Chapter Text
Klee had to wake up super early today, even though she went to bed super late yesterday. But if a little bit of sleepiness was what it took to have a successful picnic today, then it was a necessary sacrifice. She had a plan after all.
“G’mornin’ Dodoco.” She yawned, patting the round creature on the head as she sat by the mirror. “We gotta long day today.”
Dodoco agreed with her as she brushed her hair and got dressed. It was a slower process than usual because the amount of time she had been staying up late and waking up early these past few days was starting to really catch up to her.
Eventually though, she was ready to face the day.
With some secret spy stealth, Klee peeked out her window to make sure the coast was clear, before climbing on the table, unlocking it, and crawling out.
She thought she had gotten pretty good at escaping the window without tumbling over, but this morning she tipped over onto the grass when she landed. She was okay though, so she didn’t let it get to her, simply standing up and brushing the grass off.
The first thing she needed to do was talk with Mister Diluc. He liked making plans and agendas and stuff like that, so she figured that she should probably tell him more about the picnic and make extra sure that he was coming.
It was pretty easy to get to Mister Diluc’s building from the Hq because there wasn’t anybody walking around, but Klee still kept to the shadows just in case (which was easy because the sun wasn’t even all the way up yet.)
She walked up to the door and knocked on it politely.
…
She knocked on it again.
…
She knocked un-politely.
…
It suddenly dawned upon Klee that maybe Mister Diluc wasn’t even here. Maybe he had left to run some early errands, or maybe he even took a really long walk back to his real house.
How was she going to find him now?
She knocked again, this time with even more purpose.
…
No response.
With a sad expression, she turned and walked away from the door.
Hopefully he would remember to show up. It was really really important after all.
A thud, a click, and a sigh came one after the other from behind her. “…Good morning Klee.” With how he talked, Mister Diluc didn’t make it sound like it was a very good morning.
She turned and ran up to him “G’Morning!” She smiled at him and he didn’t return it, but Klee was used to that now. She held out hope that one day it would happen. Maybe sooner rather than later if her plan worked.
“You’re up…early.” He glanced up at the sky. “…Very early in fact…Why are you awake?” His voice was low and came out slowly.
“Klee has to prepare for the picnic.” She answered easily. “You’re still coming right? Cuz I gotta say more about it and it’s super important that you come.”
“I am.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “…Had I changed my mind in the five hours since we last spoke, I would have informed you after I was awake.”
“But you are awake.” Klee tilted her head.
He blinked slowly at her. “…I’m awake now.” He stepped to the side and held the door open wider. “I guess you may as well come in since you’re here.”
Klee held up her hands in front of her. “Oh no, it’s okay, we can talk here. I still gotta run more errands before anyone sees I’m gone.”
Mister Diluc stared at her. “…Klee it is not even six in the morning.”
“So?”
He muttered something quietly about being too tired for this or something like that. “I don’t think anyone is expecting you to be awake any time soon. Just come inside.”
“Hmmmm.” Klee really thought it over in her head. “Okay!” She stepped inside.
As she climbed on top of one of the tall stools in front of the counter, Mister Diluc shuffled around and opened a cabinet.
Klee watched him curiously, but his slow movements didn’t tell her anything about what he was doing. His tired voice didn’t either when she asked, he more or less ignored her which Klee found to be pretty rude, but Mister Diluc sometimes got grumpy so she knew that it was him and not her to blame.
Eventually, he closed the cabinet and placed something on the counter in front of her. It was wrapped in paper and tied with string.
“What’s this?” She started pulling the string and unwrapping it immediately. “…a granola bar?” She looked up curiously.
“It’s the closest thing I have to breakfast that you’d actually eat.” He started unwrapping a granola bar of his own. “Since you snuck out so early, I know for a fact you haven’t eaten.”
“You don’t gotta do that.” She tilted her head at the food.
“I do, unfortunately.” He leaned on the counter as he spoke to her. “Because you’ll somehow forget otherwise.”
Klee crossed her arms. “I wouldn’t have.”
“Sure.” He took a bite of his granola bar. “How about you eat and tell me about your picnic.”
“Right, right.” She finally took a bite of the bar. It had some chocolate chips and dried berries in it which was good because Klee didn’t like when granola bars were too plain. “The picnic is at the same place from last time and it’s in the afternoon.”
“It’s ’in the afternoon.’” He repeated.
“That’s just what I said.”
He sighed. “I don’t suppose you have a more specific time in mind?”
“It’s at noon time.” Klee rephrased her answer because it was obvious that Mister Diluc didn’t understand her.
“I see...” He took another bite of his breakfast. “…Earlier you said that it was ‘super important I come’ to your picnic. ‘S there a reason for that?”
