The 12th Fatui Harbinger

Unexpected Reunion

**Warning** Mentions of abuse, prostitution, death, and PTSD.

Also noting that there have been multiple updates, so please check to make sure you are on the right chapter.

There had always been mounting sexual tension between the two of them, despite Yuria's mad efforts to ignore it. Once they gave into their desires, there was no turning back. They had multiple rounds of sex into the evening, exploring each others bodies, until it was almost midnight. Yuria watched from their hotel window as many passerby gathered onto the streets of Liyue Harbor for lantern rite's main festivities. It was completely dark outside now, but the lights of all the lanterns, from the massive mingxiao lantern modeled after some adeptus and all the red lanterns brightly shed light into the window pane.

Yuria could hear Childe in the shower, humming a tune as he washed off. She was deep in thought. What did she just do? What did they just do? She had a feeling Childe as per usual was not thinking about the consequences and---

Wait a fucking minute. She couldn't believe her eyes.

Childe stepped out of the shower, with his stupid pecs and abs glistening from the water drops as he furiously towel dried his hair. He was saying something to her, but she couldn't quite hear him past the pounding beat of her heart.

Childe watched in alarm as Yuria rushed to put a cloak around her pajamas and scrambled out the door.

"Yuria?!" He called to her again, not quite reaching her past her hysteria. Childe quickly put on his clothes, shoes and cloak and followed in pursuit. He could barely see her silhouette as she dashed madly ahead.

Yuria ran. Forgetting about the man that she had obsessed over the past few weeks. Forgetting about their passionate escapade the past few hours. Ignoring the aching pain in her insides. She sprinted full force, her lungs working overtime as she gulped in the fresh air of the night, down the hotel stairs and past the lobby to see... her father... simply walking down the streets of Liyue Harbor.

He had aged since she last saw him when he pawned her off to the Okiya, but there was no way she wouldn't recognize that face. He was standing next to another woman, who was much younger than he was. He looked at her with such affection and love, that for a moment, she wondered if this truly was her father. She hadn't seen an expression like that on his face before. And he was holding a little girl, who also looked to be around eight years old, on his shoulders so she could better see the fireworks above. Treasuring her like he was the only thing that mattered to him in the world.

Yuria fell to the ground as her knees gave out. She could feel that her bare skin had scraped against the concrete, but she didn't care. The aching pain was nothing compared to the brewing storm within her heart.

"Yuria, sweetheart, whats wrong?" Childe asked worriedly as he tried to help her up.

She didn't hear him. Not a single word. She couldn't possibly hear him. All the memories came flooding in as she desperately clutched the ground.

Once upon a time, she had a family, too.

Yuria didn't remember her mother very well. But she remembered being happy... and loved. Her mother would hold her within her arms and sing of stories about the lore of great youkai that protected Inazuma, and her father would hold her hand as they explored those docks that she very much missed. But one day, her mother just disappeared. Her father became an absolute miserable excuse of a human being. First his business failed and tanked. He drowned his sorrows in alcohol. He gambled just to pass the time. He even began raising his hand at her at times.

Looking back on it, the telltale signs were there, but she didn't know just how shitty the world really was. She could only hide in the kitchen cabinets and pray for her mother and father to return to their old selves. But the archons never heard her prayers. Inazuma was a nation bound by ideals and customs. No one could intervene in 'family matters'... Thus, no one ever questioned the black and blue bruises on her body.