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“Master Childe, welcome back,” the Fatui agent said softly as the ginger-haired Harbinger stepped out of the heavy snowfall and into the office building where he was scheduled to do paperwork for the next few hours. “There is a new report about the Traveler waiting on your desk.” The agent knew better than to expect a verbal answer, and they disappeared as soon as they were given a curt nod.
Childe, or Tartaglia really, had just walked through a literal snowstorm from the small station where he’d arrived to the city at. Snowflakes were flecked all throughout his ginger hair and in the fur of his harbinger coat as well as tracked in on the bottom of his boots. He rolled his shoulders, shrugging off his coat before hanging it up on a hook in his office, also removing his scarf. He was still dressed in his formal attire, not having had enough time to change in between destinations.
He kept his gloves on, glad to have them considering that the room was still chilly even though a fire had been stoked in the small hearth at one side of the room. The report was sitting on his desk, just as the lowly agent had said. The thought of having any news of the Traveler, of Lumine, excited him. It had been quite a while since their brief meeting in Inazuma’s Chinju Forest, far too brief for Childe’s liking.
He may have almost tripped over the leg of his chair in his haste to sit down and go through the report. The snowflakes in his hair had melted and made his hair damp, and Childe pushed it out of his face with an annoyed grumble. Opening the report, he leaned back in his chair to read about the object of his fascination.
The first few lines of the report detailed her goings on in Sumeru. He only skimmed through those bits, annoyed that it was information he already knew. Childe was about to toss the report to the side when he suddenly caught sight of one word: Snezhnaya. Instantly, he leaned forward and began to read in earnest.
Childe was barely able to contain his excitement as he flipped the report to the end to check the date and him, only for his eyes to widen in horror. The good news was that the report had only been compiled a couple of hours prior to his arrival. The bad news was that a blizzard had just begun to roll in. The Harbinger’s heart began to pound in his chest.
He just (((KNEW))) that Lumine hadn’t bundled up or prepared for the weather, and as far as the reports said, she hadn’t obtained the power of Pyro, meaning that she could very well be in the midst of freezing to death.
His body acted unconsciously before he’d even thought of what he was going to do.
Throwing his coat on haphazardly along with his scarf, Childe stepped out into the snow, his urgency alarming the Fatui agents in the building he’d just run out of. “I’m going out, and I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t bother following me. Just keep working.” The order was almost barked out as he made his way through the snow that continued to fall more and more heavily.
Childe was internally cursing at the thought of Lumine out in the wilderness, freezing her cute little head off, though he was just scowling on the outside, the people of the small town avoiding him as much as possible as he made his way through the town. At the edge of town, the young Harbinger gazed in every direction, trying to calculate the most likely route she would have taken. It didn’t take him long to realize that she’d probably be beelining her way to the closest statue of the seven, so that was the direction he took.
The Snezhnayan was in his natural element and was able to cover a lot of ground quickly thanks to being used to the terrain and traveling through snow in general. Unfortunately, any trace of Lumine’s footsteps would have immediately been covered by the falling snow and wind gusts changing the shape of the snow drifts. It didn’t help that the closest statue of seven was a on a large hill. Still, Chhilde didn’t give up as he looked for the petite blonde, eyes straining to catch any sight of her golden hair.
“Oh, zvezda moya, why did you have to pick white as the color of your dress…?” The statement was mumbled under his breath, the words stolen by the wind that had started to howl and tried to knock him over with the sudden gusts.
Soon enough, he reached the large rise off the side of the barely used road what the statue of the seven sat upon, and he began the climb up the hill, the treads of his shoes made to withstand the slippery nature of the snowy ground and to keep him from losing his balance. Once at the top of the hill, he looked back down the slope to see if he could catch sight of Lumine’s golden hair or maybe a glimpse of the small fairy companions she kept with her.
What he hadn’t expected to hear was that same fairy loudly yelling above the wind about “disappearing until you (Lumine?) learn some sense and stop trying to kill us every five minutes.”
Immediately after that, there was a long and drawn out frustrated groan and the sound of something heavy against the ground, almost like someone had thrown their sword. Childe grinned as he walked around the statue of the seven to see the Traveler huddled beside a rock to try and shield herself from the wind as she looked at her map. Sure enough, she was in her normal clothes, not even a coat around her shoulders. Snowflakes decorated her hair, and the Harbinger couldn’t help but be in awe of how beautiful she looked with the snowy backdrop.
