?”
He whipped around with wide eyes, an odd look on his face, “N-No! The restaurants will fill up if
we wait much longer. Come on.”
She did not appreciate being bossed around. Huffing, and taking another step away, she raised a
dismissive hand, “Just one minute, I need to see what’s going on over here.”
Where she noticed the flash of ginger and grey, a door opened. Childe stood on the front steps of
the ominous building, holding onto the door handle and speaking to a darkly clad man inside. His
back was to her, not yet noticing her presence just 50 feet away. Andreas’s eyes widened with fear,
“L-Lumi, get back here!” But his harshly whispered commands went unheeded.
Lumine slipped behind a column and peaked around the corner at Childe. He still faced away.
She ran to the next column in her attempts to hear his conversation.
She was not entirely sure why she wanted to eavesdrop on her friend. Perhaps it was her anger, or
her suspicion of his intentions. Perhaps he was doing something incredibly boring, and she’d be
humiliated for stalking him in the end. That was a risk she was willing to take. At the front of the
pavilion, Andreas had disappeared.
He wasn’t really her type anyway, no big deal.
Slinking around yet another corner, the deep voice of another man finally could be heard. She had
never met him before, he was not Fatui. She tilted her head to listen further.
“Right, tomorrow will be just fine. Will you be taking care of the ritual for Rex Lapis yourself?”
“I might,” Childe spoke lightly, with no inflection other than the passive boredom he usually
wore, “It would be easier if I did.”
The unfamiliar man cleared his throat, “It is a very important event. This is a sacred Liyue
tradition, and once everything is in place, you will be able to see Rex Lapis for yourself. That is
what you desire, correct?”
That asshole.
That bastard.
If Lumine were not such a perfect person, she would have jumped out from behind the column
and strangled the Harbinger right then and there.
She felt as if she’d swallowed a rock. With despair circling like a storm in her stomach, she
gripped her fists and tried to calm herself down. But it seemed that no amount of breathing
techniques could dispel the anger poisoning her veins.
What did she expect? He was a Fatui Harbinger.
And she, Lumine, could be a bastard just as well as him, if that was how he wanted to play.
Quick as could be, she slipped into view from the column and raised her hand, “Oh, Master
Tartaglia! I’m so sorry I’m late!”
Lumine relished in the stiffening of his shoulders, the clenching of his fists. He froze in place,
while the darkly clad man in the doorway merely looked around him with a curious, calm
expression. Slowly, barely holding in his anger and shock, Childe turned, shoulders stiff as a board.
Lumine smiled. He forced himself to smile back.
“It’s terribly rude of me, isn’t it?” She laughed and walked up the steps to the building, reading
the golden plaque along the way that labeled it as ‘Wangsheng Funeral Parlor’. It made sense, Rex
Lapis was dead, there had to be a funeral. She simply did not expect Childe to be the one to assist
in that. “Hi, nice to meet you,” she bowed to the funeral consultant, “My name is Lumine, I’m
Childe’s business partner in this whole affair.”
“Oh!” Golden eyes lit up with recognition, “Wonderful, my name is Zhongli. You have not
missed much,” he sent a polite look to the steaming Harbinger at her side, “We will be discussing
the details of the funeral procession tomorrow at Liuli Pavilion.”
“Wonderful!” She offered a wide smile, spite and anger against Childe fueling her every move,
“Again, I’m so sorry to be late, I was taking care of something very important.”
Childe forced another smile. He linked his arm with Lumine’s, attempting to sound casual despite
the tension in his shoulders - though Zhongli did not seem to notice at all. “Right, she’ll be there as
well. I apologize for not mentioning her earlier.”
“No problem,” he put up a hand, “I look forward to our business dinner tomorrow.”
Lumine smirked, “Oh, so do I. Are you ready to take our leave, Master Tartaglia?”
“Yes, Lady Lumine, let’s go discuss business, shall we?”
“Oh, we shall.”
Childe and Lumine were extremely lucky that this Zhongli fellow was oblivious. He appraised
the two, eyes flickering to their linked arms and their tense smiles. With a small nod of satisfaction,
he bowed, and began to close the door, “Have a nice night, you two.” The door clicked shut.
Lumine listened to the sound of Zhongli’s footsteps as he walked away. Silence fell between the
traveler and the Harbinger, thick as leather.
Childe sighed and closed his eyes. He pulled his arm away from hers, taking a step back and
rubbing the bridge of his nose. Despite the obvious irritation, he smiled, though the expression
lacked humor, “Lumine…”
She hadn’t had this much fun a long time. “Yes, my wonderful business partner?”
“We need to talk.”

“Oh yes, you’re right about that,” she barked a short laugh, “We have much to discuss, like how I
will be doing the funeral proceedings, whatever they may be.”
“No, Lumi, I will be doing them.”
“No, Childe, I will be doing it. And you will be groveling at my feet for forgiveness.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really!” Finally, the anger was let loose, but she could not stand to look at him any longer.
Huffing and turning away, she stomped down the stairs with him in tow, “I cannot believe you
would set up a meeting about Rex Lapis without me!”
He grabbed her wrist and followed closely behind, “I can’t believe that you’d eavesdrop on my
business deal!”
“I have a right to!”
“Like hell you do! This is Fatui business, girlie!”
“You promised you’d help me!”
“I did,” he hissed, yanking her towards him again so she would face him, “I helped get the
Millelith off your back, and I figured out what to do next about this stalemate, just like I said I
would. For all you know, I was going to tell you afterwards.”
She laughed bitterly, “Oh, so you taking care of the funeral stuff by yourself is also part of telling
me? What were you planning, Childe? To just do it all, get the gnosis, and fill me in later?”
Something along those lines. If his plans ever actually worked, she’d be far too distracted to care.
He straightened up and scanned the area for any sign of the hired agent, and found nothing.
Someone was going to be fired.
Before Childe could respond, the door to the parlor opened behind him. His hand was away from
her wrist in an instant, neatly lacing with his other hand behind his back as he stood up straight to
look at Zhongli waiting in the doorway. Lumine’s reaction time was just as quick, as she smothered
her frown away and put on an angelic smile.
“I thought I heard some yelling,” Zhongli explained slowly, “Is everything okay out here?”
“It’s fine,” Lumine faked a girlish giggle, “it must have been the wind.”
Childe nodded along, “Right, the wind. Nobody’s yelling.”
“No,” Zhongli put a hand to his chin in thought, “I was sure I heard you two yelling at each
other… Ah,” he smiled softly, “it must’ve been a lover’s spat, right? I understand your hesitance to
tell me. I apologize for prying,” he began to shut the door once more, “Goodnight, you two. Stay
safe.”
A lover’s spat.
A lover’s spat?
Lumine wanted to vomit at the thought.
Childe put his face into his hands and groaned. “I cannot believe this. Why doesn’t anything work
out for me?”
“Your life must be so hard.” Lumine snarked.
“You have no idea, printsessa.”
“Don’t call me that right now, I’m angry at you.”
“Well,” he put a hand to his chest and forced a tense smile, “I’m not angry at you, I’ve got
nothing to hide.”
He was an idiot. He was a bastard idiot who could never succeed in pulling the wool over her
eyes. Huffing, she stepped forward and poked a finger into his chest, “You’ve got a lot of nerve,
Childe. Don’t think I can’t tell how you feel.”
“Everything’s fine, Lumine.”
“You’re a terrible liar. You’re regretting showing your true emotions because you’d much rather I
be in the dark about how you feel, because you want me to trust you. You want me to be a good
girl and play along with your little game. Well, tough luck,” she snapped, “I won’t be doing that!”
She was so much smarter than she let on. She was so much more keen, despite the obliviousness
to everything else. Lumine had never been so spot on, and he had never been so easily readable.
Perhaps things would be different if he didn’t know she was his soulmate. Perhaps he could
control himself better, perhaps he could do his job correctly. Perhaps things would not be so
complicated.
And she was beautiful when she was angry.
“Where’s your date?” He ignored her utterly correct accusation and averted his eyes, trying to not
take the sight of her in - trying to not paint it on his memory to keep forever.
Lumine’s lips parted in horror, “How did you know I was on a date?”
“I know everything.”
“Childe!”
“Fine,” he crossed his arms and forced another smile, “If you desire me to be completely honest
with you, I paid that man to ask you out. He’s a Fatui agent.”
This man was terrible. He was horrible. He was her worst nightmare, a liar, a bastard. She gasped
and covered her mouth, her eyes wide. “Y-You…? How dare you? A-And I got my hopes up!”
Childe raised a brow, “So, you liked him?”
“Not in the least! But dear god, that was the first man to ever ask me on a date. I thought I was
desirable for a second.” She stared at him in horror, anxiety coming off her in waves, “And what’s
worse is that you think… y-you think I’d like him?”
That was what she was worried about? The fact that he picked out the wrong guy was far more
important in her mind than the fact that he paid that man to ask her out. Childe felt a tinge of regret
in his chest at her admission, he could hardly believe her words. It was insane that nobody had
asked her on a date before, he expected entire worlds to fall at her feet.
It was almost laughable, the look in her eyes and the parting of her lips. Her face was devoid of
color in horror. He felt a chuckle rise up through his throat despite the anger at his failed plan.
Lumine had that effect on him. Even in his worst moods, she found a way to make him laugh. It
was like a curse.
Childe sighed in defeat. This was inevitable, he was defeated by the tears forming in the corners
of her eyes. They were not tears of sadness, but frustration and anger. He raised a hand to her cheek
and tucked her chin up to look at him, “Lumi, I’m sorry for keeping secrets, but you have to
understand that these are my orders. You can have a hand in this as well, if you want, but I’ll tell
you right now that I will have the gnosis.”
With her chin still in his hand, she frantically rubbed at the hot tears in the corners of her eyes.
She hated that she was so emotional, so easily affected. Aether would never react in this way. She
attempted to steady her glare and let her frustration and anger shine through, “Over my dead body.”
His voice was a whisper, “Don’t say things like that, lyubimaya.”
She banged a light fist onto his chest, “I don’t even know what that means!”
“Good,” he managed a chuckle, “someone’s got to keep you wondering.”

“Who said I want it to be you?”
She was challenging him again, he adored that. And she was perfectly correct, nobody had said
so. But she put herself into this situation by involving herself in Fatui business, by destiny itself. It
almost seemed as if he could not get rid of her no matter what he tried.
Life was annoying like that.
He ignored her challenge and went on, “Well, if I can’t distract you from your meddling, I guess
we’ll just have to work together.”
Lumine’s anger melted away as she rested her hands on his shoulders, looking up at him with a
hopeful gasp that suited her face far better than any frown. “That’s what I’ve wanted all along. And
you promise to help me find my brother as well?”
“Whatever you want, lyubimaya.”
Childe wasn’t sure why he called her his beloved, why she was ‘princess’ and ‘Lumi’, and on
occasion she was his even ‘my star’. The name fit, this girl from another world - or so his reports
told, she was only rumored to be from another world, a traveler who could summon constellations
with a flick of her hand. Nonetheless, he found it applicable to the girl in front of him, the one with
the furrowed brows and relieved, hopeful hint of a smile.
She was genuinely happy that he was going to work alongside her now. She was far too trusting,
so much so that it worried him.
“So,” he grinned, “how’d you scare Andreas off?”
“I didn’t, he just, uh…” she glanced around with wide eyes, “he disappeared when I didn’t listen
to him.”
“Probably because he knows I’m about to fire him.”
“Childe!” She hit his arm with a horrified gasp, “Don’t you dare!”
Perhaps if she was less difficult, his plans would actually work. Perhaps if she was not so strong
headed, they would not be having this discussion. The pavilion was, thankfully, empty for the
evening. With the sky dark and the floating lanterns glowing, Lumine was positively angelic in the
lighting. She crossed her arms and faced away from him in her attempts to not acknowledge his
terrible behavior. He understood that, he wouldn’t want to acknowledge it either. Somehow,
though, she could still stand to be next to him.
Another bite of irritation ran through his veins. If only she listened, if only she was not so
righteous minded, if only she stopped bothering the Fatui. Lumine was just a bundle of beautiful if
onlys.
He exhaled slowly, attempting to let his anger out, “I don’t like it when things don’t go my way.”
“Oh, shut up,” she snapped, her irritation returning instantly, “that’s life, you whiner.”
He was not whining, he was bemoaning his place in the world. He’d have to discharge a soldier
tomorrow, go to a business dinner, and babysit Lumine. There was nothing to look forward to
besides ending this oddly difficult mission.
In both Lumine and Childe, the irritation returned. His gaze flattened as he looked down at her,
their bodies so close he could feel the heat from her skin. They could only have peace for a minute
before the teeth were bared once more. “You need to stay out of Fatui business, I’m going to have
to ask you to not speak to that fortune teller again.”
Lumine glared up at him, “You can’t tell me what to do.”
He knew that, but he could attempt it. He narrowed his eyes and returned the hard look, “There’s
a reason I have people following her.”
“Why?” She erupted, “Are you afraid she’ll knit someone to death? She’s an old lady, Childe,
leave her alone!”
“I have my reasons.”
“No you don’t,” she huffed again, gripping the front of his jacket in her anger, “You’re just being
a bully because nothing’s going the way you want it.”
“Because there’s a certain traveler in my way-”
“I cannot believe we are friends,” she groaned, “why did I do this to myself?”
“Masochism.”
He stated it as if it was a fact. She was inclined to agree, “You’re an asshole.”
There was no need to hide his emotions like he would with anyone else, she already knew how he
felt. “You’re obnoxious.”
“Well, you're full of yourself!”
“You’re naive!”
“You’re backstabbing!”
“You’re compensating for something!”
“At least it’s not for a tiny dick like yours!”
He wasn’t sure why the tiny dick comment did it for him.
Childe let the tension take over. His heart began to race, his blood boiled with the familiar
excitement of a battle. Lumine was the most beautiful, frustrating, mind blowing woman he’d ever
met. He realized it, then, she was the only woman he’d ever been attracted to. Her glare, her frown,
her smile, her eyes. When she was happy, his heart raced, when she was angry, his heart raced,
when she gave him just the slightest amount of attention, his heart raced.
The tension in the air sank down into his skin and suffocated his throat. It lit a fire in his stomach,
moving his limbs into action before he could stop himself.
Lumine’s eyes widened as Childe gripped her waist and nudged her forward. Her back hit the
column gently, but his fingers dug into her skin. Looming over her, he leaned down, his breath hot
on her neck. Her heart began to race as he spoke, “You really make things difficult for me.”
The traveler could not help but grin. Despite the oddity of being pinned by the waist to a column
by a Fatui Harbinger, she enjoyed his words. “And I will continue to do so, forever.”
“I can’t escape you, can I?”
“Never.”
The tension between them snapped like a frayed rope.
His lips crashed onto hers.
He didn’t know what he was doing, why he was doing it. Without another thought, he tangled one
hand into her hair and lifted her face to give him more access to her mouth. His hand held her
waist, the other gripping blonde locks between his fingers as if she were his lifeline. She smelled of
lavender, a scent he never thought he’d like.
And Lumine, apparently, did not know how to kiss back. Or she was far too shocked. After four
seconds of Childe’s lips against hers, she returned the gesture, and made fireworks explode inside
of him. Slowly, hesitantly, her hands trailed up his chest and wrapped around his shoulders. And it
was perfect, they fit so wonderfully against each other, with his hips bumping against hers and his
fingers digging into her waist. Her hair was soft - he wished he wasn’t wearing gloves.
She tilted her head and closed her eyes to match him. Another kiss, and another, growing deeper
and deeper. He pressed her back against the wall further with increased excitement flowing through
his veins. There was no room left between them, not even an inch. Wanting more, he tightened his
grip on her hair and deepened it, his entire body feeling as if it was on fire.
Only one logical thought crossed his mind: what the hell was he doing?
And unfortunately, he still needed to breathe.
Parting with a soft sigh, he whispered against her lips, “I’m sorry, I need more self control.”
“I…” Lumine was at a loss for words. Her hands gripped the front of his jacket, holding him as
closely as she could. With her head tilted up and eyes still closed, she whispered, “I think I’ll
forgive you, just this once.”
His nose brushed against hers, their lips softly touching for half a second as he let out a soft
chuckle, “I’m honored to have your forgiveness, I truly need it.”
“You do need it. You’re a fool, Harbinger, you fell for my trap.”
Her trap. She was an absolute riot. He pulled back with a smile, “Lumi, stop lying. You couldn’t
seduce a shovel if you tried.”
The anger returned, it’s triumph victory over any romantic tension that might have still lingered.
She gripped his jacket and delivered a harsh punch to his shoulder. Despite the assault, their bodies
pressed against each other in some desperate attempt to close the space between them. Her glare
was like honey on his tongue. “I cannot believe you took my first kiss.”
How funny, it was his first as well. He’d done an absolutely terrible thing just then.
He would not let her know that, of course. He wanted the upper hand in at least something.
“Well, I never said I was a good guy.” With a regretful sigh, Childe pulled away and ruffled her
hair with a grin. He felt like he was walking on air, as if his skin was the only thing keeping him
from entirely bursting apart. But he could not stay in her gravitational pull any longer, no matter
how magnetic
He’d never felt anything close to this, not even in battle. He was warm, and excited, and nervous,
and positively breathless by the look on her face - which was a frustrated frown, of course, a glare.
Lumine’s anger had a way of messing with his mind, making him a complete bumbling idiot. He
almost wanted to drop to his knees and kiss her hand, just to frustrate her further.
And of course, because she was his soulmate, she knew exactly what he was thinking. He was
sure that he did not look as nervous on the outside, as he was on the inside. His stomach churned
with unfamiliar dread at what just happened.
“We will never speak of this again.”
He nodded along with a smile, “Never again. This never happened.”
“Right... Walk me to the hotel?”
She knew exactly what buttons to push. She knew where to poke and prod, when to speak and
when to be silent. His entire body felt on fire with excitement, so much so that he looked away to
hide the unending smile on his lips.
“Whatever my printsessa desires, it shall be.”
“I’ll kill you.”
A dreamy sigh that he could hardly stop from escaping, “I know you will.”
“Stop being weird or I’ll walk back alone.”
Her grip on his heart was tightening. He hated every second of it, but he knew it would be far
more difficult to stop than he thought.
Why did he have to kiss her? He had absolutely no idea.
“Remember, this never happened.”
Lumine shot him a flat glare over her shoulder, “What never happened?”
“Nothing at all, that's what."
And he certainly did not have the urge to kiss her again. He certainly did not want to press her
against a wall and stay in her arms forever. He certainly did not want her at his side that night. Not
at all.
It was high time he started to repress some feelings.
Chapter End Notes
conceal... don't feel... put on a shooow! Make one wrong move and everyone will
knoooow (that Childe likes Lumine)
Whipped
Chapter Notes
The kiss would not be discussed.
Or so Childe hoped.
The awkward air between them said more than either of them ever could. Childe could not take
another step towards the hotel without thinking of the feeling of Lumine against him, her lips and
her breath and her skin. He knew that she was thinking the same thing, as they walked down the
dark evening street, her cheeks grew redder, pinker, and her eyes wider like a terrified deer caught
in the light.
It told him all he needed to know. He kissed her, she liked it, and she was questioning why. He
wondered the exact thing.
The promise to never speak of the kiss was broken in about five minutes. Childe opened the door
to the hotel for Lumine, she thanked him softly and walked into the lobby, heading towards the
staircase. Quiet and thoughtful, he followed, until he could not take the deafening silence any
longer.
“I don’t know why I did that.”
Her shoulders tensed. She stopped mid-step, her hand on the railing of the stairs. She glanced
over her shoulder and frowned, “What?”
“Don’t act coy,” he sighed, “the kiss. I don’t know why I did that. I guess I was angry, and it
just…”
“...It just happened.”

“Right. I’m sorry, Lumi. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“It’s fine,” she offered a nod of understanding, “I get it, I really do. But I thought we said we
wouldn’t talk about it.”
“Well, we shouldn’t talk about it.” He grimaced and crossed his arms. The hotel lobby was empty
for the night, but he still felt exposed to a million eyes, as if the walls had ears. Childe never
thought he’d have this conversation in his lifetime.
She huffed, “Do you want to talk about?”
Truthfully, he didn’t. He just wanted to apologize, to her and to himself. This woman was meant
to be his enemy, no matter how comfortable they felt with each other. They were both after the
same thing, racing each each other to the finish line.
“No,” he ruffled her hair and forced a soft laugh, “I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry.”
“You’re unusually apologetic tonight.”
Childe thought he was always apologetic and polite. His mother and father had raised him to say
his pleases and thank yous, and in a family of nine people - parents included - one had to learn how
to play nice with others. He thought he was quite good at it.
“So, now that that’s over,” he stopped at the bottom of the staircase, smiling up at her, “bottom
line, that never happened.”
Lumine looked down at him. He could not read her expression. The curiosity of what went
through her mind itched at him further. With a huff, she put her hands behind her back and rocked
on her heels, avoiding his eyes. “Promise?”
“I not only promise,” he offered his pinkie, “I pinkie promise.”
The pouty expression dissolved into amusement. Lumine wrapped her pinkie around his, and they
shook on it. Promise made, done, set in stone.
The words he’d repeated for what seemed like hundreds of times with his siblings came to his
mind. That old children’s rhyme, the one he taught Teucer. Lumine wouldn’t get it, so he resisted
the urge to recite it out loud. She pulled away and crossed her arms over her chest, “Great. Nothing
happened.”
He smiled slyly, “Concerning what, girlie?”
“Nothing!”
“Hm?”
“You’re annoying me tonight,” she took a step away, “I don’t want to be in the same hotel as you,
I’ll sleep outside. Save your mora for someone else…” another glare, accompanied with pink
cheeks that betrayed her embarrassment, “Maybe your soulmate? I’m sure they’d appreciate it far
more.”
Stubborn. Lumine could be so spitefully stubborn. She was as unmoving as a stone wall, and just
as dense. He sighed as another flicker of frustration came to life in his chest, “No, she really
wouldn’t.”
“Why?” Lumine lifted her chin, “is she a hilichurl? A bear?”
“She’s certainly got the personality of one.”
“Poor you…” A smirk from her, and another flicker of fire inside of him. She was dangerously
close to this forbidden subject. And it truly did look like it might rain tonight. Nonetheless, he was
not her white night, nor her prince. If she wanted to spend the night being spiteful and stubborn
outside, instead of in a cozy hotel room he was paying for, then so be it. He wouldn’t be able to
control her anyhow.
“Yep, poor me.” Childe took a step up the stairs, “If you’re so keen about refusing my generosity,
don’t let me stop you. Just be there tomorrow for the meeting at Liuli… or not,” another smile,
“it’d be great if you weren’t.”
Lumine had a glare that rarely was threatening. It was her soft features and pink cheeks, coupled
with the big eyes, that ruined her attempts to look angry. He knew, though, that underneath the cute
face was a hell storm waiting to rain down. He could not let himself underestimate her. “I won’t let
you have the gnosis,” she warned.
It was odd how protective she was. To his knowledge, she’d never even met Rex Lapis. She
could not be friends with him like she was with Barbatos. Narrowing his eyes, he watched her from
his spot on the staircase, “Why’re you so determined to have it? What use does it have for you?”
“What use does it have for you?”
“It’s not for me,” he put a hand to his chest, “it’s for the Tsaritsa.”
“But why?”
He wasn’t entirely sure. He was simply given the order, and did what he was told. Childe did not
allow his thought process to show, but Lumine could read him like a book. She furrowed her
brows as she noticed the blank look in his eyes, “You don’t know, do you?”
He shrugged and met her gaze, “Do you?”
“... No…”
“Then we’re in the same boat, printsessa.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“I don’t mind sharing a boat with you.”
Lumine’s cheeks went pink, a shade that barely revealed itself in the golden glow of the lanterns.
His heart skipped a beat. She turned away before he could get lost in the look on her face. “You
know, if I were in your shoes, I’d want to know why I’m doing the things I do.”
He did know, to an extent. He sat down on the staircase, resting his arms across his knees and
resting his chin on his wrist, staring at the doors. Outside of the hotel walls, Liyue ebbed and
flowed with the sound of activity. This city shined at night, it was when it’s true colors came out.
Both Childe and Lumine stuck out like sore thumbs amongst the city.
“She wants a perfect world,” he began to explain as the traveler sat on the steps beside him, “and
I’m willing to commit evils to… defeat a bigger evil, I suppose.”
“And… what’s the bigger evil?”
“You know what? I’m not really sure.”
Lumine stared at him as if he was dumb, but the look was conflicted. He watched her face go
from annoyed disbelief, to a softer expression that he could not read at all. Her brows furrowed and
her lips thinned as she thought, gazing warily. Whatever went through her mind, he had no idea.
That was yet another frustrating thing about Lumine, her wide array of emotions were endlessly
confusing.
Finally, after the seconds of thoughtful silence, she spoke, “I never would’ve taken you for
someone to care about the greater good of the world.”
He got that a lot. Sitting up, he grinned, “I’ve got a family, you know. They have to live in this
world too.”
“Y-You have a family?” It was a shocked gasp. She scooted away from him, “You’re married?”
“What? N-“
“You kissed me,” she covered her mouth with her hands as if she was about to vomit, “and you’re
married? You have kids? Just how old are you anyway?”
To think that for a moment he believed her to not be as oblivious as he originally thought. Reality
had a way of smacking him in the face - or perhaps Lumine was messing with him, he was never
quite sure. Bewildered, he twisted to look at her, her eyes wide with comical shock. “I’m 22, and
I’m not married. When I say family I mean my brothers and sisters, smartypants.”
Sweet relief, it was like a flood. “Oh, yeah, I knew that.”
Sure she did. He smirked, “And I thought we never kissed.”
“You’re right. We didn’t.” Lumine stood and dusted her dress off, “And I also did not accept your
generous offer of a room for the night. I miss sleeping under the stars,” she looked at the doors at
the head of the lobby, “plus, we are enemies, you know.”
“I thought we were friends?”
“Hm… Frenemies.”
She was a riot. “Come on, Lumi, you know that’s not accurate.”
“You’re right,” she put a finger to her chin in thought, “you’re attracted to me despite having a
soulmate-“
Attracted to her? She had to be messing with him. He stood from his spot, fingers tensing as he
hid them in his pockets, attempting to look casual. “Who says I’m attracted to you?”
“You did,” a sly smile. She was positively evil sometimes, “by making out with me.”
“I was frustrated, and-“
“Don’t interrupt,” her laugh glued him into place, “we’re not frenemies at all. You’re obviously in
love with me, and I am obviously far above such things.”
Childe decided, in that moment, that he would pointedly ignore the ‘obviously in love with me’
part. Simply because it was not true. It was so untrue that it was bewildering. A thought as
idiotically dishonest should not even exist in the first place. It was a crime to humanity.
“So,” he stepped towards her, his arms crossed and lips turned into a challenging smile, “you’re
above things like that? If I remember correctly, you kissed back.”
Lumine faltered, “Out of pity!”
“And,” he held up his pinky, “we made a promise to never talk about that again. In Snezhnaya
there’s a saying about breaking pinky promises.”
She raised a skeptical brow, “And what is that?”
“You make a pinkie promise, you keep it all your life,” he curled his finger around hers again,
“You break a pinkie promise, I throw you on the ice. The cold will kill the pinkie that once
betrayed your friend, the frost will freeze your tongue off so you never lie again.”
A pregnant pause. Her eyes widened, “That’s a bit… macabre. I mean, I like it, don’t get me
wrong, but…”
“And because you’re my friend, business partner, frenemy, competitor, and mildly attractive
woman-“
“You think I’m mildly attractive?”
So much more than that. He ignored her interruption, “I’ll forgive you for lying, there’ll be no
tongues frozen off tonight.”
“Oh,” her gaze flattened, “splendid.”
“I mean… unless you want that.”
She stared at him as if he was trash on the sidewalk, “Are you coming onto me?”
Sort of. Probably not. He was never quite sure what his brain was doing around her. He could
hardly resist the constant word vomit coming from his mouth in her presence. It was as if he could
not think before he spoke, running on adrenaline and instinct - yet another reason why she was too
dangerous to keep around.
Sighing, he took another step on the stairs, “I’m not sure how that would be a come on, but if
that’s what floats your boat then I won’t judge. There’s this kink called ice play, it’s where you-“
“Goodnight, Childe. This conversation is over.”
“Goodnight, my printsessa.” A laugh, and a glimmer of something akin to excitement forming in

his stomach. Yet another feeling to completely ignore and repress, he’d add it to the list.
Lumine frowned heavily, “Your soulmate’s going to get jealous if you keep calling me that.”
If only she knew. He shot her a look over his shoulder, “She’ll be fine, don’t worry about it…
Night, Lumi.”
She was serious about sleeping outside. He was almost tempted to join her, the sky was beautiful
at night, and he found himself stifled by a hotel room as well. But to join her would be risking yet
another broken pinkie promise. And he could not have that.
Lumine smiled and turned away, her hands behind her back. He watched her open the doors, jog
down the street and around the corner. Paimon popped back into existence at her shoulder, and the
sound of her high pitched yells echoed down to his ears. He could not tell what the pixie was
yelling about, but it was moments like those that reminded Childe of the complete oddity that was
Lumine. She was a black sheep, like him, but still living a life so different from his.
Childe walked up the stairs to his room. He opened the door and slammed it shut, promptly
falling into his bed face first. As if he was 15 again, he buried his face and his pillow and
screamed.
He kissed her. He kissed the traveler. Why did he kiss her?
The thought ran through his mind over and over. It repeated itself, a chorus of whys that would
not leave him alone. With a muffled groan into the pillow, he pulled the mask from his hair and
tossed it aside - he could hardly think about anything other than the fact that he kissed her.
That was his first kiss. She was the first woman he’d ever been attracted to in that way. She was
his literal soulmate - and she had no idea. He’d probably have to fight her for the gnosis at some
point. He’d have to betray her trust. Life would be so much easier if she just did what he wanted
and went to Mondstadt with Huffman.
This second pinkie promise had to be seen through. He could not allow it to break. Neither he, nor
Lumine, should ever mention, think about, or breath of the kiss again. It never happened.
Just one more muffled scream into his pillow, and he would let it rest. He could lay down and fall
asleep and forget about the night with Lumine, her words and her eyes, her lips and her skin and
her scent - he had to forget all of it.
Tomorrow, they will be competitors. They will be two people vying for the same goal, and they
will not be kissing ever again.
If only Childe’s heart did not betray him at every twist and turn.
He slept lightly that night, with no dreams to bother him. He awoke refreshed and determined. His
breakfast was light, with green tea - which was disgusting on the tongue, but when in Liyue, he
thought, he might try to do as the locals did - and he did his morning training. He met some recruits
in a field outside of the harbor. He thought of Lumine and wherever she slept that night - then
killed a mitachurl in an attempt to let out some pent up stress.
Overall, it was a very good morning. Lumine was only his mind about every 10 minutes, which
was a new record.
The meeting with Zhongli was scheduled for lunch time, when the restaurants would be filled
with people. It was customary in Liyue to have a meeting over food, and to discuss business in low
tones underneath the hum of the crowd. Childe found that he enjoyed that custom, even if he had to
force himself to use chopsticks just to be polite.
As the hour neared, his excitement rose. This would be the time, finally, when he would see
Lumine that day. It felt as if he’d seen her every day for the past three weeks or so, which was an
incredibly frustrating revelation. Everytime he attempted to rip her out of his life, she indented
herself even more, like a handprint in concrete.
And he could hardly believe himself, who he was becoming. He actually cared about how he
looked today.
“Ekaterina…” Childe attempted to sound disattached, distant, entirely too uncaring about
anything in this worldly realm, “I have a question.”
She looked up from her papers and blinked. The mask covered her face, but he could see the
curiosity gleaming in her eyes. Nobody hardly expected the receptionist to be the most gossip-
mongering Sneznhayan in the city, but Childe knew better. Ekaterina had opinions on everything
she knew.
It was, perhaps, why he felt he should ask her, he knew he’d get an honest answer. “How do I
look?”
The receptionist blanked.
Childe stared. It was as if he was standing under a waterfall of regret. He froze, leaning on the
counter and staring at a spot on the wall. His fingers clenched into a fist as he took a deep breath to
steady himself.
Why did he ask that? He felt that he was beginning to lose his touch, saying these asinine things
without thinking of how stupid they made him look. Ekaterina cleared her throat and pursed her
lips. She resisted the urge to laugh, covering her mouth with a hand, “You, uh… would you like an
honest answer?”
Yes. And no. He would like to turn back time and never ask that question. Sighing, he gave in,
“Yes, please.”
“Okay, well…” she grimaced, “for starters…”
“Just say it.” Rip the bandage off. He could not take the words back no matter how ardently he
wished to.
“Well, your hair is a rats nest, Master Childe.”

“...Oh.”
“And your outfit is sloppy.”
“It’s… my uniform…”
“And you look tired.”
“...But I got enough sleep...”
Ekaterina huffed like an irritated mother, “Do you ever brush your hair?”
No, not normally. Pulling away from the counter, he attempted to contain the frown growing on
his face. He didn’t think he was that bad, or that he’d even care that much, “That’s enough, thank
you.”
She stared at him as if he was a filthy little street kid. Catching herself, she turned away and
busied her hands with random papers and files. It was a wise move, to act as if she’d never said
anything.
But perhaps she was right. His mother and two sisters often told him the same thing. “So,” acting
casual once more, he tapped his fingers on the counter, “let’s just say that I’m doing something
important today, what would I do to look more presentable?”
“Maybe…” she sent him a wary look, “brush your hair back, fix the scarf,” it was incredibly
lopsided, “make sure there’s no mud on your shoes,” they were pretty dirty, “roll up your sleeves.
Uh… button up your jacket correctly?”
Childe looked down. She was correct, he’d buttoned it wrong. He was so distracted this morning -
thinking of the upcoming lunch with Lumine - that he’d gotten dressed in an absolute haze. He
sighed and smoothed his collar, fixed his buttons, frowning at nothing the entire time. His cheeks
felt warm as he ran his hands through his hair and ignored Ekaterina’s lingering eyes. She had that
romantic gleam again, as if her mind was on Lumine as well.
Childe knew that he should not care about such things. He knew that how his hair looked didn’t
matter in the end, he’d have the gnosis no matter how much mud was on his boots. But he could
not ignore the swirling nervousness in his stomach.
He retreated to his upstairs office in an attempt to escape Ekaterina’s obvious excitement.

Brushing his hair back and staring at his reflection in the mirror, he could not help but glare. Weak.
He was turning weak just for one silly girl that he’d have to betray in the end.
Angry, he ruffled his hair so it stuck up with wild abandon, looking worse than when he started.
“Get it together,” an angry murmur, “it’s just Lumine. She’s not anything special.”
Nothing special. The traveler and hero of Mondstadt was just a simple human being, and had
absolutely no sway over him.
That is what made her appearance today an absolute crime.
After the outfit and mirror fiasco, Childe left the bank to wait at the pavilion, leaning against a
wall with his arms crossed over his chest. Nobody paid him any mind as they passed. Zhongli
waited inside the restaurant for the meeting to begin. Through the crowd, a slip of white caught his
eye, and his heart betrayed him once more.
It was beginning to get annoying, how he felt every time he caught sight of Lumine. Blonde hair,
long tendrils in the front of her face curled naturally into ringlets. Paimon buzzed around her
shoulders and glared at the passing crowd. Below her, was Lumine, who glued him into place with
the smile on her lips.
Just as she did the other week, she pointed at from across the street and yelled, “Childe!”
Was she as drunk as the week before? She lacked the stumbling, and the red cheeks. Her
appearance was a crime for the simple fact that she was beautiful no matter what. And she looked
as if she rolled out of bed, fell off a mountain, and got into several fights along the way.
She was glorious.

“Am I late?” Lumine approached him with a worried frown. There was a smudge of dirt on her
cheek, and far more mud caked to her boots than his. Her hair was tangled and messy, her eyes
wide.
She came to a halt in front of him. He looked her up and down, soaking in the sight. “And
Ekaterina thought I looked like a ragamuffin.”
“Ragamuffin?” Lumine raised a brow, “I guess you kind of do.”
“Well it warms my heart to see someone looking much worse.”
Paimon huffed and crossed her arms, “Paimon thinks both of you are rude to show up to a
business meeting looking like that!”
Childe laughed, “If you think we’re rude, you should take a look at yourself. You’re covered in
crumbs, pixie.”
“Paimon doesn’t have crumbs!”
Lumine grimaced, “You actually do…”
Above her, Paimon gasped and frantically wiped at the crumbs covering her cheeks, “Why does
nobody tell Paimon these things?”
“Calm down,” Lumine laughed as she followed Childe through the restaurant doors, “I’m sure
Mister Zhongli is human too, he’s got to be just as imperfect as us.”
She spoke far too soon. Childe had at least tried to look presentable, having met Zhongli the night
before and knowing what to expect. Lumine had not been able to speak to him to that extent, so she
had no idea that Zhongli was, unfortunately, quite perfect.
Childe kept his cool as he turned the corner and raised a hand in greeting. The funeral consultant
perked up and smiled, his eyes flickering from the Harbinger, to the utterly messy traveler and
pixie following behind. Lumine froze, and gasped. Paimon frantically brushed her crumb covered
face. “O-Oh, I apologize for looking so sloppy,” she forced a smile, “I should’ve put on something
nicer.”
Childe took a chair and glanced over his shoulder with an innocent smile, “Yeah, Lumi, we’ve got
to be professional here.”
Her gaze flattened, “You look just as bad.”
Zhongli held up a hand. He had a smile that held little thought behind it, “No worries, I’m
wearing my casual clothes today as well.”
His casual outfit was a full suit, apparently. He looked as if he was going to a royal ball. Nervous,
Lumine took the seat beside Childe and attempted to pat down her wild hair. The table was already
set and ready for lunch. “Well, I’m just glad to be here,” she forced an awkward laugh, “I got into
a few fights along the way.”
“Oh?” Zhongli leaned in, “Are you alright?”
The only thing hurt was her dignity. At Lumine’s left, she caught Childe frowning down at the
chopsticks beside his bowl. “Yes, I’m okay…” distracted, she looked at the Harbinger, noting his
furrowed brows. He rarely looked like that, like a petulant child.
With the slight lull in the conversation, Lumine held the chopsticks between her fingers,
attempting to show Childe the correct method. She leaned in to whisper, “Do you want me to order
the ones made for kids? We can pretend they’re for Paimon.”
Zhongli would notice him using kiddie chopsticks nonetheless. He sighed, leaning in to whisper
back, “I’m fine, I can figure it out.”
“But can you?”
“Yes, Lumi, I can. I’m a master of every weapon I’ve ever touched. I cannot be defeated by a
dinner utensil.”
She stifled a quiet laugh, “Are you sure about that?”
An impatient sigh and a grimace, “Yes, lyubimaya.”
“Don’t insult me in Snezhnayan!”
Zhongli watched the exchange of heated whispers with an unreadable expression. He did not
need perfect hearing to make out the argument between the two. Taking a calm sip of his tea, and
clearing his throat, he dropped the bomb, “How long have you two been together?”
It was a perfectly normal question. The Harbinger and the traveler should not have reacted in the
way they did. That was the kind of question everybody asked couples. With incessant whispering at
the dinner table, it was natural for Zhongli to assume there was something between them.
“What?” Lumine gasped and covered her mouth, “t-that’s… No!”
That was no, it was all she could think of. Zhongli continued to stare blankly. It was how they
were touching in whatever way they could, how their shoulders brushed against each other, their
chairs pushed closely together. The Harbinger had leaned in to whisper so comfortably, as if he was
familiar with having no room left between them. Childe was the first to recover from his shock,,
“Oh. Oh, no, goodness,” he and Lumine both laughed awkwardly and shared a look, “She’s not my
type.”
A pregnant pause. Tension flooded the room so much that Zhongli flinched at nothing in
particular. Slowly, Lumine turned to face the Harbinger, “Excuse me, but… that wasn’t how you
felt last night.”
He glared. She was pushing his buttons again, she knew exactly what to do. “Lumine,” there was
poison in his saccharine tone, “I thought we talked about this.”
“I’ll kill you, Harbinger.” Another harsh whisper, “You know I will.”
It was the aftershock of the explosion, still reverberating through the air. With a tense smile,
Childe leaned towards her, “Do you even have a brain in that pretty head of yours?”
“Oh, so you think I’m pretty now?! I thought I wasn’t your type!”
Paimon floated to Zhongli’s side and pulled at his sleeve, “E-Excuse them, they’re… a little
insane.”
“Ah yes,” he put his hand to his chin in thought, “I recall the days of my youth, love truly is
complicated.”
It was, elbows, punches and shoves included. The argument erupted into Childe desperately
trying to put a hand over Lumine’s mouth, as she attempted to elbow his waist and knock the breath
from his lungs. His chair tipped as he leaned forward further and fought against her hands. “Just be
quiet for a minute!”
“No!” She squealed, gripping his wrists, “Let me be me!”
“You just need to be quiet, Lumi!”
“You just need to let me deal with this!”
“No, you just need to trust me!”
“Never!”
Zhongli cleared his throat, “I apologize for interrupting, but-”
“You’re a dirty little trash goblin, and you kiss like a walrus!” Lumine now.
Childe gasped, “You kiss like a frog!”
Paimon gasped, “K-Kiss?!”

Childe, finally, managed to wrap his arm around her shoulders and clamp his hand over her
mouth. She struggled underneath him, while the Harbinger sent the most innocent of smiles
possible, “Excuse her, she’s from Mondstadt,” he explained to Zhongli, “drunk all the time, you
know how it is.”
The funeral consultant nodded heavily, as if he truly did know how it was. Liyue was no stranger
to dramatics and odd business meetings. He set his chopsticks beside his bowl as Lumine writhed
and wiggled between him and Childe, held down by the Harbinger’s hands. Ignoring her, he took a
deep sigh, as if the chaos was nonexistent. “There is much to discuss concerning the funeral
proceedings, it has been a very long time since a ritual like this has been carried out.”
Lumine froze, her lips covered, and her eyes wide. Underneath Childe’s palm, she asked a
muffled question. Zhongli raised a brow in confusion, “I don’t quite understand, I apologize.”
As if just realizing the position they were in, Childe yanked his hand away, releasing her. In an
attempt to save face, he leaned on the table and smiled, “I assure you, the Fatui are completely
competent in matters such as these. The inclusion of the traveler is a simple wrench thrown into
our diplomatic-”
“Shush,” Lumine shot him a look, interrupting his soliloquy, “don’t try to butter him up. You’re
just as incompetent as I am.”
“Lumine, you know -”
Zhongli interrupted with a sigh, “What was your question?”
“Oh,” she stiffened, “Yes, I was just wondering who you’d prefer to help with the proceedings?”
Zhongli sent them a look, “I truly do not care which one of you carries out the proceedings, as
long as it is done properly. My priority is following Liyue tradition, and showing respect to the
fallen Archon.”He was like a father rowdy children down with one flick of his hand. He had the air
of an elder who knew far more than two kids who sat with him. Even Paimon crossed her arms and
glared.
Childe picked up his chopsticks and attempted to regain his dignity, “Of course, and I’m happy to
be a financial sponsor for this.”
“And I,” Lumine folded her hands in her lap and offered a demure smile, “am very happy to do
whatever you need, Mister Zhongli.”
“Wonderful,” he put his hands together, “there is much to do, I’ll walk you through each step as
well. This is a very important event,” he nodded gravely, “the Qixing have not shown the proper
respect so far, thus it falls to us.”
It was quite odd that the city returned to it’s regular pace with the death of it’s Archon. Liyue was
so connected with Rex Lapis that it shocked Lumine to not see any sign of mourning. Upon talking
with the locals, she realized that everyone was mostly confused, terrified, and had no idea of what
to do next. Yet, shops stayed open, children still played, and the streets continued to bustle. The
anemo Archon had been stabbed once and she was already out for blood.
She and Childe shared a look, before returning their gazes to Zhongli. The funeral consultant took
another calm sip of tea, and exhaled slowly, “If you do not mind, I would like to start as soon as
possible. Perhaps…” his gaze leveled onto Lumine, “in an hour, or so?”
An hour, that would be enough time to look less sloppy. She sent Childe a mocking smile before
turning back to Zhongli, “Yes, of course, I’ll do whatever you need.”
“Wonderful,” he stood from the table and wiped his hands on a napkin, “I will see you then,
perhaps outside of this restaurant?”
“Yes, that’ll be fine Mister Zhongli.”
With a polite bow, he pushed his chair in and left the room. Childe and Lumine listened to the
sound of his footsteps fade as he closed the door behind him. Paimon floated across the table with
wide, shocked eyes.
“That was… the worst meeting Paimon’s ever seen!”
“Oh yeah?” Lumine crossed her arms and glared, “Just how many business meetings have you
been a part of?”
“T-That doesn’t matter!”

Childe put his elbow on the table and frowned, “She’s right, though, it was terrible. Jeez… I hope
everything still works out.”
“It will,” Lumine rolled her eyes, “just trust me.”
His gaze flattened, “Trust you?”
“Yeah,” a casual shrug, “I’ll find out a way to make sure we both win by the end of this.”
With a sigh, he closed his eyes as if to shut out his problems, “How, girlie? You’ll split the gnosis
in half?”
“If I have to. You know I don’t like losing people.” She said it with such conviction, such
determination. He opened his eyes to appraise her, taken aback by the furrowed brows and set
frown. Lumine didn’t like losing people. He could only wonder how he became one of her people.
“I’ll do whatever it takes.”
And she was so stupidly optimistic. He could not help but smile at the childish naivety of it all. “I
don’t think there’s anything you can do, there’s only one gnosis. And you know I won’t back
down, so that just leaves you…”
The idea snuck into his mind like an unwanted parasite. It took it’s home in his brain, delving into
his thoughts and forcing its way to the front of his attention. He dwelled for a moment in
uncomfortable silence - besides the sound of Paimon devouring the leftover food - and considered
the new flash of light on the horizon.
So, that just left her. Huffman didn’t work, the other guy didn’t work, and she wouldn’t listen to a
word he said. But his options had not run dry just yet. “You could just join the Fatui. We’d help
you find your brother faster.”
Lumine was in obvious shock and horror at the suggestion. She scooted away, hands gripping the
back of her chair as she stared at him. “J-Join the Fatui…?”
“Yep, then we can kiss all the tim-”

The sound of Paimon coughing on her meat interrupted, “K-Kiss? So you two did kiss?!”
“No!”
Childe ignored her, “We did, and we can do it much more if you joine-”
“We made a pinkie promise to never talk about that!”
“I have the power and authority to dissolve pinkie promises.”
Taken aback, Lumine gasped, “No you don’t! Nobody does!”
He did. “Lumi, if you joined the Fatui then we both could win. It’s that simple.”
“Why do I have to join the Fatui?” She put a hand to her chest and shook her head, bewildered. He
had to know better than to suggest such things, especially after all she’d seen the Fatui do. He
could not be so blind to his organization’s actions. “Why can’t you quit?”
His smile blanked as if he was truly confused, “Why would I do that?”
“So we can both win!”
“That’s not winning.”
“Yes it is!”
“I can't get stronger without them.”
“Come on,” she slipped her hands into his and leaned in, eyes wide and lips parted. His breath
caught in his throat as the scent of lavender took over his senses. Lumine was so close - Paimon
was gagging in disgust on the other side of the table - and she was so warm, she was like the sun
itself. Her voice was soft as she whispered, “Childe, you’re better than this.”
The spell broke with her words. His gaze flattened in confusion, “What makes you think that?”
“You’re willing to help me find my brother…” She squeezed his hands, “You’re smart, and kind,
and you have morals, I know you do.”
She was so wrong. She was so incredibly wrong that it hurt. It was another opportune moment to
repress every feeling he’d ever felt. With a smile, he tilted his head mockingly, “Lumi, I think
you’re falling in love with me.”
“Not in the least,” her gaze did not break for even a second, “but we are friends, in some weird
way. And I know you can do better than the Fatui.”
Lumine simply didn’t understand. Her life was so simple, traveling and getting lost, fighting
monsters and laughing at the dumbest of jokes. She didn’t seem to have goals, other than finding
her brother. She simply lived, she did what she wanted, and that was what made her so
uncomplicated. It was the complete opposite of him.
Childe supposed it was time for an explanation. He hardly realized that they were still holding
hands as he spoke, “I became a Harbinger because I want to be the strongest person in the world,
the Fatui and Tsaritsa are simply stepping stones towards an ultimate end.”
“So,” she tilted her head, doe-eyes flashing in curiosity, “do you even care about the Fatui and it’s
ideology?”
Somewhat. It was a complicated feeling. He cared for the Tsaritsa and her future, truly believing
in her vision, but he did not care for the needless slaughter the Fatui carried out. His lust for battle
did not extend to political murders, destroying lives, or bullying others.
Childe just wanted to fight something. He just wanted to be the strongest, and the Fatui offered
that opportunity. Lumine wouldn’t understand. He pulled his hands away from hers and stood,
sighing and ignoring the death glares from Paimon. Lumine frowned, though he avoided the look
on her face - the sadness in her eyes would tear him apart in seconds. “I’ve got to go, I’ll meet you
with Zhongli later.”
Lumine was not stupid. She knew what he meant. He had zero interest in continuing the
conversation, “Fine then, I’ll see you later.”
Childe faltered for a moment, opening his mouth as if he wanted to say more, but shutting it
quickly enough. Turning the corner and leaving her line of sight, he shut the door behind him.
Silence settled back over the room like a too-warm blanket, and Lumine stared at her food with a
sudden lack of appetite.
“So,” Paimon cleared her throat, “Did Lumi really… kiss that loser?”
He kissed her - ignoring the fact that she did kiss back. “We were in an argument last night,
things got a little heated and it just… I don’t know, happened.”
“Gross.” Paimon wrinkled her nose in disgust. Lumine could not help but agree. She swallowed
another bite of meat before setting the skewer down, her face covered in food, but her eyes wide
and serious, “Do you really think you can both win?”
No, but she’d find a way, if only out of spite. Childe insisted that there was no possibility of a
compromise between them, making her want to find that compromise even more. Something would
come up, there was always something, another way out. And she would discover it.
“I guess we should stop loitering,” she caught the eye of a waiter coming around the corner, “and
I suppose I should make an attempt to look nicer.”
Paimon put up a hand, “Let Paimon just finish this one last bite.”
“Hurry it up at least!”
“Lumi can’t rush art…”
Art, the pixie says. Lumine stood from her chair and sighed. It was her first ever business meeting
in Liyue and she’d found some way to make herself look dumb. Aether would never let anything
like that happen, he was actually good with people, unlike her.
She left the restaurant dazed and distracted, Paimon following while holding two full meat
skewers. With frustration rising in her chest, she found her cursing Childe’s name under her breath
- whatever his real name was, she assumed it was something stupid and embarrassing. “He’s just
trying to piss me off,” she informed Paimon, “if he would just get out of the way and let me do my
thing, we wouldn’t be having any problems, and I wouldn’t have to figure out this thing about the
gnosis!”
The pixie hummed at her shoulder, “When has life ever worked like that? Paimon is sure the
Harbinger thinks the same thing about you…”
Lumine hated it when Paimon was right.
“I guess as much as I insist that we’re friends, he’s still going to be my enemy.” She crossed her
arms in thought and scanned the market square, absently running her eyes over each person
meandering about. Lumine wasn’t sure who or what she was looking for, just something to take
Childe off her mind for half a second.
“Why does Lumine even want to be his friend in the first place?”
It was a good question, and not one so easily answered. She recalled her first impression of
Childe, a guy who talked about Archons wearing silly hats, who irritated her by trying to save her.
He could be mean, he could be funny, snarky, silly, incredibly intelligent, and incredibly polite
when he desired to. He was entirely too confusing. She sighed in thought and walked down the
street, fingers laced behind her back, “I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I’d trust him
with my life or anything, but it’s hard to keep my walls up when he’s… like that.”
“Like that?” Paimon raised a brow.
“Like that,” Lumine wasn’t sure what she was gesturing to, or what direction her thoughts were
going, “you know… He, uh… he just makes me smile sometimes, even when I’m frustrated. And
it’s like how anybody can get on your good side with food, I feel like if someone makes me laugh
then it’s completely over for me.”
“Ah,” Paimon crossed her arms and offered a grave nod, “Yes, Paimon remembers the pyro
regisvine when it made a silly face. Lumi could hardly fight it afterwards.”
“It looked like it had a mustache for a second! It was hilarious!”
“Well, that can’t be the only reason Lumi’s comfortable with the loser Harbinger…”
Of course not. Lumine wasn’t dumb enough to trust just anybody who made her smile. She sighed
and leaned against a wall, crossing her arms over her chest as if she was holding herself together.
“Truthfully, he reminds me of Aether. Just… just a little bit, in little ways here and there… But
since we made out that would be super weird to say.”
“Ugh, yeah. Super weird.”
"But sometimes… that stubbornness and determination is a comfort...” she sighed and closed her
eyes, “and there’s something underneath all the annoying stuff that just… I don’t know, I see
something else there.”
“...Like massive amounts of evil?”
“Probably.”
“Well,” Paimon huffed with her hands on her hips, “don’t come crying to Paimon when he tries to
kill you!”
There was far more truth to that jest than Lumine wanted to acknowledge. With a shiver trailing
it’s cold fingers down her spine, she avoided her companions eyes and looked for anything else to
distract her wandering mind. She believed in what she said earlier, she knew that Childe could do
better, she knew he was capable of more than what the Fatui offered.
He couldn’t possibly try to kill her. He loved battle, but he wasn’t a murderer.
Lumine’s eyes wandered across the pavilion, to the marketplace and the locals loitering around
the staircases. Everything was red and brown and gold. The air smelled of spice and oil, mingling
with the fresh sea salt from the harbor. As the afternoon was coming to its end, the size of the
crowd increased and expanded, different voices filling the world around her.
It was one specific voice that stood out the most to Lumine’s ears. It was loud, high pitched and
bossy, not holding even the hint of a Liyue accent. Familiarity flickered in her chest as she stood up
straight and scanned the area for any sight of its owner.
“Outrider Amber here! I’m looking for the honorary knight of- Excuse me, uh, hello? I’m looking
for- Hey!”
Of course Amber would be taken aback by the bustle of Liyue. It was so different from the quiet
of Monstadt. Everyone here had a contract to fulfill, a job to go to, business to make. Nothing about
this city was lazy. Amber slid through the crowd and stopped for a moment to scan the market
square with wide, curious eyes. “H-hello? Hi, I’m Outrider Amber of- oh, you’re walking away,
okay, fine. Be like that.”
Lumine’s chest erupted in excitement. Amber was here, Amber had come to visit. Without a
warning, she pushed herself from the wall and took off into a run. With a few steps and a launch,
she was tackling the knight with both arms wrapping tightly over her neck, “Amber! My
goodness,” Lumine pulled away with a gasp, “you’re here! You’re… why are you here?”
And why was she crying? Why were her eyes and nose red? Amber gasped and returned the hug
with every ounce of strength she carried, burying her face into Lumine’s shoulder. She swore she
felt some warm snot drip from her nose onto her dress. “Y-You’re alive! Huffman told me the
news!”
“W-What news?”
“You’re sick!” Amber pulled back from her shoulder and erupted into a barrage of angry tears,
“How dare you not tell me? How dare you keep it a secret? You need to rest, Lumi, come back to
Mondstadt this instant!”
Paimon gasped at her shoulder and floated back, as if shoved through the air. With wide, terrified
eyes, she began to tear up as a mirror image of Amber, “L-Lumi’s sick? Why didn’t you tell
Paimon?”
Because she wasn’t sick, not as far as she knew. Dread began to swirl in her stomach like a murky
swamp as she let Amber’s cascade of commands rain over her head. Sick. She was sick, apparently,
and Huffman had told her so.
Lumine stared. Amber frowned heavily, “Don’t be so quiet! Explain yourself!”
“I…” how to explain something she didn’t understand in the least, “I’m not sick. Why would
Huffman tell you that?”
Matching confusion came to life on the Outrider’s face, “He said you were about to die.”
“I’m not… at least I think I’m not.”
“H-he said,” Amber rubbed furiously at her tears, “that some random guy found him in Mondstadt
and told him to come to Liyue and see you before you died, because you had feelings for him, or
something.”
Lumine wasn’t sure what was more embarrassing, that Huffman apparently only came to Liyue
out of pity for a dying girl, or that every knight of Favonius now knew she had feelings for him.
“I’m not really sure how to process all of this.”
Amber stared at her as if she was speaking in tongues. “He took two weeks of time off to come
see you before you died... I thought Kaeya and I were too late, but uh…”
But Lumine was not dying at all. Lumine looked as healthy and wild as ever. She glanced around
for any sign of Kaeya, barely holding back the rising anger in her chest, “Well, sorry to disappoint.
Did Huffman say who this guy was?”
“The guy that told him about your illness?”
“Yeah, him.”
“No…” a thoughtful sigh. Her tears dried up as she frowned over Lumine’s shoulder, crossing her
arms, “Mister Diluc was pretty angry all day after Huffman left, though, but he wouldn’t tell Jean a
thing! He said, and I quote: ‘let Lumine handle it. Your incompetent knights wouldn’t be able to do
anything about a Harbinger anyway.’ You know how he is.”
She did know how he was. She knew he’d be able to recognize a high level Fatui by just a glance.
A Harbinger.
A Harbinger who told Huffman to come to Liyue and take her on a date.
A Harbinger who made up a fake illness that would make Huffman pity her enough to give her
five seconds of his time.
The anger that flickered inside of her became a roaring bonfire. She clenched her fists, out of
breath and mildly nauseous. Exhaling slowly, Lumine glared at the ground, “I’m going to murder
Childe.”
Amber watched with concerned eyes, “Uh, who?”
“Amber,” Lumine gripped her shoulders, “where is Kaeya?”
“Oh,” she lit up, “he ran off because he saw some suspicious guy doing, you know, suspicious
things. So he was going to follow him around the city for a bit.”
“Did this suspicious guy wear grey and have red hair?”
“I think so…”
Lumine’s heart dropped into her stomach with dread. She stepped back and covered her mouth,
“Oh Archon… Kaeya’s going to kill him…”
“W-Who?”
“Childe! He’s going to kill Childe before I can!”
“What ?”
“Amber,” Lumine caught her with a serious gaze, “I need you to help me find Kaeya before he
can stab the Harbinger. He’s my kill, not anyone else’s.”
“I… uh, sure?”
“Great! Let’s go!”
Kaeya found that he liked Liyue, it seemed to be built with eavesdropping in mind. Every alley
had a corner to hide behind, every staircase was thick enough to take cover under, and there were
crates and boxes everywhere. Kaeya never had this easy of a time in Mondstadt.
“I just need to know,” a sigh, laced with annoyance, “how will this turn out?”
He was happy he spotted the Harbinger through the crowd upon arrival to the harbor.
Abandoning Amber at the market square, he followed the man to a quiet slum, though he could not
help but wonder why a Fatui Harbinger was talking to an old woman in a back alley in the first
place. Lumine rarely informed the knights of Favonius what she was doing, but he was aware of
the ordeal with the gnosis. This Harbinger had to have the same goal, and the news of Rex Lapis’s
death had reached Mondstadt weeks ago.
The fact that this Fatuu was even involved was concerning. Lumine made friends far too easily.
Kaeya stuck to the wall and inclined his ear to listen as the old woman laughed, “Master Childe, I
cannot see such specific things.”
He sighed, “But what do you see? You saw Lumine and I’s future, can you not give me a hint as
to what will happen with my mission?”
Kaeya never would have thought that a Harbinger would go to a fortune teller. It was out of
character for his type. The comment concerning Lumine caught his ear. He listened to the old
woman hum in thought, “I’m sorry, truly I am. All I see are your constellations intertwined, and
something about… a house of gold, and a great battle.”
Intertwined constellations. What did that mean?
Another frustrated sigh. The fortune teller held a smile in her voice as she went on, “I don’t mean
to irritate you, Master Tartaglia, but I must say that I’m happy you’ve accepted the truth.”
“Well, when three adepti tell you that someone is your soulmate, it’s a bit difficult to argue with.”
Soulmate.
Kaeya smiled to himself. The Harbinger had a soulmate, and it did not take much wisdom to
understand who it was.
This would be fun.
“Master Childe, there’s not much I can help you with.”
“You can’t see anything about the gnosis?”
Kaeya was surprised that a Harbinger was talking so openly about his plans in this way. Usually
his organization was as secretive as they could possibly be, but he could hear the stress in this
man’s voice. The old woman spoke slowly, softly, as if to her grandchild, “I can’t, I’m sorry.”
But she could see his future with Lumine. As much as Kaeya would love to hear every detail of
the Fatui’s scheme, he’d have to make due with what was offered.
And it was finally his time to shine. With another sigh from the Harbinger and a soft apology
from the fortune teller, Kaeya slipped from his spot around the corner and stood in full view. The
woman’s eyes widened, the Harbinger stiffened and fixed his posture.
Tense silence flooded over the trio. “Go,” Childe whispered to the old lady, “I’ll talk to you
later.”
There was no hint of a threat in his voice, nothing that raised red flags for the knight. The old
woman seemed to be in no danger, though she scurried down the alleyway as if running from her
doom. Slowly, tensely, the Harbinger turned around, “...Hi there.”
“Heya. The name’s Kaeya.”
They appraised each other. The casual greetings were the complete opposite of the feeling in the
air. Childe’s eyes lingered on the vision at Kaeya’s belt, accompanied with a grimace, “Cryo, huh?
My favorite.”
Kaeya laughed, “And you’ve got hydro, my favorite.”
“So, knight of Favonius,” a bow established itself into Childe’s right hand, surrounded by the
familiar constellations of a summoning, “to what do I owe this honor?”
“Not so quick, my friend,” a laugh and a wave of his hand, “we’ve got a lot to discuss.”
“Do we?”
Kaeya could not help the bubbling joy in his throat. It was all too hilarious, a Fatui Harbinger
being Lumine’s soulmate. He wasn’t sure who was more unfortunate in that situation. “I really pity
the honorary knight, knowing what I know.”
What he knew. The implication was obvious.
The tension between them snapped. With a glare that could kill, Childe let loose an arrow aimed
for Kaeya’s head. It was not his best shot, especially at short range, but he needed to at least
attempt to act on the anger raging through his veins. Kaeya dodged it as if he read Childe’s mind.
As he notched another summoned arrow and aimed it for the knight, he took a step back to create
more room and give him the upper hand, “I don’t know what you heard, but-”
“I heard everything.”
“You’re going to forget it soon.”
“Why?” Kaeya tilted his head, smirking wildly with his sword coming to life in his hand, “It’s so
very interesting, and useful to boot.”
Another arrow let loose, swirling with water around the tip. If a hydro vision was powerful
enough, a burst of water could rip through someone’s skin in half a second. Kaeya blocked the
arrow with his sword and took another side step to avoid the next attack.
Childe was loading summoned arrows with each passing second. He hardly had enough time to
charge his vision before Kaeya took another step closer. With just one flick of his fingers, he tossed
his bow aside in frustration and summoned his hydro blades, one for each hand.
Of course, it would not be very useful against a cryo user. Kaeya laughed and stretched his arm,
“Cool it, kid.”
Idiot. Childe felt like an absolute idiot, letting his anger and fear make the decisions. The blood in
his veins froze as frost traveled up his swords and pricked at his arms, pinching each part of his
revealed skin. He was careful to not allow any other parts of his body to get wet by association, so
only his forearms and hands would be frozen. Even then, he could still move. “Oh, ice swords,”
stiffly, he held up the weapons, “that’s nice. I’ve never used ice swords before.”
They were very cool. Kaeya admired his work for a moment - hardly anybody was determined
enough to summon hydro weapons against a cryo user - before lunging at the Harbinger. He did not
attack with the intent to kill, but to get a message through. His sword went for his neck, and was
quickly parried and dodged. The anger in Childe’s eyes betrayed his clouded mind. That was good,
Kaeya wanted more of that distraction.
“Poor, poor Lumi,” he spoke as they clashed weapons once more, the knight having the upper
hand over the Harbinger’s still frozen stiff fingers, “does she know? She should know.”
Another slice of blades through the air. Childe whirred around and went for the heart, barely
missing by Kaeya’s teleport spell. He was into action in the next second, another aggressive attack
meant to break the cryo user’s guard. “I’ll cut out your tongue before you can ever tell her.”
“Why?” he laughed, “You afraid of rejection, Harbinger? Think she’ll break your heart?”
Something along those lines. “You’re really pushing it, I’d advise you to leave before I’m forced
to kill you.”
Kaeya took another step back, “Ohh, I’m terrified. Like I haven’t heard that before.”
“Don’t tell Lumi anything.”
“She’s Lumi now? Just how close are you two?”
It was unfortunate for Childe that the knight of Favonius was a professional irritation. When it
came to the subject of Lumine, he found himself more thin-skinned than ever. Another lunge,
another parry. He could hardly get his mind off the possibilities of this battle, what this knight
would tell her and how his life would go afterwards.
Lumine could not know the truth. No matter what. Childe was not above silencing a loose
tongue.
“I won’t tell her if you…” A pause for anticipation. Kaeya was tasting the blackmail on his
tongue, “Well, let me get back to you on that. I’ll figure something fun out.”
Enough was enough. Childe reached for his mask. The knight stopped, watching with interest. It
was not often Childe got a chance to use his delusion, the sheer excitement of the action brought a
smile to his face. “Do you really think you can blackmail a Harbinger?”
“I can try,” Kaeya retorted cooly, “Are you gonna show me how that delusion works? I’m terribly
curious.”
Childe laughed and pulled the mask over his eyes. It was like returning home, activating the
delusion pinned to his chest and filling his limbs with the familiar static of something he was never
meant to have. “You’re not really an opponent worthy of the use of my delusion, to be honest, but
keeping Lumine ignorant is.”
Kaeya remained unimpressed, “Why? Just get married and have 10 kids, problem dealt and done
with.”
“It’s nine kids.”
“...Huh?”
“We’re having nine kids.”
“Dear lord, man, you’re in deep.”
Childe struck. A bolt of lightning came from his hydro sword as he took hit after hit against
Kaeya. Several of them were blocked, several of them made contact. Stepping back, he summoned
a lance of pure electro and jabbed towards the knight’s throat.
Kaeya could barely dodge. He knew that if not for his goading, the Harbinger would be far more
focused on the battle. Behind the mask, he saw the anger clouding his eyes, the grimace and the
curses under his breath. As frustrated as he was, he was still looking to silence him forever.
Another hit, a quick change between lance and sword. Kaeya threw a sheet of ice that stopped the
Harbinger in his tracks, enough time to knock him away. Yet, he was back into action as quickly as
before, hydro now laced with electrical currents that sent shocks up Kaeya’s spine with every hit.
How nobody had found them in the middle of Liyue having a battle, he wasn’t quite sure. There
was a Fatui Harbinger using his delusion in an alleyway against a knight of Favonius, that was
front page news. But it seemed the people of Liyue were wise enough to stay out of the way.
Except for two young women that happened to run around the corner in a panic. Lumine had
never been wise in her life. “Amber, do the thing!”
The thing. Childe vaguely registered Lumine’s voice behind him, sending a jolt of panic through
his veins. She could not see him like this, he would not allow it.
“Go, go, baron bunny!”
He froze. Baron bunny?

Kaeya was fortunate enough to know what that meant. Immediately, he pulled away from the
battle and turned on his heel, raising a hand at the confused Harbinger behind him, “See ya!”
“See ya?” Childe stopped in his tracks and looked at the dancing puppet at his feet, “What’s
this?”
He looked up to see the knight of Favonius taking cover behind a set of crates. Behind him, an
unfamiliar woman’s voice caught his attention, “You might want to… uh…”
Want to do what?
The bunny began to shake it’s butt. Still wearing the mask, he toed the puppet curiously. Electro
ran through his veins as he watched the odd puppet dance at his feet, his mind clouded and
confused. His reaction time was perfect in battle, but not when it came to dancing rabbits.
The sudden explosion knocked him into a wall, his head hitting stone and wood as his body was
blown away. With a sharp whistle in his ears, Childe groaned and steadied himself on one knee,
running his hands through his hair. Through the smoke and ringing, footsteps ran across his line of
sight. So that was why the annoying knight took cover.
With another groan and a sudden pounding headache at the top of his skull, he pushed his mask
back up into his hair. He was not as weak as he would be when using the foul legacy
transformation, but the delusion weighed his limbs down nonetheless. The familiar sound of
Lumine’s footsteps approached. She summoned her sword, lifting his chin with the tip. His sight
was blurry, and his veins jolted with leftover electro, but he could see the outline of the angel
before him. “Childe, I will murder you right here.”
Sweet as always. He shut his eyes tightly, “Can you put that on hold, babe? I have a headache.”
Lumine’s sword disappeared in a flash of light. She knelt down in front of him and put a hesitant
hand to his cheek, her eyes wide. Despite the migraine pounding in his skull, and the continuous
ringing in his ears, he managed to return her look with a smile. Not a smile of mischief, or
bitterness, or secrecy, but a genuine smile, as if he was laughing at his current state of being.
And he was, to an extent. He’d never been taken down by a dancing rabbit doll before. There’s a
first for everything.
“You’re stupid,” she whispered as she lifted his chin and inspected his face, “you told Huffman I
was dying.”
“Well,” another strained laugh, “I had to get you out of the way somehow.”
“Asshole.”
“You’re always so nice to me.”
“Come on,” Lumine shifted her weight so her arm could snake underneath his, holding him
around his back and lifting his body off the ground. He was not so shaken that he could not stand,
but he enjoyed the proximity they shared. It would not be so bad to fake a worse injury for the sake
of feeling her body against his for longer, he’d lied about far worse in his life.
Lumine avoided Kaeya and Amber’s wide eyes. The Outrider stared with a gaping mouth, “Why
are you helping him? I thought you wanted to kill him!”
“They’re in love.” Kaeya explained casually.
Childe rested his cheek on the top of her head, “Yes, she’s my cute little nurse.”
“Shut up.”
“So sweet, so loving.”
This was the same man who tricked her, who was her enemy, hanging off her shoulder as if he
could not walk at all. Paimon floated around with a glare, “Loser Harbinger? You’re not hurt, are
you?”
Lumine glanced at him. He was a bit ashy from the explosion, but his clothes had not even ripped.
He most likely just had a headache, and a bit of leftover frost burn from Kaeya. Childe perked up
with a grin, “You really think a dancing rabbit can defeat me?”
That was it. Her patience was far lower with him than usual. She pulled away, taking her spot at
Amber’s side and mirroring her pose of crossed arms and a glare. Paimon joined them, three sets of
eyes now breaking Kaeya and Childe down in obvious disapproval.
Kaeya was far more comfortable under their gazes than Childe. He didn’t like making people
angry if he wasn’t planning to fight them, it got in the way of diplomacy. And as much as he hated
diplomacy, he hated making the Tsaritsa worry even more. Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair
and straightened his mask just to have something to fidget with, “I’m sorry, Lumi, I shouldn’t have
tricked Huffman into going out with you.”
She glared. Her eyes bore into him, furious and golden. He offered an apologetic smile - ignoring
Kaeya’s mutter of ‘whipped’ beside him - and watched as the anger dissolved from her lips. She
sighed and gave up, uncrossing her arms, “Okay, I forgive you.”
“What?” Paimon was pulling at her hair in an instant, abrupt chaos breaking the blanket of silence
between the group. She kicked and pushed, hardly stopped by Lumine’s frantic hands. “You can’t
just forgive him that easily! Be mad! Kill him! Do the feral thing! What is wrong with you?”
Many things, but that was not important just then. As Lumine fought the pixie off, Amber and
Kaeya stared at the Harbinger. Kaeya walked a circle around him, appraising him, while the heat
of Amber’s glare threatened to melt his life and soul.
If this man wanted to fight again, Childe would be up for that. He would have a far more clear
head, then, and win so much more easily. Kaeya stopped in front of him with crossed arms and a
lifted chin, his smile mocking, “We’ll be good friends, won’t we Childe?”
“Friends?” Amber blew up behind him, “With him?”
“Yeah. I even know his secrets, what’s more friendly than that?”
Childe shrugged, “I don’t know, I could cut out your tongue and feed it street dogs. That’s pretty
friendly.”
“Tsk, so rude.”
Lumine managed to toss the rabid Paimon aside. With wild hair finally free from tiny hands, she
approached the knights and the Harbinger with wide eyes. She gasped for air and glared at the
group, “Listen, this little fiasco has made me late for my meeting with Zhongli. I don’t want to take
all of you along,” her eyes landed on Kaeya specifically, “so can I trust you guys to not kill each
other while I’m gone?”
Childe was the first to answer. He wrapped an arm over her shoulder, pulling her close, “Sure,
sure. I’ll just go with you like we planned, and these two can take a long walk off a short pier.”
“Childe.”
“Sorry,” he sighed in defeat, “Okay, I’ll go with you, and they can… do whatever they came here
to do.”
Amber glared with fury, “We came here to see Lumine. You can’t claim her.”
“Actually,” Kaeya grimaced jokingly, “he kind of can.”
His eyes narrowed in warning. Kaeya tilted his chin up further and smiled, a challenge. As
Childe’s blood began to boil another dawning of battle, he and the knight locked gazes.
“Goodness,” Amber waved a disgusted hand over her face, “I can feel the murder coming off these
two in waves.”
With a grimace from Lumine, and an eye roll from a very frustrated Paimon, the traveler pulled
back from under Childe’s arm. He, immediately, missed the feeling of her body against his, but
would not let it distract him from the stare down with Kaeya. This man knew his secret, he had no
choice but to kill him.
Or, he could just go ahead and marry Lumine, start on those nine kids and live happily ever after.
But that sounded incredibly droll.
She was having none of this tonight. With Paimon on one side, and Amber on the other, she
huffed, “I’ll go with Amber and update you later, Childe. I don’t care if you two fight again,” her
eyes shifted between the men who were so shockingly similar, but so different, “but please don’t
kill each other.”
“I’m afraid I can’t promise that.” Childe muttered.

“Sorry, Lumi,” Kaeya followed with a chuckle, “whatever happens, happens.”
She buried her face in her palm and groaned, “At least take it outside of town where nobody else
can get hurt?”
Childe and Kaeya shared a look. With a tilt of the head, and a shrug of the shoulders, Childe
finally smiled. “Deal. We’ll kill each other outside of town.”
“Wonderful, all my worries have disappeared…”
“Aw,” he put his arm on top of her head again, “don’t you trust me? I can take out this clown in a
heartbeat.”
“Kaeya, please kill him.”
“With pleasure.”
After a meeting with Zhongli, looking at noctilucous jade, and being entirely horrified by the
man’s lack of money skills, Amber and Lumine were finally done for the day.
The next goal: Dadaupa Gorge, and figuring out which jade was the best. Lumine was not
looking forward to returning to Mondstadt - every inch of that place would remind her of
Huffman.
Huffman, who didn’t even like her in the first place. Huffman, who only came to see her because
he thought she was dying.
She truly hoped that Kaeya killed Childe.
Lumine and Amber walked along the path to the hillside where the men fought. Evening stole
away the light, covering the world in blue darkness. The bright moon overhead provided enough
sight to follow the flashes of cryo and hydro in the distance. “It’s been hours,” Amber groaned,
“how’re they still fighting?”
Lumine watched another arc of ice rise into the air, freezing yet another hydro weapon. In the
distance, a frustrated groan reached her ears as she recognized that Childe could not hardly use his
vision without immediate retaliation. He probably adored the challenge of it all.
And somehow, neither of them had died so far. It was a miracle.
“Childe has… stamina, I guess you could say.”
Amber cast her a horrified glance, “Excuse me?”
“I mean,” her cheeks grew warm as she realized the implication, “he’s really determined. He likes
to battle.”
“So tell me...” with her hands on her hips and a questioning look, Amber stopped in her tracks.
Lumine knew that she could never hide much from the Outrider, even if she wasn’t sure what she
was hiding in the first place. “What is going on between you two?”
Lumine was sure she’d have war flashbacks of these conversations. First Zhongli, and now
Amber. Paimon had attempted to chew her out several times in between as well. Lumine continued
to not have an answer, “There’s absolutely nothing going on between us.”
Nothing at all besides kissing against a column at night, always touching each other, and wishing
to spend each day together. Lumine hated the feeling, the weakness of it all. Huffman was so much
more simple.
Amber eyed her suspiciously, “Okay, well… I believe you. If you say there’s nothing, then there’s
nothing.”
Wonderful. That was exactly why Lumine enjoyed her company. With a sigh of relief, she began
walking up the hill to approach the ongoing fight, “Thank you. Let’s see if we can get them to stop
for dinner.”
“Do you think they’re getting along?”
“Splendidly, they’re best friends, just look at them.” Childe twisted in the air, and aimed for
Kaeya’s neck. Kaeya blocked, and aimed for his stomach. Ice and water covered every inch of
their makeshift battleground.
“Why are they like this?” Amber buried her face into her palm, “Why can’t you pick normal
friends?”
“I didn’t necessarily pick Kaeya.”
“But you picked him,” she pointed to the grinning Harbinger, “are you sure you want him to come
along?”
She was sure. Childe was far better at hunting than she was, and he happily took care of hilichurl
camps, which meant less work for her. Aside from the obvious, she had her reasons. “I want to
keep an eye on him while we travel. Who knows what he’ll do when I’m not around?”
“I don’t even want to think about that…”
“He’s not that bad,” Lumine nudged her side with a smile she hoped was reassuring, “you’ll end
up liking him, just watch.”
Amber stared in disbelief, “He’s a Fatui Harbinger.”
“And I’m from a different world.”
“Those are two different circumstances, Lu…”

They were. Perhaps it was how often Lumine had traveled, how many species and personalities
she’d met, that made her so keen to be friends with everyone and everything. She could not deny
the evil of the Fatui, but Childe as a person was entirely different. If she ignored his allies, he was
just a man.
Amber had been so kind to believe Lumine’s reassurance, it was a crime how quickly that went
out the window. As the girls approached, Childe perked up, immediately to attention with every
ounce of his gaze on Lumine. He raised a hand holding a hydro blade and grinned widely,
“Printsessa! I’m so glad you’re here!”
He was glad she was there. Amber shot her a look, the look, one that held every warning
possible.
Lumine attempted to ignore it as Childe lifted his arms in excitement, “Lumi, watch this!”
Cute. He was cute. “Okay, I’m watching.”
Kaeya groaned in frustration. Whatever Childe wanted to show her was not nearly as amusing to
the knight. He frowned, looking exhausted, “Not again, I told you it looks stupid.”
“It’s not stupid, it’s cool.” Childe retorted. He readied himself with a deep breath, glanced at
Lumine to make sure she was watching, and promptly summoned a whale.
A whale. An entire sea creature, glowing blue and silver and mystical in the moonlight as it flew
into the air. With the most annoyed of gazes, Kaeya watched the summoning raise above his head,
and drop onto his body. With a deafening splash and water droplets spreading across the land,
Kaeya was soaking wet. His shirt and furs stuck to his body more than Lumine wanted to see.
She couldn’t help but clap. How could she not clap? The Oceanid had taught her many times that
water could take any shape it desired, but she never thought that a human would be able to
manipulate the water as well. She hoped Childe never dropped a whale on her.
He grinned, “Wanna see me do it again?”

She did, desperately so. Her heart skipped a beat as she took in the confidence in his eyes, the turn
of his lips, the excitement on his cheeks. He was normal, then, he was her friend. “Yes, please!”
Amber huffed, “Hydro users are such show offs. I can probably summon something too, like…
What’s a thing that’s on fire?”
“Well,” she hummed in thought “Diluc uses a bird.”
“Yeah, I’ll summon a bird!”
Another whale, dropped on top of Kaeya, who simply allowed himself to be soaked, glaring
daggers through the entire process. He looked like a drowned cat. Lumine wasn’t sure what was
funnier, Kaeya’s expression of annoyance, or Childe summoning a sea animals on top of him.
“You know,” Amber whispered, having given up in 0.02 seconds on the idea of bird summoning,
“he lit up like a puppy when he saw you. If he had a tail, it would be wagging.”
Lumine’s joy dropped in half a second. She shot the outrider a sharp glare, “Animal people don’t
really do it for me.”
“I know there’s something between you two,” another whisper, a tight grasp on her arm and an
excited smile, “I saw the way he looked at you earlier.”
Lumine was not having it tonight. “That’s just his face.”
“Lumi,” her voice held a warning, the excited smile falling into a look of pure concern, “you do
understand how dangerous being close to a Fatui Harbinger is, right? He could… I don’t know,
convert you, or something. Or kill you.”
Or kill her, that was more likely. It was not as if Lumine had not thought of these things before.
The writing was on the wall where it concerned their odd friendship, if she could even call it that.
It had always felt like something different than friendship, as if there was a layer underneath she
had not yet seen. Amber was right, nonetheless, she was preaching to the choir.
With a soft smile, Lumine bumped her shoulder against her friend’s, “I know, I’ll be careful. Like
I said earlier, there’s absolutely nothing between us, anyway.”
“Printsessa!” Childe broke away from the battle, his eyes wide and his hair wild, frost crawling up
his arms where his sleeves were rolled up. He jogged to her, smiling as if she was his long lost
love. Amber shot her yet another look that went pointedly ignored.
With his swords disappearing, he took Lumine’s hands in his own, and raised them to his face.
Kissing the knuckles of each, he sighed dreamily, “Isn’t life beautiful?”
To reiterate an earlier thought of Lumine’s from weeks ago: this man had to be a forest princess in
disguise.
And it was wonderful. She couldn’t help but smile, “Are you happy with your fight?”
He glanced over his shoulder at an exhausted Kaeya, laying on the ground and staring at the sky
with his chest rising and falling. She’d never seen Kaeya so beaten before, so defeated, so covered
in water from having several whales dropped on him. Childe’s determination could carve down the
hardest of stones. “I am, it was a nice little work out. Now,” another soft kiss to her knuckles that
absolutely exploded her heart and filled her with warmth. He gazed at her as he held her hand to his
mouth, “let me take you to dinner to celebrate.”
She could hardly speak. She could hardly move. She was glued into the place, not only by his
eyes, but by Amber’s fiery glare. So much for ‘nothing between them’. Lumine wanted to melt on
the spot from the feeling growing in her chest.
Stupid heart, and stupid butterflies, and stupid tendencies to fall in love at the drop of a hat. She
had to resist. She had to deny the opportunity. It did not matter how blue his eyes were, or how he
showed her more attention than anyone ever had. It didn’t matter. Childe did not matter.
But obviously, she’d still let him take her to dinner. “A-Anything you want.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” he smiled and wrapped an arm over Lumine’s shoulder, sending a
bored glance to a bewildered, glaring Amber behind him, “do you mind if I steal your friend for a
bit? We have a lot to discuss.”
“Lumi,” Amber hissed, “don’t fall for it! Be strong! Don’t look into his eyes!”
Be strong. Be courageous, bold. Don’t fall for his schemes, because Childe did not matter. She
lifted her chin, still underneath his arm, and avoided looking at him.
If only her heart would stop racing, that would certainly be nice. Aether would have a field day
with how much she was denying herself. Be strong. She had to listen to Amber, she had to be
strong. “You can only take me to dinner if I get to pick the place.”
Amber gasped in horror - Kaeya was laughing from his spot on the ground nearby. “That’s not
how you be strong!”
It was unfortunate how much the Outrider was getting ignored that night. Childe led Lumine
down the hill, relishing in the feeling of her body so close to his. He would allow himself this, just
for one more night. And then Kaeya and Amber could take her back to Mondstadt, and he could
continue with his merry plans. “Anywhere you want, Lumi,” he murmured, “I’m in a good mood
tonight.”
“Oh?” She raised a brow, “Did Kaeya kick your butt that hard?”
“Well, I finally perfected the whale thing, for starters.”
“I’m so proud of you.”
“Are you? That’s sweet.”
It wasn’t. It was sarcasm. She hoped he never dropped a whale on her, that sounded absolutely
awful.
The sound of the night time crickets filled the air. Wind blew against her cheeks as they walked,
while Amber attempted to help Kaeya dry off from the various sea creature attacks. Childe and
Lumine left them behind as they made their way back to the city in the distance.
The comfortable silence was broken by one thought. Lumine had not been able to get the subject
of Huffman off her mind, her humiliation at the entire ordeal taking over each second of her life.
She had been angry, earlier, but ultimately a bit grateful. It was better to rip the bandage off at
once. If she had gone on a date with Huffman under normal circumstances, he’d still think she was
emasculating nonetheless.
There was just one other thing lingering endlessly on the tip of her tongue. Finally alone with
Childe for a moment, she would take this opportunity. “Hey, so when Huffman was here you said
something.”
His face was blank as he walked, staring straight ahead, “I say a lot of things.”
“But,” Lumine pulled herself out from under his arm - though it was a very comfortable and warm
spot, “I don’t understand what you meant, I’ve been thinking about it, and I just don’t get it.”
He glanced at her, “What did I say?”
He didn’t seem concerned in the least. She supposed that was a good sign. “When we were
dancing, you said something about it being a ‘last hurrah’. And I don’t really get what you mean.”
Of course she didn’t. Curse his running mouth, forever flowing like a waterfall. He frowned and
looked away, crossing his arms as he continued down the path. What to say? To tell the truth and
admit that he was not going to allow himself to be around her any longer would be to admit defeat.
Obviously since he was with her right then, and almost every day since. He was an absolute loser.
Childe was not one to admit defeat easily. He huffed in thought, racking his brain for an answer,
“I meant it like… uh, well some people can’t be friends in a simple way, right?”
She huffed, “Well, I think they can.”
“They can, but come on,” he sent her a flat look, “sometimes it just doesn’t work. And if you got
with Huffman, then our friendship wouldn’t be the same. Not that I’m complaining,” he waved a
casual hand, “I just think I wouldn’t be able to do stuff like travel with you, or dance in the street
with you, or-”
“Or kiss me against a column because we’re angry at each other?”

He tensed at the thought. She broke the pinkie promise, though he found himself forgiving her
almost immediately. “Yes, that too.”
“I see,” Lumine put her hand to her chin in thought, “well, Huffman didn’t happen, so I’m yours
to aggravate.”
She was his. She was his. As tired as he was from the battle, another surge of energy filled his
body. His cheeks warmed, his skin tingled, his knees felt weak. He felt like a school boy with a
crush, and despised every second of it.
His tongue, as always, moved without thought. “You have no idea the effect you have on me.”
Another curious tilt of her head, coupled with wide doe eyes. “What do you mean?” At the
expression on her face, Childe felt himself wither away inside. He was losing again, for what felt
like the millionth time. It was as if he never even tried to repress any feelings.
“Nothing at all,” a defeated sigh as he tossed his arm over her shoulder, “let’s go get something to
eat, my comrade.”
Lumine shrugged the thought off with a hum. “Do you want to go to Dadaupa gorge with Zhongli
and I?’
“Not in the least, but thanks.”
“Will you come to Dadaupa gorge with Zhongli and I?”
She was giving him that face again. He was tightly wrapped around her finger, moving along with
every tiny idea she had. Kaeya was correct; he was absolutely whipped.
A heavy sigh. Defeat, once more. Despite his dread, the wasps of affection in his stomach
returned.
“Sure, Lumi, anything you want.”
Another road trip. That was exactly what he needed to help repress all of his feelings.
Chapter End Notes
- Childe wasn't going full boss-battle on kaeya, he just wanted to practice dropping
whales on some poor soul. Kaeya was not amused.
- I also love the idea that Childe's hydro swords get frozen and he's just like oh. cool.
ice swords!
- Another roadtrip!
- Lumine has... the dokis... <3
- Kaeya will most definitely hold the soulmate thing over Childe's head
Thanks for reading!

The Calm Before The Storm
A cross country roadtrip with two knights of Favonius, one honorary knight, a Fatui Harbinger,
and a funeral parlor consultant went exactly as one might expect it to.
Absolute chaos, sprinkled with confusion, and topped with a side of competition. The main event
of the group just happened to be Childe and Lumine, who nonconsciously terrorized everybody in
their vicinity. It was the tension. The fraying rope between them that threatened to snap with every
glance, every touch, every argument. And there were many of those. They’d only been on the road
for several hours, and Amber already had enough.
“Hey, hey! You two,” Amber’s hands were between Childe and Lumine, pushing them apart as if
she was prying open jail cell bars. She gasped and stood in between them, “Leave some room for
Barbatos!”
“Amber…” Lumine gave her a serious look of concern. She and Childe simply brushed hands for
a moment, nothing more and nothing less. Lumine had shared blankets with Amber before, but she
had never acted so prudely, “Venti isn’t here… and if he was, why would we leave room
specifically between us for him? I don’t think he’d care where he walks.”
Childe put a thoughtful hand to his chin, “I believe it’s a common saying in Mondstadt. To leave
room for Barbatos means that you’re staying holy by not touching someone all lewdly.”
But they were not touching all lewdly. Amber’s cheeks turned pink as she stumbled and tottered
over her explanation, entirely ignored by the traveler and Harbinger - who were far more
comfortable on the subject of lewd touching than the Outrider, it seemed. “I don’t think Venti
would care about that either,” Lumine thought aloud, “he’s not very holy himself…”
“Shut up! Don’t talk about lewd touching so openly!”
“Amber, nobody’s touching each other anyway.”
Childe laughed, “Seems that the Outrider’s mind is in the gutter.”
“Shut up! You two are just walking so closely,” she grimaced in disgust, Paimon floating at her
shoulder, “Right? I can’t be the only one seeing that!”
Paimon gave a grave nod, like a wise old woman, “It’s like you two really want to hug. Or… e-
even…”
Lumine blanked, “Fight each other?”
“That sounds nice,” Childe sighed dreamily, “do you want to after we set up camp tonight?”
“Yes please!”
That was, obviously, not what Paimon and Amber were thinking. Lumine and Childe tended to
walk so closely, finding ways to touch wherever and whenever they could, though neither of them
seemed to realize it. To the Harbinger and traveler, ignorance was bliss. They shared a glance of
confusion before shrugging. Amber and Paimon had been trying to separate them since the journey
began.
Kaeya, on the other hand, was entirely too amused by the show. He seemed to be the only one
that could find the humor in Paimon and Amber’s frantic attempts to create a wall between them.
He and Zhongli walked beside each other, watching as Childe put his hand on Lumine’s back to
keep her from tripping over an unseen rock, and seeing Amber throw baron bunny at him - he
simply kicked it back towards her in return. This happened every 10 minutes, it seemed. When
Childe told Lumine something mildly funny, Amber yelled at him for flirting. When Childe so
much as glanced at Lumine with a hint of interest in his eyes, Amber attempted to kick him in the
back of his knees. When Childe breathed , Amber drew her bow.
Now, she stood between them, demanding to occupy the space between their bodies. Neither
Childe, nor Lumine, cared outwardly about where Amber walked. The fact that they gravitated
towards each other continued to go unnoticed, unacknowledged in ardent denial. It was time to get
serious about repressing feelings, with Lumine’s heart skipping a beat at the sight of Childe’s
smile, and Childe feeling like he could take on the world every time she gave him an ounce of her
attention. Amber was, oddly enough, the only one to publically acknowledge this.
Kaeya and Zhongli walked behind the trio, followed by a glaring Paimon, her eyes like daggers
on the Harbinger ahead. She was the only one out of the group who could disappear at will, a skill
Zhongli found himself jealous of.
“Do you think…” Zhongli murmured with a hand to his chin, his voice loud enough for only
Kaeya to hear, “that Amber doesn’t approve of Childe? I cannot understand why that is. It’s not as
if he doesn’t have mora…”
The other amusement provided during the journey was Zhongli himself. When Amber wasn’t
screeching out bossy commands, Zhongli was making the most darling of observations about the
world. He knew so much about so many things, but so little in the way of street smarts. It was the
complete opposite of Kaeya. “You’re not the sharpest tool in the shed, are you?”
Zhongli sent the cavalry captain a confused glance, “I apologize... I don’t own a shed.”
“Right. That answers that.”
Zhongli wasn’t sure what that answered, but Kaeya seemed satisfied enough. Several feet in front
of them, Amber pushed Lumine and Childe further away from each other, earning a laugh from the
Harbinger. He was enjoying torturing the Outrider as much as Kaeya enjoyed watching it happen.
Lumine, on the other hand, was simply confused. She wondered how someone could assume she
and Childe had that kind of relationship - he was a filthy trash goblin, and she was a battle angel of
death, the imagery did not mix very well. Amber’s frantic attempts to keep them six feet apart at all
times only made Lumine more, and more, bewildered. Childe, on the other hand, remained highly
amused. As a man with three younger siblings, he knew exactly what to do in this situation.
“Lumine,” he stepped past Amber and dropped to one knee, taking Lumine’s hand in his own and
staring up at her, “why don’t we just drop the secrets and make our relationship known to
everybody? Marry me, Lumi, be at my side forever.”
Amber looked as if she wanted to punch him. Rolling her eyes, she crossed her arms and glared,
“Come on, stop being stupid!”
“Paimon thinks he’s just trying to make you mad,” Paimon floated up to Amber’s shoulder,
“you’re egging him on too much!”
“You’re right,” Lumine lifted her chin arrogantly and yanked her hand away, “He is being stupid.
You should know better, Childe. Only a man who can defeat me in combat may ask for my hand.”
A man who could defeat her in combat. How funny that he had the exact same requirement for
his own lover. She was too perfect. She was so utterly wonderful, he could hardly get over it. He
attempted to ignore that flicker of fire in his chest, instead grinning up at her while still on one
knee, “Then let’s go, right now. I promise I’ll win.”
Behind them, Zhongli looked up from his makeshift map with wide eyes, “Is there going to be a
wedding? How wonderful, I have the authority to officiate, you know.”
“Not yet,” Kaeya held up a hand, “but one day, for sure. Their love is written in the stars.”
It was the eighth time Kaeya had made such an implication. The eighth time he’d teased Childe
over his starmate, accompanied with the slyest fox-smile he could possibly wear. Childe sent him a
glare from his spot on the ground, only proving to grow Kaeya’s smile even further.
Lumine, fortunately, was not paying attention. “How could I love a man who cannot even shoot a
bow correctly?”
The Harbinger stood with a defensive huff, “Hey! I can shoot a bow correctly! Far better than
you, at least.”
True. Lumine had no patience for archery. She preferred to run headfirst into a battle with a very
sharp stick, and poke monsters with the pointy end. It was, perhaps, why she and Childe made a
good team. He could hardly control himself from bringing out his swords either. Amber grimaced
at the earlier battle she had watched - Childe truly could not hold back.
“Your posture is…” Amber thought for a moment, not wanting to outright insult a Harbinger for
the sake of her own neck, “well, it needs work.”
“I know how to shoot a bow.”
Even Zhongli grimaced, “I noticed that you end up just throwing your arrows… And those ones
go further than the ones shot from your bow, somehow...”
“Yes,” Childe shot him a look, “they’re like aerodynamic knives.”
Amber sighed, “No, they’re really not…”

They were not. Childe’s creativity would continue to go unappreciated for the duration of the
journey, and they were not even out of Liyue yet. It would certainly be a long walk to Dadaupa
gorge.
The group met at the Northern gate of Liyue harbor early in the morning. Kaeya and Lumine
mirrored each other in tired bitterness, while Amber and Childe were nearly bouncing off the
walls. Zhongli was the only normal one, and Kaeya swore that he watched the life leave his eyes
when Childe made the comment about Rex Lapis having no hair underneath his hood. In
conclusion, Zhongli would be mildly suffering from this journey. Amber would be greatly
suffering - brought on by her own protective worries for Lumine. Paimon was gone in her own
world half the time out of sheer frustration from the combined efforts of Kaeya and Childe. And
Kaeya would be focusing on every opportunity to further his blackmail with the Harbinger.
Childe and Lumine were the only ones that seemed to genuinely be enjoying themselves. Amber
suspected that was due to each other’s company, but she refused to acknowledge that her dear
friend would be so stupid.
Except that she would. Lumine would trust a hilichurl if it told her to.
Amber needed to gather the Council of Big Brothers once back in Mondstadt. It was Lumine’s
only hope in her battle of affection against the Harbinger, the battle that she was so obviously
losing. Amber could tell just by one glance that Lumine was on dangerously thin ice. And aside
from the affection aspect of the odd relationship, she noticed that there was the competitive aspect.
Which, somehow, was much worse.
After several more miles of argument and shenanigans, Amber saw the extent to which Lumine
and Childe’s competitive natures clashed. It felt like more than a clash. It was not dissimilar to an
explosion, with earthquakes as the aftershock. And Kaeya was the constant instigator.
“I bet the Harbinger can take down that ruin guard faster than you, Lumi. He’d beat your record
on the first try.”
That record being exactly 32 seconds, which was an incredibly proud moment for her. The glare
Kaeya received was far more heated than Lumine’s usual stare. She took a deep breath, clenching
her fists and ignoring Childe’s grin, “Why don’t you watch and see? Childe could never beat my
record.”
“Hey,” Childe put up a hand, “I can’t let my title go undefended here. I’ll defeat it in 15 seconds,
tops.”
“That’s stupid. And you don’t even have a title! If you did, it would be…” a challenging smirk, a
sparkle in her eye that made him feel like melting on the spot, “Teyvat’s biggest loser.”
It was odd how affected he was by her barrage of insults and comebacks. They were mostly
childish, and never very clever, but they were challenges. Lumine was constantly forcing him to do
better, to practice more, to try and beat her. The exhilaration of her very existence settled into his
chest and refused to leave. “The title of…” he thought for a moment, his knee bouncing in
excitement, “of absolute King over everything Lumine does.”
Absolute King over everything Lumine does. He was trying to push her buttons, poke and prod
the beast, rise that fire in her heart. It worked, as childish as it was. Zhongli and Amber watched
with crossed arms and narrowed eyes, while Kaeya enjoyed the seeds of chaos he’d begun to sow.
“Why don’t you see?” He pointed to the silhouette of two resting ruin guards on the hill - Liyue
was practically crawling with them, “Whoever loses has to tell their biggest secret.”
“Their biggest secret?” Amber gasped, “Are you sure that’s appropriate for a stupid thing like
this?”
Zhongli crossed his arms and thought for a moment, “It does seem a bit callow… but I admit that
it interests me as well.”
Zhongli could not hide the business side of himself even if he tried. Kaeya had read him like a
book from the moment they met. He was calm, cool headed, and incredibly picky. He didn’t enjoy
having the losing hand in his constant game of chess, even if he would take the loss humbly.
Kaeya could easily assume that Zhongli was as curious about the traveler and Harbinger as he
was.
There were high stakes for such a simple challenge. Fortunately for Lumine, she had no secrets.
She accepted in under a second, grinning up at Childe with crossed arms, “I’m in. And when you
lose, Harbinger, you’ll finally admit to what I’ve always known…”
“And what is that, printsessa?” He raised a quizzical brow, though his smile betrayed the
amusement of the challenge. Another snap of the invisible rope between them, and the air
thickened. It felt that there was only a matter of time before it broke entirely, bringing the two
together in something incredibly destructive. Whether it be kissing, or fighting. Paimon understood
that it would most likely be both.
Lumine stared up at him with confidence, “I have this theory about you.”
“Oh?”
“This is exciting,” Kaeya whispered to Amber, “they’re flirting hardcore right now.”
That was not what the outrider wanted to hear. She rolled her eyes and shoved against Kaeya’s
arm, continuing to go ignored by Lumine and Childe, who remained in their own world with each
other. Lumine did not break her gaze, “I think…”
A pause for anticipation. Childe took a deep, excited breath.
“I think you still pee your bed.”
“...What?”
“Because a person like you doesn’t have many secrets,” the traveler challenged, Paimon sitting on
her shoulder like an exhausted and utterly done parrot, having given up long ago on arguing with
Lumine’s odd attachment to the man, “not interesting ones, at least. You’re not that exciting,
Childe, so obviously your only secret is something incredibly embarrassing. If it’s not bed wetting,
it’s… asthma.”
He furrowed his brows, “There’s nothing embarrassing about asthma.”
“So you admit you have asthma?”
“I don’t, but-”
“Guys,” Kaeya put up a silencing hand, “just go fight the ruin guard. It’s getting late and we need
to set up camp.”
Childe ignored him, “Your imagination sure is active, printsessa. Let me guess your secret…”
“I have none!”
“Yes you do,” he smiled tightly, “I bet it’s something embarrassing, like you have an incredibly
hairy back, or... 12 toes.”
“12 toes?”
“It would explain why you trip so often.”
“I do not!”
“Lovebirds,” Kaeya groaned as an interruption, “Just go already!”
With yet another heated glare, they went. Childe and Lumine shot off like children vying for a
mother’s attention. Up the hill, with their hands grappling at each other in an attempt to slow the
other down. Amber watched with a flat gaze as the ruin guards began to awaken and stand, and the
couple argued over who would win.
Of course, nobody actually won. Both ruin guards fell at the same time, and the subject of deep,
dark secrets was dropped entirely.
The group stayed the night in the Guili Plains, with Wangshu inn silhouetted in the far distance.
Amber started a fire and helped Lumine cook, while Zhongli told stories of old legends that
nobody besides him recalled any longer. The evening passed peacefully enough, with just the right
amounts of chaos sprinkled in - Kaeya challenging Lumine to an arm wrestling match, and so on.
As the night began to settle and blankets were laid out, Lumine found herself awake longer than
the rest of them. Paimon had disappeared, Amber and Kaeya had laid down long ago, and Zhongli
wandered off to look at the nearby ruins, citing something about old memories. It left her, and
Childe, sitting beside the fire in comfortable silence. And it was almost peaceful. It was almost
calming, a moment she would dwell on as a rare show of normality from the Harbinger.
Until he opened his mouth, of course. He always did that, ruining whatever semblance of peace
Lumine was ever able to achieve.
“Does Zhongli seem kind of weird to you? Like he’s hiding a million secrets and he won’t tell us
any?”
A spark of irritation flickered in Lumine’s chest. She raised her eyes from her makeshift map,
staring at Childe over the fire. His hair looked redder in the glow of the flames, and his face half
shadowed by the surrounding trees and ruins. “Is it true that most Sneznhayans are terrible
gossips?”
With his chin in his palm, he grinned, “In my experience, yes.”
“Well,” Lumine spoke slowly, “I’m not much into gossip myself, I don’t like making assumptions
about people-”
“You make assumptions about me all the time!”
She would ignore that, “-Especially about nice men like Mister Zhongli, so whatever secrets he’s
keeping, I will respect them to the utmost of my abilities.”
Childe’s smile fell as if she was no fun, “Come on, I know you’re curious too. You’re just putting
on this whole mature act because you don’t want to show him your true side.”
“No… he saw me dive into that pond earlier, he knows how I am…”
“You like him, don’t you?”
Bewildered, Lumine gripped the edges of her map and gasped, “W-What are you talking about?
Plus,” glancing over her shoulder in worry, she stiffened and bounced her knee, “I don’t know how
far away he went, he could hear us.”
Childe sat up to attention, “You’re defending him because you like him, admit it girlie.”
She didn’t. She didn’t even believe she was defending him, it was more so her utter lack of
interest in his ancient legends and lack of excitement. Zhongli was kind, but he was not a knight
like Huffman - he was not a warrior like her past crushes. He would certainly not be willing to fight
off an entire army of whopperflowers in her honor, which was a requirement for the men in
Lumine’s life.
She stared at the shadows flickering across Childe’s face. His gaze broke for half a second as his
eyes flickered left, his brows furrowed, and he returned to her face with a soft smile. Nothing about
the smile reached his eyes, a blank mask of emotionless detachment. Lumine might be oblivious
and naive, but she often took the time to become acquainted with her companion’s moods. Childe
was difficult to predict, but he was generally straightforward. When he lied, or schemed, or
manipulated, he had that specific look on his face - as if he was hyper aware of himself.
And, he had kissed her just several days ago. He had offered a position in the Fatui so they could
‘make out’ more often. What exactly did that say about him?
The flicker of irritation died, replaced by something warm, like kindling in her chest. The air
seemed to leave her lungs as she realized in sweet relief what was happening there. She knew,
Childe could not hide it any longer. Lumine had seen right through him.
“You’re insecure, aren’t you?”
Childe was taken aback. He sat up straight, fingers tapping on his knees as he stared at her across
the fire. It was as if she’d pulled an arrow back, and shot him right through the head. Lumine was
beautiful in the glow of night, even when she grinned like a madwoman at him. She was arrogant,
and prideful. She was a know-it-all, and entirely too feral. And she could read him like a book
when he least expected it. He supposed that was one thing that made him different from the other
Harbingers, he wore his heart on his sleeve. It was dreadfully inconvenient sometimes, even if he
did not agree with her perspective.
“I’m not insecure,” he informed as he rested his cheek in his palm once more, “I’m just calling
you out. I know how you are. You fall in love at the drop of a hat.”
Lumine gasped in horror, “I do not!”
“That Millelith last week who caught you when you tripped?”
“H-He was cute!”
“That guy from Inazuma down by the docks who gave you a flower?”
“It was a very beautiful flower!”
“And not to mention Xiangling’s father…”
“How could I not like a man who gives me free food?” Lumine crossed her arms defensively and
glared. She was getting better at glaring, she almost looked threatening, “I don’t fall in love easily,
trust me. I just sense a warrior’s spirit in some men and… I appreciate it…”
Childe narrowed his eyes, “I have a warrior’s spirit! And I give you free food all the time! But
you’re not falling in love with me, are you?”
Amber would disagree, judging by the millions of lectures she’d given to Lumine on their journey
thus far. She sighed, her cheeks dusting with warmth, “No, and I’m not with Zhongli either. You’re
just being insecure.”
This was a challenge to his pride. She thought he was weak, insecure about something as stupid as
romance. He raised a brow, frowning, “And why do you think that?”
“Because you don’t have any friends other than me,” Lumine came with her sharpest weapon,
words lashing out like her sword, “and you’re afraid that I’ll like Zhongli more than you, and then
stop spending time with you!”
It was ironic how close to the truth she was. It was as if she was teetering on the edge of a cliff,
but never falling off. “So what you’re saying is…” he spoke slowly, processing her conclusion,
“that you think I’m jealous of your friendship with Zhongli?”
“Yes.”
How was this woman real? Was she messing with him? It was as if Childe’s brain had slowed
down just to process the sheer obliviousness of it all. Lumine thought he was jealous of her
friendship with another man. The situation could not get any more laughable.
He attempted to hold back the mocking laughter. He stifled his laugh with his hand, avoiding her
eyes, “Y-You… Really?” A sharp chuckle and a bewildered glance, “Are you messing with me?
Are you trying to catch me off guard, or something?”
Lumine was taken aback. She folded her hands in her lap and sat up straight to attention, “I’m not
messing with you. Am I wrong?”
“In a way… But, gosh,” another laugh, “Lumi, either you’re blind, or you’re teasing me.”
“I’m not trying to tease you…” her cheeks went red, “S-Stop confusing me and just say what
you’re thinking! If I’m wrong then tell me!”
He would oblige, if that's what she wanted. “You’re dead wrong, girlie.”
A pregnant pause. “... I’m never wrong.”
“You just told me to tell you if you were wrong!”
“Well, I’m not! You’re jealous and insecure. It’s true and I know it.”
Jealous, yes. Insecurity was an entirely different matter. He sent her a non-amused stare, raising
one brow, “I’ve never been insecure in my life. I know exactly who I am and what I want.”
“Then what?”
He caught her off guard, “What?”
“What do you want, Childe? Like, in life?”

What did he want in life?
That was a difficult answer to a simple question. His father had asked him that many times before,
pulling him out of street fights and shaking his shoulders as if he could rattle the wrong out of him.
Childe recalled the worry in his eyes, the strain in his voice, as he asked his third son what he
wanted in life. What kind of life did he want to live? Dying from a stab wound because he taunted
the wrong person?
Ajax had never been able to answer. Ajax had just stared at his father in silence, gasping for air as
he realized just how much the abyss had ruined him. Childe, eventually, accepted the most
obvious answer. It was only after meeting Lumine that the conclusion began to be muddied and
unclear once more.
Lumine stared across the waning campfire as silence settled between them. She brushed her hair
behind her ear, not allowing her gaze to break from his. He could stare at her face for the rest of his
life and be satisfied. He could travel alongside her and compete every hour of the day. Lumine
shifted her weight uncomfortably and rested her legs under her, the white dress she always wore
riding up her thighs to reveal an unyet explored expanse of skin. His gaze flickered from her
revealed shoulders, to her waist - which always fit so wonderfully perfect in his hands - and to her
thighs. She was beautiful in a completely physical way, strong and deceptive. Just by a glance,
nobody could tell that she could defeat a ruin guard in 32 seconds flat.
And Lumine was completely innocent, obviously. She was simply glaring at him, processing her
thoughts as she moved beneath his gaze. She had no idea that the way she curled her legs
underneath her body would drive him absolutely wild, lighting a fire in his stomach that he didn’t
know he had. She had absolutely no idea that her soft sigh and doe-eyes that flashed in anger
would strike a very particular chord in his throat and end up suffocating him for air. She had
absolutely no idea that she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life.
It had felt this way since the kiss. The arguments had grown more heated, the desires stronger. He
had known what it was like to have her in his arms, and that was a memory that refused to leave his
mind.
“What’s your real name, Childe?”
If he could process human words he’d tell her that it was classified. If he processed human actions
he’d go to her in that very instance and kiss her until neither of them could breathe. Unfortunately
for him, his brain remained rather fogged. “I… don’t know.”
She raised a brow, “You don’t know your real name?”
“I do,” he raised a sudden hand and sighed in annoyance, “I just have a headache, I guess. My
brain isn’t really wanting to work…” he glanced up at her, trying to avoid the tilt of her shoulders
and the skin on her thighs, cooling down the wildfire raging in his stomach, “Why do you ask?”
“Well…” a hesitant shrug, “I don’t know anything about you, really. But I feel like you know
everything about me.”
He felt that he knew absolutely nothing about her. She was trusting, she was friendly, but she was
surrounded by the highest walls of fake friendship he’d ever seen. He didn’t even know where she
was originally from. “I guess I could say the same about you.”
“What’s your name?”
He grinned, “Classified.”
“Fine,” she huffed in sudden annoyance, “how many siblings do you have?”
That was far easier to answer. “Six. Four brothers and two sisters. I’m the middle kid.”
Lumine perked up with realization. Her eyes widened, her lips parting - he really wanted to kiss
that look off her face. His body nearly jumped without thought as she stared at him across the fire,
“That explains everything… You just want attention, don’t you?”
He just wanted attention. That was her final conclusion, that he was an attention starved little boy
who blended into the background. He, easily, was a nightmare of a child, his parents couldn’t
forget raising him even if they wanted to. “And what about you, Lumi? You’re a twin, doesn’t that
mean you’re supposed to have some kind of identity crisis?”
She waved him off nonchalantly, “Oh, not really. Aether and I are entirely different people.
He’s… he’s brave, and wonderful, and good with people. He’s like… I don’t know,” she shrugged,
“he’s pretty great.”
Frankly, he sounded annoying. Nobody was wonderful, great, or brave. Everybody was a bit
imperfect in their own ways. “But what was he like? Did he have a temper? Was he strong?”
“Very strong,” Absently, Lumine pulled at the grass beside her, “He’s always been my big
brother, and… Well, I guess you wouldn’t know what it’s like, I can’t imagine you idolized your
older siblings much.”
She was right on that account. His oldest brother was a happily married man with an absolutely
boring life, and his second oldest was a womanizer who would have tried his moves out on Lumine
by then. His older sister was far more respected than those two, and even then she was a bit boring
in the end. He frowned, “Not really. But I guess I know what it’s like, I have little siblings too. And
if I may say… I am the coolest brother in the world.”
It was true. Lumine seemed to enjoy that, putting a hand to her mouth and laughing, her cheeks
turning the softest shade of pink, “So, you know what it’s like to be a big brother, then. I guess you
and Aether are more alike than I thought. You’re both… just, I don’t know,” she shrugged and
sighed, “I feel like a little kid when I think about how he is.”
A little kid. While Teucer was a child, only aged eight, Childe knew he didn’t want him to feel
like that. He’d do anything to avoid having his youngest sibling make the face Lumine made, that
sad expression as she zoned out, thinking of every possibly insecurity that could burrow itself into
her heart. She didn’t have to go into further detail, he could imagine what she felt. She was the
little sister, left alone in this world to fend for herself without the one who had always protected
her. Diluc’s words came to mind, ‘I know she’s far more scared of this world than she lets on’.
He saw it now. He was mildly offended that someone like Diluc saw it before him.
“Childe,” she broke the silence with a whisper, looking up at him through her lashes. She had no
idea the effect she had on his body, his mind, his heart. Just once glance from her, and he felt like
weak putty in her hands, “I’m going to ask it again, because you didn’t answer me before. What do
you want in life?”
He knew the answer to that now, instantly.
Lumine. He wanted Lumine. He wanted to make her feel good, to let her know that she was not
inferior to her brother. He wanted to take care of her, to cherish everything about her. He wanted to
challenge her every day, to become even stronger as she watched, because she was the only woman
who’d ever made him close to happy. She was the only person in the Teyvat he’d ever met that
could make him truthfully laugh, that could make him want more, that could amuse him for more
than a few seconds.
He was jealous that she would like Zhongli, and he’d have to watch her get an annoying teenage
crush on yet another man that was not him. He wanted her to spend winter with him at his parent’s
house, curled up in front of the fire. He wanted her to give him that shy look before every kiss. He
wanted her against him, in his arms, whether it be during a fight, or simple holding. He wanted her
.
And all he could wonder in that moment was this: How could he have let it get this far?
He was in danger.
“I… cant really say what I want…”
“Why not?” She pushed further, the flames of the waning fire flickering across her cheeks,
“We’re friends, you can tell me anything.”
He really couldn’t. He couldn’t tell her that he desperately wanted her to join the Fatui so he could
think about kissing her without all consuming guilt drowning his mind. “I really cant.”
“You can,” she corrected haughtily, “but you won’t.”
“Lumine, really, you don’t want to know.”
“I do, though!”
He sighed, “I would like to take over the world, but recently that’s taken a backseat to something
else.”
Her curiosity was piqued far more than it should have been. She leaned forward, every inch of
her body excited for the possible secret he might impart. She was more of a gossip than she
originally thought. “What is it? Defeating me in a fight to the death?”
“...Kind of… but not really…”
“Defeating me and Aether in a fight to the death?”
“Now, that’s an idea!”
“Let me regain my full power beforehand!”
Her full power. How Lumine-esque to talk of having full power and being weaker than she
actually was. She thrived on her own pride. “Lumi, even at your full power, I could still beat you.”
She gasped in horror, “You couldn’t.”
“I could!”
“Never!”
“Lumi,” another teasing smile, “I’ll always be stronger than you. I can’t dominate you if I’m-”
“Childe no! I’ll dominate you!”
“So…" a flicker of excitement in his stomach, a skipped heartbeat in his chest, "you’re into that
kind of stuff?”
She gasped, “No!”
“Lumi, just be a submissive good girl and-”
Kaeya, unfortunately, broke the argument with an annoyed groan and a fling of his hand. He lay
on his bedroll nearby, far enough away to not hear every word of the conversation, but to register
their heated words. He sat up and frowned through the darkness, “You two need to take it
somewhere else. I do not want to hear you having sex all night.”
Sex. He didn’t want to hear them having sex. That was an idea to ponder. Childe nodded in
agreement, the air between them was quite thick with something heavy and passionate. “Alright,
come on Lumi-”
“Sex?!” She screeched, the high pitched squeal of her voice making Amber snort in her sleep and
hold baron bunny even tighter, “I-I would never! Aether made me promise to not do that until I’m
married!”
Of course he did. Childe ignored Kaeya’s mocking laughter from his bedroll, and instead locked
Lumine into place with a serious, heavy look, “Then let’s get married. Zhongli can officiate-”
“No!”
Perfect. She was absolutely perfect, with her red cheeks and wide eyes. He painted a picture of her
in his memory. “Lumi, I didn’t expect you to be such a prude.”
“Stop teasing me,” she hissed, “I’m not a prude, I just have standards.”
“Please,” Kaeya fell back onto his pillow and groaned, “just go. Just leave. Go fight something, I
saw a lawachurl earlier when scouting, go kill it. Just… Just be quiet while I’m trying to sleep!”
That, too, was an idea almost as good as intercourse. Not that Childe would know, he’d been far
too busy so far to care about those kinds of things, though he would not let that bit of information
slip out to Lumine. Standing from his spot and dusting the grass from his legs, he grinned at her
across the campfire, “Let’s let him sleep, shall we?”
Her cheeks were burning. She was glaring at the ground as if it had done her a personal wrong.
“Fine… but only to fight the lawachurl, nothing else.”
“I know,” he put up a comforting hand and smiled, “I was just kidding earlier. I didn’t think you’d
be so uptight about it, honestly. You can’t truly believe I want to do that kind of stuff with you,
right?”
An absolute lie, but she didn’t seem to notice.
Her shoulders loosened in relief, “Yeah… I guess so. Friends don’t really do that with each other,
right?”
“Right! Come on,” he offered a hand, “let’s go find that lawachurl. I need to kill something.”
He did. He desperately needed to kill something. Preferably, something rather difficult to kill, just
to take his mind off Lumine and her reactions to the obvious thick tension in the air. She’d have to
be blind to not realize the dark look in his eyes as he stared at her, or the feeling between them that
was culminating. Hesitant, she took his hand and allowed him to pull her up off the ground. Their
fingers parted as they walked down the hill and listened to Kaeya’s dramatic sigh of relief. He
could finally get some sleep without them arguing.
“I feel bad for waking him up,” she glanced over her shoulder at the camp, “we should’ve
lowered our voices.”
He shrugged, “What’s done is done. He’ll survive somehow.”
“I can’t believe he thought that…” another awkward laugh, “that’s crazy, right?”
Super crazy. She was so confident sounding that he wanted to believe her. He was in danger, after
all. “Right. He’s got to be teasing us.”
Childe knew he wasn’t, but lying to himself was quite the comfort in times of distress.
He and Lumine skidded down the hill to the river separating the Guili Plains and Cuijue slope.
On the outskirts of Jeuyun Karst the monsters tended to be overgrown and angrier than normal -
he’d taken a liking to fighting the pyro regisvine for fun. Lumine stopped at the edge of the water.
In the distance, silhouetted by the moonlight, the hulking beast of stone lumbered across the grass.
She frowned at the shape, “Anemo and hydro against geo, huh? I wonder how that’ll go.”
Like splashing water and blowing gently on a rock. It sounded like a nice challenge. “We’ve just
got to find a way over there.”
The river flowed peacefully along. While it would not be difficult to cross, Lumine didn’t
particularly enjoy the thought of having a wet shirt contest with Childe - especially when she wore
white. Sighing, she toed the sand on the riverbank in thought, “I don’t think Kaeya would be keen
to make us an ice bridge right now…”
In Childe’s opinion, ice bridges were all the cavalry captain was good for. But Childe had grown
up on the seaside, he’d spent the better part of his life crossing large bodies of water with no
problem. This peaceful river would be nothing against him.
“Watch this.” He put an arm around her waist and pulled her close - he’d been wanting to do that
all night. “I can get us over there.”
Lumine molded against him as if she were made for his body. “W-What're you gonna do?”
He was going to do what hydro users did best - be a complete and utter show off. Everybody
knew that the Oceanid only accepted challenges to show it’s artistic prowess with water sculpting.
And Childe had a habit of jumping off waterfalls for fun.
With Lumine in his arms, he toed the water. It would work well enough. Before she could protest
once more, he activated his vision to manipulate the currents around his feet. In a short half second,
he pulled Lumine across the surface as she yelped in surprise at the sudden chaotic pull of the
river. Snezhnaya had never been warm enough for surfing, but he imagined manipulating the water
underneath his feet was much like riding a wave. Lumine nearly screamed as he held her close.
It lasted for a total of two seconds - which was faster than any ice bridge Kaeya could have made
- yet Lumine yelped with surprise. Once her feet hit solid ground, she stumbled away from his
waist and rested her hands on her knees, leaning over to breathe deeply. Her hair was soaked, her
dress clung to her skin in the best way possible. “Oh, sorry,” he looked down at his mildly damp
legs, “I’m not used to having another person with me. I guess I caught you in the waves.”
“Y-You stayed nice and dry!” She glared, “You could’ve at least warned me!”
If he had warned her then she would not be so cute with her dripping wet hair and red cheeks. He
wouldn’t pass that up for anything. “You’ll get dry when we fight the lawachurl.”
“See, every hydro user I’ve ever met is like this,” she squeezed the end of her dress out, “Barbara
makes little shapes with water, Mona does… the thing…”
“The thing?”
“You know…” she made a gesture to the ground, one he couldn’t understand in the least, “she…
does the puddle teleport thing…”
“Puddle… teleport thing…” Childe reminded himself to later research this ‘Mona’ and figure out
what the puddle teleport thing was. It sounded incredibly interesting, teleporting as a puddle. He
could move within water, but he couldn’t teleport.
Nonetheless, there was a lawachurl on the hill ahead, and he could not forget the feeling of
Lumine’s waist underneath his fingers. He watched as she shook her hair like a dog and hit herself
with a blast of anemo, only proving to fluff her hair up further. With a sigh, she gave up on drying
off and sent him a defeated glance, “Let’s go, I need to fight something.”
She was wonderful. “You took the words right out of my mouth, printsessa.”
“You shouldn’t call me that,” Lumine walked ahead of him to the hilichurl camp on the hill,
“your starmate might get jealous.”
“Hm, you’re right. She is quite a boar of a woman.”
“That’s rude! Don’t talk about her like that! I’m sure she and I will be dear friends in the future.”
“I doubt that.”
She turned around with a sigh. The hilichurls in their camp stood to attention with their signature
‘yah!’. Ignoring them, she summoned a dagger into her hand with a flash of constellations, “You
should be nicer, women like nice men.”
So casual, so utterly indifferent. The sight of Lumine digging a jade dagger into the shoulder of a
hilichurl warmed his heart, like his mother’s cookies, but far more attractive. “Is that the dagger I
gave you?”
“You didn’t give it to me,” a high kick to a hilichurl’s head, another quick jab of the dagger,
“You gave it to Paimon, and I decided to keep it.”
He summoned his bow and aimed it at the hulking lawachurl striding towards them. He was taller
than most, even bigger than the suits the Fatui skirmishers wore. Childe closed one eye and let out
a soft breath, “I like seeing you use my weapons. I should buy you more.”
“Oh?” Lumine sent a quick glance over her shoulder, “You’d rather buy me weapons, not
lingerie?”
Lingerie. Lingerie? She said lingerie. The arrow fell from between his fingers, clattering
unceremoniously to the ground. His heart skipped a beat as he watched her pin a hilichurl to the
ground, her sword in it’s chest. Lingerie. And weapons.
Both sounded good. At the same time, perhaps. That was an idea. The only problem was that
Lumine was shamelessly flirting with him, and he was entirely unprepared for that.
Childe would never allow the enemy to have the upper hand for long. He could not live with
himself if he let Lumine win this battle. He had to win, he had a chance. Judging by her absolute
prudeness earlier, he knew he could stifle her flirtatious manner with the right remarks. Kicking
aside another attacking hilichurl, he approached as she stood up to the lawachurl charging down
the hill.
It happened in an instant. He held her wrist, pulling her out of the way of the lawachurl’s path. It
knelt on the ground and roared in fury, but continued to go ignored as Childe held Lumine to his
chest. Her eyes were wide with shock, “I could’ve dodged on my own, you know.”
“I know,” a brush of hair behind her ear, a breathless smile as he took in her scent, her softness,
the entirety of her body pushed against his without an inch between them, “but I’m curious,
printsessa, why are you making comments about lingerie? Is your dirty mind getting out of hand?”
“No!” She gasped and yanked herself away, unfortunately. Re-summoning her sword, she spun
and took out another hilichurl, yelling as she did so, “I just thought it was funny that you’d rather
give me weapons than things most girls like!”
“So…” another arrow notched, aimed for the hulking lawachurl’s face. He let it loose as he
spoke, “You admit you like that stuff?”
“I like weapons too!”
“This isn’t a matter of weapons, it’s a matter of the kind of things a woman wears when in bed.”
“Honestly, though,” she ducked under the swung fist of the monster, dodging and sliding up
behind it’s back, “I would prefer a weapon far more.”
Another shot, another stun on the great beast. He lowered his bow and grinned as she took the
opportunity to stab through it’s geo-formed armor, “Why not both?”
“Because,” despite the frantic battle, Lumine spoke slowly as if talking to a kid, “you have a
starmate, and should not be talking about this kind of stuff with me.”
He wondered if he should tell her, if it would even be worth it. Would she believe him? Would
she laugh in his face? The idea was quite ridiculous, this shining star of an outlander, and the
corrupted Harbinger who was going to betray her in the end. He’d laugh too. The universe had a
cruel sense of humor.
Childe abandoned his bow and summoned his hydro blades. Whipping around to take the stunned
lawachurl by surprise, he knocked it backwards towards Lumine. As if reading his mind, she took
the opportunity to summon a gust of wind like a blade that cut through it’s armor. “You know, I’m
offended that you’d think I’d betray my starmate so easily.”
“But you are!” She stomped a foot as the lawachurl fell between them, “I don’t care if you’re not
with her yet, that’s still who you’re supposed to flirt with, Childe!”
“So you admit this is flirting?”
With a groan, the lawachurl pushed itself back up. Annoyed, Childe delivered another swift jab to
it’s shoulder, and brought it down to it’s knees. On the other side of it’s fallen body, Lumine
glared, “I guess,” she huffed, “I don’t know what flirting is like, I… don’t really do that. But I think
it’s whatever we’ve been doing.”
She thought it was flirting. She had to be the least experienced 19 year old he’d ever met, it was
as if she’d never even read a dirty book before. He stepped forward, boot crushing down on the
lawachurl’s neck as if it was not even there, “Lumi, what do you feel right now?”
“I… I don’t know,” she ignored the sound of the groaning monster between them, “I try to not
think about it.”
He knew. He may have the emotional capacity of a brick, but he knew desire when he felt it. He
desired many things, chaos and blood, battle, a good challenge. Lumine had quickly risen to the top
of his list of desires. And Lumine during a battle, holding her sword in the moonlight and staring at
him as if he was the only man who ever existed, he never knew he could want something so bad.
What to say in a situation like that? What to say when he didn’t want to acknowledge how he felt?
The urge to word-vomit was coming up quickly, unstoppable, as he met her gaze across the half
dead lawachurl in the grass. Taking another step across it’s back, he took a deep breath, “I… I
like… I may even love…”
“...love?”
She was as breathless as him. She was tied up in the tension, pulled by the universe’s forces
closer to him. He loved something, he just knew it should not be her. And could not be her.
“Fighting.”
“...What?”
“I love fighting.”
“You…” Lumine paused, “you love fighting? I mean, so do I, but…”
Good save. A wonderful save. He would congratulate himself later with some fire water and a
snack. And the other Harbingers thought he was bad at lying, they were obviously wrong. “But
what? What did you think I was going to say?”
“Nothing,” she delivered a swift kick to the lawachurl as it groaned it’s last breath - Childe was
slowly suffocating it with his boot on his neck, being quite a bit more brutal than he usually was
tonight. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to show off for Lumine, or watch her fight more on her own.
Cuijue slope was crawling with angry beasts, he’d get many more opportunities to see in her
action. Raising a brow as the lawachurl dissolved into dust under him, he watched her avoid his
eyes like the plague. “What’d you think I was going to say?”
“Nothing!”
“Lumi, what is it?”
She put a hand over her eyes and squinted into the distance, “I see a mitachurl over there. We
could take out that camp, and then find the pyro regisvine.”
Avoidance, a typical tactic of those regretting their words. If only he knew what those words were
supposed to be - most likely something concerning his liking of her, which was apparently written
on his face according to Amber and Kaeya. All Lumine wanted was to avoid it, to brush past him
and approach yet another distraction from the conversation at hand.
For once, Childe found himself wanting to talk before fighting. That was a first. “Lumine,” he
gripped her wrist as she passed, “Just tell me, I won’t make fun of you.” He wasn’t sure why he
was so insistent on his assumptions. Perhaps if she were the one to say it, it would make things
much easier for himself in the end. If she was the one baring her soul, that would mean less hurt
for him.
Lumine glanced at him over her shoulder. Once again, it was as if she was putting a spell on him,
striking him with the sudden shock of seeing her lips parted softly, her eyes staring him down as if
her entire world revolved around him. He could dissolve under that gaze, melt into her universe and
stay in it’s warmth forever.
She had no idea the effect she had. She was just looking at him, thinking on how to respond, as
his plans for the future began to break and shatter. If he kept this up, he would be useless to the
Tsaritsa whenever Lumine was involved. She exhaled shakily, “I like fighting too, Childe.”
And that was that.

Or so he hoped. As reiterated many times earlier in his mind, things with Lumine never worked in
the way he wanted.
Ahead of them, the hilichurl camp caught sight of their odd rendezvous in the destroyed
neighboring camp. With their battle cries filling the air, Lumine glanced back at them and pulled
her wrist away, “So, let’s go do that right now, shall we?”
They shall. He needed something like that, then, to forget the interaction. The tension, the
suffocating desire of wanting to pull her close and kiss her until he couldn’t think any longer. That
look in her eyes that made him think, just for a moment, that she wanted him too.
But he couldn’t have that. And neither could she.
The tension lasted for days. It was unbearable for everyone involved.
Everyone. Even Zhongli, who had been managing to ignore the traveler and Harbinger’s antics
so far. As he noticed a brush of their hands against each other, and watched them yank their bodies
away as if there was an electrical current running between them, a look of mild disgust and horror
registered on his face. He had to travel with these two far longer than Kaeya and Amber did.
“Perhaps I can go ahead into Mondstadt with you,” he told Amber as they walked through the
overgrown pathways of Wolvendome, “Childe and Lumine will be fine on their own.”
With a skeptical brow, Amber gazed ahead to where the couple in question walked. Lumine
laughed softly while Childe rubbed the back of his neck. She looked away, while his eyes lingered
on her with a look she could only call adoration. It was absolutely disgusting. “No, I think I might
ask you to stay with them.”
On Zhongli’s right, Kaeya nodded gravely, “The council won’t be very happy if she’s left alone
with him.”
“They’ll be okay,” he gestured to them, the two who were so wrapped up in each other that they
did not notice their companions walking behind, “They’re both adults, I believe. And they
obviously trust each other… Excuse me, but what is the council?”
Amber crossed her arms over her chest and grinned, “When I found out Lumine’s big brother was
missing, I gathered all the men I knew and made the council. It’s not really a council…” a hesitant
shrug, “but it’s helped her a bit. Swan, the knight who guards the gate to Mondstadt, he makes sure
Lumine has a place to stay when in town. And Mister Diluc makes sure she has a meal. It’s
technically called the Council of Big Brothers, but Grandmaster Jean is also part of it! She…”
Kaeya smiled. Amber shuddered. Nobody wanted to talk about what Jean did to that cryo abyss
mage who stole Lumine’s flower pin. It still made Klee cry upon remembrance.
Klee herself was part of the lesser known council of little sisters, which just meant that Lumine
bought her sweets. The only members of that particular council were her, and Paimon.
“The fact of the matter is this,” Kaeya swung an arm over Zhongli’s shoulder, taking the stoic
man by surprise as he leaned in, “if you want to be Lumine’s big brother, you need to do your part
and keep her safe. Not like she can’t do that for herself, but… just look at her. She’s so…”
So trusting. So willing to put her neck on the line for a complete stranger. Zhongli furrowed his
brows as he watched the Harbinger laugh at Lumine’s dumb jokes, nudge her with his arm and
smile down at her. They simply looked like the normal human couples he’d seen in Liyue. “He’s
quite rich, so I don’t see what the problem is.”
“It doesn’t matter how much money he has,” Amber held up a correcting finger, “they’re not right
for each other.”
How ironic that they actually were. Kaeya sighed, while Zhongli stared ahead of him. He’d seen
Lumine and Childe’s future from the moment he laid eyes on them, their stars were some of the
brightest in the sky. He was not interested in telling fortunes, but he often looked at his business
colleague’s futures out of simple curiosity. Nine children certainly sounded like a lot of work, in
his opinion.
Yet, Zhongli would abide by his new companion’s wishes. He sighed and watched as Childe ran
off the path, disappearing into the bramble and trees. “Okay, I’ll keep an eye on them for the
remainder of our journey.”
“Thank you,” Amber smiled, “I really appreciate it. I know it’s not gonna be very fun with
them…”
It would not. Seconds after disappearing, Childe re-emerged from the trees, holding a very
uncomfortable looking bouquet of wolfhooks. He held it out to Lumine with a flourish, “For you,
my lady.”
Lumine stared. Childe's hand began to twitch from holding the stems of the barbed plant, and
Zhongli realized what kind of torture he was in for after Amber and Kaeya left. This was the third
wolfhook bouquet that day, as if Childe was trying to passive aggressively sting Lumine to death.
It was odd, to say the least.
“Are you sure I can’t just stay in Mondstadt?” He asked Kaeya, “I have a friend there I can visit…
and they’ll be okay on their own.”
“Zhongli, please?”
Amber was giving him those eyes he could not resist, it reminded him far too much of Guizhong.
He could not possibly tell her no when she made that face. “...As you wish, I promise I’ll keep
watch over them.”
“Thank you,” she exhaled in relief, “I know you’ll take care of it well, Zhongli.”
“I’ll try my best to keep them separate…”
He would try his absolute best. With another sigh, he approached Lumine as she attempted to take
the wolfhooks without stinging herself. Zhongli knocked the horrid bouquet out of Childe’s hand,
glaring with a fatherly sternness in his eyes, “Master Tartaglia, I must ask that you bring the
traveler better flowers!”
Amber gasped, “I mean keep them apart, don’t teach him how to be better!”
Zhongli chose to ignore the outrider behind him, instead staring Childe down with intensity. The
Harbinger furrowed his brows, smiling as if he was annoyed, and tilting his head. Zhongli knew
that expression, he made it when he was considering whether to draw his swords or not.
“Okay, Mister Zhongli,” he crossed his arms, “what do you suggest? I want a highly poisonous
flower that is resistant to nearly everything, and is still pretty. Like Lumine.”
“Oh,” Kaeya whistled, “he’s really putting on the charm today.”
He was. Lumine was covering her face with her hands, while Amber groaned in absolute
frustration. This was going according to Zhongli’s plan, so far so good. He lifted his chin, staring
the Harbinger down, “Windwheel asters, or cecilias. Lumine is soft and gentle like the aster,” he
pointedly ignored her dagger-like glare, “but she can withstand the harsh winds like the cecilias. If
you really wish to win her heart-”
“Nobody is winning my heart!”
“-then build her a bouquet of both.”
A bouquet of both, cecilias and asters. As wonderful as that sounded, Childe only crossed his
arms and sent the group a flat look - simultaneously ignoring the soft punch delivered to his arm by
Lumine. “That sounds great, but I’m not that motivated. It’s just Lumi.”
Another punch, and an attempted kick, “You’re so rude! I’ll slit your throat!”
He dodged her foot with a laugh, “You really know how to get a man going, don’t you girlie?”
She didn’t. Lumine’s threats reminded Childe more of a small, yappy dog. Before he could
inform her of such, Zhongli brushed past him with a shoulder colder than cryo. Staring straight
ahead, he crossed his arms, “Then I shall go pick the bouquet for her.”
Childe’s chest throbbed in sudden, annoyingly intense anxiety. It was not normal fear, but
something that pained him to his very core. Hot anger rushed through his veins as he gripped his
fists and watched Zhongli’s face for any sign of humor. Behind him, Amber gasped, and Kaeya
cackled in absolute amusement.
“A…” Amber’s whisper was barely heard over the rustling of the wind in the trees, “A love
triangle...”
Never. Never in a million years would Tartaglia, the 11th of the Fatui Harbingers, allow himself
to be caught up in something as benign as a love triangle, and especially not with Zhongli. Of all
people, this bourgeoisie parasite would not be his rival in affection. He could not hardly be
Lumine’s type.
Except for the small fact that he was kind, soft spoken, intelligent, and he had nice hair. His eyes
were kind of brown, albeit much more intensely than Huffman’s. With another ache of jealousy,
Childe scanned Lumine’s face for any sign of blush.
Right as rain, she was glaring. She stood in the middle of the path, stiff as a rock. Her lips were
pressed thinly together, and her eyes were not shining in their usual determination. She took
another deep breath, and another, and stared at Zhongli as if he’d just insulted her mother.
That was a relief, though Childe’s sanity was still on the line. With urgency and determination
taking over his mind, he brushed past Zhongli with a look of angry competition settling into his
eyes, “I’ll go pick them, don’t trouble yourself, Mister Zhongli,” he didn’t bother to hide the hard
edge in his voice, so fakely polite it was almost rude, “Lumi is mine to tease.”
His, specifically. Not that Zhongli was intending to tease her, but he certainly couldn’t outright
call her his, even if that was his hidden meaning. The implication got across well enough, judging
by the horrified gasp that escaped the traveler - and the lovely shade of pink that her cheeks
turned.
Satisfied, and sending a final smug look to Zhongli, Childe walked down the road with his hands
in his pockets. The group was quiet in shock as he left, watching him raise a casual hand over his
shoulder, “I’ll meet you in Springvale with the best bouquet you’ve ever seen.”
That was a promise, and Childe always kept his promises. With a blanket of silence falling over
the group, he continued down the path, turning around the corner and disappearing into the
distance. Normally, this would be the eye of the storm, with Lumine as the storm herself. But she
could not bring herself to yell at Zhongli - he knew her favorite flowers, somehow, and he was so
stern with Childe. She could not help but stare up at him with a mix of awe and shock.
“Well,” he put his hands on his hips and watched the spot where the Harbinger had just
disappeared, “I did what you asked of me, Amber. I separated them.”
Amber coughed, covering her mouth as Kaeya patted her back with the widest grin he’d worn on
the journey thus far. Lumine’s eyes only widened as she realized what happened - Zhongli was not
getting her a bouquet. Her hopes and dreams crashed as quickly as they came, like Celestia falling
from the sky.
Zhongli sent her a soft smile. Lumine frowned in return. Amber was attempting to catch her
breath, “S-So that was all a trick?”
“A ruse, yes,” he smiled, “you asked me to keep them separate, so I did, at least for today. I’ll
think of something for tomorrow… if he doesn’t try to murder me in my sleep tonight, that is.”
“Don’t worry about him,” Lumine gripped his sleeve with fire in her eyes, staring up at him with
poison on her tongue, “I’ll kill you in your sleep.”
The threat was all too real - Kaeya had gotten that look before, he recognized it well - though
Zhongli remained unconcerned. He put his hand to his chin and stared ahead, a sparkle in his eye as
he thought, “Is this what having normal friends feels like? It’s quite nice. It’s been a very long time
since I’ve done something like this.”
“Done something like what? Been suffocated by a pillow in your bed?”
He smiled innocently down at Lumine, “Come, let’s move on. We must reach Springvale before
nightfall.”
Childe should have realized earlier that he had no idea where to find cecilia flowers and
windwheel asters. He didn’t spend much time in Mondstadt, and he especially did not spend time
looking at the local flora. If he had to scour for specific things, it was starconches for ascensions,
and herbs for seafood soup.
He had no idea what either of these flowers looked like. Skirk had taught him better: never let
your mind be clouded in a battle, whether it be a battle of wits or of physical strength. It seemed
that since he’d met Lumine, he’d been living under a thick fog made of emotion. It was yet another
reason why her very existence was dangerous.
Yet, it would be okay. He would use her to do all the work and figure out where the exuvia is
hidden, get the gnosis, and then take a vacation. He truly did like his earlier idea of going on a long
sea trip, perhaps on a small boat with just him and his second oldest brother, maybe Teucer and
Anthon if mama would let him. They’d fish, they’d break through the heavy winds of the
Snezhnayan ocean, and he’d forget all about the honey-eyed girl and the way she made him feel.
After he got her the bouquet. The look on her face when he handed her something sweet never
failed to amuse him. It was as if she was trying to decide between punching him, and kissing him.
He’d like both quite equally. He just needed to find the flowers first.
And for a Fatui Harbinger, that was quite the easy task. He simply located the closest skirmisher
gathering, marched into their camp, flashed the delusion pinned to his chest, and commanded the
shocked and terrified recruits to go pick him some flowers.
“It’s for the ascension of someone very important,” he informed with a steel edge in his tone,
watching the pyro archer flinch, “I need… 15 of each, delivered to the Springvale bed and
breakfast by tonight.”
A heavy pause. The electro vanguard was gripping his hammer as if it was his lifeline. Childe had
always found the field-skirmishers a bit silly looking, as if they were trying too hard to be
threatening. A real threat was found in the eyes, the tone of voice, the specific movement of one’s
body. Childe crossed his arms, staring the recruit down with a blank stare. “What are you waiting
for, my blessing? Go. Now.”
“Y-Yes sir!”
They scrambled away. He watched them push each other down the hill, towards the tree
stretching out in the far distance. As they left, a glimmer of metal caught the corner of his eye. The
recruits were in such a hurry to leave that they had abandoned their camp mid-training session.
He smiled as he leaned down and grabbed a newly shined and sharpened sword, “This is Lumi’s
now, oh and…” he dug around for a dagger, “this too. And…” he smiled as he picked up an
artifact, “this too.”
There was nothing better than pilfering his subordinate’s camp for gifts to give his worst enemy.
She’d have an absolute cow upon seeing the expensive quality of the artifact, and perhaps she
would even use this sword. To imagine her fighting with something he gave her, that was enough
to make him sigh outloud and smile to himself with utter glee.
He put the gifts away, standing up and staring at Mondstadt in the distance. He could make out
the windmills, the high walls surrounding the city, and the sparkling of it’s lake. With how far he
initially ran from the group in his all-consuming competitive jealousy, he’d be able to get in and out
of Mondstadt easily before they arrived in Springvale for the night.
He put his hand to his chin in thought. He knew he didn’t want to see Pantalone, nor deal with the
insistent diplomacy enforced there. He simply wanted to get Lumine something, or at least do
something for her. It was the same feeling that urged him to send entire ruin guards to Teucer, to
sabotage the lives of stupid boys who made Tonia cry, to teach Anthon how to deliver a punch that
would win him an instant knock out. It was affectionate, deep in his chest and urging.
He could hardly resist the fire that lit in his mind. Smiling to attention, Childe grinned at the
shape of Mondstadt in the distance. He knew exactly what he was going to do for Lumine.
She’d utterly hate him after this. It would be perfect.

The Desire Before The Storm
Chapter Notes
Calm before the storm: a period of quiet that comes before a time of activity, excitement, or
violence. For the constellations of Viatrix and Monoceros Caeli, all three of these aspects would
come and go in their due time. Activity, excitement, and violence, wrapped together in a tight knit
bundle, ready to burst apart.
Tartaglia, the 11th of the Fatui Harbingers, was about to have the fourth worst day of his life. The
winner of the number one spot was, of course, the day he fell into the abyss - as wonderful as that
entire ordeal turned out, 14 year old Ajax was not prepared to fall through the ground and into a pit
of hell itself, the memory continued to live in his mind as literally the worst day of his life. The
holder of the second worst day would be very far in the future, and the third worst day was only a
month or so away. Yet, this day would be the fourth worst in his timeline.
It would be the day he made Lumine absolutely despise his guts. He was accompanying it with a
gift of weapons and flowers, as one naturally did when carrying out a scheme to turn their
soulmate’s heart against them. Lumine hating him was the most viable conclusion to this series of
chaotic events, though Childe found himself imagining the exact opposite. It was unrealistic to
dream of Lumine falling irrevocably in love with him and joining the Fatui, but the heart wants
what it wants. Realistically, she would despise him after today.
Plan A, Part 1: Kidnap Huffman, make him apologize to Lumine. More succinctly described as
‘carry out vengeance against Huffman’.
Part 2: Fight that Diluc fellow to the death - Childe was really excited for this part - and raise
some hell, summon some slimes, and make the situation in Mondstadt so irreversibly terrible that
Lumine would feel the need to stay there while he went back to Liyue with Zhongli.
Part 3: Find the exuvia, get the gnosis.
Part 4: Profit?
It was a long plan, but it would be incredibly fun to carry out. There was, of course, the other set
of events that could happen. They were much more pleasant, but far more unrealistic, if he were to
be honest with himself.
Plan B, Part 1: Vengeance against Huffman, make him suffer. Lumine falls in love with the
incredibly romantic gesture of him torturing her old love.
Part 2: Profit.
Either way, it was a win-win, there was no possible way for the Fatui to lose. Mischief hung over
Childe like a dark cloud as he approached the front gate of Mondstadt. Casually, he walked with
his hands in his pockets and his head held high, not bothering to cover up the obviously
Snezhnayan nature of his clothing. The vision on his chest and the mask in his hair would be
obvious to anyone who knew of the cryo archon’s signature taste. He watched as a guard raised a
hand in greeting, though his smile fell upon immediate realization.
And, beautifully, there was nothing he could do about it. The Fatui were in Mondstadt for
diplomacy. To refuse entrance to one of it’s high ranking officials could easily be construed as an
instigation of war, and nobody wanted to be the guy who started a war between nations. Childe
raised a cheeky hand as he passed, “Afternoon, great day, isn’t it?”
The knight of Favonius kept his face straight, his chin held high and shoulders perfectly postured,
“Yes... And I hope it stays that way.”
“Who knows,” a nonchalant shrug, a laugh, “looks like it might rain to me.”
It did not. The sky was clearer than ever, though Childe did not hang around the front gates to
hear any form of argument. He had a specific knight to find, a bartender to fight, and a city to half-
destroy. All for the sake of one beautiful woman - as most wonderful things in the world were.
Mondstadt was far more lively this time of day, as opposed to his last visit. He returned every
curious glance with a good-natured smile and a wave. The market stands were bustling, and the air
smelled of flowers. Up the main steps and towards the fountain, the restaurant and general goods
store attended to long lines of customers. It was not nearly as loud and business-like as Liyue, but
he felt far more suspicious glares cast upon his person here. The people of Mondstadt tended to be
more emotional about the Fatui’s presence in their city.
On the second level, two Fatui agents leaned against the railing. Childe slipped behind the wall of
a building before they would find him in the crowd. Pantalone being made aware of his presence in
his territory would surely mean a boring business meeting - Childe did wish his coworkers had
more taste for violence, they’d be a lot more fun to aggravate then. He leaned against a wall and
watched the people of Mondstadt pass by. He wanted to get to Huffman before fighting Diluc, as
the latter would take much more of his attention. Huffman could not possibly put up much of a
fight against a Harbinger, he didn’t think the man even had a vision.
It was odd that Lumine liked someone like him. He would never expect her choice of man to be
so incredibly boring. But perhaps that was what attracted her in the first place, he was safe, secure.
He’d never disappear on a mysterious mission and only to never return. Lumine did tell him that
she hated to lose people.
Childe could not stay in one place for long, else he’d catch the attention of the ever-roaming eyes
of the knights. As he noticed a suspicious glance from a merchant, Childe pushed himself off the
wall and continued down the alleyway. He would not bother to act normal, pretending was never
his strong suit. With two fingers trailing down the brick wall of the building, he created more
distance between him and the market square. The sound of Mondstadt’s flowing fountain began to
disappear with every step. This city was spread widely apart, difficult to sneak around in. He
peaked around another corner, continued, and onto another. No sign of Huffman so far - he could
be off duty for all he knew, though that would not be a problem either.
For now, he avoided the Angel’s Share. Going North through the alleyways, Childe weaved
behind buildings and listened to the gentle hum of the marketplace in the distance. Ahead of him
was the Goth Hotel where Pantalone would be, he knew to avoid that area like the plague. With
another gust of wind, the smell of wildflowers hit him like a smack to the face - Mondstadt smelled
like it’s wine, saccharine and floral. It was far too warm for his comfort, even the breeze was
warm. In Snezhnaya if the wind blew then it was for the purpose of chilling to the bone, a waking
of the senses. This warm afternoon breeze just made Childe want to take a nap.
A rustle of the leaves, of the flowers and the litter in the corner of alleys. He stopped in his tracks
a sheet of paper danced across his feet, flashing the words ‘Missing Person’, catching his eye.
Leaning down, he grabbed the parchment and smoothed it out against a wall to read.
‘Missing Person - Aether, aged 19, blond hair, brown eyes. If seen please report to Honorary
Knight Lumine’
Underneath the description was a hastily sketched picture. It could not possibly be Lumine’s art -
she couldn't even make a stick figure look good. The black and white drawing showed a long
haired man that resembled Lumine in almost every way, as if the artist had drawn her and changed
the hair and the shape of his face to a more masculine build. Below the sketch was a small line of
text that read ‘contact Albedo for sightings if Lumine is not available (and Klee)!!!'
Who in Archon’s name was Albedo? His name rhymed with a type of pasta he’d tried before.
Judging by the subtle signature in the corner of the sketch, Childe could assume that this pasta man
had drawn the picture as well.
With a bristle of displeasure, he folded up the paper and put it in his pocket. It was natural for
Lumine to have friends outside of what she’d shared with Childe, he had people in his life that
she’d never met. That was fine. These people in Mondstadt were who she belonged with anyhow -
if Plan A worked, that is. Yet, it was interesting to see the missing person posters, and the
depiction of Aether. It was a sliver of Lumine’s life that he had not yet explored, like only seeing a
planet in the sky from afar, but never having traveled to it. He’d hang onto the poster for reference
later if the need ever arose.
As Childe walked through the back alleys, he wondered what Lumine even did when in
Mondstadt. Where did she stay, and who did she speak to? What kind of life did she live outside of
their friendship and her business in Liyue? Was she as absolutely feral in the streets of Mondstadt
as she was in Liyue? He’d like to see her in Snezhnaya, perhaps take her to Morepesok and cause
some emotional trauma in all of his old schoolmates, then cook her a homemade meal and
introduce her to his parents. It was the perfect date.
Too bad she’d absolutely hate him after his encounter with the people of Mondstadt. He spotted
Huffman walking along the street in the distance, and his heart skipped an excited beat. It was time
to change the alignment of the stars.
He summoned a polearm, twisting it around his body as he watched Huffman turn a corner and go
into the empty alleyway. With his vision activating and the air around him becoming heavy with
humidity, Childe used the summoned water currents to push him towards the knight in the distance.
He moved in a flash, nobody from the street would catch him pass by. Only the smell of salty sea
air remained as he passed through Mondstadt unseen.
Huffman had done all the work for him. He walked down an alley, his back to the Harbinger as
he appeared behind him. Stiffening against the sudden humidity in the air, Huffman raised his gaze
to the clouds above, “Is it going to rain?”
The tip of cold steel against his neck, sending a shiver down his spine and to his fingers. Childe
held the polearm as casually as possible, digging the end into Huffman’s exposed neck. With his
vision and the smell of sea salt dissipating around their bodies, he grinned at the obvious tension as
Huffman realized what was happening. “It might,” the Harbinger answered loosely, “if you don’t
do what I say, then it’ll do far more than rain here in Mondstadt.”
He could not see the knight’s face, but he could imagine it. The furrowed brow, the eyes wide in
fear. Huffman was as tense as a board while he slowly raised his hands, barely moving against the
sharp tip of the polearm digging into his skin, “I… I-I know that voice. Who are you?”
Childe could say something incredibly cool like ‘your worst nightmare’ or ‘revenge, bitch’,
Teucer would like that story. His youngest brother always did encourage him to be a badass in his
‘toy selling jobs’ - he also was unaware of the fact that toy sellers did not usually get into fights
like Childe did, he looked at the local old man who made dolls in Morepesok like an utter God.
Unfortunately for Teucer, and fortunately for Huffman, Childe didn’t particularly care about
looking cool in battle. The only time he found himself aware of his own image was when Lumine
was around, and she was not in that back alley in that moment. All he allowed was to dig the tip of
the polearm deeper into Huffman’s neck, and give a harsh command, “Keep quiet, and come with
me. If you do what I say, nobody will get hurt.”
A lie. He shut his eyes to keep his gaze from flickering to the left, though Huffman could not see
his face. Someone would get hurt that night - probably Diluc - and maybe a few knights from the
all out attack planned for the evening. But Huffman didn’t need to know that. “O-Okay… I’ll do as
you say.”
That was what he liked to hear. He smiled to himself in satisfaction, “Alrighty then, come on.
Let’s go see Lumi.”
“...Who?”
Childe, officially, was going to kill Huffman for that.
“Come on,” with annoyance lacing every word, he grabbed the back of his collar and dragged him
through the streets. He de-summoned his polearm and replaced it with a dagger, nudging the knight
until he was in front of him and the dagger was pushed into his side. No amount of armor could
stop a weapon that close to his skin, nor an aim and reflexes as good as Childe’s, "act natural."
Quiet, he nudged Huffman along. The knight was smarter than he let on, his shoulders straight and
his face blank as he shadowed his fear. He had to know that any sign of a struggle would mean
trouble for others in Mondstadt. And while Childe usually preferred his opponents to put up more
of a fight, he was grateful for the quiet as they passed through the city streets. Out the side gate,
sneaking around the trees to mouth of the bridge. By himself, Childe would easily make it over
cedar lake, though he didn’t quite feel like holding Huffman tight and racing across the water as he
did with Lumine - he would be far less appealing in a wet shirt anyway. The gate guards did not
pay them any mind as the evening fell. It was getting too dark to see much of the traffic coming in
and out of Mondstadt, giving Childe the advantage as he led Huffman to the bridge. The little boy
who watched the birds was not even present this time of day, it was absolutely perfect.
Until he noticed Kaeya standing at the other end, his sword already drawn.
Wonderful.
“My comrade!” Childe took the place at Huffman’s side, wrapping his arm over his shoulder and
leaning in. His smile could have killed, laced with everything Pulcinella had ever taught him about
subterfuge. The fifth Harbinger had high hopes for the 11th, often caught saying that Tartaglia
could easily be the sneakiest bastard in Snezhnaya if he just applied himself. It often reminded
Childe of his teachers in school, as if manipulation could be graded from A to F.
He’d get an F. He was horrid at manipulation. Even in the distance he noticed the unimpressed,
mocking smile Kaeya wore.
Amber was at his shoulder, her eyes wide. She put her hands to her chest and turned on her heel as
Childe led Huffman across the bridge, the shine of the blade now visible in the moonlight, “I’ll go
get Lumine!”
“No need,” Childe informed, voice raised with the distance between them, “I was going to see her
anyway!”
“You’ve…” Amber stared in absolute horror, “You kidnapped her first love!”
“Well, technically, they were never together in the first place.”
Huffman lit up with realization, like a match lit over his head, “Oh, Lumi is the honorary knight, I
remember now!”
A flicker of irritation came to life in hs chest. Who did this boring globule of monotony think he
was? Lumine was the shining star of Teyvat, the most beautiful woman in the world, and he did not
even remember her name. Childe dug the tip of the dagger deeper into his flesh, drawing a trickle
of scarlet blood over the steel, “You had the world at your feet, and you gave it away.”
Kaeya watched in the distance, hand gripping the sword. He grinned even more, as Amber turned
on her heel and ran to Springvale. Childe ignored the calvary captain as best as he could, though
the look on his face enough to make him lash out. Huffman gasped in pain at the weapon digging
into his side, blood dampening his undershirt and growing sticky against his skin, “I-I’m just a
knight, I’ve never had anything like that. You’ve got the wrong guy.”
He had the right guy, obviously. Brown hair, tall, kind, eyes like chocolate chip cookies on a
Sunday morning. Childe could never be any of those things, his own eyes were as cold as the
stormy Sneznhayan coast. There was absolutely nothing warm about them. “You gave it all up,” he
informed lightly, his voice playful, “because you thought she was emasculating. How could you?”
“...Oh.”
Across the bridge, Kaeya took a step towards the scene. He raised one hand, “Now, come on,
don’t hurt Hufflemad, he’s innocent.”
The knight gasped, “It’s Huffman!”
Childe glared, “Huffpuff needs to pay for making Lumine sad. You didn’t see her like I did,
Kaeya, she was an absolute wreck after he rejected her.”
“I get it,” raising a hand, he sauntered towards the middle of the stone bridge, pigeons flying in
retreat at his feet, “I really do. When Lumine first got here, she liked this other guy…”
Another man. Another man? Childe tensed, raising a brow and keeping the dagger visibly pushed
against Huffman’s skin, “Who?”
“His name is Cyrus, he’s… weird… Listen,” Kaeya waved a nonchalant hand, “Lumine told him
how she felt, and he didn’t understand in the least. He thought she was challenging him to a
drinking match. She, obviously, lost after one drink. She tried to tell him again, and then
learned…" A pause, bated breath. Lumine seemed to love so much more than he ever could - he'd
have to find and torture this Cyrus person as well. Kaeya ended the pause of anticipation with a
flourish of his sword, “He had a wife and kids!”
That was the bomb. That was the final note, the last nail in the coffin. This weird man named
Cyrus that Lumine once adored had a wife and kids. Childe could assume the rest, she moped and
she sulked, she cried, she laid on Kaeya’s couch for a week in her despair. She was a total drama
queen, bemoaning her one chance at love.
A certain understanding passed between Kaeya and Childe. Their gazes locked across the bridge.
Despite the upcoming battle, they understood each other. They had both seen Lumine in and out of
love in seconds, and knew the absolute pain of it all. The only difference between them was that
Ajax was her soulmate. Ajax was forced to watch Lumine love every man besides him. Ajax had to
deal with the utter force that was Lumine. Tartaglia had never felt more like Ajax in that moment,
realizing that the woman he might be falling in love with was possibly the most oblivious, obtuse
person in all of Teyvat.
“You don’t need to torture Hufflepuff,” Kaeya nearly pleaded, breathing heavily as he gripped his
sword, staring the Harbinger down, “I’ve personally seen it, Lumine won’t care by tomorrow,
Tartaglia. All the Outlander wants is… Is something to tell her that it’s okay, that she’ll be safe,
that she’ll find her brother and live a happy life. And she keeps picking these losers-”
Huffman cringed, “I’m not a loser!”
“But she just wants someone that won’t leave her,” Kaeya ignored the interruption, “and the great
thing about you is that you literally can’t, Harbinger. No matter what happens, you can’t leave her
alone, and you’re starting to figure that out, aren’t you?”
The words echoed in his mind. You can’t leave her alone. No matter what, he could not stop
himself from being in Lumine’s life. That was the pattern in the stars, the celestial lights that never
moved no matter how much he fought. Starmates. Their constellations were intertwined, and even
if he managed to push Lumine away with this plan, the universe would find some way to push them
back together.
It was actually kind of depressing. Whoever decided that sharing a constellation was something
romantic had to be mentally ill.
Kaeya’s sword was on him in an instance. Reflexively, Childe blocked with a summoned
polearm, tensing his shoulder and pushing back against Kaeya’s attack. Cryo filled the air between
them, threatening to sink into his veins and freeze his every moment. He would not allow it, he’d
fought worse than this part time pirate knight, and he’d dealt with far worse elemental challenges.
"That's not very nice," another push against his sword, a glare, "I thought knights were too
honorable for sneak attacks."
"Hey," he shrugged, "you do what you gotta do."
Huffman was abandoned as Childe spun around and jabbed towards Kaeya’s stomach. As
expected, the calvary knight dodged, and took the opportunity to blast him with a burst of frozen
air. Childe was not using his vision for fear of having his movement stopped. This battle could not
be taken as loosely as before, it wasn’t a game any longer. As he let the cool air clear his senses, he
smiled before another series of drilling attacks by his polearm.
It was incredibly unfortunate for Kaeya that the Harbinger was a master at changing between
weapons. Just when he began to get used to the lance, Child broke it apart, switching to dual blades
that allowed him more movement and speed. He spun, twisted, hit and parried. In the distance, the
guard gates were running into the city to get backup, as Huffman watched with wide, terrified
eyes.
“Just stop this act,” Kaeya’s voice lacked it’s playful charm, now hard edged and angry as he
parried another of Childe’s aggressive assaults, “you’re only hurting yourself!”
“I just want what any other friend of Lumine’s would want,” a hit, a dodge, a change to a sword
for half a second before switching back to double blades. Pedrelino had taught him the importance
of confusing one’s enemy. Once they got used to one weapon, turn to another to catch them off
guard. Kaeya could hardly keep up with the constant summonings, “Huffman broke her heart, so he
has to apologize!” Another clash of swords, and they were face to face in a heavy moment, clouds
of condensation puffing up between them in the cold of Kaeya’s vision, “You agree, don’t you? He
can’t even remember her name half the time.”
Kaeya froze, his good eye flickering to the trembling knight, “Really, man? Really?”
The knight gasped, “She’s just… kind of forgettable…”
He could not have said anything worse. He could not uttered anything more offensive, anything
more terrible, anything more absolutely disgusting than the words that slipped from his mouth
then. Childe, while holding back Kaeya’s assault, turned to glare at him, eyes wide with rife and
disbelief.
“Excuse me? You think Lumine is forgettable?"
Huffman stuttered and floundered underneath the glare. Kaeya, of course, took the opportune
moment of distraction to stab Childe in the stomach with a hidden dagger, as one does.
Childe had been stabbed many times in the past, and it was never a pleasant experience. He’d
been frozen, he’d been near hypothermia, he’d had countless concussions, and all of those he could
get used to. But stabbing was an entirely different matter. It was like an invasion of his very self,
the dagger digging into his skin and permeating his inner body like the foreign invasion that it was.
It was cold, and breath taking, and all consuming. Childe could think about nothing else in that
moment besides the feeling of steel digging in his side, sending shockwaves of pain to his head,
through his limbs, and to his fingers.
He dropped to his knees. He despised being on his knees.
Childe’s vision blurred. How could he not see that coming? Huffman’s pseudo-insult had covered
his instincts in this thick cloud of distraction, keeping him from seeing Kaeya’s hand reach for the
knife. He had lost, he was bleeding out on the stone bridge of Mondstadt, gasping for air as he
desperately pressed his fingers against the hot, sticky wound on his side.
Staring at the stones below his knees, he managed to force a question out between the frantic
gasps for air, “Why did you…” a determined glare at his side, his blood covered fingers and the
source of his pain, “m-miss my vital organs?”
Kaeya stood up straight, his fingers flexing as he looked down on the Harbinger. A wind blew
through his hair while he pursed his lips in thought, “Because you’re Lumine’s.”
Because he was Lumine’s. That was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. Childe's stomach hurt as
he laughed and glanced up arrogantly, “I don’t belong to anyone besides the Tsaritsa.”
“Hm,” playfully, he put his hand to his chin and mused, “sure, sure. Don’t act like we can’t see it.
You’re in love with her, aren’t you? You’d give her the world, if you could."
Yes. Yes, he absolutely would. He’d conquer the world and lay it at her feet, just for the chance of
seeing her smile for him.
Kaeya leaned down, tilting up his chin and smirking, “Harbinger, a piece of advice from yours
truly. Don’t hurt Lumine, just make her feel safe. Stop this assholery,” he glanced at a terrified
Huffman, “I know you’d end me if you were focused, but you’re not. So I’m taking this
opportunity right now,” he flicked the stab wound at his side, making Childe flinch in
reverberating pain, “to tell you that you’re being stupid. I kept you alive only for her sake. Make it
count.”
Make it count.
How in the abyss did he do that? He’d never made anything count in his life, he hated math. With
his vision blurring and static sound filling his ears, he listened to Kaeya grab Huffman’s arm,
“Come on, let’s go report this to Jean. I’m sure the Tsaritsa will love getting a letter about one of
her goons terrorizing our town.”
It was not as if Childe was going to reveal that he was a Harbinger when he messed with
Mondstadt, he was not so dumb as to put the Fatui’s diplomacy on the line. While the Tsaritsa may
send him a strongly worded letter after this, nobody could actually prove that it was the 11th
Harbinger in the end. Annoyed, Childe rolled over, clutching his wound and watching the blurry
visage of Kaeya and Huffman as they retreated. This had to be the worst wound to his pride he’d
ever gotten, Kaeya didn't even try to kill him.
Make it count. He kept him alive for Lumine’s sake, so make it count.
Childe despised being in debt.
Springvale, 8:02 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon. Lumine didn’t even know this little village had a
bed and breakfast, but there she was, in it’s front living room, being handed the biggest bouquet of
flowers she’d ever seen.
“For you… uh,” the distorted voice of the Fatuu in the battle suit was haunting, though she’d
heard it a million times. They all sounded the same, those skirmishers who camped across Teyvat,
she’d begun to think they were all robots like Katheryne. Snezhnayan technology did seem far
more advanced than any other region in Teyvat, she wouldn’t doubt that they’d achieved cloning of
soldiers.
Yet, this particular soldier seemed real, simply encased in a body of armor that was far bigger
than any human should ever grow. He was one of the electro vanguards, the ones with the
hammers that always tripped Lumine right as she charged her windblade. With blank eyes and
absolutely no words coming to mind, she stared. Behind the electro vanguard, stood a cryo
skirmisher, and a pyro archer. All three Fatuu shifted uncomfortably as if they had not been inside a
civilized building in ages. Judging by the way she’d seen these soldiers live, she could say her
assumption was correct. Hardly ever had she seen these types of steroid-packed recruits in the
cities and villages.
Yet, here he stood, holding out a bouquet of windwheel asters and cecilias, just like Childe said.
Zhongli stood behind her, the grimace on his face deeper than she thought possible for the man.
Lumine was fortunate that Kaeya and Amber had left by then, she’d never hear the end of it. Her
absolute most loathed enemies coming to her inn and handing her a bouquet, Kaeya would have a
field day with it. He’d, of course, notice the glimmer in Lumine’s eyes, and hold that particular
detail to her as well. Because, for some ungodly reason, Lumine’s heart skipped a beat. She
covered her mouth, staring at the bouquet and the Fatui recruits with wide eyes. She felt her cheeks
grow warm, warmer than they should have been. As she reached out to take the flowers from his
too-large hands, she whispered, “T-Thank you.”
Behind her, Zhongli cleared his throat to remind her of his presence, “I must say, this is… quite
unconventional. Do you do deliveries for everyone, or just Tartaglia?”
The pyro archer nearly coughed up a lung in the background at the mention of Tartaglia. All three
recruits shifted with discomfort, as if they were ready to run away and go destroy something to
erase this experience from their minds. The leader bowed his head, “Only the Harbinger.”
“Oh, well, that’s unfortunate. I have a few contacts that are expecting a letter soon…”
“Just the Harbinger,” the distorted voice grew heavy as he bowed in respect to Lumine, “Master
Tartaglia said that you were someone very important.”
The bouquet was bigger than Lumine’s head. She held it to her chest, letting the floral scent waft
up her nose and cover her in warmth. She’d never gotten a bouquet before, never from someone
that wasn’t her own brother. With her heart contracting in her chest and her lungs quickly draining
of air, she buried her face into the flowers, peaking at the recruits above the petals, “Was he the
one who told you to get these?”
“Y-Yes my lady!”
Another warm blush. Behind her, Paimon’s eyes widened in horror, “Why didn’t the stupid
Harbinger give these to you in person?!”
“I don’t know…” she stroked a petal absently, “I can’t figure out whether I want to thank him, or
kill him.”
Kill him, obviously. There was a very obvious answer to this twisted show of affection. Paimon
and Zhongli shared a look of concern between them, a look that spread to the bed and breakfast
staff, a nearby janitor, and even the Fatui recruits themselves. It was not considered normal to have
steriod-ridden, trained soldiers bring flowers to someone.
Paimon floated to Zhongli’s shoulder and leaned on him, whispering, “Paimon thinks that Lumi’s
going crazy…”
"Most likely," he cleared his throat, "do you think she has a fever? Is she becoming delusional?"
She was not. Lumine sent a smile to the Fatui recruits, the very action making them stand up
straight to attention, “Thank you, I appreciate it… Could you do something for me?”
The electro vanguard turned red and gave her a Sneznhayan salute, “Yes, my mistress?”
His Mistress, she kind of liked the sound of that. With a tingle of excitement - and ignoring the
horrified screech from Paimon behind her - Lumine lifted her chin as she stared down the Fatui.
Even if they were all taller than her, she was far higher above them in that moment. It was a good
feeling, one she didn't know she'd ever wanted. “I want you to go to Daudapa Gorge and clear out
the hilichurl camps for me, okay?”
Paimon gasped in absolute horror, “L-Lumine! You can’t do that! It’s your job to-”
“It’ll be fine, it means less work for us.”
“No! Lumine, you can’t just boss around the Fatui!”
“Yes I can,” she sent her an innocent blink, putting on her most angelic face, “He called me his
Mistress.”
Zhongli put a hand to his chin in thought, “It does sound like it would be faster than doing it
ourselves…”
“Don’t agree with her!” The pixie was screeching now, kicking her legs wildly in the air, “Don’t
encourage this bad behavior!”
The only bad behavior happening was Lumine manipulating the Fatui recruits obvious fear of
Childe, and she didn’t quite count that as bad. Holding the bouquet closer and lifting her chin at
the soldiers, she lowered her voice in a threat, “Go. Do as I say, or Master Tartaglia shall hear of
your refusal to listen.”
Paimon gasped again, “M-Master Tartaglia? That loser Harbinger?”
“I like a man with power, Paimon.”
“That’s disgusting!”
Zhongli put a polite hand over his mouth, “I think I might… go on a walk… and try to erase those
words from my mind forever. Excuse me.”
The recruits watched Zhongli brush past them and head to the door, his face pale and his brows
furrowed. Jerking a thumb in his direction, the vanguard looked at Lumine, “Do you want us to off
him too?”
“Oh, no, no,” she waved a hand and buried her face into the flowers again, “he’s fine, just a bit
old fashioned.”
Paimon zipped up to her shoulder, “You don’t have to be old fashioned to be disgusted by
something like that! Paimon wants to barf!”
“Then go barf, you wuss.”
“W-What?!”
Lumine glared over her shoulder, “I like flowers, Paimon. I like flowers, power, and strength. Is
that a crime?”
“When it involves a Fatui Harbinger,” the pixie crossed her arms, her eyes wide and her chin
lifted, “then yes, it does! He literally commits crimes, like every day! Paimon thought your
standards were higher!”
The vanguard and his party glanced towards the door nervously. He jerked a thumb over his
shoulder, “Can we go?”
“Yes,” Lumine seethed, “go and clear out Dadaupa gorge. Now.”
“Y-yes ma’am!”
“Oh,” Paimon put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes as the Fatui soldiers retreated from
the tense air, glad to be out the door and away from the ardently angry pixie/little girl duo, “So
now Lumi’s bossing around these guys? You’re not their Mistress, and you’re not the Harbinger’s
girl!”
The Harbinger’s girl. The Harbinger’s girl. Lumine’s world nearly stopped from those three
words in unison. Childe’s girl. His. The Harbinger’s. While Lumine would never be specifically
anybody’s property, the very thought of being something to someone burrowed it’s way into her
chest and made it’s home there. Childe’s girl? Could she be something like that?
Never in a million years.
He was entirely uninterested in her, she could tell from the way he looked at her. There was no
love in his eyes, no soft touches that betrayed his emotions. If he did touch her, it was from
necessity. If he spoke to her, it was due to his job and wanting to use her for the gnosis. He had
even just kissed her out of pure frustration, she understood that. There was absolutely nothing
between them but friendship, and he’d had these flowers sent to her just to annoy her.
But jokes on him, she wasn’t annoyed. She was utterly touched. She was even a bit charmed, no
matter how odd it seemed to Paimon and Zhongli. “You’re overreacting,” she told her floating
friend, offering a reassuring smile - and ignoring how the Fatui recruits could barely fit through the
door on their way out. “He’s just trying to get on my nerves.”
“Then why are you blushing?!”

