Archive of Our Own ^beta

15 years ago:

"Diluc, Kaeya, come over here, please!" Master Crepus shouted roughly in the direction of the grapevines, between which he suspected the two boys playing according to their noises. A little later he heard the plodding steps of two running children coming towards him. First up his biological son Diluc. In his one hand he held his beloved wooden sword, with which he would have loved to play knight day in, day out. The wild red mane of hair he had inherited from his father was all messed up from the previous game, even some leaves and twigs had got caught in it. His face was slightly flushed with eagerness and excitement. Crepus looked at him with a smile, only to turn his gaze to the boy who was following only about half a step behind Diluc, holding his other hand so as not to lose touch with his playmate.

Kaeya had only joined their little family less than a year ago, but Crepus had long considered him his second son. He had discovered the skinny and frightened boy one stormy night in a small forest on the outskirts of the winery. The exact circumstances remained mysterious, but at least they got enough out of the child at the time to find out that his father had left him there alone. It was incomprehensible to Crepus how someone could have done such a cruel thing to an innocent child. Fortunately, Diluc, who was generally a very outgoing boy, had quickly found access to the initially overly shy Kaeya, and by now they were inseparable.

Sometimes Crepus wondered where the little boy came from, for his appearance reminded him of no one he had met in Mondstadt or on his extensive travels through the seven lands. His skin had a natural tan, as it was common in warmer regions, and his hair was such a deep blue he had never seen on anyone else. The colour reminded him of the starry night sky. But most striking was his eye with its star-shaped pupil. Crepus had not been able to find out what had happened to his other eye, which he always kept resolutely covered, and this was only one of several subjects to which the boy reacted very cagily, which was why he had soon given up his enquiries. The nightmares that haunted him again and again during the nights indicated that the boy had been through a lot, and Crepus did not want to unnecessarily dig into old wounds.

It filled him with joy that Kaeya seemed to have settled in well by now. Diluc and he often romped around the estate together all day, usually accompanied by his favourite toy, a simple slingshot. Quite a few things had been broken while using this device - Kaeya was a good shooter - and it had already earned him several scoldings, but no one could be seriously angry with the boy for long.

The two children had arrived at the manor in the meantime, so Crepus took the word: "We have a visitor today. A photographer from Fontaine is here and he would like to take a photo of the three of us." The boys looked at him in amazement. "With a real camera?" exclaimed Diluc excitedly, while Kaeya added a little more timidly: "May we see how it works then?" Crepus smiled at them both: "Of course you can! But first, into the house with you - Diluc, you have half a grapevine in your hair and Kaeya, you look like you've rolled in a puddle. Let Adelinde help you." Nodding eagerly, the two obeyed and let the sighing maid put them in a halfway presentable state.

A few minutes later, two more or less neat boys stood next to their father in front of the entrance to the winery and watched the work of the foreign photographer with excitement. Both were still holding their greatest treasure, the wooden sword and the slingshot. They had insisted so firmly that the toys had to be in the photo that Crepus could not bring himself to forbid it. And so a photo was taken that day, showing a happy family of three: Crepus stood in the middle, looking down at the children with a smile. To his right stood Diluc, holding his wooden sword up in the air with a proud grin, while his father ruffled his hair. To his left stood Kaeya, seemingly taking concentrated aim with his slingshot, but also with a slightly mischievous smile on his face, while Crepus gently squeezed his shoulder. It turned out, like everyone agreed, to be a very nice photo. Both Crepus and the two boys received a print of it.

Crepus always carried the picture with him in the inside pocket of his jacket. It pleased him to be able to look at the two boys, who were both so important to him, even during his sometimes long professional journeys. Diluc first placed the photograph in a picture frame on his desk, later it kept him company in his office at the Knights Of Favonius. Kaeya kept his picture in different hiding places. For a while, the maids always found it under his pillow when they made the beds, and later it accompanied him as a bookmark at the most exciting part of his favourite book.

