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It was uncharacteristically quiet at the Knights of Favonius Headquarters, on account of it being New Year's Eve. Jean had reserved only the essential number of guards for city patrol and had sent everyone else home early to celebrate. It was certainly a welcome gift for the body of understaffed knights, many of whom had already left for the day before the sunset hours of the afternoon to go back home to their families, to celebrate with friends, and to enjoy the peaceful evening Mondstadt blessed her beloved children with.
As for why the Cavalry Captain was still roaming the halls despite also having been given an early mark, that could be answered by the stack of papers he was carrying. He arrived at the door of the Grand Master's office and fiddled with his keys, settling on one more shiny than the others. However, after touching the doorknob he realised he wouldn't have to use it.
Hmm, it’s quite unlike Jean to forget to lock up, he thought to himself, but one final heroic deed for the year won’t hurt. He twisted the knob and pushed the door open, taking a brisk step in. However, he abruptly stopped as their eyes met.
"Ah, I didn't expect to see you here," Kaeya said with shock, slightly tilting his head in curiosity.
"And I could say the same to you, Captain," Jean replied with similar confusion, looking up from her paperwork with her grey-blue eyes. Like looking at the sky, a stray escapes containment in Kaeya's mind, before quickly being squashed as the Acting Grand Master continued, "I thought you'd be halfway to the Angel's Share by now."
"Haha, I was heading off after I dropped this paperwork with you, just for a glass or two," Kaeya chuckled, inviting himself to approach her desk. "As for you, I thought Lisa and I had convinced you to take an early mark. It is quite unheard of for someone to resist both of our charms."
Jean’s tensed eyebrows relaxed slightly, and a gentle laugh escaped her lips. The orange hue of the afternoon light from the large window behind her danced on the loose strands of hair from her bangs and ponytail, accentuating her gentle warmth. Like a radiant sun, another stray thought slipped through the bars of the cage Kaeya demanded such thoughts be relegated to. He felt as though his carefree smirk was almost plastered on, a conscious decision to stop any stray thoughts becoming comfortable making their way to his lips. They couldn't, after all.
"I wanted to finish up the remainder of my paperwork and file them away," Jean replied with a light laugh, under which there was a hint of guilt. "I promise I am leaving early, I just… I just didn't want to come back to a bunch of unfinished work tomorrow."
"Tsk tsk," Kaeya said, putting his free hand on his hip and shaking his head dramatically. "Going home early doesn't mean ten minutes before midnight instead of exactly as the new day arrives. I didn't know we had to be this clear to our Acting Grand Master."
"W-well, I wasn't going to leave that late," Jean protested, a hint of red reaching her cheeks and ears. "I was planning to be out before eight. I did appreciate your and Lisa's words, truly."
"Well, I can't say I'm very surprised at this turn of events," Kaeya conceded with a light-hearted smile on his face. "Still, I would have thought with all the previous late nights that you wouldn't have to stay back at all."
Jean's face downturned slightly as she looked down at the pile of paper still in front of her, her face outlined at every edge with stress. "Well, I still have to finish signing some of these forms, wrap up this report I've been working on today, and I have to rewrite part of two other reports that I seem to have misplaced, and also finish them off," Jean rattled off her remaining tasks as though she was narrating her mental to-do list and the chaotic way it was imprinted on her mind. "I just, I can't believe I misplaced them. I've racked my brain, it's so unlike-"
"If I may interject," Kaeya interrupted in his trademark suave cadence, though the pride was perhaps somewhat undercut by the way his cheeky smile was a little pursed with guilt. "Perhaps your situation might be related to some papers that happened to cross my desk this morning."
He outstretched the stack of papers to a puzzled Jean. She took them and found that, sure enough, the top two bundles were the missing reports. Flicking through, she also found that they had extra pages attached to the back and that what was left to be completed was now filled in entirely. They were accompanied by paperwork she had been expecting from the Captain and others that… had also disappeared from her desk earlier today.
