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“Freeze!” Kaeya shouts as ice erupts from his outstretched hand. The wave of shards glances off the Abyss Mage’s forcefield. It cackles mockingly at you, waves its scepter threateningly as you dodge the first spike of ice that slices through the air. The way you contort your body, throwing yourself to the side with an almost artful precision to land on your feet like a cat, is inarguably graceful. Also entirely accidental.
That is to say, you don’t dodge the second spike nearly as well.
Kaeya lunges at the Abyss Mage the same moment the spike shoots off from it's scepter. You’re still trying to find your balance when it makes direct contact with your gut, knocking you clean off your feet and flying backward before you can even say “good shot,” right toward the cliff. Thankfully, a tree cushions your fall. It does a terrible job of it, knocking stars into your vision and pain into your body, though you suppose a bit of pain is better than being turned into a bloody pancake at the bottom of the ravine at your back. You know, optimism. Kaeya shouts your name from between clenched teeth as he sidesteps another doozy of an ice spike.
“I’m okay.” You wheeze, staggering to your feet. “I’m fine.”
Thunder claps. It’s like the world — weather cycles, a pissy archon puttering about Celestia, same difference really — is taking your statement as a dare. Accompanying the thunder are sudden sheets of rain, a sharp turnaround from the light drizzle you’d walked up to the Abyss Mage in. Altogether it is utterly horrible.
Another gigantic, glittering shard of ice cuts through the air. Even meters away from the fight, chills creep up and down your skin as blistering cold air radiates through the already freezing rain.
“K - K - “ Your teeth chatter and your sword falls to the ground as your hand spasms. You couldn’t feel the tips of your fingers or move your digits. “W - w - “
Every clipped off consonant comes out as a curl of steam. You nearly bite off your tongue in frustration.
“Don’t get fros - “
The Abyss Mage blinks out of existence and reappears from a pale blue glow ball directly behind Kaeya.
“B - B - ” With energy you didn’t know you had left you lunge at him, arms outstretched. “BOOK IT!”
“What does that mean!”
Your hand, still icy, wraps around his. You pull him behind you without a backward glance to the Abyss Mage and make a mad dash to the cliff edge. In hindsight, you think as a smaller shard flies over your ear, that may have been a mistake.
“J - Ju - “ Kaeya tries to pull his hand out of yours as the edge of the cliff approaches. You yank him closer. “JUMP!”
The ground, wet and slick beneath your feet, gives way to air. You plummet — only for a second. In the next, the wing gliders burst from your back with a whoosh and a second similar sound follows as Kaeya opens his in short succession.
“I can’t believe this was your pl - WATCH OUT!”
A suspiciously person-like weight lands on your back, dragging you down as an icicle pierces through the air where you head was not even a second ago. That would have been a grisly way to die. Memorable, though. Oh well, can’t have everything.
You glance back over your shoulder, taking in the navy blue strands of Kaeya’s hair and the side of his eyepatch in the corner of your vision and, in the center, the unsettlingly cute masked face of the Abyss Mage peeking over the edge of the cliff. Now in the center of the ravine, you think you were out of its range.
“B-b-b-etter th-than yours.”
There was a wide, manmade-looking entrance in the stone face of the cliff. Presumably a cave. You hoped it was a cave. You don’t think you had it in you to trek back to a roadside camp, much less Mondstadt.
“Look.” Kaeya, still at your back, points to the cave. “We can land there for the night.”
“I s-s-s-” Even your sigh wavers. You give up on pettily informing him that you saw it first, huff, and adjust the angle of your glide obligingly.
“And I obviously had a plan.”
You make a noise deep in your throat that roughly translates to “really now?” Kaeya, having been the second longest member of your party besides Amber and roughly the third person you met in Mondstadt, is somewhat fluent in your particular brand of noises. You know this because he once handed you a bowl of breakfast porridge over the campfire after you’d grunted for it. Of course, then he had known that you’d known he knew and so now when he misinterpreted you knew it was on purpose.
“Ah, thank you for your faith.”
You scowl. “Y-y-you-“
“Are such an amazing adventurer? Why, Traveler, you’re going to make me blush.”
You land on stone with a click. Though you’re the first on the ground, Kaeya beats you inside and instantly shucks his fur lined mantle, lets it fall to the surprisingly neat stone floor with a wet smack. His vest and gloves follow, as do the bits and bobs strapped to his belt. Then, the belt.
“Wh - “ You swallow down the stutter and the chatter of your teeth. The inside of the cave is just as cold as the outside, though you aren’t being rained on anymore which is a plus. “What are you doing?”
“We have to warm up, don’t we?” He grins, but you can see the shivery shake in his hands as he fumbles at the belt buckles.
“Gotta be honest, I don’t see the connection theeeee - ” A flickering synapse in the depths of your gooey grey matter, inhibited by the cold, flips into working order and it clicks. As soon as it does, your brow furrows and you glance around the cave. After a few seconds you conclude that, yeah, it is just a cave — a simple little manmade hole in the side of a cliff. No sign of a magical sex dust receptacle or any indication you’ve stepped into an alternate reality. Wait, this is Kaeya. Yeah, never mind, for the most part this interaction tracks. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” The belt droops, slips down his slim hips and onto the floor with a clatter of metal. “We’re going to be here for the night, and sleeping in wet clothing is a sure way to get sick. What did you think I meant?”