Caught, put in the spotlight. Lumine tensed and turned away, “I told you, I like flowers. There’s
nothing wrong with that.”
“Yes there is, if they’re from a Harbinger!”
Lumine didn’t like fighting with Paimon, it was so different from fighting wit Childe. With
Paimon, she was so innocent, so sweet - sometimes. She rarely deserved Lumine’s ire. It felt like
arguing with a toddler. Turning around, she sighed, “I’ll go put these in my room, I’ll be back in a
minute.”
Paimon sighed and rested her forehead in her hand, “Just be careful, Lumi, Paimon doesn’t want
to see you hurt.”
“I won’t…” her chest contracted in guilt, “I don’t even like him, believe me. I just think the
flowers are nice.”
“The loser Harbinger didn’t even bother to hand them over personally!”
That was the point, that was the absolute kicker of the situation. Lumine had fought what felt like
hundreds of those Fatui skirmishers before, to boss them around and see them kneel in fear, it was
like a dream come true. So often she had been knocked down by an electro vanguards hammer,
over and over again. It was as if Childe had read her deepest, most sadistic mental desires, and
delivered exactly what she wanted.
The flowers were nice too, of course.
Lumine raced up the stairs with Paimon in tow, gingerly placing the bouquet down on her bed
and ignoring the myriad of irritable sighs behind her. Zhongli had retreated from the scene as
quickly as he possibly could. Lumine spotted him from her window, standing beside the small
pond and speaking to a villager.
It was getting dark rather quickly. She knew better than to worry over Childe’s safety, he could
take care of himself. Rather, she found herself wondering where he could possibly have gone for so
long. He’d run off in the afternoon, and had not returned to Springvale as he said he would. Amber
and Kaeya had separated from the group already to return to Mondstadt, most likely having arrived
back in town by then.
Lumine sighed and left the window, going down the stairs with Paimon in tow. As she went into
the entrance room, the sudden bursting open of the front door made her freeze mid-step in surprise.
Her heart jumped as she thought of Childe, bursting into the room and sweeping her off her feet,
kissing her with the flowers draping into the background as if she were in some trashy novel.
Unfortunately, it was just Amber. She gasped, leaning on the door frame with wide eyes, holding
her chest as if holding herself entirely together, her shoulders slumped and her breath thin. Next to
Lumine’s shoulder, Paimon zipped to the outrider’s side and tugged on her headband, “A-Are you
okay? What happened?”
What happened, indeed. Lumine rushed to follow Paimon, her hands gripping Amber’s cheeks as
she lifted her head. Her eyes were wide with fear, unwavering in the rising anxiety of the moment.
“What happened, Amber? Are you okay? Is Kaeya okay?”
Amber shut her eyes as if she could ignore the entire world. She lowered her head, brown hair like
a wall between her face and Lumine’s. She took a deep breath before going on, finally, “I-I ran all
the way here.”
“Y-You ran?” Paimon jerked back in shock, her hands over her mouth. She and Lumine shared a
glance of concern.
“I did,” Amber took another deep breath, “Oh, Archon. I need water- but there’s no time for that!”
Lumine gripped her shoulders, “I can get you water!”
“No!” She nearly yelled, “It’s Kaeya and that stupid Harbinger! They’re going to kill each other,
like rabid dogs! T-They’re…”
Like rabid dogs, teeth tearing with no care in the world, skin ripping apart like paper. Her heart
jumped into her throat as she steadied Amber, “What is it? Where did you see this?”
“M-Mondstadt bridge! I ran all the way here,” she shut her eyes and exhaled deeply, holding her
neck, “We need to stop them before Childe kills him!”
Childe could not kill Kaeya, that was utterly preposterous. Lumine stopped in thought as Amber
pulled away and moved towards the road, ready to lead her to the scene of the action. Her words
sat uncomfortably in Lumine’s chest as she glanced at Paimon for confirmation, gaining nothing.
“He’s… Childe’s not really that strong, is he?”
Amber stared at her as if she’d admitted to eating dandelion fluff and getting dry mouth for fun.
“He had Huffman with him. He was going to do… s-something, I don’t know.”
Huffman. The Fatui Harbinger had Huffman, a boring knight of Favonius who spent his days
patrolling the city. He had not even been asked to go on the journey with the Grandmaster, that was
how boring he was. It was not as if Lumine didn’t know this, in fact it was the boring-ness that
drew her to him. He could not possibly disappear during a fight with an unknown God if he was a
man that spent his days walking around, looking at nothing. That was what was nice about him.
And now, he was part of something bigger than himself. He had been taken by a Fatui Harbinger,
and most likely for the purpose of her own feelings. Childe was protective like that, always glaring
at every man she ever showed interest in, as if he was about to rip them apart, limb from limb. She
assumed he’d join the council of Big Brothers at some point, if Diluc would have him - apparently,
they met for ice creams on Fridays, but they never let Lumine join.
It was no time to ponder on the existential wonders of a Fatui Harbinger being her older brother,
she had to stop him from killing Huffman. While the knight had been off her mind for the last
several days - thanks to Childe’s ability to distract her from everything besides him - she didn’t
want him to be in the hands of a Fatuu. Amber had already gone down the road, passing by a
startled Zhongli beside the pond as she ran. Lumine took off after her as Paimon disappeared at her
shoulder.
“Gotta go,” she explained to the funeral consultant in hurried tones as she ran, not bothering to
give him a glance, “Childe and Kaeya are fighting, I’ve got to stop them!”
He stared with wide eyes, “Did you put up your flowers? Windwheel asters need copious amounts
of water, it is said that they grew from the archon Barbato’s power and-”
“I really don’t need a lecture right now, Zhongli!”
“Did you put them in water?”
“No!”
“Then they’ll die,“ he put a hand to his chin, his skin reflecting off the blue glow of the pond, lit
up by fireflies, “you should’ve put them in water-”
“Zhongli, I really can’t talk about that right now!”
“Why ever not?”
Lumine didn’t bother with an answer. She rolled her eyes, groaning and running after Amber
down the road. In the distance, the bridge over the cedar lake lit up with blue ice and the sounds of
clashing swords.
As Lumine ran, Zhongli looked at his newfound companion. Hopkins the Marvelous, a mouse of
a man who had entertained Zhongli with his stories of trades and battle. “I think I might return to
Liyue and let them take care of it, do you think that would be wrong?”
“Nope!” Hopkins the Marvelous put his hands to his hips, lifting his chin to the sky above, “You
should do what makes you happy, Mister Funeral Parlor Consultant! If leaving your friends behind
and going to Liyue does that, then do it!”
“Yes,” Zhongli mused, putting a hand to his chin in deep thought, “I might just do that… I’ve
never experienced being a third wheel until now, and Childe and Lumine are… Well, they’re a bit
much.”
“They’ll get by on their own!”
“Yes,” Zhongli pounded a determined fist into his palm, “they’ll be fine on their own. Thank you,
my friend. I’ll be heading back to Liyue first thing in the morning.”
Zhongli, in his innocence of being a literal God who could hardly connect with people on the
level he wished, had no idea that Hopkins the Marvelous was drunk off his ass. He took another
swig, nearly falling backwards as he did so, “J-Just be careful! The journey will be scary on your
own!”
“Oh,” Zhongli patted his shoulder, “I’ve dealt with far scarier, trust me.”
“Scarier than a woman in love?”
Hopkins had one eye closed, his mouth half open. He smelled faintly of body odor, and wine. The
wisdom that poured from his mouth was a constant waterfall, raining over Zhongli as he floundered
in this human world. He wanted to be mortal, to understand these humans and why they acted the
way they did. It had been something he’d wanted for so very long. A woman in love truly was a
terrifying sight to behold. Which was exactly why he wanted to avoid that. If he were to be a
mortal man, he would not take it upon himself to solve these human problems. Childe and Lumine
could take care of themselves, return to him at Liyue harbor and carry out the rite of parting as he
wished.
It was decided. He could not hide behind his identity any longer. He was Zhongli, a mortal man
who had no business in the dealings of mortals.
“I’m going to…” he stepped away from the drunkard, glancing at the bed and breakfast on the
hill, “I’ll just put lady Lumine’s flowers up for her, and write a note explaining where I’ve gone,”
another flash of cryo in the air, coming from the bridge to Mondstadt, accompanied by the sound of
clashing weapons and humidity in the air, “She can handle that on her own. It’s not my duty
anymore.”
“Right, man,” Hopkins raised a fist, “Stick it to ‘em!”
“I’m… not really sure what that means… but I’ll try my best,” he turned to take his leave, “I must
go gather my things, and ask the pixie if she would like to join me,” he mused thoughtfully at the
sky above, “Paimon seems just as tortured as myself. Perhaps she would enjoy a break.”
The drunkard laughed again. He threw a fist into the air, taking the geo archon aback as he
celebrated in place, “Ditch ‘em! Just ditch them all! Steal everything they’ve got!”
“I… won’t be stealing anything-”
“Stick it to ‘em, bro!”
“Right,” Zhongli clenched a fist and nodded in determination, “Yes, indeed! Stick... it... to them,
my brother!”
The only conclusion to this mess worse than Lumine and Childe being left alone in the
wilderness together, was Lumine happening upon a half-dead Childe on the Mondstadt bridge.
She knew his silhouette, the shape of his hair and body as he lay on the ground, clutching his
waist with both hands and groaning at the sky above. He was acting as if he’d stubbed a toe, as if
there was not a puddle of blood underneath him. Lumine’s heart jumped into her throat as she
abandoned Amber’s side and ran to meet him.
Her knees would be bruised the next day with how quickly she fell to them. Clutching his face,
she pulled him closer, gasping for breath as if she was the injured one. He groaned as she held him,
“L-Lumi?”
“Are you okay?” She was frantically running her hands over his chest, to his abdomen, where the
dagger wound lay sticky and hot against his clothes, “Who did this?”
“Kaeya,” he answered gruffly, his eyes still shut, “He was… trying to prove a point.”
“A point? He stabbed you!”
“Yeah...” Childe glared over her shoulder, “Didn’t even have the guts to kill me. Some people are
just so rude.”
If Lumine had to choose sides, she would agree with the Harbinger. It was quite rude to stab
someone and leave them bleeding out on a bridge, even if the dagger barely did any damage. With
her heart threatening to choke out every gasp of air, she held Childe closer to her. He was warm,
smelling of sea salt and evergreen, mixed with the overwhelming taste of rust and metal in the air
from his blood. “What were you fighting over?”
“Nothing,” his answer was immediately and entirely too nonchalant for a man bleeding out on the
ground. He tilted his head, finally opening his eyes and glaring at the sky over Lumine’s shoulder.
While his face lacked color, his voice was full of strength, sounding almost normal, “Don’t worry
about me, printsessa, he just scraped me enough to make me dizzy, that’s all. He didn’t even hit a
vital organ.”
Lumine glanced at his abdomen. His entire stomach was covered in blood, soaking through his
clothes and dripping onto the ground. While the wound itself was on the side of his waist, right
above his vision, the blood loss would be enough to knock him unconscious for a bit. She sighed as
she realized that Childe would, yet again, be stubborn with this. “Why can’t you ever just let me
take care of you? Why can’t you just admit that you’re hurt?”
He narrowed his eyes at her, “I’m not hurt.”
“You are!” She pushed him off her lap in a huff, “You’re so stupid! You disappear, go into
Mondstadt and get into a fight, and make me find you like this? Do you think I enjoy that?”
“I was defending you!”
Defending her, he says. Behind Lumine, Amber watched with thin lips. It was obvious to the
outrider that he was not seriously hurt - most likely hamming it up for the attention, she knew if
Kaeya wanted to kill him then that dagger wound would be placed very much differently. Lumine
ignored Amber behind her and pulled at Childe’s hair, concern being replaced with absolute furry,
“I can defend myself! What’re you thinking, idiot?!”
“I’m gonna go,” Amber jerked a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the city, “Do you
want me to get Barbara?”
A huff, “No, I want Childe to suffer a bit more.”
“Right,” another grimace, a hesitant glance at the traveler, “I’ll, uh, send you a letter soon, Lumi.
Enjoy your… uh, mess.”
Her mess. It was true, Childe was her mess. Even Paimon had disappeared in absolute disgust..
Lumine cast Amber a glance as she left, a million apologies in her eyes for her very exhausted
friend. It seemed that everything in her life had only grown more complicated once she’d met
Childe. The reminder of such made her deliver another swift punch to his arm as he lay in front of
her.
“Listen,” the Harbinger leveled her with a serious gaze, albeit a bit dazed, as if he had no idea
where he was, “I have a plan, Lumi, and I won’t let you ruin it like you have with everything else
in my life so far.”
“Oh,” the fire was lit in her chest once more, she could’ve breathed pure flames if only she used
pyro, “I’ve ruined everything for you? So sorry to hear that!”
Yes, she should be sorry. She was a blockade in the way of the Tsaritsa’s future. He gripped her
hand, his vision blurring as he stared up at her. She was golden in the moonlight, even with her
glare that could kill. She remained, still, the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. “You don’t ever
realize the truth, do you? You can’t see past your own ass.”
“I-I can’t even see my butt!”
“It’s a phrase,” he shut his eyes tightly, “You can’t see past your own problems, Lumi. You don’t
ever think about why I’m doing the stuff I’m doing, why I got into a fight with Kaeya, or why I was
in Mondstadt in the first place.”
“Well,” she snorted, her fingers lacing into his hair and giving it another tug, “you didn’t tell me,
that’s why.”
She wasn’t stupid, he knew that. She wasn’t obtuse. Lumine was smarter than he could ever
imagine, far more resourceful and far more witty. She was simply another star from a different
galaxy, her experiences in life so far away from his that he could not even begin to imagine it. She
was not subtle, nor was she secretive. Lumine was like a sword, sharp and fast and in your face,
coming at you from angles you could not even imagine. She just wanted the truth told to her in all
honesty, and he hated that he could not give her that.
But just this once, as they were in Mondstadt, testing noctilucous jade and preparing a funeral for
a God, he could tell her. He could let her know what he was doing, even if it was entirely
villainous. She was his starmate, after all. She had to put up with him no matter what - the stars
really did seem to have terrible senses of humor. That, or they were cruel.
Ajax - he was merely Ajax in that moment, as he bled out on the bridge to Mondstadt - put a hand
to her cheek, relishing in the feeling of her skin underneath his fingers, “I wanted to make Huffman
apologize to you for hurting your feelings.”
She grew warm, he could feel it underneath his thumb. “Was that your big plan I interfered
with?”
“No,” he closed his eyes against the exhaustion, “I wanted to fight Diluc too.”
“...Fight Diluc?”
“Yes, and summon monsters in Mondstadt. Then,” he gave a serious nod, his mind utterly
clouded by the blood loss, “you would stay here and help out in defending the city, and I could go
back to Liyue and get the gnosis. Then, after that…”
Lumine was shaking with anger. He hardly registered it, her sudden heat underneath his hand, her
glare that could end his heartbeat in a second. Her eyes widened, her lips parted, and her chin
lifted. The air around them grew thick, though Ajax could hardly notice anything else in the
moment other than how absolutely, devastatingly beautiful she was. She was everything he’d ever
wanted, strong, feisty, determined, loving, entertaining. He never knew he wanted anyone before,
not until she showed up in his life.
He did not even notice her glare, her frown, her steely-hard eyes as she stared down at him. He
could not register her fingers gripping his hair, her stiff shoulders and tense hands, “And what
would happen after that?”
“You’d hate me,” he sighed, he couldn’t lie to her anymore, not now, when his vision blurred and
his body ached against the massive amounts of blood seeping from his wound, “And then you’d
leave, and let me win. After that, you’d forgive me eventually, and we could… you know…”
“What?”
How could she not know? “Kiss, and get married, and have nine kids.”
She gasped in horror, “Nine kids?”
Nine kids. Slowly, he blinked up at her blurry visage, “I’m the fourth child in a family of seven
and my parents got by okay, why can’t we reach for even better?”
“You’re not the one pushing these kids out of your body!”
“I’m doing work,” he turned away, glaring at the stones beside his head, “it sounds really tiring to
make that many babies.”
“You’re stupid,” her fingers left his hair, making him suddenly cold as she stood, “You’re not a
very good big brother, you know, you didn’t even ask me if I wanted Huffman to apologize.”
There were so many things wrong with that statement. So many things he could nitpick, so many
things to tear apart and investigate. As Lumine walked away, Childe flipped onto his stomach,
stretching out an exhausted hand towards her as she retreated, “Lumi? Could you, perhaps, not let
me bleed out on this bridge all alone?”
She waved a hand, “You’re fine, you’re just being dramatic. Kaeya barely scraped you.”
That was true, but did not take away from the fact that he was about to pass out. “L-Lumi, I was
going to make Huffman apologize for hurting your feelings, that’s nice, isn’t it?”
She stopped in her tracks, her hands on her hips and her head held high. She had her back to him,
her dress flowing in the breeze against the back of her knees. “I don’t care about Huffman
anymore, I like Xiangling’s dad. He gives me free food and actually remembers my name.”
“I remember your name!”
“Get up,” she sent him her worst glare yet, “you’re not terrorizing Mondstadt tonight, or ever.
Childe, I can’t believe you’d even think of such a thing!”
“I…” he truly was about to pass out, though it was more from exhaustion than anything else. His
mom and older sister had always called him dramatic when he was hurt or sick, he would lay in
bed and groan until someone was kind enough to bring him soup - usually Tonia, bless her heart.
She could never resist his puppy eyes. Yet, Lumine could. Lumine was having none of his
nonsense, no matter how much blood had pooled underneath him from the tiny stab wound on his
side. It was always the smallest of wounds that bled the worst. “Lumi, I just want the gnosis, you
have to understand that.”
She glared at him over her shoulder, “Get up. I’m not going to take care of you, so get up.”
It was like he was a little kid again, a puppet moving to whatever direction his parents desired.
With a huff, he found himself struggling against his tired limbs, pushing himself up to stand behind
her. The traveler had enough kindness left in her to step towards him and wrap an arm around his
waist, holding his body on her shoulder.
Childe glared ahead of him. While he knew he was not close to death, he had lost a lot of blood.
His vision was quickly slipping away as he leaned on Lumine, taking a step forward and allowing
her to basically drag him across the bridge. Even when she was so obviously furious with him, she
still carried him home. That was exactly what he needed.
Lumine was perfect for him. He realized it, then, he could never ask for anything more but her.
“I don’t want to be your big brother.”
Lumine grunted unresponsively, glaring ahead of herself as she dragged Childe along the road,
“What?”
He had enough sense of mind to know what he was saying. He knew exactly the words he was
trying to get across, the argument against her oblivious assumptions that cracked his world apart,
piece by piece. He huffed, taking another step and ignoring the throbbing pain in his side, “I don’t
want to be your big brother. Earlier you said I wasn’t being a very good big brother.”
“Well, that’s because you’re really terrible at-”
“I don’t want that, printsessa.”
Printsessa, again. He had to be feeling better to be calling her by that annoying nickname. She
continued to hoist him on her shoulders, nearly dragging his bleeding body to the lights of
Springvale in the distance. He was speaking nonsense, most likely from the exhaustion of bleeding
out, “You don't know what you're saying. Come on, I’ll get you back to the hotel.”
“No!” A sudden jerk of his body, a gasp as he stumbled away from her, his uniform colored dark
red with his blood, “I don’t want that, Lumine!”
He was being preposterous. The only option was to bleed out in the road, and she would be happy
to allow that if he truly desired it. “Then what is it, Childe? I don’t understand what the problem
is!”
“The problem is being like a brother to you,” he clapped his hands together, “stop friendzoning
me.”
Friendzoning. The word nearly made her gag, “So you don’t want to be my friend?”
“No,” he gasped with his hands up, “I do, I really do, but I can’t handle your assumptions, Lumi,
you just assume everything. You think I do the things I do because I’m trying to be like a big
brother to you!”
Everyone had ever done the things they’d done due to a sense of protectiveness over her. She
crossed her arms, staring at the hunched over figure of the Harbinger in the evening darkness,
“Every man I’ve ever met has either been entirely uninterested, or like a brother to me. What
makes you different?”
What made him different was how he saw her, how she felt against him. What made him different
were the dreams he dreamt of her, the way she sighed underneath his hands, and the very fact that
they’d kissed before, and would most likely do it again. After all of that, all of the flirting and the
touches, all of the longing looks and the days spent together, she still didn't get it.
Lumine truly was the most oblivious woman in Teyvat.
And there was nothing else Ajax could do in that moment but stare. She shone in the moonlight,
her glare like honey on his tongue. He sighed, “Did you like the flowers, printsessa?”
Her cheeks grew pink, even in the darkness. She turned away, “Y-yes, I did…”
She did. He knew she did, she was his starmate, and he was beginning to figure out her wants and
needs. As little as she knew of that matter, she still was destined for him. And he, for her. There
was nothing he could do to change that, and Childe was wonderful at going with the flow,
following orders, determining the end goal to his mission and getting there in half a second. He
could see how the stars moved, how they wanted him to act and think, how they wanted these two
very different lives to collide in an explosion like no other.
And perhaps he truly was exaggerating the stab wound. He had bled a lot, and his vision was
blurry, but he could stand on his own. He could glare, he could stand toe to toe with the traveler
and keep his head held high. That was exactly why Kaeya aimed for that specific spot, he knew the
Harbinger wouldn’t be down for very long. He’d had far worse before.
But nothing as bad as this. It was not the stabbing that made this day the fourth worst in his life, it
was what came next. It was the final thread of tension between them, snapping furiously in his
face.
Ajax couldn't help himself.
“I want you.” A whisper, barely carried by the breeze between them, “I want you, Lumine. You
don’t seem to understand that.”
Even now, she couldn’t understand. Her shoulders tensed and her eyes widened, “W-What?”
“I want you,” another step towards her, an outstretched hand as his every muscle buzzed with
excitement. He felt as if he was about to faint, his head growing light with every breath.
Nonetheless, he went on, “Lumine, I need you. I don’t want to be your brother, or simply your
friend. Since the moment I’ve met you…” since the moment she drew the dagger on him,
threatened him, captured him in place with those eyes, “I’ve wanted you.”
Lumine stared. Her heart stopped, her blood froze in place. She nearly suffocated on the look
Childe wore, that wide eyed gaze with such intensity as he trapped her in place, wrapping her up in
the moment and keeping her to himself.
“I want you,” another whisper, a voice so unlike his usual teasing tone, his brows furrowing as he
stared at her under the silver light of the moon, “Lumine, Lumi, please just want me too…”
And before she could even begin to register his desperate plea, he took another step. Lumine did
not protest as he leaned in, smelling of rust and blood and mint, his hand brushing across her cheek.
Her heart raced, her blood boiled, her stomach churned in excitement and anxiety. Softly, as if he
was barely there, his lips brushed against hers, and she felt his breath fan across her neck.
He was centimeters away from kissing her. "I want you," another whisper, so utterly desperate
that she could hardly recognize the man before her. And finally, after another moment of thick
silence, he closed the space between their lips. Lumine found herself moving to her tip toes and
wrapping her arms around his neck in an urging plea to draw him even closer, deepening the kiss
until neither of them could breathe. Her legs were shaky, her heart racing. She felt his lips move
against hers, slowly, while his hand brushed across her hip. Another kiss, going deeper, filled with
all the words neither of them could say. And another, yet another. He could not possibly pull her
any closer, with his hand on the small of her back, and her fingers tangled into his hair. Two more,
her teeth brushing against his bottom lip and causing a shiver up his spine. He wanted her. He
wanted her so desperately that it hurt.
It was a crime how quickly he pulled away. Immediately, she felt cold with the lack of his
presence. Silent, shocked, Lumine watched as Childe stared at her, one hand on her hip, and the
other on her cheek.
"So..." he blinked, "I... did that."
The world could have been destroyed in those few seconds, and neither of them would notice.
Lumine exhaled deeply, just to check if she was still alive, if she were dreaming this moment.
"Yes, you did."
"Well..." his eyes grew blank, "I don't feel very good."
"...What?"
Childe was pale. His eyes were unseeing, his hands shaking. He gulped, took a deep breath, and
stepped away.
Then, proceeded to collapse.
It happened in an instant. Lumine dodged as Childe toppled over, leaving him on the ground with
a face full of dirt and grass. The tense air between them dissipated like mist. His arms splayed out
at his sides, the stab wound bleeding yet another spot onto his uniform. He'd fainted. She watched
a feared Harbinger, an omen of ill will and death, faint like an overdramatic actress.
So much for romance.
Lumine sighed and nudged his body with her foot, “Are you dead?”
He breathed, but did not respond. He didn't even groan, fast asleep with a mouth full of grass.
“You’re passed out, aren’t you?”
No response.
This absurdity of a man wanted her. He wanted her. Someone wanted her, and it was him, the
worst possible option for a boyfriend in the entire universe. Lumine would wager that a dead fish
would be a better partner in life than him. One of Klee's bombs would treat her better. Kaeya, of all
people, would be a better choice! She could not believe her luck.
But at least he was kind of cute.
“Alright,” the traveler huffed as she gripped his ankles, yanking him down the dirt road, “let’s get
you to safety and close up that scratch. And hopefully…” another skip of her heart, another gasp as
she dragged his rather heavy body down the path, “hopefully you’ll remember this conversation
tomorrow.”
Childe did not remember the conversation.
It was not often that Tartaglia, 11th of the eleven Fatui Harbingers, woke with a migraine. It was
not often that his limbs felt heavy, nor his tongue dry. It was not often that he flinched at sunlight
streaming in through the window, or the sudden warmth of a fireplace near his bed. It was
especially rare for Tartaglia to feel as if he was hungover, stepped on by a giant, and thrown
around like a ragdoll.
Except, he had not drank a drop of liquor that night. A very specific spot on his waist stung with
every breath, reminding him of the feeling of cool steel digging into his skin. Of course, Kaeya
stabbed him. It was flooding back now, making his migraine pound even harder behind his eyes.
The only thing that could possibly make this situation worse was the sound of Lumine’s soft
voice and her cold fingers brushing against his temple. He felt the tips of her fingers draw a line
from his forehead, to his cheek, to his neck, where she checked his pulse, which was running faster
than ever at the scent of her lavender shampoo filling the air. Slowly, hesitantly, he turned his head
to open one eye and look upon the golden angel hanging over him.
She was in her night clothes, and he was in his bloodied and stiffly dried uniform. She blended in
well with the room, white and pure and soft like the sunrise, watching over him as he recovered
from his wounds. She did not bother to smile, only digging her fingers even more deeply into his
skin until it became uncomfortable. “Tartaglia…”
He was in trouble. She didn’t use that title unless he was in trouble. Faking her smile, he forced
himself to meet her gaze, “Lumi?”
“Were you planning to kill Diluc last night?”
Correction: “I was planning to maim Diluc last night, not kill.”
Her finger dug deeper into his neck, “Were you planning to terrorize Mondstadt last night?”
“I had my reasons,” he huffed in his discomfort, “I was angry, and something had to suffer-”
“A whole city?”
“Nobody was going to die.” Childe yanked his head away, rolling over under the covers and
pulling the white sheets up over his head, hiding like a rabbit in a hole, “I had to distract you
somehow."
To distract her, and she knew precisely why. He never did believe her when she promised to
make it fair between them. They both would win in the end, even if that meant neither of them got
the gnosis. Anger rose in Lumine’s chest as she set her coffee down and stood from her chair.
She’d been waiting all morning for Childe to awaken, having dragged his unconscious body to the
inn in Springvale and stitching up his wounds throughout the night.
She hoped he hurt. She hoped his side was sore. She hoped her sloppy stitching would make a
scar, something to remind him of his own stupidity. He would be fine in a week or so, but she
would not, not after that conversation, not after what she knew.
Lumine could not help herself. She leaned back in her chair, wanting to create a gap between their
bodies. He smelled of winter, mint and evergreen, mixed with dried blood. It was his own, Kaeya
was hardly hurt at all, something he counted himself lucky to be. If Childe had not been so
distracted with his plans, he would have floored the calvary knight completely. Glaring, Lumine
crossed her arms over her chest, “Huffman has to have therapy now because of you.”
Therapy. If Childe went to therapy for every instance someone pushed a knife against him, he’d
never have a moment of free time. “He’ll be fine.”
Lumine’s voice held a hard edge, “Is it true what you said about just wanting to distract me?"
“Yes, it's true." How could she not believe him by now? He felt as if they'd had this conversation
over and over the last day or so, "didn't we already talk about this?"
"Just making sure," she hummed, annoyed. Out the window, the sun shined as if nothing had ever
happened, as if Huffman had not been held at knifepoint, as if Kaeya had not stabbed a Harbinger.
He frowned as he watched the trees outside of the window move with every wine scented breeze.
“Explain yourself,” Lumine sighed, “it just doesn’t make sense. If you wanted to distract me, why
go through the trouble of kidnapping Huffman?”
"I thought I already explained that too," he was sure he looked like Teucer when he pouted,
curled up in his sheets and glaring out the window. He looked at everything in the room besides
Lumine, searching for an opportunity to procrastinate on his long, complicated explanation. A
tense silence filled the space between them. Lumine’s gaze did not break from his back. He felt her
eyes boring into him, sending waves of discomfort to his chest. Finally, Childe sighed in defeat,
"Like I said yesterday, I know he hurt your feelings by saying that you’re emasculating, and as
your… friend, I don’t like that. I just happened to also plan on terrorizing Mondstadt at the same
time. Why make two trips?"
Friend was the hardest word to push out. It threatened to choke him, wrapping it’s hands around
his neck and keeping him from meeting her eyes. Lumine kept silent for a moment as she
processed his explanation, “So… let me get this straight, you were being protective."
“Yes.” That was one way to put it.

“But then you wanted to kill two birds with one stone, and distract me enough to keep me in
Mondstadt, so you could betray me and get the gnosis?”
“...Yes.”
A heavy sigh, laced with irritation, “Do you not realize how contradictory that is?”
“I do,” he rolled over and glared at the ceiling now, his side aching with pain, “It doesn’t matter if
we’re friends or not, Lumi, I still have orders to follow. The Tsaritsa told me to get the gnosis, so
I’ll do whatever it takes to fulfill her wishes. And even if you believe you can make it fair between
us,” he shot her a look, “I know that it can’t. I’m not allowed to make it fair. The Fatui has to win
this, one way or another.”
The implication in his words was clear. One way, or another, his side would win. No matter how
many huge bouquets he had delivered to her, he would carry out the Tsaritsa’s orders. No matter
how much he made her smile and laugh, he would carry out the Tsaritsa’s orders. No matter how
much he told her he wanted her, he would carry out the Tsaritsa’s orders.
“This is stupid,” Lumine slumped over, resting her chin in her palm and glaring out the window,
letting the morning sun warm her skin. She looked almost serene, almost peaceful, if not for the
furrow of her brows and the red lining her eyes, “You’re stupid. You’ve just been messing with me
all along, haven’t you?”
What a drama queen. He rolled his eyes and stretched out his arms above his head, dissolving into
a sore yawn as his body began to regain it’s strength. Passing out never was fun, it always left him
disheveled and confused, he’d done it far too many times in his life.
And her words stung, spoken with such truth and confidence. Childe rested his arms behind his
head and frowned, “I do mess with you, somewhat, but it's not as if this whole thing has been a
scheme. I’ve noticed…” he narrowed his eyes in thought, “Zhongli is far more willing to work with
the Fatui if you’re involved. He was so hesitant that night to set up a meeting, until you came
along-”
“That night?”
He nodded, “That night I hired an agent to take you on a date, and you stumbled onto our business
meeting. Zhongli immediately seemed more at ease when you showed up, as if he was expecting
you. It’s kind of suspicious, actually.”
“I don’t understand why.” Lumine shrugged and avoided looking at him, her chin remaining in
her palm like a petulant child, “You could do all of this yourself, it’s not like you really need me to
find Rex Lapis.”
That was true. He, originally, was going to leave her out entirely. “True, but Zhongli still wanted
you to come along. And he’s the client so…”
“So what he says, goes.”
“Right,” Childe stared at the ceiling in thought, “and don’t act like you haven’t known my intent
the whole time, I haven’t been doing my best at hiding it.”
He sent Huffman to Liyue in an attempt to distract her, he tried to get someone else to date her to
distract her, he planned to terrorize Mondstadt to keep her away from Liyue and distract her.
Lumine was sure she was missing some other small distractions and betrayals somewhere, they’d
come back to haunt her eventually.
But, it was true. He’d been terrible at lying thus far about his intent to betray her for the gnosis. It
wasn’t like he was good at keeping secrets.
“Well,” Lumine stood from her chair, “unfortunately for you, loser Harbinger, I am fueled by
anger and spite. Since you’re oh so confident that you’ll have the gnosis, then it’s my goal to make
sure you don’t.”
Wonderful. Lumine could be as stubborn as he was, a trait he was not sure how he felt about yet.
She turned around, walking to the door while he pushed himself up to see her go. As she opened
the door and glanced over her shoulder, the slyest of smiles grew on her lips.
“I know I’ll win,” a warning, a threat, an assurance, coupled with a low laugh from the traveler
standing in the doorway, “because I know something about you now.”
His gaze flattened. “And what is that?”

“You want me.”
The world could have stopped spinning, and Childe would not have noticed. His blood froze in
his veins, his muscles tensing. Every inch of pain in his side was ignored as he stared at Lumine
across the room, his eyes wide, with an automatic fake smile plastered onto his face. She had taken
him by the throat and held him entirely still, pinned by her words.
He thought he had dreamt that conversation. He thought it was a repressed memory in the back of
his mind. Yet, Lumine’s smirk told him everything he needed to know.
She was evil.
Another laugh, another dangling of the prize over his head. She had been so angry at him for
messing with her, now she was doing the same. He could almost see the threat looming over him,
ready and waiting to be used whenever she saw fit.
He wanted her. He wanted her so badly, and he’d finally said it. He’d finally stopped teetering on
the edge of the cliff, and had truly fallen.
Lumine watched with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes. She smirked, leaning against the
doorframe as he processed her words with the widest array of emotion she’d ever seen on Childe’s
face. Disbelief, turning to anger, turning back to bewilderment. With a laugh, she broke the tense,
anticipating silence, “Zhongli left last night. He said he had business to take care of back in Liyue.
And Paimon went with him, apparently,”
Childe could hardly get over her threat earlier. He wanted her. She knew he wanted her. Whatever
terrible occurrence she was planning with that knowledge was unbeknownst to him, a mystery that
dug it’s claws into his chest and refused to leave. He forced himself to come back down from the
clouds and pay attention, “Yeah, uh, I think I’ll head back too-”
“Nope!” Another sly grin from Lumine, another jolt of electricity in his chest - the wasps were
back in his stomach as well, worse than ever, he never thought he’d like her evil smirk, of all things
to be attracted to. “I can’t let you off the hook. You might go through with your plan of terrorizing
Mondstadt and maiming Diluc when I'm not watching you.”
There would be no point in terrorizing Mondstadt now, she would know to not take it seriously.
As wonderfully chaotic as that sounded, it would be a complete waste of energy. He sighed and
crossed his arms over his chest, “Can I at least fight Diluc?”
“What?” Lumine dropped the smirk in confusion, “No, you were just stabbed, you can’t fight
anyone.”
“I’ve fought through worse!”
“Childe,” she rested her forehead in her hand, “please don’t fight Diluc.”
“I would like to someday, if possible.”
“Fine,” she waved a hand in defeat, “just not now. We need to test out the jade, then go back to
Liyue,” she counted off her mental list, holding up a finger for each task, “make some perfume, get
the cleansing bell, buy some kites, hire some people, then get some everlasting incense.”
So much work just for one dead lizard. He groaned and rolled his eyes, “I’m glad Zhongli wants
you to help, you can take care of all that, I’ll just give you some mora and-”
“Childe, you’re helping me with this.”
“Want me by your side that bad, huh?”
His smirk was gone in an instance as Lumine stared at him. She lifted her chin as if appraising his
worth, seeming far taller and far more in control than she had ever been, “No, I believe it is you
who wants me.”
She was evil. She was dastardly, far too sly and far too conniving for his comfort. As Lumine
shut the door behind her, leaving him alone, Childe finally let out the breath he didn’t know he was
holding.
He really wanted her.

Chapter End Notes
A note of interest!
- So, Childe's character stories mention that he's the 3rd son, and also uses 'sisters' as
in plural. Which is why I've been writing him as the middle child, with 2 older brothers
and 1 older sister. And of course, Anthon and Tonia and Teucer as the younger ones.
But the wiki says it's just 1 older brother and 1 big sister, and I don't know who to
believe lol... There may a typo either in the wiki, or the game, or idk. But! I do like the
idea of him being the middle kid in this huge family, it makes me laugh
Kiss With A Fist
Chapter Notes
“No, I believe it is you who wants me.”
A beat of silence, a shocked and bewildered Childe. With a fake smile, Lumine slammed the door
shut behind her.
"Oh dear lord, why did I say that?" She leaned against the wall, her hands curling into fists and
her eyes turned to the heavens above. While her stomach churned in dread, all she could whisper to
the empty hallway of the Springvale inn was a desperate, “Why am I so stupid?"
Childe was probably laughing harder than ever. He was probably wiping away tears of joy and
merriment, giggling with the absurd hilarity of Lumine saying something like that. He had said it
himself: she couldn’t seduce a shovel if she tried.
And he was right. She felt like an utter fool as she leaned against his door and listened to the
sounds of his movement in the room. He sighed, the mattress creaking underneath his weight while
he muttered darkly in a language she didn’t recognize. In her mind's eyes, he was bemoaning
having to travel any longer with her, making fun of her, especially after a comment like that.
Unless, of course, he truly did want her. The figurative angel on her shoulder - who, surprisingly,
sounded like Paimon - whispered sweet half truths of all the possibilities she could imagine. He
truly could want her, he truly could have kissed her knowing the full implications of such an action.
There was a chance that he was not lying. How sweet it was to ponder over these idealisms, to
imagine that there was someone in the world who could like her romantically.
But then, of course, the figurate devil on her left shoulder - also sounding like Paimon - reminded
her, very sternly, that Childe had a starmate, and she had absolutely no chance at changing the ebb
and flow of the universe. The devil, the realism, and the cold truth won the argument immediately.
“Oh,” Lumine pushed off from the wall and started down the hallway, talking to herself like a
madwoman as she waved her hands around, “Dearest Childe, I believe it is you who wants me,”
she groaned and threw her head back, “Stupid, stupid. Why do I speak? Like, in general, why do I
ever speak?”
That was not a question she could answer without insulting herself further. With another groan,
she opened the door to her room and slammed it shut, making for the comfort of the mattress as
quickly as she could. Burying her face into a pillow, she curled up underneath the covers, “The one
time I need Paimon to yell at me, and she’s not even here. Archons…” Lumine gasped in
realization, “She’ll start liking Zhongli more and ditch me for him! She’ll be his travel guide
instead!”
With a swift punch to her pillow, and a kick of her legs underneath the blankets, Lumine fell limp
with defeat. Everything she loved had been taken away in a matter of minutes, Paimon, her dignity,
the bag of mora Childe had given her - Zhongli was carrying it for her before he left, keeping it on
his person as he made his hasty retreat with her best friend at his side.
The funeral parlor consultant had left a neatly written letter beside her bed, folded next to a large
vase for her bouquet, and instructions on how to properly take care of asters and cecilias. Lumine
had seen the letter last night whilst having the most romantic date of her life - stitching up Childe’s
stab wound on the floor of a hotel while wondering what ‘I want you’ means. It was a confusing
night, only made worse by the incredibly posh letter she discovered.
It read, as follows:
Traveler,
Paimon and I have decided to return to Liyue Harbor early. Fret not, for I will be taking care of
some proceedings for the Rite of Parting while you and Childe find a suitable noctilucous jade
specimen. I do not wish to hurt your feelings, so please do not make assumptions of my reasons for
leaving.
I have heard this specific occurrence referred to before as the ‘honeymoon phase’. Perhaps when
that ends, we may resume our travels. I would truly like that.
I look forward to meeting you and Childe in Liyue Harbor upon your return. Please stay safe.
Sincerely, Zhongli
(LUMINE THIS IS PAIMON ! PAIMON SAYS HELLO AND THAT PAIMON LOVES YOU. PLZ
DONT B MAD)
She couldn’t be mad when discovering that her best friend even wrote in third person. It was
charming, like a little sister that could do no wrong. If only she had not ditched her out of sheer
frustration for having to third wheel a couple that was basically nonexistent. If Paimon was gone,
who would keep Lumine from getting scammed? Who would pull her hair when she said awkward
things? Who would yell at her for putting up with Childe’s antics?
Nobody would. That was the problem. It was just her, and the Harbinger.
No, I believe it is you who wants me. The memory hit her like a brick to the face. Lumine
groaned into the pillow once more, gripping the sides until her knuckles turned white and her
fingers began to hurt. “What was I even thinking? I just looked stupid!”
“Lumi?” The sudden knock at her door tore her away from the muffled screaming match in her
pillow. She gasped, sitting up and brushing back the hair floating from her head with static. “Lumi,
I heard yelling.”
“Oh,” a nonconscious grimace, coupled with an unpleasant buzz in her stomach, “Childe, it’s
you.”
“You sound… uh,” his laugh was almost awkward, as if he could ever comprehend being that,
“disappointed. Expecting someone else?”
Not at all. It was just her, and him. Even Amber and Kaeya were gone - Kaeya would most likely
not show his face for a while, having stabbed a Harbinger and leaving him to bleed-out in the cold,
alone. Lumine gave up on taming her hair and sighed, “No, you’re fine. Sorry, I was just having
a… uh, moment.”
“Do you need help?”
Help screaming into a pillow and punching inanimate objects like a hormonal 12 year old? Not in
the least. Yet, before Lumine could open her mouth to protest, the doorknob turned and pushed
open to reveal her invasive visitor, grinning and bloodied for the world to see.
The blood on his clothes was dried, nearly 15 hours old by then, but still very much a noticeable
aspect of his person. Lumine furrowed her brows, staring at him as he stood in her doorway.
No, I believe it is you who wants me. All she wanted to do was vomit.
“Are you okay?” Childe raised a brow, “You look like you’re going to be sick, want me to get a
bucket?”
And now he was trying to take care of her. First, he lied about wanting her, and now he was
screwing with her head. His faux sweetness could not trick her any longer, no matter how big a
bouquet he had delivered. Glaring, Lumine gripped her pillow close, pretending it was Paimon in
the hopes to gather even an ounce of emotional strength, “I’m fine. You should go wash your
clothes, you smell like a murder scene.”
With wide eyes, as if he had not realized his current state, he looked down and nodded. “Yeah,
this is pretty gross. I’ll… ugh,” a grimace, “I’ll go do laundry.”
He hated laundry, she recalled. She rolled her eyes, “You’re such a little kid, a boring chore won’t
kill you.”
“It might, death lurks around every corner.”
The laundry soap might become sentient and try to mug him, she’d seen weirder. “Hey, about
what I said earlier,” not the vomit inducing line she’d spit at him, Lumine had absolutely no desire
to acknowledge that again, “you don’t have to stick with me. You can go back to Liyue if you
want.”
“Giving up already?” Childe grinned, “What happened to your bossiness, don’t tell me you’re
losing your spite already.”
He smiled as if he liked her spitefulness. It was most likely yet another trait he made fun of her
for, going to the rest of the Harbingers and laughing about how childish and immature the traveler
truly was. Lumine crossed her arms, glaring, “I won’t let you play your mind games with me,
Childe. My brain is an impenetrable fortress that no man may conquer.”
“...What?”
She shifted away, crossing her arms as she ignored his presence in her doorway, “You can do
what you want, Harbinger. Either stay with me, or go. I don’t care either way.”
A thoughtful pause, a low hum from his throat. He put a hand to his chin as he stared, “Okay. I’ll
leave.”
“Wait!” Lumine was up and off the mattress in an instant, scrambling across the room to reach
him before he left. Her heart raced as she managed to grip his wrist and drop to her knees at his
feet. Gasping while she held his hand, she directed her best puppy-eyed stare up to him, “I admit it,
I don’t know the way to Dadaupa Gorge! I don’t want to get lost and be late for the funeral, I don’t
want to disappoint Zhongli!”
What a wonderful day. Life truly was beautiful. It seemed that every morning delivered a
different kind of gift to him, reminding him how truly blessed he was. The smile that grew on
Childe’s lips was cold, calculating, while he attempted to ignore the internal racing of his heart.
“Oh, you need my help? Are you begging, lyubimaya? Pleading?”
The puppy eyes dissolved, replaced with a glare, “I will cut off all of your fingers and feed them
to wolves.”
“You’re still on your knees, you know.”
She shot up like an arrow. Turning away with a childish huff and folding her arms, as if she could
guard herself against him, she looked everywhere in the room besides his knowing smile. How
quickly the tables turned, how quickly she lost her power! She supposed that it was partly her fault
for losing confidence, no matter how utterly ridiculous her earlier words were.
“Do what you want, I take it back,” Lumine attempted to sound airy and indifferent as she strode
back to her bed, “I don’t need your help. I’ll find the way on my own.”
“Okay,” Childe tilted his head innocently, “I guess that means I can go back to Liyue Harbor and
make the preparations for the gnosis. It works out perfectly.”
Lumine glared over her shoulder. There was a small comfort in the fact that Zhongli would be
smart enough to not let him win so easily. For some reason, the funeral consultant wanted Lumine
involved, running around town and doing his errands, specifically her. Whatever it was, she had no
idea, but she was grateful for the circumstances.
Unworried, Lumine put a hand to her chin, staring out the window in thought, “I know what I’ll
do, I’ll just have a friend go with me to make sure I don’t get lost. Perhaps Albedo and Sucrose.
Yep,” another glance over her shoulder, a mocking smile, “I don’t need you at all, loser
Harbinger.”
“Wonderful,” he raised a hand and stepped out of the room, “see you back in Liyue.”
She lifted her chin, unaffected, “Yes, see you.”
“...I’m leaving now…”
“Right,” a casual wave, her back still to him, “bye.”
He hesitated in the hallway, “I’m… I’m going, see you later!”
“Goodbye, Childe.”
It was as if they hadn’t kissed. It was as if he hadn’t spilled his guts about wanting her. He
wondered if she even cared - though knowing Lumine, she probably cared too much, and was
overthinking the entire ordeal. Childe knew that he never had to worry about the constant word-
vomit he coughed up, Lumine would twist it around and find her own conclusion without any help
from him.
If only he knew what she was thinking. If only he could read her mind, see past that wall of
obliviousness and pride. Whatever game she was playing, he wasn’t quite sure how to play along.
“Bye… Adios,” another hesitant step back, his eyes lingering on her still form in the hotel room,
“Paka… Da skorava…” another beat of silence, and no response. Perhaps she’d understand
Mondstadt’s slang better, “Auf wiedersehen, schatzi…”
Lumine tensed. She turned around, her glare worse than before, “Did you just call me your
treasure?”
“Hah!” He pointed, “So you do understand me!”
Her nose wrinkled in disgust, “I understood that one thing, and only because Lisa calls me that
sometimes. Archons,” she covered her mouth with her hand, glancing away, “be sweet like that
again and I might barf.”
How wonderfully charming she remained to be, even admitting that he was sweet. He was quite
sweet, his own mother often told him so. Laughing, Childe finally moved to leave, “Okay, I’m
really going now.”
“Bye,” Lumine returned to being disinterested, “I hope you get eaten by a lawachurl on the way.”
“You’re cute. I’ll have the gnosis by the time you get back!”
“Okie dokie!”
“I mean it!”
“Suuure.”
“I’m leaving…” he folded his hands behind him, walking backwards down the hall. Lumine
remained in her room, unresponsive once more, “Goodbye, my comrade!”
Nothing. No response, not even a sigh. He frowned and stood up straight, turning around to go
down the stairs and make his retreat. And she was so teasing earlier, so confident, dangling his
confession in front of his face like bait on a hook. Childe was beginning to realize that he would
hardly ever be able to predict that woman’s mood, she changed directions like the wind.
Childe left the bed and breakfast in a bad mood. It was not only the sizable amount of dried blood
on his clothes that deterred the people of Springvale from speaking to him, but the glare on his face
as well. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, walking past the pond and to the main road leading
East.
He wasn’t sure what he expected. In his half-unconscious state while bleeding buckets he had
confessed to Lumine that he wanted her. He’d told her several times, far too many for his own
comfort. And she had said nothing. She had kissed him back, but it easily could have been the
tension in the air, or panic from seeing him lose a fight with Kaeya. He just had to do the
incredibly romantic thing of passing out, that act alone most likely ruined every chance he had at
being desirable to her.
It was not often Childe faced challenges. When he did, he grabbed ahold of them, never letting go
until they were beaten. But this particular challenge was of the sort he’d never had to face before,
and he had no idea where to strike next. He tried to win where he could, leaving for Liyue just to
spite her.
“Man, did you hear about that battle last night?”
Childe froze. The sudden voice coming from around the corner of the cottage was unfamiliar. It
echoed around the corner and reached his ears from his spot in the road. Quiet, attentive, he slinked
closer to eavesdrop.
“It was over the traveler lady, you know…” a thoughtful hum, “the one who helped in that
cooking contest here a while back?”
“Right! Is she hurt?”
Childe leaned in further, pressing his back against the wall. The other man rustled around for a
moment before answering, “No, it was the Cavalry Captain guy and this other fellow fighting over
her. It got pretty nasty I heard.”
“Man, that’s stupid.”
It was pretty stupid. Childe would never have lost to someone like Kaeya if he were paying
attention. The scar on his side would continue to remind him of what his teacher taught long ago: a
clouded mind brings clouded judgement, and sloppy battle. Crossing his arms and leaning on the
wall, he listened on.
“It is,” he heard the villager clear his throat, “everybody knows that the traveler and the Chief
Alchemist have a thing going on.”
Chief Alchemist?
“I think his name is Albedo, they were up in Dragonspine together a month or so ago doing who
knows what.”
Albedo. Albedo. Childe could have breathed fire in that moment, listening to these faceless men
make assumptions about who his starmate was with. He hadn’t tried to kidnap Huffman, terrorize
Mondstadt, and confess his wanting to her for some random alchemist to come in at the last
second. He’d put far too much stock into the situation now for him to sit back and allow another
man to waltz in and take his place as Chief Lumine Irritator.
And he wanted her. He wanted her so desperately. The only thing he wanted more than her, was
to know if she wanted him too.
Spite was not enough any longer. Spite would not take him back to Liyue, and the gnosis could
wait. Zhongli would preferably have Lumine there as well, for whatever odd reason he’d not
disclosed. Quietly, Childe dug into his pocket and pulled out the crumpled missing person poster
he’d found yesterday.
‘contact Albedo for sightings if Lumine is not available (and Klee) !!!'
He wasn’t sure who Klee was, and why her name was specifically tacked onto the end, in red
crayon no less. In the corner of the sketch of Aether, a signature was barely visible. ‘Albedo’. He
signed his art, as any artist would. He’d probably sat down with Lumine and listened to her
describe her brother, staring at her for hours as he used her face for reference.
And Dragonspine, that chilling mountain in the distance. It was much like Snezhnaya, and in
Childe’s opinion Snezhnaya was the most romantic place in Teyvat. How could it not be? Blizzards
and frigid winds, curling up with a lover around the fire, taking off clothes to conserve heat and
fight the cold.
The very thought made him clench the poster, crumpling it up and tossing it into the water. He
wanted to kick something. He wanted to find this pasta man and challenge him to a duel to the
death. There had to be a reason why these villagers thought he and Lumine were together, and
Childe was going to reach the bottom of it.
After Dadaupa Gorge and the dragon funeral. Work came first, of course.
Childe abandoned his eavesdropping, running back to the road and past the pond, to the bed and
breakfast on the hill above. “Lumi!” He raised a hand as he caught her mid-retreat, standing in the
doorway and speaking to the owner, “I changed my mind! I’ll come with you!”
Her gaze fell into another glare. It was all she seemed to be able to do since their conversation. He
stopped and rested his hands on his knees, leaning over to take a deep breath as she said her
goodbyes to the hotel staff. Turning to him, she crossed her arms, “What made you change your
mind?”
Jealousy. And Albedo. He stood up straight, smiling with a furrowed brow, “The Tsaritsa wants
the gnosis as soon as possible, and if you get lost you’ll hold up the plans.”
She rolled her eyes heavily, “You’re terrible. Fine,” stepping past him, she began her trek down
the dirt road, her head held high and her shoulder cold, “but I’m not letting you play games with
my head anymore.”
“Would you believe me if I told you I’m not good at mind games?” He followed at her heels like
a lost puppy, “It’s true, I can’t play poker to save my life.”
“This isn’t poker,” she snapped, “these are my feelings! And you’re just twisting them around to
suit whatever pleases you.”
He gasped, still following on her heels, “In what way am I twisting them?”
“You said you wanted me!”
This girl, she couldn’t hit the side of a barn with how her mind worked. Childe sighed, rubbing
the bridge of his nose as he walked, “I think that’s pretty straightforward and self explanatory,
don’t you?”
She whipped around to face him, her fists clenched and eyes wide, “Not in the least! You talk
about getting the gnosis and serving the Tsaritsa, but then you say stuff like that! You keep kissing
me, fully intending to betray me!”
That was a bit less straightforward. Childe crossed his arms, meeting her gaze and not allowing it
to break for a second, “Is it really betrayal when I’ve told you my plans all along?”
“You know I want the gnosis!”
“What would you even do with it?” He shrugged, “The Tsaritsa could use it far better.”
“I want your Tsaritsa to stop terrorizing the people of this world!”
His gaze fell flat, annoyed, “She has her reasons.”
“Do you even know what those reasons are?” Lumine spat back, “Name one of them. Give me a
clear answer, and not some prattle about a perfect world. I want a clear, reasonable answer.”
That was the terrible thing about it all, Childe didn’t have that. He didn’t need that. He was part
of the Fatui for strength, for his need as a warrior to be fulfilled. He followed the Tsaritsa because
she was a warrior too, one he respected greatly. He didn’t need to care about her end goals, as long
as they didn’t hurt his family or take away his power.
The Fatui getting the gnosis wouldn’t hurt Lumine in the end. She’d survive, and Rex Lapis was
already dead. She could not stay angry at him forever, this was a necessity of his work, and
something that could not be set aside.
“Lumi,” Childe started, taking a steadying breath and closing his eyes, “I’m not playing mind
games with you.”
“You’re avoiding the question.”
He opened his eyes at the hard edge in her voice. It felt like the beginning of something bigger, a
pot starting to boil over. “I’m just following orders.”
“You’re too good to follow orders without question,” she turned away, the cold shoulder rising
once more, “I can’t believe you’d accept that.”
Stubborn woman, spiteful harpy. He could hardly stand her sometimes, how she formed these
ideas in her mind and held onto them like life itself. Her words were like knives, aimed perfectly
for his weak spots. As she began down the road once more, Childe crossed his arms and glared,
“You’re going the wrong way.”
She froze. Turning around, she walked past him, the anger coming off her in waves. It was
satisfying, at least, to have affected her so well. Running a tired hand through his hair and sighing,
he followed from a distance, “I can’t believe I want you.”
Lumine quickened her pace in an attempt to create more room between them, “I’m not going to
listen to your lies!”
“You are so stubborn!”
“You’re a liar!”
“You’re just denying the truth because you’re afraid of rejection!”
“Childe,” she whipped around, freezing him in place with her glare, “be quiet. I will allow you to
come with me, but I am done constantly embarrassing myself with your schemes.”
He blinked. With his hands in his pockets and his shoulders loose, he tilted his head,
“Embarrassing yourself?”
It was as if someone had stolen her breath. She took a step back, cheeks turning pink and eyes
wide as she glared past him. Her fingers tapped anxiously on her arms, and her knee bounced. She
was cute, even when frustrating him beyond new degrees.
“I… I will just never speak again,” Lumine nodded to herself proudly, “I’m done speaking, it’s
official. I’m not going to fall for your little traps where you try to make me do something
humiliating.”
“...What?”
She narrowed her eyes, “You only said you want me because you thought it would be funny, and
then my dumbass goes and plays along. I kissed back,” she counted on her fingers, “I took care of
you, I said that terribly cheesy thing this morning. And you’re just going to go back to Snezhnaya
and laugh about it with all your stupid Harbinger friends.”
That was the problem? That was where her mind went? Could she be any more dense?
Childe desperately wished that he didn’t laugh. He desperately wished there wasn’t joy bubbling
up his throat, hardly stifled by his hand as he stared down at Lumine. He couldn’t help it, no matter
how hard he bit his tongue. The laugh escaped, coupled with a snort as he held his stomach, “Oh,
gosh. Lumi, really?”
A confused frown, an unamused glare, “What?”
“Y-You,” he gasped for breath, “you think I told you that because I wanted to make fun of you?”
“Well… why else would you do that?”
“Maybe it’s because, oh I don’t know,” he stifled another laugh, “because I like you?”
She blinked. Narrowing her eyes, the curious look turned into a glare. She lifted her chin and
looked away, processing his words in tense silence. “I… don’t believe you.”
“Lumi, come on,” the laughter dissolved in an instant, “you are so stubborn! Just trust me for a
minute!”
“I’m done trusting you,” she crossed her arms and turned away, “I’m done being naive and
gullible! It just gets me into trouble, it always has. From now on,” she pounded her fist into her
palm, “I will be completely silent.”
Complete silence. There were times he truly wanted that, but now was not one of them. He chased
after her as she speed-walked down the path, her fists clenched and her lips sealed. “Lumi, babe,
come on.”
She cast him a deadly glance, yet remained silent. “I’m just going to keep calling you annoying
nicknames until you tell me to shut up, sugarpie.”
He could read the disgust very clearly on her face. Going on, he took the spot beside her,
“Babycakes, poodle juice, sugar spit.”
That was a good one. Lumine visibly shuddered.
“Moonpie, lovebug,” his mom used that one a lot, “my darling sun and stars, my universe.”
Another minute of walking in stony silence, her cheeks turning pink with every passing nickname,
“Oh, how about honeybear? Cuddle monster… Hm, little baby buttcheeks.”
“Little baby buttcheeks?!” She was on him in an instant, swatting at his arms and kicking at his
feet in an attempt to knock him down a peg, “What is wrong with you? That’s so weird! Ew!” he
held her wrists to keep her hands at bay as she gasped, her cheeks pink, “I cannot believe I kissed
you! I probably have stupid moron disease now!”
He laughed, his wrists in her hands, “You can’t catch it if you’re the one that spread it in the first
place!”
“The only thing I spread is chaos!”
That was true. Gripping her arms, he leaned in, his breath hot on her neck as she froze at the
sudden proximity. Taking another step forward, as she stepped back, he pinned her to the thick
trunk of a tree beside the road. The air of irritation and teasing was gone, replaced by a certain kind
of heaviness Lumine could not pin down. Her stomach warmed in excitement, her knees growing
weak. Childe did not allow for even a centimeter of room between their bodies as he ran his lips
down her neck.
“I got you to talk again,” a whisper, laced with amusement, “Won’t you believe me when I say
that I want you?”
“No way in hell,” she nearly growled, pushing her body against his, her wrists pinned against the
tree, “that’s just a surefire way to get myself hurt.”
Childe pulled back, “Lumi, I’m being honest. Once I get the gnosis and this whole thing blows
over, I want to try being with you. I can’t deny it anymore, I want to be at your side.”
His heart raced, his muscles tensed. Slowly, deliberately, he loosened his grip on her wrists and
stepped back. Lumine stared at him as if she didn't know what to believe, whether she should
punch him or hug him.
It didn’t matter how sincere he sounded, how desperately he looked at her. No amount of
confessions would erase the reality between them.
It was unfortunate for him that his starmate was slipping into the first of the five stages of grief.
He’d gone through this as well, and had now arrived to stage three, bargaining. Lumine could be
his starmate, if she gave up on getting the gnosis then they might be together.
Lumine was in the first stage, denial. Her glare turned to confusion, to surprise, and back to anger.
She narrowed her eyes, “I’m going back to being quiet.”
He groaned as she slipped out from under his arm, walking down the road in cold silence. “Come
on, Lumi, stop being stubborn!”
Childe knew that she wanted to argue with him. She wanted to huff and puff and tell him that she
was not being stubborn, nor was she spiteful, nor was she incredibly embarrassed and prideful at
how easily swayed she was by his affection. One kiss, one ‘I want you’, and she was teasing him
like a girlfriend already. Not that he was complaining, that was what he wanted.
With a sigh, he followed her. She was going the right way now, watching the road ahead with
steely eyes. In silence, Childe followed her towards the narrow pass, ignoring the grumbling fruit
salesman and the warnings of dangerous monsters at the end. Lumine continued to not stay silent,
not allowing another word to escape.
An hour passed - complete silence.
No amount of goading could open her lips. Even when hilichurls attacked, she did not breathe a
word. The unsettling feeling began to sink further down into Childe’s stomach.
Two hours passed, Childe was growing tired of staring at the back of her head as they walked.
Lumine did not even chase after birds as per usual.
It was absolutely dreadful.
Two hours and 45 minutes, they stopped to sit on the side of the road and eat sunsettia in tense
quiet. It, too, was dreadful. His knee would not stop bouncing from the pent up energy and
frustration. Lumine remained perfectly still, calm, as if she was not fueled by pure spite.
“Hey,” he nudged her, pointing down the road, “that guy’s got a dog.”
As expected, her head whipped around to see the animal, but she would not allow herself to squeal
in joy. He’d seen her sprint after dogs before, roll around on the ground with them fake growling
and scratching behind their ears. The calm, cool demeanor did not fit her in the least.
If the passing bystander with a cute dog didn’t work, something else should. He took another
thoughtful bite into the sunsettia, and pointed up, “There's a bird. Looks pretty meaty, huh?”
Lumine did not even glance. Silence.
“Oh, look at that lizard, Lumi.”
Silence.
“Hey, want me to go put out that flaming flower for you?”
She shook her head no. That was something, at least.
“You’re just doing this to aggravate me, aren’t you?”
A head nod, that was even better.

“That’s pretty rude, you know.”
Silence once more.
“Lumine, stop being immature and just speak to me,” with a sigh and an eye roll, he threw aside
the sunsettia core, standing up from their spot on the side of the road. He brushed off his pants - he
did take a moment to change into extra clothes earlier, somewhere in between the silent treatment
and the hilichurl ambush. “I don’t understand how me kissing you and telling you my feelings
turns into… this.”
She glanced up, frowning. With another bite of her sunsettia, she chewed with a glare. Complete,
and utter, maddening silence.
“I grew up in a house of nine people,” Childe rubbed his tired eyes, sighing into his hand, “I have
six siblings. Can you imagine how loud it is at my house? Constantly, Lumi, someone is constantly
yelling, myself included. Do you know how weird this is for me? I’ve never been this quiet for this
long.”
Even in the abyss, he talked and talked and talked. Skirk nearly tore his tongue out. He learned
how to be quiet eventually, for the sake of his life and the ears of his teacher, but Childe was not
very used to quiet. When collecting debts, he was only quiet when he needed to be. When
addressing new recruits, he yelled. In battle, he did not hold back in creating loud chaos. He was
not a conniving man, he did not sneak around, he was not silent as a shadow like La Signora. He
was Tartaglia, the Tsaritsa’s walking weapon, and he did not bother with silent treatments.
Lumine was driving him up a wall. “Lumi please say something. Anything.”
“Anything.”
“Oh,” his heart skipped a beat as he gestured to her, “she speaks! The silent statue woman of
Mondstadt speaks, finally! She has blessed me with her sweet, beautiful voice!”
“Don’t condescend me, I’m mad at you.”
“But why?” He flopped onto the ground beside her, kicking up dust along the road. With his
hands flat behind him, he leaned back to sigh at the sky, craning his neck and ignoring her heavy
glare, “I’m sorry, but I really don’t understand. Do you give every guy who likes you the silent
treatment?”
She huffed and crossed her arms, “Only when they’re lying about it.”
Another groan and a roll of his eyes, “Then why are you doing it to me?”
“Because you’re lying about liking me.”
This woman could not get any worse. He sighed, finally looking back at her to meet the glare, “I
think you’re scared. I think you’re afraid of accepting that I might actually have feelings for you,
because you don’t want to admit that I’ve won.”
“How have you won by having feelings for me?” She nearly exploded, standing up and brushing
herself off, turning to storm down the road and create distance between their bodies, “You’re so
convoluted!”
“You’re convoluted!” Childe scrambled up and chased after her, “I tell you I want you, and you
somehow turn that into me playing mind games with you!”
“Because you are!”
“I’m not, Lumi,” he grabbed her wrist, stopping her mid-step, “I want you.”
A sudden blanket of silence, silence so loud it was deafening. It was as if someone had frozen the
moment in time, holding both Lumine and Childe in place as they stared at each other in the middle
of the road. Slowly, hesitantly, he loosened his grip on her wrist, and stepped towards her.
The tension was like glass. If he spoke any louder, it would shatter. He whispered, “I want you. I
can’t believe I have to say it for the hundredth time. I want you.”
She stared. Her lips parted as she tilted her head up towards him. She let out a soft breath,
flickered her eyes away, furrowed her brows. Slowly, like watching a murder scene, the mooning
and desiring look in her eyes dissolved into… absolute disgust.
“That sounds like a you problem.”
She ripped her hand away and brushed past him. Childe could only stare into the distance, his
eyes blank and his lips set into a thin line. “I can’t believe this,” he whispered to himself, “I cannot
believe I’m stuck with her.”
And as she walked off, she had the audacity to dig the knife in deeper. She threw her head back,
letting out a bitter laugh at his sheer pain. Childe glared, clenching his fist as he watched her
retreat, “Lumine…”
The traveler knew better. She was far more perceptive than anybody could ever guess, and she’d
heard that tone of voice before. It meant one of two things: 1. Childe was about to challenge her to
a fight, or 2. Childe was about to do the most aggravating, frustrating thing possible in an attempt
to get under her skin. She went with number two, immediately breaking out into a sprint down the
road, not bothering to glance over her shoulder to see if he followed.
As she ran, the wind whizzed past her ears, pushing her dress back and kissing her cheeks in it’s
warmth. She had to run, or Childe would do something. Probably try to tickle her, or throw her in a
pond, or jump off a cliff with her in his arms and glide down while she screamed at the top of her
lungs - it happened once, last week, she never forgave him for it.
Unfortunately for the traveler, Childe was faster. He caught up easily, gripping her waist and
yanking her up into the air, immediately throwing her body over his shoulder like a sack of
potatoes. She gasped, her hands balled into fists and punching at his back as he sighed, “You
brought this on yourself, zvezda moya.”
“Stop insulting me in Snezhnayan!” She pounded on his back, her heart racing and her lungs
emptied of air, “I’ll murder you! I’ll rip out your entrails and smear them on toast!”
“Sounds lovely.”
“I’ll turn your skin into a leather suit!”
“That’s a bit gross, actually. What goes through your mind when you’re saying these things?”
“How much I want to kill you!”
“Babe,” he hoisted her up further on his shoulder, smiling at the old times. He’d done the same
thing the day they met, “just be quiet for a minute while I find us a good camping spot.”
Lumine was nearly growling, “Sleep with one eye open tonight, Harbinger.”
“I do that every night.” He laughed, walking further down through the gorge. It was only the
afternoon, but after nearly three hours of intense silence Childe found that he needed a break more
than ever. Zhongli and his jade could wait just a bit longer.
“Put me down.”
“You’ll just run off again.”
She sighed, pounding another fist into the small of his back, “Now, Tartaglia. Put me down.”
“Make me.”
“Childe, put me down now.”
“Make me.”
A sigh, a second passing of tense silence. She would make him in the way Lumine knew best - by
violent force.
She gripped onto the back of his jacket for leverage, pulling herself forward and stretching out her
leg as he carried her down the path. He could not stop her before she summoned a gust of anemo,
focusing it around her knee, and swiftly, harshly, destructively, kneed him in the stomach.
It worked.
Childe coughed upon immediate contact, keeling over and loosening his grip on her thighs. She
wiggled out of his hands, thanking the gods for solid ground underneath her feet once more. As she
stood in front of him, watching him hold his abdomen and cough - he was such a drama queen, she
didn’t even knee him that hard - Lumine raised her chin in arrogance, “I’m sorry to have to hurt
you, but you did ask for it.”
He did. He could admit to that. What happened next was the real surprise.
Childe looked up as Lumine grabbed his face, yanking his body closer and tangling her fingers
into his collar. He was forced to bend over as she leaned higher on the tips of her toes, and pressed
her lips against his.
His heart raced, his mind ran in a million different directions. Shocked, and frozen, he slowly
began to register the harshness of her kiss, how deeply she was pushing, how angry she was against
him. And he was angry too, she thought he was convoluted when she was the one kissing him right
after injuring him.
If she wanted to play that game, he could go toe to toe. With a soft smile against her lips, Childe
stood up straight, only pulling away for half a second before hoisting her hips up, and dragging his
hands underneath her thighs. Lumine’s cheeks turned red as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
He smiled up at her, his fingers digging into her skin, and his smile challenging.
“And you think I’m the confusing one,” He laughed. With another frown, another prideful huff,
Lumine tangled her fingers into his hair once more. Tugging and pulling, she reunited the kiss with
a fury hotter than before. As they continued, Childe pushed her back against the cliff wall of the
passage, leaning up and whispering between their battle, “You really like me, huh?”
“Not at all,” she growled with another wonderful tug of his hair, her body writhing in his hands,
“I’m just angry.”
“So your first instinct is to make out with me?”
She bit his lip, sending another shiver down his spine. Pulling back, she ran her lips across his
neck, “Yes, I suppose it is.”
“Well,” he closed his eyes and took in the scent of lavender surrounding him, “I’m certainly not
complaining.”
How could he, when the woman of his dreams was in his arms, tangling her fingers into his hair
and kissing his neck? She laughed lightly, returning her lips to his and deepening the kiss once
more, pressing against each other as much as their bodies would possibly allow. It felt as if this
moment would last forever, carrying on and on as they lost themselves in each other.
And it was wonderful. It was so wonderfully invigorating, as good as a challenging fight. Childe
didn’t know angry-kissing someone would be on his list of favorite things to do, right up there
along with battle. For so long, he had thought fighting was all he had to make him happy, it was all
there was to live for. Lumine had shown him so much more, making his heart feel as if it were
about to burst.
Until, of course, she ruined it completely.
“W-Wait,” Lumine pulled back with a worried breath, her brows furrowed as she brushed his hair
with her fingers, “I don’t think we should be doing this.”
“Whyever not?” he laughed, “That’s like saying the sun shouldn’t shine, or the snow should not
be cold. Kissing you is like…” a smile against her neck, another soft press of his lips to her skin,
“it’s like breathing.”
“Goodness,” Lumine nearly melted in his arms, “that’s nice- No!” A frantic shake of her head, “I
will not be taken in by your honeyed words!”
Childe pulled back, “Honeyed words?”
“Put me down, please.”
If that's what she wanted. Slowly, he put her down. Her feet touched the ground, her back against
the rock wall as if she could create miles between their bodies. Her cheeks were pink, her chest
rising and falling with the intensity of the kiss they had shared. The worst, and most confusing part
of it all was her refusal to look at him.
Did he really kiss like a walrus as she said long ago? Was he that bad?
Lumine deflated, closing her eyes and breaking the silence, “I don’t know why we keep doing this,
it’s not like we’d ever work.”
Childe was mildly offended by that statement. He couldn’t be that bad of a potential boyfriend,
she acted as if the world was about to end. Crossing his arms and stepping back, he gave her an
impassive stare, the look he wore when speaking to the other Harbingers. Lumine rarely did
anything to deserve his utter lack of disinterest, “You’re being in-decisive again. I like you, Lumi, I
want you. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
“But there is,” she argued softly, “there’s so much more to it. I have to fight for what I believe is
the right cause, Childe. And what I believe is right is a lot different from what you believe.”
“This is just one little bump in the road. Once this is over we could easily move on.” Speaking so
seriously of beliefs, one thing Childe could not believe was how kissing her had turned into yet
another argument. He never thought he’d be that guy, begging a girl to give him a chance. A pitiful
feeling culminated in his stomach, sitting inside him bitterly as he realized how he sounded.
He really liked kissing Lumine. He was far past stage three of grief, he was already at five. He
was ready to accept it, to stop fighting against it and just take her home to meet his parents.
He had failed entirely. He had tried to play a weak hand against the stars, and had no choice but to
fold. Lumine was his starmate, and he was falling irrevocably in love with her.
She stared at him, crossing her arms and leaning on the stone. Even her gaze, then, was pitying, as
if she was beginning to realize the extent of his feelings. All she could think in that moment, as this
incredibly wonderful/absolutely terrible man confessed to her, was this simple truth:
Childe had a soulmate, and for all she knew, it was not her.
“I think I can find my way from here,” she sighed, looking at the ground, “you should go back to
Liyue. We can talk again after I get the gnosis.”
“You think I’m going to give up that easily?”
“I was hoping you would.”

“Lumi, here’s what’s going to happen,” he put his hands up, “I’m going to get the gnosis, you’ll
forgive me eventually, and then we can date. Or, alternatively and preferably, you just surrender
now, and in about a week’s time I can take you back to Snezhnaya to meet my mom.”
Another roll of her eyes. She was quickly losing patience with him, the romantic tension between
them having disappeared like a thin mist, “You shouldn’t want me to meet your mom, loser. We’re
on opposite sides, you know.”
“That doesn’t have to be permanent.”
“Oh,” sarcastic, she perked up, “so you’ll quit the Fatui and join me on my travels? Wonderful,
let’s get married.”
His gaze flattened into a glare, “You know I can’t do that.”
“Yes you can, but you won’t.”
That too. “Lumi, if you just backed down and let the inevitable happen, then we wouldn’t even be
having this conversation.”
Nor would this be a problem. He had to wonder, though, if he’d ever met her otherwise, if she
was not a traveler on the search for the seven archons. Lumine glared, summoning her sword into
her right hand and lifting her chin, a look that caused his blood to boil with sudden excitement, “Do
you not get it? This,” she waved the blade between them, “will not work.”
If she was to summon her sword and escalate the tension between them, he would summon his
bow. He twirled it around his hand casually, watching her every move with the rising tension in the
air, “Why not? If you don’t like me like that, then just say so, and I’ll back down quietly. But you
have this weird idea of how you could never forgive me for doing my job,” he notched an arrow as
her hand gripped the hilt of her sword, his heart beginning to race with that familiar rush, “I’m just
following orders here.”
She made the first move. A swipe of her sword, a lunge towards his weak spot. He dodged,
taking a step back and aiming for her shoulder. Lumine jerked away just as the arrow whizzed by.
Glaring, she stared up at him across the road, “And what about after this? What if your Tsaritsa
tells you to kill me, would you do it?”
That was not an easy question, and not what he wanted to hear.
Childe did what he did best in a tough situation, he fought. He let another arrow loose, following
her dodges and evasions as she attempted to close the room between them. With another step, he
tossed his bow aside and summoned the dual hydro blades, immediately parrying against her
attack. “Answer me,” Lumine commanded over the sound of clashing weapons, “We can’t ignore
reality, as much as I’d like to. If the Tsaritsa told you to kill me, would you?”
He elbowed her, twisting around to catch her off guard with another assault. She just barely
blocked, both hands holding the sword above her body. He pushed against her further, “She
wouldn’t tell me to do that, she’s not that kind of person.”
“Have you looked at your army lately?” Another clash, another grimace, “They’re monsters! If
she is so kind, then why do half the soldiers live like complete animals?”
Another unanswerable question. Her strength broke against his swords, though she rolled to the
side before his weapon could rip through her neck. He would have stopped himself, if she had not
moved. Lumine pushed herself back into action with another furious assault of her sword.
“Besides that,” they were face to face, breathing heavily between their blades as she spoke, “you
have a soulmate, remember?”
“Gods,” he rolled his eyes, “you are so dense sometimes!”
“Go back to Liyue!”
“No.”
“Go away!” She attacked again, her arms losing strength with each swing of her blade. She
breathed heavily, with her knees growing shaky and her lungs full. Childe watched as she shut her
eyes and dug the tip of her sword into the ground, “All you do is confuse me, a-and hurt people
like Huffman, and try to betray me.” With another heavy exhale, she met his eyes, “How can I
believe you? I tried, I really did, but I refuse to lose this, Childe.”
“I refuse to lose as well,” he lifted his chin, staring down on her as she leaned on her sword,
“Your determination is just hurting you, girlie, you don’t even know what to do with a gnosis.”
She glared, “It’s not about the gnosis, it’s about protecting the people and their ways of life.
Whatever the Tsaritsa is gathering them for cannot be good, you understand that, don’t you?”
“It will be fine.”
“Stop lying to yourself,” she rolled her eyes, “you’re smarter than that. You just don’t care about
anyone but yourself.”
He cared about his family, he cared about her. Even when she made him angry like this, when she
made his life far more complicated than it should be, he couldn’t not care about her.
Childe stared in stony silence. Lumine returned the look, putting away her sword and taking one
last breath, “Go back to Liyue, I don’t want to see your face again.”
That was that. It was a crack on his world, spreading across his heart and threatening to shatter.
They kissed one minute, and tried to kill each other the next. They were not even together, and he
already felt broken. “Right, well, I guess you solved this whole thing on your own, then.”
She glanced at him in confusion, “What?”
“I didn’t want to get close to you,” he explained, a hard edge taking over his voice as he refused to
look at her, “but I was so bad at staying away. So, you just…” a bitter shrug and a chuckle, “you
just solved my problem for me. Thanks..”
“So,” Lumine glared, “I was your problem?”
“You have no idea,” finally, he met her eyes, refusing to look away now that they were locked in
this tense battle of emotion.
“Did you even mean what you said?” She furrowed her brows bitterly, “About wanting me?
About liking me? Or have you just been playing another game this whole time?”
He wanted her. He liked her, he loved her. Every word that spilled from his lips mid-kiss was the
truth. It was a crime how quickly she’d risen to the top in his life, taking over nearly every other
priority with just a smile and a touch. He was pitiful, so easily swayed by a pretty girl. How
quickly love had made him weak.
Yet another stony silence fell between them. They’d spent the day frustrated with each other,
glaring and arguing, kissing and fighting. He could hardly take another second.
It was time to rip the bandage off, to stop procrastinating. To push her away was what he wanted
this entire time, after all, and she was handing the opportunity over on a silver platter. Childe
sighed, not allowing his gaze to break away, locking her in place with the cold look in his eyes.
“How could anyone love a pebble in their shoe?”
It was the worst look she’d given him yet. It was not a glare. It was not angry. She was simply
sad. With wide eyes, parted lips and pink cheeks, Lumine watched him, the heartbreak clear as day
on her face. A twinge of guilt ate away at his chest, but he did not allow it a second thought.
“This is for the best then,” she nodded heavily, turning her face away, “Goodbye, Childe.”
Tartaglia did not bother with goodbyes. Sending her retreating form one last look, hardening his
heart and mind against the shake of her shoulders and the obvious tears in the corner of her eyes, he
agreed. It was for the best, it was what he wanted all along.
Plan C: Go back to Liyue, give Zhongli enough mora so that he won’t have to see Lumine again,
have Ekaterina follow them around town and eavesdrop. Learn where the Exuvia is. Get the
gnosis...
Never think about Lumine again.

A Week Later
The travels through Mondstadt and Liyue did what they were meant to do. They cleared Childe’s
head, helped him calm down. And after a series of days camping on the side of the road and glaring
at the stars, he finally realized a truth about himself:
He was an idiot.
It was not often that Tartaglia called himself an idiot. It was not often that the opportunity
presented itself. While not particularly in love with himself, Childe knew his talents, his strengths,
and he played them well. He knew when to stop fighting, what things in life to have opinions
about, what people he needed to cozy up to. He knew when to clean the kitchen for his mother
when she was having a bad day, or when to not come home covered in bruises and injuries when
his father was having his migraines. He knew what to hide from Teucer. And he knew how to
survive. All of these things Ajax, Childe, Tartaglia, had learned from a young age. He was not
dumb in the least.
But in this moment, as he walked to Liyue Harbor with an ever present frown on his face and the
feeling of a boulder sitting atop his heart, he knew that he was an idiot.
Not because he lost Lumine, that was what he had wanted all along - No, he was an idiot because
he let himself fall in love in the first place. Now, losing her hurt far more than it should.
But, aside from being an idiot, Childe was also honest with himself. He knew that he brought this
pain upon himself, a consequence of his own stupid decisions and actions. If he had simply not
fallen for Lumine, he would never feel this way. He would not be walking back to Liyue by
himself, getting into each and every fight that he possibly could, and staying awake at night
wondering if she was okay. It was a constant waterfall of switching moods, and most possibly in
the top 10 worst weeks of his life.
Liyue Harbor shined in the distance, the glowing gem of the East. It was golden and red, lit up
even in the middle of the night. The stars above winked as if mocking him as he returned to this
city with his tail between his legs, Lumine-less.
As he neared the Northern gate, he sighed and forced a smile. No matter how angry at himself he
possibly was, he could not let his subordinates notice that something was wrong. The Fatui were
like a pack of starving dogs, one show of weakness and they pounced, aiming for the throat. He
kept his shoulders back, standing tall as he strode past the Millelith guarding the bridge. It was
dark, nearing midnight, and still far too warm for his comfort.
Childe looked forward to returning to Snezhnaya. He couldn’t wait for the frigid air to brush
against his cheeks, to wake him up from whatever daze he’d been in since he met Lumine. He was
seriously considering the idea of getting a boat and going out on a two month long sea trip with his
brothers. He looked forward to it, it had been years since he’d taken time off.
Without a glance to anyone else, Childe made his way to the Northland bank. He didn’t feel like
retiring for the night, another rare instance in his life. His mind dwelled upon what was next for the
Fatui, for the exuvia and the gnosis. He took the stairs two at a time up to the extravagant doors,
giving Nadia a curt nod as she jumped at his presence. He’d been gone for two entire weeks
without hardly a word, and could only wonder what nonsense the staff had been up to as of late.
“Evening, Master Tartaglia.” a receptionist bowed as he passed, “Did you enjoy your trip?”
It felt like forever since he’d been called by his official title. Lumine would rather eat her own
tongue than call him Master Tartaglia. He slowed in his walk to the office, sending her a glance,
“Yes, has there been any news since I left?”
“Ekaterina told me to tell you that Mister Zhongli returned,” she shifted through paperwork as she
spoke, “he was asking about when you would be back, something about financial sponsorship…”
“Right. Anything else?”
She chewed her lip in thought, “Those things you wanted came in, La Signora’s agent delivered
them this morning. They’re locked in the safe in your office.”
Perfect. All was going according to plan.
“Oh, and,” she caught him before he left, waving a hand around frantically, “One more thing, I’m
sorry! You got another batch of letters from your family.”
He froze mid-step. The plan could wait an hour or so, the sigils of permission would still be there
once he finished reading the letters. Quickly, he grabbed the bundle of envelopes she held out, tied
together with a fraying string and covered in his sibling’s handwriting, “Thank you,” an assuring
smile, a certain peace settling into his chest, “I’ll be in the office. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Master Tartaglia.”
He resisted the urge to run up the stairs. As late as it was, the bank still had customers lingering
around the entrance. Once in the safety of his office, he shut and locked the door, leaning his back
against it and holding the bundle of envelopes to his chest.
Home. A little piece of home in his hands, something he didn’t realize he needed so desperately.
Grinning to himself, he went to his chair and plopped down ungracefully, leaning back to put his
feet up and look at each letter. The office was clean, untouched since last time he entered. He knew
behind a hidden wall was the safe where the recreated sigils of permission lay, hidden for now. He
hoped he would not need to use them, if Lumine stayed out of his way.
Childe resisted the urge to look at the small couch under the window, where she had spent her
week sulking over Huffman. Nor did he acknowledge the spot on the edge of his desk where she
would sit and cross her legs, watching him flip through boring documents. The documents never
were as boring as usual with her next to him. She questioned each and every debt to be collected as
he signed off on their lives, arguing with him every second of the day, until he finally caved and
took her to Wanmin.
Huffing, Childe moved a stack of papers to her spot. There, it was covered, and nobody would be
sitting in that spot with crossed legs, smelling of lavender and stealing every inch of his attention.
Focus. He needed to focus, get that stubborn, spiteful harpy off his mind. Sighing, he opened the
first letter, a barrage of jumbled information from Tonia.
She had the prettiest handwriting, it was bubbly and cute, but tended to run together in rambles,
just how she spoke. She called him her knight, bringing a smile to his face as he read of her latest
schoolyard escapades. She kicked a ball so hard it broke her classmate’s nose. He’d have to send
her flowers as a congratulations for that.
Next, his older sister Anastasia. Her sons, his nephews, weren’t doing too well. They both had
colds, and had recently learned the power of the word ‘no!’ coupled with the newfound ability to
throw bowls of soup on the floor. Wonderful. He’d have to send Anastasia and her husband some
liquor to help.
He read on. Father’s headaches were clearing up, but his arthritis did not enjoy the recent cold
front. Mother had gotten the book of traditional Liyue recipes he sent her, and insisted that they
cook together when he returned. Anthon had a crush on a girl in the village, he was at that age,
after all. His eldest brother had not written anything, as his mother mentioned that he was quite
busy with his wife and children. His second eldest had written a very succinct letter on how he
hiked up a mountain, went on a date with ‘the love of his life’ - every woman he ever met was the
love of his life, apparently - and began a new business venture.
Same old stuff, the comfort of familiarity nestled into his chest, making him sigh with relief.
Everybody was fine. The world was still spinning, moving on the way it always had.
The last envelope was from Teucer. He drew a winking ruin guard on the front, though the wink
looked more as if half of its weak spot/core was broken. Childe recognized the colored pencil he’d
used as well, a dark blue that Teucer often announced was his absolute most favorite color in the
world.
With a smile, he opened the letter, leaning back further into his chair to fall into the comfort that
was his family. Even if the stars attempted to control his world, nothing could change his family,
not even Lumine.
Big Brother Ajax,
Hello!! !! I hope your doing well! Brother Anthon helped me write this : )
Pls stay safe! I know that toy selling can be realy hard sometimes, but i know that your strong and
indomitable.
Indomitable. The word was written in Anthon’s handwriting, obviously having been given to the
older brother for help. Teucer did love his big words.
I’ve been good!! i made some new frends at the school house. I told them that you could kick their
asses (dont tell mom i said that). I have also been working on my punches and my aim ! one day i
will be even stronger than you! But thats probibly a long time away : )
Have you made any new frends? I hope your doing well. I miss you a lot, please give us some good
news! Father has bin worried (i havent, I know your probably fine)
Love, Teucer
P.s. i grew taller by an inch! Isnt that cool?

It was so freaking cool. His little brother was so damn cool, making friends and working on his
punches. He could only hope that Teucer wouldn’t give his parents as hard of a time as he did. He
was only eight, and already wanting to learn how to fight. Childe was 12 when his hellion phase
began - he was still in it. He’d have to write his mother an apology for being such a bad influence
on the little ones.
Yet, first he must reply to Teucer. As Childe sat back in his chair and crossed his arms in thought,
he wondered how to answer his question. Had he made any new friends?
In a way, sort of. Embellishing the truth wouldn’t hurt, and it would make his little brother happy
to hear about Lumine and his travels with her. And while he was at it, he’d mention her in his letter
to his mother, perhaps his sister as well. And Tonia would appreciate him speaking to a girl, she
often bemoaned his utter lack of knowledge concerning women.
He grabbed his pen, twirling it around his fingers and staring at the blank piece of parchment. He
didn’t have to mention that they were fighting right now, or that they are starmates, or that she
pushed him away and never wants to see him again. He doesn’t particularly have to include the fact
that she’s supposed to be his enemy, or that he despises the fact that he’s falling in love with.
It was just a simple letter about his new friend. That was all.
By around 2 a.m. that day, the ‘simple letter’ somehow turned into a three page sermon on just
how much he enjoyed his new friend Lumine.
He sent it nonetheless. So much for never thinking about Lumine again.
Childe decided, as he dropped his stack of letters off in the mailing bin and rubbed his tired eyes,
that this would be the last time he thought of Lumine. The mentions of her to his family would be
for the sake of pleasing his loved ones, not himself.
After this day, he would never think about Lumine again.
If only Paimon did not burst into the bank, 9:00 a.m. sharp, followed by Zhongli. If only Paimon
did not zip past the guards and startle the receptionists, screaming at the top of her tiny pixie lungs,
“Where is the Harbinger?!”
The Harbinger had slept in late. His back hurt from slumping over his desk, and he had marks on
his cheeks from using a stack of papers as a pillow through the night. He’d never even made it out
of his office. As Paimon and Zhongli scoured the bank lobby in search of him, Childe stood in the
employee break room, leaning against a counter and sipping coffee.
“Is this a blend from Sumeru?” A thickly masked Fatui agent asked, his voice distorted - he was
one of those hunters who prowled the wilds, having only stopped by the bank to turn in a collected
debt. He lifted the mug to his face and sniffed, “It’s… quite rich…”
Childe glanced down at his own cup, “I think it’s from Fontaine. It’s kind of got that smooth
taste.”
“What’s the bag say?” The agent grabbed the packaging, “Oh, roasted and ground, that’s nice.
Uh…” he glanced up, “Master Tartaglia, do you hear screaming?”
The only screaming he heard was the pounding headache behind his forehead, and the aching of
his neck and back. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and another sip of coffee. “I’m pretty
sure it’s from Fontaine. It’s got that taste, you know?”
Another scream from the lobby, this time from a grown woman. The clattering of pencils and
knick knacks onto the marble flooring, followed by the sound of a deep voice echoing down the
hallway, “Paimon, I must ask you to please stop pulling her hair.”
“Paimon wants to know where the loser Harbinger is! Where is he?!”
Wonderful. Childe closed his eyes and leaned further back on the counter, “I guess I should go
take care of that. Would you mind brewing another batch for me?”
The agent stood to attention, “Y-Yes Master Tartaglia!”
“Great,” he set down his cup and sighed, “I’ll be right back.”
Putting up with an angry imp/pixie thing was not what he considered a good morning. Usually,
Childe preferred to wake up early, meditate on the day's activities and how he could grow stronger,
do some training, and then eat whatever was available. It did not, usually, involve Paimon. Nor did
it involve an assault on his bank staff.
He left the break room and slipped down the hallway, the sound of her high pitched commands
growing louder with each step. “Paimon just wants to know where he is! Pretty receptionist lady
can do this the easy way, or the hard way!”
She was an absolute riot, he’d miss those threats once he left Liyue. Stepping into the lobby, he
crossed his arms and watched the scene before him unfold.
“I’m really interested in what constitutes the hard way. Care to divulge?”
It was not as if Paimon knew what ‘divulge’ even meant. She gasped, yanking her hands back
from the receptionist's hair and zipping around to take her spot at Zhongli’s shoulder. Papers and
pencils were scattered across the floor, having been furiously wiped off the bank counter by tiny
little hands. Paimon’s glare was like a dagger, though Zhongli looked more so exhausted than
anything.
Silence fell between them. Paimon lifted her chin, continuing the glare. Childe sighed as he
realized what they were waiting for, “Come on.”
He turned on his heel and led the way up the stairs to his office. With the way the funeral
processions and the sigils were coming along, it wouldn’t be his office much longer. Zhongli
followed behind as he cleared his throat, “Thank you for having us this morning.”
“Well,” Childe sent a glance to Paimon, “I had to do something before she ripped out that poor
girl’s hair.”
“She deserved it!”
“How?” He pushed the doors open, stepping aside to allow Zhongli through. Paimon stuck out
her tongue as she passed, making him smile at the immaturity of it all. Paimon without Lumine
was simply an angry floating elf - Zhongli did not match her childishness well enough.
Paimon floated above his desk as he shut the doors. “She wouldn’t tell Paimon where you were.
She’s lucky you showed up!”
That she was. With a sigh, he crossed his arms, “May I ask for the reason for this visit?”
Zhongli was a master at making himself comfortable. He sat in the nearest chair, crossing one leg
over his knee and folding his fingers together. Naturally, as if she had been doing it forever,
Paimon floated to his side and took the spot on the arm of the chair, legs dangling and kicking like
a child’s. She glared, while Zhongli only raised a simple brow, “Where is Lumine?”
Childe shrugged. He didn’t like hearing her name anymore. “I’m afraid I don’t know.”
“How could you not know?” Paimon screeched, fists clenched, “Paimon left you with her!”
“We parted ways.”
A look of understanding flashed through Zhongli’s eyes, coupled with a nod. Childe hated when
someone could see right through his mask of politeness and casualty, he wore it for a reason.
“What happened?” He asked, tilting his head and furrowing his brows, “Paimon and I left you two
alone for… well,” he cleared his throat, “for the sake of leaving you two alone. It seemed to be
exactly what you needed.”
How wrong he was. And how much of a liar he was. Zhongli and Paimon felt awkward from their
constant flirting and tension, Childe was not blind to that. He leaned against his desk, crossing his
arms and glaring at the wall, “Well, the second you left us alone we tried to kill each other. It
didn’t go well.”
Paimon gasped, “What happened?”
“Nothing,” he shook his head, as if he could shake off the memory, “We just got into an
argument, then we fought, and then she told me to leave her alone forever. So…” he gestured to
the office, “that’s what I did, and am doing. What have you guys been up to?”
Zhongli got a far off look in his eyes as he mused, “Oh, we’ve tried various foods, listened to all
the storytellers here in Liyue, visited some thrift stores-”
“Don’t talk about that right now!” Paimon interrupted with a screech, “Stay focused, brain-dead
parasite!”
He nodded, “O-Oh yes, of course. So, Childe,” locking gazes, Zhongli narrowed his eyes, “if you
and Lumine are not speaking, what will you do next?”
The brain-dead parasite knew better than to assume that the Harbinger would give up. He had to
be aware of the Fatui and their intent, as well hidden of a secret that it was. Childe didn’t quite feel
like playing polite any longer, not when the very mention of Lumine brought an uncomfortable
churn to his stomach.
He stood up straight and walked around to the back of his desk, opening a drawer and rattling
around for a moment. “When the traveler gets back, carry on with your plans for the rite of
departure. Take this,” he pulled out a bag of mora, watching both Paimon and Zhongli stiffen in
excitement at the sight, “do what you need to do, if you want more, then just come here and find
me.”
“And…” Zhongli gently took the bag - Paimon ripped it out of his hand almost immediately.
“What will you do?”
What else did he expect? Other than go for the gnosis the very second he figured out where it
was. Childe shrugged nonchalantly, “Be the financial sponsor, of course.”
“And… if you see Lumine?”
He smiled and laughed, throwing his head back at the sheer dramatics of it all. Zhongli acted as if
Childe was getting a divorce from his 50 year marriage. “It’ll be fine, I’ll just say hi and move on
with my life.”
Paimon grimaced as if she was disgusted. Zhongli only raised a brow, looking like he didn’t
believe him. With a sigh, he stood from his chair, allowing Paimon to drop the bag of mora into his
hands with a satisfying clink, “Fine, then we shall proceed as planned.”
“Loser Harbinger better not have hurt her,” Paimon glared, “Paimon’ll rip out all your teeth if so.”
“Sounds fun.”
“It’s not supposed to be fun!”
“I said it sounds fun, not that it would be.”
“Excuse us,” Zhongli bowed stiffly, “we must take our leave. Thank you for your time.”
Childe stepped past the glaring pixie and opened the doors, “Let me see you out, that's what a
good financial sponsor does, anyway.” He led them down the stairs, ignoring the flinches of fear
from the receptionist whose hair Paimon had assaulted.
As Zhongli stepped past him and made for the door at the end of the lobby, he turned, just for a
moment, furrowing his brows and opening his mouth as if he were to say something. Patient,
Childe waited, faking his smile. The lobby buzzed with morning energy of people looking at their
accounts and taking out loans, signing away their lives.
As quickly as it happened, Zhongli closed his mouth, shook his head, and turned. “Good day,
Master Tartaglia.”
“Good day, Zhongli,” he glanced at the pixie, “And you too, Paimon.”
She stuck out her tongue before zipping away to chase after Zhongli. He allowed the door guard
to open the entrance, giving him a curt nod before leaving. Childe watched until the doors were
closed, and the visage of the consultant and Lumine’s other half were finally gone.
Finally, he could breathe again. He sighed, letting the tension loose in his shoulders. His headache
had only grown worse from that visit. Turning to Ekaterina behind him, he leaned against her desk
as he always did, resting his cheek in his hand and glaring at nothing in particular.
Silent, she continued writing until she finished jotting down her quick note, then smiled and
looked up, “Sir?”
“Do you…” he tsked in thought, narrowing his eyes and crossing his ankles, “want to do a job for
me?”
“Of course! What job is that, sir?”
Childe flickered his eyes back to her, “When the traveler gets back into Liyue-”
“Lumine?”
She didn’t have to look that excited at the mention of his soulmate. “Yes, Lumine. When she gets
back to Liyue, I want you to follow her around as she does the preparations with Zhongli. Take
notes on everything she says. If you hear anything about a gnosis or an exuvia, write it down.”
“Yes, Master Tartaglia.”
“And…” another thoughtful pause, “don’t be friends with her anymore, if you can help it. She’s
the enemy now.”
“Y-Yes, Master Tartaglia, whatever you wish.”
Chapter End Notes
Notes! So many notes!
- Yes I stole 'How could anyone love a pebble in their shoe?' from a drew barrymore
movie. I do not regret this. That is literally one of my favorite lines in the English
language and I insist upon using it when I can lol
- I just made up some characteristics and names for Childe's older siblings, share any
headcanons you have with me though! I'd love to hear them!
- In an interaction between Paimon and the traveler in the game, Paimon mentions that
the traveler is getting good at 'the languages of this world'. Sooo I haven't seen really
anything else on the language, but it does imply that there's a language to be learned. I
don't really think people in Mondstadt speak German, or that Snezhnayans speak
Russian all the time. I kind of see it like every country speaks just a common
language, and there are some parts of the country where the old languages are still
spoken, kinda like Gaelic in the UK.
Enter The Golden House
Chapter Notes
“There’s so much to do!"
"So much!
"And without that loser around, I can finally focus!”
“Lumine can finally focus!"
"My focus is better than ever!"
"Better than eve- Hey! Paimon thought you were focused even with Mr. Moneybags around!”
A childish frown, “No, his presence brought my IQ down.”
“What’s an IQ?”
“International Questing, obviously.”
“No, you have that wrong, Lumine,” Zhongli sipped at his tea and sighed, “I believe it’s
Intentional Quacking.”
“Zhongli... sometimes I think you just say these things to mess with us.”
“Why would I cause a mess on purpose?”
Lumine wasn’t quite sure why either, though she still enjoyed messing with Paimon when she
could. With Zhongli and the pixie having spent a week or so together without Lumine and Childe's
consistent flirting in the air, they had seemed to grow even more comfortable together. Paimon’s
insults flew at a much faster speed than usual, and the nicknames she imagined were even more
spectacular than before. It was an improvement, she thought.
Lumine’s new favorite nickname for the funeral consultant was ‘Parasitic Mora Leech’. It was a
bit of a mouthful, but got the point across well enough.
“Paimon doesn’t think IQ stands for either of those things…”
Lumine and Zhongli shared a look over the rims of their tea cups. A tendril of steam twisted into
the air in front of her face, quickly blown away by a sigh. She closed her eyes and took another sip,
“Neither do I, but it doesn’t matter anyway. My IQ has returned to its original height despite the
true meaning.”
“And,” Zhongli set his cup down quietly, “how high is that?”
“About the height of a big dog, or a small child.” She scowled, “Nevermind, it’s taller than that.
Nobody say the word child around me today, okay? It makes my hand twitch.”
Paimon gasped, “Your hand twitches?”
“It gets the urge to punch.”
“Paimon didn’t know hands had minds of their own…”
“The world is full of mysteries, isn’t it?”
Zhongli nodded along gravely, “Indeed. Such as the mystery of our mora.”
“... The mystery of our mora?”
“It’s gone, you see. I’m not sure where it went,” he shifted in his seat uncomfortably, “I believe
someone committed a crime upon my wallet, because it was quite empty last time I checked. Liyue
Harbor is full of pickpockets.”
Perhaps Lumine should have kept a better eye on him during the shopping.
Lumine returned to Liyue Harbor exactly four hours and two minutes ago. She immediately got to
work on finishing the preparations with Zhongli. Paimon was attached to her side like a lost puppy,
claiming that the time away from Lumine had made her grow ‘soft’ because Zhongli was so much
nicer to her. Lumine ignored the implications of her friend's masochism, and out of sheer
exhaustion and lack of interest, gave Zhongli the freedom to buy the jade, the flowers, and the kites
on his own. She was beginning to regret doing that.
She knew that the mora was originally Childe’s, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.
She’d spent the last week wandering her way back to Liyue, cursing his name every night and
dreaming of their shared kisses, along with his hands on her hips and the smell of the sea in the air.
She was trying desperately to forget those things, to not dwell upon them. Yet, giving Zhongli free
reign over the mora only proved that their funds ran dry more quickly than normal.
“I’m not asking him for more,” Lumine nearly growled into her tea cup, glaring over the rim at
nothing in particular, “If we need more then it’s your job to go ask him.”
Zhongli shot her a look reminiscent of an extremely exhausted father, “I know he’s happy to help,
but he’d give you more.”
“Wrong. He’d give me one mora piece and laugh in my face.”
“Perhaps,” a thoughtful hum and a blank expression, “it depends on how thoroughly you broke
his heart. If it’s just a small crack then I’m sure that could be mended.”
No hearts were broken, and if there was a broken heart then it would be hers. Lumine was as
insignificant to Childe as a pebble in his shoe, a minor annoyance to be shaken off and tossed aside.
The memory sat bitterly on her tongue, immediately ruining the tea, “I think you’ve got the wrong
idea about what happened.”
Paimon stuffed another cookie into her mouth as she piped up, “Maybe we’d understand better if
you just told us!”
“There’s nothing to tell,” she grimaced as her stomach churned in anxiety, making her shift and
fidget in the chair, “I just finally called him out for using me to get to the gnosis, he got defensive,
we talked about the Fatui and… well, as you can imagine, the discussion didn’t end well.”
“He mentioned to me that you tried to kill each other,” Zhongli informed flatly, “Is that true?”
“Kind of? I wasn’t planning on killing him, I just wanted to get a point across.”
“With your sword?”
“I think more clearly with a weapon in my hand.”
They were made for each other. He didn’t need to be the Geo Archon to see that - their chemistry
was undeniable. He could only imagine their household with nine children, the constant chaos and
battle. How that was meant to be romantic, he had no clue. He'd visit during the holidays
nonetheless.
Yet, Zhongli was not one to meddle with stars. Childe and Lumine would confront each other one
way or another, ad no amount of friendly concern could change the tide of destiny.
“Nevertheless, next step in this process is the everlasting incense,” he set his cup down with a
sigh, “We can acquire some at Bubu pharmacy.”
“As long as it’s not another incident like the perfume. I still haven’t recovered from Miss
Ying’er.”
“She was quite…” Awkward, Zhongli cleared his throat, “verbose.”
That was one way to put it. As Lumine counted out her meager sum of mora to pay for their tea
and snacks, a shiver of anxiety ran up her spine and caused her hair to stand on end. Tensing, she
glanced around the crowded tea shop to locate the source of her unease. Goosebumps prickled on
her arms, her heart skipped a beat. "Do you... feel anything?"
Zhongli watched with curious eyes, “Only the soft afternoon breeze, and an overwhelming sense
of dread from the sound of that drunkard's singing down the street."
It was quite bad. "I just feel like we're being watched..."
He hummed absently, “We are most likely being trailed by the Fatui, I wouldn’t be surprised if
they were listening to our conversation this very moment.”
“How can you be so calm about that?”
A shrug, “You said it yourself, Childe wants the gnosis. Is that not why your relationship ended?”
Lumine could not believe this man sometimes. One minute he was a deep well of knowledge, and
the next his understanding was as shallow as a puddle. She despised the way her cheeks warmed as
she stumbled over the anxiety and embarrassment, “It was not a relationship. I’d rather eat my own
liver than ever be coupled with that selfish, annoying, uncaring, psychopathic trash can of a man!”
Zhongli raised a dark brow, “What about your nine kids?”
“What is it with these damn nine kids everybody keeps bringing up? I’m never talking to Childe
again,” she lay her palms flat on the table, leaning forward with a glare, “And I don’t want his
help! Screw his mora!”
“Ya!” Paimon raised a determined fist, “We don’t need his dirty money!”
“I’ll pay for the everlasting incense myself!”
“Yea- wait, Lumine is actually serious? That loser Harbinger is like a walking bank vault,” she
gasped with a mouth full of cookie, “don’t throw aside a sugar daddy that easily!”
She’d never been so disgusted in her life. She had never heard such a nasty string of words, a
sentence that made her want to vomit on the dining table so ardently. Groaning, Lumine threw her
head back, “D-Don’t say things like that! I have a weak stomach!”
“Like what? Sugar daddy?!”
“No,” she held her stomach and squeezed her eyes shut, “I swear I’m going to cook you one day,
emergency food.”
“Why would Lumi need emergency food when she has a sugar daddy to- stop trying to vomit on
Paimon! That’s disgusting!”
“Children,” Zhongli raised a quieting hand, his eyes hard and determined as the chaos of the pixie
and traveler halted across the table. He had a voice that could fill a room with one utterance, a
commanding tone that spoke of a past Lumine couldn’t quite figure out. “Let us calm down, and
head to Bubu pharmacy, yes?”
Lumine pulled away from Paimon with a huff, “Fine. But I’m serious about not asking for any
mora from him. I’ll do whatever it takes to not have to speak to him again.”
“Okay,” Zhongli stood from his seat with a defeated sigh, “perhaps we should see the price tag
before we make any decisions, though, everlasting incense is quite the commodity.”
Quite the commodity, he says, this was coming from a man who couldn’t even afford Third-
Round Knockout. With a sigh, she pushed from her chair and followed him down the stairs,
Paimon floating grumpily at her shoulder.
As Lumine and Zhongli left the restaurant and joined the crowded street, yet another shiver ran
down her spine, like a cold finger trailing it’s way across her skin. She shivered and held herself,
glancing around for any sign of the Fatui. The street was full of locals and merchants, but no
obvious Snezhnayan operatives. With a huff of annoyance, Lumine sped up to catch Zhongli’s
attention, “Do you really think Childe would have us watched?”
“Of course,” he did not spare her a glance as he strode, “why wouldn’t he? I’m the one who could
point him in the direction of the exuvia, and you’re…” a careful pause, “important.”
“Important?”
“To him,” he cast her a look.

Important to him. I want you. The words echoed in her mind bitterly. I want you, I want you. I like
you. I need you.
What a liar.
“Lumi, look!” Paimon squealed in her ear, breaking her from the reverie of thought, “maybe it’s
her who’s watching us!”
She followed Paimon’s outstretched finger. In an alleyway on the other side of the cobblestone
street, an old woman bundled in rags leaned against the wall. As Lumine found her, the old
woman’s eyes carefully shifted to meet her gaze.
Slowly, silently, her lips moved. Lumine could not tell what she was whispering before a Fatui
agent slinked up behind her, making her stiffen in surprise before scowling at the intrusion.
Lumine tsked, “That poor fortune teller is still being followed. Childe really pisses me off, you
know?”
Paimon leaned on her shoulder with wide eyes, “The Fatui can be pretty scary! D-Didn’t the old
lady say something about Mr. Moneybag's soulmate, and that’s why they follow her?”
His soulmate, a subject that had been on Lumine’s mind far too often for her comfort. That was
yet another nail in the coffin, the fact that he kissed her despite having someone literally destined
for him. It was almost like cheating, and it made her feel dirty. She could not imagine meeting his
future wife and keeping the secret of their short, incredibly heated and incredibly stupid affair
behind closed doors.
Lumine watched as the Fatuu led the old woman away. Sighing, Paimon put a thoughtful hand to
her chin, “What was it she warned you about a while back?”
That memory was clear as day. “‘If you kill your enemy at the Golden House, you will never find
love again.’”
“What’s a golden house? Like, a house made of gold?”

“I don’t know,” she shot a glance towards Zhongli waiting for them up the street, “but I guess I’ll
figure it out one day. Can’t change the decisions the stars have made.”
Paimon snorted, “It’ll probably be years from now, knowing Lumi! You’re far too busy for
romance.”
“Right,” another sigh, “and it’s not Huffman, we know that for sure. I think I’ll just officially
give up on love.”
“Good idea! Make war, not love!”
“I don’t think that’s how the saying goes…”
“What saying?”
“Nevermind,” she shook her head as if shaking off the thought, “let’s catch up with Zhongli at the
pharmacy.”
“Sir, the traveler is on the move once more.”
“And? Did she say anything of interest?”
“She mentioned you.”
“...How?”
“She said that she would rather eat her liver than ever be coupled with, and I quote, ‘that selfish,
annoying, uncaring, psychopathic trash can of a man’.”
“... Right, she’s lovely as ever,” Childe rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, leaning against the
rocky part of the cliff where his troops were gathered, “Anything else?”
Ekaterina was not used to being out of the bank. She was rarely called to be among the soldiers
and agents, she was plain even compared to the many cicin mages wandering about. With a
nervous gulp, she referred back to her notes, “The fortune teller attempted to contact her again, but
that was quickly taken care of. Oh, and, uh,” a nervous laugh, “Zhongli spent all of the mora.”
Of course he did. He had a spectacular talent for that sort of thing. Not allowing the discomfort to
show, Childe glanced away as he thought of Lumine. She was there, in the harbor, walking around
with Zhongli and spending Fatui money.
He had just barely managed to escape her gravitational pull, and had no interest in being sucked
back in.
Yet, he had a job to do. With a glance to his gathered forces, he furrowed his brows, “I suppose I
have no choice but to return to the city and see if they need assistance. Where are they now?”
Ekaterina cleared her throat once more, her voice high and nervous, “T-They, uh, met a zombie.
And are now hunting for something called a cocogoat…”
“...Cocogoat?”
“Yes sir. It is supposed to be an adeptibeast of some kind.”
He’d extensively studied Liyue culture and history and had never once heard of a ‘cocogoat’, or
even an adeptibeast. Childe could not help but let a laugh escape as he thought of Lumine and
Zhongli wandering the streets of Liyue, constantly drawn in by the dumbest of schemes. She truly
did need someone like Childe in her life, Paimon wasn’t too good of a skeptic either.
“Let me guess,” he laughed into his hand, “the traveler asked no questions and immediately ran
off to hunt the cocogoat?”
Ekaterina nodded, “Yes. She said something along the lines of, uh... ‘I’ll kick it’s legendary ass’.
I believe the reason why they’re doing this is because they don’t have a prescription for everlasting
incense.”
“Oh, you need a prescription for that?”
“Apparently so. I believe Lumine and Mister Zhongli left to go repair the Guizhong Ballista in an
attempt to hunt this legendary beast.”
Cocogoat. Even the name was funny. Whether it existed or not, Childe found himself looking
forward to the next part of his plan. “Alright, I want you to go back to town and keep listening. I’ll
meet you there,” he gestured to the next highest ranking officer, pulling him over, “Keep everyone
on their toes. We may have to strike any minute. The second I figure out where the exuvia is, we
make our move.”
“Yes sir!”
“Time to finally face her again,” he sighed and walked away from the Fatui encampment with
Ekaterina at his side, “this’ll be fun.”
Fun, he says. Nothing had been fun since Lumine pushed him away. A short overview of the
Childe’s recent week away from Lumine went as follows:
Wake up in the morning, check his sources to see if she had returned yet, mess around with the
sigils, fight something, and sleep.
The next day, wake up, check his sources to see if Lumine had returned yet, ignore everybody
around him, fight something, and sleep.
The day after that, wake up in the morning from a dream about Lumine and immediately go fight
something in an attempt to forget her face. Check his sources to see if she had returned yet-
And so on.
He was, most likely, going insane. This was proven by the fact that he was found staring at white
flowers that resembled the ones in her hair, and had been grumbling all week long about ‘stupid
women who had brains like bricks'.
The entire bank staff had been avoiding speaking to the Harbinger. Ekaterina took the blunt of the
responsibility, enduring under Master Tartaglia’s constant bad mood. It was a rather wide
difference in how he usually acted, and the reason was not very well hidden. They had all grown
used to Lumine’s presence, calling her ‘mistress’ and doing whatever she asked of them. Upon
Tartaglia’s return without a blonde traveler at his side, it was obvious what happened.
Breakups were never fun. Ekaterina deeply believed that the Harbinger just needed a bucket of ice
cream and some wine.
As they approached the sea-side city, Ekaterina lingered behind. Childe walked confidently,
uncaring about the eyes of the Millelith lingering on him with suspicion. Despite his head held
high, she knew what the Harbinger had been feeling all week. He had to be nervous. Underneath
the uniform and lifeless eyes, he was still a normal 22 year old man.
But then again, she’d never once seen him show fear. There were rumors among the Fatui that
Tartaglia had never been scared in his life. Nonetheless, a bit of advice would not hurt.
“Sir,” she caught up to him, taking the spot at his side as she rushed to keep with his long legged
stride, “you may not appreciate my experience, but I thought you’d like to know something. When
I met my ex-boyfriend for coffee once, all he did was talk about how great his life is. Seeing an ex
can be really annoying, but there are ways to deal with it!”
Childe tensed. He crossed his arms and slowed in his gait, keeping his eyes straight ahead. With a
hard edge to his voice, he informed, “She’s not my ex. We weren’t together…” a tense pause, “but
go on.”
Success, she would not get fired for insolence on this day. “What you’ve got to do is act so
uncaring that she starts to doubt herself. Act like nothing ever happened, as if you’re complete
strangers. That’ll show the mistres- I-I mean Lumine, it’ll show Lumine that you’ve moved on, and
she has absolutely no sway over you any longer!”
That would be a good plan if she truly didn’t have sway over him. Yet, she did. Lumine was on
his mind constantly, it seemed. Every day without her at his side had been a bad one, his mood
growing darker and darker as the events of their separation replayed. He still hadn’t quite figured
out how ‘I want you’ turned into such a large divide between them.
No matter, this would be over soon, and he would be able to leave Liyue. Once back in
Snezhnaya, he could get lost in his cold home and forget about the sun he once orbited.
Nevertheless, Ekaterina’s plan was good. He liked the idea of showing Lumine that he moved on
- even if he hadn’t.
Silent, confident, he walked through the streets, heading to the pharmacy on the hill. “Thank you
for your help,” he sent Ekaterina a smile, “can I count on you to be listening in?”
In the distance, a flash of blonde and white caught his eye. He glanced around the pavilion
entrance in time to catch the sight of Zhongli’s tailcoat as he entered the pharmacy doors. “Yes
sir,” Ekaterina whispered as she began to slip away, “I’ll be behind the building.”
Perfect.
With a satisfied sigh, he settled into his position. Leaning against a wall with the pharmacy in
sight, he craned his neck to catch a glimpse of the conversation through the doors. Lumine had her
hands on her hips and a glare, while a small purple haired girl covered her face with both hands.
Zhongli gestured as he explained something that Childe could not hear. His eyes lingered on
Lumine as she crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
Another skipped heartbeat in his chest, another barrage of the wasps in his stomach. He despised
that the sight of the traveler still had this effect on him. She didn’t want him, and it was time to
forget about her. She’d done exactly what he’d been trying to do this entire time in under five
minutes; get rid of her influence in his life. It was a shame that she’d lose this. If she didn’t want
him now, she’d especially not want him after he got the gnosis.
Paimon’s voice carried on the wind to his ears, catching his attention and ripping him away from
his thoughts. “Is this the part where we go crawling back to Childe?”
Yes, it was. He heard Lumine let out a loud groan, “No way. Never. Not in a million years!”
Their conversation died down once more with Zhongli’s lowered voice. Childe could only catch
the words ‘three million mora’ and ‘who else’ drifting out of the pharmacy doors. He recalled what
Ekaterina said - they were entirely out of money.
Lumine yelled her rejection again, saying something about taking on five full time jobs to pay for
it instead. Zhongli’s response, spoken louder than usual, as if he was aware of the ears within the
walls, reached him, “We could rob the Golden House… if only the Qixing were not guarding it so
heavily.”
He listened as Lumine gasped, “The golden house?”
“Yes, it’s where all of the mora in Teyvat is minted. It’s not usually so heavily guarded…”
Zhongli edged his body towards the entrance of the pharmacy, speaking louder, “but the Qixing
have recently been taking extra precautions.”
Lumine did not notice Zhongli’s odd behavior. Childe listened as she huffed, “It’s not like we
would be able to rob it anyway, that’s against my very strict set of morals.”
“Mine as well, but…”
“But,” Paimon sighed, “we’re about three million mora short.”
And that was his cue. He could easily help with that endeavor, he spent three million at breakfast.
With a deep breath, Childe closed his eyes and steadied his skipping heart. “Girlie,” he called out,
interrupting the argument and walking up the stairs, “I can help you with tha-”
Childe never had to dodge a flying chair before, the experience was quite exhilarating.
Lumine’s scowl could kill as she tossed the closest piece of furniture into his face. Nearly
growling, the fury in her eyes only deepened as Childe dodged the chair. It splintered with a loud
crash on the sidewalk. Before he could recover from the initial shock of furnishings soaring
towards him, she grabbed a table next.
“Lumine,” Zhongli stepped forward, his hands flat as he held the table down to prevent her from
throwing it, “he’s going to help us. I must ask you to calm down.”
No. Why should she? Abandoning the table, she whipped around, ignoring Doctor Baizhu’s
requests to stop throwing his things like a wild animal. She grabbed a stack of folders, and flung
them towards the grinning Harbinger as if throwing frisbees.
He, annoyingly so, caught each one with rising laughter.
Lumine went for the vials of medicine next. Faster than she could possibly move, Zhongli and
Baizhu held her arms back as she kicked. Their combined strength lifted her feet from the floor and
made her gasp in horror as she writhed and struggled, “Let me go! Let me go, I need to kill him!”
Childe could not stop laughing. He stood against the doorframe and held his side, eyes squeezed
shut as he bent over, “I-I thought we were friends, Lumi. I’ve never been greeted like this before!”
Her hand escaped Baizhu’s grip. She grabbed a cup of pens, vaulting them in Childe’s direction.
He dodged with another bout of gleeful laughter as Lumine was held back once again. “Please,
Tartaglia,” Zhongli breathed heavily, far more frazzled than usual as he gripped Lumine’s writhing
arm, “take her. She’s-” he gasped and yanked himself away, “She bit me! Do I… Do I have rabies
now?”
Baizhu gasped, “That looks bad. She really can dig her teeth in, huh?”
“QiQi is… confused… Is she human, or dog?”
“She’s a dog.” Childe answered with a smirk as Lumine was finally released. He held out his
arms as if going in for a hug, fully expecting her to pounce on him with a dagger in her hand.
Despite the absolute hilarity of Lumine biting Zhongli and vaulting furniture through the air, his
stomach still buzzed with excited energy.
She was beautiful. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever met, even as she glared and
lunged for his neck. He’d never be able to find anyone that could make his heart beat so quickly,
that could take his breath away, that would fit so wonderfully perfect in his arms. He caught
Lumine’s wrists, twisting her body around so her back was to his chest. Before she could protest,
he snaked one arm around her waist and pinned her arms back, his other hand firmly clamped over
her mouth.
Muffled and angry, Lumine writhed and wiggled underneath his grip. Her cheeks were redder
than ever from a mixture of frustration and affection, her body so close to his as he held her still.
Baizhu cleared his throat, “Thank you... Master Tartaglia, is it?”
Childe smiled as if he was not holding a rabid woman’s arms and mouth from certain destruction,
“Yes, it’s an honor to finally meet you, Doctor. I’ve heard a lot about your work.”
“Oh, how sweet!” He lit up with pleasant familiarity, “May I ask, what exactly is happening right
now?”
Paimon sighed heavily, a sound far beyond her years, “They’re in love.”
“Oh, I see!”
Lumine’s muffled complaints grew louder than ever. She stomped her feet in an attempt to injure
him, failing magnificently. His smile only grew wider, “So, I happened to be passing by and heard
that you ran into some trouble, Mister Zhongli. Any way I can help?”
Paimon’s glare deepened with suspicion. Lumine writhed once more in his arms, before tensing
up. He glanced down at the head of blonde hair against his chest, and stiffened in response to the
feeling of her tongue dragging against his palm.
Ew. She was worse than Teucer. He sighed and pulled back, finally releasing her. With his brow
twitching in annoyance, he wiped the spit off on the edge of her dress, “You shouldn’t do that kind
of stuff, you don’t know where my hands have been.”
Lumine gasped and yanked herself away, “How dare you?!”
“You’re the one that licked me,” he reminded as he pulled on the back of her outfit, rubbing his
wet palm against the fabric, “I’m just trying to help, and that’s how you repay me? It’s not very
nice.”
At least she was not trying to attack him any longer. With an arrogant huff, Lumine crossed her
arms and took her spot at Zhongli’s side, half hiding behind the funeral consultant and Paimon’s
heavy glares. With the anger coming off the traveler in waves, Childe stepped back and raised his
hands, attempting to settle peace, “I promise, I’m just trying to help. There’s nothing to be worried
about.”
Zhongli and Lumine knew better, though Lumine was not quite in the mood to speak to him. His
arms around her waist as he caught her mid-lunge were warm, perfectly wrapping around her in the
most annoying way possible. She hated that he smelled good, and that he felt nice, and that she still
got that familiar buzz in her stomach whenever he looked at her. She hated him, and everything he
stood for.
But, to keep the temporary peace, she would not throw anymore of Baizhu’s furniture. Zhongli,
fortunately, was the one most willing to explain the situation.
“So,” he cleared his throat, “We need everlasting incense. Qiqi here,” a gesture to the blank faced
zombie girl, “sent us on a journey to find the cocogoat, a legendary adeptibeast. We fixed the
Guizhong Ballista in an attempt to use it for hunting said cocogoat, but had no luck.”
“And,” Baizhu smiled innocently, “why is that?”
Qiqi sighed, “Cocogoats are… are…”
Lumine finished in monotone, her glare still burrowing into Childe like a hot poker, “Nonexistent.
We went on a hunt for something that doesn’t exist, because Qiqi thought coconut milk came from
adepti.”
This was wonderful. This was so spectacular. It was exactly as Childe thought - the cocogoat
didn’t exist, and Lumine and Zhongli were the two biggest airheads in all of Liyue. He covered his
smile as another bubble of laughter escaped his throat. He felt as if he hadn’t laughed this much in
ages, having spent all week sulking over Lumine’s newfound hatred for him. It seemed fitting that
the second she waltzed back into the picture his day would be brightened.
Sighing and rubbing at his eyes, he resisted the urge to snort at the glare on Lumine’s face. His
side truly did hurt, and his stomach truly did feel as if there were wasps in it. While he missed her
entertainment value, he surely didn’t miss the constant feelings she gave him, the skipping heart
and the lungs with no air, the stomach that decided to do entire gymnastics routines every time she
smiled. It was getting tiring.
“S-So,” he stifled another giggle, “I really do appreciate the laugh. Who knew this day would
bring so many blessings.” A glance directed to Doctor Baizhu, a genuine smile that made Lumine
jump from her spot behind Zhongli, “Forgive my audacity, but I see many opportunities for us to
collaborate in the future.”
She raised her voice in a mocking imitation, “I see many opportunities for us to collaborate in the
future-”
“Please ignore her,” Childe’s smile did not falter, “our little spat has no consequences on the
business proceedings of the Fatui.”
Again, “Our little spat has no consequences on the bus-”
Reaching around Zhongli, Childe kept the smile on his face as he pulled Lumine against him,
clamping his hand over her mouth once more. The struggling and stomping returned as he went on,
“If the Bubu pharmacy needed a stable supply of, say, coconut milk, the Fatui could help by
setting up a robust and speedy distribution network.”
“You two are so cute,” Baizhu tilted his head and sighed dreamily, “Young love, such a
confusing thing, is it not?”
The snake around his neck continued, “I would never imagine that the Fatui would meddle in
matters such as coconut milk…”
“Coconut milk,” Qiqi gripped his hand in her monotone, staring up at the doctor, “Quick. Qiqi
wants coconut milk.”
“Y-Yes of course, Qiqi! Anything you want! Thank you, Childe,” he sent the Harbinger a smile,
ignoring the tense and glaring girl with her mouth covered tightly in his arms, “I look forward to
our collaboration!”
Lumine had been quiet long enough to be trusted. Slowly, he released his hand from her lips,
taking a careful step back as she glared at him over her shoulder. She had gone from a hurricane of
anger, to wearing a steady and steely stare that was far more threatening than she’d ever looked. It
was only Baizhu’s next words that broke Lumine from her tense stare, making her gasp and whip
around to face him as he spoke, “I’ll lower the price on the incense to… 2,990,000 mora.”
Paimon gasped and flew backwards. Lumine gripped her stomach, bending over lightly as if she
was about to be sick. “T-That’s… I’ve never heard such a big number before… I-I didn’t even
know numbers went that high!”
“It’s lower than three million,” Paimon complained, “but still ridiculous! Are you trying to give
Lumine a heart attack?”
He, apparently, was. Childe did not even flinch at the number, his smile never faltering. “Alright,
no problem,” a glance to Zhongli and a very sick looking Lumine, “I’ll take care of it.”
“Wonderful,” Baizhu turned to rummage around in a locked cabinet, “It’s around here
somewhere…”
It was a known fact among Lumine’s associates that she only spent mora if she had to. She rarely
spent it on anything other than food, and even that was rare. Ever since coming to Liyue, she’d
been in more contact with the currency than ever, and it never failed to make her sick. With pale
cheeks, she took a deep breath and glared at the pleasant-seeming Harbinger, “Dear Archons,
please don’t spend that much. J-Just talk him down, or something.”
“No problem,” Childe gave a nonchalant shrug, “it’s not really that much.”
“It’s nearly three million!”
“Yeah?” He sent her a curious glance, “It’s not much.”
It was so much. Baizhu turned around to hand a vial to him, the transaction passing hands as if it
was a simple glass of water. Lumine held her stomach in anxiety, “P-Please… no…”
Zhongli patted her back soothingly, “Lumine, you’re acting as if you’re being murdered. It’s just
a business deal.”
“...Three thousand mora…”
It was too funny. Childe had missed her dramatics, no matter how angry she made him. He
dangled the bottle in front of her, “Just let me treat you, Lumi. My heart yearns to shower you in
luxury, it's been so long!”
“There’s a reason for that, idiot! Did you forget what we talked about?”
Paimon gasped in curiosity, “Oh, tell us! Paimon wants to know!”
He could assume that Lumine had not told anybody the details of their messy fight, and he
appreciated that. He was not one to flagrantly air out his dirty laundry, especially when it came to
arguing with the love of his life over moral superiority and dead god bodies. Cheerful, he put the
vial of essence in her shaking hands, “No, it’s just between us, sorry Paimon. It was a boring talk
anyway.”
More like one of the most exhilarating moments of his life, as she drew her sword and attacked
him. Lumine really knew how to get him going, even when pushing him away and breaking his
heart.
Lumine handed the vial to Zhongli, who seemed far more satisfied and comfortable with the
business deal. He gave Baizhu and Qiqi a respectful nod, “Thank you all for your help, we can
finally begin the funeral proceedings and send Rex Lapis off in the way he deserves.”
A chorus of congratulations spread through the small group. "No problem, we're happy to help
with something such as this, Rex Lapis will be dearly missed." Baizhu offered a grave nod, "And I
will be sending a bill to the Northland bank, if that's okay?"
"Perfect," Childe took a step down the stairs, "We'll transfer that mora immediately."
"Wonderful! Coconut milk, Qiqi, aren't you excited?" he and the snake curled around his neck
celebrated for a moment, as Lumine watched on with pale cheeks and sick eyes. Childe took the
moment of distraction to slip out of the pharmacy, going down the steps and turning the corner to
meet Ekaterina as she hid behind the building, unseen.
Nobody noticed his departure, Lumine being far too busy expressing her relief at finishing the
preparations. He leaned against a column near the receptionist’s hiding spot and tilted his head,
“Did you hear what I heard about the Golden House?”
“That the Qixing is guarding it more heavily than ever?” She whispered in return, “Yes, I did.”
“I wonder what Ningguang and her cronies are doing there… What they’re protecting so
ardently,” he ran a hand through his hair and laughed, “What else besides the exuvia?”
“I think so too, sir.”
“Run back to the bank and close it up,” he sent her a smile, “we’re heading out soon.”
“Yes, Master Childe.”
He watched out of the corner of his eye as she slipped away, unseen by the group. With a sigh, he
crossed his arms and glanced back to Lumine standing in the doorway, smiling and waving
goodbye to Qiqi as if she were not just vandalizing their furniture and throwing it at Harbingers.
His heart skipped another beat, one so annoyingly heavy that he could not help the split-second
frown on his face.
Zhongli led the way down the steps. Paimon and Lumine lingered at his sides, the pixie not
bothering to send him a glance as she floated away. The workers they hired were already at the
pavilion, making preparations for the funeral. Lumine, though, slowed in her pace. She and Childe
stood in front of each other as Zhongli and Paimon left, not noticing their lagging friend. She was
not glaring any longer, though her furrowed brows and her frown said enough. She was angry with
him, as always, and didn’t know what to think.
Childe smiled. It was a genuine expression, for once. He tapped his foot absently, fidgeting with
unused energy and taking in the sight of the woman before him. Beautiful, made perfectly for his
arms, and quickly becoming enemy #1. “I’ll ask it one last time, Lumi,” his voice was low as he
broke the silence, “would you join the Fatui for me?”
Would she get out of the way? Would she put herself under his protection, allow him to keep her
safe the way he wanted to? He held his breath as she avoided his gaze.
“I… why do you want me to join so bad?”
Still so dense. Childe found that he had no problems now saying what was on his mind, the truth
was already out between them.
“I’m falling in love with you.”

She stared. She gaped, wide eyed and pink cheeked. He soaked in the memory of her face, that
shock and surprise as she processed his words. With a shaky exhale, she put her hand to her chest,
“With me?”
“Who else would I be talking to right now?” He could not help but laugh, his stomach buzzing
with affection,
“I just…” she seemed genuinely confused, “I just don’t get it. I-I’m sorry, but… No matter what,”
with a clenched fist and worried eyes, she finally met his gaze, “I cannot betray my own standards.
I need to keep the world safe, even if it means rejecting you.”
So succinct, so blunt. She seemed to genuinely feel pity for having to reject him, adding another
crack to his heart. He pursed his lips in thought and glanced away, his arms crossed over his chest
as he leaned against the column, “Fine. I just have one request.”
“Yes?”
Her voice was so soft, so different from the rabid woman she usually was. It was a wonder that
she tried to vault a table at him earlier.
“I want you to stay away from the Golden House,” he knew he’d regret telling her this. He'd
regret bearing his heart on his sleeve and compromising his plans, “if you go there, you could get
hurt, you could… you could die. And I cannot live in a world without you in it.”
They were alone in the pavilion. The doors to the pharmacy had closed, while Zhongli and
Paimon wandered away to set up the funeral. With the quiet buzz of evening cicadas in the air, and
a deafening silence between them, Lumine could only stare.
She took one step towards him. Slowly, her hand rested on his chest as she leaned up on her
tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. It was so unlike their earlier encounters, there was no heat
and no tension, no anger and no fury fueling every movement of their bodies.
Just the gentle, wonderful, intoxicating press of her skin against his.
Childe's breath caught in his throat, yet his mind remained empty. The feeling of her lips on his
was all that existed in that moment. He closed his eyes to take her in, her hand against his chest and
the scent of lavender between them. It was soft, longing, heart-breakingly sad. Lumine pulled
back with a soft exhale. She fluttered her eyes up to meet his and fill the air with whispers, “Okay.
I’ll do what you ask... just this once.”
It felt like the missing piece of a puzzle, finally found and put into its proper place. Sweet relief.
Childe sighed and put his hands on her hips, resting his forehead against hers and closing his eyes,
“Thank you. I want you to go to Northland bank and stay there until I come back, okay?”
“Okay,” another soft kiss to his cheek and a giggle, “whatever you want, my love.”
His love. His love. This day could not get any better. He could not help but be shocked at how
easily she returned to him after that fight, though a week had passed between then and now.
Perhaps she had time to think about it, and had realized that she was making a mistake by pushing
him away. Whatever the reason, he was relieved. Delivering a swift kiss to her lips, he could not
help but smile, “I’ve got to work to do. I’ll come back and get you after I’m done.”
Another kiss, and another, and another, with smiles inbetween each one. It was fireworks on a
holiday, a campfire on a cold night, the feeling of crawling into a warm bed after a long day's work.
It was natural, and wonderful, and meant to be. They could hardly tear themselves apart, “I look
forward to it.”
He kissed her hand, each and every knuckle. He smiled at the sound of her laugh and the pink in
her cheeks. His heart was swelling in utter relief - Lumine finally listened to him. Lumine was
finally going to do as he asked and stay out of the way. He could not wait for this to be over so he
could return to her.
One more kiss, and he left. Lumine watched him go with her hands folded in front of her, and her
cheeks warm. He turned around for a moment, grinning as he walked backwards, and blew her yet
another kiss.
What a sap. What an idiot.
“And he thinks I’m dumb,” she muttered to herself once Childe rounded the corner, “one kiss and
every inhibition melts away. Boys are stupid.”
I want you to stay away from the Golden House.

As if.
Zhongli took her to dinner as celebration, unaware of why Lumine smirked the entire time.
“Where did Childe go? He’s invited as well.”
“Oh,” she put a delicate hand over her mouth and snickered, “nowhere in particular. He’s just
awfully busy, can’t really join us right now.”
Paimon stared at the traveler like she would a piece of poo on the sidewalk, “Did you murder him
and throw his body in the sea like you talked about yesterday?”
“No, no, much worse.”
“What?”
“Nothing at all, don’t worry about it!”
She was in a suspiciously good mood. She did not even complain about Zhongli forgetting his
wallet, only smirking and giggling with her mysterious secrets as the evening went on.
“ Do not kill your opponent at the Golden House, or you will never love again’
That could not mean anything else but one solid truth: Lumine would meet her soulmate at the
Golden House.
Once invited to the Jade Palace, Lumine realized that everything was falling into place. She
would uncover the secrets of her soulmate, her one and only true love. She would make Childe
angry in the process, which was always a plus for her. And she would have the satisfaction of
finally winning.
Perfect.
After the invitation from Ganyu, Lumine found herself even more ecstatic. As she prepared a gift
for Ninggaung, she thought of how this would end. Who would she meet at the Golden House?
What would her soulmate be like? Hopefully he was strong, and tall, and had a super cool sword.
Hopefully he would gather her into his arms and kiss her senseless, pronouncing that he would
give the world to her.
Goodbye Childe, hello gnosis and soulmate. Hello her one true love, who would obviously fall at
her feet in sweet adoration. The reason for why her soulmate was in the golden house was
unknown, and frankly not paid attention to at all. She just knew that she would find him, she could
not kill him, and he would completely take her mind off the ginger haired Harbinger with the fox-
like smile and the dead ocean eyes. That was all she wanted.
And, Lumine assumed that was why Childe asked her to stay away from the Golden House. He
knew who her soulmate was, he had that old fortune teller lady followed around, so he was aware
of how this meeting would go. He, possessive and smitten with her, asked her to not visit the
Golden House because he knew that she would meet her one true love there. It made perfect sense,
Childe was trying to keep her from destiny.
Well, it wouldn’t work!
Lumine, of course, told Ningguang every bit of this over tea. She made friends far too easily.
“And then,” she raised a hand, gasping with dramatism and nearly spilling her herbal blend all
over her lap, “he kissed me! Isn’t that crazy? I could’ve punched him. I’m just so nice that I chose
to not knock all of his teeth out.”
“Hm,” Ningguang stared into the distance over her shoulder, long legs crossed over each other as
she leaned back in her chair, “So you say you’re not affiliated with the Fatui, yet you kissed a
Harbinger?”
A nod, “Yes, you’re a businesswoman, you should know how it goes sometimes. You get in tight
with the opposition, learn their secrets,” she raised a quizzical brow, “you would not believe what
he let slip to me.”
Ningguang laughed, a delicate sound that filled every inch of the jade chamber. She was the kind
of woman heads turned for, eyes glued to. She could not speak without an audience, as soft and
demure as her voice was. She took another sip of tea and watched Lumine over the rim of her cup,
“And what is that, may I ask?”
Another smirk, the one she’d been wearing since the final kiss with Childe. “He asked me to stay
away from the Golden House.”
“Oh?”
“I believe it’s because he’s jealous that I’m destined to meet my true love there,” Lumine took
another loud sip of tea, “so obviously, I will be going.”
“Very interesting,” Ningguang had a way of putting someone in the spotlight, humming and
complimenting her way into their minds, “are you sure that’s the only reason?”
“Yep, pretty sure.”
“Dear Lumine,” she put a clawed hand on her cheek and stroked delicately, “I have had so much
trouble with the Fatui lately, you wouldn’t believe it. They’ve really made my job harder with their
rumors and their… research…”
“...Research?”
“Yes,” she pulled back and took another sip of her tea, “I have eyes everywhere, you know.
They’ve been spreading rumors, trying to get their hands on the exuvia, trying to recreate ancient
documents that have no business being recreated.” She tapped a finger on the table absently, “I just
need to figure out why.”
Lumine would do anything for Ningguang. Perhaps it was the pretty hair, or the elegant palace, or
the really amazing tea she served, but Lumine would do anything. She gripped her cup tightly,
smiling as she realized how close she was to the end of this matter. She would meet her soulmate,
get the gnosis, and finally put this entire ordeal behind her. The thought of winning this match
between her and Childe sat on the back of her mind, reminding her of the satisfaction she would
feel by the end of it all.
“I can help, if you want.”
Ningguang smiled, an angelic expression. “Oh good, thank you. I have a map for you to follow, if
you like.”
She did like. She would take anything to get to the bottom of this.
“Master Tartaglia, Lady Lumine has not yet reported to the bank.”
The news hit him like a smack to the face. Childe stood on a cliff overlooking the growing army
of Fatui, his arms crossed and his face blank. As the agent reported the information, he sent a hard
glance over his shoulder, intensifying the cold look in his eyes, “Then where is she?”
“I-I’m afraid I don’t know, sir.”
Lumine was supposed to be at the bank, waiting in his office while he finished this job. She said
she would, he believed the look on her face and the words on her lips.
“But we do have this clue!” the agent held out a ripped sigil of permission copy, dotted with
blood and crumpled, as if it was stepped on, “This was found on the body of one of the guards
overseeing the sigil research.”
On the back of the golden parchment was a charcoal scribbling, in Lumine’s bubbly and girlish
script.
‘You’re not as clever as you think, my love’
His love. His love, who had never lied to him before. His love, who had kissed him with secrets
on her lips. His love, who was supposed to be safe and sound in his office at the Northland bank
right now.
“It’s time to move,” Childe’s voice was more of a whisper than he liked. Clearing his throat and
forcing himself to look up at the agent, “Tell the soldiers that it’s starting. Stay on call for when I
return from the Golden House.”
“Yes sir!”
A quiet hike through the calm forests of Liyue, a gentle breeze on his cheeks. The Fatui had taken
the front gates of the city, giving the Millelith a hard time as Childe slipped away. Lumine could
not possibly beat him there, and perhaps there was no need to worry about confronting her. If only.
Childe walked up the stairs as if he owned the place. With a confident smile and a steady heart,
he took out the guards and entered the glorious chamber. There were piles of mora reaching for the
ceiling, with fires lit on the walls. His eyes were immediately drawn to the body of a dragon at the
head of the room.
Another Millelith with a slit throat, another sigh as he nudged the body aside. He disliked killing
so frivolously, it was boring and provided no challenge. With the onslaught of the Fatui on Liyue,
most of the guards had left to help the city. The exuvia waited for him, a figment of the Tsaritsa’s
future. It would be perfect if not for the sound of the creaking doors. Instinctually, Childe shot to
the nearest hiding place, pressing his back against a cold column and listening to the newest
intruder as they pushed the heavy doors open.
With a huff and the sound of a familiar sigh, he knew who it was that invaded this moment.
He drowned out the nervous drumming of his heart with a deep breath. Whatever puzzle pieces
she put together had led her here, exactly where he didn’t want her. “Paimon… that must be it, the
exuvia.”
A golden corpse glowing at the head of the room. He’d have his hands on it already if she had not
interrupted with her entrance. Leaning against the pillar, with an unconscious Millelith soldier
underneath his boot, he watched as Lumine walked to the stone steps.
What to say when his soulmate was betraying her promise, having sealed it with a kiss and smile.
What to do when he had so clearly warned her about going to the Golden House? Childe thought
he’d finally won her over, finally gotten reality through her thick head.
It was time to end this.
With a half-second grimace, he slipped out from behind the column and watched Lumine’s back.
She had her head lifted, staring up at the exuvia with wonder in her eyes. One step towards her, a
forced smile, and he began an ominous, slow clapping.
“You’re not as clever as you think, my love.”
Lumine stiffened with surprise. The sound of his claps faltered, the echo resounding through the
empty halls. She turned around to meet his gaze, her lips pressed together in a look of
hesitance. Paimon floated at her shoulder and glanced around the room wildly, “Paimon doesn’t
see anyone else here but the loser Harbinger, maybe the old lady was wrong about that
prediction?”
“I don’t know,” Lumine sighed and narrowed her eyes, “How long have you been here,
Tartaglia?”
Using his other title - she had her guard up. Good, she would need that. He exhaled again as he
tried to uncloud his mind for the unavoidable adrenaline of battle. He warned her, he tried to tell
her to stay away.
But when had Lumine ever listened to him?
“Just a few minutes,” Childe took another step up the stairs, “it sounds like you’re meeting
someone here. The Millelith guards are dead, so…” he shrugged and smiled, “just me.”
“Someone else is gonna show up,” Paimon whispered, “just wait.”

Lumine rolled her eyes, “I don’t have time to wait, I’ve got to get the gnosis before this dork
does.”
“Right,” he clasped his hands together, ignoring the building anticipation in his stomach, “Well,
Lumi, it’s been fun, it really has. You’ll regret not taking me up on my offer to join the Fatui, you’d
be safe and sound right now if only you had listened.”
Lumine’s smile brought another skip to his heart, an annoying reminder of just how tightly
wound around her finger he was. “Would you still like me if I listened to you?”
Probably not. “You’re in my way, Lumine.”
“No, you’re in my way!”
So childish. “Not trying to make it fair anymore? I thought you wanted us both to win.”
“I’ll figure it out,” stubborn, as always, she lifted her chin, “Just trust me.”
“I trusted you earlier. I trusted you to do what I asked and stay out of trouble.”
“You only asked me that because you know I’ll win.”
“Wait,” Paimon put her hands up, “loser Harbinger was after the gnosis this entire time?”
Lumine shot her a look, “Where have you been? That was obvious from the start.”
“Paimon thought he just wanted to get in your pants!”
That too. He sighed, summoning a hydro dagger and twirling it around his hand, “Listen, I’d love
to stay and chat, but the Tsaritsa wants the gnosis, and she shall get what she desires.”
Lumine did not bother to summon her own weapon. She crossed her arms and turned away,
huffing arrogantly, “That’s stupid. I’ll get the gnosis, obviously.”
“There’s nothing you can do to stop me, printsessa.”
She stiffened at the nickname before glaring, “Yes there is.”
“No there isn’t.”
“Yes there is.”
“No there isn’t-“ he sighed heavily, “Lumi we can’t argue like children right now. Be a good girl
and get out of the way, and I might spare you.”
Paimon mirrored her glare, “She isn’t listening to you!”
She would do well to. He sighed again, a light and dreamy sound. “Well, I suppose it’s come to
this. It’s my favorite part now... the thrill of battle.”
“You know,” Lumine glued him in place with the look in her eyes, “I tried seeing the best in you.
But I guess I’ve been waiting for this moment as well… Paimon,” a soft glance to her friend, “stay
safe, okay?”
It was rare for Lumine to send Paimon away. Childe had never seen her prepare for a battle this
way, with a deep breath and a concerned glance towards the pixie as she disappeared in a flurry of
constellations. Once alone, Lumine grimaced and flexed her fingers. Her sword appeared, shining
silver in the firelight of the torches on the walls. Childe ignored the culmination of dread in his
stomach. His veins buzzed with energy and adrenaline, mixing bitterly with the sight of Lumine’s
sad stare. He could not resist the thoughts on his mind, “I wish you would have just listened to
me.”
She rested her sword on her shoulder and leaned on one hip, “You keep saying that. You’re
starting to make me think that you don’t want to fight me. Afraid you’ll lose?”
Not in the least. He summoned his other hydro blade and took another step up the stairs, Lumine
staring down at him with sad eyes. “I promise I won’t kill you, Lumi. I’ll just play along to feel the
thrill of battle.”
“How kind. You’re so polite, did you know that? Hm,” she pursed her lips again, glancing around
the room, “I guess I’ll just have to be patient while we fight, then. He might show up soon.”
His heart twisted lightly, “Who?”
“My soulmate. The fortune teller told me that if I kill my opponent at the Golden House then I’ll
never find love aga- oh.”
Oh.
Childe couldn’t help but smile. It was like the tension in an overfilled balloon, finally snapping
apart. He could breathe again; she’d figured it out. He raised his arm and stifled a laugh into his
forearm. “O-Oh? What’d you realize, printsessa?”
Lumine looked as if she was about to faint. She pointed the tip of her sword at his neck, making
him laugh again as her hands shook and her knees grew weak, “It’s you! Isn’t it? Isn’t it? How dare
you?!”
“H-How dare I what?”
“Stop giggling! This isn’t a laughing matter!”
“It’s pretty funny…”
“Stop!” She screeched over the sound of his barely stifled, joyous and absolutely relieved
laughter. Her hand shook even more as she waved the sword around, “Did you know this the entire
time? Have you been keeping it secret? Oh goodness…” she gasped in horror, “That’s why you
had the fortune teller followed around, you didn’t want her to tell me.”
“Right!” He smiled and rested his hands on his hips, “I’m actually pretty happy that you finally
realized it, it’s tiring keeping that secret. Finally, you know,” his smile grew mocking, his voice
steely and cold, “are you more willing to do what I ask and get out of my way now? I’ll even take
you on a date afterwards, we can meet my parents, have a little wedding… I’ve been thinking
about our kids names-“
“I’ll kill you!”
Lumine was on him in an instant. Her sword flew to his neck, immediately blocked as the battle
began. Adrenaline took its proper place at the front of his mind as he blocked, dodged, twisted and
turned. The dance of blades began, with flashes of blue hydro and her silver sword in the air
between their bodies. Lumine was glaring, though Childe could not hold back his smile. “Come on
Lumi, just enjoy yourself!” Dodge, strike, find an opening against her, “Not many get the chance
to square off with a Fatui Harbinger! Consider yourself honored!”
“Honored?” She barked a quick laugh before blocking his dual swords, their faces such close
proximity that he could feel her breath hot on his skin, “Why would I be honored to fight my
soulmate? We’re basically already married. I’ll start nagging you to take out the trash and wash
dishes from now on!”
“Well," the clash of weapons, the growing tension in the room and the bated breathes, "I’m a little
busy right now, babe.”
He was still a smug bastard. Lumine raised one leg as he offered her an opening, kicking him in
the stomach and blasting anemo to knock him backwards. The world was a blur as Childe flew
through the air, landing on his back and groaning at the ceiling in sudden flashes of pain. The
sound of her heels on the floor drew near, “How long have you known that our constellations are
connected?”
He took a moment to gather his jumbled thoughts, “... Since the beginning,” Slowly sat up and
rubbed the back of his sore head, “And it’s not a lie, the adepti confirmed it. You’re stuck with me,
sorry about that.”
He should be. Before Lumine could strike, Childe jumped into action. He could not play like a
cat with a mouse any longer. Grinning wildly, he yanked the mask from his hair and covered his
face. The familiar warmth of his delusion ran through his body, power bolstering the electricity at
his fingertips. Lumine froze in place. Her eyes were wide, and her lips parted in surprise.
“Electro?” Her gaze flickered to the newly formed polearm coming to life in his hands, “That’s
unfair. A hydro user shouldn’t have electro, it’s like you’re just asking to be a superconduit.”
“That’s the point,” he laughed and twisted the lance around his body, approaching her across the
room, “The Tsaritsa gifted me this power, I’ve been curious to see how you’d handle it.”
A jab, an electric purple flash as he teleported behind her, raising his foot and knocking her
down. She gasped as he stood over her and lifted his lance. Before it could bury itself in her chest,
she rolled to the side, and lunged at him with a jade dagger summoned into her hand. Lumine had
gotten rid of her sword and switched to the dagger, the one he’d given Paimon so long ago. It
barely scraped his side as he jerked away and stumbled back. “I’m glad you’re taking me
seriously,” Lumine stood and re-summoned her sword, “this marriage wouldn’t work otherwise.”
“Oh,” he laughed, “we still have a chance?”
“Depends on who wins.”
He gripped his polearm tight, “Didn’t you say a while back that any potential suitors have to beat
you in combat before marrying you?”
“Yes, too bad you’ll be losing.” She smiled, the look on her face clenching a fist around his heart
yet again.
Lumine should not speak so soon when she was the one destined to lose. It was unheard of that a
Fatui Harbinger using their delusion would ever be defeated, Childe could not even think of any
instances. He smiled as he lunged again, teleporting at an even faster rate now and taking his shots
where he could. Another barrage of hydro arrows, another shock that brought Lumine to her knees
with a gasp. She could hardly keep up with his speed, only able to block half of his many strikes.
Lumine knew to avoid his hydro, the electricity of his delusion made it all the more worse. She
forced herself to run, dodge another arrow, and duck underneath his polearm as he teleported in
front of her again. She was sneaky, and almost as fast as him when it came to switching between
weapons. Once he was close enough, her dagger was out, aimed for the vulnerable spot on his
stomach. He pulled back before the tip could go much deeper, and ignored the stinging complaints
of the shallow wound. Lumine did not miss a beat, immediately summoning her sword and
covering herself as she twisted to lunge at him.
They could hardly touch each other. She’d only been kicked around and cut, and he had one tiny
stab wound. It was as if his limbs did not have the ability to do worse to her, as if he was stuck in
sparring mode rather than a true battle. He knew that even if Lumine did win, he still would not kill
her.
Despite her impressive swordsmanship, she was still not as fast as the boost his delusion gave.
Another jab, another quick switch to his bow. Childe took the opportunity with the distance
between them to do what he’d been practicing to perfection lately. The floor beneath Lumine’s feet
bubbled and twisted with the power of his vision. She froze, her lips parted, and looked down.
“Childe, I swear, if you drop a whale on m-”
He dropped a whale on her. She had praised him for this very trick just a month ago, bringing a
smile to his face and a flutter to his chest. He could only wonder if she was still happy to see it in
action. Barely visible underneath the sudden waterfall, Lumine rolled backwards in an attempt to
dodge, hit by the end of the fin and knocked face-first into the floor.
He could not let up, even when she struggled to push herself. Slowly, confidently, he walked
across the marble stage. He lifted his mask into his hair and took a breath of fresh air, grinning
down at Lumine as she pushed herself up to meet his eyes, her arms trembling with weakness.
What a sweet girl, what a sweet sight. He would hold her if she were not his enemy. “Give up,
Lumi,” gently, Childe positioned the tip of his polearm under her chin and lifted her face to meet
his, “don’t force my hand any further.”
Lumine’s eyes betrayed nothing. She breathed heavily, attempting to steady her limbs. A moment
of tense silence grew between them before she, finally, offered a sudden grin.
“You’re a real asshole, you know that?”
Childe didn’t have time to react. The floor beneath his feet trembled like an earthquake, almost
knocking his body over as spikes of geo shot up like spears underneath him. He hardly managed to
dodge one, before another spike appeared behind him. Then, at his side, and again in front of him.
Frantic with adrenaline, he pushed through the constructs before the stone spears could impale his
abdomen, yet only encountered more with every step. While he dodged, Lumine pushed her body
up and slid her foot across the ground, causing another geo construct to grow from nothing and
finally push him over.
And, as he lay on the marble flooring, it all disappeared. The sound of her footsteps was familiar,
almost comforting, while she approached him and leaned over his body, “You think you’re so
damn cool, don’t you? You’re not the only one with two visions.”
She was beautiful. She was powerful. She was the only woman who could ever take him by
surprise like this, nearly killing him with the immense strength she held. Lumine held out a hand,
summoning a geo construct above him that threatened to crash down with a simple flick of her
finger.
Childe couldn’t help it. He was excited and buzzing with adrenaline, his heart was racing, all he
could see was her. She could use anemo and geo, she could knock him to his knees and smile while
doing it.
He’d never been so in love.
“Our children will be magnificent, Lumine!”
He spoke as if he was about to hug her. Her smile fell into a glare, “At the rate you’re going, I
doubt I’ll ever want to even hold your hand again.”
She dropped the construct, though it was not quick enough. He rolled out of the way, using
electro to teleport to the other end of the room. Quickly pulling his mask back over his eyes, he
shot her another smile before using hydro to vault him up to the exuvia’s side.
Energy came off the dragon’s body in waves. It pelted him with power, though he held his stance,
leaning against the scaly construct and looking down at Lumine, who was glaring with every inch
of her soul. She raised her sword from her spot on the ground, “I don’t know how you got up there,
but you need to come down now.”
“No,” he answered in brilliant sing-song, “As much as I’d love to test out your new geo prowess, I
really must be going. It was fun,” slowly, reverentially, he slipped a hand into the exuvia’s core,
“maybe we can do it again sometimes? How do you feel about honeymoon spots? Fontaine would
be fun, or maybe Sumeru- wait. Wait...”
Wait.
Silence fell like morning snow. His fingers felt nothing.

Nothing. It was an empty lizard husk.
Frantic, his heart racing, Childe leaned in further to look for the gnosis, but it only revealed more
black empty black void. He stretched his arm inwards in the hope to feel something. Only air
returned.
Empty.
The gnosis was gone. And there was only one person stupid enough to take it from him.
“Lumine,” his muscles tensed and his mind clouded. With his heart drumming in his ears and his
blood boiling, he turned to look at her, “did you take the gnosis?”
She had her arms crossed with an entirely unimpressed expression resting on her face, “You saw
me walk in, how could I have taken it without you watching?”
Logical, but not quite enough. The only one that would be clever enough to pull the wool over his
eyes was Lumine. That was the only answer, the only probable conclusion. He glared from his spot
by the exuvia, eyes wild and furious as every reasonable thought left his mind, “Well,” a tight,
uneasy chuckle, “T-This is quite unexpected. But, I mean, what else could I expect from you?”
“Oooohh,” Lumine wore a mocking tone as she stuck out her tongue, “was the drama queen
tricked? Did things not go according to your little plans? Poor baby!”
That was it. She was playing with the wrong man. With a growl deep in his throat and the air
rushing past his ears, Childe clenched a fist. He summoned his lance and tensed, aiming for the
weakest spot in the middle of the room. If this would not bring his revenge, nothing else could.
And it had been so very long since he’d gotten to use the transformation.
Childe jumped into the air, listening to the sound of rushing water and the drumming of his heart.
Lumine was forgotten as the foul legacy wrapped itself around him. It was like fire, crawling up
his throat and choking out his breath until he lost himself, his eye-sight going black. He could
barely register his lance slamming into the floor and the spiderweb cracks along the ground. Next
was the sudden crumbling of the world underneath his feet. That was what this power was meant to
do: to see the world fall before him.
Childe hardly registered Lumine’s scream as she fell. Rocks and concrete shattered into the
basement as he carried himself down to follow her. A flash of white and blonde lay among the
rubble while dust clouds floated in the air. His eyesight was always intensified by the
transformation. It was simultaneously exhilarating, and terrifying, like free falling from the world’s
highest mountain without a glider.
Yet, he was still Childe. It was still his body, his arms and legs, his hands. He twisted the lance
around his waist as he awaited Lumine’s recovery. She would, of course, push herself back up with
a glare that could kill. The universe knew better than to gift him a soulmate who gave up easily,
even with broken ribs and blood trailing a crimson line down the side of her head. Red mixed with
blonde, sticky and hot and smelling of rust.
And, of course, no fall could silence Lumine’s razor sharp tongue. “N-Nice cape, your mom make
it for you?”
Childe wasn’t sure where the cape came from. He wasn’t even sure what he looked like. It was
not as if he used his foul legacy transformation to stand in the mirror and gawk at himself. It was
rare that this form emerged, it was merely a beast born of the abyss’s heretical teaching. He was
himself, nonetheless, albeit quite floaty and much, much stronger.
Lumine was acting as if she were not on death’s door. She held her waist, leaning over and
coughing up a spattering of blood upon the rubble. With a heavy sigh, she lifted her head again and
forced a grin, a mocking twinkle in her eye that set him ablaze. He felt as if he was drowning,
barely breathing beneath this monster he’d willfully become. Before he could consider his next
action, he found himself shooting towards her body like an arrow through the air.
She dodged, somehow. Another swipe of his lance, the tip catching her stomach and forcing her
into dropping to her knees. As he striked once more, Lumine pushed herself back up on shaky
knees. Through blurred eyes and black watery depths, he sent her a glance, “You got to the gnosis
ahead of me, didn’t you? Did you simply move faster, or leak the information about the Golden
House on purpose? What game are you playing, Lumine?”
The sound of his distorted voice caught her by surprise. She yanked her body away, holding
herself as she coughed and covered her mouth, “Would you believe me if I told you I’m not good
at mind games? It’s true,” a sly smile that was reminiscent of his own, but far more beautiful with
the glimmer of mischief in her eyes, “I can’t play poker to save my life.”
He attempted another strike, one that was so barely dodged by her weak roll. How fitting that she
used his own reassurance against him now. She ducked another the spin of his polearm and
shivered from the static electricity in the air invading her every sense.
Childe had never seen her so beaten before, so shaken. He’d never seen her bleed that much,
though her tongue only grew sharper with every assault. Lumine pushed herself up and summoned
her sword with a newfound wave of energy, aiming the tip at his waist. “Just stop already, you’re
only going to be embarrassed in the end.”
As per usual, he dodged, twisted around, and teleported behind her. The battle seemed to drag on
for ages. His own distorted voice was unnerving, though he was far too gone beneath the black
waters of the transformation to care. When he was younger and barely beginning to master the
transformation, nightmares of the sound coming from his mouth would follow his nightmares
every night.
“Give up!” Lumine yelled, returning his assaults as angrily as his own, “I will win this!”
“Give me the gnosis!” His lance dug into the floor - it was meant to be her chest. Yet, she had
moved far too quickly. Cleverly, Lumine used anemo and geo constructs to quicken her speed and
conserve her stamina. Another jab, another slice through the air. His lance only made contact with
pillars and constructs coming to life at the perfect moments. Four visions against each other,
dancing in reflexive unison.
Scowling, Lumine utilized her windblade. The cutting gale threatened to knock him over with it’s
fury, though he stayed upright, just in time to yank himself back from the geo spears rising up from
the ground. She had hit him a moment ago as he realized there was pooling blood on his arm and
heat from an angry wound on his thigh. Rarely had anything, or anyone, ever been able to hit him
during the foul legacy transformation. Childe wasn’t sure if his heart beat any longer, if he could
feel anything other than power. But he did know, in that moment, that Lumine would do whatever
it took to stop him.
With water rushing around his ears and electro in his eyes, he paused to watch the traveler across
the rubble-covered battlefield. Lumine sent him a tired smile. Beautiful. Perfect. No one else could
make him feel this way, as if he might burst apart, his skin being the only thing to hold his heart
together.
“I love you.”
Lumine’s nose scrunched up in immediate horror and disgust, “Don’t tell me that in your weird
transformed voice! Holy crap, read the mood! If you want to say that kind of stuff,” she lunged
forward, her sword finally to his neck, finally digging into his skin, finally knocking him to his
back, “tell me normally!”
And instantly, as if Childe was waking up in the morning to a harsh hand pulling his warm
blankets away, the light filtered in. It was like pulling each of his organs up through his throat. He
gasped and writhed on his back while the transformation left him. Coughing and rolling over, the
black waters drained, and the drumming of his heart calmed. Devastatingly, Lumine’s sword left
it’s place on his neck.
“Man, you’ve got to start reading the room,” her voice was muffled, too far away as Childe
coughed into his arm and recovered from the abyss power's loss, “a girl doesn’t wanna be told that
kind of stuff while someone’s trying to kill her. Do it over, like… I don’t know, coffee or
something. With flowers, preferably. You didn’t even get me flowers.”
Another cough, warm blood on his skin and the scent of iron in the air. With a heavy gasp, he
rolled over and met at the golden eyes above. Lumine stared as if he was a dying fish on the shore,
and he felt even worse than that. Childe forced his racing heart to calm. His throat felt like
sandpaper, while his fingers buzzed with electro. His stomach churned in nausea, and his knees felt
as if they’d been twisted and rung out like an old dish towel. He took another deep breath, and
another, and another, not breaking his gaze from Lumine’s even for a second.
And finally, she smiled.
He smiled back. It hurt to move his face. He wondered how much of a wreck he looked, then. He
probably smelled like sweat and blood, and the foul legacy transformation could not be attractive.
But here, in this moment, she smiled at him. She graced him with her attention, a soft gaze that
filled up his chest and made him want to burst apart and cover the walls in some gory show of
affection.
Childe’s voice was back to normal, albeit scratchy. He sounded as if he had a cold as he parted his
lips, barely able to breathe out the word, “Ajax.”
Lumine tilted her head, “What’s that?”
“Ajax,” he wanted to raise a hand to stroke her cheek, but his limbs refused to move, “that’s my
name. My real name.”
Lumine’s eyes blanked, “Your real name isn’t Childe?”
“What? No.”
“Oh… I thought your parents were just really bad at picking out names…”
“Shut up,” he could hardly take it anymore. He forced his arms up, ignoring his screaming
muscles, and buried his fingers into her hair. With pink cheeks, she lowered to his side, sitting on
the ground and leaning beside him. He’d never seen anything more beautiful than Lumine,
bloodied and leaning over his half dead body with a soft smile.
“I…” I love you, I meant it, I love you so much and I want nothing else in this world besides you,
“I think I overdid it.”
“You think?” She raised a playful brow, “You almost killed me. Hell, it looks like you almost
killed yourself too.” Lumine stroked his cheek with soft fingers, leaning in to whisper, “I hope you
know that you deserve this pain, asshat.”
“I’m in love with you.”
“Read the room, Ajax!”
He closed his eyes in sweet delight, “Say my name again, Lumi.”
“No! You’re being stupid.”
Incredibly so. He was not as clever as he thought, he had always been more of a in-your-face kind
of guy. If he wanted something done, he would find the biggest, most dramatic, most chaotic way
to do it. And Lumine, fortunately, was trusting. Even now, as she leaned over his body and ran her
fingers through his hair - it was the best feeling in the world, he could have stayed there forever in
blissful daydreams. He had nearly killed her, and she him, but they held each other like lovers.
That was, perhaps, what being a starmate meant. No matter what happened, nothing could change
the flow of the universe.
How nice. How reassuring. He could go to plan B in full confidence now, having seen firsthand
how forgiving Lumine truly was.
“Hey,” Childe opened one eye, a sly smile on his face as he raised a hand and summoned the
sigils of permission, “I gotta go, could you stay away from Liyue for a bit?”
Lumine eyed the floating tag in his hand. She had found hundreds of those just earlier, guarded
by Fatui and holding infinite power. With dread settling into her stomach like poison, she frowned,
“The second you become at least a little redeemable, you go and ruin it. Aren’t you tired of that,
Ajax? Don’t you just want to be nice?”
Not particularly. He pushed himself to a sitting position, summoning the rest of the sigils to float
around his body in a ring. Lumine gasped in horror and stumbled away as he took another
steadying breath, “I hope you know that this really goes against my moral codes, but I still have a
job to do. What the Tsaritsa desires will happen, no matter what I have to do.”
“Well,” Lumine gasped, “I’m your girlfriend, you should be working for what I desire, shouldn’t
you?”
He froze, “...Girlfriend?”
“Yes. And not for much longer if you do what I think you’re about to do.”
How funny that his first relationship lasted a total of 10 seconds.
“I have to awaken Osial, god of the vortex,” Childe pushed himself up further, now standing on
shaking knees and weak legs, “he slumbers beneath Guyun forest. This was all Plan B, I’ll have
you know, which is exactly why I told you to not come to the Golden House.”
Lumine snorted, “Because you knew I’d defeat you and you’d be forced to use the method you
didn’t want to use?”
“Exactly,” a remorseful sigh, “With this ancient God descending upon Liyue, do you think Rex
Lapis will just sit back and watch the destruction of his people?”
“I thought you believed I had the gnosis.”
“I realize, now,” he put his hand together pensively, now standing tall in the rubble of their
combined destruction, “that there’s no way you could have gotten to it first. So, obviously, Rex
Lapis has to be alive, somehow. This is simply the bait.”
Lumine stared at him emotionlessly. He knew that look, that disinterest, as if he was an ant below
her foot. “And what if he doesn’t show?”
“That won't happen. Rex Lapis would not allow Liyue to be destroyed.”
“So confident…” she whispered harshly, “so you would risk killing families and children for the
sake of a gnosis?”
“If… If that is what the Tsaritsa desires, then yes.”
“I greatly pity you. I could forgive this battle, all of the betrayal and the fights we had, but this?
This cannot be forgiven,” Lumine shook her head, turning away and causing another lightning
strike of guilt in his chest. She refused to look him in the eye, now glaring at the ground and
clenching her fists, “I hope you’re aware that I will do everything in my power to stop you. And
after this is all over,” another cold glance that stuck in his throat and suffocated him, “I never want
to see you again.”
His breath caught. His stomach churned and his heart clenched. It felt like there was a hand
squeezing him from the inside, forcing him to react in the only way he knew how.
“Fine,” Childe turned, summoning his hydro, “If you truly wish for that, then drown with
everybody else in Liyue. It’s best for you to be out of the picture now, anyway.”
Then drown. There went her soulmate, leaving the house of gold with a flash of hydro and a circle
of ancient scrolls surrounding him. He laughed as he disappeared, though she knew the sound was
fake. She knew he was caught up in his own mind, then, as he summoned an ancient God and
prepared to end thousands of lives.
“Suppose I should go warn Ningguang,” Lumine sighed and turned towards the door, her entire
body aching with soreness, “And gosh, I really have bad taste in men.”
As she stepped over the rubble and neared the exit, she grumbled curses under her breath. The air
was still heavy with Childe’s humidity, that damn hydro vision leaving traces of itself in his wake.
She recalled the sound of his voice as he told her he loved her, and could only frown further. Just
her luck that her destined starmate was him, of all people.
Aether would be so mad right now if he knew.
She sighed and ran to the doors. With her heart in her throat and every muscle aching in pain,
Lumine left the golden house and watched the sky for any sign of Childe. In the distance, the world
began to rumble.
“I’m giving up on love. I’m just going to go back to Huffman, he doesn’t summon ancient gods.”
Chapter End Notes
the duration of Childe and Lumine's relationship: exactly 10 seconds

Great Heights
Chapter Notes
Childe never thought he’d be that guy.
That guy, who broke apart the floor of an entire building and nearly killed someone, got into a
relationship - apparently - with that said someone, was broken up with about 30 seconds later, and
then left to summon ancient Gods from forced slumbers.
He was that guy. Everybody knew one.
Just how did Lumine end up as his girlfriend? Not that he was complaining, though he doesn’t
recall asking her. As with most things, she decided it for herself, seeing what she wanted and taking
it. The timing could not have been worse, he’d have to break it to his mother that his first ever
relationship didn’t even last one minute. Ekaterina was correct now, he needed wine and a bucket
of ice cream - after he drew Rex Lapis from his hiding place and got the gnosis, of course.
As Childe made his way to the stone forest, he thought of what kind of ice cream he’d like.
Chocolate, perhaps, that was a good flavor, he wasn’t all that picky. No Mondstadt dandelion wine,
obviously, Lumine liked that stuff too much for him to ever drink it the same again.
He knew that Lumine was doing something about this, but there was little chance of her defeating
Osial on her own. He wasn’t sure what Plan C was if Liyue was destroyed, perhaps just searching
through the rubble and looking for any signs of the Geo Archon. Those types were hard to miss if
you knew what to look for, the bright eyes and the archaic way of speaking - even the Tsaritsa
wore her immortality on her sleeve.
Childe stood on the shore. The forest rose in the distance, like the fingers of a stone giant
reaching up from the water as it drowned. “You know, I wonder why they didn’t just move away
from here when Osial was defeated?” He asked the subordinate organizing the teleportation spells,
“I would just go to the other side of Liyue, stay as far away from this thing if I could.”
He might attempt to fight it every once in a while, but he’d never settle his family beside the
burial ground of something like this. That was just asking for trouble. The subordinate sent him an
odd glance, staying far back as the golden sigils floated around his body. On the shore were the
many Fatui encampments that had been waiting for his signal to strike. Most of the more wild and
experimented-on soldiers were anxious with energy upon seeing the Harbinger’s presence. Many
of them had been praying for plan A to fail so they could move to plan B and see some action.
“Mages,” Childe walked across the sand, his arms crossed over his chest and the sigils around
him as he approached the group of spell casters, “There’ll be some defensive measures taken by
Liyue, as is expected. Don’t let up on sending soldiers in there,” he cast a glance to the palace in
the sky, hanging miles away over Liyue’s mountains, “I have an idea of where this battle will take
place.”
The Qixing would go for the natural high ground, and Ningguang would obviously want to
oversee it all personally. Whether the adepti would help, or not, he wasn’t sure. He’d seen their
distaste for humanity firsthand, and if that distaste extended to leaving them to drown against
Osial, the better it was for him. It was Rex Lapis he wanted to draw out, not talking deer and fancy
birds.
Childe ignored the chorus of ‘yes sir’ and glanced out at the stone forest, “I’ll be starting now,
it’ll only take a minute. Cover my back if an angry little blonde girl appears, okay?”
“Uh,” a hesitant glance, “y-yes sir?”
And try not to be incompetent. He knew better than to say that out loud, he’d prefer the fighters
stay in positive moods.
The chaos had not yet begun. When he summoned the sigils at the Golden House, the power was
just barely released. Now, it was the moment of truth, when he would finally spread his hands and
increase the speed of the spell around him. As Childe stared out at the water, his fingers flexed.
The sigils grew faster, and the air around him became dense with power.
Another earthquake. Another strike of lightning in the sky. He could not help but laugh as dark
clouds gathered overhead. Never before had he seen such a storm form so quickly, and never
before had he felt this type of natural power at his fingertips. With another burst of the sigil’s
energy, a cyclone began to rise from the sea.
It was beginning. Rain fell like a sudden blanket, giving hardly a warning of its downpour. The
sand grew dark and wet underneath his feet as the rain soaked through his uniform. Behind him,
the recruits corralled their teams together.
“Wonderful!” Another laugh above the rain and thunder, “Now, to sit back and wait!”
Finally, the sigils ripped themselves apart. The cyclone grew angrier, taller and far more
powerful. With the rush of water and wind around his ears, he watched several more rise up and
form into the shape of a five heads. It was a great sea serpent that began to push its way through the
waters, heading towards Liyue.
Coming to meet Osial was the jade chamber, floating almost casually through the air. The
shadow passed over him, making Childe glance up with surprise at the sudden appearance. It was
too far up to make out the figures standing in front of the doors, but a flash of a white dress caught
his eye.
Childe cupped his mouth and yelled to the sky, “Lumine!” He ran across the wet sand to follow
the passing shadows of the chamber, “Lumine, down here!”
The little figure leaned over the edge. Golden and white, she waved her arms around in what
vaguely looked like a threat. Before she could jump off - most likely to cut his head off - someone
about her size grabbed her arms from behind and dragged her away from the edge. Just barely over
the rain and thunder could he hear Lumine’s voice screaming obscenities with his name laced in.
Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And she had a front row seat to the destruction as well. This
could not go any better.
A white-haired figure rose into the air. Her arms moved with summoning, creating a geo structure
that jutted out from the front of the palace. The light was nearly blinding as Childe watched three
ballistas come to life, each facing Osial and shimmering with ancient power. A bird leaned against
the one closest to his line of sight. He frowned as he realized that the adepti did come to help after
all, what a shame. This just became a bit more complicated.
At least his blood thirsty soldiers would get what they wanted. Childe sighed heavily and
motioned to the mages, “Get some people up there now! Distract them, don’t let them fight Osial!”
The poor cicin mage that took the first step onto the jade chamber was immediately knocked
down. Childe watched her screaming descent in the distance, until she finally dropped into the
water below with an unimpressive electric sizzle.
“Come on!” Lumine yelled from the edge of the palace, her sword waving around wildly, “I’ll
just knock them all in the water!”
How was she not having a full on panic attack by leaning off the edge like that? Just two weeks
ago he jumped off a cliff and glided down while she screamed like a baby the entire time. Once
again, someone grabbed her arms and dragged her away from his view.
His ex-girlfriend/future wife/future mother of his nine children was so cute.
Shots of golden ammunition flew through the sky. It knocked Osial back and made him roar in
ancient anger, yet there was only so much they could do as the god advanced through the waters.
Childe motioned for more soldiers to join. The teleportation magic was tiring, but the mages had
been training their whole lives for something like this. The Tsaritsa preferred her troops to be
anywhere at any time, even Childe had mastered surfing across water in seconds. Attempting to
overwhelm the forces protecting the jade chamber, he gestured for more soldiers to come through,
“Destroy those weapons! Keep going, don’t let up!”
A burst of power up high, Lumine’s sword slashing through the air while she knocked more of his
soldiers down. She was joined by several of the Qixing and an adepti boy, the minutes passing on
and on in endless battle. Flashes of red, yells from the sky. He caught a glimpse of her body
surrounded by power that was not her own. As Childe glanced around, his heart and stomach
became uneasy.
He was beginning to run out of soldiers.
“I hate this part,” Childe murmured as he turned on his heel. His footprints sank into the sand, his
hair was in his face from the rain, yet he took no notice as he left the shoreline. While the last of
his fighters entered the teleportation portals, Childe jumped onto a rock and glanced over his
shoulder at the palace in the sky.
Golden signs and summonings, the buildup of power from the adepti manning the ballistas. Osial
roared once again as he was hit with the largest burst of strength possible, blinding and golden and
hot. Childe hurried in his pace as he retreated from the now empty shoreline. He slowed as the
earth rumbled and the sound of another ancient fury caught his attention.
Osial pushed itself back up. Lifting all five heads, it looked to the sky. Childe could not help his
smile, nor the relaxation in his shoulders, as a ball of pure energy formed between it’s mouths.
Lumine stood on the lip of the jade palace. She held her sword and her chin high. She did not
flinch, or cower, nor scream. His heart skipped a beat as he realized that this woman, this woman
who the universe destined him to love forever, would not back down.
As the construct below her feet began to crack, a lump formed in Childe’s throat. He froze,
reaching out a hand to the palace in the distance. He prepared to use each inch of his vision’s
power to somehow get up there to her, to somehow save her from falling. Before his weak knees
would move, the world shattered beneath her.
He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t do anything but stand there, like a complete
fool. Feeling as if he might collapse, Childe kept his eyes on the shattering foundation, watching
Lumine fall for a frightening half second before something shot out to catch her and return to stable
ground.
Deep breaths. Keep breathing. Calm your knees, Harbinger, he reminded himself, she could not
be defeated so easily.
Childe took another step towards the city. He was close now, still glancing over his shoulder as
while retreating to watch the chamber. Golden power surrounded it’s walls, and he was now too far
away to see Lumine any longer.
It was like a gravitational pull that moved him closer to Liyue. He was alone, his soldiers all
having been thrown in the water and defeated. He had to return to the bank and gather the rest of
the Fatui in Liyue and figure out what was next if Osial fell there. As Childe took another step, and
another, he could not help but watch the shape of the chamber in the distance as it glowed.
And, as it fell, so too did his heart.
It was the biggest explosion he’d ever witnessed. The jade chamber hit Osial like an overgrown
bomb. The world trembled beneath him. The ocean shook with fury. Rubble and geo and fire flew
into the air in the shape of a plume, with the most deafening sound possible. Childe covered his
ears and knelt to the ground as waves built up and rained down upon the city.
Lumine was in there. Lumine was on the chamber as it fell.

Childe felt sick.
“I-I’ve got a job to do,” whispering to nobody, he pulled himself up and pushed back his wet hair,
his eyes wide, “Northland bank. No time to… think about it.”
No time to think, no time to go search the rubble and dive beneath the waves to find her body.
There was no chance she was alive after that, nobody could survive that explosion. There was no
use in running back to the stone forest and searching for any scrap of her life, it was gone. Even
gliding away from the explosion would have thrown her off course and sent her flying into a
mountain. She could not survive.
And he, inadvertently, might have ended her life.
No time to think. No time to think. No time to think. Just run to the bank and avoid the Millelith,
race up the steps, take them two at a time. Force the doors open and burst into the lobby, fall to
your knees and cough up your heart. Ignore the blood in your eardrums and the dust in your eyes,
the water in your throat and the nausea in your stomach. Ignore the memory of the jade chamber
falling through the sky like a dropped brick.
“Tartaglia? My goodness, you look like an absolute nightmare.”
He was, and the nightmare grew even more horrific at the sound of that familiar voice. He
glanced up, holding his throat and gasping for air as Signora watched from the middle of the room.
She was posh and perfect, dry from the rain and unimpressed with the utter chaos outside. Just
barely, he could hear the muffled screams of the Liyue citizens from the windows.
“You look like a drowned rat,” she bit one of her nails in an attempt to look mockingly innocent,
“do you need a towel? Took a dip, did you? A walk in the rain? I’m so glad you’ve been having
fun.”
Don’t think about Lumine. Don’t think about the explosion and her limbs being torn apart from
the impact. Don’t think about Lumine.
Childe forced himself to stand and clear his throat. He made a puddle on the floor with the
amount of water dripping from his uniform. As he drew nearer to Signora, he shook his hair like a
dog, making her groan in annoyance and flinch away from the onslaught of dirty water coming off
him. It was a playful moment between the feelings of absolute dread that he was drowning under,
his way of trying to cover it up.
As Signora scowled and wiped off her now damp skin, he finally could glare at her in peace.
“What’re you doing here? It’s not a very good day for a visit.”
Not that he’d ever want a visit from her in the first place.
“She’s here to see me,” a deep voice informed from behind him, the familiarity striking his
already exhausted heart, “We have a business contract to fulfill.”
A business contract. Zhongli, and Signora, with her mocking smile and his serious eyes. Childe
stepped back, allowing Zhongli to brush past him and take his spot at Signora’s side. He crossed
his arms over his chest and tilted his head as if appraising the 11th Harbinger’s worth.
“What’s going on?” Dripping wet, rather cold, and entirely heartbroken, Childe’s eyes shifted
between the two. He came here to figure out what to do next, to deal with the fact that Lumine
might be dead because of him, not to be ambushed by the two most annoying people in the world.
Signora put a hand under her chin and pursed her lips in thought, “Mister Zhongli just said what
was going on. Did that explosion ruin your hearing?”
A bit. His mind still buzzed with a high pitched noise that was beginning to give him a migraine.
“Stop playing around and spit it out, Signora.”
“Fine,” a huffy sigh and a roll of her eyes, “we have a business deal. Let me guess, you didn’t
find the gnosis in the exuvia, right?”
He didn’t think his heart could drop any further into his stomach. “...No…”
“That’s because I have it,” Zhongli crossed his arms and stared at him blankly, “it has been in my
possession this entire time. I assume you and Lumine fought over it, as well? As you two have been
doing since you first met?”
“...Yes…”
“She won, Childe,” his voice dropped in sympathy, “It’s quite the fair ending, actually. Instead of
having to split it between you two - which is not possible, I tried to assure her of such many times -
now neither of you have it. So… she, in a way, got what she wanted.”
What Lumine wanted was for them both to win in some way, not for them both to lose. Lumine
wanted him to give up and join her, to show her that she was correct when she saw the good in him.
He wondered if Lumine would have accepted his loss, if she would have counted it as fair like
Zhongli did. It didn’t feel fair.
“So,” Childe steadied the hot anger boiling up in his throat, “who gets it, then?”
“I do.” La Signora raised a delicate hand, “Or really, the Tsaritsa does. I’m merely the delivery
girl.”
“So, let me get this straight,” he put up a hand, pressing his thumb and forefinger together as he
glared closely at Signora, “Zhongli is just giving you the gnosis?”
“Yes.”
“And he’s doing this willingly?”
Zhongli now, “Yes.”
“Why?”
“I have my reasons,” he sighed heavily, like a man that had seen far too much, “It’s quite a long
story, but to say it succinctly, I’m tired. The age of the gods is over, it is time for mankind to take
control. And you have no idea how much you’ve helped me, Tartaglia. Your stunt with Osial has
only proven that this city does not need me.”
Childe could hardly believe what he was hearing. The information sunk down into his skin like a
soft drizzle of rain, tainting everything he knew of Zhongli. This man, with the bright eyes and the
archaic language, with the resemblance to the statues scattered across the land, with the
otherworldly knowledge and the extreme shallowness of normal human understanding.
Of course. Perhaps Lumine was right, he truly was not as clever as he thought.
“You’re Rex Lapis.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re giving her the gnosis?”
“Yes.”
“Why,” he was hissing now, dripping wet like a drowned cat, “didn’t you just give it to me in the
first place? And you,” his fury turned towards La Signora, “What the hell? What the absolute hell?
Shob tebe deti v sup srali!”
“Really?” Her gaze flattened, “Nobody’s going to shit in my soup, calm down. I’m just
cooperating with you on the Tsaritsa’s will, the end goal is the only one that matters, not the
journey to the goal.”
“Cooperation?” He truly hoped that someone would shit in her soup soon, “You call this
cooperation? You’ve had absolutely no communication with me on this, I fought Lumine and I
could’ve killed her! I did kill her- Archons, I killed her. Zhongli,” he took another unstable inhale,
closing his eyes and attempting to calm the drumming of his heart in his ears, “She was on the jade
chamber when it went down.”
His voice was soft, comforting, “Childe, you didn’t kill her. The adepti were up there as well,
they wouldn’t let her fall to her death.”
“I feel like I killed her,” he snapped, “What if the adepti didn’t catch her? What if she died in the
impact? It’s all…” a glare to La Signora, the blood in his veins boiling and a feeling he never
thought he’d feel in his throat - loss and misery and regret, panic and fear. How rare that Tartaglia
was fearful, what had this woman done to him? She’d changed his inner workings with one sweet
smile.
It was her fault.
Signora continued to not care in the least, “Don’t take it so hard, Childe. Aren’t you happy you
got to skip the formalities and bring chaos to the land? I’m sure you must’ve enjoyed that.”
He did, to an extent. But not to the levels that these feelings reached, he could not handle the
thought of Lumine never sending him a smile again. He could not bear the thought of not orbiting
her sun, pulled in by her gravity and glued to her side. He could not bear the thought in the same
way that he could not bear the thought of the sun never rising, or the wind never blowing. It was
natural, a feeling so thoroughly ingrained into his skin that it would be a betrayal against the
universe by ignoring it.
“She cannot possibly be dead,” Zhongli assured in a serious, heavy tone, “I’m confident that the
adepti would not allow that. Despite his rather offstandish nature, Xiao would have the speed to
catch her before she falls.”
“Who the hell is Xiao? Zhopu porvu margala vikoliu!”
“Do you really think I can’t understand Snezhnayan? That’s really quite rude, Childe.”
“Oh, you think that’s rude? I could have killed Lumine because of this stupid trick! That’s what's
rude, you’re rude!” He could not stand it anymore. If not for the Tsaritsa’s wishes, he would have
attacked Zhongli and Signora on the spot. Nearly growling, he turned, scowling and striding to the
doors, “I need to get away from you two, I’ll be outside.”
Away from them, to the streets of Liyue with it’s screaming people and the chaos. He was sure
more were injured in the frenzy of the crowd rather than from Osial’s attacks. How bitterly this
entire ordeal came out, and he didn’t even have to think of a Plan C. Signora was stepping in his
way and taking the glory for herself.
Ignoring the obviously shivering and terrified Fatui guards, Childe slammed the doors to the bank
shut behind him. Below the stairs was a sea of people ebbing and flowing with fear. The rain
began to turn to a trickle, the clouds slowly dissipating overhead. The short storm was beginning to
subside, bolstered by the cloud of smoke and debris from the destruction of the jade chamber in the
distance.
Perhaps Zhongli was right. Perhaps he should trust the geo archon as much as he trusted his
Tsaritsa. Perhaps he should trust the adepti and Lumine’s strength, though that thought was not
pleasant. Very rarely had Childe trusted anyone’s strength other than his own. If he was there in
the jade chamber with her, she would not fall to her death, not on his life.
The idea sat oddly in his mind. If he was at her side at the jade chamber, if he was helping her
defend a city of thousands of lives and families - if he was a good guy.
Gross.
It seemed like forever ago that he leaned on the balcony in this very spot, watching the crowd of
people move like waves underneath him. It seemed like forever ago that he caught a glimpse of
blonde hair one evening, and thought of proving a fortune teller wrong. Forever ago, he told Nadia
that he would not meet the love of his life. Forever ago, he was so confident in his ability to change
the structure of the universe.
Love was a very humbling experience. Tartaglia hated to be humbled.
“Aja- Childe, I mean…” a dark pause, “I thought I said I didn’t want to see your face again.”
And Zhongli was right. He really should be more trusting, though in his defense the geo Archon
did just lie to him about his identity for months on end. It was difficult to trust his word when he
had pulled the heavy wool over his eyes and brought him so much distress - making him think he
inadvertently killed his starmate.
Yet, there she stood.
There, she watched him at the top of the stairs, her eyes wide and shocked. She had dust in her
hair and streaks of dirt on her dress. Red, angry scrapes lined her arms, but she was alive. She was
alive, and well, and speaking, and breathing, and looking at him with those eyes he would never be
able to forget even if he tried.
Lumine was alive.
And Childe, being the person he was, could not take her up into his arms and swing her around
the way he wanted. He could not hold her, he could not kiss her, fall to his knees and pronounce his
immense concern for her. That would just be stupid, contradictory, for he had summoned the
ancient force that nearly killed her in the first place.
He was the reason she looked so bad, now. He was the reason her shocked stare turned into a
hard glare, the reason her hands were red and her arms were scraped, the reason her knees shook
with fear. He was the reason that she stood on the stairs, now, unable to move for fear that she
would have her neck slit any moment then.
All Ajax could do was sigh, and force his gaze away, “Go ahead and attack me, I know that’s
what you want.”
“Attack you?” Lumine scoffed, “I’m not wasting energy on you anymore. If I tried to fight you
right now that would be a compliment,” she knew exactly how he thought, the exact buttons to
push to shatter him from the inside out, “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t give you the chance to
fight back, you’d like that too much.”
He would. She was correct, another battle between them would mean that she wanted to give him
the time of day. Yet, that was all he wanted.
Fight me, stop staring at me like you don’t know me. Just fight me and be yourself right now.
“You won,” he sighed bitterly, “I hate to say it, but you won. It turned out the way you wanted
after all.”
“...H-How?”
“I don’t have the gnosis,” an uncaring shrug, “and neither do you.”
“So who does?”
A scowl, “La Signora.”
“I hate her.”
“So do I.”
“Tell me, why does she have the gnosis?”
“Ask Rex Lapis yourself,” another glance, another opportunity for him to gather her body in his
arms and kiss her senseless. He resisted the urge, “He’s in the bank.”
“Rex Lapis…” Lumine tasted the name on her tongue, “is alive? Here? In the bank?”
Another sigh, “Yes. He tricked us both, Lumi.”
“You being tricked does not excuse the fact that you could have ended thousands of innocent
lives today.”
It did not. And the entire ordeal went against his own conscience in the end, though he knew that
serving the Tsaritsa was the first priority. Signora thought he should be happy that he caused
destruction and chaos, and while it was quite the sight, he could not bear the thought of seeing the
dead bodies of these people he passed by every day. He could not bear the thought of little boys
like Teucer lying dead in the streets. His heart twisted again, as if there was a fist around it,
squeezing tighter and tighter with every passing second.
“Lumi,” a whisper, an avoidance of her tired eyes, “I thought you were dead.”
She glared, her voice steely and uncaring, “Xiao saved me.”
“Who...” he took a deep breath and shut his eyes, “is Xiao?”
“None of your business,” Lumine raised her chin and huffed, “Not as if you care, anyway. The
second I give you a chance you go and try to destroy Liyue.”
“I have a job, you know, one that pays very nicely. I could buy you a mansion if you wante-”
“I don’t want a mansion,” she snapped, “I want you to be nice.”
He frowned childishly, his chin in his palm, “I’m nice.”
“You tried to kill everybody in Liyue!”
“...I would’ve stopped Osial before he got to Liyue…”
“Sure,” Lumine rolled her eyes, “Everytime I speak to you I’m reminded of exactly why we’re
enemies. I don’t give a crap that we’re starmates, Childe, the pattern of the stars does not determine
my life.”
He huffed, “I thought that once as well.”
“I mean it, Ajax,” the use of his name was like a lance through the heart, making him flinch and
step away from her glare, “I will live without love if it means staying away from you.”
If it meant staying away from him. She would live her life without a partner, without a mate. And
while many people were naturally disposed to that, he knew that she was not. Lumine wanted love,
she desired it, and she was trapped in a gilded cage with him.
His heart clenched. Childe took another breath, still leaning on the railing and avoiding her eyes,
“Do you really hate me so much?”
Did she despise him already? Lumine sighed and walked past him, her arms crossed and her gaze
pointed straight ahead. “I’m hesitant to even give you another chance. Frankly, I want nothing to
do with you. I almost died, you know.”
“I know,” a whisper, “I know you did. I saw what happened.”
“You have no idea-”
“I know, Lumine. I saw your body in the air, falling like a ragdoll. I was terrified, and frankly I
was almost about to try and catch you myself. I have spent the last half hour thinking that…”
“That what?”
He could not see her. She stood behind him as he stared blankly at the buildings across the street,
“That you were dead. You have no idea how that feels.”
“I have an idea of it. I don’t even know if Aether is alive or not, you would remember that about
me if you ever thought of anyone besides yourself.”
That cut deep. It was a poisoned dagger digging into his skin, “I think of Aether too, I’ve sent out
spies to look for him.”
“Well,” she spat, “then that is all I ever wish to speak with you about. Do not contact me about
anything other than news about my brother. We are strictly business now, you and I.”
He was suffocating. The feeling felt similar to his foul legacy transformation, falling under a pool
of black water and letting it pour into every crevice available. He shut his eyes, unable to stand the
loud and overwhelming world around him while he processed her words. Do not contact her, do not
speak to her, strictly business.
Where to even begin with that?
“Okay,” breathless, Childe turned around to finally face her, “just promise me this one thing. And
I want a genuine promise this time, Lumine.”
Devastatingly so, she avoided his eyes. “For what?”
“I know how you are,” a bitter smile, “I know you’ll want to kill La Signora the minute you walk
through those doors. For me, just this once, do as I ask and hold yourself back, please? She’s not
like me… She won’t hesitate to slit your throat. And then I wouldn’t hesitate to slit hers, and it
would just be this huge mess.”
Lumine met his eyes in sweet relief, though her glare was steely and cold. After a heavy pause,
she answered him “I think I’ll believe you, just this once. Somehow, I’ll find the strength to keep
from attacking her.”
He sighed, “Thank you.”
“How did La Signora end up with the gnosis anyhow?” She wrinkled her nose in confusion, an
expression he wasn’t aware that he’d treasure one day, “I didn’t think anyone else was involved in
this.”
He ran a tired hand through his hair, “Me neither. But apparently she had a deal with Zhongli the
entire time.”
“Zhongli?”
“Yes,” another grimace, “Lumi, he’s been playing his own game. It explains a lot, actually.” Like
why he leaked info about the Golden House, why he allowed Childe to tag along so much, why he
didn’t complain or question the financial sponsorship, “I’ll let him explain it, but basically he
tricked us both for his own weird ideas and beliefs. It’s why I was out here,” he gestured to the
humid air and the panicked crowd below, “I needed to just get away from him for a bit, process
what happened. We both lost, printsessa, but at least it’s fair like you wanted.”
“It’s fair, but I still won’t forgive you, no matter how much you were tricked.”
“I meant what I said at the Golden House,” he took a step forward, hands hovering around her
arms as if he was hesitating whether to hold her or not, “I love you, I was telling the truth.”
Lumine stepped back and glared, “I really don’t want to hear that right now, Childe. I’m too angry
right now. I’m angry at the stars, the universe, you. I’m just… I can’t handle you right now.”
He wanted a fight. He wanted her to throw things, to yell and be childish, to cross her arms and
glare at him in that haughty way he adored. Now, she was just sad, she was just uncaring, cold. All
he wanted was one half second of normality, a taste of what they could be, what they were.
Childe understood her anger, in some odd way. He was angry too - how could the stars be so
cruel as to put someone like her with someone like him? He sighed and resigned to taking her hand
in his own, letting the warmth of her skin sink in as he fabricated every inch of her face to his
memory, “Okay. I’m just… I’m just happy to know you’re alive.”
She glared, “It would be your fault if I died.”
“Trust me, I know that.”
“I can’t stand your voice, or your face,” the glare intensified, “or your words, or how you look at
me. I can’t stand what you’ve done, what you believe. I can’t stand your stupid smile and your
stupid-”
“I get it, you can’t stand me,” Childe faked a smile and ignored the pain, “That’s pretty rude to
say to the man who adores you.”
“Please just go away.”
“As you wish,” he understood, he knew that she was shaken, on death’s door and betrayed one too
many times. As much as it hurt, he raised her knuckles to his lips, kissing each one while flickering
his eyes above her hand to meet her gaze, “But, printsessa, you know we’re inevitable.”
“Let me cool down,” a sigh, “please?”
“As you wish, lyubimaya moya,” another press of his lips against her hand as he closed his eyes,
“I’ll try my best to one day be good enough for you… though I doubt that will ever happen.”
“We’ll see,” a whisper, pink cheeks and a glare, “But I honestly think the stars have a sick sense
of humor.”
“They do, they’re being cruel.”
“Do you know to prove to me that they’re not?”
“I,” he pulled back, air catching in his throat, “I don’t know.”

