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Kaeya hears hard, urgent knocking on his door. He's winding down with some dandelion wine, preparing to go to bed, and so he's slow to answer. The knock sounds out again, just as hard and even faster. He frowns, goes to check who it is.
Lumine?
Kaeya opens the door instantly. "Lumine, what's wrong? I thought you were finally getting in to Inazuma-"
Lumine steps inside. She's shaking, sweating, darkly flushed. "I was, I was, it's just- I just need a few days, just to ride this out, please let me stay here, just a few days-"
Kaeya closes the door behind her and ushers her in. "Of course, of course," he says. "But what's going on? And isn't Paimon with you?"
"Paimon is- she's getting medicine," Lumine says. She collapses into the nearest chair and stares at her own trembling hands. "I don't know if it's going to help, it probably won't, but she was scared and I wanted her to have something to do."
"Are you in pain right now?" Kaeya asks softly.
"A little, but there's probably-" Lumine says something in her native language, shakes her head, tries again. "For every gift, a curse. Man was not meant to touch the skies, and so must pay in blood and pain for their wings."
Kaeya doesn't like the sound of that. "Lumine," he says gently. "Lumine, I can see that you're distressed right now, but I need you to tell me what's going on."
"Wings," Lumine murmurs. "We're not born with them, they grow from us, they- erupt, from the back. I touched the Statue, and it gave me more of myself, and I guess that was enough. They're going to come back, they're..." She breathes. "For every gift, a curse. Blood and pain. The body isn't meant for it, and the gods granted it unwillingly. Nothing soothes it, or at least nothing from our world." She's still shaking. "Soon. Tomorrow, I think. I'll be fine, I'll- I'll have my wings back, but I needed- I need to be somewhere safe," she explains.
"Okay," Kaeya says. "My home is always open to you. I'm glad you feel safe here."
"I need to lay down," Lumine says. "I'm sorry, I know it's late..."
"If there's a problem, I want you to be somewhere safe, too," Kaeya says. He's not really pleased that this seems to be the only place she felt that way. It's not that he would rather have her somewhere else; it's that he wants her to have more than one place in all Teyvat where she can feel secure enough to ride out a crisis. She must have spent a week traveling here; she must have found a way to get out of Inazuma when she had just got in...
Kaeya will ask Paimon.
"Let's get you up to the guest bedroom, okay?" Kaeya asks gently.
"Yeah..." Lumine gets up and lets him steer her toward the stairs.
"Thank you for trusting me," Kaeya says, and finally he sees her relax a little. One day he'll decide how he feels about those words melting her like butter.
---
Paimon arrives an hour later, arms wrapped around a glass jar and a vial hanging peeking out of the top of her boot. She's not as distressed as Lumine, but she does look concerned. "Kaeya," she says. "Is Lumine-"
"She's here," Kaeya reassures her. "She's all right. She wanted to lay down, so I took her upstairs."
Paimon nods. She lays her purchases down on the table. "Maybe she'll sleep," she says. "She hasn't slept in days."
Kaeya sighs. "She tried to tell me what was going on, but she was a little incoherent. Was she any clearer with you?"
Paimon nods. "Lumine told Paimon a week ago that her wings were coming back. She said she could feel them growing on her shoulderblades. It happened when she was ten, so she recognized it. She said we had to hurry home right away, so we hurried." Kaeya wonders whether "home" was Lumine's word or Paimon's. "She stopped eating and sleeping three days ago, Paimon thinks. Yesterday was when she started... talking weird."
Kaeya takes this in. "And you're sure it's not something... else." He doesn't know what else. He just has to ask.
"Did she show you her back?" Paimon asks.
Kaeya shakes his head.
"Paimon doesn't want to see it again. But maybe you should look."
Kaeya nods. He has the feeling he doesn't have a choice. "What did you bring?"
Paimon cheers up a little. "Paimon got Barbara to give her the strongest pain medicine she could make! And then Paimon asked Albedo to make a numbing potion!" She sobers a little. "Lumine doesn't think anything is going to work, but we have to try."
"We do," Kaeya agrees. "You should go to her. I'm sure she'll feel better when you're there."
Paimon nods and floats up the stairs.
Kaeya sighs. If Lumine thinks... whatever awful thing is going to happen is going to be tomorrow... he should probably be there.
All of that settled... Kaeya thinks he should try to get some sleep. When Lumine's like this, a rough couple days inevitably follow.
