Chapter Text
Collei came back a few minutes later, accompanied by a scholarly looking man who introduced himself as Tighnari. Tighnari then chastised Venti for being out of bed (to which Venti only shrugged and shuffled back across the floor with a mischievous smile) and walked over to the desk at the side of the room, grabbing a tray of medical supplies.
“If your wound is causing you pain when you move the arm, then the best solution is to immobilise it, so a sling is probably a good idea.” Tighnari explained, bringing over the tray and placing it gently on the nightstand beside Azra’s bed. “If at all possible, you should get changed out of this, first. I had Collei bring you some clothes, you’re about the same size. That is to say, you’re both too small for your age.”
“I am growing.” Collei nervously added as she laid out a set of clothes at the end of the bed, mostly for Azra’s sake.
“… so am I.” Azra nodded. That was a complete lie, she’d always been quite small.
“Yes, well, before anything else, I should check the wound for any infection. It just about scraped the dermis, it shouldn’t be causing you any trouble now. Especially not after all the rest you’ve been getting. I’ll apply a numbing cream to avoid as much discomfort as possible as I investigate.”
“Ok— ouch.” Azra whined softly as Tighnari began to unwind the bandage around her arm, and her head turned the other way so she wouldn’t have to face it.
Tighnari made a soft noise of concern, which wasn’t a particularly good sign. Azra heard the snapping of a rubber glove, and a small jar being opened. Moments later, she could barely feel anything around the wound.
“How’s the pain now?”
“Gone. How did you…“
“It’s some of the strongest stuff we have. We have to be careful with using it, though, because too much exposure can cause skin problems. It’s good that it’s working, though.”
Azra vaguely felt him prodding around the wound, but still couldn’t bring herself to look back. Instead, she focused her attention on the rest of the room. “We never had anything like that at home. Most people didn’t, anyway. Gold would always come by with her experimental stuff when I got hurt. It was never really stable, and always ended with me having some other kind of pain or disease.”
A moment of silence passed before Tighnari spoke again. “Well, there’s no need to worry about that now. It doesn’t look like your wound is healing as it should be… oh. I think I’ve found the culprit. Collei, could you pass me some tweezers?”
“Oh, of course… what is that?”
Azra winced as she felt something tugging at her arm - the inside of her arm, no less, and for a moment she felt her head swim.
“Are you still doing okay?” Tighnari asked as the tugging stopped for a moment.
“Yes, I… it feels weird.”
“Just one more second, and I’ll have it out.” A sharp pull, and then a dull ache came, and Azra felt warm blood dripping down her arm, quickly wiped away.
“Have what out?” Azra turned around against her better judgement to see what was going on. Her eyes locked on to a nail shaped thing between a pair of tweezers, coated in her own blood. “What in Teyvat is that?”
“I’m not sure. It must be some foreign debris that I missed, somehow… your wound also deepened, so I’d say it’s been digging into your skin and causing the pain. I think I might take it away for testing, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure. It’s not like I want to keep it.”
“How could you have missed that before?” Collei asked, watching as Tighnari placed the object down on a tissue on the tray.
“Well, a lot was happening. It’s entirely possible that human error could’ve occurred.” Tighnari shrugged. “Besides, it could have been deeper before. The wound must’ve been trying to expel it all this time.”
Azra furrowed her brows in disbelief. “How’s that even possible? Where did I get the wound from in the first place?”
“Well, Kaeya explained that it was a knife wound - sliced, not stabbed - and I’m not sure how any kind of debris could’ve gotten in there since then. But it’s out now. All I need to do is clean it a bit, bandage it, and then once you’re dressed, we can put it in a sling.”
“That sounds good to me.”
In seemingly no time at all, her arm was successfully covered once more. Thankfully the numbing cream was still in full effect, and she could move as normally as ever.
Tighnari reached out to the side of the bed and pulled out a curtain that Azra didn’t notice before, dragging it around the bed for privacy and leading himself and Collei out of the small area it created.
Azra bent over to reach out for the clothes at the end of the bed, trying not to rest her weight on her injured arm. It was such a… well, a normal outfit. She didn’t even remember the last time she was permitted to wear something like that. Even before she spontaneously became second, then first in line to the Khaenri’ahn throne, she was always made up to look as presentable as possible. She was a porcelain doll, a symbol of what life could be like for everyone else someday.
But even like that, she was never Azra. Always the other, older sister that nobody had seen in years, and who wasn’t really a sister at all. Always the sister that would never exist again in the way the people remembered. As she untied the back of her gown, Azra wondered just how many people had stared in horror as they beheld their precious hope, so changed from what they knew.
———
Over in his own allocated bed, a few huts away, Kaeya was wondering much the same thing. Albedo slept across the room, having insisted on staying with him as long as he was planning on spending his time in there. Right now, he was reading some kind of botany related book that he borrowed from Tighnari - Kaeya, on the other hand, was running his hand through his ponytail, brows furrowed.
“What’s wrong?” Albedo suddenly asked - Kaeya hadn’t noticed him looking up.
“It’s my hair. The dye’s fading.”
Albedo didn’t question why the dye was so important, thankfully. Only closed his book and gently set it down next to him. “I’m going into the city later. I can pick some up for you then.”
Kaeya continued to gaze at his hair, the vibrant blue fading down to a dull brown. “Thanks.”
