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The moon is high in the sky by the time Diluc makes it back to the winery grounds.
He’s had a long night of babysitting the drunks at the tavern yet again, but the revelry means that Mondstadt is peaceful, so he doesn’t mind. Not really.
He’s walking through the grapevines to the entrance of the manor when he sees it:
Kaeya is there, darting and weaving this way and that, snatching into the air as he chases after crystalflies.
Again?, comes his first thought. I heard that he did this last night, but...
A second thought surfaces. Kaeya was at the tavern when I left tonight. How did he get here faster than I did?
Dismissing each thought in turn, he sighs and approaches the other man.
“‘Luuuuuc~” Kaeya waves with childish enthusiasm as Diluc comes into view, “I missed you~”
Ah. He is drunk out of his mind after all, Diluc decides.
He shuts his eyes tight and pinches the bridge of his nose. Really, he’s only slightly irritated.
“Kaeya, what are you doing here?” Diluc asks, trying to follow along as Kaeya prances around, flitting from crystalfly to crystalfly. He looks almost like a dancer with how oddly graceful his movements are, despite his obvious inebriation.
Diluc really should have cut him off earlier tonight.
“What do you think I'm doing? I’m catching crystalflies, they’re pretty~ Do you want to join me, ‘Luc?”
“I’ll pass, thank you. It’s late, why don’t you go home?”
“But I want to be heeere, with you, ‘Luc,” Kaeya sing-songs.
Diluc knows that Kaeya can be a little silly when he’s too drunk, but this is extreme, even for him. And yet, he can never deny Kaeya anything.
He lets out another drawn-out sigh and relents. “If you want to be here so badly, take a guest room for the night. I’ll have one of the maids bring you a sobering agent.”
“Really? Did you hear that, guys?” Kaeya exclaims to his crystal cores. “We can stay!”
Rolling his eyes at the sheer absurdity that is a completely intoxicated Kaeya, Diluc motions toward the manor. “Come on, then.”
Practically skipping through the rows of grapevines, Kaeya catches up with Diluc and links their arms together. “‘Luuuc, will you take care of me? Like old times?”
A blush immediately creeps up Diluc’s face at the implication.
It’s fine, he thinks to himself. Kaeya is not in his right mind. He’s recalling how I would dote on him when we were children, or—
“Diluuuuuc~” Kaeya drawls. He nuzzles his cheek into Diluc’s arm far too affectionately for comfort.
The way Kaeya clings to him makes him melt, and he can’t help but reminisce about the past: how, as kids, they would share a blanket at night and snuggle close as they read their favorite books; how, as teens, they would muffle the sounds of their budding intimacy late into the night so no one would hear—
No, Diluc thinks, stopping himself before his memories gain any traction. I have to distance myself from this.
He opens the door to the manor and leads Kaeya inside.
Adelinde is still there, ever the diligent housemaid. Normally Diluc might playfully chide her for overworking herself, but tonight, he’s grateful for her presence.
He’s going to need all the help he can get.
“Master Diluc. Master Kaeya!” Adelinde positively beams when she sees the two walk in together. It’s been a long time since they’ve been seen like this— since Kaeya had lived at the manor, or even visited at all.
“Don’t read into it. He’s drunk,” Diluc informs her wearily. “Terribly so, I’m afraid. Of all the things he could be doing, I found him trying to catch crystalflies outside the manor. Do we have any sobering agents?”
Adelinde stifles an amused giggle as she turns toward the cabinet where the tasting wines are kept. Opening it, she looks inside to consider the contents, then shakes her head after a moment. “I'm afraid the last of it was used during a business tasting this afternoon. It will be replaced in the morning.”
Diluc groans. “All right. Babysitting it is, then.”
-x-
“He left his Vision? Really?” Kaeya says in surprise. Diluc had already left the tavern for the evening, leaving Charles to finish closing up.
“It's maybe the second time it’s ever happened,” Charles muses as he wipes down the bar counter. “He said something about it being too hot tonight. He had already set his jacket aside, so the Vision was the next to go. I’m not sure why he didn’t just put the thing in his jacket pocket, though.”