Remembering that he was out there to attempt and save her from becoming a popsicle, he stepped down from the statue and slid down the hill to stop just a few feet from the blonde. She hadn't seemed to notice him, too focused on her map, her brow furrowed as she shivered in the knee deep snow.
"Well, comrade, fancy seeing you here!" He kept his voice cheerful, a smile on his face, though he wanted nothing more than to grab her shoulders, shake her, and ask her if she had a death wish. He didn't though, knowing that she'd just be equally as stubborn as he was.
It would be a lie to say that Childe hadn’t meant to sneak up on the Traveler only to pop out at the last second and scare her, but what he hadn't anticipated was the panicked yelp and the immediate loss of balance she had before falling into the deep snow with a gasp, looking up at him like he'd just grown a second head.
"C-childe? What're you doing here?!" Her teeth were chattering as she struggled to stand up in the snow, her petite body shivering despite her best efforts.
Before she had time to react, the Harbinger moved forward and picked her up, tossing her over his shoulder. "I should be asking you the same thing," he said as he walked them down the rest of the slope and closer to another set of hills.
He had much more he wanted to say but decided to save it all until Lumine was warm and comfortable, preferably in his arms.
She squealed as he picked her up, grasping onto the back of his coat, the fur on his shoulders tickling her face, making her sneeze as he carried her away. "Put me down, you stupid Harbinger! Where are you taking me?!"
Childe didn't bother responding, solely focused on getting them out of the weather. He remembered there being a small cave tucked into the side of one of the steep hills nearby, one that would serve them just fine to get warmed up and out of the elements.
"If you (((MUST))) know, I was out here looking for you , my dear Traveler. One of my agents saw you heading out of town right before the blizzard hit. Not your smartest moment, I might add. Just calm down and let me carry you to a nearby cave I know so you can warm up."
She seemed to accept that answer since she stopped trying to kick him in the face and punch his back. "You'd better not try anything funny, Childe."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
The rest of the short walk was silent other than the sound of Childe’s boots breaking through the snow. Lumine wasn’t able to see anything ahead of them since she was hoisted over the Harbinger’s shoulder so all she did was sigh and watch the statue of the seven get smaller and smaller the further they got away from it. She was about to ask Childe if he intended on just murdering her out in the Snezhnayan wilderness, but he suddenly spoke up.
“We’re almost there. Watch your head.”
Before she could ask what he meant by that, he stooped down and entered a fairly decently sized cavern opening, not putting Lumine down until they had gone fairly far into it so that the wind wasn’t reaching them. Childe gently knelt and Lumine get off of him, standing back up to almost his full height, having to lean down a bit because he was taller than the cavern was high.
The blonde was still shivering, the snow dropping off of her body that had collected on her when she was being carried. The flakes were melting and dampening her clothes. Childe took one look at her and sighed, holding his hand up so she wouldn’t just start yelling at him.
“Stay here. I’m going to find some stuff to make a fire. We aren’t going anywhere until this storm passes.”
Lumine looked unimpressed, but she wasn’t able to voice her opinion before he had turned and already left the cavern. “How is he going to find anything not wet from the snow…?” She spoke into the empty cavern, knowing she might as well just wait until he returned. Paimon wasn’t going to reappear for a while as far as she knew.
It didn’t take Childe very long to come back with some very damp looking armful of sticks, and Lumine just looked at him blankly. “How exactly are you going to build a fire with those?”
He just chuckled, a grin on his face. “Use your anemo to dry them off. You don’t have pyro yet, right?”
The Traveler blinked once, twice, and then let out an annoyed huff before she concentrated the elemental energy in her hand and sent it out in a powerful gust, hitting the sticks and making them crash against the wall of the cavern from the strength of the blast. After about a minute of constant air, Childe picked up one of the sticks and broke it in half, checking to see if it was still damp.
“This’ll work. Thanks, Girlie.” He crouched and began to place the sticks in a cone-shaped pile, lighting the sticks with a small flint and steel kit that he’d gotten from Lumine’s subspace inventory.
Before long, there was a fairly decently sized fire going, and Childe beckoned for Lumine to come closer. She had just dried herself off with anemo, also doing the same to Childe’s long coat. It was still chilly in the cave, but it was nothing like being out in the wind and heavy snow. Lumine warily stepped closer to the sitting Harbinger to see what he wanted.
