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The woods around Mondstadt were beautiful in the summer. The sunlight rays coming through the leaves illuminated Fischl in a warm light that made her hair glow golden, and Bennett couldn't help but stare just a little. He almost didn't mind the fact that, according to his map, they should have been out of the woods for about twenty minutes, with the direction they were heading.
He turned his attention back toward the map, trying to focus on getting them back home. Without warning, Fischl grabbed his hand and pulled him toward her, and Bennett stumbled, crashing into her. She held him up without wavering as a loud crack sounded behind him. Her green uncovered eye looked even prettier up close.
He blushed as he pulled away from her and looked at the big, heavy branch that had just crashed to the ground where he'd been standing. It would have hurt a lot if it had hit him, as it surely would if she hadn't been there.
"Thanks, Fischl," he said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "You really save me a lot."
He'd lost count of the amount of times she'd saved him just that day, from falling branches, stumbling, Hilichurl ambushes, and even a bird that tried to land on his head. He hated that she had to keep saving him. He didn't want to be such a bother.
"You are most welcome, ill-starred knight. A Prinzessin must look out for those whose companionship matters the most. It poses no inconvenience to me."
Bennett furrowed his brow in confusion.
"Mein Fraulein says it's alright," Oz said.
"Oh, thanks!" Bennett said. "But I really wish my luck wouldn't keep giving you trouble."
He turned his attention back to the map he was trying to make sense of for the past quarter of an hour. The roads didn't seem to make sense, and they should have reached Springvale half an hour ago. "I think we've passed here before," he said. "That rock looks familiar."
"It does," she agreed. "Do you reckon we have lost our way?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure this isn't the way back to Mondstadt. I don't know where we are," he said. "Sorry, I think something's wrong with the map I bought."
She gestured for him to hand it to her, and he did. She studied the map for a moment.
"The time where this chart's use was appropriate has passed, and whoever has given you this chart was either ignorant or malevolent in their actions. The roads have not followed this pattern for far over a season," she said.
"So the map is wrong?" Bennett asked.
"Outdated, and badly so," Oz translated.
"Oh. Sorry, guys. I really thought I found a good map this time," he said, sadly.
"We shall find our own way," she said. She looked up towards the sun. "But the sky is darkening before twilight, and soon the earth will be taken by the tempestous embrace of the skies. We must find shelter before the lightning strikes."
"Mein Fraulein means to say it's going to rain, and we should find shelter."
"What? The sky was clear five minutes ago!" Bennett asked, looking up, and to be sure, there were lots of clouds — and dark, heavy ones. "Yeah, let's go find a place to wait out the storm. Looks like it's going to be a bad one."
Fischl sent Oz to look from above while they moved closer to the hills, and soon enough he returned and guided them to a cave, just before the storm started to fall. It was a turn in his luck — he was sure they would have ended up soaked.
When they entered with Fischl leading the way, he realized that the cave wasn't empty. Razor was there, probably hiding from the rain like them -- which he wasn’t expecting, since Razor didn’t leave Wolvendom much. Wait, had they made it all the way to Wolvendom?
Razor looked skittish when he saw Fischl, but the suspicion went out of him when he saw Bennett behind her, and his eyes lit up.
“Razor!” Bennett said, returning his smile and opening his arms to hug him. He'd missed him — it had been a good couple of weeks since he’d come to see him.
He pulled away, remembering Fischl was there too. “I wanted to introduce you guys! Fischl, this is Razor, he’s… someone very important to me,” Bennett said. He didn't know if he could call Razor his boyfriend if they'd kissed only a handful of times, and he didn't know if Razor even knew the real meaning of calling themselves boyfriends. He was a bit unsure what he meant to Razor in the first place. “And Razor, this is Fischl, she’s my best friend! I hope you two get along well.”
Fischl stepped forward and started a Fischl-worthy speech.
"The stars have aligned and brought us together on this day, and I, the Prinzessin der Verteilung, welcome the chance to meet someone who my dearest friend considers such. Behold the glory of the Prinzessin and come forth, for I—”
"You talk… hard. I don't understand," Razor said.
Bennett leaned close to Fischl to whisper in her ear. "Razor doesn't really get language so well."
"Very well, a princess must know when to adapt." Fischl cleared her throat. "It's nice to meet you, Razor."
Razor smiled. "Friend of Bennett is my friend too."
"Well, it seems I'll be out of a job for a while," Oz said, and Fischl glared at him. Bennett laughed. It seemed they would get along well after all.
