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"I'm traveling to Liyue tomorrow."
Now that was a statement that made Kaeya look up from his meal at Aether. They sat across from each other in armchairs in their shared inn room in Mondstadt, eating dinner. Aether's expression looked almost longing, a bit sad, but with a slight quirk of excitement behind his words as he stared at his plate.
"So soon? And here I thought you liked me," Kaeya teased, giving Aether a smirk.
Aether, too easy to tease, immediately flushed pink before waiting a second and saying, "I did ask you to come with me," looking up to meet Kaeya’s eyes, almost pleadingly but not with such intensity. His lip trembled, but he bit it and continued, "Can't you come with me?"
Kaeya's eyes softened as he gave Aether his usual smile to try to lighten the mood. "I would love to. With all of my heart. But… I've got my job to do! Mondstadt needs me. Those Abyss Mages won't kill themselves!" Kaeya flexed his arm and smiled triumphantly, and Aether giggled.
"Idiot…" Aether trailed off, staring just beyond Kaeya, not meeting his eye. He knew he saw something else in Kaeya’s expression, but decided not to mention it, as the looming statement of him leaving for Liyue was sad enough.
"C'mon now…" Kaeya got up from his seat and walked over to Aether, extending a hand. "Dance with me?"
Looking up surprisedly, Aether grabbed his hand, only to be securely pulled into Kaeya's space, one of Kaeya's hands on Aether's waist, and the other holding onto his hand. Aether laughed, looking up at the taller man as they swayed for a bit, slowly waltzing in little circles around the room, carefully trying not to bump into the furniture. Kaeya softly, and very out of tune, hummed a song they had both heard in a tavern not too long ago, Aether smiling as Kaeya's hand on his waist tightened slightly to bring him closer as they spun. Satisfied, Aether reached up to touch Kaeya's chin, bringing his face down just enough so that their lips could softly touch, and the swaying stopped.
After slowly breaking apart, Kaeya laid his head on Aether's shoulder. "I wish you could just stay here," he mumbled, his comment slightly muffled by Aether's scarf, before turning Aether's head back toward him to kiss him again. Kaeya bent down slightly to let Aether wrap his arms around his shoulders, his hands sliding under Aether's waist to lift him up so Aether's legs could wrap around Kaeya's waist.
"I'm still here right now," Aether whispered back after breaking from the kiss once more, Aether now fully in Kaeya's arms. Though trying to suppress it, Aether yawned quietly, before deciding to snuggle his head into Kaeya's shoulder, his grip around Kaeya's shoulders tightening a bit for a small squeeze before loosening again as he got comfortable and closed his eyes.
As Aether's breathing steadied as he quickly fell asleep (classic Aether concealing his exhaustion, Kaeya thought, the statement giving him the urge to roll his eyes), Kaeya sat on the bed, getting comfortable to sleep himself, Aether still on his chest. Pulling up the blanket to cover them both, Kaeya sighed quietly so as not to wake the sleeping traveler. He really did want to go to Liyue with Aether, and though it was not exactly true that Mondstadt "needed" him, as he could leave whenever he wanted and still be employed (he was a knight, of course) , Kaeya thought it was better this way. Aether already had a sufficient team of three other adventurers, so Kaeya wasn't needed. Though he knew he'd be worried sick about Aether, Aether was strong and could take care of himself. With that thought, Kaeya slowly joined Aether in drifting off to sleep until the morning.
The night seemed to pass too quickly, and soon enough Aether awoke to Kaeya spooning him, his arms loosely draped around Aether’s torso. Bright light of the morning sun streamed through the gaps in the curtains, and the soft chirps of morning birds sang outside on the stone streets. Aether, careful not to wake Kaeya up, rotated in Kaeya’s arms so they could be face to face. He just looked so peaceful while asleep, so perfect. Aether was excited to go to Liyue, he really was. He was excited to talk to Xiangling again and visit her restaurant, and see for himself if Liyue Harbor really was as beautiful as everybody said it was. But he wanted to be there with Kaeya. But Kaeya was here, in Mondstadt, and he couldn’t go. And while Kaeya reassured him that it was perfectly fine and that he should just go without him, it was almost too much to bear. But they’d already had this argument before, and he didn’t want to push it, even though he still did not fully understand Kaeya’s intentions. It was sad, but he would come back and visit and then forcibly drag Kaeya out of the town if he really had to. Carefully sliding out of Kaeya’s arms, Aether got up to get ready for the day of his departure.
