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It’s storming, and badly. Cyno was supposed to leave Gandharva Ville this morning, but is still stuck inside after lunchtime. Collei and Tighnari are happy enough with this arrangement, and Cyno secretly is too. An extra day of no work. Perks of visiting the rainforest.
Collei is taking the chance to get some more studying in, and Tighnari is looking over and adding things when necessary. There are always patrols during storms, where people are much more likely to get into danger, but the two have gotten the nice end of the stick today. Cyno is busy shuffling his card deck for the third time (Tighnari calls it restless energy, Cyno calls it having a hobby) when Tighnari abruptly raises his head up and toward the curtain. A storm like this always impacts his hearing, evident in the way his ears shift erratically, but something must be catching his attention.
“I’ll be right back,” he says, gently patting the table next to Collei and stepping out into the rain. Cyno frowns, wondering if he should follow him.
Collei frowns too, the pair sharing a look, but there’s barely time to ponder it when Tighnari is rushing back inside the next moment, dragging a poor figure behind him.
“Would you quit it?” The person snarls, and Cyno quickly recognizes the big hat. “I’m not human. I can’t get a cold.”
“It surely can’t be pleasant either way,” Tighnari replies, unbothered. He all but shoves Kunimitsu onto another seat at the table and grabs a blanket from who-knows-where to toss at him.
“Hat Guy!” Collei smiles. “What were you doing out there?”
“One of your rangers dragged me here. Insisted I need care before I get hypothermia.” Kunimitsu huffs, slumping into the chair. “I just hid up on the bridges. Can’t see anything out there.”
“You’re welcome to stay, although I doubt you need shade.” Not one of his best, but Cyno looks up to gauge everyone’s reactions anyway. “Because of the hat.”
Kunimitsu blinks at him with a mildly disgusted look on his face.
Collei clears her throat politely. “I haven’t seen you in a while. Have you been to Mondstadt recently?”
Kunimitsu regards her with the awkward respect that he usually gives her, expression neutral save for the permanent downturn of his brows. “No. I hate that place.”
“Oh,” Collei says, even though she’s definitely heard that before. She nods thoughtfully. “I can’t wait to visit again. I made some new friends there last time.”
She then begins to list the name of her new friends, asking Kunimitsu if she knows them. Considering they’re all teenagers, it’s usually a no, unless they’re friendly enough with Durin. Kunimitsu looks beyond boredom, slumping into his seat and slowly blinking every minute or so. Given that’s one of his natural traits, Collei pays it no mind.
“And then, of course, I want to see all my old friends too… You know Amber and I are best friends, and Jean and Lisa are really nice… Captain Kaeya and I are on good terms now, but it actually didn’t used to be that way…”
“The Calvalry Captain?” Kunimitsu asks, strangely curious. His face is scrunched up in a confused, almost suspicious way. “I’ve met him before. He’s awfully close with Albedo. Why didn’t you two get along?”
Their little group has heard this story before, and all have their own views on it, so there’s a lot of awkward shuffling and side glances before Collei finally speaks up.
“Um, well…” Collei clears her throat, twiddling her thumbs. “When I first entered Mondstadt, he suspected me of a crime I committed, and made an attack on me in order to lure out the, er, weapon I used—“
“He did what?” Kunimitsu is suddenly standing straight up, fists clenched, poor blanket dislodged. His face is deadlier than Cyno has ever seen it, save for maybe that one time when he stood up against the scholar harassing Durin.
The others are equally confused by this development, especially Collei. She blinks up at him a few times, clearly distressed. “Um, I just mean— We’re fine now, and he apologized, so—“
It doesn’t seem to be good enough for Kunimitsu, who has heard enough about Collei’s escapades in Mondstadt by now to put a few things together. “He looked at a little girl in bandages, deduced her as the perpetrator of a crime, and then attacked her?” The way he says it is noticeably detached, like he’s trying to play off his sudden aggression at Collei’s defense, but it doesn’t do much.
“Well, I hurt people! It was bad, really bad—“
“That gives him no right.” Kunimitsu starts to pace the room, hands flexing as if itching to cross nations and throttle the man in question. “He is left in charge of Klee constantly, and she certainly has an affinity for weapons. Who’s to say he wouldn’t hurt her?”
Collei bites her lip, hands raised as if trying to calm a wild animal. Everyone else seems to have similar feelings, if the way they’ve stilled is any indication. “No, no, he would never! I was older than her, and my weapon wasn’t really… it was a sort of power, much more dangerous.”
