Work Text:
Lumine was traveling to Stormterror’s lair with Diluc, Kaeya, and Xingqiu but soon realized that as the sun began to set, that they would either have to wait until morning so they could see or try and travel in the dark and even though Diluc could light the way, they didn’t want to drain him or attract unwanted attention from other enemies. Lumine frowned a bit at this, they really wanted to get there today to show Xingqiu because he had put on his puppy eyes and practically begged Lumine to join. Not that Lumine’s will was that weak, but the blue-haired bookworm was a good friend, and honestly, they wanted to fight Stormterror again as well.
“Paimon is hungry!” The floating fairy whined, rubbing her stomach and groaning loudly. “When are we gonna stop and eat?”
Lumine rolled their eyes but then stopped to think. Their group, consisting of Diluc, Kaeya, Xingqiu, and themself, had been traveling for a few hours, Lumine realized, and hadn’t eaten anything yet. Maybe a small break is a good idea. With a thoughtful hum, Lumine flashed a small smile at Paimon and the rest of the group and pointed to a shaded area under a large sunsettia tree. They walked over to the spot and sat down, but Kaeya didn’t. Lumine looked up at him with a confused expression which was met with a cryptic smile, but reasoned that Kaeya does that all the time, and went back to unpacking the food they had prepared. The group would eat and then rest until the morning, and then fight Stormterror.
Next time, genius, a voice inside Lumine’s head chided them, use the waypoints instead of taking the scenic route. It’s much faster.
“Oh! Can Paimon have some apples?” Paimon asked, leaning in with her hands behind her back. She didn’t wait for an answer, Lumine couldn't eat the apples in this world and always gave them to Paimon, and swiped three into her tiny arms. One almost fell onto the ground, and Lumine chuckled quietly. They wondered what apples tasted like and asked Paimon once, but Paimon had been too busy goring herself on Xiangling’s newest experiment.
“Miss Lumine, can you pass some over here as well?” Diluc’s deep voice sounded from a few feet away. He must have walked away from the group to scout the area.
Lumine nodded and threw two apples where they heard Diluc’s voice. A “thanks” was the response, and Lumine mentally fist-bumped the air at accurately throwing the apples. Kaeya had picked some sunsettias from the tree that they were under, and Lumine saw his vision glow slightly out of the corner of their eye before dimming again.
Lumine turned to fully look at Kaeya to see what he was doing, and saw that the sunsettias that he picked had a small amount of frost on the bottom. “Chilled sunsettia. Do you want to try some?” Kaeya had asked, holding one out to them. His eye betrayed no mischief, but this was Kaeya here. Lumine hesitated, they didn’t know if ice from the vision would have any negative effect on them if they ingested it.
What are the side effects? Lumine signed. The cryo-wielder frowned a bit and pulled his hand back in, a hurt look on his face. “What, you don’t trust me? What have I done to merit your distrust, traveler?” He laughed again at Lumine’s frantic signing and Diluc’s annoyed glare and Xingqui’s worried side-eye. “I’m kidding, of course. It’s cute to watch you get all anxious and start signing all fast,” Kayea took a bite out of the sunsettia and offered Lumine another, who took it without hesitation this time but with a roll of their eyes.
“There’s no side effects, Miss Lumine. He was just being an ass,” Diluc sighed.
“Well, someone needs to be when you get tired of it, Diluc.” Kaeya retorted.
Ah, Lumine thought. I didn’t even notice that Kaeya completely dodged the question! He’s too good at this! But… I suppose that’s a great advantage with his job.
Lumine turned to Xingqiu and asked what he wanted to eat, but the boy was already nose-deep in the latest edition of War and Worship: A Tale of Two Birds , muttering some of the lines to himself. They put aside a few apples and a chicken-mushroom skewer on the side for him and hoped that someone would remind him to eat before he passed out reading.
Lumine’s thoughts drifted to their brother and his love of books as they stared at Xingqiu, who was completely absorbed in his book. Aether didn’t love books as in he liked reading them, no, he simply liked collecting them, especially the ones with fancy covers that had gems and crystals or embroidery. He didn’t care if he couldn’t understand the language sometimes, as is the problem with world-hopping, Aether’s eyes would widen and he would barely hold back a squeal before he practically launched himself towards the book that caught his fancy. More than once, Lumine would have to console his sobbing figure if one of his books got destroyed in a fight. They doubt that Xingqiu is that attached to books, but maybe Xingqiu collects some for their beauty too?