He smirks at you. Even soaked to the bone with his hair plastered to his head he doesn’t look an inch like the drowned rat chic you know you have going on. He looks like he could’ve just stepped out of a Mondstadt fashion catalogue.
“Nothing. Just - ugh, phrasing.” You shrug and staunchly ignore the flush creeping up the back of your neck as you start to peel off your wet clothes. As you bend to wiggle out your boots you catch, out of the corner of your eye, thin navy fabric and a flash of dark brown skin.
You blink and focus intently on your boots. Yanking on the laces doesn’t make it go faster, it just makes something rip. It’s nothing on the surface though, so you’re just going to pray that any possible wardrobe malfunction doesn’t happen until you’re near a tailor.
“Pants too? Y’know, I could just try to dry - “ Except, you realize with a groan, that you can’t dry your clothes off. You’d resonated with a Shrine in Liyue and had forgotten to switch back. “Never mind. You have flint?”
“Do you have firewood?”
He has a point. Another one. Still, you have a more relevant, more pressing matter.
“Kaeya, I’m gonna to freeze to death.” Another article of clothing drops to the floor and you’re left more naked than you want to be. You don’t even want to look over to your companion to see how far along he is. “I’m going to freeze to death and you’ll have to drag my dead, naked body back to Mondstadt — actually, wait, no, just toss me off the cliff so I’ll be unidentifiable. Just say that I’d gone missing, I don’t know if I could deal with the shame of — “
Rough warmth — it almost burns, it’s so stark against the cold — drags over the skin of your shoulders. Fingertips. Then a more solid touch, hands. They reach out in front of you and you follow the gradually revealed skin of long, lithe arms that cross, fold down against your front as a solid presence solidifies at your back. It burns the skin there, too. How is he already so warm? And dry, too.
“My goodness, did Paimon just fly into this cave?”
“You take that back.”
He chuckles and the vibrations reverberate in your chest. “Besides, we’re not going to sleep on opposite ends of the cave.”
“We’re . . . not?” You stall.
“How much did your survival tutor fail you?” He laments dramatically, resting his chin on the top of your head.
“What survival tutor.”
He stops. “You never took Jean - or Amber - up on those course offers?”
“I - uh,” You’re glad Kaeya isn’t facing you to see the way your face twists in embarrassment. “I never thought I’d . . . need it?”
He sighs and shifts behind you, holds you a little tighter. You tense.
“Don’t say it.”
You swear you can feel his grin.
“For the love of all the archons and Celestia and whatever other deities you have, do not - “
“I - “ He shakes with the effort to keep his voice steady, warbling teasingly.
“Kaeya.”
“ - told you - “
“Kaeya.”
“So.”
An indignant noise, strangled and inarticulate, leaves your throat as Kaeya laughs.
“Yeah, well,” You huff. “I still got us out of that snafu with the Abyss Mage.”
“From what I remember you got us into it too.”
“For the experience. Now you know what to do if you come across a cryo Abyss Mage in the wild when it’s raining.”
“I already knew what to do.” He scoffs. “Freeze them before they freeze me.”
“Well yeah but did you know the proper way to evade an Abyss Mage midair? I think not.”
“I think,”
“You do?“ His hand covers your mouth and engulfs half your face. Briefly, you mourn the sensation of his full hug.
“I think,” Kaeya starts again, “that you’re tired. We should try to sleep.”
You hadn’t even noticed the burn in your eyes up until he said that. Now you’re all too aware of it, but your efforts to blink it away and moisten your eyeballs remain fruitless.
“The floor’s cold.”
“Then it’s a good thing I have a cryo vision.” He pulls you closer to his front and sits down in a few smooth movements that leaves you sitting in his lap on the cold floor of the cave. It’s all bare skin on skin and overwhelming but he doesn’t make it uncomfortable. He just holds you.
“Doessat really help?” You’re halfway back to shivering. Kaeya hugs you closer, enveloping you in warmth, and leans back against the wall. “This can’t be comfy for you.”
“Oh, it isn’t.”
“Then,” You yawn. “I’ll owe y’one.”
“Several, including a trip to the spa. Maybe a masseuse.”
“Done. And? Mora? Death juice? Whassit?” You lean back against his chest.
“I’ll think of something.”
“Better not be anythin’ weird.” You yawn again, your words slurred. “Still can’t show ‘m face in Springvale.”
He hums. “Shame. You’re depriving them of a very nice face.”
“Shuddup. Y’got the nicest face.” Your eyes close and the darkness behind your lids dips, winds, makes you forget about any last remnant of stubbornness to stay up. “G’night.”
“Sleep.” It’s the tone of his voice and the way the his volume dips as he shakes his head, all fond exasperation, that pushes you to speak one last time.
“Love you.”
He pauses.
Fatigue finally hooks around your mind, pulls you down into sleep, and his voice is the last thing you hear.
“Love you too.”