a world away

“  how the fuck is you will be inlaid upon this statue a catchy line, it doesn’t even make any sense. also, fuck you, striking twice won’t kill me either.  ”  it was playing dead for simplicity.

“  if alice thinks inviting me to this archipelago will help her case, she’s wrong. nice ruins, now give me custody of klee or i’ll set up a booby trap for next time you’re rude enough to sneak home without saying hi to klee.  ”

“  nonono,  ”  klee shakes her head quickly, desperate not to anger her ally friend.  “  it’s ‘cos you only make faces like that when he’s around.  ”  well, not only when he’s around, but jean would probably take even less kindly to klee blowing up half the adult population of mondstadt for the crime of making diona grumpy.  “  it’s, um– shorthand, big brother called it. you draw little pictures instead of writing words, and that makes it super secret so nobody else knows what you’re saying !  ”  she’s quite proud of having remembered that fact, though perhaps her drawing didn’t capture the gist of what she wanted quite as well as she’d hoped.

each name has a different drawing next to it  —  jumpty dumpties and bombs, and a frowny stick figure meant to represent diona beside nimrod’s name. klee seems to be pretty serious about this.

“  jean– isn’t mad, klee. i know it seems like it, when she tells you off for little things , but i promise she doesn’t hate you. you know how i worry about you, because i’m your big brother ?  jean worries about everyone in mondstadt, so she’s very busy, and sometimes the words don’t come out right and she reacts to things in a way she shouldn’t.  ”  it doesn’t make it okay, and he’s still going to have to sit down and have a very long and very difficult talk with jean, but he hopes it will set klee’s mind to rest for a little while.

“  i’d be happy to help teach you how to use a greatsword, if that helps ?  ”

“  i’ll never be mad at you, klee,  ”  he promises, and he means every word of it. she’s a child, and children should always be free to make mistakes and messes and break things without fear of repercussions. not even if you blew up mondstadt, he wants to say, but he doesn’t know if she’d find that as funny as he would. he’s been inflicted with albert’s presence more recently, so irritation towards the city’s authorities is somewhat forefront in his mind.  “  and you can always come to me about anything.  ”  he should speak to one of the younger knights, sucrose or amber or the traveler perhaps, about acting as a chaperone for klee when he’s on dragonspine  —  he knows jean isn’t fond of letting the spark knight out of mondstadt without more experienced company, and truthfully he’d not want his little sister on such a treacherous mountain alone anyway.

“  who told you that ?  ”  his tone is measured, carefully gentle — he doesn’t want to upset her — but inside, albedo is seething. how dare someone plant such a thought in klee’s head.  “  that’s not true. you’re a wonderful girl, klee,  ”  he says, crouching beside her to pull her into a hug,  “  and the best little sister i could ever have.  ”