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Childe’s eye twitched.
When he asked Lumine if she could accompany her next letter with a few pictures of herself under the guise of him simply “missing the sight of his favorite traveler’s adorable face”, he half-expected her to outright reject his request. After all, Lumine tended to wave off his teasing flirtations. But he couldn't help it – it wasn't even that far off from the truth; he really did miss her.
In reality, his family wouldn’t stop begging him to send over a picture of the infamous golden-eyed girl who managed to capture their troublesome boy’s heart. It was made worse by the fact that Teucer couldn’t stop talking about finally having met the nice lady during his little stowaway adventure for about three days straight. The way Childe described her in his letters certainly didn’t help in quelling their curiosity either.
But now, he was starting to regret it. Lumine’s reply came not long after his initial letter, with Childe unceremoniously snatching the envelope from Ekaterina’s hands the moment she came into his office, excitedly tearing it open, only to find–
His grip on the photos tightened. The poor photos were starting to rip under the pressure, and Childe might as well have burned a hole into the paper at how hard he was staring at them. His eyes were locked on the blonde man sitting next to Lumine, who was leaning in a little too close for his liking, seemingly teaching her how to knit. She had an adorably determined expression on her face, but he didn’t have much time to dwell on that when he was seeing red.
He turned his gaze towards the contents of Lumine’s letter. She had reprimanded him for his “embarrassing” comment in his previous letter, then mentioned how she took these photos just a little while ago.
I spent the day with Thoma today. He’s a retainer of the Kamisato Clan here in Inazuma. He even taught me how to knit. I was amazed at how quick he could clean the entire estate. He even held a small class. I didn’t know one man could possess so many talents in the art of housekeeping. I think you might have some stiff competition in that department, Childe.
Stiff competition. His fingers clenched.
He sifted through the other photos. A picture of the man – Thoma – cleaning as she watched. Then a picture of them sitting together, and Lumine looked so… happy. He certainly didn’t like where this was going. Childe sputtered at the next one, where he was holding a bouquet of all things. He recognised them as those flowers from Mondstadt, some of Lumine’s favorites. His eyes narrowed. The man was handing her something. What exactly it was, he couldn’t guess, but all that mattered to him is that it looked like they were dangerously close to holding hands.
What he did find out, however, was that it took about a day to get to the ports of Inazuma from Liyue Harbor if he gave the waters a little bit of “encouragement” with the help of his Vision.
-
It didn’t take long before Childe was permitted entry into the nation – one glance at him and a flash of his documents made it clear he was a Harbinger – or a Fatui “diplomat”, in a nicer sense. He immediately made his way to the Yashiro Commission after a few minutes of chatting up the locals for directions by throwing around a good smile and a bit of friendly charm.
There, he finally came across the girl who’d been haunting his dreams, her back facing him. And unfortunately, standing next to her, was the man who he was certainly, most definitely , going to kill .
Lumine would probably hate me if I killed her friend, though.
He watched as Thoma continued to inch ever so closer to the blonde traveler.
Probably.
Forcing down the urge to just draw his weapon then and there and bathe the milky white sand of the estate in a nice crimson, he silently snuck up behind her with all the deadly skill that's been drilled into him ever since he was fourteen, and leaned in.
“Boo.”
Lumine lets out the cutest squeal he’s heard yet, and he just narrowly dodges the punch she threw his way. Yikes, that would’ve hurt.
“Childe?”
He beamed; it’s been so long since he’s heard her voice. Archons , he’s missed her.
“Hey, girlie.”
“What are you doing here? I thought you were busy in Liyue?” she said, with a confused lilt in her voice. Her face was scrunched up in a mix of surprise and bewilderment. Too cute.
He laughed. “I was, but your last letter made me a bit curious.” He turned towards Thoma with a close-eyed smile.
“It’s nice to meet you, you can call me Childe.” He offered his hand out to him. Thoma, still confused at his sudden appearance, did the same. Childe grabbed it and shook it with a little too much force than needed.
Thoma winced at the pressure. “The same goes to you, er, Childe. I’m Thoma. I'm a–”
“–retainer of the Kamisato Clan, right?” Childe finished. His eyes opened with a dangerous glint. “I’ve heard a lot about you from our dear traveler.”
Lumine blinked between them, sensing the clouds of tension steadily forming.
“Say, I’m quite curious about the housekeeping classes she mentioned.” Childe hummed. “Certainly you wouldn’t mind one more student joining in the fun?”
Thoma blinked in surprise, obviously not having expected the mysterious stranger who just showed up to be so interested in his housekeeping duties. “O-oh, of course not! Feel free to join us." Thoma smiled. “Though, I can't promise I’m that great of a teacher.” He laughed awkwardly.
