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Lumine had spent enough time traveling around Teyvat to know what her favorite thing was in each region she visited.
In Mondstadt, it was the dandelion wine; both the red and the white variations, its delicate tartness absolutely addictive combined with the spice and salt that was so common in the region’s cuisine.
In Inazuma, it was the Sakura blossoms. The soft petals, the subtle hints of sweetness that didn’t overwhelm the senses, the gorgeous dyes and patterns that had been inspired by the rare blooms when Inazuma hadn’t been able to accept outside commerce.
In Liyue, it was the private bathhouses.
Liyue Harbor had them everywhere, but Lumine had access to one of the nicest ones, due to her elevated status as a hero of Liyue and her friendship with Zhongli, and Lumine utilized it frequently when she was in the area. The soft heat of the water had helped to soothe her aching muscles the first time she’d sparred with Childe, and this time was no different.
He’d been in rare form, more frantic than usual, but still frustratingly accurate with his marks. Each stab and slice had carried an extra bite behind it, and each swing and miss had elicited a stronger reaction than she’d seen from him before.
It made her wonder if something was bothering him, if he’d maybe gotten bad news, or was fretting over his siblings. These were all things she wanted to be able to ask him, but lending an ear wasn’t part of their arrangement, nor was asking after fleeting things like emotions.
Their arrangement was strictly professional, for the sake of training.
Not that that stopped her from pretending their arrangement also involved something less professional.
Everything about Childe was intense when they sparred; his stance, his style, his bloodlust.
He took it seriously, punctuating each cage of his arms and pin of his body with a haughty chuckle and a demand for her to try harder.
There were some days where she felt like he spoke in double entendres, and it was those days in particular that left her feeling unsatisfied, whether or not she emerged victorious.
It was those days where she’d use the luxury of her private bath for more than assistance with soothing the aches and bruises that bloomed across her body.
She was no stranger to chasing her own pleasure. Traveling alone for weeks, sometimes months at a time sometimes merited such things, in the event that she found herself needing to relax. She’d called on Childe’s form more than once during her travels, but it was nothing compared to the weight and warmth of him against her.
Lumine sighed quietly as she felt herself pulse at the thought, the sheer image of him looming above her in a way that wasn’t directly correlated with fighting sending a jolt of desire straight to her core. She sucked in a shallow breath and worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she laid her head back against the side of the bath and closed her eyes, practiced hands ghosting her fingertips softly along the column of her throat as she slid the other hand down to tease at one of her nipples.
“Oh—” Lumine sighed as she arched against her own hand, causing herself to whine as she pinched and twisted it between her fingers before soothing it with her thumb. She brought her other hand down from her neck and took hold of the opposite breast, kneading and groping with that hand while she continued to pull and pinch with the other.
Lumine squeezed her thighs together to give herself some friction as she continued to wind herself up, Childe’s handsome face at the forefront of her mind as she imagined what sort of filthy things he’d say to her if he were there, and Lumine sighed his name as she snaked a hand down the length of her torso and darted it under the surface of the water, tossing her head back and moaning as her fingers found her clit and she felt the familiar pressure of release starting to build up in her core.
One of the benefits of being a Harbinger in Liyue was unrestricted access to anything one could ever want.
Childe had an open invitation to visit the best restaurants and tea houses, he had a treasure trove of willing women that would answer his beck-and-call, he could get pretty much anything he desired with a clever word and a snap of his fingers, and he had access to one of the most exclusive private bathhouses in the city, thanks to Zhongli.
Childe could feel bruises starting to bloom where Lumine had tagged him hard, and he wondered if he needed to find a way to apologize to her, for being extra tough.
It wasn’t because he thought she couldn’t handle it, he’d just been in a particularly nasty mood when she’d arrived to spar, and he’d taken a lot of his frustration out on her in an effort to make himself feel better.
Between the Tsaritsa’s lingering disappointment that he hadn’t made any progress with regards to Scaramouche, and the fact that he hadn’t heard from his family in several weeks, there was a part of Childe that was worried and anxious.
His arrangement with Lumine had no room for sentimentality or emotions, so he’d done what he did best, and tried to drown both of those things in the blood of his enemy.
Not that she was really an enemy, anymore.
And he hadn’t spilled any blood, save for the few scratches they’d both gotten from one another.
The more they fought each other, the more he began to recognize Lumine’s patterns, but something in her behavior had shifted under his altered emotional status.
She’d pushed back harder, rushed him faster, and pinned him longer than she’d been able to manage before, and he’d be the first to admit that it had ignited something carnal deep within him, something that he preferred to keep buried, considering who she was.
