Work Text:
Childe ran up the stairs as fast as he could. He couldn’t waste any more time. Every second he idled around was another second closer to the end of his precious girlfriend’s life. Tripping on the stairs and impaling his kneecap on the stone, he disregarded the slight pain in his now bleeding knee and continued his frantic dash to find her.
It was supposed to be a normal day. Scout out some nearby ruins, harvest any Ruin Hunter pieces that could be found, repurpose and reforge them into new weaponry, rinse and repeat the following day. However, five minutes ago the scouts he sant ahead to investigate the ruins came back with news he wasn’t expecting to hear.
“Sir, the Traveler has been spotted in the ruins. She appears to be gravely injured.”
He didn’t leave them any time to add on to their sentence, as he was already in a mad dash to see how bad her condition truly was. He hadn’t seen nor heard from Lumine in about a month. Last he heard, she was supposed to be in Inazuma, investigating the whereabouts of her brother and his connection to the Abyss. The last thing he expected to hear was that she was back in Liyue- he’d expected he’d get like a card or letter informing him that she was coming; he would have gladly been there when she got off her boat.
As he reached the end of the stairs and entered the main plaza of the ruins, he scanned the environment for any trace of his love. All he could see was the remains of a once thriving civilization reduced to rubble. Was he tricked? Was she still safe?
As he continued looking around, his attention was attracted to a curious and dreadful sight- a trail of blood leading into the nearby building. Heart promptly racing, he swallowed nervously and pulled out his bow. If this was a trick, he wanted to be ready.
“Lumine? Are you in here?” He didn’t like how his voice wavered when he said her name. The sound of his voice echoed off the walls, with no response coming back to him. Just as he began to think it was all a trick, he heard a faint yet confident voice:
“...Chi- Childe…”
Eyes widening, he runs into the building, following the trail of blood that grew larger and thicker with every room he entered. Finally, he reached the last room in the house.
“Lumine, are you- oh my gods.”
As he rounded the corner, his bow fell to the floor with a thud as he stared in shock at his girlfriend. A massive bloody gash went from the top of her head all the way to her left cheek, just barely missing her eye. Her hair, her beautiful blonde hair, was now stained a horrible and dirty red. What could easily be a hundred cuts and bruises plastered her body, each of them bleeding a different concentration of her blood. Her dress was a muddled mess of white and red, torn in so many places it would normally be considered indecent in public. Her arms hung limp at her side, one of them bent in such a way that there was no doubt it was broken. All in all she remained ever so still in a growing puddle of her own blood.
Normally as a bloodthirsty monster like himself he would smile in absolute glee at this kind of sight. But now? Looking at Lumine- kind, beautiful Lumine, who trusted him and loved him and cherished him, despite all of the red in his ledger? It made him sick. He wished he’d never stumbled upon her looking this way, because he knew for a fact there was no way she could survive this.
“No, no, no…” he muttered, running over to his beloved’s side. “Who- who did this to you, babe? Lumine, who did this?”
He didn’t like how his voice shook, but he was a desperate- and incredibly furious- man. He wanted the fools who hurt his girlfriend to pay. His fingers dug into his skin, blood dripping from his hands. Was it his? Or was it hers? He’d never know.
“Doesn’t matter...they’re gone now, anyway. I took care of it.” She smiled, wincing ever so slightly at the movement of her head.
Grabbing her frail body, he cradled her in his arms. Was she always this small? This...breakable?
Putting on a fake smile, he looked into her beautiful amber golden eyes, wiping the blood from her brow and twirling some of her hair as she always loved him to do. “You’re reckless, you know that, right?”
She laughed a rough, wet laugh, her face lighting up with whatever joy was left in her heart. “Takes one to know one.”
Childe scoffed. “I mean, I go into my battles with a plan. You tend to go in all willy nilly and just-”
“I’m gonna die, aren’t I, babe?”
The sudden interrupting question caused him to stop in his tracks. Not because of how horrible it was, but because of how accepting she sounded about it. He shook his head. Like hell would he let her die. Looking down at the ground, he chuckles. “Sorry, girlie, but you’re not dying on me today. Can’t have you bleeding on these good clothes, after all.”
She turns her head to look him in the eyes. She smiles, the blood from her forehead dripping onto her nose. “It’s too late for me, Childe.”
