Pairings: Jean/Diluc, Kaeya/Rosaria
Warnings: neck biting, blood drinking, some violence, some slightly steamy scenes that stay within the T rating
Jean woke at sunset, just as the sky's oranges and pinks shone through her window.
She rolled out of her small bed and stood, the wood floorboards creaking under the new weight. She quickly changed out of her sleepwear and into the clothes that were neatly folded on her bedside table. Tight pants held up by a thick belt, which had pouches of various sizes attached to it. A thin, dark undershirt and a bulky brown coat, which was littered with pockets.
After the rest of her morning routine, she ate a simple breakfast of eggs and toast. By her front door was a table littered with tools and weapons. She walked up to it and slotted the sheathed sword into the left side of her belt. She strapped a coiled rope on the other side, along with a sheathed dagger. Finally, she attached her Vision to the back.
Her door was an old but serviceable piece of wood, which she turned the handle of and opened. She stepped outside the moment the last rays of the sun sunk under the horizon and plunged the world into darkness; it was the beginning of her work day.
Jean walked down the dirt road that would eventually lead her into the heart of town. Eventually bushes and shrubs turned to short, wooden buildings, and she reached the town square.
In the middle of the square were two bulletin boards, each lit by the light from the lamps that hung from them. The board on the left was full of ads for stores, announcements, and details about community events. Jean approached the board on the right - the one plastered with wanted posters in various states of wear and tear.
Jean scanned her eyes over them, checking for anything that had been posted since yesterday night. She wasn't a bounty hunter, but many petty criminals turned out to be vampires in disguise.
Besides, it wouldn't hurt if she managed to apprehend a criminal on the job.
A moth fluttered around the lamp above, shedding dust and scales every time it bumped the wooden bulletin board. A quick scan told her that no new bounties were posted today.
Jean immediately set out to a specific corner of the city; she was hopeful to catch the vampire that was currently on the loose in the city tonight.
She had been receiving reports recently about vampire attacks in the past few weeks. Victims from different areas of the city, all found unconscious with bite marks in their necks. Most were left alive, but one was found dead, drained of too much blood to survive until Jean could arrive to heal him.
The town council was becoming increasingly annoyed with Jean for not catching the vampire. However, the attacks had a pattern; the vampire never visited the same area of the city twice. Tonight, Jean had narrowed the possible attack locations down to two. She was optimistic that she might run into the vampire today and capture them before they could claim any more victims.
Jean patrolled the northwest corner of Mond, walking quietly through the streets and keeping her eyes open for any signs of struggle or distress.
The night was uneventful, for the most part, but then Jean saw a drunkard wander across the street in front of her. There was nothing particularly odd about the situation, but her senses went into overdrive. He subconscious had probably picked up on something that she couldn't logically solve.
A few seconds after the drunkard crossed the street, a tall figure shot from a nearby alleyway and dashed in pursuit. Before the figure could attack the drunkard, Jean dashed forward and tackled it to the ground. She could feel from the shape of the body that it was a woman. Even in the darkness, the woman's hair was clearly red.
They crashed onto the dirt road and became a flurry of limbs. Jean tried to restrain the woman, but the woman struggled. She was petite, but she was stronger than she appeared. Jean managed to catch one of the woman's arms and pinned it to the ground. The woman's other hand grew claws and she growled, baring her fangs at Jean.
Jean's suspicions were confirmed. This was the vampire she'd been searching for.
Jean reached to her belt with her free hand and drew a dagger in one swift motion. A vampire's claws were no match for a cold, metal blade in the hands of an expert.
The vampire tried wildly to claw at Jean's face, but Jean was more level headed. Jean slashed at the vampire's wrist with her dagger and the vampire grunted, her arm writhing in agony. Jean took the opportunity to toss her dagger far away and restrain the woman's other arm. Jean secured the vampire's torso in place with a well-placed knee.
The vampire struggled, but Jean had a firm hold and gravity on her side. Jean said, "You are under arrest. Struggle more and reap the consequences."
The vampire's pale eyes narrowed, and she tried to buck her body back up. However, Jean was prepared, and she pushed down harder with her knee.
Jean called the power of her Vision into her left hand. Quickly, she let go of the vampire's injured arm and thrust her wind-coated hand into the vampire's chest. She released wind from her hand and the vampire gasped as she had the wind knocked out of her. Jean said, "You have already lost."
Before the vampire had the chance to recover, Jean flipped her over. She reached for the rope hanging from the right side of her belt and quickly bound the vampire's wrists behind her back. It was a bit slippery due to the vampire's bleeding arm, but Jean still managed to securely tie a knot.
Jean waited for the vampire to catch her breath, on the alert for any sudden moves. As the vampire started to breathe more normally, though, Jean concluded that she'd probably given up. This vampire was a reasonable one; most didn't give up so quickly.
A bit breathlessly, the vampire said, "You're this city's hunter, right? Kill me."
"No."
The vampire turned her head to look at Jean and gave her a sharp look. "No? What kind of hunter are you? Kill me right here, and all your problems go away."
Jean ignored her. "I believe you are the one who killed the man on 5th Street. I've also received reports of your victims on 2nd, 11th, and 21st."
"What of it? If I'm the one who did all those things, you should kill me right here and now."
"Hunters only kill that which is unholy."
The vampire snarled. "Vampires, right?"
Jean affixed the vampire with a cold stare. "Are you one?"
"You saw my teeth and claws."
"Yes. I'm the only one."
The vampire's laughed sardonically. "Even people like you need to deal with the whims of the council. How rich."
Jean stood up, holding the rope with both hands. "Stand up. I'm taking you to the city prison. If you show symptoms of blood-hunger within two weeks, you'll be executed in the square."
The vampire stood. "How kind of you to inform me. You seem a bit soft to be a hunter."
"Would you have listened to my orders if I was rude?"
"Guess not."
Jean drew her sword from its sheath. She walked behind the vampire and pointed it at her back. She made sure to push it just hard enough. Enough so that the vampire would be able to feel the cold bite of steel - a threat at her back - but not enough to draw more than the smallest amount of blood. "Walk. I'll tell you when to turn."
The vampire walked, and Jean followed just behind her. Jean was happy to make the journey in silence except for the occasional directions, but the vampire eventually spoke. "Mond is a big city for a single hunter like you. How do you cover so much ground?"
Seeing as the vampire would be executed in two weeks' time, Jean didn't see the harm in replying honestly. "I don't. It took me several weeks just to catch you."
"How did you find me? Luck?"
"I used the process of deduction."
"Huh." The vampire fell silent for a few moments. "I heard Mond was going to try stationing two hunters at once. Whatever happened to that?"
Jean did her best to harden her voice. She refused to show weakness to this vampire. "That plan was cancelled after an incident three years ago."
"Ouch. So now you're the only one hunting vampires in the city. Doesn't it get lonely?"
"It doesn't," Jean replied, knowing fully that it was a lie. "Take a left after this building."
The vampire did so. After they walked a bit more, she said, "You know, you don't owe this city anything. And also, whatever logic you used was flawed."
Jean didn't appreciate the attempt to get under her skin, but she replied anyways. "How so?" She pressed the tip against the vampire's back again to emphasize the situation they were in right now.
The vampire seemed to get the message. "Yes, it worked out in the end. However, that must have been a coincidence. You said 5th, 2nd, 11th, and 21st Street?"
"Yes."