“Then… Then,” Lumine pulled her hand back and stepped away, “Get over it, loser.”
“...What?”
That was the last thing Lumine said to him. That was the last words she left him with, like a slap
to the face.
Get over it, loser.
Lumine walked into the bank. She resisted the urge to stab La Signora. She resisted the urge to
stab Zhongli as well, of all people.
And after half an hour, Signora left, passing by Childe as she held the precious gnosis in her
hands, and waved at him absently, “Come, let us return to Zapolyarny palace, Childe.”
“Why do you think she said that?” Immediately, he asked, “Lumine told me to get over it, what
does that mean in woman talk?”
Signora gasped, “Woman talk?”
“Yes, Lumine said-”
“Get your mind off the traveler, and on the mission at hand, Childe. Don’t make me tell the
Tsaritsa of your distractedness.”
He huffed as he dropped from the clouds and returned the asinine situation at hand, “Fine, but I
don’t want to share a boat with the likes of you.”
“Okay,” she sang, “doesn’t hurt my feelings. Get your own boat and be grumpy all by yourself on
the way back. I’ll have the servants prepare a bucket of ice cream and some wine for you when
you return.”
Perfect. Even if he could not stand Signora, her condescension did come in handy sometimes.
The boat left that evening, as night fell and the city recovered from it’s shock. Childe managed to
hide before Ningguang could locate him, though he left the stationed recruits at the bank to her
mercy. The Tsaritsa would send someone much better at diplomacy to quell the Qixing’s anger and
fix the relations between their countries. At least they had the gnosis, her will was done, and he
could finally go home.
Childe did not see Lumine after their conversation. She disappeared into the bank to speak with
Zhongli, having left with the funeral consultant to finish seeing the memory of Rex Lapis off.
Childe was long gone by the time she wandered the streets of Liyue once more.
The boat ride was a comfort, though he could hardly sleep. He’d never had trouble sleeping
before now, but the sight of the moon outside of his window kept him awake. By the time he and
La Signora returned to the Tsaritsa, the dark circles underneath his eyes had grown. The Tsaritsa,
in her infinite kindness, only chewed him out a little bit.
She knew, of course she did. She knew everything about her Harbingers. He assumed that after he
left the palace, Signora filled her in on his minor breakdown at the bank. That would be a
wonderful memory to look back upon.
Time to return to Morepesok, time to forget.
Going home was always an interesting experience. It was safe to say that all of his family was
quite eccentric. Ajax did not end up as Tartaglia for no good reason, there was quite the logical
explanation behind that transformation.
He’d be out of a job if he was not a Harbinger. He’d be absolutely fired and put on the streets if he
was not so damn good at slitting throats. He wouldn’t tell his father that, of course, it would only
make him worry. Ajax knew, though, that even if he was fired he would still provide for them as
best as he could. Fortunately, he was not, and even more fortunately, he was not beheaded for
nearly ruining the diplomatic relations between Snezhnaya and Liyue.
Yay for him. He was not a traitor to his own country, and he was not a frozen statue in the
Tsaritsa’s basement. His mother would appreciate that fact.
The house key was brittle between his fingers. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, his bags
over his shoulders and his coat covering the winterized uniform underneath. An immediate blast of
warm air kissed his cheek as he walked in, it was the comfort of home wrapping around him and
hiding him from the rest of the world.
As Ajax shut the door to shield the house from the bitter cold outside, a scream of joy caught his
ears. He could not help but smile as Tonia rounded the corner with a heavy blanket wrapped over
her shoulders. She nearly tackled him, followed by Teucer, and a blank eyed Anthon watching
from the doorframe. “I’m so glad you’re back!” Tonia screeched into his waist, “You didn’t die!”
She just had to say things like that. Teucer scoffed and squeezed his leg tighter, “Of course big
brother isn’t dead! He’s the strongest in the world!”
Of course. Of course, Teucer knew how it was. Laughing, Ajax knelt over and wrapped an arm
around each of them, pulling their little bodies closer as he buried his nose in their shoulders. “I
missed you so much, you’ve no idea, little ones. I’ve thought about you every day since I’ve been
gone.”
“You should have been!” Tonia ripped herself away, dramatically sighing and putting the back of
her hand to her forehead, “I have been dying, Ajax! I have been utterly tortured! Mother has made
me eat cabbage again! Cabbage, Ajax!”
“Cabbage?” Anthon gasped dramatically, “Oh really? Is it killing you to eat vegetables?”
Anthon was 13 now, that age where sarcasm and anger took over every little thought. Childe was
nine when he was born, and 11 when Tonia arrived as a happy accident. When he turned 13,
neither of them were old enough to understand what was going on at the time, but after several
years passed they quickly realized the reality of the situation when they saw their older brother
being dragged away from the half beaten body of a grown man in the middle of the street.
Ajax still felt bad for that. No child should have to see that much blood mixing with the snow.
Teucer was the only one who had never seen that side of him. At the age of eight, he and Ajax
were 14 years apart. He was only four years old when Ajax was appointed to Harbinger at the
tender age of 18. That was after two years of service as an agent under the direct orders of the
Tsaritsa, though he still visited home as often as he could to help his mother and father with raising
their very last child. They only hoped that Teucer would not be as much of a hellion as he was.
Smiling, he took in their scents. Sugar and cookies, pumpkin spice and evergreen. Burying his
nose in Tonia’s brown hair, he let out a soft chuckle, “I won’t make you eat cabbages as long as
I’m here. But I will make you eat carrots, those are much better for you.”
“Carrots?” She gasped up at him, “Disgusting! I’ll turn orange!”
Anthon snorted, “You’d look prettier if you were orange.”
“Shut up!”
Teucer groaned and pulled away from the hug. He put his hands on his hips, resembling
Anastasia - the eldest sister - as he huffed and puffed, “Stop it! Big brother just got home and you
two are already arguing? It’s annoying! I’m trying to enjoy myself here!”
Trying to enjoy himself, he says. Ajax snorted under his breath, giving Teucer one last squeeze
before standing up, his hand tussling his hair, “Where’s mama?”
“In here, my boy,” a sweet voice from the kitchen, the sound of home, the sound of comfort and
childhood, “I was going to give you a moment to hear Tonia’s complaints before I said hello.”
“How kind,” he laughed again, it seemed like all he ever did when he was home, “but you know I
want to see you no matter the complaints.”
Tonia huffed, “My complaints are very important, sir Knight. I’m quite distraught over the
cabbage.”
“I can only imagine, princess.”
Teucer looked up at him with wide eyes, “What does distraught mean? Is it a bad word?”
“Please,” Ajax hugged him closer to his hip once more, “never grow up. I will never tire of your
innocence.”
“But I want to grow up!”
He wished he wouldn’t. His mother mirrored his expression, appearing around the corner with a
wooden spoon in her hand and an old apron tied around her waist. Ajax advanced through the
living room and gathered her up in a hug, taking her by surprise as he lifted her feet from the
ground. She laughed in shock and hit his shoulder, “Put me down! Old women are not to be
manhandled!”
“I missed you,” he wore a smile as he gently set her on her feet, her house shoes tapping on the
scratched wooden floors he’d grown up on, “You would not believe the stories I have, mama, meet
me on the front porch tonight with some hot chocolate.”
Tonia and Teucer gasped in offense, “I want to hear them too!” She complained, “Don’t leave me
out!” Even Anthon, who was far too cool for his big brother’s stories now, looked mildly
interested.
Ajax sent them a smile over his shoulder, “I’ll tell you the abridged versions later, they’re really
quite boring.”
“Are they about that girl?”
“...Hm?”
Teucer pouted, “That girl! The lady you wrote about in your last letter!”
“Oh…” his heart curled up in his throat, he coughed it down with a fake smile, “Some of them
are, I guess. Not the interesting ones, at least.”
His mother sent him a suspicious glance, “I half expected her to be at your side with how ardently
you spoke of her. Where is she now?”
“I’ll… I’ll have to tell you later, mama. Let’s not talk about that right now,” another forced smile,
another hug as he buried his nose into her hair, “let’s just focus on us. How’s father?”
“Oh, you know,” she spoke into his shoulder with a laugh, though she could not hide the concern
lacing her voice, “headaches and stress. The old fart’s still kicking, though, our family doesn’t give
up very easily.”
Ajax pulled away, “Please don’t tell me he’s still working? Do I not send enough money to
support you guys? I’ll send mor-”
“No,” she whispered, “he does it for himself. He’s a lot like you, he can’t sit still. I imagine you’d
go stir crazy with retirement as well.”
If he ever did get to retire. He’d never thought of such a future before meeting Lumine, always
imagining that he’d die at a young age. Yet, the thought of growing old with her now was sweet,
comforting almost, albeit still a bit boring. She’d manage to keep him entertained through the
years, though, he knew that.
He sighed and smiled, “Well, when he comes back let me cook dinner for you all. It’s been a
while since I’ve been able to make my specialty.”
“Soup,” Anthon grinned, his voice crackling as he turned away. He truly was the classic 13 year
old, trying his best to hold back the embarrassment of growing up. “S-Sounds nice… Not like we
don’t have that every single day.”
“This’ll be different,” he reminded, “it’ll be my soup. Don’t think I don’t remember how much
you eat, Annie.”
“D-Don’t call me that! You’re so embarrassing!”
Anthon would understand the role of a big brother one day, the embarrassment he was obliged to
provide. As much as Ajax adored his younger siblings, he still would find ways to make Anthon
blush, or to see Tonia gasp and punch him. Teucer was the only one immune to his wiles, far too
young and admiring to care.
“I’ll help you cut the veggies,” his mother put a hand on his back, leading him to the kitchen,
“and you can tell me everything I’ve missed. I’ll fill in your father when he comes back later.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to wait until he comes back? It’s tradition to sit on the porch with
hot chocolate and-”
“And look at the stars, talking about everything that’s happened while you’re away,” she offered
a sly smile, “we can still do that, but I have found that since you wrote that very… gratuitous letter
about that girl, I have not been able to get my mind off anything else.”
“And…” he raised an innocent brow, “why would that be?”
“I’m just a concerned mother. You’re my little boy,” she leaned on her tiptoes and squished his
cheeks together, “You’re the only one of marriageable age that’s not married yet, besides Sacha,
and goodness knows when he’ll settle down.”
“When pigs fly, probably.”
“You are a much richer source of gossip, my dear Ajax, and your grandbabies will be beautiful.”
“How do you know? They could be bridge trolls for all you know.”
“Are you going to marry a bridge troll?”
He thought of Lumine throwing a chair at him and biting Zhongli in the arm, “In a way, yes.”
“Well, they’ll still be beautiful nonetheless. I can’t wait,” she clenched her fists in excitement,
“Ana’s kids are such brats-”
“Mama, those are my nephews, your grandchildren! How could you speak ill of-
“Little Nik tried to set the house on fire last week!”
“Ah…”
“At least you didn’t have pyro,” she gritted her teeth and walked to the kitchen, Teucer gripping at
the back of her apron as she went, “you at least helped me fill the mop bucket and wash the dishes
with your vision. It was quite useful.”
He still did that. When home, he would always take over the cleaning and half of the cooking.
Housework went by much faster when he could control water, dishes were cleaned more
thoroughly, the floor was shined perfectly, and laundry seemed to go by with much more speed.
While he was only home for about a week every few months or so, he wanted it to feel like a
vacation for his parents. Seven kids was a lot, and Anthon was hardly willing to help, and where
Tonia was willing, she lacked the skill. Teucer was just far too young to be of much use besides the
simplest of tasks.
His oldest brother was in his 30’s, with a wife and children. He hardly wrote anymore, and hardly
stopped by except most likely once or twice a year. Ajax didn’t know his niece and nephew very
well, but would still send them money on their birthdays. He was okay with being the distance
uncle with a lot of money.
After him was the second eldest brother, Sacha, who thought he was a celebrity. He was part of
the adventurer’s guild, frequently climbed tall mountains, and frequently romanced exotic women.
There was no hope of him ever settling down, Ajax could imagine him still womanizing as an old
man one day.
Next, was Anastasia. She was married as well, with two young boys who were far worse than
Childe was at that age. He imagined that they would mellow out as they grew older, which was the
complete opposite with him. He knew them better than his older brother’s children, but still didn’t
have the opportunity to see them very much. He, also, sent them gifts on their birthdays - though
instead of mora, it was more so random toys he found in the cities he visited.
The fourth child was him, the best baby. He was not planned, but considered a pleasant surprise.
He was very calm, he hardly cried, and he adored his father and brothers. Until something changed
in him, and from then on the subject of his bloodlust was tightly skirted around.
Anthon was next, actually planned this time. He was meant to be a girl. They gave up after him,
but then was surprised with Tonia. After her, his mother and father thought ‘what the hell lets do it
again’ and had Teucer. Mother truly was getting too old to have any more children by then, which
Ajax was grateful for. Her arthritis couldn’t handle another baby.
He wondered if that was how he and Lumine would be. Nine kids, it was unimaginable. He had a
feeling that the superfluous number was merely a weird joke, and the amount of kids would only
turn out to be two, or maybe three. He could not see himself living like his parents. As much as he
adored his siblings, he could not stand being tied down by a huge family, stuck in one place until
the surprise babies grew old enough to leave the nest. He wanted kids, just perhaps not that many.
“Alright, my little monster,” mama shook Teucer off her waist, “go sit at the table and pick your
nose, or something. Color me a picture with your boogers.”
“Gross! But… I’ll color you a picture with my crayons, if you’re okay with that.”
“Perfectly okay. And Tonia,” she grimaced at the 11 year old, “go do something productive, like,
uh… dig a hole in the backyard and bury a potato, or something.”
“I did that yesterday!”
“Bury a radish, then!”
“I hate radishes!”
“Go,” she waved a nonchalant hand and pulled out an apron from the kitchen closet, “your brother
and I must discuss adult things. Be like Anthon and start ignoring us, go to your room and brood
about your zits and hormones, or something.”
“Mother!”
Ajax tied the familiar apron around his waist as he spoke, “I’ll admit, I dealt with this stuff too,
Tonia. I was kicked out to go bury potatoes more times than you can count.”
She gasped, “Did you actually do it?”
“Of course! I grew the best garden, full of all different kinds of potatoes!”
“Liar,” his mother whispered, “your garden died every year. You couldn’t keep a cactus alive.”
Probably because it was constantly freezing here. He sent her a smile, “Tonia doesn’t need to
know that.”
“I’ll go,” Tonia lifted her chin haughtily, “I’ll build the best potato garden you’ve ever seen!”
“I believe it, my princess. You’ll have the biggest garden in all of Snezhnaya.”
“The biggest!”
“The best!”
Teucer scratched at a paper with crayons as he sat at the table, his voice loud as he interrupted,
“Didn’t you say that last year too? And the year before?”
But this year was going to be different, she informed. Ajax watched as she stuck out her tongue
and stomped into the backyard, little feet making tracks in the snow as she searched for a good plot
of land. Anthon was upstairs, having retreated to his privacy long ago. With Teucer distracted and
the house empty of other prying ears, his mother finally leaned against the counter with a smile
reminiscent of his own, one that spelled trouble.
Ajax’s villainous streak did not come from thin air. His mother was a treasure hunter, once upon a
time. She was the leader of a sect in Snezhnaya that terrorized the nearby villages. On a
particularly dangerous heist one day, the Adventurer’s Guild sent out his father, their top
investigator and biggest hero, to catch her.
To make a long story short, she beat him up, and he fell in love. Ajax chose to ignore the obvious
comparisons.
While his mother had given up treasure hoarding and thievery long ago, she still had that
mischievous glimmer. She still smiled as if she was about to steal your mora from your pocket, still
staring at you as if she was appraising your value and deciding how worth it of a mark you were.
His father, on the other hand, was as sweet as a puppy, and as heroically innocent as a novel
character. They were the oddest couple in Morepesok, and had the oddest children.
As he grabbed a knife and searched the cabinet for the veggies, his mother continued her smile.
He had learned to ignore it long ago, though her eyes continued to jab at him as he searched. “Hm,
you’ve moved things around? Ah,” he smiled, “here are the carrots.”
“Stop acting innocent,” her giggle was low and mischievous, like a young girl getting ready to
gossip about boys with her best friend, “I want to know everything about her.”
He washed the carrot off with a bit of hydro and set to work, “There’s nothing to tell. She’s just a
friend.”
“Then why are your cheeks pink?”
“Because it’s hot in here,” he shrugged, “you have the fire going very hot today.”
“Liar! Tell me everything!”
This was meant to be on the porch at night, after the kids had fallen asleep. This was meant to be
discussed over hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows, watching the stars above and breathing
puffs of cold air as they spoke. That was tradition, that was what they did every time he came
home. “Father might be angry if I tell you first, I should just wait until he’s home-”
“Come on,” she nudged him, “you can tell me the good stuff without him getting all
embarrassed-”
“What if I get embarrassed?”
“Impossible!”
“.... Yes, you have a point. And father does fluster easily…” he sighed and continued chopping at
the veggies, “but there’s nothing embarrassing about it anyway. Like I said, we were just friends.
We were only together for a total of… I don’t know, 15 seconds or so.”
“15 seconds?” She gasped in horror, “That’s! ... That’s….”
“Pitiful? I know. Hilarious too? Also, I know.”
“Yes, it’s both of those. But also exciting, my little AJ was in a relationship for the first time
ever!”
It truly was the first time ever, he’d never cared much for dating before. Like all children, he was
smitten with the idea of marriage at one time, but as he grew older he found himself far more
distracted by other pursuits. Not everybody in the world had a starmate, or a constellation, and
perhaps that explained his utter lack of interest in liking anybody. He was, subconsciously, waiting
for Lumine.
But then again, Lumine was head over heels for Huffman this entire time, so that theory was
probably very wrong.
His mother had always been worried for him. Long ago, she resigned herself to seeing him alone
forever. Once he became a Harbinger, that concern only grew into acceptance. He would be
connected to his job forever, it was extremely rare for Harbingers to be married and tied down.
Several of them were, but the spouses lived anonymously, and oftentimes were very lonely. It was
far more simple to stay single when living this life, and his mother knew that. She accepted it.
Until now, with this glimmer in her eye and that smile on her lips. She was expecting something.
Ajax supposed he should indulge her, just this once. It was not as if she’d ever get this opportunity
again.
“She’s beautiful, mama,” he whispered as he chopped and sliced the veggies, keeping his eyes on
his work and his mind elsewhere, “Her name is Lumine, she’s funny and exciting, and so clever
when she wants to be. She’s so prideful that it’s annoying. She never believes me when I tell the
truth, and it’s frustrating, but I just can’t stop liking that about her. I can’t stop thinking about
her…” he slowed in his work, sighing, “She always starts these stupid fights with me, she
challenges everything I do, she’s exhausting, but it’s in a good way. She just…”
“... Makes you happy?”
“I think so, yes.”
“You think so?”
He sent her a bashful smile, “I don’t really know what that’s like, truth be told.”
“Shut up,” she nudged him again, “yes you do. You know the feeling of coming home to your
brothers and sister, and sitting in front of a fire with my pumpkin pie. You know the feeling of a
good fight, of arguing with this Lumine girl, of cooking a good seafood stew and seeing Teucer
happy.”
“That’s contentment, mamachka-”
“And that is happiness,” she lectured, “Do you think I want to bounce off the walls all the time?
Do you think I want to sing for joy each morning? No! But I’m okay, Ajax, I love your father and
all of our children, even if you worry me half to death. When we go to the market together, I’m
comfortable with him at my side, I’m content to have him hold my hand. I’m at peace. And that is
all I want for you, my love, is peace.”
Peace.
That was all she wanted for her son who raised hell on a regular basis. Peace was all she wanted
for the boy who terrorized this village for years, who snuck out at night and ran into the woods to
disappear for weeks on end. Peace. That was all she wished for, and most likely more so for him
than any of her other children.
He was the least peaceful person in Snezhnaya.
Did Lumine make him feel at peace?
When she wasn’t trying to argue with him, yes.
“I almost ended her life, mama,” he whispered, looking at his hands, ungloved and bare in the
light of his childhood kitchen, “twice, actually. We fought once, and the second time was
inadvertently. If she was not saved by someone else with her, she would not be alive. And while I
can usually move on from something like that, I…”
“You’re right,” she pointed out, “that isn’t like you. Ajax, you’ve always looked to the future
instead of the past. Since when did guilt and regret eat away at you like this?”
“Since I imagined myself killing her.”

“But you didn’t, did you?”
He sighed, “No, she’s alive.”
“Then why beat yourself up,” she offered a nonchalant shrug, “I almost killed your father several
times! He kept trying to get me to join the Adventurer’s Guild, I kept trying to stab him. We’re
weird, and so are you, and I hope this girl is too. Maybe that kind of stuff wouldn’t fly in other
relationships… but you do whatever the heck you want in your own! As long as you’re not hurting
each other or anyone else, stab away!”
Stab away was the opposite of not hurting each other. He snorted as he drained the vegetables into
a deep pot, starting the fire on the stove as he worked. With a moment of silence falling between
them and the sound of Teucer humming to himself from the table, he took a moment to think.
He did almost kill Lumine. That was true.
But she was alive now, so what did it matter? Other than the guilt that ate away at his chest when
he lay awake at night, or the memory of the look on her face that refused to leave his mind.
“She said something interesting,” he broke the silence with a casual hum, leaning against the
counter now, “she told me to prove to her that the stars were not cruel-”
“The stars?” A gasp, wide eyes and the biggest smile he’d ever seen, “The stars, you say? Does
that mean what I think?”
“She’s under Viatrix, I believe,” he thought for a moment, “the adepti of Liyue assured me that it
was true - we are starmates.”
Several days ago he had been on a boat to Snezhnaya, laying on the deck and staring at the velvet
sky. He found Monoceros Caeli, the tip of his furthest star connected with Viatrix’s sword. He
recalled following the pattern down, and noticing how their shapes intertwined so greatly, so
jumbled together with bright silver starlights. The middle of Viatrix also made up the sides of
Monoceros Caeli. His constellation was only visible in Snezhnaya, though Lumine’s lit up
everywhere he went.
His mother clasped her hands together and gasped, “How amazing! I knew you had a
constellation,” everyone with a vision did, “but I never thought that… t-that you’d actually be
destined for someone!”
“Thanks mama, that’s really sweet that you never thought I’d find love.”
“You know what I mean! You’ve always been so uninterested in that kind of stuff!” She wrapped
her arms around him from behind and buried her face into his back, making him smile as he held
her hands at his waist, “You’ll have to show your father and I the constellations tonight, I want to
see just how intertwined you are. You know in Sumeru they say that the more your stars connect,
the more you’ll love each other. Tell me, is it just one little star, or…”
It was almost every star. He sighed, “You’ll just have to see for yourself.”
“So mean… What were you saying about what she said? I didn’t mean to interrupt, something
about proving that the stars were not cruel?”
Back to the memories of that dreadful conversation. He chose chocolate ice cream on the boat
ride to Snezhnaya, it soothed him the best. “I just messed up big time, and she wants me to show
her that she’s not destined to be with some terrible monster of a man.”
“Well, she’s not,” she snorted against his back, still holding him, “you have many wonderful
qualities, Ajax.”
He frowned, “You’re only saying that because you’re my mother.”
“Well, yes, but I can see what kind of person you are when the…” a glance at Teucer, a lowered
voice into a whisper, “when the Harbinger thing isn’t going on, when you’re just… yourself, rather
than Childe. Both parts of you are good, of course, but you seem to believe you have absolutely no
redeemable qualities.”
A sigh, “I just wonder what she even wants. Flowers and an apology card? A romantic date?”
“Pft, vapid.”
“What about a long walk on the beach, hand holding under the moonlight?”
“What are you, some trashy novel guy?”
She could be so difficult to please. “How does a million mora sound?”
“Are you trying to make her feel like a hooker?”
“Mother!”
“Ajax!” She gripped him tighter, “Just be yourself! Don’t be Tartaglia, don’t be a Harbinger-”
“That is myself.”
“Okay then, do that too. Be terrifying, boss around soldiers, whatever! Just don’t forget to also
cook for her, to hug her, and show her that you can be gentle. I know you can. I know you catch
spiders and put them outside without killing them. I know you sing songs to Teucer when you put
him to bed.”
“I don’t sing-”
“I’ve heard you, you cannot argue on that fact. You sing like a dying cat, but you put your heart
into it because it makes your little brother laugh.”
True. He thought he was quiet when he did that. “So what you’re saying is that I should just…
carry on doing what I was doing before?”
“If she’s really your starmate…” his mother stepped around him, now smiling up at him, her eyes
wrinkled in the corner and strands of grey falling like starshine between the platinum blonde, “then
she shall see the good and the bad. Hell, she’s probably already seen the bad, all that’s left is the
good!”
How did someone become wise, he wondered. Was it just 20+ years of marriage and the seven
kids, or was she born that way? He doubted that he’d ever get to that point, wisdom tended to skip
generations. “Thanks mama,” a low laugh, “I’m glad I came back here.”
He doubted that there was any good left, but he wouldn’t worry about it. Let the stars fall as they
may, be calm and peaceful and content for once in his life - just let the future come at him however
it so pleased.
Father returned an hour later with a catch of fresh fish, immediately dropping them onto the living
room floor and gathering his fourth son into a hug. Thus, the nagging began, the marital bliss of
having one’s husband dump dead seafood on one’s rug. After the fish, came Teucer insisting on
bringing his deactivated Mr. Cyclops inside the house, Tonia digging up the entire backyard, and
Anthon yelling at them all for being loud and annoying.
It was chaos, it was incredibly messy, and it was home. Much to his mother’s chagrin, he did
manage to drag the Mr. Cyclops inside the house.
Ajax made dinner, as he always did when he came home. He gave his parents a break from taking
care of the kids, letting them have the house to themselves the very next day. Tonia wanted to take
him into the village and show him her new favorite store, while Teucer wanted toys, and Anthon
was simply glad to be out of the house.
Morepesok always shook when he arrived. It was like an unseen earthquake, doors shut and
windows locked. Old men scowled from their spots on the benches, old women rolled their eyes,
store owners groaned in annoyance. Any peers from his age group that were still around had either
glares, or stares of amazement for him. He quite liked coming home to this reaction, it made him
feel rather infamous.
Nobody could forget when he was 15 and had climbed up the clocktower on a bet, just to jump
off and give one old man a heart attack. Nobody could forget when he was 16 and dragged the
unconscious body of a frostarm lawachurl through the streets - it awoke in the middle of town, and
went exactly as expected.
His older brothers were much the same, though far less bloodthirsty and powerful. The eldest had
once bought the entire town’s supply of milk and left it in random places to spoil, for some reason.
Sacha slept with nearly every girl his age in the village. Anthon, even, was a bit of trouble for his
teachers. Tonia would frequently egg the village elder’s house on the basis of ‘teaching that old bat
a lesson’ - they were all punished fittingly. Ajax was the only one who was consistently chaotic.
Where his siblings were normal snot-nosed kids, he took that up a level.
It was safe to say that the people of Morepesok were constantly stressed out.
Ajax took his siblings to the market square. Tonia wanted more eggs to throw, Teucer wanted to
see the old man who gave him chocolate, and Anthon was having a teenage boy moment as he
noticed a pretty girl. It was relatively normal, the temperature being at least bearable on this day.
He only needed three layers, that was a good day.
He hardly wore his uniform when in his hometown, though he kept his delusion and vision on
him, and the red scarf was ever present. As he leaned on the wall and watched his siblings run
around the market, he kept an eye on Anthon beside him. It seemed like just one year ago he was
taking a handful of mora and buying chocolate right alongside Teucer.
Now, he was staring at a girl. Childe grinned and leaned in, “So, you’re into blondes, huh?”
“Shush,” he whispered dramatically, “it’s not just the hair, it’s the eyes and the skin and the
height!”
“The height?”
“She’s short,” Anthon sighed dreamily, “with eyes like honey and skin soft as silk. She could
punch me and I’d say thank you.”
The irony of it all. “We… are really way more alike than you think, bro.”
“She calls me a loser, but I know it’s just because she likes me,” Anthon put a hand under his chin
and laughed, “She’s just too prideful to admit it.”
WIth a heavy sigh and his hand tousling Anthon’s hair, Childe forced the dark thoughts away,
“Just don’t summon an ancient God on a city and you’ll be fine.”
“...What?”
“Nothing. Oh, and get her flowers if you tell her that you love her, doing it during a battle to the
death won’t go over well.”
“What?”
“You’ll be fine,” he laughed and pulled him closer, ignoring the complaints, “I’m sure you’ll do
way better than I did.”
Nobody could do worse than him.
Which happened to mirror exactly what Lumine thought.
Mondsadt, the roof of the Knights headquarters, 2:36 a.m. on a Thursday afternoon. The scrapes
on Lumine’s arms were beginning to heal, and she very fortunately did not have a concussion.
“I-I really don’t understand why we have to be up here,” Barbara was stammering and shivering
behind her, “it’s way too high up…”
Lumine sent her a glance, “That’s the point. I need to get over my fear of heights.”
“But it’s okay to be fearful!” She assured with a squeak, “You had an incredibly traumatizing
experience when you lost Aether, of course you’ll avoid things that remind you of that.”
Things like falling, like looking down a void of nothingness and feeling phantom pangs of wings
long lost. Like hearing Aether scream for help and not being able to help him. Like watching the
ground beneath her feet crumble away with the impact of Childe’s lance, only to break her ribs on
the rubble left over, him floating high above as something else.
Like the jade chamber, like Xiao wrapping his arms around her and bringing her to safety. Like
the feeling of noticing just how beautiful Ajax’s smile was. The feeling of realizing Zhongli’s true
identity. The feeling of saying farewell to an ancient Archon.
Lumine fell from great heights all the time, it was about time she stopped being terrified of it.
“I’m going to get stronger,” she clenched a fist, “I’m going to stop being dumb and getting used
all the time. I’m going to…”
Barbara leaned in, her eyes wide and her fingers soft as she ran them through Lumine’s hair. She
always attempted to braid it, noticing how long it seemed to grow every time she left for a bit.
After being away in Liyue for so long, Barbara found herself twiddling with Lumine’s hair more
than ever. “You’re going to what?”
A confident smile, with the city of Mondstadt below her, as if she owned the place. “I’m going to
try to date Huffman again!”
“Oh goodness, give it a rest!”
“What better way to piss off Childe than to date the guy he hates?”
“No!” Barbara groaned and tugged at her hair, “As much as I don’t want you to date a Fatui
Harbinger, I’d prefer that over making him jealous and bringing his wrath upon Mondstadt.”
She had a point, it really was a decision between the lesser of two evils. Lumine sighed again, her
feet kicking in the air as she sat on the edge of the fortress, ignoring the racing of her heart. “It’s
not like Huffman would want me anyway, I’m far too emasculating.”
Barbara giggled, “What about Albedo, or that Xiao guy you mentioned?”
“I considered them both,” Lumine answered as if she’d had this conversation with herself far too
many times in her head, “but every time I do I just get stumped…”
“By what?”
“Albedo’s nice, but he’s so… nice…”
“He’s so nice?”
“Too nice.”
“How can someone be too nice?”
They could, somehow. “And Xiao isn’t nice at all, but he just…” Lumine sighed in defeat, “he
doesn’t laugh when I do something dumb.”
Barbara’s gaze flattened, “So how could Huffman possibly be the right one, then? He’s also too
nice, and he doesn’t laugh at your stupid jokes either.”
“He’s safe, though, he’s sturdy and stable and he wouldn’t summon a slumbering god to destroy a
city.”
“But is he fun?”
“...Not at all.”
She sighed as if speaking to a child, “Why don’t you ask Barbatos? They say that if you climb to
his hands on the statue and let some dandelion seeds free in the wind, they’ll go to your one true
love.”
Venti probably scattered them to the most random of people just for fun. He would probably send
her seeds to a mitachurl.
But, it did sound fun, and it would be a practice in overcoming her fear of heights. Even if Venti
laughed at her for believing such an archaic rumor. “I might do it… but not now, I just want to
spend some time enjoying you and everybody else here.”
Barbara laid her head on her shoulder absently, “That’s good, we could use your help. You should
gather a ton of dandelion seeds, though, like 10 pounds of them.”
That would be a lot of dandelion seeds. But Lumine couldn’t imagine it any other way, she loved
very largely, so she would send off the biggest cloud of seeds she could possibly gather.
“I’ll make it 15 pounds. Barbatos would have no choice but to send them to the right person, then,
he couldn’t possibly drop 15 pounds of dandelion fluff on some poor random soul.”
Three months passed. Ajax spent it with his family, milling about the Fatui offices in Morepesok
and doing odd jobs here and there. His siblings were glad to have him home for so long, and he
knew that the Tsaritsa was keeping him free from work for a reason. He needed this.
Unfortunately, Childe was feeling as if he was about to go insane.
Lumine would not get off his mind. No amount of sailing on the cold sea helped clear his head.
No amount of fighting, no amount of work. No amount of anything would erase her memory.
Those sad eyes, her refusal to attack him at the end, her refusal to give him more than a minute of
her time.
Three months. 91 days. The Tsaritsa was finally sending him back to Liyue.
He stepped off the boat and onto the harbor. The humidity of the sea of clouds was stifling, but
not nearly as stifling as the thousands of dandelion fluffs in his hair and mouth, on his clothes,
hiding in his scarf, in his boots somehow.
He was absolutely drenched in the seeds. It looked as if his hair turned white, as if someone had
very pointedly dumped buckets over his head. Once he sailed past Mondstadt territory, it was as if
a cloud of seeds floated towards him and dropped down all at once, targeting him very
specifically.
Childe sighed and spit out another stray fluff from his tongue. Hopefully, he could get through
this assignment without anything else weird happening.
Chapter End Notes
Just imagine Lumine standing on the statue, scattering huge bags of dandelion seeds
into the air. And Childe, on a boat, suddenly doused with fluffy white stuff. Venti had
far too much fun with that.
Denial & Teucer
Three months of absolute torture.
Of course, this was for Childe’s subordinates, not necessarily for him. He was beginning to be
worse than Scaramouche.
“If you can’t do your job competently, then perhaps I should terminate you from this position? It
shouldn’t be that hard - it’s just the Oceanid.”
It’s just the Oceanid, it shouldn’t be that hard. “S-Sir,” the subordinate was shaking in his boots
like a tiny dog, holding his flimsy little bow to his chest so tightly that his knuckles turned white,
“with all due respect, I-I quit! I can’t take it anymore!”
A pause, a glare, a narrow eyed stare as gears turned in Childe’s head. “You… quit? You’re
quitting? Fine,” he let out a breathy laugh laced with poison, “I can’t stand working with weaklings
like you anyway.”
“Y-You gave me a hunter’s bow to fight to Oceanid with, by myself!”
“Stop complaining and get out of my sight. Return to Snezhnaya with your tail between your legs.
You’re a disgrace to the motherland.”
Childe, officially, was becoming a worse leader than Scaramouche. The only difference between
the two were the intentions behind the sadism. Scaramouche sent his recruits on impossible
missions because he thought it was funny, Childe sent his recruits on impossible missions because
he was frustrated - he hardly realized how he was acting.
The man threw his weapon down. It broke apart on the hard stone of the road, landing at Childe’s
feet. With a huff and a weak glare, he stomped away. He would return his uniform by the end of
the day, lest he be tracked down by other Fatui and branded an imposter under the Tsaritsa’s name.
With crossed arms, Childe watched him go.
“That’s the third one this week, I wonder what’s going on.”
The other recruits stared at the Harbinger in shock. Childe, somehow, had not realized who he
had been directing his anger and frustration towards.
He’d arrived in Liyue a week ago, after the three month hiatus in Morepesok. It was rumored that
the reassignment back to the city of stone was a punishment from the Tsaritsa, as if she was forcing
Tartaglia to be diplomatic for once. He was not looking forward to having to face Ningguang and
her cronies, having to put on that mask of politeness and apologize for the whole Osial thing. He
didn’t understand why they needed an apology in the first place, they were alive.
The jade chamber was gone, but she could always build another. The Tsaritsa had even offered to
loan out a downpayment on a new construction project - Ningguang refused, of course, she knew
better than to place herself under Snezhnaya’s thumb.
Fortunately, he had not yet needed to visit Ningguang. She had taken residence in a very large
mansion on the top of a very large mountain, though the height was not comparable to that of her
late palace. Childe expected that she would respond to his diplomatic letter at some point, the one
he had Ekaterina write since he was far too busy for such things. He had dandelion seeds to pick
out of his hair, recruits to terrorize, and things to kill.
And this was all because of the very interesting news he heard upon his arrival to Liyue.
“Sir, the traveler you had us watch is… is…”
Is what? Childe needed to know that instant, he was covered in white fluff and standing on the
harbor looking like a giant, walking dandelion.
“She’s going on a date with a knight of Favonius!”
Since the news came like a brick to the face, Childe had been frustrated. He was half tempted to
march into Mondstadt himself and demand an explanation, though he already knew the
explanation. Lumine was stubborn, Lumine was angry, and Lumine was in denial. So, she reverted
back to doing what she does best, which is fall in love with men who weren’t good matches for her.
A week in Liyue passed since the update. Childe was bloodthirsty, and currently on a mission to
calm himself down by fighting every ruin hunter he could find. Daily, he received an update on
Lumine’s movements in Mondstadt, though they were never very interesting. She’d spent most of
the week terrorizing nearby hilichurl camps by trying to learn their language and communicate
with them. In the evenings, she would join Huffman on his patrols and discuss the semantics of
knighthood - how droll - and then retire for the night in a camp outside of the town. She was
beginning to form a stable routine, one that was brought about over the course of their three month
separation.
Lumine spent the last three months sticking to Mondstadt like a fly on honey. She had not stepped
foot in Liyue, requesting commissions only in Mondstadt. She did odd jobs for the adventurer’s
guild, and traveled with her friends. It sounded relatively normal, and quite comparable to his own
experience of the last three months.
Childe did odd jobs for the Fatui, spent time with his family, and fought things. Morepesok was
beginning to grow accustomed to his presence once more - he dragged another frostarm lawachurl
into the market square, though he handled the fight a lot better than he did at 16. The local
merchants of the sea-side village even began to appreciate him, his frivolous spending helped feed
their families like Kings. Other than that, he would go fishing on the ice, think about Lumine,
practice daily with his vision, and think about Lumine more.
It was safe to say that he dreamt of her. He looked at the clear sky of stars every night,
desperately trying to find their constellations and remind himself that they were still connected.
Each time he found something worthy of a fight, he wished that she were there to see it. Of all
people in the world to witness his growth in strength, he wanted Lumine the most.
Three months. Three months of growing frustration and longing, three months of pining, of
staring at white flowers in the snow and thinking of her. Three months of his mother looking at
him with those knowing eyes everytime he sighed and frowned in zoned-out thought.
Upon returning to Liyue, being covered in dandelion seeds, and hearing of Lumine’s subsequent
plans to date someone that was not him, the frustration only grew. It was getting worse with each
passing day.
The agents assigned to Mondstadt sent him a messenger bird with updates on the situation. The
date was scheduled for Saturday evening, she and Huffman were going on a picnic. The knight was
giving her another chance after Lumine allowed him to save her from a harmless slime that came
for the city gates. Apparently, the whole damsel in distress thing was the key to his heart. Childe
despised that Lumine acted as if she could not kill a tiny slime just to get his attention. She was
better than that.
And, knowing her, she most likely was the one who summoned the slime in the first place. She
was conniving like that.
“Ruin the date,” Childe commanded a group of skirmishers, his hands folded behind his back as
he paced back and forth, “go to Mondstadt and crash their picnic, stomp on their food, and terrorize
the traveler. Let her know who this gift is from. Make her so angry at me that she won’t be able to
resist confronting me.”
“Yes sir!”
Three months of absolute bliss - for Lumine, not for anyone else. She was actually beginning to
become a much more pleasant person.
“Huffman, I baked you a pie. I hope you like it.”
He did like it. He liked it a lot, apple pie with a sugared crust, made in the Good Hunter’s kitchen
where Lumine helped out part time. He’d seen her making wishes by the fountain during the day,
wearing frilly sundresses and curling her longer bits of hair. He’d seen her calmly negotiate with
traders, buy flowers for herself, and be a rather normal person over the last several months.
It was as if she were not Lumine anymore, but someone else entirely.
And, unbeknownst to Huffman, that was slowly killing her inside.
“That pie looked nice, but I know you just want to kick a samachurl off a cliff, Lumi… I know
you just wanna go crazy. Don’t you want to just lose it, Lumine? Don’t you just want to kill
something?”
Yes. She truly did. Taking a deep breath, the traveler put up a hand to halt Kaeya in his tracks,
“Sir knight, I have left that old personality in the past. I’m a lady now, I don’t kill things.”
“That’s rich.”
“I am not rich,” she sighed heavily and put her hands to her chest, “I am but a humble lady of
Mondstadt, trying to get by.”
This humble lady of Mondstadt was currently wiping treasure hoarder blood off her arms in the
pond. She sat on her knees, the yellow floral dress spreading out around her in delicate waves.
Lumine frowned as she dripped more water over the blood and let it fall away from her skin in
tendrils of color. She had only punched the man, yet he so very rudely began to bleed from his
broken nose and get it all over her. Some people were so inconsiderate.
Kaeya knew that as soft as she spoke and as pretty as she tried to be, Lumine’s right hook was still
incredibly mean.
He sat down beside her with a sigh. Leaning back and staring at the clouds above, Kaeya let the
events of the past three months run through his mind once more. It had certainly been interesting to
watch, but was beginning to worry him.
The night Lumine and Barbara spoke, she decided something. She was going to try to get
Huffman’s attention again in some odd attempt to piss off the Harbinger, which was a terrible thing
to do in itself. Yet, that mission turned into something Kaeya could only call ‘Lumine going stir
crazy’.
The first sign of her madness was when Amber found her on the cathedral roof one night, staring
at the stars. She would hardly speak, only muttering something along the lines of ‘the stars are
wrong, the stars are so very wrong’.
The second sign of the madness was Lumine’s sudden disinterest in taking difficult commissions
for the adventurers guild. No, she would not fight that ruin guard, because Childe would like to see
her do that and she will never do what he likes again. No, she would not go to Dragonspine and
fight the lawachurl, because Childe would like to see her do that and she will never do what he
likes again. No, she would not find creative ways to kill hilichurls, because Childe would like that,
and so on, ect…
The third sign of madness was the most obvious. Kaeya backed her into an alleyway one day and
flatly told her, “He’s your soulmate, get over it.”
To which Lumine hissed and recoiled at. She took the next hour to inform Kaeya of the sheer
idiocracy of his statement. That was when he knew, officially, that the traveler was in denial.
It was funny until she started baking pies and summoning slimes. It was a wonder that Huffman
didn’t notice her scattering elemental debris around the city gates to give him an opportunity to
defend her. She was trying to make him feel good, more like a strong man who defended a delicate
little lady.
It was disgusting.
“You can’t tell me that you’re honestly enjoying this little game,” he asked as she dried her arms
with a burst of anemo, “I know how you are.”
“This is who I am now.”
“I see you eyeing Wagner’s new swords sometimes… I know you just want to fight something.”
“Listen,” Lumine huffed and pushed herself up from the ground, “if I change who I am, then
there’s a chance the stars might change. If I become someone Childe absolutely can’t stand, then
he’ll want nothing to do with me.”
He frowned at the sky above, “You’re not going to be able to stand yourself either. While people
can change, it would be a shame to change someone like you.”
Lumine’s eyes were blank, expressionless. She sent him a glance before stepping away to leave,
“I’ve got to go, I’m going on my first date tonight.”
“A picnic, right? How domestic.”
She knew the hidden meaning under his passive aggressive tone. How boring.
Lumine hated it when Kaeya was right.

“It’ll go great,” she sent him a fakely reassuring smile, “I’ve been working for three months
straight to be the kind of girl he’d like, and apparently it’s worked. Perhaps tonight the stars will
shift in the sky, who knows?”
He sent her a look. He didn’t believe her, none of her friends did.
The news of her destiny with a Fatui Harbinger spread rather quickly among her close associates.
A division was created between differing opinions on how Lumine should handle the matter.
Diluc, Amber, Paimon, and Jean were on the side of ‘work hard to change the stars’. Kaeya, Lisa,
Albedo, Sucrose, Barbara, and Venti opposed that idea, consistently reassuring Lumine in various
manners that there was a reason that they were soulmates. Either he changed, or she did. And
Lumine was so wonderfully stubborn that they knew it would not be her who switched sides.
Lumine was rightfully torn between the opinions, so she simply ignored it all. She would go on a
date with Huffman, he would fall in love with her, and she would forget about Childe.
She would forget his laugh, the genuine one and the low chuckle that sent a shiver up her spine.
She would forget about his smiles, the mischievous one with boyish intent, and the one he wore
when excited for battle. She would forget about his hands, how they felt when both of their
frustrations boiled over and he grabbed her so roughly. She would forget how angry those kisses
were and how passionate he could be, despite the lack of light in his eyes. She would forget her
own personal pleasure at being the one person to bring that passion to the surface.
Lumine forced the thoughts out of her mind. She could not dwell on them any longer, she would
not allow it. Huffman awaited her on the bridge to Mondstadt, his hair brushed back neatly and his
attire rather plain, but normal. He was normal. He was sturdy and safe.
She sped up in her pace to meet him halfway on the bridge. It was the spot she had found Childe
all that time ago, where he bled out from Kaeya’s dagger in the form of a warning. It was the day
after that when he said the words that struck her to the very core.
How could anyone love a pebble in their shoe?
Lumine wasn’t sure how she managed to trick him back in Liyue, how she could kiss him and
promise to stay at the bank while he got the gnosis. She wasn’t sure how she didn’t throw up from
it all. Her pride and hatred in those moments were higher than ever, and all she had wanted to do as
she kissed him outside of the pharmacy was to punch him.
Childe may be able to switch between opinions and moods like a flickering flame, but Lumine
was far different. Lumine did not forget, nor did she forgive. And the words he said to her on the
way to Dadaupa gorge that day refused to leave her mind.
Nor did the events of the Golden House battle, or the look on Ningguang’s face as she sacrificed
her home. She did not forget the way La Signora stared at her in pity, or how cold Zhongli acted
when explaining his reasoning for the fiasco.
Lumine had a lot of time to think about why Childe flip flopped between ‘I hate you’ and ‘I love
you’ so easily. She imagined that since he held the information about their destined inevitability for
so long, he was in a constant battle with denial. He wanted her to be a pebble in his shoe, and
perhaps she was in some manner of speaking, but it did not erase the shapes in the sky. And he had
to know that, it had to drive him mad.
Lumine promised herself that she would not do the same. She would be far stronger than Childe.
She would move on, and not dare to give into the large amount of attraction she held for him and
his stupid face. Unlike him, she could actually control herself.
Huffman didn’t glare at her, Huffman didn’t lock her in place with that look in his eyes that sent a
shiver through her body. He simply smiled, standing up straight and nervously fidgeting with his
sleeves. “H-Hey, you look… uh, beautiful.”
“Thanks,” she swished the dress around her knees, it was borrowed from Barbara’s closet for this
very occasion, “ready to go?”
He held a basket in the crook of his arm, filled with the apple pie she made earlier, and a picnic
blanket. “Yes! It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”
“Yes…” the two began walking down the bridge, “lots of nice clouds…”
“Right. Uh, that one looks like a dog.”
It looked more like a snake to her, she wasn’t sure how he saw a dog. “I heard the weather’s
about to get colder…”
“Oh, yeah,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “cold front’s coming in.”
“Might rain tomorrow.”
“Probably, but that’ll be good, the crops need it.”
Lumine folded her hands in front of her as they walked, “You, uh, do you like to farm?”
“Oh, yeah,” he smiled awkwardly, “I’d like to have a farm after I retire from being a knight.”
“You’re planning on retiring?”
“A while from now, of course,” he laughed lightly, “I’d like to settle down, maybe have a cow,
stay in one place with my wife and kids, have grandkids… S-Sorry, I realize this is a date and
that’s kind of weird to talk about.”
Lumine raised a hand to wave the thought away, “No! No, I like hearing that, I didn’t know that
about you.” She didn’t know very much about him at all, which was the point, she realized.
But to settle down in one place forever and farm crops, the thought made her internally groan.
She’d rather pull out all her teeth than settle down.
Huffman sent her a smile as they walked down the road, up the hill and towards Springvale in the
distance, “Where do you see yourself in the future?”
Finding Aether, leaving this place and traveling from world to world. She would find someone
who loves her, hopefully Huffman, and take him to see sights he could never dream of. She would
fight and survive and live on the constant edge of adventure. Lumine only smiled as she thought of
this, “Oh, I don’t really know. I’ll just take whatever comes at me.”
A split second of awkward silence forcing its way between them. Huffman covered it quickly
with a smile, “Where’s your friend today?”
“Paimon?” Lumine kept her gaze ahead as they walked, “She’s with Amber, she wanted to give us
a little privacy to talk.”
“Oh,” an awkward beat of silence, an awkward clearing of his throat and a blotchy red blush on
his cheeks. He was kind of cute in an embarrassed shy guy kind of way, she had never noticed how
nervous he could be when not in his armor, it was as if he was a whole different person from the
authoritative and responsible man who patrolled the streets.
Interesting. Lumine broke the glass between them with a smile. She pointed at a grassy off the
side of the road, “What about there? It should be safe enough this close to town.”
It should be, though if there was any trouble she would just let Huffman handle it. She knew that
was what he wanted, to protect the delicate lady who couldn’t lift a sword to save her life. She’d
allow him that, if it meant getting other man off her mind. With the picnic basket in hand, he
trudged up the hill to find a soft spot to lay the blanket down. Lumine followed and sighed against
the gentle afternoon breeze.
It was just last week that she poured bags of gathered dandelion seeds into this breeze. She’d
spent three months picking every dandelion she could find and storing it away for that moment.
She’d not seen Huffman receive a single fluff, and Venti had been mysteriously missing since that
night, as if he knew Lumine would have questions as to where her many pounds of white fluffs
went.
She didn’t want to consider the possibilities much, but if they somehow ended up on Childe’s
head, the thought of him covered in seeds did bring a rueful smile to her face.
Huffman finally picked a spot in the shade. Setting down his basket and laying out the blanket, he
put his hands on his hips and inspected his work with a sigh. “This should do, are you okay right
here?”
“Yeah of course,” Lumine sat on the blanket and curled her legs underneath herself, “So, I made
that pie, what did you make?”
He offered a casual smile, “I just picked up something from Good Hunter, I don’t cook.”
“Like, not at all?”

“Nope, my mother usually cooks for me, or I just pick something up.”
Childe could cook. He’d make her food all the time when they traveled together, and he was
damn good at it. He helped her make the dishes for the offering to Cloud Retainer, it felt like
forever ago that he was at her side, stirring a pot and laughing at how Paimon burned her tongue
with each taste test.
Lumine forced a smile, “Do you live alone? I don’t think I’ve ever been to your place.”
“I have an apartment,” he spoke as he brought out the packaged food, “I hardly ever have guests,
it’s… pretty empty, but somehow is always dirty. I’m not too good at decorating,” he laughed, “but
I am good at making a mess!”
Childe’s office was always super clean. Even when he had lunch delivered for them both and ate
at his desk, he would always clean up after himself. Lumine watched as Huffman took a slice of pie
and shook crumbles of the crust all over the blanket.
Not a big deal, and the date had just started. She reminded herself to be patient and keep smiling,
“So, what do you do for fun?”
“I read books and go on walks.”
“Oh… what kind of books?”
“I really like old history textbooks.”
“Okay… and what else?”
He put a finger to his chin and thought, “That’s about it.”
“You don’t… I don’t know, go fight stuff? You don’t train to get stronger?”
“I train for work,” he explained innocently, “but otherwise I prefer peace and quiet.”
Peace and quiet, of course. “Do you travel?”
“The farthest I’ve ever been away from Mondstadt is when I went to see you in Liyue.”
“I see…” they had not yet spoken about her supposed ‘illness’, she assumed that he was just
being polite and not mentioning what Childe had told him so long ago. Nor had they discussed the
kidnapping, or the months of therapy he underwent from that debacle. “Do you like to travel?”
“Not really,” he smiled once more, chewing the pie as he spoke, “I don’t really care about seeing
sights or anything, I’m perfectly happy here.”
Good for him, though he didn’t seem to realize he was saying this to the one person nicknamed,
literally, ‘the traveler’. Lumine thought of a change of subject for a moment, letting the stiff silence
fall between them once more.
Another breeze, the sound of his eating and the smell of lukewarm restaurant food in the air.
Lumine leaned back against the tree and sighed, “Well, it’s a very nice day.”
“Yes, it is. But it’s supposed to rain tomorrow.”
More weather small talk. She just wanted to take a nap.
In the distance, a glimpse of purple electro caught her eye. She perked up as she watched a tall,
muscular figure stride towards a tree covering. He held a hammer in his hands, and was followed
by a smaller archer. Fatui supersuit soldiers, and so close to town as well.
At least it was something interesting, though she resisted the urge to confront them. Pointing in
their direction, she took Huffman’s hand, “Hey, they’re pretty close to Mondstadt, don’t you think?
Those types don’t ever go into cities.”
If Pantalone wanted to speak to the field skirmishers, he would leave town to speak to them
personally. She knew Childe did the same with his own soldiers. The huge suits of armor tended to
scare the locals away from diplomacy.
Huffman squinted to get a better look. As he did so, the electro vanguard with the hammer noticed
their stares across the rolling hills. He pointed his weapon, with a faint yell of, “There they are!”
Lumine’s heart skipped in excitement. She had resisted the urge to attack the Fatui for the last
three months, she didn’t want to give the Tsaritsa anymore reason to bother her. “Looks like we’re
the target,” she leaned in closer to Huffman and grabbed his arm, “you’ll do something, won’t
you?”
It was the perfect opportunity to show him how much she’d changed. She was not emasculating,
she was a gentle young lady who needed protecting. And if he could fight anything like Childe,
he’d earn her attraction as well. She watched the two Fatui soldiers trudge across the hills towards
them as Huffman gave a shaky sigh. He set aside his food and stood up, summoning a sword into
his hand.
“I’ll defend you, and Mondstadt both.” His reassurance was so kind, so authoritative. That was
the Huffman she liked, the one who was sure of himself, the one who defended Mondstadt and
took the responsibilities of the citizens onto his shoulders.
Lumine sighed, feeling dreamy while he ran to meet the soldiers. There were no butterflies in her
stomach, but she knew the sight of Huffman about to be caught up in the throes of battle would
bring them back. She would fall even more deeply in love with him.
If only he didn’t fall the second the electro hammer crashed onto the ground and sent a shockwave
that knocked him to his feet.
“Lumine!” Huffman laid on his back, “I’m okay!”
“Okay! I believe in you!”
Slowly, he pushed himself up, but the pyro archer stepped on his chest to keep him down. Wildly,
he flailed his arms and groaned in pain. With a distorted laugh, the bigger soldier raised his
hammer once more.
Lumine sighed heavily. Of course he couldn’t even stop these two clowns. She wasn’t sure what
else she expected.
She was underneath the vanguard in a second, sword drawn and blocking the impact of his
hammer. He grunted in surprise as she kicked him backwards, then whirled upon the archer
holding Huffman down. One swift punch to the face, one elbow in the ribcage, and he was
stumbling off.
Huffman lay in the grass watching Lumine as she dodged another shockwave with a graceful roll
and twist. Before the huge soldier could recover, Lumine shot at him like a dart, the aim of her
sword true and strong. As she fought off the larger one, the archer slipped past Huffman with a yell
of, “For the Harbinger!”
The knight of Favonius could not catch his breath in time to stop him. With no hesitation, the
Fatui kicked his picnic basket like a soccer ball. Huffman gasped, “Stop it! Why’re you doing
this?”
Behind him, Lumine continued to spar with the hammer wielding electro soldier. The archer sent
him a glare as he ripped the blanket apart and stuffed it into the dirt, “It’s a gift for your first date,
from Master Tartaglia himself!”
Lumine groaned in annoyance, “Really? He sent you?”
“Yes!” The skirmisher grunted while he held back her quick assault.
“How did he know?”
“He knows everything! He said to make you so angry that you can’t resist confronting him!”
Lumine froze mid-fight, “...What?”
“You idiot!” The archer screamed and threw an apple at his partner’s head, “You weren’t
supposed to say that part!”
“He… sent you to ruin this date?”

Huffman stood and approached Lumine cautiously. He held her arm, attempting to pull her away
from her locked on glare towards the Fatui skirmisher, “L-Let’s just go, they’re trying to bully us.”
Now, her glare turned onto him, “You think we should just go? They ruined the pie I baked you,
aren’t you…” frantic and angry, she racked her brain to find the right description for what he
should be feeling, “aren’t you angry? Don’t you want to defend me? Don’t you want to kick their
asses?”
“No!” His eyes widened, “I’d rather stay out of a fight if I could!”
He’d rather stay out of a fight. The Fatui skirmishers began laughing mockingly, and Lumine was
tempted to join them. He was a knight, for goodness sake, and he didn’t even want to fight the men
ruining his date.
Pathetic. The small talk, the future he dreamt of, the way he ate his food, the way he was knocked
down in half a second. Absolutely the complete opposite of what she was.
And, she’d spent the last three months trying to be like that. She’d taken a part time job, she’d
avoided fights, she’d been domesticated.
Kaeya was right: this wasn’t her.
“Fight me,” she spat, “right now. Spar with me.”
With the Fatui recruits having done their due diligence, they stepped away to give Lumine room.
The archer grinned wolfishly, “Kick his ass, Mistress! Master Childe will be pleased to h-”
She whirled to face them, “Why are you still here? Go away before I slit your stomachs and use
your blood as paint.”
Huffman gasped, “L-Lumine that’s disgusting! I can’t believe you’d say something like that!”
“I’ve said worse!” She was screeching now, stomping her foot and pointing the tip of her sword
at him, “That’s what I do, that’s what I’ve always done! Even Aether didn’t stop me from being
like this!”
“W-Who is Aether?”
That was it. That was the final string, finally pulled. She broke apart, running at Huffman and
jumping to land the flat of her foot against his chest. Behind her, the Fatui cheered while she took
down the knight. He landed in the grass, Lumine leaning on top of him and leveling the sword at
his neck, “I’ve told you about Aether, I’ve told you a million times. I talk about him almost every
night. He’s my brother, you boring workaholic flea, the one that’s missing? The one whose face is
on all of the posters around town?”
Huffman stared up at her with wide, fearful eyes, “I-I’m so busy that I don’t have much time to
stop and look around! Y-Yesterday I had to fight off slimes again, and then break apart a drunken
fight, and then pick up litter, a-and frankly I can’t really remember you ever talking about him…
I’m so sorry, Lumine!”
“You,” she growled lowly, “will make a wonderful husband one day.”
“A-Are you complimenting me?”
She was. Huffman was a nice man, he was kind and gentle, he never had a bad word to say. He
was responsible, and rather handsome. There was truly nothing wrong with him. Lumine sighed
and pulled her sword away, flicking her fingers to let it disappear in a sparkle of constellations,
“Yes, I am.”
He took another deep breath, “Why?”
“Because it’s true,” she stepped off his chest and backed away, “thank you for the nice picnic, it
was fun while it lasted,” a pointed glare to the Fatui skirmishers still watching from a distance.
“Lumine, I really don’t understand what’s happening here!”
“You won’t fight back,” all he did was stare in fear, “you won’t argue with me, you won’t be
passionate.”
“I’ll be passionate!” he scrambled up from the grass and reached out his hand, “C-Can I hold your
hand?”
“No, Huffman. You shouldn’t have to ask to hold my hand,” Childe never did, “you should just
take it. I need you to be dominating to me, just take charge.”
He quickly turned bright red, “D-Dominating?”
“Yes! Dominating! And clever, witty! Say something funny for once!”
“I don’t understand, Lumine!”
She groaned and rolled her eyes, “Am I making you angry right now?”
“Yes, a bit!”
“Then what will you do about it?”
He huffed and glanced away, shaking his head as he furrowed his brows at the ground. With a
shrug, he sighed, “I’ll go home and take a bath to clear my head.”
Wrong. So very wrong. The Fatui watching were laughing even harder now, even they were more
her type than Huffman turned out to be.
It was an odd feeling, then, that Lumine felt. Release, and relief, as if she was a prisoner in a cage
that was finally set free. With a deep breath, she put a hand to her chest and closed her eyes,
“Huffman, I really don’t think we’re going to work out. Like I said earlier, you’ll be a wonderful
husband for someone one day, just not… just not for me.”
“I…” he processed his words for a few seconds before looking up at her, “I thought you had liked
me for a long time?”
“I thought I did too.”

“...It sounds like the relationship you want would be pretty odd anyway…”
Another sigh, “Yes, I suppose it would be. But truthfully, I don’t want a relationship right now. I
don’t think I could handle it.” Not after Osial, not after that fiasco, not after Childe told her so
confidently that they were inevitable. Inevitable her ass.
Huffman turned to leave. He sent her a soft smile and put his hands in his pockets. He was so
dull, his hair was so neatly brushed back. There was no wildness, no clever smirks and no dark
looks in his eyes. He was just Huffman, normal and perfectly content with his life in Mondstadt.
And that was wonderful. She was happy for him, but it wasn’t the life she wanted to live.
“Stay safe, okay?”
Lumine smiled, “You too. We’re still friends, aren’t we?”
“Of course, honorary knight. I’ll forget that you yelled at me.”
And that she put a sword to his neck. “I appreciate that.”
She watched him leave. Slowly, he made his way down the grassy hill, towards the road. She
could hear him sigh, and watched as she shook his head in something akin to disbelief. It felt like a
chapter in her book was ending; a man she thought would be a good fit turning out to be something
else entirely. This seemed like the hundredth time it had happened. What a repetitive, lackluster
book.
Turning around to face the lingering Fatui, the glare on her face was evident. She’d gotten much
better at glaring as of late, seeming less like a yappy dog and more threatening than before.
“Why’re you still here? Leave, before I rip your fingernails off one by one.”
They both saluted, “Yes, Mistress!”

“And stop calling me that!”
“Yes, Mistress!”
She groaned, “And tell Tartaglia that I will never go back to him if I can help it. Not in a million
years.”
The archer raised his hand, “Would you like us to convey that this message is spiteful, or
hateful?”
“Both. Tell him that I hope he dies, preferably from a heart attack while on the toilet.”
“Yes, Mistress!”
She growled again, “Now leave.”
They left, finally. She sighed and watched the inhuman retreating figures as they disappeared into
the wilderness. As much as she hated the Fatui, she loved bossing them around.
Huffman was nearly back into town by then, a fact that she was grateful for. With another huff
and an exhale to calm her racing heart, Lumine gathered the ripped up remnants of the picnic
blanket to take back with her. The excitement of the battle began to dissipate into a dull throb while
she left.
Yet another spot in Mondstadt that was ruined for her. First, Springvale inn and the Dadaupa
gorge, and now this lovely shade tree. Relationships truly did make things far more difficult than
they should be.
Lumine tossed the ripped blanket into the trash can as she returned to the city. At the top of the
stairs, Paimon could be heard bossing around a waitress for yet another sticky honey roast to be
brought to her table. Lumine felt that she needed an entire roast as well, and possibly a serving of
dandelion wine. She needed Paimon’s sarcasm and Amber’s reassurance, to laugh again at
something that wasn’t her own stupid desires.
She took the steps quickly. Amber gasped as Lumine rounded the corner to approach their table.
She stood, arms stretched wide, and a smile big enough to light the world, “How did it go?”
Lumine crashed into her arms instantly, “Terrible. I told him I wanted him to dominate me.”
“W-What?!”
“He just,” she pulled away with a sigh and avoided her eyes, “he was so boring…”
“Of course,” she snorted, “that’s what everyone’s been trying to tell you! You just now figured
that out? I cannot believe you’d say… something like that, though.”
It wasn’t exactly ‘dominate me, Huffman’, but it was rather along those lines. Amber and Paimon
did not need to know Lumine’s secret desires to be pushed against a wall and roughly kissed,
especially Paimon. She didn’t know if she could look the pixie in the eyes again if she knew the
things she wanted.
Paimon was far less comforting than Amber. She munched on her roast, floating midair and
holding two very sharp forks with both of her hands. She was very busy, obviously, and could not
deliver the hugs and reassurance that Lumine needed. Amber was able to pull herself away from
the food for at least half a second to comfort the traveler.
Amber pulled Lumine down to take the seat beside her. Like any good friend, she was aware that
the fix to a terrible date was a ton of junk food. “Come on, let’s order dessert too.”
“Okay,” she tried for a smile, “I’m not sad, you know, I’m just… I don’t know, I just feel weird,
like I’ll be alone forever.”
“That’s not true! There’s someone out there for everyone!”
That wasn’t the problem. It was more the fact that the person made for her was a terrible man
who summoned an ancient God upon a city of innocent people. Despite the attraction and the time
they spent together, he had yet to show her that he was even a little bit worthy of a relationship. She
had thought it before, and she would repeat said sentiment a million times over: A dead fish would
make a better boyfriend than Childe.
And what about after dating? What if they got married? He spoke so casually of the matter, she
couldn’t help but wonder what that would be like. Would he even be a good father? Would he want
to travel with her, living the kind of future she desired? She knew that he had his loyalties laid with
the Tsaritsa, there was no way Lumine would ever become more important to him than the literal
Queen of his country.
It simply would not work. She would not put herself, or her future children in the hands of the
Harbinger, no matter how attracted to him that she was.
“I would like an entire cake, please,” Lumine told the waitress, all of her newfound
determinations stirring in the back of her mind, “Actually, make that two cakes. And I would like
your entire stock of alcohol, mora is no worry tonight.”
Amber cheered, “Lumi’s gonna party it up!”
Paimon cheered as well, though her mouth was consistently full, “Lumi’s gonna forget all her
problems!”
That was right. She would forget all her problems. She would have her comfort food, she would
have her friends. She would do a tavern crawl throughout Mondstadt, pay Diona to personally
make her the strongest drinks possible, and then go to Diluc and have him make the strongest
drinks possible as well. She would not care about responsibilities, or life, or anything of importance
tonight.
Then, it was decided. Tonight, Lumine would have fun for the first time in months.
The Next Day
“I’m hungover. I have a stomach ache. And I am out of money.”

Katheryne blinked emotionlessly, “I am not sure how to help you with those problems.”
“You could help me by… Oh, I don’t know,” Lumine leaned on the front counter with one hand
on her hip, feeling especially nauseous this wonderful morning, “giving me a commission so I can
get some mora and take a nap in an actual bed, rather than the cold ground that I’ve been sleeping
on for three months?”
Another blink, “I am not sure how to help you with those problems either.”
“Oh, or perhaps I could use the mora to feed myself. You know, like us humans need to do. Oh, I
guess you wouldn’t know that.”
“I am not sure how to help you with those problems.”
Lumine grit her teeth, “Are you malfunctioning, or something? What’s going on?”
“I am sorry,” Katheryne laced her fingers and put her head down as if she were sad, “There are no
current commissions available as of this moment.”
“What?”
“There are no current commissions available as of this moment.”
“I-I heard you the first time!”
“Perhaps,” moving slowly, Katheryne put a finger to her chin, “you could visit the Liyue branch?
They would have more to do there.”
This was terrible. This was absolutely terrible. Just yesterday, in a drunken stupor, Lumine had
announced very loudly that she was never going to Liyue harbor again. If she wanted to see
Xiangling or Ningguang, she would meet them at Wangshu Inn. If she needed something in the
city, she would send Paimon. Yet, even her pixie friend did not wish to go into the city, she would
surely pull out each Fatui’s hair that she saw.
Lumine had to assume that Childe was back in Liyue, unless he was giving orders all the way
from Snezhnaya. Somehow he knew that she was going on a date, and somehow he’d gotten
skirmishers to Mondstadt quickly enough to interrupt said date. There was a big chance he was in
Liyue - every Harbinger had their usual haunts. Monstadt was Pantalone’s, and Liyue was
Childe’s.
“Are you sure there’s no commissions?” Lumine was nearly begging on the front counter of the
guild, “Nothing at all? I really need mora.”
“Perhaps…” Katheryne tilted her head, her eyes wide, “you should not have spent it all last
night?”
“... How do you know about last night?”
“I power off in this spot each night, but my inner core still gathers information of what is
happening around me. Data file #98577, Traveler Lumine and Pixie Paimon, falling to the ground
approximately 8.02 feet away. Sound decibel of 70.0. Statement: I should not have spent all of my
mora tonight. End statement. File #98577 data recovery sequence ended.”
Lumine stared in shocked silence.
Katheryne blinked, “There are no current commissions available at this moment.”
“But-”
“There are no current commissions available at this moment. Perhaps you could visit the Liyue
branch?”
She could, but she didn’t want to. Lumine pulled away from the counter in defeat, waving
goodbye to Katheryne as Paimon popped into existence at her shoulder. Deflated, she sat on the
stone steps and glared at the entrance to town.
“Hey,” Paimon pulled softly at her hair, “don’t frown so hard! We can get money somewhere
else, what about working at the Good Hunter?”
Another grumpy pout, “It would take another two weeks before I got my paycheck.”
“Oh… what about asking around the Dawn Winery to see if they needed anything?”
“They commission all their jobs through the adventurer’s guild.”
“Ah… Perhaps Lumi could sweep the church floors for a few mora?”
“Barbara’s mad at me for summoning a geo construct on the statue of Barbatos last night.”
“Okay…” it was pretty funny to everybody else besides the church members, and the construct
disappeared after a few minutes anyhow, Paimon wasn’t sure what got up the nun’s butt about that,
“Well, maybe we can put on disguises and sneak into Liyue, like… mustaches, or something!”
She perked up at the thought. That was a good idea, though perhaps not mustaches. She could
borrow clothes from Amber, perhaps wear a hood over her head to cover her hair. She could sneak
into the city without any Fatui noticing her presence and reporting it to Childe.
There was also the possibility that he wasn’t even in town. Liyue harbor was a big place, how
easily could she run into him?
“Alright,” Lumine stood from her spot and dusted off her dress, “no use just sitting here and
moping. We had fun last night, right?”
Paimon giggled, “Right!”
“So, let’s keep having fun! We won’t let fear of seeing a Harbinger ruin our money making!”
“No way!”
“And-” she caught a glimpse of Huffman on his patrols in the distance, smiling at a child as he
passed. Her heart dropped in sudden guilt, “And it would probably be best to take a break from
Mondstadt.”
“So, let Paimon get this straight,” she laced her tiny fingers together, “Lumi would rather face a
Fatui Harbinger, an omen of approaching death and destruction, than a harmless boring knight?”
She leveled her with a flat look, “I didn’t tell Childe that I needed him to be dominating to me.”
“Ah… true…” She clapped her hands, “Okay then, in and out of Liyue in a jiffy! By then the
adventurer’s guild here should have more commissions as well!”
“Right! Off to Liyue, we go!”
“Off to Liyue!”
Lumine quickly discovered that traveling with a wicked hangover was not fun.
First of all, the sun was so horrifically bright. And the roads were so horrifically long. She
stopped to vomit a little, while Paimon held her hair back. They took a nap underneath a tree
together, was woken up by hilichurls, threw up again, fought the hilichurls, and fell back asleep.
Even the next day when her hangover was gone, Lumine found herself irritated by the usual
sights and surroundings. She made rude gestures to a camp of treasure hoarders, was promptly
chased down the road, tripped, sprained her ankle, and felt like throwing up again. After defeating
them, she was beyond frustrated to discover that they had no mora either.
Lumine camped out as she always did, though she seemed to have grown a permanent headache.
Paimon insisted that the headache was from the stress of going to Liyue, and she could not help but
agree. Several days later, as the mountains came into view, Lumine’s stomach dropped with
anxiety.
She spent the next several days of travel hunting birds, sleeping, and glaring at statues of Rex
Lapis. She even kicked one, though that just proved to hurt her sprained ankle even more.
A week passed, and Lumine had not yet found any mora. The treasure hunters seemed to never
have any, nor did the Fatui skirmishers she fought. Hilichurls never carried the stuff, of course. It
seemed that the universe just simply hated her, which would make a lot of sense actually.
It was when Liyue was finally in view, that Lumine had her first cordial human interaction.
“Hey, homeless lady!”
She whirled around at the call. Paimon snorted into her hand and disappeared with a flurry of
constellations before Lumine could throw her across the road. Glaring, she wiped at her dress to
dust off whatever homeless-ness the Millileth guard had seen in her, though it was more likely the
knotted hair, muddy boots, scraped arms, and leaves stuffed into her bodice. She had recently
fought off yet another treasure hoarder camp in search of extra mora, and not yet had time to
freshen up. And perhaps Lan would be impressed by her rough looks and give her the best paying
commission yet.
“Yes?” Lumine put her hands on his hips and tried to look elegant, as if she were not a crazy
person covered in foliage, “What can I help you with?”
He approached from the other side of the road and held his polearm to attention, “I wouldn’t go
any further if I were you, I’ve been stationed here to warn travelers of taking this route. You should
go around, or go back.”
That was surprising. This was the route she usually took, and it never gave her much trouble.
“What’s going on?”
“Ruin guard activity,” he sighed heavily, “nobody knows why, but they’ve just been wandering
around here lately.”
Lumine often forgot that the average person does not challenge ruin guards on a regular basis.
She put a hand to her chin in thought, glancing away, “How many have been spotted?”
“Just a few-”
“I bet those chaos devices would sell for a pretty mora…”
“Ma’am,” the Millelith put up a hand, “it’s not worth it. Those machines are highly agitable.
You’re so small,” and filthy and insane looking, “that they could just stomp you like a bug.”
She was aware of that, she’d been almost stomped by quite a few of those things, most likely
much more than this fellow. “It’s no big deal, I’ll take care of it. You can go back to town and tell
your boss that this road will be safe after I’m through.”
“I-I mean… I don’t recommend it-”
“And tell your boss that I would like a reward as well, I’ll be into town in a bit to collect.”
“Well…” it wasn’t like she was going to come back from a fight like that, though this man was
not sure the kind of person he was speaking to, “Okay then, I can lead a horse to water but I can’t
make it drink. If you’re so dead set on taking care of it, then I can’t stop you.”
That’s right, he couldn’t. She would get the reward and sell the chaos devices, and do
commissions for the guild, then she’d be sitting quite pretty by the end of it all. Nobody would
think her homeless any longer - she was, but it was more of a choice than anything else.
As the Millelith left, sending her glances that spoke of his disbelief, Lumine trudged up the hill to
face the presumed ruin guards terrorizing the area. Paimon flickered back into this world at her
shoulder and gripped her hair like a lifeline, “Lumi, are you sure you have the energy for this?”
“Yeah, I ate two days ago.”
“Lumi…”
“It’s not my fault that birds and boars are hard to catch.”
“It… kind of is…”

She begged to differ. Lumine walked up the steps of the ruins in silence, ignoring the grumbling
of her stomach and the weakness in her knees. Sitting like overgrown dolls, the ruin guards leaned
on the walls and slumbered. She hurried past them in the hopes that they would not awaken at her
presence.
None of them did, they kept still and silent. Paimon drew closer, “None of them are up… W-
Wait!”
Lumine jumped and gasped, “What is it?”
“Paimon hears something! It sounds like…” the tinkle of laughter, soft footsteps against stone in
the distance, “like a kid!”
She was right. It did sound like a little kid, and the sound thoroughly creeped her out. Tense,
Lumine peered around a corner and held her breath as she followed the noise of footsteps and
laughter.
And there, in the sunlight, standing in front of a deactivated ruin guard, was a red haired little boy.
He was perfectly alive, not ghostly in the least.
Both Paimon and Lumine let out a sharp exhale of relief. They’d had one too many creepy ghost
kids in Liyue for both their lifetimes. Paimon floated ahead of her and rounded the corner with a
wave and a greeting to catch his attention, “Hey! Little boy!”
Instantly, he jumped. Whirling around to face Paimon, his fists clenched as he went onto his tip
toes. His eyes were wide with wonder as he stared up at her, “Woah! That’s so cool! You can talk!”
She snorted and put her hands on her hips, “Of course Paimon can talk! What do you think
Paimon is?”
Lumine followed at a slower pace, “A nuisance.”
The kid flickered his curious gaze over to Lumine, “What’s a… noosense?”
“It’s whatever Paimon isn’t!”
Lumine ignored the pixie above her and knelt down to the child’s level. He smiled and readjusted
his furry hat, freckles dotting his cheeks like constellations. He had to be around seven or eight,
though he was small for his age. The ruin guard he had been gawking at made no move to stand,
yet Lumine stayed on her guard just in case.
“What’re you doing here?” She tilted her head as she inspected his face and arms for any sign of
injury, “Are you lost? It’s really dangerous around here.”
He snorted as if she was stupid, “It’s not dangerous! Mister Cyclops is here to protect me!”
Paimon stared in wonder, “Mister Cyclops?”
“That thing!” He pointed at the ruin guard, “It’s the best toy in the world, and an awesome
superhero!”
That was a killer machine that could kick him miles into the air. Lumine gazed at the ruin guard
with wide eyes, her lips parted as she thought of his words. “Huh… that’s kind of a cute name, I
think I’ll start calling them that too.”
“That’s what they’re called no matter what!” He clenched his fists and stomped his foot, “My big
brother told me so! He sells them!”
“Oh… he sells them?”
“Paimon didn’t know that was a viable market…” She whispered, floating by her ear and looking
at the kid with wary eyes.
“It is! I’m Teucer, by the way,” he put out a little hand for her to shake, “and to answer your
question earlier, I’ll admit that I am a bit lost…”
Of course he was. There were no adults around, and this kid was obviously not from Liyue. There
was something familiar about the shape of his eyes and the freckles on his cheeks. His hair was
wild as well, feathery and fluttering in his face with every mountain breeze. He grinned largely as
Lumine shook his hand from her spot on her knees in front of him, “Very nice to meet you, Teucer.
I’m Lumine.”
“You’re really pretty, miss Lumine!”
“Oh, thank you!”
“Like a printsessa!”
That familiar word struck her to her core, like someone had dropped hot coals into her stomach.
She froze mid-handshake. “W-What was that?”
“Oh,” his cheeks grew pink, “sorry, that’s what we call princesses where I’m from.”
Paimon crossed her arms and glared, “Let Paimon guess: Snezhnaya?”
“How’d you know?!”
Slowly, with her heart in her throat, Lumine put a hand on his cheek. His brush only grew redder
as he gasped at her touch. She turned his face to one side, inspecting it, and turning it once more.
“Do all of you look like this?”
“L-Like what?”
“Like…” freckles, though Childe’s were a bit lighter, and only truly noticeable when she was
close to him, “cute, I guess? Are all of you cute?”
“You think I’m cute?” He gasped again while she released his cheeks, “I think you’re cute too,
miss Lumine! You’re just my type!”
She faked a smile, “Well, you’re a bit young for me, Teucer. Sorry.”
“I’ll get taller one day!”
“Sure,” grinning, she pulled the furry hat over his eyes and stood up, “Do you need a guide back
to Liyue? I’d hate to leave you out here alone.”
He pushed the hat back up with a giggle, “Yeah, I need to find my big brother. He works in Liyue
as a toy salesman, the best one.”
The best toy salesman, she’d not yet met him. The only non-Fatui Snezhnayan she knew in Liyue
was Ivanovich, and he didn’t sell anything like toys. Perhaps he was new to town and she’d left
before becoming acquainted. With a shrug, she held out her hand, “Well, let’s get going then.”
“Oh, wait!” He dug into the messenger back slung across his chest, “My big brother said that I
should give this to anyone who helps me!”
“Is that…” Paimon gasped, her eyes glittering.
Lumine mirrored her expression with a growling stomach and weak knees from travel. The bag of
mora clinked satisfyingly, temptingly, hanging in the air as he held it up to her with an innocent
smile. “Mora! Mora - wait, why are you giving me mora?”
He tilted his head curiously, “I told you, big brother told me to give it to whoever helps me. He
said ‘give this to someone and they will help Teucer’. So, that’s what I’m doing.”
“There has to be a lot in there,” Paimon whispered as she drew closer, “Like, way more than we
could make from commissions.”
There was at least two weeks worth of hotel room stays in there. At least two weeks worth of
good food. The bag called out to her, like a lover she had long forgotten. With a gulp, she took the
sack and held it in her arms like a baby, “It’s so beautiful… thank you…”
“Now will you date me?”

Paimon scoffed, “You’re still too young, kid. Are all Snezhnayan’s this persistent?”
“Are you all this affluent?” Lumine gazed down at him in wonder, “Because I know where I’m
going next if so.”
“Miss printsessa, what does affluent mean?”
“Nothing,” she shook her head and put the mora away, now holding out a hand with a smile,
“let’s get going, you’ve got a brother to get to!”
Happily, he gripped her hand in his own and nearly dragged her across the ruins. Paimon twirled
and disappeared into her pocket universe, leaving them alone while Teucer rambled and led her
away, “I’m not supposed to be here, you see! I snuck onto a boat and came without telling
anyone!”
She grimaced, “Your parents must be worried sick.”
“Probably!”
He said it so cheerfully, as if that was the norm in his household. She allowed him to keep pulling
her with his boundless energy all the way to the gates of Liyue. He never seemed to stop speaking,
nor did he tire, nor did he grow hot in his heavy clothes.
“So, where do you think he is?” She asked as they passed the Millelith standing guard at the gate.
Teucer stared in wide eyed wonder at the huge bridge and shining blue sea below. He ran to the
side of it, leaning over before remembering that his guide had asked a question. “Oh, sorry,” he
sent her an embarrassed smile, “I don’t know, actually.”
He didn’t know. This little boy who snuck off to a foreign city without the knowledge of his
parents had no idea where his brother was. Lumine sighed and leaned against the bridge rails,
listening to Teucer’s stories of how Snezhnaya’s waters were all cold and frozen, grey and
steaming with constant chill. He stared down at the Sea of Clouds as if it were a wonder of the
world.
Where to take a child from Snezhnaya? Where to locate someone that might be able to help? She
listened to him mutter something in his language, a phrase she’d heard Childe say when he
finished fighting something especially amazing.
Perhaps if anyone were to help this Snezhnayan boy find his big brother, it would be the people at
Northland Bank. She patted his head to get his attention, “I think I know where I should take you.”
“You do? Thank you so much, pretty lady!”
“Come on,” she placed a hand on his back to led him into the city, “I’ll teach you a few new
words on the way there, too.”
“I love learning new words!”
“Then I promise you’ll love these too!”
“Sir, I met with the skirmishers like you asked me to.”
“And?”
“Miss Lumine has a message for you.”
Childe’s heart skipped a wonderful beat. She was communicating with him, even if it had passed
through three different mouths to finally get to him. Attempting to act casual, he put his hands in
his pockets and leaned back, “What is it?”
Ekaterina cleared her throat and unfolded the paper, “She says… Oh, uh…”
“Read it, I don’t mind.”

“Um… She hopes that you die, preferably by heart attack while on the toilet.”
A thoughtful pause. Awkward silence growing between them. He’d only been back in Liyue for
two weeks now, and he’d already put Ekaterina through pain and turmoil. She was frowning as if
this was the last straw, as if she’d be the fourth subordinate to finally quit.
He still wasn’t sure why there were so many deserters right and left. He was acting perfectly
normal, all he’d done was work everyone overtime and make them do push ups each time he didn’t
like the look on their faces. He had been under much worse when he served Pulcinella as a simple
agent, he had to do food delivery. None of these spoiled recruits would understand the pain of not
getting Pulcinella’s borscht to him in time.
He put his hands together in thought. The bank was empty for the evening, it being a Friday and
the city of Liyue lit up in festivities and weekend enjoyment. They stood in the lobby together, as
Childe leaned against the wall and stared at the decor over Ekaterina’s shoulder.
“I think… I might want to send her something back… Something terrible, like a dead bird…”
“Master Childe,” Ekaterina stared in horror, “I am aware that you’re not asking for my opinion
right now, but if I may so as a woman, I would not ever want to speak to you again if you sent me a
dead bird.”
“Really? Maybe a dead lizard…”
“Sir… Where do you get these ideas?”
Anthon, and his playground romance. His little brother had more experience in wooing girls than
he did. “That’s no good either?”
“I’m afraid not…”
“Huh,” he put a hand to his chin, “well, I’ll figure out something. It can’t be terribly cheesy, but it
has to be fun…”
Ekaterina simply wondered if her boss had lost his mind. He’d certainly been acting like it lately,
ever since coming back from Snezhnaya he’d been an absolute tyrant. She’d personally tried to
contact the traveler, to no avail. She knew that she would be punished for taking matters into her
own hands, but if she had to spend one more day holding buckets of sand off her arms inbetween
bank customers, she was about to quit. Childe could not continue taking out his romantic
frustration on his subordinates.
Ekaterina pretended to brainstorm with him over what non-cheesy but still fun gift he should send
to Lumine. At least the topic of dead animals was off the table, it was like the Harbinger had never
spoken to a woman romantically in his life. He most likely hadn’t, it was rumored that Tartaglia
spent all of his time fighting and working, rather than dating.
It was interesting to think that this man who was so very clever to have gotten appointed as a
Harbinger at the age of 18, would have absolutely no experience in the ways of the opposite sex.
Before Ekaterina could explore the subject further, the sound of the doors bursting open caught
her attention. On the weekends, there was usually some drunken local who stomped into the bank
and demanded his money back, yet instead in the doorway stood a young boy, his hair auburn in
the golden light of the street lanterns.
Childe froze. The boy stared, his hands on the doors and his eyes wide. He took in a deep breath
as if he was about to scream, “Big brother!”
And he ran. He shot like an arrow through the air, even jumping as he got closer to the startled
and rather giddy Harbinger. Childe knelt down with open arms to gather the boy up as he jumped
and tackled him. Not about to be taken down by a mere child, Childe stood and twirled the boy
around with a sharp laugh.
“Is it…?” Fakely dramatic, Childe held him in the air above his body, “Could it be? The best little
brother in the world?”
“It is I!” Teucer laughed as if he’d recited these words a million times, “Come to see the best big
brother that ever existed!”
As they laughed and hugged once more, Ekaterina glanced towards the still open doors.
There stood the traveler, Mistress Lumine. She was stiff as a board, wide eyed and terrified.
Slowly, as if she were about to awaken a sleeping beast, she took one step back, then another,
while the fear only grew deeper in her eyes.
Childe did not notice her presence, and that was exactly the way she wanted it. Whipping around
on her heel, Lumine retreated as quickly as she could down the stairs, and out of sight.
It seemed that Ekaterina’s prayers for relief from her boss’s romantic frustrations had been
answered.
“Brother!” Teucer held him around the waist once Childe let him down, “I met the most beautiful
girl! She’s so amazing, she’s just my type! I’ll marry her one day!”
He ruffled his hair and laughed, his chest fluttering in joy despite the initial confusion of why the
youngest one of his family was here in the first place. “Good for you, Teuc. What’s her name?”
“Lumine!”
Like a balloon popping. Like a burst blood vessel. Like the air pulled from his lungs.
“L-Lumine…?”
“Yes! And she taught me a new word!”
Childe faked a smile. He faked a smile better than he’d ever faked before. “And what is that?”
“Dickweed! She said it means ‘friend’ in Mondstadt!”
Like the abyss boiling over. Like that shiver from something cold. Like that finally releasing
every bit of tension in one’s body after a good fight.
Teucer grinned up at him, innocent as the sun itself. “Hello, my dickweed!”

Childe patted his head. He smiled happily. He was so happy his little brother was here in Liyue,
somehow.
“Let’s go meet this, Lumine, shall we?”

Little Brother, and The Subsequent Destruction of Sanity
Chapter Notes
“Let’s go meet this Lumine, shall we?”
“Of course!” Teucer pulled back from Childe’s waist to glance at the entrance in wide eyed
excitement, “She was right behind me just a second ago. Where’d she go?”
The doors he had slammed open had been promptly shut. And the girl that led him to his big
brother was gone. She had mentioned earlier that she would not be able to stick around the bank,
but the kind Snezhnayans would help him find his brother. Yet, he’d already found his brother!
Why Lumine ran away so quickly was beyond his understanding, though as he looked up at Ajax
for confirmation, the look on his face told a different story entirely.
Big brother Ajax smiled oddly. He had an odd look on his face, and tsked his tongue while he
shook his head. He wore the same expression mother always did when she was about to ground
Anthon.
“Hey,” kneeling down to be eye to eye, he gave him a serious look, “I’m really glad you’re here,
and I’ll ask you about the details of how you got here in the first place later. But right now, I need
to go catch Miss Lumine and drag her back here, okay?”
Usually, Teucer would argue with his brother having to leave so quickly upon his arrival, though
if this was for Lumine he could make an exception. “Okay! I’d really like you to meet her, she’s
beautiful and nice and she knows a lot of fun words, like this other one she taught me. Asshat!”
Asshat. Wonderful. Childe glanced up at Ekaterina, “Would you watch him for a minute? And
please don’t teach him any bad words either.”
“I would never, sir!”
“Great,” he squished Teucer’s cheeks, “I’ll be right back, I promise.”

With the assurance of his swift return hanging in the air, the chase began.
Childe stood and went for the doors. Nadia opened it immediately as he brushed past, the dark
look still lingering in his eyes. He chuckled to himself as he leaned over the railing to scan the
crowd below for any blonde haired girls in white dresses.
Lumine was already halfway down the block, in the far distance at the end of the street. Childe
grinned as he shot down the steps to the teahouse below. Customers gasped while he brushed past
their tables and hoisted himself up onto the railing. With one graceful sweep of his legs, he was off
the balcony and landing on his feet in the crowded Liyue street.
Teucer’s appearance, as random as it was, put him in a good mood. And Lumine’s subsequent
retreat put him in an even better mood. The streets were filled with people, yet they parted for him
as he shot off into a sprint.
Another flash of Lumine rounding a corner. Grinning more, Childe put his hand on the wall of the
building and swung around to catch a glimpse of her retreating figure. She was fast, but he was
much faster. It did not take long for him to catch up.
“Your legs are so short, printsessa,” Childe called out, “do you really think you can outrun me?”
Lumine froze. She whipped around, her stance not dissimilar to that of a startled cat. With the
cutest squeak of fear possible, she took off into yet another sprint down the alleyway.
How Childe loved the chase. He felt like a predator tracking down a scared rabbit through the
woods. It was exhilarating. With another dark laugh, he took the alleyway to the right and slipped
between the buildings, only to come out on the other side of the street. Lumine nearly ran into his
chest as he emerged, though she was quick enough to whirl around and run in the other direction.
“Lumi,” a sing song voice, a laugh, “my little brother really wants to see you!”
The only response he received was a squeak. She sounded like a strangled chipmunk. He dug his
foot into the ground, summoning his vision to use a water current to teleport him to the spot in
front of her, much like the speed used by the field agents and hunters. The buildings moved by in
an instant. It was as if she blinked and he was suddenly there.
Lumine gasped, “No! You cretin, you dirty garbage man!”
“So mean,” Childe leaned down to grip her hips and hoist her up over his shoulder. She screamed
and kicked her legs as he laughed. The citizens of Liyue stared in wide eyed fear for the girl
currently being kidnapped by a Harbinger.
“Put me down! I’ll kill you!” Furious, Lumine pummelled her fists against his back, “I’ll rip out
your eyes and use them as jam on my morning toast!”
Childe waved at the passing crowd, “Don’t mind us, she’s just having a nervous breakdown. I’ll
take her back home where she’ll be safe.”
“No! Don’t just stand there, help me!”
Childe turned before she could yell any longer, hoisting her up higher and digging his shoulder
into her stomach. He could not help but smile at her string of colorful insults. “You’re terrible,
you’re incorrigible, I’ll stuff your fingers up your ass!”
She huffed for air and continued to punch and bite his shoulder blades. Slipping into an alleyway,
he gripped Lumine’s hips and lifted her off him, finally putting her down. And of course, she tried
to run away the second her feet touched the ground. He dug his fingers deeper into her hips and
backed her against the wall. The sound of her gasp and the visible shiver down her spine only
proved to further his ambitions. He missed that look in her eyes, the noises she made, the way she
fought him with every inch of herself.
“I’ve missed this,” his lips brushed against her ear, “I’ve missed you, Lumi.”
She could have melted. She could have sunk to her knees and stayed there forever, dwelling on
her absolute defeat. She thought that he didn’t see her run away at the bank - that he was far too
distracted with Teucer at that moment. Yet, here he was, running his mouth along her neck and
bringing back every memory she had tried to forget.
How were they brothers? Those two: the tiny ball of sunshine and this troll? She should have
seen it coming, they looked far too alike. Just the image of Childe, of all people, lifting his brother
over his head and laughing with genuine joy, was unimaginable. She had been frozen in shock the
moment she saw him standing in the lobby of the bank, the moment his eyes lit up with happiness,
the moment he gasped and locked his gaze onto Teucer.
Lumine had to run. There was no other option available. This was not a spiderweb she could
afford to get caught in. And if her experience with Childe had taught her anything, it was to trust in
her feminine wiles - as nonexistent as they may be.
“Ajax,” a whisper, a visible shiver and shaky exhale that proved to make him dig his fingers
deeper into her hips. He pulled away to look her in the eyes as she ran her hands up his chest,
“Ajax, I’ve…”
He almost looked hopeful. How pitiful.
“I’ve officially decided where I’d like to bury your dead body.”
Lumine shot him with a burst of anemo. It would not be enough to hurt him, but to knock him far
enough away so she could make her escape once more. He gasped as the wind pushed him back,
and Lumine was out of his grip once more.
Yet, Childe would not stumble for long. She took off down the alley with tired, mocking laughter.
As he gave chase, he noticed that she was running far slower than usual, and breathing more
heavily than he’d ever seen. He slowed into a jog as Lumine stopped to lean a hand against the
wall and hunch over in exhaustion.
He’d never seen her lose stamina so quickly. She could hold her own against the speed and
dexterity of his delusion without breaking a sweat. As she dropped to her knees and bowed over,
wrapping her arms around her stomach, Childe approached.
The alley was empty. The sound of the streets was muffled. He squatted down beside her to
inspect her state, noticing that she was incredibly pale, with her eyes shut tightly. “Lumi?”
“Sorry,” a shaky, bashful apology, as if she were an inconvenience, “I just haven’t eaten for two
days now. I’m super poor, you know. I-I feel like I might pass out…”
He’d passed out in front of her before, and that was from bleeding too much - which was far
more humiliating in his opinion. Gently, Childe leaned in to wrap his arms around her waist,
snaking a hand beneath her thighs to lift her from the ground. She sighed in relief as he carried her
bridal style down the alley. Her head lolled against his chest. She was, for once, allowing him to
hold her without struggling like a wild animal. It would have been much nicer if she did not look as
if she was about to barf in his scarf.
The bank was not far. He took the steps two at a time and approached the doors, “Go and get
food, I don’t care where. Just have the invoice sent to the bank.”
Nadia gasped and gave a quick salute, “Y-Yes sir!”
“Lumine,” frustrated, not able to help his frown as he shouldered the doors open, “if you would
just let me take care of you, then you’d never have to be in this situation again.”
She ignored him, “Am I in hell?” Her head lolled around to take in the sight of Fatui members
watching her with gasps and wide eyes behind their masks, “Oh, I’m in hell. I knew it. I’ve died
and gone to hell.”
Teucer glued himself to Childe’s side. “Brother, what’s happened? Did she hit her head?” He
gripped his coat as he followed him up the stairs to his office, “Is she really dead?”
“No, Teuc, she’s fine. Open that door for me, won’t you?”
“I’m in hell!” Lumine groaned, “It’s filled with Fatui!”
Childe laughed awkwardly, “What’s a Fatui? You’re in my toy company’s offices.”
“What?”
“Right!” Teucer gripped his fists as he watched Childe gently set her on the couch, “The best toy
makers in all of Teyvat, that is! You should be honored, Miss Lumine! Is that why you’re about to
pass out, it’s all so overwhelming?”
Lumine let her arm loll off the side, brushing her fingers against the ground and turning her head
to inspect the little boy. With a blank expression, her eyes flickered between Childe and Teucer.
Childe and Teucer. Childe, the Harbinger, and Teucer, a ray of sunshine.
They looked so alike. Teucer was like a mini version of Ajax.
She squinted in confusion, “You’re brothers?”
They both nodded, mirroring each other.
“Why?”
Childe snorted and covered his mouth, “Why do you think? My parents breed like rabbits.”
“But mama and papa are human,” Teucer corrected smartly, “they just love each other very
much… Brother, what does ‘breed’ mean?”
“I’ll tell you when you’re older.”
Lumine gazed at him flatly, “It means fuc-”
“Lumine.”
She pressed her lips together, “Fine. But why did you say this was a toy company earlier? It’s-”
Another interruption, this time with Childe placing his hands over Teucer’s ears like an offended
mother. He furrowed his brows into a glare and led his brother to the door, “Hey Teuc, could you
go check and see if Nadia’s gotten the food yet?”
“Yes sir!” he saluted cheesily, “I’ll be the best helper in the world!”
“Great! We’ll be right here waiting!”

Teucer opened the doors and ran down the stairs, while Childe sighed as he went. Once a moment
of silence fell, he twisted to look at Lumine as if she’d just spit on him. Despite her exhaustion, she
could not help but laugh.
“Soooo…” he tapped his fingers together and paced the room, nose scrunched in thought - dear
Archons he was almost cute, she could have barfed if she had any food in her stomach. “I’ll be
frank-”
“Your name’s not Frank.”
Childe ignored the dad joke, “Teucer doesn’t know that I’m a Harbinger.”
I need to find my big brother. He works in Liyue as a toy salesman, the best one.
That explained a lot. Lumine stared up at the ceiling, blinking in disbelief as she processed his
words. Teucer didn’t know he was a Harbinger, he didn’t know that his brother killed people and
collected debts. He didn’t know that he was surrounded by crime and corruption.
She smiled. This was too good. Sitting up and leaning on one arm, Lumine stared Childe down
with the biggest, most evil smile she could muster. He froze in place, an expression so unlike him
coming to life in his eyes.
“So, you’re at my mercy, correct?”
She’d never seen so much emotion pass over his face so quickly. Anger, to confusion, to more
anger, to blank acceptance and begrudging defeat. The sound of Teucer’s voice carried up the
stairs through the open doors, along with the smell of fresh food. Lumine’s stomach growled as
Childe sighed and turned away, “I’m not giving you an answer to that.”
“So it’s a yes, then.”
He leaned out the doorway, “Is the food here yet, Teucer?”
“Yes! I’m helping Miss Nadia carry it up!”

He smiled with pride, “You’re such a good boy, Teucer, let me help too.”
“You’re only helping so you can escape this conversation,” Lumine laughed as he left. She raised
her voice to be heard, “You’re at my mercy, salesboy!”
Ignored, once again. She had never seen Childe like this, so domestic and smiley, acting as if he
was deaf to every threat she spouted. Sitting up more, despite the aching of her stomach and the
lightheadedness, she watched while he and Teucer carried the food into the office. Teucer carried
more than his hands could handle, though he only smiled as he caught Lumine’s eyes, as if he was
proud of showing her how strong he was.
She couldn’t help but laugh. She was still trying to process that the two were related in the first
place, despite their obviously similar features. Teucer set the food down on the table beside her and
looked up with wide eyes, “Big brother told me that you were sick, I hope this helps!”
“Thank you so much,” she ruffled his hair - he’d discarded the hat long ago to reveal the wild
mess of ginger underneath, even more wild than Childe’s. “You’re very good to me, Teucer.”
He blushed pink, though his older brother was on the move in an instant. He plopped down
beside Lumine and wrapped an arm around her waist, “Yep, our whole family’s going to be so
good to you after we get married!”
Teucer gasped. Lumine waved her hands and ignored the gymnastics routine her heart decided to
do inside her chest, “After Teucer and I get married, you mean!”
“You’re too old for him, you dirty cougar.”
“I like older women…” Teucer covered his red face with both hands, “Big brother Sacha tells me
that they have more experience, though I’m not quite sure what that means.”
With a sigh, Childe slipped off the couch and knelt down beside his brother. Lumine had begun
eating moments ago, and was entirely focused on filling her stomach. He wrapped an arm over his
brother's shoulders, “Teuc, believe me, you don’t want this girl. She’s violent, she stomps on
things, she spits…” both boys looked up as Lumine ripped fried chicken off the bone with her teeth
bared, “it’s not worth it.”
“So…” he put a hand to his chin, “Miss Lumine is like an llama? Her hair is matted the same
way, and she is covered in twigs and leaves.”
She did look rather wild. There were leaves jutting out from her bodice, and a small stick behind
her ear. She was covered in mud, and far too pale for Childe’s comfort. “Like all animals, she’s
still beautiful,” he informed, “but that doesn’t mean we should get close, she could easily bite your
fingers off.”
“I see… What a shame.”
“I can hear you two, you know.”
Childe ignored her once again - which was starting to make her angrier than she had planned to
spend her evening. He gripped Teucer’s shoulders and gave him a serious look, “With all of the
excitement earlier you didn’t get a chance to tell me how you got here. Did anybody else come
with you?”
“Nope!”
“Then how’d you get here?”
Lumine ripped at another chicken wing, holding it with both hands and yanking her head back to
pull the meat from the bone. Teucer sent her a blushing glance from the corner of his eye, “P-
Pretty… uh,” he shook his head to attention, “I-I stowed away on a boat! It looked like it was
selling toys, so I thought you’d be on there. And then I took a nap and just... ended up here…”
Childe reached up to rip the empty bone from Lumine’s hands before she choked herself. Ignoring
her growl, he absently handed her yet another chicken drumstick before sighing and turning back to
Teucer. It was like he was babysitting both of them at once.
“That’s super dangerous,” he wiped his hands off on a napkin with a light glare, “You could have
gotten hurt, not all adults are going to protect you. Do mama and papa know?”
He put his head down, “No… I didn’t tell anyone where I was going…”
Another sigh, “I’ll send them a messenger hawk to let them know you’re okay, then.”
“P-Please don’t be mad at me…”
Childe’s brows knit together in worry, “I’m not mad at you, I’m just concerned- what are you
staring at?”
Lumine was gaping at him with wide eyes. Her big eyed stare burrowed into him, locking him in
place as she gripped a drumstick with both hands. She looked an absolute mess, yet the glimmer in
her eye spoke of gears and cogs turning in her mind.
“Sorry,” she finally looked away, “that was just… cute…”
Teucer had the telltale ambition that ran in his family. Childe did not become Harbinger just by
sitting around. His father did not woo his mother by asking to fight/date her. And his mother was
not the best treasure hoarder in Snezhnaya due to her politeness. Teucer was ambitious, fast, and
quite ruthless for an eight year old.
“If you think he’s cute, then you should think I’m cute too!” He took her hand, ignoring the
chicken grease and kissing her knuckles, “If I remember correctly, printsessa, you called me cute
first.”
Childe cursed his slow mind. He just had to take those few seconds to process the fact that
Lumine called him cute. He was aware that he was cute, as little as he cared about his appearance,
but for Lumine to finally realize that, it felt like a milestone had been reached. Except for the fact
that Teucer also inherited his family’s theatrical, romantic streak, and was currently kissing
Lumine’s grease covered hand.
Poor kid was going to get his heart broken.
Childe grabbed him from behind, lifting him into the air as his little brother laughed with glee. He
loved being picked up, Father didn’t have the strength to do it much anymore. Childe would risk
his own strength by picking up an eight year old for the sake of his sanity. He turned away and
carried him towards the doors, “Hey, how about I take tomorrow off and we can spend the day
together, okay!”
Teucer kicked his legs, “Okay! That sounds amazing!”
“But for now…” a clever smile, a teasing tone in his voice, “it’s your bedtime. Come on, I’ll let
you stay with me in the hotel. And Lumi,” he glanced at the starving bridge troll digging around in
the food delivery basket for more to devour, “you come too.”
She glanced up with wide eyes, “No way. Thanks for the food, but I really should get going!”
“Lumi no!” Teucer whined from his spot in Childe’s arms, “I want you to spend the day playing
with us.”
“He wants you to spend the day playing with us, Lumi.”
She could see the evil plots forming behind that smile. She would not be tricked, no matter how
cute of a big brother he was. “Nope, I’m busy.”
“Lumi!” Teucer jumped down from his arms and scrambled to her side, dropping to his knees and
clasping his hands together in prayer, “Spend the day with us! Please? Please?
Pleasepleasepleaseplea-“
“Quiet, mini Ajax! Your begging has no effect on my heart!”
“Pleeeaaaaseeee?”
Teucer had not yet grown into proper bartering skills, though he was quite persuasive nonetheless.
Childe watched with a smile, waiting until the drawn out and whiny pleas began to break down
Lumine’s walls. He took the opportunity to strike with what he hoped would be the final blow,
“Printsessa, I’ll pay you.”
She froze, “...Pay me?”
A nod, a sly smile as he leaned against the doorframe, “I can take tomorrow off, but after that I’ll
have to get back to work. I’ll need someone to watch Teucer for me until I can find him a boat
home.”
As terrible as it was, it made sense. As annoying as his smile was, he was convincing. And
Lumine desperately needed the mora. She knew Childe wouldn’t skimp on the payment either.
How could anyone love a pebble in their shoe?
She glared. She set aside her food and wiped her hands on a napkin. Teucer continued to barrage
her with puppy eyes, but she successfully ignored them. “Teucer,” she began slowly, “Would you
mind doing me a favor?”
“Y-Yes, Miss Lumine!”
“Somewhere in this building there’s a toy I left here long ago, could you go downstairs and look
for it on my behalf?”
He shot up like a dart, “Of course! I’m the best toy finder in the world, I always find things around
our house! Detective Teucer is on the case!”
Childe patted his head as he ran through the doorway. He was a hyperactive force of nature, the
sound of his feet stomping down the staircase could be heard even as Childe shut the doors behind
him.
Lumine appreciated that he caught onto her hint. They needed a moment of alone time, he knew
that. With the door finally shut and locked, she stood from the couch with a sigh. Her knees were
far less shaky than before, and her stomach no longer growling, though she was still on edge with
nervousness. Like putting up a wall, Lumine crossed her arms and avoided his curious gaze.
Uncomfortable silence fell between them. It was stifling, filling the air like a thick smoke. She
pulled the leaves from her dress and the twig from her hair in an attempt to feel better about herself
for the conversation at hand.
The last three months had not been the best for her self esteem. She domesticated herself to gain
the attention of someone who didn’t even care to remember her own brother’s name. And Childe’s
words from so long ago kept replaying in her mind. Pebble in his shoe. A bother, a problem that he
was trying to avoid.
Finally, she met his eyes, “I didn’t come to Liyue to see you, I was actually hoping that I
wouldn’t.”
He did not dare to show his true emotions. His face remained blank, “I believe you.”
“We are not doing that back and forth thing we did before,” she spoke slowly, coldly, “I’ll help
you with watching Teucer because he’s a good kid, and he doesn’t deserve to find out the kind of
person you are. I’ll do my best to keep him distracted and to help him have fun, but there is nothing
between you and I. Forget about the stars, forget about everything we’ve talked about before.”
How could he forget about the stars when he just spent three months staring up at them,
wondering if she was doing the same?
“Safe to say that you’re still angry with me?” He faked a smile, though the result came out far
more bitter than he intended.
Lumine glared further, “If Teucer would not hear it, I would strangle you right now.”
“I’d still love you with your hands around my neck.”
He was serious. There was not even an ounce of mirth in his eyes. Lumine felt like punching him
for not even bothering to listen to her. “Why do you say stuff like that?”
“You know me,” Childe shrugged and walked towards his desk, leaning on the edge and
stretching out his legs, “I don’t like niceties or beating around the bush. If I know what I want then
I just go for it, and you’re what I want.”
That was exactly what Huffman was not. He asked to hold her hand, he stuttered and avoided, he
would not ever challenge her. Childe knew he wanted her, and there was never any hesitation for
him to make that clear.
Lumine had to ignore the flicker coming to life in her chest. She refused to look at him,
“Whatever that was that we had is over.”
“Our constellations are connected,” he reminded, “have you forgotten that?”
“I choose to ignore it.”
He was so damn self assured, so confident as he smiled at her. It was as if she hadn’t just told him
to go screw himself. “Marry me.”
“No.”
“Please?”
“No!”
“Why not?” His brows furrowed together in that pouty look again, the one that made her stomach
flutter.
Lumine huffed and crossed her arms, “You’re not husband material.”
“Excuse me?” Childe narrowed his eyes, “That’s rude, I fought you at the golden house, didn’t
I?”
“How does that make you husband material?”
How could it not? “I summoned an ancient god for you!”
“You summoned that for the Tsaritsa!”
“I bought you fried chicken.”
“... You got me there, but it still isn’t enough!”

He could not believe that he had stopped down to these levels, bartering with the girl of his
dreams to give him a chance. But, Childe was ambitious, determined, and unrelenting. He crossed
his arms, smiling darkly at the traveler, “Fine, I won’t kiss you one minute and then fight you the
next, or at least I’ll try my best not to, but you have to play along with Teucer this week and act
like we’re at least friends. I’ll even pay you more depending on how genuine I feel it is.”
Lumine tensed at the thought of even more money. “F-Fine, I’ll play along. But I expect a ton of
mora after this!”
“I wouldn’t let your sacrifices go unrewarded, girlie.”
He was good for something, at least. This was not particularly how she imagined spending her
time, though it would be nice to take a break from commissions and babysit for a while. She went
for the doors of his office and opened them, raising her voice in fake enthusiasm, “Teucer! I just
remembered something!”
Childe heard a gasp from downstairs. The sound of his brother's footfalls was a familiar one, he
was like a bull in an antique shop. “What is it?” He appeared around the corner and latched himself
to Lumine’s waist.
She patted his head with a giggle, “I recalled where I left the toy now, let’s go outside and get it!”
“Actually,” Childe uncrossed his arms and stood up straight, “it’s about his bedtime, so-“
“Teucer doesn’t have a bedtime anymore,” Lumine informed smartly, “Teucer’s going on a tour
of Liyue with me, we’re going to learn lots of new words.”
Evil. Evil harpy woman with a tongue sharper than her sword. Childe could recall now why he
fought with her so often.
And Teucer, of course, loved the idea. Gladly, he allowed Lumine to take his hand and lead him
out of the bank, rambling with childish wonder over seeing Liyue. Defeated, Childe followed. “Just
this once Teucer, you know mama would be angry with us both if I messed up your sleep
schedule.”
“He’s no fun,” Lumine whispered, “In Mondstadt we have this saying called ‘a stick up the ass’, it
means-“
Childe intervened, “It means that Teucer gets to stay up super late tonight!”
“Woah!” He threw up a fist and nearly tackled him in a hug, “You’re the best big brother ever!”
He laughed and patted his head, “Oh, I know.”
Lumine very quickly discovered that Childe truly was the best big brother in the world. It became
official the moment he took Lumine and Teucer out of the bank, up the street, and to the toy store -
where he promptly demanded to buy the entire stock.
Lumine felt nauseous. She wanted to barf, she wanted to fall to her knees and bemoan the gods for
letting this man come into existence. The shopkeeper tittered and gasped as Childe pulled Teucer
close into a hug.
The rest of the evening was much the same.
Paimon appeared eventually and joined Teucer in eating chop suey to their heart's content. She
was not at all shocked by the fact that his big brother turned out to be Childe, having already put
the pieces together and realizing who he resembled. After the chop suey, was walking along the
harbor and looking at the interesting boats. Lumine followed Childe and Teucer from a distance,
her stomach continuing to rumble with nausea at the thought of what lie ahead for the week.
At least she was getting paid. At least she would be fed.
Around 10:30 p.m. the excitement began to dwindle as Teucer’s eyes grew heavy. He was on
Childe’s back so he could catch a better view of the boats, though his head lolled with exhaustion.
Lumine leaned against a wall while she watched Childe approach with his younger brother’s
leaning over him like a ragdoll.
“You’ve got something there,” she pointed at the line of drool from Teucer’s mouth. He could
produce quite a bit, it seemed.
Childe sent it a disinterested glance, “I used to change his diapers, nothing he does can gross me
out anymore.”
Another flutter of her heart. Another tense feeling in her shoulders. Lumine looked away, “You
used to change his diapers?”
“Yeah,” he cocked his head as if confused as to why she would linger on that, “I practically
helped raise him.”
“I just… can’t imagine you ever changing a diaper.”
“I’ve changed plenty of diapers!” Childe grinned, “I know what you’re thinking, you’re realizing
that I actually am husband material-“
“Nope. You still aren’t.”
“Fine,” he huffed and held Teucer’s legs, hoisting him up further on his back as he turned, “Come
on, let’s get the little monster to bed.”
Of course he would choose the most fancy hotel in all of Liyue. Ningguang herself stayed there
when awaiting the construction of her new home. Lumine could only imagine Childe and
Ningguang taking the same elevator and standing in awkward silence.
Hesitant, nervous, she followed from a distance once more. Teucer mumbled in his sleep while
Childe carried him to his room. She froze once he pulled out a key to open the door, stepping away
and putting up a hand, “Well, sweet dreams, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
He glanced at her, “Where’re you going?”
“Uh, I was going to do what I do every night and find a soft patch of leaves in the forest to sleep
on?”
“What’re you, a lizard?” He stepped inside and walked to the bed, “You’re staying here.”
Here as in this specific room, or just the hotel? Awkward, Lumine stood in the doorway. She
watched as Childe pulled back the sheets and deposited Teucer into the bed. He leaned down to
unlace his boots and pull them off, then shimmy his jacket from his little arms. Half asleep, Teucer
only blinked and allowed Ajax to ruffle his hair and fluff a pillow.
It was caring, like a father putting a son to bed. As Teucer laid down and Childe tucked him in,
Lumine realized something.
If this kept up, she would be in trouble.
“I can’t stay here,” she spoke to herself. Turning on her heel and leaving as quickly as she could,
the image of Childe lovingly pulling the covers up to Teucer’s chin refused to leave her mind. He
was soft, and kind, speaking in whispers to the exhausted little boy who trusted him with his life.
“I-I have to escape, I can’t let this happ-“
“Girlie.”
A gloved hand on her wrist, a grip that stopped her in her tracks. Childe stared her down with a
dark look.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
She gasped, “How’d you get over here so fast?”
“I’m full of secrets, girlie.”
“You’re full of shit, that’s what!”
“Sweet, as always...” he loosened his grip on her wrist and stepped back. His eyes flickered down
to her waist with an unreadable expression, as if he was thinking long and hard about something
she could not even begin to understand. He opened his mouth to speak, yt quickly shut it and
gestured to a door, “Here’s your room, if you need anything I’ll be in here with Teucer.”
As much as Lumine did not want to take generosity from the Fatui, it had been so long since
she’d slept in an actual bed. The dark look on his face disappeared as he stared at the wall in
frustrated thought. She knew that expression, Childe was far too engrossed in his own mind to
terrorize her.
“Thank you,” still feeling awkward, she stepped past him and went to the door, “I’ll uh, be here.
In here, this room. This one that you, uh, have gotten for me.”
Could she get any worse? Could she be anymore humiliating? Childe missed his opportunity to
tease her, still half glaring at the wall in thought. Lumine took his distraction as her chance to rip
open the door and shut it behind her as quickly as she could.
He was acting odd. He had been normal all night, other than his terrible attempts at skirting
around the whole Harbinger thing. It was that moment in the hallway when he finally zoned out
that concerned Lumine. He was thinking quite hard about whatever it was that circled his mind.
She sighed and left her place against the door. The hotel room was spacious and decorated with
whites, golds and reds, the bed looking luxurious and comfortable. Instantly, her legs took her to
the bathroom, where she sighed in dramatic relief at the sight of indoor plumbing and a spacious
bath tub. “I should get babysitting jobs more often.”
It was the knock on the door that interrupted her initial excitement. Perturbed, Lumine sighed and
went to answer it, “Who is it?”
“Just me.”
“Who is me?” Teasing, she leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms.
She nearly jumped at the sight of Childe’s serious expression and furrowed brows. Before she
could ask what he wanted, he took the first step, “My soldiers told me that you didn’t go on
another date with Huffman.”
She froze, “Yeah, so?”
“Why?”
He was far too confusing. First, he tried to set her up with him, then he was sending people to ruin
her date completely. Lumine's gaze flattened in annoyance, “He was boring.”
“Well,” Childe mirrored her position, leaning against the doorframe with crossed arms and rolling
his eyes, “I knew that. You just never seemed to mind it before.”
“I held a sword to his neck and he did nothing.”
He grimaced, “Oh…”
“A-And,” her cheeks grew warm at the memory, “I told him I wanted him to dominate me, and he
just… didn’t do anything.”
That was the kicker, the nail in the coffin. Once the words left her lips, she knew she regretted it.
A look flashed through Childe’s eyes as he leaned over her, “If that’s what you want then I can
help with th-“
Lumine slammed the door in his face.
Another flicker of annoyance came to life in his chest. He frowned at the spot she just stood, now
with a door separating their bodies. Internally, he cursed his impulsive mind. He should have
guessed that Lumine wouldn’t want to joke about domination, of all things.
He had initially knocked on her door to say something quite important. Sighing and resting his
forehead against the cool wood, he closed his eyes. “Lumine, I’ve just got one thing to say, and
then I’ll put the matter to rest.”
Silence. No response, not even the sound of her breathing.
“I’ve missed you, that’s all. These last three months have been… I don’t know. I’ve missed you.”
Lumine kept quiet until she heard his footsteps fade down the hallway.
Harden your heart, Lumi, don’t let him get to you. She could not break her self control just
because he said one sweet thing.
It would not be nearly enough for redemption.
Childe could only take one day off, and he planned to make the most of it with his little brother.
The Fatui stationed in Liyue were commanded to fix their own problems, the debts were made to
wait, and the markets of the city of stone must prepare themselves for the incoming storm that was
Childe’s younger brother.
Lumine, fortunately, was given a break from the chaos. She awoke to a soft rapping on her door
from a maid who had brought her breakfast, and a note from Childe which simply said ‘relax’ in
his blocky script. She and Paimon took his command very seriously. And while Childe was a
persistent man, he knew when to back off and give the traveler space. She seriously needed her
space right then.
Besides, she’d get her fill of Teucer the next day.
Teucer was an early riser as well, as most of his family were. Childe usually awoke early as a
result from his time as a simple soldier and agent, though his mother and father were much the
same. They were an active bunch, Teucer being no exception. He dragged his brother down to the
street when the sun was just barely rising, and insisted upon being very adult that day and try
coffee for the first time.
He, of course, despised it. Yet, with him being out from mama’s thumb and staying up until 10:30
the night before, he felt quite mature nevertheless.
“Brother, I think I’ve grown an inch.”
Childe eyed him over the rim of his cup through the tendrils of steam rising into the air. Teucer
did look a little taller, though that might just have been his wild hair. Mama always tried to brush it
in the morning, something that had been forgotten when in the care of his brother. Childe didn’t
even brush his own hair, he just ran his fingers through it and let it dry into whatever weird shapes
it pleased.
Another tilt of his head, a narrowing of his eyes. Teucer sat up straight and sent him a toothy
grin.
“Yeah, I can see that. You’ll be even taller than me one day, probably.”
He lit up with excitement, “Really? Oh man… Oh, wow… then will Lumine like me?”
Another calm sip of coffee as he closed his eyes, “I don’t think you’re her type.”
“I’ll be old enough one day!”
“I promise it wouldn’t work out. Sorry bud.”
He groaned in annoyance and rolled his eyes. It was a habit he’d never had before meeting
Lumine, along with the dirty words and penchant for eating with his hands. Childe would have to
train him back into a respectful little boy before he sent him home.
“Fine,” he crossed his arms and huffed, “maybe brother Sacha, then?”
The thought of his womanizing older brother and Lumine, of all people, nearly made him cough
his drink up. Straightening his shoulder and clearing his throat, Childe attempted to erase that
image out of his mind. “N-No. Nope. No way.”
“Why not? I’d like to keep her around forever somehow!”
So would he, just not with Sacha touching her with his dirty little fingers. Childe could already
see how those family holidays would play out, he’d actually go through with his urges to break his
brother’s windpipe for once.
No one could touch Lumine besides himself. And that wasn’t just his own opinion, the stars in the
sky agreed with him.
“What if I marry her?” Childe attempted to sound innocent, though that was rather difficult as he
avoided Teucer’s eyes, “I think we’d make a good match.”
“Eh, I don’t see it.”
He’d never heard his little brother refuse an idea so quickly. He’d be offended if it was anybody
but him. “Why do you think that?” Setting his cup down, he narrowed his eyes and ruffled his hair,
“You’re just messing with me, aren’t you?”
“No! I really don’t think you’d be a good couple!” Teucer pushed his hands away with another
petulant frown, “Lumine’s a beautiful printsessa, she needs a white knight!”
Where did this kid get his ideas from? He’d have to have been reading Tonia’s fantasy stories
before visiting, it was the only explanation for his argument. “I can be heroic!”
“She needs a Mister Cyclops!”
“I don’t think Mister Cyclops has a mouth to kiss her with…”
“Why would they kiss?” Teucer pulled away in disgust, “All they need to do is hold hands and
look badass!”
Childe felt yet another piece of him crumble inside. “Where did you learn that word?”
“Miss Lumine.”
“Right,” he grimaced, “Teucer, you’re still a baby, you need to watch your language.”
“I’m eight! Almost nine!”

“You haven’t even reached double digits yet, buddy…”
“That doesn’t matter,” a grimace, a pouty tone not dissimilar to a toddler’s. Teucer had no idea
just how immature he was for his age, and perhaps that was Childe’s fault. He’d always spoiled
him, keeping him from reality as best as he could. He knew that even with his interference, Teucer
would still have his dreams shattered at some point. Childe had his taken away at the age of 14,
and was hoping to have Teucer last a bit longer than he did.
It was precisely why he would threaten Lumine with a mouth full of soap once she awoke.
“I just think...” Teucer took another disgusted-looking sip of his coffee, resisted the urge to gag,
and cleared his throat, “that while you are very cool, big brother, I would prefer you to stay single
forever so you will never get distracted from the most important things in life.”
“And what are those?”
“Toy selling, and me.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Imagine if you have kids,” Teucer gasped dramatically, “then where would I be? On the streets,
that’s where!”
Childe raised a brow, “Well, don’t worry about that, it’ll be a long while until that happens. And
by then you could probably buy yourself a million Mister Cyclops figures.”
“But I want you to get them for me.”
He was so spoiled, and perhaps that also was Childe’s fault. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to
regret it. If Ajax could not be spoiled, then he would make sure that Teucer could be. It was the job
of older generations to create a better world for the younger, to create happiness and dispel the
darkness, even if that meant becoming the darkness himself.
That was what Lumine didn’t understand. And while Childe didn’t consider himself particularly
good, he had faith that the Tsaritsa’s end goal was a noble one. Zhongli was correct, the age of the
gods was beginning to end. He’d helped to prove that.
Also, he just really liked fighting.
He always had, and always would. The fact that Huffman did nothing when a sword was to his
neck only proved further how terrible of a match he was for a woman like Lumine. She deserved a
warrior, someone to challenge her, someone that could keep up with her. Childe had a feeling that
he was one of the few who could.
Teucer had zoned out in fear of his future nieces and nephews for a moment. When he finally
returned to Teyvat mentally, he whirled his head up to catch Childe in a wide eyed, excited stare.
“What’re we doing today? I hope it’s fun! Can we…” he scanned the area, “climb a mountain? Fly
some kites?”
“Hm… Fly a kite off a mountain?”
“Perfect! Will Lumi come along?”
Childe resisted the grimace coming to life on his lips. He glanced away, thinking of his moment
of weakness last night in the hotel hallway.
I’ve missed you, that’s all.
He wanted to tell her that he’d spent the last three months thinking of her each and every day. He
wanted to tell her that he was frustrated each time he saw a white flower, because it reminded him
of her. He wanted to tell her that his mother was so ecstatic to meet her, that she was already a part
of his family, and she didn’t even know it.
How pitiful, Tartaglia could not get what he wanted for once. He could not fight his way through
this problem, he could not call upon the teachings of the Abyss and rain down destruction. He had
to be patient.
It was maddening.
“No,” he ran a hand through his hair and offered a smile that did not dare to reach his eyes, “not
right now. Let’s just spend some time together, you and I.”
Teucer would be perfectly okay with that, no matter how pretty Miss Lumine was! Family always
came first, in his opinion, it was the Snezhnayan way.
Childe truly did take him up a mountain with a kite, though the custom ruin guard design he
ordered was not quite done yet. Lumine seemed to want to faint all of last night each time Childe
dropped money on a special order for Teucer, he wondered how she would react tomorrow when
he was working and they were alone. Poor thing would probably have a heart attack the second his
little brother said ‘filtered and pressed virgin olive oil with a smattering of balsamic vinegar
please’. So far, Childe had managed to shelter her from the true extent of Teucer’s pickiness.
Naturally, as the day went on with Childe succumbing to Teucer’s every whim, chaos followed.
And even more naturally, Lumine was not pleased at the sight of the boy who returned to the
hotel by 2 p.m. that day.
“What… happened to him…?”
Ajax was sure that he’d encountered this scenario before.
He was 12, covered in dirty sea water, shuffling into the living room with his father at his back.
They both were grinning, but the smiles fell instantly as mama’s eyes locked upon them. Ajax had
ripped his knit scarf for what felt like the hundredth time, he smelled like seaweed, and there was
something akin to greenish mud puddling on the rug.
Lumine wore the exact same expression as his mother did that day. That tilted head, that tight
smile. Her eyes were blank, and her brows raised. She laced her fingers together and took one
careful step towards Childe.
“You… you walk into my room… covered in mud and grime… and… blood? Is that blood,
Ajax?”
Hilichurl blood, to be exact. Knowing that silence was golden, he only smiled in response.
“Teucer,” Lumine whispered as she drew to her knees in front of the boy and brushed back his
mud caked hair, “what happened? Are you hurt?”
He was lit up with excitement, grinning ear to ear, “Not at all! We didn’t mean to get all muddy,”
he sent Childe a bashful smile, “but it rained earlier this morning, and we were on a mountain
flying kites, and-”
“You took him on a mountain?”
Childe waved a nonchalant hand, “He’s fine, he had the time of his life sliding down the mud.”
“What?!”
“Miss Lumi,” Teucer spoke slowly, “you’re acting like my mama right now.”
“H-How could I not? Goodness,” she ruffled his hair and gasped, “Did Ajax not brush your hair
this morning?”
“Nope!”
“D-Did he even make you take a bath?”
“Nope!”
“What have you eaten today?”
“Chocolate pancakes,” he counted off on his fingers absently, “really super sweet coffee because
the black stuff is gross, uh… Oh, sugar crusted jellies, really yummy cake, and Ajax gave me a
taste of his fire wate-”
“You gave him liquor?!”
Childe only smiled.
“Answer me!”
He tilted his head, still smiling.
“It’s not even dinner time yet, why were you drinking?!”
“Oh, calm down,” he finally waved a hand and sighed as Teucer giggled and gripped his waist,
“you’re like a nagging wife. It’s my day off, and Teucer’s away from home, so he gets to do all the
stuff mama won’t let him do otherwise.”
Lumine glared, “Like underage drinking?”
“Yep!”
Teucer stuck out his tongue, “It was kind of gross, actually.”
“You,” Lumine gave him a pointed glare, “are going to take a bath right now, and you’re eating
vegetables for dinner.”
“B-But I want more cake…”
“And you,” she turned on Childe, only proving to make his smile of joy grow further, “are not
going to take my little boy up a mountain again!”
She was beautiful. She was perfect and wonderful and he’d missed having her anger directed at
him. He had missed that glare, that venom in her voice. He had missed the way she set him on fire
internally, the way she had no idea what she was doing by challenging him.
“Your little boy?” He tilted his head and put a hand on her hip, “Lumi, are your maternal instincts
kicking in?”
“W-What?! Teucer,” she whirled to face him with a gasp, “go take a bath and get some clean
clothes on!”
He saluted, “Yes ma’am!”
“A-And afterwards I’d like you to help clean up this mud!”
“Right!”
“And- Ajax stop grinning at me like that!”
“Like what?”
Like she was a choice cut of meat hanging from a market stall. Teucer ran out of the room and
into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. Lumine tensed until she heard the sound of
running water loud enough to drown out the heated whispers she was planning to bombard Childe
with.
She’d even been using his real name this whole time, she hardly realized it. It seemed that the
mirth in his eyes only grew deeper with each use.
“Tartaglia,” that was much better, much more informal and laced with poison, “You’re filthy.
I’ve never seen you so…”
It was true that he was usually quite fastidious. While he could get carried away in a fight and
wouldn’t hardly care what he looked like, he still had ingrained habits of keeping the area around
him from growing messy. He was rather muddy, then, with blood and day old rain water mixing
into a puddle at his feet. The hotel manager had gasped upon seeing his entrance.
“Well,” he shrugged casually, “it’s not how I’d usually spend my day, but what Teucer wants,
Teucer gets.”
She frowned, “He has you wrapped around his finger, you know.”
Ironic. “So do you, you just show it differently.”
There it was once more, his reward. The best sight in the world, a flustered and angry Lumine
with red cheeks. She gasped and took a step back, “I-I do not!”
She did, though he was not about to indulge the power she had over him, lest her more conniving
side kick in and she suddenly decide to misuse it. He smiled again, taking a step forward as she
went back, continuing this dance of nervous glares and racing hearts. “Why don’t you ever believe
me when I tell you the truth?”
“Why do you think?” Her voice was a hiss, “Square up, let’s go. Right here and now!”
She was perfect. She was amazing. He felt a wave of affection nearly drown him.
Teucer, unfortunately, had terrible timing. Lumine was beginning to learn that. This child was a
cluster of awkward moments waiting to happen.
10 minutes later, in clean clothes and brushed hair, he walked into Lumine’s hotel with a call of,
“Sister Lumine, I’m cle- Uh…”
And of course, Lumine had Ajax pinned face-first to a wall. Her foot rested on the small of his
back, holding him down as she twisted his arms behind him. Childe turned his head and grinned at
his little brother, “Oh, hey Teuc, we’re a little busy right now, sorry.”
Lumine jerked his arm again before releasing him with a sigh. Teucer stepped away with his
hands fiddling in front of him, his cheeks going pink, “Is this an adult thing that I won’t understand
until I’m older?”
“No!” She gasped, “We were just fighting!”

Childe laughed as he recovered from his pinning, rubbing the twisted skin around his wrists, “I
just let Lumi win, you know, you’ve got to be kind to girls.”
“You jerk! It doesn’t matter whether I’m a girl or not!”
“You’re delicate.”
“If I’m so delicate,” she put her hands on her hips and glared, “then how did I pin you so easily?”
“I let you!”
“Sure you did!”
This argument continued throughout the evening. Childe took Teucer and Lumine to dinner, and
managed to keep up the steady flow of excuses and retorts throughout the meal. Teucer watched
the back and forth with wide eyes; Lumine and Ajax treated arguing like a sport.
By 8:30 p.m. it was promptly decided: It was a tie, they had been interrupted and could not
possibly see who would win under fair circumstances. Childe promised to fight her for real once
Teucer went back home - which was argued against, as Teucer never wanted to go home.
Childe carried him back from the restaurant, and the arguing stopped for a short while. He
ignored the curious glances from the citizens who knew him as a Harbinger. Lumine envied that
about him, she could never ignore the judgement of others. Following him through the streets,
though, she felt as if his own confidence rubbed off on her, as if she was in his personal bubble of
safety and carelessness. Nothing could touch her when at his side.
He was a damn good brother. And Teucer trusted him so fully, so completely.
“Today was good,” he whispered as he carried him up the stairs, “It’s rare that I get to have a day
off.”
“You’re a workaholic, huh?”

“Only by necessity.”
She huffed, “I won that fight, you know.”
“I know,” a grin that struck her to her core, a challenging glimmer in his eyes that she so rarely
got to see, “But thanks for not letting Teucer know that, I can’t possibly have him thinking I could
be beat by anyone.”
“Not even by me?”
“Nope, though I do plan to win against you when we have the chance for a real fight.”
“If that’s what helps you sleep at night, you can plan on whatever you like.”
He would. If he could spend the rest of his life trying to defeat her, he would finally be content.
Approaching the hotel room, he leaned down to turn the knob and step inside, “Do you want to
help me tuck him in?”
Lumine stared at him with her hands behind her back, and her expression unreadable. Hesitance,
and deep thought, furrowed brows that revealed nothing.
“I think you’ve got it covered,” she looked away, “I’m just gonna go to bed.”
“Alrighty... goodnight Lumi.”
“Goodnight, Aja- uh, Childe.”
Another tightening of the rope between them. Another tug, another long stare. It took everything
he had to rip his eyes from her. Lumine had far more strength than him, stepping back and turning
away to leave. His heart skipped a beat while he listened to the sound of her retreating footsteps.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have told her his real name. Perhaps he would be in a far better state if she
knew nothing of him. He’d failed to push her away long ago, even emotionally. They spent three
months apart, yet the minute he comes back to Liyue she waltzes right back into his life. It was so
natural, it was like warm blankets and cold snow, like breathing.
Teucer snuggled into the pillows and stretched his tired legs. He held the blankets close to his
chest, “Brother?”
Childe pulled off his boots with a sigh, “Yes, moya radost?”
“Sing to me?”
“Of course,” he brushed back his hair and smiled, “whatever you wish.”
Lumine left her room for just a moment to get water, attempting to ignore the feeling that Childe
had given her. There was something odd between their stares, something electric and incredibly
confusing. She could hardly erase the memory.
As she walked past his room, she thought that just for half a second, she heard the sound of an
out-of-tune lullaby sung in soft, familiar tones.
Through the door, she listened as Teucer snorted and laughed. The singing halted as Childe’s
laughter joined - a genuine sound, so different from the dark chuckles that sent shivers up her
spine.
“Dammit,” Lumine instantly retreated and collapsed face-first into bed, “he’s totally husband
material. I’m doomed.”
Chapter End Notes
Next, the... ~humiliation~

Lumine's Losing Battle
Chapter Notes
Lumine could not sleep.
“I hate him.”
Her mind refused to shut down.
“I despise him.”
She counted at least 15 sheep before giving up.
“I loathe him.”
If Paimon was there, she’d surely say something about how terrible the Harbinger was. Her
insults would, naturally, give Lumine the confidence she needed to hate him. But Paimon had
disappeared long ago on the basis of ‘this is too domestic and Paimon has a weak stomach’.
Lumine hated that she was right - the entire ordeal truly was too domestic. She had even called
Teucer her little boy, and had nagged Childe like an old crone.
What was she becoming? This was worse than what happened with Huffman. Lumine wasn’t
acting like a cute and proper lady now - she was acting like a wife.
Disgusting.
Ever since she could recall, she’d been smitten with the wrong kind of men. With each world she
and Aether traveled to, someone would catch her eye; someone who had absolutely zero interest in
her personally. Lumine’s love life had been a series of unrequited feelings, and disappointments.
But she wanted, so desperately, to be loved by someone.
Now that there was a chance someone might love her, she found herself absolutely terrified.
Just one week, just babysitting Teucer until Childe found him a boat back home. Besides,
Childe’s day off was over, and he would be far too busy with work to bother her from now on. She
would drop Teucer off at the hotel each evening, politely refuse Childe’s offer of a room, and
return to her comfortable routine of camping out on a bed of leaves, and ignoring reality.
That is, if Childe would allow her to escape.
He would not.
He woke her up at 5:00 a.m. with an obnoxious knock on the door. Daring to call out in a sing-
song voice, he sounded entirely too thrilled to be awake before sunrise, “Girlie, wake up! Wakey
wakey, eggs and bakey!”
Lumine felt as if she had just fallen asleep. She had to have only gotten about 3 hours of rest.
Having been so utterly preoccupied with glaring at the ceiling and thinking of ways to de-
domesticate herself, sleep had evaded her.
Suffice to say, she did not respond to his wake up calls.
“Miss Lumi,” Teucer now, “if you don’t get out of bed on time the snow monsters will drag you
out by your ankles and take you to the taiga and eat you!”
Snezhnayan culture was so beautiful, so rich, so delightful. She heard Childe laugh through the
door, “Teuc, they don’t have snow monsters here.”
“Hm… rock monsters?”
“That works.”
“Miss Lumi! If you don’t get out of bed on time the rock monsters will drag you out by your
ankles and take you to the mountains and eat you!”
How desperately she wished that Paimon would appear and cover her. Paimon could tell them
that she was missing, she’d disappeared in the night and never came back. Raising her voice and
faking an accent, Lumine called out, “Miss Lumine is not here, she is… dead. I am simply here to
clean the corpse juices from the sheets.”
Her accent was quite convincing, in her opinion. There was a beat of silence behind the door,
seconds of awkwardness passing, until she heard the sound of a familiar low laugh, “Today, little
brother, I shall teach you the ancient art of breaking and entering.”
“Sounds fun!”
Dear Archons, it truly did not. “Now, the professionals use entire kits for this kind of stuff, but I
prefer a more blunt method.”
“So, when do you ever have to do this for toy selling?”
“How do you think we get toys to kids? You can’t just hand them over, there’s got to be some sort
of mystery and fun involved.”
Nice save. He was truly committed to the toy salesman pitch. She listened to Teucer gasp in
excitement, “Show me! I wanna learn!”
Lumine could not even begin to imagine what was happening outside her door. She attempted to
do her best impression of a pillow, seeming very small underneath the layers of covers and sheets.
The door knob twisted and wiggled, until finally there was the sound of Childe taking a deep
breath. It was promptly followed with a kick, and the sharp busting of wood and weak hinges.
“Ah, so I see the breaking part…” Teucer pushed open the splintered door, “but the entering?”
“That’s the easy part, Teuc. You just enter!”

“Oh, of course!” He laughed at himself before walking into Lumine’s hotel room - he never did
clean up the mud on the floor from yesterday. With his hands on his hips, he peered over the
furniture for any sight of the traveler. “Miss Lumine?”
“She’s dead, remember?” Childe approached the Lumine-shaped lump on the bed, “Here’s her
corpse.”
“Then why is the corpse breathing?”
He put a hand to his chin, “Good observation. I suppose we should test if she’s alive or not.”
Lumine was far too stubborn to get up and play their game. After spending a night growling to
herself over the fact that Childe sang his brother to sleep, she wasn’t quite feeling on his level any
longer. To tease and goof around him would never be the same after discovering her penchant for
domesticity and wife-hood.
She stayed still. Teucer giggled. Her heart skipped a beat in anticipation, and it was beginning to
grow warm underneath these pillows.
“Dog pile on Lumi!”
No. No, never in a million years. Before she could possibly defend herself, Childe fell backwards
over her body. He splayed out on top of her spread eagle, and was thusly followed by Teucer as he
jumped onto his brother’s stomach.
She had never been the bottom in a dog pile. Usually she was the one calling them upon Aether,
and would take her throne at the very top. Groaning, she buried her face further into the mattress,
“Get your fat ass off me!”
“Aw, Lumi, you never let me get this close,” Childe nudged Teucer off and sat up, releasing her
from beneath his body weight, “I almost felt like we liked each other just then. You’d never let me
in your bed otherwise.”
To say a dirty joke in front of his kid brother, he had no shame. Knowing Teucer, though, he
didn’t understand the implication. Annoyed, Lumine would not waste even a minute on her
revenge. She grabbed a pillow and swung it at Childe’s head.
And, of course, missed entirely. Childe caught the assault and gripped the other end of the pillow.
Refusing to let go, Lumine gasped, “You’re a scoundrel! It’s rude to barge into a lady’s room
without permission!”
“Who says this is a lady’s room?”
“How dare you!”
It happened so quickly, so smoothly. No amount of preparation would prevent his sly grin and the
glimmer of mischief in his eyes. With one harsh yank of the pillow between them, Lumine was
promptly pulled into his lap.
She nearly screamed in surprise. Teucer was still laughing at the antics - a mockery of their close
proximity and how utterly deadly her glare was. The worst part of it all was how Childe wore the
tiniest hint of a genuine smile. She scrambled away like a startled cat, “Teucer! Hit him!”
“Yes ma’am!” Childe could not hold away the surprise pillow to the back of his head. Despite her
exhaustion, Lumine found herself laughing at the shocked look on the Harbinger’s face.
Between the newly erupted pillow fight, and every blanket ending up on the floor, she giggled,
“How are you two so energetic this early?”
Teucer leaned over his brother with a very threatening cushion in his hands. He froze and glanced
over his shoulder, “Oh, everybody in our family gets up early. It’s when the fish are biting the
best.”
“The fish?”
Grinning, Childe lunged to wrap his arms around Teucer’s waist. He spun him in the air and
tossed the pillow aside in one fell movement, successfully removing both himself and his little
brother from her bed. “The fish,” he confirmed as he set Teucer down, “you know, gotta beat the
walruses-”
“The walruses?”
Teucer put his fingers to his mouth, “Yeah, they’ve got big teeth.”
“You once told me that I kiss like one.” Childe crossed his arms, “Remember?”
She did say that. She just wasn’t aware that Snezhnaya could produce animals other than feral
gingers and super soldiers. With how she spent last night, bringing up their first kiss did not settle
well on her stomach. “No. That never happened.”
It did happen. Neither of them could forget it. There was another spark of something akin to
electricity between them once more. How ironic that the first time a man actually wants to be with
her, and he’s a Fatui Harbinger who kills people and summons ancient Gods. She narrowed her
eyes as if to say ‘don’t get your hopes up, I’m still mad at you’.
Teucer, on the other hand, was still processing the new information. He gasped suddenly, “K-
Kissed? Like… you two?”
Lumine nearly jumped to attention, “No! No, we’ve never kissed!”
“Right,” Childe dropped it with a sigh, “She’s just kidding, it’s an inside joke between us.”
“Pretty weird inside joke… S-Stay away from my girl, Ajax!”
“Yes sir!” Childe gave him a silly salute before ruffling his hair, “Don’t worry, I’ve got some
stuff to do today, so you and Lumine can play together all you want.” He sent her a glance, “I’ll be
around the Qingxu Pool area today if you need anything from me. And just send any expenses
from today to the bank, don’t worry about budgeting.”
Lumine put a hand on her stomach, looking nauseous, “It’s too early for this. You wake me up,
you jump on me, you start talking about spending mora… I’ve got a very delicate constitution.”
“I’ll hold your hair back if you barf, Miss Lumine.”

“That’s very sweet, Teucer, thank you.” She yawned and grabbed a spare pillow, fluffing it before
laying down and curling up, “I think I might just go back to sleep, could you tuck me in?”
Not at all. Childe wouldn’t even sing her an off-key lullaby. All he did was attack her with
another pillow, causing Teucer to get excited and subsequently pounce onto the bed. With the
sudden onslaught, Paimon awoke and appeared in a flurry of constellations. As quickly as she
appeared, she found herself dodging one of Lumine’s shoes, vaulted through the air and aimed for
the Harbinger’s head.
He barely escaped. The sight of him almost tripping over the door he had broken was enough to
bring a smile to Lumine’s face.
“W-What did Paimon come back to?” Slowly, she floated backwards, “Are you and Mister
Moneybags getting a divorce or something?”
She groaned, “That’s not funny, you really think I’d stoop low enough to marry him?”
“Hm… Yes, Paimon does think that.”
“Well stop thinking it!”
“Yeah,” Teucer put his hands on his hips, “Miss Lumine is gonna marry a Mister Cyclops.
They’ll hold hands and fight villains!”
Right. Exactly! She ignored the mental image of holding a ruin guards hand, rolling out of bed
with a sigh. As exhausted as she was, attempting to go back to sleep with Teucer jumping on her
bed would not be possible. The world outside was just beginning to light up. Golden slivers of
sunshine peaked through her window blinds.
“Let’s get breakfast, but no chocolate pancakes.”
Teucer gasped as if he’d been thoroughly offended, “You don’t understand, lyubimaya, chocolate
pancakes are life!”
“You need to eat something healthy- wait,” Lumine froze in thought. Something unexplainable
settled into her stomach at the sound of his chosen nickname. Lyubimaya, Childe had called her
that before. “What does that mean?”
He looked at her oddly, “What does what mean?”
“Lyu… uh, lyubimaya, is that how you say it?”
He lit up, “Yes! It means beloved, mama calls me that when she makes chocolate pancakes.”
Paimon snorted, “Teucer’s really stuck on the pancakes today… Lumi?” She sent a questioning
glance, “why’re you all pale?”
Childe called her beloved, his beloved. He’d called her that the first time they ever kissed, and
she’d always thought it was an insult. Lumine ignored the butterflies in her stomach and gulped
down her affection. He was the first man to call her that. She was scared of what it truly meant. If
that meant beloved, what other names had he been using?
She was totally going to learn Snezhnayan. She would start with the curses.
“Teucer, would you mind running to the lobby downstairs and getting me a cup of tea?”
“Sure!” He did not take note of her uneasy expression, “I’ll be right back with the best tea you’ve
ever had!”
He was a good kid, she wondered if Childe was the same way at that age. Sighing and shaking
her head while Teucer left the room, Lumine attempted to clear her mind of thoughts of him.
“Are you okay?” Paimon floated closer, “You look a little sick…”
She didn’t get nearly enough sleep last night. “My mind is all fuzzy. I’m trying to make a plan,
but I can’t think straight.”
“A plan for what?”
This was why she asked Teucer to leave, it would give her a few minutes to brainstorm with
Paimon. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she glared at the wall, “I don’t want to fall in love.”
She gasped, “Paimon thought you did?”
“I want… I want stability and companionship while I look for Aether.” She explained, “I guess I
picked Huffman because I always had a feeling it wouldn’t happen in the end. It was safe. I’ve
always done what’s safe…”
“So, what’s the problem now?”
Childe was a good brother. He was strong. He was thrilling to be around. He still liked her even
when she did something impulsive and stupid. He laughed at her jokes, and teased her in return. He
was a challenge, and a comfort, all at once.
“I want to make Childe uninterested in me. I want him to realize that we’d be a terrible couple.
How would I go about doing that?”
Paimon was on the job in instant. She crossed her arms in thought, “Abandon the little brother in a
hilichurl camp?”
“I can’t do that! I wouldn’t do that, jeez!”
“Fine,” she huffed, “steal all of his mora and try to kill him?”
“He’d like that.”
“You’re right… Become super docile and stop fighting?”

She sighed, “That would work, but I already did that for Huffman and it drove me crazy.”
“Okay, then… uh, try to dominate him?”
“He’d like that too.”
Paimon clenched her fists and groaned, “Paimon doesn’t know! Just be yourself, nobody likes
you when you’re adventuring and being feral! Just show him how wild Lumi can truly be!”
That was a good idea. That was something she could do, drop every wall and be her instinctually
annoying self. Aether was usually the only one who saw her true nature. Would Childe still like her
when she treasure hunted and spent hours fighting in ruins? Would he still think she was beautiful
when she tested her skills by taking out hilichurl camps with only a sharp stick? Would he still
want her when she blew up barrels of explosives for fun?
There was no possible way that he could. Every man she’d ever shown her true self to had run for
the hills.
It was fool-proof.
“Alright,” Lumine clasped her hands together, “That’s what I’ll do. I’ll be the most funnest, most
coolest babysitter in the world, while simultaneously showing Childe that I am definitely not wife
material.”
Paimon pursed her lips and looked at her as if she was insane, “Paimon’s tasted your cooking, she
definitely thinks you’re wife material.”
“My cooking doesn’t matter! It’s my wild abandon for the laws of nature that will show him!”
“Paimon knows that she said nobody likes you when you’re feral… but Paimon was just
frustrated! It’s actually kind of cute!”
“It’s not cute!” Lumine clenched her fists, “It’s terrifying! I’m a cryptic horror from another
world, men fear me and my dark powers!”
“...Okay Fischl…”
“It’s not cute,” another glare and an annoyed huff, “he’ll realize in the next few days that he could
never settle down with me or take me to meet his parents. I’ll make sure he knows just how un-
wifeable I truly am.”
“Okay… if you say so…”
She did say so, and she fully intended to carry through with it.
That is, until she noticed that Teucer had been gone for a suspiciously long time.
“Oh yeah,” the hotel doorman sniffed arrogantly, as if he was far above these shenanigans, “the
little boy left a while ago.”
Lumine was an absolute wreck, and Paimon was panicking. She hadn’t even gotten her tea,
having found the kettle in the guest kitchen area half heated and abandoned. Teucer was not in his
room, not in the restroom, and not even in the building.
“Where did he go? Did he say?”
The doorman turned up a nose at her flagrant begging, “He asked for directions to Qingxu Pool,
said something about missing his brother.”
“Oh…” Paimon whispered before jerking up and zipping around Lumine’s head, “he’ll see Childe
doing Harbinger stuff!”
Childe had Lumine watch him specifically for the reason that Teucer could not see him doing
Harbinger stuff. “We’ve got to find him!”
“But wait,” Paimon gripped at her hair, “wouldn’t your plan work out if you just let that happen?
Teucer wouldn’t get hurt, but… Paimon is sure loser Harbinger would be mad enough with you to
not want to marry you.”
It was interesting to think that making Childe mad at her would only require going back on her
babysitting duties. He had released an ancient God, yet she still put up with him - only for mora, of
course, after Teucer left she planned to return to ignoring his existence. Paimon was right, letting
the little brother run free and catch him in the act of villainy would most definitely be enough to
make Childe mad at her.
“But how could I do that to Teucer? He’s just a little kid, he doesn’t deserve to find out that his
idol is… you know…”
“Well,” her gaze flattened, “that’s more the loser Harbinger’s fault than yours.”
“True, but he’s just so young and so…” How to describe the little boy who thought dickweed
meant friend in Mondstadt, “He’s so happy. He deserves to feel safe around his big brother right
now, he’s just a kid.”
Paimon considered it with her hands on her hips, “Agreed, but what about making Childe dislike
you?”
“I’ll… I’ll figure it out. Come on,” she started down the street, “let’s catch up to Teucer before he
sees his big brother doing something illegal.”
Paimon flew alongside her, “Did he even tell you what he was doing today?”
“Nope, just that he was working. Before all that stuff at the Golden House happened, I recall
seeing some of his work…” When she would sit on his desk and rifle through his papers, when she
would be the main distraction for his laziness, when he would slack off on the excuse of taking her
to lunch - odd to think that they were friends once.
But were they friends? Friends didn’t kiss each other when they were angry, friends didn’t feel a
constant electricity and tension between them. She wouldn’t sit on Jean’s desk and pine for
attention the way she did with Childe. It felt as if they’d never truly been just friends.
She shook the thought away with a glare, “He’s probably just debt collecting or overseeing some
diabolical villain experiments. I doubt he’s fighting anything right now.”
“Oh…” Paimon slowed, “Qingxu Pool, right?”
“Right!”
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“No, this is most definitely the way to Qingxu Pool.”
“It’s really not…”
“My directional skills have gotten much better, thank you!”
“Lumi, if you keep walking in that direction you’ll end up in Inazuma!”
“...Oh. A-Anyway,” she turned on her heel and followed Paimon, “let’s go find Teucer!”
There was something about these treasure hoarders Childe just could not get enough of. Perhaps
it was how they bumbled about like toddlers. That was quite funny.
He sat on a cliff overlooking their camp. The breeze that rustled his hair was slightly reminiscent
of Snezhnaya, though far less bitter. He closed his eyes and took in the scent of wet moss and fresh
grass. This was quite a nice spot, he might have to take Lumine on a picnic there at some point.
Below, the targets meandered about aimlessly. 600,000 mora just to stand around and drink beer,
what a waste. The loan had been agreed upon with the basis that the treasure hunters would find
treasure to repay them with. They were using the Tsaritsa’s money to treat themselves instead.
Each Fatui Harbinger oversaw a specific service to the Tsaritsa. Her Majesty was kind enough to
take the personalities of each Harbinger into consideration before assigning certain tasks and jobs.
Dottore did the experiments - he lent a hand with the sigils of permission - due to his rather
obsessive nature and intellect. Scaramouche worked on assassinations and hunting down targets,
though he’d been thwarted as of late by an utterly random hydro mage with pigtails.
And Childe liked to cause destruction. Simple as that. What better job to give him than overseeing
the agents and hunters? He had worked as an agent himself once. The Tsaritsa was aware that this
job came with quite a few confrontations - nobody liked debt collectors. It was perfect for the 11th.
It kept him busy, entertained.
Usually, Childe would give these small jobs to the agents, but he’d lost a bet last week - there
were drunken men brawling in the streets, he and a recruit gambled upon who would win - and was
a man of his word. He would do the job personally, despite how improper Ekaterina and the others
thought it was. On occasion, even a Harbinger enjoyed stooping down to do the dirty work.
The treasure hoarders had yet to notice him. He crouched on the edge of the cliff, his hands
between his thighs while he watched their shenanigans. The leader’s voice lifted into the air while
an argument continued. Things were clearly getting heated between them.
“Time to go to work,” he sighed. Hopefully this would be over soon, and he could return to
Teucer and Lumine without much trouble.
One thing he appreciated greatly about traveling were the exposures to new culture. Mondstadt
was an overly emotional city of alcoholics, but they had one thing right. They had gliding, and he
adored gliding.
Especially when he put away his gliders and dropped down in the middle of a battle. It was
exhilarating. He could not battle these treasures hoarder quite yet, though he did enjoy leaping off
the cliff and landing on his feet in front of their camp.
They froze in shock. Childe straightened up, dusting the grass off his hands. “Hey, so let’s get
this over with.”
Teucer was probably giving Lumine a heart attack by now with his spending habits. He had to get
back to her and take over the babysitting before she collapsed with grief. Crossing his arms over his
chest, he watched the treasure hoarders scramble up to grab their weapons.
The leader was mildly drunk, he smelled of smoke and sweat. Holding his crossbow, he sauntered
through his subordinates to face the intruder. He glared as if he was constipated, “What the hell do
you want? This is hoarder territory.”
“I’m aware,” he snorted, “that’s why I’m here. Are you the boss?”
“For now, yeah. What of it?”
“You know what I’m here, for I trust?”
“Oh, you think you’re so cool because you got a vision, eh?” the leader spat and snorted. The
men behind him laughed awkwardly before he went on, “Not just anyone can join the treasure
hunters, kid! Plus you’re too… pretty.”
He thought he was here to join their ragtag group of idiots? Ignoring the ‘pretty’ remark, Childe
sighed and rolled his eyes, “That’s hilarious, really. You’re quite imaginative. I guess I should
forgive you, though, I am far more merciful than her Majesty the Tsaritsa. You’ve borrowed
money.” His expression darkened, his eyes narrowing. It almost reminded him of his days as an
agent, before he became Harbinger - customer service was not fun. “You will be repaying it
today.”
“Oh yeah, and why is that, kid?”
Childe liked this part, as impatient as he was. Usually, he would spend a bit more time playing
with his food, like a cat with a mouse. “Do you not realize who you’re speaking to?” he spread his
arms out, “I’m a Fatui Har-”
“Brother!”
Dear Archons, no.
“I-I’m a-”
“Big brother? Can you hear me?”

Dear Lords in Celestia, no. Dear nature deities, no. No. No. He froze, a shot of ice crawling up his
spine as if the Tsaritsa had touched his bare skin. The treasure hoarders all furrowed their brows
and glanced around the area for any sign of a young boy calling out for his brother.
Childe knew that voice, he’d recognize it in his deepest dreams. And he’d never found it so
terrifying. Stiff, with his heart racing, he turned towards the sound.
And there was Teucer, in all his glory, running down the road. He was moving as quickly as his
little legs would take him.
“Gods…” Childe cleared his throat and turned back to the hoarders, “600,000 mora, now. Hand it
over before he gets closer.”
“Big brother, I see you up there! Hold on, I’m coming!”
“We’re not givin’ you shit! Who’d you say you were again?”
“I-I am…” Teucer was moving as quickly as his little legs would take him, drawing closer with
each passing second. Where was Lumine? “the greatest toy salesman in Snezhnaya! The toys that
we produced are going to run you about 600,000 mora. That’s to be paid in full. Now.”
The treasure hoarders had the audacity to laugh in his face. The smell of beer seemed to be more
pungent as they chortled. The leader gave him a toothy grin, “You’re here to get mora from us? We
don’t have it, rob someone else!”
“It’s not a robbery, you bought these toys,” he was nearly growling.
Teucer stopped at his side and jumped, “Tell ‘em, big brother! They’ve gotta pay for those!”
“Toys?” The leader snorted, “Are you insane? Is 600,000 how much it’s gonna take to fix that
head of yours?”
“Just hand it over.” Childe truly did not want to say please. To reiterate, customer service was a
nightmare, and he did not miss his days as an agent.
“Or what?”
A challenge, one he could not quite meet with Teucer at his side. Childe frowned in thought,
“Or…”
As if on cue, Lumine finally appeared at the bottom of the hill. She was breathing heavily, her
hair ruffled and wild, her dress wrinkled. She did not give herself time to recover before sprinting
up after Teucer. All eyes shifted to the approaching girl. The only time Childe had seen her move
so quickly was during their battle at the Golden House. In an instant, she was grabbing Teucer by
the waist and lifting him over her head. “I caught you! I win!”
“We’re not playing tag!” he kicked his legs wildly, “I want to watch my brother work!”
She looked exhausted, as if she’d run all the way from Liyue, “Let’s leave him alone, he’s super
duper busy!”
“I-I just want to see him!”
She was carrying him like a very delicate dessert tray, “But he’s so busy, Teuc!”
“Let me watch him!”
“No way in hell!”
A beat of silence. The sound of the giggling of the treasure hunters and Lumine’s retreating
footsteps. Faintly, Childe heard him ask, “Where is hell?” Lumine only groaned in response.
The leader of the hoarders finally looked back to Childe with furrowed brows, “Are they yours?”
“Yeah,” he crossed his arms and glared, “it’s national bring your wife and brother to work day,
didn’t you hear?”
A beat of silence, “Man… I haven’t seen my wife in ages… H-Hey,” he glanced at the man
behind him, “why didn’t you bring Christine?”
“We’ve, uh… had a falling out, boss…”
“You need to treat her better, I’ve always told you that.”
“I know… it’s just with the new house and the kids-”
“Listen,” Childe put up a hand to interrupt, “600,000 mora, three months prior, paid in full. Hand
it over before things get ugly.”
“Before things get ugly? Who do you think you are? The Fatui?”
“Actually, ye-”
“We aren’t giving you squat!”
They were beginning to annoy him, and Lumine was barely holding Teucer back. When he
became energetic, he was difficult to handle - legend says that Childe was the exact same at his
age. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Teucer wiggle out of her arms and make a run for it. Like
an arrow shot from a bow, he was heading towards Childe’s certain doom.
Wonderful. “Hand it over, now!”
“No! Screw you!”
“Screw?” Teucer slowed in his approach, his eyes wide and his chest heaving with having
escaped Lumine’s grasp, “Are you selling screws for toys?”
Not in the least. Bless his childish ignorance. Lumine was on him in an instance. She wrapped a
hand around his mouth and picked him up once more. Childe and the treasure hoarders watched as
she basically dragged the eight year old down the hill.
“What the hell is going on?” The leader spat, “Is this some kind of diversion?’
“B-Brother! I’m being kidnapped!”
Teucer, dear sweet Teucer. Lumine was trying her best, but he was far too small and wiry to stay
in her arms. Childe gave up as Teucer was on the move once again. He sighed in defeat and forced
a wide smile.
He had a feeling this would happen. His inner instincts told him that he’d need to prepare a lie just
in case he stumbled upon this situation. Smiling and tilting his head, he spoke in the fakest tone he
could muster, “I’m just selling you toys! Toys, from Snezhnaya.” Emphasis on the country of
origin, hopefully these men were not stupid enough to miss the implication, “600,000 mora, paid in
full. Now.”
Defeated, Lumine trudged up the hill.. She offered a hand, “Please, Teuc, I’ll let you get
chocolate pancakes if you just leave.”
“It’s fine,” Childe’s voice contained a hard edge that made her jump, though he did not tear his
eyes away from his enemy, “I’ve got this covered. I’m just selling these guys toys, after all.”
Teucer was entirely convinced. He jumped and raised a fist, “You’re the coolest ever! See, Miss
Lumine? I just wanted to watch my brother do his work. It’s no big deal!”
It was a huge deal. It was one of the worst lies he’d ever told. The leader spat and glared,
“You’re crazy, you’re just some pretty boy that’s trying to mess with us. I bet it’s not even bring
your wife and brother to work day, you’re-”
“Toys from Snezhnaya, 600,000.”
He stepped back in shock. Childe was glaring him down, pummeling him into dirt with the look
in his eyes. Tension filled the air, heavy and suffocating, a premonition of the battle at hand.
“You’re…” the leader processed his thoughts for a moment, “you’re here on that loan from the
boss, aren’t you?”
He was. Finally, these idiots understood. Childe shifted his eyes to meet Lumine’s, a silent
understanding passing between the two. She bit her lip and nodded. She knew what was about to
happen, the look in Childe’s eyes was perfectly clear.
“Teucer!” She whipped around to point at a mountain in the distance, “Look! It’s a Mister
Cyclops! Let’s go talk to him!”
There was not, but Teucer didn’t question it. He whirled around and clenched his fists, “Really?
Let’s go before he gets away!”
One benefit of Teucer’s hyperactivity was his easily distracted attention. He was down the hill
and to the road below in an instant. Lumine attempted to jog behind, pointing at nothing and
yelling, “He’s walking right over there! Let’s go talk to him!”
Relief flooded him like a broken dam. With Teucer’s back turned and Lumine successfully
distracting him, he could focus on the job at hand. The glare returned at full force, “I’m tired of
warning you clowns. You took money from the Tsaritsa, and now you need to pay it back. Simple
as that.”
“Yeah, but…” he pointed at Lumine leading Teucer away, “what’s with the family fun hour?”
“I told you, it’s national bring your wife and brother to work day.”
The idiot believed him once again. “She’s your wife? She’s kinda pretty… I’ll pay back the loan,
then.”
“Great, jus-”
“On one condition.”

He scoffed, “You really think you’re in the position to set conditions here?”
“Come on,” a smirk, “I’ll pay you back if you let me have your cute little wife for a night.”
The subsequent chorus of squeezy laughter was muffled against the drumming in his ears. This
man was far too confident, far too arrogant and presumptuous. Childe tensed, his fingers digging
into his hands and his glare deepening. He took a shaky breath, though he could not calm the heat
running through his veins, no matter how much he tried.
There were very few times he had wanted to kill something so badly.
“Printsessa,” Childe called out loud enough for Lumine to hear in the distance. Teucer did not
notice the hard edge to his tone, though Lumine visibly tensed, “Take Teucer back to the bank, I’ve
got a gift waiting for him there.”
There wasn’t a gift in the least, which would be an extreme disappointment. Yet, he knew his
brother, and he was swayed by shiny things - much like a raccoon. Teucer jumped with excitement,
“Let’s go, Miss Lumi! Hurry up!”
It was time to go before something bad happened.
She stuttered out an agreement and attempted to keep up with him once more. He dragged her
along the road by the hand. It was the moment when their figures rounded the corner and
disappeared from sight, that Childe finally could breathe again.
“Didn’t want them to see me ripping out your throats,” he explained with a shrug, “you know how
it is, I’m sure. Anyway, what were we talking about? Having her for a night, or something? Repeat
that for me, I didn’t quite hear you the first time.”
“I…” the leader’s eyes flickered to the suddenly summoned hydro blade in Childe’s hand, “I,
uh… have a t-terrible sense of humor.”
He took one step forward, “You can’t really take something like that back, can you? What’s said
is said.”
“I-I didn’t mean it!”
“Make no mistake,” he gripped his blade and smiled, “I’m going to slaughter you for that. I
would just really like it if you told me where you kept your mora first. I can’t go back to the
Tsaritsa empty handed.”
“N-Never!”
They were readying to fight, armed with shovels and cheesy crossbows. It was mildly insulting
that they thought they had a chance against him. He sighed again, ignoring the angry beating of his
heart in his ears and the swirling frustration in his chest. To imagine another man ever thinking of
Lumine, let alone touching her, he couldn’t handle it without wanting to rip something apart.
“Fine,” another smile, a twist of his blade and a tilt of his head, “I’ll find it myself.”
There was something exhilarating about this fight. It was different. It was exciting, adrenaline
pumping, and far more satisfying than usual. These treasure hoarders didn’t give him any trouble
at all, yet he found himself laughing in joy as each one of them fell and teleported away in retreat.
He hadn’t had a fight this good since Lumine. They were nothing compared to her tricks and
speed, but the satisfaction was similar. As he cut down yet another hoarder, Childe could only
wonder why. What made this instance different from the usual droll battles?
“I-I won’t touch your girl, I promise!”
Childe kicked him in the ribcage with a grin, “What was that? I didn’t hear you!”
“I’ll give you the mora!”
“Nooo,” he drew out the word and leaned down to get a closer look at the fear in his eyes, “tell
me you’re sorry for even thinking of her like that. Tell me how much you regret having a filthy
mind towards what’s not yours.”
He was stuttering and gasping for air. His teeth were painted with blood and spit, “I-I’m sorry!
I’m so sorry!”
“Great,” Childe put a blade to his neck, “now, where’s the mora?”
“In the tent! I-I don’t know if it’s all of it, b-but that’s all we have! I’m so sorry!”
He should be sorry, though Childe felt himself mildly grateful towards the man. It had been a
long while since he’d had a fight that gave him so much satisfaction. The only thing that had
triggered his bloodlust was the implication that this troll wanted Lumine.
“I think,” Childe spoke thoughtfully as he pressed the blade to his neck, “that I just discovered
something. Would you like to hear it before you die?”
“No!”
Ignored. “I think I like fighting for someone other than myself. I think it’s even more exciting to
fight for Lumine’s sake than it is to fight for work. I wonder what that means…”
“T-That you’re in love?”
“Yes, I know that, but what does that mean for the future?”
“Uh,” he was shaking underneath his blade now, “t-that y-you’d spare my l-life to make her
happy?”
“Hm… no…”
“T-That you’d r-rather be with her t-than work for the Fatui?”
He furrowed his brows, “I’m not sure about that either. You’re really bad at giving advice, you
know.”
“W-Wait!” He gasped and squeezed his eyes shut, “L-Let me try again! Y-Your wife is your
entire l-life, and you f-find more satisfaction in fighting for her than for y-yourself!”
He sighed, “You’re basically repeating what I said earlier.”
“I’m so sorry!”
This went on for another five minutes. Childe was simply playing with the man by the time he
passed out from fear.
It was around lunch time when he was satisfied enough to return to the Northland bank. He hoped
that Teucer was not angry with him for the lack of promised toys, but he would say anything to
turn his gaze elsewhere from that.
Tired, Childe had half a mind to ignore the subordinate attempting to catch his eye at the
doorway.
“M-Master Childe, uh,” he was still walking away, “really, this is important.”
They thought everything was important. A dog could poop on their sidewalk and they’d go to him
for instruction on how to deal with it. The bank was relatively empty by this time of day, the lobby
quiet and pleasant. He sighed and turned to face the recruit, “What is it?”
He flinched at the tone of his voice. He had to know that Lumine and Teucer were in his office,
waiting for him. “S-Sorry, I apologize, really, I know you have guests, sir, b-but there’s a new
batch of recruits from the Motherland that are awaiting your command.”
Childe forgot that there were newbies coming into Liyue. He had it written down somewhere, but
the event had escaped his mind with the distraction of his little brother. “Can’t they get on by
themselves? They’re adults.”
“They really want your guidance…”
“That is a want, not a need.”
“Sir… I-I don’t mean to correct you, but the Tsaritsa says-”
The Tsaritsa says, very specifically, ‘every new batch of recruits must be baptized by the
Tsaritsa’s will through the words of her Harbingers.’ It was an ancient rule of the Fatui.
Apparently, it built an ‘encouraging and fun environment’. Nothing about the Fatui was
encouraging, though it was quite fun at times. Childe was usually on top of his duties far better
than now.
“I’ll get to them later,” he interrupted with a sharp sigh, “Let me just check on the traveler and my
brother. Have they been… behaving?”
“Ekaterina managed to stop Mistress Lumine from looking at our confidential files again.”
“Great,” Ekaterina was one of the few competent ones, “and Teucer?”
“He’s upstairs, sir.”
Wonderful. “Tell the recruits I’ll be there soon.”
The situation was contained for now. He could not imagine another instance of faking the toy
seller persona, he was absolutely terrible at lying. Relieved, Childe went up the stairs and to his
office “Teucer! I’m back!”
“Ah yes, another appointment!” He pushed the doors open at the sound of his brother’s voice.
Teucer was sitting behind in his chair and leaning back, his feet propped up on the table, “Come in,
come in, I’ve been expecting you!”
At least he was entertained. Judging by his grin, he figured that he was in a good mood. Lumine
sat in her old spot to his right, her legs crossed and her back to the door. It had been a little over
three months since he’d seen her sitting there. Childe’s heart skipped an annoying beat. He smiled
and bowed, all of his frustration melting away with the sight of the two most important people in
the world. “Boss, I’ve got the accounts you wanted for that huge toy sale.”
“Ah yes,” Teucer dramatically stroked his nonexistent mustache, “Secretary, would you take
notes on this? It’s very important to the livelihood of our business practicionals.”
She giggled, “Yes sir!”
She never called Childe sir. He sighed and watched Lumine from his spot in the doorway - she
was right where she was supposed to be, right where he had imagined her so often the last several
months. She fit back into his life like a missing puzzle piece - even if she was terrible at
babysitting.
“So, now that you’re done with work, we can go to lunch, right?” Teucer slipped out of the chair
and bounced on the heels of his feet, “I’ve been waiting forever!”
Might as well rip off the bandaid before it grew any tighter, “I’ve got to get back to work, there
are some new… sales people that I need to speak to.”
“I want to be a toy seller when I grow up too!” Nothing about that excuse dimmed Teucer’s fire,
“Can I go listen? I’ll stay quiet, and I’ll be really polite a-and I’ll learn lots of stuff!”
Not in a thousand years. “I’m afraid not, Teuc, it’ll be super boring, and you’re still too young to
really understand what’s being said.”
“I can understand it!”
Lumine slipped off the desk and ruffled his hair, “Hey, how about we go drop eggs off a high
balcony? That’ll be fun.”
“T-That would be fun… but I want to hang out with my brother!” His glare was turned onto him
immediately, “Why do you have to work?”
It was not as if they’d never spoken about this. Childe had spent the last three months having this
conversation with his family. Despite being at home, he was still in the Morepesok offices of the
Fatui for half the day. Teucer had begun to grow frustrated with childish misunderstanding about
how adults truly lived their lives - and perhaps, like everything else, that was Childe’s fault. Mama
and Papa were basically retired, Teucer didn’t seem to comprehend that most people worked for a
living.
He watched Lumine brush back his hair and kiss his head. She would be a good mother, her eyes
were kind and her hands were soft. She knelt down to hug Teucer and comfort him as he glared.
Childe would have to be honest with him at some point, and half truths were the best way to start.
“You know if I don’t do my work, then we can’t afford medicine for father’s headaches, right?”
Teucer stiffened. Lumine smiled at him. Grumbling, he looked away, “Right…”
“And, we wouldn’t be able to afford sending you and the others to school. Mama would have to
start working again, but with her arthritis it would be hard…”
“I-I know…”
Lumine’s smile had disappeared, and she was staring at him oddly. He met her gaze for a moment
before she ripped it away, “I didn’t know you provided for your family,” she spoke as she ran her
fingers through Teucer’s hair, “do your parents have to work at all?”
“Nope, not at all.” He felt a flicker of pride at that. It was the most he could do after putting his
parents through hell since he’d turned 14. “I bought them a bigger house, and I send money every
month so they never have to worry about anything.”
“You… really do that?”
She couldn’t possibly be in that much disbelief. “Yes, I really do. Why do you ask, printsessa, are
you interested in joining my family?”
Now, Lumine was mirroring Teucer in her glare. She looked far more frustrated, far more pouty,
somehow. Huffing, she crossed her arms and brushed past him through the doorway, “I’m going
outside for some air. I need to get away from how annoying you are.”
What was that about? He had teased her in the same way he always did. Teucer, even, seemed
confused at her sudden departure. Childe sighed and opened his arms for a hug, “Come on, I’ll be
back later this evening.”
Teucer crashed into him like wild boar in the forest. He squeezed him harder than ever before,
burying his face into his shoulder and taking in the scent. “You promise?”
“I promise,” he laughed, “why don’t you go drop eggs off a balcony with Miss Lumi?”
“Okay…” he was mumbling bashfully while Childe led him down the stairs and to the front
doors, “that sounds fun…”
It did sound fun. The teenage boy inside of him desperately wished to join them. He would have
skipped work entirely if Lumine was not glaring at him from the entrance with eyes that could kill.
He only smiled in return. Lumine’s glare deepened, somehow. She was mad at him for something,
though he couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason.
“Alright,” Childe handed his little brother off to the angry harpy with the furrowed brows, “I’ll be
back, we’ll go to Liuli Pavilion tonight, okay?”
Lumine did not even perk up at the restaurant name. Usually, she would be squealing with joy,
she loved when he took her to Liuli Pavilion.
Concern ate at his chest like some kind of organ-eating roach. He was sure he was infected with
something terrible, some sort of disease native to Liyue that made his heart flip and flop. It was not
dissimilar to a dying fish.
Lumine refused to speak to him. Teucer wrapped his arms around her waist and laid his head on
her stomach. Childe gave another affectionate ruffle to his hair before opening the doors, “I’ll be
back soon, okay? Just wait for me here.”
Both Teucer and Lumine stuck their tongues out at the same time. He couldn’t help the bubble of
laughter forcing its way up his throat. Snickering, he leaned down to kiss Teucer’s head in the
same way mama always did. Before Lumine could protest, he straightened up and leaned towards
her. Tucking a lock of long hair behind her ear, Childe pressed his lips against her forehead.
She was going to kill him for this. He knew that. Ajax couldn’t bring himself to regret it.
“Wait for me, okay?”
He felt her silent glare on his back as he left, entirely too satisfied with himself.
“I hate him.”
“Miss Lumi, mama says that the Tsaritsa hates liars, and if you ever lie then she’ll freeze your
insides and turn you into an ice sculpture in her garden.”
“...Does your mother really say that?”
“Yes!”
Fortunately for Lumine, she would never have to meet his mother. No matter how shaky Childe’s
kiss to her forehead made her knees feel, she would never find herself in such a precarious situation
as to be introduced to his rather cryptic sounding mother. This matter would not go so far. He could
be husband material - he is husband material - but she was not wife material. And he would
discover that soon enough.
“I’m not lying, Teucer, I really do hate him.”
He grinned up at her, “Then why are you blushing? Sister Tonia says that when a girl likes a boy,
she blushes red. You’re, like, super red.”
She was quite warm. “I have a fever, I’m dying from a mysterious disease that makes me turn red.
Sorry to break it to you this way.”
“Oh, shush,” he pulled away from her waist and sighed heavily, a sigh far past his age, “I’m not a
dummy, I know you two like each other. I’ve watched mama and papa stare at each other like that
all their lives, I can recognize it in an instance!”
What stare did he mean, exactly? The glare she wore, or the dull eyes and the fake smiles on his
face? Lumine, simply, had no idea what he was implying. “You’re mistaken, I’m making that face
because I’m constipated.”
“You like my big brother!”
“Quiet!” She put her hands over his mouth and pulled him out of the bank, attempting to avoid the
prying eyes of the Fatui, “Are you trying to let the whole city know?”
“So you do like him?”
“No! Never in a million years!”
“Your face is so red!”
“I ate a hot chili and I’m dying, that’s why!”
“You love him!”
“I hate him!”
“You adore him!”
“I despise him!”
“You want to marry him!”
“I loathe him!”
“Let’s go, Miss Lumi,” Teucer gripped her hands and stared up at her, an oddly serious look on
his face, “let’s follow him. Screw what he told us!”
“D-Don’t say screw like that!”
“Let’s follow him,” Teucer burrowed even further with the look in his eyes, the blue in them
shining, and his smile far too mischievous for an eight year old, “we can listen to him talk to new
salespeople, and you two can go on a date afterwards! I can chaperone, and then I’ll help him
propose!”
She gasped, “I thought you wanted to marry me?”
“I will make this sacrifice for my brother… I will give you up,” he squeezed her hands and
grinned, “for the sake of his happiness.”
“He…” her heart skipped a beat at the thought, “he doesn’t need help with that, Teucer… it’s not
a little brother’s job to do that kind of stuff.”
With hesitation in his eyes, Teucer looked away, staring at the floor as if it was far more
interesting than her. He almost seemed embarrassed, “Mama and papa have always been worried
about Ajax. I’m not quite old enough to remember, but he had a real tough time when he was a
kid…” he put his hands behind his back and frowned, “Mama always says how worried she is
about him. But ever since he told her about you, she’s looked so happy. I don’t really know what
that means, but… I know that big brother kissed your head, and papa does that to mama all the
time!”
He kissed her in the way he’d seen his parents do all of his life. He treated her like his father
treated his mother.
This couldn’t be happening.

