Any sign that Furina had been disappointed at their slight change of plans was nowhere to be found on her face as she insisted they find greater heights to demonstrate her newfound enjoyment of wind gliding.
Aether was glad to hear that she had been keeping herself busy over the past few days while he had finished helping Freminet and Zuria with the picture book. When he and Paimon arrived at her apartment, Furina announced she wanted to venture outside the main city, rattling off a list of things to do across the nation that she was interested in. Furina seemed to have her mind set on going somewhere he hadn't been such as the Erinnyes Forest which she felt confident he hadn't been yet.
He was sure she probably knew about a number of places he wasn't aware of in the forest but upon recalling that he had seen rifthounds in the area, he shot down the idea. Hilichurls and treasure hoarders would be common occurrences wherever they went and, even though Furina had no combat experience, he could at least use Geo to keep her safe if they found any trouble. There hadn't been many rifthounds from what he saw but he couldn't be sure more wouldn't appear and not even a shield would protect Furina against them.
Suspecting that the last thing Furina wanted to feel like was a burden, he instead suggested exploring the Morte Region, saying they hadn't done much adventuring there yet. Furina eventually gave a dramatic sigh and claimed that she would allow a change of plans this time. Looking back on the conversation, Aether thought that she didn't really look or seem that disappointed at the time.
Furina had been quick to start dragging them to the aquabus station so they could head off right away until he offered to take them there on the waverider. Clearly intrigued, Furina was more than happy to agree to make yet another change to her plans. She'd declined the offer to learn how to pilot it herself after some flustered stammering that eventually turned into a declaration that he was doing such a fine job that she didn't want to take it away from him. Though he hadn't responded with anything other than a smirk, Aether was proud to see Furina coming out of her shell more with her displaying some of the bravado he had previously known her for.
As part of their travels, Furina was all too eager to help out with finding a solution to a puzzle using an Operable Mechanism a short way to the south of Lumidouce Harbour. The wind current that suddenly sprung up drew her attention, wondering if it was supposed to be some sort of reward for their success in solving whatever puzzle they had stumbled upon. Once Aether had used it to survey the area, he'd returned to find Furina transfixed at seeing a wind glider in action.
Similarly to offering to show her how to pilot the waverider, she'd declined at first, eventually relenting when he and Paimon kept pointing out that she looked far more excited than she was claiming to be.
A few demonstrations from the rocks on the nearby beach and some teaching of the basics later and Furina seemed more confident in at least trying it out. It may have also helped once he had assured her that he would pass on everything he had learned from Mondstadt's Gliding Champion, showing her the Gliding Instruction Manual Amber had given him so long ago.
It had taken her some time to mentally prepare herself for her first attempt but when she finally did, Aether felt he would never forget the look of sheer elation on Furina's face when she landed. Her deployment of the glider could have been better and her hesitation had affected her overall balance but she looked like she had had the time of her life and she was all too eager to try again.
A few attempts and practice runs from the rocks on the nearby beach later and Furina had gotten the hang of deploying the glider and keeping her balance. Her joy quickly escalated with each successful glide and he felt that at the rate she was going, it wouldn't be long until she wanted to glide from the top of Mont Automnequi.
Perhaps that would come in time once she had some more stamina and worked on her climbing ability, Aether thought to himself. At this point of his journey in Teyvat, gliding was second nature to him and he truly looked forward to seeing Furina experience the freedom it offered.
"Aether? Aether!" Paimon called, waving her arms right in front of his face. "If you're done spacing out, were you keeping count of how many times Furina's been gliding from there? She's gonna fall out of the sky exhausted at some point."
"Ehh, she's pretty good at it and she's enjoying herself," Aether shrugged. "She's been coming to terms with her freedom and she's probably loving the more literal freedom of gliding."
"Makes sense. That probably explains why she's got so much energy or maybe it's because of the sugar from all the sweets and cakes she eats."
"Wouldn't that mean you should always be super energetic yourself rather than napping most of the time?"
"Hey, Paimon told you it's hard work to keep floating all time!"
"Ahem." Aether and Paimon turned to face a pouting Furina. Her arms were firmly crossed and she was tapping her foot. "You weren't watching. What would you have done if, by some terrible stroke of luck, I was taken by the wind and fell in the water?"
Aether chuckled nervously. "Sorry, we were just talking about how well you're doing if that's any consolation."
"Yeah." Paimon nodded. "Besides it wouldn't have been that big of a deal. You could just swim back to shore."
Furina looked unimpressed, her eyes narrowing. Paimon gasped and covered her mouth.