"I haven't stepped foot onto 2nd. Too close to the council building." The vampire didn't add more, but she didn't need to. Jean knew what she was trying to imply.
It seemed that there was still a vampire loose in the city.
After a bit of walking, they reached the city jail. It was a small building, only containing a few cells. This building was reserved only for holding vampires before they showed their true nature.
Jean stepped in front of the vampire to open the door, but she kept her eyes trained on the vampire. If she looked away for a moment, the vampire was sure to run away or attack in retaliation.
Jean opened the door and made the vampire step through first, following quickly after. When they were fully inside, Jean was greeted with the familiar row of holding cells, lit by lamplight. There was a small desk by the entrance, but no one was sitting at it.
Jean glanced around, eyes eventually landing on Kaeya. He was sitting at a table in the corner of the room, nursing a flask of some sort. He waved and said, "Jean! You really caught her. And so soon, too." He put down his flask and stood up. He unhooked a set of keys from where they were hanging on a nearby wall.
Jean said, "Drinking on the job?"
"Don't worry, I didn't drink too much. Though the night shift around here gets lonely when I'm all by myself." Kaeya walked to the nearest cell and inserted one of the keys. He swung the door open with a flourish. Addressing the vampire, he said, "A clean cell, fit for a fine woman such as yourself."
The vampire stood still, eyes trained to catch Kaeya's every move. Jean prodded with her sword. "You heard him. Get in the cell."
The vampire stood still for several moments, and Jean worried that she might be planning a last-minute escape attempt. It seemed that she knew just as well as them that stepping into that cell spelled the end for her. However, the vampire eventually walked forward, right into the cell. Jean stopped at the entrance of the cell.
Kaeya slammed the cell door shut. "Marvelous! You caught a good one this time, Jean."
The vampire rolled her eyes; her apparent nonchalance was impressive, considering the situation she was in. "'Good one,' he says."
Kaeya locked the door. "She speaks! Tell me, miss vampire, what name should I write on your paperwork?"
"Rosaria."
"How fitting. Did you choose it yourself?"
"Just as much as I chose to become a vampire."
Kaeya sucked air through his teeth sympathetically. "Ooh, that sucks. Anyways, step up and put your hands through the bars. I'll cut those ropes."
Rosaria blinked. "Okay, then." She turned around and put her bound hands through a hole in the cell bars. Kaeya quickly cut the rope and pulled it away, handing the pieces to Jean. He said, "I tried to cut near the end."
Jean looked down at the rope; the larger piece was still long enough to be used again. "Thank you."
Kaeya smiled. "I can take it from here. Get back to your patrol."
Jean nodded. Kaeya's positive attitude - even if it was forced at times - was always a pleasant part of her night, but she needed to get back to tracking down the vampire that was still on the loose. Assuming that Rosaria was telling the truth about never setting foot on 2nd Street.
Jean turned around and headed towards the door. Before she left, she heard Rosaria say, "With a dingy job like this, I'm guessing you're some sort of reject hunter. Let me guess. Never awakened a Vision? Or maybe they didn't let you sign up for training without depth perception."
Jean stopped. Rosaria was spot-on about the Vision, and Jean worried about Kaeya's reaction. The subject of no Vision had been a sore spot years ago, but she suspected that the wound had never fully healed. Especially after it had been torn open again three years ago.
She glanced over her shoulder and her fears were confirmed; Kaeya's eye was sharp with barely-hidden anger. "If you would be so kind as to shut your mouth, I'd greatly appreciate it."
"Hit a nerve, did I? Looks like that pleasant little facade of yours was thinner than I thought."
Jean interrupted, "Rosaria." Using the vampire's name felt odd on her tongue. "Do not forget your position, here."
Rosaria scoffed.
Kaeya turned to Jean. "It's fine, Jean, really. Get back to your shift." Kaeya's expression was schooled back into a neutral one, probably as a way to assure Jean.
"Alright," Jean said, and she walked out the door and back into the night.
The next night, Jean proceeded to the town square as usual. She gave the bounty board a cursory glance for updates.
Jean only spotted one new wanted poster. The drawing on it was of a roguish, dark-haired man with a distinctive scar across his left eyebrow. He was a petty criminal whose greatest charge seemed to be theft, and the bounty was low. Jean filed the information away in her mind; such a distinctive scar would be easily identified if she happened to come across the man.
When Jean was satisfied that she'd sufficiently memorized the thief's face, she set off down the nearby road, away from the lamplight of the square. It was time to start her patrol.
Jean walked up and down the streets of town, with only the glow of lights through curtains and the light of the moon to guide her. She could have brought a lantern, but, instead, she let her eyes adjust to the darkness. Vampires dwelled in darkness, so Jean did the same. She wouldn't catch anyone if she couldn't adapt to the darkness herself.
It was a standard patrol. The streets were empty, except for the occasional drunkard who staggered home past her. Even drunk, everyone in Mond gave Jean a wide berth; no one dared interfere with their vampire hunter's work.
Several hours into the night, the lamps in the nearby houses began to switch off, leaving only the light of the moon. As Jean turned the corner towards the town's shopping district, she heard a muted thump from a bit down the street. After it followed the sound of shoes dragging on dirt - the telltale sign of a scuffle. Jean briefly walked towards the sound, avoiding running to make her footsteps as quiet as possible. She quickly came upon the alleyway from which the noises were coming from.
Jean stopped at the corner and hid with her back to the wall. Despite her urge to catch the perpetrators as soon as possible, she knew better than to charge in. She would wait, listen, and assess the situation.
All she could hear was the sound of heavy breaths. There was a thud, like soft flesh hitting a wall. Slowly, she peeked out from behind her cover.
In the darkness she could see two figures, one holding the other against the wall. Her immediate reaction was to turn away, thinking she'd intruded on a moment between lovers, but then she looked again.
The person against the wall was unconscious, and the person holding him there had their jaws clamped on their neck.
A vampire.
Jean quickly stepped out from her cover and drew her sword. "Halt," she said. Perhaps if she could distract the vampire, it would give her the opportunity to separate it from its victim.
The vampire jerked away from its victim and let him fall to the floor, to Jean's surprise. She had been ready to fight to rescue the man.
The vampire stumbled backwards and brought a hand to its mouth. It cursed, "Oh shit, what have I-"
The vampire turned towards Jean, and she could see red eyes, almost glowing in the dark. The vampire's hair was wild, tied in a low ponytail. In the faint outlines of moonlight, Jean could see that his hair was red.
The vampire's eyes snapped towards her. He rasped, "You're a hunter, right? Get him to safety." He started backing away, towards the other side of the alleyway.
Jean ran forward, sword raised. She wouldn't give this vampire the chance to claim any more victims.
The vampire held out a hand. "Stay away!" A puff of fire shot from his glove, forcing Jean to stop short, only inches from the flames.
The fire only lit up the alleyway for a moment, but Jean knew exactly what she saw.
The vampire had red eyes and bright red hair. His face was one she knew well, even after years of separation, and it was contorted in a wide-eyed expression that surely mirrored her own.
It was Diluc, her old friend.
The friend who had supposedly died along with his father three years ago.
"Jean."
"Diluc?" Jean leaned forward and took another step. "Is it truly you?"
Diluc jerked backwards. "Not any closer." His breaths were shaky and uneven, and loud enough that Jean could hear even from a distance. "I'm sorry, I waited too long, I-"
Jean stood still. "Too long for what?"