However, after the fateful night when Crepus died and the two sworn brothers turned their weapons against each other, the picture disappeared from the estate. Crepus took his version of the photo to his grave and Kaeya left the house where he had grown up. Diluc, full of bitterness, let his photo disappear into the deepest depths of the drawers of his desk, where it was soon forgotten. No one would have guessed that it would ever again give them even the slightest hope for happiness together, as they had once so openly displayed in that picture.

Present:

Although Diluc could not imagine anything much more boring than office work, it always took up a considerable part of his daily working time. Contacts had to be maintained, contracts drawn up and renewed, information exchanged. It was simply necessary for a man in his social position. So on this day, too, he had been sitting at his desk for hours, writing one letter after another, when finally the tip of the quill broke in his hand. Diluc sighed. This happened to him more often, in the rush of writing he sometimes simply put too much pressure on these fragile writing utensils. His hands were just too used to the brute force of handling a claymore. Searching, he let his eyes wander over the desk, but soon realised that he had obviously used up all the replacement quills. This was annoying, as he had wanted to finish at least three more letters. Perhaps there was still a quill to be found in one of the many drawers of his desk. Determined, he went in search of it.

For fifteen minutes he rummaged through the deep drawers of the old piece of furniture that his father had already used, but there was no trace of a quill. Instead, however, something else fell into his hands. A picture frame, the glass shattered. Inside was a photograph of his beloved father, him - and Kaeya. They all looked so happy. The sight stung his heart. The memories came back immediately: Kaeya and him, how they had marvelled at the strange apparatus of the man from Fontaine that day. How Adelinde had scolded them for getting dirty again while playing. How they had spent hours running around with his wooden sword and Kaeya's slingshot, getting into mischief. They were fond memories, but they tasted bitter with the knowledge of what had happened afterwards. The night of his father's death, Kaeya's confession, their fight. He remembered that he had broken the glass of the picture frame with his own hands in his wrath, but that he had not been able to simply throw the picture away in the end.

Diluc had never recovered inwardly from what had happened back then. He did not know how things were with Kaeya. He had always thought they were close, but today he was no longer sure of anything concerning the other. Kaeya was a brilliant liar and Diluc had long since been unable to tell what was true from the other's mouth at all. It irritated him and it made him angry, even years later. Diluc remembered that Kaeya had also owned a print of this picture and he caught himself musing what the other might have done with it. In any case, the picture was no longer in his former room - Diluc had checked it after his return to Mondstadt in the hope of finding answers and information, because he had still been unsure which side his former friend was actually on. Of course, he hadn't found any clues, nothing personal had pointed to Kaeya's years-long presence in that room anymore. He hadn't been able to bring himself to ask Adelinde about what had happened to the other man's belongings, hadn't even been sure he wanted to know the answer.

Diluc now contemplated the picture in his hand. What would Kaeya think if he simply asked him about it? He immediately pushed the thought aside as absurd. What did he care anyway, the other had surely long since erased all memories of their shared childhood from his mind as sentimental nonsense. Just as he himself had been trying to do ever since, as difficult as it was for him sometimes. What was over was over. With a sigh, Diluc detached his gaze and his thoughts from the photo and carefully placed the picture frame back in the drawer, following a sudden impulse, however, much further up than before. He gave up searching for the quill. He had lost the desire to work for the rest of the day anyway.

***

Of course, Diluc did not ask Kaeya about the photo, but as fate sometimes would have it, he received an answer to the unspoken question by chance some time later. It made him rethink some things in the time that followed.

