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A first meeting in the sewers was not quite a meeting at all, Jean thought. With all the rats that infested the banks, and the dirty water filled with bacteria sloshing away right next to you, as well as dripping from the ceiling at times, it was quite a task to even lower yourself within such a place. Normally her pristine upbringing and high-class elitist schooling forbade her from getting anywhere near here; and yet there she stood, clad in the ugliest banalest colours, most certainly unbefitting of a lady, fitting in with the shadows. An undercover mission, they said. Infiltrate the Fatui on behalf of Favonius.
She did not expect to meet the "Darknight Hero" she heard so many whispers about on the streets.
The man accidentally jumped right in front of her from above, like some kind of phantom, as she was simply minding her own business. Sneaking around trying to find the entrance to the Fatui lair around here. Jean was perfectly fine until he showed up. Due to the accidental shriek she let out, both of them were condemned to hiding out in a small nook, out of sight, as they waited for cautious Fatui guards to evade them.
He let out a frustrated sigh, his voice ever so biting. "Is this your first operation?"
"No," she huffed, "but it is the first operation where I needed to expect falling men from the sky. Much less notorious men like you." She crossed her arms indignantly. "What's next, Darknight Hero, sir ? Should I be expecting the prime minister to follow suit?"
Despite the darkness and the mask—a very flashy and stringent mix of reds and blacks, a mask you would wear at a masquerade rather than a covert operation—Jean could see his eyes narrow and bore into her at her emphasized sir. Perfect; let him be mad. He was the one that wormed his way into her infiltration plan, not the other way around.
"Considering we are forced to work together, miss, I'd say it'd be counter-productive to call me that name."
"Then what do I call you, sir ?"
He stayed quiet for a moment, as if trying to figure it out himself. "I assume you know Old Mondstadtian?"
"That's quite an assumption." She fidgeted with her own black mask, covering half of her face in black void. "But yes, I am familiar with it, though not fluent."
"Then you may call me Morgengrauen; Grau'n for short, if need be."
"Wouldn't it be simpler to just call you Dawn? Why the extra layer of encryption?" She stepped closer to him, daring to poke her finger in his chest.
"The Fatui are a lot more crafty than you think they are, little dandelion." The smirk of victory in his voice was clearly transmitted through the nickname he gave her. "We will need all the protection we can get, before they muster up the knowledge to blow you far, far away."
Jean was this close to punching his face. He was not from an enemy faction, however, and thus she couldn't go against the code of harming civilians. "Fine. I'll play along with your little game. It's not like there is any other choice."
Regardless of how horrible it felt to concede, it was simply a matter of time before she did, at this point. She was too tired for whatever games he would want to play, and she wasn't childish or prideful enough to hold onto grudges. The situation was frankly dire, and Jean knew that he didn't mean to disrupt her. It was more or less her fault that they were stuck together anyway.
"Löwenzahn then. Zahn for short, if need be."
She held out a hand as a sign of a truce, plastering a fake smile along with it, despite him not being able to see. She hoped he wouldn't take the slight jab at his wording from before too seriously, so to deem her entirely disingenuous. It would simply be better to be able to joke with each other, if they were to be colleagues for the night. Assuming from his taking her hand and giving her the firmest handshake she's had the pleasure of experiencing in her life so far, it had precisely the intent she wanted it to have.
"A pleasure to meet you, Löwenzahn."
"Likewise, Morgengrauen."
His hand was quickly gone out of hers, and she wondered for just a moment whether she missed its retrieval. Perhaps it was just the exhaustion from this pointless endeavour. She simply crossed her arms again, to give herself some semblance of comfort.
"So, what's the game plan, big boy?"
"Well, our original plan to infiltrate via the underground is not going to work. There are too many guards here, and both of us are barely equipped with proper gear to handle them." Unusually expressive, he waved his hand like a lecturer. "So, it's either risking our lives here with them at high alert, or we retreat and attack on a different front."
She scoffed at the idea. "What front would that be?"
"Pantalone's Casino."
"Are you quite right in your mind?" Her head whipped around harsh enough that her wig almost fell off. "Nobody, not even the government agents sent there to check on illegal activities multiple times throughout the years , has been able to find anything there. Not to mention you cannot get in without either using force, or a special invitation—-"
She stopped herself short before rubbing the bridge of her nose through her mask. "You probably have an invitation, don't you."
"It was saved as a last resort if all my other attempts failed."
"And how many did you go through before using the most obvious one?"
"About 15." He chuckled a bit, as if her frustration with him wasn't bad enough. "You have to understand that I really didn't want to go there with that method. It'd put me in obvious spotlight; not to mention that the reason I got one is because I was a target in the first place."
"Don't tell me- the Darknight Hero works better after dusk?" Her fake gasp threw him in for a suppressed giggle, covered up by his coughing.
"Something like that. Now, are you going to be my date for the night?" His outstretched hand reminded her of the gentlemen that asked her to dance at galas before. Immaculate posture, yet not too rigid to seem afraid.
Taking his hand with the same intensity of his handshake, she grinned. "Whatever reason would I have to say no?"