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The air here in Inazuma is much different than Liyue and Mondstadt. Mondstadt was where I started after I woke up, and it became a temporary home that helped me grow as a person and as a skilled fighter. Liyue became my stepping stone to understanding the world all the more better, but it seems Inazuma has become a test to everything that I am.
It’s strange, I’m not even halfway around this world yet, but here, the world has stopped me in my tracks and told me my search for my brother needs to be put on hold. The answers I want will have to come later.
My heart is torn in many directions, trying to figure out what is right, what is wrong, even if I have to scold and discipline Chouji again for upcharging the cost of the crystal marrow I collect for him. I’ve become known to help others, always running errands, but there are many who help me, and have given me the strength my heart needs at times like this.
Although arranged, one of those people was Thoma. He’s always there to help, a smile on his face and his odd penchant for putting things in hot pot as part of the hot pot game. He has a way with words, but I can tell everything about him is genuine.
Or at least I think he is.
Ayaka always has him testing me to make sure I’m the right person for the job, and I know he would do anything for her, not just as her friend, or her attendant, but maybe as…
“...Are you okay?”
Paimon’s voice pulls me from my thoughts, her complaints having been drowned out in my musings. We’ve already fished ourselves out of the purple water in the middle of the night, its contents full of electro that I could feel my energy depleting. We need a place to rest, and maybe it’ll put these thoughts away from my head.
“Yeah, just been thinking of where to go from here.” It’s a clear lie, because I’m never that deep in thought over something like that and Paimon knows it. But since she doesn’t press me for it, and my head is turning left and right to try to reinforce my lie, we continue along the shore of the small islands we’ve found ourselves on just off the coast of Konda Village.
“Hey, look!” Paimon’s enthusiastic call directs me to a light in the distance. “It looks like a campfire! Maybe we should go check it out?”
From my experience, lit campfires have never been good. It’s usually occupied by treasure hoarders, or maybe a Kairagi. Worst case, a mob of hilichurls, with a mitachurl and sawachurl. If not the latter, an abyss mage is there.
Diluc would have a field day with these guys.
But maybe if we can fend them off, they won’t go to Konda Village and they won’t trouble Tejima.
“Let’s go, Paimon.”
We’re discreet and quiet as we hurry along towards the source of the light, but as we get closer, I don’t see the shadows or silhouettes of the figures I think it’s going to be. I can still hear the faint sound of complaints, but I don’t think anything of it.
“Those hydro slimes got me again…”
So I opt for a sneak attack approach, rounding around the little cliff behind the encampment.
“Ooh! How about we make some sugar-frosted slime and bring it to the next hot pot game!”
“Shh! Paimon!” My voice is hushed, but loud enough to get her attention and shoot a glare at her to stay quiet. She always thinks about food, even at a time like this. My hand grips on my sword, and I’m creeping closer to the edge of the cliff, but the tent is in front of me, covering whoever is at the camp. I have no choice but to take that leap of faith, the ground disappearing beneath my feet and the gust of the night wind mixed with the heat of the flame from the campfire.
Steel is suddenly met with another weapon, like a hard pole reminisicent of the one Zhongli used. It’s long enough that it needs two hands to hold in blocking my attack, and from the angle I’ve come down, I can see the blond ponytail tousled in the wind, the bright emerald that shimmers like the grass of Starsnatch Cliff on a sunny day, staring wide-eyed back at me.
I’ve only known this face for a couple of days, but I recognize him anywhere, and we’re both in a state of shock to see each other here.
My feet find the ground, and I’m stuck, confused, before I can finally stutter a name off my tongue. “T-Thoma?”
“Y-You-”
It was hard to believe that the very man I had been thinking about moments ago was here, so far away from the Kamisato Estate in the middle of the night.
“W-What are you doing here?”
I almost don’t recognize him because his spiked headband is off, and well… everything that was on his torso and up are gone, leaving his upper half completely bare.
The moon bathes him in light, contrasting the colour of the dark blue night sky and the orange hues of the campfire, water droplets rolling down every inch of exposed skin and a spear in his grip. Under all that clothing and armour, his build had never suggested he was hiding more than just flesh, but there… was dips and curves, defining every bit of muscle that he must’ve built over quite a long time. Even the occasional scars indicated he was far from new to fighting.
With a wry expression and a drop of his weapon to his side, he gives me a shrug and a smile that pulls at the seams of my heart. “I was going to ask you that, but you’re a traveler. Of course you’d be out here.” The end of his pole plants in the ground with a firm thrust down, as if he’s letting his guard down in front of me. “I was running some errands when I got caught by the ronin and some treasure hoarders trying to rob me. I did end up getting away after deciding to jump in the water and swim away but as soon as I made it to dry land, some hydro slimes jumped me…” He laughs sheepishly, and my heart is pulled by a weight that compensates for my sword as it disappears from my grasp. Even a laugh like that is enough to make me return his expression with my own smile.
“It’s a little late to be out though,” Paimon says thoughtfully, folding her arms. “Won’t Ayaka be worried about you?”
