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“Good morning Kathryne!” Lumine greeted as she and Paimon walked up to the Adventurer’s Guild’s desk in Natlan. “What kind of commissions do you have for me today?
“Good morning, Traveler.” Kathryne looked down, arranging some papers in front of her. “We have a few different commissions for you to take.” Lumine leaned on the desk, humming out patiently.
“We’ll take ‘em! The Traveler can handle anything you have for her!” Lumine smiled up at her supportive floating companion.
“Here.” She handed the blonde girl a few papers detailing out the commissions. “Oh, before you go, Traveler, a girl dropped off some packages for you.” She looked over at the other woman.
“Huh?” She blinked before her eyes sparkled with delight. “Really?!”
“Yes, Miss Kirara dropped them off not too long ago. Here, come around the back to get them.”
“Ooh! Paimon loves getting packages! Let’s go!” Lumine nodded as she followed the pixie.
“Oh, and happy White day, Traveler.” Paimon was always super excited for Lumine’s White day gifts, she often ate some of the chocolate she received. Lumine never showed it as much as her, but she was even more excited to receive gifts! Oftentimes she felt underappreciated, but on White day, plenty of her friends wrote her heartfelt messages and sent her plenty of chocolate (which delighted the sweets lover in her). This year, however, she was hoping for one specific gift.
“WOW! Paimon thinks this is even more than last year!” The pixie shouted as she practically drooled over the boxes with heart shaped cards, heart shaped boxes with square labels, and decorative plastic bags with square labels.
“Probably because I had time this year to handbrake chocolates last month. Come on, let's go through these and sort them out!” Paimon nodded as they both came up to the pile of gifts.
“Yeah! Save the cards again?” She asked, moving her hands through the boxes.
“And at least half the chocolates.” Lumine huffed out. “Last year you ate most of the chocolates!”
“Hey, Paimon made you some in return!” Paimon pulled out a box, turning to read the heart shaped label. “Paimon got one from Zhongli!” She opened the packaging to grab a chocolate to pop it into her mouth before setting it behind her.
“Yeah and you ate most of those too!” Lumine grabbed another box, reading the label. Ayato, she did appreciate the floral paper.
“Because you took too long to eat it!” She huffed out. “Gift from Albedo.” Lumine looked up briefly and reached for a heart shaped box.
“Too long? It was half a day!” It was a very nice looking chocolate box from Thoma. He was an amazing cook and he wouldn’t be caught dead buying chocolates! She opened up the box, grabbing a chocolate and throwing it into her mouth. She nearly trembled as she melted in pleasure. It tasted so good, so heavenly, she wasn’t sure if she had ever had chocolate that tasted better than this! “Paimon, try one of these.” Paimon looked over at her, reaching for one of the white chocolates. “Thoma made them.” Paimon screeched out as she ate it, eyes wide as she reached for another.
“WHOA! Paimon wants another!” Lumine pulled it away, huffing out. “Hey! Don’t be so stingy!”
“Stingy? He made them for me. I’m saving these.” She ate another, shivering as she set it back behind her with Ayato’s gift.
“Oh, come on…” Paimon grabbed a decorative plastic bag with snakes on the bag. “Baizhu sent you this one.”
Lumine started sifting through the gifts quickly, looking for a certain name. These other gifts were nice, but none of these were from who she wanted to get a gift from! She pulled out a sealed bag with a pair of steaks in it. ‘RAZOR’ was written on one side of the bag, with ‘FOR: TRAVELER’ written on the other side.
“Traveler- what are you doing?” The blonde traveler sighed out and set the bag with the rest of the gifts pulled out already. “We’ll go through them fast enough, if you’re looking for anything, we’ll find it.”
“Yeah… Yeah I know.” Paimon held out a wrapped green present.
“Here, maybe this is what you’re looking for!” Lumine took it, looking over the tag, signed by Xiao as Paimon grabbed another box.
“Aw… Xiao left a nice note.” He always proclaimed he would guard her any chance he got. He was lovely, but he wasn’t the one she was into. She set the gift with the others and reached for a blue decorative bagged gift. Maybe this would be… Neuvillette. The blonde sighed out again.
“Traveler! Traveler, look!” Lumine leapt up onto her knees, eyes wide at the white haired girl.
“What?! Who is it from?!” She bounced in her spot a little, eyes wide with excitement.
“Enjou sent another gift!” She deflated as Paimon shifted the two packages bound together by a single yellow ribbon. “There’s one from your brother with it!” That caught her attention again as she scrambled toward her to snatch the boxes from her. She turned the card to read, eyes wide.
