Chapter Text
It was cold. It was unbearably cold and Lumine couldn’t see anything but white in front of her. She had been walking through this snowstorm for god knows how long now and had no idea where she was or where she was going.
"Lumine, shouldn’t we try to find shelter somewhere? We will freeze do death if we keep going like this!"
The little pixie, that had disappeared into her sub-universe hours ago, finally decided to make an appearance again. Lumines eye twitched in irritation.
"You know, Paimon, I’d love to do exactly that. Pray do tell me where though, because I can’t see a single thing in this snowstorm!"
Paimon visibly flinched at her outburst. She tried to feel sorry about yelling at her little friend, but couldn’t quite bring herself to do so. While Paimon could just dive back into her subspace, wherever or whatever that even was, the traveler had to push through this weather in a sleeveless dress much more suitable for the warm evenings of Liyue than this hostile environment she found herself in. She didn’t even have a coat.
How in the world could this have happened? She did not exactly remember when all of this started. Her journey in search of her brother had taken her to Inazuma at last, but just like Mondstadt and Liyue the region had not offered her any more clues as to his whereabouts. She had spent months running around on errands for the locals, wasting every waking second doing asinine tasks for the Bakufu just to get a few minutes of the Electro archons time to ask her some questions. The goddess of thunder had been very hard to deal with. Her (at least in Lumines eyes) ridiculous need to control all visions in her country, especially the electro ones, had made her extremely controlling altogether and much more annoying to work with than the always out of money Rex Lapis or the perpetually drunk Barbatos.
Baal was extremely unamused about the traveler “borrowing” her power and it took every last bit of wit in Lumines body to not be immediately thrown out of the country (or executed, at one point that had seemed entirely possible). Only her unwavering helpfulness to the locals and the information she brought about the gnosis situation in Mondstadt and Liyue had allowed her to finally meet the archon in person in order to ask about her missing brother. But nothing - she had neither seen nor heard of him, but she did allow Lumine to search for him in her territory in exchange for her promise to definitely let go of the borrowed electro powers as soon as she found him. That promise was quite easily made - she was not particularly fond of her electro powers anyway (even though she did plan on using them in a surprise attack on her current favourite sparring partner the next time she was in Liyue, whenever that may be).
A high pitched shriek ripped the traveler out of her thoughts.
"Lumine! Help! Paimon’s going to get blown away!"
Her little friend was actually not exaggerating this time.
"Hold on, I got you!"
Lumine sprinted towards the pixie, almost landing face first in the snow before managing to grab her by the ankle to prevent her from being carried away by a particularly nasty gust of wind.
"I swear, I’m never going to go into a territory again without checking the map first" she murmured.
Because that’s what had gotten them into this shitty situation in the first place. Wandering around Inazuma she had at one point reached a very rocky and very ugly cliffside, she had decided to climb. Yes, it was windy, yes it was cold and yes halfway up it started to snow quite heavily, but the seasoned traveler could not be bothered by that. After all, she had already climbed to the peak of Dragonspine and that had been way worse. Regret hit her as hard as the little avalanche, that pushed her down the mountain a few hours later and hauled her into unknown territory where she couldn’t even see the summit anymore.
She was lost. Completely. Stuck up to the knees in snow, the wind was raging aroung her as if it wanted to disintegrate her into dust and it had only gotten worse since then. So she started moving in hopes of either finding shelter or getting out of the storm, but mostly because she kept remembering that very annoying one-liner about “freezing to death if you don’t keep moving” an equally annoying acquaintance of hers had repeated like a million times on their last trip to Dragonspine. By the third time Childe had said that she threatened to feed him to the next lawachurl they found just to make him shut up, but now she was actually thankful for the annoying voice in her head. At least it kept her going through this nightmarish weather.
She sighed again.
"Paimon, I’ve made a decision. If we ever get out of here, I will never ever go to Snezhnaya. Tsaritsa and Fatui be damned, if it’s anything like this over there, they can take over the world and turn it to dust for all I care."
