Summary: Childe joins Lumine on a commission and events unfold.
The rain comes down with no sign of stopping. It’s like the floodgates of heaven have opened as torrents of freezing hail and wind rail through the valley without hesitation.
One moment ago, the sun was high in the sky, basking the ruins in a lazy sunlight. Lumine was off on another commission. But this time, she wasn’t alone.
“Hey Ojou-chan, where are you headed?” He intercepts her along her way to Dunyu Ruins before she can venture too far from the city.
“A commission.” She replies, not wanting to give away too much information. After all, she barely knows him apart from being rescued from an awkward encounter with the Millileth.
“Well, I hear you take on an assortment of enemies, including being an accomplished adventurer. Mind if I join you?” He flashes her with a grin, already stepping in rhythm with her much smaller gait.
Lumine bristles internally, “Where did you hear that?”
“Ah, you know, here and there. What kind of a Harbinger would I be if I didn’t know anything about the people who interest the Fatui?”
“A person of interest? Is that really what I’m known as?” She asks, casting him a sideways glance.
“Something like that. Now, what are we fighting today?” He claps his hands together giddily, like facing hordes of Hilicurls compares to a kid in a candy shop.
“We are not doing anything, I’m tracking a bounty alone.” She makes sure to enunciate the word ‘alone.’
Childe pouts, his lip curling downwards. “C’mon, don’t be like that Ojou-Chan. I’m only trying to blow off some steam, nobody else seems to enjoy the thrill of fighting as much as you do.”
She wouldn’t exactly call slaughtering monsters enjoyable. It’s more that her wallet always seems to be empty - along with her stomach - but she’s not about to admit that to Childe.
“The answer is no. For all I know, this could be some form of a Fatui plot to lure me out and kill me.” How ironic, Lumine thinks to herself, coming from someone who is most likely already acting in a Fatui plot.
“I’m hurt, Ojou-chan,” Childe’s hand hovers over his chest dramatically, “To know you think so lowly of me.”
Suddenly, his tone no longer seems light, the grin falling from his face.
“Do you really think I would strike you down after offering to join you on a commission? I’m not like the other Harbingers. I don’t have to lie and sneak around my enemies to gain what I need.”
Lumine stops along the path, having already reached the last known location of the bounty.
“How do I know you’re not lying now?” She asks, shoulders sagging from the strain of arguing with him. Why won’t he take the hint?
He meets her gaze head-on, the lighthearted grin still missing. “Because my word means something to me, because I find facing someone in battle is more rewarding than lying. I’m not here to hurt you - you have my word as a Harbinger.”
At that moment, Lumine can’t seem to ignore how troubled he looks over the notion of her questioning his honor. She sighs. There’s no point in arguing with him. During their conversation, they had already reached the specified location for the bounty. And if she’s being honest, she could use the help.
“Alright, but just this once. And don’t think I won’t be watching you.” She points a small finger at him in what she hopes is a menacing look.
Childe laughs. It’s a hearty laughter, the smile sliding back into place as he playfully swats her finger away. “I wouldn’t think anything less of you.”
She sends him a glare but continues anyway, eyes aided by her vision as she begins to look for clues. He falls by her side, never straying too far as they search together.
Fast forward an hour later and the valley in which they fought and killed a ruin hunter now resembles a rain swept hell.
Of course this would happen, with the storm coming out of nowhere.
While the weather in Liyue is normally unpredictable, the sudden onslaught of rain catches them both without warning.
“This is not a normal storm!” Lumine shouts over the sound of pounding rain. A gust of wind nearly sweeps her off her feet and she struggles to regain her footing.
The ground underneath her feet transforms instantly, the dry vegetation caving under the downpour. All around them, the soft dirt encompassing the ruins of Dunyu begin to transform into flowing mud, with pieces of leaves and debris floating by her feet.
It’s all happening so fast, like she blinked and the world around her transformed into something entirely different.
Childe motions for her to follow, “C’mon! I might know of a place!”
Her feet are sinking into the ground as she yanks her boot out of the mud, struggling to follow after him. It’s moments like these that she wishes she weren’t so short. Childe easily navigates the tide of wreckage, his long legs pushing through ahead.
They race past the stone columns where they fought the ruin hunter, but now only one remains upright. The rest lay strewn at the base of the temple, their bodies resisting the flood of water.
“We need to climb!” Childe yells, already heaving himself up past the first fallen beam. Lumine being a few feet behind him, pushes herself to catch up.
But the flow of mud doesn’t come up to her heels anymore. No, it’s a goddamn mudslide. Her small legs are sucked into the stream, her feet unable to lift themselves.
Lumine is almost there, the ruined temple at a breath’s reach. She’s panting hard, her body doing everything to resist being sucked into the current. Her stamina begins to falter as she reaches with her fingertips to grasp the beam.
She reaches as far as she can, gloved hands grazing the edge. Almost there, just a little bit more - “Shit!”
Her stamina chooses the exact moment to give and the current swallows her downstream, her body being carried like a leaf.