Klee tried not to make a face. Why did he need to ask so many questions? Why couldn’t he just show up when he needed to show up? He thought way too many thoughts in Klee’s opinion.
“Um…I dunno. Because I said so.” She thought that was a pretty solid answer. She’s been told that a lot by adults and Klee could never figure out a good way to counter it.
He stayed silent at that. Klee didn’t know if that was good or not. She picked at her granola bar, digging out a chocolate chip and eating it by itself.
“Picnics are…good for you!” Klee added on after the silence extended for too long. “There's sun and fresh air!”
Mister Diluc raised an eyebrow. “…You’re clearly hiding something.”
“No I’m not!” Klee answered quickly.
Mister Diluc didn’t directly adknowledge her answer, continuing with his sudden interrogation. “You wouldn’t happen to have invited…anyone else to this picnic, have you?”
Klee was able to answer this one confidently. “I haven’t invited anyone else.” …yet.
That would come later.
“Hm.” He didn’t sound very convinced despite Klee’s ability to keep so calm under so much pressure.
In order to avoid more questions, Klee looked down at her wrist and tapped it as if she were wearing a watch. “Oh, it looks like it’s time to go!” She quickly hopped off the stool, grabbed the granola bar, and walked toward the door. “By Mister Diluc! Come to the picnic!”
“Klee wait-”
The door closed behind her and she ran out onto the street.
———
Venti sat surreptitiously on the roof of the Angel’s Share, watching as the young Spark Knight dashed out of the door and into the empty area outside.
She then looked around at her surroundings before walking with what was probably her best approximation of stealth, (which was admittedly not a very good imitation).
He smiled down at her from his high perch before standing up and preparing to follow her to wherever it was that she was headed.
Truthfully, Venti hadn’t necessarily intended to follow her around like this, but he was slightly curious to see what it was that she was doing. After all, it was obvious that she had some sort of clear goal in mind from the way she was running through the shadows and walking on her tippy toes like some sort of caricature of a criminal.
Plus, it would be rather unbecoming of him to knowingly leave a young child to roam the streets of Mondstat by herself in the wee hours of the morning.
And so here he was, silently jumping from roof to roof in lazy pursuit. Had the girl had the forethought to look up, she would have easily seen him, but Venti found that most people never even thought to search the rooftops for pursuers.
He followed for some time, watching her duck behind lampposts and run through the shadows of empty streets. The only time she was even slightly at risk of being seen, Venti had assisted by way of a harsh gust of wind that briefly distracted the lone knight who was a long ways behind her on a street corner.
She started approaching the church, causing Venti to take a different approach as he couldn’t continue walking on the roofs anymore.
He jumped down and kept his steps feather-light as he followed a short distance behind her; because for all of her paranoid glancing around, she didn’t actually look backwards very often.
Klee ran up the many stairs leading up to the church and stopped abruptly as soon as she reached the courtyard at the top. Had Venti not been paying such close attention, he couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t have run into her, even with the distance between the two of them.
Opting to stand in place under one of the shadowed pillars nearby, Venti watched the Spark Knight search high and low for something that he couldn’t discern.
She marched up to the feet of his statue and started walking around it in a circle with purpose before stopping in front of it once again and staring up almost disappointedly. She then sat down and started throwing what looked like small chunks of granola at nearby pigeons, keeping only the dried fruit and chocolate chips for herself,
It was here that Venti finally decided to step out from where he stood and call out to the girl.
“Why, good morning Klee!” She turned and gasped at his voice. “What brings you up here at such an early time?” Venti prayed that no church workers or knights heading to work were nearby right now. Not that it would be that big of a deal for him, but it might scare Klee off.
Klee ran up to him. “Oh! There you are! I was looking for you!”
“For me?” He tilted his head.
“Yeah! D’you wanna come to my picnic?”
Behind the excited shine in her eyes, Venti could sense some sort of scheming air to her request. Why else would she be out here so early after all? “Well, I’d have to check my schedule.” He put a hand to his chin. “Is there anything special going on that I should know about?”
Klee stared at him before very slowly glancing off to the side. “Maaaaybeeee.” She drawled out suspiciously.
“That sounds awfully like a yes to me.” Venti smiled mischievously at her and winked. “I won’t tell a soul if you share it with me.”
The girl squinted at him, trying to figure out whether or not she wanted to answer. Venti waited patiently, keeping a casual air about him.
Finally, Klee nodded and came to her answer. “You promise not to tell anyone?”
Venti put a hand over his heart. “I swear it.”
Klee held out her pinky.
It must really be serious if she was resorting to this, Venti mused to himself.