"Wait, this is…” Jean realised, eyes widened as she flicked through the papers a second time. After a moment of registering the situation, she relaxed into her chair with an exhale that seemed to visibly shorten her mental to-do list.
A gentle smile formed on her lips as she peered down at the papers. Kaeya couldn’t help but admire the way the sunlight caught on her eyelashes, accentuating the softness of her eyes and cheeks. This new year cheer must be making me quite bold, he chastised himself. Yet, seeing Jean relax like this even for a moment, he couldn't help but feel closer to his dear friend than most days. It was as if the carefully calculated distance he kept between the Sun and his eyes was narrowing, his hubris telling him he could almost be worthy to look directly at her and not be blinded.
Jean looked up at Kaeya, her smile now accompanied by unimpressed eyes, snapping him out of his thoughts. With a tone of annoyance she continued, "Kaeya… You should have told me you had these, I really thought I had left them somewhere."
Kaeya shrugged, his face still accompanied by a cheeky grin. "Well, it appears you weren't the only one who didn't want to return to a desk full of stacks of work," he replied. "I've been quite busy all of today, with no time to even step out of my office for lunch."
"Yet, you still somehow managed some time to sneak into my office in some brief moment while I was away," Jean chuckled, putting down the papers amongst another stack. She balanced her elbow against the arm of her chair and rested her chin on her hand. "You've earned your early mark, Captain. I had better not keep you from your glass of 'Death After Noon' any longer. Enjoy your evening."
Her gentle smile was now directed fully at him. He could feel his heart clench for a moment. Even though some of the work was off her plate, she would still be here long after every other knight had left. What kind of a friend would I be to let her finish all this work on her own? Kaeya thought to himself. But really, this thought disguised another, stronger impulse. Another stray that had escaped containment. Another product of this 'New Year Cheer' syndrome he was suffering from.
In the blue eyes that looked up at him, he couldn't help but feel as though there was something between the Acting Grand Master and himself. Kaeya knew her grounded sense of duty came from the vast, untethered optimism she donned so proudly in every aspect of her being. He knew in her bird’s eye view of Mondstadt she only saw the freedom of her home, the duty to the many lives she had sworn to protect, and the beauty of the land in which she had been born and raised.
But even though he knew she saw all of this, he couldn't bring himself to see anything but her eyes. Despite the grand scale of the Sky’s perspective, her eyes were still clouded by a duty that hid the parts of her world that should have been her own. Like she, the Daylight, was trapped behind a horde of clouds all in the shape of the emblem of the Knights. If every being on the ground should get to enjoy a moment of respite because of the Sky, shouldn't she too feel that freedom? And yet, in her magnanimous pursuit of being the watchful guard for all in Mondstadt, she still couldn’t see herself reflected in the eyes of those looking back at her…
"Actually," Kaeya objected, breaking his seeming eternity of eye contact with Jean to look at the work strewn across her desk. "I feel as though Lisa would have me by my collar if she were to find out that I had left you here with all this work while I had a drink at the tavern."
"You're already here so much later than you should be, I can't ask you to stay any longer," Jean replied, furrowing her brow in concern as she sat up straight.
Kaeya shook his head. "You and I both know not to mess with our humble Librarian," he insisted, walking around the table to where Jean had put down the papers and picking them up. "I take it that this is the completed pile?"
Jean sighed, still with her eyebrows slightly furrowed, "You would be correct." Kaeya offered Jean a smile, before walking to her shelf and reaching for a file that contained other important paperwork. "Thank you, Kaeya," she added.
He turned around to look at her and caught her delicate, grateful smile. He nodded and turned away before any of the muddled thoughts about how every part of her face and demeanour fit so perfectly together could congeal into a spoken sentence. Before she could catch him staring.
