Chapter Text
Klee was already sitting on the layed-out blanket an hour before noon. She was a bit tired, having to go around with her mom to set everything up, but her excitement pushed her to keep going. She had been instructed to wait there until both Kaeya and Diluc showed up. No way was she going to miss it.
It was hard work, sneaking around yesterday, and now she’ll get to wrap everything up with a picnic. It’s almost like a surprise birthday party!
But for now she’ll have to wait. Under the shade of the old oak tree, she keeps a lookout on the path from the city.
Alice watches over the two brothers as they go about their days, but she doesn’t push them to go to Windrise. Not yet. Hopefully this can also be a lesson of patience for her daughter.
Instead, she watches Kaeya put his paperwork aside thirty minutes before noon. He excuses himself for a long lunch break. With the letter in his hand and the Diluc Dodoco attached to his belt, he sets off.
After that, she appears undetected in the winery. Diluc is oblivious to how she takes note of the muddled look on his face. Rather, he continues as he was for the last 10 minutes, working slower than usual with the Kaeya Dodoco facing his desk from the door-side table. He’s hunched over to the side, very obviously trying not to make eye contact with it.
The clock is ticking towards noon, and Alice begins to doubt whether he’d be able to make it to Windrise at the same time as Kaeya.
She decided to give him just a little nudge. With her magic, (don’t look at me, I don’t know how she does it) she causes the Dodoco to fall to the floor with a thud.
Just like she had hoped, it doesn’t escape his notice.
He looks at it for a moment, sighs, then pushes off his desk. Curiously, he was already ready to leave. All he did was pick up the Dodoco (still with two fingers, but this time by the fur on its head) and leave.
As one last bit of help, she allows Diluc to travel faster than he would. It’s as if she folded the very landscape to give him the same distance between him and Windrise as Kaeya does.
Then her job was done. She sends her final “good luck”s to Klee into the wind, and she’s gone.
By the time Klee notices the pair in the distance, they had already seen each other. Diluc had slowed down, steeling himself. Anything to do with Kaeya had to be trouble. Contrary to him, Kaeya was looking forward to see what Klee had in store for the two of them. He made a show of putting a skip in his step, flicking his gaze towards Diluc every so often.
Once they got close enough to the tree, the gap between them lessened significantly. Diluc stares at Kaeya, but does not acknowledge him further.
Kaeya, as confidently frivolous as ever, decides to start the conversation.
“That must hurt!”
Diluc’s taken aback by his statement. “What?”
“Why, this of course,” Kaeya leans toward him, pointing out Diluc’s hold on the Dodoco, “that poor Dodoco’s scalp must be burning by now. Have you been carrying him like that the whole way?”
Diluc turns it towards him, inspecting said scalp. His face is deadpan as he adjusts his hold to grab its tail with his whole hand. The only reply spared for his brother is a “Hmph”. His fingers were getting tired anyway.
Infuriatingly, Kaeya laughs. Diluc knows it’s a fake one though, it’s too light, too airy.
“Look, I’m only here to return this to that kid. Not talk to you.”
“Is that it, too busy even for some small talk Diluc?”
His nostrils flare. “Yes.”
That’s the general tone of their exchanges up until they reach Klee. She did just as she was told, waiting there until they were in earshot. Once they get close enough, she leaps up and runs towards them.
“Hello Kaeya, hello Diluc.” Her arms are outstretched to wave at them as hard as she can. Her smile only grows wider as they draw nearer and nearer.
She’s jumping up and down by the time they come to stand next to her picnic blanket. “I’m so happy you came, my mom was supposed to be here but she’s busy on her new adventure so now I have to finish this food all by myself,” she takes a deep breath, trying to get out everything Alice had told her to say, “but not anymore because you’re both here! We get to have a picnic together, isn’t that fun.”
Klee’s grin is matched by Kaeya’s. He picks her up, “ah yes, how convenient that you had us come Klee”, and tosses her up into the air.
Diluc watches them, his arms crossed. It’s all a plot by that mage, Alice. No wonder he’s seen that handwriting before.
As Klee squeals in Kaeya’s arms, Diluc bends over to drop the Dodoco onto the blanket.
“I’m sorry, but I need to head back to the winery. I only came to return this to you.”
At that, Klee stills. Even Kaeya stops in his tracks. Like a well coordinated act, Klee’s eyes gloss over, and Kaeya gasps, exaggerated.
“Oh Diluc, how harsh. You’d turn away a maiden in distress with all this extra food?”
Klee tilts toward Diluc, still in Kaeya’s arms. With his help, she gets to look at him eye to eye. “Please, please, pleaaasee Diluc! Please don’t go, me and my mom prepared all of this ourselves. It’ll be fun, knights promise.”
