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Jean is growing worried. Admittedly, she’s not the best at keeping tabs on her friends, so it’s saying a lot that she noticed something has been off about Lisa. There’s dark circles under her eyes, and the air seems electrified around her no matter how relaxed she pretends to be. Perhaps most damning of all, she’s hunting down overdue books later and later.
The moment Kaeya told her that last tidbit, Jean was up and out of her chair, packing up her work to make sure Lisa is taking care of herself on her day off.
Now she stands outside Lisa’s apartment with a hand raised but hesitating to knock.
‘Am I overthinking this? Maybe she just needed a break and I’ll only be interrupting her… Oh gods, I sure hope I’m not interrupting any private time.’
She slaps her cheeks two times to refocus and knocks on the door. Once. Twice. The third time she calls out as she knocks, her anxiety only growing.
“Lisa? It’s Jean! If you’re in the middle of something I can leave but I’m getting worried. Can you at least yell if you’re alright?”
She waits, and still not a single noise can be heard from behind the door. She knocks once more, just to be sure, but still there’s no reply. She chews her lip nervously and bends down to move the flower pot beside the door. Out from under it she takes the spare key feeling the weight in her hands as she ponders her decision.
‘Alright Jean. Best case scenario, she’s just sleeping. Worst case scenario, I’m about to interrupt something. Oh what am I saying, I was roommates with Kaeya for 2 years, I’ve definitely walked in on worse.’
She unlocks the door and holds the knob.
“Lisa I’m coming in!”
She pushes the door open and the key falls from her hand with a clatter. Lisa’s body lies still on the kitchen floor surrounded by scorch marks, her vision lying beside her, inches from her hand.
Jean is beside her in an instant, channeling the power of Anemo, uncaring of how the apartment shakes as she gathers Lisa in her arms. She checks her over for wounds, but there’s no blood or bruises, only a bit of burnt fabric on her gloves.
“Lisa? Lisa, come on. Come back to me,” she begs, calling forth all her strength, trembling with a fear she didn’t know lived inside her.
Her grip on Lisa’s arms tightens as if she’s trying to pull her back into the waking world. Under the thundering of her own heartbeat she can still feel Lisa’s pulse in her palms. She tugs her closer, despite her logical mind knowing it does nothing to enhance the little magic she can perform, she can’t think of much else to do while the wind swirls around them.
She bows her head, listening close to Lisa’s heartbeat, unable to see the way she cracks open an eye and slowly regains consciousness.
“Woah, Jeanie,” she croaks. “That’s quite a grip. I didn’t know you were into that kind of thing.”
Jean drops her in shock, letting her Anemo recede.
“Lisa! You scared the shit out of me, are you alright?”
“Right as rain now that you’re with me.”
“Don’t start that with me. I should be taking you straight to the cathedral.”
“Ah wait, I’m serious. You helped a lot, thank you.”
Jean sighs, taking Lisa’s hand and helping her over to the couch.
“Stay put. I’m going to make some tea, and when I return I want you to tell me exactly what’s going on.”
“I can handle myself, Jean,” she says curtly, snatching back her hand.
“ Clearly you cannot. I’m trying to be patient with you Lisa but you know there’s only so long I can wait.”
Lisa opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She sinks back into the couch with a nod and Jean walks back to the kitchen to let her nervous hands be occupied with her mundane task.
She fixes Lisa’s drink just the way she likes it, half milk and a bit too sweet, while Jean keeps hers plain so she can taste the herbs uninhibited. She chooses a simple mint tea hoping to refresh her harried senses and sets their cups on a tray to bring out to the living room.
Before she goes, she stops, catching sight of Lisa’s vision they’d left on the floor. It can be a terribly intimate thing to touch someone else’s vision, but to leave a gift from the gods just lying on the hardwood is possibly a worse offense.
With that in mind, Jean sets Lisa’s vision on the side of the tray, keeping as little contact as possible to respect Lisa’s boundaries.
She’s certain she’s made a mistake when she enters Lisa’s view and the woman immediately tenses, but the words that come out of her mouth are entirely unexpected.
“Keep that thing away from me, please. I want nothing to do with it,” she says with a degree of disgust and hesitation Jean has only ever seen her direct at pumpkins.
“Your vision?” she asks, just to confirm even as Lisa is leaning away with her lip curled in disgust. “I don’t…”
“Yes, really. I can’t stand to look at the thing, please just take it out of my range of control or cover it or something.”
Jean panics and tosses it quickly into one of the flowerpots while trying not to overthink the possible heathenistic implications of the action.
