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She awoke with a start, panting heavily and sweating. Her eyes wandered around their camp. The other three were sleeping soundly close by the fire and Paimon happily snored right next to her. A sigh escaped her when reality finally took hold of her thoughts again. It was just a dream...
The blonde shut her eyes tight and rubbed the balls of her hands into them. There were traces of tears in the corners of her eyes, but they hadn't fallen. Good. When she was sure that she had calmed down enough she dragged out a sigh and quietly pulled the sheets of her bedroll away.
There was a stream just a short walk away from camp, wasn't it? She needed some cold water to splash into her face to wash the remnants of the nightmare away.
Just when she had reached the stream and put her hands into the water, she heard the rustle of grass and turned quickly to its source. When she was about to conjure her sword, she heard a chuckle from said source. "Really, Lumi," he began and held up his hands in defence, "to make for an attack just when I'm about to ask you what's wrong."
The man finally stepped out from the shadows and the pale moonlight lit up his handsome face to reveal him to her. "I'm hurt."
Lumine let out a relieved sigh and loosened her tense stance. "Kaeya."
He tilted his head and his grin vanished. "Are you alright?" he asked and stepped closer.
Lumine glanced up at him and then resumed cupping her hands to gather water in them to splash it in her face. She stared ahead over the river before her lips parted. "Just a nightmare," she said and then chuckled, "But what a nightmare! It was pretty ridiculous in some parts as well, now that I think about it."
Kaeya looked down at her and waited for her to continue. “Oh? In what parts exactly?”
“Ah, it began…” she halted and thought about it, suddenly giggling, “It already began absurdly! I was walking down the street from Liyue to Mondstadt and realized that some kind of.. war had broken out?”
“I fail to see how that’s funny?” Kaeya asked and smirked just to irk her.
The blonde looked up at him with a grin of her own and a raised eyebrow. “I wasn’t finished yet!” She then stood up again and patted off the dirt on her dress. “Walk with me?” she asked as she looked over her shoulder to the Cavalry Captain, “I can’t go to sleep immediately once I wake up in the middle of the night.”
He nodded and joined her in her languid walk along the riverside. “Continue please,” the man then urged, smiling, “I’m curious as to what our dear Honorary Knight dreams of at night.”
She let out a laugh. “What’s with the strange accentuation on ‘at night’? Do you take me for a dreamer, Captain?”
“Absolutely,” he declared without missing a beat and smirked, “After all,” his voice dropped seductively, “you are a dream yourself.” She blushed slightly and then paddled back on her emotions.
“Oh, Kaeya!” her laugh ringed in his ears, making his breast swell with pride, “You and your jests! But fine, I’ll continue.” Kaeya always made it way too easy to goof around and let her walls fall down.
She coughed for dramatic effect and continued. “I had actually just..” she made silly movements with her hands which Kaeya couldn't help but find endearing, “escaped.. them? I was in some sort of carriage and was to be taken away.”
“You? Taken away?” he wondered and touched his chin with his pointer finger for emphasis, “Why didn’t you fight back?”
“I know, right?" she looked over to him shortly, "I found it strange as well once I thought about it,” she hummed, “But do dreams always need to make sense? Anyway,” she went on, “I was scared as to what they were planning to do with me and suddenly - who knows why - the carriage stopped to let other passengers in. They were.. lining up?”
Kaeya raised an eyebrow at that. “They lined up to get kidnapped?” he inquired.
“Yes,” she giggled, “I told you it was a ridiculous dream!” He nodded and then cast a glance at her. She seemed to have shaken off whatever part of the dream had made her mood droop. He was glad. But he decided to further humor her.
“Did you offer them your seat?" the man teased.
She rolled her eyes at this and smiled. "In a sense, yes. I could, as I wasn't restrained in any way, just jump off the carriage when it stopped to let others in. And so I just left," the blonde shrugged, "They didn't even check as I fled."
The dark haired chuckled at that. “Indeed a most ridiculous dream,” he agreed.
Her meen darked then and she stopped in her tracks. “After that I…” she hesitated, “I was kind of transported to what once was our home and saw Aether.. die. He was shot by some foreign apparatus.”
She folded her hands in front of her, as the memory, still so fresh and real, made tears form in the corner of her eyes once again that night. But she refused to let them fall. She was not weak.
