Chapter Text
Kaeya ran through the thickness of the forest, not bothered by the branches that violently hit his face leaving minuscule cuts, or the way his breathing became progressively more ragged and deep as he pushed forward. He clutched onto his prize. Onto his gem. The Blood Diamond. He heard the distorted shouts behind him (most of which consisted of ‘thief’ and ‘scum’) and could almost feel the heat of the torches the people held in anger creeping up his back.
It was his fault. And no, he didn’t mean it in the ‘yeah I stole something this is to be expected’ way, instead he means he shouldn’t have been caught in the first place. Having planned to steal this diamond- his ticket to being set for life- for literal years, he should have avoided stupid mistakes. Unfortunately, he did not anticipate his brother, a certain fiery redhead, to give away his plan to authorities. To be completely frank, Kaeya was lucky to even get the diamond at all.
Feeling a sudden wet drip on his cheek the man looked up briefly on instinct, despite it being long into the night and the visibility being low, the thick grey clouds that loomed overhead were very apparent and the rain pour that followed seconds after the initial drop was foreshadowed. In a way the rain did Kaeya a favour, as much as it slowed him down and threatened him with many kinds of injuries had he slipped, the shouts that followed him began to dull out into the background and the light from torches was quickly fading.
A triumphant smile made its way onto tired lips, followed by near maniacal laughter that hurt the thieves already burning lungs. He did it! He got the diamond despite the betrayal of his kin- despite all odds going against him. His legs began to slow, pained and tired, the rain still falling with enough intensity to almost hurt as it hit delicate, dark skin. Finding a lower tree Kaeya sat under it, receiving little-to-no cover from the water, smiling from ear to ear as he looked over the beautiful gem- it shone crimson, living up to its barbaric name.
Every part of his body screamed in agony, a polar opposite to a seeming numbness from before, the man tried to even his breaths as he let his back rest on the tree, hitting his head slightly too hard to meet the uneven surface of the bark. This rest lasted a few minutes at most, Kaeya’s eyes shot open at the sound of branches being crushed. A wild animal? It couldn’t have been a person- the weather was far from ideal and anyone that had been following him before was far behind.
Despite his body’s protests, Kaeya stood up from under the tree, looking around almost frantically. This didn’t feel right.
In the corner of his vision, he saw a blur of motion, turning his head in the direction, not fast enough though. What was on one corner suddenly came to the other- any attempt to look at whatever it was quickly proved fruitless, the speed with which the being moved was too fast. Keaya began to move, first walking backwards before finally moving into a pained run, hiding the blood gem deep into a hidden pocket on the inside of his coat. Only one being moved that fast.
A vampire.
——
He saw the end of the forest, ran as fast as he could while also barely avoiding the being chasing him as it moved in front and behind him, trying desperately to herd the thief deeper into the woods- failing merely because Keaya was aware that being tired and weak is the only reason he hasn’t yet been devoured, for vampires had a refined taste in blood- Not spoilt by the lactic acid that was so painfully aching the man's muscles.
He made it out of the forest- falling face-first into the muddied grass as his legs gave in. He groaned and looked back, red eyes locking with his only briefly before they disappeared back into the woods. Picking himself up Kaeya allowed himself a small sigh of victory- forcing his body to keep moving because the second he allows himself rest the vampire will come back. Swallowing a thick lump in his throat and biting his tongue violently was enough to force his body to obey commands of moving, not even bothering to attempt and wipe the mud that stuck onto his clothes.
Lifting his head the thief was met with a huge mansion. Dark and foreboding as it loomed over the man, surrounded by trees in every direction- likely the reason it was unheard of within his village (at least HE never heard of a mansion this close to his home). Kaeya took one step. Then another. Making his way into the building was the best option he had... well it’s more like it was the ONLY option he had.
First, he had passed the tall dragon-like gate, walking through a small garden of Cecilia’s before reaching 3 stone steps that lead to the grand doors. Mustering every bit of energy he had left the thief knocked on the door using a hanging ring that was held by a golden dragon.
