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Maybe she should go home after all.
Angel’s Share was as busy as on any other Friday night. Most tables on both floors were taken up by the people of Mondstadt. Friends, colleagues, and acquaintances all filled the space with lively chatter that reverberated across the room as they celebrated the end of another week. Orders after orders for more drinks were put in to keep the good mood going as the night progressed.
Meanwhile, Lumine was sitting at her table for two on the second floor alone, not knowing what to do with herself. While Angel’s Share on a Friday night wasn’t a place she’d choose for herself — too crowded and loud for her tastes — she still ended up here because of Amber. Lumine had been back in Mondstadt for a while already, but since both of them were always so busy, it was hard to find the time to catch up. So when Amber finally proposed a time and place, Lumine immediately said yes, just happy that she could finally spend time with her friend.
And it was really nice to talk with Amber again. For the approximately 20 minutes she was around, until her job called and she had to leave once more. Amber had been really apologetic and promised to make it up to Lumine, but she just told her not to worry about it and to hush to where she was needed, and she sincerely meant it.
As soon as her friend was gone, though, Lumine felt a significant amount of her energy leave her body as she slumped against the wall on her side with a sigh. Not only was she looking forward to this evening, she also didn’t know what to do with herself now. There was no reason to stay any longer, but the thought of going home after this short amount of time with a complete failure of an evening felt wrong. She really didn’t want to explain to Paimon why she was home so soon already when she was supposed to be having a fun night out with a friend.
The idea of staying didn’t feel particularly great either, though. Lumine wasn’t exactly great at initiating casual conversation. She recognized a fair number of the faces at Angel’s Share that night, but there was no one she would call a friend. Just people she had completed various commissions for, which she had no reason to talk to otherwise. She was good at completing tasks and helping people with various problems, not at initiating conversations and small talk with people she barely knew.
Not like she really wanted to do that anyway. She took a sip from the little of what remained of her drink and allowed herself to wallow in self-pity for a bit. It’s not like she blamed Amber for leaving, she was glad that her friend was taking her job seriously, but it didn’t take away from the sting of being left after looking forward to seeing someone. If she was honest with herself, it made her kind of miserable. She knew that the right thing to do was to get up and just accept defeat, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. Instead, she continued sitting there, still leaning against the wall and looking at nothing in particular, knowing that sitting alone at a table in a bar was practically inviting unwanted attention.
As if on cue, Lumine heard a voice calling out to her. “Well, if it isn’t our favorite honorary knight, all alone tonight,” slurred a man in his 40s who felt vaguely familiar to her as he entered her field of vision. It was obvious just from his voice that the man already had a few drinks too many that night, which was only supported by his disheveled look and the uncontrolled way he stumbled into the seat across from Lumine.
Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse.
The man looked expectantly at Lumine, blissfully unaware of her thoughts repeatedly chanting go away, go away, go away at him, and took a sip from his beer mug. “So, why’s Mondstadt’s savior sitting here, all alone in a corner, on a Friday night?” he asked, leaning in way further than comfortable over the table in Lumine’s direction.
This was the worst. Divine punishment for indulging in her self-pity like that, now she had to make an even worse choice because talking to this man was the last thing she wanted to do. She could leave, she could ask him to leave, she could be rude just to get him away from her, but she had no energy for a conflict, and a good reputation she wasn’t keen on tarnishing. She could already see the scene that a rejection from her would cause in his tunnel-visioned eyes and jittery movements. Maybe if she humored him for a bit, he would leave on his own. Hopefully.
“Well,” she began, trying to choose her words carefully. “The plan was to spend the evening with a friend here, which unfortunately didn’t work out,” she settled on in the end. The insufferable grin that spread on the face of the man across from her immediately told her that he jumped to the exact wrong conclusions she hoped he wouldn’t make.
“Oh my, did our dear traveler get dumped,” he declared more than he asked with a way too loud voice. Some heads turned their way, which made Lumine want to crawl into a ditch and die. She tried to keep her voice level and calm as she began to answer. “That’s not really what I…”
He dismissively waved a hand in front of her face, causing her to lean back, as he interrupted her. “Shush, no need to be embarrassed. Happens to the best of us!” he laughed, once again too loudly. “But to think anyone would dare refuse such a pretty thing like you!” The self-impressed smile he showed Lumine made her eyebrow twitch, and suddenly punching him in the face felt like a very reasonable option.
While objectively not the worst situation she’s ever been in, this was turning out to be incredibly uncomfortable. There were few things she wanted to do less than to listen to a drunk man without inhibitions make inferences about her love life.
