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“You do realize that this is your fault, right?”
Lumine knows she and Wanderer are getting looks, different from the looks that she normally receives being the hero of Sumeru/Teyvat/Everyone’s Ass, as they walk through the bustling Sumeru market. Wanderer isn’t used to the attention. He’s used to keeping to the shadows he dons like a robe. Lowering his hat over his face doesn’t help him here. Not when they are bound to one another by a glowing vine of pure Dendro energy laid in place by the Archon of Sumeru herself. Paimon, unaffected as usual, flits from food stall to food stall, spending money Lumine isn’t sure how the tiny fairy acquired.
“Could you walk slower, please?” Wanderer grumbles. “I think the moss growing at my soles is having trouble catching up.”
“Shut it,” Lumine snaps, not bothering to look at him. The bored expression she can already see in her mind pisses her off enough. “I’m not going to be able to deal with you for the next week if you talk.”
“Oh, so the great hero of Teyvat handles dissent by silencing it. Not very noble of you, is it? Maybe we do have ‘much in common’ as my kind jailer so put it.”
Lumine bites back a retort, afraid she would drag Nahida into yet another bicker and cause the little god distress. Or maybe Nahida wouldn’t be upset; she would be happy just to be thought about.
Lumine can’t entirely blame the little god for this situation, even if it is by Nahida’s judgement and power. Nahida is the god of wisdom and all, and if she thinks this forced buddy-system will make Lumine and Wanderer stop fighting, maybe it will. Granted, Lumine thinks that what will really make them stop fighting is for them to kill each other, but that would make the whole ‘spare Scaramouche and help him move on and become a better person’ thing all for moot.
Alas. She is the bigger person. She will forgive him for his wrongs and show him how to move on and grow. That is what the heroine of Teyvat does.
Nahida’s innocent voice rings in her ears once again. ‘This will be good for both of you! You have so much to learn. I’m excited to see the results of this journey.’
Obviously, the little god meant Wanderer would be more tolerable, and Lumine’s ability to forgive and help others would become even more refined. They—
Lumine is brought to a stumbling halt. The Dendro line catches, yanking her off balance. She falls against her unwilling partner. To her surprise, he doesn’t let her tumble to the ground. He braces her by the shoulders. His hands are cool and soft, like he’s soaked them in Sumpter beast milk after a hot bath. His touch is gentle as he stabilizes her. She stares at him, eyes wide.
Has he already begun to change?
A lost puppet. Kabukimono. Kunikuzushi. Balladeer. Scaramouche. And now, Wanderer. He’s been so many things, has changed throughout his long life. Could he change again?
“Get your head out of the clouds, princess. There’s the stall Nahida asked me-,” he groans, pained, “us, to check. I can’t believe the person who defeated me at my mightiest is such an indelible klutz. “
Never mind, then.
---
A list scrabbled quickly in her adventurer’s notebook while he wasn’t looking:
Food?
Sweets?
Tea?
(Cats?)
---
They’re sitting at a café in the city, the third one in a week, as Lumine searches for anything her spiteful companion would like. The humidity clings to them even in this early morning. Lumine does her best to wipe her sticky bangs from her face, but they just flop even stickier against her skin. Wanderer smirks at her, his hair staying perfect no matter what Sumeru douses it in.
Lumine isn’t keen on staying with the man, but she has to admit that he’s surprised her. Coming from Inazuma, she would have assumed he’d at least tolerate mild sweets like daifuku and dango, but he turns his nose up at anything with a single grain of sugar.
“I don’t need to eat,” he reminds her every time. “I’m not human, remember?”
“Neither am I, but food is good for more than just energy, you know,” Lumine replies, mouth full of mora meat. “This isn’t sweet! You should give it a try.”
He regards her with the same scathing disdain that one would give a scratch on tatami. Ugly, unfixable.
Lumine takes a deep breath. He’s rude and unbearable at times, but he’s still… himself. He hasn’t tried to hurt her or Paimon. He’s been mostly silent except when antagonized (though he is antagonized by most things). When he thinks she isn’t looking, she catches him staring into the sky, the clouds, like the answers to his thoughts are carried on the wind. Something that Lumine can’t see.
Lumine frowns. “Surely there’s something that you like?”
