Note: A direct followup to Vignette 1 - First Date, Childe and Lumine's relationship continues in their soft, quiet fashion.
School Drop-off
Childe had quickly settled into a new routine. Every morning he arrived in his modified sports car in front of her house, and spent five minutes talking with auntie Paimon, the diminutive lady was always happy to see him and would spend all of her time fawning over his experiences and stories. Only when he had driven Lumine to school, would he go to his own, to make a cursory appearance; after all his reputation as a delinquent needed to be kept up.
It was no different today. As he got out of the car, auntie Paimon was already at the door, on one hand calling out for Lumine, on the other floating up to him with her characteristic teasing smile. "So you handsome-boy, where are you taking my beautiful niece today?"
Mentally prepared for the verbal sparring after weeks of being teased, Childe merely grinned in that special way that always annoyed Lumine, but seemingly worked on others, "Well auntie, today I am going to take Lumine to school, on time, and make sure that she gets to her classes on time so that she can have a great education and a future where she does not need to depend on a delinquent like myself."
Before Paimon could respond Lumine appeared at the front door with a smile, and a dangerous look which he took to mean that he should remain quiet; one that he acquiesced to with a smile.
"Auntie, breakfast is on the table." Almost immediately, the grilling was done, and the older woman was gone, probably to devour the breakfast that Lumine had painstakingly made for her. Though that image was on his mind only for the few moments it took his girl to walk down to him, resting her hand in his with that smile that she knew always drove him crazy.
Sitting outside the school in his car, he always arrived at the most difficult part of the morning. From the way she was leaning on his shoulder he knew that she too, did not really want to leave, sharing his own desire for the two of them to stay together; yet even as a delinquent, he would not allow their relationship to harm her future. With a soft sigh, he gently brushed a strand of her golden hair out of her face and smiled at her pout, she knew what he was about to say, how could she not? He said almost the same thing every morning.
"I am proud of you, my firefly, for working so hard every day, for accepting nothing but perfection both in your classes and in your club activities. I will be right here waiting for you after school, like I do every day."
For a moment his own sadness was shared in the wetness of her eyes and the tenderness across her features, before it was gone in an instant, and her brave face reappeared. He really did not know which he liked better, the tenderness that she only showed him, … or the determined one that she wore when she beat him with her sword.