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The atmosphere of the church immediately tensed when a red-haired man scurried through the entrance, a sense of authority gushed from him, yet it seemed that something had been bothering him. Barbara knew well of the minty scent of the man's cologne and the clanks his boots made whenever they came in contact with the marble floors of the cathedral, and it quite surprised her that the man paid a visit at a time like this.
"Master Diluc, Sir—"
Diluc raised his hand to her eye level.
"I've caught wind of the situation," he said. "Jean… She collapsed?"
"I am afraid so," Barbara sighed. "Fortunately, the Traveler rushed her here before anything bad happened. It seems like the pressure of the upcoming Ludi Harpastum has been weighing her down."
"I suppose she is in good hands," he considered, the tips of his finger grazing upon the wooden seat next to him. "Though, I advise you to stay by her side, and refrain me from beating the living hell out of her."
"I beg your pardon?"
"I apologize for my filthy mouth," he put his hand over his heart. "But she has been walking on thin ice. How many times have I told her to take a rest, yet she never listens to me. And now look at the consequences, she fainted in the middle of work because the people took her for granted."
"Though the actions of the town's people are irritating at worst, I won't let you lay a finger on my sister while she's unconscious—"
The cathedral doors slammed open. Diluc craned his head to find little Klee quickly waddling down the aisle as she called out a name.
"Master Jean!!!" She yelled, only to crash into Diluc's legs. "Oomf…"
The two couldn't help but to ease their temper when the child came running at full speed, as if she had lost her mother in the crowd.
"Shh," Barbara warned, waving her finger over her lips. "Jean's resting over there, you should keep your voice down if you don't wanna wake her up."
"Huh? Why? What's wrong with her?" Klee innocently asked, looking up into Diluc's eyes.
He huffed before kneeling down to her eye level.
"Listen closely, Master Jean is ill for the time being. You mustn't disturb her."
"Huh?! Master Jean is sick? Is she gonna be okay?!" Klee didn't lower her voice whatsoever.
"Quiet!" Barbara whispered once again. "But rest assured, I will take care of her."
"Speaking of which, what are you doing here, screaming Jean's name?" Diluc asked as he stood back up.
"Uhm… Klee has a commision from the Adventurer's Guild and Klee wanted Kaeya to accompany me, but he said he was really busy, so Klee wanted to ask Master Jean…"
Diluc massaged his temples, letting out a long sigh. Another pointless request Jean would absolutely accept regardless if she had eaten or not.
"And now you don't have a caretaker?" He said.
Klee nodded, pleading eyes locked onto his.
"And where is this commission located exactly?"
"Wolvendom…!" Her face lit up when she realized what he meant. "Are you going to accompany Klee, Mr. Weird Grown-up?!"
Diluc took a deep breath, suddenly regretting his life decisions. "Fine, if it means you won't be roaming around Wolvendom all by yourself, what would happen if you blow up Andrius' tomb."
"Yes! Wolvendom, here Klee comes!"
The little girl bolted out of the cathedral with her arms wide open, leaving Diluc and Barbara aghast.
"A-are you sure you're able to accompany her? You always seem like a busy man," Barbara reassured, still trying to wrap her mind over what happened. "If you don't want to, I can—"
"Don't worry, I can handle her," Diluc said. "You just focus on taking care of your sister. Just tell her that so she will repay me by tomorrow."
"Well… Okay?"
"Pleasure doing business with you."
He nodded before racing through the open doors, trying to catch up with the child before she blew up the entirety of Windrise.
Barbara sighed, those two are a bit odd.
She approached the small door at the northeast of the cathedral, leading her to the small infirmary. The Acting Grand Master was laid on one of the two beds, her torso propped up against the headboard. She was much awake, to Barbara's surprise.
"Sister!" She shouted, scurrying over to her sister's bedside. "I thought you were still unconscious."
"I can't stay asleep for long, not when Ludi Harpastum is in a week," Jean said, lifting up her blanket as she set a foot on the floor.
"No, no! You mustn't leave the cathedral until you are fully healed!" Barbara quickly prevented her from getting up and tucked her back into the bed. "Ludi Harpastum can wait, you must get a good rest before the day comes."
"No, really, it's down to just a migraine now," Jean insisted. "I-I have to make this a perfect festival… for Klee. I can't let what happened last year happen again… Collei, that poor child…"
"Speaking of Klee, Master Diluc is—"
"Yes, I heard from here," she said, a soft smile etched upon her face. "Diluc… He's still stubborn as ever."
***
Diluc found himself sitting on a tree bark, overlooking Klee dodging the mitachurl's axe as it blindly swung the glowing hot weapon. Even though he was her "caretaker" of the day, she insisted that she can do this commision by herself, defeating the blazing axe mitachurl and all. He simply nodded, she was Alice's child, after all. But even then, he still had to make sure she was okay if he didn't want to get on Jean's bad side. And so far, she was absolutely killing it. Four hilichurls down and a samachurl—equivalent to a mitachurl, in Diluc's opinion, albeit much less annoying.