“You know, when I was out getting breakfast just now, Collei was going around looking for Tighnari. Your sister’s awake. Still injured, but awake. I don’t think it would hurt going to see her.”
“Yeah, no. I don’t think I’m ready for that. I just need a few more days in here, probably.”
“It’s because of Venti, not Azra, isn’t it?”
Kaeya frowned. “Only partially.”
“Look, you have one of the highest egos out of all the people I know.”
“That felt unnecessary.”
“My point is, you can definitely handle a visit to the infirmary. And it’s not healthy for you to spend all your time in here.”
“You’re not my mother, you know.” Kaeya huffed, crowding his legs.
Albedo sighed. “You don’t have to go now. But I am absolutely dragging you out of here later. Jean’s starting to worry.”
“She knows I’m fine really.” Kaeya paused, brushing his hair back over his shoulder. “Maybe I should cut it, as well.”
“Your hair? Why?”
“Nobody aside from Diluc and Jean have seen me with long hair untied. And in what was essentially a dress, no less. I mean, come on, it’s not exactly me. So why not make sure it can’t happen again?”
Albedo gave him one of his pitiful looks again. Probably because he was recalling the fact Kaeya actually burnt his robes at the first opportunity - maybe an overreaction, to be fair. He still didn’t regret it.
“Nobody sees you any differently. Cyno and Tighnari, Kaveh, Collei, all the others here, they’re good people. They wouldn’t think twice about it, especially not with everything else that was going on.”
“Yeah, I know. Not even Allos is that much of a dick.”
“Allos isn’t anything like that, no, not even close. And you need to know that. He’s just as much of a victim as anyone else, here.” Albedo stiffened. “Even after what he tried to do.”
“I get that, too. You forget that I’m brilliant at reading people. I still don’t have to forgive him any time soon.”
“No. You don’t.” Albedo slipped off the bed, standing up and walking to where he had hung his coat on the door handle. “So, that hair dye. What shade do you want?”
Kaeya breathed a sigh of relief.
———
“So, what‘s your sister like?” Jean asked, he gaze intently hanging on Kaeya’s face. Older than both him and Diluc, she looked slightly out of place with the two boys and the toddling young girl by her side.
Kaeya probably looked out of place, too, wearing all of Diluc’s clothes that were hanging limply on his smaller figure, his hair cut at a sharp angle where he had tried to do it himself. He was almost twelve, now, and a lot better with language and the social norms of Mondstadt.
He’d met Jean through Crepus (who he had come to guiltily call his father, over the years) when he was still new to the city, but they hadn’t met regularly until after Jean’s parents got divorced, and Crepus thought she needed more support.
“I don’t really know. My mother said she looked like me when I was as little as she was when I left. So… think of me but really small.”
“It must suck to not know what your sister’s like now.” Diluc pouted slightly. “Can’t you ask Father to take you to see her? Just once?”
It wasn’t Diluc’s fault that the question made Kaeya’s heart ache so. If anything, it was Kaeya’s for not telling anyone how he really came to be in Mondstadt, and why. “I mean… not really…”
“Oh, right. Your parents are so far away that we can’t even go there.”
Jean tilted her head. “Really? Do they live in the Mare Jivari, or something?”
“What’s a Mare Jigani?” Diluc asked, kicking at the ground beneath his feet.
“The Mare Jivari. It’s basically a desert by Natlan. Do you not get taught geography at home school?”
Diluc rolled his eyes. “Not all of us can have super smart moms, Jean.”
Jean’s face flushed. “Sorry.”
Barbara grabbed at Jean’s dress, giggling uncontrollably. “Mama! Mama!”
“No, Barbara, mama’s at work.” Jean prised her sister from her clothing, picking her up and letting her tug gently on her ponytail instead. “Did your mother do anything, Kaeya?”
Kaeya thought back. “I don’t think so… she just took care of me and Azra.”
“Well, that’s okay.” Diluc said. “That’s what my mom did too. She used to make really good jelly cake.”
“Jelly cake?”
“Yeah! You know, like Adelinde made for my birthday last year. Mom was so good at it. She taught Adelinde when she first came to work for us.”
“Mine never did the cooking. The cooks did that.”
Jean gave Kaeya an odd look. “You have cooks?”
“That’s not weird, that’s what Adelinde does.” Diluc pointed out.
“But only really rich families have cooks. Rich families with huge houses and important people.”
Kaeya’s eyes widened, and he lowered his head. “My family isn’t very important.”
“Huh.” Jean looked as if she didn’t believe Kaeya, but wasn’t going to pry any further. “Well, anyway… Dad’s going to want Barbara back soon, so we should stop off at the church before lunch.”
Diluc and Jean continued talking as they walked. Barbara looked over her shoulder and watched Kaeya owlishly as he trailed slightly behind.
Mondstadt was… different. People were nicer, but that was probably because they had less to worry about. They had Barbatos to pray to, and stuff.
Kaeya still flinched a little whenever they passed the statues. He felt like they were watching him in the same way he felt his father was watching him.
He didn’t want to know what would happen if Barbatos found out where he had really come from. That was why he hadn’t told anyone at all, not even the nice doctor lady Crepus brought to talk to him every now and then.
He just needed to wait until he was bigger, and then his father would come back.