Chapter Text
Gaming’s head snaps towards the sight of what he thought was something moving. Mere moments after the trees nearby the area he was eyeing sway slightly, as if something had crashed into it. He stands from his spot next to the near smoldering fire, his client already long asleep from the extended amount of walking they’d done that day.
The dancer contemplates. Option 1: He goes to investigate the sound, discovers its nothing, comes back and comes back only to find he's been robbed- not ideal. Or Option 2: He stands his spot, eventually falls asleep, and wakes up only to find out he's still been robbed. Also not ideal, but safer .
“Man-Chai!” Gaming looks towards his suanni companion, crouching down to look it in its eyes. He sparks to light. “Keep watch for a moment, can you? Ima get a few zzz’s to make sure i'm still big and strong before we continue okay?” The suanni barks and nuzzles into Gamings hand lovingly, an agreement to his terms.
Gaming smiles and gives his companion a few sweet pats and scratches as it nuzzles into him. “That's a good boy Man-Chai! Aren't you?” He whispers with a small chuckle, careful not to wake up the delivery man. The pyro user sits down fully, leaning back on one of the large rocks, Gaming lets his eyes flutter into a sleep, he keeps steady- one hand near his claymore just in case.
--
Freminet watches wearily from over the cliff again, silently thanking his archon, or maybe he should be thanking the tsaritsa.. Whatever, point is that the guard is sleeping and his opportunity to strike is here. Not to mention he still has an extra few hours to spare before dawn comes, it's perfect. If all goes to plan, he can get the cargo safely to the pond and underwater without any more casualties, bloodshed too. He hopes especially to avoid spilling the blood of innocent people. Everything is set up, now its just a matter of completing his task without any more issues
The blonde slowly pushes himself up from his odd sitting position, letting out a sharp breath as his injured leg tightens its muscles. He sighs and stomps his injured leg a few times, he winces each time but by the tenth stomp it feels only like a light bruise. He can focus now.
Walking down the short and muddy path in small measured steps, Freminet notices the outlines of a moving glow pacing around the camp. He remembers back to the now sleeping guard, right. He had some sort of pet with him; that must be it. He looks forward to the pacing creature. Damn.. how's he gonna distract that thing.. Freminet thinks idly before going into his bag and pulling out a few wind up clock-meka gadgets. These should be enough to deter it away from the carrier..! The diver winds up the first two toys and gives them a nice throw to the backside of the camp, a moderate thud is heard soon after; the creature perks up and immediately runs to the source of the noise. Well that's one problem solved .
With the pet out and around the other side of the hill, Freminet opts to put on his diving helmet and moves quickly, not to mention quietly, up to the base of the wooden stairs. He sneaks up past the sleeping cargo carrier, pausing for a short moment before taking out a small syringe- he inserts it into the man's neck quickly- Just to make sure he stays asleep . Freminet reminds himself, he tip toes over to the small pile of crates. The blonde picks one up cautiously, their small, light too, good. He continues inspecting the boxes; almost missing the shift of air around him, he flinches to the direction of the guard- gone from his spot near the fire. Then where-” Is there something I can help you with?”
The diver lets out a “tch” turning around quickly just to be face to face with the edge of the large claymore, he can feel the heat of the guards pyro vision infused with the weapon. Freminet’s eyes flick up to meet with the ones of the guard and-
He stills. But just for a moment.
He looks the other- boy, probably around his age- up and down. Neon reds and yellows stand out from the pitch blacks and blues of the rest of the boy's outfit along with the night sky, his hood is up. The face on it resembles that of the pet he sent off earlier. He eyes the hazel orbs staring back at him, the brown and red hair and wait-
A small beat of recognition
“The wushou dancer from last lantern rite..” The diver mouths a whisper
Said dancer huffs and points the sword again, “Care to repeat that?” He questions, looking at the mysterious boy. Fontainian, definitely. Helmet is creepy as hell. Probably the reason that tree swayed earlier- his thoughts confirmed by a quick glance at the boy's shin, bloody and bandaged- looks like he did it in a rush too.. Gaming lowers his sword slowly lifting his other hand as if trying to sooth a wild animal.
“Hey.. i'm not sure who you are now, but i'm sure we can talk thi-” The dancer doesn't get to finish his sentence. The boy drops and does a quick leg sweep, Gaming falls back with a thud and a grunt.
