Chapter Text
Kaeya’s day takes something of a sour turn when he strides into Jean’s office--only a half hour late to her requested summons--and finds Diluc already there, his hands wrapped around a teacup.
“Oh, you’re busy,” is what he says as he turns on his heel immediately, reaching for the still open door behind him, hoping against hope that they’ll actually let him go. “I’ll just come back.”
“Kaeya.”
Jean’s voice is quiet and stern, but there’s a hint of something suspiciously like amusement layering her words. Kaeya leans his head against the side of the door, staring longingly at the space of freedom before him and briefly contemplating making a break for it anyways. With the both of them unprepared for his escape, he figures he’ll get a good few meters of a headstart on them, enough to lose them in the twisting streets of Mondstadt.
“Careful, Jean. Cornered rats are quick to flee.”
Damn.
Diluc’s voice is as flat as ever, and when Kaeya casually turns around to face him once more, the other’s expression hasn’t shifted an inch. He lifts his cup to his lips, taking the smallest of sips and briefly eyeing the bowl of sugar cubes in the center. Diluc’s always liked his tea on the sweet side, Kaeya knows--in the revolting sort of way that required at least half the cup to be filled with it.
“Ah, he knows me so well. The young winemaster is so experienced in dealing with vermin.”
Forcing himself to take a few steps forwards, he drops into the chair opposite of Diluc, folding one of his long legs over the other and stretching himself into a more casual position, attempting to appear as unconcerned as possible.
It’s a good thing that Diluc is directly in front of him, though, because Kaeya can’t stop looking at him.
The other’s face betrays nothing of the emotion he feels, and Kaeya is distinctly reminded of how impossible Diluc has been to read ever since his return to Mondstadt. He’s still able to, sometimes, if he circles around enough and picks out the chink in the other’s tightly sealed defenses. But those moments are few and far between, and he can’t help but remember that knowing Diluc used to mean no effort at all, was something as simple and natural as breathing.
Thoughts like these are what make being around Diluc hard--and somehow even that has grown more difficult, as of late.
It really shouldn’t be such an issue to be sitting in this room with him now, especially not when he’d been in Diluc’s bed a little over twenty-four hours ago. But Kaeya would argue that that’s different, that there’s certainly a difference between the way they’re meeting now and when he’s half-naked in Diluc’s bedroom, his clothes on Diluc’s floor and Diluc’s thin fingers drawing red lines down his back.
They never have to talk when they’re fucking, for one, not even a cursory greeting before Diluc is hooking his fingers into Kaeya’s collar and pulling him closer. Afterwards, when Diluc is curled on his side and against Kaeya’s chest, there’s always a warm sort of sleepiness hanging in the air between them, one that neither of them really want to break before Diluc inevitably falls asleep and Kaeya stares at the ceiling for good one or two hours to contemplate how utterly screwed he is.
And by utterly screwed, he means undeniably, completely in love.
Practically the same thing, really.
Diluc obviously doesn’t feel the same way--not anymore, at least--if the way he behaves during their nightly encounters is any indication. He still won’t let Kaeya kiss him, not after they’d come so close to doing so that first time, which Kaeya thinks is probably for the best. The other’s always had more of the self-control between them, and Kaeya’s not entirely sure what he would do without Diluc’s unspoken barrier in the way.
Maybe something stupid, like attempt to close the distance between them, only to find himself rejected and thrown out once again.
Still, it’s hard not to at least entertain the thought of doing so, something soft and stupid in his chest twisting every time Diluc looks at him in a remotely gentle way, during those occasional moments where the other is maybe too sleepy or satisfied to bother keeping up the ever-lasting animosity between them. They’ve always been that way, ever since the day of their father’s death, and the revelation that he loves Diluc again should perhaps be something of an earth-shattering crisis.
But really, it’s more so that he’s realizing that he’d never fallen out of love with Diluc to begin with, which is another problem all on its own.
And now, either in a fit of vindictive insanity, innocent obliviousness, or a mixture of both, Jean has invited the object of Kaeya’s unfortunate affections right into the Knights’ headquarters, and Diluc has somehow accepted.
It’s common knowledge that Diluc had sworn off the Knights entirely, that he hasn’t set foot in this building since the day he’d left. Already, Kaeya thinks he can hear the low murmur of whispers coming from the trainees and the Senior Knights outside, all of them likely wondering what their ex-captain is doing in the Acting Grandmaster’s office, if he’s had some sort of change of heart.
As if.
“So. You called?” he asks Jean, forcing his eyes away from Diluc and changing the subject away from his thoughts. He isn’t about to stop obsessing over his Diluc-shaped problems any time soon, so the best course of action is really just to get through whatever this is as soon as possible, so he and Diluc can get back to dancing around each other and pretending like the other doesn’t exist.
And he can get back to pretending that he likes that.
