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“What’s it like?”
Childe ceased his letter writing to look up at the blue-haired beauty in front of him.
It was a warm Tuesday afternoon and the two were drinking wine together in Kaeya’s apartment - which was also, temporarily, Childe’s apartment. It had been months since the Goth Grand Hotel finally closed its doors to the Fatui, and Childe needed a place to stay during his Mondstadt exploits. Luckily for him, Kaeya was happy to open his doors to his favourite Harbinger.
“What’s what like?” Childe asked.
Kaeya looked down at the papers Childe so meticulously cared for and smiled, bitterly. “Having a family?”
Childe frowned at this. “What do you mean?”
Kaeya sighed, leaning back into his chair as he finished his fourth glass of Death in the Afternoon. Under any other circumstances he wouldn’t have allowed himself to open up, but Kaeya was more than a little tipsy and knew Childe well enough by now to know he would keep his secrets.
“Well, I was abandoned as a young boy by my biological father and was adopted soon afterwards - by Crepus Ragvindr, no less. The former owner of the Dawn Winery. He’s passed on now, Barbatos rest his soul.” Kaeya started to pour another glass for himself before Childe swiped the wine bottle away, a concerned look in his eyes.
Kaeya continued, “Crepus had a son as well. You know Diluc.” The reason why we can’t drink in the tavern today, Kaeya finished in his head, but he didn’t think Childe needed to be reminded.
“So you were once… like brothers? With Diluc? The guy that tried to kill me the first second he saw me?” Childe narrowed his eyes. “What happened?”
Kaeya let out a humourless laugh. “It’s funny, actually. He tried to kill me once too.”
Childe stiffened at that, the atmosphere surrounding him changing from one of casualty to one of anger. “What, do you Mondstadt people have no concept of what family is?”
“Ouch, never thought I would be referred to as ‘you Mondstadt people’ by my own boyfriend,” Kaeya mused in an attempt to clear the air, “Is that all I am to you? How cold.”
“No, not at all,” Childe replied, leaning back into his seat, “You, my darling, are a shining diamond amongst the grains of sand comprising everyone else. And I promise you I will crush anyone and everyone threatening to put that spark out. Especially when they once dared to call you ‘brother’.”
“Well, rest assured, you won’t be crushing anybody anytime soon,” Kaeya said, a tinge of blush coating his cheeks, “The incident happened years ago, my fault completely. Diluc has long since fanned the flames that once wanted me dead - at least, I’m hoping he has.”
“What could you ever do to warrant being attacked by family? I just don’t understand it.”
Kaeya hummed. “Would admitting your deepest secret the same day your father died be an acceptable answer?”
“… depends on what the secret is,” Childe quietly replied.
The Fatui Harbinger had always been big on keeping secrets from his family for the sake of their well-being. This was particularly towards his younger brother, Teucer, who was far too young to have his dreams crushed by being aware of the demons of the world - or even worse, being told that his older brother was one of those demons. Therefore, he could completely understand directed anger towards a large, long-term secret such as that one.
“You aren’t going to pry?” Kaeya asked, resting his head against the table in front of him.
“Not if you don’t want me to,” Childe replied, “But I do have one last question. Is your eye…?”
“From Diluc? No,” Kaeya said, allowing Childe to let out a relieved sigh, “He gave me quite a number of burns, but my eye isn’t because of him, I promise.”
Childe pursed his lips for a second, not completely okay with the prospect of his love being injured so badly - but then he shrugged, settling with the fact that at least Kaeya survived .
And then, Childe smiled. He smiled in adoration and admiration for the bundle of secrets in front of him. He smiled because he was just so proud of how strong Kaeya was. He smiled because he knew he had just unlocked a precious fact about Kaeya that hardly anybody else knew, and he was going to bring that secret to his grave.
He wondered if he’d ever unpack every single secret of this mysterious boy. He wondered if their relationship would ever get that far, or if someday they would end things, leaving Childe on a cliffhanger. He wondered if he would care, then.
But as Kaeya reached out to gently grab Childe’s hand and stare back at him, Childe decided that he would wait and see. This was enough for him, he decided.
“You know you have a family with me,” He said.
“Oh? I didn’t realize the mighty 11th Harbinger could get so sappy,” Kaeya teased.
“Tease all you want, but I’m serious. You’re mine and I’m yours, and no deep, dark secret is going to change that,” Childe gently explained, “You know, I talk about you every single time I write to my family, and I can tell that they love you already. One day, I’ll bring you to Snezhnaya to meet them. We’ll show you what family really is, because you deserve it.”
Kaeya smiled - a genuine, happy smile - and he felt his eyes begin to gloss over. Never has he been shown so much affection before. Even less did he expect this type of affection from a prominent member of the Fatui, what was supposed to be Monstadt’s worst enemies. But he didn’t mind it at all.
“Pinky promise?” The blue-haired beauty whispered, unlocking his hands from Childe’s grasp to wrap a single pinky around his.
“Pinky promise,” Childe whispered back, “You know what they say about pinky promises in Snezhnaya? ‘You make a pinky promise, you keep it all your life. You break the pinkie promise, you get thrown on the ice. The cold will kill the pinky that once betrayed your friend, the frost will freeze your tongue off so you never lie again.’”
Kaeya chuckled. “You better not break this promise, then. With my Cryo Vision, you’re never safe.”
Childe laughed. “I don’t know about that. After all, I always feel safe with you.”