---
First thing in the morning, Kaeya goes to check on Lumine, medicines on hand. He finds Paimon floating in the hall, keeping watch like a tiny sentinel, but with a tinge of green to her skin. Bad, then.
She's laying on the bed, face down, with her top off, and Kaeya can see what Paimon meant instantly. There are bruise-purple... mounds, a hand's width across and a hand's length tall, sitting on each of her shoulder blades. One of them... twitches, as he's watching. He feels a little nauseated, but reminds himself that however bad it is to look at, it's got to be worse to experience.
"Lumine?" Kaeya calls softly. If she's asleep, he doesn't want to wake her, but if she's awake anyway...
And Lumine was either awake or sleeping very light, because she immediately turns her head to look at him. Her face is fever-flushed and her eyes are glassy. "Kaeya," she murmurs. "Good- good morning."
"How are you feeling?" he asks.
Lumine laughs grimly. "Hurts," she says.
"You want to try some medicine? I know you don't think it will work, but it won't hurt to try," Kaeya says.
Lumine blinks. "Moving... not good."
"Is it that you can't, or that it will hurt more?" Kaeya prompts.
"Yes. Can't. Don't know about... don't know about hurt. But..." Lumine closes her eyes, thinking. "Few hours. Blood. Messy. I shouldn't... around fabric."
Kaeya nods. "We'll worry about the medicine first, and then keeping things clean. Can I help you sit up? I won't touch anything sensitive."
"Okay," Lumine murmurs.
And so Kaeya gets her sitting up. She's burning hot, radiating heat like a pyre. Her arms shake as she drinks down the contents of the vial, then the mug full of the herbal blend. Then she sighs. "Should... move," she says. "Bathtub, maybe."
"Is it going to be that bad?" Kaeya asks.
Lumine nods.
All right, then. "We'll wait a little while, though," he says. "You look like you need to lay down for now, and I don't think you could do that well in the tub."
Lumine sags with relief. "Okay," she says, and lets Kaeya shift her back into place.
"I'm going to send word to Headquarters that I'm working from home today," Kaeya says. "If you-"
"You have work...?" Lumine says. "Can... put me there, and... go."
Kaeya counts to five in his head. "Working from home now and then isn't a problem."
"I... I always..."
"None of that. I'm an adult. I can make my own decisions. Try to rest, all right?" Kaeya considers ruffling her hair, but decides that's a step too far right now.
"Okay," Lumine says, and closes her eyes.
---
Kaeya sends word to work, then sits in the guest bedroom with Lumine for the morning. She doesn't sleep, still, and it seems that just as she predicted, the pain relief attempts don't do much. He offers to try to ice it, but she just shakes her head. She lays on her stomach and pants. Something under those mounds of skin occasionally shivers.
After a few hours, Lumine lifts her head a little, weak. "Soon," she mumbles. "Move... now."
Kaeya springs to his feet. "All right," he says. "Let's get this show on the road."
Getting Lumine up is a problem all in its own. She's almost completely dead weight, as much as she tries to help, and Kaeya struggles to find a way to hold her without hurting her more until eventually she just shakes her head. Then he carries a whimpering girl across the hall draped over his shoulder, Paimon looking away in terror.
Kaeya lowers Lumine face-down into the bathtub. She gives him a terrible, terrible smile. "Might... scream... m'sorry..." she breathes.
"It's fine," Kaeya says. "I understand."
And then for a few more minutes, it seems like nothing new is happening. And then-
Lumine does scream. She screams, high and pained, while things like panes of glass, far too huge and straight for it to make sense they were inside her body, pierce through and exit the mounds on her back. Blood spatters across the bathroom, across her, onto Kaeya's shirt. She whines and grips the rim of the tub with both hands.
Finally the glass... wings are free and loose, hovering free a short distance from her back. She shifts, and they shift with her, even though there's no visible way they're connected to her body. The... exit wounds trickle blood, though less than Kaeya would have thought. There's still crimson all over her back and the glass.
Lumine takes deep, gasping breaths. "They're... free, right?" she asks in a tiny voice. "It's... it's over?"
"They're... loose from your back, yes," Kaeya says. "Is that what you mean?"
"Yes," Lumine whispers. She takes another few deep breaths. "I'll... give me a minute..."
"Hmm?" Kaeya asks. "What do you need?"
Lumine rests her forehead against the tub. "Just... a minute... and then... cleaning the room..."
It almost takes effort not to laugh. "I don't think you're in any shape to be scrubbing out the tub right now," Kaeya says. "You don't need to worry about that."
