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The Acting Grandmaster of the Knights returned to Mondstadt to complete a hefty stack of paperwork on the particularly risky mission which involved a small company of reliable knights and a strategy of stealth followed by an offense. Beyond successful but exhausted, Jean shook her head lightly to rouse her from her tiredness as she stepped slowly onto each moonlit step of the stairs outside the Knights’ headquarters. She had planned to start another novel by a newly popular author from Inazuma, but the pages of blank paperwork in her office snickered silently from its unassuming spot on her desk. Jean never faltered in her deliberate steps even as she took a heavy breath at the recollection.
Focused on the worn cobblestones beneath her lead feet, her half-lidded eyes caught sight of a pair of dark boots at her front. She immediately looked up to see the pair of crimson eyes.
“Diluc?” she uttered with a little shock but nevertheless a happy tone. “What brings you here at this late an hour?” she asked with a tired sort of urgency expecting to assist him to the best of her ability, as she would with any citizen or visitor.
The wine tycoon’s arms crossed over his chest, relaxed to his sides when he answered her. “I heard about your mission,” he stated in a voice that Jean couldn’t discern.
After a second Jean pulled her head out of the fog and away from Diluc’s eyes and let slip a small chuckle before continuing on her way to headquarters’ entrance. “Yes,” she started as she wasn’t sure how to respond to his statement, “I’m actually on my way to complete some paperwork that needs filing while its fresh in my head.” She nearly lost her balance on a particular cobblestone on the pathway but avoided that embarrassment and continued as if she wasn’t bone tired from her head to her toes. She very much looked forward to slipping her boots off when she got to the privacy of her office.
Diluc deftly fell into step at her side as the two walked. His vigilant eyes glanced at the woman from time to time as he spoke. “I heard you only took a small battalion with you.”
Jean answered without much thought for the man’s statements. “It’s true. I didn’t want to risk alerting the enemy of our actions with a larger force.” She spoke quietly in case anyone occupied the vicinity.
Diluc didn’t respond to that as they arrived at the building. He glanced up at the high walls of his former place of employment before promptly entering behind the woman. For a few seconds, Jean didn’t register the abnormal presence of Diluc within the walls and kept walking toward the back where a closed door concealed the way to some other room. Before she reached the doorway, she turned abruptly and placed her hands on her temples where a few frizzy strands of blonde hair became more frizzed. She looked up with apologetic eyes and a sad expression. “I am so sorry, Diluc. Would you like to wait in my office if you have something to discuss? I know this place isn’t the most comfortable for you. I’ll be right back.”
Diluc’s eyes darted to the mysterious door and then right back to Jean before he turned and headed to the door opposite them. When he reached his hand to the knob, he looked back in her direction for a second long enough to see her cross the threshold and shut the door.
After lighting the candelabra on the corner of the desk, Diluc’s gaze shifted around Jean’s office as he found a comfortable place to stand in the space. Upon entering the room, he noticed a stack of papers about half a foot high marked with the Acting Grandmaster’s seal signaling to all that they had been reviewed, signed, or otherwise finished. On the opposite side of the desk sat an untouched stack needing attention. In the spot in front of her chair lay a thick book. Diluc had half a mind to open the cover and read the synopsis, but he quickly decided against that, choosing to respect her privacy. Jean managed to keep her office tidy despite the dedicated hours to her job, but it was the small things that peeked out of the ordinary organization that caused Diluc more pause.
After a few minutes Jean entered the shadow-shrouded office and shut the door behind her as she crossed to her desk and sat on the edge. “Sorry for the wait. I wanted to visit the wounded soldiers before it got too late. They need their rest from the long day.”
Diluc held his tongue and refused uttering a cutting comment about how she needed rest just as much as them. By the bookshelf he had busied himself at in her absence, he reordered the last book in a decology and turned to her.
Jean pointed and then replaced her support arm behind her. She snorted, “I usually keep those pretty neat. I suppose I’ve neglected that this week.”
Diluc noticed the way she slumped on the desk and stepped closer keeping a healthy distance between them. “And that wouldn’t have anything to do with the mission you planned and executed today, would it?” His intense eyes illuminated by the candlelight fixated on hers.
Whatever look of complacency that adorned Jean’s face turned into a confused frown. She thought it odd that he’d brought up the mission two times and didn’t understand his aim. Diluc usually stated his business plainly and succinctly so why wasn’t he doing that now? And what business of his was the knights’ jobs since he made it clear he didn’t want anything to do with them? Jean’s thoughts quickly became more jumbled no thanks to her fatigue.
Jean touched the space between her brows and closed her eyes. She noticed her patience for the day begin to quickly run out. “Why do you keep saying that? Did we interrupt business at the winery somehow?”