A cool wind entered the cave as the storm started to pick up outside. The three of them shivered.
"We must bring forth the flame of life— sorry, I mean, we should set up a fire," Fischl said, and Bennett and Razor agreed.
They picked up the few broken sticks around the mouth of the cave that weren't yet wet from the rainfall and, using the useless map as kindling, Bennett lit up a bonfire.
“There we go— ah!” he cried out. His glove caught fire, when the flames grew higher with a gust of wind. He managed to take it off as fast as he could, and stepped on it to put the fire out. His hand stung, and his skin was colored a painful red.
Fischl took his hand to take a look, and he winced slightly as she held his hand carefully. The burn wasn't so bad, but it had taken up almost all the skin of his palm.
"Perhaps the attention of the healing priestess of the holy cathedral—" Fischl cut herself off. "You should see Barbara after we get back."
"Oh, it's alright. It's not that bad," Bennett said as he stepped away from her and opened his backpack to look for bandages. "I don't want to worry her. I've had worse, too."
He found them, and sat down near the fire and started to try and put on bandages by himself. He was used to doing it alone, but it was a bit hard to do it with only his non-dominant hand.
“You need help?” Razor asked.
“Oh, thanks!” Bennett said, and Razor sat down beside him, near the bonfire. Fischl sat down a few steps away and Oz landed on her shoulder.
"So, how are you? How's your Lupical?" Bennett asked, trying to speak louder than the storm outside.
"We are good. Lots of prey to hunt now." Razor said as he wrapped the bandage carefully around his hand, and Bennett held the end in place while Razor helped him tie it together.
"That's great," Bennett said.
“I miss you. You were here long time ago,” Razor said. He had a habit of keeping just a little more eye contact than Bennett expected, and he averted his eyes at the intensity of his stare, blushing a little.
“I know, I’m sorry,” Bennett said. “I’ve had a lot of missions going wrong these days, and I haven’t had the time to come to see you. I miss you too."
“It’s alright. You’re here.” Razor moved closer to him and kissed him before he could react. Bennett kissed him back, carefully placing his bandaged hand on the ground for support while he cupped Razor's face.
They pulled away, and he stared into Razor's beautiful eyes for a moment. He didn't really have to worry about what they were — Razor didn't care, he just liked him. Bennett liked him too, and that was enough.
Then, he remembered that Fischl was there too — he turned suddenly to see if she had seen it. She was looking down, and it didn't look as if she had noticed. Something inside Bennett was relieved.
It wasn't as if he didn't want anyone to know he was with Razor. He really liked Razor, he wanted to tell the whole world about him, just… Fischl was a different story. He hadn't told her about Razor because he didn't know how, and he didn't want her to find out like this. He wanted to tell her himself, and the situation had put him in that position before he really knew how to tell her.
What would he even say? Oh, this is Razor, he's my boyfriend but like, that doesn't mean I only like boys or even just him, I like you too, Fischl, is that okay? It didn't seem right, but he didn't see any way of telling her about Razor that wouldn't ruin his chances with her. And right now, he was ignoring Razor because he was worried about Fischl and he didn't know what to do about either of them.
"You are alright? I made you sad?" Razor asked, angling his head to the side in confusion.
"No, Razor, I'm sorry," he said. "I'm alright." Bennett kissed him again, a peck in the lips, just to reassure him.
All of a sudden, Fischl got up, startling Oz. Both him and Razor turned to look, and Fischl turned her face away.
“I’m going to get some air,” she said, and her voice broke like she was holding back tears. Oz started to follow her as she walked toward the mouth of the cave, but she said, "alone,” and he hesitated but stopped following her.
“Mein Fraulein—”
“But Fischl, the storm is getting really bad!” Bennett said, getting up.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said, already storming off the cave.
Razor looked at Bennett for answers he didn't have. "She is alright?"
"I don't know," Bennett said. Lightning lit up the sky outside, and before the thunder had sounded, he'd made up his mind. "I need to go after her."
"You'll get hurt," Razor said.
"I can't leave her alone. Sorry, Razor, it's just… she's really important to me. The same way you are." he said, nervously trying to guess what Razor thought about it. "Is that okay?"
"She is nice. I like her."
Bennett let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "I'm glad you do."
"Take care. Storm is bad," Razor said.
"I'll be right back." Bennett kissed him goodbye and got ready to face the storm.