Jean nods, folding her hands neatly atop her desk and studying the both of them in her gentle blue gaze. Across from him, Diluc slowly stirs at his tea with his spoon, the practiced smoothness of the motion faltering slightly when he shifts his attention to Jean--he knows something that Kaeya doesn’t.
“I did. I know it’s odd to have Master Diluc here, but...the situation calls for it. And we can hardly refuse the extra resources at a time like this.”
Which makes it sound like Diluc had offered to help, but that should be impossible. He sneaks another glance at the other, but Diluc won’t even look in his direction, tapping his spoon against the side of his cup and laying on the plate. The cup is still nearly full, untouched by Diluc’s rather picky tastes, and, driven by some sort of truly disturbed fit of emotion, Kaeya idly slides the bowl of sugar across the table until it taps against Diluc’s hand.
Despite his clear attempts to do otherwise, Diluc’s composure breaks for a fraction of second, something like surprise entering his eyes as his gaze darts between Kaeya and Jean.
“I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent drops in temperature,” Jean begins, and Kaeya forces a look of feigned comprehension onto his face, because no, he really hasn’t noticed anything that doesn’t have red hair and red eyes in these recent days. Besides, he’s always had a natural affinity for cold, which is to say he’d spent many of his childhood winters dressed in little more than his regular shirt and pants while Diluc had fairly trembled himself out of his skin the moment summer ended.
“Or perhaps not. Either way, it’s made our enemies bolder. There have been reports of organized clusters of Cryo Mages appearing around the Thousand Winds Temple, and while ordinarily it wouldn’t be a problem, they’ve begun attacking the nearby settlements.”
“Okay,” Kaeya says absently, preoccupied with pretending that he isn’t watching the way Diluc is slowly slipping sugar cubes into his teacup, amassing a decently-sized mountain of the stuff. “So what does this have to do with our honored guest?”
Or rather, he’s beginning to see exactly what it has to do with him, but he’d rather be proven wrong. While there’s no shortage of Pyro users in the Knights, many of them inspired by Diluc’s unprecedented path to Captain, they’re already stretched thin with the other elemental conflicts Mondstadt has been facing, along with the unwelcome interruption from their Fatui “allies.”
More than that, though, Diluc is undeniably the most adept Pyro user in the entirety of Mondstadt, with only the name of the Darknight Hero ever coming close to matching his in the minds of others. Which was, of course, no help to Kaeya in this situation.
“I mean, did you really drag him all this way to deal with a couple of mages? And he agreed?”
Jean glances at Diluc in a trapped sort of way, and Diluc finally stops stacking his sugar cubes to look up at them, apparently coming to her rescue.
“One of the settlements endangered by the attacks is an esteemed trading partner of the Dawn Winery. They are putting themselves at risk in order to remain in such a beneficial position for us--I would not leave them unattended.”
“Ah. Noble as always,” Kaeya answers, unsure of whether to feel disappointed or relieved by the revelation. Why he feels anything at all, really, is a question best left unanswered.
“Of course.”
Another moment of silence passes before Jean clears her throat, cutting through the tension between them with her usual efficiency.
“Amber was dispatched to investigate the situation a few days ago. She reported back that the source of the temperature fluctuations appears to be coming from a Cryo energy spike in one of the ruins near the temple.”
Standard procedure, then. He’d go in, swim through a horde of ugly hilichurls and like, find the corrupted crystal or whatever it was causing the current headache of the day, and smash it.
With Diluc.
He knows that there’s no way to worm his way out of this one, either. Even if he tried to make the argument that his Cryo powers would render him useless against the ruins’ monsters, his element always found some way of sneaking in its use in opening doors or activating totems. That, and Jean knows full well that his sword isn’t exactly for show--he might not be blessed with whatever raw power Diluc was inherently born with, but he’s grown up training against him since they were kids.
It would look pretty bad for the Knights too, if Diluc showed up on his own and took care of the entire situation on his own, and even worse if he was accompanied by one of the trainee knights, only to entirely outclass them. As far as candidates for partners with Diluc go, Kaeya’s probably the best match.
Of course, Jean hadn’t been factoring in the rampaging wall of emotional constipation between them, either.
“Okay,” he answers, keeping his tone as light as possible, mentally plotting out the route they’d have to take to get their destination. The outpost that Jean’s talking about is about as far away from Mondstadt as they can possibly get, and, factoring in Diluc’s...weaknesses in the actual “field” aspect of the field, Kaeya suspects that they’re stuck together for at least three days, if they’re lucky. And then more for the return trip, too--although maybe they don’t have to be together for that one, really.
“So when do we go?”
Diluc drains the last of his tea, evidently now far more eager to consume it now that it’s been properly sugared. He places the empty cup carefully on its little plate, neatly laying the spoon beside it, all of it precise and proper in a way that is so painfully Diluc, and Kaeya, once again, knows that he is absolutely, completely, entirely screwed.
“Now.”
They’re lost.
Or rather, Diluc is lost, and Kaeya, despite having seen this exact scene play out many times in their long and storied history, cannot convince him of this fact.
