Chapter Text
Dating a traveler is a hard task that many people cannot handle.
Dating a traveler means that you cannot expect that they will come home looking as healthy as they did when they left this morning.
Dating a traveler means that you need to prepare for the worst: that after giving you a sweet kiss in the morning, the one who knocks on your door may not be them, but their partner or the guild, here to inform you that your loved one is gone.
Dating a traveler means that you can’t expect their miserable looks when they come home and suddenly hug you tightly, as if they experienced a near-death experience.
Dating a traveler means they probably won’t come home tonight, the next day, or the day after.
But dating a traveler also means that you can listen to their adventure stories, their fights, their achievements in other countries you can hear about the food from their many travels, and they can give you things that are not available in your nation.
But most importantly:
Dating a traveler means that you are ready for the worst but at the same time you feel so lucky to become someone’s place to come home to, to tell their story and how even though they have already gone to so many places they still prefer to choose that your embrace is their place to come home.
~
Furina hums as she prepares for tonight’s dinner, she can’t hold her excitement because how Lumine told her that she will come home early today because she only got 4 commissions for today, but one of them took place in Liyue.
She smiles when she looks at the lakelight lily that sits on her vase at the dining table. Lumine gave her that yesterday, she said that she took it on her way home near the Loch Urania and she immediately thought of her girlfriend.
It makes her happy again as she continues to cook. Recently she tried to cook one of the first foods that Lumine was able to make in her early days in Teyvat and it was Sweet Madame. The ingredients are quite simple, you only need fowl and sweet flowers, and boom you can make it. It sounds like a simple recipe but if you are Furina, a simple recipe can be a really hard recipe and that’s how she is now. Patiently waiting for the chicken to get cooked perfectly with the sweet flower.
Minutes passed and finally, her cooking was done, displaying a glassy with sweet scent coming from it making her proudly say that this was the most perfect dish that she ever made. Now she needs to bring her food to the table and set the table for them both.
Once she’s done setting the table, Furina then takes a seat on her sofa, patiently waiting for Lumine to come home. She occasionally checks the watch to see if Lumine will come back soon or not.
Minutes have passed and Lumine still has not come home, she check her watch, 10 minutes late, it's not that late but knowing Lumine, she is rarely late.
Furina shrugs, it's probably just one of the nights where Lumine is late, and it's not like it's her first time getting home late, it's just one of the night.
Furina reaches out to the pillow on her sofa, she hugs it making Lumine’s scent come out from the pillow.
“I gave you this pillow that I got from Inazuma,” Lumine said, handing the pillow to Furina who took it with a confused expression.
“What so different from the other pillow, if I may ask you?” Furina inspected the pillow, trying to find the difference between the pillow, because she remembered that Lumine told her that this was a special pillow.
“Try to squeeze it,” Lumine said, smiling at Furina.
Furina softly squeezes the pillow, surprised when she can smell Lumine’s scent coming out from the pillow, warmness suddenly fills her, it feels like her girlfriend is hugging her from behind.
Lumine smiles at the scene, she's happy that she asked Miko about that special pillow, she is sure that the teasing from Miko is worth the scene of Furina smiling and hugging the pillow.
“I bought it so that when a day when I’m not home because of the mission, you can hug that pillow to prevent you from loneliness, Furina,” Lumine said walking towards her girlfriend.
“You said as if you tell me that you won't come back anymore,” Furina pouted at Lumine, “If that's what you meant then I don't want this pillow, I prefer the real person to come home and hug me for real,” tears starting to form in Furina’s eyes, she tried to hide it but the tears just came down faster than she can wipe it.
“I’m sorry Furina,” Lumine said and she hugged Furina tightly, letting her girlfriend cry in her embrace,
“I just don't want you to feel alone when I’m gone.”
~
Furina is pretty sure that it's been an hour since the time that her girlfriend should come home. She can't help but feel anxious, trails of what-ifs start playing on her head.
She shook her head, trying to clear her head from the worst,
No, Lumine promised me to come home today, and she always fulfilled her promise.
But seeing the state right now, Furina wondered if she would come home today, even if she did not come home, Lumine would send her a message to let her know about her sudden not coming home.
Knock Knock
Furina jolted because of the sudden knock on her door, and she know for sure that it's not Lumine because she know so well that her girlfriend never knocks and just comes in announcing that she's home.
Knock Knock Knock
“Lady Furina?”
Clorinde’s voice can be heard from outside, wait is that panic that she heard from the champion?
Furina quickly opened her door, wondering why Clorinde sounded so rushing and demanding.
The moment she opens her door, horror can be seen on her face, it's raining outside, and she sees how Paimon lies unconscious on Clorinde's hands.
Before she can't even ask about her girlfriend, Clorinde quickly adds.
“Lady Furina, I’m sorry but the Traveler…”
~
Furina quickly goes to the hospital where Lumine is, she doesn't mind the stare that she gets from rushing to the hospital, how can she? How can people not stare at her? hair undone tied in buns, wearing shorts and Lumine’s jacket, don't blame her for wearing her girlfriend’s jacket because she is in a state where she should be thinking about her appearance, she needs to see her girlfriend.
Upon reaching Lumine’s room, Furina saw Neuvillete talking with Sigewinne, even though they needed to bring the fortress’s doctor here.
“Lady Furina, You're here-”
“Where's she, Neuvillete? I-i mean Monsieur Neuvillete,” Furina said trying to stare at those dragon eyes.
