My Dear Friend | Chilumi

The Unexpected Guest

Childe quickly closed the blinds behind Lumine and fiercely opened the door to his inferiors.

"What the hell do you want ?"
He said, his fury raining down on them.
The lowly Fatui members lowered their cowardly gaze and a white-haired woman with red and black eyes appeared from behind the masked man and woman. Without uttering a word, she pushed them aside and made her way into the room, uninvited. She brutally bumped Childe with her shoulder as she passed the door.

"Close it." She said in a cut-throat dry tone.

He sucked his teeth and closed the door on the soldiers noses.
Arrlechino glanced around the room and seemed to notice the tea set for two on the table. Fuck.

"Looks like you weren't alone." She said, almost looking disinterested.

"I was sleeping, I just didn't clean up today. What was so important that you had to wake me up in the middle of the night anyway? Don't you have orphans to take care of? " He lied nonchalantly. He did not appreciate her company whatsoever. She was a ticking time bomb with a bad temper. Childe hated that she was the one raising the orphans of Snezhnaya, and he didn't like her calling him a kid on every occasion she had.

"Save your lies for someone else. I already know who was here. Luckily for you, I don't intend to tell anyone." She said calmly. "At least, not if you cooperate, like a good little kid." She added.

He was starting to get uneasy, but he knew how to play innocent. He calmly buttoned up his shirt, seeing as it had stayed open in the heat of the moment.

"Listen, I understand it's hard for you to not be insane, but I have no clue what you're talking about. Start by making sense and then I'll see if I feel like listening to the rest of your story." Childe said. He was getting annoyed. He didn't like where she was getting at.

"Should I go get, ah.. what was her name... Lumine, at the knights of Favonius? Maybe it will jog up your memory when I drag her out by her pretty blonde hair and put my blade to her throat." She said with a chilling stare. Her voice tended to go from disinterested, to angry and then to manic all in one sentence, while her eyes always had that murderous stare in them and a face that never knew to smile.

Childe wasted not a single second at the sound of Lumine's name to pull out a knife from his pocket and pin the Knave to the wall with the blade inches away from slicing open her throat.

"Hit a soft spot, haven't we? I didn't think you were still capable of feeling things." She said as her eyes lit up with interest.

"Shut up." He said in a cold, low tone.

"No need to cut at each other's throats, Childe. I'm only here to present you with an offer that you can't refuse." She stared at the blade and back at Tartaglia, who had a fire burning in his heart. He did not tolerate anyone that threatened her.

"I don't take offers from someone who bites at the hand that feeds her." He said. To him, she was unpredictable and unloyal to the tsaritsa. He understood very early on that she wouldn't hesitate to betray her Majesty for power.

"You're such a hypocrite. You're in this mess because you decided to go against the tsaritsa's direct orders of no contact and I'm here to get you out of it." She said. He couldn't hide the flash of guilt that passed in his eyes. It hurt him to do this to the one that saved him, that raised him.

"You're only here to fuel your power trip. You don't care about our God. Stop trying to be a saint and tell me why you're really here, mh? "

She let out a hysterical laugh before returning to her smileless persona.
"I never pretended to be a saint. Either way, you're in no position to be refusing the offer I'm about to give you. Now, if you care about her and your family, settle down a bit and put that godawful knife away."