“Come on,” he says amiably, making another snatch at the map in Diluc’s hands, but Diluc, while utterly incompetent in the area of navigation, is no less quick on the uptake, catching sight of the motion from the corner of his eye and immediately shifting it away from Kaeya’s reach. “You don’t know how to read that, Diluc.”
Diluc gives him a haughty sort of glare, drawing himself upright as he holds the map close to his chest, but Kaeya can see the beginnings of a faint blush creeping into his cheeks, behind the thin veil of offended anger that Diluc is attempting to portray.
“And you don’t know that, Sir Kaeya,” he responds, his voice taking on that “young master” quality he so often employs when he’s trying to disguise a particular blow to his pride.
The other’s proficiency in battle is unquestionably unmatched, but his abilities in navigating the field are equally unmatched, by nature of being so ridiculously poor that Kaeya doubts anyone could possibly meet such a low criteria.
In fact, Diluc’s abysmal field skills are just about the only reason why it’d taken him four years to become captain--if he’d actually been able to find his way out of a wet paper bag, Kaeya honestly thinks Diluc would have passed the qualification test in about a year after awakening to his vision.
It’s oddly endearing how hard Diluc is trying to deny this fact, especially when he’s never had a problem with allowing Kaeya to take the lead in the past, more than content to follow Kaeya around like a lost kitten during their many childhood escapades.
“Okay,” Kaeya turns slightly to the side, gesturing to an incredibly familiar landmark, an oddly shaped boulder with a scorch mark in it that they’ve passed no less than five times in the last hour. “What is that, then? An old friend?”
Diluc follows his gesture to look at the same rock, but from the wary look in his red gaze, Kaeya can tell that the other absolutely does not recognize it.
“...that’s just a rock. They’re everywhere,” Diluc answers, somewhat petulantly, and Kaeya swears that the other is pouting, his delicate, noble feature arranged into a dangerously endearing expression of sulkiness.
Kaeya feels an uncomfortable warmth in his chest, something dangerously soft clenching at his heart. Placing his usual smile on his face to push it down, he runs his fingers through his hair, careful not to undo the ties.
“Diluc, it has a burn mark on it. You think those are just common in rocks in this area? Maybe the baby rock inherited it from the mommy rock?”
Diluc doesn’t respond immediately, but Kaeya sees the way he tenses and only barely twists out of the way in time as a rather unnecessarily enormous blast of fire crackles from Diluc’s palm and slams into a nearby innocent rock to the right. The blast roasts it for an extended fifteen seconds or so, and when the flame dissipates, it’s left a very similar crisp to the previously unmarked surface.
Always with the dramatics, this one.
“Oh, for the love of the Seven--give me the map--”
Diluc thinks he’s won, and Kaeya uses this to his advantage, taking the opportunity to lean himself into Diluc’s side and pluck the map out of his fingers. A second later, Diluc all but lunges at him to grab at it, but Kaeya wisely darts out of his reach, holding it behind him.
“Jean gave it to me,” Diluc snaps in his own defense, as if that gives him some sort of rightful inheritance to this ragged piece of paper.
“I don’t see your name on it.”
“And yours is?”
“Well, my grandfather was a pirate, you know,” Kaeya proclaims, ignoring Diluc’s noise of vague exasperation at the familiar tale. “That practically makes this map family.”
“A family of thieving goblins? I’m sure Jean would much rather entrust this to me.”
“Yeah, because she doesn’t know how terrible you are at this--I’ve seen you get lost walking down a straight hallway once.”
“There were doors, Kaeya.”
“How could I forget--doors, the mortal enemy of the Ragnvindr family. Of course, with no doors in the wilderness, you’re practically invincible.”
“Mm,” Diluc hums, which is all the warning Kaeya gets before the other practically tackles him into the nearby tree, nearly crawling on top of him in an attempt to get at the map.
Kaeya, having thought ahead, unleashes the Cryo magic he’s been gathering in his palm for this moment, encasing the map in a solid block of ice, the frost gathering on the surface of the ice obscuring the paper from view.
For a moment, Dliuc just looks at it blankly, at the steam of frost swirling from the icy mass, his fingers still tangled in the front of Kaeya’s shirt and his body pinning Kaeya to the tree. Kaeya squirms underneath him to more properly hold the frozen map in his hand before he pushes it against Diluc’s shoulder.
“Here you go, my lord,” he answers, tipping his head in a mock subservience, and Diluc looks so absolutely scandalized that Kaeya can’t help but laugh, a genuine sound that surprises even himself with how naturally it leaves him.
It seems to startle Diluc, too, the other’s eyes widening slightly and his features softening as he blinks uncertainly at Kaeya, the heat of his Pyro magic flickering out from where it’d been slowly defrosting the map. Kaeya thinks he can see a hint of red in Diluc’s cheeks, but he can’t tell if it’s from the other’s use of his element or--
Above them, the sharp sound of thunder splits harshly across the sky, making the both of them jump in place. Diluc immediately looks up, blinking in confusion at the dark clouds that have rolled across the sun, a sudden summer storm that’s arrived sometime in the middle of their little argument.