Her companion, now tightly held in Lumines arms, snorted.
"Well, Paimon doesn’t mind, but didn’t you make a pinky promise to that harbingers little brother? You know, that really creepy nursery rhyme thingy?"
"Don’t care. If we don’t get out of here soon, my pinky will probably already be frozen off anyway."
Probably more than just her pinky though. Before her pixie friend could reply, she heard a scream.
"Did you hear that too?"
"Yeah. Seems like someone’s in danger!"
"Let’s go."
Lumine summoned her blade and did her best to fight her way through the snow into the direction of the pleas for help.
***
'Be careful when going into the forest, little sister. I know the Fatui are regularly clearing it out, but there’s always a chance they overlook something. Promise me you never ever go past the river, okay?'
Oh, how Tonia wished she had headed her brothers words at this moment. It had been a normal day at the Ivanov household, waking up to the smell of her mothers pancakes and her little brother tumbling down the stairs because he thought he could “take them all in one jump like big brother Ajax does!”. Which he couldn’t, obviously, as big brother Ajax was like thrice his size at this moment. A heavy scolding for being an idiot and a few breakfast pancakes later he had to watch his siblings go out to play without him. The last few days had been rather stormy, the snow had piled up a lot and there was really no way the kids could go outside to play. While this kind of harsh weather was not particularly unusual in Snezhnaya, it still served as a pleasant surprised when it finally cleared up and Anthon immediately decided to take this opportunity to go outside again. Tonia happily followed him outside and their older brother Ilya decided to tag along as a chaperone. The air was cool and fresh and the world always looked so pretty after a snowstorm, the white glistening in the sun, still completely untouched by men and animals alike.
Their way took them to the forest behind their house as usual. They often played in the little clearing a few minutes in and spent their time building snowmen and having snowball fights (the pine trees at the edge were practically made for sneak attacks). Today however they decided to go a little further in to search for some pincecones and twigs they could later use for decorating the front yard. Little storms like the last one usually destroyed the previously built decorations and their father liked the front of the house to look nice (he was probably cleaning it up right now). They could also have Teucer join them for that - he was already punished enough for this mornings stupidity by having to stay behind while they could go out to play.
So while her brothers were busy trying to dig up a particularly large tree branch they saw fit to become a snow ruin guards headdress, Tonia noticed a blue sparkle a few meters away, that caught her attention. Sometimes when the wind was very heavy, it would scoop out some pretty minerals and from what she could make out from her current position, this one heavily resembled a whale. Perfect. Her big brother Ajax had sent a letter a couple of weeks ago that he would soon be returning home for some time. If she glued a cryo crystal on top of it, it would look excatly like the narwhals he loved so much. It would be the perfect present for his return. The only problem: it was beyond the river he always told her not to cross. Then again, it was only a few meters away, she would be back in a few minutes, there was no way, something would happen, right?
But of course it did. Just when she had safely pocketed the whale-stone and turned around make her way back to her siblings she heard something crack behind her. She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned to her right. There it was, a giant monster, almost as big as the pine trees around her, covered in thick icy armour. Her blood ran cold. With each step the beast took, the earth beneath her shook, sending shivers through her body. Tonia almost keeled over from fear. She wanted to sink into the snow and vomit, the heavy breathing of the monster growing nearer with every passing second. That’s when realization it her - it hadn’t noticed her yet. She could still try to sneak away. Her brothers were close, Ilya was no Ajax but still strong and fast enough to get both her and Anthon out of danger. The monsters never went past the glade because of the ley line pulses in the area, they would definetely be sage if they were able to make it that far.
With that in mind Tonia tried so steady her breathing and slowly turned towards the small river.
