Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Contains spoilers for the last few locked story portions in Kaeya’s profile

1

            There’s a part of Diluc that knows he’s dreaming, even as the dream, or rather, the nightmare, unfolds. Mainly because what’s happening has already happened, years ago, but damn if it doesn’t sting like it’s happening all over again.

            He’s crossing swords with Kaeya, which is nothing new. Growing up together, they were each other’s de facto sparring partner. This is, however, the first time he’s drawn a blade against Kaeya with the intent to actually hurt him. No. Diluc’s not going to stop at hurting him. He’s going to kill his adoptive brother, because all this time . . . all this time . . .

            Kaeya’s confession to being a spy, a Khaenri’ahn plant left in Mondstadt as a child, to grow up there and eventually betray Mondstadt, could not have come on a worse day. Just earlier that day, their father, Crepus Ragnvindr died, and Diluc hadn’t thought he could feel any more lost and hurt than he’d already been until Kaeya opened his stupid, lying mouth. His brother, his best friend, the one person he thought he would always be able to count on, has been lying to him since the day they met, and Diluc’s grief and anger have pushed him over the edge. He’s going to hurt Kaeya now. He’s going to make him feel all the pain that he himself is feeling, and then he’s going to cut the Khaenri’ahn bastard out of his life in the most gory way possible.

            Then, maybe after that, he’ll just kill himself, because really, what is there going to be to live for if his whole family is dead anyway?

            Their blades clash with such force that they’ll be honing knicks out of the edges when this is over. Kaeya gives ground. He’s not really trying, Diluc realizes, behind the wall of his rage. Stupid of him, when he’s matched against Diluc. Diluc’s always been the better swordsman, between the two of them. He’s stronger. Kaeya’s faster, and definitely dangerous, but Diluc has always had an edge over him, even without his Vision. He calls on his pyro powers now, edging his blade with flames, to force Kaeya to take this more seriously. It feels good to hear Kaeya hiss in pain as he blocks another of Diluc’s strikes, and his own metal blade channels the heat straight into his hands, and the rain that’s falling around them vaporizes into steam that stings his flesh.

            He expects Kaeya to go on the attack, realizing that his life is truly at risk now, but Kaeya doesn’t. He continues to only defend himself . . . and not even that well. Diluc takes advantage of the openings, scoring a slash across Kaeya’s chest. Another across his stomach. Both times Kaeya dances back just fast enough to avoid them being anything but flesh wounds. Some part of Diluc knows that this is wrong, that this is Kaeya, and no matter how many lies he’s told, he hasn’t actually done anything, so it’s not unforgivable . . . that if he’d confessed any other day, Diluc would have embraced his brother . . . then punched him for carrying this burden for so long on his own. But today their father died, and Diluc can’t feel anything but rage and grief.

            He summons the power of pyro onto his blade again, tempering it with so much heat that his sword blade actually turns white. When it clashes against Kaeya’s smaller blade again, the effect is instantaneous. The metal conducts the heat straight into Kaeya’s hands so fast that Diluc hears his flesh sizzle, right before Kaeya screams in pain. He tries to let go of his sword, but the metal is fused to his skin. Kaeya cries and curses, jumping back, buying time, then braces himself and rips one hand away from his sword hilt, tearing his ruined skin to do so, screaming in agony. He’ll carry those scars on his hands for the rest of his life.

            The fight is over now. Kaeya can’t defend himself anymore, with the flesh on both his palms cooked like nothing more than meat. He knows it too. He stares at his bleeding left palm, the one he freed from his sword hilt, looking down at it like he’s never seen his own blood before. Then he looks at Diluc, and it’s almost like he’s never seen Diluc before either. He then waits for his verdict, as Diluc closes the distance between them, grimly. He waits to see if Diluc is going to follow through with his original intentions when he started this fight. He waits to see if his brother is really going to kill him.

            Then something happens that no one could have predicted. The air around them suddenly snaps cold. The rain flash freezes into tiny strands of ice. Their breathe hangs like wispy clouds in the air, and Kaeya’s ruined hands are glowing with pale blue light. Then the elements burst.

            Frigid wind swirls around both brothers, and just like that, Diluc knows that their duel is done. He can’t kill Kaeya right after the Anemo Archon gifted him with a Vision. To do so would be sacrilege. Diluc isn’t the most devout of Barbatos’s believers, but even he knows that’s a line he shouldn’t cross . . . and the cold winds are cutting through the inferno of rage and grief that had been blocking Diluc’s good senses. This is Kaeya he’s fighting. It’s Kaeya. He can’t . . . he would never . . . Kaeya hasn’t done anything unforgivable. Not like Diluc just has. What he’s done to Kaeya’s hands . . .

            He looks at Kaeya’s ruined hands now. The right one is still stuck to his sword, blood flowing from it freely. His left hand now holds a cryo Vision, round like all Mondstadtian Visions are, and proof that the Anemo Archon just claimed him as one of their own, despite his heritage and his original intentions for coming here.

            Kaeya stares at it, pain and disbelief warring across his face. Then he looks up at Diluc –

            - and Diluc takes his dagger and stabs it straight into Kaeya’ heart.

            Diluc wakes from the nightmare with a gasp and nearly sets his bed on fire in that hazy moment of panic. It only takes him a second to remember that what he just dreamed didn’t happen. At least not the last part. No knife magically appeared in his hand, and he didn’t stab Kaeya right after realizing that Barbatos was pretty much ordering him not to kill his brother. He probably wouldn’t have killed Kaeya even without divine intervention.

            At least he hopes he wouldn’t have.

            Diluc rubs his hand across his eyes, and those are not tears he’s wiping away. He’s just tired. Another night with not enough sleep.

            This is actually the eighth night in a row that his sleep has been tormented by nightmares. Over half of them have been about Kaeya dying. It makes no sense. Kaeya’s fine. He’s healthy, and hasn’t even had any brushes with death or close calls in the past two months or so (at least not that Diluc knows of), and Kaeya and Diluc are getting along better than they’ve been since that horrible night years ago. That night when they were both grieving over their father’s death, and Kaeya confessed that he’d been left in Mondstadt as a spy, and they dueled, and Kaeya received his Vision, after Diluc permanently disfigured his brother’s hands. After which, Kaeya walked away alive. Not dead. Not by Diluc’s hand, or anyone else’s. There’s no reason for these dreams.

            Diluc gets out of bed with a groan. He knows better than to think he’ll get any more sleep now. It’s earlier than he usually rises, but he can’t bring himself to care at the moment. He lights a candle so he can see, then dresses for the day and goes downstairs. It’s too early for most of his staff to be awake. Only the kitchen staff probably are, and even they won’t have been awake long enough to have gotten much done. He could throw together something for himself, but after last night’s dream, Diluc finds he doesn’t have much of an appetite. He thinks about getting some work done, but after only glancing over the latest correspondence from Madam Vander, who is rabidly trying to dispute a property border between one of Dawn Winery’s satellite properties and her own property, Diluc realizes that he doesn’t have the patience to deal with such annoying affairs this early. So, instead he makes his way to the stables, saddles his favorite horse, and goes for a ride. It’s nearly dawn when he reaches Mondstadt . . . and realizes that he was probably subconsciously headed here all along.

            It’s stupid and he knows it. It’s too early to call upon someone anyway, even if he wanted to. So, Diluc goes to Angel’s Share. Even though it’s not inventory day, at least it’s something to do. Just not something he can do right, he realizes when he glances down at the stock notes he’s been taking and realizes that there’s no way those figures are accurate. He has no idea how he managed to get the numbers off by so much, or what he was thinking when he wrote them down. In disgust, he throws them away and locks up the tavern. By then it’s late enough that at least Kaeya won’t worry someone is dying when Diluc knocks on his door.

            It is still a little early. Early enough that it’s probably a little rude, and Diluc might have turned back and gone to loiter somewhere else for a while if he was thinking clearly.

            It isn’t Kaeya who answers the door after Diluc knocks, Diluc is surprised to find. When the door opens, he’s confused for a second, because it looks like no one’s there and it opened by itself. Then, he looks down, his attention drawn by a flash of red, and Klee the Spark Knight is beaming up at him.

            “Good morning, Master Diluc, sir! Do you remember me? I’m Klee. I helped Amber and Razor hunt boars at your winery, and we stayed away from your vines, and you gave us grape juice!”

            Diluc remembers. That had been an . . . interesting encounter. He manages a smile for the tiny terror. “Yes, I remember. Good morning, Klee.”

            “Klee, don’t open the door if you don’t know who –” Kaeya hurries into the entry room, a tense look on his face until he sees his brother standing there. “Diluc? Is everything okay?”

            “Yes. Nothing’s wrong,” Diluc reassures him. “I was in the area . . .”

            It’s a pathetic excuse, and even after half a dozen drinks, Kaeya still wouldn’t buy it. They’ve been getting along better lately. Much better. They’re nowhere near as close as they used to be, but they are making progress, fighting less, and Diluc thinks that it’s not technically too big of a stretch to say that they’re friends again, or at least they’re almost there . . . but they’re not the kind of friends who randomly drop in on each other.

            Even so, Kaeya pretends he buys it. “Come in,” he invites his brother. “You’re just in time for breakfast. This is Klee, by the way. Klee –”

            “Klee knows Master Diluc,” Klee says happily, running in a circle around Diluc after he steps inside and closes the door. “We met on the mission that you sent Amber and I on to get the bad boars and save the vines, and we had a picnic.”

            Kaeya smiles then hurries back to the kitchen. It turns out that he was in the process of flipping pancakes when Diluc knocked on the door. Bunny and kitty shaped pancakes to be precise. Kaeya flips one of the bunnies onto a plate for Klee, the other onto a plate for Diluc, and the kitty onto a third plate that he gets out of the cupboard for himself, while Klee runs to another room and comes back dragging a third chair to put at the kitchen table, so they can all sit together, or at least they’ll be able to after Kaeya’s finished cooking the pancakes.

            “Eat them while they’re hot,” he tells Diluc. “Help yourself to the cream and berries.”

            Then, he begins pouring more batter into his frying pan to make more pancakes. These ones in shapes too. A puppy, a birdie, and a fish. Klee, who disappeared from Diluc’s sight after getting the extra chair, reappears with another drinking glass and pours Diluc a glass of milk from the jug on the table, filling it to the brim.

            “This is for you, Master Diluc, sir!”

            “Thank you, Klee.”

            This is . . . unexpected. Diluc actually doesn’t know what he was expecting when he showed up unannounced at Kaeya’s house so early in the morning. Other than awkwardness. This is nice, though. In fact, it might be exactly what Diluc needs.

            “Klee stayed over last night,” Kaeya says, perhaps feeling like he needs to explain why he has this strange child in his house so early in the morning. “We got back from a mission only a little before midnight, so we just came here.”

            “Kaeya makes the best breakfasts,” says Klee. Then she picks up her bunny pancake with her bare hands and bites an ear off.

            Diluc has never been one for small talk or chit chat, but he’s hardly going to be aloof to a child who’s being friendly to him, and he’s actually feeling better by the second, so he manages a small smile for Klee and tells her, “I think so too.”

            “His guestroom bed is so comfy, and the blankets are so soft and fluffy, and when I wake up, there’s always great things to eat, so I love staying the night at Kaeya’s,” says Klee after swallowing her mouthful of pancake. “Sometimes he makes fry bread, and it’s great, and he lets me take the leftovers with me, and they go so good with grilled fish. Which I don’t get by blowing the fish up in the water, because that’s bad and Klee knows better than to do that.”

            Diluc looks from Klee to Kaeya, whose back is to them as he flips the new batch of pancakes, then back to Klee. “Of course you do.”

            “Klee,” says Kaeya in a disapproving voice, “What have I told you about lying?”

            Klee visibly droops. “Not to bring up a topic I have to lie about if I don’t need to or don’t have anything to gain.”

            “Did you need to bring up fish blasting?”

            “No.”

            “Did you have anything to gain from bringing it up?”

            “No. I’m sorry, Kaeya. I’ll do better,” promises Klee.

            “Chin up, Klee. You’re not in trouble. Not with me. Just remember what I’ve taught you, so you can stay out of trouble with other people, and out of solitary confinement.”

            “Yes! I will!” Klee says, giving Kaeya a look of pure adoration.

            “’Atta girl.”

            Diluc tries to hide a smile as he picks up his knife and fork, places his napkin on his lap, and begins cutting a bite off his pancake.

            Breakfast is very enjoyable. Kaeya keeps the pancakes coming until they’ve all eaten their fill, and Klee chatters every moment that her mouth isn’t full, so there’s no room for awkward silences. Diluc feels a little bad because Kaeya eats all his pancakes standing up, while cooking more. If he hadn’t shown up, Kaeya would have accumulated enough for both him and Klee fast enough that he could have sat down to eat with his guest who he actually invited here . . . but Kaeya doesn’t give any indication that he minds. If Diluc can still read him, he’d say that Kaeya is actually pleased to have Diluc here. A little worried, because he knows Diluc didn’t just stop by out of the blue for nothing, but he seems to have decided that nothing must be too wrong since he can probably read Diluc well enough to know that after only half an hour here, he’s feeling worlds better.

            Once he’s finished with the pancake cooking, Kaeya finally sits down to join them. Klee’s finished eating, and finished with her milk, and is clearly just loitering now. She’s not the only one, but Diluc thinks he hides it a little better. He serves himself some more berries and eats them slowly.

            “Do you want some cream for your berries, Master Diluc?” asks Klee, sliding the pot of cream toward him across the table top. “Kaeya steeps sweet flowers in it to make it sweet cream, then he uses cryo to freeze it, and it’s so good.”

            “I’m sure it is, but no thank you,” Diluc tells her. Klee makes a small pout and starts to pull the cream pot back, but she’s extended too far across the table and at that moment she loses her balance. For a moment she flails then catches herself, but right before she does so, her hand hits Diluc’s still mostly full glass of milk, tipping it over. Diluc hurries to right it, as Kaeya reaches for Klee, making sure she’s not going to overbalance and fall backwards.

            “I’m sorry!” Klee squeaks and flails, making Kaeya’s task harder, since he’s reaching across the table for her. Somehow, his hand ends up in the rather large puddle of milk.

            “It’s okay. You’re okay,” says Kaeya, quickly. “Don’t fall now.”

            Klee nods, having regained balance, and grabs her napkin to wipe up the spilled milk. Diluc uses his too, and in only a moment, the table’s as clean as if that never happened. Except Kaeya’s glove is soaked with milk, and he’s peeling it off.

            “I’m sorry, Master Diluc,” Klee apologizes. “I didn’t mean to spill your milk.”

            “It’s . . . fine,” says Diluc, but he’s hardly paying attention to the little girl right now because . . .

            . . . he’s never actually seen the scars he left on Kaeya’s palms before, but he sees the one now. It’s as hideous and ugly as he always knew it would be, like only burn scars can be, and it doesn’t just cover his palm, but stretches partway onto the back of his hand as well.

            “No harm done,” says Kaeya. He picks up his own napkin, to wipe the remaining milk off his hand, and then keeps hold of it, so his scar is mostly hidden from view. He then collects Klee’s and Diluc’s milk-soaked napkins. “I’m taking these to the laundry room. Be right back.”

            Klee sits back in her seat and fidgets guiltily. Diluc tries hard not to do the same. When Kaeya returns, only half a minute later, he has on a new glove, identical to the one he just took off. He studies both his guests, and their guilty, gloomy demeanors, then immediately begins trying to dispel them. “So, I was talking with Paimon the other day, and . . .”

            Klee cheers up quickly enough. She departs soon after, after wrangling a promise from Kaeya to meet up again at headquarters before dinner. Then, once she’s gone, it’s just Kaeya and Diluc, and it’s even more awkward than Diluc had thought it would be when he showed up at Kaeya’s door, unannounced and impolitely early.

            “Thank you,” says Kaeya, unexpectedly.

            Diluc jerks slightly. “What?”

            “For not making Klee think she’d done something terrible.” In other words, for not immediately storming out, and for doing his best to hide his darkening mood after he saw the reminder of how he’d disfigured his brother.

            Diluc stares at the table top for a moment, then raises his eyes to meet Kaeya’s. “I’m sorry.”

            “You’re forgiven.”

            Diluc jerks again. It can’t just be that easy.

            “It’s nice when it’s this easy, isn’t it?”

            “Stop reading my mind,” Diluc says on instinct, just like he always used to when Kaeya seemed to be responding to thoughts that Diluc had but never voiced.

            Kaeya laughs.

            Somehow, someway, most of the tension dispels.

            Diluc tries again. “I am truly sorry, Kaeya.”

            Kaeya nods and gives a gentle smile. Well, a gentle-looking smile that looks that way by design. When he opens his mouth, his scheming nature is revealed. “Want to tell me what really brings you here, then?”

            Trying to change the subject like that might have actually worked if this whole mess wasn’t like a snake biting its own tale. Diluc shakes his head in frustration. Kaeya takes that for a refusal.

            “I won’t press you, then. I think you know, without me saying it, but I’m going to say it anyway: if you need my help, I’ll be there.”

            “I know . . . and thank you. For everything.”

            For forgiving me.

            Diluc doesn’t feel like he deserves Kaeya’s forgiveness so easily . . . but back in the old days, things were always so damn easy with Kaeya. His brother had always been there to back him, and support him, and Diluc knew Kaeya did a fair amount of work in the shadows to facilitate everything he could for Diluc. Because of Kaeya, his path to becoming the youngest cavalry captain ever had been far easier than it should have. All his problems and rivals always just seemed to fall away. He should have known that night when Kaeya confessed how and why he’d really ended up in Mondstadt, that Kaeya had already chosen where his loyalties lie, long before he gave Diluc the power to destroy his whole life in Mondstadt with a word, if Diluc ever so chose. He wishes now that he could have seen it back then, before he burned and tried to kill his brother.

            They’ve never talked about that night. Perhaps they should, but Diluc doesn’t think they ever will. Neither of them want to, and they seem to be moving on, at long last, without dredging that up. Until the spilt milk incident, breakfast had been wonderful and happy, and Diluc hadn’t wanted it to end. He’s looking forward to more times like this, and he knows they’re not too far ahead of them. He hopes this has been enough to convince his overactive subconscious that Kaeya’s fine, that everything’s fine, and he hopes he won’t be dreaming of his brother’s death again for a long while, if ever.

            Diluc should have known that hope is for fools.

Chapter Text

            This dream starts off in the more distant past, and if he was conscious that he was dreaming, Diluc might have dared to hope that it was just a dream, because things were brighter and safer back then. He’s a child again. So is Kaeya. It’s shortly after Kaeya first appeared at Dawn Winery on that fated stormy day, that changed Diluc’s and his father’s lives forever. For the better, overall, no matter why he was really left there, but back then Diluc didn’t know anything about that. Only that he had a new best friend and that he was happier than he’d ever been before.

            In those days, they weren’t brothers, yet. Crepus didn’t make the decision to adopt Kaeya as his son lightly or on a whim, but the events that Diluc is revisiting in this dream surely played a part in his decision.

            The two boys are at the winery, where Diluc and his father spend every summer and part of spring and autumn, and the biggest problem Diluc has to worry about is that his father won’t bring Kaeya with them when they go to their mansion in the city for the winter. Kaeya’s being trained to work the vines and will help with the harvest, but the servants say there’s no a place for him at the manor in the city. They say he doesn’t have the temperament to be a manservant and that his missing eye is an eyesore, so it’s better if he stays at the vineyard where distinguished guests don’t see him, and learns how to take care of the grounds over the winter, but Diluc doesn’t want that. He doesn’t care about training Kaeya as a servant or laborer. Kaeya’s his friend.

            Also . . . Kaeya’s sad. He has been as long as Diluc’s known him, but Diluc can understand why. He’d be sad too if his father abandoned him with strangers. He doesn’t want to leave Kaeya alone all winter to be sad by himself. Father says that someday Kaeya won’t be sad anymore, and Diluc wants to do everything he can to make that day come faster, but he can’t do that if Kaeya’s not with him.

            “I’ll do whatever Master Crepus tells me to,” says Kaeya when Diluc brings up the subject again. They’re on the winery’s outskirts, heading out for an adventure. Maybe the last one before the weather turns cold, so Diluc decided that they’re going to cross the river this time which will put them all the way in Liyue! Technically. It’s not that far from the winery, but it’s still another country, so it’s exciting. He’s told Kaeya all about how the crystalflies in Liyue are gold instead of white and green like they are in Mondstadt, and they’re going to catch some and bring them home as proof of their adventure.

            “But I want you to come with us into the city,” says Diluc. “It won’t be any fun for you here without me, and I’ll have lots more fun in Mondstadt this winter if you’re there too. You can meet my friends and we can play together, and when it snows, we’ll have a big snowball fight, and you can be on my team.”

            Kaeya looks at Diluc with visible confusion but keeps quiet. Years later, Diluc will realize that there were many, many times when Kaeya had no idea what Diluc was talking about. Snow, snowball fights, ice skating, hot chocolate, festivals, Ludi Harpastum, Pile ‘Em Up, and so many other things were concepts so foreign to young Kaeya that he couldn’t even imagine them. So, he would just stay silent, or agree with Diluc if he was forced to comment.

            They make it across the river without any problems, not even wet boots, because they take them off and roll up their trouser legs so they won’t get wet. Then, they start walking up the hill. At first, it looks no different from everywhere on the other side of the river. They see the exact same plants and animals that are all over Mondstadt. Then the wildlife starts to change and it makes Diluc’s heart flutter because it’s proof that they’re not in Mondstadt anymore. They’re in another country!

            “Look! These are lotus plants,” says Diluc, pointing into the water. “You can eat them. Oh, over here, these are . . . something chilis. You can eat them too, but they’re really hot, so you have to cut them up into tiny pieces and only eat the bits of them mixed with other stuff.”

            Kaeya regards these new plants with interest. Diluc knows him well enough to know that any mention of food will pique Kaeya’s interests, which is weird because Kaeya doesn’t eat much. Diluc wishes he would eat more. So does his father, because Kaeya’s so skinny that it’s not healthy, but it seems like Kaeya’s stomach must be really, really tiny because he struggles to clear his plate at every meal and sometimes looks a little green afterwards.

            “We’re in Liyue, but we’re not far enough in yet,” says Diluc, as he watches a crystalfly drift past them. “The crystalflies are still white and green, like they are in Mondstadt. I guess we’ll have to go further in.”

            “Maybe . . . maybe we shouldn’t, Diluc,” Kaeya says softly.

            Diluc looks at his friend in surprise. “Why not?”

            “Someone else has been here recently,” says Kaeya.

            “Huh? How can you tell?”

            Kaeya points out some footprints in the dirt and mud. He says there were at least three people here. He can tell because the prints are different sizes and one of them has a chunk missing from their boot’s sole.

            “They could be bad men,” he says. “We should go back.”

            “There are no bad men here,” says Diluc.

            Kaeya gives him a look that Diluc doesn’t understand at the time. “There are bad men everywhere, Diluc.”

            “I’ve never seen any before.”

            “I bet you have but just haven’t known it,” mutters Kaeya, halfway under his breath, but Diluc hears.

            Diluc almost takes offense, but then he remembers what his father told him. That Kaeya is from a place to the east called Khaenri’ah, and that very, very bad things have been happening there. Kaeya’s father probably took him away from there because someone would have hurt him if they stayed . . . and there was one time when Kaeya woke up from a nightmare screaming and begging someone not to hurt his mother . . .

            “Are you scared, Kaeya?” asked Diluc. “You don’t have to be. I’ll protect you.”

            Kaeya jerks like those words send a bolt of electro through him. He stares at Diluc with one of those gazes that Diluc has no hope of reading.

            “Have you ever killed a man before, Diluc?” Kaeya finally asks after almost a full minute of silence.

            “No,” admits Diluc, “but I’ve been training with a claymore since I could walk and I have a Vision.”

            He doesn’t think to ask Kaeya if Kaeya’s ever killed anyone before.

            “So, there’s nothing to be afraid of, even if there are bad men here,” says Diluc. “So, let’s just go a little further. I’m sure there will be some geo crystalflies just up ahead.”

            Kaeya goes along with his whims. He usually does. He follows Diluc now without complaint.

            Not five minutes later they find themselves face to face with three outlaws.

            Diluc tries to make good on his promise, and pushes Kaeya behind him, to protect him. Then he hears laughing from behind and Kaeya’s startled cry, and when he spins around, he sees there are two more, and one of them is holding a knife to Kaeya’s throat.

            “Let him go!” Diluc demands. “Or I’ll burn you alive!”

            “Will you, now, rich boy?” asks the bandit holding Kaeya at knifepoint. “Will you use that precious little Vision of yours if it means I’ll cut your servant’s throat?”

            “He’s not my servant, he’s my friend!” shouts Diluc.

            “Why are you telling them that?” asks Kaeya, looking at him incredulously.

            Diluc stares at his friend. “Because it’s the truth.”

            The bandits all laugh. “Methinks the little lord has no concept of leverage.”

            “At least we know he’s definitely a rich boy now. Only rich men can afford to have kids that stupid.”

            Diluc doesn’t know what to do. He’s mad, and scared, and he wants to burn these men to a crisp, but they’re holding a knife to Kaeya’s throat, and if he’s not careful, Kaeya will get hurt, maybe even . . . no. Diluc can’t let that happen. He promised he’d protect Kaeya.

            “Okay, listen here rich brat. If you don’t want me to give your little friend an ear to ear grin, then I’m going to need you to put your Vision on the ground, put your hands on your head, and walk ten feet away from it, like a good little boy,” says one of the bandits in the group of three, who seems to be their leader.

            “Don’t, Diluc,” says Kaeya. “They’re not going -ah!” Kaeya yelps as he’s smacked across the face.

            “Don’t hit him!” screams Diluc. He holds up his Vision threateningly.

            “I’ll do more than hit him if you don’t listen to us, brat.”

            “It’s okay, Diluc. Don’t put down your Vision,” says Kaeya, already recovered. There’s an expression on his face that Diluc has never seen before and doesn’t know quite how to quantify, but Kaeya’s stormy blue eye is lit up like lightning is just about to strike. “This guy’s not going to hurt me. He hits like a little girl.”

            “Why you –”

            As the bandit goes to hit Kaeya again, Kaeya tilts his head all the way back and drops bonelessly to the ground, almost like a snake. Diluc’s never seen a move like that in any of his swordsmanship or unarmed combat lessons. It’s probably not one any sane person would be encouraged to use, but Kaeya pulls it off and once he’s on the ground he twists and kicks the bandit’s ankles. The bandit goes down and in an instant Kaeya is on top of him, gripping the knife that only a second ago was at his throat. Diluc gapes as Kaeya plunges that knife down into the bandit’s stomach then drags it in a diagonal line, all the way across.

            All anyone seems to be able to do is gape, actually, which Kaeya takes full advantage of, shooting to his feet, still holding onto the knife, and the next thing any of them know, he’s buried it in the stomach of the other bandit who ambushed them. Like before, he drags it in a line, this time straight down. The bandit wheezes and staggers, but for a moment stays on his feet. At least until Kaeya puts a hand on his chest and pushes him. Then he falls backward, never to rise again.

            “What the – what in the abyss? That kid just – he just –”

            “Diluc – Diluc, don’t look at them,” says Kaeya urgently. Diluc jumps as he realizes his friend is now by his side. “They’re not getting back up. The fight’s in front of us now. Face it.”

            “I – right.” Diluc turns toward the three remaining bandits. Just in time. Kind of.

            What happens next is a confused mess as two of the bandits rush forward and Kaeya springs to meet them, but Diluc . . . Diluc is frozen in place. He watches as Kaeya ducks underneath a sword and rushes past both bandits, dragging his stolen knife across one’s hamstring. That bandit goes down. The other, rather than pursue Kaeya, goes after Diluc, and Diluc can only still just stand there watching. He knows he needs to move, to do something, or else he’s going to die, and then there won’t be anyone left to protect Kaeya . . . not that Kaeya seems to need protecting, he seems to be doing a better job than Diluc just now, but still, Diluc can’t move.

            Thankfully, Kaeya can move . . . and does he ever move. He’s so fast, it’s almost like he teleported across the distance between himself and the bandit, just in time to stab the man in the lower back. He tears his knife free after pulling the blade straight through the bandit’s side, and immediately he starts to spin around again, a panicked look on his face. No time to catch Diluc’s eye or give him a reassuring or savage smile, or make a joke like the knights in the ballads do as they’re cutting down their enemies, because the last bandit, the leader, is right behind him.

            In that instant Diluc realizes that Kaeya made a choice to turn back and save him instead of facing the bandit leader on even ground. Somehow he’d known that Diluc couldn’t save himself right then, and so he’d backtracked to save him, and in doing so may have sentenced himself to death, because the bandit leader is coming too fast, and Kaeya’s turning too slow, and the only one who can possibly do anything is Diluc and if he doesn’t, Kaeya is going to die!

            But Diluc is still frozen. As much as he wants to move, he can’t. The bandit leader’s sword descends to bite deep into Kaeya’s neck and Kaeya freezes mid-turn. Somehow, his gaze locks on Diluc’s and Diluc watches as the light fades from his friend’s eye, and still, all he can do is stand there in frozen horror, until the bandit leader turns his sword on him –

            - and Diluc jerks away, mercifully freed from yet another nightmare where his brother died yet again.

            He’s soaked in sweat and breathing heavy, and somehow he’s even more tired than he was before falling asleep. How long has it been now since he’d had a decent night’s rest, and hasn’t dreamed of someone he cares about dying? He knows they’re just dreams, and that they shouldn’t bother him as much as they do, but they just won’t go away, and they’re feeling more and more real.

            Diluc buries his face in one hand and tries to steady his breathing. He tells himself that it was just a nightmare. That it didn’t really happen like that. He didn’t let Kaeya get cut down like that.

            Most of the dream had been accurate. Right up until that last part. The two of them had stumbled across those five bandits on the other side of the river, in Liyue, and Kaeya really had killed four of them. Diluc had accounted for the last one. Seeing Kaeya about to be cut down had unfrozen him, and he’d finally used his Vision and burned the bandit leader to a charred crisp. That had been the first human Diluc had ever killed. It’s not a good memory, but nowhere near one of his worst. If anything, Diluc felt worse about freezing and almost letting Kaeya get killed than he had about killing that bandit himself. He still does, but that’s all in the past now. There’s no reason for him to be dreaming about it with an altered ending.

            There’s no reason for these nightmares at all, and Diluc is starting to worry that he’s losing his mind. He has the sudden urge to go seek Kaeya out again and confirm that his brother is still alive and well, but this time he stamps down on it. It’s only been . . . three days? Yes, three days since he showed up unannounced at Kaeya’s house for breakfast. Well, not specifically for breakfast, but Kaeya fed him breakfast just the same. There, in Kaeya’s kitchen, Diluc felt more at peace than he’s felt since these dreams started, and he would give just about anything to go back, but . . . he just can’t.

            It’s time to face the day again. He bartends at Angel’s Share tonight. Maybe, if he’s lucky, he can catch an Abyss Mage or some of their minions up to no good afterward and work off some of his stress with a good fight.

            Kaeya is worried about Diluc. He’s been worried about him ever since he randomly showed up for breakfast. Something is wrong with his brother, but Kaeya doesn’t know what. All he knows is that something about Diluc is off. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one who’s noticed by now.

            Angel’s Share is packed when Kaeya arrives. Diluc is behind the bar looking uncharacteristically flustered as he hands a drink over to a customer, who walks away with it, cheerfully, without paying. Kaeya makes a beeline to the bar.

            “You know,” he tells Diluc, “there’s a rumor going around town that Angel’s Share is giving out every other drink on the house tonight. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

            “It’s always been our policy to either comp or dispose of any drinks our bar tenders mess up,” says Diluc, giving him a withering look. “Most customers choose to take the free imperfect drink.”

            “And how many of those have you given away tonight?” asks Kaeya. He looks around at the packed tavern then back at Diluc.

            Diluc looks like he wants to be mad at Kaeya, but his shoulders visibly slump. “Too damn many.”

            “I just came from Cat’s Tail, you know. Diona’s heard the rumor and she is pissed. You two really don’t get along do you?” Kaeya tries for levity. Lightly teasing Diluc has always been good for that.

            “I’ve never even spoken to her before,” says Diluc, looking very put out, “but no, I don’t think she likes me.”

            Another customer comes up and so their conversation is temporarily put on hold. Diluc starts to make the man a Death in the Afternoon. Kaeya has to stop him from adding two parts of sparkling wine to the three parts of dandelion wine, earning him a sour look from the customer. Kaeya gives the man an ugly smirk as he goes on his way after paying, then turns back to his brother.

            “Diluc . . . are you ill?”

            “No. I’m fine,” insists Diluc.

            Kaeya doesn’t think it’s his imagination that Diluc looks especially pale tonight. So pale that the veins beneath his skin are just visible. There’s also a slight sheen of sweat coating Diluc’s brow. Kaeya points this out to him. Diluc tries to dismiss it.

            “It’s just hot in here with so damn many people.”

            That is true, but Kaeya knows there’s more to this than just that. He knows Diluc. Maybe not as well as he once did, but one doesn’t have to be his brother right now to see that something’s wrong with him.

            Unfortunately, there’s not much Kaeya can do if Diluc’s not willing to talk with him about this, and he is clearly not willing. At least not here. Time for a change of tactics.

            “Breakfast the other day was nice. Are you free to come by again sometime this week?”

            That catches Diluc’s interest. His eyes have a bit of a gleam to them as he contemplates this invitation.

            “I’ll make fry bread this time,” says Kaeya. “You have to try it stuffed with bacon. Though I know you prefer sausage, so I’ll cook some of that too. I actually made a planned trip to Springvale yesterday and picked up some sausages from Brook. Since I knew I’d be going, I had Klee drop off my order a week ago, since that’s how long her waiting list is. Have you ever had her sausages before?”

            “I have not,” Diluc admits but looks intrigued. “However, everyone says they are the best.”

            “Come for breakfast and see for yourself,” Kaeya urges him. “How about the day after tomorrow?”

            Diluc has another customer, so he is given a bit of time before responding, which annoys Kaeya because that makes it all the more likely Diluc will refuse his invitation. He does his best not to scowl at this woman though, who couldn’t have known, and is only ordering a red wine, unlike too many of the vultures here who have probably been ordering the most complicated cocktails they can, to get a free drink.

            One of said vultures bumps into the woman, the moment she has her drink in hand and has turned away from the bar. Kaeya sees the disaster and tries to prevent it, even knowing that he’s too late, but his reflexes won’t just let him sit there. The woman stumbles and falls, releasing her cup. Kaeya manages to catch her by both forearms and keep her from falling to the floor. Her cup hits him in the shoulder and bounces off, sending red wine splashing down his chest.

            “Oh! I’m so sorry!”

            “No worries,” Kaeya is quick to assure her. Any other day he’d be at least a little annoyed at being doused with wine, but today he’s desperate to get Diluc to talk about anything, and so if Diluc makes a few snipes about his wine drenched state, that’s fine.

            When he looks back at Diluc, however, his brother is just turning back toward him, having grabbed one of the bottles of spirits behind him, so apparently he missed the show . . . but when his eyes land on Kaeya dripping with red, the bottle in his hand slips from his fingers and crashes to the floor and Diluc’s face contorts with grief and horror.

            “No!”

            Kaeya jerks in surprise as Diluc vaults over the bar, grabs him, then proceeds to begin pawing at him and his wine-stained shirt.

            “Where is it?” Diluc asks frantically.

            “What – where is what?” Kaeya tries to keep his brother at an arm’s length but Diluc isn’t having it.

            “The wound – I can’t find the blasted wound!”

            “What wound – what – Diluc, this is wine,” Kaeya says, somehow managing to trace Diluc’s train of thought. “I haven’t been stabbed. I’m not hemorrhaging. It’s just wine.”

            Diluc freezes. “Just . . . wine?”

            “Yes,” Kaeya says. “So calm down. I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

            Diluc stares at him for several long seconds. Then he staggers in relief. Kaeya, aware that they’ve attracted quite a bit of attention, narrows his eye and casts his gaze around the bar, and suddenly all the people who are staring at them find different directions to look in. That taken care of, Kaeya grabs Diluc’s arm and pulls him to the door, only slightly surprised that Diluc offers no resistance.

            Patton is outside, as usual, calling out to potential customers, trying to entice them inside. Kaeya has never seen the point of that position, but it’s convenient that Patton’s here now. Kaeya sends him inside to bartend in Diluc’s place, then pulls Diluc further away from the tavern, to give them relative privacy before trying to talk to his brother.

            “Diluc? What’s wrong?”

            “Nothing’s wrong,” says Diluc, but he sounds dead inside. “I just . . . the light was bad and . . . it looked like you’d been stabbed, and I panicked.”

            Kaeya tries to make sense of this. There is no reason Diluc’s mind should have made that leap, not when they were in a tavern, and right after Diluc just served a cup of red wine to a patron. Realizing that he’s not going to be able to make sense of it, Kaeya changes tack.

            “You see that I’m fine though, right? No stab wounds, no blood.”

            “Yeah.” Diluc sighs. “Sorry about that, Kaeya.”

            “No harm done. You look exhausted, though. Why don’t you call it a night? Patton can watch the bar and you can crash at my place –”

            “No, I have to get back to the winery tonight,” says Diluc. “Angel Share’s running low on a lot of stuff, so I need to get Ernest the list and have it . . . have . . . they need the list.”

            “So you can resupply tomorrow,” Kaeya translates, since Diluc is apparently so tired that he can’t properly string together a sentence. “If you want, I can take it there for you, so you –”

            “No. It’s okay,” says Diluc. “I’m fine, Kaeya. I’m just tired and my eyes were playing tricks on me. I’m sorry that I got worked up over nothing . . . and I’m sorry that I made you worry.”

            Kaeya hesitates. Just now Diluc sounded like he used to back when . . . back before. When they were best friends as well as brothers and their father was still alive. So, there’s a part of Kaeya that wants to believe him. Most of Kaeya knows better, but that part that wants to believe Diluc is pulling at the reigns against his better judgment.

            “I’ll head home now,” says Diluc. “Right after I let Patton know what I’m doing.”

            A compromise. It’s as good as Kaeya’s going to get and he knows it. Good enough, he decides. Especially since he intends to shadow Diluc to Dawn Winery and make sure his brother actually makes it home.

Chapter Text

            For most of his childhood, there was one thing Diluc feared above all else: that one day Kaeya’s father would come back and take him away.

            He never told Kaeya about that fear. How could he? The thing Kaeya surely wished for the most was the thing Diluc dreaded the most, and wished would never happen? The few times he’d spoken with his own father about it, the conversations had not been nearly as reassuring as Diluc might have hoped. In the end, Crepus always determined, even after he’d made it known he’d adopted Kaeya as his ward, then son, that it would be up to Kaeya to decide what he wanted for his future. He promised Diluc that he would do everything in his power to sway Kaeya’s father that leaving his son here was the best thing for Kaeya, and that he’d offer to let Kaeya’s father remain with them as well, so he could be reunited with his son, but if Kaeya’s father was dead set on taking him away, then they could not stop him . . . unless Kaeya chose to remain with them instead.

            Diluc didn’t like how unlikely Kaeya was to make that choice. For his first few years with them, Kaeya insisted that his father would come back for him someday. He was hesitant to leave Dawn Winery for the winter that first year, and come with Diluc and Crepus to their mansion in Mondstadt City, because, “What if my dad comes back for me and I’m not here?” Once, when Crepus made a business trip into Liyue and brought both lads with him, Diluc caught Kaeya asking some merchants if they knew of any guards for hire who were from Khaenri’ah. He’d mentioned to Diluc once before that was what he and his father intended to do, before his father left him and disappeared.

            Later, after Crepus died and Kaeya confessed the truth of what he really was to Diluc, Diluc wondered how much of what Kaeya said in regards to his father was true, and how much was him playacting to sell his lies?

            After that, Diluc stopped worrying about Kaeya’s father coming back to claim his son. For a while he was angry at his adoptive brother, and considered him disowned. His father could have him back for all Diluc cared. Then later, after he’d had time to think, really think about it, he started to realize that Kaeya really wasn’t to blame. He’d been a child when he was left with the Ragnvindrs. He did what he’d been told to by someone he trusted and loved. Then, he came to love and trust the people he’d been left there to spy upon, or at least Diluc truly believed that. He remembered all those times Kaeya had been there for him. Growing up, he’d saved Diluc’s life on more than one occasion. He’d bled for his new family. In the end, he’d told Diluc the truth, and in doing so, gave Diluc the power to ruin his life and career with a single word. When he thought about it that way, Diluc realized Kaeya had chosen his allegiance. He’d chosen Mondstadt and Diluc over Khaenri’ah and his dad.

            Funny that Diluc’s old fear never came back after that. He realizes now that it should have, and that his old fear of Kaeya’s father returning and trying to reclaim his son is probably something Kaeya thinks about and dreads every single day.

            When he sees Kaeya talking to his dad, he knows instantly who the man is. He looks like an older version of Kaeya, tall and slender, with dark turquoise hair and storm blue eyes. Two of them, unlike Kaeya. Unlike Kaeya, however, who smiles come easy to, and who radiates good humor, his father has a face that’s drawn by years of strife and torment. His eyes sparkle with anger, and Diluc realizes that they’re arguing. Loudly. Despite that, Diluc can’t hear their words, so he tries to get closer.

            Kaeya is shaking his head defiantly, and the smile on his face now is rebellious and mocking. Diluc feels a surge of fierce pride, because even without hearing his words, he knows that his brother is telling his birth father exactly what he can do with his plans of using his son.

            “He’s ours now,” Diluc wants to tell Kaeya’s father. “He’s my father’s son, not yours. My brother. He’s Mondstadt’s, and we’re not giving him back to you.” He’s too far away though, and Diluc realizes that it might be prudent to keep his distance. Get close enough that he can back Kaeya up if he needs it, of course (and close enough to overhear what they’re saying) but Kaeya seems to be handling this, and Diluc thinks he should probably let him. This might be something Kaeya needs to do for himself.

            Then it all goes so bad, so fast. Kaeya says something with finality and turns away. He turns his back on the man who fathered him and raised him for the first part of his life, only to abandon him. Turns his back on his so-called mission, and his homeland, and starts to walk away. He stops when he sees Diluc and his eye widens slightly. A worried, tentative look crosses his face, so reminiscent of when he was a lad, adjusting to the strange new country he found himself in, and so often, wasn’t sure if he’d done the right thing or reacted in the right way. When that happened, he’d always get that look on his face, as he turned to Diluc or Crepus, inquisitive and hopeful. Diluc reacts the same way now as he always did back then. With a warm smile. Kaeya looks relieved and starts to return it. Then he freezes on the spot, looking confused and alarmed right before all the color is leeched right out of his skin, his hair, his eye, even his clothes, replaced by dull, dead grey.

            “Kaeya!” Diluc doesn’t know what’s happening, but he has that same sense of dread in his gut that he had when his father used that Delusion to drive back the monster that attacked him. He feels it crawling in his skin, writhing in his Vision, and all he can think is wrong, wrong, wrong! He starts running as Kaeya sinks to his knees.

            “Have it your way then, traitor,” says Kaeya’s father coldly. He rests a hand on top of Kaeya’s now ashen hair, in what almost looks like an affectionate gesture, but his expression is anything but. “You’re no son of mine. You’re just another failure. So go be lost to the sands of time with all the other sinners.”

            Kaeya’s expression changes to one of bitter understanding . . . and resolve. He doesn’t look at his father again or react to him in any other way. Instead, he looks at Diluc and smiles. Then, he starts to dissolve.

            “No!” Diluc sends a blast of pyro over Kaeya’s head as he runs, right at the bastard son of a bitch who just hurt his brother. Before it reaches the man, he just . . . disappears. No flash of light, nothing, just there one moment and gone the next, almost like he was never there at all, except . . . what he’s done . . . “Kaeya!”

            His brother is turning into dust. Diluc drops to his knees in front of him and tries to hold onto him, but that only makes it worse, makes him dissolve even faster. They both watch as his ashen hand, which Diluc seized in his own, crumbles and slips through his gloved fingers.

            “No, no, no,” Diluc groans. “Kaeya – what is this? What do I do?”

            “Sorry,” Kaeya says instead of answering him. “Brother . . .” Then, whatever force was still holding him together seems to give up, and Kaeya’s form collapses in on itself, like a sandcastle being smashed.

            “No!” Diluc screams into the void. “No!”

            “No!” Diluc wakes up screaming, yet again. It takes him longer to realize that he’s awake this time. For a few minutes he’s not sure that what he dreamt didn’t actually happen in the not so distant past. It’s only after he realizes that if someone did turn Kaeya into dust, he wouldn’t be here at the winery, comfortably in his own bed, but hunting the bastard to the ends of the earth, that he’s able to even think about trying to relax. His heart is still hammering even though he’s been awake several minutes and knows now that it was only a dream. Kaeya’s fine. His father hasn’t come back. He’s alive. He didn’t melt into ash or sand, or whatever that stuff was . . . except . . . what if these aren’t just dreams? What if they’re warnings?
            Diluc jumps out of bed and starts getting dressed. How many nights in a row has he dreamt of Kaeya dying now? What if he’s getting a glimpse of prophecy, or his subconscious mind is putting together warning signs, and trying to send them to him, and he’s been ignoring them all this time? What if Kaeya’s life is really in danger?

            “Hold on,” Diluc prays under his breath as he rushes to the stables. “Just hold on.”

            Kaeya greets Diluc with a sword in his hand. Understandable, since Diluc came a knocking at three in the morning. His eye flits from Diluc to the darkness behind him, as if searching for trouble, then back to Diluc, and he lowers his sword.

            “Are you injured?” he asks, stepping back and motioning Diluc inside.

            Diluc swallows and shakes his head, then steps over the threshold.

            “Do you need help with something?” asks Kaeya, putting his sword away and locking the door behind Diluc.

            “No – I –” Diluc can’t find the words.

            Kaeya waits patiently for several seconds, then walks to the side table and lights a lantern with a chunk of flint and a piece of ore.

            “What do you need, then, Diluc?” he asks. He doesn’t look angry or even annoyed, even though Diluc just woke him up at this ungodly hour. He doesn’t even look sleepy. If not for the fact that he’s wearing his nightshirt over his trousers, and is wearing his more comfortable medical bandage-style eyepatch instead of one of his usual, more dignified black leather ones, Diluc wouldn’t have known that he’d just roused his brother out of bed. “You can take your time if you’re having trouble finding the words,” he says after a minute of Diluc just standing there dumbly. “I’ll wait until you’re ready, however long it takes.”

            “I’m sorry,” says Diluc, realizing how stupid he was for coming here at this time of night. What had he been thinking?

            “I know of nothing that you need to apologize to me for,” says Kaeya.

            “For waking you up. I just realized . . . this . . . I shouldn’t have come here –”

            “I don’t mind you waking me up if you need something,” Kaeya tells him. “You needn’t apologize for that. The Seven know I woke you and everyone in your household up enough times when I was still growing out of night terrors.”

            Oh. That was right. Diluc had nearly forgotten, but Kaeya used to have really bad dreams too, when they were growing up. Not too often, but when he did . . . he would wake up screaming and begging so desperately that it was absolutely heartbreaking.

            “I . . . I saw your father.”

            “What?”

            Diluc’s never heard Kaeya sound quite like that before. He looks at his brother, startled, and for a second his heart stops, because Kaeya’s gone so pale, he’s nearing the ashen color that he turned in Diluc’s dream right before he dissolved. No, no, no, that can’t happen, it can’t –

            “Did he hurt you?” asks Kaeya. The temperature of the room is plummeting and Diluc can see Kaeya’s breath in the air as Kaeya’s Vision reacts to his alarm. “Did he lay a hand on you?”

            “No, I – I don’t mean –”

            “What did he say? Was he looking for me? Fuck, this is the last thing I need right now,” Kaeya swears, like he used to before realizing how much Crepus disliked it when he used those sorts of words. He shakes his head slightly like he has a headache starting to build. “If he’s here, I need to get Klee out of Mondstadt. She’s the most vulnerable of the people I care about so I – I’ll send her to Liyue with Paimon and –”

            “I meant in a dream,” Diluc interrupts before his brother has to come up with anymore on the fly schemes. “In a nightmare.”

            “Oh.” Just like that, the tension leaves Kaeya’s shoulders and the temperature stops dropping. “So . . . you had a dream about my father and then you . . . came here because . . . you had a question? Or . . . you’re doubting my loyalty?”

            “No,” says Diluc emphatically. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

            “If it was just a dream, then why wouldn’t I be?” Kaeya asks, bemused.

            “Because it made sense when I woke up, and my mind was still clouded from exhaustion, and the next thing I knew, I was here before realizing how stupid this really was,” Diluc snaps, frustrated. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come here. I’ll leave –”

            “Wait.” There’s an urgent note to Kaeya’s voice and he crosses the distance between him and Diluc. If not for the tone of his voice, Diluc would be halfway to the door, but the air has started to snap cold again, and so Diluc hesitates, because Kaeya sounds like he always does when he’s scented danger.

            “What is it?” Diluc asks as Kaeya peers at his face.

            “I noticed this evening but I didn’t think – I need more light. Not –”

            Diluc holds up his hand and summons a ball of flame.

            “Not fire light,” says Kaeya. Then, he holds up his own hand and summons the power of cryo, not freezing anything, but just letting it glow, steady and light blue. With his other hand – gloveless, and burn scarred, and . . . Diluc realizes for the first time that Kaeya’s completely missing the nail of his thumb on that hand – he reaches out to turn Diluc’s face slightly to the side. Whatever he sees makes him very . . . not happy. “Hands!” he growls.

            “What?” asks Diluc, still a bit hung up on how badly he disfigured his brother’s hands.

            “Let me see your hands,” Kaeya demands.

            Diluc holds his gloved hands out to Kaeya. Kaeya makes an irritated noise and yanks one of his gloves off, then swears.

            Diluc stares. His fingernails . . . he hadn’t noticed when he put his gloves on, maybe because he was dressing by the light of one flickering candle, but now, here, with the steady glow of Kaeya’s cryo, he can see that his nails are tinted a dark grey. His veins are darker too, standing out starkly.

            “I’ve seen this before,” Kaeya says, suddenly sounding far away.

            “What is it?” asks Diluc. “Why is . . .”

            “Dream poison,” Kaeya mutters.

            “What?”

            “It’s called dream poison.  Someone’s been dosing you with it.”

            It’s been forever since Kaeya’s seen this, so he considers it forgivable that he didn’t realize what was going on right away. Even more so since Diluc was keeping his cards to himself, so Kaeya didn’t even know he was experiencing symptoms. Yes, he’d noticed that the veins in Diluc’s face were standing out a bit in Angel’s Share, and he was sweating a bit, and yeah, he’d flipped out when he looked up and saw Kaeya dripping with red wine, so maybe he should have connected the dots, but dream poison is one of those things that until just now, Kaeya couldn’t even remember that he remembered it.

            Like many of his earlier memories, it gives him migraines to even try recalling it. So, unless he has a reason to, he’s content to leave those old memories in the past. Well, now he has a damn good reason to remember, no matter how bad the headache he gets, so that’s not an option anymore.

            “It’s . . . not that dangerous,” Kaeya remembers. He releases Diluc’s hand and motions for his brother to follow him further into the house. “Not unless you’re constantly exposed to it. Then it can be. Probably if you get a big enough dose of it in one go too. I was just a kid, so it’s not like I read all about it in the Khaenri’ahn Encyclopedia of Shitty Plants, but I experienced it a couple times. Fun.”