Venti interlocked his pinky with hers.
“Okay, so you can’t tell Kaeya and Mister Diluc this, but I’m inviting them both to my picnic and they gotta talk to each other cuz’ they’ll be the only ones there.”
At first, Venti discounted the idea that this would work, but the more that he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
Had it been anyone else executing this plan, it would never work in a million years. One or both would try to leave almost immediately after being forced to interact with the other.
But Klee?
She practically has everyone she meets wrapped around her finger. By the time they both realized, it would be too late to back out lest they want to risk disappointing the sweet and innocent little girl who excitedly invited them to come.
By the time she was finished explaining her master plan, Venti had an impish smile on his face. “You know what Klee? You’re much smarter than people sometimes give you credit for.”
She beamed up at him. “Thank you. So does that mean you’re coming?”
“Unfortunately, this is a task that only you alone can fulfill.” Venti shook his head then winked and leaned down in front of her. “But, I do have some suggestions.”
They spent the rest of the conversation shaping Klee’s plan into perfection. Eventually though, Venti knew the streets were going to get semi-crowded soon and he could only do so much to ensure that Klee remained unseen, so he accompanied her back to the Hq and helped her climb back inside her room just seconds before Outrider Amber walked in with a plate of breakfast and a basket of fruit that would presumably be delivered to the Cavalry Captain.
With a proud smile, he ducked out of the way and disappeared as if he were never there to begin with. After all, he had done all he needed tthis morning, and everything would now be left to the little Spark Knight.
For the sake of Klee, the two brothers, and everyone else in Mondstat, he really hoped her plan would work.
———
Albedo stared at the door as it closed behind the Cavalry Captain and sighed.
While he had been joking about bringing Master Jean in to lecture Sir Kaeya about taking care of himself, his underlying concerns were still very real. No amount of jokes could detract from how clearly the man was suffering under the weight of the world.
Of course, Albedo could never claim to fully understand what he was going through, but he could at least recognize signs of strife when he saw them, no matter how well-hidden they may be.
He pushed his chair to the spot in which it originally sat in the lab, and grabbed Sir Kaeya’s examination results to place in a safe spot. The neat handwritten words on the front stared up at him as he held the papers.
Almost all of the questions that required the Cavalry Captain to answer had vague and usually unserious replies transcribed beneath by Albedo’s hand. He had tried his best to get truthful responses from the man, but he had a hunch that he had partially obscured the real answers to many of the questions. However, Albedo couldn’t push past a certain point unless he wanted to risk him further closing off.
And that was the true problem wasn’t it?
Kaeya Alberich closed himself off in every waking moment, making it just that much harder to look out for him.
The alchemist tried to be a reliable and kind presence to everyone around him, but he never knew how to act around Captain Kaeya. The man was always so closed off, that Albedo could never tell what was and wasn’t okay. On the off chance he said something unpleasant, Sir Kaeya would react completely the same as if faced with any other comment. It made Albedo feel a certain…tentativeness around him.
Albedo didn’t even know if they were necessary close enough to refer to each other without titles. The Cavalry Captain had dropped the ‘Sir’ multiple times when speaking with Albedo, but he had never explicitly said anything about it, and Albedo had never been good with these sorts of things.
In short, the man was nothing short of an enigma.
He put the papers away and sat back in front of the soil analysis he had been working on before the necessary interruptions to his work. However, his mind immediately wander back to Kaeya and what made him tick.
Even further, he wondered about the specific events that led to him acting like this. Albedo had always assumed that Master Diluc played a large part (and he still did) but seeing how the winery owner had acted these past few days, both with Klee, and in his attempts to bring Kaeya back through the portal, he had to wonder if there was something else there. Master Diluc seemed to have his own demons, but it did seem as if he perhaps was not the cause of all Kaeya’s problems.
The two were eerily in many ways. He had seen it firsthand in how the two spoke with Klee.
….
With some vague awareness, Albedo realized that he had not been working on the soil samples for quite a long time now, too busy with his pondering. This time, he actually got to work rather than staring off into space.
Still though, he kept Kaeya in his thoughts as he worked.
Perhaps if Albedo could not do it, hopefully one day Kaeya could at find someone to truly form a personal connection with.
It was the least he deserved.
———
Klee had been nervously glancing at the clock for the past hour and a half, pacing back and forth in her room and going over what the rest of the day would look like with Dodoco.
She had gotten both Kaeya and Mister Diluc to say they would come, and she had gotten some tips from Venti, so everything was already on track to be okay, but it still made her anxious to think about. After all, she only had one shot at this and she had to make it count.