“That’s fine with me. I’m quite the enthusiastic learner, you know. So why don’t we get started now?” Childe smirked.
This was going to be fun.
-
The class started out reasonably well, with Lumine and Childe currently being the only students. Thoma discussed the basics of housekeeping, and although a bit awkward at first, he quickly gained confidence the further he went on, pleased at their attentiveness.
Lumine was listening intently, recalling Thoma's strict reminders towards his more distracted students during his last workshop.
It wasn’t anything new for Childe, though. Living with a family of eight and having three rambunctious little siblings had already acquainted him with the ins and outs of managing a household. He simply sat with a palm to his cheek and a smile on his face as he waited for an opportunity to strike.
"Alright, I think it'd be easier to explain this with a practical demonstration," Thoma said, dusting the chalk off his hands.
At that, Childe stood up and raised his hand.
"I have a little suggestion."
"Oh?" Thoma gestured for him to continue.
"I think now would be a great opportunity to test what we've learned." He smirked. "I'm actually quite skilled at housekeeping myself. And I'd love to test my skills against the famed housekeeper of the Kamisato Estate."
Thoma blinked in surprise at his suggestion, but he was also curious to see the mysterious man's skills in action. Who was he to refuse?
"Alright then, show me what you've got."
If Childe noticed Lumine's tense demeanor, he didn't - he was already marching forward, eager to wipe the floor with Thoma (literally).
-
Lumine's misgivings were proven to be correct.
Not even an hour after Childe offered to show off his skills, she'd nearly gotten soaked by a stray splash of water when Childe used his Vision to mop up the floors.
She did admit that he was exceptionally skilled at doing housekeeping work, though, especially in managing to channel his Vision to help speed up the cleaning process. She'd already seen him at work when he first came to visit her teapot, excitedly offering to help her clean things up.
But as she watched the apron-clad harbinger aggressively dust off the walls to the point of sneezing and balancing a dangerous amount of cleaning supplies in his arms, she was starting to think he might be a touch too enthusiastic about cleaning today.
A quick glance at Thoma – who was doing an impressive job in his own right, but quickly realized he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the man at the rate he was going – revealed that he also found his over-enthusiasm…concerning, to say the least.
Childe finished cleaning in record speed, leaving the estate impeccably pristine, and Thoma thoroughly impressed. The housekeeper wasn't very approving of his more aggressive methods, though. Lumine looked down to see her image perfectly reflected in the spotless floors.
Conversely, the Harbinger was completely covered in dust. Lumine couldn't help but giggle at the sight. He pouted in embarrassment and shook the dust off, spreading it all over her.
“Hey!”
“Watch it, girlie. The next time we clean together, you might just turn into a dust bunny.” He chuckled.
Grasping the broom in his hand, he turned towards Thoma.
“Quite an impressive performance don’t you think, professor? I think I’m more than ready to move on to your more advanced classes now.” He smiled, shifting his weight onto the broom. “How about we pick up on those knitting lessons she mentioned?”
Lumine blinked in surprise, not expecting him to bring up knitting. She'd grasped the basics thanks to Thoma’s guidance last time, but she still found herself determined to get better at it.
She turned to face Thoma. “I agree. I’d love to continue where we left off – if you don’t mind, Thoma.”
“Not at all!” Thoma replied happily. “I’ll go ahead and grab the yarn and needles, then we can get to work.”
-
Although Thoma praised her for being a fast learner last time, she still couldn’t quite get the hang of it. Going through all the loops while trying to keep her hold on the yarn and needle correctly proved to be a bit challenging, and Thoma was helping her correct her missed stitches.
Childe didn’t seem to have any difficulty with it all, though. Lumine watched the Harbinger in awe as he breezed through his knitting with swift and skilled fingers.
“Have you done this before?”
“Mm. I have.” Childe mouth lifted into a small smile. “My mother actually taught me how to knit when I was a kid. I would knit scarves, hats, and mittens for Tonia, Anthon, and Teucer as gifts.” His smile turned a little sad.
Lumine's heart swelled in her chest at that, imagining the usually battle-crazed Harbinger sitting down to knit his baby siblings a pair of fluffy mittens for the winter. She smiled. His siblings really meant the world to him. Her heart panged; it reminded her of Aether.
“Your family’s really lucky to have you.”
Childe huffed. “I’m sure your brother must be lucky to have you as a sister too.”
Warmth filled her chest.
“...Thank you.”
-
They sat together knitting in comfortable silence, completely forgetting the fact that Thoma was even supposed to instruct them in the first place.
Thoma didn't mind, though. The housekeeper watched as Childe gently guided Lumine’s hands through the movements, giving her small tips along the way. He pretended not to notice the small blush that covered their faces whenever their fingers touched.
