Destined for you - ChiLumi

Chapter 8

This one's rather short, I got a terribel headache

"Tell me... that Tartaglia..." Amber hummed as the 3 girls strolled through the forest of Wolvendom. The blonde blinked at her questioningly, whereupon she would formulate the rest of the question. "You guys are close, aren't you?" At the very same moment, the heroine stumbled over a thick root sticking out of the ground, stuttering and wondering why Amber thought such a thing. "You spent a lot of time alone in Liyue..." the little fairy added with a smirk.

She was probably right, Lumine and Ajax often spent hours alone, he always followed her everywhere... sometimes even without her knowing. All the more surprising that he wasn't there this time or wasn't hiding somewhere near them. The blonde sighed a little annoyed. "Nonsense... he's annoying, flirts way too much, he's also cocky and too confident in himself..." She huffed and crossed her arms, carefully watching out for other roots that might block her path. The other two burst into laughter.

Maybe she should tell them what she really thought about him... that he wasn't actually that bad after all. Although, never mind. After all, she was the heroine and he was the bad guy! How could anyone ever look into her eyes again without seeing failure, failure in her choice of men!

"Are you all right?" Amber suddenly asked, breaking Lumine from her thoughts. "You look so red," the little one with white hair added, causing the girl's cheeks to blush once again. There was no way she could tell them what happened at the hotel yesterday, no matter how close they were. Just don't let anything show... "Yes, everything's fine, my stomach just...hurts a little," with a somewhat unconvinced smile she shook off the two's questions and didn't want to go into it any further.

They continued their walk, a few wolves roamed through the bushes next to them, which meant Razor was also nearby. As they saw him, the young boy waved at the three girls rather inconspicuously and put an index finger over his mouth... they were probably hunting. As the pack moved on, Amber remembered that Charles needed some wolfhook berries, which they went straight to collecting. And as they did, Lumine's mind wandered back to the Ginger... not because she missed him, but because she wondered what he was doing. She was worried that he might do something stupid, like... no, he would never do something like that.

Paimon found some red wolfhooks which she proudly presented to the other two. "Hey wait a minute, you could take these to Barbara!" Suddenly occurred to the traveler. She explained to the fairy that the healer often collected these berries to mix some kind of juice with them...but she didn't know what she needed it for anymore.

With the basket full of berries, the friends eventually went down to the bay. Actually, a former Treasure Hoarder always sat there and enjoyed the view, but that day he was no longer sitting in the sand. Lumine would often come here in the past and sit next to him... he would tell her stories of his travels while the blonde would tell him about hers and rave about the old times with her brother. She wondered where the man could be... if he found a wife and settled down or if something had happened to him... well. It's been almost a year since she was here last.

Amber nudged her ribs. "The last person in the water pays for the food!" The cheerful girl giggled and headed towards the shallows. "I certainly won't!" The little companion squealed and floated towards the lake. Lumine smiled contentedly as she joined the race, she really had missed these moments with friends, because in the end Childe was always there to consume all her time for himself.

Another two pleasant hours passed before the girls headed back to Mondstadt. Soaking wet and laughing happily, they entered the entrance gate, Amber went to bring the berries to Charles while Lumine and Paimon ran to the cathedral and looked for Barbara.

When they arrived at the nun's, they had to listen to a lecture about how they could catch a cold, but she also thanked them both very much for their efforts. After a short conversation about Lumine's and Paimon's adventures, since Barbara was busy, they set off into town again.

As they wanted to cross the large square where the Anemo statue was standing, they were stopped by a mocking laugh. "What happened to you?" The girls turned and spotted Kaeya leaning against one of the pillars with an amused grin. His long blue hair was draped over his shoulder in a braid with a small clover leaf at the end. He must've been spending time with little Klee... Lumine's eyes melted at the thought of how good the captain was with kids and even let the minor knight braid his hair. "Oh, we were just picking berries." The fairy smiled as he approached them.

He frowned, "I've never heard of berries growing underwater..." his ironic tone caused the traveler to roll her eyes in annoyance, yet she couldn't bring herself to stop smiling. "How funny..." she mocked, nudging him. It took less than 5 seconds for Ajax to join the three. "Look, my songbird got wet..." The corners of his lips curled into a grin as his finger traced down her arm, his gaze lingering on Kaeya as he especially emphasized the word 'my'. "We were just collecting berries!" The now frustrated girl sighed.

His blue eyes widened, "in the lake?"

"For Archon's sake!" Lumine cursed, her little friend just laughed as the two men teased her, although with Childe she was sure he could actually believe something like that. She weaved through the crowd and disappeared towards Good Hunter, where the girls had previously agreed to meet, the Fatui of course followed her like her own shadow.

"It's kind of scary..." The traveler stated, leaving the man to wonder what she meant. "You seem to always know where I am." The young man just shrugged innocently as he pulled out a chair for her, smiling. "I have a sixth sense for it."

Of course he does... or he's stalking me... both creepy. She thought to herself, Ajax sat down next to his love and waited until Amber finally joined them before the four of them ordered food. Amber involved the criminal in various conversations, he was even happy about it and told her about the many adventures he experienced with and without Lumine. One thing that Lumine admired about the girl; She was always friendly and formed her own opinion about people, no matter what rumors were going around about these people in question.

"At the end we could treat ourselves to a drink at Diona's," Lumine suggested, but the outrider politely declined. "I have to work, watch the forests a little." The job is an excuse that none of the four would ever question, Jean was very strict about drinking while working.

A sigh escaped the blonde. "Then let's go to sleep." Yawning, she got up and placed a bag of mora on the table. Paimon immediately followed her. "I have something to do, ojou-chan." Before the traveler could ask a question, the young Fatui already crept past her and stroked her head before disappearing towards the tavern.

"What was that all of a sudden-" She huffed, disappointed that he didn't even at least kiss her cheek. Should she follow him? "Lumine... I'd rather not." Paimon warned with a shake of her head, whereupon she sighed and made her way to the hotel... after all, she didn't want to get into trouble with him.