Chapter Text
Kaeya found Diluc on the roof outside his bedroom, arms wrapped around his knees, big ruby eyes reflecting the starry sky. It was the tail end of what felt at the time like an endless summer; long hot days, short nights crowded with the hum of cicadas. Diluc was a summer child and thrived in the heat; Kaeya had been sweaty and itchy for weeks. They were thirteen, and the world seemed to open at their feet.
“I heard what the captain said,” Kaeya said, by way of greeting. Diluc frowned at him through his fringe.
“I don’t need comforting,” he said, like a liar. There was a bruise blooming, faintly green, on his cheekbone. Kaeya wanted to press his fingers to it. He wanted Diluc to have bruises in the shape of Kaeya’s own hands.
“That’s a relief, I’m not any good at it,” Kaeya said flippantly, settling next to him. Diluc snorted, as if against his better instinct. Kaeya grinned in self-satisfaction. “The captain’s hard on you because she knows you can take it. Not that it’s an excuse but—"
“I can take it,” Diluc insisted, “It’s just—" he broke off into a sigh and Kaeya picked up the thread of his thought.
“It’s a lot when it’s all the time,” Diluc nodded, looking relieved that Kaeya could read him so easily. Idiot, Kaeya thought to himself, an equal mix of fondness and disbelief at war inside him.
Kaeya bounced back quick from hurts like these, he was adaptable, he had to be, for the ground felt like it was ever-shifting underfoot. Nothing felt permanent; not his position, not this home, not even Diluc. Not that he’d ever tell him as much; he didn’t want his friend to make promises he couldn’t keep.
“It’s not fair, but the captain believes the pressure will make you stronger,” Kaeya said, “You are the best of us,”
Diluc squinted at him. “You always make that sound like a bad thing,”
Kaeya grinned. “Do I not show enough reverence, brother?”
Diluc looked away, blushing pink and Kaeya’s heart soared.
“I told you not to call me that,” he said, his voice soft and shy, not at all the way he’ll say it later.
“Then what shall I call you, dearest?” Kaeya asked, teasing. Diluc’s blush was sweet and perfect and just for him. Kaeya could eat him alive. Diluc’s hand was warm in his own, his grip steady and sure. The sky unfurled above them, a wash of stars nearly as bright as the sun and Kaeya knew, deep in his heart, that he was going to ruin it.
-
Which he did. It was Diluc’s eighteenth birthday and... well, you probably know the story.
Nothing much of note happens in the years Diluc’s away. Kaeya cleans up the ordo, gets promoted to Diluc’s old position, jacks off in his office to spite his memory, ingratiates himself with the over-eighty crowd. Time passes. Things change, but never enough.
Upon Diluc's return to Mondstadt what was once an understanding silence between them filled with snipes and jabs. They fell back on fighting, verbally, physically, as their main method of communication. Kaeya enjoys it immensely, though it exasperates literally everyone around them—and maybe that's partly why he has so much fun. He could happily go the rest of his life annoying Diluc, save one new problem: in the year since Diluc returned from his protracted sulk across Teyvat, Kaeya has experienced increasingly alarming reactions to the proximity of his once-brother.
The first time it happened, Kaeya thought he was having an honest to gods heart attack. A pain seized his chest, unfamiliar and powerful, his breath snatched from his lungs. Because Diluc greeted him in the street?
He went straight to Barbara, instead of the odo healers because he was pretty sure deaconesses had to swear stricter confidentially oaths, and demanded a checkup. Afterwards, she looked at him with some confusion and told him he was “perfectly healthy.”
So he put it completely out of mind until it happened again, when Diluc’s fingers caught under his as he served him a drink. Then Kaeya went to annoy Diluc into loaning his tavern for Jean’s surprise party and left shaky-legged and faint of breath. Diluc snorted at some off-hand remark Kaeya made and Kaeya’s stomach dropped to the floor. Kaeya drunkenly twirled a strand of fiery hair around one finger, and when molten eyes met his he all but dissolved.
Kaeya can repress like a champ, but he has a growing suspicion his body’s slow revolt will either embarrass him to death or give him heartburn to last a lifetime. He’s sure there’s a simple solution, but even a convoluted one will do.
This feels too close to losing and Kaeya hates to lose.
-
Kaeya is drunk when he comes up with the idea, which is only a partial defense because he goes through with it sober.
He’d been posted up in the Cat’s Tail for the better part of the afternoon, drinking and gossiping and absolutely not thinking about the crinkle around Diluc’s eyes, the radiant heat of his body, the way Kaeya’s heart staged a bloody coup every time he was in proximity. At some point, Venti joined him, after which Kaeya went from being tipsy to full-blown blasted trying to match the bard drink-for-drink.
“I just get all—tense, you know? In here,” Kaeya thumps a hand to his chest, “All my—my blood leaves my brain,”
“Sounds dangerous,” Venti nods along vaguely, blotting hopelessly at a wine stain on his collar. Kaeya knows he’s over-sharing, but if you over-share to a god doesn’t that make it confession?
“He just—it’s like he turns off my ability to think and my body takes over,” Kaeya stares darkly into his empty glass. He’s positive it was full just a moment ago. “And all it wants is to—is to—"
“You need to get laid,” Venti interrupts, waving a finger unsteadily in his face.
“Okay, look. I get that you’re actually a thousands-years old entity, but you need to understand that you look twelve,” Kaeya shoots back, “And that comment is age-inappropriate,”
Venti gargles a mouthful of dandelion wine in his direction. “Fuuuuuck you,”
“Wait—" Kaeya comes to an abrupt realization, “Are you saying that this feeling is just—that I’m just horny?”
