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Sparks flew around as their blades crossed. It was not the first time and it will not be the last. Tonight, however, the result was different from the norm.
The duel took longer than usual, the hits rained down in chaos. Fueled by emotions Lumine didn't want to name. Feelings she chose to ignore.
Till they exploded.
A torrent of slashes left her almost breathless. An assault of water cold as the peaks of Dragonspine. The droplets trailed down her skin mixing with sweat and blood. The girl's hand trembled. She internally cursed at such an amateur mistake. At her own weakness.
Unable to withstand the blows, dove to the side trying to dodge, yet her opponent easily anticipated such intent. Maybe even counted on it? He was a Harbinger after all - a weapon in the hands of Tsaritsa. One that wasn't afraid to deceive, maim and kill. Would he be able to do the same to her, she sometimes wondered? Will their friendly spar someday end in a pool of blood?
Once in a while, the insanity shining in his dead eyes dared her to try and learn the answer.
Childe charged. Cut. Sensed he was getting an upper hand and didn't want to let it slip out of his grasp. The blonde, cornered and exhausted, had no choice but to put her strongest card on the table. To bet the win on it.
A blast of air exploded from her left hand, swept through the plain ruffling the grass. It was a perfect ploy! To stumble him. Create an opening. Jump at the opportunity to counterattack!
Tough luck.
It was exactly what he wanted.
Like a stream meandering between the hills and mountains, graceful but deadly, the Harbinger slipped through Lumi's defence. Appeared behind her and in one swift motion kicked the legs out from under the girl.
Lumine’s back hit the ground with a painful thud, her breath stolen by the impact. Yet the killing blow, a strike she almost expected, didn’t come.
A lone wolf howled in the distance.
The blonde sat up with a soft grunt. The sword was still in her hand, yet she felt powerless. Just like back then. When the blond boy she love more than anything was stolen from her right in front of her eyes.
The man looking down at her had his eyebrows furrowed.
"If you think you can fight me like this and win, that’s honestly just disrespectful, girlie."
"That's..." true, she finished in her mind despite the initial reflex to deny it. He was right. Her thoughts wandered and if it were a real duel, for such an attitude she would pay with her life. "I'm sorry, that won’t happen again," Lumine grumbled, angry at herself.
Childe regarded her for a moment longer as if that answer didn’t really please him ...and for finally getting a win on her, why didn't it taste more gratifying?
Everything felt wrong when this girl was involved. Complicated when things were supposed to be simple. His will shaken when up till now it was immovable like a glacier. Frost-bound. Serene. Beautiful from afar but lethal on a closer inspection.
Yet she, this tiny fairy-like girl with her brilliant smile that could rival the sun and a will to live that seemed to be radiating from her every move, was causing the iceberg to melt.
And who knew what disaster that might bring.
With a sigh, he put his weapons away letting them disappear.
"That’s not what I meant." The Harbinger awkwardly scratched his neck. The gesture felt klutzy, as if his hands didn't quite know what to do with themselves when they suddenly ran out of swords to wield. Still, that endearing clumsiness weirdly fit him. Was like a glance at a real man under the mask. The yang to his bloodthirst, just as the bloodthirst was the yin to the wide-eyed wanderlust carefully hidden in his soul.
After a moment of hesitation, Childe sat down.
"So?" asked breaking the uncomfortable silence and nudged Lumine with his shoulder. The gesture was so boyish and so... sweet, she felt the unexpected impulse to lean into him. It would be nice, wouldn't it? To allow herself a short break, to let someone else take the weight of the world off her shoulders... or at least the weight of her world. But the urge passed while she remained rooted to the spot. Stubbornly unmovable. The grass under her fingers suddenly felt coarser.
"So, what?" Lumine answered with a question raising her chin. The final act of her rebellious defiance.
"So, what’s on your mind? Because obviously it wasn’t our sparring session, otherwise it would be me hitting the ground."
Lumi smirked with slight pride, but also a little against herself. He was a Fatui agent, a Harbinger, an enemy. And yet he was also a master at making her laugh when no one else could even dream of lifting her mood.
