#chilyney

wips!!!

After fighting the Abyssal whale and fending off Fontaine's crisis, Childe is sent back home to his family to recover from his grievous injuries. There's only one problem: he left his Vision behind. With the Traveler in Natlan and Father busy with Fontaine's reconstruction, it's up to Lyney to return the Vision to its rightful owner– and maybe get to know the Harbinger a little better during his stay.

thank you @shadows-aflame for the tag !! i've barely worked on who was i to you since the last update oops so here's something from the untitled chilyney fic

premise is that after the fontaine abyss disaster, childe is sent back to his hometown to recover. lyney is sent to return childe's vision to him. childe insists he stay the night before the long journey back to fontaine.

Despite Teucer’s relayed threats, Childe’s mother wasn’t awake to scold him when he and Lyney tiptoed into the living room. Perhaps in the light of day she’d been furious, just as Teucer had said; right now, though, in the dwindling flame of the hearth, she just seemed exhausted. Seeing her hunched in the rocking chair, the orange hue of the embers camouflaging her gray hairs, the lines on her face smoothed from sleep– Lyney got the uncanny feeling that he was looking into a vision of Childe’s future.  He was being ridiculous of course. It was already jarring enough that the most violent of the Harbingers had come from a place so domestic.  Childe held a finger to his lips as he reached for Lyney’s wrist, motioning for silence. They tip-toed past his old, sleeping mother into the kitchen, and Lyney couldn’t help but glance between the pair, searching for the rift that invariably opens between mothers and sons, eager to swallow them whole. 

no tags this week lmfao i just got too excited bc i've been cooking today and im nosy about everyone else

chilyney eating my brain again (lyney returns childe's vision to him post-fontaine, childe invites him for dinner and to stay the night before returning home)

“What’s on the menu for tomorrow?” “That depends. What do you like to eat?” Lyney waved a hand as he drank the last of his soup. “I couldn’t possibly impose on you any longer–” “And I couldn’t let you leave my home empty-handed.” He glanced at the door to the living room, where Lyney could still hear the creak of the old rocking chair. Almost sheepishly, Childe shrank back slightly, cheeks turning the faintest pink. “Ma will have my hide if I let a guest leave without food for the journey. She has enough to worry about without thinking that the military made me into an ill-mannered brat.”  Lyney leaned back, scanning Childe up and down for the trick, the tell, the giveaway that he was being fooled and this was all an elaborate joke. This was the bloodthirstiest Harbinger? The Tsaritsa’s sword, her rabid dog? Childe’s eyes bore into him earnestly despite their dull, jaded sheen, and he was tensed ever so slightly, fingers gripping the counter as if to keep them from fidgeting. Sweat beaded at his neck– he’d shed his sweaters and his shirt had one button undone, hinting at the bruising and bandages beneath, but his skin was still meticulously covered; he was dressed far too warmly to be working by the stove. With a start, it occurred to Lyney that he was hiding the damage from his family even now, when the kids had long ago been sent to sleep.  For all the cockiness at his trial, for the brazenness with which he’d defied Neuvillette, for the energy and joy and resilience he’d shown against the Abyssal whale– the Childe before him seemed so small. Simple, even. He, like Lyney himself, was barely a man with boyhood clinging to him in tattered scraps, like clothes he’d grown out of too quickly.  He loved his Ma. He cared for his siblings. There was no trick to it Lyney could see, with his trained magician’s eyes, nor was there one he could feel, with his own desperate heart.  “All right,” Lyney said, and the tension escaped Childe with a silent sigh. “I’m partial to anything with fish.” It was perfect, too perfect with Morespoke being a fishing town, but if Childe noticed, he didn’t care. Besides, it was the truth.  “I know just what we’ll do.”