“How should I know,” Venti says, acidly, “I’m twelve,”
But Kaeya is no longer listening. Of course he's just horny. And there's an easy solution at hand: if he can sleep with Diluc maybe this feeling will go away, and he can stop taking anti-acids. He experiences a moment of crystal-clear certainty that is then washed away in a queasy haze of continued drinking.
Evening slips into night slips into day; Venti performs a song so lewd even Kaeya’s ears burn; Kaeya plays a botched game of cards that somehow goes his way; at one point he recalls seeing Mondstadt from impossibly high, all the streetlamps reduced to the faint pulse of fireflies, and then he wakes in his own bed to a splitting headache, missing one shoe entirely.
But the idea stays with him. All through the morning while he nurses his hangover, reports dutifully to Jean, scampers about trying to look less busy than he is, the idea slowly, steadily, germinates into a plan. Though plan is perhaps too grand a word. He thinks it’ll work, anyway. Mostly.
This way Kaeya can exorcise the distracting heat in his chest. This way, Diluc can work out some of his feelings in a nonviolent, fun way. And if repetition means he associates Kaeya with feeling good then... that’s a win for everyone.
Kaeya makes his way to the Angel’s Share that evening, when he knows Diluc tends bar, the tavern air humid and ripe from bodies pressed together around tables, the smell of smoke and drink long since seeped into the floors.
His eye finds Diluc immediately, posted up behind the bar, and something lurches painfully inside him. He’s got his red hair up, his coat off, his shirtsleeves rolled back to reveal the flex of muscle in his forearms, the strength of his hands. Kaeya wants those hands around his throat.
“Can I help you?” Diluc asks, flatly. Kaeya smiles winsomely as he saunters up to the bar. Up close, he can see some hair stuck to Diluc’s temples from sweat. His ribs contract painfully around his lungs.
“I sure hope so, dear brother,” Kaeya says, leaning up against the bar. Diluc’s expression doesn’t shift from his default bland look. Kaeya smiles wider.
Diluc doesn’t speak much, or move much, because every word, every sigh, every tap of the finger, gives him away. He had to learn stillness to conceal the honesty of his body. It’s useless around Kaeya, anyway, who has learned to read his silence the way he used to read his face.
“I’m tempted to kick you out pre-emptively,” Diluc says, but it’s clearly out of habit, not real resentment. Kaeya touches a hand to his chest in mock offense.
“Why, Master Diluc how uncharitable of you,” Kaeya says. Diluc’s eye twitches minutely. “And here, I had a mutually beneficial proposal—”
“Not interested.”
“C’mon, you didn’t even hear me out,” Kaeya wheedles. Diluc folds his arms, which shows off his biceps unfairly. Kaeya wishes he were wearing his coat, even though it’s a hundred degrees in the bar, his shirt isn’t even done up properly revealing a slice of pale skin right below his throat—
“Sir Kaeya, I assure you I am not interested,” Diluc says dryly. Kaeya clears his throat and drags his eye back up to his face.
“Okay. That’s... not really ideal, I was hoping we could smash,” Kaeya gestures vaguely.
“We could what?” Diluc snaps, brow furrowing in confusion.
“You know,” Kaeya gestures more specifically, “Smash,”
Diluc bodily removes him from the tavern. But he doesn’t say no, precisely.
He decides to give Diluc a couple of days to think it over before he tries again.
-
Kaeya replays the conversation in his mind, trying to puzzle out where he stands with Diluc these days. Based on the exact flex of his jaw, the specific shade of annoyance in his voice, Kaeya thinks Diluc might be warming to him again, the softie. When they were boys, Diluc always had trouble saying no to Kaeya. He’s curious to see how much of that old habit still exists behind the walls Diluc’s put up.
“Kaeya?” Jean interrupts the flow of his thoughts, forcing his gaze away from the window and back to the map on the table, then up to Jean’s frowning face. “I need your focus here right now,”
Kaeya likes Jean, because she’s unflappable but has a gentle hand, and she knows how to manage him. Kaeya is aware he’s the kind of person who needs managing.
“Of course, of course.” He clears his throat and collects the scattered threads of his thoughts to hand. Right, they were discussing abyss activity on the coast.
“Those pesky abyss mages left little behind in the ways of clues but, based on their movements in the area, they’re likely to be aiming to move in on northern territory,” Kaeya drags his hand across the map and circles the spot, “Give me five knights or convince our honorary knight to help and I can eliminate them this week,”
Jean is peering into his face like she’s looking for something. Kaeya taps his fingers against the table. Is forty-eight hours too short to check in with Diluc? Any longer and he might not take him seriously. Jean folds her arms and releases her breath in something that could almost be considered a sigh.
“Kaeya, I...” Jean gives him that Look she does sometimes, like she can’t say what she really means. “I hope you know what you’re doing,”
There are about six different things that statement could apply to, but only one correct answer.
“Jean, darling, of course I do,” he smiles, “When have I ever strayed?”
Jean’s expression contracts in an interesting way. Like she’s resisting the temptation to roll her eyes.
“Alright,” she concedes. She looks at him for beat, brow creased in concentration, and then smiles. Kaeya is suddenly hit by the unnerving thought that they are not having the same conversation at all. “Just be careful,”
-
He jimmies the same busted hinge to get into Diluc’s bedroom that they used to use to sneak out. He still sleeps in this smaller room at the winery, though the master bedroom is empty. Kaeya thinks it’s, in some ways, more morbid than sleeping in his dead father’s bed.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” A familiar voice growls at him as he conscientiously closes the window from the inside. Kaeya turns with a brilliant smile already in place.
“Dearest, I’m back,” he says, as annoyingly as possible. Diluc folds his arms and stares him down, but Kaeya detects a certain weakness at the left corner of his mouth.
