Work Text:
It had been quite long since Mondstadt’s citizens had witnessed such a rainy day. The raindrops hitting the window were the only perceptible sound in the Grandmaster’s office as Jean quietly reviewed the week’s reports. The knight suddenly heard a knock on her door and quickly told her visitor to come in.
“Hey, darling” Lisa slowly opened the door “Can we have a moment of your time?”
The witch gestured to herself and then to Kaeya, who was standing behind her. The man smiled at his boss before happily greeting her. Jean immediately stopped working to pay attention to her dear childhood friend and stunning girlfriend.
“I hope you remember what day is today…” Lisa said, smiling widely.
“Friday, March 12?” Jean asked, a bit unsure of what they were trying to do, raising an eyebrow at them.
“Exactly!” Kaeya clapped his hands, smiling excitedly “And Sunday is?”
“March 14” the knight answered again.
“Try again, honey” Lisa crossed her arms in defiance.
“My birthday” Jean sighed, a discreet smile forming on her lips.
Jean was quite fond of her birthday ever since she was young. It was the only day when her father and sister would go visit her and her mother would be less harsh on her and give her a break on the knight training. She also had precious memories of birthday celebrations with Diluc and Kaeya, from their childhood to their first glasses of wine together.
“Exactly, and we are here to ask you what your plans are'' the Cavalry Captain asked his friend.
“Actually, I don’t know...” Jean looked at them, a little embarrassed “I’ve been busy so I didn’t plan anything. But I think we can all have dinner. What do you say?”
“Sure” Kaeya couldn’t help but chuckle at Jean’s simplicity “We can do it at the winery, Diluc suggested it”
“I would like that” the knight smiled and Lisa nodded in agreement “I’ll invite Barbara and Amber too. Klee is always up to whatever we invite her for, I think she would like to come”
“She definitely would” Lisa chuckled, knowing how much the little girl enjoyed spending time with Jean.
“Damn” Jean sighed heavily, visibly annoyed “I forgot to send Ningguang and Keqing a letter inviting the four of them. Even though I wasn’t sure about what I was going to do, I should have sent it a week ago”
“Oh” Lisa chuckled softly “I already did it”
“When?” the knight was quite surprised, but absolutely relieved.
“The night you said you were going to do it” the mage explained “you sat in front of your desk saying you were going to write it, then started talking about the other thousand things you were going to do. So I wrote a letter and sent it, just in case you ended up forgetting it. I know you are not one to forget important things, but you were overworking beyond limit that week. And worst case scenario they would receive two invitations, so I sent one”
“You are a lifesaver, Lisa” Jean smiled lovingly at her “Thank you”
“You are welcome, sweetheart” the witch smiled back, her face showing a complete gentle expression.
“Okay” Kaeya said, walking backwards to the exit “I think I know when I’m no longer necessary”
***
After giving her girlfriend a proper long loving kiss, Lisa came back to the library. Sitting on her chair, the witch started wondering if Jean would like the gift she had chosen. It’s hard to gift someone who appreciates useful things, but already seems to have everything they need in that matter.
“Hello, miss Lisa” the sound of a familiar voice calling brought her back to reality.
“Hi, Klee” Lisa smiled at the child and Barbara, who smiled warmly back at her “What can I do for you?”
“You can’t tell anyone” Klee whispered as low as she could, walking towards Lisa’s desk and looking to her sides, checking if anyone was listening “We are looking for a recipe book”
“Oh?” Lisa whispered and raised her eyebrows, pretending to be very surprised “What for?”
“We are going to bake a cake” Klee explained “For Master Jean’s birthday. But she can’t know. It’s a surprise!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell her” the witch smiled and winked to the little girl “Go to the second floor, shelf near the window”
***
On Sunday morning, the rain gave the city a break, and the sun shined bright and warm through the window on Lisa’s bedroom. Jean slowly woke up, sitting up in bed and yawning satisfied, after sleeping for the Archons knew how long, giving her body a very needed rest.
“Good morning, birthday girl” Lisa sleepily said, wrapping her arms around the knight from behind, her chin resting on Jean’s shoulder “Happy birthday”
They got up and Lisa prepared breakfast for both of them. When they started eating, they noticed it was past noon, so it turned into a late lunch. The night before, Jean and Barbara had dinner with their parents to celebrate the knight’s birthday. Jean did invite Lisa, but the witch knew that Jean’s mother was still digesting the idea of her daughter dating her, so she decided to stay home and invited her girlfriend to come over after the family reunion.
“So...” Lisa started talking, seeming unusually nervous “Do you want your gift now or at dinner?”
“You know you didn’t have to” Jean smiled gently “But I must admit that I’m curious now”
Lisa hesintely got up and went to her bedroom to get the box she had hidden in the closet, taking a deep breath before going back to the kitchen, where Jean was patiently waiting for her. She wondered what had happened with all her self confidence.
“I talked to Ningguang. I asked her what she had given Beidou” the mage confessed “Her tip was to give you something useful, but I couldn’t find anything that would be helpful to you. Because, unlike Beidou, you are already 100% organized and have everything you could possibly need” with a soft chuckle to light up the mood, Lisa continued “And I noticed how much you liked visiting the perfume and cosmetics stands during the Lantern Rite in Liyue, so I decided to make you a little something. Hope you like it.”
Jean carefully opened the wood box, where Lisa had carefully placed six labeled glass bottles and a book.
