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The midnight breeze flows throughout the entirety of Mondsadt, dancing with the grass beneath Jean’s feet as she walks the path to Windrise. The moonlight guiding her way to the tree where the great legendary hero Vanessa ascended.
While she usually doesn’t let herself indulge in the simple pleasure of observing the world around her in such a way that doesn’t involve working herself down to the bone, Jean lets herself relax for today.
She has a date to go to, after all.
(Although according to certain sources, ahem, an overheard conversation between Diluc and Barbara, ahem ahem, it seems there’s a certain ring involved by the end of it.)
Jean’s cheeks turn into a deep shade of pink. She really didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but they were so loud and she was curious back what they were talking about back then.
Thanks to that, her thoughts are now running wild like the way the female heroine does in every love novel she reads.
Is she truly going to have this? Have her love propose to her? How will he propose to her?
But even more than that.
Will he actually promise her that they’ll stay together for eternity? Will it actually last? Can she have her happily ever after with the man she loves? The man she trusts with all her heart and soul?
She stops.
Can Jean even have that?
The winds suddenly blow against her back, swaying her hair and dress. It then embraces her like it has a mind of its own, as it whispers sweet little assurances and encouragement.
Oh.
Barbatos is watching her have a mini crisis right now.
And worse of all, he’s trying to comfort her.
Jean wants to run away from the daughter treatment she’s receiving from the god and scream.
But that would be undignified of her.
So instead, she brisk walks her way towards her destination.
Deep breaths.
One, two, three breaths in.
And after nine, go breathe out.
And again for however long it takes to calm her beating heart.
.
.
.
After an embarrassingly long time trying to relax, she concentrates herself at observing her surroundings.
A few whirlwind asters are scattered around the grassfield area. Fireflies surround the statue of the Anemo archon found underneath the enormous tree where Vanessa ascended.
Oh.
She’s already at Windrise.
Oh.
Jean observes a little more, looking at the setup. A picnic rag, a basket, a bottle of what must be wine, and two glasses. From there, she sees him. Sitting down and fiddling around a blade of grass on one hand and something else on the other with a wobbly smile as he most likely tries to prepare himself.
Kaeya.
Oh Barbatos, he looks beautiful.
Forgoing his usual attire, he instead wears a white collared shirt that is tucked in a black corset. On top of it is a purple vest with simple golden lining and a single silver rose button attached. His tight pants are glittered with small silver stars, and two very big golden ones at his left. His hair is tied up with a simple black bow, similar to the one she herself is wearing right now.
Kaeya’s lone star shaped pupil stares at her figure for a few seconds, blushes, changes his expression to his signature grin to try to hide it, then stands up to walk to Jean’s direction.
“Ah, Jean. You’ve arrived.” His eye twinkles, bright like the midnight sky, as he approaches her, offering his left arm towards the blonde, “Oh, and I must say, you look positively stunning.”
(He’s concealing something on his right hand, but Jean pretends not to notice.)
Jean exasperatingly smiles as she walks to him, takes his hand with her right, “And I could say the same to you as well.” and goes up the incline with him. Remaining one step ahead to not look at whatever Kaeya’s holding with his other arm.
They walk together towards the picnic area, enjoying the view of the fireflies wandering on and about. Jean’s stomach grumbles as she smells the Cat’s Tail mushroom pizza as well as Kaeya’s signature fruity skewers.
⊹₊ ˚‧︵‿₊♡₊‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹
As Jean finishes eating the pizza’s crust, Kaeya pops open the bottle of wine that he brought for tonight. Filling out the two wine glasses and lending one out to Jean, who looks at the glass inquisitively.
It is, presumably, based on its ruby color, a glass of red wine. Which is odd to Jean as Kaeya prefers drinking either a death afternoon, which is lime in color, or dandelion wine, a mostly translucent drink with a tinge of yellow.
