It started off like how all bad ideas started off.

By a simple question.

All ideas, good or bad, came from seeds, and this seed was especially terrible. It started out innocuously enough, as most bad ideas do; a simple sentence from Bruce's mouth. (This was generally where the bad ideas come from, the worse being from behind a mug of dandelion wine.)

"-so, what actually does it actually mean to be a break room?"

"…Bruce, you know water? The thing you use as a substitute for your drinking problem?"

"Yeah?"

"You're being clear as mud."

-0-

In Mondstadt, the city of freedom, what use are peacekeepers and rules that exist to restrict one so? Well, freedom of self does not mean freedom from consequences. The Knights of Favonius are tasked with protecting the townsfolk, perform raids on Hilichurl camps that stray too close to the main roads and protect the supply carriages that travel from their region to neighboring ones.

One could find their headquarters within the city, where most visitors would find the great Mondstadt library, a trove of secrets open to the public at their leisure, maintained by Lisa the Librarian. The barracks and training grounds are for the knights in training, who stand at attention for any threats that may come to the city, and the office for the grandmaster, which has Jean Gunnhildr at its helm, whose duty is to manage the Knights on a wide-scale basis.

But visitors are allowed no further than the first floor.

This rule is by no means restrictive to hide some dark secret; it's just that there's hardly anything of note on the second floor.

Except for, y'know, the break room reserved for the Captains and outriders.

This is the part where the discussion starts blossoming.

For you see, it's an open secret within the knights that all the Captains for the companies (par for Hertha) are… lacking for a better term, unique.

And a break room that the Captains were forced to share would certainly stir up some shit.

…and judging by the size of the pot for guessing what was in the break room, some shit was definitely stirred.

For example, just the sentence containing the word, 'break' and Jean Gunnhildr doesn't exactly sound right. It feels foreign on the tongue, and saying it makes it feels like you're committing a sin.

And what on earth would Captain Kaeya bring? His past is shrouded in mystery, his hobbies unknown, and if he dared bring a single glass of wine into the official headquarters of the Knights of Favonius, Jean would have his hide placed upon the theoretical fireplace that could have sat within the room.

Of course, the knights hold no envy about this small luxury granted to captains and outriders. They all work tirelessly, making up for the empty ranks that had been taken when Grandmaster Varka had gone on that expedition.

So, the questions remains. What luxuries could be hidden within this fabled break room?

Maybe there's no luxuries at all, claims another. After all, they just might use the room for planning out and testing new stratagems. They could even use it as a training room of sorts.

And as the Knights talk, Eula, fabled captain of the reconnaissance company, passes them by without a word and makes her way up to the break room.

-0-

To most, Eula Lawrence is a frosty and antagonistic person that stares down haughtily at others she deems unworthy of her time. This is not to say there aren't any she does find worthy, only to say those who are come few and far between.

With a heavy tome under her arm, Eula opens the break room door to be greeted with a simple small living room of sorts. A comfortable looking sofa lies under a window that leaks warm light through, a small kitchenette with a stocked fridge lay on the opposite side, and a small kitchen table sat in the middle of the room.

She crossed the room to the other side, peaking into the workshop that was connected to the room to reaffirm she was truly alone. Satisfied, she strolled to the table and set down the tome, a thick thud affirming its many contents within. 'Rules and Legislation for the Mondstadt Nobility: Edition Twelve' the book title claims. Pausing one last time to listen for unwanted visitors, she turned the cover over-

-to reveal the hidden stash within.

Eula settled into the seat, brought her feet up on the table and crossed her legs, picking up the (much smaller) novel within, and started to read.

After about twenty minutes of immersion broken only by laughter cleverly disguised as coughs- Amber never failed to find amusing reading material, perfect for an adventure novel, while serious enough to disguise it as a story to peak her interest – footsteps approached. Eula quickly looked up, swinging her feet back onto the floor as she hid the novel.

Captain Kaeya strolled in, took a look at the messily assembled tome and smirked at Eula's icy expression. He waved his hand. "Don't let me interrupt you."

"Nothing to interrupt." Eula hastily replied.

Kaeya shrugged in response, his smile betraying how much he believed that. Scoffing, Eula shifted to another seat, this one facing away from the nuisance. Kaeya smiled and threw himself onto the sofa, languidly shifting himself to a more comfortable position. Sprawling on the sofa with a sort of enviable loose grace found only in cats, he took out a small notebook and begun parsing through it.

Curious, Eula peered over her shoulder, and found the lazy scrawl of a unfamiliar language instead of Common. She recognized the handwriting and the leather-bound book- it was clearly one of Kaeyas many notebooks, but this had unfamiliar symbols and numbers mixed within the words.

Probably just a log book of some sort. Captain Kaeya was not above filling an entire notebook with nonsense just to mess with people. Sighing in discontent, she turned back to the dull tome, hoping he would leave so she could get back to her novel.

But she doesn't tell him that.

Instead, the pair quietly read on.

The room could comfortably house four, with enough breathing room for all within. Technically, five, but only if everyone was alright with the occasional shoulder brush. But for just two, it was perfect.

Many more minutes passed in peace, the sound of pages turning and light breathing making up the ambience.

Until the door opened again.

"Hi guys! Fancy seeing you here!"

The pair looked up at the intruders interruption, Eula's face souring until she realized who had spoken. With a flushed face, Amber strolled into the room, holding one of her barons underneath her arm, with a small toolbox rested against her hip.

"So, what brings you here?" Kaeya smiled, inviting her in with a sweeping arm.

"Nothing much," Amber mumbled shiftily, turning away from Eula. "Just some… er, last minute repairs to the barons, is all!"

Eula narrowed her eyes at the suspicious behavior. Had she done something recently to anger Amber?

