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Some days were just a cruel joke. It was as if all the Archons of Teyvat had looked down upon him and said, “Him? Yeah, let’s fuck him up especially”. Diluc had more days of that nature than he’d liked to count.
It seemed this was another one to add to the tally.
It started with a rain storm and a nuisance at his door.
“Normally I’d have something to say in mind but…” Kaeya smiled sheepishly, hefting the dead weight of the traveler on his back. “Well, desperate times and the like.”
Diluc stared at the sight before him. Kaeya, drenched to the bone with Aether clinging weakly to him from behind. The Cryo user was canted forward a bit so that the traveler rested more comfortably on his back.
“What did you do?” Diluc’s voice came out flat, gaze still roving over the two of them. Disheveled clothes. Mud caked on boots and in their hair. No obvious wounds, at least. Kaeya opened his mouth as if to speak, but seemed at a loss for words. “Kaeya.”
“Well, that is indeed a story I would love to share with you but-- oh look! Adelinde! Perfect timing! Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”
“Don’t just--”
“Oh, dear. Master Kaeya, what have you gotten yourself into this time?” The head maid was by his side within seconds, helping peel off the weary Aether with as much care as possible. The young boy groaned, slumping in her hold. Kaeya kept a firm hand on him to keep him from collapsing altogether.
“A tale best told over tea, I think.” Kaeya flashed a dashing smile, but neither Adelinde nor Diluc were impressed with the charade. Regardless, the Head Maid obliged.
“I’ll take care of Sir Aether for the time being then,” Adelinde said. “I’m sure I can enlist Elzer’s assistance if needed.”
“An Angel, as always.” Kaeya finally released his hold on Aether, letting Adelinde coax the younger man to follow along as best he could in his half conscious state. The poor boy could at the very least stand on his own, but walking in a straight line while remaining vertical was another thing.
“Sir Kaeya.”
The smile disappeared from the Cavalry Captains face. His gaze lingered on the retreating forms of Adelinde and Aether, however. “Rest easy, Master Diluc. I’ve no intention of staying.” Finally he looked toward other. “But I couldn’t leave Aether in the state that he’s in. We were closer to the Winery than Springvale, so I opted to shelter him here.”
Diluc folded his arms over his chest, his visage as stone cold as always. “What I want to know is how he ended up in such a state to begin with.” He looked Kaeya up and down briefly, frowning at the mud caked boots Kaeya had tracked into the foyer. “You don’t look much better yourself.”
“I’ll be fine. Just a hot shower and clean clothes and I’ll be good as new.” Kaeya offered a more genuine smile, one meant to at least convey his honesty. “I’ll find a room in Springvale.”
“That’s…” Diluc let out a short breath, pinching at the bridge of his nose. “That is… unnecessary,” he said haltingly. “I’m not going to make you go all the way back to…” He cut himself off, waving a hand dismissively in the air. “Adelinde would have my head if she thought I’d sent you back out there. Aether probably wouldn’t be too pleased either.”
“You’re too kind, Master Diluc.”
“Shut it. You can use my room to clean up.”
“Oh?” Kaeya’s lips curled up at the corners. “How forward--”
“Don’t. Push it.” Diluc ground out through clenched teeth. Kaeya raised his hands to signal surrender and started for the stairs without another word.
Kaeya would be lying if he said standing in the middle of Diluc’s room didn’t make him uncomfortable.
It made him extremely uncomfortable.
Perhaps not in the sense that he felt he was in a strangers room, but the exact opposite. Diluc hadn’t really changed much of anything over the last few years. Same bed. Same desk. Same haphazard piles of books and papers. Shelves and portraits. It was like stepping into an old memory.
This, more or less, had been their room in the past, after all. In the early days of his being taken in by Master Crepus, nightmares had been a common occurrence. Diluc had offered to share his bed until he calmed down, and Kaeya simply never ended up leaving.
