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Lumine is the bearer of gifts and small happiness.
She comes, and goes. Never lingers too long or stays too short. Sometimes, Lumine is at the Nation of Contract, and the Nation of Freedom next, before the wind leads her to the Nation of Eternity, Inazuma. This cycle repeats, with variation to the order, where she wanders off to places Ayaka could only begin to imagine in her dream and never truly experience.
Unlike those who grow older and wiser the more they see the world, Lumine only grows younger and more curious. A child with eyes sparkling like glass beads. A child with a smile like a thousand suns. A child with love for the moon and the stars, the land and the sea, the trees and the wind, and the ants and the butterflies.
She is full of love for herself and the universe. Never barren. Always giving.
When she went to Liyue, Lumine had plucked glaze lilies--a type of Liyuen flower of bluish white petals with a yellow diamond snug in the middle--and gathered them into a small, handmade bouquet. Ayaka still remembers the smell--delicate and fragrant and sincere. Ayaka kept it in a vase in her room for a few weeks, until the stems and petals turned brown and wilted. On another occasion, Lumine had given Ayaka raw Cor Lapis she mined at the cliff of Mt. Hulao--a crystal of pure condensed geo element. Glowing gold like sunset. Like her eyes, like her hair.
Similarly, when Lumine went to Mondstadt, she had plucked Cecilia from Starsnatch Cliff, and weaved a pure white garland for Ayaka. Cecilia is Mondstadt's symbol of strength and unbound soul--a gift Ayaka wasn't certain she deserved. At another time, Lumine had come visiting with a handful of fresh hand-picked Valberries from Stormbearer Mountains. Plump, translucent fruit with refreshing sweetness. The pink juice of the berries made quite a mess, leaving pink trails on Lumine's white dress, on their lips, on their fingers. Ayaka had to recall the lesson on etiquette as she stifled the urge to lick Lumine's lips and fingers clean.
With each gift she gives to her, Lumine brings with her a small happiness. A pure, unadulterated happiness. For Ayaka to remember--in its simplicity, in its sincerity.
Today, Lumine comes with something different. A necklace with a delicately carved pendant made of refined Noctilucous Jade. It is the color of the sea, with magic that lies within. Shimmering sapphire blue. Ayaka is reminded of the time when Lumine had said about Ayaka’s blue hair and blue eyes, adoringly--‘blue is the warmest color’--not knowing what it did to Ayaka. Not the fluttering of a butterfly landed in her chest that day. Not the Lumine-shaped imprint in Ayaka's heart that only grows bigger since then.
“It doesn’t cost me anything. Don’t worry, My Lady,” Lumine says, crossing her legs and humming that familiar melody. From that night the two of them first spent time together at Chinju Forest.
Lumine isn’t the first person addressing her with ‘My Lady’. Most if not all the servants of the Kamisato Estate call her such, but no one has spoken it in such a genuine, beautiful manner. Ayaka likes the way it sounds on Lumine’s tongue. Smooth like butter. Easy to the ears. Like she truly means it--that Ayaka is her ‘Lady’.
“Today is a special day,” Lumine continues.
“And why would that be, if I may wonder?”
Lumine smiles her sunlit smile. Her smile of a thousand suns. “My birthday. Is today.”
Birthday . How careless. Ayaka hasn't remembered to ask for her birth date. Often, birthdays come with celebrations with loved ones. A demand for something more; time, present, attention. But Lumine isn’t any different from she was the last time she visited. Only a bearer of gifts and small happiness, and demands nothing more.
Perhaps it is due to this, that Ayaka is driven by the urgency to give . For Lumine to know that Ayaka, too, has something to give to her. Always has.
This results in their rendezvous that same night at Chinju Forest, after Ayaka requests for her time for another ‘date’. The sky watches over them. Of the two mismatched stars aligned--a hot gold star and a cold blue star--alone and together. Bright amidst the dark, walking the land below as if it were the sky.
“The sakura mochi is very pretty. I didn’t know you could make something like this,” Lumine says when she unseals the wrapping of the box Ayaka gives to her.
“It’s the only thing I could make, I’m afraid,” Ayaka replies.
They are seated on a large rock, side by side, surrounded by the blue glow of the flowers at the old shrine. Ayaka’s feet are dangling above the surface of the stream of water, warm and dry. She has promised Thoma she won’t wet her socks this time.
“Happy birthday,” she breathes as Lumine nibbles on the sweet. “I have a gift for you.”
Tilting her head, Lumine says, “Isn't the sakura mochi…”
Although Ayaka has many fears, there’s one thing she scares most; to love and to not be loved in return. But Lumine teaches her the gift of love. That to love simply means to love, and nothing more. Should there exist something more, it is only a love re-returned.
Ayaka, shy and flustered as she is, closes the distance between them. Unhesitating, until their lips meet. Ayaka savors the softness of Lumine, the taste of Lumine, captured in that fraction of seconds. A soft brush of lips against lips. A kiss that doesn’t demand a kiss-back.
Yet, Lumine holds her and kisses her back, and gives to Ayaka, again, a piece of herself.
Never barren. Always giving.
This is love. This is Lumine’s love. And Ayaka has never been more in love than she does at the moment.
“Ayaka, My Lady, was that your first kiss?” Lumine asks against her lips.
Heat spreads on Ayaka’s cheeks, and she says nothing. Lumine giggles, with the carelessness and the carefreeness of a child. Then, Lumine kisses her again. A love re-returned. A gift and a small happiness.
“Your first kiss. I will keep it with me safely,” she says.
And they talk some more. Lumine doesn’t talk about next week or next month, or next years or the years following that. She only talks about ‘today’ or ‘tomorrow’ or ‘someday’, but there’s a promise behind her words. And Ayaka believes in her; that her wandering will bring her far from Ayaka, but so long Lumine is the bearer of gifts and small happiness, she will return.
And Ayaka, with Lumine’s love tucked carefully in her heart, will wait for her.