            “Someone drugged you when you were a child?” Diluc sounds outraged.

            “What? No.” Kaeya realizes he’s getting ahead of himself. “It’s a plant. It grows wild where I came from.” Pain slices from temple to temple. Kaeya ignores it. “Just touching it gets the . . . toxins or oils, or whatever into your system and that night you have, well, poisoned dreams. Maybe the next night too, but it wears off after that . . . unless you come in contact with it again. Which it seems like you have, repeatedly, if my guess is right.”

            Diluc looks at him, lost.

            Kaeya sighs. “How long, Diluc? How many nights have you been having nightmares?”

            “I . . . don’t know. I’ve lost track. I . . . maybe two weeks now?”

            “And I take it this is no innocent accident? You didn’t import seeds from cursed Khaenri’ah to grow in the winery’s flower beds, then rub your skin all over them for reasons?”

            “Of course not,” Diluc growls.

            “Then someone’s done this to you deliberately,” says Kaeya, feeling an icy surge of rage in his chest. “Don’t worry. We’ll find out who, and deal with them, but first things first. Do you have any ideas how you were exposed? Have you started using any new colognes recently? Or any other grooming products? Aftershaves, lotions, or infusions?”

            “No.” Diluc sounds annoyed at the mere thought, as Kaeya was fairly certain he would.

            “Opened any new bottles of your regular cologne or other products?”

            “No. I haven’t.”

            “Received any new articles of clothing that you’ve worn every day?”

            “No,” repeats Diluc.

            “Of course, it’s not going to be this easy,” says Kaeya. “Right. You need a bath.”

            “What?”

            “Since we don’t know how you’re being exposed, we’re going to assume it could be anything you own,” says Kaeya. “It’s getting into your system through your skin, so it could be in your clothes. So, you’re going to take a bath and wear my clothes until we figure this out.”

            Diluc looks reluctant, but nods. He follows Kaeya into the washroom.

            Mondstadt has a decent waterworks and plumbing system, but it still takes quite a long time to pump enough water to fill the bathtub. Usually. Now, Kaeya simply summons cryo and fills the bathtub with chunks of ice.

            “Melt that,” he orders Diluc, “but don’t vaporize it.”

            Diluc obeys as Kaeya opens a cabinet to get him a clean towel and wash cloth. While he’s thinking about it, he grabs a fresh block of soap and tears the paper wrapping away before handing it to his brother.

            “Use lots of soap. I think the toxins are in an oil that’s on the plant’s leaves . . . Probably. There’s another name for it too, I think. Duskleaf. If they’re the same plant. I’m sorry, it’s been a while, so I don’t know how right my memories about it are.”

            “You don’t need to apologize,” says Diluc gruffly.

            Kaeya shrugs. “Anyway, use lots of soap. I’ll leave clothes for you in the guestroom. You’re staying here tonight.”

            He waits to see if Diluc is going to argue.

            “. . . Thank you.”

            “You’re welcome.”

            Kaeya leaves Diluc to bathe and goes to get him some clothes. He even does his brother the courtesy of picking out darker colors and less ostentatious garments for tomorrow’s wear. For tonight, one of his larger nightshirts. He’s slightly taller than Diluc, but Diluc’s a bit broader in the shoulder and torso. Or at least that’s how things were a few years ago, and they’d both been nearly full grown then. They’d shared clothes plenty of times in the past without problem, so Kaeya is reasonably certain that Diluc will look fine and be comfortable in what he leaves for him now. As for boots, however . . . they’re technically the same size, but Kaeya’s feet are far narrower, and he gets his boots custom made for the best fit, since footwork is so important for his fighting style. He has several pairs, and checks each one’s width before determining that his favorite pair is just slightly wider than any of the other pairs, so he leaves them in his guestroom for Diluc along with the clothes.

            Then, he goes down to his workroom and grabs a sheet of paper, and starts writing everything he knows, or thinks he knows about dream poison. It’s not a lot, unfortunately. He’d been young and dream poison hadn’t been that big of a concern. People knew what it was and avoided it. Killed it when they could. Dumped salt water on it, if he remembers right. If someone had horrible dreams a few nights running, they knew to check their nails and veins for signs that they’d been exposed, and then be more careful about what plants they brushed up against on the moors or in the fields. Despite it being called “dream poison” it couldn’t really be used to poison someone in Khaenri’ah because everyone knew about it. It was probably used for the occasional malicious prank, yes, but Kaeya assumed that anyone who suspected someone was intentionally exposing them would start taking precautions and sooner, rather than later, figure out how to avoid whatever sabotaged article of clothing had been contaminated. It would be an article of clothing there, or perhaps a blanket. They didn’t have things like cologne in Khaenri’ah.

            Here in the west, where no one knows what dream poison is, Kaeya realizes that it can actually be used to effectively poison someone. While it might not kill them, it can certainly screw with their head. Possibly even drive them to madness, and Kaeya isn’t certain that it’s not harmful with long term exposure. There’s only one possible place he might be able to find out, and he’ll be on his way there soon enough.

            As Kaeya is trying to sketch the plant’s leaves from memory, Diluc comes into his workroom, just as Kaeya knew he would. It’s been years, but he still knows his brother well enough to know that he isn’t the kind to just go to bed if he thinks someone’s still awake and working on his behalf.

            “What now?” asks Diluc. He’s dressed in the clothes Kaeya picked for him to use for tomorrow.  Black trousers and a black blazer over a dark blue shirt.

            “Now, you go back upstairs and go to sleep,” says Kaeya.

            “You’re still awake.”

            “I’ll be going to sleep soon too,” Kaeya lies easily. “It’s three in the morning, Diluc. How many leads do you think we can run down at this time of night?”

            Diluc frowns. “What are you doing then? I can help.”

            “I’ve written down everything I know about dream poison, which unfortunately isn’t a lot,” says Kaeya, and hands him the piece of paper with his notes on, to read. “Now, I’m trying to draw it, but it’s been over a decade, so I don’t know how accurate my sketch is going to be. You can’t help me pluck images out of my memories.”

            “I can wait until you’re finished, then let you know if I’ve seen –”

            “I can’t draw with someone watching over my shoulder, waiting for me to finish,” groans Kaeya. “You can see the sketch in the morning, Diluc. For now, please go to bed. I’ll go to bed too, as soon as I finish this. Please.”

            Diluc hesitates.

            “Unless you’re hungry? Or thirsty? I can make you something,” suggests Kaeya.

            “No. That’s okay,” says Diluc quickly. Kaeya has to hold back a smirk. His brother, still so predictable.

            “Are you sure? It’s no trouble.”

            “No, I’m sure,” says Diluc. “I – I’ll go to bed.”

            “Fair warning, tomorrow’s breakfast is not going to be as good as promised,” says Kaeya. “I want to head to the library right after we get up, so it’ll probably just be toasted cheese, or something else we can eat on the way.”

            “That’s fine . . . and thank you, Kaeya. For everything,” says Diluc.

            “You’re . . .” . . . my brother. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. This is hardly anything to thank me for. “ . . . welcome,” says Kaeya.

            Diluc goes back upstairs. Kaeya finishes his sketch, then writes a quick note for Diluc and leaves it on the kitchen table, along with a few bread rolls for his breakfast.  Then he puts out his lantern, then goes upstairs to his room, in case Diluc is still awake and listening. Then Kaeya gets dressed and leaves soundlessly through the window.

            Diluc needs sleep. That much is so obvious it hurts. His brother’s mind is unraveling, probably because of both exhaustion and the effects of the dream poison. Hopefully, now that he’s freshly scrubbed and no longer has the toxin seeping into his skin, he’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep. For what’s left of the night, anyway. Kaeya, however, isn’t willing to waste any time. He’s going to pull out all the stops and fix this.

            Step one is to find out exactly what dream poison does, from a source that presumably knows more about it that Kaeya himself. To make sure it isn’t any more dangerous than Kaeya thinks it is.

            Step two is to find out how Diluc is being dosed and put a stop to it.

            Step three is to find out who is doing this, and show them why it’s a very bad idea to mess with Kaeya’s family.

            It’s time to get started.

Chapter Text

            There’s only one place in all of Mondstadt that Kaeya can think of that might have resources about Khaenri’ahn plants or poisons, and that’s the library at the Knights of Favonius’s headquarters. He knows they have Khaenri’ahn texts and manuscripts. He’s seen them before, in the restricted section, but he’s never done more than turn away from them as soon as he realized what they were before, because reading Khaenri’ahn glyphs give him migraines, just like trying to remember his childhood. If he remembers right, or at least if the stacks beneath the manuscripts that he saw are all Khaenri’ahn books, then he’s going to need help going through all of them if he wants to make any sort of progress before he burns his brain out. It’s convenient that Amber’s apartment is on the way to headquarters.

            “Kaeya?” Amber answers the door in bunny pajamas, her hair a tangled mess, looking like death warmed over, and very, very not happy to see him. “Do you know what freaking time it is?”

            Kaeya gives her an unimpressed look. “Amber,” he says coolly, “Do you think I would be here at this hour if it wasn’t fucking important?”

            That takes Amber aback, and perhaps she remembers that the only other time Kaeya’s ever darkened her doorstep this late, or rather this early, it was because of another emergency. At the very least she seems to remember that she’s talking to her superior. “I – sorry. What’s wrong, Captain?”

            “I need you to wake Jean and Lisa and tell them to meet me at headquarters. In the library. Noelle too,” he adds, because he’s still coming up with the plan as he goes, and he realizes now that Noelle will probably be very useful when it comes to Step Two of his agenda. Might as well have her start at Step One with the rest of them, so they don’t waste time bringing her up to speed. Besides, she has a good head on her shoulders and is one of the most efficient people Kaeya knows. He doesn’t know her extremely well, but his instincts say he can trust her. “I want you there too, of course. Tell them it’s urgent and I’ll explain once they’re there.”

            “Yes sir,” Amber says, and immediately starts out the door.

            “You can get dressed first, Amber,” Kaeya says, grabbing her by the shoulder to stop her from running through the streets in pajamas and bunny slippers.

            “Oh! Right. Sorry,” Amber’s cheeks flush with embarrassment.

            “Arm yourself too,” Kaeya tells her as he releases her and turns away. “It’s going to be a long day.”

            He continues on to headquarters. Halfway there, he realizes that he’s still wearing his more comfortable eye patch. It looks more like a medical bandage and makes him look more vulnerable than the black leather ones he normally wears, so he usually only wears it around his own house, or at night. Sometimes to bed if there are other people around. Any other day, he’d turn around and go home to swap it, because he dislikes the way it makes him look. Like his eye is newly injured and he should be handled with care. Tonight he doesn’t have the luxury of time, however, so he’ll just have to keep it as hidden by his hair as he can. He makes it to headquarters and enters unchallenged. Good. It seems his subordinates can recognize him even when he has on a white eyepatch.

            He heads straight to the library and enters through the door nearest their headquarters' main entrance, walks straight forward, and leaps over the rail to get to the lower level faster, then goes to the double doors that lead to the restricted section.

            “Hey! You can’t go in there!” a youthful voice calls out to him as he opens them.

            Kaeya turns to glare at Ella Musk. “Oh?”

            “Oh! Sorry, Captain Kaeya. I didn’t recognize you at first,” Ella says quickly.

            It must be the white eyepatch. Kaeya curses his carelessness.

            “Is everything alright, sir?” Ella asks, perhaps picking up on his mood. Or alternately, realizing that it’s extremely unusual for Kaeya to be in the library at this time of night, entering the restricted section or not.

            Kaeya is about to dismiss her, when he remembers. Ella is a linguistic specialist. “Do you read Khaenri’ahn?” he asks instead of answering her question.

            “What? No, sir,” Ella tells him. “No one can read Khaenri’ahn.”

            Kaeya sighs. “Carry on,” he tells her as he enters the restricted section.

            “Wait! Can you read Khaenri’ahn?” Ella asks, hurrying after him. “Can you? If so, you have to teach me!”

            “No,” Kaeya tells her in a clipped tone, “and I’m in the middle of something important.”

            “‘No’ you can’t read Khaenri’ahn? Or ‘No,’ you won’t teach me? Whatever you’re doing, it involves our Khaenri’ahn manuscripts doesn’t it? Let me help. I don’t care what it is, if it’s the chance to learn any bit of Khaenri’ahn at all, I’ll do whatever you ask!”

            Kaeya considers her offer then finally nods. Ella is technically part of the Ordo, just as a researcher, not a warrior. “Fine. But what we’re working on involves discretion. Your vows to not disclose information about Ordo Favonius’s workings will be fully in effect on all things related to this matter.”

            “I understand,” Ella says solemnly.

            “Grab some parchment, ink, and pens,” Kaeya tells her. Then he has the foresight to add, “And a wastebasket.”

            “No need for a wastebasket. I’d like to keep every note related to this that I possibly can,” Ella says, “even the ones with mistakes on can help me learn from them.”

            “Ella?”

            “Yes sir?”

            “Get the wastebasket.”

            While she’s gone, Kaeya preps the area as best he can. There are several large, long tables in the restricted section, but no mystic candles. Probably because Lisa doesn’t want to make it too easy for anyone sneaking in to find what they need and get out before catching someone’s attention. Kaeya goes about the library commandeering every mystic candle he finds, including the ones on Lisa’s personal desk. They’re going to need all the light they can get. Well, he is, at least. The brighter it is, the better the reading conditions, and he needs every edge he can gain for himself since he’s going to be working under the effects of a migraine for however long this lasts.

            Ella returns swiftly, bearing everything he asked for. Kaeya nods his approval and sits down with her.

            “First lesson,” he says, “I need you to make copies of these glyphs and write the translations beside them in Mondstadtian. We’re making cheat sheets for the others who are joining us.”

            “Others?”

            “Acting Grand Master Jean, Lisa, Amber, and Noelle,” Kaeya tells her. “So a copy for each of them and one for you. We’re going to be scouring the Khaenri’ahn manuscripts for any reference to these words. When you find one, I’ll go over it in more depth to see if it’s useful or not. I’ll explain the rest when everyone else gets here. First and most important pair of glyphs: dream poison. It’s a Khaenri’ahn plant, and one we need to learn as much as possible about, as fast as possible.”

            Kaeya writes the glyphs for dream and poison together at the top of his sheet of paper. Then he adds other terms to his list: duskleaf, herb, weed, plant, medicine, apothecary, and a dozen or so other terms he can think of that might help them find some sort of guide to Khaenri’ahn plants and poisons. By the time that’s done, he can feel his headache putting down roots and he’s very grateful for Ella who is only too happy to copy the list for him repeatedly.

            Then the others arrive. Everyone Kaeya told Amber to bring as well as . . . some others. Lumine and Paimon look a bit sleepy but not at all put out, and with them are two of their Liyuean friends who Kaeya would consider decent acquaintances of his own by now: Xingqiu and Chongyun. Under normal circumstances Kaeya would be pleased to see them but . . . these aren’t normal circumstances. They’re not members of Ordo Favonius, except for Lumine, and her position is an honorary one rather than an official one. Still, Kaeya trusts them. Lumine, at least. Paimon has a tendency to run her mouth. Chongyun has nothing to gain from talking about anything that goes on here. Xingqiu’s ties to the Feiyun Commerce Guild, however . . . he doesn’t know if he should technically be letting that kid know that Mondstadt’s biggest wine tycoon is being poisoned, but realizes even as he thinks that, that he’s going to, because the bottom line is he does trust them all. Even Paimon, since there’s no treasure involved to make her lose her head. The stacks of Khaenri’ahn manuscripts are even larger than he’d feared, so he’s going to need all the help from people he can trust that he can get.

            “So this is the library of Ordo Favonius,” says Xingqiu, looking around with bright sparkling eyes. “It’s as magnificent as I always imagined.”

            “Ara? The restricted section, Kaeya?” Lisa looks conflicted. “I don’t think –”

            “Someone’s been poisoning Diluc Ragnvindr,” Kaeya cuts her off.

            Everyone freezes and all eyes snap to him.

            “Obviously, this isn’t something we would normally be talking about with anyone outside of the order,” Kaeya says, fixing his gaze on the Liyuean teenagers, then on Paimon, “but we need this resolved as quickly as possible, and I believe I can trust everyone here.”

            “Someone poisoned Diluc? Is he okay?” asks Jean immediately.

            “I think he’ll be fine,” Kaeya tells her. “They’re not using a particularly dangerous poison. At least I don’t think it’s dangerous as long as he’s not constantly dosed, long term. It’s a Khaenri’ahn weed called dream poison, and I’m 90 percent certain that as long as we find out how he’s being exposed to it and put a stop to his exposure that he’ll be fine. I’ve called you all here because we need to be 100 percent certain. Lisa, I don’t suppose you’d care to make me look like an idiot, and are able to pull some sort of encyclopedia of Khaenri’ahn plants and herbs translated in to Mondstadtian or any other language one of us reads out from the normal section shelves?”

            “Sorry,” says Lisa, “as much as I’d love to make you look the fool, no such book exits, at least not that I know of.”

            “Nor I,” adds Xingqiu. “Long I’ve looked for any sort of literature that’s made it out of Khaenri’ah. All I’ve ever found is a single untranslated manuscript, and I’ve never found anyone capable of translating it for me.”

            Kaeya sighs. Figures. “Ella, we’re going to need four more cheat sheets.”

            “Coming right up,” Ella says, sounding only too delighted.

            While she works, Kaeya explains the circumstances to the others and what he does know about dream poison. How he noticed Diluc seemed off at Angel’s Share, then realized only an hour ago, when Diluc showed up at his house, that Diluc was being poisoned, when he noticed the veins in his face were darker than they should be, then confirmed it by looking at his hands, and seeing that his nails were tainted with it. Thankfully no one asks what made Diluc come to Kaeya’s house at three in the morning . . . but perhaps their speculation is even worse than them voicing the question because Kaeya sees Amber’s cheeks turn a bit pink, and he’s certain that Xingqiu’s eyes take on a sly sparkle. He halfway thinks about telling them to get their minds out of the gutter, that Diluc is his brother, but even though Diluc has acknowledged to Kaeya that he considers them family again, he doesn’t know how well Diluc would take Kaeya announcing that they’re brothers, especially since the last time he made that claim, Diluc flatly denied it. So, he lets it go, and continues speaking, telling them what he knows about dream poison. How it doesn’t kill, at least not without very long term exposure or a very large dose, but it does attack the mind, gives one nightmares, keeps them from having any sort of real sleep, and disorientates them while they’re awake. Long term exposure, Kaeya believes, does make people go crazy, but he’s pretty sure not permanently. Though whether it does or not, their mission remains the same. They need to find out all they possibly can about the damn plant, then they need to find out how Diluc is being exposed and put a stop to it. Then comes Step Three, which Paimon and Lumine seem very enthusiastic about and bring up on their own.

            “Then we find out who’s doing this to him, right?” says Paimon, punching one tiny fist into her other open hand. “Then we take care of ‘em and we take care of ‘em good!”

            “No one gets to hurt Master Diluc and live to tell about it,” says Lumine.

            “Agreed,” Kaeya says, unable to hold back a cruel smile.

            “Poisoners are truly disgusting,” Xingqiu adds, “and the Ragnvindr family’s winery is a trusted trading partner of the Feiyun Commerce Guild’s imports branch. I will do all I can to assist you . . . but I still fail to see how we are going to achieve the first part of your plan. We’d need someone who can read Khaenri’ahn to learn anything from these manuscripts, if there’s even one that contains the information that we seek among them.”

            Kaeya sighs. “That’s where I come in.”

            Xingqiu’s eyes widen. “You can read Khaenri’ahn, my liege?”

            “Not well,” Kaeya says, “and it gives me horrible headaches, so I don’t even look at glyphs whenever possible . . . but I can read enough to get by. Probably.”

            “How did I not know this?” demands Lisa.

            Kaeya gives her a look. “Because like I just said, I don’t read it if I don’t have to.”

            “But all this knowledge that’s just sitting here, left undiscovered,” Lisa wildly waves an arm toward the stacks of Khaenri’ahn torture tomes. “You could shed light on it for us.”

            Kaeya very much feels like shouting or at least growling at her. He holds back. “I’ll tell you what, Lisa,” he says, “we can talk about me trying to translate for you after I find and curb stomp whoever’s poisoning Diluc . . . if you still want me to.”

            “Oh believe me, I’ll still want you to,” says Lisa.

            We’ll see, thinks Kaeya.

            They get started. With cheat sheets in hand, they begin scouring the stacks of Khaenri’ahn books, searching the titles, tables of contents, and indexes for any of the glyphs on their cheat sheets. Kaeya helps too, though he has no need of a cheat sheet. When he looks at the glyphs, he understands their meanings, as he always has . . . more or less. He was a child when he left Khaenri’ah, so he never got a complete education, but his mother had been his teacher, and she . . . she had truly loved reading.

            Kaeya swallows and turns his thoughts away from his mom as a stabbing pain slices through his skull.  

            “Lisa?” asks Amber, while they work, “why are all these Khaenri’ahn texts in the restricted section? There can’t possibly be anything dangerous or compromising about them if no one but our cavalry captain can read them, can there?”

            “No, but we’ve always held out hope that someday we’d get someone who could read them and translate them for us,” answers Lisa. “My predecessors decided, and I agreed, to keep them away from the general public until that day came, so they’d be as well preserved as possible.”

            “Captain Kaeya?” says Noelle. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I found a book with the glyphs for herbs and medicines in the index.”

            Kaeya takes the text from her, thanks her, and starts to skim it. As he does so, he starts to feel his pulse in his temples, and pressure begins building behind his forehead.

            The book Noelle found turns out to be a text on alchemy. No mention of dream poison. Of course they wouldn’t find it that quickly. There’s no reason any of this should be easy. So, they keep searching. Now and then, small talk is made by the others. Ella and Xingqiu both marvel about being able to help decipher the mysteries held by these Khaenri’ahn texts, like this is somehow wonderfully exciting. After maybe an hour or two, Paimon begins contemplating breakfast. Presently, Amber drifts over to where Kaeya is working his way through more texts than any three of the others combined, and wondering why he decided to bring so many mystic candles in because he swears the light is starting to stab through his iris right into his brain.

            “Kaeya?” she says tentatively. “Sorry about this morning.”

            “No worries,” says Kaeya, taking care not to mutter. “I should apologize too. I shouldn’t have cursed at you.”

            “Are we good?” Amber asks.

            “We were never not good,” Kaeya assures her.

            “I hope you don’t mind that I brought Lumine and Paimon, and their friends. You said it was urgent, and to arm myself, so I thought having another sword along . . . I didn’t know the Liyuean boys were with them, or that they’d even want to come too, but once Xingqiu heard we were coming to the library . . .”

            “It’s fine. I trust them and their help is welcomed.”

            Amber hesitates for several moments, then: “I . . . I’m sorry, but I have to ask . . .”

            Kaeya looks up from his current text and fixes her with a warning look. If she asks about his relationship with Diluc, they are suddenly going to not be good.

            “Are you okay? You look . . . unwell. Could you maybe have been exposed to the dream poison too?”

            Oh. Concern. Kaeya wasn’t expecting that. He holds up one hand to double check his fingernails, on display thanks to his fingerless gloves. (Fingerless but not thumbless, because . . . yeah. Yeah.) “No grey taint,” he tells Amber, “and I haven’t had any nightmares. If I look ill it’s probably . . . I told you all I get headaches from reading Khaenri’ahn.”

            “Maybe you should take a break,” suggests Amber.

            “I would, if I thought it would help.” Kaeya gives her a strained smile. “Unfortunately, I know from experience, it won’t.” It takes hours for these sorts of migraines to go away, and they need to get this done as soon as possible. So, no breaks for Kaeya. This is too important to worry about his own comfort.

            “Can I get you anything? Coffee or tea? Iced, of course.”

            “Amber, I’m touched. You’re willing to risk Lisa’s wrath over drinks in the library for me?”

            Amber cringes. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

            Kaeya gives a soft laugh. “Thank you, Amber, but I’ll be fine.”

            Ten minutes later, Kaeya is throwing up in the wastebasket that he had the foresight to have Ella get for him. Jean is instantly by his side, holding back his hair, which is nice, but doesn’t make this any less humiliating.

            “Sorry,” Kaeya apologizes.

            “I think you need a break,” Jean tells him.

            “No. It won’t do any good. I’ll just clean this up and –”

            “Allow me, Captain Kaeya,” Noelle says, and is suddenly there, swapping his sickness soiled wastebasket for a clean one.

            “No,” Kaeya protests. “Noelle, I’m not making you clean up my throw up.”

            “I know you’re not. I’m doing it willingly,” says Noelle. Then she’s gone in a swirl of skirts and armor.

            Kaeya closes his eye and sits back in his chair, miserably.

            “My liege?” Xingqiu says tentatively. “I found another book with plants and herbs in the table of contents.”

            “Let me see it, then,” says Kaeya, his eye still closed.

            “You’re taking a break, Kaeya,” says Jean.

            “Once I stop, I’m going to be useless for hours, Jean,” Kaeya says. “Trust me. I’ve tried this before. Master Crepus used to have this book of Khaenri’ahn adventure tales and asked me to translate it for him. I tried. So very hard. In the end, he hid it away so I’d stop trying. I found it. Tried a couple times to translate it again before . . . well, you know. Point is, I’ve learned how these headaches work. Besides, I’m the only one who can actually read this crap . . . so I am literally the only one who can do this.”

            “Which is why we can’t let you burn yourself out,” Jean says.

            “There’s no other way.”

            “There is. Going forward, you’re only going to look at the books we find for you,” Jean says flatly.

            Kaeya sighs. Jean should know better than to give an order that she knows won’t be followed.

            He checks over Xingqiu’s book, hoping in vain that maybe their search can end here, without any further arguments, but nope. Xingqiu’s gone and found himself a cookbook, and no one wants to eat dream poison.

            Then Kaeya goes back to his stack, ignoring Jean’s disapproving look. He makes it another forty minutes before he throws up again. Lisa relaxes the rule about drinks and liquids in the library, and Chongyun produces for him a flask of ice cold water infused with qingxin. Xingqiu tries a bit of healing magic, even though everyone knows it never works on things like seasickness or headaches. After he gets sick in a third wastebasket, only fifteen minutes later, Kaeya is on the verge of surrendering to Jean’s wishes and only looking over the texts that the others find when he finds it. He, himself, is the one to put hands on the exact book they need, and suddenly Kaeya feels so very vindicated.

            “I’ve got it. I found it,” he says in disbelief, after flipping through it to the page where the index indicates the entry on dream poison should be. A familiar looking sketch of a dark veined plant greets him. “I don’t believe it. This is it.”

            “Thank Barbatos,” Jean whispers.

            Kaeya steels himself to read one final page, then he gets to call it quits. “Dream poison. Also called duskleaf . . . common . . . nuisance weed, found in fields, moors, swamps. Leaves . . . something . . . maybe secretes? Oily substance which . . . something . . . something else . . . skin. Wait, I know that one. Absorbs . . . Is absorbed by? Probably is absorbed by skin. Symptoms of . . . exposure? . . . are darkened veins and grey claws – they don’t have a separate word for fingernails in Khaenri’ahn – nightmares . . . dizziness? Or maybe disorientation. Memory troubles . . . Inability to . . . focus – shit, I’m gonna –”

            Noelle thrusts another wastebasket in front of Kaeya for him to spend the next ten minutes dry retching into.

            “You’re almost done, sweetie,” Lisa says kindly, rubbing his back. “Just a little more. Then you don’t have to read these nasty glyphs ever again.”

            Kaeya wants to thank her but can’t even manage to lift his head.

            “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he hears Xingqiu saying very softly in the background, probably trying not to be heard by him. “Do you think . . . is it because he only has one eye? Is that what’s causing this?”

            “I don’t know,” whispers Lumine.

            “No one’s said anything about him having problems reading Mondstadtian,” says Chongyun. “He’d have to read that with only one eye too.”

            “Paimon wonders if maybe we should get him a drink. A real drink from a tavern. That might help.”

            “Are any taverns even open yet?” Lumine wonders.

            “I don’t think alcohol is a good idea right now,” Xinqui says. “He’s probably dehydrated from . . . all this.”

            The Feiyun kid is probably right. No fun, but right . . . and right now, even the thought of alcohol isn’t appealing to Kaeya. He steels himself to finish this. Then maybe he can lie down for a bit before they move on to Step Two.

            They find another empty wastebasket to have on hand before Kaeya begins translating again. Thankfully, this time, Kaeya doesn’t need it. He manages to get through it without getting sick again, reading what he understands out loud, and saying what he thinks the words he doesn’t understand probably mean, while Ella writes down every word he says. Then he’s finished, and is so damn relieved.

            Essentially, it was like he thought. Dream poison isn’t that dangerous. It takes over a month of daily exposure to be life threatening. Of course a week, or two, like Diluc’s been exposed to, can be threatening to one’s sanity, but shouldn’t have done any irreversible damage, and since Diluc hasn’t gone postal and killed anyone, the doses he’s getting should be pretty small. He never reached the point where he couldn’t tell his nightmares from reality, but Kaeya has the feeling he was very close to getting there. The red wine incident . . .

            They also learn from the text that Diluc is definitely coming in contact with it via his skin. Ingesting dream poison apparently does pretty much nothing, and it gets too diluted by saliva to effectively enter the body through the skin inside the mouth. He’s not inhaling it either, since that causes panic attacks and hallucinations within minutes of inhaling it, that last for hours. Apparently, dream poison was a pretty popular choice for torture under some dead Khaenri’ahn king whose name Kaeya couldn’t read.

            “So the leaves can be ground into a powder, but they need to come in contact with a liquid to reactivate the toxins, you said?” Jean asks, after Kaeya finishes and thumps his head down on the table, and everyone’s given him nearly a full minute of silence to recover. “That should help us narrow down how Diluc is getting dosed with it.”

            “Not really,” Lisa says. “Sweat is a liquid. So he could have come in contact with it on nearly anything he touched. Or someone could be using fresh leaves to leave traces of the oil and not using it powdered at all.”

            “But Diluc wears an awful lot of clothes,” Lumine says, “and I’ve never seen him without that coat and his gloves. So I’d say it’s a pretty sure bet that he’s being exposed through his laundry.”

            “Or through some toiletry,” suggest Xingqiu. “Cologne, pomade, or some such.”

            “D-do you just happen to know if Master Diluc uses any of those, Kaeya?” asks Amber, and Kaeya swears he can hear her blushing.

            He ignores her in favor of focusing on the throbbing pain in his skull.

            “Kaeya?” asks Jean.

            Ignore. Ignore.

            “Kaeya,” says Diluc, and he does not sound happy.

            With an enormous amount of effort, Kaeya forces himself to sit up, and look toward the direction his brother’s voice came from. His migraine is affecting his vision now, distorting the light into odd blurs, but Diluc comes into focus well enough. Wearing Kaeya’s clothes. Clothes that Amber definitely recognizes, and the Liyue teens too, now that he thinks about it, because of that time he went to Liyue with Lumine and Paimon. Xingqiu had gotten them a table at the ridiculously expensive Liuli Pavilion, so he figured he needed to wear something nicer than his everyday clothes there, and he very much regrets it now.

            “Fuck,” Kaeya says, and buries his face in his hands.

Chapter Text

            When Diluc awakes, it’s to a semi-familiar ceiling. He puzzles over it, trusting his subconscious which is strangely unalarmed to not have woken up in his own bed. It takes him several moments to realize that he feels better than he has in a long while. That’s about when he realizes where he is and remembers.

            He’s at Kaeya’s house. In Kaeya’s famed guestroom. Well, Diluc doesn’t know for sure that it’s famed, but he’s pretty sure it is. Kaeya’s mentioned how everyone keeps telling him how comfortable his guestroom’s bed is, and how Lumine and Paimon’s friends are always crashing with him these days, and if it’s not because of the bed, it’s probably because Kaeya makes amazing breakfasts, so if it’s not famed now, it probably will be soon, at least in their circle. He supposes that he was lucky to get poisoned during a week that no one else is staying with his brother, so the guestroom is free for him to use.

            Crap. The poison. Diluc checks his nails and sees that they’re still tainted with grey. He’s not sure how long it will take for the color to go back to normal after he’s stopped being exposed. He’ll just have to find out the long way, but that’s only after they figure out how he’s being poisoned, so he can stop getting exposed.

            Diluc wonders, as he sits up and swings his legs over the side of the bed, if part of the reason he slept so well this latter part of the night is because it’s the first time in who knows how long that he hasn’t gone to bed with dream poison oil on his skin. Another question he won’t have answered until after he finds out how he’s being exposed.

            Rosy light from the dawn sun is trickling in through the gap between the curtains. It really has been a while since Diluc slept to this hour. He wonders if Kaeya’s awake yet. Knowing his brother, probably so. Kaeya does like his sleep, but will get up before dawn or go without more than cat naps for a week if he thinks something’s important. Diluc doesn’t doubt that he’s very high on Kaeya’s priority list.

            So, Diluc gets dressed quickly. He folds Kaeya’s loaned nightshirt neatly and leaves it on the bed, beside the pillow after making the bed. He has the feeling that he’ll be back here tonight, that Kaeya will insist on it, even if they find out how he’s being exposed. Definitely if they don’t find out, but Diluc is fairly confident they will. There are only so many ways someone can use a contact poison on him, given that he keeps almost all of his skin covered all day. Though even if they do find the source of exposure, Diluc realizes that he’s not opposed to staying another night or two at Kaeya’s place. It’s not a bad idea. Kaeya’s house is definitely not contaminated, whereas Diluc’s bedroom at the winery has to be treated as though it is. Adelinde and Elzer will insist on deep cleaning everything, not just in his room but the entire winery. The amount of laundry that will entail is staggering. Diluc wonders if maybe he should simply buy all new sheets and clothes.

            For now he wears the clothes that Kaeya’s provided for him. He’s grateful that Kaeya picked out garments that are much more subdued than his usual wear. The black blazer and trousers are things that Diluc might have even picked out for himself if he’d come across them in a tailor’s shop. The blue shirt, only maybe if it had been in another color. He’s not sure when he and Kaeya, without discussing it, seemed to decide that red things were Diluc’s and blue things were Kaeya’s, and thus steered clear of things that were the other’s color. Sometime when they were growing up . . . maybe two or three years after Kaeya came to live with them. After Kaeya had been with them long enough to feel like he owned the things Crepus and Diluc gave to him, like they were really his. In his mind’s eye, Diluc sees the look of playful surprise on his father’s face the last time Diluc came home wearing a blue shirt - incidentally also borrowed from Kaeya - after an incident with some Whopper Flowers which will never be spoken of again. He thinks Crepus would be pleased to see his sons getting along again. He knows Crepus would be proud of Kaeya dropping everything to help Diluc.

            There are gloves that Kaeya left out for Diluc too. A pair of full fingered ones, probably so that Diluc can’t accidentally touch anything contaminated once they get back to the winery and begin searching for the source. They fit comfortably, as he knew they would. The only article of clothing that he has any concerns about not fitting are Kaeya’s boots. He does try to put them on, but Kaeya has freakishly narrow feet, and Diluc can’t fit his own feet into them. Well, as long as he wears the socks Kaeya left for him, it should be fine, Diluc decides, and puts on his own boots instead, leaving Kaeya’s by the door. He’s not positive because he doesn’t pay that much attention to his brother’s accessories, but he thinks they’re the ones Kaeya wears almost everyday . . . and Kaeya is quite particular about how his boots fit. Diluc makes a mental memo to himself to make sure to get them back to his brother promptly. He knows Kaeya’s concerned about his boots fitting properly for a reason and he doesn’t want his brother mis-stepping in a fight because he loaned his favorite boots to Diluc who can’t even wear them.

            Thoughts about boots promptly fly from his mind, however, when he goes downstairs looking for his brother and finds a note instead.

Diluc,

I got up early. You were still sleeping and I figured I should let you. Hope you feel better this morning. I’m going on ahead to get started. When you wake up, come meet me at the library. Help yourself to anything in the pantry for breakfast if you don’t want these bread rolls. There’s cider in the Mist Flower compartment (non-alcoholic because Klee) or tea if you’re into that.

-Kaeya

            Diluc glares at the note as he realizes that . . . he doesn’t trust it. He should have realized last night that Kaeya had no intention of even going back to bed after he realized someone was poisoning Diluc. He supposes he should just consider himself lucky that Kaeya didn’t gather all the Knights of Favonius and head immediately to the winery to try to find the source. The library though? What is he doing there? This had better not just be a ploy to buy more time if he actually is already searching the winery with the knights.

            Foregoing breakfast, Diluc immediately stomps out the door and heads toward the Knights of Favonius’s headquarters. He tries to think of what reasons Kaeya could have to be at the library for however long he’s been there. The obvious answer is he wanted to research dream poison, but that shouldn’t have taken since last night to do, should it have? Especially not if he woke up Lisa to help him find the books he needed. Diluc knows that Kaeya has no qualms about waking up people when he’s on the warpath.

            Diluc is challenged when he reaches the Ordo’s front entrance, even though he knows the guards know damn well who he is. “I have a meeting with Kaeya,” he tells Porthos in a clipped tone, after which they waive him through, their challenge, it seems, only a mere formality.

            He goes straight to the library and finds it . . . darker than he remembers the library being. Then he hears voices coming from the lower level and stalks down the stairs, to find the doors of the restricted section wide open, and an odd assortment of people inside, along with every single one of the library’s mystic candles. He recognizes most of the people there. Jean, Lisa, and Amber, of the knights. The other armored woman must be Noelle, who he only knows by reputation. That Musk girl who he helped Lumine with a commission for once. Lumine and Paimon, and Xingqiu from Liyue, then one other teenager in Liyuean-style clothes who he doesn’t know . . . and of course Kaeya, who is slumped over in his chair, resting his head on the tabletop. Seeing that drains Diluc’s annoyance as he realizes what must be going on and wonders why he didn’t suspect it sooner. Not a lot of literature makes it out of Khaenri’ah. Even fewer people, and of them, even fewer still who can actually read. Kaeya must have realized instantly that chances of finding anything about dream poison in any books written or translated in the Mondstadtian language (or any other language) was a long shot.

            Damn it. How long, Diluc wonders, has Kaeya been here trying to read Khaenri’ahn?

            “So the leaves can be ground into a powder, but they need to come in contact with a liquid to reactivate the toxins, you said?” Jean is asking as Diluc steps over the threshold and into the restricted section still unnoticed by the others in the room. “That should help us narrow down how Diluc is getting dosed with it.”

            “Not really,” Lisa says. “Sweat is a liquid. So he could have come in contact with it on nearly anything he touched. Or someone could be using fresh leaves to leave traces of the oil and not using it powdered at all.”

            “But Diluc wears an awful lot of clothes,” Lumine says, “and I’ve never seen him without that coat and his gloves. So I’d say it’s a pretty sure bet that he’s being exposed through his laundry.”

            “Or through some toiletry,” suggest Xingqiu. “Cologne, pomade, or some such.”

            Diluc scowls at this suggestion. He only wears cologne. Why does everyone seem so willing to suggest that he has a whole hoard of beauty products? And pomade? Does his untamed hair really look like he puts any sort of product in it, let alone pomade?

            Amber, her face bright red for some reason as she looks at Kaeya, asks, “D-do you just happen to know if Master Diluc uses any of those, Kaeya?”

            Kaeya doesn’t answer. Only sits there miserably with his head on the table.

            “Kaeya?” asks Jean. Jean who should know that Diluc only. Uses. Cologne.

            Kaeya ignores Jean too, which he probably shouldn’t since she is his boss.

            “Kaeya,” says Diluc, half wondering if he will be ignored too, or if Kaeya is even conscious right now.

            Oh yes, he’s conscious alright. Diluc sees all his muscles tense up at once. Then, slowly and looking like it takes a ton of effort, Kaeya sits up.

            It only takes one look at his face to make Diluc to wish he hadn’t, because Kaeya looks so sick and miserable. His normally golden tanned skin is strongly tinged with green. Before meeting Kaeya, Diluc had thought that was only an expression.

            Kaeya looks at Diluc like he’s having trouble focusing. His eye squints against the light and slides past Diluc twice before finally zeroing in on him, then Kaeya’s face crumples.

            “Fuck,” he says, his voice breaking on that one syllable word, then he buries his face in his hands.

            Internally, Diluc cringes.

            It’s been over a decade since they first met, and years since he learned that Kaeya originally came to Mondstadt to betray him. They’ve grown up together, fought side by side together, bled together, and he knows better than anyone how strong and resilient a man Kaeya has become . . . but sometimes, even now, Diluc can’t help but look at him and see that skinny, scared child who was abandoned at Dawn Winery all those years ago.

            Diluc crosses the distance between them.

            “Diluc,” Jean says warningly.

            Diluc ignores her and reaches out carefully for his brother. He slides one hand around the back of Kaeya’s head, to rest against the base of his skull, then places the other against Kaeya’s right temple, closer to his eyepatch than he’d ever let anyone else touch. Then he summons just enough pyro to heat his hands up, like he used to when this happened when they were kids.

            Kaeya sighs and, probably unconsciously, leans into the hand Diluc has pressed against his temple. His own hands fall from his face into his lap, and Diluc can’t help but think he looks so very young right now.

            “I’m . . . sorry, boys, but I have to draw the line,” says Lisa. “No pyro in the library.”

            Diluc understands. Doesn’t like it, but understands. One misstep and all this flammable paper could go poof. He tapers off his power and pulls his hands away from Kaeya, who watches him, looking defeated for a moment before closing his eye.

            “Maybe you could carry him outside, Master Diluc, sir?” Amber suggests. Her face is still very red. Has she been drinking? “You could use pyro outside, and I think some fresh air would be good for him.

            Kaeya’s eye snaps open. “No one’s carrying me anywhere,” he says irritably. “I’m perfectly fine.”

            “I think we could all use some air,” says Jean. “Why don’t we take the rest of this meeting outside? Master Diluc should be brought up to speed on what we’ve learned, then we can decide how we’re going to proceed.”

            “I’ve already decided,” says Kaeya.

            “You’re finished,” says Jean.

            “Like hell I am –”

            “You’re going to be useless for hours. Your words, not mine,” says Jean.

            “Throwing them back at me now? Low.”

            “You’re not well, Kaeya,” says Jean, a bit more gently. “You’ve more than done your part. Let us take it from here.”

            Kaeya glares and starts to speak then hisses and clutches at his head.

            “Let’s go outside,” says Diluc. “Come on.”

            “The two of you go on ahead,” Jean says. “We’ll catch up. Ella, please start making copies of Kaeya’s translation. At least three. Come find me when you finish with the first one. Leave the second in the book, marking the page with the dream poison entry. Keep a third someplace safe. Amber, Noelle, start returning the mystic candles to their proper places. Lisa, when Ella’s finished, put the book in the library’s safe. The rest of you . . .” Jean technically doesn’t have authority over the Liyuean teens, though she can throw them out of headquarters if she chooses. Diluc’s not really sure what they were doing here to begin with. Other than tagging along with Lumine, probably.

            “Chongyun and I will go pick up breakfast for everyone,” volunteers Xingqiu. “Though we understand if we must be excluded from further discourse on this matter.”

            Diluc doesn’t hear how Jean responds to that. He’s following Kaeya out into the main part of the library. Kaeya takes the stairs painstakingly slow, gripping the rail with one white knuckled hand, making Diluc wonder how his balance really is. He stays a step behind his brother, ready to grab him if he starts to fall. They make it out of headquarters and Diluc glances to the right. Through the hedges and a short drop down to the next level is the small park with the fountain where they would always eat lunches together when they were both Knights of Favonius. For a moment it feels like he’s back in time and like that’s the place where they’re headed . . . but Kaeya turns to the left. Of course. He’s in no shape to be leaping hedges and jumping over walls.

            Maybe twenty yards from the entrance is a raised bed of greenery. Kaeya and Diluc head there by mutual consensus, without needing words to know that’s their destination. Once they reach it, Kaeya nearly collapses as he goes to sit down on the edge of it. Diluc has to grab a handful of his shirt so he doesn’t fall back into the shrubbery. He sits down beside his brother then, and slides his hand once more to the base of his skull, summoning a touch of pyro again.

            “Thanks,” Kaeya mutters. “That helps.”

            “Idiot,” says Diluc, a bit more harshly than he intends. “What were you thinking?”

            “Oh? Just that there might be more horrible side effects to dream poison that I knew nothing about. I needed to make sure there weren’t.”

            “And did you?” asks Diluc.

            “Yeah. Everything I remembered was right, and the book said . . . confirmed it’s not dangerous until you’ve been dosed for about a month. And that you’re getting dosed through your skin. Ingesting it doesn’t do anything. Inhaling it causes hallucinations and panic attacks pretty quickly. Apparently it was the torture tool of choice of some dead Khaenri’ahn king.”

            Diluc looks at him thoughtfully. “Does it hurt to talk about what you’ve just read? You don’t have to talk about it if it does. I can read the translation that Jean’s having Musk copy.”

            “No . . . it . . . doesn’t hurt. Not to talk about what I just read. Weird, huh? Just reading it or . . . or trying to remember the past . . .” Kaeya looks away. “That’s what hurts. That’s what causes the migraines.”

            “Then don’t try to remember,” says Diluc. “You’ve done enough.”

            “This isn’t over yet,” says Kaeya, “and I’ll do what I must.”

            “Kaeya –”

            “You’d do the same for me.”

            “True, but I would hope that I’d show some restraint and avoid mentally crippling myself,” says Diluc.

            “It’s not like I don’t deserve it.”

            “What?” demands Diluc. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

            Kaeya gives an ugly laugh.

            “Idiot,” Diluc says again. He shifts slightly so he can reach out and touch Kaeya’s temple with his other hand again, hopefully doubling the effectiveness his pyro has in easing Kaeya’s headache. “How long have you been at this? Tell me the truth.”

            Kaeya stays silent.

            “You never went to bed again, did you?” asks Diluc.

            “No,” Kaeya admits.

            “Then you should have brought me with you so I could help.”

            “You’ve been dosed with dream poison for two weeks running,” says Kaeya. “You needed some decent sleep without it in your system. Did you sleep well enough, by the way? Was my guestroom bed just as comfortable as you remember it?”

            It’s a ridiculously clumsy attempt at changing the topic. Diluc huffs and rolls his eyes. It’s on the tip of his tongue to berate Kaeya for leaving him behind and to remind him that they’re a team and they’re in this together, but he catches himself just in time when he remembers . . . they’re not a team. Not anymore. They haven’t been in years.

            Damn if he doesn’t miss it sometimes.

            When Diluc doesn’t say anything, neither does Kaeya. His head probably hurts too much for him to really want to talk or do anything other than just sit there and try to ignore the pain.

            The others eventually come outside. They take their impromptu meeting back behind headquarters to the outdoor training area, where they’re less likely to be overheard. Also, where there is a stupid number of hilichurl training dummies set up. Kaeya sees Diluc giving them a semi-incredulous look and muttering darkly, wondering where they came from and what they’re doing here. If his head didn’t feel like it was threatening to split open, he would have whistled innocently to make Diluc give him that semi-incredulous look too . . . but right now just putting one foot in front of the other is all he can manage.

            It seems like this is a standing up meeting. Yay. Kaeya leans against the wall and does his best to focus as Jean takes the lead and catches Diluc up. She reads the full translation to him so he knows what they’re faced with. Then she makes a suggestion.

            “I would like to accompany you to the winery and have my most trusted knights help you search for the source of the poison and the poisoner.”

            “You’re not going to find the poisoner among my staff,” says Diluc darkly.

            “We don’t know where we’ll find them,” says Jean, “but among your staff is the logical first place to look.”

            “No one who works for me has any reason to want me dead. Or driven insane,” Diluc tells her. “You’d be wasting your time.”

            “We also need to check and see if any of them have been . . . exposed too,” Kaeya points out. “They might not be poisoning you, but they very well could be . . . could be caught in the crossfire.”

            Diluc’s expression isn’t as cutting as it normally would be. “Fair point,” he acknowledges.

            “We’ll refrain from making any accusations without evidence,” says Kaeya to reassure him.

            “We will,” agrees Jean, “but you’re not coming, Kaeya.”

            “We’ll see.”

            “No.” Jean crosses her arms. “I’ll exercise my full authority as acting grand master if I must. You are in no shape to help with the investigation and if danger presents itself, you’re in no shape to defend yourself. Therefore I hereby order you –”

            “Wait, wait,” Kaeya says quickly before she can make an official decree. Then he’ll either have to listen to it or he’ll be flirting with a court martial. “Can’t we . . . make a compromise? What if . . . I take a couple hours . . . to rest and . . . and join you at the winery in the afternoon?”

            Jean pauses to consider, then looks to Diluc, giving him the final say. Diluc looks at Kaeya, who does his best not to look pathetic, then Diluc looks back at Jean and nods.

            “Very well,” says Jean, “but you must stay here in Mondstadt and rest. I want you to go home and try to sleep. Your own home, here in Mondstadt. Not the winery.”

            Amber makes a choking noise. Kaeya wants to pound his head against the wall and put himself out of his misery. Jean and Diluc are both oblivious. As are Lumine and Paimon, or so it seems. The Liyuean teens aren’t back yet, thank Barbatos. Noelle’s expression is politely blank, like the good maid she is. That just leaves Lisa whose eyes are sparkling with amusement. Kaeya is pretty sure Lisa knows that once upon a time, he and Diluc were brothers, so she knows they’re not having some sort of poorly hidden amorous affair. So naturally, she thinks this whole thing is hilarious.

            “I understand,” Kaeya says through gritted teeth, very much wishing Jean was aware of what she was making other people think when she tried to close up all loopholes. Well, there’s no helping it now, so he might as well move on. “Amber?”

            Amber squeaks. “Er, yes Kaeya?”

            “I want you searching the grounds around the winery for the actual plant. We don’t know that whoever’s responsible for this isn’t growing it themselves. Take Lumine and Paimon with you. Xingqiu and Chongyun too, if they’re going to the winery too. If someone is growing it and they see you getting close, things could get ugly, so stick together.”

            “I understand,” Amber says solemnly. Lumine and Paimon nod in agreement.

            “Noelle, I want you in the manor house. Go over all things related to laundry with a fine toothed comb. Diluc’s most likely being exposed through his clothes or bedclothes.”

            “I understand, sir,” Noelle tells him. “If he’s being poisoned through his laundry I will find the evidence.”

            “What about me?” asks Jean. “Where do you think I would be most useful?”

            That’s one of the things Kaeya likes best about Jean. She’s not a great strategist, and is several steps behind him where things like critical thinking and scheming are concerned, but she doesn’t let that hold her back. She gets advice from people who are better at it than her and isn’t too proud to admit it. Kaeya considers her request then realizes something they’ve overlooked.

            “Animals.”

            “What?” Everyone looks at him quizzically.

            “It can be spread by animals,” Kaeya remembers. A knife blade twists inside his skull and he grinds his palm against his temple, trying to massage the pain away. “My cousin Khalaed . . . he got . . . exposed . . . cat.”

            “You mean . . . you have a cousin? Who was exposed to dream poison because he touched a cat that had wandered through a patch of it?” Jean asks.

            Kaeya tries to answer affirmatively but the past is sinking its claws into him and pulling him back. Images flash through his mind. A boy a year or two older than young Kaeya himself. Laughing, mocking eyes and a mean smile. Knocking Kaeya down and grinding his face into the dirt after archery practice, cruel like any jealous child who’s shown up by a younger, more talented relative. Making Kaeya hate him. But . . . there. When the world is burning down around him Khalaed is there, gripping his arm and pulling him away from death and the corpses, fear and pity, and a fierce sort of protectiveness in his eyes as blood streams down Kaeya’s face . . .

