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The sun was blowing over Lumine’s shoulders as she was sitting on one of the Liyue beaches watching the sunset. Over the past few months of travelling with Paimon and meeting new people even getting her own teapot to live in this place became like her second house, but not home. She read in one of her books from another world that was far more developed than this one that “Home is not placed it’s a feeling.” So any world that hasn’t left any particular impression on her was just becoming another house another place to inhabit but nothing felt like home. She clearly remembered her beautiful house in the sky where she lived with Aether while they were resting from travelling to hundreds of different worlds sometimes even in a decade. One of their favourite worlds of all was where Lumine read that wonderful book about home and many other things, like the adventures of a red-haired girl with 2 braids who loved to talk and explore new things and had one of the brightest imaginations ever. After reading that book she even tried dying her hair red but it turned out to be a weird mix of red and yellow and her hair just looked like the sunset, Aether has laughed at her for a month after that but eventually, the colour has washed out and Aether had nothing to tease his sister about.
Lumine got out of her deep thought and noticed how wet her cheeks are from crying. How long has she been crying? She looked at the sky and noticed beautiful little stars and planets all over the place, it’s been quite a while she came here when the sun was only starting to go down. She heard a sand crunch on her left side and immediately jumped up to the right without looking and yelled “I am going to cut you!” If only she was looking where she jumped. She hit the log and fell on her back with a loud bam. The creature in question has run up to her. “Are you okay, firefly?” His crimson coloured eyes and white hair splayed across his shoulders out of his usual low ponytail made her slightly confused but she immediately recognised Kazuha. Her right hand reached out to her mouth and she started laughing with her eyes closed while trying to hit Kazuha with her left hand which lead her to completely missing Kazuha’s body which now made him laugh.
Kazuha being a gentleman offered Lumine his hand when she was trying to stand up which she gladly accepted. For a moment both of them forgot that Lumine was crying but when Kazuha’s glance shifted from the golden sand sparkling in the moonlight to Lumine’s face it all came back to him. “Why were you crying, firefly?” his tone was concerned but gentle at the same time and Lumine wanted to cry again when she heard it. Her left hand immediately shifted to her left bang and she started fidgeting with it while cracking the knuckles on her right hand using her thumb. “I-It’s noth-thing serious real-ly y-you sh-shouldn’t w-worry a-about it.” Kazuha really didn’t want to see firefly cry again so with that he grabbed her right hand and intertwined it with his left hand while his left hand gently stroked her cheek. “Whatever you say firefly” he smiled sincerely “Would you want to go to Mt. Aocang? I heard you can teleport I am sure it’ll be no problem with both of us teleporting there? It would be my pleasure to go stargazing there with you” Lumine lit up in excitement Mt. Aocang was one of her favourite places in Liyue and it also lacked the amount of monsters around. Teleporting there with Kazuha would surely be no problem for her. The next thing she knew they were standing on a nicely groomed grass near the top of Mt. Aocang. Kazuha gently fell to the floor still holding Lumine’s hand. Lumine didn’t expect that and she lost the balance in her body and fell a top of Kazuha’s chest. The beat of his heart was very soothing and comfortable. She found herself enjoying listening to it, she wished this moment lasted forever.
“Enjoying yourself are we?” A blush coloured Lumine’s face as she turned her face to turn Kazuha with an angry pout on her face “N-no…” Kazuha’s hands switched the position his left hand resting between Lumine’s shoulder blades while the other one was gently caressing her hair. Lumine didn’t know why but her eyes felt moisture at that moment “Did she really deserve all this love and care she was receiving from Kazuha. One tear dropped onto his shirt... no she can’t tell him her thoughts…. The second tear followed the first one… third…. Then forth… Kazuha suddenly twitched readjusting his position to have Lumine’s head lie on his lap while he grabbed her cheeks and readjusted her face to look at him. “Hey… firefly… I didn’t mean to make you upset what’s up.” “I-I” Lumine was trying to speak but it was becoming harder and harder, that ball in her throat was blocking her from sharing her thoughts and feelings with other people and now it was becoming larger and larger. Lumine grabbed Kazuha’s face with her right hand to lift herself up to sit on his laps while she crooked her face onto his neck. “I-I d-don’t d-deserve any of this…. M-my brother left m-me… w-why w-would he d-do t-that I thought we were on good terms and I al-lways t-took care of ‘im.” Lumine’s sobbing stopped as she focused all her attention upon trying to speak, his left hand was caressing between her shoulder blades while his right one was caressing her cheek. She felt so vulnerable at this moment his heart was breaking into a million pieces. Why did she never tell him any of this? He always saw her as a strong figure and always looked up to her, that no matter what faced Lumine she was headstrong and not until this moment he could imagine that she would ever break down like this in front of him. Was this what was happening when she left off to her little house? How often did she cry… He hoped she didn’t cry every day but his gut was telling him otherwise. Lumine probably in fact cried every day and put this mask of confidence in front of everyone.
“Lumine…” Kazuha’s soothing voice broke Lumine out of her thoughts once again. “I don’t know what is on your brother’s mind, and that I would never ever be able to replace him. But I can offer you my support and care while you are trying to find him. Never ever hold your feelings back when I am with you, I will try my best to help you but I can’t help you if you hide your feelings from me!” Lumine glared at him with her big golden eyes “Was she always this pretty?” he thought to himself. “Sorry for my selfish request… But can I kiss you… firefly?” Lumine nodded very subtly and that’s all it took for Kazuha to remove his hand from her shoulder blade and grab her face gently and kiss Lumine deeply. She has never felt so comfortable in her life, Kazuha was very gentle indeed. Eventually, he pinned Lumine to the ground lying on top of her chest giving her snuggles and love that she deserved.
The sun was rising when they fell asleep.