Kaeya raises his lone brow as Jean seems to hesitate, “What?” And his eye seemingly glitters as he gives that teasing smile of his. “Does the oh so heroic grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius not like the custom-made wine her quartermaster has painstakingly prepared just for this occasion?”
Jean raises a brow at him and softly giggles. “No, I’m just simply surprised that you brought red wine instead of your go-to Death Afternoon.” She says as she takes the drink from his bare hands. “And for the record, it’s Acting Grandmaster, Varka is still the Grandmaster you know?”
A hearty laugh escapes Kaeya’s mouth, “Oh, but surely you jest. With how much you’ve done for the city of Mondstadt, you are deserving of the role as Grandmaster. You could ask the people of Mond and you’ll see that over half of the population is eagerly awaiting for Varka’s return to give you a promotion!”, and takes a sip of his wine.
Jean was about to interject, say that she hasn’t done nearly as much just yet, but then she stops herself. She doesn’t want their conversation to be work-related right now. This is a moment for the two of them. So instead, she follows Kaeya’s lead, and takes a sip as well.
The previous conversation dissipates as the song of the birds takes over the silence. Jean just observes as Kaeya calmly drinks a fourth of his wine.
Too calmly, in fact. To the point where Jean can tell that he’s trying to calm himself and act normal.
And maybe get a bit of that liquid courage.
The female knight blushes a bit, suddenly hyper aware of the fact that she’s staring at him. So Jean looks at her own unfinished drink and downs the whole glass.
It’s very bitter, but leaves a warm, fruity aftertaste in her tongue. Made with grape, most likely.
Jean likes it a lot.
She looks for the wine bottle found on the picnic basket. A simple navy blue bottle with a black ribbon tied on it. Jean grabs it as she looks at the label of what can now be read as “Congratulations Jean! From Diluc, Kaeya, and Master Crepus” with a doodle of a cute lioness on it.
Jean looks at the man before her, who’s tensely looking back as well, this time with an openly hesitant expression on his face. Oh. So this was made before…
Jean brings her attention back to the bottle in hand, as she softly smiles. “Master Crepus was the one who drew the lioness, wasn’t he?”
“How did you guess?” Kaeya says as he tries to let himself be vulnerable. It’s hard, but he’s not avoiding talking about him, so she takes that as a win.
“Well…” Jean pauses. Looking a bit closer. “It’s the confidence in his strokes. It reminds me of when he tried to teach all three of us how to write our signatures without taking twenty seconds to do so.”
“Oh yeah.” Kaeya forces out a little giggle, though it comes out as more of a series of huffs instead. “‘It helps with boosting your confidence, and improving your handwriting too’, he used to say back then.”
“I’m pretty sure he meant the ‘confidence’ part for the two of us, and the ‘handwriting’ part for Diluc.”
“Hah! That’s true. His handwriting may be readable now, but he sucks way back then!”
“Kaeya, that’s rude to say of your own brother.” Jean tried to say with a stern voice, but her smile and giggle at the end betrays her inner thoughts.
“Come now Jeanie, I’m just saying the truth! Only a handful of people were able to read his atrocious writing, and even then, they were struggling as well!”
Jean’s giggle turns into laughter, and Kaeya joins in shortly after his speech.
⊹₊ ˚‧︵‿₊♡₊‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹
Kaeya is anxious.
Kaeya is hiding a small box behind his back and he’s praying to a probably drunk Barbatos that Jean is too drunk to notice it.
So this is it. The final part of the plan.
Okay, maybe second to the last part of the plan. Or third. He doesn’t know, Kaeya’s a bit too woozy to properly think.
But hey, at least Kaeya got the liquid courage he needed.
After a few more drinks and drunken conversations, Kaeya stands up and asks Jean for a dance. Nothing too fancy, just something they can enjoy without the other accidentally tripping on a rock or getting dizzy with.
Jean accepts his forwarded left hand, and they dance to the sound of the night.
