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Lumine stopped short in the middle of Liyue’s main plaza, watching a vaguely familiar child sprinting headlong through the streets. Two more, less familiar, followed.
Paimon poked her shoulder, having stopped in the middle of a sentence. “Traveler? Are you alright?”
“Was… was that Teucer?”
“Eh? Did he run away again?” she asked, fluttering higher to get a better look.
Panicked yelling drifted from the docks, soon followed by footsteps and finally the ginger menace himself.
“Oh. Hey Childe.”
He missed a step hearing his name, looking around until finding the source, then skidded to a stop in front of them. His hair stuck up even more than usual and bags stood out under his eyes. “Have you seen three kids that look like me? About this tall?” he gestured, forgoing a normal greeting.
“They went that way.”
He sprinted where she directed without another word. Milileth soldiers watched him go with narrowed eyes, though they seemed content to leave him be for now. He was dressed in casual clothes and not immediately obvious as a Harbinger.
The two girls blinked after him. Lumine recovered first and started to follow, grumbling quietly to herself.
They found him a few blocks away with Teucer tucked under his left arm, the other boy struggling to pull out of his right hand and the girl dancing away from him.
“Tonia! Come back here!”
He’d sounded less tired after Lumine had kicked his shit in and left him in a ditch once. Now, she took it upon herself to block the little girl’s path. She wasn’t paying attention and walked straight into her legs, staggering back and fixing her with a stern little glare that vanished almost immediately.
“Woah. You’re pretty.”
“Aw. Well thank you.” Lumine bent over almost to eye level. “Are you giving your big brother a hard time?”
“Nooo…”
Childe was too busy wrestling his other brother under his arm to thank her. Lumine looked at him, then back to the little girl. “Are you sure?”
She blushed and looked down, scuffing a pebble with her foot. “No.”
She laughed to herself and held out her hand. “Come on. You shouldn’t make him worry like that.”
The girl took her hand and followed without an argument. Paimon frowned and fluttered forward just as Childe succeeded in hiking his middle brother up and onto his hip.
“Bro, you really need to teach them stranger danger.”
He rolled his eyes. “They know who you are.”
Lumine raised an eyebrow. “They’ve literally never met me.”
“How many other short, blonde women do you know with gold eyes and a white dress?”
“...They’re like five. I don’t think they pay that close attention.”
Whatever the hell had put him in this position was clearly weighing on him. His voice had an edge and his eyelid twitched. “They’re six and eight. They know how to pay attention.”
“Hey Tonia?” Lumine asked without looking at her.
“Yeah?”
“What color are my eyes?”
“Uh… blue.”
Childe blanched.
“Hey Tonia?” she asked again.
“Yes?”
“Who am I?”
She shrugged. “I dunno.”
“Sweet Tsaritsa…” Childe swore. “That’s the Traveler I’ve told you about. She’s the one you can go to if you’re ever lost or scared. Just her! Not random women!”
“Oh. Okay!”
“Oh my God,” he whimpered.
He looked less pathetic after getting half-drowned in their last sparring session. The top two buttons of his shirt were undone and his mask sat partway over his eye. Teucer hung limp from his arm, but the other one was still stubbornly wiggling his way free.
“Anthon! Stop it!” He set him down and held his hand. “You can’t keep running off like that!”
The three girls watched them argue for a moment before he finally got his middle brother to stand still at his side. He sighed, then plastered on a bright smile.
“Sorry about that. Anyway, hi! Fancy seeing you guys here! How’ve you been?”
“Clearly better than you.”
His smile fell.
“What’re you doing in Liyue? I thought you were asked to leave after the… incident.”
He laughed nervously. “Yeah, well, Anthon wanted to see Liyue himself and I’m in charge of the kids for the next two weeks, so… yeah. I’m just hoping that nobody recognizes me.”
“How’d that happen?” Paimon asked.
“Our dad’s sick and needs a break, and my older siblings are all busy with their own lives. So it’s up to me to watch out for the little guys.”
“Hi Auntie Lumine!” Teucer yelled, waving.
“Oh hi Teucer!” she bent down and pinched his cheek, then stood back and switched to her normal voice. “So… do you need help?”
His eyes went wide. “ Please .”
