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Soulmates are a gift from the gods.
At least, that’s what people tell their kids.
They say there is a red string of fate that connects people to their fated person.
The grownups lauded the existence of soulmates even if they’ve never met theirs before. Everyone in Teyvat sees the world in grayscale until they meet their supposed soulmate. Most people end up not meeting theirs in their lifetime, cursed to see the world in muted white, blacks, and grays for the rest of their life. People long to meet their soulmate in order to see colors in this bleak washed out world.
To Kaeya, it feels like a curse and a blessing at the same time.
Kaeya meets Diluc on that stormy night years ago and his world explodes in a flurry of color. The change in the world he’s known causes him too much of a shock that he faints after their eyes meet.
Diluc is surprised by the sudden change in his perception the moment he lays eyes on the scrawny kid that his father found outside the stormy night. His gasp of surprise brings the attention of Crepus to the boy who suddenly fainted and the man figures out there’s a connection between the kids.
It’s like a new horizon before Diluc’s eyes. The two worlds are so vastly different.
Later, Diluc excitedly tells Crepus that the boy is his soulmate. Crepus congratulates him and tells him they’re definitely letting the boy stay if he wants to.
Diluc felt so happy and blessed about it back then.
The feeling doesn’t last.
Diluc and Kaeya’s bond becomes frayed on Diluc’s eighteenth birthday.
Their bond is completely severed on his twenty-first birthday when Diluc experiences near death in the hands of a Fatui Harbinger.
Diluc is back in Mondstadt after four years of dealing with his feelings of revenge. The event is silent - not many of Mondstadt know the redhead is back in the city. He prefers it this way, considering his new disability that forces him to be more careful with his work.
Kaeya doesn't see him since he came back and he thinks the redhead has been avoiding him. He gets a little angrier and sadder every day that passes by without seeing Diluc.
Diluc doesn't know Kaeya is looking for him. He's already stressed with his impairment and trying to live and work with it. Diluc just quietly works in the Dawn Winery and Angel share. He only ever goes out as the Darknight Hero for emergencies he knows the Knights can't handle.
It’s another day in the Angel’s Share tavern with Diluc serving in the bar. There’s a few new customers for him and he serves them all the same. A cryo user is sitting at the bar, nursing the drink Diluc has given him.
Diluc wonders who the cryo user is. He can't remember anyone with a cryo vision in Mondstadt when he was still living in the city years ago.
Kaeya’s eyes follow the redhead who he’s convinced is ignoring and avoiding him. The redhead didn't even react to his presence or voice when he ordered his drink.
As Diluc goes to serve other customers for the night, he takes note of the feeling of being watched coming from the cryo user ever since he gave him the drink. Diluc is confused. Why is this person staring holes at him? After hours of the almost stalkerish eyes following his every move, Diluc has had it.
"Excuse me...?" Diluc tentatively asks the man at the bar when there are no more orders coming in.
Kaeya looks at Diluc whose eyes are not focusing on him. He frowns. Something is wrong.
"May I ask why have you been looking at me for a while now, sir?"
Kaeya's eyes furrow in hurt. Does Diluc not recognize him?
"Come now Diluc," Kaeya teasingly says. "Surely you recognize your lil brother?"
Diluc stiffens, eyes widening. Kaeya can now see that the man's orange-red eyes are, in fact, no longer their former color. They’re now a faded pink, almost white, that won't focus on anything in front of them. It takes a second for Diluc to actually realize this cryo user is Kaeya, since he left the day Kaeya got his vision, his mind is still stuck on a visionless Kaeya.
"Kaeya...?"
Diluc is frozen still at the bar, scared and mortified that he couldn't recognize Kaeya who he hasn't seen for years.
Kaeya observes the redhead’s reaction and can’t help but frown more. He sees the other man is shaking where he's standing. He gets off his stool and walks over to the other side where Diluc is and gently touches his shoulder. "Diluc...? You alright there?"
Diluc shakes, clearly taken aback and suddenly wants to run away again. All the memories of how he and Kaeya broke off come back to him.
Then he realises, he'll never be able to see Kaeya smile - or his face - again.
His last memory of Kaeya’s face will forever be drenched in the rain, scared, face full of hurt and tears.
Diluc flinches at the touch. His breath hitches and his body shakes even more. He's panicking but he can't calm down-
He can’t -
He can't breathe--
"Diluc, calm down," Kaeya holds him a little harder this time, trying to stop his brother from having a full blown panic attack. "Breathe with me... come on. In-" he starts leading the redhead to breathe properly again. It takes a couple of minutes of controlled inhales and exhales to get Diluc to relax. He sits Diluc down onto a chair and hands him a glass of water from the bar. "You okay now?"