It all started at the Angel's Share. Diluc knew that on days when he was behind the bar, Kaeya usually held back on drinking or simply went to another tavern. That evening, however, the other had not been able to foretell that he would run into his former sworn brother. Charles, the bartender, had sent him a bird and asked him to spontaneously take over his shift because his wife was in bed with a mild fever. Diluc, of course, had not hesitated long and had immediately set off for the city to give his employee the opportunity to get home quickly. At first, Diluc hadn't even noticed Kaeya, only when he was about to close the tavern a good two hours later and made one last round to wipe down the tables and clear the last glasses, did he spot him at a table in a dim corner of the tavern's upper floor. The blue-haired man was apparently fast asleep, his face resting on his arms on the tabletop.

The almost empty bottle of dandelion wine and the slight blush that still showed on the tanned skin of his face even in his sleep did not bode well for Diluc, but he tried his luck anyway and addressed him with his usual words for such occasions: "We are closing now, please see yourself out." There was no response, so he had no choice but to call the obviously drunk man by name several times and shake him by the shoulder until he finally let out an unwilling murmur. Diluc gave Kaeya a few moments to collect himself before repeating his request to the man to leave the tavern. He had to try very hard to understand the other's answer: "...Luc? What...are you doing here?" Kaeya asked him in a slurred voice. Diluc sighed in exasperation, but decided to at least overlook the old nickname. "This is my tavern, Sir Kaeya." he reminded the man pointedly. "And I would like to close it now. You cannot sleep here." Kaeya was still staring at him, slightly disoriented and rather befuddled, and Diluc rolled his eyes as he answered him only with a simple "Oh."

With a frustrated sigh, Diluc resigned himself to his fate and asked the other: "Can you get up?" to which the latter replied affirmatively with a murmur, only to immediately contradict it a few seconds later with his own attempt to put it into practice. Diluc caught him before he could fall over his own chair. "Let me help you." he said, offering Kaeya his shoulder for support. The latter took the offered help without argument, and together they made their way down the stairs and finally outside. There Kaeya escaped his grasp, which surprised Diluc so much that he could no longer catch the other before he landed rather ungracefully on the doorstep. At his questioning look, Kaeya replied almost hostilely: "I'm out, so you can close now." It left Diluc speechless. When he finally regained his composure, he asked his former sworn brother bewildered: "And what about you?" which earned him a bitter laugh from the man: "Since when do you care about me, Master Diluc? Give me a few minutes and I'll make it home. Or sleep here. Nobody cares either."

Diluc looked at him silently. Did the other really see him like this, disinterested and cold? It actually shocked him. He reached out his hand and held it towards Kaeya so that he could get back on his feet. For a few seemingly endless seconds, the man's unsteady eye regarded him suspiciously, but finally he took the hand and let Diluc pull him up. Together they made their way to Kaeya's appartment.

Diluc had never entered the other's home, but Mondstadt was not so big that he did not at least know where it was. The way there seemed to drag on endlessly that night, an uncomfortable silence their only companion. When they finally arrived, Kaeya at least managed to fumble the door open with his key, but Diluc still had little faith in the carrying capacity of his legs. He would have liked to avoid invading his former friend's privacy, but apparently it couldn't be helped. Together they stumbled into the small appartment. Relieved, Diluc noticed that there was a sofa right in the living room that looked quite comfortable. He decided that it would have to do for this night and led Kaeya there. While he was helping him to take off his shoes, the other already curled up on the sofa, as he had always done as a child in his sleep. Despite the circumstances, Diluc couldn't help but smile at this sight. Looking for a blanket, he let his eyes wander around the room. It surprised him how simple it was furnished - Kaeya's extravagance apparently did not extend to his taste in furniture. Everything was functional, nothing seemed to carry a personal touch - until Diluc's gaze finally lingered on a detail on Kaeya's desk.

There it was, next to an ominously high stack of papers that were presumably still waiting for Kaeya's attention: the photo. More than surprised, he approached the object. Kaeya had put the picture in a plain frame, but the traces of the time before, when he had carried it sometimes here, sometimes there, were clearly visible. It had some creases and also a few stains, but still: here it was, obvious to everyone, in the middle of Kaeya's living space. The realisation stirred Diluc. He knew he would need time to think about it, but first he had to finish his work here. Hanging over the back of Kaeya's desk chair, there was a thin woollen blanket, which he now covered the man with before making his way towards the front door. In the doorway, he turned around briefly and said softly, "Good night, Kaeya." before heading home to the winery himself.