After yet another disappointed look toward the clock, Klee decided that she should just go already, so she mentally steeled herself and climbed out the window (she landed on her feet this time.)
Collecting Kaeya from his home and bringing him to the picnic spot was easy, as Klee had imagined it would be, and he didn’t even really question anything which was also a big relief.
It was once he had started to settle down when the real work began.
Klee set out the plates and immediately realized her mistake when she accidentally set out a third one. Before Kaeya could ask, she quickly put Dodoco behind it so that it looked normal. Luckily, he didn’t say anything about it after that.
Kaeya asked about what they were eating and Klee had to keep herself from saying anything more than she needed to.
Kaeya then said something about fish blasting and Klee almost panicked. How could she forget? She even drew a picture of it earlier when making that message for Kaeya’s fruit basket! Trying to keep cool, Klee quickly stood up and tried to look natural as she threw a bomb at the water. It was kinda a disappointing explosion but Klee didn’t worry about that too much. Not when a phrase she dreaded came almost right after.
“Klee, can I ask you something and expect honesty in return?”
“Yes?” Klee tried her best to look normal but it was really hard. How were the adults so good at faking their emotions all the time?
“Is there something that you’re hiding from me? I won’t be mad, I promise. I just want to know the truth.”
Klee wanted to scream, but she didn’t because that would be kind of weird right now.
She stammered out some sort of nervous reply, but was saved by an angel in the shape of a big falcon swooping down at the dead fish on the water.
Because if Mister Diluc’s bird was here, then it probably meant that he was nearby.
And she was right.
Just a little bit after that, Mister Diluc arrived like the hero he was, much to Kaeya’s expected surprise.
It was at this point that Klee really went into game mode. Now that they were here, she needed to do this perfectly or else someone would get suspicious or, Barbatos forbid, leave.
She put on her best ‘excited Klee’ face and managed to convince both of them to sit down, even after they bickered a little after seeing each other (which, their bickering would actually be helpful, according to Venti, but Klee was afraid that if they fought too soon, she wouldn’t be able to do the plan like she wanted to.)
From there, Klee answered some questions that Kaeya asked her, being as earnest as possible, especially making sure to emphasize that Mister Diluc tried really hard to bring him back home, which Kaeya didn’t really seem to believe.
(In the process of this all, she made sure to eat as much yummy food as possible, because what else was the point of a picnic if not eating as much as possible?)
Then, she showed Kaeya the drawings she made, which was something that Venti had suggested. Both Kaeya and Mister Diluc made some silly looking faces as she did this and it took a lot of control for Klee not to laugh.
Unfortunately, she almost slipped when talking about going to the big house that Mister Diluc lives in (and that Kaeya used to live in.)
“And I learned a whole bunch about Mister Diluc! Like how he’s your-…um-” Klee stopped talking and tried to come up with a good way to end her sentence. As much as she wanted to say that they were brothers, it would probably make them both sad and it would make her job harder. She looked between the two adults in front of her and lamely finished talking. “Like how he knew a lot about birds.”
It was a cop out, but it was really important for what was to come next.
They kept talking and Kaeya kept saying things that seemed a little mean towards Mister Diluc, but Klee ignored them because it was working in her favor.
Speaking of working in her favor, she made sure to make a big show of digging around in her bag and trying to reorganize it even though she had lots of space left. If she could do it well enough, maybe they wouldn’t even think twice when she took out the things that were important to her plan.
The mean comments kept happening more and more until finally Mister Diluc sat up straighter and shot an annoyed look at Kaeya.
“I don’t appreciate what you’ve been insinuating.”
Bingo.
Klee watched him put his plate and juice off to the side. Umber waddled closer and started eating the small pieces of fish left, Klee would have stopped her, but she was too focused on the argument that was forming.
Going back and forth between the two of them, it was obvious that this was becoming something a little more intense, which was perfect because it allowed her to take the next step of her plan.
Once both of them stopped glancing in her direction as they argued, Klee very quickly finished her food and cleared her throat.
“Ahem.”
Both of them looked at her very guiltily and quickly tried to say sorry.
“Ah Klee-”
“My apologies for-”
Luckily for them, Klee had wanted this to happen.
“Dodoco’s gotta…go to the bathroom! I’ll be…back soon!”
After saying the line (admittedly not very smoothly), she took out the photos and the photo album(which she had taken from the both of them before she even had thought of this plan.) Then, she stood up and, out of pure nervousness, did an awkward salute before running off toward Springvale. They probably didn’t notice though.
Now that they’d taken her first round of bait, it was all up to them to find the second.
Her smile was wide as she ducked into the trees and watched them from afar.
———
If it weren’t for the constant headaches that the girl caused, Jean would almost commend Klee for her impressive skills in evading solitary confinement.