It had been distracting enough to cost him the match, but he was more than happy to tap out before she realized what exactly she’d done to him.
There was no good way to explain to her that her newfound intensity had left Childe unbearably horny, and he didn’t know that his pride could take the rejection.
It wasn't the first time she’d elicited such a response from him, but he was generally very good at hiding it.
There was absolutely no way he’d have been able to hide it from her this time, and although he’d calmed down a bit during the walk from the Golden House to the bathhouse, his cock was still sitting hot and heavy against his thigh, and he would need to take care of it before he dared to step back out into the world.
Childe thanked the hostess warmly as she motioned for him to head back toward the baths, gesturing vaguely at what appeared to be any of the closed doors, which Childe took to mean that all of the rooms were presently unoccupied. He slipped into the men’s changing room quickly and peeled off his still too tight trousers, sighing at the instant release of pressure as his half-hard length was released from its holdings. His shirt and jacket came next, and he bunched them both up and stuffed them in a cubby before wrapping a towel around himself and heading back out into the hallway.
“So close, so close.” Lumine hummed as she felt tingles starting to snake up her spine, the familiar warmth of her pre-orgasm blooming across her body as the water lapped and splashed around her.
She felt her toes begin to curl as she slipped a digit inside herself and curled it against that bundle of nerves, keening as she slipped it back out and pressed down on her clit while she rolled her hips, trying to chase the sensation as she felt her core begin to tighten like the strings of a bow.
She decreased her pressure to edge herself back from the brink, allowing herself a delicious moan at the quick change of pace before she doubled back on her clit again, her head rolling back against the cool tile at the edge of the bath as she felt her orgasm start to wash over her, each breath coming out as a strangled cry as her back arched and she rode it out. It wasn’t until she’d let out one last loud moan that she heard the door, and she felt the heat rush from her core up to her face as she snapped her gaze toward the sound and azure eyes greeted her, dark with lust as the man behind them arched an eyebrow and closed the door softly behind him.
A significant part of Childe wondered whether Lumine had knocked him out, and he was really having this dream as he laid on the floor of the Golden House, and the other part of him wished he’d accidentally dropped in on her sooner.
All of his blood rushed straight to his cock as Lumine crossed her arms over her chest and backed up against the wall of the bath, watching him with a mixture of embarrassment and what he thought might be the last of her lust as she darted her eyes around the room in search of what he imagined was her towel, “C-CHILDE! W-what a-are y-you doing here? This is my room!”
He held his hands up in mock surrender as she dipped further below the surface of the water, effectively obscuring her body from his view, “I didn’t know this room was occupied, girlie. The hostess didn’t say anything.”
“So you just picked the first door you came across?!”
“Well, yeah.”
Lumine rolled her eyes and scoffed as her gaze landed on her towel, “C-can you just hand that to me, please? And then I’ll get out of your hair.”
That was the last thing Childe wanted, but he offered her a soft smile and did as she asked, blatantly averting his eyes when she walked to the edge of the tub to snatch it away from him. He suppressed a snicker as he heard her hiss out a curse and step out of the bath, noting the angry bruises glowing against the pale skin of her back as she walked past him to gather up the sandals she’d left sitting against the wall.
He needed to let her go, allow her to leave with what remained of her dignity so that they could forget any of it ever happened. But he wondered who or what she’d been thinking about. What exactly had inspired her to seek relief so soon after they’d seen each other.
His cock twitched as he considered that it might have been him, and the idea that she wanted him in the same way he wanted her had him closing the distance between them before he even thought to stop himself.
She shuddered as he ran the pad of one of his thumbs across her shoulder, “Childe…”
“Right. You need to go,” He dipped down to drop a tentative kiss where his hand had been, and smiled when he heard her sigh, “Though, I’d be the last to complain if you decided to stay. I hate to think I interrupted something important.”
He saw the chills snake up her spine as he rested his chin on her shoulder and turned to suck a mark on the skin of her neck, “It wasn’t that important.”
Her voice was soft and the furthest from argumentative as he soothed the spot with his tongue and brought his lips to the shell of her ear, “Is that so? Then I don’t suppose you’ll mind telling me what exactly had you so distracted that you didn’t hear me come in?”
Lumine tilted her head to the side to grant him more access, “Mmmm, wouldn't you like to know?”
Childe smirked against her skin and grazed her pulse point with his teeth, “What’s got you so riled up, Lumine? Surely not me.”
She was going to play right into his hands, whether she realized it or not, “Ha! Don’t flatter yourself, Childe.”
The dig came out in a whisper, and Childe felt her towel starting to slip down as he snaked one hand around her waist and found a tightened peak with the other, “Now why don’t I believe you?”