“It felt so real, that I-'' she sucked in a shaky breath, “I was so shocked that I couldn’t do anything and just.. see my brother die right in front of me. There was so much I wanted to say to him still. So much that was left unsaid…. And it made me think.... What if he- What if Aether--"
Something pricked in Kaeya’s heart (possibly because he felt that he could relate since he might have thought of another one that came to mind when he thought of the word ‘brother’) and halfway through her words, he had stepped closer to her and gathered her into his arms. Her breath hitched and she tensed when his arms enclosed her shaky form. “Sweet Lumine…” he whispered as he began to stroke along her hair in a soothing manner, “Don’t worry. Your brother is not dead. And neither are you. You can still talk to him and I promise you that I will help you make it happen.”
Lumine relaxed into his arms and Kaeya couldn’t help the smile that creeped into his face in the way she seemed to melt against his chest as her breathing slowed and some forlorn tears fell onto his chest and wet his clothes. She didn’t even notice they had fallen. The dark haired was glad that he seemed to be able to appease her nerves and took a bit of pride in it. It made her trust in him evident in a way nothing else could and Kaeya reveled in it.
The water from the stream rippled to the graceful dance of the fish and the sound of it made him feel as if they were in a different world where they were the only ones that existed. The cryo user wouldn’t mind that at all, he realized. It didn’t make him feel lonely or lost - which only surprised him a bit. It was such a tranquil moment and he didn’t want it to end yet. Just as he was about to tighten his grip, the traveler in his arms shifted and took a step back.
“Thank you, Kaeya,” she timidly looked up at him and withdrew even more until they were no longer touching. She quickly wiped the tears away. Kaeya’s body promptly felt cold from the loss of her warmth. But he schooled his expression back into a laid-back one and smiled. “Don’t mention it.”
Lumine, probably because she just exited an awkward, vulnerable situation, felt the strong urge to lighten the mood again and distract from her display of weakness. She practically felt the flush on her face and hoped the dark of the night would conceal it enough.
“Oh, ah,” she began and cursed herself for stuttering, “I just remembered that there was more to the dream actually.”
The captain raised an eyebrow, grinned and made a swift movement in front of them to tell her to go on - literally and figuratively. Her golden eyes lit up and she moved on. “This was my favorite part of the dream,” she began and internally thanked Kaeya for allowing her to escape that embarrassing situation.
“What made it special?” he asked in a teasing tone. Golden eyes glanced back at him and she smiled. “Why, I met up with you and Jean!”
Kaeya’s eye widened at the way she openly confessed that she had dreamed of him. Though he didn’t dwell on it since Jean was there as well. “Well, that doesn’t seem that surprising, given you were at Mondstadt and there was a war going on,” he chuckled instead.
Lumine rolled her eyes and slightly elbowed him. “Obviously!” she laughed, “But I was still glad to have seen two of my trusted friends were well considering we were in the middle of a war.”
Kaeya grinned. “Now, you’re mocking me. Did you truly doubt we would be okay?” Once more she rolled her eyes. “Of course not! It wasn’t even that.. big of a war anyway. But I was still glad that you were unscathed.”
The captain smiled. “How were we faring?” he asked.
“Quite well,” she hummed and his eyebrow rose in momentarily haughtiness, “You guys were holding up splendidly actually. I was mostly talking to Jean though. But I saw you fight off some Hilichurls in the background. You didn’t seem to notice me as you were immersed in your fight.”
Disappointment washed over him and he sighed internally. And here he felt flattered that he had appeared in her dreams. “No word at all to me then?” he inquired nonetheless.
“Oh no, I did! I did call out to you after I finished talking to Jean...” She seemed to be in thought. She remembered that she had wanted to talk to him in her dream. She enjoyed talking to him more than she was willing to confess.
At least something, he mused. “Wishing me good luck?” She shook her head, still thinking about how elegantly he fought off the enemy in her dream. It felt as if he was dancing...
“No, I told you I love you,” she stopped in her tracks and blinked only then realizing what she had just confessed, “Ah-”
Kaeya’s eye widened and he stopped as well. “Pardon?” Did his mind just play a trick on him? When he looked over at her, he saw her face redden rapidly.
