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(childe)
Before Lumine ever meets Tartaglia, she meets Childe.
Childe, who swoops in like a hero to save her – though she’s never truly needed saving. Childe, who gives her money, who gives her relative safety, who acts like a friend when she knows damn well he is nothing more than an enemy.
He follows her around Liyue, joins her on commissions, even helps her beat up a few ruin guards from time to time. She knows not to count on consistence with him; he simply joins her when he feels like it and participates when he thinks it’ll be a good fight.
“So, is this all you do?”
The question comes as they walk a path back to Liyue. It’s been a particularly grueling day, what with a full set of finished commissions and accidentally running into a group of three abyss mages, and she’s exhausted.
“Not much else to do.” She sighs, running a hand through her hair. “Zhongli is always busy, so who knows when he’ll need my help again. All I can do is wait for more information on Rex Lapis, I guess.”
“But with experience like yours, surely a few hilichurls must be boring you?”
She doesn’t answer. Paimon is only a few yards ahead, bobbing along in the wind happily.
“Well, you’ve had a hard day.” Childe nudges her gently. “Let me treat you to a drink, huh?”
“Mm, more of that endless Fatui supply?”
“Hey!” Paimon interjects, floating in front of them with her hands on her hips. “If Mr. Moneybags is paying, we are not turning down!”
Lumine rolls her eyes. There’s only one way to Paimon’s heart, and Fatui or not, Childe has bought himself a one-way ticket.
He leads them to a hole-in-the-wall tavern – a medium sized stall tucked under a bookstore that reminds her of Angel’s Share so much that it aches. She almost expects Diluc’s bright red hair to pop out from behind the worn wooden countertop as she and Childe slide into their seats. Paimon, as usual, floats above them, tittering with excitement. He orders the fairy three separate dishes – which she takes away to eat in peace. Or without the danger of having to share her food.
“Hey, have you ever had a Violet Delight?” Childe asks, motioning to the bartender.
“No.” She answers, leaning forward. The wood under her arms is cool and almost soothing. “Is it any good?”
Two glasses are slid in front of them, engraved with the Geo symbol and filled with a vibrant lilac liquid. No ice, but a stem with a single leaf leans against the rim of the glass like a straw.
“It’s made from violetgrass flowers.” Childe says, long fingers encircling the glass. “I assume you’ve seen them around, since you love climbing things so much.”
Lumine takes hers and swirls it idly. Childe goes straight for the kill and downs the entire thing in one gulp. He coughs once, eyes a little watery, then grins at her.
“Your turn, girlie.”
Well, she’s never been one to back down from a challenge.
It burns. It’s sweet, but it burns like hell, and she almost coughs it out. When she’s left nothing behind except the little stem, she turns to Childe, who’s still watching her with a smile on his face.
“Another round?” He offers, hand already motioning to the bartender once again.
She allows herself a small smile, this time.
“You’re on.”
Alcohol doesn’t bring down his inhibitions, as one would expect. Childe’s mask of a smile stays perfectly in place – no matter how much he talks about his past jobs and adventures, he never once gives Lumine something real about himself.
He’s not outright lying. But everything he says is surface-level, something that could easily be found in a mission report, if Lumine were ever inclined to steal Fatui files from his office. And while listening to him tell the story of the time he fought the Oceanid, she decides that for once, she’d like to hear something real.
“What’s your favorite color?”
Childe stares at her, blinks once, then laughs.
“Is that what you’ve been dying to say all night?” He chuckles. “Oh, wow, I thought you were gonna try and charm top-secret information out of me or something.”
“If I wanted to charm you, I would’ve done it already.” She huffs, knowing he’s deflecting.
“Who says you haven’t?”
And there it is.
Something real.
He’s leaned forward just enough so that he’s at eye level, halfway into her personal bubble. Blue eyes are trained entirely on her, accompanied by a wide grin.
It’s so unexpected that Lumine panics. The truth in his smile and his eyes is too much, so she coughs and looks away.
“My favorite color is red.” He hums, and leans back. “Blood of my enemies, and all that.”
“Seriously?” She sputters, though she’s not entirely surprised.
“Of course, girlie.” Childe smiles again; taps at the mask on his head. “I’m a Harbinger, after all.”
(ajax)
Lumine meets Ajax once between the death of a god and the rise of a harbinger.
That night at the bar is not their last. It becomes almost tradition, in the weeks that follow, for them to end their days with a night of light drinking or dinner at places like Third-Round-Knockout. Paimon joins sometimes, and sometimes she doesn’t, in favor of helping out – pestering – Xiangling at her restaurant.
It’s fun. She is shocked to admit it to herself, but she’s actually having real, non-battle fun for the first time since leaving Mondstat. It reminds her of her time there, in a way – sitting in the hands of Barbatos’ statue, sharing a bottle of wine with the god himself; pointing out different stars in the sky with Kaeya and laughing during late nights with Lisa in the library.
Childe is a Fatui, and a Harbinger, and could probably kill her in an instant if he really, truly wanted to. Lumine does not allow herself to forget this fact but she does allow herself to forget that at the moment, they are supposed to be enemies.
Yaoguang Shoal is where she meets Ajax for the first time.
Childe is no stranger to her, not anymore. They spar occasionally now, in addition to her commissions and their nighttime endeavors. It’s easy, almost comforting to have practice against someone who’s not a hilichurl or abyss mage. Yaoguang Shoal is their most frequent practice grounds, as the long strips of sand give them plenty of space with little to no risk of collateral damage.
