Chapter Text
Childe never thought he'd see the sun again. Until he met her.
It's a weird thing to think, he did live in Liyue afterall. The sun shined brighter in Liyue than Snezhnaya.
But he never really truly appreciated the sun til he met her.
Running down the stairs as Millelith guards chased her and her companion and a cheesy little "Hey Girlie".
Archons, he was stupid.
Golden eyes that stared deep into the dark abyss of the ocean his eyes reflected.
Fuck is this what love feels like?
Nah that's stupid. He's probably never gonna meet this girl again.
-----------
She beat his ass. Again.
After the whole Liyue incident with Osial, they had formed....a friendship of sorts?
She had him pinned down, her sword a centimeter away from his cheek, her heavy breathing, her sweat slowly falling down into those beautiful gold eyes.
Beautiful?
He was thinking about how she was beautiful?
The girl quickly let go of her sword and fell to lay beside him on the cold floor of the Golden House.
"You suck" she said with a breathy laugh
"Shut up" he replied with equal effort.
"You need to get better or else you'll never beat me, Childe" she said while turning her body to face him.
He turned to face hers as well.
"Haha, I almost got you this time, girlie" he replied with a smirk. "Besides, no one's as amazing as you. Just being able to spar with you is a privilege in itself."
She flicked his forehead and sat up.
"Well, you just suck" she proclaimed.
He sat up as well to look at her flushed expression; from his compliments he hoped.
He chuckles and just enjoys the comfortable silence between them.
-----
"Hold still, you idiot!" She grunts while trying to wrap a bandage around his waist.
"Fighting 10 ruin guards! Are you stupid!?" Paimon practically screamed as she kept flying around in a panic.
Golden eyes were all he could follow
Filled with so much fear
Filled with so much care.
"Paimon, could you distract Teucer for a bit. I need to have a word with stupid here."
Paimon quickly left without realizing they had left the boy alone.
It was silent for a bit as Lumine continued to wrap the cloth.
She glared at him a few times before he finally spoke
"What? I can't pass up an opportunity to test my limits- ow!"
She tightened the cloth and he groaned in pain
"Okay, okay" he yielded. "sorry I must have worried you guys"
"No shit." She replied coldly.
She sat next to him leaning back against the near crumbling stone walls.
"Why'd you do it, Childe?" Lumine asked, her voice soft, full of relief, like a silver bell pleasing to the ear.
"Someone has to protect them right?...childhood dreams" he says with heavy breaths.
"At the risk of your own safety?" She says whilst sitting up straight her voice a bit agitated, "You could have died! Then what childhood dream would be there to protect?"
"Yeah but it was worth it to know I put a smile on his face." He chuckles. "I will always keep the promises I make with my family"
Lumine stays quiet for a bit, he notices her golden eyes that shine brighter than the sun had lost a bit of that light.
"Sound familiar?" He asks. Did he fuck up something? Was it a sensitive topic to discuss?
He did not get a response.
"Besides, I know myself enough to know I could take 10 ruin guards, starlight" he chuckles, the pain still evident. "Just give me like 10 minutes to catch my breath"
The corner where they hid is once again silent as Lumine, at a loss for words, allows him to catch his breath.
He closes his eyes as he breathes in slowly in deep breaths.
He doesn't even realize that Lumine had stopped talking til he finally catches his breath.
"Girlie, are you still there?" He asks softly
Eyes still closed, too tired to open, too much in pain to move a muscle.
Then a soft pressure presses against his cheek. It lingers for a few seconds before pulling away.
He still had his eyes closed a few seconds after but once his mind registered what it could have been his eyes open and body shoots up.
Which causes a sharp pain to course through his body.
"Fuck!" He grunts.
He regains his strength and looks around to see no one.
----
BAM!
The door slams shut and locks trapping Lumine and Childe inside the room.
They try to attack it, maybe hitting it would break it, or even defuse whatever witchcraft was placed on it.
"Traveller!? We'll find another way to get you guys out!" Xinyan calls from the other side of the door
"Childe you better not hurt Lumine!" Paimon's voice screeches as it slowly fades away.
They're both left standing in silence in front of a door that won't budge.
"Well." Childe sighs, slumping down to lean his back on a box in front of the door.
"Of all people..." Lumine muttered.
