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As a child, Kaeya used to beg Master Crepus to take him along on some of his business trips to the west to see the lanterns in Liyue during the festival. Nowadays though, he can hardly stomach the thought of the Lantern Rite festival without the comfort of a drink - the one time his adoptive father agreed to take the family on one of his trips to Liyue Harbour during the festival would be one of the last times the three of them would be together as a family.
So when Klee comes running up to him, begging for him to take her to see the pretty lights in Liyue that a new friend has told her about, he hesitates, asking why she doesn’t ask Albedo or Jean to take her instead. Her answer was a pout about some science experiment that would have the alchemist locked up in his lab for a week and the acting grandmaster being buried behind stacks of paper when Klee went to visit her office. Kaeya sighs - he’s always found it hard to say no to the young spark knight, knowing what it felt like to not have parents she could make these requests to.
Still, it doesn’t stop him from packing an extra flask (or two) for the trip.
They arrive in Liyue Harbour’s northern entrance just as the sun is setting, its orange-ish glow emphasized by the thousands of lanterns that lined the city’s streets, teeming with residents and tourists alike. Kaeya swallows hard as the memory of chasing his then-brother down this very bridge comes to mind, his own laughter ringing in his head like a bad hangover. He only realises that he’s frozen in place on the bridge when Klee’s voice finds him - apparently he’s been gripping her hand too tightly. He apologizes quickly and slaps on a smile as he loosens his grip, letting her drag him across the bridge with excitement.
It’s halfway through an excited devouring of the many foods (and drinks for Kaeya) the street vendors were offering that Klee yelps in horror about dropping Dodoco before disappearing into the crowd. Kaeya immediately calls for her to return, but her red hat continues to bob away from him in the crowd as the girl retraces their steps in an attempt to find her precious keychain. He curses under his breath as he pushes past the crowd, keeping an eye on that feathered cap until it finally stops moving, away from the main stalls.
By the time he catches up to her, she’s deep in conversation with a stranger with bright orange hair - Kaeya makes a mental note to add “don’t talk to strangers” to the Favonius Survival Handbook. The thought is interrupted when he gets a proper look at the man, frowning when the pretty face seems familiar but he can’t quite recall why . He realises he’s staring when the man looks up to meet Kaeya’s eye (was that a flinch?), glancing between him and the girl before asking if they are together. Before he can answer, Klee excitedly jumps at him, waving Dodoco, slightly soiled, at him and explaining that this kind handsome stranger found it and returned it. He smiles and thanks the stranger as he takes to a knee to help reattach Dodoco to her bag, making sure that the clasp is closed properly lest it fall off once more and give Kaeya another heart attack at the prospect of losing her.
The stranger gets to his feet and starts to take his leave only to have Klee grab onto the bottom of his jacket while looking up expectantly at Kaeya who rolls his eyes with a sigh but obliges as he gets to his feet again.
‘If you’ve got a minute, I’d like to repay you for helping Klee out.’
The man raises an eyebrow, as though surprised (or it is horrified?) at the offer, but another tug on his jacket from the girl has him obliging with a smile that doesn’t quite touch his eyes. It makes Kaeya somewhat uneasy, recognizing the same expression in the mirror most mornings as he prepares for yet another day and wonders if the stranger shared the same inner conflict. He clears his throat and wills the thought away - it was no business of his.
‘Great, it’ll be great to have a local show us the good stuff. I’m Kaeya, by the way, from Mondstadt. And this is Klee. We’re just here for the festival.”
A flash of that earlier confusion crosses the man’s expression but is so fleeting that Kaeya wonders if he imagined it. ‘From Mondstadt, huh? I’m… ,’ the man visibly hesitates for a moment before smiling again, ‘ Ajax. And sadly, I’m also not a local, just here on some business, and this is my first Lantern Rite, so I’m probably at more of a loss than you guys.’
The stranger stays long after Kaeya has bought him a drink and some deep fried goodies, even offering to pay for some fireworks that Klee has been eyeing since they arrived.
‘You really shouldn’t spoil her. ’
A shrug, ‘She reminds me of my own sister.’
‘Ah, so that’s why you’re so good with her - practice. Don’t let her fool you though, she’s a right nightmare sometimes. And she’s well on her way to getting you wrapped around her tiny explosive fingers.’
