Chapter Text
“We have guests, Master Diluc.”
Diluc looks up from his work to raise an eyebrow at Elzer, who’s standing in the doorway to his office. “Who?”
Visitors to Dawn Winery are rare, especially since it isn’t anytime near harvest season, so alcoholics tend to stay at Angel’s Share. Nothing to do with business, then, at least not his official business. If they’re to do with his unofficial, somewhat illegal business, then it’s twice as alarming.
“The Knights of Favonius,” Elzer says. “Don’t give me that look, it’s not like I could have left them on the doorstep like I know you’d have me do.”
He smoothes out his expression from the scowl it’d instinctively dropped into. “Fine, what do they want?”
“It’s better if you come see for yourself, I believe.” A polite cough, indicating that he has to see it to believe it. Diluc doesn’t particularly understand; he’s well versed with the Knights’ incapabilities, so he has no real expectations in place. “Acting Grandmaster Jean can explain to you.”
“The Acting Grandmaster in person?” He sighs. “It must be important. I’ll be out in a second, then.”
“Perhaps quicker than a second,” Elzer says.
The slight panic in his voice makes Diluc furrow his eyebrows. “What’s wrong? How big of an emergency could it be?”
Footsteps echo down the hallway leading up to his office, too light to be an adult. In the distance, he can faintly hear Jean’s voice calling for someone to slow down.
A messy head of blue hair pops into his vision, a boyish grin on an extremely familiar face.
“Diluc, there you are,” Kaeya chirps. His voice is high-pitched and small, fitting the small body strolling into the room with languid ease. The boy can be no older than twelve. “What, too busy to greet your brother? I thought Father taught you better manners than that. I've been waiting for almost a minute!”
He stares for a long second, then turns to Elzer, gesturing vaguely in front of him. “…is this what you meant?”
“Hey, I’m not an object!”
“It is,” Elzer confirms, ruffling the boy– Kaeya‘s head fondly. “Quite the situation, yes, Master Diluc?”
Kaeya scrunches up his nose childishly as he leans away. Because he is a child. Who is standing inside his office. And looking at him in a way that he hasn’t since their fight that day, with a mixture of admiration, teasing, and affection in wide blue eyes.
Like they’re brothers.
It’s too early in the day to deal with this, Diluc thinks to himself, putting his head in his hands.
“…the Acting Grandmaster is here, right? I’d like to speak with her. Now.”
“Mean,” Kaeya says, which he summarily ignores.
“…magic?” he asks, slightly dumbfounded. “What sort of magic turns a person into a child?”
Jean shrugs apologetically from where she’s sitting opposite him, sipping on tea. “That’s what Albedo, Sucrose, and Lisa are working to figure out right now, but given the limited information we have, it might still be a while before they’re able to crack the spell. There's nothing like this in any written records that we can find.”
“I see,” Diluc says. He lifts his head, for a second, to look at her. “…so, why exactly does this concern me? You of all people should know…”
He lets the end of his sentence drop, because she does know. She’s likely the only one in Mondstadt aside from the two of them who’s aware of what happened.
“As I said,” she says softly, as if she’s trying to convince a particularly stubborn child to eat their vegetables, “it will take a while to get him back to normal. But until then, we thought it best for him to stay in a familiar environment. The shock of being in a new time is already damaging for a child at that age, so we thought that-”
“You want him to stay at the Winery,” he states, mild dread settling in his stomach.
Her nod makes him release a long, deep breath. Then another.
“How long,” he says more than asks.
“Only a day or two at most,” she says. There’s a pitying undertone to her voice. “I understand that you’re apprehensive about this, but it’s for Kaeya’s sake.”
“And why do you think that would make me agree?” He regrets the words as soon as they’re out, groaning as he presses his hand to his forehead. The only silver lining is that no one else was in the room to hear him, especially not the topic of their conversation. “…sorry, that was uncalled for. But is there really no other option aside from letting him stay here?”
Jean shakes her head. “This Kaeya doesn’t know much else aside from you, your father, and the Winery. When we found him, he was asking for you.”
Asking for him.
Diluc tries very hard to ignore the effect that has on his conscience, because he remembers being a kid and running every time his little brother called, staying with him when he was sick and bedridden, doing all he could to make him smile on dark days. But then they’d grown up, and his little brother stopped being so little and then stopped being his brother–
He shuts his eyes, sighing. “…fine.”