There’s still a lamp on, which Kaeya took as invitation, and the warm glow lights up Diluc’s scowl beautifully. He’s wearing just a soft cotton shirt and trousers, his feet endearingly bare on the floorboards. Kaeya feels his expression shift without his say-so and hikes his smirk a little higher.
“What gave you the sense you were welcome here at all?” Diluc demands. Kaeya spreads his hands in an exaggerated gesture of peace.
“Well, it seemed you were unwilling to discuss our arrangement at the bar—”
“We have no arrangement,” Diluc bites out.
“Aw, don’t be like that,” Kaeya chastises. Diluc’s scowl sharpens. Kaeya tries his best to rearrange his expression into sincerity.
“Look, we’ve both got a lot of feelings about our shared past—"
“—a lot of negative feelings,” Diluc points out, unnecessarily.
“—and I just thought you’d might like to take them out on me,” Kaeya pauses, “Or I could take mine out on you? I don’t really mind how we do this,”
Diluc makes a face like he’s just stubbed his toe, but maybe it’s just the face he makes when he considers the myriad awesome ways they could fuck. Kaeya is nothing if not an optimist.
“Why is it you really want this?” Diluc demands, folding his arms across his chest.
“Are you suggesting I could have ulterior motives?” Kaeya presses a hand to his chest to express his offense, “I’m hurt,”
“Wounded, even?” Diluc suggests, dryly. Kaeya chuckles and catches the faintest softening around Diluc’s mouth.
“Here is what I get out of this: one, we let out some pent-up frustration in a fun way instead of a painful one; two, I get laid; and three,” Kaeya pauses, counting out his reasons on his fingers, and tries to think why he wants this as badly as he does. I get to touch you, to have you, in a way that makes you vulnerable. He settles on: “If we’re more amiable Jean will get off my case,”
Diluc squints at him, as if to better see the truth in his words. “That’s it?”
“I am also attracted to you, Diluc,” Kaeya says, exasperated, “Is that what you want to hear?”
Diluc’s cheeks glow pink. His eyes skitter away and he grumbles, “Don’t mock me,”
Kaeya dares to step in a little closer, hands visible and open, and smiles. “We can start easy, how about I blow you,”
“What.”
“I’ll suck your dick, Diluc, or whatever you’d like, no qualifiers, no laughing,” At Diluc’s look, he amends, “Okay maybe some laughing, but only in the moment,”
“And if I tell you to go?” Diluc asks, suspiciously.
A small pause. “I’ll go. Of course, I’ll go,”
“But you’ll be back,” Diluc says, darkly. As though Kaeya’s presence is some kind of curse.
“Look, all I’m saying is this could be an easy way to work out your frustration. It’ll be just between you and me, I promise,”
Diluc sighs and looks to the ceiling, as if he might find answers there. “I don’t know why I’m even considering this,”
“Because it’s not such a bad idea? Because you haven’t gotten laid in a while? Because I can’t talk if my mouth is full of dick?” Kaeya suggests, all innocence. The corner of Diluc’s mouth twitches up minutely before he flattens it back down. Kaeya counts it as a win.
“This could be fun, you know? I’ll do whatever you want, no questions asked,” Kaeya wheedles. Diluc looks at him a long moment, his gaze assessing. Kaeya wants to scream, Trust me in this! Had he fallen so far in Diluc’s esteem that a simple fuck between friends was such a big ask?
“Okay...” Diluc squints at him, “Take your top off,”
Kaeya hastily gets to work unbuckling his clothes. Partway through he considers that he maybe he ought to make it sexy and throws Diluc a heated look through his lashes. Diluc snorts.
“Stop that right now,” he presses a hand over his eyes, “This is a bad idea,”
“No it’s not,” Kaeya insists, shucking the last layer and baring his skin to the cool night air. Diluc lowers his hand and looks at him. After several long moments, Kaeya begins to experience what he thinks might be embarrassment prickling the back of his neck.
“Are we...?”
Diluc sighs. “Okay. Go ahead.”
It’s not exactly enthusiastic, but Kaeya’s sure they can get there.
Kaeya steps in close, so close that the soft silk of Diluc’s shirt brushes his chest, and touches his mouth to Diluc’s throat. He pets a hand down his front, traces his fingers playfully over his crotch. Diluc lets out a soft breath, just shy of a sigh, and his hands grip lightly at Kaeya’s waist. Kaeya licks over his pulse, tastes salt, breathes deep the rich smell of leather, of sulphur and fire, and bites down lightly. He feels Diluc’s cock stir under his hand.
“Alright?” he asks, softly. Diluc swallows, Kaeya nuzzles into the base of his throat and hooks his fingers into Diluc’s belt meaningfully.
“Yes,” Diluc replies and Kaeya can feel the rumble of his voice in his lips. He folds to his knees and unfastens Diluc’s belt, tugs his trousers down so he can slip his cock out of his underwear. He works him with his hand, easing him to fullness, enjoying the heat of him, the weight in his hand. Diluc has a nice cock, so rosy red as it flushes in his grip, thick and curved, ever so slightly, upwards. As he reaches fullness, Kaeya leans in and tongues his slit. Diluc takes a slightly deeper breath and Kaeya smirks, he can’t help it.
He braces one hand on Diluc’s hip while the other holds his cock steady, and licks several hot stripes up him, getting his cock wet enough that when he opens his mouth around him, he can take him deep on the first bob of his head. He hums in satisfaction at the gentle stretch of his jaw, lets his eye drift shut, and begins to move in earnest.
