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-✷-
Rule 1
set clear boundaries with the native inhabitants of the world
boundaries should be considered as guidelines
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“Come on, you can’t still be mad at me, can you?”
The moon sat high above them, casting the dark waters of Liyue Harbour with the white light of its reflection. The last boats to leave for the day were long gone by now, and soon, Lumine would be on one of them.
Her time in Liyue would become just another stepping stone towards her ultimate goal, and the people, the friends, she had made along the way would become a distant memory.
She reminded herself of that singular truth as she turned around to face the one man who was neither friend nor foe.
“I think I have plenty of reasons to stay mad at you for at least another century,” She responded tartly, her eyes tracing the way his lips quirked up in the corners.
“Eh, you’re probably right,” Childe conceded, stepping towards the bannister and leaning his forearms onto it. His elbow brushed up against hers when she turned and adopted the same position.
“So why haven’t you given up yet?”
“Impossible odds have never stopped me before, so why start now?” He finished, his teeth as bright as the cheeky grin that spread across his mouth, “Besides, it would be a shame to let a pretty girl like you walk away that easily.”
Lumine had told herself time and again that his words meant nothing. Just playful flirtation, meaningless banter, that was how people like Childe wormed their way into unsuspecting hearts. But even as she chided herself, she could not help but turn her head and capture the way the reflection of the moon twinkled in the boundless depths of his blue eyes.
This close, Lumine could see the pale freckles that scattered across his fair cheeks and the bridge of his nose. She watched the way his unruly red hair was tousled by the ocean breeze, swayed by the softness of his features that gave away his youth.
The wind curled around her, capturing the scent of frost covered pines, the sharp tang of the abyss, and something warm that reminded her of home.
“So, when’s the big day?” Childe asked, breaking through her thoughts before they fell into dangerous territory. His hand swept out to point at the moored boats that bobbed in the gentle waves of high tide.
“Soon. There’s just a few things I still need to sort out first,” Lumine answered vaguely, reminding herself that every answer she gave was just more ammunition to him.
Childe let out a low whistle, his gaze directed towards the hazy glow of the ever present storm that covered Inazuma’s waters.
“This will be a fun one,” He said, gesturing towards it with his chin.
Lumine hated the fact she actually cared to hear his reasoning, the question passing her lips before she could bite it back, “What do you mean?”
“Well, from what I heard Mondstadt’s archon turned out to be a bit of a pushover, and Zhongli, heh . He’s cunning, I’ll give him that, but he’s gone soft in his old age too. But Inazuma’s archon…”
Childe pointed his finger out to where the purple glow was brightest, the cloud flickering as the static energy in the air accumulated. Within a moment, the sky was lit by a spear of lightning, the distant sound of thunder travelling all the way to Liyue’s shores.
“The Almighty Shogun is another story entirely. The moment you step into her country, you’re gonna be on her bad side. Ahh, but what I wouldn’t give to fight her.”
Lumine squinted up at him, a dreamy expression washing over his face as he no doubt imagined his own demise at the hands of the Electro Archon.
“You have a death wish,” She stated obviously.
“I have plans ,” Childe amended with a careless little shrug, “Dying just happens to be one of the inevitable risks.”
For a while, they simply stand together in silence, the quiet of the night broken only by the sound of the water lapping at the pier. Even after everything that had happened in Liyue, it was hard for Lumine to comprehend a day where she wouldn’t be followed by a cheeky ginger shadow.
Her muscles tensed when his hand dropped onto her shoulder, coaxing her to face him. His head tilted to the side as he inspected her, his thoughts carefully hidden behind the mask he wore.
There are no well wishes or goodbyes said between them, but her breath quickened all the same when he stepped closer, his tall frame dipping towards her. Her heart stilled for a beat as she felt his lips brush the apple of her cheek, a barely there caress.
When he leaned back, there was a gleam in his eyes that she didn’t quite understand.
“Let me know when you’re planning to foil another Fatui plot,” He grinned, his fingers plucking at the red mask that perched on the side of his head, “You definitely know how to spice things up for me.”
Lumine watched him walk away, disappearing into the folds of darkness.
And she wondered why her chest felt heavier than it had before.
-✷-
Rule 2
do not form emotional bonds with the native inhabitants
building connections with people can enrich your experience
-✷-
When their paths crossed once again, it was in the bitter wake of war. Inazuma still bled, its wounds not yet healed, and Lumine had never felt so exhausted in her life.
