Synopsis ✧ Though you’ve never left the confines of the underground city of Khaenri’ah, you have always wished to see real stars. Kaeya might have the ability to make your dream come true—but the journey to see the stars leads you down a path you never could have imagined.
Tags ✧ No pronouns used for Reader, childhood friends to lovers, near death experience, fluff, angst, an unnecessary amount of kiss scenes.
Note ✧ Some of the things about Khaenri’ah (and Albedo, Dainsleif, and Kaeya) do not follow cannon! This was supposed to be my contribution for the Attack on Academia summer collab back in 2021, and it’s taken me a long while to finish >.< I hope you will enjoy reading it! A huge thank you to @thewangshuinn@akirasgalaxy and @izukxnnie for beta reading this, and to @sipsteainanxiety and @cellotonins for encouraging me to finish! <3
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frozen homeland’s demise: an ancient hourglass with fine powdered snow flowing in it. even the coldest winter cannot freeze the flow of time.
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“Hey, everyone! Come look at this!” A kid beckons his friends over to a display in the museum. Motivated by the excitement in his voice, they leave the ornate ceramics on the outskirts of the room that they were peering at, and crowd around the glass box. Each of them have a small backpack on their shoulders, and some clutch a brown paper bag.
“Woah…” they breathe, fascinated.
The glass casing rests on a white platform in the center of the room, raised high enough that the shorter second graders have to tiptoe to get a close look at what rests inside. An hourglass sparkles under the display lights. It’s made of varying shades of blue crystal, minerals, and glass, as if it were carved out of ice. Within the timepiece, it is not sand that falls from one end to the other. Instead, flakes of snow and ice swirl around on either side of the bulb, and some continuously drift through the neck from top to bottom. There seems to be an endless flow of snow, as if it’s been recording the passage of time since the very beginning.
(It has, although very few people have the privilege of knowing that.)
“What is it?” someone asks.
Everyone tries to read the plaque, but the words are complicated and the sentences are long, so it’s a struggle to figure out what it means or where it came from.
A voice speaks up from behind them, smooth and masculine. “That’s the Frozen Homeland’s Demise timepiece.”
The children turn around, and their eyes grow wide as they take in the man that walks up to them. He looks like he just stepped out of the pages of a fairy tale that is full of princes and dragons, danger and adventure.
(They don’t know how close to the truth this comparison is. Though he’s not from a fairy tale, he certainly is not from this world, and his story involves a journey, true love, a fallen nation, and the passage of time.)
His outfit is almost completely blue—not unlike the hourglass. A navy sleeveless jacket rests on top of a white, long sleeve shirt. Black boots nearly reach his knees, and a brown belt with golden accents tightens dark pants around his waist. A pale blue charm hangs off the belt, framed in gold. The child closest to him can see a snowflake in the middle of the charm, and it emanates a soft, cool light. Dark blue hair is tied into a ponytail and sweeps over his shoulder, drawing the children’s eyes to a blue earring that dangles from one ear.
Most people would never believe that he works at this museum. But a nametag is pinned to his jacket, and “Kaeya” is printed on it.
“Kaeya, at your service. Would you like to know more about this hourglass?”
