prompt one - 'childhood'
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The very first time Diluc Ragnvindr laid eyes on Jean Gunnhildr, he could have sworn he'd met an angel.
It was the 8th day of the Ludi Harpastum, and for the entire first week five-year-old Diluc had clung to his father's side. He didn't really remember the festival last year, although he'd attended every year since he'd been born according to his father.
Even so, the atmosphere was like nothing he'd ever experienced. It was fun and warm, yes, but it was also loud and incredibly lonely despite practically the entire city being present. When you're the only child of a nobleman, you didn't often meet people your own age. Not that his father discouraged him from making proper friends, it's just that the opportunity never presented itself. And if it did, it was short lived.
Until that day.
Diluc was 'helping' his father while they unloaded crates brought over from the winery. He was told by practically everyone that this was a busy time of year, so the tavern had to be sure not to sell out, lest they disappoint the entire nation. Or that's the conclusion Diluc drew from the whole lecture at the time. Maybe that was exaggerating.
"You know, Diluc, you shouldn't be stuck here because I am," his father said, properly lifting the barrel of wine Diluc had slowly been inching to the edge of the wagon. "There's so many games to play and snacks to be had! Doesn't that sound fun to you?"
"But who am I supposed to play with?" Diluc asked with a huff.
"Other children?" his father oh-so-helpfully suggested. "Better than adults acting like children, don't you think?"
"I don't know any of the other children, though," Diluc answered. It was times like these he really wished he had a sibling. No introductions necessary, and they had to play with you. "What if they don't even want to play with me?"
"Well, if you don't try then you'll never know, now will you?" his father gave a short laugh, setting down the barrel with a grunt. He turned back to Diluc and with ease lifted his son out of the wagon and plopped him on the ground. "I'm sure there's someone out there that would love to be your friend."
As if right on cue, their attention was drawn to the front of the wagon when a vaguely familiar voice called out to his father. "Crepus! Hey, fancy seeing you out so early!"
His father saw whoever had called out before Diluc did, courtesy of his height advantage, and the smile on his face grew as recognition dawned on him. "Seamus! Frederica! Good morning!"
Diluc followed him as quickly as he could as he approached their visitors, adding the odd hop every so often to keep pace with him.
As he rounded the corner of the wagon, the first person he noticed was Seamus Pegg, the seneschal for the Church of Favonius. He'd seen him before, but they'd never spoken. He'd heard his father talk about him before, though, so he guessed he must be a nice guy.
The second person, a woman wearing the uniform of a Knight, had been holding up a young girl to pet the horses patiently standing attached to the wagon. The Knight, a woman that he suspected was Frederica, he was less acquainted with. And the young girl he had never even seen before now. Not that he could remember anyways.
He saw her before she noticed him. Golden hair, bright eyes the color of the sky, and rosy cheeks. She was wearing a white and blue dress, with an intricate, embroidered flower pattern on the hem, and a dark blue ribbon tied in her hair to keep a short braid in place. She was his age, or at least around his age, and the only thought he had was that he wanted to be her friend.
When Frederica set her on the ground so they could greet his father, though, and her eyes met Diluc, her face paled. He tried for a smile and moved to wave, but suddenly her cheeks went red again and the girl immediately ducked behind her mother to hide from him.
An exasperated look was exchanged between her parents, but her mother simply moved her forward a bit and let her daughter lean against her side, cautiously watching Diluc the entire time. At that moment, he wished he could just disappear, though. The first person his age he wanted to talk to, and they were terrified of him.
Did…did he look scary? He didn't think he looked scary. Big hilichurls with horns or dragons were scary, not little boys with unruly hair and barely past the height of someone's knee. But, then again, she was shorter than him. Kind of by a lot.
Instead of making things more awkward by staring back at her, he turned his attention to the adults' conversation, trying to find it interesting.
"Archons, it feels like ages since we last bumped into one another. How have things been?" his father asked, looking between the two of them.
"Busy. We haven't had time to enjoy the festivities at all," Seamus replied. "What with all the organization, and then having to attend to our daily work…let's just say it's been exhausting. Can't wait until it's our turn to take a break, you know?"
