Chapter Text
One day Jean suggests to Kaeya about taking a break and after hours of trying to convince him, Kaeya eventually gives in and agrees. Jean is more than happy to hear knowing how much of a workaholic he is, though Kaeya would much rather work and daze off in thought.
“Have a good break Kaeya, and I mean an actual break” Jean says outside of the knights headquarters “go have some fun , okay?”
Kaeya nodded “I will Master Jean, make sure to take a rest yourself”
Jean smiled and sent him off. Kaeya had no idea what to do, filling out paperwork while dozing off was the only thing that kept him entertained.
“Kaeya! Kaeya!” A little voice from the distance shouted, Klee! 10 year old Spark Knight Klee ran towards Kaeya and hugged his legs tightly “Jean told me you’re off duty for the week, can you come fish blasting with me?!”
Kaeya thought for a moment, well Jean did tell him to have fun on his rest and why not spend it on Klee? His little sister figure? Besides, some grilled tiger fish does sound really good right about now.
“Of course Klee!” He smiled “Where do we go? Cider lake?”
Klee jumped for joy, her movement imitating her jumpty dumpties. “Yay! Let's go! Let's go!” She pulled him through the gates
After killing off a few fish patches, they grilled it, and ate it, Klee was more than pleased she wanted more and more.
“Alright, Klee, I think that’s enough, you don't want to get too full or else you won't have any more energy to play” Kaeya said taking away a fish stick she had in her hand
Klee immediately stopped and nodded “okay! Can we kill hilichurls please?”
Kaeya nodded and off they went, scouring for any camp or hide out they could find. They did everything that day, they killed every monster in sight, Picked every flower, burned tall grass, froze hydro slimes, melted cryo slimes, launched off of anemo slimes, they did everything. And now, they were just running around in a flower field. Mint, sweet flowers, Lamp grasses, windwheel asters, calla lilies, all sorts of flowers surrounded them, and finally… They settle on a flower covered cliff, watching the sunset. The huge body of water underneath them flowed still. Klee was smiling, hypnotized by the fiery lights illuminating off of the sun, gnawing on a fresh sunsettia. Kaeya smirked but it was more of a sad smile if anything.
“When I'm gone Klee” Kaeya started his sentence, Klee looked in his direction instantly. “You will be the new cavalry captain, You’ll protect Mondstat and everyone in the walls right?”
10 year old, Spark Knight Klee, not understanding what Cavalry captain Kaeya meant by ‘when I'm gone’ “Yes sir Kaeya! Klee will protect everyone! Because Mondstat is Klee’s home!” She said happily.
“Including Master Diluc?” Klee paused, She never really thought about it since she knew well that Diluc could protect himself but if he ever needed it, she nodded at Kaeya.
Kaeya smiled and hugged her
“Did you have fun today?” He asked to change the subject.
“Mhm! We were very brave today!” she replied, continuing to eat her sunsettia
Kaeya smiled once more, this time it was a happy smile, a genuine one.
Kaeya and Klee returned to mondstadt very late, He gave Klee to Timaeus to look after until Albedo got there the next day. And for the rest of the week, the two hung out with each other and even after Kaeya’s break was over he still made some time to play with Klee. oh how grateful Jean was that Kaeya was asking to take breaks instead of her having to beg him to rest. She knew Keaya loved Klee like a little sister, maybe he was influenced by Jean herself, inspired to have a relationship with Klee like her and Barbra or maybe that person was none other than his older brother, Diluc..,
Four years later…
fourteen year old Klee was coming back to Mondstat after visiting Liyue to finish a letter sending commission, and by the gates she was greeted by Albedo.
“Big brother!” She yelled, Waving at him
“Klee!” Albedo smiled and unfolded his arms for a hug. Klee ran at him and squeezed him tightly “hi Klee! How was your trip to Liyue?”
“It was good! Turns out that letter was for Baizhu at Bubu pharmacy and while I was there I saw Qiqi!” Klee Told albedo all about her trip, Albedo giggled
“I'm glad to hear you had fun” Klee nodded in response, Albedo looked at her neck “Hmm, Did you move your vision below your neck? I thought you attached it to your belt?”
Klee only smiled “Well I moved it to look like you! Big brother Albedo!”
On the outside Albedo laughed in awe, internally he was screaming, he felt like an amazing older brother and Klee made sure he knew that.
“I'm going to visit master Jean now, Bye Albedo!” Klee said, giving her brother another hug before she left.
She walked up the stairs of the knights headquarters and into Jean’s office.
“Jean?” she opened the door to see Jean sitting in her chair filling out paperwork.
“Klee, you’re back! Finish your commission?” Jean asked, her mood was much less stressed than usual, which was good.
“Sure did, you seem to be in a good mood” Klee said, grabbing a chair and sitting right next to her.
