AN: No beta we die like hilichurls
A man wearing an eyepatch on one side of his face grunted as he climbed down from a horse.
"Everything accounted for, Noelle?"
A very familiar maid carrying an empty crate emerged from the carriage behind him.
"Almost done, Captain Kaeya!" Noelle replied. "Just making sure that every crate is accounted for."
Kaeya approached the maid. He gave her a smile and a gentle pat on the head.
"Thank you for your service, Noelle." he sighed. "What would we do without you?"
"More like it's what you would do without her, it seems." a mysterious, pale nun approached them from a tree.
"Well, well, this is new." Kaeya smirked as he crossed his arms. "I didn't know you had gained an interest in our very own supermaid. What gives?"
Noelle blushed at the compliment, though Rosaria squinted her eyes.
"Apparently, some people tend to give Noelle tasks that are initially assigned to them to get out of doing said tasks. I'm here to make sure that Noelle knows when and how to decline."
"How interesting. I'll look forward to it then, Noelle."
Noelle bowed. "I will do my best." She put the last crate into the carriage.
This was sort of becoming routine now. She enjoyed the activity to some extent, though she was sure that her form had gained no benefit from it, with her being far too used to the exercise that she could do it with her eyes closed.
But, it helped a lot of people out, and it only took ten minutes of her time to do it as well!
"All done, Captain Kaeya."
"Wonderful, this will tide us over until the end of the expedition, and then some." he whistled and another knight closed the carriage doors.
"Perhaps the saddles and carriages could spare some time for an inspection? Just a quick one to make sure that everything is up to code."
Kaeya shook his head. "No need. We've inspected this yesterday already. And if I remember correctly, you were there."
"But still it's-"
"Enough, Noelle. I'm glad that you care, but remember to have faith." Kaeya gave her a smile, to which Noelle returned an unsure smile.
"They'll be fine, Noelle." Rosaria gave her a pat on the back, though her face was still as impassive as ever.
"I-If you say so."
Expeditions were something that every Knight and Adventurer would end up doing at least a dozen times in their career, with some even doing it routinely, such as Captain Kaeya.
Expeditions were an effort to gather massive resources over a certain degree of time. It could take a day or less, to a week or a month, with Master Varka's expedition becoming the longest one yet.
Still, Noelle couldn't help but worry each time.
"We'll be alright. After all, we had Noelle check us up. Right, boys?" Cheers and sounds of agreement echoed from the Knight's squad.
Noelle nodded, this time with more enthusiasm. "Please take care, everyone."
Kaeya nodded. He turned around to get onto his horse, but before he did, he fumbled with something in his pocket. He pulled his hand back up and tossed something in Noelle's direction. "By the way, here. It's yours."
Noelle instinctively caught the object. Rosaria leaned in to take a peek.
"Get yourself something nice, alright?"
Before Noelle could say another word, the expedition team had sped off. Leaving a curious Rosaria, and a befuddled Noelle in their wake.
All the while, Rosaria would've never guessed that from such a simple gesture, Noelle's mind would soon be in turmoil.
'Get me something… nice?'
"Well, that's that then." Rosaria nodded as she watched the squad disappear along the horizon. How they managed to deploy themselves this early in the morning, she would never know.
The moon was good to see at night too, you know? Unlike the sun.
The sun hurt to look at, it was bright, it was painful, it made her feel uncomfortable, and it could get so damn hot on some days. Meanwhile, the moon was calm and soothing, the light was just enough to illuminate the night should it be uncovered by the clouds, and you could see it just fine.
No, she was not biased. She was simply stating facts. The moon was better. The sun sucked. The end.
Though she did hear that on the day of Mondstadt's hottest heat wave, Noelle had made a small stand right outside of Mondstadt.
Some part of her regretted not knowing much about Noelle back then, she would've liked to have some of her cold treats, not that she would ever admit that.
'But then I'd have to go outside of this city in that sweltering heat.'
She sighed.
"Well, I'm going to go back to the Cathedral," Rosaria told her. "Grace is already plenty annoying enough, but I can't risk that bi- Sister Gotelinde from getting on my a- my back." Rosaria almost bite her tongue.
Several weeks of being with Noelle for only a few days a week had already been taking a toll on her vocabulary. She was used to conversing with people her age, with people that have done things just as she had.