"It's... already better," Lumine murmurs. "Just... just tired..."
"Let me help you get yourself cleaned up," Kaeya says. "Then we can worry about the rest of it, all right?"
Lumine swallows. "I... it's... family do that," she chokes out. "If you do... it... it matters."
Ah. There's something cultural happening here. "Are you uncomfortable with me being involved?"
"No," Lumine says, sounding miserable about it.
If Kaeya had his choice, he would not be plunging into a sea of emotional baggage right now, but a dear friend is laying in his bathtub covered in blood and that makes the situation rather... urgent. "I can call Paimon in to help," he says, though he suspects the fairy is not going to be of much assistance.
Lumine shakes her head, still resting it against the tub. "I... want you to... but... it... means something. I... if it... doesn't, I... can't... let you."
This is why she was so desperate to come here from so far away. "Do I have to do something first, or can we just decide that I'm already your-" -he almost, almost goes for "big brother" but remembers just in time that Lumine was the younger twin- "-that we're already family and start working on this?"
"Kaeya. You have... to mean it," Lumine says without moving.
Kaeya rests a hand on Lumine's head. "I mean it."
Lumine nods. "Okay," she whispers, so faint he almost can't hear her. "We're family." She lifts her head up a little and turns it enough to see him--and that he can see her. She looks terrified, but there's hope in her eyes.
Kaeya cautiously ruffles her hair. "Now can I help you clean up?"
Lumine nods again.
---
Once she's more-or-less clean, Lumine dozes on the guest bed. She still seems to be in pain, and she winces and shudders when Kaeya sterilizes her shoulder blades, but apparently she's comfortable enough to properly rest.
Kaeya takes the chance to examine the wings. They're something like translucent blades, with some type of structure on the body end that he would assume would be used for connection to the back if they had... any connection to her back at all. They move with her and resist his attempts to push them from one side to the other, but he can put his hand completely around them without revealing any invisible wiring or the like. They just... float there, suspended in the air above her body.
"When she said wings, this is not what I expected," Kaeya admits, looking over her.
Paimon, finally able to approach without feeling sick, sits on the bed. "They look familiar, but Paimon doesn't know where she's seen it before," she says.
Kaeya just... files that statement away in his mental folder of "things that Paimon says that are really strange." He considers Lumine instead. "Strange, that her body had to do all that just for something that is clearly magic," he says. "But she did talk about gifts and curses a lot. Curses must be a big deal where she comes from." He knows a little about how that is.
"Paimon wonders which one of us will be able to fly fastest," the fairy says.
"I think larger things can get more momentum," Kaeya says idly. "Lumine will probably be faster."
"Hey!" Paimon squawks.
And that's enough for Lumine to wake, rolling over onto her side. When it became clear that the wings didn't actually connect to anything, they were able to put a shirt on her, so nothing... untoward was exposed in the action. She blinked sleepily at them. "You're loud," she says.
"Sorry," Kaeya says. "Do we need to go somewhere else?"
Lumine shakes her head. "I need water." After losing that much blood, it would be strange if she didn't.
"Do you think you can eat something?" Paimon asks, in a gentle tone that Kaeya hears only rarely from her.
Lumine considers. "Can try," she allows.
"Yay!" Paimon says, all enthusiasm. "What do you want to eat? You have a lot in your bag. You can have tiger fish or jewelry soup or apple stew or radish balls or-"
Lumine looks a little distressed.
"How about we start with some bread, and then work from there?" Kaeya suggests gently. "Do you think you can walk?"
"Yeah," Lumine says. And she is a little weak on her feet, but with a tight grip on the railing, she gets down the stairs into the kitchen and sits, perched on the edge of the chair to make room for her wings.
Kaeya sets out a tall glass of water in front of her. "I'll find some easy things for you to eat," he promises. "But start with that."
By the time he's returned from the pantry with some bread rolls and a few sunsettias, Lumine has already drained her glass. "Can you-"
"Certainly," Kaeya says. He refills the water and is pleased to see her nibbling at the bread when he returns. She's too thin, and if they're officially family now, he's going to do his utmost to fix that. "Would you like some butter for that?"
Lumine shakes her head. "Not right now, thank-"
Her wings vanish.
Kaeya feels a surge of panic--are they going to have to do this again?--but Lumine just looks... relieved.
