In honor of his birthday I was able to rip this piece out orz
I’m kind of taken by this idea and may return in the future to expand on it! Unfortunately, I don’t really have the time/focus to do so during fluffvember, but who knows- maybe I’ll add quite a bit to this! Uhhh, reader is inserted in place of the traveler (which is usually how I’ll be writing Genshin Fics)!
Fandom: Genshin Impact
Pairing: Kaeya Ragnvindr x Reader
Summary: You don’t know if he’s just teasing, but you can’t help falling anyway.
Warnings:
Fluffvember Masterlist
“A flower for a flower,” the man with sapphire eyes and sun kissed skin says, adding on a playful wink as he tucks an aster behind your ear. You frown, reeling in surprise at his flirtatious tone and casual touch.
“Stop teasing her, Kaeya,” a tall blonde woman responds for you with a tired sigh as she walks into the hall. She shakes her head in his direction before looking back to you, “It’s just how he is- I swear he doesn’t mean any harm.”
“Oh,” you reply to her softly, letting
the heat that had risen in your cheeks dissipate quickly. It’s a relief, you try to convince yourself. So much has happened in the last few weeks, the last thing you need to is to worry about some silly crush. There are things to do and learn and- you had to focus. But there was was no denying the slight pang of disappointment in your chest. You hid it well- it
couldn’t have been helped, that little flutter of something, he was just so handsome. Obviously, he
had the self awareness to play around with it.
This was just how he was, apparently.
You’d have to make sure not to be so easily taken by him again.
ꕥꕥ✾ꕥꕥ
“Look- you match!”
You glace over at the tall beside you in confusion, weapon in hand. Propped just outside the walls surrounding Mondstadt, the last thing you had expected was to be interrupted by the calvary captain- a title you had learned meant little to nothing as Mondstadt had no calvary unit. He moved to squat beside the fluffy stalk of a dandelion that was fat and eager for a wind to blow its many seeds across the lake.
“I feel like I should be insulted.”
He laughed lightly. Kaeya did almost everything lightly, you’d learned in the few short days you’d spent working with the knights. He was like the winter sun- all of the light but none of the warmth. It unsettled you. In Mondstadt, where the people were loud and straightforward, this man who smiled wryly and spoke in circles threw you off balance. It was jarring, how poorly he fit in.
Was it purposeful?
Or just another affectation of his personality?
You wouldn’t ask. He’d likely lead you around by the ear until you were dizzy if he knew how easily he’d snared your curiosity.
“I would never say such a
thing about a hero such as yourself,” he says and his words are almost
warm. Almost. His smile was almost touched by something akin to sincerity. But not quite.
“Then how?” you ask.
A playful light comes into his eyes and you find yourself stepping back warily. He places his hands upon your waist and you’re surprised at the warmth of him. Maybe it was because you’d seen what he could do, had felt the sting of the cold he could conjure up at a moment’s notice, but you’d thought his touch would be cold. Maybe even clammy.
It wasn’t.
His hands are large and he squeezes you gently- a soft question.
Trust me?
After a moment’s hesitation, your eyes meet his. There’s a moment of tension. Of frisson. Like the last second of frost before the rays of the sun press a kiss upon stiff flower petals. Finally, you nod- an unsure approval.
Okay.
Kaeya’s grin grows wider, touched with a glimpse of genuine warmth that coaxes a similar expression across your lips.
“Up you go,” he says, in that lilting manner of his that sounds playful but that you’ve learned is well polished mask, and you know his words are more for the sake of warning you than anything else. To your surprise, he lifts you carefully, almost delicately off the ground. A breeze stirs the dandelion seeds, bringing them to flutter into the air and causing your robes to flutter softly in the wind like petals.
“You’re here to finish your job and when it’s done, you’re off wherever the wind blows. Must be nice,” he murmurs, his words soft, his smile a shadow of what it once was but his expression is, in this moment, more genuine than anything you’ve seen on him so far. A heartbeat later, as if he’s as taken by surprise by his admission as you, his sapphire eyes widen. Kaeya quickly smiles and, once again, it’s that sly little quirk of his lips.
It’s not unattractive, you think to yourself. Nothing about him is unattractive- but you preferred that open vulnerability.
You think of that small heartbeat of warmth you saw on his lips earlier and can’t help but wonder if, through your power alone, you can bring it back. If maybe you can fan it to flame.
