Work Text:
"A chai latte for Kaeya?"
Kaeya perked up at the call of his name. He walked over to the counter, giving the Starbucks barista one of his award-winning smiles, "That's me."
The Starbucks barista stared at him for a moment before bashfully giving Kaeya his drink. Kaeya didn't point out the blush that was blooming on the barista's face. He simply thanked them with a smile before returning to his seat near the windows. He wasn't that mean to embarrass a customer service worker. Everyone knows that customer service workers have to deal with shitty customers day-to-day; embarrassing them would be the worst thing one could do.
Kaeya breathed in the aromatic spice of the chai latte. The heat warmed his fingers, but it would never be enough to cure him of his ever-present condition of freezing cold hands. Why some people had warm hands and he was cursed to have the coldest hands on earth was a question he would never be able to solve.
Kaeya paused, wondering whether this was what the cinnamon chai his mother would make when she was still around would smell like. He never got to try it. He only had the faded memories of her calloused hands, grinding the spice in a mortar before mixing it in the pot of milk tea. Kaeya couldn't conjure up an image of what she looked like back then. Couldn't remember what she sounded like. Couldn't remember what her kisses and hugs felt like.
When he was younger, he hated her and his father. After all, they gave him up to be raised by strangers. Crepus, bless his heart, was a good parent and Diluc was the closest thing to a sibling Kaeya ever had. Only when he was old enough to understand, did he stop hating his mother. Not his father, he's still a son of a bitch.
His parents weren't well off. They could only just afford to get a plane here instead of by boat. They both had to work excruciatingly long hours. His father was the one who went to a local university to get better jobs as their degrees from overseas did not count when they were in foreign land. Kaeya's mother was the one to work in a factory. Even so, she also had a degree, one of them needed to work full time or they wouldn't be able to eat proper meals for days. Kaeya didn't see his parents often due to their busy schedules. This might have been why he was selectively mute in his younger years, or why he had problems socialising as a kid.
At some point, Kaeya's parents realised that they were barely even parents to Kaeya and gave him up for Crepus to care for. Crepus wasn't his new father. No, he was just his foster parent. It wasn't meant to be permanent. But as the years went by, Kaeya was already an adult and he couldn't even remember his parents' faces.
Crepus died after Diluc and he graduated high school. It was then that his brotherly relationship burnt to the ground. Kaeya knew for sure that Diluc still blamed him for Crepus' death and Kaeya didn't argue with it. He blamed himself for it too. Which is why he left. He was a legal adult by then. He could get a job and rent a place until he could afford more as a university student.
Kaeya was just glad that he doesn't need to pay for student loans. He would be in a worse situation if he did.
Finally, Kaeya took a sip of the chai latte. The warm liquid had cooled down enough that it wouldn't burn his tongue. The flavour of the spices filled his mouth and all Kaeya could think was that it was mostly milk and foam. Kaeya was hardly going to get enough caffeine from it but at least it didn't taste like absolute shit.
He placed his cup down, looking around to see if his mother had arrived yet. She didn't so Kaeya looked back down to his foamy drink. He let out a sigh, the apprehension of their meeting bubbling inside him.
After Crepus had passed away, Kaeya wanted to meet with his parents. He wanted to know if they regretted letting him go. If they wished that they didn't. If his life would be better with them in it. So he met with his father where Kaeya learnt that he moved on with a whole new family. His parents were no longer together and his father never even mentioned the fact that Kaeya had siblings. He never mentioned Kaeya to his new family and then pretended that Kaeya was a part of that family when Kaeya contacted him. Inviting Kaeya to dinner, pretending he didn't give his child to some strangers and never contact him again. Fucking hypocrite.
Kaeya deeply inhaled before taking another sip of the chai latte. He was keeping his expectations low on how well his meeting with his mother will be. From what he learnt, she never remarried and was still working herself to the bone.
"Kaeya?" A woman with a heavy accent spoke his name. Kaeya whipped his head around to see a weathered-looking middle-aged woman smiling gently at him as their eyes met. He held his breath for a moment, not expecting the warmth exuding from that smile.
Kaeya gave her a polite smile as he gestured for her to take a seat. His mother sat down, her eyes on him as if she was trying to memorise every single detail of him. He felt almost uncomfortable from the stare and looked away, sliding the paper menu towards her, "What would you like to order...mother?"
"Amma," she immediately replied.
Kaeya furrowed his eyebrows before realising the meaning of that foreign word. A small warmth filled his chest, as he said with a more genuine smile, "Sorry. What would you like to order, amma?"
His amma smiled brightly, the wrinkles around her were more prominent. She looked down at the menu with an unintentional frown as she read the options. "What did you order?" she asked after looking up at him.
"A chai latte."
His answer instantly made her scrunch her face in disgust. It was an unexpectedly comedic sight that Kaeya almost laughed. She grumbled under her breath, the words not in English before going back to speak to him. His amma paused as she tried to remember what to say in English, "That drink is...shit."
Kaeya snorted, unable to help himself after hearing that from his amma who he thought would feel scandalised from hearing a single cuss of a stranger.
His amma continued, with a clear expression of mock anger, "I make better chai and for free. No need for this shit. This is just shitty chai."
Kaeya covered his growing grin but was too late as he saw the familiar glint in his amma's eyes that would often be found in his whenever he made a joke or was in a teasing mood. His amma stroked her chin in thought, almost melodramatically thinking as she watched his reaction, "But if my Kaeya drinks it. Then I'll drink it."
He simply smiled at his mother who playfully smiled back, "Okay, amma."
Kaeya then offered to order it for her but she bluntly rejected it, explaining how she wasn't that old that she couldn't order a 'shitty chai'. He continued to smile at her as she left their table to join the small line on the counter. Watching her back before he idly stared at his half-empty cup of 'shitty chai'. He chuckled to himself as he traced the rim of it. Maybe, this meeting won't be so bad. And maybe...I'll finally get to try Amma's chai.