            “Auughhh!” Kaeya isn’t aware that he’s falling until his knees impact hard against the flagstones.

            “Kaeya!” Diluc is kneeling beside him, gripping his shoulders.

            Kaeya does his best to focus on him. “I had . . . a cousin . . . named Khalaed . . .”

            “Yes. We heard you,” Diluc says, looking frustrated but not with Kaeya.

            “No, I . . . you don’t understand . . .”

            “What don’t I understand, Kaeya?”

            Kaeya opens his mouth, but the words won’t come. How is he supposed to talk about his old family with Diluc? His old family who set him on the path to betray Diluc and all of Monstadt? Moreover, how is he supposed to tell him that until just now he didn’t even remember he had a cousin named Khalaed? So, Kaeya hangs his head and doesn’t answer. Even if he wanted to, he doubts he could. The pain in his head . . . it’s back worse than ever. He needs to think of something else. Anything else.

            “Kaeya?” A pyro warmed hand presses against his temple, easing away a bit of his migraine’s tension. “Why don’t I take you home so you can get some rest?” Diluc suggests.

            “Horse tack,” Kaeya mutters, not sure how he managed to cast his mind out and land on a useful thought, but seizing it all the same.

            “What?”

            “Don’t use your own horse gear. It . . . sweat . . . through clothes.”

            “The oil or powder can seep through my clothes if I’m sweating?” Diluc translates.

            “Yeah,” Kaeya manages.

            “Okay. I understand,” Diluc says. “I’ll borrow a horse and gear to get to the winery, then later I’ll go over all my horse tack to make sure it’s not contaminated. Okay?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Good call, by the way. I wouldn’t have even thought of that,” says Diluc. He gives Kaeya a few more seconds to try to pull himself back together then asks, “Can you stand? I think it’s time to get you home.”

            “Home . . .” Kaeya gives a bitter, broken laugh.

            Kaeya’s house is in the lower city, behind Cat’s Tail. It’s a long walk from the Ordo’s headquarters. His condition deteriorated during the meeting and it worries Diluc, but he tries not to let it show. He lets his brother lean heavily against him, and they make it there without Kaeya face planting, so he considers it a win.

            Kaeya shuffles from his entry room/work room, through his kitchen, to another room that Diluc hasn’t been in before, but recognizes as a living room. Like most rooms in Kaeya’s house that Diluc has seen so far, it’s surprisingly cozy and well put together. A couch is positioned in front of a small fireplace. There’s a comfortable looking plush chair off to the side as well, leaving all wall space free for shelves that wrap around the entire room. Most of them hold books, but there are a healthy number of knickknacks mixed in. Diluc spots a vase of dried calla lilies, what appears to be a toy rabbit with a clover coming out of its head, a carved stone owl, and a small painting of Dragonspine Mountain to name a few. Folded neatly on the back of the chair is a thick blue blanket. When Kaeya collapses onto the couch, Diluc retrieves the blanket and uses it to cover him.

            “Do you want me to start a fire?” he asks.

            “No . . . thanks.” Kaeya closes his eye. “Sorry about all this.”

            “You don’t have any reason to be sorry.”

            “You’re being poisoned and I’m being useless.”

            “You’ve hardly been useless. If not for you we wouldn’t even know anything was wrong with me,” Diluc reminds him. “Let alone everything you remember about it and all the information that book had to offer.”

            Kaeya makes a harsh sound in his throat.

            “What?” Diluc asks.

            “You don’t think it’s suspicious that . . . that it’s a Khaenri’ahn poison?” asks Kaeya.

            “What? You think someone from your past is responsible for this?” asks Diluc. He doesn’t think that’s what Kaeya’s actually trying to get at, but he can’t figure out just what the point of that comment was.

            “That’s not what I . . . it hasn’t occurred to you to wonder if I might be responsible for this?”

            “No,” Diluc says slowly and in the tone he reserves for when people say extremely stupid shit in his presence. “Why in Teyvat would you poison me with a barely lethal Khaenri’ahn weed that I’d need to be exposed to for a month before actually being in danger . . . then tell me all about it?”

            “I . . . don’t know . . . but the Khaenri’ahn connection . . .”

            “Is probably a coincidence,” says Diluc. “Those do happen, you know. Or it could be someone trying to cast suspicion on you. This whole plan seems convoluted and stupid.”

            “You get that it’s probably not about . . . about trying to kill you, right?” Kaeya asks. “I mean . . . I’m sure they don’t care if you die, but . . . if they wanted a really lethal Khaenri’ahn poison . . . there is no shortage of those.”

            “I haven’t really had much time since learning about this to think it over,” says Diluc, “but yeah. Their goal is probably to discredit me or drive me insane, though to what ends I’m still not sure.”

            “Who have you pissed off lately, Diluc?”

            “No one outstanding comes to mind,” Diluc answers honestly. “There are obviously always people angry at me for something or another. Either I didn’t donate enough to their charitable cause or I refuse to grant an easement so they can graze their livestock on Dawn Winery properties . . . or any other number of things. Still, I can’t think of anyone who will benefit from me losing my mind.”

            “I’m not going to let you lose your mind.”

            “I know. I can’t think of anyone who would benefit from me losing my mind,” Diluc amends his previous sentence’s tense. “Even if I were to be incarcerated, Adelinde and Elzer could continue running the winery according to my wishes for at least a decade.”

            Kaeya looks thoughtful for a moment, then his eye slides slowly closed. He’s trying not to show pain, Diluc can tell. If he was trying in front of anyone but Diluc, he probably would have been successful.

            “You . . . should get going,” says Kaeya, his eye still closed. “They’ve probably gotten a horse saddled for you by now. No sense wasting time on my account. That’s . . . the last thing I want.”

            He’s right that the others are probably ready to go, but wrong about time spent on him being wasted. Diluc goes to the kitchen and gets a glass of water for him just to prove it. Then he takes the time to take off Kaeya’s boots so he’ll be more comfortable, because he feels like it. Strangely, as he tucks Kaeya’s sock clad feet back under the blanket, he feels like he’s missing something. Something important, but he can’t put his finger on it. He tries to hold that feeling in his mind so he can search the thoughts connected to it, but Kaeya’s voice interrupts him.

            “Go on. Get out of here,” Kaeya says tonelessly. An echo of what Diluc had told Kaeya himself not too long ago, in a very different situation.

            “That didn’t work for me, but you think it will work for you?” Diluc asks, smirking.

            “Worth a try.”

            Diluc shakes his head, though he knows Kaeya doesn’t see it. “Get some rest. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

Chapter Text

            Diluc runs into Chongyun on Kaeya’s doorstep. The pale haired Liyuean teen is carrying a sack of wrapped breakfast sandwiches and hands one to Diluc.

            “I’ve been sent to keep an eye on Sir Kaeya for the morning,” he tells Diluc. “Xingqiu will be accompanying you all to the winery, and will be helping Outrider Amber search the grounds, if you have no objections.”

            “That’s fine,” says Diluc, holding the door open for Chongyun, “but you should leave your food in the workroom or the kitchen. Don’t bring it around Kaeya. The smell will make him sick right now.”

            “Is he sleeping?” Chongyun asks.

            “Not yet, I don’t think . . . but he’s more likely to if he thinks he’s alone.”

            “I’ll stay in the kitchen then, and be quiet,” says Chongyun.

            Diluc nods. It’s a good idea, having Chongyun come here to keep an eye on Kaeya. He should have thought of it himself. Kaeya can barely defend himself right now, and anyone who really knows Diluc should know that he and Kaeya were once family. Still are, though they don’t act like it these days. If someone’s goal is just to hurt Diluc, taking out Kaeya is probably the easiest way to do it right now. He doubts that anyone’s keeping that close of an eye on him right now, but he shouldn’t rule it out.

            “Thanks,” he tells Chongyun, who nods and goes inside. Diluc waits until he hears the door lock behind him before heading to the Knights of Favonius’s stables. As expected, they’re ready and waiting for him, with a horse already saddled for him. Well, some of them are. Diluc doesn’t see Lumine, Paimon, Amber, or Xingqiu, but he’s willing to bet that they’ve gone on ahead, making use of Lumine’s odd ability to teleport to archon statues and the mysterious telepoint monuments.

            “We checked all the horse tack we’re using for this mission just as a precaution,” Jean tells Diluc as she hands him the reigns. “Swabbed it all down with white cloth swatches. No signs of any oils or dark powder on any of it.”

            “I do hope we have enough swatches,” says Noelle, looking vaguely worried. “I imagine we’ll need a lot for someplace as large as Dawn Winery.”

            “We’ll be focusing on Diluc’s office and personal quarters, and the laundry room,” says Jean. “Unless we can confirm that any of the staff have been exposed to the poison, we have no reason to thoroughly go over everything. Diluc wouldn’t have had contact with most of it anyway, since he always wears gloves.”

            They mount up and head out. It’s a fairly long ride, and Diluc sort of wishes that they had gotten Lumine to ferry them there using the statue near the winery. She can take three other people and Paimon so it would only have taken her a few trips . . . but Diluc doesn’t know much about that power and how much it might tax her. It’s probably best, he decides, not to ask for favors when he doesn’t know what they cost his friends, especially for something that’s only for convenience’s sake and not a necessity.

            As they ride, Lisa catches Diluc’s eye and maneuvers her mare to ride side by side with Diluc’s borrowed palfrey. “How do you like her?” she asks, making small talk. “A fine mount, no?”

            “She seems fine,” says Diluc. He’s not one for small talk. Especially not today. Too much crap has happened since he woke up from his last nightmare and made a mad dash for Kaeya’s house. Now that he’s awake and thinking clearly (and hopefully without a fresh dose of poison in his system) he wonders just what he was thinking. That his dreams were prophecies? Ridiculous. Though, if they were that the worst thing he’d had to deal with since last night, he would be grateful. Seeing Kaeya in pain . . . is never easy.

            “She’s your brother’s main mount,” Lisa says. “I believe her name is Stormy. His spare mount has a smoother gait, so we left that one for him. We figured it would be easier on his poor head.”

            “Probably,” Diluc agrees. He looks down at his mount with a bit more interest now. Kaeya tends to have excellent taste when it comes to quality. Less so with fashion and vases.

            “I have to ask,” says Lisa, slowing her horse’s pace so she drops back a bit further behind Jean and Noelle. Diluc’s horse, which must be used to riding with Lisa’s, automatically slows to keep pace. “Has Kaeya always had migraines like that?”

            Diluc is reluctant to answer this. It’s not Lisa’s business and if she wants to know she should be asking Kaeya . . . but she is helping Diluc right now, trying to figure out who’s trying to kill and or drive him insane, and he doesn’t believe she’d ever use this information against Kaeya, so . . .

            “Only when it comes to Khaenri’ahn things.”

            “Not just reading Khaenri’ahn then?” Lisa asks shrewdly. “Also thinking and talking about Khaenri’ah?”

            Diluc nods.

            “Diluc . . . how much do you know about Kaeya’s past?” Lisa asks.

            Diluc gives her a sharp glance. “Kaeya doesn’t like discussing it.”

            “After seeing this morning’s display, I can understand why,” says Lisa. “Which is why I’m asking you.”

            Diluc stays silent, wishing that she would drop this.

            “Something very bad happened to him in Khaenri’ah, didn’t it?”

            “It’s not my place to say,” says Diluc, trying not to sound too cold since again, Lisa is trying to help save his sanity.

            “I understand. Normally, I wouldn’t pry,” says Lisa, “It’s just that I’ve seen something similar to this before.”

            “ . . . You have?”

            “I’ve read about it as well,” Lisa says. “Sometimes the mind creates its own defenses around memories that are too painful to deal with. Usually traumatic ones. Ones about violence and death.”

            That . . . would actually make sense. Kaeya’s told Diluc a few things over the years. Let them slip without thinking, thus without inducing a headache, or deliberately told him and dealt with the consequences. Then of course, there were those horrible nightmares he would have a couple times a year, growing up, where he’d wake up screaming and begging.

            Putting together the pieces, Diluc has surmised that Kaeya’s mother is dead. Very likely, Kaeya saw her die, but he’s never gotten confirmation of this and isn’t about to ask for it. He does know for a fact, however, that Kaeya’s home was burnt to the ground. That men who Kaeya didn’t know came to wherever he was living, and started killing people and burning everything. He almost definitely saw people die that day. Diluc doesn’t know how he survived. He doesn’t think Kaeya knows who those men were, and now that he’s thinking about it . . . Kaeya can’t even wonder about them, can he? If just thinking about that day can bring him to his knees in pain then he can’t dwell on it and try to make sense of it, and that’s just . . . tragic. Diluc remembers his own desperation for answers when his father was killed. More than that, he remembers his father. The good times which far outweighed the bad. The warmth of his love and smile, the pride in his eyes . . . Kaeya can’t even think about his mother without his mind turning against him.

            Or trying to protect him, if that’s what this is.

            “Does it usually affect all childhood memories before a certain time?” Diluc asks. “Or all that involve a specific person?”

            “I don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘usual’ in cases like these,” says Lisa. “I’m no expert, though. In Sumeru there are mind healers who specialize in such things, but I only took one course that touched on it, and only saw one patient affected by it.”

            “Is Kaeya’s case better or worse than theirs?”

            Lisa doesn’t even have to consider. “Much worse.”

            Diluc scowls at the road. They ride in silence for several minutes before he speaks again. “Is there a way to help him?” He doesn’t even know if Kaeya would want help with this, or if he’s content to live with those memories walled off by migraines, but obviously he has to at least ask.

            “I don’t know,” says Lisa. “I don’t know enough about mind healing that I could help him. I doubt he’s willing to go to Sumeru just to see if he could be helped, and I don’t know anyone who I could call here to try to help him. I only brought it up because I thought you should know . . . since the two of you were once brothers.”

            We still are, Diluc thinks, but doesn’t say it out loud.

            Kaeya waits twenty minutes after Diluc leaves to make sure that his brother has left the city, taking Jean with him. Well, maybe thirty. His head just hurts so bad. Then he forces himself up off his couch and puts his boots back on. He has work to do and he’ll be damned if he just lies around so uselessly when someone is trying to hurt his brother.

            He finds Chongyun in his kitchen eating ice cream. The Liyuean teen looks at him guiltily (probably from being in his house without an invitation, since the ice cream is Chongyun’s own specialty).

            “Hi. Um, Master Diluc let me in.”

            “I see.”

            Chongyun produces another popsicle. “Want one?”

            “No, thank you.”

            “Okay. Are you ready to go?”

            Kaeya raises his eyebrow. “Go?”

            “I figured you weren’t just going to wait around here doing nothing all morning . . . and I didn’t think you should have to,” says Chongyun. “That’s why I offered to be the one who kept an eye on you.”

            “Oh.” Kaeya is surprised by this, but pleasantly so. “Thank you.”

            Chongyun shrugs. “If it was one of my friends being poisoned, I would hate not being able to do anything. That said, I will be making sure you don’t overdo it.”

            “That’s fair,” Kaeya concedes. “Well then, let’s go.”

            He’s grateful that it’s Chongyun who’s his babysitter. His fellow cryo wielder is polite and cheerful, but not overly talkative. He actually reminds Kaeya quite a bit of how Diluc was back before Crepus died. The biggest difference is that back before, it would always be Diluc taking the lead on missions, Kaeya content to let his brother shine and get all the credit while he stayed comfortably in Diluc’s shadow and facilitated their victories, often with underhanded tactics. This mission is very much Kaeya’s, and Chongyun doesn’t know enough about Mondstadt to have any hope of taking the lead.

            First stop is at a certain bench. It’s early, but the one he needs to speak to is already there.

            “Kaeya,” Glory greets him, recognizing his steps as he approaches. “How are you?”

            “I’ve been better.”

            “You sound like you’re in pain,” says Glory, her voice immediately growing concerned.

            “Migraine. I get them sometimes.” Kaeya tends to be a bit more honest with Glory than most people. Perhaps because he knows he’s only one ill placed arrow or sword strike away from being Glory. Or perhaps just because he likes her. She’s a nice girl . . . and an excellent informant who gives her intel to him and him alone. “I’m actually here on business.”

            “Is your friend here on business as well?” Glory asks cautiously.

            “Yes. This is Chongyun. Chongyun, Glory.”

            “Pleasure to meet you,” says Chongyun politely.

            “And you,” says Glory. “Those two Fatui diplomats haven’t said anything incriminating this week, I’m afraid, Kaeya. I would have gotten word to you if they had.”

            That’s not unexpected. Doesn’t necessarily mean the Fatui aren’t involved in this, though, so it doesn’t rule them out. “Have you heard anyone mention Diluc this past month? Particularly someone who might bear him a grudge?”

            “Hmm. Well, Diona is, as ever . . . not a fan of your brother.”

            This is the first time Kaeya’s spoken with Glory about Diluc, but he’s not surprised to learn she knows about their past. Glory hears an awful lot. Out the corner of his eye, he sees surprise flit across Chongyun’s face, very briefly, but the Liyuean teen doesn’t comment.

            “Is it just her usual spiel about hating Diluc and the wine industry? Or has there been more venom to it than usual.”

            “I’d say it’s her usual spiel,” Glory tells him. “Also, I don’t know if this is relevant, but I’ve heard he has a legal hearing coming up . . . I think this week? Sir Aramis has been tapped to preside as magistrate.”

            Kaeya perks up. “Legal hearing? Do you know what about?”

            “I’m sorry. They didn’t say.”

            “No matter,” says Kaeya. “I can find that out easily enough myself at headquarters.” The knights, as the city’s only real authority, are required from time to time to preside over disputes. Their legal proceedings are much less formal than the famed trials of Fontaine, but they are still decently effective, their results legally binding. Kaeya’s been tapped to judge disputes multiple times. Of course he wouldn’t be for any case involving Diluc on account of their past familial relationship. Jean, too, would recuse herself since they are childhood friends. She should have a copy of the docket in her office, however. Kaeya intends to help himself to it before the morning is over. “Have you heard anything else of note about Diluc lately?”

            “Nothing beyond thirsty adulation and romantic daydreams,” says Glory, sounding very much like she wishes she hadn’t heard those. Kaeya can sympathize. You can’t walk from one end of Mond to the other without hearing someone bemoaning the fact that they can’t jump Diluc’s bones. Hopefully his poisoner isn’t some jilted admirer of Diluc, or a jilted would-be lover of one of Diluc’s admirers, trying to take out his competition, because that would leave Kaeya with way too many suspects to hunt down in a timely fashion.

            He discreetly slips Glory a small bag of coins, then he and Chongyun continue on. Their next stop is the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters, where Kaeya tries to call upon the Prinzessin der Verurteilung. Sadly, she is out in the field, but Kaeya leaves a message for her, using appropriately lofty language, and her chosen title, asking her to call upon him at his residence this evening. The key to getting along with Fischl is to play up to her delusions. It also helps if you have an air of mystery about yourself too. Needless to say, Kaeya and Fischl have always gotten along splendidly. It never hurts to be on good terms with the best investigator of Mondstadt’s Adventurer’s Guild. She has been quite the treasure trove of information in the past.

            Vile is the next person on Kaeya’s list to see, and the one who is most likely to turn up something useful for him. He would have gone to see her first, but Glory and the Adventurer’s Guild’s headquarters were on his way.

            “Well, well. Prince Charming, as I live and breathe,” Vile greets him with a smirk. “And here I thought you’d be home sleeping off your hangover. So bad that Master Diluc Ragnvindr himself helped you home, I hear.”

            “A hangover? Me?” Kaeya gives her an injured look. At least he hopes it comes off as injured and not just pathetic. His head still hurts fiercely, and he’s not surprised that people who saw Diluc helping him home thought he was completely wasted anymore than he is that Vile knows about Diluc helping him home, even though that happened less than an hour ago. People in Mondstadt just love to talk, especially about Diluc. “Your information is off, Vile. That’s . . . worrying.”

            Vile scowls then turns her attention to Chongyun and sizes him up. “Who’s your friend?”

            Kaeya introduces them. Vile looks amused and annoyed.

            “I’d heard you were with a kid who looks enough like you to be your son, but if this is him my sources are slipping.”

            “They may have been talking about another of our honorary knight’s friends who is visiting from Liyue,” says Kaeya. “He has turquoise hair, closer in colour to mine. Though right now that’s not important. I need information.”

            “Of course you do,” says Vile. “That’s why you’re talking with me.”

            “I’ll pay triple the usual rates for you to put a rush on it and deliver every scrap you can find to my residence this evening,” Kaeya says.

            Vile’s smirk fades as she realizes that Kaeya is very, very serious right now. “What intel do you need?”

            “Everything you can get me about who might bear, and act on, a grudge against Diluc,” says Kaeya, “and I need you to keep this as quiet as possible.”

            Vile’s eyes are shrewd as she realizes what Kaeya isn’t saying: that someone has made a move against Diluc, and Kaeya doesn’t want to let whoever that is know that he’s onto them.

            “I also want to know whatever you can dig up about black market items coming out of Khaenri’ah.”

            “So in other words, anything coming out of Khaenri’ah?” Vile says. Not much makes it out of Khaenri’ah. Very few merchants are willing to risk their ships on that voyage, and by and large there’s nothing from Khaenri’ah that anyone outside of it wants. What does make it across the sea, however, invariably ends up on the black market. No reputable merchant wants wares from heretical Khaenri’ah on display in their storefront. “Okay, I got it. This is a pretty tall order, Prince Charming, so I’m going to have to get started right away to meet your deadline . . . though about payment –”

            “If you need more, I’ll pay it,” Kaeya says. He’s well aware that this isn’t the best bargaining tactic, but he can damn well afford to pay whatever Vile wants, and he wants her to have incentive to prioritize this.

            “I’ll only charge you double the usual rate, for the rush,” says Vile, “but I want a favor.”

            “Name it.”

            “Stop Sara from importing those blasted Liyuean chilis at Good Hunter. Go in and work your magic and just make. Her. Stop.”

            “What? O . . . .kay, I will.”

            “Excellent. Then we have struck our deal,” says Vile, looking pleased. Then she glances at Chongyun. “No offense, Liyue boy.”

            “Oh, no, none taken,” Chongyun says quickly. “I hate hot peppers too.”

            “Yes! I swear, just putting them in a room with other food taints the other food!”

            “Exactly!” Chongyun says, more enthusiastic in his hate for hot peppers than Kaeya has possibly ever seen him before. “The other food might not be spicy, but you just know it was there. It’s enough to give me hot flashes.”

            “Yes. Hot peppers are bad. I will put a stop to Sara importing them to Good Hunter, even if I have to get a city-wide embargo put on all Liyuean produce,” Kaeya says, deadpan, when Vile opens her mouth, no doubt to continue to rant against hot peppers. Then, after catching Vile’s eye, he says more seriously, “Thank you for this, Vile.”

            Vile gives him a crooked smile then turns to leave. “You should get some rest, Prince Charming. You don’t look so good.”

            A little bit of rest . . . does sound like a good idea, actually. Kaeya’s head never actually stopped hurting. Now it’s throbbing again. At least he’s finished running through his contacts, for now. On their way back to the lower city, Kaeya stops at and sinks onto a bench for a breather.

            “You really don’t look so good now,” says Chongyun, a little apprehensively. “Can I get you anything? A drink? Or . . . breakfast?”

            “No,” says Kaeya, trying very hard not to think about food. “I just need a minute.”

            Chongyun sits down beside him. The air between them and around them starts to chill a bit, a result of their two cryo Visions being in close proximity while their wielders aren’t focusing on anything else. The cold air does feel nice. Kaeya’s been hesitant to try using his own powers while his head is out of sorts. He’s both worried that he might lose control and do a bit of damage, or that it could make his headache worse. He appreciates this latent cooling effect, however.

            “You know,” says Chongyun, “I just remembered something from a year or so back that . . . I don’t know if it’s relevant but . . .”

            “Hm?” Kaeya asks, trying to pay attention. Since Chongyun is normally on the quiet side, if he’s talking now, when Kaeya’s trying to rest, Kaeya’s certain that he’s thought of something important.

            “It’s something I heard about in Liyue,” says Chongyun. “There was a string of possible possessions. Whole villages affected, one after another. Not all at the same time, but like the vengeful spirits, or dream demons, or whatever the culprit might have been kept moving on to the next village. One of my senior instructors and I went to see what was up. We kept getting to the villages after the situation was resolved though. It wasn’t even because of my positive energy this time. We were just too late and the phenomenon had already moved on.”

            Kaeya thinks he can see where this is going. “And let me guess. The symptoms of these possessed people included horrible nightmares . . . and perhaps grey tainted fingernails and veins?”

            “You guessed it,” says Chongyun. “Well, no tinted veins and we didn’t see any grey fingernails. It was only mentioned that a couple of people had that, and I didn’t remember it until just now. I’m sorry.”

            “Nothing to be sorry about,” says Kaeya.

            “I guess the story isn’t really relevant anyway,” says Chongyun, “since it happened years ago and so far away.”

            “Oh no,” Kaeya tells him. “It’s plenty relevant. It means that there are other people in Teyvat who know quite well what dream poison is. So, I suppose if we limit ourselves to thinking about it as a purely Khaenri’ahn element, we’re casting too small a net.”

            “Oh. That’s . . .” Chongyun frowns and Kaeya can see the wheels in his head turning. He really does remind Kaeya of a young Diluc, back before, when things were good. Back then Kaeya took care of all the cunning thinking. Diluc may have been excellent at chess, but was sorely lacking when it came to seeing other people at their worst and figuring out how they thought.

            “Let me also hazard a guess about something else,” says Kaeya. “There was another exorcist in the picture. Possibly one you never caught up to and spoke with. Or perhaps just a traveling medicine peddler. He sold the afflicted people of these villages the cure.”

            Chongyun’s face brightens. “So there is a cure for dream poison?”

            “What? No,” says Kaeya. “The man was a charlatan. He was dosing the people with dream poison and charging them for a fake cure, and after they bought it he stopped dosing them and moved on to the next town.”

            “Oh. Oh . . .” Chongyun scowls. “Now that you mention it, there was another exorcist. We didn’t meet him, but . . . he . . . we thought he was taking care of the problem before we could, but he was . . . he caused it?”

            Suddenly, the young exorcist looks furious. The air between him and Kaeya shimmers with cold. It actually feels quite nice . . . if a little wrong to enjoy it since Chongyun is so obviously irate.

            “You’ll get him next time,” Kaeya says to placate Chongyun.

            “If there is a next time,” growls Chongyun.

            “More likely than not, there will be,” says Kaeya. “It’s possible your conman may have stopped because he ran out of dream poison, but more likely he put that particular operation on hold to avoid being detected by real exorcists or suspicious authorities. If I had to put down money, I’d say he’ll resurrect that act when he thinks the time is right.”

            “Then I’ll be ready for him,” says Chongyun in a tone that can only be described as cold.

            Kaeya doesn’t voice all of his thoughts. Namely that they might need to pick up the hunt now and find this conman sooner rather than later, since this is their biggest lead on a dream poison supply so far. He doubts this guy is the one dosing Diluc, but this conman may very well be the person who sold the damned plant to whoever is dosing Diluc. Trying to pick up the trail will be difficult though, and very time consuming. Hopefully Vile or Fischl can turn up something useful and more recent so they don’t have to go hunting for answers all the way over in Liyue. He doesn’t bring this up now to Chongyun because he doesn’t want it to be mistaken as any sort of promise. Repulsive as the conman’s actions were, Kaeya has no intention of hunting him down unless he’s somehow connected to Diluc. It’s outside of his jurisdiction, for one thing, and he doubts Liyue’s governing bodies will appreciate his interference. For another, as long as it’s not connected to Diluc, it’s not Kaeya’s problem. He has enough problems of his own right here in Mondstadt to deal with right now. But . . .

            He sighs. “Don’t go after him alone. You might catch a dagger in the back for your efforts if your conman sees you coming. Find at least one friend to take along . . . and if you need my help –”
            “I will do my utmost to manage without you,” says Chongyun.

            “If you need my help, don’t hesitate to ask.” Kaeya does his best to keep his voice serious and sincere. Not harried and resigned, and only offering his help as a formality. He owes Chongyun and Xingqiu now for their help with this whole mess.

            “After seeing what remembering dream poison does to you, I cannot in good conscience ask you for help,” says Chongyun, just as seriously and sincerely. “Besides, you’ve already helped me more than you know. I would never have suspected that other exorcist was a fraud.”

            Kaeya holds back another sigh. Chongyun’s a good kid. Too good of a kid. Kaeya hopes that doesn’t get him killed someday. He’d better mention this story to Xingqiu before the two head home, or off into parts unknown with Lumine again. Xingqiu, at least, has enough cunning in him to keep himself alive. It’s good that Chongyun has someone like him watching out for him.

            When he arrives at Dawn Winery, Diluc calls his entire staff in to apprise them of the situation. He wants them to get the story straight from him, and let them know that they’re not under any suspicion. Because they’re not. He trusts his people.

            He feels vindicated when everyone’s hands are checked and there is no sign of grey tint to anyone’s fingernails, and no unusually darkened veins. Vindicated and relieved. None of his employees have been poisoned in the attempt against him.

            Then the Knights of Favonius get to work, Diluc alongside them. They are . . . efficient enough. Diluc must give credit where it’s due. Noelle in particular tears into her tasks, but Jean and even the notoriously lazy Lisa begin working just as earnestly. They swab Diluc’s entire wardrobe for any trace of dream poison, along with his bedclothes, and all commonly touched surfaces in his room, even though he tends to keep his gloves on even in his personal chambers. No traces are found, so then they split up, with Noelle and Jean going to the laundry rooms, and Diluc and Lisa continuing to work on the upper level, swabbing Diluc’s books, writing utensils, chess set, everything they can think of that he might have put his hands on recently, and many things that Diluc knows he has not.

            Around noon, Lumine, Paimon, Amber, and Xingqiu come in to give them a report. So far their search has also been fruitless, but there’s still plenty of ground to search. They take a break for lunch. Xingqiu had the foresight to buy enough food for lunch when he and Chongyun picked up their breakfast. Even though, according to that damned Khaenri’ahn book, eating dream poison doesn’t have any known effects, none of them feel like taking chances.

            For most of the meal, Amber looks like she’s wanted to say something to Diluc. Near the end of lunch, she drifts over to him and seems to work up her courage. He makes eye contact with her and waits patiently for whatever she has to say.

            “I just wanted to let you know . . . that I think . . . you’re really good for the captain,” Amber says, her cheeks flushing slightly.

            What?

            “Thank you,” Diluc says, because he doesn’t know what else he’s supposed to say, and it’s always better to go with politeness when in doubt.

            “He’s a pain sometimes, but he’s our pain, you know?” Amber says.

            “Yes. That he is,” Diluc can agree with that, though he doesn’t really think Kaeya’s subordinate should be so brazenly declaring this to random people. Which for all intents and purposes, he is to her. Or maybe she’s closer to Kaeya than Diluc originally thought. Come to think of it, her grandfather was one of the knights’ original outriders, so she likely knows that Kaeya and Diluc were once brothers. Perhaps that’s what brought this conversation about. She sees Diluc as Kaeya’s family and therefore an extension of her own. Perhaps their mending brotherly relationship hasn’t gone as unnoticed as Diluc has thought.

            “He’s been a little different for the past few months,” says Amber. “Happier. Brighter. I thought it might be because of resolving the whole Stormterror thing, or maybe that it was just that he really loves adventuring with Lumine and Paimon. Err, not that I actually know how long you and he have been . . . uh . . .”

            “Since only a little before the Stormterror incident was resolved,” Diluc tells her. He’d intervened when that bastard human trafficking merchant tried to drug and disappear Kaeya only a fortnight or so before Lumine, Paimon, and Venti came tumbling through the doors of Angel’s Share looking for a place to hide. So, it’s been a few months now since things started getting better between him and his brother. It doesn’t feel like that long . . . but at the same time it feels like a lot longer. It makes him . . . happy, he guesses, that Amber’s noticed. Noticed that Kaeya’s seemed happier since they started reconciling. Honestly, until this dream poison thing came up, Diluc wasn’t quite sure if they were actually making strides or if . . . if they had just found a new normal where they were there for each other when needed, but distant the rest of the time. It feels good to know that someone else has noticed they’re becoming friends again.

            “That makes sense,” Amber says. “He did start smiling more before the incident got wrapped up. I thought it was weird back then, but I guess now I know why, and I’m . . . very happy for both of you.”

            Then, pink faced, Amber darts away before Diluc can thank her again, though he does smile slightly as he watches her go. An odd girl, that one.

Chapter Text

            The whicker of a horse’s greeting catches Diluc’s attention as his staff has nearly finished cleaning up from lunch. He looks toward the road and sees two horses, each bearing a blue haired rider. Diluc frowns slightly. Kaeya was supposed to stay in Mondstadt and rest all morning, but now it’s only just after noon. He got on the road earlier than he was supposed to . . . but then he was always going to.

            He realizes, as the two riders draw closer, that he recognizes Kaeya’s horse. A handsome blue roan who’s getting on in years named Phantom. Crepus bought that horse for Kaeya over a decade ago. Diluc doesn’t know why it makes him happy to see Kaeya still has that horse, but it does.

            “Any progress?” asks Kaeya as he comes within speaking distance and dismounts.

            “None yet,” Diluc tells him. “How’s your head?”

            “Better.” Kaeya looks a little better now. His face is paler than normal, but no longer tinged green. “So you haven’t found anything at all? No traces on anything?”

            “Unfortunately not,” says Diluc. “The kids have been searching the grounds all morning. The rest of us have torn apart my room and office, and the laundry room.”

            “What’s left then? The stables? The mews?”

            “Yes to both. Elzer and I will be the only ones checking the mews. I don’t want anyone else touching my birds,” says Diluc.

            “I seriously doubt anyone’s been putting poison on them anyway,” Kaeya says. “Your birds are mean.”

            “Only if they don’t like you.”

            “Oh? Whatever do you mean by that?”

            “I mean they don’t like you,” says Diluc with a straight face.

            “Well, at the very least, I should be cleared of suspicion of putting poison on your birds,” says Kaeya. “As you can see, they have not bitten any of my fingers or my nose off.”

            “You were never a suspect to begin with,” says Diluc, loud enough for his voice to carry a bit. Because Kaeya wasn’t. It never occurred to him for even a moment that his brother would hurt him like this. Not all of his staff, however, are likely to agree. Ernest has never gotten along with Kaeya. When they were growing up, the older boy showed he had a bigoted streak. Tunner, while mostly benign, is also quite devout. He’s never said anything where Kaeya could hear him, at least not that Diluc knew of, and was never unkind to Kaeya (again, that Diluc knew of) but he’d cautioned Crepus on several occasions about putting too much trust in a foreigner who came from beyond the light of the Seven. Kaeya hasn’t been around the winery much since Crepus died and Diluc took over, so there’s never been a reason for any of his staff to speak ill of his heritage. If ever they do, Diluc plans to give them one warning, and only one warning. If they speak against his heritage twice, they’ll need to find a new place of employment.

            “Do you want me checking the stables? Or searching the grounds? Or someplace else?” Kaeya asks.

            Diluc would rather he go lay down until he’s not quite so pale, but he knows that’s not going to happen. Especially not here and now, when everything they haven’t tested (and perhaps even the things they have) could be potentially coated with dream poison. His maids have been gathering up everything after they’ve tested it, planning to wash it just the same. Diluc overheard Adelinde and Elzer debating whether or not they should just burn the lot of it to be safe. Kaeya’s old room should be safe. It’s kept locked at all times, only opened about once a month when Adelinde herself goes in to dust and launder the sheets. However, Diluc is not willing to take any chances. The last thing he wants is Kaeya getting dosed with dream poison while trying to help him.

            “Why don’t you search the grounds?” Diluc suggests. “You are the only one who’s actually ever seen dream poison before. You might notice it where the others don’t.”

            “I’ll take Chongyun with me, if that’s alright,” says Kaeya. “He actually told me a story before we came. It’s very possible there’s someone in Liyue who has or at least had a supply, a few years ago. I’ll fill you in tonight, at my place.”

            Diluc raises an eyebrow to let him know that he sees what Kaeya just did there. Kaeya smirks and wiggles his own eyebrow up and down in that way that only he can, as if to say, “You don’t know the half of it yet.” That makes Diluc want to facepalm.

            “What did you do?” he demands.

            “Me?”

            “Yes. You just gave me that look. You know what look. What did you do, Kaeya?”

            “Nothing bad. Or unnecessary,” says Kaeya.

            “That’s not an answer.”

            “I just spoke with some of my sources, on our way out of Mond.”

            Translation: I didn’t rest at all like I was supposed to. I ran around the city, seeking out my informants!

            “I should be getting some intel delivered this evening. I’ve requested information on every single person who’s got a grudge against you, and why,” says Kaeya, smirking slyly. “Should make for some interesting reading.”

            Diluc can already see how this evening is going to go. He’s going to go back to Kaeya’s place, as Kaeya implied he would. Then he’s going to fret about Kaeya not having eaten all day (because he knows for a fact that Kaeya skipped breakfast, and is trying to make himself scarce so that they don’t try to force lunch down his throat) and Kaeya may or may not eat a little something for dinner so that Diluc doesn’t fret too badly. Then Kaeya’s going to take delight in reading, out loud, every grudge that every whiny person in Mondstadt has against Diluc. Hopefully not while drinking on an empty stomach.

            Diluc sighs. “As annoying as that sounds . . . I will take you up on your offer of hospitality for another night. The winery will still be in the process of being decontaminated.” It probably will be for several days. He’s not sure if he and Kaeya will be able to stand each other for that long, however. Maybe after tomorrow he’ll rent a room at an inn in Mondstadt.

            Surprise briefly crosses Kaeya’s face. He probably hadn’t been expecting Diluc to give in to staying with him so easily. That surprise is quickly replaced by happiness so genuine that Diluc can’t find it in himself to be annoyed. “You’re welcome at my place for as long as you need.”

            “I hope that will not be too long. I’ve sent one of the manservants into town to place an order for all new sheets and clothes for Master Diluc,” says Adelinde, approaching the brothers. “Hello again, Mas – Sir Kaeya. It is a pleasure to see you again.”

            Kaeya’s smile grows a bit uncertain, like he’s not sure where he stands with Diluc’s head maid. “Adelinde. Good to see you as well . . . All new sheets and clothes, huh? That will certainly make some peoples’ day.”

            “Then it’s good that someone gets a bit of joy from this horrid situation,” says Adelinde. “A silver lining as it were.”

            “Yes. Er . . .”

            “Of course, seeing you boys getting along again is another blessing that this has brought,” Adelinde says. “Master Crepus would be proud if he could see you now.”

            Kaeya looks away, his face unreadable. “Wouldn’t want to let him down . . . again.”

            That last word is so soft Diluc isn’t positive he actually heard it, but the sorrow and sudden guilt in Kaeya’s eye make him fairly certain he did. What did Kaeya mean by that? He never let Crepus down. “Kae –”

            “Master Kaeya. It’s a pleasure to see you again,” says Elzer, suddenly appearing as well.

            Kaeya forces a smile. “Hey Elzer. You look well.”

            “I’m sorry to say this, but I’m afraid you don’t,” Elzer says, peering at Kaeya’s pallid face. “Master Diluc mentioned you worked yourself up to a migraine this morning.”

            “It’s mostly gone now. I’m fine,” says Kaeya.

            “Why don’t you come inside and sit down for a bit? I can have Moco brew you some tea . . . or decant a bottle of your preferred vintage for you –”

            “I’m going to have to veto that last suggestion,” says Diluc quickly. “Sir Kaeya hasn’t eaten yet today and drinking on an empty stomach would not be good for him in his current condition.”

            “Oh yes. Forgive me, I forgot,” says Elzer, who has also borne witness to Kaeya’s migraines in the past. “Well why don’t –”

            “Hey, have you guys met Chongyun yet?” asks Kaeya, suddenly darting over to where Chongyun is waiting patiently, eating ice cream (Diluc has no idea where he got that) and petting his borrowed horse. Kaeya grabs his arm and drags the Liyuean teen over. “Guys, this is Chongyun. Chongyun, this is Adelinde and Elzer.”

            Diluc doesn’t know Chongyun very well, but the pale teenager takes this in stride and gives the maid and butler a polite bow.

            “Hello. It is very nice to meet you. Would you like an ice cream?”

            Diluc doesn’t know how he suddenly has three more ice creams and he’s not sure if he wants to.

            “Hey, have the others searched across the river?” asks Kaeya. “’Cause it occurred to me on the ride over, that area might actually be the best place to grow dream poison around here. People so rarely go over there, but when they do, it’s usually to cause trouble.”

            “I don’t think they have –” Diluc starts.

            “Great. That’s where we’ll start looking. Come on, Chongyun.”

            Just like that, the two cryo Vision wielders are riding away before anyone can stop them or even think of what to say. Diluc shakes his head, a fond smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, until he remembers what Kaeya had said so softly less than a minute earlier.

            What had Kaeya been talking about, letting Crepus down in the past? Never coming clean and letting Crepus know he was actually a spy? That seems most likely to Diluc . . . and he can’t help but think that it’s a shame Kaeya was never able to when Crepus was alive. He knows his father wouldn’t have turned Kaeya away and cast him out (like Diluc did). He would have had a serious conversation with Kaeya. Asked him questions. Listened to him and withheld judgment (like Diluc should have), and at the end of it, accepted him, forgiven him, and embraced him, and let him know that he was and would always be family (not tried to kill him and burned his hands so badly that they were fused to the hilt of his sword).

            Maybe Diluc needs to talk to Kaeya about that night . . . as much as he doesn’t want to. Or at least tell him . . . tell him how he wishes he’d reacted, and how he’s sure Crepus would have reacted. Then maybe Kaeya can stop feeling like he let their father down. Diluc didn’t know he’d been carrying that around with him all this time. The first few years he honestly wouldn’t have cared if he did know, but now . . . now he does care. Kaeya doesn’t deserve to have to carry that. After all he’s doing for Diluc now, Diluc figures he owes it to his brother to have that conversation, if there’s even a chance it will give him some peace of mind.

            The search of that chunk of no man’s land on the other side of the river proves fruitless. Kaeya and Chongyun do find a small encampment of hilichurls and take care of them. He can tell that Chongyun is a bit worried for Kaeya to go into battle right now, but backs his decision to eliminate the threat all the same. The fight actually helps clear Kaeya’s head. Maybe it’s the adrenaline. He doesn’t know. Next time he gets a migraine, he’ll have to test it out.

            Aside from the hilichurls, they find nothing of note. No dream poison. No bandits like he and Diluc once wandered across on one of their adventures. Not even an extinct boar or giant Cryo Regisvine.

            When they return to the winery, they find that the search there was equally fruitless. No trace of dark powder or oil showed up on any of the swabs the others did of anything. It’s extremely frustrating. Kaeya really believed that they’d at least find out how Diluc was getting dosed. He paces for several minutes in front of the winery’s main entrance, trying to think of things they may have missed.

            “Napkins?” he asks, as the thought comes to him.

            “I checked those,” says Noelle. “Every one of them. They were all clean. The tablecloths too. Miss Adelinde put them in the pile to be laundered, just to be safe.”

            “Curtains?”

            “Checked and added to the pile,” Noelle tells him.

            “All the horse tack? Not just the saddles but the reigns as well?”
            “I went over every one of them,” says Jean. “The only one unaccounted for was the one Diluc used to ride into Mondstadt very early this morning. I will personally check that one once we return to the city.”

            “And you tested every chair and sofa –”

            “Yes sir,” Noelle says. “Every sitting surface and tabletop.”

            “Then what are we missing?” Kaeya asks, more to himself than his friends. He does his best to keep the frustration out of his voice so Noelle doesn’t think it’s aimed at her. “Why haven’t we found anything?”

            “It could have been on something that my staff regularly washes and already took care of before we arrived,” says Diluc.

            Kaeya scowls. He doesn’t want to argue with Diluc right now but . . . he thinks that they should search the cottages where the winery’s staff and laborers live. Not for traces of poison on surfaces, but for vials of it hidden amongst their possessions, or for dried or fresh leaves. He knows Diluc trusts his staff, and Kaeya doesn’t want to distrust them, he knows most of them himself, but he also knows better than to blindly trust anyone. He would have thought Diluc would have learned better than to do that by now too. Now . . . is not the time to start that fight, however. Not when Diluc can so easily turn it back on him and reveal the truth about him, in front of Jean and Kaeya’s other colleagues. Or in front of Lumine, whose opinion Kaeya very much cares about. Xingqiu and Chongyun likely wouldn’t look on him too kindly for being a child spy once upon a time either, even though they have no loyalty or attachment to Mondstadt, and Kaeya would rather not lose their respect.

            “We will begin implementing new procedures here at the winery, to make certain Master Diluc does not come in contact with this dream poison again,” says Adelinde, very seriously. “Tonight Elzer and I will sit down and write up a list of all the changes we intend to make. Would you be willing to look over it as well, Master Kaeya, to ensure we do not miss anything?”

            “Of course,” says Kaeya. “I trust you have no problem with Diluc staying with me until you have things sorted here?”

            “We’ll entrust his safety to you,” Elzer says. “Though Master Diluc, I must remind you. The day after tomorrow . . .”

            “What?” Diluc asks.

            “You have a hearing to attend,” Elzer says.

            Then Kaeya remembers. He never did stop by headquarters to check the docket and see just why Diluc had a legal hearing to attend. “What’s this?” he asks.

            “Oh, that.” Diluc sounds disgruntled. “It’s a minor matter that will be dismissed within minutes. The Vanders are trying to dispute a property border, but our contract is ironclad.”

            Kaeya doesn’t doubt that said contract is ironclad. The Ragnvindrs have some of the best law readers in all Teyvat on their payroll. Many of them studied in Fontaine. That, however, is not what bothers him about what Diluc just said. “You’re . . . in a dispute with Uncle Illan?”

            “Not Illan,” says Diluc. “Ilsie.”

            “Oh. Yuck.”

            Diluc makes an odd noise. Kaeya is fairly certain he nearly startled a laugh out of his brother. Their feelings about Ilsie still align quite well, it seems. Illan was one of Crepus’s best friends, growing up. They remained close until Crepus’s death. They’d hoped Illan’s daughter Ilsie would be as close with Diluc. Illan made no secret of the fact that he hoped to marry his daughter into the Ragnvindr family, even to the point where he would have accepted a match with Kaeya, if he could not get one with Diluc. Both brothers thanked the archons that Crepus didn’t believe in arranged marriages. Ilsie was . . . far from their favorite person. It seems that absence has not made either her heart or Diluc’s grow any fonder these past few years if she’s trying to take Diluc to court. Kaeya doesn’t even have to know what it’s about to know that she’s being really stupid. Nothing new there. Not that her past stupidity gets her off the suspect list. In fact, due to the lack of other suspects, she is currently in the top three on Kaeya’s list, up there with the Fatui, because even with no evidence, he will never not give them a hard look if some unknown party is targeting Diluc, and Diona, who Kaeya really doesn’t want to believe has anything to do with this, but given her age and immaturity, and her well publicized desire to destroy the wine industry (as well as her blatant attempts to serve her customers nasty things), he can see her using something like dream poison against Diluc without thinking of the consequences.

            “I had forgotten you have a legal hearing coming up,” Jean tells Diluc. “In light of current events, I’ll have it rescheduled.”

            “No, don’t bother,” says Diluc. “I’d rather get it over with. Like I said, it won’t take long. Thanks for the reminder, Elzer. I’ll make sure to be there. Ten o’clock in the morning, the day after tomorrow, correct?”

            “Yes, Master Diluc.”

            Kaeya suppresses a sigh. Unless they find out how Diluc’s being poisoned between now and then, he’s going to have to go check everything Diluc could possibly touch in the courtroom too, as a precaution. Even though chances of someone trying to poison him there are slim to none, Kaeya’s not willing to be the least bit negligent about this. Because now that he thinks about it, there is a chance (not a good one, but a chance nonetheless) that someone could be paying very close attention to the places where Diluc goes, and going ahead of him, leaving traces of dream poison before he arrives, and possibly cleaning it up once he’s gone. Kaeya can’t rule anything out at this point.

            “We should head back to the city,” Kaeya says. Because he needs to be home before his information is delivered and before Fischl stops by. He raises his left hand and massages his temple with his fingertips briefly, then, abruptly drops his hand back to his side. He’s . . . not exactly acting. His head still hurts and trying to think so hard about how to get ahead of their mystery poisoner is definitely not doing him any favors. So he doesn’t think it’s too unethical to play off everyone’s sympathies for him, to get his way now.

            “Yes,” Jean says quickly. “Let’s head back. Kaeya, why don’t you, Noelle, Chongyun, and Diluc start back? I’ll wait for Amber, Lumine, Paimon, and Xingqiu to return again. They’ve been checking in about once every two hours, so they’re due to be back here in fifteen or twenty minutes.”

            “Have Amber ride back with you,” Kaeya tells Jean, even though she is his boss. “Don’t make the trip alone.”

            “Or let Lumine fast travel you back,” says Diluc. “My people can bring your horse back to town for you tomorrow.”

            Jean smiles at them, appreciating their concern. For a moment it seems like old times again, when all three of them were knights . . .

            “Sir Kaeya,” says Adelinde, stepping forward, “We’ll be entrusting Master Diluc into your care.”

            Not sure what to say to this, Kaeya just nods.

            “We know you will do everything in your power to keep him safe and find whoever is trying to harm him,” adds Elzer, looking at Kaeya solemnly.

            “Of course I will,” says Kaeya, because at least for this, he has a flippant response. “Then, once I find them, I’ll shove poison down their throat and see how they like it.”

            “We Knights of Favonius will find the culprit and bring them to justice,” Jean interrupts him.
            “And by ‘justice’ we mean that the poison I shove down their throat will be lethal and fast acting –”

            “By the laws of our city they will be held accountable for their crimes before a magistrate,” Jean says, giving Kaeya a warning look.

            Kaeya understands. She can’t just let her second in command run his mouth off about taking the law into his own hands. Kaeya recognizes that he’s pushed far enough for now. He gives her a slight bow of his head, which is a mistake, since his head is still out of sorts, but he manages to avoid losing balance or even stumbling. Clenching his teeth, he turns toward his horse. He’s not really surprised to find Chongyun there, holding his reigns for him, looking worried. Even though he’s not playing up his headache for sympathy now, is actually trying to hide the pain now, it makes him feel a little bad for doing so a minute ago. He thanks Chongyun and mounts up.

            Their party of three claymore wielders and one longsword swinger make it back to Monstadt without incident. Which is good, since every one of them is tired and frustrated by the day’s events. Bandits and hilichurls wouldn’t have even had a chance. Diluc almost wishes they’d had a chance to work off some of their frustration . . . except for the fact that Kaeya needs rest.

            Noelle leaves them at the city’s gates, no doubt to rush off to her next task. The boys then take their horses to the knights’ stables and brush them down and water them in mostly silence. Chongyun earnestly offers to take care of Kaeya’s horse too, but Diluc knows that the offer is futile, or else he would have offered himself. Crepus taught his sons to take care of their mounts themselves. Once the horses are groomed and watered, Chongyun turns down Kaeya’s invitation to come back to his house with them, opting to go rendezvous with Lumine and Xingqiu, who he’s fairly certain teleported and beat them back to the city. Leaving Kaeya and Diluc alone. The brothers walk back in tired silence. Then, once they’re in Kaeya’s house, Kaeya makes an odd request.

            “Wait right here please,” Kaeya says, right after locking the door behind them. “I need to check something.”