The room fell silent after that, save for the sound of the ruffling of papers and the scratching of the feather pen. Though Kaeya did enjoy the lively scene of the tavern, he did find something about this scene intoxicating in its own right. Just him and Jean sorting through paperwork in a quiet Headquarters against the scene of a peaceful Mondstadt afternoon.
The thought that this too might be a symptom of 'New Year's Cheer' crossed his mind, but that wasn't quite it. Kaeya was drawn to thrill, things to drown out boredom with excitement, and in a way, this was that. This was him, a descendant of a people cursed with the burden of the infinity of time itself, enjoying a moment like this. For someone like him, it was a transgression, a direct cackle in the face of Fate. All things considered… it was greedy to steal a moment like this.
Where he got to enjoy this little, peaceful life, with a friend he truly did not deserve.
Kaeya couldn't help but smile to himself as he picked up another file. The sun was lowering, and the bright orange light had turned to a cooler hue. Kaeya's back was still to Jean, though he couldn’t help but wonder if the Sun was glowing too.
Instead, he finally broke the silence and asked, "Have you got plans for when you leave, Jean?"
The scratching of feather against paper didn't stop, but he did hear a sigh from behind. "I was just going to do some reading," Jean replied thoughtfully. "I haven't had the time to finish a book for a while. I thought that it would be a nice way to wind down."
Kaeya’s secret smile became more gentle, and he felt it push up at the corners of his eyes. "Well, now that you're leaving earlier than you expected, you'll be able to make up for even more lost time," Kaeya agreed. "Now that you mention it, it's been some time since I last read something myself."
"Lisa told me when we went for breakfast that the shipment the library recently received was for the light novels we ordered a while back. Maybe you could find a thriller or a mystery among them," Jean replied in an upbeat tone.
"Haha, then I suppose I'll have to pay Lisa a visit in the new year," Kaeya chuckled. The sound of meticulous scratching against paper had stopped midway through his sentence, and he could now hear the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, followed by footsteps approaching him.
"As long as you don't get more inspiration for your scary stories," Jean said in an unimpressed but lighthearted tone as she approached his side with the remainder of the documents in her hands. "I think we ought to leave spooking the children of Mondstadt in this year."
Kaeya chuckled at this, and outstretched his free hand to Jean, gesturing at the papers. "Why, I don't know how you could get the impression that I would use knowledge like that for such nefarious deeds," Kaeya replied sarcastically as Jean passed him a portion. "Though, you should know me well enough to know that I can't make you any promises on this front."
Jean shook her head in disapproval as she pulled a file from the shelf, though the smile on her face betrayed her seriousness. "Kaeya, Kaeya. You're lucky that they like you and your stories," Jean exhaled as she tucked her papers into a file.
Kaeya smiled in response, putting the already organised documents together and nestling the file back on the shelf. He turned towards Jean, who seemingly out of nowhere had now donned a troubled look as she too put her file away.
"Something the matter?" Kaeya asked, narrowing his eye.
"Ah, it's just…" Jean began, hesitating for a moment. She looked down at a lower shelf and continued, "I guess I got so busy today that I forgot to go to Windrise to wrap up the year, but…"
Kaeya followed Jean's gaze as she turned to look out of the window behind her desk. The sun had dipped below the horizon, and while there was still some light, by the time one reached Windrise, it would be well and truly dark, and even later upon return.
"An evening trip to Windrise, huh?" Kaeya asked carefully.
Jean exhaled and dropped her shoulders slightly. "No, it's probably best not to go at night. Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to go in the new year," Jean replied, turning her head away from the sunset, but not meeting Kaeya's eyes. Though she attempted to sound good-natured, it wasn't hard to hear the layer of disappointment underlying her tone.
Kaeya looked out for a moment longer before looking down at Jean. He could see the regret in her eyes, like the Sky had missed her window of daylight to visit the place that gave her resolve, strength, and comfort. To do one thing truly just for her.
"You know, Windrise is still visible from the Mondstadt’s city walls," Kaeya finally said after a moment of consideration, his eyes slightly widening in realisation. "We could always go and see it from up there."
