Chapter Text
“Aether!”
Aether stopped at the foot of the steps leading up to the Statue of the Seven and turned to see Amber hurrying up the path behind them. She waved and picked up the pace, skidding to a stop next to them.
“Hey,” she said, smiling, but with only a fraction of her usual cheer.
“Hey, Amber,” they said. “What’s up?”
“Do you have a minute? I want to talk to you.” She glanced around and leaned closer, even though the only person anywhere in sight was Godwin way off in the distance. “It’s about Kaeya.”
“What about him?” Aether asked warily, praying that they weren’t about to be subjected to another ‘Kaeya is suspicious’ lecture. They liked Amber, but her constant trash-talking of one of their other very good friends was… off-putting. To say the least.
“I’m-” Amber sighed. “I’m worried about him.”
Aether blinked, caught by surprise. “Really?” they asked.
Amber huffed, planting her fists on her hips. “I may not trust him, but that doesn’t mean I hate him or anything,” she insisted indignantly. “Besides, he’s been acting all weird lately! And not even in a suspicious way!”
“What do you mean?” Aether asked, frowning.
“Well, I asked him for some help in the field yesterday-”
Kaeya met Amber at the foot of the bridge leading to the main gate of the City of Mondstadt just as the sun was rising, exactly when he’d agreed to, smiling cheerfully and looking like he'd already been up for hours.
“Good morning, Outrider Amber,” he said. “How are you this fine dawn?”
Amber fought the urge to yawn, not wanting to look sleepy next to Kaeya’s being all disgustingly wide awake. “Ready and raring to go,” she said.
Kaeya smiled like he knew she was lying through her teeth. “That’s good to hear. Where are we headed?”
“Not very far,” Amber said, starting down the road toward Springvale. “Just a spot of trouble I need a hand with.”
“Something tough enough to stump our Outrider?” Kaeya teased, falling into step beside her. “How fearsome.”
“Normally, I could handle them on my own,” she insisted. “It’s just that they’ve holed themselves up in a little cave at the end of a ravine; I can’t get close enough to use Baron Bunny without being spotted, and the terrain makes it impossible for me to hold my own against all of them.”
Kaeya hummed thoughtfully. “Are they aware you’re watching them, or did they luck into a situation so uniquely stacked against you?”
“I’m pretty sure they just got lucky,” Amber said, leading him up a short cliff face and into a stand of trees. “They only entered my patrol area a couple of days ago, and they haven’t been making much of an effort to cover their tracks.”
“I see,” Kaeya said. “We’ll just have to see what we can do about that, then.”
Amber nodded, scrambling up another hill and through a sparse patch of woods, bending down to crouch in the bushes overlooking their destination. Kaeya crouched next to her, scanning the area.
The ravine was deep and steep-sided, and too wide for a single archer to bottleneck even with Baron Bunny as a distraction. There were no handy crevices or large boulders to hide behind, and it was more-or-less straight for the last twenty or so meters before the cave mouth.
If she’d attempted this alone, she’d have to turn herself into a walking target just to get them out in the open, and then she’d be dodging more than she’d be attacking. The cave mouth was visible from here, but too far away for her to throw Baron Bunny, and so far that any meaningful shot she could make would have to be an incredibly lucky one.
“That’s where they’ve gone to ground,” she said quietly. “They don’t seem to be keen on moving around a lot.”
Kaeya nodded. “Do you-”
The wind carried up the sound of an Electro Cicin Mage’s creepy, creepy laugh, and Kaeya went rigid.
“You didn’t mention it was Fatui you needed help with,” he said, and he didn't sound any different than usual, but he was so stiff that Amber was mildly surprised he didn’t fall right over.
“I didn’t realize that was important,” Amber admitted. Kaeya was notorious for being stupidly fearless no matter who he faced in battle; surely a few Fatui weren’t enough to scare him.
“It isn’t,” Kaeya replied, so fast and flat that Amber was absolutely sure it was, in fact, very, very important. “I just like to know what I’m getting into ahead of time, that’s all.”
Amber decided now wasn’t the time to make an issue of it and just nodded. “There’s one Electro Cicin Mage, one Hydrogunner Legionnaire, and one Electrohammer Vanguard,” she said. “Is that enough intel for you?”
He nodded. “I take it you need someone to draw them into Baron Bunny’s range and keep them off you long enough to set it off?”
“That’s about the long and short of it.”
“Alright, then,” he said, “consider it done.” Quieter, in a much darker tone that she didn’t think she was supposed to hear, “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s keeping the Fatui entertained.”
Then he stood and vanished into the underbrush without even a rustle to track him by.
A minute or two passed before he came back into sight again, walking openly along the bottom of the ravine toward the cave.
“Knock, knock,” he called. “Anybody home?”
Amber didn’t quite hear what was said in response, but she saw the way it made Kaeya twitch before the Vanguard came charging out into the open.
Amber dashed out from cover, Baron Bunny already in hand, and threw it as hard as she could. It landed just in front of Kaeya, who immediately jumped clear while cicins swarmed the doll. She took careful aim, waiting until Kaeya was fully out of the blast zone, then fired. The explosion when the arrow pierced Baron’ Bunny’s foot was satisfyingly loud, but not so loud she couldn’t hear the equally satisfying sound of the Vanguard cursing.
The Mage and Hydrogunner rushed out to aid their comrade, and the fight began in earnest.