Diluc almost scoffs but doesn’t want to hurt her feelings, “knights promise?”
Klee wriggles out of Kaeya’s grasp. Running towards Diluc, she stretches her arms up to plead.
“Yes! Knight’s honor. If you don’t have fun then I cannnn,” she glances this way and that, thinking hard, “I can help you deliver things! For the Angel’s share!”
“I don’t-”
“Diluc, come on.” Kaeya interjects before he can say anything. He kneels by Klee, squishing her cheeks. “Can you really deny this face?”
Diluc shakes his head. “I was going to say, I don’t need you to do that, Klee. I’ll stay, but only until the food’s all gone. Okay?”
Klee leaps up, hitting her head on Kaeya’s chin. Diluc’s eyebrows shoot up as they both groan in pain. Despite it, Kaeya quickly rubs both his chin and Klee’s head with a light application of his Cryo.
“Owwww, sorry Kaeya.”
Kaeya removes his hand, “It’s alright Klee. No more distractions though, let’s enjoy this picnic, hm?”
At that, Klee directs them both to sit opposite of each other. Diluc’s conscious not to have any physical contact with Kaeya.
The blue Dodoco is discarded by his feet. The red one, Kaeya places on his lap.
“So, what do you have here, Klee?”
As Klee carefully unpacks food from her backpack, Diluc wonders absently whether Kaeya was always this good with kids.
But then again, someone as childish as him would no doubt be popular with children themselves.
With all the food out, Kaeya begins unwrapping it. Following his lead, Diluc does the same.
Filled with glee at them helping each other, Klee quietly hums to herself. She pulls out their drink for their picnic, a homemade bottle of lemonade. She pours it carefully into three cups that Alice set out before she left.
“Before we eat, want to try my lemonade? I made it myself!” Despite her cheerful tone, Klee’s hands are balled into fists on her lap, her body tense with trepidation. She hopes it tastes good. In her mind this was her first test, if it didn’t taste good maybe Mr. Diluc would decide to leave.
Albedo wasn’t around to help her read the recipe, so she had to guess what was in a lemonade. Unfortunately, she only got as far as water, ice, and lemons. If only Diona had noticed when she was giving Klee the ice, just before she left for the tree (Unless she did and chose not to say anything).
She gives them a cup each, and under Klee’s apprehensive gaze, they drink at the same time. Obviously, it’s sour, so so sour, and yet bitter at the same time. Despite themselves, Kaeya’s lips purse, and Diluc’s nose wrinkles. But only for a second. None of them have the heart to tell her that her lemonade is no good. And with a quick glance at each other, they knew that she would never find out.
“You know what, Klee?” Kaeya hastily puts his cup down. “This is so good that I think Diluc should take it home.”
Diluc holds in a sigh. He had to hand it over to him, of course . “He’s right. Let’s close this-” he pours the content of his cup back into the bottle, pauses, then pours Klee’s cup in back as well “-because I’m sure the maids would love to try it.”
Thankfully Klee buys it. She brightens up immediately, her fists rising from her lap and into the air. “Oh, oh! When Klee comes to visit next time I’ll bring a whooole lot more for you to share.” Her tight hands finally open as she waves them in the air.
Her eyes are on Diluc, which is good, because when he flashes Kaeya a death glare, she doesn’t see the mischievous grin on his brother’s face. Kaeya even gets to throw the contents of his cup into the grass. Just in the nick of time, as Klee turns to him right after.
“Oh, but is one cup enough for you Kaeya?”
“It was, don’t worry.” He resists the urge to pat her head, an apologetic move. Instead he looks to the other foods spread out on the blanket.
“Hey, did you make these as well, Klee?” Please say no .
Klee shakes her head (much to their relief). “My mom gave me some mora to go and buy food from Good Hunter. I made sure to choose alllll your favorites. Aren’t I a big girl Kaeya? I did it all by myself!”
Kaeya smiles, giving her a thumbs up. “Good job Klee! Next thing I know you’ll be delivering food for Sara.”
Klee giggles at that. “Maybe I can keep the food hot with my vision too. That’s a great idea.”
“That… nevermind.” Diluc exchanges a concerned look with Kaeya.
After that, they dine uninhibited. Conversation flows between Kaeya and Klee effortlessly. Diluc joins in with some effort every once in a while. However with Klee’s childlike joy and Kaeya’s subtle teasing, it’s hard for him not to enjoy responding.
“So you have a Pyro vision too?”
Diluc quickly swallows his food. “Yes, why?”
Klee’s eyes sparkle, “do you also go fish blasting sometimes?”