Ajax laughs as he hands Klee another sparkler. ‘ A child deserves to live freely, no? Even if it is as an explosive little tyrant!’ he teases, pinching Klee’s nose playfully before picking her up to carry in his arms, eliciting a happy giggle from her as she points at one of the many hanging lanterns, suggesting to Kaeya that they should make one together.
Ajax raises his eyebrows, announcing proudly that he has no idea how to make one, and then joining Klee with a pair of pleading eyes towards Kaeya who sighs before digging into his memories for the one where Master Crepus showed his sons how to make one from scratch.
The trio manage to procure the materials from some over-charging merchants and make their way to a less crowded area, where Ajax takes a seat on the cold stone tiles with Klee in his lap as they look to Kaeya eagerly for assembly instructions. Klee (as expected) models hers from Jumpy Dumpty, though with much less fire power, while Ajax’s is significantly less… meticulously formed, and Kaeya’s work falls somewhere between the two.
‘It’s not the shape that counts, ’ he consoles, when he notices that the ginger-haired man is pouting, ‘It carries your wish to Celestia no matter what it looks like ,’ he assures, passing the man a marker to write his wish.
Following Ajax’s suggestion, the trio make their way just outside of Liyue Harbour to release their lanterns. It’s a little more than a hike away and with the sun having set hours ago, Klee was starting to drift, despite Ajax carrying her on her shoulders to keep her spirits up. Thankfully, they arrive at their destination before Klee can fall asleep completely and she excitedly springs back to life, shouting her wish for more bombs in the coming year as she releases her glowing Jumpy Dumpty. Ajax is significantly less loud with his release, muttering something about his family before sending his off as well.
It’s as Ajax is leaning over to pick up a yawning Klee that Kaeya sees it - a hydro vision with the crest of Snezhnaya peeking from one of Ajax’s pockets, clearly stashed there to keep Kaeya from recognizing it. He realises then why Ajax’s face was familiar when they first met, he’s listed high on the Knight’s list of dangerous foes under a different name: Tartaglia, Eleventh of the Fatui Harbingers. Kaeya’s jaw clenches at his slip-up, annoyed that he didn’t recognize him sooner.
Kaeya looks up again to find a worried brow on the Harbinger, Klee’s head resting peacefully on his shoulder. No, there’s no way this Ajax , with a thin stream of a tiny girl’s spittle run down the fabric of his jacket, could be the same bloodthirsty Harbinger he’s heard horror stories about.
‘ Is something wrong?’
He shakes his head, eager to not alert Ajax, or Tartaglia or whoever he is, that he knows who he is. ‘Just trying to decide what to wish for,’ he deflects.
Ajax hums, ‘Don’t take too long, you should probably take Klee back to your hotel.’
‘Right.’
Kaeya stares at his lantern, trying to reconcile the reports on Tartaglia with the last few hours he’s spent with Ajax - he should know better than anyone that everyone has secrets and that they aren’t what makes someone someone . He sighs as he uncaps the marker and writes down his wish.
‘What’d you settle on?’
‘Reconcile with my brother,’ Kaeya answers, careful to set off the lantern so that the words face away from Ajax, keeping his real wish, to never have to meet Tartaglia as a Knight, hidden from view - he’d hate for them to have to do battle if they were to ever meet on more official terms.
Surprisingly, Ajax doesn’t probe about the objectively strange wish the entire hike back down to Liyue Harbour, opting instead to converse about his favourite parts of their night until they reach Kaeya’s hotel, where Kaeya accepts his offer to carry Klee to her bed to keep from waking her.
Ajax shuffles awkwardly for a moment before taking his leave. ‘If you’re here for a few more days, I’d love to ... uh… show Klee some other fireworks.’
Kaeya raises an eyebrow at the not-so-subtle invitation. He’s never been great at self control when it comes to flirting with the darker side of things (much to Jean’s disdain) but a Harbinger was really pushing it, even for him. He reasons with himself for a moment that this is a good opportunity to dig into the Fatui agenda, but he’s off the clock right now, and he’d much rather spend the time digging into Ajax’s family tree instead. He smiles, knowing this will likely bite him in the ass later.
‘Yeah, I think she’d like that. ’