of the loved and the unloved

the unlucky boy and his wolf

a month later, and kaeya hasn't seen the ginger since. even so, despite several weeks passing, he can't forget the blush on his brother's cheeks. come on— anyone would have agreed to him that what he witnessed that night was completely priceless. 

he doesn't have much time to think about it as he swiftly dodges a missile, half a centimeter away from losing his right arm forever. the impact of it makes the ground shake beneath his feet, the excitement of it all makes him smile as his adrenaline pumps arduously. its body begins to spin so fast it looks like a wheel, he rushes away quickly. 

the moment it stops spinning, he runs towards the wall of the hill and pushes himself off with as much force his feet can muster and he plunges down onto the eye of the ruin guard. the way his sword slices through the mechanical component makes his skin shiver with satisfaction. 

he jumps off in time to see the field tiller disintegrate. it's embers trailing behind before disappearing completely. materials are all that can be salvaged of these recreated machines. he sighs, picking them up off of the floor and placing them in his inventory. 

scaling through the area, surely, he's completely cleared the area out. that's good, he hopes this will help that razor kid sleep well, along with bennett. reminiscing about the pair of kids makes his heart warm. the blue sky is slowly turning into a sanguine red, dusk setting and devouring the light. 

when the area around him begins to darken and he can see the shadows of trees growing longer— as much as you would in a forest anyways— it's the queue that he should leave. he decides to quickly pop by razor and bennett's campsite before leaving, give them some food maybe. they concern him, sometimes, and he can't help but worry. 

noises in the distance make him tense, his ears begin to listen with precision. it looks like as if he froze himself with his own vision with how still he was, when in reality, he's purposely keeping as still as he possibly can to figure out what type of footsteps he can hear; to observe his enemy. if he can hear the squeal of an abyss mage, the heavy stomps of a mitachurl, the skittering of hilichurls, or the clacking of the staff a samachurl has. for kaeya, this is crucial in battle.

instead, he quickly realises these are footsteps of none other than razor and bennett. speaking of the devil, "sir kaeya!! this area was littering with enemies a few hours ago, you really helped in clearing them out— all alone at that, you're amazing!!" the ashen-haired boy looked ecstatic with those stars in his eyes. kaeya thanks him with a ruffle to the hair. 

kaeya's eye perks when the wolf-raised boy walks out from behind the more outgoing and communicative boy. contrary to bennett's simple and straightforward thank-you, this boy full out kowtows and it gives kaeya a sour taste to his mouth. he never really fancied people bowing to him. the knight flusters, "ah— razor, no— there is no need, stand up."

"sir kaeya— thank you— make the wolves happy; safe, protect lupical—" razor is extremely adorable as he's on his knees, and the nothing-but-sincere expression he has as he hands kaeya a messily formed calla lily bouquet, almost like a proposal. "he worked really hard to make it for you!! i watched him for about 30 minutes until i decided to help him out, hehe," 

he could squeal, it was adorable. bennett sees how weird this looks, and maybe has a glint of jealousy in his eyes that just makes kaeya's day ten times better than it had originally been. the ashen-haired boy quickly tells razor to stand up and tells him that isn't the right way to give a gift. the latter nods and his face looks like he's just processing the information carefully, it's cute, it really is. "the bouquet is beautiful, razor, thank you. now, you best be on your way, you two. be careful~," 

he's a bit surprised nothing has happened with how long bennett had been standing around him. this, of course doesn't mean he sees bennett as just some stroke of bad luck. he remembers the night he found the boy sitting on one of the benches in the city, looking awfully alone. he painfully reminded kaeya of many people, especially a certain ragnvindr.