But with Noelle, as innocent and endearing as Rosaria thought of her, she couldn't simply talk as casually as she does when she was a few drinks in or with her… coworkers. Her face grimaced when it came to the thought of the other sisters.
…Namely Gotelinde.
And so, her vocabulary had been forced to alter to make up for the child in the vicinity. Had it been any other child she would've said as she wished. It wasn't like she cared about them.
But with Noelle, although she didn't say it, and she denied it, Noelle had already wormed her way into her heart at least in some small way that Rosaria had gone out of her way to change how she acted.
She was her teacher, after all. And students were supposed to take after their teacher, and then surpass them.
"See you, Noelle."
Rosaria didn't wait for a response. Like the wind, it was almost as if she had vanished into the shade. Unbeknownst to her, she had left the maid in a state of turmoil.
"Something… nice?"
She breathed out to no one in particular. There was no one around to hear her, no one around to ask about her current predicament.
"Something… nice?"
She hadn't even noticed that Rosaria had gone back to the Cathedral. Her mind was way too absorbed in the new information she had been given.
"Something nice?!"
What did Captain Kaeya mean by something nice?
Pacing around the common room of the Knights of Favonius, with a broom in one hand as she cleaned the place up repeatedly so much so that she could almost see her reflection on the floor if she saw just how much she was cleaning the place up while lost in her thoughts.
She could feel the sound of the mora pouch that Captain Kaeya had left her. The weight and feel of it, taunting her with its very presence.
"Oh, Noelle! Didn't expect to see you here so early- eeep!" Belinda didn't notice the rather clean floor.
Normally, clean floors were commonplace in the Headquarters. Not just because of Noelle, but the other maids too. Sometimes, she thought that most of their maids were being outshined by Noelle.
Though she thought that it was a good thing. Especially when you took into account the Housekeeper's… personality. The less attention is drawn to the Housekeeper and the Senior-maids, the better.
Not that they didn't deserve to be recognized, they did their jobs just as well as Noelle, and that was the truth!
The sound of something, or something crashing onto the floor broke Noelle out of her thoughts.
"Oh, dear! Please, let me help you up."
Noelle helped her get back on her feet. Belinda tried to tell her that she didn't need any assistance, but Noelle had already put her back on her feet before she could say a word.
"Are you alright, Miss Belinda? Do you feel anything at all?"
Belinda shook her head. "Not a thing, though my lovely derrière is going to be stinging for a bit."
Noelle simply smiled. "I see." she ignored the adjective Belinda used on her rear.
The knight stared blankly at the maid for a few moments before she sighed. She should've already expected that for all Noelle hung around Hertha, she wasn't Hertha. A comment like that wouldn't have gotten a reaction from Noelle as it would've from Hertha.
'But is that really a bad thing? Hertha would just scoff and say it isn't that great. So Noelle is a step up!'
"So, what's the problem?"
Noelle stiffened. "Problem?" she squeaked.
"Yes. Your problem, to be exact."
"I have no clue of what you are talking about, Miss Belinda."
Belinda looked around the room before crossing her arms again. "I thought cleaning so much was inefficient."
Noelle sweatdropped. "Uh… I just felt like it?"
'If you're going to make excuses you should at least make them believable!'
"Look, Noelle. You only ever clean like this when you're stressed and-"
"I do not! I clean like this all the time!"
"The last time you cleaned like this was when Master Varka left, when Master Jean had refused to let you into the storage room, and when Ellin proposed a sleep-over!" Belinda told her. Each example she gave was akin to an arrow piercing the maid's heart. "Spill it!"
Flustered, Noelle couldn't help but blurt it out.
"C-Captain Kaeya gave me a pouch of mora to use to buy something nice but I don't know what something nice means!"
Right after she said that she immediately covered her mouth. Her eyes were wide.
Belinda sweatdropped. A strained smile adorned her expression.
"What?"
AN: Shorter chapter this week. Midterms coming up. Might have either the second part to this, or an interlude next week. This week I review for midterms, and next week is midterms. Very fun yes.
Still, I hope people liked this, short it may be. I feel like I'm falling into the hole of using too many characters but I can't resist. And yes, Kaeya will get his screen time soon.