Lumine choked out a soft moan as he rolled the sensitive bud between his fingers and took her earlobe between his teeth, “I really n-need to go…ah.”
“I don’t believe that, either.”
Lumine’s hips bucked against him as he pinched at her nipple again and dragged the tip of his tongue along the shell of her ear, “Archons, Childe.”
Her eyes were shut tightly as she leaned her head back against his shoulder, like she was trying to force herself to move away from him, to stop whatever it was that they were starting, but he watched any subsequent protests die in her throat as he slid the hand that had been on her breast down the length of her torso, stopping just short of where he was certain he’d find her dripping for him, if her shallow breathing was any indication, “Tell me what you were thinking about, Lumine,” he crooned, “And I might just let you finish again.”
Any prior embarrassment she’d felt at Childe catching her in the act was quickly melting away under his touch, the words dripping from his tongue like the sweetest dandelion wine as he continued to unravel her.
She could feel him hot and heavy against her backside, getting himself off just as much as he was getting her off as he tried to coax the answers he wanted out of her.
He wouldn’t proceed until she gave him an answer, and she wasn’t in a position to try and force it, “Y-you.”
She felt him smirk against her as he dipped his hand lower, but not low enough to grant her any friction, “Was this your first time thinking about me?”
He needed reassurance, which was slightly unexpected, considering the man radiated confidence in every aspect of his life. She shook her head and gasped as he dipped lower, swiping a long digit through her folds before coming to rest on her clit.
The delicious friction sent chills down her spine, and Lumine’s back arched at the sensation as she rolled her hips again and felt her towel finally drop to the floor.
She braced against the wall with one hand as Childe began to work her clit with the other, and she reached back to twist her fingers in his wild auburn locks as he teased her slowly, each pass of his fingers across the swollen nub causing her hips to stutter.
Childe dropped open-mouthed kisses wherever his lips could reach, snaking his free hand around her waist to help hold her in place as he slipped one finger inside her and then a second, the drive of his fingers combined with the pressure from the heel of his hand only enhancing the sensation until she was crying out from the overstimulation.
It wasn’t painful, but each hard drive of his fingers caused her legs to turn to jelly, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to hold herself up if he kept her in the same position until she finished.
She was so close, mere seconds away from coming around his hands, and it was with a hard push on her hips that he turned her around and slammed her hard against the wall, one final drive of his fingers deep into her wet heat effectively sending her over the edge as he slotted a knee between her thighs and seized her mouth roughly, swallowing each delicious sound he coaxed out of her until he was certain she’d rode it out.
Lumine looked utterly debauched as she rested her head against the wall behind her, and Childe groaned as he brought his fingers to his mouth and cleaned them off before starting in on her neck again. She tasted heavenly, and his most coveted fantasies paled in comparison to hearing her chant his name in person.
Childe’s towel had managed to stay mostly in place during the first part of their tryst, which was surprising, considering how hard Lumine had been grinding against him. He’d nearly come from that friction alone, the fact that he’d been feeling pent up already, only for the woman of his dreams to take to his seduction like a fish to water, not helping his stamina as he worked to make sure she got exactly what she wanted.
Childe peppered kisses across her collarbone and cheeks before taking her mouth again, sighing softly when she sought entry with her tongue and tugged at his hair as she deepened the kiss, “How did that compare to what you’ve been coming up with in your head?”
“There is no comparison.” Lumine whispered, her amber eyes boring into him as they separated and she dropped her mouth to his shoulder, “I-I can’t even—”
Childe tipped her chin up to meet his gaze and ran his thumb across her bottom lip, chuckling when she ran her tongue across the tip and smiled, “What else do you want, Lumine?”
Her breathing was shallow as he released her chin and she drew her bottom lip between her teeth, and his bright blue eyes were dark with lust as he watched her, his swollen lips plush and warm against hers when he dipped down to kiss her more gently.
He was just as calculated during foreplay as he was during combat, but his edges were much softer in the throes of lovemaking than she would have expected, all things considered.
There was still an intensity to him, to be sure, but it was a softer kind; he wanted his questions answered and his efforts praised, but he was so incredibly patient with regards to his own pleasure, “I want you, Childe.”
The quiet affirmation caused his breath to hitch, and he followed Lumine with his eyes as she switched their positions and sank down on the floor in front of him, peeling away the towel and pumping his length gently as he rested his back against the wall.
The head of his cock was angry and leaking at the tip when she took him into her mouth, her skilled touch easing him back from release just enough to relieve some of the pain so that she could draw out his pleasure.