Before she could think of an answer the man was talking again. “I’m sure you’re way too good for him anyway! A gorgeous girl like you doesn’t need to put up with guys who don’t value your beauty.” He hiccuped as he lifted his mug in her direction. “I’m sure you can find dozens of guys who’d love to make you theirs, if you know what I mean.” He laughed at his own words before taking another big swig from his mug, while Lumine just barely managed to suppress a full-body cringe.
Deciding that enough was enough, Lumine prepared herself to tell the drunk man off as a hand was firmly placed between the two of them in the middle of their table. The person it belonged to leaned onto it with their back turned to Lumine. Even so, it didn’t take long for Lumine to recognize the uniform and the head of ginger hair. Before she could even begin to question why Childe was in Mondstadt, let alone here in front of her, he began to address the drunk man across from her.
“Hey buddy, I think it might be time to leave,” Childe said in a tone that left no room for questions. It was superficially friendly but marked by severe insincerity in a way that Lumine had learned to pick up on from him. While still processing that Childe was suddenly here and kind of saving her from this situation, the man just laughed.
“Why would I want to leave?” he slurred. “I’m having a great time here with Mondstadt’s favorite person!” He continued laughing and looked at Lumine with the clear expectation that she’d join him, which she couldn’t bring herself to do. The most she managed was a small, unsure smile.
The man’s attention returned to Childe as the latter took a step in his direction and entered his personal space, forcing the drunk man to lean back and look up at the harbinger leaning over him intimidatingly. “This is not a request,” Childe said, looking intently at him. “Leave.”
While still calm, there was now a threatening edge to his voice that even the drunk man managed to pick up on. He stopped laughing and stared at the man standing above him for a few seconds, then eventually got up without another glance at Lumine. He turned towards the stairs and grumbled something about the damn Fatui and being unable to have fun nowadays, while ungracefully stumbling down to the first floor.
Lumine had turned around and watched the man go until she couldn’t see him anymore. She let out a sigh of relief at not having to deal with him any longer. The sound of a chair scraping against the floor made her turn back towards the table, on the other side of which Childe was sitting down at. He put his elbows on the table, leaned his chin on top of his folded hands, and smiled at her.
“Hello comrade! How have you been?” he asked as if nothing had happened just now.
Unfortunately Lumine couldn’t just let it slide like that.
“What do you mean ‘hello comrade?’ What was that just now?” she asked, exacerbatedly. She had no idea how much of that conversation Childe had witnessed, but she wasn’t about to admit that he’d just saved her from an incredibly awkward situation without an explanation.
The smile dropped from his expression and his look turned incredibly deadpan in a way that made Lumine feel too seen. “I don’t know if you want to hear this,” he began, “but that was the most uncomfortable I have ever seen you.”
Ouch. The mighty traveler, savior of nations across Teyvat and winner of countless battles, including against gods, bested by a social interaction she didn’t know how to navigate. Maybe the ditch wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Judging by the grin spreading on his face, Childe was very aware that he had hit the nail on the head. Smug bastard. Lumine defensively crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“Okay, maybe that situation was very uncomfortable,” she admitted, “but that doesn’t mean I needed you to butt in.”
“Apparently you did because our goody two-shoes traveler is just too nice to say no to anybody, no matter how bothersome,” he sighed. Damn it, he knew her too well. “Good thing a big bad Fatui harbinger was around to take the blame.” He casually threw an arm over the back of his chair and let out a short sarcastic laugh.
Lumine felt herself turn red from embarrassment, instinctively looking away to try to hide it from Childe. Hearing all of that put into words really made it clear how stupid this whole situation was. She probably could’ve handled it in a better way, and now she felt kind of responsible for giving Mondstadt’s citizens another reason to distrust Childe, knowing how far gossip like that spreads.
Turning back again, Lumine put her arms on the table in front of her and leaned forward slightly, looking back at Childe. “Thank you,” she managed to say.
She was instantly rewarded by the expression of her companion lightening, showing her the first genuine smile she had seen from him that night. “You’re welcome,” he replied softly while mirroring her movements and leaning forward as well. Lumine reacted to the smile with her own slightly hesitant one, feeling some of the tension that had built up in her melt away.
“You know,” Childe continued just as softly, “you should really learn to say no sometimes.”
Lumine immediately buried her head in her arms. “Ugh, I know,” she let out, the sound coming out muffled even to her ears. Not only was she keenly aware that this was a problem, the way Childe had said that completely sincerely and without a trace of teasing made it even more embarrassing.
She turned her head to the side so that she could look at Childe and talk clearly. “I’ve been trying, Paimon can confirm,” she whined, “but it’s been kind of a rough night and I was really, really not in the mood for an argument.”
Childe chuckled lightly and also leaned down to place his chin on his crossed arms on the table, bringing their faces to the same level. “Well, what happened?” he asked.