“No!” He screams, causing the blonde to jump slightly. Seeing the shock he put into her, he mentally admonishes himself and clears his throat. “No, Lumine. Lumine. Look at me.” Rarely does he use this level of panic and desperation to his voice, and it surprises Lumine. His eyes are wide and pained. He’s truly hellbent on keeping her safe. “You’re going to be okay.” He watches as tears form in her eyes, tears he brush away with the palm of his hand. “You’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna get you cleaned up, you’re gonna come with me. Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll get married. Find a nice place to live.”
She snuggles into his arm. “Someplace warm,” she mutters, her voice fluttering from the pain. “With a nice view.”
“Of course, girlie. Of course we can get that for you. Anything you want.” He smiles, thinking of the calm serenity that awaits them when this is all over, burying his mind in the fantasy for just a little while longer.
“I...I’m sorry,” Lumine says, removing her head from his arms. “I’m sorry that I broke our promise. I wanted to come see you in Snezhnaya...I really wanted to meet your family. Can you...can you tell Teucer I’m sorry for me?”
Fuck.
His lips trembling, he nods his head. Opening his eyes, he looks at her, putting on the most sincere smile he could muster at this point in time, finally coming to terms with the fact she would never get the chance to meet Tonia or Anthon, because she was not going to leave this place alive. “Of course, girlie. I’ll tell them the stories about you. I’m sure they would have loved you.”
She repositions herself into his arms once again, looking up at the starry night. “Yeah, they probably would have.”
Lumine may have been staining his shirt with all of her blood by laying on it like that, but at this point he couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Do you remember when we first met? ‘Hey girlie, hold still!’ What kind of line was that, anyway?”
He laughed. She was at death’s door and she was making jokes. Archons, he loved every ounce of this girl. “Truth be told? I couldn’t think of anything else to say. You were just so pretty that I lost my train of thought.”
Golden laughter rung throughout the building, followed by a short coughing fit. “You...you’re p-pathetic, you k-know that?”
“I dunno,” he said, “You’re the one who chose me.”
A hum of contentment left her mouth as they continued their final act of stargazing together.
A few minutes passed, they continued to make light banter to lighten the mood. Just a little. They knew what was coming, but they weren’t afraid.
And finally, the time came. Lumine’s breathing grew staggered, her grip on him loosening. Turning to face him, her eyes began to dim little by little. He could see the life leaving her by the second.
“C-Childe...what’s your name?”
Childe.
Childe.
He hadn't told her. Why hadn't he told her? There were so many things... That he loved her, that he only ever went as far as he had out of the fear and love of her, her eyes were the sun and moon of his dreams, he'd found a little house in his homeland for the two of them to live in once they got married... His name. Shit, he'd never even told her his name.
She coughed, the blood on her lips no longer a mere suggestion. This was it. Lumine was dying, and there was not a damn thing he could do about it. His grip on her shoulder tightened in a way that would probably have hurt her, were she not so far gone already, but her voice startled him out of his haze and his hands relaxed. Cradled gently by the man she'd so desperately wanted to save her, but having saved him instead, was content to bid farewell to.
"F-F-forget it, it’s-"
"Ajax," he said it without thinking. Tears pricking at the corner of blue eyes that had long since been thought incapable of such things. "My name is Ajax."
It only took her a few seconds to comprehend what he had just revealed to her. But once she realized he had just surrendered his greatest secret to her, the smile was in her eyes before it was on her face, languid and fleeting. She opened her mouth as though to repeat it, but coughed again. The stain would be unnoticeable on his crimson shirt, or so she hoped, her mind trying to grab onto anything to hold him there with her. But if there was one thing for sure, it was that at that moment he knew- she was happy. Happy to finally know him.
Her voice was faint, ever so faint, but in that moment it was as if the world of sound had been consumed and all that remained was the sound of his love.
"Ajax...I...I like it...A fitting name for a hero...my hero...my...l...light..."
Her hand falls to the floor, the sound of the impact reverberating off the stone walls. Silence fills the room as the grim reality sets in- Lumine is dead. The light that once radiated from those luminescent amber golden eyes of hers now stands as a dull reminder of the marvel she was.
Once he sees the life leave her, he waits a second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
And then he screams.
He screams for everything wrong in this world, he screams for the loss of his love, he screams for the hole in his heart that will never be filled ever again.