Chapter Text
Aether slowly walks toward the snow path of Dragonspine. He jolted a bit when seeing something fall in front of him. His eyes narrowed when seeing a certain fatui harbinger lying on the snow in front of him. He blinks for several times with an expressionless eyes before looking at his servants.
“Do you want us to kill him?”
“Leave him be, I'll deal with him, proceed our plan” he said to the Abyss Mage. They nod and hover away. He looks at the sky and sees a dark cloud beginning to form and he knows it’ll be a snow storm soon. He drags the man by grabbing his scarf and proceeds to the nearest cave. He let him lay on the snow while he sits a bit far from him. He already gave him several food and healing. He ventures a bit deep to the cave, trying to find a source of heat. When he sees a campfire not far from the harbinger, he comes back and drags him again by grabbing his scarf. He places him near the campfire while he himself sits a bit far from him. He can hear the sound of a snow storm in the entrance of the cave. He curls up and places his both hands on his knees while looking at light flickers on the fatui harbingers face. He feels the snow ruffle and his eyes slowly open. Aether approaches him as he opens his eyes. He blinked once before asking.
“Lumine?” he asks. Aether sighs before looking away.
“Sorry, you’re wrong” he said without any hint of expression in his tune. The harbinger sits up and looks at him closely. Their faces are similar but their hair and clothes are different. It reminds him that the traveler is looking for her lost brother.
“Are you Lumine’s brother?” he asks but Aether doesn't answer and only looks at him. He stands up and walks away from him. “Wait” he tries to stand up but his wound is pretty deep and he groans at his pain. Aether stops and looks at him with a frown look saying are you dumb? You’re hurt.
“Then, answer me” he exhales as he tries to hold his pain in his body.
“You’ll find out soon enough” he answered before turning away and walking.
“Where are you going?” the harbinger asks as he stops and turns to him.
“You need something comfy to warm yourself, I’ll search the area more” he said before continuing to walk. He found several abandoned camps inside the cave and he took their tents to be used as a blanket. Better than nothing . He walks back to where he left the harbinger and sees the harbinger already sleeping. He covers him with the cloth while he circles another cloth on himself to remain warm.
Snow storms in dragonspine can last for days, even weeks, lucky for him. He occupied himself to tend the eleventh harbinger’s wound. They talk about anything to kill time, mostly the harbinger is the one that talks about his day in Liyue. How he met his sister, deceiving her and getting deceived by someone himself. Aether listens to his story carefully as he tries to seek any merit information about Fatui. They’re his enemies after all but the harbinger in front of him didn’t know yet. But he really told him the outer layer of the story, not the details. As expected of a Fatui, he thought from his mind. But he learns that the Geo Archon is dead after being assassinated by someone in the Rite of Descendance. He was so full in his thought that he didn’t notice the harbinger looking at him closely.
“You really are her brother” he mumbles. It snaps him from his mind and he looks at the harbinger. The harbinger didn’t ask more after he shut him down when they first met, he thought that the harbinger already dropped it. He looks away with a sigh.
“I’m not going to answer that, you can think whatever you want” he denies before looking at him. “How are you feeling?” he asks and that question
“I’m fine”
“Good” Aether said before standing up and stretching his arm up. “I heard you like to battle, why don’t we have one now?” he turned to him after putting his hand down. Aether can see a bit of sparkle in his eyes. He heard about him, he’s a mad man that likes to battle, especially a strong opponent. He doesn't really know how strong the eleventh harbinger is and this is a great time. they‘re stuck in the cave with nothing to do anyway. They’ll run off topic to talk if they keep talking while waiting for the snow storm to end.
“Bring it on, resting for several days bore me” the harbinger instantly stands up in one movement and looks at him with a smirk. Aether leads him deep to the cave where he remembers there’s an area big enough to fight.
“We can fight here” Aether said as he looked at the harbinger between his shoulders before walking to the center of the area. The harbinger looks around with a smirk. This is a bit small but not bad. He follows him to the middle but opposite than the blonde male.
“Are you sure you can keep up with me?” he asks as he summons his hydro blade in his both hands. Aether summons his sword and points it to him.
“You can do whatever you want. I doubt you can kill me” he said to him.
