Chapter Text
What a great day...
Jean had dumped the absolute tallest stack of paperwork he had ever seen and immediately ran off saying, "Thank you very much Kaeya, appreciate it!" All the while Kaeya just stared in shock behind his desk.
Because the weird thing was, he applied for a leave the day before, and Jean had happily approved it, saying that she was grateful he was finally taking care of himself.
And Kaeya smiled and said, "Well, your advice has finally sunk in."
I guess it's no surprise that that was a lie, one: because of the unlikeliness of Kaeya taking a break and two: because Kaeya lied often.
Kaeya had received a tip about a domain near Dawn Winery (gosh, just his luck). Normally, he would've just informed Jean and then dealt with it, either alone or with another knight, but he was informed that this domain might have connections to Khaenri'ah (what a coincidence!).
Apparently, there was something about the exterior architecture that resembled Khaenri'ah.
And things just got a whole lot more interesting.
Kaeya feels bad for not informing Jean.
Well not really-
He has kept secrets from her before, but they always managed to slip out one way or another. Most of the time, Kaeya revealed them willingly.
(Fuck Jean and her kind soul.)
The secret about his origin was also revealed as he was sitting on her front lawn bleeding his veins out. Jean was patiently patching him up --while panicking enough for three years internally-- she didn't force him to say anything but Kaeya did so anyway
(Again, fuck Jean and her kind soul.)
So you might be wondering, if Jean knew about his ancestry then why was he so hesitant about revealing the domain's connections to Khaenri'ah?
Well, the simple answer was, he didn't want to make it awkward...
Yes, he had revealed his origins to Jean but also the fact that he was a spy which made Khaenri'ah a touchy subject to discuss.
Kaeya had taken great effort to ensure this topic was nowhere in their discussions, even casual ones. It was fairly easy to do so because people hardly know about Khaenri'ah and those who do have mostly dismissed it as a myth.
So now he's hesitant about just walking into her office and giving her info about the domain. He could 'accidentally' leave out the part that the domain is related to Khaenri'ah but he's sure she'll figure it out some way or another.
As much as Kaeya wants to say that he left his past behind, he can't deny that he's curious about his homeland.
He doesn't want Jean to continually suspect him as he examined every nook and cranny of the domain.
Kaeya would be lying if he said he knew where his loyalties lay but one thing was for sure:
He would never do anything to hurt Mondstadt and he was willing to do anything to make sure Jean doesn't think otherwise.
Which is why he decided to explore the domain by himself, and he was going to before he got stuck in his office on the day of his leave!
The only reason he even came to his office instead of directly heading off for the domain was that he had fucking forgotten the fucking map for the fucking domain in his fucking office.
He memorized a good estimate of the route in his memory when he first saw the map but it wouldn't hurt to have the actual map with him.
So Kaeya arrived really early at his office. Ideally, he wanted to get in and out of that domain before nightfall. He easily found the map stuffed in a book that he used to take some notes on.
He should've left after he had gotten the map, but no, because when does he do what's good for him?
Instead, he noticed a tiny to-do list in the book with three of the four boxes checked
So he went ahead and decided to finish the fourth task. It was just arranging some files and wasn't supposed to take more than a few minutes. Unfortunately, one of the files slipped and the papers all sprawled out, it only took a short while to gather and reorganize everything but as Kaeya glanced at some of his work he noticed how impulsive his decisions were and how sloppy his handwriting looked...
Well that simply won't do now, will it?
He was the Cavalry captain and despite his outward hatred (and often procrastination) of paperwork he still held himself to a rather high standard when it came to his Knightly duties. So, he quickly got to work, redoing the paper. Just as he finished up and organized all the folders Jean barged in and decided he was no longer on leave...
'Ah, this is bullshit!' Kaeya cried out mentally. Most of this work wasn't even supposed to be his and needed the Acting Grand Master to sign it personally, what was Jean thinking?!
'Alright, that's enough.' Kaeya made up his mind and got up. It would be ridiculous to work on his day off! He felt a little bad defying Jean's orders but it was her fault for forgetting he was on leave! She can't blame him for this!
As for the paperwork, Kaeya knew exactly how to handle it. He smirked a little just thinking about it and started filtering through the papers, removing ones that directly needed Jean's involvement.
He took the remaining papers and started heading toward Albedo's lab. The captain had returned from another one of his expeditions in Dragonspine recently and Kaeya hadn't got a chance to talk to him yet!
(By that he means he hadn't gotten a chance to annoy him yet.)
Kaeya picked up the slightly smaller stack of papers and headed out of his office, he had spent at least an hour in there and needed to leave for the domain as soon as possible. This realization suddenly made him dread seeing Albedo, the man would at least take 10 minutes of convincing to agree to even consider looking at the paperwork.
Kaeya sighed, he just needed one day off work.