The thing was - every time that happened, when the blonde genuinely enjoyed his company, she also felt as if she had lost. To whom? And in what game? That Lumine wasn’t sure of. But the irritating sensation was certainly there.
And anyway, Ajax was telling the truth; so far their spars, despite different times, different places, and different convictions put into their swords, have always ended with the same result: her victory. Even Paimon stopped coming to watch, finding it boring or at least a lot less interesting than Xiangling’s new culinary experiment. Thus, today's defeat may not have added any new scar to the girl's collection, however, it certainly wounded her pride.
"That’s because your tactics suck."
"Ouch!" Childe comically grabbed at his heart. "You wound me." Yet the playfulness didn't linger for long. “But it’s not just that. You're that good. Just not today."
Without warning he leaned forward, the sudden intensity in his eyes holding the girl in place, not letting her look away. The way he could change from a happy-go-lucky attitude to a sharp and almost scary demeanour in a matter of seconds never ceased to take her by surprise.
Now he was like a predator zeroing in on its prey.
"So, what is it that makes Lumine weak?" the man asked quietly. Threateningly, someone could even say if they didn’t know him better.
Attachment whispered a traitorous voice in her mind.
She clenched her fist. The uncomfortable pressure of the nails digging into her palm broke the spell, bringing Lumine back to reality. Feigning indifference she let her back fall to the ground. Sighed and covered her eyes with her arm. Today was... just too much. Chirping noises of the cicadas, usually soothing, this time sounded almost ominous. It's not that she wanted to cry... Well, ok, maybe she wanted to. A little. But letting Childe see that was out of the question.
Lost in thoughts and darkness, the girl didn't speak for a long while. Her tired muscles pleasantly throbbed as the cool wind gently caressed her skin. The sun was still shining when they started, but as usual, their duel dragged on until dusk. Even so, Childe stayed put. Who would have thought that the Fatui have so much free time on their hands, huh? Or maybe they just clearly chose their priorities.
...was there really someone in this world who considered her as such? A priority?
Something blinked in the grass.
With an unreadable expression, the man watched tiny glowing balls appear all around them. Fireflies.
Even at her worst, she’s still surrounded by light.
In his eyes she was beautiful. Like a beacon of hope in the middle of a blizzard. A star guiding lost travellers.
Something worth holding on to ...but worth enough to tear down for her his carefully constructed world?
It wasn't hard to make a reckless mistake, but it was far more dangerous to deal with its consequences.
"Today marks a year since my brother disappeared."
Childe almost jumped up, startled.
He may have asked, yet didn’t think she would actually be honest with him. After all, they were still enemies standing on the opposite sides of a much bigger conflict than just the two of them. No matter how much they... he sometimes wished for things to be different.
"Do you miss him?" instead, the Harbinger asked.
"More and more every day," Lumine replied, her voice firm but full of longing. "Aether is my other half, without him I feel as if something inside me is missing, as if I’m not... whole."
He hummed in acknowledgement. In a way, this Snezhnayan boy was more than familiar with what she described. Maybe not to that extent, Ajax didn't know what it felt like to have a twin, but was very much aware how much it hurts to stay away from the people you love.
"You know, every time I have to leave my family I tell my siblings that if they ever feel lonely, they just need to look up and find Monoceros Caeli in the sky." His clothes rustled, the sound made Lumine instantly tense up.
"Monoceros Caeli?" she asked uncovering her eyes, didn't even bother to hide the suspicion leaking into her voice.
And only managed to let out a small sigh finally getting her vision back.
Childe was lying in the grass. Right next to her. As if it was the most natural thing in the world. His ginger hair lazily mingled with yellow threads spilt around the girl. The Harbinger glanced at Lumi with his typical smile, but this time it was open and devoid of falsehood.
The words suddenly stuck in her throat.
"Yeah, that's my birth constellation." He pointed at the stars. "See? It's the one in the shape of a whale."
