❝ mom i really hope you liked meeting him... ❞
kaeya had no clue where things went wrong. he truly didn't. things were going great with y/n. or maybe he was the only one who thought that. maybe he was foolish to assume that after he wrapped her hand in gauze - mummified according to y/n - and held her hand around town she would come back to hanging out with him every night. but she had yet to return. he understood that she was busy as the best seamstress in mondstadt, but still; did she really have no time for him?
he was doing an afternoon patrol near y/n's workplace. surprisingly he still had enough self control to not burst in there and, politely, demand to see her. he totally wasn't slowly inching closer to the door of it, no he was just patrolling like he normally would. when the door quickly opened from the inside with a sad customer holding a tattered dress, he snapped out of whatever trance he was in. Until he heard what she had mumbled to herself.
"aw man, i can't believe y/n didn't show up to work today. i'll have to come back tomorrow..."
y/n's skipped work? the same y/n who tried to go to work even though she had a horrid fever? the same y/n who still kept working even though her hands had hundred of tiny cuts? that y/n was skipping?
was the world ending?
he didn't have to think twice before telling the nearest knight to take over his patrol and ran to her house. after he arrived at her door he knocked three times. it was taking her some time to answer the door. there was a little panic on his face. should he have brought over some food?
every year y/n would skip work on just one day. just one. she could power through a million different issues but she couldn't power through her own feelings. today was the day her mother had died, and the day her father changed forever. when she was ten her mom went on a business trip to snezhnaya. y/n's biggest role model was her mother. she was a strong business women who showed a young y/n that women could be leaders too. to this day, y/n's biggest regret was asking her mother for a souvenir.
apparently there was an accident where a cart had crashed into a women exiting a toy shop. y/n's dad had kept it a secret from her for years. he refused to acknowledge his late wife and was overcome with his greed to become an aristocrat. he failed to marry into the family and ran away one night. ever since he left, y/n would visit her mother's grave every year and just talk to her. it was a pure coincidence that y/n had found her mother's grave. the morning y/n woke up to an empty house and all of her father's stuff missing, she ran around mondstadt in a frenzy looking for the coward. she didn't find him. but she did stumble upon a grave with cecelias surrounding them with her mother's name engraved into it.
just as y/n finished packing her picnic basket, she heard knocking. who could it possibly be? her boss wasn't the type to come over to drag her to work. and she didn't have any actual friends that would visit her. except one.
she opened the door to see, surprise, kaeya standing sheepishly at the door. "looks like we're both skipping work today." he said as his eyes drifted to her picnic basket.
her hands suddenly felt clammy. "uh yeah. guess so. i'm going to visit my mom." there was an awkward pause. y/n was never the type to talk about her family. out of some weird impulsive that she could not explain to save her life she asked, "would you like to come with?"
there was a slight smirk on her face as she looked at kaeya's bewildered face as he looked down at her mother's grave. possibly the only time that she found her mother's death slightly amusing.
"well, we're here! mom meet kaeya, kaeya meet my mom. i think you'll have a lot to talk about together." she smiled.
"y/n you couldn't have given me a little heads up, could you?"
"nope." she sat down next to the stone and began emptying the picnic basket. "now sit down and grab a sandwich. you're lucky i made two."
the two ate their lunch and talked. they caught up on what they missed out on the past couple of days. although it wasn't very interesting, they were both smiling as if nothing could be better than whatever boring story the other was saying.
after eating y/n and kaeya laid down side by side in the grass. they were enjoying the silence and breeze before kaeya broke the silence.
"you know, i was really worried when you weren't at work today."
"oh? i can't believe i got a stalker next to me right now."
he slowly took her hand into his. "ha. ha. it was purely coincidental. i just wanted to make sure you didn't have a fever again."
"that's sweet. i know i'm always teasing you but, i am really glad you came today." she smiled and turned to her side to face him. to her surprise, he was already staring at her in complete bliss.
"i'm glad i came too." he let out a toothy grin. y/n made sure to ingrain that rare genuine smile into her brain to replay whenever she felt sad.
mustering up all of the courage in her she asked, "do you want to go out tonight? not like a hangout. like a date."
kaeya gently gave her hand a squeeze. "i'd love to."
❝ ... because i really do like him. ❞
990. edited.