She was annoyed, he knew. No reply from him for nearly a year. Heck maybe even more, he stopped counting.
Tried to forget her, ya know?
It's just his luck when he thought he'd finally did, he just happened to run into her in Inazuma.
"I'm still mad at you" she mumbles while moving to sit beside him.
"I know."
"..."
"..."
Silence is not unfamiliar to the two.
"I deserve this." He thinks.
"I don't deserve her attention" He thinks.
"I don't deserve her," He thinks.
".."
"I don't hate you. I'm just mad." She says, muffling her voice with her legs.
"That's worse, comrade," he chuckles.
"You're not the scum of the world, Childe. No matter what you think." she says. "I just wished you'd see that rather than call yourself less of a human."
He turns his head to look at her; buried in her legs hiding her face.
Cute.
"I just...if you didn't want to talk anymore you could have told me" she adds.
"Did you kiss me on the cheek back in Liyue?" He asks straightforwardly.
She shoots up and bumps her head on the boxes they're leaning on.
"I- uh! Umm....what kind of question is that!?" She punches his shoulder.
"Hey, you just left me in the ruins!" He adds with a laugh.
She's blushing. Finally something other than awkward silence .
"So? Did you?" He teases.
"No, no, we're talking about you." She retorts. "You lucky bastard. You should be proud Teucer bought my lie about you needing to attend a meeting"
"And I thank you for that my knight" he teases with a slight bow and a wink.
"No I didn't. Whatever." She lied. He knows.
He sighs, "I'm sorry."
Clearly she was taken aback by his response based on her wide eyed expression.
"I was a jerk. I shouldn't have brought up such a touchy topic."
He turned his face to her so she could see the genuine look in his eyes.
"I just..wanted to protect my brother. I know you know the same"
He reaches out to caress her cheek with his thumb, he doesn't even register that she accepts his touch by relaxing against his hand.
"And I worried you and Paimon in the process." He adds. "I should have taken into account how you'd have to explain to Teucer...incase..you know."
She closes her eyes against his touch.
Unconsciously, she moves closer to him.
"And...I shouldn't have ignored you for a year after that."
Okay, he admits. He sees it. There is something between them.
But that's all he admits. "Something".
Then he realizes he's been caressing her cheek for a while.
"Oh-kay! Dokey! Time to look for a way out of this place." He stutters and stands up to walk towards the locked door.
He stares at the door for a good second.
Then he feels it again.
A soft pressure on his cheek, warm, tingly...nice.
Then after it's gone he turns to his side to see her.
And those golden eyes.
"You're like the stars in the night sky, comrade."
He leaned in slightly closer...
"You never cease to surprise me."
closing the gap.
---
When he woke up at the bottom of the sea he thought he had died.
Then he saw it. A whale. One mimicking the ones he's seen in his dreams, his nightmares, and the truth he experienced back when he was 14.
Then he proceeded to start fighting the Whale.
Because of course he did.
He convinced himself he was going to die. Or that maybe he already was
Either way, he would rather die pushing his limits than to allow himself to drown.
He didn't know for how long his fight had been going on. He just kept striking and striking letting the foul legacy take over his mind and body.
He left it to the abyss to decide when they'll allow him to die.
Left it to the hands of fate to determine whether he deserved to liv e in this world.
He'd even forgotten about that blonde girl.
Blonde girl?
Oh right...he was in a trial.
Then he woke up in jail.
But that doesn't..explain the blonde girl.
And an annoying fairy?
Suddenly the ceiling shatters into a million shards of a mirror. For the first time, in archons know how long, he was out of the deep abyss of the sea.
But his body had to fight.
He shot himself out of the water and straight into the broken ceiling.
And found himself back into the courtroom that convicted him.
He drags a blade into the whale's back to no avail but sends it back down the shattered portion of the room.
That's when he sees her. Golden eyes. Looking directly at him.
With the same fear and care that she showed him back in the Liyue ruins.
" Fuck im in love. " He thinks.
He can't die now.
Not when there's someone who looks at him like that. Not when it looked like she's been searching for him for months. Not when he remembered how they kissed back in Inazuma. Not when he promised his family to meet her. Not when he can finally see a bright future for himself when he sees her.
He reaches out his arm for Lumine.
And that's when he faints.
And falls back into the abyss.