It certainly took me some time to fall down this rabbit hole…
Well… Genshin Impact. I'll admit that, at first, I couldn't think much of it simply because… well… it just wasn't hooking me at first. My opinion changed and, as of July 22nd this year, I've been playing the game. ...it's been a bit of a struggle with my laptop and I'm hoping to Arceus we get that stupid Switch version sometime soon.
The anniversary stuff was… a bit of a mess. The company really should've mentioned we'd be getting free gems first and then reveal the other stuff. Could've saved everyone a lot of problems. But, besides the point.
So, yeah, while this is very late… I did want to try and do something for the anniversary. And, well, here it is. So… I'll admit that I do honestly like Paimon. She's cute, silly, a bit funny, and while there may be some moments where she may be a bit annoying to me, I do honestly like her overall. Plus, try to think of the plot from the Traveler's perspective. They were alone for who knows how long, then they finally find somebody to be friends with. Sure, the emergency food joke does exist in-universe, but it's clearly just a tongue in cheek joke between the two.
Thus, came my inspiration for this one-shot. Just something short about the bond between the Traveler (in this case, and likely nearly every Genshin story I do, being Lumine) and Paimon.
Disclaimers: Genshin Impact belongs to Mihoyo.
Lumine let out a heavy sigh as she looked out at the ocean and sent out her fishing line. She focused her orange eyes at the body of water that was around her, then just tried to sit down comfortably in the sand. The blonde simply gently tapped the stick she had managed to convert into some sort of fishing handle, yet she kept her gaze fixed at the ocean as she awaited anything...
'...I'm so tired of fish… and I feel so sorry for them. But… I can't do much else…' Lumine thought as she simply continued to wait, 'I've been waiting for so long… but… Aether isn't anywhere. ...what should I do…?'
Suddenly, Lumine felt the line get pulled at. She quickly refocused her attention on the line, got up, took a few steps back, and then pulled on it as fast as she could. However, instead of a fish, what came out of the water looked almost human… only chibi. Lumine's eyes just looked on in confusion as she saw what she had fished up wasn't a fish in any capacity. The blonde just looked over the creature she had fished up in confusion, then she saw that the creature's hand had gotten stuck in the line she had used for the fishing stick. All Lumine could do was let out a small sigh as she looked over this…
The small creature was now sitting by a small fire with a leaf-like blanket wrapped around it. Lumine simply worked on maintaining the fire so that they could both stay warm, but her eyes remained fixed on the small creature as she observed its features a little more closely. The hairstyle and the little she could make out of the creature's eyes was eerily reminding her of the unknown god that had separated her from her brother and left her stranded in this unknown world, but the resemblance was only slight and the creature was still out like a light.
Lumine gently exhaled as she soon put a fish that she had managed to get next to the fire to try to start cooking it. She was about to start doing something else, when she saw the creature was starting to stir a little. The creature opened up its eyes and then looked around.
"...huh?" the creature mumbled before it saw the fire, the leafs around it… and started to panic, flying up into the air in a craze, "No~! Paimon isn't food! Please don't eat Paimon!"
Lumine's eyes widened in confusion as she saw the small creature, which turned out to be some sort of a fairy, flying around in shock and worry. She just stared for a little bit before jumping up and grabbing the fairy to try and hold it still.
"Don't eat Paimon! Paimon's begging you~!"
'...okay… can safely say the magic that lets me hear other languages is still working. That's convenient. ...let's see if the translation magic works the other way…' Lumine thought. She hesitantly exhaled before speaking.
"...huh? What did you say?"
'...well… that didn't work. Let's see…' Lumine thought before she got an idea. She quickly grabbed one of the sticks and simply wrote out 'hello' as best she could in the sand. The fairy, who's name seemed to be Paimon, did seem to understand. Lumine quickly followed it up by writing 'I won't eat you. I promise'.
"Oh… oh…" Paimon realized. She then nervously laughed a little before turning to Lumine, "...sorry for jumping to conclusions. But… what are you doing out here? Don't you have a family or a home to go to?"
Lumine simply turned away from the fairy, but the non-verbal communication did manage to get through as Paimon nervously winced in response.
"...Paimon's sorry. Um… where you from? I think I could try to help you find your family."
It had taken two months since then for Lumine to learn how to speak the language used on the world fluently enough for travel to finally be possible. Paimon had picked up some of the native language that Lumine knew in the meantime, but Lumine had managed to keep herself using the world's language decently well.
"And this, is the lodging!" Amber proclaimed as she showed off the lodges used by the Knights of Favonius.
"Wo~w…" Lumine gawked as she looked it over. She then walked over to a bed that was nearby and gently brushed her hand alongside it, "...a bed. It's been so long…"
Amber just gave a small look of confusion at Lumine, which made Paimon float over to her side.
"We've been camping out a lot," Paimon explained simply.
"O~h. Alright. Well, I'll leave you to get settled in, Lumine. Sleep well," Amber told the blonde before heading out.
Lumine just smiled happily and got into a comfortable position on the bed. Her smile kept up as she found the right spot for herself… and then she quickly grabbed Paimon.
