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“ How very careless, Your Majesty,” Ajax mutters under his breath as he stands over the King of Khaenri’ah with blade in hand, his knuckles white. It took seventeen months but the harbinger is on the brink of redemption, to do right by his country, his Tsaritsa. At last, the one blemish on his otherwise perfect record is about to wiped from existence and he will be welcomed back into the Tsaritsa’s trusted circle with open arms.
So why is he hesitating?
This blue headed monarch certainly didn’t hesitate when he drove that poisoned blade into Ajax’s abdomen the night the harbinger was first sent to kill him. It was embarrassing to be outsmarted by someone that was supposed to be an easy target, and then humiliating when the King didn’t even allow the assassin the dignity of a warrior’s death.
“ I hear you’re the Tsaritsa’s favourite. You’ll make for a fine bargaining chip” .
It took the ginger over a month to fully heal from the toxic effects of the inteyvat, over which time, the King made an annoying habit of visiting to lord over him the fact that he was a failure, that it meant he was no longer of use to the Tsaritsa. After all, what good was an attack dog that didn’t bite?
Ajax swore he would finish his mission the next chance he got.
But the King was frustratingly diligent - of course, nothing less would’ve allowed him to get the upper hand on the harbinger in the first place. The king always had a minimum of two guards with him. One was a short tempered red head that Ajax learned through observation, must be the King’s closest confidante, a childhood friend who was adept with a claymore as he was at sending death glares at Ajax. The second was a soft-spoken blond whose calm composure rivaled the King’s - in contrast to the fiery redhead with the attitude to match, the blond was levelheaded, a veritable rock in the defense of his royal charge.
Though why the King insisted on being in their protection was beyond Ajax - it wasn’t as though that man was helpless on his own. If anything, the Khaenri’ahn king was more dangerous than either of his personal guards, a lesson that Ajax learned even beyond their initial meeting.
Seven.
That was the number of further attempts that Ajax made directly on the King’s life before Ajax realised that this might have to be a long term assignment - he made a mental note to add Kaeya Alberich to his small list of opponents that he was destined to one day defeat in a glorious battle. Until then, he would just have to settle for being smart.
He would have to get close to the Khaenri’ahn King.
It was a feat easier said than done. It was five months before the king reduced Ajax’s guard to just one. It was another three before flashing that ever unreadable smile as he suggested a shared meal. At eleven months, Ajax was finally allowed to leave the confines of the west wing where he’d been initially isolated during his recovery. “You may be a bargaining chip, but you are also my guest,” the King had said in that disgustingly silky voice of his. Thirteen months of pretending to have accepted his fate, that he had given up his intentions to assassinate before the Khaenri’ahn King agreed to a one-on-one spar with the harbinger.
It was in week 63 that the King let Ajax out of the Palace, to join him on a diplomatic trip to Liyue. "You’ve been there and your input may be valuable ." Ajax’s sixteenth kill was that of a prominent Liyuen leader, or rather, that was what he was told to make it look like. “He works at one Wangsheng Funeral Parlour now, if I’m not mistaken,” the King had remarked. He’d smiled knowingly when Ajax flinched - no one was supposed to know about the Tsaritsa’s secret alliances. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” he’d winked.
Ajax had kept quiet as he roamed the streets of Liyue Harbour, trailing behind the King as he made trades deals with ease over almond tofu, always with that calm smile on his lips. Ajax had wondered idly how many of Khaenri’ah’s allies had been tricked into contracts with smooth conversation and convincing half-truths - the King was more conniving than Ajax had anticipated. No, he was better than conniving, he was interesting and Ajax couldn’t help but be intrigued.
“ Join me for dinner?” The king had asked on their last eve in the Harbour, as if Ajax had a choice in the matter. “I hear Wanmin Restaurant’s chef is a child prodigy.” And another one of those calculated smiles. “I gave my guards the rest of the night off, they’ve been working hard all week.”
It was Ajax’s first time alone with the Khaenri’ahn King since his first attempt, an obvious test by the latter and Ajax refused to be baited. The King would live to see another sunrise.
Week 67 had Ajax travelling with the King to Watatsumi Island for discussion with the head of the Sangonomiya Clan to help rebuild after the war.
“Come with me to Mouun Shrine? I’m a bit of a history freak.”