It was a short fight. Kaeya’s Cryo Vision let him freeze up the Hydrogunner so he couldn’t heal his comrades, and between Kaeya, Amber, and Baron Bunny, the other two Fatui didn’t stand much of a chance.
Amber rarely got to see Kaeya fight; as a Captain, he had special duties that kept him off on his own most of the time, and he always seemed to have something else to do whenever the Knights needed all hands on the front lines.
Like every other time she’d seen it, it kind of scared her.
Kaeya’s combat style was like a violent deadly dance of ice and steel, whirling icicles and flashing blades and she swore she saw him outright teleport at least twice. It was breathtaking in a brutally glorious way, a lot like the way Eula fought but harsher, almost as graceful but somehow slightly feral.
When he got serious about fighting, Kaeya tended to seem just a little bit insane.
At least with Kaeya to keep the Fatui’s attention, she was able to charge all her shots, melting and overloading as needed until all three were down and the fight was over.
As soon as it was safe, Amber stowed her bow and slid down into the ravine, crossing to the patch of scorched grass and dirt littered with Fatui insignias and broken vials of mist pollen.
Kaeya was already down on one knee when she reached him, sorting through the mess; Amber set to helping. That Electro Cicin Mage had dropped what seemed like a year’s supply of pollen, even if half the bottles were broken and most of the pollen itself had been burned up or carried off on the wind. The alchemists would probably still like whatever was left, though.
Kaeya concentrated on the insignias, looking each one over carefully, front and back, from all angles. Amber couldn’t figure out what he was looking for, so she left him to it. Probably another of his secrets that he wouldn’t tell her even if she asked.
Amber had just about gathered up all the intact wicks when she caught sight of something red in the corner of her eye; she turned to see a trail of fresh blood winding down the side of Kaeya’s glove, from where his hand was clenched way too tight against the sharp edges of a Fatui lieutenant’s insignia.
“Kaeya, your hand!”
Kaeya blinked, jumping slightly, and opened his fingers. There was blood smeared along the face of the insignia, welling up from a line of straight cuts across his fingers, just above where his glove ended, where the edges had dug in so hard they’d broken skin.
“Oh,” he said blankly. “One of them must have gotten me without my noticing.”
He let the insignia fall to the grass and stood, flexing his hand slightly, and Amber almost pointed out what an obvious lie that was. No way the Fatui would have been able to cut the inside of the fingers on his sword hand without him noticing, and none of them had been armed with any sort of blade, anyway.
She normally would have jumped right on that, but this felt… different. Kaeya’s obvious lies were usually fun or ridiculous ones, lies he could use to tease people if they fell for them. This was more like… like he was desperately trying to cover something up, but not thinking straight enough to do it properly. It would feel a bit too much like bullying if she called him out on it right now.
“I should probably get to the Cathedral,” he continued. “Hand injuries can be more problematic than they appear, and Barbara does get huffy about these things. I trust you can handle yourself here?”
Amber nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got this. Thank you for your help, Captain Kaeya.”
Kaeya smiled, but it didn’t look as carefree or amused as it usually did. “A pleasure as always, Outrider Amber. I’ll see you back at headquarters.”
Amber nodded again, watching him go. Once he was out of sight, she returned to the cleanup, saving the insignia that had gotten Kaeya so worked up for last. She cleaned it off carefully, and made a mental note to buy new gloves when she got back to town. That was the only way to be sure she wasn’t walking around with Kaeya’s literal blood on her hands.
“-and I’ve never seen him like that before, you know?” Amber finished. “But we’re not friends and he outranks me so it’s really not my place to ask him about it. I figured since you’re close to Kaeya and all...”
Aether nodded, sighing. Finding himself facing Fatui again without any warning… yeah, that would probably be enough to shake Kaeya up a little. And he definitely wouldn’t want to tell Amber that, or explain why.
“Thanks for telling me, Amber,” they said. “I promise I’ll check in on him as soon as I get back to the city.”
“Thanks, Aether,” she said, smiling. “I knew you’d know how to handle it.”
“Your faith in me is touching.” Even if it’s misplaced.
They honestly had no idea how to handle this. What had happened to Kaeya was pretty new territory to them, and they’d mostly been making it up as they went along. They couldn’t quite shake the fear that they were inevitably going to mess things up in a huge way.
They couldn’t let that stop them from being there for Kaeya, though. Even if they did mess up, they knew Kaeya would forgive them, and they’d know better what to do next time. They just had to keep telling themself that, and hope for the best.
“Such a load off my mind,” Amber continued obliviously. “I’ll let you get back to what you were doing and continue with my patrol. See you later!”
“Bye,” Aether said, watching her hurry back the way she’d come.
“Do you think Kaeya’s okay?” Paimon asked.
“If he really did go see Barbara, he should be,” they said, sighing. “Physically, anyway. I know you were looking forward to Brook’s skewers, but...”
“Friends are more important than food,” she said immediately. “Paimon can wait until after we’ve checked on Kaeya.”
Aether smiled, reaching out and tweaking the end of her cape. “You’re the best, Paimon.”
“And don’t you forget it,” she said haughtily, but dropped the act immediately. “Let’s hurry. Paimon’s worried.”
Aether was worried, too. It wasn’t much of a walk from the Windrise Statue to town, but they decided to teleport back, anyway. Just in case.