Chapter Text
Murder was a usual for her just like visiting Wangsheng funeral parlour to get rid of the corpses. Lumine casually walking through the door of the parlour, having a corpse slung over her shoulder was nothing strange to the people working there. She would drop off the corpse, have a chat with Zhongli about work, maybe drink a cup of tea with him and then just as quickly leave, mostly to come back later with another corpse.
Wangsheng funeral parlour was getting payed decently for every corpse that respectfully disappeared. The Fatui were making sure of that. Having Lumine as their newest member had surely been a great step forward for them. Because she was still a low rank soldier, she could be send to almost every stupid commission and finish it with as much efficiency as a harbinger would have done. Maybe even better than any harbinger, the staff of the Northland Bank gossiped, for she had shown that she could easily defeat their boss Master Tartaglia and still fight off a re-awakened god afterwards.
Lumine joining the Fatui had been partially Zhongli’s fault. After revealing that he had had a deal with Signora about his Gnosis from the start, Lumine was harshly suffering from his betrayal and felt fed up with all the nice and correct people in the world. On the other hand here had been Childe – now Master Tartaglia for her for as long as she was wearing a Fatui uniform. She had enjoyed being with him and later despised fighting him. Then with Zhongli’s and Signora’s revelation, he had also been pretty gutted about it which made Lumine feel even more connected to him.
That evening, before Childe had had to go back to Snezhnaya, the two of them had gone from Northland Bank straight to the next bar and just drowned their feelings of betrayal and surprise in alcohol. Initially, Lumine had been rather angry with him (who would have thought) so it was a quiet sitting next to each other, downing one drink after the other. Only once had anyone dared say something about the two teens whose of-age-ness was most definitely unclear but the looks that they shot him – utter murder and pure annoyance – had shut him up easily. They glanced at each other and Childe chuckled.
„You really do look underage, though“, he teased „guess you’ll have to go as my charge then. “
Lumine’s expression went blank as she pointedly emptied her drink in one go, set it down and instantly ordered a new one.
„You are but a child to me, Childe” she then candidly told him with a rather stony smile. He huffed.
„I’m 24; in no world are you older than me. Also, are you really challenging your caretaker to a drinking contest? “
He had donned his business smile again, his eyes glittering with something sinister in them. Maye it was the booze but the smile she returned to him looked too devilish for someone as petite and generally cute looking as her. Zhongli and Signora were forgotten. The game was on.
„Whoever is drunk first has to pay the bill“, Lumine suggested.
Childe – knowing fully well that paying ANYTHING really hurt Lumine’s wallet – was slightly surprised at her confidence. To him it wouldn’t matter who won money-wise but now that he had the possibility to crush Lumine at something, he would surely let her pay back ten times what she did to his pride in the Golden House.
“You’re on.” He agreed.
Both of them ordered their next drink. With every new round, the colour of Childe’s face was becoming closer to that of his hair. Lumine on the other hand only seemed to become more relaxed. He noticed her shoulders sinking and her hand hovering way less time close to her sword, backpack and sword again, a routine she usually displayed at every occasion. She leaned back and stared at him, pointedly arching her brow. He noticed then that she had already emptied her ninth drink, so quickly he followed suit. The dizziness was starting to get worse and he had to grip the counter for help. She giggled.
“That is going to be such a fun trip to the homeland tomorrow, too bad you’re not sharing a boat with Signora. Would have really liked for you to vomit on her dress.”
He looked back at her but couldn’t really focus. She must also be drunk for she usually never says bad things about others he thought. He tried pinching her cheek but caught her ear instead.
“My, my, drinking some and already becoming a bad girlie?”
She frowned and giggled again as he suddenly leaned in to her, lips grazing her ear.
“I would love to see bad girlie Lumine more often, maybe I can get you to join the Fatui when you’re in this mood of yours.”
She shivered under him. He expected her to straight up decline him as she had done before but instead she gently bumped their glasses together and downed drink number ten.
“Keep up with me and I’ll think about it.”
Two drinks later, Childe was suspecting that Lumine was getting less alcohol in her drinks for she was only showing minor signs of the alcohol while he was feeling ever closer to full blackout. Lumine’s cheeks were finally tinting a light pink hue due to the alcohol (which he found rather cute).
“Gennarally Lumine’s real cutee”, he confided to Paimon who was sitting on the counter next to him and gossiping with him about Lumine. Since when? He didn’t know really. But maybe the two of them were the real reason for Lumine’s pink cheeks.
“You should see her petting the animals around Liyue and Mondstadt and her happy squealing. THAT is cute.” Paimon slurred, having helped herself to a great deal of Childe’s drinks in the last hour. Paimon was literally drooling over Lumine which made Childe see her as somewhat of a competitor (but which he would never admit to himself).
“Stop it you two.” Lumine laughed and took Childe’s hand, dragging him to his feet at which time he noticed “my hand” and then dumbfoundly looked at his bar stool and Paimon enjoying the rest of their drinks on the counter. Lumine was tugging at him in the direction of a mob of dancing people which he wouldn’t have called a dancefloor. He hesitated and looked from Lumine to Paimon. Then he took out a big bag of Mora and handed it to Paimon. They greedily took it and peered inside.
“Wow Mr More-Money-Than-Sense showing some sense and admitting defeat!” She chirped and did her little dance. Childe sighed.
“We’ll see to that. We’re not done here yet. But carrying so much Mora is heavy and not especially suitable on a dancefloor.”
Lumine only tugged him along for she couldn’t stand his arrogance any longer. On the dancefloor Lumine was really enjoying herself and dancing her heart out. It had been a long time since someone had been able to keep up with her drinking until she was only so much as lightly intoxicated. Maybe Venti would make a nice drinking buddy for her but as no one in Mondstadt even let her close to anything alcoholic, she had never had the chance to try. Today though, she was having lots of fun after this shit hole of a day.
“Hey! You dance, too!” Lumine had to remind Childe. He had only been standing and staring since she started dancing. Maybe he didn’t know how… But she was proven wrong as he started to move after a short time of processing what was happening around him. She did not expect him to be good at it considering he was a warrior since 14 years old. It surprised her when he closed his eyes and his body moved so effortlessly cool and smooth to the beat. Well, as a warrior one had to control their bodies perfectly she thought. She treated herself to a moment of staring at him, his body and his movement to the music and then joined him, their bodies moving to the rhythm of the music now likely to the rhythm of their battle in the Golden House. Suddenly Childe opened his eyes and held both of her shoulders to steady him.
“Lumine. I’m –“ he started but sagged away. She caught him and easily picked him up while directing a worried look at Paimon. Maybe she had overestimated him. At the bar Paimon was high-five-ing the barman and quite some clients were throwing Mora towards the smugly grinning pixie.