Jean blinked twice and her shoulders visibly straightened. "You'd come with me?" she asked with a hint of surprise.
Kaeya couldn't tell if that part of his offer was New Year's boldness or just the general enjoyment he got out of stealing Jean's time, like when he would ask her to play Genius Invokation TCG with him or the rare occasions where he would take her for a drink.
"Sure, I'm not in the mood for a drink now after all," Kaeya said casually, accompanied by a small shrug. "You should still have plenty of time to get into a book or two when we return."
"But I thought you…" Jean started, her face a little puzzled. She stopped herself and also gave the situation a moment's thought. With a small, measured smile, she finally replied, "Alright, I like that idea. Shall we, then?"
"After you," Kaeya agreed with a nod, gesturing towards the door. Jean locked up behind them, and they made their way down the hall.
It was quiet between them for a while, now that the task at hand wasn’t exactly work-related. These moments outside of work came somewhat sparsely, so it was hard for them to skip over chatter about how unusually quiet Headquarters was. It was harder still for Kaeya to avoid getting chastised for calling Jean by her title in a casual setting. And it was most difficult for Jean not to talk about the first thing she needed to do when she got back tomorrow, despite the fact they were supposed to be off-duty now.
It was like Kaeya had managed to defy yet another law of this world, suddenly becoming untethered and able to float towards the Sky. But even now, he still couldn’t see her through the dense clouds that kept her away. And while normally, he wouldn’t disturb the layers of the atmosphere too much, only daring to swat a cloud or two away at a time… today, that New Year’s Cheer was making him bold. It was making him feel like if he continued through the clouds, broke through them, slowly and gently… maybe they would be able to face each other without anything between them.
So he took one step, and told Jean about how Diluc had actually given him a bottle of wine as a New Year’s gift, if she could believe it. He felt compelled to take another step when Jean told him about how much Amber’s stamina and speed had improved during their morning runs since the start of the year, and how happy she was to see Amber’s growth. He took two more as they fawned over Barbara’s kindness when he mentioned that Sister Rosaria seemed secretly moved after having received a handmade gift from her for New Year’s. And he might have almost broken through the clouds, had he not mentioned that Klee must have been listening to his lessons about evading solitary confinement when Jean expressed her relief that their Spark Knight had been staying out of trouble this month.
“Kaeya… she's just been occupied with tinkering and drawing. And, by the way, you shouldn't be telling her how to not get caught if she's misbehaving,” Jean chastised with an unimpressed head shake.
Even though the streets were lively with chatter and movement of people getting ready to ring in the New Year, Kaeya felt like the world was muffled around him. It was as though the clouds had drowned out the noise and obscured the ground. The only thing he could could focus on was the elegant, kind voice beside him.
“She brought me a couple of drawings yesterday,” Jean recalled as she entered through the door Kaeya held open for her. It led up one of the towers on Mondstadt's city wall on the Dragonspine side of the city. "It’s very welcome compared to hearing report back of any… incidents she might have created."
"Perhaps New Year's miracles really do exist," Kaeya chuckled as he followed Jean up the spiralling staircase. “Or perhaps getting stuck in Solitary Confinement is finally starting to get through to her. Especially when she’s having to be face-to-face with disappointing the Grand Master she adores so much.”
"Acting Grand Master," Jean corrected in a stern voice. She thought for a moment, before her gentle laugh echoed up the tower. “It’s good to think that it’s working. It probably also helps that Klee always knows that she has an unwavering supporter in our Cavalry Captain. And besides, despite my… reservations…. towards your methods, I can’t say it’s the worst thing for her to know that she should try and fix her mistakes.”
Another step, just below the top layer of the clouds.
“Well, so long as something is working, I’ll count our blessings,” Kaeya replied in a teasing voice, as Jean held the door open to the top of the walls.