Lisa has tried, multiple times, to explain meditation to Kaeya, but his brain has never sat still long enough to learn it. He thinks that sucking dick is probably the closest he’ll ever get to a zen-like state. His focus narrows in on the act, but it takes so little attention he mostly just enjoys it; the weight of a cock in his mouth, the heady smell of musk and sweat, the heat of another, the taste.
“Kaeya,” Diluc sighs, and Kaeya almost chokes. He runs his fingers through Kaeya’s fringe, combing it off his face and holds the hair gently back. Kaeya opens his eye to see Diluc staring down at him, a look of blissed disbelief on his face.
This was a bad idea. A terrible idea.
Kaeya is suddenly hyper-aware that it’s Diluc’s cock in his mouth, Diluc’s breath loud in the quiet room. The taste of him on his tongue, the smell of him thick in his nose. Kaeya’s heart hammers so fast, so hard, he’s convinced it’ll break his ribs. His rhythm falters and he closes his eye, tries to focus, but there’s an overwhelming heat pooling at the base of his spine, an electric jitter in his hands.
Diluc groans. “Ah—close,”
Kaeya hums in acknowledgement while his head spins, licking sloppily up his shaft to suckle at the head of his cock as Diluc grunts, fingers tightening in Kaeya’s hair, and comes. Kaeya works him through it with his mouth, swallowing the bitter spend and licking Diluc clean. When he pulls off, he’s out of breath and hard as hell.
“See?” Kaeya pants, smearing the mess off his face onto the back of his hand, “Don’t you feel better?”
Diluc is staring down at him with those big, sweet eyes wide and unblinking, his lips parted for his wheezing breath. Kaeya’s heart tightens like a fist. Obviously, the situation calls for a strategic retreat and regroup.
“Well—I’m glad we did this,” he scrambles to his feet and starts snatching up his discarded clothes. Diluc just stands there, expression stunned like he’s been slapped, his dick hanging out of his pants like the punch line to a joke.
“Let’s do it again sometime, eh?” Kaeya says cheerily and, one arm through the sleeve of his shirt, dives out the open window.
He’s halfway to Mondstadt before he realizes he left his cloak behind.
-
Kaeya strategically retreats all the way to Wolvendom, where he spends a week frolicking through the woods with Aether, beating up hilichurl and collecting wildflowers.
Part of him had been convinced sucking Diluc’s dick would mirror the time he and Lisa had fooled around, only to look at each other after the fact in a mutual expression of eh, not for me. But it hadn’t been like that, not at all, possibly it had been the exact opposite.
“Kaeya, I was wondering…” Aether blinks up at him, clear-eyed and gentle, “You’re the Cavalry Captain, but I’ve never seen any cavalry around Mondstadt,”
“Aether, my good friend, this is not the kind of shit I need right now,” Kaeya says, as jovially as possible. Razor glares at him over Aether’s shoulder as if he means to gnaw his arm off. Kaeya should count his lucky stars Paimon’s wandered off with their little chef otherwise she’d do it for him.
But Aether just gives him a droll half-smile and says, “Well I hope you figure out what it is you do need,”
After a week of do-gooder fieldwork not so far from the Dawn Winery, Kaeya figures what he needs—more than dignity, a warm bath and apparently cavalrymen—is to get laid, again. Well, to be fair he did shoot straight out Diluc’s window before the cum had cooled on his chin, so he didn’t even really get laid in the first place. Anyway. Kaeya splits off from the traveller’s group and, after a quick detour for a speedy washing-up in the river, heads straight for the winery.
The sunset paints the hills in golds and reds, lighting up acres of grape trellises they used to race through as boys, bathes the walls of the old house russet. Kaeya takes a deep breath of fresh air, as if to fortify himself, and then enters through the front door. He greets what servants he meets pleasantly and none of them try to stop him. Diluc must’ve given them the all-clear, which is something to mull over at a later date.
The door to the young master’s room is half-open and Kaeya silently pushes it the rest of the way, revealing Diluc at his desk, writing. Kaeya leans up against the doorframe and crosses his arms in the way he knows makes his pecs look good.
“I’ve come back for my cloak,” he says, lightly.
“Hmph,” Diluc snorts without looking up, “You’re lucky I didn’t burn it,”
“I knew you really cared,” Kaeya says, as annoyingly as possible. Diluc still doesn’t look up, making Kaeya’s pose all for naught. With a sigh he uncrosses his arms and moves into the room.
The last gasp of sunlight bathes the space buttery yellow, lighting up Diluc’s hair like a bonfire. He’s scratching away at a letter, a tidy pile of correspondences stamped for delivery in the morning at his elbow. He isn’t wearing his gloves. His fingers are long and thick, the nails neatly trimmed and buffed. There are several scars along his knuckles, more than a few of them thanks to young Kaeya’s own clumsiness with a training sword. He has his own Diluc-inflicted scars to match.
He perches his ass on the edge of the desk, which brings to attention the tight fit of his pants and is annoying to Diluc, so it’s a win-win. Diluc’s knuckles turn white from his grip on his pen.
“Cloak’s in the hall closet,” Diluc says, stiffly. His false nonchalance is so transparent it makes Kaeya smile.
“I also thought we... could continue?” Kaeya suggests, keeping his tone light. Finally, Diluc looks up at him through his fiery hair. Like this he looks sweet, almost innocent. Kaeya wants to eat him alive.
Instead, he trails one hand down his own chest until he finds the first button below his sternum. Diluc’s gaze wavers but holds steady on Kaeya’s face. It’s a good save, but the waver tells Kaeya all he needs to know.
With what is probably a shit-eating grin, Kaeya finishes unbuttoning his shirt and shimmies out of it, dropping it to the floor beside the desk. He trails a hand down his stomach and fiddles with the fastenings of his trousers. Diluc’s gaze sharpens and then, at last, drops.
