Haters (ChiLumi) (Genshin)

Chapter 21: Their Deal

"If you help in the experiment with 1319, we'll give you a huge amount of money, enough to fund all your work."

"Deal." the Tsaritsa spoke.

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"Where are we going?" I asked.

"France. Pretty far from here." Childe muttered. "I have an acquaintance there who can help us. His name is Gorou. He's a friend of Kazuha's but if we don't tell him that you were the one who killed Kazuha we'll be fine."

That sounded pretty cruel. But to survive, we had no choice. I followed him to the airport, both of us going as quickly as we could. There was yet another person whom Childe knew who could help us to flee from here.

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"Childe! You told me you'd be coming but whats with the shoulder?" a brown haired guy with pointed ears, probably Gorou, asked. "And who's she?" he looked at me.

"We've got in real trouble. Bad people after us in our country. She's Lumine. She's being targeted too. So we fled all the way here." Childe lied. These were quite the lies, but Gorou seemed to believe them quite innocently.

"I understand! It was a wise choice you made to come here. Come on, in the car." Gorou sat in the driver seat of a sleek black car, as we sat on the backseat.

"Childe, did you come to know of Kazuha's death?" Gorou turned the key in the slot. I felt a chill spread over me as I shivered in silence, the guilt tensing my body.

"Yeah. Pretty unfortunate." Childe muttered as if it had nothing to do with him. Gorou didn't seem to notice. He was oblivious to just about everything, huh.

"I miss him. Me and Kazuha were the best of friends since we met." his eyes seemed to brim with tears as he happily recounted his memories of Kazuha. Childe kept one of my hands down strongly, as if to remind me not to burst out into any sudden emotions. He had told me that Gorou wouldn't hesitate to turn me over to the police if he found out.

"And you know! There was this time when Kazuha was in charge of cooking for us and he started scolding all of us. It was so rare to see him like that. And every Friday, he would pester someone to go watch a movie with him, since he'd never seen a movie before." Gorou chuckled lightly,  and sadly. I could see him trembling as if he were crying in his seat, but he didn't let it show.

"I am so sorry to hear of his
. . . death." I muttered, feeling a twinge of pain in my heart. Gorou smiled lightly when he heard those words.

"Thank you for your kind words, Lumine-san." he whispered. San. I remembered how Kazuha used to call me that. I was on the verge of breaking into tears.

When we reached the house, Gorou set aside two rooms for us, and bid us good night. He had had a doctor called and Childe's injuries were treated by him.

Gorou POV:

Kazuha had been my best friend. I flicked through our pictures together, and felt sadness sink into me. I wouid definitely find the murderer and make them pay for what they did to him.

Lumine POV:

Not being able to sleep, I stepped out into the balcony. The view from there was surreal. I could see the lights of Paris glistening. It made me sick.

"Hey." I heard Childe's voice.

"Hey." I replied flatly.

"Whatcha doing out here?" Childe leaned on the railing as he tilted his face to meet mine.

"Can't sleep." I muttered. Childe turned away from me.

"Hey, Lumine."

"Yeah?"

"Remember when I told you I loved you?" he asked. I gazed in surprise at him.

"Um, yeah."

"I still do. What about you?" Childe peered at me. His deep blue eyes staring right at me, piercing my heart. I felt like I should say 'no', yet I was compelled to say I still loved him.

"I'm a f*cking monster. You okay with that?" I leaned in closer.

"I'm a monster too, so I don't mind." Childe leaned so close to me that our noses practically touched.

And then, we kissed each other gently, under the moonlit night of Paris.