He can feel the warmth emanating from her hand. See her soft sweet smile that forms with every intoxicated sway. Hear every breath coming out from her.
She was a stable source of comfort throughout his life. She stayed with him even after everything went down. Loved him despite his origins.
As Kaeya slowly twirls her under the great tree, they silently gaze upon each other, a smile forming at both of their faces.
Jean, feeling light and eager to twirl, holds Kaeya’s fingers as she swiftly spins around for at least four more times, closes her eyes, and shows a full smile, carefree and bright.
By the stars, Jean is even more dazzling than the night sky.
Kaeya gulps his nervousness away, and smiles once more. As he tightly clutches the small maroon colored box, containing two golden rings with their own small diamonds on top of it.
This is it. Moment of truth.
“Jean…”
Now or never.
They stop the dance, yet still hold each other’s hand. Kaeya holds her lightly, while hers is firm, warm, and tight.
Jean opens her eyes, giddy and blushing. Probably from the wine, Kaeya thinks. “What is it, Kaeya?” She raises her brows and speaks with her inquisitive tone.
Kaeya pauses. Hesitates a bit. “I-” his thoughts are a bit hazy. But even still, he kneels down.
“I love you.” Kaeya declares loudly. Jean stares, is about to speak, but- “And I… I want to be with you. Forever. And…”
Kaeya shows the box to her. The box containing two wedding rings. With the diamonds shining bright, eagerly showing off its beauty.
“I want to offer you my love. My life. And everything I can provide.”
“Kae-”
“You were always there for me, even at my lowest. Always trusted me, even when I act out of line and even go against the knights’ handbook.”
“Of course I-“
“Ever since we were children, I always enjoyed your company. Always worried for everyone’s safety. Beautifully observant, and helps all those in need even with the simplest of tasks, though almost always to the point where you stretch yourself thin.”
“No I don’t-“
“Yet whenever you give time for yourself to relax and enjoy yourself is when you are the most beautiful. Like that one time you read Klee, a story about the Fox and the Dandelion Sea.”
“Kaeya I-”
“I really adored you back then. Until now, of course. I will always-”
Jean is as flustered as she is frustrated. Kaeya is so anxiously speaking to the point where he can only be stopped through… hm…
“Speaking of books, I remember all the times when you read me books because I had a hard time reading all the pages back-”
Jean looks at Kaeya’s averted and frantic eye, and onto his lips. Yearns for his to touch her own. She could… maybe not. Something deeper, perhaps.
Jean brings her knees down to caress Kaeya’s face and kisses him.
Kaeya stops. Frozen for a moment. Then returns it back with as much intensity as she gives.
જ⁀➴♡
At some point, they both pull away and sit down on the grass, needing to breathe for a moment and process what just happened.
As much as they could, anyway. They’re both overworked and red wine is still in their system, after all.
They subvert their attention from each other and into their environment.
Then lock each other’s eyes onto each other again. With Jean’s index finger touching her rosy lips and Kaeya feigning calmness, but is holding the box way too tightly.
“Kaeya, I-“
“Jean, does that-“
They speak at the same time. Unsure how to express their thoughts, but knowing what this, all this indicates.
“Does that mean that-” It may not be as obvious as Jean’s but Kaeya is blushing more than she is. “That-”
Jean’s eyes crinkle, and she beams. Taking one ring to wear on her finger, “Yes, Kaeya.”, and then the other on her fiancé’s.
“I do. Forever and always.”
Kaeya remains stunned, then suddenly feels overwhelming joy. In the spur of the moment, he hugs Jean intensely, and the force is so strong, they lose balance and roll down the small incline.
The winds carry their laughter all throughout Mondstadt as they feel overwhelming joy and love all night long. Their rings glisten under the bright moonlight, a promise to each other. A vow to continue to stay by each other’s side through thick and thin. A commitment that will persist all throughout time.
A lone bard, silently supporting them from the sidelines, will have a new story to share in a tavern tomorrow night.