Perhaps it was because she was so tired that she let him take her hand and guide her through the streets of Inazuma City, eating the finest food and drinking the most expensive sake his mora could buy.
He’d been sent to do the cleanup, he’d told her. The Balladeer had run off with the gnosis, and the news of La Signora’s death had to be confirmed before anything was signed off. The food had tasted bitter on her tongue when memories of the Shogun’s wrath flashed in the front of her mind's eye, yet Childe answered all off her questions as though he was simply talking about the weather, fueling the confused well of emotions that sat in the pit of Lumine’s stomach.
But Childe was nothing if not predictable, his voice echoing through the dark corridors of trees within Chinju Forest.
“Come on, let’s spar. I want to see how strong you’ve gotten.”
“ No. ” She refused, her stomach turning at the very idea of wielding her sword again.
“Come on girlie, please?”
Something inside of her snapped, and before she knew it her sword was in her hand, taking a potshot at the unsuspecting harbinger.
“Now that’s more like it!” Childe crowed, his hydro vision flaring to life as his own duel blades formed in his hands.
Childe’s guileless laughter as he dodged and weaved her attacks brought her right back to the war, those weeks, months spent on Watatsumi Island building nothing more than a civilian defence. It brought her back to the training field, and her men, each learning to wield a weapon they should have never had to touch.
Her mind drifted to Teppei, to all the others that lost their lives because of them.
Lumine grunted as her knee collided with Childe’s stomach, forcing him back against the bare stone of the mountainside. Before he even had a chance to right himself, she was there. Spots darkened her vision as she held her sword to his neck, her teeth clenched so tightly she heard her jaw crack.
“Ha- you got me,” Childe wheezed, the hydro blades in his hands returning to liquid as they streamed down to the earth, “Looks like I still need to work harder.”
Lumine’s hand shook, and the edge of her blade nicked the delicate skin of his neck.
“Hey-hey, I yield, you win! Ease up a bit,” Childe said as his hands came up, palms flat in mercy.
Lumine saw red.
“So much death and despair follows me, everywhere I go! And it’s your fault! ” She spat, her blade grazing along his jaw as she stepped towards him.
“ My fault? You know I had nothing to do with the conflict in Inazuma,” Childe denied, pressing his back flat against the stone in defence.
“You, the Balladeer, the rest of the Fatui? What difference does it make? It’s because of you that good people died.”
Lumine’s hand began to quake, her sword trembling in her weakened grip. Yet the flames of her anger burned bright when she watched his fair brows rise in challenge.
“Then kill me.”
Her mouth fell open, a gasp caught in her throat.
“Go ahead, you’ve got me pinned. Go ahead and kill me,” Childe’s smile was cunning even as he tilted his head further back, blood pearling along the edge of her blade as his adam's apple pushed up against it.
“An eye for an eye. It may not be the glorious death I desired, but at least I died fighting a worthy opponent.”
Her tongue felt thick in her mouth as she swallowed, her eyes following the thin stream of blood that travelled the sword’s edge.
It would be so easy. With just a bit of pressure and a downward strike, Lumine would have one less Harbinger to worry about, and Teyvat would have been all the better for it.
It would be so, so, easy.
Staring up into his fathomless blue eyes, Lumine staggered backwards, her hand falling slack and her sword clattering to the ground.
“When I kill you, I want to earn it first,” She said determinedly.
Looking back, Lumine would never be able to work out who moved first. She would revisit the memory, the push and the pull and the adrenaline rushing through her veins. The cacophony of emotions that bubbled up inside of her that had left her brain foggy.
But in that moment, as Childe crowded her back against a tree, her head cradled in his deadly palms and his mouth sealed over her own, Lumine craved the weightlessness she felt in his embrace.
When their lips parted, Lumine felt tears well up in her eyes.
“Why?” She asked, desperate for answers.
“Because I wanted to,” Childe said simply, his thumb catching the tear that spilled down her cheek, “Because you wanted it too. Because here, right now, I’m just a boy with a pretty girl, and I want to see her smile.”
His words were soft nothings, but they soothed the broken edges of her heart all the same. Her fingers curled into the lapels of his coat and brought him closer, lost to his taste and the gentle way he held her.