“Albedo and I were doing some experiments with cecilias and some other flowers when I noticed they had a pleasant smell when mixed, so we gave cosmetics a try. We worked on it for a few weeks until we got a satisfactory result. There are two kinds of soap, moisturizer and bath salt in there, and the book is a very tacky romance one I knew you would love. You can now make a nice bath and read it to relax. I always tell you to take a break, so I think it makes sense that I give you a gift to help with it”
“It does. I loved this so much” Jean said, happy tears forming on the corner of her eyes “And I love you”
“I love you too, and you are adorable” Lisa chuckled lovingly “Almost crying over soap”
“Special and thoughtful soap” Jean giggled and kissed the mage’s cheek “Thank you, I’ll definitely use it. Actually, I’m considering testing the bath salt now. Would you join me?”
“How could I say no?”
***
At the end of the day, when the sun began to set and a light shade of pink started painting the horizon, Jean and Lisa were already dressed and heading to the city’s gate to wait for their Liyue guests.
As they walked through the now practically dry streets, Modstadt’s citizens would stop to wish Jean a happy birthday and a good day, words she politely thanked them for as her smile grew wider with people’s kindness.
When Beidou, Ningguang, Ganyu and Keqing arrived, they promptly greeted both women and gave Jean their best wishes.
“So good to see the two of you again” Ningguang commented with a polite and discreet smile, as they chatted excitedly and made their way together to Dawn Winery.
When they arrived, Jean introduced the four women to Diluc, Kaeya, Amber and Venti, who were still organizing the place. Diluc and his brother had moved the tables to the outside and installed lamps around the place, and Amber was putting the plates and cutlery in place with Venti, who was adorning it with cecilias, dandelions and valberry leaves.
Jean thanked them for doing it for her, before asking where Barbara and Klee were.
“At the kitchen” Kaeya explained “They spent the entire afternoon working on your birthday surprise”
“So we got food from The Good Hunter” Amber explained, pausing her chore to give the knight a proper hug “Happy Birthday, Master Jean. Here, I got you something”
Jean thanked her, took the bag from the outrider’s hand and carefully opened it, revealing a handcrafted notebook.
“I was learning how to make those and I thought you would like one” Amber rubbed the back of her head, chuckling and blushing lightly.
“Our gift for you is the wine” Diluc commented, looking away with arms crossed.
“We have white, specially for you” Kaeya smirked, giving her a thumbs up “But it didn’t stop him from buying you something else”
“Be quiet, Kaeya” Diluc rolled his eyes and walked Jean’s direction “Happy Birthday”
The man removed a small box from his pocket and gave it to his friend, who opened it with certain curiosity. Inside of it there was a necklace, a thin golden line with a small fragment of vayuda turquoise hanging in the middle.
“I know you don’t like extravagant ones” Diluc tried his best to seem uninterested, but the affection was noticeable in his voice “Saw this one and thought of you”
“Thank you so much” Jean hugged him tightly “I adored it”
After that Kaeya wished her a happy birthday and gave his gift, a bouquet of flowers, which coincidentally were almost the same ones Lisa had used to make the cosmetics. Keqing and Ganyu presented her with a dress from one of the best dressmakers the Yuheng knew in Liyue and Ningguang and Beidou got her a kit with a new quill pen and three glasses of high quality ink in three different colors.
“I like gifting people things they will use” Ningguang smiled at Jean, who was thanking her for the great gift, just like she had done with everyone else.
“She’s lying” Beidou said, smirking “she suggested giving you this so that you don’t forget to send her letters since you live away and...”
A hit in the head and Barbara’s and Klee’s sudden appearance were enough to shut Beidou up. The healer asked Kaeya and Diluc to help her with the food, and Beidou and Lisa promptly offered themselves to bring the drinks, while Klee ran towards Jean to wish her a happy birthday and gift her with a metal red box filled with “amazing things that I found during adventures and that reminded me of Master Jean'', which included a variety of shiny rocks and flowers, specially dandelions. The knight thanked her and gave her a hug.
“I also helped with your surprise” Klee giggled excitedly “And I made a drawing of you and me, as a bonus gift. Here it is!”
Jean took the childish drawing and looked at it, smiling widely as she thanked Klee once more. While everyone was organizing the table for dinner, Venti called Jean to give her his own gift.
“My gift is an addition to Diluc’s one. Can you give me it for a second?” the boy asked with a playful giggle on his lips “Vayuda Turquoise is a great conductor for anemo power” Venti commented as he touched the stone and a small and gentle wind current formed around it, making Jean raise her eyebrows and smile once more. She thanked him and they sat on the table to have dinner.
After they had already eaten, Barbara went to get the cake she and Klee had made. Noticing how much effort they had put in it, and already overwhelmed with the emotions from the best wishes and gifts from everyone, Jean started crying quietly, hoping no one would notice. Unfortunately for her, Klee did.
“Ah, Master Jean” Klee almost yelled, clearly desperate “We’re sorry, we thought you liked vanilla cake”
“I do, Klee” the little girl's reaction and everyone’s eyes on her made Jean control her emotions a little, even though everyone was already smiling warmly at her (well, everyone but poor Klee) “I’m just very happy that you and Barbara did this for me. And I’m also glad everyone is here. I’m not sad, don’t worry”
“Then why are you crying?” Klee put a hand on her own face in confusion, making everyone chuckle “Anyway, we’re happy that you are happy, Master Jean. Do you want cake?”
“Obviously” Jean answered, patting Klee’s head.
After that everyone started eating and chatting again, Lisa’s shoulder lightly brushing against her own, Klee sitting right by her side and the stars shining above them. A peaceful meal, with great food and drinks, surrounded by her friends, with her sister, Klee and her amazing girlfriend by her side. It was all Jean could ask for to celebrate her birthday.