“She would, but she’s the one who sent me out here.” He eyes me, a look of concern crossing his honest features. “I think the one we should be worrying about is you. You’re soaking wet.” His arm reaches for me, so his hand could rest on my shoulder and his expression deepens. “And you’re shivering. What happened?”
He doesn’t even wait for my answer to place me right in front of the campfire.
My cheeks feel the heat faster than the rest of me, knowing that he’s half bare, and his body dangerously close to mine. If only I had hair as long as Aether, I could hide the colour appearing on my cheeks, but our position was the only thing that kept me safe.
Paimon pops up beside us, quick to explain as-a-matter-of-factly. “We were on our way back to Inazuma City when she ended up falling into a pool of that nasty water. You know, the one that sparkles with electro? But there was a lot of it, and she still had to swim out of it and through clear waters to get here. Paimon couldn’t do anything, because Paimon doesn’t need to swim at all.”
“That’s not good.” His voice is so close to my ear, and I can feel the heat spreading through the rest of me quickly.
Just thinking of what had happened, and how much I panicked to get out of those waters, with the energy I used for it, is already weighing heavily on my mind. “I-I’ll be fine. Just a bit of rest, and I should be okay.”
Suddenly, those bright emerald eyes are staring straight at me, having craned his head around to look at my face.
Don’t look at me like that. You look so sad. You look better when you’re smiling like the happy-go-lucky guy you are.
“You don’t look okay.” Straightening up, he gazes around until he can find the log to pull closer to the campfire and his hand slips into mine, tugging me towards it.
Even though he was in the water more recently than me, his hand is so warm…
“Sit.”
I do so obediently and without complaint, but he doesn’t question why I’m not saying anything. If anything, he sits next to me, and stays close, enough to make sure that he can check on me and vice versa.
“If you’re hungry, I can go catch some fish and we can have some sashimi or grill some up by the fire.”
“I’m not hungry…” My eyelids feel heavy, and my vision starts to go sideways a bit, until my cheek touches skin. It’s enough to make me jolt wide awake and get to my feet with a startled scuffle, but my quick movements make me clumsy enough that I start to fall back.
Warmth finds its way around me, snaking around my waist to keep me from falling and I’m awestruck by those emeralds again, a faint smile dancing on his lips. “I’m not going to bite, you know. If you need to lean on me because you’re tired, you can do that.”
I could only nod dumbly before he pulls me back up to my feet, and back onto the log.
He doesn’t sit down right away though, planting to his hands on his hips and looking down at himself. “Is… am I making you uncomfortable? I could put my clothes back on, if you want. It’s probably more uncomfortable for you to have to stay in those wet clothes while I get to take mine off.”
If I wasn’t out of it, I could try to play it off but a colour surfaced to my cheeks and I was quickly shaking my hands in front of me. “Not at all! I’m used to it by now. Swimming through lakes and underground pathways have been the norm around Inazuma, so it doesn’t bother me.”
A moment of silence passes between us before he plops back down on the log and swings his arm around me. “Life as a traveler must be really hard, isn’t it?”
“It’s hard on everyone who’s come to Inazuma and can’t leave.”
“But none of them have to fight all of the bad guys like you do. The great Dvalin, a Fatui harbinger, the overlord Osial and now the Raiden Shogun? With your reputation, you’ve endured a lot, and now you’re here, willingly, in a nation where we’re locked in from knowing the rest of the world. That’s not the journey of a normal traveler like anyone I’ve ever seen.”
“Do you think I’m crazy?” People always were in awe of my travels and the things I’ve done, but it was the first time I’ve had anyone question me for this. My head starts to feel heavy once more, finding myself leaning towards Thoma until I can rest my head on his bare shoulder, the flit of the ambers dancing before our eyes and the heat of it taking the chill away from my skin.
“Not as crazy as what we’re trying to do here, but I’m sure you have your reasons for doing the things you do.”
My eyes close briefly then I open them with a slight tilt to look up at him. “Are you going to ask me why?”
His side profile glimmers with the moonlight, making him look absolutely picture perfect at this angle. Even as small as I am, his calm face is a view that I wouldn’t mind looking up to.
Of course, Ayaka looks up at him like this every day. Everything he does is ultimately for her. Just thinking about it makes my heart sink, but as I start to look down, so does he, meeting my gaze with a gentle expression.
“I’ve heard you’re looking for your brother, but there’s probably an even bigger story to it for you to cross the sea and through the storm to come see the Raiden Shogun herself, of all living beings. So I’m not going to poke into it, unless you want to tell me.” He smiles so sweetly at me, and his arm comes up to rest around me, his hand patting my head.
“Thank you, Thoma…”
For a moment, time comes to a stop. There’s nothing but the crackling of the fire, the gentle rustle of the wind against the tent, and the waves swishing onto the shorelines. Paimon had retreated long ago, leaving us to our quiet conversation as my eyelids grow heavier with each line we speak to one another.
My mind fights the fatigue that ravages my body, hoping to have every single last moment of quiet time with Thoma.
For tomorrow, when the sun rises, he will be gone back to his lady, and I will be back on my journey as a traveler.
Just like the shooting stars we were, he too will just be another star in my sky, so far away from me when I leave Inazuma.