Being honest, astronomy and astrology weren't her strong points, so to Lumine nothing amongst the sea of blinking lights even remotely resembled a whale. However, she felt a strong apprehension towards admitting defeat. The blonde stared stubbornly at the sky, unknowingly starting to bite her lip in frustration.
That's when she heard a chuckle.
"You're looking at the wrong place," Childe said amused. Then casually grabbed her hand and pointed more towards the west, his touch surprisingly gentle but firm. The gloveless fingers, full of callouses, softly rubbed her skin. This Harbinger, this soldier, this man... really did dedicate his whole life to fighting, didn't he? There was something sad yet undoubtedly beautiful about it. "See these three stars: here, here and here forming a triangle? Connect them, add the tail here, the nose there-" he was leading her palm drawing in the sky and her heartbeat suddenly picked up "-and that's it, the one and only Monoceros Caeli."
...how exactly is this a whale?
"But you know," Childe went on undaunted, threading his fingers through hers instead of letting go, "one day Teucer came to me and said that my charm doesn't work because he searched and searched and the whale was nowhere to be found. And yeah, it's obvious during some nights stars aren't visible, but I guess I didn't think about it at the time,” the man snorted. "I was at a loss but my sister, Tonia, said something good back then."
His thumb was tracing slow circles on her skin. The sensation sent shivers down her spine.
"And what was that?" Lumine whispered scared to break the mood.
She almost expected him to deflect into jokes or make light of the whole story but Childe, quite unlike himself, remained solemn. Seemed to be focusing his full attention on their linked palms stretched out against the starry night.
"She said that it doesn't matter if we can see the stars or not. As long as we live under the same sky, we will always be connected."
Her breath caught.
That... hit Lumine. Hard.
Harder than she wanted to admit.
Under the same sky.
Such simple logic...
But things that are right in front of our eyes are sometimes the most difficult to notice. Be it opportunities, life lessons or... people.
Lumine attention snapped upwards again.
Aether is somewhere out there. Maybe he's even looking at the same starry sky as she is now, waiting to be found. And she will find him. Because they're connected. Always were since the day they were born; always will be, even though separated and lost. This thought, so rudimentary yet so grand, brought her a sense of peace. One she didn't experience in a long while.
And this time Lumine finally let her tears flow freely.
Sitting up and hiding her face in her hands she allowed herself this one moment of weakness. And relief.
"Hey, don't hide," Childe gently grabbed her wrists. He sat up too and pulled at her hands, slowly lowering them. The girl let him.
This day was so strange. This whole conversation so unlike them. Partly because the blonde wanted to test him, to see what he would do and say next. If the feelings slowly blooming in her chest were just a fluke. A mirage created by loneliness. And partly because she just didn’t care anymore.
When their eyes met she anticipated an ironic jibe, a light joke making fun of her almost runny nose, a casual comment to relieve tension. Anything but blue eyes, always dull and listless, sparkling like the stars above.
He leaned forward. Without thinking. Without overthinking. Without anything but her on his mind. The inevitable pull between them finally becoming too difficult to fight.
His lips were soft, and the kiss gentle.
Childe's hand sneaked up and caressed her cheek.
"It’s good that you’re finally letting it all out but... I think I don’t like seeing you cry," he whispered, leaning his forehead against hers.
"Whose fault do you think it is, stupid," Lumine mumbled in a weak voice, her face flushed and heart pounding.
"Is it, now?" Ajax chuckled, playfully nudging her with his nose, "Well, I told you I’m kind of a bad guy."
Feeling her cheeks burning up the girl dove forward and buried herself in his embrace, hiding from sight. The action, so silly and childlike, made him laugh, but despite the easy-going atmosphere, Lumi felt the hold on her tightening. Their bodies melting together like two perfectly matched pieces of a puzzle.
The blonde smiled to herself savouring the sensation of a joyous rumbling in his chest. The unexpected comfort it brought.
She snuggled even closer shamelessly stealing his warmth. The heat of his body was a shield protecting Lumine from the cool of the nightly breeze.
Yes, he was a bad guy. But he was also so much more than that.
This infuriating enemy of hers.