Diluc would wrap him up in the blankets and cuddle close, and with the assistance of his Pyro Vision, he would build a comfortable warmth that lulled Kaeya to sleep.
Gods, he had been such a crybaby back then, hadn’t he?
Kaeya sighed and cleared his head, starting to peel off his wet and soiled clothing. The washroom was certainly more tidy now that it only offered it’s services to one man, but everything still had it’s place as it did before. Finding a spare towel and soap only took a bit of muscle memory.
Even with the familiarity, Kaeya still felt so overwhelmingly out of place. Like an intruder.
Surely Aether could forgive him for leaving early.
“Sir Kaeya? I have a change of clothes," Diluc called, rapping a knuckle against the washroom door. “I’ll leave them on the b-”
The door jerked open, startling Diluc enough to make him step back. Kaeya blinked owlishly at him, a look of amazement dawning his features.
“Well now you must be in some kind of way. First you invite me to your room, and now this? My, Diluc, you- Mmf!”
The bundle of clothes Diluc had cradled over his arm found itself shoved in Kaeya’s face rather forcefully. The Cavalry Caption stumbled, hastily reaching out to brace himself on the door frame before gravity got the better of him.
“Cut that shit out,” Diluc snapped. “It’s not funny.”
“Never said I was trying to be.” Kaeya leaned down to pluck the fresh clothes off the floor with his free hand. The other remained clutched on the towel around his waist as a way to anchor it in place. He padded past Diluc to dump the know haphazard pile of fabric onto the bed. Diluc watched long enough for Kaeya to sort through the clothes before he started for the door.
“Fatui.”
He froze. “What?” Diluc craned his head to peer back at Kaeya from over his shoulder. The other was in the midst of shimmying into a pair of sleep pants that stuck uncomfortably to his damp skin.
“It was the Fatui that landed us here.” Kaeya held the towel, dragging it over the back of his neck and wringing out the damp tresses draped over his left shoulder. “We managed to play defense and drive them off, but our dear Aether got hit with a rather nasty Electro shock.”
Diluc hesitated before turning to face Kaeya once more. He folded his arms across his chest, gaze narrowed. “And you didn’t tell me immediately because--”
“I was cold and dirty and in desperate need of a shower.”
“Kaeya.”
“What? That much is the truth at least.” Kaeya flashed a smile and let the towel drape over his shoulder. “They were dealt with and no longer pose any danger. The discussion could wait.”
Diluc exhaled slowly, hands dropping to rest on his hips. “So? Details?”
“A group of them had holed up in Stormterror’s Lair, it seems. Or at the very least are planning to. They only seemed to be scouts rather than a full convoy.” Kaeya ruffled a hand through his damp tresses, fluffing out the strands around his face. It was only then Diluc took notice that his eye patch was gone, though Kaeya seemed to take care to keep his right eye closed.
More out of habit than anything else. Diluc had already seen what was under there years ago.
“We dealt with the initial batch. Ran into a group aiming to meet up with them. Aether got hit. Now we’re here.” Kaeya shrugged his shoulders. “It goes without saying that I’ll be making a few more patrols this way here in the immediate future.” He tugged the towel off and reached for the shirt.
“That’s not necessary, Sir Kaeya. I can handle it on-…” Diluc stilled.
“You can handle it on your own, yes I’m aware-”
“What is that…?”
Kaeya gave the shirt a shake to straighten it out a bit before he looked toward the other. He found Diluc’s gaze significantly lower than expected, and he followed it till he zeroed in on what he saw. Kaeya opened his mouth, aiming to answer, but the words were lost to him.
“A burn.” Kaeya brought his hand down self consciously to rest over the mark. The mottled skin started just left of his naval and seared upwards toward his left side, coming to a stop just beneath his ribs. “It’s an old wound. Nothing to fret over, I assure you.” He flashed a half hearted smile, but the look on Diluc’s face told him everything he needed to know.