He couldn’t quite bring himself to look at her as he passed and emerged outside. As he waited for Jean to follow, he noted that the sun's light was almost gone now, and the stars had begun to decorate the canvas above their heads. Jean shut the door and walked to stand side-by-side with Kaeya, also taking in the scenery. She looked up and nodded at him, which Kaeya took as a sign to follow her. He set himself just a pace behind as they admired the sights of the mighty peak of Dragonspine and the peaceful central windmill of Springvale. For Kaeya’s part, he also sneakily admired the wistful way Jean looked upon the gifts of her beloved homeland.
They made their way to Mondstadt's city entrance and climbed the tower closest to Windrise. As they reached the top, Kaeya inhaled a deep breath, taking in the fresh breeze Lord Barbatos had blessed the city with. Jean too seemed to take it all in and walked towards the edge of the tower. She leaned her arms against the top and rested her cheek on an upright hand. Kaeya followed her and folded his arms atop the wall as well.
"It really was a good idea to come up here," Jean said with a peaceful expression as she gazed longingly at Windrise and the Great Tree, the final resting place of the legendary Vennessa. The serenity on her face softened her features, her demeanour a far cry from the kind yet stern leader she normally presented as.
"You say that as if you doubted me," Kaeya replied in faux offence. Jean shook her head and laughed in response, which eased Kaeya's icy heart.
"Thank you, Kaeya," Jean said sincerely as she looked out towards the Mondstadt beyond the main city. Kaeya assumed that this was about the suggestion to come up here, but she continued, "Selfishly, I am glad that Varka kept you behind. It's been a hard time on all of us, but I think we're making it work. I have you to thank for a lot of that. You’ve always been a competent knight, but… I feel as though you’ve come into your own more these past few years."
Jean had always been much more forthcoming and earnest with these sorts of comments that it was hard to be caught off-guard. And yet, Kaeya still found that his stomach tied in on itself as he tried to find the best way to respond.
"Aha, well, it's all in a day's work for a knight," Kaeya replied, attempting to dampen the brunt of a full, direct compliment. His tone lowered as he added, "Having a capable and competent leader certainly helps. There aren't many other people suited to the job. Certainly none Varka would put as much trust into when it comes time for him to… delegate tasks."
"Kaeya, come on," Jean chastised, tilting her head forward at him as she caught the dissatisfied tone underlying his voice at the last part. She shook her head and sighed wistfully, looking back out at the night sky. "But still. We've done well with what we had, all of us. And… you’ve been of great assistance to me this whole time."
The witty Captain searched his mind and the shapes of the stars in the distance for another way out of this second, devastating blow. Seemingly out of words, Kaeya instead felt the corners of his lips turn up on their own. After a moment of silently admiring Windrise, Jean averted her eyes towards the direction of Dragonspine. In a sheepish manner, she said, "In a way, you kind of remind me of the night sky. I… I'm not so sure what it is."
Kaeya's eye widened for a moment, with a surprise that he could not catch in time despite his swift attempt to dull his expression. "A-ah, well, you might have to explain that a little better," he teased, transitioning swiftly from a tone of surprise to a more controlled, cheeky one. "I'm not sure I follow."
Jean looked at Kaeya from the corner of her eye and fiddled with her thumbs. She took a deep breath as she turned her gaze back to the night sky in front of them, as if she too was searching for the words in the constellations above.
"I… I think it's the way you're always watching, like the stars. Not so bright that people always see it but, maybe… bright enough to know you're still there," Jean continued, soft enough that her words might have floated away on the wind.
It was safe to say, Kaeya had certainly broken through the clouds.
Her cheeks turned a shade pink as she shook her head. "Ah, I don't really know what I'm saying, flowery words have never really been my thing. My apologies, please forget I said anything."