“Durin looks your age, and the power he wields is a threat against Mondstadt everyday.” Kunimitsu swears. “Just recently, it has been, and all that captain did was stand there. In fact, from how I heard it, he protected Klee. What makes you different? Did he know something?”
Everyone watches nervously, waiting for Kunimitsu to act on some of those violent urges he usually likes to voice. Collei looks to Cyno.
Cyno had a similar reaction when he found out about the incident. He had gone straight to Lisa, all but shook her by the shoulders and asked her to give him one good reason why he shouldn’t have thrown Kaeya off one of Mondstadt’s many cliffs. She didn’t have a definitive answer either, but her theories proved sound.
“From my understanding,” he starts, catching Kunimitsu’s attention with the sudden command of his General voice, as others like to call it. “Kaeya is a foreigner to Mondstadt, perhaps even of Sumeru descent. He came to Mondstadt as a young child as well. Lisa and I came to a conclusion that perhaps he had seen something of himself in Collei, and Kaeya has always been a self-conscious individual, according to Lisa.”
“What a narrow outlook,” Kunimitsu grumbles, not looking appeased at all. In fact, he only seems to look angrier. “People get nowhere by projecting themselves onto others. It only ends in unrealistic expectations, which someone of his standing should know better than to fall to.” He shakes his head. “Besides, if he saw so much of himself within her, then does that not mean he also sees himself as a threat? Or is he just prone to suicidal tendencies?”
Collei winces at the harsh wording, but bounces back quickly. “I considered that too, once—er, the first thing—but Kaeya really isn’t a threat! He’s just really protective of his home… and, I mean, he’s also the one that gets stuck with a lot of the Knights’ dirty work, so to speak.”
Kunimitsu seems like he wants to continue ranting and raving and possibly maiming, but he takes one look at Collei’s nervous expression and huffs, finally inching back into sitting down.
The rest of them exchange various looks, but then Tighnari swiftly changes the topic, and whatever fury has been simmering in Collei’s defense decides to fold itself back up and hide wherever Kunimitsu keeps all of his many negative emotions. The other two follow.
Tighnari has learned a lot from raising Collei. Parenting, or guardian-ing, has its many challenges: learning how to sleep on the floor on some restless nights, teaching basic elementary skills, managing teenage mood swings… All of which he usually had some experience beforehand being a forest ranger, academic, and semi-medic. The most useful skills he’s learned with Collei, he’d say, are probably noticing and handling trauma and its responses.
That is to say, he recognizes it.
In the occasional ex-Matra in the city, the few clerks in the Akademiya that had experiences with the Sages, even others closer to him like Cyno. It’s not rocket science to realize that he sees these signs in Kunimitsu as well.
It’s in Kunimitsu’s very being. Recovering from trauma is much akin to taming a wild beast, and that is something Tighnari has always had experience in. It’s why he never felt hurt at Collei’s venomous remarks at the beginning, or got mad at her for screaming and yelling even in his sensitive ears. For someone who has always felt unloveable, making oneself a little bit more unloveable in order to feel safe is no big thing.
And Kunimitsu — who snarls at every ounce of kindness, who spits ruthless words at those who pester him, whose eyes track every person in the room — is the very pinnacle of these aspects.
He may not have a panic attack at the slightest physical contact, but Tighnari has seen him flinch away from those who are brave enough to initiate it. Not that that’s enough to deter said bravery; only Nahida, the Traveler, and Durin are repeat offenders that Kunimitsu shows no disrespect to for simply a hand on the shoulder. He does, however, recoil when it’s done from behind, and tenses up whenever it’s more than just a passing hand.
He may not be exactly like Collei in these ways, but there are more similarities than Tighnari can intelligently wave off. He recognizes it.
Durin is childish enough to possibly not even know the name of trauma, or what it does, but Nahida and the Traveler are both smart enough to understand both that and also Tighnari, Collei, and Cyno’s experiences. It’s why they’re usually the ones that give their family sad looks or hesitant glances when Kunimitsu does something particularly recognizable.
Alhaitham and Kaveh are scholars, and have both been around Cyno and Collei enough to notice it well enough, too. However, they’re usually not ones to make it a thing, or see the smallest details.
Sethos is only just beginning to understand that the way he was raised, the way he was forced to take a power he was not ready for, is wrong. He notices things, but he does not recognize them for what they are.