Enkanomiya was rumoured to be home to some of the most fascinating monsters - Ajax supposed it would be worth the trip if it meant he could unearth some secret that could give him strength to finally finish his mission.
Week 70 was a research project at The Akademiya, though why the King needed to go in person to Sumeru eluded Ajax.
“ The Palace of Alcazarzaray is supposed to be an architectural marvel, it’d be a nice break from all this reading.”
Ajax believed buildings were meant to be lived in, not ogled at, but the Tsaritsa was a romantic who loved the arts. He might find something of interest to bring back to her.
Week 72, a stay at Wangshu Inn for a negotiation for a better rate for Khaenri’ah’s import of cor lapis.
“ I hear Wuwang Hill is haunted. Sounds fun, no?”
Ajax didn’t particularly enjoy chasing ghosts but he liked pretending to be one to make Kaeya jump before laughing. Ajax found it weird, unsettling even, hearing it sound genuine. It made his stomach churn inexplicably.
And finally, week 74 was here at a party in Mondstadt on a personal invitation to celebrate something called the Windblume Festival.
“The City of Wind, and of course, wine. Need I say more?”
Ajax snorted, it was impossible for any wine to be better than his home’s fire water. He ought to show this foreigner how it’s done.
Surrounded by bar goers cheering them on in their battle, Ajax slammed his glass down with a victorious roar, sending a smug smirk at his opponent across the table, still throwing back his own drink.
“Alright, you win this round, but don’t get cocky,” Kaeya mumbled as he wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, his words slurring as he leaned back in his chair to gesture to the bartender for another round.
Leaning back in his own chair, Ajax watched Kaeya burp in a way no King should ever be seen in public doing. He snorted - how unbecoming of a royal.
“What?” Kaeya asked when he caught the red head staring at him.
Ajax shrugged, “It’s nice to see you having fun instead of always being so serious.”
“Me? Serious? Never.” Kaeya leaned forward to rest his chin on one propped elbow, staring at Ajax with half lidded eyes, heavy with intoxication. “You’re the one in danger of enjoying yourself, Ajax.”
The ginger couldn’t help the way the corners of his lips turned up at the way his name sounded in Kaeya’s voice, devoid of its usual pretension. “And if I am?”
Kaeya hummed a non-response with a shrug as their drinks arrived, and Ajax didn’t press or elaborate further. Instead, the two picked up their glasses until another handful of drinks had the Khaenr’iahn face first in his crossed arms on the table.
“I thought you’d promised you’d drink me under the table,” Ajax muttered under his breath as he hooked one arm under the unconscious blue haired man’s knees and the other to support his back as he carried the King back to their hotel. “Difficult” would be an understatement to describe the effort it took to get the door unlocked with Kaeya’s drunken limbs throwing Ajax off balance, but he managed it eventually, nudging the door closed behind him with one foot.
“Put me down, Harbinger, I’m not an invalid,” the King slurred as Ajax carried his limp form to the bed.
Harbinger.
The title shocked Ajax more than the wild and drunken waving of the King’s arm that resulted in a punch to the face. He all but dropped the man into his bed, staring down at the blue hair splayed in disarray under Kaeya’s peaceful sleeping expression.
Harbinger.
Right. He was one of the Tsaritsa’s loyal soldiers and he was here on assignment, an assignment to kill the monarch, not tucking that same monarch into bed . What was he doing here, exactly? How had he strayed so far from his directive?
No. No, this was the plan all along, right? Get into the Khaenri’ahn King’s good graces, get him to lower his guard and then get the job done , right? So why was he hesitating? He swallowed hard against the growing lump in his throat, reaching for the knife that he’d lifted from the bar earlier and hidden in his belt - Kaeya was getting sloppy with his diligence around Ajax.
“How very careless, Your Majesty,” Ajax mutters under his breath as he stands over the King of Khaenri’ah with a blade in hand, his knuckles white. He’s waited seventeen months for this opportunity, right? He stares down at the unconscious man, defenseless, and not even for the first time. If Ajax is being honest with himself, there’d been more than a handful of opportunities for him to finish the job, and he’d chosen each time to ignore it.
So now what?
Ajax sighs in defeat as his armed hand lowers to his side, and the other raises to pinch the bridge of his nose, eyes pressed tightly shut as he lowers himself to sit on the edge of the bed. Shit .
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Shit.
