Um…this is way more…heated? than I thought it was going to be originally? I guess you could call it fluff, but it's more heavy romantic tension between a dude with issues and a girl trying to help him solve said issues.

AKA: Jean had fallen in love with Kaeya's smile in her youth, and now she made it her mission to make him cry.

She fails this time, but he finally tells her what has been bothering him all these years.

When Grandmaster Jean ran into Noelle carrying a cold plate of food out of Quartermaster Kaeya's office hours past sunset one night, she instantly knew something was wrong.

There were three possibilities for Kaeya's refusal to eat. He was either so engrossed in his work that he forgot, his mind was overloaded with unwanted thoughts, or he was dealing with both.

Something told Jean it was both.

She waited for a good ten minutes, just enough time for Kaeya to let down his guard, before barging into his office uninvited.

Kaeya was standing beside his map of Mondstadtian land with his left hand circling the peak of Dragonspine. His head sprung upwards to see Jean, and she felt her heart twist when his distant expression relaxed into a small smile as the tension in his shoulders released within half a second.

Hiding away his feelings.

As always.

"Ah," Kaeya greeted. "What honour do I have for the Grandmaster to grace my office with her presence at such a late hour?"

Jean sighed, knowing that she would not be able to get through to him right now.

Not to mention the pressing matters at hand.

"Eula said she filed a crucial report to you this morning?"

"On increased Abyss activity in the Stormbearer Mountains, yes." Kaeya answered without missing a beat, and returned to examining the map of Dragonspine. "I've been working on that all day."

Jean frowned, and moved to stand next to Kaeya, who did not spare her a single glance.

Compared to the exhausted state he was in when she entered through the door, Kaeya now seemed like he had all the energy in the world with his glowing eye and right hand tapping restlessly atop the table.

He was agitated, Jean knew. Both from her presence and whatever was in Eula's report. Although for the short minutes Jean had observed him, she noticed that he was not even looking at the Stormbearer Mountains. A glance at the expansive map and the lack of markings in the Stormbearer Mountain area confused Jean, as Kaeya's brilliance often did.

Kaeya chuckled when he sensed her hesitance. "The reason for Dragonspine's constant snow is the high Cryo energy that flows through the leylines," he explained. "Usually, all elements move through the lines altogether. Except Abyssal energy that greatly prefers Cryo over all other elements has absorbed the energy, causing ice to gather in a specific area." A slender finger taps at the tip of the infamous snow mountain of Mondstadt.

"Through time this energy spreads because it has nowhere to go," Jean said, nodding in agreement to Kaeya's statement, having read Albedo's most recent theory on the unique temperament of Dragonspine before it was even published.

"And the land of snow will only grow."

A sudden realization came to Jean. The only way Cryo energy could move on through the leylines if the Abyssal block was gone. "The snow covered land is shrinking isn't it?"

Kaeya shook his head. "If it was, Albedo would have reported the situation."

"Then why-"

"The subtlest of energy fluctuations. Not nearly enough for a report."

Jean sighed. "You evidently don't think so."

And Kaeya chucked back. "I have a hunch."

"Want to explain it?"

"Not really."

Jean huffed in frustration but did not press.

She trusted Kaeya. She trusted his abilities, his character, his secrets. She trusted him with her life, her heart. And more importantly, she trusted him with Mondstadt.

When she needs to know, she will know.

They discussed a few other crucial reports and plans to deal with them, and before long, it was well into the middle of the night and a storm was raging outside.

With the sudden humidity in the air, Kaeya started flexing his hands, a movement of discomfort he only ever did in front of Jean. His hands were in pain again, as they always were under rain and cold.

"Well," Kaeya said as he finished marking the map one last time. "It appears to be time for bed."

Jean grabbed onto his hands the instant he set the markers down. "Your hands are hurting again."

"Stating the obvious as always I see," Kaeya grinned bashfully. The pain involving his hands, he shared with Jean. There was no point in hiding it. She knew about the burns and she helped him deal with the problems that came along with them from the very start (although he initially refused help).

"Gloves off," she commanded, and when he refused to move, she went ahead and peeled them off to reveal grotesque hands without a single smooth surface on them. The raised skin was slightly red. She turned his hands around and sent Dandelion Breeze through them.

He sighed in relief. "Thank you, that helps."

And suddenly he wasn't smiling, or grinning or chuckling like he had all night. Kaeya was staring at her. Blatantly and unmoving Kaeya's gaze bore into her soul, and Jean realized that the mask he had been wearing that night had finally broken.

She grasped his shoulder, and he tensed at her touch. And then Jean cupped his cheek with her hand. "Relax," she said, and Kaeya's eye slipped closed.

She wanted to kiss his worries away.

So she did.

It was just a peck, but Kaeya's eye flew open in blatant shock.

"Relax, Kaeya," she whispered.

And he broke.

His lips crushed into hers, and their tongues tied together as Kaeya's hands tangled up in Jean's hair. It was by no means a sweet entanglement. His hands were rough and his lips even rougher, taking her breath away in a way far from pleasant.

Kaeya kissed Jean as if he was a drowning man and she was air itself.

And when they finally broke apart, panting for breath, Kaeya couldn't look Jean in the eye. "I love you," he said, "but I can't, we can't…"

Jean silenced him with another kiss, gentle this time. He did not kiss back, but wrapped his arms around her waist. His entire body was shaking. Still. Kaeya grinned. "We haven't done that in a while," he whispered.

Indeed their lips have not met. Not since that fateful night who knows how many years ago when Kaeya broke Jean's heart with the shattered remnants of his soul. When Diluc returned from his expedition, Kaeya acted as if nothing had happened.