Diluc’s stern look fell away. The woman’s slight lack of composure shocked him. Jean blinked at him, and those pretty eyes of hers that usually held compassion, now looked at him with agitation. Diluc had only seen that icy look a few times in all the years he’d known her, and it always threw him off. He pulled his gaze away from her blue eyes that magnificently reflected the low light in the room.
He paced a step and crossed his arms in typical Diluc fashion as a few pieces of scrap paper on the ground beneath the map of Mondstadt caught his eye. “The winery is not my main concern right now.”
“What is your concern then?” was Jean’s short reply. She hadn’t meant to sound so annoyed, but she had had a long week and really wanted to get her work done. If she accomplished that in a timely manner, she might even be able to read a few pages of that book behind her. A sudden rush of panic flooded her veins as she hoped Diluc hadn’t seen it, and in turn she inconspicuously reached behind her and flipped it on its front.
Voluminous red hair shifted as Diluc tilted his head to emphasize his point. He faced her head on and said, “The Acting Grandmaster is.” To be truthful, Diluc felt slightly pained that Jean thought he came here simply to complain about the knights’ impact on the business, but the confession he just supplied occupied more of his thoughts.
He watched Jean cock her head slightly and give him tired, disbelieving eyes like she expected him to give her a follow up, serious answer. He gave further explanation after swallowing, “I heard the mission today went well, but that it was permeated with risk. It could’ve ended with casualties.” Diluc let the last part hang in the cool air.
Jean pursed her lips at the loaded statement. She didn’t shy away from constructive criticism, but this felt more like an attack. She straightened and held eye contact when she replied defensively. “Life is not without risks. Unfortunately, it’s in the job description. I do what I must to keep the people safe and I do all that I can to keep the knights as safe as possible on dangerous missions, but ultimately hard decisions have to be made by someone.”
The knight’s defense couldn’t have been more evident, and Diluc cursed himself for his choice of phrasing. Jean kept providing a defense that seemed to grow more vehement with each second. The blood son of Ragnvindr balled a fist and put it to his mouth when he interrupted her with a resolute voice. “That’s not what I meant to say. You-” he hesitated and lifted his concerned eyes to hers. “You have been taking more and more dangerous risks, Jean.”
The woman crossed her arms over her hunched shoulders though she looked no less like the authority she was. “Last time I checked, you had no say in the matter.”
Diluc didn’t mind the comment. He had made that decision and he didn’t regret it, but again, she missed the point of his response. His thoughts became rushed as the tension between them grew more uncomfortable, and he finally said his piece, “You, Jean. You’re my concern. I know you’ve been taking larger risks due to the neglect of your own well-being.”
Jean’s mouth hung half-open mid-sentence. In this moment she truly wished that he wasn’t right about her well-being because her mind felt too mushy to accurately assess his words. Jean took a deep breath and let it out as she crossed a leg over a knee. She tried not to let her tired mind run away with wild thoughts about his words. “This is a new sentiment. I’ve certainly never heard this before,” she replied coolly.
“It’s not new.”
The air in the room seemed to still and even the dust motes floating seemed to cease their travels. The knight’s mind, which no longer seemed to be as sleepy, focused on his words and tried to interpret his meaning. Jean’s heart squeezed within her chest, and her eyes narrowed at the man across from her.
Diluc stepped closer so that he stood directly in front of the woman. He repeated in a quieter volume, “It’s not new. I’ve always cared for you whether I’ve verbalized it or not – To my regret.” He added the last sentiment with averted vermillion eyes. He wondered how to make his feelings any clearer. He felt that he had been plain with her, but she didn’t seem to understand him at all. When his eyes returned to her a second later, the orange light from the little flames caused a mesmerizing glow to form around her blonde hair.
Jean licked her teeth and smiled sadly before saying, “I know you care. We’ve been friends for years after all.”
Without warning, Diluc stepped forward and fixed his arms on the desk on either side of her. Forced to lean back, Jean braced herself with her arm behind her. The man’s face stopped impossibly near to her own while his severe eyes bore into hers, but Jean thought she saw something else in those deep red hues.
With unmatched concentration, Diluc focused on only her and calmly said into the low-lit room, “Friends be damned.”
The quiet that followed betrayed the knight’s heartbeat that sounded to her like a drum. Jean searched the man’s face for something that would clearly define his meaning once and for all. Desperately, she wanted to believe in her interpretation, but she refused to let her hopes get the best of her. Years of suppressed pining had not prepared her for the day her feelings might be challenged, and she didn’t know if she was ready to face it.
Diluc’s face remained stoic as he watched her wide, roaming eyes. He turned his head to the side before returning his gaze back to her where he lost temporary control and managed to catch a glance of her parted lips. He hadn’t thought of where he would go from here – he still didn’t know if Jean undoubtedly understood him.
