Childe was happier than ever, his chances were much greater now that he knew his lovely Lumine was developing feelings for him. Whistling, he got up from his bed and put on his clothes, over which he wore a coat because today it was a little frosty in Liyue.
Deep in his thoughts he thought of his sweet Lumine, soft rosy hickeys adorning her delicate body, his hand snuggly wrapped around her thin neck. Could he possibly steal another kiss today? Childe couldn't wait to claim her, the mysterious divine traveler, have her all to himself.
He left his room and wrapped his scarf around his neck, even pulling it up to his face. Perhaps he could take her to dinner again tonight? He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a familiar squeaky voice up on the balcony.
He crept quietly upstairs and when he spotted his sweet Lumine with another man, his fuse blew. He would have to isolate her from the world so no other man could ever desire her again, one would have to forget her and even then one longs for her divinity.
The man with blueish hair behaved like he was keeping her distanced, yet they seemed close. He listened to her, his expressions and his body showing interest for the young woman as he quietly took the Tofu that Lumine gave him.
Without further ado, the fatui decided to approach the three and not to hide. So now Childe would put on a bitter fake smile and pretend nothing happened. "I wouldn't have expected you here, comrade."
The young traveler and her floating friend turned to the copper haired man and Lumine looked less than pleased. "Childe, what are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing. But to answer your question, I'm staying here." He stood right next to her, almost between her and the young man she was talking to just a moment ago. "X-Xiao, this is Childe."
The man with the copper coloured hair held his hand out as a 'nice gesture' as he would say but the man who appeared to be called Xiao grumbled and filled his mouth with another peace of the almond tofu. "My dear comrade's an excellent cook, isn't she?" Childe would grin, and put an arm around her gently rubbing her shoulder.
Petting her and then squishing her cheeks as he turned her to face him, the tall would glare at the adeptus. Paimon was just floating there not knowing anything about this situation.
"Stop that." The traveler scolded and grabbed Childe's wrists as her cheeks were already red. Pouting and huffing she turned on her heel and faced the other man, the 'competitor' as Tartaglia would call him. Oh dear boy should learn that not everyone Lumine was talking to was trying to get her.
"Will you help me now or not?" She asked Xiao who sighed slightly annoyed. "If I see anything, I'll let you know." The fatui stood next to them, confused as to what was going on, even slightly angry. If his Lumine needed help, she could ask him, too.
"Thank you, Xiao." Her lips were decorated with a smile, I smile that wasn't for the man with the copper coloured hair. With a nod, the immortal creature disappeared into thin air, Childe had an unease feeling the whole time until he was gone, kind of a headache.
"Why do you ask him for help but not me?" His voice was trembly, his muscles were tensed as he stared down at the traveler with gritted teeth.
Without thinking, the lovely Lumine chirped a few words that almost made the man's fuses blew. "He is a very good friend and promised to help me." Paimon would follow the young traveler down the steps, but Childe considered for a moment what he needed to do to keep her away from this other man. "You coming?" the girl called out to him.
Sighing, he finally followed her, made a detour to the kitchen to treat himself to a snack, then all three made their way to Liyue Harbor. The little fairy next to his lover was holding a note which they both stared at, Childe would love to know what was written on it. "Somewhere around here should be a lavachurl." The blond mumbled and looked around slowly and attentively. "I see none." The Harbinger whistled as he rounded the corner of a cliff with his hands behind his head, Lumine narrowing her eyes at him and turned back to Paimon.
"Where do you think he might be, Lumine?" The hovering miniature croaked, but before Lumine could answer, they heard light footsteps approaching. The knight spun around, the jade cutter, a gift from Childe, already in her hand, but who was standing there was not actually what they expected. "Tartaglia?!"
His clothes were stained with blood that dripped onto the ground in places, in his hand he held the severed head of the monster. "Have you been looking for this?" He stared questioningly at what he was holding in his hand and lifted his arm slightly, Paimon squealed and Lumine was shocked, she had barely taken her eyes off him for a minute and he had already slain a monster the size of a house.
When the girl regained her composure, she reached for the note and scribbled something through. "Now just collect the reward." Childe let go of that head which hit the ground with a loud blood spattering thud, in about 1-2 hours the monster would have dissipated. Slimes would just burst without leaving any trace, while human corpses would just begin to slowly dissolve.