"Feeding. Two weeks." Diluc's eyes sharpened, tracing somewhere south of Jean's face. Probably her neck. "And you're looking really-" Diluc shook his head and started backing up. "No. I'm going. Don't let me hurt you. And please heal that man."
Jean glanced at the man on the ground. He was still unconscious.
Jean was hit with a sudden pang of panic. Was he even still alive?
Jean glanced back up and saw Diluc slowly backing away towards the other side of the alley. When he reached the other side, he turned around and bolted, immediately leaving Jean's line of sight.
She had half a mind to chase after him. Perhaps they had shared a goal years ago, but Diluc was nothing more than a threat to Mond, now. However, the thought of killing him didn't even feel real or reasonable yet.
Him being alive didn't feel real.
Jean got a break from her thoughts when she realized that getting the man on the ground medical attention came before anything else. She would figure out what to do about Diluc another day.
She knelt down and listened closely for the man's breathing. He was alive. Jean touched the tip of her sword lightly to the ground and closed her eyes. She said a prayer and blessed the ground around her with the power of her Vision.
She flipped the man over on his back and watched as his wounds quickly healed themselves. Even the fang marks on his neck began to knit themselves back together.
Jean brushed the man's dark hair from his face to see if she could identify him. Perhaps she could send him back to his family as soon as tonight.
That train of thought stopped short when Jean caught sight of his face in full. He had hollow cheeks but was rough around the edges. There was a scar on his left eyebrow, which Jean recognized instantly.
This was the thief from the newest wanted poster.
After Jean had mostly healed the man - Diluc's victim, even if she hated to think of it that way - but not enough to make him conscious again, she dragged him back to the jail. He would be put in the town prison with other criminals in the morning, but for now, he would need to be held by the specialized unit.
Jean opened the door to the jail building. As she reached down to drag the man the rest of the way in, she heard voices floating out from inside.
Rosaria said, "Damn, I don't have any hearts."
"Oh, I know you don't have a heart," Kaeya said.
"Shut up."
Kaeya laughed. "Draw your card."
They seemed to already be getting along much better than last time.
Jean dragged the man into the room and closed the door behind her. She must have made a lot of noise, because when she looked towards the jail cells, Kaeya and Rosaria were both looking at her. They were sitting on the ground, playing cards through the bars.
Kaeya immediately stood up and started walking towards Jean. "Another one? You've been on a roll, these past couple of days."
When Jean met Kaeya's eyes, the panic from earlier suddenly set back in with full force. The words were already on the tip of her tongue.
Your brother isn't dead.
He's a vampire, and I saw him today.
Kaeya came to a stop in front of her. "Jean? Is something wrong?"
Jean shook her head. She tried to speak, but needed to clear her throat once before her voice would come out. "Not at all. The person I just brought in is a criminal, not a vampire."
Kaeya studied her for several seconds. Jean was afraid that he might question her further - and that she wouldn't know how to answer him - but then he nodded. "Alright. Here, let me unlock one of the cells and I'll help you move him."
Kaeya left to do so, and Jean was left to try to tamp down her rising panic. What was she supposed to say to Kaeya? Would it be better to wait until a different time?
Rosaria started speaking, and Jean zeroed in on the words to distract herself from her thoughts. "I thought this place was only for vampires."
"It is," Kaeya easily replied, "but the police won't be accepting new criminals in their jail until morning. So, many criminals get stuck with me for the night."
"How impractical."
"I won't deny it."
In what seemed like no time at all, Kaeya returned and lifted the criminal's legs. He said, "You're okay with the other side, right?"
Jean jumped a little, and she could see in Kaeya's expression that he noticed. She said, "Yes, that is fine." She picked up the criminal's torso, and together they lowered him onto the jail cell's hard bed. Jean quickly untied the rope around him and stowed it back on her belt. She and Kaeya left the cell, and Kaeya locked it with the key.
"All in a night's work," Kaeya said. "Don't worry, I'll handle the transfer in the morning. You should get some rest after apprehending him."
"Thank you. I did not capture him myself, though."
"Oh? Who did, then?"
Your brother. "The vampire that's still loose in the city got to him before I did. The vampire ran away, but I was able to heal the victim and take him here myself."
Kaeya affixed Jean with a concerned stare. "Jean, come over here with me for a bit." He walked towards the jail's front door and opened it. Jean followed, and stood outside when Kaeya gestured for her to do so. Kaeya stood in the open doorway, probably so he could keep half an eye on the prisoners. It was the best they could do to have a private conversation at the moment. Kaeya said, "Is that all that happened?"
"The vampire was-" Jean couldn't force the words out. The moment she said it out loud, it would mean it was all real. "I will tell you on another day."
"That's perfectly fine," Kaeya hurried to clarify. "I know that things aren't the same anymore," Jean internally cringed at the allusion to happier days, "but I'm still always here for you if you need to talk."
Jean felt the tight coil of stress unwind, if only a small amount. "Thank you."
"Always here. Now, go rest at home. You deserve it."
Jean seriously considered the idea, but her terrible mental state was no excuse to slack off. A bad day didn't change the fact that she was the only vampire hunter in Mond. "I will, after I complete my patrol."
Kaeya sighed. "Alright. I know I can't sway you." He smiled. "Be careful out there."
"I will."
Jean rushed through her patrol routes all-too-quickly. The thoughts about Diluc consumed her mind, her anxiety manifesting in a quickened gait.
Her mind went around in circles. Diluc was alive. He was a vampire with a Vision, a feat that should have been impossible. She needed to tell Kaeya, but she had no idea how. She needed to do something, but she had no idea what.
Instead of going through her patrol routes again to fill the time until morning, Jean rushed home early. There was something she needed to check.
Jean opened the front door of her home more roughly than intended; it audibly slammed against the inner wall. She didn't take any time to acknowledge the mistake, though, and shut it more softly than she opened it. She walked immediately into her study and crouched down at the lone shelf. She pulled out a trunk and opened it, getting on her knees to shuffle through the documents inside.
"Documents" was perhaps a glorified word for them. Truthfully, they were nothing more than newspaper clippings, written letters from the townspeople, and notes that Jean had jotted down herself based on overheard town gossip. There was no official documentation of vampire sightings, except for the encounters that overlapped with crimes such as murder. For tracking, Jean needed to rely only on her own information that she'd gathered in this way.
She shuffled through the assorted papers as quickly as possible, looking for a few in particular. Rosaria had acknowledged by omission that she was responsible for the crimes on 5th, 11th, and 21st Street, but she had explicitly said that she never stepped near 2nd. The documents about those four particular crimes were relatively easy to find, since they were near the top of the stack.
Jean laid out all the papers in front of her. The encounter on 5th was actually one that Jean had official police documentation of; it had resulted in the death of the victim. According to the police report, the victim had been a young man of the age of 19; the fact that he had died so quickly from blood loss was a surprise.
The intel about 11th was hearsay. On the small note were handwritten notes of Jean's own creation, detailing as much as possible the rumors about the married woman on 11th Street who was hiding bite marks of some sort. Not much to go off of.
The one on 21st was an almost-death, an older man that Jean had only caught in the nick of time to heal with her Vision. This was also only recorded by Jean's own hand, but she knew the information was real because she had been there herself.
Finally, there was the encounter on 2nd Street. This one had actually been a tip from Kaeya; the note was written in his handwriting. A couple of weeks ago, the police found a young woman at their doorstep with bite marks in her neck, but her identity was unknown. After sending messengers to the nearby towns, it was discovered that she had a bounty on her head for killing a man in the next town over, for what was probably a personal reason. She had probably fled to Mond to escape recognition. She had claimed herself that the attack had happened on 2nd, though no traces were found after the fact.