            So Diluc stands awkwardly in Kaeya’s workroom. He may take some peeks at the maps Kaeya has hanging up, or spread out on tables, and the markers on them. As much as he likes to gripe about the Knights of Favonius being inefficient, and Kaeya himself being irresponsible, Diluc has to admit (though usually only to himself) that Kaeya is more on top of things than he appears to be. Especially when Death After Noon is out of season.

            After a minute Kaeya returns. “All clear.”

            “What is?” Diluc asks.

            “I was checking my precautions. No one else has been in my house since we left.”

            “ . . . Precautions?”

            Kaeya returns his stare. “You mean you don’t . . . never mind. I just leave small signs at every window and door, so I know if someone else opened them. A piece of thread or straw, a tiny bead or pebble, that sort of thing. Placed where someone trying to get in from the outside won’t see it. If the window or door is opened, it gets dislodged. Then I know someone snuck in.”

            Diluc feels a stab of alarm. “Does that happen often?”

            “No. It’s pretty rare,” Kaeya assures him.

            “But it happens at all?”

            Kaeya gives him a sideways look. “Yeah, though it’s been awhile. The last time someone tried to ambush me was . . . two years ago, I think . . . yeah. It’s been about two years.”

            Diluc is on the brink of demanding a name, but just manages to hold his tongue because doubtlessly that matter was settled long ago. He can’t deny, not even to himself, that he’s angry about it though . . . and shocked. Shocked that he never even heard about this.

            “I was checking now in case . . . we still don’t know who’s poisoning you and how, and I wanted to make sure no one snuck in and put dream poison anywhere you’d touch it,” explains Kaeya. “It’s all clear though, so make yourself at home. Want a drink? A nonalcoholic drink, I mean, since you’re you.” He’s wandered into the kitchen now and is opening a cabinet, retrieving two glasses.

            “I hope you’re not planning on drinking alcohol on an empty stomach,” says Diluc dryly.

            “Come, Diluc. You know me better than that,” says Kaeya, his voice equally dry.

            Diluc watches in silence as Kaeya fills both glasses with nonalcoholic apple cider then hands one to him. “Thanks.”

            Kaeya nods, then wanders into the living room. With nothing better to do, and really nowhere else to go, Diluc follows. They sit on opposite ends of the couch, the entire middle cushion between them, even though Kaeya folds one of his legs so that his ankle is crossed over his opposite leg’s knee.

            “How’s your head feeling?” Diluc asks after a few minutes.

            “Better. You know the drill for these migraines.”

            “I did,” says Diluc, “but I’ve never seen you quite this bad before.”

            Kaeya sighs. “Probably because I’ve never read that much Khaenri’ahn before. Ever. I’m kind of surprised I’m still capable of it.”

            Something occurs to Diluc. “You . . . in the guestroom, isn’t some of that wall art . . . it looks –”

            “It is,” says Kaeya, realizing instantly what Diluc is talking about. In Kaeya’s guestroom hang several pictures. Most of them look like a child’s drawings but one confused Diluc because it looked like Khaenri’ahn calligraphy. Now, at the mention of it, an . . . interesting gleam enters Kaeya’s eye that Diluc can’t quite read, but . . . it looks like vicious amusement. It looks like the kind of gleam that Diluc used to cringe from when they were children, knowing that Kaeya was dead set on ruining someone’s life. “It was . . . a gift.”

            “Oh.” Diluc guesses it makes sense now. Crepus had impressed on his sons the importance of manners and etiquette. Giving or throwing away gifts given to you before a certain amount of time had passed, he’d always told them, was rude. Not that Kaeya, who’d come to them with only the clothes on his back and a few knives hidden under them, had ever been inclined to carelessly cast aside anything. Diluc has the feeling that the Khaenri’ahn calligraphy in his guestroom had been a near thing though. He must have put it in the guestroom so that he didn’t have to look at it . . . Perhaps the person who gave it to him was one of Lumine and Paimon’s friends. Maybe he kept it there so the gifter would inevitably see it and know that it was being displayed . . . though that still doesn’t explain that gleam in Kaeya’s eye, but Diluc decides he doesn’t want to know.

            “Sorry to change the subject, but there’s something I need to know,” says Kaeya in a voice that makes it clear he’s not at all sorry to change the subject. Diluc really isn’t sorry that he has either. The less they talk about Khaenri’ah, the faster Kaeya’s head will recover. Hopefully. “Your upcoming legal hearing. I’d like to know the specifics. I know you probably think it’s none of my business, but we’re a little short on suspects at the moment.”

            Diluc shrugs. He hadn’t planned on telling Kaeya to mind his own business. The hearing would be a matter of public record soon enough anyway. “Shortly after I returned to Mondstadt, Illan contacted me. He’d been having some financial troubles, after half a decade of bad harvests and was reluctantly looking to sell some of his land. He preferred selling it to someone he knew, and said since I’d just gotten back, it seemed like a sign. I wasn’t really looking to expand . . . but Illan seemed desperate, so . . . I bought some of his lands as a satellite property for Dawn Winery. In the original contract he drafted, the property line was defined by a stream –”

            “Oh, can I guess where this is going?” Kaeya interjects. “You saw at a glance that the stream was migrating, and insisted on using a more fixed landmark to define the property line. A rock formation or hill, I’m guessing?”

            Diluc gives him a look. “If you can read my mind you probably shouldn’t right now. Not until you’re completely recovered from your migraine.”

            Kaeya smirks and continues, again, neither confirming nor denying that he can read Diluc’s mind. “So now, perhaps in part due to the Stormterror incident, the stream has migrated, as you predicted, and Ilsie is screaming ‘No fair!’ How did I do?”

            “I think you already know,” says Diluc. “She, however, does not have a case. The contract we signed clearly states where the boundaries are. The unsigned contract that Illan first presented to me has no bearing on anything because I never signed it.”

            “Yes. That’s how unsigned contracts work,” Kaeya agrees.

            “Though the contract that we did sign didn’t require it, I have offered to grant them an easement to access the stream for irrigation,” says Diluc. “Ilsie is not satisfied with that, however.”

            “That snooty, nail-biting bigot is never satisfied with anything less than everything,” Kaeya says, looking annoyed, and Diluc knows that he’s remembering the bratty, bossy child Ilsie used to be, who always talked down to Kaeya, tried to relegate him to the role of a servant, and insisted she was going to marry Diluc and teach him better than to be friends with foreigners. “I, fortunately, have not seen her in years, but I take it she’s exactly how I remember her?”

            “Yes,” says Diluc.

            “What’s Uncle Illan thinking, letting her bring this to a legal hearing? He signed the contract. He should be the one –”

            “Illan had a stroke last winter,” Diluc interrupts him. “You didn’t know?”

            A look of sad surprise crosses Kaeya’s face. Then his eye narrows. “How bad?”

            “Pretty bad.”

            “So . . . his mind . . . ?”
            “From what I’ve heard there’s not much of him left,” says Diluc regretfully.

            Kaeya sighs. “That’s unfortunate . . . and this legal hearing is inconvenient. I’ll have to wait until it’s over before I interrogate Ilsie. Otherwise it could be seen as an intimidation tactic –”

            “No,” Diluc says flatly.

            Kaeya looks confused. “Pardon?”

            “I know you want to be thorough and you don’t have any other leads yet, but the Vanders have been family friends for generations,” Diluc says. “I want conflicts with them to go away, which they won’t if you stomp in and accuse Ilsie of poisoning me. Their family especially doesn’t need that now with Uncle Illan in the state he’s in.”

            His tone . . . is harsher than he means for it to be. Unfortunately Kaeya reacts to it as he tends to these days. His expression grows taunting and his tone grows aloof.

            “You do realize that Illan’s mental state makes it all the more likely Ilsie’s the one behind this, don’t you? What? You don’t?”

            Diluc glares at him, feeling his temper rise. “Illan’s mental state has nothing to do with anything, and you will leave him out of this.”

            “And if I don’t? Oh, and for the record, his mental state has everything to do with why Ilsie’s now at the top of my suspect list.”

            “List? You don’t have a list. You only have one name on it and so you’re about to start hounding people who don’t deserve it to keep up the appearance of doing something,” says Diluc. “Typical Knights of Favonius inefficiency.”

            “Oh, Diluc,” laments Kaeya. “You’ve grown so much these past few years. Learned so much. I thought you’d actually started to understand how people actually work. I guess all it takes is the involvement of a childhood friend for you to regress into that little boy who so earnestly believed ‘There are no bad men here.’”

            “No,” snaps Diluc, genuinely angry now. “You yourself taught me better than that when you told me what you really are.”

            “Hm. I guess the lesson didn’t really sink in,” Kaeya muses. “A pity. It would make things easier now. Allow me to explain –”

            “Save your explanation,” Diluc tells him. “You’re not going to harass the Vanders and that’s final.”

            Kaeya smirks in a way that means, “Oh, I am definitely going to harass the Vanders, ha ha ha ha ha!”

            “Kaeya, I’m warning you –”

            A knock on the door interrupts their argument. “Food delivery from Good Hunter,” calls out a voice Diluc doesn’t recognize.

            Kaeya stands and heads back to his workroom. Diluc follows . . . he’s not sure why, but . . .

            When Kaeya opens the door, a young woman is standing there holding a pile of boxes.

            “Food delivery from Good Hunter,” she says in that same disinterested tone. Kaeya accepts the boxes. Puts them on his worktable then pays the woman with a hefty sack of mora.

            “How much food did you order?” Diluc asks. And when? He wonders, since they didn’t stop by Good Hunter or anywhere else on the way back to Kaeya’s place, though in hindsight that would have been a good idea.

            “None,” says Kaeya, “Though it seems like my informant included some for me anyway, for some reason. You can eat it if you want.” He passes the top box to Diluc without opening it, then opens the one underneath. Inside there are papers. Stacks and stacks of papers.

            Out of curiosity, Diluc opens the box Kaeya passed to him. Inside he finds several covered bowls of radish veggie soup and two small loaves of bread. He’s not quite sure why, but he feels his anger draining away. Perhaps because this is the sort of food you send to sick people, and Kaeya . . . “They probably thought you looked like you needed it. You should eat.”

            “Not hungry.” Kaeya is organizing his newly arrived intel, opening each box and sorting out the stacks. “You have it if you’re hungry. It’ll save me from having to make you something. Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with it. I trust my informant. Just take it to the kitchen, please.”

            Oh right. The smell is probably making Kaeya nauseous. Diluc closes the box and takes it to the kitchen, where he sets it down on the table. Then he goes back to the workroom. Kaeya certainly hears Diluc return but doesn’t say anything. The tension hangs in the air between them as Diluc stands there awkwardly, and Kaeya blatantly ignores him.

            Damn it. They’d been doing so well . . . They hadn’t had a real argument in . . . Diluc doesn’t even know how long anymore. For a while it was like they were brothers again and now . . . Now he doesn’t know what to say. He thinks about trying to explain again, and justify why he doesn’t want Kaeya bothering their longtime family friends, but quickly dismisses the idea. It won’t work and will only send them into round two of their argument. Maybe he should apologize, but he doesn’t think that he’s in the wrong. Ilsie might be a full grown brat, but she can’t be having an easy time with what happened to her father, and they are family friends, and Kaeya really has nothing to go on. Diluc can’t condone Kaeya bothering them at a time like this.

            Then Kaeya speaks.

            “Do you mind –”

            Diluc sighs and lets his shoulders slump as he prepares to leave without a fight. It’s Kaeya’s house and Kaeya’s workroom, so if Kaeya doesn’t want him there . . .

            “ – lighting some of the lanterns? It’s getting dark.”

            It’s not quite an olive branch, but Kaeya has thrown him a bone. Diluc nods and sets about his task, using his pyro to light all four of the lanterns Kaeya keeps in his workroom. One at a time and in close proximity to each lantern, so no errant sparks can light up Kaeya’ newly acquired intel.

            “Thanks,” Kaeya says without looking up. “You should go eat now.”

            “Kaeya –”

            “Soup’s best when it’s hot. By the time you’re done, I’ll have this sorted and half of it set aside for you to start going over. I assume you do want to go over it yourself?” Kaeya asks. Now he does look up and meet Diluc’s gaze. Diluc can’t quite read what he sees in Kaeya’s eye, but he thinks Kaeya’s trying to come across as neutral.

            It’s exhausting sometimes, starting from one again and again, after every fight. No longer knowing where they stand with the other or how to get along . . . but it’s better than the alternative. Better than not trying.

            “Yeah,” Diluc says. “Okay.”

Chapter Text

            “Kaeya! No!”

            Kaeya jolts out of the light sleep he’d been in, tossing his blankets off him in the same motion that he used to spring to his feet. His mind, tired though it is, catches on to what is happening quickly. Perhaps because he’d half been expecting it. (He’d slept with his spare eye patch on for a reason, after all.)

            He drops off his bed, lightly to the floor and hurries down the hall to his guestroom.

            “Kaeya! Kaeya!”

            “Diluc!” he calls, opening the door, but stopping outside the room’s threshold. “Wake up, Diluc!”

            “Aergh! No!” Diluc is tossing in his sleep, one hand tangled in his blankets, the other free and clawing at the air.

            Kaeya reaches for the power of his Vision and summons cryo. Small pieces of ice, like irregularly shaped hailstones, begin to pelt Diluc. Many of them miss their target, as expected. Kaeya doesn’t really do precision. No depth perception and all. However, enough of them land where intended to startle Diluc awake.

            “No! Kaeya!” he gasps as his sits upright, still reaching for something he can’t grasp.

            “You were dreaming, Diluc,” says Kaeya, ceasing his very mild attack and summoning cryo’s glow to his hand instead, to give them a bit of light.

            Then Diluc does something that chills Kaeya to the bone. He gives a dry sob.

            “Diluc . . . ? Are you . . . it was just a dream, Diluc,” says Kaeya uncertainly. “You’re alright . . .”

            “I’m just so damn sick of this,” Diluc utters, voice shaking.

            “Hopefully this is the last night of it,” says Kaeya. “It takes an extra day for the poison to leave your system sometimes. In your case it’s not surprising, since you’ve been being dosed for weeks. Tomorrow night you should sleep soundly.” As long as he hasn’t come in contact with it again. They still haven’t found the damned source, and that worries Kaeya.

            “Do you know how many times I’ve seen you die in my dreams now?” asks Diluc.

            “Er . . .” Kaeya hasn’t dwelled too much on what Diluc has been dreaming. He’s been too focused on how to put a stop to this mess . . . and he spent half the day suffering from a migraine. “Sorry. I’m alright though. You can see that, can’t you? I’m here. You’re here. In my house. We’re both safe.”

            Diluc buries his face in his hands.

            “Do . . . do you want to talk about it?” Kaeya asks, very hesitantly.

            “Not really.”

            No surprise there. Kaeya hadn’t expected him too. He’s not sure what to do now, however. Leave Diluc to go back to sleep? Hang out awkwardly here in the doorway, in case Diluc needs him?

            His stomach suddenly provides the distraction they need, growling loud enough that Diluc turns to look at him.

            “Er, sorry,” says Kaeya.

            “You should eat something,” says Diluc. “You didn’t eat anything all day.”

            “Yeah . . . You hungry too? I’ll make us some sandwiches or something.” He’s not sure what time it is right now, but he really doesn’t feel like cooking at this hour.

            Diluc’s stomach growls, as if on cue. Kaeya suddenly feels like a bad host, as he remembers that Diluc only had soup and bread for dinner.

            “Come on,” he encourages his brother. “Let’s get something to eat.”

            Diluc nods and swings his legs over the side of the bed. Kaeya heads back to his room quickly, to grab his gloves, then hurries to beat his brother to the stairs. They go to the kitchen and Diluc lights the lanterns then looks awkward until Kaeya motions him to sit at the kitchen table, while Kaeya himself opens his cupboards and grabs what he needs. Bread and ground mustard seed spread from the normal cupboard, ham and a block of cheese from the Mist Flower cooled compartment, plates, a knife, and a cutting board, and done.

            “Do you need help?” asks Diluc as Kaeya starts to slice what needs slicing before assembling the sandwiches.

            For a moment, it’s almost like they’re back in time. Back in the kitchens of Dawn Winery, or the Ragnvindr family mansion, in the middle of the night, raiding the pantry because Diluc’s woken up hungry again, as he did so many times growing up. Kaeya never was sure how or why he always got roped into going down with him, but somehow always did. Diluc always was perfectly capable of assembling his own sandwiches. He actually makes a mean grilled Pile ‘Em Up. Diluc was always very conscious about not making Kaeya do more than his fair share of the work. So many people tried to relegate Kaeya to the role of a servant, which Kaeya . . . didn’t actually mind. He’d had no objection to working for his keep. Diluc, however, did. He never let anyone get away with giving Kaeya extra work.

            “I’ve got this, thanks,” says Kaeya. Moments later he hands his brother a ham and cheese sandwich on a plate.

            “You should take the first one,” says Diluc. “You’re hungrier than I am.”

            Kaeya sighs and slices the sandwich in half. He takes half, and takes a bite out of his own half before starting to assemble a second one, also to be split between them. By the time the second sandwich is finished, they’ve both eaten their halves of the first one. Kaeya quickly makes two more sandwiches while they eat their second halves, then sits down to join Diluc. Sometime, while Kaeya was working, Diluc got up to pour them water. Now Kaeya chills both glasses for them, then finally he can just sit and enjoy his midnight meal for a moment.

            “I’m sorry I woke you up. Again.”

            “Don’t be,” Kaeya tells him. “I woke you up enough times, growing up.”

            “I’m pretty sure I woke you up more,” says Diluc. “Usually for stupid stuff.”

            This . . . is true. Kaeya shrugs. “It’s not like we need to keep score. Besides, this is almost over. This dream poison crap, I mean. Tomorrow you should be nightmare free –”

            “Until I get exposed again,” says Diluc. “If I haven’t already been.”

            “Contingency plan for if you have,” says Kaeya, because he has been thinking about this. “If you have nightmares tomorrow night, you go with Lumine and Paimon to Liyue as soon as your legal hearing is over. Get a room at Wangshu Inn, or any inn at Liyue Harbor you like. Buy new clothes and stay there until you get a good night’s sleep, or until your nails loose that grey taint. Whichever you prefer. I’ll keep searching for the source of the poison and the poisoner.”

            “You know . . . and I’m not saying this to talk down about the knights for once, but you know you’re probably not going to find whoever’s doing this,” says Diluc.

            “We’ll see,” says Kaeya.

            Diluc is technically not wrong, but he’s going by statistics. The Knights of Favonius, as the providers of Mondstadt’s law and order, are trained in many things that are often split up in other nations. They act as soldiers as well as city provosts, taught to defend the city from threats outside the walls as well as the (usually more minor) ones inside the walls. Dealing with violent drunkards and domestic abusers is so much more common than coming across a crime that requires investigation to deal with and solve, but they’re taught to do that as well. Much of what they know comes from manuals rather than first hand experience . . . and the manuals provide a number of grim facts. Such as, if a crime isn’t solved within the first day or two, it will more often than not go unsolved. Also stated in the manual, is that poisonings are among the most difficult crimes to solve, and too often the poisoners manage to slip away, evading justice.

            Kaeya’s not going to let that happen this time.

            “Just . . . don’t run yourself into the ground for this, Kaeya,” says Diluc. Don’t run yourself into the ground for me, is what he means. “I won’t blame you if you can’t find whoever’s doing this.”

            “If someone was poisoning me, would you let it go?” asks Kaeya.

            Diluc scowls at him. “That’s different.”

            “Maybe . . .” It’s really not. “ . . . but it’s a little too early for me to be throwing in the towel, isn’t it? Besides, you might be surprised, but I’m actually quite good at sorting these types of things out.” Kaeya doesn’t expect Diluc to know, mainly because he takes great pains to deflect the glory of his achievements onto others, but Kaeya is damn good at investigating and figuring crimes out. He didn’t realize just how good until after Diluc left the knights and Mondstadt . . . and Kaeya moved from Diluc’s shadow into Jean’s, as she worked her way up the ranks, placing her focus on service to the city rather than military matters. Then there was that mess with the traitor, Inspector Eroch . . . which, when Kaeya thinks about it, Diluc really should suspect he had a hand in. Eroch didn’t just out himself as a traitor, after all, and who better to search for and out a spy than . . . well, another spy? All that aside, Kaeya has no intention of letting whoever’s poisoning Diluc get away with it. No matter what anyone tells him, or how they may try to reign him in, no matter how much time passes or whatever consequences he himself must face. Whoever did this is going to pay for it. People don’t get to hurt Kaeya’s family and get away with it. Not anymore. Not now that Kaeya’s no longer a helpless child like he was when . . . well, that’s a whole different story, and has nothing to do with this, and Kaeya knows better than to dwell on it, since he doesn’t want migraines two days in a row.

            “Just be careful,” Diluc urges him, oblivious to Kaeya’s thoughts.

            “I always am.”

            Diluc looks like he has more to say but stops himself, which is probably a good thing. Diluc is right that the two of them only really get along when they’re not talking these days. It’s kind of sad, in a way. Kaeya misses the old days, but he really has no one but himself to blame that they’re gone.

            “Earlier today, you mentioned Chongyun told you something about dream poison that you were going to tell me,” Diluc says a few minutes later, after their sandwiches are finished, but they’re both still sitting at the table for reasons neither of them are probably completely sure about.

            “Oh. Right,” Kaeya remembers. “I should have told Jean too. I forgot. I’ll have to tell her tomorrow.” Then he launches into a brief recounting of what Chongyun told him, about the outbreaks of “possessions” in villages that were cured by a mysterious “exorcist.” Diluc’s face darkens throughout the tale and Kaeya can tell that he is just as furious as Chongyun was. Kaeya doesn’t blame him. Diluc’s spent over two weeks experiencing what the victims of that conman went through. Kaeya himself has experienced dream poison too, but it’s been so long that to him it’s just a bad but fleeting memory now. However, seeing what it’s done to his brother, who is the strongest person Kaeya knows, helps put into perspective just how bad this plant is.

            “The reason why this is relevant to us,” Kaeya tells Diluc at the story’s end, “is that it means there are definitely people who know about dream poison in Teyvat, and who have, or at least had access to it. They could have their own source now, that’s not imported from Khaenri’ah anymore. I don’t know the specifics one would need to grow it, but it’s a weed, so . . . I imagine it’s not hard.”

            “I have some contacts who are familiar with Liyue’s black market,” Diluc says. “I’ll check in with them, see if they’ve heard anything about dream poison.”

            “It can’t hurt, but I doubt it will do any good,” Kaeya tells him.

            “Why do you think that?” asks Diluc, his tone curious rather than challenging.

            “Right now, dream poison’s biggest value is that almost no one knows what it does,” Kaeya tells him. “It’s been used to scam people into buying a fake demon possession cure, and to try to drive you insane, and probably for a number of other nefarious deeds, and until I recognized the signs, no one’s been the wiser, but only because no one knew something like it even existed. Once word gets around that it exists, it’s going to lose a lot of its power.”

            “I see. You’re right,” Diluc agrees. “Especially since the symptoms are pretty . . . obvious.” He looks at his hands, which are bare since he didn’t bother putting on his gloves after Kaeya woke him up from his nightmare. His nails and veins are still tinted grey. Maybe it’s Kaeya’s imagination, he hopes it’s his imagination, but they look darker now than they did last night when Kaeya first saw them. Or it could be the light . . . but Kaeya’s not optimistic enough to think that’s really true. He has the feeling that his contingency plan is going to have to be put into place. As soon as the legal hearing is over. Which, he won’t deny, will be convenient, since it will get Diluc out of his way, so he can do what needs to be done.

            Diluc’s thoughts seem to be running parallel to Kaeya’s own, because he looks up and catches Kaeya’s gaze. “This should actually be proof that Ilsie isn’t involved in this mess.”

            Kaeya raises his eyebrow. “How so?”

            “Well, as soon as we see her hands at the hearing, we’ll know for certain, since she won’t be wearing gloves,” says Diluc. “Her nail biting habit, remember?”

            Oh, Kaeya remembers. He never did like Ilsie, both because she was a stuck up, bigot, who deliberately and openly tried to get between him and his brother, and because she was just flat out disgusting. She had the very bad habit of compulsively biting her nails, not just a little like many normal people, but all the way down to where the nailbeds fused to the fingers’ skin and then some. When she no longer had nails to bite, she’d bite the skin of her fingers, often drawing blood and it was just . . . gross.

            “Well, we’ll definitely get to see her nails, so we’ll know if she’s been exposed recently, but even if she hasn’t, that doesn’t prove her innocence,” Kaeya says, not sure where Diluc is going with this. The tint should start fading from the nails a few days after a person stops being exposed. Even if Ilsie exposed herself to dream poison while having a hand in preparing the poison for Diluc, chances are high that she’s no longer showing the symptoms.

            “I mean because of her nail biting habit, she can’t have touched it at all,” says Diluc. “She’s never been able to wear gloves.”

            Kaeya shrugs. “That still doesn’t prove . . . well, anything. She could use her bare hands to eat dream poison without having lasting effects, if that damn book is accurate. Biting the skin off her fingers after she touches dream poison, while gross, isn’t going to be anymore harmful.”

            “But she wouldn’t know that, would she?” asks Diluc. “She wouldn’t take the chance.”

            “We don’t know what whoever’s doing this knows about dream poison or what they don’t know,” says Kaeya. “I know you want her to be innocent so Illan doesn’t have to be inconvenienced –”

            “He doesn’t deserve to be dragged into this mess,” says Diluc. “He’s in poor health, and he was Father’s lifelong friend, and so unless you know for certain that Ilsie had something to do with this, I really, really don’t want you bothering them.”

            Internally, Kaeya flinches. When Diluc puts it that way . . .

            “I . . . will hold off on asking Ilsie any questions,” he finally concedes. “That does not in any way mean that I’m not going to do some looking into her affairs, but I won’t question her unless I have more to go on than her grudge over the property line and her father’s condition.”

            “Thank you.”

            Kaeya gives an internal sigh.

            “I . . . have a question,” says Diluc. “I’m not trying to start another fight. I genuinely want to know . . .”

            “Ask, then,” says Kaeya. “What do you want to know?”

            “You said earlier, and just mentioned it again that you think Illan’s condition has something to do with this?”

            Ah. Diluc . . . doesn’t think like Kaeya does. He really has seen a lot more of the world’s dark side since Crepus’s death, but there are still so many nuances to humanity’s darker nature that he couldn’t have learned all about them in just a few years.

            “It’s not conclusive evidence of anything, but it is . . . a guide of sorts,” Kaeya tries to explain. “You remember how they trained us to think like provosts and ask ‘Who benefits?’ when we’re looking for suspects for a crime? It’s kind of along those same lines, but . . . not. Sorry. I’m not doing a good job of this.”

            Diluc tries not to look confused. “No, it’s fine. I think I get it.”

            “No, you don’t, because I haven’t even explained yet.”

            Diluc makes a strange coughing sound. Once upon a time, he would have laughed then. Oh well. These days, Kaeya will take what he can get.

            “People crave symmetry,” Kaeya says, getting back on track. “Especially when it comes to meting out justice. An eye for an eye, the punishment should fit the crime, and all that. Every civilization’s code of justice is at least in part based around it because it’s just . . . human nature. Does that make sense?”

            “I understand what you’re saying, but not in terms of how it relates to this,” Diluc answers honestly.

            “Okay. So, Ilsie knows that you have nothing to do with her father’s current condition. Probably. Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past someone who regularly eats her own fingertips –”

            “Kaeya.”

            “Right. We’ll assume that she hasn’t gone completely crazy. So she knows it’s not your fault that Uncle Illan is in a very poor state. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that she thinks you shouldn’t have to pay for it,” Kaeya tells him. “When people lose something, they often feel like they’re owed it back. Owed it by the world, or by a person who is related to the situation, or sometimes who just happens to conveniently be close enough to blame. If they can’t get it back, then they want to take it out on someone. They want to make someone who they feel is to blame, or just don’t like, feel the same way they do, or have the same thing taken away. So, in this case, Uncle Illan lost . . . lost what made him the person we knew him as. Ilsie, unable to get that back, could very well want that taken from you, the most recent object of her ire. Dream poison could be a means to that end.”

            “Okay, but . . . that’s all circumstantial,” says Diluc. “I do understand what you mean, and I agree it’s probably been the basis for many crimes in the past, but there’s no evidence that’s what’s happened here.”

            “I wasn’t treating it as evidence,” Kaeya explains. “I was treating it as a good enough reason investigate her further. Because it is. However, I’ve already promised not to question her further, for now, so whether you agree with my reasoning or not is a fairly moot point.”

            “I appreciate that.”

            It’s time to change the subject.

            “Are you still hungry? Want another sandwich? Or something else?” Kaeya offers.

            “No. Thank you. I’m full.”

            “You sure? Because I’m still hungry. I’m going to have some frozen sweet cream. You want any?”

            “No, thank you.”

            Kaeya gets up and goes back to the cupboard. He retrieves the crock of frozen sweet cream from the Mist Flower compartment, where it rests directly on the Mist Flower corollas, grabs a spoon, sits back down at the table, and takes a spoonful directly out of the container. It’s bad manners, but it’s his ice cream and his house, so he’ll do what he wants. “I wish I knew how Chongyun makes all those ice cream bars,” he says absently.

            Diluc’s mouth twists wryly. “I’m glad you don’t.”

            “I’m going to ask him.”

            “I’m going to pay him not to tell you.”

            Kaeya pauses in the act of taking another bite. “Fuck you.”

            “Language,” Diluc chides.

            They both stare at each other for several seconds. Then they both crack at the same time and laugh. It’s a little strained and tired, but it’s real, and it’s been forever, both since Kaeya’s seen Diluc laugh, and since they’ve laughed together, and it just feels so damn good, Kaeya could cry. For a moment, he’s almost genuinely happy. He would be genuinely happy if the whole poisoning mess wasn’t still hanging over them, unsolved. Yet if it wasn’t for this poisoning mess, they wouldn’t be here, in the middle of the night, in Kaeya’s kitchen, laughing together, closer to being brothers again than they’ve been since that night they dueled . . . Kaeya will never be grateful for this poisoning incident, or to the poisoner, but . . . well, silver linings and all, as Adelinde had said. Hell, maybe they deserve for something good to come out of this damn mess.

            “I remember how you used to use so many bad words when talking to Ernest, when he was mean to you,” Diluc says after their laughs die away. “He didn’t even know what most of those words meant. I didn’t even know what most of those words meant. I still don’t . . . not that I remember most of them.”

            Kaeya feels a smirk creeping over his face. “That’s probably because I made a lot of them up.”

            “You what?” Diluc’s eyes widen.

            “When I ran out of good curse words that I knew, I just kept running my mouth and saying whatever came to mind. Obviously some of my fake curses were better than others.”

            Diluc fixes him with a look. “Was ‘gorram’ one of them?”

            Kaeya nods.

            Diluc looks at him very accusingly. “I’ve spent over a decade wondering what it meant!”

            “You could have asked, you know.”

            “I did ask! I asked Father! He told me that he would have my mouth washed out with soap if I ever said it again. He believed it was a real curse too – stop laughing, it’s not funny!”

            “No!” Kaeya manages in between guffaws. “It’s hilarious!”

            “You’re the worst, you know that.”

            Kaeya shakes his head and manages to get himself back under control. “I never understood why Crepus never punished me for . . . well, a lot of stuff.” Actually, he does know why he wasn’t punished for certain things, or at least in certain ways. After he and Diluc came back from their Liyue adventure that ended with Kaeya gutting four bandits with a knife, and Diluc turning the last one into a crispy critter, Crepus had never let anyone even think about raising a hand against Kaeya to punish him for anything, but that was because the fallout from that incident had been so . . . complicated . . . but violent punishments aside, there were still plenty of things he could have done to discourage a lot of the worse things Kaeya had done, but Crepus never had. Over time Kaeya had started curbing his bad behavior on his own, because Crepus would look at him with that sadness and disappointment in his eyes, and Kaeya would just feel so damn guilty.

            “You didn’t? You still don’t?” Diluc asks, his voice sobering slightly.

            Kaeya looks at him.

            “He didn’t want to lose you,” Diluc tells him. “I asked him once. He told me that he didn’t want to make you hate him, and he didn’t want to drive you away. I guess it was different with me because . . . you know, I was his by blood. He was all I’d ever known, and I loved him my whole life, so it’s not like I could ever seriously think about walking away from him. He didn’t have that assurance with you, and he didn’t want to take the chance.”

            Kaeya swallows heavily.

            “He told me once, before you came along, that his biggest regret was not being able to give me any siblings. Even more than never getting a Vision and never managing to become a knight,” Diluc tells Kaeya seriously. “He wanted me to have a brother or sister, so we’d be able to look out for each other after he was gone, and always have someone to turn to. After you showed up, he never spoke of that regret again.”

            Pain lances through Kaeya’s head so sharp that it blinds him. It’s a good thing his mouth is empty because he’s suddenly choking on nothing. His spoon clatters to the floor as he grabs both his temples, wincing against the agony.

            “Kaeya?”

            “Sorry. Sorry,” Kaeya gasps out. “Just . . . my head.”

            “Another migraine? Or did the first one never stop?” Diluc sounds worried as he slides a pyro heated hand around Kaeya’s head, to press against the base of his skull.

            “No, when I woke up, I felt fine. It just flared up again. Just one spike. It’s gone now, and I – it’s probably not even a migraine again, it’s probably just . . . ” Kaeya stumbles over his lies, because knows exactly why his head suddenly started hurting. His thoughts had drifted too close to . . . to one of the things he can’t think about without getting a migraine. One of the very worst ones. He’s not even going to try explaining that to Diluc. It would probably ruin all the progress they’ve made in mending their relationship, so Kaeya does what he always does and lies, except he tries to do so in a way that doesn’t make Diluc feel bad or think that this is his fault, but he’s not doing a good job, because Diluc comes to his own conclusions.

            “You’re running on almost no sleep. I woke you up last night too, and you never went back to bed. You went and read Khaenri’ahn instead.” Diluc gives an extremely heavy, extremely guilty sigh. “You need sleep.”

            Kaeya struggles to pull himself together. Forces a pout onto his face and meets Diluc’s eyes directly. “But I want to eat more ice cream.”

            “It will still be here in the morning,” says Diluc with exaggerated patience. “Let’s go. Let’s get you back to bed.”

Chapter Text

            Diluc finally gets the promised breakfast of fry bread, bacon, and Brook’s sausages from Springvale, as well as a fresh fruit salad. It feels like a lifetime ago that Kaeya invited him to it, but it was actually only the day before yesterday. So much has happened since then that thinking about it makes Diluc’s head spin . . . though he can’t help but wonder if there’s more to it than that.

            The book did say that disorientation and memory problems are symptoms of dream poison. At least if Kaeya’s translation is correct, which Kaeya admits he’s not positive on, but Diluc trusts completely. Kaeya may have only been a child when his education in Khaenri’ah was cut short, but Diluc remembers how fast he picked up the Mondstadtian language, and then Liyuean, when their father hired a tutor for them. Now that Diluc thinks about it, Crepus probably hired that tutor as a test of Kaeya’s potential. No one would normally try to cram another language into a child’s brain right after they picked up a new one unless they just wanted to see if it was possible. Diluc can’t exactly blame his father for his curiosity, looking back. Kaeya had picked up Mondstadtian so fast it was uncanny. Most likely his comprehension of the Khaenri’ahn language had been far beyond what was normal for someone of his age, when he stopped learning it, and Diluc trusts his translations now.

            They’re both concerned that they didn’t find out how Diluc was being dosed yesterday. Diluc can tell that it’s weighing heavily on Kaeya’s mind the moment he walks into the kitchen, where his brother is cooking, and sees that Kaeya’s also been jotting down notes for other places to swab for poison.

            It’s on the tip of Diluc’s tongue to say, “I hope you didn’t get up too early for this,” but he stops himself. He really does wish Kaeya had slept a little more and scaled down breakfast, but he doesn’t want to come across as ungrateful or aggressive.

            “’Morning,” Kaeya greets him. “Sleep okay the last half of the night?”

            “I woke up once from another dream,” Diluc admits. “Then had another before I woke up again, a few minutes ago.”

            Kaeya pauses what he’s doing, looking concerned. “Is that typical? Or is this a new development?”

            “It happened at the beginning too. I’d have multiple nightmares, so I just stopped going back to sleep,” Diluc tells him. “The first one’s usually the worst, though.” He tried to tough it out last night because he really does need his sleep. He has a legal hearing tomorrow, and more importantly, he has the feeling that if he looks like he’s deteriorating then Kaeya will push himself even harder.

            “I see . . .”

            Despite Diluc’s worry, Kaeya does look better this morning. Diluc had expected him to look haggard after what was essentially a forty-eight hour day for him, with a migraine thrown in, twenty-four hours of fasting, then getting woken up again in the middle of the night, interrupting his much needed sleep. Though . . . maybe waking up last night had been good for him. He’d finally gotten a meal, at least, so maybe some good did come of it . . . It makes Diluc feel really selfish that he enjoyed that half hour in the kitchen so much, eating sandwiches and laughing with Kaeya again . . . but if some good came of it for Kaeya too, that makes Diluc feel a little better.

            “Well, one way or another, this will be over, or at least put on hold soon,” Kaeya says.

            “Yes,” Diluc agrees. As much as he hates the idea of running away, he knows it’s probably necessary now, at least to get the poison out of his system, so he can recover before diving right back in. Assuming that the poisoning attempts continue. It’s entirely possible that their mystery poisoner might give up their attempt . . . or switch from dream poison to something else. Diluc will have to be on guard.

            “How are you feeling this morning?” Diluc asks. “Is your head okay?”

            “Yes. I’m back to normal, again,” Kaeya assures him. “I’ll be running down some leads. None of them promising, but maybe something will shake free. Go on and sit down. Breakfast is mostly ready. Just a few more pieces of bread to fry. Everything else is done, I was just keeping it on the stove so it would stay warm.”

            He quickly transfers the two skillets of breakfast meats to the table, where the bowl of fruit salad already is, then brings over the fry bread basket. Drinks are already poured for them; milk for Kaeya, who actually likes it, and apple cider for Diluc. Seeing nothing that he can do to help, Diluc obeys and takes a seat. As he does, he notices the third place setting and looks at his brother curiously.

            “Is someone else coming for breakfast?”

            “Maybe,” Kaeya says as he uses his metal chopsticks to remove another piece of fry bread from the oil on the stove. He puts this piece on a plate, since he already put the basket on the table. “Do you know Fischl?”

            “Not personally,” Diluc tells him. “I’ve seen her around though, and heard . . . stories.”

            Kaeya laughs. “She’s a bit eccentric, but who am I to judge? Besides, she’s the best investigator in the Adventurer’s Guild, and she’s always worth talking to if you need information. Chongyun and I stopped by the Adventurer's Guild kiosk on our way out of Mondstadt yesterday. I asked Katherine to have Fischl stop by either last night or this morning, and she obviously didn’t stop by last night, so I’m hoping she’ll show up today. She could be out in the field though, and not have gotten the message yet, or she could be busy and will get back to me in her own time, though I think she’ll come as soon as she gets my message. She’s a friend.”

            A friend. Kaeya seems to have a lot of those now. Diluc remembers a time when he and Jean were Kaeya’s only friends. It seems like a long time ago now.

            Kaeya finishes up cooking his fry bread and joins Diluc at the breakfast table. Only then does Diluc actually begin helping himself to the food. They eat in silence for a bit. Kaeya gets up after a few minutes to retrieve the notes he’d been working on and jot down something else. Perhaps a new idea. Diluc serves himself some more sausages. Brook’s sausages really are amazing. Probably the best he’s ever had.

            “What are you planning to do today?” Kaeya asks, as they’re finishing up their meal.

            “Jean suggested we go through Angel’s Share this morning, and test everything, so that’s where I’ll be,” Diluc says. “I doubt we’ll find anything there. I only bartend a couple nights a week and I never take off my gloves.”

            “Have you checked with Charles to see if he’s had any symptoms?”

            “Not yet. I will. I didn’t notice him looking tired, or having any tint to his fingernails, but I wasn’t looking before.”

            “Same. He seemed fine the last few times I’ve seen him.”

            “You’re still planning on looking into all those people who have grudges against me?” Diluc asks.

            Kaeya nods. “You know . . . I wonder . . .”

            “What?”

            “If I asked my informant to compile a list of everyone who’s got a grudge against me, which of us would win?”

            Diluc shakes his head. “Of course you’d wonder that.”

            “You’re not curious? Which of us has seriously pissed off the most people?”

            “I’m sure it’s you.”

            Kaeya chuckles. “I do my best.”

            In the end, Kaeya’s friend Fischl doesn’t show up for breakfast, but Kaeya doesn’t seem to mind. Diluc doesn’t doubt his claim that Fischl would probably come as soon as she got his message. She’s probably out in the field, and doubtlessly Kaeya plans to check up on her sometime during the day.

            “Will you come back here to stay the night again?” Kaeya asks, as they prepare to go their separate ways for the day.

            Diluc hesitates. Then asks, “Do you mind?”

            “Of course not,” Kaeya says. Diluc doesn’t know why he asked when he knew that was what Kaeya would say. Maybe he just wanted to hear the answer. “I’d actually prefer you do. Since Dawn Winery’s still the most likely place you were exposed and we still haven’t found the source of the poison yet. Oh wait. Hang on, just a second.”

            Kaeya hurries out of the room. Diluc hears him sprinting up the stairs. He returns a moment later with a silver key tied to a short length of blue leather, and holds it out to Diluc. “So you can get in, if I’m not here. You might as well hang onto it, even after this mess is over. You never know when it might come in handy.”

            Diluc doesn’t know why it feels like a knife was just twisted in his chest, but he does his best not to let that show. “Thanks,” he says, and carefully closes his fingers around the key.

            Kaeya has a busy day planned. As expected, there is a very, very long list of people who have reasons to hold and act on grudges against Diluc. Add in the fact that he has to look into them without letting them know and possibly tipping off their mystery poisoner, and he’s got his work cut out for him.

            His first stop is the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters again, to ask after Fischl. He learns there that she is still out in the field, but is expected back first thing tomorrow, so he has them relay his message to Katherine at the kiosk, so Fischl will get it as soon as she enters Mondstadt.

            On his way to his own headquarters, Kaeya meets up with Vile and puts in some new requests with her. Last night he’d made a list of people who he wanted checked for any shady connections with Liyue merchants. These are the ones who he has the strongest suspicions against, and at the top of the list is Ilsie Vander.

            At the knights' headquarters, Kaeya takes the time to scrawl a few lines into logbooks and essentially clear his schedule for the next week, so he can devote all his time to solving this poisoning mess. He’s just finished that when he gets a knock on his office door and Noelle informs him that he has visitors. Namely Lumine, Paimon, Xingqiu, and Chongyun. Kaeya is touched to see them, but not surprised. All four want to know what’s next, and since they’re volunteering . . . Kaeya sends them off with a list of tasks he would have given to some of his other agents. He has to be careful what he send these kids to do. Every single one of them stands out like crazy, but Kaeya has a very long list of suspects, so there is plenty to delegate.

            After that it’s nonstop running around Mondstadt, asking subtle questions where he can for himself and bribing people who have worked for him before to do so again. Around noon, his route takes him close to Angel’s Share and he considers stopping by to see how things have gone there. They must be done, or nearly so, since Angel’s Share opens at noon. He really shouldn’t though, there’s so much more he needs to get done today and he already knows he won’t be able to finish it all, since he plans to head back to his house around dinner time, since he’s pretty sure that’s when Diluc will head back to his place too.

            However, as luck would have it, he catches Jean as she is leaving and falls in step beside her as she makes her way back to the Ordo’s headquarters.

            “Anything?”

            “No. Sorry,” Jean tells him.

            “Nothing to apologize for. We knew how unlikely it was that we’d find the source there. You checked with the other staff, just to be sure?”

            “Yes,” Jean says. “No symptoms.”

            “That’s good, at least. I cleared my calendar for the week, by the way, to work on this, and sent Lumine, Paimon, and the Liyue teens out on some errands for me. I know they don’t technically work for us, so I’ll be paying them out of pocket –”

            “Put it on a miscellaneous expense form and I’ll approve it for reimbursement,” Jean says simply. “Along with anything else you need. We hardly need to justify our expenses when it’s the master of Dawn Winery we’re helping. Grand Master Varka could stride back into headquarters today and wouldn’t bat an eye, no matter how much we spend.”

            “True enough.” Kaeya is a bit wary of them perhaps being seen giving Master Diluc preferential treatment, since Diluc is his family and Jean’s longtime friend, but Jean doesn’t seem worried and Mondstadt does love Diluc. If or when this goes public, there will be backlash against the guilty party and their close associates, and the knights will probably have to switch gears and protect the damn poisoner’s family, and place of employment, and ugh, Kaeya’s just going to leave that to someone else. Of course, if the poisoner is taken alive, Jean’s going to make him go out and calm down the populace so they don’t riot and try to drag said poisoner out of their jail cell for some mob justice before they can stand trial. Ugh again.

            Kaeya peels away from Jean before she reaches the staircases to the upper city and gets back to his work. He meets up with Lumine and her party again, later in the afternoon. As expected, they didn’t turn up anything useful, but at least that’s a few lines crossed off his very long list. By the time dinner rolls around and Kaeya heads home, he’s exhausted and feels like he wasted the whole day, even though he knew how unlikely it was to get results this quickly.

            When he opens the door to his house, Kaeya realizes instantly that Diluc has beaten him home . . . and must have stopped for groceries so he could cook them dinner, because the house smells great, and Kaeya knows he didn’t have all the ingredients needed for Pile ‘Em Ups. He heads into the kitchen, where Diluc is working on a salad to go along with their main course.

            “Hi. I hope you don’t mind that I cooked,” Diluc tells him.

            “Not at all . . . I don’t suppose you checked the precautions when you got back, though?” Kaeya asks.

            Diluc shakes his head, looking troubled. “I didn’t even remember about those.”

            “I’ll check them now. You stay here. I’ll show you all the things to check for later,” Kaeya tells him, then hurries around the house, making sure that the slivers of straws and stray threads he keeps at every window are still exactly where he placed them. Once that’s finished, he hastens back down to the kitchen, where Diluc is just finishing up.

            “I . . . don’t like how you have to do that,” says Diluc, as he puts their sandwiches on the table.

            “Do what?” Kaeya asks.

            “Check to make sure no one’s broken in,” Diluc says. “Your home should be safe from that sort of thing.”

            “Well, it hasn’t happened since I replaced all the windows. The old ones were only utilitarian, but these new ones are a lot harder to pry open from outside. I know because I tested it for myself,” Kaeya tells him. “I probably don’t even need to check anymore, but old habits, you know?” Also a longer list of enemies than ever, that’s still getting longer, and throw in his need to make sure that no one’s sneaking in to poison his brother, but Diluc doesn’t need to hear about that.

            “Have you considered living in the knights’ dormitories?” Diluc asks. “Their security is decent, from what I remember. It might be safer than living here alone.”

            “I like having my own space,” says Kaeya. He also likes having a home that he can’t be thrown out of so easily. He’s not naïve enough to believe that his position as a knight is so secure that it can’t be taken away from him. If he ever does anything to really piss Diluc off, he could find himself jobless. Or if his dad comes back and isn’t pleased by Kaeya’s change of loyalty, he could let something slip. So he’d rather not depend on the Ordo for his accommodations. This way if things go sideways, he’ll have a place to stay for a while, while he decides what to do with his life.

            “If you want . . . after we get this whole dream poison incident sorted out . . . you could move back to the winery,” Diluc offers.

            Kaeya stares at Diluc, his eye opening and closing rapidly several times. His equivalent of blinking in shock.

            “I can pay off your lease if –”

            “There’s no lease. I own the house,” Kaeya tells him, unable to keep a note of pride out of his voice.

            “You – I thought . . . oh.”

            “I appreciate the offer,” Kaeya tells his brother, “but you know if I moved back home to the winery, we’d be trying to kill each other within a week.”

            Diluc winces. Kaeya then realizes just how badly he worded that.

            “I wasn’t trying . . . I wouldn’t have killed you,” Diluc tells him. “That night, I mean. I hope you know that.”

            Kaeya doesn’t know that. He’d seen the look in Diluc’s eyes while they were fighting. He’d felt the burn of his brother’s pyro that had left him completely helpless. He doesn’t resent Diluc for it, but the damage to his hands was extensive and to this day still causes him problems. The scar tissue doesn’t move like normal skin and enough of the nerves are dead that he can’t feel the way he’s supposed to with it. He had to switch from wielding his sword in his left hand to his right because of those injuries, and even after all this time, he still gets the occasional stab of pain running through his hands.

            Kaeya is almost positive that without the archons’ intervention, Diluc would have killed him that night. He would have probably hated himself for it afterward, but that wouldn’t have changed what he’d done. Kaeya can’t honestly say that he wasn’t shaken by what Diluc did and tried to do. Even though there’s a part of him that believes he deserved it . . . well, suffice it to say that Diluc isn’t the only one who’s looked at his brother differently since that night. Kaeya doesn’t want to dwell on that, however, just wants to leave it in the past and move forward. So he does what he always does. He smiles and he lies.

            “I know,” he tells Diluc. “I’m sorry, I worded that badly. What I meant was, I’d drive you and everyone else at the winery crazy within a fortnight. You know it’s true. You’d never have any peace and quiet again with me around, and I would switch from foisting gaudy vases on you, to gaudy accent pillows. I would fill Dawn Winery with them. They would literally be everywhere, and Adelinde would be pulling out her hair, and all your guests would wonder why you had so many, and if your mind might be going, but as soon as they got home, they would order a bunch of accent pillows too, because if Master Diluc has them, they must be high class! Then there would be a shortage of accent pillows, all through Mondstadt, and Liyue Harbor would notice and take advantage, with their not so invisible hand of the market swooping in to –”

            “Enough! Stop!” Diluc tells him, shaking his head. There’s a little strain in his expression, but there’s also a spark of the old Diluc there, of the bright eyed teenager who would beg Kaeya to shut up whenever he went on one of these spiels. Kaeya considers this a win. “I take your point, Kaeya.”

            “I’m still getting you an accent pillow for Midwinter.”

            Diluc actually laughs at that. Kaeya grins. Twice in two days. He’s really on a roll, and dinner is saved. What was shaping up to be possibly the most awkward meal of Kaeya’s life turns out to be normal, for the two of them, and even pleasant. Diluc’s Pile ‘Em Ups are as delicious as only he can make them, the salad is satisfying, and for desert Diluc unveils two slices of sunsettia chiffon cake, Kaeya’s long time favorite, picked up from a local bakery since Diluc’s cooking repertoire doesn’t include any desserts.

            After dinner Kaeya insists on doing the dishes, despite Diluc’s best efforts to finish what he started.

            “It’s how it works,” Kaeya explains to him. “If one person cooks, the other does the dishes.”

            “But I didn’t do the dishes any of the times you’ve cooked,” Diluc protests, and can’t help but feel alarmed that there was some sort of etiquette to this that he missed and made him unintentionally rude. He doesn’t have much experience at staying over at other peoples’ houses.

            “That’s because you’re my guest, so that part of the rule didn’t apply to you,” Kaeya tells him. “So don’t worry. You didn’t unintentionally commit any etiquette breaches.”

            “Stop reading my mind.”

            So instead of doing the dishes, Diluc hovers and tries to find ways to help out, but there’s not much to do. At least there weren’t many dishes anyway.

            “Your legal hearing tomorrow . . . you’ll need something a bit more formal for that, I suppose?” Kaeya asks, once he finishes cleaning up.