Guilt. There was guilt there on Diluc’s face.
“Did I do that…?”
Kaeya couldn’t remember ever hearing Diluc sound so small. Not since the night Master Crepus had died. Not since that very wound had been branded onto him. The memory of it made the scar ache, along with another deeper hurt that he felt in his bones.
“I deserved it,” Kaeya said simply, looking away as he finally started to slide the shirt on over his shoulders. The sleep shirt matched the pants, but buttoned down in the front. He simply did the bottom three buttons to hide the scar from view before grabbing for the eye patch that had been lost in the bundle of clothes.
There was silence. Nothing but the slide of fabric and the pitter patter of rain against the windows. Kaeya was almost convinced Diluc had left without another word until he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. He jolted at the unfamiliar touch, eye going wide when he looked to find Diluc standing next to him.
“No,” Diluc said quietly. “You didn’t.” He reached out to tug on the three buttons Kaeya had done up. “Let me see.”
“Diluc--”
“Please.”
Kaeya relented. The buttons came undone, and the shirt slid free of his shoulders once more so that Diluc could look it over more closely. If it weren’t for the discoloration, it would have been easier to overlook. It hadn’t been an especially bad wound to start with, but burns tended to scar poorly when not taken proper care of.
Kaeya hadn’t exactly been in a state to bother with such trivialities at the time. The result was a stretch of marred skin where a blazing fist had connected. Diluc’s fingers now, however, were gentle when they skimmed over the scar tissue. His thumb traced the edge, where the licks of flame had tapered off and the scar along with it.
The expression on Diluc’s face was mostly unreadable. The guilt etched there had yet to waver, but now there was something else. Something so profoundly sad that it made Kaeya’s chest ache. Gently, he reached down to wrap his fingers around Diluc’s wrist and pull it away.
“It was years ago, Diluc,” he said quietly.
“But I put it there.”
“Because I betrayed you.”
Diluc’s eyes flashed dangerously. “You lied to me,” he corrected. “What betrayal? What have you done that could constitute such a thing? Have you sold our secrets to the Fatui? Have you been pawning our national treasures off to those thieving hoarders?”
Kaeya felt a heaviness fall over him as Diluc ripped his wrist free, glowering.
“If this is you trying to apologize, it’s a rather piss poor attempt, Master Diluc.” Kaeya pulled the shirt back over his shoulders. “And a few years too late, at that. Besides, I should be the one begging forgiveness, no?”
Diluc breathed in slowly, eyes closing briefly as he tried to calm his nerves. But all he saw was flames licking at dark skin, eating away at the flesh and bone beneath. When he opened them again, he found Kaeya leaning down to pick up his discarded towel, folding it neatly. At the angle he stood at, Kaeya’s eyepatch and blue hair blocked any view of his facial features, leaving Diluc lost as to what the other was thinking.
“I’m sorry.”
Kaeya’s nimble fingers stilled.
“I won’t say I was in the wrong,” Diluc clarified, “but I took it too far.”
“It was poor timing on my part,” Kaeya said, resting the towel on the footboard of the bed frame.
“Very poor timing,” Diluc agreed, voice somber.
“A miracle my Vision appeared when it did, hm? I’m not sure I would have made it out of that place alive if not.”
“Kaeya.”
“You know what’s funny, though?” Kaeya fingered at the hair draped over his shoulder, twirling and untwirling it around a single digit.
“Don’t.”
“I still would have loved you either way.” The words hung in the air like a frozen mist. Diluc felt his chest ache when Kaeya finally looked his way again. “Even if your sword had met it’s target, I wouldn’t have loved you any less for it.” There was another moment of quiet between them before Kaeya shifted to face Diluc full on. “What’s even more pathetic is that I still don’t.”
Diluc stared, jaw slack as he listened. He tried, he really tried to think of something to break the tension. Maybe some snide remark about how Kaeya must have been hit on the head too hard or that the rain must have gotten to him. That he was a liar. That it wasn’t funny.