It was a long way home, but that felt only right for Diluc tonight. The evening had shaken him up more than he was prepared for. He hadn't expected to ever see Kaeya so exposed to him again and didn't quite know what to do with it. Would Kaeya still remember having shown such nakedness towards him tomorrow? And if so, would he deny and downplay everything when Diluc asked him about it? And he was determined to do so - there was no question of him just letting it go when the man apparently seriously believed that no one cared about his well-being. Was he blind, then? The people around him loved him. From conversations in his tavern, Diluc had heard often enough in disbelief how far Kaeya's subordinates would have been willing to go just to impress their Cavalry Captain. And even though he himself always tried to keep his distance from Kaeya for the good of both of them - the fact that the other seemed to think he was so cold and indifferent towards him bothered him more than he would have thought. Neither did he feel that way nor did he want to be seen like this by Kaeya.

And then, of course, there was this other matter. The photo. Diluc secretly scolded himself for being a fool, but he couldn't quite push aside the thought that it might mean something. That perhaps Kaeya was not as indifferent to their shared past as he had always thought. But why should he have believed otherwise? After all, it had all been based on a lie - hadn't it? Diluc sighed in frustration. He would not be able to make sense of what had happened that night. If he was honest, he even realised that he would not succeed at all without actually talking to the other, and this was a challenge he was not looking forward to. Kaeya was a master of words, and Diluc could not even come close to matching him in this respect. If Kaeya didn't want to talk, he wouldn't talk. And that wasn't all: if he wanted to, he would annoy Diluc so much again with his words that a normal conversation was out of question one way or another. Diluc cursed himself for his temper, but he was powerless against it. No one managed to drive him up the wall as reliably as his former sworn brother.

With such gloomy thoughts in his mind, Diluc finally reached the winery. By now it was so late at night that he decided to go straight to bed. Everything else would work itself out later. It simply had to.

***

Of course, it didn't turn out to be quite that simple. Both Diluc and Kaeya were busy men, and it happened that they did not run into each other for days or weeks. It seemed to be the same this time. At least that's what Diluc thought, until one day he overheard the conversation of two knights in the tavern, who wondered why their Captain suddenly seemed to prefer the Cat's Tail in recent weeks. Diluc could hardly believe his ears - did that mean that bastard of a man was deliberately ignoring him? When he noticed Charles looking at him anxiously from the side, he released the pressure he had unconsciously been exerting on the glass in his hand, which he had actually just wanted to clean. It wouldn't have been the first time he broke a glass out of anger, and it always caused unwanted attention.

Diluc gave it some thought. His first idea was to simply seek the man out in the other tavern, but he quickly dismissed it. A visit to the rival tavern would only have caused an unnecessary stir, especially since the bartender, Diona, couldn't stand him for some reason he didn't know and didn't really care about. Visiting Kaeya at home didn't seem like an option to him either. After all, their relationship was already so strained that this would have been a completely inappropriate invasion of the other's privacy. That darned evening when Diluc had discovered the picture had been an exception, because contrary to Kaeya's conviction, he would not have thought it appropriate to let the man sober up on the floor outside the tavern in the cold of the night.

After thinking about it for a while, another plan came to Diluc's mind. He didn't like it from the start, but the prospect of success seemed tantalisingly promising. Kaeya had started this game, and Diluc now thought it only appropriate to play by the other's rules. And if those rules contained deceptions and tricks, so be it. It was not as if he wanted to harm the other man.