With all of the facts laid out, Jean could clearly see the difference between the first three attacks and the last one. Rosaria's targets had no clear pattern, except for the fact that they were healthy people and lived on opposite sides of town.
Diluc, however, had a much clearer pattern of attack. His first victim in Mond had been a woman with a bounty from the next town over. He had probably gone straight from there to Mond and recognized the woman by coincidence.
His second victim was a criminal with a bounty placed by Mond itself, on the night the bounty was placed.
Jean needed to see him. She wanted to ask him questions - ask if he was doing it this way on purpose. She wanted to know what kind of person he was, if he could still be considered a person at all. What did it mean that he still had control of his Vision?
Capturing him should have been her main goal, but something inside her cringed away from the idea.
If Diluc was only targeting victims with bounties on their heads, then Jean would be able to find him soon enough.
It took almost a week for Jean to muster up the courage to face Kaeya again. She was lucky that she hadn't run into any criminal activity on her patrols, because otherwise she would have had to face him much sooner than she wanted.
She walked into the jail building and saw Kaeya and Rosaria sitting next to each other against the far wall, again with the bars separating them. The way they were looking at each other made it appear like an intimate heart-to-heart, and Jean felt like she was interrupting something.
Before she could try to step back out of the building - she could surely come back another day - Kaeya spotted her and waved. "Hey, Jean. Got another one for me, today?"
It was too late to back out now. "Not at all." However, seeing Kaeya's easy smile, Jean felt a wave of preemptive guilt. With the news she was going to give him, she was going to turn his nice evening into something sour. "Can we talk outside?"
Kaeya shrugged. "As much as I can go outside, sure." He stood up, then looked down at Rosaria. "Are you going to be okay all by yourself?"
"Funny." She waved him off. "Go have your talk."
It was terribly odd that Kaeya was seeking approval from his prisoner to go outside. If Jean wasn't already being torn up on the inside, she would have questioned it.
Jean and Kaeya headed outside, though Kaeya still stood in the doorway. Kaeya crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. "Is this about what was bothering you, last week?"
"It is."
Kaeya gestured a hand as a signal for her to continue.
The words that had been festering in her chest for a week burst out in a single breath; she couldn't hold it in any longer. "Diluc is alive."
Kaeya's eyes widened, and he pushed himself into a fully standing position. "You saw him?"
It was a much more lackluster reaction than Jean was expecting. "You do not seem surprised."
Kaeya breathed out slowly. "I am, trust me. I'm just good at hiding it. But you're right, I'm not as surprised as I should be."
Jean had no idea what that could mean. "You knew he was alive, then?"
"Not exactly." He glanced over his shoulder into the building, probably making sure that Rosaria wasn't trying to listen in. He turned back to Jean and said, "I never told you this, but there was never a body."
It wasn't surprising to hear now, but Jean would've freaked if Kaeya had told her this a couple weeks ago. "Neither of them?"
"No, just Diluc. Dad was... I saw him. I was there when he stopped breathing. He couldn't even speak, with that terrible vampire bite in the front of his neck."
This part was something Jean already knew, but she stepped forward and put a hand on Kaeya's arm. The days of comforting him every day and making sure he was fed were long over, but she could still show her support when he needed it.
Kaeya slightly smiled. "Thanks. But anyways, that's not the point here. The point is that I never saw Diluc's body, except for a terrible bloody patch on the ground. I thought that there was no way he could've survived with so little blood. The police thought the same. So, he was pronounced dead."
A fact they both knew too well.
Kaeya continued, "Secretly, I always hoped he might be alive, still. I'm sorry I never told you."
Despite Kaeya's outgoingness, he was a very private person. Jean wanted to be angry, but the anxiety rendered her unable to feel much else. "You are forgiven," she said, before she could change her mind.
Softly, she added, "He's a vampire now." And that was the crux of the problem.
Kaeya's eye looked terribly sad. "I know. How else would he have survived?"
"We should do something about it."
Jean and Kaeya stared at each other, neither of them finding the words to fill the space. They both wanted to do something about Diluc, but neither of them knew what. Between the two of them, they had to be able to figure something out. Jean didn't want to think about the possibility that they couldn't.
Jean decided to start the conversation. "Killing him is out of the question."
Kaeya affixed her with a hard stare. "Is it?"
Jean knew Kaeya well enough to know that he wasn't genuinely arguing with her statement. He was pushing her, testing her resolve. "It is," she said, but it was obvious in her voice that she wasn't resolved at all. Usually, she was able to exude an air of confidence with ease, but, when talking about this specific subject, that skill failed her.
"Do you need me to convince you?" There it was. Kaeya had already made up his mind; he just wanted to make sure that Jean was with him.
And she was. "Please."
"Look," Kaeya said, "you don't owe this town shit. Neither of us do."
His words were reminiscent of how Rosaria was speaking on the day Jean first met her. Jean wondered if perhaps Kaeya was spending a bit too much time talking with her.
Kaeya continued, "This town has done nothing but take from you. From us. You threw away all thoughts of having a normal life, just to become this town's vampire hunter. And how do they repay you?"
"A salary. A home to live in." Jean was purposely contrarian to draw out Kaeya's entire argument.
"It's a terrible salary; I would know, since they pay us the same. Funny, because you have more qualifications than I do."
"A Vision is the only difference in our skill sets."
"And it's everything. But that's besides the point. That house also isn't from Mond. I know you inherited it from your mother. The mother that is currently stationed away from you in Springvale, by the way."
Jean was already out of arguments. Mond had never treated her family or Kaeya's very well at all, and she knew it. She instead tried a different angle. "Being a hunter is my duty."
"Why is that? Because you awakened a Vision? That's not something you chose yourself."
Jean was fully aware. "It is my duty because, without it, the citizens of Mond would be helpless against the vampires that plague the night. Besides, you know as much as I do. Vampires are unholy creatures."
"The same Mond that took so much away from you? And what kind of unholy creature possesses a Vision? A gift from the gods."
The last point exactly matched up with Jean's own belief, so she ignored it in favor of arguing against the first. "'Mond' is not a collective. This town is made up of individuals, not an evil monolith conspiring against us."
"That's true." Kaeya said, and then he lapsed into silence.
The fact that he didn't have an argument would usually mean that Jean had 'won.' However, she didn't want to win this argument. She hoped desperately to lose. "Perhaps letting one vampire live doesn't mean I need to abandon my duty."
Kaeya took a moment to digest her words, and then his eye lit up with a fire that Jean knew well. The cogs in his brain were turning, thinking of a plan just going off of Jean's half-thought-out words. "We know him. We can reason with him."
Jean nodded. "I spoke with him, if very briefly, during our first encounter. He feels guilty for what he's doing, but his bloodlust drives him to attack innocents without reason." The word 'innocents' rang untrue in her mind. Diluc's victims tended to be criminals with bounties on their heads.
Kaeya seemed to have the exact same train of thought, despite having less information than Jean did. "Isn't he the one who took down the thief you brought in last week?"
"He was," Jean said. However, she couldn't draw any more conclusions without more information. "I will need to speak with him."
"Check the bounty board. Chances are, he'll go for another one."
Jean nodded. She was already thinking the same. "I am already planning to do so."
"Good." After a pause, Kaeya said, "It'll be dangerous, you know."