“Thank you,” Jean says. Relief colors her voice, and Diluc remembers how much of a terror he was as a child. Well, both of them were, but Kaeya significantly more so. “We’ll come back once we find a solution. Until then…?”
“He can stay here,” he confirms.
She nods in acknowledgement, then stands, brushing off her pants and going to open the door. When she does, a body comes tumbling in.
“I guess even now the doors are too thick to eavesdrop through, huh,” Kaeya says shamelessly from where he’s laid out on the carpet. “So, what were you guys talking about? I couldn't hear anything.”
“Adult business,” she tells him.
"Gross," he says. "I can't believe Diluc's doing adult business now."
He says it in the same way one would say 'joined a cult' or 'committed mass murder'. Diluc rolls his eyes lightly.
"I hope you didn't break anything while you were waiting," he says.
It's the first thing he's actually said to this Kaeya, a peace offering of sorts. This version of him hasn't done anything yet, but he can't help but wonder how much his own child self had missed in his naivete. Perhaps there had been hints all along of his brother's true nature, and he had just been blinded by childish affection.
He clears his mind of those thoughts before he can delve too deep into them.
"I broke tons of super expensive stuff," he chirps. "Adelaide gave me cookies, too. She hasn't gotten any better at baking, has she? They tasted like charred hilichurls!"
From the hallway, he can hear the excited chattering of the maids. They must be happy to have their other young master back, even in these circumstances.
Diluc wishes he could feel the same.
Once the servants are done with their fussing, he leads Kaeya to the room he used to occupy before it all.
Originally, he’d wanted to pass off the duty to Adelaide and get back to work, but at Elzer’s dark look, he’d quickly amended his statement. He’s beginning to regret it now, though. Even dealing with paperwork would be better than this.
“Is this my room?” Kaeya asks, squinting in confusion. “It looks so… old.”
Diluc nods, more than a little awkward. “Yes, that comes with age.”
Dealing with Kaeya is uncomfortable on its own, dealing with a child is uncharted territory, and dealing with both, at the same time and in the same body, is by far the worst experience he’s had, only second to his father’s murder. He doesn't know how to talk to his brother in general, but it's even worse like this.
“Where’s all my stuff?” He runs into the room, twisting his head to look around.
“You took it all when you left,” he responds, “so likely in a pile somewhere in your house.”
Elzer, who’s been following behind them, kicks him in the shin with a pointed cough. He realizes the implications of what he’s said a second too late, and by then it’s too late to take it back. As they’re in the middle of the hallway, there are also no nearby windows to jump out of, so he's forced to deal with the consequences of his words.
Mentally, he slots this into the first space of ‘horrible situations’ in his mind. He thinks that his father would understand.
Kaeya turns to him with wide blue eyes. “…I don’t live here anymore?”
“Yes,” Diluc says, then pauses. At his expectant gaze, he continues, stiltedly, “You… left.”
“I can see that.” He rolls his eyes. “Why did I leave? What kind of house would be better than a mansion?”
“You wanted to spread your wings,” Elzer interrupts, cutting off whatever Diluc’s about to say, not that he knows how to answer that. “Far away from the reach of your absolutely horrible–” here, he shoots Diluc a cold glare “–and overbearing family.”
That makes Kaeya laugh, though it’s a little forced. “Oh– that makes sense, I think. Diluc’s gotten way worse than I remember, so I get why I wanted to leave. But Father must have thrown a fit when I tried to move out, knowing him.”
There’s a pause before anyone responds. The one to do so is Elzer, of course, because Diluc doesn’t think he can contribute anything other than ‘I’m sure he would be rolling in his grave’.
“Well,” Elzer says, “you threw quite a fit in return, so there wasn’t much he could do.”
Surprisingly, he visibly brightens at the lie. “Yeah, that does sound like me! Thank Barbatos, at least something hasn’t changed.”
“A lot of things have changed,” Diluc says. There is more than a little bitterness in the words.
“You being the favorite hasn’t,” Kaeya jokes, grinning up at him. It’s been a long time since he’s seen that smile directed at him, and he almost lets his shock show on his face. He stops himself just before he does “Are you so much of a daddy’s boy that you still haven’t moved out after, what, thirty years? At least I live somewhere else now.”