The next hour was spent taking the kids around the entire city to wear them out. For whatever reason, they listened to Lumine but not him.
Actually, they knew the reason. Paimon also insisted on telling him the reasons. She floated by his shoulder and coached him on all the ways he spoiled his siblings, reminding him of their bad manners and basically everything he was doing wrong. He’d be more upset if she wasn’t right.
So, he just followed behind the woman that was better at handling his own siblings than he was and put up with her exposition fairy chattering in his ear.
Lumine passed out snacks to the three kids, a portion to Paimon, another to him and finally took a bite herself. Her cheeks puffed out as she ate, somehow fiercely directing the kids around despite the cute face. He loved her, so much.
Paimon’s voice faded to an incessant whine, more like tinnitus than a person.
Sure, they’d tried to kill each other, but that was all water under the bridge. There was nobody in this world that he trusted and admired more. He’d been content to be little more than sparring partners on the weekends, but seeing her with his siblings did something to his heart.
“Hey, Lumine?”
She paused and looked back, hair perfectly framing her face. “Huh?”
He pulled one of his rings off and handed it to her. “Try this on. I wanna get you a present later.”
She did as he asked, though she frowned. “Thanks, but I’m not really a ring person. I don’t wanna risk degloving myself.”
“Risk whating yourself?”
She held her hand out. The ring hung loose around her finger, about four sizes too large. She shrugged, pulled it off and handed it back to him. “Degloving. It’s when you get your hand stuck on something and the ring is stronger than the meat on your finger.”
“Oh.”
“Rips the whole thing off, right down to the bone.”
“The kids are right there.”
She rolled her eyes. “They’re old enough to hear things like that.”
He snatched his ring back and slipped it back on.
Later, Childe stood with his older two siblings while Lumine and Paimon showed Teucer around the wharf. Tonia explained everything that she wanted in her kite to the nice lady behind the counter and he idly wondered how much it was going to cost. The Fatui’s money wasn’t an object to him, but he'd rather not make a withdrawal from the Northland bank with the kids in tow.
Anthon’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “Hey Ajax?”
“Yeah buddy?”
“You like her, right?”
“Who?”
“Auntie Lumine.”
He made a face. Calling her their aunt wasn’t the best idea in hindsight. Whatever. Tonia took that moment to run back and grab his hand, dragging him over to the table to pay for her kite.
Once he did and the kite was safely in her arms, the two children shared a look.
Anthon cleared his throat and, in a very serious little voice, said, “You need to tell her that you’re a Harbinger.”
He might as well have spit in his face. Childe took a step back, horrified. “What?!”
Tonia nodded. “You can’t lie to people you like.”
“That, that’s not what- Who told you that?!”
“Dad!”
His mouth hung open while he tried to make sense of it. Tonia filled the silence. “Dad always says how important being honest was with Mom.”
He dragged his hand down his face. “No, who told you that I’m a…” He couldn’t even say it himself, not to them.
“Deda Pulcinella,” Anthon replied.
He was going to kill him. He didn’t care if he watched his family while he was away. Not telling them what he did was the one condition for him being Pulcinella’s personal attack dog.
“And Boris!”
“And Ivanna, and Laslo, and-”
They continued listing half of the inhabitants of their hometown. Childe’s fury diminished with every name and, eventually, he realized hiding his work was rather quite stupid. He was the closest thing Snezhnaya had to royalty. Of course people would talk about him, and of course they’d talk to the kids about it.
At length he interrupted them, voice shaking. “Does Teucer know?”
“Yeah.”
Well fuck him in the ass and leave him out to dry. He’d been careful for absolutely nothing. Childe sat down on the ground while the world fell out from under him. His two siblings hovered nearby.
“Ajax? Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” he lied. “How long have you known?”
“We’ve always known.”
“Cool. Cool.”
It was not cool. He sat there in shock for a few minutes, until Lumine eventually made her way back with his other brother.
“-d that’s why boats float! Dendro’s pretty cool, right, Teucer?” Snippets of her voice drifted over, cut short as they rounded the bend. “How about we- oh my god. Childe? Are you okay?”
He gave her a weak thumbs up. Anthon and Tonia took it upon themselves to march up to her and make their announcement.
