"Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company." ~Lord Byron

— - 0 - —

Entering the Acting Grand Master's office she sits at her desk, papers flood it. The door is already open, but Kaeya opens it fully and the creaking of the door brings her head up. Her head shakes a little. A smile spreads across her face when she sees the little boy, her eyes look tired.

"Kaeya, you didn't leave," Jean says standing up.

One of Kaeya's eyebrows rises. "You thought I was going to leave?"

"Oh, no. I didn't know if you were going to run away or not after you went to the extra room. You seemed like you were going to leave, so I watched for you last night," Jean explains.

"Oh," Kaeya says with a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Jean I have your-" Lisa says coming into the room with a cup of coffee before she notices Kaeya. "Oh, hello cutie. Did you have a good night's sleep?"

Kaeya doesn't respond. First thought she was too motherly and still thought that, but now he didn't really care. When they went to the library they didn't bother them. The only thing that bothered him was when she called him 'cutie'.

He didn't like that.

"Thank you Lisa." Jean takes a big gulp from the cup and puts it down having finished almost half of the coffee. "Now that I'm more awake we can start."

The purple librarian leaves, but not without doing her weird wcmace with her hand.

"Kaeya." Jean walks over to her book shelf, and grabs a book; the color is teal. She walks over to the bluenette and hands over the book, "This is the Knights of Kavonius Handbook - 5th Edition. Please read this on your trip."

"What trip?"

A woman enters the room, she looks like a maid because of her outfit. It's black, white, and magenta. Her hair is lavender.

"Acting Grand Master Jean, Noelle reporting for duty," she says.

"Oh Noelle, just the person I wanted to see," Jean says. "You will be Kaeya's caregiver for the time being. I'm sure you have been informed of his current condition."

"Yes, Acting Grand Master," Noelle says, looking at Jean then at Kaeya. "Hello, Sir Kaeya."

Kaeya smiles. He liked this woman.

"Excuse me Acting Grand Master but shouldn't we first focus on curing Kaeya from the spell?" Noelle asks. "And how exactly do we cure him?"

Jean sighs. She doesn't want to answer the question. "To answer your second question, to reverse the spell all Albedo said was that he had to be loved."

"Loved?" She questions.

"I don't really know. Everyone in Mondstadt loves him, but he shows no sign of aging. I don't know what to do," Jean explains while subconsciously playing with the book by turning it around. "With Abyss mages showing up at our borders and hilichurls getting closer... I need to prioritize. Yes, I care about Kaeya, but protecting lives is my main priority. Maybe sending him to Diluc is for the best..."

"Diluc?" Kaeya says, his voice rising. The two women look at the boy. Stars sparkle in his eyes.

"Yes, we are sending you to your... brother," Jean says, pausing before saying the relationship title. "If you choose, you can become a knight. If you choose the other route then-"

"I won't," Kaeya says with a smile.

"When will we be leaving?" the maidly knight asks.

Jean makes her way toward the group of two with the real book in hand. "As soon as possible, I'll have a cart ready for you at the main entrance. Though I think Kaeya would like breakfast before then," Jean says, winking at the boy.

"I would also like some breakfast," Noelle says. "Doing commissions and helping everyone is amazing but I miss Sara's food. How about it, Kaeya? Do you want to eat with me?" Noelle takes out her hand.

The little bluenette nods his head and grabs her hand.

Jean raises an eyebrow but doesn't say anything about it. Instead she says, "Wait. Don't forget to read the handbook." Kaeya doesn't let go of Noelle's hand and she doesn't ethire. Jean hands over the book and Kaeya clutches it in between his arm and his chest.

The two exit the headquarters and walk to Good Hunter. As they walk down the first flight of stairs, a girl wearing a faded, rose colored dress runs up the stairs, passing them.

"Ella?" Kaeya says, looking behind him, not breaking the hold he has on Noelle's hand.

Ella Musk skids to a stop and turns around. "Kaeya!" She slips to him.

"Friend of yours?" Noelle asks. Kaeya simply nods.

"Where are you going?"

"We are going to Good Hunter for breakfast," Noelle answers for him. "Would you like to join us?"

"Well, I was going to Lisa to ask if they got any new hilichurls books and skipped breakfast to do so, but I guess I can do that later. There aren't a lot of books about hilichurls..." Ella confesses, a little embarrassed, or is it sadness?

Ella reaches out to grab Kaeya's hand but notices that its preoccupied with the book. Noelle lets go so Ella can hold Kaeya's hand, he lets her. They were friends. The three of them began the long trek to Good Hunter.

Well, It was long for the children.

They turn right and pass a fountain then Ella's house. After another flight of stairs, this one is long and narrow. The three of them go down a staircase, turn right, go up a different staircase, this one much shorter.

Passing a building Kaeya notices that it was some sort of restaurant. It wasn't Good Hunter but some other place. Kaeya never went this way before.

Banners hang over the door, tables with chairs pushed under them wait for someone to sit or are already supporting a man or two, then there was an image. It looked like a logo or something to Kaeya. In white were two women with wings. They are females on the account that they had long hair and were wearing dresses. The winged women were drinking out of straws and some kind of red liquid. Under the glass were two words, Angel Share.

