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"At least you don't have a fever..."
Jean's words barely registered as a comfort. What did it matter? Fever or not, Klee was still in pain.
It started as a minor pain the other day, just barely a nuisance. She was too focused on her trip to Starfall Lake and forgot to ever bring it up to anyone, like she was always warned to if she ever felt off. By the time she made it back to Mondstadt in the evening, however, it started to become something she could no longer ignore. Her ear had begun to ache and clog.
Kaeya was the first person she saw, so Kaeya was the first person she told. Based on the timeline she described, his guess was that her ear had gotten too dirty and was now pressing against the inner parts. He applied the ear cleaning techniques Klee remembered from past ear cleanings; but while the pain had died down a little, it did nothing for the clogging. Although, sometimes dirty ears were stubborn, requiring multiple cleanings to really address them. So at this point, they still hadn't suspected anything else was afoot. Klee had a warm washing to loosen up the dirt - which further helped with the pain - and they tried again. But strangely, there was still nothing coming out.
That was when they went to Lisa, who had plenty of medical books within the library she could search through. This would take time, though, while it had gotten late. Poor Klee would have to go to bed and wait until morning for a possible solution.
She slept for only two hours before waking up in agony.
Jean finally got involved then. It also hadn't taken long for Lisa to conclude that Klee's ailment was an ear infection, although Jean could've figured that out on her own. The first thing they tried was propping Klee up, so she wasn't applying pressure to the infection while trying to sleep. Klee was beyond the point of sleep, though. Her ear was throbbing like a heartbeat while the top part of her jaw near the spot was beginning to join in on the pain. Every time she yawned, she cried out. She started to speak while barely opening her mouth. They tried to put a warm compress against the side of her face, but the air of a Mondstadt night kept cooling it too quickly for Klee to feel relief.
There was no avoiding it now. Still late in the night hours, Klee was brought to the cathedral, where some drowsy nuns looked over her. They also came quickly to the conclusion that the girl had an ear infection, while also muttering sharp chastising at the not-present Kaeya for potentially irritating it faster. The first of many healing drops were dripped into Klee's ear, but the pain would take a long time to subside. Klee spent the whole night crying out with Jean at her side, until she was so exhausted that sleep finally overpowered pain.
Of course, that only lasted for a little while. After another few hours, Klee was awake once again, with more to add to her troubles. The pain was continuing to spread. Now, half her face was feeling like it was being crushed in. Her ear, half her jaw, her forehead, her sinuses - she was restless in bed and crying out for someone to help her.
"At least you don't have a fever..."
Body temperature was the least of her worries when Klee couldn't sleep, could barely eat, and couldn't even exist at this point. This was the worst that she'd ever felt in her life. It was even worse than the flu she had caught the prior week.
"Excuse me..."
Reluctantly, Jean peeled her eyes off of Klee and towards the source of a voice that certainly didn't sound like Barbara. Joining them was a small purple-haired girl with a talisman on her head and Liyue-styled garbs on her body, including some bandages. Her voice was slow and soft.
"Qiqi heard someone in trouble..."
"Ah, I'm so sorry," Jean said. "Klee has just been suffering from an ear infection... and now probably a sinus infection on top of that. The nuns wanted us to stay in the cathedral so they could keep a closer eye on her condition, so I'm sorry if she's being too loud."
"Qiqi is from a pharmacy," the little girl responded, completely ignoring Jean's apologies. "Let Qiqi take a look."
Barbara was supposed to get back soon with a stronger version of the ear drops, but Klee was being the opposite of patient at this point. The sinus part was also recent enough that Barbara hadn't heard to grab something for it. So, while Jean had her reservations, it wasn't like it could get any worse if she let this little girl check. Maybe having someone her age play doctor would give Klee some comfort that she and the nuns were not getting through to her in her state.
"Alright, let me fill you in on the details..."
As she recounted the timeline, Qiqi examined Klee's ear and face. In between checking over Klee, Qiqi would look in a notebook that she had pulled out, but Jean couldn't make out the words from where she had moved to. Not like she wanted to spy, anyway. There was some snapping from Klee when pressure was applied, but Qiqi seemed entirely unfazed. So unfazed, in fact, that her sudden question at the end of the recap caught Jean off guard.
