Jean Gunnhildr

"Well, that was tiring" said Kenshin when the people left. It was night now, and no one was outside their houses.

People knew tomorrow they would need to work hard for the reconstruction, and they now had a book to read, so the wine was forgotten, at least for one night.

Jean sat next to Kenshin, making their shoulders touch each other's.

Lumine, sensing a weird mood appearing between Kenshin and Jean chose to leave, dragging Paimon with her.

"Noooooo! Paimon wants to see seggs!!!" Paimon hugged a lamppost but with a strong tug, Lumine dragged her off with a blush. She was also curious after all.

Jean looked wryly at the 2 people leaving with a wry expression but looked again at Kenshin.

"Are you worried about your parents?" softly asked Jean.

"Haaaahhh" with a sigh, Kenshin let himself fall onto Jean's lap and deactivated his normal vision. It allowed him to put his thoughts in order.

Jean started softly caressing Kenshin's soft black hair with a tender face.

"I'm not worried" replied Kenshin with his eyes closed. "The Fatuis have no chance but to comply for now. They want me to fuse the Gnosis, and they won't risk it. But I don't know for how long will they tolerate my actions, as strong as I am in my Plane, I don't think I can win".

"Is the situation that dire?" asked a worried Jean, still combing Kenshin's hair with her hand.

"Not for now. But it will be, and I will be forced to make a decision. When they get more Gnosis, they will start thinking about the next step, and they will get anxious about recruiting me. I will need to choose between helping them, or rejecting them and being their target" explained Kenshin.

"Can't you just ignore their plan?" asked Jean, who at this moment cursed her impotence. She was the most powerful in Mondstadt right now, maybe a tie with another few Knights, but she knew she had no chance to beat anyone Kenshin couldn't beat.

"I don't know" Kenshin replied with a tired voice. "But I can't let them take more people important to me. I need to find a way of making sure of that, as I know you won't leave Mondstadt".

"Sorry" muttered Jean. She knew that she was in fact one of the weakest women around Kenshin, as ironic as it was. Shenhe was way stronger than her, Yae, Makoto and Ei were centennial beings whom she had no chance of defeating. And that Fatui girl....she didn't want to even think about her.

And she was not going to leave Mondstadt. She would cry and scream in pain and sadness, but she would break up with Kenshin before that.

Mondstadt was her life.

"Don't apologize. I should be the one apologizing, it's my fault you are in danger" said Kenshin clanching his teeth. "I am one of the strongest persons in Teyvat, maybe top 20, and yet I feel powerless. But enough of that. I heard that we were going to marry".

GULP

"Don't need to be so anxious" Kenshin said with a quiet laugh. "I just want to understand what happened".

Jean sighed, realizing that this was the moment of truth. Their relationship was warped because of the secrets she had kept from him, but this was not the way to forge a sane relationship.

"A few years ago, when your parents came and you sent me the first volume of 'The Radiant Knight', my mother read the letter you sent. She got the idea that you were the perfect son-in-law and decided to-"

"Push for it" Kenshin completed the sentence. "Sounds like something she would do".

"With the JRK and 'The Radiant Knight', people started thinking that your actions were just a convoluted confession. Maybe someone fanned the flames, be it Varka or my mother, it doesn't matter" Jean shook her head. At any other time, she would have felt outraged by such manipulations, but they were already past that point.

Kenshin also sighed, but remembering a certain letter he spoke.

"I received a letter that said that my parents gave you a pendant as thanks for helping me during my stay here. Thinking about it now that I am aware of your mother's actions, I'm not sure it was yours" he said, thinking back in the oddly informal letter.

"I didn't write that" Jean sighed after realising how far her mother had gone. She took the pendant she always carried on her out, and showed it to Kenshin. "This pendant is a tradition in your family. Your mother gave it to me as a 'wedding gift', along with her wishes for us to be a happy couple. I wrote to you to explain it, but it seems my mother intercepted the letter and changed its contents".

"Well, I remember telling you to keep it, I'm not going to take it back now" Kenshin shrugged, making Jean sigh in relief. "You like my parents a lot".

"Yes" Jean openly admitted it.

"Does it have anything to do with your mother?" asked Kenshin in a calm voice.