“Hello? I’ve been chased by a vampire!” He tried his best to prevent his voice from being hoarse- for the words to come out audible and clear despite the exhaustion. Unknown to himself Keaya began to lean into the door, using it as a form of leverage. His breathing was beginning to steady.
When the door opened, somewhat surprisingly, the thief was too unfocused to notice at first, regaining his senses only once his face met a red carpet and the door behind him clicked closed. He groaned, unable to even sit up at the moment. Keaya heard soft footsteps stop over by him, having walked away from the door he was just ‘let in’ through.
“Are you alright?” The voice was incredibly soft, worry barely audible if at all present. Kaeya forced his head to look up, everything was blurred- blobs of light that created nonsensical imagines. The person beside him was light- likely wearing grey or white clothes with a hint of navy blue.
“What’s that brother Albedo?” The thief grimaced at the loud voice that came running towards him, this one was instead a blob of vibrant red, significantly shorter- presumably a child- from the figure by his side.
“Not ‘what’, Klee, they’re a ‘who’” the gentle yet monotone voice said again, his movement could just barely be made out as crossing their arms,
“Oh-“ the child stopped in their tracks only for a moment before running over again, “who is this brother Albedo?!” Another shout, another wince from Kaeya. The kid crouched down then and poked the thieves shoulder, the previous marathon he ran violently signifying its presence by sending a sharp pain through his body- he winced. Kaeya barely had enough time to feel a gloved hand press onto his forehead before he was out cold, the exhaustion taking over.
——
Waking up with a groan, Kaeya opened his eye groggily. Looking around he found he was now in a soft bed inside a bedroom that was most definitely not his own (not the first time it happened, he must admit, but the first time this fancy). His whole body ached- most notably his head, pulsating painfully with every breath. Upon touching his forehead Keaya found there was a damp towel on it, already warm because of his own higher body temperature. Ugh. He most certainly had a cold...or fever.
Trying to lift his left arm was surprisingly difficult. Looking down the man was met with the sight of his hand warped in extremely thick bandages, preventing any movement of his wrist and restricting the movement of his fingers- was his wrist broken? Now Keaya wondered about the extent of his other injuries. So, with some resistance from his aching muscles, the tanned man sat up, looking over his torso and arms for additional injuries. Mostly cuts, he noted, and went to uncover the blankets over his lower half, the damp towel falling limply into his lap.
The sight before him was... not pretty. The man grimaces lightly as he traces over the deep cuts into his skin, the fact those were left with simple healing balm over them makes those that are covered with bandages seem like a sight the thief doesn’t want to see. Thankfully it doesn’t seem like his legs have any especially violent injuries that could prevent movement- like breaks- which is a good thing.
Where are his clothes by the way? Kaeya looks around him, looking out for the sight of his pants and (more importantly) his jacket. Locating them almost immediately hanging from a hook on the door of the room. He’s was filled with enough determination to slide himself off the bed- his legs buckled lightly under the weight and his head spun violently enough for him to think he’s about to fall, still, he waited it out before beginning to move to the door. Shoving his healthy hand into the hidden pocket, he’s thankful for the feeling of a cold gem brushing his aching fingers. He lets out a sigh of relief, turning back towards the bed. At least the owner of the mansion hasn’t robbed him. Ironic. Being a thief and all. Sitting back down on the bed Keaya took in a big breath, testing if there are any additional aches he wasn’t aware of around his chest (such as broken ribs or the sort) but was pleased to find that outside the dull pain of his injuries combine, he seems fine. Looking around again he finds the room is probably rarely used- it lacks dust but it has also clearly seen better days. Wallpaper has yellowed and cracked around edges, the intricate design of flowers have become bleached and monotone in appearance with only a few specs of colour remaining visible enough to suggesting they used to light up the room with blues and pinks in the past.
Listening in closely Kaeya also notes how eerily silent the manor is, a barely audible ticking of a clock somewhere outside his room being the only sound except for his breathing or shuffling on the bed. That, combined with the previously mentioned disrepair of the room, was enough to assume there are probably no servants in this huge place- honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact Keaya now had flashes to at least two other people that have ‘welcomed’ him at the door, he’d be quick to assume no-one lived here.