To the dearest Traveler for her special White day.
-Enjou
I’ve included a gift from your brother too.
Lumine squirmed in place as she began to tear the ribbon apart to get to the two boxes. “Come on…”
“Ooh, Bullchucker sent us both a gift!” Paimon exclaimed as she pulled out two identically wrapped boxes. “Kuki must’ve wrapped this for him. Paimon doesn’t think he can wrap this nicely.” Lumine tuned her out as she tore into the brown package, finding a simple box of store bought chocolates. She found herself opening up the box and eating a piece of chocolate, tears brimming in her eyes. It wasn’t anything special, just generic chocolate one could find anywhere, but when had been the last time her brother had given her anything? It felt like it had been a lifetime ago!
“Mmhmhm-! He sure knows how to make chocolates! Paimon can really taste the lavender melon!”
Lumine wiped at her eyes. She wasn’t done, she couldn’t sit here getting emotional. Setting her brother and Enjou’s boxes aside, the blonde girl reached for another box, examining the nicely wrapped box from Kaveh and Alhaitham. It was a little weird they had sent them together, but Lumine figured Alhaitham must’ve been too lazy to send his own, or maybe Kaveh was just a little too broke to send his own. She didn’t mind either way.
“Ooh, this one is from a harbinger! Paimon’s dying to see what a harbinger se-”
“GIVE IT!” Lumine shouted as she practically scrambled over again to grab the gift from her. Lumine took the heart shaped tag and flipped it over to read it. Dottore.
“What do you think is in there?” Paimon asked as Lumine set it aside with a sigh.
“Knowing Dottore? Probably a real heart.” Paimon grimaced, frowning.
“Oh, dang it! Paimon wanted to know what fatui give as gifts! All Paimon can find is Lyney’s.” Lumine reached over to take it with far less passion as the other gift. She pulled at the ribbon, leaping a little in surprise as the top ripped with a spring loaded kitty, holding a magic pocket in its paws.
“Whoa- this is elaborate.” She looked at the pocket, tilting her head. “Am I… supposed to…” She reached into the pocket as Paimon grabbed another gift.
“Kazuha sent you… a leaf!” She held up a glass case with a simple red ribbon wrapped around it. “With a poem on the sign!” She set it aside. “Tone deaf bard sent you a poem too. What is with anemos and sending poems?!” Lumine grabbed something, pulling it out of the magic pocket, faced with a large bouquet of Rainbow Roses.
“Wow… These are pretty…” Lumine looked over the roses, adoring them already. What a unique gift this was! She might not have been looking for Lyney’s present, but it was a beautiful gift, she loved flowers!
“Oh! Those are kind of like Dainsleif’s gift!” Paimon shouted, zipping over to grab a small glass Inteyvat with a label wrapped around the stem.
“That’s GORGEOUS!” She set her Rainbow Roses down, reaching to grab the glass flower.
“Come on, let’s finish going through these gifts so we can do our commissions and take these home.” Paimon reached for the steaks Lumine had set aside earlier. “Paimon bets they taste fresh!”
“Alright, no more getting distracted.” Lumine let out another sigh as she looked over the remaining gifts. The one she had wanted to get wasn’t among them.
Diluc, Kaeya, Gaming, Cyno, Sethos, Wriothesley, Kinich, and Ororon. Those were the gifts that they’d sifted through when Lumine held the last gift, a nicely wrapped box from Wanderer. To the average girl, this would’ve been the best White day ever; but she was more fixated on the one who hadn’t given her a gift. Was it a sign he didn’t like her the way she liked him? She’d taken extra time to freshly bake him brownies with the chocolates, put extra time into decorating his chocolates, far more than the rest she’d made. And he hadn’t sent her anything back.
Lumine was distracted while completing her commissions by the lack of gift. Had she come on too strong to him? Was she not his type? Maybe he thought she wasn’t pretty enough. Maybe she should’ve tried to wear more makeup, she rarely did so. All she really ever did was light lipstick. Or… What if all those little touches that made her heart flutter had only had an affect on her? What if that look he had in his eyes when they talked was just a look he gave to everyone? Maybe she wasn’t even important enough to him.
By the end of her commissions, Lumine had scrapes up her arms and a cut on her thigh from her distractions (she’d failed to block a hit fast enough). It wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle, they’d probably heal faster than her breaking heart.
“Paimon, do you think I'm pretty?” The blonde Traveler asked as she and her companion carried her gifts into the teapot.
“Huh?” Paimon glanced over at her, approaching the manor.
“Do you think I'm pretty?” She repeated, a frown on her face.
