"Uh... Childe? I think you're taking this a little too seriously." I told him nervously, as he switched into his activated delusion form.
"You said you wanted to spar, right comrade? Then have at it, I won't hold back!" His response sounded... off. As if he couldn't care less about my feelings.
In case of emergency, I gripped my weapon tightly and gulped.
"You're serious...?"
"Dead serious. Maybe even Foul Legacy serious, if you're not dead by then." Childe smirked and threw a few attacks at me.
"C-Childe! Calm down, you know I haven't trained this much yet!"
I barely dodged the last hit, and one last blow from his delusion sent me flying back into a wall.
"Then maybe it's time you practice for these things, Y/N. How'd you think I got into the Fatui, hm?"
After hitting my head on the wall, I fell on to the cold, hard ground below me and groaned.
My head was spinning, but with my vision I managed to hurt him... though not as much as he'd already hurt me.
I hid my face with my arms as I prepared for the pain.
It hit me and it hurt so badly that I could barely feel my arms.
"Childe... please, stop..."
Ignoring my pleading, Childe chuckled and watched me struggle to keep conscious.
"I think it's time for the next level, don't you?"
I knew the 'next level' basically meant my own death bed.
As he transformed into Foul Legacy, the floor that I was helplessly laying on started to crack.
He somehow flew up in the air, but I couldn't do that. I was going to hit the ground, and hard.
"I'm begging you..." I started, giving him a teary look and exhaling. "please don't do this..."
I couldn't even hear my own voice, the floor rapidly broke.
I glanced down and saw a mighty drop underneath me.
"I'm just gonna die." I mumbled, sniffing. "There's no way I'm going to survive that fall."
I squeezed my eyes shut as the piece of ground below me cracked. My stomach dropped as my body was quickly nearing death.
The only thing I could think about was the pain, I didn't want it to hurt.
But just as I was about to hit the floor, a strong grip caught me.
"Fuck, fuck! I'm so so sorry, comrade. My mind is so foggy, I'm- I think someone must have... I-I don't know.."
I opened my eyes and saw Childe, just transforming back to his normal, delusionless form.
My heart was pounding.
"I'm so fucking sorry, Y/N." It wasn't like him to swear, let alone panic like this. "I genuinely don't know what came over me.... it feels like someone has spiked my drink, or something... are you alright? Does your head hurt?"
Ignoring his questions this time, I sat up and pulled him into a tight hug. He returned it enthusiastically.
"You really scared me there."
"It won't happen again, darling... it'll be okay." He replied, gently rubbing my back.
"My head's fine, I'll probably just get a bruise or two. I'm okay." I pulled away from the embrace and took a second to calm down.
"Thank god. I'll understand if you want to be away from me for a while, I nearly killed you and I don't deserve to be forgiven for that!"
"No, Childe, it's okay. To be honest, it did spook me, but... now I know I gotta train harder if I can finally beat you someday."
He chuckled and nodded, after a sigh of relief.
"You'll do great. I love you, okay?" He mumbled, taking my hand into his own and rubbing my knuckles.
"I love you more. Let's head back, yeah? And... thanks for saving me, without you... something entirely different would've happened."
"I'll bandage your injuries up when we get back. Here, lemme carry you."
