Love and Other Delusions | Chilumi

Tide Withholder

"Hey Lumine, I'm back." He greeted as he opened the door. "Don't worry, I already showered." He laughed before sitting down beside her.

"I forgot how hard it was to train underlings." He said. "It's already been a week but they still would not get along. Reminds me of the lower scums I used to train that was in it to climb ranks without putting effort in."

He sighed and rested his chin on has hand, his elbow resting on the bed as leverage. "Though I guess those guys are less pain in the ass than the other guys I've trained. Or maybe I was just a bad trainer back then."

"Got any advice for me?" He asked.

Nothing. Silence. He was left staring at her sleeping face. He left out a melancholic laugh. "Yeah, I'll have to figure it out myself huh?"

He pushed away a strand of hair on her face. His eyes then traveled down to her scarred arm. "How ironic, the scar healed faster than you woke up." He said, his voice cracking. "When are you going to wake up?"

A single tear went down his face. Then another. He wiped it away and took a deep breath. "I don't feel like crying right now." He laughed, wiping another tear that he missed.

"I don't really have much to talk about rather than what happened earlier. It's all that's been keeping me busy." He said.

"Hope you won't mind me just staying in here for a little longer though." He held her hand.

He looked at her once more and another sigh. "Just a little longer." He said with a faint smile.

He closed his eyes to rest it, his mind recalling moments of his past. And just as he was doing that he felt Lumine's hand twitch for a moment.

His eyes popped wide open, sitting straight up and looking directly at her. "Lumine?" He said, his heart racing as he looked back and forth on Lumine's face and their hands.

But as he did, his excitement gradually faded. Nothing was happening anymore. Did he really feel that? Or was it just his imagination?

"Hah, maybe it's time for me to get some proper rest." He laughed to himself. "Got my hopes up there for a bit."

He stood up and kissed Lumine on the forehead. "Goodnight Lumine." He then lifted his hand that held hers and planted a kiss on that too. "I'll be back in the morning."

***

"You know, some of the rebels under your command used to be from Swordfish II." Paimon said. "I guess they changed some of the groupings to pair with the shogunate." She commented.

"Really? Well that's nice." Childe said, not really completely paying attention to what Paimon just said. He was simply staring at the troops sloppily going at each other.

"I don't remember their fight between each other back then to be like this." He clicked his tongue.

"Wait a sec Paimon, I have to take care of this real quick." He stood up from his seat and approached the training troops.

"What? Hey wait a minute you don't plan on roughing them up are you?" Paimon crossed her arms.

Childe laughed. "Only a little."

"Alright alright, pause." He yelled as he waved both his hands widely, catching the attention of everyone there. "Let's try a different method shall we?" He told them.

They all looked at him confused. This was the mandated training for everyone is what they know; him watching them train and giving them tips on how to improve.

"I feel like this training is not working as well." He said. "What if we get more hands on?"

They looked at him confused. "Is fighting one on one with each other not hands on?" One of them asked.