A horrified expression painted your face as you ran over to where your arrow landing, hoping to god you didn't kill an innocent bystander.
Thankfully the arrow seemed to only have hit the ground, but unfortunately some red liquid could be seen on the tip. You looked to the side and saw a boy holding a hand over his arm.
You ran over to him with concern,
"Did I hit you with my arrow? I'm so sorry, are you okay?"
He gave you a pained smile,
"It's alright, it only grazed me a little!"
He lifted his hand to show you the wound. It didn't seem too deep, but it looked like it'd hurt, and there was some bleeding as well.
You let out a gasp before rummaging through your pockets trying to find something to help the boy.
Damn there's only lint in here!
Quickly pulling out your phone, you scanned through the apps while the injured boy watched with confusion.
C'mon cmon, there's gotta something good in here!
You were able to find an app with a plus sign on it, and clicked on it, hoping that it'd be a first aid kit and not a calculator. Luckily your hopes were fulfilled, and you were able to bandage up the boy's wounds.
"Let me say this again, I am so sorry that happened,"
He chuckled, scratching the back of his head,
"Hehe, it's alright, stuff like this happens to me all the time!"
"What do you mean?"
A slight sigh came out of him,
"Well I'm just a bit unlucky, that's all,"
That's when you realized just who you were talking to.
"Bennett!"
You exclaimed before hugging him.
The hug was definitely welcome, but also confusing for him.
"Uh... do I know you from somewhere?"
You pulled away and spoke nervously as you made up an excuse,
"I uh... I've heard about you in the city! I never thought I'd actually be able to meet you!"
He blinked in surprise,
"You... wanted to meet me?"
You nodded.
"And you've heard about my luck too, right?"
You nodded again.
"And you still wanted to meet me?"
A third nod answered his question.
He smiled brightly,
"That's great then! I'm always looking to make new friends!"
You gave him a smile, and then realized that you were missing a windy bard. Wind breezes past your ear, and you heard a faint whisper.
"I'll be in the city,"
Damn that was handy!
~•~
Before you died, you always liked Bennett. You felt bad about his horrible luck, and just wanted him to feel happy in general. So you gave him some decent artifacts and put him in a nice room in your teapot with his friends. Even though he wasn't real, it still felt nice to give him a nice life.
But now he was right in front of you, and you felt even worse about his bad luck! He was so nice and precious, and the world was just being plain cruel to him.
At any given moment, a rock would come flying at his head, and thankfully you'd be able to catch it before it'd make contact. There were also a lot of occasions for Bennett to trip and fall, and you made sure to always keep one hand free to stop him from falling.
Overall you were able to keep him pretty safe, and you made sure he was blissfully unaware of it all.
Sure it'd be nice to be thanked, but you always wanted him to feel like life was just being kinder to him, and that his happiness wasn't just because of some outside force.
"Hey Bennett, what's that?"
You pointed to something wooden poking out of a bush.
The two of you inspected closely, and realized that it was an exquisite chest!
"Treasure! C'mon, open it!"
You shook your head,
"You should do the honors,"
He backed away from the chest nervously,
"Are you sure? What if I make it explode or something? I don't wanna ruin it..."
"That's nonsense, Bennett! It's gonna be fine!"
After some more convincing, Bennett anxiously put his hands on the lid of the chest, slowly lifting it up. He really hoped nothing bad would happen, he didn't want to disappoint you.
The chest opened, and inside the treasure gleamed. Mora, weapons, and other goodies caught your attention, but you made sure Bennett got first dibs on the loot. He deserved it.
"That was great! There wasn't even a snake hiding under the treasure either!"
You winced at the thought, and continued walking with Bennett.
"You know, it's weird. Nothing really bad's happened to me today, and I've actually been kinda lucky! First I met you, and now we've found treasure!"
A smile formed on your lips as you continued walking,
"I'm glad things are turning up for you, Bennett,"
The two of you found a nice place to rest, and he let out a sigh.
"You know, it's kind of hard sometimes being this unlucky, but that's probably obvious,"
He continued,
"I'm always getting attacked by something, or I'm getting blown up, or someone's mad at me, it all kind of sucks,"
Then he smiled,
"But still, I've got some great people who'll support me no matter what, and I'm always stronger than yesterday!"
You liked his thought process, it was very confident.
He sighed once more, looking up into the sky,
"It still sucks though. I just wish I wasn't so unlucky... Today was nice, I just wish I had more days like this one,"
Damn that pulled on your heart strings! You couldn't imagine how hard life would be with luck like his! Honestly if it was you, you'd probably have curled up and cried.
So you decided to comfort him, pulling him into a hug,
"I'm sorry you have to go through all of that, Bennett. You'll have more good days like this, I promise you,"
He paused for a moment before tears began welling up in his eyes,
"Y-you think so?"
"I know so,"
The tears began to fall as he silently cried in your embrace, letting all of the bottled up sadness out. Why couldn't more people be as nice as you were? It wasn't his fault he was unlucky!
He sniffled, wiping away his tears,
"Sorry, I probably seem so lame right now,"
You hugged him a bit tighter,
"No you don't! It's perfectly normal to cry,"
The two of you stayed like that for a while until it began to get dark out.
"I've gotta go back to the adventurer's guild, my dads need my help with something,"
"I'll go with you, there's someone I have to meet in the city,"
So the two of you walked back to the city of Mondstadt, with Bennett telling you grand stories of his adventures and bad fortune, providing ample entertainment for you.
~•~
"Goodbye, Bennett. I'll see you around sometime, alright?"
He put a hand on his chest,
"Can't wait! Stay safe,"
You nodded before walking off to the large statue of the anemo archon, seeing the bard strumming his lyre underneath.
"Seems like you had an interesting day,"
He spoke, his fingers still plucking the strings of his instrument.
You let out a deep breath,
"Yeah. I had fun though, and got to help someone too. I'm gonna go back to the dawn winery now, hopefully Diluc will let me stay another night,"
His lyre vanished and he jumped onto you from behind,
"Well if you're going, I'm going too!"
You cupped his cheek in your hand and chuckled,
"I was hoping you'd say that,"
________________________
I have no idea how old Bennett is so you'll just be friends