A flick of wrist and an explosion later, the mitachurl fell to its knees and tampered onto the ground, leaving the pyro slime in its hands to roll towards Klee. She beamed at the red-haired man supervising her from afar, to which he responded with a thumbs up and a rare thin smile.
Boom!
And just like that, the little girl lunged across the field, blown away by the very pyro slime that had touched her shoes. She landed straight onto the side of her foot, a loud crack followed as she touched the ground. Diluc was quick to act, immediately rushing to her side before she fell over.
The next thing he knew, her face was already flooded by tears and a thin layer of ash covered her nose.
"M-Master Diluc!" She cried out as he held her hand.
"It's okay, it's okay. I'm here," he tried to calm her down. But really, how do you calm down a child whose leg is probably broken?
"This is going to be ugly.”
He carefully un-tied her shoes and took them off. Inspecting her foot, he came to a conclusion.
"A sprained ankle, it seems."
He crossed his legs and sat her onto his thigh, with her arms wrapping around his like a koala. Klee sniffled as she pulled on his sleeve, but she failed to stop the tears from wetting his clothes.
It seemed like the worst case scenario had already happened. They were in the middle of nowhere and Klee couldn't even walk. Dawn Winery was still about 300 meters away, and even if they stopped by Razor's abode, there's a chance he wouldn't even be there.
It would finally be time for him to take notice of Klee's open backpack, oozing out what seemed to be her lunch and a roll of bandages.
Maybe they weren't so unlucky after all.
***
Klee gaped curiously at the bandage wrapping around her foot as she swayed it back and forth. Adelinde had specifically asked her to not move her toes or get up from the bench she was sitting on, causing Diluc to approach her with a tray in his hands, two glasses of grape juice reflecting the summer rays.
He silently placed the tray next to her and proceeded to take the seat on the far left. Klee's red eyes gleamed at the sight of the tall glass Diluc pushed towards her. She grinned and raised the glass with both of her hands, gulping down the beverage in seconds afterwards.
Diluc sipped his own grape juice, he can't help but to crack a small smile seeing the child get so gleeful over mashed grapes.
"We're lucky Noelle had packed that roll of bandages in your backpack."
"Mh-hm! She and Master Jean always pack me first aid… and fishy toast!" She put down her glass back on the tray. "They're the best!"
Diluc's mind wandered as he marveled upon the glass in between his fingers. His head in the clouds, he didn't notice the way Klee's elf ears perked up.
Promptly, a little hand shoved his glass up towards his head, splashing all of the remaining grape juice all over his face and unfortunately on his pristine white button-up.
He threw his face to the side, his hand trying to wipe off the sticky liquid from his eyelids.
Klee seemed to be rather quiet before, so why the sudden change of heart?
"What was that about?" He grimaced when he saw her now somewhat stern expression.
"Mr. Meanie made Master Jean and Uncle Kaeya cry," Klee said. "Klee doesn't like it when they cry."
Cry? When had he made them cry? Well, Kaeya was a bit self-explanatory, but Jean?
"Klee remembers that day, Master Jean was crying in the cathedral," she added. "Big Sis Barbara said she heard your name over and over."
Diluc's eyes widened, placing his glass back to its place. He opened his mouth but not a word came out.
"Where did you go? Why did you go? Why were they crying?” she asked.
An awkward silence surfaced as Diluc tried to find the right response.
“Because of things like this,” he answered, holding onto his knees. “Because the knights and the civilians take their sacrifices for granted, even refusing to acknowledge the truth. Covering up the incidents that would plummet their reputation.”
“B-but Albedo and Noelle would never do that! And Sucrose too!”
“Well, that was when I was young,” he said, patting Klee’s fluffed up hair. “And now you better not grow up to be like those hypocrites. But I guess you’re in good hands.”
“Mr. Weird Grown-up, what’s a ‘hypocrite’?”
“...It’s getting late. We should head back to Mondstadt.”
***
"I heard you took care of Klee while I was gone. Thanks a lot."
"It's only natural," Diluc sighed, watching over the city lights as they lit up in unison. "Anything is bound to happen if I let your Pyromaniac run around without supervision."
Jean chuckled, the cool breeze stroking her cheeks. "She's one of a kind, you can say."
"Barbara said this isn't the first time you've passed out during work, why is that?"
“I guess I have just been neglecting my own health ever since I was appointed the Dandelion Knight,” she said, her fingers running along the grooves of the wooden fence of the balcony. “...Has it really been four years since then?”
“It makes you feel even older when you realize it’s been a year since that kid left Mondstadt,” he took a step back.
“But for now, let’s enjoy the Ludi Harpastum, shall we, Grand Master?”