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The Liyue Lantern Rite festival was in full swing with the streets of the city packed with vendors and festival goers alike. A lively chatter filled the streets as friends, family, couples, and single individuals alike partook in traditional games and perused the numerous stalls looking for new specialty items. The city had never looked more alive, so much so that one wouldn’t have known it had been only a year since the “death” of their deity and the awakening and defeat of Osial. This was a true testament to the strength of the people of Liyue and how they were able to soldier on and continue even after all that adversity.
The sun was now halfway through its descent and the sky had been washed in dazzling hues of oranges, reds, and pinks. The full moon was also just beginning to become visible above the horizon, a darker toned sky following behind the silver artist. Liyue’s surrounding landscape had become a naturally, masterfully painted canvas, dotted with the small glowing specks of the festival lanterns.
As much as Childe would have loved to look around and admire the breathtaking scenery and the beautiful lanterns, he was far too busy hiding his sight in the crook of his lover’s neck. His long, well-toned arms were wrapped tightly around Liysara’s shoulders, holding the fabric of her festival gown in a white-knuckle grip. His legs were coiled snuggly around the back of her knees and his spine arched slightly outward, a consequence of the decision to level his body so he could hide his face. Childe would have been relentlessly chastising himself for how absurd he must look clinging to Liysara, especially since she was nearly a head shorter than him, but he was too nervous to think for long.
“Ajax.” His lover chuckled into a sigh. “If you stay like that, you’ll miss the sights.”
His grip on her tightened, pulling his chest further into hers and burying his face deeper into her neck.
“I’m fine here thank you.” He mumbled out.
Liysara sighed again shifting her hand, that had been gripping the Harbinger’s back, such that she was now gently rubbing circles into it. She felt Childe’s tense form relax just a tad, and he shifted his face just enough to peer out into the night air. All around them the wishes and dreams of the people of Liyue floated peacefully in the forms of expertly crafted lanterns. If he were a bit braver, Childe would have reached out to touch one, curious to know what desire it carried with it along the wind. Instead, he settled with moving his head so it was now laying sideways against Liysara’s chest, still pressed into it for comfort and security. The predictable pattern of his love’s heartbeat helped to assuage the anxiety further, making the whole scene so much calmer.
“There we are. You feeling better now?” Liysara asked, pulling her hand up to run her fingers through his ginger hair.
“Mmmm..” Childe answered as he shifted his gaze to her.
“Mmmm?” She repeated.
The Harbinger’s eyes held a flash of embarrassment and he quickly moved his focus to another floating lantern. He hated that their moment together was spent with him being so uncharacteristically quite due to his anxiety.
“Don’t be embarrassed Ajax. Everyone has something they are afraid of.”
“I’m not afraid.”
Liysara smiled softly, Childe was never one to admit his fears and anxieties. In fact, up until this point she didn’t think he had any outside of fearing for his family and the fear of Teucer suffering any childhood trauma; but those were normal fears that all felt at some point. That is probably why he was so embarrassed now; this was the first time she was seeing real anxiousness out of him and he probably thought it made him seem weak.
“Do you want me to bring us back do-”
“No.” He cut her off, releasing his grip a bit. In a seeming act of defiance, he shifted his form to gaze over Liysara’s side.
“I’m not…” Childe noticed how far the ground was below them. “..scared.” He added, turning rather quickly to focus his sight back on his lover.
He started involuntarily shaking a bit after that, bits of adrenaline rushing through him after he felt his stomach drop at the look he took. The fatui agent growled, he was being betrayed by his own body; it was advertising his concern to his lover like a huge painted sign. While he wouldn’t admit it, Childe was indeed afraid of heights. Well, more afraid of being that high up with nothing solid to stand on and nothing between him and the solid stone ground but air, and also having to completely rely on something else to keep him from falling. Not that he didn’t trust Liysara of course, no, he trusted her with his life and his family’s lives. He just didn’t like the feeling of not being in complete control, not being up in the air under his own power and abilities.
Liysara, archons bless her, had picked up on his tremors and rather than ignoring them she decided to address them.
“Love are you sur-mmm!” The words died on her tongue as Childe’s lips met hers.