Then he noticed the slight inclination of the knight’s head and the direction of her attention. In that moment Diluc’s breath quickened and he inclined his chin toward her. His attention traveled frequently between her eyes and her lips.
Jean felt the warmth of the man’s breath on her cheek as she pushed herself forward little by little. She felt vulnerable in front of him, but she forced herself closer as the feeling of letting go enticed her more than anything.
Diluc’s hands inched closer to her sides as if she were a magnet to him. He resisted as best he could, but if this drew on, he knew the resistance would falter.
In the privacy of Jean’s own office, she breathed deeply before pushing herself that final bit and breaking. She knew they had crossed a line and that action could never be undone, but the thought didn’t frighten her as much as the alternative so she would not waste this moment.
She raised her hand and laid it gently onto the man’s jaw as she felt his warm hands slide softly underneath her knee and onto her lower back gliding over top of her corset strings. The knight pulled away to take a breath at the foreign feelings of his hands before lifting her head again.
Diluc’s heart burned at the woman’s hand on his cheek, and he leaned into the touch. While his body felt lighter than wind from the turn of events, a part of him squeezed at the thought that Jean may not have been thinking clearly due to her fatigue. When the woman’s fingertips lightly brushed over his ear, Diluc breathed and pulled his lips from hers.
With a disappointed frown painting her full lips, Jean looked up to find Diluc’s hooded scarlet eyes on her. Softly, like the man thought that the walls would fall if he spoke louder, he asked her if she understood the way he cared about her, and at that, Jean could’ve burst into laughter, though she feared the walls might tumble too and ruin this moment.
After a moment of looking into Diluc’s soulful eyes, Jean smiled and nodded her head making her soft curls rock at her flushed cheeks. That urge to let go gently knocked at her mind, and Jean pushed her lips back to him. Briefly, a saddening thought flashed that this thing might not last, but while it was here cradled in her arms, she would relish the feeling and the tenderness that she’d only read about in her romance books.
“You don’t know it, but I’ve always wanted this.” This thought slowly wrapped around both their minds as they lost themselves in each other. Jean gently threaded her fingers through Diluc’s fiery hair as she moved slightly forward on the desk. Little tingles skittered from her midback up to her neck when he moved his hand from between her shoulder blades and up to the back of her neck just beneath her hairline. Even through his gloves, Jean could feel the heat from his hands, and that feeling brought an unfathomable comfort to her troubled mind.
Diluc’s shoulders tensed when she dragged her hand along the lapel of his jacket and let it rest there. Somewhere along the line, friendly, physical touch had become something of a foreign concept to him, and in this moment with her, he felt that he had done both of them a disservice. Nevertheless, he pushed himself to the edge of his comfort zone, and didn’t move away when her hands trailed along his arm and neck.
It seemed to the two of them that time had stopped in their little sphere, only resuming when they pulled away. The quiet of the late hour filled their ears as they took in the stillness. Diluc spoke first with a low voice that dared disturb the silence around them.
With a slow start he said, “I meant what I said, about your health. You’re just as important as the knights you lead – even more so.”
The corner of Jean’s lip pulled upward at his comment, and she chose not to respond to the latter part of his statement, choosing to focus on his concern for her though she did want to say something about his slight discredit of the knights.
After a short second, Diluc suggested, “Would you come by the tavern tomorrow if you have the time? I think we should talk.”
Though he seemed a little awkward about asking, Jean thought he played it off well and didn’t make any remark on that fact. And maybe she was just a bit distracted by the firelight flickering in his eyes and the peachy glow on his cheeks. She cleared her throat and subtly licked her lip before responding. “Of course. I agree, and I will see you then.” Hesitantly, Jean removed her hands from him, and taking the hint, Diluc did the same.
Diluc took a small step back not wanting to smother her or himself, and he nodded gentlemanlike. He made to leave the room, but stopped at the door and left her with one last sentiment. “Rest well, Jean. You deserve it, you know. And if you need anything…” Diluc stopped talking midsentence. He thought that if he finished the sentence, it would feel forced, and he didn’t know how to pull it off naturally.
Jean nodded once back, noting the small look of embarrassment painting his face. “I’ll be leaving here in a few minutes. I know I need to take better care of myself.” Jean smiled and a blush returned to her cheeks. “Thank you.”
Relieved, Diluc offered a small smile back, and calmly left her office with a gentle click of the door. After taking a moment for a deep breath, a giddy grin pulled at Jean’s lips as she watched the door in front of her. For just a second, she thought about doing just a few essential pages of paperwork, but her conversation from just a few minutes ago stood out in her mind. She meant what she told Diluc, that she would go home and get her well-deserved rest.
Jean slowly stood from the desk and glanced back at the upside-down novel laying behind her. After blowing out the candles to her side, she turned to head home. As she shut the door to her office, she thought maybe she would read that book some other time.