            Diluc wore another set Kaeya’s clothes again today. Black trousers, a cream colored shirt, and a navy blue duster. It shouldn’t feel so weird to wear blue, but it does. He nods, now, because he will need something a little more formal for the legal hearing. It wouldn’t do to show up dressed down while Ilsie is in her best.

            “You can look through my closet and take what you want,” Kaeya offers, then leads the way to his room.

            It’s the first time Diluc’s been in Kaeya’s room, here in his own house. By now he’s come to expect well put together rooms that are comfortable and homey. Kaeya’s own room turns out to be no exception. He has a lot of artwork, done in that same childish style, but now Diluc finally gets confirmation that it is done by a child, because some of the pictures feature Kaeya himself, along with a much smaller person in a red dress and hat. So, Klee is the mysterious artist. Diluc realizes now that he should have guessed.

            There’s also a painting that Diluc recognizes as one of their father’s. Crepus loved painting and his style was distinctive. His work still hangs in the homes of many of his friends. Every now and then Diluc stumbles upon a piece of his father’s artwork at a market, and buys it back. He’s not surprised Kaeya managed to find one too, though he does have to marvel how appropriate the subject is. The peacock in the painting is white rather than blue, but it stands out magnificently against the starry midnight sky behind it.

            There’s also a painting of Dawn Winery by an artist Diluc doesn’t know, and a shadow box with all seven types of elemental crystalflies displayed within. A potted Mist Flower grows in front of the window . . . and above it is rigged some sort of contraption made of glass or crystal globes, filled with water. One drop seems to fall every several seconds. It looks . . . like a trap, made to catch anyone who tries to sneak into Kaeya’s bedroom window. Diluc wants to face palm as he thinks about why Kaeya feels it’s necessary.

            Kaeya’s bed is in one corner, neatly made up with navy blue blankets. A lantern and a pile of books on his nightstand, and a pillow resting against the wall are evidence that he still likes to read in bed just as much now as he did when they were younger. He has a desk up here too, but thankfully doesn’t seem to have let his work invade his bedroom. It seems like he’s been writing in ledgers or journals, and one lays open on the desk now. Diluc catches a glimpse of an illustration as he walks by it, following Kaeya to his wardrobe. Perhaps Kaeya is writing stories for Klee?

            “Help yourself to anything,” Kaeya says, opening his wardrobe’s door and stepping back to give him access. “There are some cravats in the drawer at the bottom . . . most of them are blue, but there should be one grey one.”

            Diluc forces himself to stop gawking at Kaeya’s room and put together an outfit. He selects a pair of black slacks, a white dress shirt, a navy blue waistcoat and formal black jacket, then the grey ascot. He takes them to the guestroom, to hang up so they don’t wrinkle before tomorrow, then meets Kaeya back downstairs in the living room.

            It’s getting dark, but there’s still a fair amount of time before bed. Diluc lights a lantern for them then glances around.

            “Feel like a game of chess? If you don’t need to keep working, that is?”

            Kaeya looks up from where he’s lounging on the couch. “I don’t have a chess set.”

            “What?” Diluc is genuinely surprised by that. “But you love chess.”

            “Er . . .”

            “What?” Diluc asks.

            “I actually don’t.”

            Diluc stares . . .and stares. “But . . . we used to always play.” Every single time he asked Kaeya for a game, growing up, his brother would always oblige. Kaeya was always so good at chess. He’s the only one Diluc knows who can regularly rake him over the coals at the game. He’d thought Kaeya loved chess. Had Kaeya only ever played just to humor him?
            “I spend most of the day, everyday, trying to outthink my opponents these days,” Kaeya says, interrupting Diluc’s racing thoughts. “So a game where I have to do the same thing kind of loses its appeal, you know?”

            “Oh. Yes, I can see how it would.” Diluc’s still not sure if Kaeya ever actually liked chess but doesn’t know how to ask.

            “I’ve got some cards, if you feel like playing a few hands with those,” Kaeya says, standing and moving across the room to one of the shelves. “I can’t think of anything we can use for stakes though. When Lumine and Paimon were living here, we used to gamble for candy. You should see how brutal Paimon can get when –”

            Kaeya cuts off abruptly as the window shatters.

            Diluc leaps to his feet and summons pyro to his hand, ready to fling his searing flames. He’s quickly distracted, however, by a sickening thump as Kaeya falls to the floor.

            “Kaeya!” Diluc rushes to his side. As he gets close, his blood runs cold. Because there’s an arrow in Kaeya’s throat, and it’s gone all the way through. Blood is gushing out from both where it entered and where it exited, around the shaft that’s still stuck in his flesh.

            Kaeya chokes on his own blood as he reaches up, vainly trying to press his hands against the flow and stem it.

            “No – damn it, hang on, Kaeya.”

            He needs healing magic and he needs it fast. He’ll never make it to the cathedral, nor is there time to send anyone to bring a healer back. Diluc casts out his mind, trying to think of who could be nearby that could help. He could take Kaeya to the Adventurer’s Guild kiosk and pray that someone with a Vision that gives them healing magic has business there right now. Or – Diona! He’s heard her Vision gives her healing powers and if she’s working tonight then she is so close. Diluc was honestly a little annoyed, at first, that Kaeya’s house is closer to Cat’s Tail than Angel’s Share, though he still doesn’t know why, but if proximity to Diona’s place of employment saves his brother now, Diluc doesn’t care anymore.

            “Di . . . luc . . .” Kaeya chokes out. Blood drips from the corner of his mouth and his eye stares up at Diluc, bright with fear.

            “Hang on. I’m taking you to Diona at Cat’s Tail. She can help. Just keep your eye open and stay awake.”

            Before Diluc can lift his brother, more glass shatters. Diluc looks up just in time to see the floor burst into flames that spread so fast, he doesn’t even have time to breathe before he’s standing in fire. He needs to get Kaeya out of here now . . . but when he turns back to his brother, Kaeya’s not there.

            “Kaeya? Kaeya!”

            The flames are getting higher and hotter, burning him now, what meager resistance his pyro Vision gives him to his own element no longer useful as Kaeya’s house rapidly turns into an inferno . . . and Kaeya has no resistance, even worse, he has a cryo Vision. If Diluc doesn’t get him out of here now, it’s not going to matter if Diona’s at Cat’s Tail or not.

            “Kaeya! Kaeya, where are you?!”

            “Diluc!”

            Diluc awakes in panic and lashes out with his Vision. Pryo sizzles and Kaeya, Kaeya who’s standing by his bedside, shaking him awake . . . screams.

            Diluc’s heart leaps into his throat as he realizes what he’s just done. “No . . .”

            Kaeya stumbles back, clutching his face.

            “Kaeya, no – I’m sorry –”

            Again. Diluc burned his brother again. This time he burned his face. His eye – did he just blind his brother? Please Barbatos, please –

            “Diluc! Wake! Up!”

            Diluc jerks awake, for real this time, as grape sized chunks of ice rain down on him. “Kaeya!”

            “It’s okay. I’m right here,” Kaeya says from the doorway. Safely out of reach of an immediate pyro attack, far enough back that he’d have time to react if Diluc did lash out with his Vision.

            He’s safe. Unburned. Unharmed. No arrow in his throat. He’s fine. Everything should be fine. So why is Diluc’s throat closing up like it always used to when he was younger and he was about to start sobbing.

            He buries his face in his hands and shakes his head. “Sorry,” he tells his brother. “I . . . just . . . sorry.”

            “Aww, Diluc.” Kaeya sounds damn near heartbroken, and that’s Diluc’s fault too.

            Diluc knows he should say something to comfort him, and let him know that he’s alright, but he can’t find the words, and he’s shaking now.

            “Diluc? I’m going to step inside, okay?”
            “No! Don’t!”

            “Okay, I won’t.”

            Diluc shakes his head again. What is he doing? Banning Kaeya from his own guestroom in his own house?

            “I . . . I dreamt I woke up from a nightmare and . . . and burned you. I’m so sorry.”

            “But you didn’t burn me,” Kaeya says evenly. “We’re both okay, Diluc. It didn’t really happen.”

            “I can’t even tell what’s real and what’s a nightmare anymore,” Diluc chokes. “I don’t know – I’m slipping, Kaeya. What if I hurt someone because I don’t know – what if I hurt you?”

            “You won’t,” Kaeya tells him. “Because in the morning, you’re going to go to your legal hearing. Your law readers will stomp Ilsie and her ridiculous claim into the mud. Then you’ll go with Lumine and Paimon to Liyue. You’ll get all new clothes. You’ll go camping so you’re not near anyone else. You’ll get this poison out of your system, and when you come back, I’ll have found and taken care of whoever’s done this to you.”

            Diluc lets out a shaky breath.

            “I’m . . . I’m going to step inside now, okay?”

            When Diluc doesn’t protest this time, Kaeya enters the guestroom and comes to sit down on the edge of the bed. Diluc moves so that he’s sitting beside his brother, his legs swung over the side. He wants . . . more than anything, he just wants to hug Kaeya. Reaffirm that his brother is really there, and alive, and real. Once he would have been able to, would have grabbed him and clung to him without hesitation, but now . . . he just can’t . . .

            Then Kaeya puts a tentative hand on his back, very carefully, like he thinks Diluc might take offense and tell him to back off. Instead, Diluc leans into him. It’s not quite a hug, but . . . it’s enough.

            “Thank you,” Kaeya says, after several minutes of the two of them just sitting there, like that.

            “Er . . . what?” Diluc asks. His voice is still a little shaky, but at least he doesn’t sound on the verge of falling apart now.

            “Um . . . not sure, I’m still thinking. Give me a second,” Kaeya says.

            “You . . . make no sense.”

            “Well, I was told that one ‘thank you’ means more than a hundred thousand ‘sorrys’ so I figured I’d try to apply it here,” Kaeya says, his tone light, but not mocking. Then it sobers slightly. “So, while I am so sorry this is happening to you, and sorry I haven’t put a stop to it yet . . . well . . . thank you for coming to me for help. Thank you for trusting me that much.”

            “Kaeya . . .” Diluc wonders now how he could have ever thought Kaeya would betray him.

            “I know you don’t think too highly of the Ordo, but if you look into it, you may notice that since Jean started getting promoted, unsolved crimes have been dropping rapidly. We have gotten pretty good at closing them out. Even though poisonings are . . . are . . . Diluc?”

            “What’s wrong?” Diluc asks, recognizing the sudden change in Kaeya’s tone. He forces himself to sit up, bracing himself for trouble. Kaeya stands and stares back and forth between Diluc’s boots, neatly lined up beneath the guestroom’s chair, and Kaeya’s own boots, the pair he loaned Diluc, where they rest against the wall.

            “Last night your boots were by the bed. Today they’re by the chair. While the boots I gave you to wear are exactly where they were last night. Diluc, have you been wearing my boots or your own boots?”

            “Oh.” Diluc remembers now. He never gave Kaeya his favorite boots back. “I had to wear my own boots. I couldn’t fit my feet into yours. They’re too narrow. What’s – oh . . .”

            Suddenly Diluc gets it.

            Kaeya quickly moves to Diluc’s boots and uses his cryo to summon light.

            “Here – a glove,” Diluc hurries to find one of the full fingered gloves and toss it to Kaeya before Kaeya can reach into his boot and check it bare handed in his haste, like he was right about to.

            Kaeya quickly puts on the glove then reaches into the boot. When he pulls his gloved hand back out, he frowns at it. “I can’t tell . . . need something white.”

            Diluc starts trying to look for something, but Kaeya pulls a knife out from somewhere and the next thing Diluc knows, he’s hacked off part of the sleeve of his nightshirt and is using it as a swab. The frown doesn’t leave his face as he pulls it back out and stares down at it.

            “Is it . . . ?”

            “Damn it, I still can’t tell,” Kaeya growls. “The hell with this!”

            Then Kaeya does a bit of fast knife work and cuts open the boot, slicing the bottom of it right off, and any other time Diluc would be annoyed and snapping at him that those are his favorite boots, that their father bought them for him, that he just got them resoled a month ago . . . and damn it, Diluc sees now that he should have thought of that sooner.

            “There’s something inside the insole,” Kaeya says, as he holds what’s left of the bottom of the boot near his face to get a better look, and carefully prods the insole with one finger. “I think it’s been hollowed out and packed with . . . fuck!”

            Then Kaeya reels backwards, coughing. Diluc’s jaw slackens in horror as he sees what looks like dark mist hanging in the air, by the light of Kaeya’s cryo. Instinctively, he starts toward his brother.

            “No! Stay back!”

            Kaeya’s cryo attack catches Diluc in the chest and knocks him all the way to the door.

            “Kaeya . . . !” Diluc doesn’t even know what to do now. He wishes that this was just another nightmare, but the stinging in his chest from Kaeya’s cryo love tap lets him know otherwise. He’s helpless to do anything but watch as Kaeya turns away from him, coughing and choking on dream poison.

This fanfic now has art!  Courtesy of HAL_berd, who's got written some great Diluc and Kaeya fics too!  

Chapter Text

            Diluc doesn’t know what to do. He can only wait until Kaeya stops coughing, hovering at the room’s threshold like Kaeya was only minutes ago. Every one of his instincts is telling him to get to Kaeya’s side, but he knows . . . he can’t. They can’t both inhale the poison. He needs to be able to take care of Kaeya, and get him through this.

            Finally, finally, Kaeya stops coughing. He stands up. Then he unclips his Vision from the loose trousers that he wears to sleep and sets it on the desk. Next he rolls up one trouser leg and divests himself of a knife. Then the sleeve that he didn’t hack part of off, to disarm himself of another. Diluc doesn’t see where he pulls the third knife from. Kaeya doesn’t immediately put this one on the desk, but uses it to . . . it looks like he cuts something out of the collar of his nightshirt, then drops it to the floor and crushes it beneath his foot. Diluc doesn’t know what that’s about, but is more than a little distracted by the fact that, counting the knife he used to cut apart Diluc’s boot, Kaeya seems to sleep with four knives on his person.

            Diluc only just manages to avoid asking any really stupid questions, like “Are you okay?” That one was on the tip of his tongue, but he would have felt so stupid if those words left his mouth. Because while Kaeya might be okay right this second, very soon he will be very not okay. “We need to get you to the cathedral. Or the Ordo’s infirmary. That’s closer –”

            “No. I doubt we have that much time,” Kaeya tells him. He motions for Diluc to back up, further into the hall. Diluc does so, but stays close enough to keep eye contact with Kaeya. “I honestly have no idea how bad this is going to get or how long it will last, but there is nothing any healer can do for me now and you know it.”

            That’s not completely true. They might not be able to purge the poison from his system since they have no experience with it, but they can keep him on this side of Celestia’s gates if the poison, say, stops his heart or starts doing internal damage . . . though maybe not if the damage is inside his head. Most healers don’t want to mess around with their magic inside peoples’ skulls.

            “I doubt it will kill me. I don’t think I inhaled too much. I’ll wait it out here. Meet me in the living room. I want to try to wash up first . . . get as much off me as I can.”

            Diluc has his trepidations about leaving Kaeya, even for a minute, but nods. He heads downstairs, to the living room where he waits, but not for long. Kaeya comes down the stairs only a minute later. From the looks of him, he just drenched himself, and maybe scrubbed at his face. Whatever dream poison dust may have settled on him is definitely well diluted now . . . and no longer capable of going airborne, Diluc realizes. Again, Kaeya is watching out for him.

            Kaeya is still moving okay as he goes to a shelf and activates some sort of hidden mechanism behind his owl statue. The shelf swings open to reveal a narrow staircase behind it and Kaeya heads down it, motioning for Diluc to follow. Diluc does so, not voicing the multiple questions he now has. There will be time to ask those later . . . he hopes.

            Kaeya’s basement, it turns out, is a sort of workshop. Diluc sees some distilling equipment and vats, an alchemy bench, and shelves of ingredients, many with the skull symbol marked on them clearly, the universal symbol for danger. He wonders if Kaeya lets Klee down here. Dangerous ingredients aside, it seems to be a fairly normal workspace, with no real reason to hide it . . . until Kaeya goes to the second hidden door and leads Diluc into another secret room, this one with a chair bolted to the floor.

            “You have a torture chamber in your basement?” he can’t help but ask, incredulously.

            “It’s an interrogation room,” Kaeya says tonelessly. Like that’s not the exact same thing. He pulls several coils of rope off a hook on the wall and hands it to Diluc. “You and your sidekick aren’t the only ones who occasionally question Abyss Order agents, you know. While you were facing Stormterror, I –” Kaeya suddenly staggers. Diluc grabs him before he can fall.

            “Kaeya?”

            “Dizzy,” Kaeya mutters. Diluc doesn’t think it’s his imagination that Kaeya’s face is rapidly growing paler. “I think it’s starting to hit me now.”

            “Damn it.”

            “Tie me to the chair,” Kaeya says, and manages to stumble to it under his own power, though he all but collapses in it. “Tight. Arms, legs, around my chest . . . I don’t know if I’ll get violent. Better not risk it. The book said it causes hallucinations. I might not recognize you.”

            Diluc doesn’t like this. Scratch that, Diluc hates this . . . but he realizes the necessity of it. So he obeys Kaeya and starts tying his brother to the chair.

            “Don’t bring anyone else here,” Kaeya tells him, a bit of a plea in his voice. “I don’t know what I’m going to say.”

            “I understand,” Diluc tells him. Kaeya might say something incriminating, about his past. That’s probably a large part of the reason why he wants to wait this out here, in his home, though he was probably right about not having enough time to make it to the cathedral or Ordo infirmary too. Having a meltdown in the city streets would be all kinds of bad.

            Kaeya closes his eye and waits as Diluc binds him to the chair. Diluc makes sure to do a good job. The less Kaeya is able to move, the less he’ll be able to hurt himself . . . hopefully. He double checks his knots to make sure each one is secure, then, finally finished, steps back.

            “Now what?” he asks, though he’s not sure how much more they can do to prepare for this.

            Kaeya opens his eye. The diamond star that is his pupil is dilated unnaturally large now, and the veins around his eye are darkening. “Now you go back upstairs,” he tells Diluc. “Try to sleep, if you can. Stay out of the guestroom. Take my bed, if you want, or the couch.”

            Diluc stares at him in disbelief then shakes his head. “I’m not leaving you, Kaeya.”

            “Shut the door on your way out. Don’t worry, it’s soundproof.”

            “I said I’m not leaving you,” Diluc says again.

            “There’s no reason for you to stay for this.”

            “Not wanting you to go through this alone is reason enough.”

            Kaeya’s eye closes and opens several times quickly, and he stares at Diluc with an odd expression on his face. “Please leave?”

            “No.”

            “I don’t want you to see this.”

            “I understand that, but I can’t leave you alone.” Diluc doesn’t want to come back and find that Kaeya’s bitten off his tongue, and he can’t tell Kaeya that because he doesn’t want to put the idea in his head. He also wants to be there in case Kaeya experiences any dangerous side effects. If Kaeya’s heart stops, Diluc might be able to restart it with chest compressions. If he stops breathing, Diluc knows the kiss of life . . . and if there’s nothing he can do to save Kaeya, then at the very least he can be there so Kaeya won’t have to die alone. He owes his brother that much.”

            “Please . . . you have to leave.”

            Diluc steps back out into the other room for just a moment, to get a chair. He brings it back, then sits down.

            “What are you doing back here? Get out of here!” Kaeya snaps.

            “I’m staying with you.”

            “No! Go! Get out of here! You have to go!” A desperate note enters Kaeya’s voice now.

            Diluc just shakes his head, unwilling to argue.

            “Please . . .” Kaeya bows his head and exhales shakily. Then he speaks again, and Diluc doesn’t think he’s ever heard Kaeya sound so broken before. “You must hate me,” he says, his voice barely above a whisper. “Is that why you won’t listen to your big brother anymore?”

            “You’re not my big brother.”

            Damn it. Diluc hates himself for saying it the moment the words leave his mouth, but it’s instinct. They never did know which one of them was the elder. Kaeya thought he was. Diluc was sure he himself was. Back in the day, they usually just called each other “brother.” “Big brother,” was used to provoke a reaction from the other . . . but Diluc shouldn’t have fallen into that trap. He should have reacted to the other part of what Kaeya said and told him he doesn’t hate him.

            Kaeya makes a sound that’s alarmingly like a sob and Diluc feels his nerves immediately go on edge because Kaeya doesn’t cry. He has never seen or heard Kaeya cry.

            “I’m sorry,” Diluc says quickly. “I didn’t mean that –”

            “I tried to save you, you know.”

            The non sequitur catches Diluc off guard. “What?”

            “When the bad men came into our home . . .” Kaeya stares at him with an expression that would be so earnest . . . if it wasn’t so shattered. “If I could have killed more of them . . . if I’d had more arrows . . . if I hadn’t let them grab me . . .”

            Diluc’s jaw slackens as it starts to dawn on him just what Kaeya is saying.

            “When they smashed my head against the stones . . . I just . . . I couldn’t get up,” Kaeya tells him. “I tried. I tried so hard but my body wouldn’t work . . . It was like I was asleep with my eyes open. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t stop them. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t save you. Or Mom. Or the new baby.” Kaeya’s voice breaks. “It was my fault. It never even got to be born.”

            “Oh Seven . . .” Diluc can only stare in horror. “Kaeya . . .”

            “And they laughed . . . they wouldn’t stop laughing. Even when Mom was screaming, when they cut the baby out of – No! NO!” Kaeya jerks violently. If he wasn’t bound to the chair he would have ended up on the floor. “Don’t hurt her! Don’t hurt her, she’s going to have a baby, stop it, STOP IT! DON’T HURT THEM! STOP!”

            “Kaeya . . . you’re not there,” Diluc tells him. He doesn’t know what to do, what to say, nothing in his life has ever prepared him for anything remotely like this. “You’re not there anymore. You’re safe. You’re in Mondstadt. Kaeya, look at me . . .”

            His voice catches Kaeya’s attention.

            “You have to get out of here,” Kaeya tells him. “Please . . . run . . .”

            “You’re not there, Kaeya,” Diluc says, as comfortingly as he can.

            Kaeya’s gaze falls to the floor. “I used to pray you wouldn’t hate me. That you didn’t die hating me . . . but of course you did . . . Of course you did.”

            “No.” Diluc’s reaches out to grip Kaeya’s shoulder before he can consider whether or not touching his brother right now will do more harm than good. “Your little brother never hated you, Kaeya. I promise you that. What happened wasn’t your fault.”

            Kaeya stares up at Diluc with something like wonder. It takes all of Diluc’s willpower not to recoil, both from the sight of tears in Kaeya’s eye, and from the way that the dream poison has turned the veins around his eye black. It looks almost he has a spider web pattern painted onto his face now. A spider web . . . or fractured glass. Then Kaeya blinks and the tears spill out of his eye. Diluc reaches into his pocket with his free hand, searching for a handkerchief. If he was in his own clothes, he’d have one, even in the loose trousers he sleeps in, but Kaeya doesn’t have servants to make sure he’s never without a handkerchief, and now Diluc comes up empty. No matter. He carefully uses his sleeve to wipe away his brother’s tears. For a second he dares to think that maybe the worst is past, and that if he can just keep Kaeya calm, he’ll be okay. Then Kaeya opens his mouth.

            “Diluc?”

            “Yeah. It’s me.”

            Kaeya’s expression changes to an almost mocking smile. “Going to kill me?”

            Diluc freezes. Then he withdraws his hand.

            “Go on. Get it over with.”

            “I’m not going to kill you, Kaeya.”

            Kaeya gives an ugly laugh. “Just get it over with, damn you! Don’t toy with me!”

            Diluc doesn’t respond to that. He doesn’t know what to say. Kaeya jerks against his restraints. When he speaks again, his words are slightly slurred, Diluc notices.

            “Don’t fucking toy with me! You can’t leave me like this! Look what you did to my fucking hands! They’re never going to heal right! Just get it over with, damn you!”

            Diluc’s gaze slides down to Kaeya’s hands. They’re gripping the edges of the chair arms now, palms down, so he can’t see the scarring he left behind, except on Kaeya’s left thumb . . . the one that’s missing its nail.

            “You know what I am. You can’t let me live. Whether you stay with the knights or not, your precious honor won’t allow you to suffer a traitor in their ranks. Of course I’d have to be on their side to actually betray them, and I was never on their side. Nor on yours,” Kaeya laughs harshly. “Don’t you see? I’m a cuckoo’s chick. It’s only thanks to laziness that I never pushed you out of the nest. But do you know? Right before cuckoos die they go insane. They flap frantically and beat their wings against anything and everything, and snap their own bones . . . and any other bird that gets too close is just collateral damage. Are you really going to leave me like this and risk me doing that to you, Noctua?”

            “You’re not a cuckoo. You’re my brother.”

            That shuts Kaeya up. For a second, at least. Even drugged out and trapped in his worst memories, Diluc finally claiming him as his brother again gets through to him.

            “Brother . . . yes. We were brothers. You were my second chance.” Kaeya’s voice trembles. “I thought maybe . . . maybe you’d understand. Maybe you’d forgive me . . .but you didn’t. You burned me.”

            “I shouldn’t have. I was so very wrong.”

            “I deserved it.”

            “You didn’t.”

            “Please . . . just get it over with. If it’s not you it will just be my dad, whenever he comes back around. Because I’m not . . . I’ve made my choice.” Kaeya closes his eye.

            “You chose me, and Mondstadt. I’m sorry I didn’t see it then.” Diluc puts a hand on Kaeya’s head, to try to lend him some comfort. “If your father ever does come back, we’ll deal with him together.”

            “No. I don’t want him anywhere near you.” Kaeya’s tone grows frantic again. “Take Klee and go. Quick.”

            Diluc winces, realizing that he’s just led this whole mess of a hallucination fueled conversation in a circle. “He’s not here, Kaeya.”

            “Please, just get her out of here! Please! If you ever gave a damn about me at all, please get Klee . . . ah . . . ah . . .”

            “Kaeya?!”

            Kaeya gasps for air and slumps forward against the ropes binding him to the chair. A rattling sound emanates from his throat.

            “Kaeya? Talk to me.”

            “Can’t . . . breathe . . . can’t . . . can’t . . .”

            “You can,” Diluc tells him. It’s probably the wrong thing to say, but he doesn’t know what else to tell him. “Just . . . just breathe in and out. Slowly, if you need to. Yes, slowly is probably better.”

            It’s a long, agonizing few minutes as Kaeya struggles to breathe. Diluc tries to encourage him, but he’s not sure if Kaeya can even hear him at this point. At one point, Diluc presses his hand against the side of Kaeya’s throat, to feel his pulse, and almost recoils as he realizes that it’s racing out of control, far faster than any human’s pulse ever should.

            “Too . . . much . . . smoke . . .” Kaeya says finally when the worst of the panic attack seems to have passed. “Need . . . find . . . quick.”

            “It’s okay. There’s no smoke here. You’re okay.”

            “Diluc . . .”

            “I’m here.”

            “Hang . . . on. Figuring . . . out . . . how to get you . . . out . . . of here,” Kaeya tells him.

            Diluc doesn’t bother asking “What?” anymore. Kaeya’s too far from lucid, too tightly trapped in the dream poison’s embrace.

            “Get ready to crawl.”

            It only takes Diluc a second to remember when and where he last heard Kaeya say those words, and the context they were spoken in. He looks down, instinctively, toward Kaeya’s hands and sees his fingers flexing, as they often do when Kaeya summons cryo. He knew what he was doing when he left his Vision in the guestroom. Now, even though he’s going through the motions, no ice begins crystalizing.

            “No . . . Work! Why won’t it work?”

            “It did work,” Diluc tells him, to try to convince him. He’s influenced his hallucinations negatively, a little. Maybe he can do so positively. “Look, I’m free from the wreckage. Your cryo got it off me. You saved me.”

            “Saved . . . you?” Kaeya stares at him. The fear and frustration melt off his face, replaced by sorrow. “I couldn’t . . . save you. I’m so sorry, Crepus. I should have been there.”

            An inelegant noise that’s definitely not a surprised sob catches in Diluc’s throat.

            “You gave me everything . . . and I let you down. Oh no. Oh no . . . Diluc . . . not Diluc too. No, please no. Please no . . .”

            It’s the longest night of Diluc’s life. Even longer than the first night after his father died, and he and Kaeya had their falling out. He’s sure it’s even longer for Kaeya, who’s trapped in his worst nightmares, most of which actually happened, but if they didn’t it seems like little enough effort for the poison to warp the past to put him through the maximum amount of pain.

            Diluc gets to hear Kaeya beg for his mother’s life, and for his sibling’s life, and plead for everyone he currently cares about not to die: Jean, Lisa, and Amber, Lumine and Paimon, those two teens from Liyue (Diluc hadn’t realized he was so close to Xingqiu and Chongyun), Noelle, Albedo, Razor, and Fischl, even Childe (just what?), Diluc himself repeatedly, someone named Vile and a handful of others whose names sound familiar, and especially Klee. When his hallucinations make him think Klee is in danger, Kaeya throws himself against the ropes binding him so hard, he’ll have marks when this is all over.

            Over the course of the night, Kaeya has three more panic attacks, in which he struggles to keep breathing. In between them, he screams himself hoarse, begs for death, curses in half a dozen languages, and manages to twist his head down and bite a hole in his shirt, ripping it from shoulder to collar, and forcing Diluc to cut away all the cloth of Kaeya’s shirt above the ropes, so he doesn’t choke himself on the shreds of it. Thankfully, there are plenty of knives here in this interrogation room, and as soon as Diluc is finished with the one he chose to use, he makes very certain to get it far away from his brother. He hates the way Kaeya stares at the blade so longingly, like he knows it can save him from the hell he’s currently trapped in.

            It takes the poison hours to run its course in Kaeya’s system. Then finally, finally, finally, it starts to slowly loose its hold. Kaeya’s hallucinations seem to transition from one horror to the next more slowly . . . and don’t seem to rattle him as bad. There are more spans of blessed silence between the screams, curses, and pleas. At first only a minute or two long, but then stretching into multiple minutes. Diluc doesn’t know how long they’ve been down here. It feels like forever, but can’t have been more than a handful or two of hours. His best guess is that it’s sometime around or after dawn when, after a thirty minute stretch of silence, Kaeya finally speaks to him, his mind freed from the poison.

            “Diluc . . . How long?”

            “I don’t know,” Diluc tells him. “How much do you remember, Kaeya?”

            Kaeya stares at Diluc, looking drained and defeated, and Diluc notices absently that his star-shaped pupil is still slightly dilated, and the broken glass pattern of darkened veins is still visible on his face, but neither of them are nearly as bad as they had been, before. Kaeya winces and responds shakily. “I don’t want to remember.”

            “I mean about . . . about how this happened?” Diluc clarifies quickly. Not about his hallucinations. Never about those.

            “Oh. Right. It was in your boot. Maybe boots. I only checked one. Anemo Archon, I’m so stupid,” Kaeya groans.

            “That wasn’t your fault.”

            “Yeah . . . I guess not. I didn’t . . . wasn’t expecting it to crack open and puff into the air like spores. Just . . . fuck.”

            Satisfied that this is Kaeya speaking in his right mind, Diluc begins to untie him at long last.

            “What did the cobbler say?” Kaeya asks. His voice grates unnaturally as he speaks, a result of spending all night screaming. “You take your shoes to Bruckner now, right? Since Schuhmacher retired?”

            “Yes.” Diluc wonders how Kaeya knows that, but doesn’t bother asking.

            “Was he paid off to do it? Or did he have a grudge? He wasn’t even on my radar . . . he wasn’t on Vile’s list. I hope you didn’t let him convince you it wasn’t him. The stitching was professionally done, no one at the winery could manage it, and no one else should have been able to get hold of your boots.”

            “I haven’t questioned him yet,” Diluc tells Kaeya.

            “What? Why not?” Kaeya asks, as though the answer is not blaringly obvious.

            “Because I’ve been keeping watch over you.”

            Kaeya winces as Diluc frees one of his arms and the rope comes away bloody. “How long?” he asks again.

            “I don’t know for sure. Maybe six or seven hours.”

            Kaeya gives his equivalent of a blink. “I thought . . . it felt like days.”

            “Yeah. I’m sure it did.”

            Kaeya is shaking slightly. Shivering, maybe? Or maybe just exhaustion. Diluc pretends he doesn’t notice as he continues untying him. His brother’s dignity is already in shreds after this ordeal. Diluc won’t hurt it any further if he doesn’t have to. At least not deliberately. He’s not sure how Kaeya’s going to react to Diluc’s attempts at taking care of him . . . but after last night, Diluc can’t not try to help him through this. He’s worried. He doesn’t know how Kaeya even survived that nightmare of an ordeal in his childhood, and it seems like there’s a damned good reason his mind locked all those memories behind migraines, and now that Kaeya’s just had to relive them . . . Diluc just doesn’t want to leave him alone at a time like this. Not after seeing Kaeya break apart so badly.

            Even when the last of the ropes have been untied, Kaeya makes no effort to get up, or even move.

            “Kaeya . . .”

            “My head hurts.”

            It’s never a good sign when Kaeya volunteers information about any pain or weakness he’s experiencing.

            “I’m sorry . . . Do you think you can walk? I can carry you if you can’t. Or if you need a minute . . . I think we should go upstairs, when you’re ready. Or at least into the other room, but upstairs is . . . probably better. I want to take care of those rope . . . abrasions on your arms.”

            “ . . . I need a minute.”

            That would have sent off alarm bells in Diluc’s head if this whole situation wasn’t fucked to the Abyss and back already. At least it’s a good indicator now that Kaeya is very much not okay, which Diluc really needs to know right now, however much he hates that fact.

            When Kaeya finally does try to stand, about five minutes later, it’s without warning. Diluc nearly doesn’t manage to catch him when he stumbles and almost falls right to the floor.

            “Ugh. Sorry. Not dizzy now. Just . . . my muscles are all stiff. Probably from spending all night in that chair,” Kaeya tries to explain as Diluc drapes his brother’s arm around his shoulders, and wraps his own arm behind Kaeya’s back. “Next time find a more comfortable chair to restrain me in, please.”

            Normally this is where Diluc would point out that Kaeya chose the chair himself . . . but not today.

            “You’re supposed to tell me that I chose the chair, and this is my own fault,” Kaeya says, seconds later when Diluc says nothing.

            “Mind reading at a time like this? You really shouldn’t, you know,” Diluc tells him instead.

            Kaeya gives a horrible little laugh and then falls silent. When they reach the stairs, he pulls away from Diluc, clearly determined to climb them under his own power, since they’re too narrow for both brothers to walk up them side by side. Diluc lets him, but keeps a hand on his back to support him. That way he’ll feel if Kaeya starts to slip before he sees it . . . but Kaeya makes it to the top of the stairs, and all the way to the couch unaided. Diluc is quick to retrieve the blanket from the chair and throw it over him, because Kaeya’s still shaking.

            “Do you want me to start a fire?” he asks.

            Kaeya is silent for so long that Diluc wonders if his brother even heard him, before finally answering. “Yes, please.”

            Diluc quickly grabs two logs from the neat stack against the wall, carefully puts them into the fireplace, and touches them with a searing hand, no need for kindling. Moments later, he has a nice little fire going. He adds a third log to make it bigger and hotter, then steps back.

            “Where do you keep your med kit?”

            “Kitchen. In the cabinet furthest from the stove.”

            Diluc steps into the next room to go find it, and opens the cabinet where Kaeya told him it would be. Then he’s not sure if he should laugh or scowl. “Kaeya, I asked where your med kit is. Not your liquor cabinet.”

            “There’s a difference?” His voice is still . . . flat. Cheerless, though he’s trying.

            Diluc opens the cabinet next to the liquor cabinet, and finds some pantry staples. Then he opens the cabinet next to that one. “Never mind. I found it myself.”

            “Please bring back the green bottle with no label too.”

            “I’m not letting you drink right now.”

            “To use as antiseptic,” Kaeya explains.

            Oh. Right. Diluc doesn’t know how clean those ropes were. They hadn’t been obviously filthy, and Kaeya was clearly the first one to bleed on them, but he wouldn’t put it past Kaeya to have kept someone or something tied up down there for . . . longer than a few hours. Now’s not the time to risk infection.

            Whatever is in the green bottle nearly makes Diluc gag when he opens it. “What the devil? Where did you even get this?”

            “I made it.”

            Diluc remembers the distilling equipment he saw in the normal part of the basement . . . and remembers how Kaeya took to their father’s lessons about brewing just as easily as he did to every other lesson. He shakes his head as he pours a little bit of the very, very high proof alcohol onto a rag. “Of course you did.”

            Kaeya doesn’t flinch when Diluc cleans the rope burns on his arms. In fact, he’s pretty much a model patient, barely moving at all as Diluc gently spreads healing ointment over the abrasions, then carefully bandages them. He checks Kaeya’s calves to see if there are any marks there, but finds none. The thicker fabric of his trousers did a better job of protecting his skin from them than the light material of his nightshirt . . . and Kaeya had cut one of the sleeves off beforehand too. Kaeya doesn’t even try to snatch the green bottle to take a quick drink from it. Diluc had been expecting him to make an attempt, and carefully kept it out of his range, but Kaeya doesn’t even look at it.

            “Give me . . . ten minutes. Maybe twenty. Then I’ll get dressed and we can go.”

            “Go?” Diluc is confused for a moment then realizes. It is probably a good idea to get Kaeya checked over. “To the Ordo’s infirmary? Or the cathedral?”

            “No, to your cobbler, to squeeze him for info.”

            Right. Because this is Kaeya. Even dragged through a drug induced hell and back, after another night of almost no sleep, and probably in enough pain to bring most people to their knees, he still aims to personally smash the face of whoever targeted Diluc.

            “You’re not going anywhere except to have a healer check over you,” Diluc tells him firmly.

            “I wouldn’t have to if you’d gone to interrogate him last night.”

            “I was watching over you.”

            “You shouldn’t have. You should have dragged Bruckner out of his bed and hung him by his ankles off a high roof until he told you everything.”

            “You were my priority. I knew I could deal with Bruckner later –”

            “We can’t, anymore. We have to go now.”

            “You sound like you think there’s some kind of hurry,” Diluc says, gauging Kaeya’s reactions carefully. “Whatever he can or can’t tell me has waited since last night. It can wait a few more hours.”

            “It can’t.” Kaeya rubs a hand over his face then starts. He looks at his fingertips and seems confused at the lingering traces of his own tears. Looking shaken, he pulls his blanket tighter around himself, and . . . and he just looks so damn young. Diluc knows part of it is the white bandage-like eyepatch that makes him look more vulnerable, but there’s something fragile about him now and Diluc doesn’t think his brother’s ever been closer to breaking. Maybe he needs this, needs to go after Bruckner and beat an explanation out of him, but Diluc is scared to let him out of his house in the state he’s in, unless it’s to take him to a healer.

            “Why can’t it?” he asks, trying to get a better sense of what’s going on in Kaeya’s head.

            “Because people talk. Especially about you. What happened tonight isn’t going to stay quiet for long.”

            “We’ve kept the dream poison search under wraps so far. It will keep a little longer, and if it doesn’t, I doubt it will matter. If Bruckner bolts, we’ll hunt him down. If he puts together some honest sounding lies, we’ll still tear them apart. Do you really think that between your contacts and mine, there’s anywhere he could go that we couldn’t find him, or any story he could tell that we couldn’t find evidence to disprove?”

            “What time is it?”

            “What?” Diluc looks around for a clock. He almost tries to check his pocket watch before realizing that he doesn’t have it on him. “Why do you ask?”

            “Your legal hearing,” Kaeya says. For a second Diluc wonders if Kaeya was paying attention to anything he’d said. He wonders if Kaeya’s mind is slipping and keeping him from concentrating.

            He also gives zero fucks about his legal hearing right now. His brother needs him.

            “I’m skipping it,” he tells Kaeya. It will mean an automatic default judgment against him if he fails to show, but he doesn’t care. He’d sign over the whole damn satellite property to Ilsie right now just to be done with it if he could.

            “No. You can’t.” Kaeya meets his gaze solemnly. “If you want to put off interrogating Bruckner then you have to go and pretend that everything’s normal.”

            “I’m not leaving you alone.”

            “Then we go get Bruckner now.”

            “Those aren’t the only two options, Kaeya,” Diluc growls before remembering just why his brother is in the sorry state that he’s currently in, and what is the matter with him, fighting with his brother after Kaeya just went through . . . last night. “The most important thing right now is making sure you’re going to be okay. Last night you were dosed with a Khaenri’ahn torture drug –”

            “Believe me, I haven’t forgotten.”

            “I need to know that you’re going to be alright.”

            Kaeya stares at him, his expression unreadable. “I’ll be alright when I find the one who targeted you and take care of them.”

            Diluc knows Kaeya well enough to know that things are about to get difficult unless he figures out a suitable compromise. This situation though, it’s worse than all those tactics and logistics problems Diluc had to solve to meet the requirements for captaincy back when he was with the knights. Having to figure out which troops to send where while a panel of senior knights and officers stand by to pick apart his answers has absolutely nothing on this. Had there been a Kaeya variable on those tests, Diluc is certain that no one would pass them, ever. Doubly so if the test taker was someone who cared about him.

            He shakes his head and tries to focus his attention on the present and break the current problem down. Kaeya is currently in no shape to be chasing after anyone, let alone a poisoner who tried to drive Diluc insane. Thus, Diluc cannot take him to interrogate Bruckner right now, however much Kaeya wants to go. Kaeya will only acquiesce to not hunting down Bruckner if Diluc goes to his legal hearing. Diluc cannot leave Kaeya alone while he goes. Not while Kaeya is recovering from a drug that was once widely used for torture in his homeland. At the very least Diluc needs to get someone to stay with him while he goes . . . but because this is Kaeya, Diluc can’t trust him with just anyone. What happened with Chongyun the other day is evidence enough of how well Kaeya can manipulate other people, even when he’s crippled with pain. What’s more, Diluc has no way of summoning anyone there to watch Kaeya for him without leaving Kaeya alone, and again, that is not happening. No matter what, he’s not leaving Kaeya alone.

            So what is he supposed to do? If he doesn’t figure out something quickly, then Kaeya is going to try heading out after Bruckner real soon, and Diluc doesn’t know if he has it in him to keep Kaeya in his house by force. Not after keeping him tied to a chair all night while he begged, and cried, and screamed.

            Then . . . something happens . . . and Diluc is not yet sure whether it’s the answer to his problems or a curse.

            He hears Kaeya’s front door fly open, hard enough to bounce the door off the wall, and for a second Diluc isn’t sure if they’re under attack or if he’s in yet another nightmare and just doesn’t know it. Then a voice rings out, as the interloper announces her arrival.

            “Good Errant Knight, rejoice, for your sovereign has received your plea for help and hastened to thy aid!”

Chapter Text

            Kaeya is not okay.

            Right now he feels the same way as those times he’s woken up in an infirmary, before he’s had the chance to speak to someone and find out how badly he was hurt and he just . . . can’t. He can’t think about it, can’t dwell on it, can’t let it catch up with him because then it will be real. So he goes forward, because that’s the only way he can go, the only way to leave the past in the past (don’t remember, don’t think about it, don’t remember).

            Diluc’s reluctance to let him do anything right now is not unexpected. Fischl’s arrival is a godsend, and Kaeya literally could not have timed it more perfectly if he’d tried. He takes back every gripe or snipe he’s ever made at her for making a copy of his housekey that time he loaned her one so she could leave some intel in his workroom and she decided she wanted permanent access to his book collection (not that he’d ever minded that much, it was more the principle, but the payoff of having easy access to Fischl’s intel was more than worth the price in his opinion).

            “In the library, Prinzessin,” Kaeya calls to her, to summon her to the living room. He sees Diluc’s look of alarm from the door banging open change to a milder expression of confusion, and any other time Kaeya would be full on smirking at the prospect of what’s about to come, because if he remembers right, this is Diluc’s first meeting with Fischl . . . but today he has bigger things to worry about. Even whether or not Fischl is going to mistake Diluc’s reason for being in his house and start shipping them like Amber now does takes a distant second place to Kaeya’s new priority. Which is manipulating his dear brother into getting out of his way.

            (Diluc doesn’t understand, how could he, but Kaeya can’t sit still, can’t let himself think about last night, can’t, can’t, can’t . . .)

            Fischl strides in, looking a bit rough, her hair a little mussed from long hours on the road, and Kaeya is pleased that he was right in his prediction that Fischl would come directly to him the moment she heard he needed her. She has a confident smile on her face as she steps across the threshold, Oz right behind her, but the moment the duo lay eyes on him, Fischl’s smile vanishes and the tempo of Oz’s wings beating against the air changes.

            “My good Errant Knight, what foul sorcery has befallen you?” Fischl cries and hurries forward.

            Kaeya cringes. Does he really look that bad? Is it so obvious that he’s broken, even at a single glance. “What?”

            Fischl stops right in front of him, and there’s no mistaking the worry in her sole visible eye. “No. Not sorcery. Some other malingerance, inflicted by thine enemies? Speak, Errant Knight. Tell me what you require and I will bend my entire being into seeing it done.”

            “He was poisoned last night,” Diluc says, taking no offense at being ignored even though he’s used to being the most important person in the room. “The worst of it’s out of his system now, and I think he’s going to be okay, but if you want to help –”

            “How did you know?” Kaeya asks quickly. He can’t let Diluc control this narrative. He needs to make an opportunity for himself to seize it, but his mind feels so dull and slow.

            Fischl makes a condescending and furious noise in her throat. “Poison. The base weapon of base miscreants. I surmised as much at a glance, by the mark it has left on your countenance.”

            “Mein Fräulein means that the poison has darkened the veins on your face,” Oz explains, “and left you with an unnatural pallor, which make them stand out all the more.”

            Oh. So that explains how they knew at a glance. It’s not just because they can see the gaping void in his soul. Good to know. “Forgive my lack of decorum in receiving you this way, Prinzessin,” Kaeya says, and something about it being Fischl he needs to talk to now makes it a little easier. Maybe because this lofty language needed to get Fischl on his side makes for a good warmup for his manipulative speech. Actually . . . this lofty language, and another language that he and Fischl both speak, but which Diluc does not, is exactly what he needs to raise the conversation over Diluc’s head.

            “My Errant Knight, I’ll hear no more apologies from you,” Fischl tells him, and suddenly her backpack is in her hands and she’s digging out a blanket, which she adds to the one Diluc already covered him with. “As you have always kept faith with me, so too shall your sovereign now keep faith with you. I shall devote my every resource to cleansing your blood of this foul substance that taints you, and once your health is restored, you and I shall track down this cowardly villain and bring them swift and fitting retribution.”

            “We actually –” Diluc starts to say, but Kaeya hastily cuts him off.

            “My most gracious thanks, Prinzessin,” Kaeya tells her, “though I must actually beg a favor from you now –”

            “Speak, and I shall grant it, be it within my power.”

            “I don’t believe you are acquainted with Master Diluc,” Kaeya says, deciding to make introductions. “He was with me last night when I took ill, and got me through the worst of it. Master Diluc Ragnvindr, this is Fischl, the Prinzessin der Verurteilung, and her faithful attendant, Ozvaldo von Hrafnavines.”

            Diluc looks extremely wary, but manners are even more engrained into him than they are in Kaeya, and so he offers Fischl a quick formal bow, and only Kaeya who knows him so well can read his reluctance. “A pleasure to meet you.”

            “One does owe you a debt of gratitude for the aid you offered this stalwart member of my retinue in his hour of need,” Fischl tells Diluc. “Thus I grant you my favor, and you may refer to my familiar simply as ‘Oz.’”

            “Right. Thank you . . . ?”

            “Prinzessin, I have much to explain to you, but first I must ask the time if you know it,” Kaeya says before Diluc can say more.

            “The ninth hour has come and half gone. The tenth hour grows near.”

            Perfect.

            Kaeya looks at Diluc. “You need to go. Your legal hearing.”

            “I don’t give a damn about it right now. I’m not leaving you –”

            “Either you go and pretend everything is fine so they don’t know we found the poison, or I’m going after your cobbler right now,” Kaeya growls.

            “My good knight, I must entreat upon you to rest –”

            “If the prinzessin will consent to stay here with me, will you –”

            “No,” Diluc cuts him off. “I remember what happened the last time all too well. You’ll talk circles around her too, to get your way, and when I get back, I’ll find you’ve gone and done whatever you felt like doing, again.”

            “One does not simply talk circles around the Prinzessin der Verurteilung,” Fischl says indignantly.

            “What if . . .” Kaeya glances at Oz then shakes his head. “Never mind.”

            Oz, bless him, realizes what Kaeya had been about to suggest, and takes it upon himself to volunteer, so it doesn’t seem like it was Kaeya’s own suggestion. “Master Diluc, if I may. If there is one who you would entrust the good captain’s wellbeing to, I humbly volunteer my services as a messenger to fetch them here.”

            “Yes. Let Oz carry your summons to whichever healer whose hands you believe my Errant Knight is best left in,” says Fischl. “Then, once my familiar has returned to my side, I shall go forth and rain condemnation down upon this cobbler for his transgression. It is Cobbler Bruckner who you have given the favor of your patronage to, is it not?”

            Diluc stares at her, jaw open slightly. “How is it that everyone knows who I take my shoes to?”

            “I already told you, Diluc. People love to talk. Especially about you,” Kaeya reminds him. “It’s why we can’t wait to act on this. Especially now that traces of their poison are apparently all over my face. We can only wait as long as I stay out of sight and you go about business as usual so they don’t realize yet that we know.”

            “But this – argh, never mind. Master Ozvaldo, if you’re willing to take a message to Acting Grand Master Jean and request that she come here immediately to personally keep an eye on Kaeya, then I’ll go to my legal hearing and keep up the charade.”

            Of course Diluc would choose her. Kaeya had been hoping he’d pick Lumine, but Jean is currently the only person in the city who can pull rank on Kaeya and order him to stand down. Not that Kaeya blindly follows anyone’s orders, especially not against his highest priorities or better judgement, but it’s still inconvenient going up against Jean. He usually knows exactly how far he can push the line and get away with it. Disobeying Jean’s direct orders in the state he’s in now will get him a month long suspension in the guise of forced medical leave . . . though it may be a bit too bold of him to assume he’d even be able to disobey Jean right now. It’s better if he doesn’t let it come to that.

            Kaeya turns to Fischl and Oz. “Though it seems far beneath the dignity of one who holds dominion over star and sky across five universes to consent to being a mere messenger, I’m afraid I must ask anyway. Will you deliver Master Diluc’s message to the Acting Grand Master with all the haste of the Wonderland Mock-Beast?”

            “I do hereby grant my consent for Oz to deliver Master Diluc’s message,” Fischl says loftily. “And do so pledge to stay by thy side and safeguard thy health in the meanstwhile.”

            Kaeya’s not sure that “meanstwhile” is actually a word. Nor is he sure that Fischl and Oz have understood what he is really trying to say to them. Neither give any sign . . . unless use of the word “meanstwhile” which isn’t a real word is their sign. They don’t call him out on his deliberate and obvious error, however, so there is hope. He keeps a carefully neutral expression as Fischl leads Oz back to Kaeya’s workroom, presumably to see him out, and looks at his brother.

            “If you’re satisfied with this then you should hurry and get dressed. Get whatever you want from my closet. Stay out of the guestroom. Use a knife and slit a pair of my boots down the side, or cut chunks out of them. Whatever you need to do to make them fit. There’s a knife under my pillow you can use.”

            Still Diluc hesitates.

            “What?” Kaeya asks him.

            Diluc shakes his head. “I still don’t like leaving you like this.”