“Ah,” Kaeya says, grimacing as the first droplets of rain begin to trickle through the trees.
Diluc thrusts the half-defrosted map back into Kaeya’s chest, apparently content with letting him hold the all-but-destroyed paper as he climbs off of him, looking around them for some source of shelter. Normally, Kaeya wouldn’t let something like a rainshower deter him, but it’d already been close enough to sunset before the storm that the sky is now rapidly darkening into something akin to night.
That, and, Diluc has a special talent for catching colds, and Kaeya would rather the other not cough his way through their temple expedition, especially not when Diluc has an unfortunate habit of sometimes shooting out wisps of flame whenever he sneezes.
“I know a place,” he tells the other, and for once, Diluc doesn’t argue with him, looking at him in open invitation.
Before Kaeya can think better of it, he reaches for Diluc’s arm, wrapping his fingers around the other’s thin wrist and starting to haul him away. To his even greater astonishment, Diluc makes no effort to break out of his grasp, stumbling after him as they run fairly blindly through the rain, Kaeya squinting against the increasingly heavy downpour to make out their destination.
There’s a cave on the outcropping here, one that he’d spotted on either their third or fourth leisurely circle around this exact same area, and he supposes that he actually has to thank Diluc for giving him so much opportunity to observe their surroundings.
It takes a bit of maneuvering, but after stuffing the soggy map into his shirt for safekeeping--as safe as it can possibly get, after all the abuse it’s endured-- and pulling an even soggier Diluc up after him, they finally manage to find shelter in the cave.
In the dark, Kaeya can barely make out Diluc’s form across from him, the other shifting slightly before holding out his hand. A few sparks crackle across his palm, and several failed attempts to produce anything of note later, Diluc finally forms a decently sized flame in his palm, lighting up the area around them.
They’re alone in the cave, at the very least--narrowly avoiding whatever disaster would have come out of the opposite--but Kaeya can’t help but reflect on the amount of bad luck piled onto them here, really. That’s hardly out of the ordinary when it comes to the two of them, though. It isn’t an adventure between them unless things go absolutely and unquestionably awry.
In the dim light of the flickering flame, Kaeya makes out the way the other trembles slightly as the rain still clinging to his many layers of clothes seeps into his skin, and Kaeya is once again forced to squash down the well of fondness within him.
“Take off your clothes.”
Diluc’s head jerks up so quickly that Kaeya’s expression twists into a smirk, amusement flitting across his features as he nods at Diluc’s still-soaking coat.
“What, you really thought I meant something else? I mean, I know we’re in a real romantic area right now, but…”
He stops himself before he can go further, but the damage has already been done, the word and all the implications along with it rolling so easily off of his tongue.
If Diluc realizes what Kaeya’s said, he doesn’t show it, his face still a light pink from his earlier bout of alarm. The light from the flame flickers out as Diluc’s hands move to his coat, presumably to strip it off. Although it’s too dark to really see anything, and Kaeya really isn’t a stranger to any part of Diluc’s body, he still finds himself averting his gaze, feeling oddly strange about seeing him like this, in this sort of situation.
“As if you would know anything about that,” Diluc’s reply comes softly from his position in the dark, and Kaeya hears the gentle hiss of steam as the heat from Diluc’s Pyro-enchanted hands chases the dampness away from his clothing.
When the light returns, Diluc is considerably more dressed than he’d presumably been a moment ago. His coat is still laying off to the side, the heavy material likely still damp, and his white button-up is only halfway done up, exposing the rarely seen curve of his neck and shoulder.
Kaeya swallows hard as he leans back into the cave wall, forcing himself to look anywhere but at the still healing bites on the pale space of Diluc’s collarbone, Kaeya’s marks having yet to fade from his skin.
“You’re the one who drinks grape juice at the parties. You wouldn’t know romance if it bit you in the ass.”
Diluc’s pale hand sneaks its way up to his throat, rubbing gently at the skin as he averts his gaze, his flush even more visible with the collar of his shirt so open. After another pause, he shakes his head, extending his bare foot out to nudge at Kaeya’s leg with a sigh.
“Undress. Unless you plan to stay wet.”
“What, you don’t think I look better like this?” Kaeya can’t resist, even as he removes the map from where it’s stuck between his shirt and his bare chest.
As Diluc looks on in something like incredibly unimpressed disdain, he peels the paper pieces off of his chest and deposits them in a sad looking pile in the corner before he hooks his fingers into the bottom of his shirt. They both know that Kaeya’s chances of getting sick from keeping his wet clothes on is less than zero, meaning that Diluc’s offer is solely for Kaeya’s comfort, really.
“I retract my offer.”