To this day, only Jean knew how much pressure was on his ice cage the day Mondstadt's Uncrowned King finally returned home. To most people's eyes, Kaeya was as fine as he always was. They didn't see his pained smiles after trying and failing to converse in a civil manner with his brother. They didn't hear his maniacal laughter that echoed through headquarters two hours past midnight. They didn't know how close Kaeya and Diluc were before.

Even now, years later, their relationship on the brink of reconciliation, it still caused Kaeya great agony. He would never admit it, but Jean knew that his nights were plagued with nightmares. And sometimes, Diluc's rejection would be the story his brain told him. Those thoughts greatly contributed to their still ruined relationship.

But Jean also knew that whatever impact Diluc's abandonment had on Kaeya, they were not the only wounds in Kaeya's heart. And Jean knew that she would never know everything.

Jean had fallen in love with Kaeya's smile in her youth, and now she made it her mission to make him cry.

And something told her Kaeya's fear towards reconciling with his brother had greater reasons than simply fear for rejection. After all, Diluc had tried to talk to him multiple times already.

Jean would be lying if she said that she didn't miss their relationship, short as it had been. The few months they were truly together were the happiest times of her life.

Judging by the intense gaze he bore right now, Kaeya thought the same.

"I love you," Jean told him blatantly, gripping his shirt by the collar with one hand. The other reached up to his face and cupped it, her thumb rubbing against the edge of his eyepatch. "And I missed you," she also said. When moisture rolled down her cheeks, she jumped in surprise.

A panicked look came over Kaeya, and Jean knew she had successfully stripped his layers of shields off clean with her confession. In an instant, Kaeya's wrecked hands were brushing away Jean's tears. Then he stared her in the eye and opened his mouth to say something.

And then he closed his mouth.

And Kaeya took a shaky step back from Jean, and he roughly rubbed his eyes and jerked his head. "I'm sorry," his voice was shaking. "I…I can't."

Kaeya turned around to leave, but Jean grabbed a hold of his hand before he could. "Why?" She asked, her voice cracking, and Kaeya's deep blue eyes darted around the room and refused to look at her. "Please tell me Kaeya. I know you feel the same."

She placed a hand on his shoulder, and his gaze finally snapped to hers. His eye shone with clouded emotions. "I love you," he whispered. "And because I love you I can never be with you. Not again."

"Why?" Jean asked again. And suddenly she was sobbing and shaking and her legs gave out underneath her.

Kaeya scooped her into his arms and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'm sorry," he said again, but still he did not tell her his secrets.

Usually, Jean would have left him alone a long time ago. But today she had made more progress than she ever was able to, it's the middle of night, the Abyss and Fatui are constantly breathing down their necks and Jean was desperate for an answer. "I won't stop loving you no matter what you tell me. I promise you that."

And Kaeya laughed, a sharp sound that twisted into Jean's heart like a dagger tipped with poison. "How could you know that without knowing what atrocities I'm hiding?"

Jean buried her face into his neck. "Because I trust you," she said.

I trust you .

Three simple words, and Kaeya did not break, he shattered into a thousand tiny little pieces which scurried across the cold marble floor of the Quartermaster's office. Against his chest, she could feel his heart speed up, and suddenly Kaeya was panting and wheezing and he laughed so much his entire body shook violently.

Jean could see Kaeya's heart bleed.

He told her everything.

Where he was from, what purpose he served in Mondstadt, his contacts with the Abyss, what he thought when Crepus died, how he obtained his vision that same night after Diluc trashed his hands and left forever.

And Kaeya told Jean of his mixed loyalties. How he fell in love with Mondstadt but still cared for the nation he was supposed to rule if it had not fallen.

How he spent the afternoon not just locating the Abyssal monsters, but thinking up a way to minimize damage, to turn the monsters to another country in the land of Teyvat so he would not have to destroy them and they would still have a chance against Celestia.

He told her how the Abyss was going to attack soon, and he did not know what to do.

And he took off his eyepatch to reveal a beautiful eye that swirled of molten gold and glowed like a star.

And throughout all this, as Jean sobbed into his embrace, Kaeya laughed and spoke as if it was just any conversation they were having.

When Jean told him she was following him home that night, Kaeya did not protest. Instead, he simply stared wide-eyed at her in disbelief and shock.

Once they entered Kaeya's house, he cackled, and told her a tale of a boy who fell in love with a girl he couldn't have.

Jean pulled him to his room and forced him onto the bed. "Now, the girl is going to be yours," she said, before silencing him with another kiss.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

To clarify what has been bothering Kaeya on this particular day…Eula's report and Albedo's pattern recognition skills of course!

Basically, the abyss are planning to attack Mond and Kaeya is trying to do damage control and failing to not get personally involved and basically choose aside. Jean doesn't know much of anything about Abyss plans because Kaeya is shady af as usual.

Also, I did not make Kaeya choose Mondstadt because I don't think he would actually choose sides. In the game, he is constantly struggling with whose side he should take. He obviously loves Mondstadt, but I think he knows exactly how much responsibility is on his shoulders and that choosing Mond would be voluntarily giving up the lives of everyone he's supposed to be responsible for. This, in my opinion, is exactly why Kaeya has been shackled to his Khaenri'ahn descent. If he chooses Mond, a nation is permanently dead because of him. If he chooses the Abyss, then he's turning his back on those he loves.

I will offer a solution for Kaeya.

He's not choosing Mond or the Abyss. Uh…no, he's not choosing the Fatui either. He's choosing humanity, period.