This Storm Shall Pass

Writer's note: This is my first Genshin Impact fanfic so I'm excited! I hope you like it!

I don't own Genshin Impact.

Kaeya looked at the clock with a frown before he looked back at the report in his hands. There had been a sighting of a somewhat big tribe of hilichurls near Starfell lake, consisting of three mitachurls, two samachurls, and several hilichurl shooters along with the regular hilichurls. And if that wasn't enough, there was also a Pyro abyss mage and a Hydro abyss mage. Luckily, there weren't any towns near Starfell Lake so no civilians were in danger.

Yet.

"Jean, do we have any idea how long this tribe has been near Starfell Lake?" Kaeya asked the Acting Grand-Master, who was sitting behind her desk.

"I'm afraid not," Jean replied as she folded her hands underneath her chin. "Ella was enjoying her day off when she happened to come across them. She came back to tell us right away. Well, after first spying on them."

"Did they see her?"

"No, not to her knowledge, anyway." Kaeya sighed as he made a note to praise the new knight in some way. Thanks to her, the Knights of Favonius could act before the tribe of hilichurls and abyss mages could cause havoc and pain to Mondstadt's innocent civilians.

However—

Kaeya looked at the clock again, telling him that the time was ten o'clock. If the distance to and back from Starfell Lake wasn't time-consuming enough, fighting a tribe this troublesome would take even more time. And Kaeya hadn't even assembled the troops yet.

Out of all the days . . .

"Did you have something planned, Kaeya?" Lisa asked with her usual sly grin as she leaned against the window by Jean. "You keep looking at the clock."

"Oh, are you worried that I am being inconvenienced, Lisa?" Kaeya smoothly replied with a sly grin of his own. "I was just calculating how much daylight we have left to take care of the threat."

It was still only ten o'clock. Well, a minute past ten o'clock now. If they act quickly, he should still have plenty of time to—

"Not much, I'm afraid," Jean said as she worryingly glanced at the window. "It looks like it's going to rain soon."

Kaeya looked through the window and saw that the number of dark clouds had increased in the last few minutes.

"Well, Cryo is always far more effective in the rain," Kaeya assured her. Especially when one of the enemies was a Pryo abyss mage.

"That's true," Jean said with a small smile before it got replaced with a worried frown. "The same can't be said for Pyro, though. I hope Klee comes back from frog-hunting soon."

Kaeya didn't think the Spark knight would, but he kept that thought to himself. Klee was a spunky child, she wouldn't a little rain stop her, despite being a Pryo.

It certainly didn't stop Diluc from going out gallivanting all across Mondstadt as he always did on this day. The rain barely affected his flames anyway. Kaeya suddenly wondered if Diluc had heard of the tribe that Ella found and was already taking care of it.

Well, that would solve Kaeya's time situation but he wasn't going to count on it.

"I wouldn't worry, Jean," Lisa said, bringing Kaeya back to the present. "Even if she doesn't, Razor and Diona are with her, so she should be just fine either way."

"They were just going to stay by Cider lake anyway, not too far away at all," Kaeya reminded her, remembering how the little elf girl excitedly told him all about her wonderful frog-hunting plans only yesterday. "If anything, the rain should help Razor and Diona in getting Klee to not go frog-blasting instead."

Jean instantly looked relieved, prompting Kaeya to genuinely smile back. He honestly didn't like to see her worried.

"Well, I'm off to assemble the troops," Kaeya said with a bow after putting away the report in his pocket. Jean stood up.

"May the Anemo Archon protect you," Jean said with her hand on her chest. Kaeya left the office without another word and when the guard staying by on duty saluted him, he saluted him back.

"Captain Kaeya!" Kaeya looked up and saw Ella, Fynn, and Adler rush up to him. It looked like they had been waiting for him, or anyone, to come out of Jean's office.

"I told them what I saw at Starfell lake," Ella explained unnecessarily.

"What are the Acting Grand Master's orders? Or should I say, your orders?" Adler asked.

"We are ready to fight," Fynn said.

"Including me," Ella volunteered with a firm nod. "I don't care if it's my day off, I want to help."

"Well, first off, thank you, Ella," Kaeya said as he began to pull his thoughts together. "Mondstadt would gladly appreciate your help with this, especially since thanks to your quick thinking, we can strike them before they can. I will talk with Jean to give you another day off to make up for it."

"Thank you, sir," Ella said as Kaeya's hand moved to his belt where he kept his medical kit. When his fingers felt nothing, Kaeya suddenly recalled that he had just finished refilling the bandages when he had been called to Jean's office. The medical kit was still in his office.

"Second, the Acting Grand Master wants us to take care of this threat as soon as possible. So the three of you grab any soldier able to leave their post and gather at the front gate of Mondstadt. I will be there shortly after I retrieve a few essentials from my office."