“I’d like you to be quiet,” he says, but there’s no real heat in the words. She reaches forward and tips his hat down over his face, hiding his eyes. She can feel his glare through the wide brim.
“Seriously? Nothing?” He could make this easier on her. If she could find just one thing that he likes, she could offer it as a show of camaraderie and trust. It’s worked for her before! And then he’d understand the power of friendship and forgiveness and all that, and Nahida would unhook them just in time for Lumine to head to Fontaine.
He lifts a delicate brow. Lumine wrinkles her nose at her own thought. Delicate? Sure, he was crafted to be noble, a god, beautiful, but he hasn’t been delicate since he was the Kabukimono. She isn’t sure where that thought that he’s delicate comes from.
“Surely there’s something you like.”
He cocks a brow. “Power. Destruction of those who’ve betrayed me.”
She stares at him flatly.
“…and tea.”
“…tea?”
“Bitter.”
“Hmm.”
He leans across the table, lacing his fingers together to prop his chin. “Think you can find a blend that’d impress me?”
She mirrors his pose, leaning towards him, keeping his gaze. “I’m an impressive woman.”
His eyes widen. A light blush blooms across his cheeks. He jerks back, nearly tugging her with him by the line of Dendro. “Fine. I accept your challenge.”
“It isn’t a… oh, whatever.”
---
A doodle he makes in the sand of the desert while she delivers medicinal ingredients to a bumbling physician:
A stick figure man in a wide hat stands tall in front of flames. His simple expression is one of power and control. A woman with short hair stands beside him. Her dotted eyes gleam with ingenuity and brilliance (self-imagined). Their stick figure hands touch.
It doesn’t mean anything.
---
Wanderer proves to be surprisingly helpful at times. As the days pass, Lumine notices that he may complain, but he’s reliable.
This evening, while the temperature is cool, she has dragged Wanderer to her favorite location for Kalpalata lotuses, a series of crashing waterfalls that spray the mossy forest with cool, clean water. Paimon, citing exhaustion, has disappeared into her pocket universe (a trick Line has yet to understand).
Nahida often asks for the Kalpalata lotuses from Lumine, and while the Traveler is willing to bring them, it’s never easy for her to scale the cliffs to get them. She’s found that Wanderer is great for reaching higher locations with his abilities. When he’s sent on a task, he does it quickly and without complaining. Maybe it’s his training as the Balladeer coming through; his swift, easy executions of jobs. Even the Dendro line between them eases when they work together like this, allowing him to go as far as he needs for his work.
Lumine busies herself by searching the shallow waters for Nilotpala lotuses. She doesn’t pay mind to Wanderer, knowing that he’ll finish his task and be back sooner than she’d like. As she gathers the flowers, she falls into an easy rhythm and lets her mind go quiet.
When she finishes, she realizes that quite a bit of time has passed. The sun dips low behind the mountains, yet Wanderer isn’t back yet. He can’t just be gone. The line is still intact. Suddenly, as if her worry was a yell, the line tightens. Wanderer pokes his head over the cliffside then floats down, landing gracefully in front of Lumine.
“You looked like you were enjoying the silence,” Wanderer offers. Lumine almost smiles until he adds, “and I quite enjoyed having you out of my way for a moment.”
Her smile flips. “Did you get the flowers?” He pushes them at her. When she’s safely tucked them away, she realizes Wanderer is glowering at the ground. She isn’t sure if it’s the evening lighting, but she can almost imagine a faint blush on his cheeks.
“And… I know you like weak, fragile things like yourself. I found this, so… take it.”
He shoves a Sumeru rose at her. After a surprised beat, she takes it as if it’s glass.
“That’s… thank you, Wanderer.”
He hmphs in reply, pulls his hat over his face, and begins to march in the general direction of Sumeru City. Lumine trails behind him, something warm building in her chest.
Maybe he isn’t as annoying as she thought.
---
The next time he pisses her off (truly and fully, and not the little annoyances he inflicts on her), he also nearly kills her in the process. Or at least almost gets her severely injured.
This time, Nahida has asked them to go dismantle a few ruin guards that have been accosting merchants and travelers alike. Nothing that she can’t handle, with a team or alone. But considering the horrific embarrassment of her current situation, she’s dismissed any companions aside from Paimon. Unfortunately, that does not leave her alone in the thick forests of Sumeru.
