Headcanon that Kaeya keeps saying unreciprocated "I love you"s for the past two decades because he keeps whispering it in Khaenr'ian.
He'd hug Diluc on his bed after a nightmare and whisper it into his brother's hair. Diluc just thought Kaeya's mumbling nonsense after a bad dream.
He'd say it to Jean after she patches him up after a rough knight's training. He blames it on adrenaline when she asks.
He'd say it to Crepus during a rainy day tucked under his dad's arms, leaning into him as he paints. The words are drowned out by the storm.
Jean confronts him once, after Crepus's death. Beside his bed, wounded and cold; the last Ragnvindr in Mondstadt. "It's nothing," he'll say, and she just furrowed her eyebrows further. She's heard him say it too many times to pass it as gibberish. But she lets it go.
He'll whisper it as he tucks Klee in, her eyes closed and her breathing soft.
Albedo perks up when he hears it. "It sounds familiar," he would remark. "Khaenri'an?"
Kaeya glances at him and grins. "Maybe,"
"Never heard the phrase. What does it mean?" Albedo asks instead.
Kaeya knows that the most likely possibility is that Albedo had only learnt ancient Khaenri'an, not whatever warped abyssal version of Khaenri'an Kaeya uses. But he wonders if the reason Albedo doesn't know it is because no one had ever said it to him, not even his master.
"It's a term of endearment," is the vague answer Kaeya responds with.
Kaeya says it to Diluc, frustration seeping into his voice as he slings his brother's arm over his shoulders and away from battle. Idiot, Kaeya would think. He should count his lucky stars that Kaeya cares.
Diluc spares him a glance. "You always say that,"
"Say what?" Kaeya bites out, no less annoyed.
Diluc butchers the pronunciation so badly that Kaeya would've laughed in any other circumstances.
"Whatever. That. You always say that,"
Kaeya does the best shrug he could.
"...It's Khaenri'an, isn't it?"
He doesn't dignify him with a response.
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