“Then, make me smile, Childe.”
Their time together in Inazuma was short and fraught with pain, but it set a precedent that Lumine could not escape from.
Try as she might to deny it, the threads of her fate in this world seemed ever intertwined with his.
-✷-
Rule 3
do not make promises without knowing the consequences first
sometimes the best path to take is the one that follows your heart
-✷-
Sometimes, Lumine had dreams so peaceful they filled her heart with longing.
Some were small, almost insignificant. Just bare sensations brushing over her skin, like the warmth of familial love as she felt her brother’s arms wrap around her once more, or the joy of being surrounded by friends.
Others were much more vivid, almost visceral. As though she was peering into a future that hadn’t yet come to pass, but beckoned her forward with saccharine sweet promises of a peacetime that had been hard won.
Perhaps that’s what confused her the most about them.
Because in those dreams, she saw a little white cottage set upon a field, the lustrous green grass rippling with the gentle breeze that blew. Wildflowers of yellow and pink sprouted up in charming clusters, and the wind carried the sweet melody of laughter in the air.
In those dreams, she would see soft fiery hair and that boyish grin that always meant trouble. And in his blue, blue eyes, she thought she could catch the sparkle of light reflected in them like she’d never witnessed before.
If only reality could be so soft, she thought as she pulled the bandage in her hands tight.
“Hey- careful there. You’re gonna cut off my circulation.”
“It’s no less than you deserve,” She huffed, even as her fingers gave some slack, “What are you even doing here?”
Childe clicked his tongue to chide her, “What happened to keeping our business separate?”
“Every time you turn up uninvited, your business becomes my business,” Lumine mustered up as much anger into her glare as she could, and somehow still came up short.
She knew that The Fatui tracked her every movement, and it would have been incredibly naive of her to think he didn’t use the intel available to him to keep tabs on her. Still, even she found it to be a little on the nose when he had turned up just as she had become surrounded by a swarm of ruin drakes.
The network of caves that underpinned Sumeru were vast, and it was easy to get lost within them. Following a lead about some ancient treasures related to the lost kingdom of Khaenri’ah, Lumine had dived head first into the caves without a second thought.
Of course, treasure always meant danger, and though Lumine was certain she could have handled it on her own, the help was begrudgingly appreciated.
Back up on the surface once more, they had set up a small camp under the forest canopy while she tended to his wounds. As she glanced up at his face to see his barely contained smile, Lumine decided she would not be thanking him any time soon.
“Don’t give me that look,” Lumine frowned, as she tucked the end of the bandage away, Childe’s torso thoroughly wrapped.
“What look? I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Childe said innocently even as his hands curled around her waist.
Lumine pursed her lips, her hands planted in the middle of his bare chest to push him back, “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
His fair brows rose in a facade of innocence, reminding her so much of Teucer that she wondered if ‘puppy dog eyes’ could be considered a genetic trait.
“Enlighten me, please,” He beseeched, his fingers sliding down to squeeze at her hips.
“That look! That one! The one where you look at me like I’m- like I’m..,” Lumine swallowed down her words, her lips screwing shut.
“Like you’re the most magnificent person in all of Teyvat? Like you’re my only worthy opponent?” He finished for her, “Like you’re… the strongest, most beautiful woman that I have ever met?”
Lumine felt her ears begin to burn with embarrassment.
“ Well, except for Skirk,” He finished with a flash of his brilliant white teeth.
Lumine’s hand jerked up, palm open as she aimed a slap at Childe’s cheek. But before she could make impact, his own hand curled around her wrist, pulling her into his body and capturing her lips in a kiss.
Her ire is washed away in an instant, her entire body sagging into his embrace.
“I missed you,” He murmured into the space between their lips.
She could not bring herself to affirm his words, because it felt too much like defeat. But she was sure he could feel it in the way fingers combed through the short hair at the nape of his neck, and could hear it in her soft sighs each time their lips parted, only to meet once again.
Perhaps it was her niggling fears that had her hands tracing down his body, exploring paths she had never taken before. Perhaps he had his own reasons for the way he pulled her close, locking their bodies together with nary the space to breathe.
“So, Fontaine eh?” Childe mused aloud, once her desires to taste him were sated.
“Mhmm, I’ve been brushing up on their legal system lately,” Lumine admitted quietly, her fingers tracing patterns in the freckles that smattered across his skin.