Kaeya is flexible, he flits from one plan to the next, ever shifting to find the greatest advantage. Diluc, on the other hand, once a decision is made he follows through until the end, even if that end is tragedy. So Kaeya smiles in satisfaction but not surprise when Diluc drops his pen and shoves backwards from the desk.
“Come here,” he says, with an easy confidence, but his ears betray him, burning bright red. Grinning, Kaeya slings one leg over Diluc’s thighs and settles onto his lap, placing his hands lightly on his shoulders. Diluc’s radiant heat sets his blood to boil, washing over him as if he were aflame.
“Do you—"
“Shut up,” Diluc says, immediately, “Don’t talk,”
Kaeya makes a face, then mimes sealing his lips with exaggerate sarcasm. Diluc rolls his eyes and then touches him. His hands are warm and steady, palms and fingers calloused from his sword, rough from old burns and scars, yet somehow soothing on Kaeya’s skin. Diluc touches him with an idle curiousity, not particularly focused, hands trailing over his back, up his sides, along the contours of his abs. Kaeya is going to lose his goddamn mind.
Diluc traces one hand up Kaeya’s chest, circles his nipple for a long moment and then suddenly pinches the nub. Kaeya jolts as heat shoots down his spine. Diluc shifts under him, spreading his legs, and drops his other hand to the small of Kaeya’s back, presses him in close. Sparks fly up Kaeya’s spine from the friction and he grinds down into Diluc, releasing a faint gasp for air that twists sharply as Diluc tugs at his nipple. Suddenly his body is hot all over, his pants too tight.
“Kaeya,” Diluc says, softly, “Could you come like this?”
Kaeya stares down at him, speechless. Diluc looks up at him with those sweet eyes, his mouth folded into a small frown. Like he’s concentrating. Kaeya opens his mouth to answer, but Diluc drags his nails up his spine and what comes out instead is a soft, pathetic, “Ah,”
The corners of Diluc’s eyes pinch, in a hidden smile.
Diluc grips his hips tightly and grinds up into him, sending a rush of shivers up Kaeya’s spine as his nerves light up. He rocks down to meet him, the keen pleasure of friction between his legs, the firmness of Diluc’s cock through his pants, make his mouth water.
In the back of his mind, Kaeya searches for the advantage, for how he can wrestle back control of the situation. Diluc told him not to talk, and Kaeya promised he’d do as told, which he should honour if he wants to keep what little trust he’s scrabbled together—
Diluc opens his mouth against Kaeya’s collarbone and sucks. Kaeya grunts softly, the wet heat of his mouth like liquid fire on his skin, melting down his spine.
“Do you ever stop thinking?” Diluc snaps, pulling back to look up into his face. Kaeya blinks down at him.
“Is that rhetorical, or—?” He quips, though his voice comes out unpleasantly breathy. Whatever, it’s been a week since he blew Diluc, so what if he’s eager? Diluc stares up at him blandly and cups the back of his skull, his hand hot and reassuringly large. He pulls Kaeya in so his face tucks in against his throat.
“No marks,” he says, sternly. Kaeya hides his grin against Diluc’s throat, tugging his collar further open so he can open his mouth against his pulse. He tastes salt and sulphur, sucks gently at the soft skin, hums at the feel of Diluc’s pulse against his tongue. Diluc’s breath is hot and hard in his ear as they move together, tension winding urgently at the base of Kaeya’s spine.
Diluc presses his hand to his tailbone, a flush of heat throbs in Kaeya’s navel and he grinds down into his lap, then presses back into his touch. Diluc’s hand slips down further, fingers pressing into the seam of Kaeya’s ass, blistering even through his trousers, and Kaeya makes an undignified sound against Diluc’s throat. He feels hot all over, heat dissolving his spine and pooling urgently in his navel, shudders thundering through him at every press of Diluc up against him and—
And Kaeya comes in his pants, like a teenager.
-
Kaeya is walking on air the next day, which is just as well, because it’s his turn to escort Klee up Dragonspire to visit with Albedo.
Klee is on her best behaviour, which she tends to be on visiting days, though he still has to corral her away from dangers, feed her a steady flow of snacks to keep her sugar up, and then eventually, as it always ends, carry her the last hour.
Klee’s lucky she’s cute.
“Big brother!” She chirps and claws her way off Kaeya’s back. Albedo looks up suddenly from his workbench, his gaze still faraway and vague.
“Oh? Is it that time already?” He turns and kneels to regard Klee, bouncing on her toes before him. “How are you, Klee?”
“I’m good! Sir Kaeya gave me snacks and I saved some for you!” Klee reaches out a fist, which she opens to reveal crushed dried fruits, stuck to her skin.
“Thank you,” Albedo says, solemnly, “Though I’m not going to eat that,”
“Oh. Okay,” Klee brushes her hand off. Kaeya wanders to the meager pantry at the back wall in search of sustenance, lifting his hand vaguely in greeting to Timaeus as he passes. Even the junior alchemist doesn’t take note of him.
“Have you been good, Klee?” Albedo asks.
“Yes! Well—maybe... there was this once... with Mr Fluffy...”
“Don’t worry about that, Al,” Kaeya says over one shoulder, still rooting through the pantry, “It was an Abyss mage,”
“Was it?” Albedo says, with the enthused emphasis he uses only for Klee, “Good girl,”
“Thanks?” Klee replies, uncertainly. Kaeya finally uncovers the half-bottle of whiskey he stashed here the last time he had to babysit and uncorks it with his teeth. He finds a seat away from all of Albedo’s equipment and sips from the bottle, watching the alchemist prepare a pot of hot chocolate, chatting with Klee while she hops around the lab.