But he takes the shirt when Kaeya hands it to him anyways, draping the cloth over his lap and gently pressing his free hand against it.
“Thanks,” Kaeya mutters at last, freeing his hair from its ties and wringing the water from his long locks, for lack of a better distraction.
Diluc lowers his eyes, presumably to concentrate on his task, but Kaeya wonders if the other is having as much trouble facing him as Kaeya is, if he’s thinking of every other time they’ve been caught out in the rain like this, when something has gone wrong.
The fabric of Kaeya’s clothing is thin enough that it dries within seconds, and as he pulls his shirt back over his head, Diluc shifts the flame in his palm to his other hand, a slight grimace passing over his face as the strain of locking his wrist in the same position begins to take its toll.
“We should make a proper fire,” Kaeya says, peering outside where the rain has finally stopped--they’ll be able to start one in the ledge at the mouth of the cave.
“With what?”
Kaeya grins, scooping up the fallen pieces of the map and arranging them in a neat pile, along with some spare twigs and dry grass laying around the floor of the cave. If anything, Diluc’s flat look turns even blanker, and a grim sort of resolution crosses his expression as he obediently leans over and sets fire to the bundle of makeshift kindling, the both of them watching the long-abused map disappear into the flames.
“Good riddance.”
He hears Diluc snort out something suspiciously close to a laugh, and when he glances at him as subtly as he can, the corner of Diluc’s mouth is actually tilted up in a smile. In the light of the fire, he looks almost unbearably gentle like this, the drying strands of his damp hair fluffed up in the way it tends to look after Diluc showers, and the loose fabric of his white undershirt reminiscent of his favorite pajama top.
Very suddenly--or perhaps not so suddenly, considering how often this has happened--Kaeya thinks that he wants to kiss him.
Diluc frowns at him, leaning forwards as he waves his hand slightly in front of Kaeya’s face, and it’s only then that Kaeya realizes that he’s been openly staring at Diluc for the past few minutes.
“Uh, sorry. Did you say something?” he asks, earning him a somewhat exasperated look from the other.
“I said, how are we meant to find our way there now?”
“I’m sure we can figure it out. Besides, you’ll know it when you see it, right? The outpost being a ‘major trading partner’ and whatnot.”
At that, Diluc shifts uncomfortably in place, instinctively reaching up to tug nervously at the loose strands of his fluffy bangs, the most clear indicator that Diluc is up to something. The other is quite possibly the worst liar that Kaeya knows--his first defense is always to hide behind his usually inscrutable expression, but the moment that falls apart, his tells become painfully obvious.
“Well,” Diluc admits, the reluctance heavy in his voice. “They do work with the Winery, yes. I simply...have never been there before.”
Kaeya raises a brow at the admission, wondering how long he can press this particular topic before Diluc’s embarrassment gets the better of him and forces his guard up.
“They’ve never seen you in person and they’re still asking for your help? Pretty bold move.”
“Of course not. I offered. A move to preserve relations with them.”
“Right. Business as usual. And I suppose coming to the Knights and offering yourself up was all about relations, too?”
“One of them, yes.”
The rare and honest admission is enough to steal whatever comeback Kaeya had been preparing away from him, and the small smile at Diluc’s lips turns slightly sharper as he recognizes the point in his favor.
“Well, whatever,” Kaeya coughs lightly, drawing one of his knees up to his chest. “Map or no map, we’ll figure it out. We always do.”
Diluc looks down, his long lashes casting the faintest of shadows on his cheeks, studying the ground beside him, his fingers tracing patterns into the stone. It’s a familiar motion, one that tugs at a string of memories in Kaeya’s mind, and he finds himself watching the other fondly for a long moment before he pulls himself out of the trance.
“You should sleep. I’ll take the first watch,” Kaeya offers, mostly because he really doubts he’ll be able to get any sleep at all. That, and it’s well past Diluc’s bedtime now--even with his nightly excursions as the Darknight Hero, the other’s never quite outgrown the characteristic sleepiness he’d always had as a child, the kind that sometimes made him hide beneath the covers and mumble for five more minutes before getting up for their lessons.
The other blinks at him in surprise, but doesn’t protest, quietly folding up his coat as a sort of pillow and curling up into it, the fluffy red of his hair spilling out over the black fabric like the flame of a candle against the night.
He’s curled on his side, facing away from Kaeya, but Kaeya still hears his gentle sigh as he slowly relaxes, and then the deepening of his even breaths as he slips away.
He looks smaller like this, even his shadow shrinking in the soft glow of the firelight, and Kaeya considers perhaps freezing his own hands in a block of ice to prevent himself from reaching out brushing the man’s soft hair away from his face. A practical solution to most of his Diluc-related issues, really.
Leaning his head against the wall of the cave, he forces himself to look away from the fluffy bundle of Diluc, but he can’t stop seeing the shadow of the smile on Diluc’s face, the faint pinkness of his flustered cheeks.
Maybe he’d better take second watch, too--he needs all the time to himself that he can get.