“You’ll have to let me know when you get there, I’ll have to take you to my favourite boulangerie. They make these buttery pastries with thousands of layers in them, and they practically melt in your mouth once you take your first bite.”
Lumine turned her face into his chest, a smile threatening to curl the corners of her mouth, “Don’t tell Paimon that, I’ll never get to leave.”
“Ah, but that’s the plan. We can leave Paimon there, and then I will buy us tickets to one of Fontaine’s famous burlesque shows.”
“Burlesque?”
“Mhmm. I’ll pay for us to have a private box, so we can enjoy the show without having to worry about who’s eyes are on us. No Gods, no Fatui. We can argue over whether Fontaine or Mondstadt produce the best wine in Teyvat, and after a few bottles to confirm our opinions…”
She felt his hand wander, brushing over her rear and down her thigh. Ever so slowly, his fingers curled into the fabric of her skirt, pulling it further and further up until the pale skin of her thigh was his to explore.
“The dark atmosphere of our booth will get the better of us, and I’ll get to test whether you are just as flexible as the dancers on the stage beneath us.”
A shiver raced down her spine, goosebumps prickling her skin as his fingers traced delicate patterns over every inch of bare flesh he could reach. Her hands coiled around his neck, holding on to the sense of stability when she felt like she could melt.
“And when I get to Natlan, what will you show me there?” She asked, flushing at the sound of her own breathless voice.
“Natlan?” He murmured into the ball of her shoulder, his mouth pressing a wet kiss to her skin, “Let me tell you about Natlan, and Snezhnaya too…”
When he laid her down, it was not in a soft bed but on the hard earth, the twinkling stars peeking through the canopy above them. She barely noticed how the dry grass scratched at her skin, not when her senses were drowning in him. Taste and touch and smell feed her passion as Childe divested her of her clothes, his bloodstained hands trembling from the rush of adrenaline coursing through them both.
In the lazy euphoria that followed, Lumine felt the judgement of the stars above them like a damning brand.
Waking up the next morning, surrounded by Childe’s warmth, she was reminded of the dreams that plagued her wishful mind. Dreams of that little cottage in a field. Dreams of prancing children and scattered flowers.
It was a future that would never belong to her, or to him.
They were on separate paths, their goals incompatible, even if fate saw to it that those paths kept colliding, over and over again.
But as her fingers threaded through his, she decided that her dreams were boring anyway.
-✷-
Rule 4
attachments can be deadly, avoid them at all cost
sometimes your heart will get hurt
but those happen to be the best stories of all
-✷-
As far as Lumine had always been concerned, the red string of fate was nothing but a fairytale told by heart sick youths. The idea that one’s entire life was leading towards a single moment of serendipity, a single point in time where they met the person they had been tied to since birth was just, well, silly.
A traveller from the stars did not have a fate, only stories to tell.
But as she stared down at the stream of thick red blood that painted the snow between them, Lumine wondered how much longer she could continue lying to herself.
“They were Fatui,” Lumine said softly as she stared down at their slain bodies, “They were… They were your people.”
Childe tilted his head as he inspected his handiwork, his foot nudging a limp arm out of his way. Hidden in the shadows, the jovial mask he wore had slipped, his blue eyes colder than the blizzard itself.
But when he turned back to face her, her heart ached at the sight of his bloodstained smile.
“After all this time, you still don’t get it, do you? Lumine , they’re not my people. You are,” Childe grinned back at her, the back of his hand smearing blood across his cheek, “They were just a means to an end.”
“Ajax, they’ll kill you when they find you,” Lumine said, her voice trembling.
“Not if I kill them first.”
When his hand reached out towards her, she realised the choice that lay before her. She knew the rules, she had lived by them for centuries. Her head told her that she should turn around and pretend that their history did not exist, that the so-called threads of fate had not brought them together, over and over and over again.
Lumine had never been very good at listening to her head, not when her heart could be so loud.
Her hand looked so small when she settled it into his palm, and Childe’s eyes gleamed with future possibilities as his fingers squeezed down on her and pulled her close.
“Come on, we’ve got the whole of Celestia to take down.”
Death loomed before them, and yet Lumine felt herself smile as a single stray thought passed through her mind.
Following the rules was boring, anyway.