He tosses the knife listlessly to the bedside table, where the blade wobbles over the edge for a moment before settling and then turns to face Kaeya again. When did this happen? How did this happen? He reaches to brush a stray hair that has fallen across the King’s liquored and flushed features, probably from how unceremoniously Ajax dropped him on the bed a moment ago. His finger lingers against the cheek longer than it should before the king hums in his drunken stupor, pressing his cheek into Ajax’s palm. It’s warm and somehow both calms Ajax and makes him anxious at the same time. He doesn’t pull away though, instead tracing his thumb along the cheekbone, catching the edge of the eye patch. He wonders idly the story behind it: a battle scar? A birth defect? Or maybe just a piece of fabric that served no purpose but to distract and confuse, just like it’s doing to Ajax now.
He thinks to himself that it’d be nice to hear Kaeya tell him exactly what purpose it served. Maybe over dinner. Maybe he could cook those chicken skewers Kaeya likes so much.
Yeah, he’s in trouble.
Ajax’s gaze falls to the king’s earring on the other side. He should probably help Kaeya take it out lest the man rip it out in his drunken sleep - it simply wouldn’t do to ruin that perfect kingly presentation. He frowns, it was a strange concept - Kaeya needing taking care of. Yes, of course a king needs his attendants, but given his aptitude for, well, everything (especially besting Ajax in their now near daily sparring sessions), Ajax never quite thought about it before. A more intriguing concept though, was Ajax doing that attending. The idea brings a smile to his face for a moment as the image of brushing the King’s hair after a long day of negotiations flashes across his ming.
His smile immediately disappears when he realises that Kaeya is no longer unconscious and is staring up at him intently, no hint of his earlier inebriation in his steely gaze. Ajax’s breath catches when he realises that the man had only been pretending to be unconscious - is this another test? Had Kaeya anticipated that Ajax might try to kill him tonight? And then deliberately baited him by pretending to be drunk? He glances nervously at the abandoned knife on the side table. Why is he worried of all things that he's been caught betraying the King's trust - is the blue haired king even capable of trust?
A knot forms in the harbinger’s throat as he frantically moves to pull his hand back to himself. He’s fast but as the king has proven in their now near daily spars, Kaeya is faster and he catches Ajax's hand in his own, holding the harbinger firmly in place.
The King’s touch burns, but Ajax doesn’t pull away. “I-” Ajax starts, with no idea how to continue, so he doesn’t, just returning the Khaenri’ahn’s gaze. Kaeya’s fingers squeeze gently before Ajax feels a tug forward. It’s gentle, but surprising enough that Ajax stumbles and he instinctively reaches out to break his fall, hands landing on either side of the King’s head, fingers tangling into blue tresses. He hovers inches above the other, close enough to study the star-shaped outline of the man’s pupil, the mark of Khaenri’ahn royalty, and feel Kaeya’s breath hot on his cheek. It’s enough for him to ignore the throbbing in his leg - he must have hit something on the way down.
Ajax swallows hard against the lump that has formed in his throat. Kaeya’s stare seems to bore holes into Ajax’s so he tries to find something else to focus on and his gaze falls instead on the royal’s lips. His breath quickens - has the oxygen in the room somehow suddenly disappeared? He’s suddenly acutely aware of how Kaeya’s grip on his hand has loosened but still lingers.
Fuck it .
Ajax dips and presses his lips against Kaeya’s, relieved - relieved? - when the King doesn’t resist, but instead moves his hand to rest loosely on the small of Ajax’s neck, his touch ghostlike, as though afraid to ask for more.
Ajax gives anyway, until there’s a clatter that snaps him out of his cloudy mind - apparently, the throbbing in his leg had been due to knocking on the side table, and the nudge had sent the blade teetering, and then finally falling. The sound is deafening and it cuts cleanly through his muddied thoughs. He pulls away abruptly and stands up, “This is wrong,” he mutters, stumbling backwards as he runs a shaky hand through his hair. Suddenly the image of his Tsaritsa flashes across his mind - she would be disappointed in his weakness. “I- I shouldn’t..I can’t -, I have to go,” he blurts out, spinning on his heel and hurrying out of the hotel room. He ignores the way the King calls his name gently after him, deliberately closing the door to muffle it.