Kaeya awoke to the slight creaks of the wooden floorboards as Aether quietly walked around the room to get ready. Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, he saw Aether out of the corner of his eye, hunched over on the floor whilst braiding his hair. Kaeya almost didn’t want to get up, knowing that they would have to say goodbye today, but nevertheless, he got out of bed to get ready himself.
“Morning!” Aether said without looking up from his braid, though Kaeya could see him smiling with excitement. When it came down to it, Kaeya could tell that he really was excited to see new sights.
Kaeya crouched to plant a kiss on his head, not to upset the braid-in-construction, earning a soft hum from Aether. “Mornin’.” Yes, the day had come.
The past couple hours had passed so quickly, Kaeya felt as if someone had turned the clock forward.
Standing in the fountain square in Mondstadt, staring at the gate he had crossed so many times before, and looking at Aether’s back, who was a few feet away, as they both looked in the same direction.
Practically the whole town had gathered to see their newest honorary knight off on his departure to Liyue with his team of adventurers. Paimon was spinning and bobbing around wildly, gasping at how many people had shown, while Aether just laughed with excitement. Aether turned around, smiling, his ears slightly pink with embarrassment of how many people had gathered, though he hid it well. But Kaeya knew him. Aether’s gaze immediately softened when he saw Kaeya, and he chuckled a little when the pink blush crept to his cheeks.
“Aether! Ready to go? It’s almost noon, we should get going before the sun gets too hot! We are traveling on foot, after all!” Amber shouted cheerily, raising her hand in a holler and waving at Aether from the gate.
“Be right there!” Aether shouted back, before turning back to Kaeya. Though time had been passing too quickly for the entire morning, time seemed to stop in that moment as they stood facing each other, locked in eye contact from a couple feet away, realizing that this, this was the actual goodbye moment that they had been dreading. And although solemn, they were both smiling, and Aether quickly closed the gap between them, jumping up into Kaeya’s arms.
Aether held Kaeya as he did like the evening before as their lips came together for one last kiss. Kaeya held him close, and to his surprise, Aether deepened the kiss and brought Kaeya impossibly closer. Kaeya shifted one of his hands to the back of Aether’s head to hold him ever closer, Aether humming slightly in response. Only when someone in the crowd whistled in approval did Aether jolt and come back to reality, his face turning redder by the second as Kaeya let him escape from his embrace.
“I’ll come back and visit,” Aether whispered, earning a soft smile from Kaeya. With a mock-angry expression, Aether looked Kaeya in the eye. “The next time I have to leave, you’re coming with me!”
Kaeya just laughed in response. “Of course, love.”
They stood for a few seconds in silence, Aether’s hands lingering on Kaeya’s forearms, until Kaeya bent down to whisper one final thing with a small smirk, “All this time and I could have kissed you in public? How blasphemous that we’ve been spending our days so vanilla!”
Aether’s face was still burning scarlet, but he looked down for a second as an uncharacteristic devilish smile appeared on his face. Suddenly looping his pinky around the ring on Kaeya’s collar, causing Kaeya’s eyes to widen with sudden surprise, he brought Kaeya’s face down to his eye level. In a low voice, Aether crooned, “Now nobody can touch you while I’m gone.”
And just like that, Aether unhooked his finger and quickly departed from Kaeya’s space, running toward Amber and the rest of his team, leaving Kaeya with his mouth slightly agape in surprise and the tips of his ears turning red. Looking back one more time, this time addressing the whole crowd, Aether waved, a smile beaming on his face. “Goodbye, everyone!”
Kaeya shortly got control of his facial features, replacing them with his usual smirk as the crowd echoed their farewells, and watched as Aether slowly turned into but a speck in the distance.