After all, not only did it take quite a lot of finesse, it also took guts to do it this many times in a row.
To be fair to herself however, Jean never really locked her in there without any form of escape; it's not safe after all.
That said, it wasn’t really safe for Klee (or the wildlife) when she was running around Mondstat by herself either.
“Well…I heard word from some people coming from Springvale that there were dead fish floating in the lake nearby, so if I had to hazard a guess, that’s probably where she is.”
Point in case.
Jean sighed and thanked Amber who she had stopped on the street to ask after the Spark Knight. Amber then offered to track her down and bring her back, but Jean just shook her head and moved on.
She felt a need to do this herself since Klee usually seemed to listen to her…for the most part at least.
The walk to Springvale was quick, and she did indeed see two dead (cooked) fish floating in the water once she entered the small village. With a sigh, she asked a few people nearby if they had seen anything.
“I didn’t notice her personally, but she usually hangs out a little west of here.”
“Yeah! I saw her. She was doing…actually I’m not sure what she was doing but yeah, I definitely saw her.”
“I mean…I wouldn't be surprised if it was her I heard over there.”
She thanked each person gratefully and went in the direction that they indicated. It was the same place as last time, which she probably could have guessed herself, though the way the citizens talked about it seemed odd.
She ignored it as she walked on.
Walking through past the small stretch of trees, Jean was just about to turn the corner to-
“No! Stop!” A small voice came from the trees.
Jean stopped and looked to find the source.
“Master Jean! Over here! Please?”
Just a short way into the woods stood Klee, her face aghast. She was making such frantic beckoning motions that Jean couldn’t help but oblige her request.
“What’s going o-”
“Shh!” Klee put a finger in front of her mouth. “Klee promises that she’ll go back to solitary after this, but you gotta be quiet.”
Somewhat nervously, Jean lowered her voice. “Are you in danger?”
Klee held her hands out in front of her. “Nonono just follow me.” She started walking deeper into the forest, Jean followed. When they reached a slightly different area, Klee turned and pointed at an area out of the trees. “Look.”
Jean looked where she was directed and felt her eyes widen.
Just a short distance away was none other than Kaeya and Diluc sitting on a picnic blanket, and not only that, they seemed to be actually willingly interacting with one another.
She couldn’t see either of their faces, but it looked like they were both looking at something. There was undoubtedly a tension around them, but she couldn’t hear arguing, so that was still a positive in her book.
She looked to the girl at her side. “How did this happen…?”
Klee looked back up and grinned proudly.
Huh.
She had managed to do something that Jean could never. Credit where credit was due, this must have been a very difficult thing to pull off.
“…Good job, Klee.” She patted her head. “Just come back to us soon, okay?”
As much as she wanted to stay and watch this display, Jean unfortunately had things to get to after this.
She waved and walked away from Klee.
A smile rested on her face at the thought that perhaps the two estranged brothers might actually be getting closer to making up.
———
Klee watched the two go through many different emotions as they spoke to each other on that picnic blanket.
She saw anger, sadness, nervousness, and even more sadness as they talked for a long time and looked at the pictures that Klee left behind for them. At some point, the emotion got so intense that Umber flew away to find Klee (which was very easy for the bird because she was rather smart and much less distracted than the two sitting around her.)
As sad as the overall sight was though, it brought Klee joy to see that this was all actually working, and so quickly too. She had kinda thought that she would need to wait for a lot longer in order for this to work.
Maybe Kaeya and Diluc secretly wanted this as much as Klee did.
With a gigantic smile, she looked on at them sitting shoulder to shoulder as they looked out across the lake.
…Only for that smile to fall when they both frantically stood up and started frantically cleaning up the picnic area.
“Birdie, why are they doing that?”
The bird simply looked at Klee meaningfully and then looked back at the two men.
“Ohhhh. Right.”
Klee immediately ran out from the trees and made her presence known, much to the chagrin of those around her.
On their walk back, Klee could tell that the atmosphere felt a lot different than before. It made her very happy.
And it made her even more happy when she was able to hold both of their hands at once (which she had to force a little bit near the end of the walk, but…still it was a nice moment while it lasted.
Once she climbed back into her room, she almost immediately pulled off all of her accessories and outerwear before changing back into sleeping clothes.
After all, she needed to catch up on sleep.
So, with a little bit of (slightly forceful) encouragement toward both Kaeya and Diluc to make them stop blocking her window, Klee flopped into bed and promptly got herself ready for a long nap.
As she drifted off to sleep, Klee thought that she had done pretty good today.
The last thing she felt before slipping fully asleep, was a warm happiness.