Lisa untenses, likely feeling the connection to her vision dwindle, but Jean can still feel her stress even if it’s not literally permeating the air as she sits beside her.
Jean sets the tray on the coffee table and passes Lisa her cup. She accepts with shaky hands and Jean takes her own, simply letting it warm her palms while Lisa takes a grounding sip.
“I’m sorry for worrying you. I guess you could say I’m having a bit of a bad day.”
“A bad day, really? You don’t seriously think I’ll take that as an explanation.”
“No.. no. And y’know Jeanie, that’s something I really love about you. I know you have trouble thinking of yourself as a kind and gentle person with all you dedicate to your work, and how that often takes away from your personal life, but I really do think there’s a softness to your no nonsense attitude.”
“Are you seriously trying to distract me? Lisa, I found you collapsed on the floor. And even if I hadn’t you should know by now it doesn’t work with me!”
“I mean it,” she says insistently. “I’ve meant it. Every time I’ve complimented you, flirted with you. I mean it now, Jean. I really do love you.”
Jean laughs nervously. “You’re… you’re really starting to scare me. You sound like a woman on her deathbed…”
Her heart’s thundering once again, and if it weren’t for her gloves her teacup would be slipping out of her hand. She’s being overwhelmed with far too many signals. Lisa in danger. Lisa afraid of her own vision. Lisa loves her. Lisa loves her.
“We… we can talk about that later,” she says weakly.
The two lapse into silence. Lisa takes measured sips of her tea while Jean’s grows cold in her hands. She can’t bring herself to say anymore so she waits until Lisa empties her cup and takes it from her hands when she’s done.
“I tried to destroy my vision.”
“That’s-”
“Stupid, I know. There are no recorded cases of the successful destruction of a vision, even when masterless. And even if I did succeed it’s not like it would undo anything.”
“I was going to say ‘concerning’, actually.”
Lisa smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes and her voice still sounds empty and detached.
“You said I sound like a dying woman, right? Do you know what my constellation is called?”
“Tempus Fugit,” she says with certainty. She knows it almost as well as her own, so many nights she’s found it as she leaves her office and begins her walk home. ‘But why now, why bring it up? What could this have to do with the state she found her in?’
‘Tempus Fugit… Time flies… Oh how most certainly it does.”
“Lisa. You’re only 25.”
She closes her eyes, sinking back into the couch and letting her face smooth out.
“I’m sick but it isn’t human. My days are numbered, Jeanie. They have been for years. I moved back to Mondstadt disgusted by the things I learned, the sacrifices scholars make, and the ones I made myself. You gain nothing without losing something, and this is the price I paid to see through the eye of god.”
“So, so what? You’re just going to lay down and die?!” Jean can’t help the way her voice raises. She clenches her fists standing up from the couch. “Without telling anyone? Were you planning on doing this all on your own?”
“I am doing something” Lisa snaps, opening her eyes with a glare. “I came back to milk life for all it’s worth, for what little I have left. And it’s worked!”
Her gaze softens, and her shoulders lower from where they’d hiked up to her ears. “I’m happy here. Every day I see you, and I see the kids, and I drink good tea and take good naps. What more could I ask for?”
“Clearly there’s still more you’re wanting if you were trying to crack open your vision like a fucking egg!”
Lisa is stunned into silence as Jean grips the sides of her hair and paces back and forth through her living room.
“What more could you ask for,” she mutters to herself. “Healing, maybe. Medicine for the symptoms, at least…”
She stops in front of the couch, dropping to her knees and gripping the skirt of Lisa’s dress.
“You could ask for me, Lisa. Gods, you can always ask for me,” she whispers.
Lisa leans forward and runs a hand over Jean’s tousled hair. Her ribbon is already half loose, so she finishes the job and takes the ponytail out to brush her fingers through.
“You have a duty, I understand. And I can never ask you to love me.”
Jean's hands tighten on her dress and tears drop onto her skirt.
“Am I really that bad at showing it? Do you really think that I…”
Jean cuts herself off, rising to hold Lisa’s head in her hands and look into her eyes. ‘This is about her, not me. Now’s not the time to cry.’
“Lisa Minci, I am horribly in love with you and I would travel to the ends of this planet to see you grow old with me.”
Lisa makes a weak noise in her throat while turning a brilliant shade of pink that has Jean blushing as well as the weight of her words set in.
“Can I kiss you then?”
“Yes. But I’m taking you to the cathedral after this.”
“Oh, so eager to get hitched?”
Jean sighs but says nothing more as she captures Lisa’s lips. ‘For you, always,’ she thinks, ‘I'll do anything to fight off the end.’