Deciding that sitting won’t do him any good, Kaeya got up again, picking his clothes and painfully slowly putting them on, the injuries reminding the thief of their presence the second fabric brushed over them. He grimaced, but made no sound of discomfort, fearing that in some strange way that’ll break something- with the silence and all.
The door opened with a ridiculously loud screech. Any previous attempts at silence thrown out the window with the creak of the wood. He sighed this time, giving up on even trying to continue his ‘sneaky’ approach. From the room he walked out into what seemed to be the front hall- the place he remembers falling face-first into. Sure enough, the front doors and an uncleaned puddle of (presumably) his blood mixed with mud seemed sufficient evidence that he was carried to the closest room from where he collapsed.
Should he just... leave? Kaeya furrowed his brows as he eyed the exit. He can walk now he guessed but it felt like he’s in no place for longer travel- he doesn’t even know where he’d go. There is also a vampire in the forest, that’s also a problem. The man grimaced as he groaned, taking a few more steps towards the door to inspect the scene. The carpet was still damp from yesterday’s rain, a path of liquid trailed about halfway in the direction of the room he assumes he got carried into (though it’s more likely he got dragged- Kaeya would like to regain some sense of pride, however.),
“You are awake.” A familiar voice made Kaeya spin on his heels, his head protested with a pulse at the movement, atop a flight of stairs, descending downwards, was the most beautiful man he has ever seen. “I’d advise resting more- your injuries are not life-threatening but I’m sure they are painful.” He finished, his lips pressed into an emotionless line as teal eyes moved up and down Kaeya’s body.
The man was simply divine- fair skin that blended spectacularly with ashy blond hair that was barely touching his shoulders- clearly tied in some way at the back seeing the strands at his sides pulled backwards. His eyes were as cold as ice but so... mesmerising.
“My name is Kaeya,” he ignored the others words completely, making his way over to the shorter man as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Kaeya flashed a charismatic smile but moved with a lot less ease than he’s willing to admit. The blond simply eyed him warily as the thief picked up one of his gloved hands, “I’m eternally grateful for you saving my life.” And grazed his lips over the knuckles, not breaking their eye contact. The blond had frowned lightly, but made no effort to retract his hand,
“Albedo.” He then replied simply, awkwardly attempting to move his hand as to shake that of the navy-haired man. Kaeya laughed at the action, following the others lead and giving him the wanted handshake. “Now get back into your room.” His tone never changed, but his hand soon fell back down to his side as he used his other hand to motion in the direction the thief had just walked from.
“Why certainly, dear Albedo, but only in the circumstance you will accompany me.” Kaeya smiled down at the man, his words and features morphing into something as flirtatious as he could muster. There is some silence, but Kaeya is a patient man- he’s only just met the blond but already craves to see a change of emotion in his features. Albedo opens his mouth lightly, parting his pale-pink lips-
“Oh! The who is awake! Hello, who!” Another familiar voice. Kaeya looked to his side to see the red blob from before running towards the two men at a high speed- his brain had barely enough time to notice it’s a little girl with pigtails at each side of his head before he was tackled into a hug. He grimaced at the pain that went through his body but made an effort to make the sound that escaped sound like a laugh. He then patted the girls head.
“Hello, you!” Kaeya let his hand rest gently on the girls head as he looked over to the man by the stairs. Albedo looked as unimpressed as ever as he seemed to motion for the girl to let the navy-haired man go. She did so reluctantly with an annoyed huff but was quick to beam up at the man before her,
“Wow, you’re so tall who!” She reached up to barely touch Kaeya’s chest, he laughed at the action, “look brother Albedo! He’s taller than you!” She points between the two men, taking two big steps over to her, pretty obvious by now, brother- smacking his face with some intensity that the blond was not anticipating as he winced and grimaced somewhat at the action,
“Klee-“
“Sorry!” She was quick to apologise, running to almost hide behind the taller addition to the room. Her smile was apologetic as Albedo rubbed at his nose absently- as though he was bit by a fly as opposed to a child slapping his face with audible force.