Kaeya chuckles. “Hardworking one minute, absentminded the next. Sounds like Diluc.” Holding out his hand as he stands to leave, he offers, “Let me take it to him. Another night stroll would do me some good.”
“Oh? I have no doubt he’d come by tomorrow once he notices it missing, but sure. I trust you with it,” Charles says with a nod as he relinquishes the glowing orb.
Kaeya affixes the pyro Vision to his belt next to his cryo one and watches as they pulse gently in unison. We used to beat as one like that, he reflects momentarily. A soft sigh escapes his lips.
He shrugs as his reverie fades. “I looked after it for three years. What's another hour?”
After saying their goodnights, he’s out the door and on the road to the winery once again.
-x-
The stroll is rather uneventful. Kaeya enjoys the peace and quiet of the night—the gentle breeze, the rustling of small animals, the flapping of wings as birds of the night take flight.
When he follows the path up to the manor’s precipice, he notices something unusual: a wide fissure cuts through the ground in the exact spot where he recalls a mist flower blooming. The fissure seeps with an icy smog that glows an eerie red.
That’s not good.
He summons his sword and looks around. He’s seen that red on Dragonspine, and Albedo has clued him in about its origins. He supposes its proximity to the winery would justify the runoff of corruption—
Kaeya freezes suddenly as a thought overtakes him.
What if something happened to Diluc while he’s without his Vision?
Don’t panic, he tells himself. Diluc can handle himself in any situation. Check the manor first.
He walks briskly up to the manor and knocks on the door. THUD, THUD, THUD. He repeats several times, hoping that someone will answer.
It takes a minute, but the door opens to reveal Adelinde, whose eyes widen when she sees Kaeya standing before her.
“Master Kaeya? I don’t understand—”
“Adelinde. Is Diluc here? Is he safe?” Kaeya asks, trying to mask the panic in his voice.
“He is, but...” Adelinde tightens her gaze and looks Kaeya up and down as if sizing someone up for the first time. She gestures with a sideways tilt of her head, indicating that he should take a look for himself. “We may have a problem.”
Kaeya walks in at the unspoken invitation, and the first thing he sees is—
Himself. Sitting in Diluc’s lap.
What the hell?, he thinks. He can’t help but clench his fists as he feels his heart break into a million tiny pieces at the sight.
He knows what’s going on. He knows about mimicry, and he knows that he should approach this rationally.
Kaeya’s not jealous. He’s not. He knows he hasn’t had the right to be so familiar with Diluc in a long time.
The him that isn’t him playfully nuzzles Diluc’s cheek and plants little kisses on his jaw. Diluc isn’t reciprocating, but he’s allowing it to happen. His eyes are closed and his head is bowed; one arm is wrapped tightly around the waist of this false version of Kaeya, as if Diluc is protecting him.
All Kaeya can think about is that it should be him there in Diluc’s arms.
If only.
“Master Diluc. If you wanted me that badly, all you had to do was ask.” He steps toward them coolly, arms folded as he tries to keep his composure.
Diluc raises his head and squints as he registers Kaeya’s voice.
Huh, Kaeya observes. Was he... asleep?
“Kaeya? How did you—”
Diluc cuts himself off and turns to Kaeya’s likeness; his expression contorts into one of confusion, then apprehension. The other only cocks his head and glares briefly at the real Kaeya, smiling coyly at him before returning his attention to Diluc and murmuring something inaudible into his ear. “Diluc,” he coos as he tries to nestle into sturdy arms.
Diluc pushes away the false Kaeya with haste and stands, his eyes flashing with anger.
“Explain,” he growls.
“With pleasure. I can't say I expected this, Master Diluc, but you appear to have met a doppelgänger. He’s almost as cute as me, but he’s missing something.” He points to his own eyes to indicate his diamond-shaped pupils.
Diluc glares at the near-mirror image and frowns as he registers the decidedly rounded pupils. “You're right. I— I didn't notice.”
Having been called out, the double frowns and begins to step cautiously away.
“‘Luc,” he still whines boldly, despite his backpedaling. “He doesn’t love you like I do.”
Kaeya grimaces at the accusation. He tries to speak, but before he can formulate a sentence, Diluc says, “You’re not Kaeya. You don’t get to decide how he feels.”
