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Nahida sprints as she holds onto her bag, she was going to be late to the brunch hangout she had set up with Scaramouche, or well The Wanderer now. After he had been defeated, he lost his memory and was lost. It’s been a little over a week since this had happened, and The Wanderer was new to the world, she was as well in a way. She gets to the cafe and bursts through the door. She sees him sitting already waiting for her. She jogs over to him and waves.
“Sorry for being late, I couldn't choose a good outfit but then I saw this in my wardrobe and I thought wow! That’s a pretty lime green,” Nahida puts her bag down and adjusts her lime green skirt.
“It’s okay Nahida, it was only a few minutes, no one is perfect,” The Wanderer responds, his hat on the floor next to him. “I’m really glad you set this up, I’m really new to all this considering my memory is well, y’know gone! Aether and Paimon can only do so much to help me and they refuse to tell me who I was before.”
“I’ll tell you what you’d like to know, but before that, we need to try Kopi Tubruk according to Dunyarzad, she said it’s very refreshing,” Nahida states happily.
“I’ll hold you to that Nahida!” The Wanderer chuckles as the waiter walks over. She’s a vision bearer, and someone Dunyarzad had introduced to her.
“Hello, Nahida and her good friend,” the young woman's name was Anaisha, a geo vision bearer. Compared to Nahida and The Wanderers milky white skin, hers was a gorgeous shade of brown. She was probably the prettiest woman in Sumeru city as a whole! She was also one of the most inventive people in Sumeru, she was saving up to study in Fontaine. “What would you like for your meal today, you two cuties!”
“I uhm, I’d like Kopi Tubruk,” The Wanderer looks a little flushed at the compliment, he doesn’t look used to them quite yet.
“I’d like to have the same Anaisha, Dunyarzad suggested,” Nahida states, Anaisha chuckles and puts her hands on her hips.
“Alright cuties, I’ll get you both your drinks and then you can decide what you’d like for food,” Anaisha states with an award winning smile.
“Thank you miss Anaisha!” The Wanderer says with a flush still on his face.
“Your welcome cutie!” Anaisha responds, walking off to the kitchen. The Wanderer suddenly blushes even more.
“I didn’t even tell her my name!” He puts his hands on his face, with an embarrassed look.
“It’s okay Wanderer, don’t worry about it, you’ll just tell her when she comes back you big goofball,” Nahida giggles as Wanderer still blushes. “You haven’t been complimented before have you…”
“N-no, I can even somehow tell that in my old life I haven’t, the feeling was warm, different,” Wanderer puts his hands on his cheeks and sighs. “I haven’t felt this way ever, I can tell.”
“I’m sorry, I can imagine what it must be like, before I realized I could walk in the dreams of the children of Sumeru, I had a cold existence, I almost ended up like the original you had, resentful, cold, full of hatred, but unlike you, I had the children of Sumeru as my support system, you never got that. Nahida puts her hand on the table, and another on her chin. “But now looking at you, you’re warm, happy, full of joy now that you don’t have your past weighing you down, you can do whatever you want without the shackles that held you in your rage.”
“I am glad then that I lost my memory, I get to experience life in a new way, and I thank you for that, Nahida,” Wanderer smiles as Nahida nods happily. Wanderer looks down, she knows he’s about to ask a serious question just by his face. “What did I do? Did I hurt people?”
“The old you did hurt people, there was a man, his name was Teppei according to Aether. He was killed because of your actions. You were full of hatred after Ei, the electro archon wanted you to experience the world yourself. You didn’t realize this, you thought she abandoned you, and after this you met a blacksmith, the Khaedhara clan's ancestors, he feared you and left you alone again. Then the final time you believed you were betrayed, a child that you took care of passed away because of a disease, at the time you didn’t understand, but now you do,” Nahida explains. “Sometime along the way you became the Balladeer, a harbinger, during that time I imagine you hurt many, but now is your time to fix your mistakes.”
Wanderer sits for a moment, in complete and utter silence. Nahida can hear sniffling from him. She reaches her hand to hold it gently as he cries.
“That was hard to hear, but I needed to hear it, thank you Nahida,” Wanderer states, rubbing away his tears. He smiles with a sad smile.
“You’re right, you did need to hear this, you’re going to grow and be so much better than your old self,” Nahida smiles as Anaisha comes back to the table with the drinks.
“Hey there dears, sorry for the wait,” she puts down the drinks for both of them. Wanderer takes a gentle sip and gives a thumbs up. Nahida chugs half of the cup and smiles widely.
“Delicious!” Nahida smiles happily, the Kopi Tubruk was incredibly tasty in her opinion.
“What about you Nahida’ friend, how was it?” Anaisha asks with a bright smile.
“You can call me Wanderer, and it was really good,” Wanderer looks up at her, and Anaisha starts to fret over him.
“Oh dear, were you crying? Are you okay?” Anaisha kneels down slightly.
“I’m okay now,” Wanderer responds with a weak smile. Anaisha nods and stands back up fully.