She teased the slit with the tip of her tongue before running the flat of it down his shaft, eliciting a violent buck of the hips that accidentally forced him deeper as she took his length easily and sealed her mouth around him, using the meat of his thighs to help keep them both grounded as she began to suck him dry, “Oh, oh, my god, Lumine. Holy shi—”
She hummed around his cock and smiled when she felt pre-come start spilling down her throat, and she backed off and slowed her pace as he reached down to tangle his hand in her hair, releasing him with a lewd pop just as he was about to let himself go.
Lumine looked up at him through her lashes to find him entirely blissed out, his eyes closed and brows scrunched together as she continued to work him slowly with her hands, “Don’t be a t-tease, t-traveler.”
There was absolutely no conviction behind his words, and he was much too distracted by her hands to try and make himself sound more forceful.
His pale skin sparkled with sweat against the dark stone walls, the contrast causing his smattering of freckles to shine brighter than they would in the light of day.
Lumine took in the image of him bare before her; his broad shoulders and toned abdomen honed from years of training with a bow, punctuated by coarse hair that trailed down the length of his torso and pooled at the base of his perfect cock.
He was beautiful, and having him completely at her mercy only added to the pleasure that he’d already given her.
She was almost certain that he’d give her whatever she wanted, when she had him like this; hot and heavy under her hand, wanting relief so badly she was positive he’d sing for her once she offered him the opportunity.
He may have been the Eleventh Fatui Harbinger, but under the soft lights of the bathhouse, he was also just a man.
Childe keened under her tongue as she dipped down to take him into her mouth again, chanting her name like a prayer as he dragged her across his cock, the sting from his hand in her hair increasing as he pulled harder and she felt his hips start to stutter.
He came fast and loud, whining at the overstimulation as she swallowed him down and released him swiftly, allowing him to help her to her feet once he’d recovered enough to form a coherent sentence, “Come here, love.”
Lumine sighed at the quiet endearment as Childe pulled her flush against him, and he leaned down to take her mouth once more as gentle hands ghosted across her ribcage, coming to rest on either side of her hips as they melted in to one another, “Now that that’s been taken care of, why don’t we clean up, hmm?”
In all her years of living, Lumine had never been with anyone who was as skilled with their tongue as Childe.
She figured a lot of it had to do with how much he ran his mouth on a daily basis, but he had her arching and keening under his tongue within a matter of minutes, each swipe of it against her most sensitive parts causing her to hiss out a curse as she twisted fiery locks around her fingers.
They’d left the cold stone walls of the bathhouse behind in favor of washing away their indiscretions, and they’d made it about five minutes before they were all over each other again.
Childe had taken it upon himself to return the favors she’d already granted him in the form of going down on her, the bath water melding with her own slick as he perched her on the side of the bath and worked her open with his tongue, sharp blue eyes gauging her every reaction as he pulled her apart once again.
If this were to become a regular occurrence, she would need to work on her stamina, but Childe didn’t seem to mind her quick release, even going so far as to take it as a compliment, “Who knew the infamous traveler would be so easy to please?”
He was less pathetic when he had control of the situation, confidence oozing out of every single pore as he lapped at the mess he’d made of her and turned his head to the side so he could press a kiss to the inside of her thigh, “Not that I’m complaining.”
“You speak as if I didn’t just have you practically begging for me to let you finish.”
“Point taken.” He said as he took the skin of her inner thigh between his teeth, “Though you haven’t even taken my cock properly yet, and I don’t know if you can handle it today.”
Lumine sat up and pushed him away from her as she slid back into the bath and straddled him, “You underestimate me.”
“I would never.”
Childe’s head rolled back as she sank down onto him without warning, and her soft smile twisted into a sly smirk as he choked out a moan and dug his fingers into the meat of her hips, “You were saying, Childe?”
One of his hands snaked up her spine and came to rest around the back of her neck, pulling her down toward him so that he could ask after her mouth, and she rolled her hips slowly as the water splashed and lapped around them, swallowing each and every one of the sounds that spilled from his lips as she rode him, “Lumine, please.”
She tutted as she slowed her hips to a stop, “And you were worried that I couldn’t handle it. Surely you aren’t ready to finish.”
Childe barked a laugh as she ground down hard against him, “N-no, it’s n-not that…”
His voice sounded so sweet when he was on the verge of begging, but the look in his eyes was unfamiliar when he finally opened them to look at her.
They were still dark with lust, even darker than when they’d started, but that darkness was laced with something else as he encouraged her to keep going and held her gaze, “What is it, Childe?”
“Ajax.”
Lumine was confused, and the question must have shown on her face, because his smirk twisted into a soft smile as he reached up to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, “My name… is Ajax.”