The zeal in Diluc's tone makes Kaeya's heart flutter in his chest.
The other Kaeya huffs angrily and sidesteps the pair in a bid to reach the door. They match his movements, and as Diluc steps in line next to Kaeya, Kaeya unlatches the pyro Vision at his side and thrusts it into Diluc’s hand. “You might need this.”
“Is that why you came?” Diluc asks as he fastens the Vision at the hip.
“Not really the time, sunshine,” Kaeya says, subconsciously falling into his old nickname for Diluc.
Neither one has time to question it, as in the next moment, the doppelgänger has his hand on the latch and is out the door.
“Let's go!” Diluc says, darting outside.
Kaeya keeps pace effortlessly. “I know where it came from. Follow me.”
-x-
When they get to the open fissure, they’re met with the likeness of Kaeya, who glows a sinister-looking red before them.
“What the—” Diluc starts.
“I'll explain later,” Kaeya says. “If I'm not mistaken, it uses cryo. You know the drill.”
Diluc nods and summons his claymore, setting it aflame. The not-Kaeya raises its arms as it conjures scores of glittering ice shards on all sides.
No, Diluc realizes.
They’re crystalflies.
He thinks about how melancholic Kaeya’s gaze had looked in the tavern this evening. He remembers hearing about how Kaeya had spent the previous nightfall not at the tavern but among the grapevines, catching crystalflies.
Just as they had often done as children. When Kaeya was home.
His instinct to return home led him here, Diluc thinks. I should have been with him.
And now, this specter had somehow imprinted onto its being Kaeya’s youthful spirit the very things that Diluc should have taken responsibility for long ago:
Kaeya’s loneliness.
His longing for acceptance—for a home.
For love.
I should be with him now.
They could never return to the past; but, perhaps, they could build a future.
“I don't know what you are, but I know what you represent,” Diluc says. “I won’t let the same mistake happen again.”
The duplicate lets loose a guttural roar. It swings an arm, and the crystalfly shards come hurtling down violently.
Kaeya hurriedly invokes a cryo barrier to deflect the bombardment. Ice strikes ice, and the shards shatter to the ground in a million glittering pieces. Diluc rushes forward in response and, with a sweeping slice of his weapon, he releases a brilliant bird of flame.
The firebird swoops in and envelops the creature as it takes the full force of the burst, and it wails. They watch completely transfixed as it recoils and begins to shrink.
Its form reverts to a whopperflower, then further and further still until a mist flower lays charred and wilted on the ground.
“Huh.” Diluc lets out a short huff as he dismisses his claymore. “Interesting.”
Kaeya reaches down and picks up the mist flower. Holding it out to Diluc, he says simply, “Burn it. Please?”
Wordlessly, Diluc takes the flower. He focuses on it, allowing it to candle in his palm until a final flare-up reduces it to nothing.
Kaeya sighs again in relief, and for a moment, the two remain silent.
Suddenly, Diluc’s palm begins to glow again. One by one, tiny bursts of flame resembling crystalflies take shape. Tens appear, then hundreds, all flitting around them as they light up the darkness.
“Since when are you one for theatrics?” Kaeya teases.
Diluc only smiles and closes his eyes, tilting his head up to the sky. “I thought it deserved a proper send-off.”
“Huh. Liked him that much, did you?”
“Jealous?” Diluc raises an eyebrow, smug.
“No,” Kaeya lies. “Maybe a little. Diluc, I—”
“Shhh.”
For the second time that night, Kaeya doesn’t have a chance to speak, because Diluc brings him in close and kisses him.
It’s gentle.
Kaeya melts into it easily. He wraps his arms around Diluc as the other runs fingers through midnight hair, cradling his head tenderly as he deepens their kiss.
They stay like that for what feels like an eternity, years of longing released under the flickering firelight in a passionate reunion both fierce and tender.
When they finally part for breath, Diluc smiles and caresses Kaeya’s cheek with his thumb. When he notices a stray tear fall down Kaeya’s face, he kisses it gently away.
“You’re crying,” he says.
Kaeya rests his forehead on Diluc’s chest. “I'm just— I feel like I'm home.”
Diluc hums contentedly as he kisses the top of Kaeya’s head.
“You are. Welcome home, Kae.”