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A saying has been circulating around the Favonius headquarters as of late.
“If you ever have trouble with Lohen, the first Vice-Captain of the Fifth Company, look to the second Vice-Captain, Y/N — and watch her work her magic.”
You’re not quite aware of this reputation of yours. Perhaps it was somehow just never mentioned in your presence, or they’ve colluded and are deliberately keeping this a secret from you.
With how loose-lipped this organization’s members can be, you’re honestly surprised you didn’t find out about it until Kaeya mentioned it offhandedly while passing you some reports.
He’s leaning against the office wall, mindlessly sifting through slips of paper. “How do you pull it off, really?”
You don’t look up from your quill. “Pull off what?”
“Taming Lohen.”
This is when you realize you’re out of the loop, because you have no clue what he’s talking about. Or if there was even a loop to be out of.
“You say ‘taming’ as if he’s some wild animal.”
“Ah, but that wouldn’t be too far off, actually.”
“Hmph. I guess so, but what do I have to do with anything?” you ask, now looking at him.
He crosses his arms with a sly smile. “You haven’t heard? Everyone’s saying you’re the only one he listens to. Like a dog to its owner.”
A dog?
The image of Lohen’s smug expression flashes across your mind uninvited. You have to stop yourself from cringing.
“You had so many other analogies to choose from.”
“But it’s the most accurate one, no? Notice how he’s so rebellious with the higher-ups, yet how tight-lipped he is around you,” he chuckles.
Truthfully, you’ve never actually noticed that. You simply see Lohen as a scumbag who netted his position purely through his combat strength.
You frown. “I don’t get it. He’s an asshole to everyone.”
Kaeya sighs, striding over to your desk to finally place the reports down. “You’re overthinking. Simply put, he takes your orders seriously and doesn’t even consider Jean’s. See the pattern?”
You stare at him, stupefied. There’s no way this is true. “No.”
“You’ve tamed him, Y/N.”
“Quartermaster, if you’re done with your business here, kindly get out of the office.”
Your conversation with Kaeya has been replayed in your mind way too many times for something that happened days ago. Namely, whenever you see Lohen at all.
Still, you decide to test Kaeya’s theory, paying particular attention to Lohen’s behaviour whenever he’s aware you’re around.
It starts, like all wretched things do, with paperwork.
The usual morning sunlight streams in from the office windows, low murmurs and scratches of quill against paper filling the room. It's relatively empty, save for a few logistics members arranging books and files by the shelves. Everyone else is likely scattered within headquarters.
You're reading through mission reports, checking supply numbers for your company, all the uninteresting stuff that Lohen loves to dump on you. All he cares about is planning the training programmes, because that's the one he can bullshit his way through and still have his fun.
You don't want to know what he's doing at his table nearby. Dreaming of that battle with Boreas he's always wanted, you imagine.
Varka makes his way into the office with the subtlety of a marching band. You can hear what he'd call his "whispers" to Lohen. All things considered, it's probably audible across the whole office.
“…so all you gotta do is find all the captains and get their respective companies' recent statistics. Real simple stuff, I’m sure it’s nothing you can’t do…”
You take a peek at Lohen from between the stacks of books on your table. His expression is bored and entirely done with Varka.
“No,” he says, completely serious. It’s his default face, anyway. “You asked yesterday too. How many times are you going to run off to the bar in just one week? You can’t run from Jean forever.”
Your eyes widen at his crass tone, hand flying up to stifle a gasp. This is how he talks to his superiors, apparently. And you never cared enough about him to notice.
Varka smiles defeatedly. “Haha… good point.”
Just before he leaves, you decide that this is the moment to test out the theory. Whether you can do what Varka couldn't. This is the first experiment.
“Lohen.” You push aside the books, giving yourself a full view of Lohen and Varka. They both glance at you. “It’s a request from the Grandmaster himself. Are you seriously just going to decline him like that?”
Varka’s eyebrows shoot up. “Why are you—“
“Fine.”
