Authors note: Thank you so much for reading this fic! Here's chapter 4!

disclaimer: I don't own Genshin Impact nor it's characters nor story they are intellectual property and works of MiHoYo, Shanghai Miha Touring Film Technology Co., Ltd.

Ch 04 Innocence

Childe noticed that Lumine was fast asleep, he couldn't help himself but to smile at the sleeping blonde

"Wow you really can't hold your liquor huh, girlie?" He stared at the blonde young woman that was sleeping next to him, she looked so calm and peaceful. He was admiring her beauty "Oh Lumine if you only knew how I really feel about you, but I am sure you do not have time for such things. Specially not after what happened to him..."

Without trying to wake her, he proceeds to caress her hair then slowly but steady begins to caress her face, just as he was about to kiss her forehead the vehicle stops abruptly making him bump in to the sleeping blonde.

"Oww! Wtf?! That hurt, what's your problem?!" Said Lumine as she was startled by the sudden bump

Childe apologized "I am sorry comrade... Wtf Igor!? why did you stop?"

Nervous and fearful he responds "Apologies sir! there's a storm coming up and it's harder to see the road and somehow one of the tires got damaged…"

Annoyed by his answer Childe simply replies with cold tone "Right… You are in charge of midnight guard duty on seventh district from now on"

Startled by the words that left the redheads lips he right away retorts "BUT SIR! Pleasee no anything but that"

Childe scoffs and raises his eyebrow "Oh? you're questioning my orders? Interesting..."

"No sir! not a all sir! Guard duty it is…" He sighed as he continued "Sir... We can't move with this thick snow storm. Also our tire is damaged it would be quite dangerous to continue" Said Igor worryingly "Miss Sylvana is probably worried about you"

Lumine became curious "Who is that?" she then teased the redhead "Oh is she your girlfriend?" as she elbowed him

"WHAT? No! she is my older sister and the current Matriarch of our family, I told her plenty about you along with Tonia and Anthon. Even Teucer was hyping you up with the rest of the family, so they are probably more worried about you than me" he said jokingly, he then noticed the terrible snowstorm outside "This storm isn't really letting us through huh, girlie?"

Lumine with an annoyed look on her face "I told you we shouldn't have taken so long at the restaurant, or maybe we should have left with Paimon and miss Ekaterina."

Childe was visibly hurt by the blonde girl's comment but trying his best not to show it he fakes a smile "Hey! come on comrade, am I that horrible that you loathe being stuck with me?"

Lumine stares and rolls her eyes "You know it's not that, quit playing the victim, everyone must be worried about us..."

Igor worried said "Sir, me and Mishka are going to the nearest rest area to seek some help"

The redhead right away put a stop to that "No you idiots might get lost and probably face an unnecessary death, can't have my dogs getting lost in the snow. Me and the honorary knight will go find some help, in case the storm subsides please return to the base"

Mishka right away said "But sir what if her majesty The Tsaritsa asks where you are? What if Lord Olezka asks for you?"

Childe laughs "They can simply call me" he shows his communication device to his subordinates he then continues "must I remind you that I am your superior and you must do what I ask? Or do you want Scaramouche as your boss instead?"

Igor and Mishka replied in unison "NO SIR NO ANYTHING BUT THAT PLEASE!"

Mishka then continued "we will take double turns guarding the seventh district anything is better than that please... Master Scaramouche is a terrible man he will torture us... He really has no mercy whatsoever"

Then Igor followed "I really don't want to think about what happened to young Sacha the poor boy wasn't the same after serving under Master Scaramouche..."

The young man with the icy blue eyes smiles "That's what I thought, come on Lumine let's go"

Lumine unsure of where they were going she simply replied "Right..."

They both got out of the car and started walking little by little the car started disappearing. As they continued walking the storm was heavier and it was getting darker.

"I forgot to mention that Spokane, the village where my family resides is far from the main districts" he then laughs nervously "Man... I guess we should have stayed at the hotel back in the city.."

Lumine annoyed by his statement "NOW YOU'RE TELLING ME THIS? I can't believe this, so you're telling me that we might probably die out here?"

Tartaglia laughed "Come on girlie, have you no faith in me?"

Just as Lumine was about to respond he interrupts and says nervously "Please don't answer!"