Lumine can’t see anything, her vision blurred with water and debris as she flails her arms against the mudslide. She doesn’t know where it’s taking her, doesn’t know where she’s going.
The water rises and suddenly she’s underwater, gasping and pulling to reach the surface.
She’s going to drown, feeling her last breath of air escape her lungs as she pushes with her last pull of energy to break out. Her shoulder rams into something hard and then her heart sinks to the bottom of her stomach in a gaping sensation. She’s falling now, unable to see where she is.
There’s nothing under her feet.
Lumine’s arms reach out to grasp anything - anything that will prevent her from falling to her death or drowning. And then, at the last second, her hands grasp something. Her body jerks forcefully as she is no longer part of the tide, her small frame hanging dangerously in midair, a thick plant-like substance gripped in her free hand.
She’s sputtering and gasping through the sleet of water running down her face, eyes struggling to open.
“Oh my god.” She gasps out, heart pounding in her chest. Below her lies a massive ditch. Debris mixed with dirt is flooding at an uncontrollable speed into the hollow space. She realizes the storm must have unearthed a new section of ruins, the tops of a building being buried underneath the mud as she watches with wide eyes.
Lumine cranes her head upwards. How far did she fall? She can’t see above her. There’s nowhere for her to go except down into the water where she knows she will surely perish, no ledge or piece of land to jump to.
Her grip on the plant begins to loosen as her hand numbs from the pain of holding on. Blood drips from her arm and down into her sleeve.
“Childe!” She screams at the top of her lungs, mouth choking with water, half heartedly hoping he might have seen her before she was swept away. But the chances of him hearing her amidst the roar of water are slim. No, the chances of him caring whether she lives or dies are slim.
He’s probably atop one of the beams, she thinks to herself, smiling deviously from head to toe at the prospect of his enemy being wiped out by a mudslide. All too easy…right?
The blood is flowing from her hand now, her grip slacking. She’s going to die.
Lumine shuts her eyes, pictures Aether’s smile in her mind. Something nice to think about before she joins him…
And then, right as she begins to plummet downwards, a hand hauls her up by her shoulder and away from her demise.
Her vision blurs and the next thing she knows is that her feet are on solid ground, her face pressed into a warm body.
“I’m sorry, Lumine. I’m so sorry.” Childe pants into her neck, one hand gripping her waist, the other wrapped around the back of her neck. “I should have made sure you were behind me.”
Her mind is static. She’s not dead. She’s not dead. She’s alive.
Lumine hugs him - hugs him so fucking tightly as her whole body thrums with the stupefaction that he came back for her. He didn’t leave her to die.
“I thought you’d be happy I died.” She whispers in a shaky voice, face smothered in his soaked tunic.
“Don’t be stupid. Why would I want you dead?” He grips her harder then, like he’s afraid to lose her.
She shudders. “I think I saw death.”
Above them, the rain continues to shower them in a downpour. All around them, the flood roars into the chasm below.
“You’re safe now, okay? You’re not going to die, Ojou-Chan, you’re not going to die.”
And Lumine believes him - let’s him hold her.
“Okay.”
XXXXXXX
They walk down the hill in silence. The sky bathes their dirt stained clothing in a tauntingly warm glow. Her white dress is no longer white. There’s dirt all over her body, dirt lodged so far under her fingernails that she’s sure it will be there permanently. A few feet ahead, Childe looks in a similar disheveled state. His auburn hair, normally a tousled mess, sticks up in odd angles. He too, is covered from his boots to his neck in dirt.
“Next time, let’s do a commission in Mondstat. I’ve heard those tend to be on the easier side.” He says, turning around to look at her.
Lumine finds herself momentarily distracted by the bloodstained handprint on the back of his shirt, her mind whisking her back in time.
She fell asleep in his arms. There wasn’t much to do while waiting for the water to recede to a manageable level. But much to her surprise, despite being out in the elements, her sleep was not plagued with nightmares.
She thinks it might be the first time since losing Aether. She also thinks she felt his hand in her hair while she slept, his touch so gentle it might have all been part of a dream. A dream, not a nightmare. And his eyes - his eyes shone the brightest blue she had ever seen - a stark contrast to the brown scraped biome around them.
“Lumine?”
Blinking away the memories of a few hours ago, Lumine looks up into Childe’s eyes. He’s standing close to her, so close her nose is almost brushing his chest.
“Anything on your mind?” He asks, a smile on his lips. But the smile does not quite reach his eyes. Those eyes, so full of concern and life moments ago are now back to their normal guarded self. The light is gone in those blue eyes.
“The pay isn’t as good. Let’s stick to Liyue.”
He chuckles. “Liyue it is. Better check the weather next time though.”
Lumine’s boot makes circles into the earth. She doesn’t want to look at him anymore, wants this whole day to end. To say that he confuses her is an understatement.
But Childe cups her chin softly, forcing her gaze to his.
“…You’re okay, right?”
“Yeah.” She pushes his touch away, walking down the path back to the city without another word. There’s no light in his eyes, no meaning in his question.
Childe follows, the rest of their descent resumed in silence.