When Tighnari sees all of these things, though, it’s easy for him to understand why Kunimitsu is protective over Collei in a similar way to those he is closest to, despite them not interacting much. Projecting oneself onto others is unhealthy, yes, but it’s hardly projecting when you’re simply noticing that the way another moves is similar to yourself.
Some things, some very specific things, make Tighnari wonder sometimes if perhaps the two of them are more similar than others (or they, even) think.
They are both not fond of sharp things, but needles in particular of any type. Nahida had whipped out a sewing kit at one point to fix Cyno’s headpiece during a tea meeting and Kunimitsu and Collei had both moved further away. Kunimitsu doesn’t enjoy doctors, or medical settings of any type. The Bimarstan is the one place that he will not tag along with Nahida to. Collei will go with Tighnari now for work duties, if absolutely necessary, but whenever she first came to the city, she gave it a wide berth.
The most damning evidence of all to Tighnari is how Kunimitsu had only shown up in Sumeru after The Doctor had left. Who knows where he was before, whether he might’ve still been captive or simply evading him in this hypothetical. But Tighnari is not stupid.
The next time Tighnari and Collei both run into Kunimitsu is during a trip into the city. Cyno is off being a productive member of society while the two of them are simply vacationing in his house, but they decide to head out anyway. Neither of them are fond of the city, with its crowds and all, but they’ve gotten used to it. Collei is visibly tired, though, so Tighnari resolves to make the journey short.
She brightens when they come across Kunimitsu, at least, weaving through the stalls at Nahida’s behest, no doubt. He does succumb to their pleas to join them as they go along to various shops, albeit with his typical irritation and eye-roll. Tighnari sees beneath it, though, that he would not join them if he weren’t content with their presence somehow. He has always moved kinder around both Tighnari and Collei, however.
They’re having a rather uneventful but pleasant time together, sharing in their various distastes of the city, when it happens. Collei stills and wavers in the way she does whenever she gets lightheaded, and Tighnari quickly stops in the middle of the street. He grabs her bags and guides her to a shaded spot, gently sitting her down. Kunimitsu follows.
“I’m okay,” she tells them, holding her head. “Just a dizzy spell. I don’t think it’s the heat or anything…”
It is a bit cooler than usual, and she doesn’t feel warm to the touch, so Tighnari nods — even with the extinction of Eleazar, Collei still has some leftover issues. He does usher a nearby woman staring at them, though, “Pardon me, would you mind getting her some water?”
“No, not at all! One moment…”
The woman quickly comes back with a sealed bottle of water (Tighnari always checks, he’s prone to a few paranoid tendencies as well) that he gives to Collei. She takes a grateful sip, and Kunimitsu stands idly to the side, holding everyone’s groceries and looking terribly awkward.
Tighnari’s not sure what it is, but some strangers have a tendency to try to… parent Collei for him. It might be because he’s young, or they don’t look all that similar, or maybe just instinct. It’s all well-meaning, and usually from people with kids of their own, but it’s no less annoying. Especially because they are not as attuned to her boundaries and responses as he is.
He’s prepared for when the woman sticks around and tries to comfortingly reach out and pat Collei’s shoulder. He swiftly puts a hand out to block her. “She doesn't like to be touched,” he says. It’s purely informative, but sometimes it can come across as rude because he doesn’t apologize or offer any niceties. He refuses to do that.
Sometimes he receives the occasional scoff. An eye-roll, or something, from elders who think they know better because they’ve been around a child before.
What he’s not expecting is for the woman to give him an indignant, offended look and immediately reach for Collei again.
It’s quick enough that Tighnari doesn’t catch it in time, and Collei flinches away violently, dropping her water. Kunimitsu, who has at some point placed their belongings on the ground, uses his now-free hand to wrench the stranger away by the wrist.
“He said she doesn’t like to be touched,” Kunimitsu grits in a low, threatening tone, holding furious eye contact with the unsuspecting woman. “Are you deaf or just stupid?”
The woman looks between them all with nervous glances. She tries to break free, but her wrist is gripped by Kunimitsu hard enough that his knuckles are white. Thankfully, Collei hasn’t been thrown into a panic attack or started crying, instead just looking up at them both while she curls up.
“I—I’m sorry, I didn’t—“
“You didn’t know?” Kunimitsu tilts his head with a faux question. “You didn’t mean to? You didn’t listen.” He all but shoves her back onto the street. “Don’t approach them again.”
The woman nods quickly, skittering away as soon as she gets her footing. Kunimitsu watches her with crossed arms, his expression reverting back to mild annoyance.