Kaeya watches them, kicking his feet up on a stool, nursing the bottle. It stirs something up inside him to watch the pair together. Albedo is so surprisingly good with Klee, earning every iota of adoration she gives him. He doesn’t really understand sibling relationships—his own with Diluc certainly has always been a source of great confusion—but he thinks that theirs is probably an ideal version of one. For some reason it bothers him, crawls under his skin like an itch he can’t scratch.
Albedo sits with Klee as she slurps her hot chocolate, asking specific questions about what she’s been up to since they saw each other last. Once Klee has summarized events up to and including their entrance to the lab, Albedo carries her to the cot tucked into an alcove and begins to relate the process of his research. He’s barely even begun describing a series of trials he had Aether run when Klee drops off into sleep.
Albedo pauses a beat, obviously considering whether he wants to continue his story even with his audience unconscious, then turns to Kaeya.
“Thank you for bringing Klee,” he says. Kaeya waves off his thanks.
“It’s always quite the touching reunion,” he says, dryly, tipping back in the chair. He’s just starting to be able to feel his toes again. Albedo cocks his head at him, curiously, and stands to walk closer. Oh no, Kaeya thinks.
“You’re different, today, sir Kaeya,” Albedo says. There’s a faint spark in his eyes, the promise of a puzzle, however small, always intriguing to his ever-curious mind.
“Not sure what you mean,” Kaeya replies, uneasy.
“Well, usually I have to spend nearly as much time calming you down as I do Klee,” Albedo says blandly, “Typically you gripe for a half-hour about the trip,”
“Careful, Al,” Kaeya says, mildly, “You’ll hurt all three of my feelings,”
“You seem much more... at ease,” Kaeya lifts the bottle in cheers and Albedo frowns, “I still do not approve of your drinking here,”
“Stop making it so easy to hide the bottles in your mess and I won’t bother,” Kaeya replies. Albedo rubs his chin, obviously undeterred from his line of thought.
“Something has certainly changed. I’m no expert in human behaviour—" here Kaeya snorts, loudly, “—but you seem... happier,”
Kaeya stares at him, “What?”
Albedo nods to himself, “You are happier.”
Kaeya feels oddly put out, the way he tends to if Albedo spares him even a second of his attention. The alchemist might have little to no interest in most people, but it’s probably for the better, considering the way his gaze feels like it could peel Kaeya’s skin off.
“When she wakes, she’s going to be hungry,” Kaeya tips the bottle in the direction of the gently snoring Klee, “Do you have supplies for dinner?”
“Oh, ah, of course,” Albedo turns to stare into the barren pantry Kaeya just rummaged through. “Though... on second thought perhaps we could use some...” he trails off a bit helplessly.
“I’ll hunt us some boar,” Kaeya says, setting the bottle aside and pushing himself to his feet. Warmth sings in his stomach, where he can feel the whiskey sloshing about. “We can at least make steak,”
Albedo’s brow creases, “I appreciate the offer but travelling on the mountain alone is—"
“I’ll stay close, I promise,” Kaeya presses a hand to his heart. Albedo keeps pace with him as he walks to the cave entrance. Can he tell Kaeya is so eager to leave this conversation he’ll throw himself into the perpetual blizzard of Dragonspire to get away? Probably even Albedo isn’t that dense.
“You know, alcohol may make you feel warmer but in reality, it thins your—"
Kaeya claps the young man on the shoulder and aims a smile his way, “No need to worry about me, captain, I’m ice all the way through,”
-
Here’s the thing about Kaeya: he’s a liar. He obscures and deceives, and he does it to himself nearly as much as he does to other people. The only other option would be to tear at his hair, moaning and carrying-on, dragging around a human-sized slug of grief.
So he doesn’t do that. He tells fun little stories instead. He got really good at it while Diluc was away on his cross-country tour of rage.
He’s worried he’s not as good with Diluc back in town.
-
His trip up Dragonspire is repaid with a rare day off, which he, of course, spends drinking with Lisa at the Cat’s Tail, playing an extended game of chicken with Diona’s increasingly bizarre mixes. It’s been a long week, month, life; the right side of his face throbs with a dull, persistent pain and he’s filled with a restless hunger. When he can’t drink it away, he has in mind something else that might soothe his itch. By midnight he’s so drunk he can barely walk straight, but he knows the path to the Angel’s Share better than the back of his hand.
It feels like electricity has crawled under his skin and he cannot stand the thought of the stillness of his rented room. What I need, Kaeya thinks to himself as he trips down the alley behind the tavern, is a nice dicking down.
He topples himself up the back stair and bangs open the door to the small bedroom. Diluc is sitting on the edge of his bed, looking thoroughly unimpressed and unsurprised. He’s just wearing his shirt and trousers, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his bare hands laced together.
“Are you having me tailed?” Kaeya asks, delighted and flattered. Diluc bites out an annoyed noise.
“Anyone could hear you stumbling this way,” he eyes him critically and then adds, “You’re drunk,”
“Sure am, buttercup,” Kaeya leans against the doorframe and tries not to look like it’s the only thing holding him upright, “Want to fuck my face?”
Diluc looks at him in way Kaeya’s too drunk to interpret then says, “Alright.”
Kaeya instantly shrugs his cloak off and unbuttons his shirt the rest of the way. He’d dressed down for the evening, thinking it might end this way. Diluc raises a brow at him and Kaeya leers in return. Once he’s wrestled his way out of his shirt Diluc stands and grabs him by the waist. Heat flares in the pit of his stomach, a counterpoint to the itching need to claw off his own skin.
Diluc stares at him, steady and sure, then presses Kaeya down onto the bed and climbs on top of him. He looks down at him in a way that means, Do you mean it? You’re sure? And Kaeya says,
“Diluc.” His voice comes out strange but Diluc takes it in the spirit it was meant and pulls out his dick. Kaeya’s mouth floods with saliva at the very sight.
It takes them a few minutes to get sorted out, Diluc’s hands keep wandering to Kaeya’s chest, Kaeya keeps making frankly embarrassing noises, but finally Diluc kneels over his chest, his knees snug in Kaeya’s armpits, and leans his hands on the bed over his head.
“I’m—" Diluc chokes off a startled moan as Kaeya tilts up to take the head of his cock in his mouth. He smirks, tonguing the slit, and Diluc’s hips hitch forward and he growls, “Oh, you’re asking for it,”
In the back of Kaeya’s mind a voice is chanting, Yes! Yes I am!
Diluc slams forward so his cock bumps the back of Kaeya’s throat and makes a noise that goes straight to Kaeya’s dick when he realizes he doesn’t have a gag reflex. Diluc builds a rhythm quickly, thrusting into Kaeya as if he really doesn’t care whether he can breathe and that’s a nice memory for the spank bank. Kaeya relaxes his jaw and manages quick breaths through the nose, drags his hands up Diluc’s thighs and slips them up under his shirt, gripping his hips to encourage him. Diluc pulls out and finishes with his own hand, dripping cum across Kaeya’s mouth and cheek, which is a nice touch.
“What about you?” Diluc asks. Kaeya stares hazily up at him, the ceiling spinning wildly behind his red hair. He feels settled and sated, his head swimming with the nauseous sleepiness that comes from too much drink.
“‘m too drunk to get off,” he says, and his voice comes out like he’s swallowed glass. Diluc’s eyebrows do something interesting in response.
“Let me guess; too drunk to get yourself home, either,” Diluc says flatly. Kaeya grins up at him and smears his fingers through the cum on his face. Diluc’s sweet, stupid face gives him away.
“Clever boy,” Kaeya rasps and stretches, makes a show of settling in. He wasn’t interested in sleeping over until Diluc showed his hand, a classic mistake Diluc makes time after time. Diluc mutters something under his breath but Kaeya really is wasted and it’s easiest to just close his eyes and let the alcohol drag him under.
He wakes alone in a bed that smells like Diluc and thinks to himself, This’ll be the death of you.
That thought has to make way for other, more important tasks, such as his mid-morning tea break with Lisa which is close at hand.
He rinses his face using the water basin in Diluc’s room, summons a chunk of ice to hand which he holds to his puffy eye as he laces up his boots one-handed. A quick inspection in the small mirror reveals that he looks like absolute shit. He fruitlessly tries to smooth the wrinkles from his clothes then tosses on his cloak. He only needs to make it back to his place to change and comb his hair, Diluc somehow does not seem to own a comb, and he’ll manage the rest of his atrocious appearance there.
Of course, he takes three steps out of the Angel’s Share and runs into the traveller.
“Kaeya?” Aether blinks up at him with those large golden eyes, “Are you... alright?”
For one split second Kaeya considers the humour in vomiting right on Aether’s boots.
”Nothing you need worry about,” Kaeya’s voice comes out raw and rasping and Aether looks increasingly startled, “I’m very busy and very important, however, and must be off,”
Kaeya flees as quickly as he’s able in his present state, which is a brisk walk that nonetheless threatens to upend the contents of his stomach. What did Diona even give them last night? Why does his mouth taste like shrimp? Some questions are best left unanswered.
Thirty minutes later, Kaeya arrives at the ordo library where Lisa has set up a table for tea in a warm sunbeam. Her hat is tipped back, eyes closed, as she basks like an oversized cat. Kaeya tries to clear his throat.
“Lisa, it feels like forever since we saw each other,” He still sounds like he’s recovering from a stupendous cold. Or like he’s had Diluc’s dick down his throat.
”Sir Kaeya,” she startles, blinking at him, then trails off. “You look like you had a late night,”
“Didn’t we?” Kaeya shoots back, settling into the chair opposite, “And yet you look radiant as always,”
Lisa preens a little at the compliment as she pours tea, placing a cup and saucer in front of Kaeya then a plate of little biscuits. Kaeya loves a tiny biscuit, but right now the sight of them make his stomach roll up into a hard ball.
Lisa plants her elbows on the table, leans her chin on her laced fingers and fixes Kaeya with a penetrating gaze. Kaeya gets the sense that he is neither drunk enough nor sober enough for the coming conversation.
“I heard that master Diluc has had some late-night visitors as of late,” Lisa says, smiling coyly. Kaeya has never so hated being right.
”Oh?” Kaeya returns, airily through the pounding in his head. Lisa stirs her tea and regards him, her gaze cutting.
“I’d advise caution, master Diluc is a very private person, and all the eyes of Mondstadt are forever on him,” Lisa sips her tea then adds, “That’s what I’d tell anyone sneaking into the Angel’s Share after hours, anyway,”
There’s a horrible itch under his eyepatch, Kaeya scratches the skin of his cheek to try and soothe it, doing his best to look nonchalant. Kaeya has long since won the trust and love of the people, and with Diluc distancing himself as far as possible from the ordo why should it matter if people gossip? The Ragnvindr name mattered to Crepus, a timid little voice says, at the back of Kaeya’s mind, It matters to Diluc.
“I’m sure Mondsdtadt’s gossipmongers are hungry to know who’s making these visits,” Kaeya says, bringing his teacup up to his lips. A mild herbal smell assaults his nose; Lisa’s usual post-drink remedy. His stomach lurches in revolt as he forces the smallest sip past his lips.
”Master Diluc need not fear me, I’ll never tell a friend’s secrets,” Lisa says, eyes sparkling mischievously. Her smile hints that there’ll be a cost to silence, somewhere down the line. Kaeya’s head pounds out of tune with his heart. He can hardly think straight. It’s past time for a change of topic.
”How are you not hungover?” Kaeya demands, letting a little whine filter into his voice, “I can still taste that last Diona special at the back of my throat,”
“Oh, that I’ll tell,” Lisa says, breezily and produces a small flask from somewhere on her person, “Hair of the dog?”
Kaeya looks at her with real relief.
”Oh, Lisa,” he sighs, holding out his teacup, “No one understands me like you do,”
Lisa laughs, a light, tinkling sound, as she upends the flask into his tea. “My dear Kaeya, I don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult,”
Kaeya grins, “Maybe a bit of both?”
-
Kaeya’s plan seems to be working, but also not-working, at the same time. Amber, utterly oblivious, remarked on their eased tension and Charles, when he thought Kaeya wasn’t listening, mentioned that Diluc had been in a good mood. And yet, Kaeya still breaks out in hives around Diluc, still swallows down the taste of blood as his heart slams up his throat.
Well, you win some you lose some, as they say.
This time when Kaeya slips through Diluc’s window at the winery, he only sighs in annoyance, a token resistance to what has become, at this point, a reoccurring meeting. It’s been nearly a month since Diluc ravaged his throat, and they’ve fooled around twice since, both times in the room above the Angel’s Share. Kaeya pinned Diluc against the wall while they jacked each other off, which felt weirdly intimate; their faces so close they breathed the same air, Diluc’s gaze hot and sharp on Kaeya, the swipe of his tongue across his bottom lip.
Last time they had only enough time for Kaeya to suck Diluc off, which was much more his speed, anyway.
“Take your top off,” Diluc says, his tone strange—excited, maybe? Kaeya’s heart starts beating twice as fast.
“Why don’t you take yours off?” He shoots back, already tossing his cloak aside and unfastening his gloves. Diluc blinks at him, a faint pink alighting on his cheekbones. What the fuck, Kaeya thinks, as all the blood in his body flows directly to his dick.
It’s his last coherent thought, as Diluc shucks his coat and gloves, then begins to unbutton his shirt and then, suddenly, he’s standing in front of Kaeya bare from the waist up. He’s so pale he seems to glow, light glancing off the soft definition of muscle. Kaeya’s eyes track immediately to the scar on his side, small but messily healed, from a hilichurl attack when they were young, the puckered corona of tissue at his hip from a bandit’s arrow. He has more scars, unfamiliar to Kaeya. His ribs compress around his lungs.
Kaeya reaches for him and he’s so warm under his hands, pressed up against him, the soft brush of their skin together. Kaeya makes a pathetic noise in the back of his throat. Diluc runs a hand down his spine and he shivers, badly.
“You’re cold,” Diluc says, his voice low.
“No, I’m fine,” Kaeya replies, immediately. Diluc pulls back to look him in the eye, frowning though his gaze is gentle.
“No, you—you feel cold,” he says, and presses a large, calloused hand to Kaeya’s chest. His palm is hot, covering neatly Kaeya’s rapidly beating heart.
“Well perhaps you’re just hot, I mean—" Kaeya collects himself and winks, “I am speaking with Mondstadt’s most eligible bachelor,”
“You’re still wearing your eyepatch, dumbass, don’t try to wink at me,” Diluc says, “Actually, never wink at me,”
Kaeya laughs, an honest, sharp laugh that startles them both. He can feel his pulse in his very fingertips.
“Let’s get back on task, shall we?” He smirks, his mouth dry, and shoves Diluc backwards onto the bed.
Diluc gets them off with one large, scalding hand around both their dicks. Kaeya ruts into him, biting a haphazard path along his chest, where bruises won’t show. The feel of their bodies pressed together, the pressure and heat of their lengths squeezed in Diluc’s grip, seems to be a particular torture engineered exclusively for Kaeya’s blood pressure.
Finished, Diluc rolls out of bed to wash his hand and Kaeya wipes his navel clean on the sheets. He takes care not to look Diluc’s way as he moves about the room, conscious of what his own expression might give away. He feels agitated, his hands itching to touch, as though Diluc’s body under his had woken a deeper greed instead of sating the old. He sits on the edge of the bed, shrugging on his shirt, heart thundering, and takes a deep breath to try to calm himself.
“Kaeya,” Diluc’s voice is steady and low, rolling across his skin like a physical sensation. He looks up to Diluc, standing right over him. He takes a step closer, so Kaeya’s knees bracket him. He’s looking down at him with his big, calm eyes, his trousers pulled up but unlaced, the long line of his torso glowing in the pale sunlight. Kaeya gets the disconcerting feeling that he’s completely out of his depth.
He reaches out an ungloved hand and cups Kaeya’s jaw, tilts his face up. All of his breath freezes in his lungs. Diluc’s expression is unfamiliar, unreadable, as he tips down and kisses him.
His lips are hot and surprisingly soft, gentle but insistent as they move against his. He sucks slightly at Kaeya’s bottom lip then sinks a flash of teeth into him. Kaeya kisses him back, clumsy in his haste, his hands moving up automatically to hold Diluc’s hips, his bare fingers on Diluc’s bare skin. Diluc makes a noise so soft Kaeya can’t hear it, can only feel the faint vibration against his mouth.
Kaeya’s ribs crack open, unleash the light of a hundred suns. When Diluc breaks away and Kaeya opens his eye, he half-expects to be glowing. Distinctly, he thinks, Oh no.
But then Diluc is crawling into his lap—or is it Kaeya tugging him in?—and kissing him again. He’s warm and heavy, steady under his hands, and Kaeya thinks of nothing at all except the joy of Diluc’s touch.