'Just go slow and don’t look back. You’ll be able to hear it if it starts running. Don’t look back, just keep going', she repeated in her mind while quietly making her way back, using the path she made before to ease through the snow. With every step she grew more confident and a little faster in her retreat. She had made it to the river perfect. Now just jump over the stones, carefully, don’t slip and finally - she made it! Tonia let out a sigh of relief. She allowed herself a quick glance over her shoulder to see if the beast was still there and indeed, it was. While it had moved little closer into her direction, it still hadn’t noticed her and actually seemed like it would continue its way away from them. And really, it did, it started turning around and take a step further back into the forest, just when -
"Toniaaa! Tonia, look at that, doesn’t this cone look exactly like Mishas failed attempt of Sweet Flower pastries? Let’s take it back and -"
The rest of her brothers ridiculously loud rambling got lost in the mind numbing growl of the beast now charging towards her. Tonia knew she should run, but fear hat frozen her in place. She could only let out a terrified scream before crumbling down on the ground, certain her life would end any second. Thankfully she had an older brother around, who managed to scoop her up just in time to get her out of the way of the charging monster. It went right past them and briefly knocked itself out against a particularly sturdy tree trunk.
"Are you okay?"
Ilya put his shivering sister on her feet and motioned Anthon to come closer to them. Still not able to find her voice, Tonia could only nod.
"Alright. Stay close, both of you. You remember the place where we picked mint the other day? That’s where we are going and then we head past clearing from there, okay? I’ll stay behind you, don’t worry, just keep running. Now let’s go before it gets up again."
The kids didn’t need to be told twice. While Anthon could be a little obnoxious at times (a side effect of being 14) he immediately understood the gravity of the situation, took his sisters still shaking hand and bolted towards the mentioned spot. Ilya stayed behind to watch the monster groaning and slowly getting up from the ground. He still had the cone that looked like a deformed cupcake in his pocket, quickly decided to use the still lingering confusion in the creatures eyes to his advantage and threw it in the other direction. The little diversion seemed to have worked out just fine as the monster chased after the sudden movement. Ilya then took off to follow behind his siblings, hoping to have bought enough time for them.
Sadly, he did not. Shortly after the three family members had regrouped at the mint field and started to make their way to the safe haven of the clearing, the deafening sound of the fastly approaching creature was heard once more. It burst through the trees, angrily growling, saliva dripping down its enormous fangs.
‘Next time I’m going out', Tonia thought to herself, 'next time, I’m taking the claymore Ajax sent me.' But then again, she didn’t really know how to use it, did she?'
The monster growled once more. And then it charged.
Tonia couldn’t her anything. Not Anthons scream, not Ilya urging them to at least try to run from their impending doom. She saw her life flash before her eyes - and then something else, something WHITE. And whatever it was, it flew right into the beasts head.
The monster fell down into the snow, dark red blood now seeping through the white. It growled again, though this time from pain. There was a large gash above the creatures left eye, it was stumbling, trying to get up to smash it’s attacker with one of it’s murderous claws. The opponent was too fast though, swiftly jumping out of the way before digging a sword in the icy arm reaching for her. The creature howled again, nor even more furious than before.
While Tonia was watching the fight in front of her, she slowly remembered how to breathe and think clearly again. She adjusted her eyes, somehow feeling a lot safer now. It was woman, that was currently slashing away at the feet of the enormous beast. Dresses in white she almost looked like an angel with the blond hair following her movements like a halo. A quick glance towards her brothers told her, that she was not the only one thinking that. At least if Ilyas open mouth and Anthons eyes almost falling out of their sockets where any indication.
The woman landed a strike on the beasts torso, then another on the left arm, one more on the chest, again on the torso. Exhausted it crushed down and when the woman kicked up a whirlwind to haul herself up into the air before diving down and sinking her sword into the monsters neck, Tonia was absolutely certain, that she must be an angel - how else would she be able to leap into the air so gracefully?
The beast let out one last painful groan before disintegrating into dust. Their saviour turned around, walked up to three siblings and spoke.
"Are you guys okay?"