"Wait, don't tell me you can't swim."
"Of course I can but that's beside the point!"
"Anyway," Aether gestured for Paimon to keep quiet as Furina muttered about how ridiculous the notion of her of all people not being able to swim was. "I was keeping a close eye on you when you first started in case something went wrong. With how you're doing now, you wouldn't have been in any real danger but if you fell from the air at any point, I'd have caught you."
He watched as Furina opened her mouth to respond only to immediately stop when her eyes widened and face turned red. She started stammering when she noticed him and Paimon looking at her.
"Y-yes, well, I- That's to be expected of course, ahaha." In an attempt to make herself appear less flustered, she brushed some sand from her clothes. "As you introduced me to a potentially dangerous activity, it's only fitting that you ensure my safety at all times… i-including catching me if I were to fall."
Aether laughed to himself as Furina continued on. Though her habit of claiming her true feelings were all actually part of an act would rear its head on occasion, he could tell she at least wasn't feeling like doing so ate away at her anymore. The fact that Furina was regularly spending time with them was good for her and showed how she was beginning to grow into her own person separate from her archon persona. With the way she had always carried herself before, it wasn't surprising that others would feel a considerable distance between themselves and a god.
He imagined she would respond to questions about her perceived strange behaviour as mortals not being able to comprehend the mind and whims of the divine.
As much as he'd have liked to tease Furina for her reaction, he felt he didn't have the heart to do so since she looked to have dug herself deeper into the hole she had made with her comments. Paimon was giggling to herself as Furina insisted her telling them they weren't watching her had no deeper significance to it.
"Alright, we'll leave it there for now," Aether said, trying to dispel Furina's continued embarrassment. "If you're happy to go gliding again, we can find somewhere else to practise."
"Oh, well, I've enjoyed myself so I'd be interested in continuing another time," Furina coughed into her fist. "Perhaps I'll take this time to rest a little. Whatever energy I had left seems to have disappeared after all this standing around."
After helping Furina take the glider off, they sat looking out over the water at Lumidouce Harbour in the distance. Furina seemed content sit in silence for a while watching the boats coming to and from the harbour.
"Thank you for giving me this opportunity," Furina smiled softly. "This isn't really the kind of thing I'd have given any thought to trying before. "
"Gliding's not exactly the most common pastime to be fair," Aether replied. "It was pure coincidence that one of the first people we met in Teyvat happened to be at expert at it."
Furina hummed in response and fiddled with a strand of hair. "It's a little embarrassing isn't it? After all the years of being an archon, I'm still learning how to get by as regular citizen of Fontaine and being shown these new experiences by someone who hasn't even been here that long all things considered. I'm probably making all kinds of mistakes that seem obvious to you."
"Hey, don't beat yourself up, Furina," Paimon flew in front of her. "There's all sorts of different and weird stuff that we've run into all over Teyvat. And don't think Aether's some pro at everything either. Paimon thinks he'd have got lost on the way to Mondstadt if he didn't find Paimon."
Aether rolled his eyes. "Not that I'm ungrateful but let's not pretend it was that hard to get to the city from where I fished you out of the water."
"He found you when he was fishing?" Furina raised an eyebrow. "Strange, I didn't picture you coming from the sea."
"Hey, Paimon's not some fish! Paimon just ended up there somehow!"
He chose to refrain from prodding further and adding that, before he realised Paimon was on the end of his line, he thought he'd wouldn't have had to worry about catching anything else for a while based on the weight of the supposed fish he had caught.
It occurred to him though that they hadn't found anything about Paimon's origins since their journey began. He was sure they would find something eventually but for the time being, his travel companion appeared happy enough to continue following him to new lands.
"Well, I'm glad you at least have some company while you're here." Furina leaned back and looked up at the sky. "I'm surprised you only met after you came to Teyvat though. Given how inseparable you seem, I had this picture in my head of you two travelling to different worlds together and this was just your next stop in your journey."
Aether paused at her words. In the corner of his vision, he could see Paimon unsure of whether to respond to Furina when it was clear there was a change in his demeanour. He eventually sighed and simply gazed into the distance.
"Aether?" Furina said gently. "Did I say something wrong? I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
Aether shook his head and offered a faint smile. "It's not your fault, Furina. I never mentioned anything about my sister to you."
He sighed again. Furina's eyes softened.
"You pretty much described me and my sister when we arrived here… except we got separated and she's… on a different path now."
There wasn't any way for Furina to have known about Lumine and he knew her words were innocent. Still, they served as a reminder that it had been so long since he had woken up after they had been separated and not much longer than that since he had seen her in person.
