Chapter Text
for a time, he stayed.
at the knights of favonius, kaeya returned to a mountain of paperwork. he went through them and several meetings, until his fingers tingled with numbness. eventually, his wrist curdled in on itself, and his spine would protest until he pressed the line of his back against a cornered wall in a fleeting hope of cracking it.
sometimes it worked. sometimes it didn’t.
relief was little, and found only in steaming cups of tea and kind notes.
some of them said, when you have been sleeping poorly, and need to stay awake.
and the others, for focus.
on his worst days, for mourning.
gold turned to ink, and lanterns caught light.
under a sea of stars, kaeya steps out of the headquarters, and finds his old traveling partner by the door.
zhongli smiles at him.
kaeya gives him that familiar show of wolfish teeth.
and zhongli’s smile is only kinder.
when the water pours, their routine continues. it was as if they never left the wilds.
“what blend?” kaeya asks. maybe he’s a little excited to know.
zhongli adds a cube of sugar. it glugs from the tea, then melts away.
“for when you’ve been sleeping poorly…”
he sets the cup in front of kaeya, as if to make a point. “...and you must rest.”
when the morning comes, sun-dappled light and cotton sheets that smell like earth and pomegranate and yellowed pages of star charts, kaeya finds that he rested.
and he had rested well.
when he leaves, kaeya doesn’t notice, at first.
until he comes to his office one morning, and his routine is altered.
there’s not a steaming cup of tea, but there is a note, and a leather case.
it was small, but held large things. this was something kaeya knew.
he hesitates as he approaches his desk, and breaks the wax seal. it’s amber like the color of zhongli’s eyes. a silly, romantic thing to remember.
kaeya
i must leave for a time, but i leave you this
no signature, but kaeya knew who it was from.
only one person has ever made him tea; sweetness over bitterness.
he unclasps the leather case, and finds familiar jars with new labels.
for mourning, of course. for rest, as expected. for wakefulness, because zhongli always cared more than enough.
the labels are all familiar.
kaeya pauses on the last one.
for grief.
he pours himself a cup.
the morning begins with the scent of star charts and rain. kaeya is hardly surprised when he hears thunder rolling, later in the day.
when he sits at his office, the grandfather clock ticks too loud. it is too familiar to pieces of broken pasts and mangled stars. he pours himself more tea, and stares out the window.
some days were better than others.
this wasn’t one of them.
he drinks the rest of his tea but he can’t find the energy for more. sometimes it was more than just the symbol of it, but the fact that this, too, was another blend of grief. a love with no home, a home somewhere else.
when night falls, he goes to the tavern.
rosaria snorts at him. “haven’t seen you for a while.”
he pretends to smile, hiding behind wolf teeth and fur.
and diluc pours him another.
windblume decorations line the streets and fountains. cheering, music, and confetti in the shape of flowers bloom through the air, dancing like spring wind.
“i’m happy to see you’re here.” aether tells him, golden and warm.
kaeya smiles, idly fiddling with a coin. “how could i miss it?”
but he could’ve.
the day is still early, there’s no reason to be here. (there wasn’t much else to do, really.) nothing waited for him at his office except illusions of work and cups of tea. (they don’t taste the same, anymore. more bitter than sweet.)
still, kaeya leaves an offering of flowers at the foot of the archon statue. it wouldn’t make up for everything he’s done, but maybe it’s a step.
“someone looks gloomy this morning.” lisa tells him with an amused smile and shrewd eyes.
kaeya snorts, tosses her a rose.
maybe his attitude is forgiven, because she catches it and smiles.
the day thins out, from white-colored morning to red-colored dusk.
aether gives him a wrinkled slip of paper, and a single stem of cecilia.
come
the wind bites cold here. it feels good against his skin, familiar.
he trudges up the dusty path, until sandy dirt meets blades of green. he walks between the blooming field of cecilias, and pauses when he sees a figure at the end of the hill, merely a few steps away.
cast in red and gold, the silhouette turns. that familiar shape of earth-colored lines, like constellations and pillars of stone.
it shouldn’t feel like his heart is ripped out of his chest, captured in raw jade and swollen earth.
but it does.
“kaeya.” zhongli whispers.
but this was nothing, if not predictable. maybe kaeya enjoyed that.
maybe he liked a hope that goes answered.
he laughs. “no tea for me, this time?”
zhongli’s eyes crinkle in that old, familiar way that makes kaeya’s chest light up with delight.
zhongli opens his clasped hands, and it’s a nostalgic memento of a starconch.
kaeya laughs, louder this time.
“you’re ridiculous.” he wheezes, wiping away at his eye.
he cracks a smile. “just a little souvenir, from you to me.”