Lumine chuckled a bit and was thinking to herself ("I've been in Dragonspine for a few missions and camped a times there with Albedo and Sucrose. I am sure this place can't be that bad")

"Hey girlie? you okay?" Childe asks

"Yeah, I am fine..." she said, she then noticed they were a few steps away from the rest area but she noticed the place was pretty run-down "it kinda looks abandoned" she said quietly

"Oh crap.." Childe said "Damn it you're right this is an abandoned rest area... and actually" he looks at a sign on the floor near the rest area that says "condemned" in Snezhnayan, he thought to himself ("We really are stuck here...") while smiling but trying his best for Lumine not to notice.

His communicator started shining, he said "I gotta take this, be right back"

Lumine replied "Right I'll just stay right here"

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She then sat down in a bench she started thinking about Aether and how much he hated the snow, she smiled and remembered one time when they were in a distant land that was filled with snow she will throw snowballs at him while he simply ran trying to get away.

"Oh brother you were never the fighter... I remember when we went to this other world and you prevented a war by talking, you would try anything to avoid conflict... But that dreaded day... When we had to face her... You pleaded me not to go to that wretched place, but my stupidity and my pride is what led you to your death, in a sense..."

Tears started forming in her eyes

"My sweet brother... It's all my fault... But I wonder, what pushed you to such extreme to join them in the first place? When I saw you again your eyes... They were so dead and empty. No matter how much I pleaded to come with me so we could leave this world, you simply turned your back on me and left with that Abyss Herald. Aether why... I miss you so much..."

She then got an item out of her bag, it was Aether's earing "I remember picking this up for your birthday, You really loved it and said that it would be your lucky charm and.." she grabbed the flower accessory she had on her hair "You gave me this and I said this would be my lucky charm as well...We promised each other to never take them off and in case we were ever separated those things will remind us of each other in case we ever lost our way...

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He continued to walk away so Lumine didn't hear the call in case it was something Fatui related, he answered "Hello?"

the other voice said "Master Tartaglia, Adrik has arrived and is helping us. He brought the towing truck and is taking us back to the base, we are on our way to pick you and the honorary knight up"

Tartaglia said "That wont be necessary..." as he smiled

"You guys go back to the base but do me a favor tell Olezka and Sylvana to tell the family that me and girlie are on an important mission, we will see them tomorrow"

"what kind of missio-..." Mishka then got the hint "Oh... Understood sir!"

He pressed the blue marble and headed towards Lumine he noticed she was pensive and distracted he thought to himself ("She is probably thinking about him... I wish I could find something to distract her, I'll think of something")

he said to Lumine "Bad news girlie... Looks like were going to be stuck here until the snow storm ceases"

"WHAT?!" The blonde responded "Are you kidding me? Ugh well... we need to find a place for shelter while the storm dies down"

Childe responded "gotcha, let's look around I am sure there must be somewhere we can reside"

They started walking looking around the abandoned rest area, most of the buildings were missing parts of walls and others had no roof. The place looked very dreary, they kept walking, Lumine wondered "I wonder what happened to this place?" Tartaglia a bit hesitant, he replied "You see girlie, there's still some people in Schneznaya that opose The Tsartisa's will and it usually ends like this" He then picks up a piece of paper, that looked like some sort of propaganda against The Tsaritsa, he says to himself ("Just as I suspected...") he shows Lumine the paper "See... This is the reason why this place looks so run-down and destroyed. This was probably a hide out of the Belaya-Volna th-"

Lumine interrupted "Who's that?"

Tartaglia smiled and conitnued "they are a rebellion group that has been trying to undermine The Fatui and her majesty The Tsaritsa. We have taken down a few of their hideouts but they are still far and wide but their numbers are low, sooner or later they will give up and subcumb to us"

Lumine looked sadened "If there's a rebelion it must mean that not everything is fine here..."

The redhead replied "Not necessarily comrade... Those are just a few bad apples"

She observed that sometimes Tartaglia would responded as if he was somehow brainwashed or as if he was reading something out of a dialogue, which made her worry for her redheaded friend, she then noticed something "Childe! Look over there" she pointed "There's a small lodge cabin, lets check it out maybe we could stay there while the storm dies down"

The redhead with a huge smile on his face said "Good idea comrade! hopefully it's in good condition or at least good enough to just stay the night" as they both headed towards the cabin

a/n: that's it for now! till next time!