A pause, where he tries to choose how to respond. Elzer glares at him from behind Kaeya, silently warning him to not mess this up, Master Diluc, or I swear-
“Wait,” he says, deciding to not acknowledge anything related to his father, “how old do you think I am? It hasn’t been thirty years.”
If his original assumption was correct, then this Kaeya is around twelve. Their age difference should be no greater than ten years. Does he really look that old?
“No way!” The boy looks up at him with a judgemental eye. Diluc shifts in place, somewhat indignant. “You look just like those old men at the parties Father drags us to, the ones who yell at us when we mess with their drinks. I bet you spend all your time doing work and boring stuff, too!”
“I am not that old or boring.”
“You were doing work when I first saw you!”
“I’m not going to argue about responsibilities with a literal child.”
“Cause you know you’re a loser who’s gonna lose an argument with a literal child?”
Elzer sighs, though it’s fond, cutting the both of them off before the situation can devolve further into chaos. “Both of you, please calm down before you end up damaging the property.”
“I didn’t start it,” Diluc huffs. He closes his eyes, mentally counting to twenty and back to calm himself.
“Elzer,” Kaeya says, voice fragile as he ignores him. “Do…”
He drifts off weakly, only continuing at Elzer’s encouraging nod.
“…do I end up being as lame as Diluc when I grow up?”
Diluc resists the urge to impale himself with the nearest sharp object, running a hand down his face as Kaeya loses any semblance of his previous composure and bursts into giggles. He doesn’t know what he expected.
“I think both your brother and I can both attest to the fact that you do not end up anything like him,” Elzer says placatingly. He looks at Diluc.
At that, he remembers several reports in Jean’s office about the various misdemeanors Kaeya had committed both on and off duty, including getting a tribe of hilichurls drunk on Death After Noon, causing widespread chaos in a group of Treasure Hoarders, and vandalizing an Abyss Order hideout with inappropriate symbols. All within a week.
“You do not,” he says flatly.
“Well, thank the Archons for that,” Kaeya cheers. "I guess someone has to be the fun one in the family."
Kaeya stays out of his way for the remainder of the day, claiming that he’s going to ‘explore’ Dawn Winery to see what’s changed. Absolutely nothing has changed as far as he can remember, but Diluc doesn’t tell him that.
The day passes quickly, and before he knows it, it’s dinner time. Elzer tells him in no uncertain terms that he expects him to show up, regardless of how much work he has to do.
The table before them is covered end-to-end with Kaeya’s childhood favorites, the product of a whole afternoon’s work from the chefs. Diluc’s relieved that they still remember how to cook most of the dishes, because it means that he’s going to spend more time eating than trying to talk.
That’s until he remembers how good Kaeya is at multitasking.
“So,” the boy says through a mouthful of food, “why weren’t you at the Knights of Favonius Headquarters a while ago? I spent a whole hour looking for you.”
“Swallow your food,” he says in place of answering.
Rolling his eyes, Kaeya obliges. “You’re so much more of a loser than I remember. Swallow your food,” he mocks in a high-pitched voice. Diluc’s eye twitches. “You sound just like Father.”
He wishes he could be where his father was, too. At least then he wouldn’t have to participate in this conversation.
“They told me I was the Cavalry Captain,” he continues, “wasn’t that supposed to be your job? You like horses much more than I do, you even named that turtle Father got you one time for Christmas– what was it you picked again, Horse?”
“It was a perfectly appropriate name choice for a child of that age,” he says defensively. Horse hadn’t lived long, anyways, thanks to someone accidentally throwing him out of the second-floor window and reminding him why animals were never safe in the Ragnvindr household.
“Right, whatever.” Kaeya lowers his fork, tilting his head. “But really, why do I have your job?”
He sighs. “Well– I just didn’t want it anymore.”
As vague as it is, it doesn’t seem to sit well with him. “What?” He straightens in his chair. “Really, Diluc? I don’t want your leftovers. It’s bad enough I have to get your hand-me-down sweaters during the winter, now I have to get your job too? Isn’t that like, nepotism or something–”
“I didn’t pass it off to you,” he says, though he’s unsure of what exactly happened. The two of them hadn’t exactly been on speaking terms during the time. Perhaps the title really had been passed onto him.
“Seriously?” Kaeya asks, nose scrunched up in disgust. “So adult me… wanted to work for the Knights of Favonius?”
“As far as I know.”
“Ah, guess even I can make bad decisions,” he says disappointedly. “But what about you?”