In a sudden burst to prove to her that he wasn’t scared, and to show his anxieties they could go stuff themselves, he had mustered the courage to fully shift his body and engage the god in a kiss. In doing so his grip on her loosened a lot and the motion of his displacement, with gravity as it’s foul companion, pulled him back from their embrace. A moment of absolute panic swept over the Harbinger as for a split second he felt he was falling, and the desire to brace himself skyrocketed.
Childe yelped into their kiss, breaking it off suddenly as he struggled to regrip his companion; primal fright fueling him. Liysara also readjusted her grip in an attempt to accommodate her lover’s panicked motions and felt a sting in her heart as she caught the shock in his eyes. She shouldn’t have brought him up here. When she first approached Zhongli with the idea of carrying the Harbinger up with her for a small flight the archon was ecstatic; recalling how important bonding flights were to their ilk during the time before the war. While he knew Childe wasn’t a god, and therefore could not change his form for flight, he felt it would be especially romantic if the fatui was more dependent on her for this. He felt it might evolve into a more vulnerable moment between the two. Except, just like Liysara he had no clue Childe was afraid of flying.
When Liysara asked Childe about the flight he had immediately said yes, which she interpreted to mean all was well. However, as they started their ascent, she noticed he had gotten more quiet, more focused, and more uneasy. She had initially thought that that was normal for humans, they couldn’t fly after all and while Childe could hover in his Foul Legacy form that’s all it was, hovering. Now here they were, high above the streets and he was frozen in fear; she sure planned out a wonderful romantic moment for him, didn’t she?
As the Harbinger calmed down from his loss of composure, he pulled his head back from her neck and saw the downcast, guilt ridden look on her face.
“My Sunbeam?” He prodded, the burst of anxiety fading as her somber mood had taken his full attention.
She was quite and spared him a quick glance along with a half-baked smile, the only sound between them being the soft, feathery beats of the wings Liysara had summoned for this particular moment.
“I’m sorry Ajax, I had no idea you were so anxious when it came to heights.” She apologized, giving him a gentle squeeze. “Let’s go back down to the city.”
“No, Liysara please. It’s not that bad, I’ll get used to it.”
“But it’s making you uncomfortable. I don’t want you to feel that way.”
“Since when was facing a fear ever easy.” He shot her a half smile.
He found his stress slowly melting away at the prospect of absolving her worries by getting over this fear. A stoic confidence slowly collected within him and though he knew he would still be anxious he would be damned if he was letting it ruin their night.
“Ajax.” Liysara started.
“Hey, people consider facing their fears as a challenge. So that’s what I’ll do. I’ll consider it a challenge and you know how I love challenging myself.” He smirked at her, showing the first true look of confidence since they got up here.
Liysara couldn’t help but smile as well, his bright grins were always so infectious. “Are you sure my love?”
“Oh, I know I am!” He chuckled, nuzzling affectionately into her neck.
Liysara giggled at his display of boldness.
Their attention was drawn away from the moment by a desperate shout from the streets below.
“Xiao! Xiao please! Stop playing that instrument. You’re driving us crazy.” The begging pleas of a distressed Ganyu could be heard.
The couple glanced down curiously as Xiao elegantly bounded from rooftop to rooftop, playing the kazoo, followed close behind by Ganyu who was a bit panicked in her movements. Liysara felt a laugh rumble from Childe’s chest and she followed his gaze a bit father back to see Zhongli standing next to a fountain pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation.
“He isn’t going to be happy when he finds out it was you who gave Xiao that kazoo.”
“He isn’t going to find out, is he?” She gazed down as the smiling Harbinger and raised a brow.
“Not from me. Fatui’s honor.”
Liysara let out a boisterous laugh. “Fatui’s honor??” She repeated, the smile evident in her voice.
“Fine, pinkie promise.” Childe offered, slowly shifting an arm around so he could hold a pinkie up to her.
“Pinkie promise.” She smiled back, taking his pinkie with her own.
A gently floating lantern passed by, drawing their attention to it.
“You know Ajax, I don’t recall you sending off a lantern.” She looked from the light back down to him.
“I don’t need to.”
“Why is that?” She asked, genuinely perplexed.
“Because all I ever wished for is right here with me.” He answered, giving her a bright smile that radiated with love and adoration.
Liysara could only beam, a huge grin adorning her face as she gazed down at her lover. Larger clusters of lanterns were now floating by as more citizens had started letting them off, but neither of them noticed. With their foreheads pressed together the only thing they were truly focused on were each other.