Lumine sunk to her knees to be eye to eye with him. She smiled and squeezed his shoulders, “I
don’t know what the future will bring, my dear, but I do know that… that your brother and I look
at the same stars at night, and there’s something really cool about that, right?”
“Right… right…” his voice dropped to a whisper, “but you know what would way be cooler?”
“What?”
They were all whispers now, foreheads pressed against each other and hands squeezing in sibling-
like affection. Teucer was giggling under his breath in a way reminiscent of Childe, though far less
dark. Lumine wondered if he truly was a mini version of Ajax, mischievous glimmers and snickers,
freckles and wild auburn hair.
Was this what her children would look like?
“Let’s go see my big brother talk to the new people,” Teucer laughed, “he might be mad at us, but
it won’t be a big deal.”
She hoped that he would be mad at her. She hoped that he’d be so angry that he’d never want to
speak to her again. She hoped she never thought of ginger haired children with freckles and ocean
blue eyes ever again.
Lumine smiled, “If that’s what you really want, then we can go.”
“That is what I really want!” He paused, “...You’re not backing out, are you?”
“I just… Well, he did say that you’d be super bored… We can do something else,” something
preferably not involving the Fatui, “we can go hunt a cocogoat!”
Teucer seemed entirely disinterested in the idea of a cocogoat. He sighed, looking away for a
moment, “Miss Lumi, did you know that I’m the fastest runner in my school?”
“Oh, I didn’t know that! Congrats, Teucer, I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you,” he grinned, “Anyway, bye!”
He shot off down the stairs, having no care for his own safety as he slid down the railing and
disappeared into the crowded street. It happened before Lumine could register that he had escaped
from her grip. He was small for his age, and certainly not lying about being a fast runner.
How could a little kid escape her again? She’d fought and beaten Stormterror, she’d fought and
beaten Childe, she could not be this incompetant. It had to be something about Childe’s family that
made her put her guard down. It was some kind of curse from being starmates that caused her
instincts to dull.
Terrible. Absolutely terrible. Taking a deep breath, she raced down the stairs after him. “Teucer!
Please don’t run away like that!”
Heads turned to face her, eyes widened. She pushed through the thickening crowd in her attempt
to follow the head of auburn hair. He was so short that she could hardly catch sight of him, moving
far more smoothly between the legs of the people.
“Teucer!” If Paimon was here, she’d be able to fly overhead and catch sight of him, but she’d
disappeared long ago. She didn’t seem to be paying attention well enough to reappear and help her.
“Teucer!” Lumine cupped her mouth and yelled, “Please come back here!”
She’d lost him again. This was twice in one day.
“Teucer!” Another yell, another heavy exhale and a grimace as she dodged the bustling people.
Liyue was always busy, and hardly anybody cared about anyone else’s hurry. By now, there was
no sign of him on the street ahead.
Lumine stopped to lean against a wall and take a deep breath. Teucer was probably tracking
Childe, and she had no idea where he was even going. Perhaps if she just slipped away and never
came back, then she wouldn’t have to deal with this. That was what she had wanted all along, after
all, was to never see Childe again.
Could she do that? Could she afford to simply slip away in the night?
“Miss,” a set of cold fingers, a shaken whisper behind her and a grip on her arm. Lumine jumped
and whirled around to meet a pair of wise eyes, “I have looked everywhere for you.”
The fortune teller looked worse for wear. She seemed more decrepit than ever, huddled
underneath a cloak with a head dipping over a crown of white hair. Lumine gasped, “I-I don’t have
time right now, and trust me I don’t have any mora-”
“That’s not what I want, girl! I have mora,” she didn’t look like it, with her ragged clothes and
dirty fingernails, “the Fatui provide for me these days.”
Lumine’s heart skipped a beat, “Are they still trailing you everywhere?”
“Yes… for posterity’s sake, you see.” She sighed and leaned against the wall, “I know what
Master Childe’s future holds, and that drives him absolutely mad. But loose lips sink ships, as they
say.”
She didn’t have time for cryptic anecdotes. There was a little boy running through the streets of
Liyue who was about a minute away from running into a Fatui Harbinger’s speech. “I really don’t
have the time,” she pulled her arm from her cold grip, “unless you can tell me where Teucer is, I
cannot stay and listen.”
“He will not be Fatui forever.”
Her world froze.
“And he despises that.”
“W-Well,” Lumine drowned out the sound of her racing heart, closing her eyes as if shutting
away the rest of the city around her, “that sounds like a personal problem.”
The old woman was deathly serious. With an unnerving stare and shaking hands, she went on,
“He knows the power you have. He just cannot bring himself to kill you…”
“That’s… charming,” Lumine scoffed, “I really know how to pick ‘em, right?”
Ignored once again. The old woman seemed thousands of miles from her, the look in her eyes
seeing nothing at all in Lumine’s face. With evening settling into the city the background noise
only increased. And Teucer grew further with each passing second.
“I beg of you, traveler, keep the future on track.”
How did she do that? She was a wanderer, a shooting star simply passing over this night sky. “I
don’t have that kind of power.”
“Everybody has power,” she whispered, “it is simply how you choose to use it, my dear.”
Cryptic prophecies and alley-way whispers, stinging words that settled themselves into her mind
like a branding. Lumine stepped back as if she could create distance between herself and the
future.
“I’ve got to go… Please,” she squeezed her bony hands, “stay safe. I’ll… I’ll try to find you later,
okay?”
“O-Okay, my girl. Please do, we have much to discuss.”
That didn’t help with her anxiety. Overwhelmed, she pushed through the dinner-time crowds
once more. There was only one gate in this direction, and Teucer had most likely gone there. It
seemed that the universe was on her side for once. Several minutes later, she wandered outside of
the city and caught sight of a little boy walking in the distance.
He was just as lost as her. He’d stopped running, and was now meandering down the road, eyes
wide and head turning each direction with curiosity. Lumine heaved with a sigh of relief, “Teucer!
Please come back here!”
“I-I…” she could barely hear him over the buzz of night time cicadas, “I think I see big brother
over there!”
He was readying to run once more. Lumine shot off after him the second his legs moved. Down
the hill and behind an outcropping of rocks, she heard Childe’s voice echo through the air, “Her
majesty expects of you loyalty,” the teasing edge to his tone was gone, replaced with a stern
resonance that made her stiffen at the sound, “ruthlessness, and meticulousness.”
Teucer peaked around the corner of the rocks. Lumine was moving towards him on exhausted
legs, nearly tripping over herself by the time she reached his side. Childe had not yet noticed their
arrival, “For the trials that we face are harsh, and our enemies are like-”
A giggle, a gasp of amazement, the sound of Lumine’s heavy breathing as she rested her hands on
her knees and bent over to recover. Teucer ignored the tired girl behind him and sent his brother a
thumbs up, as if to encourage him on his rather militant speech. Childe stiffened. His eyes went
wide with something akin to horror. At least Lumine could enjoy the look on his face, even if she
was stressed beyond repair. She could take joy in the fact that Childe reacted as if he’d seen a
ghost.
And, he stuttered. It was rare to hear him stutter.
“L-Like kites and rattle drums!”
“Oh, kites!” Teucer giggled, “Those are fun too!”
Childe cleared his throat and put his hands on his hips in an attempt to look confident, “Y-Yep!
They shall become redoubtable foes of, uh… Mister Cyclops… in the marketplaces of Liyue!”
Lumine finally could breathe again. She straightened up and held Teucer’s hand, “Look, he’s
getting all embarrassed because you’re watching! And the new recruits are embarrassed too,” they
looked far more confused than anything, “let’s leave now so they can all focus!”
“B-But I want to keep watching…”
Childe was scrambling for words now, “That, of course, is an analogy! For they say that the, uh,
marketplace, too, is a battlefield.”
A chorus of hmms and ahhs from the recruits. Lumine stifled a laugh - they looked as if they
were amazed by his ‘analogy’. Childe sighed in relief and gave a curt nod, “So, as your s-sales
manager,” he shot Lumine a glare, “I demand that you obey my every order!”
“So cool,” Teucer gripped his fists and bounced, “Wow!”
Not cool in the least. Childe was like a flopping fish on the beach. “Any refusal shall be
considered a betrayal. And the price for betrayal is to be dishonorably discharged from…”
“Hey Teuc, let’s go check out that thing over there!” She was whispering and kneeling down
beside him, “Aren’t you bored?”
No go. Childe grimaced, “F-From the Liyue Institute of Toy Research!”
“That’s strict,” he nodded gravely, “I bet lots of people get sad if they’re fired. That… t-that kind
of makes me sad too…”
Childe shot her a look. She sighed and grimaced in return, her arms wrapping around the little boy
as he buried his face into her stomach. An understanding passed between them - it was impossible
to please both Teucer and the recruits. Childe sent her a nod. The expression on his face was
reminiscent of the one he wore earlier.
For the second time that day, it was time to go.
“Hey,” Lumine whispered into Teucer’s hair, “I’ll let you have chocolate pancakes if you come
play tag with me.”
“Really?”
“Really!”
She could easily understand how he was the fastest in his school. He darted down the hill like an
arrow, the sadness gone and replaced with laughter as if it had never happened. Both Lumine and
Childe sighed in relief, Childe sending her a grateful look and mouthing the words ‘thank you’
silently.
He was totally in her debt. He was at her mercy. She would use this against him one day,
somehow. She would find a way.
Once the two were out of sight, the Harbinger sighed and turned towards the confused recruits,
“That was a test. You’ll be facing many odd things out here.” His speech was possibly the worst
one given in the history of Harbingers, “How about we just skip the niceties and do some hands on
training?”
Lumine was keeping Teucer busy with the chase, strategically inching further and further away
with each passing second. The recruits whispered among themselves of their confusion and varying
degrees of excitement. It was rare for a Harbinger to challenge a simple recruit, they would usually
not waste the time. Childe put his hands on his hips and glared, “Am I hearing an objection?”
“N-No sir!”
“Great,” he glanced at Lumine and Teucer in the distance. She was managing, somehow, to
distract Teucer enough to keep his back turned. She pointed at something over the next hill, and the
two took off into a run after whatever she saw. With a sigh of relief, he closed his eyes, “Okay, just
come at me!”
The battle was nothing, it was almost boring how easily he ducked and weaved through their
assaults. Compared to the battle earlier, when he was fighting for Lumine’s sake, this sparring did
nothing for him. Time flew quickly as each Fatui went down, one after the other. His mind was
elsewhere, and his own fighting distracted.
Five minutes later, he dismissed the beat up and tired recruits. “You did well, just, uh… go back
to Liyue and eat dinner, or something.”
“Yes, Lord Harbinger!”
“Shush,” he nearly jumped from shock. Glancing around with wide eyes, he ignored the chorus of
confused whispers once more, “Just go! That’s a command, run all the way back to the harbor!
Now!”
“R-Run, sir?”
“Are you hard of hearing? I said run!”
They ran, and he sighed. Teucer was absolutely going to be the death of him. He was fortunate for
his little brother’s hyperactivity and Lumine’s help in redirection. He could not imagine what to
say if he’d heard the recruits call him Harbinger.
And hopefully, none of the other Harbingers would discover that this ever happened. He was
already on thin ice with the Osial ordeal and his outbursts at Signora after he thought Lumine had
died. She’d not let him live down his actions quite yet. If this kept going on, the Tsaritsa would
begin to receive reports of Tartaglia allegedly losing his sanity - or worse, his touch.
Once alone, Childe dropped the militant demeanor and sighed. His shoulders sagged as he called
out, “Lumi? They’re gone.”
Silence. The cicadas hummed peacefully and birds ruffled through the trees, but no Lumine.
“Lumi? Teucer?”
He spun around. The field was empty, the rocks were untouched. There were no giggles to be
heard, so they could not be hiding from him - Teucer was terrible at hide and seek.
A sigh. A realization as he stared in the direction they’d gone.
“I bet Lumine got lost.”
“Miss Lumi, are we lost?”
“W-What? No! Never! I’ve never gotten lost in my life!”

“I… think we’re lost…”
“W-We’re not lost! Liyue is just over this hill here!”
Liyue was not over that hill there.
“Let’s try to find big brother! He’ll know the way back!”
The thought of asking Childe for help sat bitterly in her stomach. The first time she’d asked him
for directions he had dragged her to Jeuyun Karst and charmed her with his stupid smiles and good
cooking. She was growing tired of looking at his dumb face and wishing she didn’t have to.
With Teucer at her side, the charm would be even worse. She wouldn’t be able to avoid watching
his big brother-ness. That would be a disaster.
“Nope. I can find our way back. Let’s go.”
“A-Are you sure, Miss Lumi?”
“I’m sure. We don’t need him.”
Hesitantly, Teucer held her hand. The leaves crunched under his feet while they walked in these
unfamiliar surroundings. “Are you mad at my big brother?”
“Yes,” her answer was immediate, without an ounce of hesitation, “you’ll get it when you’re
older.”
“Everybody says that, but I don’t think I ever will…”
He sounded so sad, so dejected. Lumine stopped in her tracks and slipped her hand away from his.
Kneeling down, she put her palms on his cheeks and gave him a serious stare, “You will one day.
It’s just complicated sometimes.”
Teucer sniffled, “How is it complicated?”
“Well…” she couldn’t exactly tell the truth, “truthfully, your brother and I are from, uh… rival toy
companies.”
A gasp, wide eyes and parted lips. His face paled as if he’d seen a ghost. Frantic, he scrambled
away from her and pressed his back against the thick trunk of a tree. Lumine would have laughed
at the dramatics of it all if Teucer did not look so utterly horrified.
“Y-You’re from a different toy company?” He was whispering in shock, “I can’t believe brother
would fall in love with you…”
“Yeah, well, I can’t either. But,” she put up a finger, “he’s not in love with me, so no worries.”
Yes worries. Yes very much on the worries. A mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart,
and Childe would not shut up about loving her. It was rather annoying, actually.
Teucer was incredibly torn up over the news. Calmly - too calmly - he lowered himself onto the
grass and leaves blanketing the ground. With yet another upset sniffle, he laid down.
That was all. He simply laid down. Staring at the darkening sky with empty eyes, silence fell like
a heavy blanket.
“Teucer, what are you doing?”
He blinked, “Throwing a fit.”
A fit would involve much more screaming and kicking. Teucer was on his back, perfectly still
like a wooden board. Lumine stared at him with expressionless confusion. “This is a fit?”
“Yes.”
“You have the option of just talking out your feelings like a big boy, you know.”
“I would prefer this,” he closed his eyes serenely, “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a nap
right here.”
“You… sure about that?”
“Yes.”
She sighed and sat down beside him. “Guess we’re camping out here tonight.”
And of course, because the universe hated Lumine, she caught a glimpse of Childe approaching
in the distance, a worried look on his face and his brows furrowed as he called out their names.
She couldn’t get away. She couldn’t escape. No matter what she did, Childe would always find
his way back to her. She hated that about him.
Lumine laid down next to Teucer, “I think I need to throw a fit too.”
Chapter End Notes
Lumine's having a rough time...

Defender of Childhood Dreams
Chapter Notes
“Is Teucer throwing a fit?”
The fact that Childe instantly recognized the purpose of Teucer laying on the ground like a stiff
plank of wood sat uncomfortably in Lumine’s stomach. She, too, was laying on the ground, though
her ankles were crossed and her eyes squinted - Teucer looked as if he was meditating on
something only he could understand.
If this was how the kids in Childe’s family threw fits, then she would not complain.
“Yes,” he whispered with closed eyes, “I am upset, brother.”
He was so upset. Childe could tell. It was rare for Teucer to not move a muscle, the kid was a
walking ball of energy. He stood over his and Lumine’s body, casting a shadow on the ground
where they lay.
Lumine’s eyes flickered up to meet his, “Hey.”
“Hey girlie.”
“I’m mad at you.”
He blinked expressionlessly, “Oh yeah?”
“Yes.”
“Are you throwing a fit too?”
“Yes.”
He frowned, “...Are you going to tell me what I did?”
“No.”
Childe wasn’t sure what else he expected. The moon would fall out of the sky before Lumine ever
worked out her feelings in a healthy way - and he was okay with that, he felt the same way.
And if he couldn’t beat them, he could at least join them. Sighing, he lowered himself down and
took the spot next to Lumine. He rested his hands over his stomach and sent her a grin that she
pointedly ignored.
Just a Harbinger, a traveler, and a little kid, laying on the ground together. It was perfectly
normal.
Childe couldn’t help but smile at the ordeal. His mother was quite cunning when she wanted to
be, having taught Teucer that laying down when he threw his fits would concern the target far
more than kicking and screaming. Childe backed this fact up by telling stories of his own
childhood when he would lay down in the middle of a store and refuse to get up - which were true,
though his brothers just usually dragged him out by his ankles. Teucer, blessedly, had taken to deep
meditation when in a bad mood. It was the worst possible mood he could be in, when the stomping
and the whining ended and was replaced with eerie, tense silence.
Lumine didn’t seem bothered by it one bit. The glare on her face dissolved as she stared up at the
sky, lifting one arm to point at the stars, “There’s Viatrix.”
Teucer’s eyes shot open, “Viatrix?”
“Yeah, it’s my constellation.”
The information was enough to excite him. He sat up and craned his neck back to get a better
look, “W-Which one? I see brother’s, but I don’t see yours!”
Monoceros Caeli was out tonight. It was not often that it lit the sky, but apparently the world was
shifted into perfect unison to get a glimpse of the celestial voyager. Initially, Lumine did not even
notice the other shapes intertwined into Viatrix.
Damn the stars. Damn the universe. Damn the constellations. “Oh, it’s somewhere around
here…”
Childe grinned, “You can’t get out of it that easy, printsessa. Tell him where Viatrix is.”
“Never.”
“Why not?” Teucer whipped around to huff at them, his demeanor now more like a fit than ever
before, “I wanna see it!”
Childe and Lumine remained on their backs. He watched her profile as she glared at the sky,
taking note of the curve of her nose and the long eyelashes that fluttered in pouty anger. He had
always thought her more beautiful than normal when under the moonlight, as if she was created to
have a backdrop of stars.
He was absolutely going to marry her one day.
“Right there, Teucer,” Childe pointed at his own constellation, “Monoceros Caeli is all mixed up
with Viatrix. There’s her hair, and it goes down and to the left, that’s where her sword starts.”
“Oh… I kinda see it, I guess?”
Childe traced the stars with a finger, “And in the middle, a little to the right, Monoceros Caeli
connects the dots. When you don’t separate the two, it kind of looks like a misshapen circle.”
He oohed and awed in amazement, “Looks like that weird mole on papa’s back.”
“Yeah… yeah it kinda does…”
Lumine furrowed her brows in another pout, “Well I think the shape is pretty, don’t compare our
constellations to your father’s moles. It’s more like… like a croissant.”
All three tilted their heads in thought. It did look like a croissant, a squished one that fell on the
floor and had all of it’s chocolate squeezed out.
“So,” Teucer crossed his arms and plopped back to the ground beside Childe, “isn’t it supposed to
mean something if your constellations are all mixed up like that? You two will have to share food
forever, or something?”
“Hm… something like that, yes.”
He rolled his eyes and groaned, “I can’t imagine that! I hate sharing my food.”
He did. His little brother was like a starving animal when he had a bowl of good soup in front of
him. And as much as he wanted his brother to be strong, he wouldn’t wish the experience of getting
a vision upon him. He would have to face something bigger than life itself, to get the attention of
these gods who would not exist for much longer anyway. If he didn’t have a vision, he didn’t have
a constellation - he wouldn’t have to share his food forever with one specific person.
Childe smiled at the thought. He’d share his food with Lumine as much as she wished. The dorky
teenage boy inside of him squealed over the thought of drinking after her, it was like an indirect
kiss. He was nearly giggling by the time he sent her a glance.
She was staring at the sky with furrowed brows. Gone was the glare, replaced with concern that
instantly flickered something in his chest. Childe sat up and leaned his weight onto one hand, “Are
you okay?”
“Yeah,” she whispered, “Sorry, I was just looking at them.”
“Hm, thinking about us, right?”

The glare returned full force, “I’m still mad at you.”
Behind him, Teucer huffed and rolled over. He crossed his arms and curled his knees to his chest,
“I’m mad at you too!”
Childe was the ham in an anger sandwich. Teucer refused to look at him, and Lumine looked at
him a little too much. He wasn’t sure what he preferred, her glare or his brother’s cold shoulder. It
was a tie between the two on the basis of horrid-ness.
“What did I do?” He nudged Teucer’s shoulder, then sent Lumine a pitiful, furrowed brow look,
“Tell me so I can at least fix it!”
“I don’t know what’s up with Lumine, but I’m just angry that you’ve worked all day.” Teucer
grumbled with a withering glance - as withering as an eight year old could possibly muster. “I
wanna spend time with you, and you won’t let me watch you work… It sucks!”
That made sense. Teucer was spoiled rotten when it came to his big brother, of course he would
demand every second of his time. Childe sighed and turned to Lumine, “And you?”
She huffed, “Not telling.”
“Fine, then I can’t help you. I’ll just help Teucer.”
He was up in an instance, “How? Are you gonna give me a present?”
“Is that all it takes to get in your good graces, a bribe?”
“...What’s a bribe?”
Childe did have a present for him, but that would wait for later. He had another idea in mind, one
that might make Lumine happy in the meantime. “What if I take you on a tour of the Liyue
Institute of Toy Research?”
“What?! Really?”
“Really!”
Lumine was now staring at him oddly. She watched as Teucer basically tackled him with joy,
laughing all the way back down to the ground. He squeezed him tightly and buried his face in his
shoulder, “You’re the best brother in the world!”
“You hear that, Lumi?” Childe sent her a smirk, “I’m the best brother in the world.”
She would argue that Aether was the best brother in the world, though she had no evidence to
present at the moment. She only narrowed her eyes, “And where is this institute? I’ve never even
heard of it.”
Sitting up, he ruffled Teucer’s hair, “Don’t worry about it. Just follow me, I’ll take us there and
give you two a real behind the scenes tour.”
“A-And we’ll see where Mister Cyclops lives?”
“For sure!”
Lumine sat up to whisper, “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Yeah,” he sent her a smile that he hoped was reassuring, “trust me, I won’t let you or Teucer get
hurt. I’d die before that happens.”
He was so damn frustrating. And he was so damn charming. Her shoulders tensed and her heart
skipped the most annoying beat yet. She considered acting like Diona and insulting him while
blushing, though she settled for a soft glare and a mumbled curse under her breath. Childe only
smiled as he stood, offering her a hand, “Come on, it’s not very far from here.”
He’d die before he let anything hurt her or Teucer. He was a frustrating, arrogant, cunning,
domineering, garbage bag of a man. Lumine wanted to punch him in his stupidly handsome face
more than she ever had before. Glaring, she took his hand and stood, yanking her fingers back from
his instantly, “Fine. But I’m only coming along for Teucer’s sake.”
Teucer took no notice of the smirk on his brother’s face, nor the red on Lumine’s cheeks. He only
cheered, and promptly took the spot between their bodies. One hand in Lumine’s, and the other in
Childe’s. He was happier than ever, as if his tantrum had never happened, “Let’s go! Let’s go,
hurry up!”
Her frustration dissolved the instant his hand fit snugly into hers. “Okay, hold on, not everybody
has that much energy.” She laced their fingers together, “It’s getting late, I don’t know how you’re
still so bouncy.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot you were 19, you’re basically an old lady now…”
“E-Excuse me?”
Childe pouted from Teucer’s other side, “I’m 22, does that make me ancient?”
“Super ancient!”
Lumine jokingly huffed and turned her face away, “If you keep being mean, we won’t lift you up
on our way there. Or step in any mud puddles.”
He gasped. No mud puddles meant no fun, and no fun meant absolute boredom. Teucer could not
possibly give up the mud puddles, nor being lifted in the air between them. Mother and father
didn’t have the energy to do that anymore, Tonia and Anthon were too small, and all his older
siblings besides Ajax were far too busy! This was his only chance.
He sighed and toed the ground, “I’ll be good, I promise… You two aren’t that old yet.”
Childe and Lumine shared a skeptical look over his head. It only took half a second for the fun to
begin once more, a good distraction from the day of lying and avoidance. Childe held Teucer’s left,
and Lumine his right.
“Alrighty, one… two… three!”

Lumine had to raise her arm a little higher than normal to be able to lift Teucer’s feet off the
ground. He swung between them with laughter that filled every inch of their worlds, immediately
demanding to be lifted again once his feet touched solid ground. It was as if they were parents with
their child, doing anything just to make him smile.
She would allow this sentimental feeling to linger, just this once. The familial scene she and
Childe acted out was like a dying star - it had to have it’s last shining second of glory before it
exploded and became the negative of nothing in the sky.
Her plan became official as she lifted Teucer once more. She could not wait any longer. Lumine
needed to leave after this last hurrah. She must say her goodbyes to Teucer, and go on with ignoring
Childe. She would forego payment for the sake of her sanity.
The last second of shining glory that this familial, fuzzy feeling would ever receive, was holding
Teucer’s hand and walking through a nighttime forest with him and his brother. She dwelled upon
the fact that she was like his mother, like there was a hint of some happy future where Lumine held
the hand of a ginger haired kid and smiled at Ajax as if he was her entire world. She could see it
now, written in the stars and mocking her with predicted happiness - Lumine and Ajax, always,
forever, destined, terrifying.
“I have something to tell you.”
He sent her a glance over Teucer’s head, “Can it wait?”
“Not really.”
He looked ahead at the looming ruins, jagged shapes and blocks silhouetted in the night’s
darkness. “We’re almost there, it’s just up these stairs.”
This was where the Millelith had told her of the ruin guard activity, though all of them were
deactivated. It was where she had found Teucer. He seemed to recognize the place. With a gasp, he
yanked his hands away and ran up the cracked stairs in childish excitement. “This is so cool! I
didn’t know this was the institute for toy research!”
“The entrance is right ahead, it’s that door over there,” Childe put his hands on his hips and
watched as he explored, “just look around for a little, Teuc. Miss Lumi and I need to talk for a
minute.”
He was happy to oblige to their privacy. Lumine, on the other hand, was nervous. She didn’t do
well with emotional heart to hearts, Barbara had to basically drag out her genuine emotions with an
iron grip anytime they spoke - and even then, half of their conversations were Lumine finding
ways to joke through the pain. And the last time Lumine and Childe had talked, really talked about
life and what they felt, they kissed against a cliffside, then tried to kill each other.
She didn’t want to kiss him now. She was angry, yet far too nervous to meet his teasing and wit
on the same level. This couldn’t be a big ordeal, not in the least.
Time to rip the bandage off.
“I can’t do it anymore.”
He blinked. His face went expressionless - but at least he was listening. “Oh?”
“I just… I-I’m freaked out, okay?” Lumine took a step back and held up her hands, “It was so
much simpler when we decided to hate each other. Sometimes, it was easy to hate you,” it kind of
still was, though that feeling had become much more complicated as of late, “but then three months
pass, and I realized that I… I-I kind of need someone like you-”
“You don’t need someone like me,” Childe put a hand to his chest and glared, “you need me.
Specifically me. That’s what a starmate is.”
Right. Another reminder of her certain doom. “Childe-”
“Ajax.”
A heavy sigh. It hurt to say his real name. “Ajax,” she corrected, “I don’t want to settle down and
have a million kids, I want to find my brother. I don’t want to be your little pet that follows you
around everywhere on your missions for the Tsaritsa. I don’t want to change you, either, that’s not
my job! I don’t want any of it!” She was speaking quickly now, words flowing like water through a
broken dam, “I have zero interest in buying a cute little house and having cute little kids and being
a cute little grandma. I don’t want a garden! I don’t want to watch you across the dinner table for
the rest of our lives and slowly realize that I’m falling out of love. I don’t want that boredom, o-or
that complacency!”
Complacency and the everlasting fear of settling. The sinking feeling she got when he smiled at
her, as if she was being consumed by quicksand. Lumine expected silence. She expected crickets
and wide eyed stares of hurt. She expected the sound of a pin dropping on an empty world.
And all she got was the most casual smile she’d ever seen.
“Okay cool, then we’re on the same page.”
She stared.
“I would like a few kids, though, maybe not a million… but at least two. I’ve already got it
planned out,” he put up his hands and grinned with excitement, “we can still travel when you’re
pregnant, ‘kay? And then chill out for a while when the baby is just born. When we’re ready to
move on, I’ll get a strap-on carrier and we can just keep the little guy on our back, like monkeys
do, you know? And then they’ll grow up really strong because they’ve seen battle their entire life!
Doesn’t that sound nice?”
Yes. “No.”
He tilted his head, looking genuinely confused, “Why not?”
“Because this,” she gestured to the space between their bodies, “is not happening! We are from
way too different worlds to ever make this work. You frustrate me, a-and your stupid smile makes
me angry, and I just want to punch you sometimes!”
“Then punch me, I don’t see what the problem is.”
“See, you’re doing it again!” She jabbed a finger into his chest, “You’re being perfect and
annoying and I’m tired of feeling this way!”
He was grinning now, “What way?”

“Like this!” She gestured to herself, stomping her foot and gasping. Her hair stuck up as she ran
her fingers through it with wild abandon, “Like I’m overwhelmed, like I’m about to burst apart,
like I just need to scream from the top of a mountain!”
“I thought you were afraid of heights?”
“I am! That’s the terrible part!”
Childe thought he was the terrible part. He would prefer that far more, he quite enjoyed being the
part of the problem that made Lumine want to scream and kick and bite everything in sight. The
smile on his face refused to leave, no matter how much he bit the inside of his cheeks. He was
warm and tingling like the hot coals of a waning fire, a good feeling, a comforting feeling, and one
that left him breathless.
She was beautiful. She was annoying and loud, she was terrible with directions and so incredibly
arrogant, she was hot-tempered and sharp tongued in the worst way - and she was beautiful.
“Don’t kiss me right now, I see that look in your eyes.”
And she just had to ruin it.
Childe forced his smile down and returned to his blank stare, the one he used for work. It was like
a mask slipping back into its proper place, erasing every emotion he didn’t know he was wearing.
How Lumine knew his intentions, he had no idea.
“If I didn’t know better…” Childe crossed his arms and appraised her boredly, “I’d say you were
a mind reader.”
She grimaced, “So I was right, huh? You were going to kiss me?”
“If Teucer had his back turned, then yes,” a glance towards the little boy in the distance, “and it
looks like he does. What a shame, I missed my chance.”
Lumine wished that her glare could kill. She narrowed her eyes and grimaced, turning her head to
follow Teucer’s silhouette as he climbed over the broken ruins, “I’m glad you didn’t. I would have
punched you, and then we’d have to explain that to him.”
She was correct, despite how much he did want to kiss her. Childe could hardly wait for the day
when he could just hold her waist and kiss her until neither of them could breathe, the day when
there would be no interruptions and nothing holding them back. This dream simply wasn’t possible
with Teucer so close by.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Not allowing his disappointment to visibly show, he turned towards
the doors of the domain as Teucer finally jumped down from his stone climbing to rejoin the
conversation.
“Are you two done talking?” He bounced on his heels and clenched his fists, unaware of the
lingering tension like a thick fog.
Not particularly. Lumine was still steaming with misguided hatred, and Childe was still far too
worked up to act like a civilized human being. He took a deep breath and forced a smile, “Yep!
Let’s get going!”
It was decided, they would talk about this later. For now, back to the safety of normality and
avoidance.
“A-Are you sure this is safe?” Lumine followed at his heels, “I know you said earlier that you’d
protect us, but we shouldn’t put Teucer into dangerous situations in the first place.”
“Agreed, but this isn’t a dangerous situation.”
She put her hands on her hips, “How do you know?”
“I just do,” Childe worked on opening the door as Teucer bounced with excitement beside him,
“It’s my toy research facility, isn’t it?”
Teucer could hardly contain his energy as the doors swung open, “Yes! I’ve been waiting forever
for this moment!”
“Go on in, we’re right behind you!”
Lumine had tried to get into these ruins before, but the door never budged. Childe opened it with
a simple ring of keys he’d summoned, acting so casual as he infiltrated a locked ruin. Teucer ran
inside with wide eyes and gasps of joy.
Once the boy was thoroughly distracted, Lumine whispered, “What really is this place?”
He shrugged, “Another Harbinger used it as a playground once. Dottore is his name, he has a sort
of passion for tinkering around with old junk. I don’t know if he’s abandoned it yet or not, but I
don’t hear anything.”
A facility filled with ruin guards would be much louder, so she surmised that he was correct.
Lumine relaxed for a moment, “What if he’s here right now?”
Dottore was probably wandering the countryside and terrifying women and children with his
weird mask. “Why do you ask, are you scared?”
Lumine huffed with pride, “Not of a Harbinger, no. I just think it’s rude to barge in
unexpectedly.”
“Hmm… I’d be scared if I were you,” he grinned, “Dottore would most definitely want to run a
few experiments on you.”
“And I’d let him! I get experiments ran on me all the time!”
He froze in confusion, “You do?”
“Yeah, Albedo is always experimenting on me.”
She spoke so casually, so carelessly. She had no idea of the sudden fire running through his veins.
Pasta man, the artist who drew her missing person posters, the chief alchemist. Lumine was so
beautifully innocent and unaware of her feminine wiles that she couldn’t possibly understand the
implication of her words.
Childe, simply, sent her a look, “Tell me next time he ‘experiments’ okay? I’d like to be there.”
She stiffened, “Why?’
“I want to murder him in cold blood.”
“You say some pretty weird stuff sometimes, you know that?”
He knew that. Bless her obliviousness, it always happened right when he needed it the most.
Sighing and grabbing her wrist, Childe pulled her down the long hallway Teucer had disappeared
into, “Let’s catch up with the little monster before he hurts himself.”
She allowed him to lead her with a sudden smirk taking its place on her lips, “I thought you said
this domain was safe?”
“He could still trip… or, I don’t know, activate all the ruin guards.”
A beat of silence between them. The sound of their scrambled footsteps across the flooring, and
the moaning of an ancient building filled with cogs and gears fighting against their rust. “...A-
Activate the ruin guards?”
Childe stopped and put a finger to his chin, “Now that I think about it, there’s a pretty good
chance that Dottore got bored and just abandoned this place. It looks pretty dusty…”
It looked extremely dusty. There were spider webs on the machinery and discarded blueprints
littering every corner. While it lacked the tell-tale sound of mechanical babble and metal scraping
against itself, it was far too quiet for comfort.
And Teucer, in typical horrific fashion, was nowhere to be found.
Childe was running ahead of her in half a second’s time. He cupped his mouth and yelled,
“Teucer! Teucer, where are you?!”
Lumine followed suit. So much for keeping him out of dangerous situations. She passed by a
deactivated ruin guard and shivered in disgust before calling out, “Teucer! Are you okay?”
No response, not even a familiar laugh. Lumine glanced around the room until she found the most
viable location, it was exactly where she would go if she were looking for treasures, “I’ve been in
these kinds of ruins hundreds of times, I bet you he’s behind that door.” She pointed at the doors in
question, noting that the dust in front of them had been disturbed, “I bet you there’s a way to open
it around here somewhere.”
While Childe kept his calm outwardly, she sensed his concern. He did not answer her, there were
no smart remarks or teasing to be heard, only a sharp exhale and furrowed brows. “I’ll check over
here.” Barely holding himself together, he shot off towards the elemental pillars around the corners
of the room.
Lumine inspected the doors closer. They had been cracked just the tiniest bit, an opening small
enough for something Teucer’s size. She pushed against it with her shoulder, “Come on, open up.”
As if on command, they acquiesced with an ancient groan. The new crack was just enough for her
to slip through. Lumine’s heart skipped in excitement, “Yes! Childe, I got it open!”
It was small, but enough for her to shimmy across - if she sucked in her chest and held her breath.
With a gasp, she moved as quickly as she could across the narrow crack. As soon as she emerged
onto the other side, the stone doors heaved shut once more.
Great. Wonderful. That was just spectacular. Lumine pressed her back against the cold stone and
sighed, “I uh… I don’t mean to add more stress onto you right now, but…”
The walls were so thick that she could not hear his approach. She jumped as the stone vibrated
with movement from the other side, and listened to the muffled curses streaming from his mouth.
“Lumine!” He must have been trying to get the doors open by brute force alone, “Are you okay?”
She was alive, despite her racing heart. “Y-Yes! I think…” Lumine’s attention was immediately
drawn to the little boy at the furthest end of the room, “I found Teucer, he must have slipped
through the crack as well!”
In the distance, he was leaning against something, stretching so far over the edge of the railing
that he might fall any instant. In front of him, a massive ruin guard seemed to float by, strung up
like a doll on strings.
“I’m going to see if we can find a way out,” she called out through the doors, “catch up with us in
a minute.”
Childe gave a begrudging sigh. At least one of them was with Teucer, it was better than nothing.
Frantic, he got back to work on solving the puzzle to open the doors. On the other side, Lumine
was more cautious than ever.
“Teucer!” She called as she walked towards him, attempting to seem calm for his sake, “come on,
the tour isn’t over yet, we can’t just stay in one spot forever.”
He glanced over his shoulder with the biggest grin she’d ever seen him wear, “Look at all the
Mister Cyclopses! They’re so cool! I just wonder where they’re being taken…”
“Yeah, they’re pretty cool,” Lumine took his hand and sighed in relief, “but there’s so much more
to see from here, we should get a move on.”
“Oh, okay! Where’s big brother?”
“He’s…” she felt that she was even worse at lying than Childe, “getting a present ready for you!”
“Really?”
Teucer had stars in his eyes, and Lumine was trying her best to not meet his gaze. She’d figure out
how to deal with his disappointment when they found a way out of this hellhole. “Really, we’ve
just got to find him first!”
His cheers echoed around them emptily, bouncing off the walls like a reminder of where they
were. Lumine tried her best to play along, and found herself fortunate that Teucer didn’t notice the
worry in her eyes. As she rounded a corner and took a flight of steps lower into the ruin, the doors
were finally unlocked. Yet, when Childe stepped into the room, he found it empty.
And of course, as Teucer and Lumine went to the right, Childe took the left passage. As Teucer
and Lumine walked into a room of deactivated ruin guards, Childe walked into a room of very
alive slimes.
This went on for a bit longer. Childe, fortunately, was the one who ran into the monsters, while
Lumine and Teucer took a peaceful walk through an abandoned factory. Lumine attempted to act
calm for the boy at her side, though she knew discomfort was coming off her in waves. Teucer was
far too distracted to notice much of anything besides the mister cyclopes laying all around him.
Minutes later, both balconies were visible to each other. In between the walkways was the
machine that moved the ruin guards across the factory. Lumine stopped for a minute to watch the
monster lifelessly go by, “I wonder what the point of all this really is.”
Teucer scoffed and leaned against the railing beside her, “Are you wondering so you can steal all
of brother’s secrets for your own toy company? Well, it’s not gonna work!”
“I don’t produce Mister Cyclopses,” she gave a sly smile, “so no worries about me stealing his
business. I just think it’s crazy that there are… just so many of them here.”
“Aw, don’t be afraid! Mister Cyclops is the coolest hero in the world, he’ll protect us, even if he
accidentally steps on us while doing it.”
“I’d… really rather not be stepped on by him, thank you.”
“Well it wouldn’t be on purpose!”
It would totally be on purpose. She ruffled his hair and laughed, “Let’s keep looking for Ajax.”
“Why?”
He looked genuinely curious. Lumine stiffened in confusion, “Because we’re separated and lost?”
Teucer only pointed across the moving line of ruin guards, “He’s right there! I think he’s the one
who’s lost.”
Of course she would discover this information in the most casual of ways possible. If the rest of
Childe’s family happened to be so unceremonious, she was sure that she didn’t want to go on any
family vacations with them. Stiff, Lumine followed his finger and peaked around the side of the
hanging ruin guard.
Teucer was correct, Childe was making his way down the opposite catwalk, glancing around
frantically. Without her around, he actually looked nervous , for once. It was an emotion that didn’t
settle well on his shoulders.
“Teucer! Lumine!”
She gripped the railing and leaned forward, “We’re over here!”
Lumine heard him exhale in relief. It was maddening how slowly the ruin guards were carried
across the space between them. After several seconds of waiting, it slid towards the exit and
revealed Childe across the way. Once he saw them, his grip on the railing loosened and his
shoulders sagged in exhaustion. “Okay, now we just need to figure out how to get to each other.”
He put one foot on the railing and heaved himself up, “I think I can make this-”
“Please don’t try to jump this gap!”
Teucer cupped his hands over his mouth, “Jump! Jump!”
“Stop encouraging him!” Glaring, Lumine whipped around to yell at Childe, “Do not jump! I will
kill you if you die!”
As fun as that sounded - he’d like to see her try - he had to agree that falling to his death in front
of Teucer would not give him any lovely new memories. Sighing, Childe pulled away from the
banister and glanced down the catwalk, “It looks like there’s a door down there, it probably opens
up to the same place.” It was attached to the massive opening that the ruin guards were being
shifted to and fro. He grimaced at the thought of what was behind those doors.
Fortunately, opening these was far more simple than the others. Across the gap, Lumine led
Teucer by the hand to the stone block at the end of the hall. Childe knelt down in front of his,
calling out to be heard over the mechanical groans and complaints of the machinery. “Teucer,
could you do something for me?”
He gasped as if he’d been given the world itself, “I’d love to! Do I get to help you with toy
making?”
“Something like that…” Childe glanced between his stone block and theirs, “If I’m correct, the
doors should open by us both pushing the button at the same time. Could you push yours on the
count of three?”
“Hey,” Teucer glanced over his shoulder at Lumine, grinning, “I’m helping, isn’t this cool?”
She tried her best to cover the anxiety with a smile, “Super cool, Teucer. Just listen to your
brother, okay?”
“Okay!”
Okay. Hopefully, there was not a ruin guard awaiting them on the other side. “One… two…
three!”
Teucer dug both hands into the button with the biggest smile possible. Upon contact, the doors at
each end of the hall shifted with a dusty groan, and slowly slid open. Childe wasted no time on
patience, he shot through the entrance, ready to fight anything that dared threaten him.
Fortunately for his sanity, it was empty. A larger room lay ahead, the doorway revealing that it
was where the ruin guards were taken on the moving assembly line. That was where the most
difficult part of this entire escapade would occur.
And, of course, Teucer gasped the second he entered.
“That’s so cool!” Lumine was barely able to hold him back from running head first into the nest
of monsters, “That room is huge! Is that where Mister Cyclops brings all his friends to play?”
Childe resisted the urge to scoop him up into his arms. It would scare the boy if he acted out his
relief, implying that he was in danger somehow. A look of understanding passed between him and
Lumine as they met in the middle of the room, “Yep, just like our living room back home.”
Her gaze fell flat, “Just how big is your house in Snezhnaya?”
“I don’t know… 5,000 square feet? The living room is just filled with Teucer’s toys, honestly.”
“That’s like a mansion!”
He shrugged, “I’ve seen bigger.”
Back to normality, back to arguing in the worst of places possible. “Shut up, rich boy! Do you
forget that I’m poor? Rubbing your mora and huge house in my face isn’t gonna make me like you
anymore, you know!”
“Hm, that usually works on women…”
“J-Just what are you saying with a comment like that?”
“Uh,” Teucer stepped between their bodies with wide eyes, “hey, I hate to interrupt your super
random fight, but can we get on with the tour?” He glanced at the other room, “I really wanna go
in there.”
In there, the room with the five ruin guards just waiting to be activated? He had odd ideas of how
he might spend his time. Lumine gripped his hand and leaned down, “Are you sure? It looks, uh…
pretty dirty in there.”
“I don’t mind!”
“It looks like it smells…”
“So does brother Anthon, but I still love him!”
“You might get diseases…”

“I’ll get better!”
Ajax knew his brother far better than Lumine did. Once he had that familiar glimmer in his eye,
there was no stopping him. It was a trait shared amongst everyone in their family, his mother
usually only had that look when there was a sale at the local food market - and usually, when that
happened, someone ended up knocked out by the end of it.
Teucer would be going into that room to play with Mister Cyclops, whether he had permission or
not. Might as well work with him. “Hey, you can go in there,” Childe ruffled his hair and smiled,
“but first we should play hide and seek!”
His fire dimmed instantly into confusion, “Hide and seek? Right now?”
“Yep! Come on, humor me!”
Teucer was hesitant, but not one to refuse a good game of hide and seek. “Okay, sure…”
He took his hand and led him to the entrance. Lumine followed at his heels, gripping the back of
his scarf like a lifeline - she had half a mind to choke him with it. Slowly, as if there was not a
room of ruin guards in front of them, he wrapped an affectionate arm around her waist and smiled
down at Teucer, “Alrighty, I want you to count to 60, and I’ll have your present ready for you by
the time it’s over.”
“P-Present!” It was all that was needed for him to gasp and cover his eyes, “Okay! 60 is a long
time, but I’ll do it!”
“Good boy…” he leaned in to brush his lips against Lumine’s ears, “Cover me, okay?”
Just what was he planning? To fight five ruin guards at once while she ‘covered’ him? She wasn’t
good at playing support, and there was no way to make this a quiet fight. Teucer turned around
with his hands over his eyes and bounced on the heels of his feet, “I’m starting! You better hurry
up!”
There was no other available option. Childe had the same glimmer in his eye that Teucer did
earlier, the determined shine that spoke of every intention in his mind. Lumine knew that she
couldn’t possibly talk him into something safer, he was already making his way into the center of
the room.
The familiar whir of awakening machinery, the groaning of ancient screws and cogs. Teucer was
far enough away to not be hit by subsequent fly-aways from the battle, though Lumine wondered if
he recognized the eerie babble of the ruin guards. Had he ever heard them speak, or seen one
actually move? Childe remained unbothered as he strode up to the first monster.
Lumine had said it a million times, and she’d say it a million more. She despised ruin guards.
They creeped her out beyond all degrees, the sounds they made that reminded her of Aether with
his mouth full, their huge feet, their long and spindly arms. The entire image caused a shiver to run
down her back. Childe was unaffected as he took the first hit, catching a guard halfway through it’s
standing position and demobilizing it instantly.
Support. She was coverage today, and that most likely meant keeping him from getting hurt by
missiles. A ruin guard across the room stiffened and turned around, squatting down as if he was
about to take a mechanical poo. She summoned a geo construct to block the attack and shield
Childe instantly.
“56, 55…” one guard fell with a violent aftershock, “uh, 54… 53… Are you guys okay in there?”
Lumine blocked another barrage of missiles, “Just fine! Ajax is getting your present all set up!”
“Right!” he dodged a stomp and rolled across the ground, only to summon his bow and close one
eye, aiming for the core and letting loose an arrow, “Just be patient!”
“Fine… 52, 51, 50…”
“Your posture is terrible,” Lumine hissed as she blew a tornado of anemo enough to stagger
another guard backwards, “your arrows hit harder when you just throw them!”
He grimaced, “I fight with a bow for a reason, girlie, a weakling like you wouldn’t understand.”
“This weakling is the only thing keeping you from being hit by missiles!”
“45, 44… 43… Are you two arguing in there?”
“No!”
“Okay… 42… 41, 40…”
Lumine and Childe whirled around at the exact same moment, ending up back to back and
gripping their weapons with matching grimaces. “How do you expect to do this? Hell,” she glanced
at the levers and pulleys overhead, “there’s even more coming!”
“Just trust me, Lumi!”
“How could I?!” The anger was instantaneous, the fury undeniable. She whirled on him, her glare
causing Childe to nonconsciously take a step away. “I cannot believe that you’re asking me to trust
you!”
Of course it was in this moment, surrounded by ruin guards, that Lumine decided to bring up the
subject of their tumultuous relationship once again. Ajax had the sort of luck that he would
obviously pick the most annoying, pestiferous, vexatious woman to fall in love with, the kind of
woman who pointed a sword at his neck when missiles from ruin guards flew around them like
geoflies.
She was perfect.
“Marry me?”
Lumine’s hands shook as she stared in absolute, beautiful horror. The exhale that escaped her lips
was the best sound he’d ever heard. “No! Never in a million years!”
“I’ll wait.”
“No!”
“15… 12…”
Teucer couldn't pull the wool over his eyes that easily. Childe did not take his gaze away from
Lumine as he called out, “Stop skipping numbers, you rascal!”
“I thought you wouldn’t notice! Ugh, fine. 15, 14, 13…”
Lumine, on the other hand, was glaring with every inch of herself. She summoned yet another geo
stone behind her to block out the onslaught of missiles, before turning her trepidation upon him
personally, “You’re annoying - you’re a total nuisance! Ever since I met you I-I’ve just been so
angry all the time! I tried to trust you, and you know what that brought me?”
He smiled, “The love of your life?”
“10, 9, 8…”
“Migraines and stomach aches! I got a rash last week just from thinking about you! I hate you,
Ajax! I cannot believe that after all of this, you’d still ask me to trust you!”
“5, 4, 3…”
“You got a rash? Where?”
“On my brain! A rash on my brain!”
“2, 1… Ajax I’m-”
Lumine was into action. Despite her anger, she shot towards Teucer faster than Childe had ever
seen. Nearly stumbling over her own feet in anxiety, she knelt down beside him and wrapped her
arms around his waist, pulling him close into a hug. Teucer would not notice her awkward smile, or
the fear in her golden eyes. “Hey,” she interrupted his announcement with the shakiest of smiles,
“hold on just for a few more seconds.”
No matter how furious she was, she still had his back. If Childe knew anything, he knew what
love was. He knew what his parents were, how they still adored each other even at their worst. He
knew why Lumine rushed to Teucer’s side and abandoned him in the circle of ruin guards. He
knew why she was so ardent to distract him from seeing the chaos happening behind his back. He
knew why she had put up with him for the last several days, and why she hadn’t given up quite
yet.
And he would do anything to protect her. He would give his life for her and Teucer. If he could
not preserve the sun, then who was he, as a thunderstorm? Who was he to contribute to the
betterment of the world if he could not allow the sunshine to illuminate after his bouts of
destruction?
“Just 10 more seconds, Teucer, okay? That’s all I need.”
He groaned as if it was a great inconvenience to his precious time. “Fine, but only 10!”
Only 10. Ten seconds to kill these five ruin guards, and the five more that showed up. 10 seconds,
and he didn’t have Lumine at his side. 10 seconds to save two of the most important lives he’d ever
known.
He sent the traveler a smile. She sent a glare. She continued to be perfect. All he could do was
furrow his brows, and laugh under his breath.
“Alrighty! So… 10…”
It happened instantly. He’d never transformed so quickly, so smoothly. The foul legacy slithered
over his arms and legs like tendrils of lava, burrowing into his skin and making it’s home in his
chest.
“9!”
He was totally going to die after this.
“8!”
The electro lance hurt in his palm, but it was a welcome charge of power. With a flash, he took
down two ruin guards at once.
“7!”
Onto the next one. The world was moved far more quickly than it should, and he was stronger
than he recalled. Even at the Golden House, he did not feel as he did then. Now, it was as if he
could fell mountains, as if he could drag the moon from the sky and crack it in half
“6!”
A downed ruin guard. A smile underneath the mask, and drowning power. The sound of water
rushing past his ears and blackness consuming his vision.
“5!”
Fighting for Lumine and Teucer was the most exhilarating thing he’d ever done. Ajax had never
been so happy.
“4!”
He could hardly breathe.
“3!”
Suffocation. Skirk and her sharpened sword, beasts beyond imagination, a vision of water
appearing from nowhere as he defended his own life in the abyss.
“2!”
His father’s disappointed stare while he signed the papers required for joining the Fatui for his
son. The gasps of his older siblings as he pummelled trained soldiers into the ground. A curse upon
his life from the village elder, and the sound of whispered discussions at the dinner table after
midnight.
“1! Ready or not, here I come!”
The two voyagers in the sky, intertwined and not willing to break apart anytime soon. Viatrix, and
Monoceros Caeli.
And here he came. Here, Teucer turned around with the most innocent smile possible. And here,
in this room of dead ruin guards, Childe made his escape.
“Brother? Where’d you go?”
Nowhere of consequence, and nowhere he needed to see.
Ajax - he was not Childe, then, he did not even know that man - leaned against the cold stone
wall and closed his eyes. Teucer’s footsteps were the loudest noise in the room, followed by the
familiar sound of Lumine’s boots across the hard floors.
“Woah… it’s Mister Cyclops!”
He hoped that his little brother never grew up. If he could stay that way forever, stay as the
physical manifestation of what Ajax was supposed to be, then he’d be content. For Teucer, there
was no abyss, no Fatui, no gods and villains that required destruction. Just Mister Cyclops, and a
smile that could light up a room.
“Where’d he go? Miss Lumine, you check over there, and I’ll check over here!”
“Okay,” she giggled as if nothing had happened - she would fit right in with his family, “But don’t
leave the area, alright?”
“Yes ma’am!”
Ajax imagined a silly, fake salute, and laughter holding relief that Teucer wouldn’t understand.
He imagined little feet running across the floor and weaving between fallen ruin guards. He
imagined Lumine’s glare as she tracked him down. Of course she would find him in an instant, he
couldn’t hide from her if he tried.
She looked worse for wear. Her hair stuck up in different places, the result of her fingers dragging
through it during her anxiety. She glared at him as if he had just murdered her entire family.
Lowering to her knees, her lips twisted into a scowl.
What part of that battle did she see? Did she even recognize that blur of a man who had defeated
10 ruin guards in 10 seconds, wearing the mask of something inhumane and heretical? How long
did it take her to realize the sacrifices he made to keep Teucer safe? Across the room, his little
brother continued to call and shout for him, giggling all the while in childish innocence. Lumine
ignored him in favor of burrowing Ajax beneath her glare.
“You’re stupid, you know that right?”
He knew that. Every great warrior was aware of his own stupidity, he wouldn’t survive if he was
not. “Hey, we’re alive, aren’t we?”
“You look like you’re hanging on by a thread.”
Ajax ignored her, “You know, we did make a bet forever ago about who could kill the most ruin
guards in the shortest amount of time. I think I won.”
“You cheated!” Lumine gasped, “You used your special powers! It doesn’t count now!”
“So you admit that I’m stronger than you?”
“Where did you get that idea?”
Ajax couldn’t help his tired smile, despite the pounding headache behind his eyes and the
exhaustion in his limbs, “You admit that it’s not a fair fight between us.”
Lumine’s glare returned, “Did you forget who won our fight at the Golden House?”
“You may have won the fight, but I have won the… the bet.”
“That sounds terrible. Pitiful, even.”
That it did. He tried to laugh, and unfortunately it hurt far too much for him to even breathe. He
groaned and rested the back of his head against the wall, “Look at me, I’m like a deflated balloon. I
still haven’t really recovered from the last time I used the transformation.”
“Are you…” Lumine seemed to question herself as she scooted closer, “are you okay?”
“Not really,” he snorted, “it drains a bit of my life everytime I use it.”
“Then stop using it!”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because I told you to!”
“That’s a terrible reason, Lumi.”
It was not a terrible reason for the simple fact that she decided it was not a terrible reason. He
truly should trust her more. Whatever Lumine says, goes, and that was the way the universe
worked. “You look like you were used as a lawachurl’s chewtoy.”
He groaned, “I feel like it, too. But that’s what any older brother would do, you know? Wouldn’t
Aether do the same for you?”
He would. He had before. Lumine was buzzing with something akin to very angry affection.
She’d never seen him look so terrible. Even after their battle at the Golden House, he was able to
stand and breathe normally. Now, he leaned on the wall and held his chest as if his lungs had been
crushed. She felt as if she should do something to heal him, even if she could not do so physically.
Besides, she needed a distraction from the racing of her heart.
“Do you think you could have sex during your foul legacy transformation?”
It worked. His eyes shot open in shock. “What?”
“Nothing,” Lumine shook her head and smiled, “why didn’t you go to the doctor after our battle?
You’d be able to recover much faster then.”
“No, no. You can’t change the subject from something like that.”
“You look terrible,” innocent, she pursed her lips and brushed a lock of hair behind his ear, “but I
do appreciate what you’ve done. Thank you for… Well, for basically saving Teucer and I’s lives.”
Ajax didn’t mean to be so utterly nonplussed. He didn’t mean to have a brain scrambled like an
egg, nor a heart racing faster than an arrow. He didn’t mean to flicker his eyes to her lips, or to
smell the lavender from her shampoo. He didn’t mean to hurt himself by leaning forward and
ignoring the screaming of his muscles.
But, of course, he did mean to kiss her.
He did mean to close the space between their bodies. He entirely intended to absorb her surprised
gasp, to feel her breath on his lips and to run his tired fingers through her hair. It was not
coincidental how he leaned forward, while simultaneously pulling her closer, and lost himself in
her entirely.
Ajax expected to be hit. Lumine had expressed her disgust at the idea of kissing him, and had told
him very clearly that there were not to be any kisses during the time of her babysitting. He would,
understandably, respect that, if only he did not notice the way she subconsciously leaned into him,
the way her fingers lingered in his hair, or the way she exhaled as if she was expecting her breath to
be swept away any second then.
The tension settled like a thick fog. Lumine hesitated, but only for a moment. More quickly than
ever before, she rested her hands on his chest and leaned into the kiss. She sat on her knees and
nestled herself between his spread legs, pushing further and further until their bodies pressed
against each other.
It was, by far, the best kiss they’d ever shared.
Lumine could not deny the feeling any longer. She tugged at his scarf and pulled it aside, tossing
it onto the floor before working at the buttons of his jacket. The Fatui just had to make his uniform
so utterly complicated. It gave her trouble until she could finally release the top one, and move
down to the second. She felt as if she was on fire, as if she could melt into his arms and stay there
forever.
Until, of course, he flinched beneath her hands, “W-Wait,” a string of swears in Snezhnayan
escaped his mouth as she jerked away, “I feel like I’ve been stepped on, holy shit… Lumi,” he
gripped her wrists and gave her a serious look, “my brother is right there.”
Teucer was still wandering around the room and calling out for Ajax. He had no idea that his
older brother sat behind a line of crates with a half unbuttoned jacket and a blushing girl that was
basically on top of him, giving him that look and trying to take his clothes off.
She pouted. She pouted like a petulant child. Pressing against him and wrapping her arms around
his neck, Lumine leaned in to brush her lips across his jawline, “But master, I want-”
Master? Master? He shivered beneath her before glaring, “Lumine?”
She pulled back with a smile, “Yes?”
“You’re just calling me that because you know I’m in too much pain to do anything about it,
right?”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m also trying to get you riled up enough to stand up on your own.”
Just when he thought that she could not be anymore vexatious. It was working, though his knees
felt more like gelatin than ever before - he wasn’t sure if that was from the transformation, or
Lumine’s lips against his skin, or from ‘ master.’ Childe groaned and closed his eyes in defeat,
“It’s not like I should, I don’t want Teucer to see me like this.”
“It might be good for him,” she shrugged, “besides, I don’t want to leave you here.”
It might be the first - and possibly last - time she would ever be this affectionate to him. He would
get injured more often if Lumine kept acting this way. Sighing, he dug around for the cyclops doll
he’d had commissioned, “Can you just give this to him for me?”
It was small, with perfect attention to detail, just how he commissioned it. Gingerly, Lumine
pulled away to take it in her hands and give it a closer look, “When did you get this done?”
“I was planning on sending it to him,” Childe laughed, though the sound was more of a shaky
exhale and a shrug of his shoulders, “but since he showed up here, might as well do it now. He’s
always complained about not being able to take Mister Cyclops everywhere with him.”
Of course he would. Teucer would live amongst the ruin guards if it were safe.
“Brother, where are you?” Yet another call that echoed off the walls and ceilings. Lumine
recognized the concern lacing his tone. She would be upset too if her brother just disappeared in
the middle of an old factory, no matter how many presents he’d given her.
While Childe didn’t look healthy in the least, it would be worse to leave him there. She knew that
he’d make his way back to town eventually, but Lumine was known for her legendary impatience.
“I have a request… Well, it’s really more of a demand.”
“A demand?” He furrowed his brows, almost pouting.
She nodded, “Yes, I know that you’re used to taking care of yourself, but just this once, please let
me and Teucer help you back to the hotel room.”
Immediately, his suspicion fell into annoyance. She had hit the nail on the head: he never allowed
anyone to assist him when injured. He would only visit a doctor or healer if it was absolutely
necessary, and that was rare.
“I won’t nag you afterwards,” Lumine sat back and put her hands up, as if surrendering, “plus,
you promised me that you’d take me to Liuli Pavilion.”
It had to be far past midnight. Yet, that was true, he did promise. And he promised that he’d give
Teucer a tour, he promised that he’d spend time with him, he promised that he would protect both
him and Lumine. It was exactly why he chose to drown himself in the foul legacy, for promise’s
sake.
“I remember what you told me, it was… Gosh, I don’t know,” Lumine ran her fingers through her
hair and sighed, “it felt like forever ago. Uh, when you make a pinkie promise, you keep it all your
life. You break a pinkie promise, I throw you on the ice. Uh… Something about the cold…”
Here was the traveler, in all of her Fatui-fighting glory, quoting old Snezhnayan lullabies. “The
cold will kill the pinkie that once betrayed your friend,” he continued for her, “the frost will freeze
your tongue off so you never lie again.”
“I still think it’s pretty morbid.”
Childe sighed, “I didn’t pinkie promise you, it doesn’t count.”
“I have the power and authority over all promises,” she wore a mocking grin, the prettiest kind, “I
hereby dub your prior promises as… pinkie promises!”
Using his own words from months ago as a weapon, he did love that about her, even if he
preferred physical weapons over the linguistic kind. “Well, I have the power and authority to
dissolve pinkie promises.”
“You are so full of it! Just get up, be a normal human being for once!”
“Brother? I’m… I’m getting a bit freaked out here…”
Might as well. At least it was in front of his family, rather than the enemy. Childe sighed and held
out a hand, “Help your master up, I can’t keep Teucer waiting forever.”
“I’ll kill you.”
“You’re the one who said it first.”
Annoyed and groaning, she wrapped his discarded scarf back around his neck, and buttoned the
top of his jacket that she had so ardently been working to get off - she would suffer the
embarrassment of that hormone rush later. As she fit herself beneath his arm and assisted him to
his feet, they almost felt like a normal couple.
Childe was attempting to not put too much weight on her, but that was the good thing about
Lumine, she could handle whatever he gave, no matter how heavy the burden. Smiling, with her
cheeks pink and her eyes holding an emotion he couldn’t recognize, she helped him round the
corner and stumble into the middle of the room. Teucer waited with a worried stare and twiddling
fingers.
“Brother?” He stepped forward hesitantly, “I-I love the gift, but… what happened?”
Childe laughed - the sound was pitifully exhausted, “I just fell and broke all my bones, the usual.”
“Really? That sounds terrible!”
Bless his innocence. Ajax hoped he believed his lies forever. “I got something for you,” a glance
to Lumine, who was holding the miniature mister cyclops behind her back, “I had it made a while
back, I hope that you like it.”
She had to leave his side for a moment in order to kneel down in front of Teucer. Childe managed
to keep himself upright with a great deal of difficulty. He didn’t want to scare his little brother by
collapsing on his face. Lumine shot him a glance before offering the toy and smiling in silence.
Teucer gasped. He jumped, he clasped his hands and wiggled, even. “T-This is for me?”
“Yep,” Childe felt as if he was about to pass out.. Lumine stood and nestled herself underneath
his arm once more, acting as the crutch against the darkness threatening to steal his mind for the
night, “I-It’s all for you, it’s the only one that exists, so keep it safe!”
“I will! I definitely will! Thank you!”
“Of course,” a heavy sigh as he closed his eyes, “For now, will you help Miss Lumine drag me
back to our room for the night?”
He saluted, “I’ll try my best!”
Lumine leaned into the side of Childe’s chest and tightened her grip around his waist. One of her
arms held his body, the other held the hand wrapped over her shoulder, “Thanks Teuc. I think Ajax
just needs some rest, and I’ll be getting him to a doctor once the sun rises.”
Or, more realistically, she would drag his unconscious body to Zhongli’s doorstep, knock, and run
away. That worked too.
“I’ll help,” Teucer was determined as he snuggled up against him and wrapped a little arm around
his waist, “We’ll get you home safe!”
“T-Thanks…” a tired laugh, and he squeezed his eyes shut as they began to shuffle away, “be
gentle with me, remember that all 270 bones in my body are broken, okay?”
Teucer stared ahead with pursed lips, “Wouldn’t you look more like a jellyfish if that really
happened?”
Lumine blinked, “What’s a jellyfish?’
“Like… I don’t know. Brother, what’s a jellyfish? All I know is that it doesn’t have bones.”
While Ajax was, actually, in an oddly good mood, he didn’t quite feel like explaining what an
invertebrate was to his naive little brother and the most oblivious woman in the world. “I’ll just
have to show you one day, Lumi. Morepesok has a ton of them along the shoreline, though
knowing you you’ll probably try to pick one up and accidentally hurt yourself.”
She scoffed in offense, “Why can’t I pick up something called a jellyfish? It sounds really cute!”
“Because… you’ll get hurt and possibly die depending on the species and poison levels in its
body?”
“That sounds like a you problem.”
“How is that a me problem? You’re the dead one!”
“Because then you’ll have to bury my gross dead body.”
He shrugged, despite the shooting pain through his shoulders and the exhaustion in his knees,
“I’ll just throw you into the sea. I mean, if I died then that’s how I’d like to go. Let me at least feed
the fish.”
“That’s disgusting!”
“It’s nature, babe.”
“Don’t call me babe!”
“What should I call you, then? Frank?”
“Oh Archons, just shut up!”
“Guys,” Teucer whined from the other side of Childe’s waist, “can you please stop flirting?
You’re giving me a tummy ache.”
“Sorry Teuc.”
“Sorry, bud.”
It was quite unfortunate that despite Teucer’s aching stomach and Childe’s heretical abyss-magic
induced headache, the flirting continued. It continued as steadily as water ran, as steadily as
mountains stood. And Childe so lovingly realized one important factor of it all in between the
transformation and the ruin guards:
He could spend the rest of his life flirting with Lumine. He could find happiness in the pink on
her cheeks, and the smiles that made her eyes shine.
That knowledge was enough to keep him on his feet as they shuffled back into the city.
It was around 4 a.m. now, and Teucer’s yawns were contagious. He had never stayed up so late,
and Childe had rarely stayed up this late either. Their father taught them both the importance of
resting their bodies. Lumine, on the other hand, seemed perfectly fine, as if she’d done this
hundreds of times.
She was the one who nearly dragged them both into the elevator. Teucer helped her push the lever
down to send the lift up, though he looked as if he might collapse in the process.
Out of the lift and down the hall, to Childe’s room. He rested his forehead against the wall and
groaned while Lumine dug into his pocket for his key. Once the door was opened, Teucer slipped
inside and immediately collapsed on the bed.
“Shoes off, Teuc,” exhausted, Childe shut the door behind him, “and make room for Lumi.”
He was an opportunist through and through. Even in his half dead state, he recognized that
Lumine was far too tired to argue with him. She only scoffed and made for the bed. Sitting on the
edge, she pulled off her boots with a sigh, “I’m only doing this because I don’t want to try to find
my room key - and I also think the door is still broken.”
He grinned, “All according to plan.”
“You’re terrible. You better not snore.”
Teucer yawned from his spot in the middle of the bed, “He does, it’s terrible.”
“But you drool, Teuc.”
She shrugged, “Well, I kick, so I guess we all even each other out then.”
“Pinkie promise that you won’t kick me tonight?”
“You don’t want to be kicked? That’s a first.”
Childe groaned and fell into bed. He lay on Teucer’s right, while Lumine took the left. Lazy, he
pulled his boots off, but did not bother with anything else besides the scarf and the mask, “You
know what? You can kick me if you want. I feel great, I feel wonderful. I could fight an entire
army, can’t you tell?”
Lumine shut her eyes, “The Tsaritsa hates sarcasm, she’ll freeze your insides and turn you into an
ice sculpture in her garden.”
That was not how the saying went, she hated liars, not sarcasm. “I’ve seen the ice sculpture
garden,” Childe tilted his head to peer at her over Teucer’s mop of ginger hair between them, “it’s
true.”
She gasped, “R-Really?”
“No, Lumi, the Tsaritsa doesn’t have a garden of frozen people.”
“Well, not that you’ve seen.”
She had a point there. “I’ll take you to meet her one day,” he rolled onto his side to face her, “I
want you to talk to her, listen to her story and then decide what you think of her.”
Lumine shifted to meet his gaze. Golden hair was splayed around her head like a halo. “I’m not in
this world to fight the Tsaritsa, you know. She’s given me a bitter first impression,” with the super
soldiers, the reckless abandon for lives, with stealing Venti’s gnosis and every inch of subterfuge
after that, “but I would like to speak to her. It was a god of this world that took my brother, and
unless the Tsaritsa was the one who did it, I’m willing to hear her out, at least.”
“So…” he grinned, “there’s hope that you’ll join the Fatui one day?”
He will not be Fatui forever.
She had to find that fortune teller. She had to learn of Childe’s future, what the world held for
their intertwined stars.
“I never said that.”
And he despises that.
“Please?”
Ajax’s eyes were beautiful. Dull, but beautiful. She wondered how much more blue they would
be if they had not been dimmed by the life he lived.
“Goodnight, loser.”
He smiled. Lumine could not help but smile in return. Sighing, she snuggled closer to Teucer’s
back and wrapped an arm around his waist. Ajax moved closer as well, and met her hand in the
middle. He lifted his palm to his mouth and slipped his glove off with his teeth, then tossed it onto
the floor.
“Goodnight, lyubimaya moya.”
His bare fingers, cold and scarred, tangled with hers like perfect pieces of a puzzle. Teucer sighed
in satisfaction and shifted between their bodies. Lumine closed her eyes as she soaked in the feeling
of his thumb brushing across the back of her hand. A shiver, a smile, his low chuckle in the
darkness of the room.
“Thank you for coming back to me, Lumi. I needed you.”
I needed you.
She was in trouble.
After making entirely sure that Childe and Teucer were both asleep, Lumine slipped out of the
room in perfect silence. She was not aware of what her intentions were, where she would end up, or
if she would return to Childe anytime soon. All she knew was the unexpected feeling of a popped
anemo slime in her stomach. That sharp realization that happened so suddenly, like a smack to the
face. Affection, and warmth, and comfort, his fingers tangled with hers and the memory of his
mouth pressed against her own.
All she knew was Ajax, and this battle she had lost.
Lumine needed help.
6 a.m. and the sun had barely risen. Zhongli was on his second cup of tea when the desperate
pounding on his apartment door began.
He opened it to reveal the most frazzled traveler he’d ever seen. He wasn’t particularly put
together at this time of day himself. His hair was loose and long, his casual sweater was wrinkled,
and his cup was chipped with years of use, but Lumine looked far worse.
“Traveler…” it had been more than three months since he’d seen her. In true Lumine fashion, she
decided to reappear in his life by banging on his door like a madwoman, “Is everything okay? Are
you well?”
She stared up at him with wide eyes. She looked as if she was running on two hours of sleep. Her
hair stuck up, defying gravity itself, while her dress was wrinkled and dirty. “Zhongli… I need
your help.”
A whisper, a flicker of concern. “How may I be of service?”
“I… I…”
She looked as if she was about to cry. “Would you like to come inside?”
A nod, a sniffle and clearing of her throat. Her words were the pen dropping in a silent room, the
bell ringing at midnight, the jolt awake when half-asleep. Lumine stared up at him as if he was her
only savior.
“Zhongli, I’m in love and I don’t know what to do.”
There was no need to ask for the culprit.
“Listen carefully,” serious, Zhongli placed his hands on her shoulders, “go to Snezhnaya, speak to
his family. If anyone can make a man disgusting in a woman’s eyes, it’s his family. Learn all of his
secrets, all of the embarrassing stories, all of the terrible things he did as a boy.”
“O-Okay…”
“And when you return to Liyue, thoroughly disgusted with him… Barbatos and I will have done
our duty, we shall have gathered your many older brothers, and we will deal the final blow that will
separate your heart from him forevermore.”
“Thank you, Zhongli.”
“....Godspeed, traveler.”
Chapter End Notes
Childe: I am in pain from having pushed my body to the limit and I can barely move
Lumine: make out?? You want to make out?? Okay let’s go right now
A Simple Kind of Dread
Chapter Notes
Disclaimer before reading: I did some research on the cultures of the slavic countries,
and I realize that middle names are usually patronymic and gendered. Yet, after some
thought I’ve decided to not complicate things by worrying over the names, the
Harbingers don’t even have Russian-inspired titles so I’m not going to worry too much
about it. Sooo, if anybody who speaks Russian is reading this and wondering about
the inconsistencies of names/patronymics/gendered post-fixes, this is why. Please
please please correct me if something is mistranslated or understood wrongly on my
part, I try my best to research and be accurate, but I know language is a super
complicated thing.
Anyway, Snezhnaya is it’s own place, with its own culture that will be revealed when
it’s finally released, so I’m just gonna hold back on getting too unnecessarily deep into
those details for now <3
“...Godspeed, traveler.”
Lumine was once informed that Snezhnaya was the most technologically advanced region in
Teyvat. She could not remember who told her this, but she had to admit that they were not lying.
Snezhnayan technology was far ahead of the rest of the world, it seemed.
The merchant ship puffed black smoke from it’s chimney, as if it were a sleeping dragon on the
water. It was positively gargantuan when docked next to the skimmers and sail boats, black,
blotting out the sun, seeming as if every cabin would be cold no matter how many blankets one
wore.
She went from Zhongli’s loft to the harbor below. Childe and Teucer had been left at the hotel,
and most likely would not awaken for hours. Neither of them had stirred as she escaped. Pulling
the cloak closer, she recited the practiced lines in her head. She did not usually bother with
disguises, but in a country controlled by a religious militia with 11 zealots having their ears pressed
against every wall possible, she could at least wrap a cloak around her body and cover her hair.
She had not met very many Snezhnayans, but she knew enough of their culture to survive a week-
long boat ride. As she approached the workers loading crates and supplies up the ramp, she lifted
her chin in fake arrogance, “Excuse me?”
The man overseeing the crew sent her a disinterested glance, “What do you want?”
Lumine attempted her best impression of a Snezhnayan lilt, “I’m supposed to be on this boat
today. I’m going to… uh, Morepesok.”
He stiffened at the sound. She kept her head down and avoided his eyes in case he decided to
question her terrible excuse of an accent. Childe didn’t have much of a discernible accent, as most
who spoke the common-tongue didn’t. His lilt tended to come out the most when he was angry -
his R’s would become just a hint sharper. Those who spent more time speaking the lesser known
languages of their regions were far more difficult to understand.
The sailor scoffed. He, at least, looked as if he believed her act, “Sorry lady, we’ve only got one
passenger today, and that’s because some Fatui bigwig is paying us to take him.”
Teucer, of course. This was the only Snezhnayan boat in the harbor. Fortunately, the merchants
seemed to be motivated by mora. And for the first time in her life, she had a bag of it on hand.
She flashed the pouch Teucer had given her days ago, “Will this be enough? I’ll stay quiet and out
of the way.”
His eyes widened in that familiar fashion - mora had the wonderful ability to charm even the
hardest of hearts. “Y-Yes! Of course! He’s just, uh… The Fatui, and all-”
“Lord Childe? Tartaglia, right?” Lumine lifted her chin, still faking the accent, “I’m his fiance, he
was too busy this morning to visit you personally.”
“I… uh, fiance? Nobody informed me that there would be a second passenger.”
“Of course nobody informed you! Why should he? Do you know how busy Childe is?” Lumine
tried her best to look arrogant, “Send a bill for 10,000 mora to Northland Bank on top of this
payment.” She dropped the pouch in his hand, “If you corporate, I won’t let my fiance know of
your difficulty.”
“But... ma’am, how can I believe what you’re saying?”
“No more questions!” She raised a hand and brushed past him, “Thank you for your
kindness,Tartaglia will be pleased.”
“Lady, you can’t just walk onto a boat-”
“Don’t make me go get my fiance! He’s sleeping right now,” she hissed, “you don’t want to wake
up the 11th Harbinger of the Fatui, do you?”
He did not. His hesitance, coupled with a flash of fear in his eyes, told her all she needed to know.
Lumine offered a demure smile and an innocent tilt of her head, “I promise I’ll be good.”
She would not, but that was beside the point.
Childe’s family had not always been provided for.
Once upon a time, his mother and father worked selling fish, and sewing garments in the tiny
village of Morepesok. In the past, they could hardly buy food or blankets, living off the meager
sums they were able to scrape together. Mother gave up treasure hoarding, and father could not
take the highest paying adventurer’s guild commissions for fear of leaving his wife alone with the
little ones.
Tonia and Teucer were far too young to remember those days, but Childe knew them like a
second life.
The feeling of a common-cold, exacerbated by dust in the air. The feeling of his big sister,
Anastasia, as she brushed back his hair and whispered reassurances. It was the feeling of a shoddy
cabin in the woods, and huddling around a fireplace. Ajax could find happiness in ice fishing,
listening to his father’s stories, and imagining himself adventuring beyond their withered garden
and half broken-home.
Anthon had just been born. Ajax was enthralled with the thought of having a little brother. Sacha
and Pavol had always been good to him, no matter how many times they pinned him down and
threatened to spit on him - and no matter the arm burns, or the pranks, or the tickling, they were his
brothers, and they protected little, shy Ajax with all of their might.
Yet, with the addition of another baby, his father would go days without food. To think that they
would cuddle together for warmth at night because they’d given all the blankets to Anthon and
mama. To think that his new little brother, despite being a toddler, understood a small degree of the
distress his family felt during a blizzard. To think that mama had gotten pregnant again, and the
happiness had been dimmed by stress.
Teucer didn’t know those things, and for that he was grateful. As Ajax awoke in the hotel room
with Teucer splayed out at his side, he immediately thought of the nights spent huddled on the
floor of the cabin, desperately curled up for warmth. It had been so long since he’d fallen asleep
next to one of his siblings.
It was late in the morning, far later than he usually awoke. He still felt as if he’d been stepped on,
but the sleep did him well. He yawned and stretched his limbs, brushed back Teucer’s hair, and
rubbed at his eyes.
There were three people in this bed last night. Childe had fallen asleep holding Lumine’s hand,
with his little brother between them as if he was their kid. His heart flickered at the memory,
“Lumi?”
No response. He rubbed at his eyes again and looked to where she had lain. The pillow was
unused, the sheets were empty and wrinkled. Her shoes that had sat beside the bed were gone.
“Lumine?” Childe slipped off the mattress and padded towards the open door of the bathroom,
“Lumi?”
In bed, Teucer groaned and covered his head with a pillow. Ajax continued to ignore him as he
peaked into each corner of the hotel room. The closet was empty, there was nothing behind the
curtains, and the bathroom was dry, she was not taking a bath, obviously. The affection turned to
concern that he hated to admit, “Teucer, did you hear Lumine leave earlier?”
Underneath the pillow, his brother gave another muffled groan, “No.”
He wasn’t surprised, he slept like a brick. “I’m going downstairs to check if she’s there.”
“‘Kay…”
Oddly enough, Lumine was not. She was not in the stairwell, or the lift. She was not behind the
attendant’s desk - he was nearly smacked in the head for jumping the counter and checking - and
she was not in the kitchen. Childe didn’t bother pulling on his boots as he searched, instead
walking around the hotel in socks, with a narrowed and suspicious gaze.
Dread began to make its home in his stomach. He hated the feeling.
Dark circles formed half-moons underneath his eyes, and he could not stop yawning even if he
tried. Returning to the room, Childe plopped back down into bed, “She’ll show up eventually.
Probably just went to go get food, or something.”
A childish groan. A squeezing of the pillow over his head, “Let me sleeeeep!”
“The early bird gets the worm, Teuc, you know that.”
“I’m not a bird!”
“Come on,” Ajax rolled over and slung his arm over his back, “you’ve got a boat to catch today.”
The pillow was off in an instant. His eyes widened as he stared Ajax down, horror settling onto
his face. “B-But… I don’t wanna go!”
“You can’t live here with me,” he’d have a stroke from pretending to be a toy seller every five
seconds, “plus, I’ll be back in Snezhnaya soon, I promise!”
“You… pinkie promise?”
Their little fingers wrapped around each other automatically, “I pinkie promise.”
“Good,” Teucer nodded and sat up with a heavy sigh, “When is the boat leaving?”
At 12 p.m, though Childe had absolutely no idea what time it was. He glanced out the window
and squinted, “Lunchtime, I guess we can just walk down to the docks and see if they’ve left yet.”
“ And get lunch?”
“Yes, and get lunch.”
“And find Miss Lumi so I can say goodbye to her too?”
“Yes, find Miss Lumi.”
The plan was made, and his dread was dissipating with the sight of his brother’s confidence. He
always saw the bright side, and he always had hope. If Childe had to spend half his childhood
sleeping on the floor of a dusty cabin, he could at least provide luxuries for Teucer. A warm bed,
comfortable blankets and the reassurance he deserved. An actual toy salesman would not be able to
afford all that he was used to, and Childe would never want to take that away.
Lunch was gotten and eaten happily. Recoveries of what felt like a wicked hangover began to
settle in. Childe rested his forehead against the cool surface of a table for a minute, and resisted the
urge to fall asleep once more. The next goal on the agenda was to find Lumine.
After lunch, Teucer was practically bouncing off every red painted wall in Liyue. He held his
Mister Cyclops close and walked at Childe’s side, his eyes searching across the crowded streets.
But there was no Lumine at the bank, and no Lumine at the hotel. No Lumine at Wanmin
Restaurant, nor in the market square. There was no Lumine by the harbor, and no Lumine at the
gates to the city. She had not been spotted by Xiangling, nor by any of the vendors. She was not at
the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, and she was not seen by the Millelith guarding the city.
It was like she disappeared out of thin air.
12 p.m. came far too soon. Teucer was crying by the time he stood at the ramp leading up into the
steamboat. Despite his aching muscles, Childe knelt down and wiped away his tears, “Hey, she’s
probably just found a nice patch of moss to sleep on. You know Lumi, she’s perfectly safe.”
“D-Does she still like me?”
His heart fell into his stomach. It was rare for Teucer to cry so hard, he was usually a tough kid -
albeit spoiled. Childe pulled him closer and let him bury his face into his shoulder, “Of course she
does, don’t worry about that. But she’s super busy, okay? She’s probably got an emergency going
on.”
(The ‘emergency’ being Lumine seeing a spider in her tiny quarters on the Snezhnayan steam
boat, and trying desperately to kill it. Of course, Childe knew nothing of these circumstances.)
“O-Okay,” he sniffled again and pulled back, leaving a wet spot on Ajax’s shoulder, “If you see
her again, tell her I love her, okay?”
He loved her too. He loved her so much it hurt, most times. “I will.”
“A-And that I want her to come live with us!”
“Okay,” he chuckled, “I’ll say that too.”
“And tell her that she has to meet the rest of our family!”
“She will one day, bud, no worries there.”

“A-And tell h-”
“Teucer,” Ajax glanced up at the roaring of the boat, “I think your ride is leaving. You’ll be
stranded here forever, and you know I’m not going to make you sweet food all the time like sister
Tonia does.”
If there was one thing on par with his love for toys, it was sweets. He gasped and held Mister
Cyclops close, “You’re right! I’ve got to go!” With another quick hug and another gasp, he
whipped around to race towards the waiting merchants at the ramp. “I’m coming! Don’t leave
without me!”
He took one step up, then turned around to send another wave to Ajax. He shook his arm so hard
that he would fall into the water if the crewmember did not adjust him. Ajax raised a hand in return
and smiled, “Bye Teucer, tell father to send me a message when you get home!”
“Okay! And I’ll write you tons of letters!”
Childe laughed, “I look forward to it!”
“I…” his voice died as he glanced at the massive black boat, “I’ve gotta go now! I’ll see you
later, big brother!”
Yet another round of waves. This was the hard part, letting him go, no matter how quickly they
would see each other again. Teucer rushed up the ramp and disappeared behind the high railing.
It would be easier if he did not feel so bitter about Lumine’s unexplained absence. He was sure
that she would want to say goodbye to Teucer, she was not cruel enough to break a little boy’s
heart. He sighed and watched the anchor lift. With another roar, and a puff of black smoke into the
air, the steamboat began to inch away.
“Alright,” Childe put his hands on his hips and sighed, “first rule of business. Find Lumine.”
Teucer was all pouty sighs and stomps today. He was tired, sad, and disappointed all at once.
Ignoring the sailors and merchants around him, he moved across the deck and towards the guest
cabins.
He could hardly believe that Miss Lumine did not want to say goodbye. Despite Ajax’s
reassurance, he wondered why she had left the hotel room. She was wonderful at snuggling, and he
made extra sure to not drool on her arm in his sleep. He thought he was quite polite. She even held
hands with his brother all night, why she would abandon him without word simply confused the
boy.
At least he would be going home. The boat ride should only be a week long, he’d been gone from
the familiar comforts of his bedroom for nearly two weeks now. He was eager to return to his
mother and father, despite the hurt feelings at Lumine’s absence.
“Liyue was fun,” a sigh, a glance to the shrinking city in the distance, “still can’t believe they
don’t eat rocks, though, Anthon told me so…”
Anthon did tell him so, but Anthon was also known for his pranks. Teucer frowned at another
reminder of his siblings, and the new sibling he’d just attained. Perhaps Lumine was simply
pranking him by disappearing, she would be the type to do that.
Another frown, another stomp. He brushed past the sailors and headed to his room. Yet, it just so
happened that the second he opened his door, a white dress caught his attention.
Golden blonde hair, flowers and ribbons and the sweetest of smiles.
So it was a prank.
Lumine leaned back in her chair and rested her feet on the table. She glanced up from her book
and grinned, “Hey, Teuc. So, guess who’s going to Snezhnaya?”
Speechless. Absolutely speechless that his future big sister was in his guest room on this monster
of a boat, heading to colder waters.
“Uh, you?”
“Yep!”
Teucer could not help but tackle her. “I’ll introduce you to everybody!” His face burrowed into
her stomach as she laughed, “Tonia will love you! A-And so will Anthon! And we’ll have
Anastasia and Sacha and Pavol over to visit! And mama will adopt you into our family so you
always have to come to reunions!”
She rested a calm hand on his head, “That sounds nice. I expect to get close to your mother,”
Lumine grimaced at the thought - what was worse for a relationship than an annoying mother-in-
law? “And I’d like to meet your sisters.” Annoying sisters-in-law were just as bad, depending on
the situation. “And I want to hear all of Ajax’s most embarrassing stories from when he was a
kid!”
And that, his family could provide. Teucer, of course, knew nothing of them, but he’d heard the
one about when Ajax adopted a cat, lost it, and then brought home an identical cat he stole from
the neighbors. And the one about his very first fist fight, and the one about when he accidentally
ate poison oak and had a very itchy tongue for several weeks.
There were far more than that. Lumine seemed more excited than ever to hear them, grinning
down at Teucer and brushing back his hair. He returned the smile, “Mama will love you!”
Lumine hoped that she didn’t. She hoped his mother despised her, and demanded for Ajax to
never look in her direction again. She hoped that they could not get along, and that she had the
opportunities to run wild and cause chaos. She hoped his mother sat her son down and spoke to him
about the importance of not marrying a girl who came from another world.
Hopefully, all of this would be covered within a day’s time, and she would not freeze in
Snezhnaya for very long.
But Lumine was, of course, wrong. She froze even before they arrived in Snezhnaya. The flimsy
cloak Zhongli had given her did nothing against the cold.
Five days, the most boring boat ride she’d ever taken, and several bouts of sea sickness later,
Lumine had run out of patience.
“I hate this.”
“Miss Lumi, hate is a strong word.”
She huffed, glaring at the cloud of steam coming from her lips, “I highly dislike this.”
“That’s better.”
“Paimon thinks this is even worse than Dragonspine,” she was bundled under Lumine’s arm,
wapping every inch of fabric she could possibly grab around her little body. With a shiver, she
popped out from beneath her hiding spot, “Why are we doing this again?”
Lumine had this conversation just two days ago when Paimon finally decided to pop back into
existence once more. She had screamed instantly upon return, blasted with a cold wind, and nearly
fell off the boat in the entire process.
In between that chaos, Lumine explained, very clearly, that she was intending to make an enemy
of Childe’s family and forever cut off ties between her and him. Paimon immediately understood.
Teucer was not aware of this goal. He was simply excited at the prospect of Lumine visiting.
“We’re seeing all my brothers and sisters! And I’ll show you around Morepesok, and teach you
how to ice skate, a-and we can have a bonfire!”
A bonfire did sound nice. Lumine didn’t enjoy the cold much, but there was something about
huddling close to flames on a cold evening that had always comforted her.
Aside from the familial engagements, she had plans to visit a statue of the cryo archon, and
hopefully catch a glimpse of the Tsaritsa herself. She wasn’t sure how Snezhnaya was laid out, if
she would be anywhere near the palace or not, but Lumine always found a way, despite her lack of
directional skills and critical thinking.
Paimon, on the other hand, had the simple goal to stay warm. She snuggled closer to her side and
sneezed, “P-Paimon’s gonna get sick…”
“Oh, that’s fine,” Lumine stared off the side of the boat with her hands on her hips, “I’ll just eat
you before you go rotten.”
“For the last time, Paimon is not emergency food!”
If any region in Teyvat required emergency food, it seemed that it would be Snezhnaya. Paimon
was correct, it was worse than Dragonspine. When faced with snow capped peaks in the distance,
Lumine wished desperately that she had a pyro vision. Or had even prepared a bit better, perhaps
with a heavier jacket and some mittens.
“So, Teuc,” she caught his attention with a mumble, leaning on the side of the boat and squinting
at the land on the far horizon, “what kind of monsters live here?”
He gave her a curious glance, “I don’t know, why?”
“I would like to attack something.”
“Are you frustrated, Miss Lumine?”
Yes. She was cold and angry, she was cursing her own impulsiveness. She had not prepared
enough for Snezhnaya, and she spent all of her mora bribing this crew to let her ride along. In her
opinion, these sacrifices were for a good cause, though she knew that if Aether was here he would
lecture her about the importance of impulse control.
The only good thing to come of the impulsive decision was the time it gave Lumine to think of
her brother.
She thought of Aether daily, yet had been far too distracted as of late by Childe and Teucer. That
had to be the main goal of this journey - getting Childe off her mind and out of her life would free
up her attention towards finding her brother.
Aether would love Snezhnaya. He loved the cold, the mountains and the fresh air. In other
worlds, he would drag her along to camp out in the middle of a blizzard. Perhaps, even, he was in
Snezhnaya now, roasting fish over a fire and living in a cozy cabin in the woods.
She needed him back. She needed her brother to be the smart one, to keep her out of trouble, and
keep her from falling in love with omens of ill will and death personified. She needed him to hold
her, to brush back her hair and tell her that it’ll be okay - that she’ll never fall from those heights
again, she’ll never fumble about aimlessly, feeling sorry for herself.
He needed him to tell her that she could wake up in the morning, and have a family. She could
wake up with the assurance that they were there, waiting for her.
“I guess you could say that,” Lumine sighed. Another puff of steam twisted in front of her face, “I
feel like the only time I can really think clearly is when I’m fighting.”
He smiled up at her, the only sunshine in this cold terrain. “You and big brother are so alike. No
wonder you’ll be sharing food forever.”
She ruffled his hair and ignored the flip of her heart, “I wouldn’t get my hopes up about that, if I
were you. Your brother and I are from different toy companies, remember? We’re enemies.”
“Well I forgive you, and so should he!”
Teucer was far too sweet. It would hurt to have him despise her by the end of this endeavor, but it
was a sacrifice she needed to make. “I don’t know about that…”
Paimon stuck out her head once more, “Paimon thinks that Childe and Lumine should just solve
their problems with an arm wrestling match. That’s how they did it in the good old days!”
Lumine stiffened, “N-No… I would like that too much.”
She’d spent the last week arm wrestling and betting with the various sailors aboard the ship.
Lumine truly enjoyed beating grown men at their own games and seeing the fear in their eyes as
she passed. It would be even better if it was Childe, though she had a feeling that her inner
hormonal demon would want to crush him in far more destructive ways.
Hopefully, his mother would hate that about her. She would recognize that this girl is a sadist, and
demand that her son never speak to her again!
“I have a list of what I would like to do when we arrive-“
Teucer gasped, interrupting, “Which will be in just a few minutes! There’s the coastline right
there!”
She looked up to watch the sheets of ice float by peacefully. Smaller row-boats filled with heavily
dressed men roamed the waters as they used long poles to push the ice aside. The water was
choppy and angry, colored grey, crashing onto the shore with destructive tides.
“Is it about to storm?” Paimon peered at the sky, “The sky is really dark, and the tide looks like
it’s rising.”
Teucer shook his head, “Nope, this is just how it always is. Wet and cold, home sweet home!”
Lumine’s hair was beginning to freeze with the constant spray of salt water and drizzle. It didn’t
dare to rain, but the snow brought by the cold wind felt like mist against her cheeks. She was sure
her hair would be something akin to a wavy bird's nest by the time the steamboat docked.
And, she was cold. Paimon was a floating heater, but she didn’t cover much space. Lumine
wrapped her arms around the pixie and held her to her chest like a doll, “We’re almost there.
Hopefully everything will go according to plan.”
“What’s the plan?” Paimon whispered and glanced up at her.
In between arm wrestling sailors, faking a Snezhnayan accent, playing poker, and baby sitting
Teucer, Lumine had taken some time to meditate upon her agenda. She would stay as long as it
took - Inazuma was still closed, unfortunately - to make his family despise her.
Whispering so Teucer would not hear, she explained, “I don’t think I can stand being just
completely rude, but I’m hoping to cause massive amounts of grief. I’ll be so annoying that they
won’t be able to stand me. So, first, I’ll go fight a lawachurl and drag it into town.”
“Oooh, good start!”
“Thank you,” she grinned, “then I’ll use windblade to blow all the fish out of a lake.”
“Sounds fun!”
“And then, I’ll cause a riot in the market!”
“Wow!”
“And after that, ” she took a deep breath, “the seeds of destruction will be sown. I’ll be a total
suck up to his mother and sisters and get them to despise me, I’ll be passive aggressive and petty,
I’ll make messes in the kitchen and never clean it up!”
She gasped, “Y-You villain!”
“It’s fool-proof,” Lumine nodded, “Zhongli told me so, and I think he’s right. One of the most
effective ways to despise a man is to get close to his family. Nothing’s better at ruining a
relationship than a hateful mother in law,”
And, perhaps, she would be a hateful person naturally. Lumine wasn’t sure what to expect from
someone who raised Tartaglia. She was hoping to gather insight into why he is the way he is - a
perfect, wonderful, destructive force that she desperately wanted to punch.
The steamboat rolled into it’s fitted place at the harbor. The water was far different from Liyue, or
even Mondstadt. Lumine leaned over the edge and watched the waves pummel the side of the ship,
“I guess you guys don’t really have beach days here, huh?”
Teucer tilted his head, “What’s a beach day? Like, a day at the beach?”
“Well… Yes,” how to answer something known to children even younger than him, “the beach is
really pretty here, at least, the sand is all white.”
“That’s snow, Miss Lumi.”
“...Oh.”
It did look like sand, dunes upon rolling dunes of it. As she peered closer, there was a difference
in color between the white of the snow and the dark brown of the sand where the tides came in.
She jumped at the sound of another crack of ice upon the water, and the deafening horn of the boat
as it docked.
The crew was looking to set anchor rather quickly, as Morepesok wasn’t their actual destination.
Childe had paid them enough to stop in the small village on their way to the larger city down the
shoreline. The boat lurched as the anchor found it’s grounding beneath the water. Teucer gripped
Lumine’s waist and buried his face into her stomach, “Hold on! It’s always hardest when the boat
stops!”
That was the downside to these steamboats, she supposed. There was nothing pleasant about
them, they were cold and metallic and unwelcoming. Even anchoring was uncomfortable.
Crewmen called out for the boarding ramp to be taken out, and quickly ushered Lumine and Teucer
towards the exit.
Holding Paimon to her chest like a doll with one arm, and holding Teucer’s hand with the other,
she allowed him to lead her down the thin ramp to the pier below. Unlike in Liyue, all of the other
docked ships matched their’s on sheer size and environmental pollution. If there was a sun in
Snezhnaya, she was sure it would be blotted out by the smoke from the ships.
Lumine was not dressed for this weather. On the ground, the wind was not nearly as biting, but
still enough to make her instantly begin shivering. Teucer pulled his hat over his face and closed
his coat shut as if he was entirely accustomed to a constant barrage of snow on his cheeks, “Come
on, I’ll take you right home so mama can lend you a coat.”
“T-That would be much appreciated, thank you.”
Paimon gripped the sides of Lumine’s cloak and wrapped it further around herself. Moving
quickly, she wiggled out of the confines of her arm and moved to wrap her limbs around her waist,
she was far better shielded from the wind down there. “O-Once Paimon sees the town, Paimon’s
totally leaving! Last time Paimon went to Snezhnaya she was nearly swallowed by a giant fish!
So… not very good memories here…”
“Aw,” Lumine rustled her hair as she followed Teucer down the pier, “I won’t let you get eaten
by a giant fish this time, no worries.”
Teucer glanced over his shoulder, “Your toy just might, Miss Lumi, the fish here are pretty big.”
“Paimon’s not a toy! How many times does Paimon have to tell you, kid?”
“So cool,” he whispered, “why don’t any of my toys talk?”
“Because Paimon’s not a toy!”
Lumine ignored the one sided argument in favor of inspecting the village ahead. It was a short
walk from the shoreline to the buildings. She was eager to get away from the frozen ocean and
bustle of smoky ships. Teucer led her along the frost tipped gravel pathway, up the hill and towards
the first smattering of shops. It was almost a hike - if she did not watch where she stepped she
would have a face full of very cold rocks.
“So, this is where Ajax grew up?”
“Yes, our family’s been here for a while,” he explained, “there’s my school up ahead, and right
beside that is where I go get snacks after lunch.”
Nearly every home was in the shape of an A, half buried into the ground and covered with a thick
blanket of snow. The buildings were close together like Mondstadt’s, but the shapes were far
different. She could not find one balcony, or open window, or flat surface for snow to build upon.
It was interesting that the architecture changed depending on the weather. She knew that it was not
evening yet, but the sky was already darkening.
Teucer walked through the streets as if he owned them. Nobody paid them much mind, other than
to cast odd looks towards the girl in the light summer dress and flimsy cloak. Paimon snuggled out
from behind her waist, “Are you nervous, Lumi?”
Incredibly so. She preferred to make friends with the world, not enemies. This was only done out
of complete necessity, and she would regret every moment of utter rudeness to this family.
“I’m fine,” a fake smile and another shiver, “let’s just keep moving so we don’t freeze.”
“Lumi… you’re meeting your weirdo soulmate’s parents! You have to be at least a little
nervous!”
The entire situation was odd. She grimaced at Paimon’s choice of words - they’d had the
agreement to never refer to Childe as her soulmate again. “I think I’d be more nervous if he was
actually here with me. Since he’s not, there’s not much pressure. Besides, we’re just friends. It’s
like, I don’t know, visiting your friend’s parent’s house while traveling just so you don’t have to
spend mora on a hotel room.”
Except that she didn’t really consider him a friend. And she had kissed him with the full intent to
undress him in a moment of extreme weakness on her part . And he used a power that nearly killed
him because he would rather hurt himself than let Teucer’s dreams be shattered. But it was fine, all
was well, Lumine was self assured that she would never let her self control slip like that again.
Paimon cast her a skeptical glance. She was not there for the kiss - thank goodness for her utter
disgust at the constant tension between Childe and Lumine - but she was aware of past kisses.
Paimon was meant to be her impulse control, and Lumine had completely overridden each and
every one of her attempts to do so.
So, she gave up. Go ahead to Snezhnaya, what does Paimon care? She was simply hoping to
avoid being nearly eaten by a leviathan again.
“Come on,” Teucer strode faster in excitement, turning back to grab Lumine’s hand and pull her
along, “our house is over there! It’s on the edge of town, big brother chose this one because he
knew papa liked his privacy.”
That was considerate of him. A house in the woods was far better than the apartments all squished
together. They took a turn to avoid the crowded market square, though the smell of roasted meats
and hot soup made Lumine’s stomach growl. She had to focus, she was hoping to meet his family,
carry out the plan, and be back in Liyue by the end of this week.
The trees grew taller the further Teucer led her. Everything was a rich dark green, and seemingly
very spiky. Leaves and sticks were preserved in cases of ice on the ground, crunching satisfyingly
underneath her feet.
“Papa says that this hasn’t always been our house. I’m a little too young to remember the old
one,” he spoke as he walked, “but it’s apparently on the other end of town. Anthon once took me
there and it was kinda spooky, like all dusty and half torn down.”
“But now you live here?”
“Yep! Just a little bit longer!”
It was odd to think of Childe being a normal person at some point. It was always surprising when
he did something human, like brushing his teeth or coughing. There were these flashes of Ajax,
who he was and used to be, buried so deeply underneath Tartaglia. The image of Childe living in a
worn down little cabin as a kid stuck in her mind alongside the image of him literally house
shopping. “When did he buy this place?”
“Oh, it wasn’t bought. Big brother helped build it a few years ago.”
Oh dear Archons. This conversation needed to end before her heart started palpitating right out of
her chest. He helped build his parents new house.
Stupid, annoying, vexatious dirt mound of a man. Lumine took a deep breath; focus and stay
determined, she was here for a reason. She couldn’t let the sweet stories overpower the disgusting
ones.
It would be far easier if only the house was ugly.
But of course, because the universe hated Lumine, it was beautiful. Most of the roof was a
collection of A-frames and slopes, with large windows that allow light to shine into the rooms.
Lumine’s favorite part had to be the wrap-around porch, complete with the built in swings and
winter ivy growing along the railing.
Standing on the front porch of one the most beautiful houses she’d ever seen, was one of the most
beautiful women she’d ever seen.
And she looked very, very angry.

“Teucer Yakovlevich Alekseev.”
A feeling of doom settled over Lumine and Paimon like a suffocating heat. This was the
apocalypse. This was the end of all humanity reflected in this woman’s eyes. Lumine paused,
frozen, staring in horror at the matriarch.
Unaffected, Teucer opened his arms for a hug, “Mama! I’m safe and sound!”
“Not for long, my boy.”
The threat crawled under her skin and settled in her stomach. She could not remember her own
mother, but she heard legend of the power a mother’s anger held. She attempted to stay quiet while
Teucer dug his toe into the snow and tried to look humble, “Sorry mama…”
Yet, despite the harsh tone and the cold beauty of this middle aged woman, Lumine’s mind
wandered elsewhere.
Childe’s last name was Alekseev?
Ajax Alekseev. Ajax. Alekseev. Emphasis on the accent, the lilt of the L, the twist of the tongue
in a Snezhnayan tone. Ajax Alekseev.
...Lumine Victoria Alekseev?
“Um, excuse me,” she raised a hand and flinched beneath her glare, “I’m sorry to interrupt your
lecture, I’m sure it’ll be scathing, but I was just wondering what Ajax’s middle name is?”
The matriarch stared her down as if to ask ‘who is this bug and how does it know the 11th
Harbinger’s real name?’ Scowling, she spat out, “Matvey.”
Ajax Matvey Alekseev. Lumine Victoria Alekseev.

“Lumi, you’re blushing.” Paimon whispered.
She was into action as quickly as her frozen limbs would allow. Bowing in apology as she would
in Liyue, Lumine hid her face and stared at the snow instead, “I-I’m sorry to interrupt, or to drop by
uninvited! I’m just a friend of Teucer’s!”
On cue, he took her hand, “Yes mama, she’s my girlfriend.”
“You’re back to the girlfriend thing?” Paimon rolled her eyes, “Paimon thought you dropped that
days ago!”
Pointedly ignored. As if he didn’t even hear her, Teucer kept up his innocent smile. “But
truthfully, I think big brother likes her too.”
She raised a slim brow, “Eh! Sacha? He likes anything that breathes.”
“No, Ajax!”
The matriarch stared. She was cold and demanding, pale as if she’d rarely seen the sun. Her hair
was like a blanket of platinum blonde mixed with starlight grey. Slowly, but surely, like the
warmth of a fire in a blizzard, a smile grew to her lips.
The cold was replaced with an affectionate giggle as she put a hand to her mouth, “Are you
Lumine?”
She stood to attention, “Yes ma’am!”
“Come in, come in! You look like you’re about to freeze- Teucer, you’re grounded by the way,”
the smile fell instantly, “Go tell your father that you’re home, and he’ll decide what to do with
you.”
“But-
“Now, little monster.”
He hung his head, “Y-Yes ma’am…”
As much pity as Lumine felt for him, she had a feeling that he deserved it. Leaving the country
without saying anything to one’s parents would warrant a grounding, Klee had been put in solitary
confinement for far less.
“My name is Eva,” she stepped down the stairs and took her hand, “I’ve heard so much about
you. You’re just as beautiful as Jaxie said you were.”
The implication that Childe had rambled to his mother about her was entirely shadowed by the
fact that she called him Jaxie.
Jaxie Matvey Alekseev.
Lumine followed Eva inside the house. She was so much taller, moving gracefully through the
doors and to the fireplace at the head of the living room. Childe was right, it was wall to wall with
toys for kids of all ages. Eva carefully pushed aside a set of building blocks with her foot, “Sorry
for the mess, I’ve got four grandchildren as well as Ajax’s little siblings. It gets a bit messy.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s messy,” Lumine put her hands out to the fire, with Paimon snuggling out from
underneath her cloak to warm herself, “it just looks lived in.”
It was homey and comfortable. The couches were covered with pillows and blankets, while the
smell of salted meat drifted from the kitchen. Upon contact with the warmth of the fireplace, all
Lumine wanted to do was take a nap.
“You’re too sweet,” Eva squeezed her hand with a smile, “Let me go tell my husband and the
rascals that you’re here. I insist that you stay for as long as you like, I’ve been waiting to meet
you.”
She had been waiting to meet her. Just how much had Childe told his mother about her? As Eva
took the stairs and called to the rest of the family, nervousness settled into her stomach. She’d done
nothing so far to create a divide.
Where to start?
Paimon was paler than usual, blending in with the white of her hair. “P-Paimon’s still too cold,
she thinks s-she might go for a while…”
“No!” Lumine gasped, “I need you!”
“You need Paimon? You never need Paimon!”
The pixie didn’t even look skeptical, simply confused. And while that was true - Paimon couldn’t
even hold a small dagger without falling to the ground - the high pitched screeches of a floating elf
could be quite useful in certain situations.
“I need you to help me annoy them all to death,” Lumine was hissing under her breath, listening
to the sounds of children yelling for joy upstairs and racing across the floor, “I want Childe’s
family to hate me so much that they beg him to not love me.”
“Right, right,” she waved a casual hand, “Paimon’s heard this all week. Lumi wants to make
enemies of the loser Harbinger’s family so she can finally see him for what he is - a festering
wound upon the free world.”
A festering wound upon the free world had helped build this house for parents. This beautiful
house, with walls covered in papers drawn on by children, with a kitchen that smelled divine, with
a couch perfect for snuggling on. She could not get caught up on the house when she had not even
heard his embarrassing baby stories quite yet. Reminding herself of the reality of the circumstances
at hand, she patted Paimon’s head and smiled, “Yes. Now, help me be annoying.”
“Paimon is never annoying!”
“Sure.”
“Hey! Be nice to Paimon!”

She would not if she could help it. Lumine turned around to face the sound of little feet stomping
down a staircase. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized that this was it, this was Childe’s family.
And, as his soulmate who was professionally in denial, she was in the one place in the world she
probably should not be.
It was the lion’s den.
The first sibling to appear was a girl, brown haired and petite, gripping the corner of the wall with
wide eyes and parted lips. She looked to be around 10 or 11, a gangly little thing with freckles
darker than even Teucer’s. “Y-You…”
Lumine and Paimon both waved awkwardly, “Uh, hello.”
Behind the girl, her older brother followed. He was far less excited, and wearing the grumpy
frown of a pre-teen. He, too, had the freckles, though his hair was a touch redder than his sister’s.
As he stopped behind her, he froze, “Y-You…”
Was that all they knew how to say? Lumine pointed to herself and laughed awkwardly, “Me?”
This was like a terrible theater play introducing each new character in the oddest of ways
possible. Behind the brother, came Teucer, who grinned wildly, holding the miniature Mister
Cyclops to his chest. “Hey you!”
Another you. Was this a cultural greeting that she missed? After Teucer, had to be the father. He,
too, was freckled and auburn-haired, tall like Childe, with laugh lines around his mouth. He froze
in the same way that his children did, “You…”
She let out a very intelligent sounding ‘uhhh’.
It all crashed down at once. The crack in the dam finally shattered, the split tree finally fell. The
floodgates opened and Lumine was caught in the waves. She didn’t even like swimming.
“You look like a princess! My name is Tonia, can I brush your hair?”
“A-Ajax has good taste,” the brother now, blushing and avoiding her eyes, “My name is Anthon.
Do you like stroganoff?”
What was a stroganoff? The father was now approaching her as if she was a wild animal, “The
legends are true. You’re as beautiful as he said.”
“L-Legends?”
Eva swatted her husband over the head, “Shut up! Everybody be quiet, stop crowding the poor girl
and her weird floating thing!”
The weird floating thing put her hands on her hips and huffed, “Paimon is not weird!”
“Okay, fine, stop crowding Lumine and Paimon. Archons,” she was nearly growling at the
children and her child-like husband, “it’s like herding cats with you four.”
It sort of was. Anthon would be the grumpiest cat she’d ever seen, and the little sister the most
affectionate. Lumine giggled as she took her hand and whispered, “My name is Tonia, can I please
brush your hair?”
Lumine whispered back in a conspirative tone, “Yes, only if I can brush yours too.”
The father straightened up to lean into his wife. She grumbled as he wrapped an affectionate arm
around her waist and pulled her in, “My name is Michial, but you can call me father, or papa, or
papa in law, or-”
“Idiot!” Eva pounded a fist onto his chest, “there’s no ring on her finger yet! He’s probably going
to ask for babushka’s, the one with the pearls and the pretty diamond in the middle.”
Tonia gasped, “Oh, it would look beautiful on Miss Lumine!”
Anthon glanced away in red-cheeked embarrassment, “I think he should buy her a new ring, that
thing is so old.”
“But it’s heritage, family tradition! And big brother Pavol passed it up already!”
Michial ignored the arguing of his children, instead tilting his head at Lumine in a very Childe-
like manner. It was the spark in his eye, the curious flicker and subtle way he assessed her. She
flinched underneath his gaze - it was obvious that the family was all related. The freckles and
analytical looks, the cool-toned skin and high cheekbones. If Teucer was the mini version of
Childe, then Childe was the mini version of his father, with just a touch of his mother’s sly grins
and straight nose.
“So,” all eyes landed on her as Michial spoke, “where’s Jax?”
Jax. That was another good nickname, she’d have to call him that to catch him off guard.
Paimon elbowed Lumine’s shoulder and sent her a look. The thought that passed between them
was obvious, this was her first opportunity, her first strike, her first blow at the heart of this
incredibly vexatious problem.
“I ditched him in Liyue.”
So simple an answer, so complicated a situation. She wanted to make enemies, but never ruin
their lives. She wasn’t sure what they knew of his line of work.
Silence fell for half a second. It was inquisitive, curious, but not at all tense. She could have
sighed in relief as she registered the amusement in his parent’s eyes. His father was the first to
speak, “Good job, that boy needs to be ditched sometimes.”
Lumine agreed, though she wished he would at least be a little angry about her ditching his son in
a foreign country. “Um, I didn’t tell him I was coming here either.”
“Good!” Eva put a fist in her hand, “He needs a girl who’s independent.”
Paimon laughed before disappearing into a flicker of constellations. Lumine gasped, “P-Paimon,
no!” Groaning, and with a heavy heart, she sighed and avoided the eyes of Childe’s family staring
her down, “She always abandons me when I need her the most… Ugh, listen, I’m going to be
honest. I’m not dating your son, I just came here because Teucer wanted me to, and I wanted some
embarrassing stories to hold against him.”
“So,” the older brother cast her a casual glance, “you’re dating him?”
“I… just said that I wasn’t…”
“That’s how mama and papa dated!”
Eva sighed and ignored Lumine’s sudden wave of shock. She leaned into her husband, snuggling
closer to his arm as he smiled down at her. “Well, that story should be saved for later. But more
succinctly, Michial kept asking me to marry him, you see. I was in denial and kept saying no, but
he won my heart over a very intense battle one day. We were like a storybook,” she giggled, “he
was the star of the adventurers guild, I was a treasure hoarder. I stabbed him in the liver, he broke
my leg. It was pure romance.”
She could not believe this. She could not believe the story, nor the words, nor the sounds, nor the
home she was in. She could not believe the smile on Eva’s face, or the pride in Michial’s eyes that
looked so much like Childe’s. All she wanted to do was vomit.
“I despise your son. I tried to kill him.”
Eva laughed and waved a hand, “Join the club.”
Join the club?
What club? She genuinely wanted to join. “I really don’t think I should overstay my welcome,”
Lumine took one step towards the exit, “I just wanted to make sure that Teucer got home safe.”
With her one step, the family unit followed. Yet another, Lumine attempting to retreat, and
immediately parried by five pairs of blue eyes filling the gap. “Please, please stay,” Tonia clasped
her hands together, “I wanna hear stories about my big brother!”
“I-I don’t think you wanna hear our stories-”

Michial interrupted with a shining smile, “And we can share stories with you as well!”
“I’m sure you can, but now that I’m actually here and meeting you all, I-I find myself a bit-”
“Things not going according to plan, eh?” Eva had a sly sparkle in her eye, “What were you
expecting, Miss Lumine? Ajax may be a trouble maker, but he’s a good boy still. He’s told us all
about you.”
Teucer interrupted before Lumine could process her words. “Right! That’s why I trusted you
when we met in Liyue, I recognized you from the description in big brother’s letters!”
Just how descriptive was Childe? What exactly had he mentioned before? Lumine’s tongue was
absolutely tied. “W-What did he say about me?”
She wasn’t sure why she was asking - it would do her no good in the end. Tonia jumped to
attention, “He wrote us all long letters about you! I can show you, if you want.”
“I don’t know if he would want me to read his letters,” he wouldn’t want her to ditch him in
Liyue, fight him for the gnosis, or pretty much anything else she’d ever done. Since when did
Lumine do what Childe wanted? She brushed the thought away with a smile, “But I guess it
wouldn’t hurt. I just don’t want to overextend my welcome here.”
“No, no! You’re always welcome! Ajax doesn’t really have friends, you know, so we’re just
happy that you’re here. You can stay as long as you like.” Michial spoke so casually about
something so sad, exactly how Childe always did.
“And I told mama I would try my hand at stroganoff tonight,” Anthon interjected, “I’d like you to
be the taste tester, Miss Lumi.”
The smell wafting in from the kitchen was far better than any of the boat food. She felt as if she
hadn’t had a good meal in forever. “W-Well… I guess I do need to feed Paimon at some point.”
“So, you’ll stay for dinner?”

“Sure… Only if we stop making jokes about me dating Ajax.”
“Deal,” Tonia spoke up, “And you’ll stay forever, right?”
The lion’s den would allow no survivors. And Lumine had willingly jumped into it. “Um,
probably not. Sorry.”
“Oh, she’ll stay,” Eva had a mischievous sparkle in her eye, “don’t worry about that right now,
Lumine. You just sit down and get yourself warmed up.”
Liyue
This breeze was far too warm. Liyue was far too stuffy, and far too ugly, and far too Lumine-less.
“Have you found the traveler yet?”
“No, Lord Harbinger.”
Childe grimaced at the expanse below. His soldiers had only covered about half of Liyue this
week, and there was still no sign of the golden haired girl. “Then what are you doing reporting to
me? Go find her.”
“Sir…” the anemo boxer’s distorted voice was only an annoyance, grating on Childe’s already
frazzled nerves, “It has only been four days since her disappearance, if the rumors I’ve heard of the
traveler are true, she’s quite prone to disappearing like th-”
“Are you questioning me?”
“N-No! I would never! I apologize for my impertinence!”
He was glowering, now. He was acting like Scaramouche, torturing the poor recruits for
circumstances they could not change.
“I could throw you off this cliff right now, soldier. Fortunately for you, I’m in a good mood,”
Childe turned back around to glare at the Liyue landscape below, “find the traveler, and you won’t
be dishonorably discharged.”
“Y-Yes sir!”
The plan to ruin Childe forever in Lumine’s mind had resumed. She got to work after three bowls
of beef stroganoff and a glass of red wine.
“I promise our stories aren’t very funny.“
“Yeah,” Paimon interrupted, “Lumi and your son mainly just argue all the time. It’s actually
really tiring.”
She giggled over the rim of her glass, “I do remember when our arguing got so bad that you
ditched me to travel to Liyue with Grandpa Zhongli.”
“Paimon was getting migraines! And you weren’t arguing then, you were flirting.”
Eva and Tonia gasped across the living room table, “Flirting?”
“Not in the least,” she huffed, “ignore the emergency food, she’s drunk. I guess there are a few
good stories though, we once tried to kill each other because I gave him the silent treatment and he
got frustrated.” And they kissed, and they fought some more, and they separated after a heavy
conversation about moral duties. The memory was tiring.
His father only laughed into his cup, leaning back on the couch and wrapping an arm around Eva.
“Sounds romantic. He takes so much after his mother.”
A chorus of nods and familial laughter. Teucer was asleep beside her with his head in her lap,
while Paimon continued snacking at the arm of the chair.
And nothing she said worked.
“Well, he’s kind of pitiful, actually,” Lumine wanted to be mean, insulting enough to offend
them, “he can’t even use chopsticks correctly.”
Anthon snorted from his spot in the corner, “Yeah it’s pretty pitiful, have you seen how he shoots
a bow?”
Eva stifled a mocking laugh, “Or how he never brushes his hair?”
Tonia frowned, “Well I think big brother is cool! Even if he does suck at board games!”
“He’s cool…” Michial reasoned now, “though he still didn’t learn how to tie his shoes until he
was 15. Nothing he does can top that.”
Plan A: Make fun of Ajax, Failed. Lumine could only force a laugh though the settling dread.
It was growing dark outside, and far colder with each passing minute. Lumine continued to stroke
Teucer’s hair - ignoring the drool on her thigh from his mouth - and glanced out the window. As
the chorus of laughter died, she stared at what looked like a raging blizzard, “Is it always this
cold?”
“Yes,” Eva snorted, “but the weather gets worse at night. It should clear up by morning.”
It was already night, she’d spent most of the day swapping dumb stories with Childe’s family -
and eating stroganoff.
“I should get going,” she pulled Paimon away from her fifth plate of food, “I’ll go find a hotel in
town.”
“Oh, there aren’t any.”
She wasn’t sure she heard that right. “...Excuse me?”
“There are no inns. You’re staying here.”
You’re staying here. Eva said it like she was her jailer. Michial didn’t even flinch at his wife’s
bluntness.
“I-I couldn’t,” nervous, Lumine put up a hand, “I don’t want to impose.”
It had to be the fifth or sixth time she’d said something along those lines. And each time she was
met with a chorus of arguments. Tonia jumped off the couch and clenched her fists, “You have to
stay! I have a whole day planned for tomorrow! We’ll wake up early, I’ll brush your hair and you
can borrow one of my jackets. Then we’ll go visit big sister Anastasia, and go shopping!”
Jackets and shopping, having her hair brushed and getting free breakfast in a beautiful home. And
Tonia was so sweet, Lumine wouldn’t mind babysitting her either. If only she wasn’t the 11th
Harbinger’s cute little sister, this would be so much easier to handle. More dread, and another
inkling at what to do about Plan B.
Plan B: Cause massive amounts of chaos in Morepesok tomorrow. It was an idea, at least.
“You can stay in Ajax’s room, it’s clean and the bed is comfortable,” Eva stood up, “I’ll show
you there.”
Both Lumine and Paimon gasped in shock. “P-Paimon’s just gonna go again! She doesn’t wanna
see that weirdos room, who knows what’s in there?”
Lumine grimaced, “Probably shrunken heads… And lots of weapons…” And more of those weird
Snezhnayan candies she found in his drawer at the bank, and mysterious blood stains.
Eva winked, “The heads aren’t that shrunken, come on. Follow me.”
Hesitantly, Lumine nudged Teucer away while Paimon twirled and disappeared. Tonia and
Anthon got to cleaning up the dishes - apparently, they only did so because of her presence - as
Childe’s mother led her down the hallway.
That had to be the weirdest thing about these circumstances. She was walking behind a Fatui
Harbinger’s mother, going to his bedroom, about to sleep in his bed. She was about to see a side of
him that hardly anybody else had ever seen.
As they neared the door, his mother turned around to face her. She pursed her lips, the look in her
eyes stopping Lumine in her tracks. There was yet another feeling of uneasy suspicion settling into
her stomach. “Are you okay?”
“I am,” she smiled and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, “I just wanted to let you know that
we all appreciate you. Jaxie didn’t have many friends as a kid.”
So she’d heard. “Has he always been, uh… you know?”
“A thrill seeking disturbance of the peace?”
“Yes, that’s one way to put it.”
“No, he hasn’t,” another sigh, her hand resting on the doorknob as she looked anywhere besides
the traveler, “but it feels like he always has, it was so long ago that he had a change of heart and
became battle obsessed. I just remember when he was my little boy, he’d hang onto the back of my
coat and get so shy every time someone even looked at him.”
She couldn’t imagine Childe ever being shy. Lumine couldn’t help but smile at the thought,
“Maybe he’s still shy, and his whole Harbinger thing is compensation?”
“No, Lumi, It’s real. It’s very real.“
He did almost kill her months ago in the Golden House. And he did turn into a very tall monster-
type-thing with nice hair on occasion. There never seemed to be a time when Childe didn’t enjoy
being ‘kind of a bad guy.’
But it was the fact that here was his mother, the woman who raised him, looked at her as if she
was about to drop to her knees and plead for release from some personal hell.
Quiet settled between them. Slowly, Eva turned back to the door and pushed it open. With a
heavy sigh and a shake of her head, she stepped aside to show her the room, “So, he doesn’t stay
for very long when he’s here, but I try to keep the dust out. If you need a fire there should be wood
and kindling in the corner.”
Every room in this house seemed to have a fireplace, Lumine supposed that it was necessary. She
stepped inside, her heart skipping a beat while she took in the bedroom of a Fatui Harbinger. “It’s
uh… it looks normal.”
A neatly made bed, dark curtains, a fireplace. There were several weapons, though they looked to
be antiques - and strategically placed where Teucer could not reach. Lumine was drawn to the
writing desk and bookcases, though any important documents had been cleared out with his
absence. As she trailed a finger across the wood of the desk, she imagined Childe sitting there late
at night, reading letters by candlelight and doing paperwork - she wouldn’t be able to sit on this
desk as easily as the one at Northland Bank.
“Lumine,” Eva caught her attention with a clearing of her throat. She twiddled her fingers as if
nervous, “I know we didn’t get a chance to look at the letters tonight like Tonia wanted to, but
there is something I’d like you to think about before you fall asleep.”
She glanced up from the bookshelf, “What is it?”

“Well… I suppose I’m really asking for you to meditate on this, if you will.”
Lumine didn’t meditate. She dove head first into things like a real warrior should. The only thing
she meditated on was what to order from a restaurant.
Eva went on, speaking slowly, “In his letter- well, it wasn’t just his letter, he told me in person
that he’d be happy with you. But I remember he wrote this beautiful letter to Teucer and Tonia, a-
and he said… Well, frankly, he said that if he could, he’d quit his job and travel with you.”
It was unlike his mother to be so anxious, and it was unlike Lumine to be so taken aback. Rarely
was she caught off guard by another’s words. Her stomach began to churn as she processed what
Eva said.
Childe would quit his job and travel with her, if he ever could. It didn’t mean he was about to do
so, it just meant he had thought about it, at least a little. At least enough to send the idea in a letter
to his little siblings.
Eva looked as if she might cry. It had to be difficult to have a Harbinger for a son.
“That’s…” Lumine plopped down on the edge of the bed and stared at the floor, “that’s nice.
Thank you for telling me.”
He won’t be Fatui forever. And he despises that.
She had forgotten to find the fortune teller before she left Liyue. It was yet another reason to
curse her impulsiveness.
“What I’m trying to say is,” Eva spread her hands and exhaled, “If you and Jaxie get together,
he’d finally quit that job. He’d finally have something better to fight for. I’d finally be able to sleep
at night without worrying that he was being maimed by something, or stabbed in the back, or
assassinated, or whatever! I’m just… Lumine, do you understand what I’m saying?”
Not in the least. His bedroom smelled like the sea and it was upsetting her stomach.
“I don’t think I can understand that kind of thing until I’m in a situation like that.”
“Okay, well,” she nodded slowly, “I’ll just get to the point, then, since you’re staring at me so
blankly. I probably scared you.”
She did. Lumine was not about to admit that.
“Miss Lumi, I would like you to be with my son.”
And it all came crashing down, like an avalanche dancing it’s way down the side of a mountain.
Lumine did not notice that her blank stare turned into a glare. She didn’t notice that she dug her
fingernails into her palms, or that she could not bear to look in Eva’s eyes.
All she could do was ignore the nervous sinking feeling in her chest. “Tartaglia’s not my
responsibility. It’s not my job to fix him. Why should I have to bear the burden of saving your son
from himself?”
“But… is it really a burden to love someone? That’s all you need to do,” she stepped forward and
held her hands, desperate, “and that is all I ask. I know that you have no obligation to do so, and I
know it’s not your responsibility, so if you refuse then… Well, I understand.”
Did she, though, could anyone understand why someone would fight so vehemently against the
stars?
“But Lumine, if you love him... all I ask is that you give him a chance to help himself.”
A silence thick as a morning fog. A deafening quiet that filled up the room. Lumine didn’t reply,
her brain felt like a scrambled egg. Slowly, Eva pushed her hair back and kissed her forehead.
“The stars have decided that we are family… And you have no idea how ready for this I am.
Lumine, we will still be here when you wake up, okay?”
It was like she read her mind. Lumine shivered beneath the affectionate kiss and closed her eyes.
“Thank you.”
A smile, a motherly giggle. Soft, smooth hands brushing tendrils of hair behind her ear, it was
what Lumine had always imagined a mother’s hands to feel like.
“Goodnight, my dear daughter.”
For what had to be the millionth time, Lumine realized, very angrily, that she was doomed.
“Tonia, you know the plan for tomorrow?”
“Yes mama.”
“Good girl,” a kiss to her forehead, tucking thick blankets up to her chin and smiling down at the
blue eyed girl below, “repeat it to me, won’t you?”
She offered a sleepy smile, “I’m going to charm and, or, guilt trip Miss Lumine into falling in
love with us and big brother Ajax.”
“Very, very good. Treat her like your favorite big sister, okay?”
“Yes, mama!”
“And be as cute as you can possibly be.”

“Of course! Miss Lumi won’t be able to resist becoming a part of our family!”
No, she would not. Eva’s diabolical plans never failed.
“Goodnight, my love. And when you awaken tomorrow, the messenger hawk carrying your letter
to Ajax should arrive by then!”
Drowsy eyes shot open at the mention of her recently scribbled letter. She had written it so
hastily, only minutes after Lumine retired to bed. “You think he’ll get it that soon?”
“Yes,” Eva stroked her cheek and smiled, “he’ll love hearing about how we met his dear friend.
Now, sleep, my love, and let your mother take care of everything.”
Childe was an absolute wreck.
“Find her. Nobody sleeps until the traveler is found.”
“Yes sir!”
“And check every crevice, every corner, every tiny little hole for her to be in. Check every ruin,”
he was spitting fire at the recruits, poison in his tone and anger in each pacing step he took, “every
single pond, drain them all! Check the mountains, the abandoned houses, the villages. I want this
entire region covered by tonight.”
A chorus of uneasy whispers. Tartaglia did not look good. He was pale, with dark circles, and a
manic look in his eyes. He could not stop pacing across the road with his hand to his mouth and his
brows furrowed, like a madman who was on the verge of something groundbreaking.
He stopped. Stiffening, he glared the soldiers down into the dirt, “Do I make myself clear?”
“Y-Yes sir!”
It had been exactly six days since he’d said goodbye to Teucer. Five days since he began the
search for Lumine. Four days since he nearly ripped apart Liyue Harbor in search of her. And three
days since he officially decided that she was either dead, or kidnapped.
Childe was not an anxious person. He didn’t bother worrying over things he could not control -
which were very few, anyhow - and he did not bother dwelling upon the past, or what the future
might hold. If the world threw something terrible his way, he would find some manner of dealing
with it that would successfully benefit him and his goals in the end. He was not familiar with
anxiety, and the sinking feelings it brought.
Tonight, he was worse than ever. He couldn’t stop moving. He couldn’t stop this feeling of
wanting to vomit. He couldn’t stop thinking about Lumine being in some comically terrible
situation, kidnapped, or hurt, or taken by someone. Perhaps she left the hotel room before he had
awakened, went for a walk and tripped, fell down a hill and broke her neck? Perhaps someone stole
her, and drowned her in a pond? Perhaps she wandered away and was brutally mugged and
murdered for the tiny amount of mora she carried.
Or, perhaps, she was still mad at him. He didn’t want to think about that either.
This madness continued. The recruits did sleep eventually, though Childe felt as if he could not.
He joined in the search on a personal level, even sending out feelers to Mondstadt to see if she had
made her way there.
Pantalone replied with a very succinct letter. It went as follows, ‘No. Do your job.’
Wonderful guy, so talkative and chatty, a real charmer.
Several of his recruits nearly lost their lives when exploring Jeuyun Karst. One nearly fell into
Chasm. Two of them were attacked by lawachurls on Cuijue Slope. And so on, and so forth. None
of these hard working men and women got a break, for none of them had found Lumine.
It was six days, 12 hours, and 43 minutes into what Childe could only assume was a stress
induced heart attack. He felt as if he was going mad. The thought of Lumine lifelessly floating
down a river somewhere would not leave his mind.
And of course, there was still the option that she was mad at him. But they kissed, they fell asleep
holding hands, she didn’t slit his throat while he slept. She couldn’t possibly still be angry.
Better to think her dead, than angry with him.
The evening turned into morning, and the messenger hawks arrived at the bank for the day.
Childe slept with his cheek on his desk and his limbs just barely recovering from the foul legacy.
“Master Childe,” Ekaterina stood in his door with a bundle of letters clutched to her chest, “the
mail came in from your family.”
He did not raise his head to greet her. He simply ran a tired hand through his hair, and sighed,
“Just throw it on the pile of paperwork.”
“Alright, sir… Would you like me to bring you some breakfast?”
“No.”
“A glass of water?”
“No.”
She sighed. First, he tortured the recruits out of frustration, and now he was torturing the recruits
out of depression. If Childe was annoying before, he was far worse now.
“Sir, allow me to get you something, at least?”

He glared at the wall with his cheek still on the desk, “...Chocolate. And dandelion wine.”
At six in the morning? “If I may, Lord Harbinger, uh… it’s not very healthy to eat and drink your
feelings away.”
That was enough to lift his head. Now, his glare was turned onto her, flat and burrowing, making
Ekaterina squirm in her spot in the doorway. “I don’t have any feelings.”
“R-Right,” she bowed her head, “of course, excuse my presumptuousness.”
“Chocolate, and dandelion wine.”
Another sigh. Another avoidance of his heavy glare. “Yes sir…”
“And lavender. I want my office to smell like it.”
“Yes sir.”
“And the kind of flowers the traveler wears in her hair. Find them, now.”
“Y-Yes sir.”
She was absolutely putting in her two weeks notice after this.
Childe found himself not caring about the wild mess of hair on his head, or the fact that the bank
was empty with how ardently he sent troops out to look for Lumine. He didn’t care about his rude
words, or the constant commands. He didn’t care about how little sleep he had gotten over the last
six days, nor what food he had eaten.
Lumine finally showed that she liked him too. She kissed him, she took care of Teucer and kept
him safe, and she even held his hand. There was something there.
Loving each other was as natural and instinctive as breathing, she just needed the time to realize
that.
He sighed and worked on opening the letter from Tonia. It was most likely a simple declaration of
Teucer’s safety, which he would appreciate to hear despite his horrendous mood. Unfolding it, he
leaned back into his chair and put his feet up on the desk to begin reading.
Dear Brother,
Teucer made it home safely! We were all very worried, but I knew that he was safe with you.
You’re lucky that I’m too smart to ever do something like that, or you’d get me and Anthon visiting
each week!
But enough of that, I have exciting news!! We have a new member of the family! You should know
her, Teucer met her in Liyue and brought her back, but she was so cold when they arrived that
mama instantly brought her home and warmed her up! She’s so beautiful Aj, she’s like a princess.
She’s got golden hair and eyes like honey, and we haven’t gotten to spend much time together yet,
but mama let me stay up late to write you this letter! I’m going shopping with her tomorrow, and
we’ll do each other’s hair, and hold hands, and be best friends! I think I’ll love having her as a
sister!
Anyway, come home soon so you can see her! Her name is Lumine, and I think you’d really like
her.
Love, Tonia
“...Oh.”
Chapter End Notes

Fun Fact: I believe Matvey means ‘Gods Gift’ which I found hilarious to assign as
Childe’s middle name, like gods gift to WHO? HOW?
Five Days Pass
"...Oh."
A beat of silence. A heavy exhale, and the crinkle of paper between gloved fingers.
"Ekaterina, cancel that wine and chocolate order. I've got somewhere to be."
Lumine understood now why Teucer was so caught up on chocolate pancakes.
“Would you like another? I made a ton so you and Paimon can eat however much you want!”
That was the path to Paimon’s hearts, an abundance of pancakes cooked to absolute perfection.
The pixie looked as if she might cry, “Y-Yes, please. Thank you, Miss Eva!”
“Miss Lumine,” Tonia held up a glass jar, “would you like some more syrup?”
“...Syrup?”
“Yes, we gather it from the trees! We stick a little thingy in the trunk, and then we filter it, and
then we process it, and then we pour tons of it on pancakes!”
Snezhnayans pour the blood of their trees upon their breakfast pastries, how interesting. Lumine
was sure she’d seen Klee do something similar before, though she was far more sticky from the
entire process than the Alekseev family was.
Teucer was eating basically only syrup. Michial had accidentally poured his coffee over his
sausage and biscuits - the pancakes were far too sweet for him this early in the morning - and
Anthon was doing an interesting mixture of sausage and pancake mush. Lumine wasn’t quite sure
where to start, Eva was not exaggerating when she said she made however much they wanted.
Paimon was in heaven. “I-If you guys need a fairy guide, or a pet, o-or a cute new sister, Paimon
is always available!”
Lumine froze mid-bite, “I thought you were my guide?”
“You don’t make Paimon chocolate pancakes! You eat dinner for breakfast like some kind of
savage!”
Leftover sweet madame was good, and she’d never complained about it before. The second
Paimon had a real breakfast made for her she became utterly spoiled.
But truthfully, so was Lumine.
It felt like the first time in ages that she had a peaceful morning. She awoke well rested,
surrounded by the smell of the ocean and evergreen mint. Teucer brought her coffee in bed. Eva
made a delicious breakfast, and the snow outside the dining room window sparkled like glitter.
Lumine had been given comfortable and warm clothes, thick socks, and Tonia brushed her hair this
morning. She managed to pull it back into a stubby ponytail, complete with a blue ribbon.
“Okay, so, the plan for today!” Michial still poked at his food despite spilling his coffee onto his
plate. He never seemed to lose his temper, “I’ll get a courier to visit everybody, and it should be
about five days of travel before they get here!”
She swallowed her bite and nodded, covering her mouth with her hand, “Yes, that’s fine! But, uh,
who is everybody?”
“Oh… you know… Pavol and his wife and kids, Anastasia and her husband and kids, Sacha and
his current fling. Including us, that should be about 17 people.”
17 people. Lumine nearly choked on her sip of coffee. There was the immediate explanation as to
why this house was so huge. When the entire family got together every extra room should be
entirely filled.
All she had was her brother, and Paimon. She was sure families weren’t usually this big. As
shocking as it was, Lumine had a feeling that it would be refreshing. A house full of laughter and
children playing sounded nice. The last time she’d done something like that was at the party for
Jean, and that was at a bar of drunken people.
“That sounds fun, but you don’t need to gather everybody just for me. Plus,” she poked at her
food and frowned, “Ajax isn’t even here.”
Eva only smiled as if she knew something Lumine didn’t - though in her defense, that was how
every one of her smiles looked. “It’s decided, this is what we’ll do! We’ll have a big bonfire party,
and there’ll be dancing and- oh, oh, Michial,” she gripped his shoulder in excitement, “we could
even invite our neighbors! Just make a whole festival out of it!”
He gasped, “That sounds great! Lumine can meet all of Ajax’s old school friends!”
Dumbfounded, Paimon snorted with a mouth-full of pancake, “That loser has friends?”
“Well, they’re not really friends, per se. They’re just peers that he had nearly maimed a few times
in the past.”
Lumine nodded in understanding, “I had some of those back home too. The first boy I ever liked
was a professional wrestler, but he’d never fight me…” Most likely because she was a five year old
girl with flowers in her hair, he had no idea she existed, and was also in his 30’s and married. But
that was besides the point.
Tonia grinned and leaned her elbows on the table, “And who do you like now, Miss Lumi?”
“This really buff geovishap I met in Liyue… He had kind eyes…”
“What does buff mean?” Teucer spoke with his mouth full, “And what’s a geovishap?”
“It’s like… like a very strong, angry lizard, kind of?”
Eva leaned over her breakfast plate to take Lumine’s cheeks into her hand. The children laughed
while she squeezed her face together, “That’s okay, I don’t judge your tastes. Just give me
grandchildren, and we’re good, okay?”
Lumine felt as if she’d had this conversation hundreds of times, and it had only been 24 hours
spent in their house so far. She sent the matriarch a look, “In my culture, we set our babies free in
the wild and they fend for themselves, oftentimes battling to the death. Only the strong survive.”
A lie, obviously. Eva gave a cat-like grin nonetheless, “Oh yeah? So do we.”
Dammit. “A-And our babies eat the rest of the family for protein.”
“Yeah? So do ours!”
“Honey,” Michial whispered, leaning in close, “I, uh, I don’t think that’s accurate. I hope our
children never eat us.”
Both women ignored him. Playful tension grew across the table, turning into something they
could cut with a knife. Lumine simply narrowed her eyes, “In my culture, it’s customary for the
wife to sacrifice her husband to the ancient gods a year after marriage.”
“That’s fine,” she narrowed her eyes, “I respect your religious practices.”
“I’ll cut out his intestines and wear them like belts.”
“Sounds fashionable.”
It did. Nevertheless, Lumine was growing frustrated. “Does nothing phase you, Mrs. Alekseev?”
Eva smiled, a slow and calculating tilt of her lips. “No, not particularly. But you can keep trying,
my dear daughter.”
She would. She underestimated just how stubborn the traveler could be.
After the unsettling stand off between two great forces of feminine rage, breakfast resumed with
uneasy small talk. Eva would be far too busy to go shopping with Lumine and Tonia. As much as
Lumine adored her, she knew that it would be a relief to escape the sly mechanisms of the
matriarch.
Until of course, an hour after breakfast and in the middle of the village, Tonia dropped her bomb.
“So, I was thinking for a wedding dress, we could do a strapless bodice, maybe with scallop
lacing? Mama’s been teaching me how to embroider, we could do flowers... “
Tonia was as clever as her mother. She assaulted Lumine in the perfect moment, the exact second
that she had a mouth full of mysterious street meat. She and Paimon were drawn to the vendor
immediately, and had been stuffing food into their mouths since.
All Lumine could offer was a muffled, ‘mmgh?’
“I think you’d look beautiful in something like an A-line,” Tonia put her hands on Lumine’s hips
with an analytical stare, “not too fluffy, but with a long train. You have a lovely waist, Miss Lumi,
if we pull that in a bit I think your boobs might look bigger.”
She wasn’t sure whether to be flattered, or insulted. It was difficult to be annoyed at Tonia’s high
pitched and rather innocent voice, though with her hands on her waist and the look in her eyes,
Lumine couldn’t help but choke on her food.
Paimon, on the other hand, was laughing, as a good friend would. “O-Oh, no Tonia! Lumi has her
wedding all figured out already! And trust me, Paimon’s tried to pick out clothes for her before,
nothing can help that chest…”
She swallowed harshly, “I will eat you.”
“Paimon isn’t food!”

“I think maybe…” Tonia was now talking to only herself, “if we get a corset, and just tighten it a
lot…”
“And I do have nice boobs, thank you very much!” Lumine glared at the pixie, putting her hands
on her chest and squeezing said area with the gusto of a woman who forgot she was in public,
surrounded by passersby, “I have the body of a Goddess!”
A man on the other side of the street whistled, “Yeah you do, baby!”
Paimon and Tonia both gasped. Lumine froze, her hands still on her chest, and her eyes wide.
A beat of silence. Anger, like a flickering flame from a match head, came to life. Slowly, Lumine
lowered her hands, and gave her best practiced glare. “Do you wanna die?”
He did, apparently. He was simply asking for it by having a face, and all. Lumine couldn't help
herself.
Besides, it was the perfect opportunity to make Eva despise her guts. Punching some dude in the
middle of the market-square was a surefire sign of an unhinged woman. It would be perfect.
Another hour later, Tonia and Lumine sat on the front porch of the Alekseev home.
Lumine desperately worked at the blood stain in her scarf, watching with dread as it turned brown
and sunk deeper into the white fabric. Paimon sat on the railing with her head shaking in
disappointment before disappearing. She’d been absolutely no help, and had provided no impulse
control whatsoever.
“Girls,” Eva leaned against the side of the house and stared, “what is this I hear about Mister Ivan
getting sent to the clinic for internal bleeding?”
The bleeding wasn’t all internal. His nose was quite busted as well. Lumine was in the process of
erasing said evidence of that from her clothing. Tonia cleared her throat and glanced at her mother,
“Lumine punched him, and then she let me kick him, b-but it was only once… And then some
other guy got excited and hit him with a steel pipe. I’m not sure who he was…”
“And then?”
Lumine sighed in defeat, “And then a fight broke out in the street. I’m not the one who caused the
internal bleeding, you know.”
“I’m sorry, mama,” Tonia whispered, “but we’re safe. That’s good, right?”
It was good, but several in the village had been injured. It was not nearly as bad as the fight Ajax
caused years ago, the one that got him finally sent to the Fatui, but there was a new hole in the side
of the tavern now, and a fire had been started on someone’s fruit stand.
It wasn’t as if Eva and Michial hadn’t been a part of their fair share of fights. Eva was known for
her uppercuts among the treasure hoarders, and Michial was rather talented with a sword. The two
had always tried to teach their children to only fight for a good reason, to protect! (Or for money,
but that was less spoken about.)
“Please tell me there was a reason why you punched him, Lumi?”
There was. She gave up on the blood stain and turned around, pulling her borrowed coat closer to
her chest and smiling. She had to smile about this, it was a very good reason, in her opinion. “He
cat called me.”
Understanding flooded Eva’s face. She sighed in relief and uncrossed her arms, “Oh, goodness,
why didn’t you just tell me earlier?”
Tonia gasped, “You’re not mad?”

“The only thing I’m mad about is having to be civil and apologize to his family,” it was exactly
where she was headed. As much as she disliked it, staying pleasant with the people of Morepesok
was a necessity with a son like Childe, “but afterwards, we can bake cookies as a celebration of
Tonia’s first street fight experience.”
Cookies as a celebration of the youngest daughter’s first street fight. Tonia had only kicked
someone once before Lumine yanked her away and dragged her back to the house. Could this
family get any better? Could Lumine be any less unfortunate to want to separate herself from them?
She smiled. Her cheeks were pink as Eva passed by and ruffled her hair. Tonia grinned at her
from her place on the porch steps.
She could get used to cookies after a fight, and the soft hands of the Alekseev matriarch. And
Snezhnaya wasn’t so bad if she just exercised, causing a battle in the village was a form of
exercise. Lumine smiled as Eva left, “Is this normal for you guys?”
“Yeah,” Tonia giggled, “The only time mama doesn’t approve is if someone is seriously hurt, or
if there’s fighting between our family. But I’m sure papa would react the same way to this. He
wouldn’t even bother apologizing to the guy’s family either.”
A father in law who respected women, with just a touch of spite and pride to spice things up a bit?
Now that Lumine dwelled on it, Childe had always shot the loud drunkards in Liyue glares as well.
When they used to be friends - that odd form of friendship that neither of them could name - if
anyone dared to look at her for longer than a second, she always noticed that Childe would tense
up, and return the stare without breaking eye contact. She’d always found it funny how
uncomfortable they got. It never occurred to her that those men would be checking her out, and he
was defending her in the most peaceful way he could stand to.
The only way Eva would be angry is if there was in-fighting with family members. Lumine could
easily abide by those rules. With a sigh, she pushed herself up, “Let’s go ahead and get started on
those cookies. I need to clear my head.”
“Oh yeah! And we can talk about the wedding dress as we bake!” Tonia followed her inside,
“Are you thinking ivory, or cream colored?”
Ivory. Lumine shook the thought aside, “None. I’m never getting married, Tonia, sorry.”
“Sure, sure… We could do a waterfall of flowers down the sides, and extra lace on the train…”
Lumine dug inside the cabinet for a stick of butter in her attempts to ignore the little girl, “And if I
ever did get married, I would like it to be in the middle of a very dangerous battle. Our swords
would cross…” she sighed dreamily, closing her eyes, “there would be adrenaline, and noise, and
the officiate would be fighting as well. He’d have us do our vows between strikes…”
“Jaxie would love that!”
He would. The realization broke Lumine from her reverie. Her eyes shot open, “No. Nevermind. I
would like a very fluffy big princess dress and a 10 hour ceremony.”
“Hm… I think he’d like that too…”
He would. He’d think it was hilarious, he’d use the 10 hour ceremony as an excuse to cause a
battle between the exhausted guests.
“Let’s change the subject,” Lumine prepared the bowls for mixing, working quickly as an excuse
to have something to do with her hands, “tell me some funny stories from when you were younger,
Tonia.”
A sly smile. An unexplainable glimmer in her eye. Tonia laughed under her breath, a sound far
too mischievous for an 11 year old girl.
She leaned against the counter, “Well, has Ajax ever told you why he keeps his hair all long and
shaggy?”
Of course she would ignore the request. Lumine rolled her eyes and dwelled on the question.
Childe’s hair wasn’t nearly as long as Zhongli’s or Diluc’s, but it was long enough to get a good
grip. It came down the back of his neck in messy flips and wild waves. Lumine bit her lip and
shook her head no.
Tonia went on with a grin, “It’s because when I was younger I wanted to learn how to braid hair,
but mama didn’t like me playing with hers, and Anastasia had already moved out, so Ajax grew his
out to let me braid it. I can get it into a dorky little half ponytail if I try hard enough.”
It was quite floppy. And he looked spectacular when the hair was out of his face, brushed back by
the wind or by water.
The thought of Childe with his hair half pulled back made her weak.
“D-Do you have any other stories?” Preferably not about her handsome older brother.
Tonia smiled in that odd way once more, “Of course! So, my big brother Sacha likes to go on
dangerous camping trips, and one time he got caught in a blizzard. Mama and papa were so
worried, so without them knowing, Ajax left to go find Sacha in the middle of the blizzard. I mean,
he did drag him home by his ankles... but he saved his life!”
Childe never talked about Sacha. She wasn’t sure if she had ever heard him tell a story about his
older brother, yet he still put his life on the line to save him.
“Do you want to hear another story?”
Lumine stirred the cookie batter and nodded in silence. She was growing weaker by the second.
“Okay so, there’s this other time that I really really wanted this book, but it wasn’t ever published
in Snezhnaya, so big brother Ajax traveled all the way to Sumaru to get it for me!”
She felt pathetic. She felt like she couldn’t think of anything besides this weird, domesticated
version of Ajax. And even aside from the domesticated version, the battle-obsessed Harbinger still
lingered. Lumine felt as if she understood him a bit better. His mother was perfectly okay with her
punching a man in the street, she was probably used to that kind of stuff. So, where was his parents'
breaking point? What would make them draw the line and announce Lumine as unfit for their son?
And would she be willing to cross that line?
She sighed, “Tonia, do all of your stories involve Ajax?”

A giggle, “When I’m talking to you they do.”
Right. Of course. Persistence and manipulation ran in the family.
“I think after the cookies are done, I’d like to drag a lawachurl into town.”
“Yeah, Ajax does that every time he visits. It’s like Morepesok tradition to hide from the half
dead lawachurl.”
Of course it was. She scowled in frustration, “Then, I’d like to blow all the fish out of the lake.”
“Oh really? That would feed the village for days!”
Could she ever win? “Fine then, tell me more stories about your family.”
“Ah,” Tonia rested her cheek in her palm, “we try to get together as much as we can. Babushka
once knitted everybody sweaters, but she was really terrible at knitting so they all fell apart.”
Lumine couldn’t remember her grandmother, she wasn’t sure if she even had one. The Alekseev
family was so huge that she wondered if any of them ever got lonely, was it even possible?
Tonia went on, “But Ajax loved his sweater so much that he still wore it even when it had a ton of
holes. Babushka would smile so big every time she saw him in it.”
He wore his grandmother’s shitty knit sweater because it made her smile. Dear Archons.
“Eh, Miss Lumine? Why are you banging your head on the counter?”
Day two and a half. Lumine slept in Childe’s room last night, and dreamt of his laughter.
He was laughing at her lack of pants on the first day of her new job, of course, but it was his
laughter in her dream nonetheless.
“I’m taking a break today!” Lumine announced to Paimon and Tonia as she sat on the living room
floor, “My main goal for the day is to help out around the house!”
And, hopefully, make an enemy of Eva.
Tonia sat behind her, on her knees and running a comb through her hair. Paimon flitted about the
kitchen while Michial emptied coffee grounds into a pour-over. Teucer, Eva, and Anthon were still
asleep upstairs.
Michial approached with two mugs of coffee. Grateful, Lumine took it and closed her eyes to
listen to Tonia’s humming behind her. “There’s not much to do around here, Lumi Lu,” that was
his favorite nickname as of late, “the rascals have school today, and I’m going fishing by the docks.
The ice is finally thick enough to stand on again.”
Lumine was mildly disgusted by the fact that she was beginning to grow accustomed to getting up
early. The sun took its sweet time to rise in Snezhnaya, and the house was still dark with the quiet
content of 5:45 a.m. She perked up mid-sip, “How are you going to fish if the water is iced over?”
“Ice fishing,” Tonia whispered, “it’s dreadful.”
Offended, Michial gasped, “It’s fun! You used to love ice fishing with your old man!”
“Yeah, when I was, like, five!”
Despite Michial looking like an older, greying, and shorter version of Childe, his personality
could not be anymore different. Lumine could easily believe that was once the star of the
Snezhnayan adventurer’s guild. He was like a middle-aged Bennett, all thumbs up and big grins.
Eva and Michial’s dynamic had been interesting to watch over the last two days. She was a cat, and
he was a dog. He kissed her on the forehead, she punched his arm. He twirled her around, she bit
him.
She could see a bit of Michial in Childe. On occasion, Childe would shoot her these looks that
made her think of a very excited puppy with a wagging tail. And he certainly got his penchant for
affection from his father. Only, Michial had vivacious gleam in his eye at all times, while his son’s
resting face was a mask of emotionless disinterest that unnerved everyone who saw.
If not for the outward resemblance, it would be difficult to guess that the two were related.
“Ajax used to fish with me,” he sighed and stared into his coffee mug, “we would talk the entire
time. I would tell him all these stories of great adventurers, and he’d get so excited… I could have
sworn that boy would be in the adventurer’s guild, rather than… Well, you know.”
Rather than a general in a religious militia that had terrible diplomacy tactics? Rather than an
omen of ill will, rather than a self proclaimed bad guy?
It was so much easier when he was simply that.
Michial went on while Tonia brushed her hair and Paimon rummaged around the kitchen, “And,
I’ll admit that I feel pretty bad about having those hopes for him. I just saw that even though he
was shy, he could be so damn brave sometimes, you know?”
“He’s still brave,” Lumine informed, “he fought me once, that takes guts.”
He laughed, “I bet. I don’t know, Lumi Lu, I just feel like if I hadn't filled his mind with all of
those stories his entire life then he wouldn’t have disappeared and gone through… whatever the
hell it was he went through.”
“Disappeared?”
Behind her, Tonia’s voice lowered to a whisper, “For three days. Nobody besides him knows
where he went, but we found him half dead in the woods, holding a hydro vision.”
Half dead in the woods, holding a vision. That, in itself, gave a clue to his experience. Nobody got
a vision from a normal adventure, he’d done something to catch the attention of the Gods.
“How old was he?”
“Only 14,” Michial grimaced, “and after that it was just constant chaos all the time. That’s why I
put him in the Fatui, I was hoping it would calm him down.”
Lumine wasn’t a parent, though she had a feeling that enrolling one’s son into the military was
not the normal, or preferred, method of calming a boy down. She looked at Michial, this middle
aged man who told dad-jokes and spent his days fishing - and he refused to meet her eyes. It was as
if he was ashamed to admit what he’d done to Ajax.
“I had no other choice, Lumi…”
And she believed him.
She offered a smile that she hoped was reassuring, “Hey, if he hadn't joined the Fatui, then he’d
probably be somewhere worse right now.”
Tonia snorted, “Like a pirate, or in jail, probably.”
Or dead. Most likely dead. Michial laughed under his breath and pushed himself off the couch.
He ruffled Tonia’s hair before taking his leave, “You’re probably so tired of hearing about Jaxie all
the time, huh? I’ll try to convince Eva to not talk about him today.”
Lumine resisted the urge to groan in relief. She couldn’t take one more cute story about grandma
sweaters or hair braiding. Just having the simple knowledge that there was a man out there who
could almost beat her in combat, and be husband material all at once, was too much for her to
handle. What’s worse is that said man was her soulmate, as destined by the formation of the stars.
Lumine was simply running off pure spite towards the universe by now.
“It’ll be nice to not talk about him today,” she sighed and closed her eyes, letting Tonia pull her
hair back into stubby pigtails, “I bet he doesn’t even know I’m here yet.”
(He did. Immediately after receiving Tonia's letter, Childe was into action. He stole a boat from
Liyue harbor, and was currently on his way to Snezhnaya. He had spent the night sailing through a
biting windstorm, while Lumine drank hot chocolate with his family. It was a very frustrating, and
very frantic situation for him.)
The morning drew on. The house began to awaken as the sun rose. And Eva, somehow,
succeeded at resisting her primal urges. She only mentioned Ajax seven times that day.
It was a new record.
Despite the pressure to marry her son, Lumine was beginning to grow accustomed to the Alekseev
matriarch’s thickly hidden anxiety. It was the fact that Eva showed tidbits of her worries and
concerns to Lumine that was a compliment in itself. She imagined that not many saw her twiddled
fingers or bouncing knees.
All of Childe’s family was guarded, riddled with subtle, barely sewn-together cracks. Eva tended
to watch Teucer with sad eyes, the same expression Childe looked at him with, as if she was
mourning something yet to come. Tonia and Anthon danced around the subject of their brother’s
work with carefully concealed frustration. Michial’s guilt and regret shone when he let his walls of
optimism and dad-jokes down.
Yet, Lumine felt as if she was finally breaking through.
Soon, she would be able to annoy them all to death, and they would kick her out of Childe’s life
forever. This was her only option, because in truth, she adored his family.
Despite the pushiness and the manipulative schemes, Lumine laughed alongside Eva. They shared
tea and talked about books. They did laundry together, they cooked meals in the kitchen together
without screaming or bumping. It felt natural, much like it did with Childe when he accompanied
her to Jeuyun Karst. That was their first journey together, and he was already able to read her mind.
His family was exactly the same.
The oncoming tidal wave of complacency was looming in the distance, and Lumine had nowhere
to run.
Day three, Lumine finally bought a fluffy coat of her own. She was beginning to remember the
names of the merchants in the village.
Day four, family charades night. She and Teucer were on a team, and crushed everybody else -
though she had a feeling they let them win.
Day five, Eva and Michial were considering adoption papers for Lumine, but were refused since
she was 19, and about to turn 20. They used adoption papers for a dog instead, and pretended they
were official. It was a very emotional moment.
And on the evening of day five, the older siblings finally arrived.
As did a very wet and tired Harbinger, but nobody was aware of that fact quite yet.
Childe felt like a moldy bottle washed up on the shore. He was used to being covered in water,
but this was just excessive.
There was sand in his pants. And in his shoes. And in his ears. And in his hair. And in his eyes.
Everywhere.
“Shouldn’t have tried that trick,” he put his hands on his hips and turned to glare out at the grey
sea, “it never works. I don’t know why I thought it would now.”
Just because he has a hydro vision does not mean he can control ocean waves. He learned that
long ago, yet he still attempted to bring his little monohull sailboat on top of a huge tidal wave, and
bend the water to his will.
His trusty boat was now at the bottom of the Snezhnayan coastline. It was a shame, he had fully
intended to return it to its original owners.
Sighing, Childe dusted more sand from his clothes and turned to face the dunes of white snow
ahead. The Morepesok harbor had to be about 5 miles away, and that was if he walked quickly. He
could usually follow the star charts to keep him navigated, but with the attempts to surf a monohull
on a 20 foot wave, he’d gotten a bit turned around.
‘A bit’ meaning he landed on the beach 2 hours away from home.
The evening was settling in, and he would catch pneumonia if he didn’t keep himself warm.
Sighing and shaking his hair to dry off, Childe started down the beach, towards Morepesok in the
far distance.
There was something incredibly odd in how Pavol, Anastasia, and Sacha were acting upon first
meeting Lumine.
“Lumine, would you like some pudding?”
Of course she would like some pudding! Who wouldn’t want some pudding? She swiped the
spoon from Pavol’s hand, not realizing her own glare, or how half the bowl of pudding slipped onto
the ground as she devoured it.
The eldest Alekseev could only stare in horror.
“Mama, why did you adopt this poor homeless woman?”
That was a loaded question. Eva was not about to inform her first-born son of the complicated
relationship between that poor, homeless woman and Ajax. He would only scoff and roll his eyes,
as he always did when it concerned his self-centered little brother. She looked up from her glass of
wine and pursed her lips, “Who? Sui, over there? Oh, she just wanders the village, I let her in
sometimes out of pity-”
“No, mama,” Pavol was hissing under his breath, “Her! Lumine,” he pointed at the traveler who
was currently tipping the bowl of pudding back and swallowing it whole, “she’s like a rabid
animal!”
She was, oftentimes, like a starving raccoon digging in the trash. Or a very angry bear. And her
hair was thick and matted like a wolf’s - Tonia had made quick work of smoothing it out over the
last five days. But she was also a perfectly nice girl who made very yummy cookies.
“Do you have a problem with who I have as a guest in my house?” Eva gave him a look, “I
promise that Lumine is slightly more behaved than your own children, Pavvy. And she smells
better, too.”
“Does she, though?”
“Hm… only a little…”
“Just be careful, mama,” he put a hand on her shoulder, “I worry about the kind of people you and
father attract. Did you see how she stabbed that sweet madame earlier?”
She did. Ajax did the same thing, she had learned those table manners from somewhere.
After Pavol’s bout of concern, Anastasia was next. She, too, offered Lumine some pudding.
“Here,” with red hair and wild curls, and blue eyes like the rest of her family, Anastasia offered
the traveler a smile, “you’re probably hungry, poor thing.”
She was hungry, but she was not a ‘poor thing’. She was poor materially, but spiritually Lumine
felt quite rich. Slow, she took the bowl of pudding, “Uh, thanks…”
Anastasia sent her another motherly smile before leaving to approach Pavol and Eva at the
sidelines. She took a glass of wine and sighed, “That poor little girl, she looks like a wild animal.”
Eva only smiled, “But a beautiful one, right?”
“Mama, you need to stop being so generous. Inviting strange women into your home is going to
backfire one day!”
Pavol rolled his eyes, “That’s what I was trying to tell her! Lumine seems very nice, but why is
she here?”
And why was she eating all of the pudding? And why did she have a floating elf with her? And
why did Teucer adore her so much? The only information Ana and Pavol had received was that Eva
had adopted a new daughter. “I saw the papers, mama,” Anastasia glared, “she is not a dachshund,
you can’t fool me.”
The dog adoption papers were not for the purpose of fooling, they were symbolic. Eva tsked,
“Neither of you have any sense of charity. Look at her… How could I not love her?”
“There are twigs sticking out of the hood of her coat!”
“Yes, she and Teucer went on a walk in the forest earlier.”
“I don’t know what you’re planning,” Pavol sighed, “but just be careful, okay? This is a fun party,
though, thank you for having us mama.”
It was always exciting for the village of Morepesok when the Alekseev family threw a backyard
party, their property was big enough to host most of the town, and anyone with a taste for mischief
would attend if they knew Ajax was not to be there.
Sui, the homeless beggar, was currently picking pockets in the corner. An old man had started to
play his guitar - very badly - and Anastasia’s youngest son had somehow gotten ahold of a knife.
The older Alekseev siblings, Pavol, Sacha, and Anastasia, arrived at their parent’s home only
hours earlier. Lumine wasn’t sure how many more blue eyed Snezhnayans with analytical stares
she could handle. She had just gotten used to the rest of the family.
Despite Ana and Pavol’s incredibly oblivious kindness, Lumine felt as if she melted into this
family with ease. The nieces and nephews were already calling her auntie, and the people of
Morepesok had stopped staring at her wide, suspicious eyes. Only five days in, and she was already
integrating herself into their constant tango.
Taking care of Teucer and making sure he didn’t run off? Lumine could do that. Preserving
Anthon’s fragile feelings and keeping him from being too upset? Lumine tried her best. Keeping
Tonia entertained so she didn’t cause chaos? Lumine was a master at that.
Anastasia and Pavol were much the same, though far more normal. Nonetheless, Lumine still
caught a glimpse of Pavol flipping a knife in the air and laughing when his wife screamed in fear.
That was a very Alekseev thing to do.
It was Sacha that Lumine was having trouble with.
“They think you’re homeless.”
Of course they did. And of course Sacha would instantly recognize that she was not a simple
homeless girl that his parents took in out of pity. She took another grumpy bite of pudding,
“They’re just trying to be nice.”
“No,” he put his hands on his hips and sighed, “they’re just a little stupid. Mama didn’t tell either
of them who you really were.”
“And who do you think that is?”
“Mama’s new attempt at finding Ajax love,” he scrunched his nose in thought, “She wouldn’t let
you into the family so easily if she didn’t have high hopes for you. She didn’t tell Ana or Pavol
because they’d get all pissy about it.”
That was a surprise to hear. Lumine thought Childe had a good relationship with his older
siblings, he’d never said anything particularly bad about them. And they were sweet, if not a bit
oblivious - she did have leaves in her hair and was eating like a starving bear, but that was just
Lumine in summary.
“Why would they get pissy?” She asked.
Sacha took the seat beside her on the log. Like the rest of his family, he was tall, though his hair
was darker, and he didn’t stare at Lumine like she was a piece of meat for sale. She didn’t have
anything against him personally, but she knew the stories of his many escapades with various
women.
Shadows from the bonfire flickered against his face as he rested his chin in his palm. Frowning in
thought, he stared ahead, “It’s just always been about Childe, all the time,” he was the first of the
family to use his codename. The sound of it made Lumine flinch, “Mom and dad can’t help but
have their lives revolve around him, and Teucer’s starting to become the same way… I mean, I
don’t care much, since I’m so self assured and confident, but when they find out that they were
dragged all the way here just to meet some girl Jax glanced at once, then they’ll be pretty
annoyed.”
To meet some girl that Ajax glanced at. It was so specific that Lumine couldn’t help but stiffen.
“Excuse me? Has this happened before?”
“Well, yeah,” he gave a nonchalant shrug, “mama meets some cute girl that she thinks he’d be
good with, she gets her hopes up about Jaxie quitting his job and settling down, makes a huge
ordeal of it all, and then it turns out that Ajax has zero interest in her. He could breathe in the
general direction of a woman and mama would be over the moon.”
Lumine had to promise herself that she would not be comforted by the fact that Childe never took
any interest in these girls before. And despite how handsome he was, those girls probably never
took genuine interest in him either, hardly anybody could handle the lifestyle he lived.
She smiled to herself. Sacha didn’t know that his little brother had not glanced at her only once,
but several times! He’d asked her to marry him twice in the throes of battle, and once said that
kissing her was like breathing.
How she loved to be the winner of the world’s most annoying competition between women.
“So, let me get this straight… Eva does this on a regular basis because she wants Childe to settle
down, right?”
He nodded, “Yep.”
Settle down. To settle down. She just had that conversation with him last week, yelling at him
outside of the ruin guard domain that settling down was the exact opposite of what she wanted.
And she meant it. She didn’t want to calm Childe down. She didn’t want to live a normal life.
“You’re a genius, Sacha.”
“I am?” He glanced at her with wide eyes, “I-I mean, I know, but-”
“That’s how I can do this!” He’d give her the holy grail, the golden apple, the fountain of life.
He’d given her the answer to her biggest concern. He’d tossed the solution into her lap so casually,
so wonderfully, that she could not help but grin and stand.
“Do what? Lumi,” Sacha stood alongside her, “you’re grinning like a sadist.”
She turned towards him, “Thank you so much. I needed this conversation.”
“Would you just stop for a second and explain yourself, please?”
Of course. Of course, she could trust the womanizing Sacha with information of this sort. She
patted his arm triumphantly, “I don’t want to settle down, I want to travel forever and be a cryptid
in the wilderness, that’s my life’s goal.”
He nodded, “I can respect that.”
“And while I don’t like the Fatui thing,” she raised a hand, “it’s not my job to fix that about him. I
just need to show Eva that I wouldn’t be the girl to make her son live a normal life, and then she’ll
give up on me!”
It was fool-proof. It was the flicker of a flame, the light of a genius idea that colored her view of
the world. Lumine liked this family too much, so being disgusted at the thought of being a part of
them would never work. Her attempts to make them hate her were far too insignificant for the
determination the matriarch held - she needed to make it personal.
Sacha watched her with raised brows, “You could just marry me, you know, and then mama
would leave you alone.”
“Never in a million years, but thank you.”
He guffawed, “W-Why? I’m a catch! I’m way better than Ajax!”
“A corpse on the side of the road is better than Ajax.”
“And I’m much better than a corpse on the side of the road.”
She scoffed. Despite being so much shorter, Lumine felt taller in that moment. That was the nice
difference between Sacha and Childe, Lumine could actually intimidate Sacha.
“You don’t even have a cool sword, look at that thing,” she nudged the steel blade at his side,
“you don’t even know how to summon a weapon-”
“I’m working on it! I’m learning!”
“It’s not even that sharp,” Lumine lifted her chin in arrogance, “I could never love a man who
doesn’t have a badass weapon.”
It was true. Even mitachurl axes were cooler than his dinky little sword. Sacha rolled his eyes,
“Do you want me to help you disprove yourself to mamushka, or what?”
She did, so desperately. Lumine knew the direction she was to follow, but not the first step. There
had to be some way to prove to Eva that Lumine could never settle down and live a peaceful life
with her son. “Yes, so where do we start?”
He grinned, “You could get drunk and start a fight? Mama despises violence during her bonfire
parties, it’s what Ajax always does.”
And Tonia told her just two days ago that she only disapproved of fighting between family
members. Lumine was basically an Alekseev, now, she had the adoption papers to prove it.
“So if she sees me doing exactly what Childe does… then she’ll start to get an understanding of
how terrible of a wife I’d truly be.”
“But that won’t be enough,” he nodded gravely, “Tonia told me all you had planned, and they’d
work with anyone else, but you’ve been planning to do the stuff that makes mama laugh. You need
to emulate Ajax and do the things she despises about him!”
She furrowed her brows, “Like what? Leave dirty laundry on the floor and never clean his own
dishes?”
“No, no, he’s pretty good about that stuff. I mean how he disappears for weeks at a time with no
notice, that drives her up a wall. Or how he coaxes Pavol into fights, or how he teaches Teucer to
fight dirty. There’s plenty of things he does that make her angry.”
As it was with any mother and son. Yet, this was the first Lumine had heard any of this. “She
never mentioned that stuff before.”
“Of course she wouldn’t,” Sacha snorted, “she wants you to like him, she’s not about to let you
know how much of a handful he really is.”
Right. She’d been talking him up all week, making him sound like some sort of domesticated
saint. Despite his obvious husband-material-ness, Lumine had also fought him nearly to the death
once. She knew there was more to Childe than the cute older brother who provided for his family.
“Thank you, Sacha,” she smiled up at him, “I appreciate your help more than you know.”
His cheeks went pink. Bashful, he rubbed the back of his neck, “And then afterwards maybe we
could date?”
“Never.”
“Lumi Lu! I think you’re beautiful!”

“Your pants are unzipped.”
He shrieked and glanced down, shoving his glass into Lumine’s hand while he zipped up his
trousers. While Sacha was distracted, she took a sniff of the clear liquid he had been drinking.
“Sacha…” a whisper, a cough, “what is this?”
He looked up with wide eyes, “It’s fire water. You can have a sip if you like- no Lumi, a sip.
Lumine-”
It was unfortunate that Lumine, on occasion, chose to not hear anything besides the constant static
in her head. She stepped away from Sacha before he could rip the glass from her hands, and
downed the pungent alcohol. Immediately, she was coughing and burning, shoving the cup back
into his hands and bending over.
Sacha patted her back, “I tried to warn you. This isn’t beer, you can’t just chug it down!”
“I-Is there more I can have?”
“You’ll get a headache if you drink too much at once, just give it a minute or so,” he took her
wrist and led her towards the back porch where several neighbors lingered, “How are you feeling
so far? It wasn’t that much, just a little, so you shouldn’t be too bad yet.”
It was only a little, he says, it wasn’t that much. She should be perfectly sober, he assumes.
Lumine gave a fake laugh, “Yeah, I feel fine. Perfectly fine. My stomach and throat aren’t on fire
or anything.”
“You sure you’re fine?”
“I am perfect.”
It was called firewater for a reason.

Lumine was grateful that Paimon was guarding the snack table like a rabid dog. If the pixie knew
that she was willingly getting tipsy with Childe’s older brother in an attempt to piss off their
family’s matriarch, she would have her hair pulled out by tiny little hands. Grumbling under his
breath, he led Lumine up the stairs and through the back door.
“I know where the key to papa’s liquor cabinet is. You just hang tight, okay?”
“Oh yeah… Yeah, I’ll hang very tight.”
By ‘hang tight’ he obviously meant ‘trip over the back of the couch and fall face first into a
chasm of cushions and blankets’. Sacha glanced at Lumine just in time to catch her rolling over
from the couch, and onto the floor.
“You okay?”
A slurred, “Yeah,” and a wave of her fingers.
He laughed at the sight. Lumine was a total light weight, this would be easy. The only hard part
would be finding someone to fight her, and he might volunteer himself just to defend the honor of
his favorite sword. And he couldn’t see a vision on her, so they were most likely on equal footing
anyhow.
The music from the backyard continued to stream in. The old man playing the out of tune guitar
had been joined by someone with a harp. Tonia’s sweet voice carried over the crowd as she made
up words to follow the tune of the impromptu song. Anastasia’s little boys were still running
around wildly, Teucer and Anthon were practicing fighting, and Pavol was arguing with papa over
who could grill the best fish. Nobody seemed to notice that Sacha and Lumine had left.
“Come on,” he walked from the cabinet to the living room with a glass of firewater in hand.
Standing over Lumine, he sent her a smile, “Get up and drink this.”
It should be enough to make her wild without inducing nausea. With a grunt, she pushed herself
off the ground and downed the half-full glass as if it was a shot. “Y-You sure this’ll work?”
“Yeah, of course!” He assured, “Mama despises it when we do this. You and I can fight, you
make me bleed a little, and then the process of gaining her disapproval begins.”
Lumine gave him a skeptical look before downing the rest in her glass. Sighing, she held it out,
“More, please.”
“Yes ma’am!”
If that's what she wished, he would provide. He mixed orange juice and firewater for a very good
cause, in his opinion. He was assured that Lumine wasn’t a gold digger that was only after Ajax’s
money and power. She wanted the opposite of the girls Eva usually picked, she wanted to get away
from the family. Usually, they would try to stick it out until Ajax flatly dismissed them from their
lives.
Another drink, and another after that. She’d only eaten pudding that night, and her stomach was
quite empty. Lumine could throw them down, despite her young appearance.
All it took was 15 minutes.
15 minutes of Lumine swishing a disgusting alcohol around her tongue like mouthwash. 15
minutes, and she would disappoint Eva beyond repair. 15 minutes of Lumine taking deep breaths,
and finally having hope for her future.
The world spun in the best way possible. She covered her mouth and giggled, “Okay, let’s go.”
Sacha sat next to her with his own drink in hand. He handled himself far better, only having one
throughout the span of her four drinks. He took another sip and watched her over the rim of his
cup, “Do you think you’re ready to fight?”
Not in the least. She wasn’t nearly emotional enough yet to make a complete fool of herself. “No,
I would like to go outside.” Pushing herself off the couch, she shuffled across the living room.
“Take me outside. Here, outside.”
There, outside. The front porch, where nobody else from the party lingered. It was lit up golden
by the torches on the railing, but entirely too quiet for his tastes.
“Why do you want to go there?” He followed her through the door and into the cold.
“I just,” Lumine clenched her fists, “I want to be… here. On the porch!”
“Alrighty, but don’t try to go down the steps without my help.”
“What am I? Your grandma?”
He sighed and put his hands in his pockets, “I think I made your drinks too strong.”
“I’m the only strong thing here!”
Her arms were like noodles. He laughed, “Just don’t wander off.. You could easily get lost out
here.”
She only grunted.
“Lumi, come on, let’s just go back inside, it’s cold, and we were going to fight my mom,
remember?”
Not in the least. How could she remember when there was something at the front of the house
that was so much better to focus on? She didn’t have her coat, nor her boots, nor a hat. Every inch
of her was freezing, but she could not help but stare.
“S-Sacha… I-I love…”
“Yes?”
“Porch swings.”
He blinked.
“...Porch swings?”
Porch swings. She loved porch swings. She loved the thought of sitting on a porch swing every
morning and drinking coffee, though of course that would never happen, because she would never
settle down. But this porch swing was perfect.
She sighed dreamily and turned on her heel, “Yes, I adore them. I just…” slowly, attempting to not
trip over the spinning world, Lumine laid on the swing, “I want to have sex on a porch swing.”
Any other member of the Alekseev family would be shocked. But Sacha had heard far worse. Far
worse. “It wouldn’t be as fun as you think, printsessa.”
“Don’t call me printsessa…” she slung an arm over her eyes, “only Jaxie can call me that.”
Jaxie. She was drunker than he thought. This poor girl would probably have her heart broken by
his little brother, as the rest of the girls Eva picked out did. He cracked a nonchalant smile, “Come
on, let’s go fight in the backyard.”
“Noooo… sex on a porch swing…”
“Nope, Lumi Lu, fight in the backyard.”
“Sex! On a porch swing!”
Sacha was not the type to touch a woman who was drunk. And besides that, his mother would
murder him for hooking up with the girl she was saving for Ajax. He sighed and stepped away as
Lumine rolled over, her back to the rest of the world and her arms curled underneath her head.
“Well, this backfired…”
Another sigh. A rubbing of his tired eyes. And the sound of footsteps crunching across snow.
He glanced up to find a figure walking up the road. The night had turned dark, but the stars were
bright. Wild hair and a scarf was silhouetted from the moonlight as he approached. The figure was
close enough to hear everything Lumine and Sacha had said, making him grimace in
embarrassment. It wasn’t as if the people of Morepesok didn’t know of his escapades, but for his
parent’s neighbor to hear a drunk girl argue with him over porch swing sex, he’d prefer that not to
happen.
Lumine giggled to herself. She was still awake, but facing away from the approaching figure.
Sacha raised a hand in friendly greeting, until he noticed what the man was holding.
Two blue swords, pulsing with furious hydro energy.
Sacha froze.
He stepped into the light of the lit torches, finally revealing himself. And smiled.
“Sacha,” Ajax was nearly growling, the tight smile barely doing anything to conceal the fury
underneath, “I hope you’ve said your goodbyes.”
Once upon a time, Sacha was able to hold Ajax down and torture him in the way only an older
brother could. Now, he was terrified. He wouldn’t dare to challenge Childe, nobody would. He
ignored the shiver racing down his spine, “H-Hey, uh, I didn’t k-know you were coming tonight! I
thought you were still in, you know… Liyue.”
Why would he hope that he said his goodbyes? And why was he gripping those dual blades so
hard that his hands shook.
Ajax didn’t answer. He only tilted his head, still smiling tightly with furrowed brows, “What was
that I heard about sex? And fighting? With this innocent drunk girl here?”
“Uh, her? Oh that’s… W-Well, you know how mama is-”
“I’m going to kill you, Sacha.”