He locked his office and made the keys disappear into his vision's pocket dimension. He didn't particularly wish to have a vision but he has to admit the pocket dimension was incredibly convenient, as long as he kept it tidy.
He started heading towards Albedo's lab, thinking of exactly how he could convince the alchemist. Kaeya was so deep in thought that he almost ran into someone.
Almost. Kaeya was always alert. Well, except when he's drunk.
Right outside Albedo's office was Noelle, haphazardly walking backwards and waving at someone. "Bye Sucrose! I'll see you at lunch." She almost bumped into Kaeya but the latter managed to side-step in time. "Oh!" He exclaimed softly, causing Noelle to turn around and immediately start apologizing
"Sir Kaeya! Oh gosh sorry!" Noelle said and turned to face him, behind her he could see Sucrose with a worried expression on her face.
Kaeya was fairly surprised to see not only Noelle but also Sucrose in the Knight's office, shouldn't they be at school?
He realized he still hadn't replied to Noelle, he hastily said, "Don't worry Noelle, I'm unharmed." And because he couldn't control his curiosity, he added, "but shouldn't you two start heading to school? It starts in like 15 minutes-" Kaeya glanced at a nearby clock. It was 8:03 am.
"Ah, well... Normally I'd already be in class but..." Ah, of course, a person like Noelle was bound to be early to all of her classes "Bennett set the science lab on fire yesterday, again." She said sheepishly, embarrassed on behalf of her friend.
"And the school gave us a holiday to deal with the damage." Sucrose added.
Hearing that gave Kaeya a mini heart attack, was Bennett ok? Did the fire hurt someone? If the high school gave a day off that means the damage was really bad-
"Bennett's totally fine, there is nothing to worry about." Came a new voice from behind him, Kaeya turned to spot Barbara, surprisingly not in her church uniform and instead in a fancy pink dress, her hair and makeup both being a bit too much for 8 am, even for Kaeya who dressed up fabulously for work every single day.
His brain distantly wondered how Jean would react to the slightly inappropriate outfit her sisters wearing, but as amusing as that was, it was none of his business.
"Barbara! I thought you were at your concert?" Noelle practically beamed at seeing the blond, leaning forward and reaching to hug her, Barbara returning her hug with a similar expression, Sucrose was also equally surprised to see her and exited the lab to talk.
"Yeah, but there were some technical issues so the concert was a little delayed," Barbara explained, toying with her hair.
"So I decided to come to check on you, how's your head," Barbara continued and reached for Noelle. The Maid quickly ducked away and replied "I'm fine, Barbara! There's nothing to worry about." Sounding quite exasperated.
"What happened?" Kaeya found himself asking, the stack of papers in his hands completely forgotten.
"A monster attack," Sucrose said "as soon as we stepped out of the school there were about thirty monsters just standing there and when they noticed us they started attacking."
"And one hit Noelle on the head," Barbara chimed in, making a gesture of swinging a club with her hands.
"But it's all good, it didn't even bleed!" Noelle exclaimed.
"You did faint though," Barbara added accusingly.
"What!?" Kaeya found himself saying, a little louder than necessary.
God knows when he felt the obligation to take care of every kid in Mondstat.
"Fischl dragged her to the cathedral," Sucrose said. Noelle blushed, embarrassed
"I'll remember to thank her when I see her" She said.
Monsters near the school? Were the knights so understaffed that they let a bunch of kids almost get killed...
Well killed is a huge overstatement considering how it was high school and most of the teenagers there already had their visions.
And it wasn't entirely the knights' fault, the high school consisted of both students from Mondstat and Liyue and was managed and funded by both nations. One of the previous grandmasters thought that the school would be better maintained that way since teachers keep complaining about underfunded schools
(Not canon, just a headcanon that I wish was true. Honestly, I'm not sure education is a concept in Teyvat, Diona is literally a bartender??)
The school was around the area where he was going to check out the domain, Dawn Winery was really close to Liyue
Oh right the domain-
"Ah, I almost forgot, Sucrose is Albedo in his lab?" Kaeya asked, if Noelle claims she's ok then right now he would trust her judgement and not convince her to take a day off.
Only because he was in a hurry.
"Oh, not right now, he just went to place an order, he should be back soon." Sucrose replied and glanced downstairs, Kaeya followed her gaze and saw Albedo coming up.
Well he had to hurry!
"Well, i'm kind of in a hurry right now, could you just hand him these papers, they're from Jean." Kaeya said and handed Sucrose the papers, he could literally feel Albedo coming closer.
He had to hurry!
"Alright byee-" Kaeya said and practically ran past the girls, he started sprinting down the stairs, meeting Albedo halfway through and giving him a little smile.
He received a suspicious look in return, the alchemist seeing right through his cheeky behavior, wondering just what the hell he had to deal with now.
'How amusing,' Kaeya thought to himself, now outside the Knights headquarters and making his way to the nearest teleport point.