“We can't come to her room yet, my lady because they are still inspecting her, but I can assure you that I already asked the best doctor from Fontaine to handle her,” Neuvillete said, trying to calm her former archon down, he put his hand on Furina’s head, he always do that to her whenever he felt that she's anxious.
“How can I be calm when my girlfriend is there and her partner is lying unconscious in Clorinde's hands???” Furina can feel tears coming down her face, her head is playing in much worse situations at once.
“I believe that Miss Paimon here is okay and she's laying because she's exhausted from bringing the Traveler all the way here,” Neuvillete said, “And I can assure you that because I check her first before I give her permission to go to your apartment, Lady Furina,” Neuvillete said, smiling softly at Furina.
“I-I just…I already expected this but it's still scary,” she said in between her sobs, she was already prepared for the worst but when it came to reality, she was so scared that she always prayed that her girlfriend would be safe.
“Fu…Furina?” a faint voice can be heard from Clorinde's hands, Furina turned around to see Paimon slowly opening her eyes, she quickly went on to Paimon and taking her to her embrace, “I’m glad that you're okay, Paimon,” Furina said trying to hide that she's currently crying.
“Furina…I’m sorry that…I can't bring her back safely,” Paimon said weakly, she was probably still exhausted from Archon knowing how far she had been flying carrying the traveler.
“She's in there Paimon, she will be okay, I believe that the doctor can heal her,”
“You don't know how much-”
“Iudex Neuvillette, may I have some- Oh, good afternoon Lady Furina,”
The doctors go out of the room, and a slight stain of blood can be seen on their coat making Furina’s heart swim in the ocean of pain.
“Knowing that Lady Furina is here too, I think it's best to talk about it together with you,” The doctor said, looking at Furina, instructing her and Neuvillete to come with him for a moment, Furina gave Paimon back to Clorinde.
After the doctor makes sure that they are far enough from the others, the doctor slowly pulls down his mask and looks at them both seriously.
“So I have both bad news and good news for you guys,” the doctor said, Furina took a big breath to anticipate what the doctor would say next.
“The good news is the traveler is alive but at the same time she's dying, I believe that she took so many explosive bullets and some poison gas that it's made her get burn scars and some broken bones on her lower half,” upon hearing the doctor explanation, Furina feel like the worst thing that she wishes won't happen, did happen to her.
“And…the bad news is?” Furina said, trying to calm her down, she could feel Neuvillete's hand on her shoulder.
“I’m afraid to say that we need to move her to Sumeru because apparently, she took like 70% poison gas but we are successfully letting it all out to say that it's safe to touch her with bare hands, but she's not entirely safe because she still needs the cure, and the problem is that the cure is currently available in Sumeru only, and with her current state right now…I’m afraid there's a possibility of her not surviving the transfer from Fontaine to Sumeru” the doctors said making the tears from Furina’s eyes fall down, making her sob.
“I’m so sorry about this Lady Furina, but we will try our best to make her survive and we will inform the Akademiya in Sumeru to help her move,” Furina is still sobbing, she can't think of the possibility of Lumine’s survival rate, yes she is the strongest Traveler she ever met but still Lumine is a human, even if she's from the other worlds, she is still a living creature and she can die from everything.
“D-doctor, can I see her right now?” She said in between her sobbing.
“Yes, and I believe that she’s awake right now, but I need to remind you that her appearance right now is probably not a sight that you want to see right now,” the doctor warns her, “It's okay, I…I want to see her,” Furina said wiping her tears, “And can I bring her companion too?”
“Of course, Lady Furina,”
She took a deep breath before she opened Lumine’s room, her breath hitched when she saw her girlfriend's state as if she couldn't recognize her if it was not for her blonde hair. Scar in every spot that she can see, burn spots can be seen on her face and her eyes…the doctor is covering her left eye.
Lumine right now…she's currently trying to move her fingers, trying to raise her arm but she has no power left.
Furina walks toward Lumine’s right side, tears start to fall down her face once again, Archon, she already lost count of how many she has cried today.
Feeling the shift on her bed, Lumine moves her head to look at her right, she's currently cannot hear because of the explosion, but she can see blurry that her girlfriend is crying.
“F-Fu…ri…na…?” Lumine managed to say in between her breath, and that also made Furina’s heart a little relieved. “I’m here Lumine, I’m here,” Furina said, staring at the golden eyes that used to have some brightness and love in them, but now looked like it just went through some traumatic experience.
“I-i’m…so… rry,” She said, her hand reaching out to hold Furina’s cheeks, she couldn't feel her girlfriend's skin but she was relieved that she could touch her for the last time she was supposed to.
Furina shook her head softly, slowly falling into her lover’s touch again but this time it was not the soft hand that she loved to most, but the kind of broken hand that she promised to herself that Lumine's should not be like this anymore.
After some time, Furina feels that Lumine's touch feels weak, and when she looks at Lumine's expression, it seems like she is finally resting. Furina sends a quick yet soft kiss on Lumine’s forehead, she remembers the time when Lumine would come home with a bright smile and saying her name with so much love and happiness in it, she remembers the time when Lumine came home looking devastated and when she asked her why, Lumine simply just hug her tight and crying her heart out, she remembered the time where Lumine would come home with a bag of her favorite cakes on her hand.
Furina, oh how much she loves her name coming out of Lumine's mouth. How tragic it is that the last time her name came out Lumine's mouth sounded so desperate yet at the same time so full of love.
“Sleep well, mon amour,”
And the last tear from Furina's eyes fell into Lumine’s forehead that night.