As much as he disliked it, Diluc needed help for his plan, and so he had no choice but to involve someone. After some hesitation, he decided in favour of the young traveler, Aether. The young man had already proved to be a trustworthy helper on several occasions, and this time, too, he quickly agreed to assist after Diluc had roughly familiarised him with the circumstances. He, too had probably already noticed that the blue-haired man had made himself scarce in his usual favourite places in the past weeks. "I'm glad you care, Master Diluc." he said in a rather serious tone for his presumed age. "Sir Kaeya has always been a good friend to Paimon and me since we arrived here, but you know him much better than we do. Surely you can find out if everything is all right." Together they devised a plan to lure Kaeya to a certain place at a pre-arranged time. Aether and Paimon fed him false information about a confidential meeting of the treasure hoarders, which was to take place in the evening on the lake shore behind Springvale. Instead of the bandits, however, Diluc would then be waiting for him to finally confront him.

The plan went as agreed, and so one evening Diluc actually found himself at the small lake between Mondstadt and the winery. He was more nervous than he had expected. How would Kaeya react? Would he simply turn around when he saw through the charade? And if not, would he himself, for once, manage to keep his composure towards the other and not let the conversation degenerate into an argument? His thoughts were abruptly interrupted as footsteps approached him. "Well, you come here looking for treasure hoarders and who do you find - the esteemed Master Diluc!" Kaeya addressed him with his fake smile that Diluc hated so much and clear irony in his voice. "So you've got me figured out, huh?" he replied calmly. It didn't really surprise him that Kaeya had seen through his little game. This was his playing field here and in his eyes, Diluc was probably nothing more than a bungler who also wanted to try his luck for once. "And yet – here you are." That was what mattered.

Silently, the two regarded each other until Kaeya spoke up again with a soft laugh: "Well, I'm a curious man by nature. What could the honourable Master Diluc have to tell me that is so important that he would swallow his pride and even seek help to lure me here? Or," he added with feigned horror, "is this actually a robbery in the end?" Diluc sighed in frustration. Not two minutes had passed and Kaeya was already wearing on his nerves again. "Call it what you wish. Maybe it really is a raid. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you, and after you've so carefully avoided my company since a certain night, I just had to get a little creative. Thought," he added slightly cynically, "I could try your methods, but of course you're in a completely different league in these matters." Kaeya now laughed openly: "Allow me the one discipline in which I can excel against you, Master Diluc." Quickly, however, his face became serious again: "You want to talk? Fine, I will listen. I am eager to hear what you might have to say to me."

Diluc took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. He had been considering how to approach this conversation for a long time, but now his head seemed just empty. Somehow Kaeya always managed to upset him in the end - and this time he hadn't really done anything except willingly follow his plan. Smooth-talking things was not Diluc's strength, so he decided that openness would probably be his weapon of choice here and confronted the other directly with the first question on his mind: "Do you remember the night in the Angel's Share?" he cautiously tested the field. For a moment Kaeya looked as if he wanted to talk his way out of it, possibly jokingly pointing out which of the numerous nights Diluc might be referring to, but he apparently changed his mind at the last moment: "In parts." he answered honestly, without elaborating further on which parts they were. "Good." Diluc replied. "Something you said that night has stayed with me ever since". Now Kaeya resumed his defensive stance: "What, did I accidentally declare my love for you that night?" he said jokingly.

Diluc couldn't help but look at him in disbelief. Considering the fact that they had been bloody lovers in the past, this was quite a macabre joke. In response to Diluc's look and his silence, Kaeya now laughed sheepishly: "Sorry, I just can't help myself sometimes. What were you getting at?" Diluc decided to leave Kaeya's 'joke' uncommented and continued to talk: "You said you thought I didn't care if you spent the night drunk outside in the cold. Strictly speaking, in fact, that no one would care. Do you really believe that?" Kaeya looked at him in surprise. With mild satisfaction, Diluc realised that his question had caught the man off guard. The triumphant feeling disappeared as Kaeya's look suddenly became obviously and genuinely sad. "So that's what I said, huh?" he murmured, almost as if to himself. "In Vino Veritas, as they say." he added with a melancholy smile.