“Fish… blasting?” Although he has heard of her destructive habits (as do all Mondstat citizens), he’s caught off guard by its name. “No, I don’t really fish at all. I just have someone buy it from the market.”
Klee’s undeterred, “do you have your own Dodoco? Not the blue one though, one that explodes.” She pauses to take a bite of her fisherman’s toast. “Like Amber, she has her Baron bunny, it’s kinda like my dodoco. Do you have one like that?”
Diluc shakes his head. He holds in a comment for her to swallow before speaking.
“Awwww, so you’re like Bennet. He doesn’t have any friends, just the rocks that always show up out of nowhere.”
Kaeya wipes the stray crumbs off of Klee’s cheeks. “Well if he had to have one, can’t you imagine him with a small abyss mage? Imagine that Klee, a tiny Pyro abyss mage following him around the winery.”
Diluc grunts. “No, don’t imagine that Klee.”
Klee looks between them, unsure.
“Oh well, but at least he won’t be lonely now Klee. You did give us these Dodoco’s after all.” Kaeya lifts up his red one, tilting it back and forth.
Diluc glances at the one by his feet. “Ah yes, I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you mean to switch them Klee? And by that I mean do I have to keep this one, or shall we exchange ours?”
Klee only shrugs, tossing the last of her sandwich into her mouth. As she wipes the crumbs from her hands she explains.
“I dunno, my mom said you can choose.”
Diluc huffs, looking at Kaeya’s playfulness towards the red Dodoco.
“Even if you wanted your blue one, you’d keep that one just to spite me.”
Kaeya puts a hand on his chest, acting appalled. “Do you think so low of me dear b- Diluc? Why, all you need to do is ask nicely and I’d hand it over.”
His jaw twitches, “Please… give me the red one.”
“Please and what, Diluc?”
“I’ll say thank you once you do it, you-”
Kaeya shoves the red Dodoco to his chest. “How rude!” He even slings an arm around Klee to hold her against him. “You’re being such a bad influence on our little Klee. No deal, I’m keeping my precious Dodoco.”
Diluc buries his head in his hands. “I hope you know I have many things I’d like to call you right now.”
“Oh? Any examples?”
“I’d hate to be a bad influence.” His voice is dripping with sarcasm.
While Klee readily reciprocates Kaeya’s half hug, she wonders if this is what it’s like to have a sibling. Aside from Kaeya and Diluc, she only knows Jean and Barbara, but she rarely sees them interact. Try as she might, she can’t imagine Albedo acting like Diluc or Kaeya though. Maybe it’s a grown up thing?
Too soon in Klee’s eyes, they finish all the food, down to the last crumb. The sun has noticeably fallen from the sky’s peak, and the two brothers are helping Klee pack everything back into her backpack.
“Did you have a fun time Klee?” Kaeya’s standing behind her, struggling to shove the last of it into her bag.
Klee pushes back against the force he’s exerting, her hands gripped on the straps of her backpack. “Yeah! Even though we didn’t get to play any games…”
Kaeya laughs, taking a break from pushing, “you’ll have the whole rest of the day to play Klee.”
Kaeya’s eyes quirk when Diluc waves him away from Klee. He steps aside, allowing DIluc to step behind her and firmly zip Klee’s backpack shut.
“But-” Diluc’s exertion causes her to lift up off the ground a bit, so she turns to look at the two of them over her shoulder “-it won’t be with you.” Her voice is tinged with sadness.
Diluc’s eyes grow softer. He rights her hat, saying “there’s plenty of other people for you to play with Klee. Besides, why would you want to play with a boring old grown up.” Like Kaeya. He holds in a jab at his brother. Who is he to talk in the end.
“He’s right Klee, and I could always play with you another time. But us grown ups,” he makes eye contact with Diluc, “need to finish our duties for the day.”
Klee sighs, pulling up her backpack. “Okay…”
“Come, let’s head back to Mondstat. Say goodbye to Diluc now-”
“Actually.” He clears his throat. “I can walk with you. I have business in the Angel’s share anyway.”
“Hooray! So our hangout’s not over yet.” Klee grabs them both by the hand, tugging them forward.
“Can we I spy? Oh oh, can I go first?”
In the shade of the Symbol of Mondstadt's Hero, Alice smiles as she watches the trio walk away. Everything went according to plan.
Especially the part where Klee hid their Dodoco’s away from sight.
Once their voices fade from the breeze, Alice picks the Dodocos up, and hides them among the tree’s great roots. She leans them against each other, under the shade of an exposed root.
Satisfied with her work, she finally departs from Mondstat for real. Leaving a prayer to the winds whipping around the great oak.
“I pray to Barbatos that even without my intervention, they may come together again as brothers with the help of my darling Klee.”