"Would that stop you, in my position?"
"Not one bit." Kaeya sighed. "I wish I could go with you, but I'm required to be here every night as long as we have a prisoner. As much as I hate to admit it I," he interrupted himself with a sardonic laugh, "I want to see him." His eye scanned the street behind Jean, as if Diluc might pop out at any moment.
"You will. Soon."
Kaeya tore his gaze from the street and turned it back to Jean. "If you find him, tell him I say hi?" It was a poor attempt to lighten the mood, but Jean appreciated the effort.
"I will tell him. A hundred times over, if i need to."
"Good."
Mondstadt's trust meant nothing when compared to the life of a friend.
After that revelation, Jean gathered tips about nearby criminals with much more rigor than usual. She needed to find Diluc before he could get to anyone else.
She tried not to think about the fact that he had almost killed his last victim.
Thinking rationally, she probably had at least a week before Diluc would be out on the streets again. Last time, he had said he waited too long to feed; he was probably waiting until he reached his limit every time he went out.
It was over a week later when a new bounty showed up on the bounty board. Jean stayed extra alert on her patrols, even mixing them up a bit to try to catch either Diluc or the criminal, but it was no use. A single person wasn't able to cover the whole of Mond.
Often, in times like these, Jean would enlist Kaeya's assistance. Despite his lack of a Vision, he had received some hunter training and was a valuable asset in any situation involving vampires. However, he needed to keep watch over Rosaria, lest she escape somehow when no one was there to watch her.
The next day, Jean was relieved when the bounty was still on the board. It seemed that Diluc hadn't gotten to them yet. She had another chance.
A stop at the police station gave her information about a suspicious figure lurking near one of the less-popular bars in town. It was unclear whether the person in question was the criminal or Diluc, but, either way, it was a valuable lead.
The next night, Jean threw out her patrol route in favor of lurking by the bar herself. She hunkered down in the alleyway between the bar and a closed restaurant, in wait for who she hoped would be Diluc.
She waited for hours. She watched as the bar's patrons slowly went home for the night, and the bar's lanterns eventually shut off. There was still no sign of anyone who was particularly suspicious, but she refused to go back to her regular patrol. If she left, she was sure she would miss something.
When the night was empty and there shouldn't have been anyone around, Jean heard quiet footsteps nearby. She immediately stood up, keeping her feet in place so as not to alert whoever was there. She wanted to draw her dagger or her sword, but the sound of metal sliding out of a sheath would be too loud in the quiet of the night. Her eyes darted back and forth, on the lookout. Her eyes were adjusted to the light, but it was a new moon. There was no moonlight to light up anything.
The footsteps suddenly sped up and Jean turned towards the noise, but, by the time she noticed, she was too late. Someone ran up and grabbed both of her shoulders. Jean immediately recognized Diluc's voice, even though it was wild and trembling. "I'm so sorry for this." He craned his head towards Jean's neck.
Jean pushed his chest away with one hand, and pushed at his shoulder with the other. "Diluc."
Diluc's eyes were hazy, and his mouth hung slightly open. However, when his eyes shifted to Jean's face, they widened briefly with clarity. "Jean. Stop me, I can't, I-" His eyes became half-lidded, and he tried to pry Jean's hands off of him.
Before he could move her hands away, Jean shot a burst of wind at his chest from her hand. Diluc staggered back, breathing heavily. Jean had meant to knock the wind out of him, but perhaps some old, nostalgic part of her held her back.
"Diluc," she tried again, "I want to talk."
Diluc quickly backed away. "I can't. Get away, right now." His breaths were heavy, and Jean spotted the elongated fangs in his open mouth.
Jean braced herself to run at any moment. Whether she would be running away from Diluc or towards him, she wasn't sure yet. "How can I help you?" It was a stupid question. She couldn't cure his vampirism, and the only thing that would stop his frenzy was if he got blood.
"Get. Away." Diluc was shaking. He held up a hand and summoned a fire in it. It wasn't an aggressive gesture; it was a static light. Immediately, he shut his mouth and stood up straighter. He slapped a hand over his mouth and nose before speaking. His speech was slightly muffled by his hand. "Seeing your face helps. Are you going to lock me up, now?"
"No. I would like to talk."
"Every time I open my mouth, I can almost taste it; the scent is too strong."
"The scent of blood?"
Diluc lunged forward and his eyes dilated. Jean prepared the power of her Vision once again, but Diluc stopped himself before he got too close. "Yes," he said in a clipped voice. "I'm leaving." He turned around and tried to run in the opposite direction. However, he was shaky on his feet. Jean dropped to the ground and kicked at his legs, and he fell to the ground.
The fire went out, and they were plunged into darkness. Jean's eyes weren't adjusted back to the darkness, so she could only hear Diluc's voice. "Let me go. I'm going to attack you, I'm serious." Jean could hear him scrambling away in the dark. He lit the fire in his hand again as he stood up.
Jean stood up as well. She refused to give up. "I need to know what happened-" Diluc's head snapped away from her, towards the other end of the alley. Jean was filled with a sense of dread.
Diluc took off in a sprint in the other direction, this time too fast for Jean to stop him. His shakiness from before was gone, replaced by determination. Or desperation. He had probably caught the scent of blood.
Jean took off after him. In an attempt to snap him out of it, she shouted, "Diluc!" However, he either didn't hear or didn't care.
When they got to the open street, Diluc took a left. The sudden change in direction startled Jean, and she lost several seconds' worth of distance trying to adjust her trajectory. Jean watched in horror as Diluc went into an alley across the way and it glowed brightly with a blast of fire.
Jean ran to the alley as fast as she could. When she got there, she saw that Diluc had tackled someone to the ground. She ran forward, wrapped her arms securely around his waist, and yanked him off. The person Diluc had tackled scrambled out from underneath Diluc and ran away.
Diluc growled. He struggled against Jean's grip, but surprisingly made no move to harm her. Urgently, Jean said in his ear, "I won't let you harm him."
"Why? He's a criminal. If it's going to be anyone, why not him?" Jean's suspicions were confirmed. Diluc was targeting criminals on purpose.
"He does not deserve to die."
The harsh words seemed to snap Diluc back out of it, because he stopped struggling. Jean loosened her grip. Diluc said, "You're right." The way he said the words was full of hate, but Jean suspected the hate wasn't aimed towards her. "Though, I hate to break it to you, but I need to feed on something tonight. Or you need to take me in and have me executed."
The second option was one that Jean didn't want to think about. Maybe she should've let Diluc feed on that criminal after all.
Instead, she said some of the least-thought-out words of her life. "Feed on me, instead."
Diluc's body tensed all over. "What?" He took in a loud breath.
"Feed on me. Then, you won't have the urge to hurt anyone else."
Diluc grabbed both of Jean's arms to remove them, and she let him. He turned around and roughly pushed her back against the nearby wall. "Honestly, I don't have it in me to refuse. Are you sure about this?"
Jean nodded, not able to find her words. As she did so, she saw Diluc's eyes snap to the part of her neck that the nod exposed.
Diluc said, "Draw your sword."
Jean wordlessly drew her sword from its sheath, not wanting to break the fragile tension between them.
Diluc took hold of the wrist of her sword arm gently. He leaned in towards Jean and slowly brought her wrist out and upwards. He stopped when the tip of her sword was pointed straight at his neck. "So you can stop me if I go too far."