The pyro user tries to grab onto his weapon- it’d been kicked away by the guy- Gaming’s eyes flick up quickly to the stranger, he's met with the boy's own claymore, he's sweating, heaving but Gaming isnt paying attention to that.. Because he swears he feels a breath catch in his throat.
The longsword is merely an inch from his own face. It should be terrifying but nonetheless, Gaming can't help but stare, fingerless gloves grip the handle of the sword. It's cold, like a chill in the water , the dancer's eyes are drawn to the bright blue on the side of the boy's thigh.. A vision, cryo. Gaming looks back up, the unnerving glow of the helmet meets him instead of a pair of eyes. He snaps back to reality.
“You-!”
The masked stranger quickly looks up, the edges of the sun are peeking up over the horizon, it’d be beautiful if- the stranger's blade is shoved right beside Gaming’s hand. And suddenly staying still doesn't seem like such a bad idea. “Hey so-” The stranger crouches without thought and puts a finger against the boy's mouth. “Shh..” He hears faintly, on the verge of opening his mouth again before-
A kick to the gut. Literally. Gaming recoils with a cough and the stranger moves just as quickly another kick to the side, the guy uses his stuck sword as leverage.. The pyro user coughs again. And the stranger gets to work, quickly unsummoning his sword and going for the boxes. He picks them all up at once with ease, incredible .. No-! The stranger makes a B-line down the stairs towards a path forward from the camp.
Gaming coughs once more- but pushes himself up, running after the guy. “Hey! You! Come back here!” The dancer yells after the stranger. He catches up to the boy just as he's stuffing the crates into a net and throwing it into the water of the nearby pond.
“No!” Gaming yells again- doing one final lurch at the stranger, tackling him to the ground.
Freminet grunts and without thinking kicks. He regrets it immediately when his bandaged shin comes into contact with one of Gaming's accessories. He winces but kicks again making the other boy grunt, Freminet manages to get one more good kick in, before getting a foot in between him and the guards stomach. He pushes his leg back, and the brunette falls back. The diver takes that as his sign and kicks up dirt with a cough- making quick work of diving into the pond, grabbing the net of crates and disappearing into the deep blue of the pond.
Gaming gasps. That's not good…
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Freminet manages to get back to the house of hearth without any more casualties. He limps through the front door holding tightly onto the net, dragging the crates behind him. He's tired, so tired.. Then-
“Freminet!! Is that you?” A voice calls from the main hall.
Before he knows it, a pop of red and greyish purple is hugging him tightly. “Freminet! There you are! Father said you were out on an assignment but didn't say what time you’d be back-! Last anyone saw you it was just past dusk and-” The magician pauses and takes a good look at his little brother, then looks him back in the eye
…
“Lynette!!! Grab the first aid! And tell Father that Freminet is back- he’s completed his assignment!” Lynette's ears twitch down for a moment but does as he says. Freminet ends up in a lecture for the time he’s being bandaged up. When he finally gets back to his room a small collection of meka parts and cook books lay on his bed. The diver smiles softly at the gifts before moving them to his desk to get some proper shut eye to make up for being out all night.
.----
Meanwhile back in Liyue, Gaming spent the first few days recovering and apologizing to everyone at work before the Marechaussee phantom back in Fontaine got in contact with the Liyue Milleth to inform them of the possible dealings that had been happening, long story short. Gaming got off on “You didn't know the stuff you were guarding was a crime, so you get off this time”
Which is great and all.. But, Gaming thinks back, the dark almost elegant clothes, the reinforced metal boots, the creepy ass helmet, the voice … he's going insane- The guy attacked him for the geo lord's sake! And yet- is that why he did it? Because he knew what was being transported? Was he like some sort of vigilante fighting crime from the shadows?
He had no idea, but- “ruff!” the dancer looks down “Uh- Man-Chai, I was having a super dramatic moment buddy..” he laughs before noticing “Hey buddy, what's that in your mouth?” It takes a bit of wrestling and a whole lot of “Hey! Drop it!”s to finally remove the object from Man-Chais mouth but when he does.. Gaming inspects the wind-up toy.. It's beautiful .. He twirls it around his fingers, looking at every bolt and stained piece of metal. Gaming smiles and puts the toy in his pocket. He's definitely going back to Fontaine soon.