Silly. You’re being silly. You have a job to do- a mission that must be accomplished. It’s hard to remember that in this city. Maybe it’s the spirit of freedom here. Maybe it’s the jobs.
Maybe it’s the people- so kind and intriguing and insufferably mysterious.
Kaeya’s next words hold all the shine of sincerity, but it’s just that. A polished exterior, meant to be please the eyes and dull the ears. “Bet you get envious of those of us who have a bed to turn into every night though.”
And yet, despite the cold bite
of his words, you feel the gentle heat of his hands on your
waist as he holds you securely aloft. You know he will not drop you- that he would tease and joke and shift you, but he would not let you fall. Maybe it’s foolish to place such convictions on a man who has been nothing but shadowy and sly, but you can’t help it.
Kaeya is cunning.
Kaeya is scheming.
Kaeya is-
You don’t know what to think of him and you hate it. By all measures, he’s the kind of person you feel who will stab you in the back if it means accomplishing his goals- though you know not what they are and don’t doubt that he plans on keeping you in the dark. You should distrust him down to your very soul but-
He is holding you aloft. His warm hands around your waist. His palms large and sturdy and you just know-
he won’t drop you.
You barely feel the impact of
your feet on the ground as he sets you down so softly that the earth
is not disturbed by your return, like a bird upon a branch or like- like frost on a flower.
You shiver. You don’t like being conflicted, knowing that you cannot trust him but unable to stop yourself from doing so. He draws you in and you fear that you won’t escape whole- or that you’ll walk right into his machinations. Like a lamb to slaughter and all you can do is-
trust him.
“Yeah,” you murmur, thinking that the warmth of your campfire was preferable to what you did not doubt was the cold silence of Kaeya’s room. For all of your troubles, you had Paimon to snuggle with once it got dark. You doubted the captain, with all of his devotion to the safety of his beloved city and all of his schemes, knew what that was like. “Envious.”
ꕥꕥ✾ꕥꕥ
“It’s grown quite a bit since we first met, hasn’t it?” you companion’s casual observation catches you off guard.
“Y-yeah,” you agree, roughly shoving the mass of your hair behind you and huffing as you pluck bits of leaves and twigs from tangled nest. “It wouldn’t be so bad if I could just tie it up or something.”
“Let me help with that,” Kaeya says, a soft huff of amusement in his voice as he seats himself behind you.
You almost want to tell him not to
bother but are unable bring yourself to as you feel his fingers start
to gently move through your hair. Willing your wildly flailing
emotions to calm, you look down at your lap as you
fidget with your fingers. Goosebumps prickle against your skin as
you he tenderly pick debris from your tangled strands.
“It’s okay,” he soothes before you can even so much as squeak in pain when he hits a knot. His touch grows infinitely more gentle as he teases it away. “I won’t hurt you. I’ve got you.”
And he does and you hate it. You hate it. You hate it. You hate it.
You’d known all along that this was going to happen. That you were stupid and silly and your emotions couldn’t be trusted. But here you were, in the middle of the forest with him because when Jean had asked who you trusted to assist you his name had fallen from your lips the way rain fell to the earth. Naturally. Easily. As if that was how it was meant to be.
You hate him, but you don’t. Not really. You know you don’t. You’re not an idiot. You know this isn’t hate. It’s frustration. It’s fear. It’s self doubt. It’s fear. It’s-
It’s something that you don’t dare put a name to for fear that to do so would be all it took to catch it’s attention. His attention.
When he begins to hum softly, you
clench your eyes tightly and fight to keep your breathing steady-
desperate not to give away how easily his actions stir you up.
Kaeya is always like this, you remind yourself. Affectionate. Touchy. Teasing. It’s just who he is, you force yourself to believe. He treats everyone like
this. You aren’t special, he’s just a flirt.
But Kaeya was not one to ever be just anything, was he?
A sudden snap breaks your focus and you look at him in surprise. Chuckling playfully, he presses a glowing flower to his lips. “I’m just helping.”
Before you can understand his intentions, his hands are in your hair again, gently twisting the long and untangled strands.
“There,” he sighs and you tell yourself that there’s no gentle underpinning of something in the sound he makes as an almost
tender smile touches his lips. He weaves the stalk of the flower in place, pining your hair up and out of the way. The
gently glowing petals of the lampgrass cast a blue shimmer against the coils of
your hair.
