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“Say hello to Anastasia, Lumine!”
“Um...Hello?”
“Don’t be shy! She’s one of my oldest friends! I’ve known her since...what...when I was 6 I think?”
“When we were 5, actually!”
“I...see…?”
Lumine honestly hadn’t known what to expect when Ajax had barged into their room after work, running over to her in excitement and babbling on about something she couldn’t make out. By the time she could fully process what was going on, she had already been sitting down at the bar closest to their house with Ajax, a girl she had never seen before in her life sitting by his side. A girl that Ajax was now claiming to be his childhood friend.
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you for so long! I’ve heard so much about you! Both from Ajax as well as his family!”
The girl who sat in front of her had short platinum hair, one that was even shorter than her own. Her skin was on the paler side which wasn’t all that surprising considering how Snezhnaya rarely ever saw the sun. Her eyes were a shade similar to Ajax’s: an ocean blue color that most Snezhnayans seemed to share in common. All in all, she was a Snezhnayan beauty.
“Hey, hey. Don’t jump at her like that. You’re going to scare her!” Ajax chuckled at how energetic his friend was being.
“Oh lay off it, there is no way she’d be scared by something like this if she can handle you of all people,” she rolled her eyes and snorted.
“Hey, I take offense to that!”
“Where is the lie though?”
“Well...I guess I can’t deny it…”
Lumine squirmed in her seat awkwardly as she silently watched the two argue and joke around with each other.
It was different from how Ajax would usually treat girls. Whenever he had to speak with a girl that wasn’t her, he usually acted fairly distant: being kind on the outside but uncaring on the inside. However, here he was now, genuinely enjoying having another girl for company.
She didn’t understand why but she felt her insides twist uncomfortably as she watched the two interact. It was a foreign feeling that made her feel disgusting. She hadn’t felt it anytime before now, but she wasn’t keen on experiencing it again any time soon. At all.
“Hey, remember that one time when we tricked Andrei into thinking that you fell into that hole when we went ice fishing?”
“Yeah! My brother really lost his shit back then!!!”
The two were stuck in a world of their own, speaking of past experiences that she wouldn’t have any way of knowing. It wasn’t like when his mother or siblings sat down with her to look over their old photo albums, sharing embarrassing stories and making fun of the man. No, she actually enjoyed it whenever they did that. Right now, all she could feel was...was...what exactly was this feeling? She struggled to put a word to it.
But her feelings aside...
She furrowed her brows into a frown. If they were going to sit around and take a walk down memory lane with each other, couldn't they have done it without dragging her all the way out here? What was the point in bringing her here in the first place? She had been doing perfectly fine back home, writing letters back to her friends back in Mondstadt. Was Ajax trying to insinuate something?
"Damn...good times, huh?"
"Definitely. We should get together again more often and go wreck a Hilichurl camp or something."
Oblivious to the war that was currently raging on in Lumine's head, Ajax continued to catch up with Anastasia. Though the two had kept in contact with each other using the letters they sent every so often, he hadn't gotten a chance to hang out with his childhood friend ever since his promotion to the Harbinger position. Letters could only convey so much, he had so many things he had been waiting to tell her.
"But really…it's nice finally getting to hang out with you again! It really reminds me of the old days when we used to hang out nearly every day. I really missed your stupid ass," Anastasia said with a wide grin as she threw an arm over his shoulders and pulled him in closer to her. An action that made Lumine unconsciously twitch. It didn't help that the ginger was a dense ass idiot who was ignorant to how she felt and returned the half hug with just as much enthusiasm as the girl.
"I missed you too, crazy woman. Now that the war is done and over with, we really should meet up more often," he said as a nostalgic smile filled his face. A smile that Lumine had never seen on the man before. And that fact made her heart drop a bit.
All this time, she had thought that other than the members of his family, she was the one who knew Ajax the best. However, this one moment with this girl, a girl she hadn't even known existed until now might she add, proved otherwise. How was she supposed to compete with a girl that had known him since he was a child? The girl had years of experience on her.
No longer able to handle the cheery mood between the two, Lumine abruptly stood up from her seat. "I should really get going, I promised Teucer that I would go ice fishing with him,” she lied before grabbing onto her bag and quickly leaving.
