✧𝔻𝔼𝕍𝕆𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ~ 𝒶𝓃𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑒𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃~✧

✧Barbara- Genuine✧

YOU HAD BEEN friends with Barbara for years, and you knew that sometimes, she felt like she was under the shade and shadow of her older sister Jean's success. Jean was the acting Grand Master of Mondstadt, and she commanded the Knights of Favonius and oversaw many of the things that kept the city running. Barbara was just a simple deaconess, with the powers to heal. She wasn't strong, like her sister, or wise, like you. She was just a weak, useless healer.

But you didn't see her as that.

You saw her as a beautiful young woman, who had bloomed from a playful young child to a conscientious, kind, and perceptive young woman. Sometimes, you thought that she could sense where other people were hurt, be it internally or externally, and even heal internal wounds with her beauty and kindness. She was like an angel in your eyes, and you would so anything to try and make her happy.

On one particularly cloudy day, you were assigned to go wipe out a few hilichurl camps in Stormterror's Lair. It wouldn't be too serious, you were told, just a few camps and then you would be done. Because you were confident that you could do well, you said that you would go on your own, without any support.

That was the worst choice you could have made.

You were halfway done with the second hilichurl camp, when you saw a Ruin Hunter flying towards you, spinning like a top that had been pushed into high gear. You panicked and started to run from it, but the hilichurls that you had been fighting were not done with fighting you yet, and they joined the ruin hunter in chasing you. You were so close to the exit of the lair, you just had to run a little more, a little bit more-

And then you slipped and fell on a wet rock.

And the hilichurls were all over you before you could get up.

They beat you relentlessly with their clubs until you could barely stand. The Ruin Hunter apparently found it enough to hover in the back and watch, until the hilichurls were done beating you up. Then it rushed towards you and did a spinning attack, slamming its heavy wood and metal body into your beaten up, exhausted body. When it stopped attacking you, it was already too late for you to go get help. You were nearly unconscious, unable to move, and bleeding from just about every part of your body. You hoped uselessly that you wouldn't die, and then your eyes closed and darkness enveloped you in its warmth.

When your eyes opened, you were lying down on a makeshift bed in the basement of the church, and Barbara was sitting over you looking terrified. She wasn't looking at you at the moment, and was calling for some of the sisters to bring alcohol and new bandages for your wounds. You didn't know why she was so concerned about your wounds, after all, they were just little cuts, right?

Wrong.

The Ruin Hunter had made two great gashes in your body with his spin attack, one on your forehead, the other one on your side, right above your left leg. The gashes were deep, and they had been bleeding profusely before Barbara could get to you and stitch them up. She had sung many songs to try and wake you up, many songs to try and heal you, until her voice was hoarse, but none of her songs could heal the internal damage that you had. The Ruin Hunter was exceptionally strong, and its blades had dug deep. One of your intestines had been cut, and you had large amounts of internal bleeding. With the help of some other doctors, Barbara had stitched up that wound too, but some of the blood was still sitting idle in your body, and your wounds would cause you great pain for many weeks to follow.

She was cursing herself now, wishing that she was like her sister Jean. If she could fight like Jean, she could have protected you in Stormterror's Lair, and you wouldn't be this seriously injured and in this much pain. However, she was just a healer, and didn't know how to attack. Her heart was too kind to even think of putting the most aggressive of enemies in pain, but now that you were so seriously injured, her heart had shattered. She would be willing to slay anything now, if she had the power to, just to show her anger. But she couldn't. So instead of being angry by hurting others, she was being angry by hurting herself.

You called her name, your voice weak and broken, and she whirled around to look at you, her beautiful blue eyes wet with tears. You playfully pulled at one of her pigtails like you used to do as children, and she pushed your hand away, making you seriously concerned about her well-being. Usually, she would never push you away when you were being playful with her, rather, she would pull at your hair too, and you would end up tackling each other, screaming, and rolling all over the floors. But now, she just flat out rejected you.

"I'm sorry," she was sobbing.

"What are you sorry for, Barbs?" you asked her, using your childhood nickname for her as a way to try and make her feel better.

"I couldn't protect you. I never can. I'm not a fighter like my sister Jean."

When she said that, you knew what was wrong with her. She was comparing herself to her sister yet again.

"Barbara, you and your sister are two different people. She's a fighter. You're a healer. There's no shame in being a healer. Genuine healers are hard people to find nowadays," you told her.

"What do you mean, genuine?" she sniffled.

"Healers nowadays just want to take care of people to extort as much money as possible from them. However, you're different. You take care of people because you have the desire to not see one living thing injured. You couldn't care less about the money. You just want to keep people safe. I admire you for that, Barbara. To be honest, I admire you much more than your sister Jean. Jean is a marvelous person in her own ways, and I love her too, but you have such a genuine and kind heart that you're just on another level from her. You're beautiful and perfect the way you are, Barbara. Never compare yourself to anyone, especially not your siblings. That'll just lead to a rivalry between family, and those are never good."

Barbara was shocked by your words of support and love. She stood there silent for a very long while, and then said, "Thank you, Y/N. You've made me realize how truly foolish I have been. I must go and apologize to my sister."

"She doesn't know that you felt this way towards her, though," you said. "If she doesn't know, why should you apologize?"

"Merely thinking cruel things about someone makes them deserve an apology from you," Barbara responded, running off with her skirt and pigtails bouncing away with her.

You smiled at her genuine kindness and love for other people. Your Barbara had many good things going for her, but your very most favorite thing was how genuine she was. No matter how sad you were, if she was kind and loving to you, you could tell she actually meant it. And that was what was beautiful about her.