Chapter Text
Kaeya Alberich, in all of his twenty-something years of life, has experienced many wonders in his life. As Captain of the Knights of Favonious, companion to most, and brother to the one and only Diluc Ragvindr, one could dare say he’s seen and done it all. He, however, would disagree.
Kaeya Alberich has seen and done almost all, save for two things: die, and fall in love.
Yes, it’s true. Kaeya, the infamous Blue Haired Breaker of Hearts (™), has never been in love before. It wasn’t that he was aromantic nor was he turned off by the idea of romance, it’s just that he never felt that coveted spark. He had encountered many people in many different times and places, but none of them had appealed to him in the sense where he wanted to devote his time and undivided attention to them.
He wasn’t mad about it, though. Without a lover, Kaeya was as free as the wind currents Barbatos provided. He was able to hop back and forth between person to person because in his mind, none of them truly mattered. Maybe he exchanged playful, fleeting kisses with the occasional Liyuen or perhaps he performed a more intimate form of attention with a traveling Inazuman, but at the end of the day, Kaeya belonged to Kaeya and that was that- until he met you, that is.
He didn’t know what it was about you that drew his attention in the first place. Maybe it was the way your smile instantly brightened up the spirits of everyone around you, or maybe it was the way you were almost always able to read him better than he did you. The fuzzy feeling harbored in his chest was so foreign, so unreal to him that he didn’t know what to do with it. Continuing to be his suave, sly self, he carried on with being a drafty bachelor in a poor attempt to distract himself from the invisible force drawing him to you.
As time passed by, his gut eventually told him something he had never been told before: Kaeya Alberich was undeniably enamored with you. From your persistence and ambition to the small things like your love for sleep, the man found himself adoring all of it. Every time you were nearby he could feel his heart race, and although he would never admit it, there were times you genuinely caught him off guard—something that never happens with him.
No one knew Kaeya better than himself, and if there was one thing about him that he was so certain of if it was that he was supposed to be the enigma, the unpredictable variable full of surprises. He masked his truths with efficiency, and laughed off suspicion or doubt with ease. Not once had he ever met someone who matched that trait until you waltzed into his life.
Maybe that was what made him fall.
Behind each gesture of yours was intimate sincerity, a grace he rarely spared anyone the privilege of receiving. You were spunky, witty, and feisty, but overall you were real. Whenever he spent time with you he was able to do something he hadn’t been able to do with others: breathe. Kaeya could breathe. Hours felt like mere seconds with you because for once he wasn’t wallowing in self pity or the weight of the past. With you, Kaeya was Kaeya and he liked that, craved it at times, even.
When the man finally wracked up the courage to confess his feelings for you, you had initially laughed it off, thinking it was another typical, smooth one-liner of his. Annoyed (but not all that surprised), he grabbed the sides of your face, slowly dragging his hands down to your chin as his eyes fell to your lips. Gently tilting your head up to his, he peaked at you through long lashes as he tentatively asked you something so tender, so raw, past Kaeya would be rolling in disbelief.
“Can I kiss you?”
Smiling, you wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him down as lips met lips. He had never felt so elated, so relieved from a simple gesture. He deepened the kiss as his hands pulled you impossibly closer to him, relishing in the gentle moment. Pulling away, he looked down at you with adoration. His mask had fallen, and he liked that.
Kaeya Alberich has seen and done almost all, and today he added another thing to that list: a lover. Kaeya Alberich has a lover.