Chilumi Week 2025 | Day 5: Scars
“Ah!”
The traveler collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. The harbinger followed suit, sitting down beside her on the grass near the river. Liyue looked beautiful that afternoon. The sun was setting, filling the sky with color.
Both warriors put down their weapons and slowly caught their breath. There were beads of sweat running down their skin, drops of blood on their clothes, and two hearts beating fast.
“How does it feel to lose again?” Lumine asked, struggling to get up from her spot to sit closer to him. The fight and the adrenaline seemed to have dizzy her.
“Against you? I don’t care. It motivates me to train harder," he laughed in response. He used the sleeve of his jacket to wipe the sweat from his forehead and some bloodstains that had ended up on his face.
Lumine searched her backpack for something that Childe couldn't see. Her hands moved quickly, looking for a cloth or fabric that would be sufficient to remove the traces of blood from his wounds. It pained her to ruin the pristine white color of a handkerchief she had bought on one of her trips to Sumeru, but she knew she had to use something quickly.
“Give me your arm,” Lumine asked. Childe agreed, a little distracted at first. The soft touch of the traveler's fingers wrapping around the cut on his forearm made him tremble. It felt comforting somehow. Perhaps not because his arm was no longer bleeding aggressively, but because it was she who was taking care of him.
Lumine tied a small knot with the ends of the handkerchief and made sure that not a single drop of blood seeped through the edges. Everything seemed in order. “There, good as new.”
Childe laughed. "It's the least you can do, pretty girl. You almost ripped my arm off."
“Oh, come on, don't be dramatic, ” objected the traveler, slowly stroking his forearm. She couldn't take her eyes off him when the wind made several strands of red hair sway gracefully. “Although you might have a scar. I'm sorry.”
“Oh, you apologize as if that bothers me.”
Childe laughed again, this time with a more mocking tone. Gently, the harbinger slipped off his gray jacket and raised his opposite arm, seeking to show off his well-worked biceps. He pointed to a fixed spot on his skin as pale as the snow of Snezhnaya. “I treasure this scar as if it were a gift from the gods.”
Lumine saw nothing unusual at first glance, just a clean cut that ran across much of his arm and appeared to be more than a year old. She merely raised an eyebrow in response, until the words came out of her mouth almost sarcastically. “A god wouldn't give you such a... normal scar. I have worse ones, you know that, right?”
He rolled his eyes and let out another laugh. With his other hand, he ruffled Lumine's blonde hair, almost as if he still wanted to tease her. Moving his arm quickly caused Childe to whimper a little from the pain of the cut covered by the fabric.
“This, comrade, is the best memory I can have of our first battle in Liyue,” Childe explained, his eyes slowly lighting up at the old memories flooding his mind.
"Oh, really? Well, thank you for cherishing that day. Even if I kicked your butt... It's nice that you consider it a day worth remembering." Lumine looked away after a while to hide the blush on her cheeks. An idea came to her mind, and she returned to what she was doing: secretly appreciating the small details on the harbinger's face.
“I also have a scar that you made. I would like you to make more of them.”
“Really? Which one?” His face suddenly turned serious.
Lumine tried to stifle her laughter as she tilted her head to further accentuate the skin on her neck. Childe watched the small reddish spots and tooth marks paint her anatomy. He laughed nervously and buried his face in both of his hands once she began to laugh uncontrollably.
“Archons! Don't remind me!” Childe exclaimed, feeling the burning of his cheeks from embarrassment clouding his thoughts.
“What? Would you rather I not let you do it anymore?”
Childe stopped complaining in an instant and stared at her. “Don't you dare.”