“What?”
Childe sighed as if this was a waste of his time. The smile fell into a glare that froze him in place.
Sacha never thought his life would end on his parent’s porch. He had hoped to go in some much
cooler way, like falling from a cliff, or choking on a peach pit.
He’d never seen his little brother look so utterly murderous.
“I’m going. To. Kill you, for even thinking about touching Lumine.”
A short pause. Sacha’s stuttering gasp. Ajax lifted one brow.
“Don’t you think you should run, Sacha? Now?”

Return Of The Harbinger
Chapter Notes
“Don’t you think you should run, Sacha? Now?”
In retrospect, he could see why Ajax had suggested that. Sacha frequently camped in the woods,
he was a wilderness expert, and he had learned from an early age how to survive when faced with
predators. There was one vital piece of information that even the children in Snezhnaya knew.
Never run from a wolf. And never look one in the eye.
Back away very slowly. Do not show it your behind. Do not give into the chase, wolves are
coursing predators. If you run, you are telling your assailant that you are it’s prey.
And the wolf will catch you.
Lumine rolled over on the swing. Her eyes were wide, and her lips parted, “Master?”
... What?
Ajax did not break his gaze from Sacha’s trembling form. For a split second, the corner of his lip
twitched in amusement. He liked that that girl called him master, that much was obvious.
And that girl just rambled drunkenly about sex to him.
Sacha had never run so quickly in his life.

And he might have screamed like a little girl, but he wasn’t quite aware of anything around him as
he made his escape. He yanked open the door with each ounce of his strength, right as Ajax darted
up the stairs. Lumine groaned in confusion and rolled off the swing with a heavy thump.
Ajax’s hydro blade barely missed Sacha’s back. The older brother scrambled and screamed once
more, vaulting himself over the living room coffee table. It was pure chaos as Ajax splintered the
table into two halves with one downwards kick. He took another jab at Sacha, and raced after him
into the kitchen, laughing the entire way.
A wolf preferred a chase, it was in their nature. He ducked the plate Sacha threw, dodged the
shattering of a wine glass, and revelled in yet another girlish scream from his brother.
“S-Stop!” He yanked himself away, just in time to miss the dagger aimed for his neck, “Why’re
you so angry?!”
A kick to the stomach, and the air knocked from his lungs. His vision blurred when the back of
his head hit the cabinets. He’d had worse fights with Ajax, but had never been this confused about
the cause of it.
The dishes above his head rattled from the impact. Slow, grinning, his brother drew close. He
smelled of sand and the sea, and looked as if he hadn’t slept in days. Sacha squeezed his eyes shut
and lifted his chin.
“Tell me, Alesander,” he flinched at the use of his full first name, “why was my future wife drunk
on the front porch, talking about sex with you?”
Future wife. Why was his future wife drunk, on the front porch, rambling nonsensically?
His future wife? Ajax’s future wife.
She called him master.
Might as well be honest on the last day of his life.

“She wants mamushka to hate her,” Sacha took a deep breath, trying to steady his voice as
Childe’s stare burrowed further, “so we planned to get drunk and fight in front of all the guests.”
That was as succinct as he could possibly make it. He watched the explanation process like
turning gears behind Ajax’s eyes. His gaze narrowed dangerously before he whispered, “You were
going to fight my future wife? Where is the loyalty between brothers, Alesander?”
“You’re hurt that I was going to fight her?!”
“Fighting can be a very intimate experience!”
Enough was enough. His baby brother was starting to get on his nerves.
It was like old times again. Sacha slapped Ajax over the head, Ajax elbowed him in the gut. Sacha
grabbed his wrists and wrestled against him, the battle for dominance continuing until he could
finally push against his arms and cause the Harbinger to stumble backwards. The brothers crashed
to the kitchen floor in a flurry of yells and insults in Snezhnayan.
Sacha pinned Ajax’s wrists to the ground, grinned, and began to cough up a sizable ball of spit in
the back of his throat. Beneath him, his brother’s eyes narrowed in disgust, “Don’t you dare.”
“You’re just asking for a loogie to the face, bro.”
It truly was like old times. Yet, in the old times, Sacha could easily keep his baby brother pinned
down. Before he could bring enough mucus up, Ajax grimaced and twisted, instantly sending
Sacha flying off and knocking into the lower cabinets. Pots and pans rattled behind closed doors,
wood splintered and cracked.
Childe pushed himself up from the kitchen tiles. Dusting himself off, he delivered another swift
kick to Sacha’s ribs. “I sailed for five days straight to get here. And what am I greeted with? My
womanizing brother trying to steal my girlfriend!”
“G-Girlfriend?” He coughed. Another kick, another bout of pained groans.

“Yes. Tell me, big brother, how would you prefer to die, suffocation or bleeding out?”
“...B-Bleeding out, please.”
“Good choice!”
A wonderful choice. He summoned a dagger, twirling it between his fingers. Smiling down at
Sacha, Childe could only sigh in utter satisfaction.
He’d found Lumine, and she called him master again. He had the opportunity to torture Sacha.
And from the smell of it, mama had made pudding. There was no way possible that this evening
could get any better.
Until, of course, Lumine ruined it. She had a tendency for that.
The front door swung wide open. Childe glanced up to see the traveler dart into the entryway as
quickly as her legs would take her. Before he could react, she shot past, the smell of fire water and
lavender wafting by.
“Lumi?”
No response, not even a squeak. She was out the back door and rejoining the party in seconds.
Silence settled between the brothers. The ticking of a clock filled the room, louder than the music
and laughter from outside. Sacha’s breath caught in his throat. Ajax froze.
The music outside halted. Whispers carried through the door. Footsteps resounded up the stairs of
the porch as someone approached to explore the situation.
“Jaxie?”
“You’re in trouble.” Sacha whispered. Ajax nudged his bruised rib cage, trying to be quiet.
If he was a wolf, then Eva was a polar bear. As odd as it might be to consider the matriarch of the
Alekseev family a polar bear, it fit her quite well.
There was a chance to get away from a wolf if one handled the situation correctly, a small chance
of survival. With the bears of the wintertime, though, one could not even breathe in their direction
without the chance of being ripped into shreds.
Childe did what he could. He stepped away from Sacha, tangling his fingers behind his back and
standing up straight in an attempt to look innocent. The doorknob began to turn with calamitous
intent.
“Mama…” Sacha coughed dramatically, “I think I’m dying…”
The door swung open. Eva was silhouetted against the golden light of the bonfire.
“Shut up, Sacha.”
He gasped from the spot where he writhed on the floor. “Mama?!”
“Tell me…” her eyes were dangerous as she paused, “which one of you boys made my dear Lumi
Lu cry?”
Her dear Lumi Lu. Crying. Childe smiled as innocently as he could, “It was Alesander,
mamushka.”
“Jaxie. Do not lie to me.”
That was not nearly enough to make him break character. He hummed in thought, glancing away
and tilting his head, his hands still behind his back as Teucer always did when he was in trouble.
“He’s the one who got her drunk. I just got here.”
“Mama! Don’t believe his lies!”
“But I’m not lying, Sacha.”
“I-I think he broke one of my ribs...”
“He fell while we were roughhousing,” Ajax sighed at Eva and shook his head regretfully, “I
think he broke a few of your wine glasses as well.”
“Yeah, because of you!”
Childe was half tempted to kick him again, just for good measure. Eva stopped him with the
dangerous look in her eye, “Both of you. Outside. Now.”
“W-Why?”
“Go apologize to Lumi!”
He wondered what Lumine was even crying for. Sacha wasn’t the type to touch a drunk girl,
fortunately, and Childe hadn’t even spoken to her yet. Perhaps that was why. The thought made
him smile as he nudged his brother off the floor - Lumine might be throwing a fit because she was
angry that he didn’t say hello to her.
That would be taken care of quite easily. He would do more than say hello to her. He planned to
take her into his arms and announce to the entire village of Morepesok that she was his. He
couldn’t wait to see her, she was all he thought about on the boat ride home.
That was, until he remembered that big sister Anastasia also had a penchant for ruining his fun.
A blue eyed glare and a bonfire full of whispers. Several of the villagers ran off as soon as they
heard that Tartaglia had arrived. The more brave of the neighbors stuck to the corners of the yard
and drank in curious, gossipy peace. His nieces and nephews were unaware of the rising tension
between the family as Ajax walked out of the backdoor and stood on the porch.
Teucer was showing off Mister Cyclops, which made him smile. His nephews were being
shitheads, which also made him smile. Tonia and Anthon were roasting marshmallows, pointedly
ignoring the drama, and Pavol and his wife were glaring, as they always were.
In the middle of the ruckus was Lumi Lu herself. She sat on a log, nestled in Anastasia’s arms, her
hands over her eyes and her shoulders shaking.
His heart dropped into his stomach. She truly was crying. He’d never seen her cry before, even at
the Golden House. He’d never seen her shed a tear.
“Who got Lumine this drunk?”
Anastasia’s death-dealing glare said it all. Behind him, Sacha raised a hand, “T’was me, ma’am.
But she consented fully, I’ll have you know.”
Of course she did, because she was Lumine, and she never thought things through. Beside the
porch, papa was attempting to stifle his laughter, and enduring an endless barrage of light slaps
from his wife. He seemed to be the only one seeing the humor in the situation. Childe would join
him if Lumine did not look like a shivering rag blowing in the wind.
There was, of course, only one culprit for the tears on her cheeks. And he had more ribs available
to break.
Yet another Alekseev family reunion ruined by a Fatui Harbinger with too much energy. After
swiftly making sure that Teucer and his niece and nephews had their backs turned, Childe whirled
around, gripped Sacha’s forearm, twisted, and hurled him off the side of the porch.
Gasps echoed throughout the yard. Before silence could fall, Lumine was up and out of
Anastasia’s arms. Childe took one step towards a groaning Sacha, “I think the last time we fought
this much was on my 18th birthday, right? I promise this’ll be much worse.”
Pavol cupped his hands over his mouth to yell, “This is why we never invite you over, Ajax!”
“As if I’d even want to come over, Pasha! Your house always smells like moldy soup!”
“Oh, burn!” Anthon yelled in return.
It was the sickest burn he’d ever dealt. Childe took another step towards Sacha, grinning down at
him as he scrambled away through the snow and mud. Behind him, he could hear his father
laughing even harder, followed by the barely stifled giggle of his mother. She let out a soft, “S-
Stop… Jaxie, really.” She cleared her throat and stood up straight, “You know I hate it when you
boys do this.”
“I want him to feel as hungover and in pain as Lumine will tomorrow morning.”
“Oh get over it, Jax! It’s just a little firewater! It’s not like he killed her!”
“He was making moves on her. I heard every bit of it.”
“A-Actually,” Sacha raised a hand, “Lumine brought it up first.”
As true as that was, he still didn’t trust his brother enough to not grow a crush on his future wife.
He’d stolen Pavol’s girlfriends before, he was not above charming taken women. And while Childe
was aware that Lumine was far too strong to be swayed by the likes of Sacha, her drunken state
was an entirely different story.
“Ajax, do not attack your brother!”
His mother couldn’t stop him. Nobody ever could. His father had enrolled him into the Fatui in an
attempt to stop the constant chaos, and he’d fought his way to the top of that as well.
There was only one person who could stop him.
And she was a 5’1 blonde, standing barefoot in the snow, with red eyes from crying, and clenched
fists. She wore a blue ribbon in her hair today, one that Tonia lent her. It matched his eyes.
“Ajax.”
He stopped, his foot hovering over Sacha’s leg. Looking up, his gaze immediately locked onto
Lumine.
A beat of silence between them. The chorus of gossipy whispers from the onlookers. The
children’s laughter, as they had yet to realize the drama beside the fire. For that, he was grateful.
He’d hate for Teucer to notice him mid-kick on his other older brother.
“Lumi.” Slowly, he backed away from Sacha, his face blank, “Where’s your coat? It’s freezing
out here.”
Shock waved through the crowd. Tonia and Anthon squeezed each other’s hands in excitement.
Anastasia and Pavol hugged their significant others. Mama and papa whispered in barely concealed
surprise.
Ajax did not break Sacha’s ankle. He actually stepped back.
He had been stopped.
“The chosen one…” Michial whispered in amazement, “she has done the impossible...”
Lumine pointedly decided to ignore that. “Can we please go inside and talk?”
Yes. Yes, a million times. He would light the fireplace and they could cuddle underneath a
blanket. He felt like a teenage boy again, watching her shiver in the snow and look at him with
those watery eyes. It was like an arrow had shot him in the back.
Before he could respond, his mother jumped on the opportunity. She was an ambitious woman,
determined, and entirely shameless. “Lumi Lu! You’re the only one who’s ever been able to stop
Ajax like that! Will you please marry my son?”
That was the exact opposite of what she wanted. “Lumine,” Sacha whispered and covered his
eyes from his spot on the ground, “I’m so sorry, our plan has backfired.”
It backfired in the worst way possible. She truly had been crying, it was a feeling she despised. If
he had not shown up, she would be drunkenly brawling with Sacha right now, earning the
disapproval of the matriarch.
Plan B, commenced. There were so many Plan B’s that she was beginning to lose track.
“It’s okay, Sacha. I know what I must do now.”
Ajax kept silent as Lumine stepped forward. The snow crunched beneath her feet. Her gaze was
level with his, refusing to break away. He felt his heart skip a wonderful beat in his chest as
Lumine stepped on Sacha’s stomach, standing on him to give herself several more inches. Now
taller, she took Childe’s hands into her own.
A pause of anticipation. A deep breath and furrowed brows. The wasps in his stomach had made
their return, and she had never been more radiant.
The drop of a pen, the ripping of a bandage, the emotionless look in her eyes that he never knew
he liked before now.
“I hate your face. I never want to see you again.”
She was perfect. Childe nodded gravely. “I understand. Would you like to go make out?”
“Yes, please.”
He kissed each knuckle of her right hand, then her left. Slowly, reverentially, he sighed against
her skin and closed his eyes, “Ya tebya obozhayu.”
“I don’t know what that means, so I’m going to assume it’s an insult.”
He was half tempted to just tell her, but that would ruin the fun of it. “Come on,” Ajax led her up
the stairs and to the door, “let’s go get warmed up.”
The two disappeared into the house. Silence followed.
Pavol was the first to speak, “What did I just witness?”
“Uh…” Anastasia put a hand to her chest in shock, “did my baby brother just say that he… that he
adores her? He doesn’t adore anything!”
“I’m so confused…”
Eva cleared her throat to grab their attention. She stood at Michial’s side, grinning like a
madwoman. “They’re starmates. I didn’t tell you earlier because I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“...Oh...”
“Yeah, that makes much more sense.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it earlier…”
Sacha, still laying on the ground and recovering from Lumine using his stomach as a stepping
stool, could only stare up at the sky. With his arms and legs spread eagle, and his body in a great
deal of pain, one tear trickled down the side of his face.
His strained voice cut through the chatter, “So, what you’re saying is… is that I have to put up
with those two forever?”
“I’m afraid so, Sacha. We all do.”
“...Can I be adopted by a different family?”
Eva shook her head, “No. You have to share the suffering with the rest of your siblings. Now get
up, and go see if you can eavesdrop on their conversation.”
“Oh just give it a rest, mama!”
Despite agreeing to make out, Lumine was not planning on it.
And despite her tipsy state, she was sober enough to draw her dagger.
Once the door shut and they were alone, she took the opportunity to grab Childe by the collar and
slam him against the kitchen counter. He looked excited to be manhandled by a much shorter girl,
and even more excited when she brought the jade dagger to his neck. The steel was cold, and
Lumine’s fingers through his shirt were colder. She closed the room between their bodies and
pressed against him, leaning up on her tiptoes in an attempt to seem taller.
“What. Are you. Doing here?”
He loved it when she growled like that.
“This is my house, printsessa, I live here half the year.”
“No,” the blade pressed deeper into his skin, “I mean what are you doing here right now? You
should be in Liyue. You shouldn’t have any idea where I’m at.”
“What can I say? I’ve got a sense for those kind of things,” he grinned, “Lumi, babe, if you keep
pressing against me like this then-”
“D-Don’t finish that sentence! I’ll kill you!”

Sure she would. The pink dusting her cheeks betrayed every intention. “What’s wrong with me
being here? Didn’t you come to Snezhnaya to meet my family?”
“I came here to make them hate me!” She snapped, “And I assumed that I’d hate them as well! I
want to prove to your mother that I’d be a terrible wife for you, a-and I would’ve been able to do
that tonight if you hadn't shown up!”
As eager as he was to experience a drunken fight with Lumine, it would not be with his loser of a
brother. Slowly, he moved his hands to her hips, revelling in the feeling of her dagger against his
neck and their breath intermingling. He dug his fingers into her skin, and slid one hand to the small
of her back.
She stiffened in suspicion. Ajax could only smile, “And instead of making my mom hate you, you
ended up doing exactly what she wanted. You demonstrated how much of a hold you have over
me,” he leaned in to whisper into her hair, dedicating the scent and softness to memory, “I’ll do
anything you ask, Lumine. I’d kill for you.”
A beat of silence. Her soft breathing as she held herself from shivering beneath his touch.
“Please let me kill for you. Have anyone in mind?”
“No!” The dagger was gone instantly. She yanked herself away, stumbling backwards and
bumping into the opposite counter. She gripped the sides with white knuckles and a heaving chest,
“You are insufferable! How am I supposed to hate you and your family when it’s all this nice?”
“Then don’t hate us. Be a part of my family. Let this be your home.”
“No!” She gasped again, now glaring, “Sacha told me about all the other girls Eva’s tried this out
on. I’m not special in any way!”
Childe rolled his eyes. He’d have to break another one of his ribs for that. “It only happened about
two or three times, and mama never went this far with it. She would just get excited and introduce
her to the entire family, only to have her hopes crushed the second we met. I’ve never liked any of
those girls, Lumi. I’ve never liked anyone like this before.”
“I don’t understand how I’m special…” She was pouting now, glaring over his shoulder and
crossing her arms.
“Mama genuinely likes you,” he explained with a sigh, “I can tell. She’d never have those other
girls stay for a week, she’d never let them cook in her kitchen, she’d never smile at them the way
she smiles at you.”
“...How do you know all that’s happened?”
“Because you’re you,” Childe gave a casual shrug, “that’s what you’ve always done. You just
melt into other people’s lives so effortlessly. You couldn’t stand to make my family hate you,
that’s why you haven’t been trying hard enough.”
Another pout. Another glare. “How do you know I’ve not been trying hard enough?”
“Are you willing to be mean to my little siblings?”
She gasped, “No! Never!”
“Then you’re not trying hard enough.” And for that, he was grateful.
“You’re stupid. It’s like you’re always reading my mind.”
Childe could only smile, “I just like you a lot.”
“I don’t want to see your face right now,” Lumine pushed off the counter and turned towards the
door, “I’m breaking up with you again.”
She was breaking up with him. Again. He nearly had a war flashback to the Golden House. Stiff
with shock, Childe stood up straight and reached for her wrist, “What?! I didn’t even know we
were dating!”
“Well, you should’ve been paying more attention!”

“Could you at least warn me when we start dating?”
“No! You don’t deserve a warning!”
“I’m your soulmate!”
“Right now you’re my ex-boyfriend, so you don’t get a say in my life!”
He groaned and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Lumine, I mean this with all due respect:
you are the most confusing, vexing, illogical woman I have ever met.”
“Yeah?” She whirled around to face him, glaring, “Well you’re the most snarky, back-handed,
black hearted man I’ve ever met!”
“Thank you!”
“You’re welcome!”
Crossed arms and glares. Narrowed eyes and shaking fingers. Lumine felt like she was holding
onto a rope dangling from a mountainside, and her arms were beginning to tire from holding herself
up. Tension had to snap eventually, no matter how long it took, nothing had infinite stamina.
She cursed the hot tears forming in her eyes. She cursed the choking feeling in her throat. She
cursed the anxious nausea threatening her stomach. “I-I… Archons!” it felt good to stomp one foot,
even if it was immature, “You ruined everything! Y-You ran in here and made everything
backfire! If it weren’t for you, your mom would be breaking up a drunken fight by now!”
Knowing his family, she would be breaking up a drunken fight at some point tonight no matter
what. And despite the constant chaos, she still loved all her children, she would love Lumine no
matter how hard she punched Sacha.
Childe would laugh at her frustration if there were no tears in her ears. He froze at the sight, the
feeling of cold fingers running up his spine and stealing his breath away. Lumine knew how to
unravel him. She sniffled and rubbed at her eyes, it was yet another pulling of the strings holding
him together.
“Lumi, why are you crying?”
“Because I’m angry!” She stomped her foot again and glared.
She was angry? He was the one who sailed for five days and crashed a stolen boat. He was the
one who walked two hours, soaking wet and cold, just to stumble upon his womanizing brother
getting the love of his life drunk off her ass. He still had sand in his shoes!
“I cannot… believe…” Childe took a deep breath and clasped his hands together, closing his eyes
in barely contained frustration, “that you would be stupid enough to get drunk in front of a man you
just met.”
Incredulous, she stuttered, “He’s your brother! I trust him!”
“I know he wouldn’t hurt you, but what about next time you pull something like this? You’ve
always been too trusting,” he worked to keep his voice down, crossing his arms and stepping away,
“you went on a roadtrip with me about five hours after knowing me. What if I was a bad guy?
What if I hurt you?”
“You are a bad guy!”
He groaned, “What if I was a worse guy? And what if Sacha was? Do you know how much it
freaks me out that you have no self preservation at all?”
Lumine could take care of herself, he knew that, but there was always something stronger. Childe
was aware that his strength was not infinite, and would not be until he conquered everything else in
the world. Since he had not done that yet, there were still things out there that could hurt Lumine,
no matter how powerful she was.
He wanted to fight those enemies alongside her. And he couldn’t do that if she kept putting
herself in these asinine situations.
With a beat of silence between them, he could finally breathe the anger and concern away.
Lumine refused to look him in the eye, it was a sight he hated. Childe leaned in to tangle his fingers
in her hair, “Let me get you some water, you’ll have a terrible headache by tomorrow.”
She stared up at him. Her cheeks were damp with tears, and her eyes still rimmed red. For half a
second, she looked docile.
That is, until she punched him in the stomach.
He doubled over in sudden pain. Lumine withdrew her fist and cracked her knuckles, “I’m
breaking up with you again.”
“I-I didn’t even know we were dating,” he managed to cough out between the rising nausea and
throbbing of his stomach, “how long did we last this time?”
Lumine stared down at him in sadistic pleasure. She’d taken his breath away, whether that was
from the blow of her fist, or her spectacular good looks and charm. “About five seconds.”
That had to be a new record low. She turned to leave in satisfied silence, having gotten the last
say. Childe straightened up and held his stomach as she opened the door and slammed it shut
behind her, leaving him behind.
She was perfect. So annoyingly perfect.
The party had resumed to its earlier energy with the absence of drama. The old man returned to
playing his out-of-tune guitar, the bonfire was used for marshmallow roasting, and Pavol had
returned to arguing with Michial over the details of proper fish grilling. The buzz of light chaos and
noise was a comfort Lumine never guessed she would enjoy.
Anastasia noticed her instantly. She dropped her son’s wrist, abandoning her lecture to stalk
across the backyard towards Lumine. At the same time, Paimon zipped away from the snack table
and shot through the air like a dart.
“Are you okay?” Ana grabbed her cheeks and squished them together, while Paimon pulled at her
hair frantically, “Did he say something terrible? Do you need me to teach him a lesson? I can slip
some laxatives into his food, o-or I can push him off a mountain, or-”
Paimon interrupted, “Or Paimon can kick him in the neck! Paimon can steal all of his stuff and
pawn it for mora!”
Lumine was grateful that Anastasia and Paimon were offering these solutions, but in actuality, all
she wanted to do was sit in silence for a bit. She sighed and held Anastasia’s hand, and pulled
Paimon close to her side like a doll, “I’m okay, I really just want to sit down, I’m feeling kind of
dizzy.”
They obliged with reassuring whispers and hand pats. Ana led her down the steps and to the spot
by the fire where it was warmest. Paimon snuggled close, “Paimon’s sorry for not noticing what
happened earlier, the snack table was just… so good.”
“Is there pudding left?” Lumine sat on the log and glanced up, “I want to eat it all so there’s none
left for Ajax.”
Ana kissed the top of her head, much like Eva tended to do, “I’ll bring it over, little sister, we’ll
scrape the bowl clean.”
Little sister. She’d only known her for about two hours, and she was already calling her little
sister. Lumine sighed and glanced at Eva, who was on her fourth glass of wine nearby. Their eyes
locked, and before she could react, Eva gave her a vivacious thumbs up.
Lumine couldn’t hate her if she tried.
She couldn’t hate anyone in this family, even Sacha. He was just trying to help her, and Pavol and
Anastasia were just pitying the poor girl their mother had tried to set up with Ajax. Michial treated
her like his own daughter. Lumine couldn’t remember what her parents were like, but she hoped
they were like the Alekseevs.
On the porch, Childe stepped out with a satisfied smile. He was still in his Fatui garments, though
sand showered down from the folds in his scarf. She realized that she hadn’t even asked him how
he got home so quickly, it wasn’t easy to catch a boat willing to sail from Liyue to Snezhnaya on
short notice. He looked rough, but smiled nonetheless at the gaggle of children racing towards
him.
“Big brother!” Teucer was the loudest. He sprinted, moving his little body as quickly as he could
to finally tackle Ajax in a squeezing hug. The rest of the nephews and the niece joined Teucer in
wrapping their arms around the Harbinger, making Ajax stumble back with laughter.
“Hey guys,” he ruffled several heads of hair, “Sorry I didn’t say hi to you first thing. I got a little
sidetracked.”
They adored him. He sat on the steps, surrounded by a gaggle of chattering children. His smile
was genuine, for once, and his laughter unalloyed.
Lumine felt her heart skip another frustrated beat. In her arms, the pixie wiggled around, “L-
Lumi, you’re really squeezing Paimon hard.”
“Oh, sorry,” instantly, she released her, letting her float back up like a balloon, “I didn’t realize. I
was just watching Childe and got angry again.”
She huffed, “Paimon heard you were drunk earlier, what happened to that?”
“I still am, I just… sobered up a little when the trash arrived.” The world was still very much
topsy turvy, and she was still running on a stomach full of pudding and firewater, “Just look at him,
with his stupid face and his stupid smile…”
And his stupid stories that he told the kids. And his stupid scarf, and his stupid nice arms, and his
stupid blue eyes. Tonia had joined the crowd and was now standing behind Childe, braiding little
sections of his hair as he sat patiently for her to finish.
Lumine had no choice but to look away. She couldn’t handle that sight, it made her want to melt
into the ground and stay there forever.
Anastasia approached with a big bowl of pudding. She was grinning in the same way Eva often
did, though her smile held far less manipulation and scheming. She sat down beside Lumine and
handed her the bowl, “You should eat, it’ll help you feel better.”
“Thank you.”
“Paimon wants some too!”
“Don’t put your grubby little fingers in the pudding! Go get a spoon!”
“Ugh, fine.”
Anastasia giggled. Slowly, her smile fell into concern as she watched Lumine pick at the food. In
the distance, Sacha began complaining about the lack of pudding by the snack table, though he
went ignored by the rest of the family. Ana scooted closer and nudged her arm, “Hey, so is what
mama said earlier true?”
“What’d she say?” Lumine stuffed a spoon in her mouth.
“That you and Jaxie were soulmates?”
“Apparently,” she popped the spoon from her lips and sighed, “our stars are all intertwined and
funky looking.” Like a squashed croissant.
She glanced away in thought, “I was wondering why mama was so determined with you, she
doesn’t usually go this far with the other girls she picks out. Well… mainly because those girls
don’t survive past day one.”
“Aw,” Lumine gave a bitter smile, “and here I thought I was special. It’s just my endurance that’s
keeping me around, huh?”
“No, no, don’t get me wrong. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it earlier.”
“Notice what?”
Another sigh, a sad smile. Ana rested her chin in her palm and stared at the fire, “Of course he
would be destined for a dirty raccoon girl. You two probably treat your battles like dates.”
Lumine’s tense silence told her all she needed to know. She was exactly right.
“And I know mama is pushy,” Ana frowned in Eva’s direction, “but she’s just worried about him.
Their lives revolve around everything he does... but I mean, how could they not?”
Childe always had his own gravitational pull. He was like a black hole embodied, devouring
everything that dared to come near.
“She’s tired, isn’t she?” Lumine whispered.
“Yes, she is.”
They both were. Michial and Eva, the parents of a Fatui Harbinger. Lumine had spent the last five
days with them, heard their prayers before dinnertime, every other word was a plea for Ajax’s
safety. Michial’s lingering regret and shame, Eva’s concern for his future, their desperate attempts
to push Lumine into settling him down.
Eva just wanted to live one day without worrying over her son.
“It’s not my responsibility to settle him down,” Lumine whispered, “Even if I tried, nobody could
do that besides him. And… frankly, I don’t want to settle down either.”
“Then what do you want to do, Lumi?”
“I want… I want to find my brother, and I want to travel. I want to fight and laugh and be free. I
can’t stand being put in a cage, that’s exactly what would happen if Ajax and I got together. He’d
quit his job, we’d settle down in a little house somewhere and pop out some kids, I’d have a garden
and a cat and I’d probably take up knitting, ugh. We would avoid arguments, we’d pin up every
bad feeling until we exploded. I’d be bored out of my mind every second of every day.”
A beat of thoughtful silence passed between them. She expected Anastasia to look at her oddly,
but instead, she only giggled, “How old are you?”
What an out of place question. “Uh, I’m about to turn 20, I-I think.” She wasn’t quite sure
anymore, not after the encounter with the unknown God.
“You’re so young,” Ana put a soft hand on her cheek and smiled, “You’re like a baby. Do you
really think that’s how every marriage is?”
“I mean… a lot are.”
“Yes, yes, but that’s because the couple let it become that way.”
Lumine shook her head, “That could happen to anyone, and it sneaks up on you before you could
even notice it.”
“You’re right, but it doesn’t have to. I don’t see what the big deal is,” she shrugged and tilted her
head curiously, red curls falling into her face, “you don’t have to settle down with Ajax just
because mama wants you to. You could travel the world together, be crazy wild animals that sleep
on the ground and fight all the time. Have babies and teach them how to fight too! I honestly don’t
care if you never buy a house or have a garden.”
You don’t have to settle down with Ajax just because mama wants you to.
Lumine blinked.
“And you’re right about what you said earlier too, Lumi, it’s not your responsibility to fix him. So
just don’t worry about it. Mama will find a way to survive.”
It was so simple. It was so clear. The solution was right in front of her the entire time.
She just had to stop giving a damn.
“Ana, am I stupid?”
She made a motion with her hand as if to say ‘kind of, but not really’. “Mmm, I’d sooner call it
empathy, rather than stupidity.”
Empathy, and care for Eva’s obvious worries. Lumine stared into her bowl of pudding with wide,
stunned eyes.
“Oh,” Ana groaned and stood up, “Excuse me for a moment, my son got ahold of a knife again.”
Lumine watched her sprint after the toddler with a knife. Childe was grinning as he spectated.
Tonia had created several more little braids in his hair, while Teucer sat beside him on the steps
and played with his Mister Cyclops. He looked comfortable, at home, and genuinely happy to be a
part of this calamitous family.
Another flop of her heart in her chest. Lumine frowned, “Paimon, can I test something out on
you?”
The pixie glanced up from her pudding with wide eyes and a face covered in chocolate, “What is
it?”
“I… I just wanna try something real quick…”
“Okay.”
“I…” she felt nauseous and sweaty despite the cold. Lumine was sure she’d break out into some
sort of illness just from attempting this, “I… I love you.”
Paimon remained unphased, “Paimon loves you too!”
“I… love… you…”
“Uh, Paimon loves you too?”
“I. Love you.”

“Are you okay?”
Not at all. “I-I’m going to be sick, I need some water. I feel like I’ve got the flu.” Frantic, she
reached for the glass of water Anastasia had left beside their seats. She tilted it back and gulped the
rest down.
And was, subsequently, set on fire.
Lumine froze.
Paimon stared with furrowed brows. “Lumine… that’s not water…”
She had figured that out the second her throat burned in response. It settled into her stomach like
sizzling acid, making her cough and bend over with the sudden feeling of licking flames. It most
certainly was not water.
Childe glanced up at the sound of Lumine’s familiar squeaks and coughs. Beside him, Anthon
leaned against the porch railing ever so casually. “I think your girlfriend’s drunk again, Jax.”
He nodded gravely, “I guess I should get her to bed.” Above him, Tonia unraveled his braids with
deft fingers.
Once free from the grip of his siblings and nephews, he stood and dusted himself off. He
desperately needed a bath and a change of clothes, Teucer had mentioned his very salty-sea smell
several times over the last half hour. He ignored his brothers and father as they continued to argue
over proper grilling techniques - that was the drunken fight Eva would have to break up
eventually.
Lumine was still coughing as he approached. Paimon glared, though the chocolate smeared over
her cheeks lessened the effect. “I’m just gonna take her to bed.”
“Yeah,” the pixie nearly growled, “Paimon’ll let you, this time…”
“Oh, thanks for your kindness, Pai.”

“B-But only if Lumine is okay with it!”
Lumine groaned with her head in her hands, “It’s fine. I need to lay down, I’ve got cold sweats
and I feel really dizzy.”
Worry flickered in his chest. She might be getting a cold, those not used to the chill of Snezhnaya
usually got sick within the first week. He leaned down and fit his hand beneath her thigh, the other
hand holding the small of her back. Hoisting her up into his arms, he held her bridal style - and
promptly grinned at the wolf whistles from Sacha nearby.
Anthon opened the back door for him. Childe thanked him as he turned to carry Lumine’s limp
body through the doorway. The house was empty, dark, but warm. Childe went straight for the
staircase, “Where do you want me to put you? My room, or a guest bedroom?”
Her head lolled, “Your room.”
Another smile. Another low laugh, “You want to sleep with me that bad, girlie?”
“No, you sleep in a guestroom.”
“It’s my house.”
“I’ve claimed your room as my own.”
He carried her up the stairs, smiling all the while, “I’m breaking up with you.”
“You can’t break up with me if I break up with you first.”
Touche. Childe leaned down to open the door, walking inside and swiftly kicking it closed with
his foot. It looked as if Lumine truly had taken over his bedroom. There was a vase of Snezhnayan
roses in the window, a discarded sword on the ground, and her paraphernalia in random places. It
added a certain something he could never quite capture, he wasn’t much for decor or homeyness.
Seeing Lumine’s flower-pins on the desk made him smile, it was as if they belonged there.
Usually, he would toss her into the bed and laugh at how angry she would get, but with how pale
she looked, he knew better than to poke the beast. Gently, he laid her down atop the bed covers
and stepped away.
Lumine pushed herself up the second he began working on his scarf. With narrowed eyes, she
watched him pull it off and toss it in the hamper, then work on the buttons of his jacket. “Childe,
what’re you doing?”
He cast her a blank glance, “I need a shower.”
There was an attached bathroom, fortunately, and he did look pretty rough. “How’d you get to
Snezhnaya anyway?”
“Stole a boat.” He spoke as he pulled off the jacket, “I sailed for five days straight… Why do you
look so surprised? I grew up on boats, girlie, I’ve been through worse.”
She wasn’t surprised, actually. She’d heard Michial’s stories of the hurricanes in Morepesok and
the many times he fished during them. It was more so the fact that Childe was so utterly
nonplussed about sailing for five days straight just to catch up with her. For her. He did that for
her.
Her cheeks paled once more. She tensed, holding herself on the bed covers with her palms. A
nervous shiver trailed down her spine, a warning of what was to come if she managed to spit it out.
“I…”
He paused and looked at her curiously.
“I… lo…”
“Are you okay?”

She was going to faint. Another cold shiver racked her body. “I-I love…”
A tense pause. Childe’s growing smile, the one that mocked her so viciously. His fingers lingered
on the buttons of his shirt as he froze and stared at the struggling girl on his bed.
“I. Love…” deep breaths, very deep breaths, “...I love… porch swings.”
Porch swings.
Instantly, Childe’s face fell into a glare, “So I heard.”
Lumine only sighed in relief as the cold shivers disappeared. She watched him grumble about
murdering Sacha, before grabbing extra clothes and turning towards the bathroom and
disappearing around the corner. He shut the door, and she listened to the sound of the water
running as he finished undressing.
Lumine put her head in her hands and groaned. It was like when Jean got sick from the stress of
work, Lumine felt sick from realizing that she was in love with Childe. And she wanted to tell him
that, but each time the words sat on her tongue, she felt like collapsing.
She couldn’t believe the state she was in. Tipsy and dizzy, nauseous, effected so greatly by three
simple words. Taking a deep breath, she slipped off the bed and worked at pulling her dress off.
With Childe in the shower, Lumine dug around in his drawers until she found an old shirt. She
pulled it over her head with a grumble and a yawn. All she needed to help her feel better was a
good night’s sleep, and she would stop her incessant affection from being put into words when she
was not coming off the high of fire water and pudding.
By tomorrow morning, she would not even think about loving Childe, nor would she be tempted
to tell him so.
She crawled under the covers and blew the candles out, letting darkness encompass the room.
The sound of the running water from the bathroom was enough to lull her into drowsy, clouded
dozing. Sober Lumine would despise the thought of falling asleep in a Fatui Harbinger’s bed.
Drunk Lumine despised it as well, but she was far more willing to accept the reality of the
situation.
The reality being this: She was pseudo-dating that Fatui Harbinger.
They were, of course, broken up at the moment, yet she wore his shirt nonetheless. She snuggled
his pillow despite her bitter feelings. And she got excited the second she heard the water shut off.
She was far too under the influence to stop smiling as she waited for him to leave the bathroom.
Several minutes later, the door opened and the light flickered away. The sound of his feet padding
against the floor was the only noise besides the faint laughter from the backyard. They were the
first to retire for the evening, it had to be around midnight by this time.
“Lumi,” he whispered, standing over the bed and rubbing a towel through his wet hair. He wore
sweatpants and socks, though no shirt, “Are you asleep?”
She huffed tiredly, “Yes.”
He laughed, “Do you want me to sleep in a different room? I will if you want me to.”
Of course he would be a good person and respect her boundaries. Of course he would ask for her
consent before crawling into bed with her.
What would someone like Lisa say? Probably something incredibly sexy, like ‘enter our love
chamber, biceps man’. Lumine couldn’t bring herself to even come close to those words.
Instead, she rolled over and raised one arm, “I’m still upset with you, but I suppose I’ll allow you
to keep me warm for the night.”
And that was enough for him.
Childe had been having quite a few teenage-dream romance fantasies about Lumine as of late. He
didn’t quite live that way when he was an actual teenager, having spent most of his time burning
off steam by fighting, and eventually being enrolled into the Fatui at 16. The recruits frequently
had romances or flings between each other, but he’d never cared much for that. It was exactly why
he was appointed as an Agent far more quickly than anyone else under Pulcinella’s command.
Now was as good a time as any to fall in love, he thought. He never planned to in the first place,
but after his bout of denial - which seemed far less chaotic and world ruining as Lumine’s in
retrospect - he had come to accept the situation as agreeable. One of his fantasies was holding her
while they slept, and waking up with his face buried in her hair. Just last year, he’d have called
himself weak for thinking such a thing.
Having a family never made him weak, so how could having a lover? In fact, after the events
with Teucer two weeks ago, he felt stronger than ever.
Slowly, Ajax crawled into bed and wrapped an arm around her waist. His fingers brushed against
her bare thighs, making him smile into her hair and run them up her leg. She shivered beneath him,
earning yet another low laugh from the man spooning her from behind.
They molded together as if they were made for each other - they were, actually - and instantly
shifted into the most comfortable position. Childe abandoned her thigh and pulled her closer by the
hips, taking the liberty of resting his forearm against her chest. She held his hand and pushed one
foot between his legs, his other arm being used as the pillow beneath her head.
Childe had a feeling that he’d sleep well tonight. He closed his eyes and sighed, “Don’t get too
comfortable, I’ll be punishing you tomorrow for running off without telling me.”
Lumine, very promptly, bit his hand.
All Ajax could do was laugh once more, “Will you marry me?”
“...Gross… Are you offering me babushka’s ring?”
He tensed up, “How do you know about her ring?”
“I just know these kinds of things, Jaxie.”

Jaxie. He leaned down to dig his teeth into her shoulder, making her jump and kick his shin. “Is
babushka’s ring what you want, zvezda moya?” Roughly yanking her closer, he kissed the spot he
had bitten, “I could go get it right now, I know mama wouldn’t mind giving it to me.”
She kicked him again, “No! I’ll kill you!”
“Is that a no to my proposal?”
“Yes!”
He hummed in amusement, “Now you’re saying yes? You shouldn’t play with someone’s heart
like that.”
She should’ve elbowed him in the stomach the first chance she got. Instead, Lumine stiffened like
a board, gripping his arm closer to her chest and fluffing up the pillow with a fist. Frustrated, she
laid back down and ignored the feeling of his lips on her neck. “I-I’m going to sleep. Goodnight,
kozyol.”
Ajax paused. “Where’d you learn that word?”
“Anthon told me that it’s a term of endearment.”
“Ah, so you’re trying to be affectionate?”
“Should I regret doing so?”
“All you did was call me an asshole, you know.”
“That’s much better than what I was thinking.”
He perked up, “What were you thinking? You never call me anything cute, tell me.”
“No, I don’t think I will.” Lumine shut her eyes and cuddled closer into the blankets.
“Lumi Lu… tell me what you thought that word meant.”
“No.”
“I’ll make you tell me.”
“No you won’t.”
His hand brushed against her thigh once more. His voice lowered to a whisper, “You
underestimate what I’m willing to do to you.”
A beat of tense silence. Lumine exhaled a shaky breath and gripped his hand closer. He trailed
one finger down her thigh, and then back up, underneath the borrowed shirt she wore. Slowly,
gently, he moved to her bare waist.
And proceeded to tickle her mercilessly.
“What the hell are they doing up there?”
Pavol glanced at the ceiling in disgust. He downed yet another drink before pouring himself
another. As he was at it, he poured one for Sacha and papa as well. The three men had retired to
the sitting area to continue their discussion on the semantics of backyard grilling when the chaos
began.
A girl’s laughter. It sounded like Lumine’s. She was cracking up at something incredibly funny,
apparently. The sound was coming from upstairs, most likely Ajax’s room. Michial’s cheeks
turned pink at the sound of his future daughter in law’s hysterics.
“Man,” Sacha threw back another shot, his eyes dim and dead, “didn’t know Jax had it in him.”
A bang. The sound of something heavy hitting the floor. All three men flinched at the noise, and
the sudden silence that followed. It was as if one of them had fallen off the bed, and the laughter
instantaneously ceased.
Pavol sighed, “Do I want to know what just happened?”
“No, brother. I don’t think you do. Just let them have their fun.”
Morning arrived far too quickly.
Childe was never very good at pretending, he knew that his breathing was unsteady and he was
fidgeting far too much, but to admit that it was time to get out of bed would be a shame when there
was the love of his life in his arms.
She always slept so soundly, even next to a murderer. That was something he adored about
Lumine, she was unaffected by nearly everything he did - except for the Osial thing, but in his
defense he wasn’t too keen on doing that either.
The bed was warm, but the air in his room was cold. He pulled Lumine closer and nestled his
nose into her hair, making her groan in half-asleep annoyance. She could be a heavy sleeper, it was
yet another aspect about her personality that made him concerned, and it was exactly why she
needed him to stick around; someone had to make sure she didn’t get attacked in the middle of the
night.
It was far later in the morning than he usually stayed in bed. Light streamed in through his
curtains, making Lumine’s hair sparkle like gold. Childe closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep
just for a few more minutes, just to hold her one second longer. Once she awoke, she’d most likely
swat him away like a cicin.
The day ahead would be exciting. He wasn’t exactly off work, but he did have the freedom to
create his own schedule and be independent, as long as his actions fulfilled the Tsaritsa’s goals. He
planned to take Lumine to visit a statue of the cryo Archon, study how she gained the power of
visions so easily, report his findings to the Tsaritsa through letters, and then make his family
dinner. He, also, would take advantage of Lumine’s hungover and drowsy state to do something
he’d like for her to stay completely unaware of for the time being.
If he was going to do it, then now would be the perfect time. Slowly, carefully, as if she was a
sleeping feral dog, he pulled away from her body and lifted the covers off him. She buried her face
into the pillow and frowned, though he quickly tucked the sheets and blankets back underneath her
side. Standing beside the bed now, he paused to make sure she didn’t shift.
After Lumine’s breathing steadied, Childe was back into action. He pulled on a shirt and left the
room, clicking the door shut as quietly as he could. Most of the house was already awake, bustling
about downstairs. The little ones were still asleep, but anybody old enough to enjoy coffee and
fresh morning air had risen long ago. They had the courtesy to stay quiet.
He padded down the stairs and joined the rest of his family. Papa automatically handed him a cup
of coffee and smacked his back, “Good job, son.”
“Uh, thanks,” Childe took the mug, “not sure why you’re congratulating me, though.”
“J-Just…” he went pink and turned away, “I’m proud of you.”
Okay. He watched papa’s retreat into the kitchen. Next was Pavol and his wife, who were
cuddling half-asleep in the living room. The eldest brother sent him a glance over the back of the
couch, “Man, you’re all grown up now.”
Okay? Ajax sighed and took a sip of his coffee.
“I’m proud of you, too, man,” Sacha approached, holding up his hand for a high five that went
ignored. He frowned and dropped it.
“I don’t know what they’re on about,” Anastasia’s husband rolled his eyes from his spot at the
table, “do you, Ana?”
She shook her head, “Not at all. And I don’t really care, honestly.”
Well, if she didn’t care, then neither would he. Ajax brushed past Sacha and approached the
barstool at the kitchen. Mama stood at the stone-fire stove and pushed a dish of food inside
meticulously. She always worked hard first thing in the morning, she was the one who taught Ajax
the importance of starting the day out well.
And he’d started it better than ever.
“Mama, do you have a second?” He leaned on the counter and watched her flit about the kitchen,
“I wanted to talk to you.”
She dusted her hands off on a towel, “About what? How you tried to kill your brother last night?”
“Oh, I actually forgot that I did that…”
She grimaced, “Right. Then, are you going to talk about how you made my dear angel Lumi
cry?”
“I’ve done plenty of things to make her cry before,” Ajax sighed flatly, “she was just drunk
enough last night to actually show it.”
“That’s not something to brag about!”
“Never said I was bragging, mama. Listen,” he tried his best to look innocent and pleading,
furrowing his brows together in that pouty way, “do you have a second to go upstairs with me? I
wanted to look at something.”
“Fine, fine. Just don’t try to kill anyone on our way up there.” It was obvious she was angry with
him. She wouldn’t usually be so passive aggressive, though Childe wasn’t too concerned over it.
She would cheer up the second he explained himself.
But no promises on not killing anyone on his way up there.
“So, Lumi and I were talking last night…”
Eva narrowed her gaze as she followed him up the stairs, “About what?”
“Nothing bad,” she mentioned the porch swing thing again, that had to be the worst of it, “it was
actually a very… revealing conversation.”
“Ew! I don’t wanna know that stuff, Jaxie!”
“I don’t mean it like that,” he held out a hand, “I mean we talked about babushka’s ring.”
Grandmother’s ring. Eva’s mother, the matriarch of the matriarch, who was an incredibly stern
woman with a deep love for her grandchildren. Ajax still had her shittily made sweater.
Pavol had been offered the ring when planning to propose to his wife, but refused on account of
how the ring looked. The gold was old and tarnished, and the diamond had black chunks in it. It
had two pearls on either side of the diamond, and mama would always twist it around her finger
when she was upset.
As Pavol, Sacha, and Ajax grew older, she had sat them down one day to explain that if they ever
wished to propose to a very special woman, they may use that ring. It was just a matter of who got
to it first.
Eva stared at him. She literally buzzed with frantic, excited energy. Her eyes were wide, her
fingers shaking. Slowly, she lowered her head, and buried her face into her palms.
Ajax put a hand on her back, “Don’t get your hopes up, mama, I just wanted to look at it.”
“H-How could I not?” She lifted her head, her cheeks wet with overly-dramatic tears, “My little
boy! Oh my goodness, m-my plan worked!”
“Yes, yes, you’ve won, you diabolical and manipulative force of nature. Now, are you going to
show me the ring, or not?”
Eva gasped. She continued to buzz, bouncing back and forth on her heels. Ajax couldn’t help but
smile at the sight of his mother so incredibly electrified.
“Do you think she’ll say yes?”
That was laughable.
“Not at all, no.”
Chapter End Notes
What happened in that one scene was that he tickled Lumine, she was laughing, and
then she kicked him so hard he rolled off the bed. True romance.
Ajax & Lumine's Incredibly Terrible First Date
Chapter Notes
Babushka’s ring had seen better days.
Childe kept it between his fingers, holding it to the light streaming in from the window and
inspecting every scrape and tarnish. Eva stood at his shoulder with the biggest smile he’d seen her
wear in a long time.
“You might have to get a good jeweler to fix up the gold,” she advised, “and then perhaps replace
the diamond with something of nicer quality.”
Childe frowned at the thought. It wasn’t a problem of mora, it was a problem of time and energy.
He fully intended to marry Lumine - the whole universe intended that for him - but the realistic
side of his brain reminded himself that she would, most likely, say no.
“I have no idea when I’ll actually do it,” he slipped the ring back into its box and snapped the lid
shut, “There’s a few things that need to be done beforehand.”
His mother’s smile fell, “Like what?”
“Nothing big, just warm her up to the Fatui, maybe take her on an actual date for the first time."
He didn’t think it was possible for mama’s smile to fall even further. “I thought you were
considering quitting the Fatui.”
He was. But a consideration did not mean he was about to turn in his resignation papers and go
wild.
“Mama,” Childe wrapped a comforting arm around her, “if I quit then you, papa and the rascals
wouldn’t be taken care of anymore. And besides that, I’d get my head cut off.”
“W-What?!”
“Well...” he hated to talk about a royal execution to his mother, of all people, “I know too much,
the Tsaritsa can’t afford a loose end. She’d have me killed.”
“...Oh.”
Yes, oh. Eva had to have known that, no matter how sunshiney and wonderful the future she
imagined. Childe pulled her into a hug and buried his nose in her hair. “It’ll be okay, mamushka. I
won’t let myself be taken down that easy.”
He had faced far worse in the abyss. Having his cake and eating it too concerning Lumine and the
Fatui would not be a problem at all.
If only that fortune teller was not so damn annoying.
It was the week of his return to Liyue that she cornered him. He was covered in dandelion seeds -
it took him a while to pick them all off, he kept finding them in odd places - and was feeling rather
irritable. The fortune teller demanded an audience with him, though it was not a regular audience,
as she demanded it while he was commanding a battalion of armed soldiers who were lined up and
ready to kill things. She, somehow, squeezed through security, managed to get his attention, and
requested to speak to him.
Out of respect for her courage to waltz into a Fatui camp unarmed, he acquiesced.
And he wished that he hadn’t. It had haunted him since.
She pleaded with him to not kill her, stating that she would never have told him if not for the
rumors she heard of him and the traveler. The gossip in the streets of Liyue said that the Harbinger
and the traveler were together at some point. The fortune teller believed this, and explained that it
gave her hope for Lumine’s future to come to its rightful fruition, with him at her side.
Childe didn’t kill her, he wasn’t much for murdering old ladies. He simply assigned more guards
to her, gave her access to better lodging, and swore her to absolute secrecy.
This was one aspect of his future that he could much more easily ignore.
“Do I have your blessing to give her this?” He tightened his grip on the ring box, glancing up at
his mother with a smile, “I’m not sure when it’ll happen, maybe even years from now, but…”
She lunged. She lunged like a cat on a mouse, nearly strangling him in a tight armed hug around
his neck, “Yes! Ajax of course! You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for you to find
someone to make you happy. Goodness,” she pulled back with a heavy exhale, “I know Lumi will
take care of you, and you’ll take care of her. A-And she can help me keep you from killing Sacha.
It’s just perfect.”
He knew his mother and her unspoken thoughts. She had hope that Lumine would calm him
down, that he’d be less of a bad influence on Teucer, that his visits to Morepesok would not be
nearly as chaotic. Perhaps she could sleep restfully at night without wondering if he was dead
somewhere.
He wasn’t sure if Lumine could simmer him down, even if she wanted to. He wouldn’t be able to
simmer her down, that was the beauty of it all. That was why he had fallen for her. All he needed
to do now was warm her up to his lifestyle, find her brother, and marry her.
Easy as pie.
Childe gave mama another hug, pulling her close and burying his face into her hair. Downstairs,
the rest of the family went about their day with blissful ignorance, while the younger ones began to
awaken in the rooms down the hall.
He slipped the ring box into his pocket and stepped back. As Childe was about to mention that
he’d be willing to make breakfast for the family, a high pitched clearing of a throat interrupted his
thoughts.
He froze. Eva froze. They’d left the door to the bedroom open, but Lumine was several rooms
down and still fast asleep. Childe forced a smile on his face and glanced at the source of the noise.
“Paimon heard every word.”
Of course Paimon did. “Oh yeah?” He narrowed his eyes, “What’d we talk about?”
It was not as if Childe hated Paimon, he actually found her pretty funny. The dynamic between
her and Lumine reminded him of Anthon and Tonia, and their shenanigans had always been a
delight - see, cocogoat incident. Paimon didn’t bother him in the least. She knew when to
disappear, and when to stop talking, even if she chose not to half the time.
Plus, her very existence was sort of strange. But he didn’t question it.
“Paimon heard…” she floated casually, pausing for anticipation, “something about marrying
Lumi?”
Eva clasped her hands together, “Isn’t it great? I’m going to start working on her dress as soon as
possible!”
“Of course you’d be excited,” her gaze fell flat, “but Mrs. Eva, have you ever thought that Lumi
isn’t ready for marriage?”
“Why wouldn’t she be? I was married at 20.”
“But Lumi’s just so…” Paimon buried her face into her hands and bobbed up and down in the air,
“She’s such a baby!”
Childe sighed, “You’re a baby too.”
“But Lumine’s even more of a baby! A-And you’re a baby, loser Harbinger, you’re both babies!
How long have you two even known each other?”
She was talking as if she was hundreds of years old. With her being a floating elf/imp/fairy full of
secrets, he wouldn’t doubt that her appearance would not betray her age. And truthfully, he was
fully aware that he was a baby, as much as he hated to admit it. The other Harbingers made that
clear every chance they got, he wasn’t nicknamed Childe out of affection.
He was simply a very dangerous baby. As was Lumine.
He crossed his arms and glared, “What’re you worried about, Paimon?”
“I-It’s just… well…” she twiddled her fingers in a rare show of shyness, “Paimon thinks that she
hasn’t been very good at keeping Lumine from making terrible decisions lately… S-So Paimon
wants to make sure and let you know what she thinks!”
“And what is that?”
“That Paimon will slit your throat with a butter knife if you hurt her. And Paimon would like
infinite mora and access to the Fatui bank accounts… Oh, and Paimon thinks this is a terrible
decision.”
Eva was into action immediately, as a good mother always was. “Paimon! I’m making chocolate
pancakes again!”
“R-Really- Wait!” She stomped a foot in the air, “You can’t distract Paimon with delicious
foodstuffs! She’s saying something profound here!”
“You don’t even know what profound means!”
“Yes Paimon does! And Paimon has… Paimon has,” she twisted around to yank a butter knife
from the back of her dress, “A weapon!”
Finally. Childe had been considering getting a special dagger made for her, one that wasn’t heavy
enough to make her sink. He had a feeling that the world would become much more interesting if
Paimon had a knife. Except this one was made for spreading butter.
“I’m terrified,” a sardonic tone and a folding of his arms, “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on hurting
Lumine, or letting anything else hurt her either.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
Paimon’s eyes narrowed, her hand trembled, “What if your weird Queen asks you to kill her?
What then?”
A beat of silence. Tension filling the space like a balloon filling with air. The butter knife in her
hand shook comically.
And of course, Childe handled the situation the way he always did. With a giggle and an innocent
tilt of his head. He closed his eyes and smiled, “I’ll cross that bridge if we ever come to it, okay?”
If he got his way, and he always did, that bridge would not even exist.
Paimon exploded, “Lumine is an emotionally stunted and traumatized troll lady and she does not
need your weird ass making her worse!”
“...Did you just say ass? I’ve never heard you curse before-“
“You have to gain Paimon’s blessing and trust before you propose!”
Eva and Ajax stood in silence. Paimon’s words echoed in their minds. Her blessing and trust.
“Just buy her some food,” Eva whispered.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Childe gave his mother’s hand a squeeze, “Could you keep
her happy today, though? I wanted to take Lumi somewhere.”
“Of course!” Helpful as always, Eva left his side and approached the frantic and angry pixie. She
snatched the butter knife from her hand, “This is my good silver! It is not for stabbing or slicing!
Go downstairs and eat your pancakes!”
“B-But…”
“Go!”
Eva was using her mom voice, which could cause the hardest of hearts to tremble. Without the
butter knife in hand, Paimon could only pout and shake a fist at the smiling Harbinger.
If Lumine truly was an emotionally stunted and traumatized troll lady - and she was, he already
knew that - then he would just have to find a way to help her not be an emotionally stunted and
traumatized troll lady.
First order of business: Take Lumine on a date, tackle her trauma, kick its ass.
Second order of business : Get her to trust the Fatui so he can stay a Harbinger forever.
Third order of business: Use the Harbinger power to get stronger, marry her, and then conquer the
world.
His life was laid out before his eyes. And it would be amazing.
Childe rushed downstairs, avoiding yet another death glare from Paimon and the complaints of
his siblings. He gathered a plate of food and brought it back to his room for Lumine.
She, of course, was face down and spread eagle in the bed, still asleep.
He set the food down on the nightstand and dug into his closet for every coat he owned. There
were several from when he was younger and smaller that might fit her, and perhaps if he bundled
her up enough she wouldn’t complain about the cold.
He knew this area of Snezhnaya like the back of his hand. Nestled behind a mountain or two was
a statue of the Tsaritsa he could take Lumine to visit. They could take a path up to a high peak
where he could get a birds eye view of the area, and perhaps chisel away at whatever denial still
lingered in her mind.
It was perfect.
It was not perfect.
“This isn’t a date, you know.”
He glanced at her with wide eyes, “Yeah it is. I woke you up this morning said ‘hey let’s go on a
date’, and then you groaned and tried to kick me.”
“And you took that as a yes?”
“Yep!”
Lumine was fortunate to not be getting sick from the bitter Snezhnayan air. Her cold shivers of
last night were a simple reaction to the utter disgust she felt at her moment of weakness, of course.
She decided, very promptly, that she would never drink again, and never risk her pride in that
manner as long as she may live.
She did not love Ajax Matvey ‘Childe, Tartaglia, Shitface’ Alekseev.
And she would never come close to saying it ever again. Or so she hoped.
“I love seeing you in my coat, you’re like a little sausage rolled in a pastry.”
She despised him.
“Your face is a little sausage rolled in a pastry.”
He ignored her, “What’s that thing called? A pig in a blanket? Or a hotdog, maybe?”
“Your face is a hotdog.”
Lumine went entirely disregarded, “And your cheeks are all pink, are you cold, comrade?”
Far too cold. The wind would not stop blowing, the sun would not come out, and no matter how
many of Childe’s extra jackets she wore, she still shivered.
She was wearing three of them. She was very thick at this moment, like a walking marshmallow,
though she could only dream of being roasted by a fire.
“Sweetheart,” an angry tone of voice, clenched teeth, shivering shoulders and poison lacing
every syllable, “tell me something, won’t you?”
“Yes, my angel?”
“Why did you take me here?”
“Where?”
“Childe, why are we standing on top of a mountain?!”
He glanced around, his hands on his hips and his eyes wide. He looked to the right, then the left,
then down the cliffside, and into the horizon. They were, indeed, on top of a mountain in the
middle of Snezhnaya, and he’d given three out of his four coats to her.
“Very astute, my love, we are on top of a mountain at the moment.”
And she was going to push him off this mountain if he kept that up.
It was lunchtime, and Lumine was of the opinion that she should be sitting at a table eating
something warm and delicious. Instead, Childe had dragged her out of his parents house, out of
Morepesok, and to this very ominous mountain in the distance. He dressed her in heavy coats and
boots and gloves. She shivered the entire journey, while he lifted his face to accept the bitter
breeze.
Childe seemed perfectly at home in the cold, that was his nature. Snowflakes fell into his hair,
and it didn’t even seem to bother him. He stood on top of the mountain as if he was born for it.
This was precisely why Lumine knew she didn’t love him. He grabbed the hood of her coat,
dragged her up the mountain path, and sat her down on the peak with no discernible explanation
for his malicious intent.
She was terrified.
“Stupid Harbingers, and stupid heights, and stupid unknown Gods, ruining my stupid life and
taking away my stupid wings.”
“What’d you say, babe?”
Lumine was mumbling in her attempt to complain without him hearing. She sent him a fake
smile, “Nothing at all. Just cursing your existence and thinking about my body splattered on the
ground like a dropped ice cream cone.”
“I won’t let that happen.” He turned away to face the side of the cliff, his hands on his hips and
his body silhouetted against the blowing snow. He seemed to be looking for something in the
distance, though how he was able to navigate through the white canvas below was unknown to
her.
That was exactly what worried her. If she slipped and fell off the mountain, how could he even
see her to catch her? She could always use her glider, but with the gusts of wind as strong as they
were, she would simply smack into the cliffside like a mosquito.
“Why are we here?”
He took a deep breath before smiling, “Paimon threatened me with a butter knife this morning
while you were asleep.”
“Good. She’s finally being useful.”
“And she so kindly informed me that you have the emotional wherewithal of a brick.”
“Yes, so kind.”
“Which I already knew,” he shrugged and turned his gloved palms up, “but I feel like if we’re to
be married-”
“We are not.”
“-then you should work on those deathly fears of yours.”
Lumine was working on those fears. Every time she visited Mondstadt, she’d climb to the top of
the cathedral and look at the ground. She often cried as she did so, but she did it nonetheless. There
were parts of Liyue she hadn’t explored for the simple reason that the mountains were far too tall.
Offended, she glared at the back of his head, “I haven’t always been like this, you know.”
She’d told him that before, very long ago. She used to fight gods, she had informed. He could
believe it. “Well, then what’s the problem?”
How to describe her life being ruined in the most succinct way possible?
Lumine curled up further on the boulder she sat upon. She pulled her knees to her chest and
buried her hands beneath the three layers of coats she wore. It was difficult to move, but even under
her many borrowed garments, she was still freezing. Childe continued to search for something in
the distance, though she knew he was listening, he always was.
That was nice, she supposed. She never had to repeat herself for him. While that was most likely a
result of being a Harbinger and constantly having to collect intelligence for the Tsaritsa, it was still
a nice quality to have.
Lumine glanced down at her snow covered boots. They were Eva’s, as her usual white shoes
would not nearly be warm enough. And in Childe’s coats, she did feel quite like a rolled sausage.
Lumine could only frown, “If I tell you, promise you won’t go off telling your Queen about it?”
“Why do you think I would?” He glanced at her now, his hair covered in melting snowflakes and
his cheeks pink from the cold. A puff of steam came from his mouth as he tilted his head, “You
distrust me that much?”
She put an arrogant hand to her chest and closed her eyes, “It isn’t distrust, it’s me being realistic.
You may be head over heels in love with me, but you’re still loyal to the Tsaritsa. Except, of
course, if you’re willing to quit your job for me.”
Childe’s gaze narrowed. Lumine met it with a mocking grin.
“No, I won’t.”
“Right,” she leaned back and rolled her eyes, “because the fortune teller was so wrong before
about us being starmates.”
Childe could not even enjoy the fact that she’d accepted being his starmate. She just couldn’t help
herself from ruining the moment by reminding him of the fortune teller. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that I’ve spoken to her, and I know things now.”
She knew things. “Like what?”
“You tell me.”

Of course she’d dance around him. He was grateful that it was brought up, nonetheless, he could
use it to his advantage. “I’ll tell you, if you tell me why you’re afraid of heights.”
“I thought we already discussed my terrible-ness.”
They had, many times. It wasn’t a very good trade, as she could always just ask the fortune teller
next time she was in Liyue. There was no one to spill the news about her past to him besides
Aether, and she was sure he’d never want to breathe a word of it to someone like Childe.
Yet, this was the man who kept asking her to marry him, the man that she would share food with
forever. And as much as she wanted to ignore that, it wouldn’t hurt to let him in an inch or two.
Yet, that was all. He could put his foot in the door, but actually living in her heart was an entirely
different matter. Lumine made friends easily, but that’s all they would ever stay, friends at an
arm’s length.
The fact still stands. Lumine is not in love with the 11th Fatui Harbinger. She was just far too
trusting, that was all.
“Well, you know how Aether is missing?”
He moved from the edge of the mountain to take the spot beside her, “Yeah, I remember you
mentioning that.”
“He didn’t just wander off or anything, he was taken from me by someone, or something. I’m not
entirely sure.”
White hair and arrogant eyes, an outstretched hand that could do so much damage.
“Who was it?”

Lumine shrugged, “I’m not sure, that’s why I’m traveling, I want to find her and make her give
him back, i-if he’s still… you know, alive.”
Childe folded his arms over his knees and rested his chin on them, “Why’d she take him?”
“It was something about the arrogance of mankind. My brother and I were travelers, we would go
from world to world and I guess she didn’t like that.” Might as well spit out the whole story while
she was at it, no matter how sick the memory made her feel, “She attacked us, captured Aether, and
ripped out my wings-“
“Your wings?”
She laughed at the look on his face, “They weren’t feathery or anything, I never could feel them
until they were gone. I didn’t think they were even attached to me, but I’ve got this pain now.
Barbara says it’s called phantom pain, it’s what happens when someone loses a limb.”
“Huh,” he stared, “and this place where it all happened?”
“Somewhere here in Teyvat.”
“Really? When?”
Lumine could only shrug, “Not sure. I am a creature of where, not when. The timeline of a world
has never mattered to me. Actually,” she put her hand to her chin, “it’s odd that you ask when.”
It wasn’t too odd, he thought. “You’ve only been to Mondsadt and Liyue, and here now, but you
don’t recognize anything. Nobody could guess that you’ve been to Teyvat before, it’s like you’re a
complete stranger to it all.”
“You have a point. I guess I am,” another shrug, “this world was vastly different when Aether and
I arrived. I just fell through the air and woke up, and everything was… Well, like this.”
That explained the fear of heights. He’d experienced falling before, waking up with the world
around you changed in every way possible. He had realized through Skirk, though, that no matter
how hard he fell, there would always be someone there when he landed.
That just had to be proven to Lumine.
But first, a matter of high priority called. “Lumi?”
“Yes?”
“Are you human?”
She only shrugged.
Dear Gods, she probably wasn’t human. That was fine, of course, Childe was a very open minded
person. “If we have kids, will they be only half human?” Will they have wings and every vision
possible?
“Are you human?” Lumine sent him a look, “That foul legacy transformation seems pretty
impactful on your body.”
Childe did dream as the foul legacy on occasion. These drowning and clouded nightmares with a
distorted voice and burning hatred for mankind. It was never him, but what he could so willingly
become. But if his children did somehow end up with badass powers and strength from the abyss,
he wouldn’t complain. “Maybe one day I won’t be, who knows?”
She looked away, “Ah, well our children might come out as abominations to mankind with both
our genes mixed together. Probably shouldn’t have them. We should probably part ways and never
speak again.”
Childe grinned and nudged her with his arm, “You can’t get out of this that easily.”
Truthfully, she could. She’d said several times that she never wanted to see him again, and once
he took her seriously. He had respected her wish to never see him again after the Osial incident. If
not for Teucer, he would still be ruining her dates from afar and keeping tabs through other eyes. If
Lumine told him in all seriousness that he was to leave her life forever, he would. He supposed he
was a bit of a follower of Barbatos at times, if love is commanded then is it truly love?
Not that he was an expert on those types of things. Lumine was the only woman he had, and
would, ever love. That was all he needed, it was exactly why the stars meshed them together.
“I just hope our kids don’t have feathers, is all.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and
pulled her close as she sent him a flat look.
“I don’t have feathers, I’m not a pigeon. You’re being pretty nosy into the inner workings of a
lady. Gonna ask when I got my first period too?”
“Oh! So you do procreate!”
“Gross!” Her nose wrinkled in disgust, “Don’t say that word in the context of me ever again! But
to answer your question… uh, maybe?”
That was insightful. He’d take a maybe over a shrug. “We can try, at least.”
“Aren’t you charming? You’re so confident that we’ll be starting a family, have you forgotten that
I’m upset with you?”
Childe buried his nose into her hair, “About trying to kill Sacha last night, or are you just still
frustrated about losing to my mother’s diabolical schemes?”
“Both,” she huffed, “and I still haven’t let go of the Osial thing.”
Childe groaned, “That was ages ago! It’s been, what? Five-ish months now?”
About so, with their separation and the subsequent travels between countries. They’d known each
other for almost a year, then, having met at the rite of descent, traveled together, spent weeks
lazing around Liyue as they waited on the details of the funeral to come together. Those were the
good days, when Childe tricked Huffman into visiting Liyue, when he danced with her in the street,
when he dropped whales on Kaeya and took her to dinner. They were friends, then.
But they also weren’t at all. Both of them knew it, they’d never been just friends.
“Now that I’ve explained my thing with heights,” Lumine sat up straight and bumped closer, his
arm still around her, “you have to explain what the fortune teller told you.”
Childe frowned. He wasn’t sure exactly what Lumine knew, if he could get away with lying or
not. Like all things in life, it was worth a try.
“She said that we’d get married…” he spoke slowly, staring at the ground and reminding himself
to not flicker his eyes to the left out of habit, “And you’d be my cute little wife, following me
around while I do the Tsaritsa’s will, watching me fight, kissing me all day, fighting me-“
She gasped, “You want me to watch you fight and fight you?”
“Of course! You’re the best fight I’ve ever had.”
He wasn’t trying to be charming. He didn’t have the intent to make her blush and bury her face
into her hands. Yet, flustered nonetheless, she nearly pushed him off the rock they sat on, “D-Don’t
say stuff like that!”
“You’re perfect,” his heart skipped a beat, there was no use hiding his feelings anymore, “Not
only for me, but just in general. You’re so perfect, Lumine.”
“S-Stop!”
He was enjoying her squeaks far too much to stop, “I adore you.”
“I want to conquer the world with you.”

“I loathe you!”
Childe leaned in as she leaned away. Half sitting up, Lumine was stuck under him on this cold,
uncomfortable boulder. Amused, he narrowed his eyes and smiled, “I’ll stop… only if you jump
off this mountain.”
Her heart skipped a sickening beat. “W-What?”
“I’ll be there when you fall,” he raised a hand to brush his thumb across her cheek, “I think you
need that proven to you.”
“...But Aether wasn’t…”
“I know, and I’m sorry about that,” a rare moment of genuine apology, a furrowed brow and a
very real frown, “but there was someone. There was Paimon, Amber, everybody in Mondsadt. And
now there’s me… And if what you said nearly a year ago about Aether and I being similar is true,
then he wouldn’t give up on returning to your side that easily either. It just might… take him some
time to catch up.”
Lumine stared up at him. Here she was, pinned to a rock by a Harbinger, listening to a pep talk
from the man who almost destroyed Liyue, and accepting his encouragement - of all the things - to
face her subconscious fear of falling forever and waking up alone.
Eva’s mom had even said it her first night in Snezhnaya. When she wakes up, they’ll all still be
there.
Childe broke the silence, his sudden sly smile like shattering glass. “Now, jump!”
Jump. Now. Just jump, because no matter how high of a plunge, she would not wake up alone.
Lumine kissed him.
And it only lasted two seconds.

Because, like all wonderful things in life, Lumine just had to ruin it.
Her fingers in his hair, their lips pressed together. His eyes closed as he deepened the kiss upon
immediate contact. Lumine tightening her grip. One… Two…
“I know that you won’t be part of the Fatui forever.”
Childe froze. Lumine’s lips brushed against his as she whispered.
“And I know that absolutely drives you mad, doesn’t it?”
She knew.
He was up and storming away instantly. Lumine’s heart fell into her stomach as she watched his
retreat. It happened quickly, his silence and refusal to look at her, how he put one foot on the edge
of the mountain peak, and leaned into the wind.
“Stay here.”
Before she could respond, he jumped, opened his gliders, and disappeared into the blowing
snow.
Lumine had made Ajax frustrated plenty of times. There was the barely concealed frustration that
he bore with a tight smile. There was the exhausted frustration that made him roll his eyes and gaze
at her emotionlessly. There was the passionate frustration that made him push her against a wall
and kiss her roughly.
Then, there was this.
He only said two words. He did not even deign to say goodbye. He was so determined to get away
from her that he literally jumped off a mountain to do so. All because she mentioned what the
fortune teller had seen.
And she thought she was the only one in denial anymore.
It was a nice feeling to know that she could still piss him off so thoroughly, even if her stomach
and heart both clenched uncomfortably at the idea. What the fortune teller said was absolutely true,
it did drive him mad.
But frankly, Lumine was also being driven mad. She had spent a week fighting a losing battle
against his family, slowly sinking deeper into this terrible pit called feelings, and finally when he
shows up, the world returns to its rightful axis and she suddenly feels whole again. It had only been
about 12 days of separation, and she was already feeling uneasy. She was going mad, not him.
Lumine did not sever ties easily. Before the Golden House, she spent nearly every day mooching
off his mora and napping on the couch in his office. He made her laugh, he listened to her, he had
opinions and stories and was passionate about what he did. He always moved her to the inside of
the sidewalk so she wouldn’t get knocked down by the crowds of people. He always managed to
lift her mood with some dumb joke. He always managed to sit her down long enough to think and
breathe and take in the world with patience.
It wasn’t particularly the Golden house fight that cut their tie, in retrospect she found it
exhilarating. It was Osial, it was how he was willing to let innocent people be killed. She knew it
went against his morals, but he did it anyway.
Lumine forced that tie to sever. But as with grumpy Diluc, or sly Kaeya, or lazy Venti, she
couldn’t bring herself to forget the good parts. That was her moral code. Unlike Childe, she would
actually stick to it.
Unfortunately for him, though, she was not above a small amount of emotional manipulation for
the sake of spite, just on occasion, as a treat to herself.
“Oh dear,” Dramatic, Lumine put the back of her hand to her forehead, “I have been abandoned
on this mountain by that evil man! I suppose I have no other choice but to ignore his wishes and
run away!”
The boulders and snow around her did not reply.
Lumine started down the path in fake joy, feeling mildly like breaking Childe’s nose with her
palm. “And if I die… then it shall be all his fault!”
That it shall. She turned in the direction he left, and promptly went the other way. The blowing
snow would cover her footprints, and if she was correct in seeing that pale blue light in the
distance, she might find a statue of the Cryo Archon during her spiteful temper tantrum.
Laughing to herself, Lumine did the opposite of what he said, and left the mountain behind.
Little did she know, Childe had his own plan in mind.
He wasn’t sure what came over him. It was two seconds of kissing Lumine, two seconds of
processing her words, and an instant shatter of his good mood.
Apparently, the fortune teller was not watched closely enough. The first thing he’d do upon return
to Liyue was increase security even more around her. It was already tight, how she got away long
enough to tell Lumine that fortune was beyond him.
Fortunately for him, Snezhnaya was a land of opportunity.
Mid-glide, he raised a hand to pull his mask over his face. The power of his delusion jolted him
with a sudden charge of energy, making him smile as the cold air around him crackled. Below, was
a small camp of Fatui soldiers meandering about.
What better way to warm his future wife up to his main contact of power than to stage an intricate
diversion?
He landed in the middle of the camp with a flash of purple electro. It was why he wore his mask,
the soldiers that scrambled away instantly recognized his status. Childe straightened up as the
recruits bowed in sudden, shocked respect.
“L-Lord Harbinger?” The pyro archer had zero idea which one he was, but only Harbingers wore
masks like that, and only a Harbinger could crackle with electricity all while wearing a hydro
vision at his belt. It was obvious who had fallen from the sky into their camp.
Childe did not bother with niceties. Lumine was waiting for him on that mountain, probably
steaming with anger at having been ditched. “Tartaglia, the 11th. Who are you serving under?”
“P-Pulcinella, sir!”
That didn’t surprise him. Old Pul had a steel grip on the country. “Oh, I used to serve as an agent
under him. Does he still wear ugly shoes?”
Crickets. He snorted at the uncomfortable silence, nobody dared to talk about Pulcinella’s
incredibly clownish shoes.
“Listen, I’m stealing you all away for a bit. I’ll tell Pulcinella myself why you aren’t doing your
work, so don’t worry,” he had a soft spot for the 11th anyway, everybody knew that, though that
was more so because Tartaglia unintentionally made him laugh, “I need a job done for me.”
The job, of course, being life threatening and rather complicated, as all wonderful things in life
were.
Childe was pleased to hear the chorus of ‘yes sir’ and ‘of course sir’. This camp was rather small,
but he didn’t need much to carry out the plan. If his mother had taught him anything, it was that
simplicity was the key. He folded his arms behind his back and walked among the recruits, his
head held high. “When I was gliding over here, I noticed a group of hilichurls below. They had a
frostarm lawachurl with them. Here’s what I’d like you to do…”
A wave of uncomfortable silence and shivers. A lawachurl was a bit much for these fellows, but
they would not face it for long if Childe’s plan worked accordingly.
“I’d like you to lead the monsters to the small village nearby,” not Morepesok, a smaller village
about the size of Springvale, several miles into the forest, “but be discreet about it, because after
the monsters attack the village, I want you to save the people and run them off.”
And he would be leading Lumine into the village as it happened. She would see the Fatui soldiers
fighting the hilichurls and lawachurls, and she would feel inclined to help. The leader stuttered out
a question, “May I ask why , sir?”
“Well, I’m trying to convince someone that the Fatui are good, so I need to show her you guys
doing some good deeds. Right?”
“R-Right!”
He would set up these schemes as many times as he needed to, in many different places as well.
Upon return to Liyue, he would do this again, and again, until Lumine’s heart softened to the Fatui
and it’s people. Then, she and Childe could get married, he would not have to give up his direct
line to ultimate power, and they could take over the world together.
Perfect.
“Uh, Lord Harbinger, if I may ask, why are you smiling and giggling to yourself?”
Childe dropped from the heavens and landed back in Teyvat with an explosion enough to create a
crater. He stiffened, his hand still to his chin and his eyes closed, “No reason. I don’t like repeating
myself, you’ve been given your orders, and frankly I don’t understand why you’re still sitting
around here.”
That was enough to create abrupt chaos. Soldiers scrambled up to gather weapons and coats and
armor, like a colony of ants under attack. He watched with satisfaction as they yelled at each other
in their stress and anxiety, before making for the edge of the camp.
Now, to do his part. He turned back towards the mountain in the distance, and put his hands into
the pocket of his coat. Pushing his mask up over his hair once more, he could only smile at the
thought of his incredibly clear future ahead.
He’d have to imprison that fortune teller. She couldn’t go around telling Lumine things she didn’t
need to know. He started off towards the mountain path, grinning all the while.
Until, of course, he arrived 10 minutes later - and found the spot empty.
It was the worst kind of empty. It was Lumine-less.

And here Lumine thought that Childe was beginning to understand her. Obviously, she was quite
wrong.
There was something incredibly funny about disobeying his command and sliding down a
mountain to a pale light in the distance. As terrified as she was of the entire process, the absolute
glee over imagining Childe’s face when he returned to see her gone was enough to make her smile.
She could not see much through the snowfall, but she knew she had to run, and make her escape
before he could find her.
Wherever he went was a mystery. It wasn’t as if he could glide back to Liyue and murder that
fortune teller. She assumed that he was simply cooling off, calming down, or thinking of
something malicious to do. The joke was entirely on him, as Lumine was far more spiteful than he
was.
The statue of the Tsaritsa was nestled on a pathway between two leaning cliffs. Lumine was
grateful to be on lower ground, having done a mountain-goat impression by making her way off
the peak with a series of jumps and skids. Just barely through the white of the snow, she could
make out the line of blue energy reaching for the sky.
Finding the statue was easy. Whether the Tsaritsa would grant her that power, or not, was an
entirely different matter.
Lumine took a moment to stare up at her visage. She was fierce, though her face was covered by a
heavy hood. Icicles hung from her arms like clear spikes, and snow piled at her feet. She looked
like a warrior, a very cold battle-maiden.
“Um, excuse me, your Majesty…”
The statue of the Tsaritsa did not answer.
“Could I have some cryo power, please?”

Lumine had been in Liyue and Mondstadt for so long, she’d forgotten exactly how to resonate
with a new element. Experimentally, she lowered to her knees - looking like a little marshmallow in
her layers of coats and very warm knit hat - and clasped her hands together. Bowing her head, she
whispered a prayer, “Tsaritsa, I-I’m sorry that I don’t know your name. Perhaps we could meet
soon, and have some tea together? Or coffee? Whatever you like.”
Lumine grimaced. She was being far too casual with a Queen. Taking a deep breath, she
continued, “Your Majesty, Your Graceliness, I feel that I need cryo to get along in Snezhnaya. Not
only as homage to you and your country, but… My kind-of-boyfriend is a hydro user - you know
him - and I would very much like to freeze him on command.”
If Childe says something annoying, he’ll get frozen. If Childe tries to splash her, he gets frozen.
If Childe tries to water teleport with her in his arms, he’ll get frozen. She, probably, would be
frozen as well in the process, but that was a risk she was willing to take.
Now that her prayer was whispered, Lumine raised her head to look at the statue towering over
her. She pulled off her glove and nestled it into her lap, her fingers now exposed to the frigid cold.
With bated breath, she touched the base of the statue.
A rush of energy, and Lumine shivered. Icy blue flickers of light, like fireflies, floated around her.
This part was always the hardest, and Paimon wasn’t here to comfort her afterwards. The lights
gravitated towards her body, and invaded her senses. It was invasive, how they stuck to her skin
and melted inside her. She stayed completely still until the process was over.
While Lumine wasn’t sure if the Archons heard those kinds of prayers, she thought that if they
perhaps did, then the Tsaritsa was making her resonance with cryo incredibly difficult. Despite
Lumine’s three layers, she shivered with a cold finger trailing down her spine. It was like an anemo
slime popping, then, and the icy shivers finally faded.
The lights were gone, and the wind continued to blow. She held out a hand and summoned a
miniature blizzard in her palm.
Lumine was a cryo user. She could make her own ice bridges now.
“Thank you!” A quick bow to the Tsaritsa, an excited smile as she jumped up from the ground
and pulled her glove back on. “I’m gonna go test this out now, I appreciate it!”
An especially bitter flurry of snow smacked her cheeks, as if the Tsaritsa was warning her. She
decided to ignore that, as she did all warnings, and started off towards the icy forest in the
distance.
Little did she know, a group of Fatui were heading in the exact same direction.
Despite the cold, Snezhnaya truly was a beautiful place. It was a wild kind of beauty, dark and
thorned and incredibly vicious. Nadia had once told her that Snezhnayans looked out their windows
during a blizzard, and were just happy to be alive. Perhaps that explained Childe’s weird optimism
and his whole ‘life is beautiful, isn’t it comrade?’ outlook. He was much like Snezhnaya itself,
savage and powerful and beautiful.
Lumine groaned internally. She told the statue of the Tsaritsa that Childe was her ‘kind-of-
boyfriend’. He was not. Ajax Matvey ‘Childe Tartaglia Asstown Rat-Bastard’ Alekseev was not
her kind-of-boyfriend. He was her enemy. He was a threat to her sanity, and her health. Lumine
broke into a cold sweat each time she even considered the possibility of loving him.
He was a disgusting weed in the garden of mankind. Kissing him was like stepping in dog poop.
Eating her own liver was preferable to touching Tartaglia.
“Hey girlie.”
Lumine screamed. She screamed so loud that birds took off into the sky. She screamed so loud
that a pile of snow dropped from a branch and landed on her head. She screamed so loud that she
tripped over her own feet, fell backwards, and landed on her ass.
Hey girlie. The voice that haunted her dreams. The voice that nestled it’s way into her chest like
a maggot in rotten food. The tilted head and the raised brow, the smile on his face that never
reached his eyes. His mask was pushed back over his hair more carelessly than usual, pulling his
flop of bangs back and revealing more of his face as he stood over her.
Slowly, Lumine laid on the ground in defeat. It was cold, but not nearly as cold as her heart. She
let the snow soak in through her hat and dampen her hair. The sky was grey through the tree
branches, but swirling in it’s own beautiful way.
And it would have stayed beautiful if Childe did not take another step closer. He leaned further
over her, his face coming into view as she stared up. Their eyes met. She blinked, he blinked. She
narrowed her eyes, and he smiled innocently.
“How did you find me?”
“You’re pretty easy to track,” he squatted down beside her, “I glided over the forest and found you
stomping through here.”
She didn’t realize that she was stomping. With how irritable she was, it was very much possible.
Lumine frowned up at him, “Where’d you go?”
“Places.”
“Where?”
“Places, Lumi.”
“You’re annoying.”
“You’re the one who never listens to me.”
“I do that for a reason.”
He furrowed his brows into a light pout, “And what if you’d gotten lost and died out here?”
“Good. Maybe you’d feel bad for once.”
“Such a heartbreaker. Come on, I’d like to take you somewhere.” Childe offered a gloved hand,
one that Lumine took. He pulled her up from the ground and steadied her feet, brushing the snow
from the back of her borrowed coat.
Devastatingly so, he continued to hold her hand. Lumine frowned at the sight of their connected
palms as he led her down the path. Before she could yank it away, he shifted his fingers and
intertwined them with hers, locking them into place and giving her a light squeeze.
Disgusting, evil Harbinger. “I hate you.”
“Okay, Lumi.”
Okay Lumi, he says. Okay, sure Lumi, you totally hate me. It was as if he didn’t believe her. It
was as if he could see right through her, her emotions were a glass window that he was just looking
through. And his hand fit so perfectly with hers, as if they were matching pieces of puzzle carved
to be next to each other.
Disgusting. Entirely too disgusting. She had to do something about this. An assertion of
dominance would make her feel much better, and instantly kill all the butterflies in her stomach.
“Before we go to wherever you’d like to take me…” Lumine tried her best to sound innocent, “I
would like to request something.”
He grinned at her over his shoulder, “Prisoners don’t get to make requests.”
“You’re hilarious, really, you should start a comedy act.”
“What do you request, lyubimaya? I’ll deliver whatever my printsessa desires.”
Dear Archons this man needed his tongue cut out. Perhaps she would be the one to do it, and
she’d cut her heart straight out of her chest for how it betrayed her, skipping and quivering at the
sound of his voice.
Lumine, originally, was going to tell him that she wanted to fight. But what was a good fight if it
was planned? Before he could react, she yanked her hand away and summoned her sword, “Think
fast!”
He did think fast, quite fast. He twisted and stepped back just in time for the tip of her blade to cut
across the spot he stood. Grinning with excitement, Childe summoned a hydro lance and twisted it
around his back. He turned and jabbed it out towards her, barely missing by an inch.
She could simply freeze his lance, but it would be foolish to reveal her newfound power instantly.
Their weapons clashed, pushing against each other until Lumine finally ducked and rolled into the
snow.
Childe’s polearm dug into the soft ground. He grimaced at the sight and yanked it back up, but
before he could recover, Lumine patted a snowball together and vaulted it at his head. Tensing
with the sudden explosion of white and her laughter, all he could do was laugh along.
And then, it was back to the battle. She dodged another attack and kept an eye on his movements.
She knew that the second he released his grip on the polearm, his hydro daggers would be next.
With two seconds of vulnerability available, Lumine lunged.
Childe, of course, expected her to do this. And Lumine expected him to expect her. Summoning
water beneath his feet, he teleported himself backwards in a flurry of hydro magic and snow slush.
It was exactly what she wanted. Simply freezing his polearm or his daggers wouldn’t be enough.
It wouldn’t quite get her point across. She needed something bigger, something like him using his
hydro to teleport back from her attack. And he had done exactly that.
Lumine only smiled, stretched out her hand, and snapped her fingers.
And Childe felt his legs stop. He froze, literally. Frost crawled up his pants and to his waist,
leaving his lower half paralyzed from movement. His feet were encased in a wild cage of ice, his
hydro having been halted in it’s tracks. He nearly lurched forward and fell with the intensity of his
stop.
Shocked, Childe looked up at her.
Lumine giggled. “Oh no, are you stuck? Wonder how that happened…”
“Yeah,” he attempted to pull his foot free, to no avail, “how did that happen, Lumi? Care to
explain?”
“I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I suppose I’m just very talented,” she flicked her fingers, sending a
soft drizzle of ice towards him. She was playing with the Tsaritsa’s element like a toy, though she
tended to do that with every element. He’d seen her use anemo to pick flowers before.
He pouted. She couldn’t believe he was pouting at her, “I wanted to watch you get cryo, though.”
“Why? So you can steal all my secrets?”
“Basically, yes.”
He had no shame. And she had no secrets. She couldn’t explain how she got cryo without a
vision, but she wouldn’t complain either. The ice confines around his feet began to steam as they
melted with the passing seconds. She took the final moments of his captivity to step closer, and
lean up towards him.
A soft kiss on his cheek. He lowered his head to nuzzle his face into her neck, his hands
automatically moving to her hips as if they belonged there - in his opinion, they did.
“Did I make you angry earlier?” A whisper, reverential in this soft moment.
“You didn’t,” he murmured against her hair, glaring over her head at nothing in particular, “the
fortune teller did. I thought I was keeping a better eye on her.”
She huffed, “You need to stop torturing that poor old woman.”
“She needs to stop torturing me!”
The ice had melted at his feet already, yet they stayed locked where they were. “She’s not
torturing you, she’s just telling you the truth.”
He sighed, “There’s this Liyue saying that goes ‘don’t always call it like you see it’.”
“So you admit it’s true?”
“I admit that you believe it’s true, because you have no idea why I stay in the Fatui.”
Lumine stepped back and crossed her arms, glaring now. She always felt cold when he wasn’t
touching her, without his lips in her hair or his hands on her hips. He returned the glare with a flat
look as she stared, “Because you enjoy causing chaos?”
“Yes…” Childe nodded in heavy thought, “but also, I plan to be the strongest person in the world,
and if I left the Fatui then I wouldn’t have a delusion anymore. My delusion is really cool, you
know.”
It was really cool, he was right. But that wasn’t enough of an excuse for her.
Childe sighed and turned away, his flat gaze falling into a contemplative, far off expression. He
offered another hand, “Have you ever considered becoming the 12th Harbinger?”
No. Never in a million years. Lumine didn’t want a job, she’d never had a job before, besides
those several weeks spent at the Good Hunter. And that was terrible, she hated every second of it.
The horror must’ve registered on her face, for he laughed at the sight. Lumine sighed and
frowned, “No thank you. If we were coworkers I’d start to hate you for real.”
“Oh, yeah you’re right,” he put his hands on his hips and nodded, “I’ll just make you my trophy
wife instead.”
Disgusting. “You don’t want a trophy wife, I know you better than that.”
He raised one brow, “Oh, do you?”
“I do.”
“What do I want, then, printsessa?”

Probably the destruction of everything that dared to be stronger than him. She could not provide
that at the moment, so the next best thing was a smile, and a flicker of her hand.
Her sword was summoned into her palm instantly. Childe grinned, “I love you.”
Lumine rolled her eyes, “You’re okay, I guess.”
He jumped into action. She froze one hydro blade, leaving his left arm immobile. He didn’t seem
to be bothered, instead twisting around to slash at her with his right blade. He was left handed,
Lumine recalled, if she could immobilize his left side then he’d be far less able to defend himself.
Yet, as always, he saw right through her. He kept his frozen arm turned away, pushing past her
boundaries and causing her to stumble back through the snow. The only sound in the forest was the
clashing of their blades, and the heavy breathing of the exercise. Lumine summoned a geo
construct that he promptly avoided, before hitting him with a mini anemo tornado.
“Not fair,” Childe laughed, “you’ve got three elements, I’ve only got two.”
“You could always use your delusion, I find it quite…” Lumine paused, grinning, “shocking,
actually.”
A amused roll of his eyes, another laugh that threatened to haunt her dreams. He tackled her into
the snow, holding her in his arms as they both giggled with their play fighting. He rolled over,
allowing her to lean atop him. Her hands rested on his chest, and their legs were entangled while
she buried her face into his neck.
“You think you’re hilarious, don’t you?” He pulled gently at her hair.
“I do,” Lumine’s voice was muffled against his scarf, “I’m the funniest person I know.”
“Admit it, you think my delusion and foul legacy transformation are attractive.”
“I think your delusion and foul legacy transformation are results of the inhumane experiments the
Tsaritsa forces upon her brainwashed followers.”
He wouldn’t call himself brainwashed, just loyal to a warrior Queen. “The delusion, yes. But the
foul legacy isn’t from the Tsaritsa.”
Lumine lifted her head, “Where’d you get it, then?”
It wasn’t his favorite subject. He rarely spoke of it, and if he did it was for the purpose of
unsettling someone he disliked. It was quite unsettling, he thought, heretical powers from the
Abyss tended to cause a shiver of discomfort in normal people.
“The abyss,” Despite the casual tone of his voice and bored expression, Childe felt nervous, like
he was trespassing into unknown territory by telling Lumine this, “from this swordswoman named
Skirk-”
“I’ll kill her.”
His gaze flickered to Lumine. “What?”
“Do you love her? I’ll murder her. I’ll rip her eyeballs out and stuff them down her throat.”
So graphic, such a very descriptive threat. He didn’t mind at all. The look on her face was enough
to make his heart skip, to bring a smile to his lips, to rest his hand on her back and nudge her even
closer.
“I do love her, but-”
“Ajax, introduce me to her, I would like to kill her, please.”
He was going to say ‘but not like I love you’, until she interrupted with the emotionless,
dangerous glare, and her angry monotone. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you jealous before, Lumi.”
Her cheeks grew pink, though she tried her best to stay expressionless. “I’m not jealous.”
“You’re so jealous, admit it!”
“I’m not, I just want to… to meet her.”
To kill her. “You just want to get rid of the competition.”
Lumine’s chest kept stretching in this awful way. It was different than the waves of affection, it
was a wave of confusing anger that she despised every inch of. She avoided his eyes, feeling her
cheeks heat up, “There’s no competition.”
“You’re right, there isn’t.”
Damn his smoothness. Damn his low laugh that sent shivers down her spine. Damn his hands on
her cheeks and his parted lips, his half-lidded eyes and the amusement shimmering in them. Damn
him, and damn his face, and damn his very existence. And damn, especially, the fact that she was
basically laying on top of him in the snow, in a very empty forest, where they were very much
alone.
Without missing a beat, Childe went on, “Nobody could compete with you, not when it comes to
me. You’re the best,” his thumb brushed across her lip, “you’re perfect for me. And I’m perfect for
you.”
She had half a mind to bite his thumb, “So you don’t love Skirk?”
“She was my teacher, I love her like family. But with you it’s…” he blinked in thought, pausing
for a moment, “it’s different. Much different.”
Just how different? Lumine was never quite sure, but she knew what jealousy felt like. She knew
why she felt jealous, and she knew exactly how to deal with it.
“You promise?”
He held up a hand, “I pinkie promise.”
Their pinkies intertwined, shook, and Lumine took the opportunity laid before her to, for the
second time that day, kiss him.
And of course, to tell him in between kisses, something very important.
“I don’t love you.” Her voice was muffled by his lips, her arms holding her up above him as she
leaned in to deepen the kiss, “I really, really don’t love you.”
Childe had been shocked by the sudden show of affection, but wouldn’t complain at all.
Instinctually, his hands went to her hips. He leaned in towards her, raising one leg to bump against
hers. As much as he wanted her to stay warm, he wished she didn’t have three big coats on, he
wanted to feel her more closely.
“I can tell you hate me,” an amused whisper between breaths, “you must really loathe me.”
Lumine pulled back for half a second, “I don’t hate you, I just don’t love you.”
His eyes opened to meet hers, “Then why’d you kiss me?”
“To shut you up.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well, you should.”
“Why should I?”
“Because I never lie.

Childe smiled up at her, “You lie all the time.”
“I’ve never lied in my life,” Lumine shook her head and closed her eyes, “I’m not even lying right
now. I do not want to kiss you again.”
“So… if I rolled you over and kissed you, you wouldn’t kiss back?”
“Not at all.”
There was only one way to find out. Despite the cold snow and ice of the ground, he made no
move to pull her up. Both hands held her waist, lifting her and quickly pushing her into the spot
beside him. With a squeak, she landed on her back, and he was atop her instantly. His wrists moved
to her hands to hold them down against the snow.
“I think you’re lying,” Childe murmured, now on top, one knee between her legs and his hair
falling into his face, “you’re not the best liar.”
She lifted her chin in arrogance, “I’m a better liar than you.”
That much was true, but he didn’t lie if he could help it. Lumine wore her lies like clothes. “So if
I kiss you… here, perhaps,” he kissed her cheek softly, and moved his lips down to her jawline, “or
here… you would stop me?”
“I-Instantly.”
“Then why aren’t you?”
“Don’t feel like it.” She sounded fakely arrogant, yet another aspect of her personality that made
him laugh.
“You’re so in love with me,” Childe whispered against the shell of her ear, “just admit it.”
“Never.”
A soft kiss on her neck, a smile at the whimpering sound she made. He trailed his lips to her
jugular, and kissed up to her jaw, “Admit it, Lumi. You know I see right through you.”
He always did. She wanted more of him, to close the space between their bodies and hear his
heartbeat. Hesitant, Lumine pulled her wrists out from under his hands, and stretched them up
around his neck. With her fingers now tangled into his hair, she whispered, “Are we alone out
here?”
Childe could only smile, “Yes, I promise.”
“Okay… t-then I suppose I… I’ll…”
They were not alone. Neither of them were aware of this.
“Yes, Lumi?”
“Ajax, I… I really, uh…”
“You can do it.”
“Well maybe if you’d stop kissing my neck then I could think straight!”
He shook his head, “I can’t stop that, I’m enjoying myself too much.”
He was enjoying himself as a group of terrified Fatui recruits raced through the forest, heading
right for their spot on the ground.
“All I’m trying to say is that, uh… you can…”
“Hm?”
“Y-You can kiss me. If you want to.”
He wanted to. He wanted that more than anything. “This is the best date I’ve ever been on,
girlie.”
She snorted underneath him, “This is the first date I’ve ever been.”
“Me too.”
“Really?”
“Really. Nothing could ruin it.”
Except, of course, the group of Fatui recruits he had completely forgotten about. And it was
unfortunate for him that the second he pulled back from her neck and leaned in to kiss her, he
realized that this moment was destined to be shattered completely.
“Lord Harbinger! We can’t find the lawachurl you wanted!”
Lumine stiffened under him, her fingers tightening in his hair. He kept his eyes closed and his lips
brushing against hers. Slowly, he leaned away and glanced towards the source of the noise.
“Lord Harbinger! Is that you?”
An electro vanguard, the pyro archer, and a cryo healer, walking in circles like the idiots they
were. The archer had thought he’d spotted the Harbinger in question laying on the ground nearby,
but the tree limbs of the forest were difficult to see through. He was yelling, now, hoping to get a
response from his temporary boss.
Below him, Lumine narrowed her eyes.

“They’re calling for a different Harbinger,” he told her, “there’s a million of us in Snezhnaya, you
know-”
“Lord Tartaglia!”
Wonderful. He had just forgotten about those guys, he was about to kiss Lumine and let them
fight off a lawachurl by themselves.
“Lord Tartaglia, we couldn’t find that lawachurl you wanted! You know, the one you said for us
to lure into the village nearby?”
“The… the village nearby?” Lumine’s grip on his hair was uncomfortable now, “You wanted
them to lure a lawachurl into a village?”
“Well-”
“A village of innocent people?”
“They probably aren’t all innocent. Plus, I would make sure nobody died.”
“Tartaglia,” he hated when she called him that, “Why would you do that? Please tell me there’s a
good reason for it.”
A wonderful reason. The best reason possible. He feigned innocence, “I’m training some soldiers
in that village.”
The pyro archer cupped his hands over his mouth and called out again, “Lord Tartaglia, can you
hear us? We couldn’t find the lawachurl that you wanted to lure into that village so you could trick
some lady into trusting the Fatui!”
A pregnant pause.
“...I’m going to kill them. I swear, Lumine, I’m going to kill them.”
“Get off me.” Her voice was dangerous, cold as ice. Immediately, Childe sat up and scooted
away through the snow. She refused to look at him as she pushed herself to stand, and started down
the path.
He wanted to kill those soldiers for their stupidity. There was no time for that, as it was either kill
them, or chase down the love of his life. It was obvious who he must choose - the bloodlust would
have to wait.
In silence, he followed her away from the yelling recruits, abandoning them in the past. Lumine’s
fists were clenched, her head held high. She didn’t say a word, not even a sigh, as he followed her
out of the forest and back to Morepesok.
For once, she was going in the right direction. He wasn’t sure if that was a coincidence or not.
“Listen, I know I suck.” Childe spoke up, “I know when I’m doing something bad, and I know the
Fatui aren’t all sunshine and rainbows. But you have no idea what the Tsaritsa’s goal is, and no
idea how much good it will do for mankind!”
Lumine grunted, “I cannot believe that you’d try to trick me like that! What were you even
expecting?”
“Well, I was going to have them fight the monster off, and save the villagers.”
“You were going to risk the lives of innocent people for the sake of getting me to approve of your
stupid little group of villains?”
To get her to approve his very powerful and intelligent military force, there was a difference.
“The Fatui are just people, you can’t keep up this attitude about them, Lumi.”
“Yes, I can.”
“Why? Why do you hate us so much?”

She whirled upon him suddenly. Her glare was like the heat of a pyro vision, it could’ve melted
the ice around her. “You were planning to trick me!”
“Okay, sorry for that, but-”
“Let me finish!” Lumine stomped a foot, huffing with anger, “Secondly, the Tsaritsa is doing
exactly what the unknown God did to me! She’s taking it upon herself to steal something precious
from people. I had Aether taken from me because she wanted to teach me a lesson, the Tsaritsa is
doing the same thing!”
She was clear as day, he could see right through her, he’d always been able to. “But you don’t
hate the Fatui for that, you’re scared of us. You’re scared of what the Tsaritsa is doing because it
reminds you of Aether.”
“I am not scared of the Fatui, Tartaglia.”
“You’re terrified,” he took one step towards her, the snow crunching beneath his boot, “you’re
not even a real knight of Favonius. You’re just terrified of falling again and waking up without
anybody beside you.”
He was trespassing. He was going too far, too quickly, running her patience dry. “What does that
have to do with anything?”
It had to do with everything, it was the catalyst of this entire argument, of her every problem, of
her denial and her anger and frustration.
Ajax crossed his arms, glaring, “You think that if we’re together then you’d make an enemy of
your friends, of the world even-“
“Yes,” unamused, she stared, “You’re right. I would be doing exactly that.”
“Perhaps if I was a different person, then yes,” Childe crossed his arms and frowned, “but I won’t
let that happen. I can’t quit the Fatui, and you won’t join them, so we’ll just have to get your
friends and adoptive family to approve of me no matter who I work for.”
He was acting as if they were actually together. They weren’t, and she despised the implication.
“You know what? I think you’re terrified of the Fatui!”
He blinked, emotionless. Silence fell between them.
“Yes, I am.”
Lumine paused. “...You are?”
“Yes, Lumine. I am…” Childe glared at a spot over her shoulder, “My family would be in danger
if I left the Fatui. You would be in danger. And while I’d love to take on the other Harbingers, I’m
not strong enough for that yet. So yes, I’m scared, the Tsaritsa knows my weakness and I’d prefer
to not give her the chance to use it against me.”
His family. Her. Teucer, and his eyes full of sunshine and love. She didn’t want to consider what
might happen to him if the Tsaritsa set her eyes on the Alekseev family.
“And you’re scared too,” he went on, “you don’t want to be alone on account of me. But please, I
know it’s a lot to ask, but I just want you to trust me. I won’t let you lose anybody.”
“How do you think you’d be able to do that, Childe? What are you even saying?”
He knew exactly what he was saying. He was speaking with perfect clarity, every word a genuine
statement of the future. Childe had never argued this hard for something in his life.
“Lumine... I’ll work to keep you surrounded by the people you love, even if they’re annoying like
Kaeya. I-I would…” he paused in thought, “I would have a guys night with all your big brothers.
I’d go, um... bowling with them, or something. I’d get fruity drinks with all your girl friends and
act like I’m interested in what they’re saying.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, “...You’d go bowling with Diluc? You’d get fruity
drinks with Amber?”
“I would even, uh…” Childe realized, suddenly, that he had no idea what friends did for fun, “I
would take a painting class with that Albedo guy? I would help Kaeya pick out more ugly clothes.
Hell, I’d even play charades with the knights of Favonius if you wanted me to.”
“...Charades, really?”
“Yes,” he rolled his eyes, “Lumine, I won’t ever let you fall and wake up alone again. I’ll always
be there to catch you, even if I do some pretty shitty things sometimes.”
He’d do charades, and bowling, and fruity drinks. He’d take an art class - even Lumine didn’t
want to take an art class.
Childe didn’t have to say it, but she knew what he meant in all seriousness. He would do anything
for her; anything besides let his family, or her, be hurt by the consequences of his own actions.
Lumine could only wonder: would she do the same if she was in his situation?
“I don’t like the Fatui, Ajax.”
“I know.”
“But I think… I think watching you play charades with the knights of Favonius would be pretty
funny…”
He blinked in surprise. The anger was gone, replaced by a barely hidden smile and pink cheeks.
Childe stiffened, “So, does this mean…”
“Quiet,” she whispered, “I’m going to try something.”
He obliged. It seemed quite important, whatever it was that paled her cheeks and steeled her
nerves. “I… I lied earlier,” Lumine gulped, but she refused to unlock her eyes from his, “I, perhaps,
may not… not love you.”
His heart skipped a wonderful beat. It felt like something was coming, the anticipation before a
jumpscare, the rise before the fall. “Oh?”
“I… I… lov….”
She was stuck. Her shoulders began to shake. Childe put his hands on her arms to steady her,
ready to hold back her hair if she vomited.
“I… Ajax…”
“Yes?”
“I…”
“You can do it, Lumi!”
“I-I… You… Uh… Ajax Matvey Alekseev,” she took a heavy breath, “I love you.”
He half thought she was going to mention porch swings again.
“Lumine!” His arms were around her instantly, lifting her off the ground and revelling in the
sound of her laughter, “You said it! You finally said it back!”
She buried her face into his shoulder and gripped onto his coat. Childe felt as if the world was in
it’s correct alignment, for once, he felt as if nothing else existed besides him, and this girl in his
arms. Her words echoed in his mind. I love you. Ajax Matvey Alekseev, I love you.
Lumine finally had said it.
And she was not trying to kill him afterwards so as to dispose of the only witness of her weakness.
That was progress.
With a laugh, he set her down and steadied her dizzy feet. She gripped the front of his coat and
smiled up at him, “I love you. I really, really, love you. Holy shit, oh my Archons, I said it!”
“And you didn’t vomit!”
“I didn’t vomit!” Lumine tangled her fingers in his hair. Her smile was celestia itself. He could
wake up to that smile every day for the rest of his life, and he would find true happiness.
“I love you, I adore you,” Childe rested his forehead against hers, “and I’m proud of you, too.”
She squeaked, “I feel like I can take on the world!”
“So do I, printsessa, we could fight a whole army, just the two of us.”
“I-If I can say that… I can say anything!”
“We’ll give each other the strength to do so, always. I promise.”
Lumine stepped back with her hands up. Her eyes were wide, and her lips parted in excitement.
With red cheeks, she waved her hands around in barely contained silence. Childe watched patiently
as she began to dig in the pocket of her borrowed coat for something.
And what came out was a string. A string that looked like the frayed end of a knit scarf.
The sudden shit-eating grin on Lumine’s face made him freeze. She was planning something
diabolic. She was going to do something incredibly evil, and while he adored that expression, it
was not appropriate for this moment.
Slowly, Lumine lowered to one knee.
Ajax’s heart dropped into his stomach. Lumine started laughing, a beautiful sound, if not for the
malicious intent it held.
“Ajax, will you marry me?”
“...You have got to be kidding me.”
“I’m not. Will you marry me?”
It was not only the fact that she just now said I love you, literally five seconds ago. It was also the
fact that she was proposing with a string covered in pocket lint. Ajax was not terribly picky, he
really had no opinions on jewelry, but a string. It was so impulsive he could laugh at the idea.
And it was right up his alley. If only it was the other way around - he could only wonder why he
didn’t think of a string earlier, that would’ve been amazing.
Moving as if in a trance, he put his hands underneath Lumine’s arms and lifted her from her
position. She stood up with wide eyes. He made sure that she would stay standing, before he,
himself, knelt to one knee instead.
He had an actual ring, though he was tempted to use a twig or a leaf.
“Lumine… what’s your middle and last name?”
Her gaze flattened, “Lumine Victoria Caomhánach.”
How the hell was he supposed to pronounce that? “Lumine Victoria future Alekseeva-”
“Say my name right.”
“Lumine Victoria… Camvhanaught…”
“Close enough.”
Wonderful. It was rare for Childe to be nervous, and even more rare for him to care much about
the opinions of others. But now, as he pulled out the ring box, his heart began to race.
He’d never proposed to someone before. He hoped to never do it again, his fingers were actually
shaking. He never shook with anxiety, that was an absolute first. Ajax took a deep breath to steady
himself before he held the box up.
Lumine immediately froze. Ajax couldn’t help but smile at the look in her eyes - she was always
radiant when shocked.
“Will you marry me?”
She paused. Her shoulders trembled. Her cheeks were pink.
“...Show me the ring first.”
An immediate glare, “You’re so materialistic.”
“Show me. The ring.”
“I’m proposing marriage to you, and all you care about is the ring. That’s charming, really.” He
rolled his eyes and popped the lid open, “It’s not done yet, I need to get it polished and worked on,
and I was going to replace the diamond, but-”
He had no opportunity to finish before she let out a strangled gasp. Lumine was instantly jumping
up and down. He’d never seen her bounce before. Nor had never seen her squeal like a teenage girl
and cover her face like that. His annoyance instantly filtered away as she made a noise not
dissimilar to a mouse. Until finally, she looked up. Her brows were furrowed and her smile was
shaky.
“Sorry, I can’t.”
Oh.
Lumine dropped back down to one knee and offered her string, “You marry me!”
Ajax’s heart skipped an annoyingly perfect beat, doing gymnastics routines in his chest. “This
isn’t a competition!”
“Marry me!”
“No,” he yanked the ring from the box and held her left hand, slipping off her glove as he glared,
“you marry me.”
They were all glares and tension now. Lumine allowed him to push the ring over her finger,
though she gave it no attention, instead stealing away his left hand and pulling his own glove off.
“I asked first!”
“It doesn’t matter,” he frowned down at his hand as Lumine tied the string around his finger, “and
you don’t even have a real ring.”
“It’s not the ring that matters, it’s the intent!”
“Ohh, that’s real nice coming from you.”
She glared, “Are you refusing my proposal?”
“No…” he stiffened, frows burrowed, “Are you refusing mine?”
“No.”
Then what did that mean? They were both wearing a ring/string. Lumine broke the silence like
glass. Her expression was serious, and her hands on his warm.
“What now?”
He blinked in thought, “I have no idea.”
“Are we… are we engaged? Did we get engaged in our first date?”
“...I think we did, Lumi."
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“...Wanna make out?”
Chapter End Notes
Society: no!!!! you can't get engaged on your first date!!!!
Childe & Lumine: stupid impulsive decisions and hormones go brrrrrrrrrrr

The Bridge Not Yet Crossed
Chapter Notes
Warning! Vixere is about to get headcanon heavy. I'm not the type to create entire
plots out of nowhere, but since there's no canon content to base this story on any
longer, it's headcanon time!
“Ah, it’s so sad to see such young ones living in poverty… The economy’s really hit hard, huh?”
“Yes, dear, but don’t look either of them in the eye, they’ll start asking for mora…”
“It wouldn’t hurt to give them at least a little something!”
“You can’t feed the wild animals, my love.”
The rich passersby thought they were homeless. Childe supposed that this was what happened
when one sat on the side of the road, looking very tired and covered in snowy mud-slush.
Childe was never the type to sink low. The lowest he got was the abyss, and even that was simply
the beginning of something beautiful for him. Yet, in this moment, as he sat on the ground with
Lumine, he had a feeling that it was his lowest.
While, simultaneously, somehow being his highest. It was odd how those things worked.
Ajax was engaged to Lumine Victoria Cavenaaught- whatever her name was.
He was engaged.
He was going to get married. To her. To Lumine. To Miss goody-two-shoes who made friends
with the world. To this porcelain doll of a woman he’d met nearly a year ago who couldn’t tell East
from West. Lumine. Lumine Victoria Alekseeva.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
And she would not stop glaring at something in the distance. “Stop staring at me.”
“I’m thinking.”
It was all he could offer as an answer. He had his chin in his hand, his brows furrowed. He
frowned as he continued to stare at Lumine’s side profile.
“Oh, no poor things…” Another person passing by and assuming that they were homeless. Childe
tore his eyes from Lumine for half a second to strike them with a glare, instantly sending them
running.
That was simply the nature of associating with Lumine, Childe was aware of that. She did have a
leaf in her hair and mud on her cheek. Their appearances were a subsequent result of the
makeout/fight of just 10 minutes ago.
The event went, as follows:
Childe kissed her, quite roughly, as one does when attempting to tame a feral harpy woman.
Lumine promptly gripped his hair, straddled his waist, and pinned him beneath her body. Her act
of dominance did not last very long, as he immediately held her wrists and twisted her over.
Unfortunately, he rolled their bodies into a mud puddle.
Lumine had gasped and pulled away the second she realized just what it was that coated itself into
her hair. She kicked him, and he splashed her with hydro. She summoned a geo construct, he
lightly shocked her. Eventually, with racing hearts and smiles, they were on their feet once more,
clashing blades.
This, too, ended in kissing, as it should. Yet, no longer on the ground like two very large, sentient
worms, Lumine took her chance to jump into his arms and wrap her legs around his waist. He’d
gotten just as muddy in the entire process, and the frantic affection only increased the problem.
That was, until he took one distracted step backwards, his hands on her thighs and his eyes closed,
and tripped over a rock in the road. Snow had flown up around their bodies, soaked through their
pants and shoes, and the fires of passion had been put out like water on a flame.
A mile long walk of light bickering later, and they sat outside the walls of Morepesok, being
mistaken for two young beggars. Lumine was very cold, very muddy, and staring at her ring as if it
held the answers to the universe.
And most importantly, they were engaged. Engaged. To be wed. Betrothed.
It had been a long while since Childe felt the familiar sting of denial. That issue had left him
months ago, when he fought Lumine at the Golden House. As she came at him like an angel of the
battlefield, sword drawn and hair whipping around her face, he knew that the stars didn’t need to
assure him of their destinies together. Lumine was the one. Lumine was the only person in the
world who could really do it for him.
That was even after the ‘I want you’ moment of weakness after he was stabbed by Kaeya. That
was after their first kiss, the frantic and angry feelings he had at just how beautiful she was when
she challenged him, when he couldn’t take it anymore and he lost his self control. Both of these
were moments of weakness, and both were regrets at the time.
The Golden House, and how she looked at him, painted itself in his memory. He could not erase
it no matter how hard he tried. Lumine was the woman he would be with, and he was okay with
that.
He had accepted it.
Yet, in this moment, sitting on the side of the road and watching her silhouette against the setting
sun, Childe could not help that prickle of nausea and regret threatening his sanity. It was for the
simple fact that he’d lost. He rarely lost at anything. His opponent was the universe, the stars, fate
itself, and he still thought he might win in the end.
Ajax Matvey Alekseev was getting married to a girl who could hardly say I love you without
wanting to collapse from the pure stress of it all.
Lucky him.
“So…”
Lumine’s eye twitched ever so slightly in annoyance. “So…”
“This is pretty awkward, huh?”
“Super awkward.”
Childe patted her shoulder in the most friend-zoney way possible. He didn’t think he was an
awkward person usually, it was rare for him to care much about those types of things. Yet, he still
hesitated to touch Lumine, his fiance, of all people. “We’re getting married, Lumi. Aren’t you
excited?”
The glare she shot him answered it quite succinctly.
“Lumi?”
“Yes, Asstown?”
That was a new one. Childe couldn’t help but smile, “Will you reconsider joining the Fatui?”
“No way in hell.”
His smile instantly fell, “Lumine, if you don’t want to marry me then just say so.”
With the evening settling in like a heavy blanket, the wind began to blow colder. The world
seemed to reflect his darkening mood as he glared holes into a tree. Lumine’s glare melted like ice.
“It’s not that.”
Slowly, hesitantly, she rested her head on his shoulder. Silence drifted between them before he
registered that she was touching him, cuddling up next to him, and she wasn’t threatening to kill
him while doing it. Childe blinked in surprise, “Lumi?”
Her answer was immediate, “I want to marry you. That’s what I’m angry about. I want to be at
your side forever, and you have no idea how angry that makes me.”
“I… I think I have an idea of it…”
She wanted to be with him. She wanted to be at his side. And it made her so angry that she looked
as if she might combust. Childe, too, felt like combusting. He and Lumine would end up as burnt
piles of goop in the snow if they kept up the passionate seething much longer. She had no
comprehension of what he’d truly gone through.
He had been angry at himself for falling in love with her before. He’d tried to terrorize Mondstadt
and kidnap Huffman in an attempt to get her to hate him. He’d told her terrible things just to keep
her at arm's length.
“Lumine,” Childe wasn’t quite sure where he was going with this. Her head remained on his
shoulder, and his legs were bent and folded over each other. She shifted closer as he stared ahead
of himself and let the words form on the tip of his tongue, “Neither of us have any idea how to be
in a proper relationship. Are you okay with that?”
She lifted her head, “Sure.”
“And… I’m still going to work for the Fatui, I’ll need an excuse for why I’m following you
around everywhere.”
Lumine seemed far more comfortable when talking about a subject she despised. In a rare show of
affection, she wrapped her arm around his and leaned in, “You could always tell her that you’re
keeping an eye on me.”
It was a good idea, the Tsaritsa had been wanting to keep tabs on her as of late. The only problem
was the fact that he’d be doing the tab keeping of his own fiance. “She’d want me to report on
everything you do, then.”
“Just lie, Jax.”
As if it was that easy. He could only hope. “Are you asking me to lie to Her Majesty, the Queen
of Snezhnaya?”
“Yes.”
She giggled and lifted his arm, wiggling her way underneath so her head was against his chest.
Even the cold of the winter could not erase the heat between their bodies, the feeling of her hands
trailing down his wrist absently, and their slowly entangling fingers. He’d have to make her dinner
as a celebration: she held his hand without breaking into a cold sweat.
“You’d be surprised how unterrible I am, Ajax.”
His own words, used so freely as a weapon against him. They worked well enough to bring a
laugh from his throat, “Oh yeah?”
“Yep.”
“Will you marry me, lyubimaya?”
“No thanks.”
Struck out once more. He lifted her hand to inspect the ring, “Then I’ll be taking this ba-”
“No!” She pushed her body away, “It’s mine now!”

A fox-like smile, “Then I guess you’ll just have to go through with marrying me if you want to
keep it.”
“You have to take me on a second date first.” Lumine pouted, of all the ways to react.
Childe wasn’t even aware that their first date was over yet, though he supposed sitting on the
ground and being mistaken for two homeless people could be unromantic enough to end a date. He
hadn’t planned on taking her into Morepesok due to having very little patience for the trembling of
the people who recalled his legacy - he incited a riot once, and suddenly he’s the most terrifying
thing imaginable, it was pitiful.
Yet, with her idea of notifying the Tsaritsa of his whereabouts, he had to visit the post office at
some point. And while in the market, he could drop the ring off at a jewelers to have it fixed up
and get the diamond replaced. Might as well show off his fiance to his old peers and classmates
while he was at it.
Childe stood, pulling Lumine up along with him. Their hands stayed intertwined as he led her
through the town’s gates. He ignored how she kept glancing down at their clasped palms as if she
couldn’t believe what was happening.
Morepesok smelled of home. It smelled of gamey meats turned over an open flame, and sea-salt
wafting along the breeze. While there was very little humidity, the air hung heavy with the threat
of rain. Childe glanced at Lumine over his shoulder and sent her a smile he hoped was reassuring -
though his smiles rarely were.
“So, I can get a ship arranged to take us back to Liyue in about three days. Did you want to send a
letter to someone while we’re at the post office?” Childe was thinking she might want to warn
Amber or Xiangling ahead of time, walking into a city while holding the hand of a well-known
Fatui Harbinger would not contribute to the peace of its citizens.
Lumine bit her lip in thought, “I’d actually like to write something to Zhongli.”
“Zhongli?” A flicker of worry in his chest, that familiar prick of jealousy and insecurity he wished
he didn’t have. “Why him?”
Lumine answered as if it was obvious, “He’s the one that suggested I come here to meet your
family. He said it would make me fall out of… l-love with you.” She shivered in disgust.
Childe had to take a moment to process her words. With the assumption that she was stressed
when the feelings of affection began, as Lumine would be, her first thought was to go to Zhongli,
of all people. It was not advice on how to play mahjong, nor was it advice on how to properly don
a fancy suit. She sought help for love. From Zhongli.
“And you believed him?”
Lumine sighed, defeated, “Unfortunately, yes.”
She took Zhongli’s love advice, and spent the week frustrated at how it somehow didn’t work.
Childe wasn’t sure what else she was expecting. Turning away,, he put a hand over his mouth to
cover the rising laughter bubbling up through his chest.
“Stop laughing!” Lumine attempted to kick his shin, “It’s not funny! It’s terrible!”
Her plan had backfired so badly that she was now engaged to the person she came here to hate.
The stars truly did despise Lumine, it seemed. Childe stifled another giggle and kissed the top of
her hair with a smile, “Well, then we can both write letters, that’ll be our second date.”
It was a romantic thought, to sit beside each other writing letters. Lumine accepted it with an
exhale of relief, “Okay, but I do request that your letter to the Tsaritsa describe my greatness.”
He frowned, “She’ll get suspicious if I talk you up too much.”
Ignored. “I would like it to go as follows: ‘Dear Tsaritsa, I am now a loyal slave to the beautiful
traveler, please keep paying me. She is badass and very cool and spends every day kicking butt.’”
Childe crossed his arms and tilted his head, “Oh yes, because that won’t get me fired at all.”
It would do worse than get him fired, it would get him an audience with Her Majesty and a
thorough questioning of how closely guarded he kept his contacts - as well as his sanity. He’d been
the laziest Harbinger since having returned to Liyue, letting Lumine crash through every wall of
secrecy he’d ever built.
Innocent, she smiled up at him. Childe wasn’t sure if he’d ever not be affected by that look. Even
before he fell in love, she always managed to take his breath away with that smile, coupled with
the bashful glimmer in her eyes. Nobody else ever seemed to notice it, but then again, Lumine
didn’t smile like that for anybody but him.
Until she spoke, of course. “I’m still mad at you, you know.”
The spell broke. Childe dropped from the clouds and back down to Teyvat. “What?”
Lumine kept smiling, “If you talked me up to your Tsaritsa then I’d be slightly less mad at you.”
“Lumine, if I talked you up to someone every time you were mad at me, I’d never be able to shut
up about you.”
“Ah, but that is how it should be, yes? I’m your finance.”
“Fiancé, lyubimaya.”
She ignored his correction, “At least say one nice thing about me to the Tsaritsa!”
“Alright,” Childe ruffled her hair, “I’ll say one nice thing. Just one.”
Dear Zhongli,
I am very stupid.
Childe and I will be arriving in Liyue harbor by boat in exactly 8 days. I request that a funeral
service be set up for me. Also, I was wondering if all Wangsheng offered were coffins? I would
prefer to be made into food for the animals. Childe talked me into the idea of using my dead body
to feed wild animals after my subsequent death, it’s apparently much more environmentally
friendly. Nevertheless, please prepare a funeral for me upon my return, and send the bill to the
Northland bank.
Thank you, grandpa. Say hello to Hu Tao for me.
With much love, Lumine
P.S. My lawyer will be reading my will soon, but I want to warn you ahead of time that I’ve put
Paimon in your care. Childe keeps trying to give her weapons and I don’t trust him with her
safety.
“Barbatos?”
“Yes, my rock-solid old man friend?”
“Do you think we should be concerned for Lumine?”
“Not in the least! Lumi’s smarter than she lets on.”
“...Let us hope you are correct, Barbatos.
“I’m always right, Rexie! Now hurry up, those Liyue taverns are callin’ my name!”
“So, let me get this straight… That was your first date ever?”
Lumine and Childe nodded in synchronization, “Yes.”
“And you… proposed to each other?”
Another pair of nods, “Yes.”
“You proposed to each other… Out of excitement because Lumine finally said I love you without
vomiting?”
“Yes.”
“Well,” Michial put his fist in his palm and nodded in agreement, “sounds good to me.”
“This is not good! Old man, how could you say that?! How could Ajax and Lumine making the
biggest decision of their lives on their first date with each other be good?”
Michial put his hands on his hips and stared Pavol down over the rim of his glasses, “Now listen
here, I knew from the moment I saw your mother that I was going to marry her. And look how
beautiful we turned out!”
“Oh yes, beautiful. You created a family of absolute lunatics!”
This family of absolute lunatics were, indeed, being absolute lunatics at the moment. It was loud
and chaotic and entirely too homey, a house full of voices and laughter and playful fighting.
Lumine sat on the couch with Ajax, his arm slung over her shoulder, and her hands folded in her
lap. Pavol was the most angry about the news, while Sacha was the most heartbroken.
In fact, both Sacha and Teucer seemed to bond over the fact that Ajax stole their girl. “You know,
Teuc, sometimes women just go after the wrong guys.”
“I just don’t understand…” he held Mister Cyclops close, shaking his head gravely, “Have you
ever seen Miss Lumi eat fried chicken? She’s like an angel… I can’t believe she didn’t wait for
me.”
“Me neither, man, we would’ve done great things together…”
Lumine watched the brothers from her spot on the couch, “I can’t tell if they’re joking or not.”
“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not!” Pavol exploded, “Do you know how upset Paimon is? She
locked herself in a closet!”
Lumine knew full well how upset Paimon was. The second she entered the house with her hand
clasped in Childe’s, Paimon made a noise not dissimilar to a dying cat, and promptly flew to the
nearest enclosed space, which happened to be a coat closet. She had been there since, very wisely
avoiding the subsequent chaos.
And nobody was quite sure what to think. It was like watching an avalanche, you could hardly
outrun it, so you just stare in amazement at the sheer power of the disaster coming right towards
you. That was Ajax and Lumine’s engagement.
It also did not help that Ajax burst into the house, holding Lumine’s hand, and immediately yelled
‘We’re engaged!’ to his unsuspecting family. He absolutely ruined their family trivia night.
Truthfully, Lumine wasn’t sure whether they were joking or not either. “I think we’re just
competing with each other to see who says sike first, honestly.”
Childe tilted his head in thought, “Yeah, pretty much.”
He had a string on his finger, she had an old, ruined ring on hers. And they felt inseparable,
despite the impulsive terror of it all. Their earlier make out didn’t even last five seconds before the
two began arguing over who truly proposed first.
“Y-You can’t… You can’t get married on that basis,” Pavol pinched the bridge of his nose and
heaved a great sigh, “that’s stupid. Do you not understand that this is a huge decision? Lumine, you
can’t just ask someone to marry you because you felt like it.”
That wasn’t exactly true. She wasn’t quite feeling like it, she was simply excited. “Well, I thought
that if I could say I love you, then I could say ‘marry me’ too. So I tried it, and well…”
“And now,” Childe finished, “we’re engaged.”
“You’re both incredibly stupid.”
“Yes, I am.” Lumine nodded gravely, “I have this letter I wrote to grandpa Zhongli earlier. I was
setting up my funeral proceedings because once I return to Mondstadt I’ll be murdered by everyone
I know.”
Childe grinned at the girl under his arm, “I won’t let that happen, girlie. The only one who’s
allowed to kill you is me.”
Eva sighed dreamily from her spot in the kitchen nearby, “How romantic!”
“It’s not romantic, mom! It’s weird as hell!” Pavol snapped once more. He was, by far, reacting
the worst. Anastasia had only shrugged and gone back to reading her magazine, Sacha had a minor
existential crisis with Teucer, while Anthon and Tonia were unsurprised and simply wanted to
return to their game of trivia.
It was weird as hell. That did not stop Lumine from burying her face in her palms to hide the
reddening of her cheeks, and squeaking as she became flustered, “A-And who’s the only one that’s
allowed to kill you?”
“Who do you think, printsessa?”
Ajax was grinning in that arrogant way she was beginning to think she adored. “Me?”
“Right,” he kissed the side of her hair, “Only you.”

Pavol put a hand on his stomach, “I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Not on my carpet, Pasha,” Eva warned, “take it outside.”
Eva was taking it the best. She was the first to know that it was bound to happen, though she
didn’t expect it to be that evening. Ajax had specifically told her that it would take a while before
he ever proposed, yet he arrived home that evening covered in snow and holding the hand of a girl
with babushka’s ring on it. She was not one to complain about the speedy process of her most
calamitous son finally finding love.
There was, of course, the possibility that one of them would break down and begin thinking that it
was an impulsive mistake. But fortunately for Eva’s nerves, Ajax and Lumine were two of the
most stubborn and competitive people she knew.
Neither of them would say sike. They would end up getting married in the end because they were
both too stubborn to let go.
It also, of course, helps that they truly do love each other. Pavol was entirely unaware of this fact,
“I just can’t believe you’d do this, Ajax.”
He’d said that same thing when he announced his ascension to Harbinger four years ago. All Ajax
did was raise a curious brow, “What can’t you believe about it?”
“H-How long have you two been dating?”
Lumine grimaced, “We haven’t.”
“Haven’t what?”
“Been dating.”
“Well,” Childe turned his hand that rested on Lumines other shoulder, leaning closer into her, “we
did date for about 10 seconds first, and then we did again last night for another 10, and then this
was our first date. So I think, in all, we’ll have been together for about four hours and 20 minutes?”
“Sounds about right.”
Pavol pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned, “That’s my point exactly! You can’t get
married after four hours of dating.”
“I already told him I…” Lumine interrupted her own words. She stiffened under Childe’s arm,
growing pale and biting her lip. Pavol stared with wide eyes.
“You already told him what?”
“T-That I… I…”
“Hey,” Ajax lifted her chin to look her in the eye, “you can do it, you did it earlier.”
“Right… I… I-I love… you.”
Eva cheered from the kitchen. Anastasia clapped her hands before returning to her magazine.
Michial proceeded to congratulate Lumine, while Sacha and Teucer comforted each other in manly
dignity. Pavol simply stared - the poor girl looked as if she might barf just from those three little
words.
“Again,” Ajax commanded. He grinned down at her in a far too mischievous way to ever be
mistaken for attractive - in Pavol’s opinion, who consistently pictured his little brother as a devil
with horns. Lumine gave a shaky smile nonetheless.
“I…”
Gasps and wide eyes. Eva approached from the stove and leaned in to listen. Michial clasped his
hands. Anticipation hung in the air like humidity.
“I-I love you?”

Another round of cheers. Even Tonia and Anthon glanced up from their game of trivia to clap at
her success. Despite how it came out as a question, Lumine seemed proud of herself nevertheless.
She could hardly say I love you without shaking like a wet dog, and Pavol had caught her
sneakily trying to bite Ajax’s hand at least four times in the last half hour. “This marriage is
doomed. I love you, I really do, but don’t come crying to me for newlywed advice when you two
try to kill each other.”
Lumine furrowed her brows, “Why would we need advice about that? I know how to kill him.”
“Yeah,” Ajax frowned, “I think you’re the one who needs advice, Pasha. I never see you and your
wife fighting to the death.”
“That’s a good thing!”
“But is it really?”
Eva slipped between the brothers with her fingers folded politely, “Just ignore him, you two. He’s
having a hard time processing such a beautiful couple.”
“I’m having a hard time processing such a weird couple.”
“Tell me…” she sat beside Lumine and wrapped her in a playful hug, earning a giggle from the
traveler in her arms - she was so much smaller than everybody else in the family, even Tonia could
squeeze the life out of her. “Have you thought about baby names yet?”
Ajax closed his eyes and nodded gravely, “Yes, of course. Katya for a girl, Marko for a boy-“
“Actually,” Lumine interrupted, “I would like to name a girl Princess Baijiu Nightrider the III.”
“Lumine, we are not naming our daughter th-“
“-And for a boy, Lord Darknight Lapis the III.”

Eva held her closer, “Those sound beautiful! But I will let you know,” her grip tightened
threatingly, “if you name my grandchildren some stupid ass name, I will never let you marry my
son.”
Wonderful. Spectacular. It was the key to her heart, having been flung at her far too late.
Lumine’s eyes widened at the golden opportunity. “Really? You mean it?” She looked up at Eva,
gasping, “Then I’ll add more. She’ll be Princess Baijiu Nightrider Oswald Regisvine the III.”
Childe put a hand to his chin in thought, “Not bad…”
“You two better be joking! You better not introduce my future grandchild as Princess Baijiu
Nightrider Oswald Regisvine the III!”
“Oh but… it’s what I’ve always dreamed of naming my children…” Lumine tried her best to act
coy, “I guess you have no choice but to force me to stay away from Ajax. Okay then, with an
incredibly heavy heart, I shall take my leave.”
She was instantly pulled back to the couch by two pairs of strong arms. Eva took one side, Ajax
took the other. Trapped, now, she kicked wildly.
“Mama,” he hissed over Lumine’s head, “don’t give her any outs!”
“Fine, fine!” She whispered, “I’ll just call the baby whatever I want.”
Lumine continued to kick and writhe, “There is no baby! We shouldn’t have kids, Ajax! They’ll
just turn out as little abominations!”
“But very cute little abominations.”
“No! They’ll be gross!”
“Not as gross as you, Lumin-“ he gasped and yanked his hand away, “Did you bite me?”
She did. Pavol had seen it coming, she’d been trying to subtly inflict some pain on her fiancé all
night. He only chose to not warn his little brother of the rabies-filled blonde monster that curled up
in his arms - though judging by the flicker of a smile on Ajax’s face, he had liked being bitten.
Pavol thought that once Ajax found a woman he would calm down a bit. Yet, he realized now that
it depended on the woman, Lumine seemed to only make him more feral.
“Hey,” Tonia interrupted their bickering with a bossy clearing of her throat, “it’s family trivia
night and I’d really like to get back to our game soon. You two can be on a team if you want.”
Both Ajax and Lumine’s eyes widened in mirror reflections of competitive excitement. Despite
the fights and the biting and the bickering, they naturally flowed together like a stream of water,
mixing and curling and moving in fluid motion.
Pavol could look at the bright side of things if he wanted to; Ajax and Lumine were civilized
enough to still play family games, and that’s all he truly desired from his little brother, half an hour
of normality.
And that’s what he would get, even if it ended with Ajax announcing that he never wants to be on
a team with Lumine ever again because she answered nearly every question wrong.
“Okay, this one’s easy,” Anastasia read the card at a slow pace, while Lumine gripped Ajax’s
hand with both of her own in excitement, “who is the archon of Liyue?”
“Lady Ningguang! Wait! I-I mean-“
Ajax couldn’t stop laughing. “I’m never playing this with you again.”
“I panicked! Let me have another try! I-It’s Rex Morax- Shit!”
Teucer, of course, repeated the word ‘shit’ immediately. Both he and Lumine were sentenced to
time out in the corner for their sins.
The domestic bliss lasted for the rest of the night. Lumine simmered in the corner with Teucer -
teaching him more bad words under her breath - while Ana and Pavol rounded up the kids. The
parents took the evening to relax, forcing Sacha to help Ajax in the kitchen.
Which was, obviously, a mistake.
“Man, so I know you’ll probably kill me for this-“
“Then why are you still planning to say it, Alesander?”
“Because I’m curious,” he leaned on the counter beside him, keeping a careful eye on the knife he
used to cut vegetables, “how is Lumine?”
Ajax blinked and looked up. Wordless, he glanced over his shoulder at her sitting in the corner
with Teucer, making obscene sock puppets with the light of the living room fireplace, “Judging by
the look in her eyes, I’d say she’s good right now, she probably thinks she’s hilarious for all the
stuff she’s teaching Teuc. Why?”
“No, no, I mean how is she?”
“...Temperature wise? or-“
“In bed, little bro.”
In bed. How is Lumine in bed? Sacha was asking what Lumine was like… in bed.
For starters, she kicks. She mumbles in her sleep. Last night she accidentally slapped him when
she rolled over, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. What he truly could not put up with was
the wolf-like grin on Sacha’s face.
Ajax and Sacha were the same height, though the look in Ajax’s eyes let him know that he was
the stronger one here. He was the one with the knife, the one tilting his head and slowly bringing it
up to his brother's neck.
Sacha was entirely unphased - Ajax attacked him with a sharpened spoon when he was 15, he’d
seen it all. “You’re going to kill me while you’re wearing a frilly apron?”
“Yes,” his eyes narrowed, “I’m secure in my masculinity.”
Sacha frowned, “Come on! I was just teasing you!”
“Sacha…”
“Y-Yes?”
His voice dropped to a whisper, “I’m going to spit in your soup.”
“Gross! Man,” he pushed the knife away from his neck, “I just wanna have girl talk! You’ve
never wanted to have girl talk with me before!”
And he still didn’t want to. He’d never had any girls to talk about before. There was this one girl
when he was 10, but that lasted about two seconds before he realized that he really just liked her
very sharp, very cool looking pencil.
The only reason that Childe was not tearing out Sacha’s throat was due to the simple fact that
Sacha wouldn’t mistreat a lady if he could ever help it. He was an asshole, but he wouldn’t dare to
truly be perverted, nor did he have any unwise intentions. His brother was harmless, and was
simply using every trick in the book to get on Childe’s last nerve since there was no possible way
to defeat him in a fight otherwise.
He, most definitely, would be spitting in his soup.
When Ajax deigned to respond, Sacha went on, stirring the pot over the fire as he spoke, “What’re
you and Lumi even planning to do? Neither of you have a real place to stay.”
He shrugged, “Don’t worry, I’ll just rent an apartment when we get back to Liyue.”
“And then? What if you’re assigned somewhere else? Are you going to just drag her along?”
He recalled her short bout of jealousy over Skirk earlier. He’d never once seen her jealous before
that, but it was surprisingly easy, he doubted that she would let him travel alone for that reason.
And even if he was assigned elsewhere, the Tsaritsa would allow him to take Lumine along due to
the letter he just sent. There was no way she’d refuse his request. “We’ll be fine, no worries.”
“Okay... but what if she changes her mind and realizes that this is way too soon?”
That was not possible simply for the fact that Lumine was approaching the kitchen at the speed of
a very angry squirrel - she only ran like that when she was incredibly determined to tackle
something. The second Eva let her out of time-out, she darted towards Ajax, and wrapped her arms
around him from behind. Sacha jumped back with the sudden appearance of the blonde.
Ajax stood perfectly calm and poised. Lumine buried her face into his back and mumbled
something unintelligible. He only sent his older brother an emotionless glance, “I think we’re fine.
She wouldn’t hang off just anyone like this.”
Nor would she dig her teeth into just anyone like that either. He continued to ignore the blonde
leech drooping from his waist as he cut vegetables. Casual as could be, he twisted his arm around
to offer her a carrot, and barely missed her teeth grazing his fingers as he did so.
“You know what,” Sacha took a step back, “I think you two are going to be good for each other.
I’ll leave you alone now, I promise.”
Lumine glanced up from her spot behind him, “When he leaves do you wanna make out?’
“Yes, of cours-”
“-You know what? Nevermind,” Sacha returned to his spot against the counter, “I’m staying here
for the sake of our family’s health.”
The domesticity lasted throughout the evening. The hand holding underneath the table, the mild
food fights and whispered insults of affection, the avoidance of Paimon’s ever-present glare.
It was routine, almost, how they cleaned up dinner afterwards, how they tucked Teucer into bed
together, how they sat on the porch bundled in blankets, talking to Eva and Michial about the stars
late into the night. It was natural, like breathing, like existence itself, for Lumine to melt into the
cracks of his family. She couldn’t glue them back together completely, but she fit nicely
nevertheless.
They had three days left in Snezhnaya. Childe took one day to visit the Morepesok Fatui
headquarters, while Anastasia, Tonia, and Eva showed her around the village further. By that
evening, there were snowball fights, chaotic family dinners, and several battles in the backyard.
Teucer took up archery, and already had better posture than Ajax with a bow in his hands.
The peace lasted as long as it possibly could. On the third day, Ajax answered the door to his
parent’s home, and the dream shattered.
“Letter for you, sir.”
Nobody in the Fatui knew where he lived. Nobody was allowed to, the Harbingers were given
absolute privacy concerning their home lives. Only the Tsaritsa knew of familial ties and true
names.
Slowly, with tense shoulders and an unfamiliar prickle of worry in his chest, Childe reached out to
take the letter. “Thank you. Is there anything else?”
“No, sir.” the agent saluted stiffly, before turning away to start down the path out of the forest. It
was odd to see a debt collector in full gear walking down his parent’s porch stairs - it was even
more odd that a field agent delivered a letter to a Harbinger’s personal abode.
Childe waited until he was gone to finally shut the door. It was early, only he and Michial were
up for the morning. Staring down at the wax seal of the Tsaritsa, he made his way to the couch and
sat in front of the fireplace.
He knew that the Tsaritsa would respond to him, but this was far too soon. She’d have to rush a
courier to get this letter in his hands on time. He broke the wax seal and unfolded the neatly written
message.
Tartaglia,
I was very interested in reading your essay upon the traveler’s greatness. You must care for her
very deeply.
It wasn’t an essay, per se. He simply said that she was very strong, and must be watched. Perhaps
he also used the word ‘luminescent’ to describe her, and also ‘effervescent’, and ‘radiant’, but that
was all. It was most certainly not a soliloquy of his love for Lumine.
(Ignoring the fact that he promised to only state one good thing about her at the time of writing
this letter.)
I have decided to grant you a reassignment, as you asked. You may travel with the Outlander as
long as you like, simply send me monthly reports on her movements, and do attempt to stop her
from getting in La Signora’s way. Keep her on a leash.
I must say that I am impressed how you’ve managed to gain her trust despite all that’s happened. It
is an example of your capabilities, and how useful to me you could truly be. I am aware of your
goal to be the most powerful Harbinger in history, and I may have the key to the fulfillment of that
dream.
As you know, I have loved before. I have cared for others in a life-consuming way, once. Yet, I
discovered what it means to have true power, and I wish the same for you. Thus, I am giving you a
new command that will help you reach your goal. Report to Zapolyarny Palace immediately.
I would like to tell you the story of my lover, it has a wonderful ending that I believe you would
be very interested in.
Sincerely, Her Majesty of Snezhnaya
Ajax stared blankly at the Tsaritsa’s signature. He’d always thought she wrote so elegantly, so
peacefully and poised, but now the sharp forms of her letters only unnerved him. It was like a
threat.
She had a new command that would help him reach his goal. Surprisingly, he was not excited in
the least.
“Papa…”
Michial popped his head out from the kitchen, holding a steaming cup of coffee, “Yes?”
Ajax could only glance over his shoulder. Upon meeting his eyes, Michial immediately tensed at
the expression. That blank look, that emotionless dullness that meant something bad was about to
happen.
“I’m going to use my vision to travel to Zapolyarny as quickly as possible,” he stood and folded
the letter as tightly as he could, as if he could shrink it out of existence, “I’ll try to be back by
tomorrow morning, but I can’t make any promises.”
He wore the same look as when he was first appointed as a Harbinger. Nothing could betray what
he was feeling underneath, and if he smiled, it was an arrogant and bitter expression that provided
no warmth. With the last week having been so domestic, so peaceful, Michial had nearly forgotten
what his third son was truly like.
“Jaxie… Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” a fake smile and a tilt of his head, “If I’m not back by the time our boat leaves, could you
tell Lumine and Paimon to just go on without me? I’ll catch up eventually.”
There was something off about him. There was something so incredibly unnerving, so different
and so barely contained. He wasn’t Ajax at that moment, he was Tartaglia.
“O-Okay, I’ll tell her.”
Another humorless and cold twist of his lips, “Thank you. Oh, and one other thing… Don’t tell
Lumine where I’m going.”
Michial gave a shaky exhale, “Then what should I tell her?”
“Just say that I had to take her ring to a different jeweler in another city, she won’t complain about
that.”
He knew better than to question further. To ask why his son was going to Zapolyarny would be
like asking a starving wolf why it killed it’s prey. The answer was obvious, unspoken, and entirely
instinctual.
Tartaglia departed instantly. He left behind the memory of Ajax, a young man who Michial
missed with every inch of his heart. Tartaglia was an entirely different person than the boy he
raised.
He would lie to Lumine out of simple fear of the consequences. Once she awoke and wandered
the house asking for her fiance, Michial didn’t have the heart to tell her of the shift in his son’s
mood. She had been so happy, he would not be the one to crush that joy.
“He’ll be back soon,” he reassured over breakfast, “he said something about your ring, I wasn’t
really listening.”
Lumine took it with a nonchalant shrug and a mouth full of eggs, “Alrighty then. I’m sure he’ll be
fine.”
She was so utterly sure that Michial didn’t dare to argue with her. He and Eva never liked to hear
of when he visited the Tsaritsa personally, they felt that they’d get a letter detailing their son’s
death afterwards. This was no different, though Lumine was oblivious enough to take zero notice
of her in-law’s discomfort.
Hours later, Childe nearly collapsed at the front gates of the palace. He had not ever used his
hydro vision to travel so far, so quickly. His body was still recovering from having used the Foul
Legacy to defend Teucer all those weeks ago, surfing along the icy river for hours did nothing to
help his sore muscles.
The gate guards knew better than to assist a Harbinger who was stumbling over their own feet
and dripping wet. Childe ignored their stares and coughed into his arm, shook his hair off, and used
what stamina he had left to draw the water from his clothes.
“My Lord,” one guard stepped aside to let him trudge pass, “the Tsaritsa is waiting for you, I
believe.”
Of course she’d be waiting for him. She knew that he would come as quickly as he could with
her bait dangling so wonderfully. Only grunting in response, Childe brushed by and headed up the
grand pathway to the entrance ahead.
Zapolyarny Palace was the most confusing, contradictory building he’d ever seen. Some of the
towers were pointed, some of them rounded, while the rooms within its walls were placed in odd
corners, seemingly at random. Whoever designed the palace had to be a sadist to the directionally
challenged.
Childe approached the doors and nodded to the guards. The entrance room would lead directly
into the reception hall, which preceded the throne room where the Tsaritsa would be waiting for
him. It was the same room in which he began his life, surrounded by 10 Harbingers, basking in the
blizzard of her eyes.
At that time, Childe thought her the most beautiful woman in existence - besides his mother. He
knew, now, that he was wrong. The Tsaritsa could not compare to Lumine.
The throne room was large, echoing and extravagant. The throne itself was cold and sharp. She
stood beside it, speaking to a servant in low tones as Childe approached. “Your Majesty,” he
dropped to one knee and bowed his head, “I’ve reported, as you commanded.”
“That was quick, Tartaglia.”
He glanced up with a smile, “Yeah, I’m a fast walker.”

“You’re quick with a jest, as always. I’m happy to see that the traveler has not corrupted you
beyond recognition. You may rise, now.”
He rose, resisting the budding frown on his face. Whatever she meant by the traveler corrupting
him had entirely gone over his head, though the Tsaritsa would never deign to explain herself. All
he could offer was a nod, and a quick, “Thank you.”
There was very little way to describe the Tsaritsa other than ice-like. Everything about her was
pale and sharp, he imagined that simply touching her would sting. Her gaze never wavered, and her
face rarely changed. The rare times that she smiled were considered a blessing among her
followers.
“I would like to go on a walk in the gardens.” She spoke slowly, precisely, as if every little word
mattered, “Would you accompany me?”
Childe couldn’t possibly say no. Yet, he hated the gardens. It smelled too harshly of rose perfume,
and everything was incredibly thorny. He forced himself to smile, “Yes, of course Your Majesty.”
The garden was directly behind the throne room, through a large set of sliding glass doors that
never seemed to be smudged. In silence, Childe followed her outside, his hands clasped behind his
back in calm poise.
He was doing everything he could to compose himself. But he knew that she saw right through
him. “You’re nervous, Tartaglia.”
“Just a bit tired.” He gave a fake smile.
“Don’t be nervous,” she walked ahead of him, head held high, “I believe you’ll appreciate my
little story.”
The Tsaritsa rarely referred to anything concerning herself as ‘little’. Nothing about her was little.
Despite how much shorter she was than Childe, she stood as the tallest in the room. It was natural
for her to fill up every inch of space surrounding her.
He wasn’t sure what to say in response. Silent, he watched her curtain of pale hair sashay as she
walked.
“Are you aware of what I was before I became an Archon, Tartaglia?”
“I’m afraid not.” There were rumors of her being a snowdrop that pushed its way through the ice,
though Childe couldn’t bring himself to believe that. The Tsaritsa had to have been something
much stronger than an easily crushed flower.
“Well,” she glanced over her shoulder and tilted her head, “I was from Morepesok, actually. Of
course, it was not called Morepesok in that time.”
“You were?” The news hit him like a slap to the face. He knew his little village had been around
for quite a long time, but not nearly long enough for an Archon to have hailed from it. There was
something prideful about being from the same village as the Tsaritsa herself.
“Yes, yes. I do not have the same past as other Archons, you see… I was not a wisp on the wind,
or a dragon burrowing through the earth, I was simply a girl. A fisherman’s wife.”
There was nothing simple about the Tsaritsa. The very thought was incomprehensible. A
fisherman’s wife, turned into a Goddess.
She went on, “I loved him very much, my husband. He was a wonderful man.”
And he, obviously, was not alive now. “What happened to him?”
“He died, Tartaglia,” she turned around. Surrounded by the thorned rose bushes of the garden, the
cold breeze pushed her hair back as she looked down on him, “It was a hurricane that happened
upon us very suddenly. I was on the boat with him. Our bow and stern lines were far too tight.”
Tight lines and a sudden high tide, he knew the rest. As odd as it was to talk about boating with
the Queen of Snezhnaya, the familiar subject brought him a bit of comfort. He relaxed his
shoulders and gave her a real smile, though subtle, “I’m sorry to hear about your loss, Your
Majesty.”
“Oh,” she flicked a hand, “it was thousands of years ago. But I think of it daily, still… He told me
to take shelter in the cabin, while he worked on fixing the problem. The wind was howling, I recall
it very clearly. I was just a girl, and I knew I was about to be a widow… Yet, he passed on this
knowledge to me before the icy sea took him, and now, I would like to pass it onto you.”
This was the moment, this snippet of knowledge that would lead him to the fulfillment of his
lifelong goal. Childe stood to attention, “Yes?”
She did not dare to break eye contact, “Throughout my journey to Godhood, I kept his words in
mind. They are what have made me who I am today. And I hope they mold you into something
ascending human strength as well.”
“I...I will make sure they do, Your Majesty.”
The smallest of smiles broke out on her lips. She giggled into her hand and shook her head, “Your
youthful excitement is refreshing, I need more Harbingers this determined... Well,” a sigh and a
slow nod, “it is simple, really. He told me ‘you are too strong to despair over this’ I told him I was
not strong at all… And he said, in return, ‘true strength lies in what we lose’... Does that make
sense to you?”
True strength lies in what we lose.
“When I lost him, I gained my vision,” she was whispering now, “I began to realize that I was
strongest when I did not have worldly ties. My husband, my family, each person I called a friend…
With them gone, I had nothing left to lose.”
He paused in thought. Nothing left to lose. There was nothing more tying her to this world, all the
strings had been cut. She floated into the air and disappeared into the heavens, then reappeared as a
Goddess out of the clouds.
Childe could not form a response even if he wanted to.
“Tartaglia,” a barely heard whisper on the wind, a puff of steam coming from her mouth in the
cold afternoon air, “I have a new objective for you, and I promise that you will be stronger. By the
end of it, you may be the strongest Harbinger I have. Would you like that?”
“....Y-Yes, I would.”
“Then kill Lumine.”
The world stopped spinning. The wind stopped blowing. His heart stopped beating. Childe
crashed down to Teyvat with a sharp exhale and a glare that could kill, “What?”
The Tsaritsa remained calm and unaffected, “That is your new order, Tartaglia. Cut off your
worldly ties, make the sacrifice, and you shall grow stronger than ever before. I will grant you
power beyond mortal comprehension.”
Ajax wasn’t aware that his fingers were shaking. He was aware of nothing at all, not the roses,
nor the wind, not the cold on his skin, nor the Tsaritsa’s burrowing stare. Worldly ties, and power
beyond comprehension. A sacrifice for strength.
Cut the ties off, float away from the ground and be free, finally, to be what he’s always wanted to
be.
“I am a patient woman,” she had the audacity to smile, “her death does not have to be immediate.
Go ahead and travel alongside her, the more attached you are, the stronger your pain will make you
in the end. But do remember, my grace will not last forever. If you cannot kill the traveler,
Tartaglia, then I will have someone do it for you.”
Instantly, he snapped back to reality with an anger hotter than any pyro vision, “And what if I kill
your assassin?”
“Then I will kill everyone you love.”
It was not dissimilar to the feeling of falling into ice cold water. That plunge, the shock that
permeated every inch of his body, the rushing of blood to his head and the ringing of his ears. An
uncomfortable stroke of the cold water crawling up his skin and tearing it’s way down his throat
with claws like daggers.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
She nodded in acceptance and stepped past him. Her finger trailed across his arm as she brushed
by, “You may hate me right now, but you will see in the end.”
“Will I?” Childe didn’t mean to be so poisonous. It was a thin line to walk with the Tsaritsa, and
he’d crossed many borders by nearly hissing and recoiling from her touch.
“Yes, you will.”
He was not so sure of that. With his back to her, she walked down the path in graceful silence,
speaking as she left with another gust of icy wind.
“This is a good thing, Ajax Alekseev. Killing Lumine will only make you stronger... I promise.”
Return To Liyue
“This is a good thing, Ajax Alekseev. Killing Lumine will only make you stronger... I promise.”
Childe had to have been standing there for an eternity. In that spot, on the garden path,
surrounded by dark rose bushes and the coldest breeze he’d ever felt. Usually, he relished the kiss
of bitter wind on his cheeks, but in this moment all he wanted was warmth.
Killing Lumine will only make you stronger.
I promise.
The Tsaritsa never broke her promises.
Stronger.
“Lord Tartaglia?’
Childe jumped at the sudden sound. It was a man’s voice coming from behind him, exactly where
the Tsaritsa had taken her leave. Slowly, he turned to face the intruder upon his thoughts, “Yes,
what is it?”
“Uh,” taken aback, the Fatui guard avoided his eyes, “Her Majesty the Tsaritsa was wondering if
you would like to come inside. You’ve been staring at the ground for half an hour.”
Half an hour of simply staring at the ground. Half an hour since her world-shattering command.
Half an hour of biting against the wind and closing his eyes, wrapping his head around what she
meant.
“I had no idea I was out here this long, I was just lost in thought.” He sighed heavily and pushed
his hair back from his face, “Give her my thanks, but I must get going.”
“Yes sir.”
Childe wasn’t sure if she deserved that polite tone, or a spear through the stomach. Both at once,
perhaps, his thanks and his blade, piercing her entirety and shattering her empire. Whether she was
right, or wrong, he had no idea. It was a rare moment that he would admit to absolute cluelessness.
Hypothetically speaking, just what would he get from killing Lumine? He’d still have familial ties
after her death. What was next down the line, killing his parents and siblings? If he were to reach
new heights, how many ropes would he have to cut away from himself?
And what could the Tsaritsa offer him that he could not achieve by himself?
Kill Lumine. Kill her, and achieve true strength.
Achieve that beautiful moment in time when there was nothing left to lose. When he could feel
what it meant to conquer his emotions, his humanity, his very self.
Could that ever happen?
Childe needed to leave the palace gardens before the guards began questioning his sanity. He’d
burrowed a hole into the ground with his eyes, and stood in that same spot for half an hour without
realizing. It felt like forever that he was stuck in the form of a statue.
It was not that he was contemplating very deeply on the matter. Childe wasn’t entirely sure what
was on his mind, simply question after question, curiosity and disgust, hatred and love. The last
time he had felt so utterly frozen was when he dropped into the Abyss. He was a child, then,
inexperienced and terrified. What he learned in that monster-ridden world had taught him to never
fear again if he could possibly help it.
But right now, as he retreated into his mind and walked around the side of the palace, Childe
realized something.
He was afraid.
This fear was not the anxiety he felt on occasion. It was not the threat of an idea, some made up
scenario that could possibly end badly for those he loved. This fear was not the off-chance that the
Fatui would hurt his family. This fear was not the same as Lumine falling from the Jade Palace as
it dropped like a brick. There was no guilt, no panic, no scratchy throats and Foul Legacies.
There was simply the command, and the target.
This type of fear was the rarest kind. It was existential, life-consuming. It was the feeling that
there was an entity much larger than him, staring down at his ant-like form on the world and
daring him to do something about it. This was not the kind of fear that would go away after a
distraction.
This feeling would stay with him. This feeling picked a spot in his heart to burrow into, and made
its home there. It was like smashing an egg on the ground, there was no scavenging, no fixing, no
returning to it’s prior form. This felt permanent.
And, perhaps, that was what would make him stronger in the end. Childe walked down the front
road of the palace, passing through the gates in tense silence as he mused. Perhaps this pain would
be his strength, though he knew that was not what the Tsaritsa meant.
True strength lies in what we lose.
Ajax had to lose Lumine to achieve power.
“Could I…” he was mumbling to himself as he stood beside the river. The palace was still
foreboding and tall behind him, but with the layers of forest between him and it’s towers, he finally
felt as if he could breathe. “Would I be able to kill her?”
Judging from how he reacted the first time he thought he’d inadvertently killed her, Childe knew
the answer was no. He summoned his hydro vision and used it to travel as he thought further on the
problem. He could not kill her, but if he did not, then someone else would try.
Not just anyone could kill Lumine. Yet, if the assassin died - assuming by either of their hands -
then his family would be in danger. If his family was in danger, there was only so much he could
do to protect all of his siblings and his parents. He couldn’t bear to lose even one of them, their
blood would drip from his fingers forever if that happened.
It took hours to return to Morepesoke. His body was nearing its final beat of energy, he felt as if
he could sleep for days. It was not only physical exhaustion, but emotional. Not once had his mind
left the roundabout of the situation.
Kill Lumine, or risk her assassination. Kill the assassin, risk his family’s death. Kill that assassin,
and subject his family to a life lived in fear and terror, constantly staring danger in the eyes. The
Tsaritsa would not give up, she would keep sending people, Childe knew this. Oftentimes, he was
one of her people, and rarely did he miss his mark.
So much for childhood dreams. Teucer would lose that light in his eyes if he spent each day
running from death by the blade. Tonia would never smile again, Anthon would grow far more
bitter than he already was. Childe’s goal was to give them the life he couldn’t have. Staying on the
run forever would only ruin them.
He tried his best to drag himself away from the river and through the back alleys of the village.
He’d prefer that nobody would see him so exhausted, taking every few seconds to breathe deeply
and lean down with tightly closed eyes. Using his vision to travel for that long felt nearly as bad as
his Foul Legacy transformation.
It wasn’t too late in the night, but the stars were out. They winked down upon his ragged form in
what felt like a mocking glimmer, as if they laughed at his terror. Childe grimaced while he leaned
against the trunk of a tree and took a deep breath.
Kill Lumine. True strength. Kill Lumine. Worldly ties and sacrifices. Kill Lumine. Ice-like eyes
and a command as destructive as a blizzard.
The day the Tsaritsa gained her vision was the day she lost the person she loved the most. Here,
in Morepesok, on the raging sea that he had sailed all of his life. She was a human, then, and she
ascended to Godhood once her worldly ties were cut completely.
It was almost prophetic, almost. He snorted to himself at the thought. Kill his fiance and become
an archon, that was rich. He could finally conquer the world, crush the thrones of Gods beneath his
heel, just as he’d always wanted.
Except, Lumine would not be there to witness it.
One could easily say that Childe was an opportunist. He often thought his battle strategies
through quite thoroughly, but if he saw an opportunity to gain more from something, he took it.
The Tsaritsa’s offer was the perfect opportunity to achieve the goal that had been stuck in his mind
since the age of 14. True strength was devouring, it was all-consuming, and it was everything he’d
ever worked for.
Here it was, falling into his lap, and he was hesitating.
Kill Lumine.
His starmate. The woman that the universe chose for him. The woman that he’d love even if their
constellations were on separate ends of the sky.
Kill Lumine.
The girl he noticed walking down the street of Liyue, golden blonde hair and honey eyes, the girl
he pointed to and prophesied to never love. The girl he was entirely wrong about.
And there she sat, knees curled up to her chest and hands wrapped around her legs. She had her
eyes closed as he approached from the forest path, a lock of blonde hair like a waterfall between
her face and his view. It was late, past midnight, and Lumine was sitting on the front porch of his
parent’s home, fast asleep in the cold.
Kill her.
“Lumi,” Childe forced his aching muscles to the back of his mind as he knelt down beside her,
whispering, “are you asleep?”
She rustled and frowned at the noise. Her eyes remained closed, and her breathing steady. He
always thought her beautiful, though when asleep she was a rare kind of luminescent. That peace
and contentment, that innocence, the soft sighs.
Childe sat down on the step beside her. He liked to think that she fell asleep waiting for him,
though he had a feeling she was simply being odd again. Childe summoned a hydro dagger and
inspected the blade in his hand.
How easily this would slice through her neck. How easily he could stand over her and bury it in
her back. How easily, how incredibly smooth, it would go in one end of her abdomen, and come
out the other. Flickered blue eyes from the blade, to her skin. He twisted it in his hand and tapped it
against his leg. It would be simple, really. Lumine would die in seconds.
With a sudden sigh, she stirred and buried her face into her arm. Childe let the dagger dissipate
with a smile, “Did I wake you? Sorry, girlie.”
“No...” slowly, she lifted her head and blinked, “I tried my best to stay up for when you would get
back.”
She stayed up to see him, and he was inches away from driving a blade through her back. Childe
took a deep breath to steady his abruptly racing heart, “Oh, really? That’s sweet.”
Kill Lumine.
She yawned into her hand, “I’m just mad at you. I wanted to yell at you, but now I’m much too
tired to do so.”
“Of course you are,” Childe leaned in closer as she rested her head on his shoulder, “What did I
do this time?”
“You left without saying goodbye.”
She was perfect. “Ah, yes, how villainous. I told you long ago that I’m kind of a bad guy, don’t
you remember?”
“You’re not that bad, you poser.”
If only she knew. This entire half-yawned conversation was laughable, he would have burst out
giggling if it wouldn’t threaten his secrecy. Wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her
closer, all he could do was sigh and close his eyes, “I could surprise you, Lumi. I’m much worse
than you think.”
“Oh,” she teased, “did you forget to pick up my ring?”
It had completely slipped his mind that he told his father to use that excuse. It was not quite a lie
as he smiled into her hair, “Yep. I’ll have to grab it tomorrow morning before we leave for Liyue.”
“Then we should get some sleep,” Lumine pushed herself up from the steps and held out a hand,
“You look really tired, did you get in a fight on the way here?”
“Without you? I wouldn’t dare.”
She smiled, “Alright, well, I guess I can’t be mad at you anymore, then.”
Lumine needed to be. She simply had no idea of the hurricane in his mind, the constant questions
and swirl of information. He thought of the Tsaritsa, a fisherman’s wife who lost the love of her
life, taking the first step towards ultimate power as it happened. Here, in Morepesok, where her life
both ended, and began.
Childe felt sick. It was not from the exhaustion, it was the look in her eyes. It was the way she
smiled at him as if he was the moon and the stars and the universe embodied. It was the way his
chest hurt, the way his heart skipped, the way he could only see a future if it involved her.
The Tsaritsa was patient. Lumine didn’t have to die tonight, he could hold her in his arms and
pretend today never happened.
If only that was possible.
She held his hand as he led her through the dark house. Everybody else had long fallen asleep,
leaving the usually chaotic living room peacefully quiet. Childe felt like losing himself in her, then,
wrapping his arms around her waist from behind and pressing a line of kisses up her neck.
Lumine stifled a giggle, whispering, “I don’t wanna wake anybody up!”
“It’ll be fine,” a murmur against her neck, hot breath on her skin and his fingers tracing circles on
her waist, “just be quiet, lyubimaya.”
She couldn’t even if she wanted to. He kissed a sensitive spot against her neck, drawing out a
stuttering gasp that lit a fire inside him.
Power beyond human comprehension. Stop kissing her, stop loving her, stop holding her as if she
was about to disappear. It was sinful how easy it would be to wrap a hand around her neck and
squeeze - to drain her of life, to let her collapse to the ground and slip away.
Abruptly, Lumine twisted around in his arms and leaned up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms
around his neck. The glimmer of mischief in her eyes was unmistakable, familiar. She whispered,
“I think you’re the one who should be quiet.”
“Oh?”
“Mmhmm…”
“You’re about to punch me, aren’t you?”
“Damn!” Lumine gasped, “You saw right through me! I guess I’ll just have to kiss you now…”
If she was looking to tease him, kissing would not give her the upper hand. The best thing Childe
could use in that moment was a distraction from his constantly running mind. Leaning down, he
put his hands beneath her thighs and hoisted her up.
Lumine gasped as she straddled him. Her arms stretched around his neck, her legs wrapping
around his waist. He smiled and pulled back to press a kiss against the top of her head.
“I love you, Lumi.”

She giggled in his arms, “Gross!”
“Shhh,” he laughed under his breath and carried her up the stairs, taking each step slowly and
surely so as to not make noise, “don’t wake my parents up.”
In return, she took the opportunity to brush her lips along his jaw. Childe hummed in pleasure,
step after step, until a stair decided to creak in the silence of the house. The sound drew forth
another stifled eruption of giggles and kisses.
Lumine crossed her ankles around his back while Childe freed one hand to turn the knob to his
bedroom door. It creaked ever so slightly, making him take pause for half a second, “Paimon’s not
in here, is she?”
“Why?” A soft murmur in his ear, another kiss, “Are you planning to kill me?”
That would’ve been funnier under different circumstances. Smiling, Childe nudged the door open
and brushed by, gently kicking it shut with his foot, “Yes, this has all been an intricate
assassination plot. You’ve been tricked.”
“Oh nooo,” Lumine put the back of her hand to her forehead, “I’ve been trapped in a room with
my murderer! Whatever shall I do?”
That light in her eyes, that smile on her lips. That hushed laughter, how she snorted when she told
a stupid joke. Lumine, who kissed him one second, and attacked him the next. Lumine, who
smelled of lavender and haunted his daydreams. Lumine, the only woman who’d ever made his
chest flutter, who’d ever brought him to a genuine smile, who’d ever kept his attention for more
than five seconds. Lumine. Lumine. Lumine.
Uncharacteristically gentle, Childe lowered her body down to the bed. Her arms slipped away
from his neck as she held herself up, allowing him to lean over her and place his palms flat on
either side of her hips.
The kiss wasn’t shocking, nor unexpected. But it was right, it felt as if they belonged intertwined
together. Kissing her was breathing, touching her was natural. Feeling her fingers grip at his hair
was exactly where he wanted to be for the rest of his life.
Kill her. True power.
“Lumine,” Childe broke from the kiss to rest his forehead against hers, “lyubimaya, listen to me.”
“W-What is it? Are you okay?” She stroked his hair in an attempt to comfort him, one leg coming
up to bump against his side.
“I’m okay,” a murmur and a kiss, “I’m okay…”
“What is it you wanted to tell me?”
“It’s just that…”
How to admit that he was ordered to kill her, the love of his life. And how to tell her that he had
considered it for half a second.
“Are you sure you’re okay, a mhuirnín?”
Childe blinked in surprise, “What’s that mean?”
“Ah… nothing…”
“Lumi,” he smiled down at her pinkening cheeks, “tell me what that means.”
She wiggled beneath him and drew her hands to her face. Covering her eyes, she turned her head
to the side, “It means screw you in my home world.”
“So... you want to?”
“No!”
“Tell me what it means, Lumi.”
“N-Never!”
“I’ll tickle you again.”
She gasped, “I’ll scream and wake up the whole house, then your parents won’t let us sleep in the
same room ever again!”
He pulled back to send her a flat look, “Mama would love that. She’d start buying baby clothes.”
“Gross! I didn’t mean it that way!”
“But she’ll take it that way,” he nuzzled against her neck, drawing out yet another gasp, “it can all
be avoided if you just tell me what that means…”
A beat of silence before she whispered once more, “...You promise you won’t tickle me?”
“I pinkie promise.”
“Okay,” wrapping her arms around his neck, Lumine smiled, “it means my dear, o-or my heart.“
Power beyond human comprehension.
“You’re calling me a cute nickname?”
She frowned beneath him, “Don’t rub it in my face.”
“You…” Childe took a moment to process what happened, his heart fluttering in that way only
Lumine could cause, “You’re really in love with me, huh?”
A shrug, “You’re okay.”
“You’re super in love with me, you wanna marry me.”
“You’re pushing it, Jax.”
He could only smile as the overwhelming dread pricked at the back of his mind. She had no idea.
Lumine let him hold her like this, not knowing that he was ordered to end her life. “You trust me,
don’t you?”
She sighed, “Unfortunately, yes. But then again, I trust everyone.”
“I wish you wouldn’t.”
“Why is that?”
“You’ll get hurt,” he kissed her forehead and sighed, “I hate the thought of the light leaving your
eyes.”
“Then just…” her fingers tangled into his hair as she hummed in thought, “don’t let me die. Not
that I need your help, but if it scares you so much then I’ll allow you to save my life once or
twice.”
She’d allow it. She was willing to let him save her, to protect her, even though they both knew she
didn’t need it. First, the endearing name, and now this.
Lumine had no idea the mistake she was making.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” an assurance to himself, more than to her, “I pinkie promise.”
“I’ll accept your pinkie promise, but only if you shut up and kiss me.”
“Hmm… I think I can do that.”
That matter of ultimate power could wait one more night.
Her Exalted Majesty, Tsaritsa of Snezhnaya,
I apologize for contacting you so soon after our meeting, but I could not forget our conversation.
Your command is understood, I realize that strength comes from sacrifice. Your own experiences
are examples of that sentiment.
Yet, I admit that I find myself having trouble. I know it has only been a day, and I apologize for my
presumption, but I cannot help but ask for an alternative.
Ajax glanced up from his desk as Lumine shifted nearby. She had quickly fallen asleep, keeping
the bed warm for his return. It was unfortunate that he could not be lying next to her, he’d rather
that than write this risky letter.
He folded one leg over his knee and sighed. Twisting the pen between his fingers, he watched the
moonlight stream in through the window, atop her hair. He wrote by candlelight so as to not
awaken her.
He couldn’t kill her. He pinkie promised to protect her. He never broke his promises, especially
the pinkie ones. And there was no need to be anxious. The Tsaritsa very well might agree to his
suggestion, perhaps she would sense the desperation in his words and take mercy.
If I can convince the Traveler to join the Fatui and serve you, might her life be spared? I promise
you, she would be a great boon to your goals. Please consider this option.
- Tartaglia
Returning to Liyue was far more difficult than he thought it would be. The world sat on his
shoulders as if it belonged there.
“And you’ve got those snacks I packed you, right?”
“Yes, mama.”
“Oh, uh, Paimon’s already eaten one of those… Paimon’s sorry…”
“That’s quite alright, little pixie! I’ll just grab you another!” Eva turned on her heel to disappear
into the kitchen. Once out of sight, Paimon smirked at the spot she just stood.
Ajax wouldn’t complain about an extra snack for the boat ride, food on those merchant vessels
never was very good. He hoisted the bag up higher on his shoulder and ruffled Teucer’s hair with a
smile, “You’ve got to let go sometime, bud.”
Teucer was currently latched to his waist and squeezing as hard as he could - which was not very
hard at all. He did this each time Ajax had to leave for work, it was tradition, but harder than ever.
“Promise you’ll visit soon? Promise?”
So many promises made, and he planned to keep each one. “I promise, Teuc.”
“A-And Paimon and Lumi will come too?”
Paimon snorted, “Paimon’ll try, but she’s got a life, kid! Constant parties and expensive dinners,
mingling! You know how it is.”
“Well,” Childe raised a skeptical brow, “Paimon might want to stay back and nap all day next
time, but Lumi will definitely be here with me.”
“Because you’re sharing food forever?”
“...Right,” a heavy sigh, “Right. Forever.”
“And ever?”
“And ever.”
“Cool,” he gave a pathetic sniffle and buried his face into his side, “But I’ll still miss you!”
Truthfully, Ajax didn’t want to leave. He knew that the Tsaritsa was genuine in not killing his
family unless he killed her assassin. They were safe enough for now, but the very existence of the
threat was enough to put him on edge.
Yet, if he stayed in Morepesok and protected them, that would immediately tell the Tsaritsa that
he planned on having to defend his family. He could do nothing out of the normal, nothing to
project his plans.
He would not kill Lumine. He could not kill Lumine.