They get to the outpost some days later without further incident, only to find Amber waiting somewhat furiously for them, her arms crossed as she stares them down the second they enter the gates.
“You’re late --I’ve been waiting for you two forever!”
Kaeya quickly assembles the more oblivious of his personas, hoping that feigning innocence might allow them to escape with their ears intact.
“Sorry, Amber--we got a little lost. It’s a long way from Mondstadt to here, you know.”
“Lost? That’s not like you, Kaeya. What about the map?” Amber asks, and beside him, Kaeya can actually feel the way Diluc opens his mouth to answer.
“It got a little lost, too,” he quickly replies, before Diluc can inevitably pile the blame onto him.
Amber studies them with a mixture of suspicion and disapproval, but by the time she walks them from the gates to the center of the outpost, her temper has all but disappeared, her usual cheerfulness quickly taking over as she explains the situation to them.
As they move through the camp, some of the heads of the residents turn to follow them, Diluc’s name being passed around in their whispers, and Kaeya suspects that the other’s presence is as much of a surprise to these people as it had been to Kaeya a few days ago.
“Looks like they really don’t know you,” he mutters, nudging Diluc in the side. It’s almost strange how automatic friendly contact with the other has become over their few days of traveling, like Kaeya had never left the manor and Diluc had stayed in Mondstadt. “How does it feel to be the unsung hero?”
Diluc ignores him, as usual, but that’s probably because Amber is still rattling off the facts to them, leading them down a gently sloping decline and pointing out the entrance of the ruins, shrouded in frost-tipped ferns and gentle flakes of snow.
It’s noticeably colder in this area, even to Kaeya, and beside him, he can feel the way Diluc’s body temperature has actually gone up, the magical heat within him struggling to fight off the outside chill.
“Sure looks like a problem,” he says to Amber, who goes back to glaring at him.
“Exactly! It’s so cold here, and I still had to stick around and wait for you.”
“We’ll make it up to you later. Right, Diluc?”
“Don’t involve me in your empty promises,” Diluc turns to Amber as well, his eyes noticeably softer when he looks at someone that isn’t Kaeya. “But, should you need a favor of me in the future, I am obliged to fulfill it.”
Amber looks simultaneously flattered and alarmed by the offer, as if unsure of what to do with the sudden power she’s been afforded, having the richest man in Mondstadt in her temporary debt.
Probably get her gliding license back again, the next time it got revoked.
“Well...I mean, thanks. And Kaeya, you’d better!”
“It’s unfair how unkind everyone is to me,” Kaeya bemoans somewhat dramatically, stepping forwards to reach the sealed door of the ruins, inspecting the Cryo runes embedded in the door.
They’re inactivated for now, but he figures it shouldn’t take much more than a simple touch of his magic to fix that.
As the doors open, a sudden blast of wintry air blows through the entrance and directly into them, making Amber squawk from behind them and Diluc flinch at the sudden chill. Kaeya remains largely unaffected, as he is by most of the cold, instead peering into the dark of the ruins for any signs of an ambush, but the area before them seems relatively empty.
“I’m going back--going to get myself a bowl of soup. Don’t get eaten in there, and maybe I’ll leave some leftovers for when you come back,” Amber says, sounding thoroughly done with the entire affair.
She shivers violently, rubbing her arms as she turns on her heel and walks away, and Kaeya wonders how Diluc must be adjusting to the temperature, with his sensitivity so much higher than the average Pyro user’s.
Kaeya waves her off cheerfully, turning his attention to the task at hand.
“Fun times. You sure you don’t need to pick up an extra coat or something back at camp?”
Diluc shakes his head, his fingers running along the soft insides of his coat, his breath escaping him in a puff of warm air. “Let us be done with this.”
They get about a few meters in before they run into their first problem. After the initial hallway, the corridor opens up to a large, rectangular room, completely coated in ice and largely devoid of life.
Diluc starts forwards, but Kaeya, already spotting what he’d come in looking for, hurries to grab his arm. Perhaps it’s a testament to the small part of Diluc that’s grown up inherently trusting Kaeya, because the instant Kaeya touches his arm, he stops in his tracks, the tip of his boot pausing inches away from a small line of runes on the ground.
It’s the thinnest of lines, the color a shade of blue that blends in easily with the frost covered stones, and it stretches from nearly one side of the room to the other, with no way around it.
“Looks like they laid out a surprise for us,” Kaeya hums, squatting down to get a closer look at the pattern. It’s unlike the ones commonly used to activate elemental totems or the ones sealing the front door, the pattern spiky and sharp and twisted, and Kaeya actually isn’t sure what it might do, only that it can’t be good.
Diluc seems to recognize it, though, if the way he tenses at Kaeya’s side is any indication, and Kaeya recalls that Diluc’s solitary journey in the time he’d left Mondstadt had taken him further than Kaeya’s ever been.
“They’re designed to explode,” Diluc says finally, without much preamble. “At any disturbance.”
