Chapter Text
The young cavalry captain stalked through the wilds of Mondstadt, lamenting at his misfortune to be stuck patrolling, rather than training with his men in the city. The day was still and quiet, like all the other days before it, and while the young captain knew of the importance of patrolling, he couldn’t help but complain a little bit. The Knights of Favonius had pushed back any encroaching monsters, so his patrols were often silent, only punctuated by his thoughts and the occasional adventurer.
As much as he valued the peace and quiet of his home nation, the young captain found himself wishing there was more happening, after all, he joined the Knights of Favonius for a reason.
It wasn’t until he had reached the outskirts of the Thousand Winds Temple, an old ruin situated near the cliffs of Mondstadt, that the cavalry captain paused. Faint sounds floated up to him from the open-air amphitheater that composed the temple, and at first he thought it was nothing more than the steps of the old ruin guard that protected the ruins until he heard the telltale sound of the machine’s garbled speech, and the sound of its missiles impacting the ground.
Panicked, the young captain sprints towards the temple, already forgetting his bemoaning at the lack of action. As he nears, he can’t hear much else than the ruin guard, and he considers the fact that a wild fox got too close and set it off. If it was a full party of people, he’d be able to hear them by now.
Cresting the top of the hill, the young captain stares down into the temple below him, catching sight of the ruin guard, and a lone figure, surprisingly holding their ground against it. The young captain doesn’t stick around long enough to watch, he starts bounding down the steps into the temple, going as fast as he can. As soon as he reaches the flat ground at the bottom, he’s summoning a claymore, the size of it seeming comical in his hands. However, he hefts the weapon easily, fingers wrapping around the hilt as he prepares himself to dash into the fight.
“Get back!” The young captain calls to the lone figure. “I can handle it from here.” He can see the way the stranger tilts his ginger head towards his voice, but that’s all the reaction he gives as he keeps fighting, jabbing the ruin guard with a long polearm.
Before they know it, the ruin guard freezes midstep, before slowly tilting towards them as it powers down. The young captain scrambles away from the machine, grabbing a hold of the stranger’s red scarf and pulling him out of the way.
The husk of metal narrowly misses the stranger, and with the sound of fighting gone, the temple is now silent. The cavalry captain turns from the machine, facing the stranger at his side. The boy standing before him is gangly and pale, with a mess of ginger hair and piercing blue eyes. The next realization the young captain makes is that the boy is dressed in foreign clothes, his grey shirt and red scarf way too heavy for Mondstadt’s weather, and that the stranger is around his age, if a little bit younger.
“I told you to get out of the way, why didn’t you listen?” He asks the stranger, more than a little annoyed that his words weren’t heeded, despite the obvious danger.
“I could’ve handled it on my own.” The boy answers simply, and the young captain narrows his eyes at the strange response. He runs an eye over him again, noting the slight dishevelment of his clothes, and the scrapes and cuts across some of the pale skin he can see.
Choosing to ignore the strange answer, the young captain sticks his hand out to the other boy. “I’m Diluc Ragnvindr, Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius. I’ll take you to the city so you can rest for a bit.”
The boy eyes Diluc’s hand for a moment before accepting it. “I’m Ajax.” Is all he says, but lets Diluc start to lead him out of the temple.
As they climb out of the stone ruins, Diluc turns his head to look at Ajax once more. “What are you doing out here on your own?”
“I was exploring, and came across the ruin guard.” There’s something off about the way Ajax decided to take on a ruin guard alone, but Diluc simply chalks it up to determination, similar to how he would have tried to prove himself a few years before.
“Where’s your family? Are they in Mondstadt somewhere?”
Ajax seems to hesitate for a beat, before he says, “I’ve been trying to find them, and the search brought me here, to Mondstadt.”
“If you’d like, the Knights could always help you search.” Diluc offers, choosing not to pry into the boy’s affairs any more than he already has. At his words, the boy looks at him, truly looks at him, and Diluc can see the consideration in his large, blue eyes as he weighs the options before him. “I’d like that.” He says finally, and he smiles at the young captain, a large, toothy smile that Diluc returns, though while his isn’t as wide, it isn’t any less sincere.
Surprisingly, Grandmaster Varka isn’t too hard to convince to let Ajax reside in the Knight’s headquarters while he continues searching for his family, especially once Diluc brings up the fact that Ajax can help the Knights out while he’s with them.