Lumine sighed. “I got dumped.”
The intentionally kind of vague statement did exactly what she suspected. For a few wonderful seconds she could follow in real time how Childe’s brain tried to catch up with her words until it belatedly processed the information, which led to an expression of utter confusion.
Lumine couldn’t keep her giggles in, which seemed to confuse him even more. She decided not to toy with him for too long. “By which I mean that I was catching up with a friend here until she unexpectedly had to leave because of her job,” she explained.
The confusion lifted from Childe’s face and he let out a short chuckle as he understood what she was doing. He lifted his head up from the table again, placed one elbow on it instead, and leaned his head against his hand with a thoughtful expression. “And that got to you?” he simply asked, looking at her intently.
Now it was Lumine’s turn to need processing time. This was not what she expected he’d focus on after that teasing. She thought he’d take the bait, tease her back, and that the conversation would devolve into superficial and lighthearted bickering like it so often did between them.
Instead, she was faced with a choice. Divert and change the topic. Or maybe try to put her feelings into words. The latter of which she was definitely not good at. Another thing she was trying to improve about herself.
She sat up straight again but was unable to lift up her gaze from her now fiddling hands. “I guess,” she started, unsure if she even had anything noteworthy to say. “Plans falling through just sucks by itself, I was really looking forward to catching up with her again after a while. And getting to the point where we finally made time for each other and sat down together, just for it to still not work out, was really disappointing.”
But there was more, right? She continued talking almost to herself, still unwilling to look up. “But it also hit me personally, I think? I don’t know. I know that her leaving is nothing personal, she didn’t want to go either. But there’s this thought that makes no sense. That maybe she would’ve stayed if I said or done something different. I don’t know. It just kind of feels like…”
being left behind. She left that part unsaid.
Lumine basically immediately regretted saying anything. She wasn’t sure if any of that even made logical sense, and being emotionally vulnerable made her want to throw up and/or run away. Her telling all of this to Childe made no sense either. A small part of her was worried about what she’d see in his expression when she looked up again.
Two hands from across the table entered her field of vision, slowly separating one of her fiddling hands from the other and taking it into their own. Surprise caused Lumine to finally look up at her companion again, just to discover Childe looking down at their hands with an unreadable expression on his face.
Immediate instinct told Lumine to pull her hand away, apologize, and leave, but… his hands were warm and comforting. So maybe it was okay.
Childe lifted his eyes to look at her and showed her a small but genuine smile. He leaned in closer across the table and lowered his voice, making her feel as if he wanted to speak to her and her alone. Unlike with the man from before, she didn’t feel cornered in the slightest. “Well, I guess you’re stuck here with me for the rest of the night then,” he said with a slightly teasing glint in his eyes. “I have nowhere else to be.”
Lumine’s breath faltered for a second. Looking into his eyes, she wondered when he had gotten to know her so well. Him being this considerate and attentive shouldn't be surprising to her, she knew how he treated the people he held closest to his heart — she just didn’t think that she might be one of them until now.
Stopping herself from following this train of thought any further, she focused her attention back on the question she had wanted to ask since he suddenly appeared in front of her. “What are you even doing in Mondstadt to begin with?” she asked as casually as possible, trying to ignore how moved she felt by his earlier statement.
Childe leaned back again and let out a short laugh. “Nothing important,” he replied while lifting the hand on top of hers and waving it carelessly. “Just boring Fatui business, but nothing I need to concern myself with until tomorrow.”
Before Lumine could start missing his second hand, he placed it on top of hers again. Just as she wanted to reply, he furrowed his eyebrows and broke eye contact to look around the room.
“That is,” he slowly said, “as long as you want me here.”
At first, Lumine didn’t understand what he was getting at. Since he was still avoiding her gaze, she fully started paying attention to her surroundings again for the first time in a while. And what she discovered was a weird mood that was different from before. People were still laughing and drinking with their friends, but there was also a weird hush. Whispers that Lumine couldn’t quite make out but knew weren’t positive in nature.
It took her a few seconds until she realized that they were talking about Childe. Her and Childe. It made sense as the Fatui were barely tolerated in Mondstadt to begin with, and locals didn’t exactly trust them. A harbinger was seen with even more skepticism.
Childe was looking at her again with a questioning but intentionally neutral look. He knew that she cared a lot about her reputation with the locals. He knew that he wasn’t welcome and that associating with him might be bad for her image.
Luckily for him, Lumine didn’t care one bit what people thought about who she was associating with.
She placed her remaining free hand on top of their joined ones and leaned in closer. Finally, she got him to look a little flustered for a change as she whispered, “I’d love for you to stay.”