“Like stepping on them under a careless boot?”
The other’s gaze slides to the side, his eyes narrowed at the slightest hint of smugness in Kaeya’s voice, but Kaeya can’t quite help himself.
“Perhaps you should test that theory personally.”
“Yeah, I’m good. Look, let’s…” he drags Diluc behind one of the pillars of the ruins, ensuring that the both of them are safely tucked behind it for cover before he forms a hefty chunk of ice in his hand. Weighing it briefly in his hand, he figures that it should be enough to set off the magic contained in the runes. “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”
Diluc tips his head invitingly in Kaeya’s direction, the faint light of curiosity glinting in his eyes--for all of his careful and proper ways, Diluc is even more reckless than he is, sometimes.
If this brings down the cave on their heads, then Kaeya will be sure to use Diluc’s approval in his plea of self-defense.
He tosses the chunk of ice freely, the crystal arcing through the hair and bouncing lightly against the ground, sliding to a slow stop. The second the tip of it touches the edge of the runes, the entire line glows with a yellow light. There’s the sharp sound of cracking ice, and then a blinding flash of white, forcing Kaeya to shield his eye as the ground erupts in a jagged burst of ice, the floor splintering as sharp spikes are forced upright.
If they’d been standing there, they’d likely have been run through instantly.
“Hm,” says Diluc from beside him, but from the way he casts a brief glance down at his boots, Kaeya suspects that he’s thinking about exactly how close he’d come to dying in such an unfortunate manner.
“Guess we should be careful from here on out.”
Diluc seems to agree, if the way he actually allows Kaeya to lead the way is any indication.
“So,” Kaeya says, after they’ve been walking for some time, deciding to start up a conversation--which, of course, is the second thing that goes wrong. “You’re pretty familiar with these kinds of traps. Don’t think I’ve ever seen them around here, though, and the Knights cover a lot of ground.”
He feels Diluc tense up beside him at the prompt, his lips pressing together in a thin line as he eyes Kaeya warily. He’s never been fond of discussing the past--not anymore, at least--and especially not with him.
“They appeared often as security measures in the Fatui strongholds. I just...wasn’t expecting to see them here.”
“The Fatui, huh? You hang out in their bases often?” He’s certain that his attempts at sounding casual are falling rather flat, but this in particular has always been a touchy subject.
Aside from Diluc himself, it’s likely that not a single living soul knows of what Diluc went off to do in his years alone, and having such a big blank in his knowledge of Diluc’s life doesn’t sit well with him.
He prides himself on having all of the facts, of holding the details of any situation in the palm of his hand, but more than that, it admittedly hurts to have Diluc, of all people, feel like a stranger to him.
“I was investigating our... my father’s death.”
Well. That one hurts a little more.
He tries to let it slide, especially because it’s nothing that he hasn’t heard before, but these past two months or so--since the day he’d woken up in Diluc’s bedroom, bandaged and tucked under his covers with the other asleep at his bedside--have felt like fragments of a dream. Things between them have been feeling different, in the good way, like they’re no longer trying to hurt each other with pointed words and sharp looks and walls and years of distance between them.
And somewhere in the middle of it all, Kaeya’s forgotten how to not care.
“So, I’ve officially been pruned from the family tree.”
Diluc’s expression tightens even further, now so cold and unreadable that Kaeya almost wonders how he could have ever seen it another way.
“You’re not my brother.”
“As you’ve said multiple times. Doesn’t change the fact that we used to be.”
The sound of Diluc’s footsteps comes to a sudden halt, and when Kaeya dares to look back at him, forcing himself to turn around, Diluc is glaring at him in a way he doesn’t recognize on the other’s face, his expression bitter with the depths of his frustration.
“What do you want, Sir Kaeya?”
Kaeya stops then, too, because his reply twists hard in his stomach, snagging somewhere in his throat and dying on his tongue, because--what does he want?
He wants the other to talk to him, to give him more than three or four bitter words at a time. He wants to feel like he can trust Diluc again, like he can open up to him without fear of consequence.
He wants to set things back by all those years and go back to when they were young and stupid and their biggest concern was the next place they could hide to sneak in a few moments together, to when Diluc sat with him under the trees of the vineyard’s orchards and smiled at him in a way reserved only for him.
And maybe he wants so badly to card his fingers in the back of Diluc’s soft hair, to bring him closer and to kiss him, because doing that is maybe easier, less impossible than any of the above, is maybe the only way he’ll ever get to feel close to him again.
“I--” he starts, but apparently, he’s taken too long to answer, because Diluc is already shaking his head.
“You left the manor. You told me we weren’t family. That your real family is somewhere in Khaenir’ah, that you were only here all along for the sake of your mission. And then, years later, I come back to Mondstandt, and you call me your brother. What should I make of that, Sir Kaeya?”