With the hardest part out of the way, Diluc hurriedly tuggs Ajax down the corridors of the Knight’s headquarters, leading him to his temporary room. The younger boy follows the young captain eagerly, and Diluc can see the excitement in his eyes as he takes in a new building in a new city.
“This will be your room, mine is just down the hall!” Diluc told Ajax, pushing open the door to the vacant room. It was small and simple, a step up from what most normal Knights got, but not too luxurious. A bed was pushed against the far wall, and warm, late afternoon sunlight streamed in through the windows, landing on the couch set before the fireplace. A small desk was pushed against the left wall, and Diluc pointed out the weapon rack by the door. “You can put your polearm and whatever else you have here, I’ll show you around the rest of the building. Ajax did just that, carrying only his weapon and a small backpack, both of which he left in the room before following the young captain through the rest of the building.
Diluc excitedly showed Ajax the barracks, where most of the Knights slept, the open training courtyard, the dining hall, and the library. As he took Ajax through the building, Diluc failed to notice how Ajax seemed to be committing every hall and room to memory, blue eyes darting around as if to take in all he could.
Diluc finished his improvised tour of the Knight’s headquarters just as a bell began tolling throughout the building. At Ajax’s confused look, Diluc explained to him that the bell called the Knights to dinner, which the two had just made it back in time for. Diluc laughed upon noticing Ajax’s hungry expression, and beckoned for him to follow as the young captain led the way back to the dining hall.
The two were some of the last to arrive, but for once, the understaffment of the Knights worked in their favor, as Diluc and Ajax slid into two empty seats near the rest of the Knights their age.
Kaeya was the first to look over at Diluc, his pale eye lit with a mischievous light as he no doubt meant to question the whereabouts of his younger brother relentlessly. However, he stopped upon seeing Ajax at Diluc’s side, and gave the younger boy a once over before asking, “Oh? Who’s this?”
At his brother’s words, the conversation around them paused, and the group turned their attention to Diluc and Ajax, suddenly curious. Diluc gave Kaeya a tired look, ignoring the other’s smug smile in response as he said, “this is Ajax, I found him fighting a ruin guard alone as I was on patrol today.”
“How are you not dead?” Jean questioned from Kaeya’s right, peering across the other to take a closer look at Ajax. “I don’t even think Grandmaster Varka could manage that.”
“It’s pretty easy once you know their weak spots and attack patterns.” Ajax laughed beside him. Interestingly, the younger boy didn’t seem embarrassed by all the scrutiny, it was almost as if he didn’t register all the eyes on him.
“And our dear captain just found you fighting it? Did you not have an adventuring party?” Kaeya asked Ajax, head tilted slightly as he waited for his answer.
“I’ve, uh, actually been searching for my family, and Mondstadt was the next place to look for them.” Ajax told him, stumbling slightly over his words as he brought up his missing family.
Diluc could see the pity fill the faces around them, and he quickly interjected. “He actually handled himself pretty well against the ruin guard.”
The conversation quickly turned back to the ruin guard and how Ajax managed to hold his own against it, but Diluc didn’t miss the look of gratitude he shot his way.
The rest of the meal was spent in conversation, and Diluc was surprised by how quickly Ajax seemed to warm up to the Knights around him, even going so far as to start joking with them. He was unsurprised at Jean and Lisa’s liking to Ajax, as well as Kaeya’s slight suspicion towards him, but most surprising was Eula Lawrence’s liking to the younger boy. Eula was still finding it hard to separate herself from her family name, and while the Knights her age had started realizing that she wasn’t like her family, she remained mostly cold and distant. Ajax, however, quickly picked up on her strange sense of humor, and eagerly responded to her empty threats of a fight, causing the blue-haired girl to take a near instant liking to him.
The night wound down, and Diluc could see the exhaustion in Ajax’s form, despite his sociable manner. Diluc was the one to excuse the two of them, saying they needed to be up early the next morning, and they departed the now mostly empty dining hall.
The walk back to their rooms was quiet, though Diluc could hear Ajax’s stifled yawns every once in a while. It wasn’t until they had stopped at the door to Ajax’s new room when Diluc spoke. “We can venture into Springvale tomorrow, and see if anyone might’ve seen your family.”
Ajax seemed more than a little surprised at Diluc’s offer to help, but he didn’t refuse. “Thank you.” He told the young captain, an earnest smile across his lips. The two bid each other goodnight, and Ajax slid into his temporary room, making sure the door clicked shut behind him before his smile fell.