Tonia then realized three things. One, she was tiny. Like, really tiny, not that much taller than herself, even though she was probably older than her. Two, she had the prettiest eyes she had ever seen. Like molten gold. Three, she was most definitely freezing right now. Even though she had boots on, her dress only reached to her knees, barely covering her naked legs. No stockings, no tights to keep her warm, hell, she didn’t even wear a coat. The flimsy little scarf couldn’t do much to keep the cold away or protect her bare arms from the harsh winds of Snezhnaya.
Ilya was quick to notice this as well.
"Thanks to you, yes! If you hadn’t come, who knows what might have happened. If you’re alright with it, let us invite you to our home to warm up. You must be freezing!"
"Oh,.. that’s very kind, but.."
The woman seemed slightly hesitant despite obviously being cold.
"Please do, miss! I really want to thank you for saving us!"
Tonia reached for the strangers hands and opted for the best puppy eyes she could manage. They would not let the pretty woman who saved their lives freeze to death out here. Her fingers were ice-cold, her lips had dangerous blue tint to them and from the color of her cheeks, Tonia was certain she was building up a fever right now. With Anthon joining his sister in the hand-holding and with the pleading puppy eyes, the woman relented (the sudden gust of cold wind might also have helped).
"Alright then. Thank you for the offer."
She gave a light smile. As they made their way to the house, they tried to find out a bit more about their saviour.
"You do not have to answer this, but if I may ask - what are you doing aroung this area? There are not many people who live in this area around the forest and you don’t exactly look like a traveler." Ilya asked.
"Oh, I actually am a traveler. I just.. kind of got lost in the storm and more or less ended up here. If I had known I would end up knee deep in snow, I probably would have chosen another route. Or worn a coat."
Her cheeks turned even more red. She was embarrassed.
"I don’t mind! If had taken another route we would be flat as pancaked right now!"
Despite the grueling picture, Anthon grinned widely. They could almost see the house now. Tonia decided to ask another question.
"Hey, miss traveler. What’s your name?"
"Lumine."
The woman smiled. Lumine. Something in Tonias mind started turning. Where had she heard that name before? In school? No, there was no one like that. Not in her art class either. One of the girls Misha had brought home before? But as far as she could remember, those had mostly been redheads and on or two brunettes, never a blonde. Suddenly it clicked.
Lumine.
The tiny blond traveler with the golden eyes and the spectacular fighting prowess. The one her beloved brother Ajax had been writing about in his letters for months now, the one that had saved Teucer from being accidentally stomped to death by "Mr Cyclops". The one she was absolutely certain was the love of her brothers life and she’d dreamt of meeting ever since she had promised to come visit them in Snezhnaya. Tonias was delighted. She turned to look at her with a beaming smile only to witness the pretty lady keeling over and landing face first in the snow.
Ilya rushed to her side and placed a hand on her forehead.
"She’s got a fever. Let’s take her inside before it gets worse."
"I’m going to let mother know."
And with that Tonia sprinted towards the front door.
***
"So… that’s Ajax’ girlfriend, huh?"
"She’s tiny!"
"And cute, a shame she’s taken!"
"Misha!"
"I know, right? And she’s super kind, too! She took me around all of Liyue und bought me a lot of toys!"
"She’s burning up! Where’s mama?"
"She’s making pancakes for the little pixie thingy."
"Let’s put her in Ajax’ room. He’s not back yet anyway and I’m sure he won’t mind. Do we have clothes that fit her? Mine are probably too big."
"Maybe Tonias? Though they could be a bit small."
"Let’s just have her wear Ajax’ clothes. Only the shirt though. Trust me, he’ll love it…"
"She’s sick, we will not have her wear nothing but a shirt, Misha! Teucer, could you go and fetch one of mama pajamas? They’re probably too big but she’s just going to lay in bed for a while anyways so it shouldn’t really matter."
"Aw, come on, Irina! It’s every mans dream to have his girl wear his shirt!"
"… Fine, whatever. Tonia, help me change her clothes."
"I can help too."
"Misha!"
"Alright, alright. I’ll go get some wood for the heater."
