Chapter Text
Ah, Windblume Festival. The perfect excuse to relax and take a break in a peaceful land where quality wine and parties are among its most outstanding features. “Anyone should come to celebrate it at least once in their lives,” responded the foreigners who had lived the Mondstadt experience.
For Childe, this was just another commission from Her Majesty; for Lumine, the ideal justification she needed to return to the nation she felt closest to home. While one only had to ensure the comfort of his soldiers in the Anemo land, the other one was only looking for a safe haven where she could share some quiet days with her friends’ company.
A Fatui Harbinger and a traveler from another world had every reason not to see each other that same night, since their intentions usually ran in opposite directions. Despite everything, and no matter how hard each of them tried to concentrate on their own affairs, it was the same destiny that brought them together again and again. Fate, or an intruder who would pull its strings so that this occasion would not be the exception to that rule.
The last night of the festival had ended and the only thing left on the streets of Mondstadt were the remains of a very eventful celebration. Even though energy to dance was the slogan of the Windblume Festival, the exhausted inhabitants locked themselves in their homes to rest after the long days of traditions and customs of the nation of Barbatos. Down the main street, an off-duty harbinger took slow steps toward his hotel room. He flipped through a couple of papers in his gloved hands to make sure he hadn't forgotten any of his assignments that day.
"Damn it..." Tartaglia whispered under his breath when he noticed a couple of letters from Snezhnaya that he had forgotten to deliver when he went to train the new recruits. Why did he have to be Pulcinella's messenger when that old man had enough power to send any other subordinate to do the boring job? Perhaps it was just bad luck that his trip to Mondstadt coincided with the needs of The Tsaritsa's fifth Harbinger. Plus, he already owed a couple of favors to the man who took care of his family during his absence. Maybe it was the least he could do, but that didn't take away from the fact that he hated reducing his dreaded name to just a list of unimportant tasks.
His anger distracted him enough that the strength in his hands was significantly reduced. Suddenly, a gust of wind coming from the southwest took his paperwork with it as it flew uncontrollably in different directions. Tartaglia sighed with the anger being evident in his serious expression and made a hateful effort to recover the letters that fell to the floor. In the end, only one was missing. He looked around and scanned his surroundings: that stupid gust had taken his paperwork for a walk through the empty streets of Mondstadt as if it were a pet eager to explore.
Childe walked behind the letter gritting his teeth, but the wind played a practical joke on him again. He had to follow it along the path until he finally managed to catch it with one of his hands. When he looked up, he found the Angel’s Share still open and with few people inside. At that point, he was already fed up with that monotonous day and his Fatui “missions”, worthy of a low-ranking soldier, precisely the position to which he refused to return.
"I could use a drink" , Childe thought before heading into the bar to relax a little. The interior of the tavern still had decorations and other signs that the Mondstadt celebration was ending for those present inside as well. He ordered a glass of the best wine and took a seat at the bar, drowning his frustration with each sip that sweetened his throat.
Tartaglia had forgotten the last time he had an important mission that did justice to all the titles and recognitions he achieved in such a short time. He began to feel like a toy who only ran errands for his colleagues when the situation required it. Not even his vacation was worthy of someone so wealthy like him: arrests, All-Devouring Narwhals, a brief return to the abyss and a recovery that was not yet one hundred percent over. The alcohol, although delicious, didn't seem to do enough to silence the voice of frustration in his mind. “ You'll prove that you're better than this, Tartaglia. They underestimate you because of your age, because they believe that you are so naive, but they don't understand anything, no-”
An ephemeral roar brought him out of his thoughts. Some patrons of the tavern (some drunker than others) made a loud racket, shouting and praising the name of the “honorary knight” who was once the savior of Mondstadt. Tartaglia shook his head and directed his gaze towards the stairs, where the figure of his old friend was present. Despite the positivity of the people around her, she seemed to want to run away from that place. With clumsy steps and her head spinning, Lumine managed to reach one of the seats near Childe without falling. She collapsed on the bar, holding her forehead with both hands and murmuring intelligible words to herself.
“You're drunker than that bard I saw at the festival today.”
The traveler's body jumped in fright and, in a matter of a second, she was already turning her head anxiously in search of the familiar voice. When he exchanged glances with Childe and revealed his face, the harbinger couldn't help but laugh. Her cheeks were red, her hair was disheveled and her expression was indescribably cute.