"Was the patient sick before the infection?"
"Well, actually, yes." Jean recovered from the curve ball quickly, focusing on giving as much information as possible. Even if Qiqi couldn't do anything, maybe laying everything out would help Jean herself come up with a miraculous breakthrough. "She had just recovered from the flu from last week..."
Perking her head up, Qiqi followed up with, "And how did you treat the patient then?"
"Treat her flu? With the usual common medicine..."
"The patient took the full dose?"
"Of-" But then, Jean stopped herself. Her brows furrowed up as she mentally double-checked. "Well... Klee isn't always good with taking medicine, regardless of taste. It's not that she hates it per say, it just keeps slipping her mind. I suppose there was one day when I was so busy that I wasn't checking if she was taking it... But she still recovered and seemed fine. Nothing was wrong with her ears back then, either."
Now, Qiqi was back to facing Jean. There was a bit of something like a spark of liveliness all of a sudden. "Sometimes, infections can happen because of prior illness. Flu is a common cause of sudden ear infections. What medicine did the patient take? And what is her age and weight?"
After Jean gave her answer, Qiqi consulted her notebook again, slightly longer than before. Jean could barely hear the sound of the cathedral doors opening when Qiqi finally spoke again.
"That medicine wasn't strong enough."
"Huh?"
Right when she was about to clarify, Barbara's voice interrupted.
"Ah, you must be the arrival from Bubu Pharmacy." Barbara was smiling, although still looked a little confused as to the scene she walked in on. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting. Did no one appear when you arrived?"
"Oh, that's my fault," Jean cut in. "Qiqi could hear Klee and came over to offer assistance. She was just telling me something about Klee's flu medicine."
Nodding, Qiqi continued, "It was not strong enough. The patient needs more of a dose now. Or the patient needs to take medicine for the next age group."
"Huh, she needs stronger medicine already?!" Barbara exclaimed. "But she still looks so small, and it seemed to work fine..."
"Most symptoms were addressed. But not the pressure on her ear. The ear infection also undid the sinuses' recovery. Her headache... the patient is just really tired."
"And what about her jaw?" Jean pressed.
"There is a joint that connects the jaw and the ear. The infection is close to it. When the patient opens her mouth, the joint presses the infection point. This is because the joint is trying to open the infected ear back up to drain it. That is how the body is designed. The infection is caused by the ear being unable to drain built up fluids."
"So... even though it hurts, it's good for her to open her mouth up?"
"Ah..." She checked her notes again, but her shoulders slumped this time. "Qiqi didn't write that part down..."
"That's alright, you gave us a lot to think about already," Barbara said.
"Qiqi will come back with more herbs."
Once again, the girl had thrown in something that caught them both completely off guard.
"What?!"
"The order of herbs and medicine Qiqi brought don't include the ones the patient needs. Qiqi will go get them."
"Should you be taking another trip, though?" Jean asked. Then, her eyes widened, as she suddenly realized something she hadn’t thought of before. "Wait, did you travel from Liyue to Mondstadt all by yourself?!"
"Qiqi's vision lets her use teleport waypoints. It doesn't take long to travel that way."
At this, Jean looked over Qiqi a second time. With this, she noticed a Cryo vision she'd overlooked the first time she sized the girl up.
"Oh..."
"We've already been giving her special ear drops, though..." Barbara pointed out.
"Not enough," Qiqi said. "The patient needs something to clear out the remaining bacteria from the flu. And something to help her sinuses. And something to help her sleep easier. Qiqi will go collect these."
"Shouldn't I obtain an actual prescription, though...?" Jean asked.
"The patient has a prescription - from Qiqi."
A beat passed as Jean and Barbara registered the statement. The former was just barely able to shout out her thanks as Qiqi was already on the move.
About an hour later, Qiqi was back. Klee had finally passed out again, with new ear drops still resting within her ear. In order to not disrupt her in these valuable moments of peace, Qiqi instead demonstrated how to use the herbs she brought so that Jean or Barbara could use them once Klee had awakened. Which came in handy, as a little while after Qiqi had left the cathedral again, Klee had awoken and started crying out again.