As his father nodded in agreement, Frederica spoke up. "I have to say, I'm amazed the Angel's Share hasn't been open day and night. Trust me, I am well aware of how booming the alcohol industry is during the festival."
Her tone was serious, perhaps even a little teasing, but if she was trying to be rude Diluc couldn't really be sure. And his father didn't seem to care, giving a sheepish smile. "Yeah, we're actually closing early these days. I gave the staff the whole stretch off. Business may be booming, but there's only one of me. And I wouldn't dream of making more work for the Knights."
Polite and charming as ever, if there had been any possibility of a fight his father immediately diffused it. Their conversation continued, but at this point Diluc had already zoned out of it and decided to risk looking back at Seamus and Frederica's daughter. She wasn't watching him anymore, instead she was staring at the ground and using one hand to mess with her with her hair.
She was cute. Or, at least that's the best word Diluc could think of to describe her.
But his attention was once again drawn away from her as he heard his father laugh and say his name, gently patting him on the shoulder. "I'm sure Diluc's probably just as bored spending time with me instead."
"Hear that, Jean, maybe you two could go find something to do together?" Frederica addressed the girl hiding beside her now, motioning for her to step forward. The girl – Jean – obeyed her mother's silent command without question, and with barely any hesitation, and moved forward enough that she was standing beside her father now. Just a few feet from Diluc.
"She's been keeping busy with studies while we've worked, but…well, children should have fun once in a while, now, shouldn't they?" Seamus said to Diluc's father, but he didn't catch the response.
His instinct was to do as he'd been taught at parties when meeting a young lady, and he slowly lowered his upper body in an awkward bow, glancing up to see if he could see her reaction. The response from their parents was stifled laughter.
"Goodness, you've really trained the boy up, haven't you, Crepus?" Seamus said, and Diluc heard what sounded like the seneschal smacking his father on the shoulder. "Such a proper little gentleman already."
Diluc, feeling embarrassed, straightened up a bit. Although their fathers gave a smile, Frederica was watching her daughter, and eventually Diluc looked at her too. He wanted to see if she thought he was as stupid and awkward as he felt. But much to his surprise, she was covering her mouth to hide a shy smile. But he heard a slight giggle force its way out before she shoved the rest back down.
For some reason, her reaction set him at ease. He decided now he should try a proper but casual introduction, and gave a small wave and smile before he held out his hand. "Diluc."
Jean reached out and took his hand, barely grabbing his fingertips. But he guessed it still counted as a handshake. "I'm Jean."
For some reason, although he'd already heard her name, he liked the way she said it herself. Softly, through a faint, sheepish smile.
He realized now she was holding something in one of her hands. At first he took it for a rock, which he would have found kind of weird to be carrying around, but then it moved and he immediately recognized it to be a tortoise. And he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "That's a tortoise."
Looking back, he regretted it. 'That's a tortoise'. How eloquent, Master Diluc. The stuff of poets, truly, was the sarcastic thought he had on the memory, the familiar tone of which he would come to despise but that was a different story.
"Um…yes, it is," Jean glanced at it, and he could tell she was probably scared he didn't like tortoises. "His name is…um…his name is Leo."
"I have a pet tortoise, too!" He wasn't exactly skilled at talking with people his age, but judging by the way her eyes lit up he could tell he wasn't off to a bad start. "His name is Sunny! He's in the tavern, do you want to meet him?"
"Really?" Jean was practically grinning from ear to ear. But then she composed herself and glanced over her shoulder at her parents and back at Diluc. "I mean…may I?"
"I'll go get him!" Diluc said, immediately turning to run inside and fetch him. And to think his father had asked him why he took the tortoise everywhere! Everyone loved talking about pets, or so Diluc had assumed. Maybe he had no proof of this, but by chance he'd been right.
"Diluc, why don't you and Jean go take them somewhere outside?" his father suggested, obviously looking for a way to keep them entertained. "That way they won't get lost or stepped on. And you two can enjoy the festival while we work, sound good?"
"Yes, Father," Diluc replied, rushing inside to fetch Sunny from off the counter he'd put him on behind the bar. He came back outside as quickly as he could, proudly holding Sunny out for Jean to see. "Here he is!"
Jean giggled and held Leo out to introduce the two of them. "They can be friends like us!"