She didn’t even look back to check whether or not Ajax had followed after her.
Stupid Ajax.
Ajax blinked dumbly as he saw the blonde girl rush out of the building without another word.
He was pretty sure that the girl didn’t promise to go ice fishing with her brother. He hadn’t heard anything about it. There was no way that Teucer would’ve kept quiet about that, knowing how much Ajax loved to ice fish. The younger boy would’ve probably gloated to him about it all day - week - long.
So why had Lumine lied?
“Ajax, you’re a fucking idiot as usual I see,” Anastasia groaned from beside him.
“What did I do?” Ajax asked, not understanding what he had done to get a scolding from her.
“Nothing.”
“Wha-?”
“ Nothing. And that’s the problem!” she cried out, flailing her hands into the air in frustration.
“Has old age finally made you go senile? Are you high?” Ajax deadpanned, earning him a smack on the back of his head in response.
“To think. I thought you had finally got your dense ass straight when you told me you proposed to a girl,” Anastasia said as she tutted in disapproval.
“The fuck woman? What did I do to suddenly deserve your hate?” Ajax scrunched his face up into a frown.
“Everything. Now, go fucking run after your fiancé, you idiot.” She flicked him hard on his forehead. “I understand me because...well. I honestly don’t know the girl. But you ? You should notice these small things! The poor thing probably felt left out! Why’d you even bring her here if you were just going to do that? Is even time not a good enough cure for your idiocy?”
“I…” Ajax finally began to realize what his mistake might have been. “I just...wanted to introduce her to all the people that are close to me. I just wanted to share everything I had with her.”
Anastasia sighed as she pushed the boy out of his chair. “I know you didn’t have any ill intentions, but you really should go cheer her up. I don’t want her getting any wrong ideas about the two of us.”
Ajax looked down and gawked at his friend. “There is no way we’re in that kind of relationship!”
“I know, I know. But she doesn’t. So hurry up and reassure the girl. Jealousy is an ugly feeling, you know, and she doesn’t seem to have experienced it before,” she said as he shoo-ed her friend away.
Ajax hesitated and paused to look back at his friend for a moment, making sure that she’d be fine being left alone, before taking her advice and running after Lumine.
“That idiot never changes…” Anastasia sighed sadly once she was sure her childhood friend, her once long time crush and first love, was finally out of earshot.
“Lumi, are you ok?” Childe asked as he cautiously peeked into the room through the slight opening of the door.
“I’m perfect, thank you for asking. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to prepare. Can’t leave Teucer waiting, you know? Shouldn’t you be going back to hang out with your...friend?” Lumine asked in a voice that was snappier than usual. At this point, even Ajax could tell that she wasn’t in the greatest of moods.
“Are you...jealous?” he asked bluntly.
Shocked at the sudden question, Lumine quickly turned to look at the man who stood at the door. “What?”
“I know that you and Teucer don’t have anything planned,” he said.
“And what does that have to do with you thinking that I’m...jealous?” Lumine asked.
“You know,” he began as he opened the door a bit wider and entered the room. “There is nothing to be jealous about. She might have known me longer than you did, have more memories with me than you...but it doesn’t change the fact that I only see you in my eyes,” he said as he approached her.
“...That’s not what it seemed like back at the bar,” Lumine muttered quietly and stared at the floor in order to avoid his gaze.
“That’s only because I haven’t seen her in a while,” Ajax argued.
“Why did you even take me there?”
“Because I wanted to introduce you to my one and only childhood friend.”
“For what reason though?” she snapped back.
Ajax sighed before leaning his head onto her’s once he had gotten close enough. “I want you to know everything about me, and that includes showing you those who I hold dear to me. But you know?” he looked up at her and smiled. “You’re my one and only.”
Lumine huffed, a hint of red forming at her cheeks. “I’m not falling for that again.”
Ajax chuckled. “I think I’ve ‘fallen’ enough for the both of us.”
“...You’re the densest flirt I’ve ever seen.”
“Mm...I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“But really though...shouldn’t you be going back to her? I thought you hadn’t seen her in a while…”
“You matter more to me. She’ll understand. Shall we go ice fishing as you mentioned earlier to brighten your mood?”
“...Teucer won’t be happy about this.”
“As long as my Princess is happy, I can handle it.”