“We’ll see” the harbinger said while he stands guard and looks at him. The harbinger’s the first one to launch his attack. Aether blocks all of his attack effortlessly, the harbinger smirks as he changes his weapon to spear and attack him again. The otherworldly is concentrating to study his attack pattern. He doesn’t really care if he loses or not, he doubts that the harbinger knows who he really is since he just met and he didn’t do a single suspicious thing. But the harbinger doesn't really have an attack pattern, when he thinks he already knows it, the harbinger changes up his pattern. After several long relays, he sees a hint of exhaustion in the harbinger. Not that he blamed him, he’s still recovering.
When his stance really messes up, Aether knocks him down by attacking his legs. The harbinger fell to the ground and he instantly pinned his body with his and pointed his sword to his neck.
“You lose” he said to him. The harbinger only chuckles at his word.
“You’re lucky I'm not fully healed” he said with a smug smile. He feels his chest tighten when he finally sees him clearly. He is good looking.
“Maybe” Aether finally said before standing up and letting the harbinger rise. He even holds out his hand to pull the harbinger stands up.
“But I'm impressed, you’re strong” he said with a cheeky smile on his face. The otherworldly a bit surprised before looking away. Ignoring his thumping heartbeat he answers.
“Thanks”
---
After that one ‘training’ session, the harbinger somehow gets addicted and keeps asking for more even though he is recovering. Aether doesn’t mind anyway. He can learn his attack pattern for later dates, when he faces him in the real battle. He really can kill him right here, right now, really. He can even kill him when they first meet but he has a plan for the harbinger. Best to keep him alive for now.
“This is great, I can do this all day” the harbinger said happily. Aether smiles a little at him while closing his eyes. If only he knows, he’ll put his hydro sword in his throat. But, Aether enjoys this little moment with him and he didn’t expect it. He looks at his palm as he’s hearing his loud heart beat. His heart beat becomes unsteady whenever he sees him, after the training session they had. He sighs as he tries to keep it down. He needs to kill his emotion or his plan will not work at all. He closes his eyes as he tries to calm and shut down his emotion.
“Hei, are you okay?”
His eyes snap open and look at the harbinger. He looks at him with concern in his expression.
“I’m fine, only tired” he lied before looking away.
“Now that i think about it, we haven't’ introduced ourselves'' the harbinger said to him. He doesn't really need to know his name, he basically knew about him from his servant but saying his name will not hurt.
“Aether” he said shortly.
“I’m Childe, nice to meet you” he said as he held out his hands. The otherworldly narrowed his eyes as he remembered that wasn’t the name his servant told him about the eleventh harbinger. But from their description, the person in front of him is the eleventh harbinger.
“Aether?” His words snap him back to reality. He looks at the hand presented to him before taking it in his hand.
“Nice to meet you” he said while looking at him before instantly releasing it.
Their day is filled with training and talking when they’re resting. It almost makes him forget about all his plans for this world. He did wish this to continue but good days will have to end someday and today is the day. He’s been keeping an eye on the storm and today, it finally cleared out. They’ll be behind schedule since he’s trapped here but he trusts his servants would do what he said. He looks back at the cave where he left the harbinger that is still sleeping near the campfire. It’s best if he left without a word, he thought and he walked toward the entrance.
“Aether?”
His steps stops and he turns to looks at Childe approaches his. The harbinger smiles when seeing the weather is clear.
“It’s already cleared” he said while looking at the view they haven’t seen for a while. Aether only nods while looking at the same view.
“I need to go” Aether said before walking away.
“Let’s meet again sometime”
Aether turns to see his cheeky smiles at him. He smiles a bit and nods before walking away. Childe looks at him until he disappears from his sight.
“Childe!”
He turns to look at the traveler and her companion. After seeing Aether for so long, he seems weird to see the traveler in front of her.
“Are you okay?” Lumine asks as she approaches him.
“I’m fine, look I'm healed completely” he said as he raises his arms to show her that he is okay. He is sure the traveler is worried about him since he just fell from a pretty high altitude while protecting her from a Matachurl’s attack.
Not far from there, on the top of the cliff, Aether observed them with his several servants.
“Why did you let him go, sir?” his servant asks as he holds out his hand toward them.
“Because someone has feelings for him” he said as he looked at her sister smiling at the harbinger. Creature like you wouldn’t understand” he said coldly as he clenches his hand as if grabbing them with his hand. That’s for ruining my plan with Dvalin, sis.