Now Jean felt the need to speak up. "This is unnecessary." She needed to keep her sword hand from shaking, even with Diluc's hand clasped on top of hers. She couldn't bear to threaten the life of someone she'd just gotten back.
Diluc looked straight into her eyes, his forehead almost touching hers. Their almost gentle proximity contrasted with the steel that was pointed at his neck. "Why? Because you trust me?"
Jean swallowed. He wasn't incorrect in his assumption.
Diluc continued, "I'm flattered, but I'm not the same person I was three years ago. You don't trust me; you trust a bygone memory of someone who once was."
Jean didn't believe that. "We've been apart from some time, but that does not make you a different person than you were before."
"Do you see the situation we're in, Jean? I'm about to sink my teeth into your neck."
Jean stared back, not knowing what to say. He'd made his point. She did her best to steady her sword hand, and pushed the blade a bit closer to his neck. Despite the fact that the thought of plunging in the sword made her heart ache. "Okay. We'll do it your way." She could hear her voice shake.
"Good," Diluc said. "Are you ready?" He slowly inched his face closer to her neck, and she could feel his surprisingly warm breaths on her skin.
"I'm ready."
Jean felt Diluc's lips on the space between her neck and shoulder; it could have been a kiss, if not for the situation they were in. She was again surprised by the warmth of his lips against her cold skin. She could feel her pulse against his lips; it seemed that he had found the vein he was looking for.
Without warning, Diluc's lips parted and Jean felt the sharp points of his teeth sink into her skin. She let out an involuntary gasp at the sensation. It was painful, but the softness of his lips and the heat from his mouth made it almost pleasurable.
Diluc's fangs lifted and he shifted his mouth a bit higher on Jean's neck. With the plug of his fangs gone, Jean could feel the blood start to seep out of her wounds. She thought that the worst of it was already over, but then she felt Diluc's hot, wet tongue against her skin.
Jean sharply inhaled. Without thinking, she raised her free hand and clutched the hair at the back of Diluc's head, keeping him in place at her neck. Diluc made a noise in the back of his throat, and Jean could feel the vibration through where his mouth met her body.
She realized that her attention had been brought away from her sword hand for too long and her eyes darted to it. She could see it slightly trembling, but she was able to hold it mostly still.
Diluc's tongue continuously lapped at her neck, and Jean could hear him breathing heavily through his nose. Her own breaths were quieter, but she realized that at some point she'd switched to breathing through her slightly parted lips.
Jean's muscles began to feel weaker, but she did her best to stay standing. She would push herself to her limit before she stopped him. She focused on the sensations of Diluc's tongue to distract herself from her encroaching exhaustion. Honestly, it wasn't even difficult to distract herself in that way; it felt good.
Eventually, though, her knees buckled without warning, her muscles not able to support her body weight any longer, even being pressed against the wall. Before she could fall, Diluc caught her around the torso in an embrace. He said, "Heal yourself. You've lost too much blood."
The haziness hit Jean all at once, with no more sensations at her neck to focus on. She fought through the fog in her mind and called her vision to summon a holy circle on the ground around them. The circle gave off a low light, bathing her, Diluc, and the walls around them in a soothing teal. Jean immediately felt her strength start to return; the healing circle replenished the blood in her veins, and it easily healed the stinging fang marks in her neck until she could no longer feel them.
When Jean gained back enough strength to focus, she realized that she was no longer holding her sword at Diluc's neck. It had fallen down to almost waist-level, despite the fact that she felt like she had been holding it in place the whole time. She lowered the blade the rest of the way and wrapped her other arm around Diluc.
There was no longer any reason to keep hold of each other, but Jean didn't let go of Diluc. He didn't let go of her, either. As Jean regained her full strength, she let the healing circle dissipate, and they were returned back to darkness.
Diluc said, "Why didn't you stop me?"
Jean wasn't completely sure, herself. "I wanted to push through the tiredness until I couldn't bear it anymore."
To Jean's surprise, Diluc laughed. Perhaps it was the high from drinking so much blood. "I thought you might be different, but you haven't changed a bit."
Jean wanted to say the same, but Diluc had changed a lot. His demeanor held a lot more urgency, now, whereas three years ago he was one of the most carefree people she'd ever met. "You've changed a lot." There was a brief pause. Jean instantly regretted her words; of course, that would be a sore spot. "I apologize, I didn't mean-"
"I know," Diluc interrupted, hugging her body closer. "I know that all too well."
There was another silence, and they had probably been hugging for too long. Still, neither of them moved. Jean asked, "What do we do now?"
"I don't know. Actually, I was going to ask the same thing of you. Obviously, you aren't planning to arrest me."
"You have guessed correctly."
"How the hell do you plan to keep me off the streets, then? You've seen what I do to people."
Diluc liked to make a lot of comments about his vampirism; it seemed that his condition was something that was always on his mind, nowadays. Not that Jean could blame him. She had gone through the same vampire hunter training as Diluc. It was no surprise that he hadn't adjusted, even after three years of vampirism.
To Jean, there was only one clear solution, at least right now. "Next time you feel even an inkling of hunger, find me. If you quench your thirst before it gets too difficult to deal with, you won't be driven to..." Jean struggled to find a term that wasn't too harsh, "harm people anymore."
That was the thing that finally made Diluc jerk back, out of Jean's one-handed embrace. "You would do that for me?" It was too dark to properly see Diluc's expression, but his voice held a lilt of hope to it. However, the hope dropped from his voice as quickly as it came. "I don't want to hurt you."
"You won't."
"What happened today was dangerous."
"I know better now. Next time, I'll be more careful."
There was a pause before Diluc answered. "I want to argue, but," he breathed slowly out of his nose, "I'm not exactly in a position to refuse." His voice trembled with a fragility that made Jean's heart break for him. Whatever had happened three years ago had stripped away his self-assurance. "I don't want to hurt people anymore."
"You won't," Jean said, with as much confidence as she could muster. If she said it confidently enough, maybe it would be true.
"If we're really going through with this, how can I repay you? I have nothing now."
Jean took the time to give the question the proper amount of thought. The Diluc of the past wouldn't have minded the silence, so she hoped that the Diluc in front of her would understand, as well.
She stopped that train of thought before it went any further. She refused to compare the Diluc of the past and present like that, like they were different people. She would rely only on what she knew about Diluc, the person who was standing in front of her right now.
Diluc still had the power of his Vision. He was skilled in combat. He was able to take down criminals with ease, if his attacks in Mond were any indication. He was someone who tried to keep his moral compass, despite how much his hunger drove his actions. While he no longer fought for justice, it was obvious that he desired to, with how he had purged the criminals in Mond.
Jean finally settled on her answer. "Help me protect this city, with everything you have."
"I'd... like that a lot."
Jean gave Diluc directions to her house, in case he had forgotten where it was - he hadn't - and instructed him to come next time he felt even a small amount of bloodlust.
In the meantime, she visited Kaeya once again to fill him in. He was talking with Rosaria as usual, but he left the conversation so he and Jean could speak outside in their usual spot.
After Jean filled him in on everything she could think of, Kaeya said, "Can I visit him, soon?" His voice ached with hidden longing, and Jean cursed herself for not thinking about arranging a meeting between them before. Kaeya and Diluc deserved to be reunited as soon as possible.
"I can ask him about it whenever he visits. It should be in only a few days, if he follows my instructions. I do not want to overwhelm him with a surprise visit from you."
Kaeya nodded, a bit too quickly. "Yeah. I get it."