“Their name is not ‘who’.” Albedo clarified, looking past Kaeya to look at his sister. She looked a lot less guilty within a split second (most likely because she realised the other wasn’t mad),
“Oh ok! What’s your name?” She looked up at the taller man with her beady eyes, smiling from ear to ear.
“Kaeya.”
“Well, I’m Klee!” She puffed out her chest with the introduction, “we can be- best friends! You can reach things for me!” Her energy was beginning to take a toll on Kaeya who sighed in defeat, simply nodding at the little girl with a small ‘sure’ and a shrug. She had shrieked happily and ran back from where she came, shouting a ‘give me a moment!’ As she disappeared from both eye and ear view.
There was silence.
“I guess Klee will keep you company then.” And with that, the blond turned also, ready to make his way back up the stairs.
“Hah, what?” Kaeya raised his eyebrow, somewhat bewildered, “you’re going to leave your little sister with some guy you just met?” Albedo stopped in his tracks at that, almost contemplating, looking back over to the thief.
“It’ll be a few minutes. Then I’ll come to change your bandages.” And walked right back up the stairs.
This was most definitely not what Kaeya was getting at, it’s not looking after the girl that he’s worried about. Oh well, hopefully the blond wasn’t this trusting with every stranger he just lets into his house and gives free rein...
——
“And here are your light blue lines-“ Klee was currently laying belly first on the wooden floor of ‘Kaeya’s room’ (since it was a temporary arrangement it’s not really his) and was violently using a crayon to colour in her drawing of the guest. She had put the new addition in-between herself and Albedo, writing his name in large letters as though she wouldn’t remember it otherwise.
“Wow, Keel, did you learn to draw this well all by yourself?” Kaeya hummed amusingly, looking down at her from his seating position on the bed. He had decided to take off his jacket, placing it protectively next to him on the bed, now wearing his simple white (well... it used to be white. Now it’s very much not after everything that went down) shirt, sleeves somewhat puffy at their ends.
“Albedo taught me!” Her eyes lit up as she perked, happy and bright eyes met the single dark one of her temporary companion, “He’s great! He teaches me many things and he draws, like, really well!” She quickly returned to her drawing, scribbling seemingly even more violently- the paper miraculously not tearing.
“Oh? Is he an artist then?” He found himself asking, figuring that learning a bit about the host of the mansion was a good thing to do. The two occupants seemed nice enough. Too nice even. These two seemed to live in the middle of nowhere, alone, and Kaeya would lie if he said it didn’t interest him at least a little bit.
“Yup! My brother is the best artist. He can draw anything!”
“That’s very impressive.” He hummed again, nodding along to the girl's excitement. “Is that what he does for work?” She looked up only briefly, brows furrowed in thought, her hand stopping their frantic motions for 2 whole seconds, “Nah- he collects things in the forest and sells them.”
“Things?”
“Yeah! I come with him sometimes- Albedo says we have to do it because others are too scared.”
“What things?”
“But I don’t think the forest is scary! Sometimes we even gather ingredients and he makes something called the woodland dream-“
“Klee.” Kaeya found himself sounding a lot more stern than intended, Albedo didn’t strike him as someone who did manual labour so probably nothing heavy- mushrooms?, “what does Albedo collect?” And the girl sat up, thinking with an audible ‘hmm’ as she put her finger up to her chin, spreading some of the crayons from her hand onto her face,
“Flowers?”
“...flowers?”
“Yes?” And she shrugged, getting back into her drawing. Ok. Why did she sound so unsure? He supposed the child is probably running around as opposed to helping so maybe she just didn’t pay too much attention. With a defeated sigh, Kaeya decides not to push the topic anymore.
Hearing footsteps approaching the door, the thief came up with a delightfully sweet idea of getting a reaction from the ashy blond,
“Hey Klee,” the girl perked up, the footsteps outside now right by the door, the handle jiggled gently, “what’s Albedos favourite flower?” And Kaeya didn’t look at the girl, instead focusing on the confused expression of the young man entering,
“Oh, I know! It’s a Cecilia! We have a bunch outside!” She beamed, not noticing her brother yet,
“Cecilia's? I’ll keep them in mind then.” And the navy-haired man lowered his voice (yes, he was attempting to be sexy), his eye narrowing slightly as he looked at the shorter man, who was holding a change of bandages. His expression was back to being un-phased once his cute brows relaxed from their brief confused position. Albedo did sigh in slight irritation though. Small victories Kaeya supposed.