Nevertheless, the alternative was yet to be determined. For now, Childe did the adult-thing, and
completely ignored his problems.
“Oh, Lumi! I’ve got more snacks! Lemme see…” Eva caught her future daughter in law just as
she descended down the staircase. Lumine lit up, Tonia’s hand in her own, and Anastasia behind
her attempting to fit a pair of earmuffs over her head without messing up her hair.
“Here,” Lumine whipped around to hoist her bag up proudly, “See if there’s room in there.”
“Okay, well… Oh, goodness, girl, this bag is full of food! Where’re your clothes?”
Ajax held up the third rucksack hanging off his arm, “Here. Lumine just has her priorities
straight, mama.”
Sacha laughed and clapped his shoulder, “Look at you, man! Carrying your girl’s stuff for her,
are you getting weak? She’ll start making you carry her purse and follow her around the
marketplace.”
“Lumine doesn’t have a purse,” he shot his brother an innocent look, “she puts it all in her bra.”
“...Really? Like, r-really?”
Childe only shrugged. At the bottom of the staircase, Lumine was attempting to stuff the pouch of
crackers in her bodice, immediately confirming her fiance’s words. Eva put her hands on her wrist
to assist the ferocious stuffing.
“Hey,” at his other side, leaning over Teucer, Michial nudged Ajax to grab his attention, “did you
get enough sleep last night?”
Not in the least. He’d gotten home so late, and couldn’t fall asleep even if he wanted to. He stayed
up for several hours stressing over a two paragraph letter to the Tsaritsa, and pretending to sleep
next to Lumine so she would not grow suspicious in the morning. Childe offered another
nonchalant shrug, “I’m fine, I’ll just take a nap on the boat.”
“Well… Are you okay? You just seem out of it, even Pavol noticed.”
Leave it up to his father to see the slightest change in Ajax. He’d been keeping a close eye on him
for so long, it was difficult to not wonder about his mood changes and body language. Michial had
to know that he wasn’t about to start a fight - he wasn’t making the usual face - yet this particular
mood was so rare that he could not pin it down. There was something off about Ajax.
And Ajax had zero interest in telling him. He loved wide-spread panic, but not within his own
family. “I’m fine, really. I’m just a bit tired, I got up early to go get her ring from the jeweler.”
“Oh, you got it fixed that quickly?”
Due to the excessive amounts of mora he threw at the jeweler, yes, he got it fixed that quickly. He
slipped it back onto Lumine’s finger while she slept, around 5:00 a.m. this morning. “Yep, all
that’s left to do is just get ourselves together and go.”
Which was much easier said than done. He already carried the bag that held Lumine’s clothes,
and the one that carried his, along with the other one that carried all of Eva and Michael’s gifts to
take back to Liyue. Lumine carried the snacks, and was steadily finding ways to stuff even more
inside. This was not helped by how Eva kept handing Lumine random knick knacks from the
shelves.
“This too, my dear, oh and this. It’s a family heirloom.”
Lumine inspected the dish towel with wide eyes, “An heirloom? Are you sure you want me to
have it?”
“Yes! You need to keep a little bit of us with you at all times!”
“Mama,” Anastasia snatched the towel away, “you bought this last week, stop lying. You’re just
anxious.”
“Me? Anxious? I’m not anxious, I’m never anxious!” Said the woman who was currently offering
Lumine five different knit hats, “Take these so you never get cold. Oh, I have extra if you need
them. You need them, don’t you? I’ll grab them-”
“Mama,” Ajax interrupted, “we appreciate it, but if you keep giving us things then our bags will
sink the ship.”
“Then you’ll have no choice but to come back here, exactly.”
Eva tended to get this way when Ajax left. She’d find any excuse for him to stay, though they
never quite worked. This time, though, he was hesitant to step out the front door.
Their boat was leaving soon, and Lumine leaned against him tiredly, with Paimon leaning on her
other side like a line of dominos ready to tip over. Ajax was even more exhausted than Lumine, yet
far too aware of himself and his family to look away.
“Hold on,” he whispered to his fiance and dropped the bags on the ground, “before we go, I need
to talk to my brothers.”
“Oh, sure go ahead.” She was about to be trapped in a very tight Tonia-Eva-Michial hug anyhow.
Pavol and Anastasia got to work at attempting to convince mama and papa to not suffocate their
new sister in law - to no avail.
With the rest of the family distracted, Ajax approached Sacha and lightly elbowed his side. He
elbowed him back, smiling, “You getting nostalgic?”
He would let him think that. Nostalgia was a better assumption than the prickling of unknown
anxiety in the back of his mind. It was time to leave, and he could hardly tear himself away.
“Listen, Sacha, I need you to do something for me, okay? And I can’t tell you why, so don’t ask.”
He’d gotten this same introduction two years ago when his little brother was doing an important
Fatui mission, he knew the importance of a trustworthy ally. But he would be far more comfortable
if Ajax did not look so serious.
“Stick close to Morepesok,” he whispered, leaning in, “check on them all the time for me. Keep
track of any suspicious people going in and out of town. And get a better sword, please.”
Sacha blinked slowly, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing you can know about. Just do this for me, and I’ll name my first kid after you.”
“What? Really?”
“No, but do it anyway.”
“Oh…”
With that done, Ajax moved onto Anthon and Teucer. They awaited him near the front door with
varying degrees of emotion - Anthon mostly trying to hide his disappointment, and Teucer’s eyes
red with tears.
“Hey guys,” he knelt down in front of them, “Listen up, I want you both to keep practicing what I
taught you with the sword and polearm. Every day, remember to work hard to get stronger.”
“Yes sir!” Teucer saluted shakily, “I-I’ll try my best!”
Anthon gave Ajax an odd look, “And one day we’ll be a good fighter like you?”
He certainly hoped so. To see his little brothers grow up able to take care of themselves would be
a dream come true. He would only complain if either of them ended up taking the same path in life
that he took. “Yes, you will.”
“Big brother,” Teucer rocked on his heels curiously, “if I get stronger, will I look super cool like
you?”
“You’re already super cool, Teuc. Plus, that’s not what getting stronger is about.” Ajax answered,
“It’s not about looking cool, it’s about…”
Once upon a time, he would have said that true strength was the ability to protect those you love.
He had lived his life that way, defending his family from the harsher aspects of reality, working to
meet the Tsaritsa’s goal of a perfect world. And he still believed in that goal, the vision she kept
and the future she imagined.
He trusted her. Everything she’d ever said, he trusted. He always had, and always would.
A shaky breath and a fake smile, Ajax was trying his best to not let his emotions shine through
the cracks, “It’s about making sacrifices for the ones you love.”
“Like how brother Anthon gives Tonia his extra dessert?”
“Yes, like that. Now, listen, I know this may sound contradictory,” Ajax put his hands on their
shoulders and furrowed his brows, “but if anyone does attack you guys, just run. Go hide
somewhere, don’t fight back.”
Anthon shot him another odd look, “You’re always telling me to fight back, what’s with the
change of heart?”
It was a three headed beast, foaming at the mouth. It was the dark skies of the abyss, and it’s
constant poison dampening his mind. It was the shiver down his spine at the sight of red, hungry
eyes.
Another fake smile, “Well, when I was your age I had to run away a few times. I faced enemies
much bigger than me, and I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t run away. Hopefully, you won’t face what
I did,” Abyss Monsters who still haunted his nights, “but that goes for humans too. If some big guy
tries to hurt you, just run. Okay?”
“O-Okay…”
“Jax,” Pavol caught his attention, “your boat’s leaving soon, you and Lumi should get going.”
They should. Ripping himself away from his family was harder than ever. With a ruffle of his
brother’s hair and a smile, he stood up to approach the front door. Everybody gathered to bid the
couple goodbye as Paimon floated above Lumine’s head.
“Can Paimon just live here with you guys?” She spoke with a mouth-full of Eva’s snacks, “She’s
never been better fed.”
Lumine huffed, “I feed you! I shouldn’t have let you come, you’re all spoiled now.”
“Well, excuse Paimon for having three stomachs!”
She groaned while the family said their goodbyes. More hugs passed through the group, more
tight squeezes and complaints. Ajax and Lumine finally teared themselves back to step outside and
start down the forest pathway to the village. With a wave and many yelled I love you’s, the
Alekseevs watched their most calamitous son set off on yet another journey.
“Did you remember to grab your knife, Pai?”
“Yep, it’s right here!”
“Ajax, stop giving her weapons! She’s going to hurt herself!”
“She’s got to pull her weight!”
Pavol sighed at the argument happening in the distance. He sent his siblings and parents a glance,
leaning against Michial with crossed arms, “Jax and Lumi are totally going to kill each other one
day, aren’t they?”
“Oh, yeah, definitely.”

There was something off about Childe as he led her through Morepesok. He never just glared at
every stranger that he crossed paths with, he wasn’t Diluc. Lumine had never seen him so on edge.
Paimon disappeared into her pocket world moments ago with several snacks in hand. She hoisted
her bag higher up over her shoulder and watched as the Harbinger kept a close eye on each person
lingering around the Morepesok marketplace. He was uncharacteristically tense.
The last time she’d seen him so highly strung was when he fought those ruin guards to protect
Teucer. Lumine kept a closer eye on him, noticing his gaze lingering on the Fatui guards on patrol.
“Ajax?”
He didn’t miss a beat as he kept walking, “Hm?”
“Why’re you glaring at them?”
He was glaring at everybody, though the stare lingered longer upon the Fatui. He brushed past
one guard and shot him another glance, as the poor man only offered a hesitant, nervous smile to
the Harbinger. It was obvious to anybody part of the military who Childe was, that mask and get-
up was unmistakable.
“No reason,” with a sigh, he tore his gaze away, “he’s just suspicious is all.”
“He’s… All he’s doing is patrolling the street.”
“Yeah… suspicious…”
The poor Fatui guard probably thought he was about to be fired. A Harbinger glaring a soldier
down like that was never a good sign. Lumine grabbed his arm and pulled him away, feeling as if
she was tugging on an angry dog’s leash as she did so. “What’s got you so tightly wound?” She
hissed as she dragged him to the harbor, “Is there something wrong?”
Lumine was much like the rest of his family, she could easily notice the subtle changes in his
behavior. Childe closed his eyes and took a deep breath, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and
pulling her close, “I’m sorry, really, everything’s fine. But you can never be too careful around
suspicious looking men, right?”
“He’s just a Fatuu, you’re the suspicious looking man here.”
“I’m not suspicious, he’s suspicious. Did you see how he looked at you?”
Lumine sighed, “No, because he didn’t look at me.”
“He was about to attack you, Lumi.”
“No, he was about to faint from having a Harbinger stare at him like that.”
“You’ve got to be more careful, printsessa.”
Another sigh, another playful roll of her eyes. Despite his high strung behavior, he still knew how
to push her buttons. The merchant vessel they were due to be on loomed ahead, ready to sail them
away from this snowy land.
Childe seemed to calm down once coming aboard the ship. He took her bags to drop them off in
their guest room, as Lumine leaned against the railing and took one last look at Morepesok for the
time being.
This was where Childe grew up, the town he had terrorized as a teenager. He’d sailed these
waters, fished upon this ice, lived among the high piles of snow. Lumine felt as if she’d only seen a
glimpse of his life. And yet, she was going to marry him. The ring on her finger caught the light as
a reminder of her fate. Lumine was beginning to realize that this would happen one way or the
other, no matter how angry it made her.
If only Aether could see it. If only Aether could share in her utter disgust, he’d be the biggest
comfort through it all.
Childe’s discomfort melted away when the ship finally departed. The further from land they
drew, the calmer he became, as if he was escaping some invisible pursuer. After a day of sailing,
he was laid back enough to spar with her on the main deck.
By the third day, Paimon had eaten all of the snacks. Childe caught up on his lost sleep - using
Lumine as a pillow whenever he pleased, stating that it was ‘fiancé privilege’. Time passed slowly.
Lumine’s concern disappeared as he returned to his normal demeanor. Their late night sparring
became more focused, and he no longer glared at each person that passed. Whatever had been
wrong with Childe seemed to slip away.
Until the 5th day of travel, when Liyue appeared as a speck on the horizon.
“Perhaps we could just buy a boathouse and sail to the most secluded part of Teyvat. That sounds
nice, doesn’t it?”
It did not. Lumine leaned against the railing with her hot cocoa in hand, comfortable beneath
Childe’s arm. She quite liked the sea breeze through her hair, though living on the water
permanently sounded like a nightmare.
“Why would we do that?” She asked, taking a sip and glancing at him over the rim of her cup.
Childe sent her an innocent look, “Because it’s nice?”
“Did you not notice how often Paimon got tangled up in the fishing net over the last few days?”
He did. He was the one who cut her out of the net every time it happened - which was very often.
Truthfully, if Paimon were to be at sea much longer, she’d most likely get swallowed by a
leviathan. Then, Lumine would never forgive him, and he’d have to get her flowers or something
as an apology. It sounded like way too much work.
Yet, he had felt comfortable on the ship. There was hardly any way for an assassin to climb
aboard, unless they were part of the crew, and he’d already successfully glared each of them into
submission.
As Liyue grew larger and closer, Childe’s tensity grew tighter. Once on land, he could not keep
an eye on Lumine as closely. And she would make it difficult for him even if he tried.
This was all second to the fact that he’d not yet figured out what to do about the command to kill
her.
So, like a real adult, he ignored the problem.
It took several more hours to reach the harbors of Liyue. Paimon popped back several times over
the course of the journey to complain in Lumine’s ear, but as the piers came into view, she took her
leave. This was on account of the ‘predicted public outrage’ that would most certainly occur once
they stepped off the boat.
Predicted public outrage was not the correct definition for what awaited Childe and Lumine. A
more correct description would be ‘two empty headed old men’.
“Is that Zhongli?”
Childe leaned over the edge, the wind blowing his hair away from his face and his scarf whipping
wildly behind him. Liyue was as bustling and loud as ever before, a sharp contrast to the cold
stillness of Morepesok.
Lumine took the spot next to him and narrowed her eyes at the darkly clad figure standing on the
docks, “I think it is…”
“I wonder who that is with him?” Childe wondered aloud.
The person at his side was too colorfully dressed to be Hu Tao, and too short to be one of her big
brothers. She took a closer look. With a roar, the boat halted and the anchor was lowered. The crew
bustled around as she gasped with realization, “Venti!”
“Venti?”
“Venti!” Lumine giggled, “My best friend!”

Childe frowned and gave her his best kicked puppy stare, “But I thought I was your best friend?”
He’d like it if she told him that, and Lumine rarely did what he liked - not dissimilar to a house
cat. Ignoring him, Lumine ran to the board leading down to the harbor, “Venti! I didn’t know
you’d be here!”
Childe followed at her heels like a very confused and lost puppy. He stiffened as the shorter boy
broke from Zhongli’s side to meet Lumine in a laughter-filled hug.
“Lumi!” He buried his face into her shoulder and giggled, “You’re not dead! I’m so happy!”
Zhongli approached with a calmly raised brow, “Yes, I half expected to be delivered a corpse
today.”
“I’m only dead on the inside!” She giggled.
Slowly, Zhongli’s gaze flickered from Venti and Lumi, and back to Childe. He sent him a hesitant
nod, which was returned by a flat, unamused stare. “I’m also surprised that you two traveled back
together,” he spoke as Lumine broke apart from the younger boy and took her place at Childe’s
side, “Were there not any separate boats?”
Before either of them could answer, Venti put up a hand and shook his head, “Oh no, no, Rexie, it
makes perfect sense actually. Man,” he smiled at Childe, “I almost didn’t recognize you.”
Childe had never met this kid in his life. The flat gaze switched to a narrow eyed stare of
suspicion, “We’ve never met.”
“Yeah we have! You were just covered in dandelion seeds last time I saw you!”
That itchy, fuzzy white feeling would never leave his memory, no matter how much of it he drank
away. That week of picking dandelion seeds out of his hair, the paranoia with every soft breeze.
“Excuse me?”
Lumine giggled and turned away, “In Mondstadt when you release dandelions from the statue of
Barbatos, then he’ll carry them to your true love. If you were covered in them then someone must
really like you.”
“...Oh.”
Venti shot her a look, “Don’t act coy now, Lu, you’re the one who gathered several pounds of
seeds. I could barely carry them all of the way!”
He could barely carry them. Pounds of dandelion seeds, blowing on the breeze to her one true
love. That was the cheesiest thing he’d ever heard… And unfortunately, it was true.
“You…” Childe took a moment to process the information, “you were that big cloud of seeds that
fell on me?”
Lumine gasped, “You got them? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Who else were you thinking would get them? Don’t you know what true love means?”
“I wasn’t the seeds,” Venti interrupted with a snort, “I just used the wind to push them all towards
you!”
“Do you know how many dandelion fluffs I had to pick out of my ears, kid?”
“I can take a guess at it if you want.”
The answer was 42, but that's besides the point. Zhongli sighed and raised a hand to interrupt,
“Before we start arguing for the evening, I’d like to speak to you, Miss Lumine... Did my plan
work?”
She blinked innocently, “What plan?”

“The, uh… well, the plan to fall out of love with the filthy Harbinger? No offense meant, Childe.”
He shrugged, “It’s fine.”
“No,” Lumine grimaced as she took Childe’s hand and tangled her fingers with his, “it kinda
backfired.”
“...How so?”
Venti and Zhongli stared in wide eyed wonder. A glance at their tangled fingers, and back to
Childe’s triumphant smirk. Lumine’s grimace disappeared as she smiled and brushed a lock of hair
behind her ear in a rare show of shyness.
“We’re getting married, actually.”
Silence.
“Oh, and Zhongli, I brought you a souvenir snowglobe from Snezhnaya!”
Yet another beat of silence.
Zhongli pursed his lips in thought before taking a heavy, steadying breath, “Lumine, Childe…”
“Yes?”
Venti started laughing. It was unknown whether it was out of nervousness or genuine amusement.
He clapped Zhongli’s shoulders and rubbed at his eyes, “I’m so glad I came! This is too good!”
“I…” Zhongli ignored the anemo archon and took a deep breath, “I contacted your adoptive older
brothers like I said. They’re, uh... ready to kill Childe at any moment now in Mondstadt.”
“...Oh.”
“Yes, oh.”
“... I didn’t bring enough snowglobes for everyone.”

Fatui
Chapter Notes
When Childe was a boy, he watched his big brother Sacha get beaten up by his girlfriends older
brothers.
He may, or may not, have encouraged them to kick him harder. Sacha was pummeled so hard in
the head that he couldn’t recall either way. It didn’t matter how that night ended, nor if Sacha
stayed with that girl. All that mattered was the lesson it taught young Ajax.
If he ever dates a girl, he would like her to have older brothers. Preferably several of them. If they
could have a battle at every family reunion then that would be just wonderful.
Fortunately for him, Lumine had eight. Three of them were sisters, one of them was Zhongli, and
one of them was missing, but that did nothing to hamper his excitement.
“Master Diluc plans to end your life.”
“Excellent!”
“Childe, that is not excellent. He has a very large sword.”
“Is that some kind of euphemism, Zhongli? I don’t think I appreciate that.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t think I do.”

The geo archon was not prepared for his guests. He had assumed that Lumine would want to head
straight to Mondstadt, and that Childe would not be at her side. His plan was fool-proof, how it
backfired so vehemently was an absolute mystery to him.
And for some unknown rationale, Childe avoided the Northland Bank like the plague.
Subsequently, Zhongli had to fit the Harbinger, Lumine, himself, and Venti in his little apartment
above the funeral home. It was, thus far, the most stressful collection of guests he’d had since the
last reunion of Yakshas.
Zhongli sat between Childe and Lumine, a stone wall of chastity and innocence. Childe kept
sending him death glares that were promptly ignored, while Lumine went on with oblivious
innocence over the details of the snowglobe collecting/impending doom.
“I do appreciate the gift, but I don’t think more snowglobes would help the situation, traveler.”
Zhongli narrowed his eyes and leaned in, “Especially if they are like this. There seems to be a tiny
village in there… Do they require assistance?”
Venti snorted from the kitchen where he searched for wine, “Yep, Rexie, it’s your job to break
them out and take care of the tiny village now.”
“I’m… afraid I’m not financially prepared to take care of them...”
Lumine frowned and took it from his hands, “No, no there’s nobody in there. You just shake it
and it gets all pretty. See, like this.”
“Ah…I see. It’s beautiful.”
She returned it with a sigh, “I’m sure if I just got a big shipment of them and had Childe hand
them out to everyone, then there’d be no fighting, right? They’d all make friends.”
“I don’t want to do that,” Childe craned his neck to see Lumine on the other side of Zhongli, “I’m
planning for a huge battle.”
“I’d prefer you to not kill my pseudo-adoptive family, please.”

“I wasn’t going to kill them, I was just going to have some fun…”
The only person that would have fun is him, though she supposed that was the point. Diluc would
take it too seriously, considering his past. Lumine sighed and looked at Zhongli once more, “What
did you tell them, anyway?”
“Oh, nothing much,” he gave the snowglobe another curious shake, “just that you were
brainwashed by some evil Fatuu and forced to love him. That Kaeya fellow only laughed… But
Master Diluc was quite put out. I believe it’s the principal of the matter for him.”
“And Albedo?”
Childe froze. He leaned back to see over Zhongli, “Pasta man?”
“...What?”
“Pasta man, Albedo?”
Lumine shot him a confused stare, “You know Albedo?”
He knew of Albedo, though he’d never seen the guy. Lumine had mentioned him once before, and
while Childe had not met him, he knew Lumine well enough to recognize that look in her eye; She
thought he was handsome.
Or, she just had to pee. They were very similar expressions.
Zhongli went on, ignoring the tension sandwich he was currently the meat in, “He didn’t seem to
have much of an opinion, other than wanting to meet your future children for the sake of scientific
research.”
“No, no,” Childe shook his head, “he’s not coming near Princess Conch Baijiu Nightrider Goblin
Goblin the III.”
Venti stepped out of the kitchen with a pilfered bottle of wine in hand, “You know, there was a
warrior long ago by that name. I now sing her ballads to the moon, hoping her lingering spirit hears
and blesses the people of Mondstadt.”
Lumine snorted, “You’re so full of it. And you’re wrong, my love. Her name will be Princess
Aster Baijiu Nightrider Stinky-Face the III.”
Venti pointed a finger, “There was once a beautiful warrior woman named Princess Aster Baijiu-“
“Barbatos please,” Zhongli hissed, “come help me create room between these two. They’re
attempting to hold hands behind my back.”
They were. They would have succeeded if Zhongli did not lean back against their hands and crush
their fingers. Before Venti could create more room between them, Childe stood and walked to
Lumine’s side.
“Listen, old man, sorry to break it to you,” he sat beside Lumine and threw a nonchalant arm over
her shoulder, “but we’re getting married. And there’s nothing to be done about that.”
Lumine giggled, “Not unless Diluc kills you!”
“I can’t wait to see him try.”
“It’ll be great,” Venti laughed, “I’ll bring snacks and some blankets. We can make a picnic out of
it.”
A picnic, how exciting. She could eat finger food while watching Childe and Diluc maim each
other. She found that she was more worried for Diluc than Childe.
Lumine recalled her first year since awakening in Teyvat. She recalled the fear of Dvalin as he
flew over the skies, she recalled her loneliness and her confusion. She would spend restless nights
focused on her aching phantom wings, and the scar left behind. It felt as if half of her heart was
ripped out with Aether’s disappearance. She could not be whole, she could not hardly sleep, nor
eat, nor breathe.
Diluc didn’t dare to nurse or nurture her. He didn’t pick her up from the trenches and bring her
back to health. Nobody could do that besides herself - and she was still working on the matter. Yet,
Diluc was the one who reminded her who she was. He didn’t even know her true self at that time,
yet with one look and a few simple words, he brought her out of her own mind and to the problem
at hand.
She would not have had the strength to face Dvalin if not for Diluc. He was nothing like Aether,
he did not dote, nor was he affectionate. But in his own silent way, he took Lumine in. Once she
discovered the history between him and Kaeya, she finally began to understand.
Lumine was someone with a lost big brother, and he was someone with a lost little brother. They
fit together like two misshapen puzzle pieces.
While Lumine had not gotten much time to dwell on Diluc lately, he was back on her mind as
Zhongli described their meeting. Diluc’s father had been killed by a delusion, and here Lumine
was, engaged to a man who used his delusion like a toy. Just the other day he used it to lightly
shock her when sneaking up behind her. Diluc would see red.
“I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to go to Mondstadt.”
Childe shot her a curious look and brushed his hand down her arm. With an affectionate nuzzle
into her hair, he murmured, “I’m going to make sure you don’t lose anybody. I promise, you will
not be left alone again.”
“I know you promised that, but it still worries me.”
“We’ll be fine!”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes I do, I know everything.”
Venti giggled and whispered amidst the affectionate debate, “They’re cute. So that’s what a bond
between starmates looks like, you don’t see it that often.”
That bond looked like Lumine leaning over to bite Childe’s arm when he got too handsy and
arrogant. Zhongli could only flinch, “Be careful, doctor Baizhu warned me that she might carry
rabies.”
“Oh yeah?” Childe narrowed his eyes, “who else have you been biting, Lumi?”
She gasped, “No one!”
“You can only bite me.”
Venti grimaced and leaned in, “I’m sensing some rising tension here, I feel like they should be
separated.”
“Right…” Zhongli hovered his hands near Lumine’s arm, hesitant to touch her while she argued,
“You two must take your biting elsewhere.”
It was more of a wrestle than a bite, taking place next to two archons who were feeling incredibly
awkward by the excessive amounts of battle-like affection. Venti shot Childe a light glare and
cleared his throat to catch his attention, “You know, you’re pretty fortunate that I’m not your
enemy. It was your organization that took my gnosis and nearly killed me.”
Childe pulled back, “Well, perhaps La Signora would not have been so rough with you if you
weren’t so annoying, Barbatos.”
Zhongli blinked, “She was rough with you?”
“She wasn’t with you?”
“Not at all.”
Venti looked offended for half a second before shrugging and returning to his wine. After a long
drink and a giggle, he started up once more, “Well, if you’re so willing to go fight the people of
Mondstadt for Lumi, then don’t let me stop you.”
Zhongli lit up, “Ah yes. And before we depart, Childe, some of your staff at the Northland Bank
have been looking for you and asking me of your whereabouts.”
Childe had briefly mentioned that he was going back to Snezhnaya for a little over a week, though
he never gave the staff a notice of when he’d return. The bank would get along fine without him,
but the soldiers in the field would find themselves at a loss without a Harbinger.
The only problem his job would pose was having to bring Lumine around other Fatui. He was
safe, but Lumine wasn’t. She’d never been, truthfully, but it was worse now more than ever. Childe
released Lumine’s wrists and stood from the couch, “Alright, I’ll check on them.”
“I’ll come!” Lumine followed, “I haven’t seen Ekaterina in a while.”
He sent her the most reassuring smile he could muster, “I’d prefer you stay here, girlie. Stick with
Zhongli and Venti.”
Zhongli and Venti. One of them was inspecting the snowglobe like a scientific experiment, the
other was downing a bottle of wine. Lumine glanced at them with furrowed brows.
“I… don’t want to stay with them.” The look she shot Childe was not dissimilar to pleading little
kid, “It smells like bitter tea and poverty in here.”
Zhongli looked up, “Excuse me?”
Ignored. “You’ll just have to deal with it, Lumi.”
She’d have to deal with it. Childe. spoke as if he was her father. “You can’t tell me what I have to
deal with. Why won’t you let me come along?”
“Reasons,” he smiled. It was all she received as she glared, watching Childe turn and head for the
door in silence. He gave no spare glances, no words, and nothing even close to an explanation for
his sudden cold shoulder.
Lumine liked to think that now that she was engaged, she was a far more intelligent woman. She
was about to turn 20, she had a ring on her finger, and she had a sugar daddy - not that she would
admit that out loud. Naturally, she would have some experience in life.
For once, she did not argue with him. With her hands on her hips, Lumine waited as Childe left
the apartment and shut the door behind him. A curious silence blanketed the room.
“...I’m going to follow him.”
Venti clapped his hands and pushed himself off the couch, “I’m in! Let’s do some espionage!”
“Do you think that’s wise?” Zhongli glanced up with a raised brow.
It was incredibly wise. Lumine was about to get married, everything she did was wise, perfect and
correct. “Yes, yes, I have to figure out why he’s acting weird.”
“He’s acting weird?” Venti tilted his head, “Seems like a normal follower of the Tsaritsa to me,
they’re all secretive and vague.”
“But he’s not usually like that… Well, he’s usually secretive, but he hasn’t been that way with me
since the whole gnosis deal.” Lumine crossed her arms in thought. She didn’t want to admit her
insecurities, yet they lingered like a foul stench. Childe only acted avoidant when he was hiding
something.
“Do you think that, perhaps, he has a mistress?” Zhongli asked.
A mistress. Could he have a mistress when they were not even married? Lumine never imagined
herself as the boring old wife, it was exactly what she wanted to avoid. Childe was meant to be
exciting, her unpredictable and calamitous love who she had finally accepted after nearly a year of
denial.
And here he was, cheating on her the first chance he got.
“We don’t need to follow him after all. You’re right,” she was calm in her rage, eerily poised in a
way Lumine rarely was, “he is most definitely cheating on me.”
Venti gasped, “A tale of betrayal! A heart breaking ballad of love and loss! What are you going to
do, Lumine?”
“Well,” she put her hand to her chin in thought, “since I know for sure that he’s cheating on me-“
“-but you don’t know for sure.” Zhongli reminded.
She ignored him, “I think I’ll do some investigating.”
Venti clapped, “Like a detective!”
“Hell yeah, Venti, like a detective!”
“Do you believe this is truly necessary?”
“Yes, Zhongli, it’s necessary.” Lumine huffed, “He was acting odd in Morepesok the day we left
as well. Whatever’s wrong, it’s enough to put him on edge.”
Venti raised his wine bottle, “Perhaps he’s finally realized that you’re a beautiful angel of battle,
and far too good for him? So he’s cheating on you with a much lesser woman?”
“...Perhaps…”
“Or, perhaps you should just trust him and stop being insecure.” Zhongli suggested.
Stop being insecure. If Lumine had a mora for every time Aether had told her that in her life,
she’d be richer than Childe. She gasped in offense, “I’m not being insecure! I’m just curious!”
“It looks quite like insecurity,” Zhongli crossed his arms thoughtfully, “you should simply ask
him upfront instead of sneaking around.”
How ironic, when it was Childe doing the sneaking around in this relationship. For once, though,
Zhongli’s romance advice seemed true enough. Just several weeks ago Lumine had been able to
tell Childe her thoughts so easily, but that maturity was on vacation, and Lumine was far too
suspicious to have a talk about feelings.
Talk to him. She’d never heard something more preposterous.
“If you two don’t wish to help, then Paimon and I shall go alone.” She lifted her chin arrogantly,
“If Childe comes back while I’m gone, tell him that I hope he eats rotten meat and dies.”
“Will do!” Venti sent her a wink. Zhongli had no time to argue Lumine’s command before she
stepped out the door and slammed it shut behind her.
Left in silence. The sound of Lumine stomping down the stairs faded with each passing second.
Neither men tried to stop her, they knew better than to get in between the traveler and her
determination.
Silence fell upon the apartment.
With his snowglobe in hand and the anemo archon’s half drank bottle of wine, all Zhongli could
do was give the souvenir another curious shake.
“I swear, Barbatos, I have never seen such a device in Liyue… The people of this village will
drown if they stay there much longer.”
Stop being insecure. As if life was that easy! As if Lumine could switch off her emotions like
pinching out a candle. If her heart decided to be insecure, it would be insecure, and there was
hardly anything to be done for that matter.
Childe had been acting odd for days. Lumine wondered if it was due to their night together before
boarding the boat. He was so incredibly gentle, then. She would say he had even looked scared if
she didn’t know any better. With the way he held her, it felt as if he thought she might disappear at
any second.
There had to be a reason for it. He was high strung, he had glared at every stranger they met, and
he wouldn’t let her go to the Northland Bank with him.
“Paimon,” Lumine snapped, standing outside the Wangsheng Funeral parlor and glaring at the
street. Once the pixie reappeared in a flurry of constellations, Lumine went on, “He’s cheating on
me.”
She gasped and yanked her body back, as if pushed through the air, “Dirty Loser Trashbinger is?”
“Yes!”
“Lumi,” Paimon put her hands on her hips and glared, “What has Paimon always told you?”
She sighed in defeat, “Men only want one thing.”
“And what is that thing?”
Another heavy sigh, “Discounts at the chop suey stand…”
“And who gets the best discounts?”
“...I do…”
Paimon tsked, “You should’ve known better, Lumi. Paimon knows the nature of men like the
back of her hand.”
She did. Paimon was a genius, and Lumine should have listened to her long ago. The only thing
men wanted other than discounts on chop suey was a super cool sword, and she most definitely had
that.
“So, I’m going to investigate the matter. Where should we start?” She set off down the crowded
street, going in the opposite direction of the Northland Bank. The further she got from the prying
eyes of the Fatui, the more comfortably she could do her detective work.
Paimon held onto her scarf from behind, “We could talk to some Fatui skirmishers? Or go see the
fortune teller lady?”
“How about both?”
A gasp, “Today? Don't you want to rest?”
She didn’t need rest, she needed answers. If she grew tired she’d simply find a lovely patch of
leaves to lay on. And she would not allow Childe to know where she was going. First thing’s first,
speak to the old woman, and learn something new about her destiny.
Finding the fortune teller was simple; talking to her was an entirely different matter.
It was the edge of a black coat that caught her attention. Fur lining and black masks, emotionless
features amidst a small crowd. There had to be at least five of them surrounding the hunched over,
elderly woman.
Lumine knew she was being followed, but not to this extent. Her guard had increased in number.
The people of Liyue passed her by as if this was a regular sight. With a flicker of irritation in her
chest, Lumine approached the group. The old woman tried her best to ignore the Fatui standing
around her.
As Lumine and Paimon neared, one of the guards caught her eye and stepped forward. “Mistress
Lumine.”
She’d never met this man in her life, though he obviously knew her. She attempted to side step his
hand, “I need to speak to her.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he blocked each of her movements with practiced precision, “Lord
Tartaglia has commanded us to keep you away from her.”
She caught a glimpse of the old woman’s face past his arm. She was staring with wide, helpless
eyes. While she seemed unhurt, exhaustion came off her in waves. Another flicker of irritation,
another urge to tear Childe apart for this, and Lumine could not help but glare, “Well, I am his
wife, kind of, so you also listen to my orders!”
Paimon floated close to her ear and whispered, “Paimon doesn’t think that’s how it works…”
It was not. The Fatuu kept his emotionless expression, “Lord Tartaglia’s orders override yours.
My apologies.”
She huffed, “Let me see her. Now.”
“I’m afraid I must refuse, Mistress Lumine.”
“ Move.”
“Listen,” he sighed, “Lord Tartaglia told us that under no circumstances shall we ever let you
speak to her.”
“That’s stupid, she can’t hurt anybody!”
“Harbinger’s orders, Lady Lumine.”
Childe was stubborn, and he taught his recruits to be the same. As tempted as Lumine was to
march into his office and let him know what she thought, she knew that it would not be wise in the
end. He’d find some manner to manipulate her into calming down, he’d do that terrible thing he
does when she’s angry. He would move in closer and back her to a table or wall, kiss her neck, tell
her how much he loved her - and she would absolutely melt like the weakling she was.
Lumine could not allow that. This was a serious problem that could not be kissed away. Besides,
she was quite wise in the way of the world, now, she could take a different route to victory.
With a sigh, she made lingering eye contact with the old woman. She could not say anything
aloud, but hoped that the look in her eyes said enough.
Judging by the confusion on the woman’s face, it did not.
Without another word, Lumine and Paimon whirled around in haughty anger to take their leave.
Lumine huffed as she left, “I’m going to have a talk with your dear Lord Tartaglia! He shall regret
not giving me what I wish!”
Once disappeared into the crowd, the Fatui officers let out a collective groan. “Archons,
someone’s spoiled. Typical…”
Lumine heard none of this as she retreated. People in the crowd parted while she stomped
towards the gates of Liyue. Paimon held onto the longer locks of her hair to keep up with Lumine’s
stride, “So, we can’t get to granny, what now?”
She’d already quite ruined her reputation with the guards back there. They seemed to know her,
though she’d never met any of them. She wanted to test a particular theory out on a more
unpredictable bunch. She took the bridge out of the gate and ignored the pigeons startling into the
air as she passed.
“I’m going to ask Mona for help, she can… you know,” another frustrated huff, “she’ll water
teleport the old lady away. Plus, they’re both astrologists, they might have a clearer answer if they
work together.”
“Good idea!”
Super good idea. She was simply full of them. “But before we go to Mondstadt, we have to find
out something.”
“Ohh, exploring! Paimon’s in!”

“Great! I’m glad you’re in! Now… help me find a Fatui skirmisher camp.”
“...A what?”
“You know, those big guys-”
“P-Paimon knows what you’re talking about!” On occasion, Paimon would remind Lumine of a
cicin. This was one of those instances. She zipped around her head so quickly, instantly gripping
Lumine’s cheeks and squishing them together, “Why would you want to do that? Are you trying to
get hurt?”
“Not particularly, but-”
“No buts! Lumine!”
She always did get caught up in her own worries. Lumine sighed with the wisdom of an old
almost-married woman and put her hands on Paimon’s wrists, pulling her away with a flat look,
“Those recruits are in direct contact with the Trashbinger. If I speak to a group that’s been out in
the field for a while, they may be more willing to give me information.”
Paimon rolled her eyes, “They’re not going to tell you who he’s cheating on you with!”
“No, I don’t mean that,” Lumine stepped away, uncharacteristically thoughtful as she stared in the
distance, “If Childe’s really hiding something, then there’s a chance the field agents might know
something about the Fatui’s movements.”
“Yes... but there’s also a chance that they’ll swing a hammer at your head!”
“Well, technically, that could happen at any time. You never know who has a hammer.”
“That’s besides the point! Lumine,” Paimon leaned in again, eyes wide, “what do you think is
going on?”
Lumine had no idea. She hated to admit that, but it was true. The Fatui had never made much
sense to her, nor had Childe tried to make it make sense. Whatever had gotten Childe so on edge
could easily be deciphered by simply asking him, but she doubted that he’d given her a truthful
answer.
He was terrible, absolute trash. He was her fiance, and he still left her out of his emotions, even
when they so obviously affected him. If that was how he wanted to be, then Lumine would return
the favor. She was an expert at relationships now, obviously, and knew what the wise decision
was.
“All I know is that I’m angry, and I want to get to the bottom of this without having him lie to my
face about it.”
Paimon sighed and floated back. She didn’t understand, but she could accept. When Lumine was
determined, there was not much one could do to stop her. “Alright... just be careful.”
“I’ll be careful.”
She would not be careful.
In fact, she would try her best to be the opposite of careful. Lumine would be so utterly chaotic
that the Fatui skirmishers would immediately bow to her in terror and awe. She would swoop into
their camp, bring the sword down upon their heads, and tie them all up to a tree. Her questioning
would be so thorough and intense that they would not dare to tell her lies.
If only that was not easier said than done.
Lumine found a small camp of Fatui field agents along the road to Qingxu Pool. They had chosen
a lovely spot beside a pond, and were settling down to fish in the warm afternoon sun. Liyue was
quite beautiful this time of day, blanketed in the orange and peace of the sunset. Lumine had
walked for an hour until she overheard their distorted chatter from the path.
There were three of them, an electrohammer vanguard, a pyro archer, and a cryogunner. It had to
be the most annoying combination possible, and with the height of the skirmishers, Lumine always
felt like a toddler next to them. She took a deep breath and readied her sword, raised it above her
head, and let out the fiercest battle cry she could muster.
And immediately tripped over a rock.
“Lady Lumine!”
“Traveler!”
“Mistress!”
The distorted voice of her enemies was the last thing she heard before her face kissed the ground.
Dust stung at her eyes, while her palms scraped against the gravel. Gloved leather hands gripped
both of her arms and yanked her body up like a ragdoll.
Lumine had always assumed that her life would flash before her eyes when she was near death.
Dangling in the air by the huge hands of an electrohammer vanguard was not how she preferred to
go, but she supposed it could be worse. She squeezed her eyes shut and squeaked like a mouse, her
palms throbbing and her mouth tasting of rock dust.
“Lady Lumine, are you alright?”
Lady Lumine. Lady Lumine. Mistress. Her eyes shot open instantly, “What?”
“Are you alright?”
A distorted voice and the buzz of electro. Bodies gathered around while she was held up by her
armpits, as if she were a stray cat. She certainly felt like it, covered in dirt and grass and having
fallen on her face in front of the enemy.
“Put her down, man! You’re gonna give her back problems!”
“Oh,” the vanguard straightened up, “yes, of course!” Gently, he lowered the traveler until her
feet touched the earth once more. Her sword had dematerialized with lack of use, and her knees
were mildly shaken, but she was not injured much. She half expected to be tossed by the vanguard
like a children’s ball.
But she was alive. And she was standing between three Fatui skirmishers, who all stared at her
with wide eyes and even wider mouths.
This was too odd. “Are you guys mistaking me for someone else?”
The archer let out a very intelligent sounding uhh before answering, “No, you’re Mistress
Lumine, aren’t you?”
“I’m not sure about the mistress part, but yes. I think…”
This was not how an interaction with a group of Fatui should go. They should be trying to attack
her, swinging their weapons and shooting her with cryo. The only time they ever spoke was to
threaten her. This was not correct, this could not be happening, they should tremble in fear and beg
for their lives. Now, they simply stared.
And she, while very confused, stared back.
10 seconds of awkward silence. Lumine counted. It was suffocating, worse than the smell of
Paimon’s burps. She bit her lip and continued the staring, as they breathed heavily in their battle
suits.
The cryogunner was the first to clear his throat, “Mistress Lumine, may I ask what you need?”
May he ask? A Fatuu would never say that to her, not in any lifetime. Taken aback, she crossed
her arms over her chest and glared, “Why do you keep calling me mistress?”
“Because you are our mistress?”
It came out as a question, as if he was not quite sure why either. “And why am I your mistress?”
“Oh,” the vanguard clenched his fist, “I know this one! Because the Tsaritsa said so!”
Yet another awkward silence. This time it was only five seconds, though Lumine didn’t count.
She was far too busy processing what she’d heard. With a narrowing of her eyes and a grimace, she
locked the soldier into place with her stare.
“The Tsaritsa said so?”
“Yes ma’am!”
“D-Don’t salute like that,” she took a harsh step away, “and don’t speak in unison. It’s creepy.”
“Yes ma’am- ah, sorry.”
They were still doing it, like three identical sardines packed in a can. An idea came to Lumine like
the flicker of a candle in the dark, the light in the shadows, an epiphany to end all others.
She smiled. Raising her chin, Lumine stared the men down. “Why aren’t you three kneeling to
me? On your knees, now.”
On cue, all three dropped to one knee. They were puppets on the string, and her the master gazing
from above. This was a welcome change from the conversation with the Fatui guard in Liyue -
these three actually listened to her.
Now that they were on their knees and bowing their heads, she could move forward with a bit
more confidence. “Tell me what’s going on, what did the Tsaritsa command you?”
The skirmishers shared a look between themselves before the pyro archer dug a hand into his
coat. He pulled out a folded piece of paper that was half burnt. The red seal that she could only
assume was the Tsaritsa’s was broken on the front. Humbly, he offered it up to Lumine with
lowered eyes.
She could hardly believe it. This could be the information she was searching for, and it was
delivered to her on a silver platter. Lumine took the paper and unfolded it’s edges, until she noticed
the photograph awaiting her on the inside. The sight crawled down her neck and along her spine,
making her freeze instantly.
Folded up in the letter was a picture of her. It was slightly discolored from the kamera prototype
that was used, but clear nevertheless. It was Lumine, her eyes elsewhere and her lips parted, picked
out from a crowd in Mondstadt.
They had a picture of her. A picture she was not aware even existed. With shaking fingers and a
racing heart, she pocketed the photograph before moving onto the scrawling cursive of the letter
itself.
To every agent, skirmisher, soldier, recruit, and mage based in the Mondstadt/Liyue area. You
have a new command from her Majesty the Tsaritsa. Included is a photograph of the subject, study
her features and remember her well. Some of you may already know her.
That is Lady Lumine. She is under the protection of Tartaglia, and Her Excellence. If she is found
hurt by your hand, you may expect a dishonorable discharge, and a beheading. She is to be treated
with the utmost respect.
May Snezhnaya and Her Grace live on forever. Praise the Motherland.
-Pulcinella, 5th of the Fatui Harbingers
“My lady,” the cryogunner shot her a shy glance, “every Fatuu in the area got one.”
Every group of the Fatui. Every agent, every annoying mage, everybody at the bank. She was not
sure what to be more horrified about: the fact that they all had a photograph of her, or the fact that
they all thought she was ‘under Tartaglia’s protection’. The very thought made her want to hurl.
As much as she would let him protect her, she did not want that told to everybody in Liyue. That
was just embarrassing - Lumine had a very important reputation to uphold.
It was far too much to process at this moment. She closed her eyes and re-folded the letter with
sharp, urgent movements, “You know, I just can’t help but wonder what she’s up to. I’ve never
even met the Tsaritsa, and I only said one prayer to her. It was an absolutely terrible prayer too...”
The pyro archer spoke up, “Mistress, this happens to everyone who was once a threat. It recently
happened with that one mage Lord Scaramouche likes, you guys remember?” A chorus of nods and
nervous laughter, “He said we could go ahead and fight her, but don’t maim her too bad, or
something.”
How lovely. How absolutely wonderful. She was a passing photograph and a boring letter now,
she was recognized on the spot as Tartaglia’s girl. Lumine could not think of anything more
shameful than this. She glared, she narrowed her eyes and thinned her lips and shot the skirmishers
into respectful silence once more.
“So…”
Pause for anticipation.
“The Tsaritsa doesn’t think I’m a threat anymore?”
“...That’s what you’re angry about, my lady?”
It was precisely what she was angry about. Lumine could not help but stomp her foot like a child,
seething in barely controlled anger. She tossed the letter back to the archer before huffing and
glaring in the distance, “I-I’m always a threat! My entire being is made up of threats! I-I’m the
most threatening person I know! Don’t you agree?”
All three flinched, “Yes ma’am!”
“I cannot believe she would think that! How dare she?”
“Y-Yes ma’am!”
The speaking in unison was beginning to give her a headache. Lumine squeezed her eyes shut and
rubbed at her temples, groaning, “Listen, I’m grateful to be shown this, thank you-”
“Yes ma’am!”
“Stop.”
“Apologies, ma’am!”
She rolled her eyes, “I came here for a reason. Childe has been acting odd, I think he’s keeping a
secret from me. I need you to tell me of any new movements in the Fatui that you know of.”
They were not yet allowed to stand from the kneeling position. Lumine crossed her arms and
watched the shared looks between the three, before the cryogunner cleared his throat, “Well, I
know that Capitano’s unit is offering dental now.”
“Wait,” Lumine held up a hand, “Does Tartaglia not offer dental?”
“Not at a very good rate…”
“I’ll talk to him about that, don’t you worry.”
“T-Thank you, Mistress... But I am afraid I know of nothing else going on.”
Perhaps these three were not the correct ones to ask. Skirmishers were not as well trusted as
agents or hunters. Aside from learning about the lack of dental, they could provide nothing.
“Alright, thank you, you may rise.” She watched as all three sighed in relief and clambered to
their feet, “Do you know where the nearest agent is? I would like to speak to him.”
They were glad to be rid of her. After a moment of giving directions to a cave half a mile away,
Lumine set off once more, far wiser and world weary than ever.
Once she arrived, she found that it was quite nice to not have to track an invisible form in the
shadows. He was actually very kind when he recognized her visage, which she supposed was a
perk of the Fatui having her photograph in their pockets. He offered her a cup of tea, and after a
moment of small talk, admitted that he knew nothing of any plans for the Fatui.
The agent pointed her in the direction of a cicin mage. She was actually quite nice as well, when
she was able to call off her pets. As the mage admitted that she had no idea of any new
movements, Lumine’s hope began to dwindle.
It was two hours after her first encounter. She sat by the water of a pond, sharing a spot on the
ground with a Fatui cicin mage.. The evening was beginning to darken, the sun having long set
behind the mountains, and Lumine felt that she might give in, and give up.
“Perhaps he truly is cheating on me.”
The mage gasped in her distorted way, “No! Lord Tartaglia is a good guy! I-I mean… well, you
know.”
She knew. Childe was as good as he could possibly be. Lumine rested her chin in her hand and
watched the cicins dance and tease across the water, rippling the reflection of the rising moon
above. It was a quiet night, calm. She never thought the oddly flirtatious mage-type would be good
company for a steadily breaking heart.
“He’s doing something, I’m just not entirely sure what it is. The agent I met before you suggested
that perhaps he was planning a date, but I don’t think that’s it.”
The mage cast her a shy glance, “And he already proposed… I can’t possibly think of what it
might be.”
“He’s probably breaking up with me.” Lumine sniffed, “I never thought I’d care this much.”
“Oh, there there, little one. It’ll be okay…”
“And to think I would be so stupid… I gave him my pudding cup on the ship! My pudding!”
The mage furrowed her brows gently, “You must really love Lord Tartaglia…”
She did. She had loved him for a while now, but it was difficult to come to grips with. The first
second she admits it, and he plans to break up with her. He got his discount at the chop suey place,
and now he was tossing her aside like a used napkin.
Lumine huffed, “I’m just gonna go straight from here to Mondstadt, I know someone who may be
of help.”
“You go girl!” The mage gripped a fist, “You’re independent and beautiful and you don’t need
that kind of negativity in your life!”
“You’re right, I don’t!”
“Go live your life!”
“I will!”
“Go to Mondstadt!”
“I’ll go!”
“Oh, but first, would you like some tea?”
The Fatui were really quite generous with their tea. It was a shame she’d missed out on it for so
long, having fought hundreds of them over the span of the last year and all.
“I-I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to stay for tea…”

It would hurt.
“You know, Zhongli, I feel like I’m doing this every week.”
“Hm? Doing what?”
“Losing Lumine.”
“Ah, yes, it does seem that way.”
It did indeed. Zhongli felt that he was in the front row audience to an incredibly dramatic and
stupid theater play. Venti could now join in the horror/amusement that was the love of Childe and
Lumine. It was quite a comfort to have someone to discuss the story alongside.
Childe led the way down the road. He was hunched over, speaking to himself with his scarf
blowing in the breeze. Zhongli and Venti followed from a distance in order to whisper in absolute
secrecy. Zhongli would not admit it, but he’d always been one for gossip. He supposed Barbatos
was the same; secrets traveled on the wind as fluidly as music.
“Did you see that look in his eyes when he attacked that Millelith earlier?” Venti hissed, “You can
hardly describe that expression, such love, such drama!”
Zhongli hummed, “Oh really? It looked more like fury to me. He was quite angry that the guard
had not seen Lumine.”
“No, no, my old friend, he’s a man in love. It’s obvious! Did you not see him kick that Fatui
guard off the balcony?”
“That… also looked like fury.”

“Or how he seemed utterly terrified when he found out that Lumine was gone?”
“...I thought he had to use the restroom, honestly.”
Venti tsked, “You need to pay better attention. Childe’s passion is like a raging wind, blowing
down houses and consuming everything in its glorious cyclone. Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Most people consider tornadoes to be destructive, Barbatos.”
“Love can be quite destructive, Morax.”
“How poetic,” Zhongli raised a brow and cast him a glance, “tell me, what else do you have up
your sleeve? A ballad comparing Tartaglia’s glare to the fires of passion between a young, naive
couple?”
“Well, no, but that is a good idea.”
Childe, fortunately, heard absolutely none of this. His mind was miles away, with Lumine,
wherever she was. He’d been running off pure adrenaline the second he heard that she left
unsupervised.
First, Zhongli and Venti received his glare. Secondly, the Millelith who were supposed to keep
track of who came in and out of the city received his glare. Thirdly, his bank staff, who promptly
informed him that they have heard nor seen nothing of Mistress Lumine, received his glare, and a
command to work overtime.
Childe was informed of the letter Pulcinella sent to each Fatuu in the region, but it did nothing to
relieve his concern. Lumine was on the protected list because he was supposed to kill her, nobody
else. That was the point of his new command; he had to gain true strength through the sacrifice of
her life.
Yet, there was a chance that the Tsaritsa knew of his hesitation. He’d had many opportunities to
kill her on the boat-ride to Liyue, but had taken none of them. He knew that she had eyes and ears
in each corner of the world - that was what made him so nervous.
An assassin could be on their way towards Lumine at this very moment. Reminding himself of
this, Childe sped up to create more distance from the archons behind him. With yet another quick
step and a jump, he summoned his hydro vision and teleported further down the road.
This anxiety, this panic and adrenaline, was only exasperated by the letter he found in his office at
the bank just one hour earlier.
It went, as follows:
Tartaglia,
You know your command. Kill the traveler, and I shall grant you ultimate power.
Her Majesty, the Tsaritsa
Short and sweet. There was no alternative. He would usually respect that kind of letter, if only the
content was more pleasant. He knew his command, he understood his command, but that did not
make it any easier.
With Venti and Zhongli left far behind on the road, Childe could finally let out a shaky exhale.
He slowed in his vision and let his feet take him further away, attempting to control his loss of
stamina. It had grown dark, yet the light of the moon was enough for him to navigate by.
There was a high chance she was making her way towards Mondstadt, though he wanted to be
thorough before setting off in one particular direction. Now alone, Childe listened to the noises of
the night time cicadas’ buzz, and a familiar distortion from afar.
He had not known that each Fatuu in Liyue and Mondstadt would receive a letter and a
photograph of Lumine. He was mildly annoyed about the photo, but grateful to have one
nevertheless. On one hand, it was good to know that she would not be attacked by recruits outside
of the city. Yet, on the other, if he failed to kill her then every Fatuu in the region would know her
face; there would be no escaping, no hiding, no place in the wilderness that she could be safe.
With that letter, the Tsaritsa was killing two birds with one stone. Either he killed her, or she had
an entire army of assassins coming for her head.
Childe slowed his jog, turning to a poised walk as he approached the skirmisher camp.
Immediately, they recognized the mask sitting atop his hair, and dropped into a frantic kneel.
Before they could greet the Harbinger, he began, “Where is Lumine?”
The pyro archer was the quickest to gather himself, “L-Lady Lumine went about a mile or so
away to speak to an agent, i-in that direction, sir!”
There was no need to say goodbyes, no need for thanks. Childe glared in the direction he pointed,
and set off towards the series of caves in the far distance. As the Harbinger left in stormy silence,
the skirmishers let out a breath of relief.
First, Lady Lumine, and secondly Tartaglia. They’d never been so humbled in their lives. And
nobody had died, either, that was a good day’s work in their opinion.
Of course, once a small bard and a long haired gentleman stumbled up several minutes later,
asking for directions, they attacked at first sight. (And lost terribly.) By that time, Tartaglia was
already moving towards the agent’s location.
This chase went on for an hour. Childe found the agent, questioned him, and left. Zhongli and
Venti found the agent, were attacked, and stumbled towards Childe’s general direction after
defeating him. Fortunately for their tired legs and heavy eyes, the cicin mage was intelligent
enough to keep Lumine in one place for longer than a minute.
Childe had always thought the mages to be intelligent, albeit a bit odd. As he approached through
the shadows of the evening, she sent him an almost bored glance, “Lord Tartaglia, I assume you
would not be far behind.”
She assumed correctly, “Which way did the traveler go?”
“Why do you want to know? She’s feeling quite insecure today, truthfully.”
Childe decided that he actually did not like cicin mages after all. They were a bit too mouthy for
his tastes. “Just tell me where she is.”
“Over there,” the mage jerked her head, “I put some sleeping herbs in her tea so she wouldn’t run
off.”
He could start liking her kind again if she were not glaring so vehemently. She had that look on
her face women got when angry at their friend’s boyfriend. Childe ignored her and approached
Lumine’s sleeping figure beneath the bamboo shoots.
Finally, he could sigh in relief. That feeling of anxiety, of panic, was entirely foreign. If the
Tsaritsa’s goal was to make him stronger by giving him grey hairs from stress, then it was
working.
Childe knelt down beside her. In the silver of the moon, she slept peacefully. Her breathing was
steady and her lips parted, her cheek squished against her arm. Whatever had possessed her to leave
Liyue was unreadable in the serenity of her dreams.
He shot the mage a glance over his shoulder, “Did she say why she was here?”
“Something about you being secretive.” She answered, “She wanted to know if the Fatui were
planning anything new.”
They were, but nothing the field soldiers would know about. It would not affect them if Childe
killed Lumine, this mission was purely his own.
Yet, he could not help but curse to himself. Of course Lumine would notice how high strung he’d
felt lately. It was time to backtrack, to not let his emotions get the better of him. She would forget
about his secrecy in a day's time.
“Let’s go,” with a sigh, Childe fit his hand beneath her back and picked her up, fitting her body
against his chest, “we’ve got to go see your brother.”
Lumine did not respond. Now carried bridal style, she only groaned and shifted closer to his chest.
He cast the mage an emotionless glance, “You are not to tell anyone what you’ve seen and heard
tonight. Understood?”
“Yes sir,” she languished beside the pond and smiled, “happy to help. Buy her some dinner, won’t
you? She’s a nice girl.”
He was fully planning to. Fighting Diluc was not his only reason for wanting to visit Dawn
Winery. If there was anywhere in Mondstadt that a Fatui assassin could not enter, it was the
Ragnvindr estate. It was common knowledge among the Harbingers that the young Master of the
wine industry despised them with a passion.
Childe had only met Diluc once, yet he recalled how barely contained his anger was. If it were
not for the civilians in the streets, he was sure Diluc would have challenged him. The one thing
that might possibly make him angrier was a Fatui assassin coming after Lumine’s life.
It was not that Childe particularly needed Diluc’s help, but it would be nice to know she had a
safe haven.
Plus, he really did want to fight him.
For now, he simply left the mage, found a nice place to camp, and settled his anxiety by
handcuffing Lumine to a signpost.
(Zhongli and Venti were electrocuted by cicins shortly after, and had lost track of the Harbinger
once again.)
Childe awoke the next morning to the screeching of a very angry harpy, and a swift kick to his
stomach.
Which was, by far, his favorite way to wake up in the mornings.
“You asshole! You absolute miscreant! I’ll tear your throat open and pull out your lungs!”
That was an interesting image. Childe could almost see the gore in his mind’s eye as he yawned
and stretched. His abdomen ached from the force of her kick, yet he scooted further away before
she could deliver another.
Lumine had one wrist handcuffed to a sign post, and the other hand digging into the ground
frantically. Writhing in the leaves and dirt, she was still attempting to kick him. Childe could only
smile at the sight, “I love it when you talk to me like that.”
“I will end your life!”
That was even better. She really knew how to charm him. Childe sighed and stood up, cracking
his neck to work out the soreness of sleeping against a tree trunk. Lumine continued to writhe and
complain while he brushed himself off. “I’m sorry to do this, printsessa, but if I didn’t then you’d
be miles away right now, correct?”
“You’re not sorry!” Lumine’s eyes always seemed far more golden when she glared, it was easy
to become lost in them, “I don’t want to see you!”
His peaceful smile fell into a pouty frown, “Why not?”
“Y-You’re cheating on me!” She pushed herself up to sit on her knees and yank her captured wrist
from the sign post. “I know that’s why you’ve been acting weird!”
“No, the mage told me what you asked,” he retorted, “You’re trying to get intel on the Fatui.”
“And you’re cheating on me!”
Childe rolled his eyes and shook his head, “Why would I cheat on you? We’re starmates, it’s
universally impossible for me to love anyone but you.”
It would be a waste of his time. Starmates, whether platonic or romantic, were stuck together. He
could physically be with someone else, but to truly love another would go against nature itself.
Lumine narrowed her eyes as if she didn’t believe him, “You got what you wanted from me, now
you’re ready to toss me aside!”
“I don’t need a discount at the chop suey stand, and I already have a cool sword.”
“Dammit,” she gasped, “Well, there has to be a third thing that you're after! My kidneys,
perhaps…”
Childe waved a nonchalant hand, “If I needed an organ I’d just ask the Tsaritsa, she’s got a
million of them stashed away somewhere.
If Lumine could stand, she would. Anytime she attempted to pull away from the signpost, the
handcuff dug into her skin uncomfortably. “Where did you even get these?”
“Oh,” Childe lit up, “I keep them on me at all times. You never know when you’ll need to
handcuff someone.”
It had to be part of the myriad of secrets he had on his body. She’d once seen him pull a dagger
from his scarf, how it fit there was beyond her. “I bet you like to handcuff your other girlfriend,
don’t you?”
“Lumine, you know I’m not cheating on you.”
“I don’t know shit!”
“Oh finally, she admits it!”
“Listen,” Childe interrupted with a flat look, “did it not occur to you that the reason I’ve been
secretive is because I’m planning a gift for you? You like gifts, don’t you?”
Lumine took a moment to process his response. Sitting on her knees, with dirt streaked on her
cheek, she could only glare in thought. She had only awoken 10 minutes ago in a groggy haze
before noticing Childe sleeping nearby.
There very well might be a chance that he was planning an absolutely nerve wracking gift for her,
but Lumine did not care for admitting that she was wrong. “Who is she? Is she prettier than me?”
Childe glared, “I’ll put a gag in your mouth.”
“I bet you put a gag in her mouth too.”
“You are such a brat sometimes, I can’t believe I’m going to marry you.”
“I bet you’ll marry her too.”
That was it. Lumine was like a mouse trying to stand up to a lion, a yappy dog tugging at its
leash. “Lumi, I just want you to know that I’m doing this for a reason, okay?”
She tensed, “Doing what?”
Slowly, Childe pulled his scarf away from his neck. Taking a step forward, he knelt down in front
of her, “I make a lot of enemies, so we need to be careful right now.”
He was speaking to her as if she was a kid. Lumine’s glare deepened, “Ajax, what did you do?
Who’s after us?”
“Don’t worry about it, lyubimaya, I’ll take care of it.”
“Ajax, tell me right now.”

“Just trust me. If I don’t do this, you’ll run off and be brutally murdered, then mama would be
sad. I can’t have that.”
“You’re the one who’s going to be brutally murdered- wait,” her eyes widened as he brought the
scarf up to her face, “w-what are you doing? You put that down this instant. Ajax, I will-“
Kill him, she would kill him. Lumine had no chance to finish the threat before Childe leaned in.
He wrapped the scarf around her mouth several times and tied the ends together. The complaints
turned into muffled yells, her glare worse than ever. Before she could use her free hand to rip it
away, Childe grabbed her wrist.
“I’m really sorry, I truly am,” he hoped she would notice that he was genuine, even if he was
trying to bite back a grin, “but you and I both know the more I ask you to do what I say, the more
you’ll want to do the opposite. I’m just trying to keep you safe until we get to Mondstadt.”
Lumine glared. The muffled complaints died into eerie silence. Slowly, she shook her head, as if
warning him of his eventual murder by her hands.
With fake cheer, he proceeded to unlock the handcuff from the signpost, and transfer it to her
other wrist. She flinched as the sound of the jaw locking into place, keeping her hands pushed
together and in front of her chest.
“I want a divorce.” Lumine informed. It sounded more like ‘Eh wamt a uuvorce’.
He leaned in to press a soft kiss against her hair, “No idea what you just said, but if you behave
I’ll let you out.”
If she behaved. Lumine had never behaved in her entire lifetime. If Paimon saw this, she’d most
certainly stab the Harbinger upon first glance. It seemed as if her pixie companion was always
napping when she needed her the most. Lumine let out yet another string of muffled threats while
Childe gripped her arm and pulled her to her feet.
As if expecting it, he side stepped her stomp, saving himself the pain of a crippled foot. “I know
you’re angry with me, but I mean, you’re the one engaged to a bad guy, so it’s really your own
fault.”
Next, she attempted to headbut his chest like a very angry boar. Childe sidestepped that as well,
stopped her from tripping over her own feet, and proceeded to lead her down the pathway.
Their journey began on the most tumultuous note possible. Lumine, somehow, managed to be
loud even while gagged, and she did get to kick the back of his knees, which was a mild reprieve
from the utter frustration of this situation.
Little did either of them know, two archons watched the scene unfold with wide eyes. After a
night of fighting Fatui skirmishers, agents, and mages, Venti and Zhongli finally had the couple in
their sights.
Yet, they hesitated to approach. Venti cleared his throat awkwardly, “I think it would be best to
leave those two to… whatever it is that’s happening over there.”
Zhongli had not seen such a display since the uncivilized dark ages. To exhibit such a thing
publicly, it still managed to catch the 6,000 year old off guard. He grimaced as he watched Childe
pull Lumine down the road by her handcuffs.
“Agreed… We should find our own way to Mondstadt.”
Venti nodded, “Yep. They’ll be fine… I think…”
It was not often that Lumine wanted to beg, to plead, to drop to her knees and use her best puppy-
eyed stare. For the most part, she only brought out that trick against Aether, who was incredibly
weak to her tears.
Childe was not. She had only truly cried in front of him once, and that was because she was
smashed from four glasses of fire water. Lumine did not cry easily, but when she did, there was a
very good reason for it.
As he led her down the road to goodness knows where, the first sniffle began.
Childe stiffened immediately.
All Lumine wanted to do was plead for him to tell her the truth. Whoever it was he’d made an
enemy of could not be that scary, especially not to him. And whoever it was he was keeping her
safe from would never hurt her, she would not allow it. She’d made enemies on other worlds
before, and had always come out on top.
That look on his face, those nervous flickers behind his mask of arrogance and fake cheer, did not
fit Childe at all.
The second sniffle began. That sinking feeling of having swallowed a rock, with hot eyes and
cheeks, and an aching chest. Childe stiffened once more, but refused to look at her as he walked.
If the pathetic sniffling did not work, she would take the next step. Lumine let out the most high
pitched, melancholy squeak she could muster.
“Lumine, I know you’re fake crying.”
It was not a fake cry. She saw Tonia do the same to him last week, of course he would assume she
was faking it to get what she wanted. Even more hot tears pricked at the corner of her eyes at the
accusation.
Finally, he sighed and turned around. Upon seeing her red cheeks and watery eyes, he froze.
Lumine would’ve enjoyed watching him crumble if she were not upset.
“Lumi,” Childe leaned in with furrowed brows. Gently pulling the scarf down from her mouth, he
rested his hand on her cheek, “What’s wrong?”
He dared to ask that to a handcuffed and gagged girl being dragged through Liyue? What did he
think was wrong? Now that her mouth was free, she desperately hoped that her glare was as angry
as she felt, though the tears in her eyes ruined the image completely, “I’m tired, girls cry when
they’re tired.”
“Okay, well, do you need to take a break?”
“No,” she seethed, “I need you to stop keeping secrets and tell me who you’re so afraid of.”
Childe blinked, “I’m not keeping secrets.”
“Don’t play dumb with me.”
“Fine,” his gaze fell flat, “I’m keeping secrets, but that’s only because I don’t want you to stress
out over something I can handle on my own.”
Lumine had never been in a true relationship before this one, but she felt that his explanation was
simply wrong. Every happy couple stuck together, communicated. And while just yesterday the
very thought of communication sickened her, today was a far more serious situation. She could not
let it go on like this, “We’re a couple, you need to tell me what’s going on so we can take care of
things together, idiot!”
It was a sin how nice hands felt on her skin. It was an absolute crime how gentle he was as he
wiped away a tear and brushed her hair behind her ear. The only thing that could ruin this moment
was his face - which was blank and emotionless.
“No.”
And her plans came crashing down. “That’s real mature, Ajax. You’re like a two year old.”
He smiled and brushed back her hair to press his lips against her forehead, “I love you, Lumi.”
“Get these handcuffs off me.”
“...No.”
“Ajax!”
“You’ll run away, lyubimaya, I can’t have you getting killed on my watch.”
“Who would even kill me? Who are you running from?” She yanked herself back and stumbled
away from his chest, holding her cuffed wrists close. Lumine had been glaring so much that day,
all she could muster was another plaintitive sniffle and a tightening of her throat. She had to look
pathetic to him, then, on the verge of a broken dam of tears.
Childe - he felt more like Ajax in that moment, it was much harder to lie as Ajax - floundered
silently for a moment. His hands dropped to his sides, his eyes wandered towards the landscape
over Lumine’s shoulders. Pursing his lips in thought and going over each possible excuse, his
tongue began to move before he could stop himself.
“The Liyue Qixing…” he nearly flinched, immediately wanting to backtrack, “N-Not Ningguang,
of course, but… one of the others.”
She paused. Raising a slim brow, Lumine narrowed her eyes, “Who?”
“You know… that old guy…”
“That old guy?”
“Yep,” Childe nodded assuringly, “apparently I ruined his business, funny how that works, huh?
He’s just sent a few people after us, that’s all.”
“And…” Lumine glanced away in thought, “you aren’t going to just fight them?”
“...Nah.”
“That’s odd of you. I’ve never seen you back down from a fight.”
“Well, you know it’s really dangerous right now, because…” Another flounder, another lie
forcing its way up from his throat, “because you’re pregnant.”
Because she's pregnant. He had truly dug his own grave this time. Lumine’s eyes fluttered in
shock. Her lips parted, her shoulders straightened. Slowly, as if afraid, she looked down at her
stomach, “But... I’m not pregnant.”
He certainly hoped she wasn’t. Yet, the words were already out, and Lumine knew him well
enough to believe that he’d avoid a fight for the sake of his future son or daughter. It was the
perfect excuse, albeit a temporary one.
“Of course you are,” Childe drew closer and wrapped an affectionate arm around her waist, “look
at your belly, you’re getting a little bump, Lumi.”
“I-I… I’m bloated from all that fried shrimp…”
True. He ignored her nonetheless. “And remember how nauseous you were on the boat ride to
Liyue?”
She put one cuffed hand to her stomach and stared in wonder, “I thought I was sea sick…”
“And,” Childe could not believe that he was coming up with even more, at this point, “you
missed your period last month, remember?”
“I… I thought that was just stress, it happens sometimes…”
It was laughable how gullible Lumine was. He hoped that when they actually did have children
they wouldn’t take after her in that way. He leaned in and pressed his nose into her hair, closing his
eyes and whispering, “You’re going to be a mother, Lumi. Do you see now why I’m so concerned
over this problem? I’ve got to get you to Dawn Winery where you’ll be safe.”
Her knees felt weak, and her stomach did feel quite a bit more extended than usual. With a
stuttering breath, she stared in the distance, “P-Pregnant…”
“That’s right, Lumi Lu, you’ve got buns in the oven.”

“Buns… i-in the oven… Wait,” the amazement melted into anger, “you’re really not trying to
convince me that I’m pregnant right now, are you? Do you really think I’m that dumb?”
Not particularly dumb, but trusting. And for some reason, she trusted him the most - he wished
that she wouldn’t. Childe put a hand under her chin and lifted her face, swooping down to kiss her
roughly enough to catch her off guard.
Lumine tensed beneath his hand. Slowly, melting against his body, she gripped the front of his
jacket and leaned up to return the kiss. He deepened it as she pulled him closer, erasing the gap
between their bodies.
Now that she was thoroughly dazzled, Childe pulled away to smile, “I wouldn’t lie to you, Lumi.
You really are pregnant.”
“W-Well, I…” she avoided his eyes, still pressed against him, “I have been peeing a lot lately…”
“See? You’re super pregnant,” He paused for a moment to unlock her handcuffs, “So you promise
you won’t do any running, fighting, or heavy lifting, right?”
“O-Okay…”
“Good girl,” he ruffled her hair with a fake smile - not that she would notice, lost in her own head
the way she was, “Now let’s get going, we’ve got a long journey! You’ll make a great mama,
Lumi.”
“...M-Mama… Me?”
“Yep, you!”
“...Woah…”
Yes, woah. Childe was aware that the second her period came and her bloating went away, she
would try to strangle him. But...
He would cross that bridge when he came to it too.
Chapter End Notes
Lumine, babeh, why is u like this,

Increasingly
Chapter Notes
Lumine was aware that she was not pregnant. Frankly, it was insulting that Ajax thought she
could be so easily tricked.
Yet, the very fact that he used that exact excuse to get her to behave said more than he realized.
He was running from something serious, and he needed her to run alongside him. If Ajax could not
tell her the truth, he’d give her insightful lies, and sometimes that was enough.
Plus, she had an excuse to demand junk food now.
There was a message station at the Stone Gate in Liyue where Childe and Lumine stopped to
write letters. She wrote her own to Eva and Tonia, while Childe wrote a short message to Sacha
that she was not allowed to see. Paimon occasionally popped back, listened to their current
traveling argument - or caught him pulling out the handcuffs again, which happened three times so
far already - and disappeared once more. Zhongli and Venti were nowhere to be seen.
Lumine didn’t push the matter far. If Childe wanted to drag her across the region for some
unknown reason, she would let him. She’d give him a hard time about it, but she knew where to
draw the line.
“So, are we ever going to talk about how you tried to convince me that I’m pregnant, Ajax?”
He sat on the other side of the fire, legs folded over each other and eyes closed as he took a deep
breath. With the cup of tea in his hands, he was not dissimilar to the peacefulness Zhongli tended
to carry.
It was odd to see her fiancé so still. He was always doing something, whether it be sharpening his
weapon or preparing for travels. Despite that, Lumine could find comfort in how calm he seemed.
He hadn’t slept in days.
Frankly, she was unsure how he managed to keep going. Lumine felt perfectly rested, but Childe
had dark circles under his eyes. He’d insisted on watching over the camp every night.
“Well,” another deep breath and another sly smile over the rim of his cup, “it’s a good lie, don’t
you think? Pretty believable.”
It was. The only time she could imagine Childe acting this crazy was if he had a baby on the way.
“I can’t believe you’d think I’d fall for that.”
“But you did,” he raised a brow, “for about five minutes you were in a total daze until you
realized I was messing with you.”
“You weren’t messing with me, you were manipulating me!”
“That too, yes.”
At least he admitted it. Lumine crossed her arms and mirrored his folded legged position. The fire
was beginning to dwindle with the cool breeze of the morning, Childe’s favorite part of the day.
He even shed his jacket to feel the morning fog more clearly, Lumine gratefully scooped it up and
wrapped it around herself.
As tumultuous as the two could be, there were these rare moments of peace. Lumine curled up
further in his jacket and imagined a life lived this way, traveling Teyvat with Ajax at her side, calm
mornings and dumb jokes, their usual teasing and chemistry that was so easy to get lost in.
This was only made better by the thought of Aether here with them. Surely her brother would
allow Ajax to come along on their adventures.
Lumine wanted to ask Childe if he’d be willing to follow her to the ends of the universe, but the
alarms in her mind went off immediately. Instead, the question that came out was more along the
lines of, “Who would win in a fight, a primo geovishap, or Stormterror?”
Childe wasted no time on his answer, “The geovishap.”

“Really?”
“It can’t be blown away,” he furrowed his brows and smiled, “plus, it hasn’t been used by the
Abyss Order, only weaklings get brainwashed.”
She scoffed, “You say that as if you’re not in the Fatui.”
“Girlie.”
There was a warning laced into each thread of his voice. Lumine sighed and rolled her eyes, “I
disagree, Stormterror would totally win. He’s a lot bigger.”
“But he’s soft.”
“You’ve never even met him!”
“He’s like an overgrown lizard.” Childe yawned boredly.
“So is the primo geovishap.”
“Well, if we’re going by that logic then so is Zhongli.”
“I thought we already agreed that he’s an overgrown lizard?”
“And wears very silly hats, yes.”
Back to the silly hats and bald archons argument. Lumine covered her smile and turned away so
he could not see, “That was one good pickup line you had back then, really swept me off my feet.”
“And now look at us,” Childe grinned, gesturing to the space between them, “you’ve fallen
helplessly in love with me. We’re engaged, you’re pregnant, and you haven’t tried to stab me for
two days now.”
Lumine held up a hand, “One, I’m not pregnant, and two, I tried to stab you yesterday, you just
didn’t notice.”
“Are you sure you’re not pregnant?” Childe feigned innocence, putting a hand to his chin,
“you’ve been eating a lot of sweets lately.”
She had. She’d even tried a sweetflower whole, it was not as delicious as the name implied. “Has
it occurred to you that I’m stress eating because my fiancé is dragging me across the region
without telling me who’s supposedly following us?”
Yet another blue-eyed look of innocence, “I did tell you, printsessa, it’s the Liyue Qixing.”
“You know, I’ve been thinking about that,” Lumine mused playfully, “If the Qixing were after
you, they’d totally ignore me in the process. After all, I am the savior of Liyue.”
“It’s because we’re together, of course. You’re one of the bad guys now.” He nodded gravely.
“I assure you, I’m not.”
“It’s the truth, you’ll have to accept it at some point, girlie.”
She didn’t need to accept it because it wasn’t the truth. And Childe wasn’t entirely the bad guy
either. As terrible as the Osial endeavor was, Lumine knew that his moral compass was far
straighter than he let on.
It was only a matter of time before he was one of the good guys. She planned to have Mona use
her hydromancy to confirm it.
“You need to tell me what’s really going on,” she crossed her arms and stared him down across
the dwindling campfire, “you don’t have to deal with this alone.”
Childe hadn’t been sleeping well, and as desperately as he tried to hide the exhaustion, it was
obvious on his face. He met Lumine’s serious gaze with one of his own. Each of his words were
spoken tightly, as if he forced even this small bit of information to come up and out, “Yes, I do. It’s
my problem and I’m going to find a way to fix it on my own.”
Yet another flicker of anger, yet another glare, “You are so arrogant, do you know that?”
He knew. “Printsessa, don’t worry about it. I’ll find my way out, I always do.”
“We’re a couple! It’s not just your problem anymore!” Lumine grew more and more heated with
each passing second, “It’s our problem! Let me help you.”
Our problem. As if life was that simple. As if he could say ‘hey Lumine I considered ending your
life the other day so I can get ultimate power’. As much as he wanted her to grow more distrust for
the world, he didn’t want that towards him.
She was the best thing that had ever happened to him. If Lumine found out that he was ordered to
kill her, she’d leave. He’d have nothing left.
There was only one foreseeable way to distract her, to draw her mind off the calamity at hand.
Childe pulled himself up and walked around the fire, “Have I ever told you how cute you look in
my jacket?”
She pulled it closer around her body and glared, “Yes, but flattery won’t get you out of this.”
But it usually did. He sat beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist. She was stiff beneath
his hand, a wall not broken down quite yet. Childe kissed her neck, and smiled against her skin.
“Just be quiet for a bit, won’t you?”
Offended, Lumine gasped, “Y-You can’t just kiss me everytime you want me to stop talking
about something unpleasant!”
“Why not?” Childe ran his lips up to her jaw and pressed yet another kiss. The more she leaned
away, the further he leaned in.
“You always do this! Anytime the conversation gets off the path you want it to be, you kiss me!”
She gripped the front of his shirt and arched her neck in response to his lips, “D-Do you really
think I’m that easily manipulated? Because I’m not!”
He pulled back to give her an innocent smile, “You’re not? I think history says much differently.”
She was weak once, perhaps twice, or maybe a third time. That did not mean he could use kissing
as an excuse to change her mind. Despite gripping his shirt and pulling him closer, Lumine’s mind
ran with the different possibilities of what she could say to regain control.
“I-I’m pregnant.”
He hummed against her ear, “No you’re not.”
“So you admit it!”
He did. Childe raised one hand to hold her chin, capturing her lips in the softest kiss he could
muster. Lumine squeaked beneath him and tangled her fingers in his hair.
Onto the next excuse. She managed to speak between kisses and lip bites, “I-I… I’m mad at you.”
“You’re always mad at me,” he murmured against her.
Touché. She rattled her mind for something, anything to regain control, “I… really don’t believe
it’s the Liyue Qixing.”
“Well,” Childe pulled back with a fox-like grin, “that’s fine. Don’t worry about who it is, I’m
taking care of it. This will all,” another kiss, “be over,” another nuzzle into her neck, “soon. Trust
me.”
Trust him. She’d done that before, and ended up having to drop Ningguang’s house through the
sky. Yet, she recalled him asking her to trust him with Teucer’s safety. He was the one who
brought them into a domain of ruin guards, but he took care of it and kept them both safe, just as he
said he would.
Lumine had once overheard a game of dice played on the streets of Liyue, it was the shady back
alley gambling and laughter that caught her attention. She listened to the rules; best two out of
three, and you win. She quite liked that idea, if you can win more than you lose, go ahead and take
the prize.
Childe lost the first round, the Golden House and the Jade Palace.
He won the second, Teucer and the ruin guards.
Was this the third?
And if he couldn’t win, what would they become?
“Alright,” Lumine whispered, playing with his hair and closing her eyes against his affection, “I’ll
trust you.”
Yet another smile, yet another kiss, “You won’t regret it, zvezda moya.”
He had the feeling that she most likely would, but that was a concern for another time.
While Ajax’s parents were not quite militant, they could be strict with their youngest children. It
was in their own special way, such as demanding a thorough knowledge of bear hunting and boat
rigging by the age of nine, but never militant. They were never hateful, they were never
unaffectionate, or disattached. He grew up with a healthy amount of grace given to him, a lot of
love, and a lot of compassion.
Yet, there was the year he turned 14. Endless drifting through the unknown, red eyes and beasts
with far too many heads to be natural. There was no time for grace, nor love, nor compassion. He
forced himself to be militant, it was such a different way of living than he knew. Resting was a
commodity not often presented.
Skirk slept when she could. She could sleep like a log, and still awaken in two seconds, gather her
things in three, and be running away in four. Ajax didn’t dare to sleep for nearly a week, until he
collapsed from exhaustion while traveling with his master.
Upon awakening a day later, Skirk said something that would forever remain in his memory.
“Why are you letting your fear keep you up at night? You’re too strong for that. Don’t ever let
fear rob you of the joys of life, eating and sleeping, friends and love, adventure and fighting.”
It’s interesting how a woman who lived in the furthest corner of the abyss could teach him the
meaning of carefree optimism so well.
Upon return home, Ajax found himself fearing nothing. If there was a chance he could survive, he
would take it. If there was something lurking in the shadows, he would not allow it to strike fear in
his heart. He ate with an appreciation for life, he slept with an appreciation for peace, and he
laughed with an appreciation for the amusing things of the world.
Some would say this was arrogance. To him, it was a protection. Nothing could scare him into
staying up at night. Nothing could scare him into paranoia and stolen glances at shadows. He
wouldn’t allow that, just as Skirk commanded.
But this was different.
Perhaps love truly did make him weak. Perhaps the Tsaritsa was correct, he was so caught up in
his worldly ties that true strength escaped him. Perhaps the feeling he got when he fought for
Lumine’s sake was an illusion, a trick to make him believe otherwise.
He hadn’t hardly slept in two days. Lumine was becoming concerned with each passing minute.
As they left the Stone Gate of Liyue and traveled into Mondstadt, his mind traveled to distances
miles away from the journey at hand.
“Ajax?”
There was a rabbit in the bushes, nothing to glare at. There were birds in the trees and bugs
buzzing around him, no predators to be on edge for. A Fatui assassin would certainly be menacing
enough to quiet the forest animals. They were alone, for now, but any minute then an assassin
could arrive and slit her throat. He might watch Lumine die in front of him, having been too slow
to help her. Childe had no choice but to buckle down and keep a better watch on his surroundings.
“Ajax? Are you listening?”
How to solve this problem as he promised himself. Faking Lumine’s death wouldn’t work.
Defecting from the Fatui wouldn’t work either. Perhaps stealing both her and his family away to a
very secluded place might help, but then again his siblings would learn the feeling of fear quite
quickly, that was the last thing he wanted for them. He wanted Teucer to keep his dreams for as
long as possible.
“A mhuirnín?”
Childe was torn away from his thoughts instantly. Pulled back into the light, he blinked and
looked up from the ground to see Lumine standing in front of him, her hands on her hips. Her love,
he was her love, her mhuirnín - he wasn’t quite sure how to pronounce that.
It was odd to see Lumine exhibiting genuine concern. She usually had a dozen brick walls built
up around her, keeping everything but anger and arrogance from escaping. Childe’s heart skipped a
beat as he realized what exactly shone on her face - worry.
“Aw, you must really love me.” He put his hands on her cheeks and squished playfully, “What’s
got you all worried?”
Her voice was muffled while he pushed her cheeks together, “You do.”
“Me? No reason for that, printsessa.”
Lumine yanked herself away with a glare, “You haven’t slept in two days, you’ve been zoning
out, and you’ve barely eaten anything. You’d be worried about me too if I was acting that way.”
He had been hoping that she wouldn’t notice. There was no point in denying it, Lumine would
only grow more worried if he tried to keep yet another secret. Childe sighed and crossed his arms,
“I’ve just been a bit distracted, don’t think too hard about it.”
She bit her lip in thought, “How about we take a break for the day? Wolvendome is always pretty
at night, we could camp out here.”
“But the winery is just five miles away.”
“Which would be, like, a three hour walk. And it’s getting late anyway.”
Childe frowned, “We’re close enough for me to hydro transport us there much faster.”
“Oh, so you can collapse from exhaustion afterwards?” The retort was accompanied with a glare
and a pout. She put her hands on her hips as if trying to stand up to him, “I’m not moving from this
spot until you agree to sleep tonight- And don’t pick me up, I see that look in your eyes!”
She knew him too well. He hated to admit that she had a point, using his vision to move quickly
through Mondstadt would only push him off the edge. Even slinging her over his shoulder seemed
like too much for him to handle.
It was one of the only times in his life since the abyss that he found himself too anxious to sleep.
If the Tsaritsa had just given him a time-frame for her death, then he wouldn’t be so on-edge. The
assassin could be watching them right now. Or, it could be years before her patience ran thin.
Years of living this way. Years of wondering if his family and Lumine would be killed at any
moment, then.
It had only been a week and he could hardly take anymore.
“Alright, you’re correct, we can stop and make camp.”
Lumine smiled in satisfaction, it was so very rare that he gave into her commands this easily. She
took his hand and led him down the path to a hill covered in lampgrass. As Childe followed, he
watched her exposed shoulder blades shift and move with each step.
How easy it would be to grab her from behind, and slit her throat. It would only take a second. He
would finally be able to breathe again, his family would be safe, he could rest and return to
normal.
If this option had been given to him when he first met Lumine, he’d have done it by now.
“Lumi?”
She glanced over her shoulder, taking one step onto the hill and pulling herself up beside the
lampgrass. The flowers glowed blue against her arms and cheeks as she looked at him, “Yes?”
How to phrase a very specific question in the least specific way. He mused for a moment before
sitting in the grass beside her, his back against the tree trunk. It always seemed like they were
touching in some way or another, knees knocking against each other and arms brushing in the most
subtle shows of affection. Lumine was getting better at exhibiting her feelings without anxiety or
glares.
She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed. Childe turned his head to bury his nose into her hair,
closing his eyes. How to begin, where to begin?
“How do you think Diluc will react?” He began slowly.
Lumine only hummed in thought, “He’d be angry. He despises the Fatui with a passion.”
“Well, he can just join the club then.”
“He’s already the president of the club.”
Wonderful. Onto the original intent of the question. Childe wrapped an arm around her waist and
pulled her closer, “What if he wants to kill me?”
She frowned against his side, “I doubt he would. He’s not exactly feral.”
“But what if…”
Asking this question was like walking on thin ice. One wrong step and he’d fall through.
“What?”
A fake smile and a barely concealed flinch. There was nobody else to go to, Lumine was all he
had. It was a rare moment when Childe felt that he needed advice.
“What if he asked you to kill me?”
“I… really don’t think he would.” She stiffened beneath his arm and shot him a skeptical stare,
“That’s an odd question, Ajax.”
He was aware of that. Yet, the more he cuddled her, the more distracted she would be. He shifted
for a moment to pull her between his legs, wrapping both arms around her waist. With her back
against his chest and his chin on her head, she could not see the exhaustion in his eyes any longer.
“Just hypothetically, it doesn’t even have to be him,” he watched as she pulled off his glove and
tangled their bare fingers together absently, “What if Grandmaster Varka came back and ordered
you to kill me?”
She hummed for a moment before answering, “What happens if I don’t?”
“Then... everybody you love dies.”
Lumine grimaced, “That’s quite macabre.”
“Yes, I suppose it is.”
“Why’s he asking me to kill you?”

“Because…” a genuine smile, now, a rare one that he did not allow her to see, “I’m a terrible
villain who is terrorizing the town.”
“Hmm… Is this another Snezhnayan lullaby, or something?”
He scoffed, “Why does everything dark and macabre have to be from Snezhnaya, girlie?”
“Because they usually are?”
True. He went on, “So, what would you do?”
Lumine’s hands were soft on his own. She held his left hand and inspected the frayed string tied
around his finger. They didn’t have enough time for him to find a real ring, though he seemed
perfectly happy with the string. Placing their palms flat against each other, she finally broke the
content silence to answer, “I think I’d just kill Varka.”
A pregnant pause. Lumine’s absent movement blurred with the rest of the forest as Childe
disappeared into thought once more. She would just kill Varka, pull out the weed by the roots so it
would never come up again. How simply she stopped the world; How easily she answered him.
Ajax had been stepping on broken glass since he received her command. Each step forward dug
deeper into his skin, each new thought of the light leaving Lumine’s eyes bringing him closer to
paranoia and exhaustion. He couldn’t keep her caged forever, he couldn’t fight off assassins for the
rest of his life, and he couldn’t bring his family into those circumstances.
The root of the problem.
“That’s a good answer… are you sure?”
“Yes,” she nodded, “I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
The Tsaritsa could offer him power beyond human comprehension. She was a living testament to
her ideology. Kill Lumine, and he gains ultimate strength. That was what he’d been breathing for
since the age of 14.
Life was so much easier when he didn’t care about Lumine. A small part of him wished that he’d
never met her.
“Do you know how the Tsaritsa became an archon, Lumi?”
She glanced up at him with a smile. He kissed the side of her head and tried his best to ignore the
unidentifiable aching in his chest. “No, I don’t. Do you?”
He did. It was a story that never dared to leave his mind. “She was from Morepesok, you know.”
“Oh!” Lumine shifted around in his arms to now face him, her hands against his chest, “Is she
your great, great, great, great, great grandma?”
He grimaced, “She might be. I don’t think she ever had children though, her husband died when
she was young.”
“Oh,” Lumine rested her head on his shoulder, “That’s sad.”
“It is… Yet, she gained her vision the day he died, and ever since then she made sacrifices to get
where she was. She lost her family, she lost her friends and everybody she loves…”
“And… now she’s an archon.”
“Right,” he ran a hand up and down her back, “now she’s the most powerful being in Teyvat.
That’s her philosophy: strength comes from what we lose.”
Lumine pulled back to look at him, her brows furrowed, “I don’t think I agree with that. I mean, I
get it,” a casual shrug and a roll of her eyes, “to an extent, it helps to have nothing to care for
anymore. But what’s the point after that?”
The point after that? Childe stared blankly, “I’m afraid I don’t understand, printsessa.”
She sighed in thought, “Well, getting stronger simply for the sake of it isn’t enough motivation to
last a lifetime. You have to want to grow for something, for your family or for the one you love.
That’s why I always try to work hard, I want to regain my powers so I can protect my friends and
find Aether.”
“How… cute.”
She huffed, “I know it sounds cheesy, but don’t you find that fighting for your family’s protection
is more satisfying in the end?”
It was. He recalled the days Teucer spent with him in Liyue, when he defended him and Lumine
against treasure hoarders and ruin guards. There was something fulfilling within it all, something
he never felt from anything else.
Yet, then again… “Well, the Tsaritsa is an archon, and grows stronger each day. There’s got to be
something true about her beliefs.”
Lumine could only shrug as she reached up to play with the hair at the nape of his neck.
Distracted, she hummed in thought, “Just like everything else in life, different things work for
different people. I just can’t help but believe that true power comes from your connections to
others.”
This woman, who couldn’t tell directions, who ran into fights without plans, who made the worst
possible decisions, was a well of untapped wisdom if he asked the right questions. He’d often
wondered just how old Lumine was, if she was even older than the Tsaritsa. She’d certainly seen a
lot in her life, despite the childish demeanor and youthful arrogance.
Skirk would have said the same thing. They were two entirely different women, but they shared
the same belief. Skirk was at her strongest when protecting those who fell into the abyss - when
protecting him.
And the moment Ajax, at the age of 14, killed the largest beast he’d ever seen, was when he was
keeping Skirk safe. She had a broken arm, and he jumped in front of her to fight the beast on his
own. He won. It was his first kill in the abyss, and he was protecting his master.
“So,” a whisper and a smile, as he leaned in to rest his forehead against hers, “you would kill
Varka for me?”
Her fingers felt nice pulling gently at his hair. She looked at him through her eyelashes, “Yes, I
would. I wouldn’t like it, and it for sure wouldn’t be easy, but if you died then…
He smiled against her lips, “Then what, printsessa?”
“Then there’d be nobody to pay for my food.”
She was far too mean to him - he wouldn’t have it any other way. “True… and if you died there’d
be nobody to… Oh,” he smirked, “wait, nevermind, you don’t do anything.”
“Shut up!” She hit his chest, “I do things for you all the time!”
“Really? Name one thing.”
“I…” she pulled back to think for a moment, “...I give your life purpose and meaning.”
Another low chuckle and yet another urge to kiss her until neither of them could breathe, “You’re
really giving yourself a lot of credit there. But… I guess you’re right.”
He’d never heard Lumine gasp so suddenly. She usually had the emotional thickness of a brick
wall, especially when it came to his compliments and sweet words. Yet, as their relationship grew
into something more, he found that she would melt at the slightest of touches. She could be putty in
his hands if he worked hard enough for it.
Childe quite liked this side of Lumine. He enjoyed all aspects of her personality, but the softness
and the flirtatious witty banner was a welcome surprise. It was easy to forget that they were a real
couple, sometimes, neither of them had any idea what that was like.
But they fit. They melted into each other so perfectly, so naturally, taking each annoyance and
fight and kiss as they came.
Being a starmate was an interesting experience. It was rare, certainly, he’d hardly met any other
known couples that were destined, and if he did then he didn’t quite care at the time. Yet, he
understood why it was such a big deal, now, to find that person to spend the rest of his life with.
“I think…” he buried his face in her neck and took in the scent, recording it to memory. The world
around him shifted into something unknown, something he’d never considered before. How
quickly life changed, how quickly Lumine could turn him to the light.
“I’m going to kill the Tsaritsa for you.”
Go to Zapolyarny Palace, march into her throne room, and shoot an arrow through her chest. How
satisfying it would be to kill a true warrior such as her, to finally win against the ultimatum given.
How wonderful it would feel to hold Lumine without questioning when he’d have to kill her.
“That’s, uh… that’s a really nice gesture and all, but I don’t think it’s necessary.”
Strength came from sacrifices. Would his sacrifice be his loyalty to the Tsaritsa and the
Motherland? When letting go of his love and his family became too hard, what was the next best
thing to give up?
“I’ll take her life and then you can be Queen of Snezhnaya.”
Lumine shot him a curious glance, “Again, really nice gesture, but-”
“And we’ll take over Teyvat together, then you’ll be Queen of the entire world.”
If he died in the process, then that was fine. Ajax had never been afraid of death.
“I mean… it does sound fun…”
A pause, a silence and a sigh. He nestled closer with a smile against her neck, while she leaned in
further. Lumine was always warm, soft, smelling of lavender and enveloping him in herself.
Childe hadn’t slept for so long. Exhaustion wrapped itself around his mind, gripping and
squeezing until he sighed, giving in. Finally, he closed his eyes and let himself breathe once more.
Lumine half expected another interruption, yet he remained quiet, with his face buried in her skin.
His breathing quickly evened out into a steady rhythm that was all too familiar.
“...You’re asleep, aren’t you?”
He was, judging by the lack of response. Whatever had been eating him up so fervently finally
seemed to dissipate, allowing him to close his eyes and drift off. The only problem is that he
drifted on top of her. Lumine was still on her knees, sitting between his legs and cuddled up to his
chest.
With a sigh, she shifted around in his arms to put her back against him and sit up straighter, so his
neck would not hurt so much in the morning, “Goodnight, love.”
She was far more tired than she thought. Her concern for Ajax’s nervousness had made her
restless, though she’d been sleeping far better than him. With a yawn, she settled into him, and
closed her eyes. Sleep hit her like an arrow to the back.
Childe never thought he’d consider regicide, of all things. It certainly sounded fun, and he always
had wanted to fight the other Harbingers. The only concern was if it would actually work.
It had to work. There was no other option.
“So, we’ll tell your friends we’re engaged, okay?”
Lumine had her face buried into his back. Her voice was muffled as she replied, “Okay.”
“And then,” he grinned, “we’ll go back to Snezhnaya and get married in my parent’s backyard.”
“Sounds good.”
“And then honeymoon in… Hm…” Childe thought for a moment, “where do you want to go?”
“The abyss…”
“Great! We can meet Skirk!”
It was an amazingly exciting plan. He carried Lumine on his back, holding her up by her thighs.
Her arms were around his neck and her face buried into the back of his shoulders. Ahead, the
Ragnvindr estate was a shape against the foggy morning sunrise. They were almost there.
Childe felt that he’d not slept that well for a very long time. Despite the uncomfortable position,
he awoke well rested and ready for the day. He could carry Lumine on his back and let her sleep
more - he was beginning to spoil her - and fight Diluc when they finally arrived at the winery.
The young heir of the estate was a clever enough man to have patrols set up in the area
surrounding the mansion. Childe did not bother to hide his identity, nor to take a more secretive
route. He walked down the path with Lumine on his back, proud as day, and even waved to the
first patrol he passed.
Instantly, the guard turned on his heel and ran back back to the building in the distance. Lumine
laughed over his shoulder, “I think we’re going to get a very nice welcome.”
Childe sighed dreamily, “I hope it involves weapons.”
“Of course it will! Just don’t kill him,” she reminded, “I do still care about him, you know.”
“Well, I promised to never let you lose anyone, didn’t I?”
“You did…”
He paused as the guard scrambled through the front doors of the estate. With each step, it became
clearer and clearer, taking its distinct shape through the fog. A commotion erupted from inside the
door, followed by the banging of knobs against walls, and a dozen pairs of feet swarming onto the
courtyard to see the newest arrivals.
Leading the charge, with the terrified looking guard at his shoulder, was a familiar face.
“That includes the friendly looking gentleman with the claymore glaring at us from the entrance.”
It did include the friendly looking gentleman with the claymore. That friendly gentleman who,
even from a distance, glowered like hell itself. Lumine perked up and wiggled, “Let me down.”
Childe obliged. He lowered to allow her feet to touch the ground. Instantly, she shot out from
under his arm and took off down the hill like a dart. Guards and servants gathered around the back
doors of the estate to titter in wonder at the approaching traveler.
Even though Lumine reached him quickly enough, and immediately wrapped her arms around his
waist, Diluc’s eyes did not stray from Childe. Nor did Childe allow his own gaze to falter. He did
not dare to look away. When facing another predator, it was important to keep eye contact, lest
throats be ripped open by furious teeth and claws.
“Diluc!” Lumine went ignored as she laughed and squeezed as tightly as she could, “guess what?”
He raised his free hand to awkwardly pet her head, still staring down the Harbinger as he
approached, “What?”
“I’m getting married!”
“Yes…” gritted teeth and a heavy, barely contained sigh, “I heard.”
She gasped, “How’d you hear?”

“There are two archons sitting in my dining room at this very moment,” one of them was drinking
all of his vintage reserve, he’d have to write up a bill for that later. Rex Lapis was at least
respectful of the winery’s special stocks.
Lumine looked up at him with wide eyes. Childe drew closer, though his smile grew to a frown as
he watched how she hung off Diluc. He was her fiance, yet it was rare for her to hold him like that.
She never ran into his arms, screaming his name.
Diluc did not look as if he even enjoyed it. He had one hand placed on Lumine’s head as if she
was an overly excited puppy that kept pawing at his legs. Childe had a feeling earlier that he’d be
jealous over their interactions - but then again, that was all the more reason to fight him.
And his sword was quite big. Childe never had liked greatswords, they slowed him down
significantly. He was already doing the math in his head, he could use his dual daggers and duck
under each swing, take the openings where he could, and switch to his polearm when Diluc least
expected it. The rocky terrace would not be to his ultimate advantage, but he could always hop on
the fence and use the high ground.
Diluc noticed the silent processing behind the Harbinger’s eyes. His own gaze narrowed in
suspicion, “Do you recall what I told you last time we met, Fatui?”
The mocking smile returned instantly, “Vaguely, but you can’t really expect me to remember
every threat I’ve ever gotten, you know.”
Lumine stepped away from her one-sided hug to clasp her hands and smile, bouncing lightly in
place - she never bounced like that for Childe, he noted with a quick frown.
“So, I know that you’re angry,” it was obvious he was tense, ready for a fight, “but I brought him
here for a reason.”
“Did you?”
“At first it was so you could beat him up, and so I could laugh at his pathetic-ness.”
“That’s what Rex Lapis said was the plan.” His gaze finally flickered away to meet Lumine’s.
She went on, “Well, the whole thing backfired, and now I kinda... like him a little bit, maybe.”
“A little bit?” Instantly, a self-satisfied grin spread across Childe’s face, “Tell the truth,
printsessa, we like each other more than just a little bit.”
“Okay, well, maybe a little bit more than a little bit.” She refused to meet either of the men’s eyes,
glancing away and crossing her arms with a huff.
Diluc pinched the bridge of his nose and heaved a sigh. With a smile, Lumine returned to
Childe’s side to hold his hand, causing the crowd of servants and guards to titter in barely
contained shock. It was all Diluc could do to not turn on his heel and simply walk away, lock the
doors, and ignore the Harbinger and traveler outside of his house.
A Fatui Harbinger, holding the hand of one of the most innocent, overly trusting, gullible girls
he’d ever met. Harbingers lived up to their titles, omens of death and destruction and something
more to come. Wherever he went, chaos would follow. Diluc had seen this first hand.
He turned to glance at the servants, “Go back inside, I’ll handle this.”
They were hesitant to leave, but knew better than to argue with Master Diluc. With whispers and
gossip abounding, everybody filed in through the doors and settled for the windows. Diluc waited
until they were all gone to finally return his gaze back to Childe.
A pause. A sigh, an annoyed roll of his eyes, and Diluc broke the tense silence, “Lumine doesn’t
need a white knight, she doesn’t need me to do that for her, and she doesn’t need you either.”
Childe raised a brow, still smiling, “I remember you saying that, yes, but I’m afraid I don’t
understand the point of the reminder.”
“The point,” he spoke slowly, “is that I don’t care who she’s with, as long as she isn’t hurt.” Or
coming back to him sulking, as she did with Huffman several times over the course of her stay in
Mondstadt. Diluc never did handle an upset girl very well, he mainly just patted her back
awkwardly and stared at the wall until she calmed down.
Childe tilted his head, “Then why do you have your sword out?”
“Precautions. I can’t trust your type.”
“Ah yes, I understand.”
He looked as if he truly did, despite the playful demeanor. Diluc went on, “But I must admit, I do
find it odd that she’s with someone like you.”
“Like me? You know me?” Childe raised one brow and put a hand to his chest.
He knew his line of work, his colleagues, his subordinates. He’d traveled to Snezhnaya and seen
the Tsaritsa’s military firsthand. The death that her experiments brought had been forever burned
into his mind, he could not forget even if he wanted to.
Yes, he knew him. Anybody that was willing to become a Fatui Harbinger had to be a certain type
of person.
“Why did you bring him here?” Diluc asked.
Lumine lit up at the question. She’d been preparing this answer for days due to the complicated
nature of the situation. Emotional intelligence was not her strong suit, and speaking it aloud was
even more difficult. There were subjects swirling in her mind that she had not even told Childe, yet,
though she was sure they were obvious by then. He always could read her like a book.
“Well…” she gave his hand a squeeze and took a deep breath, “frankly... I’ve always wanted
Aether to be here to approve of who I’m with, but... he’s not. So, I would like to at least feel
something akin to that feeling.”
Diluc stared flatly. Childe smiled. Birds chirped ahead in the morning sun, with the world
spinning normally around them as if Lumine’s knees were not shaking with anxiety.
After a pause, she filled the space between them with a desperate sigh, “I know this seems sick to
you, Diluc. And I’m not asking you to like the Fatui, trust me. I would never ask that of you. But
all I want is to feel like… like I have a family right now.”
She had no choice but to take a deep breath. Childe ran his hand down her back comfortingly,
earning a nervous, shaken smile as a reward. She squeezed his hand once more, “So, Diluc…
you’re the closest thing I have to that... I wouldn’t have been able to pick myself up off the ground
if not for you.”
It was an unspoken understanding between the two. Lumine was all jokes and sunshine, Diluc
was the maturity provided when she needed it the most. Rarely did Lumine acknowledge how he
dragged her out of her self-centered misery and back into the light, and rarely did Diluc
acknowledge all she had done for him in return.
They were not brother and sister, they never would allow that to take root fully, but they were the
closest thing either of them could handle.
“So...” Diluc crossed his arms as her explanation began to process itself in his mind, “you want
me to approve of this monstrosity?”
She lit up, “Yes, please!”
Childe should have been more empathetic to his future wife’s feelings on the matter. He should
have been on his best behavior, but he rarely was. The self-satisfied smile returned in full force as
he clasped his hands and sighed dramatically, “Oh, future brother-in-law! I hope you approve of
me!”
He truly was not helping.
Diluc glared at Lumine, “You like that?”
“Yeah,” she sighed flatly, “I do, but I didn’t really get a choice in the matter either.”
This was going better than he thought. Childe put up a hand and laughed, “I know you don’t like
me… But, I did promise Lumi that I would try to get along. So, I propose a deal.”
“I don’t make deals with Fatui.” Diluc glowered.
Childe ignored him, “You and I battle, you get the opportunity to maim a Fatui Harbinger like I
bet you’ve always wanted to, and no matter who wins, I convince Pantalone to move all the Fatui
camps around Mondstadt further away.”
Lumine had told him long ago of how Diluc would fight any Fatui skirmishers caught near the
city. He caught that flicker of interest in his eyes. Childe was sure he could talk Pantalone into
pushing his troops further away, it would not be difficult to hold up his end of the bargain.
Diluc chewed on the thought for a moment before narrowing his gaze, “And what do you get?”
Like a fish on a hook. “Lumine. I get Lumine. I mean, I would have her anyway, but printsessa
wants your approval, so she’s going to get it.”
Their eyes met in a mutual smile. Her cheeks were pink with a rare show of affection, a sight that
made his heart skip a beat. She always did that to him, took his breath away with a simple look,
gazed at him as if he was the entire universe embodied into one person. She was his universe, his
world. The gravitational pull around her proved irresistible long ago.
Diluc watched the exchange with an emotionless frown. He wasn’t much for fighting endlessly,
but he was good at it. And to fight a Fatui Harbinger was a chance not many would get in their
lifetime. Childe knew that, and he was dangling his status as bait.
All he needed was to give him something to approve of. Some bit of proof that he would make
Lumine happy, that he would protect her, that he would fill the void hardly anybody in this world
could fill. As unaffected as Diluc was, he did care for the traveler. She was far too trusting, and far
too naive, it was natural to want to defend her, even if she didn’t need it.
“Not here,” he slung his sword over his shoulder and glared, “in the woods behind the winery,
away from other people.”
Lumine gasped, “You’re really going to do it? I should go find Venti-”
“No,” Diluc commanded, “just me and the Harbinger, no one else... We have a lot to talk about.”
Childe assured Lumine that she would be safe at the winery, though why he was so obsessed
with her safety remained a mystery. He’d not yet told her just who he was running from.
Yet, he asked her to trust him, so she would try her best.
“Look at all that male bonding,” she leaned on the windowsill, watching Childe and Diluc make
their way to the forest nearby, “they’re practically brothers now.”
Zhongli sat at the table beside her and calmly sipped his tea, “Yes, most definitely. I recall when
my wife introduced me to her family... Of course, her family was a group of spirit creatures made
of dust, but it was nerve wracking nevertheless.”
She cast him a glance, “Did they like you?”
“Very much so, I think.” He nodded.
“...Probably because you never wore a shirt.”
“Ah… most likely, yes.”
Lumine wished she could be a fly on the wall for their ‘male bonding time’. Whatever between-
battle conversation they would have had to be important, especially if it was about her. She sighed
and glanced out the window once more, saying silent prayer to Barbatos - who was currently in the
cellars, pilfering yet another vintage. She swore she heard him laugh at the end of her prayer.
Little did any of them know, Diluc was correct in his earlier line of thought. Where a Harbinger
went, death followed.
There were no extra words to be exchanged. There was absolutely no point in discussing
boundaries, or limits, or objectives. While not particularly a battle to the death, this was not a
friendly sparring match.
Childe summoned a single hydro dagger. His eyes lingered on the pyro vision at Diluc’s belt,
before meeting his gaze. His blood began to boil as he envisioned the thrill of this fight, the speed
and the strategy, how exactly he would take him down. Hopefully, he would not disappoint.
“I think…” a tilted head, a smile that could be mistaken for friendliness on any other person, “that
you’re a bit like me, aren’t you? You prefer your weapons over your words.”
Diluc neither agreed, nor disagreed. He lifted his chin and watched the Harbinger, before hoisting
up his sword and taking the first step.
With the first dodge of his claymore, the conversation had begun.
Childe ducked, lunged beneath the greatsword and twisted mid-step to elbow Diluc in the side.
Before he could make contact, his assault was halted by the sword coming straight for his neck. He
was correct to assume that he was faster than Diluc, though his opponent was surprisingly more
agile than he guessed. Childe parried the greatsword with both of his summoned daggers. A
sudden, almost saccharine smell filled the air, mingling with the steam coming from their
weapons.
It was interesting how Diluc fought. Childe watched as the sword began to flicker, before
suddenly breaking into flames. Perfect, it was far too much fire for his simple daggers to snuff out.
He never did have much fun fighting pyro users, it tended to be too easy.
“I won’t use my vision just yet,” Childe teased as he sidestepped burning another attack, “I don’t
want it to end that quickly.”
Diluc remained silent. There was a light change in his expression, a look of skeptical exhaustion
not dissimilar to one Zhongli often wore. He was being far more aggressive than Childe, reminding
him of his own fighting style. He was obviously forcing the Harbinger to change his usual tactics
of controlling the battlefield. Childe rarely enjoyed fighting on the defensive.
“Watch out.” Another smile, a rough laugh, and the steaming of hydro around his body. In half a
second, faster than Diluc could blink, he was behind him, bow in hand.
“You’re fast,” Diluc commented, “but you don’t hit very hard, do you?”
“Aw, that’s mean.”
He was pouting. The Fatui Harbinger was pouting like a little kid. The sudden barrage of arrows
could hardly be stopped, each one surrounded by water and coming from different directions. Diluc
managed to dodge, but not before his sword steamed with zapor.
Hydro users were such show offs.
Lumine jumped at a flash of blue from the corner of her eye. It was brighter than the sky itself,
emitting a low groan that was all too familiar. She sat beside the window as it raised it’s
gargantuan body above the treetops.
She glanced towards the direction Childe and Diluc left. Venti pulled up beside her to squint at
the sight, “What is that?”
She knew exactly what it was. Shuddering, she watched it fall to the ground like a great
earthquake.
“Childe likes to drop whales.”
“Oh…” Venti pulled away with a nervous smile, “that’s, uh… charming…”
Diluc was utterly done with it all by the third whale. This Harbinger laughed like a kid-bully
each time, and his attacks were near inescapable.
They seemed to be evenly matched. Childe was just as burnt as Diluc was soaked. Vapor filled
the air like a sauna between them, thickening each breath and floating to the sky above. It was far
too humid for the windy region of Mondstadt - hydro users did not usually give him this much
trouble.
At least he didn’t use his delusion. Diluc was unsure whether the Harbinger deemed him
unworthy of it, or if he was sparing his extra power for Lumine’s sake. Judging by what he knew of
the man, it had to be due to Lumine. She wanted them to get to know each other, not commit
murder.
He was considerate, then, that was one good thing about him.
The battle lasted an hour. Diluc was not much for emotional relief, but with each hit on the
Harbinger, he could not help but let out a secret smile, or a satisfied sigh. It was rare that he
stopped working just to fight, to spar and to challenge himself. He had not fought like this since
training with Kaeya.
There was no discernible way to determine who the winner would be. Diluc liked to think it was
him, while Childe thought himself the obvious winner. Neither of them would know, for a rustling
in the bushes and the flash of a dagger shot between their blades far more quickly than either of
them could have noticed.
Distorted voices and black coats. Red lining, an ominous mask. Diluc’s eyes widened as he
stumbled away, watching the Fatui assassin block his attack and shove him away from the
Harbinger, “Stand down!”
Shocked silence fell upon him. This man had appeared out of nowhere, seeming to be built from
the shadows of the forest itself. Diluc’s eyes flickered past his shoulder, just in time to watch
Childe’s look of amusement fall into utter fury.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” It was a tone of voice he had not yet heard from him.
It was grated and low, filled to the brim with anger. Each syllable was laced with poison.
“I didn’t think you’d need one of your filth to intervene, Childe.” Diluc straightened up and de-
summoned his greatsword. Wordless, glaring at the agent, he raised his hands in surrender.
“I don’t.” This was not planned. Childe was as shocked and angry as him at the interruption.
“Explain yourself, recruit.”
Slowly, the agent turned around. He looked the Harbinger in the eyes, something a subordinate
would never dare to do. As tense silence thick as fog settled between the three, he took a moment
to let anticipation build before finally speaking. Distorted tones filled the air.
“Her patience grows thin, Tartaglia.”
Childe stiffened. The world seemed to halt in place. Diluc was forgotten in the background.
His heart felt as if it might stop beating. Without realizing, he dropped his dagger and let it splash
into nothingness against the ground.
“...Has it?”
“It has. I bring a message.”
“T-Then…” he swallowed his stutter and exhaled deeply, his cheeks paling, “Go on, what is it?”
“You have three days.”

The agent could not even finish his last syllable, before Childe lunged forward and dug a newly
formed blade through his stomach. Diluc flinched, watching the Fatuu jerk and cough, the tip of
the bright blue sword sticking out of his back. There had to be strength in that attack, enough to
drive right through a man.
“S-She had a feeling,” the agent whispered, “so, y-you’ve made your choice.”
Childe did not bother pulling out the sword. He let go, watching it dissipate into mist inside of the
man’s body. He collapsed to his knees, and lurched forward to fall face-first onto the forest floor.
It happened far too quickly to muse over. Childe wiped his hands on his coat as if they were dirty,
invisible blood staining each inch of them. With a grimace, silence fell over them once more.
Just a minute ago, they were fighting. The shadows embodied itself, delivered it’s cryptic
message, and was instantly taken from the world. It was the fastest Childe had ever killed another
human.
Diluc approached to stand over the agent’s body. He put his hands on his hips, watching the
blood mix with the dark colors of his jacket and seep down onto burnt grass.
“So,” Childe broke the silence like shattering glass, “would you mind helping me get rid of a dead
body?”
Diluc blinked. He glanced up and stared, “Would I… help you… get rid of a dead body?”
“Yeah, brother Dilu-
“Don’t call me that! No,” he seethed, “I will not help you get rid of a dead body. What the hell
was all that?”
Childe gave him an innocent look, “All what?”
“That! You killed one of your own men!”

“Oh, yeah…” he glanced down once more, “but trust me, he deserved it.”
It wasn’t that Diluc disagreed, it was more so the utter randomness of it all. A Fatui agent
appearing out of nowher with a message that enraged Childe so much that he stabbed him for it.
He, literally, killed the messenger.
This time, the silence was awkward. The man kept bleeding out between their feet, twitching as
his nerves and joints settled in. Childe grimaced at the sight, while Diluc simply processed what
had happened.
“...Are you going to explain what happened?”
Childe glanced up at him, “Nope. But I’ll give you a hint if you help me hide his body. I don’t
want Lumine to see this.”
He didn’t want a hint, nor the condescension that came with it. He wanted to know exactly why
Childe killed a subordinate in cold blood.
But, for Lumine’s sake, he would help hide the dead body.
“You take the arms, I’ll take the legs.”
Chapter End Notes
~ bonding ~
Fulminare
Chapter Notes
“Paimon needs a vacation.”
True enough. Lumine could see why her pixie friend was exhausted, each time she returned to this
world there was a new type of chaos erupting around her. She’d simply stayed away for the entire
journey.
Now, she returned to find herself in Dawn Winery. As relieved as she was to learn that Childe was
gone, fighting with Diluc at the moment. Lumine’s next goal was to find and convince Mona to
help her free the fortune teller in Liyue.
Paimon wasn’t sure if she could stand seeing Lumine spend all her mora on Mona again. The
astrologer just needed to find a financial investor like Lumine did - Harbingers were good for that.
“Be safe you two!” Venti raised an enthusiastic hand, leaning up on his top toes and laughing,
“I’d go with you, but Diluc hasn’t given me a bill yet, so I’m going to take advantage of the
freedom as long as I can.”
Knowing Venti, he’d avoid paying the bill even if he got one. Diluc was far too busy having
whales dropped on him to care at the moment, though Lumine noticed that the forest behind the
winery was oddly absent of vapor.
For the last hour, it had been covered by steam, and filled with the noise of battle. As Lumine
stepped outside, she tensed at the uncharacteristic silence.
“They might be taking a break,” she cast Paimon a glance, as if her pixie companion was the one
that needed reassurance.
She only snorted, “Paimon thinks they killed each other.”
There was a chance that she was correct. The forest was eerily silent, as it had been for the last
several minutes. As hesitant as Lumine was to leave Childe to Diluc’s mercy, this was possibly the
only moment that she could speak to Mona of her future without his interference.
She had so little time to sneak off to Mondstadt. With her heart skipping a nervous beat, she
grabbed Paimon’s hand and pulled her along down the road, “Let’s go before he notices I’m gone.”
Paimon was like a balloon dragged through the air by a string. She huffed and yanked her hand
back, “Paimon thinks that you and the Trashbinger need to learn how to communicate rather than
going behind each other’s backs all the time.”
“Oh, you’re so wise, emergency food, how did you become so knowledgeable in the ways of
relationships?”
By being the awkward third wheel to the constant fighting between Childe and Lumine. Paimon
often thought that their problems would be fixed if the two of them were not so incredibly hard
headed and emotionally constipated. In fact, everything wrong in the world could be fixed if a few
people simply sat down and had a chat.
Or, if they had knives. Ever since Childe gave her a knife, life had been so much simpler.
Lumine hurried along to Mondstadt. Behind her, the area around Dawn Winery remained silent,
exempt of the earlier fighting and chaos. She doubted that Childe had been truly hurt, though the
mental picture of him pushing Diluc past his point of patience would not leave her mind. Whatever
they were doing, they were being incredibly quiet about it. With yet another twinge of worry,
Lumine tore her attention away from the winery, focusing on the mission at hand.
While Mondstadt was comfortably familiar, the sight of Mona’s house sent an abrupt shock into
Lumine’s chest. She slowed in her walk, Paimon bumping into the back of her head and grumbling
complaints under her breath.
The second Paimon noticed what the astrologist’s lab was surrounded by, the complaints halted.
She and Lumine gaped in wide-eyed wonder.
“Lady Lumine, welcome!”
These Fatui knew her identity as well. She supposed it was not only the field agents who received
a picture of her, that incredibly embarrassing command seemed to reach everyone. Paimon made a
gagging noise and held onto her hair, “Why’s he calling you Lady Lumine? You’re not a lady!”
“It’s, uh…” she didn’t want to admit that she was now ‘under the protection of Tartaglia’, she’d
barf the second it left her lips, “It’s because I’ve asserted my dominance as a threat. Hello,” a nod
to the Fatui guards surrounding Mona’s house, “good afternoon, hope you’re doing well…”
She scoffed, “Paimon hopes you’re doing bad!”
The female guard standing at the foot of the stairs grinned, ignoring the pixie’s insult as Lumine
approached, “It’s so nice to see you, Lady Lumine! Do all of the Harbinger’s spouses gather like
this? How fun.”
Harbinger’s spouses? She had to resist the urge to gag like Paimon. She cast a glance at Mona’s
window, finding the curtain shaking with sudden movement. Returning her attention to the female
Fatui, she desperately searched for an non-insulting answer.
“You know… We need a support group, really,” she grimaced, “We just share snacks and gather
‘round the fire, provide comfort and all. La Signora’s spouse should be here soon, try not to scare
him too much, poor guys been through a lot having to deal with that bitc- lovely woman.”
She nodded gravely, “It must be difficult, but you’re so blessed too.”
“Yep… blessed…” she watched the doorknob twist and turn as Mona fumbled to unlock it,
“Super blessed.”
The front door swung open, revealing a pale and wide eyed astrologist. Her hair was unruly and
wild as she gestured for Lumine to hurry along. Immediately, Paimon zipped over her head and
into the house.
“Excuse me,” Lumine sent the guard a fake smile, brushing past her, “our Harbingers Spouses
Anonymous meeting is about to start. It’s going to be very emotional, so if you could keep your
distance that would be great. Thanks.”
Lumine gave Mona’s hand a quick squeeze. Before she could close the door, yet another guard
called out, “Mistress Mona! Would you like us to bring you food? Or drinks? We could do your
grocery shopping too!”
She tensed, “F-For the last time, no thank you! I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, you
slubberdegullion!”
“Yes ma’am! I’ll check back with you in 10 minutes!”
She groaned and slammed her door shut. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, she put her back against
the wall, slouching, “They're driving me insane. Neither Scara nor I want this.”
Lumine and Paimon were at a complete loss, “Want what?”
“This!” She gestured out the window, “Guards 24/7, the constant servitude. I mean, it’s nice and
all when I actually need something, but it’s just been taken to a whole new level.”
She wasn’t entirely sure what Mona was referring to. She wasn’t even aware that her dear friend
had any connections to the Fatui other than Scaramouche, who was at odds constantly with the rest
of his coworkers. Lumine gripped her hand and helped her up, leading her to the table in the middle
of the room. “How about I make us some tea, and you can vent to me all you want, okay?”
Paimon zipped over to the kitchen cabinets, “Paimon’ll help! Mona’s always got tea, even if
there’s no food, there’s always…
Mona sniffled into her hand, shifting her eyes to the side and glaring. Lumine took note of her
companion’s uncharacteristic silence, “What’s wrong?”
“There’s… so much food…”
It was admirable how quickly Mona burst into an ugly sob. “The Fatui won’t leave me alone! T-
They keep giving me things, oh it’s terrible! Usually, I would humbly accept the offerings,” she
spread her hands and shrugged, her eyes red and cheeks wet, “but it’s just all the time now! A-And
that guard out there, that lady…”
Lumine sat across from her with wide eyes, “Yes?”
“She said that the Harbinger here in Mondstadt has given an order to surround my home!” Mona
slammed a fist down onto her table, “And Scary Moose had no idea why, either! He just shrugged
at me, the insolence of that man!”
An order to surround her house by the Harbinger in Mondsadt. That would be Pantalone carrying
out diplomacy here, but La Signora’s troops were also present. It could not be Childe or
Scaramouche. Lumine had been with Childe every day, while Scaramouche would never bother to
surround Mona’s home with troops unless it was an emergency.
An emergency. Lumine gasped and banged her fist into her palm, “You might be in trouble!”
“W-What?” Her mouth gaped, “But I would have sensed it by now!”
Paimon was currently rummaging through the cabinets and stuffing cookies in her mouth, ignored
by the girls in the living room. Absently, Lumine put a hand to her chin in thought, “But perhaps
you missed this prediction?”
“Excuse you! I do not miss predictions!”
“Maybe… Maybe there’s an assassin after you!”
Another gasp, another barely contained shiver. Mona stood from her chair and sauntered to the
window, flipping a black pigtail over her shoulder as she spoke, “A-As I said, traveler, I would
have realized if I was in danger…” she peaked through the curtains, “Archons, there’s even more
out there now...”
“Mona,” Lumine stood and stared, “We need to get you out of here!”
“We can’t just leave, they’ve been following me everywhere! We must…” she tapped her chin
and hummed, “We must make a discreet and inscrutable escape plan! Yes. We must act casual
about this, as if nothing is wrong.”
Paimon peaked around the corner from the kitchen, “Good idea! And if we get into trouble,
Paimon can stab ‘em with her new knife!”
A pause. A wide eyed stare. Slowly, Mona looked up, “...Who gave the pixie a knife?”
“Ah, that would be my fiancé.”
“...Lumine, dear apprentice?”
“Yes?”
“Just who is your fiancé?”
What a loaded question. Lumine never imagined that she’d hesitate to show off her love, though
Mona had to be the safest to confide in of all her friends - she was in an odd entanglement with a
Harbinger herself.
“You know…” Lumine rolled on her heels and tried her best to act coy, “Perhaps… the… guy I
told you about a long time ago?”
She narrowed her eyes, “Huffman? How many times must I tell you? He’s no good for you!”
“No not him! I’m over Huffman!”
“Then who is it? Go on and tell me before I lose patience!”
Paimon floated by and rolled her eyes heavily, as if Lumine’s pink cheeks gave her second-hand
embarrassment. She shifted uncomfortably before clearing her throat to begin, “It was… You
know, just some guy… My starmate, perhaps.”
Lumine held her hand out like she’d so often seen the village girls do. With shaking fingers,
Mona took it and inspected the pearls and diamond closely. It looked much better than before,
though Lumine would have accepted the well-worn gold and chunky diamond nevertheless. She
was not quite used to wearing it, still, and the opportunity to show it off was a rare one.
The astrologist glanced up with wide eyes, “Monoceros Caeli? He has better taste in jewelry
than I thought, I honestly thought he was going to propose with a sword.”
“That would’ve been pretty cool actually, but wait,” she yanked her hand away with a huff, “I
thought you had trouble seeing my fortune!”
Mona shot her a flat look, “I do, but starmates are easy. I’ve been able to see yours since we first
met, but I didn’t really care, particularly, so…”
She crossed her arms and glared, “So you just didn’t tell me?”
“Correct! I’m happy for you, though, to be attached to a starmate is truly a rare opportunity.”
“But that’s the thing, it’s why I visited you! I want to know what happens after now.”
“After now?” She raised a brow.
“Yes! What’s our future like? Does he quit his job for me?“
“You know I have trouble with your future in particular… Plus,” Mona’s shoulders slumped, “I
can’t think straight surrounded by Fatui, nor cooped up in this place. I need better surroundings,
especially if I’m to see through your fog.”
Her fog. The fortune teller in Liyue never seemed to have trouble before, and that city was much
more crowded. “Well, there’s this astrologist in Liyue who I want you to speak to-“
“Eh? You’ve betrayed me for another fortune teller?”
Lumine felt like pleading, dropping to her knees and begging for mercy. “I didn’t betray you on
purpose, it’s just that she said that Childe will not be part of the Fatui forever, but she never got a
chance to explain further!”
“...She could see that? And who is Childe? You mean… T-Tartaglia?” She gasped and put a hand
to her chest, “Monoceros Caeli is a Harbinger?”
Lumine thought it would be obvious by now. She’d ranted to Mona endlessly about how terrible
Childe was, she thought she could not be clearer with her affection. And Scaramouche had to have
told her about the developments with her and Tartaglia - though she could see him caring so very
little that he entirely forgot about it.
“Yes… we’re in the same boat now.”
“I-I am not even near your boat!”
There was the sound of a slamming cabinet from the kitchen, followed by the maniacal laughter
of a small, floating creature. “Broke astrologist, don’t think Paimon didn’t see what you have up
here… That expensive tea that costs thousands of mora!”
Her cheeks turned pink, “S-So the Fatui bought me some fancy tea, that doesn’t mean I’ve sold
out to them!”
“You’re… You’re a sugarbaby, Mona.” Lumine could not help but gasp and stare, “We’re not just
in the same boat, we’re stuck on a deserted island together!”
“T-That is preposterous!”
“We’re both with Harbingers… I wasn’t lying to that guard lady, this is a Harbinger’s spouses
support group now.”
Mona stared in awe, “You… may be correct…”
Sweet relief. Lumine was sure the astrologist was about to kick her out in a flurry of
embarrassment. “So now do you understand my interest in the future?”
“I do…” her gaze snapped back to reality, “But a Harbinger’s future is just as blurry as yours.
They’re far too unpredictable.”
“But this lady in Liyue could tell it so easily!”
She leaned forward in suspicion, “What lady in Liyue? Who dares to be better than I?”
“I-I don’t know her name,” Lumine floundered, “but she’s really good, apparently, so good that
Childe’s afraid of her. He’s put guards up around her all the time so I can never get a chance to
speak to her.”
“And what does she know that is so terrifying?”
She groaned, “I told you! She knows that Childe won’t be part of the Fatui forever! And
apparently it drives him mad. I want the details, I want to know what happens to cause his
resignation.”
Mona crossed her arms and pouted, “If I can’t see it then she possibly can’t…”
“Can you both try together? And if not, then can you just help me get her away from the Fatui?
She doesn’t deserve to live under constant surveillance.”
“I’ve never tried double astrology… It does sound quite interesting, though I have a feeling it’s
impossible.” She put a finger to her chin and tapped in thought, “To work together to cut through
the fog of a blurred future… It would be a feat like none other.”
Lumine would take that as an agreement. She grasped her hands, “We just have to figure out a
way to lose the Fatui following you around. And if you really are in danger for some reason, then
you’d be safest if we stuck together.”
“As if I’d need your help,” her nose raised arrogantly before she caught herself and smiled, “but
okay, I’ll admit I’m a bit excited to convene with this other fortune teller, it must be worthwhile if
you’re pleading so ardently.”
“I am pleading, I’m pleading the most ardently, Mona. I need this more than anything!”
“I know, I know… We just have to get past the Fatui…”
“I have an idea!” Lumine lit up like a match to a candle, clasping her hands and bouncing her
knee.
Mona tilted her head, “Oh? Do tell.”
“Paimon,” excited, she cast her a wide-eyed glance, “how good is your dying impression?”
“Spectacular.” She spoke with a mouthful.
This was not the first time Lumine and Paimon had used this particular trick to get out of a sticky
situation. It had been a while, but the general concept remained. Lumine took Mona’s hands and
sent her a serious gaze, “So, here’s what we’ll do. You’ll act like you’ve done some weird
experiment on Paimon,” the girls cast the pixie a glance, catching her in the act of smearing jelly
over her mouth and cheeks, “she’ll act like she’s been murdered. Then, we’ll take her outside of
Mondstadt to bury her body.”
“That’s… really quite extreme, and rather convoluted…”
“But it works!” Lumine squeezed her hands, “It’s been effective every time we’ve used it. So just
trust me, okay?”
“Okay…” Mona caught on with an excited gasp, “And once we’re outside of the city, we’ll beat
them up!”
“Exactly! Then we’ll be free to go to Liyue! We can stop at the Dawn Winery on the way and tell
Childe that we’re, uh…”
She gave a smug grin, “We’re having your cross-country bachelorette party.”
“Perfect!”
Once in Liyue, Mona could ambush the Fatui guards and teleport away with the fortune teller.
Lumine could finally receive her much desired answers, and the satisfaction of telling Childe that
he was, indeed, going to quit the Fatui one day. While she was at it, she would see if they could
find Aether as well. Mona had trouble on her own, but perhaps with two great minds working on
the matter, the future’s fog may dissipate.
With the plan set, and Paimon thoroughly jelly covered - she insisted it helped make it authentic -
the girls turned towards the door.
“Ready?” Lumine whispered.
Mona gave her hand a squeeze, “I’m ready.”
She would have counted down from three, if Paimon did not zip between them, yank the door
open, and promptly fall to the ground like a dropped brick.
Lumine was into action immediately. “Paimon!” She dropped to her knees and held the pixie’s
limp body close, “No! Come back to me, Paimon! You can’t leave me like this!”
As the Fatui glanced their way and approached, Mona covered her face with her hands and
violently sobbed, “I didn’t mean to, Lumine! I didn’t mean to hurt her!”
“She’s dead because of you!”
“P-Paimon’s not dead,” she raised a weak hand, her fingers shaking dramatically, “Paimon just
needs… n-needs…”
One guard drew close with a gasp, “Is it okay?”
“She’s dying!” Lumine yelled, “What do you think? Don’t you see her right now?”
It was satisfying how easy these trained military officials were easy to trick. A wave of whispers
spread through the group, coupled with discomfort and shifting bodies as they all tried to catch a
glimpse of the dying fairy. Lumine brushed her hair back as she listened to one man whisper,
“What’s that all over her face? Is that… blood?”
“No, you idiot!” Another man elbowed him, “It’s obviously her vomit!”
Mona lifted her face and sniffled pathetically, “You’re all wrong! It’s… I-It’s…”
“Her pulverised guts.” Lumine finished gravely. The entire battalion of guards gasped and
groaned in absolute disgust.
Paimon coughed once more. As she raised yet another hand, her fingers stroked Lumine’s cheek,
before it fell limply to her side with a groan. Just for good measure, her leg twitched, and her eyes
stared blankly at the sky above.
“You’ve… killed Paimon…” Lumine murmured, “Mona, you’ve killed Paimon…”
“I-I didn’t mean to! Can you ever forgive me?”
Paimon twitched again. The Fatui all gasped and took a step back. With a grimace, the leader of
the group stepped up and cleared his throat, “Ladies… should we simply go bury it? I’ve had to do
that for my children’s goldfish a few times… I think I have an extra shoe box back at the hotel…”
Gingerly, Lumine fit her hands beneath Paimon’s limp body and picked her up. She wiped the
jelly off her face - earning many groans of disgust from the onlookers - and smeared it on the
railing of the porch, “I was her best friend, I’ll take care of it…”
“Let me come along!” Acting desperate, Mona gripped her arm, “I want to help bury her, she was
my dear friend too.”
“Okay…” she held the pixie close to her chest and stepped down the stairs, “excuse us, we have
to bury our pet fairy.”
The leader gave her a quick salute before sighing in defeat, “W-Well, ma’am, we’re ordered by Il
Dottore to not leave either of you alone. I’m afraid we’ll have to come wit-”
“-Can you not give us privacy?” She yelled. Immediately, Lumine gasped and buried her face into
Mona’s shoulder, letting a fake sob rack her body, “My best friend just passed! Do you have no
heart?”
“M-Ma’am, really-”
“Leave us alone!” Mona commanded fiercely, “We do not know who this Il Dottore is, but I can
assure you that he would allow us to bury our dear mascot!”
Lumine’s voice was muffled by the mage’s clothes as she yelled, “You soulless man! You terrible
beast! How could you be so cruel?”
The other guards shifted and glanced at him with wide eyes. A chorus of whispers engulfed him
as they outwardly wondered how their commander could truly be so cold-hearted. Under pressure,
the leader’s cheeks grew a warm pink, “I-I… well, uh… Just make it quick, okay?”
Mona looked at Lumine. Lumine looked at Mona. Paimon was trying her best not to giggle from
her spot against Lumine’s chest.
Finally, both girls looked at the leader. “Okay, that works. We’ll be super quick.”
“Would you like me to grab that shoebox?”
“...Yes, please.”
The incredibly stupid plan to fake Paimon’s death had worked, as it always did. Nobody could
resist a girl whose dearest pet had just died, it was like losing a housecat. It always hurt, even if she
was a particularly noisy animal.
Mona and Lumine waited until the leader had his back turned. Once the rest of the guards were
distracted, the girls slipped away down the alley and to the gates of Mondstadt in the distance.
Once out their line of sight, they burst into a run. Their shoes clacked against the stones beneath
their feet, and laughter rose between the two as they made their escape. Mona always had been
Lumine’s most willing and adventurous friend.
The girls crossed the bridge and slowed in their run as the expanse of Mondstadt stretched out
before them. “Looks like it might rain,” the mage glanced up under the rim of her hat, “this is
always the worst part of the storm.”
She glanced at her, “What?”
“Before it rains, you know…” she tsked as if the answer was obvious, “it’s all dark and clouded,
and you’re not quite sure what to expect yet. I mean, I’m sure what to expect, but most people
aren’t.”
“Huh, that’s kinda poetic.”
“It’s incredibly poetic! I always know when something terrible is about to happen.”
That was true. Mona had once saved her from eating a very suspicious looking bread roll, once, it
turned out there was a roach inside. Lumine trusted her friend’s instincts better than anyone’s.
“And when will the next terrible thing happen?”
“I don’t know…” she slid her arm closer to link with Lumine’s, though her gaze stayed steadily
ahead at a sight towards the curve in the road, “Are you happy, my dear?”
What an odd question. It was so incredibly out of the blue. Lumine blinked absently, “Yes, I think
so. I miss Aether a lot, but I’m doing a lot better than I was when I first woke up here.”
“Are you… happy with him?”
“Childe, you mean?”

“Yes, Monoceros Caeli.”
Another odd question, though Lumine could see where it came from. She followed Mona’s eyes
to the spot in the distance that she watched, a flash of ginger and grey catching her attention
through the trees.
“Yes…” she spoke slowly as they approached, “I think I am. I… don’t really know how to
describe it. But I do love him.”
“Do you?” She cast her a concerned glance, “I feel the stillness before the rain, Lumine.”
“I’m not really sure what that means, to be honest.”
“It means shut up and listen to that incredibly suspicious duo up ahead, for I believe you know
one of them.”
The suspicious looking duo. Ginger hair and a red scarf, pastel blue and pale skin. Familiar voices
reaching out from behind the trees as Lumine and Mona slowed in their approach to listen.
She knew that voice. He was not where he was supposed to be.
“Tell me, Tartaglia, what is your plan for that girl?”
One Hour Earlier

“Just throw him over this cliff.”
“I am not throwing a dead body off a random cliff.”
“Why not?”
“Kids walk around these parts! That would be a terrible thing to see!”
Childe had seen many dead bodies as a kid, and the only terrible thing that happened was how his
older brothers never let him poke them. Nevertheless, he’d turned out perfectly fine, one could
even say he was greatly successful in life. Perhaps it would do the children of Mondstadt some
good to see a dead body on their afternoon walks.
Diluc’s glare told him otherwise. That seemed to be all the winery owner was capable of: glaring.
Childe could only roll his eyes and sigh, “Fine, Miss Priss, into the lake then.”
The argument flared up once more, “That’s even worse, Harbinger! That would pollute the
water.”
It certainly might, and Childe was all for environmental sustainability, but during a moment of
panic and uncertainty, he found himself unbothered by the idea of yet another corpse at the bottom
of Cedar Lake. It had to be filled with them, every body of water was, and Diluc was naive to think
otherwise.
But they had to get rid of the agent somehow. This was not usually a problem, most enemies
teleported away when close to death. Yet, Childe did not dare give this man time to do so.
“Get some shovels, then, we’ll just dig a grave.” He sighed and set the cadavers arms down.
Diluc followed suit with a glare, and a disgusted wiping of his hands.
Childe made sure to use his hydro to wash away the trail of blood. He continuously glanced over
his shoulder in the case that Lumine would approach through the forest. She would surely explode
upon first sight of how the ‘brotherly bonding’ fight had turned out. Yet, the worst part of it all had
to be Diluc’s constant, unyielding suspicion. It burned a hole into Childe’s obviously guilty
conscience.
It was rare for him to accept culpability with such ease. The command to kill Lumine had been
wearing him down like water dripping upon stone. This feeling was accompanied by slight nausea,
and a headache - Childe was sure he’d die if this kept up.
Diluc hesitated to get the shovels, instead standing up straight and staring. Childe returned the
look with a glare of his own, “What is it?”
“Are you not going to explain what’s going on?” Diluc gestures to the cadaver between them,
“What did he mean by ‘you have three days’. And whose patience has grown thin?”
If only he could spit out the truth. Childe had been lying since the age of 14; lying of his
whereabouts and what happened when he disappeared, lying of his mental state and why he craved
battle so ardently. He’d lied to Lumine since the moment he met her, he’d lied to Teucer about his
job, he’d lied to the Tsaritsa, even.
He never did like lying. But it was simply far too ingrained in his psyche to stop.
“So,” Childe prepared by putting his palms together and tapping them against his lips in thought,
“It’s difficult for me to admit, but... I may be in a bit of a bind.”
Diluc blinked flatly. He crossed his arms and stared, waiting for him to go on in cautious silence.
“Have you ever been in love, Ragnvindr?”
“...What kind of question is that?”
“Let’s say you’re in love…” Childe spoke slowly, careful with his words, “She’s this amazing girl
who’s perfect for you in every way, you’re literally made for each other, okay?”
“...Okay?”
“Okay. So, you also have this lifelong goal of, uh… being the best winemaker in the world-“
“I already am.”
Childe sighed, “Well, imagine that you’re not quite yet, and you have this investor who promises
that they can help you become the best-“
“I don’t need someone to help me become the best,” Diluc interrupted flatly, “I can do that on my
own.”
Says the rich kid who inherited his estate and business. Ignoring that, Childe went on, “Well, as
much as I hate to admit it, I’m only human. I take what I can get when it’s offered to me, and the
Tsaritsa has offered me something unimaginable.”
“What is it?”
“What?”
“What has she offered you?”
He had no idea. Power beyond human comprehension described it as well as possible. He was a
human, he couldn’t comprehend it, and he didn’t care to try. He simply wanted it.
Thus, Childe decided to ignore the question.
“So, let’s say that in order to become the best wine maker, you have to kill the woman you love…
What would you do?”
Diluc wasted no time furrowing his brows and glaring, “How would her death help me with that?”
“Because,” Childe nearly hissed, “true strength comes from what we sacrifice.”
He spoke as if the answer was obvious, as if everybody who held power had made the sacrifice of
killing the person they loved. Diluc allowed the words to sink in like a soft drizzle of rain. Slowly,
coldly, the realization hit his skin and sent a shiver down his spine.
Tartaglia was not a new name to him, Diluc kept a close eye on Fatui activity as best as he could.
It was a widely known fact that the 11th Harbinger was the main cause of the near destruction of
Liyue. As soon as he heard of the disaster, he began researching the one known as Childe.
Part of his research included listening to Lumine complain endlessly about him, but he gained
very little from her description of the ‘selfish, arrogant, garbage-dump of a man’. Imagine his
surprise to hear that she was marrying him.
Aside from Lumine’s accounts, what Diluc knew was that Tartaglia was not discreet, he was
never subtle. The world was his stage, a constant theater play to exhibit just how powerful he was.
If what Diluc knew of the 11th was correct, then he would jump on the chance at true strength.
Childe’s eyes were dim. They were unnerving, so blue they were almost black.
“What would you do, Ragnvindr? If you had to kill the woman you love?”
Diluc forced himself to hold the gaze. Like standing in a fire, the heat only grew worse with each
passing second.
“The Tsaritsa commanded you to kill Lumine, didn’t she?”
Her patience was running thin. He had three days left.
Childe’s silence said it all. The time for words was over, nothing else could be said to bury this
knowledge further.
“Stay away from her.” Diluc ignored the body between them and stepped forward, summoning
his sword into his hand and hoisting it up, “Or I swear, Harbinger, I will cut off your head.”
Childe half-wished that he would try. How simple life would be if Diluc decided to cut his head
off, the Tsaritsa would leave Lumine and his family alone without the Harbinger to inspire. He
could finally rest, perhaps haunt a mansion for the rest of his life and spend his ghostly days
scaring innocent people.
Yet, Lumine would cry if he died. And Diluc could not cut off his head, for Lumine would never
let him live it down if he killed her boyfriend.
Childe summoned his own blade and rested the flat end on his shoulder casually, “What’s got you
all wound up? I thought you said Lumine didn’t need a white knight.”
“She doesn’t need this either!” The sudden swing of a greatsword, cutting through the air and
barely dodged by Childe yanking himself away. Diluc recovered and raised his weapon above his
head, burying it into the ground where the Harbinger just stood, “She could be killed, do you not
understand that Lumine’s life doesn’t revolve around you?”
Childe grinned as he struck with a quick switch to his polearm, twisting and aiming for Diluc’s
waist, “Sure feels like it does, we are getting married, you know.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” He pulled back to dodge the attack, his eyes wide with furious
disbelief. With yet another heave of his sword, the edge hit Childe’s polearm. Both men pushed
their weapons against each other in an unyielding battle of strength.
If Childe could have one hand freed, he’d reach up and pull his mask down to activate his
delusion. Yet, letting go of the polearm would surely give Diluc the chance to overpower him. He
dug his feet into the ground and kept pushing, leaning in closer, “I’m taking care of it, so stay out
of our business.”
Diluc’s voice dropped low, “Where it involves Lumine, it is my business. You’re going to get her
killed.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
He would not miss a beat, “What did the Tsaritsa offer you?”
Childe’s eyes met his. They remained dark, like the sea before a storm. He was not sure if it was
about to rain, or if his vision thickened the air with humidity. With each passing second of silence,
Diluc’s sword burrowed further and stronger against the polearm.
He had to break at some point. His arms shook, his eyes narrowed. With a yell, Childe broke the
hold and ducked beneath the attack, twisting and turning until he was far enough away to avoid
being sliced in half. As he stumbled back, he scowled, “She’s only offered me what I deserve…”
he stood up straight, breathing heavily, “Ultimate strength, power beyond human comprehension.
It’s what I’ve been working all my life for.”
Diluc could only bring himself to stare, “So you’re going to kill Lumine for this screwed up
philosophy that your God has?”
“I never said I was going to kill her,” he furrowed his brows, as if offended, “I’m going to kill the
Tsaritsa and take her power, then it’s a win-win situation.”
He seemed confident, puffed up with pride and floating in the clouds with the weightlessness of
his arrogance. Diluc, himself, had considered killing the cryo archon before. The only difference
was that he realized just how much of a suicide-mission that would be. Childe realized nothing
past his nose.
He had to be smarter than this. From what Lumine had told him of the Harbinger, Diluc knew
that he was far more cunning than he ever let on. He could not be so naive as to think he could kill
an archon.
“You’re being selfish.”
Childe blinked in surprise. Diluc did not dare to break eye contact as he buried the tip of his
sword into the ground, now leaning on the hilt to watch the Harbinger process his response.
It took him a moment before he finally furrowed his brows, “What? I’m going to kill a God for
the woman I love, how is that being selfish?”
A poetic waxing could not dim the rust of the matter at hand. Diluc went on, “There’s a very high
chance that you’re going to die. Where does that leave Lumine? Alone, an enemy of the Fatui by
association to you. The Tsaritsa is not exactly known to be forgiving.”
“Then what else do you suggest?” Childe’s voice raised in an abrupt yell, “Do you have some
genius plan that’ll fix everything?!”
A pause. A blank, bored stare. The Harbinger ran a hand through his hair and caught his breath,
calming his racing heart during the thick silence between them.
Diluc had no plans. Diluc had no alternatives, no genius suggestions that could save everybody’s
lives in one fell swoop.
But he knew how to put tape over a crack to stop a leak. He knew how to fix a broken mirror
without slicing his own hands in the process.
“Damage control.”
“What?” Childe glanced up, exhausted, “What did you say?”
“Damage control.” Diluc stood up straight and de-summoned his sword, “Tell Lumine, or I will.
This is her problem too, you can’t take care of this on your own.”
Childe gave an abrupt laugh, “That’s what she said, but I want to take care of this myself.”
“Fine… If that’s how you want it, then stay away from her.”
Diluc’s shrug caught him off guard. He was so casual, bored even, as he discussed the murder of
an archon. The Harbinger stared in disbelief, “Stay away from her? She’s my fiance.”
“You’re just being selfish again.”
Selfish, again. “You are so,” he clenched his fists and groaned, “frustrating! For the last time, I
am not being selfish.”
Diluc’s eyes darkened, “The only reason I haven’t cut off your head yet is because it would upset
Lumine. Now, if you don’t tell her, then I will. There is nothing I want more than to help her
realize what kind of person you truly are.”
There was nothing he wanted more. The spotlight on Childe’s bloodstained hands, the sound of
the people whose lives he’d taken. The reality of this man who would follow her to the ends of the
universe, and further if she so wished.
That was his worst nightmare.
“I’ll speak to her,” a whisper and a glare, a shaken sigh that sent an unexplainable shiver down his
spine. Childe turned away, “Just take care of this guy for me, I’ll go find her.”
“Wait, you are not leaving me on corpse duty- Get back here!”
No response, not even a mocking laugh. He wasn’t much in the mood for revelling in the winery
owner’s disgust. Stomping through the fallen leaves of the forest, Childe left instantly, his heart
racing with the unknown of the possibilities.
This was damage control, as much of it as he could possibly handle.
He wasn’t sure if he should tell her, if he could tell her. Childe so rarely did the right thing in the
end. But he needed to say something. Whether it was ‘I love you’, or ‘I’m sorry’, he wasn’t entirely
confident in his ability to genuinely mean more past those simple words.
The winery came into view in the distance. Childe wasted no time barreling up the steps and to
the door. As he swung it open with a heavy exhale, he yelled, “Lumine!” The servants and maids
cast him odd looks as they passed, yet nobody answered him. Childe’s shoulders fell into a slump
as he caught his breath and calmed his racing heart. “Where is she?”
“Are you looking for Lumine?”
The familiar voice tore him from his thoughts. Glancing up, he caught sight of Zhongli sitting at a
table beside a window. Casually as ever, the archon took a sip of tea, set his cup down, and
glanced at the out-of-breath and battle torn Harbinger.
“She left about 10 minutes ago. She told me to tell you to not worry, as she would be back very
soon.”
Don’t worry. As if that was possible. Concern and anxiety never sat well on Childe’s shoulders.
Those feelings didn’t belong there, making it all the more unnerving as Zhongli watched him in the
doorway.
Childe opened his mouth as if to say something, before raising a hand and closing it, shaking his
head. With a bitter, low chuckle, he stepped back outside, “Alright, Morax, thanks for nothing!”
The door slammed, ratting the shelves and pictures. A nearby servant glanced at Zhongli with
wide eyes.
He could only shrug, “I’m not quite sure what I did, but I appreciate the gratitude nevertheless.”
It did not take long for Childe to arrive at the bridge leading into Mondstadt. While the day was
not even half over quite yet, dark clouds lurked overhead. The waters of Cedar Lake rose high and
angry with the threat of rain.
One night, so long ago, he had been stabbed by the Cavalry Captain on this bridge. It didn’t even
leave a scar, though the blood-loss induced conversation with Lumine afterwards did. I want you, I
need you, but how could anyone love a pebble in their shoe?
It was not his best moment. And as he approached the bridge, the sight of a familiar figure
leaning against the stone railing told Childe that this would be yet another disaster waiting to
happen. Lightning struck dramatically through the sky as if to warn him of the impending doom.
It was not often that the good Doctor of the Harbingers crawled out from his cave to live amongst
humanity. Childe could hardly remember the last time he’d seen the man, perhaps at some
expensive dinner with the Tsaritsa where everybody was forced to learn civility.
First, a fight with Diluc and a dead body, and now this monstrosity of a human being. Childe
wasn’t sure how much more interesting this day would get, he was certainly ready to take a nap by
now.
“Dottore! I see you’re still… expressive.”
Expressive in his pastel suit jacket and pink bowtie. It was like a baby shower vomited this man
out, if only he were not grinning with malicious intent and cold eyes. Childe watched him push off
from the side of the bridge and tilt his head in a smile, “And I see you’re still as insolent as ever.
That’s fine, I was the same way at your age.”
Childe put a thoughtful hand to his chin, “Oh, how old are you now? 59? 60? I’ve lost count.”
“Hilarious, really. I’ve missed your charming wit, Tartaglia.” Dottore’s laugh had always been
unnerving. The sound of it sent a quick shock through Childe’s chest, forcing up the discomfort
and surprise he’d been desperately trying to ignore.
Like many of the Harbingers, wherever Dottore went, destruction and chaos followed. Childe
swallowed the swelling panic and forced a smile, “I didn’t know you had a mission here.”
“Yes, yes,” he waved a nonchalant hand, “take a walk with me, won’t you?”
“I’m a bit busy right now, actua-”
“Now.”
The command was given, Childe knew better than to start a fight between Harbingers on the
bridge to Mondstadt. He was already on thin ice with the Tsaritsa, killing her scientist would only
make her quicker to kill everything he loves. With a sigh, he turned to follow Dottore towards the
road.
In silence, the Harbingers walked towards an outcropping of trees. It was not even a mile away
from the path, but secluded enough behind thick trunks and boulders that they could speak in
private. The sky continued it’s threat of rain from above, accompanied by the harsh crack of
thunder in the distance.
Wherever Lumine was, she would have to wait. Running from Dottore would only increase the
levels of suspicion already weighing him down. “So, what is it you want to talk about? I’m actually
pretty busy.”
Dottore shot him an amused look, pale hair falling over his face as he smiled, “Busy planning a
murder, I hope?”
If there was one thing he appreciated about the good Doctor, it was his lack of hesitance to get to
the point. Most of the Harbingers were silver-tongued and would avoid bluntness to each other
unless it was guaranteed to get them somewhere. They all tended to walk a tightrope, something
Childe had never been very good at.
Busy planning a murder, how devastatingly succinct. Childe hid his flicker of anger with yet
another smile, “And here I thought I was promised privacy with my missions.”
“You are,” a thoughtful pause, a hum in the back of his throat, “I am the only one of our
colleagues who’s aware. I’m here to help, in fact.”
“Oh?”
“Yes,” he clasped his hands together, “I heard of how you’re keeping an eye on the fortune teller
in Liyue, I assumed that you’d want the one here in Mondstadt watched as well. My men are on
standby to kill them both at the word!”
He spoke so gleefully, so unaware of the disgust trailing through Childe’s body. He had men on
standby to kill Lumine, a girl who had been directly announced as under his protection. If he was
guessing correctly, the fortune teller referred to might be the mage Scaramouche had allied with in
the past. He knew of no others in Mondstadt.
“That’s quite presumptuous of you,” Childe faked a laugh, “what made you do something like
that?”
“Well… precautions, you know.”
“They’re unnecessary.”
“Are they?” Dottore tilted his head and stared, “Because I was expecting to meet with an agent by
now, a man delivering a very important message to you. Do you happen to know where he is?”
Childe was aware of the stupidity of killing that agent in cold blood. It was an incredibly dumb
move, and something he would not have done under different circumstances. Every agent reported
back to someone, and the lack of his breathing body would be enough of an answer to the message
he carried. It felt like Childe’s life had been simply one stupid decision after the next.
“I killed him,” he answered coldly, “I was frustrated, I thought I had longer.”
Dottore smiled. He looked at the younger Harbinger as if he was a little kid, mocking his
uncontrollable emotions. “That could easily give one the wrong idea, Tartaglia.”
“It could, but don’t worry about it,” he patted his arm and faked a smile, “I fully plan to go
through with this.”
“Do you?”
“I do.”
If only he noticed Dottore’s eyes flickering over his shoulder. If only he noticed the sudden
cruelty in his smile. If only his fear and guilt was not so devastatingly strong, taking over each of
his senses and clouding his logical thinking. Dottore grinned at him like a wolf about to attack a
deer, Childe tensed at the sight.
If only Childe did not walk away from Dottore, up the hill and to the road. If only Dottore did not
follow, probing him further with another coolly asked question, “Are you sure you have the
strength? I sometimes doubt you, Tartaglia.”
The 11th was called ‘Childe’ for a reason. He was far too easy to stir up, far too easy to whip into
a frenzy. He turned on his heel to face Dottore, his back to Mondstadt as he glared, “You’re
doubting me?”
“I am. This is a very big sacrifice the Tsaritsa has commanded of you, are you sure you can do
it?”
His eyes narrowed dangerously, his pride teetered on a thin line, “Yes, Il Dottore, I can do it. I’ve
fulfilled everything else she’s ever commanded me, why would this be any different?”
“You know why.” An innocent smile laced with malice, a giggle beneath his breath. Childe could
only stare for a moment before deepening his glare.
“Of course I have the strength, I have more than you could possibly imagine.”
He flickered his eyes to the distance once more. Childe’s mind was focused on the other
Harbinger and the beating of his heart in his chest. He felt overheated with fury threatening to spill
over and cover the land in unimaginable lava. The sound of his drumming pulse drowned out the
approaching footsteps.
“Tell me, Tartaglia, what is your plan for that girl?”
What is his plan?
One more lie couldn’t hurt.
“I’m going to kill her!” Childe erupted like a shaken bottle, “I’m going to slit her throat tonight,
I’m going to offer her corpse up to the Tsaritsa as a gift, and finally, after a year of agony spent
alongside the traveler, I will be free of her. I will finally do what I’ve always meant to do.”
Harsh yells, a grating voice. A heavy exhale as he tousled his hair and shut his eyes. Ajax had
never guessed that a clenching heart could cause him physical pain, the feeling of acid rising up his
throat and a sudden headache overwhelming his senses.
This was necessary. This was necessary to get Dottore off his back and the suspicious eyes to peer
elsewhere. This was for Lumine, for his family, for the sake of their very lives.
Childe took a deep breath, and reminded himself: One more lie, then he’d never do it again.
“I’m going to kill her tonight, I’ve planned it this way since I was given the command. And when
I do kill her, the Tsaritsa will finally grant me power beyond human comprehension.”
A thoughtful pause. The threat of rain above, thunder in the distance. Childe taking a deep breath
and closing his eyes to recover from the words that rolled so terribly well off his tongue.
Dottore wasted no time smiling at the mage and the traveler just 15 feet away, standing behind
Childe in the middle of the road, and staring with wide eyes.
“So what do you think of all that, Lady Lumine?”
Lumine.
It was like being stabbed. It happened too quickly for Childe to stop, the sharp pain of a cold
dagger and the simple skip of his heart. Lady Lumine, Dottore’s eyes staring at something behind
him, the muffled noise of the world somehow still managing to spin.
What did she think of all that?
“Lumine?” Slowly, hesitating as if he could hold off the shattering of his life, he turned to face
her.
All he saw was her. He did not notice Paimon in her arms, or the woman standing at her side. He
cared little for the onlookers, as Dottore was forgotten behind him, no matter how loudly he
laughed. Childe took one step towards her, feeling yet another crack spread as he watched her take
one step back.
He would not allow silence to fall between them. He would not give her time to overthink this, an
idle mind would not be his ally. “Lumine, listen to me. I was just saying that-”
She was far too fragile right now, far too wide eyed and pale, “Saying that you’re going to kill
me? That you’re going to slit my throat tonight?”
“No, no- I mean, I did say that,” he would be a fool to deny what she heard, “but I didn’t mean
any of it.”
“Oh really?”
He was not in the mood for sarcasm, nor her challenges. “Will you just come with me? Let’s talk
about this somewhere else.”
Lumine’s eyes flickered to his outstretched hand, the left one. Underneath that glove was the
string she found in a jacket pocket. It was a promise in the form of something so easily discarded.
To take his hand would be to accept the peace offering, it was an option half of her heart wanted to
take.
Yet. I’m going to kill her tonight, I’ve planned it this way since I was given the command.
I’m going to kill her tonight.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Paimon sat up in her arms and stared with a look of shock and horror. She nuzzled closer to
Lumine’s chest as if she could hug the despair away. Childe began to take notice of the woman
standing beside Lumine. She avoided his eyes and shifted closer to her in an attempt to provide
comfort.
“Lumi,” he took yet another step, hand still outstretched, “come with me, please. I need to
explain.”
Behind him, Dottore spread his arms and laughed, “Why not explain it right here? We’re all
friends, aren’t we?”
He could kill him. It wouldn’t be easy, but he could summon a dagger and lunge for his neck. He
could slit his throat the way he threatened to slit Lumine’s. He could squeeze until the life drained
from his eyes and he could never speak again. It would be one blood stain he would happily keep
on his hands.
Lumine ignored the other Harbinger. She could hardly bring herself to glare. She wasn’t sure
what kind of face she was making at Childe, though she could not read his either. “You’re going to
kill me?”
“No, I’m not going to kill you! Lumine, please,” one step forward, one step back. Another crack
on the surface. “Please, just come with me.”
“You’re going to kill me, you’ve been planning it.”
“I’m won’t. I promise you, I won’t hurt you.” He was pleading now, “The Tsaritsa told me to kill
you, but I’ve never even considered doing it.”
The mage at her side was into action immediately. She gripped Lumine’s arm and yanked her
further back. Hissing, she pulled her close, “He’s lying, I can tell.”
Curse this woman, whoever she was. “I’m not lying, lyubimaya, I promis-”
“He’s considered it more than once, Lumine. He’s lying to you, listen to me,” she put her hands
on her shoulders and stared her down, “We need to get you out of here.”
“Please, please, stay and let me explain.”
Childe couldn’t say it enough. He’d never felt this way, this nausea and this splintering, this
aching of something painful in his chest, as if he’d been injured internally. Lumine cast him a
glance filled to the brim with fear, and he felt another shake of horror rack him, nearly bringing
him to his knees.
All he wanted was to scoop her up and hold her. All he wanted was to whisper that she was okay,
that she would be safe with him, that he would move mountains in her name and take the heads of
archons if he needed to.
“Lyubimaya,” his voice caught her attention, “I’m killing the Tsaritsa for you. I’m going to kill
her, and then we’ll be safe.”
Behind him, Dottore laughed again. It was a bitter sound, like the twisting of a knife in a salt
filled wound. “You’re going to kill her? I’m happy to hear you admit it so freely!”
Of course he would be elated. Tartaglia just admitted to a death sentence, painting his very own
target on his back. The urge to slit his throat was harsher, stronger than before.
He whirled on his heel and summoned a dagger. Faster than ever, he lunged for Dottore’s neck,
just as he imagined it, and put every inch of his anger and fear behind the thrust. Before the tip of
the blade could make contact with his skin, he grabbed Childe’s wrist and halted his movements
with a cold glare.
“Insolent boy… you’re just digging your own grave.”
And he would continue to do so for Lumine’s sake.
Dottore went on, hissing, “New mission, you have three days to kill her and turn yourself in as a
traitor to the crown. If you succeed, your family will survive.”
If he succeeded, his family would survive. If both he and Lumine were dead by the end of the
time limit, the people he loved most, besides her, would go on living.
His mother and father spent every night lying awake with their anxiety, wondering when the day
of their son’s death would finally arrive. They would finally rest. It was a lovely thought,
comforting almost. But naive nevertheless.
As if he’d roll over that easily.
For the time being, Dottore could be ignored. He dropped the knife and turned around, the other
Harbinger forgotten behind him. With his gaze now focused on Lumine, he felt yet another crack,
another crumble, as he realized just how terrified she was of him in this moment.
Childe tried his best to ignore the shaking of his fingers, and the stutter on his lips, “Lumine,
please come with me. We’ll be safest together. I’ll take care of this, just trust me... Please?”
She ripped herself away from the mage and stomped towards him, “Safe? You think I’ll be safe
with you?”
Childe spoke slowly, “Yes, I do. So come on-”
“No,” Lumine could not even glare, she could not even meet his eyes as she searched for the
correct words to encompass the feeling culminating inside, “I will not be going anywhere with you.
This is what we’ve been running from?”
“...Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“...No, printsessa, I didn’t tell you.”
Finally, her anger was harsh enough to make her meet his eyes. He flinched upon contact, but
held her gaze as she spoke, “Why?”
What a loaded question.
“Why did I keep it a secret?” Childe laughed bitterly, “Because it’s my problem, I’m going to fix
it, I promise you. I’m going to make everything right again.”
She gasped, “Like hell you will! You considered killing me, Tartaglia! What’s wrong with you?”
Another loaded question. He hated those.
“I was under stress, is that so bad?”
“Yes!” She screeched, “It’s bad! I’m… I’m just done.”

Done. Childe watched as she looked down at her hand, fingers gripping her engagement ring. His
heart fell through his stomach in sudden terror, “Lumi, what’re you doing with that?” She
continued to ignore him, “Stop it, s-stop doing that.”
She scowled at the ring. Finally, it popped off her finger. She was taking her ring off, and balling
it in her fist.
He gulped, “Lumine, p-put that back on.”
It was like she was breathing fire, every inch of her body shaking with fury. Childe could only
watch as the world around him crumbled in response to Lumine’s rage, the rage that he would not
dare to argue against.
He did consider it. He was lying yet again. She had every right to look at him the way she did.
“You are the most selfish, evil, underhanded man I have ever met! Falling in love with you was a
mistake.”
Twist of the dagger, salt in the wound. His knees began to shake, “Printsessa…”
Lumine was not done yet. While it was difficult for her to exhibit affection, anger was a natural
state of being for the traveler. She stayed at a distance while yelling, “You’re a liar! All you’ve
done to me since we met is lie!”
“That’s not true,” he defended immediately, “I’ve… I’ve told you the truth about plenty of
things!”
Lumine’s brows furrowed. Her eyes began to rim with red as she stared him down, gripping her
engagement ring in her fist so tightly her knuckles were turning white.
Just another crack, and he would be finished, there would be nothing to pick up of him.
She raised her chin and glared, “You can’t even be honest to your own family. You know that if
Teucer knew what you did, he’d hate you. And you know what?”
He didn’t want to know.
“He should hate you.”
Because she did, right now. She despised him.
The world stopped spinning, the wind stopped blowing, and Childe was left alone in the most
deafening silence he’d ever heard.
She reared her fist back, and threw the ring at him. It soared through the air, glinting off the
crackle of thunder in the distance and hitting him weakly in the chest. With a pathetic clink, the
ring fell from between his desperate fingers and to the dirt below, “I don’t want this anymore.”
Childe stared down at the broken promise now covered in dust and mud, “I… Lumine, please.”
He wasn’t sure what he was even pleading for. A miracle, a celestial intervention - or perhaps,
simply, the correct thing to say, if there even was one. Slowly, he leaned down to pick the ring up
and gingerly cradle it in his palm.
“Please, lyubimaya? Please just hear me out?”
“Why? So you can lie to me more?”
Childe could only stare, speechless.
With a world-shattering glare, Lumine turned on her heel and approached the mage. She raised a
hand to summon a hydro portal, the water gathering around her feet as the girls prepared to leave
him behind.
She glanced over her shoulder. He wanted to plead again, to beg for mercy and forgiveness, to say
his first pray in years. All she did was lift her chin, and stare him down as if he was an ant beneath
her feet.
“See you in three days, Tartaglia.”
Chapter End Notes
Dottore's just standing there... still giggling... lmao

I'm sorry, this chapter was supposed to be serious, but I just can't help the extreme
tonal changes, that's just what happens sometimes. It's just my nature, my instinct, the
way my stars are aligned.
Thanks for reading! And thank you my lovely Sui for all your help!!!
New Developments
Chapter Notes
tw: anxiety and dark thoughts, a very lumine-esque panic attack

Stay safe!
Dottore left soon after Lumine and the mage did, most likely due to the impending doom
threatening to rain down upon him. Childe had already materialized yet another dagger, and was
whipping around to plunge it into the doctor’s chest with every ounce of his being. Yet, his wrist
was caught once more.
Before he disappeared under the cover of ice and snow, he gave the 11th a final warning.
“You have three days to kill her, and turn yourself in.”
How generous.
Dottore was gone instantly. A shiver trailed it’s cold fingers down his spine, leaving him empty
and alone on the road outside Mondstadt. All Childe could manage in that moment was to close his
eyes, and take a deep breath.
The higher a star, the harsher it’s fall. He was Tartaglia, he did not plead for mercy, he did not fail
his missions, and he did not betray his goals. He had fallen into the abyss, and climbed his way out
again with bloody hands and scraped knees.
This could not be much harder.
The first time Ajax fell, he was 14. The memory was a familiar one, that rushing of air past his
ears and the impact that seemed to separate his very soul from his body. He could imagine how
Lumine felt when her wings were ripped away as she was cast to the level of mere mortals, the
difference being that Ajax awoke next to someone - Lumine didn’t.
Skirk taught him many things about life. Nobody besides him could see her touches in his
personality. She made her marks with words of wisdom and bloody lessons well taught. He learned
rather quickly that when knocked down, the only thing to do was pick oneself up and move
forward.
It happened so quickly. It was jumping into an ice cold pond, a feeling not unfamiliar to him. He
had yet to break through the ice covering the surface, but if he fought hard enough, it would shatter
beneath his hands. All he needed was a simple moment to meditate upon his next move.
If only the look in Lumine’s eyes would leave his memory. If only he could forget how she spoke
to him, the cutting edge of those words. While Tartaglia did not fear scarring, the impression of her
goodbye would continue to haunt him.
If that could even be called a goodbye.
‘See you in three days, Tartaglia.’
To recount, for his own sanity and understanding, Lumine and her mage friend overheard his lie
to Dottore. Childe floundered over his chance to explain himself, simply because there was nothing
more to explain. The Tsaritsa had commanded him to kill her, and he considered it. No amount of
pleading would change the truth of the matter.
He wasn’t entirely sure what to do with her ring. It had to stay safe for when she came back to
him - she always did, the universe demanded it. He twisted his fingers and held up the gem to
inspect it’s newly shined surface.
It would be fine in his pocket universe with his weapons, he could re-summon it when Lumine
stopped being upset. Childe pointedly ignored the other half of his mind that told him she would
never stop being upset. He could not afford to think negatively when his family and future wife’s
lives were at stake.
‘Get up, ’ Skirk would command; he could almost hear her voice, ‘this problem won’t fix itself.’
Gather up the shattered pieces of himself and glue them back together. Shamble down the road in
a daze, trying to remove the fire-branded sight of honey colored eyes from his brain. Stop for a
moment to process just how much he wanted to kill Dottore, and move along.
Three days to get to Snezhnaya. He didn’t have time to rest, to eat, nor to take a break. Three days
to save the lives of those he loved, and three days to end his own.
While he desperately wanted to find Lumine, he knew the higher priority. She would agree that
his family needed protection far more than her. Snezhnaya was a five day boat ride from Liyue
Harbor, and a 10 day walk from Mondstadt. It would be impossible for anybody that was not him.
And perhaps this situation would solve itself by the end of his Foul Legacy. Perhaps the stress of
using his most monstrous self to travel across the continent would finally kill him, and the Tsaritsa
would have to find someone else to inspire. He’d certainly never tried using the transformation to
condense a 10 day journey into three, but it was worth an attempt.
Childe sighed and raised a hand to rub at his tired eyes. It had been a long day, hiding dead
bodies, having his heart broken, committing treason. He usually kept it to only one life-changing
event a day. As he pulled his hand back, he noticed the dampness on his fingers and scowled.
He didn’t even realize there were tears under his eyes. He didn’t even realize how scratchy his
throat was, or how much his chest hurt. Childe could not even remember the last time he cried, it
had been so long since anything moved him to this degree of pain.
The Tsaritsa would call him weak for that. He glared into the distance at the very thought.
Perhaps it was time for the death of an archon.
While a million things ran through Lumine’s mind as she hydro-teleported away with Mona, one
consistent thought remained.
Ajax had actually considered it.
How could he even be Ajax Matvey Alekseev in that moment? He was Tartaglia, describing the
in-depth murder of his fiance to a colleague. And he never had been good at lying, which only
made her wonder just why he kept doing it every chance he got.
Mona stopped in Northern Mondstadt, collapsing onto a cliffside with a tidal wave of stars and
water erupting around her. While the escape had only taken seconds, Lumine felt that she had been
wrapped up in water for hours. Solid ground and familiar scenery was a welcome reprieve.
Paimon floated out of her arms to carefully inspect Lumine’s face in uncharacteristic silence.
Beside her, Mona dropped to her knees with a heavy, aching breath, “I-I’m afraid this is as far as I
can go for now. Are you okay?”
“You’re asking if I’m okay?” Lumine knelt down beside her, “You’re the one who teleported for
miles. I should find you some water.”
She shot her a flat look, “Traveler, you don’t have to repress how you feel for my sake. My
exhaustion will fade in a minute, it’s you I’m concerned for.”
Of course it was. A girl couldn’t throw her engagement ring at her fiance without the world
wondering if she was okay. She committed possibly the most cathartic thing a woman could do in a
relationship - other than trash his house or tell his mother on him.
Truthfully, Lumine was entirely zoned out. With the whirlwind of thought buzzing around her
mind blurring every logical conclusion, Lumine’s focus lay on the simple fact of the matter: He
considered killing her.
“Well, nothing else to do but move forward.”
Paimon narrowed her eyes in suspicion, “It’s okay to cry, Lumi, Paimon would cry too.”
She was crying. That uncomfortable heat was consistently threatening it’s way up her throat,
stifling her breath and setting her body on fire. Her eyes stung with barely concealed tears, and her
knees continued to shake. The same thought circulated in her mind on repeat; He had considered it.
“There’s no reason to sit here and have a pity party for myself,” she shot Mona and Paimon a
silencing look, “I feel terrible, yes, but crying won’t fix the problem.”
Paimon huffed, “That’s not what Barbara would tell you to do! She always says ‘don’t repress
your emotions or you’ll explode’.”
“Well, Barbara’s not here right now, is she?”
“You should want to be emotionally healthy no matter where she is!”
That much was true. If Lumine had learned anything of her time in ‘pseudo-therapy’ with the
deaconess, it was how to force herself to talk her feelings through, and chip away at the brick that
was her heart. She was aware that having feelings did not make her weak - but it was simply easier
to ignore them.
“I will tell you both the one comprehensive thought I have right now, and then we drop the
subject until I’m ready, okay?” Putting her hands up in surrender, Lumine did not realize how
pleading she truly looked, then, sitting on the ground like a crumpled heap of paper.
Mona shot her a wary look, “Fine, just don’t have a nervous breakdown on me anytime soon.”
“I’ll try my best…” a sardonic tone and a sigh. No matter how tightly wound she kept her
emotions, Mona could see her hanging off a cliff by a flimsy thread. Lumine took a deep breath in
an attempt to gather the pieces of herself, “...When he betrayed me once before, with the gnosis and
all, that was… Just, so much different. I knew that was bound to happen, I became friends with him
knowing that there was a high possibility we would be enemies. And, well, the inevitable
happened.”
Paimon pouted, “Paimon kept telling you that it was a bad idea, too…”
“Yes, you did, but I just… I don’t know,” she shrugged heavily, “Maybe I have control issues,
maybe I’m trying to find something I’ve lost in everybody around me, but I wanted it to be
different. I thought that maybe I could win and get the gnosis, and Childe would be a good guy in
the end. But… I never really completely trusted in him, then. Our battle at the Golden House was
nothing compared to this, a-and we didn’t even pull out our weapons this time.”
As Lumine rubbed furiously at her red-rimmed eyes, Mona leaned forward to brush her hair
behind her ear and whisper, “And the second you fully trust him, he betrays you. That’s why it
hurts so much.”
“I-I’m so stupid!” She hit her thighs and bowed her head. Lumine felt as if she could hardly
breathe, as if the world was closing in around her and squeezing every inch of life from her body.
She shut her eyes tightly and wiped at her tears, “Aether would’ve never let this happen to him, I
should’ve just stayed away.”
Aether would’ve known better. Aether wouldn’t have let Childe break down his walls and make
his home inside. He wouldn’t be broken hearted, crying in the wilderness and dragging himself
along just to keep moving. He wouldn’t have put himself in this situation in the first place.
There were two options: cry, or get up and fix the problem. Lumine planned to do both at the
same time, possibly, starting with fixing the problem of her own posterity, while simultaneously
holding back an oncoming panic attack. She was a wonderful multitasker.
Mona and Paimon knew better than to provide comforting words. No amount of frilly
reassurances would fix the matter at hand, not for Lumine. Paimon had seen her when she first
awoke in Teyvat, traveling the countryside in a daze that might have disabled anyone else. Yet,
despite the fear and the trauma, despite the worry for her brother and the threat of the unknown,
Lumine pushed forward. She needed help from Diluc, Jean, and Venti to do so, but she did not
allow herself to lack in her goal.
And this time would not be any different.
“Alright,” she sighed heavily and rubbed at her eyes, “let’s go meet the fortune teller in Liyue, we
can get some answers, then I’ll decide what’s next.”
Mona agreed with as much enthusiasm as she could offer. Using astrology for a matter such as
this would not hurt her conscience too much, and she found herself curious as to who this old
woman in Liyue truly was. The girls pushed themselves up from the ground and walked through
the woods, making their way to Stone Gate in the far distance.
The journey gave Lumine time to sort out her scrambled mind. It was beginning to make sense
why Mona’s house was watched so closely, with her connection to Scaramouche the Fatui had to
know that she and Lumine were friends. One of the officers mentioned that they were commanded
to keep an eye on the girls by someone called ‘Il Dottore’. She could only assume that was the pale
man who egged Childe on so ardently.
Lumine couldn’t help but feel a twinge of gratefulness to the other Harbinger. If he had seen her
and Mona walking down the road, he might not have pushed Childe to the point of eruption, and
Lumine would’ve never known. She was sure that he would not have told her under peaceful
circumstances. His arrogance twisted his view so ardently that he would destroy the world on his
own if he thought he could.
What she planned to do about the problem at hand was entirely unforeseeable. It depended upon
the future Mona and the old woman saw concerning her brother. There seemed to only be one way
to end this, and Lumine was beginning to consider the possibility.
As the three traveled towards the Southernmost edge of Liyue, she had time to muse over Il
Dottore’s warning once more.
A summoned dagger in Childe’s hand as he whirled around, planning to kill the man behind him.
A growl from Il Dottore’s throat while catching the assault. Words that sent shivers down
Lumine’s spine, even in her memory.
“Insolent boy… you’re just digging your own grave. New mission, you have three days to kill her
and turn yourself in as a traitor to the crown. If you succeed, your family will survive.”
She took some time to spread each thought out, inspecting every syllable of his warning. After
hours of walking, Lumine and Mona stopped to stay at the inn near Stone Gate. She could barely
sleep as she pondered the meaning of Il Dottore’s threat.
‘You’re just digging your own grave.’ Childe was digging his own grave by attacking another
Harbinger. Lumine could see the desperation in his movements; he was genuinely attempting to
kill him, no matter how sloppy and distracted the assault was.
As the group continued towards Wangshu inn the next morning, Lumine’s exhaustion burrowed
deeper into her mind. She had just enough time and silence to analyze the implications of the rest
of the threat, and what it may mean for her.
‘ If you succeed, your family will survive.’
If Childe killed her and turned himself in for planning to commit treason within the next three
days, the Alekseev family would be safe. Was this the price to pay for loving her, for having a
worldly attachment and finding comfort in another human being? What an incredibly terrible
ultimatum.
As angry as Lumine was, she couldn’t help the twinge of pity for Childe. He was a liar and a
back-stabber, but she knew how much he treasured his family. She would be just as panicked in his
situation.
While it had been a joke at the time, Eva did adopt her, in a way. Lumine had spent a week with
them, falling headfirst into love with each little quirk and oddity. Their home was always full of
joy, their dinner table always open to guests, the kids were always kind to everyone they met, no
matter who the person was. If Lumine could not have Aether back, she would at least have the
Alekseev family.
And the world needed more kind people. To take them out of it would be a disservice to the rest
of humanity.
Lumine knew what she needed to do.
“Do you think my brother’s alive?”
The question came from seemingly nowhere to Mona. They had passed the Wangshu inn, and
were now heading towards the city in the distance. Paimon had long ago disappeared into her own
world, leaving Lumine alone to her thoughts.
She cast her a curious glance, “I don’t know, it’s difficult for me to see the future of someone I’ve
never met.”
“But within my future,” she said, “do you see him?”
Lumine’s future was just as blurry. While Mona was mildly offended that this unknown old
woman in Liyue could see more than her, she was also curious. Rarely was anyone’s future as
clouded as the traveler’s, it had been an enigma since they met.
Nevertheless, she wanted to give her friend a satisfying answer. Mona rarely hesitated to be blunt.
Yet, she found herself staying her tongue for Lumine’s sake. She had been silent for hours, now,
barely talking and barely eating, carrying along with that stony expression on her face. She truly
could be stubborn when she wanted to. If Lumine said she didn’t want to talk about it, she would
not betray those words. Childe seemed to have been the only one able to draw her out of her own
pride and obstinance.
Mona was not talented at sugar coating, nor was she educated in the various methods of taming
Lumine’s anger, not like Childe was. Walking along in tense silence, she searched for the correct
words to encompass her opinion.
“Truthfully… Well, if neither I, nor the other fortune teller can see anything about your brother, in
my experience that usually means that…”
Lumine’s eyes dropped, almost as if she expected this exact answer, “That he’s dead, right?”
“...Right,” her shoulders slumped, “Yes, I’m sorry to say it. Nevertheless, we haven’t even asked
the old lady yet. She may see something I don’t, so don’t be jumping to conclusions right now.”
She would try her best not to. Yet, with only two days left to get to Liyue and find answers,
Lumine found herself considering the possibility that Aether truly was dead. Subsequently, those
particular circumstances would grant her freedom to carry out what needed to be done.
Telling Mona of this trail of thought would only end in chaos. She chose to hold her tongue in
wise silence.
It was amazing how quickly they could move with a hydro vision. Water became whatever form
it needed, be that a means of transport, or healing. The girls arrived in Liyue in a day’s time,
exhausted and stumbling over themselves. As they entered the city of contracts, Lumine pointedly
avoided the Northland Bank. A reminder of the days spent alongside the Harbinger would only
serve as self-torture.
She despised that she had loved him. She despised her own naivety. She despised that she was
giving of herself to solve the problem he caused.
It was not difficult to locate the elderly woman surrounded by Fatui. Mona watched from a
distance, crouching behind a set of crates in a nearby alleyway. Lumine knelt down beside her to
catch a glimpse of the fortune teller. “There she is.”
She sat on a bench, glaring at the crowd of Fatui guards spread out across the pavilion, and
huddling a blanket around her for warmth. The passersby paid her, nor the Fatui, any attention.
“They won’t know what hit them! I’ll be in and out like a flash.” Mona promised, giggling to
herself and leaning around the crates for a better view.
Lumine sent her a look, “Well, they probably will know, we’re not exactly anonymous to the
Fatui.”
“...Do you have a better idea, then?”
“Not at all,” she shrugged, “just meet me at the inn in the mountains, okay?”
“Okay!”
Okay. However Mona would decide to kidnap the old woman would most likely be chaotic and
attention grabbing. Lumine slipped away before the havoc could begin, taking back alleys out of
Liyue and heading towards the gates of the city.
Over the bridge and past the guards, down a mountain path in Southwestern Liyue. As she made
her escape, Paimon twirled back into the world, and instantly gripped her arm. Lumine kept her
gaze straight ahead while her friend held on tightly.
“Is Mona doing the thing?” Paimon asked.
She nodded, “She’s doing the thing.”
“And… what’re you doing?”
“We’ll meet her at the inn and talk to the fortune teller.”
“And then what?”
Paimon rarely questioned her motives. Usually, she went along with each asinine scheme Lumine
concocted. She slowed in her jog to sigh and take a deep breath, “Well, I’ll be traveling to
Snezhnaya as quickly as I can. I’ll stop in Fontaine and get hydro, learn how to do whatever it is
Mona and Childe do to teleport, and that’ll help me get to the Alekseevs faster.”
She blinked curiously, “And then what?”
“The rest purely depends on whether Aether is alive or not. I feel like he is, but…”
“...But?”
“Frankly, I have no idea.”
Lumine had been far too distracted as of late. Guilt ate away at her for setting Aether aside,
having gotten caught up in Childe, romance, and the philosophy of true love. She had not dedicated
any time to finding her brother. She wasn’t even sure if she could look him in the eye if he did turn
out to be alive.
Paimon kept her tight grip on Lumine’s arm as she walked along the road. Two days left to get to
Snezhnaya, which would usually be a five to 10 days long journey on foot. And besides the length,
Lumine could not even tell East from West in Liyue, let alone a region she’d never been to such as
Fontaine.
And with the talk of her brother's state of existence, Lumine was acting far too cryptic for
Paimon’s comfort. “Please tell Paimon that you’re not planning something drastic.”
She sighed, “I am not planning something drastic.”
“Paimon knows what sarcasm sounds like! Lumine,” she pulled at her hair and whined, “please be
careful.”
Be careful, as if she ever was. In the spirit of not being a dirty liar like Childe, all Lumine could
offer was, “If I don’t come back, go stay with Zhongli, okay?”
“Is… Paimon not allowed to go with you?”
“Nope.”
Which, of course, made the pixie erupt. The rest of the walk was spent with Lumine attempting to
not have her hair pulled out by her traveling companion. Once she arrived, Paimon left with a pouty
huff and an insult.
Lumine found that, for once, she didn’t quite care. There was very little she could find herself
caring for as of late.
After an hour of waiting, Mona burst through the front doors of the inn, soaking wet, and
practically dragging the old woman behind her. As Lumine shot up to frantically assist the fortune
teller, Mona heaved a great, exhausted sigh, “You owe me big time.”
“I know,” she shot her a glance, “I really do. Did they give you much trouble?”
A scoff and a flip of her hair, “Did those buffoons give me trouble? What do you think, dear
traveler?”
Judging by how soaked and tired she looked, Lumine would say yes. Yet, to argue on that point
would be a mistake she did not have time to make. Two days left, and Childe’s family would be
beset upon by archon-knows-what.
Which is exactly why Lumine took the seat across from the old woman, and gripped her hands
with fervor, “I know you probably need rest-”
She glared, “I do. As much as I appreciate the breakout,” a pointed look at Mona, “people my age
really aren’t as spry. I can’t just be teleported miles away and expect to pop back up in a second.”
“I know, but I really don’t have time to waste,” Lumine felt as if she was pleading, “and I promise
that after this is all over, you won’t be followed around by the Fatui anymore, okay? I just need
your help.”
There was something incredibly tempting about that. She most likely had not expected to be a
prisoner at her age, for a gift she could not even help having. True love was not meant to be
captured and caged, nor was the deliverer of the news. Childe’s anger and denial remained entirely
misplaced.
As exhausted as she was, the nameless fortune teller only sighed and rested her cheek in her hand.
She looked far older than Lumine remembered, with rheumy eyes and wrinkled fingers, thinning
hair atop her head falling in straight sheets of white. Mona eyed her suspiciously, as if she could
not believe this woman shared her gifts.
“15,000 mora a minute, pay up.”
Mona and Lumine both gasped in abject horror. “You’re charging for this?” The astrologist
erupted, “How dare you? Telling one’s future is not something to be trifled upon, lady!”
“Yes, yes,” she waved a nonchalant hand, “well, a woman has to eat, doesn’t she?”
“N-Not from dishonorably acquired mora!”
Lumine ignored the argument and shot the old lady a pleading look, “Can I start a tab?”
“Hm, fine.”
“Lumine!” Mona gasped, “Do not start a tab with her!”
She desperately wished to snap at them both. She had very little time left, and no patience for their
pointless, moral bickering. Lumine’s glare quieted them into humbled silence, “Listen, I’d really
like you two to set aside your differences for just one minute, and work together to find my brother,
okay?”
Mona stiffened, “I thought you wanted to see your future with Childe?”
“Well, that sort of depends on my brother, really.”
“I’m... afraid I don’t see how.”
And she would not see how. This was Lumine’s mission, and solely her decision. She pushed out
a chair for Mona to take at the table, “Just please help me?”
Confused and begrudging, she took the chair. As she did so, the older woman’s eyes lingered on
Lumine’s form, staring as if she saw right through her. Her silence was eerie, but as she met her
gaze with a flat, blank look, a smile grew on her lips.
“You’re correct to wonder, young lady,” slowly, she took her hand into her own, her skin feeling
paper-like beneath Lumine’s fingers, “the stars do change on occasion, if the circumstances are
substantial enough to cause a change.”
Mona sighed dramatically as she noticed the flash of confusion over her face, “Oftentimes, people
may think the future depends on the small movement of a butterfly’s wings. And while it is true
that life may change in an instant, the stars have laid out a very specific path for those with
constellations.”
“So,” Lumine cast her a curious glance, “what does that mean?”
“It means that there are certain developments in your life that are near unchangeable. It doesn't
depend on what clothes you put on for the day, or what direction you walk home, like some may
think,” she paused in thought for a moment, “...As predictable as humans are, we do have free will,
we just rarely exhibit it strongly enough to cause a shift in the stars.”
“So, have I done that?”
Mona and the old woman shared a look of concern. As she leaned back in her chair to wordlessly
pull up her hydromancy charts, the old woman stared down at Lumine’s exposed palm in
anticipating silence.
It felt as if the two were stalling on their answers. It took a moment more for the old woman to
untangle her tongue, “I-I don’t see as well as I used to, but the stars still speak to me… Concerning
you, though, they’ve been quite silent.”
“Right,” Mona hummed as she twisted her floating chart to the left, then to the right, “you’re quite
foggy, more so than usual.”
She could only frown, “What does that mean?”
Another pause, yet another passing glance. Silence filled the room like a thick blanket of snow,
cold and ominous and entirely too blinding. Mona pursed her lips before wiping away the chart and
sighing, “It means that your future is unknown. Your fate is still intertwined with Monoceros
Caeli, but the very tip of your constellations have faded. They could come back, but they might
not… It’s impossible to tell right now.”
Lumine furrowed her brows, “Are we not starmates anymore?”
“No, you very much are, you always will be, but not every pair of starmates end up together, you
know.”
It seemed as if that was what being a starmate was all about, spending forever alongside this one
person. The possibilities, now, seemed endless. Starmates who died without knowing what they
were to each other, starmates in separate relationships, starmates who paid no attention to the night
sky. The many tragedies of humanity that start so innocently, and end so quietly. Lumine’s future
was fogged more than ever before.
The old woman who held her hand only squeezed weakly, and smiled as if she held a thousand
secrets. “You’re planning something absolutely terrible, aren’t you?”
She deigned to answer. Tartaglia, as terrible as he was, had a family in need. Lumine could not
live with herself if they died for her sake.
“Is my brother alive?”
Mona and the fortune teller shared yet another glance. An understanding passed between them,
before the old woman returned her gaze to Lumine. “No, neither of us can see him.”
“Not even in my own future?”
“No.” Gravely, Mona shook her head.
“So, that usually means…”
She could not bring herself to say it aloud. Her heart began to race, despite how ardently Lumine
had been preparing for this reality. Fear settled into her chest and took root as she realized what this
meant.
The old woman was the only one who could spit it out, “The only explainable conclusion is… Is
that he’s dead.”
Dead. It made sense, as terrible as it was.
“I’m sorry, traveler.”
Her worst fears were finally confirmed. There was a simple fix to this problem, now, and Lumine
instantly decided what she wanted to do.
“Mona, could you teleport me to a hydro archon statue in Fontaine?”
She scoffed, “It’s like you want me to collapse from exhaustion! But… I can try my best, just
don’t do anything stupid!”
It wasn’t particularly stupid, it was necessary. With two days left to defend Childe’s family from
an unknown enemy, she had no time to waste.
Warped, misguided courage always takes hold when there is nothing left to lose.
Childe learned a lot about himself while traveling straight West from Mondstadt, through Liyue,
and to the very edge of Fontaine. He learned things that he never would have learned otherwise.
1. The Foul Legacy is very fast.
2. He could hardly gain control over it despite having the potential for this power since he
crawled out of the Abyss at age 14.
3. He, apparently, gave off massive amounts of abyssal energy that served as a beacon for other
sources of abyssal energy.
The third discovery was the most surprising. While taking a short break on Mt. Aozang, he
attracted at least three ruin guards to his location, and several abyss mages. He managed to avoid a
time consuming fight due to the creature’s uncharacteristic, passive curiosity. It made sense after a
bit - Childe most likely reeked of their home.
His body ached from the Foul Legacy. It was the consistent feeling of drowning in a pool of black
water. The thoughts that swirled around him were familiar, yet distorted and dark. The Foul Legacy
had a mind of its own. It always took over, gripping his chest and squeezing until Ajax was gone.
He barely hung on as he traveled into Fontaine with the lightning-fast speed it provided, reminding
himself all the while that the dark thoughts were not his own.
Ajax hated that in this moment of panic and worry, he considered killing Lumine once again.
Was he being selfish by wanting to keep her alive? His family didn’t deserve to die as a result of
his choices in life. They had been suffering since he fell into the Abyss, and it all seemed to
culminate to this final moment, this final decision, this final twist of a blade as the light left a pair
of honey colored eyes. He couldn’t bear the weight of that thought any longer.
Ajax would not kill Lumine, because he would kill the Tsaritsa, or die trying. He would not roll
over, nor would he surrender. And whatever shadows his abyssal side cast into his mind would
continue to go ignored.
The last time Childe had been to Fontaine, he was accompanying Il Capitano on a diplomatic
mission. That was yet another Harbinger he would have to kill, a shame that the old man was rather
fun to be around at times. And Scaramouche, as much as he liked the thought of knocking that
smug look off his face, he was aware that Lumine’s friend had a sort of shaky alliance with the
sixth Harbinger. She would probably be angry if he hurt her friend’s ‘friend’, though that more so
depended on how Balladeer would react to the murder of the Queen. Childe had a feeling that he
wouldn’t care too much, being from Inazuma, rather than a Snezhnayan native.
He had no idea how the battle would go. All he knew was that his strength was fading, and the
Foul Legacy was flickering into a dull sting of power in the back of his mind. As the familiar light
of an Archon’s statue drew closer from the distance, Childe slowed in his teleportation, and let the
Foul Legacy snap back into nothingness like a pulled rubberband.
The instant his feet touched solid ground, he fell to his hands and knees. It felt as if he might
cough up an entire ocean from his lungs. After a moment of glaring at a blade of grass and taking
several deep breaths, Childe could finally sit up and observe his surroundings.
Fontaine was a much different region than Liyue. It was composed of gently rolling hills, dotted
with flowers and farms. It was frequently humid, with the scent of a just-finished rainshower.
Despite not spending much time in Fontaine, Childe felt a certain fondness for the area. The hydro
archon had decided he was good enough for a vision, though why a god of justice chose him, of all
people, to bless, was still an unsolved mystery. Nevertheless, sleeping beneath her statue would
provide a small amount of comfort - if he could even sleep at all.
Returned to his natural state, with aching bones and screaming muscles, Childe trudged across the
flower covered plains. He let the beacon of blue light guide him to her statue, forcing himself to go
just one more mile before he could collapse into exhaustion.
If only life was that easy.
As he made it to the foot of the statue, he dropped to his knees and caught his breath, patting the
side of the archon’s carved visage, “I hope you don’t mind if I sleep here, I’m kind of a devotee, so
I’m sure you don’t.”
The statue did not respond.

