Laughing Tears

Monster

Summary: Jean meets Kaeya at school. Kaeya feels the consequences that come with being an outsider in a foreign land that he is all too familiar with from someone his age for the first time.

AN: We all know that Kaeya is reckless when it comes to tactics. I think that he is also unpredictable in fighting. Looking at his fight with Collei, it appears that Kaeya likes to utilize a variety of different methods regarding his vision. I think the same goes for day-to-day vision-less combat.

1.

When Jean Gunnhildr was just five years old, she was already accomplished enough in both academics and combat to be put in a class with children two years above her own age. As for why she could not move forward even further despite having mastered the academic curriculum...there was always this one boy she never quite managed to beat in sparring class, much to the dismay of her mother.

He was a young boy with flaming red hair and eyes of glowing rubies with a passion and talent for a civil fight, just shy of two years her senior. He was of noble status like everyone in that class, and his father refused to let Diluc move up an age group in his studies.

She didn't realize the consequences of befriending a Ragnvindr until Diluc disappeared from the city of Mondstadt in August, not showing up to school for three or four months at a time, leaving young Jean all alone, not quite as close to the other children in their classes.

"Can we visit them sometime?" Young Jean had asked her mother at seven years old, pouting her lip whilst curled up in Frederica's lap.

As it was already the end of November, marking the end of the harvesting season, Frederica affectionately explained that, "Master Crepus intends to return to the city soon, Jeanie," while ruffling the golden locks of her daughter. "Patience my dear girl."

Just a month later, Diluc had not yet returned to the city and Jean's parents separated. She never dared to bring the topic up with her mother again. Not with how much more harsh she had turned afterwards.

In fact, Jean was half-convinced that Diluc's family had moved away from the city in its entirety. Her old friend Samantha's family went to Liyue over the summertime, and seven year old Jean was completely unaware of what a tavern was, let alone the fact that a wine industry existed in Mondstadt. So when Diluc's red mane was spotted at the front of their arithmetics classroom, speaking to a tiny new boy with hair as dark as the night sky in early March, just a few days shy of her eighth birthday, it was a pleasant shock to her.

Diluc grew quite a lot taller, Jean noticed.

"Jean!" Diluc almost immediately beckoned her over to him upon spotting her entry to the classroom. When she approached, he excitedly introduced the boy next to him. "This is Kaeya, my little brother!" The redhead proudly announced.

The dark-skinned boy in question smiled timidly and held a small hand out. "Hullo," he greeted with a light accent Jean could not place. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

The first thing Jean noticed about Kaeya was that he had one eye, and that it was the prettiest eye she had ever seen. She didn't yet have the vocabulary to describe the unique colour she would later discover to be periwinkle or lilac, and lacked the creativity to use a term like star glitter to describe the twinkle unique to him. Kaeya was also incredibly small, bone-thin and short and so light on his feet a simple breeze could probably make him topple over. His size was comparable to a tall five year old, but the way he held himself quite literally screamed he was way older than he looked, so Jean quietly asked Diluc to clarify later on in the day.

"He's eight," the nine year old told her. "Father says he's really small because he couldn't get proper food for a really long time."

The unfortunate problem is, even though Jean can take the initiative to not assume anything about Diluc's mysterious younger brother, their classmates evidently did not. Kaeya's first day happened to be a free sparring day, where no combat was taught and individual children competed against each other in front of the class.