Kaeya knew what that was. When he stayed with Diluc, Diluc's father would go on trips and bring barrels to a place known as Angel's Share.

'This must be the place,' Kaeya thinks to himself.

Turning right then going up a short case of stairs then turning left this time. They reach their destination.

"Good Hunter!" Ella says excitement running with her legs.

Kaeya runs after his friend while Noelle makes haste saying, "Please don't run."

When Noelle finally gets to the returning Sara greets, "Welcome to Good Hunter. How can I help you?"

Noelle orders for the whole group, "I'll have a Satisfying Salad and these two will have-"

"Hi, Kaeya!" Someone says. Noelle and the children turn to see Klee running toward them from Albedo's stand.

The blonde stops before them. "What are you going with Miss Noelle?" Klee asks.

"We're having breakfast together," Ella answer for the group.

"Would you like to join?" Kaeya asks. He wanted to say goodbye to his friend. Saying goodbye on the street wouldn't be personal and he wants it to be personal. They were his first ever friends minus Diluc, but they were brothers so that didn't count.

"Of course," Klee says. "I just have to tell Big Bro Albedo first."

The pyromaniac half skips half runs across the square to her self-proclaimed, brother's, alchemy stand.

"Okay, let me repeat our order," Noelle says, first apologising for not finishing it in the first place. "I'll have a Satisfying Salad and these three will have Chicken-Mushroom Skewers."

"Coming right up," Sara says. "Please go sit down. The food will arrive shortly."

The now group of four—since Klee came back—fill a full, round table. But Noelle has to move a chair so they all could sit together. Kaeya places the teal handbook down on the table right next to him.

"Guys I have something to say," Kaeya says. Ella and Klee look at him. "I'm going to my brother, Diluc today."

"When?" Klee asks, her smile slightly going down.

"After breakfast," Noelle informs them. "The Acting Grand Master said so."

"Aww," Ella says, her gaze lowering. "I had so much fun yesterday with you. Now we'll never talk again."

"You could try writing," Noelle suggests. "Like Pen Pals."

"Oh! Klee's heard of Pen Pals." Klee jumps up from her wooden chair. "It's when two people write letters to each other."

"I like that idea," Ella confesses. "I've been writing a lot in Hihichurlian, so my English might be a little off, but I can do that. Especially if I get to talk- er, write to Kaeya everyday!"

Her words bring a smile back to his face and a little blush too.

"I will be able to write back, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time," Kaeya says. "I'll be living with Diluc at Dawn Winery. Who knows what adventures we will go on."

"You went on adventures?" Ella asks.

Klee and Noelle raise their eyebrows and glance at Kaeya. "Klee thought you guys ha-" He doesn't notice the gestestures of confusiotion or Klee's words.

"Yeah! We would go on adventures all the time," Kaeya explains. "Diluc and I are studying to be knights. To protect Mondstadt."

Noelle couldn't help but smile at the youngster's words. That's what she wants to do.

"He would be the Cavalry Captain and I, his Cavalry." Kaeya points to himself with his thumb just below the navy blue bow. He has a wide smile on his face. "Our most recent adventure was that of treasure hunting. Diluc and I searched the sand bars for anything that we thought of as treasure. We didn't end up finding anything, but it was really fun and we had a splash fight at the end."

Everyone laughs as Kaeya tells the story. He didn't think it was that funny but little did he know that the reason they were laughing was because they couldn't believe Diluc did that.

Yes, Diluc was a child like Ella and Klee, but he lost all of that when his father died and he quit being a knight of Favonius and discarding his Vision. He disappeared for a few years then came back with no warning. He changed his personality and now had his Pyro Vision with him.

"Here are your foods," Sara says, placing down a plate of Satisfying Salad in front of Noelle and giving each kid a skewer with cooked chicken and mushrooms.

They eat their food, Noelle reminding them to be careful with the pointy side of the skewer. Kaeya continues to talk about his brother and how happy he is with him.

Breakfast ends as a bittersweet goodbye. Kaeya grabs the handbook and they walk across the bridge to Jean who has their awaiting cart. Timmie gets angry at them for scaring all of his pigeons away, but simply gets quiet since there is nothing he can do about it.

Klee hugs Kaeya and says that she will miss him. Kaeya repeats the line to her.

When Ella hugs Kaeya goodbye she says, "Don't forget to write me back Pen pal no matter how many adventures you go on."

"I'll try."

"No, you will," Ella insists.

"Okay then, I WILL try?" The two of them chuckles for a few seconds before Noelle touches his shoulder saying it's time to go.

Kaeya gets into the cart followed by Noelle who takes the reins of the horse from Jean.

"Don't forget to read the handbook," Jean repeats from earlier that morning.

"I'll read it," Kaeya says, opening the front cover.

Slapping down the reins in the two horses, the cart starts moving away. Jean, Klee, and Ella all wave goodbye.

— - 0 - —

Seedlings, have you ever had a Pen Pal?

I kind of did. I had a Pen Pal with my sister's friend. This was during my seventh/eighth school year. We would write letters to one another, and my sister would act as the postal service. It was fun while it lasted; it ended the preceding summer.