“Brother Albedo!” Klee hugged the taller (taller than her- but that’s not much of an accomplishment) man, mirroring the way she flung herself at the thief sometime before. Clearly this was normal, since Albedo didn’t so much as flinch or avert his eyes from the man on the bed.
“Is Kaeya causing you any trouble?” Albedo looked down at his sibling eventually, gently rubbing her hair with his free hand,
“Nope! Brother Kaeya is the best! He’s really nice!” Keaya laughed at that, having done nothing of note to acclaim such high praise. But ‘brother’ did bother him a little- was that just what the girl called people? Are they related? Now that he thought about it the two don’t look particularly similar... then comes the obvious question of ‘why do they live together?’. He supposed, himself being an adoptive brother of his... well... brother, that these two can still be siblings, even if not by blood.
——
“Ow- you know- you could be a little more gentle. Surely you don’t mean to hurt me?” Kaeya flashed the man before him the best not-pained smile he could muster. The removing of the bandages was unpleasant, to say the least- the blood dried crudely to the fabric that was previously around the wound, meaning that as they were being removed they ripped themselves back open. Albedo was most certainly not a doctor, that’s for sure.
“Sorry.” He said simply, not making any effort to change how he took them off. A part of Kaeya felt like it’s because of what he said though. When Albedo escorted Klee out of the room and closed the door behind her, he had turned to the thief with his stunning teal eyes and said ‘take off your pants’ and you see, Kaeya doesn’t have enough restraint (or maybe he isn’t mature enough) to NOT have told the other ‘ask me to dinner first’.
The face of absolute confusion on Albedo’s face was almost worth it. Almost because when he DID understand there was another tired sight. It became pretty clear that those wounds will not be getting kissed all better that’s for sure.
“If it wasn’t for the fact your face is unreadable. I’d have thought you’re mad.”
“I’m not mad.”
“So you say.” Kaeya hummed, looking the shorter man up and down. He really was beautiful. Individual strands of hair would fall over his face as he leaned down to apply the medical balm to the navy-haired man's wounds, these positively adorable ‘annoyed sighs’ would sound just before he’d brush the strands back behind his ear.
He had taken off his gloves to apply the balm, his skin was surprisingly cool but one could assume it’s because of the fact the medication was cold in itself- nonetheless, Kaeya enjoyed the feeling of gentle hands taking care of his cuts and bruises- the process of removing the bandages was very painful indeed, but the gentle touches that followed were more than making up for it.
When another strand of hair fell over the blond's eyes he didn’t even get a chance to make a noise. Kaeya reached out his hand, brushing it against the other pale cheek, noting the contrast to his own darker skin as he did, before brushing the strand behind the others ear. Albedo had looked up the second the warm hand touched him, his teal eyes looking intently into the thief‘s.
For the first time in a while when interacting with a person, Kaeya felt nervous under the gaze.
He had let his hand linger for a beat too long in the blond locks, withdrawing it somewhat reluctantly. Only now did he notice that the other had stopped applying the balm, his pale hands hovering over sepia skin. The tension was unsure- like the atmosphere itself was uncertain about the importance of the action.
Albedo stood, his expression didn’t seem to change but his eyes seemed to flicker with a different type of confusion.
“Finish applying the balm. Rub an even layer over every open wound,” he hesitated, likely thinking over his next words- Kaeya quickly realised that he should watch the other's eyes for hints as to his feelings, “tell Klee to get me if you need help applying the dressing.” He decided on saying, mumbling a “and I’ll look for a change of clothes- if I find a big enough size.” In a near-whisper, soon exiting, leaving Kaeya colder than the blond's hands.
A pleased smirk made its way onto the thief’s lips. These were the sort of reactions he wanted to see from the other.
He could hear a faint ‘I should do something about the blood...’ too after a few moments of silence.