"And get a pair of my wool socks! Her feet are so blue, they look like they are about to fall off!"
***
It was already late at night when he finally arrived in Morepesok. The trip had taken all day, nonetheless he was quite happy to have been able to catch an earlier ship back home than originally planned. The wind had been pretty bad though, they had almost been forced to make a stop halfway (fortunately a little help from his hydro vision had helped calming down the waves enough to convince the captain to keep going despite the stormy weather).
The ginger made his way through the empty streets of his hometown. It had been months since Childe had last seen his family. Normally it didn’t take him that long to visit home, but this time he had stayed away long enough for his youngest brother to actually stow away on a ship on the mere hopes of finally seeing him again. It was high time he returned home.
He had almost reached the border of the town now. His family lived a little outside up one of the small hills in the west of Morepesok. While he quickly climbed up the path up the hill he thought about his last sparring match with a certain traveller.
Childe couldn’t help but smile. It had been absolutely amazing. After months of waiting and hoping Lumine had finally been able to secure save passage to Inazuma and since he had used his influence provided by his status as a Fatui harbinger to help out a little bit ( a lot actually, but she didn’t need know that), she had promised him a Golden-House-style all-in no holds-barred battle as a thank you. Admittedly he had been a bit sad about her leaving Liyue, but that battle had left him satisfied for quite a while. They had fought each other for a good three hours before she finally dealt the finishing blow to his Foul Legacy form.
He had gone all out on her, throwing not one but four whales in total into he face, only one of which actually managed to graze her though. Lumine had been anything but amused about that. She generally didn’t appreciate being hit by giant sea creatures and had returned the favor by breaking two of his ribs all the while screaming about him being a total douchebag. Childe was pretty sure she was just secretly jealous of him. Not everyone was capable of summoning gigantic mammals to throw at other people. He still couldn’t believe she actually managed to dodge most of them.
And while their fight was absolutely amazing and had him shaking in his boots just thinking about it, there had been one thing that was even better than fighting her: fighting _with_ her. they had cleared out the place where the Geo Hypostasis could usually be found for their fight (and since they were already at it the rest of the monsters in the general vicinity as well). Never before had he felt so much joy in fighting. He had always fought alone and he had never felt the need for a partner, rather others usually annoyed him, but with her…;
Childe ripped himself away from his thoughts. He shouldn’t be thinking about fights right now, especially not about that particular one. It would only make him feel weird and he wanted to make the most out of his visit at home. It had been ages since he had last been home, he had plenty of time to waste indulging in his little crush on the traveller when he was back in Liyue or wherever his next mission would take him. Family was top priority now.
Quietly he opened the front door and slipped into the house. It smelled like cinnamon and hot grape juice like always at this time of the year. As expected everyone was already asleep as it was late at night, so Childe quietly tiptoed towards his room and put his mask on the little nail above the narwhal picture Tonia had painted for him when she was six. The mask Would tell everyone he was home without him accidentally frightening everyone in the morning and he wouldn’t need it anyway.
Once in he flicked on the small light on his nightstand and made quick work of getting himself out of his clothes and into his pajamas. He had been travelling for forever and was tired as hell. Only he couldn’t find the shirt he usually slept in. He pulled back the blanket to see if it had landed underneath and was greeted with a dissatisfied grunt.
Childe immediately stopped in his tracks. Well, there was his sleeping shirt, just that someone else was wearing it. And not just anyone.
"Lumine?”
What was she doing here? Wasn’t she supposed to be in Inazuma? And why was she here, with his family? Lying in his bed wearing his favourite sleeping shirt?
“Hngn… cold…”
Ah. He still had the blanket in his hands. Childe let the blanket fall over he again and was rewarded with a content sigh. He still stared, not moving, wondering how exactly this situation arrived. He had mused about their incredible fights and now she was right before him - wait, maybe he was just hallucinating after spending way too much time on a boat doing boring paperwork he should have done weeks ago but didn’t because it was, well, paperwork. Can’t kill it? Not worth spending his time on.
