Chapter Text
“Oh dear, looks like you’ve caught me.”
Childe looks around, both of his hands tied behind him around a pole in the room. Y/n is breathing heavily, wiping blood from her lips. More blood is spilling from her forehead and she starts to feel lightheaded.
“Hmm, seems that little fight of ours took more of a toll on you than I had anticipated.” Childe smirks, cocking his head to get a better look of Y/n’s expression.
“Shut up.”
“Are the Knights of Favonious on their way here? Is that why you look so...calm?”
Y/n holds a hand up, trying to stay on her feet. Childe catches notice of this, seeing Y/n in her weakened state.
“I’m calm because you’re tied up now. But if you try anything, I’ll-“
“You’ll? You’ll what? Fight back?” Childe is now discreetly undoing his binds with quick subtle motions, unable to catch Y/n’s attention.
“Look at how spent you are, I could do anything to you and you wouldn’t be able to stop me.”
Y/n finally looks to Childe, but it’s too late by then. Childe is already in motion, having sprung up from the pole and lunging towards the traveler. Her eyes grow wide in terror.
“Stay back!” Y/n attempts to use her vision, but her limbs are so sore that even her powers aren’t responding to her exhausted body.
Childe grabs Y/n and forces her to the ground, his body steadily on top of her, a smirk growing on the ginger’s ever greedy face.
“Get off! Get away!” Y/n grunts in futile attempts to escape.
“See? What did I say. I suppose I’ll go gentler on you next time...or, do you prefer it rough?”
“Stop right there!” The door to the room bursts open, an array of knights unsheathing their swords and pointing them at Childe.
“Tsk tsk guess I’ll save it for another day. Don’t forget, Y/n, we will meet again.” The sudden use of his name surprises the traveler, as Childe leaps from his body and pulls out his hydro blades. He smirks, eyeing the knights with easy determination.
“Get him!” The knights charge, only to meet a brutal failure.
“Too easy!” Childe cries out, dodging the incoming attacks and slicing at the men with his shape-changing water blades. It’s only a matter of seconds when he disappears from sight, out the door, and lost somewhere in the depths of Liyue’s intricate wilderness.
“Damn him,” a knight huffs, his breathe shaky as he wipes a trickle of blood from his lips. “Escaping the confiscation room. How annoying,” another man breathes, the sound of his sword clanking to the ground almost making the others flinch.
Y/n couldn’t blame them. She too was exhausted and felt like a beaten horse…was Childe always this strong, this hard to catch? Normally he wouldn’t be a priority-but because of him being a recent nuisance and rebelling from the harbingers, there’s no telling what he might try to do next. Under the Fatui, he tried to destroy all of Liyue and almost succeeded. Now, with him in charge of himself….
The traveler shook the idea away, her head already aching. Her hair was now twisted and knotted, flowing lightly to her shoulders as she sat up.
“Oh, ah, Honorary Knight. We sincerely apologize for allowing him to escape, however, you did a great job getting him captured. Are you alright?”
Y/n turned her head up to face them, the slow pain in her wounds starting to prick at her skin, as if becoming fully aware of their existence. She winced in pain, faltering her shoulders, but held a hand up at the sight of the other knights’ dismay.
“I’m alright, for the most part. But a healer would be nice.”