So it really was true. Diluc was indeed shaken: "Where do you come up with such nonsense?" it burst out of him before he could stop himself. His words were angry now, although that was exactly what he had wanted to avoid. "The people of Mondstadt love you, Kaeya! Your subordinates would happily run into any suicide mission just to make you happy, and any single woman of marriageable age would drop everything to get close to you - so what on earth makes you think that no one gives a damn about you?" His own anger irritated him, but Diluc just wasn't able to suppress it. Kaeya, too, didn't quite seem to know what to do with the situation.

They both lapsed into an awkward silence, which was finally broken by Kaeya's soft voice: "And what about you?" Diluc stared at him. What was the other getting at? "What about you, Diluc?" asked Kaeya again. "I don't care what my subordinates think. I don't want to marry a foolishly amorous woman either. None of them know me, you are very well aware of that." At this moment, Diluc felt rage overtake him again. Before he could think better of it, he had grabbed the other man by his fur collar and shook him roughly: "Damn you, Kaeya!" he shouted at him, "Are you blind? Do you really think I would be here having this agonizing discussion with you if I didn't care about you? You drive me crazy, yes, but I certainly DO care about you, even more than I would like to! How couldn't I, after all? We grew up together, we shared everything, every memory up to that cursed day when father died bears your name!"

Now he loosened his grip on the other's collar, slowly regaining control of his senses, and took a step back. In a more composed voice he continued: "I blame myself to this day for what I did to you that night. Although I still can't quite place what the things you told me back than mean for us, I was sure that the bond between us was torn apart by my reaction to your confession. And when I came back after all these years, everything was so... different. You were so different. I was so sure that our time together meant nothing to you anymore. That, in fact, it never had done and that I probably never knew you at all." Diluc's voice sounded miserable even to his own ears as he continued: "But when I wanted to take you home the other day, it suddenly sounded like you actually still... cared. And then I saw the photo on your desk. And suddenly I wondered if I hadn't just done you a terrible injustice again in this matter..." He fell silent, no longer knowing what else he could have said to explain his feelings. Embarrassed, he looked down at his feet, unable to meet Kaeya's gaze. He felt like an insecure adolescent again, unable to classify his own paradoxical feelings and put them into words, and he hated it.

"This photo," Kaeya spoke up after a short silence, "has always been something like my most precious treasure. Do you remember how I used to hide it in different places when I was a child?" Diluc hummed in confirmation. "I was actually afraid someone would take it away from me. After our argument, it was the only thing I took from the winery, and it's been on my desk ever since. I have no idea what happened to my other things, and I don't even care. But there are so many precious memories in that picture. Basically, I guess I already knew as a child that they would all be a thing of the past one day, which only made the photo more precious as a keepsake." Kaeya smiled sadly at Diluc now. "Luc, I know you don't trust me anymore and think I'm a notorious liar, but maybe you can make an exception for this one thing: I care about you, and I haven't forgotten anything about our time together. My feelings for you were never fake, neither my admiration as a child, nor my love as we grew older. You probably don't want to hear it, but basically nothing has changed about those feelings to this day. I accept that I ruined it for both of us, but l will never be indifferent to you, I guess. I'm sorry..." he concluded his speech.

Kaeya's honesty temporarily left Diluc speechless. After a while, however, he looked firmly into the other's blue eye and said decisively: "I don't want it to end like this, Kae." Whether it was the determination in Diluc's voice or his use of the old nickname, Kaeya looked at him in any case, surprised and questioning. "You're right, I can't forget what happened - and you, too, should never forget what I was capable of doing to you that night. I'm sure it'll never be the same, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully trust you again, but do you think you can give me a chance to try? Give us another chance?" Cautiously, Kaeya asked: "Are you serious, Luc? I mean...are you really sure?". "Kaeya." the other now replied flatly: "Since when am I the one of us who starts joking in the most absurd situations?". This elicited a laugh from the blue-haired man, and Diluc felt his heart beat faster, for it was that genuine laugh he had always loved so much and had not heard for far too long. "Of course," Kaeya finally replied, "it would make me more than happy. But..."