"I apologize for not thinking of this before. We could have arranged for a meeting sooner."
"No, it's totally fine. From what you told me, you were probably thinking of a lot of other things last time you met him." Kaeya waggled his eyebrows. His attempt to make light of the situation told Jean that she was already forgiven.
"Thank you. I promise to arrange for it next time I meet him."
Both of them avoided mentioning all of the ways this plan could go wrong. Jean wasn't sure whether it was out of optimism or denial.
As promised, a few days later, Jean heard a knock at her front door, only an hour or so before morning.
She opened the door, which revealed Diluc. "Come in," she said.
Diluc walked in through the door and closed it behind him. In the clear lamplight of her home, Jean realized that Diluc looked much worse for wear than she had thought. His hair was dirty and matted, and his dark jacket looked like it hadn't been washed in days. Jean supposed that made sense, considering his only option was probably the river several miles away from town.
Diluc examined the living room. "It's been a while since I've been here, but it looks almost the same as when I left. Where is Frederica?"
It was odd, having such a casual conversation with Diluc after their encounters in the city. However, Jean wasn't opposed to the notion. "My mother was stationed in Springvale to make up for their lack of hunter."
"I see." Diluc stared at Jean. "Sorry, I don't really know how to start this conversation."
It was honestly a bit of a relief to hear. "Me neither."
They stood there in silence.
Finally, Jean said, "Do you want to wash up? I can draw warm water for you."
"Sure. Thank you. I don't have a change of clothes, though."
"I can lend you some of mine."
"Oh. Thank you."
Before the conversation could get any more awkward, Jean promptly left to draw a bath. Now that they weren't in a life-or-death situation, she wasn't sure how to act around Diluc.
When the bath was ready, she went back to her bedroom to find the darkest, baggiest clothes she could, and set them beside the bath. She fetched Diluc and directed to the bathroom, rather uneventfully.
While she waited, Jean sat on the ground with her sharpening stone and busied herself with sharpening her sword, if only to take her mind off of the fact that Diluc was in her house right at this very moment. It still didn't feel real.
After a long time, Diluc finally walked in. His hair was still slightly damp, and didn't look brushed yet, but he looked clean, otherwise. The dark, long-sleeved shirt Jean had picked out looked good on him, but the pants hugged his figure in a way that he probably didn't like. The pants were also noticeably a couple of inches too short.
Jean said, "I apologize for the clothes. They were the best I could find."
Diluc shook his head. "No, I appreciate it."
They were back to awkward silence again.
Jean said, "Do you need a brush?"
"I do, but..." Diluc trailed off. "I'm sorry, but I can't stop focusing on..."
After a moment, Jean caught on. She put the blade she had been sharpening back in its sheath and stood in front of him. She tilted her head to the side, moving her ponytail to give a clear view of her neck. "Here." It was probably better to get it out of the way early, anyways.
Diluc sucked in a sharp breath. "Holy- okay. Yeah." He put a hand on Jean's upper arm, and the other on her shoulder. He craned his head towards her exposed neck. "Is this okay?"
Jean was hit by the contrast between their previous meeting and this one. Now that Diluc wasn't desperate for blood, he was being much more careful with her. "Yes, it's okay."
"Should you get your sword?"
"No need. My Vision is in my pocket. It should suffice."
"Right." Diluc put his lips to her neck, and Jean let out a breath. However, Diluc paused. "I need to make a wound. Do you want it over with quickly, or should I go slow?" His lips brushed against her neck as he spoke.
Jean was already finding it hard to think, despite not losing any blood yet, but she managed to decide. "Slowly." The situation would be less likely to get out of control, that way. She didn't want a repeat of what happened in the alley.
"Okay."
Diluc opened his mouth and there was an acute pain as his teeth sunk into Jean's skin. The pain got more intense the deeper his fangs went, and Jean almost regretted asking for him to go slowly. However, she refused to go back on it, and she held back a groan of pain. She didn't want him to know that it hurt her.
After what felt like several minutes, Diluc finally removed his fangs, and they were replaced by his tongue. Jean managed to keep her mouth shut, but she wanted desperately to gasp at the feeling. She could feel her blood leaving her body in pulses, but Diluc lapped it up quickly.
Absently, she wondered if such incessant licking was even necessary to drink the blood.
Right when Jean began to feel the tiredness of blood loss, Diluc raised his head. "That should be it."
Jean summoned the power of her Vision and quickly healed herself. "That was all?"
Diluc nodded. "It's easier if I can feed more often. Waiting a long time in-between feedings makes it harder to hold myself back."
"I see." Jean looked around for something to wipe her bloody shoulder. She leaned into the kitchen nearby and grabbed a cloth, with which she wiped up the excess blood. "I can get your hairbrush, now."
Diluc wiped his mouth. "I forgot about that, thanks."
Jean left and quickly returned with her hairbrush. She moved to hand it to him, but paused, holding the brush in midair. "I can help you with the tangles, if you want."
Diluc scowled a bit. "I'm not helpless, you know."
"I know." Jean couldn't pinpoint the reason she wanted to help. Maybe she thought it might help dispel the awkwardness between them. "I offered because I want to help."
"Oh." Diluc's scowl cleared. "I'll take you up on that, then."
They went to the dining room and arranged the chairs in such a way that Jean could brush Diluc's hair without a problem. As Jean started at the ends of his hair, she asked, "How have you been?"
She couldn't see Diluc's reaction, but she wanted to take back the words as soon as she'd said them. Obviously, he had not been doing very well.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked that."
"It's fine," Diluc replied. "I hope you don't mind if I direct that question back at you, instead. Tell me what you've been up to. About Kaeya, too."
Jean smiled. "Sure." As she brushed through his hair, she told the most fun stories she could think of from the years Diluc had been away. It finally dispelled the thick blanket of awkwardness surrounding them, and they spoke more easily for the rest of the morning.
Later, they put the dining chairs back and sat at the dining table. Jean asked, "Do you have a place to sleep?"
Diluc's silence was answer enough.
Jean continued, "You can sleep on my bed, here. I can take the sofa in the living room." The only other bed in the house was buried under boxes in Frederica's old room, and it was much too dirty to sleep on.
"You're doing so many favors for me already. If anything, I should be the one sleeping on the sofa."
"Please." Jean guessed that it had been a long time since Diluc spent a night on anything even mildly comfortable. "Take the bed, tonight. We can switch off, if you need."
Diluc briefly sighed. "Okay. As long as we switch."
"We will."
As a result of that conversation, Diluc started living in her house.
Jean arranged for Kaeya to visit. When she visited the jail to ask him about it, she found him and Rosaria standing as close as humanly possible, with Kaeya's forehead pressed against the cell bars.
She made a loud noise to get them to separate and pretended she saw nothing.
It turned out that the best time was at the end of Kaeya's shift, close to morning.
On the day of the visit, Jean was the one who answered the door and showed Kaeya inside, but the moment Diluc and Kaeya's eyes met, Jean knew that this reunion was for them, and them alone. After three years, they both had a family again. And they could finally grieve together for a death three years in the past.
Jean quietly slipped into her bedroom and pretended not to hear the weeping in the other room.
Later, when Jean finally joined them, they talked and laughed like nothing was amiss, and resumed their friendships like the separation never happened.
A few days afterwards, Diluc asked, "You wanted me to help defend the city, right? How should I help with that?"
It was the question Jean had been waiting for. "I was thinking you could patrol with me at night. As a hunter."