"Oh, well, best not to bother Eula now." Kaeya grinned from his seat. "She's currently occupied with a book. I heard it is quite the page-turner."

Eula startled at her name. "Er, Yes! Yes, it is. The twelfth edition actually started to reign in the nobility in terms of-"

"Well, you heard the lady." Kaeya interrupted. "Best not to disturb her, Amber. Come! You can sit next to me instead."

"Oh," Amber gritted. "Thank you, Captain Kaeya."

Kaeya smiled cheerfully and patted the sofa cushion next to him. "Anytime, Outrider Amber."

Ambers smile may have never shifted from her face, but her eyes started twitching. Grumbling, she made sure to step on his toes when she made her way over.

Kaeya sucked in air through his teeth as he held in his yelp, but his smirk never diminished in size.

Time went forward again. This time, the grumbles of dissatisfaction as well as the small squeaks of screws being tightened was added to the ambience. The room was starting to fill up now, but it was still comfortable enough for the three to stretch had they needed to.

Eula went back to her book.

Ah. Peace one mor-

"Now, don't the three of you look darling?"

Gods damn it.

The three looked up at Lisa's interruption. The librarian had a full tea-tray balanced on one hand and a large book in the other, clearly having just come up from the library.

"What caught your interest?" Amber asked, though she felt like she already knew the answer. (something that was easy to start in the middle of, a casual novel or a book of theories, just as long as skipping around didn't take away from it).

"Oh this little thing?" Lisa said, heaving up the seven hundred page book; Amber carried a lot of packages as an outrider, she knew how much space a book took up - looking at it briefly before smiling at her friends. "Just a little light reading."

"So, skiving off work."

"Yep!" She took a couple steps forward and placed the tea-tray laden with sweets and pastries on the table in front of Eula.

Eula growled.

Lisa smiled sweetly in response.

She turned and gestured at the sliver of unoccupied sofa between Amber and Kaeya. "May I?"

They shrugged and parted.

"So, how are your plans of romanc-oof!"

Amber glared at her.

"Don't make that face," Lisa chuckled, reaching out to rub her thumb against Amber's cheek, brushing away a spot of dirt. Amber made a disgruntled face, groaning at Lisa's antics. Turning back to her book, she turned to a random page and started to read.

Now there were four.

The worst part was that Lisa was a loud reader. Even though she was quiet by most standards, in this small room, her hums were loud enough to remind Eula she wasn't alone. Lisa tried to be quiet, but that didn't stop her from humming while she read. Happy humming. Confused humming. Amused humming. Hmm. HMM. HMMM!

But Eula still doesn't leave.

Instead, she rolls her eyes, and continues to read.

-0-

In the Knights of Favonius headquarters, there seemed to be one room that everyone liked for one reason or another.

Kaeya, personally, liked it for the comfort and the positioning, easily being able to quickly survey the city from the roof, or able to contact others downstairs. It was also easy to find someone else there, a unwilling participant in one of his schemes, or just someone to tease. Maybe just a friend.

Amber would never admit to it, but there was usually a particular person in the room she could find when on break or recuperating from a mission. Being alone was fine if you enjoyed that, but Amber was good at reading people. She didn't like being alone. She knows what that's like, and doesn't wish that upon her enemies.

Lisa didn't like reading as much as other think so, but she liked sharing experiences. That's why she hummed, even though the author wasn't around to hear it. It reminds others that she's here, that she's there to talk to if they wanted, or maybe just there to remind them that they're not alone.

Eula used to be so alone. That was normal for her. She used to like being alone, but one of the problems with being alone was that it gave her too much silence, which ended up being filled by the thoughts she didn't want to think. Now, she had enough people around that she could afford to be afraid of loneliness. It was funny how things worked sometimes.

So in the second floor of the Knights of Favonius headquarters, there is a room that Eula likes going to for a bit of reading. It is secluded enough that she couldn't hear the commotion of the Knights, where a refreshing breeze always passes by, and for the well-worn comfort of the chairs there. She cared about her friends who liked this room, who were there, who were always willing to be there, always sharing their warmth and thoughts with her. And when she would admit that even though it was crowded, that everyone was warm and too close and made far too much noise, and that she doesn't talk much, it wasn't a bad sensation, nor it felt lonely.

She just felt… Serene.

-0-

The peace is only ruined by an explosion that rocks the whole caste, followed by an angry shout below from the acting grandmaster Jean. Minutes later, when they're still picking up after the room, a unamused Jean storms onto the second floor, hair disheveled and her cape scorched at the sides.

And there she is, everyone thinks, turning on their heel away from the door. The grandmaster of the knight of Favonius. The Dandelion knight. The protector of Mondstadt. Jean, who looks like she's going to murder someone and she is going to scream profanity the entire time she does it.

"Which one of you idiots was supposed to be on Klee duty?!"

They look at the only exit to the room. They stare at the angry grandmaster. Who is currently standing in the exit.

"Well, you see-"

Kaeya, the brave little cookie that he is, (though definitely not the smartest), slowly inches to the shattered window.

The tension is only broken by the calvary master, in all of his wisdom flinging himself out of the window.

"EVERY MAN FOR THEMSELVES!"

"Oh, don't you dare KAEYA-"

Lisa chuckles and tips the brim of her hat as she flashes out, and when Amber is left in the room with Eula and an angry grandmaster, she laughs and jumps onto the windowsill, unfolding her glider halfway and leaves her hand outstretched to her.

"C'mon! Hold onto me!"

And Eula, caught up in the moment, does exactly that.


Sorry for the late update. Life caught up, and a few family problems popped up.

Review if you can please! I would love to hear some of your ideas for stories.