            “Like what?” Kaeya asks. “In my living room, in front of a nice warm fire, with a friend who’s had my housekey for years here to keep an eye on me?”

            Diluc jerks slightly. Kaeya zeroes in on his weakness.

            “What? You’re not jealous about that, are you?”

            “Of course not.”

            “I’d have given you one sooner if I knew you’d be envious.”

            “I’m not.”

            “She’s a good kid,” Kaeya tells Diluc, sobering now, “and a capable Adventurer. We bonded over books in the Ordo’s library years ago. You’ve probably noticed she’s a bit of an odd one, and she doesn’t have too many friends because of that, but she protects the ones she does have fiercely. I’ll be fine with her, Diluc, and Jean will be here soon.”

            Diluc’s expression softens. “You seem to have a lot of good friends these days. I’m glad.”

            “Er, thanks.”

            Diluc gives his head a slight shake. “Last night –”

            “I don’t want to talk about last night,” Kaeya says quickly.

            He’s fine. He’ll be fine. As long as he doesn’t think about it, as long as he doesn’t have to remember, as long as he can keep moving forward so he doesn’t have to look back.

            “I’m so sorry, Kaeya.”

            “I don’t want to talk about it.”

            “Then we won’t,” Diluc tells him. “Not now, anyway.”

            We won’t ever, Kaeya doesn’t tell him.

            “It’s just . . . You were . . . I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to go through that for me.”

            Why is he still talking about it? Kaeya pointedly looks away and pulls his blankets (he has two now!) tighter around himself. He’s never been cold quite like this before. Maybe it’s because he’s separated from his Vision? Damn it, his Vision is still in the guestroom, so he can’t ask Diluc to get it for him. Even though the poison has surely settled, trace amounts could still come in contact with his skin, and Diluc’s been exposed for so long now that they’re approaching the point where it could be dangerous for him. Oh well, Kaeya will get it for himself as soon as Diluc stops being such a nuisance and leaves already. Not that it’s likely to help, because Kaeya’s pretty sure that the cold he’s feeling is from the poison which he is not thinking about. He’s thinking about productive things. Now, how to hurry Diluc along?

            “When you’re in my room can you get me another blanket, please?” he asks staring at the fire. “And maybe a jacket?”

            “Of course,” Diluc says, then hurries to do just that.

            He returns, minutes later, fully dressed, except without any sort of shoes. He is wearing black socks, though. Perhaps he thinks that will be enough to hide the fact that he’s not wearing shoes . . . if it was anyone other than him, he’d probably be right, but since it is him, there’s probably going to be a new fad in Mondstadt of running around in socks and no shoes. Kaeya will pass this information to Vile as quickly as he can, and she in turn will have a word with a tailor or two of her choosing, and convince them to start making thicker, better soled socks that can withstand a bit more abuse, then take a cut of the profits when they sell out like crazy, and that will ensure that Kaeya stays in her good books. He still needs to sort out the pepper situation at Good Hunter and, oh . . . Diluc is peeling back the blankets from around Kaeya and helping him out of his nightshirt, which is definitely ruined (everything from the collarbone and up has been cut away, and he wonders why, but has a feeling that he knows, but he’s not going to think about it).

            Then Diluc helps Kaeya put on another shirt. Another nightshirt. His intention to keep Kaeya in his house isn’t really subtle. Nor is it going to be that effective, since the jacket he’s brought covers up enough of the nightshirt that it’s not obvious he has on sleepwear beneath it. Then, once Kaeya is wearing the jacket too, Diluc carefully tucks the blankets back around Kaeya and adds the one he just brought down from the bedroom on top.

            “Are you okay?” Kaeya asks as Diluc finishes.

            “What?”

            “You’re wearing an awful lot of blue,” Kaeya tells him, and indeed Diluc is. Black trousers and socks, but a navy blue shirt, dark blue blazer, and a storm blue cravat. “Does it hurt?”

            Diluc snorts and gives him a strained smile. That’s when Fischl returns, bearing a steaming mug of hot chocolate.

            “Here, my good knight. I grant you my favor in the form of the spoils from my battles. Be warmed and sustained by this elixir, which I have prepared for you by my own hand.”

            “ . . . Thank you, Prinzessin.” Kaeya is a bit reluctant to reach for the mug, suddenly very aware that his hands are ungloved, and Fischl’s never seen his scars before. Not much he can do about it now, though. Other than refuse the hot chocolate, which he really doesn’t want to, because right now it seems like the best thing he’s seen since the dream poison loosened its hold on him. So he reaches for it carefully, with both hands, because he’s aware they’re both shaking, and he’ll probably need them both to hold onto it. Diluc’s work of tucking the blankets in so carefully around him is all for not but . . . hot chocolate.

            Fischl definitely sees his scars, but aside from a sharp intake of breath, she gives no other reaction. She is careful when transferring the mug to him, holding onto it longer than necessary to make sure he doesn’t drop it, even though that means brushing her hands against his scarred ones, which many people would be too disgusted to do. Then, once the mug is securely in Kaeya’s hands, she turns to Diluc.

            “One was under the assumption that you were leaving and would be gone before the elixir’s preparation had come to completion. If that is no longer the case, in the interest of showing due politeness to he who has kept vigil over my knight this long . . . night . . . one will consent to make you a cup of the dark elixir as well.”

            “Thank you, but that’s not necessary,” Diluc says, finally. Finally. “I’ll be going now . . . but if his condition worsens, or if anything happens, please send for me immediately. Kaeya . . .”

            “I’ll be fine, Diluc,” Kaeya tells him. “Keep an eye on Ilsie, at the hearing. Watch her reactions to everything. Don’t let her touch you.”

            “I doubt she’d try to poison me in front of the entire court –”

            “No, but she’ll get her saliva on you and that’s gross.”

            Diluc gives him a mock exasperated look.

            “Go on, get out of here,” Kaeya tells him. That gets a slight, tired smile out of Diluc, who reaches out to rest a hand on the top of his head and rustle his hair slightly . . . just like in the old days, shortly after Kaeya showed up at Dawn Winery. (Shortly after Kaeya’s father abandoned him at Dawn Winery for failing their family. Kaeya’s fault. All Kaeya’s fault.) Luckily, Diluc turns away before Kaeya’s mask cracks.

            Fischl waits until they hear the front door close behind him, then stalks to the workroom to make absolutely certain that he’s gone. Then she comes back to stand before Kaeya, and before he has the chance to ask, she speaks the exact words that he wants to hear. “Oz, reveal thyself!”

            Oz appears in a crackle of electro, and Kaeya smiles. “I knew you’d understand.”

            “Yes. We inferred that you were asking us not to deliver Master Diluc’s message when you cited the incorrect number of universes I presumably preside over,” Oz tells him.

            “And by your invocation of the Wonderland Mock-beast, which we both well know cannot make haste, as it is a turtle,” Fischl says, and she’s just as delighted about getting an actual legit chance to have been spoken to in code as Kaeya hoped she’d be. Excellent. That will make this easier for him.

            “Mistake not my intentions, good Errant Knight,” Fischl cautions him, “for I too am of the opinion that thou wouldst well benefit from the attentions of a healer. It is curiosity for which I indulge you now.”

            “Mein Fräulein means that we are concerned for your wellbeing, captain, but believe you must have a good reason for your request.”

            “I do,” Kaeya tells them, “and I need your help. I need to go question Bruckner and find out who put him up to poisoning Diluc. What’s happened is a very long story, and I don’t have time to explain it all right now, but I think you know me well enough that you’ll trust me. So please believe me when I say this is important and it can’t wait.”

            He’s not lying. It’s important because it’s Diluc who was targeted. Diluc isn’t just the most important person in Kaeya’s life, he’s an extremely important person to Mondstadt’s continued prosperity, given how he owns over half the nation’s wine industry and everyone knows it. This can’t wait, not just because the longer they wait, the more likely their enemies are to realize they’re onto them, but because Kaeya is going to fall back into the dark pit of his mind if he doesn’t get moving and start doing something that matters, and there’s only so many times he’s going to be able to claw his way out of it, and surely he must be nearing that limit.

            “If interrogation is all that is needed then I, Fischl, the Prinzessin der Verurteilung shall question this miscreant in thy stead, that you may recover –”

            “He targeted my family, Fischl,” Kaeya snaps. “Or rather whoever paid him. They targeted my brother with a slow acting Khaenri’ahn torture drug, that steadily drives you mad through nightmares and sleep deprivation. Then last night, when we finally figured out it was in his boots, I screwed up and inhaled it, and got the full effects, all at once. Hallucinations, and panic attacks, and fuck my life. Diluc had to tie me to a chair to keep me from hurting myself. But the effects have worn off. I swear to you, I’m not in any danger now. I swear. So don’t stand in my way on this. Please.”

            Kaeya reigns himself in and waits. That outburst was uncalculated, and would have cost him his shot with many people. Diluc, Jean, Lisa . . . the older ones. Lumine would have been a tossup, but she’s wise beyond her years, so much of the time. Fischl, thankfully, is still a teenager . . . and one who loves stories at that. It’s easier to manipulate younger people who, even when worried, still don’t have as firm a grasp on the concept of mortality. Doubly so if they’ve been conditioned into thinking that the most dramatic solution must be the right one.

            Fischl looks at Oz, who looks back at her. Kaeya doesn’t know if they have some sort of mental telepathy, beyond Fischl being able to see through Oz’s eyes, but he doubts it considering how much they’re always talking to each other. More than that, he sees the look of understanding pass between them, then Fischl turns to Kaeya, her decision made.

            “I pledged you my aid, good Errant Knight, and I’ll not forsake you now in thy hour of need,” Fischl vows. “Though your ordeals may have caused your strength to wane, I shall lend you mine. Let us go forth to mete out judgment, and know that should you falter, I will be here to guard thy back.”

            Kaeya can’t ask for more than that.

Chapter Text

            Getting ready to go out is difficult. When Kaeya stands up off the couch, his head spins. Thankfully it passes quickly and he manages to hide his dizziness from Fischl and Oz. He makes his way upstairs slowly and carefully, pretending like his muscles aren’t burning and his joints aren’t aching.

            His Vision is in the guestroom. Retrieving it is necessary, and honestly he’s the best one to do it. He’s pretty much guaranteed to have nightmares tonight anyway, since the dream poison powder got on his skin last night, as well as in his lungs, and he didn’t have time to take a good enough bath to wash it all off before . . . yeah. So Kaeya goes in and gets his Vision. He’s careful to stay as far away from Diluc’s tainted boots as he can, and he also gets his knives while he’s in there too, because he doesn’t want to be without his hidden blades, especially right now. On his way out, he freezes the door shut and leaves a wall of cryo in front of it, sealing it shut for now. The very last thing in the world he wants is for Klee to swing by for something she forgot and get exposed.

            Next, he goes to his room. He needs his gloves. He has literally never left home without them since this house became his home. Changing into a real shirt would be too damn much trouble, so Kaeya foregoes a change of clothes. He grabs his sword, his gloves, and something from his sewing kit, then heads to the washroom to scrub his face.

            In the mirror there, he sees what Fischl and Oz meant about his veins. They stand out wretchedly, like a spiderweb drawn on his face in charcoal . . . and Oz was right about him being unnaturally pale now too. There’s nothing he can do about it right now, however. All he can do is wash away the remaining traces of his sweat and whatever it was that was leaking from his eye last night. Before heading back downstairs, he presses two fingers against the side of his throat to feel his own pulse and almost winces at how fast it’s still racing. It’s almost enough to make him change his mind about going after Bruckner right now . . . but he targeted Diluc. People don’t get to target Diluc without Kaeya bringing everything in his arsenal to bear against them. (Besides, if Kaeya doesn’t go out then that means staying here, and staying here means thinking, and thinking means dwelling on what happened last night, and just no.)

            So Kaeya makes his way back downstairs, where Fischl and Oz are waiting, and they go. The cobbler shop that Bruckner owns is only a short walk away, and the closest one to Kaeya’s house. He used to go there too, until Diluc’s old cobbler retired, and Diluc started using Bruckner, which meant everyone else in Mondstadt and their dog started going to Bruckner too, which meant that getting his boots repaired in any kind of timely fashion could no longer be done at Bruckner’s. (Maybe when this is over Kaeya will ask Diluc not to start frequenting his new cobbler, so he doesn’t have to find another one yet again.)

            The clock on the wall says that it’s ten o’clock on the dot when he and Fischl enter. That’s good. Diluc’s hearing should be starting now, and they made it here without running into him, so he should stay out of their hair . . . not that there’s a whole lot he could do since Kaeya’s here anyway, and Fischl listens to him, not Diluc, and it’s so good having friends like this now.

            Fischl doesn’t even make a dramatic entrance this time. She stays right behind Kaeya, Oz perched on her shoulder to draw a little less attention than him flying freely would. Her bow is in her hands, but held low, to be less conspicuous as well.

            There are a few people in the shop. Customers, milling about as they wait for measurements to be taken or their orders retrieved from the workshop. First come, first served, unless you’re Diluc Ragnvindr . . . or today, his irate, drugged-out adoptive brother, who has half a mind to burn the whole damned shop down and call it a day because he’s freaking tired just from walking there. Kaeya shoulders past a customer who is waiting for another customer at the counter to finish paying Bruckner, and fixes the cobbler with his coldest gaze.

            Bruckner looks surprised, but in the wrong kind of way. That throws Kaeya, because there’s no flash of guilt, or fear, or even nervousness. Just surprise and confusion. He recognizes Kaeya, of course, since almost everyone in Mond does, but when he speaks his voice is steady. “Captain Kaeya. Everything alright?”

            “You tell me, Bruckner,” Kaeya returns to make him talk more.

            See, when Diluc left the Ordo and Mondstadt, and Kaeya transferred his service’s focus to the civic side of the Ordo rather than the military side, to serve under Jean, he realized that was actually a much better fit for him and his skillset. Defending the city from external threats required good strategy and good fighting skills. Kaeya certainly had both, though he was much better when it came to strategy than fighting. He started with the sword too late to ever really master it, even before he had to switch hands. He was better with knives, since he did start learning knife fighting early, but for some reason Mondstadt looks down on stabbing people with short blades? Go figure. And, as good as he’d once been with a bow, he was hopeless at it now, having traded his depth perception for an oh so stylish eyepatch. Ah, but on the civic side of things, solving crimes and defending the city from threats within, that was a thinking man’s (or woman’s) game. It took strategy of a different kind, and the ability to solve puzzles and see the big picture, even with pieces missing. It also took the ability to read people which Kaeya has always been excellent at.

            Honestly, he’s never spent more than five minutes with a suspect before he knew whether they were guilty or not.

            . . . And right now he knows that Bruckner’s not guilty. Kaeya sees it in his eyes. The man genuinely has no idea why Kaeya’s here.

            Fuck, is Kaeya’s first thought.

            How? is he second.

            In less time than it takes to blink, he reruns what he does know through his mind. The poison was in Diluc’s boot. Inside the insole, which Kaeya assumes must have been removed, had a cavity hollowed out, and sewn back into place. That complicated things more, because it was essentially a built in delay of when Diluc started getting dosed. It took time and wear before Diluc’s weight shifted the powdered dream poison inside the insole, forcing it out the sides and through the stitching. Kaeya doesn’t know how much time, but he’s pretty sure Diluc would have been sharp enough to make the connection when Kaeya explained to him what dream poison was, if his nightmares had started right after he got his boots back from the cobbler shop.

            The stitches looked professionally done, at least to Kaeya’s amateur eye. He could be wrong. He’s . . . amateur. Of course. Bruckner would have an apprentice or assistant. Possibly several. There’s no way he’d be able to keep up with all the work that has been coming in after word got out that Diluc Ragnvindr brought his shoes here.

            “Captain Kaeya? Are you alright? You look ill,” Bruckner says, and Kaeya would bet drinks for a month that concern in his voice is genuine.

            He ignores the cobbler and scans the shop.

            There.

            A young man, near the end of his teenage years, or just out of them is staring at Kaeya with wide, fearful guilty eyes, and as Kaeya’s gaze falls on him he turns white.

            “Randolph Hirshir. I have a few questions for –”

            Randolph bolts.

            “Avast, miscreant!” Fischl shouts as she puts an arrow through Randolph’s lower leg.

            Randolph falls hard, onto a worktable, then off it, onto the floor on the other side.

            Kaeya briefly considers proposing to Fischl.

            “Mein Fräulein means, ‘Stop, criminal,’” Oz says, flying to hover over Randolph, electro crackling off his wings in warning, in case the poisoning bastard thinks about running again.

            “Well done, Prinzessin. Oz. Our pardons, Master Bruckner, but we need to have words with your apprentice,” Kaeya says.

            “Master Bruckner, help!” Randolph cries, struggling to pick himself up.

            Bruckner stares between his apprentice, who is now radiating guilt, then Kaeya, who almost definitely still looks like hell, and Kaeya waits to hear what the man will say. Criminal proceedings in Mondstadt aren’t nearly as complicated as they are in Fontaine, though lately trashy Fontainian legal thriller novels have been circulating through Mondstadt, and complicating things, making people scream about their rights and demanding a free law reader be appointed to advocate for them, and other such nonsense. Even before the rise of those damn books there have always been those ready to stand between their loved ones and the law. Luck, however, finally seems to be getting on Kaeya’s side, because it seems Randolph is not one of Bruckner’s loved ones.

            “What did you do, lad?” he asks his apprentice, looking horrified.

            “I didn’t – it weren’t – I needed the money!” Randolph cries.

            “Of course you did,” Kaeya mutters, exhausted, because damn it all, he hates it when criminals are just cat’s paws, motivated by money. It makes it harder to find them, when they could be anyone being paid off, and the person putting them up to it stays safely out of range while their tool does their bidding.

            “I pay you fair wages! I pay you more, knowing that your sister is sick!”

            “It weren’t never enough –”

            “Enough!” Kaeya snaps. “I have questions to ask you, Hirshir, in private, as this is still an ongoing investigation. Master Bruckner, may I ask for your cooperation –”

            “I’ll clear the shop. You can ask your questions here, in private, Captain,” Bruckner says immediately. Then he makes good on his word and goes to the shop’s front door, ushering out multiple customers who would much rather stay and gawk.

            Finally, they’re alone. Just Kaeya, Fischl, Oz, and their poisoner, who is not the one ultimately responsible for this. Which isn’t a surprise. Kaeya suspected it would turn out like this the moment he realized the dream poison was in Diluc’s boots.

            Fischl grabs Randolph by his collar, hauls him up, then throws him down on top of the table. Static electro strands crackle around her, giving proof to just how angry she is. Kaeya gives his equivalent of a blink, wondering why –

            “Condemnation comes to all the guilty, in due time, villain,” Fischl hisses. “Do not think for a moment that you shall be spared. Not after what you’ve done to my good Errant Knight. I shall personally ensure you get yours. Run again and I’ll not just shoot thee, but take thy whole leg off. Raise a hand to my knight and I’ll melt that hand down to a mere stump. Refuse to answer his questions, and I’ll split thy lying tongue whilst it’s still in thy mouth, then force thee to write out thy confession in thine own blood!”

            “Mein Fräulein means that this will go easier for you if you cooperate.”

            “Thank you both,” Kaeya says, approaching them. He doesn’t tell them that they might very well have just saved his life. Trying to chase down Randolph after he made a break for it would not have gone well for Kaeya. He’s pretty sure that his pulse is still racing out of control. He wouldn’t have had a chance at catching Randolph in his current condition, but that wouldn’t have stopped him from trying. At the very least, Kaeya’s pretty sure he would have collapsed.

            “C-Captain K-Kaeya . . . I can explain –”

            “Name.”

            “Wh-what?”

            “The person who put you up to this. I want their name,” Kaeya says coldly. He reaches out to grab Randolph by the wrist. Then he reaches for his cryo and lets just a little bit flow. The cold combines with Fischl’s electro static for a miniature but very painful superconduct reaction that leaves Randolph screaming. “And you’re going to tell me.”

            Diluc makes it to his legal hearing just in time. He takes a detour to Angel’s Share for the spare set of clothes he keeps there. Well, rather for the spare pair of boots he keeps there. The clothes are nowhere near formal enough for a legal hearing. He does test the boots before putting them on, swabbing them with a napkin, and they seem clean enough. Finally, some decent luck. Well, in addition to Kaeya not noticing he’d left without boots on, or else Kaeya might have insisted on going after Bruckner after all. Diluc hadn’t been able to bring himself to cut up a pair of Kaeya’s boots to get them onto his own feet. After everything he’s done to Kaeya so far, it would be less than another drop in the bucket, but Diluc just couldn’t do it.

            His law reader, Rhimeburg, and Elzer, who also sits at his consult table, both look relieved when he rushes in, one minute before the clock strikes ten. Elzer’s relief quickly turns to worry again, however, as he looks at Diluc, perhaps noting his worry strained expression or the dark bags beneath his eyes.

            “Master Diluc? Is everything alright?” Elzer asks.

            Diluc just shakes his head.

            “Nightmares again?” Elzer asks, concerned, in a lowered voice.

            “Worse than that,” Diluc mutters.

            Elzer looks puzzled and troubled, then seems to realize what one of the missing pieces is. “Master Kaeya – he didn’t accompany you here?”

            “No. He’s –” Incapacitated, and he got that way by helping me. “ – at home. His home. He couldn’t make it.”

            Elzer looks even more worried now, but Diluc finds his eyes sliding past him, to the plaintiff’s consult table, where Ilsie Vander and her law reader sit. His crimson eyes lock onto Ilsie’s muddied brown ones, and for somewhere close to the one millionth time, Diluc feels a strong surge of gratitude that his father did not believe in arranged marriages.

            Ilsie isn’t ugly. Not really. She would actually be quite pretty if not for . . . It’s mainly what she does to herself that makes her seem off putting. Bad acne scars cover both her cheeks and forehead, and there are some freshly picked at marks mixed in as well. Ilsie just can’t seem to help herself. Even as she glares at Diluc now, she’s chewing on her thumbnail . . . or rather on her thumb itself, worrying at a hanging bit of flesh, which is just disgusting.

            Diluc can’t help but feel that old surge of distaste for her now. It had been easier to forget when he and Kaeya were at odds and Ilsie was out of sight, but now that he’s faced with her, and Kaeya spent last night under the effects of a torture drug all because he was saving Diluc’s life, it’s all too easy to remember just how horrible she always was to Kaeya. How she always tried to make his brother act like a servant. The names she’d call him, and the comments she’d make about his skin color, his origin, his accent, and his missing eye. The time they were playing and she insisted that Kaeya be a slave in their game, and how Diluc foolishly went along with it and made Kaeya play that role, because then he could be the hero who came and freed his brother, except of course that wasn’t what Ilsie had in mind . . .

            He finds himself glaring right back at Ilsie, like when they were children, only this time he’s not standing defensively in front of Kaeya, or warding her away from his and his brother’s shares of the afternoon snacks. This time they’re at a legal hearing because of her trumped up claim over an unsigned contract, and she is keeping him from Kaeya’s side when Kaeya needs him the most, damn her.

            Diluc might have stormed out right then and there, except Sir Aramis, tapped as the magistrate and mediator for this hearing, enters and proceedings begin. Diluc and Ilsie are both called forward, separately, and take a solemn oath to Barbatos, to speak only the truth before the court. Then Ilsie stands before the court and, with assistance from her fourth-rate law reader, attempts to make her case.

            Diluc has never been close to Sir Aramis. If he ever had been, the man would have recused himself from presiding over any hearing that involved Diluc. He does, however, know Aramis by reputation. The man is well known for being devout and honest, open minded, and earnest. The sort to hear every detail before passing judgment, in the name of being thorough and fair. It’s kind of funny to see his face squinching up as he realizes the absurdity of Ilsie’s farcical claims.

            “In conclusion, and to sum up my client’s claims,” Ilsie’s law reader says at the end of their spiel, “Master Diluc took advantage of an elderly man in ailing health and violated the spirit of the contract when he had changes made to his advantage from the original contract, and had Master Illan sign this newer, disadvantageous one that was drawn up fully in bad faith. We hereby motion that the contract in its original form be enforced, rather than the latter unscrupulous version which followed.”

            “Standard procedure,” Aramis says slowly, “is to allow the defending party their chance to speak and challenge the claims brought against them, followed by no more than ten minutes of rebuttal by the plaintiff, then a further ten minutes by the defendant. However . . . in this case it does not seem necessary to determine how we must proceed.”

            “Sir Aramis, I must object!” Ilsie’s law reader protests. “This is an official legal hearing and due process must be followed!”

            “I almost feel like I should also object,” Rhimeburg says softly so only Diluc and Elzer, at their table can hear it. “I feel like I’m being cheated of my chance to destroy these buffoons.”

            “This is an official legal hearing, yes, but not a matter grievous enough to bring before a full court. Also, in accordance with Mondstadt’s justice system, I, as acting magistrate for this matter have the authority to strike down erroneous claims at my discretion, which I judge this claim to be,” Aramis says, sounding slightly annoyed. “The fact of the matter is that the original contract you wish to be enforced was never signed and thus was never and can never be made valid. There is no bad faith on Master Diluc’s part in seeing that the original contract contained terms that would become extremely disadvantageous for him over time and having a new contract with more fair terms drafted instead.”

            “But because of Master Diluc’s deceit, my client has lost access to the stream which was intended to be the property divider! Irrigation of her land will be greatly –”

            “Objection! My client has generously offered to allow Madam Vander an easement so she’ll have access to the water for irrigation, as Madam Vander’s counsel well knows.”

            “The court knows this as well, since documentation of Master Diluc’s offer was submitted into evidence prior to this hearing’s date being set,” Aramis says, sounding weary and exasperated. Not as weary and exasperated as Diluc, who has been dosed with dream poison for over half a month now, had nightmares every night of his brother or other loved ones dying, and spent the majority of last night watching his brother go through hell. Still, Aramis looks like he’s had enough of this nonsense, and Diluc can relate. “As such, the court is not requiring that this easement be granted. Master Diluc is free to keep this offer open or rescind it as he pleases. This is my final ruling on this matter, and by the power granted to me as a Knight of Favonius and operating magistrate of this court, I hereby –”

            “Hold, Aramis!” calls out a hoarse voice that Diluc recognizes instantly despite it being so raspy.

            He spins around and sees Kaeya striding into the hearing room. With him are Fischl, Oz, and a young man who looks utterly terrified, with his arms seemingly bound behind him, as he is frog marched in by Fischl.

            “Kaeya what . . . argh, never mind,” Diluc says, exasperated. He should have known better because this is Kaeya, of course. He can’t even take a morning off to sleep off the after effects of a torture drug without lying, manipulating his babysitter, and running around Mond like a fanatical bloodhound, never mind that he still looks and probably feels like hell.

            “Captain Kaeya, what . . . are you alright, Captain?” Aramis asks, standing at his superior’s arrival, even though technically, as the acting magistrate, Aramis has the higher rank in this room.

            “Kaeya? What happened to your face?” squeaks Paimon. Diluc starts at her high pitched voice and for the first time scans the galley. The rooms that they hold legal hearings in are on one of the lower cathedral levels, and are set up similar to the main hall of the cathedral upstairs, just on a smaller scale, with benches in the back, divided by an aisle in the center, and a raised platform in the front, where the acting magistrate presides from a heavy wooden desk. Citizens of Mondstadt are permitted to come and observe legal hearings, and Diluc is used to random people showing up every time he has to attend a legal hearing. However, this might be the first time that so many people who know him personally have turned up. There’s Lumine, on her feet and approaching Kaeya, making worried noises, and Paimon with her, hovering over Kaeya apprehensively. The two teens from Liyue are also there. As is Amber, who starts toward Kaeya, then changes her mind and goes to help Fischl with the . . . prisoner?

            “Sorry to interrupt, Sir Aramis,” Kaeya says, addressing his colleague formally, “but I have need to invoke Article Fourteen, Clause Seven.”

            “Objection!” Ilsie’s law reader protests.

            “Article Fourteen, Clause Seven of the Mondstadt Justice Code . . . that is when a knight investigating a separate matter, usually a crime, coopts a legal hearing in progress, for the purpose of interviewing a witness who is already under oath to speak the truth,” Rhimeburg tells Diluc softly.

            “Sorry, Captain . . . remind me what Article Fourteen, Clause Seven is again,” Aramis says, still looking caught off guard.

            “It’s the bit of legal writing that lets me essentially hijack your hearing and turn it into a deposition of sorts,” Kaeya says. “First things first, though. Swear in this piece of human trash for me, will you?”

            “Swearing in new witnesses is not standard procedure for a matter like this . . .” Rhimeburg looks to Diluc. “Do you want me to put a stop to this?”

            “No,” Diluc tells him, trying hard not to face palm. “I doubt anyone’s going to stop him now.” Then, he raises his voice to speak to his brother. “Kaeya, at least sit down while you do this. You’re not well.”

            “Objection! Objection! Captain Kaeya’s close and personal relationship to Master Diluc is well known and cannot be overlooked!” Ilsie’s law reader screams.

            “Your objection is overruled, beings as I am here as part of an attempted murder investigation and not to preside over your client’s petty property line dispute,” Kaeya tells him.

            “He can’t technically overrule anyone since he’s . . . not the acting magistrate . . .” Rhimeburg says softly to Diluc.

            Diluc snorts. “Don’t tell him that.”

            “Attempted murder?” Ilsie’s law reader looks shocked and confused. Diluc shifts his gaze to Ilsie who has frozen in the act of nibbling on her pinkie nail and gone completely white beneath her scars and the pick marks on her skin Then he looks back to the most important person in the room to him. Kaeya’s come close enough now for him to see that his brother is still worryingly pale, and his eye is bright and feverish.

            “Kaeya,” he says, standing, and approaching his brother, which he knows is against protocols, but . . . well, protocols have kind of gone out the window here. “Please. Sit.”

            “Sorry. Can’t right now, Diluc,” Kaeya tells him, and gives his signature infuriating grin.

            “Sir Aramis, perhaps if you could swear this man in, we could go on and get this over with quickly,” Amber speaks up. “Captain Kaeya doesn’t look well, and this is clearly important, so we should do what we can to hasten it along.”

            “I – yes. You’re right. As acting magistrate for this hearing, I recognize Captain Kaeya’s invocation of Article . . . Article . . .”

            “Article Fourteen, Clause Seven,” Kaeya provides.

            “Article Fourteen, Clause Seven,” Aramis repeats, “and I will now swear in this new witness. Young man, please state your name for the court.”

            “I . . . I’m Randolph Hirshir.”

            “Do you, Randolph Hirshir, in the name of Lord Barbatos, swear to speak only truth before this assembled gathering to uphold justice and Monstadt’s laws?”

            “I – er – yes. I swear.” Randolph gulps.

            “Excellent. Now that that’s done, why don’t you state for the record what you did,” Kaeya says. “Tell the nice people here exactly what you told me.”

            Proper procedure would probably be to have Randolph take a seat at the smaller desk off to the side of the larger one where Aramis is seated . . . but official invocation of some little known clause or not, Diluc very much doubts that all that’s going on is following proper procedure.

            “I . . . me . . . you see, sir . . . I work in a cobbler shop. Master Bruckner’s my master. I’m his apprentice. I needed the money. My sister’s taken sick, you see. She don’t feel well most days and coughs a bunch. Says her chest feels tight. There’s cures and such that can be ordered from outside Mond, but they’s expensive, see –”

            “Cut the sob story and get on with it,” Kaeya growls.

            “About two months back, Madam Vander came by the shop and asked me to put poison in Master Diluc’s shoes, next time he brought a pair in for repair, or special ordered some.”

            “Objection!” Ilsie’s law reader protests.

            “Overruled, now shut up!” Kaeya snaps.

            “She offered me mora. Lots of it. More’n what Master Bruckner would pay me in a month. So I took it. And I did what she asked,” Randolph says, hanging his head. “She promised me it weren’t the kind of poison as can kill. Just the kind that can mess with a man, give ‘em headaches and upset stomachs and nightmares. I believed her ‘cause, I mean, I never heard of no poison that can kill you just by getting it on your skin before.”

            “Liar! He’s lying!” Ilsie shrieks.

            “You wish to refute the witness’s testimony?” Kaeya asks, then makes a generous gesture. “Well, by all means.”

            “Madam Vander, you shouldn’t –”

            “I do wish to refute! He’s clearly lying!” Ilsie says shrilly. “I had nothing to do with any poisoning attempt on Diluc Ragnvindr!”

            “But what would Master Randolph here have to gain by lying?” Kaeya asks, sounding oh so reasonable despite his voice sounding so hoarse and rough.

            “You put him up to it! You lying Khaenri’ahn dog!”

            Diluc’s fist clenches and he sees Lumine take a step toward Ilsie, though Paimon is quick to warn her back. Fischl hisses like a snake and Amber makes a growling noise. There are many other murmurs of disapproval from the galley. Mondstadt loves its Cavalry Captain. Kaeya may not have been born here, but he’s theirs now. Those who hold his origins against him are in the very slim minority.

            “Me hailing from Khaenri’ah has nothing to do with this, Ilsie,” Kaeya says coolly.

            “Oh, I don’t think so. It was a Khaenri’ahn poison used on Master Diluc. You’re a Khaenri’ahn bastard. Don’t think for a second that I’m the only one who’s made that connection!” Ilsie snaps.

            Kaeya goes still for a second. Then he laughs. “Wow,” he says. “You really . . . I mean, I was going for that because, I mean, I had to try, but I didn’t really think it would be that easy. Just . . . wow.”

            “What are you talking about, you mongrel?” Ilsie demands.

            “I’m talking about how you just incriminated yourself,” Kaeya tells her.

            “What? I didn’t –”

            “Madam Vander please, don’t say anything else –”

            “Who said it was a Khaenri’ahn poison that was being used?” Kaeya asks.

            “What?” Ilsie blinks. “You did.”

            “No, I didn’t.”

            “Then the shoe boy did!”

            “No, he didn’t. I specifically told him not to. He was only too happy to agree to that since he can’t even pronounce Khaenri’ah,” Kaeya says.

            “Then someone else mentioned it first, because it wasn’t me! I only heard it from you! I wasn’t the one who said Khaenri’ah first, you Khaenri’ahn filth! Who the hell do you think you are, strolling in here and accusing a lady like me?! You don’t belong here, you miserable outlander! You dark skinned dog! You -”

            “Ilsie, shut the fuck up!” Diluc shouts, unable to stomach her hateful spewing any longer. Apparently he’s not the only one.

            “Hold thy foul tongue, you bitch!”

            “Say one more word against Kaeya and I swear to Barbatos . . .”

            “Wind Blade!”

            Lumine’s Palm Vortex causes quite the stir, swirling the air, papers, and other loose articles around quickly then releasing them in a jet stream that sends Ilsie tumbling out of her chair and over the plaintiff’s table. It also nearly knocks Kaeya off his feet too, but Amber, by his side, grabs him and steadies him, right before Fischl can, much to Fischl’s obvious displeasure.

            “You! Another outlander,” Ilsie shrills as she sits up, but makes no move to stand. “I’ll see you hanged for that!”

            “Give it up, Ilsie,” Kaeya says. “There’s a whole room full of people here who heard you bring up Khaenri’ah first. You’re not fooling anyone anymore. You can insult me, and the Honorary Knight who saved all of Mondstadt from Stormterror until you’re blue in the face, but it won’t change what we all heard.”

            Then Ilsie starts laughing. Horrible, cruel laughter. “Mondstadt isn’t what it once was. Once we were strong. Once we were proud. We didn’t need outlanders to help us, or be anything but our servants or slaves.” Her gaze falls scornfully on Diluc, who could literally not care less what she thinks of him. “Your family has fallen so far from the days of the Ragnvindr Knight.”

            “Is she talking about the Ragnvindr Knight who overthrew the old monarchy to end slavery in Mondstadt?” Kaeya asks. “That Ragnvindr Knight?”

            “It would have been fitting for your watered down bloodline to end with you,” Ilsie spits out venomously, still glaring at Diluc, as she raises one hand to her mouth to start chewing on another nail. “It would have served you right to get lost in your own head and die mad and alo –”

            “Don’t you dare!”

            The next thing Diluc knows, Kaeya is sprinting toward her, then he’s at Ilsie’s side, grabbing her hand, yanking it away from her mouth, then reaching for her mouth with his own hands.

            “Don’t bite down! Don’t!”

            “Objection!”

            “Kaeya, what are you doing?”

            “Don’t you bite down, damn you! She’s got poison! She’s trying to – fuck, no, fuck!” Kaeya cries hoarsely as Ilsie starts to convulse and foam at the mouth.

            Diluc rushes forward to grab him and pull him back. “Don’t let her bite you! Don’t let it get in your bloodstream! Kaeya, get back!”

            Kaeya tries to fight against his grip. Only the archons know why, because fuck Ilsie. Kaeya’s never been as strong as Diluc, though, even on a good day, and this is anything but a good day for Kaeya. Damn it. Holding him like this, pulling him back, Diluc can feel that he’s still shaking, even this long after his hallucinations stopped. That can’t be a good sign . . . but more importantly right this moment . . .

            “She didn’t bite you, did she? Please tell me she didn’t bite you . . .” Diluc turns Kaeya around and seizes his hands, inspecting them for any knicks or breaks in the skin that Ilsie’s poison could have gotten in through.

            “She didn’t bite me. I’m okay, Diluc,” Kaeya tells him.

            Diluc doesn’t just take his word for it, because Kaeya is a damn liar who lies. He inspects every centimeter of exposed skin on his hands, just to make sure, running his own fingers over Kaeya’s to help him focus better, then turning them over to check the other side too before he can finally relax.

            “You’re an idiot. You know that, right?” Diluc asks, gripping his brother’s shoulder and pulling him over to his chair, then pressing him down into it.

            Kaeya doesn’t answer. Instead he just stares at Ilsie . . . or in her direction. The brothers’ view is obscured now by Sir Aramis, Outrider Amber, and Ilsie’s law reader . . . whose name Diluc never did learn. Oh well. All three are crowded around Ilsie’s corpse, verifying what they already damn well know: that Ilsie is dead, of poison, by her own hand. Meanwhile Fischl spits on the ground to convey her contempt and Lumine stands with her arms crossed, glaring, as Paimon hovers over for a closer look. In the background, the galley is filled with the murmurs of all the gawkers who just came to the hearing in hopes a bit of free entertainment. Diluc also sees Chongyun and Xingqiu making their way toward them, which is good. Xingqiu’s a healer. He can take a look at Kaeya. Diluc catches Xingqiu’s eye and motions him over, but there are a lot of people between them for Xingqiu to make his way past, so it will be a minute. So Diluc looks back at Kaeya, who now looks very, very tired.

            “You okay?” Diluc asks.

            “Hm? Yeah. Just . . . wondering how mad Jean’s going to be at me for all this,” Kaeya says.

            “Don’t worry about her anger, worry about mine,” Diluc says irritably. “You lied to me. You said you’d stay home and as soon as I was gone you went out. Again! I really can’t trust you with anyone, can I? Did you ever even send for Jean at all?”

            “No . . . but maybe we should send for her now.”

            Diluc huffs. “Why do you think she’ll be mad at you for this anyway? It’s not like how this turned out is your fault.”

            Kaeya looks at Diluc and gives his equivalent of a blink. Then he gives Diluc a smirk that’s wavering a bit too much to actually be a real smirk.  “Tell Jean that for me, won’t you?”

Chapter Text

            That went well . . . Kaeya thinks to himself as he sits in Diluc’s chair, listening to his pulse pounding inside of his head. Yes, Diluc is annoyed and will probably be flat out mad if/when he realizes what really just happened, but that’s nothing new. Jean, Kaeya is fairly certain, will figure it out and be ticked, but oh well. He did exactly what he said he was going to, and if she didn’t want him to, she should have either found the poisoner first on her own or given him an order with no room for interpretation. No one else seems to even suspect. Well, maybe Elzer. Kaeya sees a shrewd glint in the butler’s eyes, and Elzer knows him. They did grow up together, after all, even though Elzer was always enough years older that the age gap made being friends weird.

            Well, all that aside, what’s done is done, and Kaeya is fairly certain none of the three who can figure it out will have a big enough problem to really make him pay for it. Jean and Diluc will probably make him pay in some smaller ways, but nothing Kaeya can’t deal with. Hell, it will probably be preferable to them coddling him and smothering him, because he doesn’t know how to deal with that. Even now, Diluc is having Xingqiu check him over and use his healing magic on Kaeya. Not that there’s a whole lot Xingqiu or any other healer can do. Poisons and drugs tend to have their own recovery times, mostly unaffected by magic. If a healer takes the time to get to know the poison they want to counteract well, that’s one thing, but otherwise they can only really react to the damage it does, or fortify their patient’s strength.

            “His pulse is unnaturally fast, but I don’t think it’s dangerously so,” Xingqiu says, after channeling a bit of healing magic into Kaeya. “There are traces of something in his system. I presume it’s dream poison? How did this happen?”

            “It was in my boots,” Diluc says. Like they don’t already know that thanks to the spectacle that just occurred, and ended with Ilsie dead on the floor. Kaeya glances over as someone from the church arrives with a shroud and uses it to cover the body. Before they cover her face, Kaeya gets a final glimpse of newly opened pick marks over her old acne scars and something about those bother him, but he can’t quite place his finger on it. No matter. He has enough other things to worry about right now.

            “When I realized it was in his boots, I cut them open,” Kaeya explains, because everyone is kind of hovering around him, and they all seem to want to know, and well, he owes them for their help with this whole mess. He can afford to give them a little harmless information. “I was stupid and careless and was holding it too close to my face. I forgot why it’s a bad idea to mess around with powders that have been under pressure. When I prodded at the stitching, trying to make sure it was dream poison powder that was being forced through the edges, it puffed into the air like mushroom spores and I inhaled some.”

            “But inhaling it . . .” Lumine sounds horrified. “Didn’t the book say that’s how it was used for torture?”

            “Yes. It was a fun night,” Kaeya says, trying his best to smile. He thinks he manages it, though obviously not very convincingly.

            “Kaeya . . .”

            “I’m fine now,” Kaeya tries to assure them. “Diluc got me through it.”

            “I’m so glad you were there for him, Master Diluc,” Amber says earnestly. A little too earnestly. Damn it, Kaeya does not have the energy to deal with this right now.

            “He’s been here for me this whole mess,” Diluc says obliviously, and Kaeya feels his brother’s warm hand rest on his shoulder. It actually feels really nice because this hearing room is really cold. Kaeya didn’t know the cathedral ever got this cold. Wait, no, that’s not what he needs to be thinking about right now. He needs to keep Amber from putting her foot in her mouth. The very last thing in the world he needs right now is Amber saying something inferring that Kaeya and Diluc are lovers, and embarrassing all three of them. Maybe now is a good time to let her know they’re brothers except Diluc might not like . . . wait. Last night, when Kaeya was hallucinating . . . did Diluc . . . ?

            A blinding bolt of pain flashes through Kaeya’s mind. It stuns him, so he doesn’t cry out. A small mercy, that. Stupid, what had he been thinking, dwelling on last night? He needs to not think about it. He needs to find his next task . . . and keep moving forward so he doesn’t fall back.

            “Amber,” Kaeya says, “I need you to do something for me.”

            Amber hops to attention. “Just give the order.”

            “Since I doubt Diluc is going to let me do it myself, I need you to take a unit and go to the Vander manor house. Confiscate every written document you find. Letters, ledgers, notes on scraps of paper. Don’t be antagonistic to Illan Vander. The man had nothing to do with this and I’ve heard since he had that stroke there’s not much of him there . . . Take Noelle with you. Oh, and Prinzessin?”

            “My good Errant Knight?” Fischl says.

            “I realize that I’ve asked you for a lot today, and I owe you at least several favors now, but I need to beg for another right now. Could you go with them and have Oz scout the grounds? I just had a hunch, and I know it’s a long shot, but –”

            “Belay those orders, all of you,” Jean says, suddenly striding into Kaeya’s field of view.

            Oh damn. She knows and she’s mad. Not unexpected, but still . . .

            “You’re really cancelling my orders?” Kaeya asks her.

            Jean stares down at him coolly. Her narrowed eyes widen slightly as she takes in the sorry sight that Kaeya has become, but her expression barely softens. “You and I need to talk. In private.”

            “You can use my office,” volunteers Barbara, who must have been the one to fetch Jean. Probably the moment Kaeya stormed in and invoked Article Fourteen, Clause Seven. So . . . Jean probably had a good idea what she was going to find, coming into this.

            Diluc’s grip tightens on Kaeya’s shoulder, protectively. He’s one of the few there who knows Jean well enough to know that she is pissed off. “Is there a problem, Jean? Kaeya shouldn’t really be going anywhere now except home to rest, if not to an infirmary.”

            “No infirmary, and nothing’s wrong, Diluc,” Kaeya tells him. “Jean and I will talk . . . but we really should send a unit to the Vander property –”

            “No,” Jean tells him.

            Kaeya sighs and stands. Just like the last time he got up from sitting, his head spins again. Maybe he should just stay standing? Except this is almost over. Kaeya’s reaching his limit and he knows it. He can probably only manage to stay conscious for another hour . . . two at the most. Diluc will drag him home to sleep before that if he gets the chance. Diluc grabs his arm now to steady him.

            “I need to speak with him alone, Diluc,” Jean tells Kaeya’s brother.

            “Then I’ll wait outside the door,” Diluc says coldly.

            “It’s okay, Diluc,” Kaeya assures him. “I can make it there on my own, and I know what this is about.”

            “Jean? What’s going on?” Amber asks. “Did something else happen? You know that Kaeya was poisoned last night, don’t you?”

            “I do now, but I still need to talk to him. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it brief,” Jean says.

            Kaeya has a pretty good idea what that means. His guess: a month of “forced medical leave.”

            “I’m walking him to the office and waiting outside,” Diluc says again. “Let’s not make things difficult, Acting Grand Master.”

            That gives Jean pause, because when the Ragnvindr family feels like being difficult, it means trouble for whoever has drawn their ire. Trouble for all of Mondstadt it they’re angry enough. At the very least many headaches are on the horizon for the knights if Diluc isn’t appeased.

            “Diluc, it’s fine,” Kaeya says again. “I’m fine.”

            “You’re shaking, Kaeya. You’ve been shaking since . . . since we were at your house. I’m not leaving you alone –”

            “I’ll be with Jean. She’s a healer,” Kaeya reminds him. “I don’t need you listening at the keyhole while Jean and I discuss . . . urgent business. Besides, you need to give a statement or account of what happened before you’re allowed to leave here. You might as well do that now so when I finish up with Jean we can both leave.”

            Diluc glowers. “Fine. Elzer, go with them. Wait outside the door for Kaeya. Don’t let him leave until I’m able to as well.”

            “Yes, Master Diluc,” Elzer says quickly. Then he follows Jean and Kaeya from the room where the fiasco of a hearing was held, to the hallway where the deacons’ offices are, and dutifully waits outside while Jean and Kaeya enter.

            “Well,” Kaeya says, forcing cheer into his voice, “I would have lost money on that bet. I thought for sure Diluc would figure out what I’d done, but he seems oblivious. I think Elzer knows though. Of course I knew you’d figure it out –”

            “Why, Kaeya?” Jean asks, sounding both angry and hurt. “Why did you do it?”

            Kaeya smiles coldly. “Because no one gets to hurt my family. Not anymore.”

            “So you shoved poison down a helpless woman’s throat?” Jean hisses.

            “Yes. Though whether or not she was helpless is debatable. She was the one who threw the first metaphorical stone. Dealt the first dose of poison. Still, that aside, what part of ‘No one gets to hurt my family’ are you having a hard time understanding, Jean?”

            Jean shakes her head. “I can’t believe you.”

            Kaeya leans against the wall and folds his arms across his chest. “Of course you can. I did exactly what I said I was going to do. More than that, you knew when I said it that I was serious.”

            “No, I didn’t think you would actually –”

            “No. You knew I meant what I said. You know me better than anyone except perhaps Diluc. In some ways, you definitely know me better than him,” Kaeya muses. “You and I have dealt with much worse together in the knights than he and I ever did. You’ve seen me work firsthand. More than that, you know I always keep a suicide pill on me. So don’t pretend you didn’t think I was serious when I said that when I found whoever was poisoning Diluc, I planned on shoving poison down their throat.”

            “No, I didn’t think you were serious,” insists Jean. “I thought you had some morals –”

            “Why in Teyvat would you think that?” Kaeya wants to know. “Again. You’ve seen me work.”

            “I know you have morals, Kaeya Alberich. Don’t pretend otherwise. You do know what’s right and wrong, and usually you choose to do the right thing! But not this time.”

            Kaeya gives an ugly laugh. “Agree to disagree.”

            “Kaeya!” This conversation is going worse than Kaeya thought it would. He knew Jean would be mad. He didn’t count on her wanting . . . well, he’s not sure if she wants to fight with him about this or just wants him to agree that what he did was wrong . . . Maybe he’d be able to figure it out if the aftereffects of the poison weren’t still slowing his mind and speeding up his pulse. He can still hear his own heartbeat inside his skull, which is never good, but that aside, he’s not going to agree that he was in the wrong or pretend he regrets jamming that poison pill down Ilsie’s throat. More than that . . . fighting right now feels kind of good. His anger makes things just a little clearer, makes him feel a little stronger. It gives him something to focus on that’s here instead of last night, or once upon a time in Khaenri’ah, which is waiting to sink its claws into him and drag him back if he stops, if he slows down, so Kaeya embraces this argument.

            “After all the times you’ve turned a blind eye to the . . . let’s call them questionable things I’ve done in the process of defending Mondstadt . . . this is what you choose to reprimand me over?” Kaeya asks. “Putting down the bitch who poisoned my brother?”

            “It wasn’t your decision to make whether or not she should be executed and you know it!”

            “I can’t help but think you’d be singing a different song if it was Barbara who she tried to drive mad,” says Kaeya.

            “Leave my sister out of this.”

            “I wish I could leave my brother out of this, but Ilsie tried to drive him insane with a torture drug.”

            “And she should have been held accountable for it in a fair trial. Not executed on your whim.”

            “My whim? Are you still pretending you didn’t damn well know this was premeditated?”

            “Kaeya –”

            “Besides, you should be thanking me. I saved us the trouble of having to house a high profile prisoner, then guard her against the people who would have rioted and tried to drag her out for some mob justice when they found out what she did to Diluc,” Kaeya points out. “Do you know how much manpower we would have had to divert to that?”

            “It doesn’t matter how much manpower we would have needed for that, or how big of a hassle it would have been, it was the right thing to do,” Jean tells him.

            “And yet you said nothing when the Puppet Maker ‘died resisting arrest,’” Kaeya names one of the more infamous serial killers that the two of them once tracked down together, “and you had no problem with me dropping a chandelier on that arsonist and leaving him to burn alive in the Black Bar Tavern.” There are others Kaeya could name too. Plenty of others. There would be more, but he knows where to draw the line so no one gets too suspicious.

            “Those were different and you know it. They were dangerous. Ilsie wasn’t anymore, and she was someone we should have interrogated. She could have told us where she got the dream poison –”

            “If you care about that then why did you cancel my order to send a unit to her home and find out?” Kaeya asks irritably.

            “B-because we’re going to be busy enough cleaning up this mess here,” stutters Jean.

            Kaeya sighs. “You need to learn to lie better. After my suspension is over, let me know if you want me to give you some pointers.”

            Jean draws herself up angrily. “What makes you think you’re getting off with something as light as a suspension after pulling something like this? I know what you did even if no one else does. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t punish you accordingly.”

            Kaeya gives a nasty smile and chooses his words to hurt. “Because without me there is no you.”