“We would get there faster if you would just let me fly,” Wanderer hisses, kicking aside an innocent stone resting on the jungle path.
“And, what, just drag me along?” Lumine snipes back. “No thank you.”
“I wouldn’t let you fall.”
“Of course not. You’d purposefully drop me instead.” She tugs at the line between them, pulling him off balance and skewing his hat. He glares at her as he straightens it. With a smug hmph of triumph, she carries on ahead, letting Wanderer trail her.
When they find the ruin guards, they clumsily take down the first without much mishap. The Dendro line eases, but it still makes coordinating their attacks difficult. Wanderer hits hard, laughing as he wrecks the machine. When the first falls, they turn their full attention to the second. This is where the problems arise.
Finding Lumine as a perfectly grounded target, the ruin guard begins swinging its arms hard enough to smack her to Mondstat. Normally, this is when she would run and didge, but as she begins to sprint, she finds herself yanked back.
Above her, Wanderer throws his scythes of wind manically, moving faster and faster as the machine approaches. Lumine pulls at him again, but he doesn’t move, heavy as a lead balloon. The Dendro line does not slack.
“Wanderer!” She cries. The machine is slow, terrifying in its looming approach, heedless of the barrage. “I need to move or—”
“I can finish it off now if we stay focused!” he answers.
The creak of the metal grows louder.
“Wanderer!”
The breeze from its swinging arms brushes her cheek, sending her bangs aloft. She mentally steels herself for the oncoming pain.
But then the machine falls at her feet, breaking into a mass of parts. Lumine’s heart crashes against her chest. Her breath comes fast, and she feels frozen as if she were at the peak of Dragonspine.
It’s not that she would have died. She’s tough. But that he would willingly put her in danger, use her as bait, let her be hurt—
“I was right,” he says. It takes Lumine a moment to realize he’s speaking of himself and not reading her thoughts. Wanderer lands gracefully, brushing dust off his sleeve as he does, not bothering to even glance at her. “I told you I could take it down.”
“And what if you weren’t in time?” Her voice is a hoarse whisper. Now that the battle is over, Paimon pops back from her safe pocket universe. She’s immediately buzzing around Lumine for her attention, but Lumine’s stare is locked onto the iron weight she’s been shackled to.
He doesn’t seem to notice. “We should get back and report to Buer.”
“Report that you almost let me die?” Lumine hisses, and her eyes burn.
Paimon gasps at this, buzzing around Wanderer’s head. “What did you do to Lumi! Paimon shouldn’t have ever left you alone with her!” Wanderer swats at her, and with a cry, she flies back towards Lumine, wrapping her tiny arms as far as they will reach around Lumine’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry!”
Wanderer scoffs. “Don’t be dramatic. You’re not human. You wouldn’t have died. At most you would have been concussed—”
“Don’t pretend you would know how to deal with that! You’ve declined every one of my efforts to adventure with me before all of this! You don’t know how teamwork works! You’re irresponsible, conceited, and so wrapped up in yourself that you don’t pay attention to the rest of the world!”
Isn’t this just like Kunikuzushi? Destroying everything in his path without a care for the consequences? Is that who he is now? Has he gone backwards in his changes?
Wanderer’s eyes narrow. The cool air of Mawtimiya seems to freeze around them. Paimon nervously tugs at Lumine’s dress. “Uh, Traveler…”
Lumine’s lips are a broken dam. “For all that you claim to know humans, for all that you claim to have cut your humanity away, you seem to have only kept the worst traits and burned the rest! You’re selfish, rotten, no good! Maybe if you were less obsessed with yourself, you would have noticed everything going wrong 500 years ago!” The words ring loudly through the forest, and then a dense silence falls.
Wanderer’s eyes widen, then narrow. His expression, already set in stone, crystallizes. Paimon gasps, hiding behind Lumine. Lumine covers her mouth.
“Wanderer, I’m so sorry. That was out of line.”
Wanderer turns, his hat masking his expression. “No. It wasn’t.”
He walks away, and the line between them pulls Lumine along behind him, but it’s as if they are on completely different paths.
----
A flower, plucked by a tiny god:
The petals fall to the ground one by one. As the last one falls, the tiny god hums.
