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Love is fragile.
It’s disposable, he thinks— impermanent. Love can be overcome, easy prey to the winds of time who carry it wordlessly from the hearts of their holders, all to simply have it vanish.
It was unfair, wasn’t it? If fate truly had him aligned with such a lonely life, why hadn’t he just been forgotten with the wind instead? How much easier would that have been than having himself burned by hatred after every spark of attachment. What he’d give to fade in good memory than to stay at arm’s length of a loved one’s lethal sword.
He looks to the traveler now, his honey eyes drawn to the taut line of the horizon coated in stars. His breath is heavy from the climb, but a soft smile hangs on his lips nonetheless. In one exasperated sigh, he falls to Kaeya’s side, intertwining his one arm with his as he pointed into the distance. It’s a small thing, but the warmth that erupts in his chest was far from miniscule.
It reminds Kaeya of how close they had grown from their first encounter in Mondstadt—how Aether had grown more familiar and more comfortable with his presence as they’ve traveled together. From silly thumb wars, to linking arms down streets, and eventually to all sorts of little contacts, things Kaeya hadn’t felt in so long that they seemed almost foreign. He craved its familiarity most of all.
Aether turns to Kaeya, wind in his hair and an unnamable peace resting in his features.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Kaeya nods in full agreement. He loved the stars and the sky wholeheartedly.
There was once a time where the sight was concealed from him entirely—from when he resided in his old home underground. There was no warmth from any sun or pale light from any moons, and the most he had heard of such things were from fairytales. Even from the hills of Qince Village, he can’t help but feel reminded of Mondstadt looking at it now.
The blonde turns back to the night sky with wide eyes, glimmering bright with stardust and wonder. The sight draws a warm grin from Kaeya, simply happy to see him happy.
He follows his gaze to the endless sky and the starry white flecks adorning it, twinkling and shifting, shining and dimming far, far away. He wondered which one of those many stars Aether would leave him to go to—or how many of them he had already departed from.
It rouses a question.
“Do you ever have trouble leaving the worlds you encounter?”
His response is instant.
“Always,” says Aether. “Sometimes I never want to leave, but that’s not how things go.”
His eyes flutter closed with a sigh.
“I try to leave each place with a smile. It’s love for it that makes you miss it, so you should revel in your last moments there happily—at least, that’s what Lumine taught me. She was better at it than me though.”
“Then can you promise me that then?”
He feels a shift at his arm and a curious stare directed his way. “Promise what?”
“Just a smile. I’d be more than happy for that to be the way we depart.”
Aether exhales a weighted huff of breath.
“I’ll be here for.. a while.”
A while was not forever, but that was fine. Kaeya was used to running on timers.
He pats him gently on the back, “You’ll find her eventually, Aether.”
Aether’s smile is rediscovered, though tinged with sadness.
“Thank you.”
“Of course.”
There’s a beat of silence, Aether’s grip tightening ever so slightly, humming lowly under his breath as he did so.
“You’re a good person, Kaeya.”
The meaning of the words nearly slip past Kaeya completely. He barely grasps onto the fact that it was directed to him—why him of all people? Despite it, there was an undeniable warmth that he felt, manifesting into a thin well of water resting in his eyes, breaking past with a buzzing heat. He blinks, long and heavy, before it’s erased without a trace.
He looks down to Aether’s glowing face, the most sincere expression written on him. He can’t help but think that everything about him is bright, a rival to the sun and stars themselves—he could only pray he wouldn’t melt because of it. Kaeya wonders if he even deserves it, wonders how long it would last if it were not frozen in time forever.
It’s then that he decides that love is a fragile thing,
And that this time, there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to preserve it.