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Eyes fluttered open and was greeted by the reddish blue sky. It was sunset and he could hear the waves crashing to the shores and retreating back into the abyssal ocean.
Childe sat up and breathed in the salty breeze. The sense of peace in this area felt safe and he could melt away into the ocean if he could. He felt a presence behind him. With a grin, he raises his right arm to grab the pair of small arms that intended to attack him from behind.
"I got you! You little rascal!"
He used his other arm to grab the person's waist and flip him over himself and had a small boy lie on his lap. Pairs of ocean blue eyes stared at each other. The little boy stuck his tongue at him in annoyance and Childe could only ruffle the boy's golden hair.
"No fair Dad!" he whined, "Can't believe you saw that coming! Do you have an eye on the back of your head?!"
"Sorry, I only have two. Just instinct, Nicolai."
A voice called out to the two and in the distance, a small girl was running up to them with too many starconches for her to carry. One of the starconches fell from her batch and she tripped over it, falling on her face. Childe got up and ran up to the girl in a flash.
"Are you okay Aster?! Oh Lumi's gonna kill me."
The gingered hair girl sat up and said, "I'm okay Papa! Look! I brought these starconches! You love them, don't you?"
"Of course. But we'll take one home for now. We have a lot at home and if Mama sees them littered at our house she's going to lose it."
He pats the two children with his hands and gives them a smile. That’s right, Childe remembered he took the children out to the beach for the afternoon while his darling wife prepared dinner for them. It was strange, though, he felt like he was forgetting something important.
Instead, he shook his head and lifted his daughter up to his shoulders. "Come on you two, let's go home."
“No fair! I wanna be carried by Papa!” Nicolai whined.
“You’re a man, you’ll get your turn later, okay?”
The walk back to their little cottage was a short one, since he and Lumine decided to live near the shores by Liyue. There was something about Liyue that made him want to stay there. Perhaps it was because this was where they first met, where they first fought, where they first confessed their feelings to one another. Plenty of memories resided here with his Lumine, and he cherished them like the starconch he carries with him during work.
Childe opens the door and the scent of seafood and meat waft in the air. They walk to the kitchen and see the petite woman with her blond long hair in a side bun. running around making sure everything doesn’t get burned down.
"Welcome home! Don't forget to wash your feet! I don't want sand all over the house."
"Did you make dinner?" He asked as he put Aster down.
*Yup. But I swear, I cannot understand how you add octopus to this Cala Lily Soup, honey."
Childe walked up behind her and hugged her from behind, nuzzling into her warm neck. She smells like honey and lavender, but there was a hint of seafood from the food she was cooking.."I just use stuff from home, sweetheart."
"I want to eat the octopus Mama!" Nicolai demanded.
“Fine! Ajax, can you please help?”
“It’d be my pleasure.”
After cooking together and eating together with their children, Lumine guided the two to bed and sang a lullaby. Ajax could hear her sing from their bedroom and it almost made him fall asleep. Unconsciously, he placed his hand over his stomach, probably a stomach ache from eating too much.
Lumine walks in and hops into the bed with him. She buries herself under the blanket and hurries him to sleep with him. But Ajax didn’t want to sleep yet. Not yet. Was it because he wasn’t tired yet? He really feels like he’s forgetting something important now, but doesn’t know what.
“Not going to sing me a lullaby, lyubimaya?” he grinned, shrugging the thoughts in his head.
“Ha! In your dreams! It’s embarrassing when I sing it to you though!”
“Oh come on. Just one?” He looked at Lumine with the biggest puppy eyes he can do, and they were her biggest weakness.
“Ugh fine.” She didn’t sound annoyed, rather more happy to fulfill his desires. Lumine sat up and leaned her back to the backrest of the bed, patting her lap to tell him to lie down. “Come here.”
Ajax laid his head down on her lap, and he could get lost in those two strong thighs of hers. He has done so before from their nights of passion before raising the two kids. Maybe a third kid if they feel like it?
Lumine starts to hum the same lullaby she sang to the kids to sleep, and her voice was so angelic he could cry. Maybe he can, because he never expected that this domesticity came to him. Before, he was a Harbinger, a weapon of war for the Tsaritsa-the things he has done and doesn’t regret will always put some division between him and family life. After all, who would want to marry a Harbinger, a murderer, a man with a never-ending thirst for battle? Apparently Lumine does. Ever since Lumine came to his life, he had a strand of hope that it could come true, despite their differences, backgrounds, and goals. When he laid on the ground beat from their first fight at the Golden House, staring into those doe honey eyes with conviction to take him down, Ajax vowed that he will get this woman to marry him.
And that’s the life he has now.
This was the life.
What a life.
What a nice future.
What a wonderful-
-dream.
It was nothing but a fleeting dream, As Childe laid on the ground staring at the sunset, with a polearm pinning him through the stomach. He weakly chuckled, thinking that such a life was something he deserved.
Of course not. Not when he was given the order to stop the traveler. He gave it his all in that battle, sure; and he asked her to end him while she had the chance. But he didn’t expect the Jester to come in and take care of the job he couldn’t do. Childe would have watched him take his polearm and strike her, but no, he decided to push her out of harm.
What a fool he has become for falling in love. But deep down, he can tell himself that it was worth it.
How long has it been since he bled out? Minutes? Hours? Either way, he was suffering a slow painful death, and his mind started to grow fuzzy.
He faintly hears footsteps scurrying closer over to where he was. He sees Lumine with tears flowing from her eyes as she tries to pull the polearm out of his stomach.
“Ajax, please stay with me! Ajax!” she cried.
“Lumine...go...find the Tsaritsa!”
“I can’t let you die! What will I say to Teucer and your family!” The polearm comes free and more blood leaks out from his wound. It was too late. The damage has already been done. Childe can barely hear what she was saying, but he heard the word family.
“Family….You know….I had a dream…” he spat out blood.
Lumine tore her scarf and lifted him up to wrap around the gaping wound in his stomach. “Stop! Don’t speak, you’ll only make it worse!”
“You...me...in a cottage by the shores...and...we had two kids...one girl...one boy...”
Lumine looked at him with sadness, the tears continuously flowing from her eyes. She took his head and rested it on her lap. After a while, she asked, “Was it a good dream?”
He gave her a weak but sincere smile. “Yes….yes it was...maybe not in this life, or in this universe….but I wish...we could settle together...have a family...and love each other till we die...that would be nice." He reached out towards her small but strong hand and gave it a squeeze.
And she squeezed his hand back. “I'm with you until the end, Ajax.”
“Thank you. I love you, Lumine. One more thing, could you sing me a lullaby? Before I go to sleep?”
“Anything for you, my love.”
Ajax closed his eyes and started to drift away, but he could still hear from afar the lullaby she sang often. And that was more than enough.