“So, thanks for the vision,” he spoke as he leaned his head against its leg, “it’s been really useful.
Lumine is right, though, all hydro users are show offs. At least the ones I’ve met.”
He was sure the archon herself was a show off, he’d heard rumor of her vanity and conceit.
Childe could understand why, water was both beautiful, and terrifyingly powerful. He’d lived his
life in the water, the cold shores of Morepesok happened to be his first memory from childhood.
Morepesok. Cursing his own limitations, Childe’s eyes shot open with sudden worry.
He didn’t deserve the chance to sleep long, not with the oncoming threat. “Sorry, can’t stay. I just
needed to catch my breath for a minute.”
There was no time to lose. He’d gotten his two minutes of rest. With shaking knees, he pushed
himself up and leaned against the statue, attempting to gather enough strength to summon the Foul
Legacy once more.
Transforming involved a moment of mental clarity. He had to delve into the back of his mind and
recall what Skirk told him. Deep breaths, a life given to something inhuman, a focus of power in
this one spot in the universe. Yet, before Childe could even begin, a swirl of star-spotted water
erupted from the ground.
The interruption was immediate, with no warning, and no prior hint. Light reflected off the waves
and pierced his eyes, forcing him to stumble back and cover his face with an arm. It whirled like a
cyclone, before bursting apart and splashing every possible surface in a half mile’s radius.
Including himself. With the mental connection to the Foul Legacy now severed, Childe readied his
aching muscles for a fight.
Yet, the voice that came from the dying waves struck him to his core.
“Archons, I really owe Mona.”
Like a slap to the face, like lightning striking the ground, like the rush of a sudden rain soaking
through clothes. He would not mistake that voice, that hair, that skin, those eyes anywhere.
Childe wasn’t sure how he found the strength to move as he did. Lumine didn’t notice him from
where she teleported to, standing in the middle of a constellation chart and water covered grass. All
it took was two seconds of regaining herself, before Childe shot at her like a dart.
“Lyubimaya,” the word was a prayer on his lips as he was instantly at her side, making her squeak
in surprise. He wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her feet up off the ground to pull her
as closely to his body as he possibly could, “You’re safe. Thank the archons, you’re safe.”
With Lumine’s face pushed against his scarf, she could only give a muffled, disgusted scoff, “Of
course I’m safe. You really seem to think I’m constantly in danger of losing my life, don’t you?”
Childe would usually argue that his worry was a new development that was consequential of his
latest source of anxiety. Yet, he always had been like this where it concerned Lumine, she attracted
disaster like a magnet. Somehow, there was room to pull her closer. He buried his nose in her hair
and took in the scent of lavender as if he would never encounter it again.
She allowed it for five seconds exactly.
Five, melt into his chest and close her eyes. Four, savor the feeling of his hands on her back and
face in her hair. Three, ignore the painful skip of her heart as yesterday came back into focus. Two,
say goodbye.
One, summon the jade dagger from the day they met, and dig the tip into the back of his coat.
Childe’s arms stiffened around her, “Lumi?”
“What’re you doing here?” She looked up at him with narrowed eyes, “You’re not supposed to be
here.”
He scoffed, “Then where I am supposed to be?”
“Away. Just… Just away from me,” she yanked herself out of his arms and held up the dagger
with one hand, “What’re you doing here?”
What did she think he was doing here? He didn’t go to Fontaine for a simple pilgrimage to the
hydro archon; it was the only region between Liyue and Snezhnaya. Childe stepped back from the
familiar blade with his hands up in rare surrender, “I just needed a place to rest on the way to
Morepesok. What’re you doing?”
And how did she get there so quickly? He assumed her mage friend had taken her to Liyue, and
she did not have anything like the Foul Legacy to help cover ground so quickly. Yet, the look in her
eyes told him that she would not be open to answering a questionnaire.
Lumine kept the dagger up and ready, “None of your business.”
None of his business, as if she wasn’t his sun and stars. He decided to ignore the obvious
falsehood of that statement, not bothering to act casual as he folded his arms over his chest and
stared. It had barely been 24 hours since she threw her ring at him, yet it seemed that so much had
changed in that short amount of time.
He knew he looked like a wreck, but Lumine was not much better. She was pale, with dark circles
under her eyes and messy hair. Her arms shook as if she was out of energy in the same way that he
was.
The way she arrived was not dissimilar to how she left him on the road of Mondstadt. It explained
her absent comment earlier. She truly did owe this Mona person if she was the one to send her to an
entirely different region. Knowing the power that took, Childe pitied the poor mage for that kind of
exertion of strength.
The oddest part of it all was Lumine. Lumine, who shattered him, and made no move to pick up
the pieces. That was fine, it was not her job, though she only stepped on them further as she kept
the dagger up between their bodies.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” A soft assurance, a whisper, a plea.
It went ignored, “I trusted you with myself, and you completely betrayed that. How could I ever
believe anything you say anymore?”
Another crack, another twist of the knife, yet another stomp into the mud that buried him further
below. “I… I don’t know.”
“Then why are you asking me to?”

He didn’t know. Lumine couldn’t figure that out either, she was not expecting to see Childe at the
exact spot Mona sent her. Whether it was the stars above playing their game yet again, or pure
coincidence, it seemed that they could not escape each other no matter how ardently they tried.
Yet, one positive aspect of this unforeseen occurrence was that Lumine’s plan could come into
fruition at a much earlier time than expected. She told Childe that she would see him in three days,
yet only one had passed. She would not complain about the change in circumstances.
When he did not answer her, Lumine took it upon herself to break the silence like glass. “I
planned to confront you anyway.”
He lit up with unabashed, rare joy. It hurt her to look at him. This was exactly what Paimon and
Mona begged her not to do.
“I think Aether’s dead.”
Childe’s joy fell instantly in wide eyed disbelief, “I thought you could, kind of… feel that he’s
alive?”
She wasn’t sure if there was any stock to put into that idea. She had been optimistic for the
chance of his survival, wherever he had been sent by the Unknown God. Whether that was an
overly confident assumption, or an actual feeling, she had no clue.
“I’ve said that, yes,” Lumine kept the dagger up between them, a brick wall in the form of a
blade, “But I asked Mona and the woman from Liyue, I trust them both to be accurate.”
“And?”
“And…” her throat threatened to close up as she forced the explanation out, “And usually when
they can’t see a person’s future, it means they’re… You know. Dead.”
Dead. She spit out the word as if it sat rottenly on her tongue. Dead. Aether, Dead. Childe took a
moment to imagine himself in that situation; if one of his siblings was presumed dead,
unsearchable even to the stars… It would be absolute hell.
All he wanted to do was wrap Lumine in his arms and hide her from the world. So rarely had he
ever seen her look so fragile as she did then.
“Lumine, I’m really sorry-”
“Don’t,” an interruption, venom lacing her voice, “I don’t need your pity.”
Childe tensed with sudden shock, “I’m not pitying you, Lumi.”
Where had she even gotten that idea? She never stared at him that way, her glare apathetic as if
they were complete strangers. She treated him as if she was not about to marry him just two days
ago. Despite the look in her eyes, she was still the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen, even in
anger.
“Maybe your Tsaritsa’s right.” Her voice was breathy, strained as if she was holding back a yell.
Childe felt a painful twinge in his chest as he realized that the shine in Lumine’s eyes was the
onslaught of tears.
He took a step towards her, “She’s not. I’m at my strongest when I’m fighting for you, I
should’ve realized that much earlier.”
“Yet…” with her free hand, she furiously wiped at her eyes, “when you lose all that you live for,
what does your life matter?”
Lumine’s words were a cold bucket of ice over his head. They froze him to the core, sending his
mind into a million different directions.
What does your life matter?
“Zvezda moya, are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” she sent him the first smile in what felt like forever, “but I don’t think your family
is... You should’ve killed me when you had the chance, Ajax.”
Despair flooded him. He felt like he was laying on a cold beach, letting the ocean rack his body
with harsh waters. Lumine kept smiling despite her horrific words.
A silence. A suffocation in his chest and lungs, while the love of his life considered death by his
hands.
“No, I shouldn’t, and never will.” His words were a growl, his throat remaining scratchy as if
filled with gravel. Lumine’s face only flickered in misguided disappointment.
“My brother’s dead, okay?” She retorted a huff, “And I can’t let your family be hurt because of
me-“
“But it’s not because of you, Lumi! This is my fault!”
“Shut up and listen,” she snapped with a glare, “you’re not going to be able to kill the Tsaritsa,
and you know it. If you took my life right now… this would all end.”
This would all end. Her words would barely process. Childe’s rushing mind went blank. Lumine
was suggesting the unimaginable, and she’d already made her decision. As desperately as she tried
to hide it, she was visibly terrified of the ending to this conversation.
All it would take is one movement to dig a sword through her heart, and she would let him. As
scared as she was, Lumine would let him end her for the sake of his family.
She turned the dagger over in her palm, holding the blade and offering him the handle, “You can
go back to Snezhnaya knowing your family is safe. I have nothing left to lose, so… really, i-it’s the
perfect time.”
He’d never seen her so afraid before.
“You’re my family too, Lumine.” Childe took the dagger, his hand falling limp at his side. If the
world stopped spinning, neither would notice.
“Just do it, please.”
Childe gripped the handle tighter, “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“So you’re going to let me live with the guilt of knowing my very existence puts your family in
danger?” She retorted sharply, “The solution is simple, Ajax, just kill me.”
A glare, a pain in his chest that refused to go away, “No.”
“Just do it!” Lumine was yelling, now, frantically running her fingers through his hair and pacing
in front of him, “I’ve already decided that this is what I want! If you don’t do it, then…” She
stopped to stare at him, “I’ll make you do it.”
Whatever that meant became obvious within the next five seconds. He watched as she flexed her
fingers, summoning her favorite sword with a whisper of constellations and magic. Childe tensed
as she stepped forward, “Lumi, I’m going to kill the Tsaritsa, and everything will be okay.”
She shook her head, “You can’t kill the Tsaritsa, you’re only human. You would need an army
for that.”
“Then… Then I’ll find one. I’ll start a war for you, Lumi,” he stepped forward as she did,
meeting in the middle, “For you and my family both, I’d rip apart Teyvat just to keep you safe.”
“Why?” She shook her head, “It would be a lot more simple to just kill me. I’m giving you the
opportunity to protect the people you love.”
“You don’t want to die.” Childe’s response came as a whisper in the wind. They were alone in
this field of flowers, with only the cold eyes of the hydro archon’s likeness to watch. Lumine had
most likely come to gain yet another vision, and had planned this confrontation for later. She was
entirely too unprepared for death.
“Yes, you do. You want me to die so you can have ultimate power, don’t you?”
If this was what being suffocated by silence felt like, Childe never wanted to experience it again.
It was then that she attacked him. If he wouldn’t voluntarily end this, she would force his hand.
Lumine pounced. Her sword glinted off the moonlight as it swung for his head, a purposefully
slow attack that she knew he would dodge. Reflexively, Childe jumped back, but he did not dare to
summon his own weapon. All he had was the jade dagger, and a stoney glare.
She would prove relentless, that was one thing he adored about her. Lumine was as beautiful as
Celestia itself as she jabbed, twisted and swung, backing him further and further down the field of
flowers with each strike. Childe was not used to fighting defensively, dodging attacks was always
terribly boring. This had to be the worst fight of his life; Lumine stared at him as if they were
complete strangers.
The only sounds in the night time air were her yells, and the slicing of her sword through
nothingness. Childe stepped back once more, ducked, and dodged as she became increasingly more
frustrated with his evasive maneuvers.
“All you do is run,” Lumine growled, “...from your problems, from me, from your family, from
the truth. Aren’t you tired of it?”
Incredibly so. Childe yanked himself aside to avoid yet another jab, “I won’t hurt you.”
“Why not?” She mocked, “You’re so desperate for a fight all the time, what’s changed?”
Nothing at all. His blood still boiled from the thrill, his hands still itched to summon his bow. He
was barely holding the Foul Legacy back as if it was a caged, wild animal. The darker parts of his
mind scarred from the abyss urged him to parry her sword and draw the first blood.
Yet, this was Lumine. This was Lumine having some sort of panic attack. This was Lumine
practically begging him to end her life. This was Lumine, the only woman he would ever love.
And this needed to stop.
Childe finally made his move. As she leaned forward to deliver another sloppy, distracted jab,
Childe gripped her arm and pulled her closer. She gasped, while he twisted her wrist to force her
into dropping her sword. Lumine would never let him do this under normal circumstances, yet it
was obvious that she was not thinking straight. As desperately as she tried to hide it, she was hurt.
He took the opportunity to deliver a sweeping kick to her ankles. Another gasp, wide eyes
sparking in clarity as she lost her balance. Lumine began to fall backwards, while Childe put a soft
hand on the small of her back and followed her down.
The two landed in the flowers in a heap of glares and groans. Instantly, he placed the dagger to
her neck, making her stiffen in sudden shock. The cold spread through her body as she lay
underneath him. Her hair splayed out around her head like a golden halo, while surrounded by wild
daisies and poppies. If Tonia was here, she would know the meaning of said flowers, it was most
likely something very profound that Childe would find incredibly boring.
Yet, Lumine was beautiful with a dagger at her neck. She was beautiful as she glared, murmuring
amidst the tears streaming down the sides of her face, “Just do it already, please. I don’t want to be
the reason anyone gets hurt.”
It was a shame that a girl like her fell in love with a guy like him.
“I could do it so easily right now, and you’d let me, wouldn’t you?”
She nodded, her breath stifled.
Straddling her, with his legs on either side of her body, he went on, “It would fix everything,
you’re right…”
“I-I know. Just get it over with, please.”
She didn’t want to die. Ajax - he didn’t feel like Childe or Tartaglia anymore - kept the dagger
against her neck. It seemed to be the only way to get her to pay attention. “Lumi?”
She shut her eyes tightly, “What?”
“...Will you marry me?”

“N-No!” She sputtered instantly, her eyes shooting wide open, “I hate you! I want you to kill me
and end this already!”
Of course she did. Ajax kept the dagger in place, leaning down to bravely close the gap between
their bodies, and kiss her with each inch of himself. Beneath him, she squeaked in surprise, while
he revelled in the subsequent shiver up her spine.
Perhaps kissing the woman who just broke up with him and attempted to cause her own death by
his hands was a mistake. But Ajax had never cared much for what was right and wrong. Only a day
had passed since she left him, yet he kissed her as if it had been an eternity.
Running out of breath, he finally pulled away to whisper, “I want to marry you.”
Her eyes fluttered open with shock, “Can’t marry a corpse.”
“Who says?”
“That’s gross!” Lumine gently hit his chest. Despite the hint of a smile, the sides of her face
remained wet, “Don’t joke around with me, I’m angry with you.”
“You’re always angry at me.” A whisper in her ear, a low chuckle as he kissed her neck in the
spot he knew she liked. His lips trailed from her neck, to her jaw, and towards her lips, where they
brushed against each other, just a centimeter away, “Nobody else would be able to put me in my
place if you died.”
Her eyes fluttered, though they remained red-lined and wet, “You’re a liar, and a coward. W-Why
can’t you ever just let me be angry?”
“Because you love me, perhaps?”
She stiffened beneath him, “I told you to stop joking, I’m serious right now, Tartaglia-“
He pulled back instantly, “Don’t call me that.”

“How could I call you anything else?” Her eyes narrowed, “You’re a monster.”
He was aware of that. There was grass in her hair, and a dagger against her neck. All the while,
she refused to see the possibilities of what he could do to fix this. He had promised to never let her
lose anyone, and Ajax made a habit of never breaking his promises.
He took in the scent of lavender and closed his eyes, “Come on, let’s kill the Tsaritsa together.
You don’t have to ever forgive me for considering it, you don’t even have to see me afterwards.
But, at least…” He closed the gap with a kiss, before breaking it a second later to breathe, “at least
help me protect the people I love... Including you.”
“...I hate you.”
A smile, a low laugh, “I know.”
“I never want to see you again.”
“Yes, I know...”
“I want you to kill me.”
“...I know. But that won’t happen. I don’t care what you feel about me, Lumine,” his glare turned
soft, “but I adore you, and I won’t let anything hurt you.”
Her gaze was unwavering, “But you hurt me.”
Ajax had no response for that. How could he?
And like so many times before, the tension snapped like a frayed rope. Lumine stretched up and
tangled her fingers into his hair, frantically kissing him as she murmured between breaths.
Ajax could not quite tell if that was the truth or not, judging by the sheer anxiety and devotion of
the kiss. He pulled his hand back to dig the tip of the dagger into the soft ground, leaving it
abandoned beside him as the kiss continued. They were both frantic, as if afraid the other would
disappear if they let go. He knew it was not destined to last very long. Ajax would take each and
every crumb he was given.
As expected, Lumine pulled away after giving him a taste of Celestia. It was a crime, the cold
feeling that she left him with, her fingers now absent of his hair and her body no longer against his.
He took a breath at the same time she did, the two of them moving in sync like natural instinct.
“I’ve got to go,” she commanded, “let me up.”
At least she was not begging him to kill her any longer. Ajax sat up and moved his leg so she was
freed. Taking the dagger, he twisted it around through his fingers, “I’m taking this so you’re not a
danger to yourself.”
Lumine shot him a skeptical look, “I’m fine, but I will force your hand eventually.”
“I know your intentions,” He leaned in and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear affectionately,
ignoring how she jerked back with a scowl, “You’d really give your life for my family.?”
She sighed heavily, “As betrayed as I am by you, yes. They’re my family too. Even if you and I
never spoke again, I would still visit them.”
That sounded perfect, absolutely wonderful. He knew at the Golden House that he’d found the
one, but she’d solidified it with her statement now. Ajax found himself grinning like a fool, “So
there’s a chance we’ll get together by the end?”
“No!” Lumine’s yell was immediate. The red rimmed eyes only worsened the pink on her cheeks,
“I’ll never marry you, ever, and you should just go find someone else because I promise you, Ajax
Alekseev, we’re over.”
“You’re cute,” he leaned in to kiss her jaw once more, “If we’re over, then why did you kiss me?”
Curse natural attraction and destiny. Curse the stars and their stupid games. Curse every inch of
her body that wanted to melt into him and stay in his arms forever. Everything about it was a crime
against humanity. He kissed her as if he was born to adore her.
She was still very much angry with him.
Lumine pushed him away with as much strength as her tired limbs would allow. Ajax voluntarily
pulled back, grinning the entire while, despite her furious glare. She stood up from her spot in the
flowers to brush off her dress and stomp past him, “Well, since you won't kill me right now, I’m
leaving. I have things to do.”
“Like what?” He called out, “Make out with me?”
“I'll cut your tongue out if you don't be quiet!”
“Then I wouldn’t be able to-”
“Shut up!”
Ajax watched her approach the hydro archon’s statue. She was stomping, but careful to not step
on the scattered wildflowers. Even post-’murder-me-please’ panic attack, Lumine still
precautioned against ruining the beautiful things of this world.
He watched as she approached the statue. With shaken knees, she bowed before it and clasped her
hands together in prayer.
Still beautiful. Still obviously in love with him - in his opinion, at least. He would take it, even if
it was the tiniest bit of affection he’d receive for the next several years. He was a starving man,
and would horde whatever was given to him.
Ajax stood up and cupped his hands over his mouth to be heard over their distance, “I’ll see you
in Snezhnaya, right?”
She shot him a glare, “Get away from me.”

“I’ll take that as a yes!”
He thought he caught her rolling her eyes. As she did so, blue lights began to float down from the
top of the statue like fireflies. They surrounded her in a reverential glow as she sighed and closed
her eyes once more.
While Lumine gained hydro, Ajax summoned his Foul Legacy. She offered him no glance, no
stare, no attention at all, while he turned around to take his leave.
Two different worlds, colliding for one minute, and separating the next. He could only hope that
by the end of all this, if they were both still alive, they could finally be together in (relative) peace.
“I love you.”
Lumine shot him yet another glare, “Stop saying that in your weird foul legacy voice. Besides,”
the glare deepened, “You broke my heart, do you really believe this will be fixed that easily?”
Not in the least. She both loved, and hated him. With a dark laugh, Ajax turned to take his leave.
If only either of them knew.
“My Lord, you called?”
“I did… but you’re late, is there an excuse for that?”

“...N-Not at all, my Lord.”
There never was. These abyss mages could fly, yet they took their sweet time as if their lives did
not depend on the prince’s mood that day. How wrong they were to test his short lived patience.
Aether sighed heavily, “What did you discover of the unrest amongst the Fatui?”
“Well!” The abyss mage lit up with an expressionless squeak, “It has happened again, a Harbinger
struggles with the command given. And you shall be especially interested in this one, your
Highness.”
“What is it?” He raised a bored brow.
“It’s about your sister… Tartaglia plans to kill the Tsaritsa to avoid having to kill her.”
That was news. It was so rare these days that the mages reported anything of true interest to him.
Lumine, ordered to be assassinated by a Fatui Harbinger who, apparently, did not have the strength
to do so. Whatever reason why Tartaglia hesitated was entirely unknown. Aether had never seen
the man before, there was a chance that he was simply soft-hearted and weak.
“And how do you know this?”
The mage cleared it’s throat before going on, “Tartaglia gives off massive amounts of abyssal
energy. I have been following him, he is using abyss magic to get to Snezhnaya in under two days.
He stopped in Fontaine, and I overheard him speaking to your sister about killing the Tsaritsa.
They seemed to fight for a moment, but I left soon after.”
There were also the eyes and ears inside of the Fatui that Aether kept. He just adored that they
wore masks, it made it so easy to disguise his own creatures as humans. Rumor had it that the
Tsaritsa was offering a higher position to Tartaglia if he could bring her the traveler’s head.
An interesting development.
“Well,” Aether sent the mage a smile that only made it flinch in fear, “how about we help him?”
“H-Help him, your Highness?”
“Of course.” He sat back in his throne and rested his chin in his palm, grinning wildly.
“But, your Highness, Tartaglia is a wild card! And your sister might see you.”
“No she won't,” he frowned, “I’ll make sure of it. Don’t worry about things like that, I’ve got this
covered.”
The mage flinched once more, “S-So what is your command?”
“Well…” he thought for a moment, before smiling bitterly, “gather an army for me, won’t you?”
“An army?!”
“Yes! Until this all culminates, though… I think I’ll be paying this Tartaglia fellow a visit.”
Chapter End Notes
Some points of interest:
1. Lumine has not met Dainslief yet
2. Aether hasn't really been paying attention to Childe, so he has no idea about their
relationship
Thanks for reading <3

Two Big Brothers & Their Wicked Plans
Lumine had no idea why she kissed him. And she absolutely hated herself for it.
All she knew was the desperate feeling of cursing and screaming at the stars for their wicked,
cruel games. Mona said that all humans had free will, but Lumine could not help but wonder if she
had a bit less than others.
Childe turned around to leave. How he so quickly took on the Foul Legacy would always remain a
mystery to her. One moment, he’s himself - a liar and a coward - and the next, he’s as bright and
terrifying as an imploding star, cape blending in with the night sky as he flashes away into
nothingness. She never would’ve guessed he could use that to travel, but it apparently worked quite
well.
Childe must be exhausted by then. He’d most likely collapse the second he reached Morepesok.
The mental imagery of him succumbing to his own bad decisions was enough to make Lumine
smile for a split second, until the quick twinge of anxiety shattered her daze. He was gone, they
had kissed, and she wanted to vomit from the reminder of how much she adored him.
She didn’t want to love him. He’d broken her heart.
Now frantic, ashamed, and feeling as if she was on fire, Lumine scrambled up from her spot in
front of the statue and grabbed the first rock she could find off the ground. With a yell, she threw it
at the empty spot Childe had just stood.
Why did she kiss him? Was she so stupid that she could not control her own body? Did he have so
much mastery over her that she could not help but melt beneath his touch?
Pathetic. She felt despairingly pathetic. She had let someone through her walls, and he wreaked
absolute havoc the second he had the chance. Self-worth and her own esteem slipped away with
each passing thought of how ignorant she could possibly be.
She never should’ve trusted him.
And if he tried to touch her again, she’d rip out his eyes.
“You’re sure this is Tartaglia?”
“Yes, your Highness! He is the youngest of the Harbingers. Another alias he goes by is Childe.”
Aether had been keeping tabs on the Harbinger’s journey through Fontaine for the last several
hours, and he had not stopped moving until this very moment. He’d finally made it into Snezhnaya
after pushing himself to the absolute limit. He raised a brow as he observed the ginger stumbling
over the ground and letting out a stream of foreign curses under his breath.
“The name fits,” Aether shrugged, nonchalant, “and what do you know of his plans for the
Tsaritsa?”
“Well,” the mage tittered for a moment, “I-I could not hear much for fear of being seen. But he
was speaking to your sister, and mentioned his plan to kill the cryo archon.”
“Did he… give a reason why?”
“No, your highness.”

He’d have to acquire better agents to keep an eye on his sister, ones that actually heard the details
of her conversations.
Aether also couldn’t help but wonder why Tartaglia had been speaking to Lumine, of all people.
He was aware that they were acquainted, having fought over the geo archon’s gnosis at one time,
yet their worlds were centuries apart. The savior of Mondstadt, and the attempted destroyer of
Liyue. His other sources told him that Lumine spent three months avoiding Liyue, simply because
she did not want to run into the Harbinger.
Aether was also aware of her attempted courting of the most boring man he’d ever seen. He,
personally, sent a hilichurl to Huffman’s apartment each and every day for three months straight.
Whatever reason she and Tartaglia were connected now, Aether found himself with a hint of
hope. He had an army, he had a mission - and if the wildest of the Harbingers was on his side, that
would be all the better. The last remaining puzzle piece would be his sister, and perhaps she, too,
had a change of heart. Nobody discussed the murder of an archon for fun.
While Aether would not usually work alongside the humans he vowed to destroy, they could be
quite useful at times. An ex-Harbinger would surely know his way around Zapolyarny Palace, and
perhaps give him more information than his disguised agents ever could. He’d heard rumors that
Tartaglia had the potential to be the strongest Harbinger of them all, despite being the youngest.
It would all work itself out in the end. He would use an army of controlled abyss creatures to get
into Zapolyarny, Tartaglia would attempt to kill the Tsaritsa, and probably die in the process. This
was what humans called the ‘two birds with one stone’ method.
Tartaglia dies while fighting the Tsaritsa, and the wild-card of the Harbingers is erased from the
picture. The Tsaritsa would be weakened, and Aether could make the finishing blow. There goes
the second bird.
Subsequently, economic disaster. With Snezhnaya in shambles from the death of their Queen,
they would not be able to defend themselves from his army.
As the humans often said: Like taking candy from a baby.
All was planned, and each strategic maneuver would come about in due time. As with any normal
game of chess, the first step was to move a pawn.
Aether observed Tartaglia from afar. How someone like him got his hands on something as
powerful as the Foul Legacy transformation was a mystery, even the Tsaritsa herself did not have
access to such power. With a tilt of his head, he watched as the Harbinger stumbled to the ground
and dissolved the transformation away like melting ice.
Obviously, he didn’t know what he was doing with it. The poor human had no idea how to use
that weapon, that power. It was a shame to be wasted on a mortal like him. Now, on all fours and
breathing heavily, he was much less impressive than before. He was tall - a fact that annoyed
Aether - and entirely too pale. His body could hardly handle the weight of the Abyss.
As the Prince approached from his cliffside vantage point, drawing near with golden wings,
Tartaglia continued to cough and heave. Landing 20 feet away, he watched with expressionless
amusement. If he kept using that transformation, he would tear himself apart before the war could
even begin.
Finally catching his breath, Tartaglia groaned to himself and rolled over to lay in the frost-dusted
flowers. He had made it to the border of Snezhnaya and Fontaine. Snowdrops were common in this
area, as Northern Snezhnaya only grew colder and more barren with each mile. There were not
heaps of snow as there were in other parts of the cryo archon’s region, yet the ground always
seemed to be covered with dew and frost, like sparkling glitter upon every surface. The wind blew
bitterly, yet Tartaglia turned up his face to feel the breeze, as if he craved it.
Aether took one last step, his boot crunching a particularly icy flower underneath. He watched as
Tartaglia tensed and shot up. With wide eyes, he glanced around, until his gaze fell upon the blond
man observing from a distance.
A beat of silence. Tension, thicker than a brick wall. Narrowed eyes and scowls.
“Who the hell are you?”
With the night sky casting shadows over the land, he could not see the intruder as well as he
wished. Yet, there was no weapon drawn, nor a catalyst in sight. Ajax’s blurred and exhausted
mind kept him from readying his defenses as he usually would - all he could do was squint, and
stare. The moon was bright enough to allow an outline of familiar features and blond hair.
Instead of answering, all the stranger did was scrunch up his nose in disgust, “Who are you?”
Ajax squinted at the sudden comedy of it all, “I asked you first.”
“I am the prince of the Abyss,” the blond stranger rolled his eyes like a petulant teenager, “the
name you shall know me as is Aether Caomhánach.”
Caomhánach.
Aether. (He certainly didn’t seem very princely.)
Yet, this intruder had golden hair, honey eyes, and a frown devastatingly similar to the woman
who held his heart. He even glared the same as Lumine.
Just hours ago, Ajax was told that Aether was dead.
These circumstances were one of two outlandish options:
1. This very well could be a hallucination caused by over-exhaustion from the Foul Legacy. It
was incredibly convenient for his future brother-in-law to show up just as Lumine has a ‘murder-
me-please’ panic attack over his very existence. Whether it was a fever dream, or not, Ajax had no
clue. All he knew was that this ‘prince of the Abyss’ looked eerily similar to Lumine.
2. Yet, if he truly had a connection with the Abyss, there was a good chance that Aether’s future
looked foggy to most fortune tellers. Generally, astrologists could not see into the starless sky of
the hell beyond Teyvat.
The most viable option was the latter, and the one Ajax decided upon. As the realization set in, he
sat up from the grass and gaped. His heart skipped a nervous beat, excitement burrowing itself into
his chest as hope shined out from behind the clouds.
If he brought Aether back to her, Lumine would for sure forgive him.
“Listen up, Cavaneghaught. I know your sister-“

A sudden interruption in the form of a flick of his hand, “I know, you know my sister, but she’s
not what I’ve come here for.”
He took a moment to ponder his response. Aether was not here for his sister - then it must be the
first option, this man had to be a stress-induced hallucination. Surely, Aether would want to see his
sister after a year of traumatic disjunction. If Ajax was separated from one of his siblings, he’d tear
apart the world until he found them.
If he was not a hallucination, and telling the truth about avoiding his twin, then Ajax’s opinion of
the man would form immediately. Imagining Lumine’s heartbreak lit a protective fire in his chest.
“Well,” he took a measured breath to calm himself, “then are you aware that Lumine thinks
you’re dead? She has been searching everywhere for you, and just asked me to kill her because she
thought she failed at finding you.”
Aether blinked emotionlessly, “Did you kill her?”
“No! What in the abyss is wrong with you?” He struggled to his feet and brushed stray blades of
grass from his pants, “I don’t know why you’re here talking to me right now, Lumine is probably
heading this exact direction.”
A sigh, a roll of his eyes as if Ajax could never understand the complexities of the universe. “I’m
here because I have heard your prayers, Tarta-“
“-What?”
“...Uh, what?”
“You’ve heard my prayers?” His eyes narrowed in suspicion, “what’re you, the tooth fairy?”
Of all asinine creatures of legend to be compared to. Aether huffed - looking much like Lumine in
the process - and glared, “The tooth fairy doesn’t answer prayers, asshole.”
“Well, I don’t pray, either, so frankly I don’t know what you’re even on about.”
There was no point being cryptic with a man like this. Aether was beginning to wish that it was a
different Harbinger who had decided to commit treason, La Signora seemed much easier to work
with.
Straight to the point. “I want to kill the cryo archon.”
“...Oh.” He stared in wide-eyed surprise.
Aether was beginning to wonder if this alliance was truly a wise decision. “And while I don’t
really need your help,” a nonchalant shrug, “I thought I might as well be a team player.”
The shift in his demeanor was subtle, but evident. He took a step back and crossed his arms,
analyzing each inch of Aether like a science project. The Abyss prince took a moment to remind
himself that this man was a Fatui Harbinger for a reason, he was not as empty headed as his sharp
tongue and dismissive behavior might lead one to believe. The Fatui always wore two faces.
Aether tried his best to look non-abyssal, completely normal, and not 500 years old and mentally
exhausted.
“But why?”
He blinked in surprise, “Why do I want to kill the cryo archon?”
“Yeah… What’s your reason?”
“Oh,” he gathered his thoughts for a moment, “...Well, after I failed in Mondstadt, I planned to
target Inazuma, but…” What was an excuse a man like Tartaglia could respect? “Seeing as my
agents have informed me of your movements towards the Tsaritsa, I thought it would be a shame
to miss out on the, uh… fun.”
“So… it’s not for your hot sister?”

A beat of pregnant silence. The wind whispered through the trees around them as Aether
attempted to process that maddeningly nonchalant response.
“...Don’t say shit like that, I’ll kill you.”
Ajax pressed his palms together in excitement, “You really are her brother.”
“What did you think I was?” He snapped, “A hallucination?”
“More or less, yes.”
A narrowing of his eyes, an expression that held a hint of mocking, coupled with a scowl so much
like Lumine’s. Aether found himself off track entirely as he asked, “What even is your relationship
with my sister?”
How would one succinctly explain the natural pull of the universe to some random guy he’d just
met? Lumine was his center of gravity, his magnet, his future. And on most occasions, Ajax would
pounce upon the opportunity to tease the exalted ‘Abyss Prince’ about how he has made out with
his hot sister many times. Yet, despite the natural urge, Ajax nonconsciously hesitated, recalling
the look in Lumine’s eyes as she commanded him to cut her down.
He settled for the answer that gave him the least amount of pain. “She just hates me right now.”
“Good,” Aether answered immediately, “and I hope she continues to do so.”
Ajax didn’t. He still planned to marry her at some point, it would be a terrible marriage if she
continued to hate him.
Yet, there were other, far more necessary matters to address. “So, let me get this straight. You
approach me, saying that you want to help me kill the Tsaritsa, because you ‘don’t want to miss
out on the fun’? How do you expect me to trust that?”
“I don’t,” all he could offer was a shrug, “but I don’t need you to either. I’ll be taking out the cryo
archon soon enough, it’s just your decision if that happens now, or later. And… judging by how
frantically you’re traveling with those heretical abyss powers of yours, I don’t think you have
much time to lose.”
Ajax hated that he was right. He knew he stank of the Abyss, but he was hoping to hide his panic,
at least. He could handle being a monster, as long as he did not let predators such as Aether know
how scared he was. That was a direct path to a ripped throat.
“What would you even get from helping me?”
“The answer’s simple, really,” Aether tapped a finger to his chin absently, “I’ll get to take another
step towards my goal of revenge, I’m sure a man like yourself can respect that honorable
motivation.”
He folded his arms in thought, “I can. But what about Lumine?”
“What about Lumine?”
The response made him automatically frown. He spoke so apathetically of the most important
woman in both their lives, though Ajax supposed announcing to Il Dottore how he’d slit her throat
wasn’t much better.
She deserved so much more than Aether and Ajax. “She adores you,” he began, slowly,
bewildered, “but you’re acting as if you plan to stay away from her. That’s what I don’t get.”
He stared, “That’s because I am planning to stay away from her, like I’ve been doing this entire
time.”
“But why?”
None of it made sense. Ajax had seen how she stared at the moon, wondering if Aether was
beneath the same one. He’d heard the shift in her voice as she spoke of him, how she forced out
every word simply because they felt like knives coming up from her throat. He’d seen her wake up
from a nightmare of losing him once again, only to hold Ajax close as if she was afraid she’d lose
him too.
That look in her eyes as she asked him to kill her. Those shaky breaths, that barely concealed pain
as she spoke of her supposedly dead brother.
If Aether had pity, he did not show it. Something flashed across his face, a thoughtful melancholic
silence fell between them. He was running out of time, standing here and watching his future
brother-in-law muse over the inevitable shattering of Lumine’s heart.
“So,” the prince’s voice sounded far too loud in the quiet Snezhnayan countryside, “I’m not sure
how to explain this in a way that makes sense. And I don’t know if you have little siblings, but…
But I’ve had a lot of time to make bad decisions, Tartaglia. A lot of time. And while I believe in
the greater good, the light at the end of the tunnel, per se…”
For a split second, it was like looking in a mirror.
Ajax finished for him, “You don’t want Lumine to see you like this.”
And for once, Aether smiled. It was bitter, lacking warmth, but it was a smile nevertheless.
“Precisely.”
He supposed he couldn’t blame him for that. Lying was one thing, hypocrisy was another.
Here he was, showing up out of nowhere and conveniently offering him an army right as he
needed one. It was too good to be true. Aether didn’t seem to know the details of the circumstances
either, seemingly unaware of the target on Lumine’s back. Whatever he knew, he kept close to his
chest, locked away behind a wall of blank expressions and dim, brown eyes.
Yet, Ajax was nothing if not an opportunist. Aether was offering his help, and whatever the true
motivation, he’d deal with that once he knew his family was safe.
On one condition.
“I’m not heading straight to the Tsaritsa,” he informed smartly, “my family is in danger, I need to
find a way to protect them while we fight her.”
Aether furrowed his brows in disgust, “I can’t be two places at once, Harbinger. And don’t ask
me to babysit them either, I plan to be there to confront the Tsaritsa as well.”
Babysitting wasn’t exactly the correct descriptor. It was more of a precaution for the sanity of his
own mind. Ajax tried his best to look innocent, “How exactly does the whole Abyss Prince thing
work?”
A flicker of suspicion, “...Why do you want to know?”
“Okay, hear me out,” excited, he put his hands up, “if you can control monsters, you can surround
my family’s house with… a ton of abyss heralds!”
Immediately, “No.”
“Okay, fine. What about that three headed monster with a bunch of eyes?”
“...H-How do you know about that thing? You know what, nevermind,” Aether shook his head, “I
need him.”
Ajax had always thought that beast was a girl, though that might have been his teenage mind
subconsciously projecting his deepest fears. “Ruin guards?”
Silence fell between them as the prince thought for a moment. He tsked and hummed, closed his
eyes and counted on his fingers, “...I don’t think I'll be able to spare any.”
There would also be no time to evacuate Anastasia and Pavol’s families from their villages,
placing a few ruin hunters in their backyards might help him rest a bit easier. With yet another
attempt to look innocent, Ajax rolled on the balls of his feet and hummed, “Lumine was willing to
give her life for my family, you know.”
Dim, honey colored eyes flickered to stare at him. The tension and suspicion only grew thicker.
Ajax went on, “And she always spoke so highly of you… I think she’d be disappointed to see her
big brother refusing to protect innocent lives.”
Immediately, Aether’s glare flattened, “It’s been about 500 years since I’ve seen her, so excuse
me for being a bit short of patience for weak ones.”
“Oh, of course,” he flipped his hand nonchalantly, “I understand that completely. Not the 500
years thing, but I do understand not wanting to deal with weaklings…” Yet another blank stare.
Ajax went on after a beat of anticipatory silence, “Except, I can’t imagine my little sister knowing I
didn’t spare a little extra to keep innocent people safe…”
Pause. Think, stare, and process.
“...You have a little sister?”
Hook, line, and sinker.
“Her name is Tonia,” Ajax nodded gravely, “I've always protected her, kept her out of trouble…
She’d hate me for not protecting others as well as I do her.”
“I-I see…”
He couldn’t possibly stop now. The stone blocks surrounding Aether were beginning to chisel
away. “And Lumine risked her life to save Liyue, too.” Ajax put a hand to his chest and sighed,
“She’s so good.”
“Right…” he cleared his throat awkwardly, “she’s always been good like that.”
“But you know what?”
“Do I want to know?”
Most likely not. “Lumine always spoke of you as if you were the good one. She was always so
admiring of you.”
“Oh…”
Yes, oh. He’d burst out laughing if this golden opportunity did not depend on Aether’s subsequent
guilt trip.
There was something that each older sibling always seemed to know, a natural instinct that came
along with the responsibilities of taking care of a little brother or sister. Ajax had a feeling that
despite the apparent 500 years of torture, Aether still had the habits of a big brother ingrained in
him; Susceptible to guilt tripping where it concerned little siblings, the innate need to be a good
example, the natural instinct to sacrifice time and energy for his baby sister. It was all there. And
fortunately, Ajax knew just how to manipulate that.
Aether glared, “I knew I wouldn’t care much for you, but I think I’m going to truly hate you.”
It worked perfectly.
“Ah,” Ajax mused in oblivious thought, “is hating me a genetic thing? Or is it just my striking wit
and charming personality?”
It was more so the heavy load of guilt trip he’d dropped onto his shoulders. Aether felt invincible
to everything besides the subject of Lumine. Begrudging, he sighed, “I’ll help keep your family
safe… If you make sure my sister doesn’t know I’m involved. She can’t even know I’m in the
vicinity.”
“Deal!” That would be simple enough, Lumine was notoriously easy to distract.
With the contract made - Zhongli would be so proud of him - Ajax offered a handshake. It went
ignored as Aether only glared, and rubbed the bridge of his nose with a hiss of annoyance, “Don’t
make me regret offering my assistance. If this doesn’t turn out the way I want, I’m throwing you
into the Abyss.”
He lit up, “Oh good! I’ve always wanted to go back!”

“...What?”
He ducked the question smoothly, “So, your princeliness, do you have a way to get me to
Morepesok more quickly?”
That was a subject Aether could feel much better about. Glad to be done with the conversation
concerning his sister, he offered the Harbinger a nod, “I do, but I doubt it’s anything you’ve ever
heard of.”
Travel across Teyvat was one of the more interesting aspects of this world. He continued to use
the teleport waypoints Lumine had built, though he’d never heard of her paying them much
attention. Whether it was wiped from her mind, or she’d simply forgotten, he wasn’t entirely sure.
The mechanisms were quite useful, and there happened to be one conveniently placed right outside
of Morepesok.
“So, I’m going to need you to close your eyes.”
Ajax blinked in surprise, “What for? Planning to stab me?”
“At some point, yes. But for now…” how to explain the concept of magical beacons his sister
engineered over half a century ago, the feat was near impossible, “I’m just... gonna get us back to
your silly little family as quickly as possible.”
He couldn’t argue with that offer. Obedient for once, he closed his eyes. Aether had half a mind
to sucker punch him, but resisted the urge as he brought up his mental map and zeroed in on the
waypoint outside of the seaside village.
And instantly, they were gone.
It was good he closed his eyes. The reaction of his soul pulled out from his body and dragged
across the region would have scrambled his exhausted mind far more than it already did. Whatever
Aether had done hit him like a punch to the stomach from a lawachurl, making his head spin.
Even more instantly, Tartaglia collapsed face first into the snow. The second his feet felt solid
ground, exhaustion stole away the light, and gravity yanked him towards the ground.
Aether remained standing as Morepesok came into full view. He took a deep breath, noticed the
silence and lack of too-tall ginger haired idiots at his side, and opened his eyes. “Oh…” surprised,
he nudged the Harbinger’s side with the toe of his boot, “Sorry, forgot that it takes a lot of energy
for first timers.”
Tartaglia did not respond, as he was far too busy snoring.
“Wake up, or I’ll drag you through the snow.”
Only a grunt. At least he was still alive.
“I should’ve researched this guy better,” Aether complained to himself as he grabbed ahold of
Tartaglia’s ankles, “maybe I’d have skipped a lot of annoyance.”
Dragging it is, then. He was aware that many people from the smaller villages, such as
Morepesok, were strong spirited and vigilant. One could not survive in Snezhnaya otherwise. He
was sure that Tartaglia’s family would not blink an eye at their unconscious son being dropped
upon their doorstep, that was quite common in some cultures.
The most frustrating part of it all was that Aether had not been guilt tripped in 500 years. He had
completely forgotten what it was like to be manipulated. He was usually the one doing the
manipulation. Grumbling at the thought, he made sure to drag Tartaglia through the deepest,
coldest piles of snow on the street.
The Foul Legacy was notorious among abyss dwellers for sucking life energy like water through
a straw. It was shocking that the Harbinger was not ripped apart from the inside yet. He remained
unconscious while Aether entered the village and glanced around for someone to ask for directions
from.
A very terrified looking group of vagabonds so kindly informed him that ‘Lord Tartaglia lives in
the woods over there’, before desperately begging him to not tell the Lord Harbinger that they’d
snitched on his location. Apparently, that was a problem amongst the Fatui - which, in Aether’s
opinion, was the downside of using humans for one’s army, they always were far too vulnerable.
While dragging him towards the aforementioned location, Aether had enough time to think about
what he’d so willingly put himself into. He assumed Tartaglia had referred to his parents when
speaking of his family, but it could be a wife and children that awaited his return. Stopping for a
moment, he dropped his legs back down into the snow.
With the Harbinger still unconscious, Aether leaned down to tug off his left glove in search of a
ring. He preferred knowing every bit of information he could on his ‘allies’, as temporary as they
were. There was no true wedding band, yet residing his ring finger was a frayed string, knotted
exactly where a wedding band would be. He snorted to himself, “That’s cheesy, what kind of girl
gave you that?”
Tartaglia only grumbled in his sleep.
With a sigh, Aether messily stuffed his glove back on and picked up his ankles once more.
Between the line of trees, a house sparkled with light and energy that cut through the drifting
flurry. He surely hoped this was the correct house. It was where the Harbinger would be dumped,
nevertheless, and the house’s occupants could figure out what to do with him next.
Aether heaved him up, and dropped him halfway up the porch steps. With a great sigh and a
stretch, he rolled his eyes and knocked on the door, “Delivery!”
That should be quite enough. Footsteps could be heard from inside the house, a woman’s voice as
she rushed down a set of stairs, “Ajax?”
Before she approached too closely, Aether drew up his mental map and chose the waypoint atop
the cliffside behind the house. He was gone in a flash, at the very same second the middle aged
woman answered the door.
He could not hear the chaos that followed, the gasps as Tartaglia was found lying unconscious on
the front porch. Aether made his escape, and watched the lights of the house glimmer through the
treetops.
Once safely out of view, Aether sighed and snapped his fingers. Behind him, a mage whirled into
existence, bowing reverentially, “Yes, your Highness?”
“How’re preparations going?” He kept his gaze straight ahead. The wind whipped at his hair and
clothes, though he’d lost his weakness for harsh climates long ago. Snezhnaya felt like a summer
breeze compared to certain parts of the Abyss.
The abyss mage floated to strict attention, “We’re ready at your command.”
“Very good… Whatever Tartaglia is planning better be worth my while.” He cast his subordinate
a glance, “Get me three ruin guards, and two ruin hunters.”
“M-May I ask why, sir?”
He may. Aether kept an eye on the house in the woods below. Very faintly, he could hear the
sounds of a woman calling for help, and the chaos of a family coming to her aid.
“I want them protected.”
When Ajax was 15, he snuck out of his room at two in the morning and challenged a very large
mercenary to a battle at the local tavern.
And he would have won if he did not make the mistake of stepping on an especially icy spot in
the street, slipping, and knocking himself unconscious. Fortunately for him, the very large
mercenary was respectful of the teenager’s obvious strength, and dropped the passed out Ajax at
his parents front door.
This, unsurprisingly, was not the first, nor last, time Ajax was abandoned on the front porch like a
delivered package. Eva was used to it by now, and promptly called for help dragging her third son
inside.
“Get him on the couch,” she commanded Anthon and Michial, “he’s covered in snow. Tonia,
love, build the fire up higher.”
There was an obedient chorus of ‘yes ma’am’ before everyone set off to their respective chores.
With how late it was, Teucer remained fast asleep in his room. The knock on the door and the
announcement of a delivery was enough to get the rest of the family up and moving at this dead
hour in the night.
Eva promptly made her way to her kitchen cabinets, pulled out the ‘Emergency Ajax’ kit, and
made her way back to the living room.
Tonia poked at the fireplace with wide, curious eyes, “I wonder who he fought this time?”
“Your brother doesn’t look injured…” Michial inspected his arms, pushing up his sleeves for any
signs of bruising, “There’s no blood, no burns, nothing. He just looks…”
“...Sleepy.” Anthon finished.
“Right, sleepy. Exhausted, even,” he put a hand on Ajax’s cheek, “I’ve never seen him look so
bad.”
While Ajax’s eyes were usually quite dull, he always had a healthy amount of color to him. Now,
lying on the couch, there were dark half moons beneath his eyes, and his skin was so pale that his
freckles stood out far more than usual. He seemed to have pushed himself to his bodily limit. And
whoever had dropped him off was nowhere to be seen.
“Did that sound like Lumi Lu who knocked a moment ago?”
“No,” Eva approached with smelling salts in hand, “it was a man’s voice.”
Tonia turned around to cast them a worried look, “Where’s Miss Lumine anyway? They should
always be together.”
“I don’t know, let’s ask him!” Eva leaned down with the salts in hand, “Anthon, hold his head so
he doesn’t sprain his neck. My sweet turtle dove?”
Michial lit up, “Yes, sugar bum?”
Anthon and Tonia groaned, though they went entirely ignored by Eva, “Hold his wrists down so
he doesn’t punch anybody like that one time.”
Sacha had gone down like a brick. It would’ve been funnier if he hadn't ended up with a broken
nose. With everybody in place, Eva leaned down over the back of the couch and waved the salts
beneath his nose.
This never was a pleasant experience. It was quick, but having done this so many times in her life,
she had very little patience for waking Ajax up from his unconscious state any longer. He was
dropped on the front porch, again, with no explanation, and no Lumine at his side.
A beat of silence. A gasp from Ajax, yet another shift in his shoulders. The crackle of the
fireplace was the only sound as the family held their breath. Eva frowned to herself and drew the
salts closer.
With a sudden jerk of Ajax’s shoulders, he twisted his head away from Anthon’s hands and
groaned. Immediately, she pulled the salts back and returned them to their place, right as Ajax’s
eyes opened in shock.
The familiar ceiling, and even more familiar faces, came into view. Tonia drew closer to the side
of the couch and watched as her older brother rubbed his eyes and took a heavy breath. Confused,
he blinked innocently up at Anthon, who sent him a fake smile in return.
Another holding of breath, another pause. Anticipation grew large before Ajax broke it with a
smile of his own, “Annie, Have you gotten taller?”
“Oh!” Anthon blushed pink, “Yes, I have! A-At least I think so…”
The next bout of chaos was abrupt, and entirely unexpected. Before Anthon could ramble about
how two centimeters of height was totally a noticeable difference, Eva pounced. She brushed past
her husband and sat on the side of the couch, lunging down at Ajax to gather him up in her arms
and squeeze every inch of air from his lungs.
“I’m going to kill you!” She informed, while kissing his cheek rather fervently, “Stop doing this
crap! You’re going to give me gray hairs!”
Despite being smothered beneath the influx of motherly love, Ajax managed to chuckle tiredly,
“You’re already going gray-“
“How did I raise such a rude son?! Huh?! You know better than to point out a lady’s aging!”
Michial patted her arm, “I think you’re still beautiful, my dear, even at this age.”
“Y-You’re not helping!”
As happy as Ajax was to see his family safe, sound, and as loud as ever, his oncoming exhaustion
migraine gave him a bit less patience for the shenanigans than usual. Tonia, ever the insightful one,
shot him a pitying, but affectionate look. “What happened?”
“Oh, nothing crazy,” once released from Eva’s grip, he put his arms behind his head casually and
laid back down, “Just closed my eyes, passed out, and woke up here.”
She sent him another look, “And... where’s Lumine?”
The chaos dissolved like a mist. The silence was abrupt, unnerving. All eyes turned to Ajax,
who’s face began to pale even further. The thought of having to break the news to his family
assaulted him with a wave of nausea and anxiety. His heart skipped a beat as he stared at the
ceiling.
“She’s… Well…” how to describe that she left him, and rightfully so, upon finding out that he
considered killing her out of stress perhaps once, or maybe twice. As casual as his own mind made
it out to be, he realized just how screwed up that all was.
Yet, they deserved a bit of closure.

“She’ll be here in a day or so, but we’re… we’re not really together anymore.”
It was out, and that was all he could stand to say. Anthon and Michial averted their eyes in
discomfort, while Tonia gasped and scooted closer. Eva took his hand, “Why is she coming here if
you’re not together anymore?”
That did sound a bit odd. Ex-girlfriends didn’t usually drop by for the fun of it. “I just got us into
some trouble, we’re taking care of it is all. I-I’m sure we’ll get back together by the end of it…”
He hated how unsure he sounded.
Despite the kiss, despite the way she held onto him in Fontaine, he knew a day’s absence from
each other was not nearly enough to mend a broken heart. The look in her eyes as she asked him to
end her life felt like it would haunt him forever.
When nobody filled the silence, Ajax took it upon himself to shatter the tension like glass.
“I’ll never forgive myself for what I’ve done to her.”
Eva and Michial shared a look. Anthon grimaced. Ajax kept his gaze on the ceiling above,
refusing to meet the eyes of his family. His mother’s hand in his own was enough for the moment,
enough to allow him to sigh and close his eyes in relative, fake peace.
Until, of course, his father nudged Anthon playfully, “I won the bet. You owe me 20 mora.”
“Michial!” She punched his arm, “How could you be so heartless?!”
Ajax opened one eye, “And you bet that we’d break up? You sure do have a ton of faith in me,
dad.”
“I-I’m sorry! It was just a joke!” Sighing, he ruffled his hair, “I know you’ll get her back, you two
were made for each other... literally.”
If only it was that easy. He was entirely aware that he was a liar, a selfish villain who didn’t
deserve a woman like Lumine, and oftentimes people like him didn’t get their happy ending. He’d
considered destroying the sun, taking her light out of his world and keeping it for himself. And
despite not going through with it, he had still dimmed her in the process.
Silence fell between the family once more. It remained dark outside, the low hum of the wind the
only sound. As Ajax sighed and closed his eyes once more, he reminded himself why he had come
here in the first place.
He knew how to buy himself more time, he simply had to catch the opportunity when it arose.
The fire crackled pleasantly as Tonia stoked it. Eva continued to silently rub her thumb across the
back of his hand. The silence was comfortable, serene but melancholy, in a way. As optimistic as
Michial was, Ajax found his father staring at the wall with worried, furrowed brows.
This lasted until the loudest, most shocked, most squeaky-voiced gasped broke the silence.
“Mister Cyclops!”
Teucer’s announcement was muffled as he yelled from the second level. Instantly, there was the
sound of little feet rushing across a hallway and bounding down the stairs. He nearly tripped as he
screamed, “I see him! He’s outside!”
Eva stood up to approach her youngest. Before she could capture him - he was not supposed to be
awake at 3:00 a.m. - he rushed past her and darted towards the window.
Tonia gasped and caught up with her little brother, “What’re you talking about?”
“Look! Right there!” He pushed his face against the window, “It’s dark, but you can see him!
There’s even more in the backyard!”
It had to be the ruin guards Ajax had talked Aether into lending. Hopefully they wouldn’t attack
his family. He raised a floppy hand, “Teuc! Arent you going to say hi to me?”
“Oh,” he glanced over his shoulder, and lit up instantly, “Big brother! Did you bring me these
Mister Cyclopses?”
“You could say th-“ his breath was cut off as Teucer pounced onto his stomach and curled up
next to him. As aching as Ajax was, he couldn’t help but smile and pull the youngest closer, “J-
Just don’t mess with them too much, they’re here to protect the house.”
“Oh… but can I at least look at them?” Teucer gasped with wide eyes.
“Sure, bud, just stay a good distance away.”
“Will do!” They all knew he would climb over the ruin guards the first chance he got, but the
assurance was enough for the moment.
Michial stared him down, “Uh… Jaxie, why does the house need protection?”
Casual as ever, he fit his arms behind his head and closed his eyes, “You know, I’m feeling pretty
tired. I might sleep here tonight.”
“Don’t avoid the question!”
An innocent yawn, “Goodnight everybody.”
“You know, you could at least warn us about these things.”
“About what?” He opened one eye, “As they say in Liyue, those who just want speed don’t
succeed.”
Michial frowned, “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It would make sense if you ever went to Liyue, papa.”

Ajax would avoid an explanation as fervently as he possibly could. This had happened once
before on a rather terrifying mission involving a diplomat from Sumeru and a very angry monster.
Yet, Ajax had never shown up at their home with ruin guards in tow.
“Can I sleep here with you?” Teucer asked, as he was already making himself comfortable on a
pillow beside his brother, “And will you take me to see the Mister Cyclops up close when you
wake up?”
“Sure, Teuc, whatever you want.”
Eva and Michial sent him a warning look, mirror images of each other as Ajax avoided yet
another explanation. She put her hands on Tonia’s shoulders and led her to the stairs, “Come on,
your brother’s up to something weird again.”
“Night,” Michial sighed heavily and nudged Anthon towards the stairs, “Don’t get us all killed in
our sleep, okay?”
He snorted, “I’ll try my best.”
It, for once, was not a lie. Sleep hit him like an arrow to the back.
One and a half days worth of travel, five hours of sleep, followed by a groggy awakening at 8
a.m. And the comforting scent of breakfast wafting in from the kitchen.
Michial had his coffee, Teucer was drooling on the pillow, Tonia was attempting to brush the rats
out of her hair, and Anthon was complaining about doing dishes.
Overall, it was an incredibly normal morning.
And it was the third day. Time was up.
He didn’t want to admit how desperately he needed to sleep. He would not have been able to rest
if not for the sheer exhaustion of his travels. A flicker of guilt ate away at his chest as he realized
that Lumine had not yet arrived, and Aether disappeared last night after teleporting him.
It was all a blur, how he ended up on his parent’s couch. He recalls their questions, Teucer’s
excitement at the ruin guards, and the suspicion filling the air like a fog. He recalled, faintly, being
dragged through town by Aether - he was so much like Lumine, in that way - and succumbing to
the infinite darkness of his own mind.
Fortunately, he did not dream. He was sure it would have been only nightmares if so.
His day was already planned out for him. Go find Aether and mention his older siblings, greet
Lumine whenever she decides to arrive, and sit on the porch awaiting the inevitable forces of the
Tsaritsa.
With a rather nerve wracking day ahead, he could not bear to rest any longer.
Yawning, Ajax pushed himself up from the couch and glanced towards the kitchen, “Mama?”
“What?”
She was angry with him. He couldn’t catch a break with any of the women in his life, it seemed.
That was fine, as long as she was still living by the end of it all. “Can you make an extra plate?
There’s a bear in the woods I’ve been feeding.”
She peaked around the corner with a glare that could kill, “Is this bear going to be a threat to our
safety like everything else apparently is?”
“Oh, no, quite the opposite, actually,”
She tsked, “Fine, but don’t be out too long. Your brother will wake up soon and I doubt none of us
could hold him back from the ruin guards out there.”
Teucer would find a way outside no matter who held him back. As nerve wracking as it was to see
three live ruin guards standing outside of his house, he was sure Aether would have enough
perception to keep them from attacking the family.
“And also, where’s Sacha?”
Michial could answer this one, he was the most alert and awake Alekseev out of them all, “He’s
been running around town lately, I think he stays at the inn most nights. Doesn’t really explain
why, though…”
Ajax knew why. For once, Sacha was sticking close to home at his behest. The two had been
sending messenger hawks back and forth with news of any shady arrivals in Morepesok. He would
have to find him later and keep him closer to home for the children’s safety - and hopefully, he’s
acquired a nicer sword by now.
Groggy, with a wicked case of bed head, Ajax rolled off the couch and opened the drawer of
maps. He made two quick marks on them, grabbed the extra plate of food, and pulled on a pair of
warm boots. Teucer remained fast asleep on the couch as he went out the door.
Carefully, he stepped around the ruin guards. They were active, but took no notice of his
presence. In the far distance, on the cliff side overlooking the house, he caught a glimpse of a
figure against the grey morning sky. A long braid flipped around in the wind as Ajax and the Abyss
Prince met eyes.
The food would be cold by the time he finished the hike up there, but it was better than nothing.
Braving the frigid wind, he began making his way towards the figure atop the cliff.
10 minutes later, Ajax yelled through the trees as he approached, “Hey, I brought you breakfast!”
He saw Aether vaguely turn his head in acknowledgement, before returning his gaze to the ruin
guards below. Trudging through the snow, he grunted and pulled until he was finally atop the steep
hill, barely shielding the bacon and eggs from the cold with his arm.
“You look… well rested.” Aether cast him a flat glance.
“Relatively so, it’s enough to keep me going.” He hadn't slept for nearly two days, and used his
Foul Legacy for most of that time. His muscles ached the same as they did the first instance he
picked up a sword.
Aether grunted as he took the plate. He stared down at it as if he’d not eaten normal food in a
lifetime, a bit unsure of what to do with it. “Uh… thanks, I guess. And by the way…” he hesitantly
chewed on the end of the bacon, “don’t worry about the ruin guards down there. They’ll only
attack anything they deem a threat.”
Fortunately, they didn’t deem Teucer a threat. Teucer had apparently awoken soon after he left.
Ajax sat on the cliff's edge and watched his little brother bounce around the ruin guard like an
overly excited rabbit. Even with the distance and height between them, he thought he could see his
eyes shining in glee.
“It’s like a holiday to him,” he sighed, “I’ve got two more siblings in another village, here’s a
map to their houses,” he offered the folded paper and ignored the skeptical look on Aether’s face,
“just uh… send some ruin guards with a note, or something. They’re smart enough to stay inside if
I tell them to.”
“I’m not your damn babysitter, you know.”
Ajax sent him an innocent glance, “I thought you heard my prayers, oh vindicated Abyss Prince?”
His own words, weaponized in the most irritating way possible. “...I just hope this’ll be over with
soon.” He grunted.
That seemed to be the first subject the two could agree upon. Ajax thought of the day ahead with
a twinge of concern in his chest. He should have made sure Lumine was safe before finally resting,
though she couldn’t be far behind.
Once she arrived and was within a safe vicinity, he could carry out his line of plans in a neat and
orderly fashion.
“First, I’ve got to deal with whatever assassin she sends…” he frowned in absent thought, “if I
can leave them alive, and send a message back to the Tsaritsa, I can give us a few extra days to get
ready.”
“What kind of message?” Aether cast him a skeptical glance.
“Nothing much. Just that I plan to kill her myself, is all.”
A mindful pause. Another gust of wind that whipped his braid around wildly. As uncomfortable
as the situation was, it was good to be home.
“How… uh, charming.”
He couldn’t help but grin, “Isn’t it? That’s how I won your sisters heart.”
“Don’t joke about that,” instantly, Aether glared, “Lumine would never like an idiot like you.”
If only he knew. Ajax was quite the opposite of who Lumine tended to like, he could see why
Aether opposed the idea so vehemently. With a grimace, he ignored the painful skip of his heart as
he recalled how she threw her engagement ring at him. “I’d certainly hope not, I make a terrible
boyfriend.”
“Right, and don’t you forget it.”
Another sigh, another cloud over his parade, “You two are way more similar than you probably
want to admit.”
“Well…” he chewed on another piece of bacon, staring into the distance, “a lot of time has
passed. I doubt I’m anything like she remembers.”
500 years, apparently. He had been far too distracted with worry to question the Abyss Prince
thing yet, though he was aware that time moved differently there. Ajax wasn’t quite sure what to
think of this man at all. Lumine had always spoken of Aether as if the sun shined from his ass.
He was, apparently, strong and courageous, responsible, the smart twin who kept her out of
trouble. So often had she mentioned just how lost she felt without Aether. She was willing to die
simply because she assumed he was gone forever.
Ajax had never imagined her brother would be this empty eyed commander of monsters. He
watched as he grimaced down at the Alekseev house as if the thought of a happy family disgusted
him.
It only made him wonder about their childhood. Lumine never spoke much on that front, stating
that she didn’t have much memories of her former life, if any at all. Most of her past was a blur.
“So, what were your parents like?”
He cast him an even more disgusted glance, “I don’t remember.”
“Okay…” next question, “So, where did you guys grow up?”
A shrug, “Everywhere.”
That was no help at all. “Was Lumine a cute kid?”
“...Yes.”
That was something, at least. “How old is she really?”
He grunted, “Old.”
“But how old?”
“I don’t know,” an exasperated roll of his eyes, “I lost count, ask her.”
This was getting him nowhere. Aether was even more avoidant of his past than his sister. “Are
you and Lumine even human?”
The wind around them seemed to pause. He pressed his lips together in thought, before narrowing
his eyes, “Define human for me.”
That answered that.
“...Do you have feathers?”
“What? No.”
“Do you… still have your wings?”
That seemed to be the only question Aether looked excited to answer. Quickly, he set his plate
down in the snow and took a step back. Spreading apart his arms and flexing his fingers, he took a
deep breath, “I do, does Lumine not?”
Ajax shook his head, “No, the unknown god ripped them away.”
A grimace of empathy, and a shudder. “Jeez,” he flexed his shoulders, and out popped a set of
golden wings that floated away from his back, “She’ll get them back, I’ll make sure of it.”
He wasn’t sure what else to divulge. Aether looked as if he might explode upon learning of her
newfound fear of heights and frequent nightmares. “At least there aren’t feathers.”
“Where did you even get that idea?” Aether relaxed, the wings of gold shimmering away into
nothingness, “And why do you know so much about what happened to us?”
“Oh, you know Lumine,” Ajax waved a hand, “she trusts anything that breathes.”
He sighed heavily, “I’d hoped that she would’ve learned better by now…”
“Nope, still as cute and naive as ever!”
“...Cute and naive?”
He smiled innocently, “Incredibly so.”
The first second they seemed to get along, and tension decides to make its home between them.
Aether narrowed his eyes, the already cold air seeming to grow colder, “If I hear that you’ve hurt
her, I will rain hell down upon you.”
Unimpressed, Ajax kept his smile present, “Oh yeah?”
“Everything I’ve ever done is for Lumine… I would tear apart this world for her.”
He’d heard this speech before, just from his own mouth at the time. It sounded much cooler
coming from him, in his humble opinion. Aether was far too short to be threatening. “Well, so
would I.”
“...What do you mean?”
He meant a myriad of very precise things that Aether probably didn’t want to know about his
sister's love life. Such as their destined nine children, how their constellations resembled a squished
croissant, how Ajax would never love anybody other than Lumine. He would rip apart an entire
universe just to make her happy.
Yet, before Ajax could drop the ‘I once kissed your sister with tongue and she liked it’ bomb, a
familiar voice broke through the tension, shattering it like glass itself.
The change in Aether’s demeanor was abrupt. A sudden stiffening of his shoulders, a gasp that
puffed cold air in front of his face. He took a step back in retreat, while Ajax glanced towards the
house below for the source of the voice.
“Miss Lumi!”
A head of golden hair, a white dress. A little boy bounding across the snow-covered lawn to
tackle her with laughter. Lumine squatted and held out her arms to gather him into a hug, despite
how she was dripping wet and shivering.
She’d finally made it. Ajax’s heart skipped, though he could not decide if it was a pleasant
feeling, or from the anxiety of facing her once more.
“Don’t let her know I’m here,” Aether whispered frantically, “keep your mouth shut about our
deal- And stop staring at her like that!”
Like she was the moon. Staring as if she was the cosmos laid out before him. Ajax’s heart skipped
another nervous beat as he ran his hands through his hair, “Do I look okay? Is my hair messed up?”
“The entire right side of your hair is sticking up,” Aether responded flatly, “Why do you care,
anyway? My sister hates you.”
“Yeah,” a dreamy sigh, “she’s great like that.”
She was great like that, though Aether failed to see why Tartaglia thought so as well. Disgusted,
and mildly confused, he watched as the Harbinger stood up and lept off the cliff. He opened his
gliders to gently float down in front of Lumine.
Aether observed as the Harbinger attempted to look cool by crossing his arms and leaning against
the side of a ruin guard. Fortunately, Lumine simply glared in return.
The realization hit him like a brick dropped onto his head from above.
Sudden fire. Sudden disgust, such a mortal feeling, something Aether hadn’t felt in half a century.
“I think that idiot likes my sister… I’ll definitely have to throw him in the Abyss for that.”
“Hey beautiful.”
She couldn’t possibly punch him in front of Teucer. He knew that, he was taking advantage of the
security provided by his little brother.
How desperately Lumine wanted to punch him.
“Come here often?”
Did she come here, to his house in Snezhnaya, often? Did she come here specifically to see that
cheesy grin and his raised brow as he attempted to look suave? To answer both of those questions,
not at all.
Lumine only blinked. The Alekseev house looked the same as always - there was the porch swing
she had her incredibly embarrassing drunk moment on. Everything in Morepesok seemed perfectly
normal, besides the three ruin guards standing on the front lawn like garden ornaments.
Her gaze was flat and her stare burrowing, “What’s with the, uh…” a short glance down at the
eight year old currently attached to her hip, “Mister Cyclopses?”
“Oh, you know,” Childe waved a nonchalant hand, “For work. Just gotta make sure they’re real
superheroes and can protect a big group.”
Teucer, naturally, erupted into a sudden tirade about how it was utterly useless to have to test that
because of course Mister Cyclops was a real superhero! As the youngest Alekseev ranted in
defense of his dearest friend, Lumine and Childe locked eyes for just a moment.
And she could hardly breathe. She could hardly stand there, five feet away from him, without
feeling as if she might collapse. It was painful, the twist of a knife, salt in an open wound.
Childe seemed to have just as much trouble. He held his breath, letting it come out in a soft puff
of steam in front of his face. Finally, he tore his gaze away and broke the muffled, private world he
and Lumine resided in. He ran his hands through his hair and muttered, “Come on, Teuc, let’s go
inside.”
Another glance over his shoulder at the traveler. Another flash of something unexplainable in his
eyes, a nervous shift in his shoulders. Lumine avoided having to look at him as she allowed Teucer
to take her by the hand and lead her to the door, “Mama just finished breakfast, so you’re right on
time, Miss Lumine!”
She forced a smile, “Oh good, that traveling really did a number on me.”
“Yeah, I was wondering why you’re all wet…”
Childe sent her a shaky smile, “You’ll get better at it, I was always soaked when I first got my
hydro vision too.”
As much as she didn’t want his encouragement, she did feel that she needed a teacher in the hydro
teleport department. The amount of times her stamina ran out and she fell face first into freezing
snow was far too many to count. Yet, what little she could figure out had brought her to the
Alekseev household in time, at least.
It was the third day. The knowledge of what lies ahead draped over Childe and Lumine like a
heavy blanket. If they did happen to meet eyes, all that was shared between them was fear.
Teucer seemed to be the only one not unnerved by Lumine’s presence. She stepped into the living
room, holding his hand, and was immediately pinned into place by four sets of wide, curious eyes.
“Uh, hey-”
Before she could raise an awkward hand in greeting, Eva pounced - as she tended to do. “My
dear! My Lumi Lu!” She was far stronger than she looked, gathering Lumine up into a hug that
squeezed the very soul from her body. Faint, Lumine raised her hands and patted Eva’s back in
return. “Don’t worry! You’re still my daughter, no matter what my no-good son has done to you!”
Of course she would provide immediate reassurance. Over Eva’s shoulder, she caught a glimpse
of Childe rolling his eyes. Michial, being a whole head taller than both Eva and Lumine, wrapped
up the two of them in an even tighter, more soul-sucking hug. “We have your adoption papers
framed on our bedroom wall, still. You’ll always be a part of this family.”
Childe groaned in annoyance, “You got those papers from the local pound, they don’t count!”
“They do too count!” Tonia stomped a foot, “They say Lumine on them, and we only know one
Lumine!” They most certainly did not have a pet named Lumine, either. With a huff, Tonia joined
the hug, right as Teucer re-attached himself to her hip.
That left Anthon and Ajax to watch the love-squish from afar. Anthon, being 14 and entirely too
cool for hugs, only cast him a pitying glance, “Hey, bro?”
He blinked in surprise, “Yeah?”
“Can you teach me what not to do with girls?”
Ajax cast him a blank look, his eyes emotionless as he watched Anthon fight back a biting smile.
With a low murmur, he warned in Snezhnayan, “I’m going to stuff snow down your pants for that.”
“Hey!” Michial barked from his place in the hug, “No terrorizing your brother.”
Ajax put his hands up, “Sometimes he deserves it. He better watch his back from now on, that’s
all I’m saying.”
“He says he’ll stuff snow down my pants!” Anthon cried.

“Well maybe if you weren’t such a brat, you wouldn’t get snow in your pants, eh?”
As Lumine watched the familial threats/affection unfold, she could not help but feel the slightest
bit melancholy at the sight. While she knew that Ajax wanted children, she had rarely dedicated
any thought to the idea. Seeing him with his little siblings tended to arise this feeling deep in her
chest that she neither desired, nor acknowledged.
She could not handle it any longer, either. His parents still loved her, and she loved them in
return, but she was not sure if she could stand being in this house with Ajax longer than what was
necessary. It hurt to even glance at him.
Once the hug was over, Lumine’s awkwardness began to dissipate. She wasn’t sure what she was
worried about, possibly over Eva despising her for breaking up with her son. Each hesitation was
washed away as the matriarch took her hands and led her into the kitchen, babbling endlessly about
whatever it was she made for breakfast.
Lumine and Ajax brushed by each other. He pulled away so their skin did not dare to touch.
No eyes were met, and no words were exchanged.
Yet another crack of something unexplainable in his chest as a reminder of what they truly were,
underneath it all.
Once Lumine and Eva left, the awkwardness finally entered. Teucer was the only who didn’t
notice, his face pressed against the window as he watched the ruin guards outside. Tonia made a
quick excuse to go upstairs, leaving Michial and Anthon alone with the soon to be ex-Harbinger.
“So,” Michial began, “going to tell us exactly what’s going on?”
All Ajax could offer was a bitter smile, “Could you keep everybody inside today?”
“But why?”
He could barely handle the suspicion flashing over his father’s face. It was the same look he wore
when he was found in the woods at 14, spouting lies about how he got lost and received his vision
from fighting wild animals. As always, his family could see right through him.
He supposed of all times to be honest, now was the safest. While he could not bring himself to
speak the full truth, he could at least let his father know a sliver of the reality that beset him.
“Papa,” Ajax put a hand on his shoulder and sent him a serious look, “Lumine already hates me, I
can’t bear the thought of you and mama hating me either. I will do everything in my power to keep
you all safe, and that is what matters.”
A moment of contemplative silence. An unexplainable flash of something over Michial’s face. He

took a deep breath before twisting the knife further, “You can’t just ignore the consequences of
your actions forever, Jaxie. At some point, you’ll have to accept that you caused this problem,
that’s the first step to fixing it.”
He hated when his father was right.
Another clap of his shoulder, another faked smile. Ajax avoided his eyes and turned towards the
door, “I’ll be outside keeping watch, just please trust me today.”
“I… I do trust you.”
“Good,” he opened the door far more harshly than he meant, before stiffening and glancing over
his shoulder, “and could you see that Lumine gets some rest? She traveled just as much as I did.”
Two curious glances at the girl in the dining room. The dark circles beneath her eyes were just as
bad as Ajax’s. She closed her eyes and sipped on a cup of coffee with a sigh, as if she had not
rested in years. Though the traveling had only taken two days, it felt like months. She could only
sit in peace for a moment before she must defend this family from Ajax’s consequences.
He wanted to say something. Despite the tension between them, they were still linked, in a way.
Both exhausted, both concerned, and neither admitting their insurmountable fear.
“Hey,” Michial whispered, breaking his son from his reverie, “if you’re so damn sad about your
breakup, how about you stop pining and actually do something about it?”
He wasn’t aware that his pining was so obvious on his face. Tensing, Ajax sent him a silencing
glance, “I am doing something about it. Why do you think I’ve surrounded the house with
monsters?”
All Michial could do was groan, “You’re the reason I’m getting wrinkles at such a young age, do
you know that?”
“I assumed as much.”
“Just…” he grimaced and nudged him, “do what you’ve got to do, get it over with and try not to
get hurt in the process, okay?”
Ajax saluted playfully, “Yes sir!”
If only he felt as confident on the inside. He hated this emotion, worry and nervousness swirling
around in his stomach like an explosive cocktail. So rarely was Ajax ever truly worried over
anything in life, the Abyss had taught him how to keep his senses even in the most dangerous of
situations.
Yet, it was just him and Skirk in the Abyss. Now, he had his entire family to worry about.
Turning around and frowning, he made his way out the front door and to the porch. The ruin
guards kept watch on all corners of the house, providing a slight comfort in the face of danger.
While there was a chance an assassin could easily slip inside the house from a simple teleport spell,
he had a feeling that wouldn’t happen.
Tartaglia and the Tsaritsa were the most alike out of all her subjects. She was a warrior, she
enjoyed a head-on fight. While she allowed the Harbingers like Signora to take cover under ice and
snow, her personal preference happened to be the same as Tartaglia’s.
A battle. A fierce, honorable, devastating battle.
Her assassin would let its presence known before striking. And that was when Ajax would make
his first move.
He sat on the porch and began sharpening a sword, waiting for the fun to begin.
After finishing a cup of coffee, Lumine got to work on eating breakfast. She needed all the energy
she could get after spending the night hydro teleporting across Fontaine and Snezhnaya.
And she could hardly encompass just how odd she felt to be amidst her ex-boyfriend/fiance’s
family.
Tonia and Eva acted as if nothing happened. Michial gave her a fatherly pat on the head and
poured her more coffee. Lumine was even called to assist in dishes, just as a true daughter would
be. Nobody else seemed to feel awkward besides herself.
And absolutely nobody asked why they’d broken up. She knew they were aware of the
circumstances, assuming from Eva’s earlier apology for her ‘no-good son’. Yet, she had a feeling
that Ajax had not uttered even a word of detail or explanation.
After helping out in the kitchen with tense shoulders and a distracted mind, Lumine wandered
about the familiar and comfortable home. The fireplace crackled, there were still children’s
pictures on the walls. Teucer sat on the carpet and played with his Mister Cyclops doll,
occasionally shooting the actual ruin guards outside the window a longing glance. The peace and
security between the Alekseevs felt genuine, as if they had no idea what was coming for them.
She watched Ajax through the window. He sat cross legged on the top step of the porch,
sharpening his weapons. His gaze did not falter from the forest around the house.
Lumine simply couldn’t believe that she broke up with someone, and then went to his family
home to assist in protecting them. She was a pushover if there ever was one.
Yet, this would all be over soon. With the confirmation of Aether’s death from Mona and the
fortune teller, and the ultimatum before her, Lumine knew what her next move was.
And she knew that Ajax would not like it. (Which is exactly why secrets were invented. He was
not the only surreptitious one.)
When Eva’s back was turned, she approached the back door of the house. She knew that the forest
behind them was entirely empty of residents, and difficult to keep oneself from getting lost in.
Slipping out the door and into the backyard, Lumine took off in a sprint across the frost covered
ground.
Silent goodbyes, whispered apologies. She hoped Tonia and Teucer forgot about her as they grew
older, and that Eva and Michial would forgive her eventually.
She was not dressed warm enough for the Snezhnayan cold, but she knew it would not take long
for the assassin to find her. The Fatui were clever like that, they had to be keeping tabs on her
whereabouts.
Careful, she made her way past the ruin hunters guarding the yard. They paid her no mind as she
passed. How Ajax managed to get monsters to guard his family home was a mystery, though she
supposed he’d never tell her. He never did reveal anything to anyone.
As Lumine entered the forest, she kept her eyes open for any sign of Fatui activity nearby. Today
was the promised day, and if she was their target, she would make it incredibly easy for them.
While walking down the forest path, further away from the house, she shivered with an
unexplainable feeling of nervousness.
It felt as if someone, or something, was watching her. It’s eyes sent a tingle down her neck,
making the hair on her arms stand straight to attention.
It would only be a matter of time until they struck. And it was obvious that this was the only plan
that would work - whatever Ajax had up his sleeve could not possibly be enough.
The Tsaritsa wanted Lumine, and so she would have her.
She was ready to end this.

The Necessities of Starting A War
“Anybody died yet?”
Sacha would, soon, if he kept grinning at Ajax like an absolute idiot.
He didn’t even get a cooler sword like he told him to.
“Big brother,” Teucer, wide eyes and gasps, little hands holding his mini Mister Cyclops close to
his chest. All of this was directed to Ajax, who found that he could hardly handle it, “Why would
someone die?”
It’s not like an eight year old could even comprehend the idea of death, let alone his entire
family’s death. Ajax was not about to be the one to introduce him to it, either. It was precisely why
he stared Sacha down like a wolf about to strike.
“Nobody’s going to die, Teuc…” there was venom laced in his voice, Ajax’s eyes lingering on
his older brother, while his fingers brushed through Teucer’s hair affectionately, “Sacha’s just
being stupid.”
It wasn’t as if Sacha even knew what was truly happening. He’d been getting messenger birds
from Ajax asking for updates on the situation in Morepesok, but never an explanation. Yet, visiting
his family’s home and running straight into an active ruin guard, with his little brother sitting on
the steps like a diligent watchdog, was explanation enough.
Teucer, of course, sat beside him with his toys. He’d most likely be safer next to Ajax than inside
the house anyhow.
Sacha, despite the playful nature and lax lifestyle, was quite perceptive about his little brother.
Pavol was too old and busy with his own life to pay much attention to Ajax, besides lecturing him
about how much he stressed out their parents. And Anastasia had always been far too motherly
towards him to read between the lines.
Sacha was the one who learned how to handle Ajax. He’d notice that familiar gleam of danger in
his eyes, and promptly escort him up the mountain to fight mitachurls in an attempt to work out his
energy. He would personally deal with the horror of what this 14 year old could do. Ajax never
told him where he learned to fight, or why he adored battle so ardently. And Sacha didn’t quite care
to know, either.
And perhaps that was a mistake, blindly enabling that violence. Sacha partly blamed himself the
moment he noticed Ajax getting bored of mitachurls and moving onto humans. But he supposed
Ajax would do what he wanted no matter where his energy was redirected.
Yet, in all his years of spectating the trail of chaos that was his little brother, Sacha had never seen
him like this.
“I didn’t notice anything weird in town, and the port is clear of boats today.”
That was all he could offer to the tense, dark eyed man before him. He watched as Ajax hummed
to himself in thought, stretched his legs, and continued to keep watch over the house.
Whatever was happening, it was more serious than ever.
But Sacha knew better than to question. The more Ajax was pushed, the less he’d be willing to
comply. He was charming like that.
“Stay inside, make sure everybody stays safe.” Ajax jerked his chin in the direction of the front
door. “Don’t let anyone go outside.”
Teucer glanced up at him, “Is everything okay?”
“Yes, varobushek.” A smile, an innocent ruffle of his hair, his demeanor changing instantly as he
acknowledged Teucer’s flicker of concern. “What do we do when there’s a blizzard?”
“Stay inside?”
“Right,” he smiled, “it hasn’t started yet, but when it does I’m going to need you to make sure
Tonia and mama are safe.”
That always got Teucer excited, having the opportunity to be anything like Ajax. It tended to
unnerve his parents when he jumped upon the chance to feel a rush. He hoped to redirect that
energy towards a far lighter path in life than his own. Fortunately, Teucer was naturally inclined to
goodness - yet, then again, so was Ajax at that age.
He held the Mister Cyclops doll closer to his chest, looking up at his big brother with wide eyes,
“Do you really think I could do that? I’ve always wanted to be as strong as you, but I’m so…” he
frowned to himself, “short.”
“Hey, I was just as short at your age!”
Sacha laughed, “It’s true. He was a little shrimp.”
“Really?” He gasped.
“Really,” a nod, and yet another forced smile, “besides, it’s not about how you look-“
“But I want to look cool!”
He scoffed playfully, “Everybody wants to look cool, Teuc, but that’s not what being strong is
about. It’s about...”
A young girl and her husband, a hurricane. A ship unprepared as the waves overtook them. A
death, a vision of ice, true strength through the sacrifice of the young girl’s most important earthly
attachment.
Once he was gone, the rope that kept her down was cut, and she could finally ascend to Celestial.
True strength comes from what we lose.

If that was true, then why did Ajax have the courage to kill a God for Lumine?
He took a deep breath before faking yet another smile, “It’s about protecting the people you love.
You shouldn’t want to get stronger just to look cool,” a playful tousle of his hair, “it should be to
keep your family safe.”
Teucer stared up at him, “Do you keep us safe?”
Of course he had to ask a question like that. He always knew how to tug at his brothers heart
strings, “I… I try my best.”
Sacha gasped, offended, “I try my best too, Teuc! You never ask me how to get strong!”
Teucer cast him a blank stare, “Maybe you should actually get a job first, bro, then I’ll ask you.”
“That’s so unfair!”
Ajax shot him a look, “Life isn’t fair. Now get inside and close all the curtains for me.”
“Do I have to go inside too?” Teucer asked.
The only reason Ajax had allowed him to be outside in the first place was to calm the family
down a bit. No matter how safe Teucer was at his side, he’d prefer to have several layers of wall
between him and whatever monstrosity the Tsaritsa decided to send.
“Yep,” he nudged him towards the door, “the blizzard’s starting sometime today.”
Teucer squinted up at the sky, “It doesn’t look like there’ll be a blizzard.”
“Believe me, there’ll definitely be a blizzard.”

“Come on,” Sacha pulled Teucer up, “let’s go get ready for this.” He opened the door to nudge
him through, before glancing over his shoulder to watch Ajax continue to sharpen his sword, “Is
your lady here?”
He shrugged, “She’s inside. Keep your hands off her if you want to keep your fingers.”
“Yes sir,” a playful salute and a grin, “Maybe she’ll be more willing to tell me what’s going on.”
He doubted it. Lumine would explode before she gave a clear explanation. He listened as Sacha
followed Teucer inside and called out for the traveler far too flirtatiously for his tastes. The door
shut with a bang, and he was left alone to his thoughts once more.
He was going to kill an Archon for his family. He was going to wage war for their sakes, for
Lumine. As angry as he was, there was very little Ajax feared right now - not his own death, but
the death of those he loved.
This had to be true strength.
The noise inside the house died down. Ajax took a deep breath, keeping his eyes on the
surrounding forest for any sign of movement. Behind him, doors slammed, and footsteps
resounded through the walls, a voice calling out as they tramped through the hallways.
It was just a moment later that the front door swung open. It banged harshly against the side of the
house, immediately catching Ajax’s attention. He twisted around to see Sacha leaning with both
hands on the frame. His breath was heavy and his eyes wide.
“Your girl isn’t here. Tonia said she saw her heading East into the woods by herself.”
And that was when the world decided to stop.
In the Fatui-infested woods, where it was cold and empty, where he had fallen into the Abyss. By
herself, neck displayed so easily as she handed herself over on a silver platter. Ajax could hardly
breathe.
She was doing it again. She was trying to fix this on her own.
Did she truly value her life so little?
“Go back inside, Sacha.”
“And keep them calm?”
“Yes. Now.”
He couldn’t leave his family alone here, but he couldn’t allow Lumine to get herself killed either.
There was only one option.
“Aether!” A call for help as he scrambled to his feet and faced the cliff in the distance, “Get down
here!”
There was no familiar figure overlooking the home, no braid whipping in the wind. Ajax scowled
at the absence and tensed, ready to call out again, until the feeling of cold steel against his neck
silenced his every word.
He had no time to think anything besides a curse for his distraction. Panic always clouded the
mind, he knew this. Before he could react, the blade on his skin pulled away, “You haven’t been
keeping an eye on her, bastard.”
Ajax heaved a great sigh and turned around, “Well, I’m stretched a little thin here. I didn’t expect
her to sneak out the back door.”
“Why not?” Aether challenged, the fury evident on his face, “You told me she asked you to kill
her, why do you think she’d give up so easily on a resolution like that?”
Because they kissed and rolled around in a field of wildflowers, and she felt like honey on his lips
- and perhaps, just maybe, he was too much of an optimist.
Ajax glared, half due to the condescension, half to the fact that Aether decided to greet him by
putting a blade to his neck. He was being an incredibly rude future in-law. “You just stay here, I’ll
go find her.”
“Why do I have to stay here?”
He narrowed his eyes mockingly, “What happened to not revealing yourself to her?” A beat of
silence, with tension thickening the air as quite enough of an answer for Ajax, “Right, so I’ll go
find her, you stay here and make sure nobody dies.”
Aether nearly snarled, “Fine. I’ve already sent something to slow her down anyway.”
As ominous as that was, Ajax had no time to question him. With a scowl, he took off in a run. He
summoned his lance and rounded the corner at the side of the house, going in the direction Sacha
mentioned.
Aether could only glare at the spot the Harbinger just stood.
He really didn’t like this guy. It was fine, though, he’d die while fighting the Tsaritsa soon
enough.
“Hey.”
Aether nearly jumped at the sudden intrusion on his thoughts. Glancing to his left, he locked
gazes with a teenage boy leaning against the door frame. He was obviously Tartaglia’s kin,
freckled, pale and analytical. Aether hadn’t seen any of his family yet, and he found that he didn’t
quite care to.
The boy held up a cup in his hand, incredibly too casual as he spoke to the oddly dressed traveler
standing on his front lawn, “Want some fruit punch?”
“Uh,” Aether wasn’t exactly sure what a fruit punch was, it sounded like a threat, “not right now,
thank you.”
“Okay,” he glanced over his shoulder and yelled, “Mom, Jax’s friend doesn’t want any! ...Okay.”
He looked back at him, “She wants to know if you want a sandwich.”
This would be a very long afternoon.
“...What kind of sandwich?”
An hour of walking through the woods, and Lumine had not encountered even one assassin. The
Fatui could be so rude.
She tried her best to look defenseless. She shivered in the snow, she jumped at the rustling of
leaves, she even said ‘Oh my, I’m so lost!’ out loud for anyone to hear. Despite these several
attempts, nobody approach to murder her - it was incredibly disappointing.
Snezhnaya was beautiful, especially so on the day of her death. She always imagined her life
ending in some wonderfully bloody war, though she supposed being killed for the sake of an
innocent family was just as honorable. It would not be nearly as fun, but at least the trees around
her sighed with the wind, at least the sky above was an oddly pretty mixture of grey and blue. At
least she could see something nice before her life was taken.
Lumine was aware that she was incredibly overdramatic. Yet, she was also aware that the Fatui
were ruthless. They would stop at nothing to follow through on a promise, let alone a mission
given by the Tsaritsa.
Once, Childe had told her that family comes first in the Motherland, and perhaps this was an
example of that. Her majesty was observing just how far he would go for his loved ones. It would
be a pretty thought if it was not so destructive.
She wasn’t sure what Childe was planning. The problem was created by Lumine’s existence, so
naturally, Lumine would be the solution. He was ignoring the obvious; Her death would fix
everything.
And she was utterly terrified.
Snow crunched beneath her boots satisfyingly. Wind blew through her body, racking her with
shivers as she carried along through the forest. With the lack of living greenery, it wasn’t
particularly thick, yet remained covered in thorns and dead leaves. She didn’t have enough time to
dress better for the weather, a fact that she found herself regretting.
Her thighs stung with unnoticed scratches and cuts from the brambles. Her shoulders would not
stop shaking, no matter how hard she willed herself to be still. The tips of her ears and fingers felt
numb with each passing second.
Nevertheless, Lumine would not let herself turn around. Continuing her walk through the woods,
she huffed and frowned to herself in determination.
Moments ago, the feeling of being watched left her. The hairs on the back of her neck no longer
stood, her shoulders no longer tensed, yet she still found herself on edge. If the assassin was going
to kill her, she’d like to just get it over with. Lumine did not appreciate being toyed with like a
mouse in a cat’s paw.
As she walked, that feeling slowly began once more. It traveled up her back, trailing each bump
and ridge along her spine, until it sat on her neck and wrapped it’s cold hands around her windpipe.
Before she could stop to consider the eeriness of it all, a shockingly familiar babble caught her
attention.
The shake of the ground, the rustling of the trees. The ancient, ominous language of machines.
How Lumine did not notice the ruin guard sneaking up behind her, she had no idea. With a
numbing body, all of her senses had begun to dull, leaving her truly defenseless in the case of a
giant mechanical action figure-thing walking up to her.
She whirled around. It stared down at her. She wondered if learning the ruin guard language was
possible, they always seemed to be saying something profound. Yet this one stood in absolute
silence.
Lumine really wasn’t in the mood for this.
“I’m really not in the mood for this.”
The ruin guard continued to stay perfectly still in it’s soft hum of turning gears and steam. Eerie,
lanky, and unnatural.
It hadn’t attacked her yet. It wasn’t squatting and shooting rockets, it wasn’t clapping its hands or
whirling it’s arms. It wasn’t attempting to squish her like a bug. It was simply… still.
Lumine narrowed her eyes in annoyance, “Shoo! Go on, get away from me!”
The thing had to be malfunctioning. It was clearly alive , it’s core glowing with abyssal energy
and gears turning against its own rust. Yet, it continued to stand there. Staring.
There was nothing she could do besides kill it, and she wasn’t in the mood for that kind of fight.
Slowly, Lumine turned around. She shot it yet another glance, frowning in suspicion as she took
one step away. With the snow crunching under her boots, she began to take her leave from the
malfunctioning robot.
Yet, before she could retreat too far, a set of thick, metallic fingers pinched the back of her dress.
She gasped at the sudden intrusion; it all happened too quickly. Her feet were lifted from the
ground, the snow drawing further away from her sight as she dangled between the ruin guard’s
fingers like a rag doll.
Slowly, shocked, Lumine glanced over her shoulder. The ruin guard was holding her, not
dissimilar to a cat grabbing a kitten by their neck.
The chaos, like all good chaos in the world, started very abruptly.
“Let me go!” Lumine kicked and screamed mid-air, her heart racing, “Put me down! I’ll tear out
your circuits and strangle you with them!”
A ruin guard had never picked her up before. They never touched her so gently, as if trying to
protect her. Her limbs swung with movement as it turned around and began walking in the opposite
direction.
Lumine froze. Each step was world shaking, leaving huge footprints in the snow as it carried her.
While her legs were tired - she was still exhausted from teleporting to Morepesok as quickly as she
did - she didn’t want to be kidnapped.
“Where are we going?” She twisted around to cast its core a curious glance, as if it had an
expression she could read.
No answer. Not even a garble of ancient language.
She grimaced at the silence, “Fine. But you know, you’re going the wrong way. This’ll take us
back to the house.”
Nothing.
“Who’s even controlling you?”
Lumine wasn’t sure what she was expecting. It wasn’t as if a ruin guard would suddenly break
out into human speech - she imagined it would have a Fontaine accent, though, that really fit the
image. When another few seconds passed with no answer, she huffed and continued to dangle her
limbs in the air absently.
Either her life was becoming a weird romance novel where the ruin guard was taking her back to
it’s home to be it’s bride, or someone was controlling its movements. She wanted to believe the
latter.
With miles to go until they returned to the Alekseev house, Lumine could only sigh and close her
eyes. The front of her dress’s corset was beginning to dig in her skin with each new footstep, and
the increase in speed and height numbed her fingers against the cold even worse. Yet, there seemed
to be no way to escape, unless she were to rip her clothes off, and in this weather that would be a
death worse than assassination.
Perhaps this ruin guard was the assassin. The Fatui were backhanded enough to control monsters,
though she frowned at how disrespectful that would be. To be killed by a ruin guard, of all things.
Now they were just mocking her.
Until, it stopped.
Her eyes shot open with the sudden halt in it’s heavy footsteps. It’s mechanical body froze, not
only in place, but literally, with frost creeping up through it’s gears and covering the rust in a sheen
of white.
Lumine began to struggle once more. It continued to hold her, despite stiffening. It’s core
flickered as its power shut down. She kicked and punched and writhed until the last flicker. And
with what could only be called a dying breath in a mechanical language, the ruin guard dropped off
into distorted tones. Slowly, as if releasing a clamp, it’s fingers jerked and twitched, and she was
abruptly dropped into the snow.
Cold slush filled her eyes, her mouth, her hair. Lumine sputtered as she pushed her body up,
“What the hell?” Next to her, the ruin guard fell in much the same way, the impact blowing up yet
another flurry of snow that covered her back and arms.
More than before, her senses heightened from the bitter chill. Something had attacked her
kidnapper, or perhaps someone.
She scrambled up and whirled around just in time to hear the sound of boots crunching across the
snow. White pants, a blue jacket, a striped vest and a mask that covered most of the intruder’s face.
Lumine brushed the snow dust from her arms before finally taking all of her savior in.
The ruin guard was not the assassin. This man was.
“Hey there!”
And he was smiling as if greeting a new neighbor.
Were all Harbingers like this? La Signora seemed to be the only one who’d made her villainous
intent clear from the beginning. Childe greeted her with a smile, Scaramouche greeted her with a
smile, and now this man, who she remembered as Il Dottore, looked positively amicable.
Lumine could only grimace flatly, “Are you here to kill me?”
“What?” His response was immediate, shock collecting on his face. Behind the mask, she saw his
eyes widen, “No, not at all!”
She put her hands on her hips, “So you’re just having a little visit for tea?”
“...Is that so wrong?”
She supposed it wasn’t. She was engaged to a Harbinger at one time, and one of her best friends
was in a pseudo-relationship with a Harbinger. She knew they could be civilized when not
working, though she found herself remaining suspicious when they showed up randomly on a day a
literal assassin was coming to visit.
Dottore was a catalyst user. The book hovered above his palm for a moment, tendrils of frost
rising from it’s pages like smoke. That explained the quiet of his attack, how he was able to sneak
up on the ruin guard and freeze it’s gears like a creeping plague.
She supposed it wasn’t so wrong to visit for tea, if only that was his true intent. Lumine crossed
her arms and glared, “Leave his family alone, just kill me and get it over with.”
All Dottore could do was shrug as his catalyst disappeared, “I’m not the one that’ll be killing you.
I-I mean, no offense,” he put up a hand and laughed, “not that you’re not… you know, killable.
You’re very killable, but that’s not really my mission today.”
She was pleased to be considered killable, though she disagreed with the sentiment. “Then what’s
your mission?”
“You know,” yet another nonchalant shrug, “sometimes all they need is a little push, that’s what
I’m here for.”
“Who’s they?”
He was unnerving with his smiles and perfect posture. It was natural instinct to be wary of a man
like this, who spoke so casually of how killable she was.
“The subjects, the experiment…” Dottore hummed absently for a moment, “Her Majesty has this
terribly interesting philosophy of how loss affects one’s strength. Triumph over grief, and all that,
the cold hardening of a heart.”
Lumine lifted her chin arrogantly, “Do you agree with it?”
She knew Childe did, at least for a moment. He’d almost killed her for this philosophy.
Dottore blinked as if he was pleasantly surprised that she asked. “It’s nice… but I’m more
interested in the process of it all.”
Lumine still didn’t understand what he was rambling on about. Her heart continued to race,
though she held her ground, not daring to break eye contact, “The process?”
“The process!” He wagged a finger, grinning, “I like human behavior, I like to study it. And I’m
interested to see how Tartaglia will react when truly faced with an ultimatum.”
None of it made sense. She thought having to kill her was the difficult decision. “He’s already
facing the ultimatum. And he’s not accepting either decision.” Lumine informed with a huff.
“Yes, yes, trying to have his cake and eat it too,” Dottore waved a hand, “but that’s also very
interesting, you know. Whatever he has planned is sure to be fun to watch... It’ll fail, but it’ll be a
good time nevertheless.”
Lumine felt a flicker of irritation at his tone. Talking simple trash about Childe was one thing, but
insulting his determination was an entirely different matter. Her glare deepened. Dottore took
immediate notice, and broke out in a resplendent, mocking grin.
“Hitting a little too close to home, am I, traveler?”
Her voice was tense as she spoke through her teeth, “I don’t know what you mean.”
Dottore put his hands behind his back and lifted his chin, standing up straight to playful attention
as he explained, “Tartaglia reported to me that you wanted to make it fair between you and him
with the gnosis. Do you recall trying your best to somehow let you both win in the end? And… Do
you recall how that failed?”
And resulted in the Jade Chamber dropping like a brick, and a necessary three months of
Lumine’s anger to culminate into more stupid emotions. “This is different,” she snapped, “this is
about his family’s lives. Do you really think he’d let himself fail?”
It wasn’t a matter of allowing himself to fail. No amount of determination was strong enough to
end the will of the Gods. Dottore watched her carefully, “So… are you siding with him?”
“No!” She tensed, “I just want to hand myself over so his family isn’t in danger anymore!”
A smile, “Then why are you defending his plan to save both you and his family?”
Lumine thought that was obvious enough. The best paths were often the hardest to traverse, and
while she was not following the same path as Childe, she understood why he took it. She would do
the same in his position - which was exactly why she was willingly giving herself over, it was far
less bloody than the war that lay ahead.
“Just kill me, kidnap me, whatever,” Lumine closed her eyes and sighed heavily, ignoring the
shaking of her knees and the shiver in her arms, “get it over with, and leave them alone.”
Dottore stared. His expression remained pleasant, processing her words as he gazed at the
shivering girl. Lumine had finally broken their eye contact, resembling a shaken baby deer standing
in the snow.
He could only smile, “You really are interesting, traveler. Okie dokie.”
Okie dokie?
“What?” Her eyes shot open with surprise.

He took a step forward and put his hand on her arm, smiling down at her, “Let’s get it over with!”
And just a moment ago, he was saying that it wasn’t his job. Lumine remained suspicious as he
rested his hand on her back and nudged her forward, in the same direction the ruin guard had been
carrying her towards. Just two miles away was the Alekseev house, the very home she was
determined to protect.
He cast the ruin guard a curious glance, eyes wide, “Shame.”
“Shame?” She looked up at him, “I thought it was one of yours?”
“Oh, gosh no… I wish,” he laughed “but I’m not sure what was going on, truthfully. It seemed to
want to take you somewhere, and that would be no good, getting in the way of the mission and all.
They’re really fascinating creatures, though, I wish I could research this one further.”
The ruin guard who picked her up was not a Fatui scheme. She shivered at the possibilities of
what it possibly had wanted, whether it was a malfunction, or something akin to the unusual
hilichurl. Whatever Childe was using to tame the ruin guards surrounding his house may also have
applied to this one.
Which would mean the odd creature was sent to bring her back. How annoying.
“You know this is the wrong way, right?” She informed Dottore, who only blinked in sudden
surprise.
“Isn’t this the way to his home?”
“Yes, the wrong way.”
“No,” he shook his head slowly, “it’s the right way, then, I’m taking you back to Tartaglia.”
She needed a moment to process that. He was taking her back to Childe, who would most
certainly attack him on sight. He was taking her back to his home, where his family would be in
danger.
He was taking her to Tartaglia to finish the mission.
And whatever that meant for her life was beyond her exhausted mind’s comprehension. Lumine
stared at the glittering snow beneath her feet, “So… what does this mean?”
“Oh, nothing much,” he ruffled her hair with a leather gloved hand, grinning all the while, “I’m
just going to make sure he kills you, then take him back to Zapolyarny as a prisoner. He’ll have his
head cut off for planned treason, all the good stuff.”
All the good stuff.
She really wasn’t in the mood for this.
Lumine was into action immediately. She summoned a dagger, twisting it around her palm and
pointing the blade to her stomach. Dottore, unphased, caught her wrist, “Oh, stop it drama queen.”
She supposed preparing to stab herself would be quite dramatic, though she couldn’t bring herself
to care much. Her heart raced, her palms grew sweaty despite the cold. Lumine felt out of breath as
she struggled against his grip, “L-Let me go!”
He leaned in, fingers tightening on her skin, “This is only ending one way, traveler… He’s going
to kill you. His family will be safe, don’t worry…” a soft, careful smile as his voice dropped to a
whisper, “isn’t this what you wanted? Why does it matter if it’s him who plunges the dagger?”
Because he didn’t want to. She’d already asked, and was unable to shake that hurt in his eyes from
her memory. Yet, she’d take a hilichurl, she’d take a very sharp rock. Lumine was entirely too
ready to end this.
Without realizing, her struggling dimmed. She stared past Dottore’s shoulder, eyes blank and lips
parted in a soft sigh. The cold surrounded her once again, a blanket of frost and deception, freezing
every trepidation until she relaxed beneath the Harbinger’s grip.
All Lumine could do was whisper, “Don’t let his family see.”
An oddly pleasant, mildly sad smile, “I’ll frost the windows and doors so they won’t, I promise.”
Thank you. She wanted to say it outloud, but fear was a strong paralyzer. She felt limp as Dottore
leaned back and yanked her wrist so she stumbled after him. The snow began to fall harder over her
shoulders and into her hair, and the wind was harsher than ever.
She didn’t even realize that she’d dropped her dagger. She could easily summon another, but he’d
only stop her once more. She could hold her breath until she suffocated, but he’d find some way to
open her mouth again. She could bang her head against a tree, but there was a big chance that
wouldn’t be enough to kill her.
She had no poison. She had nothing subtle to end her life with. Her only options would never
work, and he was moving so quickly that the Alekseev house was already visible through the
trees.
This was it. This was the moment. And she was being watched again, the feeling of cold eyes
drawing up her back returning. Lumine could hardly bring herself to care any longer.
Yet, as with many problems in the world, it was solved by a very sharp stick and a lot of anger.
“Hey, Dottore! Heads up!”
It wasn’t what Lumine would choose to say while lunging from the branches of a tree with an
electrified lance, but it worked for Childe.
He released her wrist instantly. Lumine stumbled back as Dottore was taken down in a flash of
black and purple. The heel of Childe’s boot dug into his neck ferociously as he pushed him face-
down into the snow. His polearm twisted, and with a jerk of his body, he buried the tip into the
snow.
Yet, Dottore would not be defeated so easily. He grunted in annoyance, his voice muffled and his
movements stiff. He managed to lift his head and snap his fingers, causing Childe to stumble
forward as the man he stood on disappeared.
“Dammit,” he cursed, “I hate it when he does that! Come on,” he spread his arms to the empty air
around him, “stop hiding and face me already.”
(Ajax had never looked so beautiful. Lumine despised thinking that.)
No magic was perfect, nothing could be entirely hidden. A ball of frosty air and snowflakes
behind Childe caught her attention. Lumine gasped and summoned her sword, “He’s right there!”
There was no need for further communication. Lumine and Childe fought together like they were
born for it. He whirled around, slashing through the spot with a flash of electro and watching it
dissipate with narrowed eyes. There was not even a half second allowed for silence, before Dottore
flickered back into existence behind him.
Lumine lunged with her sword. He stepped back, missing the tip by only a hair’s breadth. Childe
was into action just as quickly. He took the spot at her side and jabbed, as she swung, a dance of
natural reflexes against their constantly disappearing enemy.
Dottore was like a flurry of snow on the wind. He was to her left one moment, then reappearing at
her right. The grin never left his face, even when her sword made contact with his jacket and dyed
it red.
All he did was grin. All he did was laugh, disappear - play with his food.
Until, finally, he grew bored, as every predator did. The game could only be kept up for so long.
His next reappearance was a flash of cryo and snow in the distance. He was a half mile away,
white and blue suit visible behind the thin, dead tree branches. Both Lumine and Childe froze in
sudden shock.
And unconsciously, without a second thought, his hand found hers.
“So, since you’ve made your decision…” Dottore yelled out, playful all the while, “I guess I’ll
just move onto plan B. You know I have no qualms killing children, Tartaglia, I’m not sure why
you’re even playing this game with someone like me.”
It’s not as if they got to choose their opponent. Childe couldn’t go to the Tsaritsa and complain as
if Dottore was a crappy waiter. “If you keep talking I’ll cut out your tongue.”
“Oh, how feisty!”
He was mocking them. Childe only rolled his eyes and teleported forward to catch up with the
retreating Harbinger through the trees.
Lumine followed as quickly as she could. Despite Ajax’s casual demeanor, she knew that his
heart had to be racing just as quickly as hers. He went as fast as he could. Him and Dottore were
two barreling meteors, heading to the same undefended destination.
Lumine didn’t mind being left behind. She didn’t mind that Childe didn’t speak to her, only
giving her hand a short squeeze and a grimace before chasing after Dottore. It had all happened too
abruptly, too chaotically. There was hardly any time to think of her fiancé popping out from the
trees and assaulting her kidnapper.
She wondered how long Ajax had known that she was gone, and who was watching the house in
his absence. Without another thought, she let her tired legs carry her back into the Alekseev’s
backyard.
And as Dottore promised, the windows were frosted over. The hinges to the doors were covered
in a thick layer of ice, preventing them from opening. If Childe’s family knew what was happening
outside, she could not tell. It had been so peaceful before she left.
Dottore had already taken out the ruin hunters guarding the back yard. Lumine arrived as the last
one fell.
Childe held a dagger in each hand. The two Harbingers were like a pair of wolves about to rip out
each other’s throats, neither daring to move first. Lumine’s heart skipped a painful beat as he
noticed just how close Dottore was to the back door. It would just take one movement, and he’d be
inside the house.
“Well,” Lumine shattered the tension like glass, “lot of good those ruin guards did.”
Dottore only smiled, “Yeah, fascinating things, really, but fragile if you know where to hit… How
you got them to stay here, though, that’s what I’m wondering.”
That’s what everybody had been wondering. Lumine knew she was being watched by something,
then. There was the possibility of more Fatui assassins waiting for Dottore’s command, and as
strong as she and Ajax were, they could only do so much.
“They’re really more to discourage you,” Ajax shrugged, his knuckles turning white with how
desperately he clutched his swords, “it was worth a try, at least.”
Anything was worth a try when it concerned the protection of his family. Dottore took a step off
the porch and walked through the snow. He circled around Ajax with a grin that could easily be
mistaken for polite, if not for the dangerous gleam in his eye. When he finally took the place
behind him, beside a fallen ruin guard, Dottore clasped his hands behind his back, “Well, shall we
begin? I’ll let you choose your fate, Tartaglia.”
He rolled his eyes, “How kind.”
Dottore ignored the sarcasm, “You could either kill Lumine, or let me kill your family. It’s a
rather easy choice, is it not?”
“Ah yes,” he held his weapon tighter, as if one could hold back an eruption of hot lava, “So easy.
And what if I don’t do either?”
“Then everybody dies.”
A mocking smile, a step forward as he approached Il Dottore dangerously, “I don’t think you
understand… I have my own agenda.”
“Oh?”
Ajax flickered her eyes to Lumine. She met his gaze.
That was the beautiful thing about starmates. A glance, a nod, the hint of a smile.
And Lumine lunged.
The fight was just as before, abrupt and seamless. A disappearance, a flash of frost. Her sword cut
through air, and Ajax summoned his lance to jab at the next spot Dottore would appear. He barely
managed to dodge each one.
Yet another swipe, a swerve, a roll. Lumine took her destined place at Ajax’s side, moving in
synchronization to the one man the stars decided for her. It was a dance, a violent waltz as they
tried desperately to meet Dottore in the middle.
He was quicker than both of them. Yet, little did anyone know... The ice was beginning to melt.
The more Dottore dodged and avoided, the less his focus remained. He was a wisp on the wind,
grinning and revelling in the joy of the fight. He had promised to shield Tartaglia’s family, yet he
found himself entirely unaware of the young boy forcing the door open.
Teucer was the fastest in his school. Teucer could slip past even the most observant of eyes.
While Sacha and Michial kept everybody busy in the basement, Teucer saw his opportunity for
adventure.
If only three Mister Cyclopses did not lay dead on the ground. If only Dottore’s ice over the door
hinges did not melt. If only Teucer did not see Lumine and Ajax fighting that oddly dressed man.
Big brother and big sister would never hurt Mister Cyclops. The culprit was obvious by his
wicked gleam and unnerving laughter.
To be strong, one must protect the ones they love.
And Teucer really loved Mister Cyclops.
“Stop right there!”

An immediate acquiesce. Wide eyes and surprised gasps. The ice on the door hinges was now
reduced to a puddle.
And most importantly, Teucer’s small finger was pointed straight at Dottore.
“You hurt Mister Cyclops!”
The Harbinger did not miss a beat. He stood up straight, tilting his head and gripping his catalyst
in hand, “I did? Huh…” he glanced down at the ruin guard, “Yes, I suppose that name works for
them too, they do look like cyclopses…”
Ajax could barely speak with his heavy tongue and empty lungs. He thought of nothing else
except for Dottore’s eyes landing on the most innocent creature on Teyvat.
“Teuc, go inside, now.”
Instantly, his little brother furrowed his brows in hurt, “Are you mad at me?”
“Yeah?” Dottore shifted his gaze to Childe, “Are you mad at him? He’s just trying to help.”
It was obvious to anyone with eyes that Childe was not angry. He was terrified. He was pale, with
tense shoulders and fingers just itching to jump upon his enemy and rip him apart. Yet, Teucer
watched him, seconds away from losing the childhood innocence that was so treasured.
After a beat of silence, it was all Dottore could do to groan and roll his eyes, “All this staring is
boring! You’ve made your decision, Tartaglia. Live with the consequences!”
And with that, he shot off towards Teucer.
Yet, little did he know, Lumine would beat him there by exactly 0.02 seconds.
A summoned dagger, covered with frost from a delusion. Childe’s outstretched hand as he felt the
world stop around him, not dissimilar to swimming in an ice cold pond. It was difficult to think
about movement, when all one's mind was focused on was the wide eyes of a little boy, and a
blonde haired girl jerking herself in front of him.
“That’s enough.”
A hand on Dottore’s wrist. A braid whipping in the wind. Dull golden eyes that have seen
countless deaths.
With one fatal twist of his hand, Aether broke Dottore’s wrist.
Teucer was afraid. Despite Lumine holding him close to her chest, he saw the dagger. He saw the
look in that man's eyes. He heard the snap of bone, and felt the danger permeating the air like thick
smoke. He gripped Lumine’s arms as tightly as he could, while Lumine was proven immobile from
the familiar grating of that voice.
“Aether?”
Her big brother ignored her. She was sure she was dreaming, yet his hand upon Dottore’s wrist
was real enough. She watched as he took a step forward, shoving the pained Harbinger back into
the snow.
Ajax didn’t seem surprised in the least. He took the first opportunity he had to pounce, grip
Dottore’s head and hold a blade against his neck. Aether approached slowly, fists clenched and
back stiff.
He looked the same. The familiar shade of gold, the sun kissed skin. The tilt of his chin as he
knelt down in front of the glaring Harbinger, brown eyes flickering up to meet Ajax’s dark ocean
blue.
“Your call.” He whispered. Lumine couldn’t breathe.
Aether.
Aether’s voice, Aether’s face, Aether’s skin.

“Il Dottore,” Ajax leaned down to hiss. He scowled and dug the blade further against his neck,
“I’d like you to deliver a message to your Queen for me.”
Aether and Ajax shared a familial smile. She was ripped apart by the sight of it.
“H-How fun.” At the sound of his strained response, it was all Lumine could do to pull Teucer
closer, and cover his ears and eyes. The boy would not stop shaking in her arms.
“Tell her…” Ajax paused, choosing his words carefully, “Tell her that this is war. Tell her that I
challenge her for her power, and I will be at Zapolyarny Palace in a week’s time for our duel.”
The pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fall into place. The Tsaritsa could not resist a duel.
Aether laughed bitterly, “So this is what you meant by buying time, I love it!”
Il Dottore was fortunate to not have his throat slit. And he was an intelligent man, he understood
human nature and its unending pursuit of selfishness. He had wanted to see what Tartaglia would
do when facing the ultimatum, and he saw it at the edge of a cold steel blade.
It was absolutely wonderful. The fear in Lumine’s eyes, the trembling of the little boy. This
powerful man who carried the aura of the Abyss, trading conspiratory glances with an ex-
Harbinger. He loved a good story almost as much as he loved a good experiment.
“Okay!”
Ajax blinked in surprise, “What?”
“I’ll deliver your message,” Dottore nodded pleasantly, “consider it done.”
He breathed a sigh of relief, “A-And my family?”

“Consider them safe! Even if you die in the duel with Her Majesty, they will remain under the
care of the Fatui.”
Not good enough. He scowled and dug the blade deeper, watching a trickle of blood form upon
the steel, “And Lumine?”
“Can't answer that,” Dottore leaned his head back with an almost bored sigh, “But you know how
Her Grace is, if you give her a good enough fight she’ll respect your dying wishes… to an extent,
of course.”
To an extent. It was as good as he was going to get.
Ajax released him with a sudden flick of his fingers. He pulled back, allowing Dottore to stand
and brush himself off. Aether stood along with him, yet remained silent.
He was watchful, defensive, and entirely forgetful of the girl keeping track of his every move.
Dottore waved casually, “See you in a week! It was fun!”
Absolutely nobody agreed. Ajax glared, Aether watched, Teucer trembled. Yet all Lumine could
do was stare in wonder at the ghost who saved her life.
She did not even notice Il Dottore teleporting away. She did notice Ajax approaching her, taking
the spot at her side and gently nudging Teucer out of her arms. He folded his legs over each other
and pulled Teucer against his chest, whispering all the while, “You were so brave. You were really
strong, Teuc. You can breathe now, he’s gone.”
Comforting fingers through hair. Tear stained scarves and the mild squeaks of a scared kid. Ajax
sent Lumine a glance from above Teucer’s head, one that she could not return.
“Brother?”
Aether tensed.
“Are you…”
She knew he was alive. He was very much alive, Ajax smiled at him as if they knew each other.
And no dream could ever be this vivid.
Hesitant, almost as if he was scared, he turned around to meet her gaze.
“Hey, Lumi.”
She thought she’d never hear his voice again.
“H-Hi, Ae…”
A crooked smile, an awkward furrow of his brows. He crossed his arms and looked at the ground,
before forcing his next words up and out of his throat.
“See ya later.”
There was something mildly traumatizing in defending ones family from assassination,
emotionally caring for an eight year old, and meeting a man who was thought to be dead.
Watching said man disappear in a flash of blue light only seemed to worsen the trauma.
Lumine just really needed a nap.
“Did he just… Am I seeing things?”
Ajax watched as she reached out to touch the spot Aether just stood. Her hand met cold air,
nothingness besides the shape of his boot in the snow. He grimaced at her utterly lost expression,
“No, your brother was definitely here.”
She took a moment to process his response, before the flame met oil and devoured everything in a
destructive heat. Lumine whipped around to glare, “So you knew he was alive?”
Of course she was angry. Ajax wasn’t particularly in the mood for it, holding his terrified brother
and having just faced one of the most important moments of his life. With a sigh, he leaned down
to pick Teucer up and wrap his legs around his waist, casting Lumine a tired glance, “Can we
please talk about this later?”
“No! No, we really can’t!”
“S-Stop fighting!” Teucer sobbed into Ajax’s shoulder, “Please! L-Let’s just go!”
Just moments ago, he had a knife barreling towards his chest. Lumine almost died for him, if not
for the sudden appearance of her supposedly dead brother. She felt shaken, like sobbing into
someone’s shoulder the same way Teucer did, but she knew it would only scare him further.
Her heart melted as she stepped forward to run a comforting hand down his back, “Hey, it’s okay.
It’s all over now, your brother took care of it.”
“Right,” Ajax whispered affectionately, “there’s nothing else to worry about. Let’s go inside and
make some hot chocolate.”
Hot chocolate fixed everything. While it couldn’t unravel the confusion of seeing one's brother
hold a knife to a stranger’s neck, it could at least warm him up. Ajax carried him inside, allowing
Lumine to open the door for him and follow close behind.
“Would you tell everybody that it’s safe now?” He cast her a glance as he approached the
fireplace and set Teucer down on the couch, “They’re probably upstairs.”
While Lumine was still suffering from a case of ‘dead brother shock’, she knew that it would only
worsen the situation to leave now. She had to make sure the family was safe before she had her
own nervous breakdown.
Ajax waited until Lumine retreated in her search, before wrapping a blanket around Teucer’s
shoulders, “So, did you sneak away from mama and papa?”
“Y-Yeah…” a shaken, bashful smile, “I know you said to not go outside, but I thought Mister
Cyclops was in trouble.”
Ajax could only frown, “Remember what I told you about running away if there was a strange
person around the house?”
“Well… that blond guy who looks like Lumi is strange too, but he was nice…”
He stiffened, processing that response with wide eyes. Slowly, absently, he ran his hand through
Teucer’s hair, “You talked to Aether?”
“No,” he pouted, “Anthon did. And mama made him a sandwich.”
Of course she did. Mama would make sandwiches for the entire Abyss army if she had the
chance.
“Well, don’t worry about that weirdo. All you need to worry about now is burning your tongue on
hot chocolate.” Ajax stood up and tousled his hair, “You look really tired too, you should take a
nap.”
He made his way towards the kitchen. From the upper level the sounds of the rest of his family
talking amongst themselves approached. Teucer ignored everything else and leaned over the back
of the couch with wide eyes, “Big brother, are you going to tell me what was really happening
outside?”
He didn’t want Teucer to grow up, to see through his lies. His mother descended the stairs and
froze in place as she noticed the expression on Ajax’s face.
It was almost like he was afraid.
“Hey,” he cast Eva a glance, “the coast is clear for now.”
Yet, all he had of peace was a week. Seven days to get to Zapolyarny and duel a God. Seven days
to wage a war.
She only grimaced, “It better be. I’m disowning you if you put us through this again.”
“You say that every time,” he waved a hand, “I’ll make lunch today, you all just relax.”
They happily would. The Alekseev’s were entirely too used to the oddities that came with Ajax,
and now that the calamity had passed, he would become even more unwilling to explain himself.
He’d most likely shower them all in gifts as he attempted to soothe his aching conscience.
Lumine was the only one who would not meet his eyes. She came down from the stairs, staring at
the floor as she brushed by him. She headed to the couch to take the spot beside Teucer and wrap
her arms around him.
Before Ajax could even begin lunch, he knew there was a matter of higher priority.
Teucer kept his eyes on the ground. Lumine closed hers, laying her cheek on the top of his head.
He approached them both in the peaceful silence of the house. His heart skipped a beat as he
realized that neither of them wanted to meet his gaze.
What to say to an eight year old who couldn’t even begin to understand a matter of life or death?
And what to say to the woman he loved as an explanation for why he didn’t mention that her
brother was alive?
If he lied, he’d only dig this grave further down. He was already suffocating beneath the weight
of it all.
“Teucer?” Ajax waited for him to look up, “...Sometimes people want to hurt others, and it really
sucks, but I would never let anyone hurt you, okay?”
He blinked. The words sunk in, before he glanced up at Lumine, “Why would someone want to
hurt us?”
“Well…” Affectionately, she ran her fingers through his hair, “sometimes people just do. And I
know that was scary, but your brother really was trying his best.”
And succeeded, in his opinion. The worst scenario that came from the battle was the fact that
Lumine saw Aether.
Which brought him to his next order of business, “Printsessa?”
Her eyes flickered over to meet his, narrowing in sudden suspicion as she hummed, “What?”
“First thing tomorrow, after you get some food and sleep... I’ll take you to see Aether.”
Ajax’s Determination
“First thing tomorrow, after you get some food and sleep... I’ll take you to see Aether.”
It sounded like a good deal to him.
A moment’s pause, a thoughtful frown from Lumine, and five seconds of uninterrupted,
challenging eye contact.
Until finally, she offered a fake smile.
“...No, I’d like to go see him now.”
Of course she did.
If only Lumine didn’t look five seconds away from collapsing.
Ajax had never expected to fall in love. He always assumed that he would be in the middle of a
constant hurricane of destruction and chaos, the eye of the storm where no love could possibly
bloom. With Lumine waltzing so rudely into his life, Ajax found himself entirely unprepared for
how to handle the emotional well-being of another person. He could hardly handle his own.
He flicked his gaze past Lumine, towards his father in the dining room nearby. Michial gave him
an encouraging nod, something that was meant to reassure his floundering son. Ajax racked his
mind for whatever examples his father had set with his own wife over the years.
“Uh… You can’t go look for him now because…” He studied Lumine’s glare, “because I said
so?”
There was a faint murmur of ‘oh dear Lord’ from the other room. Ajax would have forgotten that
Lumine had cryo if not for the sudden chill in the air.
If looks could kill.
Dangerously slow, Lumine put her hands over Teucer’s ears, and nearly hissed, “The only reason
I’m not ripping out your throat right now is because I know Eva would be mad at me for getting
blood on her carpet.”
Thank goodness for the carpet. His mother’s protection over her decor had saved his life many
times.
Ajax took a moment to find another excuse - mainly due to the fact that he had zero idea if he
could even find Aether in the first place. As confused as Lumine was most likely feeling, Ajax
didn’t want to be the one to tell her the news that Aether didn’t want to see her. His appearance was
a necessity, an unplanned occurrence. A mistake.
He was sure knowing that would break Lumine more than the thought of his death.
There was one thing Michial always said. ‘Happy wife, happy life.’ Lumine hadn’t been happy
with him for days now. He still had her ring stowed away, they most certainly were not engaged
right now, let alone married. Yet, he’d grown up watching his father bend over backwards for his
mother, it was what Ajax had always imagined a healthy relationship to be.
Yet, a healthy relationship was also one where they took care of each other’s physical well-being.
Lumine looked exhausted. “When was the last time you slept?”
“Two days ago.” She answered casually, cuddling Teucer - who, too, was falling asleep from the
fatigue of his tears.
She last slept two days ago, and she still wanted to chase after her brother. After a moment of
careful observation and meditation, Ajax promptly decided that ‘happy wife, happy life’ didn’t
necessarily apply to two people who weren’t even dating.
“You need to get some sleep.”

“No.”
Lumine was cute when angry. She avoided his eyes, glaring at the wall as her cheeks turned pink.
Ajax desperately wished to take in that sight longer, but he knew that would only frustrate her. If
Lumine wanted to be difficult, he knew exactly how to handle that.
“Mama,” he called out, “I’m going to take Lumi to bed, would you get some water started for
lunch?”
All he heard was an annoyed groan that echoed from the dining room. It was followed by Eva’s
playful mumbles of irritation as she readied a kettle of hot water. Lumine ignored it all and glared
up at Ajax, “I’m not going to bed.”
“I understand, I would feel the same in your position, but…” He wasn’t really in the mood to drag
Lumine’s unconscious body through the woods if she passed out while searching for Aether.
He was doing this because he loved her, she should understand that. With an innocent smile, he
leaned down and nudged Teucer out of her lap. Lumine continued her glare, “I’m not going to
bed.”
She most certainly was. The minute he shifted his arms beneath her and picked her up bridal style,
he caught her eyelids flickering shut in exhaustion. With an annoyed groan, Lumine rested her head
on his chest and frowned to herself. Ajax could only laugh.
“I hate you.” She informed.
“So I’ve heard, girlie.”
She didn’t fight him on it, surprisingly. Instead, she merely crossed her arms and glared at the
wall as he carried her up the staircase. Ajax wasn’t sure if she’d want to sleep in his room, but it
was a familiar space nevertheless. She could at least relax for a bit. He pushed open the door and
brought her to the mattress.
Lumine avoided his eyes as best as she could. As he set her down, she huffed and jerked her body
away, “I’m only doing this because I got too cold earlier and I don’t want to get sick.”
Sure. It wasn’t due to the dark circles under her eyes, or how fuzzy her brain felt. Without
thinking, he rolled his eyes and grabbed her boot, lifting her leg to pull it off and toss it aside. With
her shoes off, he began working on the flower pins behind her ears. His fingers brushed against her
skin for half a second, tempting him to explore even further.
“Ajax?”
He froze, “...What?”
“I can get myself ready for bed.”
The wasps in his stomach were back. He never could just have normal butterflies.
Force of habit. Touching her was like breathing. “Oh, yeah, sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
He most certainly was not. It was rare for him not to have control over the conversation, his own
actions in this moment were unnerving.
Something needed to be said to break this awkward silence. Ajax could imagine how she felt, so
desperately wanting to track down your sibling, but far too weak to even keep your eyes open. It
must’ve been torture. He could give her only a small crumb of reassurance as he pulled the flower
pin out and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, “I only met Aether yesterday… But I know he’s
freaked out that…”
What to say? How to explain that her brother was some Abyssal cryptid with cold eyes and an
army of monsters?
“He’s just afraid, is all. I’m not sure of what,” Ajax explained, settling for a half-truth - lying was
a difficult habit to break. “But he helped save you and Teucer, I’m sure he’ll want to speak to you
tomorrow.”
Lumine let his words soak in for a moment. After a beat of silence, she lifted her eyes to meet his,
“So I’m for sure not going crazy?”
“No, Lumi,” he nearly melted at the sight of her insecurity. All Ajax wanted to do was hold her,
wrap her up in his arms and keep her there forever. He cast her a smile that he hoped was
reassuring, “I promise, we’ll go look for him tomorrow. You just need some rest before we do.”
For once, she agreed. She didn’t glare, nor argue. Lumine simply nodded. He desperately wanted
to keep his fingers in her hair, though a second more would only make the awkward silence
between them bubble up into something suffocating. He yanked his hand back as he realized just
how long it lingered.
As if relieved, Lumine cleared her throat and avoided his eyes. She pulled back the blankets and
turned away, “Goodnight.”
“...Yeah… Goodnight, Lumine.”
Ajax was utterly hopeless.
After closing the door and escaping the drowning sensation of her presence, it was all he could do
to press his back against the wall and squeeze his eyes shut. “Idiot,” he murmured to himself, “I’m
an idiot.”
It was too much. She wasn’t ready for that kind of affection yet, she had seemed so
uncomfortable. He groaned and dragged his fingers through his hair as he continued to curse his
very existence. These grumbled curses lasted all evening.
Until, of course, he gathered himself together. Determination returned in full force. Fists were
clenched, fires were lit, goals were set.
A bit of awkward fumbling and severed ties would not be nearly enough to deter the will of the
universe.
Slowly, but surely, peace settled into the Alekseev house. Comfort returned as the anxiety
dissipated like morning mist, and each room began to fill with the usual noises of life. There was
the clatter of dishes, Tonia’s absent humming, pages scraping against each other as Michial read a
book. Ajax felt that he could finally breathe again, though he knew how unnerved they must be
beneath the normality.
This was confirmed as he passed Sacha in the hallway. His fingers shivered, though he quickly
stuffed them into his pockets. A sharp smile and a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. Ajax had a
feeling that even though Sacha saw nothing, he had an idea of what had happened.
Teucer got the worst of it. He slept restlessly on the couch. No matter how soothing Eva’s fingers
and whispers were, he continued to frown and whine in his dreams. Ajax pulled yet another blanket
over his brother, and shared a worried glance with his mother.
It would take more than verbal assurances to dispel his family’s fear. Ajax hated that they felt that
in the first place. Time would heal that wound - he just hoped it was quickly.
Whether or not he would be able to even find Aether, he had no idea. All he could do was sigh
and tie the apron around his waist, beginning on lunch in a desperate attempt to forget what
happened.
In a week’s time, he would be at Zapolyarny Palace, fighting the Tsaritsa herself. He would do
what he needed to keep Lumine and his family safe.
Even if he wasn’t ready, he had no choice but to be.
Lumine dreamt of Aether.
In her dream, she decided that he was an asshole. Which might be a subconscious decision based
on stress and anger.
Her only remaining family was out there, somewhere, alive and strong enough to break
someone’s wrist with a twist of his fingers. (Aether just had to come back in the most dramatic of
ways possible.) And he said ‘see you later’ as if he was leaving for five minutes, not disappearing
in a blue flash and leaving Lumine wondering if she was losing her mind.
She would have to kick his ass for that - but in an affectionate way; A very sweet ass-kicking.
Lumine opened her eyes to a dark room. The downstairs was quiet, and the lights in the hallway
turned off. It was rare for the Alekseev house to be silent; It had to be past midnight. Immediately,
her stomach growled with a ravenous hunger, as if she hadn’t eaten in days.
Nobody would mind if she rummaged around in the kitchen. Frowning to herself, Lumine sat up
and brushed her hair from her face. Her sight needed a moment to adjust to the darkness before she
could make out the shapes in the bedroom. She kicked the blankets back and rearranged herself
with a series of exhausted grumbles.
Her feet were cold on the floor, her stomach growling as she moved. Lumine was able to stand
and take one step forward in the darkness… Before promptly tripping onto her face.
Whatever it was that caught her foot and made her lose her balance was soft, warm, and made a
very familiar ‘oof’ noise when she kicked it. Gravity was an asshole; And within seconds, Lumine
was kissing the floor and groaning in pain.
Ajax shot awake from the impact and sudden thud beside him. With wide eyes and half of his hair
sticking up, he saw her shape sprawled out like a squished slime, “Lumine?”
Ajax. Of course it was him, Lumine wasn’t sure who else she expected. She scrambled up to
scoot herself away from the incredibly rude lump of flesh that had decided to trip her, “What the
hell?”
“Did you kick me?”
“...P-Perhaps…”
It was then that he squinted through the darkness, sitting up further to allow the blanket to slip off
his shoulders. This revealed one incredibly devastating fact.
Ajax was not wearing a shirt.
The horror of it all only deepened. Lumine gasped dramatically and covered her eyes with both
hands, immediately looking away, “Why are you naked?!”
“I’m not naked.” Ajax was, indeed, wearing pants beneath the blanket, though Lumine could not
see that, “Why are you even freaking out? It’s nothing you haven’t seen befo-”
“Shut up!”
He grinned in half-asleep realization. Though it was too dark to see the color on her cheeks or
make out the details of her expression, the tension in her shoulders was obvious. She scrambled
away, pulling her knees to her chest and pressing her back against the wall, trying so desperately to
create more room between them.
Not many would expect to trip over someone sleeping beside their bed at four in the morning. He
could understand her surprise, though her embarrassment at seeing him without a shirt was an
entirely different matter.
Ajax supposed he should explain himself.
“It’s warmer in here than the guests room.” There was a fireplace in here, and more blankets.
Besides, it was where Lumine was, which happened to be exactly where he belonged - in his
opinion.
In the darkness, he thought he caught her expression softening. She sat up and stared, “Why’re
you on the floor?”
“You didn’t say I could come into the bed with you,” he shrugged as if the answer was obvious.
He slept on the floor because he didn’t have her consent to share the mattress. Lumine felt that
she might dissolve at the thought of it all. She rearranged her wrinkled dress and brushed her hair
behind her ears, awkwardly avoiding his gaze all the while, “Well, I doubt that I’ll get back to
sleep, so you can go ahead and have it…” Her eyes finally landed on him, “You shouldn’t sleep on
the floor, it’ll hurt your neck.
It did hurt his neck, though he knew if Lumine awoke next to him in the morning, her screaming
and punching would hurt even more. Ajax felt like a middle school boy in love again as he realized
that she almost sounded concerned for him.
It felt like it had been forever since she cared for him.
“You’re so suave, printsessa,” he teased, pulling himself onto the bed and stretching, “acting all
cool, as if you don’t care about me, then worrying over my well-being. You really know how to
make a man’s heart flutter.”
“You’re an idiot and I hate you.”
“Ah,” he sighed dreamily, “Ya tebya obozhayu.”
She huffed and opened the door, murmuring to herself, “I’ve really got to learn Snezhnayan at
some point…”
He hoped she never did. Ajax liked that she had no idea what he said, as if his affections were his
own little secret. He watched her go out the door and pad softly down the dark hallway, out of sight
now and sighing to herself as she went. He had known that she would wake up at some ungodly
hour of the night - she fell asleep quite early in the afternoon.
Lumine had to be starving. And while he did save her some dinner, he had missed her the entire
time she slept. It was safe to say that Ajax, after mentally yelling at himself for causing his own
awkward crisis, had promptly returned to his natural state of ‘infatuated schoolboy’ for Lumine.
Their five seconds of normalcy just then had only increased his flame. He couldn’t possibly sleep
now, when Lumine was downstairs, alone, needing someone to take care of her.
Hopefully, they could return to what they were at some point. He reminded himself to not rush it.
He couldn’t handle another awkward moment like earlier, with his hand lingering in her hair and
their proximity closer than either of them meant to be.
Ajax got up from the bed and left his room, shutting the door behind him softly. He made sure to
not wake up anybody as he started down the hallway and the staircase. The house remained quiet,
dark, oddly peaceful despite the day’s activities. Even lunch and dinner had seemed more normal
than ever, as if Eva and Michial were trying to calm their children down by compensating the
regularity. Ajax wasn’t complaining, he was simply happy everybody was safe.
Teucer had calmed as the evening went on. He went to bed early as well, only after stuffing
himself on pity-desserts and promises of new toys. Ajax hoped nobody would awaken with his and
Lumine’s movements in the night, they needed this time alone desperately.
He found her in the kitchen, lighting a candle on the counter. She had yet to notice him as she
leaned up on her tiptoes to reach the cabinets, her fingertips barely brushing the handles. Quietly,
Ajax came up beside her and opened the cabinet door with ease.
She shot him a pouty glare, “I could’ve gotten it.”
She wouldn’t have gotten it. He smirked, “Right. Sure. Need any help?”
“Not from you.” Yet another huff and a glare, “Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I feel perfectly rested, actually.”
“Then go find someone else to bother.”
But he wanted to bother her , specifically. Ajax leaned up once more to grab the dish she was
reaching for, passing it down to her with a smile that could kill. Lumine yanked it out of his hand
and turned away.
The mending of their relationship would get nowhere with these surroundings. The candle on the
counter didn’t provide much light at all. And it would be perfectly romantic to sit in front of the
fireplace at this hour. “Alright, I’ll leave, whatever my Lumi wants.”
He thought he heard her grumble, “I’m not your Lumi.” Yet, pretended he didn’t. She most
certainly was his Lumi, at least at some point in their lives. She had loved him once, and he’d hold
onto that for as long as he possibly could.
Ajax headed towards the fireplace in the living room and began poking at the dying cinders. He lit
a match and started the kindling, listening to the sounds of Lumine moving quietly in the kitchen.
Once the fire was giving off enough golden glow for the room, he headed back into the kitchen to
keep an eye on her.
Lumine had already located the food he had saved her from dinner. She cast him a glance, fork
between her lips and brows furrowed. She glared as much as one could with a mouthful of
pelmeni.
“You should eat in the living room,” Ajax jerked his head in that direction, “it’s warmer in there.”
Lumine swallowed her bite before speaking, “Fine… Only if you put on a shirt.”
“Deal!”
She rolled her eyes as she watched him bound up the stairs as quickly as he could. Taking her
plate into the next room, she picked a comfortable looking spot on the ground to sit. Curling up on
a couch in the middle of the night with a man would only lead to one thing - at least she assumed as
much. Lumine hoped to avoid that by sitting on the floor and surrounding herself with pillows
instead. Like a very fluffy wall between her and romance.
Yet, the memory of his fingers in her hair, and how gently he touched her, would not leave her
mind. It made her furious.
She ate as she watched the flames flicker and glow. They cast shapes on the walls, and breathed
warmth onto her cheeks. She was finally starting to feel better after two days of no sleep and very
little food. Ajax was right, she couldn’t have looked for Aether in that state.
Not that she would say that outloud.
Behind her, he bounded down the stairs as quietly as he could. As he rounded the corner to stand
beside the couch, he spread his arms and grinned, “I put on a shirt, am I allowed to exist in your
presence now?”
Lumine didn’t dare look at him. She glared down at her food as if it had personally offended her,
“Sure, whatever. Just don’t be annoying.”
“I’ll try my best!”
He really would. He understood the need to take things slowly, which is why he sat exactly three
feet away from her, when he’d much rather have her in his arms. Yet, there was a large chance of
her only pushing him away further if he tried that now.
She was engulfed beneath her blanket, preferring to watch the fire and eat in silence. Why she had
decided to sit on the ground, of all places, was unknown - most likely avoiding couch cuddles,
which was a total shame. Couch cuddles was exactly what Ajax was trying to initiate.
He would just have to settle for being in her general vicinity. That was good too.
Take it slow. More silence, the crackle of the fireplace. Lumine ate quietly, shifting beneath her
blanket.
Slow. Ajax folded his legs and tapped his thigh absently. The fire felt nice on his cheeks and
arms.
Don’t scare her away. Lumine is much like a feral cat, one wrong move and out would come the
claws.
He most certainly could not rush their inevitable reunion, no matter how excited he was.
How to begin a conversation that wouldn’t make her uncomfortable? Lumine liked swords, and
food, and Paimon. She used to like him , at least a little bit. He would get back to that point
eventually.
Clearing his throat, Ajax broke the silence, “Where’s Pai?”
He watched her silhouette in the glow of the fire. She closed her eyes for a moment before
sighing, staring straight ahead, “I left her with Mona in case I convinced you to kill me.”
And there went the goal of being light hearted. He might as well go along with her tone, no
matter how angry that particular subject made him. The fact that he had to hold a dagger to her
neck just to get her to calm down enough to listen to reason still continued to linger over his head.
“Did you really think I would do it?”
Finally, finally, Lumine turned her head to look at him. Her expression remained unreadable, no
matter how easily she glued him into place with her eyes.
“I wasn’t in a good place, and frankly…” a heavy sigh as she closed her eyes again, “after what I
heard you say in Mondstadt, I truly believed you would.”
Ajax didn’t think his heart could be broken any more than it already had.
“I’m done lying,” his voice came out as a whisper. He avoided her eyes, but forced himself to go
on, “I’m tired of it.”
Lumine set her plate aside and sat up straight, “I’m glad to hear that.”
In the most respectful way, she was glad to hear that. As one would be glad for a friend’s new
job, or a new diet. Ajax wanted her to be more than glad, he wanted her to trust him, to love him
like he loves her.
Might as well spit it out. She wasn’t glaring, she wasn’t complaining. It was the first opportunity
he’d gotten since the fulmination of their relationship. Since she’d thrown her ring at him.
It was time to just rip off the bandage.
“The Tsaritsa ordered me to kill you because she believes that it’ll bring me true strength,” he
began, terse, “I didn’t know what to believe. I’ve looked up to her for years, she’s… I’ve always
thought she was a true warrior, it’s one reason why I was willing to do what I’ve done.”
“Like... summon an ancient God on a city?” She asked.
“Yes, like that.” Ajax sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, “But I’ve always known that
true strength is fighting for what you believe in, whether that be your goals, or your family,
whatever. It’s just that when she told me to kill you, I… I lost track of myself. I knew I couldn’t do
it.”
“...Then why did you consider it?”
How that Mona person knew he’d considered it was a mystery, but it was the ugly truth. He’d held
a dagger and wondered what it would be like to plunge it through her back. He’d realized, while
stumbling through sleep deprivation and stress, that it would be so easy to end her - to end it all.
Forgiveness for himself was no longer an option.
“It’s no excuse, but I was stressed. It’s like choosing between what I’ve worked towards my entire
life, and… you.”
Lumine returned her gaze to the fire. She wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her chin
on them, thinking in silence. “...Me.”
Her. Lumine, his sun and stars. His light, the kingdom where his true loyalty lies. Ajax found that
he couldn’t meet her eyes once more. He despised this feeling, but he knew it was only human, it
was what everybody went through when they told the truth.
It was absolutely terrible. He hated every second of it, no matter how necessary.
“All this has proven is that true strength comes from the need to protect,” Ajax went on, “I’m
going to wage war with the Tsaritsa, and I’m going to fight until my last breath, just to keep you
and my family safe. It’s… a bit surreal, to be honest.”
As he stared ahead, Lumine finally looked at him. She pulled her shoulders in, as if making
herself smaller in an attempt to disappear. “You’re really going to kill the Tsaritsa for me?”
“Of course,” he met her gaze, “I’d do anything for you. I’m in love with you.”
There was a noticeable shift in the air. The feeling of the sun coming out behind the clouds. A
cool breeze on a hot day. Someone could have blown up the world, and Ajax would not notice.
He did love her. There was nothing new about that, and he’d said it hundreds of times.
Yet, her parted lips and half lidded eyes froze him. A soft breath in the dark of night, a fluttering
heart. Lumine pulled her blanket closer around her shoulders and shifted to face him, “You’re in
love with me?”
She was whispering. The air around them was familiar, yet unexplainable. It was like coming
home.
“You didn’t know that?”
Lumine wanted to kiss that stupid smile off his face.
There was no room to think. Ajax hadn’t even noticed the invisible rope between them. It was
stretching, fraying, twisting, until finally… It snapped. Shattered glass. A popped balloon. Fire met
oil, and Lumine leaned towards him, planning to close the gap between their bodies.
Ajax met her halfway. There was no kiss, not quite yet. The wall between them was slowly
crumbling with each shared breath. He pulled himself closer to her and put a hand on her cheek,
leaning down to press his lips into her hair.
Lumine’s hands rested on his thighs. She took a heavy breath and looked up at him. As she closed
her eyes, he leaned in. He soaked in the feeling of her cheek beneath his fingers, their closeness in
the night, the warmth of her hands on him.
He hated himself for what he’d gotten her into, he should have taken the Tsaritsa’s head the
second she suggested it.
Ajax wanted Lumine more than anything in the world.

“Jaxie?”
Of course.
His lips were centimeters from hers. Centimeters. He could feel her breath on his skin, her
eyelashes fluttering, the smell of lavender from her hair. She had enraptured him, trapped him, and
the only thing that could possibly break him free was his father’s confused voice calling out his
childhood nickname.
Of all things.
Lumine yanked herself away with a gasp. Wordlessly, she gathered up her blanket and her plate of
food, scrambling to her feet and dashing towards the kitchen. She passed by Michial as he
descended from the staircase with a worried look on his face.
Ajax was pretty sure he was going to explode.
They were so close. He was centimeters away from kissing her, from closing that gap and making
her his again. It was agony.
“Jaxie! You’re up so early!” Michial laughed, the sound was far too loud in the tension of the
room. Lumine could be heard from the kitchen as she washed her dish in frantic embarrassment.
They hadn’t even kissed. They had barely touched, and he felt as if he’d been punched in the
lungs. His father had interrupted possibly the most historically wonderful kiss in the history of
kissing.
All Ajax could do was glare at the wall, and bemoan his agony.
“You wanna go ice fishing today? We haven’t gone in so long!”
“Papa…” a dangerous whisper, a flutter of his eyes, “You have terrible timing.”
He blinked obliviously, “Do I? Well, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Come on,” he clapped his shoulder
and laughed, “go fishing with your old man!”
He caught a glimpse of Lumine leaving the kitchen and rushing towards the staircase. She was
frowning more heavily than ever as she retreated from the scene.
The tension was gone, and the almost-kiss didn’t even happen.
“Papa?”
“Yes, my boy?”
“Is it possible to be blue-balled of affection?”
Ajax did go fishing with his father. It was a comfort to hear Michial’s voice echo through the
rising morning light, just as it would when he was a boy. He’s always known that his father
regretted telling him those stories of greatness - those stories were the reason why Ajax
disappeared into the woods at 14.
They returned home once the sun had risen, around 7:00 a.m. Eva was awake and moving about
the kitchen as Lumine watched from the dining room table, brushing Tonia’s hair absently and
pulling it back into an elegant bun.
Anthon and Sacha both remained asleep, and Teucer was bouncing around Eva’s legs. The minute
Ajax stepped back into the house, he earned the usual glare from his mother. “Don’t worry, I won’t
track mud everywhere.” He assured as he unlaced his snow boots.
Lumine refused to look at him. She remained focused on Tonia’s hair, and pointedly avoided his
eyes.
“My love!” Michial bellowed as he approached the kitchen, “Your son has lost his touch! He
didn’t even catch any seaweed today!”
Eva glared at him, “Take your shoes off.”
“Poor Jaxie, beaten by his father. But we must all grow up at some point, right?”
“You’re bringing mud through the house.”
“My love,” he wrapped his arms around Eva from behind, “I caught you dinner. No need to thank
me, I’m just doing what any good husband would do.”
“Go clean the carpet, or I’ll kill you.”
Ajax hadn’t always appreciated his parent’s relationship. When he was younger, he thought their
affection was disgusting, especially with how openly they displayed it. He was never a hopeless
romantic, he was never interested in romance, or what the future may hold for him on that front.
Yet, the sight of his father aggravating his mother, as he did daily, reminded him of what he wanted
in life.
Lumine was smiling at the sight. She glanced up from Tonia’s hair and pulled the bobby pin from
her lips, twisting it between her fingers absently before placing it into his little sister’s bun. Tonia
lit up as Ajax approached, “I’m sorry you didn’t catch anything!”
“That’s fine,” he shrugged and took the seat across from her, “I was a bit distracted this morning
anyway.”
“From what?” She wiggled in her seat, giggling as Lumine stroked another part of her hair.
Lumine belonged here, with his family. She belonged with his siblings, with his parents, with
him. She belonged in this house, soaking in the warmth and comfort and chaos. In the kitchen, Eva
was swatting away Michial’s playful kisses, though they went ignored as Lumine and Ajax met
eyes over Tonia’s head.
In answer to his little sister’s question, he could only smile. He kept his eyes on Lumine, “We’re
going to go find Lumi’s brother today.”
Her soft smile was Celestia itself.
“Thank you.” She whispered.
The wasps of affection in his stomach were back. He hated to admit that he missed them.
Tonia broke the tension with a sudden groan, “Please don’t start kissing like mama and papa are.
I don’t think I can handle it.”
They weren’t quite there yet. He pulled himself out of his reverie and chuckled, “Don’t worry,
Lumi doesn’t want to do that with me.”
“Right,” she nodded in agreement, sticking yet another pin into Tonia’s hair, “Besides, we’ll have
absolutely no time for such gross things.”
“Miss Lumi?”
“Yes?”
Tonia twisted around to look up at her, “Was that weird blond guy with the ruin guards yesterday
your brother?”
“Yes, he is.” She smiled down at her and pulled her hands back from her hair. Ajax watched the
exchange in curious silence, noticing how utterly calm Lumine seemed to be. It felt as if it had been
ages since he’d seen her look at peace.
He knew it wouldn’t last long. Once they headed into the woods to look for Aether, she’d return
to tense, stony quiet. He wanted to savor this moment for as long as she would allow it.
“I hope you find him, Miss Lumi.”
She melted into a smile, “I do too.”
Stolen glances between Ajax and Lumine, coupled with the hint of a smile. He leaned his elbow
on the table and looked away, yet caught her shooting him yet another look from the corner of his
eye.
That was fine. He was stealing looks at her too, he couldn’t help himself. She was smiling for the
first time in so long, there was no way for him to not be trapped in her.
Something was happening. Snowdrops always pushed their way up through the snow, they were
strong like that. A harsh winter would not dare stop them from blooming.
He’d have to pick Lumine some flowers today.
“Oh my Archons, get a room already you two!”
“Sacha, shut up,” Ajax snapped at the sudden intrusion, whipping around in his chair to glare
down at older brother. Sacha descended from the stairs with his palms up and his eyes wide.
“What? You two are the ones being weird!” he put his hands on his hips and shrugged, “I’m just
calling it like I see it!”
Lumine rolled her eyes, “We’re not nearly as bad as them.”
Them being Eva and Michial playfully fighting in front of the oven, wrapped up in their own
little world. They were the ones who needed a room, not Ajax and Lumine, who could hardly even
look at each other straight on.
Sacha was right, though, the tension between them was suffocating.
Breakfast passed rather quickly. Anthon shuffled down from his room, still half asleep. Teucer
and Tonia were excited at the arrival of chocolate pancakes, while Eva bickered with Sacha over
proper bacon cooking. Michial was on his third cup of coffee, and Ajax made a cup for Lumine -
two teaspoons of sugar and a dash of milk, he knew how she liked it.
Once the table was cleared of dishes, the air grew heavier with the prospect of the unknown.
Lumine pulled on a borrowed pair of snow boots and one of Ajax’s old coats in tense silence, no
longer distracted by the mindless chatter of the family.
What if they couldn’t find Aether?
She didn’t want to think that way. Ajax seemed optimistic, and perhaps there was a reason for
that. He didn’t seem surprised at all by her brother’s sudden appearance yesterday - the thought
still made her frown in displeasure.
He was fortunate that he’d only been keeping that secret for a day. She’d be much more angry
otherwise.
“Ready to go?” He brushed past her and approached the backdoor. Flips of ginger hair stuck out
from beneath his knit hat. He paused for a moment to pull on a pair of thick gloves, yet Lumine
froze as she noticed his uncovered left hand.
She couldn’t answer his question. Yes, she was ready, but frozen on the spot nevertheless. She
gulped and forced her words up, “Y-You’re… still wearing that?”
Disgustingly nonchalant, all Ajax did was blink and look down at his ring finger. “Yeah, why
wouldn’t I?”
Because they weren’t engaged anymore. That old, frayed string still survived on his finger after
all this time. “We never did get you a real ring.” She muttered to herself, breathless.
“I don’t mind it much,” he pulled the glove over his hand and worked on lacing up his boots.
Lumine watched every move with careful observance.
She really didn’t want those butterflies to return.
It didn’t even matter anymore. They weren’t engaged. She didn’t have a ring on her finger, and he
had no excuse for keeping that old string on. She could think of a million reasons why he shouldn’t
still wear it.
Nevertheless, she found herself keeping each and every one of those reasons to herself.
Ajax opened the door and stepped outside. Lumine followed slowly, careful to not walk too
closely to him. The family buzzed with their own distracted energy as the pair left on their
hopefully short journey.
The ruin guards that Dottore had killed were gone. Their imprints were barely visible beneath
newly fallen snow. Lumine kept behind Ajax as he led her through the backyard and towards the
forest she had run away into just a day earlier.
“So, about yesterday…” She searched for an excuse to fill the silence, anything to not let it
become awkward between them, “Do you really think your challenge to the Tsaritsa will keep
more assassins from coming?”
She watched him shrug as he walked, “I think so. I’m not some diplomatic venture, so she won’t
use backhanded methods when it comes to a challenge like this.”
“But how do you know?” He was calm enough to fall asleep and go fishing with his father as if it
was a normal Sunday morning. He was nothing like the tense man she’d known the days prior. He
was relaxed, as if the threat had completely passed them by.
Ajax only offered another shrug, “I know the Tsaritsa, and I know how seriously she takes these
challenges. We’re fine for now, trust me.”
Trust him. If she had a mora for every instance he’s said that to her. “But Childe-”
“Ajax.”
His sudden interruption caught Lumine off guard. She stopped walking as he did, meeting his
gaze while he turned around to smile down at her. All Lumine could do was take a step back and
furrow her brows, “What?”
“I highly doubt I’m a Harbinger anymore,” he shrugged, “So I shouldn’t use the name, should I?”
“I… I guess not.”
Lumine despised that she felt bad for that. He wore his nonchalance like a mask, smiling as if his
life hadn’t changed so drastically in the span of a week. In calm silence, he continued walking
through the forest, the snow crunching beneath his boots with each step. Lumine took a moment to
process before chasing after his heels.
What to say to someone who just lost what was probably the job of his dreams? He’d said it
earlier, he had to choose between his lifelong goal, and her. Lumine could only imagine that he’d
gotten the shorter stick of the deal. “Hey, I’m really sorry.”
Ajax had to slow in his gait to allow her to keep up. Nonconsciously, he matched her pace and
glanced down at her, “Apology accepted, girlie. But what’re you sorry for?”
She lifted her face to the breeze and closed her eyes, “For being the reason you’re not a Harbinger
anymore. I know you really loved it.”
Lumine expected something heartful. She half expected him to ruminate in his barely concealed
anger and melancholy, proving to her that there was a growing seed of resentment inside of him.
She found herself shocked as he, instead, only laughed.
It was a genuine laugh. There was nothing beneath it, there was no tightness laced through the
sound. He was comfortable, at home. Lumine couldn’t see an ounce of tension in his shoulders.
He laughed at the fact that he lost his dream job for someone like her. He laughed at the entire
situation, ever casual in the face of major changes. It was one thing that had always annoyed her
about him, though she found that she adored it as well. Lumine could not possibly handle her world
flipping upside down with such ease.
Ajax locked her in place with an unadulterated smile. Lumine’s heart skipped a beat - she was
beginning to wonder if she was getting sick, that would be far easier to accept than the truth.
“I was probably going to fight all the other Harbingers at some point anyway,” he shrugged with a
low laugh, “that job was only a step towards my ultimate goal.”
Of course it was. The wave of affection died out immediately. “And here I felt sorry for you. I
even apologized.”
“That sounds like a you problem, girlie.”
She supposed it was. He never did ask her to feel sorry for him. Nevertheless, Lumine couldn’t
help but feel guilty over what happened, or what may happen in the future.
Which, subsequently, brought her to the next order of business. “Do you really think you can
defeat the Tsaritsa?”
A beat of thoughtful silence. Ajax put a hand to his chin and looked at the grey sky above. He
hummed to himself as Lumine watched the gears and cogs turn behind his eyes.
Finally, he smiled tightly - which was his usual smile, the genuine joy wrung out of it and
replaced with unreadable frustration beneath. As comforting as it was to recognize her starmate’s
smile again, Lumine much preferred the genuine one. She despised when he hid his fears from her,
as if he never had any in the first place.
“Yep!”
Yep. Yep, he could totally defeat an Archon with three gnoses and a military.
“How are you even planning to go about this?”
He held up a hand and closed his eyes, “Your brother.”

“What does he have to do with it?”
“He’s got an army.”
Lumine groaned in annoyance. She wished he’d get to the point, he was so communicative earlier
that morning. His chatty demeanor had died along with his Harbinger status. “Why does Ae have
an army?”
All Ajax could do was shrug, “I’m not sure. Let’s find out, shall we?”
They shall. Lumine didn’t remember much about her life before Teyvat, but she did recall that
Aether did not have an army. It wasn’t as if someone could go buy an army at the general store,
either, there had to be a good story behind it all.
There were far too many unanswered questions, far too many loose ends. Aether was alive, but his
future was unseeable, as if he was dead. Aether knew Ajax, somehow. Aether didn’t want to see
her. Aether saved her life from Dottore. Aether had his own life now, and the Unknown God was
still nowhere to be seen.
Lumine groaned as she followed Ajax between the trees, “Why do the men in my life keep secrets
from me all the time?”
“Because you have terrible taste,” he glanced over his shoulder, “I’m sure Huffman even kept his
fair share of secrets.”
She snorted, “Yeah, like how boring he was.”
“That… wasn’t really a secret…”
It had not been immediately obvious to Lumine, thus it was a secret. A life with Huffman would
be much more peaceful than a life with Ajax. Yet, she supposed she was getting what she wanted.
She was certainly entertained.
It wasn’t as if she and Ajax ever could be a boring couple in a boring house, surrounded by
boring grandkids. She had a feeling that neither of them would live very long after fighting the
Tsaritsa. His own tension at answering her earlier question was assurance enough - he was just as
uncertain, just as afraid.
If Aether truly did have an army, that would take them one step closer to living through this. If
only Lumine could see her brother’s face once more, to look at him and know that he was
breathing, that he was alive, she would feel better about the plan ahead. She would have far more
determination to move forward. She would finally be able to breathe again.
“I really hope we find him…” Lumine muttered, “I have so much I want to tell him.”
Would he like her found family? Would he want to come to Mondstadt and meet Diluc and
Kaeya?
“Don’t worry, we will. I know he’s still in the area, he’s probably watching us right now.”
Would he be able to stand the thought of his sister destined to be with someone like Ajax? Would
he want to take her from this world, move on and leave everyone behind?
He’s probably watching us right now.
Aether had to have been the one to send the ruin guard to fetch her yesterday. Aether’s eyes had to
have been the ones lingering on the back of her neck as she escaped. Aether appeared out of
nowhere, teleported to and fro with ease, seemingly able to be wherever he wished at any given
moment.
Lumine stopped. Ajax followed suit, eyes wide and curious as he glanced at her. “Printsessa?”
She moved towards him and gripped his scarf, surprising him as she pulled him down to her level.
Leaning up on her tiptoes, she whispered in his ear, “If he’s watching us, how do we lure him
out?”
Ajax could only smile. He had a few ideas that she’d most likely slap him for. Lumine might not
have been paying attention to her surroundings, but he had. He’d felt that shiver of watchful eyes,
noticed the quiet of the forest, the lack of singing birds or rustling animals. Aether had been
watching them since they stepped outside.
The problem was just finding where he was watching them from.
Ajax had been hunting since the age of 10. It was a necessity when living in Snezhnaya, learning
how to survive in the wilderness and track one’s dinner down in an evening. Wild animals were not
to be underestimated in their intelligence, they knew when they were sought after. It was exactly
why he learned the art of trapping.
Aether was very much like a wild animal, he noticed. He had intelligent, suspicious eyes. He
walked as if he was ready to lunge any moment then, he disliked invasions into his life and
personal space, he growled - it was more of a snarl, but it counted. He didn’t seem to remember
how to use a fork. Ajax wondered if that was something that ran in their family, or a simple result
of living life as a traveler for an indefinite amount of time.
To trap properly, one must lay a bait that entices the animal. Lumine would be the perfect bait for
Aether, and Ajax would work as the trap itself. His plan was fool-proof, he found himself even
excited for it.
Slowly, with a skipping heart and a smile that wouldn’t go away, he put his hands on Lumine’s
hips. His lips brushed against her ear as she tensed beneath him, “Just follow my lead.”
“W-Well,” she whispered back, “I-I was thinking we could fight, or something, and you could act
like you’re going to hurt me. Then he’d come out to defend me.”
He only smiled, “That can be plan B, but I’m pretty sure this’ll work.”
“What will work?”
“I’m going to kiss you…” a low murmur, a pause as uncertainty flickered across his face, “he’ll
most definitely come out for that.”
That’s what he meant by follow his lead. Lumine’s heart skipped a nervous beat. Despite having
kissed this man what felt like hundreds of times, her knees grew weak with anxiety at the thought.
Yet, he was correct. Nothing would work better at drawing Aether out than seeing his little sister
kiss an ex-Fatui Harbinger.
“Okay,” she agreed with an affirmative nod, “But it’s just for this, and nothing else.”
“Of course. It means nothing.”
“Because we’re over.”
“Right,” he nodded along, “there’s nothing between us anymore.”
Nothing else. A fake kiss born out of necessity.
His hands on her waist could not be genuine. His lips against her hair was not a real show of
affection. Lumine tried her best to ignore the butterflies in her chest, and the fire in her stomach.
“This better work.”
He smiled, “It will.”
She hoped so. They had been whispering up until this moment. Now, Ajax spoke loudly enough
for any eavesdroppers to hear, “Lumine, you should know how I feel about you by now.”
“H-How you feel?” The stutter was fake - she’d never been much of an actress. Yet, he hadn’t
seen her stare at him like that in ages. Wide eyed and tense, flustered, taking a step back while he
took a step forward in a smooth dance of their bodies. Her back hit the thick trunk of a tree as she
let out a fake, unsteady breath.
She was beautiful. He was enamored. And the feeling of ominous silence around them grew far
more dangerous.
“I can’t resist it anymore,” Ajax knew he sounded incredibly cheesy, like some shirtless man from
a trashy romance novel, but at least it was the truth, “I want you, Lumine.”
She melted - it looked genuine. He loved it when she did that. “Y-You do?”
This was great. It was his most genius plan ever. Even if Aether didn’t show up, he wouldn’t
regret a minute of it. Lumine was his once more, at least for the moment.
Finally, he kissed her.
And the act was up. Immediately, they were lost in each other.
Lumine hadn’t realized how much she wanted this. She hadn’t realized how desperately she
missed him.
Automatically, as if instinctual, she pushed deeper into the kiss. She arched her back and ran her
hands up his chest, stretching her arms around his shoulders. She didn’t know how ardently she
wanted to feel his hair between her fingers once more.
Most of all, Lumine had no idea how hopeless she was.
The trap was set, but the kiss was real. Both of them knew it. That fact would continue to go
unspoken.
With a regretful sigh, Ajax pulled back. She already missed him. She was cold without him
against her. Their eyes met and held for a moment in thick silence between their bodies.
Nothing happened.
“It didn’t work.” She whispered.
He frowned, “Let’s try again… For the sake of drawing Aether out, of course.”
“Right, of course! Maybe louder this time? And dip me a little?”

That was a good idea. Ajax was already smiling at the prospect, “As you wish, printsessa.”
Thus, the theater began once more.
“Oh no!” Lumine gasped dramatically, putting the back of her hand against her forehead, “This
scoundrel has taken my first kiss! Whoever will defend me from his unbridled lust?”
Ajax caught on quickly enough. He yanked her closer by the waist, “Nobody will! You’re at my
mercy, traveler. I shall steal you away to my castle and force you into marriage with me!”
“You villain!” She gasped, “I don’t love you! Unhand me this instant!”
“Never! You will just have to learn to love me.”
“I don’t want to!”
Another kiss, this time far more dramatically than before. He dipped her just the slightest bit, one
hand on the back of her head, and the other on the small of her back. Lumine gripped his jacket to
keep herself upright, and pointedly ignored the racing of her heart.
Ajax broke the kiss and steadied her. With heavy, passionate exhales, they stepped away from
each other and glanced around the forest. The feeling of ominous danger lurked still, but it
remained silent.
Nothing happened.
Ajax grimaced. He promised to find Aether for Lumine, and he would see through with that to the
best of his abilities.
If that was how the Abyss Prince wanted to play, he was game.
“Nothing happened.” She reminded him.

Something would happen. “I’ll take care of it.”
“What’re you going to do?”
Fight fire with fire. Drop a bomb. Use his strongest method of attack possible. Ajax cupped his
hands over his mouth to yell, shattering the silence around them like glass.
“Hey, Aether! I screwed your sister!”
It’s as if he wanted to die.
The last thing Ajax saw before his life ended was Lumine’s furious glare, and the end of a sword
as the Abyss Prince lunged for his throat.
(Perfect way to die. 10/10 would recommend again.)

Demigod
Chapter Notes
“What do you think, girlie? I said I’d find him for you!”
That he did. Lumine truly should trust Ajax more, he made it a habit to never break promises.
He said he’d find Aether, and there Aether was, standing over his body with the tip of a sword
digging into his neck. Ajax smiled up at him with furrowed brows and a challenging glimmer in
his eyes.
Of course he thought this was exhilarating. Being tackled by a teleporting traveler with a very
sharp sword usually was exhilarating, especially when he was inches away from slicing open his
neck. These were Ajax’s favorite kinds of fights, the most risky challenges he could possibly find.
“For your sake,” Aether was speaking lowly, squatting down to look Ajax in the eye, “I hope
you’re lying about that.”
This poor, sweet summer child. “Oh, dear brother in law, you’re so naive.”
“Excuse me?”
A pool of bubbling water appeared around his body, vibrant blue and summoned from the glow of
his vision. Water filled the bottom of Lumine’s borrowed boots as she yelled, “Stop fighting!”
Aether ignored her, “I will cut you open, Tartaglia.”