She almost immediately rejected the first herb based on its bitter taste, but Jean urged her that it was the most valuable to her. Ingesting it would help ease all the pains she was experiencing, allowing her to sleep much longer. Unfortunately, though, there was no way to make it taste better without interfering with its effects. With reluctance, and the use of a lot of water, Klee finally kept the medicine down. She ended up not regretting it either, as it worked swiftly to calm down her pains as if they were gone for gone. However, she would actually need to keep taking it regularly, as all the aching would eventually return without it.
Thankfully, that herb had been the most difficult. Klee was able to take the rest of the prescription with ease - especially since regardless of taste, it all was better than what she started out with. Pretty soon, Klee was back to resting, already feeling better.
Qiqi's prescription aided the nuns' ear drops in healing Klee a bit faster than expected. By the end of the week, Klee was up and running again, although she would need to finish all her medicines for one more day just to be completely sure. With no more aches and pains, it was a bit harder to get Klee to see reason for continuing to take medicine, but the fear of returning to that horrid state motivated her.
A few months later, Qiqi had a surprise when she came around with another delivery from Bubu Pharmacy. Rather than a nun greeting her, the little red-dressed elven girl was waiting for her inside the cathedral.
"Barbara said you'd be coming today!" Klee beamed. "I've been waiting all day!"
Because of her poor memory, though, Qiqi was left in confusion. "You are...?"
"I'm Klee! You gave me all that medicine when my ear hurt."
"Ah..." She would need to check her notebook in order to fully remember, but for now she just nodded as if the memory had already returned to her. "Was the prescription helpful?"
"Of course!" Klee was practically bouncing in place. "I was in so much pain that I could hardly sleep. But when I had your medicine, all the pain went away! Even if it didn't taste very good..."
Something was beginning to come back to her, leading her to say, "You're getting older. Medicines will start to taste bad... But sticking with better tasting medicine will just keep you sick."
Drooping, Klee acknowledged that point with, "Yeah... Sometimes it's tough to be a big girl now. Stuff like icky medicine just makes me wanna stay little forever!"
No response came from Qiqi. After the silence had gone on for a bit too long, Klee spoke up again.
"Did I say something wrong?"
However, Qiqi finally shook her head. "Qiqi... doesn't think so. Qiqi was just... stunned? Confused? Qiqi felt something like a memory... But now Qiqi can't remember again."
With the confirmation that she was fine, though, Klee didn't dwell on Qiqi's complete answer. "Well, I wanted to give you a thank you gift! I've had it ready for a long time now, but I'm not allowed to go to Liyue without supervision anymore..."
"Thank you...?" Qiqi tilted her head. "Did Qiqi not collect payment when giving the prescription?"
"No, not like that! This is a gift, not a payment. And Klee came up with the idea herself."
Pulling out a box from her backpack, Klee continued to explain, "I heard that doctors are afraid of apples, so I got something to defend yourself if anyone came at you with one! It's a special apple-repelling bomb that I made with Albedo's help. He helped make it so the apples will go away without hurting any people when it goes off."
Her explanation gave more questions than it did answer them, but Qiqi was more in shock at the gesture to have the time to start asking them. For now, she'd just assume she forgot the lethality of apples and the importance of the name "Albedo". Although, even then, Qiqi's vision and sword was already enough in keeping her safe. Right before she opened her mouth to say that part, though, Klee's ecstatic face revealed itself again when she lowered the present box from covering it. The sight made Qiqi fall silent again - this time less out of shock, and more out of... what was it? An infectious joy? Or just the desire to not disappoint the other girl?
Either way, Qiqi instead found herself letting out a "Thank you... Thank you very much."
"And if you run out, I'll have Albedo make more. We can trade 'em every time you come to the cathedral. Or I can get Albedo to deliver them to Boo-boo Pharmacy!"
"That is... acceptable. Qiqi will note this down."
While Klee had wanted to speak with the girl who helped her a bit more, a nun finally noticed Qiqi's arrival and subsequent crossing paths with Klee and came over. Klee was shooed away for being a bother to the delivery girl, then missed when Qiqi left Mondstadt via teleport waypoint. So, offering to take her to spots to play or getting to know each other more was something that would have to be saved for another day.
Well, she might appear again if I get sick again... Klee started to think, only to furiously shake her head right after. No, I never want to go through that again. I'm gonna take good care of myself from now on so that I never have that amount of pain happen again!