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Kaeya Alberich isn't the only outsider that now calls the City of Freedom home. He's not even the only Knight of Favonius who first arrived to Mondstadt on a stormy night, cut adrift from the bonds they'd once known.
Picture this. Two bedraggled and bloodied men arrive together at the gates of Mondstadt. One is tall and one is short, and they both are garbed in nondescript, hooded cloaks that have seen a lot of wear. They're soaked to the bone, and the smaller of the two is shivering.
The taller man looks pleadingly at the gate guard through damp ginger curls. There's something wild in his eyes, like a cornered animal's. This is a man who's run out of options. His companion, on the other hand, is staring dully at the ground, like he's already given up.
The guard looks down at their hands, tightly clasped together, white-knuckled. It's a cold night, and he's been standing out there by the gate for hours getting rained on himself, but he dredges up a smile and a friendly greeting anyway. He addresses them carefully as 'strange yet respectable travelers.' He asks their names.
"Ajax," the taller says immediately. He squeezes the other man's hand, glances at his expressionless face. "And this is—"
"Thetis," his friend interrupts.
"Ajax and Thetis," the guard repeats. He doesn't say a word about the confusion that briefly crossed Ajax's face when the shorter man introduced himself. He just smiles and lets them in, directing them to rooms for the night and telling them who they should speak to in the morning, should they be planning to stay.
---
"Hey, Scare?" Childe says, once they're safe behind closed doors. Once he's pretty sure they're safe, at least. He's shut all the blinds and triple-checked the locks on every door and window in the ground-floor apartment they'd been led to by the building's landlord. He's still probably not going to be able to sleep tonight, but that's okay. He can stay on his feet a while longer, to make absolutely certain that Scaramouche will be alright.
Scaramouche doesn't say anything in reply. He's sitting on the bed, arms around his knees. He's dropped his sopping cloak on the wooden floor, and is now wearing only his usual clothing, which is only slightly less sopping than that. Childe would have to get him out of those, too. And they'd need to find new clothes as soon as they could. They couldn't afford to draw much more attention than they inevitably were going to.
But that is a problem for tomorrow.
Childe takes a breath, and affects a teasing tone that he doesn't quite feel. "You… do know that Thetis was a girl, right?"
"Do I look like I give a shit," Scaramouche says, flatly.
The relief Childe feels is like a hand unclenching from around his throat. That's as much as he's heard Scaramouche say aloud at once in a week. Maybe Scaramouche's backtalk isn't quite as lively as it used to be, but it's a step in the right direction. This, all of this, might still have a chance to not be a horrible mistake.
He moves to sit next to Scaramouche on the bed and starts to pull off his outermost layers. Scaramouche lets him.
"So, why Thetis?" he asks, as casually as he can. It had clearly been plucked from the same stories as Ajax's name, but he couldn't quite figure out the reason to pick that character in particular.
Scaramouche just levels a slow look at him, the corners of his mouth twisting downward. "She baptized an innocent in a river of death in a failed attempt to protect him," he says, enunciating every word.
"Ah," Childe replies, and says nothing more.
---
They're Ajax and Thetis, from then on.
For Ajax, it's like climbing back into an old skin that doesn't quite fit him anymore. For Thetis, it's like looking into the mirror and finding a stranger looking back.
They manage.
That gate guard never has reason to regret his decision to let those two pitiful strangers in out of the pouring rain. They build a life for themselves in Mondstadt, so different from the lives they'd led before.
The people of Mond quickly learn to adore the charming young Ajax and his wide grins and irrepressible sense of humor. They're a little slower to warm to his dour and snappish companion, but it's plain for all to see how much he loves the man at whose heels and in whose shadow he's always walking. So they both soon find themselves valued members of the community.
And when Ajax tries for knighthood, Thetis follows him there as well.
Where Ajax excels at the art of battle, Thetis is a more cerebral sort, given to overarching stratagems and ploys. No one is very surprised when he beats Ajax to a Vice-Captaincy.
"Sure, he wins at paperwork," Ajax says with a raised glass at Thetis's promotion party, held in one of Mondstadt's several well-regarded taverns. "But I always come out on top on the battlefield… and in the bedroom," he adds, waggling his eyebrows, to general laughter and a few scandalized squeaks.
"Oh, we'll just fucking see about that," Thetis says, visibly steaming. His cheeks are bright red. He's had quite a few drinks by this point. "Any time, any place, Ajax."