“Oh, come on. I’m not going to bite you,” At least not yet .
That seemed to relax Lumine slightly, and once she was close enough to grab, Childe’s hands shot out and grabbed her forearms, pulling her down with him until she was nestled with her back against his chest, both of his legs to either side of hers, his chin resting on her shoulder as he quickly wrapped his long coat around them.
“H-hey!” Lumine shouted, trying to squirm out of his arms.
His grip was iron tight on her, however, so all she succeeded in doing was to get him to hold on tighter. “Relax, relax. I’m just trying to warm you up. See? My hands are right here, and there’s no knife or weapon in them.”
To prove his point, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, leaning forward to envelop her in his warmth, trying to stop the shivering he could still feel going throughout her body. Lumine seemed to settle down, even leaning back against him slightly as she watched the fire dance in front of her.
“Aren’t you going to ask?”
Childe stirred from his daydreams of pressing kisses to her shoulder after he realized she’d spoken. “Ask what?”
The blonde turned her head, her lips only a few centimeters from his as she gave him a side eye. “Why I’m in Snezhnaya before I’ve even gone to Fontaine.”
“Well, I was pretty sure that you didn’t want to let a Harbinger know your secrets, but since you brought it up, I’ll bite. Why are you in Snezhnaya?”
There was a moment of hesitation before Lumine suddenly moved her hands over his around her, squeezing them lightly, the leather of his gloves warm against her cold hands. “I was… looking for you,” she mumbled softly, almost too quietly for him to hear over the wailing of the storm and the crackling of the fire.
Childe’s eyes widened, his heart skipping a beat. “For… me?” He sounded incredulous, unable to believe that that was the reason she had almost frozen to death in a blizzard.
Lumine sighed, leaning her head back to bonk against the side of his, a rosy flush on her cheeks that Childe was unsure if it was from her being cold or from something (((MORE))). “Teucer wrote to me, said that your birthday was coming up and I… I wanted to see you.” That last sentence was uttered so softly, the flush on her face spreading to the tips of her ears.
He had forgotten all about his birthday, knowing that he’d probably spend it collecting debts or slumped at his desk with a stack of paperwork. Lumine’s words warmed his heart, and he was unable to stop himself from turning his head and pressing a soft kiss against the side of her neck and then another in the crook of it, relishing how her shampoo smelled in her soft hair.
His actions made her jolt in his arms, a soft gasp escaping her as she trembled in his arms. “You really wanted to see me, Girlie?” His voice had lowered as he continued to press soft kisses to her neck and shoulder, unable to stop himself once he’d started, once he’d given into his desires.
Lumine’s body had begun to heat back up, both from Childe’s warm embrace as well as the fire he’d lit in her gut with his attention to her neck. Almost unconsciously, she moved her head to the side to give him more access, moving her hands to grip his legs to either side of her, also giving him his hands back from where she’d had hers on top of his.
“Don’t… make me repeat it,” the blonde huffed as Childe began to lightly trail his hands up her sides. “What are you wearing, by the way?” She tugged on one of his gloves to illustrate what she meant.
Childe just chuckled. “Ah ah. You’re not changing the subject that easily, ojou-chan.” He suddenly moved his hand up and cupped her face, turning it sideways so he could press his lips to hers.
They were chapped from the cold, but he didn’t mind, kissing her with wild abandon until she moved to face him in his arms, moving her legs so that they were on either side of him, their thighs overlapping each other.
“Fine, yes. I wanted to see you for your birthday.” She refused to look at him until he made her, pressing even more kisses to her face, on her cheeks, over her nose, on the forehead; he left literally no place on her face unkissed.
“What did you get me?” His voice had dipped even lower, the heated look in his eyes expectant as he waited for her answer, his hands slipping down to rest on her hips, squeezing the flesh lightly.
Lumine rolled her eyes, sighing as she ran her hands up his chest, pushing them under his scarf. It made him flinch since her hands were still freezing, but he didn’t really mind, not when it was her feeling him up. “Honestly? I picked out a few trinkets, but… maybe there’s something else you want?”
His eyes flashed as they darkened, a grin spreading on his face. “I can think of a few things, yeah.”
The pair spent the rest of the blizzard’s duration in each other’s arms, Lumine not quite letting Childe go all the way while they were in that cave, stating that he’d have to wait until they were in a bed and not on the hard, frozen ground, a request that he had no problem honoring.