            Jean flinches.

            Part of Kaeya feels bad . . . but there’s also a small, selfish part of him that’s wanted to say this for a long time. There’s a dark, resentful piece of him that he can’t make go away, even though he’s tried.

            He can never have what his friends have, and he knows it. He can never rise higher in the Knights of Favonius than the rank of captain, because he wasn’t born here in Mondstadt. Their code explicitly forbids it. He can never go back to how things once were with Diluc before he told him the truth, never openly call him his best friend and brother again, because Diluc will never trust him again, will never see him as anything but a spy and a traitor, and will always be watching him for betrayal. Kaeya can’t help but hate his brother a little bit for that sometimes because he didn’t even do anything, never made a move against Mondstadt or the Ragnvindrs, and only confessed to Diluc when he realized that he never could, but apparently that doesn’t matter. He can never start a family of his own, can never have children, because what if his dad comes back looking for him someday and finds them instead? He can’t remember the family he was born into except for his father, because his murdered mother and little brother’s memories are all locked behind a wall of migraines. He can’t have anything, doesn’t get to keep anything, and he can’t help but be jealous sometimes, of everyone he loves who does have those things.

            It was inevitable that his mask would crack and let someone see how ugly he is inside eventually. He never thought it would be Jean who drove him to it, but he supposes it makes sense. He . . . honestly didn’t (and still doesn’t) really mind her ascending through the Ordo’s ranks by piggybacking off his work. He thought at the time that if he couldn’t advance, then at least he could help the only friend he had left in the world do so. Still, it stung, watching as all his legwork, schemes, flashes of insight, and natural talent at solving crimes and reading people were all credited to someone else, even someone he loves and respects. Jean has always been apologetic for it, and always given him a fairly long leash and looked the other way whenever she knows Kaeya’s done something questionable . . . except for now, the time it matters most to Kaeya. So maybe she deserves a reminder that she didn’t get to where she is simply by running around Mond finding missing cats and helping slackers with their tax forms.

            “So,” Kaeya continues, “let’s just skip ahead to how we both know this is going to play out. You’re going to suspend me for a month, but you know that to do that is going to raise too many questions. Questions you can’t answer, because if you do, you’ll be opening too big a can of worms to deal with. So instead you’re going to call it a month of forced medical leave. Which is probably only going to end up being two or three weeks because something’s going to crop up that you can’t handle or trust to anyone else but me. Does that sound about right?”

            Jean stares at him with equal parts sadness and anger. Kaeya smiles back as amicably as he can. It’s a very long, tense, several moments, but Jean is the first to break. She sighs heavily, then heads for the door.

            “Go home, Kaeya,” she tells him. “Get some rest.”

            “As my Acting Grand Master commands.”

            They go separate ways, Jean back toward the room that Diluc’s legal hearing was held in, and Kaeya toward the stairs that lead to the ground floor, claiming to Elzer, who follows him, that he needs fresh air. When he can’t hear Jean’s footsteps behind him anymore, thanks to her turning a corner, Kaeya stops abruptly.

            “My notebook,” he says absently. “I left it in Barbara’s office –”

            “I’ll get it, Master Kaeya,” Elzer says and quickly starts backtracking. “Please wait right here.”

            “No, I can get it.” Kaeya says stubbornly and starts back to the office too, pleased to see that the suspicion that had briefly crossed Elzer’s face is gone now.

            “Please, just wait here, Master Kaeya. There’s no reason for you to have to walk more than you need to right now.”

            Kaeya obstinately follows Diluc’s butler despite his protest. When they reach the office, Elzer opens the door and enters quickly, hoping to find and grab Kaeya’s forgotten notebook before Kaeya can cross the threshold and save him some steps. Kaeya sighs.

            “Sorry, Elzer,” he tells the older man. Then he summons a wall of cryo, sealing Elzer inside the room, and pushes the door closed to hide his handiwork.

            “Master Kaeya, wait! Master Kaeya, don’t!” He hears Elzer pounding on his ice, but that’s not going to do him much good, because Kaeya made that ice nearly a foot thick.

            “Keep an eye on Diluc. He got dosed yesterday, wearing his damn boots, so he’ll have nightmares again tonight. Probably tomorrow too, because it’s been in his system so long, but then he should be fine. Don’t let him come to my house. I’ll be sleeping it off myself and won’t feel like dealing with him. Tell him I won’t let him in.”

            “Master Kaeya, don’t go! Please, just let me walk you back to your house if you’re set on leaving! I don’t want you to go alone! Kaeya!”

            “Don’t worry, Elzer. I’ll be fine alone,” Kaeya says, as he starts walking away. “I always am.”

            The walk from the cathedral to his house feels so damn long. Kaeya does his best to hurry because he doesn’t know how much time he’s got before someone finds Elzer, which may or may not send Diluc running after him. It probably depends on whether Jean tells him what Kaeya did or not.

            Honestly, Kaeya kind of hopes she does. At least that will keep Diluc away. They can go back to semi-avoiding each other like normal. Back to Diluc being cold and aloof with him and back to Kaeya . . . back to Kaeya . . . being amiable and staying close at hand in case Diluc needs him?

            Maybe not. That sounds like so much effort. So, so much effort. Always trying so hard and for what? Never getting anywhere, not really. Always ending up right back where he started, and what is it all fucking for? What’s the point of any of this? Kaeya doesn’t know anymore. He’s just so damn tired . . . and cold.

            By the time he makes it to his home, Kaeya is shaking so hard he can hardly turn his key in the lock. He’s not sure if he’s shivering or just trembling . . . doesn’t really matter either way. Kaeya actually has a strong suspicion that he’s experiencing withdrawal symptoms right now, which is really not fair considering he only got one small dose of the damn dream poison. Hopefully Diluc won’t . . . but he didn’t . . . when he showed up at the library the other day, after a night spent without . . . thinking about this is too damn hard, and fuck Diluc anyway. Kaeya locks his door behind him, bolts it, then summons a wall of ice to secure it further because he just wants everyone to keep out right now.

            Then he stumbles to his kitchen. There’s something he wants in his medkit . . . but his medkit’s not there. Living room. They left it in the living room after . . . yeah. So that’s the next stop. After Kaeya opens his liquor cabinet and selects another unlabeled bottle. This one blue, and stored in the back of the cabinet. He holds it with both hands to make sure he doesn’t drop it and takes a drink right from the bottle before continuing on his way and damn does it burn so good.

            In the living room, the fire has nearly extinguished itself, and Kaeya doesn’t trust himself to add any logs to it right now. Not while he’s shaking this badly and drinking something so high proof. His medkit is on the coffee table, which he has never served coffee on in his life. Maybe he should. Hot coffee actually sounds good right now. Oh, there’s the remains of the hot chocolate Fischl made him . . . also cold now, damn it. Oh well, Kaeya’s not planning to stay awake much longer. He fumbles through his medkit for a small dark vial at the very bottom. Poppy essence. Good for numbing pain . . . and for inducing dreamless sleep. Kaeya’s never actually used it on himself before. He’s always preferred to grit his teeth and bear the pain, both because he prefers to keep a clear head and he’s heard way too many stories about people becoming dependent on it, but now he can’t remember why he ever cared in the first place.

            He goes to add it to the remains of his hot chocolate, because he at least has enough presence of mind to know that mixing it in almost pure alcohol will be very bad (never mind that taking it before a rare, barely researched poison is completely out of his system is also probably Very Bad) but as he does so, his hand shakes so badly that the tiny vial slips from his hand and cracks apart on the floor. Kaeya stares at it numbly. Then he takes another drink from his blue bottle, carefully holding it with both hands so it doesn’t meet the same fate. As it burns all the way down his throat and dims his vision for several seconds, Kaeya decides that he can make do just with this. So he stumbles over to his fireplace and drops down in front of the dying fire. Climbing the stairs to his bedroom is too much effort and right now his couch is too cold. This is the best he can get right now. This will do. He takes another drink and for a few seconds his teeth actually stop chattering.

            “Kaeya.”

            Kaeya jumps then slowly turns his head to look at the intruder. “I put that ice up for a reason, you know. Get out.”

            Diluc snatches the bottle from his hand and flings it. It smashes against the wall.

            Kaeya glares at his brother. “Really, Diluc? Really?”

            “Jean told me what you did,” Diluc says, and damn, he is maaaaad.

            “Good for her.” Kaeya tries to take another drink, only to remember that Diluc just chucked his bottle.

            “How could you do that, Kaeya?” Diluc demands. “We grew up with her. We were friends once.”

            “That racist bitch and I were never friends,” Kaeya says coldly, and pretends like it doesn’t hurt that Diluc can apparently forgive her so suddenly for all the hate she always spewed at Kaeya just for being different. Is it because she’s dead? Is that what it takes to win the great Diluc Ragnvindr’s forgiveness? Because if Kaeya had known it was that easy –

            “Well Jean and I were friends with her once, and you just murdered her!”

            “Hmm, well, yes, but someone had to pay for my injured pride,” Kaeya tells him. That’s definitely why he killed her. Not to defend his ungrateful brother who would still be going out of his mind if Kaeya hadn’t intervened. His damned fool of a brother who kept wearing his same damn boots even after Kaeya gave him his own favorite pair, and mentioned that the dream poison powder could seep through cloth, and had every saddle and piece of horse tack Diluc owned checked in case it was on them, and this was after he read his way to a migraine for that bastard.

            “You’re unbelievable,” Diluc says in a tone that makes Kaeya look up in mild alarm, because Diluc has only ever used that tone with him once before, and that was the night he tried to kill Kaeya.

            Kaeya picks his blue bottle back up and takes another drink, with hands that are remarkably steady. Sadly, the delicious burn isn’t there this time. Wait . . . something’s not quite right, he realizes, right before Diluc snatches the bottle out of his hands again and throws it into the fireplace.

            The previously dying fire flares up in a swirl of flames as Diluc grabs Kaeya by his hair and wrests him forward to smash his face into the embers and ashes.

            Kaeya awakes with a scream and all he can see is redredredred. He lashes out, not with his Vision, or his sword, or one of the four knives he has concealed on him, but with one feeble fist that only manages to land a glancing, powerless blow against Diluc, who immediately drops the blankets he was holding and grabs Kaeya by both wrists to subdue and steady him.

            “No!” Kaeya screams and tries to jerk away. “Don’t burn me!”

            “Kaeya, it’s me,” Diluc says, like that’s any comfort at all.

            Kaeya tries to headbutt him. Fails. “Don’t burn me!” he screams again, because that’s all he can do right now, and he’s never felt more pathetic.

            “I won’t. I swear. Never again,” Diluc promises as his grip on Kaeya’s wrists tightens painfully. Then he seems to realize what he’s doing and releases his wrists, shifting his hands to Kaeya’s shoulders instead. “You were having a nightmare. It’s the damned dream poison still.”

            Kaeya’s eye opens and closes rapidly several times. Something’s wrong with it. It’s leaking warm liquid down his face. Archons damn it, he hopes it’s nothing too wrong. He doesn’t want to go blind.

            “Aww, Kaeya . . .” Diluc sounds so, so sad that it startles Kaeya out of . . . out of all his other thoughts. He stares at his brother, then freezes as Diluc reaches toward his face, wiping the unknown liquid away with his sleeve, like it’s not gross and unnatural.

            “What . . . are you doing here?” asks Kaeya as his mind returns more or less to the present.

            “What do you think I’m doing here? I’m making sure you’re okay,” Diluc tells him, his voice a bit too gentle to really be exasperated.

            Kaeya frowns. “Did Jean tell you what I did?”

            “No. Elzer did. That was stupid, you know. You could have collapsed on your way back here. You should have taken him with you –”

            “I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about . . .” Kaeya trails off. The memory of his nightmare is too fresh, too raw, and he is painfully aware that he can’t defend himself right now.

            “What?” Diluc asks.

            “Nothing.” Kaeya will tell him later. Maybe. Well, if he does, it will be when he can defend himself and there’s no open fire for Diluc to throw him into . . . and there is a big fire here now, Kaeya notices with some concern. Diluc must have added wood and relit it before Kaeya woke up. Nervously, Kaeya looks around for the bottle he’d been drinking from and frowns when he spots it on the other side of Diluc. Placed there deliberately, no doubt, so he can’t reach it.

            Diluc follows his gaze and shakes his head. “Sorry. No more alcohol for you right now.”

            “But it helps, and I’m so cold.”

            Diluc just shakes his head again, as if to say, “Mixing alcohol and unknown drugs are bad, Kaeya.” Then he gathers up the blankets that he’d dropped a minute ago and begins using them to wrap Kaeya up.

            “Elzer is picking up some food,” Diluc says as he works. “He should be here with it soon, if you’re hungry. I’ll be staying here with you until tonight. Then I’m going over to Mona’s. She’s agreed to let me spend the night there in her spare room, and since she has a hydro Vision it should be safe, even if I have a bad nightmare. Lumine will be coming here to keep an eye on you before I leave –”

            “No. I don’t want anyone here. I just want to be alone right now. Please leave.”

            “I can’t do that,” Diluc says patiently.

            “I want you to leave.”

            Diluc just keeps wrapping Kaeya up in blankets. “I need to know that you’re going to be okay.”

            “I killed Ilsie. That was what Jean was mad at me for. I shoved a fast acting, lethal poison down her throat.” So much for waiting until he can defend himself before revealing this. Oh well. Kaeya gives Diluc an ugly smile. “I killed your childhood friend in cold blood.”

            Diluc freezes. Then slowly asks, “Did you really?”

            “I did. Just like I said I would. At the winery, remember?” Kaeya tells him. “Jean figured it out on her own, and I think Elzer did too. Kind of surprised you didn’t.”

            “Where . . . did you get a lethal, fast acting poison on such short notice?” Diluc asks.

            Kaeya hesitates. Then decides to tell the truth, because why the hell not? “Check your collar. Left side. Underneath the flap.”

            Warily, Diluc obeys. He frowns when he finds a very tiny pocket there. Empty now, and with the fourth side left open so something tiny could be inserted then sewn in place.

            Mentally, Kaeya starts counting. One . . . two . . . three . . .

            It’s on the count of four that it all comes together for Diluc. His face contorts in horror then he surges forward and grabs Kaeya by both shoulders. Kaeya dislodges the blankets that Diluc had wrapped around him, so he can grab Diluc’s wrists. His grip is weak, and if Diluc gets violent there won’t be much Kaeya can do, but anything is better than nothing.

            “What – you – why, Kaeya? Why would you – you keep it on yourself – that’s what you cut out of your collar last night before – that’s why you ripped open your shirt with your teeth while you were – Kaeya!” Diluc can barely string a sentence together. His expression is desperate, like he’s begging Kaeya to refute what he just now realized, but Kaeya can’t do that. It would be a waste of a lie and it wouldn’t work anyway. Some things, once revealed, can never be walked back.

            “Someday my dad is going to come back for me,” Kaeya tells him. “I don’t know when. I don’t know what will happen when he does. All I know is that I’m not betraying Mondstadt . . . and I’m not letting him hurt anyone I care about.”

            “I don’t understand how that equates to you keeping something so dangerous on you at all times!”

            “The people I care about are only useful as leverage against me as long as I’m alive.”

            Diluc stares at him.

            “My father or one of his allies could go after them out of spite once I’m dead, but it’s unlikely. It would be messy, and a waste of resources, and it could leave a trail.”

            Diluc continues to stare.

            “Obviously I’d prefer not to kill myself, but if I have to, at least I have the option . . . but right now that’s neither here nor there. Back to the main point . . . yeah. I killed Ilsie. I killed your childhood friend.”

            “The hell with her,” Diluc snaps. “She hasn’t been my friend in years, if she ever really was. She can rot in the Abyss.”

            Kaeya stares at him in surprise.

            “What’s with that look?” Diluc asks as he picks up one of the blankets and wraps it around Kaeya’s shivering shoulders again. “You didn’t really think I’d take her side over yours?”

            Kaeya doesn’t answer.

            Diluc huffs and finishes resettling the rest of the blankets. Then he sits down beside Kaeya and wraps an arm around him, loaning him some warmth. Almost like a hug . . . until Diluc wraps his other arm around Kaeya too, and pulls him closer. Then it’s definitely a hug.

            “You do what you have to, to take care of the people you love,” Diluc says, as his warmth saturates the blankets between them, driving away the chill that’s been plaguing Kaeya all morning. “Our father taught you that.”

Thank you to Boo on Twitter for this beautiful new piece of fanart for this fic: https://twitter.com/Boosify/status/1336308189084565504

Also thank you to Babs who drew this beautifully broken, poisoned Kaeya:https://twitter.com/babjustbabs/status/1336886330396012549

Chapter Text

            With his arms wrapped around his brother, Diluc can feel it when something inside Kaeya breaks. One moment Kaeya is . . . well, not fine, but mostly keeping it together. The next his body is shaking with sobs that he is trying but can’t quite manage to strangle, tears streaming down his face, and trying to turn away from Diluc to hide his pain.

            Diluc doesn’t let him.

            Instead he pulls Kaeya even closer, and Kaeya’s in no shape to really resist. He ends up slumping against Diluc, crying against his chest as Diluc holds him like he’s the only thing in the world that matters . . . and right now, to Diluc, he is.

            “It’s okay, Kaeya,” Diluc tells him, because it feels like just holding him isn’t enough when Kaeya is crying. He’s never seen Kaeya like this, at least not before getting dosed with dream poison. Never once did he ever see his brother cry when they were children. No matter how badly he was hurt or how cruelly he was treated. It took a torture drug to break him down to this point, and he was only exposed to it because he was trying to save Diluc’s life and sanity. The guilt that Diluc feels over this weighs heavy on his shoulders, and he knows it will for some time yet, even after Kaeya’s better. It doesn’t occur to him for a moment that Kaeya won’t get better. “It’s over now. The poison will be out of your system in a day or two. Out of my system too. We’ll both take it easy until then, okay? Then, once we’re both better . . . let’s go riding together. We haven’t done that since – we haven’t done that in forever.”

            There are a great many things they haven’t done together in forever. Catching fish in the river, or swimming, though the weather’s getting too cold for that now. Strolling through town together on a day off, stopping to look at whatever catches their fancy. Sparring . . . maybe that’s not the best idea now, maybe not ever, all things considered. Fighting alongside each other – how is it that they’ve managed to avoid that with everything that’s been going on lately? Never mind, it’s probably better that they don’t go looking for a fight right now anyway, together or separately. Diluc tries to think of other suggestions but . . . with Kaeya it wasn’t going places or doing special things that defined their relationship. It was everything. Waking up each morning and starting each day with his best friend. Sneaking down to the kitchens at night for a snack. Rainy afternoons spent reading. Every fair weather day spent soaking up the sun, riding, exploring, helping around the vineyard . . . or just sitting and watching the crystalflies drift amongst the vines. Never knowing what it’s like to face the world alone because the other was never more than a shout away. Diluc misses that, all of it, so much . . .

            “S-sorry,” Kaeya says, and Diluc realizes that he’s been silent for quite some time, just thinking, when he should have been paying more attention to his brother, or filling the silence with hopefully comforting words.

            “Don’t be sorry,” Diluc tells him. “Nothing about this is your fault.”

            “I’m getting . . . eye fluids . . . all over your clothes . . .” Kaeya seems to finally be managing to reign in his sobs, though his tears are still flowing.

            “Eye fluids?” Diluc asks.

            “This . . . whatever this is . . . coming out of my eye.”

            Diluc blinks at him. “Your . . . tears?”

            “Not tears. I don’t know how to cry,” Kaeya tells him.

            Diluc almost laughs, which would be so inappropriate that it’s not funny. “It’s not something you need to know how to do, Kaeya. It just happens. Usually without you wanting to.”

            “Never happened before.” Kaeya sounds disgruntled. “Feels disgusting.”

            “I’ve never really thought about it like that.” Diluc uses his sleeve to wipe the tears off Kaeya’s face again. He wonders how Kaeya didn’t realize that he was crying. Even if he hasn’t cried since before he got to Mondstadt, he’s seen other people cry plenty of times. He saw Diluc cry more times than Diluc cares to admit when they were growing up. Maybe he’s just been thrown off because this is the first time it’s happened to him since he can remember?

            “Thought I might need to see a damn healer about it. Was worried something was really wrong with my eye.”

            Diluc almost laughs again. “If you want a healer, I’ll get you one, but I promise your eye is okay.”

            “. . . Okay. Good.”

            Kaeya falls silent after that. Then, after another minute, he carefully brings up his arms and gently tries to separate himself from Diluc’s embrace. Diluc lets him, though he really doesn’t want to let go. After the bombshell Kaeya dropped on him about keeping a lethal dose of poison in his collar at almost all times, Diluc has an almost overpowering need to wrap his brother up and keep him safe.

            Then Kaeya unclips his Vision from his belt and hands it to Diluc. Next come four knives, then finally his sword.

            “I think I’m going to pass out again soon,” Kaeya mumbles. “I shouldn’t have these while I’m like this. Don’t want to hurt you.”

            Diluc puts them on the coffee table. “I’ll take care of them for you. Do you want to go to your room? Or can I move you to the couch, at least? If you want to stay down there in front of the fire, I’ll get you your pillow and some more blankets . . .”

            “Couch,” Kaeya decides, and shakily stands. Diluc gets up as well, ready to assist him if he needs it, but the couch is a scant few feet away and Kaeya manages to make it there on his own.

            Diluc takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry, but I need to know. Do you have any more poison on you right now?”

            Kaeya turns his collar out so that Diluc can see the very tiny pocket that he’d sewn underneath it. Mercifully flat and empty. “Not right now. Didn’t think it would be good to have another on me after I used it to kill whoever was poisoning you. So I only brought one.”

            “Please promise me you won’t keep more on you until the dream poison is completely out of your system.” If Diluc thought for a second that he could get Kaeya to stop carrying it permanently, he’d try to wring that promise out of him too, but he knows his brother. There’s nothing he can say that will change Kaeya’s mind about this, nothing he can offer him to make him stop. So, for now, he’ll do what he can to make sure Kaeya doesn’t try to kill himself again in a fit of dream poison induced madness. Then he’ll do what he can to make sure Kaeya’s father never makes it within miles of him ever again.

            The look Kaeya gives him is exhausted, but also knowing. Like he’s reading Diluc’s mind. Again. Diluc doesn’t even bother telling him or thinking at him to stop this time. If Kaeya really can read his mind then it’s okay, just this once. Diluc wants him to know that he’s going to make sure he never has to use that poison on himself.

            “Sewing kit. Second drawer of my nightstand. They’re sewn into the seam,” Kaeya tells him, rather than simply agreeing. Letting Diluc know where his poison is, so he can personally keep it away from Kaeya.

            “Thank you.”

            “You really shouldn’t have them on you either, though,” realizes Kaeya.

            “I’ll have Elzer take custody of them.”

            Kaeya nods.

            It’s really not a good feeling to know that Kaeya tried to kill himself last night, when he was in the grips of the dream poison. Thank Barbatos he had the foresight to get rid of the suicide pill sewn into his nightshirt before the hallucinations set in, or else . . . Diluc doesn’t even want to think about it. He came so close to losing his brother last night and didn’t even realize it . . . Diluc doesn’t think that he could have ever forgiven himself if that had happened.

            There’s a lot he’d like to talk with Kaeya about, once Kaeya is better . . . but he has the feeling that Kaeya won’t be willing or able to talk about most of it. Diluc understands, of course. What he’s been through . . . Diluc wouldn’t want to talk about it either, and Kaeya’s mind defends itself by mentally crippling him when he tries to think about many of those things, but . . . but there are some things Diluc needs to tell him. When he’s stronger and can think clearly, and isn’t so close to the breaking point. Right now Diluc just needs to take care of him.

            Without thinking about what he’s doing, Diluc reaches out to rest a hand on top of Kaeya’s head, the way he always used to when they were children, and Kaeya was new to Mondstadt, and Diluc kind of had it in his head that his father had gotten Kaeya for him as a replacement for the puppy he had to get rid of because Crepus turned out to be allergic to it.

            “Sleep, brother. I’ll wake you if it looks like you’re having a nightmare.”

            “You . . .” Kaeya stares at him, his gaze full of exhausted wonder. “You called me . . . brother.”

            “You don’t mind, do you?”

            “’Course not . . . brother.” Then Kaeya’s eyelid flutters closed and he exhales softly, and Diluc knows his brother well enough to know that he’s now out cold.

            He moves his hand from the top of Kaeya’s head to his throat to check his pulse. It’s still faster than it should be, but Diluc thinks it’s gotten a little better.

            Elzer arrives before too long, with food, and Diluc wishes Kaeya had managed to stay awake just a little longer so he could have eaten something . . . then again, he probably would have refused food, because that’s what he’s always done when he’s sick, over stressed, in pain, or in survival mode. In the scant few days since Diluc dragged him into this mess, he’s definitely lost weight. Diluc plans to do his utmost to correct that over the next few days, employing Elzer’s and Adelinde’s help, but trying to fatten Kaeya up never worked well when he was a child and will probably be just as hard now. Oh well. Diluc is nothing if not stubborn. He’ll stop short of trying to force feed Kaeya, but every other tactic is fair game.

            Elzer takes Kaeya’s weapons upstairs to his room, and retrieves his sewing kit while he’s up there. He offers to clean and decontaminate the guestroom, but Diluc stops him. He can’t risk his right hand man getting dosed with dream poison now too. It’s better, he decides, to leave the guestroom alone until none of them are suffering from the dream poison’s effects anymore. Then Diluc will have someone clean it, while taking every precaution they can think of, and wearing plenty of protective clothing to avoid contamination.

            A few hours after noon, there’s a knock on the door. “Food delivery from Good Hunter,” calls a semi-familiar voice. Diluc probably wouldn’t have recognized it if not for the words. He hurries to the front door . . . then he has to use his pyro to evaporate the ice wall that Kaeya had blocked off the front door with (but not the back door, which was how Diluc got in). He works as quickly as he can without making a mess, and manages to get the door open before the girl on the other side has to knock and call out more than three times.

            Once the door is opened, the girl blinks, surprised to be face to face with Diluc rather than Kaeya. Diluc sees her gaze flit behind him into the house, looking for Kaeya, then her expression closes off.

            “Sorry. I just realized I have the wrong house,” she says, and steps back.

            “You have a delivery for Kaeya?” Diluc asks.

            “Nope.” She tries to turn away.

            “Wait,” Diluc says urgently. “Please. If you have something for him, I’ll see he gets it. He’s sleeping right now.”

            The girl, who must be Kaeya’s informant rather than a mere delivery girl employed by his informant, hesitates. Then asks, “You’re watching over him?”

            “Yes. If you’re who I think you are, you know that we’re brothers . . . and you probably know we haven’t gotten along very well for the past few years, but we’ve been doing better lately.”

            The girl peers at Diluc guardedly. “I’ve heard some ugly rumors this morning. Some say he’s been poisoned. Some say he was tortured.”

            It’s Diluc’s turn to hesitate . . . but it’s not like everyone who was at the legal hearing doesn’t already know, and it sounds like rumors are spreading rampantly anyway. Jean will probably issue a public statement soon, if she hasn’t already. Besides, Kaeya said he trusts this girl.

            “He was dosed with a Khaenri’ahn torture drug called dream poison. He had a really bad night, and there are a few lingering side effects, but he should be okay,” Diluc tells her.

            “How did it happen?”

            “Ilsie Vander paid my cobbler’s apprentice to put it in my boots. So I was getting small doses of it every day. Kaeya recognized the symptoms and was trying to help me find where it was, and who was responsible. When he realized it was in my boots, he cut them open and inhaled some of it, so he got all the effects at once,” Diluc says, giving her a very abridged version.

            “He . . . doesn’t have plants growing out of his face, does he?”

            “What?” Diluc blinks. “No. The poison darkened the veins in his face until they were almost black, but they’re fading.”

            “Good. It would be a shame if Prince Charming’s good looks were spoiled.”

            The next thing Diluc knows, three flat food delivery boxes are thrust into his arms. At least one of them has food in, judging by the aroma, but the stack is so heavy that Diluc is betting that two of them are filled with stacks of papers.

            “These are his requests from yesterday, though it seems he might not need them anymore. The bottom box has a few extras I dug up for him today, after I heard about that bitch offing herself at the hearing. Not sure if they’ll be useful to him or not, but those are on the house.”

            “And the rest of them?” Diluc asks. “How much does he owe you? I’ll pay –”

            “He paid in advance. Also, tell that gentleman not to worry. His angels went to go do his bidding.”

            “What do you mean?” Diluc asks, but the informant has already turned her back to him, and only waves without looking back before she disappears around a corner.

            Diluc goes back inside and immediately checks on Kaeya. Elzer went in to sit with him when Diluc went to defrost the door, but Diluc feels better when he can keep an eye on him himself.

            “Did you order food, Master Diluc?” Elzer asks, looking at the boxes, confused. “Was what I bought not adequate?”

            “No, it’s not that. Kaeya’s informant dropped this off,” Diluc tells him.

            “Oh. Should we perhaps dispose of it?”

            “I think it’s okay. Kaeya trusts her.”

            Kaeya chooses that moment to awaken with a gasp, but he doesn’t shout, or lash out, or fall off the couch, or even immediately sit up. Nor had he been showing visible signs of distress, so hopefully the dream he awoke from wasn’t too bad.

            “Kaeya?” Diluc asks anyway. “Are you okay?”

            Kaeya sits up clumsily and nods. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

            “Your informant just dropped these off for you. One of them has food in. Do you feel like lunch?”

            “Uhh . . . not really.”

            “Will you try to eat something anyway? Please?”

            Kaeya cringes. “. . . Okay.”

            Diluc opens the top box that the informant just brought, which is nice and hot. “Northern apple stew and bread sound okay?”

            Kaeya nods, so Diluc hands him one of the bowls that is in the box, and puts one of the small loaves of bread on a napkin for him. Elzer comes back from the kitchen with a set of silverware, plates to put both under the bowl and the bread, and a glass of milk for him. Kaeya looks mildly freaked out to have not one but two people catering to him, but thanks them politely and dutifully tries to force down the food.

            “She also brought some papers for you. I left those in your workroom.”

            “Ah. That must be the intel I requested yesterday. Not much use to us now that the case is closed,” Kaeya says.

            “She did say that she dug up something else after she heard about Ilsie killing herself at the hearing today,” Diluc says. “She didn’t even hint that you might have had something to do with that, so I assume everyone believes what you wanted them to believe.”

            “There’s no reason for them not to,” Kaeya says, the corners of his lips curling upwards in cruel satisfaction. “She’s a confessed poisoner, and everyone there saw her put that poisoned pill in her mouth herself. Just ask them about it if you don’t believe me. They’ll tell you.”

            Diluc gives a nasty smirk as he remembers how Ilsie had just started to chew one of her nails again as she taunted Diluc about how she thought it would have served him right to die a madman, when Kaeya had rushed forward screaming. He’d chosen his timing very deliberately. Now everyone who was there surely believes they saw what he claims to have seen, and are no doubt gossiping with everyone they know, how they saw her put the poison in her mouth with their own eyes.

            “People seem to have that story right, at least. There are other rumors going around that are less clear. People know something happened to you, but they’re not quite sure what. I told your informant the abridged version. Not the details or all that you went through. Just that you inhaled the poison, and how, but that you’re going to be okay. I hope that was alright.”

            “Yeah. It’s fine. Vile’s a friend.”

            “She was worried. Apparently one of the rumors going around is that you have a plant growing out of your face.”

            Kaeya winces.

            “Don’t worry, I set her straight on that,” Diluc says quickly, “and your veins are looking better now than they were when you fell asleep. Your pretty face will be back to normal in no time, ‘Prince Charming.’”

            Diluc wonders if Kaeya’s keeping something from him. If his informant, Vile, he calls her, is more than just a friend. She seemed genuinely worried about him, and Kaeya talks about her quite fondly. More than that, he openly admits that he trusts her. Also, Kaeya is visibly upset at the idea of her thinking he has a plant growing out of his face. Perhaps there’s something going on between them. Diluc will have to pay closer attention in the future.

            “Oh, she also said to tell you that your angels went to do your bidding.”

            Kaeya gives his equivalent of a blink. “She said what?”

            “Your angels went to do your bidding.”

            “ . . . I’m not sure what that means. Did she give any context?”

            Diluc tries to remember exactly how she worded it. “She said, ‘Tell that gentleman not to worry. His angels went to go do his bidding.’ I assumed you’re the gentleman she wanted me to tell that to. Was I wrong?”

            “No. That’s one of the things she tends to refer to me as to other people. Maybe I’m just slow today. I’ll ask her what she meant next time I see her, if I don’t figure it out on my own first.”

            Kaeya manages to finish half his bowl of stew and a third of his bread before tapping out. Then, rather than going back to sleep, he insists on getting a bath. It’s not a bad idea, and guarantees that if any of the dream poison powder has been on his skin since last night, it will be washed off, so Diluc follows him up the stairs to make sure he doesn’t fall, then heats the water for him, after Kaeya fills the tub the old fashioned way, using the faucet. The hot water seems to help him relax a lot more than Kaeya thought it would, and he nearly falls asleep in the water, making Diluc very glad that he insisted on hovering by the door in case Kaeya needed his help. After Kaeya gets out, Diluc helps him dry off and dress in a loose shirt (all his nightshirts now either need to be washed or have been destroyed) and trousers, then helps him back downstairs, because after thinking about it, Diluc doesn’t trust Kaeya not to have up to half a dozen weapons hidden around his bed, within arm’s reach, and he doesn’t want to risk Kaeya getting hold of one of them and hurting himself with it.

            Kaeya falls back asleep while Diluc is towel drying his hair, and stays asleep for the rest of the afternoon, and when he awakens again, it’s because of a knock on the door rather than a nightmare, which Diluc thinks is a very good sign. At least until he opens the door.

            Jean is standing there, looking grim. Behind her are Lisa, Lumine, Paimon, Fischl, and the two boys from Liyue. The latter five are all smudged with soot and ashes, and smell strongly of smoke. Diluc has half a mind to tell them all that Kaeya’s not receiving any guests right now, and send them away, but knows Kaeya would be very upset when he found out Diluc sent Lumine and company off. Probably Lisa too, though Jean, right now, is debatable. Jean is holding a bottle of dandelion wine, however. A decade old vintage from the Dawn Winery, probably pulled from her family’s wine cellar, so chances are high she intends to apologize. Also, they all know what Kaeya went through last night. They wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t urgent . . . but still, Kaeya needs rest and shouldn’t be bothered right now.

            “What’s going on?” Diluc asks warily.

            “Is everyone alright?” Kaeya asks, right behind him and Diluc almost jumps. Well, at least it probably means Kaeya’s feeling better if he has that much of his natural stealth back.

            “Yes. None of our people are injured,” Jean says. “May we come inside?”

            “Depends. Is that bottle of dandelion wine for me?”

            Jean hands it over. “A peace offering . . . and an apology. I still don’t agree with everything you did . . . but I shouldn’t have countermanded the orders you were giving. I made a mistake . . . and now we may have a new mess on our hands.”

            “Best come in then,” Kaeya says, grimness creeping into his tone. “I wasn’t expecting this much company . . . I don’t think I have enough chairs for everyone . . .”

            “We’ll stand,” Jean says. “This shouldn’t take too long.”

            “Shall I put on tea, Master Kaeya?” Elzer asks, appearing to relieve Kaeya of his newly acquired wine so he can’t drop it.

            “I – uh –” Kaeya is clearly not used to having a butler in his house. “There’s cold apple cider that’s already ready to drink. Unless they want tea. They might need . . . honey . . . sore throats . . . from smoke.” Kaeya sinks into the nearest chair, already tired from walking through two rooms.

            “We’re okay,” Lumine says. “Xingqiu used his magic on all of us to make sure of that.”

            “But Paimon would love a glass of cold cider!” Paimon pipes up. Lumine elbows her. “Ouch!”

            “We’re not here as guests, we shouldn’t be making demands right now,” Lumine tries to hiss, under her breath.

            “It’s fine,” Kaeya says quickly. “I’ve told you two, you’re always welcome here. You called this place your home long enough. That said, you can serve yourselves because I’m not getting up.”

            “Please, allow me,” Elzer says, already with numerous mismatched cups and the cold jug of cider in hand. He quickly begins serving them all, as the newcomers finish filing into the workroom.

            “I know you need to rest, so I won’t waste time –”

            “It does gladden this one’s heart, good Errant Knight, to see the color returning to your countenance and the signs of the foul villain’s malignancy fading from your veins,” Fischl cuts off the Acting Grand Master with no regard, as she claims the only other chair in the workroom and sits down beside Kaeya.

            “Many thanks, Prinzessin. Both for your well wishes, and your earlier assistance.”

            Diluc almost laughs at the absurdity of the situation.

            “If you require anything at all during thy convalescence, you need only ask and your sovereign shall be happy to assist. Also, you should know that I heeded your wishes from earlier as well, joined by the traveler, and the two wandering swordsmen from Liyue. Banding together, we –”

            “Kaeya, I need you to look at something,” Jean interrupts, and motions to Lisa, who opens a box that Diluc recognizes as a specimen box, constructed of wood and carefully padded on the inside to protect its contents. From it, Lisa removes a crystal petri dish and sets it on the table in front of Kaeya for him to look at.

            Kaeya peers down at it curiously, then his eye widens and he hisses in pain. His hand flies to his temple and he cringes away.

            “What is that? Why did you bring it here?” Diluc demands. By now his memory is completely refreshed about how Kaeya looks when he sees something that will trigger his migraines. He strides forward angrily and snatches it off the table, moving it out of his brother’s sight. Before he returns it to the box, he gets a decent look at it, but still isn’t sure just what he’s looking at. There are several tiny things in the dish that look almost like sprouts. No, he’s fairly certain that they are sprouts of some kind, but he doesn’t know what kind. Each one has two tiny stems that are twisting like corkscrews, and their roots are red. “Take it away and don’t –”

            “You pulled those out of the pick marks on Ilsie’s face, didn’t you?”

            Diluc freezes and his head turns toward his brother so fast he nearly gives himself whiplash.

            “Yes. Unfortunately, that’s exactly where we got them,” Jean tells him.

            “Diluc, please put the specimen down before you drop it,” Lisa cautions.

            Diluc puts the petri dish back into the specimen box where Kaeya can’t see it. Unfortunately, he has the feeling that a conversation about this damn thing is going to follow.

            “Whoa! Paimon wants to see the creepy plant sprouts that were growing in that crazy woman’s face.”

            “Then look at them while keeping it in the box,” Diluc orders.

            “Yes sir, Captain Pyro!”

            “Are they dream poison sprouts?” Lumine asks. Diluc is guessing from their reactions that this is the first time the younger group has seen or heard about these specimens. The two boys from Liyue both look shocked. Fischl just looks disgusted.

            “That’s what we’re hoping they are,” Jean says, looking toward Kaeya.

            Kaeya dashes her hopes with a shake of his head. “They’re not. They’re abyss spiral grass sprouts, and they’re completely different from dream poison.”

            “Another plant indigenous to Khaenri’ahn?” Lisa asks, looking like her fears were just confirmed.

            “Can we back up to the point where they were growing in someone’s face?” Paimon wants to know.

            “I had Sucrose and Albedo look over Ilsie’s body,” Jean says, sounding sick. “She died in our custody, so there were procedures we had to follow. Albedo noticed them growing out of the open marks on Ilsie’s face. He had Sucrose fetch me while he began removing them. I would say that they were definitely not visible at all at the hearing’s end, but when I arrived before he cut the last one out . . . there were several millimeters of plant matter extending out of her skin. This was only several hours later.”

            “It grows stupidly fast in the right conditions,” Kaeya says, giving a horrible little smile and massaging his temple. “Unfortunately, inside human skin is its ideals conditions. Luckily, it’s easy enough to kill, if you know how, but that’s not the real problem here. Damn it. It all makes sense now.”

            “What does?” Diluc asks, because nothing about this makes any sense to him. There’s suddenly a second horrible plant from Khaenri’ah in Mondstadt? And this one can sprout in peoples’ skin?

            “That hunch I had in the hearing room . . . well, remember Chongyun’s fake exorcist who was using dream poison to scam whole villages? I did say it was possible they had their own source, grown outside of Khaenri’ah. In fact, it would be a whole lot easier for them to grow it anywhere else in Teyvat, possibly excepting Snezhnaya, than to make repeat trips to Khaenri’ah for more. I think it’s very possible that we know where they were growing it now.”

            “Illan’s lands haven’t been seeded and farmed for crops in the past few years,” Diluc realizes. “He used to sell Dawn Winery his crops from both his orchards and his fields, but since he had his stroke, Ilsie’s only sold us the produce from his orchards. I thought they were letting the fields go fallow.”

            “It also explains why she was so hung up on having access to the spring.” Kaeya reaches across the table for the two food delivery boxes that his informant dropped off for him earlier. He opens the top one and clumsily starts removing the documents.

            “Bottom box, Kaeya,” Diluc tells his brother. He’s caught on to Kaeya’s line of reasoning, and now he too wonders if Vile might have provided them with any useful information in the new stuff she dug up for Kaeya, pro bono. “That’s where V – where she said the newer intel was . . . why does it explain about the stream though?”

            “Abyss spiral grass needs lots of water. It won’t grow if its roots aren’t soaked. Damn it. I know there’s no way I could have guessed this but . . . just damn. I take it you guys went and burned everything to ash?” Kaeya asks as he opens the other box. “Good thinking. Who knows what other horrors they were growing? Khaenri’ah has a ton of horrible plants and if . . . you’re shaking your heads and giving me sad looks. Why are you shaking your heads and giving me sad looks?”

            “I’m sorry, Kaeya,” Lumine answers for the group, after the teens all exchange nervous glances. “Fischl, Paimon, Chongyun, Xingqiu, and I . . . we headed to the Vander property right after the hearing.” She gives a nervous sideways look at Jean, even though by Jean’s expression this isn’t new information to her . . . and suddenly Vile’s line about Kaeya’s angels doing his bidding makes sense.

            “What happened?” Kaeya asks, worry heavy in his voice.

            “The entire estate had already descended into an inferno before our arrival,” Fischl answers. “Hellfire blazed o’er all the fields and the manor house was utterly consumed.”

            “The Vanders’ servants were trapped by the flames,” says Lumine. “We were able to use our elemental powers to put out enough of the fire to get them to safety. Illan Vander too, they brought him out of the house with them, even though until Fischl, Oz, Chongyun, and Xingqiu cleared a path for them, they had no way out of that inferno. Xingqiu used his healing magic and kept everyone alive, but we couldn’t get into the house to get your information. I’m sorry.”

            “No more apologies from you. You did the right thing,” Kaeya says firmly. “I don’t ever want you running into any burning buildings.”

            “We did ask the servants some questions, once they were healed up a bit,” says Chongyun. “They spoke of a group of people who’d leased the land to farm it, though they didn’t know what was being grown. They were the ones who started the fires.”

            “We wrote down everything they said, just like you taught us,” Paimon pipes up. “Oh, but . . . unfortunately, they didn’t know too much.”

            “I’ve sent knights out on patrol, looking for groups with people who match their descriptions,” Jean says. “Amber is out looking now, but there isn’t much for them to go on. The descriptions are vague –”

            “A very short, stout man from Liyue who is balding. A taller, middle aged Liyuean man with glasses, who dressed flamboyantly. A pale skinned, pale haired woman, possibly in charge. A young man with darker skin, possibly Muratan or Khaenri’ahn. Do those descriptions sound like the people you put alerts out for?” Kaeya asks, his eye fixed on one of the papers Vile dropped off for him.

            “That’s . . . a little more specific than what we were going on. What is that? Is that –”

            “A gift from one of my informants,” Kaeya says, and passes the paper to Jean. “She took it upon herself to dig that up for me after learning what happened at the hearing. Unfortunately, I think we’ve put all the pieces together too late. More likely than not, they’ve made it past Stone Gate by now, into Liyue. I doubt they’d go to ground here when Liyue’s so close, and half of them can blend in so easily there.”

            Jean swears softly under her breath, then meets Kaeya’s gaze. “Kaeya . . . I’m very sorry . . .”

            “This isn’t on you, or anyone here,” Kaeya says. “We had no way of knowing that a whole group of people was there, secretly growing dangerous Khaenri’ahn plants. How could we?”

            “If I hadn’t stopped Amber from taking a unit, like you ordered –”

            “They could have been ambushed by these people. They wouldn’t have known what they were walking into.”

            “If it was Amber, Noelle, and Fischl, like you’d wanted, they’d have had three Visions among them –”

            “Do you know how effective Visions are at stopping knives from stabbing into your back? Not at all,” Kaeya says.

            “You would have warned them. You had a hunch, like you said,” Jean insists. “You don’t need to let me off the hook for this, Kaeya. I messed up.”

            “And if I had . . . presented my argument differently, perhaps it would have been more persuasive. Either way, what’s done is done, and right now we need to react.” Kaeya taps his fingers against the tabletop, deep in thought. “Tomorrow I should ride out to the Vander property –”

            “No,” nine voices say at once.

            Kaeya frowns. “We need to do a controlled burn of the land around the Vander property, as well as whatever remains, to destroy any Khaenri’ahn plant that might be left, but before that I should look and see if I recognize –”

            “There’s nothing left, Kaeya,” Lumine says earnestly. “All their fields were burned. The flames jumped across the stream onto Master Diluc’s satellite property on one side, stretched into the orchards on two other sides, and into the forest on the last one. Fischl looked through Oz’s eyes and saw it all.”

            “Valiantly did my familiar fight against the flames, ‘til all were quenched,” Fischl says proudly. “I now let him rest in the etherrealm, that he may regain his strength, but tell you in his stead that what the traveler says rings true. Nary an inch of earth remains unscorched across the whole of the Vander estate. Not a single blade of grass nor leaf left unreduced to ashes. There is naught for you to see there, my good Errant Knight, thus no reason for you to leave thy abode.”

            Diluc knows he shouldn’t be glad about that, but he is. If this mysterious group was growing other dangerous Khaenri’ahn plants, which they most likely were, then Kaeya would definitely be needed on the Vander estate immediately, had it not all been reduced to ashes. He’s the only one who could possibly identify them. Since everything burned to a crisp, and there’s nothing left to identify, then he can stay home and rest like he damn well needs to. The trade off is that they have no idea what else was being grown by the mysterious group, who almost definitely got away with plenty of seeds and cuttings of their cursed crops.

            “Well. Damn,” says Kaeya.

            “We’ll keep searching for these people,” Jean promises. “I’ll send word to the Millelith to ask for their assistance.”

            It’s a long shot that they’ll find them now, and everyone there knows it, but there’s nothing else that can be done now.

            “I don’t like this,” Kaeya says, his voice trembling with anger. “We’re not likely to hear of them again until the next time they use whatever they’re growing to scam a village or drive someone mad, or who knows what else what they’re growing is capable of. I can’t even guarantee that I’ll recognize the signs if I do hear about it, because there’s so much I don’t remember and there are so many horrible plants in Khaenri’ah. Don’t even get me started on the damn animals.”

            “There . . . there is one thing more that can be done . . .” says Lisa gravely, and her expression is pained as all eyes turn toward her.

            “Oh. Yes, you’re right,” Kaeya says, realizing what she means first, or perhaps reading her mind to learn it first, and Diluc can tell just by his voice that he’s not going to like it.

            “I’m so sorry, Kaeya.”

            “What?” Diluc asks. “What are you talking about?”

            “That book,” Lumine realizes. “That damn book of Khaenri’ahn plants.”

            “No,” Diluc snaps, glaring at Lisa. “Absolutely not.”

            “Not much of a choice, is there?” asks Kaeya trying to force lightness into his tone.

            “There’s always a choice. Besides, you’re on forced medical leave. You don’t get to translate your way to a migraine when you’re on forced medical leave, and for what? What good will it even do?”

            “It will strip away the blindfold they’re making everyone else wear, so both sides can see the game board,” Kaeya says. “If everyone knew what dream poison was, they’d never have been able to scam that village, and you never would have had to endure nightmares for so long. If everyone knows that all you need to kill abyss spiral grass in your skin is some bandages soaked in alcohol left on overnight, then whatever scam they’re planning to run with it becomes useless.”

            “Okay. I see your point, but it doesn’t have to be you. We’ll find someone else who can translate.”

            “There is no one else.”

            “There has to be someone else,” Diluc says angrily. “I refuse to believe you’re the only one in living memory who’s made it out of Khaenri’ah who can read the language.”

            “Actually . . . he may very well be,” Lisa says. “I reached out to my contacts at the Sumeru Arcademia. I sent them a copy of your translation. They were . . . extremely interested. In you, Kaeya. Apparently . . . apparently only the nobility is allowed to learn how to read and write in Khaenri’ah.”

            All eyes instantly turn toward Kaeya, Diluc’s included, because Kaeya’s never once mentioned . . . but the look of surprised confusion on Kaeya’s face is genuine, Diluc is almost positive.

            “I . . . I don’t know if that’s true or not. I . . .” Kaeya’s jaw clenches in pain, as he no doubt tries to access his long buried memories.

            “Stop it,” Diluc tells him, reaching out with a pyro heated hand to press against the base of his skull. “Stop trying to remember. It doesn’t matter.”

            “You just don’t want to have to call me Lord Alberich,” Kaeya mutters, and nearly startles a laugh out of Diluc. He would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so horrible.

            “You don’t have to decide right this moment if you’ll do it or not,” says Jean. “Even if you decide against it, it will be okay. We’ll find another way –”

            “I’m doing it.”

            “Kaeya,” Diluc says, exasperated.

            “I don’t think these people were that close with Ilsie,” Kaeya says, “Otherwise they would have told her how to get the damn spiral grass out of her skin. Assuming they recognized she’d been exposed. I think they did. I think I recognized . . . I don’t know how I recognized . . . Yeah, I think I recognized it, even if I don’t know how. So, these people should have recognized she had it in her skin. At the very least they should have warned her how easily the seeds could take root in any open sore or cut . . . but I don’t think they liked her enough to let her know either. Definitely not if she treated them like she treats every other outlander. Regardless, they did give her the dream poison that she used against you. I don’t know if she asked for it, or if it was their idea . . . it almost definitely wasn’t personal against you, on their end, they just wanted you dead or insane so they’d still have access to the stream . . . but I’m still not okay with that. If this is the only thing I can do right now to screw up their future plans, I’m doing it.”

            “Not until your medical leave is over, you’re not,” Jean says.

            Kaeya gives her an annoyed look. Diluc gives her a grateful one.

            “Well,” Lisa says, clapping her hands together softly, “I think we’ve shared all the relevant information we have right now. We should probably let Kaeya and Diluc rest. They’re both still detoxing after all. You kids could probably use a good meal and a nice long nap too. Why don’t you all come to my place for dinner? I’ll fix up plates for you too, Kaeya and Diluc, and have Lumine and Paimon bring them over when they come back, since they say they’re staying here tonight.”

            Diluc thanks her politely, then presses down on Kaeya’s shoulder when he attempts to stand and politely see his guests out, to keep his idiot brother in his chair. Then, once they’re all gone, leaving only Diluc, Elzer, and Kaeya in Kaeya’s house, Diluc sinks into the other chair beside him.

            He’s starting to feel the day, or rather the month, catching up with him now. He should have bribed one of the kids to bring him coffee before they left, to help him get through the final few hours before he needs go to bed.

            “I don’t have coffee, but I do have a blend of strong stay awake tea, if you want to brew yourself some. It’s in the cupboard with the regular tea, in the red tin.”

            “What have I told you about reading my mind?”

            “Stop thinking so loud then,” Kaeya huffs.