Maybe, Lumine thought, Aether and he would get along. When I find Aether, I could take him to the library in Mondstat, and see his eyes light up again. I could see him gush about the patterns and runes on the books I’ve collected for him, I could see him sprint towards the books at the abandoned camps in Dragonspine.
I’ll see him soon.
A sudden light made Lumine’s head snap up and turn. They let out a deep breath as their eyes landed on Diluc. It’s just Diluc, they thought.
Breathing fire. Ah.
…
What.
Diluc had held one of his apples in his gloved hand and was blowing onto it, eyes closed in concentration. Lumine thought that it would have been fine if it were not for the steady flames leaving his mouth as he did so. Kaeya stared in barely hidden shock, his grip nearly puncturing the sunsettia he was holding, and even Xingqiu had looked up from his book and held it close to his chest. Lumine was wide-eyed and unknowingly started to tug on their two long locks of hair in excitement. The group was silent as Diluc finished and turned his head to start blowing fire onto the next apple, but he quickly noticed the tense silence and looked up at the rest of the party, who were all staring at him as if he grew an extra head.
“...What is it?” He finally questioned.
“Since when can you breathe fire? I’ve literally never seen you do this, why did I not know this? My informants haven’t even seen you do this- How- How does it not hurt? Do all pyro users do that? Diluc-” Kaeya immediately started firing questions at the redhead, and dropping his sunsettias in the process, wildly gestured with his hands and quickly walked over to Diluc, shaking his shoulders.
“Hands off, and what are you freaking out about- I said hands off!” Diluc was trying to pry Kaeya’s hands off of his shoulders but the other’s iron grip proved that to be a difficult feat. He scowled at Kaeya and Kaeya seemed to get the message, letting him go, but not backing off.
“Why are you freaking out, it’s not a big deal,” Diluc seethed as he glared at the cavalry captain.
Lumine had frantically snapped their fingers to get Diluc’s attention, and when Dilute looked over, they started signing quickly. How are you doing that? Does it hurt? Do you use it to fight? Is it from the vision? Their eyes were wide and a breeze started to pick up around them, lifting their hair a bit. Their anemo energy was starting to affect the area around them, but Lumine paid no mind to this. The only thing that mattered right now is Diluc’s fire-breathing power.
Diluc couldn’t keep up with Lumine’s frantic signing, and he was already getting agitated by the attention he was getting, and the lack of answers. He hated so much attention on him at once, especially when he didn’t know the reason. The unexpected shaking and iron-grip from Kaeya and Lumine’s eyes boring into his soul made it worse. He balled his hands into fists, and gave a snort that made smoke come from his nostrils and curl around his face. Kaeya had again been taken aback but had managed to see that Diluc wasn’t handling everything well. He stepped back and guided Lumine back with him. When he saw Diluc still glaring at them and starting to slightly tremble, he had thought for a bit before activating his cryo and dropped the surrounding temperature a few degrees. Maybe the cold will calm Diluc down, he thought. Diluc’s vision had started to rapidly and brightly pulse with energy still. He snorted once more and more smoke framed his face, making Kaeya drag Lumine and Xingqiu farther away from Diluc. He decided to speak since Lumine didn’t speak and Xingqiu was probably too anxious to do anything.
“Diluc, hey,” Kaeya softly called out, softening his eye. Or he was squinting, Diluc’s vision was pretty bright at the moment.
“Answers!” Diluc barked at him.
“We were just surprised, is all. We didn’t know you could breathe fire,” Kaeya replied.
The silence is thick enough to slice through , Lumine thought, as they calmed themself down. Getting too excited like that to Diluc could have seriously caused a bunch of trouble if Kaeya had not started to deescalate the situation. They looked beside them to check on Xingqiu, and found him holding his book behind him and looking at the ground, expression unreadable.
Diluc forced himself to speak. “It never came up. Learned to when I was away,”
Kaeya tilted his head a bit, before replying. “It would have been nice to know earlier, is all. Don’t worry about it for now.” Kaeya slowly took a step forward, continuing when Diluc didn’t move.
Diluc visibly relaxed, his shoulders becoming less tense and his vision dimming down. The smoke started to dissipate, allowing Lumine to see the redhead’s eyes clearly. They were surprised to find that his eyes were burning red, and giving off their own glow in the dark night. If it weren’t for the situation, Lumine would have felt threatened, would have felt as if flames were trying to engulf their body.
Aether’s eyes do that too, Lumine thought. But that wasn’t the focus at the moment. What mattered is that Diluc was okay and their party was going to be well-rested tonight.