"Understood, sir!" all three soldiers exclaimed with a salute before they quickly left in different directions. Kaeya, pleased at their speed, left for his office to retrieve his medical kit. Because while he wasn't by any means a healer or a doctor, he knew basic first aid. Sure, he may be sadistic, but if a soldier died before they could get to Barbara because he didn't bandage the wound correctly, then their death would be on Kaeya's hands.

And Kaeya never wanted to be too late in saving a life again.

Kaeya arrived at his office and saw the open medical kit on his desk, right where he left it. He reached his desk in a few strides thanks to his long legs and closed the medical kit. In a matter of seconds, he reattached the kit to his belt.

But before Kaeya left to head for the front gate, the sky thundered.

He looked outside and saw that the sky was even darker than before. Kaeya's mind was suddenly brought back to that fateful day he fought Diluc. He had gained his Vision as a result but at the price of losing another family member that day.

Kaeya inwardly sighed as he looked at the clock once again, seeing that it was now about ten minutes after ten. An option popped up in his mind, prompting him to go around his desk and pull open the first drawer on his left. As soon as he opened it, Kaeya came face to face with a brown package wrapped with a red ribbon. Kaeya picked it up, his fingers gently feeling the gloves that perfectly matched Diluc's hair through the brown paper.

It was interesting. Diluc was the reason Kaeya wore an eyepatch every day, why Kaeya barely visited the Dawn Winery for the past several years, and why Kaeya hadn't told his backstory to anyone else (though perhaps he would have done that anyway. Let the past stay in the past). But yet, here he was, holding a present he had personally gotten for Diluc.

It was April 30th after all. Diluc's birthday.

Kaeya frowned as he pondered when he should sneak into Diluc's room to drop it off. There was no time to do it before the raid. Perhaps right after? Kaeya was sure he could make up some excuse to leave for Dawn Winery while his troops went ahead back to Mondstadt. He didn't even have to tell them where he was going, just that he had other business to attend to.

But in order to leave right after, Kaeya would have to bring Diluc's gift with him to the raid. And while Kaeya was confident in his abilities, he didn't think he wanted to risk the gift becoming collateral damage during the fight. And that wasn't even accounting for the impending weather.

Granted, he had made sure that these gloves would survive being worn by Diluc, but still. Kaeya thought it would be nice if Diluc didn't receive a pair of dirty or damaged gloves for his birthday.

Even if Diluc didn't care for his birthday anymore.

"Oh, the effort I'm putting into this, Diluc," Kaeya muttered as he gently placed the gift back into the drawer before closing it. He was just going to have to deliver it after he returned from the raid. Diluc probably will go back to Dawn Winery sometime after nightfall, so there was still plenty of time.

Kaeya had nothing to worry about.

Nothing at all.

GI

"Mister Frog, are you there?" Klee called out as she peeked around a rock. No, mister frog was not behind a rock. Klee hummed in disappointment as she looked at the shoreline. When her best friend Diona suggested that they go frog-hunting on her day off, Klee had been very happy. She became especially so when Diona granted her request of having her best friend Razor come too. And even though Diona had her promise to not use any bombs, Klee had been very excited.

Their frog adventure had started well. Klee met up with Diona and Razor at Springvale and after successfully catching three frogs at the lake south of the village, they went ahead to their main destination, Cider lake.

But that was where their luck ended. They had been walking along the shoreline forever but so far, they had yet to find even a fourth frog to join the bucket that Razor was carrying.

"Ugh! Where are they?" Diona hissed, her tail stiff and her hands clenched into fists. Klee frowned as she looked at her angry best friend. While Klee had been happy to go frog-hunting, she knew that Diona had been really looking forward to it.

According to her, they needed a lot of frogs to bring down the wine industry.

Was the wine industry a big monster that was allergic to frogs?

"I don't know," Razor said before he sniffed with his eyes closed. When he opened them again, he turned to the sky with a frown. "But a storm's coming. Very soon. We should take cover."

"No! Not until that whole bucket is full of frogs!" Diona declared as she pointed to the bucket, which was almost as big as Klee.

"But Diona, the frogs have all already left because of the storm," Klee tried to reason with her. She wasn't afraid of rain or lightning, but Klee also trusted Razor, and if he said they should take cover, then they should. And even though Klee still wanted to help Diona take down the wine industry, she was honestly getting a little bored failing to find frogs.

Though maybe if Klee used her smallest bomb . . .

Suddenly Diona smiled.

"Maybe all the frogs here left," Diona said before she looked off into the distance.

"But maybe not at Starfell lake."

Uh oh...

So what do you think? Were the characters, well, in character? Did the chapter flow well? Also, I found the names Adler and Fynn in a list of Knights of Favonius character list, so yes, they are actually canon. Though their characters aren't explored (at least not that I'm aware of) so I took a guess. Not that their characters are really explored in this chapter other than being willing to help Kaeya.

Anyway, please leave a review on the way out and I work on this when I can. Though depending on the number of reviews I get, I might be persuaded to write the next chapter faster;)

See ya and have a good day or night!