“Yes, Kaeya has been really happy and knowing that puts me to rest.” Jean replied, patting Klee on the head. “You know he always hides his true emotions, whether he’s happy, sad, concerned, he always covers up with charm”
Klee thinks the only time she’s seen Kaeya sad or concerned was whenever Master Diluc was out of town for more than a week.
Jean sighs “come to think of it, he more often shows true enjoyment around you, Klee” Klee looks at her in confusion
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Well, you two hang out a lot and he’s always so happy to see you”
Klee takes these words to heart “You’re right Jean, I'm gonna go check up on him now” She smiled, Jean smiled back and nodded her head.
Klee exits the office and heads to the library, she always finds Kaeya in there, usually he's in there for a peaceful chat with Lisa or to help Razor with reading and sure enough, there he is, head down on the table, most likely daydreaming again.
“Kaeya~” Klee whispers
Kaeya peeks his head up “Oh Klee!”
“You’re back! Did you have fun?” He asked, not completely snapped out of his daze
“Yep” Klee replied sitting next to him “so, I was having a talk with Jean and she said that you’ve been acting very happy lately”
“Oh?”
“Not in a bad way but she said she’s just pleased to know you’re doing okay” Klee re-phrased her sentence
“Oh…” That seemed to bring a smile to Kaeya’s face “That’s sweet of her to actually notice”
“What did you say?” Klee asked, she didn't quite catch what Kaeya said
“Nothing! I should be getting ready to go to angel share” Kaeya stood up.
“Isn’t it quite early?” Klee looked at the time, only 7pm.
“Well, i just have some business to attend to with Diluc” Kaeya answered “see you later Klee” and left
Klee sat at the table alone, she sighed, then laughed, not gonna lie Jean was right, seeing Kaeya be anything other than a flirtatious man was quite nice, funny even.
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Kaeya was confident, Even though he knew Diluc didn’t like his birthday because of the incident, he still wanted to take this chance and celebrate it with him when the time finally came.
‘His birthday is in two days! You got this Kaeya!” He thought to himself as he opened the tavern door. Diluc looked up at him with the same annoyed expression he always had on.
“Don't get too drunk” Diluc said
“Actually no, I wanted to talk to you about something” Kaeya was already stuttering over his words, he was nervous to do this knowing Diluc’s answer would probably push him away again. “And in private please”
Diluc raised an eyebrow “alright fine, but if its something stupid see yourself out”
He led Diluc outside and behind the tavern.
“Kaeya what is this all about?” Diluc asked, getting ticked off by the moment.
“Okay, uh…I just wanted to say that I'm… sorry” Kaeya said nervously, “I'm sorry for making it worse for you when you were at a low point that day and I'm sorry for being uh, a spy”
Diluc was stunned both by shock and anger
“I just wanted to ask if you wanted to celebrate your birthday with me, we can do whatever you want, how does that sound?” Kaeya asked, his heart beating so fast he could hear it in his ears. But nothing could prepare the poor boy for what his childhood hero would say next.
“Kaeya… do you know how stupid you sound right now?”
Diluc said, his voice sounded harsh, exactly like how it was that night.
Kaeya looked up “huh?”
“Just now you decide to apologize, when you could’ve all those years ago!?” Diluc shouted
“You think that it'd be so easy, that you could just say the word ‘sorry’ and everything will be magically fixed!?” his vision glew brighter and brighter
“I-”
“You bastard, you absolute bastard…To think that you can ‘celebrate my birthday’ KAEYA YOU KNOW I DON'T CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FATHER” Diluc grabbed Kaeya by the shoulder and shook him violently, his hand was burning hot, his thumb reached Kaeya’s neck and burned his skin.
“Diluc, I said I'm sorry! I’ll leave you alone now I'm sorry!” Kaeya yelled, allowing fear to show, he shielded his face from Diluc exactly like how he did That night.
Diluc pushed him down “I wish you died instead of my father” Diluc almost stopped himself mid sentence, he only just realized how harsh his words were when he saw the Cavalry captain shiver.
Not even Kaeya could take it. He stood up wiping off his tears, luckily the plaza was empty, no one could see or hear them
“Wait, Keaya i’m-” Keaya cut Diluc’s sentence, even though he knew Diluc was going to apologize he didn't want it, he knew it wasn't a real apology either
“No, I-I understand…” Kaeya whimpered, he tried to smile but his body refused, all it did was force Keaya to run away.
Diluc stood there in regret ‘god damn it you stupid stupid stupid!’ He repeated to himself ‘you idiot why would you say that!?’ he felt guilt flooding his brain, yes he wanted to apologize to Kaeya but he didn’t know how to approach it. He'll just have to wait until Kaeya comes to him.