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Lisa had quite the predicament involving her lovely girlfriend despite her hard work and dedication to the knights of Favonius being rather charming and endearing she did have the tendency to overdo it just a tad. Despite how just a month ago Lisa had gotten a few other knights and Lumine to assist her in helping Jean relax and take a break The Grandmaster slowly fell back into all of her old habits of spending nearly all day and night working. Lisa understood that her position required a lot out of her knight, but she hated seeing Jean over work herself like this.
Letting out a sigh and slumping over her desk she tried not to let it distract her further as she continued throughout her day since if she stayed focused on her duties she would at least be making sure Jean had less work to deal with. Not to mention she did genuinely care about her duties as a librarian. All throughout the day people came in needing assistance with finding the book they needed and she was more than happy to help as long as they actually returned them on time unlike some people. Many people also came in just to find a quiet place to read. She always welcomed these people to her library since they were generally well behaved.
Eventually towards the middle of the afternoon people started to filter out of her library till it was empty, and she decided it was best for her to close early since if she did she could at least plan a nice diner to help Jean at least relax a bit. While locking up she made sure to leave a note on the door informing anyone that had a book due that day that they could bring it in tomorrow without any problems.
Her first stop was to get what she needed to make pasta for Jean since Lisa new Jean always appreciated her special pasta dish, and thankfully for Lisa it was fairly simple to make she only needed a few ingredients, well and a touch of magic but she didn’t tell anyone about that since she wanted to keep it her little secret. Thankfully the stop into the shop was quick, and she was able to quickly get everything she needed and leave.
On her way back to the Knights hall Lisa couldn’t help but notice a very frustrated looking Amber standing underneath a tree glaring up at the branches.
“What happened Amber? Did someone's cat get stuck in a tree,” Lisa teases her junior.
“Yes,” Amber says letting out a groan.
“Wait really again?! You would think people would learn eventually to watch their cat.”
“I know this happens way too often I would use my glider to get up there but I don’t want to get in trouble for flying in the city again,” Amber tells her with a sigh.
“I have an idea,” Lisa says rummaging through her bags till she finds the meat she bought for dinner, tearing a small piece off and putting the rest back in the bag she moved closer to the tree.. “I’m going to try to use this meat to lure the cat out,” Lisa tells the younger knight.
Almost immediately as Lisa raised meat up to the tree the cat jumped into her arms, and ate the meat, Lisa quickly made sure to wrap the cat in her arms so it couldn’t escape again.
“Thank you so much Lisa!” Amber exclaims. “I’m kinda embarrassed I didn’t think of that… Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be in the library, why are you going grocery shopping?”
“I decided to close down early so I could buy what I needed to make a special dinner for Jean,” Lisa explains. “Jean is well, she's starting to do what she always does, so I decided to make us a nice dinner to at least help her relax a bit.”
“I thought that party we hosted her a month ago made her stop overworking herself?” Amber asked.
“Sadly she’s started to slide back into her old habit, and as much as I love her I’m not really a fan of going to bed without her by my side as much as I do.”
Amber's face almost immediately fell at Lisa’s statement, she must still be sad about her new girlfriend leaving for Liyue, despite Lumine occasionally coming back Lisa understood that it probably wasn’t enough for the young knight.
“Oh Amber Jean has been trading Letters with Ningaung of Liyue for the past few months mainly on advice for leading, but the other day she sent a message informing her that Lumine would be returning to Mondstadt in a few days.”
“Really!?” Amber asks a bright smile across her face.
“Of course I would never lie about something sure I love to tease people, but that would be much too far,” Lisa says, trying her best to pretend to be offended at Amber’s claim.
“True I’ll have to plan something special for her when she gets back,” Amber excitedly tells Lisa.
“I’m sure whatever it is she’ll love it,” Lisa assures her.
“Thanks Lisa. Do you need any help bringing your food back?” Amber asks.
“Sure if you have the time to.”
“Don’t worry about it. I always have time to help a fellow knight, besides your still carrying that cat I need to bring back to its owner.”
“Oh right,” Lisa says, completely forgetting about the cat that's now asleep in her arms.
