"I don't even remember why we're fighting"

[glidinglight]

[ Lumine had had about enough.

What had begun as a fun romp through Liyue that was meant to relieve some of the stress she’d built up dealing with nonsense over in Sumeru was not providing the desired relaxation she had anticipated. She was bruised, she was tired, she was pretty sure that she had sprained a finger at one point during the day, and even though the sun was getting ready to set she hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

And now?

Now there was Childe’s bullshit to deal with.

She didn’t know what his problem was, but they’d been fighting for a solid hour now. And not the fun kind of fighting. Even Paimon had taken off for the Wangshu Inn halfway through. She clicked her tongue and let out a puff of air. ]

You know what? I don’t even remember why we’re fighting. But it doesn’t really matter, either.

[ She spun on her heel and started walking away from him. He could go jump into Dihua Marsh for all she cared. ]

Comments

now it's my turn to apologize for the long delay

[glidinglight]

[ She'd be lying if she says she hadn't thought about something vaguely resembling this once or twice or thrice. She'd always pictured it being sweeter--but she'd always scoffed at herself for even imagining it in the first place, much less for thinking that someone as rough-and-tumble as Childe would ever be gentle. It was as unrealistic as suddenly being gifted her wings back, so she had boxed up and shoved those thoughts away. After all, she had told herself, if anyone was going to woo her, there were probably a half a dozen candidates more likely. There was no point in developing urges for someone that would never reciprocate.

She tries to avoid looking at his eyes. She doesn't know what she'll see there--what she wants to see. It could all be a ruse, after all. A moment of--sweetness, dare she say?--so he could laugh in her face if she bought it. It wouldn't be the first time he'd managed to make her halfway believe he wasn't so bad just to have the rug yanked out from under her. There isn't anywhere safe to look, though. His body's too close, obscuring her field of vision, the same way his body has invaded her personal space.

There's a funny thing about bodies though. You can lie with your mouth all you please, try to feign indifference or anger or whatever emotion serves you at the time. But a body that's aroused? That's an honest thing. And just like his, hers is following through, heating and dampening between her thighs as her nipples pebbled from stimulation.

Lumine swallows, hard, trying to keep her breathing under control. Her thoughts are in a dozen places all at once: fizzling over the way he feels pressed up and grinding into her; chewing on the worry that this is all still an ugly ruse somehow; calculating the fact that someday his beloved Tsaritsa might become your enemy and put you right back into the aim of his bow sight; distantly fretting that even if somehow, everything all works out and he doesn't claw her beating heart out of her own chest then she will be the one to reach inside and pull his out because she knows she can't, won't, stay in the end.

It's a bad idea. No matter how tempting it sounds in her ears, it's bad. Even if the way he presses up against her just right sends a sliver of lightning dancing up and down her spine is--it's a bad idea.

But she makes the mistake of making eye contact with him again. He has always had such beautiful, ruthless eyes: you would think, being so blue, they might remind her of the sky or the sea. But what they really remind her of is the lightless depths of space where the stars don't dare shine, of the freedom she once had, the thrill of the journey, to dare to do what should have been impossible. Of course they would be enchanting. Maybe she could get away with blaming them for what she does next.

She leans forward with her whole body, pushing against the restraints of his hands, trying to finish his sentence off before he can complete it. Even if he grapples with her for control now, she's going to persist. If this is happening, really happening (it's really happening) then she's not going to just be a passive, limp doll. She wants to feel him, and she's not going to give up until he lets her hands go so they can both press against the back of his head and neck. ]