---
Nahida, who surely can tell something has happened between them, doesn’t mention it when they return. She pats Wanderer’s head (to Lumine’s shock, he allows it to happen), and offers them halvamazd and tea over their debriefing.
“So, do we pass? Are you going to undo this knot?” Wanderer asks, arms crossed, sweets and tea left untouched before him. Paimon leans over Lumine, nearly drooling. He moves the plate farther from her, sticking out his tongue at her grumpy ‘hmph!’
Nahida hums, taking a long, thoughtful sip of tea. Her big, round eyes, so full of innocence and wonder, blink once before she chirps a cheerful, “No.” Her smile is radiant.
“What-!”
“Nahida,” Lumine starts, “You did hear the part where he almost killed me, right?”
“I did! I was very impressed with you. You trusted him to keep you safe.”
Lumine’s stomach twists. Could she have broken away after all? Would Wanderer have swooped in if it got any closer? She doesn’t think so.
She’ll never know.
The two stare at the little god, who happily takes a piece of halvamazd, getting white dust all over herself in the process. Somehow, it makes her look both more like a normal child and divinity at once.
“Nahida, um, Paimon doesn’t quite understand… I mean, it isn’t the first time Hat Guy hurt her…”
“Well, he could have handled it differently. He should have discussed his plan. You both still have a ways to go, but I can see the progress.” Nahida brushes the powder from her dress. Some remains on her cheek. A light gust of wind blows it off, tousling her hair. She giggles. “Thank you, Wanderer.”
Wanderer hmphs, hiding his expression behind a sip of tea.
“As I was saying, he should have been more careful. But he didn’t let you get hurt, nor would he.” Nahida kicks her legs and tilts her head, looking the part of an innocent child. But the gleam in her eyes is far, far older than Lumine can even imagine, despite her own collection of years. “Just be a little more patient with one another.”
Lumine snorts. “Sure, Nahida.” She stands, yanking at the line that connects them. “Well, com’on. We shouldn’t take up all her time.”
Nahida waves happily as Lumine storms out, pulling a limp Wanderer behind her.
Lumine has seen Kubukimono and Kunikuzushi. And now he’s been denied his freedom once again. She supposes this time, she’ll see a piece of Scaramouche, the Balladeer. Anger, vehemence, violence. She doesn’t want Nahida to see.
But when the door to the Sanctuary closes and she turns to face his wrath, he’s looking down, his hat covering his expression. His hand shakes. The line of Dendro between her and him vibrates.
Something is wrong. He isn’t lashing out, yelling. He’s silent. It’s eerie.
“Wanderer…?” Lumine whispers, despite herself. She was enraged with him just moments ago. Does it only take a slight scolding to make him pout or…
“If she’s going to punish me, I wish she’d just do it outright instead of making me wait. Just get it over with so I can get on with my life. Or the lack thereof, if that’s what she wants.”
Paimon gasps lightly beside Lumine’s head. “Nahida wouldn’t punish you! Well, except for maybe this whole rope thing… but she wouldn’t hurt you!”
“Not yet.”
Not yet. Lumine worries at her bottom lip for lack of words. Is he waiting for punishment? Does he think Nahida is keeping tabs on his mistakes to repay him later?
Lumine was waiting for the calculated violence of the Balladeer… but is this what Scaramouche was like? Waiting to be reprimanded, punished, hurt? She thinks of Dottore, and Ei, and… well, herself.
The thought rips through her heart, easily making for her a stupid, bold choice. A step forward, and then another. She hugs him tight. Wanderer stiffens in her arms, and then folds into them, held up only by her.
“Would you have let me get hurt?” she asks. She doesn’t expect an answer.
But. “No.” And then, more surprisingly, “I’m sorry.”
Oh. She wonders if she has been focused so much on seeing the old parts of him that she hasn’t seen who he is now.
Zephyr.
---
They are more careful of each other after that. Lumine knows better than to treat him like glass, but she does. Wanderer seems to be himself on the surface, but there’s something off about him. He’s on edge, eyes too focused on every movement Lumine makes, like she might fall apart with nothing but a scratch.
Now they sit in her room in the teapot. It’s a very basic, light space decorated with a few knick-knacks gathered over her travels, a desk, a bed much too big for her, and a narrow sitting area where the two rest now. Sewing supplies lay scattered, a slowly forming doll in his hand. Paimon is with Nahida, having a sort of girl’s day that Lumine isn’t sure she wants to know what’s happening. This isn’t something he would want the fairy to be privy to.
