Chapter Text
Voices and laughter could be heard inside the luxurious castle of Mondstadt.
Though lively days are not an unusual occurrence in this kingdom, it wasn’t every evening when king Barbatos would invite the widely infamous Harbinger alliance for important discussions and to ensure peace, as the king himself would put it.
The large hall, where the party was hosted, its walls and ceiling made with colorful glass, framed by wing shaped monoliths and the floor built out of a mosaic resembling the sky, was bustling with people ,enjoying their time and outsiders admiring the majestic architecture of the castle.
Though Lumine was about to join the large group of dancers that were circling around the center of the mosaic , she couldn’t help ponder on why Barbatos would invite such a dangerous alliance.Especially when he ,himself didn’t look happy about it. Was he threatened to join the Snezhnayan alliance?
Her worry was forgotten when she joined the large circle to dance along.
How delightful!
The blonde princess looked out of the ordinary-type of-magnificent, her wide eyes shining like the setting sun, filling those empty blue eyes in the corner of the grand hall with a mysterious sense of melancholy and hope, her body floating and the small flowers that adorned her hair and her simple white dress was making Tartaglia, loose focus.
The primary objective was to get the gnosis and the Inazuma fugitives through diplomacy. Not that he didn’t think words were useless towards someone like the king who had kept the anemo piece safe for centuries and towards Mondstadt laws that were almost polar opposites from those outside, but he did want to see what would go down even if he would rather want to stare at the lovely maiden who had stolen his heart for quite some time.
The music quickened its pace. Lumine hurried her footsteps along with the drum beats, not caring less until a rather tall figure appeared in her sight and swiftly covered her hand with his calloused one, making her stop dead on her tracks.
“Can I join your dance, madam?”Tartaglia asked, amused of her fast reflexes that prevented her from tripping.
“Oh, of course,”she responded, slightly intimidated of his figure and the snezhnayan clothes, giving her a warning on whom she would be dancing with.
The music changed completely.From the lively and fast paced beats ,to slow and tender sounds relaxing to the ear.
The ginger carefully put her hand on his shoulder as he wrapped his other arm on her waist. The now nervous princess was avoiding eye contact from him. How adorable.
-Look at me, princess ,-he murmured softly the harsh order.-Tell me your name.
He wasn’t fluent enough with this kingdom’s language to ask about her name in a more decent way. However language barriers and the wrath of his colleagues for apparently messing around weren’t going to get on his way, especially when shooting his shot.
Well, he knew everything about Lumine, he just liked to hear it from her own mouth.
-My name is…Lumine- she answered unsure if she could entrust him even with her name.Well it only made sense if she asked for his.
-Call me,Childe,-he responded with a sly smile on his face.
“Aha!”she thought.It was obviously a code name, a bad and ridiculous one at that.
-Your real name, please,-she countered, a trace of her triumph for catching on could be heard in her voice.
-You wouldn’t like to know my true identity, my clever Lumine,-he teased, putting a weight on her name and “his true identity”.
”If curiosity killed the cat then let my body rot”