“And what… are you doing here…?” Lumine asked with difficulty. A naive and even innocent smile appeared on her face, trying to hide the drunkenness that her body had carried all afternoon. In that state, she wasn't very good at hiding things.
"Me? I just work, unfortunately. But it seems that someone here wanted to enjoy the festival to the fullest…"
“Pff… Nah… I just,” the hiccups caused by the alcohol interrupted her in the middle of her excuse. “I had a couple of drinks… Nothing serious…”
Lumine averted the gaze to hide her blushing face. The liter and a half of wine she had drunk had failed to combat her pride and stubbornness in the slightest. She tried to jump up from the stool, but returned to him as soon as her vision began to spin. She could see more than five fingers and there was only one hand in front of her face.
Childe immediately noticed that her friend seemed to be slowly losing herself in the emptiness of the wine glass she snatched from his hands. Her desperation to continue drowning in alcohol was palpable, to the point that the harbinger was genuinely worrying about her. She was an incredible young woman who had saved nations, yes, but her conscience was about to teeter on the edge of a cliff if no one caught her soon.
“Lumine, where is Paimon?”
“P-Paimon? That silly little fairy… I think… She's with Amber. That traitor abandoned me... for a plate of chicken…”
She laughed out loud, as if she couldn't even fathom her own words. It was difficult to tell if she was serious, if she was just joking, or if her head simply couldn't find another stranger way to explain her best friend's absence. Childe grabbed Lumine by the shoulders and pulled her towards him and eventually one of his hands held her chin so she would look back at him.
"Lumine, stop drinking, you barely know where you are," he warned. “Where are you staying?”
"Hmm..." the traveler continued smiling naively and awkwardly, leaving Childe all the work of keeping her body upright. “I'm not sure…”
“Alright, you will come with me then.” The redhead prepared to stand up and analyze the situation. Lumine could barely speak and was sure she would fall to the ground if she dared to take more than two steps.
Childe left a bag of Mora on the table as payment and signaled to the bartender as a thank you. Then, he thought for a couple more seconds about how to deal with this alcoholic situation. He couldn't think of a better idea than to do it himself, so he steeled himself to break certain unwritten limits.
“Come here, I'll take you home.”
Lumine looked at him in surprise, unable to understand what he meant by “home”, however, her mind was spinning so much that she quickly ended up turning her attention to something completely different.
“Hey, those pretty eyes… I've never seen them so closely.”
She laughed shyly, her weak smile causing a pang in his heart. The Harbinger looked away to hide his red cheeks from the unexpected compliment. He could be the Cryo Archon's best weapon of war, but he was weak before the compliments and charms of that beautiful girl.
He turned around and crouched, reaching his arms behind him to grab her thighs and lift her up, without asking permission or giving any explanation. That first contact was strange: it was the first time that the distance became non-existent between them. Childe's hands sank into the traveler's delicate skin as she let her body fall onto his back. She didn't seem to mind; She continued babbling things with her head resting on the Fatui's shoulder. The blonde-haired girl laughed more discreetly than before.
He continued walking towards the exit and followed the path that would took him to his modest hotel within the city. For a moment, he thought about how incredible it was to have his battle rival at his mercy. In his arms, he literally had his body imprisoned by alcohol, carrying a numb mind in every sense. It would have been a nuisance for Tartaglia that the only person willing to fight him was in such a worrying state of vulnerability. Childe was simply laughing at the situation; Ajax was a little worried.
It was not common for Lumine to be so careless when it came to drinking, even more so when people in Mondstadt had a strange perception of reality when they believed that she was not old enough for that. Maybe she had had a bad night or someone just as alcoholic ended up sinking her into a wine habit, at least during the festival.
“Traitor… You traded me for a plate of food,” Lumine continued to mutter under her breath. “Aether, traitor… I-I just wanted to go home…”
But Childe stopped walking when the traveler inhaled with her nose to avoid letting out a heartbreaking sob. It was impossible not to notice her discomfort when she spoke so close to his ear. The girl curled up against Ajax's back, pressing her hands against his shoulders as if the pain became impossible to tolerate.
Ah, so this slip of hers wasn't just an occasional drunkenness, but a desperate escape from her own reality.
