Clepsydra | A Jean x Diluc Fanfiction | Genshin Impact [DISCONTINUED]

Someone We Miss Dearly

"Leave the rest to me, I'll pick her up."
"And for what reason?"
"I have a family to reunite."

Jean stared at Diluc for a few seconds, eyes half-lidded and face expression softened. What does he mean by reuniting a family? "...Why are you looking at me like that?" said Diluc with a slightly blushing face. "O-oh! I'm sorry..." Jean apologized to her senior, "I just find it...unusual to see you care for someone's family, so unusual to have a will to help that one specific family..." she added. Diluc sighed and looked away from Jean, and turned around away from the door. "I don't want anyone to go through the same events that happened to me. It's all nothing but tragedy, I dislike seeing anyone else upset cause of that." He spoke with sincerity. "I see..." Jean walked closer to Diluc, siding with the redhead with only a small distance between each other. "But what are other things that you care about?" She slipped in a sudden question for Diluc to answer.

Jean felt a bit of butterflies in her stomach when she asked, yet she doesn't know the reason. Is it because of her care for Diluc, only to receive nothing but to be treated as a random stranger?

"Who I care about?"
"If you don't mind..."

Who do I care about? Diluc asked himself, trying to process on who he loves. Do I care in the first place? He asked more. Who cares about me?

"I care about..." He started to speak. "I care about those who care about me. It's the least way I can do to return the favor." Diluc spoke boldly, and walked towards the exit of the Favonius Headquarters. "Jean, sweetie." The voice of a librarian called out the blondie. "You should try helping out Master Diluc." Lisa added. "And why's that?" "I emptied your schedule for your free time. I'm aware you'd like doing work-like tasks, so why not spend that on adventuring?" Jean paused and started deciding in her mind, and started running towards the exit of the HQ. "Just this once, Lisa. Just this once." Lisa waved goodbye to Jean, with a happy face and a small smile.

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Diluc walked out of headquarters and planned to go out and search in Mondstadt's wilderness. He is aware that it'll take him some time to look for them, but he crossed fingers hoping that they aren't in the rocky valleys of Stormbearer Mountains. Before he even knew it, someone grabbed his hand from behind.

"Pardon...?" Diluc asked confusingly, and to his surprise it was his most-respected co-worker, Jean. "What do you want with me?" The redhead questions Jean, though he sounded dull and annoyed when he said that. Jean let go of Diluc's hand and backed away by a step. "My schedule on-duty is empty, Lisa asked me to go adventuring with you during free time." Diluc thought for a second by looking away and thought about Jean's reason. "So... Can I help on looking for the child named Elise?" "Fine. But this does not mean I am looking for her on behalf of the knights. Your organization is irresponsible." Diluc spoke to Jean in a complaining way.

Jean sighs at the feedback and felt a bit disappointed on herself and looked away, hoping for Diluc to not notice. Unfortunately, he did see Jean's expression changed. "N-Not that I mean any offense towards you, you're a great person." Stop it, Diluc. You're not here to comfort, you're here to look for Elise, you dumb person, he said to himself in his mind. "Pardon?" Jean asked with a soft tint of pink on her cheeks. "I-I said I don't mean any offense towards you, you're..." "You're?" "You're a great person." Diluc looked away a bit embarrassed, being aware that the knights behind them are probably mind-blown right now. "You got what you wanted, let's leave for the searching mission." He tries to ignore anyone else's reaction to his statement. Jean nodded and agreed to Diluc, as they both proceeded to go beyond Mondstadt's walls.

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Even after a while, that one short conversation stained Diluc's mind, making him replay it over and over again and filling him with more embarrassment. As they continue walking around searching for the trio, they started to recall about things that happened today...including the "weird" conversation before. Jean headed to Diluc's location (Where he was busy scouting the area) and tried to gain his attention by tapping lightly on his shoulder.