Lisa handed her bags to Amber then the two began to walk back to the knights hall enjoying the nice afternoon weather.
“Thank you again for all the help Lisa,” Amber tells her again as they arrive back at the knights hall.
“Oh don’t worry about it, though I may need some help next time I have to hunt down the people with overdue books.”
“Well you can be sure to count on me,” Amber says nervously Lumine must have told her about the time Lumine ended up assisting her.
Lisa handed Amber the cat while Amber gave Lisa her bags back before going on their separate way.
When she got to the kitchen she quickly unpacked her bag and started preparing the sauce since it would take the longest if she wanted to let it simmer. First she boiled the tomatoes whole to soften them up. Then peelings and crushing them into nice saucy consistency, Finally she added spices, herbs, salt, garlic and her secret magic ingredient causing slight streaks of purple to appear in the sauce.
The rest of the meal is a lot simpler for her to prepare, dicing up the meat into small cubes and cooking them in a pan with salt and a tiny amount of oil. The meat was for Jean since Lisa practically never ate meat.
While the meat was sizzling she boiled a pot of water and placed the noodles in it while making sure to salt and and a touch of oil to the water to make sure the noodles didn’t stick.
After a few minutes the pasta was almost done so she fished it out and mixed it into the sauce as well as adding some of the pasta water to the sauce. Then placing her portion into a bowl, and adding the meat to the pot for Jean. Finally she let the meat simmer in the sauce for a couple more minutes before plating, Jeans meal as well, and topping both with cheese.
Lisa decided it would be best to bring the meal to Jean’s office besides it wasn’t uncommon for them to eat in her office anyways. Lisa didn’t bother to knock on her door and just entered.
“Lisa what are you doing here?” asks looking up from the stacks of paper on her desk.
“I decided to make you dinner since you probably need a break after working all day.”
“Oh thank you Lisa I have been very busy today, I didn’t even have time to have lunch.”
You always do this to yourself Lisa thinks but she doesn’t tell her that. “Of course my dear though if you have that much paperwork to do I can help more it’s not like the library is busy enough for me not be able to file some paperwork in my free time.” Lisa assures her as she hands Jean her bowl though Lisa was already helping Jean with some forms that people file so she could always do more to make sure her girlfriend doesn’t overwork herself.
“Hmm I’ll have to think about it, you already do so much for me,” Jean tells her as she takes a bite of her meal. “Wow Lisa it’s fantastic.”
“Thank you Jean I thought a nice meal would help you relax, and take some time off work.”
“Am I really working that much again?”
Lisa lets out a sigh. “You didn’t notice for the past two week I’ve fallen asleep without you by my side, and half the time you're gone before I wake up, if this happened once in a blue moon it wouldn’t be an issue but you're sliding back into your old habits of overworking yourself.”
“Your right I’ve been falling back into bad habits,” Jean says with a sigh. “But there's so much work to be done all the time even with your support, I feel like I can’t get anything done if I’m not working day in day out.”
“I know dear there has to be a better option than putting all the work on you,” Lisa paused for a moment to think about the options they had before coming to a conclusion. “I know what if we get you an assistant, just someone to help and cover some of your minor day to day tasks.”
“Hmm that does sound like an option, especially if it was primarily for only minor tasks that don’t need much oversight, but it could still take a month to find someone who is trustworthy enough for the job, not to mention I would have to train them.” Jean says thinking over the option.
“You don’t have to decide today, and I’ll do my best to help you till we find a more permanent solution for your workload,” Lisa tells her as she moves behind Jean’s chair and gives her a hug from behind, and gives her a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you Lisa, for everything your support means the world to me. I don’t think I could do it without you,” Jean softly whispers to her.
“Of course I’ll always support my dashing knight, now let's finish eating and go for a walk. I assume I have you for the rest of the day?”
“I don’t think I could just go back to working after that talk, besides a date night sounds lovely it’s been far too long since we had one,” Jean tells her as twists around in her chair to give Lisa a kiss. “I love you Lisa.”
“I love you too Jean.”