The look Diluc gave her was vulnerable, and full of hope. It was a chance to take back the future that had been stolen from him, all those years ago. "Do you really mean that?"
Jean nodded. "Once you're comfortable enough to go outside again, yes."
Jean wasn't sure she'd ever forget the grin that grew on Diluc's face.
Jean was sitting on the dining room table, and Diluc was latched onto her neck. As usual, she suppressed the noises she wanted to make, for fear of making it awkward.
After only a few seconds, Diluc took his mouth from her neck. "Jean." He took Jean's chin in his hand and she opened her eyes, looking straight into his. "You don't need to keep yourself quiet, you know."
"I..."
"It's fine." Diluc reiterated. "Let me hear it."
Something charged between them, a tension that had nothing to do with life or death. "Okay."
When Diluc's lips found her skin and his tongue caressed her wounds, the quiet room was filled with her gasps and sighs that no one could hear but them.
Diluc had Jean pressed against the wall. When he finished feeding, he detached himself from her neck. That was Jean's queue to heal herself, and she did so quickly.
She reached for the cloth on the table nearby, but Diluc stopped her with a hand on her arm. He said, "Let me take care of it."
Jean mutely nodded.
Diluc licked the remaining blood on her neck. The fact that the action was so unnecessary gave it extra weight. Jean didn't bother suppressing the loud sigh that came from her lips as a result.
When Diluc pulled away, lips bloodied and breathing heavily, Jean leaned forward and crashed her lips into his.
She moved her lips and he responded readily, their kiss filled with passion and nothing like the static way he usually fed on her neck. The kiss tasted metallic, the taste of blood still on Diluc's tongue.
They kissed like that for a long time.
Jean visited Kaeya late at night, just before returning to Diluc and her home. However, when she opened the door, it was eerily quiet. She hadn't realized how accustomed she'd become to hearing Kaeya and Rosaria's voices when she entered.
Kaeya waved from his desk, which he was actually sitting at, for once. "Hey, Jean."
"Hi, Kaeya." Jean peeked into the other half of the room and looked into Rosaria's cell. She was nowhere to be found. That didn't make sense; she wasn't even slotted to be executed, yet. She turned back to Kaeya. "Where is Rosaria?"
To Jean's surprise, a sly grin appeared on Kaeya's face. He shrugged. "I left the door unlocked a few hours ago and she escaped. Weird, right?"
Jean wasn't surprised in the least by Kaeya's actions. She had an inkling as to why he might have done it. Her gaze zeroed in on where his tail of hair covered his neck. "Would you mind moving your hair, for me?"
Kaeya grinned again and lifted his hair with a hand, tossing it behind his back with a flourish. On his neck was a dark-red bite mark. Honestly, it looked a bit painful. Jean frowned. "Do you want me to heal that?"
"Not at all. It's a trophy."
Jean decided not to question it any further.
Kaeya put his hair back to cover his neck. "Where's Diluc, by the way? I thought that he might be with you, tonight."
Jean thought about the sight she'd seen just before leaving her home that night; Diluc had still been sleeping in her bed, and Jean didn't feel the need to wake him. She blushed, remembering the sight. "He's actually in my home right now, waiting for me."
Kaeya stared at her, and Jean stared back. They were both silent for a few moments, but then they both burst into laughter.
Through his laughs, Kaeya said, "Jean, we might just be the worst vampire control group in Teyvat."
That should have been a terrible statement, but it brought Jean more joy than anything else. "That we are."
Jean threw on her usual brown jacket. She glanced at Diluc, who was putting on his own jacket. It was similar to Jean's, but darker and baggier. Kaeya had found it while sorting through his old storage. Jean asked, "Does it still fit?"
"I mean, it does, but," Diluc waved his arm to show a loose sleeve, "I apparently used to be more muscular than this." He tugged at the bottom of the jacket, which didn't fully reach his belt. "Shorter, too."
"We can get more comfortable clothes for you soon."
"Please don't tell me that. I like to believe that I'll gain the muscle back."
Jean smiled at him. "The shortness, as well?"
Diluc smiled back. "Maybe not that."
Jean put all of her tools on her belt, including her Vision. She went near her house's front door and picked up Diluc's old gear from where it leaned against the wall: a saber, two daggers, and a chain-sickle. She gathered the sheathed weapons awkwardly in one arm, while holding the chain-sickle in the other. She walked over to Diluc, who plucked the saber from her arm and attached it to his belt. He grabbed the other items in a similar fashion.
While Diluc busied himself with putting all his tools on his person, Jean went to the nearby chair where Diluc's jacket hung. She dug through its pockets until she found Diluc's Vision. It was still in good condition, despite everything.
She held up the Vision so Diluc could see. "Do you want me to attach this for you?" she asked, knowing fully well that Diluc could do it himself.
Diluc blinked. "Uh, sure."
Jean hid a smile underneath her hand.
She walked behind Diluc and attached the Vision to the right-back slot on his belt, but not without brushing her fingers a couple of times against his lower back. Diluc's back straightened in response. She brushed a bit below the belt, too, but it was completely on accident.
Diluc said, "Jean, you're getting a little close to, um, things back there."
"Is that a problem?" Jean asked. She inspected how she'd attached the Vision to his belt. It looked secure.
"Yes, because we're about to go patrolling."
Jean stood up straight, her job complete. "After, then?"
Diluc glanced at her over his shoulder. "Yeah, after is good."
Jean got excited, despite herself.
Before she got any more ideas, she walked to the front door and opened it. "I believe we are ready to go."
Diluc glanced around and took stock of the room, checking for anything he'd forgotten. "I believe so." He walked through the door Jean was holding open. Jean locked the door behind him and fell into step beside him as they walked on the dirt road towards town.
"First," Jean said, "We should set up ground rules."
"Sure."
Jean held up a finger. "One: no drinking anyone's blood."
Diluc glanced at her. "I think I know that one already, Jean. I'll be fine after last night."
Jean tried very hard not to think back to the sensation of Diluc latched onto her neck, but she failed miserably. A bit flustered, she replied, "Right. However, it is always good to be clear about the rules in advance." When Diluc didn't reply, she continued, "Two: if you see a wanted criminal or catch someone red-handed, it is okay to apprehend them."
"Fair enough."
"Three: if that criminal has magenta hair and is also a vampire named Rosaria, don't apprehend her. That's Kaeya's girlfriend."
This time, Diluc laughed. "You two have really stirred up a storm in this town, haven't you?"
Jean smiled in answer to the question. "Four: if you come across a vampire, first see if they can be reasoned with. If the vampire has not yet tried to hurt anyone, you may not apprehend them."
"I'm not sure why I didn't expect that rule, but it makes sense. Will that really be okay with the council?"
"What they do not know can't hurt them."
Diluc snorted. "I see. Is that the last rule?"
"It is."
"I don't think I'll have a problem with them."
When they reached the outskirts of town, Jean turned to Diluc. "Are you ready?"
Diluc tilted his head. "Ready as I'll ever be."
The two of them set off together into the night.
Mond was a failed experiment. It was meant to be the first instance of two vampire hunters working in the same city, so that together they could cover more ground. However, that changed three years ago, when one of the prospective hunters had supposedly lost his life.
However, it seemed that Mond had two hunters in it once again.
I hope you liked it!
This was written for the Jealuc Discord Vampire Challenge over on AO3, so go check out the collection to support all the other writers and their amazing works!
archiveofourown(dott)org/collections/jealuc_discord_vampire_AU