Lumine had known, vaguely, that he enjoyed crafting. A remnant of his days as Kabukimono. But when he asked if they could have some time alone, away from others, she had thought that maybe he was going to try and break the line without Nahida knowing, finally sick of all this. He has to be getting sick of Lumine seeing all of him by now.
But when they came here, he brought out his supplies and got to work silently. Lumine silently sitting beside him, watching.
Lumine knows better than to try and talk to him; she had nothing important to say, and small talk annoys him. Instead, she goes through her travel notes, sorting her thoughts and thinking of places she may have missed treasure in the past. Before she goes to Fontaine, she could swing back through the nations she’s visited already and give everything another look-over…
That is, if she and Wanderer can ever get away from one another.
Zephyr. Not just Wanderer. She needs to remember who he is now and not only who he was.
Zephyr sticks the tip of his tongue out while he focuses on the smaller details of the doll. He tugs at Lumine’s hand with the line, needing more give than the line is allowing them right now. It’s hard for her to do her own work at the same time. Lumine tries moving closer without breaking into his space, but the line seems to just shrink and shrink.
She sighs, and Zephyr looks up, brow lifted in curiosity.
“Yes?” he asks. “Got a problem?”
She pulls at the line. “This is getting annoying.”
Zephyr tuts and lays down his project. “I agree.”
Lumine chuckles. “Can I get that in writing? I may never hear you say that to me again.”
Zephyr rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything else incriminating. He leans back, crossing his arms. “I’m almost done, anyway. Just need to do the details. I can do that after Nahia lets us go.”
Lumine peeks at his work. It’s a small, dark-haired doll, wearing white and black clothing. It looks like… “Is that supposed to be you?”
Zephyr huffs, a light blush on his cheeks. So, it is, then.
“Why are you making a doll of yourself?”
His blush deepens. Oh? This is another side of him she didn’t know. He’s easily embarrassed.
There’s a lot she didn't know, it seems. But since that afternoon after meeting with Nahida, she’s noticed a lot more about him. He isn’t as sharp-edged as he makes himself seem, not anymore. Especially with the little god, who he treats as both a superior and possibly, just maybe, something like a friend.
If there’s a cat in sight, he can’t keep his eyes off it. They’ve gone off-task more than once to pet stray cats. It’s a wonder he hasn’t tried to sneak one in the teapot.
He’s brewed tea for Lumine more than once, when she didn’t even realize she needed it. After a mission, he’d brew a strong tea to perk her up. When she was lost in thought, he’d brew a gentle one to calm her down.
He has a soft spot for kids, too. More than once, he’s bought “too many sweets” for himself and has given them to the closest child at the given moment. Even if that child just happens to be Paimon.
Lumine wonders what else he’s hiding under his layers.
She eyes his clothes.
She blinks as a double entendre slips unbidden into her thoughts. She shakes away the thought before it can worm its way in.
“Seriously, Zephyr, why?” she asks again. “I am genuinely curious. I promise on Paimon’s emergency lunch savings that I won’t laugh.”
He rolls his eyes before taking the doll carefully in hand again. “I… thought you could take it with you when you leave. Since I won’t be around to keep you safe and all. I know you can take care of yourself. But...” It isn’t like him to ramble. His voice skitters to a halt.
His face is probably only a slightly deeper red than her own.
“Oh,” she says elegantly. “Thank you,” she adds when her thoughts restart.
“Don’t mention it,” he mumbles.
Lumine, without a word, relaxes the arm closest to him, giving him the space he needs to finish his work. The bond of Dendro seems to slacken at that, but not yet breaking. Zephyr eyes it, then nods slightly at her in thanks before continuing his work. Watching his hands is mesmerizing.
Lumine thought she was meant to be a good influence on him, but she begins to think that was never Nahida’s only goal.
When the Dendro finally snaps, there will be a new bond in place. One that won’t force them together, but will bring them together nevertheless. Lumine already feels its warmth tying them together and wonders if Zephyr has noticed it, too. Lumine watches Zephyr’s concentrated expression until he scowls and sticks his tongue out at her.
She laughs and feels like she’s found a hidden treasure when he smiles shyly back.