prompt two - "bound by something stronger than fate"
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Jean knew that Diluc never put much stock into old folktales. There were some legends that were really, truly, merely legends. That had always been his reasoning, when faced with the more far fetched stories they'd been told growing up. And yet Jean couldn't deny somehow she found comfort in them.
Her ideals of love were quite different than most. While she was not a pessimist that believed love was a pointless pursuit that only ended in pain, she was not one to believe in soulmates either. After watching her parents' marriage fall apart, how could she? But she did believe that after developing any sort of bond with someone, romantic or familial or otherwise, they would always be a part of you. In some ways, at least.
In just a few days it felt like her entire world crumbled around her. Jean knew it was selfish to dwell on that kind of thought, for what had she lost compared to her closest friends? They were the ones that truly lost their entire world, and both of them completely changed. She couldn't even imagine losing her parents. Crepus had always been kind to her, perhaps like a second father figure, even, but she didn't feel she had the right to grieve for them.
But still, the few fleeting moments she saw Diluc before he disappeared without a trace and left his Vision behind, she felt his pain. His anger, his grief. Even a twinge of fear, but that might have been her own. She'd tried to reach out to him, to get him to stop and talk to her, but all he did was apologize to her for witnessing a part of his outburst and leave headquarters without looking back.
"Hmmph, good riddance. Short-tempered fool. People would kill for one of these stupid trinkets, and he throws it away like it's nothing," Inspector Eroch had said to her as the heavy doors slammed shut with an echoing thud, and his voice alone made her blood boil. She whirled on him, carefully hiding her fury, and gave him a questioning look. He just shrugged and tossed Diluc's coat towards her, and with it, Diluc's Vision. "Take this, and get rid of it. I have better concerns than some bitter child's tantrum."
Jean didn't hear their discussion, but Eroch's remark hardly sat well with her. He'd just lost his father, surely he was entitled to his grief and anger. But she let Eroch depart without a word, nothing more than a simple acknowledgement of his order. The entire exchange just made her angry.
When she went to return his belongings, she'd found he'd already left, and Kaeya told her he didn't intend on coming back. Not anytime soon, at least. The last she saw of Diluc, and she couldn't do or say anything to ease his pain. Now she didn't even know where he was.
The coat she kept folded up somewhere. He'd left the Knights, she'd been told, and she should have just thrown it out but she couldn't bring herself to do that. As odd as it was, she wanted him to have it again, if he ever changed his mind and came around.
His Vision, on the other hand, she and Kaeya kept an eye on. When they were working, it stayed out on one of their desks, and if neither of them were around it was safely placed in one of their drawers. It was quite literally their light in the darkness, the only thing that reassured them that Diluc was still alive, wherever he was.
Yet Jean was content with leaving it alone. She wasn't sure how, but she just knew he was fine. Somehow, no matter what, she knew. Every warm breeze, every single sunrise, they carried a familiar warmth with them. If she closed her eyes in those fleeting moments, all her anxieties were put to rest.
Perhaps they were connected somehow, or maybe she was just naive and losing her mind to denial or something. Either way, she just knew he would come back to them one day, safe and sound.
On the days where she didn't witness the sunrise herself, or when the cold chill of winter began to set in, she would take walks. All the way out to Cape Oath from the city, she would walk until she reached the peak that jutted out over the ocean. There she would pluck a dandelion, however many she could for whatever thoughts she had, and she would stare out at the sea and the sky.
There was a story she'd been told by her father before, that dandelions could carry someone's heart's desire on them. While she liked to think she wasn't some desperate, silly little girl anymore, the truth is she just missed her best friend, and at this point she would try anything just to talk to him again. However she could.
She said everything she could think of. About her and Kaeya's work on the case that exposed Eroch as a traitor, about Kaeya being a candidate for promotion, about getting her Vision. But above all, the most important thing she had to say was, "I hope you're safe, Diluc. We'll always be here, for you to come home to, whenever you want."
Holding the dandelions up into the air, she gently blew on them and watched as they caught the wind, and disappeared into the sky.
Diluc threw off his cloak, letting it fall onto his cot in his campsite, pulling off his gloves and his father's Delusion with it.