“Ajax wants you to know that he’s secretly a Harbinger.”
Paimon squeaked. Lumine’s eyes widened and she looked over at him for what to do, but he just shrugged.
“It’s important that you know before you kiss him.”
Oh, lovely. This is what hell was like. He couldn’t even be embarrassed anymore. He just sat there and let things happen.
Lumine, to her credit, just raised an eyebrow. “...Huh. I… didn’t. Know that. What’s a Harbinger?”
Teucer’s eyes went wide. “You don’t know what a Harbinger is?!”
Someone, please, kill him now. The lady at the kite stall was shamelessly staring as the scene unfolded.
Tonia stepped up. “Harbingers are the heroes of Snezhnaya! They fight monsters!”
“Save cities!” Anthon added.
“They’re the coolest! I wanna be a Harbinger when I grow up!” Teucer finished.
Lumine laughed, semi hysterical. “Wow… Yikes. The propaganda starts young over there.”
She squatted down to get on eye level with him. “Teucer, buddy. What about being a toymaker?”
“I can do both, just like Ajax!”
Both adults winced. Lumine just shook her head and offered him her hand, helping him to his feet. The kids were still talking a mile a minute about how cool he was and all the wonderful things he did for the good of their country.
He stopped them with a loud announcement. “I’m hungry. Is anyone else hungry? Let’s go get lunch.”
And then he walked off and trusted them to follow.
The kids were well and truly exhausted by the time they finished lunch. Lumine and Paimon accompanied him to take them to the inn. Though, in his usual unhinged manner, he popped by a jewelry store on the way.
He waited until there was pause in the conversation to nudge the blonde woman. “Hey Lumine?”
She paused mid-conversation with Teucer. He’d heard women joke about ovaries exploding whenever men were good with children, but they didn’t realize the same was true of him. Between her personality, the way she was with the kids and the fact that she could kick his ass without breaking a sweat, he’d be stupid not to make a move.
She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Yeah?”
“You ever think about getting married?”
“Sometimes. Why?”
He pulled out the ring he’d just bought and presented it to her. She looked down at the box, blinked twice, then looked back up at him. “...Dude.”
“What? Live fast, die young. Whaddya say?”
She squinted at him, mouth half open in something that hopefully wasn’t disgust. “Asking someone in public is like, the rudest possible thing, especially in front of your kid siblings. How am I supposed to say no?”
“Well fine,” he grumbled and tucked the box into his pocket. “I’ll ask you again in an hour. How’s that sound?”
“I’m not marrying a Harbinger.”
He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “C’mon, I’m a hero.”
“You’re a terrorist .”
He choked and covered his heart with his hand. “I am not!”
She gestured around at the scars Osial had left in Liyue’s foundation. “Yes you are!”
Ah, welp. He didn’t have a comeback for that one. He scratched the back of his head. “Er… okay. Fine. What if I wasn’t a Harbinger?”
“Like you’re gonna quit your cushy job for me.”
“Watch me.”
She hesitated, then looked back at him. “Wait, seriously?”
He shrugged. “You know I’m not really in it for patriotism. I can fight just as many powerful opponents by your side. So, is that a yes?”
She made a face, then brought her fist to her mouth. “Uh… I mean. Could we go on at least one date first?”
He lit up. “Sure! When and where?”
“Uh, I dunno. You pick?”
“I just proposed to you. You need to put some work in if you want this relationship to happen.”
She smacked his arm. “Well excuse me for being caught off guard! I don’t even know what you like to do besides fight!”
“Most people go to dinner.”
They arrived at the inn and Childe opened the door for them. The kids and Paimon all flopped down on anything soft, soon falling into naps. “I appreciate you guys helping with the kids, by the way.”
“Oh, of course. You know I love Teucer almost as much as my own brother.”
He pulled her into a side hug, squeezing her shoulder and admiring how neatly she fit under his arm. So much power in such a tiny package. She still seemed a little stunned by the sudden relationship and, frankly, he was too. He expected her to just say no outright.
“So… dinner next week after we spar?”
“Sounds good to me!”
They just stood like that for a while. Childe couldn’t keep the smile off his face, fidgeting from foot to foot and giddy with excitement. He didn’t expect this to work.
He should bring his siblings places more often.