Lumine looks at Kaeya and Paimon, faces both shocked. "Oh," she says. Then she gets a look of concentration for a second, and the wings pop back into view. "They're... magic," she says, which is probably the best explanation she can give. "Takes energy to manifest them. Control might not be good for a bit. They... they don't feel like they're part of my body yet." She concentrates for another few seconds and the wings shimmer out of sight.
"Well, that would be why you never mentioned wings when you gave us descriptions for the missing persons poster," Kaeya says. "He could be hiding them. It would be the smart thing to do, even."
Lumine nods. "We usually... only used them in emergencies, once we left home," she says. Her head slips forward, eyes shut, before she jerks it back up again, blinking heavily.
"You're exhausted," Kaeya notes. "Paimon mentioned you haven't been sleeping. Let's get you back upstairs, hmm?" He watches Paimon slip a bread roll into Lumine's bag and doesn't say a word.
---
By evening, things are clearly better. Kaeya sends Paimon out to examine Lumine's back--but maybe he shouldn't have bothered. Lumine's back is smooth and fair, with no hint of evidence anything traumatic happened less than twelve hours ago. When Kaeya tells her so, she nods, then sort of looks... wistful.
"It must be nice to have... scars," Lumine says, pronouncing the word carefully. "To have your body remember things for you."
Kaeya blinks. "That's... not how most people think of it, Lumine," he says.
Lumine frowns. "But... you know things happened. You can see it right on your skin. People show me... this is from when I fell off the swing on the playground, this is from the first fight I lost, these came from learning to play a lute. This means I survived, this is the evidence of a battle won, this is a mistake I'll never make again." She sighs. "I don't understand why you wouldn't want that."
Kaeya looks down at his gloved hands. "Sometimes you don't want to remember something," he says. "And scars are... not always as good as regular skin. It can be tougher, harder to move, more sensitive to pain. I have some I would rather be rid of."
Lumine considers. "But some you'd keep?" she asks.
Kaeya thinks about it, closes his eyes to map out his body in his mind. "Some," he admits.
Lumine nods. "It would be nice for my body to remember this," she says. "And the first time, too, but... maybe this even more."
"Oh?" Kaeya asks.
Lumine smiles. There's an element of nervousness to it, but she does. "We're family now, after all," she says. "That's... a big day, isn't it?"
"It is," Kaeya says. He pauses for a few seconds. "Are you still hurting too much, or can I hug you?"
Lumine goes bone white. "I don't care if it hurts," she says, holding out shaking arms.
Kaeya sits next to her and carefully, carefully pulls her close.
"I promise I'll remember," Lumine whispers. "Even if I have to leave." Then she starts to sob.
Kaeya holds her. "I'll remember too," he promises. (All he can think about, though, is how it will kill him if he ever has to hurt her, and how he's more and more scared that day is coming.)
---
Kaeya goes to work normally the next day. When Jean asks why he suddenly decided to work from home for a day, he announces, "Family matters." He pretends to ignore the confusion written all over her face, but actually he revels in it.
On his way home, he buys four sturdy-looking casserole dishes with lids. Then he stops by the Good Hunter and has each of them filled to the brim.
Kaeya arrives home with a stack of boxes balanced precariously in his arms, juggles to open the door, and smiles to see Lumine curled up on his couch with some kind of children's book. She looks up at him curiously, then hurries to help him with his purchases. She's seemed fine today, as if nothing happened at all.
"You got a lot of food," Lumine says. "What's all this for? Are you having a party?"
Kaeya shakes his head. "These are for you," he says.
Lumine blinks. Paimon looks at Kaeya, and whatever she sees makes her grin.
Kaeya sets the remaining dishes on the nearest table. "These should be enough to last you and Paimon until you get to Inazuma," he says.
Lumine stares. "Kaeya," she says, but doesn't go on.
"We're family," Kaeya announces. "I have a Cavalry Captain's salary. You have a magic bag that keeps your food good indefinitely. There's no reason you should ever be hungry."
"Thank you, Kaeya!" Paimon says, wriggling with excitement and removing the lid from each dish in turn. "Lumine, Lumine, look! There's cream stew and goulash and apple stew and rata-ratoo-"
"Ratatouille," Kaeya says. "Close those back up, and Lumine, put them away."
"Kaeya," Lumine says, seemingly in shock.
"You told me it had to matter," Kaeya replies. "Do you need me to get more?"
"This is- this is wonderful," Lumine says. Paimon hands her a dish, and she automatically vanishes it into her bag. "Thank you."
"Any time you need it," Kaeya says, and wonders how he's going to make it true.