His wrist ached from using it, and sometimes it burned all the way down to the bone, but he was still alive and it still worked so he guessed that was normal. At this point, he wasn't sure how long he'd been using it for, fighting the Fatui with their own weapons. However long it was, he didn't feel like he was getting very far with it.
No matter how much he missed his homeland and a pampered, comfortable life, he couldn't go back until he knew something. And part of him didn't want to go back. What was there to go back to, a broken family and an empty house? No, he wasn't ready to face that.
But sometimes he thought of what else was there. He remembered how he'd snapped at Jean before he left, how he'd given her a half-hearted apology to go along with it. He wished he could have said more to her, but she would have tried to talk him out of it. Still, he couldn't deny he missed her. She was the only person in the childhood memories playing through his head that made them bearable. Jean always had been his and Kaeya's glue, hadn't she? And obviously that wouldn't change so easily.
He couldn't help but wonder if she ever thought of him, or if she was upset with him at all. He hoped he hadn't hurt her by shoving her away like he'd done, if he did then he truly hadn't meant to. Would she listen to him if he tried to tell her what happened? What would she think of him if she knew everything he'd done to find answers? Thoughts like these came and went without warning, and they always left him with a bitter ache in his chest.
This time, before he could linger too long on them, the familiar chittering of his falcon drew his attention to the skies. She was his eyes and ears, relaying anything he needed her to. He'd made a few questionable deals with people for information, and he had to communicate with them somehow.
Diluc reached out an arm, making sure she caught his sleeve and not his bare hand when she landed. "Attagirl, welcome back. How'd it go this time, hmm?" he asked the bird, scratching her neck with his finger.
The bird shifted on his arm with a soft trilling noise, which he took as a good sign. He reached for the note she carried back for him, tied to her leg in a pathetic, loose knot that threatened to fall apart. Imagine if it had come loose on the way back? He tried not to hold it against his…business partner. But he'd seen children tie better knots.
As he took the note, something on her talons caught his attention. It was clumps of dandelion fluff. Seeds carried on the wind she must have caught somehow, but as far as he knew he was thousands of miles away from where these grew. He plucked it away from her, lifting his arm a bit to allow her to fly over to perch on some crates he'd been using as a table.
"Where'd you find this, hmm?" he asked her, carefully placing them in his palm. They were soft and somehow, although tiny and fragile, they brought him comfort. "A special piece of home, I suppose."
He guessed she must have had them since before they left Mondstadt or that they'd been stuck somewhere on his belongings and he never noticed. As he placed them in his pocket, though, the homesickness he felt seemed to ease.
Dandelions were Jean's favorite flowers. To him, they were a piece of her. They reminded him of her smile, warm like the sun, and golden hair. Her laugh and the way she spoke, deliberate with every word but soft. Somehow he felt they were still connected somehow, by something.
He'd never been much of a romantic, not these days at least, but he couldn't help but give a dry laugh as he recalled an old story Seamus had once told them. Years ago, about how dandelion seeds could carry someone's desire or love or something like that with them. Maybe this was a sign or something, not that there was much he could do about it.
Perhaps Jean was there, waiting for him to return to Mondstadt and explain himself. She'd sit there with an understanding expression no matter how much she'd want to tell him off for being a prick. Every time he did stupid things when they were younger, she'd do just that.
He wasn't sure what still tied him to Mondstadt, not anymore. If nothing but duty, the only other thing he could think of was her. Some silent promise to come back to her that he couldn't remember making.
I'll come home one day, once I'm done out here. And I'll tell you everything.
If she was thinking of him at all and it wasn't just his ego talking, he owed that much to her.
Author's Note: Alright, day two here we go! So, day two's prompts didn't quite spark any groundbreaking ideas for me which I'm so mad at myself for, so for this one it was just. The Vibes. They felt right for me, and I went with them.
Anyways the Mondstadt Trio my beloved. Jean and her boys deserve more recognition and gosh darn I wanna give it to them, but ofc the focus here is still Jealuc. Poor Jean having to keep the meanie brothers from killing each other. RIP her sanity at this point.
I hope I stuck to it alright? Anyways, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!