OC Oneshots

13

Name: Aljak Futai
Fandom: Genshin Impact
Species: Desert Fox Spirit
Location: Romaritime Harbor, Fontaine

Aljak Futai thought she would never find anyone she could trust and love with all her heart after her father died.

    But then there was Mathilde and Alain. Her teachers. Her friends. Her parents.

    They didn't replace her father. He could never be replaced. But they became her new parents. New people in her life, who cared for her. At least, it was how she thought of them.

    The first day in Fontaine was rough, yet the best. It was particularly rainy when she arrived at Romaritime Harbor aboard a merchant's ship, who had graciously allowed her onto. The rain pelted her face as she helped the merchant unload.

    "Thank you!" the merchant shouted over the storm as he tried to block his face from the incoming rain. All their clothes were soaked against their skin, and their hair plastered on their heads. The wind made the raindrops fly horizontally, making any and all umbrellas pretty useless.

    Aljak nodded. "Thanks for the ride!"

    They waved, and Aljak ran into the elevator to escape the rain, shivering, her tail hanging and her ears flat against her head. Being an Eremite from the desert made it completely miserable for her to be out in the rain. It was freezing, wet, windy, and not dry, which was odd for her. The rain itself felt weird, pelting her bare legs and her face. Her Vision wasn't helping either. Everytime she exhaled, a sparkling blue mist of Cryo formed around her breath, causing some of the raindrops to turn into ice, and plunging the temperature to a few dozen degrees below freezing.

    The smell was refreshing, however. Desert life had her accustomed to being able to smell incoming rain or water, and it was the best thing in the world.

    There were two other people in the lift, a couple. The woman had long blonde hair, and beautiful green eyes. She wore a skirt, navy dress jacket, a bow tie on her collar and boots. A pair of glasses sat on the bridge of her nose. She laid her head on the man's shoulder. He had black hair in a short ponytail, brown eyes, and similar uniform as the woman's. Both were also soaked.

    They carried a notebook that was surprisingly not wet.

    Naturally, being in unusual clothes from another nation, the couple noticed her immediately. To her surprise however, they didn't whisper to each other under their breaths, or stare at her, or awkwardly look away and pretend she didn't exist. They weren't rude at all.

    Quite the opposite, actually.

    "Hello, dear!" the woman said kindly. She looked concerned as well, and stood up straight, taking off her jacket. "You must be freezing. Are you from the Sumeru desert?"

    Aljak nodded. "I am."

    "Well, it might take a bit for you to get used to the weather over here," she said. "Though this type of storm doesn't happen often. Here, take my jacket. I'll just steal Alain's if I get too cold on the aquabus. Are you heading to the Court of Fontaine, dear?"

    The woman wrapped the dress jacket around her gently, and Aljak was shocked by her hospitality. It was certainly not what she'd expected upon first stepping foot in the Nation of Justice, not after the injustice she'd experienced in Sumeru.

    "No," Aljak replied. "A-and thank you, Ms..."

    "Oh, drop the formalities. I'm perfectly fine with just being called Mathilde. This is my husband, Alain. What's your name, love?"

    "Aljak. Thank you, Mathilde, and Alain. How should I repay you?"

    Alain laughed good-heartedly, shaking his head. "No, no, Aljak. There's no need to repay us. We're heading to the Court of Fontaine as well. We may be able to chat along the way, that'll be enough!"

    When the elevator doors opened, however, they saw that the aquabus was already nearly full. The rain pattered against the umbrellas held up by the people, though the wind blew the water droplets under the umbrellas, rendering them close to useless. Aljak wrapped the jacket tightly around her, her ears flat against her head as she moved behind a pillar. It helped. A little. She shivered, the raindrops around her turning to ice.

    "We can take two more passengers!" a Melusine on the aquabus shouted. Aljak had heard of the little creatures who were citizens of Fontaine before, but she'd never seen one. A small, furry body, big head, two ears/horns sticking out on top, a cute nose and large eyes—they were quite cute.

    Back to the subject at hand. Aljak immediately waved for Mathilde and Alain to take the bus first.

    "You two take it. I can wait until the next one comes. I'm in no hurry."

    Mathilde looked uncertain, but Alain patted her shoulder. "It's okay 'Thilde, logically we should go first. But thank you, Aljak. We are in a hurry to get home—we have research to do and reports to write. It's going to be a hectic night for us."

    His wife nodded, smiling sheepishly. "Ah, right, that report. It's a shame we won't be able to do much for it. Well, thank you, Aljak! Keep the coat!"

    The couple waved, and Aljak waved back, still feeling amazed by what just happened.

    As the aquabus pulled away, however, Aljak looked down, and saw the notebook the couple had been carrying with them. They must've dropped it. She quickly ran forward to grab it, then ran back to her hiding spot. Curious what was inside, she flipped to a random page, marveling how it didn't get wet. It must've been made of some special Fontaine waterproof paper.

    She was even more in awe of what was in the notebook. Dozens of drawings of Fontaine flora, with labels, question marks, notes, the steps of experiments, results. The little scribbles of notes were all over the place, yet legible, and held information and detail about the plants, their habitat, their pollination habits, how they grow, etc. It might've been messy and hard to understand, but to Aljak, it was amazing.

    Ever since she'd been small, she'd been fascinated by plants, which was ironic as she'd grown up in the desert, but maybe it was because she'd grown up in the desert, where plants were far and few between, that she'd grown to be interested in them. She knew a great deal about Sumeru flora, but Fontaine flora she knew nothing about.

    For a while, she flipped through the book, absorbing everything she could. It was intriguing how Fontaine's plant life worked. It was similar to Sumeru's, yet also vastly different. When she got near the end, however, there was a section called "Sumeru Vegetation". There were a few notes, the simplest of facts that even the most dense of Eremites in her tribe knew. It seemed like Mathilde and Alain had been trying to research Sumeru's plants.

    She closed the notebook, a little guilty that she'd gone through it without her permission, but she didn't regret it. She had an idea on how to repay them.

    First however, she had to return the notebook somehow.

    Aljak stepped out from behind her pillar, and was immediately buffeted by the rain and wind. She grabbed onto her jacket as it tried to fly away, and retreated.

    Right. The storm was still going.

    She sighed. She'd have to give it back after the stupid rain stops.

---
Yas.
-Lunya