His eyes sparkle like frost in the moonlight- and you love hate how fond you’ve grown of the intricate spread of thin ice. You try not to look too closely. You do. You try not to notice how those deep sapphire irises are alight with something you are scared to name as he speaks. You do.
“Better be careful- you’ll make all the stars jealous.”
ꕥꕥ✾ꕥꕥ
“A flower for a flower.”
Kaeya’s expression twists in confusion as he moves to look up at you in surprise. The two of you lay on a ledge, just barely tucked against a tree and positioned rather compromisingly. What had originally started as just another mission scouting out a couple of treasure thieves had morphed into a stake out.
He enjoys the warmth
of your body against his, having missed your presence these last few
weeks. You were…easy. No, wrong work. Kind. Still the wrong word, but closer. It was with a contented ease that you
had slipped into his life- a presence that felt natural and yet exhilarating. Like stepping out on a cold morning and taking the air into his lungs. It
was like you’d always been beside him. You’d gone off to Li Yue for a
mission Jeane had assigned you to and he would readily admit, under the influence of just a little wine, how awful
it had been waiting for you to come back. He was a bit of a
flirt and a lover of fine wines, but he was nothing if not devoted.
So, as much as it had pained him, he hadn’t abandoned his post to
trail after you like some lost puppy. Just barely.
No amount of wine or bribery or teasing would ever get him to admit how painful the realization of just how cold his room was at night, with him alone in his bed, had felt.
He much preferred the warmth of your campfire.
The bloom in your hands seemed to glow in the moonlight.
“What’s this for?”
“I know you’re probably used to flowers, what with all your stealing kisses from ladies and all, but I thought you’d like it.” You scratch your cheek, fighting down the heat rising in your neck. “It reminded me of you while I was away.”
“I would never steal a kiss from a
lady,” he gasps, putting a hand to his toned chest. A moment
passes before he speaks again, his voice taking that playful and
teasing tone you’ve come to know all too well, and he cannot begrudge you your knowledge. He does begrudge how easily he accepts that you can see past the lies and carefully strung words. It shouldn’t make him happy to be laid so bare before you, knowing that there was a chance you could see him for everything he was. Everything he is. Liar and charlatan. Knight and protector. But it does.
Kaeya wants you to see him. Really see him. To stare into the dark, ugly, frozen core of him- and stay.
And he- he hates that about himself.
“I would never need to. But if she were to ask… who knows?”
“I don’t want a kiss,” you lie, lips pursed as you glance away, still half on top of him. You had wanted one, desperately. But now that he’s teasing you, there’s no way you can bring admit it. He’d be so smug and teasing- you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself knowing you had contributed to vast ego.
“I think you’re lying,” he hums as he pushes himself up onto his elbows, pointedly invading your space and grinning cheekily when you neither move to step back or to push him away.
You pluck a cerulean petal from the glaze lily and put it to his lips. His eyes, a deeper but near
matching shade, widen in uncharacteristic surprise. Before your sudden bravery can fail you, you lean in to press your lips against that silken surface.
The flower does little to hide the velvety warmth of him as your lips press against one another in an almost kiss. A breath puffs around the edges of the petal and against your lips as you find yourself sinking in deeper, regretting putting up a barrier between the two of you, however small. A hand tangles in your hair but doesn’t pull- a plea rather than a command, and sweet seven do you want to yield to it.
Before you can lose yourself in that touch, you pull away, letting the blue petal flutter against your watch partner’s cheek as it falls to the ground.
Kaeya’s hand tremble as he presses
callused fingers to his lips. His sapphire eyes are blown wide with
an expression so tender and vulnerable it makes you shudder. The man
opens and closes his mouth, obviously trying to say something but
unable to get the words out. Finally, you feel his other hand, still
tangled in your hair, tug so gently as to make you think that it was
simply a whispering breeze or unintended motion.
It’s not. It never is.
“One more.”
Your heart stutters at his soft entreaty.
Eyes no longer wide with surprise, but half lidded with want and- and something the two of you are still too scared to name, he leans up into you and tugs again. Gently. Pleadingly.
“Please,” he begs, his words dancing across your lips, “again. Kiss me again.”