“Sounds fun!”
Lumine was stomping towards them now, “Ajax, I swear to the Archons if you summon a whale
I’m never speaking to you again.”
She would get over it. His smile only grew more twisted, while Aether glanced around to watch
the water rise like a fountain.
This was happening whether Lumine approved, or not. The familiarity of rushing water made her
gasp and turn on her heel, “Ae, get away!”
“What?” He glanced at her, “I’m not letting him go!”
Why his little sister was now sprinting away from them at top speeds was a mystery. And why
the idiot ex-Harbinger was laughing as if something was incredibly funny was also a mystery.
Perhaps the sudden explosion of a hydro mimic whale beneath his feet should have tipped him
off.
The exalted Abyss Prince, conqueror of nightmarish monsters, leader of inhuman armies, was
knocked onto his back and crushed by a 10 ton whale made of water.
Lumine was at his side as soon as the roar of hydro was dissipated. She gripped his wet hands and
dropped to her knees in the now melted and slushy snow, “Are you okay? Ajax drops whales
anytime he has a chance.”
That was why she ran. He was fine, if not a bit annoyed from his suddenly damp clothes.
“Yeah... I guess I should listen to you more.”
“You should…” Lumine put the back of his hand to her cheek and closed her eyes. She heaved a
heavy sigh, as if finding life’s relief in his existence, “Nobody could see your constellations or
future, I thought you were dead.”
That didn’t surprise him. The Abyss had that effect on its victims, he might as well have died in
that hell long ago. The look on Lumine’s face was painful to meet as he processed what a satisfying
answer might be.
There was none. So, Aether did the next best thing, “Do you and Tartaglia have a thing?”
And there went Childe laughing hysterically in his spot several feet away. Lumine shot him a
glare, “No, we don’t. He disgusts me.”
“Oh thank the gods.” Aether breathed a sigh of relief.
That was enough to sober Ajax’s humor. He sat up and frowned, pouting like a child, “That’s not
how you felt just a minute ago-“
Before Lumine could blink, Aether was up once more. He shot at Ajax like an arrow through the
air, missing his skin by half an inch as he dodged his blade. The fight began once more with Ajax’s
confident smile, and Aether’s deathly glare.
A lunge, jab, a sudden hydro dagger summoned in half a second to parry his opponents sword.
They had both jumped to their feet and were now slashing at each other with matched fury. With
his delusion, Ajax electro-teleported right through Aether, but was quickly halted by his summoned
geo construct. He reacted quickly enough to yank himself back and summon his bow to send a
hydro powered arrow towards his chest.
As they fought, Lumine was left on the sidelines, sitting on her knees in the mud and dripping
wet. With another slash of a sword, another lunge of a polearm, she continued to watch each of
their movements with wide, disbelieving eyes.
They could not have been fighting for long before Lumine’s patience ran thin. Her voice was the
one to ring out over the sound of clashing blades, “I cannot believe you two!”
Aether and Ajax halted mid-assault, with identical looks of concern. Lumine took the opportune
moment to glare at them both as harshly as she possibly could.
Silence. Bated breaths, glares, raised weapons. It was the perfect example of what every family
reunion would be in the future.
Aether was the one to finally return his gaze to his opponent, “You're upsetting my sister,
asshole!”
“Hey now,” he narrowed his eyes, “you’re the one that started it.”
“I’d like to see you try, shorty!”
Instantly, the battle returned in full force. Yet, this time, Lumine would not allow herself stew in
her own frustrations when two most important men in her life were seconds away from ripping out
each other’s throats. She stood from her spot and stomped over to Aether right as he twisted
himself away from Ajax’s summoned electro lance.
It was as if they were kids again, she could vaguely recall resorting to these measures when he
frustrated her. With a huff, Lumine caught the end of his braid like a rope in the air, and pulled.
How he squeaked like a little girl would go ignored for the time being. Ajax stopped and dropped
his arms as Aether was yanked back, tripping over his own feet until Lumine delivered a swift kick
to the back of his knees that finished the job. In just two seconds, the Abyss Prince had been
felled.
(Ajax also ignored how the more carnal side of himself awakened at the sight of Lumine pinning
Aether down with her foot. He wished that was him under her.)
“It’s been almost two years since we’ve been separated,” she leveled the tip of her blade at
Aether’s chest, “and the first thing you do when we reunite is attack my… uh-“
“Your what , printsessa?”
She was oblivious to the stars in Ajax’s eyes. “My friend.” She finished.
That hurt. Ajax gasped as if he’d been betrayed, “Baby!”
“Don’t call me that! I’ll kill you.”
She was beautiful when she glared. It was like the sunset, he’d seen it hundreds of times
throughout his life, but he never tired of the sight.
Nevertheless, Ajax knew fighting with her long lost brother the second he returned was not a very
empathetic move on his part. “Lumi, I’m sorry I provoked your brother and ruined the reunion
you’ve been waiting for.”
It’s almost as if he knew it was a sin how cute he could be sometimes. Lumine huffed arrogantly
and turned back to Aether, whose eyes were flickering between the two in disbelief. She removed
her sword and took a step back, “Aether?”
“What?” He snapped to attention.
“Are you going to apologize?”
“...Why the hell would I do that?”
Her glare deepened, “The ex-Fatui Harbinger apologized, why can’t you? Don’t you know how
long I’ve been waiting to see you?”
And the moment he returns, he’s trying to slit her friend's throat. He felt as if his heart might
break a bit as Lumine abandoned him to kneel down beside Childe instead. She ran her hands
through his hair, her palm lingering on his cheek, with her hard edged expression melting into
something softer.
“Are you okay?” He was whispering - Aether felt as if he was seeing a private moment between
lovers. He leaned with one hand on the ground, and the other resting on hers. Tenderly, he pulled
back her hand and kissed her palm, flicking his gaze above her fingers as he did so, “ya tebya
lyublyu.”
Lumine nearly melted, “I don’t know what that means.” Yet, she obviously liked it. And
unfortunately for Childe, Aether has had enough time to learn the many languages of Teyvat.
He knew exactly what that meant.
The world felt as if it was crumbling down around him.
Childe winced in fake pain and let out an obvious whine that caught Lumine’s attention, “I think I
hurt my head, Lumi, I might have cracked open my skull or something.”
This asshole, using his sister’s natural caretaker instincts to trick her. Aether’s eyes narrowed as
Lumine gasped and leaned further in towards him, wrapping him up in a tight hug, “I’m so sorry!
We can go back home and get you patched up right now.”
He wasn’t even bleeding anywhere. He remained perfectly healthy, resting his chin on Lumine’s
shoulder and grinning wickedly as his eyes met Aether’s. The tension between them only grew the
second Childe ran an affectionate hand down her back.
The Abyss Prince was on fire. He could’ve killed him, ripped off his fingers one by one and
stuffed them down his throat. This was the person he was working with to defeat the cryo archon,
but he might end up killing him himself.
Their gazes did not dare break. For Aether, this was war. For Childe, it was simply a challenge.
As Lumine hugged him, he could only smile darkly, lock eyes with his opponent, and lean in to
press his lips against Lumine’s neck.
Enough was enough.
“Lumi, I’m going to kill him.”
She pulled herself back with a gasp and a glare, “What is wrong with you? I thought you wanted
me to have friends, remember?”
They were fighting a literal war in Teyvat last time they were together, they couldn’t bear to have
friends outside of each other. He had felt bad at that time for dragging his sister into another
strange world’s problems, and encouraged her to meet new people. Yet, that was so long ago. That
was a completely different him. “Things are different now, it’s been 500 years and it’s time for us
to go, Lumine.”
She frowned, “It’s only been a year and a half, Aether.”
“Yeah, for you.”
It was a strike, the snap of a snake’s jaw when something got too close. Aether had spent so much
time with his monstrous subjects that he did not bother with kind speech any longer. Immediately,
he regretted his tone. He had never spoken to Lumine that way before, not in their thousands of
years of travel. Even Childe lost his mocking smile, now laying a protective hand on Lumine’s hip
and glaring at him.
Her face contorted in hurt, “This isn’t how I wanted our reunion to be.”
“Well,” frustrated, Aether clenched his fists, “I’m sorry, but you weren’t even supposed to know I
was here anyway.”
“But why?”
The ex-Harbinger was staring at him as if he was a bug beneath his feet. While Lumine was hurt
and vulnerable, Childe seemed to be where she leaned towards for strength. Aether wasn’t sure if
she even realized that she was holding his hand, now, and drifting further into his arms.
Away from her brother, her only family, that’s exactly where she was heading. Away from
celestial travel, and into the arms of a mortal.
Childe couldn’t live infinitely. He couldn’t walk through stars. He couldn’t even begin to relate to
what Lumine truly was.
Aether needed to dig in his feet and pull her back to him.
“I’m sorry, I genuinely am.” He moved closer to her and held out a hand, “I have no interest in
talking about what’s happened to me right now, but… I’ve been…” he took a deep breath and
closed his eyes, “I’ve been afraid of you, of what you’ll think of who I’ve become.”
In silence, Lumine let his words soak in. She could only furrow her brows in confusion, “But
you’re my brother, I’d accept you no matter what’s happened to you.”
Even if he planned to destroy this world, and her beloved humans with it?
He couldn’t bring himself to answer her. Silence fell once more as they stared at each other.
Neither of the twins dared to speak. Childe opened his mouth to burst the awkward bubble, “Lumi,
Aether’s promised to help us defeat the Tsaritsa.”
The seemingly only good quality about Tartaglia was his ability to lighten a room with an amiable
smile and a natural laugh. Lumine’s tension dissolved immediately, “Really, Aether? You’d do that
for me?”
“...Uh, y-yeah!” He cleared his throat and avoided her eyes. As surprisingly nice as it was of
Childe to talk positively about him, the fact that Lumine seemed more personally involved than he
originally knew had caught him off guard. He wasn’t doing this for her. All he had known was that
Tartaglia was looking to protect his family. Aether simply thought Lumine was butting her head in
on someone else’s problems, not that killing the Cryo Archon would be for her sake.
There seemed to be a lot to catch up on.
And he had to get his sister on his side first. “Well, let’s, uh…” Aether floundered in his fake
enthusiasm before correcting himself, “Let’s not waste any more time! Onto to Zapolyarny
Palace!”
“Nah,” Childe waved a nonchalant hand and stood up, pulling Lumine to her feet with him and
brushing the slush from her oversized coat affectionately, “We’re not ready yet, give it a few
days.”
Aether tried his best to ignore the flicker of irritation in his chest, “What do you mean you’re not
ready?”
“I mean that Lumine and I are tired, our family is terrified, and we all need some normalcy before
running off to kill a God.”
Our family. He said our family. Aether’s soul left his body as he imagined little ginger children
with brown eyes and a smile like his sister’s. Our family.
In his shock, he hardly noticed Lumine gripping his hands and excitedly bouncing in front of him,
“You have to meet them! They’re all really special to me.”
“...D-Did you at least name one after me?”
She blanked, “What?”
“Nothing!” He caught himself and shook his head, “You mean Tartaglia’s family, right?”
“Well yeah, but-“
“So they’re not your family, Lumi.”
Past her shoulder, Aether saw Childe put his hands on his hips and tilt his head innocently,
smiling all the while, “Yes they are. Lumine’s an Alekseev.”
Silence. Tension thick as fog. Lumine stared at the ground, while Aether slowly turned his gaze
on her.
“...Sis?”
“We… uh…”
“Sister?”
“Ajax and I might be…”
“Might be what?!”
“uh… Soulmates?”
Soulmates.
Aether froze.
“It’s not ‘we might be’ Lumi,” Childe grinned and wrapped his arms around her waist from
behind, “We are. Monoceros Caeli and Viatrix are all twisted up in each other.”
Silence.
Monoceros Caeli. And Viatrix.
Aether wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen his little sister blush before now. She was positively glowing,
at home in the ex-Harbinger’s arms, as if she was born to be there.
And Tartaglia just had to take it one step further. “We’re having nine kids.”
Nine?
Aether could not help but explode.
“Lumine Victoria Caomhánach!” He stepped towards her, pointing an angry finger, “You are a
3,500 year old demigod who has fought countless wars and slain enemies ten times your size! You
have crushed worlds beneath your feet! You have helped shape the universe!”
Childe blinked innocently, “You told me that you couldn’t remember how old you were.”
“I lied,” Aether snapped, “why would I tell you anything about myself?”
She huffed, “Because I want you two to get along, that’s why!”
Preposterous, and impossible to boot. “ Lumine, you cannot live on this dinky little planet with
some cheeky, mortal, trash bag of a man! What are you going to do when he gets old, huh?”
Childe buried his nose in her hair and yanked her closer, “She’ll be my hot young wife.”
“You are just asking for me to cut out your entrails.”
“No he’s not!” Lumine huffed and put her hands on her hips, “And it doesn’t even matter,
Aether.”
His little sister had always been like this. She had always gotten attached to one person, then
carried it down the river until she drowned. Usually, it was with incredibly boring and nice men
who found her too intimidating. Aether was always there to pick up the pieces of her heart
afterwards. This was no different.
It didn’t matter that Childe wasn’t her usual type, and it didn’t matter that Aether was a jaded
Abyss cryptid looking to destroy the world. Lumine was still his sister, he was still her big brother,
and he’d glue her back together when Tartaglia admitted that he wanted nothing to do with her.
A human man could not possibly love an immortal.
He could not possibly understand her.
Lumine had seen sights beyond his comprehension, the differences between them would come to
light soon enough. Soulmates, or not.
Besides, Aether found the thought of their constellations intertwining rather far fetched. “Lumine,
do you really believe that the day you were born, 3,500 or so years ago, the universe said ‘hmm
this little alien demigod will go perfectly with this rando on Teyvat’? Do you really think that
happened?”
Childe glanced down at her still in his arms, “You never told me you were all that.”
“I didn’t really know,” Casually, she shrugged as if the situation was not asinine. “I feel like I
knew that at one point, but it’s just been getting fuzzier and fuzzier.”
Memories of a life among stars, drifting away into nothingness. Aether thought he knew exactly
why, but to say it aloud was too much for him.
This conversation needed to end. Snezhnaya was cold, and he could not stand the sight of Lumine
in the ex-Harbinger’s arms any longer. To look at this man and know that he would break her heart
one day, to know that she would have to leave him, was too much.
Teyvat really was the worst.
“I want to kill the Cryo Archon,” Aether began with a heavy sigh, “but Lumine, I want you to
understand something.”
“Yes?”
He opened his eyes to meet her gaze, “I’ve had a much different experience on Teyvat than you
have. Remember that when I make the decisions I will make.”
“...O-Okay, I’ll try my best.”
She and Tartaglia shared a look, mirroring each other’s expressions in a silent questioning. They
looked like a real couple, then, as they shared the same thoughts - unspoken words that were
perfectly understood.
They made sense to an extent, he would admit that much. But that didn’t mean it would work out
in the end. Sometimes, a gap is simply too big to bridge over.
And to procrastinate on killing the Cryo Archon, the very idea made him angry, “We must leave
for Zapolyarny soon.”
“Aether,” Lumine cast him a careful smile, “I know you’re anxious to get this over with, and I
know I can’t dedicate the time to our reunion that we deserve. And I’m so sorry for that.”
He sighed, “But?”
“But, I want you to meet these people. They’re…”
There was no need for her to finish. He recognized that look in her eyes. “Like family.”
She melted into a sigh. There was an affectionate smile shared between her and Childe as she
looked up at him. Absently, she swayed in his arms, “Yeah. They are family. I haven’t known
them for very long, but…” she returned her gaze to Aether, “I don’t know, ever since the unknown
God took you away, I’ve just been terrified of waking up without someone at my side.”
Falling, and falling, fingers and knees bleeding as she desperately tried to stop herself. Ripping
skin and screams echoing into nothingness. That’s what the last year and a half has been since
Lumine awoke without Aether.
And she’d found people, eventually. She’d found friends. She’d found big brothers and little
sisters. And a hand so warm as a mother’s, a touch so affirmative as father’s, were difficult to come
by. If Aether was assuming right, then Childe’s family had given her that. She blended into his
arms as if she belonged there.
Aether steadied her with a serious look, “You are not one of them, Lumine. You’re too different
for humans to understand.”
“I don’t understand what you’re even saying,” she retorted, “Just, please, for me, will you give
this a chance?”
His little sister had always been hard headed. She would learn eventually, she would see the
retribution from his actions, and she would begin to understand.
But he’d never been able to say no to those eyes.
He hoped they at least had sandwiches.
They did have sandwiches. A middle aged woman with greying blonde hair handed Aether a
sandwich the minute he stepped into the house. That was how mortals should greet the Abyss
Prince, mankind could learn from Eva Alekseeva.
“This is Tonia,” Childe - Ajax was his real name, apparently, though Aether found himself
hesitant to use it - knelt down beside the little ones, wrapping all three into a tight, affectionate hug,
“and the grumpy one is Anthon, and the ball of sunshine is Teucer.”
Tonia, freckled and intelligent-looking. Anthon, freckled and grumpy-looking. Teucer, freckled
and sunshine incarnate-looking.
“Oh gods,” Aether whispered, “There’s three of you.”
Tonia clasped her hands mischievously, “I think big brother Ajax is handsome and wonderful and
the best future brother-in-law a guy could ask for!”
Aether held his plate closer. Bread crumbs from the sandwich rubbed off on his chest, though he
paid the mess no mind. Tonia’s words continued to swirl around his head - Future brother-in-law.
He shot Lumine a glance, only to further his own horror as she went on unphased by the
implications.
The second Aether, Lumine, and Childe had returned to the home, they were bombarded with an
affection that Aether had not felt in 500 years. Childe was, genuinely, a doting older brother. And
Lumine was, very genuinely, an obviously loved addition to the family.
She stood in the kitchen with Eva and Sacha, laughing in absent conversation. Michial - Aether
was having difficulty keeping up with all these names - was mixing another drink and joining in
the mindless socializing. While the children stared up at Aether with wide eyes, Tartaglia pulled
out a chair for him at the dining table and gestured.
“You look sick, Ae, you should sit.”
Ae. Nobody was allowed to call him Ae besides Lumine. Before he could snap at him, Childe
grinned and darted away into the kitchen.
Aether did feel sick. He had no idea what to say to the children - though Teucer and Anthon didn’t
pay him much attention past initial introductions. Tonia seemed to be interested in her malicious
intent of warming up his heart towards her older brother, even going so far as to bring him a cup of
tea.
As much as mankind could learn from this family’s treatment, Aether would still never approve
of Tartaglia.
Lumine broke off from the conversation in the kitchen and approached the dining table, brows
furrowed, and her smile obviously fake. It was as if she was readying herself to deliver bad news,
though Aether wasn’t sure what could get worse than ‘Tartaglia is my soulmate’. It felt as if
nothing could top that.
She took the seat across from him. Her hand reached out to hold his, and slowly, but surely, her
smile became more genuine. “Is this too much for you?”
Incredibly so. “I, uh… I just haven’t been in a house full of people in about 500 years, is all.”
“You look like you’re about to faint…” she murmured, “I can show you to a guest room so you
can lay down, if you want.”
That was yet another twist in the wound. Aether hadn’t laid in a bed in who knows how long.
Despite leading the entire Abyss, it was not exactly a place known for its comforts. He and
Dainsleif often chose the softest looking spot when traveling, even if that meant it was on the cold
ground.
Those were not the only differences. Aether hadn’t had one day where he did not look over his
shoulder. He had not felt one moment of peace, of content, of love. Aether hardly recalled how to
have a normal conversation, how to look someone in the eye and not expect them to go for the
throat. He used to be the one who supported Lumine, but now it felt as if she must support him.
Which brought him straight to the subject of his worst nightmares. “I’m fine, thank you. But
there’s something I wanted to speak to you about…”
“What is it?” She tilted her head in a way not dissimilar to Childe’s expressions, it was yet
another example of just how attached the two nonconsciously were. Aether had noticed it when
walking back to the house - they matched paces, their arms brushed against each other naturally,
they could share a thought with just one glance.
He knew exactly what was going on here. “Just so you know, this can be fixed.”
Lumine leaned in with wide eyes, “What can?”
“You,” he whispered across the table, “do you not recall anything about who we are?”
Melancholic, she sighed, “...No, truth be told. I’m aware that we’re something, but I’ve forgotten
what.”
“You used to recall, didn’t you?”
Last year, Lumine could name each and every world they’d hopped to. Now, she could hardly
remember the Unknown God’s face. Her memories were particular, blurred in some spots, and
clear in others.
All she could offer her brother was another sad smile, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay!” He shook a hand, still whispering, “This can be fixed, you’ll be back to normal soon
enough.”
Back to normal, as if she had grown hooves and horns at some point. Lumine stared down at their
intertwined fingers, “I… I feel normal now, Aether. I’m stressed and angry from the whole Tsaritsa
thing, but I have you, and I think I might have Ajax again too…”
She didn’t have Ajax. She never could, not fully. “You’re the furthest thing from normal, Lumi.
You’re… You’re getting more and more human as the days pass.”
He had to force himself to say it. To even think of that possibility, it was what he’d always been
afraid of.
Lumine stared at him.
And it was entirely obvious that she didn’t understand.
“Lumi,” Aether went on with a serious edge stealing his tone, “do you remember why we never
stay in one place for long?”
“I… I don’t, I’m sorry.”
“It’s because you and I are always an inch away from mortality. Having families, close friends,
falling in love, it’s enough to drive our true selves back. And…” he let out a shuddering sigh,
“That’s what’s happening to you. That’s why your past is getting more blurry.”
“But I’m getting my powers back,” she retorted, “I can use every element of this world, I can
defeat monsters the same as I always have.”
“What you can do now is nothing compared to who you truly are, Lumine!”
The tension between them grew thicker. Lumine stiffened in her chair and leaned back, folding
her arms over her chest as if she could block him out from her heart. “What are you even trying to
say?”
It was time to just spit it out, to face the truth.
Aether’s gaze flickered over her shoulder to linger on the family meandering through the house.
They could not possibly hear this conversation, and were far too distracted with their own
problems to take much notice. Teucer wrapped his arms around Childe’s waist and buried his face
into his side, while Childe ran an affectionate hand through his hair. He leaned on the kitchen
counter and carried on a light argument with Sacha and his father - it was about something
incredibly mundane, too, something incredibly human.
If Lumine kept on like this, she would be at the ex-Harbinger’s side, making human babies and
eating human food and dealing with human problems. She wouldn’t be Aether’s Lumine anymore.
He finally looked at her. She smiled in an attempt at reassurance, but nothing could help him
now.
“Lumine, you’re becoming human. You’re going to start growing old, and you will never be able
to leave Teyvat.”
Stuck here, forever. In Teyvat, a land whose war she just fought, a land filled with people who
cared for her, with adventure, with a night sky that told her the future.
She would grow old. Lumine had forgotten that she couldn’t do that before, she just began
assuming that she would naturally age as everybody else did.
She truly had forgotten who she was.
“If I leave, can I take Ajax with me?”
Aether’s expression darkened, “Why would you want to do that?”
“I… Kind of, maybe, think he’s neat.”

That much was obvious. Despite the evident anger she held for the ex-Harbinger, it was plain as
day that she’d fallen in love with him.
But then again, Lumine fell in love with any eligible man.
“Listen,” Aether deadpanned, “I’m just going to be honest with you. One day, the differences
between you and him will be too big, and you’ll end up breaking apart. That’s what happens to
people like us.”
Immediately, she scoffed, “What happened to turning into a mortal? Our differences aren’t so big
then.”
“I’m talking about if we regain our full strength and leave this world,” Aether squeezed her hand
affectionately, “you’ll return to who you’ve always been, and it will become evident to you both
that nothing will work between you two.”
This conversation was not going as planned. Aether had good intentions, she knew, but he was far
less supportive than what she thought she recalled of him. As much as Lumine wanted him at her
side, she also wanted Ajax at the other.
Besides, she didn’t make that decision, the stars did.
“We’re starmates for a reason, Aether.”
“Are you, though?” He challenged harshly, “Those are Teyvat’s constellations, what about in
another world?”
Now he was just being ridiculous. Defensive, she huffed, her voice rising, “The stars are in the
same shape no matter where we are!”
“Yes, but,” he spoke calmly, “you cannot see certain stars depending on our place in the universe.
You may have an entirely different constellation in another world.”
And an act of free will exerted strongly enough can shift even the brightest of stars. Lumine
recalled what Mona and the fortune teller told her.
The tips of Monoceros Caeli and Viatrix were fading.
Lumine bit back her fear and met Aether’s eyes, he would be a mirror image of herself if not for
the lack of light in his familiar honey colored depths. She wasn’t aware what he’d been through, if
it truly had been 500 years of torture, but she knew she could fix it, just as he intended to fix her.
And being incredibly stubborn, Lumine did not plan on giving up this easily. She’d done one of
the most difficult things in her life for Ajax: told him she loves him. She was not about to throw
aside all the hard work she had done, the restless nights and the losses of appetite, the nervous
nausea and the cold sweats. She had suffered for Ajax.
Aether had to understand, one way or another.
“No matter what the stars say, I…” Lumine took a steadying breath and closed her eyes, “I like
him. A lot.”
Aether didn’t miss a beat. “Why?” He hissed.
“G-Good question… Uh, well…”
How to describe it? It felt impossible.
Lumine forced her tongue to move, “He’s… an asshole.”
“An asshole?” Aether raised a skeptical brow.
“Yes…” she thought for a moment before going on, her heart skipping a beat, “He really is, but he
can also be kind and gentle. He respects me. And if he doesn’t care for anyone else in the world, I
know he cares for me. And despite all that we’ve been through - which has been… a lot, actually.
I… haven’t woken up alone since we met.”
“...Didn’t he almost destroy Liyue?”
Everybody always brought up the Liyue thing. She rolled her eyes, “Even after he raised Osial, I
knew where he was, I knew he loved me, we were… Well,” her cheeks warmed as she avoided his
eyes, “I guess you could say we were inevitable. And as angry as that made me, it was also kind of
a… comfort, I guess.”
A comfort. A home, somewhere she could always go back to when things got too rough.
It was just a shame she’d found it with that guy. “That really sucks, sis.”
“Shut up!” She huffed, “It’s nice! I’ve always known that no matter what happens, I’ll always
have him. Even when he does something terrible and breaks my heart-“
“-Does he do that often?”
“...I’m not answering that. The fact of the matter is that I want to forgive him. He’s going to kill a
God for me,” she buried her face into her hands, her low tones now muffled, “That’s the most
romantic thing I can possibly think of. I…I’ve accepted that I can’t help but love him.”
She’s accepted it. She’s become complacent, soft. Once again, he was reminded of how far away
from her true self she really is.
“Lumi, one can accept their own death,” he began, “but it still hurts when they die, accepted or
not.”
She furrowed her brows and lifted her head, “Are you saying that me being with Ajax would hurt
you?”
It would, not that he was dumb enough to admit that out loud. “I’m saying this will hurt you.
Think about this for a moment, you’re giving up immortality and power for one man. Do you
really want to grow old and die, when you could be with me, traveling the universe forever?”
With Aether, her only family. Aether, her twin. Aether, who had been her guiding light for so
long. He protected her, made her happy, fought at her side. And even if she couldn’t recall much,
she knew the amount of time she’d spent with him far surpassed her time with Ajax.
Lumine despised that she was torn.
“I don’t know,” a whisper, a pain in her chest. She turned around in her chair to look at Ajax on
the other end of the house. He had his hair pinned back and an apron tied around his waist,
standing next to his mother and helping her cook dinner. Beneath the obsession for battle, the
trauma and the lack of morality, he was a good man.
She could stay with him. She could be his wife, travel all over Teyvat with him. They could build
a house and grow old there. They could have children to teach battle and weaponry to, they could
spend each day together - not only lovers, but best friends, sometimes enemies, sometimes two
whirlwinds caught in their own illicit affairs.
Or, she could be with her brother. She could stay young forever and see sights the human mind
could not comprehend. She would be alive to tell the stories of the universe, the true history, the
death and birth of stars.
“You are part God,” Aether whispered reverentially, “even if you choose to be tied down, your
inner self will remain antsy for a life you once knew. What’s that human phrase…” he put a finger
to his chin, “You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl? Except,
uh, with celestial traveling.”
Celestial traveling, and life as a demigod. It was a crime how easily Lumine had forgotten this.
She had no idea what to say. And she despised that about herself.
“Hey, Lumi?”
Ajax’s voice ripped her from her thoughts. Aether remained calm as she jumped and turned
around in her seat to see Ajax walking up from the kitchen, “W-What?”
He paused, confused at her panic, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she sighed and faked a smile, “I’m okay.”
His gaze flickered between her and Aether. The tension was palpable, thick. There was a flicker of
suspicion across his face, before he put a hand on Lumine’s shoulder, keeping his gaze locked on
the Abyss Prince like a warning, “You're looking sick, do you want to go for a walk outside?”
She glanced at Aether, who only smiled. Immortality, a life with her brother, the one she’d been
searching high and low for.
And Ajax; humanity, happiness.
“No, no,” she let out a shuddering sigh, “But I’ll help you cook. Ae, would you like to help?”
Unphased, he only tilted his head and smiled, “Sure! But it’s been a while since I’ve cooked in a
real kitchen, you’ll have to excuse my clumsiness.”
The conversation was over. Aether could play pretend for a bit if the need arose. He spoke his
piece - he’d planted that seed in her mind.
Now, it just needed time to grow.
Chapter End Notes
Aether is just a poor boy who misses his sister... and has very grey morals... and had a
really hard time... he’s not evil tho I promise, it’s a bit deeper than that.
Who would you pick? Immortality and adventure, or humanity? I’d pick the secret
third option (immediate death)
One Last Day
Chapter Notes
The Alekseev house was warm. It smelled of campfires and roasted pecans, and Aether had not
been wrapped up in the arms of a family in half a century.
He understood exactly why Lumine adored it.
“This is how you do it, Miss Lumi!” Teucer guided her hands along, “you put this part through
here, and then you do this…”
Aether watched as she focused on the toy Teucer was explaining. He’d never realized her affinity
for kids before, but it made sense. Lumine made friends with the world, she’d most certainly
humor someone like Teucer and his deep love for toys.
If only Tartaglia would stop shooting her those looks across the room.
It was sickening how utterly enamored he was with her. One would have to be blind to miss the
dreamy smiles and the look in his eyes. Lumine took no notice of his gaze glued onto her, far too
focused with entertaining Teucer.
She looked happy. Aether knew that expression far better than anyone, she wore it when they
traveled together. Now, she wore it for this human family, bundled up in their warmth.
She’d get over it soon. Every immortal went through a phase like this.
“Aether,” Eva approached his seat with a mug in her hand, “Would you like some hot chocolate?”
“...Chocolate can be heated?”

His entirely genuine question earned a round of laughs. Since he stepped through the door, it was
obvious that he was something different, something foreign - it didn’t use to feel so alone when he
had Lumine at his side. The Alekseevs caught each and every one of his curveballs with the utmost
grace.
She handed him the warm mug. Lumine watched with a smile as if she was proud that he was
drinking heated chocolate.
Ever since their conversation, Lumine had been visibly on edge.
At dinner, she bounced her knee excessively. Aether was sure he saw Childe - Ajax, he reminded
himself that this man was not technically a Harbinger any longer - grab her hand beneath the table,
just to get her to calm down.
She helped clean the dishes and stared at the soap bubbles as if they held the answers to the
universe. Ajax had wrapped his arms around her waist from behind but earned no response.
Lumine was completely lost in her thoughts.
Of course she’d be. Aether made a wonderful point.
Her nerves calmed as the evening went on. Teucer and Tonia were enough to distract her, despite
her brother’s lingering eyes on her every move. The house was abuzz with energy, and Aether
watched it all unfold. Silent, he sipped at his hot chocolate and meditated on the days ahead.
Tomorrow, they will leave for Zapolyarny Palace. If Ajax and Lumine didn’t want to, he would
finish the job himself. A war against humanity had to start somewhere.
Yet, it was interesting to watch the ebb and flow of the family. Anthon and Sacha’s complaints;
The feigned ignorance of Eva and Michial as they managed their children; Tonia and her schemes,
Ajax and his willingness to enable said schemes. Teucer was consistently reigned in before he
could cause some sort of grief, not always successfully, either.
Aether was aware of the existence of more older siblings. He’d sent Ruin Hunters to watch over
their homes and had a report sent back to him by the mages in that area. They were at peace and
perfectly safe. He could only wonder how they reacted to the constant gravitational pull orbiting
Ajax’s every decision in life.
Teucer seemed to be growing up in exactly the same way. Michial shot his youngest son the same
looks he shot the middle son - anxiety, concern, suspicion of an arising problem. The stress was
palpable on his face.
Lumine wedged herself into this house perfectly. As Ajax approached with a smile, she returned it
fully. He leaned down behind Teucer, quiet, mischievous, and shot out his hands to grab his waist
and hoist him into the air. Teucer laughed and kicked and wiggled as Ajax held him above his
head, a loud but amusing type of chaos.
“It’s time for bed!” He spun him around, soaking up the laughter, “you’ll be super grumpy in the
morning if you don’t sleep now.”
“But I’m not tired!”
The protests remained unheeded. It was getting late in the evening, and the rest of the family was
beginning to settle in. Lumine giggled at the sight of Childe holding Teucer’s back to his chest,
carrying him to the staircase. “I’ll be up there in a minute.”
That raised the question of exactly where Aether would be sleeping tonight. He wasn’t too keen
on sleeping in a house full of people, though he knew they were all harmless - Well, all of them
besides Tartaglia, but he wouldn’t hurt him for risk of Lumine never speaking to him again.
She was left on the living room floor. Absently humming to herself, she began to pick up his
strewn-about toys while Aether watched from his spot on the couch. That’s all he’d been able to
do, watch. An outsider could hardly touch anything in this world without shattering it. The
discomfort had to be visible on his face, as Lumine cast him a smile that was meant to be
reassuring.
“Sorry that it gets a bit loud here. I know you don’t like this much chaos.” With the youngest
gone, the twins were left alone once more. It was relatively peaceful compared to the shenanigans
the family was always up to.
“It’s fine,” nonchalant, he shrugged, “your trash heap of a boyfriend is good with kids, it’s
interesting to watch.”
It was disgusting how easily she could have melted at his words, “Yeah, he’ll be a good father
one day.”
“Please don’t have nine babies with him.”
The joy was gone in half a second, replaced with frustration, “I won’t, trust me. And I’m still
thinking about what you said, anyway.”
She could not possibly have nine kids with him if she was traveling the universe for eternity,
Childe would have to die eventually. Even if she stayed immortal and lived with him, to watch
one’s husband and children die of old age, Aether couldn’t imagine anything worse than that.
Except for the scenario where she gives up her powers and grows old as well, leaving Aether
alone. That was worse for him, by far.
“I’ll wait, no worries,” he smiled and put up a hand, “I’m really not trying to stress you out or
give you an ultimatum, I just want you to consider the consequences of what you might be doing.”
Aside from the consequences, there was also the fact that Aether was planning on destroying
Teyvat. She wasn’t aware of that aspect quite yet, though, but it did throw a wrench into all of her
plans. Lumine would know eventually.
She stood up and brushed off her clothes. Avoiding his eyes, she brushed past his chair and made
towards the staircase, “I know. I’m thinking about it.”
“And tomorrow, you know we’re leaving, right?”
She stiffened. Exactly five seconds of silence before she glanced at him over her shoulder, “I
think that’s a good idea. Thank you for being patient with us.”
The family seemed to have calmed down a bit, at least. Teucer still stared at his brother behind
his back with furrowed brows, as if he was trying to solve a complicated math problem. And his
parents skirted around the subject of the ruin guards and the other Harbinger and Lumine’s twin
suddenly appearing out of the blue. This whole family seemed to be professionals at blocking out
the bad, and focusing on the good.
While Aether would much prefer to be on the road by now, he understood the need for this day of
rest. Lumine looked exhausted, Childe looked exhausted, and Aether could force himself to sit still
for 24 hours, as dreadful as the entire thing was.
At least he got to taste hot chocolate. He decided that when he destroyed Teyvat, he would make
sure to get the recipe for hot chocolate first.
And at least he wouldn’t sleep on the ground. As high alert as his instincts were, he’d appreciate
the existence of a pillow.
“I guess I’ll go to bed as well,” he followed her up the stairs and to the hallway of bedrooms,
“where do you want me?”
“Second door on the left…” she stopped to look inside of a bedroom, eyeing its blue curtains and
obviously lived-in comfort. Aether watched as she turned her body as if to enter, before stopping
herself and pulling back.
He couldn’t help but ask. “Is that Tartaglia’s room?”
“Yep…” her voice was higher pitched than usual, uncharacteristically shaken, “I think I’ll sleep
in the guest room next to yours, though.”
“Oh good!” He wrapped an arm over her shoulders and grinned, “If you’re going to leave him one
day, might as well start now.”
Lumine shot him a withering glare, “I never said I’d leave him.”
He knew that, he simply chose to ignore it. “You’ll make the right decision, I know you will,” he
led her to the guest rooms down the hallway, “You’ll start recalling how we lived before, and
you’ll miss that too much.”
Aether sounded far too confident for Lumine’s comfort. She was glad to be beneath his arm, close
to him, and assured that he was alive and well, but she recalled him as being so much… Nicer. He
used to be so kind. He was her rock, her stronghold.
Nevertheless, she remained overjoyed at the fact that here was her brother. Alive, next to her,
breathing and speaking and living.
Lumine caught him in a sudden, soul-squeezing hug, “I’ve missed you so much.” She whispered,
“You have no idea.”
She felt him stiffen in her arms, before loosening with a sigh. Slowly, he returned the hug, and
wrapped his arms around her to pull her closer, “I’ve missed you too. There is nothing I want more
than to fix this problem and move on with our lives.”
Move on with our lives. That could have so many different meanings, Lumine found herself
shaken at the thought. She pulled away from the hug and faked yet another smile, “So, tomorrow
we’re heading straight to Zapolyarny, right?”
“Right!”
“Okay,” she took a deep breath, “I’m going to say goodnight to Teucer. I’ll be in the room right
next to yours if you need anything.”
A plain guestroom, untouched by life. There were no weapons on the wall, no evergreen scents
on the pillow, no blue curtains that had probably been there since Ajax was a little kid. She slept so
much better in his room.
Aether watched as she opened another door, smiling at Teucer’s high-pitched cheer upon her
arrival. With a laugh, she shut it behind her, leaving Aether alone in the hallway. He could hear
muffled voices, Tartaglia laughing about something, Teucer’s rambling, Lumine’s soft soothes as
she helped him calm down for the night.
They were already acting like parents to the kid. Aether hoped he wasn’t too late in getting to his
sister, all he could wonder is if she was too far gone for him to bring back.
“Do you think he’s asleep?”
“Gosh, I hope so.”
“He’s so…”
“Energized.”
“Hey,” Ajax grinned, still whispering from Teucer’s doorway, “I was the same way at that age,
and look how I turned out.”
He was still a red-haired tornado of constant energy and impatience. At least Teucer got to sleep
quickly enough, even after three consecutive stories about Mister Cyclops and one incredibly out-
of-tune lullaby.
Lumine waited in the hallway as Ajax shut the door with a gentle click. The rest of the house was
beginning to settle, with his parents downstairs by themselves, and the kids in their beds. Even
Aether had retired for the night, as uncomfortable about it as he seemed.
Lumine glanced at his guest bedroom, brows furrowed and frowning as she thought of him. The
man in that room did not seem like the brother she remembered. He was colder, his tones harsher,
his smiles ingenuine.
“Hey,” Ajax’s whisper tore her from her thoughts. He put a hand on her cheek and leaned in,
“You’ve been acting weird all day.”
She had been caught up between immortality and her starmate, though she didn’t think the
concern was visible on her face. Lumine forced a smile, “I’m fine, just nervous about tomorrow.”
His gaze dropped flatly, “Aether wants to leave so soon?”

“Yeah, and I agree with him, actually. We should just get this over with.”
“True,” he sighed heavily, “just let me handle it all. I’ll take care of the Tsaritsa, and you just
watch.”
The nerve. Lumine scoffed in offense, “You want me to just watch you kill the Cryo Archon?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” He blinked innocently, “I want you to watch me conquer the world for you.”
Damn his twisted sense of romance. Damn the fact that Lumine’s heart flickered at the idea.
Immediately, she knew that she must escape, get his hand off her cheek and ignore his stupid face
and his stupid words. With a huff, she turned to leave, but not before he put his hand on her waist,
and yanked her back towards him, “Where do you think you’re going?”
Once again, damn him. She stiffened in his arms, “To bed.”
Ajax jerked his head in the opposite direction, “My room’s over there, kotenok.”
Another word she didn’t understand. He just had to be insulting her in Snezhnayan. “I’m sleeping
in here tonight,” she sent a haughty glance to the guest room, “So let me go before I rip out your
tongue.”
She was so charming, so utterly poetic. Ajax could only pull her closer, now pouting, “Are you
still mad at me for that whole assassination thing?”
“You tried to kill me!”
“I didn’t try to kill you,” he corrected, “I just thought about it.”
“Oooh, what a huge difference. Let me just jump into your arms and marry you this very
second.”
As sardonic as her words were, Ajax really would not complain if she wanted to do that. He had
her ring ready to summon and be worn any moment then.
Despite her glare, he kept her close. She wasn’t pushing him away, but melding with him as she
always had. Even when they had their first kiss ever, a spontaneous moment in between arguments
outside of the funeral parlor, Lumine naturally had fit herself to him. He’d thought it before, and he
would ruminate on it a million times more - whatever it was between the two of them was entirely
instinctual, their very natures.
There was something really amazing about that. He was still determined to win her affections
back. “Come on, Lumi, I brought Aether to you. That’s my ‘please take me back’ present.”
Even if he dropped a whale on him. Amused, Lumine snorted, “You want me to take you back?”
“Yes, and…” pause for anticipation, and a smiling he desperately hoped was charming, “I know
you want to take me back too.”
“I do not! I hate you!”
No, she didn’t, she was still comfortable in his arms. Ajax knew what Lumine looked like when
she hated something, and she was not wearing anything close to that expression. “What do you
want me to do?”
“...For what?”
“Stop acting coy. What do you want me to do to get you to marry me?”
Lumine stiffened in horror, “We really moved too fast back then, don’t you think? I-I mean, I was
being impulsive, and so were you, and we were really just competing with each other and-”
“It was fine,” he murmured, voice low with the interruption, “I don’t like beating around the bush
anyway. I wanted you, so I had you.”
Her expression was divine. A mixture of horror and affection, as if she could hardly believe that
she liked this man. Lumine refused to break eye contact as she lifted her chin and returned the
whisper, “Fine. Do you want me now too?”
“More than anything.”
“Then… beg.”
Pause. Silence, the thick tension between them torn apart by a simple three-letter word. Beg. Beg?
Ajax took a moment to stare blankly at her - despite her short stature, Lumine now seemed taller
than him.
“On your knees,” she murmured, “now.”
No way in hell. No way, not in a thousand years. What did she even think she was doing? As
Ajax’s brain started functioning properly again, all he could do was press his lips together in
thought, and stare.
He really, really loved her.
“Lumine, I’m going to be frank with you-”
“If you’re Frank, can I still be Lumine?”
Yet another silent pause. Somehow, his brain had stopped working once again.
“...Did you just ruin our sexy moment by telling a really terrible joke?”
She did. She utterly ruined the moment, tearing apart whatever tension was between them and
throwing it to the ground. Lumine’s stifled laughter said it all.
All Ajax could do was stare flatly, feeling mildly dead inside, “I don’t even want to kiss you now.
I just can’t get that dad humor out of my mind.”
“Oh come on, Frank!” She laughed even harder and wrapped her arms around his neck, “I’m
sorry I interrupted you, though, I’m sure what you were going to say was very attractive and
charming.”
It was. It was possibly one of the best lines he’d ever thought of in his entire life. He knew how
his Lumine was, he knew what to say to light that fire of defiance and spite inside of her. Ajax still
had his hands on her hips, now pouting as he rested his forehead against hers, “Would you just stop
being dumb and take me back already?”
Lumine narrowed her eyes, “You aren’t very good at begging.”
“I don’t need to beg, kotenok.”
“...Yes you do.”
“No I don’t.”
“Yes you do.”
“No, Lumi, I don’t.”
“Yes, Jaxie, you do.”
“I’m not begging, that’s your job.”
The scoff of horror and offense was immediate. She punched his arm, glaring, “You’re
disgusting!”
“But you like it, don’t you?” He hummed lowly and leaned in, “You’ve always liked it when I-”
The interruption came in the form of a door slamming open. With their attention ripped off each
other, they both looked at the source of the sound, stiffening as they noticed Aether standing in the
doorway of his guest bedroom.
The knob of the door banged on the back of the wall harshly. Aether stared at the couple, eyes
flickering from Lumine’s hands reaching up around Ajax’s neck, and Ajax’s hands resting
perfectly on her hips. Silence fell between the three of them as the bubble of awkwardness only
grew.
“I’m…” her twin blinked, opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again - much like a gaping
fish, “I’m going to go get some water. Excuse me.”
As he started walking towards them, the two frantically untangled themselves - Lumine more
nervous than anything, and Ajax simply annoyed that he was interrupted. They stood opposite each
other while Aether brushed past their bodies and towards the mouth of the stairs. He sent them one
last suspicious glance before descending into the kitchen below.
Once his footsteps faded, the fire was rekindled.
“You’re so stupid!” Lumine delivered a series of light slaps to Ajax’s chest and shoulders, “Do
you think he heard us?”
He grabbed at her wrists, scowling, “Stop worrying, we were being quiet!”
“D-Do you think the kids heard us?” She gasped in terror. He gripped her hands in front of her
and stared down, both of their voices dropping back to whispers.
“They’re all asleep, and the walls are thick. Trust me,” releasing her hand, he brushed a lock of
hair behind her ear, “once Sacha hit puberty, papa made sure to soundproo-”
“Ew! Don’t talk about shit like that!”
“All I’m saying is that nobody could hear us talking.”
Yet, Aether still slammed his door open, interrupting their whispered conversation. He still stared
at them as if he was going to be sick. He still created an air so awkward that it could suffocate.
Lumine had been so nervous as of late. She despised the feeling, it was new and uncomfortable,
an emotion that she so rarely dealt with before. She took a deep breath before ruminating on what
had happened, “Aether almost saw us… you know…”
Ajax grinned wickedly, “Kissing?”
“Yeah…”
“He saw that earlier too, Lumi. I don’t get what the big deal is.”
“That was fake,” or so she told herself, “this is different.”
“He’s going to have to get used to us eventually.” He retorted, frowning.
Or, Lumine would choose immortality and live long enough to forget the memory of Ajax
completely. There was the option of Aether never having to get used to them at all.
The very thought made her feel sick. Lumine yanked herself away from him, “I’m going to sleep,
you’re pissing me off tonight.”
He knew he wasn’t. An angry Lumine looked entirely different - she was worried about
something, nervous. He hated to see her like that.
“Lumi,” the playfulness dissolved as he reached out to her, “I don’t mind sleeping on the floor, as
long as you’re near me.”
As long as she was next to him, breathing. As long as he knew she was safe. With Aether
downstairs, and everybody else asleep, Lumine found her will begin to break.
She stepped forward and leaned up to kiss his cheek, holding onto his forearms to keep herself
steady, “You don’t have to sleep on the floor,” she watched as he lit up in excitement, before
dropping the bomb, “only if you beg for my forgiveness.”
“...Never.”
For once, Childe didn’t want to say goodbye.
It was tradition. Ever since the day he packed his bags and left for basic training in the Fatui, his
family would gather around and say their goodbyes. Mama would provide snacks, papa would give
him terrible advice. There’d be a pang of sadness in their eyes, a question of if he’d ever come
back.
Ajax knew his father regretted signing him up for the Fatui. He never held it to him, though, the
Fatui was the second best thing to ever happen to him. Without having joined, he never would’ve
met Lumine - who, rightfully, held the number one position in that matter.
For once, though, he could not bring himself to say goodbye. It would feel too real, too ominous.
“Ready?”
Whispers in the dark of dawn, and hands reaching out to touch each other. Thick gloves and heavy
coats, the sound of snow crunching beneath boots.
“I’m ready.” Lumine whispered back.
“Come on,” Aether lectured, a puff of steam escaping his lips as he smiled through the gray,
“we’re just committing regicide, it isn’t that scary.”
It wasn’t that Ajax was scared for his own life, he was scared for his family. He knew he’d betray
the Fatui at some point - fighting all of the other Harbingers was far too tempting, though he had
dreamt it would be under different circumstances.
At least he had Lumine’s hand in his. At least he held her all night, both of them pretending to
sleep. And at least he had Aether’s dagger-like glares to bring him joy throughout the day.
But he didn’t say goodbye to his parents, he didn’t even leave a note. Sneaking out at four in the
morning was incredibly uncharacteristic for him, but it was for the best.
With one last glance at the house he had built for those he loved, Ajax knew that it might be his
last few days alive.
But at least the battle would be fun.
“There’s a waypoint nearby,” Aether explained as the three of them set off into the woods, “I
don’t think I have that many activated here in Snezhnaya, so we may have to walk half the way.”
Lumine blinked in confusion, “What’s a waypoint?”
“Was that what made me pass out?” Ajax asked. He earned a snort of amusement from Aether,
who led the way through the trees. Behind his back, Lumine and Ajax held hands as they walked -
it felt good to touch each other again. Different, but good.
“It was,” he answered flatly, “Lumine made those when we first arrived in Teyvat so we wouldn’t
have to walk or fly everywhere.”
The news took her by surprise. “I did?”
“You did, I’m not surprised you forgot, though. Human stench tends to do that…”
So incredibly dramatic. She didn’t recall her brother being this cryptic and cynical, either. He was
positively rude - even making Ajax sneak a sniff of his arm to see if he gave off this ‘human
stench’ Aether had growled about.
It seemed that there were so many things about herself that Aether could answer, subjects that had
slipped her mind over the last year. Lumine recalled him, his smiles and his support. She recalled
traveling, her wings, the feeling of falling through the sky. She recalled the many times she’d been
rejected by men in other worlds, and she recalled the Teyvat she and Aether had landed on, a war-
torn land.
Yet, aside from those things, everything else was a complete blur. She knew they existed
somewhere in her mind, but to see them clearly felt near impossible.
“It should be up this cliff,” Aether led them to a rocky part of the mountains, nestled back into the
woods, “And please, both of you, try not to faint when we teleport.”
“No promises.” Ajax murmured. His hand remained clasped in hers, separated only by a thick set
of gloves. As the waypoint came into view, glowing a golden blue at the top of the hill, Lumine’s
heart skipped a nervous beat.
This was it. They were on their way to Zapolyarny Palace, and the war would begin.
Lumine wasn’t particularly keen on using the teleport waypoints, despite having apparently
created them. The flash of light and the rushing feeling around her ears was all-consuming, and air
entered her skull and turned into a harsh migraine the second her feet touched the ground once
more. She and Ajax gathered themselves with a series of stumbles and coughs, while Aether looked
on blankly.
Besides the odd feeling it gave her, she was also hoping to put off this battle for as long as she
could. Lumine knew she didn’t have forever - she did, technically, but Ajax and his family didn’t -
to procrastinate, but the journey to Zapolyarny would have at least given her more time to think.
With the waypoint, they cut down three days worth of travel. Yet, Aether had pointedly avoided
this part of Snezhnaya in his travels, and this was as far as he could go. There was at least another
day.
One more day. One day of walking through the cold landscape of this frozen country, Lumine
would have no time left to hesitate.
It was maddening how nonchalant her brother was. As they began walking towards the ice plains,
silence fell between Ajax and Lumine. It was not awkward, but it was not comfortable, either. It
was laced with something neither of them would ever admit to - fear.
Aether, on the other hand, rambled on about the ins and outs of Abyss Monster Commanding - it
would have been interesting if Lumine was not still nauseous from teleporting.
Ajax, thankfully, was the one to commandeer the conversation, “What’s the plan for when we get
there?”
“We attack,” Aether retorted lightly, his back to them as he trudged through the snow, “simple as
that. But I’ve never been there, and my spies can only tell me so much, so we’ll rely on you to get
us to the Tsaritsa.”
As much as Ajax enjoyed being relied upon, he couldn’t help but frown, “The palace is in the
middle of the capital city, and surrounded by an army.”
“And what is an army of humans compared to my army of ruin hunters and heralds?”
Absolutely nothing, though the 10 Harbingers very well might stand a chance. Lumine squeezed
his hand for comfort, they had not dared to let go of each other since they left the house only an
hour ago.
This truly was moving too quickly. Like everything else in Lumine’s life, it was impulsive, it was
kind of stupid, and it was incredibly dangerous. Even Ajax planned things out more than she did.
She was simply glad Paimon wasn’t here to nag her about it.
At least the landscape was beautiful. He must have caught her staring at the glittering mountains
in the distance, since he immediately grinned wickedly, “Hikers mysteriously die in that pass over
there all the time, their frozen bodies have become kind of a tourist trap.”
Of course Ajax would ruin it. “Perhaps I’ll abandon you there, and you can be a very famous
corpse at some point.”
“I’ll be a famous corpse no matter where I die, girlie.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense.”
Aether shot them both a glare over his shoulder, “Stop flirting, we need to keep planning the
attack. Tartaglia, what’s the best way into the city?”
“East gate,” he answered, sounding bored, “you should send Abyss Heralds through there, and we
can follow. Just don’t let them hurt any of the citizens.”
“They won’t, they’re perfectly loyal to me.”
“Are you sure about that?”
He halted mid-step, slowly twisting around to look Ajax in the eyes. “Are you questioning my
hold over my own army?”
“Maybe I am,” he shrugged, nonchalant, “the Abyss is a wild place, I find it difficult to imagine
that they wouldn’t attack innocent humans on sight.”
Lumine ignored the rising tension between them, and let his words sink in. She had not gotten
much time to dwell on Aether’s situation, or what the Abyss truly even was, but Ajax’s answer had
caught her off guard completely.
“You’ve been to the Abyss?”
Blinking in surprise, he glanced down at her, “Did I not tell you that?”
He did, in a one-off conversation about his Foul Legacy, only saying ‘I got it in the abyss’ and
laughing the subject away. Lumine had never really thought of it again, until now that she was
staring at her brother, who was so darkly changed from that horrid place.
Aether folded his arms over his chest and grimaced, “I spent a long while there, what about you?”
“Only three months, comrade,” he smiled tightly, “but long enough to make its mark.”
All Lumine could do was huff grumpily, “This isn’t fair, I’m the only one who hasn’t ever been. I
feel left out.”
“Don’t worry, printsessa, we can have our wedding there.”
She gasped in horror, “I don’t want to get married in the Abyss!”
“Why not? It would be great!”
“I’d get blood on my dress.”
“Yes, that’s the point.”
“I don’t want that!”
Aether groaned in annoyance, “Why don’t you two just not get married at all, then the problem’s
fixed!”
Silence fell between the trio. A glare, and two wide-eyed looks of betrayal and offense. Aether
waved his hands as if he could convince them to consider his option. Finally, Ajax squinted and
spoke up, “Why wouldn’t we get married? We’re inevitable.”
Aether could only smile, “Are you, though? Lumine,” his gaze flickering to her made her jump
and gasp, “what do you think? Why wouldn’t you two get married?”
Another aspect she didn’t recall was Aether ever being a complete asshole. She didn’t know her
brother could be so bitter, challenging her with a smile and a nod, as if he was excited to watch her
break Ajax’s heart.
“Lumi?”
How easy it would be to pick immortality and travel. She could go with her brother, make him
happy once more, and they would live forever among the stars.
And how difficult was the other option - mortality. Lumine felt insane for even being torn
between the two - the answer would’ve been obvious to a more intelligent person. Immortality, of
course, she would mend her broken heart eventually, time tended to do that.
Yet, a ripped piece of paper could never be taped back together perfectly. Lumine forced a smile,
nearly losing herself in his eyes dark as a stormy ocean, “No reason, Aether’s insane. Don’t listen
to him.”
“I know that,” he rolled his eyes, “but he’s being super cryptic, kind of makes a guy suspicious.”
She lifted her chin in defiance, “Nothing to be suspicious about, my love. Aether just wants me to
start traveling with him again, is all.”
“Well yeah, of course he does,” Ajax furrowed his brows and huffed, “but you’ll take me along,
right?”
Right. Right, of course. Obviously.
Lumine would not dare meet her brother’s eyes. If something were to stab her straight through at
this very moment, she would not complain. She would accept the release.
A forced smile, a hesitation in her eyes that Ajax decided to ignore. Lumine patted his arm in the
most awkward of ways possible, “Yes, of course, I’ll take you everywhere.”
“And I can take you everywhere, too,” he brushed a piece of hair behind her ear, “Everywhere in
Teyvat that I’ve seen, and we can defeat the strongest of monsters. I’ll even introduce you to
Skirk.”
Before Lumine could respond, Aether pounced on the conversation. He stepped forward and
caught Ajax’s attention with a glare, “You knew Skirk?”
Pleasantly surprised, Ajax straightened to attention, “She was my teacher when I fell into the
Abyss. I wouldn’t be alive if not for her… Do you know if she’s okay?”
“She is,” Aether melted into a smile identical to Lumine’s, something that reminded her far more
of the brother she used to have, “let me catch you up on what she’s been doing.”
There was about a 5% chance of this ever happening, but here it was. Lumine was left alone as
Ajax and Aether turned, their back to her, and began walking down the pathway. Despite Aether’s
shorter stature, he kept up perfectly with Ajax, and soon, they were too far ahead of Lumine for her
to hear the conversation.
They seemed to be bonding. Even if the subject was about some woman they both knew, Lumine
was happy for them. She could set aside her burning jealousy for at least two minutes to allow her
brother and her future husband to speak civilly.
Future husband. Ajax very well might be her future husband.
Or, she could simply leave this very moment, rip the bandage off and never think of him again.
Would her morals even allow that?”
She had no idea. All Lumine knew was that she was incredibly jealous of a woman she’d never
met, and she was getting tired of being left out of the conversations about the Abyss. At least Ajax
and Aether were getting along, though she was sure if they discussed the semantics of monster-
killing once more, they would rip each other’s throats out.
Hours passed. The day grew darker, and Lumine could not help but think of Ajax’s family. Eva
must’ve woken up and wondered where her son is, where her new daughter is, and why they didn’t
bother to say goodbye. None of them had any idea what was truly happening.
They’d know soon enough, the death of an Archon could not stay quiet for long.
Another hour, another mile. Comfortable silence, and footsteps crunching snow underneath. The
day was passing rather slowly, devastatingly so, as if the universe knew Lumine dreaded what
awaited her at the end.
She wasn’t sure what she expected Zapolyarny Palace to look like, but a series of austere walls
and rounded rooftops was not what she had assumed.
“It’s so… colorful.”
Ajax only huffed in amusement, a puff of cold steam floating over his face, “It’s even more
vibrant up close. Many think Snezhnaya is too harsh and depressing, but I’ve never understood
that.”
Lumine couldn’t help but agree. Even miles away, she could make out the greens and deep reds
of its buildings, golden like the sun, and blues that reminded her of the 11th Harbinger’s eyes. If
the sky could only be grey, then the architecture would surely make up for the lack of color.
Perhaps it was her relationship with Ajax, but Lumine could not help but her unending grin, “It’s
pretty, I hope it doesn’t get destroyed.”
He laughed, “I hope not either, it’s one of my favorite places in the world.”
“Perhaps you and I can live there when we kill the Cryo Archon?” She looked up at him and
smiled, “We could be the new Tsar and Tsaritsa?”
“That may be the best idea you’ve ever had, Lumi.”
“I’m going to ignore your flirting,” Aether deadpanned, “and pretend it never happened. Let’s
camp here for the night so I can convene with my mages.”
“And… tomorrow?” Lumine asked, her heart racing.
“And tomorrow,” he smiled, “we begin the war.”

Chapter End Notes
This chapter is more of a filler, the next chapter is when all the action starts!! Thanks
for reading <3
And thank you so much to Sui, who graciously beta read this chapter because I was
too impatient to. Go read her stuff, she’s my favorite author!
Tsaritsa
Aether truly did have an army.
Yet, the sight of said army was too unnerving for this moment. Their presence, their sounds, their
very existence, made this war all too real.
“I don’t know if Skirk’s here, I’m sorry.” He genuinely was, though Aether lacked the warmth to
accompany his words. He blurted it out, as if reading the barely hidden expression of awe on the
ex-Harbinger’s face.
As welcome as the assurance was, Childe had not even asked. He hadn’t said hardly a word this
morning besides a mumbled greeting. “It’s fine,” he sighed, “I wouldn’t be able to speak to her
properly right now anyway.”
“Too scared?”
Scared wasn’t the correct descriptor, but Childe wasn’t sure how else to label this feeling. He
gave a bitter laugh and rolled his eyes, “Not for myself, I can handle whatever’s awaiting us.”
Even if it was not for himself, Aether could see the dread beneath the thinly veiled dim of his
eyes. No amount of dismissal would keep the obvious anxiety away.
“Lumine can handle herself as well, you know. She may be turning into one of you, but she’s still
powerful.”
“I know.” Ajax interjected sharply, “She’ll be fine, I’ll make sure of it.”
His determination towards Lumine’s safety was one thing Aether could appreciate about this
man. It was too bad that he wasn’t one of their kind, he might approve of their relationship if so.
The forest surrounding Zapolyarny Palace was filled to the rim with Abyssal creatures. Not
simple hilichurls, but large and darkly armored creatures that were rarely seen walking on the
surface. If gathered together, the forces of the Abyss would look far more terrifying, though they
did not need quantity to achieve that goal. And they could not possibly storm Zapolyarny Palace in
one big, easily frozen group. It was better to spread apart, and stay hidden for the time being. As
yet another herald slinked by, it paused for a moment and proceeded to bow to them both.
Aether read Childe’s confusion like a book, “It’s because of the Foul Legacy, they think you’re
one of us. And… Well, you kind of are, even if you do misuse it.”
Even if he misused it. He could break apart mountains with his fist, yet his future brother-in-law
stared him down as if he was dirt beneath his feet. Offended, Childe scoffed, “Excuse me? I use it
perfectly fine!”
“You have no idea, stupid.”
“Then teach me,” Ajax stuffed his hands into his pockets and glared down at Aether. His neck
would hurt if he kept hanging around all these short people, and Lumine was much cuter in her
tinyness than Aether would ever be. “I want to master it, and Skirk didn’t have enough time to tell
me how.”
Of course she didn’t. It was most likely a last-second gift given to him before he left the abyss,
those were common when facing constant death. Aether sent him a bored, disinterested glance,
“And you think I have the time right now?”
“Well, of all times to use it properly, I think it would be now.”
It’s not as if it mattered. Ajax Alekseev was most likely going to die, Aether knew that much.
Foul Legacy or not, no normal human could survive something like this.
It was early in the morning as the army was summoned and put into their places. Cliffsides and
creeks, behind the mountains, in the trees, a circle of enemies that were ready to strike at any
moment. The air felt colder than usual, as if the Cryo Archon was entirely aware of what was about
to happen and wanted to make everybody as uncomfortable and chilled as possible.
Yet, Aether doubted that. Archons were strong, but they were entirely killable, and they were not
omnipotent. She would be dead by the end of this day, yet another chess piece knocked off the
board, simply opening a path for his next move.
Several feet behind them, Lumine leaned against the trunk of a tree. She wrapped Ajax’s coat
further around her body and sighed heavily, the sound drawing her brother and boyfriend’s eyes to
her shivering form. Ajax was the one to abandon his spot atop the hill and rush towards her,
leaving Aether behind to keep an eye on the city in the distance.
“You’re awake,” he sat beside her, underneath the makeshift awning they had set up last night.
Neither of them wanted to bother finding the materials to put up a tent, despite the flurry of snow in
the air. After Aether had fallen asleep, Lumine was kept perfectly warmed up against Ajax through
the night.
She had awoken to the sound of a literal army wandering around her. While it was not as
condensed as a human army would be, the stomping of heavy-footed monsters through the snow
was enough to jostle her awake. Lumine could only pull the black coat further around her body and
meet Ajax’s eyes, “What’s going on?”
He grinned, “Aether brought his army.”
“So he really does have one…”
“Hey,” Aether called out from a distance, annoyance lacing his tone, “did you think I was lying?”
A bit, yes. One did not just simply acquire an army, and she didn’t recall her brother ever having
owned one before. But then again, there was a lot Lumine did not recall.
Childe wrapped a casual arm over her shoulder and pulled her closer. He buried his nose in her
hair and closed his eyes as he mused over what to say - he had never quite encountered anything
like this before, someone he loved who would fight at his side and possibly lose their life before
his very eyes. He had less control over this situation than any other, and he absolutely despised that
feeling.
What to say that properly expresses his feelings, and won’t make her want to punch him?
He went with the first option he could think of, “The snow will be painted red today. That’s
always pretty, right?”
It was not the correct thing. She immediately punched his arm.
Ajax wanted to try again, this time while rubbing his sore muscle and sighing, “Well, it’s true.”
“I know,” she scowled, “but it’s not like this will be fun.”
“I mean… it’ll be a little fun, at least.”
Lumine paused for a moment. She chewed on his words, before frowning in surrender, “Well,
perhaps it will be a little fun, but not very much.”
It would be more nerve-wracking than anything else. Ajax could hardly recall the last time he
found a battle nerve-wracking , of all things. It was perhaps in the Abyss when he encountered that
thousand-eyed beast. His knees had shook, his heart had raced, his palms had been sweaty. At that
time, had been anxious in a way he so rarely was.
It was maddening that he felt that same anxiety now. He knew it was because of Lumine. Perhaps
the Tsaritsa might use this as an example of her philosophy; His love for Lumine made him afraid
to lose her - but then again, that fear made him want to slit the Tsaritsa’s throat all the more.
“It’s going to be a good day,” Ajax ruffled her hair and pushed her knit cap further down her face,
laughing as she frowned and complained, “we’ll win this, and then we’ll make-out on the
Tsaritsa’s throne.”
An air of mirth grew between them, a welcome relief from the anxiety. She leaned up towards his
face and whispered with half-lidded eyes, “You’re covering up your feelings with humor again.
You know I can see past all that.”
“What feelings?” Ajax rested his forehead against hers, “I don’t think I have those.”
“You have them, you have a ton of them.”

“Only for you, printsessa.”
She scrunched her nose in the cutest way possible - in his own opinion. Scooting closer, Lumine
stretched an arm over his shoulder and stroked her fingers through his hair - he would never grow
tired of that feeling.
“I’ll be okay today, don’t worry.” She murmured.
Ajax couldn’t help his frown, “Who said I was worried?”
“Nobody did. It was a hopeful assumption, really.”
And it was the correct one. Childe supposed that admitting his own fear wouldn’t hurt, he’d gone
through this entire ordeal for the sake of learning about the power of fear. It made him strong to
worry, to understand the gravity of a situation and the many possibilities ahead. That was what the
Tsaritsa didn’t understand about strength.
Besides, he wanted to tell Lumine something important. Somehow, some way. He closed his eyes
and took a deep breath, steadying his suddenly racing heart. “Lumine?”
He so rarely used her full name. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling, “Yes, Ajax?”
“Don’t die.”
A pause. A silence. Despite the stomping of Abyss creatures passing through the forest, the world
seemed to stop just for them.
“I won’t,” she whispered, “I pinkie promise.”
Without thought, their pinkies wrapped around each other. Ajax buried his nose into her hair,
murmuring all the while, “Do whatever you have to in order to survive. I don’t care what it is, just
live through this for me. You’re not allowed to die.”
“I’m not allowed?” She giggled under her breath, “since when were you allowed to give me
orders?”
Not that she’d ever followed orders in all the time they’d known each other. The last time they
had a conversation like this, it was outside of Bubu Pharmacy, and he had nearly begged her to go
to Northland Bank and stay inside. Of course, Lumine never listened. That felt like eons ago, a past
life.
Ajax shot her a serious look, “Since we decided to kill a God. I think now is the proper time for
me to start bossing you around.”
“Yes, Lord Harbinger,” Lumine saluted playfully, “I am here to do your bidding.”
As much as he liked hearing that - it sounded so different coming from Lumine, rather than his
ex-subordinates - no amount of joking would ease the tension in his heart. He put a hand beneath
her chin and raised her face so she looked up, reveling in the surprised hitch of her breath. “Don’t
die. Please, do everything you can to survive.”
Her smile was Celestia itself. “You do the same for me, okay?”
It was her life that he cared about. Childe had never feared death, it was only a natural cause of
the weak. If he died, then he most likely deserved it. Yet, Lumine’s death was an entirely different
matter.
Soon, the army would be in place. And soon, they would waltz onto the grounds of Zapolyarny
Palace. And soon, his arrow would pierce a God’s throat, and this nightmare would end.
There was nothing more that Ajax wanted at this moment other than Lumine.
“Will you marry me?”
She blinked. She froze. They stared at each other as the planet stopped spinning and the stars fell
from the sky.
It was a silence so thin that the lightest whisper could have shattered it. Lumine closed her eyes,
smiled - and immediately burst out into laughter.
“N-No!”
Of course. Of course she would refuse to marry him after all that happened. Childe sighed and
stared flatly as Lumine buried her face into her palms, her shoulders shaking with amusement.
He would take the laughter and the disappointment as long as she so wished. He wasn’t surprised
that she said no, but at least he asked. It was the same sort of logic as fighting an enemy he wasn’t
sure he’d beat - it was worth an attempt, at least.
Finally, Lumine looked up, her cheeks pink and smile vibrant. He half expected her to punch him.
Instead, she only moved closer and laid her head on his chest. “You marry me.”
He should have seen that coming.
“Not this again-”
“Marry me!”
“No, Lumi,” he huffed and squished her cheeks together, “I asked you first.”
She narrowed her eyes, “Why do you get to ask? Why can’t I ask? Are you being a misogynist
right now?”
“No!” Ajax defended with a pout, “But I love you more than you love me, so I should get to
propose, rightfully.”
“What makes you think that?” She sputtered.
“It’s obvious, we all know it.”

“Who is we?”
“Everybody! The entire world!”
“You’re lying. I, obviously, love you more than you love me.” She put a hand to her chest and
nodded, “It’s the truth.”
His gaze flattened, “That’s bullshit, Lumine. Just marry me already.”
“Well, now that you’re bossing me around, I don’t think I want to!”
The wonderful thing about Ajax and Lumine’s relationship was their deep understanding of each
other. Perhaps it was how similar they were at times, or perhaps it was their opposite traits that
helped them to connect in such a way. Whatever it was, it gave Ajax the very useful ability to shut
Lumine up whenever he so wished - and her the ability to do the same to him.
This was one of those moments where it was needed. Despite the tension of an oncoming battle,
he leaned into her, kissing her neck and running his lips up to her jaw. Ajax took a moment to revel
in the feeling of her fingers gripping the front of his jacket. Lumine gasped in light surprise, her
complaints and arguments dissolving like vapors in the air.
“Let’s get married right now,” He spoke slowly, nose brushing against hers with the close
proximity of their bodies, “I don’t care about papers or a wedding, I just want to marry you.”
Not missing a beat, Lumine pulled back to narrow her eyes, “Do you have a crush on me or
something?”
“No,” he smiled slyly, “I just want the tax benefits.”
“I see. Well, in that case, I accept.”
If only Ajax could get the memory of that day so long ago out of his mind. If only Dottore had not
shown up in Mondstadt, if only Lumine had not thrown her ring into his face. He easily could have
summoned it and slipped it back onto her finger, right where it belonged.
She seemed to be thinking of the exact same thing. “I’m sorry that I… Well, that I broke up with
you so dramatically.”
“Lumine,” he let out an amused huff, “you’ve always broken up with me dramatically, I’m used
to it.”
“Yeah, but… Never that seriously.”
Her complaints and jeers were nothing compared to how she threw her ring at him, the sight of it
lying in the dirt. That was real, his third strike, and he thought he was entirely out of the game.
Yet, here he was, with Lumine in his arms. Ajax wasn’t a religious man, but he found himself
praying his thanks to whatever unknown force had brought her back to him.
And he was not about to let her be taken away again.
“Hey,” Aether’s sudden voice tore the two from their thoughts, like shredding a piece of paper in
a quiet room. He approached with a scowl, “Stop making out, it’s time.”
Ajax wished that they were making out. Instead, after being so rudely ripped from their personal
world, Lumine pulled away from him and sat up to attention. The snow crunched beneath Aether’s
boots, exemplified by the eerie, still silence of the forest.
The Abyss creatures had calmed. The army was in place, and there was no time left to talk.
“You two remember the plan, correct?”
The plan, the beautiful plan that would make it easy for them to waltz into the palace with the
least amount of trouble. “I’m ready if Lumi is.”
“I’m ready,” she exhaled to steady herself, “I’m putting myself in your hands, Ajax.”
He loved it when she admitted those types of things. “You’re in the best hands there could
possibly be. I won’t let anything touch you.”
Aether interrupted with a groan, “Stop flirting, you two can’t be all cute during the battle.”
“Sorry,” she giggled.
“And remember,” Aether patted her head affectionately, offering a rare smile, “try not to die,
okay? And Tartaglia…”
He gasped in fake hope, “Yes, Ae?”
“You can die, I don’t care.”
“Aether!” Lumine snapped.
“Fine,” a begrudging, forced smile, “try not to die too horridly, it would make Lumine upset.”
“...I can do that.”
Lumine glared up at him, “Try not to die at all.”
All Ajax could offer was a dismissive shrug, “No promises, babe.”
“Don’t call me babe, I’ll kill you.”
“Sounds hot, but at least wait until we kill the Tsaritsa.”

“...Fine.” She grumbled.
He gasped, “You didn’t think about that for very long at all!”
Aether put up a hand that silenced the boiling argument about to begin, “How many times do I
have to remind you two to stop flirting? We’re about to invade a castle, we need to focus.”
Focus. Focus, and don’t die. That was yet another similarity between Lumine and Childe, the
desperate attempts to handle their emotions with humor. Fortunately, Aether was focused enough
for the both of them.
“Tartaglia, you give off enough Abyssal energy for me to track you, but remember to signal me
when the fighting begins.” Aether said.
Lumine glanced at Ajax as if she could see whatever Abyssal energy he gave off. That was the
one thing between Aether and Ajax that didn’t involve her, one thing she could hardly understand.
Unphased by the command, Ajax simply nodded, “Right. When I use my delusion, that’s your cue.
I’m going to try not to have to use the Foul Legacy, but…”
“But,” Lumine finished, “if you do, I can try to heal you with hydro or cryo!”
He made a hum of satisfaction, “My little healer, you promise you’ll save me?”
“I’ll do anything to keep you alive!”
“Anything?”
“Anything!” She clenched her fists in determination, “I’d give my life for you!”
As serious as Lumine was, Aether and Ajax shared a thought between glances, both of them
understanding that Lumine’s death was the last thing they wanted. She would not be giving her life
for anyone today, nor any day.
It was time to go, the army was waiting. Ajax leaned down to press a kiss on Lumine’s head,
“There won’t be a need for that, don’t worry.”
A pause, a smile. This feeling of nostalgia that lingered between the two, almost as if it was a
goodbye.
Ajax shook away the feeling, immediately breaking their silence, “And I’m really sorry in
advance, lyubimaya.”
“It’s okay, I’ll forgive you eventually.” She smiled and turned around.
Aether glared, “Don’t take it too far.”
“I would never!” Offended, Ajax huffed, “I’ll be gentle!”
“I’ll kill you if you’re not.”
There was no need for Aether to threaten that, Lumine was perfectly capable of killing him
herself. With her back turned and her hands clasped, Childe knew it was time to begin this part of
the plan. He truly would be gentle, as gentle as he could be while remaining convincing.
Without another word, Childe gripped Lumine’s arm and summoned a tendril of thick, almost
leather-like hydro. It worked as a mimic did, and would be just as tough. He wrapped it around her
wrists in several different directions and nudged her forward, “Oh man, if only we were alone.”
She scoffed over her shoulder, “Keep it in your pants.”
Aether groaned once more, though the sound was quickly left behind while Childe and Lumine
advanced through the forest. The road leading into Zapolyarny Palace lay ahead, barely visible
between the thorns and dead limbs.
As they drew closer, Childe became harsher. There were Fatui always patrolling the roads, he
could not take the chance of one seeing him break character.
“Ready?” He whispered.
Lumine sent him a wicked grin, “As I’ll ever be.”
Finally. Finally, the beginning of the end.
He gripped her arm harshly, making her gasp in fake surprise. It was timed perfectly, as Childe
caught a glimpse of some Fatui guards meandering on the road ahead. With a rough shove, he
pulled Lumine through the trees and pushed her into the cold, snow-covered ground.
“Stay quiet,” he growled, watching her stumble to her knees and writhe furiously, “you’re the
reason I’m in all this mess!”
“Let me go!” She gasped in pain.
Lumine’s glare almost looked real. He felt a prickle of guilt for placing the blame on her so
wrongfully, but it was all part of the plan. In the distance, the group of Fatui soldiers turned to
check out the commotion.
He knew they’d recognize him at first sight, but they would not dare attack him. He watched as
the Fatui shuffled in sudden realization of what was happening, some of them hesitant, and some of
them looking as if they wanted to pounce. Swords were drawn, tension grew.
Childe stayed in character and leaned down to grab her stiff arms, yanking Lumine to her feet
once more. He mustered the best scowl that he could possibly make, “Hey, you idiots, get over
here and help me turn her in.”
Beneath the masks and heavy coats, the guards eyed the ex-Harbinger suspiciously. Several of
them took a cautious step forward to assess the sudden chaos of the Harbinger and the Traveler.
They’d appeared out of nowhere, but Tartaglia was known to do that.
“Lord Tartaglia,” the clear leader of the group straightened to attention and cleared his throat,
“Stop right there! We are under strict orders to arrest you upon first sight.”
With Lumine glaring, fake struggling against her hydro bonds, all Childe did was raise a
challenging brow, “Oh really?”
He thought he saw one of the men gulp. “Sir, you are under arrest for treason against her Majesty,
the Tsaritsa of Snezhnaya.”
It wasn’t as if Childe had never been arrested before, but these guards were as nervous as they
came. To capture a Harbinger was to ask for death. “Actually,” he answered cooly, “I believe I
have an appointment with her. I even brought her a peace offering.”
He shoved Lumine forward. The crowd of guards scrambled away as she stumbled into the snow
with a scowl that could kill.
“You’re horrible,” Lumine growled, “I trusted you!”
The Fatui guarding the palace had to know a sliver of what happened. The Tsaritsa was prideful,
but not dumb. She would not keep the news of an ex-Harbinger away from the subordinates tasked
with keeping her home secure.
The guards eyed him carefully. For good measure, Childe placed his boot on Lumine’s back and
pushed her further into the snow - mentally chanting his apologies all the while. “I’ve brought Her
Majesty the traveler, and I’m turning myself in as well. Consider it an apology for my insolence.”
He knew there were creatures in the woods, waiting to strike. Yet, the time was not right. The
guards shifted and whispered as they discussed the best course of option, before the leader stepped
forward to nod, and signal for the men to gather Lumine up from the ground.
Childe would allow it, only for this plan. They pulled her along towards the tall gates in the
distance, making her stumble and fall with harsh yanks and grabs. Her complaints could be heard
as the space between them grew, and Childe found himself antsy to follow, to keep her in his
sights.
Yet, he could not break character. “So, going to escort me inside, recruit?”
“Y-Yes sir,” the leader jerked his head towards the Palace, an outline of oddly placed shapes
against the grey backdrop, “We were told that you would attack, but to take you inside despite any
actions you take.”
“I’m not a feral animal, don’t worry.” Was all Childe said. With a series of nervous apologies and
bowed heads, the guards surrounded him in an escort group. Lumine’s own escorts had reached the
gates of the city and were now waiting for the rest to catch up.
They seemed determined to keep Lumine and Childe separated. As worrisome as that was, he
understood why. This was a trick, after all, though out of all the Harbingers, Childe was not known
for these types of schemes. He was as forward and obvious as a sword in one’s gut.
Yet, little did they know, he was not working alone this time.
As they walked, he watched Lumine be dragged through the streets. How Ajax wished he could
have shown her this city under better circumstances. The colors, the dark greenery that survived
despite the cold, the hoar frost and the designs it made upon each surface. It was beautiful, and
unlike anything in Liyue or Mondstadt. Even the architecture was unique. He watched as she
paused her struggle to gawk at her surroundings.
Soon, it would be over. Soon, the threat would be gone. He could finally share this part of his life
with her.
The Palace grew larger in the distance. What little amount of citizens that lived in the surrounding
city were holed up, most likely due to the threat of an ex-Harbinger’s treason. For that, he was glad.
He hoped Aether could keep his monsters in check when they stormed the streets.
“We’re here,” the guards informed. They paused in front of the Palace gates, watching the doors
open with a deafening groan. Turning gears complained against the cold as they moved. Lumine
was shivering by now, having fallen into the snow several times over the course of her capture.
And once again, Ajax found himself mentally whispering a line of apologies and promises to her. It
will be over soon. This will be over.
And, it was happening. It was so close, that moment. The skip of a heart, the catching of a breath,
the slight shake in his knees that reminded him to be afraid. He would be stronger if he had
something to fear for, something to protect. He would be okay, Lumine would be okay, this would
all be okay.
The doors to Zapolyarny Palace were large, colorful, and wonderfully decorated. They had
always been interesting to look at, with their carved patterns and historical elegance. Lumine didn’t
have time to inspect the designs at all, as they were pushed open, and she was immediately shoved
through.
She was able to steal a glance at Childe. He kept his eyes up and ahead, avoiding her gaze as best
as possible. With that arrogant look on his face, she was reminded of that old side of him, the
Harbinger who served the Queen to his very last breath. For a moment, her eyes lingered, until he
finally flickered his gaze to her.
There it was, the hint of a smile. All according to plan, and none of the guards had noticed.
“On your knees, traveler.”
Before she could acquiesce, a boot on her back forced her down. She dropped to her knees for
what felt like the hundredth time on this journey. To her right, Childe lowered himself to kneel
with far less forcefulness.
Spoiled brat. He had the title of Queen-Killer on his head, yet he was not the one pushed around.
She glared at him, though he would not dare to look at her. How could he? When in front of him
was the throne of sheer ice.
And on that throne, as if materializing from the cold air, was the Tsaritsa.
Thus, it begins.
“Your Majesty.”
The Archon raised a slim brow. Childe grinned as if he was greeting an old friend, while Lumine
forced herself to stare at the marble flooring. She would look at anything other than the winter
entity upon the throne.
A beat of silence. The ticking of a clock. The shuffling of boots and the breathing of humans.
Steady, cold eyes, meeting a pair as blue and dark as a stormy beach.
Until, finally, she spoke. “I did not expect you to arrive so peacefully.”
“I’m full of surprises.” Childe shot back, quick to the trigger, “I’ve brought you an apology gift,
your Majesty.”
All eyes fell on Lumine. There were other Harbingers here, lurking in the shadows and corners
like sharks ready to bite. Childe could not see them, but he knew they would frenzy once there was
blood in the water.
“An apology?” The Tsaritsa’s calm voice echoed through the room, “Whatever for? Not
following commands?”
“That, yes, and for what Il Dottore must have told you.”
“Ah,” she hummed in thought and glanced away, “Yes, yes. About killing me, and the challenge,
and the lying. You nearly killed the good doctor as well, I suppose I should thank you for your
mercy.”
All he could do was smile, “I just needed a messenger.”
“I see.”
Despite the crowd of kneeling Fatui, Childe stood. He clasped his hands behind his back and took
a step forward, unafraid of the sudden chill falling over the room.
“While I found myself having trouble in my abilities to kill the Traveler, I do understand the
importance of family,” Childe paced slowly as he spoke, “I cannot allow my family to come to
harm for the sake of a girl I only met a year ago.”
It sounded insanely dumb when put that way. Lumine was almost embarrassed for herself. Yet,
the Tsaritsa only lifted her chin, pale eyes scanning the room of Fatui guards, “I see. Well then,
everybody leave us, please. I wish to be alone with these two while we have our discussion.”
Alone. It was perfect, almost too perfect.

“What about them?” Childe craned his neck to watch the layers of balconies above the throne
room. Each one was shrouded in shadow, unmoving and silent. Yet, he knew his colleagues well,
he was often among them, lurking about.
The Tsaritsa grimaced, it was an oddly human expression that didn’t fit well on her face. “They
would not leave even if I commanded them personally.”
As disrespectful as that sounded, it was true. Whatever Harbingers remained in Zapolyarny Palace
would find a way to keep their ears to the wall. They were good about that. Childe accepted it with
a shrug - he’d always wanted to fight his coworkers, and most of them deserved it.
Onto the next order of business. Now that they were relatively alone, her voice echoed even
louder in the cold, expansive room, “You say that you cannot allow your family to come to harm
for the sake of one girl. Yet, that girl is your starmate… Does that not change the circumstances?”
He’d never mentioned that fact before. He’d never once written about it, nor had he told any of
the other Harbingers. His staff at the bank knew, but they had no direct contact with the Tsaritsa.
Childe did not allow himself to falter in his act, only sending her a soft, melancholy smile, “Yes,
even if she is my starmate.”
A moment of heavy silence. The beating of Lumine’s heart in her ears, like a drum. Childe found
his voice as he went on, “I… am not deserving of that kind of love. Her death will be for the best.”
Another silent pause. The wailing of wind outside, and the feeling of hidden eyes upon his back.
“...My husband was my starmate. Did you know that, Tartaglia?”
He did not. The air grew colder around him.
She went on, “We were made for each other, and I will never love another. I understand the pain
you are going through.”
If she understood so well, why did she give that command? It took every inch of his self control
to keep himself from burning up in fury, driving a knife through her stomach and ripping apart her
heart for all she had done to his.
“So, you know that I cannot kill her.”
“I had hoped that you could,” The cryo Archon sighed, “That would be a show of strength beyond
any other.”
She was tempting him, pushing at his every button. Childe could not help his scowl, “I can’t do
it, your Majesty. That’s why I’ve brought her to you. And… I have brought myself, as well.”
She stared, expressionless, “So, you do not want to challenge me after all?”
“Oh no, I do,” he shook his head, “but I’m aware that I’ll die. I simply thought giving you the
traveler would increase my family’s chances of survival after this is all over. I’m aware of the need
to purge any rebellions, but I assure you that my family poses you no threat.”
“And… you believe giving me the traveler’s head will guarantee their safety?”
“I was hoping so, Your Majesty.”
And it would work perfectly. As cruel as the Tsaritsa could be, she was easily bribed by the
promise of her enemy’s head. It was the diplomatic route, the one with the least amount of blood to
clean up.
“Lumine.”
The Tsaritsa was speaking to her, the girl on the floor she had previously ignored. Lumine forced
herself to raise her head and meet her eyes, “Yes, your Majesty?”
The Queen looked exactly as she had imagined. Long hair, straight and perfectly groomed like a
sheet of ice. Pale skin, pale everything. Delicate features. She was beautiful, but cold - almost
bored looking. Her tone held the Snezhnayan lilt far more than Lumine had ever heard, rolling
over R’s with her breathy monotone. Childe only sounded like that when he was angry, when he let
himself slip enough.
She analyzed Lumine for a moment. It felt as if she was doused in water and frozen over, locked
in place by her eyes. Until, finally, the Tsaritsa shattered the silence like glass, “Would you like to
watch me kill him?”
Lumine blinked, “Who?”
“Tartaglia, my dear.”
A moment to let that sink in. A moment to remember how to breathe. Lumine could only stare.
Would she like to watch the Tsaritsa kill the love of her life? Of course she would, who wouldn’t?
She resisted the urge to snark off to the Queen of Snezhnaya and instead continued on in absolute,
blank, silence.
“Why?”
“...Why am I asking this?”
“Yes,” Lumine spat, “Why do you think I’d want to watch you kill him? I’m sure you can answer
that yourself.”
“I can’t,” an immediate response, the hint of curiosity beneath her tone, “I enjoy the dimensions
of mankind. The differences, the frames of mind, the philosophies. It’s exactly why I despise
Celestia, that perfection is unneeded in a world such as this. And you, traveler…” The Tsaritsa
leaned forward on her throne, voice dropping to a whisper, “There is something hidden beneath
you. I wonder… What would happen if I dug, just a little? What kind of power do you have?”
Hidden power, the dimensions of mankind. The individuality that she could twist and warp to her
own uses. It was exactly why she had Harbingers, each of them served their special purpose.
This was the same test Childe underwent. He’d failed miserably, and she had already moved on to
her next subject. The loss of her soulmate. She wouldn’t have to dig very deeply to see the effects
of such circumstances, though the situation felt far different than having to kill him herself.
Ajax and Lumine shared a look. They would not dare to break character, staring at each other
with cold unfamiliarity on their faces.
Yet, the Tsaritsa was not stupid. She knew the bond of starmates and the silent words passed
between them. Leaning back, she simply tilted her head and shattered the tension like glass,
“What? Is this not how you saw things going? Tell me, just what did you expect?”
Childe’s gaze flattened, “Nothing much, Your Majesty.”
“You’re smart, Tartaglia,” she shot him a look, “and you’re stubborn as well. You would not
change your mind so easily.”
“Oh?”
If he decided that he would kill the Tsaritsa, he would keep his mind on that goal. He would not
change directions in the blink of an eye, even for his family.
“You’re selfish.”
True enough. “Not where it concerns my family, I’m not.”
“I understand what having a soulmate feels like,” she snapped, the air growing colder, “you will
fight to the end to keep her. Do not underestimate my understanding of what is happening.”
If she understood what was happening, then why did she send her guards away? Why was she
alone in this throne room, with two people who had vowed to kill her?
She had her own plans, that much was obvious.
The Tsaritsa rose like an approaching thunderstorm. Like most Snezhnayans, she was tall,
foreboding, and cold. As she took one step down from her throne, there was the tiniest hint of a
smile on the corner of her lips.
“My dear traveler, he has you captured in his hydro bonds because he’s the only one who can free
you. Once the moment was right, he would let you go, and you would go for my throat… Am I
correct?”
She was correct.
Lumine should have known.
Ajax didn’t see it coming, that shard of black ice, that hoar frost. That chill in the air and the glow
of cryo.
How sinfully, how pitifully, life changes. The flash of a smile, the crawl of ice, the cold tip of a
sword piercing flesh and ripping through tendons. She leaned in and forced the blade deeper until
warm blood began to melt her cryo-created weapon.
And Ajax felt nothing.
How could he? He did not even realize there was a blade in his stomach until it began melting.
Lumine’s screaming was a muffled sound, as if it was coming through several walls away. It was
not as if Ajax had never been stabbed, but this felt different. This was pure ice, the feeling of winter
crawling up from his wound and to his heart, through his shoulders, and down to his fingertips. He
had no idea what his body was doing, what he looked like, or what sounds he was making, but he
knew of the first drop of blood falling to the marble flooring below.
The world was a blur. He was vaguely aware of how he fell to his knees, melted ice and water
now pooling below him. To his left, the Tsaritsa’s heels clicked against the floor as she approached
a kicking, screaming Lumine.
“Ajax! Let me go! You need to cut these binds! I need to help you!”
He wanted to, but his mind refused to work. Nothing worked. Ice crawled up his throat and to his
ears, mingling with the heat of his own blood on his palms.
That was his mistake, assuming that the Tsaritsa would fight fair. His own glorification of her had
clouded him from the threat of his own life’s end.
More ice. Blue, and harsh and painful. Lumine gasped as Ajax’s hydro bonds were frozen, now
belonging to the Tsaritsa and no one else. Hot tears and a fury like no other. Screams, shouts,
curses. Ineligible heartbreak verbalized, until Lumine’s throat scratched like hell itself.
All the Tsaritsa did was lean in, ignore the dying man behind her, and whisper.
“Traveler, show me what you can do.”

The Death of an Archon
Chapter Notes
“Traveler, show me what you can do.”
Childe said he’d kill the Tsaritsa.
Yet, within 10 minutes of speaking to her, he had already been fatally wounded.
Lumine would call it pathetic if he was not the love of her life. Instead of letting the moment
soak in, all she could do was scream. And sob. And break into thousands of irretrievable pieces on
the floor, never to be put back together again.
“But you can’t do anything in this state, can you?” The Tsaritsa froze Childe’s hydro bonds and
watched as white cryo crawled up Lumine’s arms, “Hydro users, such show offs with their mimics.
Fortunately for you, I’m here.”
Lumine wanted to lunge at her with her teeth bared. She wanted to rip out her throat, scream at
her. Vaguely, as the world was muffled around her by the drumming of her heart and the blood in
her veins, Lumine heard herself stuttering back, “H-How am I fortunate that you’re here?”
There were several gasps for air in between the words, as well as an incredibly venomous insult
that she couldn’t recall if she tried. The Tsaritsa seemed to take each one in stride, “I’m releasing
you. It’s not as if Tartaglia can in his current state.”
Because Tartaglia was currently dying on the floor nearby. The stale air held a tinge of rust, so
palpable that Lumine could almost taste it. The ice around her wrists tightened to the point of
shattering.
In one quick second, she was free. Her palms and wrists were red and warm with blood, but she
was free. She supposed freezing the hydro bonds and cracking them apart was one way to do it,
though Lumine didn’t have time to muse upon the cleverness of it all. Her future husband was
dying, that took top priority.
Whatever she said, however she looked, she had no idea. Lumine hardly knew anything in that
moment, besides the fact that her hands were free, and the marble flooring was cold even through
her layers of coats. She scrambled to her feet and darted towards Ajax, immediately stumbling and
falling onto all fours beside his body.
Melted ice dulled the color of his blood. It soaked through her clothes, clinging to her as
desperately as she clung to him. Lumine’s hands shook while she leaned in and lifted his head with
ginger care, “Ajax?”
He was alive, but barely. His brows were furrowed, lips twisted with pain, and eyes half lidded.
His face was paler than she’d ever seen, nearly devoid of what life belonged there.
Lumine had no idea how to heal. She always thought she’d just figure it out eventually, but as her
eyes trailed down to the stain of blood on his stomach, she realized that this was more than she
could handle. Laying his head back down, Lumine ripped apart the buttons of his coat to reveal the
ghastly flesh wound waiting underneath.
Without pyro or electro, she couldn’t cauterize it. She summoned hydro to run over the surface of
his skin, but all she managed was to wipe away the flowing blood. Seconds later, it began once
more, refusing to stop.
“Ajax,” Lumine whispered, “you need to hang on, you need to summon your Foul Legacy so
Aether will know to come.”
Nothing. He gasped again, one hand over his wound, and the other squeezed between Lumine’s
fingers. His eyes stared at the ceiling above, glassy and distracted. She gripped tighter as she
pressed two fingers into his neck to check his heartbeat.
He couldn’t possibly notify Aether now. And Lumine had no Abyssal energy that he could track.
Desperate, she looked up and screamed, “Aether! Aether we need you!”
“Aether?” The Tsaritsa asked, “And whoever is that? Yet another assassin?”
“Be quiet!” Lumine was in no mood to play these games. The cryo Archon stood behind her,
holding yet another sword of pure ice in her hands. She was being patient, Lumine could
appreciate that, if she had not just attempted to kill her soulmate.
He didn’t even see it coming. He couldn’t. She moved too fast, too sharply. Ajax thought she had
honor enough to respect this duel, everything about this plan was riding on how confident he was
in her integrity. Yet… she had back-stabbed him.
Not literally, of course, he was stabbed in the stomach, rather than the back. But it still applied.
Ajax had promised that the Tsaritsa would be honorable, that she would uphold this challenge like
a true warrior. Lumine had doubted that, seeing how La Signora had treated Venti, but she decided
to trust him. He had to know her better than she did.
And this was all for the sake of whatever hidden power lay beneath Lumine’s skin. With her hand
still holding his, she looked over her shoulder, her entire body feeling as if it might explode with
heat, “Why would you do this?”
The Archon stared at her as if Lumine should know the answer by heart, “With loss and sacrifice,
come power. Especially a loss such as this.”
A starmate, the one person that the literal universe has chosen for her. If the Tsaritsa understood
the bond between two people destined for each other, why would she sever it? Was there not a line
to be drawn when it came to this power?
Apparently not. Glaring, Lumine had venom laced in every syllable, “You had someone you
loved. So, why would you do something like this to another?”
“Well…” for once, the Tsaritsa took a moment to chew on her response. She was not quick to
snap back, she had nothing witty, nothing profound. Instead, she simply blinked, glanced away,
and took a deep breath. At that moment, she was nearly human.
“Do you have an answer?” Lumine hissed, “Do you even have a reason?”
A heavy nod, “I do.”
Yet, she hesitated to speak it. Lumine loathe to leave Ajax’s side in his current state, though she
could not stand it any longer. The pale hair, the unbreakable mask of God-hood. This woman had
almost killed her love as if he was a gnat she could simply swat away.
With melted ice on her knees, and Ajax’s blood on her hands, Lumine pushed herself up and
whirled around to face the Archon. Her heart continued to race in her ears, a constant drumming
that overtook every function of her body. The world did not spin, the wind could not blow, the air
could not be breathed. All Lumine knew in that moment was the Tsaritsa, and Ajax’s body at her
feet.
“Explain yourself.”
How she even managed to speak was beyond her. Lumine felt as if a pair of invisible hands was
around her throat, squeezing and tightening until she might collapse. Light headed and blurry-eyed,
all she could manage was a glare.
The Tsaritsa tilted her head almost innocently, “If you insist, an explanation might help you.
Well…” she sighed and closed her eyes in thought, “my husband truly did die by accident, I’m sure
Tartaglia told you the story. The sea took him, as it takes all good men. But…”
“ But what?”
Her voice dropped to a whisper. The hint of a smile, a chill in the air. A short, bitter laugh echoed
from the balconies above.
“I can promise you, if he were alive today I would drive a knife through his heart.”
Loss, and the strength that perseveres from it.
That would be the end of the Cryo Archon. That would be the end of Lumine, who somehow
managed to summon her sword.
It would finally be over, she would make sure of it.
Lumine was not nearly as fast as the Tsaritsa, but she lunged anyway. She was screaming and
kicking, wild as she slashed her sword through the air and aimed for her neck. Another jab, another
laugh from above. The Tsaritsa was like a flurry of snow with how quickly she managed to dodge
Lumine’s frantic, desperate attacks.
The only sound in the throne room was the clacking of heels across the floor. Ajax lay on the
marble and bled out, though he did not dare to make noise. It was the three of them, caught up in
their own personal battles, their own anger and regrets.
“You will pay,” Lumine was growling like a wild animal, she felt that way as well, “you will pay
for what you have taken away from me.”
“Do not think of it as something being taken away,” she responded, “think of what I have given
you. Look at in a different light, what you have earned, the gift of strength, of power.”
Lumine did not feel powerful. She felt crushed. She could barely hold her sword correctly. Her
knees shook, she could not breathe, she could not even see.
“T-There is nothing powerful about this.”
The Tsaritsa put a delicate finger to her chin in thought, “Oh, well I suppose you’re right. You’re
fighting rather terribly right now.”
Terribly was an understatement. Lumine was fighting in the most natural way possible, with the
strength and desperation of a person defending all that they loved. She could not help but swing
wildly, and she could not help but take the cheapest shots. The Tsaritsa had not even returned her
assaults yet. It was almost as if she did not deem her worthy enough to even hit.
A quick glance over her shoulder at Ajax. His eyes were closed, that was a good sign. Just barely,
his chest rose up and down. She sighed in relief before picking up the pieces of herself, shabbily
gluing them back together.
“I wonder what the missing key is,” the archon mused, “is it to make his death official, or must I
raise the stakes? I truly don’t wish to kill his family, they’ve done nothing wrong.”
His family. That was the entire reason they’d come here, to pull the problem out from the roots. If
she had just targeted Lumine, that would be an entirely different matter. She could handle herself,
but his family could not.
Ajax was not dead yet, and Lumine knew that no amount of tears shed over his body would heal
him. There was nothing she could do besides wait for Aether. She had no medical items, she had
no way to stop the bleeding other than to plug up the hole.
She needed to focus. She needed to clear her mind of clouds, take a deep breath, and pray to every
God in every world she’d ever been to that Ajax would stay alive. Somehow, some way.
And most importantly, she had to make this quick.
“I don’t want to waste time with you, you have to understand that.”
The Tsaritsa narrowed her eyes, “I do not have to understand anything. I don’t wish to stand here
and watch you fawn over a corpse, I wish to see your power.”
As if killing the love of her life was the only way to unlock true power. She held a twisted, one-
track mind, warped from whatever hardships had touched her. Despite the panic and desperation of
the moment, Lumine could not help but wonder.
“Why are you like this?”
Her eyes widened in surprise with a look so rare for the ice Queen. “What?”
“Why do you believe this way? This…” she racked her clouded mind for the correct words, “T-
This twisted notion that loss brings power, that you can bend humanity to whatever whims you
seek. Why do you think that killing the person I love will make me stronger?”
Cold stillness. Expressionless eyes. A parting of her lips, and an averted gaze.
Ajax was on the floor dying. Lumine did not wait for the Tsaritsa’s answer, instead whirling
around to kneel beside his body once more. Her hands flitted about aimlessly in a flurry of panic.
The cryo Archon gathered her thoughts. She watched Lumine’s hands move deftly over his
stomach, while he remained entirely still. His eyes were closed and his breathing shallow, but he
was obviously not dead yet. He was holding on for quite a bit longer than any normal human
should.
How unusual to be taken aback, to be stopped in her tracks with a posed question. Why was she
like this? Slowly, almost hesitantly, the Tsaritsa sighed and gave her answer, “I suppose…”
Lumine stopped working and glanced over her shoulder. “What?”
“I-I…” again, how rare for the Queen of Snezhnaya to stutter, “I suppose that I have simply been
alive for a very long time now. When you live this long, you… You have a lot of time to think.”
Immortality. And thousands of years spent in one’s own mind. It was understandable, as
despicable as her conclusions were.
Aether was immortal. Lumine was immortal.
“Is that what awaits me?”
The Tsaritsa only raised a brow, “Excuse me?”
Is this what awaited her, this life of coldness and distortion? Was this why Aether had changed so
drastically from the man she remembered him to be?
Lumine looked down at Ajax. He was not getting any better, his cheeks growing paler with each
passing minute. She pressed the bundled coat deeper and gasped in desperation, “I-I think I’ve
made a decision, you’ve helped me, your Majesty.”
“Of course I did, that’s what I was trying to tell you earlier.”
It was not in the way she thought. Lumine knew that the Archon was growing impatient, though
she could not bear to leave Ajax’s side. His breathing was becoming more shallow, his lips parted
as he tried to let more air in. Lumine put one hand on his cheek and leaned in.
She truly had made her decision. How quickly the world shifted, how quickly a heart made it’s
choices. There was nothing she wanted more than to avoid becoming a snake that ate its own tail.
She whispered, her hand on his cheek and her lips to his ear, “I know you’ll have no idea what I’m
talking about, but I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I’ve chosen you. It’s you,
it’s always been you, even before we knew each other.”
Her forehead against his, hot tears on her cheeks. Shaking fingers and drumming hearts, ineligible
whispers of love and emotions that could not be put into words. It was him, it had always been
him.
And to Aether, she was sorry.
Behind her, the sound of cryo gathering into a sharp blade reached her ears. Lumine glanced over
her shoulder to see the Tsaritsa approaching languidly, sword in hand, and face twisted in anger.
“I’ve grown impatient.”
“I have a proposition.” Lumine interjected. Her voice sounded far too loud and echoing in this
room.
The Tsaritsa blinked in surprise “Yes?”
“I want to make a pinkie promise.”
It had to be the dumbest challenge Lumine had ever undertaken. A pinkie promise with the Queen
of Snezhnaya. The archon stared in mild wonder, as if nobody had spoken those words to her in
centuries.
Lumine took her silence as encouragement to go on, “You make a pinkie promise, you keep it all
your life. You break a pinkie promise, and-”
“And I throw you on the ice. The cold will kill the pinkie that once betrayed your friend.”
“And the frost will freeze your tongue off so you never lie again.” Lumine finished with a glare,
“You know that?”
The archon gave a bitter chuckle under her breath, “Of course I do, it’s about me. I gained a
reputation in my earlier years as a defender of promises. I’ve frozen a few tongues and pinkies off
in my day.”
Lumine did not want that mental image. Instead, she pushed herself up to stand and take a step
forward, “Then make a promise with me. Please?”
“...Whatever for?”
If Ajax and Lumine were to die today, she could at least tie one loose end.
Her voice was as shaken as her knees, and as weak as she felt. Yet, Lumine forced herself to go
on, “No matter what happens, I want you to leave his family alone.”
A beat of silence, the sound of the wind howling against the towers of the Palace. The Tsaritsa
gazed in absolute blankness.
“No matter what happens?”
“Let’s be honest,” Lumine forced a bitter smile, “Ajax and I might die, I just want to die knowing
that they’re safe.”
“And… If you do not die?”
Taken aback, she straightened to attention, “What?”

“What if you do not die?” The Archon repeated, “What if I escape before anyone dies, what if
you think you kill me, but I do not really perish? What then?”
As if that would happen. Preferably, it was either the Tsaritsa dies, or they die. Lumine was not
very open to alternative options. Nevertheless, she would support this outlandish conclusion, “Just
please, under any circumstances, do not hurt his family. I don’t care who wins, just keep them out
of it.”
Yet another beat of heavy silence. Yet another staring contest. Behind Lumine, Ajax was quickly
bleeding out, he would not have much time left to live. She was losing hope with each passing
second.
Finally, the Tsaritsa offered a nod, “Alright, I agree.” She held out her pinkie, “No matter what
happens today, I will not hurt his family.”
It was odd, making a pinkie promise with the enemy. Her finger was cold, chilling Lumine to the
bone as they carried out this childish ritual. With one quick shake of their hands, the deal was
made, and the most frayed, loose end was finally tied.
Now, she could breathe, the invisible hands around her neck loosening for half a second. The next
order of business was to decide between escaping with Ajax’s half-dead body in her arms, or
killing the Tsaritsa. Both would take equally as long.
She just wished that she had a way to call Aether. She desperately needed another hand. Every
inch of her ached to be at Ajax’s side, yet she was hesitant to turn her back on the Tsaritsa. The
only way she knew to catch Aether’s attention was to use Childe’s Abyssal powers, and she had no
clue how he activated those.
Her only advantage was that the Tsaritsa seemed to have no idea who Aether was. It was her
hidden card, the only thing that might save her.
She pointed her weapon and narrowed her eyes, “For the arrangement of our promise to be upheld,
there must be a fight in the first place. So, show me your power.”
A show of power was all she had been waiting for. This woman, this cold God, who would kill
her own soulmate if he was alive today. Her depraved views and her armies of test subjects. All for
this unknown goal she possessed, all for something nobody besides her could understand.
Leaving Ajax’s side was the most difficult part. Lumine forced herself to stand up, summoning
her sword and taking a step towards the Queen. “I’ll try my best,” she offered, “but I cannot
promise that you’ve unlocked any special powers of mine. I don’t feel stronger. I feel…”
So incredibly weak that it hurt.
The Tsaritsa would accept that, though begrudgingly. Lumine, as desperately as she wanted to slit
this woman’s throat, had no extra power to give. She had no hidden strength that she could tap
into, and she had no memories of how to do so if she did. All she felt was shaken, like she might
collapse any second then.
The only satisfying part about this battle would be the spitefulness of it all. The Tsaritsa wanted
something epic, something powerful. And Lumine could not give her that even if she wanted to.
She would die, and the Queen would be disappointed. But the Alekseevs would be okay, the
world would not lose a good family. And Teyvat would continue on, perhaps even better without
the presence of the Harbinger and the Traveler.
(Or, many annoying odd jobs would go undone without Lumine, but they’d find someone else.)
She took her first shot, a lunge for the Tsaritsa’s heart. A lunge, a slash through the air, a
desperate attempt to land even one hit on her enemy.
The Tsaritsa had not yet determined Lumine enough of a threat to fight back. She simply avoided
with her blank smiles. As both of their footsteps resounded through the room, Lumine finally
began to notice the presence of the onlookers from above. She did not dare to look up, to let her
attention be lacking, but she could feel their eyes resting upon her. She heard their whispers, their
gasps in interest, their eyes burrowing holes into her back.
The other Harbingers were staying a respectable distance from the battle. Nobody should
interrupt the Queen during her duel, but they knew when to strike. They knew when to defend her,
to stop everything and disobey commands for the interests of Snezhnaya. For now, the Tsaritsa had
it perfectly handled, though her scowl grew larger and more dangerous with each passing second.
The two women fought. Blades began to clash as Lumine drove her further back. Glowers and
hisses, venom and the sharp songs of iron. In the balconies above, the eyes of the Harbingers
burrowed even further into Lumine’s back.
Little did anyone know, yet another pair of eyes rested upon her.
A tired pair, blue as the sea before a storm. They were half lidded, and his vision was blurry -
losing nearly several gallons of blood tended to do that to a person. He could not move, he could
hardly breathe, nor could he think.
But there was one fact about this situation that Ajax knew.
Lumine needed help, and he would do anything to keep her safe.
If he could just use a little Abyssal energy, Aether would take his cue and arrive to help. Despite
the fog of his mind, Ajax found his hand moving away from the bundle of blood soaked coats on
top of him, and to the floor.
Lumine was moving as he’d never seen her. She had backed the Tsaritsa up with her sword, and
was now ducking and rolling away from an icy blast. She was beautiful, and if she was the last he
saw in this lifetime, he would take it. It was her voice, her whispers and her touch, that had woken
him up from blood-loss induced collapsion.
All he needed was one flash of energy. That was all. Ajax managed to clench his fist, take a deep
breath - despite the hot, piercing pain of his body - and take the dive.
That’s what he tended to call it, the dive. Dive into that black pool, and choke on the water thick
as ink. Shut his eyes, feel the crawl of something otherworldly up his legs and arms. Sink, and
drift.
He came up for air almost immediately. When he opened his eyes to the real world, he watched
the flicker of shadows on the balconies above. The Tsaritsa’s throne room, the clash of swords, and
the glow of the Abyss.
While Ajax was still Ajax, laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood, he had used just enough
Abyssal energy to catch Aether’s attention. It was a sliver, and that was all he needed.
He felt as if he’d die here, but he did just enough to save Lumine. And that was okay with him.
Lumine and the cryo Archon noticed none of this. There was the familiar, smoke-like swirl of a
spell from the abyss dissipating above Childe, but nothing else. There was no transformation, there
was no black armor, there was no miraculous healing. Childe simply did not have enough strength
to fully enable the powers.
This is, until Aether finally responded to the call.
Lumine was growing fiercer by the second. She lunged at the Archon, drilling past her defenses
with each swipe of her sword. A burst of anemo, a geo construct, a shard of cryo aimed for her
heart. The Tsaritsa had been alive for so long that any normal human would not be able to keep up
with her. Yet, despite having very little recollection of this, Lumine had been alive longer. Fighting
was like eating, breathing, existing - it was natural, and could not be forgotten. As Lumine pushed
the Archon back further, the onlookers from the shadows above grew more uneasy. They were
ready to jump in and defend their Queen at any moment.
The shift in the air was sudden. A flash of purple energy, like lightning. The sudden crackle of
what sounded like fire and heavy footsteps filling every inch of the room, making Ajax open his
eyes despite the exhaustion weighing him down. Slowly, in pain, he pushed himself up to watch as
a familiar rift opened several feet above the ground.
He knew what that was, he’d fallen through one of those. Hope rekindled in his chest, and he
couldn't help but smile.
He’d done it, Aether had taken his cue.
Neither the Tsaritsa nor Lumine took notice of the sudden crack in reality behind them. Lumine
spared it a glance, but was quickly distracted by a spear of ice aiming for her heart. She dodged and
twisted, returned the assault, and left whatever nonsense was going on behind her in the back of her
mind. The Tsaritsa had seen the rift, but paid it no attention.
They’d been fighting for several minutes now. Lumine was growing tired, and that was obvious
to the Queen. While she could easily hold her own against her, their energy levels were vastly
different.
“What’s wrong?” The Archon asked, almost mockingly as she danced in-time with her opponent,
“Humanity not suiting you well?”
Lumine nearly froze from the shock, “How the hell do you know that?”
“I know an immortal’s constellation when I see one, my dear.”
An immortal’s constellation, how vague. Were all Archons this frustrating?
The fighting did not stop even as the rift spread further apart. The rushing sound of wind filled the
room, deafening every breath and heartbeat. Lumine and the Tsaritsa did not dare to halt in their
attacks, though whatever was happening was obviously important.
When Aether stepped out of the crack and onto the blood-slicked marble flooring, Ajax could not
help but breathe a painful sigh of relief. “Took you long enough, comrade.”
The Abyss Prince glanced around the room. His gaze first fell upon Lumine as she locked swords
with the Archon, and smiled in satisfaction at the sight. After that, he looked at Childe, the
crumpled and bloodied heap of a man on the floor. Despite obviously knocking on death’s door,
the ex-Harbinger grinned as if they were old friends.
He would be annoying up until his last breath, it seemed. As desperately as Aether wanted to
assist Lumine, his brother in law was making an unholy mess of things upon someone else’s floor.
He rolled his eyes and stepped towards him, kneeling down to inspect the wound.
“You know,” he murmured, “if you died then my sister would want to travel with me again.”
Childe grinned through red-stained teeth, “But she’d also cry, at least a little.”
He hated that he was correct. Lumine looked as if she’d already been crying, her cheeks wet and
her eyes red despite the fury contorting her face. Aether gave yet another eye roll, “I don’t know
what she sees in you.”
“I don’t either.” He managed a pained laugh. Immediately after, he put a hand over his wound and
flinched, “I-It’s probably just my dashing good looks.”
Not right now, it could not be. Tartaglia was an absolute mess. Aether summoned hydro in his
hands and began healing the wound in his stomach, watching the skin and muscle stitch back
together at the slowest pace possible. While he worked, Lumine gasped and yelled and continued
her fight.
She had noticed Aether moments ago, but could hardly breathe with her extreme loss of stamina.
Fighting the Tsaritsa back was whittling her down to the bone. Soon enough she would lose all
strength in her arms. With already having taken several blows to her stomach and legs, just a few
more would be the end of the battle.
Aether realized this. His desperation grew deeper as he hurried his pace, “Stupid idiot, how did
you manage to get hurt so badly?”
“She took me by surprise.” Childe attempted to sound innocent, though the tone of his voice was
more feeble than anything. While Aether had not known him for very long, to hear this man, of all
people, sound feeble was incredibly unnerving. It didn’t fit. It didn’t make sense.
The discomfort was not helped by the clack of heels across the floor. It was not helped in the
least, not by La Signora and her cold glares. It was not helped by yet another Harbinger, one
Aether could only assume was Capitano, approaching from the other end of the room. Lumine did
not seem to take notice of either of the intruders, but Aether did. And he knew that look in their
eyes.
These people would defend their Queen to their deathbeds. Childe lolled his head and glared as
La Signora passed. She cast him a pitiful stare for exactly two seconds, before moving on, as if
they had never been co-workers in the first place. As Aether and Childe watched her approach the
Queen and the traveler, a small murmur of, “Traitor,” could be heard passing her lips.
As if Signora had ever truly cared for Tartaglia. He rolled his eyes, “Don’t mind her, she’s just a
bitch.”
Childe was acting like he was hosting guests and apologizing for his mean older sister. It was
clear that he adored this palace, this city, this entire country, though Aether was pleased that he
adored Lumine far more. Once again, if this man was one of their kind, he’d gladly approve of
their relationship.
Yet, he was not one of them. And he was dying. Lumine needed help, and his entire army was
busy swarming the city and fighting off the Fatui guards and skirmishers. As La Signora and
Capitano advanced upon Lumine, Aether knew exactly what he must do.
“Hey, idiot, if I take all the Abyssal energy from your Foul Legacy and use it to keep you alive,
would you be cool with that?”
Childe lolled his head to the side and shot Aether an unamused glare, “What do you mean?”
“Well, in simple terms…” he paused, finding his words, “the Foul Legacy is its own thing that
you just leech off. I can use its power to heal you, but you’ll never be able to use it again. Side
effects also include nightmares of the Abyss, possible madness, and the deep urge to kill.”
Without missing a beat, Ajax shrugged, “So nothing would change, basically. Besides never
being able to use it again?”
“Well, you’d be dead by now without it. I can break it’s hold on you and use its power to heal
what’s been injured beyond normal repair, but yes, your mastery over it will be gone.”
“...You can’t, I don’t know, give me another fun Abyss power?”
“I’d really prefer not to.”
Ajax rolled his eyes and groaned, “Fine, whatever.”
This was for Lumine. Perhaps the Tsaritsa would accept it as his sacrifice, Ajax had always
known letting go of the Foul Legacy would be a tooth and nail fight. Aether sighed and readied the
spell, “My sister needs help right now. So stop napping and get up. Are you sure you’re ready for
this?”
Not in the least.
All Ajax could manage was a weak thumbs up - and that was consent enough.
Lumine was fortunate that not all 11 Harbingers were here. At least one of them was on her side,
and it was only La Signora and who she assumed was Capitano closing in around her. There was
possibly more waiting to strike, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it.
And also fortunately for her, the Tsaritsa paused mid-strike, put up a cold hand, and shot both
Harbingers a glare.
“Not yet. I’m fine, she’s wearing down.”
How nice. They would not interrupt their Queen’s fight. So respectful, despite their heavy glares
and looks of hatred. She’d never seen La Signora look so ugly before. (Lumine couldn’t help but
stick her tongue out at her.)
“I-I think you’re the one that’s wearing down.” It was meant to be a taunt, and was entirely ruined
by her exhausted stutter. The Tsaritsa only gave her a bitter, unamused smile in return.
Lumine wasn’t sure how much more she could handle.
A lift of the Tsaritsa’s ice spear. One more hit, that was all she needed. Lumine was unraveling
for the world to see.
And she was sorry. She was so sorry to Aether, to Ajax and his family. She was sorry to Diluc
and Kaeya, to Zhongli and Venti. She was sorry to everybody who had ever relied on her.
That spear was aimed for her heart.

Lumine had her eyes shut. At some point within the last five seconds, she’d dropped to her knees.
She couldn’t recall the chill in the air, or the sudden gasps that filled her ears. She could not recall
the deep tones of something familiar. She could not recall how it felt to be close to death, to look it
in the eyes.
When the blade did not pierce her heart, she opened her eyes.
“Hey girlie, hold still.”
Stupid. Idiotic. This trash heap of a man who thought he was charming, who thought he could
simply wake up and block the hit meant for her.
Lumine’s chest was leaping, and her tongue was moving, before she could even think to stop
herself.
“I really, really love you.”
Ajax glanced over his shoulder to look at her, “Yeah, I know.”
He knew. Did he also know that he was an idiot? Did he also know how much he terrified her?
Did he know the literal shift in the world when she thought he was about to die? He couldn’t
possibly, he couldn’t possibly understand what Lumine felt as she watched him fight off the
Tsaritsa - who said absolutely nothing at the sight of him alive.
How he’d managed to get up and fight was still a mystery, though Lumine wasn’t complaining.
The Harbingers took no command to jump into action, they simply did so without a word. La
Signora lunged for Lumine, who instinctively rolled out of the way from her attack. There were
more of them closing in from the corners of the room and finally slithering their way out from the
shadows.
Yet, Aether was there. He made quick work of one of them, and zipped to her side to pull her to
her feet. Another dodge, another twist - the cold smiles of those who dedicated their lives to one
Archon. But it was time for this battle to end. It would be the shortest war in human history, though
Lumine was perfectly okay with that.
With his newfound strength, Ajax managed to hold the Tsaritsa back. The battleground had
grown louder and more chaotic than before. Between the clashing of swords and the other
Harbingers closing in on the twins, there was no room for conversation.
Yet, the Tsaritsa pushed against Tartaglia’s electrical attacks. She leaned in, speaking lowly
beneath the destruction, “I gave you purpose, Tartaglia. I gave you a reason to live.”
She gave him purpose, that much was true. But purposes and circumstances change, and Ajax
wasn’t much in the mood for talking about his past life. Despite his hurried revival, all he wanted
to do was collapse.
Everybody was occupied with their own fights. Through the walls of the palace, the noise of an
even bigger battle resounded. Aether’s army was at work in keeping the Snezhnayan military
busy.
It was obvious that the Tsaritsa was quickly losing patience. She broke her block against Childe
and teleported back to give herself room. “I can take care of this,” she yelled to the Harbingers
approaching from the shadows, “Go outside and contain the situation.”
Aether attacked yet another of Childe’s ex-colleagues. He fell to the ground, groaning at the
golden sword in his back. The Tsaritsa made a noise of fury before lunging at Childe once again.
While he managed to block her, on the inside he was distracted. He was sinking, exhausted,
slipping beneath himself and drowning in the waters of the Abyss. This battle was nothing like the
Golden House, he could not focus even if he tried.
Lumine had quickly regained her strength, and was now jumping into action alongside Childe.
There were cuts up and down her body from narrowly avoided hits. Every inch of herself ached,
and Childe had blocked the Tsaritsa’s sword from fatally wounding her several times now. While
Aether could keep fighting without issue, Lumine felt her strength slipping away.
That would be one downside of mortality. But she’d gladly accept that if it meant becoming
nothing like the crazed, wide eyed Archon before her.
The Tsaritsa’s composure was gone. She was visibly stressed, yet still commanding her
Harbingers to stay back and focus on Aether and his army outside. She hardly spoke, nor did
Childe. There was no room for words between them any longer. And she would fall soon enough.
Her perfect facade was slipping with each stab of his electro lance, with each slash of Lumine’s air
blade. Even with his inner drowning, Lumine and Ajax moved with each other. It was a waltz,
connecting the two without a word. How the world has shifted - just a bit more, just one minute
more.
The Goddess fell not with a destructive force, but in a way far more fitting.
She fell to a hydro blade, and a gust of wind, dropping to her knees and hanging her head in silent
shame.
It ended as quickly as it began. The moment the Tsaritsa dropped, every soul in the room took
pause and notice.
The spiraling of the world slowed.
Tense silence settled in.
Heavy breathing and spilled blood. Shaking knees and half healed wounds. Ajax could only hold
himself up for a second before crumpling to the floor in a gasp of pain.
Immediately, Lumine scrambled to his side. “How are you still moving around?” Frantic, her
hands ran over his bloodied body, inspecting his wound from earlier.
The Tsaritsa lifted her head to glare between tendrils of sweaty, pale hair. Behind them, Aether
and La Signora froze in shock. They went ignored as the Tsaritsa took a steadying breath. She
parted her lips to speak, “Do not think this is over.”
He glared through his exhaustion, “No. It’s over, your Majesty.”
Childe gathered his strength for one last strike. The death dealing blow. The ending to this
tiresome story.
“I’ll take your life as unceremoniously as you intended to take mine.”

A jade dagger, a familiar, expensive antique that was never meant for killing. Lumine had not
noticed it in his hand until he was thrusting it towards the Archon. But instead of blood or screams
or pain, it happened with the shattering of an iron chain, and the clatter of a vision falling to the
ground.
“It hurts more this way, doesn’t it?” He whispered, “To people like you, losing your power is
worse than losing your life.”
He picked up the ice blue trinket. It flickered, as if responding to his touch, until fading into dim
nothingness. As the Tsaritsa scrambled to retrieve it, the skin around her eyes grew red as if she
was seconds from bursting into tears. She was madly reaching for Ajax’s hands, “No. No, no, no!”
Before she could successfully claw his eyes out, Ajax tossed it to Aether unceremoniously, “Take
that, throw it into the Abyss where she’ll never find it.”
“No!” She sobbed, “Give it back!”
A girl from Morepesok, grieving as the sea took all she cared about. Now, a crumpled heap of a
person. Repeated denials and frantic murmurs. She was whispering to the broken chain that held
her vision as if it was the corpse of her lover.
And perhaps, in a way, it was.
Grief had an interesting way of connecting the oddest of souls.
Slowly, the Tsaritsa raised her head. Her eyes were glassy and her fingers trembling, dripping
beads of crimson blood down her palms and arms as she buried her fingernails into her skin.
“Y-You speak as if you and I are different, Tartaglia.”
All he could do was sigh, “We’re different in more ways than you think, your Majesty. We
always have been,”
Signora, unraveled and frantic for seemingly the first time in her life, scrambled away from
Aether and towards the Tsaritsa. She paid no mind to anyone else as she dropped to her knees and
inspected the Archon’s wounds, her wide eyes falling upon the broken shards of the now useless
chain that held her vision.
Childe was still exhausted. He felt as if Aether’s revival spell had ripped his inner self apart.
Refusing to show weakness in front of the eighth Harbinger and her Queen, he pushed himself up
from the floor, almost immediately falling before Lumine slipped an arm behind his back to keep
him upright.
They shared a tired smile. It was nearly over, the bloodshed was coming to its end.
Signora’s glare was like a hundred daggers burrowing into her former colleague. She held the
Tsaritsa’s hand as if they were old friends, a show of affection that was incredibly rare for either of
the women. “All you did was take her vision, not her gnosis, do you really think that will stop her
will?”
Ajax snorted like she was stupid, “She used to be human. She can’t use her powers without a
vision, gnosis or not.”
And to people like her, that was a fate worse than death.
“Remember this, you are only living because we have allowed it. Keep your promise, leave our
family alone.” Lumine despised the shaking of her own voice, the fear and the hatred interlaced
into every syllable. Ajax ran an affectionate hand up her arm, calming her down only a fraction as
she locked glares with the Tsaritsa.
Silence. Lifted chins in arrogance and cold eyes. A defeat, an exhausted complacency. Aether
eyed the dimmed vision for a moment before twisting his fingers, watching it disappear with a puff
of purple smoke.
Ajax had never seen the Tsaritsa look so human, so broken.
“So,” she began, voice strained, “I suppose this is your resignation, Tartaglia?”
If she wanted to put it that way, then yes. He smiled, “I suppose it is.”
“Fine, I will not bother your family, you have my word-“
“-But how can they even trust your word?” Aether interrupted.
Signora and the Tsaritsa sent him flat looks. The Queen sighed as if this was all below her, “I
have no reason to hurt them, it will not bring my power back, and will give me no satisfaction to
kill innocent people. But you two, on the other hand… You two I will hunt until my dying breath.”
Ajax wouldn’t dare to miss a beat, “We both knew it would come to something like this, didn’t
we?”
“Yes…” her smile was almost warm, but not quite, “You would have been a spectacular heir…”
He grimaced, “No, I really wouldn’t have.”
A scowl of offense, a flicker of something unexplainable across her face. Her arms were covered
in trails of her own blood now, her knuckles white from how harshly she gripped herself. Lumine
wondered if she’d ever let it go again. “J-Just go before I change my mind.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. The wound from her attack was the worst he’d ever have, he
knew it would burn coldly until the day he died.
Lumine was under one arm, while Aether begrudgingly took the other. The trio shuffled across
the blood stained floor and towards the doors at the end of the room.
Outside, the war raged on. Childe scanned his surroundings in thoughtful silence, “Capitano’s
dead… Sandrone… Dammit, Aether, I wanted to be the one to fight them.”
“You snooze, you lose.” Aether retorted.
He was mortally wounded and was still complaining about the stupidest of things. Lumine
resisted the urge to punch him, “There’s still eight of them left, you’ll get your chance.”
If all of the Harbingers had been present, Lumine had a feeling that this battle would have gone
much differently. Signora’s murmured curses were a background noise beneath the drumming of
Lumine’s chest. It was all the eighth Harbinger could do to call for help, though she received no
answer. The rest of her allies were either outside, or in different regions entirely.
They stopped in front of the doors. The war continued to rage on, feeling like an entirely different
world that would burst apart the second they stepped into it.
Aether stopped and pulled himself out from under Ajax’s arm. With a sigh, he turned towards
them and offered the most genuine smile Lumine had seen since he returned. “So, I think I’ll let
my guys wreak some more havoc here, destroy the Tsaritsa’s resources so she won’t have enough
power to mess with you for a while.”
Lumine melted into a smile, “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“Yeah, well…” he shrugged awkwardly, “don’t mention it. I’ll, uh… I’ll catch up with you in a
bit, okay?”
It was like he knew. It was like he could read her mind, feel what she felt. They were twins, after
all. They knew nearly everything about each other.
Aether had a feeling that Lumine made her choice.
He left in the most awkward hurry possible. The streets were filled with monsters, though they
did not bother the civilian houses. Fatui Guards ran across the cobblestones and took their hiding
places as Abyss Heralds stalked after them. It was absolute chaos, the kind Ajax could not help but
revell in.
He leaned on Lumine as they walked down the street. Monsters did not even spare them a glance
as they passed by, as if they were ghosts wandering through the world unseen. That was exactly
how Lumine felt in this moment.
All she wanted to do was collapse, take a hot bath, and go to sleep.
It was what she fully planned to do, until Ajax stopped suddenly. Lumine glanced up at him, then
followed his eyes to whatever he was staring at.
A church, a small one, with a terrified looking priest glancing out the window and staring in
horror at the passing monsters. Lumine’s chest did a dance as she realized what Ajax was thinking.
He smiled down at her. She glared up at him. They were both covered in copious amounts of
blood and grime.
After all he’d done - after all he’d given up for her. His stab wound started to bleed again, but he
smiled as if he was perfectly fine. They just left the palace of the cryo Archon that he’d nearly
killed, and would be dead themselves if not for her brother.
He really knew how to romance a lady.
“Hey, Lumi?”
“Yes, Jaxie?”
“Will you marry me right now?"
It's not as if she had anything better to do at the moment. And the church was right there.
“...Sure, I guess."
Chapter End Notes

with everything in this chapter moving so quickly, I could not dedicate much time to
explaining how Aether healed Childe, but I promise that will be approached and
explained in the next chapter!
Hello, Goodbye
After every storm is the peace. The smell of rain and the pearly grey sky. The distant rumble of
thunder like a snore from a sleeping beast. The stillness in the air.
Lumine and Childe could finally breathe again.
Until Eva attempted to strangle them, that is.
“You got married?!”
They got married. And it was actually official this time. There was a license and a priest and a
hilichurl to witness it all. Lumine used the flower in her hair as a bouquet, and neither of them were
in any way dressed for the occasion. There was a massive blood stain down the front of Childe’s
jacket, and several parts of Lumine’s dress had been torn and ripped.
It was beautiful. Aether threatened to rip Childe apart the second they stepped out of the church,
which was also beautiful. The entire event was an absolute bloodbath - just the way Childe had
always imagined his wedding to be.
“I can’t believe this,” Eva dropped down upon her couch, pressing her hand delicately against her
forehead and groaning, “My son, my little Ajax, not inviting his own mother to his wedding?”
The son in question was currently kneeling at his mothers side as if she was terminally ill and this
was their last goodbye, “Mama, it was an impulsive decision, really. We had just stolen the
Tsaritsa’s vision and-“
“-You what?”
Lumine promptly recalled the fact that none of his family knew the dirty details of the situation.
Sacha knew the most, but even then he was in the dark. With Ajax blurting it out like so casually,
the shock of it all seemed like a slap on the face.
Tonia and Teucer couldn’t quite grasp the true extent of his words. Yet, Michial, Anthon, and Eva
froze instantly. Childe remained as nonchalant as ever, “I stole her vision.”
Aether and Lumine were very wisely keeping their distance at the back of the living room.
Lumine sat on a table, her legs dangling, while Aether leaned against the empty spot next to her.
She watched as every eye in the room slid to land on her, as if she would be far more serious about
the matter than Ajax ever would.
Unfortunately for them, she was not. Lumine wasn’t quite in the mood for dramatic reveals
anymore. So, she could only shrug.
Aether, on the other hand, was far more willing to explain, “I threw it into the Abyss.”
Childe grinned up at his mother. Anthon muttered something akin to ‘that’s cool as hell’ under
his breath, and Lumine could not help but agree. It was cool as hell, even if she didn’t quite
understand how visions and Archons and gnoses worked. Yet, judging by how broken the Tsaritsa
had seemed, it had to have been very important.
Michial was the first to break the silence, “So what does that mean for… us? Or for Snezhnaya?
Or…”
A question dropped into thin air. That one word asked more than enough.
Childe stood up from his spot on the floor and sat on the ottoman. The fireplace flickered behind
him, it’s warmth enveloping the family in their own personal world. By his movements, it was
obvious that everybody else was to begin settling in as well. It was rare for Childe to wear such a
serious face.
Lumine squeezed Aether’s hand and left his side to join the family. She rested her head on
Childe’s thigh, looking up at him and smiling as he ran his fingers through her hair. It was as if he
was about to tell a folk story around a campfire. Everybody waited with baited, anticipatory
breaths.
Ajax began with a sigh, “So…” And he never did take his eyes off Lumine, “I think it’s time I
start telling the truth.”
It most certainly was.
Childe expected it to hurt.
There was this saying in Liyue about the truth. It hurts. It was painful and bloody and messy. It
was one of the hardest trials many people would expect in their lives.
Yet for Childe, this moment was surprisingly easy.
“The Tsaritsa is still in power, and she still has her gnosis, but she’s no longer a vision wielder. I
wouldn’t be surprised if…” he paused to allow the words to sink in, “if the sharks start circling
soon.”
“What does that mean?” Teucer asked.
Eva ran an affectionate hand through his hair and spoke in hushed tones, “It means there might be
a new Tsar or Tsaritsa soon.”
That was the simplest way to put it. There was no need to inform an eight year old of his
country’s political trauma - how Zapolyarny Palace and the state of his homeland’s military might
look in a month or two. Every grown citizen in Snezhnaya knew how the Fatui, especially the
Harbingers, were. They were dedicated, loyal, but sharks nevertheless. Every actor secretly wished
to play the lead role, after all.
Childe himself was tempted to launch an attack on the Tsaritsa, though running a country was not
quite his style. And having taken her power instead of killing her was a far more satisfying
punishment. Oddly enough, he found himself simply content at the moment with whatever other
world-changing events Lumine led him into. She tended to do that.
Teucer, observant as ever, caught onto the tension in the room, “What does any of this have to do
with big brother?”
That was the real question. His parents shifted uncomfortably; Eva and Michial worked as
ardently as Childe did to keep such secrets. Yet, with the promise of truths hanging between them,
they could only look at their son for answers. And he wasn’t quite sure if he was ready to give
those yet, though Teucer was bound to find out someday.
It was only natural for children to grow up and discover the dirty secrets their family holds. He
had just hoped it would go on for a bit longer. Teucer was still young, innocent, wide-eyed and
happy - blissfully ignorant.
Yet, he’d also had a Harbinger lunge at him with a knife, intent to draw blood. He’d not been
sleeping well since that day - and how could he? While Childe was exposed to death’s door at 14,
Teucer was only eight. He could hardly imagine the mind of an eight year old trying to process the
terror of an assault.
Lumine glanced up at him. She smiled. He wanted to melt - some honeymoon they were having.
“Well,” Childe began slowly, letting out a deep and steadying breath, “I… actually helped take
away her power, Teuc. She was being mean to me and Lumine, so I did what I’ve always taught
you to do and I protected the person I love.”
“...Oh.”
He took that surprisingly well. And Childe blurted it out even better. There was no mention of
toys or murder or violence, no mention of mister cyclopses and no thinly veiled lies. As if she was
proud, Eva ruffled Teucer’s hair and smiled down at him.
Yet, it wasn’t really enough to calm his uneasy nerves. He didn’t want to drop any bombs on
Teucer in front of the entire family, that was a conversation meant to be had in private - and
hopefully not tonight. He was exhausted as it was.
Lumine and Childe traveled back to Morepesok with the use of waypoints, which still very much
made them both sick. Aether followed from a distance because he was also feeling very sick,
though that was for different reasons. He did not successfully slit Childe’s throat after the wedding,
he didn’t even threaten him enough for Childe to take back his vows or rip up the marriage license.
And Aether’s pleading puppy eyes did not work on Lumine, either, who promptly informed him
that he was far too dead-fish-eyed now to sway her emotions like he used to.
Despite all of this, Aether was still with them. His army had backed off from the city, and no
innocent humans were murdered in the process. The Tsaritsa was a bare wound for the wolves to
take advantage of, and the rest would fall into place beautifully. Childe only wished he wasn’t on
his honeymoon so he could see it all happen.
That was partly a lie, as he truly didn’t want his honeymoon to ever end. But it would be nice to
get dinner and a show - the Fatui could be quite funny when watching from the audience.
After stumbling into his family home and taking everybody by surprise, Lumine promptly
announced, ‘We got married!’ while Childe announced ‘And we brought skewers from town!’
This did not go over well. (Nobody ate the skewers.)
After some cleanup of the blood covered clothes and a much needed bath, the couple was finally
ready to explain themselves. Aether showed up and settled himself into a shadowy corner, only to
laugh at the worst possible times, and then have the gall to act shocked when nobody else laughed
with him. He shared Eva’s horror at the marriage, though not because he was not invited, but
because it happened in the first place.
She was still pale from the news. Even after the family had settled and Childe had begun his
explanation, she still glared with the fury of a thousand suns. There was nothing anyone could do
to calm her. Every few seconds, she would mutter something about wedding dresses and proper
guests and proper bouquets and decor under her breath.
Lumine and Childe had absolutely none of that. And they would not want it any other way. So,
Eva was left to simmer in her own discontent.
Michial was far more focused on the priorities at hand. He’d always had a slight feeling that if
Ajax ever did find a girl, the official-processing of their relationship would either be nonexistent, or
incredibly chaotic. Truthfully, he had assumed that Lumine and Ajax would kill each other
eventually.
And there was still time for that, of course. Those kids have their entire lives ahead of them.
Returning to the lingering question between each mind, Michial spoke up, “And what does this all
mean for us?”
The translation was obvious: Were they in danger?
Each family member - besides Teucer and Aether - stiffened in sudden surprise. It was always left
up to papa to broach the difficult subjects. He was the one who had signed Ajax up for the Fatui,
sending him away for the sake of his family’s sanity. And now, he would be the one to bring up
the lingering question nobody else felt like approaching.
Lumine’s smile was nervous, but genuine. She had barely spoken, only resting her head on Ajax’s
thigh and sending him smiles when he needed them. One of her hands lingered in Tonia’s in her
attempts to comfort the younger girl - already sisters to each other in their own rights.
Anastasia, Sacha, and Pavol remained relatively ignorant of the situation. Anastasia sent a very
amusing letter to her mother about the seemingly docile ruin guards in her backyard and how they
did not react to her village’s attempts to run them off. Sacha had disappeared just a day ago with the
excuse that he was not quite ready to deal with whatever hurricane of chaos Ajax was bringing
home, and that he would broach the entire ordeal at a later date. Procrastination, basically. Pavol
was silent on the matter, though his wife did send a lovely letter detailing how worried she was for
everybody and how she hoped that nobody had reached an untimely demise without her knowing.
It left the young ones, and the parents. Aether lingered at the edges as if there was a wall keeping
him out, though Lumine would adore having him at her side. She was beginning to understand,
though, the changes he’d undergone. He could not be the same Aether as he once was, no matter
how desperately she wished it.
People changed in many ways. This family was changed, Lumine and Ajax were changed. The
only constant here was the fact that Ajax would defend those he loved with every ounce of his
being.
To answer his father’s question, all he could do was stare down at the patterns in the carpet.
“No, she made a promise to leave you all out of this.”
“A promise?” Anthon scoffed, ruining the mood immediately, “You’re relying on a promise?”
When he put it that way, it did sound like thin ice. Childe could not help but glare him down, “I
made a statement. I showed her and the rest of the world what could happen if they were to hurt the
people I love. It was made clear that our business is done, and she’s to leave you all alone.”
“I-I knew that something was happening,” Eva sat up, eyes wide with shock, “but the Tsaritsa
was threatening our own lives? That’s why you went through with all of that?”
Teucer’s confused expressions were ignored Ajax he went on, “Yes, mama. She wanted me to kill
Lumine, and if I didn’t kill Lumine then I had to watch you all be... hurt.”
“And I insisted that he just kill me,” finally, Lumine spoke, shrugging from her place on the floor,
“but he just had to take the hard way out.”
Eva grimaced and Michial shook his head. Ajax wasn’t quite sure if giving them this full
explanation was the right thing to do.
But it was already out. The damage had been done, and he was ready to pick up the pieces.
“So… How do you know we’re safe?” Michial finally asked.
He didn’t. He never had, truthfully. That aspect of his life had been complicated since the day he
was commanded to serve directly under the Tsaritsa. Childe continued staring a hole into the floor
as he mused over the correct words.
“She promised…” Ajax offered, “And there’s no reason to hurt you all now, our battle is over and
her anger is directed at me, not my family.”
Of course, she could still use his family as leverage. Or she could simply decide to be petty and
kill them all.
Childe was beginning to rethink not having killed her. He’d have to make a day of it sometime
soon, like a murder/picnic date with Lumine
“Don’t worry,” Aether broke the silence, “I’ll take care of it.”
Every eye in the room landed on him. He tensed beneath the attention, refusing to meet any of
their gazes. It was clear that he was not at all used to being perceived on any physical level.
Lumine perked up, “Aether?”
He shifted uncomfortably before going on, “I’ll… I’ll keep an eye on you all. You’ll be under my
protection.”
Under his protection. He meant it, despite how much baggage came with the claim. He did his
best to ignore the suspicious glances from Ajax, who knew far more of his intentions towards the
world than anybody else in the room. Yet, even he did not understand the motives behind the offer.
“Thank you,” Eva put a hand to her chest and sighed, “and I suppose with the political uproar and
all-”
“-And with the Snezhnayan military being forced to gather themselves,” Ajax interrupted, “then
everybody would be a bit too busy to turn their focus on us.”
“Right,” she finished, “and there might be challenges against the Tsaritsa as well since she’s lost
her power.”
With Aether's seemingly omnipotent eyes upon the family, there was less reason to worry. But
Ajax still planned to challenge the Tsaritsa himself at some point, perhaps in his travels with
Lumine. She’d return to Zapolyarny eventually, knowing her.
The family was in relative agreement about the current state of their safety. It never truly had
been 100% secure, a fact Ajax had trouble forgiving himself for. But it was secure enough for the
moment, and that was all he needed. If he could sleep beside Lumine without the consideration of
slitting her throat, that was a victory for him.
Besides, the Tsaritsa would be far too busy gluing her military back together after Aether’s army
attacking her city. At present, there was no reason to worry.
At Childe’s side, Lumine had sat up, and was now staring intently at Aether. Sometimes, he
wondered if they could read each other’s minds, though she seemed far more confused than she
was comfortable with. Aether returned the stare from his spot across the room. On the couch, Eva
and Michial were already discussing what they wanted to make as a celebratory ‘Ajax is alive, yay’
dinner.
Teucer gripped Ajax’s hand as Lumine stood up. The family was moving on in their attempts to
calm down and let time heal the wounds. Childe found himself torn away from whatever his
mother and siblings were talking about the very second that Teucer gave his hand a squeeze.
Lumine approached Aether. Teucer was staring up at Ajax with wide eyes. This was the moment
that the truth would start hurting.
“Big brother, can we talk?”
Being approached by an eight year old with those eyes was only mildly worse than being
approached by a tiny blonde woman with the same expression. Lumine and Teucer said the exact
same thing.
Aether and Childe had never felt so connected in their lives. It was interesting how fear bonded
people.
Childe led Teucer upstairs, while Aether and Lumine headed towards the front porch. The rest of
the family, respectively, knew to give them their alone time. For Teucer, this was a conversation
his parents had been waiting to happen.
The walk upstairs and to Teucer’s room was far more difficult than Ajax wanted to admit. He
took a seat on the bed the first chance he had, with Teucer flopping down into the spot next to him
much like a beached fish. Wherever he was meant to start, he had no idea.
Fortunately, his little brother was far better at these things.
“So, I promise I haven’t been doing anything embarrassing lately, like wetting the bed or
screaming like a girl.”
Ajax shot him a look. Teucer grinned very widely.
“And?”
“And,” Teucer went on, “I’ve been handling my nightmares really super well!”
Ajax tensed, “Your nightmares?”
He knew of them, but there was hardly any time available for him to investigate the matter
further. Nightmares and screaming and daggers aimed for little necks; Teucer was just trying to be
brave, then. Even now, he was being brave.
Pushing himself up, he dangling his legs off the side of the bed and fiddled with his fingers as he
spoke, “Papa tried to explain what happened, but he wasn’t really sure. He thinks I don’t notice
those things, but I do.”
Of course he did. “You mean with Dotto- I mean, that rude guy?”
“He wasn’t just rude,” Teucer frowned, “he was… evil, I guess.”
And he did not dare use that word lightly. Negatives such as ‘evil’ and ‘hate’ were restricted
words in this household, partially for the fact that Eva’s son was actually, genuinely, evil at times.
Ajax’s influence touched even the smallest of things in this family’s lives.
“So, what did papa say about that?”
“That some people are just evil. And sometimes it’s for weird reasons,” Teucer stared up at the
ceiling with his lips parted, eyes wide, “like ideas and people and loyalty. That kinda stuff. And I
know that, really. There’s this one story from school about a middle schooler who stabbed another
kid with a pencil - so I know evil people exist.”
Oh lord. Ajax grimaced. That middle schooler was him - and in his defense, he was having a very
bad day then.
How to explain, how to even begin. He was correct, evil did exist in the world. Sometimes it did
not even need a reason. And while Childe did not always consider himself an evil person, he most
certainly was not good. Teucer had nightmares as a result of his older brother’s life choices.
This, perhaps, might be the moment Teucer stopped looking up to him. Ajax had always dreaded
this.
“Okay, so… I’m just going to spit it out.”
He glanced up at him, “Please don’t spit in my room, it’s unsaniteerie.”
“The word is ‘unsanitary’, Teuc. And I won’t, I promise.” Ajax held out his pinkie. Teucer took
it, and they shook on the no spitting rule. Childe wasn’t exactly planning on releasing bodily fluids
at the moment.
Where to start, what pace to set, what mood to begin with? Childe forced himself to speak, despite
the dryness of his own mouth.
“So... Teuc.”
“Yes?”
When he was 14, he fell into a very deep hole, and crawled his way out with bleeding knees and
broken fingers. Only recently has he realized the extent of how desperately that place clung to him.
Every inch of his life, every breath, every fight, every decision, was a consequence of the Abyss.
Even his wife had a connection with that place. As happy as Ajax now was, there was no escaping
it.
Teucer wasn’t ready to know all of that, though. Childe made a mental note to write him a letter
that he would read when he was older, it wouldn't be fair to inundate him with nightmares of the
Abyss right now.
But it was time to spit it out.
“I’m not a toy seller. I don’t make people smile.” He took a pause to allow the words to sink in, “I
work for the Snezhnayan military, or I suppose I used to. And the Tsaritsa asked me to hurt
Lumine, or let you get hurt. That’s why that man was here in the first place. It was all me, Teuc, it
was my fault. And… A-And I’m sorry.”
A moment of silence. Childe stared at the floor, his heart drumming in his ears. If this was the
moment Teucer would stop looking up to him, that would be okay. He deserved that.
“So…” Teucer whispered, “you’re… not a toy seller?”
He felt his stomach churn in anxiety, “Nope. Not at all.”
“...Did you get fired?”
Childe wished he had the energy to laugh at that. “No, I never was in the first place. I was lying
because I didn’t want you to hate me for what I truly was.”
Teucer continued twiddling his fingers. Awkwardness and melancholy grew between them as he
let the words soak through. He didn’t want him to hate him. He didn’t want his ire. The distaste of
an eight year old had become one of the biggest conflicts in Ajax’s life.
“I don’t think I could ever hate you, brother.”
Childe tensed in shock, “What?”
“I couldn’t ever hate you,” Teucer was now staring up at him, brows furrowed in an expression a
bit too wise for such a young face, “And I thought it was really cool that you were a toy seller,
yeah, but that’s not why I love you.”
Eva and Michial and all three of his older siblings worried about Teucer’s future. He was fast-
footed and mischievous, spoiled, chaotic, almost the same as how Ajax was at that age. They were
always concerned that he would end up the same as Ajax, especially with how much he admired
him.
Yet, it was in that moment that he realized: There was absolutely nothing to worry about with
Teucer.
Childe found himself holding him close, now. A tight hug that was not at all uncommon between
the brothers, but felt entirely different than usual. “Thank you. I know this won’t help the
nightmares, but I want you to know that I’ll always protect you. No matter what happens, no matter
what evil people come after you, I’ll do anything to keep you safe.”
“Okie dokie! Do you want to see the new trick I learned with Mister Cyclops?”
Ajax blinked, “You’re so, uh, nonchalant, Teuc.”
He squinted in confusion, “What does nonchalant mean?”
He was perfectly fine, a regular version of the big-word loving and playful Teucer. His older
brother admitted to lying to his face, and confessed that he was the reason for his nightmares, and
he was already moving on to the next thing.
Ajax really loved this kid. His anxiety slipped away instantly, “So you’re not mad at me?”
“No, I’m mad.” He was back to twiddling his thumbs now, “But I forgive you, too. I just think
you’re silly.”
His eight year old brother was calling him silly. Childe supposed that since it was Teucer, of all
people doing so, then it must be true.
“I’m really sorry,” Ajax forced a chuckle, “I don’t know what else to say, just that there’s so
much you’ll learn about me and our lives when you get older, and I just hope I can still be someone
good in your eyes.”
He glanced up, “I don’t know that kinda stuff, but I think if you just keep being Ajax then I’ll
always love you.”
It was a shame Teucer didn’t know the real him. The crime and the murders and the battles, the
things he’d done in the name of the Tsaritsa and his Motherland. Ajax didn’t have the heart, nor
the energy, to try and explain it all right now.
What mattered is that he knew he was sorry, and that he had nothing to fear. Teucer would still
have nightmares because a simple hug could not wipe away the pain, but he could remember his
brother's words and feel at least a little better. He was protected, he was safe, Ajax was willing to
rip apart the world for him.
Ajax felt as if he knew where to start mending now. He ruffled his hair and smiled, a genuine
look that immediately earned Teucer’s toothy grin in return.
“Do you want to play with Mister Cyclops for a bit?”
He did. Teucer would be fine - one day he’d learn who his brother really is, and he’d have a
decision to make.
Ajax would be as good as he possibly could up until that day.
Meanwhile, on the front porch, the reunion Lumine knew she and Aether deserved was
happening.
Or a form of it, at least. An incredibly awkward form that did not feel as if it belonged to a set of
twins. Aether was looking at everything besides her, and Lumine couldn’t bear to take her eyes off
him.
“Thank you for offering to protect them.”
Aether shrugged, “It’s no problem, and it’s the least I can do before… Well, you know.”
Lumine didn’t know. She had no idea. And while she wanted to question him further, there was a
matter of more priority on her mind.
“I’ve… Well,” she was tripping over her own tongue, “you probably already know this, I’m sure
I’ve said it before. But I’ve been looking all over for you.”
He cast her a glance, “Yeah?”
“Yeah… I never thought you’d have endured such torture,” Lumine sighed and rubbed at her
heavy eyes, “I mean, it was always a possibility, but I didn’t really like to think about that. And
when my friend Mona and another fortune teller told me that they couldn’t see your constellation, I
lost all hope. I guess I’ve been putting too much stock into constellations lately.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that.”
It had gotten her this far, at least. Even if she denied the intertwining of her and Childe’s
constellations for so long, she found herself looking to the stars in wonder of what secrets they may
hold. She felt like she’d always known that they were more than what meets the eye, but the
memory of how to speak to them still remained fuzzy.
That was the case for most of her memories, though, everything was beginning to be fuzzy. It was
one of the many things she wanted to bring up to Aether.
“So,” she began, “you gave me that ultimatum a few days ago…”
He sat up to attention, “Of me or that jackass, yeah. And you made your choice.”
Lumine supposed that she had. She glanced down at her ring, the diamond between the two
pearls, the thin band, the simplistic beauty of it all. She had not dared take it off since he slipped it
on her finger in front of that absolutely terrified, traumatized priest. “I guess I should explain
myself.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I think I really do.”
“If you want to, you can. But I get it.”
His words caught her attention, “Do you really?”
“Yeah,” Aether shrugged, “not the whole love aspect, but what you saw from the Tsaritsa, what
you’ve seen of me and how I’ve changed. You’ve always been afraid of what we would become,
and for good reason, I guess.”
She had no recollection of such feelings. It felt odd to have lived such a long time only to let the
memories slip away like water through her fingers. “What do you mean?”
Aether could only grimace, “We fought wars, we ended lives. I was the empathetic one and you
were the apathy I needed, but despite all that you always worried about going too far.”
“I was the apathetic one?”
“You were,” he managed a humorless smile, “but humanity’s turned you soft. I miss your grumpy
little frowns, Lumi.”
She still had grumpy little frowns. She could frown like a tired old man all day long if she had the
chance - though Childe made her smile just as ardently as he made her frown.
Lumine supposed she was a little softer. She never stepped on flowers and she wouldn’t kill
anything that made a funny face. She fell in love with a human who adored his family more than
life itself, and she was now included into that. It felt good. It felt better than anything she’d ever
known.
Emptiness began to battle against the warmth as Lumine looked at her brother. He had dark
circles, frizzy and wild hair. What little she could recall of her travels told her that Aether was
always put together - he got enough sleep and he always washed his face and held himself upright.
Now that she could actually take a good look at him, she saw just how torn apart he truly was.
“What happened to you?”
He kept his eyes ahead, leaving her to watch his profile as he stiffened and frowned.
“To make a long story short, the unknown God threw me into the Abyss. I eventually found my
way out, but you weren’t awake yet.”
His words took her by surprise, “What?”
“You’ll understand it someday-”
“-I want to understand it now.” Lumine interrupted, “I need you to tell me everything.”
Aether cast her a silencing look, “You’re not ready to know this stuff. I didn’t even plan for us to
meet at this time, that little kid was just about to die and I was moving before I even realized it.”
He had saved Teucer’s life. And he did not even make that decision, his body moved of it’s own
accord. A reflexive, natural instinct born from years of empathy and love. Despite the cold and
wild nature of her brother, Lumine had a feeling there was still something left of his old self inside.
That, in itself, gave her hope. “I’m glad you saved him. And I’m glad to have found you again,
even if you didn’t want me to. And there’s no reason to be afraid of what I think,” she took his
hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze, “I’ll always love you.”
Slowly, almost cautiously, he turned to look at her. Silence fell, their breaths puffing out like
steam between their faces.
“Will you love me when I destroy Teyvat?”
It felt like the pop of a balloon, the snap of a finger in a quiet room. An avalanche falling down a
mountain in the distance, terrifying and loud, but distant enough to be heard in peace. Lumine
wasn’t quite sure how to explain it - her frozen blood, her halted breath, the immediate scrambling
of her brain as if it was an egg.
“...Why would you do that?”
Aether went on as if he was talking about the weather, “This world has taken so much from me,
seeing you again has only solidified that fact further. I assisted you and Tartaglia with this
endeavor because it will help me to have the Tsaritsa out of the way. And if you died by her hand,
this would all be moot.”
“What do you mean?” Lumine asked, her hand still gripping Aether’s, though he did not hold hers
in return.
“I mean,” he began, “that I have a plan I’ve spent 500 years forming, and I was not about to let
that woman’s flawed philosophy ruin it. I need you to see what I’ve prepared for you.”
What he’s prepared. Lumine still didn’t understand. Aether saw the look on her face and only
grimaced as if he was in pain. He slipped his hand out from under hers and sighed, silence falling
between the twins. The house was abuzz with energy behind them, which felt like an entirely
different world than the one Lumine was in now.
It was all very tense until Lumine decided to huff like a very grumpy old man, “Could you stop
being cryptic and just tell me?”
He could not, actually. “If I tell you now then you won’t get it, I need you to see it happening.”
“How could I see something when I don’t even know what I’m looking for?”
Aether cast her yet another harsh glance, “You’ll know it, I promise.”
“Are you planning to destroy Teyvat?” Lumine was desperate to dig deeper, to finally understand
this apathetic man who was supposed to be her dear brother, “Nothing’s been taken away from
you, I’m right here beside you. You’re taking out your pain on an innocent world.”
“This world is anything but innocent.” Aether snapped back, “And you may be physically beside
me, but do you even recall our life together?”
“Yes, of course I do, at least a littl-“
“-Are you willing to drop the human and return to what we were?”
Another beat of silence. Another crashing of time, when the world seemed to stop around her.
How to even answer a question like that?
It made sense, though, why he offered to protect this family. It was the least he could do to show
pity before he destroyed Teyvat.
“I don’t understand why you can’t just stay with me,” she whispered, her breath shaken, “I know
you’re in pain, but you don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I really do.”
Revenge and destruction, whatever plans he had lain in secret. Lumine didn’t even understand
what exactly he’d gone through, though 500 years in the Abyss sounded absolutely dreadful. She
could not understand something so foreign of a thought. And it was far too complicated to create a
right or wrong side - could Lumine be so selfish as to not support her brother in destroying what
has taken everything from him? Or could Aether be so selfish as to destroy the life this world had
given Lumine?
She despised shades of grey. This would be so much easier if it was in black and white.
“Show me what you have planned, then.” Lumine broke the silence. He perked up at the sound of
her voice and kept his eyes straight ahead, once again resigning her to watching his profile in the
darkness.
“I will. I know you’ve made a decision, or some form of it, at least,” he glanced back at the house,
to the shapes and laughter of its residents through the windows, “but you’ll see my reasoning soon
enough. This whole… thing,” he gestured towards the house, “was never meant to happen. But
that’s okay, now that it’s over we can get back on track.”
“I don’t want to get back on track,” She’d met her brother again, she knew he was alive - though
he was not at all well. To return to her life before this entire ordeal would be torture, “I want you to
stay with me and Ajax, make friends and fall in love and be normal for once in our stupidly long
lives.”
He sighed as if he was explaining physics to a child, “That sounds terrible. If you had lived like I
have for the last 500 years, you would understand where I’m coming from.”
“Well, I haven’t. If you had lived like I had for the last, uh…” she quickly did the math in her
head, “year and a half, then you would understand where I’m coming from.”
“...Lumi?”
She huffed, “What?”
“I love you, but I think I just want some alone time.”
He always wanted alone time, it was as if that’s all he ever got. Despite her annoyance, she would
respect his wishes nevertheless. “Okay, sure,” she sighed and stood up, giving his shoulder a quick
squeeze, “but promise me that you’ll still be here tomorrow.”
Aether looked up at her. Lumine smiled down at him. He forced himself to smile back, though
she could not see an ounce of joy in his face.
“I love you.”
All Lumine could do was sigh, “I love you too, Ae. Goodnight.”
“Yeah… Goodnight, Lumi.”
He stayed outside while she returned to the house. She found herself far too exhausted to stay up
with the family as she usually would, though Eva had a myriad of other lectures prepared for her
and Ajax’s ears - she would be offended about the wedding until the day she died.
With Aether’s humorless smile still in her mind, she made her way up the stairs and to Ajax’s
bedroom. He was already there, laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling as if it held the secrets
to the universe. Lumine shut the door behind her quietly.
He did not quite expect a tiny blonde girl to pounce on him and dig her teeth into his shoulder, but
he wasn’t exactly complaining. The instant Lumine straddled him, his hands went to her waist, and
his lips broke out into an uncontrollable smile, “You’re in a good mood.”
“Not at all,” she lifted her head, her hair falling down around her face and framing her cheeks,
“Aether’s being weird and cryptic and he won’t listen to reason.”
“Then why are you biting me? Shouldn’t you be downstairs arguing with him?”
She should, but she was far too exhausted to play a mental game of chess with her brother - she
couldn’t even see the board. “I need something to bite when I’m frustrated.”
Of course she did. It was actually a very good method of emotion control, he should try it
sometime. Sighing, Ajax brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, “Teucer’s mad at me.”
She frowned, “Aether’s mad at me too, I… uh, I think.”
“Just give it time, they’ll both calm down,” he shrugged, his hand now cupping her cheek, “It just
sucks for the time being.”
Lumine could understand why Teucer would be a bit mad. If Ajax had done what she assumed he
did, admitting to his lies, then she would be mad too. Leaning down to rest her head on his chest,
she listened to his heartbeat.
He was still breathing. Lumine wanted to say that his heart sped up when she pressed herself
against him, but she couldn’t quite tell. She felt his fingers tighten on her hips in response, as if he
was determined to keep her there.
This really was happiness. Silence and soft breaths, contentment that brought both peace and
excitement at once.
“What all did you tell Teucer?”
She felt his chest rise up and down with a heavy sigh, “Not enough, I think. It was too hard to get
some of it out, so I’ll just write him a letter… What did you and Aether talk about?”
Destroying Teyvat. Just sibling stuff.
“Nothing, really. I just think he’s lonely.”
“The Abyss is a lonely place, he’s probably had a lot of time to think.”
He would know. The very thought brought Lumine to the next order of business, “So, hey, what
about your Foul Legacy?”
She lifted her head to catch Ajax glaring at the ceiling once again. His hands remained on her
hips, but his mind was entirely elsewhere. He had to take a deep breath and close his eyes before
answering her, “I tried it just a few minutes ago. It won’t… uh, do anything.”
“It won’t do anything?” She asked in confusion.
“The Foul Legacy itself, Aether said that it was a separate entity that I was drawing power from,
and now that he’s used it to heal me I no longer have a hold over it.” He grimaced to himself at the
thought, “He said that I’ll never be able to use it again.”
Lumine sat up, legs still straddling him as she buried her hands into the sides of the mattress to
look down at him, “But if he used its energy or life source or whatever to heal you, doesn’t that
mean it might still be a part of you? Just not as a separate thing?”
“Maybe,” Ajax blinked in thought, “he did say there would be weird side effects.”
“...Are you suddenly going to turn into a hilichurl?”
“I might, would you still love me then?”
“Only if you’re a cute hilichurl.”
“That’s so vain, Lumi.”
“Actually,” she ran a finger down his jaw, smiling all the while, “you’d be much cuter as a
hilichurl.”
It was true. Nevertheless, she was very suddenly flipped onto her back. Her wrists were pinned
down and his legs were on either side of her, keeping her flat on the bed. “You’re so mean, I
should punish you.”
Despite the shock of instantly being flipped over and rendered useless, Lumine gasped in fake
horror, “Oh no! Whatever shall I do?”
Childe only smiled innocently, “You’ll do whatever I tell you to do.”
That’s exactly what she liked to hear, “And what is your first order of business, My Lord?”
He shifted so her wrists were encompassed by one of his hands. With his now free hand, he
trailed it down her pinned arm, revelling in her shivers.
Until he got to her most ticklish spot, and proceeded to wreak absolute havoc.
“What the hell are they doing up there?”
Eva glanced up at the ceiling in disgust. She threw back yet another shot of fire water, before
slamming her glass onto the table. Lumine’s laughter echoed through the walls and down the stairs.
Michial’s cheeks turned pink the second he heard the familiar sound - he felt as if this same thing
had happened before.
“I didn’t know our son had it in him,” he stuttered, “good for him, I guess. Good for them both.
They’re married now, so…”
So nothing. The laughter stopped instantaneously, followed immediately by a very loud bang as
something heavy hit the floor.
Silence followed.
“Should we go check on them?” Michial whispered.
“No,” Eva could only sigh, “let them have their fun.”
It was the end of what felt like an era, despite only lasting for several weeks at the most. Aether
wasn’t entirely sure about time anymore, it was confusing.
He watched the house in the distance. The trees swayed against the wind, the stars above twinkled
as a reminder of what he could not have. And Aether knew, then, that Lumine would be broken
when she awoke.
With a sigh and a prayer to whatever God decided to listen to him, Aether touched the teleport
waypoint.
“Goodnight, Lumi. I really do love you.”
It was time for him to go.

Epilogue
Chapter Notes
Aether gave her three days, then ripped himself away. It left Lumine with a scar bigger than ever
before.
Fortunately, she felt better when distracted. And Teyvat was filled to the brim with distractions.
The stars truly did have a place for her, even when she felt lost without her brother at her side.
“Uh, Paimon thinks that this guy is a bit odd…” And Paimon was right. Paimon usually was,
though Lumine had not realized that until after they were separated. When Lumine returned to
Liyue after battling the Tsaritsa, Paimon had rightfully informed her of her own stupidity. This,
too, was a wonderful distraction.
And this guy was a bit odd. He rambled on and on about Barbara, her fan club, how he wanted to
bring her gifts or wait outside her window. Over his shoulder, Lumine caught Venti staring at her
with wide eyes, and a frantically shaking head. That signal answer enough.
“Hey,” she interrupted Albert’s adoring rambles, “please don’t do any of that. Ever. Like never
ever.”
He gasped in horror, “Really? But I mean, how do you even know? Do you have any experience
in that area?”
She did. And she also had Venti hiding in the bushes nearby, glaring daggers into this man’s back.
“As a girl, let me just say that none of that will ever work to get her attention in a good way.”
Albert put his hands on his hips and huffed, “Are you sure? Because I saw that weird Fatui guy
standing outside of your window last night reciting poetry to you, and you seemed to like it.”
She had desperately hoped that no one saw that. Lumine hadn’t even been aware that Childe
knew any poetry - she assumed that he was making it up as he went along. While Albert was
correct, that did happen, it was only because Childe was trying to make her smile after an
especially long and difficult day. He was good at that.
Floating at her shoulder, Paimon gripped Lumine’s dress until her little knuckles turned white.
She glared Albert down, “Just don’t do it! Don’t be weird!”
In the bushes, Venti rolled his eyes. That was one way to go about directing the affairs of his
people, but not quite how he’d do it, obviously. Albert huffed and stomped away as if a dark cloud
had taken form over his head.
Lumine’s gaze met with the anemo Archon’s as he approached across the pavilion. It was a
beautifully sunny day, though she found herself missing the cold breezes of winter. Venti was
bright, clapping and mildly tipsy. Nothing much had changed over the last several months. This
was a comfort.
“Bravo! No extra points for bluntness,” he put up a hand and shook his head, “but you got the
message across, so I’ll give it a pass. So… who’s next…”
There was a group gathering at the foot of the statue. Pencils and pens moved across sheets of
parchment, while students glanced up at each other to trade ideas. Lumine could count at least four
more people who looked as if they needed guidance in the ways of love and poetry.
Yet, Venti’s eyes fell on only one approaching figure. Long legs taking the stone steps two at a
time, a red scarf twisting and turning in the familiar breeze of Mondstadt. Paimon groaned in
annoyance the second she saw him - though everybody knew that she secretly adored him, he was
far less stingy about food than Lumine was.
“My friend,” the Archon put a hand on Lumine’s shoulder and grinned, “I think you’ve done
enough for the day. This is a festival of love, spend it with someone important to you.”
“You’re someone important to me, Venti.” She pouted.
“Yes, but you didn’t even invite me to your wedding. I’m a blast at weddings, you know.”
Nobody had been invited to her wedding. She swore she saw Zhongli sulking - as much as Zhongli
could sulk - when she and Childe announced their marriage. Nearly everybody they knew had
some complaint about how they decided to marry in a church in Zapolyarny during a mini-war.
Childe approached through the crowd. In one hand he held a bouquet of windwheel asters and
cecilias, and in the other was a rolled up parchment. As he stopped in front of Lumine, he promptly
offered the bouquet.
Paimon scoffed at her shoulder, “You always get her those flowers, mix it up a little!”
“There’s a wolfhook or two in there as well.” Childe laughed as he spoke. The sound carried on
the wind and made Lumine’s heart curl up in that odd way it always did when he was genuine. She
took the bouquet and held it to her chest - there was a wolfhook, he wasn’t lying.
“And for you,” Childe presented the cylinder of parchment to Venti, “please don’t be too harsh,
comrade, I’m an amatuer.”
“The pen is a mighty weapon too, Tartaglia. It surprises me that you’ve not mastered it.”
He only grinned, “I did stab someone with a pen once, but I don’t know if that counts.”
“I’ll accept it,” Venti peered at the parchment with a critical eye, “This is quite good, though you
could talk less about how the blood on her dress compliments her hair. Or how you almost killed
Huffman in her honor again.”
Lumine gasped, “Did you attack him again?”
“I was making a point,” Childe spoke slowly, hands in his pockets as if discussing the weather, “I
thought I saw him glance at you.”
“That’s terrible!” Paimon lectured, before grinning wildly, “You forgot to invite Paimon, you
know it’s her favorite hobby!”
“You’re both terrible!”
“This poem is terrible,” Venti scoffed, “you get a F- for this work.”
“I worked hard on that!”
“Work harder, then!”
Childe already worked quite hard. It was not easy avoiding the eyes of the Fatui subordinates
when Mondstadt was basically crawling with them. He wanted to take part in the festivities as best
as he could, without terrifying the locals by fighting Fatui diplomats in the streets.
It was a precarious existence, one Childe seemed to genuinely adore. He often stated that being
on the run from Teyvat’s largest military was far more exciting than being a Harbinger ever was.
All of these changes, all of these different circumstances. And they bring her to this moment,
where she holds flowers from her husband who may or may not have tried to kill her at one time.
Who betrayed his God for her. Who smiled at her like she was the lights in the sky at night.
All of these changes, and Aether had still chosen to leave her.
“Lumine,” Venti’s voice broke her from her thoughts. She forced a smile and glanced at him,
waiting for him to go on, “I heard about some treasure hoarders targeting a ruin affiliated with the
Abyss. I thought you might like to know.”
Childe’s expression turned serious, “I heard about that too. I was about to suggest that we go to
Liyue and check it out after the festival.”
“Do you think it might lead you to Aether?” Paimon asked.
She wasn’t entirely sure. Nothing seemed to ever lead her to Aether, he had disappeared like a
wisp in the wind. And he wanted it that way, it seemed. If he wanted to see her, to be at her side, he
would have stayed that night in Snezhnaya four months ago.
Unfortunately for him, though, Lumine was incredibly stubborn.
“Let’s try it and see. After the Windblume festival, of course.” She gripped her bouquet tighter
and took her place at Ajax’s side. He wrapped a lazy arm over her shoulder, while Paimon hung
off Lumine’s other arm.
They were a family in their own right, it was just missing her brother. After four months of
knowing how he’d left her, she was beginning to grow antsy with concern.
Childe noticed the thoughts passing over her face and began to rub a hand up and down her arm,
“You know, I heard something about the statue of the anemo Archon earlier.”
Venti lit up with mischievous curiosity, “Oh?”
Lumine glanced at Childe. He lifted his head to look up at Venti’s visage, the hands stretching out
above them and casting a shadow over the group. “Yep. I heard that Barbatos wears that hood
because he’s bald and is embarrassed about it.”
Venti’s expression fell flat, “You can see his hair right there!”
“I don’t see any hair.”
Lumine put a hand over her lips, giggling, “I don’t see any hair either. I think the rumors are true.”
“They are not and you know it!” Venti sighed heavily and closed his eyes, “But who am I to stop
how gossip naturally flows with the wind? I might just spread some gossip myself, perhaps about
the infamous ex-Harbinger and how he’s going bald.”
Childe ran his fingers through his hair, just to check, “I’m not going bald.”
“Neither is Barbatos, my friend. But a rumor’s a rumor…”

Like the rumors of the Tsaritsa’s power and how it had waned. The rumors of the political unrest
in Snezhnaya, how there had already been several attempts on the Tsaritsa’s life in the last several
months. Or the rumor of how the mysterious traveler planned to get into Inazuma somehow.
It was all true, of course. But Lumine didn’t quite feel like shouting those things from the
rooftops. And she had to keep Childe from doing so as well - he liked to brag about his first step
towards world domination.
Everything had settled into place. She was married, Paimon was well fed, the fortune teller in
Liyue had moved in with Mona, no longer tortured by the Fatui.
All was well.
Except for one very important thing.
Lumine squeezed Childe’s hand, sending him a smile she knew he’d see right through. He
squeezed hers in return.
Venti, while not oblivious in the least, tore between the couple and threw his arms over their
shoulders. Lumine’s shoulder, more-so, he had trouble reaching Childe. “Listen, you two! You can
be all responsible and cute after the festival! Right now, it’s time to have fun! Write more poetry,
go pick more flowers!”
Childe cast the archon a flat glance, “And if we don’t?”
“I’ll dump another pound of dandelion seeds on you.”
He shuddered at the thought. The poor boy was still traumatized.
Lumine forced herself to ignore the gnawing worry in the back of her mind. She wanted to
investigate that abyss ruin, hoping that it might lead her to Aether. He was the last missing piece of
this puzzle.
And besides that, she needed to find some way into Inazuma. The Tsaritsa could not get her hands
on any more of the archon’s gnoses.
“Hey,” Childe interrupted her thoughts, “we’ll leave first thing tomorrow. For now, let me take
my cute wife on a date.”
“Your cute wife? Who’s your cute wife?”
“Her name is Lumine, she’s super short and adorable-“
“Excuse you! I’m terrifying!”
He snorted, “Yes, you terrify me daily.”
She did not, but that's besides the point.
The Windblume festival was a good distraction, though she could not help the waves of guilt she
felt for wasting time on her search. She knew Aether was alive, she just had to find him.
After the festival, they would go to Liyue, perhaps have tea with Zhongli, avoid the Fatui more. It
would be business as usual.
But she was doing it all with Ajax at her side, now. He made her feel as if she could climb the
tallest mountain, and jump into the open air with no problem.
“Looks like poetry isn’t my strong suit,” Childe mused, sighing as he watched Venti pull away
and begin critiquing his writing, “I’m much better at fighting.”
With their upcoming journey to the Abyss ruins, he might get the chance to do just that.
“I hope we find him there.”

Childe’s expression softened. He buried his nose in her hair and closed his eyes. “I hope he
doesn’t try to take you away from me.”
As if that could ever happen. It was rare for two constellations to merge as theirs did, even if their
stars were still dim and the future unknown. All Lumine knew was that pulling her away from
Childe would be like separating the moon from the ocean.
“First, we check out that ruin, and then we go to Inazuma. Okay?” She asked. Childe nodded with
his face still buried in her hair. Paimon only groaned and rolled her eyes as she usually did when
faced with their affection, it had gotten much worse as of late.
Before the couple could take their leave, the sound of footsteps rushing towards them broke the
reverie like glass. Venti glanced up with wide eyes, “Well, all good things must come to an end.
See you at the tavern tonight?”
Lumine cast him a flat glance, “Maybe, but we’re not paying for you again.”
They most likely would. He laughed, and disappeared with the wind. Across the pavilion, local
citizens gaped with wide eyes at the group of Fatui stomping across the stones.
“There he is!”
The familiar sound of a Snezhnayan accent, the black coats and the weaponry. Childe grinned and
stood up straight at the sight.
“Well, looks like-”
“No,” Lumine interrupted, “you are not fighting them here, we’re already dealing with the fines
from your last battle.”
He sighed, defeated, “Fine. I’ll lead them out of the city.”
It was the same group of Fatui that always seemed to chase them down. True to the Tsaritsa’s
word, the Alekseev family was safe, but Lumine and Childe rarely were.
He pressed a swift kiss against her cheek, then waved at the approaching attackers, “Ready to
go?”
Lumine slipped her hand into his. It was a comfort to have him, even if they were constantly on
the run.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Brother,
This has to be about the 20th letter I’ve tried to send you. I don’t think any of them have gotten to
you, since you were always good about responding to mail. But Childe and I can’t find an opening
to the Abyss anywhere, and the buildings that are supposed to be connected to the Abyss are all
abandoned, but the treasure hoarders are planning something for this one ruin in Liyue, as I’m
sure you know. Maybe I’ll see you there? Nevertheless, it feels good to write to you. I know you’re
alive now, at least, even if you don’t want to see me.
It’s been four months since we last saw each other. It feels like an eternity. You disappeared that
night, and I’ve not seen a trace of you since. All I want is something, just tell me you don’t hate me
for making the choices I did. I want you to understand me, just like you want me to understand
you.
Childe and I are heading to Inazuma soon, we’ll probably be stuck there for a while, here's hoping
his vision doesn’t get taken. Anyway, I’ll try giving this letter to an Abyss Mage and see if it’ll take
it to you. I’m really out of options at this point.
I love you. I love you so much it hurts.
P.S. if Childe says ‘hey girly, hold still’ one more time, your sister might become a murderer, and
you won’t have a brother in law anymore. Keep my sanity in your prayers.
- Lumine
Chapter End Notes
Thank you all for the support, I've had a rocky relationship with this fic, but I'm happy
to finish it. And I'm happy to have met so many of you wonderful people through my
experience of writing this. All I have to say is that if you want to start writing, then go
for it, you never know what may happen. I had no idea what would happen when I
started Vixere, and now look at us. Stay safe, and thanks for reading my silly stuff!
Much love, Mitsu
End Notes
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Vixere

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/28094556.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Thank you for giving Vixere a chance!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Watch your back.

P.S. you’re a bitch

“Well, she’s not wrong.”

“See that you do that.”

“Right, as always, Master Childe.”

How little he knew.

“What? No. Never.”

“We’re only a mile away, of course I’m goin-”

“Lumine is going to protect Rex Lapis!”

“Oh, yeah I did.”

“A statement of Lumine’s stupidity!”

A statement nonetheless. “She’s not so scary.”

“She’s terrifying! She froze Paimon!”

“Oooh," her eyes widened, "Lumine is right… It might be someone scarier!”

It might. “I can handle it.”

“Oh, you’ll send them another goofy letter?”

Precisely. “Was it really that goofy?”

“Just don’t do it again!”

“Not in the least. Sorry.”

“Would you like to know what your stars say?"

Lumine stiffened, “I don’t have any mora on me.”

“I’m really oka-”

“Do you know of constellations, traveler?”

“Who doesn’t even know you exist.”

“Well... I don’t know where he is.”

“Girl, really, I can see your futur-”

“Right, for the fourth time in a row.”

“I-It’s only 3,000 a minute!”

If only they knew. Kids these days.

His smile grew. He tilted his head, staring, “Oh?”

As their boss, it was his duty to put an end to the manipulation.

He’ll bite. She caught him, he’d allow it.

“Sure, granny. How does it work?”

The answer came to her like an arrow in the back.

“Tomorrow, you will meet your soulmate.”

“S-Sorry, Master Childe…”

It was almost a threat.

“We’ll see about that.”

“How exciting, I’m happy for you Master Childe.”

“...Yes, Master Childe.”

He would most certainly not meet his soulmate tomorrow.

my playlist that inspires this fic

See the end of the chapter for notes

They were incredibly terrible gossipers.

“Oh, good idea.”

Pervert. Pervert? He hadn’t even taken one glance at her ass.

“Mister pervert is lucky that Lumi took Paimon’s knife away!”

“Yeah! To cut you with!”

“Y-Yes… to stab mister pervert with, of course.”

“I don’t either. It’s just a rumor.”

“A… rumor about an Archon wearing a hat to cover up his baldness?”

He mused for a moment, “I think even Archons have insecurities.”

She simply did not know any better.

“Mister pervert gave it to Paimon, give it back! It’s hers!”

She waved the dagger in front of her, “I am not above murder!”

“Neither am I, that’s something we have in common.”

Time to ditch this man, whoever and whatever he was.

And besides, she was running in the opposite direction of safety.