“You must be exhausted, huh?” Childe said as he resumed his path to the Mondstadt hotel. Using some upward force to hold her steady, he leaned forward to prevent his body from wobbling backwards.
Once they both reached their destination, the Harbinger struggled to hold Lumine with one arm so he could take the keys out of his pocket. He opened the bedroom door with a push of his foot and hurried to the bed and let her friend rest there. She shifted restlessly on the soft blankets that covered the mattress and wiped away several of the tears that wet her face earlier. Then he looked at Childe, who took out a pair of sheets from the closet that he would use to improvise a bed on the couch.
"Hey," Lumine called to him. “You wouldn't betray me, would you?”
The redhead remained motionless, unable to answer her so quickly. He didn't feel ready to admit it, but the question had already been on his mind on occasions before this. He had already managed to accept the fact that maybe he liked Lumine, even just a little, even though he knew how risky it could be for both of them. Acting against her could only be considered “betrayal” if she trusted him enough. Was that what his numb mind was trying to tell him?
"It depends on what you consider betrayal to be," he answered doubtfully. He walked over to the bed again and watched her closely, slightly touched by the way Lumine was clumsily trying to take off her boots. She wasn't even able to bend her legs to make her task easier, so he dared to give her a hand.
Childe stood right in front of her, squatted down and looked for the zipper of her footwear, carefully sliding it down to finally expose her white socks. Lumine, still groggy from her recent alcohol intake, seemed oblivious to the strange intimacy between her and Tartaglia. Surely the traveler, being sober, would never accept that kind of trust from him or from anyone. However, that was the point. Lumine was drunker than the same bard who bought her a bottle of wine a couple of hours earlier and her judgment was almost completely clouded.
“I don't want you to do it. You would break my heart.”
The blonde girl made an effort to keep her torso upright as she remained sitting on the bed. Childe looked at her from below, stunned by the sensitivity of her words. It was the first time he had heard her in such a vulnerable and inhibited way. It was as if the wine had caused her to spit out all the truths she would never admit in her normal state. It didn't take much thinking to realize that Lumine had had a really long night. Loneliness —the same one that Childe also knew well— persisted in her soul despite all the friends she made around Teyvat.
The harbinger was left speechless as he lost himself in his friend's tired eyes, ones he had never had the chance to observe so closely. Poor traveler, How long have you kept silent about all your regrets? How long did you plan to continue denying your feelings?
“Childe,” she reiterated. “I like you.”
The intruder's question answered itself. Lumine collapsed on the bed, exhausted and ready to fall asleep once and for all. Tartaglia was petrified like a sacred rock of the Geo nation. What was he supposed to say? Were the words of a Lumine sedated by the effect of alcohol reliable? Was it an impulsive confession caused by the fear that another friend would turn their back on her?
Childe didn't quite know what to say, but Lumine's pleading amber, that was fading as her eyelids faltered, managed to strike a chord in his stoic heart. He caressed her head already positioned on the pillow and his fingers ran over the immaculate skin of her cheeks until they touched at least an inch of her trembling lips.
“I like you too, comrade. A lot.”
Lumine smiled with satisfaction and was finally able to sleep in peace after the restless night she had experienced. On the other hand, Childe felt a little better when saying his answer out loud. Maybe it was a lie, he hadn't been able to assimilate his own feelings until that very moment when he realized that he wasn't sorry for saying it.
His question resonated in him the rest of the night and the answer seemed increasingly clear. He knew what it meant to be a Fatui while fantasizing about a traveler who was only honest with him thanks to Mondstadt wine, but come on, Childe couldn't continue denying himself.
“Archons, Lumine... How could I betray you?”
The next day would probably be as discouraging as ever, when she regained full control of her body and denied remembering everything they had said to each other that night, but at least he could rest easy knowing that he had finally managed to tell her how he felt about her. He even silently thanked Pulcinella for forcing him to be the Fatui's temporary messenger even if he didn't want to.
The only thing he regretted was not telling her when she was sober.
The wind of Mondstadt traveled through the lonely streets until it reached a playful bard who enjoyed playing the role of cupid for a night. He didn't need to do much, just use a bit of his magic to force two idiots to cross paths once again, even when fate didn't have it one hundred percent planned. Venti held the same bottle that at some point during the day ended up in the hands of the traveler in search of an escape from reality.
“There was just one secret ingredient missing to make things move between those two… What a naughty little fairy.”