“Why do you care if you're pretty? You're already very strong.” She huffed at her best friend.
“Because I'm a girl? I want to BE pretty.” She loved how strong she was, even if she managed to get into sticky situations, she could more often than not get out of them. But she was still a girl, and she still wanted to be pretty.
“If you weren’t pretty Paimon doesn’t think you’d get nearly as many gifts!” Lumine stepped up the stairs to her manor, frowning at the handle. She shifted to try to push down on it with her hip, struggling as the pixie watched her.
“What…? Is that the only reason they like me…?” She hated how insecure she sounded as she struggled with the door. She couldn’t help but worry about why he hadn’t sent her anything.
“Paimon didn’t say that!” Lumine sighed out as she backed away from the door, giving up. Paimon instead floated forward to try to juggle the gifts and opened the door for her. “Paimon doesn’t know why you’re so upset, but you shouldn’t worry too much.”
“I even got a gift from Seymour, Paimon! Why didn’t he send me one?!” She knew Paimon didn’t know who the problem was, but that was irrelevant. “Ah- hold on doggies!” She pushed into the manor as her various dogs rushed them, barking in excitement. It was a little bit of a struggle to get the gifts onto the counter nearby. “Good dogs!” She shouted as she knelt down to play with the various dogs. She had such a nasty habit of picking up any stray dogs she found, but how could she refuse their cute faces?
“Paimon thinks you’re just reading too deep into it.” Lumine let out a happy squeal as the dogs licked at her, practically tackling her over. At least until a few of them started barking and running toward the kitchen door. “Huh? What’s wrong with them?” Lumine looked over at the dogs, standing up.
“I don’t know… Maybe they want us to go to the kitchen?” She slowly pushed through the mess of dogs toward the kitchen, ready to withdraw her sword if needed. What if someone was in there? Who would break in?
Slowly, the blonde traveler pushed open the door a little, the stove steaming as if it were freshly turned off. She let out a battle cry as she kicked it open fully, blinking at the sight.
Childe leaned on the table in the kitchen, three dogs sat in front of him as he tossed them a few treats. Beside him sat two chocolate cakes, one in the shape of a heart and one circular one. Behind the cakes sat a fancy vase filled to the brim with a large bouquet of flowers. Between the two cakes sat two plates of freshly made chocolates, some of which were still steaming from the oven.
“It’s about time you came home.” Childe remarked in amusement, as if it were perfectly normal for him to have broken into her teapot. “I didn’t realise you had so many dogs in here.” He tossed another treat to one of her sandy coloured dogs.
“I just try to give them homes…” Was she blushing? She felt like she was blushing. Had he not sent her a gift because he was planning to show up here? She’d spent all day hoping to just get a letter from him even, but here he was, baking for her. For HER.
“Always so kind hearted, comrade.” Her heart was fluttering. “Anyway, I made you some treats for White day, along with some flowers. My mother had me bring you some soup she made too.” He pointed at a container behind the heart shaped cake. Lumine swallowed a lump in her throat. Was this, really happening?
“Traveler what was- H-Huh?! CHILDE!? What are you doing here?!” Paimon crossed her arms at him like a protective friend.
“Here, Paimon.” Childe gestured to the round cake. “I made you a cake too, and some chocolates.” Paimon gasped and hurried over, letting out a happy squeal.
“Hehe! You get Paimon’s approval for today!” She shouted as she began to eat her chocolates.
“That’s good, I’m glad I didn’t spend all day over that oven in that frilly pink apron for nothing.”
“You mean the Traveler’s apron?” Paimon asked as she chewed her chocolates. “Paimon would’ve loved to see you in that.” She snickered. “She chose the girliest apron.” Lumine huffed at Paimon, crossing her arms.
“It’s cute.”
“I didn’t mind wearing it, really. I just wanted to bake for you two.” Lumine shifted on her feet, hands behind her back as she looked away from him.
“R-really? I didn’t think you’d care that much…” She muttered out.
“Huh? Well of course I care. You didn’t really think I wouldn’t get you anything, did you?” Lumine refused to look at him. That was exactly what she’d been thinking all day. “Come here.” He leaned down, lifting her chin with his hand. Lumine practically melted as his lips met hers, her eyes widening in shock. Her heart was racing, like it was about to burst from her chest. She returned his kiss eagerly, hands moving up to hold his cheeks.
She nearly stumbled forward when he pulled away. “I-I uh…” She gulped when his deep blue eyes locked onto her startled golden ones. Paimon cringed but turned away, fixating on her sweets.
“Let’s eat some cake, then we can spend some time together, okay?”
“Y-Yeah-! Let’s do that!”