"..." Jean kept her silence for a while, but deciding that they were going to lay everything out, she spoke. "Maybe. As you know by now, I don't regret having the childhood I did, and I love my mother. But sometimes, I miss that feeling of hugging a paternal or maternal figure. I can't imagine myself hugging her mother like that. It's not that I hate her, it's just that I'm not used to. She was my teacher, my trainer, my tutor, my instructor. But tenderly hugging her is something I can't see myself doing".

"She knows that" commented Kenshin in a calm tone of voice. "There is no way she missed it".

"And yet, that's the ground we stand in" replied Jean, looking at Kenshin's face on her lap. "Maybe that's why I love your parents so much, they are very affectionate with me, something I don't think my mother is capable of being. She shows her care and concern in another way, mainly training and being strict".

"Everyone is different" noted Kenshin. "And I think you are forgetting about her side. Maybe she is the one who feels bad because she knows you needed something she wasn't able to give you. Maybe she wanted to give you that warmth but didn't know how. Maybe she also wanted a hug".

Jean shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She will think about all this later. Now she needed to focus on their problems.

"What does this leave us?" she asked in a trembling tone.

"Wherever you want us to be" replied Kenshin with a firm voice. "I know way more about you than what you know about me, so I'm ready to take the next step. You have been burdened by this for years, and maybe it has put a dent in your trust in this relationship, I don't know. Except for a brief trip to Liyue, and maybe a week-long trip to Inazuma, I am planning to stay here in Mondstadt for months. Guizhong is pregnant now and I won't be at ease if I don't check in on her"

"She is pregnant?" asked a shocked Jean, but she quickly had a happy smile. "Who is the father?".

"Rex Lapis" replied Kenshin.

".....that's something else" muttered Jean. "I knew she liked someone from her time, but didn't expect him to be the Geo Archon himself".

"Not for very long, he is probably going to retire for good" explained Kenshin under Jean's shocked face. "He had been thinking about it for a while, but with his son or daughter on the way, he is definitely going to do it. I'm his friend, and I know what he thinks. I will need to convince him to wait for a while, I will need to be there to play games with the Fatui with the Geo Gnosis in the middle".

Jean and Kenshin stood silent for a while, enjoying their moment together. The first one in years where they could talk about their relationship and worries.

"You said you were ready to take the next step" Jean commented while looking at the moon and absent-mindedly combing Kenshin's hair. "What will you do with the rest?".

"Are you talking about marriage?" asked Kenshin with his eyes closed, enjoying Jean's hand on his hair. "Yae doesn't say it, but I think she wants a simple ceremony like the ones youkai did back in her age. Makoto probably wants one too, and Ei won't want it as she prefers a firm compromise between us. 'I don't need anyone to tell me what our relationship is', or something like that. Shenhe probably doesn't care, but she may just want to wear a wedding dress, but even in that case it will be a simple ceremony with a few Adeptus, nothing complicated".

"And Sara?" Jean purposefully left Arlecchino out of this. The more she thought about her, the less she trusted the always calm-looking woman. Kenshin sensed this but chose not to speak about it.

"Sara probably wants a ceremony too, but she is in a complicated situation. Her father has holed up in his house in Sumeru for years, and it's only my consideration of her that is keeping me from revealing all the shit he has been doing for 30 years. Sara is not stupid, she knows her father is not clean rice but chooses not to face it. She knows her father is a criminal, but she also loves him even if that won't mean she is going to forgive him that easily. She is too conflicted to say anything related to marriage, and she is a half-tengu, she will live for long so we will have time to live calmly".

"I will be the first one to die then" Jean spoke without any sadness or anxiety. She will live a life she can be proud of so when the moment arrives all she will feel looking back at her life is warmth and pride.

"We will deal with it in time. I have a way to make you live longer, but as with everything else in this world, there will be some disadvantages. But that's in the future" Kenshin knew Jean would be devastated seeing all her friends die while she is still young, but he can't go around making people almost immortal. Maybe that's why the Archons were that jaded, repeating such a devastating cycle could be lethal to the mind.

"I want some time" Jean spoke after a while. "But I also want to take another step forward. We are adults now, even if we are younger ones. I also want to start thinking about my future family, and I hope it can be with you by my side"

"Even if it's a bit crowded?" inquired Kenshin, using his hand to caress Jean's cheek, making her lean into his hand.

"Even so".

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And the night was filled with sweaty bodies, promises, tender words and moans of ecstasy.