There was such a mischievous smile flashing across Kaeya's face now that Diluc inevitably immediately began to worry about the continuation of their conversation. "...does that mean I have to stop teasing you now? Because you are just too cute when I upset you". Indignantly, Diluc looked at the other man in front of him, but the fine blush that now rose in his face was, for once, not a sign of anger but much more of embarrassment. "Kaeya!" he exclaimed, making the other man laugh again. "Sorry Luc, I'll stop already!" In newfound harmony, the two made their way around the lake and towards the road that connected Mondstadt and the winery. There they parted ways for the time being, but the feeling was completely different from before. They both knew they still had a long way to go, but for the first time in years, the situation did not seem completely hopeless.

Back at the winery, Diluc first made his way to his office. He opened the drawer and took out the photo that had started the whole development. This time, however, he did not put it back, but placed it on his desk despite the broken frame. He was not yet sure whether he should replace it or see the shards as a cautionary reminder of past mistakes. The only important thing for him at the moment was that the picture with all its memories neither disappeared nor was ever again just forgotten by him.

Several months later:

It was still pretty early in the morning, but Diluc had nevertheless been sitting at his desk for quite a while doing the necessary paperwork, when he suddenly noticed a knock on the door to his office. When he heard the door open, he raised his head and discovered Kaeya standing in the doorway with a cup of coffee in his hand, smiling at him. "Good morning, Luc!" he addressed him. Diluc returned the smile and said playfully: "Up already?" which elicited a laugh from the blue-haired man. Kaeya placed his coffee cup on the small chess table, moved across the room and surrounded the desk. He stopped behind Diluc and put his arms around him. "Not everyone can be as much of a plodder as you." he returned, amused.

It was not the first time in the last months that Kaeya and him had spent the night together. Although it would have been a lie to claim that their relationship was always harmonious - Kaeya had obviously not been lying when he had claimed that he enjoyed teasing the other - things had nevertheless developed surprisingly positively in the recent time. So now it felt only natural for Diluc to put his quill aside and turn his full attention to Kaeya, pressing a loving kiss to his lips. "Good morning, Kae," he returned the other's greeting after their mouths had parted again.

Still having his arms wrapped around Diluc, Kaeya now let his gaze wander over the desk until his eye caught sight of the broken picture frame. "Really," he said in a playfully accusatory manner, "I had a new frame made for you and you still keep this broken old thing!”

It was true, Diluc hadn't been able to bring himself to replace the old frame in the end, because he didn't want to just ignore all that had happened in the past, and the broken glass served him as a reminder. Somehow, though, he had been embarrassed to explain it to Kaeya like that, for it sounded so awfully sentimental. Because of that, he was all the more relieved that Aether had unconsciously helped him out of this trouble a few weeks ago. The young man had come into possession of his own camera some time ago and had without warning taken a photo of him and Kaeya one afternoon at one of the outside tables of the Angel's Share.

It was the first picture of the two of them together in many years, and Diluc always looked at it with great pleasure. He couldn't remember what they had been talking about at that moment, but they both looked so genuinely happy. Aether had given them both a print and Diluc had immediately put his in the frame he had been given by Kaeya, so that there were now two pictures on his desk. "I think it's just fine this way." he finally said, and Kaeya still knew him well enough not to press further. "Time for breakfast together?" he asked instead, and Diluc decided that work was unlikely to run away from him. "But only because it is you." he replied, following Kaeya into the dining room. Sometimes you just had to prioritise, and this relationship was a thousand times more precious to him than any business matter in the world could ever have been.