Chapter Text
Aether <3:
can you pick up my friend and drive him to the game
he woke up late and he’s going to miss it if he takes the bus
:Lumine
.okay
Aether <3:
ok so he lives at xxx
he has
orange hair
taller than me
blue eyes
I think
[picture of Childe]
and
Lumine stares at her phone for a few minutes, waiting for Aether to finish his text, but he doesn't. She sends a slew of question marks, not able to guess what he was going to say. And then what?
Lumine sighs and exits the messaging app, searching up the address she’s supposed to find Aether’s friend at. She’s just hoping that Aether wasn’t texting as he was walking and got hit by a car.
When Lumine arrives at the designated location, she has to double check if she has the right place. The area seems so rich, almost all the houses even have green grass in front of them.
Lumine pulls up the image of Aether’s friend, and looks on the street curb for someone who looks similar. Spotting a tall ginger-haired guy ahead, Lumine pulls up next to him. She rolls down the window.
“Hi, my brother asked me to drive you to the game today,” Lumine says.
The guy turns to look at her. “Oh, that’s good. I’d probably be late if it weren’t for you.”
Lumine looks down at the image on her phone, then back at the guy in front of her. “Do you wear contacts?”
“No, but I carry some lens on me just in case,” he replies.
Lumine shrugs, locking the car doors. The photo Aether sent looks a little different, but it was probably just a good day or something.
As Lumine drives, she feels that the silence is deafening and awkward, so she tries to strike up a conversation. “So, do you do photography, er...?”
“Luke. How did you know?” Luke says.
“Sorry, my brother didn’t even give me your name, just a description. And you kind of have a camera hanging by your waist,” Lumine says, not taking her eyes off the road.
“Oh. Right. I’m actually going to the stadium as a photographer. I’m kind of nervous, because the only thing I’ve ever photographed was--” Luke cuts himself off.
Lumine’s eyes quickly flick over to him before returning to look straight ahead. “You can tell me, I won’t judge if you’re an amateur or anything. I don’t know the first thing about photography myself.”
“Okay, well...I’ve only ever taken pictures of my friend.”
That’s a little strange. Lumine tries to keep her face neutral, so it wouldn’t seem like she’s judging Luke. “The way you say that, you make it seem like you take pictures of them without their consent and of misconduct or something.”
Luke’s little gasp has Lumine raising her eyebrows incredulously. They’re currently cruising at a nice 15 miles per hour on a relatively empty street, so Lumine turns to look at Luke. She can’t help but smirk at him--he’s covering his face with his hands, but his ears are red, giving away his blush.
“So? Do I need to change the route of this car drive?” Lumine asks.
“N-no! Let me explain...promise you won’t tell her?” Luke looks up from his hands.
“I mean, I don’t really know you, nor your friend, so yeah.”
“Okay, so she’s my childhood friend, but I haven’t really seen her in eight years, because I’ve just returned from the Capital. So now, when we hang out, I snap a few pictures of her while she’s just being herself, so it’s like I always carry around the purest, sterling version of her.” Capital…? The way he says it, I can imagine the ‘c’ being capitalized. Aether never told me he had international friends, I’ve never heard of the Capital.
“Oh, that’s a lot cuter than I was expecting,” Lumine says, relaxing. She hopes that she’ll find that type of love one day. “So, you love her, huh?”
“Wh- hu- what?” Luke sputters. “I don’t…” He trails off.
“Hm? What was that?” Lumine teases.
The car falls silent. “Well, maybe I like her,” Luke admits after a while.
“See? That wasn’t that hard. Besides, I have like, a sixth sense for this type of thing.”
Luke doesn’t reply. He’s probably coming to terms with being told his feelings by a stranger. After getting onto the road to the football field, Luke finally speaks up again.
“So what about you? O’ mysterious blond stranger who picked me up that I don’t even know the name of, is there a special someone in your life?” Luke asks.
“It’s Lumine,” she says, shaking her head in a no.. Continuing in a quieter murmur, Lumine says something under her breath. “He didn’t mention me at all?”
“Anyways, I don’t have much going on in my love life,” Lumine says (oh, how dense she is). “So, this girl. Tell me more about her. Do you have cute nicknames for each other? Is she constantly on your mind?”
Luke hesitates. “Well, when we were younger, I was always interested in mysteries, and I’d be Sherlock while I called her my Watson.”
“Aww, that’s so cute!” Lumine gushes. “What about now?”
“It’s probably too immature for an important person like her, but I still enjoy calling her Watson.”
A smile involuntarily creeps onto Lumine’s face. A childhood romance that was abruptly ended then rekindled...maybe she should write something on that when she gets home. Lumine doesn’t think Luke would like it if she tried to pry more cute details out of him, so she changes the subject.
“So, speaking of this Capital of yours, what’s it like?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Lumine sees Luke blink twice, confused by the topic change. “I went to the Capital eight years ago to study at their university. And now, after so long, I’m finally back in Stellis.”
Lumine frowns. She’s not a bioengineering major for no reason--she quickly catches onto the inconsistencies between Luke’s story and common sense. If Luke had just returned from this Capital after finishing university, there’s little chance he’d be friends with Aether, with the huge student-to-graduate gap between them. Besides, back in Stellis? Lumine has never heard of Stellis her whole life.
As Lumine pulls into the huge parking lot of the university hosting the game, her phone vibrates with a text. It’s Aether, finally responding. Lumine slows the car, quickly reading the text. His name’s Childe. And Childe is the team’s best tight end. And they kind of need him right now. Oh.
Lumine can tell Luke read the text as well, because he tenses, his shoulders going up. She breaks the awkward silence. “You’re not my brother’s friend, huh?”
Immediately, she feels a gaze burning through her, as if Luke is daring her to do something rash.
“...Dang it. My brother is going to kill me for picking up the wrong person,” Lumine sighs. “If they lose because of me, I’m going to feel so bad.”
Luke relaxes slightly. “Well, I really am going to be a photographer for this event and was running late, so thanks for the free ride. I promise I’m not a bad guy.”
With that, he opens the door of the car and jumps out overdramatically. Lumine stares at him. “You know I was going to stop two feet in front of you?”
Luke looks at where she’s pointing, before shrugging. “Sorry, gotta go. Don’t go around picking up random guys!” He starts striding towards the entrance, and each time Lumine blinks, she swears she can see his body flicker like a glitching projection.
Lumine sneezes, and when she looks back up, Luke is gone, replaced by a sudden crowd of people.
“Well. Now, to bake Aether’s favorite cookies and beg for forgiveness as his dear meimei, or break a few driving laws trying to go back for Childe so they don’t lose the game?” Lumine ponders out loud, wanting to hit her head against the driver’s wheel. “First, I have to respond to this text…”