Lohen takes the paper from Varka’s hands, already standing up and heading towards the office door without a word of protest.
You don't miss the tilt of his lips when he walks past your table.
You're still reeling from Lohen's sudden compliance, gazing up at Varka nervously. "Uh. Grandmaster."
"Y/N. You are the loophole I've been looking for!"
So maybe Kaeya’s right.
That first experiment went unexpectedly. You made sure to avoid Varka afterwards, just in case he’d use you to get Lohen to do his work for him again.
It's quite intriguing how no one else in the office dared to say anything, let alone correct Lohen's behaviour at all. You've never found him to be intimidating, so calling him out shouldn't be hard.
But this is barely any evidence. One instance can’t prove anything. Lohen probably only listened to you because your phrasing pressured him, surely. And because he didn't want to lose face in front of an authority figure.
That's definitely it. There's no other explanation for why he folded so fast. Something different might happen if you make a personal request, you think.
The second experiment commences in the afternoon.
"Lohen."
You approach him at the training yard after lunch. He pushes himself off the wall slightly when he sees you. "Yeah?"
You don't know what you're searching for when you scan his face, but it's blank. It's times like these when he looks as if he has no emotion other than "I wanna fight". Which to say again, is his default face.
"Could you pick something up at Majorie's shop for me? I told her I'd go there before evening, but a meeting came up." That's a lie. The meeting isn't obligatory, but he doesn't know that.
His bubblegum pops. "And the Majorie thing can't be delayed?"
"It can… but I'd rather not delay the appointed collection time." You sigh, placing a hand on your hip. "Just say I sent you. She should understand."
He looks at you for a moment before a smirk stretches across his face. As he nods and walks off, he says, "Will do, Vice-Captain."
All you can do is watch him disappear beyond the buildings and process how he barely refuted.
It's a good thing you already told Majorie that your colleague would be collecting your purchase for you.
This is actually ridiculous.
You were really hoping to prove Kaeya wrong somehow, but any remaining faith you had left was flung out the window when Lohen actually returned with the item still intact.
If he was the one sent out on the errand with anyone else's item, no matter what kind it was, three quarters of it would be missing by the time he came back. At minimum.
Why does he listen to you so committedly?
You need answers.
You doubt you'll be able to sleep a single wink tonight if you don't ask him directly. So, you corner him in the hallways of headquarters, just after his night patrol shift ends.
The entire building is silent with most members having gone home. Lohen —you find out in the evening from Mika— was forced by Jean to serve overtime today because his "planning for the Fifth Company's upcoming training programme was poorly executed".
Even though you know the task will be delegated to you one way or another, you can't care less. You don't know when you're going to find another opportunity to pull him out of the office like this and talk to him in private.
"Whadayya need this time, Vice-Captain Y/N?" he asks blithely with his signature smile, lolling the back of his head left and right against the wall with crossed arms.
Something about his voice tonight makes you shiver, but maybe the rumours just got to you.
You keep your tone sharp. You're genuinely not playing games with him with how uneasy this makes you feel. "You always act weird around me. Why?"
"Hm? Weird in what way, exactly?"
"You listen to me and no one else! It creeps me out, you know!"
The lolling pauses, his eyes widening and his smile widening even further. "Finally. I've been waiting for you to catch on."
You blink at him. "What?"
"You thought you had me all figured out, didn't ya? Thought you had me wrapped around your finger, so you tried testing today with planned requests for me…"
He huffs. "I started those rumours, by the way. Though, you took longer than expected to confront me like this. I'm disappointed."
He was toying with you.
You're a Vice-Captain known for having good composure. Imagine if your subordinates saw your stupid, stunned face right now. You can't even get a sound out anymore, nor can you register him leaving.
Lohen cackles as he brushes past you, the sound echoing off the walls. "You're so gullible…" you hear him wheeze down the hallway.
You almost laugh to yourself quietly at how absurd this prank is. Nobody else except Lohen would be able to think of this.
A dog to its owner, huh.
Maybe he was the owner all along.