She hits his spear with her blade once, twice, and sweeps one of his legs out from under him. His body hits the sand underneath them with a loud thump, and he huffs out a nearly breathless laugh.
“Nice.” Childe stares up at her with a grin, the point of her sword under his jaw. “Does this mean I owe you dinner?”
“You pay for half my meals anyways.” She points out, offering a hand to him.
He doesn’t take it. Instead, he rolls over in the sand, arm outstretched, and plucks a starconch shell off the ground.
“Do you know the legend associated with these?”
Lumine plops down next to him, ignoring the way that sand covers her dress and boots, and takes the shell from his hand. It’s pretty, with its blue swirls and white, star-shaped center.
She does know the legend, actually. Long before they started having their little meetings, Lumine had come to the shoal to search for crabs for Xiangling. There she met the old woman who lives in the conch lodge, who had kindly told her about the starconches and what they meant.
They say you can hear beyond the sea. You can hear the voices of those who have been lost.
“No.” She finally answers, handing the shell back to him. “I don’t.”
Childe hums and flips it in the air, catching it against his chest. He’s unusually quiet. The only sound is the soft lapping of waves against the shore and the rustle of her dress as she adjusts the way she sits.
“They say you can hear the voices of the people you’ve lost.” He murmurs. “And I hear myself.”
Before she can reply to that shockingly deep statement, he continues.
“You know, my father named me Ajax in the hopes that I would be a great warrior.”
In an instant, his words take her back to their first night at that bar; her craving to know something real about him.
He’s finally taking off the mask.
“And is he proud, now that you are?”
He smiles, soft and boyish, his auburn hair fluttering in the sea breeze as he turns to look up at her. Lumine doesn’t know how old Childe is, but this genuine relaxation on his face makes him look so young. She wants to pull him into her lap and run her fingers through his hair forever, if only he would stay like this; carefree and vulnerable.
“I don’t know. Somehow, I doubt he had being a Harbinger in mind.” Childe chuckles. “Or my infatuation with battle.”
But she could never cage him like that.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were so self-aware.” Lumine snorts, thinking of the way his eyes light up whenever he sees a worthy opponent. Any self-respecting mitachurl could take one look at Childe’s feral gaze and run away screaming.
“I’m perfectly self-aware!” He defends, laughing harder. “Besides, you’re the one who fought a literal dragon. One of us is having more fun than the other.”
“First of all, I think we have different definitions of fun.” She giggles. “Second, that was the worst thing ever. I think I almost threw up from flying through the air just to get to him.”
“But a dragon, Lumine!”
They both dissolve into laughter, rolling in the sand like children, and Lumine thinks this is the happiest she’s been in a long time.
(tartaglia)
Tartaglia is the one to break her body, and Ajax is the one to break her heart.
It’s expected. The Fatui will come first for him, always, in the same way that finding her brother will come first for her.
Fate is cruel enough to let these two immovable aspects of their lives intertwine this once.
The man standing in front of her is a stranger. Here, Childe and Ajax are gone. Tartaglia is all that remains, deep in the confines of his Foul Legacy transformation, with nothing in mind but the battle he perpetually craves.
Lumine hates it. She hates it, but it is necessary. There’s no running away or talking her way out of this, not when this moment has been building for weeks.
“Don’t you dare disappoint me.” He says, but it’s not his voice. It’s distorted and cruel and Lumine feels like crying and beating the absolute shit out of him all at once.
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Ajax!” She calls out, taunting him with a desperate edge to her voice, and he growls something unintelligible behind his mask.
The floor crumbles beneath her feet. Her body hits the floor with a painful thump, and an unnatural feeling in her side. She coughs once and spits out blood.
Paimon rushes to her side, concerned, but Lumine forces her friend back and stands.
“This is my fight.” She assures her companion, and conjures her sword again. “Don’t worry.”
Her friend looks unsure, but floats off to a safe space anyways.
“Come on, Tartaglia!” Lumine yells, kicking a piece of rubble to the side. “Fight me like you used to, fucking coward!”
He floats a few inches off the ground, at least twenty feet away from her, crackling with electricity. His bow rests in his hand. Beyond the mask, she can imagine his face; an almost insane grin and blue eyes hazy with adrenaline.
Well, if I get two elements, I guess he does, too, she thinks bitterly.
“Die.” Tartaglia snarls, despite his promise not to kill her, and she only has seconds to jump out of the way before deadly-sharp arrows rain down from almost everywhere above.
One cuts clean through her arm and she cries out. Paimon screams her name from her safe spot on the sidelines.
The battle only lasts for a few more minutes but to Lumine, it feels like years. She does her best to drop massive rocks on him and throw tornadoes at his stupid fucking whale, and he does his best to drown and electrocute her at the same time.
There has to be a limit to this, she thinks desperately, chest heaving and face covered in blood.
And by some miracle of the gods, Lumine sees an opening.
With an anemo boost, she leaps forward and stabs the glowing orb in the center of his mask.
It shatters.
They both fall to the ground.
Flat on their backs, side by side, a harbinger and a knight lay bleeding and broken.
“Holy shit.” He wheezes, the broken pieces of his mask falling from his face. “That was incredible.”
Lumine sacrifices some of her remaining strength to pick up a nearby rock and throw it at him.
“You dropped a fucking whale on me.”
“That I did, pretty girl!”
The grin on his face and the excitement in his voice tell her that yes, Childe is back.
Lumine closes her eyes and sighs in relief.