Archive of Our Own

It's been a long year, Jean knows this. First, Master Crepus was killed, then, Diluc left Mondstadt — leaving a very injured Kaeya behind, may she add – and, lastly, Varka went away too, taking most of their cavalry with him. Jean knows it hasn't been easy for Kaeya or her, so when she got a day – or most of it, anyway – off, she was quick to invite her best friend to have dinner with her.

Except, apparently, Adelinde had already invited Kaeya for dinner, but instead of calling any of the dinner plans off, Kaeya invited Jean to the Winery too. Jean tries not to smile at the memory of him inviting her.

"She's joining us, right?" Jean breaks the comfortable silence with a grin; after all, Adelinde has been like a cool aunt to her her whole life.

"Of course she is," Kaeya answers her with a smile of his own. "We're catching up with all the gossip, don't worry– agh!"

"Kaeya!" Jean tenses as soon as she hears him cry out in pain, before her head snaps towards the direction of the attack: a hilichurl archer. "Wind, hear me!" Jean throws a burst of anemo towards the hilichurl, which cleanly throws the thing off its tower and to the ground, before she readies her sword– you'll never find one single hilichurl. They always come in packs.

"Are you good to fight?" Jean asks Kaeya without looking at him, already moving herself to cover his back. One second, Kaeya's her childhood best friend, and the next one he's her right hand in combat.

Fortunately, it took Kaeya only a few months to get back on his feet after the big fight he had with Diluc. Jean doesn't know the exact details, but Kaeya returned with only one eye and his body full of burn marks. It doesn't take a genius to figure what went down between the brothers.

The only missing part is the reason why they fought, but considering how hurt the two brothers must've been after losing their father, the smallest of arguments could've grown violent, she supposed.

"Yeah," Kaeya says, in a breathless exhale, and Jean can imagine his grimace without having to see it. "Good thing he got me on the bad shoulder," he then adds, making her frown.

"Bad shoulder?" Jean repeats, while she's scanning the area, looking for more foes to get rid of. She can only see the archer and another hilichurl– it should be easy peasy, as far as she can tell.

"On the blind side," Kaeya explains, and Jean almost blushes in embarrassment.

Oh.

"Right," Jean says with a chuckle, keeping his eyes glued to the recovering archer and the other hilichurl already approaching her with its axe. "Well, speaking of your blind side, I don't see anyone over there, so I'm going to finish the archer, alright?"

"Got it!" Kaeya tells her, so Jean starts freely making her way towards the two approaching enemies, with her sword ready to hit. "Freeze!" Jean hears him shout, and smiles with pride swelling in her chest– it feels amazing to see him back on his feet after having been so injured only a few months ago, both with now permanently-lessened eyesight and those nasty burns Jean has only heard about.

"Holy shit... Jean?"

"I'll be with you in a sec!" Jean replies as soon as she hears Kaeya's mere whisper.

Then, Jean actually focuses on the task at hand; after all, there are two hilichurls in front of her she must take care of. Jean slashes through the chest of one of them, the already weakened archer, before she stabs her sword through the other hilichurl's heart– or, rather, where she supposes the heart would be. Just to be sure, she watches both creatures turn into dust at her feet before she goes back to Kaeya.

"Archons!" Jean can't help but gasp at the sight of an archons-forsaken Lawachurl chasing Kaeya around. For a second, the primal instinct to flee takes over her will and Jean almost runs away from the scene. No, she stops herself and faces the lawachurl.

While the beast is busy chasing Kaeya as if he were a tiny bug, while swinging its axe in the air, Jean takes it as an opportunity to start running towards it, sword in hand and ready to strike again. She uses one box nearby – a part of the hilichurl camp, no doubt – to get herself on the air and she launches herself against the lawachurl, stabbing her sword on the thing's back.

"Freeze!" Kaeya, who has apparently recharged, freezes the thing in spot, and Jean takes the quiet moment to get her sword out of the lawachurl, holding the tilt with both of her hands and pushing her legs against the lawachurl's back.

"Damn, can we ever catch a break?" Kaeya comments, sounding as breathless as Jean feels. As she lets the frozen lawachurl lose its balance and fall face-first to the ground, Jean walks around it and makes her way back towards Kaeya.

However, as soon as Jean lays eyes on her best friend, her face falls: the famous hit from the archer she heard earlier had been an arrow to Kaeya's shoulder, and now the blood sipping through his white dress shirt has spread all over the area of his shoulder and part of his forearm. Logically, Kaeya's face has taken an ashen tone and he looks about to faint.

"Kaeya, are you alright?" Jean quickly approaches him, placing an arm on his shoulder, the good shoulder– both to comfort him and support him in case he does faint.

"I just need to sit down for a moment," Kaeya flashes her a weak smile, as he goes to sit on a log nearby. Except halfway through the move to sit down, Kaeya's knees abruptly buckled and he started falling forward–

"Shit!" Jean yelps, as she hurries to catch Kaeya before he can fully collapse on the ground. "Come here, lean on me," she hooks one of his arms around her shoulders and starts dragging them both forward. "We're not far from the winery, come on."

