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Lumine wasn’t sure when it started.
Well, maybe she did know. About two weeks ago, when she gave Childe access to her serenitea pot through the realm dispatch. He’s one of her companions, it should be fine. But the immediate next day, at the ass crack of dawn, the doorbell to her adeptal mansion rang. She was not expecting visitors, but whoever it was, they’re incredibly insistent.
She groans, getting out of bed and not even bothering to make herself look the slightest bit presentable. Lumine opens the door to find… none other than Childe standing there, his usual idiotic smile plastered on his face. Before she can ask him what the actual fuck he was doing at her house at ass o’clock, he started talking. “Hey, girlie. I was out fighting some monsters earlier and remembered that you mentioned you were low on their materials or something. I don’t know what you need them for but I thought you might appreciate it so here you go.”
He drops off a few random items. Hilichurl masks, mitachurl horns, some samachurl scrolls… “That’s all I got. I have work to get to, so I’ll see you around.” Without another word, he leaves.
To say Lumine was confused would be an understatement. Childe just came by, dropped off some materials before work, then left . This goes on for two whole weeks. Every single day, he’d come to her teapot at some god-awful hour of the morning that even she wouldn’t wake up at, drop off some monster materials at her doorstep, then leave again. After a week she didn’t even bother answering the door anymore. One day he even brought over a dead Silkwhite Falcon!
Only two weeks later, did she ask literally anyone else about this. First off, Hu Tao. She may be a bit of a prankster, but she must know something about Teyvat customs! “Oya? Someone’s leaving materials at your doorstep everyday?” She grins, “Any dead bodies? I could give you a discount for the burial!” Lumine decides not to deal with that anymore, and heads off to find someone else to interrogate.
Jean didn’t know either, nor did Barbara. Rosaria said she had some sort of clue, but ultimately decided not to disclose it. Zhongli looked like he knew something, but didn’t mention anything, Xiangling only asked if the “materials were edible”, at which Lumine ran away immediately. Heck, she even asked the guards in Mondstadt— Mikhail and Lyudmila if she recalled correctly— if “their Harbinger Tartaglia had any weird behaviours they noticed”, to which they replied with that they weren’t allowed to badmouth their superiors, and with a bit of strong-arming, no. If it’s not some weird Teyvat custom, or even a Snezhnayan thing, what the hell is it?
She was about to give up, sitting at the counter in The Cat’s Tail where Diona worked. Seems she’s still at it mixing up cocktails for the customers.
“Miss Lumine? I don’t see you here very often. I’m still not allowed to sell you a drink, you know!” Diona notices Lumine at the bar, looking worse for wear. She’s never seen Lumine like this ever, not even after facing off against one of those stonehide lawachurls they come across while adventuring with her. “Are you okay?”
Lumine perked up at the Kätzlein bartender’s voice. Maybe she knows! “Thank the Archons. Listen Diona you gotta help me. If you do, I'll give you a claw from one of those monsters called a Riftwolf. Might be a little dangerous and corrosive, but it’s really nasty stuff.” Diona looks at Lumine like she just grew another head. This thing Miss Lumine wants help with must be really important if she’s willing to offer a material this dangerous to the small catgirl.
“That type of ingredient sounds pretty interesting. But more importantly, what do you need?” Diona went straight down to business. Not only did she want that ingredient, Lumine clearly needed this. She pours a glass of grape juice for Lumine before allowing her to begin.
“Well you see, every day there’s this person that comes by my serenitea pot in the morning. You know what that is, right? I’ve invited you over plenty of times.” She nods, and Lumine continues. “Well you see… from the start, someone’s been coming around to drop off materials for me every morning. I never asked him to, but he still does it. Every morning, without fail.” Lumine takes a sip of her grape juice, “One morning he even dropped off a dead bird! Why the hell!” She rants about the aforementioned person for a solid hour, up until closing time.
“No offence Miss Lumine, but it sounds like whoever this person is, you like them.” Diona cuts Lumine off, it’s closing time and she has to close the bar and get home soon. Then, Diona gasps. “I think I remember something like this! The cats do it a lot of the time. Sometimes one of them will leave for a bit, and come back with dead prey in its mouth. I think this person is… what was that word? I think he’s trying to court you, Miss Lumine.”
Lumine goes silent, then goes into an absolute frenzy of denial. “There’s no way. Absolutely not. That cannot be the case. Are you sure about that?”
Diona shrugs. “If you’re so curious, just ask him then! Hmph!” Finally, Lumine thanks Diona for her help. Diona’s answer was somehow the most useful out of all of the advice she’s gotten. She is most definitely going to interrogate him the next time she sees him, and she will get answers.
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Come the next morning, she wakes up at 4am to catch the idiot in the act. Within thirty minutes he’s at the door. Lumine tackles him, taking Childe by surprise and knocking him to the ground. “Ow, what’s that for?!” She ignores both his question, and the compromising position they’re in, with her on top of him. She doesn’t even notice the blush on his face at how close she is.
“Why are you doing,” she points at the materials strewn on the ground, Riftwolf claws and spectral hearts. “This?”
He shoots her a puzzled look, head occupied by how nice she smells. A little like windwheel asters and cecilias with a faint scent of the stars. Sweet. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m just bringing you things I think you might like.”
“That’s exactly what I mean! Why are you doing that?” Lumine looks frustrated, and Childe doesn’t understand why.
“It’s uh. Well, um,” He stutters out a little, thinking about how nice it feels with her against him despite the situation. “Whenever I see them I think of you. So I decided to bring them to you.”
Lumine blushes, realising their situation. “So do you like me?”
“Oh. ” Is the only thing Childe manages out of his mouth. Did he like her? He kept thinking about her all the time, and the sight of her smile never fails to make his heart beat faster and Oh Archons he’s in love with her. He grins like a fool. “Actually? Yeah. I think I do.”