            Elzer seems to have disappeared . . . probably to prepare accommodations for Lumine and Paimon for the night. Diluc hasn’t bothered thinking through the logistics of where they’ll sleep, since the guestroom is off limits for everyone right now, and he’s not sure if Kaeya will want to sleep on the couch, so he’s right by the fire, or in his own bed. Well, Elzer will figure something out. That’s a much better use of his time and talents than simply brewing tea for Diluc. Diluc is perfectly capable of brewing his own tea, and will in a minute. He somehow summons the energy to stand, but before he can start toward the kitchen, or ask Kaeya if he would like anything, Kaeya speaks.

            “Diluc . . . about the nobility thing . . .” Kaeya says out of the blue. “I –”

            “It doesn’t matter,” Diluc tells him. “Whether you are or you aren’t. Whether you remember or not. It doesn’t matter because you’re still who you’ve always been. That’s . . . that’s what I should have told you that night, too.” No need to specify what night. There’s only one night it could be. “I’m . . . so very sorry that I couldn’t see it sooner.”

            Kaeya hangs his head. “I’m sorry I broke it to you then. I shouldn’t have . . . I should have waited until you weren’t . . . Just . . . I’m sorry.”

            “Me too.” Diluc takes a deep breath. “Kaeya . . . about last night –”

            “Please don’t,” Kaeya whispers.

            Diluc pauses. There is a lot he wants to say . . . but he knows that Kaeya’s in no state to hear it. Right now his mind is too fragile, and whatever memories were stirred to the surface by the torture drug are still clawing at him. The last thing Diluc wants to do is hurt him anymore.

            “If you ever need to talk –”

            “I can’t talk about it. You know that,” says Kaeya with a soft, broken laugh.

            Diluc nods, acknowledging this statement, as mentally unhealthy as it probably is. “Okay. If you ever need to just not be alone, please come to me. Doesn’t matter what time of day or night, or what else is happening. If you feel like you’re going to break, or feel like you can’t go on, I want to be there for you. So please, please promise me, you’ll –”

            Diluc breaks off as Kaeya crashes into him, and for a second he’s terrified that he’s in another nightmare, and that something just happened to Kaeya, and he’s going to have to watch his brother die yet again, and he doesn’t know how many more times he can stand to watch the person he loves most die before he finally does go insane . . . but no . . . Kaeya’s not injured. He’s only wrapped his arms around Diluc, and is hugging him tightly. Diluc quickly returns the embrace.

            “I promise,” Kaeya whispers hoarsely. “ . . . Thank you.”

            “Of course.”

            Things aren’t perfect. They will probably never be the way they once were, because Diluc and Kaeya aren’t the same people they used to be anymore . . . but they’re good again. Even though they both know that there is a lot more trouble ahead of them, what with the Fatui making moves against other nations and their archons, and ancient powers becoming corrupted. Kaeya’s father returning will be an ever-present threat, and one that Diluc will begin searching for a way to thwart the moment he’s certain Kaeya is okay again. Meanwhile, Kaeya is definitely going to be starting a manhunt for their missing poison peddlers, and Diluc knows that if Kaeya gets even half a chance, he will ruthlessly kill them all with no remorse and no evidence left behind to show for it. So . . . it really makes no sense why Diluc feels like everything’s going to be alright, in that moment, as all those thoughts flash through his mind, but he does.

            He and his brother will face whatever comes, together.

Ending Notes

1. I plan to write a sequel where they pick up the trail of and go after the people who were growing horrible Khaenri’ahn plants, but it will not be for awhile. I would like to have more of the world revealed to us before I write that fic. However, I do plan on writing more fics in this same continuity between now and then. (So far every Genshin fic I’ve written has been in this continuity.)

2. There will be bonus chapters added. I’ve marked this fic as finished, and the main plot is, but there are still some things I want to write, that I couldn’t fit in before without messing up the pacing, breaking the mood, etc . . . So there is a bit more to come.

3. This fic has fanart! I can’t believe it but three four very talented artists have created wonderful pictures inspired by this fic.

 HAL_berd  drew Diluc unraveling as the dream poison takes its toll on his sanity, forcing him to watch his brother die again, and again: https://twitter.com/Halbyrd4/status/1330785187974635526

Boo drew the moment right before Diluc freaks out, thinking Kaeya was stabbed in Angel’s Share when Kaeya was splashed with wine: https://twitter.com/Boosify/status/1336308189084565504

And Babs drew Kaeya, so beautifully broken after a night spent tortured by the dream poison, as he struggles to pull himself back together for his brother’s sake: https://twitter.com/babjustbabs/status/1336886330396012549

And now F_ai_n has gifted me with illustrations of Diluc wiping away Kaeya’s tears last chapter, and of the Ragnvindr brother hug. You can see the raw emotion so clear in their body language: https://twitter.com/f_ai_n/status/1336758055917084675?s=21

Thank you all so much!

4. Also, thank you for reading, and especially everyone who commented. Knowing that people like my writing motivates me to write more. Knowing what you like or what you don’t like helps me to hopefully improve and give you more of the good stuff. So, thank you for reading and I hope you’ll come back to check out my future fics too!

Chapter Text

            It’s getting dark when Lumine returns to Kaeya’s house, carefully balancing the stack of covered dishes in her arms.

            Even though she and Paimon didn’t live with Kaeya for too terribly long, coming back here always feels like coming home. She will never forget that night that Kaeya found her just a stone’s throw from Mondstadt’s bridge, tent soaked from the third night of rain in a row, trying to perform the impossible task of lighting a fire when all the wood was wet, as Paimon huddled nearby, teeth chattering too hard to speak. She didn’t realize until later that he’d specifically sought them out. At the time she was too cold and numb to do anything but stammer out a thank you for the warm rain cloak Kaeya tossed over her before leading them back to his home. Then she was just embarrassingly grateful when Kaeya told them in no uncertain terms that their camping days were over, as they sat on his couch, wearing his dry clothes, bundled up in a thick blue blanket, in front of a roaring fire, with mugs of hot soup in their hands.

            Lumine and Paimon have their own place now, and Lumine loves it . . . but Kaeya’s house will forever have a special place in her heart, just like Kaeya himself . . . and it seems she is far from the only one who feels that way.

            Paimon uses their key (Kaeya insisted they keep it when they left, refused to take it back, “Don’t be strangers. There will always be a place here for you, if you need it.”) to unlock the door and hold it open for Lumine, who can’t manage it herself while carrying such a large stack of stuff.

            “Kaeya? Master Diluc?” Lumine calls softly, keeping her voice low because she’s aware that Kaeya may be sleeping.

            Diluc appears before she even finishes speaking. He’d probably started their way the moment he heard the key in the lock. He’s always seemed protective of Kaeya (Lumine still remembers seeing him curb stomp that Abyss mage in the Temple of the Wolf when she looked back and saw it poorly attempting to ambush Kaeya) but now, in light of all that’s happened, Diluc seems even more on edge. Lumine doesn’t blame him. She’s ready to tear apart anyone who looks at Kaeya wrong now too.

            “Hello, Master Diluc, sir. How’s Kaeya?” Paimon asks.

            “I think he’s recovering . . . I wish I knew for sure.”

            “Is there any reason to think he’s not?” Lumine asks.

            “ . . . No. Still . . .”

            “You worry,” Lumine says, understandingly, because that’s what you do when you care about someone. She doesn’t know exactly what Diluc’s relationship with Kaeya is, but she can tell that they both care about each other, and very much. Kaeya sure went through a hell of a lot to find out who was poisoning Diluc and make sure he would be okay. Lumine knows that Diluc must feel awfully guilty about it now.

            Diluc gives a curt nod, then steps forward to help her with the stack of covered dishes, relieving her of the top three. “How much food did Lisa send?”

            “It’s not all from Lisa.”

            “Then who’s it all from?” Diluc asks suspiciously before Lumine can explain.

            “Two of the dishes are Lisa’s. Noodles and flaming bolognese sauce. The regular kind, not her special kind, because she was worried the ingredients in her special bolognese might be hard on someone’s stomach if they haven’t been feeling well. She packaged the sauce and the noodles separately, so the sauce won’t make the noodles too soggy. One of Lisa’s neighbors stopped by while we were there to ask about Kaeya. She came back again, before we left, with some food for us to take him. That’s in the red dish. I don’t know the neighbor’s name, or what’s in it, but Lisa seemed to think it was fine.”

            “Then on our way over, Lumine and Paimon stopped to buy some groceries,” Paimon pipes up. “Lumine figures Kaeya’s been too busy to go grocery shopping for the past few days, and she wanted to be nice and do some meal prepping for him, so he doesn’t have to worry about cooking for the week. Blanche found out what we were doing and wouldn’t let us leave without a bunch of stuff on the house. Then Sara called us over from Good Hunter and asked us to bring him this scrumptious looking Sweet Madam she made for him. But before we could get away, another customer heard we were taking food to Kaeya and ordered some soup for him.”

            “Then, just when we thought we were home free, Diona saw us passing Cat’s Tail and gave us some food that she swears is not bar food,” Lumine says. “Also instructions to tell Kaeya to stop being such a boozehound and dry up. Anyway, all the food is either from a restaurant or someone we know, except for Lisa’s neighbor’s food, which Lisa didn’t seem to think was unsafe.”

            Diluc still looks suspicious. “You don’t think Diona would . . .”

            “No. She tries to serve people disgusting drinks but never anything dangerous,” Lumine assures him. “Besides, I think deep down she likes Kaeya. Very deep down.”

            “She hates you though,” Paimon says merrily.

            “I’m aware.” Diluc helps them put the food away in the cupboards. Lumine sees that there’s actually quite a bit of food in there already. Adding what they just brought, Kaeya now has an awful lot of food. She feels a bit silly now, to not realize that of course Diluc would have Elzer stock up on what he thought Kaeya needed. Well, her heart was in the right place, at least, as was everyone else’s who sent food, and if there’s too much, Lumine can help prep it to be frozen and gather more Mist Flower corollas so nothing goes bad.

            “Is Kaeya sleeping?” Lumine asks as they finish putting the food away.

            “Yes. He’s slept most of the day. Right when I got here, he had a bad nightmare, then another that wasn’t as bad, a couple hours later. I think he might be sleeping peacefully now, though. He’s been sleeping in the living room, and I’d prefer for him to stay there for now, rather than his room because . . . he . . . usually sleeps with a lot of weapons concealed on him. Not right now, however, he took them off and gave them to me, but I imagine that he’s also got a number concealed around his room, and I don’t want him getting ahold of one and hurting himself or you if he has another bad nightmare.”

            Lumine nods her understanding.

            “The guestroom is sealed right now. That’s where Kaeya cut open my boot and the dream powder poison got dispersed in the air. It should be settled now, but we don’t want anyone else getting it on their skin until it’s out of both my system and Kaeya’s, so we’re leaving it sealed for now,” continues Diluc. “Elzer put clean sheets on Kaeya’s bed for you . . . but if you’d rather not sleep in the bed of a man you’re not related to, I can have a mattress brought –”

            “It’s fine,” Lumine says quickly. “As long as Kaeya doesn’t mind me sleeping in his bed, that will be fine.”

            “He doesn’t mind. He thought you’d be okay with it. I was uncertain . . . I’m not really up to speed on the rules of . . . people staying at others’ houses. Especially if . . . I don’t know if you feel like it’s necessary, but I can have one of my maids brought here to act as a chaperone.”

            “What?” Lumine and Paimon both ask at the same time.

            “Just in case you’re worried about your reputation,” Diluc clarifies.

            Lumine shakes her head. “No. That’s okay. We stayed with Kaeya for a couple months when we first came to Mondstadt. No one ever said anything weird or gave us any problems about it –”

            “Besides, that’s what Paimon’s here for!” says Paimon. “Paimon is the best chaperone ever!”

            “Not that I need one at all,” Lumine says. “Kaeya would never do anything weird. He’s like a brother to me.”

            She sees Diluc jerk slightly, like her words surprise him, but before she can figure out what was with that reaction –

            “Aww, Lumine. I’m touched. I think of you as family too,” Kaeya says from the doorway. All three look up and see him leaning against the doorjamb.

            At the sight of him, Lumine feels a warm surge of relief. He looks so much better than he did this morning, when he stormed into the room where Diluc’s legal hearing was being held, looking like he was on the verge of collapse, the dream poison darkening the veins of his face, and leaving him pale and shaking. Lumine is pretty sure that it was only Kaeya’s mile wide protective streak and sheer stubbornness that kept him on his feet through that mess. It still tugs at her heartstrings when she remembers how he looked not just physically frail but . . . but broken in another way. He’d gotten the full effects of dream poison as a torture drug, and it sure as hell did a number on him. If she hadn’t known Diluc was already on his way to Kaeya she would have rushed to his side once she’d given her statement, rather than going with Fischl to try to get the information Kaeya wanted. Seeing Kaeya looking so much better now makes her feel better too. Even though she can tell he’s nowhere near back to one hundred percent well, she can tell that he’s on the mend, and she’s glad.

            “How are you feeling?” Diluc asks before Lumine or Paimon can.

            “Better,” says Kaeya.

            “Hungry?” Diluc prompts.

            Kaeya’s smile melts and he shakes his head.

            “Try to eat a little bit? Please?”

            “I’ll try . . . I don’t know how much I can manage though . . .”

            “All he’s eaten all day is half a bowl of stew and a piece of bread,” Diluc tells Lumine and Paimon.

            “To be fair, I have been asleep most of the day.”

            “But you were awake all last night.”

            Kaeya grimaces. “I don’t need that reminder.”

            “. . . Sorry. I just worry. You’ve lost weight, you know. You skipped eating all day . . . was it the day before yesterday? When you had migraines all day? Either way, you need to eat. You can’t heal if you’re starving yourself.”

            “I don’t need to heal so much as detox,” Kaeya points out. He heads to the cabinet to try to get himself a plate, but Paimon flies ahead of him and beats him there, retrieving a plate, cup, napkin, and cutlery for him as he pauses to watch in amusement.

            “Why don’t you sit down?” suggests Lumine. “Just tell me what you’d like to eat. Lisa sent flaming bolognese, but there’s also a Sweet Madam, and some radish veggie soup, or I could make you a sandwich. There’s lots of sandwich fixings. Ham, cheese, smoked fowl –”

            “Please stop,” Kaeya requests, turning a bit green.

            Lumine takes one look at him and shuts right up.

            “Kaeya’s always been the kind to reject food when he’s feeling ill,” Diluc tells Lumine. “Even when we were kids.” He retrieves Lisa’s flaming bolognese and dishes some out for Kaeya. “The trick to getting him to eat is to just give him something, and not really give him choices.”

            “Would any of you like anything?” Kaeya asks, his need to be a good host overriding his exhaustion.

            “I already ate,” Diluc tells him as he sets the pasta down in front of him.

            “So did we. At Lisa’s,” Lumine says.

            “Chongyun and Xingqiu – do they have somewhere to go for the night?”

            “Yes. They’re actually back in Liyue now. I dropped them off right after dinner. Xingqiu took Jean’s message to the Qixing personally, so the Millelith should already be looking for our suspects. Chongyun’s letting his exorcist clan and their allied clans know what we found out about the con artists. They wanted to say goodbye, but thought it was more important to let you rest and to go ahead and do what they could to try to catch those poison peddlers.”

            “I’ll make sure they get copies of the translation,” Kaeya says. “Chongyun, so he can share it with his clan and keep an eye out for those bastards. Xingqiu, because he seems like the kind who’d find it interesting.”

            “He does love to read,” agrees Lumine. “He was actually here looking for a book. He doesn’t like most Mondstadtian literature, but apparently he found half a book that he became obsessed with, and has been on a quest to find a full copy. I don’t think he managed to this time, so he’ll probably come back and try again soon.”

            “Hm. Half a book, huh? What is it called –”

            “Jean’s going to let you use the knights’ printing press to copy the translations, isn’t she?” Diluc asks, cutting him off. “I know she had Musk write the ones from the other day out by hand, but if you’re translating the whole thing –”

            “I’m sure she will. Even if she doesn’t no one’s going to expect me to write them all. Jean doesn’t want to punish me that badly,” says Kaeya.

            “Punish you?” Lumine is confused. She remembers that the Acting Grand Master seemed upset with Kaeya after the trial, but she’s not sure what that was about. Though . . . as much as she’d like to know . . . she’s already positive that she’s not going to give a damn what it was about, and that she’s going to be on Kaeya’s side, even if he’s in the wrong. He’s been through hell the past few days, and Lumine might not know exactly what he’s been through, but she recognizes the signs of someone with a haunted past. She’s fairly certain that made his reaction to the dream poison even worse, and Kaeya doesn’t deserve to have to deal with anything else right now.

            “Er – we had a bit of a difference of opinion. Then I said some unkind things –”

            “If she won’t let you use the knights’ printing press, let me know. I’ll pay for you to use another one,” says Diluc.

            “I’m sure she’ll let me, but if she doesn’t I know a printer who will pay me to let them print my translation,” Kaeya says. “Not that I’m doing this for a profit, or that I think Jean will be difficult. I think we’ve come to an understanding.”

            “Good!” Paimon says. “It’s better when you two get along. Mondstadt needs you both on the same side, and Paimon likes it best when all her friends are happy with each other!”

            “Well, I shall endeavor to ensure my friend Paimon’s happiness,” Kaeya says, and the smile he gives is one of his real, genuine ones, even though he’s still clearly tired.

            “While you’re at it, please also ensure your brother Diluc’s happiness and eat your dinner,” says Diluc.

            Lumine and Paimon exchange surprised glances as Kaeya frowns but dutifully tucks into his pasta. Brothers, huh? On the one hand, that does make sense. On the other, they look nothing alike . . . perhaps they’re half brothers? That would explain the difference in their looks, and their . . . kind of estrangement? From what Lumine has seen they don’t really get along, though when one needs the other, he’s there unconditionally. Yes. Whatever their story is, them being brothers now makes perfect sense. Lumine’s heart aches slightly. She misses her own brother. No one will ever take his place . . . but Kaeya’s kindness towards her since day one has done wonders to fill the aching void in her heart. She’d be a horrible friend if she wasn’t glad that he has a brother of his own, watching out for him.

            After finishing a third of his plate of pasta, Kaeya looks like he wants to call it quits . . . but after getting a look from Diluc, he keeps going and manages to get through half of it before putting down his fork and pushing the plate away, now looking more than slightly green.

            “I’ll cover this up and put it in the chilled cupboard,” Lumine says, quickly taking it from him. “That way if you feel like having more later, you can.”

            Diluc doesn’t try to stop her. Kaeya looks relieved. After that, the group makes their way to the living room, and Diluc, seeing that it’s getting late, realizes that he should head a few doors down to Mona’s house, where he is staying for tonight, however reluctant he is to leave.

            “Are you sure you’re feeling well enough for me to go?” Diluc asks his brother.

            “Yes, Diluc. Even if I wasn’t, you need sleep too. Besides, Lumine and Paimon are here. If I need help, they’ll help me.”

            “I know, it’s just . . .” Diluc looks frustrated. “I can stay if you need me.”

            “You need sleep and you know how bad an idea it is to have two allogenes affected by dream poison sleeping under the same roof,” Kaeya says practically.

            Diluc is still reluctant, even though he knows it’s true. He turns to Lumine. “If anything goes wrong, send Paimon to get me.”

            “I will. Please don’t worry, Master Diluc. He’ll be fine with us,” says Lumine.

            Diluc’s expression softens slightly, the way it does sometimes when they’ve just come through a fight together, victorious . . . or when she shows up at the winery after a couple weeks of not seeing him. “I know he will. I trust you. I just can’t help but worry.”

            “I understand. I have a brother too.”

            “Oh, do me a favor, Diluc? Take some food to Mona when you go?” Kaeya looks guiltily at Lumine. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to seem ungrateful for what everyone’s giving me but . . . there’s no way I can eat all that food myself.”

            Lumine gets it. “I’m sure Mona will appreciate it.”

            “Especially since she’s always broke and starving,” Paimon agrees.

            Shortly after that, Diluc makes his exit for the night, bearing away some of what was already in Kaeya’s cupboards before Lumine arrived, much to Kaeya’s relief. Lumine expects Kaeya to laugh or make a joke after Diluc’s departure, glad to finally be rid of his overbearing brother, but to her surprise he actually looks a bit worried.

            “I hope he’ll be alright. I mean, I’m sure Mona’s already scried to make sure there’s no immanent fire or bloodshed taking place in her home, but he’s probably going to have a harder time tonight than I am,” Kaeya says. “I think it’s been about twenty-four hours now since he was last exposed . . . and since he was dosed for so long, it might take even longer to leave his system.”

            “You were exposed just last night though,” Lumine reminds him. “You inhaled it.”

            “And survived all the fun effects from inhaling it. I’m pretty sure that’s over and done with. Whatever got on my skin, I washed off pretty quickly, before the hallucinations started. Considering that I’ve been sleeping fitfully all afternoon, but not having full blown nightmares, I’m pretty sure it’s mostly out of my system.”

            “Hm, well, I’m sure Diluc will be okay too,” Lumine says. “You found the source of the poison, just like you promised him you would. You’ve put a stop to any further exposure, and like you said, it’s been about a full day now since he was last dosed. So, right now he probably has less of it in his system than he has since this all started.”

            “That’s true.” A bit of relief shines in Kaeya’s eye, right before some stray pieces of his tangled hair fall over it, obscuring his vision. He brushes them away, less gracefully than he normally would, his fingers getting trapped for just a second by the snarled strands.

            “Would you like some help with your hair?” Lumine asks, because now that she looks at it, Kaeya’s kind of let it fall into a mess.

            “Oh . . . I meant to comb it after I got out of the bath . . . earlier this afternoon. I guess I fell asleep before I could,” says Kaeya, which isn’t an answer, but Lumine takes it as one anyway. She sees Kaeya’s own comb on the end table, probably retrieved by Diluc or Elzer, then forgotten once Kaeya fell back to sleep and they decided not to risk waking him. Lumine picks it up then sits down beside Kaeya on the couch, and when he doesn’t protest, carefully reaches around his head to smooth all of his hair together and draw it toward her. “I appreciate your offer but please don’t feel like you have to help me with this . . .” says Kaeya, though he makes no move to stop her.

            “It’s okay. As long as you don’t mind. I help my brother with his hair sometimes too. He has really long hair that goes past his waist. Most of the time he keeps it in a braid, so it doesn’t tangle, but every now and then something happens and it gets knotted like crazy.”

            Lumine has learned that when that happens, it’s best to work with smaller sections of tangled hair, rather than all of it, all at once. She gently separates the part that Kaeya keeps long, and usually in a slender ponytail, from the rest, and then begins running the comb through it, slowly and methodically, ridding it of snarls and tangles.

            “I’m sorry we haven’t found him yet,” Kaeya says softly.

            “Me too. But it’s not like it’s for lack of trying.” Lumine tries to focus on the task at hand rather than on thoughts of her brother. “I still haven’t properly thanked you for everything you’ve done to help me look –”

            “I’m pretty sure that Palm Vortex at the legal hearing made us even,” Kaeya tells her.

            “Oh . . . you saw that . . .” Lumine feels her face flush slightly.

            “Yep.”

            “Of course he saw. Everyone saw,” says Paimon.

            “I know I shouldn’t have,” Lumine admits. “She just made me so angry. I hadn’t heard anyone say anything like that to you or about you since I got here. I thought maybe Mondstadt was different . . . but do you have to put up with that sort of ugliness often?”

            “Not too often. Not these days,” says Kaeya. “I heard more of it when I was younger. Not as much as I would have if it hadn’t been Diluc’s father who took me in. You may have noticed that the Ragnvindrs are not a family to be carelessly trifled with.”

            “Oh, we’ve noticed,” Paimon says with a laugh.

            “I’d like to think some people have genuinely changed their minds after getting to know me. Of course, some people never will, and there’s nothing I can do about that. Those people generally aren’t worth wasting time on.”

            “Paimon . . . heard someone mention that you, Jean, and Diluc grew up with Ilsie Vander,” Paimon says. “Was she always horrible to you back then too?”

            “Yes, she was. Diluc never stood for it, however. I don’t think they were too good of friends before I came along. More like children whose parents were friends, and so they learned to get along, though that sort of stopped when Diluc took my side over Ilsie’s every single time,” Kaeya says. “Jean, I think, remained closer with her for a little longer. She was around Ilsie plenty of times when Diluc and I weren’t, so there wasn’t a built-in argument in every one of their playdates. Whenever she heard Ilsie speaking against my origins, however, she did her best to put a stop to it.”

            “That’s good.” Lumine would have lost a lot of respect for the Acting Grand Master if she hadn’t.

            “I have to admit that I was . . . rather surprised how many people spoke up on my behalf at the hearing. It was nice.”

            “You deserve to be defended when someone is being that hateful to you for no reason.” Lumine forces herself to stay calm and work carefully. The last thing she wants is to painfully pull on Kaeya’s hair right now.

            “Paimon agrees! Kaeya might be smug and scheming, but he’s always there for his friends. Anyone who would treat him badly just because he was born somewhere else deserves to be shut down.”

            Kaeya gives them a slightly dazed look, like he doesn’t know what to say. In the end, he doesn’t say anything, though he does open his mouth once, like he intends to speak but forgets what he was right about to say. Lumine is pretty sure that’s his exhaustion catching up with him again. He did get dosed with a torture drug less than twenty-four hours ago. Even if most of the poison is out of his system, like he believes, recovering from torture takes time.

            They’re silent until Lumine finishes combing out Kaeya’s hair, getting all the tangles out, then smoothing the part he keeps long over his shoulder, in a loose stream.

            “Finished,” she tells him, “and just in time. You look like you’re ready to go back to sleep.”

            Kaeya nods, and Lumine stands up off the couch so he can lay down. Then she covers him up with the pile of blankets that had been left on the other end of the couch, spreading each one over him carefully as Paimon flits around, tucking their cavalry captain in.

            “You always seem to be around to give me a hand,” Kaeya says softly, as Lumine finishes. “Thanks.”

            Impulsively, Lumine leans down to press a gentle kiss to his forehead, like she’s done many times to Aether when he’s been ill or injured. Kaeya isn’t Aether. Lumine knows that very well. She’s not trying to replace him or find a substitute for him . . . but Kaeya is Kaeya, and just gives off that brother-like vibe too, and he’s been here for her since her journey started.

            “Sleep well, my friend. If you need me, I’ll be here.”

Chapter Text

            Klee was a bad girl yesterday.

            She went fish blasting at the little lake outside of Springvale and got a whole bunch of fish, then grilled them up so crispy good and delicious to share with Razor. Then she stayed out waaaaaay past her bedtime to catch fireflies, because she has an idea for a new kind of gunpowder and needs luminescent spines to grind up and experiment with. It was almost midnight when she got back home to the knights' dormitory and snuck in. She expected to be caught and reprimanded, but to her surprise, there was no one waiting up to scold her. No one even came to check on her after she tucked herself in, so they hadn’t even noticed she wasn’t home on time.

            That’s really weird, because usually Jean is really strict about her being home on time, unless she’s on a field trip with Kaeya, or Amber, or the Honorary Knight and Paimon, but Klee isn’t about to question her good luck. Kaeya has warned her that asking questions and not being a special type of sneaky called subtle about it will get her in trouble, and she should never draw attention to the things she’s done wrong. So Klee is enjoying her day of not being cooped up in solitary confinement, and what a beautiful day it is.

            She stops by Kaeya’s office first thing, to tell him how subtle she’s being, and because she hasn’t seen Kaeya in a couple days, which is weird, because he usually finds Klee almost everyday, and maybe he was looking for her yesterday and couldn’t find her . . . but Kaeya’s not in his office. Or Jean’s office, or the library, or the stables. So Klee heads to where she knows Kaeya must be: Cat’s Tail. The earliest opening bar in Mondstadt!

            But . . . Kaeya’s not there either, Klee is sad to find. Neither is Diona, which is too bad, but Margaret’s there, and she’s always nice to Klee, so Klee asks her if she’s seen Kaeya.

            Then something weird happens. Margaret looks sad. “No. I doubt Captain Kaeya will be in for a while . . . and even if he does come in, I don’t think we should serve him any alcohol for a few days. Not after what that bit – er witch did to him.”

            “What?” asks Klee. “A witch did something to Kaeya?”

            “Er . . . maybe you should ask Master Jean or Miss Lisa about it, honey,” says Margaret. Then stupid Nimrod with his stupid face comes running in, screaming about how he’s managed to shake off his wife for ten minutes, so he needs a drink right now! and Margaret bustles off to serve stupid Nimrod before Klee can ask what she means.

            Klee thinks she knows, though. If Margaret says to ask Lisa about it, then Lisa must be the witch who did something to Kaeya, and that probably means Kaeya forgot to return a book on time again and Lisa zapped him! It must have been some zap to make him not be able to drink alcohol. Klee should do something nice for him, since he’s probably feeling bad right now. Her first thought is to get him some fish, but fish blasting two days in a row is probably pushing her luck too much, and if Kaeya’s not feeling good, he probably doesn’t want fish or any food. So maybe . . . flowers!

            There’s some that grow in the little garden under the windmill, by headquarters, where she and Kaeya have lunch sometimes. Some really pretty little white and blue ones, and some pink ones, and orangey-yellow ones, but Klee thinks Kaeya will like the little white and blue ones best. She likes them best because they remind her of Kaeya! So Klee will go pick some for him and take them to his house.

            On her way back up the hill she sees and hears many people she passes talking, and it’s weird, because a lot of them . . . it seems like they’re talking about Kaeya.

            “Have you heard if the captain is recovering alright?”

            “I haven’t heard anything since the Acting Grand Master’s statement last night. She said he should recover, but . . .”

            “He’d better recover! That’s my future grandson-in-law!”

            A group of old people are chattering about Kaeya, but that’s nothing new. However, they’re not the only ones today . . .

            “Sara from Good Hunter says that they’re not letting anyone else order food to send to Captain Kaeya. Apparently they sent a couple meals worth last night, and word got around, and then everyone wanted to. They took a couple more orders that they’re spacing out through the week, but . . .”

            “ – just heard what happened to Kaeya. Is he really going to be okay?”

            “Jean’s statement said he would be. We can trust her, right?”

            “I’d like to think that, but I heard he was dosed with something really nasty and obscure, from Khaenri’ah. Moreover, there’s a rumor that the alchemy team made a dark discovery that they’re keeping under wraps.”

            “I do hope Kaeya will be okay . . .”

            So many people are talking about Kaeya that it’s making Klee worry. She’s starting to think that they’re not talking about Lisa zapping Kaeya for forgetting to bring back a library book.

            “Of course I’m upset! When I was a child, Captain Kaeya saved my mother’s life, and that bitch poisoned him!”

            Klee freezes. Then turns slowly to look at two knights who have paused on their rounds of patrolling the city.

            “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. You don’t need to scowl at everyone –”

            “The fact that there’s nothing we can do about it is why I’m scowling!”

            “A witch poisoned Kaeya?” Klee asks. The two knights jump then spin to look at her.

            “Oh. Spark Knight Klee. I . . . you weren’t supposed to hear that,” says the calmer of the two.

            “No one gave orders to keep her in the dark. Besides, she’s practically Kaeya’s kid. She has a right to know,” says the angry one.

            “Maybe . . . you shouldn’t have heard it from us however, Klee. I’m sorry. I hope we didn’t scare you. You see . . .”

            The knight keeps talking, but Klee doesn’t hear her voice. It doesn’t matter, however. Klee knows she can’t trust the calm knight. If it was the angry knight talking, then probably, but it’s not the angry knight talking, and all Klee can think is that Kaeya is hurt. Kaeya was poisoned. By a witch.

            Klee takes off running. Back to headquarters, as fast as her little legs can carry her. She almost crashes into a couple of adventurers and a nun who are in her way, and weaves a path straight through another group of knights, almost causing them to topple into a pileup, and she doesn’t even stop to tell them she’s sorry. Kaeya’s been poisoned by a witch. Kaeya needs help. There’s only one person who Klee knows who can help him now.

            “Albedo!” she cries, as she rushes into Albedo’s workshop. “Albedo! Help!”

            Albedo looks up from a piece of raw meat he was examining, that has plants growing out of it and immediately puts down his pen and the notes he was writing. “Klee? What’s wrong?”

            “It’s Kaeya! Albedo, please, help him! He – it’s – poison –”

            Albedo rushes to a cabinet where potions, medicines, and other supplies are kept, and pulls out an emergency bag. He slings it over one shoulder then grabs Klee’s hand and starts running for the door. They nearly collide with Sucrose, who’s trying to enter the lab.

            “Sorry!” Albedo tells his assistant. “It’s Kaeya! I think he’s taken a turn for the worse. Get Jean or Barbara, or any other healer you can find and send them to Kaeya’s house – he is still at his house, right Klee?”

            “Yes!”

            “I’m going on ahead. I’ll do all I can for him. I hope it will be enough. If it’s not, working with a healer, we can probably keep him alive.”

            “Albedo!” Klee tugs at his hand. “Hurry!”

            Albedo begins running again without another word. They get outside, but instead of turning toward the stairs, Albedo sprints up to the waist high wall right in front of headquarters’ entrance, crouches down, presses his hand to the ground, and summons one of his big sunny elevator flowers. Klee is confused for just a moment, until Albedo leaps onto it, lets it lift him up, and then leaps off and activates his wind glider. Then Klee understands. Gliding is much faster than running, and since they’re going to the lower city, they can get there faster using their wind gliders. They’re usually not supposed to or they get in trouble –

            “Hey!” calls Porthos, who’s always guarding the entrance.

            “It’s an emergency!” Albedo calls back.

            Hastily, Klee follows him.

            Gliding really does make it so much faster. They can skip the stairs, and having to go in directions they don’t need to go in just to find more stairs, and just make a straight line path toward Kaeya’s house. When they can do that, the distance to Kaeya’s house is so much shorter, and Albedo uses his alchemy to summon those magic whooshy rings for them to fly through to get them there even faster! In no time at all, they’re touching down just behind Cat’s Tail. They hit the ground running and sprint the last few dozen meters to Kaeya’s door.

            Klee pulls out her key to Kaeya’s house. Kaeya put it on a chain for her to wear around her neck so she wouldn’t lose it, and she always wears it under her coat, so she can always get in Kaeya’s house if she needs to. (Klee loves having Kaeya’s house key, because he doesn’t just give them to anyone. Master Jean has one, and the Honorary Knight has one of course, because she was living with Kaeya for a while, but almost no one else has one. Albedo doesn’t even have one! But Klee does!) Albedo takes the key from her and fits it into the lock, because he’s faster at unlocking doors, then they rush inside.

            “Kaeya!” Klee calls for him.

            “Klee?” Kaeya’s voice comes from the living room, so Klee and Albedo hurry there. Kaeya is on the couch, struggling to sit up, a pile of blankets sliding into his lap, and some of them onto the floor.

            Klee stares in horror, because something’s wrong with Kaeya’s face. It has dark marks on it, like spider webs, and it’s scary, and Kaeya only uses that many blankets when he’s sick.

            “Albedo too? What’s wrong?” asks Kaeya.

            “Kaeya! I heard you were poisoned by a witch! But don’t worry! I brought Albedo here to give you a kiss!”

            “Er – what?” Kaeya opens and closes his eye quickly several times like he often does when he’s confused.

            “It’s okay. I read about it in a book! This woman got poisoned by a witch, and so to neutralize the poison, a prince gave her a kiss and saved her life. They call Albedo the Kreideprinz, and since that’s the only prince I know, I brought him!” Klee turns to her other big brother. “Go on, Albedo! Give him a kiss! Hurry!”

            “Klee, I – er – I’m sorry, Kaeya. Klee came running into my lab, expressing concern, and I assumed that she had just come from seeing you, and that you had taken a turn for the worse,” says Albedo. His face is as red as an apple and he makes no move at all to kiss Kaeya. “I just came running without asking questions. I apologize for the intrusion.”

            “No worries.”

            “Albedo! Kiss him! Please, you have to!” Klee begs.

            “Is . . . everything okay?” Lumine asks from the staircase. Her voice sounds kind of weird, so Klee looks at her and sees Lumine is wearing those cute night clothes she calls pajamas, and her hair is messed up from sleep.

            “Good morning, Lumine,” says Kaeya. “Don’t worry. Everything’s fine.”

            “Please, Albedo, just kiss Kaeya!”

            “Also, let’s face it, this isn’t the weirdest conversation you’ve walked in on me having here,” Kaeya adds. Then he speaks to Klee. “It’s alright, Klee. Albedo doesn’t need to kiss me. The poison isn’t hurting me anymore.”

            “But – it – your face . . .” It makes Klee so sad to see those marks on Kaeya’s face . . . and she can tell that Kaeya doesn’t feel so good, and it’s not just because he’s sleepy. His smile doesn’t have as much strength as it normally does, and he . . . there’s just something about him that looks sad and sick. Klee can’t explain, it but she knows. She knows that Kaeya doesn’t feel alright, and it must be the witch’s poison that’s done this to him.

            “Oh . . . right. I’m guessing my veins are still dark?”

            Albedo answers. “Yes. We can see them clearly, and their coloration is unnatural.”

            “They’re a little better than they were last night, though,” says Lumine, “and much better than they were yesterday morning.”

            “Kaeya . . .” says Klee, and she goes to him and crawls into his lap. “Everyone this morning was talking about how you were poisoned by a witch and I thought you might be really hurt . . .”

            “Aww, Klee-bug. I’m sorry if I scared you. I should have made sure someone told you what happened to me, so you heard the whole story and heard it right, instead of some scary rumors,” Kaeya says, and wraps his arms around her.

            Kaeya gives really good hugs. Klee loves her big brothers equally, but Kaeya’s . . . he’s the one who makes her feel safest. He’s probably the very best person in the whole world at chasing fear away. His arms just feel so strong, and even though he has a cryo Vision and his skin is cooler to the touch than most peoples’ there’s a warmth to him that comes from inside, and Klee can always feel it. She doesn’t like the thought of someone hurting her big brother. The thought of Kaeya getting poisoned and not getting better really does scare her.

            “Please let Albedo kiss you then. Just to be safe,” Klee pleads. “Please, Kaeya. Please Albedo.”

            “I would, Klee, but letting him kiss me wouldn’t do anymore good. See, Lumine gave me a kiss last night, and she’s a secret princess – oops!”

            Klee perks up. The Honorary Knight is a Secret Princess? “She is?”

            “I’m sorry, Lumine. I didn’t mean to tell her. Curse my sudden and uncharacteristic slip up.”

            “It’s okay, Kaeya,” says Lumine. “I forgive you. But Klee, you have to promise not to tell anyone I’m a secret princess. You too, Albedo.”

            “I vow with the utmost solemnity not to reveal your secret royal status,” Albedo promises.

            “Me too!” Klee says quickly. “But will a princess’s kiss work just as well as a prince’s kiss for curing poison?”

            “Of course it will,” says Kaeya. “Princesses can do anything princes can, and Lumine’s proven it. She’s fought dragons, and saved cities, and cured me of poison. I feel so much better today than I did yesterday.”

            Lumine stands with her hands on her hips then says something very princess-like. “Your sovereign is pleased by thy swift recovery, good Errant Knight. However, thy convalescence has only just begun, and one must insist that you continue to take it easy, and allot the requisite time to recovering thine strength.”

            “Well said,” says Master Diluc from the doorway. “But what’s up with Lumine talking like she’s otherworldly royalty?”

            “Nothing,” Kaeya says quickly.

            “Nothing!” Lumine says, only half a second out of sync with him.

            “Nothing!” Klee agrees, because Lumine is a secret princess and they can’t let Master Diluc know!

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” says Albedo.

            Diluc looks at them all with a raised eyebrow then shrugs. “Alright . . . The front door was wide open, by the way. Was it left like that for a reason, or . . . ?”

            “Sorry about that,” Albedo says quickly.

            “Me too! Sorry, Kaeya!” says Klee.

            “No worries,” Kaeya says, then looks at Diluc. “Klee only just heard what happened from bits and pieces of rumors, and not the whole story. She came running here, with Albedo in tow, thinking he could cure me of the poison.”

            “With my alchemy,” says Albedo.

            “Right. Alchemy,” Lumine agrees.

            Diluc gives them a weird look, like he knows they’re not telling him something.

            “But,” says Lumine brightly, “since they’re here, they might as well stay for breakfast. You know, Klee, I bet that Kaeya would really love it if you made him some fisherman’s toast. Several pieces, in fact!”

            “Er – one piece is fine –”

            “Several pieces indeed,” says Master Diluc, speaking over Kaeya.

            Klee recognizes what Lumine’s just done. Kaeya’s taught her. It’s a distraction! Dangling another interesting topic to change the conversation to, so Master Diluc doesn’t get more suspicious about her being a secret princess, and it seems that Master Diluc has taken the bait!

            “Klee can help! I mean, yes! Klee can make fishy toast for Kaeya! Lots of fishy toast! As much as Kaeya wants!”

            “Just one piece is –”

            “I’ll help you,” says Diluc, which is good, because even though Klee is a big girl, she’s still not supposed to use ovens and stoves by herself yet.

            “Yay!” Klee sings, and races toward the kitchen.

Chapter Text

            “Gosh . . . all I can think about is Diluc . . .” a simpering voice says, followed by an overly amorous sigh that stops Amber in her tracks. “What should I do?”

            Amber looks up from where she stands in the cobblestone streets of Mond, to the raised ledge behind Floral Whisper’s street display of potted flowers. Donna stands there, a faraway look in her glazed over eyes, fingertips pressed against flushed cheeks as she no doubt fantasizes about Mondstadt’s wealthiest bachelor . . .

            . . . who Amber knows dead well is off the market now. Not just that, but dating her friend and superior. That, combined with the fact that Master Diluc is probably therefore not interested in women, makes Donna fantasizing about him out loud just plain disrespectful.

            “Diluc . . .” Donna murmurs again, and Amber can’t just let this go.

            “Hey,” she says, and bounds up onto the ledge to stand in front of Donna, “I’m not sure if you know this, but Master Diluc is actually seeing someone.”

            “What?!” Donna staggers as though she’s been shot.

            “Yes,” Amber tells her.

            “Who?!”

            “Captain Kaeya,” Amber says.

            “Ah?! W-w-what?! B-b-but . . .” Donna’s whole face is rapidly turning red. “Th-th-th-th-that means . . . he’s . . .”

            “Yes,” Amber says coldly. “Is that a problem?”

            “N-no . . . But . . . just . . .” Donna’s eyes suddenly fill with an intense light. “Do you know which one of them is on top?”

            Amber’s jaw drops. “What? No! How would I even – I don’t know!”

            “I bet it’s Diluc,” murmurs Donna. “He just seems the sort, you know? So strong . . . so forceful.”

            “Wh-what? No! For one, Master Diluc would never force himself on anyone, so don’t you talk about him like that! For two, Kaeya is one of the strongest knights in the Ordo! He wouldn’t just – if you think he’s the sort to –”

            “Amber, you have to admit,” says Donna, “Captain Kaeya’s kind of a twink.”

            “You take that back!” Amber screams and launches herself at Donna. Her momentum carries them both off the raised ledge. She lands on top of Donna. Donna lands hard amongst the potted flowers, with a crash of broken pottery and a cry that is repeated when Amber raises her fist and brings it down to smack the older woman full across the face.

            “Gah!” Kaeya yelps and sits bolt upright on his couch, spilling the sole blanket that he still needs onto the floor. “Oh . . . Ugh . . .”

            Realization that it was just a dream, albeit a very bad one, sets in, and Kaeya is able to breathe again.

            “Kaeya?” he hears Lumine call from upstairs.

            “I’m okay,” he calls back.

            She hurries down anyway, clad in the cute but thankfully modest sleeping clothes that she calls pajamas. Paimon floats behind her, dressed as Paimon always is.

            “Are you alright?” Lumine asks.

            “Yes. I’m fine. Sorry to worry you.”

            “Was it a nightmare?” asks Paimon.

            “Mnn . . . sort of.”

            “I thought you were outside the window when you were supposed to get nightmares,” says Lumine. She steps closer to him and the sorrow in her eyes makes Kaeya feel guilty, even though he hasn’t really done anything wrong. “I guess because you inhaled it we don’t know how it will effect you.”

            “I don’t think this nightmare was from the dream poison,” Kaeya tries to assure her and put her worries to rest. “It was more of an embarrassing nightmare, and a reminder that I need to take care of something, than the sort of soul crushing nightmares that the poison causes.”

            “Hmm . . . well, it has been two nights since the last time you had one of those dreams . . . and longer than that since you were last exposed to that damn plant,” Lumine says. She looks hopeful, like she wants to believe Kaeya is okay. “The thing you need to take care of, is it anything you need help with?”

            “Nope,” Kaeya tells her. “Definitely not.”

            “Good morning, Amber.”

            Amber jumps and nearly starts sparking as the familiar voice greets her the moment she steps outside her apartment door. “Oh! Kaeya. You scared me.”

            “Apologies,” the smooth talking Cavalry Captain says, then extends his arm, holding something out to her. Coffee. Freshly brewed and still steaming, in one of Good Hunter’s returnable mugs. “Forgive me?”

            Amber is willing to forgive quite a bit for caffeine this early in the morning. She reaches for the hot beverage eagerly. A bit of her joy dims as she sees Kaeya has a cup of his own, which is also steaming. Like many cryo wielders, he can only tolerate hot drinks when he’s not feeling well.

            “Thank you, Kaeya,” she says politely, trying not to let her sudden sadness show.

            Kaeya nods. “This was actually meant to thank you. For all your help a couple days ago . . . and to apologize again for cursing at you, after I woke you up.”

            “Oh! You’re welcome, of course, I was just doing my job, and you don’t need to apologize for that again,” Amber tells him, embarrassed. “I shouldn’t have been snappy with you. I mean, you were coming to get me to do my job, and you’re my superior.”

            “I still shouldn’t have sworn at you,” says Kaeya. “I wasn’t at my best right then. It’s no excuse, of course, but it was Diluc. I have a harder time keeping a clear head when my brother is in danger.”

            “It’s – wait. Brother?”

            “Hm? You didn’t know?” Kaeya asks, looking mildly surprised in that calm way of his. “Diluc’s father took me in when I was a child. Raised me as his own, alongside Diluc.”

            “Oh. I, ah, didn’t know,” Amber says. Her heart is suddenly hammering, because she had been under the impression that Kaeya and Diluc’s relationship was something very, very different. Brothers? This is the first she’s heard of it, and she is so very, very glad that she’s learning now, before anyone ever had a chance to learn what she thought they’d meant to each other. Even now, she’s worried that her embarrassment is showing on her face, and all she can think is, “Please don’t let Kaeya ask what I thought their relationship was before now. Please don’t let him ask why I thought Diluc showed up at his house in the middle of the night . . .”

            “I know what you’re thinking,” Kaeya tells her, and for a moment Amber just wants to curl up and die. Then Kaeya continues. “We don’t act like brothers. It’s true. We had a falling out around the time . . . well, I hear you were hiding in a wardrobe when Diluc quit the Ordo and eavesdropped on the incident.”

            “Uh. Yes,” Amber admits.

            “No need to be embarrassed. You were just a kid. You should hear about some of the things Diluc and I got up to when we were young . . . or maybe not. I’m apologizing, but I’m not giving you blackmail material,” Kaeya says cheerfully.

            “Uh . . . Understandable,” Amber says, and is glad she suddenly has an excuse for her embarrassment. A convenient cover for it.

            “Anyway, we had a falling out around then. It was my fault. We didn’t talk for a long time, in large part because Diluc left Mond for a while. People seem to have forgotten that we were brothers – that we are brothers . . . but I’d like to think we’re starting to put the past behind us,” Kaeya says, and there’s a glimmer of hope in his eye. “Maybe one day we’ll even be friends again.”

            “You aren’t now?” Amber asks. “I mean . . . it was obvious how much you both care for each other.” That was the wrong thing to say, because now she’s thinking about what she used to think again, and how has Kaeya not noticed how pink her face must be? He’s going to notice any second now and realize that it’s been long enough now that she shouldn’t still be embarrassed about that eavesdropping incident when she was a kid, and then he’s going to figure out . . . “I mean, when one of you wasn’t feeling well, the other always . . . you took care of each other. Maybe you didn’t notice, but when you were suffering from your migraines, Master Diluc did all that he could to make sure you would be okay . . . and right after you got dosed with dream poison, he looked fit to flay anyone who meant any harm toward you at all.”

            At the time she’d thought that was really cute and romantic. Now she must banish those thoughts from her mind. Kaeya must never know what she’d thought about him and Diluc. He’d never let her hear the end of it if he did.

            Kaeya smiles faintly. “Diluc always was quite the protective one.”

            “Are you okay, Kaeya?” Amber asks, because suddenly Kaeya is looking a little bit sick.

            “Yes. I’m alright. This is just the most I’ve been up and about since . . .” Kaeya sighs.

            “Do you need to sit down for a bit? You can come inside, I can –”

            “Oh no, please don’t trouble yourself,” Kaeya says quickly. “The last thing I want is for you to be late. I think it’s time I got back home, before Lumine and Paimon come looking for me. Or worse, Diluc. He’s supposed to swing by later this morning, but I wouldn’t put it past him to be early.”

            “I’ll walk you there,” Amber volunteers.

            “No need. It’s not far, and I don’t want you to be late,” Kaeya says. “I promise I’ll be fine.”

            “Well, if you’re sure . . .”

            Amber lets him go. Then takes to the rooftops and follows at a distance to keep an eye on him, and makes sure he makes it home safely. Then she heads to work. Taking the streets like a normal person. The last thing she wants is to lose her gliding license again.

            Normally, she realizes as she makes her way there, Kaeya would have realized he was being followed. The damn dream poison must still be weakening not just his body but his mind. Amber hates that . . . but, she realizes, that same thing is probably the only reason why Kaeya didn’t realize what she’d really believed his and Master Diluc’s relationship was. It feels wrong to be thankful about that.

            It occurs to her, very, very briefly . . . that perhaps Kaeya actually did know what she thought. That him showing up like this was his way of setting her straight without embarrassing her, and before she could embarrass herself. Because it’s really out of character for Kaeya not to have realized, and she knows how much he likes putting people into uncomfortable situations and making them squirm . . . which is why she ultimately believes Kaeya didn’t realize what she really thought. There’s no way he’d let her off the hook that easy, gratitude or no. Kaeya really can be such a bastard.

            He has his moments though. Especially when it comes to people he cares about. He does take very good care of them, Amber thinks with a slight smile, and she wonders if one day she’ll be counted among that number.

Notes

This is probably the final bonus chapter for Poisoned Dreams (unless I think of something else and feel like writing it, which isn’t incredibly likely in this case) since the story continues in Blind Mirror (the first of hopefully multiple sequels) only a few days after this chapter. In that fic Kaeya is mostly physically recovered by then, which is good, because he, Jean, and Diluc have a serial killer to hunt down.

In hindsight, this would have made a pretty good chapter to post on April Fool’s day, but I only decided to write it today. I’ve thought a lot about how Kaeya would break it to Amber that he and Diluc are brothers, not lovers. In the end, I felt that while Kaeya would normally be delighted to have some fun at her expense, in this case, he probably wouldn’t. Not after what he just went through, and after she was there for both him and his brother when he needed her. However, since he kind of can’t help being manipulative, this is how he chose to go about telling her.

I’m on Twitter now: https://twitter.com/StrangeDiamond5. I’ve been posting some shorter fics there. Mostly oneshots, with room to write more for, but that I haven’t been cross posting to AO3, at least not yet.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ve enjoyed my fic!