He turned the light off and on again. She was still there. He poked her cheek. It was soft and squishy. Alright, probably not a hallucination after all.
“Lumine? What are you doing here?”
Childe did not exactly want to wake her up, but her presence in his family home confused him enough to willingly face her potential wrath from disturbing her sleep. She didn’t wake up though.
Carefully he sat down on the mattress and took her arm to gently shake her awake.
“Lumine, wake up. I need to-”
Childe stopped. She was exceptionally warm.
“Girlie, do you have fever?”
There was not much use in asking her she seemed exhausted. I was only now that he noticed the medicine lying on his nightstand. Ah, his favourite traveler had a cold. It was concerning and cute at the same time. He had never seen her this defenseless before.
He decided to let her sleep for now and ask her (or his family) about the story in the morning. For now he would just take one of the guest rooms and take another blanket to make up for the lack of his shirt. Trying not to think too hard about how absolutely adorable Lumine looked in it, the ginger let go of her arm and carefully stood up to snatch a blanket from the wardrobe when he felt a hot hand grip his fingers.
“Childe.”
Childe turned around again and looked into to golden eyes. She was awake.
“Childe” she said again.
“Hey. Sorry for walking you up, girlie. I’ll be gone in a second.”
He let out a nervous laugh but when he tried to move away for the second time, she gripped his hands even stronger (though he grip was still weak - she was not in the best condition).
“No.”
“No?”
“No. Stay.”
Stay. She wanted him to stay. with just this one word Childe’s mind fell into chaos.
He wanted to, he really wanted to. He was not stupid enough to not have realized his crush on her, so of course the thought of slipping beneath the covers to lie beside her seemed like something he could only dream of. But that was precisely why he shouldn’t. If they were only friends it would probably be okay, but he did have some deeper feelings, so he shouldn’t take advantage of her delirious fever-drunken state. Hell, he didn’t even know if she thought of them as friends in the first place. Granted they had spent a lot of time together in Liyue, but half of that was slashing at each other with pointy blades. Which was a perfectly good way to make friends in his opinion but his mother told him. that most people do not see it that way. In the end, he had no idea what she actually thought of him and right now she did not actually seem to be completely sober. He really should go to one of the guest rooms.
Childe pried the girls fingers from his hands and got again.
“I’ll go sleep in one of the guest rooms, okay? We can talk tomorrow.”
“No” Lumine tried to grab his hand again.
“C’mon. Let go. I’ll see you in the morning. Go back to sleep, Lumine.”
“No” she couldn’t reach his hands so she grabbed his pants instead. “Don’t go.
“Ahh…” Childe sighed. This wasn’t going anywhere. Should he just… give in? No, that would be wrong. “Lumine, just sleep, okay? I’ll be just a few doors over, so - hey! Stop tugging on my pants!”
“Stay. Cold.“ she whined while Childe frantically pulled up his pants again.
She was cold, huh? Well, maybe it would be okay? She was not letting him go anyways and it would be warmer for her… and logically speaking this was his bed in the first place, so she could not actually complain, right? Just because she was cold, this was only to help her, something any friend would do.
Childe finally slipped under the covers and was immediately greeted with the warmth that comes from someone with a severe fever. He knew that warmth, he had often felt it when he relented to his younger siblings wished for him to accompany them when they were sick. Not much of a different situation than this one actually. Alright, this was the same. No need to get all worked up, this was just like -
“So warm.” Lumine nuzzled against his chest and made herself comfortable there as if he was no own personal heater.
Nope, definitely not like his siblings.
He felt Lumines breathing slow down, unable to say a word until she eventually fell asleep with a content hum. Well, he couldn’t move now anyway, so he might as well enjoy this.
Determined to ignore all consequences, Childe pulled the girl close into his arms, rested his chin atop her hair and closed his eyes.
“Let’s just hope she doesn’t murder me when she wakes up.”