“Lumine, Xinqiu-”
He used my name, this is serious, Lumine thought, and the two looked up at Kaeya, who was now holding a waterskin they packed and the apples Diluc must have dropped earlier.
Please set up the tents and fire,” Kaeya instructed in a soft voice. He looked tired but calm, and for some reason, Lumine felt calmed by his voice. This wasn’t the case nearly more than half the time, seeing as Kaeya was… well… Kaeya. But, when Lumine looked into his eye, silently offering their help, they saw something akin to a mixture of sadness and… something warm.
At least I think it is, Lumine thought. It’s hard to read emotions again when the last world had inhabitants change colors with them.
Lumine lightly nudged Xingqiu with their shoulder and nodded towards where the tents should be set up. While setting up the tents, Lumine noticed that Xingqiu seemed to be contemplating something, what that something was, Lumine didn’t know. Maybe he was deciding if he liked the ending to his book? No, he didn’t finish his book yet. Maybe he was a little frightened.
“Guhua Geek? Are you okay? You seem paler than usual,” Paimon, who had disappeared to… wherever she goes to, appeared, scaring the daylights out of Lumine. This earned her a nasty glare, but they gave Xingqiu a sympathetic look right after.
The boy stopped and turned to face them, his eyes shifty. “Ah, my liege, and Paimon, I am… unsure of how to say it, but worry not. I’m perfectly fine. I will tell you tomorrow after we defeat Stormterror, I promise!” The boy flashed a small smile, and while Lumine and Paimon could tell it wasn’t genuine from the way it didn’t meet his eyes or show his dimples, they returned it all the same. Whatever was going on with you Xingqiu, Lumine signed, know that you have a bunch of friends that will be there to help.
Xingqiu blinked away a few tears and this time, gave them a real smile.
They had finished setting up the tent and enjoyed a few apples and split a chicken-mushroom skewer between them by the campfire, Kaeya and Diluc returning around 10 minutes later. Kaeya held Diluc’s vision in one hand, and had his other placed on the redhead’s shoulder in an effort of comfort. Diluc seemed exhausted, and black soot covered his nose and cheeks where the smoke curled. His eyes were back to their normal red, and his breathing was deep as he seemingly struggled to keep them open. Kaeya had a small smile, genuine, Lumine noted, and guided his brother to one of the tents.
“Xingqiu, wet a towel or cloth please, and bring it to me,” Kaeya called.
The blue-haired boy did as asked and left Kaeya and Diluc quickly after giving them a cloth he soaked. Kaeya told Diluc to wipe his face and eat the apples he picked up, but Diluc only groaned.
“M’so tired. Not even hungry anymore.” He mumbled, but curse Kaeya’s hearing and “secretly” caring nature, because the next thing he knew Diluc felt a wet cloth wiped against his face, cleaning the soot, and then felt an apple dropped in his lap, along with his vision. “You sure you-”
“Yes, Luc, just warm the apple and eat it so you can sleep.” Kaeya sighed out. He tossed the now completely blackened cloth to the side and rubbed at his eye. “I know that you were just overwhelmed, and wouldn’t cause a huge fire otherwise, ha!” He gave a weak laugh.
Diluc rationalized that Kaeya wouldn’t leave or rest if he didn’t eat at least this, so he gathered his pyro energy into his chest and felt it burn with an energy he didn’t know he had left, inhaled deeply, and exhaled flames. His mouth warmed immediately and his tongue felt the small bite that the flames left in their wake. In just a few seconds, the apple was warmed to perfection, to Diluc’s standards, and he took a large bite. The second the sweetness of the apple hit his taste buds, though, the rest of the apple was gone in a few minutes. He sighed in content and flopped back onto the bedroll. He knew Kaeya was still there, and he wanted him to call him “Luc” again, he wanted to tell him the useful things and not-so-useful things he learned while he was away, but he couldn’t find any more energy in himself to even open his eyes, much less speak, so he curled up into he bedroll and let his exhaustion claim him.
Kaeya kneeled next to Diluc after a bit, his brows furrows and biting his bottom lip. Did... Did Diluc...
“Diluc, did you just eat the whole apple core and stem?” He asked. He got no response other than a light snore, telling him that his brother was dead to the world. “Okay then, I’ll just pretend it didn’t happen.” He said to himself as he sat up and left the tent. Just another thing to add to my list of questions for him, the cavalry captain jokingly thought to himself as he climbed into the bedroll with one thought in mind.
How much have I missed out on in Diluc’s life?
...
Luckily, he’ll tell me.