“I-” she stuttered and her eyes flitted to his and back in a second, “It’s, uh- I mean-”
Lumine’s adorable, panicky mannerisms made it hard to will his heart to stop beating this hard, but he managed to smirk and his voice dropped. He was a master of deception, after all. “Did you now?”
The young woman sucked in an indignant breath and turned to glare at him - at least, that’s what she tried to do. Her whole demeanor but told him how much truth the next words coming out of her mouth would hold. “I-” she began and he arched an eyebrow biting back his grin, “I didn’t mean it like that! It.. was a dream after all! And, uhh,” she sputtered and averted her eyes again, “I meant it in a platonic way obviously…!”
The warrior’s heart seemed to swell. “Obviously,” he agreed and watched her twitch. He resumed their walk then and waited for her to join him. Her eyes dared to seek him again and he gave her a smile that made it almost easy to trust that he truly believed her sorry excuse of a subterfuge. The blonde wanted to believe that he let it slide. Otherwise she would die from embarrassment. She didn’t mean to confess in this way. She didn’t even mean to confess at all.
They walked in silence and Kaeya enjoyed this tidbit of information in perfect placidity. He would let her off the hook for now, but only because he planned to tease her thoroughly in the near future before he would take any action. This was to be enjoyed like fine wine.
… Or at least that was the plan. It didn’t escape the starborne traveler how the flirty captain didn’t utter a single word of teasing at her confession at all. The aura around him made her nervous. “... I did mean it in a platonic way,” she repeated softly but assertively.
The man blinked. Did she not understand how he so graciously let her escape this situation? “Of course you did,” his smile widened and he tilted his head to glance at her, “I never claimed anything else.” She gulped.
“But I do wonder how the ‘you’ in the dream reacted to that, ha ha!” she laughed awkwardly and tried to lighten the mood with an attempted nonchalant approach. “I did turn on my heel and walked away after that. I had other business to attend to, after all. You know, because of the war and stuff."
The cryo user grinned, his steps moving closer to her on their stroll. You brought this upon yourself, Lumine, Kaeya thought. “I can tell you, if you really want to know.” Lumine almost tripped when she heard him say that and quickly made for her recovery.
Geez, now I have done it! Why couldn’t I just keep quiet? she cursed herself.
She took a deep breath, gathered herself and looked up at him, confident to have recovered her stoic expression. “Oh? Tell me then. How did you react to it?” Two can play that game, she huffed.
But when she finally locked eyes with him, all breath seemed to escape her lungs immediately. Kaeya always was a positively picturesque display of a man, but right now with the moon shining behind him, illuminating him in a way that Lumine couldn’t help but consider ethereal, she found how helplessly she was drawn to him. When had he gotten this close? She just stared at him wide-eyed as he hovered closely above her.
Though long seemed the moment to her - it wasn’t. The man had moved a heartbeat later to capture her lips with his in a full, but chaste kiss. He lingered a moment too long for his liking - he wanted to appear full in control and not drunk on the feel of her lips against his (but oh, who was he kidding) - and when they finally parted, he couldn’t help but accept his drunken state wholeheartedly. The delicious blush that spread across the traveler’s face was worth all the wine of this world.
"I--" she managed to say before her brain short-circuited and she stopped again.
Kaeya couldn't help the laugh that tore away from his lips and he involuntarily showed her the most unguarded smile he had ever smiled. The captain blamed the bubbly feeling in his stomach which seemed to spread by the minute. Lumine on the other hand was positive that she would burst out into flames any second now. Her golden eyes didn't know where to focus and her heartbeat ringed so loudly in her ears, it made it hard to properly hear her surroundings.
"This is how I would have reacted," his smile turned back into a grin and he leaned in closer to whisper, "You would have known, if only you had stayed a little longer." The traveler twitched and he heard her gulp.
Ahh, he wanted to tease her more, but his body didn't seem to listen to him anymore for he dipped down again and stole a second, then a third and a fourth kiss. Each seemed to linger a little longer and he all but forgot where he was. He hadn’t even noticed how, with each kiss, his arms creeped around her more and more to pull her flush against him. And he hadn’t even noticed how she returned the embrace and held onto him like he was a lifeline. It was very much like when the alcohol took hold of him. "I'm drunk…" he sighed against her lips.
Lumine realized then and there, that she probably must be a little drunk herself.