"Be careful!" Oz called after him.
Bennett dashed out into the woods, hoping that for once his luck wouldn't get in the way.
***
So that’s what ‘he’s really important to me’ meant.
The raindrops were falling heavily, hitting Fischl like rocks, but she kept walking. The wind threw her hair in her eyes and the rain made it stick to her face, making it hard to see where she was going. But she just needed to get far enough away from the cave and get it all out, so she wouldn’t bother them with her stupid messy feelings anymore.
She didn’t want them to see her while she was being so stupid, didn’t want them to notice how that had affected her. She didn’t want to get in the way.
She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to stop the annoying tears pooling in her eyes from streaming down her face. She was pathetic, for being so affected by that boy kissing Bennett. She was acting like a jealous idiot, and she didn’t even have the right to be jealous in the first place.
Bennett was happy — she could see it in his smile when he first saw Razor, in the way he felt comfortable with the other boy when they sat down together. So why couldn’t she be happy for him?
Fischl had no idea Bennett had someone like that. He hadn’t even told her, and from the looks of it, they had been together for a while. He seemed to like Razor very much and he hadn’t even brought him up to Fischl. Could she even consider herself his ‘best friend’, like he’d said, if he wouldn’t even tell her something as important as that?
Though that really explained the looks Bennett had been giving Razor ever since they’d met him inside that cave. And something ugly inside Fischl was making her heart beat really fast, because those looks were filled with some understanding that only they shared. Something she’d never had with him, and by the looks of it, never would. She wanted to share something with Bennett that nobody else understood, too.
She wanted to kiss him, too.
But he never showed anything that looked like interest in her in that way. He called her his best friend, and that was all she was to him, it seemed. It was more than she expected, anyway — why would he be friends with such a weirdo? She didn’t understand why he even bothered with her, with trying to understand her fantasies and too complicated language.
She had thought he was stuck with her, because nobody else wanted to hang out with him and his bad luck. But he’d had someone else all along, so why would he even care about her?
“Fischl!”
She turned around. Bennett was coming after her, running through the rain. He nearly slipped, but managed to keep upright as he got closer. “Fischl, wait!”
“Bennett, go back to the cave! You’re going to get hurt!”
Lightning cracked and thunder boomed right next to them, and both of them startled.
“I'm not leaving you here in the middle of the storm!" Bennett said.
“I just need to be alone! I'll be right back,” she said, turning around again to keep walking further away.
“Fischl, come on!"
“Go back to Razor! I can take care of myself.”
Bennett caught up to her and grabbed her hand, and she turned to face him. “Is this about that? About me and Razor?” he asked.
She didn’t shake his hand off. “I don’t care that you’re kissing him! It’s just…” She just didn’t want to be left behind. “You didn’t even tell me about him! You said I’m your best friend, but you wouldn’t even tell me you have a boyfriend!”
“I’m sorry!” he said, and he really looked like it. “I didn’t know how to bring it up. I wanted to introduce you, but I didn’t know how to say it and it just felt… weird.”
“You could have told me,” she said. If she could make him believe it was only about that, maybe she could get past this without letting him know the rest. Maybe she wouldn’t ruin things between them, and she would still have him as a friend. She didn't know what she would do if she lost him, even though he just stuck with her out of pity, it seemed.
“I didn’t want you to think…” he trailed off. She waited for him to complete his sentence, but he just looked down, avoiding her eyes. Or maybe just avoiding the cold rain that kept falling overhead.
“Didn’t want me to think what?”
“That I only liked him,” he said. The raindrops were streaming down his face, and he blinked them away as he looked her in the eye. “I really like Razor, but I— I like you too, Fischl, and I thought if I told you I had a boyfriend you’d think I don’t want anyone else. I don't even know if you'd want that, but I didn't want you to think I don't want it. And I know that’s selfish, because I didn’t tell you about him even though you both mean so much to me, but I really really like you both and I didn’t know how to tell you because I was scared I’d ruin it,” he said. “I don’t know how I was lucky enough to have Razor like me, and I thought I shouldn’t push my luck. But now I'm hurting you because I didn't tell you, and he doesn't even know what's going on.”
Bennett…
Bennett liked her too?
None of this was what she was expecting. He really liked her? He didn’t think she was weird, didn’t just put up with her because he felt sorry for her? He wanted to be with her? Like boyfriend and girlfriend?
She felt her face warm up as she blushed, even against the ice cold rain.