Suddenly the unfamiliar look was clear as day, and she felt his hips stutter as she repeated it back to him.
He trusted her, and that realization came crashing down around them as she leaned down to kiss him.
It was a frantic clash of teeth and tongue as they adjusted to working together under their new circumstances, each roll of her hips that he met with his own sending a streak of electricity down the length of her spine that bloomed across her entire body.
She searched frantically for something to grab on to as he brought his lips to her neck and bit down hard, finally settling for twisting her fingers in his hair once more as she helped guide him.
He started with her neck and dipped down toward her collarbone, marking the sensitive skin there with his teeth in a place that would be impossible to cover as she tipped her head back and continued to ride him, “Ajax.”
He answered her call with a thrust and a moan, getting off on the sound of his given name on her tongue, and she felt his fingertips jolt with electricity as she said it again, relishing in the way it awakened his carnal need to claim things for himself.
Another victory, a fancy title, and as it was, the traveler herself.
And if he really wanted to claim her, she would let him.
Lumine tossed her head back and moaned as he slipped a hand between them, finding her clit and giving her the friction she needed to start careening over the edge toward her third orgasm.
She pulled hard on his hair as her hips stuttered forward, and she felt his skilled tongue lapping at her sweaty skin as she came with him still sheathed inside her.
He worked to ease her back down as she kept her pace, and it was with a cry of her name that he came undone right behind her, the heat and pulse of him inside her sending tendrils of pleasure coursing through her veins as he softened and slipped himself out.
He held her in place when she tried to move off his lap, the dark blue from before edging back toward his normal color as the haze from their orgasms began to lift, “You…”
His voice was a whisper, and she felt like she was seeing him clearly for the first time since they’d met, “Ajax.”
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this.”
Lumine cocked her head to the side and arched an eyebrow as she motioned vaguely to the space between them, “I can probably venture a guess.”
It had always taken Childe a while to recover from his post-orgasmal haze, but his thoughts were clear as day as he watched Lumine sitting above him, peering down at him with those gorgeous amber eyes that always seemed to see right through him.
He felt whole, like this. With her slotted against him, seeking out the touch and warmth that he imagined she craved on the nights where she found herself alone.
He’d grown up in the frozen valleys of Snezhnaya, where warmth didn’t exist, save for the embrace of family, if the fates granted such a boon.
His family had been the only thing that kept him going, for a while. Them, and his beloved Tsaritsa, but after La Signora’s betrayal at the Golden House, Childe had decided to take what he could of his future into his own hands.
Childe ran his hands gently up her back as she settled in his lap again, “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the day you kicked my ass at the Golden House.”
“Ah yes, my favorite day!”
“I’m serious.”
Several silent seconds passed between them as she considered his shift in tone, “Something changed for me that day, Lumine. How I feel about you… changed.”
“What does that mean, Childe?”
She knew what he meant, but she was going to make him say it out loud, ”You know what it means, girlie.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
Childe felt his pulse skitter at the challenge, “You aren’t going to let this go, are you?”
“What do you think?”
“Archons, Lumine. You’re being impossible.”
“You love it.”
There was a teasing lilt to her tone, but all Childe could think about was how seriously in love with her he was, so he dropped his guard and gave her what she wanted, “I do, and I love the woman behind it, as well.”
There it was, his head and his heart both laid out before her, and all he could do was wait and see if she’d drop the guillotine, or accept them both with open arms. He ran his hands lightly across her back while he waited for her to respond, and the more time passed between them, the more he felt like he’d said something so very wrong, and effectively stopped what they’d started in its tracks, “I love you too, Ajax.”
It came out as a whisper, and the air around them was charged as the words sat suspended in the space between them. Childe sighed her name as he tipped his chin up to kiss her again, “Good. Now that we’re on the same page, why don’t we actually clean up? Because as fun as this has been, I’m absolutely starving.”
Lumine giggled as she stood up to move off his lap and reached for the soap and a washrag, “Good idea, I’d hate for someone else to walk in on me unannounced.”
They helped clean each other up without much fanfare, occasionally stopping to steal a kiss or two as they washed their encounter away and basked in the afterglow of their lovemaking.
It felt nice, to put his feelings out in the open and have someone take them in return, and although he’d made the choice long ago to try and keep her safe so that he’d always have a sparring partner, the fact that she’d stolen his heart in the process meant that he’d need to protect himself, as well.
There was no room for romance under the watchful eye of the Tsaritsa, but ice always melted away under the heat of the sun, and Childe couldn’t wait to see what would start to bloom once the seasons in Teyvat started to change.