As much as he wanted to reunite with Lumine as soon as he could, after his initial experience in Inazuma he knew he couldn't just stand idly by while the people of each nation suffered. He owed it to everyone he had met along the way who helped him get to where he was now including reaching out to Ei, rescuing Nahida and giving Furina her freedom.
Compared to where he had been so far, there were only two more nations left for him to travel to and yet Lumine always felt so far out of reach.
She had said she would still be waiting for him when he discovered the truth but he couldn't help but wonder what she was doing whenever he thought about her. His meetings with Dainsleif had shown some glimpses of what she had experienced in the past though he still had so many unanswered questions.
It was still hard at times to acknowledge that this was the longest he had spent separated from Lumine but it was at least not affecting him as badly as the aftermath of their first encounter.
He fought the urge to sigh again. Furina hadn't meant any harm in what she said but he imagined she still felt guilty about unintentionally bringing up painful memories for him.
"It's alright Furina. You didn't have any way of knowing about her so I'm not mad at you or anything," he said. "I know I'll find her again but being separated from her is still a sore spot but I suppose at this point I'm getting used to-"
"No, don't say that!" Furina cut him off, taking him by surprise. "Please, I don't want to hear you say you're getting used to it."
The look in her eyes left him unable to respond. Reflected in her eyes was a pain she knew all too well.
"I thought that that's all I had to do until I got some sign that Fontaine would be saved from the prophecy." She turned away, her eyes downcast. "But the longer it took, the more I realised there was nothing I could do but carry on as I always had. Eventually I was telling myself that every day, then the days turned into weeks, months and …"
Though she trailed off with Aether fully understanding what she was referring to, Furina still looked like she wanted to say more, opening and closing her mouth as she tried to put her thoughts into words. She eventually shifted, turning towards him with her knees tucked under her.
Unsure of what she was intending, he turned to face her as well. "Furina-"
He lightly jolted when he felt himself being pulled into an awkward embrace.
"I- I just don't want you to end up like me," she said quietly. "You did this for me before so I…" She stopped herself and he felt her arms begin to loosen at his lack of reaction. "Should I stop?"
Aether placed a hand on her arm to reassure her. "This is fine."
He shifted his position to return the embrace causing Furina to yelp slightly as he drew her in. While she initially tensed up, he felt her arms adjust to a more comfortable position and relax into his hold moments later.
Aether closed his eyes and smiled. Perhaps she just wanted to make him feel better after what she believed was her mistake or she could have been recalling her own loneliness and wanted to make him feel less alone in the world. Either way, it didn't matter and he was content to just enjoy the comfort the hug brought.
They separated with Furina hiding her presumably glowing red face, taking a moment to recompose herself.
"Thanks Furina, I really appreciated that," Aether said.
"Aww, that was really sweet, Furina," Paimon flew closer and patted Furina on the back. "Paimon didn't want to interrupt but you don't have to worry about Aether. Paimon's gonna be there every step of the way and he's not gonna hear the end of it if he keeps things from Paimon."
"I don't doubt it," Aether chuckled. "It's not like we don't have any leads on Lumine either. I know she's out there waiting for me, I just need to keep going."
"Well, good," Furina stopped covering her face and straightened out her clothes. "You've met so many people and done countless good things for them, any one of them would be willing to help you if you needed someone to talk to and while you're here in Fontaine," she fidgeted with her hands. "You know you can… talk to me if you wanted."
Aether smiled warmly in response. He reached out, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. He felt Furina jump at the contact.
"I-I might not be the first person you'd want to go to a-and it probably doesn't mean much coming from me-."
"Aww, come on, give yourself some credit, Furina," Paimon giggled.
"Yeah, I'm with Paimon, you're really selling yourself short." Aether nodded, leaning forward. "I'm glad you're someone I can rely on Furina."
Furina shuffled in place, a shy smile on her face.
He didn't think he could have felt more grateful for Furina's words. All things considered, it hadn't been that long since he had gotten to know the Furina free from her role as archon and yet he could feel her sincerity and how earnestly she wanted to offer her support. Their circumstances were different but Furina was all too familiar with being alone. Even though she was still healing from her own experience, she wanted to be sure that he didn't have to go through what she did.
"Thanks," Furina said. "I don't know what else I can do for you as I am now but I'll be there for you if you want me to be."
"And that's more than enough in my eyes," Aether replied, standing and dusting himself off. "Should we start to head back? We can head out another time and find somewhere else for you to practice gliding again."
"Let's," Furina agreed.