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“Please, please, Lumine! Have a duel with me!”
The Tsaritsa’s vanguard, her weapon of war, the eleventh harbinger was kneeling in-front of Lumine at the breakfast table in Poisson, pleading for some swordplay. Paimon was too busy snarfing down her breakfast to make a comment while Lynette only stirred her tea in silence, ignoring everything around her which left Lumine on her own to deal with Childe.
“Childe, it’s only been two weeks since…”
Since she fought the gigantic whale, a pet, Skirk had called it. That thing was no pet, Lumine wanted to argue, Paimon was way more of a pet than that thing was!
“Lumine, please.”
Oh no. She felt the butterflies in her stomach flutter when her round blue eyes looked up at her, light devoid but the boundless waves of strength behind them resonated with her. Her eyes always reminded Lumine of a sea in a storm, crashing and eroding the rocks that stood in her way and always in motion; trying to understand the harbinger’s character was like trying to hold onto quicksilver.
“I…I don’t know.” She tore herself away from her gaze, trying to focus on the pancakes on her plate. “Your injuries are still delicate and I don’t want to accidentally reopen a wound or something like that…”
“No, no, you won’t! We’ll do light sparring, no elemental powers. Just good old footwork to get the muscles moving again. Lumine, please. Please. Plea—”
“If I say yes, will you leave me alone?”
Childe pondered on her statement for a second, eventually nodding with a dumb grin on her face. She finally left Lumine alone, shouting at her as she walked away from the table.
“I’ll see you in a bit, comrade! Be sure to eat up!”
Lumine groaned, staring down at the blueberries on her pancakes. Her appetite completely disappeared, for the fruit on her plate started to remind her of a certain warrior; unfortunately, Childe seemed to occupy her thoughts more nowadays. Was it because of everything that happened? Was it because when Childe trusted her with her vision, it was her indirectly saying that she trusted her, she valued her?
Why did her head spiral whenever it came to Childe? It shouldn’t be too difficult after all — she was Fatui, she couldn’t be trusted with anything. But then why did Childe always trust her?
She couldn’t pinpoint it. Her fork poked at the berry, letting it roll around in the sticky honey glaze and cream. She felt bad; Navia had worked so hard to accommodate them and she was putting the food to waste. All because of a ginger haired nuisance.
Lumine, unable to finish her breakfast, forced herself to at-least drink some tea before she left to look for Childe. She told Paimon about the spar, not bothering to stay back for her opinion but thankfully, Navia stole the pixie away for some work in the city before she could confront Lumine which gave her some peace of mind.
Well, as much peace of mind as she could get in her current situation.
She reached up to the surface of Poisson’s base, inhaling the fresh breeze. The green grass rolled over the slopes of Mont Automnequi, the patterns of blue and purple flowers decorating the landscape with the water sparkling in the late morning rays like radiant gems. One thing about Fontaine that Lumine could never deny was how gorgeous it looked, no matter how many times she saw it, it still managed to take her breath away.
“Lumine! Over here!”
Childe was a little far from the beach, next to the foot of the mountain on a flat top where she’d set up a target, a quiver of arrows lying beside her other weapons. Lumine observed her silently as she approached the harbinger, noticing how her stance had somewhat improved and her grip on the arrow was better. The arrow did not hit a bullseye but Childe only laughed it off, turning to Lumine with a lopsided grip.
“I think I've gotten better, don’t you think?”
"Congratulations, you finally don’t hold your bow like a three year old.”
“Hey!” She pouted childishly, a sight that Lumine found strangely adorable. “If you’re so much better at it, why don’t you try?”
There it was, that competitiveness that Childe always managed to bring out in Lumine. Generally, she would not consider herself to be very competitive but upon meeting Childe, her feelings had changed; whenever there was a challenge, she couldn’t back down, especially not if it meant she got to one over Childe.
“You know what, I will.”
Yet, she was never this competitive with anyone else. No other person in her travels had managed to spark the flame of battle within her as Childe did. Her brain was scrambled with thoughts as she picked up the bow, mindlessly nodding at Childe’s suggestions, not really focusing on her words but rather on her.
When did Childe become attractive? Or had she always been attractive? Childe was not conventionally attractive, not by means; her hair that used to be up in a ponytail was now cut short, barely reaching her shoulders, a haircut probably done by the likes of the Fatui’s recovery team, a haircut that actually suited Childe a lot more than she thought it would. Not to mention Childe’s height, the harbinger was off-puttingly tall and lean in her build which would ordinarily turn away any potential suitors but for some reason, Lumine liked it. And then there was her face. Scars and freckles were littered everywhere, the biggest and most recent one spanning from the right cheek to the bridge of her nose, just barely missing her eye.
Lumine nodded mindlessly as Childe continued to talk, squinting her eyes a bit; her freckles weren’t just randomly placed, there was a pattern to them. A constellation but she couldn’t figure out which one.
“And then you just, let go. Did you get all that?”
“Uh.”
No. She hadn’t caught a word but it didn’t matter, she was a decent archer. After all, she’d taught the soldiers in the Resistance force how to aim better and she’d completed a couple of archery commissions here and there. She narrowed her eyes at her, picking up an arrow with a smirk on her face.
"Just watch me.”
Childe shrugged and stepped away, blue eyes watching Lumine with deep focus. They watched her draw her bow, looking for the bullseye but for some reason, her eyes always moved to the side instead. She’d been so focused on trying to avoid the harbinger’s gaze on her that she when she released her arrow, it completely missed the target and hit the ground instead, burying itself in the grass — Lumine’s face turned redder than a tomato while Childe hollered in laughter behind her.