But it wasn’t a joke and Kaeya was being the most brutally honest he had ever been. It made Diluc’s stomach twist uncomfortably.
Of all times to confess to something so personal. So private.
They weren’t kids anymore. They weren’t reckless teenagers who still didn’t know any better. They were grown men in an unforgiving world and they both had the scars to show it; be they visible or otherwise.
“Why are you telling me this…?” Diluc forced out, voice much too quiet for his own liking. His mouth felt dry. “Why now?”
Kaeya seemed to think on that, head tilted slightly as he deliberated. “Perhaps I hit my head too hard during the scuffle?” He offered with a dry smile. Diluc was not amused with the response. “Because I’m tired,” he amended. “I’m tired of false pleasantries and pretending things are as they should be when they are the farthest thing from it.”
Diluc shook his head mutely, words eluding him entirely.
“There are times I feel I would have preferred your blade to the way you look at me with absolute hatred.”
Seven’s above, Diluc could not bare to listen to any more. Without even thinking, he lurched forward. The sound of his fist connecting with Kaeya’s jaw was rather satisfying. So to was the look of absolute shock when he then grabbed him by the collar of his borrowed shirt.
“You never know when to shut the fuck up. You never did. Not now. Not then.” Diluc grit his teeth, fisting his hands in the silken fabric as he forced Kaeya backwards, pinning him to the wall. The Calvary Captain squirmed, instinctively trying to wriggle free of Diluc’s hold, but a firm shove made him fall still, knocking the air out of him.
“Probably never will,” Kaeya said breathlessly, letting out a nervous laugh. “I’ve a penchant for self-deprecation, it seems.”
“And poor timing,” Diluc all but growled.
“Very poor timing,” Kaeya agreed, grimacing when he felt the other grab at his chin to hold him in place. What followed, however, was not pain, but a searing warmth against his lips.
Diluc felt Kaeya tense, gasping sharply when their lips connected. But just as quickly, he felt that tension melt away and cool hands came to rest on either side of his neck.
The frustration ebbed, giving way to gentler touches and soft breaths. Diluc’s fingers tangled into the hair at the nape of Kaeya’s neck, forcing him to angle his head to just the right degree in order to deepen the kiss. Lips parted and Diluc felt a slick tongue slide against his own.
Perhaps Kaeya’s timing on this particular occasion was just right after all. He doubted this was the result Kaeya had anticipated, or that he’d even be dropping a confession as he had done in the first place. But the frustration had melted away. The anxiety of being so near to one another and not knowing what could possibly happen had evaporated entirely.
Kaeya hummed, when he felt Diluc’s had slip down to sneak back under the loose shirt adorning his frame. Warm fingers skimmed over the bare flesh of his abdomen, searching until they found the uneven texture of the very thing that had started this encounter. He flattened his palm against the scar, leaving a gentle touch in its wake as he slid it further to rest against the curve of Kaeya’s lower back.
“Diluc-”
“Shut up.”
“In a moment,” Kaeya grabbed a fistful of red locks to hold Diluc back. He did not look to appreciate the gesture. “Aren’t we skipping a few steps here? I feel like this is a little...hasty.”
Diluc leveled him with a blank stare, one that clearly expressed his lack of interest in that particular topic. “Are you complaining?”
“Gods, no. Of course not!”
“Then shut up.”
Kaeya’s lips quirked at the edges in an amused smile. “Well then,” he said, letting go of Diluc’s hair. “Adelinde, be a sweetheart and close the door, won’t you?”
Diluc blinked, thoughts coming to a screeching halt as he tried to process the words that had just left Kaeya’s mouth.
“Of course, Master Kaeya.”
He whipped his head around to see the last vestiges of Adelinde’s form as she pulled the door shut with a gentle click.
“Now then.” A cool hand cupped against his cheek, drawing his attention back to Kaeya. “Where were we?”