"Promises, promises," Ajax says with a crooked, besotted smile.
---
Altogether, they're the picture of dedicated Knights, always available and ready to take action—save for one small quirk. Whenever Fatui diplomats are around, Ajax and Thetis are both mysteriously nowhere to be found. The other Knights carefully never comment on this habit of theirs. Not even the Cavalry Captain, who nevertheless takes pains to always start some perfectly casual small talk with Thetis about the Fatui's various actions afterwards, covering anything the two might have missed.
All the best Knights have an eccentricity or two. And Kaeya knows better than most what it's like to have a history behind you.
He still keeps a careful eye on them, though. They learn not to mind.
---
Sometimes, Ajax catches Thetis standing on the shore of Cider Lake between patrols, looking down at the water with clenched fists. His bangs shadow his eyes, like the hat he no longer wears, and the weight of the world seems to have clambered onto his shoulders.
Ajax is never quite sure what to do or say when he finds Thetis this way, but today what he tries is this:
He sidles up next to Thetis, not quite touching him, and looks down at the same patch of shore. At the clear and calm and glistening water, so unlike the water on that day. "You don't need to chain yourself to that name forever, you know," he says.
"You didn't need to chain yourself to yours, either," Thetis replies.
Ajax grimaces. Scaramouche had never pulled his punches. Why should Thetis? "Suppose not," he says. They're both quiet a while.
"I miss them," Ajax says, at the same time that Thetis says, "I didn't mean—"
They both stop.
"I'm sorry," Thetis says. Scaramouche would never have said he was sorry, about anything. "If I hadn't—"
"It wasn't your fault," Ajax says, like he's said a dozen times before. He has to say it. He can't let that self-blame linger in the air. It isn't good for either of them. "It was the Fatui."
"But I," Thetis starts, then subsides. He knows how stubborn Ajax can be, and he knows Ajax will never place this particular crime at Thetis's feet. And not at Scaramouche's feet either.
Ajax moves between Thetis and the water, blocking his view. He wraps his arms around the smaller man, and ducks his head to press a brief kiss to the top of Thetis's head.
"C'mon, let's go home," he coaxes.
He waits for Thetis to give a jerky nod against his chest before he starts to lead Thetis away, a gentle and firm hand on his back.
---
It's been a while since he last found Thetis there by the lake. It seems to be growing less and less common over time. He's glad. Always so, so glad.
At the moment, Ajax is sitting on the corner of Thetis's desk while Thetis is filling out various forms. Requisition orders and mission reports and the like. Every so often as he works, Thetis's arm brushes up against Ajax's thigh. But he doesn't tell Ajax to move out of his way.
There's a breeze coming in through the window. It's a beautiful day outside, but Ajax's eyes just keep getting drawn back to Thetis. He's let his hair grow out a bit. It tickles at his shoulders now, instead of being tightly cropped around his ears.
It feels like there's a lump in Ajax's throat. He opens his mouth, swallows. He reaches out to touch Thetis's upper arm, stilling his racing pen. "This is better, right?" he asks. "Better than staying?" Despite everything, Ajax is still afraid sometimes that he chose wrong.
Ajax doesn't really expect Thetis to answer the question, and, predictably, he doesn't.
"Barbatos has woken up," Thetis says instead after a long moment, with a thousand-yard stare fixed on the opposite wall. "They'll be coming for his gnosis soon." They both know what that means.
"And we'll be ready," Ajax says, more steadily than he feels.
Thetis purses his lips. He might be about to say something more, but there's a knock at the door before he actually opens his mouth.
Noelle ducks her head into Thetis's office. "Is Mr. Ajax—oh, good, sir, you're here. Master Jean says you're needed. There's some Pyro Abyss Mages near Springvale, and—"
"On my way," Ajax says promptly, hopping up from the desk. She nods and vanishes once more.
He starts for the door himself, but he's halted unexpectedly in his tracks. He looks back to see Thetis gripping his sleeve, a complicated look on his face. But a determined one.
"Yes. This is better," Thetis says, brusquely, before letting go of Ajax and busying himself with his paperwork once more.
When Ajax doesn't move immediately, Thetis bristles. "Well?!" he demands, heat rising on his face. His gaze doesn't lift to meet Ajax's eyes. "What are you still standing around here for? Don't have you somewhere you're supposed to be?"
When Ajax gets to Springvale, he still has a giddy smile plastered on his face.