"THAT WAS SO — HAHAHAHAH—-”
"SHUT UP!”
“HAHAHAHAHAH!”
Lumine wanted to punch her face in, anything to stop her from laughing like a hyena. Yet, in the back of her mind, a stray thought occurred as she watched Childe snicker —
Adorable…
Wait.
What.
“Hah–h–whoo… sorry, we can start now– are you okay?”
When did Childe get so close to her face? It was bad enough that she was getting redder with each passing second but having Childe, oblivious to her thoughts, shove her face close to Lumine’s? Her brain felt like it was going to short circuit.
“Lumine?”
“I just remembered that I promised Lyney to help him move his props!” She suddenly blurted out, her face redder than a tomato as she internally screamed at herself. She quickly scrambled away, throwing the bow while shouting. “I– I have to go!”
“Wha— wait, hold on—”
Childe tried to grab her hand but failed as Lumine ran away refusing to look back. She ran towards the entrance for Poisson, catching her breath before burying her face in her hands with only one thought running through her mind.
Oh no. Childe was hot.
For the rest of the week, she avoided Childe like the plague. She constantly made up excuses for needing to complete a commission or making up imaginary tasks to do which she ended up dragging Paimon or Navia into more often than not and ended up having to go through with it in order to avoid suspicion from the harbinger.
Currently, Lumine was doing one of the self-assigned tasks; catching fish for dinner with Lyney. They didn't even need fish; Navia recently got a large delivery of poultry from the Spina's connections. Even worse, she dragged Lyney into her mess only because when Childe approached her, he was the first person she spotted out of the corner of her eye. Lyney, extremely confused, still went along with her.
Archons bless you, Lyney.
"So, do you want to explain what happened back there?" Lyney said as he cast his line into the water, carefully watching the fish. "You saw Lord Childe and froze like you'd been frostbitten by a cryo slime."
Never mind, fuck you, Lyney.
"You've been acting strange, is everything okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Lumine placed her catch in the bucket, readying more bait. "I just… something weird happened. With Childe."
"I thought you two got along quite well, no?"
"We do!" Lumine sighed, her shoulders dropping. "But I don't know, I think…"
"She gave me her vision."
Lyney said nothing, reeling in another fish. Lumine came up empty and just sat down on the sand with a groan.
"Right before everything happened in the court and the fortress…"
"Why would she do that? Why…why me?"
"I've heard Lord Childe praise you a lot," Lyney remarked as he sat beside her. "She really admires you so it's not hard to think that she'd trust you with her vision. I'd even wager she'd trust you with her life."
"Seriously?"
Lumine felt her voice crack slightly, meeting Lyney's gaze.
"Seriously."
"You are an extraordinary person, Lumine," Lyney whispered into the wind, squeezing his palms. "I don't blame her for…"
Lumine tilted her head in confusion. "For..?"
"It's nothing."
Lumine only shrugged, inspecting their catch for the day. Good thing Paimon had a second stomach otherwise the fish would've gone to waste.
It was a few nights later when Lumine found herself pondering over Lyney's words. She couldn't sleep, absentmindedly staring at the ceiling as Paimon snored contently in the background. Perhaps a breath of fresh air would help.
The cool night breeze brushed against her cheek as she sighed, pulling her legs up her chest. What was she doing? Lumine couldn't avoid Childe forever, she knew that but she didn't want to ruin their friendship.
But maybe she wanted to be more than friends.
Get yourself together! For fucks sake, Lumine. You're smarter than this!
"Couldn't sleep?"
She didn't turn around, barely mumbling a 'yes' in response. Childe sat down on the grass beside her, inhaling the Fontainian air. Lumine knew she was sitting close but didn't want to look; it would mean eye contact, and then eye contact would mean—
"Why are you avoiding me?"
"I am not!" Lumine turned around to finally face her, her cheeks reddened. "I've been busy, that's all."
"Sure," The Harbinger snorted beside her. "Busy."
"Childe…"
What could even say? She was sorry? She was but it felt too minimal. How did she get herself into this mess?
"It's okay, Lumine," Childe suddenly mumbled, looking away from her. "I get it. You don't need to say anything."
Wait, what?!
"What do you get, exactly?" Lumine's voice rose a bit as she moved herself closer to Childe.
"That you don't like me." She was still avoiding Lumine's face, her grip on the grass getting stronger. "That's why you've been avoiding me."
"No!" Lumine shouted, grabbing Childe's face until their eyes met each other. Indigo eyes melted into her fierce golden ones as her tone cracked a bit, becoming softer. "Listen to me, please."
Childe was shocked but she didn't move. The lack of light in her pupils bore into Lumine's soul as she took a deep breath. The space between them had disappeared, Lumine feeling the back of Childe's neck underneath her fingers; gently, caressed the chopped off ends of her hair before cupping her cheek, both of them looking at each other with bated breath.
"I like you." She finally whispered, close to the harbingers lips. "And I've been a coward about it. I avoided you because I like you. Childe—"
"Anastasia."
"What?"
"That's my real name." Childe muttered, a small glint of light dancing in her gaze. "You can call me Ana for short. That's what my family calls me and that's what I want you to call me."
"Ana…" Lumine said it softly, smiling. "Can I kiss you?"
"Please do."
Their lips met, a soft yet cold touch. It barely lasted a moment but the rush felt eternal; so much so that they kissed again, a deeper than the chaste featherlight one. Lumine brushed her fingertips against her cheek, catching Ana's lips between them once they moved apart.
Neither of them said anything, exchanging soft smiles. They fell back on the grassy field, letting the wind and stars go by as they held each other. Lumine couldn't help but smile; her girlfriend really was hot.