His heart races in his ears as he leans back into the closed door, nausea bubbling acid up his throat that no amount of swallowing seems to fix. He doesn’t remember how, but he somehow makes it back to his own room, back into his own bed. Ajax doesn’t sleep that night, or any other night after that once they’ve returned to Khaenri’ah, kept company by the shadows on the walls and the reeling thoughts in his head. He keeps expecting for his privileges to be revoked after his misattempt, but it never comes. Instead, the King is the same as always, all smiles as he conducts business, aside from the fact that Ajax gets the distinct feeling that he’s being avoided. The only one who hasn’t been avoiding him is Diluc, who has taken to stopping Ajax in the hallways.
“He won’t tell me what happened but I promise you, Snezhnayan, I will find out and if what I find is that his tears are your doing, I will end you, and everything you love, starting with your precious Tsaritsa. I will start a war if I have to.”
The threat against his sovereign should make Ajax upset but it’s the knowledge that Kaeya has been crying that catches his attention instead. It makes him sick knowing that Diluc is probably right.
Week 76 starts with a dinner invitation, something that Kaeya has not offered to Ajax since their return from Mondstadt.
“ You’re free to go home.”
“ What?” Ajax looks up from pushing his meal around on its dish - he hasn’t had much of an appetite since the Windblume Festival and he only accepted the dinner invite because he hasn’t actually seen the Khaenri’ahn King except in passing as the monarch hurries between his endless responsibilities. Much to his irritation but accetance, he misses Kaeya and his snarky remarks.
Ajax listens in increasingly annoyed silence as the man across from him makes comments about the Tsaritsa demanding the release of her best harbinger backed with the threat of war with an army that Khaenri’ah cannot hope to defend against.
Bullshit , Ajax thinks. There has never been a single thing that the blue haired king has done that he hasn’t planned or wanted to do. No, Kaeya is choosing to get rid of Ajax. Ajax doubts that this is a reaction to Ajax’s eight attempted murder of the Khaenri’ahn, a move to remove a threat against the Kaeya’s life - Ajax still had yet to win a single sparring match against the King afterall. Even after drinking Ajax under the table, Kaeya was not susceptible to deception.
“ Why?”
“‘Why’ what?”
“ Why are you trying to get rid of me?”
Kaeya frowns as though in disbelief at the suggestion. “Letting you leave is my best, my only, option. I can’t risk my people for…” He trails with an almost imperceptible twitch across his features.
Ajax scowls, dropping his fork with a dramatic clatter on the table before crossing his arms on his chest. He glares across the table, with a raised eyebrow, a wordless indication that he doesn’t believe a single word that Kaeya has said until now. He waits.
Kaeya is almost as stubborn, and he continues to eat. "I’ve arranged for your transport at first light tomorrow morning."
Still, Ajax waits.
Kaeya sighs after a long silence, putting down his fork. "I thought you’d be happy to go home."
“ You’re not sending me home , you’re running away .”
“ Excuse me? I don’t run .”
Ajax scowls, “Oh? Then what exactly have you been doing for the last couple of weeks since we returned from Mondstadt? You know, since I awkwardly tried and failed to kill you and then ended up kissing you?” He snorts when Kaeya’s expression seems to reflect something along the lines of unease, the first time Ajax has managed to render the former speechless. “Yeah, I thought that might shut you up.”
Kaeya opens and closes his mouth a couple times, his eyebrows stitching together with something he can’t put into words. After another long moment, he finally takes a deep breath. “And what would you have me do then?”
Ajax grins. He gets to his feet and grabs the back of his seat, dragging the chair with a screech that he knows is upsetting to Kaeya by the way the man is scowling until he’s next to the latter. He drops back into his seat and leans towards the King.
“Ask me to stay.”
“Excuse me?”
“You asked me what to do, and I’m telling you. Ask me to stay.”
Kaeya raises the eyebrow of his one blue starred eye, an uneasy smile starting to form on his lips. “I already told the Tsaritsa to expect you…” he trails. “And I’ve always been a man of my word…”
“I know. Ask. Me. To. Stay.”
Kaeya’s lips press into a thin line as he reaches for his glass of wine, deliberately averting his gaze as his eyebrows stitch together again. “Diluc’s going to kill you.”
Ajax grins as he deliberately reaches across the table to grab a piece of meat off the king’s plate with his fingers and popping it into his mouth, enjoying how it makes the latter roll his eyes. “Tell him I look forward to it.
“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” the King mutters with an exasperated sigh.
“Absolutely.”