He raises an eyebrow. “What about me?”
“Come on, Diluc.” He goes back to eating, but there’s a hint of suspicion in his voice. “You’re the one who’s wanted to work there since forever. Every New Year you always pick ‘being in the Knights of Favonius’ instead of candy or cake or anything that makes sense. But Jean said–”
“She was lying,” Diluc interrupts. He can apologize to Jean later, he supposes, for lying himself, but he really wants to get off this line of conversation as quickly as possible.
There’s sweet, blessed silence for a while. He can see the cogs turning in Kaeya’s head, winding a stopwatch that counts down to his next sentence, so he enjoys it while he can.
The next second, Kaeya looks shellshocked.
"I think I understand," he says.
He relaxes his grip on his knife slightly. "Oh, well, that's good-"
“Correct me if I'm wrong, but id you,” he says, jaw slack, “buy the Knights of Favonius?”
As usual, Kaeya has found yet another way to surprise him.
Diluc presses the heel of his hand to his forehead. “Wha– no.”
“Is that why I work there? Am I your spy in the lower ranks to keep the masses in line? Because if I am and you being so boring is an act and you’re secretly the Grandmaster then I take back literally everything I said earlier. I knew you couldn't grow up to be anything like this!”
“Everything you just said is completely false,” he says, much to Kaeya’s exaggerated disappointment.
Then, because he can’t help himself, he mutters under his breath, with no short measure of bitterness, “Though I’m sure you’d be an experienced spy.”
Time seems to stop as Kaeya freezes in place, staring at him with wide, glassy eyes. He’d heard, then.
“You… know?” is all he can say.
Elzer shoos the rest of the servants out the door, then closes it behind him with a sharp glare. The click echoes throughout the air, the only thing to break the silence.
“…when did I tell you,” Kaeya says. His face is blank in a devastatingly familiar way.
“I,” Diluc starts, then stops, the words muddled on his tongue. He sighs. “Well, you know how I told you Father was on a trip?”
A nod.
“I was… lying. He’s dead. You told me then. At his funeral.”
Kaeya blinks once, then twice, eyes glassy. He doesn’t say anything for a long moment, then bursts out all at once.
“You– he’s what!? And you couldn’t even tell me that our father was dead?”
“You wouldn’t have taken it well,” he says. He tries to keep calm, but his brother has always been able to rile him up, and it’s been years already but the rage, anger, betrayal still sits in his blood, a slow-acting poison in his veins that he’s never been able to shake. This only serves to dredge up long-forgotten hurt up to the surface, where he's forced to stop ignoring it.
“So you lied, that’s it?” The words hit like daggers straight to his chest, not that he isn’t well used to those from Kaeya by now. “That’s– that’s why I left, isn’t it?”
He nods stiffly, not trusting his words. Yelling won’t do anything for this situation, and the accusations he wants to spit out will do even less.
“That’s great, then, that’s amazing.” His voice trembles but his tone is sharp. “What else aren’t you telling me about this– the messed up, horrible future that this is–”
“Nothing, because you don’t need to know,” he says. It’s a struggle for him to keep under control now, when he has so much to say. His eyes are clenched shut as he takes long, deep breaths.
“Like hell, I don’t need to know,” Kaeya spits out, “the only thing I don’t need to know is your– all your lies!”
Diluc clenches his jaw. “And so what if I lied? You’ve lied to me our entire childhood, you don’t get to play the victim now, not when you never–”
“When was I supposed to tell you!” Kaeya screams as he slams his hands against the table, looking and sounding more like the child he is. Tears threaten to spill from the corners of his eyes. “What was I supposed to tell you? I didn’t want– I was happy being here and being with Father and you, I was happy being your brother, what more do you want from me!?”
“The truth,” he hisses. Something stings in his eyes as well. He steadfastly ignores it.
“Now you have it!” Kaeya presses his hands against his face, in anger or grief, he doesn’t know. “And see– I was right all along, I knew Father’d hate me if he knew, I knew you‘d hate me and–”
His own sobs cut himself off, his entire body shaking.
“And you do hate me.”
He bolts out of the room before Diluc has a chance to respond, not that he thinks he’s able to move, legs not the only thing numb. There’s something ironic about this that he might find funny if he weren’t a part of it.
That night several years ago he’d lost both a father and a brother, but he’d never thought he’d have to lose his brother again.