Or rather, she hadn't really slept much that night; after Aether sent her back to her room, she opened her eyes before dawn.
She had originally intended to come out to check on Aether, but unexpectedly, she found nothing.
Aether was not in the room, so she decided to go downstairs to look for him. But just as she reached the staircase, she saw a very interesting scene…
Lumine's lips curved into a slight smile. She watched the living room downstairs without blinking, and her heart began to fill with anticipation.
From the moment it started, the atmosphere between the two of them had gradually begun to feel a little off.
She didn't know what they had said to each other. At first, they seemed to maintain their distance, but as time passed, their distance began to shrink.
So much so that now, they were sitting together, looking at each other.
Lumine knew Aether wouldn't be able to resist making a move on Fischl. Although he had spoken so righteously last night, Lumine trusted her instincts more.
Now, it seemed, things were indeed as she had thought.
The only regrettable thing was that from upstairs, she couldn't hear the two of them whispering, only roughly guess their conversation from their actions.
At first, it seemed Aether directly brought up the matter of that night to Fischl, and Fischl's expression at the time looked both shy and flustered.
After Aether cleared things up, only shyness remained on Fischl's face.
The content of the later conversation was a bit harder to guess. Fischl seemed to have asked Aether a question, and then Aether's expression suddenly became very embarrassed.
…
"Oh, it's so frustrating! What is Aether hesitating about? Hurry up and make a move!" Lumine had been sitting on the stairs for a long time, but the thing she was looking forward to still hadn't happened, which really disappointed her.
At least from her perspective, Fischl had hinted very clearly, seemingly just needing to close her eyes and raise her head, waiting for Aether's kiss.
But Aether was hesitating, that look of wanting to make a move but not daring to, made Lumine very anxious to watch.
This was somewhat unlike Aether. According to his physique, shouldn't he have directly pinned Fischl onto the sofa as soon as she leaned in, and immediately proceed with a private, intimate moment?
Why was Aether so restrained this time?
Just as Lumine was thinking about whether she should try to give them a push, the door to the second-floor corridor behind her suddenly opened.
"Huh? Lumine, you're here. I was wondering why I didn't see you when I woke up…" Paimon rubbed his eyes and slowly floated in front of Lumine.
However, he hadn't fully opened his eyes when he felt a gust of wind, and then he was directly pulled into Lumine's embrace.
"Huh?! W-what are you doing, Lumine?"
"Why are you up so early, Paimon? Go back to sleep for a bit," Lumine pulled Paimon and continued walking towards her room.
"Ah? But, but aren't we going back to Mondstadt City today…"
"No rush, no rush. It's all the same whenever we go back," Lumine said, directly pulling open the room door, placing Paimon on the bed, and even considerately covering him with the blanket.
"R-really?" Paimon hadn't really woken up yet. Seeing Lumine like this, although he felt a bit strange, he still obediently lay down.
"It's fine. Sleeping a bit more will give you energy for today's activities. You sleep a bit more, and I'll go prepare breakfast for you. I'll come call you when it's ready," Lumine showed Paimon a smile, then slowly got up and left the room.
"Alright," Paimon watched Lumine leave, then closed his eyes again.
Indeed, he woke up a bit early today. He should sleep a bit more.
-----
"…" Aether noticed the sound from upstairs just now.
Or rather, he had noticed the gaze from the second floor much earlier, but he didn't point it out to Fischl.
Although Lumine's voice was very soft and she didn't expose herself, she was, after all, someone with whom he had an intimate relationship, so it was relatively easy for Aether to sense her.
It was precisely because of this that he didn't make any move when Fischl leaned in, or rather, he was trying his best to maintain restraint.
After all, making a move on a pure Damselette under Lumine's gaze was a bit too difficult.
But that sound just now, Lumine seemed to have left…
Aether's carefully controlled impulse, because of this, gradually became uncontrollable.
"Fischl, maybe we, we shouldn't be sitting so close," Aether came back to his senses, looking at Fischl sitting in front of him, feeling a dry mouth and throat.
"Why?" Fischl said softly, looking at Aether without blinking.
"B-because…" Aether was momentarily at a loss for how to answer.
Fischl had just told him about her troubles.
Aether could see that Fischl had gathered her courage with great difficulty to speak to him.
She had revealed the reason why she hadn't been sleeping well these past two days.
Why would she be willing to tell Aether such an embarrassing thing? One must know that Aether was the protagonist in her dreams, and according to most people's thoughts, they would be too shy to speak of it.
But, the situation was different now, after all.
On one hand, it was because only the two of them were present. Aether had already spoken openly with Fischl about what happened that night, so Fischl didn't feel such a heavy burden talking about it.
On the other hand, it was the current incident they were trying to resolve.
Yes, Fischl believed that her having such dreams might be related to her previous contact with the meteorite. Although she couldn't provide concrete evidence, and she hadn't fallen into a coma like others who touched the meteorite…
But what if it was a special situation?
At the very least, it could now be proven that being affected by the meteorite could cause strange dreams.
Fischl's making such a guess was understandable.
But Aether knew that this had nothing to do with the meteorite; it was entirely because Fischl had been affected by his physique.
Simply put, she had already been charmed by him.
The solution… there shouldn't be one.
No, to be precise, there was no solution other than having an intimate moment with him.
Aether had previously thought that perhaps if he just kept some distance for a while, she wouldn't continue to be affected by his physique, and then after some time, she would completely calm down…
Later, Rosaria's incident proved that his idea was completely wrong.
Because Rosaria, after being charmed by him, had left him for a period of time. Although they met occasionally, they never had a prolonged conversation.
At the time, he even thought Rosaria was one of the rare people who wouldn't be affected by his physique.
But then Rosaria ended up tracking them all the way to Dragonspine and, when Aether was unprepared, directly resorted to forceful means.
Rosaria said it herself, that he was like some addictive poison, and once you were stained by it, there was no other outcome. The further you stayed away, the more intense that indescribable, uncomfortable feeling became.
Only after an intimate encounter would that feeling disappear. Rosaria at the time felt completely refreshed and comfortable.
Of course, this might also be closely related to a person's personality, physique, age, experience, etc. Everyone might not be the same.
But Fischl… Aether couldn't help but glance at her, whose eyes had already become somewhat glazed.
Given the current situation, if they maintained their distance, he felt that she might not be able to endure the withdrawal symptoms.
Perhaps it would be better to…
Aether swallowed, and slowly leaned closer to Fischl.
Fischl also seemed to know what Aether was about to do, and slowly closed her eyes.
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