Paimon disappeared into her little world, Lumine and the Fatui walked side by side in silence, but the traveler couldn't stop staring at the young man. Maybe she was impressed, almost scared. No, not scared, she was already fighting overpowered creatures, a mortal didn't scare her then, but he impressed her nonetheless.
As she contemplated his fighting style, Childe wondered if perhaps he should kill this Xiao rather than risk this man seeing his beloved songbird again. But then she would surely run away from him, hate him, even want to kill him, then he would have to kidnap and punish her. A smirk crossed his lips as he thought about how he could torture her, mentally and possibly physically.
He bit his lip with a grin, blush had spread all over his cheeks as he imagined the dirtiest scenarios with the innocent traveler. Soon they would've reached Liyue Harbor and collected the daily commission reward, mora, books, artifacts and as well some shiny little crystals.
Primogems were those called, she gave them to some of the vision bearers that crossed her path, of course only if she was familiar with them. For no particular reason, she gave Childe some of them as well. She'd allow him to to accompany her and enter her teapot as he liked, just relax there and spend time with Lumine.
Sometimes after his various fights, he'd surprise her by laying on the couch in the main hall napping, recovering from his wounds. Whenever he woke up, he'd be covered in a blanket, the blonde girl stood in the kitchen and prepared a dish for him to eat afterwards.
There were two bedrooms in total, in case some unexpected guests would visit. Childe didn't like the idea of his Lumine share a bed with some other person if she wouldn't even share one room with him.
He remembered, when he used to sleep in the room next to hers, her soft cries would keep him awake and cause him to look after her. He'd pull the blanket over her and hold her hand as he knelt beside her bed. He felt good about doing this, he enjoyed to see the comfort in her face as soon as he had grabbed her hand but he also liked the suffering expression. She always woke up in the morning to Ajax kneeling next her bed, sleeping.
The things he enjoyed most at the time were the romantic walks the two of them had, but only he knew they were walking together. He grinned, following her from a distance to the Serenia Teapot and watching as the blonde became more and more nervous. She wasn't afraid of a direct fight, but since he remained undetected in the shadows, Lumine preferred not to face the unknown, as she didn't know what danger lurked there. As soon as she entered the pot, Ajax was already somewhere in the house with the help of this ticket to welcome her with open arms and hear about the stalker who often followed her.
He sighed softly, noticing the citizens stare at him, probably because of his blood stained clothes. "I'll treat you for food today." The young girl suddenly said, wanting to thank him for helping with her daily commissions.
For him, it sounded like a good idea but he'd prefer a nice sparring session. However he agreed on this idea, there he at least got the chance to have a serious talk with her about the thing she said at the restaurant some days ago.
Of course it wouldn't take two seconds until Paimon had already appeared again as she had heard the word 'Food'. Squeaking happily she'd begin to babble out a thousand different dishes that she'd love to try, Lumine would just sigh and try to make Paimon shut her tiny mouth, even though she was annoying some times, both liked each other a lot.
Later that day they were indeed eating out together at Wangshu Restaurant, a dim candle light was set between them. 'Quite romantic,' you'd think, if there wasn't this floating creature.
The small girl ate all kinds of foods, like shrimps, golden crab balls, jade parcels while talking to a little boy at the neighbours table, not really paying attention to what Ajax and Lumine were discussing about.
"You said that you'll leave Liyue?" The harbinger huffed as he struggled to grab a rice ball with his chopsticks. "Just for a few weeks, it's getting quite boring these days." She admitted, actually not lying about her boredom but the other reason was, to avoid falling in love. She thought that he fatui in front of her was actually a nice guy, behaved like a gentleman but he was still the villain. What would it look like if the heroine fell in love with the villain?
"So I bore you?" He raised a brow and put down the sticks, all of his attention was turned to the blonde. "I never said that."
She just thought that there were no new things to explore at that moment, she perhaps wanted to visit her friends in mondstadt or travel to inazuma. Whatever, she found that as a friend, he should accept her decisions and support her in any possible way. "I want to find my brother."
The young girl sighed, Childe remembered about him. Lumine's goal was to find her lost twin that she was chasing through this world, she told him about it.
The fatui tapped his fingers on the wooden table, impatiently grumbling at the food that was slowly getting cold. The traveler who sat across from him giggled sweetly and grabbed a rice ball with her chopsticks guiding it to his mouth whereupon a faint blush appeared on his face. "Say 'Ahh!'"