Kaeya bites at the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood, because everything Diluc says is technically true--he’d told Diluc all of that because he’d had to tell him, because in the aftermath of Diluc’s father’s death, he’d realized that he’d never really known how much he’d loved and been loved until the man had been gone. It’d hurt, more than he was ready for, to run up to the scene at the last second and find their father already dead in Diluc’s arms, to feel responsible for it all and not involved in any of it at the same time.
He remembers waiting outside of the room where their personal medic had been attending to Diluc, remembers hearing the whispers of the staff around him and the weight of their gazes on him, all of them wondering what he was still doing here, now that he’d failed to repay his debt to his adopted father when he’d needed to the most.
It’d hurt, and Kaeya hadn’t known what else to do but go to Diluc--because who else could he have gone to, really, who else would listen to him other than the one who understood him the most--only to find that he’d made everything worse than before.
In the face of Diluc’s rather...hostile reaction to the truth, it’d just been easier to leave. Without Diluc, there really wasn’t a place for him at the manor, not with the way the staff spoke of him behind his back and their father’s ghost haunted his footsteps no matter where in the house he went.
But he doesn’t say any of that. He doesn’t because he sees it clearly now--history is repeating itself before their eyes, and if he opens his heart now and tries to explain the truth of his emotions to Diluc, things will end badly for all parties involved.
Instead, he throws up his walls again, fishing deep within himself for his usual defenses, the strength of his desperation adding an extra layer of venom in his words that poisons him to even say it.
“You don’t seem to care so much about any of that when I’m in your bed,” he snaps crudely, barely recognizing his own voice above the roaring of his heartbeat in his ears. “You’re the one who started all of that up again, aren’t you?”
Diluc’s response is so fast that Kaeya’s certain it must have been rehearsed, a jagged knife that Diluc’s been preparing all along. “We shouldn’t haven’t done that, either. I...made a mistake.”
And that one hurts most of all.
“Fine,” Kaeya says, turning away and slamming the door shut on this conversation.
The silence between them has never felt so bitter, and he stalks into the next room without speaking further, feeling Diluc hesitate behind him before trailing after him at a distance.
This room is empty, just like all the rest, and if Kaeya were thinking straight, he would maybe acknowledge the creeping suspicion flickering in the back of his mind. But he can’t think straight, can barely see straight with the taste of acid and copper in his mouth, with how tightly he’s wound up, like he feels like he might snap.
The door ahead of them is sealed, set on the other side of a large pool of water, the gap far too wide for them to reasonably cross. Their only hint as to how to get over is the Cryo totem sitting innocuously on a raised platform in the middle of the pool.
“So we blast this totem, it does whatever it will to get us to the other side, we deal with the problem, and then it’s over. We’re done.”
Diluc looks at the side of his head for a long minute, but Kaeya refuses to meet his gaze, keeping his attention fixated solely on the job. If he allows himself to think of anything else, even for a second, to see the red of Diluc’s hair and eyes and the soft, pale set of his skin, he feels like he’ll fly apart completely.
“...yes.”
“Fine,” he says again, turning to the Cryo totem and readying his magic, which is really when everything starts to go wrong--not that they hadn’t already been all wrong, this entire time.
Frost snakes its way through his veins, stemming from the pit of his stomach and gathering on his palms, his fingers icing over. It’s not normally so noticeable, his Cryo, but his hands are trembling with something he’s not certain he can control, a sensation that has nothing to do with the cold.
“Let’s just get this over with, then.” His voice sounds wrong to his own ears, too sharp and cheery to really be his own, but he refuses to let himself hear it, instead starting to feed a steady stream of ice into the totem. “We’ll finish up here and part ways and you can go back to your Winery and never—“”
“Kaeya.”
Diluc sees it before he does, somehow. The other’s always been more about the details, sometimes focusing so hard on his precision he forgets about the world around him, but on this occasion, it serves him well.
At the sound of Diluc’s voice, his single word soft but sharp, guarded with warning, Kaeya blinks once, twice at the totem, and it’s only then that he sees the extra sigil at the bottom, the fragile rune cleverly disguised as part of the totem’s standard pattern. It lights up under the pressure of Kaeya’s already recklessly uncontrolled magic, a sharp noise like cracking frost echoing through the air, and the sound tugs at something in Kaeya’s mind, a long-buried phantom of the past.
In the next instant, the world flashes a brilliant white, and Kaeya feels something slam hard into his gut, the impact tilting his world to the side in a sudden lurch. His head hits the stone walls of the temple hard, the pain blurring his vision and dulling his senses. Through the spots in his vision, he sees a nauseating blend of shapes and colors and sound, black and white and ice and the tiniest flash of red, much like the flame of a candle against the night.
The world swells up in a pillar of flame, the heat so strong it evaporates the snow on the ground and the walls in an instant. It swallows Diluc’s form, and then Kaeya’s vision, and before the world blinks out, he catches the faintest glimpse of what could be Diluc’s eyes, if it weren’t for the amount of regret in them--
And then nothing.