"I'm sorry, Jean," Kaeya mumbles, with his head resting on the crook of her neck, and Jean can't help but notice he sounds about to cry.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Kaeya," Jean tries to conceal the worry she feels, but deep down knows she fails to do so. "Adelinde will patch you up and you'll be good as new, okay?"

"If I had my two eyes, none of this would've happened..." Kaeya trails off, and Jean wants so bad to stop and hug him, but they can't stop yet. They need to get to the winery first, get Kaeya back on his feet and then they can talk about this whole thing.

"I was there too, and I didn't notice the archer neither," Jean says instead, "besides, blaming yourself serves no purpose."

At that, Kaeya only lets out a low hum in response, and Jean feels him growing heavier. Please, Barbatos, let him survive this, Jean silently sends her prayer, closing her eyes for a second.

Before long, fortunately for them, they reach the Dawn Winery, where Adelinde's already waiting for them. Of course, this isn't the sight she was waiting for.

"Archons! What happened to you two?" Adelinde says, jogging to meet them, before she goes to hold Kaeya and take him off Jean's shoulders. "Elzer! Hurry outside!" Adelinde instructs the man, who was standing right over the main hall.

As soon as Kaeya's in good hands, Jean feels the adrenaline drain from her body and almost collapses on the spot. If it wasn't for Adelinde's quick reflexes, she would've fallen face-first to the ground for sure.

"Come on, dear, don't fall on me," Adelinde warmly encourages her and helps her inside. By the time they make it inside, Jean manages to get a good look at Kaeya, who's been laid over an armchair and is now getting his shirt cut by Elzer, so he can have more space to work, Jean supposes, while she's being driven to another armchair.

"Do you have any injuries beside that nasty cut over your arm?" Adelinde stands in front of her, putting herself in the way to look at Kaeya, forcing Jean to look at her instead.

"In my arm?" Jean repeats the words with a frown, bringing her arms up– yep, there is indeed a gash in her forearm, Jean realizes with her brows raised.

"Oh, dear, you're really out of it, hm?" Adelinde says with concern in her eyes. One of the maids seem to have brought an aidkit, because, soon enough, there's a bandage being wrapped around the cut, after some kind of deinfectant – that, surprisingly, doesn't burn – has been used to clean the wound.

However, when Adelinde moves to grab something else from the kit, Jean uses the opportunity to check on Kaeya– and she pales at the sight. Those burn scars... tears well up in Jean's eyes, they cover most of his chest and arms... is that why he always hides them nowadays?

"Eyes on me, dear," Adelinde gently cups her cheek and leads her head away from Kaeya's direction once again.

"What happened to Kaeya?" Jean asks, and she hates how small her voice sounds. She feels like a kid.

And why didn't I know? She can't help but wonder, with shame pooling in the pit of her gut. She had an idea, but to see it by herself... it was entirely different.

"Is Diluc responsible for that?" Jean doesn't get to bite her tongue before the question escapes her lips. From what little Kaeya told her about that damned night, she only needs a mere confirmation from Adelinde.

"You don't need to worry about that now, my dear," Adelinde tells her, but her face has fallen. There's a somber look in her eyes now, and Jean knows she's to blame.

"I'm sorry," Jean whimpers as she starts crying, and Adelinde's quick to wrap her arms around her, patting her back as she lets her freely cry.

"It's alright, Jean, it's okay," Adelinde gently comforts her.

Before Jean knows it, her lights are out.

The next time Kaeya wakes up, he finds himself somewhere that's definitely not his room at the Favonius residential building, but it's not completely unfamiliar either. It's on the tip of his tongue...

"Kaeya?"

Jean, her name immediately comes to mind as soon as Kaeya hears her calling for him. It takes him a bit to focus his good eye on her figure, standing next to him with a warm smile.

"How are you feeling?" She asks him, going to sit on a chair close to the bed where he's resting– it's his bed, Kaeya then realizes with a gasp. He's in his bedroom at the winery.

"What happened?" He finds himself asking.

"We got ambushed by hilichurls," Jean explains with a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest while leaning against the back of the chair. Then, Kaeya grows aware his bare naked from his waist up, and hurries to cover himself with the blanket, which was only covering his legs.

"You don't need to hide, Kaeya," Jean then says with a sad smile, and Kaeya blushes. It was a stupid thing to do anyway.

"I didn’t want you to see me... like this," Kaeya admits, with a sigh of his own.

"There's nothing wrong with having scars," Jean tells him, holding his hand in her own. "It's pretty badass if you ask me," she says with a smirk, and Kaeya can feel himself smiling too, in return.

"Thanks, Jean," Kaeya chuckles, feeling lighter. "And are you okay? Did you get hurt, too?" He asks her as soon as the memories from the hilichurl attack start going back to him, flashing through his mind.

"Just a scratch," Jean assures him, rolling up her sleeve to show him a bandage covering her arm, which makes Kaeya grow concerned for a second, before he sees her smile. "I hope I get a badass scar like you," Jean comments, giving him a wink.

Perhaps scars aren't meant to be hidden from the world, after all.