Chapter Text
It’s the way he talks. She held suspicion of him at first, him being a Fatui Harbinger and all. I’m just keeping an eye on him! , she’d reasoned to herself as she watched him atop the rooftops of Mondstadt. Well, she wasn’t supposed to be up there but Jean would understand! If she thought he was doing something suspicious, she’d confront him.
It started with asking what he was doing, but with each encounter she stuck around longer. He started opening up about hobbies and family back home. Over time, she grew softer on him, approaching him on the roads of Mondstadt and grabbing his hand, chatting away familiarly. She can feel the stares on her back but she knows him better than that, just like with Eula.
When he finally confronts her about them, she assures him that there’s nothing to worry about.
It’s the way he fights. One of the kids in Mondstadt had managed to wander out unsupervised, unbeknownst to her. In the midst of taking out a hilichurl camp nearby, she’d heard a cry for help. Recognising the child’s voice she raced to the scene, but she wasn’t the first one there. From the trees she watched as Childe slaughtered each hilichurl in a swift methodical fashion, blades of water in each hand as he took all of them out. His style of fighting is like a dance, she thinks.
The kid is behind him, turned away to face a tree. But they don’t look scared at all, even though this Harbinger just killed all those hilichurls in cold blood. “Mister, are the scary monsters gone?” The child asks with their eyes still closed.
Childe just smiles and lets the child open their eyes, patting them on the head. “They’re gone. Good job, you were very brave.” From Amber’s spot hidden in the trees, she watches intently. His smile is more genuine and filled with warmth than any of his that she’s ever seen.
It’s the way his eyes look like the deep ocean. Whenever she stares at them, she can’t help but get lost in those dark vortexes, void of light. Amber feels like she’s being pulled into a whirlpool, but she doesn’t feel the need to struggle, to escape. There’s something sinister hidden behind his dark gaze, but Amber doesn’t feel endangered by it.
Those deep, blue eyes pull her in. They enrapture her in a story he’s hidden away. One that she can’t comprehend but that doesn’t stop her from trying. Because she wants to know him. The Harbinger from Snezhnaya, the brother to his siblings, the child to his parents.
“Anything wrong Amber? You’ve been staring for a while. Am I that handsome?” Childe grins, and Amber feels like he’s gotten a lot more comfortable even teasing her. She’s glad that he’s lightening up, but at the same time…
“As if! I was just thinking how I’ll fix your aiming posture!” She snaps back, but there’s no real bite behind her words. There are feelings she’s starting to notice, the same ones that she once felt for Eula. She never expected this could happen, and she’s worried about the consequences and the what ifs .
He ruffles her hair and messes up her headband, and they’re laughing and smiling and chatting as usual again.
It’s the way he’ll only ever think of her as a little sister, yet she still can’t help falling for him.