“I hope we can still be friends,” Bennett said. “Even if I messed up. I want to be your friend no matter what, I'm really sorry—”
“I like you too,” she said, so low she thought he might not have heard it, but his eyes lit up.
“Really?”
She nodded. “I really like you.”
“So you don’t think I’m trouble and always bring bad luck?”
“Of course not! Your bad luck isn’t your fault! And I don't mind looking out for you if I get to spend time with you!” She looked down, not wanting to meet his eyes as she asked, because she needed to, “and you don’t think I’m weird and crazy?”
“Of course not! Your imagination is so fun and cool, and you’re so smart talking like you do! I think you’re amazing,” he said, smiling wide.
She needed to hear that more than she realized. She didn’t hesitate for a second before she hugged him, and he hugged her back. He felt warm even in the cold rain.
“So we’re good?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered. She let go of him.
“Let’s go back to the cave and warm up, then,” he said, holding her hand as he turned around to go back.
“Just…”
“What?”
“Can I kiss you?” she asked, immediately feeling stupid for asking, but she couldn’t help it. She blushed, but he only smiled.
“Of course!”
She moved toward him, not knowing what to do. In the books, every heroine knew exactly how to kiss. She felt clumsy, nervous, but it was Bennett. She knew him, and he knew her. There was no way this could go wrong.
Well, in fact, there were many ways this could go wrong with Bennett. They would be lucky if they managed to kiss without getting hit by lightning or another falling branch.
The universe had pity on them, because none of that happened. Her lips touched his, and he hugged her, shielding her from the rain. She hugged him back. She'd never been so happy to be held by anyone.
They pulled away from each other, and she smiled, feeling her heart beating so fast it could burst. He smiled back.
A gust of wind passed by them, and they both shivered.
“We should go back,” she said. “I’m freezing.”
“Yeah, me too,” he said, taking her hand.
She started trying to trace their steps back, remembering the trees and rocks she’d seen while she was running away. She was an investigator with the Adventurer’s Guild; she could find her way back even in these circumstances.
“Just… it’s okay, right? That I’m with you and with Razor, too?” Bennett asked.
“Of course,” she said. And it really was. She didn’t mind sharing, as long as she knew he cared about her. As long as she knew she meant something to him. “As long as you don’t forget about me.”
“Never,” he said, too fast, squeezing her hand. He smiled giddily. “I’m really happy everything worked out.”
“Me too,” she said, feeling a big smile creeping up on her face.
"I just need to explain everything to Razor. I want to make sure he's alright with it, too," Bennett said.
"It's sweet that you're worried about that. And he seems nice. I can tell he really likes you," she said.
"I really like him too," Bennett said, smiling. "I hope you and him can be friends. He's a really great guy."
There was no way someone who could make Bennett smile like that could be a bad person. "I hope so too," she said.
***
“You are alright?” Razor asked when they found their way back. “Not hurt?"
"We're alright," Bennett assured him, and Razor hugged him.
“We were both worried to death here, Mein Fraulein,” Oz said. “You shouldn’t rush off in the middle of a storm. And with Bennett along, we were worried you might have been hit by lightning on the way.” He gave a pointed look to Fischl’s hand, still holding Bennett’s, and said, “but it seems you’ve made it back alright.”
Fischl blushed, but couldn’t help smiling. “Sorry, Oz. I shall not venture alone in the intemperies again in the future.”
“I’ve got a blanket in my bag, we can use it to dry off,” Bennett said. He ruffled through his backpack.
“Good,” Fischl said, shivering. Now that she was out of the rain, the wind coming into the cave made her feel even colder.
“Come close to fire,” Razor said, and she nodded and followed him toward the bonfire. Bennett found the blanket and sat down between her and Razor, throwing the blanket over his and Fischl's shoulders.
She sat as close to him as she dared, barely touching. He was already starting to dry off — the power of a Pyro Vision, she supposed.
Razor snuggled up next to Bennett, making no ceremony about being so comfortable with him in front of her. She felt an edge of jealousy that he got to do that, to be so close to Bennett — and then she remembered she didn’t have to be jealous. She could do that too.
She blushed bright red, but snuggled up against his other side. She was immediately rewarded for the initiative, as he put an arm around her.
It felt nice. She could fall asleep there, comfortably snuggled against him. Not just because he was warm and she was feeling desperately cold, but because she was comfortable enough with him to do it.
She didn’t mind sharing at all, if she could get moments like this.