Diluc was trying to keep from exploding on the spot. They were friends, just like that? He wasn't sure if that's how it really worked, but he couldn't believe he'd been worried about something so simple. "Do you want to take them and go play?"
She nodded in reply, and the two ran off towards the side-gate of the city, their parents calling out to them not to go too far from the city and them promising they wouldn't in unison, but honestly they'd barely been paying attention. It wasn't like there was far to go anyways, there were people everywhere.
They ended up finding a spot near the docks, in a small clearing with a bunch of flowers all around. They'd pulled up some dandelions for Sunny and Leo to eat at some point, but ended up dangling their feet off the docks and in the water of Cider Lake by the end of the day together. They must have talked and raced around and played games of their own creation the entire day.
At this point, the distant chatter and music of the festival was dying down from boisterous, overwhelming sound to scattered conversations and calm bard's tunes. They still sat at the docks, watching the sun set in the distance, their pet tortoises in their laps as they enjoyed a comfortable sort of quiet.
Jean was playing with a bunch of flowers he had helped her pick out, refusing to tell him what she wanted with them. Diluc didn't mind, he just didn't want to break her focus. She still carried the entire conversation between the two of them.
Out of nowhere, she asked him, "Do you have lots of friends?"
It caught him off guard, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, there wasn't really any way to lie. She probably figured out the answer already anyways. He shrugged. "Not really, no. How about you?"
"Um. Yeah, I don't have any either," Jean said, forcing a laugh that wasn't at all bright and warm like the other laughs he'd gotten out of her today. She sounded sort of sad. "I think I read too much. Which isn't so bad, really, I mean books are sort of like friends too."
"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore, right? Not with me around," Diluc said, hoping being forward like he was earlier would get another genuine laugh out of her. "I mean…if you want me around."
It seemed to work, and she gave him a real smile, the one that lit up her eyes like before, and laughed. "You're silly. Of course I want you around, you're my friend, now. A real one, not like books."
Diluc felt a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest. He didn't know what else he was supposed to say, so he just nodded. "Good. Friends."
"Uh-huh…oh! It's perfect!" Out of nowhere, Jean stopped fiddling with the flowers she'd collected and proudly held up her creation, smiling brightly as she showed it to him. It was a carefully crafted crown she'd made out of flowers. Dandelions, mainly, but she'd tied other flowers into it for variety. And she immediately placed it on his head. "There! You look pretty with it."
Diluc's face felt hotter than the sun and while he loved the gift and didn't want to hurt her feelings, he did not know what to do with a compliment like that. As quickly as he could without destroying the thing by accident, he took it off his head and carefully put it in place on hers. "It looks prettier on you! Like…umm…like a princess!"
Her laughter stopped, but she still grinned at him. "Aww, are you my knight in shining armor, then? I wanted to be a knight, though…"
"You're…umm…you're a knight-princess!" Diluc declared, refusing to disappoint his new friend. "Which means you're way better."
"PFFT, how am I a knight and a princess?" Jean asked, dissolving into a fit of laughter now.
"Because you're special, that's how," he answered, as though his logic was beyond sound. It just made her laugh harder when he said that, and he didn't know why but he guessed it was okay so long as she was happy. He pulled his feet up out of the water, making sure he didn't accidentally splash her, and stood up with Sunny in one hand, and held out his other hand for her to take. With a grin to match hers, he playfully said, "So! Shall we, m'lady?"
"We shall, Sir Diluc!" Jean said, collecting Leo and her shoes and taking Diluc's hand as he helped her up. As they turned back towards the city gate, she interlocked her arm with his. "Thanks. For being my friend today."
And he stayed her friend every day he could, for as long as either one of them could remember.
Author's Note: Y'all have NO idea how absolutely insane I've been going over these two since I started playing and when I heard about Jealuc Week I knew I wanted to do something for it. Since I can't draw that fast, I decided to defeat my writer's block just for them. My beloveds. They deserve it.
This is my first time doing anything like this sO I'M SUPER NERVOUS BUT REALLY EXCITED.
I misread the first prompt as 'childhood friends', so that's the theme of this one. Awkward babies making their first friend and it's each other! I plan to do the entire week, but I only have two finished soooo...some might be a bit late.
But anyways, I hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading!