Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jean sighs for about the fifty-fourth time this morning. The sun beats down on her desk through the glass panes of the windows in her office, illuminating the snow-white sheets of paperwork that still sit in piles waiting for her to get started on them. Her hand twitches towards the nearest pile, but a sudden gust of nervous energy sends her fingers tapping on the cedarwood desk halfway instead. 

‘Jean, dearest. You need to calm down.’ says Lisa, elbows perched elegantly atop the railing separating the bookshelves from Jean’s office desk space. ‘If I didn’t know better, I would say you have doubts regarding our beloved Calvary Captain’s capabilities.’

Jean forces out a breath through the gaps in her teeth. Fifty-five. 

‘I am not. You know I have complete trust in him.’ 

It’s only because Lisa knows her words to be fact that she shuts the book she was skimming over with a soft thud and fixes Jean with a knowing look mixed with the slightest hint of exasperation for her direct superior. ‘Then what do you have to worry about? Kaeya is a perfectly capable knight. Besides, didn’t you say he was just going to the winery for a preliminary inspection?’

Jean remembers saying that. She also remembers forgoing the idea of sending a team of knights to accompany him as backup, but that was before a horrible sneaking feeling kept her from doing her paperwork. The letter that they received had specifically said not to-- The nerves spike again, shattering ice in the confines of her throat. 

‘Lisa.’ She croaks weakly and waits for a soft hum from the witch in acknowledgment. ‘When are you planning to go for teatime again?’

Lisa blinks slowly at her in slow comprehension, like Klee does when Albedo starts talking about a scientific concept that is much too much for her little head, before erupting in a sincerely warm smile. She walks over and clasps an equally warm hand over Jean’s still fidgeting fingers, stilling them. 

‘Why, I’m glad you asked. Right now. I’ll choose a brew that doesn’t have caffeine in it, yes?’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*
             

Kaeya wouldn’t admit it even if he was dangled by his toes by a hair over that big simmering pot of unknown and very questionable contents that the hilichurls cook up over in Daduapa Gorge, but he was nervous. 

He -- the infallible Kaeya Alberich -- was nervous. He doesn’t think anyone would believe him if he dared to speak it. The picture he’s painted of himself, the very same one he paraded in front of all of Mond and nailed into place on a wall where everyone can see, doesn’t get nervous. Nothing makes him nervous, least of all enough to pace back and forth.

Diluc has always been an exception though, especially in the places where Kaeya is concerned.

Although his boots shuffle restlessly across the cobblestone pavement of the winery grounds, Kaeya keeps his back towards the grand structure of the manor that he once used to call home. He hears familiar voices drift towards him and for a moment, he pretends the years that have snuck past him like water through his fingers never did at all. He lets himself have at least that. 

Then, he spins on his heel and flashes the brightest, most sickly sweet smile he could muster up at an ushering Adelinde and perpetually frowning Diluc. Trailing behind them in an awkwardly timid gait is a woman dressed in the manor’s staff uniform. Kaeya doesn’t recognise her.

‘Master Diluc!’ He says at the same time Diluc says, with no sugarcoating of false enthusiasm, ‘Captain Kaeya, do the Knights not read the correspondence they receive with care?’

‘They definitely do.’ says Kaeya, knowing exactly what this was about.

‘Then, why--’ Diluc’s frown grows impossibly deeper. ‘--are you here? Are you all really so understaffed as to ignore my direct request to send any Knight, but you? Captain Kaeya?’ The last address leaves Diluc in a clipped tone, clearly meant to wake Kaeya from whatever stupor he had sunken in for a brief moment. 

Send any Knight, but you.

He shakes it off, like water off the back of one of the ducks that little Timmy loves so much. 

‘This has nothing to do with the number of Knights we have on hand. Acting Grandmaster Jean saw it fit to send me, one of her most capable officers, to carry out this investigation, despite your discouragement. But-- and I’m sure you agree with me, Master Diluc -- I am certain this would just turn out to be just another routine safety protocol check-up. Nothing that requires pulling the other Knights away from their duties. I’ll be in and out.’

For a moment, Diluc stiffens as if he wants to argue, mouth already falling open to unleash whatever scathing, passive-aggressive comment he aims to make to chase Kaeya away from heading this investigation. Kaeya doesn’t stop smiling pleasantly, hands clasped behind his back, and doesn’t stop looking Diluc dead in the eye. 

The stand-off lasts for hardly a minute before Diluc acquiesces, looking about as happy about it as he would trodding in the skeletal remains of some poor rotting creature.

‘Alright, but remember, it’s your funeral.’ He mutters as he turns to Adelinde and the new recruit, who barely muffles a startled squeak at the sudden attention of the youngest wine tycoon in Mondstadt. For his part, Kaeya barely muffles a biting laugh at the boar-caught-in-Regisvine-frost look on her face. 

‘I can take it from here, Adelinde. As I said before, don’t hesitate to use any funds necessary to replace all damaged property after Captain Kaeya is done with his investigation. Anything that can be salvaged, hand it over to Mr. Ludwig Goth in the city. With that hotel business of his, he will have connections with the best carpenters in Mondstadt. Whilst anything that cannot be…’ Diluc pauses, a thoughtful look in his eye. ‘... send them up to my quarters for the time being. I’ll make the necessary decisions then.’

‘Right away, Master Diluc.’ Adelinde says chirpily and not-so-subtly elbows the young housemaid beside her, who lets out a genuine squeak of shock this time. 

‘Right away, Master Diluc!’ She says in a voice that has no concept of volume. Diluc is as gentlemanly as ever and hardly reacts to the shrill sound, only a minute twitch of his fist giving away any of his discomfort. After Diluc thanks them, the two women walk off and Diluc is not far behind, striding with purpose towards the heavy double oak doors of the manor.

‘A new recruit?’ Kaeya ventures, casting a last cursory glance at the women’s backs before they are swallowed by the grapevines. ‘She seems jumpy.’

For a moment, Diluc stares at him, clearly deciding if the manor’s mundane housekeeping staff turnover was worth wasting breath over telling him. Then, he says, ‘Yes. Raven. She just started today, if I’m not mistaken.’

Kaeya lets out a low whistle and decides to thank Diluc for his answer by skipping past the small talk he so despises. He gets straight to the point. 

‘So, what did happen here last night? Your report gave the shallowest of details and simplest of instructions.’ Kaeya has the negative version of the letter, written in Diluc’s neat hand but choppy enough to show a trace of nerves when the words were scribbled down and signed, imprinted on the backs of his eyelids. He had read it time and time again this morning before he had shown up at the winery, stomach sinking every time his gaze flits past the words,

‘incident at the Dawn Winery manor’

‘drastic enough to alert the Knights’

‘exclude Calvary Captain Kaeya.’...

‘-posthaste. Please.’

‘And yet, you couldn’t follow even that.’ sighs Diluc as he pushes past the doors and into the main hall, Kaeya sauntering leisurely after him. He breathes in through his nose and holds it in. The smell of the manor never changes, has never changed since his time spent here as a boy. Aged wood and aged wine, the scent of the dewy grass outside seeping in, and the soft smell of fresh linen growing stronger the further one ventures upwards into the sleeping quarters. 

Which, Kaeya realizes with a start that he only belies that with the quick rise of eyebrow into his hairline, they are doing. Diluc walks without looking backward and ascends the stairs to the upper level of the manor. Kaeya follows. 

He releases a soft laugh at how he thinks he feels the imprint of smaller, steadier hands on the banisters as he drags his gloved palm up it. Ahead of him, Diluc shoots him a subtle backward glance. 

‘There was an incident.’ Diluc says, ‘I am not sure if it constitutes an attack as such, but like I said in the letter that you all oh-so-thoughtfully didn’t follow,’ Kaeya snorts. Politely. ‘--we at the manor decided that it was strange enough to warrant calling in the Knights.’ The tone of his voice implied that that ‘we’ had been an Adelinde and Elzer thing instead of a true group decision. 

‘And--’ Kaeya swallows, ‘--why did you specifically exclude my involvement in this so-called minor attack?’

Diluc’s sigh of exasperation and resignment tells him he still isn’t happy about being directly contradicted by the Knights and Kaeya himself. They pass a painting of a bowl of Sunsettias and exotic lavender melons from Inazuma, shades of vivid orange and magenta painted in strokes that feel like they were etched onto Kaeya’s memory instead. 

He knows this painting.

‘Wait--’ He says, once again colliding with Diluc’s ‘Because--’

He’s got his hand on the knob of a horrifyingly familiar door. Kaeya searches the wood at knee height and sees a tiny little etching that seizes at his throat. A small four-pointed star, carved there by his own then-smaller hands with a penknife he had nicked from Crepus' study. He can’t bear to look into Diluc’s eyes. They bore up at him anyway. 

It’s your funeral.

‘The attack happened in your childhood room.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Inside, it’s a massacre. Diluc would know. He had been the first one to charge into the room after a startlingly loud crack in the night had jolted him awake from his already light sleep. In a flash, he had thrown open his bedroom door and ran barefoot to the room down the hall. He knew all too well the direction where the sound had come from. 

Standing in the hallway last night, clad in only his thin nightclothes, it almost seemed like nothing was amiss. The door to Kaeya’s old room didn’t bang open, the doorknob didn’t rattle or shake. No shadows flitted through the gap between the door and the floor. No voices or movements that he could hear.

Diluc had given himself the chance to convince his racing heart that what he had heard had just been a dream.

He opened the door anyway and couldn’t have helped the horrified gasp that tore out. 

The furniture had been wrecked, pieces of wood, metal, and cloth that once belonged to prized sets sat littered across the floor. The window had been slammed open -- presumably where the intruder had entered and left, and what had caused the violent sound that had woken him up in the first place -- and the blue curtains drifted like ghosts in the night wind. The wall around the window was a brutal mess, parallel lines running through the torn wallpaper, pieces of it hanging limply downwards. Around the damage, small glittering forms glistened almost wetly.

Claw marks. And ice. 

‘Master Diluc?’ Elzer’s familiar voice called out from somewhere in the hall, questioning and startled. ‘Master Diluc, are you there?’

Diluc stared at the scene for another beat. He called out, hoping his voice didn’t come out as shaky as he felt inside, ‘Here, Elzer.’

‘Master Diluc, did you hear--? Oh, dear Barbatos above.’

“What happened here?’ Adelinde had shown up too, her usually authoritative and unwavering voice high with nerves from being woken up by a scare. ‘Master Diluc?’

Master Diluc. Master. Right. He’s the head of the house now. Being in this room-- He shook his head to clear it and turned around to face his two most trusted members of staff, bare feet crunching on something delicate and freezing cold. He hadn’t noticed the frost that had been on the floor earlier. Adelinde notices and rushes off to a neighboring closet to produce a pair of house slippers for him. He thanks her, but not before saying, ‘Elzer, please bring me a quill and paper. And prepare Noctua for a nighttime flight. I intend this letter to arrive before dawn.’

He had entered that room in a state of thinly-tempered fright and caution last night, afraid for what might lie in wait for him. He feels the same now presently, careful to keep his face free from emotion as he watches Kaeya’s own cycle through about eleven different ones. All minute, barely noticeable changes, but Diluc knows. 

He’s nervous. 

With a twist and a push, he opens the door and rips the band-aid off as quickly as he can. It doesn’t stop the painful, sharp intake of breath that Kaeya nearly chokes on as he takes in the scene before him. 

This, Diluc thinks, is why he had specifically demanded that the Knights not send Kaeya of all people to investigate his report. To any other Knight, this would just be another room. A normal bed with torn sheets and a normal pillow with its goose-feather stuffing spilling out like innards. A normal desk, a normal wardrobe.

That wasn’t what it was to Kaeya. 

Diluc watches as he drifts like a ghost untethered into the damaged room, footsteps light. Underfoot, small puddles ripple instead of ice crunching. 

‘The scene is largely left untouched.’ Diluc says, after a minute of poignant silence. ‘The only thing we couldn’t preserve was the ice around the edges of the window and the frost across the floor.’

‘Cryo?’ Kaeya’s voice is small.

Diluc shakes his head although Kaeya has his back turned towards him. ‘No. At least, I wouldn’t call it an allogene’s Cryo. It was more just elemental power, not as concentrated.’ Kaeya remains eerily silent. 

‘It melted fast.’ Diluc adds, feeling like an idiot. 

‘Quite the astute observation then, Master Diluc. So it was just normal ice.’ Kaeya smiles at him, but it’s missing the usual infuriating edge. His lone eye strays to the mangled desk and the chair that now lies on its back, missing a leg. ‘I feel sorry for the poor guy who was sleeping here last night. They must’ve gotten quite the fright.’

Diluc frowns at him. The thought of assigning this room to anyone else besides its rightful owner is…

‘No one was sleeping here.’ Diluc says with finality and directs the conversation to the window, a gloved hand sweeping up to gesture at it. ‘There was a loud crash in the night and I came in to check not even a minute after I heard it. I found the window smashed open and the whole area was frosted over with Cryo elemental energy.’

Kaeya scrutinizes the window and the wall around it for a minute, cataloging the evidence. From within the standard Knights of Favonius-issued messenger bag he has strapped across his chest, he withdraws a clipboard with a few sheets of paper clipped onto it and a freshly inked quill. For a moment, the two men stand with only the scritch-scratching of quill on parchment to break the silence. 

‘Clawmarks.’ Kaeya says after a while, ‘How odd.’

‘An animal then.’ Diluc says what has been knocking around in his mind for a while now. What else has claws? Well, many other things, but Diluc would rather pick the safest option for now. ‘If that’s the case, then I was right. This isn’t an attack, but merely a wild creature who got desperate.’

‘That may be the case.’ Kaeya says in a light tone that means he doesn’t quite believe that. ‘But what species of animal do we have here in Mondstadt that can litter around Cryo elemental power like this?’ 

Diluc tsks and turns away with his arms crossed. He walks across the room, careful not to disturb anything that might prove to be useful. 

‘If there was an animal, there would be other evidence to allude to that. Fur, perhaps, or prints.’ Kaeya says, leaning forwards to take a closer look at the claw marks. ‘These marks seem quite deep.’

Diluc knows what he’s thinking. Bigger claws mean a bigger animal. Or a bigger something, at any rate. He had looked at the claw marks before as well and remembers the strangeness of them. Wood chips when hacked at-- splinter, and split down the grooves-- but this attacker somehow had the means to slice through the wooden walls and window frame like one slice into butter. Clean grooves carved out deep indents into the wood with no sign of split pieces anywhere as if it were as malleable as clay. 

‘Very odd indeed.’ Kaeya says again and straightens up. He turns to address Diluc, evidently finished with inspecting the claw marks. ‘You said the only thing you heard was the sudden crash in the night? Were there no other disturbances prior to that?’

‘No,’ says Diluc, ‘It was an hour or two after midnight. Most of the staff are dismissed to their own homes or retired to their quarters by that time, but I’m sure there were nightwatchmen on duty. You can try asking them for information. No one, however, had been as close to this room as I.’

‘Right. Your room is just up the hallway. And you’re a notoriously light sleeper.’ 

Diluc stiffens and stares at Kaeya, wondering if the last comment was a prod to his choice of activity at night down the streets of Mond. Kaeya only smiles appeasingly back. 

‘So your account is the sturdiest one we have at hand.’ He breaks the facade down a little with a small sigh. ‘Mind recounting everything from top to bottom again for me?’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Kaeya leaves the Dawn Winery manor with a sinking feeling that this, unlike what he had spouted to Diluc previously, was looking less and less like an in-and-out thing. He wonders about the best way to go about telling Jean that and how many extra Knights he might need to post around the winery’s grounds. Diluc won’t be too happy about that, but Kaeya isn’t too happy about leaving the winery as exposed as it was either. 

In his messenger bag, his clipboard full of standard regulation scribbles about the witnesses’ recounts of the incident -- Diluc’s testimony and the sparse ‘I didn’t hear anything’s from the two nightwatchmen on duty -- key evidence logs, and the next steps to take sit waiting for his signature and instructions later at Headquarters. 

He fumbles when a boar he didn’t notice on the path before him suddenly swerves toward him with a squeal of blind fear. Dodging its path by the merest inch, he huffs. Wills his racing heart to slow down.

This case has gotten the best of him, winded him up, and left him hanging.

He could see it in Diluc’s eyes before he left, the sheer doubt that Kaeya’s visit and inspection have really done the situation any good, and really, Kaeya is loathe to do so, but he agrees with him. He had just gone around, looked around, scribbled some words, and left. But there had been a thin glimmer of-- he wouldn’t call it hope, but something like it-- in Diluc’s conflicted face as he had seen Kaeya to the door.

‘Do you have any idea what it might have been?’ Diluc had asked, in lieu of parting words. 

‘I’ll work on it.’ Kaeya hadn’t been any better at a goodbye. 

The next thing he knows, he had been looking at the intricate carvings on the winery's front door. He supposes Diluc has yet to fully forgive him for defying his orders in the letter.

‘Kaeya!’ Jean’s voice calls out to him far earlier than he would’ve anticipated. He’s barely past the gates of Mondstadt. Her lithe form waves down at him from a table at Good Hunter, where a seated Lisa smiles amusedly and, as he draws near enough to see, cups of sweet-smelling tea and a steaming teapot sit between them on the table. 

‘Afternoon, Jean, Lisa.’ He says, letting a rare genuine smile take over, as Lisa flags down Sara for another teacup and Jean ushers him down into the empty seat beside her. The whole spectacle makes him want to laugh, they really do treat him so kindly, it’s hard to get used to even after years of being around them. Still, he supposes that’s what you get from befriending the Dandelion Knight and the Witch of Purple Rose. An overload of manners at all times. 

‘So, how was your trip?’ Jean barely gives him time to lift his bag from his shoulder before asking. He blinks.

‘Jean! At least give him time to sip his tea. Here you go, Kaeya. Don’t mind her one bit, she’s been like this all morning. I daresay I’m exhausted from stopping her from storming over to the winery herself.’ Lisa fans herself, hiding a smile from a betrayed-looking Jean. 

‘I wasn’t that worried.’ The Acting Grandmaster hurries to clarify. He only hums laughingly from behind his teacup, absentmindedly noting the sweet and refreshing taste of the Valberry tea that washes down his throat. 

‘As much as I hate to bring down the mood of our little tea party,’ He says, genuinely feeling regretful as he places his teacup down on its flowery platter with a clink. The sky is clear with hints of puffy clouds and the cheery everyday sounds of Mondstadt City around their little bubble filter in. And here Kaeya was, delivering bad news over a tea set handprinted with kittens and sweet flowers. ‘The Dawn Winery might be in for some trouble.’

Jean sucks a sharp breath in. Lisa leans back in her chair, a pondering look on her face. 

‘What kind of trouble?’

Kaeya shrugs with one shoulder, the plumes of his feather scarf tickling his cheek. ‘Pour yourself another one, ladies. This is quite the tale.’

So he pulls out his trusty clipboard and, from it, gleans all the information he needs to relate the exact story Diluc told him to Jean and Lisa. They are good listeners and don’t interrupt him once, although Jean comes close to it when he reveals that it was his room that was mangled. He snaps his gaze away before she can hold it, and dives headfirst into the next point. 

When he finishes, both of them take a moment to digest the information. Lisa, naturally, recovers from the information overload first and jumps straight into questioning him for more information.

‘Did you ask if there were any strange occurrences before that night? During the daytime, perhaps. I doubt an animal that was capable of such destruction -- if it really was one that caused this -- could have snuck into the manor without someone noticing.’ 

‘I did ask the nightwatchmen, but they hadn’t taken note of anything strange that night. Adelinde and Elzer had all questioned the staff under their care beforehand and reported their day went by without incident or suspicious activity.’ Honestly, it was one of the quickest and smoothest check-ups Kaeya has ever done for a civilian report. Clearly, Diluc ran a tight ship. Even more reason to wonder just how an intruder that could have sliced a person clean in half with those claws managed to slip past their defenses. 

A chill runs down Kaeya’s spine. Diluc had been just down the hallway when the attack happened, isolated from the rest of the manor’s inhabitants enough to be the first one on the scene. He had charged into unknown danger just like that. He curses in Barbatos’ name that even now as a shrewd and well-respected businessman and an even more suspicious character, Diluc was still as reckless as ever.

‘This is an unexpected situation. On one hand, we are uncertain just who or what attacked the manor, and why they did it. It could have been a stray animal like Diluc suggested, or it could have been someone with-- more nefarious intentions.’ Jean muses, one arm held horizontally across her chest to clutch at her other elbow, and another arm poised to raise her fingers to her chin. The Acting Grandmaster’s signature pondering pose, Kaeya looks on fondly. 

She shakes her head. ‘And Master Diluc likes working alone. To send more Knights his way would surely cause him inconvenience. But we can’t possibly let the winery deal with this on their own, considering their great influence on Mondstadt’s economical interest and what with Master Diluc's reputation as a public figure. Kaeya?’

He snaps to attention, eyebrow lifting. ‘Yes, Jean?’

‘Continue to investigate this matter. At least until we know the winery isn’t in any immediate danger. Diluc won’t be pleased about our continued interference, but I’d sooner take a grumpy Diluc than an injured Diluc. If it really was just a creature, then it wouldn’t return anytime soon. If there is anything the Knights can do to help in the restoration effort, relay it to me and I’ll arrange it accordingly.’

Kaeya nods and schools his expression in an overzealous pout. ‘Yes, ma’am.’

Jean swats at his head. 

‘Say, dear Kaeya. You mentioned ice.’ Lisa interjects, eyes shining with a certain gleam that reminds Kaeya of the fact that before him sat one of the brightest minds of the Sumeru Akademiya. Or rather, ex-mind. Still, you can take the student out of brightness, but not the brightness out of the student. 

Or something. Kaeya feels his brain cells wither every time he’s reminded of Lisa’s true nature. 

‘That I did.’

‘In the puddles it left behind after it melted, did you notice any strange liquid or residue?’

‘No.’ Kaeya frowns. ‘I don’t recall anything of that nature.’

‘Then, it was simply normal ice.’ Lisa murmurs, ‘Somehow… somehow I find that hard to believe.’

Chapter Text

Lisa was right, as she usually is. 

The next morning, Kaeya wakes at the crack of dawn, groggy and discombobulated still with soft drowsiness and loud yawns. It was during one of these jaw-breaking yawns that he shoves his feet into his boots and doesn’t realize something is wrong until his hands have pulled his boot right up onto his calf.

‘What in Barbatos-?’ He blinks water from the yawn out of his eyes and bends down to squint at what, impossibly, seems to be the sole of his boot lying on the floor. Hopping out of the boot, he flips it upside down to check and truly, the sole has come clean off the bottom of the boot. 

<img src="https://www.instagram.com/p/C5qnOOnplN2/" alt="kaeya klee and lizard" width="100%" />

He inspects the discarded sole next and is chagrined to find patches of holes in it, as if a rodent had come in the middle of the night and chewed his boot halfway to Celestia. Both his boots are goners and Kaeya, on his knees in the center of his entrance hallway with the bits of his boots littered around him, lets out a pitiful groan. 

Way to start the day. 

He digs his spare boots out of the closet he opens once in a half-moon -- that’s a joke, Teyvat’s moon never fades from her roundness -- and sweeps the remains of his old pair into a sack.

He needs to find Lisa. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

‘Oh, dear.’ says Lisa as she peeks into the contents of the sack that Kaeya dumped on a chair that he pulled to her desk in the Headquarters Library. The large tome sitting open on a wooden base is immediately abandoned in favor of Lisa hooking her index finger into the rim of the sack and peering in cautiously to get a better look. ‘First of all, I do hope you practice good hygiene, Captain Kaeya.’

It takes a moment for the good-natured jab to hit home, but as soon as it does, Kaeya pins Lisa with an affronted look that doesn’t fit his face fully. ‘I assure you no one in Mondstadt has cleaner feet, Miss Librarian, ma’am.’

Lisa gives out a soft and tinkling laugh before situating the brunt force of her full attention on his hopeless boots. She sticks a hand in to pull out a piece of the sole, the pattern on it nearly washed away by whatever substance had caused it to break apart in the first place. 

‘Acid?’ He ventures. Lisa hums thoughtfully as she turns the piece this way and that. 

‘Good guess. You were close. This seems to be more like corrosion.’

He squints and laces his fingers together. ‘Does acid not corrode?’

‘Yes, but… Oh, how do I put this. It’s very unlikely you stepped in a puddle of pure acid lying around Mondstadt. I’d like to think Albedo, Sucrose, and Timaeus are more attentive at their jobs than that.’

It occurs to Kaeya only then that in order for his boots to have corroded like this, he would have had to actually step in corrosive substances and he would have had to do so for an extended period of time. With that starting tidbit of information, his mind finally shakes off the lingering early morning drowsiness and begins to whirr. 

Where had he been wearing his boots the day before? 

He had put them on in the morning and upon receiving Diluc’s report letter first thing when he walked into Headquarters, Kaeya had run around arranging the necessary paperwork and greenlights he had needed to appoint himself head of the investigation, directly forgoing Diluc’s instructions. He had popped into Jean’s office and said in as few words as possible where he was going and why, before skedaddling off before she or anyone else could have stopped him. 

There was no way he stepped in something on his walk to the winery and he had paced the whole time waiting for Diluc and Adelinde. There were left only two options then.

He clears his throat to catch Lisa’s attention and says thoughtfully, ‘It could have only been when I was inspecting the room with Diluc, or when I sat with you and Jean for tea.’ The rest of his day had been spent patrolling around the city and a small part of Windrise, his feet having been always on the move then.

‘Considering I haven’t run into any trouble with my heels and Jean hasn’t been in to alert us of any trouble on her end, it is unlikely the latter. The first scenario, however, is extremely plausible.’

Kaeya grimaces. ‘Is this why you asked me if there were any other substances in the melted ice?’ 

Lisa gives him a sympathetic smile and pats his arm. ‘Consider this: at least the manor doesn’t have a no-shoes-inside rule.’

The first bubbles of laughter have only emerged in his chest before they are painfully burst by the reminder that Diluc had been in that room with him. Diluc had been in that room before him the night of the attacks, freshly jolted awake from his sleep and most likely without any footwear before he jumped straight into checking the disturbance out. 

Reckless. Entirely too reckless for his own damn good.

He curses, thanks Lisa profusely, and then curses again as he books it outside. Behind him, Lisa calls out to him that she hopes they can have tea together again sometime soon. Kaeya doesn’t tell her that he has a feeling he’d be spending the day tea-less and in Diluc’s less-than-sugary company once more.

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Diluc had really, truly, sincerely hoped that Kaeya wouldn’t be back today. Naturally, that means Kaeya turns up at the winery anyway, knocking a pleasant little melody on the front doors and lugging a sack over his shoulder.

‘Are those your boots inside?’ Diluc asks. At the same time, Kaeya says, with much more feeling, ‘Are those bandages?’ There is a palpable concern in his voice, but the heavy resignation dragging Kaeya's usually breezy tone down is something Diluc doesn't expect. A frown forms on his half-covered face as he stares down at Diluc's feet.

Diluc follows and drops his gaze to where his feet are being propped up on an ottoman, wrapped snugly with gauze and smothered with healing ointment. He fails an attempt to wriggle his left pinky toe. His own voice is tired and out of it as he says, ‘Sure looks like it.’

Kaeya gives the tiniest scoff before saying, ‘How did you know these were my boots?’

‘Because the same thing happened to my own pair.’ Diluc shrugs, silently mourning the loss of his best pair of footwear. He would need to get the local cobbler to stitch up an identical pair at a later time. ‘When did yours fall apart?’

‘Sometime in the night, after I went to bed at around one hour before midnight. Whatever corroded them needed time to do it. How-’ Kaeya’s face pinches into a strange expression as if he’d bitten into a rotten apple. ‘How are your feet?’

‘They have holes in them.’ says Diluc as nonchalantly as he can, because if he lingers too long on the condition of his feet, he might upset the breakfast he had tried so hard to put down under Adelinde’s watchful stare. 

Kaeya blanches a few shades lighter, queasiness flitting over his expression before evening out. ‘I’ll get Barbara to come and work on them. I’m sure Jean can find some free time as we-’

‘No.’ Diluc snaps. ‘This is hardly anything worth worrying her over. You can tell her, but under no circumstance is she allowed to shirk her duties as Acting Grandmaster and come over here.’

He tries to hold Kaeya’s eyes, tries to pin him with his gaze as much as he means to pin him with the fact that he fully expects his orders to be obeyed this time. He’s the owner of this house, damn it, he should be able to control who walks in and out of those doors. Kaeya doesn’t last five seconds and his eyes immediately flick down to Diluc’s bandaged feet, a sardonic half-smile playing on his lips. 

‘Funny how you think you, I, or anyone really can stop her from seeing the people she cares about.’ 

Diluc stares at him before letting his shoulders slump down just the tiniest bit, along with releasing a deep, deep sigh. ‘There really is no need.’

‘You’re hurt, Master Diluc.’ Kaeya’s voice is hard and sharp as diamond. It takes him by surprise and Diluc blinks back up at him, eyes widening a fraction. ‘As much as you seem resistant to it, it really had been an intentional attack on the manor that night. This corrosion irrefutably proves it. The manor is in danger and the fact remains that you are quite literally a sitting duck here with your current injuries. Whoever planned this wanted to make sure you couldn’t run from whatever else they have in store.’

Gently, he taps a knee against Diluc’s propped-up calf. 

‘Acting Grandmaster Jean entrusted me with this case and I consider the manor’s defenses and the safety of all those who live under in it to fall under my duties now.’ Especially Diluc’s own goes virtually unsaid, but it reverberates around the room anyway.

Great, Diluc thinks. He’s got a Knight of Favonius parading around the manor now. Just what he needed. 

The first thing they talk about is what to do with the room. Kaeya wants to clean it up immediately, considering there are actual corrosive substances that can and have hurt people in there, but Diluc is unreasonably against the idea. 

‘Why?’ Kaeya demands when Diluc, for the fifth time since they brought the subject up, shuts it down again. Upon being questioned, he flounders. 

‘I took all the furniture out already.’ He grumbles, ‘There is nothing to clean up anymore.’

Kaeya wants to cry out of exasperation. ‘Diluc, there is actual acid on the floors.’

‘It's unsafe. Shouldn’t you bring an expert to take a look at it first before handling it? Has Albedo returned from his camp in Dragonspine yet?’

‘A sample would suffice. We are cleaning the rest up, who knows how someone could hurt themselves with it lying around the way it is. If you're worried about my safety, don't. Leave that to me and you just keep yourself busy trying to close up those holes in your feet.’ insists Kaeya, and Diluc relents, red-faced with frustration. Though, he does refuse to acknowledge Kaeya after that, turning his face away and saying he wants to rest. 

Kaeya leaves him be and makes his way to the room, only to find Adelinde and Elzer already parked outside the door. They are armed to the teeth with cleaning supplies and protective gear. 

‘Hello?’ He says. Both of them whirl around with guilty looks on their faces, but calm down significantly when he raises both arms in a gesture of surrender and waves them in the air. ‘What are you two up to?’

‘My job.’ Adelinde says while Elzer mutters, ‘Going against the master’s orders wasn’t in the job description.’ Adelinde tosses him a glare. He shrugs, jostling the mop he has perched against one shoulder as he does and it ends up mopping up the wallpaper instead. 

The headmaid is unwavering. ‘I respect the master and his decisions of course, but sometimes he can be-’ She waggles a few fingers around. ‘-rather daft. And stubborn. Very stubborn.’

‘Very.’ Kaeya grins. He’s always up for some good old-fashioned Diluc bashing, especially when it's from someone who has seen them both as pink-faced children. It’s still ingrained into his habits from when they were as close as adoptive brothers could be. He’s also up for some cleaning. ‘Hand me a mop, please?’

To their credit, Adelinde and Elzer only look surprised for a short moment, before they’re fitting him with enough gear to clean the Knights of Favonius Headquarters three times over. White iron sheets are fitted over his boots, attached with ribbons that wrap around his foot. 

‘For the corrosion.’ Elzer assures, ‘Tending to Diluc this morning has Adelinde very particular about foot protection now.’

‘All for good reason.’ Kaeya agrees and together, they storm into the room and wage war with the floorboards. 

It’s not an easy task. The boards are littered with little puncture holes, the corrosive substance having had the time to eat away at the grain since two nights before and the wood is brittle enough to fall apart under any real hard scrubbing. 

‘Oh dear, looks like we need to place an order for new floorboards as well as new furniture.’ Elzer notes when his mop hits a bad spot and a splintering sound fills the air. He sighs and picks it up to continue scrubbing. 

‘Do you think any got on the walls?’ Kaeya muses, walking towards the left wall of the room. 

‘Gloves, Kaeya!’ Adelinde screeches, so reminiscent of the times she chased after them when he and Diluc were younger and refusing to wash up. He just laughs off her worried anger and lets her pull boarhide gloves onto his fingers. He’s thankful for the gloves when he checks out a corner their mops and soap water haven’t touched yet to snap a fingernail-sized piece of floorboard off and stow it away in a sealed vial Elzer had given him. It had been used to store sample-sized helpings of wine before, but now, as he makes his way around the room, it fills up with small pieces of splintered and hopefully contaminated wood. 

Every so often, they need to switch out the white iron sheets on their footwear, but as time wore on and the bucket water got more and more murky, the need for switch-outs lessened. Just for security measures, Elzer places fresh white iron sheets around the room when they're done. 

‘I’ll check in again next morning to see if we need to arrange another clean-up.’ He says, ‘Thank you, Sir Kaeya, for the extra hand.’

‘Extra mop.’ Kaeya smiles, shucking his gloves and accepting the paper towel Adelinde proffers to dab at his face. ‘Anyhow, don’t thank me just yet. We still have Diluc and his temperament to deal with after this.’

‘He’ll come around. Even a bright young man like the master makes errors in judgment from time to time.’ Elzer’s gaze is unexpectedly pointed and Kaeya feels cut open, though he doesn’t know what the older man might hope to find inside. ‘But he always sees reason in the end.’

‘Well,’ Kaeya says, breaking eye contact to help Adelinde with securing the mops to bring downstairs and out. ‘Let’s hope we’re nearing the end then.’

They make their way downstairs and give a simultaneous ‘Oh.’ of surprise at the sight of Diluc curled up against the arm of the couch he was sitting on when Kaeya left him. His fiery mane of hair is half mussed up from shifting his head to find a position that wouldn’t hurt his neck and his arms were crossed protectively over his chest. Soft breaths escape him as they sneak by. 

Kaeya pauses to marvel at the softness of a sleeping Diluc’s face. He had always had child-like features-- big doe eyes, round cheeks, and highly arched brows that he trains so hard to sit right above his eyes these days in an intimidating, no-nonsense glower. It doesn’t fool those who knew him well, like Adelinde and Elzer. Somedays, that includes Kaeya too. Here, at rest, he sees in the grown-up Diluc every inch of the happy, inquisitive child he used to be. 

Kaeya would hunt down the monster who attacked the Dawn Winery if it killed him. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

He leaves the winery soon after helping Adelinde and Elzer lug the wash buckets and mops down to the riverbed. Partly because the sun is high enough in the sky for it to already be noon and he’s afraid of Adelinde asking him to stay for lunch. Previous attempts have proved that her methods of persuasion were very effective on him and he’d like to keep his dignity this time around. But also because the first thing he had done that morning was going to see Lisa and dashing right to the manor for Diluc, so who knows how tall the pile of work that awaited him at his desk now had stacked up to be?

Kaeya stops dead in his tracks.

However gargantuan it might have been, it just grew bigger. 

Scorch marks mar the grass like ugly scars before his path. Some blades of grass are still lit brightly, small flames dancing merrily as if waving at him. 

Look! I’m trouble! they sing. Kaeya promptly lifts a boot and squashes the fire out before it can grow bigger and engulf the entire plain in a forest fire. Then, he immediately scans the horizons for a tiny, bright red, very combustible figure. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Klee was so happy today! She was actually supposed to be in isolation for three hours this afternoon, spent locked in her room with only Dodoco, her new set of paints and crayons from Jean, sock puppets from Fishcl and Bennett, a small firefly in a jar from Razor, a series of books from Lisa, and a brand new sketchbook with her name written -- she had been told it wasn’t written, it was ambossed… embruised?-- in gold on the cover from big brother Albedo to keep her company.

…Now that she thinks about it, maybe she wouldn’t have been too upset being in isolation today after all. 

But that means she wouldn’t have met big brother Kaeya on her way home from chasing lizards and squirrels around all day! Maybe it was fate Grandmaster Jean didn’t notice her slipping out then. So, Klee regrets nothing. 

Okay, Klee regrets one thing. Just the little one. And it’s that she doesn’t quite manage to blow up the lizard she was chasing before being scooped up into the air by familiar arms. She plays along for a bit, shrieking, but it’s not long before the cries turn into boisterous laughter instead as Kaeya mercilessly sticks his hand into her side and waggles his fingers. 

‘Stop! Stop tickling, big brother!’ 

‘Oh? But only good little kids who stay where they are supposed to stay and not run away to cause potentially scarring environmental damage to Mondstadt’s fragile ecosystem don’t get tickled.’

Klee hiccups, catching her breath after Kaeya listens and ceases his tickling attack anyway. ‘Kaeya, have you just been to see big brother Albedo? You’re talking like him with the ecosomething and whatsitmental.’

Kaeya sighs but keeps smiling at her. 

‘Not exactly, Klee. I’m actually coming back from visiting Master Diluc.’

Oh. Him. 

Klee doesn’t realize she’s spoken out loud until Kaeya fixes her with the look that means ‘That is most likely behaviour that Grandmaster Jean wouldn’t tolerate, but since I’m big brother Kaeya, just don’t say that again around me and we’re square.’

Squares are Klee’s favorite kinds of shapes. 

Master Diluc, however, is not Klee’s favorite kind of grown-up. 

‘Why would you go see him?’ She says, realizing that it might’ve come out a bit rude -- even if Master Diluc never smiles, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to be surprised with a visit ever -- but Kaeya gets that faraway look in his eye and doesn’t notice. 

‘He…got injured a while back. I was there to catch what hurt him.’

Oh, dear. If Master Diluc already isn’t happy when he’s not injured, does that mean he’s even scarier when he is injured? Klee grips the front of Kaeya’s uniform tighter, hoping he wasn’t scared too badly. If only she were a bit faster and the lizard a bit more toasted, she could’ve presented it to big brother Kaeya as a gift to make him feel better. 

‘Did you catch it?’ She hopes he did, even though today seems like a bad luck day for catching things overall. 

‘No, not yet. But I’m going to.’

Klee smiles and nods her head, having complete faith in that. She reaches up and pokes Kaeya’s cheek. ‘Don’t worry, big brother Kaeya. Good luck days are coming soon.’ 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Once Kaeya has deposited Klee into her room where she happily unshoulders her backpack and pounces on her toys-- and a jar with a firefly in it, what's up with that?--, he walks back to the city square where he saw Timaeus fiddling with the crafting table while passing by earlier. In his pocket is the glass vial with the samples of contaminated wood inside. 

‘Hello.’ 

Timaeus looks up at him, wearing a pair of protective goggles that make his eyes a comical three times larger than life. Kaeya is violently reminded of a cartoon owl in one of Klee’s coloring books.

‘Captain Kaeya!’ Timaeus says, pulling the goggles off, ‘Good day, what brings you here?’

‘Have you by any chance received any word from Albedo about his whereabouts?’ It’s not the first time Kaeya, or any Knights official, has wished that their beloved Chief Alchemist was a little less elusive about switching between his camp in Dragonspine and the base lab in Mondstadt. Still, his ingenuity in all things alchemy more than makes up for the wild goose chase one has to go on to get ahold of him. 

‘You’re in luck, captain. Albedo just sent a note the other day. He should be arriving in Mondstadt from the mountains any day now.’

Kaeya perks an eyebrow up. ‘He did not mention a specific date and time?’

Timaeus turns bashful and scratches the back of his neck, stammering out, ‘Yes, well- that is to say, no, he didn’t. But that’s just the way Albedo rolls. Look, I have the note he sent right here.’ With that, he pats around his pockets before withdrawing a slightly crinkled note. 

Kaeya takes it and laughs. 

On the sheet, no words are transcribed. Instead, a beautiful depiction of Mondstadt City from a bird’s eye view is painstakingly sketched out and shaded in with charcoal. In utter contrast, a rather crude two-dimensional figure with a circle for a head and sticks for limbs has a familiar mop of tied-back hair on its head, scribbled in like it was a second thought. 

‘I guess we’ll never know the inner workings of a genius.’ He mutters, wishing he could pocket the note himself. He hands it back to Timaeus, thanks him, and takes his leave. 

He’ll post intelligence around to inform him whenever Albedo draws close and accost him at the first opportunity to analyze the scraps of wood for him. 

Any time lost now was only more chance he took of something coming back for Diluc. 

Chapter Text

Albedo wonders if he could ask Timaeus back for his charcoal drawing of Mondstadt City. In his trunk, there are about a hundred more of the same subject just from different angles, he certainly isn’t pressed for more depictions of it, but only when he had posted it as a reminder that he would be back soon, Albedo realised he hasn’t quite perfected the windmills as well as he had done in that particular drawing. 

It would make for a good reference for Klee the next time she asks him for drawing lessons. Idly recalling the traveler’s similar request-- and their frankly appalling drawing of Paimon at the time-- in Dragonspine once, Albedo decides that he simply must procure the drawing back and maybe set up an art syllabus for anyone else who comes looking for pointers. He has much too many ongoing projects on-hand for individual lessons. 

Besides, he could also publish a book on his own, one outside of his collaborations with Zhenyu. A series of how-to illustration manuals, perhaps-

The thought is abruptly cut off by a cheerful ‘Albedo!’

Kaeya is strutting towards him, body half-turned away from his previous conversation with Mondstadt’s own elderly book club. The captain waves and exchanges a few goodbyes, but as soon as his back is fully turnt, the grannies in the group immediately hover together to giggle like young schoolgirls again.

Albedo smiles. Kaeya’s suave and good-mannered tendencies toward his seniors have certainly earned him quite the wholesome reputation. He could expect a few more marriage consideration letters on his desk sooner or later. 

As of now, his attention is solely on Albedo, his gait towards him quick and purposeful -- that befitting a Captain of the Knights of Favonius. It makes Albedo straighten as well. 

‘Kaeya. It’s nice to see such a familiar face as soon as I return.’

Kaeya has the grace to break character and redden slightly. ‘Ah, Albedo. Don’t sound too excited there, or I might think I’m your favorite amongst the Knights.’

‘Impossible.’ Albedo says, ‘There is, of course, Klee.’

Kaeya laughs. ‘Do I at least rank above Lisa?’

‘I have seen her way of chasing after late book returners. As such, I have no comment.’

‘You wound me.’ Kaeya says faux-mournfully, placing a hand above his heart. ‘In return, I must insist you do me a favor.’

Albedo notices the carefree look in his eyes shed away, replaced with professionalism. Trust Kaeya to segue so smoothly from pleasure to business. 

‘Of course. May we walk and talk?’

The two of them start the short trek up to the crafting bench in the city square, taking step after step of weathered cobblestone. 

‘Is this about the Knights?’ Albedo asks. 

‘Yes. An unknown assailant struck the Dawn Winery a few days ago. Master Diluc was the first on the scene and suffered some aftereffect injuries from what seems to be a corrosive substance that was left on the floors of the scene of the attack.’

He withdraws a vial from one of the various pockets in his uniform. Inside, a viscous bright violet liquid collects at the bottom and bits of wood float around, bubbling. 

‘That does seem to be corrosive.’ Albedo hums. And familiar. Why is it familiar?

‘Do you mind?’ 

Kaeya shakes his head and extends the vial toward him. ‘Not at all. Do your magic. Alchemy. Thing. Any and all other information I have on the case is filed under Inconclusives in the Headquarters and I’ve also consulted Lisa on the matter.’

‘Expect results at the soonest.’ Albedo assures him, not having missed the nervous twinge in Kaeya’s tone at Diluc’s name. If Klee had been the one injured…

They near the crafting bench. Timaeus is dutifully beside it as always, goggles present and specimen dangling in front of his nose. 

‘Ah, looks like we’ve arrived.’ He says, ‘Excuse me, Kaeya. Timaeus has something of mine I’d quite like back.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

With Albedo researching the sample, Kaeya ticks that off the ‘Save Diluc from the attacker and himself’ agenda he has plotted out in his mind’s eye and moves on to the next. 

Turns out pulling Barbara out of church activities at this time of day results in the sisters’ needing to find a replacement. And, very unfortunately so, Rosaria seems to be the only available replacement candidate. 

Kaeya positively marches Barbara down the church steps and past the Barbatos statue in the rush to leave the scene before the other sister actually shows up. 

‘Remind me not to agree to be Rosaria’s drinking buddy for the near foreseeable future.’ He says offhandedly to Barbara, whose eyes widen to the size of Sunsettias. She seems nervous enough to pull on the ends of her twin pigtails, a habit he remembers from her childhood when she used to tag along when Jean came to the manor. 

‘Ah, Captain Kaeya.’ She begins, voices soft but firm enough. He leans in to hear. ‘Drinking isn’t advisable for your health.’

‘Worried for me, are you?’ Kaeya says after a beat, taken aback by her straightforwardness. Ah, the religious youth. Still unaware of the cloudy comfort five too many pints bring. Or perhaps just unneeding of it altogether. Still, he pats her head softly. 

‘Thank you, sister. But I’m not the one in need of your skills today.’

‘Skills? Is that why you came to get me? Is someone hurt?’ Barbara’s sweet and soft demeanor changes faster than a Dendro slime poking out of the ground to attack an innocent bystander’s ankles. Her grey-blue eyes shine with righteous duty. 

Her pace picks up so much that she leaves him in the dust, only to look back at him in earnest. 

‘Captain Kaeya, we must hurry!’

He shakes his head with a smile when she can’t see him. ‘So we must.’

As it turns out, he is glad he decided to sic Barbara on Diluc, instead of Jean. Kaeya has no doubt that both he and Diluc -- and sometimes Jean herself -- still see Barbara as the young girl that barely came up to their hips with wide innocent eyes, instead of the capable and skillful vision-wielder she is now. Not quite the sturdy political force her big sister is, but no less dedicated a healer.

Only the better to catch Diluc off guard, thinks Kaeya gleefully. 

Diluc’s defenses are down as they walk through the front doors. He’s once again situated on the same couch as before, feet propped up with Adelinde tending to them. A roll of fresh bandages sits next to them. The smell of healing herbs permeates the air.

‘Deaconess Barbara.’ Diluc says as soon as he catches sight of them, moving to get up and welcome her to his home, but soon realizing in his condition, he isn’t moving anywhere that isn’t downwards to the floor. He offers Barbara a smile, but fixes Kaeya with a suspicious look. ‘I regret that you have to see me in this manner, but welcome to the Dawn Winery in any case. What brings you here?’

‘Oh, Master Diluc, please. Stay seated and don’t apologize for your injuries. Captain Kaeya brought me here to assist with them, if you wouldn’t mind.’

Even with the soft pleasantries, the look on Barbara’s face as she surveys the state of Diluc’s feet says that she is not budging an inch until she does all she can to have him back on his feet again. Kaeya is close to ecstatic. Diluc, however, has turned red down to the scalp at the attention. 

‘Please, this isn’t necessary-’ He starts to say. Adelinde looks up from her work, pinballs her gaze from Diluc, to Barbara, to Diluc again, and finally to Kaeya, before standing up and brushing her apron down. 

‘I must insist.’ She says to a raring-to-go Barbara, ‘On behalf of the master and all the manor, I thank you, deaconess, for your kindness.’

‘It’s no problem at all.’ Barbara beams before diving into her work. Kaeya makes the wise decision of leaving before Diluc can fry a hole into his skull with his petulant gaze. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Master Diluc’s injuries are a frightful sight, but Barbara has dealt with worse before. Dealt with death before, even. She still remembers the first patient she failed to save. And the dozen more after. She pushes it all to the back of her mind for now and focuses on keeping her current one breathing and alive. 

Besides, if the injuries were hard to look at, then they must have been even harder to sustain. 

Diluc lets out a pained hiss. Barbara looks up. 

‘Are you alright, Master Diluc?’

‘Fine.’ He snaps, face still aflame from before. Barbara wonders if it’s cause for concern, maybe he has a temperature from fighting off the bacteria in his wounds. Then again, they didn’t seem to be at all infected. Whoever had tended to him before had clearly been a skilled healer themselves. 

Barbara recoils a bit from his tone and retreats to the water bubble suspended between her fingers instead. It swirls in mesmerizing patterns, musical notes floating in and out of shimmery existence, and lets out melodious gurgles as she wills it to envelope Diluc’s sole. 

A softer voice comes after a bit of silence.

‘I’m sorry. That wasn’t nice of me, being rude when you are healing me. My apologies, Barbara.’

‘Oh.’ Barbara blinks up at Diluc, who’s no less red, but now seems to be able to meet her eyes for more than three seconds. ‘That is quite alright, Master Diluc. We healers get used to all sorts of behaviors on the job, but of course, bedside manners is always a priority of ours.’ To make it a point, she flashes an encouraging smile at him. 

After a few unsure twitches, Diluc returns it. 

‘I’ve never quite lent much thought to it-- which now seems quite ignorant of me,’ He says, ‘--but the sisters at the Church do see some things, don’t they? I am aware of the extent of my own injuries, they are not exactly stomachable, but you hardly reacted.’

Barbara thinks before answering. ‘It is true your wounds aren’t the worst I’ve seen, Master Diluc, but that is not any reason to write them off as less worthy of treatment.’ Surprising even herself, Barbara fixes Diluc with a meaningful stare, to which he only lasts his previous three seconds before breaking off with a huff. 

‘Again, I apologize for being a difficult patient.’ He says, ‘I am…not used to receiving treatment.’

Barbara nearly drops her Hydro. To think, one of the most influential nobles in Mondstadt, the owner of the affluent Dawn Winery business that spanned the entire Teyvat in goods, the Knight’s very own once-Calvary Captain not receiving prompt treatment enough times to not be used to a basic human right!

‘Ah, that can’t continue! Master Diluc, when has this happened? I apologize on behalf of the sisters for any instance in the past that you went without treatment--’

‘No.’ Diluc says, leaning forwards and hands raised to placate her.’No, Barbara. It wasn’t your fault, nor any of the sisters’. I--’ He levels a shifty gaze away from her. She follows it to a gaudy-looking vase with all the wrong colors and all the wrong patterns. Once brought to attention, it stuck out like a sore thumb in the corner of her eye, a strange fixture in the consistent elegance of the manor. 

‘I wasn’t in Mondstadt. I was engaging in various, well, physical-demanding high-risk work.’ Diluc explains as vaguely as he could, but Barbara catches the meaning well enough. This must have been during his absence after his father’s sudden death. Like the rest of Mondstadt, she doesn’t know the extent of what his travels may have entailed, but if the heaviness in his voice was any indicator…

A pang of sympathy hits her.

‘I was more often alone and hurt than anything else. Every scrape and every wound, I patched up myself.’

He lets out a morose laugh, before looking back at her.

‘So, again, I apologize for being difficult and will continue to apologize. At least, as long as it takes for me to get used to this, which I will try to do. I promise at least that.’

Barbara blinks the beginnings of wetness away from the corners of her eyes and smiles as assuringly as she could at him.

‘And I promise, Master Diluc, as a Deaconess of the Knights of Favonius and Church of Barbatos, that you will never have to heal alone again.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Kaeya looks up to see Barbara making her way through the vineyards toward him and decides to meet her halfway. 

‘Is he okay?’ He asks.

‘Yes, Master Diluc is in good condition.’ Barbara says happily and Kaeya can’t keep the relief seeping out of him in a deep sigh if he tried. 

‘Thank you, Barbara. I’ll be sure to treat you sometime later.’ 

A strange look comes over Barbara’s face then, a look that is strange only because he has never seen such an expression on her. It’s calculating. 

‘How about instead of that, you can thank me by coming to get me every time Master Diluc is in need of healing? Even if he refuses or if it’s just a minor one.’

He looks at her in bewilderment. ‘Wouldn’t the trip tire you out every time? Diluc isn’t exactly what I would call injury-avoidant.’ No, that man was a straight-up injury magnet. Kaeya’s heart suffered much for it and now it seems like Barbara has just volunteered hers for the same treatment.

‘A healer does all she can to help those in need.’ She says, insistent and clearly not looking to be argued with. It’s all he can do to agree. 

She breaks into a sunny smile and surges forwards to wrap her arms around his waist. 

‘Thank you for bringing me here today, Captain Kaeya.’

He unfreezes and softens into her hold, patting the top of her pigtailed head as he says, ‘No problem, Barbara. And please, it’s just Kaeya.’

‘Alright, Kaeya.’ She unbuckles from his hold. ‘And don’t worry, I shall take my role as Master Diluc’s official healer very seriously.’

Kaeya chuckles. ‘And I thank you for that. Barbatos knows it's hard to wrangle him into submission on these kinds of things.' He notes the setting sun in the sky. 'It’s getting late, Elzer has been riding into Mondstadt for the past few days to bartend at Angel’s Share in Diluc’s place. If you hurry to find him, he’ll give you a ride home.’

So Barbara leaves the winery and Kaeya ducks back into the manor, finding Diluc with a few scrolls littered on the coffee table and one open one propped on his thigh. In his hand is a handsome eagle feather quill. The nib sends soft scratching noises through the space as Diluc bends over more, invested in whatever he was writing. 

‘I don’t think that posture is Barbara-approved.’ 

Diluc jumps, the lapse of attention so uncharacteristic that Kaeya raises a quirked eyebrow at him in askance. He harrumphs and slides the scroll on his thigh subtly closed. 

‘You’re still here?’ Diluc redirects the focus of the conversation back to Kaeya. ‘I would’ve thought you went with her back to Mondstadt.’

Kaeya shrugs. ‘I sent her back with Elzer. She’s in safe hands.’ He looks down. ‘How are your feet?’

Diluc shifts. He experiments a little, wiggling his bare toes. ‘They’re responding much better than before. By tomorrow I should be up on my feet. Don’t tell me otherwise.’ The last sentence is directed at Kaeya, who has already unhinged his jaw to argue that he most definitely is not.

Diluc continues before he can edge a word in, ‘You may have announced yourself the one responsible for this whole mess, Captain Kaeya, but I am the master of this abode and am not going to sit idly by as some unknown enemy threatens it. People have homes here. I fully intend to stop anything that would take that away from them.’

Kaeya’s throat constricts upon itself, tightening like a drawstring bag pulled by its cord. Diluc’s eyes give away nothing, no emotion nor acknowledgment of what the words ‘Kaeya’, ‘home’, and ‘take that away’ might mean when spoken so closely together. 

It seems that no matter how brightly Diluc burned to protect the people he considers his own, none of that warmth will ever thaw the fjord that now spanned the distance between them. Or, Kaeya thinks, that was what it seemed like all those years ago when their relationship was at its worst, hanging on by a hair. But as time went by, he came to accept that Diluc now wasn't the Diluc from before, just like how Kaeya now wasn't the Kaeya from before, the Kaeya who stayed in safe shadows and familiar lies. Sure, he still lied now-- treated it like a second language-- but at least he doesn't feel his throat close up every time he calls Diluc brother under a pretense of lies anymore.

No, they have changed, Diluc more so than Kaeya. Maybe this Diluc is tougher and wears cynic like a second skin, but he hasn't yet done anything with the knowledge that Kaeya has entrusted him with, enough information to ruin Kaeya's life with a few simple words.

He still cares, he has to.

‘Of course.’ Kaeya murmurs, ‘A truce then. We put behind all pretenses of the past and work together to solve this. We find whoever did this and put an end to them. And I will leave you safe and sound.’

Diluc nods. ‘I am amenable.’ He extends a hand towards Kaeya, waiting and expectant. 

He clasps it and gives it one firm shake. Diluc’s hand is searing against his own, in every right of its own a personal brand. In fact, it’s too warm. He pulls away before the heat welds them together. 

‘You are freezing.’ Diluc says, watching as Kaeya not-so-subtly rubs his hands together to retain some of the warmth left behind by their handshake. ‘That cannot be normal, even for a Cryo allogene.’ 

‘Worried about me?’ Kaeya says before biting down on his tongue when Diluc frowns at him moodily. ‘I think you mean especially for a Cryo allogene, seeing how I just came back from eradicating that nasty Cryo slime infestation at the riverside between here and Stone Gate. You’re very welcome.’

‘Cryo slime?’ Diluc hisses and Kaeya can feel his temper rising like a boiling kettle about to whistle. ‘You can’t be serious. Why would you go up against a group of Cryo slime that are immune to your vision? Kaeya.’

The man in question merely whistles a jauntily nonchalant tune. 

‘Promise me you won’t go near them again. Yes, they’ll be back tomorrow, and no, I won’t get rid of them permanently. Their drops are actually quite useful for a new Cryo-based preservation technique the winery has been experimenting with. I’ll be back on my feet enough to deal with them myself, so don’t go making any rash decisions like provoking monsters of the same element again.’

‘Yes, Diluc.’ Kaeya smiles when the still grumpy man flags a housemaid down to light a fire. Then, he glares at Kaeya until he shuffles close enough to the roaring flame that he’ll be warmed up in no time at all. Only then does he settle down. 

‘So what is our next course of action?’ 

Kaeya taps a still-freezing finger against his chin. ‘Well, I’d like to get the news from Albedo about the sample I passed to him early today. By the look on his face, it’s almost certain we are about to get some interesting deductions sooner or later, but if it’s later rather than sooner, I’d like to first investigate anyone -- anyone at all -- that you can think of that would have the motive to attack the manor like this.’

Diluc opens his mouth, then closes it in a grimace. ‘Well--’

‘Yes?’ Kaeya prompts.

‘We could start with the Eleven Fatui Harbingers.’

Kaeya bites back a heaving sigh of despair. ‘What a delightful start.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Klee is snoring softly when Albedo quietly shuts the door to her room, making double sure of it because she has been known to sneak out at night and it makes Jean terribly frazzled the next day. Just for good measure, he stays outside her door for a few minutes, listening for any sound from within that isn’t sleep-soft mumbles and Dodoco’s tail brushing against the bedsheets. 

Right then, he thinks, one troublemaker down for the day. Now for the second one. 

Walking briskly into his office and lab in the Headquarters, Albedo draws up a chair and sits down to stare at the vial Kaeya had given him for analysis that morning. 

‘What are you?’ He murmurs, turning it around in his hands. The wood chips inside have all but disintegrated by now, finally succumbing to the corrosion of the purple liquid. 

Purple. 

Albedo marks a few options off his list. Then, he pulls on protective gear and the wooden stopper off the vial. It flies off with a cheery-sounding pop. He leans down to give it a tentative sniff, grateful for his unconventional bodily makeup that allows him to be a bit laxer where sensitivity to fumes is concerned. 

No smell. A couple of items get checked off the list again. 

A drop of it is dripped into some shredded bits of paper in a beaker. The paper shrivels into itself before melting into nothing. Truly corrosive, then. 

Some options stay, some new ones are added in, and almost all are taken off at one point or another. The night wears on much like this, a back-and-forth game of guessing and proving until there is only one test left. Only one real option left.

It frightens him.

Albedo has no qualms about the inspiration behind his name. The second stage of alchemy-- purification, cleansing, and whitening of any darkness left behind from the first stages of alchemy, an almost perfect replica of a living human being. But he was not the first to be created nor was he the only. 

This purple liquid holds a pungent aura that is only visible to him if he withdraws into the very core of himself, the part that was born out of order with life itself. Unnatural, twisted, and so very susceptible to cruelty. Born for it. 

It reeked alchemically of Durin and of Gold. Of Khaenri’ah.

To be sure, he draws up the sleeves on one arm and holds the vial at a 45-degree angle above it. And tilts it every so slightly.

A minuscule drop lands on his arm and for a moment, it just sits there as a perfectly round orb of violet. Then, it sizzles and bubbles on the surface of his skin, tearing itself apart molecule by molecule until there is nothing left. No stain, no scar, nothing. 

It had been purified, like two elements canceling each other out, and Albedo knows his purpose, knows that he had only been born to purify what had come before him. 

This, he knows, is one of Gold’s creations. 

Chapter Text

‘I’m sorry--’ Diluc says, torn between wanting to laugh or frown at what Albedo has just said. ‘But I believe I just heard you say this was from the Abyss Order.’

He’s on his usual perch on the couch in the winery’s main hall. An empty plate of breakfast food sits on the side table waiting to be taken to the kitchen for washing. Usually, when the manor is getting too busy to see to Diluc’s every whim the instant the whim itself emerges, he does these little jobs like washing his own utensils and stuffing his own laundry into the washbasin load himself. Adelinde admonishes him for it every time, saying that the staff can only do their jobs if he lets them, but Diluc always does it anyway. 

It was earlier in the morning when the Chief Alchemist of the Knights of Favonius came knocking on the manor’s door. The two of them have exchanged meager pleasantries, Diluc cringing at his own responses the whole way through, before Albedo probably sensed his discomfort and went straight to the heart of the matter. 

Which is that the attack on the manor was orchestrated by none other than the Abyss Order themselves.

It’s ludicrous. An unfathomable, ridiculous idea. Those monsters wouldn’t have dared touch that which they know is his. There isn’t a single Abyss Order congregation within miles of the Dawn Winery and Diluc should know, he was the one who went around rampaging each of their camps for weeks on end, trailing enough bloodshed behind him to send a very clear warning out. 

Stay away from the Dawn Winery. 

And it had worked. Until now, apparently, but Diluc could scarcely believe it. Albedo, on the other hand, looks utterly convinced. A brief moment comes and goes of Diluc wishing Kaeya was partaking in this conversation as well. Instead, he had been called away by Elzer after a series of panicked voices was heard outside the manor door. 

Barbatos knows what that had been about.

‘That would be what I said, yes.’ Albedo says, lifting a hand to his chin. ‘Do you have any thoughts about this, Master Diluc?’

‘They wouldn’t dare.’ Diluc says, but even he hears the doubt in his own voice. His hands curl into fists where they are resting on the couch. What if they did?

For a moment, a wave of dampening fatigue washes over him and he feels the energy leak out of his body like water from a tap. 

‘I see you are still unwell. It may be intruding of me to ask, but it may help with convincing you of the truth.’ Albedo says, eyes on Diluc like he’s a variable in an experiment that, if applied to with the right amount of pressure, can be easily changed. ‘Just now, did you feel a sudden drop in your energy levels?’

‘Yes.’ Diluc says softly, looking down at his body in betrayal. There had been a time once when he couldn’t rely on anyone, but his own will and strength to push him through. He knew the limits of his body, how much it can bend without breaking. But in this state… The manor was in danger and he was on the verge of blacking out even sitting down unmoving on a plush couch. Kaeya was right, he was a sitting duck in a lake surrounded by gunmen. 

‘There are several Abyss creatures that are capable of a specific attack called Corrosion. Of course, these creatures are rarely sighted in Mondstadt and are more local to the other nations, so there is still room for doubt. But the science doesn’t lie.’

‘What kind of creatures are we talking about?’

Before Albedo can give him an answer, the front doors swing open, and in walks Kaeya, a grave look on his face, and beside him, an unexpected friend. 

‘Razor?’ Both Albedo and Diluc say at the same time and the boy perks up in recognition at the sight of them. 

‘Mr. Albedo! Master Diluc!’ The boy turns to Kaeya. ‘Is this what Mr. Kaeya meant when he said that help is near?’

‘Yes, Razor. Now take a seat. I believe you have a tale to tell that could very much shed some light on a mystery of ours.’

Razor nods, but hesitates, surveys the set of couches Diluc and Albedo are sitting on, and then looks down at his unkempt self, small twigs sticking out various crevices and dirt clumped underneath his fingernails. 

‘Ah--’

‘Excuse me. Yes, your name is Raven, is my memory correct?’ Diluc immediately turns to the housemaid who is stationed near their little gathering and calls out for her. Raven -- he remembers her being the manor’s newest charge -- nods quickly and scampers over on light feet. 

‘In the cupboard there, there is an old blanket. Bring it over and place it wherever Razor wants to sit.’ He turns to the boy then, gaze meaningful, ‘Razor, you know how this works. You are welcome here, don’t hesitate to ask for anything.’

It had been a few months ago when Diluc had been patrolling the depths of Wolvendom when he had run into Razor. At the time, the boy had been more wolf than an actual boy and had not been subjected to much human interaction, let alone human conversation. For every word Diluc said to him that he understood, he didn’t understand five more. Still, he had managed to coax him into the manor where Adelinde had immediately fussed over him while Diluc sent a letter to Acting Grandmaster Jean to notify her of the boy’s wild existence. 

In her letter back, Jean mentions that the Spark Knight had spoken about a wolf-boy before but she had not put much thought into it. Now that the rumors were true, she thanked him for bringing it to his attention and since then, Razor had unofficially become the pet project of the Knights of Favonius. As much as Diluc is aware, the librarian, Lisa was in charge of assimilating Razor into the education system, while Spark Knight Klee was one of Razor’s closest and most destructive friends. Seeing how at ease Razor was around Kaeya and Albedo, it was safe to assume that the two of them shared some kind of friendship with him too. 

Diluc himself had taught the boy to fight not with his claws and teeth like an animal, but with a blade like a warrior. He had lent him his childhood training claymore, which Razor had taken a shine to almost instantly, his still-growing but lean arms hefting the huge blade up with ease. With Diluc coaching him with his claymore and Lisa guiding his Electro wielding, Razor had grown to be a formidable little wolf even sans the sharp claws and fangs. 

‘Yes, Master Diluc. Will do next time.’

‘Good. Now, what do you have to tell us?’

Razor’s eyes widen as he speaks. ‘I was in the forest hunting when I smelled a strange smell. It was…’ He grapples with the words for a bit. ‘...was not good smell. Like slow death, cruel and not way of the wolves. I found a boar, it was bleeding with small injuries, but very slowly. It was dying, but very slowly.’

‘If I may.’ Kaeya interjects. ‘I saw the boar myself. It was lightly injured with a few spare gashes on its flank, but the wounds seemed almost-- old, like they weren’t closing for some reason or another. The blood dripping from it was stained violet. In a few moments, the boar dropped dead.’

From beside Diluc, he hears Albedo gasp sharply. 

‘Razor, did you see what attacked the boar?’ Albedo asked, but Razor only shakes his head. 

‘No. But the injuries. Very familiar. Once attacked village close to us and they blamed wolves instead.’

‘Village? You mean Springvale?’ Kaeya muses while Albedo latches onto the information like a squid, closing his eyes in deep thought. 

‘They blamed your pack of wolves for the attacks, which means the attackers must have had the characteristics of a wolf as well. That settles it then.’ He opens his eyes again, ‘Have any of you ever heard of a Rifthound?’

‘A what?’ Diluc says. 

‘A Rifthound or if by their more uncommonly known alchemical name, an Alfisol. Like I told you before, Master Diluc, it is a creature of the abyss, made by ancient Khaenri’ahn alchemy that resembles a wolf in form, but it has segments and the ability to teleport short distances. It is said that their bite and scratches deal lethal physical damage, but also impart the effect of Corrosion on their victim. This Corrosion saps away at the victim’s lifeforce bit by bit, which of course would explain the sudden death of the board Razor and Kaeya saw. It did not die of its superficial injuries, but rather from the Corrosion that had eaten away at it from the inside out.’

The silence that follows is deafening. Albedo turns to Diluc.

‘I didn’t get to tell you earlier, but I knew from the moment you suffered that lapse in energy.’

‘He what?’ Kaeya interrupts, voice strained, but Albedo goes on to say, ‘That would be the effect of the Corrosion in your bloodstream. It could very well have seeped in via the open injuries on your feet.’

‘Right. Of course.’ Diluc says, mind numb and body number. He feels exhausted. 

‘Diluc. Diluc. What is Albedo talking about? Are you alright?’ Kaeya demands, transferring seats to sit beside Diluc, body angled towards him and close enough to hold him if needed. Or, by the looks of his frowning face, perhaps Diluc was in for a scolding about recklessness again. From his blanketed seat, Razor timidly says, ‘Master Diluc? You okay?’

‘I’m fine, Razor.’ Diluc says, willing himself not to respond to the searing feeling where Kaeya’s gaze is boring into him. ‘Just recovering still. I will recover completely, right, Albedo?’

Albedo blinks at him, thoughtful. ‘Theoretically yes. While Rifthound corrosion does not stop for a shield or even after the creature who inflicted the wound is killed, it most certainly wears off after a period of time. But of course, this varies upon circumstances that even I do not have the means to determine.’

‘You’re saying that the poison does stop spreading, but we have no chance of knowing if it’ll stop before it kills him.’ Kaeya says, voice deadly serious. Diluc doesn’t look at him. ‘That’s what you’re saying.’

‘Unfortunately, yes. There is that risk.’ Albedo says. 

Diluc feels the world shut down around him. ‘This has been an enlightening conversation. Thank you, all of you, but I really do feel the need to rest now. My apologies for cutting this short--’

‘You have nothing to apologize for. I wish you a speedy recovery, Master Diluc, and if there is anything else I can do to help, I will be available.’ Albedo says and gets up from his seat. ‘Thank you for having us. Come, Razor, we’ll get you cleaned up a bit. Klee would be happy to see you.’

At the mention of the Spark Knight, Razor brightens but looks back at Diluc with an uncertain look. 

‘Will Master Diluc be okay?’ He asks, wide boyish eyes pleading for an answer that Diluc cannot honestly give. 

Kaeya lies for him. ‘He will be, don’t worry, Razor.’

The white lie is for his benefit, but that doesn’t stop the horrible feeling from creeping onto his neck, raising hairs and bringing cold sweat to the surface. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Kaeya watches from the adjacent couch as Diluc settles down for a nap. Over the length of their conversation with Razor and Albedo, dark circles seemed to have formed deep crevices under his usually bright eyes. His cheeks have hollowed out the slightest bit, shirt fitting looser over his frame. He makes a note to ask Adelinde if Diluc has been taking his usual portions of food later. Before that, however, that is one thing he needs to get over with...

‘I think I should move in.’ Kaeya says.

‘What.’ Diluc says back. 

‘Look at it this way. We just found out you’re dying.’ Am not, bristles Diluc. Kaeya ignores him. ‘The perpetrator is a monster, still at large, and sounds formidable enough that the usual defense system you have around here isn’t going to cut it. And--’ He crosses his arms, challenging Diluc to argue. ‘You’re too weak right now to even defend yourself against a slime.’

Diluc visibly stiffens. 

‘You nearly had a fainting spell, Diluc. Were you ever going to mention that to me?’ The more Kaeya goes on, the more his frazzled nerves show themselves. It’s the most he’s ever seen of them thus far himself, he'd been able to keep the lid on them, but now the pot's overflowing and his mind can't stop conjuring up the worst possible scenarios. 

Diluc only sighs. ‘Which room do you want?’

Kaeya blinks, not expecting the early victory but not inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth. ‘The room that will allow me to stop you from charging straight into danger the next time something happens.’ 

A deeper sigh makes its way out of Diluc’s chest. ‘The room next to mine then.’

‘I’ll tell Adelinde. You should rest.’ 

‘There is one thing we forgot to ask Albedo.’ Diluc mutters, eyes already fluttering closed with each breath he takes. ‘It all checks out. There had been claw marks in the wood, no footprints, corrosion. But there hadn’t been just poison at the scene, it was encased in the ice.’

‘I’ve seen rifthounds in a book before.’ Kaeya shakes his head, ‘They have elemental powers--’

‘They have Electro powers.’ Diluc interrupts, it was his turn to dismissively shake his head from side to side. ‘At least the ones here do.’

Kaeya focuses his gaze on Diluc in a bewildered glare. He says his name slowly, dangerously calm. ‘Have you actually seen one of them before?’

‘Yes. In Wolvendom. Deep inside, there are some. I saw them a long time ago, but I haven’t been back since. Kaeya, it’s possible that Rifthound Corrosion isn't the only factor here.’

‘Just because you saw Electro ones, it doesn’t mean there aren’t Cryo ones out there.' Kaeya says and gazes at Diluc's slow blinks of tiredness. 'Look, I’ll go and look at Springvale, alright? Since they were attacked by the Rifthounds before, there must be records of what kind of wounds were inflicted.’

‘I’ll go with you.’ Diluc says, eyes flaring with determination before dulling down with exhaustion once more. ‘Don’t keep me from coming. I’ll be fine if Barbara comes by in the morning tomorrow. Her Hydro keeps it at bay.’

It. The corrosive, substance-dissolving poison now swirling through Diluc’s veins at this very moment. Kaeya runs a hand through his hair. Knowing that look on his face, there isn’t telling him no.

‘Fine. But if you feel weak or faint -- and I do mean the slightest bit of discomfort -- then I’m sitting you down somewhere and continuing on my own.’

Diluc sits up enough to aim a frown at him. ‘You say that, but don’t think I haven’t seen you clutching at your head like it’s in pain. What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing.’ comes almost immediately. It’s a reflex answer that Diluc doesn’t have any problem seeing right through. ‘It’s just the faintest headache. Nothing a night’s of deep sleep won’t fix.’

‘You haven’t been sleeping well?’

Kaeya frowns. ‘No, actually. I’ve been sleeping fine. Though tonight might prove to be a bit of a challenge since I plan on staying up alternate hours to patrol. The creature might be back at any moment and we wouldn’t want to be caught unawares.’

‘Suit yourself.’ Diluc says tiredly and that’s the quiet end to that conversation.

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Within a few hours, the sun has completed its climb to the highest point in the sky and is starting to descend into the horizon. The waning rays illuminate the dust motes floating in the air and cast a brightening glare onto the white sheets of the bed Adelinde had pat down just before Kaeya had arrived with a bag of his things. 

‘The manor has seen some renovations since your last stay, but nothing major is different from where you remember it to be.’ Adelinde says as Kaeya swings the door to the wardrobe open and proceeds to stuff his bag inside for the time being. 

‘That’s good to know. Thank you, Adelinde.’ Kaeya says, fully meaning it. Though it was his own idea and decision to move into the manor for the time being, actually reconciling the sight of his current belongings with a room -- his room now, however temporarily -- in Dawn Winery is still whiplash. Some things never change though, and Adelinde’s steady presence has always been a fixture in these familiar halls. 

‘Of course, Master Kaeya.’ 

With a secret smile, she whisks out of the room before he can even react. Archons above, he hopes she wouldn’t say that in Diluc’s presence or they were in for a very uncomfortable stay of his. 

Shedding his heavy travel coat onto the back of the desk chair, Kaeya falls back onto the bed, bouncing a bit as he does. He just breathes it all in for a moment and fully intends to get on with the investigation as soon as he can pull himself together enough to get up from the bed, but one blink turns too long and everything drifts off into darkness, tinged with the scent of wine and grapevine leaves. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

‘Kaeya.’ Diluc wakes him by nudging a fist against his shoulder. ‘Wake up. Adelinde says it’s time for dinner.’

‘Mmf.’ Kaeya acknowledges. 

‘You shouldn’t have slept so late into the day. How are you going to fall asleep at night now?’ 

‘Wasn’t planning to anyway.’ Kaeya mumbles, before a thought stricks him and he bolts upright. ‘Diluc? How did you--’

‘I told you I was fine.’ Diluc, standing over him at the side of the bed and actually on his feet like normal, says with a deadpan voice. ‘Rest was all it took. I’ll be even better tomorrow when Barbara comes.’

Kaeya looks at him. He does look much better, even excluding the fact that he is actually on his feet for the first time in days. More color is in his face, eyes alight with displeasure when he realizes Kaeya fell asleep in his traveling clothes, and the grip with which he hauls Kaeya off the bed is strong. 

‘Didn’t we teach you to observe hygiene around your sleeping quarters? All those germs from outside--’ Diluc pulls a politely disgusted face. ‘I’ll get someone to pat the bed down for you later, but if we are any later to dinner than we are already, Adelinde isn’t going to be happy.’

‘Going to send us to bed without dinner, maybe?’ Kaeya laughs easily. The feeling of being back in the manor with a bed of his own and Diluc actually speaking more than three sentences to him at a time keeps him afloat, limbs tingling contentedly.

This might not have been where he put down roots these past few years -- no, his roots have entangled themselves with those of his office in Headquarters, the smell of new armor, and Jean, Lisa, Klee, Albedo-- but it’s always nice to return home. 

Dinner is a mostly quiet, but nonetheless pleasant affair. After, Diluc and Kaeya lounge around the fire for a bit, Diluc catching up with the paperwork that had piled up during the time he had been indisposed and letting Kaeya talk at him about the patrolling he planned to do tonight. 

Then, he either gets tired of writing, gets tired of Kaeya, or simply just gets tired and excuses himself to bed. One by one, the sounds of movement around the manor and the staff themselves slowly wink out of existence as the whole manor settles down for the night. Kaeya stays up by the fire, which has waned slightly ever so slightly since Diluc’s Pyro vision left the room, and keeps himself awake through the mandatory dinner-induced bout of drowsiness by snagging writing utensils from where Diluc left them and writing down a story for Klee about Cryo Slimes and Liyue’s Jueyun Chilis.

The grandfather clock somewhere in the manor chimes midnight, echoing throughout the silent abode.

Kaeya goes outside. The nightwatchmen, having doubled in numbers on Diluc’s immediate orders, nod at him in acknowledgment as he passes by. While they are mainly in charge of patrolling around the Dawn Winery grounds, Kaeya takes the liberty of scouting the edges of the property from where the crystalflies gather around the nearby Statue of the Seven to the Cryo Slime riverbank connecting them to Stone Gate. Though, he is careful to not get too close to the slimes so as to incite them to attack this time, not wanting to induce Diluc’s rage the next day. 

As he makes his way back and forth from the two landmarks he’s given himself, Kaeya marvels at how easily Diluc has relented to not being the protector, but rather the protected this time around. He knows Diluc, he wasn’t the kind to just sit back and watch how things unfold. He was rather the kind of person to insist they make the lost boy caught out in the rain family, the kind of person who sacrifices their nights to make sure no one’s nightmares about monsters come true, the kind of person who is so perfectly honest in everything they do that they are blinded by it at times. 

Diluc is a man of action and it isn’t like him to lie low like this. Kaeya wonders if Barbara had something to do with the sudden change. After all, before her first healing session, Diluc had been stubbornly against the notion that he was hurt and needed help, but now, he was asking for her like it was the most natural thing to do. Which it was. But Diluc never admits he needs anyone’s help nowadays. 

Maybe this was his way of accepting Kaeya’s help. By going to bed and trusting that Kaeya would keep him and the manor safe. The thought lights a warm flame in his chest, carrying him through the dark, cold night.

It’s at this moment that Kaeya reaches the riverbank and he stands still in the moonlight to catch his breath for a bit. Here, it's just him, the distant shapes of the Cryo slimes, and the mo--

A rustle of leaves disturbs the silence.

Kaeya looks over into the small thicket of trees to the northeast. A dark form, low to the ground, moves in the night. 

He draws his sword and stalks over. 

Catches sight of… a boar. It's just a boar. 

Another rustle comes from behind him and the last thing he remembers are his knees hitting the ground. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

A part of Diluc-- the part that still holds on to the time he and Kaeya were close enough to exchange barbs like they were flower crowns-- waits patiently and smugly for Kaeya to wake up so he can crow over how Diluc wasn’t the one they needed to worry about now on their trip to Springvale.

Overriding that part by a landslide is the part of him that had frozen up in terror when he had been shaken awake in the early hours of the morning by Elzer, only to receive news that Kaeya is hurt and unconscious. They carry his limp body in from the night and place him on the very couch that has been Diluc’s personal brand of imprisonment these past few days. 

Thankfully, no blood matts Kaeya’s navy hair, only a nasty-looking purple bruise blooming on the back of his head, and in his unconsciousness, there is no pain. His face is peaceful and unassuming as he sleeps. 

‘What happened?’ Diluc asks one of the nightwatchmen, Eason who had carried Kaeya in. 

‘We were on duty.’ says Eason, clutching his hat to his chest as he looks at Kaeya’s pallid complexion in concern. ‘Captain Kaeya had been there too, only he was patrolling further out. He walked to and fro a few times, but one time he went to the river and I waited for him to walk back around. He never did. I got worried and went to check, and there he was on the ground a ways away from the river itself.’

‘On the ground?’

Eason nods. ‘On his front and sword on the ground beside him. But around him, there were strange things. There were boar tracks and footprints-- and ice.’

The word chills Diluc’s blood over. ‘Ice? Are you sure? Was it melted?’

Eason looks conflicted. ‘I-I’m not sure. Apologies, I was too preoccupied with getting Captain Kaeya to safety at the time--’

‘No, it’s fine. You did the right thing.’ Diluc says, placating the rattled man. ‘Thank you. Come by when he’s awake, I’m sure he’d like to express his gratitude in person as well.’

Eason salutes him before going back to his duties. 

Diluc lets out the sigh he had been holding in when the front door closes behind the guard and fixes Kaeya’s slumbering face with a half-hearted glare. 

‘Trust the likes of you to get into trouble on your first night here.’ He murmurs, reaching over to carefully pick bits of grass and twigs out of Kaeya’s hair. He had been found on his front, meaning he most likely had been attacked from the back. 

‘Master Diluc? Adelinde sent me over.’ A timid voice comes from behind him. Diluc turns to see Raven the new housemaid shuffling nervously from one foot to the other, clutching a small wicker basket with wash clothes and a pitcher of water inside. ‘She said that Master Kaeya was in need of some tending to.’

Master Kaeya, hm? Diluc can’t bring himself to correct her. 

‘Yes, but summon Adelinde here to assist you as well. I’d prefer to have her experience of working around concussions and… well, Kaeya in general when he’s in this vulnerable of a state.’ He says, withdrawing his hand from Kaeya’s hair. 

A momentary flash of emotion crosses Raven’s face. ‘Ah, Master Diluc, I’m sure there isn’t any need to bother Adelinde and her other duties. I have experience treating concussions as well and--’

It’s the most she’s said to his face since they hired her and he’s glad she’s starting to open up to him, because he’d rather have a houseful of friendly faces, rather than-- Archons forbid-- servitude. But Kaeya is hurt, Diluc is still rankled from the rough awakening, he still needs to get to the scene to check it out for himself before it gets washed away by the night, and Kaeya is hurt, so his tone is shorter than he’d like to admit to when he interrupts her, ‘Raven, I didn’t say you couldn’t help Kaeya, I said to fetch Adelinde as well. She knows him better than anyone else does and will know how to handle him should he wake up suddenly. Go. Fetch. Adelinde.’

The last three words are enunciated in the way he was taught to as the child of the noble house of Ragvindr and it means that he isn’t looking to be argued with any further.

With another pinch of her face that fades away as quickly as it came, Raven dips her head low and says just as lowly, ‘Yes, Master Diluc.’

Her footsteps shuffle away quickly. Diluc stands when they return accompanied by another set. 

Adelinde rushes over to Kaeya, eyes full of questions, but the urgency to lessen the effects of the blow to his head is stronger and she unloads a plethora of medical supplies with a speed only experience lends. 

‘Go do whatever it is that you need, Master Diluc. Master Kaeya is in good hands.’ She says and there it is again. Master Kaeya. 

Diluc just nods and stalks out into the night.

Chapter Text

It’s that time between night and between dawn when the dew is fresh and it gets colder than ever. Diluc pulls his fur-lined coat tighter around him and wills his vision to send out a pulse of warmth as they near the spot where Kaeya was attacked. With him as always is Elzer, and Eason who had been the first on the scene. Fitted snugly on the bottoms of their soles are thin sheets of White Iron.

‘He was just here.’ Eason says pointing to a vaguely Kaeya-like shape on the ground where the grass had been trampled by the weight of his fallen body. ‘And here are the boar tracks.’

Having been forced to learn a bit of tracking when he had been away from Mondstadt and left to fend for himself in terms of food and water, Diluc easily picks out the path where the boar had trundled through the foliage. All around them, bits of ice glitter the moonlight back at them. 

‘As much as you can, avoid the ice. And the boar tracks, they go deeper in.’ He observes and looks back at the two men accompanying him. They nod back at him. Diluc presses his lips together in acknowledgement and leads the way deeper into the forest, following the tracks. 

‘Oh.’ Eason says, voice queasy as they catch sight of a dark mound ahead. 

The boar is barely breathing, chest falling rapidly up and down in futility. Across its side, claw marks paint a gruesome image of certain death, bubbling with rivulets of violet blood. 

‘Oh.’ Eason says again, slapping a hand over his mouth and looking away. 

‘It’s just like what Kaeya and Razor found before.’ Diluc says, turning to Elzer, who is also looking a bit pale. ‘How was the first boar disposed of?’

‘We simply buried it in the ground after a hunter from Springvale ended its misery for it. Master Diluc, do you think it was the same attacker?’

‘Without a doubt, yes.’ Diluc says, crouching down to inspect the boar thoroughly before withdrawing a hunting knife from a hidden pocket on the inner lining of his coat. ‘Look away, Eason.’

Diluc has the knife poised at the ready when the boar’s eyes blink open. It gives one last pitiful murmur before lying back in acceptance. Diluc aims true and slices. 

The blood stains the blade bright red. It swims as Diluc blinks. 

‘Let’s go back to the first place.’ He says, voice quiet and rough. ‘We’ll bury it tomorrow.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Walking back feels longer than walking to. Diluc unconsciously counts the steps as they make their way back to where Eason had found Kaeya, unable to shake off the unease.

‘How long did it take before for Kaeya to appear in your sights after reaching the riverbank?’ He asks Eason, who takes a moment to think.

‘Not long, about a minute or so.’

‘And how long was it before you went to go check on him after he failed to show?’ Diluc gears up to do some quick mental math as Eason pauses once more. 

‘About ten minutes.’ He says finally. A note of regret rings in his voice. ‘I noticed something was amiss at the three-minute mark, but didn’t think much about it. Clearly, I should have trusted my instincts more.’

‘You were the one who found him, no matter how long it took. I have much to thank you for and Kaeya even more.’ Diluc says, placing a reassuring hand on Eason’s arm. ‘Who knows what might have happened if you didn’t get to him the way you did.’

Still, Diluc thinks silently to himself, ten minutes was a long time for Kaeya to have wandered from his path. Why exactly did he stray so far from the winery? Had he seen something worth investigating? 

Was it his attacker?

Diluc lets these questions whirr in his mind as he surveys the scene. Blinks. Wonders if the lack of sleep was finally catching up to him.

There is a shape in the grass further away, closer to the riverbank and the start of the tree line. Dawn was approaching now and the sky was a blend of pale orange and dark navy, the first faint rays of sun illuminating two shallow indents in the damp dirt that they had missed on the first pass-through. 

They were barely a foot apart, perfectly round shapes as if someone had pressed two apples into the dirt. Did something fall here?

Did Kaeya fall here?

Diluc walks closer and after a moment of thought, drops down to his knees beside the indents, careful to avoid the shards of melting ice littered around. The ground gives way slightly as he makes impact. When he rises, hands going instinctively to brush the dirt that clings to his trousers, his knees have left two round shapes in the ground. A perfect match to the first mark. 

‘He didn’t fall in the grass.’ He realizes, unease crawling up his throat. ‘He fell here first.’ 

Then what? Did he crawl to the grass, only to slump over there unconscious? Or was he perhaps dragged by whatever had struck him?

Both scenarios required Kaeya to cause some sort of disturbance from one point to the other, but Diluc couldn’t see any traces of struggle between the place Kaeya fell on his knees first and the spot Eason had found him sprawled. The grass would’ve been flattened if he had crawled or dragged, and the dew would have been disturbed. But there was nothing.

It was like he had either flown or teleported over. 

These were both ridiculous ideas and Diluc dismisses them immediately. The two of them might not have been as connected at the hip as they had been, but that didn’t mean he would’nt have known about it if Kaeya could suddenly sprout wings or blink in and out of existence. 

It was seeming more and more like they would have to wait until Kaeya actually woke up to get more answers. 

Meanwhile, he makes plans with Elzer to fence the contaminated area off to wait until the Corrosion effect wore off enough to be hosed down into the river. They return to the manor with the sun peeking past the horizon. 

A new day has only just begun and already Diluc feels exhausted to the bone. He blames half of it on the Corrosion inside him and the rest, as always, on Kaeya.

The man in question, when Diluc walks back into the manor, is sitting up on the couch with white gauze holding herbs wrapped around his forehead. At the sound of the door clicking shut, Kaeya looks up at Diluc and has the nerve, gall, and audacity to crack a smile and say, ‘Good morning.’

Good morning. Diluc would crack his head open if it hadn’t already been this close to it last night. 

He gets his own back by saying, ‘So, do you think you’re fit to head into Springvale? If not, I can always sit you down somewhere and continue alone.’

Kaeya’s smile falls instantly, but one side of it quirks back up in a deprecating smirk. ‘How unkind to throw my own words back at me while I’m injured, Master Diluc. And to think I meant very well when I said it to you too.’

Diluc doesn’t smile, but it’s a near thing. As it was, the gravity of the situation keeps his humor well-dampened. 

‘I’m serious now though. Will you be alright? What were you doing so far away from the manor anyway? Did you see something?’

Kaeya picks at a stray thread on his shirt. ‘Was I really that far? It didn’t feel like it, I thought I only took a few steps from the riverbank. Who brought me here by the way? Was it you?’ The swerve he gives to each of Diluc’s pressing questions is obvious.

Diluc shakes his head, even though it should have been him who brought Kaeya in, who should have been there to stop the attack, who wouldn’t have let Kaeya get injured in the first place. He should have been with Kaeya last night, patrolling by his side-- because this was his home that they were talking about-- instead of sleeping the night away. 

Kaeya studies him with a look that says he knows exactly what Diluc is thinking. He flushes and looks away to answer, ‘No, it wasn’t me. It was a nightwatchman named Eason. He should come around later to see you awake, I told him to.’

‘And all listen to what our grand Master Diluc has to say.’ Kaeya says laughingly. ‘Cheer up. I’m feeling fine. I’ve been told my head is made of quite the thick material.’

It’s obvious he’s trying to get Diluc to loosen up. Maybe come sit down with him on the couch, instead of lingering halfway between Kaeya and the front door, as if he was an outsider in his own home. But seeing Kaeya with his wrapped-up head and the smudges of dirt still on his clothes have him so on edge that the thought of sitting down is unimaginable. 

Kaeya switches tactics. ‘When is Barbara arriving?’

‘Around ten later.’ Diluc had written to her the day before, promising a warm meal at the manor should she want it. They had planned to head out to Springvale after lunch when the hunters have all come home for a meal after a morning’s worth of hunting. Just in case, Diluc had also sent Noctua out with a letter to Draff so he knew they were expected in the small town. 

There are light footsteps from upstairs and a few moments later, Adelinde arrives with a neat pile of clothes under her arm and a toothbrush already smeared with mint paste. 

‘Here.’ She says, handing the clothes to Kaeya and extending the toothbrush toward him. 

‘Are you trying to tell me something, dear Adelinde?’ Kaeya says cheekily but takes the proffered toothbrush nonetheless. 

‘That it’s morning and it is usually in people’s routine to brush their teeth then?’ Adelinde deadpans, ‘Then, yes, I suppose I am trying to tell you that.’

Kaeya looks helplessly at Diluc with a wide eye, but the effect is thrown off by the absurd picture of him clutching the toothbrush. The mint paste is a good kind, strong enough for the sensation to tingle Diluc’s nostrils even from there. ‘Diluc, I think Adelinde is mad at me.’ He whines.

‘To be perfectly honest?’ Diluc shrugs with a shoulder. ‘So am I.’

‘What!’ Kaeya hisses between his teeth, mint paste dangerously close to slipping off the toothbrush bristles entirely. ‘And to think my closest confidantes would treat me so in my weakest moment.’

‘Do you want me to brush your teeth for you?’ Adelinde inquiries sweetly. 

It’s with a squeaky Nope! that Kaeya stands up slowly but steadily and scurries off into the washroom nearby. The sound of water running and bristles brushing over teeth disguises Adelinde’s next words. 

‘He doesn’t have a concussion, Master Diluc.’ 

Diluc raises his eyebrows in surprise. ‘So his head is thick.’

Adelinde fixes him with an exasperated look that should be framed in one of their childhood albums in the manor somewhere, it takes him right back. 

‘Since the deaconess is coming later today, we could ask her to take a look at Master Kaeya as well just to make sure both of you are fit enough to return home in one piece from Springvale. I’ll be packing some refreshments for you both to take on the way.’

Perhaps this was the time to bring the whole Master Kaeya thing up. 

‘Adelinde?’

She stops in her tracks to the kitchens, tossing a look over her shoulder with a challenging glint in her eye. ‘Yes, Master Diluc?’

“I--’ Diluc falters where he stands. ‘...Nevermind. I just wanted to say thank you.’

Adelinde’s harsh look softens minisculely, ‘Always, Master Diluc.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Barbara isn’t happy about letting them off her highly-advised bedrest period so that they can go to Springvale, but after giving them a thorough lecture about taking care of themselves properly, she had finally relented.

During the half an hour long spiel, various manor staff ducked in and out of their bubble, hiding amused smiles at their respected Master of the Manor and Calvary Captain getting schooled on basic safety precautions by a girl with pigtails half their height. 

‘Well, that was informative.’ Kaeya notes when Barbara has left with a basket of hot Pile-Me-Ups made by the kitchen staff following Diluc’s written recipe under her arm. ‘She takes after Jean very well, doesn’t she?’

‘Indeed. It’s the eyes.’ Diluc says, still pink from the stares he had received from his staff. There goes all the reverie he had had around these halls. ‘Lunch should be soon. After that, we check our gear and head off.’

‘Sure.’ Kaeya replies, dusting imaginary dust off of his pristine clothes. He halts in the midst of the action. ‘Something reminds me, do you usually send your housemaids out traipsing through the vineyards in their pinafores?’

Diluc looks back at him in perplexion. ‘No. We have farmers for the vineyards and gardeners for the grounds. The most work the housemaids do outside of the manor-- at least to my attention-- is that Adelinde sometimes asks Moco and Hillie to sweep up outside, but their duties never take them to the vineyards. Why do you ask?’

Kaeya shrugs dismissively, but there is a set to his brow that belies how deep his thoughts actually go. ‘No particular reason. It’s just that when I woke up from my, uh, impromptu nap this morning--’ Diluc rolls his eyes. ‘--I noticed the maid that was tending to me alongside Adelinde had a few unsightly streaks of dirt and grape smears on the hem of her dress.’

‘You were looking at her dress?’

‘I was discombobulated.’ Kaeya defends, stuttering and flushing from his ears to his neck. Always at the ready to deliver words with a silver tongue, but present him with a vaguely shameful subject and he’s crumbling like a dandelion in Anemo. ‘I needed something to distract me from the headache and getting your head wrapped up in gauze isn’t the most entertaining thing to sit through. I just happened to notice that she must’ve been outside recently.’

Cutting through the amusement of Kaeya’s fluster-induced ramblings, Diluc raises a hand to his chin in thought. ‘Outside recently. At three in the morning?’ 

‘Ask the housemaid. Or the dress itself.’ mutters Kaeya, still pouting at being poked fun at. 

‘I think I shall.’ Diluc says. Not long after, a call from the dining hall signals the start of lunchtime. 

They follow the fast and well-worn path from Dawn Winery to Springvale. Not even five minutes of riding later, the small town of Springvale appears in the distance, its lone windmill guiding the two of them and their horses toward it. 

‘What’s your plan?’ Kaeya asks, hands tight on the reins as they steer towards a small pond for their horses to drink before continuing on. A small sliver of pain erupts every now and again across his skull, tolerable enough that he dismisses it as just an effect of being jostled on horseback. 

‘Find Draff. He should be able to tell us about what happened during the attacks before.’ Diluc answers. He’s been giving Kaeya these looks which definitely means he’s just waiting for Kaeya to keel over in pain on the side of the road. Well, he’s not going to give him that satisfaction.

Kaeya spurs his horse on faster and thoroughly enjoys Diluc’s unimpressed sputters as he eats Kaeya’s dust. 

‘Well, if it’s Draff you’re looking to see, you better hope Diona isn’t around too.’ He calls backward. The young bartender might be half their height, but her rage knows no bounds when it comes to the wine industry. Which Kaeya unfortunately loves to excessively sample from time to time. And which Diluc very unfortunately is the uncrowned king of here in Mondstadt. 

They arrive in good time at the northern entrance of the town, jumping off their mounts and tying them securely to a fence post in easy reach of clear spring water. Making their way into the town, it’s quick work to flag down someone and ask for Draff. As could be expected, they find him near Springvale’s tavern, where he’s surrounded by his hunting team, all flushed with wine already and laughing merrily at their successful hunt. 

Diluc clears his throat. The raucous merriment dies down and someone nudges Draff in the side, causing him to spin around and topple half the contents of his tankard down into the grass. It stains the blades a warm maroon before seeping into the soil.

‘Ah, Master Diluc and Captain Kaeya! As expected, yes, yes.’ Draff says as he hurries to his feet, stepping right into the puddle of wine-soaked soil and grimacing at the squelch beneath his shoes. ‘I received Master Diluc’s letter a while back. What brings you two gentlemen here?’

‘Some Knights business.’ Kaeya says, ‘Has it been a good day for hunting?’

Draff brightens, ‘Why, yes! Not only day, but season in fact! There was a multitude of wildlife in the Springvale area, more than their usual numbers. We don’t know what caused it, but we are grateful nonetheless.’ He laughs and gestures to the drinking table.

‘Might I interest you in a little merry-making before we start on whatever it is you came to discuss?’

Kaeya perks up at the same time Diluc says, ‘I don’t drink.’

‘Oh.’ Draff peers at Diluc inquisitively, ‘Yes, I’ve heard about your stance on drinking, Master Diluc. Very unexpected, I must say. How about you, Captain Kaeya? Care for a splurge?’

‘He’s concussed.’ says Diluc, even though he knows very well that Kaeya isn’t. He looks at him with utmost betrayal. ‘Let’s retreat to a quieter area to start talking.’ He turns on his heel and starts walking. 

Kaeya gives Draff an apologetic shrug, ‘He’s poisoned.’

Draff only blanches further. 

They end up at Draff’s house, opting to stay outside instead of heading in. Part of Kaeya suspects it’s because Diluc smells the mild intoxication in Draff’s breath and wants the fresh air to sober him up thoroughly, lest he leaves out any important detail. 

‘We wanted to ask about the wolf attacks a few months back.’ Diluc goes straight to the point. ‘Which pack was it? Was there anyone hurt?’

Draff blinks for a moment, blindsided before giving a halting reply, ‘Ah, those wolf attacks. It has been quite a while. The Knights of Favonius have investigated this before, you know, it wouldn’t be hard to dig up the records.’

Kaeya raises an eyebrow. ‘Who was the representative?’

‘Outrider Amber.’ Draff says, ‘And as I told her all those months ago, no one was hurt. Though poor Hopkins the Marvelous was quite paralyzed with fear for quite a bit, he soon got back up on his feet. In fact, he went after the pack that had encroached on our village not long after he recovered, but when he came back, he simply refused to say what had happened. The rest of us figured he just hadn’t had any luck tracking the wolves down and didn’t want to own up to the embarrassment.’ He ends with a shrug. 

So, no one had been injured. Kaeya and Diluc share a helpless look. That puts a damper on their trip here today then.

Draff reaches a hand to paw at the back of his neck, ‘Was that all you wanted to know? If so, the offer to join us for a bit of drinking still stan--’

‘A bit of what?’ A familiar voice shrieks from inside the house. A series of stomping noises ring out and the front door is thrown open abruptly, revealing a fuming Diona. ‘Dad! You said you’d come straight home after you return from the hunt!’

‘Oh, dear.’ Draff mumbles sheepishly. 

Diona’s eye flick over to where Kaeya and Diluc are standing and her already pouting lip curls in distaste. ‘Oh, it’s you two. What are you doing here?’

‘Diona!’ Draff exclaims, aghast, ‘Don’t refer to the Captain and Master Diluc like that!’

‘I refer to drunk heads the way I want to.’ says Diona, crossing her arms, but sounding a bit apologetic. ‘Did you come to bring Dad home? Did he drink himself into a foolish stupor and pass out in the middle of the hunting ground again?’

‘N-No.’ Diluc says, eyes a bit too wide as he peers at Diona, a bit taken aback. It seems that although they both have great fame when it comes to bartending in Mondstadt, he hasn’t yet had the pleasure-- or rather, displeasure-- of meeting his rival yet, however, Diona-proclaimed the title may be. ‘Forgive me if I’m wrong, but you are Diona, Draff’s daughter?’

‘Sure am.’ Diona says cattily, tail flicking in annoyance, ‘And you are Master Diluc. Of the Dawn Winery.’ The last part is spoken with so much vitriol she might have been talking about stepping in boar droppings instead. Diluc is still very much confused.

This is so far the best part of Kaeya’s day. At least, until Diona whirls on him with a hiss.

‘What are you laughing at, Captain? Nothing’s funny! Are you drunk as well? Only drunk people laugh at nothing.’ 

‘No, no. Diona, you misunderstand.’ Kaeya tries to placate her, but from beside him, he hears a soft tone of realization, ‘Oh, you don’t like alcohol.’

It’s Diluc who says it, but it’s also Diluc who squints in doubt right after. Presumably at the shaker that is attached to Diona’s belt. ‘You don’t like alcohol.’ He says again, though this time it’s more of a question.

‘I despise alcohol.’ announces Diona with a show of her sharp canines. The fur on her tail bristles and her ears point downwards as she hisses. ‘And anyone who is dumb enough to drink so much that they lose their senses.’

Diluc nods empathetically, a misty look in his eyes. ‘I don’t like alcohol either.’

‘That’s why I specifically don’t like you tw-- wait.’ She blinks owlishly at Diluc, jaw hanging open for a second as she recollects her wits, ‘What did you just say?’

‘I.’ says Diluc again, ‘Don’t like alcohol. Grape juice is my preferred beverage, aside from perfectly good water.’

‘Oh my Archons.’ gapes Diona, but she goes back to a suspicious glare soon after, ‘You don’t like alcohol. But you own Mondstadt’s biggest vineyard. And winery. And tavern.’

‘Uh.’ says Diluc intelligently. 

Well, personally, this conversation about hating alcohol is slowly chewing away at Kaeya’s little ol’ wine-loving heart, so he deigns himself kind enough to save Diluc from it. 

‘Say, Diona.’ He says, earning the brunt of said girl’s frown. He’s glad for all the practice ignoring Diluc’s own frown has given him prior to it. ‘You are a healer, aren’t you?’

Diona looks to the side and then back at him in rapid succession, one pink eyebrow raised. ‘Uh, yeah? What about it?’

From beside him, Kaeya can feel Diluc’s eyes looking questionably at him as well. It was true that part of Kaeya had really meant it when he told him that it was best they didn’t run into the antagonistic Katzlein girl today, but the other part of him that is good at moving people around like pieces on a chessboard-- so good that it is his actual job-- saw an unpassable opportunity.

Instead of answering Diona directly, he turns to Diluc and asks, ‘Do you still have Barbara’s residual Hydro in your system?’

Diluc nods, ‘Yes, I can feel it still.’ Then, his eyes dart to the Cryo vision attached to the drink shaker on Diona’s belt. ‘Kaeya, are you seriously thinking--’

‘That Hydro and Cryo heals combined might slow down the effects of your Corrosion even more? It’s worth a shot.’ Kaeya shrugs. 

Diona has her hands on her hips, face unimpressed as she says, ‘Hey, Captain! What are you talking about? You said something about Cryo and healing. One of you sick or something?’ Her feline eyes dart from one of them to the other. ‘The Church is the best place to go, you know.’

‘We’ve had assistance from Barbara of the Church already.’ Diluc says, ‘It’s like this: I’m the one who’s-- sick. There is some poison right now in my body and it might take some time to fully phase out. If it’s no trouble, I’d like to formally ask you, Diona for a bout of your healing capabilities.’ Throughout the whole speech, he’s polite enough, but it’s easy to see underneath the polite words where the unfamiliarity of asking to be helped still chafes. The tips of his ears flame red and his teeth grit together when he’s done.

‘Okay, okay. Jeez, no need to be so polite.’ Diona grouses, brushing the non-existent dust off her shorts and slinging her shaker off. The Cryo Vision jingles like a charm as she shakes it, a deviously pensive look coming over her face. 

‘Say…is this illness of yours really that serious?’

‘Diona…’ Draff speaks up from the sidelines, watching them as Diona shrugs, ‘What? I’m just saying that this is Mondstadt after all. No matter how much I want to see it in ruins, it’s a nation built off of the alcohol industry. And in Mondstadt, no drink comes for free.’

Her words dawn on Diluc and Kaeya at the same time. 

Kaeya feels an unreasonably hot burst of anger licks up his chest. ‘Are you implying we pay you for your services?’ Because that’s doable, it’s to be expected, even. But something about Diona’s smug expression, like she’s happy to hold Diluc’s dwindling health like some sort of sick leverage over him, makes him want to stick his sword into a conveniently nearby slime. 

‘Well, not exactly pay.’ Diona says, drawing the words out as her shaker goes even faster in a blur of building frost and motion. Cold gusts and the sound of tinkling ice emanate from it. ‘I don’t want your money, Captain. But I do want to ask something of Master Diluc over here.’

‘You--’ Kaeya grits out while Diluc shoots a hand out to bump his arm. His face is thoughtful as he considers the offer. ‘What is it you’d like from me?’

‘An event.’ says Diona and Kaeya fall flat. An event? 

‘Of what kind?’ Diluc asks. 

‘A collaboration between the Cat’s Tail and Angel’s Share. One week of mixing only non-alcoholic drinks.’ Diona pulls up a finger and repeats, ‘One week, nothing more and nothing less.’

‘That--’ Diluc hums, chin cupped in his hand, ‘--is actually doable.’

Draff lets out a barely audible moan of despair. Diluc obviously hears it and smirks, then suddenly Kaeya is pinned with his big, challenging eyes, ‘So, what say you, Captain Kaeya? Is this offer agreeable to you?’

Kaeya stares right back at him. 

He loves drinking, that’s an undeniable truth. It’s not only a habit that is for his own pleasure, but-- and he knows people are skeptical about his methods, but they work-- Mondstadt’s taverns are where he does his best work for the Knights. Getting under Treasure Hoarders’ skins by buying them ten rounds of Dandelion Wine and then throwing in one free round of thorough interrogations, skipping from one corner of the room shrouded in darkness to the other to meet with his informants, learning all about the Fatui’s recent activity by pretending to be drowsy beside a table full of agents with their mouths loosened by the very same liquid in his own cup. 

Other fonder moments are similarly drenched in the scent of wine. Moments like Rosaria poking him to sober him up for the walk back home. The early days of Diluc’s return to Mondstadt, when the only place that Kaeya can hope to catch a glance of him without the other vanishing away was behind the counter at Angel’s Share. The first time they talked in three years , when Kaeya ordered a Death After Noon and Diluc passive-aggressively gave him grape juice instead. Hosting Jean’s surprise birthday party in the same tavern where he let the Traveler get all the glory, content to just watch Jean get showered with all the love and adoration she so deserved.

Alcohol is Kaeya’s way of life. Getting rid of Mondstadt’s alcohol, even for a week, was going to cripple his work immensely. He eyes Diona’s shaker, which is now frosted over with Cryo and brimming with elemental energy. Thinks of the Corrosion eating Diluc from the inside out.

‘Sure.’ He says, ‘Fire away.’

Diona disguises the glee she feels by donning another variation of her unimpressed face. ‘Not the best one-liner around, Captain. Now just keep still. Diona Special! ’

With a kick of her shaker, the lid pops off and Cryo pours out in waves, frosty mist covering the ground and their feet. It lingers as Kaeya looks expectantly at Diluc, who’s breathing the mist in and breathing it out slowly with his eyes closed. 

‘Do you feel any different?’ He asks when they slide back open. 

‘Quite.’ Diluc says, tone still flat but with undertones of relief. ‘It’s much colder, but I feel better. Thank you, Diona. I’ll have Charles contact Margeret about the event.’

‘Great!’ Diona claps, completely ignoring Draff’s sniffle of misery beside her. ‘Stay in the area of effect, my healing’s still got a while to go. And, and, I might have a few ideas already brewing for the event. It goes like this--’

So they stay a little while longer. 

Chapter Text

Once they return to the winery, it’s already past lunchtime and though they did end up taking a few bites of Brooke’s meaty specialties in Springvale for the road, Kaeya is sure they’re still going to end up getting an earful from Adelinde about missing lunch at the manor.

Diluc seems to have the same thought, because he’s mostly in the lead on the way back home, spurring Kaeya on as they go. As a result of Diona’s freezing heal and the wind breezing through their hair as they trot on, he’s got his fur-lined coat fastened all the way, despite also wearing his usual long-sleeved dress shirt underneath it.

It’s a bit concerning to see him so affected by the cold that must be chilling up his insides, considering he’s a Pyro user who can generate extra body heat at will, but he must be keeping it at bay to not jostle the healing effects. Kaeya makes a note to mention what happened in Springvale to Adelinde so she can keep an eye on Diluc too, should he overchill. 

On the last leg of their journey, Diluc falls back in line with Kaeya's horse. Kaeya shoots him a questioning look, only to raise his eyebrows at Diluc’s own grave face.

’What is it?’ He asks, dreading to hear that Diluc feels too cold now even underneath all those layers. His own Cryo is capable of inflicting immediate frostbite, maybe he was a bit too impulsive to suggest the freezing technique--

‘You’re thinking way too loud.’ grimaces Diluc, snapping Kaeya out of his thoughts. ‘I’m feeling perfectly fine, what you suggested back there was a good idea.’

‘Yes, I’m known for the occasional show of brains.’ Kaeya grins and earns a spectacularly deadpanned stare back. 

‘I was thinking about last night.’ Diluc says quietly, heavy tone instantly dampening the jovial mood, ‘And about your attacker.’

Kaeya blinks. The bruised spot on his head still throbs every now and then. ‘You have a clue about who was behind that?’

Diluc gives him a look that is both knowing and calculating. ‘Don’t tell me you haven’t been thinking about it yourself. Surely, you have some idea.’

Kaeya takes a moment before responding, because, truthfully? Yes. Yes, he does have a few inklings about his mysterious assailant and yes, he has been heavily putting off sharing those inklings with Diluc, because he knows his thoughts wouldn’t be greatly received. After all, there is only one perceivable option here.

Diluc saves him the trouble and breaks the fragility between them himself, ‘It’s one of the winery staff, isn’t it?’

Kaeya can almost hear the oxygen suck out of the air around them. He grits his teeth, ‘Is that what you think?’

‘It’s what I don’t want to think.’ Diluc murmurs, ‘But did you tell anyone you were moving here? Anyone at all?’

‘No, Jean still wants all of this to be kept under wraps. Probably because of this exact reason. You’re in no condition to fight and I’m just one lone Knight. It’s easy to get us when we are pretty much isolated from all forms of support here. And did you tell anyone?’

‘Not a soul.’ Diluc shakes his head, ‘No one. But of course, the winery staff know.’ He pauses, then asks in a voice that is this close to pleading, ‘Kaeya, what exactly did happen last night?’

Kaeya spends some time running his gaze over Diluc’s expectant face, before sighing. ‘Honestly? I don’t remember much. I was patrolling just like how I told you I would, going from the Statue to the river. And then…’

Diluc waits. Kaeya chews on his bottom lip, a habit that only resurfaced recently. He blames it on being in the manor again, it’s bringing up all the little quirks he had had as a child. 

‘I saw something move. I went to check it out, but it was just a boar.’ 

Just a boar.

The last thing he remembers… 

‘I got hit.’ He says, but somewhere there is a gap. Something that eludes him still, a piece of the puzzle that is placed too far into the corner of his memory. He plays with the idea of keeping it to himself, purely because he doesn’t know if he truly is missing anything from that night, let alone what exactly was he missing. 

But he had promised he would leave Diluc safe and sound after this and that meant getting to the bottom of it all. And secrets kept between the two of them never ended prettily. Kaeya knows that all too well. 

So when Diluc asks tentatively, ‘That’s it?’, he shakes his head and says back, ‘No, there is something else there.’

But then Diluc asks again, ‘What?’

All he can give back is a soft and uncertain, ‘I don’t remember.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

They reach the manor and sure enough, Adelinde is out front waiting for them. She wastes no time in pulling Kaeya off his horse and inspecting his head, and then upon ascertaining he wasn’t in any immediate danger of falling dead right at that moment, she moves onto Diluc.

Diluc lets himself get pulled down, scoffing. Kaeya has always been her favorite Ragnvindr.

Wait.

Diluc briefly considers smacking himself right across the face but stops mid-motion when he realizes it’ll just freak Adelinde out enough to think he was regressing health-wise and even worse, falling into lunacy. 

Kaeya was an Alberich. An Alberich . Hasn’t been a Ragnvindr for at least five years now. Diluc had been there, had actually been the person to disown him, in fact.

The urge to smack has evolved into the urge to punch. 

Speaking about Kaeya, Diluc has yet to discuss just what their previous conversation meant for their next move. It hadn’t been a question why they had both reached the conclusion that someone at the winery had been the one to cause all the troubles thus far. The boar last night might have been maimed by the Rifthound still around these parts, but Kaeya hadn’t sustained any injuries like it. Instead, he had received a blow to the head, clearly meant to knock him out instead of doing any real harm. It hadn’t even given him a concussion. 

Had the attacker meant to disarm him, to leave him lying on the forest floor, in hopes that the Rifthound would come in the night to finish him off?

Diluc shudders at the thought. 

To think that someone from the winery had been the one to break into Kaeya’s room, cause Diluc to sustain corrosive injuries, and knock Kaeya out is--

Hold on. 

Kaeya. Kaeya was the one fixed factor here. It was his room that had been targeted. Not many people knew now of the close relationship he and Diluc used to have, let alone to have known just which bedroom had been his childhood one. Kaeya hadn’t stepped foot in that room for years now, so it couldn’t have been a move to specifically rattle Diluc. And Diluc getting hurt had been entirely his own fault, he was the one who ran into the room barefoot, combined with the fact that his bedroom would have been the obvious target if the attacker meant to truly destabilize the winery, but no, it had been Kaeya's room. And Kaeya had been the one attacked in the middle of the night, precisely planned enough that he didn’t even have time to call out for help. No one would have known if something had happened to him, not until dawn. 

Another unbidden shiver goes down Diluc’s spine. 

The attacker wasn’t after Diluc. They were after Kaeya . 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Diluc has gone very white in a span of three seconds and Kaeya is worried. 

‘Diluc?’ He calls out his name, arms already half-stretched out in case the man pitches forward or something. 

Diluc’s eyes refocus, but that doesn’t smoothen the stress lines that have formed beneath them nor quell the panic that swirls within their depths. Kaeya’s breath hitches. 

‘Kaeya--’

‘Oh, it’s her again!’ Adelinde’s voice rings out before her hand goes shooting up to wave at a figure in the distance. It’s blonde, white, and unusually bare-looking without the usual smaller, flying form beside it.

‘Oh.’ Kaeya says cheerfully, ‘It’s the Traveler.’

The tiny figure waves back madly, before leaping off the cliff. The faint sound of the wind glider snapping open is almost carried away by the wind itself. The Traveler expertly glides to a smooth descent in front of them.

‘Hello, everyone!’ Lumine says, snagging three apples from a parked cart near the manor. She holds up a finger-- wait a minute -- before somehow stuffing all three apples into her backpack. It doesn’t show even a bulge at the added baggage. ‘Thanks, Master Diluc.’

Even distraught by something Kaeya is still impatient to know about, Diluc remains ever the gentleman. He shakes whatever discomfort that hangs around his posture and clears his throat. ‘Hello, Lumine. You’re very welcome. I’ll have someone leave more outside for you tomorrow.’

Lumine grins in appreciation, before eyeing them all together. ‘So, what’s up with you two today? Seems, uh, ages since I’ve seen you two together.’ The smile on her face is now slightly forced too wide, eyes clearly big and expectant.

Kaeya wants to sigh. Lumine has always been the greatest advocator for him and Diluc to return to the older, kinder days of friendship, besides Jean of course. The amount of times both of them have pestered him about starting to foster more goodwill with his estranged brother is enough to replace every navy hair he has on his head with gray. That’s what he gets for being the more approachable one between the two of them, Kaeya guesses.

‘We would be happy to tell you.’ Diluc says way too quickly and loudly. He nods to Adelinde and starts to steer both Kaeya and Lumine away from the manor. ‘Please heat up some food for a late lunch, Adelinde. The Traveler will be our esteemed guest of the manor today.

‘Hey! Then what am I?’ Kaeya exclaims, nearly tripping over a rogue grapevine that has spiraled out of control over the ground. ‘A piece of fowl?’ Lumine lunges out of Diluc’s grip for a second to snap her claws over a nearby Crystalfly.

‘Aha!’ She crows, stowing the core away in her backpack as Diluc regains control over her.

They make their way over to the riverside, but Diluc doesn’t stop there. Once they can’t go any further with the running water coursing through the river, he turns to Kaeya and, very seriously, says, ‘Ice-bridge us across.’

Kaeya splutters.

‘Have I been downgraded down from an honored guest down to a lowly servant?’

‘You were never just an honored guest.’ Diluc argues, frown turning genuinely distressed for a moment, ‘And I don’t have servants. Ice-bridge. Please.’

‘You better have a good explanation as to what all this is about.’ Kaeya mutters as he summons his Skyward Blade and starts to will his Vision to life. ‘ Freeze! ’

A staggeringly cold burst of Cryo shoots out from the point of his sword and drifts across the running waters of the river, freezing it over with a crackling sound. A couple of fish barely manage to dodge the ice and go skittering away from the sudden change in temperature. 

Diluc walks on first, turning back to them with a nod. ‘Let’s cross over to Stone Gate.’

‘Oh, are we heading to Liyue?’ Lumine says, ‘I heard a new festival is due there soon.’

‘No, we aren’t going that far. Just here will do.’ Diluc says, stopping at a wide expanse of flat ground. There is nowhere at all for anyone to hide behind something and listen in, Kaeya realizes and looks back at Diluc with even more curiosity. 

‘What a great spot to have a little conversation and catch up.’ He drawls meaningfully at Lumine, now having an inkling of what Diluc is trying to do. Whatever had come over him before on the manor grounds must be concerning indeed, if he deemed it urgent enough to drag them away from prying eyes and ears to debrief.

The man himself locks eyes with Kaeya and breathes in slowly. On the exhale, he says, ‘I think you’re in danger.’

‘What?’ Kaeya says, while Lumine says confusedly, ‘Huh? Wait, what have I missed here?’

Diluc fills her in, Kaeya interjecting with little details.

‘So, both of you are in danger then.’ says Lumine gravely, gaze switching between Kaeya and Diluc. 

‘Kaeya is more endangered than I am, I was just caught in the crossfire.’

‘Well…’ Lumine hums, then she turns to Kaeya, ‘What do you think about this, Kaeya?’

‘Me?’ He says, caught off guard for once. What did he think about having the tables switched on him so suddenly? All this time, he had been operating on the basis that Diluc was the one who needed protecting, who was being cornered in his own home. But now with this new perspective, it isn’t hard to realign and reconnect all the facts that they do have. What Diluc said was true, every single act of violence thus far can be linked right back to Kaeya and now that he thinks about it, Rifthounds were rumored not to only be creatures of the abyss, but one of the demented creations of a Khaenria’hn alchemist. 

Like a reflex, Kaeya’s hand goes to prod at his eyepatch. He doesn’t miss the way both Lumine and Diluc’s expressions change, paling with realization. 

‘You think this has to do with your--’ Diluc aborts mid-sentence, looking hesitant to broach the very same subject that had driven them apart so devastatingly all those years ago. ‘--your lineage?’

Lumine looks at Diluc in surprise. ‘You know about Khaenria’h?’

Diluc in turn raises an eyebrow at her. ‘And you do too?’

‘Diluc was the first person I told.’ Kaeya says and ends it there, because no one wants to know how he almost died that very same night. Least of all Diluc, who switches right back to looking immensely guilty. Kaeya would wipe that frown off his face if he could, but he knows the seeds of remorse must run deep in Diluc’s heart, just as they do in his own. Emotions like the ones they had felt that night don’t go away that easily.  

‘Kaeya told me when he was in Sumeru recently.’ Lumine offers, ‘Though I was given the impression that being a Khaenria’hn descendant had no effect whatsoever on your life now.’ This is spoken in a flat tone directed right at Kaeya, who grimaces.

‘Yes, well. I suppose things like that do tend to follow a person around more than I’d like to admit. In my defense, I usually don't let it affect my work nor my life at all.’ This conversation is getting too close for his comfort, especially considering he had divulged in Diluc much, much more than he had told Lumine. He had permitted his usual instincts to take over sitting at that quaint little establishment in Sumeru, had told a half-truth and a half-lie as per-usual, and divulged that he was indeed a descendant of Khaenria’h. Just that.

Diluc holds so much more than that and has always held more than others when it comes to Kaeya. He held the truth of just who Kaeya was, the perpetually sharpened knife that could be used at any time to sever all his connections, everything he had forged, his life, and his freedom here in Mondstadt. 

But… there is still something that Diluc doesn’t know. Something that Lumine does. 

Secrets kept between them have never ended prettily. 

‘There is something I need to tell you.’ Kaeya says, but the instant the words leave his mouth, Diluc’s face goes pinched with panic. Kaeya realizes it a moment too late. Those were the exact words he had started with the first time he told Diluc the truth.

‘It’s not that bad!’ He tried to save this whole ill-fated conversation, but fails when Lumine scoffs lightly beside him. 

‘Yeah, right. It is that bad.’ She tilts her head at a very nervous-looking Diluc, though to his credit, it’s the kind of nervousness that only Kaeya can tell. His face is emotionless, lips perpetually pursed together, but the minute flares in his fire-red eyes tell Kaeya all he needs to know. ‘Like I am not forgetting that piece of information anytime soon. But hey! Who am I to judge? Go at it, Kaeya.’

‘Go at it. Right.’ He mutters faintly, before steeling himself. Lumine is right, this is something he has to share with Diluc if only to relieve a little bit of the pressure on his chest. Even if it means Diluc might look at him once more with that burning sense of hatred and betrayal, bright and searing even through the combined onslaught of darkness, rain, and sudden snow. 

There is something I need to tell you.

I’m not who you think I am.

I was sent here. I was left here for a reason. 

‘I’m an Alberich.’ Kaeya says because he is one. He isn’t a Ragnvindr anymore. ‘A descendant of the founder of the Abyss Order.’

Diluc stumbles back as if struck. His emotions, usually so guarded, are blown up on his face for everyone to see. They war there, as if he couldn’t decide what to feel. Betrayal, anger, shock.

‘I’m sorry.’ The words feel raw and they cut as they come out of Kaeya's throat. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t.’ Diluc forces out, his own voice laced with pain, ‘Don’t ever be sorry for this. You-- It’s not your fault.’

Kaeya doesn’t know what to say, but he tries, Archons does he try. ‘It doesn’t mean anything. I’m still on Mondstadt’s side and I swear to oppose them even after--’

‘Kaeya.’ Diluc says, ‘I know. It’s not... Not your fault.’ He looks at Kaeya with the most sorrow he has ever seen on his face. ‘And I’m sorry too.’

‘Not your fault.’ croaks Kaeya. Because it never was, wasn’t it? None of them were to be blamed for how things turned out, or at least Kaeya couldn’t bring himself to blame Diluc for it and he knows now that Diluc hadn’t ever blamed him for it either. 

‘All I want now,’ Diluc says, ‘Is to make sure you’re safe. But I can’t do that easily, now that I know someone in the winery is actively working against you.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Lumine pipes up, discreetly swiping a sleeve across her eyes. Seems like their estranged relationship had been affecting more than just Diluc and Kaeya themselves. While the tips of his ears are smarting at the realization that she had heard all that they had to say to each other just now, Kaeya’s grateful that Lumine had been here to tip them both over the edge they’d been teetering over for years.

‘Well, we both live in the manor now. To start a full-on investigation would immediately set off alarm bells for our perpetrator. As it is now, we still hold the element of surprise in this situation. I’d wager good money that whoever they are, they do not yet know that we know.’

‘You’re afraid of them acting out in drastic desperation. That certainly could lead to some out-of-control circumstances, yes.’ Kaeya hums in thought, ‘But not doing anything right now could also be dangerous. We are not only risking our own lives by staying complacent but the safety of all the other staff as well.’

‘I am aware.’ Diluc says gravely. ‘I’m afraid that between a rock and a hard place, there hardly come any decisions without some sort of price to pay. Here’s what I propose: we do not act like anything’s out of the ordinary, except for a heightened sense of alertness which I’m sure they're already expecting from us, considering all that has happened. We just keep an eye out for anything that could point to a lead.’

‘You’re purposefully evading the task of investigating your staff, Diluc.’ Kaeya crosses his arms and feels a vindictive victory at guessing it right when Diluc grimaces. ‘Tell me, don’t any of your hired staff get fact- and background-checked the moment they submit their applications?’

‘They do. In fact, I check over them myself. I can’t think of anyone who is worthy of suspicion off the top of my head right now, but you’re right. We should, of course, look back into the staff records.’ Diluc seems pained to say this and Kaeya understands why. Not only it is a matter of pride that he should have overlooked a suspicious application and hired them, but it’s also a matter of broken trust. 

Diluc himself is a man of utmost honesty. It shines through in everything he does and his personal code of honor is something that he holds on to with almost naive dedication and stubbornness. That honesty is what had driven him before to resign from the Knights and raise his blade against Kaeya. It’s what makes Diluc Diluc . 

To have one of his own attendants act against him like this was the ultimate act of betrayal.

‘Uh, guys. It’s probably nothing, but I should probably let you know anyway. The amount of Crystalflies in the Dawn Winery area these past few days? Has been absolutely bonkers . I could come back three times a day and still leave with an entire handful of their cores.’ Lumine says, giving her backpack a little shake to make a point. Though Kaeya doesn’t really know how much of a point that really makes, because he had once seen Lumine insert three Medaka fish, eight Sunsettias, six pieces of Crystal Chunks, and a whole Sweet Madame in there with no trouble.

Kaeya looks to Diluc in askance. The Anemo Crystalflies have always been abundant in the areas around the manor, making chasing after them through the vineyards a favorite pastime of their shared childhoods. But only Diluc would know if the amount of them has stayed consistent enough all throughout the years for a sudden spike to be worrisome. As Kaeya knew to be the case, Diluc explains that the winery has always been a focal point for the Crystalfly population, but of course, he didn’t quite know what the scientific reasoning behind it was. He was ultimately a man of commerce, not of science. 

‘I could pass this on to Albedo.’ shrugs Kaeya.

Lumine raises a hand, ‘Actually, I think I can answer this one. Crystalflies are condensed forms of pure elemental power, so it could mean that they’re simply responding to the Statue of the Seven nearby. But, of course, that doesn’t explain the sudden spike in numbers…unless…’

Her eyes go wide, but her eyebrows dip downward, making for a very foreboding look. 

‘Oh, no .’

‘What is it?’ Diluc demands. 

‘It could be the leylines. They do have some elemental energy flowing within.’ Lumine gives a gargantuan groan, ‘Oh, you better hope it’s not the leylines being messed with again. Last time it happened, someone literally got wiped from history.’

Kaeya stares in shock. ‘Might we ask who?’

Lumine frowns and waves a flippant hand around, ‘Nah, you wouldn’t remember them anyway.’

‘And how do you still remem-- you know what, it’s fine.’ Kaeya rubs at his eyes in fatigue, ‘I don’t need any more on my plate right now.’

‘Are you alright? Is your head acting up?’ Diluc immediately pounces on the motion. It’s endearing to see him all wide-eyed in concern and Kaeya is almost tempted to draw the moment out, but he shakes his head, ‘No, just a bit tired from all of this. I may deal in information, but usually, I don’t have any stakes in it.’ He gives a small grin. 

‘Right, you did get conked on the head just last night. Sorry, I forgot about that.’ Lumine says apologetically, ‘If that is all to discuss, would you like to head back?’

‘Wait, there is still the matter of the Rifthound.’ Diluc interjects, ‘Unless you have something to do after this, Traveler? Then please, do not let us keep you.’

‘Nah. As if I’d leave my friends in danger like that.’ Lumine grins toothily, hands on her hips. ‘And I left Paimon with enough food to feed the whole of the Sumeru Akademiya. She won’t miss me for a bit longer. Oh, wait, about Rifthounds, I’ve actually fought plenty of them before.’ Then, she shrugs like it’s nothing. 

‘You what?’ Kaeya rears back.

‘There are loads in Inazuma, but I remember having seen a few Electro ones around Wolvendom. Cryo Rifthounds however… I’ve never heard of any just yet.‘

Kaeya recovers soon enough from the shock. This is the wonder Traveller, after all. She could say she had a weekend brawl with Celestia and he shouldn't have to blink an eye. ‘Have you ever been hurt by them? How long did it take for the Corrosion to wear off completely?’

‘Well, they’re a real annoying bunch to deal with, that’s for sure, so few scraps and scratches are just inevitable, but no, they never last long. Sure, the Corrosion is an actual pain to recover from, but I’ve never had as severe after-effects as Master Diluc. Maybe it’s my constitution?’

‘Most likely.’ sighs Diluc. He too seems to be more haggard now; it’s clear to see how the trek up to the outskirts of Stone Gate has worn him out more than he wanted to admit. Somewhere between their conversation, he has also popped open the buttons of his coat. That means the effects of the freeze healing were wearing off. 

The thought of it doesn’t help the ache behind Kaeya’s eye. 

They start making their way back to the manor, crossing a newly formed ice bridge courtesy of Kaeya and noting how there indeed seems to be an influx of Crystalflies flying about between the vineyard rows. 

‘Sorry for picking them out of the sky so often.’ Lumine says sheepishly, ‘That’s probably why you didn’t notice until I mentioned it.’

‘No harm done. Please, if you need them, just take them. They’ll always be back anyway.’ Diluc smiles at her. 

‘That’s great to hear.’ She grins back, before enclasping a hand around thin air and pulling her sword out of nowhere. ‘Now, you two should get back inside and rest, eat lunch, or something. I’ll be right in, just need to check something out real quick.’

‘Is it far?’ Diluc asks, stepping away from the front door. ‘I don’t think it’s safe for you to wander around alone, given the circumstances now. We could accompany you.’

Lumine has the good graces to not mention how the both of them-- in the sorry state they were in-- would be more of a hindrance than help in any sort of combative situation right now. Instead, she shakes her head and says, ‘No, actually it’s right by the manor. You don’t need to follow me over-- clearing a leyline outcrop is something I can do in my sleep at this point-- but you can supervise me from over here. I’m just doing it to check something out, be right back!’

With that, she blinks out of existence before emerging back at the top of the cliff overlooking the winery. The two of them have to squint to look at her. There is a cloud of blue dust right beside her tiny figure and as she reaches a hand out to brush it, it disperses, revealing a few Pyro slimes and a Pyro Whopperflower that immediately start to go on the offense. 

Kaeya tenses, ready to dash over if his Cryo was needed, but within seconds, the enemies are cleared out, leaving behind glowing bits of loot. Lumine ignores them all and walks right to the emerging ley line blossom, extending another hand out to touch it. The breeze picks up as it gifts her with all she is due and starts to break apart into particles that float away in the wind. However, Lumine doesn’t move away from that spot and seems to be waiting for something.

One second goes by. Two.

Sure enough, blue specks of light start to swirl around her before solidifying back into the dust cloud from before. As if she hadn’t even touched it. 

‘Oh, yeah.’ Kaeya sighs dejectedly, as the small figure of Lumine throws her hands up into the air and screams. ‘The leylines are definitely messed up.’

Chapter Text

Lumine cannot, under any circumstances, let Paimon know she spent the afternoon having lunch with Kaeya and Diluc at the Dawn Winery. First of all, her voice gets super shrill when she is informed that she has missed out on any good food, and boy, is the food at the Dawn Winery good. If Lumine could give compliments to the chef after every bite, she would. 

Secondly, she is with Kaeya and Diluc. And. Not only Kaeya, not only Diluc, and not them two in a group setting. No. It’s just Kaeya and Diluc, together for more than a few hours now without Diluc’s dryness rendering Kaeya’s voice shaky with hidden emotion or Kaeya’s defense mechanism of deflecting said emotion like a mirrorball blinding Diluc, fueling his irritation even more. 

No, that wasn't happening at all. Things were civil. 

Lumine can hardly believe it. 

If a crisis was all it had taken for them to band together like this, she would’ve taken a hilichurl club to Kaeya’s thick head way sooner. 

All jokes, of course. Judging by the way Diluc had flared up before at the mere thought that someone was threatening Kaeya’s safety, she wouldn’t make it to finding her own brother if she so much as plucked a navy hair out of the captain’s head.

Even the conversation flows smoothly. Well, as smoothly as it can go with the both of them badgering the other about their condition every five minutes. Lumine tries to save it, ‘So… it’s a nice season for Windblume, huh?’

The two of them blink at her blankly before letting out twin sounds of, ‘Oh.’

‘It’s Windblume next week.’ Diluc says, leveraging a blaming stare at Kaeya, who doesn’t quite meet his eye. ‘Don’t you have preparations to make for the festivities? Being one of the organizers and such.’

‘Actually,’ Kaeya says, tone defensive as he stabs his fork right through a piece of fowl meat drenched in Sweet Flower gravy. ‘We run a rotation on who organizes Windblume every year. This time, it just so happens to be our dear Acting Grandmaster who has been given the mantle of putting on the WIndblume show for all. Last I heard, she had already recruited the Adventurer’s Guild for a lively balloon event and there has been news about musical performances.’

‘Sounds fun.’ Lumine smiles eagerly. Windblume has always been one of her fonder Teyvat national festivals. Mondstadt was where she first got her bearings waking up from her centuries-long sleep and where she made everlasting bonds of friendship. ‘Will you two be in attendance?’

Diluc contemplates it for a moment but shakes his head. ‘I think I’ll spend this year’s Windblume celebrating privately here in the manor. It has been a while since we had something like a mini-festival here, it would be good for morale amongst the staff, given the nasty incidents recently.’

‘A festival, however small, will take a certain degree of running around. Will your current condition allow you to make such extensive preparations?’ Kaeya immediately pounces and Lumine recognizes his tone of voice as the kind he uses when Diluc blinks too slowly, breathes too hard, moves too suddenly-- just about anything that could indicate even the slightest bit of discomfort. The concern is palpable as he reaches his own conclusion, ‘I will stay here too to help in the efforts then.’

Diluc looks affronted. ‘You--!’ 

‘So will I!’ Lumine interrupts, grin a bit too wide. They were doing so well thus far with no arguments, she wants to draw it out a bit longer. ‘The weeks coming up to Windblume are usually pretty clear of any commissions from the Guild since everyone is busy with festival preparations, so I’d rather be doing something worthwhile during. Can we help, Master Diluc?’

Diluc looks at her helplessly, ‘Well, I suppose if you two are sure you wouldn’t rather spend the holiday somewhere else--’

‘The manor has always been a home for me.’ Kaeya says softly, eyes downcast and brimming with unspoken emotion that he keeps a tight leash on. Still, the nostalgia in his voice shines through. ‘It’d be nice to spend Windblume back in these halls once more.’

Diluc takes one look at him and almost trips over his words relenting. Lumine hides her victorious smile behind a piece of fried egg. Now she really can’t tell Paimon about coming here. She’d be absolutely mad at not being included in the festive decision-making. 

Lumine downs her bite of egg, turns to her backpack, and starts rooting around inside, items clattering and brushing against each other as she does. She can feel Kaeya and Diluc’s curious gaze on the back of her head, which is almost stuffed fully into the bag itself in her efforts to find what she is looking for. 

‘Do you need any help there?’ questions Kaeya haltingly. 

‘No.’ She says from within the depths of the backpack. It comes out muffled. Her hands close around two slender stems and she whoops in victory, emerging from the bag with a smile, hair only slightly mussed up. 

In one hand, she clutches a fresh Calla Lily and in the other, a Small Lamp Grass. She extends the first plant to Kaeya and the second to Diluc. 

‘The mood seemed right. Here’s to a spectacular Dawn Winery Windblume and a celebration of our friendship.’

‘Awh.’ Kaeya is the first to shake out of his reverie, placing a gentle hand above his heart. ‘Oh, Traveler, who would have known you could be so very thoughtful! Are we the first to receive Windblumes from you?’

‘Well, yes. Considering it is still weeks away from the actual celebration itself. It was just by chance that I happened upon Starfell Lake and Wolvendom recently.’

‘Thank you.’ Diluc’s acceptance is much less theatrical than Kaeya’s, but his gracious smile is no less genuine. ‘I will be sure to cherish this since you said it’s a symbol of our camaraderie. I’m just sorry I don’t have something of equal value to give back right now.’

‘Nonsense.’ Lumine laughs, gesturing to the generous spread of food piled in front of them. ‘This is good enough. Besides, you can always give me a Windblume during the festival later.’

‘I’ll be sure to.’ Diluc says, flagging a housemaid down and instructing her to place the Small Lamp Grass in a vase with water. He turns to Kaeya, who’s smiling down at the petals of the Calla Lily. ‘Do you want to place your Windblume with mine for the time being? It’ll last longer that way.’

‘Oh.’ Kaeya says, clearly surprised at the offer. ‘Yes, of course. Anything to keep the Traveler’s kind gesture around for longer. Oh, hey, use the vase with stained glass panels for it if you can. The one in the hallway,’ He says to Diluc, who gestures for the housemaid to hold on. ‘The colors match quite pleasantly.’

Lumine rests her face in her propped-up hands, face unburdened and content. Seeing them like this, interacting with the ease of the old days that she has heard so much about, is enough to last her a hundred Windblumes. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Evening falls and despite her saying that commissions dwindle down the closer it gets to Windblume, Lumine takes her leave not long after the sun shows the first signs of dipping behind the mountains, citing a grumpy Paimon with attachment issues and needing a head start on preparations as reasons for her hasty departure.

Kaeya stands back as Diluc formally sees her off. Lagging behind, he catches sight of their Windblume flowers trimmed and faced so that they could catch the last rays of the sun, looking pretty in the very same vase he had suggested during dinner. 

That vase is from Jean’s mom.

Did you tell her you like vases, Luc?

No, I don’t particularly fancy vases really. They’re too fragile sometimes. 

Oh. Then does she like vases?

She’s a lady with good taste. I suppose it’s a given. Do you like vases, Kae?

A pause. I think they’re fine. Pretty when the water is in them and Adelinde puts them on the windowsill so that they catch the light. 

Hmm. Then you can have it.

…Eh?

‘You aren’t thinking of patrolling tonight, are you?’ Diluc’s voice snaps him out of the memory and he looks at him, feeling slightly startled and hoping the emotion isn’t written all over his face. Fortunately for him, Diluc is too busy frowning at the thought of Kaeya patrolling to notice. ‘It’s going to be dangerous out there. Who knows what they’re planning on doing next?’

‘Who knows what would happen if I let them target the manor instead? Or you?’ Kaeya counters. ‘I’m the expendable one here--’

‘Don’t say that.’ Diluc says with gritted teeth. ‘You are many things, but expendable isn’t one.’ He must realize how that sounds right after the words leave his mouth, because he flushes a shade of dark burgundy and stutters out, ‘To the Knights. I meant the Knights. Aren’t you Jean’s right hand?’

‘I’m flattered.’ Kaeya says, a grin spreading across his face, so infectious that even Diluc’s withering glare doesn’t manage to stomp it down. ‘But I meant in the context of the Winery. The manor is its central base of operations and you are-- well, everything, really. Before you ask, that list also includes being exceedingly stubborn.’ Diluc’s jaw falls open slightly in indignation, but he makes no move to argue. A win for Kaeya, then. ‘Let me do my job.’ 

‘Look who’s exceedingly stubborn now.’ Diluc mutters, before fixing Kaeya with a thoughtful look, as though he’s calculating the odds of him being able to actually convince Kaeya to stand down, which-- if Kaeya got his way and he will -- would be absolutely zero. Soon enough, Diluc seems to realize this, but accepting it seems like a whole other gargantuan task for him. ‘Fine.’

It couldn’t be that easy. Kaeya quirks an unconvinced brow. ‘Fine?’

‘Yes. It’s fine because I will be patrolling with you.’

Ah. There it is. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

‘So.’ Kaeya goes out on a limb to see if Diluc was up for some light conversation. The silence of the night envelopes them and it used to comfort him, used to offer some shadows for him to blend into so that even when the edges of Kaeya and traitor blur together for a bit, no one squints hard enough to see. But since then, he’s learned that he isn’t the only one who can use shadows to their advantage. 

Diluc slides him a blank look for a second. Kaeya forges on. ‘What are your plans for the festival?’

Diluc gives a one-handed shrug, lantern in the other hand creaking from its hinges. ‘Food. A game or two for the staff. Prizes. More food. Is there anything more to a festival?’

‘Well, considering this is Mondstadt,’ Kaeya says, ‘I suggest wine, more references to the Anemo Archon, flowers upon flowers, more wine, a bard or five. And did I mention wine?’

Diluc’s silence is sullen. 

‘Diluc . You can’t host a party at the Dawn Winery without wine .’

‘Okay. Some wine.’ He relents. ‘But that, of course, is susceptible to the contract the Angel’s Share has with the Cat’s Tail and, I suppose, Diona’s kindness towards you wine-guzzling types. If she manages to convince Margeret to clash the wine-free period with WIndblume, then I will have no choice.’

‘Nor will I.’ Kaeya says gravely, frowning, ‘I will have to resort to smuggling.’

‘Kaeya! And you call yourself a Captain of the Knights.’ 

Kaeya’s laughter echoes through the still night air as they meander their way back to the Statue of the Seven. Back when he and Diluc had first been drafted in as Knights, they had taken on every duty as a pair together. Patrols, training, drills, and running meager errands and commissions around town, they did it all by each other’s side with Diluc as the frontrunner and Kaeya as his second-in-command. The heavy hitter and the strategic thinker. 

Kaeya had always liked the patrols they went on the best out of all the duties they were assigned because to him, nothing felt better than simply wandering the countryside of Mondstadt with Diluc. Diluc would point interesting sights to him, making sure to pick up a piece of souvenir to bring back to their collection back home, and he always looked so happy doing it that Kaeya never did have the heart to tell him that he had actually seen it all before. 

He had walked the same dirt paths before, only with a taller shadow by his side and a larger hand grasping his own tiny one. His father had taken him across Mondstadt and had always entertained Kaeya’s spikes of curiosity at the strange new land around him, but there had been one thing he wouldn’t talk about and whenever they came close, Kaeya would always find himself getting led away with haste.

The Statues of the Anemo Archon. 

He still remembers the first one he had ever seen up close. While his father plucked apples from a nearby tree, Kaeya was left to play by himself, chasing butterflies and giggling at Windwheel Asters-- though neither of them had known the name of the flower then-- before eventually coming to the foot of a stone statue. Frightened from being so close to it, he sprinted back to his father, who had been looking the whole time. 

Without a word, Kaeya’s father set down the armful of apples he had gathered and lifted Kaeya into his arms. Stride after stride, with Kaeya stone still in his grasp, he brought them right back to the base of the Statue. 

‘Don’t be afraid of the gods, Kaeya.’ He had said, gruff voice made even more so by an emotion Kaeya hadn’t learned to feel yet. ‘Keep your distance. But never be afraid.’

In the distance stood the vineyards and manor of Dawn Winery.

Now, Kaeya looks up at the still stone face half-shrouded in shadows-- that would be in complete darkness if not for the light of the full moon overhead.  Throughout their patrols, he and Diluc have traversed to every single Statue in Mondstadt, so many times did the roster require someone to escort a sister of the Church there for routine cleaning. Slowly, he got used to being around them.

Not for the first time, he thinks about how the Statue, even in partial obscurity, bears a strikingly similar appearance to a certain bard in town, especially the twin braids and the perky little button nose. 

And considering Jean’s uncharacteristic avoidance when it comes to reigning in said bard’s drunken acts around the city…

Kaeya decides to be wise and marks it off as a series of baffling and simple coincidences. 

Avoid, but never be afraid.

‘So.’ Diluc starts the conversation back up when it starts to wane. It is most uncharacteristic of him, but the way his body goes stiff as they start the hike up lets Kaeya know he’s trying to breach some sort of taboo topic between them and he thinks he has a pretty good guess which one it’ll be this time. 

‘You’re a descendant of Abyss Order’s founder.’ Diluc tries for casual but fails miserably. ‘That’s--’

‘If you say something along the atrocious lines of “cool”, I’m forbidding you from coming along next time.’

‘It’s not cool.’ Diluc says hastily, ‘It is, in fact, quite… hard to believe.’

‘Is it really.’ 

They stop at the base of the Statue, windwheel asters wheeling in soft whirs from the night wind that makes their coats dance. From the corner of his eye, he catches Diluc turning to look at him. He tries not to see what expression he has on. Is it really disbelief he has written on his face? Or is it disgust? Anger?

‘I don’t find it so surprising, to tell you the truth.’

The truth. It’s a fickle thing. He doesn’t ever know what to expect whenever the rare sliver of it creeps past his lips and into the open world. To be shunned, like outsiders were meant to be? Or even to be slaughtered, like all those who lived before him and bore the same mark as he does. A star not in the sky, but in their eyes. It’d be poetic and beautiful if it weren’t also a death sentence. 

It’s how he recognized Dainsleif, after all. He wonders just how many have seen his own eye and recognized who Kaeya truly was. 

‘What are you talking about?’ He’s almost forgotten Diluc stands beside him, shoulder brushing against his own. Since when did he get so close?

‘Don’t you think it too? That something has always been… off with me? After all, what kind of child gets abandoned in a foreign country? And now I found out the blood that runs through me and the blood that created those monstrosities are one and the same. That’s--’ He runs a hand down his face, the cloth of his eyepatch snagging from the friction, and lets out a humorless laugh. 

Diluc stays terrifyingly silent for a moment and he just looks at Kaeya. 

‘I wasn’t aware you were this affected by the knowledge.’ He says quietly like he’s still wrapping his mind around it. ‘If one were to judge by your earlier reaction alone, it would have seemed-- or it did seem-- like you were more concerned about how I would react to it.’

‘Well.’ Kaeya says, voice still dripping with unease. ‘I can be blamed for being unreasonable, considering what happened last time.’

‘You do know I’m sorry.’ Diluc says, snapping his head back up to look at Kaeya with imploring eyes. ‘Right? Because I am. I am truly sorry for how I reacted in your moment of vulnerability. I see now that it was a big deal for you to share with me a secret of that magnitude and that it must’ve been unbelievably hard for you to hold that inside all those years. Years , Kaeya. I--’ 

Diluc’s voice breaks and he looks away, face twisted with guilt. ‘I have never been more sorry for anything in my life.’

Kaeya gasps when Diluc falls to his knees. He’s kneeling. Not for the Statue behind him, but for Kaeya. 

‘I don’t expect you to forgive me just because I ask for it. But if there is nothing that can salvage what we used to be, then allow me at least this. I apologize.’ Diluc says, ‘Brother.’

Kaeya grapples for words that won’t come to him and when one finally does, it’s inevitably a disbelieving and breathless, ‘Idiot.’

Diluc looks up to meet his eyes. ‘Huh?’ He only grows more confused when Kaeya drops down as well, putting them at equal eye level.

‘You don’t get to steal the night’s dramatics all for yourself.’ Kaeya laughs, placing a hand on each of Diluc’s shoulders. ‘And you most definitely don’t get to be the only one who apologizes.’

‘I already told you none of it--’

‘Was my fault, nor my choosing.’ Kaeya finishes. The earnestly chagrined look on Diluc's face eases a tiny bit and his shoulders deflate, looking for all of Teyvat as though he was finally going to stay quiet and listen to what Kaeya has to say, whatever it may be. So, he does. ‘I know. But that doesn’t mean I have no grievances to atone for. Mistakes that I made all on my own. For one, I shouldn't have sprung the news on you the night Crepus died. It was selfish-- no, Diluc, listen for once-- it was selfish of me, no matter what you say.

Before then, I had always been torn between the two lands I have ever called home. Between the sickening sense of duty my father had left me with and between the life Mondstadt gave me anew. The family I found in you and Crepus. It was duty or love and I had never known which side was the right one, but the one thing I did know for sure was that no matter what I chose, it would inevitably lead to this: I would be a traitor either way.’

‘Your homeland or your home.’ Diluc whispers, horror in his eyes.

‘It’s alright.’ Kaeya is quick to assure him, though it’s more like it can’t be changed, much like he can’t change who he was nor where he came from. ‘The night Crepus died, it felt like I was finally free. It was both the evilest and the most relieved I had ever felt, the fact that I didn’t have to answer to him anymore was disgustingly liberating, and I couldn’t take it for long. I-I had to let someone know.’

‘And I tried to hurt you for telling me the truth.’ 

Kaeya shrugs half-heartedly. ‘As I said, you weren’t in the right frame of mind to hear about more bad news. Neither was I. Then you left and everything just…stopped for a few years. Until the letters.’ A thought occurs and he chuckles.’ Looking back on it now, it’s almost funny, the way I held onto your vision for you.’

Kaeya can’t remember just how he managed to get ahold of Diluc’s abandoned Vision in the first place, the circumstances around it had been traumatic enough for his mind to block out large parts of the whole ordeal, but he heavily suspects it had something to do with Jean. Though she had been livid with righteous rage when Kaeya had dragged himself to her home a good three days after the fight, battered and bruised and in bad need of healing, so it really is a coin toss as to just what powers had thought it was an acceptable idea for him to be in possession of the very thing that had come a hair’s width away from being his murder weapon. 

But he had kept it. Stowed it away in the bedside table that came with the new flat that Jean had helped to procure for him and then never opened the drawer for months. That doesn’t mean he didn’t try at all. If he had a piece of Mora for every time his fingers wrapped around the worn metal latch and came this close to tugging it open, he would be rich enough to buy the Dawn Winery itself.

The fear that he would finally open it and see that the Vision had dimmed down to nothing always won over. 

He learned that not knowing something bad, even if it meant deluding others or himself, was always favorable to knowing. 

Nothing could reverse knowing. 

So he slept next to it every night, not knowing if he was just imagining the subtle warmth that emanated through the wood.

‘I am grateful.’ Diluc says, smiling softly, but then thinks better of it. ‘For the vision. Not that vase it came in.’

Kaeya scoffs in indignation, even though he knows very well how he had scoured every shelf in With Wind Comes Glory for the most offensive clash of patterns and colors possible and handed over the Mora with grim satisfaction when he found it. ‘Your tastes would benefit from straying from conventional black and red for a bit.’

‘And what? I will suddenly manage to find an inkling of appreciation for that atrocity in my home?’ Diluc gives him a deadpan look, ‘Somehow, I doubt it.’

‘There’s still time.’ Kaeya grins, ‘Never say never.’

They sit in silence for minutes that pass easily, facing each other. Somewhere in the distance, late-night drunken laughter drifts by, riding on the wind. 

‘I don’t know if there really was a reason why you were put here all those years ago.’ 

Kaeya looks up. ‘Hm?’

Diluc’s face is disastrous for his heart, all screwed up in determination and painted in an emotion that Kaeya hasn’t seen from him for a long time. 

‘I don’t know if what runs in your blood or who fathered you a hundred years ago really means anything in the grand scheme of things. I don’t know if one day something will come out of all the messed-up or gone-right coincidences that have brought us all here today, or if there will be consequences one day that we wish could’ve gone a different way. What I do know, however, is that-’

He places his hands over Kaeya’s on his shoulders, palms as warm as always. His soft smile is new to both of them now, bordering on hesitantly vulnerable and unwaveringly sure, as he says like a promise, ‘Whatever comes, we will meet it together.’ 

Kaeya smiles back, its genuine stretch carving his lips up. ‘I wouldn’t have it any other way, brother.’

Chapter Text

The Dawn Winery’s Windblume is a roaring success thanks to Lumine spreading the word all around Mondstadt City, garnering so much attention that the festival’s very own Windblume Festival Special Ambassador, Sucrose came all the way from Mondstadt City to deliver a few extra bouquets of flowers as decoration.

Then, while Kaeya and Diluc are busy smiling at the wonderful assortment of Mondstadt specialties delivered to their doorstep, she asks them to breathe into a test tube each.

It isn’t the strangest thing Kaeya’s done in his life, but it’s amongst the top twenty or so. 

He obliges anyway.

‘Thank you, Master Diluc, Captain Kaeya! Is there anything else I can do for you and the mini-festival? Write out some invitations? Arrange the game booths? Or hand the order over to Sara on my way back to Headquarters?’ Sucrose says in her soft voice, hand extended in invitation. 

‘Oh, that is very generous of you, but--’

‘While I’m sure Master Diluc, being his usual organized self, has everything under control for preparations, I’m afraid I might need some help myself, Sucrose.’ Kaeya butts in, already visualising the sad look on Sucrose’s face at the Diluc’s rejection. He knows how hard she finds socializing with others and makes it a point to look out for her when Albedo isn’t around to soften any blows she might receive to her confidence. Though, on second thought, most of those blows she deals to herself. No matter, at least Kaeya managed to save this one instance from ruin. He will have to fill Diluc in later on.

‘Y-Yes, Captain Kaeya.’ Sucrose says, ‘What is it you wanted me to do for you?’

Ah, perhaps he should have thought this out more thoroughly before running his well-meaning mouth. What little errand could he send her on?

‘The guestlist!’ He says cheerfully, ‘All of Mondstadt is welcome to our little party, of course, but we would like to present a little more decorum for any special guests on the roster. For example, Master Jean will be getting a hand-written letter from our very own Master Diluc himself.’ At this, he smiles toothily at an unimpressed Diluc, who scoffs at Kaeya and bids Sucrose one last farewell with a polite nod of his head before walking off to supervise all other preparations. 

‘You see, both Diluc and I have been preoccupied with other matters recently and haven’t had the chance to head into the city, let alone know if anyone of importance has come to visit for Windblume. We wouldn’t want any misunderstandings affecting our goodwill with the other nations.’

There had been one year when a refined consultant from Liyue had come to Mondstadt for Windblume. Jean had written a letter asking to meet with the consultant personally for a tour around the city and the festivities, but to everyone’s bewilderment, the letter had somehow been found in a flowerbed near the Church instead of in the rightful recipient’s hands. 

Kaeya had caught the barest whisper of Childish, meddling wind sprite from the consultant’s lips before he then thanked Jean for the offer and took her up on it, voice deep and face managing to be simultaneously impassive and polite all at once. Ever since then, the process of inviting visiting foreign dignitaries to WIndblume has been much more stringent, to the point that Jean usually only appoints her highest officers to personally see to it that the letters reach whomever they were addressed to.

Kaeya might not be in charge of Mondstadt’s Windblume this year, but he will make sure the Dawn Winery’s will be up to par.

Sucrose catches his drift soon enough. ‘You want me to arrange for personal invitations? Yes, that can certainly be done. In fact, I’ve heard that a few people from Sumeru have been sighted to be heading this way for the festival.’

‘Sounds wonderful. The more the merrier.’ Sumeru, hm? Trust Collei to never miss a chance to see her old friends again, but it seems she has companions traveling with her this time. Kaeya could only guess who they could be, since he still doesn’t know the girl that well. He and Collei did not get off on the right foot the moment they first met, what with him seeing her as a threat to Mondstadt and her nearly strangling him to death. That’s on Kaeya though, he did try to impale her with his Cryo first. Multiple times.

Water under the bridge, as they all say. 

But that didn’t mean their relationship hasn’t slowly crept upward the past few years she managed to come back to visit them for Windblume. Sure, most of the conversations they have are him teasing her about her admittedly cute idolization of Amber and Baron Bunny, but it’s a start. 

He wonders how Diluc would fare with Collei. He doesn’t think the two of them have had the chance to have a first conversation yet and as he sends Sucrose off with a bundle of handwritten invitations under her arm, Kaeya makes it a point to be there for it when it does happen. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Turns out Collei has come with two of her guardians from Sumeru. Though Kaeya and Diluc have already made the rounds of self-introductions and he knows the one dressed for a rainforest climate is Tighnari, and the one suited for a desert excursion is Cyno, Kaeya still catalogs them as Dendro-Albedo and Electro-Diluc in his mind. 

The former nickname is obvious. Tighnari holds about him the quiet air of an intellectual who knows he is capable of picking apart the entire universe if given enough time. Or rather just picking apart the whole of Teyvat’s ecosystem if the short introduction about his past education as an Amurta graduate at the Sumeru Akademiya and his current occupation as a Forest Watcher was any indication of his passion for nature.

Though, of course, the large yellow flower, exotic to Mondstadt, pinned to his scarf was a good giveaway as well. 

His quiet, yet succinct way of talking reminds Kaeya of a more direct, no-nonsense but no less brilliant Albedo.

Cyno and Diluc, on the other hand, didn’t share that much in common, other than a debilitating sense of humor. Diluc just wasn’t one for cracking jokes these days and while Cyno seemed to enjoy delivering them, they more often than not…miss entirely. Kaeya only laughs because of the combined exasperation on Tighnari and Diluc’s faces, the latter much more subtle than the former’s, but that’s just because he’s an impeccably good host.

‘Wow, I’ve heard of the Dawn Winery and passed by it with Cyno years ago, but I never had the chance to see it so up close.’ Collei’s excited voice drifts towards them where she’s admiring the architecture of the vast manor, standing with Lumine and Paimon. The little fairy immediately snaps up the opportunity to spill gratuitous anecdotes about their past experiences in the winery and more importantly, the Great Master Diluc, who is oh-so generous and handsome, hardworking and gentlemanly. 

Listening intently with a mouth hanging open in a perfectly round ‘o’, Collei sneaks a peek at Diluc after Paimon waves a tiny finger in his direction. Diluc remains blissfully unaware of his little newfound fan club and is in the middle of what sounds like a riveting discussion about the Sumeru Akademiya Matra with Cyno, Tighnari interjecting at times with little quips of information. It’s naturally Kaeya who Collei locks eyes with when she looks in their group’s direction and her eyes widen to the size of tea plates, before ducking back down in thinly veiled fluster. 

How cute, Kaeya thinks, as he bids a quiet farewell to Diluc, Cyno, and Tighnari’s conversation-- now diverting to how the Avidya Forest Rangers go about their daily duties-- and extracts himself from the group to saunter leisurely to the girls. 

Collei steadily avoids his eye, so it’s Paimon who notices him first and exclaims in her tiny voice, ‘Oh, hey, it’s Captain Kaeya! Hello, Kaeya, how are you today? Are you enjoying Windblume so far?’ She clasps her hands behind her back and tilts her head in question, looking the picture of adorable innocence, which could’ve fooled Kaeya if he hadn’t before seen how wormhole-like she can be when inhaling food. 

‘Hello, Paimon, Traveler, and of course, little Collei. Though I must say, not so little anymore, are we?’

Collei reddens further, mouth working silently to form words that don’t come. At last, she stammers, ‘H-Hi, Captain Kaeya. Happy…Happy Windblume Festival.’

‘Awh.’ Kaeya croons, placing a delicate hand on his chest. ‘Years of friendship and you still call me Captain. Surely you don’t call Amber Outrider, do you?’ Collei sputters at the mention of her beloved friend and Kaeya decides to take pity on her, continuing on, ‘Besides, this is the Dawn Winery, not Mondstadt City. Here, I am not any sort of Captain. Instead, I insist you just call me Kaeya or if you simply must be a stickler for formalities, then Master Kaeya will do.’

‘Master Kaeya? Like Master Diluc Master?’ Paimon says, intrigued. Her little hands bunch up into fists at her chest and her feet kick at the air excitedly. ‘Ooh, does that mean the two of you have made up? Do you live here now, Kaeya?’

‘Ah.’ Kaeya realizes belatedly that he maybe shouldn’t have gone down this route. Paimon is a merciless fiend when it comes to gossip and his position here at the winery-- and in Diluc’s own life-- is still precarious at best, certainly not enough to announce that he was moving back permanently. ‘No, no. I still reside in my quaint little townhouse in the City.’

‘Oh. Haven’t seen you around there much. Were you slacking from making Windblume preparations again?’ Paimon does a complete 180 turn, frowning suspiciously at him and crossing her arms, bobbing up and down in the air. 

‘No, I’ve actually been here at the winery for some Knights business. And hey,’ He waggles a chastising finger in front of his face, donning a faux-petulant expression, ‘Calling others out on slacking is my line.’

‘Not when you’re slacking off too.’ Paimon rebuts, kicking the air now, the force propelling her back a few inches. ‘Then that’s just hypocrisy!’

‘What a word!’ He says, enjoying teasing the little fairy way too much, ‘Don’t you think so, Collei?’ He turns to look at her, but instead all that meets his gaze is a larger-than-life Calla Lily. It really is quite huge, its petals more vibrant and lush than any others he has seen before, and the green of its leaves and stem are bright. 

‘For you, Capt- ah, Master Kaeya.’ Collei squeaks out from behind the flower, which covers almost all of Kaeya’s line of vision. All he can see of her is the tip of her matcha-green head, bobbing uncertainly as she speaks. ‘It is tradition to present friends and family with flowers as a token of appreciation during Windblume, Amber told me years ago. As you said, we have known each other for years too, so please accept this Windblume from me.’

‘Oh?’ Kaeya says, surprisingly more touched by the gesture than he’d expected to be. He plucks the Lily from Collei’s extended hand and surveys it. ‘This very well might be one of the healthiest Calla Lilies I’ve ever come across in my life. Something to do with that Dendro vision hanging from your belt, Collei?’

‘Well, yes. Dendro is a great boon when it comes to handling flowers and other plants. Master Tighnari has one himself-- though, uhm, I’m sure you must have already seen that for yourself, heh-- and he has been teaching me how to properly cultivate and nourish all sorts of plants.’ 

How strange to associate this Collei with the Collei of years long past. Previously, she had been more gnashing teeth and wild defenses than the little girl she was supposed to be, with an almost-feral sort of desperation in her eyes at all times. Now, she’s grown comfortable in her own skin to speak actual sentences with Kaeya, someone who had regrettably tormented her before. It had been necessary at the time, but he does regret going so hard at her now. In some ways, she reminds him distinctly of Sucrose with the way she second-guesses every word she speaks, only coming alight with life and enthusiasm for topics that she is so clearly passionate about. 

For Sucrose, that was alchemy. For Collei, it was all that she had found and kept in Sumeru. Another wandering vagrant has found a safe place to put down roots and start life anew with people who love and support her. 

Kaeya feels truly happy for Collei.

From his belt which he had commissioned years ago just for Windblume, he picks a Dandelion out of the many that have been looped through the specially made bands and presents it to Collei, who gapes at it. 

‘You are my friend as much as I am yours.’ Kaeya says and waggles the Dandelion under her nose. ‘Accept this Windblume from me to you, hm?’

 ‘Yes…Yes, of course!’ Collei chirps happily, plucking the Dandelion from his fingers. ‘Thank you, Master Kaeya!’

‘Oh, so it’s Master Kaeya now, hm?’

Diluc comes up from behind Kaeya, Cyno and Tighnari trailing close behind. He looks amused and Kaeya grins back at him. 

‘Got any objections to that?’

Diluc just shakes his head with a barely-there smile and turns to look inquisitively at an already staring and starstruck Collei, who squeaks and looks down at his sudden attention. Paimon has no such qualms of shyness and immediately bursts into happy greetings with all three men. 

‘Master Diluc, Cyno, and Tighnari! Had a good chat?’ Then, she dips down to mutter into Lumine’s ear, ‘Wow, it’s so strange to see all our friends from different nations here together all at once. It’s happened many times before, but Paimon can’t seem to get over it.’

Lumine just shrugs and waves hi. Paimon steamrolls on with the introductions. ‘Master Diluc, you haven’t met Collei yet, haven’t you? She’s a Forest Ranger just like Tighnari.’

‘Ah! No, no.’ Collei pipes up, leaning forward with wide eyes to correct Paimon, ‘I’m not a Forest Ranger just yet, just a trainee. I still have a long, long way to go before I can measure up to someone as great and smart as Master Tighnari.’

‘I’m sure you are perfectly capable as you are, Collei. I’ve heard many things from Tighnari about the Avidya Forest Rangers and about you too. All good things, of course. Is there any part of being a Forest Ranger trainee that you enjoy the most?’ And they say Kaeya is the smooth talker between them. He might have a silver tongue when it comes to the words people want to hear, but no one plays the warm and prestigious host quite like Diluc at his best. Every bit of Collei that had bristled at Kaeya’s prodding soon smooths over at Diluc’s genuine curiosity and attentive listening and soon, she is yabbering on animatedly, loud protests only second to Tighnari’s when Cyno cracks another abysmal joke. 

It is a nice conversation circle they are in that only eases up when the maids start to bring out the food in large platters and laid them upon the red tablecloth of the dining table. Sweet Madames, Pile-Em-Ups, skewers, and Sticky Honey Roasts sit all tempting in the middle of the room, drawing all the partygoers towards it. Collei claps excitedly at the spread and gasps when she catches sight of the few samples of Sumerian cuisine that Kaeya had specially requested from some exotic restaurants in town. 

‘Pita pockets! Briyani!’ She looks close to salivating and Paimon is not far behind, sparkles in her greedy eyes. ‘Wow, this is an amazing feast!’

The room turns to Diluc, waiting for the first move of the host toward the food. He smiles at Collei and Paimon gushing over the iced juice-- non-acholic, much to Kaeya’s chagrin-- that has just been brought out in large jugs and turns towards the room at large. 

‘Everyone, thank you all for coming to celebrate with us at the Dawn Winery today. May this Windblume be a prosperous and delightful one for all of us present here, but without further delay, I ask our special guests of the day to start with the feast.’ He extends an inviting hand towards the three Sumeru guests and after sharing a glance, Cyno and Tighnari simultaneously reach out to gently push Collei forwards by the elbows. 

‘Huh?’ She hums as she stumbles forwards. ‘Me?’

‘Are you nervous about all the people, Collei?’ Paimon to the rescue whenever food is concerned, as usual. ‘Don’t worry, Paimon will accompany you. Let’s dig in!’

Spurred on by the prospect of a friend by her side, Collei giggles, and surges forwards. ‘Alright. Thank you, Master Diluc. C’mon, Paimon!’

Paimon cheers as they rush to pick up plates, leaving laughs from their little group in their wake. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Paimon and Collei leave the table with plates laden with all kinds of food and glasses of juice balanced precariously. They plop down in a quiet corner of the manor with a window overlooking the vineyard and start to eat in earnest, while the rest of the guests move in on the feast as well. 

Diluc lets his guests take their fill first, staying behind and surveying the scene. Lumine drags Kaeya to accompany her at the buffet table, to which he is powerless to deny, and surprisingly, Cyno and Tighnari both stay where they are at his side. 

‘Please, you are the manor’s special guests alongside Collei. Don’t hold back for my account.’ Diluc urges them, but Tighnari only shakes his head. 

‘We are fine waiting until later when the crowd disperses. I’d personally like to take a closer look at the Mondstadt cuisine provided here and with that many people queuing up at the buffet line, even taking a second glance at a certain plate would be considered rude. No, I’ll wait until I can take my sweet time.’

‘Take your sweet time,’ says Cyno, in the tone of voice that Diluc is beginning to recognize as his joke voice. His horrible, terrible, almost unbearable joke voice. He hardly has time to brace himself before Cyno deals the devastating blow of, ‘To take the Sweet Madame.’

‘I-’ Tighnari’s ear twitches in resigned irritation. ‘-really do not know why I put up with you.’

‘You love me. Maybe not for my jokes, but you still love me.’ Cyno says like it’s a matter of fact with a completely straight face. Tighnari blushes lightly and turns away, but doesn’t deny it.

Oh. 

‘How nice.’ Diluc says, ‘I wasn’t aware you two were together.’

‘Have been since our Akademiya days. Our decision to adopt Collei into our family was what truly solidified our union for us.’ Cyno explains, a rare smile perking the corners of his lips up. ‘You could say this is our first family vacation together.’

‘We have both traveled with Collei before, but never with the other. I suppose our jobs do keep us busy.’ Tighnari says, blush from before dying down. ‘Oh, look. The buffet table seems to have cleared up significantly. This is our chance to snap up some food before the fast eaters come back for second helpings.’ 

While Diluc had been the one-- with Kaeya’s suggestions thrown in here and there-- to place the order for the food, he’s still taken aback by the sheer amount that bears down on the table. Anything particularly popular that had been swiped away by the first-rounders is swiftly restocked and filled back in by the housemaids on duty. Making a personal note to ask one of them to make sure some leftovers were available so that those on duty right now may have their own shares too, he takes a plate and starts picking out pieces. 

‘Hey.’ Kaeya materializes at his side, plate already empty. Though that really is no surprise, his selection had been about enough for a child's portion and Diluc himself could’ve finished Kaeya’s meager plate in minutes. The urge to take his plate and pile food on as he does so for his own is there, but Diluc knows Kaeya has always been a small eater, so he makes no move except to reply, ‘Hello. What do you want?’

‘It starts with “w” and rhymes with twine.’ 

Diluc turns to glare at him. ‘It doesn’t count when the actual word is in “twine” itself.’

Kaeya only brightens. ‘Oh, so you do catch my drift! Wonderful. May I have the keys to the cellar now?’

Diluc ignores him and stares contemplatively at a pizza dish. Kaeya keeps whining for wine-- Diluc cannot let Cyno hear head nor hind of that pun, for fear of Tighnari spontaneously combusting on the spot-- and--

A hand reaches out and knocks the plate right out of Diluc’s hands. 

He lets out a surprised grunt in the back of his throat as the plate clatters back down to the table, spilling its few contents onto the tablecloth. 

‘Oh, I am so sorry.’ Tighnari says from beside him. ‘Clumsy me. Let me fix you another plate right this instance, Master Diluc.’ He then darts around to pick up an empty plate and pile all the food that Diluc himself had chosen just a few minutes ago, but he leaves out one particular dish. The Pile-Em-Ups stay untouched by Tighnari’s fast-working hands. 

His new but no less complete plate is placed into his arms and Diluc is still too blind-sided to anything but accept it graciously. ‘Thank you.’

‘Don’t mention it. In fact, I still feel horrible. Should we go take a walk outside and I shall apologize by way of telling you that story about the Sumpter Beast you were asking about earlier?’ Tighnari blinks at him. 

Diluc is certain he has never asked about a Sumpter Beast before in his life. 

‘Of course. Still, don’t fret over it. Accidents happen to the best of us. However, I won’t protest to an entertaining tale.’ Diluc nods and gestures to the front door, turning to Kaeya and saying, ‘We’ll be right back.’

Hold the fort inside. Something is wrong. 

Kaeya nods back, face grave for a split second before it breaks out into a grin at the sight of Lumine and Paimon ushering Collei over for second helpings. 

‘You are a gracious host.’ Tighnari tells Diluc, already halfway turned towards the front door. His ear twitches lightning fast. ‘Shall we?’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Outside, the weather is beautiful. Fluffy white clouds drift by in the strong breeze that sweeps through the vineyard, bringing the sweet smell of grapes to their noses. Tighnari takes a moment to appreciate the scent, sensitive nose twitching, before he goes right down to business. Without a moment of beating around the bush, he tells Diluc, ‘Someone just tried to poison you.’

‘Come again?’ Diluc says out of reflex, only to not seem rude by leaving Tighnari hanging but inside, his insides are clenching up in shock. 

Tighnari doesn’t insult his intelligence by repeating what he just said, but instead starts a lengthy explanation, ‘I am not sure whether you are familiar with plants outside of Mondstadt, but Sumeru’s ecosystem is one of the most diverse in Teyvat, given its dual climate nature with the rainforests and the desert. There is a species of fern in the rainforest that is harmless when it grows in its intended climate, but once brought to the desert and grown on the cacti native to the sands, it bears deadly spores on the underside of its leaves. These spores resemble pepper, only giving their true nature away by giving off a bluish hue when in contact with heat. These spores were on the food on your plate.’

‘A fine example of elusive knowledge only an expert might know.’ 

Tighnari’s face is grim. ‘Exactly what the person who meant you harm was thinking when they did this. Forgive me my intruding on your personal matters, Master Diluc, but am I right to think that there is some plot hatching within your circle?’

‘How perceptive.’ Diluc allows himself a sigh as he places a ruminating finger on his chin. ‘Rest assured you aren’t intruding on anything, after all, you have just saved me the trouble of being poisoned a second time in this past month alone.’

Tighnari’s ears point slightly backward and his tail flicks out behind him. Idly, Diluc wonders if the reactions are voluntary. He won't ask, that would seem very rude. ‘Second time?’

‘It’s a long story. One I can tell you, only if you are sure you’d like to hear it, but before that, I must ask why you found it within yourself to help me back there?’

Tighnari’s eyes widen and his tone is earnestly honest as he says in mild surprise, ‘Are you not the gracious host who personally invited us to your home for this gathering? I’d say that alone is enough for me to step in to prevent you from getting poisoned, but if it’s not the same for you, then I’ll say I also appreciated your generosity in hosting Collei, Cyno, and I. Besides, the way you handled conversing with Collei shows you are a good character, as she is hardly proactively sociable herself and often needs a gentle hand to guide her through. It means a lot to her that you put effort into making her feel welcome and special here, and by extension, it also means a lot to Cyno and me. So, no, Master Diluc, I definitely wasn’t going to let you get poisoned, not if I could help it.’

‘This has nothing to do with your reputation as a helpful Forest Ranger, extending a hand to anyone who needs saving?’

‘Ah.’ Tighnari smiles, ‘I suppose there is also that urge behind it. I mean no disrespect, of course.’

‘No, none taken here.’ Diluc smiles back, nodding, ‘Thank you for answering all that. I’m aware the question was a bit strange and somewhat redundant, I do trust you, Collei, and Cyno, but recently withholding trust seems to be the right way to go.’

With that, he tells Tighnari all that has happened since the first night of the attack in Kaeya’s childhood bedroom and the scholar listens intently, as if Diluc was giving a lecture at the podium in the Akademiya instead of outside his front door, having had close enough of a call to flee his own party. When Diluc finishes, Tighnari shakes his head with a humorless laugh, ‘It’s the same everywhere in Teyvat, there’s never a dull day to be had.’

Diluc breaks the Perfect Host decorum, or as Kaeya likes to call it ‘having a stick up it’, for a rare moment and tips his head up to soak in the gentle sunlight. ‘It’d be nice to have some boredom right about now, no doubt about that.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Kaeya looks absolutely murderous when they break the news to him and to Cyno on the second level of the manor, having excused themselves from the happy party downstairs by citing the two Sumurians' interest in vintage Mondstadt architecture. He looks angry enough to storm into the kitchen and demand who had the gall to mistake poisonous spores for pepper that Diluc slides next to him-- all the more convenient to snap his hand out to catch Kaeya’s sleeve should he actually go on a rampage-- and says, ‘I’m okay. I didn’t even get the chance to have a single bite of my plate before Tighnari noticed.’

‘And smacked it right out of your hands.’ Kaeya thankfully deflates a bit and turns to Tighnari with a genuine smile. ‘Thank you. We have only known each other for little more than an hour but I already owe you for protecting one of the most important people in my life. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Tighnari.’

Diluc doesn’t need to check a mirror, he knows the warmth in his cheeks means he’s glowing beet red. He’s forgotten just how sentimental Kaeya can be when he lets himself actually be it. Apparently, one such occasion is when Diluc is almost poisoned yet again. 

‘Dear Archons, that is a speech.’ He mutters, shoving a badly-aimed elbow at Kaeya’s side. ‘Anyone would think you would have died yourself if I did.’

‘Don’t even joke about that.’ Kaeya says, frowning. 

‘It’s nice to see how you two care about each other.’ Cyno remarks, arms folded across his chest. ‘Though we were hardly as close and it has been a few years since our connection was as strong as it had been, you two do remind me of Lisa and I when we were studying together. I saw her in the library just before this and she, quite embarrassingly, said I was like a younger brother to her.’

A wistful look has come over his face. Diluc can imagine his own features in that same melancholy-tinged arrangement. It happens when he thinks too much about the days his father was still alive and Kaeya was a perpetual fixture at his side, simultaneously a shadow and a guiding light that never ever strayed too far away. Now Crepus is but a long-gone memory captured only in the memorabilia that lie in corners of the manor and Diluc is now the one people mean when they refer to Master Ragnvindr. At least Kaeya-- like the shadow and light he is-- has come back to him even after Diluc had driven him away countless times. 

Still, he wishes someone had sat him down and told him before just how sad the happy times would make him now. Diluc is sure for the General Mahamatra of Sumeru, there is no shortage of that kind of emotion either. 

‘For that reason and because you have been nothing but accommodating for us since the very first introduction, I offer you my services as the General Mahamatra and as someone who has ample experience in chasing down criminals.’

Diluc recognizes this as the grand honor that it is, but the aristocratic part of him wants to decline, doesn’t want to owe any favors to anyone that could turn into a liability further down the road. He puts up a weak argument, ‘But we are not in Sumeru.’

Cyno closes his eyes and takes a moment to collect his thoughts before speaking with no ounce of hesitation in his monotone voice. ‘While I do agree that the General Mahamatra is only a title worthy of recognition in Sumeru, the idea behind the title is however universal. Justice is, of course, pursued in every nation of Teyvat, not just Sumeru. Perhaps I do see this poisoning attempt against you as an injustice, yes, but I wish to balance the scales this time as just Cyno and not the General Mahamatra.’

Justice is always tied in with honesty and Diluc sees that Cyno contains both in spades. He nods in finality. 

‘I see there is no point in deterring you. As such, I would very much appreciate any help you give, Cyno. And of course, Tighnari. As your host, I also apologize for dragging you both into this conspiracy when your initial reason for coming here today was to attend a party.’

Cyno makes a non-committal hum and shrugs a light shoulder. ‘I wasn’t ever one for social gatherings anyway.’ 

Diluc smiles at the mounting similarities between Cyno and himself before startling at the sharp poke to his back. 

‘Since we are partners now,’ Kaeya says cheerfully, but with lines of stress under his eyes. ‘There is no reason to not break into the wine cellars now, right, Diluc?’

Diluc gives a long-suffering sigh.

Chapter Text

‘Ooh. Great choice.’ Lumine claps gleefully at the addition of Cyno and Tighnari into their little undercover team. ‘I recently overthrew a whole government with these two. You couldn’t have picked better people for the job.’

Kaeya tries really, really hard, he really does, but who would not react to that kind of statement?

‘What government?’

‘The Great Sage in the Akademiya was holding our Archon hostage. There was nothing else to be done, except to overthrow him.’ Cyno says just as nonchalantly, while Tighnari nods sagely in agreement. 

‘I look forward to the day you step foot in Snezhnaya.’ Diluc says to Lumine, who for some reason, grins with a touch of malicious evil at the prospect. ‘When you do, at least take your time taking down the Fatui Harbingers. Let me save some face.’

‘Ah, you have some experience with dealing with the Harbingers as well?’ Tighnari perks up in interest, saying to Diluc, ‘So have I. Though it was more of a verbal stand-off than an actual battle. I doubt I would be standing here today if it had been a fight.’

‘You say that.’ grouses Cyno in an uncharacteristically sulky tone. ‘But you conveniently leave out the fact you were struck by lightning as a direct result of that “verbal stand-off”.’ 

‘In my defense,’ Tighnari argues instantly, ‘That was another Harbinger.’

Lumine, half-snickering, adds in, ‘If I remember your recollection of your conversation with Dottore, you called him rude and reckless. And then told him no .’

Dottore… Seems like Mondstadt and Sumeru have much more in common than they initially thought. Both nations seemed to be the Doctor’s haunt. Kaeya recalls with utmost clarity the last time that name drifted between the mouths of Mondstadt citizens a few years back, dripping with either subordinate reverence or haunted fear. 

By all accounts, the fact Tighnari was alive is nothing short of a miracle and it tips the scales of Kaeya’s impression of him to a very high positive. 

‘It certainly eases my nerves knowing we have you two on our side now.’ He says to add to the conversation, ‘Maybe this time we can actually make some leeway on our investigation without the fear of getting poisoned. Or knocked out.’

‘Certainly not on my watch.’ Cyno agrees. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

A guest room in the manor is hastily cleared to accommodate Cyno and Tighnari for the night. 

‘Oh, are you staying over?’ Collei asks when they go over to let her know. ‘How fun!’

‘If you’d rather go back to the hotel or stay with some of your friends before it is time to leave, then you should take this chance.’ Tighnari says, ‘Though honestly, I’d much rather you have someone be with you for the night, should you choose to head back to Mondstadt.’

Amber and the rest of the Knights had arrived sometime during their little talk upstairs and the energetic Outrider immediately suggests, ‘Ooh, Collei, we can have our own little sleepover. Can’t let the grown-ups have all the fun now, can we?’

Collei’s eyes sparkle at the idea. ‘That sounds great, Amber! We can have Eula and Sucrose. Oh, and Klee and Noelle and--’

Amber gives an excited squeal before grabbing Collei’s hand and speeding off to where Eula was chatting with a group of resignedly uncomfortable people.

‘Well, that’s settled.’ Tighnari notes, watching them go. ‘How about you, Traveler?’

‘I’ll be staying here too.’ Lumine says and politely turns down Diluc’s offer of a room upstairs. ‘No need to bother you and the staff, I have my teapot.’

‘Ah, right.’ Kaeya remembers the Liyuen-style teapot Lumine keeps stashed in that endless backpack of hers and the seemingly impossible pocket dimension in the little porcelain craft. ‘Don’t fret, Diluc. I’d argue that the teapot rivals even the manor in terms of comfort.’

‘Tubby never disappoints.’ Lumine says loyally. 

‘I also propose a round of patrolling tonight. Diluc and I have been doing it every night, but since he refuses to let just one of us do it at a time--’

‘For good reason.’ Diluc argues, ‘You got hit the last time you went out alone at night.’

‘--We have only been able to patrol one half of the night and then spend the other half dreadfully daring.’

‘Yes, a patrol system does sound advisable. Let us discuss the pairs then.’ says Cyno and his words lead to their little group shuffling their circle tighter as suggestions flew around. 

Kaeya lets them take the reins of the conversation, falling back into a comfortable silence. Maybe a bit too comfortable. His throat protests with every word he speaks and the small respite from having to talk gives the discomfort to wane. He wonders if it’s something he ate, but none of the food prepared he had been allergic to and-- from his memory about the Sumerian dishes he’d sampled in Sumeru itself-- none of the region’s dishes prepared here today had disagreed with him at the time either. 

For a panicked moment, he racks his mind to recall if he had somehow ingested the poisonous spores in the Pile-Em-Ups that had very nearly gotten Diluc in serious trouble, if not for Tighnari. But when he had sidled up to Diluc when the man was busy picking out his plate of food, he had absent-mindedly noticed that the maids must have replenished the dish, for it had been very popular indeed during the first round of people raiding the buffet table. He had barely been able to sneak a corner piece of a steak when Lumine had dragged him to the table. 

Kaeya feels the beginnings of a shudder rankle at the base of his spine. 

That means whoever had tried to poison Diluc had seen the way he held back as he allowed his guests to get their food first and bided their time to put the poisoned food in the right place at the right time. While it’s a comfort to know that however nefarious their intentions were, they had yet to sink as low as to risk the lives of the party guests just to get at Diluc, the nerves that had exploded into existence after he was told about the attempted poisoning still have not subsided in the least. His subconscious keeps him at Diluc’s side at all times, glancing around as if he were lucky enough to catch sight of a floating icon above their attacker’s head. 

It’s me! The person whose face you’d like to throttle! Over heeeree!

Kaeya scoffs at his own delusions. Diluc looks up from the huddle of discussion and throws him a curious look. 

‘So, are you amenable to that? Or do you have objections?’

Ah, he hadn’t been listening. Drat. 

‘If it’s alright with you, Kaeya, I’d like to see the spot you were attacked later tonight. Though, of course, if it would cause you unnecessary discomfort, then it is of no urgency.’ says Tighnari, which lets Kaeya know all he needs to avoid a huff of annoyance at not paying attention from Diluc. 

‘Sure.’ He agrees to the harmless request easily. Tighnari nods his head and the group falls back into whispers once more. Only this time, Diluc’s eyes stay keenly on Kaeya, who waits for him to speak up instead of initiating like he always does. 

Diluc doesn’t disappoint. After a minute’s worth of scrutinizing Kaeya from the corner of his eye, he approaches him with a soft, ‘Are you feeling alright?’

‘Hm?’ Kaeya says, ‘Alright. How about you?’

‘Lumine was right. The Corrosion isn’t as potent as we feared, thank Barbatos. Its effects have been slowly but steadily vanishing, likely phasing out of my system, so there is no need to worry about me. You, however…’ 

Kaeya doesn’t know what to make of the way he trails off, ‘Me, however, what? Diluc, I feel just fine.’

‘It’s just that you’ve been more quiet than usual. Acting out in bursts of energy, rather than your usual consistent pattern, if that makes sense. I know you didn’t hear that Tighnari volunteered to be your partner before.’

Kaeya fights back an instinctual wince at the call-out. Diluc doesn’t even sound mad, just concerned. Unnecessarily so, but it still makes Kaeya want to smile. 

‘It’s nice to have you worry about me after so long.’ He informs Diluc, but the intended result is far beyond what he’d expected. He had been waiting for Diluc to redden at the statement like he does so easily now for any semblance of affection from anyone else, but he must be getting used to Kaeya’s sentimental quips, because this time all this statement induces is a wide-eyed look of righteous victory.

‘See, that is exactly what I mean.’ Diluc says in an almost whisper-scream. It drags Kaeya’s memories rather violently back to their pillow fort days when it was pillow fort etiquette to communicate only in feverish whispers and he fights the urge to smirk at the time he pulled an integral pillow and sent the whole fort crashing down on an unsuspecting Diluc. ‘You’re acting like… like this is the last time you’ll get to say those things to me.’

‘You never know.’ Kaeya says, unable to stop the words from toppling out, even if he knows remarks of such nature will only upset Diluc. And it does. His eyes widen a fraction before narrowing into unhappy slits. 

‘Don’t do that. If you don’t permit me to make jokes about dying, then enforce that same rule upon yourself.’ Diluc grouses. ‘And you’d tell me, right? If something was wrong.’

‘Why wouldn’t I?’

Diluc levels an uncomprehending look at him, brow furrowed and lips downturned. He looks almost sad. ‘Why wouldn’t you, indeed.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

When the party has reached a lull, the buffet table mostly cleared and just a few stragglers making quiet conversation in scattered groups, Kaeya excuses himself from the waning festivities and steps into the kitchen for a drink. 

The staff raise their heads from their respective clean-up duties and send him a smile, a nod, a flick of a salute to acknowledge his presence and he nods, smiles, and tips his head back at each one. The manor kitchen has three sets of sinks, two industrial-sized sets at opposite ends of the room, and a smaller hand sink at the very back of the kitchen. He makes his way toward that one.

On his way, he grabs a wineglass. Diluc might have stood his ground about the no-alcohol rule at the party, but at least this way Kaeya can pretend he’s sipping on something stronger rather than just the water he’s going to procure himself. 

At the sink, he holds the glass under the faucet and watches it fill up, bubbles bursting on the surface and droplets jumping up to escape the rim. If he holds it the right way, the water catches the rays of the setting sun from the open window above the hand sink. 

The breeze from outside makes him look up.

A Crystalfly darts lazily across his vision, leaving fleeting traces of Anemo behind it. Kaeya raises the wineglass to his lips, but another Crystalfly appears and Archons, the pain turns unbearable. 

He drops the glass and hears it shatter as it meets the tile, but all his instincts to catch it are wasted in favor of clutching at his head. Then, his stomach. But he can’t exactly hold his entire body. Every nerve thrums with unspeakable pain, like the skin is being ripped from his bones and his bones then crushed under a boot.

‘Sir Kaeya!’ Voices call out to him and a few times, hands come to grasp his shoulders and arms, steadying him. More voices call out for a broom and dustpan to sweep up the glass, only to increase in urgency when he stumbles backward and almost treads directly on the wet shards. 

Someone calls out for Diluc and that’s what gets Kaeya to blink past the cresting pain, panging like a sledgehammer gone rogue in his head and in his stomach. 

‘No. Not Diluc.’ He murmurs, barely managing to keep his lunch down after, but it’s not enough. No one hears him, or no one trusts him to be in the right mind to make requests denying help, and moments later, Diluc comes walking briskly in. His steps are short and clipped, a gait that Kaeya would recognize anywhere. 

He feels warm hands pass him into warmer hands and he waits for a scolding, but none comes. The silence is harder to manage, though he should’ve expected that to be the case, and he wants to reach out and ask Diluc to start bashing him for being careless again. For going off alone and for breaking the wineglass. 

Diluc stays silent the whole time he helps Kaeya stagger back into the main hall and onto a dark corner where an armchair sits waiting. Kaeya promptly collapses into it. He hears a rustle and a sigh and he knows Diluc has settled into the armchair next to his. 

It feels like an eternity before Diluc finally says, ‘So, you tell me now, Kaeya, would you let me know if something was wrong?’

Kaeya keeps his eyes closed and he keeps himself breathing. Will his throat not to contract, because that will then lead to his stomach emptying itself. Wills himself to be honest for once, because maybe Diluc isn’t the only one who had trouble accepting help.

‘What do you want me to say?’

‘Is that what you want to know? So that you can tell me exactly what I want to hear back?’ Diluc says incredulously and then he laughs. It’s a short, harsh sound. ‘Sometimes I wonder when and how you became so proficient in lying. Sometimes it frightens me.’

‘It was never meant to.’ Kaeya whispers, ‘I never lie to hurt you.’

‘But it always roundabouts to it anyway.’ Diluc says, ‘Is there anything you say that I can trust without second-guessing?’

‘I love you.’ comes to mind. Kaeya plays with the idea, wondering what paths would close and which would open if he actually says it. ‘I would sooner kill myself than ever hurt you intentionally.’ is a close second.

But even that is a lie, he realizes. Didn’t he hurt Diluc the moment he told him about Khaenri’ah that night? Didn’t he force his hand? 

But he does love Diluc. It might just be the one truth in his whole body, that one solid foundation that can never be shaken apart. 

‘You don’t have to be afraid of me.’ is what he settles on in the end. ‘I’d suffer a dozen more scars from your blade and still never raise mine against you.’

‘Maybe that’s what I'm afraid of.’ Diluc counters, voice hot and watery, ‘Has it not occurred to you that maybe it scares me to lose you?’

‘It seems rational when spoken aloud, yes.’ says Kaeya and he tries to think it inside his hurting head, weaves the thought through the lances of pain that ricochet from one side of his skull to the other. That Diluc would be sad to see him go, would hurt in turn if it was Kaeya who was suffering. ‘I suppose it has yet to sink in.’

Diluc says nothing to that, only his hand closes the distance between them, resting fingers against Kaeya’s wrist, feeling his pulse, and staying there. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Diluc tries to stop him from patrolling that night, as expected, but Kaeya refuses to bail on his duties the very same night Tighnari and Cyno have so graciously volunteered to join in their efforts. So he trudges off into the night, feeling Diluc’s steadfastly reluctant gaze on his back. 

Tighnari is waiting for him where a higher bit of land slopes right down into the river. He stands a ways away from the actual drop, surveying the small army of Crystalflies that swarm the tiny mound. 

‘How fascinating.’ Tighnari says, taking down a few notes on a clipboard as he looks up, down, and then back up at the swarm. 

‘Forgive my intrusion, but what’s fascinating?’

Tighnari’s ear had pricked up before Kaeya had even spoken up, but he still turns around with a mildly surprised look as he pockets the clipboard. ‘Kaeya.’ He says, ‘I must admit, I wasn’t expecting you to show up, since Diluc informed us you were feeling unwell at the party earlier. Have you been feeling alright since?’

Trust Diluc to do that. Kaeya shakes his head in fondness. ‘Thank you for the concern, but I’m feeling much better after a short lie-down. I suspect the nights taken for patrolling had more of an effect on me than I first anticipated.’

‘Fatigue can indeed be a detrimental blow to one’s wellbeing.’ Tighnari agrees, assuming a thoughtful pose, ‘Not that I know much about the human body, seeing as I specialize in biology, but when you’ve studied in the Akademiya, you get to have first-hand experience with all sorts of strange things that happen when a student spends a week straight pulling all-nighters.’

He shakes his head, ears wagging in the air as he does. ‘But I digress. If you are sure you are fit enough, then let us not dally. But I must insist you voice any discomfort out and we will take action accordingly.’

Kaeya hums and says, ‘Diluc put you up to that?’

‘It’s only out of concern that he did and besides, I have my own reasons. The Traveler told me that there is a high chance of a leyline disorder here, whether effluence or otherwise, and as someone that has worked with her regarding this very phenomenon myself, trust me when I say disrupted leylines can very well cause illnesses in humans.’

That’s the first Kaeya has ever heard of it. His eyebrows raise up in surprise. ‘Do they have other side-effects?’

Tighnari shifts his weight on his feet, counting on his fingers, ‘Wildlife tend to avoid the affected area, flora mutate, and certain plants usually give indicators of any effluence. In Sumeru, that would be the Sumeru Rose or the Leyline Lodestar, but I regretfully don’t know if Mondstadt has its own version.’

‘So, you’d like me to judge the concentration of Leyline energy according to how uncomfortable I feel.’ Kaeya deadpans. ‘Charming.’

‘Nothing more than a headache, Kaeya.’ Tighnari warns, ‘If it escalates to anything beyond that, I must insist we head back for your safety.’

‘Fine by me.’ 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Tighnari isn't’ exactly the type to get homesick much, but the sight of the full moon hanging over his and Kaeya’s heads is the exact one that he sees on late-night patrols in Avidya Forest. It’s reassuring in a way he hadn’t expected it to feel. 

The two of them are about an hour in their patrol now and Tighnari counts at least two and a half more before it’s time to switch with Cyno and Diluc. The walk thus far, while not entirely stifling or uncomfortable, has been spent in mostly companionable silence. When Kaeya had shown him where he had been attacked a few nights prior, the scene was disappointingly bare of any useful evidence, even with Tighnari’s superior eye with nature. So, dejectedly but determined to not let it affect their patrol tonight, Tighnari thanked Kaeya for bringing him there, and together, they left the scene after a mere five minutes of Tighnari nosing around. Now they walk to and fro on the manor grounds in near absolute silence. 

From what he has heard of Kaeya from the citizens around Mondstadt City, Albedo, Collei, and the Traveler, this proves to be quite atypical of the Calvary Captain’s normal behavior. He was depicted by all to be a friendly and suave character, albeit one to keep one’s wits about around, as he was as sly as he was capable. 

Perhaps he was a bit more reserved around people he’d just met, but Tighnari doesn’t think that was the case. It’s more like his unknown ailment giving him trouble, as much as he tries to hide it. Tighnari doesn’t at all miss the way he has to slow down his normal pace so that Kaeya doesn’t have to exert himself to keep up. For a Captain of the renowned Knights of Favonius, Tighnari knew Kaeya was not at full capabilities right now. The longer the night drags on, the more sound Kaeya’s boots make as they go from walking over the ground to dragging on it. 

‘Are you alright?’ Tighnari asks as they stop at the base of the Anemo Archons Statue. Tighnari has seen depictions of the Statues of the other Archons in books and some recreations from some scholars whose research topic concerned them, but he has never had the chance to look at one besides the Dendro Archon’s Statue up close. 

Kaeya visibly hesitates before answering, to which Tighnari tries not to raise his hackles too much. ‘Just a tiny bit fatigued, but no pain at all. We’re good to keep going for a good while yet.’

His words seem to hint that while he was indeed in good enough condition to continue, that won’t be the case for the entire length of their patrol. As Tighnari surveys him, Kaeya shifts from foot to foot. A bead of sweat runs down his temple and he flicks the locks of his hair from his face in an effort to swipe at it. 

‘How do you like being a Knight?’

‘Huh?’ Kaeya blinks at Tighnari. The question seems to sink in belatedly and he takes a bit more time to think up a response. ‘I like it well enough, seeing as I’ve been at it for about ten years now. In some ways, it is all I know.’

Tighnari knows all too well how a job can become one’s entire existence. ‘I feel the same way with being a Forest Ranger. Moving from the city to Gandharva Ville at first was a culture shock. Suddenly, I was surrounded by quiet plants, rather than fellow raving scholars. It was a good change, I must admit, even if sometimes the people who traverse the rainforests tragically lack common sense.’

‘Still, you must find it fulfilling.’ Kaeya smiles and Tighnari feels relief. If exerting the effort to keep up a conversation was what it took to keep the man’s eyes from glazing over, then he’d be happy to do it. 

‘That I do.’ 

They set off on the well-worn and now familiar path back to the manor riverside and Kaeya entertains him with the recollection of a time he, Diluc, Albedo, and a young man named Razor flew on the back of one of Barbatos’ four winds to get to an obscure island location. The nearing riverside sparkles under the moonlight like ground diamonds. Tighnari is just thinking how much nicer the tedious act of walking to and fro is when you have someone to talk to when Kaeya stops mid-story and lets out a pained hiss. 

‘Ah.’

‘Kaeya?’ Tighnari stops and looks back at where he’s unwittingly left the other a few steps behind. ‘Do you feel okay?’

‘No, no.’ Kaeya is quick to reply. A bit too quick. ‘No. I’m fine. Hah--’

Tighnari feels panic wash over him for the brief moment that he allows it to when Kaeya keels over and starts convulsing on his knees. Then, he forces cold calm over himself and drops down next to him. He’s a Forest Ranger, for Kusanali’s sake. He’s trained for this.

‘Kaeya?’ He grips his shoulder, which heaves up and down beneath his touch. ‘Kaeya, can you hear me?’

Kaeya lets out a pitiful groan, falling onto his side in the dirt and curling up into himself. Tighnari lets out a curse and starts a mental checklist. He can’t carry Kaeya back himself, so he needs help, but he’d rather slice an ear off than leave Kaeya alone and defenseless in about the same location he had been knocked out so recently ago. That leaves him no choice. 

Tighnari sticks out a hand and summons his Hunter’s Path, checking his elemental energy levels as he does. One aim high into the air and an ‘Enshroud!’ later, the night sky above them crackles alive with Tanglevine Shafts that burst like fireworks in the dark. Hopefully, that’s enough of a signal to get someone to come to their aid. 

Beneath him, Kaeya shivers so violently that it sends tremors up the hand Tighnari has clasped around his arm, and with a startled gasp, Tighnari observes with mounting horror the ice crystals that form where Kaeya’s breath meets the blades of grass.

‘What--’

Kaeya’s hand flies up to grasp at Tighnari’s hand and when their bare skin meets, it feels more like brushing against a solid ice block instead. And when Kaeya’s nails scrape against the backs of his fingers, they’re sharp and it stings and hurts . Crying out in shock, Tighnari lets go of him but doesn’t stop hovering over his shaking body. He silently curses himself for not asking if Kaeya had any medical conditions that could cause a flare-up beforehand, but a part of him knows deep down that this is no ordinary phenomenon.

‘Tighnari?’ Kaeya’s huddled and shaking form whispers, lone bright blue eye squinting in the dark, ‘Tighnari, what’s happening?’

Tighnari darts his eyes over him and suddenly, the truth comes to him all too fast and all too violently. It slams into him like a Shroomboar gone rogue. With what little breath that is still in his lungs, Tighnari manages to choke out, ‘Stay here. Stay there and don’t move. Kaeya, do you hear me? Do you understand?’ Slowly, mist starts to swirl around them and soon, from where Tighnari sits sprawled on the ground still frozen in fear at the conclusion that he wishes he hadn't come to, Kaeya is no longer visible. 

He needs to stand and run to the manor, Tighnari tells himself, and with a gargantuan effort, drags himself up to his feet. He stumbles and nearly falls back down. This fatigue and disorientation… he knows it well from the time he and the Traveler investigated the leyline effluence in Sumeru. The disorder in the leylines here must have gone catastrophic in a span of mere seconds. 

But how? 

And how can Kaeya --

The mist crowds in from every angle, rendering his vision useless. 

All he has is his hearing now. His ears twitch. Listening for any sound that could lead him back.

Tighnari calls out for Kaeya one last time and when he receives no reply, he finally unsticks himself from the ground and runs. His signal hadn’t worked. No one was coming to them. He had to get to them first. 

Kaeya was depending on him.

Chapter Text

Cyno had cornered Diluc not long after the hall had been dutifully cleaned up of all the festivities of the day. 

‘You are worried about Kaeya.’ Cyno says matter-of-factly and Diluc bristles slightly at the dismissive tone of his voice. 

‘He’s family.’ He says with an underlying edge of chill, ‘It’s only natural that I would feel worried for him.’ Especially if he was walking about with that unfocused look in his eyes all day, pausing in his steps as if he’d just recalled something he’d forgotten, but then it slipped his mind all over again. 

Cyno’s gaze shifts and understanding softens the duty-hardened look in his eyes, but his expression is no less adamant as he shakes his head. ‘Let Tighnari and the Traveler worry for him, you need to worry for yourself.’

‘I have reason to believe the perpetrator is after Kaeya, instead of me.’ 

‘But you are no less in danger. You are his closest companion and any shot taken at him has a chance of becoming an arrow pointed straight at you instead.’ Cyno says, ‘Attempting to poison you today was a miscalculated mishap on the perpetrator’s part.’

‘Why?’

‘It’s the same as a scholar who has the mind to commit plagiarism. He copies whatever material he needs and to prevent the inevitable scenario of someone finding him out, he destroys the original papers from which he copied. Little does he know, that the destruction of those papers is a far more incriminating move than merely imitating them.’

Diluc understands. ‘It’s a work of a desperate man.’ And desperation only ever crawls itself into a deeper hole. 

He gazes at Cyno’s unshakable facade and attempts to align himself with the plane of thinking he seems to operate on. He doesn’t like what he finds. ‘You think that they will strike again. A bigger operation in much less a time gap between.’

‘Tonight.’ Cyno says, tone grave and knowing, ‘They will treat this as a last-ditch effort to wipe you off their hands. What they are planning, however, remains elusive to even me. Have you discussed any suspects prior to this?’

‘Anyone within the Dawn Winery’s employee is under suspicion, but if I had to make a guess, then Adelinde and Elzer are out of the question. Instead, we focus our investigation on the newest recruits. But of course, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that the longer-serving staff may have bided their time until only now to make their move against us, as to throw off the scent.’

Cyno grunts out a nod. ‘Any affiliations in particular?’

There could only ever be two. 

‘The Fatui,’ says Diluc, furrowing his brow and setting his jaw as the first vestiges of hate start to filter in, ‘And the Abyss Order.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Diluc sits in his room at eight sharp. He spreads letters and paperwork on his desk, working through them with a methodical calm, signing off on renewals of trade agreements, and rectifying his own yet-to-send writings in the margins. He doesn’t use his prized eagle feather quill tonight, just a standard black raven feather one that the downstairs office has stocked in boxes. 

His window is open, letting in the night air, but it’s still too stifling for his tastes, so he pops open the first button of his nightshirt. 

The lighting is already dim, but when he stands up to retire to bed and snuff out the oil lamp on his desk, his room is plunged into inky blackness. He pauses for a moment at the window, waiting for the two figures of Kaeya and Tighnari to walk past his side of the manor, and doesn’t leave until they do. There is no way for him to know Diluc is looking out at them, for the room was too dark, but when Kaeya spares a quick glance up towards his window, Diluc inclines his head in a subtle nod. 

This ends tonight, he will make sure of it. 

Kaeya and Tighnari walk down the path and out of sight, but still, he stands there and waits. Until…

‘For someone who hails from Snezhnaya, you sure know a lot about Sumerian poisons.’

In the glass pane, he sees the night outside. He sees his own reflection. But most importantly, he sees his closet door creak open. For a moment suspended in time, it could still be nothing. It could still be a faulty hinge, one he will have to replace soon, or a strong gust of wind that edged the door open.

The moment passes.

‘Game’s up, it seems.’ A silky female voice says, claw-like fingers curling around the edge of the closet door. ‘A shame. It was fun while it lasted.’ The figure steps out fully. 

Raven stands in her housemaid uniform, manic grin baring her teeth and a Fatui-issued dagger balanced expertly upon her fingers. 

Diluc keeps his voice level. ‘I won’t waste my time and neither will you. Tell me who sent you and why.’

‘Ah.’ Raven laughs, a grating too-loud sound in the quiet of the room. ‘They said you were a direct man, Master Diluc and I learned that for myself these past few weeks. I admire that about you, so I’ll play along. No one sent me. I came here of my own accord, for I had heard all about the one we call-- hm, perhaps you know of him as well-- the Masked Phoenix and all the havoc he had caused for our Lord Harbingers.’

For every gleeful, breathy sentence, she inches forwards. The blade in her hand glints when it catches the light of the moon and Diluc tries not to envision it lodged in the hollow of his throat.

‘They say he was dressed black as midnight, yet had hair as bright as the noon sun. Then, Snezhnaya had you declared persona-non-grata. It was uncanny then, I thought, the similarities between that blasted Masked Phoenix and the distinguished Master Diluc Ragnvindr. So much so that…’ She was right in front of him now and the murderous look in her eyes hasn’t faded. ‘...they might as well have been the very same.’

With the speed of a well-trained agent, the dagger is pressed against his throat and his pulse jumps. She must feel it because she laughs and presses closer. 

‘So tell me, Master Diluc.’ Her voice drips with mocking reverence. ‘Will you confess to your crimes?’

‘That depends.’ 

The surprise in her eyes only lasts a moment, before blinding anger washes it out. With a snarl, she turns, blade still poised to slice, to stare pointed daggers at Cyno. He leaps from above the closet and whilst airborne, a glowing amber staff materializes from thin air to rest in his sure grip. The glow trails lightpaths behind it when Cyno spins it to point straight at a snarling Raven. 

‘Will you confess to yours?’

Diluc doesn’t dare to swallow the fear in his mouth, even as Raven lets out a barking laugh of disbelief. ‘You are Sumeru’s General Mahamatra. I must say, I’m honored you had to bring in the big dogs to deal with the likes of me.’

‘Hands off of him.’ Cyno says calmly, the hand holding his staff aloft steady and unshaking. ‘Drop the knife and back away.’

There is a moment where Diluc sincerely doesn’t know if Raven will listen or if the blade that sits gently on the skin of his throat was going to end his life then and there. Inside, his stomach twists itself into knots, but he can’t let it show. Any weakness would be a weapon he hands her himself. 

As if she knew it, Raven angles her head back to Diluc and he manages to catch a deathly sly smile creep over her lips before she says, ‘Using my own words against me. Fine. Two can play at that game.’ She spits the word out like an insult and for a moment, its sharp bite hits like a slap across Diluc’s face. He schools it into an impassive glower. ‘Since you so insist on knowing the truth, I’ll tell you. Every. Single. Thing.’

Before she retracts the blade from Diluc’s throat, she leans in and whispers viper-quick in his ear, ‘Don’t regret it now.’

Cyno barks at her, ‘Hey, back off.’

Raven does as she’s told and even lets the blade fall to the floor, where it clatters noisily when it meets the ground, raising both her hands in surrender. One would never know she had just been caught red-handed, not by the self-satisfied smirk on her face and the slow way she keeps direct eye contact with Diluc. 

Her whispering voice still slithers in his ear. A sense of foreboding creeps up his throat. 

‘You wanted to hear my crimes? I was the one who tried to poison you during the feast today. I was the one who knocked your precious little Captain out that night, but of course,’ She says distastefully, an ugly sneer stretching across her face, ‘He just had to wake up. On the couch, he laid, as defenseless as a newborn. I wanted to finish him off then and there, it would have been merciful and painless. Just a quick drag of my blade across his oh-so-vulnerable throat.’

Diluc grits his teeth at the way she spoke of Kaeya, of hurting him. 

‘Oh, don’t be so angsty, Ragnvindr. You had been sure to prevent my kill that night. I knew then that I could no longer waste my time going after him, even if it pleased me so to bring you hurt through him. No, I wanted true revenge.’ She spits the last word like a slur. ‘I wanted-- no, needed to hurt you.’

‘That is not all you did.’ Diluc snaps, unable to keep a bridle on the rearing head of his anger any longer. This was the person who had hurt him, hurt Kaeya. He would have her head for all the pain she has caused his family. ‘There is the matter of the attack on Kaeya’s room, of the poisoning of Corrosion I endured. You snuck into the room to trash it that night, didn’t you? And while you were at it, you scattered Corrosion over the floors. It was a trap.’

Raven laughs, seemingly thoroughly entertained. ‘Oh, you have no idea what a delight it is that you think so highly of my methods. I am ultimately sorry to disappoint you, O Great Master, but all of that?’

Diluc knows what she’s going to say before she does. He doesn’t want to hear it. It has to be-- It couldn’t have been--

His own words jump back at him. It was a trap. It is a trap. This whole conversation. Don’t regret it now. He had played right into her hands.

Seeing the realization dawn on his ashen face, Raven smiles. Her next words are soft and cut like a knife to the gut.

‘It wasn’t me.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Lumine had seen the bright flash of Tighnari’s Dendro outside, but she had also been outside the door to Diluc’s room, stationed there by him and Cyno in case the target made a run for it. Lurching up from her lean on the wall, she hesitates only a moment before throwing the door open and saying, ‘Tighnari and Kaeya are in trouble!’ 

She doesn’t pause at all to see their faces, only throws herself down the stairs and out the front door, only hearing a sharp, ‘Go. I’ll take care of her.’ from Cyno and the distant sound of running footsteps behind her. Diluc is the Darknight Hero, undeniably as fast and agile as a predator, but Lumine had Anemo on her side. Summoning the tornado she usually sends towards enemies, she instead uses it to propel her forwards and soon, she bursts out of the front doors. Her skin bristles and the night air is colder than it should be.

The signal had come from the direction of the river and Lumine barely lets her feet touch down upon the ground as she sprints, only to nearly collide with another figure. 

‘Tighnari!’ She gasps, digging her toes into the dirt and scrambling to turn around. ‘What happened?’ She runs her eyes up and down his panting frame. Besides being a bit rumpled from the run and his eyes a bit too wild, he doesn’t seem to be hurt. 

‘Kaeya.’ Tighnari says, calm voice now almost frantic. ‘He-- He turned--’

Then, his eyes catch on something above her shoulder, and with a shout of ‘Look out!’, he grabs her and they roll on the ground, the blades of grass sticking into exposed skin and coming to a stop a few feet away. 

A few feet away from the gaping marks sliced into the dirt where they had been standing just a second ago.

From the ice that is spreading across the grass.

Snarling deep in its throat, a Cryo Rifthound stares them down.

‘So they do exist, huh.’ Lumine grits out, before using her crouched position on the ground to propel her toward the monster. A battle cry rips from her throat as she drags her hand through thin air til it closes around the hilt of a sword and then she’s bringing it down onto the Rifthound’s snout. 

It blinks into nothing and she lands on the balls of her feet, swinging around to meet its next attack, a deafening clang of razor-sharp claws against razor-sharp blade. 

‘Lumine!’ She registers Tighnari’s shout from somewhere far away, too busy pushing the Rifthound away with all her might. It slashes at her again and she leaps from the attack. ‘Lumine, wait!’

The monster flies upwards and disappears. A second later, it will reappear. It will attack. She has no time to--

Wait?

To the right. Jaws appear and her sword lifts upon instinct. 

Wait!

A warm body tackles her away from the Rifthound’s bite and the next time she opens her eyes, Diluc is above her, caging her in with his arms, but his eyes are wild and somewhere else. An impossibly wet sheen coats the red of his irises and she sees the Rifthound reflected in them. 

‘Diluc--’

‘Let me handle this.’ He says, not even sparing her a glance. Though she knows he can’t see her now, she nods.

On unsteady feet, he stands. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Before Diluc can say anything, the Rifthound leaps forward. His eyes close upon pure instinct and his whole body is torn between getting out of the way and staying put because he knows--

Nothing happens to him. 

Diluc opens his eyes to see that not only was he unharmed, but the Rifthound was nowhere to be seen.

‘It teleported.’ Tighnari says gravely. ‘That’s bad. We don’t know where--’ A scream rings out in the night and all three of them turn in unison to look at the manor. Inky black windows steadily get filled with golden candlelight and the sound of panicked voices is unmistakable. 

‘Well, now we know.’ Lumine exclaims and starts at a dead sprint back into the manor, but Diluc is faster. He gets to the door in seconds and throws it open so hard a metal part chips off the hinges, but he couldn’t care less now. He takes the stairs three at a time.

A bitter laugh bubbles in the back of his throat when he realizes that they've come all this way just to end up-- cruelly and poetically-- where it all started.

The Rifthound is back in Kaeya’s childhood bedroom.

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

As soon as Lumine had sounded the alarm, Cyno had bitten down on his tongue to keep himself from launching out of the room and finding his way to Tighnari’s side. He knows nothing could’ve stopped Diluc from getting to Kaeya and Lumine had barely let the words leave her mouth before dashing away with the speed only an Anemo user can achieve. Cyno trusts Lumine with his own life and it's with the resignation that weighs a ton that he entrusts the same faith upon her in regard to Tighnari's safety. With both Diluc and Lumine gone, that left Cyno as the only option available to keep an eye on the newly exposed Fatui infiltrator. He had urged Diluc on, as though the man had needed any urging at all, and had glued himself down to the ground he stood upon, even if every inch of him screamed to find Tighnari. 

His beloved was a trained professional, just like Cyno himself, and was the least likely person Cyno knows to bend down when trouble reared its head. 

But, the voice in his head whispers, he did send out a signal for help. He is in danger.

Before he can even finish the thought, a new one cuts in, diamond-sharp. You are in danger, the new voice screams, all his instincts flaring up. A second later, a scream blares out into the night. It leaves an eerie echo bouncing off the walls of the manor. 

‘We need to move.’ He decides-- Diluc's room was acceptable for a stand-off, but Cyno would not trash it if it came down to physical fighting-- and takes off, making sure the Fatui follows behind him. A scrape of metal on wood tells him that she managed to snag her dagger back off the floor where he had demanded she drop it. A part of him registers it as a potential threat-- a stab to the back would not be out of the books for an organization such as the Fatui-- but another part of him thinks that she will need it. He can taste it in the air; a fight was coming to them. He picks out a deserted room, almost bare of furniture and floorboards cracking with disuse under his feet. Then, Cyno no longer has time to ponder the dismal state of the room. A Rifthound stands in it with them. It lunges. Cyno grapples with the Rifthound as best as he could, but even his experience with them in the more dangerous parts of Sumeru-- the ones that have more monsters than people-- could not prepare him for the pure savagery that is this one.

It’s fast. Movements almost a blur. Always in the corner of Cyno’s eyes and never where he strikes with his polearm. It snaps at Cyno's sides and forces him to back into a corner, the Fatui infiltrator cowering behind him as he deflects and tries to get in his own hits as much as he could. It's a close call when the Rifthound swipes where Cyno's waist was, forcing him to leap to the side to avoid getting scratched. The claws come much too close to the Fatui, who shrieks when the Rifthound manages to snag the hem of her uniform, tearing it. She stumbles backward to press herself against the wall as much as she could, dropping the dagger to the floor again. Cyno grits his teeth and falls back into position in front of her, but it takes a few more misses and false lunges before he realizes. 

He's spending most of his energy attacking, not defending. The Rifthound blinks in and out of existence, always at different angles, before disappearing again when Cyno tries to hit it. With the speed and animalistic fury it possesses, surely he would already have a set of jaws already clamped around his neck if he was paying no mind to defend against it. He’s only gotten this far because the Rifthound let him. But if it wasn’t looking to attack him and it came right to this room amongst the dozens more in the manor, then…

Now convinced he wasn’t in any sincerely pressing danger, he spares a split second’s glance back at the Fatui infiltrator behind him. 

He could see it in her eyes then, blown wide and her chest rising and falling in sporadic, fast bursts. The exact mannerisms of a criminal caught in a corner.

She knows too then. It was trying to get around Cyno. The Rifthound was after her. 

Cyno retreats into his mind, letting muscle memory take over as he steps backward towards her and keeps stalling against the Rifthound’s attacks. He had told Diluc and Kaeya he was here for justice. The two of them, while he didn’t know either too well at this point in time, were good and kind people, that much Cyno can tell. And if Diluc really had been the Masked Phoenix the Fatui infiltrator had mentioned in her confession…

Then Cyno saw a kindred spirit in Diluc, one that fought viciously for the right thing. Now, that meant stopping the Rifthound from killing Diluc’s would-be murderer so that she could stand for herself in a fair trial. 

He had to stop this. 

Body working faster than mind, he strikes out, seemingly at random, but the side of his polearm’s blade strikes true across the Rifthound’s side. It lets out a surprised whine at the shot but soon growls. Its bright eyes are no longer just trained on the woman behind Cyno. It was looking at Cyno too now. 

‘You are not touching her.’ He says, brandishing his polearm at it. 

Another growl and just as he expected, this time the Rifthound doesn’t teleport away when he slices the air to get another hit in on its flank. Forced on the defensive now, he works to protect not only himself but the Fatui behind him. 

Cyno was so preoccupied with the heavy task of deflecting hits meant for two people coming from all sides that he doesn’t register the sudden movement coming from behind him until it appears beside him. The Fatui lunges for her fallen dagger on the floor just in front of Cyno, ducking out from under his side as she does. 

In that one short moment, Cyno curses her impulsive idiocy.

In the next, the Rifthound’s jaws close over her fragile, fragile neck and there is the harrowing snap of broken bone. 

The dagger is never retrieved. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Diluc feels nothing inside but horrible, horrible grief. His limbs feel like they’re all hanging onto his body by nothing more than a fragile string that is dangerously close to snapping and his head hurts and swirls and dips from dizziness.

Tighnari had told him it was the side effect of the leyline irregularity on the manor grounds, but now that he can barely keep his dinner down, Diluc realizes he had severely underestimated just how far the effects went. 

He had also severely underestimated what he would find when he came barging into Kaeya’s childhood room. In truth, he doesn’t know what he actually expected to find. Something loud, perhaps, to tell him with no room for doubt that this was all just a bad dream and he will wake up, shaky and covered in sweat, but no worse for wear. Maybe he will find Kaeya, smiling and teasing that he has been waiting for him and that it isn’t like Diluc to be tardy.

He gets nothing of the sort. Gets instead bright red blood-- fresh blood-- oozing a puddle into the already ruined floorboards and the limp, broken body of the person he once called a trusted member of his staff. Gets Cyno, who so clearly hides shame behind that strong stance of his. Gets the Rifthound, growling, maw painted the same color as the floors and as the mangled head that lolls lifelessly on the ground. 

‘What have you done?’ Diluc wonders who has just spoken in such a pained voice, but realizes too late that it’s his own. Despite the obvious distraught in it, he finds himself stepping forward, only to be stopped by a slender hand around his arm. Lumine clings to him, but her eyes are trained dangerously on the Rifthound, and she says, ‘Diluc. Careful.’

‘Trust me.’ Diluc says. He keeps his eyes trained on the Rifthound's own. Trust me. I know. I know, I know, I know. I know you.

The Rifthound isn’t attacking anymore. It’s just floating in mid-air, head drawn downward close to its body, a warning that if anyone makes a wrong move, it would not continue to stay idle. 

Somewhere in his tight chest, Diluc’s heart splinters. 

‘You said before--’ He says, looking it in the eye, ‘You asked me if I had ever felt like something was wrong with you. You told me that there must have been some kind of reason that you were left here by your father, and I told you I didn’t care why, just that you were here in the first place. But you knew even then, didn’t you?’

Kaeya watches as a group of young men and women walk into the Angel’s Share, wearing happy smiles on their faces. At the bar, Charles greets them like old friends and treats them all to a round of drinks. Was it that season again when the manor and the bar hired new hands? How time flies. Kaeya runs his gaze through the pack, cataloguing each and every face. Some were familiar, some were not. How curious. It was rare that foreigners came seeking work in the winery. He wonders if they knew how lucky they were to be able to associate themselves so closely, so easily to the Dawn Winery. To the manor and to its master. 

One foot inches forward.

‘Diluc?’ He hears Lumine ask softly, questioningly, behind him. Her voice is full of concern and somewhere along the line, she had released his arm. Tighnari lets out a worried hum. Diluc doesn’t turn around, just whispers again, terrified to break the fragile peace, ‘Trust me.’

The other foot follows.

Kaeya dreams that night. It’s a dream that hasn’t come to him for a long time now and every night since the last time it did, he has found himself half-hoping that it would and half-fearing that if it did, he would never want to wake up again. He finds himself standing in the room of his childhood. It was his first, as he never had one while traversing Teyvat with his birth father. Something that all the children that he met took as a given, he treated as a novelty. His room . Usually, when he dreams of his childhood bedroom, he’s either woken up by warm arms and excited voices or put to bed by soft bedtime stories and a comforting hand on his head. This time, it’s neither. This time, he doesn’t remember what he has done. But when he wakes, there are scrapes on his arms that he hides with longer sleeves and a dryness in his mouth that he washes down with wine.

Diluc looks at the Rifthound. Properly. He abandons all the fear and all the discomfort. Forces himself to see with fresh eyes. 

There are patterns in the rock-like skin of the wolf that glow a bright Cryo and its mane is dusted with frost, a soft blue so light that it appears white. It reminds-- Archons , it reminds Diluc of the atrociously extravagant feather boa embellishment Kaeya likes to wear out and about. He feels disgusted at himself for the comparison and then he feels like crying. 

Diluc keeps looking. Keeps searching for-- 

Over the Rifthound’s right eye, there is a scar. 

Kaeya moans, tasting fresh dirt in his mouth as he does. He tries to flip over and look at the direction of retreating footsteps, because he needs to know. Diluc would want to know who attacked him and what use is Kaeya if he gets knocked out all for nothing? And if they were brave enough to come after Kaeya, then they may also be stupid enough to go after Diluc next. So, he presses his palms into the dirt and lurches himself up and over. His head pounds and he lands on his back. All he can see are stars. The leaves part just so he could see them. How thoughtful. He can see them even when he closes his eyes and as he does, the ache in his head spreads to his whole body. There is something that cracks and something that breaks, only to put itself back together again. Soon, even the stars are lost to him, overridden by harsh lines, a harsher chill, and the taste of bile at the back of his throat. 

Raven’s taunting voice comes back to Diluc. ‘I stayed after he fell.’ she had said, ‘I stayed to see if he would be finished off by that monster.’

Her horrible smile when she had hissed in victory, ‘ Imagine my surprise when the prey I had readied was actually the predator itself.’

Diluc takes one last step forward and holds out his hand.

‘So, you tell me now, Kaeya, would you let me know if something was wrong?’ says Diluc, and how nice it must seem, thinks Kaeya, to have the privilege of choosing whether or not to lie. To be honest for once, without the fear and the ache. To not know the weight and feel of the unfamiliar face that stares back at him in the mirror. A face that is so distant that maybe Kaeya Alberich isn’t Kaeya Alberich anymore. Perhaps had never been, because that Kaeya had been a front. A means to an end. The weight of lies is killing him, he knows, but letting it all go seemed like an impossible task. So he lies. And lies some more. Pretends that he doesn’t know what is going on. And, as always, who is to blame. 

‘It’s me, Diluc. I’m here for you.’

‘Is there anything you say that I can trust without second-guessing?’

I love you.

‘I won’t fight you. You don’t have to be afraid.’

I would sooner kill myself than ever hurt you intentionally.

I love you.

‘I know you were just protecting me from her. That was what your father meant, wasn’t it?’

You don’t have to be afraid of me.

I love you.

‘We are safe now. Come back home.’

I’d suffer a dozen more scars from your blade and still never raise mine against you.

‘Kaeya?’

…

‘’Luc?’

Chapter Text

According to her-- or at least what Lumine could make out from all the tearful blabbering--, Paimon had been teary-eyed when she had woken up from her bed in the teapot mansion, only to see that Lumine hadn’t yet returned like she promised she would. Then, she had wailed the house down until Tubby politely kicked her out to find Lumine, and when she did, she clung to her arm, tears, and snot guzzling down her tiny face in rivulets. Her emotions had somewhat evened out when she caught sight of Lumine, but then she saw Kaeya being brought into the room by Diluc and Elzer and the wailing started all over again. 

Wincing in apology, Lumine ushered the little fairy out before she could drown herself in her own tears, or even worse, wake Kaeya up. Though that might actually be a good thing. As much as Lumine knows that anyone who just went through the ordeal that Kaeya did-- the whole physical transformation into a Rifthound thing -- needed their rest, just the shallow dips and lifts of his chest filled her with trepidation. 

If Paimon was frightened of one day waking up without Lumine by her side, then Lumine was afraid of one day watching, helpless on the sidelines even with all the power of the Archons on her side, as another one of her friends fell from powers that should have been too dangerous to wield in the first place. It’s happened before, many times in fact, but she is certain that should it happen a thousand more times, it would never hurt any less to watch them--

Paimon sniffs pathetically and wipes her nose on her tiny sleeve, but when she realized that was soaked, she wiped it on Lumine’s instead. Lumine doesn’t even flinch, just lifting a hand to absent-mindedly pat her friend on the head.

With a choked-up voice hoarse from her crying, she asks, ‘Is Kaeya going to be alright? He isn’t going to-- going to--’

‘No.’ Lumine says, refusing to believe that she might be wrong. Kaeya is strong enough to pull through this. He must be. There is no other option. ‘No, Paimon. Kaeya will be just fine.’

The fear in Paimon’s eyes filters out slightly, but her legs kick out in the air restlessly. Thankfully, she doesn’t get to ask more questions before the door to the room they just left opened again to reveal a frowning Cyno and an exhausted-looking Tighnari. 

‘You did all you could. You won’t be of any use to anyone if you don’t get some rest.’ Cyno is telling Tighnari with a soft voice, a protective hand on his waist leading him along. The two are pressed close and Lumine would feel like she’s intruding on something private between them, but concern over Tighnari’s droopy ears and the heavy bags under his eyes win over. 

‘Are you two alright?’ She asks, looking at Tighnari in particular. To his credit, he doesn’t even blink at the scrutinization. His posture is straight and despite the dark fatigue beneath them, his eyes are alight with stubborn determination. He even tries to shrug off Cyno’s hand, turning halfway around as if to go back into the room, but even in his best shape, he is no match for the General Mahamatra’s strength, let alone in this weakened state, so all he manages is an awkward backward shuffle that doesn’t even take him anywhere close to the doorknob. 

‘’Nari.’ Cyno chides sternly.

‘I can help.’ Tighnari says insistently, sounding almost petulant. Again, he tries to squirm out of Cyno’s grasp, twisting fully despite the tight grip around his waist. Cyno, probably sensing that Tighnari is not going to stay idle without putting up a good fight, winds his other arm around the man and squeezes firmly. Lumine and Paimon watch on amusedly. 

‘Okay…’ Paimon says slowly, seemingly recovered from her crying sesh from earlier. ‘What are you two up to?’

‘Nothing.’ Cyno says and then grunts as Tighnari pushes against his chest. ‘At least, that’s what I’m trying to do.’

‘I know. How. To. Heal!’ Tighnari snaps at him. ‘And there is an unstable patient in desperate need of care in that room, so let me go!’ 

‘You heard Diluc. There is nothing else for you to do right now and if you’re worried about Kaeya’s health, Diluc already sent for a healer from the city. You need to rest.’ Cyno says, endlessly patient even as Tighnari lands a mean elbow right in his gut. ‘You did all you could do. If you hadn’t given the signal when you had, who knows what could’ve happened?’

At that, Tighnari freezes, arms lifted in half-hearted struggle, and as Lumine watches, he slumps down and lets them drop to his sides limply. 

‘I could have-- should have done more.’ He says lowly. ‘Maybe if I had stayed with him longer or tried to carry him back here, as I did for the Traveler when she fainted in Haypasia's cave. At the very least, I should have figured out that he…he--’

He sounds so dejected that Lumine decides it’s time to step in. ‘No, Tighnari. What happened with Kaeya was so out of left field that none of us could have predicted it. Barbatos’ sake, I’ve been to four nations and seen a lot of things, but even I have never seen anything like this.’ Beside her, Paimon nods fervently. 

‘Yeah, Tighnari! None of it is your fault, so don’t beat yourself up like that. If you keep doing it, Paimon will-- Paimon will start crying again!’

With a watery smile, Tighnari looks up at the both of them and laughs. It’s a fragile-sounding one, unlike anything Lumine has ever heard from the usually tough and good-under-pressure Forest Ranger before. Clearly, the night had taken more of a toll on him than he truly let on. ‘We wouldn’t want that, now, would we? I’d wager your tear ducts have already taken quite the beating.’ He says.

‘Cyno is right. You need rest. If I know Diluc at all, he would feel best if his guests had a comfortable night, especially after all we’ve been through tonight.’ Lumine says empathetically, as if talking to a wounded animal. ‘Leave Kaeya and Diluc to us. You and Cyno go on up ahead, we will get you if we need anything.’

Paimon nods again. ‘Paimon’ll help tuck you both in.’ Upon receiving an approving nod from Lumine, she grins and shoots higher up into the air, beckoning Cyno and Tighnari to follow her. ‘Come on! Bedtime for evil-fighting Forest Rangers and General Mahamatras!’

Lumine watches and waves as the three of them make their way upstairs. After hearing the sound of a bedroom door clicking shut, only then does she allow herself a moment of respite to let the gravity of the impossible, impossible situation they’ve found themselves in and a deep exhale is squeezed out of her lungs. It's following inhale is not taken in until her mind has somewhat wrapped around it all. She’s traveled thousands of miles, seen all kinds of creatures, and met gods-- even fought some of them--, so she shouldn’t be finding it as hard as she is. 

But this was a friend. One of her very first on Teyvat. 

The inhale comes more as a shaky gasp for air than anything else. 

Housemaids bustle out from the corner and they head toward the front door. They open it and speak to someone outside, voices hushed, but the responding voice is anything but. 

‘Where is he? Where is my captain?’

The maids part like the Red Sea and Jean marches inside, face tight with worry and hair down instead of tied back high in her usual ponytail. Her surprise only lasts a moment when her eyes meet Lumine’s. 

‘Honorary Knight, hello.’ Jean says, walking to her in haste. She offers a small smile in greeting, but it’s obvious that most of her energy is still preoccupied with concern for her friend. ‘I should have known you would be here. Are they alright?’

‘Kaeya’s out cold.’ Lumine says, guiding her to the room they left the two of them in. ‘Diluc’s inside the room tending to him. Did he call you over?’

‘Yes, he sent one of his employees over on horseback. It’s something he never does, he usually prefers to communicate via letters sent by his falcon, so as soon as my door sounded, I knew something had gone terribly wrong.’ Jean explains with a grave tone. She turns to the door and hesitates in turning the knob, as if afraid of what she would find behind it. ‘After all, it wouldn’t be the first time one of them got injured because of the other.’ She says under her breath and something tells Lumine she hadn’t meant for her to hear that. She doesn’t ask, but-- and maybe because-- something else also tells her that she has a pretty good idea of what Jean is talking about. 

Without another word, Jean opens the door and steps in. 

‘Diluc?’

‘Jean?’ The man says, seated on a couch with Kaeya’s limp head in his lap. His fingers are semi-tangled in Kaeya’s hair, seemingly combing the dirt and grass out of the strands, and his face is haggard with exhaustion and worry. Under the right light, his eyes are red-rimmed with unshed tears. For the first time since Lumine has known him, Diluc Ragnvindr makes for a sorry sight of a man. 

‘Oh, Diluc.’ Jean murmurs and hurries toward the couch, dropping to her knees in front of them and reaching out for Kaeya’s hands. ‘What happened? He’s so cold.’ She says with a start and begins to rub his hand between her own.

‘He turned into a monster.’ Diluc says, just as straightforward in this state as he is normally. Belatedly, he realizes his mistake and his eyes widen just as Jean’s mouth parts in a horrified and scandalized gasp. ‘No, no. As in an actual monster. He transformed physically into a Rifthound. I-- I would never call him a--’

‘I know, I know.’ Jean assures him, ‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking clearly.’

‘Given the history he and I share, I’m afraid that to say that you had every right to assume.’ Diluc smiles self-deprecatingly. It’s not a good look at his aristocratic features. His eyes follow Jean’s every move as she draws her Freedom-Sworn out of its leather sheath. ‘Are your energy levels sufficient?’

Jean smiles tiredly at him. ‘Don’t worry about me.’ And with that, she stands and raises her sword parallel to her body. ‘Wind, hear me!’ A strong gust of wind blows seemingly from nowhere in the room, ruffling papers and making the curtains dance. Jean’s loose hair flaps haphazardly around her concentrating face, but she makes no move to brush them away. Instead, she tips her head downwards and the winds pick up even more, rattling the contents of a cupboard threateningly. Lumine eyes it cautiously, at the ready to snatch anything that fell from it up before it could smash against the wooden floor. Diluc alternates his gaze between Jean’s strong stance and Kaeya’s head lying motionless across his thighs, a desperate fire in his wide eyes, even when the wind must be hurting them after being open for so long against such strong gusts. 

Kaeya stays completely still. 

Until he stirs, just the slightest most minuscule shift of his head. Lumine gasps. Diluc just about bursts into tears, laughing disbelievingly. ‘Jean!’ He calls out for her, voice just on the cusp of both tearful and jubilant. 

Jean opens her eyes and looks down upon them with demanding eyes. ‘Did it work?’

‘It did.’ Diluc shakes out as he gathers Kaeya’s further into his arms, clutching him close to his chest. ‘It did.’ He buries his face into Kaeya’s hair and he stays there, shoulders heaving. 

Jean and Lumine both gather at the feet of the couch, Jean leaning against one of Diluc’s knees, whispering soft assurances to him as he only continues to sob quietly into Kaeya’s hair, and Lumine settling near Kaeya’s torso, holding one of his chilly hands between hers. Somewhere between here and morning, she falls asleep. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Kaeya feels it even before he opens his eyes. His whole body aches like he’s been run over a couple of times by a hoard of boars and his head is splitting open in a headache painful enough for his eyeballs to feel just about ready to fall out of their sockets. 

Oh, gods , he thinks, I’ve done it again.

With the resignation of a man who’s knocked over a glass and now has a whole splintery mess to clean up after, he starts to dig through his memory for what he had been up to the past few hours. It comes to him in flashes. 

Tighnari by his side and they’re walking together down to the riverbed. He’s talking about the Golden Apple Archipelago or something along those lines and Tighnari has a nice laugh, short but genuine. 

A sharp pain in his body that had started in the curve of his shoulders, as it always does, and crept down the length of his spine. It had felt like every single vertebra was being pulled apart and rearranged, knocking the breath out of his lungs. The taste of grass in his mouth and fear on his tongue. 

It all gets too fractured from there on out. He sees only glimpses of things like they’re shrouded in a fog too thick for him to wade through. 

But he remembers Diluc clearly. The bright red of his hair and the even brighter red of his wide, frightened eyes. Kaeya frowns as best as he could manage in his unconsciousness. Surely he was mistaken? When was the last time Diluc had ever been frightened?

Maybe that’s what I afraid of. Has it not occurred to you that maybe it scares me to lose you?

The memory of their conversation sends splinters of pain lancing through his head and despite still feeling as though some parts of his body were still unhinged from the others, they line back enough to let Kaeya hiss a groan out. If only his arm didn’t feel like every bone in it had been broken, he might have even mustered out the effort to clutch at his forehead. 

Instead, he freezes up in surprise when a soft voice whispered, ‘Kaeya?’

‘Humf?’ He answered most intelligently and opens his eyes to see Lumine inches from his face, big teary eyes like marbles staring at him. He tells the instinct that tells him to rear back to shut up because that would do horrible things to his skull right about now. 

‘Kaeya!’ She whisper-shouts. ‘Oh, Kaeya .’

‘That’s-- ouch -- my name.’ He replies for real this time, albeit sounding a little breathy. ‘Don’t wear it out.’

‘Can I hug you?’

‘Huh?’ He says. It takes a few minutes to let the words sink in and in that time, he tries to recover as much as he physically can despite knowing a hug would definitely undermine any progress he made and just jostle all his bones again. He gives in anyway. ‘Yeah, you can. But gently. Very gently, Lumine.’

‘Okay.’ In a flash, she gets her arms and head pressed against his still somewhat horizontal chest. It isn’t much of a hug, at least not according to the strict definition, but he knows she’s afraid to move him too much to actually wind her arms around him. So they just sit there together, breathing in and out. 

‘You scared us.’ Lumine says. Kaeya winces. 

‘Not too terribly, I hope?’

Lumine lifts her head up to look tearfully at him and Kaeya has always been the younger brother, the one who was comforted more often than the one comforting, so he just looks at her at a complete loss of what to do in the face of such misery. Even as a pseudo-big brother now, Klee never needs much coddling when she gets down, the kid’s got such a big imagination that she often works herself back up and Kaeya is just tasked with picking up the pieces of whatever had upset her in the first place, His brain muddles further when he realizes it’s because of him that Lumine’s upset, because of the thought of losing him. 

‘Hey.’ He tries his best anyway because if people found out he made Mondstadt’s savior and Honorary Knight cry, he’ll probably be fired out of principle alone. ‘I’m here now, aren’t I? Safe and sound.’

For a moment, she looks as though she doesn’t believe him, chewing on her lip in consternation. Gradually though, her expression clears and she manages a smile for him. ‘You’re right. Safe and sound.’

The door inches open, too softly for any of them to really notice, until a new voice says, ‘Kaeya?’

His eyebrow rises to his hairline. ‘Jean. What are you--’ Before he can even get another word out, Lumine rises to step out of the way and Jean is the one on her knees looking at him in concern now. ‘Kaeya, are you alright? How is your head? Do you feel anything strange in your…well, your bones at all?’

‘Like they’ve been thrown in a barrel and rolled down the side of Dragonspine.’ He says without thinking and Jean’s face immediately puckers up into-- impossibly-- even more worry.

Oh, great. He’s managed to distress both the Honorary Knight and the Acting Grandmaster in a span of two minutes. Idly, he wonders maybe if he asks really, really nicely, would Diluc give him a bartending job in the Angel’s Share.

The door is pushed wider and-- Speak of the devil. 

‘Diluc.’ Kaeya says. 

The man looks horrible and more unkempt than Kaeya has ever known him to be. His clothes are rumpled, his face worn from tiredness, and he must’ve shed every layer except his white dress-shirt, because unbeknownst to many, Diluc does overheat from his Pyro Vision from time to time. It usually happens when he’s in turmoil and since he usually dons a full fur-lined coat and a vest underneath that, the lack of the layers he has come to expect on his person has always made him seem more vulnerable to Kaeya. It was as though the harder the times get, the more and more Diluc’s walls collapse, gradually showing the core of who he was. 

Which was a kind and protective man, who would sooner burn the world around him than let any other flame touch someone else. At least that is what Kaeya is hoping for when Diluc doesn’t respond to him. He just keeps staring at Kaeya, indecipherable emotion swirling in his eyes. 

The last time Diluc had looked like this, his father had been taken away from him.

‘It’s good to see you’re awake.’ Diluc says stiffly. Then, he looks toward Jean and Lumine. ‘Is it alright if I ask for a little time alone with Kaeya? I apologize for being rude, you’ve helped so much--’

‘No, that’s perfectly alright.’, says Lumine and she heads right for the door. She stops to look back at Jean, who is having her own little internal tussle. From her face, Kaeya can tell she is warring between needing to know what happened to him as his direct superior and wanting to let him and Diluc talk it out, as one of their oldest friends. Finally, she settles on an, ‘Alright. But I must insist on a full report to me later. And I would like to check up on you again.’ She says, staring right into Kaeya’s soul. Her gaze softens. ‘Promise me you’ll talk, alright? Both of you.’

Promise me this isn’t going to end up with one friend wounded and the other nations away. 

‘It’ll be okay, Jean.’ Diluc says before Kaeya could even think of anything suitable to say to that. The two women walk out of the room and with a click that rings of finality, the door slips shut. For a moment, neither of them speaks. 

‘You--’, says Diluc.

‘I’m--’, says Kaeya, at the same time. 

Silence overcomes them again, except now Diluc is squinting judgementally at Kaeya. ‘Tell me you weren’t just going to say you’re sorry.’ He says, sounding half in disbelief and the other half incensed. 

‘Uh.’ Kaeya flounders, ‘No?’

‘You are impossible.’

‘Was that what you were going to say before too?’

‘No!’ Diluc says, spreading his hands in the air, and tries again. ‘You-- I can’t look at you without--’ He lets out a pained grunt, kicking at the floor like a child throwing a tantrum. ‘You knew since this whole thing started, didn’t you? Either that or you at least had an inkling as to what had really been going on.’ 

‘Hey, that’s not true. I didn’t know that maid of yours was the one who did it.’

Diluc continues on like he hasn’t even heard Kaeya speak, leveling an accusatory look at him. ‘But you knew what was happening with you. You led an investigation on yourself. You sent samples and you questioned witnesses. You took a blow to the head for this .’

Kaeya feels the first thrums of annoyance in his throat. ‘What are you even angry about, Diluc?’

‘I don’t know! A lot of things!’ Diluc seethes, mad fury evident in every snap of movement as he advances closer to the couch Kaeya’s still sitting on. ‘I’m mad that your father left you-- a child in a place full of strangers-- here and that you didn’t get an explanation why. I’m mad that I hunted the Fatui down because I thought it would avenge Father, but now all it’s done is bring you harm that you never asked for. And I’m so--’ A broken noise of pure frustration rips out of Diluc’s throat mid-sentence. ‘angry that you lied . You lied, Kaeya! I asked you if you were alright, I told you you could come to me. Couldn’t you have trusted me at least that much?’

The blood in Kaeya’s veins runs unpleasantly cold. ‘And what good would that have done? Would you have had Jean banish me into another nation for the good of Monstadt? The bleak sand dunes of Sumeru, perhaps? You’re right. Maybe if she had, then we wouldn’t be here now, discussing the fact that I somehow didn’t tell you I am a literal freak of nature.’

‘You are not! Don’t you dare talk about yourself that way.’

‘You saw what I did, didn’t you? Diluc, I remember everything that I do while transformed. I made the choice to kill her and spilled her blood like it was worth less than dirt.’ The floors... so bright red with blood. Blood that he had on his hands now.

Diluc’s eyes burn bright and his next words are unshakable as if he’s challenging Kaeya to argue. ‘You did it to protect me.’

‘You sound so sure.’

Diluc shakes his head, he looks desperate for something. Judging by the way he’s looking at him, Kaeya deduces that that 'something' Diluc is searching for, it has to come from him. ‘I have had a lot of time to think it all over. The first time it happened, you came back to your old room, didn’t you? That was the day Raven started her first day in the manor. The second time, she attacked you at the riverbed and it must have been enough for you to assume that she would come after me next.’

Kaeya lets out a humorless laugh. ‘During Windblume, she meant you harm by attempting to poison you. I felt so close to transforming and if she had managed to hurt you, I would have. And last night…’ Panic seizes him. ‘Did she try again? She must have.’

Diluc gives him a tight smile. ‘She did. Came out of my wardrobe with a knife in hand, true to a comic villain. Even if Cyno hadn’t been there, I doubt she would have been able to pull it off. He was right, she was getting desperate.’

‘Heh.’ Kaeya scoffs and slides further down in the cushion, stuffing his face into his hands. ‘Gods, what a mess.’ Through the gaps in his fingers, he sees Diluc fidget nervously.

‘Kaeya,’ He starts haltingly, ‘About what your father said about you being their last hope, have you ever thought about what that meant? That maybe it was never about you, not exactly, but that it was about the--’

The realisation feels slow, but that’s only because Kaeya’s running through all the memories he holds of his father’s last words to him, trying to see what Diluc was getting at. This is your chance. You are our last hope. Again and again and again. Maybe…Maybe he shouldn’t be focusing so much on what was being said. But where .

‘The Winery.’ Kaeya whispers, horrific realisation dawning on him. ‘You think they were after the Winery? And that they used me to do it?’

Diluc glares at him, knowing exactly what he was thinking even if he was too tongue-tied to say it, before walking over and looming over him. His face is grave and tinged with the slightest bit of desperation. ‘Just because I think it doesn’t mean that it’s true. There are some things we may never know the answer to, but I mean it when I say I do not in the slightest regret ever having you here. In the manor, in my family, and in Mondstadt. You’ve come so far from the boy you once were and I don’t often say it, but I am proud of you and I’ve never stopped being proud.’

Kaeya is once again horrified, but this time it's because he finds his lower lip trembling precariously. When he finally manages to dislodge his voice from the blockage in his throat, it comes out shaky. ‘For the record, I have never been prouder to call you family either.’

Diluc’s face breaks as he chuckles softly. ‘Just have to one-up me, don’t you?’

‘It isn’t one-upping if it’s the truth.’ Kaeya argues back. Silence falls between them. It’s him who breaks it this time. ‘Speaking of the truth… I’m sorry for lying before, but at the same time… I’m not. I can’t bring myself to apologise for being-- well, me. I lie, Diluc, and at this point, that is just who I am. It’s all I’ve ever known and to separate it all would be to tear down every single thing I’ve built for myself and I just-- the way things are now, it can't be done.’

‘I think I already knew that.’ says Diluc, sounding resigned and terribly sad at the prospect. ‘I won’t ask you to change, but there is the one thing that I need you to do.’ He goes from standing in front of Kaeya to sitting beside him, body angled toward him and face imploring. ‘When something is wrong with you, whether you are ill, need help, or just simply… want me around, then let me know in the way you’re comfortable with. Send me signals or something like that. I’ll be able to tell, I promise.’

‘It was scary.’ Kaeya blurts out, the words falling out of him like water stoppered and now free. ‘I feel like a child saying it, but the first time the transformation happened, I felt like my world was ending and that the curse that had befallen my people 500 years ago was finally catching up to me. In that moment, I felt what they must have felt. And nothing, nothing could have frightened me more.’

‘That’s why you have to tell me, so that even if it happens, you wouldn’t have to be so alone in it all.’ Diluc tells him and there are tears in his eyes. ‘Being alone, that’s always the scariest part.’

Both of them would know that all too well. 

Wordlessly, Kaeya reaches out and pulls Diluc closer by his shirt. When he’s close enough, Kaeya’s arms wind their way around him to keep him locked in place against his chest. ‘I’m glad,’ he says, ‘that you weren’t harmed.’

Diluc dips his head down to rest on Kaeya’s shoulder as he whispers back, ‘As am I.’

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Jean, understandably, is as jumpy as a mother hen as she attempts to schedule out every single minute of every hour of the next three months of Kaeya’s life for him, including specifics like ‘sit down for an hour’, ‘rest for thirty minutes’, and ‘report to Jean at least three times per day’.

He knows she’s kicking herself over letting him take this on his own with no backup, but he pulls her aside to remind her that it’s not at all her fault, because thus far, that has been how he works. It makes sense for her to rely on him to take care of himself, by himself, since he’s been doing just that for so long now. 

‘That’s the problem. You’ve been going at it alone for too long. I should've seen that.’ had been what she said in retaliation to that and Kaeya is dumbstruck for five seconds, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish out of water. 

‘Have you met Cyno and Tighnari?’ He says in lieu of actually acknowledging the call-out. Jean shoots him an unimpressed look before thankfully going along with it, nodding her head. 

‘While you were still asleep, we had breakfast. They are a very nice pair together and as individuals, they seem intelligent and capable. I’m happy Collei has found a home with them. They left with her to go back to the city shortly after, but they told us to tell you to communicate with them as soon as you are able. Tighnari especially seemed quite anxious.’

‘I might or might not owe him an apology gift basket for potentially traumatizing the poor guy last night.’ Kaeya winces. ‘If you wouldn’t mind…’

Jean smiles, ‘I’ll arrange it as soon as I get back to the city.’ Her face sobers at her next question, ‘So, did you and Diluc talk?’

‘We did. It ended much better than the last time, probably because I wasn’t actively goading him on this time.’

‘A menace.’ Jean groans, ‘Why are you my most trusted second-in-command again?’

‘You love me!’ 

‘I most certainly do.’ She takes a step back, but not before pressing a soft kiss on Kaeya’s forehead. ‘I’m glad you’re okay. Truly, I wouldn’t know what to do if… never mind. Duty calls. Tell Diluc I will be around again sometime later and I’ll see to that gift basket for Tighnari.’

Kaeya thanks her and waves until she’s out the door. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Adelinde on the warpath is a regular occurrence at this point, but what really sends Kaeya for a spin is that behind her, Elzer is wearing the same look of stubborn determination. The last time the two of them had looked even remotely like that, it was when they went against Diluc’s orders to not clean the room that the Rifthound-- or, well, Kaeya -- had wrecked. It felt like ages ago, but looking at them now sends trepidation down Kaeya’s spine. 

What were they up to?

Lumine joins him on the couch and watches as the two of them march their way up to Diluc’s study where he had just disappeared to, presumably to get writing supplies, muttering all the way about ruined diplomatic relations as he went. Kaeya supposes a declared persona non grata and a nation from where said persona non grata’s attempted murderer hailed don’t exactly make a good stage for friendship and rainbows. 

‘They are totally ambushing him in his office, aren’t they?’ Lumine asks him.

Kaeya nods, ‘Oh, yes. Without a doubt.’ 

‘That’s nice. I think I know what they’re trying to do.’ 

Kaeya thinks… no. Hopes-- selfishly? Perhaps a little bit-- that they are doing what he thinks so too. 

*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*

Nights pass and Kaeya gets an onslaught of visitors from the city and the villages, all inquiring about his health and well-being. Apparently, Jean had it officially announced that the Calvary Captain was on a long-time-coming period of leave and that should anyone want to see him, they should first wait a few weeks before bombarding him with their concern. This last part was likely added on as a gentle reminder and so, the considerate and caring people of Mondstadt dutifully ignored it, showing up to the manor as soon as the news spread and disrupting the peace day in, day out. The list of guests so far included but was not limited to Albedo and a very teary Klee, Cyno and Tighnari (he brings half the gift basket to share with him and Kaeya is half-mortified, half-flattered at the gesture), Lisa chaperoning all the other members of the Knights of Favonius, who packed into the hall at once like sardines in a can, Razor, and surprisingly, Diona with a foul-smelling but pleasant-tasting concoction. He had almost choked on it when Draff proudly proclaimed that one of the secret healing ingredients in it came from a hilichurl’s pot, but it did help clear up his headache, so Kaeya wasn’t one to complain. Needless to say, Barbara storms into the room a couple of times with a determination to heal him that Kaeya is genuinely scared of, but other than that, her sweet demeanor is nice to have around.

Diluc doesn’t blink once at the sudden influx of guests coming into his home, though he pays a grievous amount of attention to each person he lets sit by Kaeya’s bedside, enough so that it could amount to straight-up glowering if the visitors weren’t already too invested in Kaeya’s health to notice him too much. These days, when night fell and it no longer became polite to intrude upon the household during those hours, the manor fell back into the usual peace and quiet of just housemaids and staff walking about, and Diluc slumps into the couches beside Kaeya, finally letting his shoulders loosen and jaw unhinge. 

Kaeya offers an olive branch. ‘You don’t need to tolerate it all if it bothers you. You could stop allowing them in-- say it’s for my sake or something-- or better yet, I could just move out and--’

‘Preposterous. People care about you.’ says Diluc and pulls out a log of sales from the Angel’s Share and a quill with red ink. He elaborates no more on the matter. 

Kaeya chuckles at him, he’s been doing that a lot lately, and leans his head back to rest against the back of the couch. The moonlight filters in through the glass panes of the windows of the manor, throwing a soft light across them both and washing out the colors so much that a sudden wave of sleepiness washes him as well. His hand slides across the distance between them to gently grasp Diluc’s shoulder. Diluc looks up, sees his tiredness, and smiles, ‘Goodnight, Kaeya.’

Finally , Kaeya thinks as he lets his eyes slip shut, home .