"❝ i think you'd look good if you took your hair out of that ponytail. ❞
in the weeks leading up to the windblume festival, y/n was buried in work. literally. surrounding her was stacks of dresses, some that needed small touch up and others that were made from scratch. the slightest movement would make the pile of gowns collapse. so when someone had knocked on the door, unleashing the pile of dresses on top of the girl, she was undeniably pissed off.
there stood kaeya by the door, sheepishly smiling at the chaos he accidentally caused. he was on a break, well a break, and decided to visit his favorite seamstress. the past few nights y/n opted out of their late night adventures. she was so exhausted from preparing for the festival that she had zero energy for kaeya's antics.
kaeya noticed the very visible eye bags, which seemed to drag her eyes down, and wanted to check in on her. seeing her glaring up at him from the pile of dresses almost made him feel sorry. almost.
"it makes my heart flutter seeing you falling for me y/n." kaeya said, moving the bundles of garments off of the girl.
she made a gagging sound. "oh you're just so funny. be careful!"
he put one hand over his heart, and the other on his cheek. "are you worried about me?" his cheeky smile made her want to smack it off.
"nope! barbatos knows what'll happen to me if any of those dresses get damaged." she sighed. some of the ladies who came in for dresses scared her.
minutes later the dresses were all neatly organized to prevent another accident. y/n was stretching out her arms which hurt from all the work she's been doing. wiggling her fingers around, she noticed the paint on her nails had mostly chipped off. tiny little cuts littered her hands too. cursing under her breath, she went to go ask one of her coworkers for a first aid kit.
but kaeya's arm stopped her from leaving the room. he pulled out a roll of gauze and a tube of ointment from his pocket. his coy smile squeezed at her heart.
"i figured you might need this."
oh how she hated how well he knew her.
-
"kaeya you're doing it wrong!"
"what? how? this is so simple that it's impossible to mess up!"
"oh really? if this is sooo impossible to mess up then why. do. my. hands. look. like. this!" y/n exclaimed through her clenched teeth. kaeya had wrapped the gauze around so much that her hands looked like huge spheres.
kaeya whipped his head to the side to stifle his laughter. sure, he did feel a bit embarrassed for putting the gauze on so wrong, but y/n's reaction was just too funny.
"do you think this is funny?" she raised her brow. "how the hell am i supposed to work like this?"
"maybe you should take a break then?" kaeya's smile never left his face. "let's go around and see how all the preparations are going."
she weighed her options. stay at the shop and work tell she inevitably dies from all the new orders or hang out with kaeya and see all the pretty decorations. although it was a very easy decision, she wanted to make kaeya's life just a little harder.
"sure. but on one condition."
wham!
y/n and kaeya walked past 'with wind comes glory' hand in hand. they became accustomed to holding hands. y/n would calm her beating heart by telling herself that it's something platonic friends do. kaeya told himself that this would keep her safe.
regardless, the started holding hands without even thinking about it. y/n exchanged the gauzes around her hands for some regular bandages before they left. her eyes drifted from the flowery decorations to the side of kaeya's face.
he also turned to look at her. noticing that she was already looking at him, he smiled. "what? can't get enough of this face huh?"
y/n let out a sly giggle. "that would be a lot more effective if you didn't have that mark on your face."
kaeya's expression fell immediately. "well whose fault is that." he grumbled.
to be honest, when she had asked for something earlier he thought he would buy dinner or some drinks. he did not, however, expect her to swing her gauze-fortified hand right across his precious face. it didn't hurt at all, but the force of it left an imprint on his face. who knew she'd have it her in? never in a million years did he expect y/n would punch him, but with all the teasing he does maybe he should've expected it.
the girl besides him was feeling giddy. ever since she landed that hit on kaeya the world seemed to shine brighter. it was completely impulsive. if her didn't turn her hands into weapons, she wouldn't even think about punching him. but in that moment, it just felt so right. before she knew it her gauze-fist-super-attack, she named it herself, struck him.
maybe it was her way of getting rid of her frustrating, unknown feelings. she didn't know, or rather she chose to pretend to not know, why are heart would race around him so often.
but simple moments like this made her happy. just walking side by side catching up, talking about anything really, was comfortable.
so for now, this was enough. it was enough to see him everyday and smile by his side.
❝ if i didn't know any better, i'd think you're asking me to let my hair out. ❞
980. edited. new chap after like two months which is better than a year!
shorter chapter with just fluff bc i love fluff.
any inso's law readers? will be posting a ff soon.