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He stood on the stone platform, but a lonely figure amidst the tens of thousands of shining lanterns dancing around him, swirling in a haze of colors.
Everything showed that it was the midnight of the Lantern Rite in Liyue.
It was rarely this cold in the harbor, and for this time everyone celebrated in their own houses, locking their own happiness away from that one lone outlander.
He was but another stranger in the eyes of the Liyue population, stranded alone in the cold sea of lanterns, entirely different from how people perceived him back in Mondstadt – the owner of the whole wine industry, and maybe in some occasions, the “Darknight Hero”, a nickname he used to hate.
Now, as an outsider from a foreign land, few even cared about who he was, lest most of them were so absorbed into the celebration within their private boundaries.
A bone-piercing cold gust pushed past his form, lifting his red strands slightly up in the air. He ignored how the coldness stabbed him on his exposed face like tens of thousands of tiny daggers, and still gazed out at the open sea, refusing to move the slightest bit. His pyro vision was shining a dim orange, giving its owner a little warmth with all its power.
But what did he see, after all? What was he at all looking for?
He saw the lanterns, but he saw past them.
He saw the lights of the harbor city, shining brightly even at midnight, but he saw past them.
He saw the speckles of light dancing across the dark flatness of the sea, which was perhaps either the reflections of the lanterns up in the sky, or the light of the ships still sailing at this hour.
But he saw past all of them, and gradually his surroundings blurred into a mess of reds and yellows and all the vibrant colors of Lantern Rite.
Instead, he saw two hands, one bandaged all over, the other covered in red and black, both reaching out for him, for his embrace.
He saw two eyes, the warm color of maple leaves, gazing at him softly. Love and concern filled those gentle eyes as they locked up with his own.
He saw the whole face, the whole person, right in his mind, just like he did tens of thousands of times before. Now the one in his imagination felt so real, he felt as if he was no longer alone.
But all it took was another cold, merciless gust to drag him back to reality, and all the fantasies of his lover faded into nothing but freezing air.
He had faced the same scene many times before, that he was all by himself at a time of reunion and happiness. He came to Liyue’s harbor every Lantern Rite to hopefully find the person he always loved, who had gone across the sea and lightning storms to Inazuma.
Whom he had never heard from ever after the words he spoke the day they parted. He could easily recall the last moment they spent together, in the exact same place of the harbor, right on this same stone platform.
“Don’t worry too much about me when I’m gone; I am but a wanderer, and I have wandered over a lot of places, so no worries, my fire.” The maple-red gaze was still gentle and assuring, but there was a tint of sadness lingering on it as well, though he smiled a little to soothe the sadness.
“I... I understand that you have to leave soon...” there was a loss of words; his feelings could not be described with words. The months they spent together, and finally their inevitable parting. He was not someone smart with words and strong feelings, and when he did have them, he tried his best to hide them, to mask them, even in front of the love of his life. It was not that he wanted to lie to his wanderer; he just didn’t want the other to worry anymore about him.
“So just remember that I will always be with you, not physically, but mentally and spiritually. Look at those flying leaves in the breeze. Every leaf in the wind you see – from now on, will be part of me being with you.” The strip of red hair on his lover’s forehead shook gently as he turned over to point at some golden ginkgo leaves flying in the air, straying further and further away from the tree.
“Why must I go? I feel the tug from my homeland of the Electro, and I feel the necessity of unstoppable wandering. But you are tugged away from me by your responsibility in your homeland of the Anemo, and it is fate that decided that we inevitably part from each other one day. But just as fate took me from you, it led me to you in the first place, and it is also inevitable that we meet each other and fall into unbreakable love. I will always be here for you, Luc.” There was determination in the soft voice.
“But will you ever come back?” Those words sounded as if he was going to be away forever. He hoped that he misheard them, and his wanderer said something else into his ears.
“Of course, I will, when the wind tugs me back to this land. Just come back here next year, right at the same place, where those leaves softly fall, and you will see me one day, when the people of the land of Geo celebrate the Lantern Rite.”
“I hear the call of the crew. I must head on now... Goodbye, my flame...” The wanderer trapped himself inside his lover’s arms once again before he headed down for his voyage, at his usual pace, fast but not hurried, just like the leaves in the wind.
“Goodbye, love...” he mumbled as the beautiful red-and-white figure disappeared from his vision. He sighed and gazed at the piece of maple-leaf patterned cloth his lover left for him.
The voice still echoed in his head, again and again.
A single song on repeat. “I will always be here for you... when those leaves softly fall, you will see me one day...”
Once he’d departed from Liyue, he’d have to be back in Mondstadt, all alone again. Before he met this wanderer from Inazuma, he was alone, but he didn’t feel lost, because he didn’t know what love felt. Now... he was alone again, but with the added layer of sorrow.
How does he go on without being lovesick from day to day, not even with letters from across the lightning-stricken sea?
Breathe, he told himself. Don’t let illusions of the past haunt you. For those long years, he tried to convince himself that the memories of the months when he spent time with the wanderer were simply his mind playing tricks on him, that he was too desperate for a lover, he made up one for himself; but still, he came to the harbor every year, every Lantern Rite, to watch the leaves blow in the wind, to feel the closest to the hands – the eyes – the person – in his memories.
But it is time to head back. It’s too late. Even for the Darknight Hero.
Another year of hope, and yet nothing came in the end. Those months of waiting for nothing, all alone.
He turned around to leave, to find the place he’d let his horses rest.
If he hurried back, he could reach Mond by the next day.
There was no more time for being lovesick in the past. He needed to move on. He was very important to his homeland of the Anemo, and all it takes is a night’s travel to leave this place where he felt so alone.
A few dead leaves blew against the dawning scarlet sky, tracing the shape of a person in a loose robe reaching out for him.
Nonsense. You were just too blinded by the past.
Move on. You can’t just always think of him.
Thoughts filled up his mind as he stepped away from the familiar spot.
Oh, when will you come back, my beautiful leaf?
I said, stop thinking about that one man. Move on.
More of the leaves swirled in the air, leading his way through the last bits of the lantern night.