"HEY~! What are you-?!"
"Good night, Paimon."
"Let Paimon go~!"
"...I don't want to be alone."
Paimon's eyes widened upon hearing that and she saw how Lumine seemed to grow a little nervous.
"It's just… I was alone for so long… and… I just want reassurance that I won't be alone…"
"...fine…" Paimon sighed, "Just… hold Paimon gently?"
"Promise."
It was now the evening and Lumine had dozed off, cuddling Paimon like a stuffed animal as she slept. Paimon let off a small sigh, but just accepted the cuddles as Lumine seemed to be sleeping peacefully at the time…
"Rise and shine…" Paimon called out.
Lumine's eyes slowly opened up and she looked to see that Paimon was still in her arms, which cause her to gently smile at the small fairy.
"...can you please let Paimon go now?"
"Oh, sorry," Lumine quickly apologized, letting the small fairy out of her hands, "...thank you, Paimon. I'm sorry about that, just-"
The fairy gave Lumine a motion to be quiet, which made the blonde stop speaking. Lumine looked at her for a moment, trying her best to be silent.
"If you want to do that again… please just say it to Paimon first and not grab Paimon. Ok?"
"Deal!"
Lumine and Paimon were soon traveling the next day, heading towards their next objective. Paimon soon observed Lumine's expression a little bit, having seen Lumine occasionally cry only to brush it off when prodded, as they went along and the fairy soon floated ahead of her.
"Hmm?"
"Lumine… can you promise Paimon something?"
"What's up?"
"Don't hide your sadness behind a laughing or smiling face. Just… promise?"
She took a moment to look at Paimon and then gave a gentle, genuine, smile at her, "Promise. After all, it was you who gave me this smile. I promise I'll try and smile for you."
Paimon simply gave her own content smile towards Lumine before they continued along…
The duo continued on traveling for a while, eventually soon needing to leave Mondstadt and arrive in Liyue. After events went down there, Lumine and Paimon were forced out of the harbor town and back to camping outside. Lumine simply let out a heavy sigh as she gently made sure the fire was going on for some food for herself and Paimon.
"...are you going to be ok?" Paimon asked.
"I thought I had terrible luck before, but… wasn't expecting that…" Lumine muttered to herself, gently taking out the food that she had finished. She handed some over to Paimon, then took some for herself. She let out a small sigh before starting to eat.
Paimon woke up upon hearing somebody grunting and mumbling. The small fairy gave off a small sigh, then floated upwards.
"Don't… leave me… no…"
She looked to see it was Lumine, who was tossing and turning in her sleep, clearly in the middle of a nightmare.
"Don't go… come back… please!" Lumine spoke, turning a bit more like she was trying to go after someone.
"Lumine, wake up! You're dreaming!" Paimon yelled, floating over to Lumine's side.
"No… Paimon… not you too… don't leave me!" Lumine nearly yelled, tears starting to flow from her still closed eyes, "I… I… I don't want to be alone!"
Paimon then rammed right into Lumine's forehead, which caused her eyes to open up, "Lumine! You were dreaming! Wake up, please!"
"...Paimon…?"
"Thank the Archons…" Paimon spoke before floating up to Lumine, "Are you okay? You sounded so scared..."
"...a really bad nightmare…" Lumine exhaled, "I… saw my brother. And… I tried to go after him, but… no matter how fast I ran… I… I… I couldn't catch up…"
The fairy could see the tears were starting to form in Lumine's eyes and floated closer.
"Then… everybody was leaving me… and…" Lumine spoke as the tears started flowing from her eyes, "I don't want to be alone!"
Lumine simply sobbed, with Paimon soon hugging her arm to try to comfort her in spite of the size difference. The tears continued to flow from Lumine's eyes as the thought of losing the people around her kept replaying in her mind.
"...Paimon won't leave you."
"...huh?"
"Paimon's your traveling buddy. And Paimon promises that, no matter what, Paimon will stick with you until you can finally meet your brother again," Paimon said with a compassionate smile.
"...you promise?"
"For real."
Lumine smiled and then gently hugged her companion, with a few tears dripping down from her face. She took a moment to wipe them off before smiling at Paimon, "...thank you. Thank you so much."
The two simply remained hugging for a bit longer before Lumine fell asleep, Paimon still in her arms. The small fairy just gave a fond smile towards Lumine and just got comfortable in her grasp.
Yeah, the scene with Lumine and Paimon about smiling a real smile was inspired by how their Chinese VAs sung that "Hikaru Nara" song. Gotta say… that's pretty impressive Japanese for people who don't natively speak it. Also, I will say, that scene was originally written after the last scene, but I decided to push it up because I liked the scene of the two gently hugging after Lumine wakes up from her nightmare.
Speaking of, that last moment with the two having a tender hug… I really thought that was a sweet moment. I just enjoy sweet and cute stuff, so this was just nice to do.
Apart from that… not much else to say. I do have other Genshin Impact stuff being cooked up, but I'll leave those announcements for another time. Hope that you enjoyed this late anniversary present.
Just Live More.