Tighnari turns his attention back to Collei, who looks more surprised than anything. It seems the shock to her system has all but overridden a possible panic attack; she’s loosening up almost immediately.
Kunimitsu glances back at them both, and whatever he sees on their faces makes his eye twitch. “…I’ll go get another water.”
The two of them watch him flit away in a speed not unlike the woman just before, and quietly process the situation.
“Well, that was…” Collei clears her throat a tad awkwardly, “…nice of him?”
Tighnari nods easily. Perhaps a more aggressive approach, but he likely would’ve ended up doing something similar anyway. Not that Collei needs to know that.
Hat Guy is different when he comes back to Sumeru after Nod-Krai.
(Master Tighnari keeps telling Collei to call him by his actual name, and too many people have said it in front of her to reasonably play it off, but Hat Guy himself hasn’t said anything about it. Collei has decided to be polite about it until further notice.)
Granted, Hat Guy has always been an eccentric person, in a variety of ways. He’s always quick to lash out, protective of those he more-or-less loves, and usually looks like he doesn’t want to be at any gathering they’ve dragged him to.
Collei’s not too sure what took place during Nod-Krai. She knows that Cyno had received an urgent dusk bird from the Dendro Archon herself at one point, and one look at the letter’s contents had him rushing out. She and Tighnari had been beside themselves with worry in the couple days that they hadn’t heard anything, but Cyno had returned quickly with a simple, “false alarm.”
After that, Cyno and Tighnari had gone aside to have a particularly serious conversation if Collei was to judge by the looks on her face. They’d sat her down later and explained to her the basics of what they knew, seeing as the news would reach the Forest Rangers eventually.
She hadn’t taken it very well.
For one, Dottore was already an immensely powerful individual just by himself. Her memories of her time with the Fatui are fuzzy at best, and Barnabas was the main one in charge of her care, but she still met The Doctor enough to be traumatized.
The information that he had somehow gained godly powers beyond anyone’s means, and legitimately kidnapped the moon (moons? wow, Layla was right) was a lot to bear.
And then, just as she was working herself into a panic attack, Cyno had dropped the bomb that Dottore was dead.
She’d never felt so many conflicting things in her life before.
The Traveler was involved, to nobody’s surprise. Along with a woman from Sumeru that Cyno and Alhaitham vaguely recognized, and a variety of other characters from Nod-Krai.
The first question that Collei asked was, “Hat Guy and his friends were supposed to be there, right? Are they okay?”
“Kunimitsu is on his way back as we speak,” Cyno had told her. “Albedo and Durin are staying in Nod-Krai to wrap up loose ends.”
“Apparently,” Tighnari sighed with all the long-suffering of someone who was absolutely expecting it, “all three of them had gotten involved somehow.”
Collei is smart, too. She knows by now from her time learning from Tighnari and just from her own experiences how trauma can present itself. She may not know the extent of it all, but she knows she and Hat Guy have had similar experiences, in one way or another.
When Nahida officially sends word that he’s back in Sumeru (along with a polite little postscript to tell them all to be patient with him for the time being), everyone’s quick to check up on him. He refuses to talk about anything related to the incident other than what Nahida has already told them: yes, Dottore is dead, yes, there’s a new moon, yes, the Traveler was there, yes, Durin and Albedo are there, they’re doing fine…
She can’t quite help it, though. At their next tea meeting, when Hat Guy is visibly distancing himself from the conversation, Collei scoots a little closer.
“The Doctor really is dead?" She whispers to him, and Tighnari politely ignores them.
Hat Guy turns to her with an unreadable look. Whereas he’s usually prone to any sort of bored or angry expression, his face now is almost completely blank. He spends a long moment just staring at Collei, which makes her a little bit anxious enough to fidget.
Then, he takes a deep breath, despite the fact that he is constantly telling the others he has no need to breathe. “I wasn’t part of the battle,” he admits, which she can’t help but wilt at. “But, the Traveler said they saw him disappear.”
Somehow, that doesn’t make Collei feel any better.
“But no body?”
“No body.” Kunimitsu shakes his head, staring ahead into some unseen space. “But, then again, they were about a thousand feet up in the air. At least. And he was also being enveloped by godly powers.”
Collei hums, taking her own deep breath. He is gone. There’s no use making herself anxious over it.
“Pardon my asking, but you said you weren’t part of the battle?” Tighnari finally pipes up from her spot next to Collei, at a volume quieter than the rest of the room. “Why not? You have quite the abilities.”
“I was needed elsewhere,” Hat Guy says, and does not elaborate.