Jean couldn't look up at Kaeya, clearly attempting to melt into the wall instead. His heart fluttered and wouldn't listen to his pleas to calm down and let these thoughts rot in their designated mind-cage. Instead, Kaeya seemed to feel everything around him in perfect clarity. The swaying of the tall grass a soothing melody, and the echo of wind feeling cool on his skin. The stars seemed sharper, like shards of Cryo catching light in perfectly formed angles, and he felt like he could almost see the individual leaves of the Great Tree rustling in perfect synchronicity. He caught a faint smell of dandelion, which he recognised as the familiar perfume of the Acting Grand Master.
And when he looked at Jean, every detail seemed to glow even in only the dim light from the bridge. The light fluttering of her eyelashes, the loose strands of her hair swaying in the gentle Mondstadt breeze. The way the light bounced off of her lip gloss, and caught on the gold of her badge and the detailing of her outfit. Her gentle eyes sparkling in the night, almost emanating a light of their own.
"Maybe it's just because of my eye?" Kaeya chuckled as he gestured to the star shape in his visible eye, finally finding a way to cure Jean's nervousness. "It wouldn't be a stretch."
Jean took a moment before looking at Kaeya more clearly and deeply into his eye. The nervousness slowly left her face and was replaced with a sense of intrigue. Though, Kaeya felt like her gaze seemed to pass on the anxiousness rather than diffuse it.
“Haha, perhaps you’re right,” Jean finally agreed, seemingly breathing out a breath she had been holding onto. “I guess you being a familiar face made all these things connect together.”
“I guess so,” Kaeya replied, pushing down the lump in his throat to offer Jean a kind smile. She accepted, giggling again in response. As Jean's laugh filled his ears, he noticed that they were just inches away from one another. He felt the lump rise in his throat again as he attempted to not let his smile falter too much.
With the night sky as a backdrop, Kaeya saw a starry, celestial bridge materialising between them, between the Sky and the clouds he was standing upon. He could have sworn that the stars drew a path between the heavy abyss of his heart and the possibilities of Jean's infinitely deep eyes, the Night blending into the Day.
Perhaps he should have closed the gap, stepped forward and reached out to the Sun in the Sky, looked into her eyes and not be blinded, but sincere and present. It was always like this. Just a small space between him, and the woman who had always been here with him. They were always just a couple of steps, a couple of words apart.
But those words and that space bridged two worlds, holding an impossible balance of truth and duty. Perhaps, if he were a different person who would give Jean less to lose, he would have taken his chances.
But not him, not here, and not now. The starry bridge seemed to lose its lustre, and the clouds seemed to drift away from the Sky, sinking back down to the ground. And while he felt himself falling and sensed the urge to leave within him… his hubris got the better of him.
He still could not bring himself to look away from the Sky.
So, he resolved to lay down on his cloud. He looked up to the dissipating starry bridge, to the clouds around him, and of course, to the Daylight, the Sun, in the centre of it all.
Jean's soft laughter felt louder in his ears again, as he suddenly remembered that only a few seconds had passed. He could feel his smile relaxing and allowed a little laughter to emerge from his lips as well.
As their small, shared laughter died down, they looked across the plains of Mondstadt together, from the Great Tree all the way to Cape Oath, and even to the expanse of space that reached out into the horizon. In the bridge between one year and the arrival of the next, they had found a small moment. A fleeting drop entering into the well of time, undoubtedly. But the details of Windrise, the city walls, and two knights sheltering under the cover of nightfall stretched across its infinite and undefined surface. The freefall was a transient eternity, where their eventual departure from this spot would never come to pass. And even when the end did inevitably arrive and the moment merged with the water of history, this drop would forever remain intertwined with this shared time.
Without worries about clouds.
Without the burden of fate.
Just the memory of being in each other's company.
Kaeya subtly turned his head so he could look into the Sky in Jean's eyes from the side of the Night in his. The starry bridge faded from his view, no longer a path he felt he had to cross right now. Because in her eyes, he finally pieced together the fragmented parts of his longing.
He breathed out the worries in his heart, his mind finally at ease.
For now, every part of him knew one thing to be true.
This moment was as beautiful as her.