Diluc manages another long breath on his own and takes the offered glass. He drinks the water slowly and puts it down after.
"...Sorry.... thank you..." he meekly tells the blue haired man.
"No problem." Kaeya is observing him closely, not wanting him to fall back into another panic attack. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Kaeya is still immensely curious about Diluc’s eyes. He hopes that his theory of it being blindness is wrong. It would be horrible to not be able to see anything anymore.
Kaeya knows the feeling very well due to his right eye.
Diluc sags in the seat. He supposes he has no choice but to tell Kaeya. The man knows him too well and Diluc also knows he would investigate privately if he doesn't tell him.
"I'm… blind... Kae..." Diluc looks away, feeling ashamed at his new vulnerability. "There's no cure..."
Kaeya gently holds Diluc's chin and moves the redhead's face back towards him. "I'm sorry to hear that..." he runs fingers through Diluc's hair to see those eyes clearly. "Are you sure there's no-?"
Diluc closes his eyes and shakes his head slowly. "It's my fault... it's the price I have to pay for what I had to..."
Kaeya suddenly feels angry again. But not towards Diluc. Not anymore. Now he knows why the man avoided him all month. It wasn't intentional.
Kaeya is angry that the world needs Diluc to be it's little protector despite him just being one mortal. Kaeya, for the first time, wants to unleash his inner abyssal beast, just so the redhead would stop sacrificing himself.
Kaeya will take care of Diluc's problems if he can. He'll have to investigate first. He'll do that right after this talk with Diluc and deal with the problem.
"You really need to take care of yourself more, Diluc. How are you even able to look at where things are?"
"I can still see.." Diluc murmurs. "With elemental sight only… Vision users are easier to notice. I can see their coloured outline. It takes a lot of energy though."
Kaeya's eye widened before he squeezes the redhead's shoulder comfortingly.
He's angry. At himself, for driving Diluc away. At Diluc's selfless nature that pushes on even when he's like this. At the archons above for dooming him to this fate.
He's livid at whatever is cruel enough to do this to the one he loves.
"Diluc," Kaeya speaks after a long period of silence. "Who did this to you? Is this why you severed our bond last year?" He can feel Diluc tense under his fingers and he hopes the other doesn’t have another panic attack.
Diluc knew the question was coming. Kaeya was too perceptive, and even after years of being apart, he still knows Diluc more than anyone in this world.
"I was being stupid, Kaeya-"
"You're many things, Diluc, but stupid isn't one of them. And you’re a bad liar, as well," Kaeya interrupted, his hands squeezing him a little tighter. "I just want to know, please?"
Diluc felt his heart throb painfully against his chest. After all this time, Kaeya still cared. Even when Diluc threw him away, even when he severed the thing that bonded them together by fate, he's still here, his light shining comfortingly blue.
Cutting the thread that binds two souls together is something excruciatingly painful for the one that does it, Diluc recalls his father's tales. On the other hand, if their partner dies, their pair will feel an empty coldness where their bond was and would never feel the warmth of love from others. Diluc remembers his father telling him how the pain from separation ultimately leads to the pair dying out of love for one another.
On that day, when his eyes were burning with whatever the Harbinger threw at him during his attempted escape, when he was dangling on the edge of death, he could only think how he couldn't let Kaeya suffer because of his worthlessness. Knowing he was about to die, Diluc cut their bond himself, willing to take all the pain as long as Kaeya somehow survived and didn’t feel Diluc dying.
Kaeya deserved much, much better.
But again, he's still here. Diluc feels like crying when he finds himself yearning for his warmth again.
"I... " Diluc shakes his head, looking down, shame and regret coloring his tone. "One day... I'll tell you... not now... please..."
Kaeya sighs. He's been doing that a lot tonight. "Alright. Is there anything I can help you with? Especially with this whole eye problem."
"I'll be fine, Kae..." Diluc's shoulders sag. He doesn't want to drag Kaeya further into his own mess. "I'm not completely blind that I can't see. I can still function."
Kaeya's eye twitches. Diluc's sense of chivalry and responsibility are still chaining his brother to being stupidly self-sacrificing. Kaeya knows he can't change what his brother is like. He's been the same since he was a kid. He just hopes that, this time, he can actually stay and help him with the burden.
"Doesn't mean I can't help you with whatever it is you're doing, Didi."
Diluc flushes at the old nickname.
"I'm the older brother," Diluc grumbles, looking back up at him with a pout and he pulls Kaeya closer. He misses the other's warmth and he hasn’t been pushed away yet. Maybe Kaeya doesn't hate him as much as he thought? "Can I?"
Kaeya chuckles and puts his arms around the redhead to give him a hug. "Of course, Didi. Anytime."
The rest of the people in the tavern leave the two in silence and happiness for both of them.