“Alright, now what can you get you two next?” Anaisha asks. “It’s on the house.”
“I’d like to try some Fontaine Croissants please, I’ve had nearly everything on the menu but those at this point,” Nahida states, holding the large menu in front of her.
“I’d like a mooncake, that actually sounds really good,” Wanderer states with a teary eyed smile.
“Luckily for you our Chef’s just finished a batch of each of those, you’re getting them fresh,” Anaisha states, she jogs off to the kitchen yet again.
“I really like this coffee,” Nahida states, taking another large sip.
“I thought it was called Kopi Tubruk?” Wanderer states.
“Well yes, but it’s also a type of coffee. Like there’s expresso, iced, a bunch of types of coffee, and this is one of them which just happens to be a Sumeru specialty,” Nahida says as Anaisha comes back with two plates of a few croissants and mooncakes.
“When it’s around the Lunar New Year you should come by and try our mooncakes then, it’s a whole style and tastes absolutely divine,” Anaisha claims. “I’m going to check the other tables out just in case, call me if you need anything.”
“Okay, thank you Anaisha!” Wanderer responds, Nahida nods as Anaisha makes her way to a table across the cafe. Nahida grabs a croissant and takes a bite, she smiles, the flavor is great, bread truly is one of the best things ever created.
“These mooncakes are delicious! Nahida you’ve got to try one!” Wanderer groans in happiness as he chews away.
“You need to try a croissant, tradesies?” Nahida holds out a croissant.
“Tradesies definitely,” Wanderer holds out a mooncake and takes the croissant. Nahida takes a large bite out of the mooncake and smiles with a satisfied look. Truly Sumeru’s best cafe ever! Wanderer looks blissed out at the immaculate taste of both the mooncakes and the croissant. Nahida can understand why, they’re absolutely perfect! “Why did I never try this when I was in my old life! This stuff tastes so good!”
“I know right?” Nahida smiles, in their joy they fail to notice the small group of people accumulating around them, I mean she is the dendro archon for crying out loud, she should’ve realized that people would be nosy. When she does notice them they start to congregate around their table.
“Hello Lesser Lord Kusanali!” one of them says. “It’s so great to meet you!”
“Oh hello, you can just call me Nahi-” she’s cut off abruptly by one of them taking a picture of her with a kamera. “Hey I didn’t give you per-”
“Look, she's so cute! I didn’t realize Lesser Lord Kusanali was so adorable!” a woman says, she’s holding the developed picture in her hands.
“Can we all take a group photo?” another asks.
“Uhm s-” Nahida doesn’t get to speak, she’s roughly grabbed out of her seat and held as they take a group photo with the kamera. “Hey stop! Put me down!”
Wanderer sits there frozen for a moment, he looks like he doesn’t know what to do, Nahida looks at him with a pleading look.
“Can you guys maybe not pick her up without telling you it’s okay?” Wanderer stands up angrily.
“Ugh, who are you anyway? You aren’t like her dad or something, she can’t have any, she's a god,” one of them says rudely. Nahida is hit right at home by that comment.
“No, she’s my friend and if you don’t unhand her this instant I will make you drop her forcefully!” Wanderer shouts, cracking his knuckles.
“Whatever, we’re leaving anyways, c’mon guys,” one of them says, frowning angrily. Nahida isn’t set on the ground, but dropped to it like a toy that’s been discarded, Wanderer catches her before she can hit the ground.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you? I swear if they did I’ll cut them in half!” Wanderer holds his hands in fists, and stares as the group leaves.
“I’m okay…” Nahida mutters as Anaisha runs over.
“What happened? I was gone for like a minute!” Anaisha exclaims kneeling down.
“A bunch of jerks were bothering Nahida, they’re gone now,” Wanderer states unhappily. “They need to learn their place.”
“Hey no, there’s no need to be mad, they just wanted to get a photo with me,” Nahida says, trying to defend the very people who hurt her.
“Why aren’t you angry? Nahida I’ve only been here for around a week but I know that it’s okay for people to be angry,” Wanderer states, he really has grown so much, but it’s impossible for Nahida to hate the people of Sumeru no matter how horrible they are.
“I can’t be angry, I can’t hold any grudges, I’m an archon,” Nahida states.
“Hon, you’re an archon but also a child, you have a right to be upset,” Anaisha says, putting her hand gently above Nahida’s shoulder. Wanderer scoots forward slightly and Nahida jumps into both of their arms hugging them tightly. She cries, the lucky fact that no one was in the cafe anymore was Nahida’s favorite fact of the day.
“I’m not supposed to be mad, I’m a god, I can’t just hate mortals!” Nahida sobs. Wanderer and Anaisha hug her tightly.
“You’re safe here, we are here for you to cry to, to vent, anything. That means you too Wanderer, you guys are family,” Anaisha states, she pulls them both under her chin and gives them both gentle motherly kisses on the head. “Even though I just met both of you fairly recently I’m going to protect you both.”
“Thank you, Anaisha,” they both respond as they stand up and get back into their seats to eat the mooncakes and croissants together.