Thoma decided to leave them be as he sat across from them, tending to his own work.
-
A while later, Lumine suddenly felt a soft, red scarf wrap around her neck.
She turned and shot Childe a bewildered look, only to find his face already close to hers.
“As I thought, it really does suit you.” His eyes softened. “You’re going to need it if you plan to visit my family one day.” He grinned.
She buried her face in the scarf to cover her burning face, and Childe laughed at her reaction.
“Hiding from me, printsessa?”
“No,” she said, as she buried herself deeper into the fabric and turned away.
“You promised, you know. Wouldn’t want to lose a pinkie now, would we?” He teased further.
Thoma watched on, a satisfied sigh leaving his lips. He recalled his words to the traveler from a few days ago.
Now, set yourself a small goal to start with. For example, knit a scarf by the time winter arrives. Scarves are always a great choice. When it's finished, you can either wear it yourself, or gift it to a friend!
Just imagining it warms my heart.
He wasn't sure if Childe somehow caught wind of his words from that day, but he was more than pleased with the outcome of today's session.
He decided to end the lesson there, congratulating their performance, and wishing them well.
-
The Harbinger and the blonde traveler continued to walk the streets of Inazuma City together as they crossed through the bridge in the middle of the city, having parted ways with Thoma not too long ago. By now, the harbinger had long forgotten about his initial plan to challenge the blonde housekeeper to a duel that certainly would’ve resulted in a bloody outcome – for the housekeeper, at least.
"You seem to be feeling better," Lumine pointed out.
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"When you first showed up in front of me and Thoma," Lumine started. "It looked like you were in a bad mood."
"I guess that's true," he hummed.
He suddenly came to a stop, catching a falling sakura blossom in his palm. He recalled the photo Lumine sent him where Thoma held a large bouquet of flowers in his arms.
"Childe?" She turned to him. Another query prepared to escape from her lips, before Childe carefully inserted the flowers into her hair, right next to the ones she already wore.
Childe's expression was unreadable, and nothing was said between them as they continued to stare at each other.
Suddenly, Lumine felt herself get tugged forward as a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders in a tired hug. Childe had to hunch down to meet her height, and she stood on her toes in order to meet him halfway.
"... Childe? What's wrong? You've been acting weird all day." Her sentence came out slightly muffled from under his shoulder.
"Did I do something wrong?" She tried tracing back any of her actions from the past few days that could have possibly offended the Harbinger, but she found nothing other than the letter she had sent to him a few days ago.
All it had was a summary of her travels that she'd written out for him and some pictures like he'd asked.
Sure, they were all with Thoma, but she wasn't too sure how to go about pointing a kamera at herself without looking awfully awkward. And she didn't exactly trust Paimon enough to have her hold the expensive gadget around and have it stay in one piece by the end either. So she'd just settled with sending him the photos from her and Thoma's ventures instead.
Wait.
The cleaning. The knitting. The flowers.
Those were all the things Childe requested to do, seemingly out of the blue. Not to mention his sudden appearance in Inazuma.
"Childe, were you just… jealous?"
Silence.
Lumine broke into uncontrollable laughter. She hugged him back just a little tighter.
"Don't laugh!" He grumbled childishly.
"Pfft… Hahaha! I'm sorry, it's just.." She giggled again. Childe could admit that he enjoyed hearing the sweet chime of her laughter, but he found that it wasn't nearly as pleasant when it was at his expense. She buried her face into his shoulder to control her giggling. "If you really wanted to do all those things, you could've just asked."
She lightly swayed both their bodies back and forth in a soothing motion, still locked in a hug. "We can clean my teapot together on your next visit, and thank you for the flowers. I'll even try knitting something for you next time. Maybe even something for Tonia, Anthon, and Teucer too. As long as you're willing to keep teaching me."
Childe perked up at that, lifting his head up from where it was resting on her shoulder.
"Really?" he said, with a hint of disbelief in his voice.
"Really."
His bright grin returned. "It's a promise, then."
Lumine held her pinkie out to him.
"Pinkie promise?"
He beamed as he locked her pinkie with hers.
Her hand was so warm.
-
Thoma pet Taroumaru's fluffy fur, having gone to Komore Teahouse after parting ways with the traveler and her companion.
He sipped on a steaming cup of tea as Ayato entered the room. They exchanged their greetings and continued on with some idle chatter until Thoma mentioned the small housekeeping class he held with the traveler and her strange male companion earlier in the day.
Ayato hummed. "How interesting. In fact, I just happened to come across the Traveler and the 11th Harbinger roaming around the city together before I entered here."
Thoma nearly soiled his lord's pristinely pressed uniform with the boiling hot tea in his mouth.
"... the what!? "