Work Text:
The crowd of Angel's Share started to lessen as each customer exited through its doors as soon as they were done with their drinks. Though it was barely the end of noon, there were scarcely any people in the tavern besides Master Diluc and a few employees. A rare scene for the establishment indeed. There were three, maybe four, people scattered by the tables on the first floor with their voices hushed now that the rest of the tavern's noises died down.
Diluc stood behind the counter, putting away the wine glasses and the beer mugs, arranging the bottles of alcohol and wiping the shelves to keep himself busy. He found himself quite appreciative of the background noises that surrounded him. They were enough volume to get cleanup work done, not too loud but not too quiet either.
This was one of the days when he went down to the city and tended the tavern himself and rarely did he ever get days where it wasn’t hectic every hour.
After a few minutes, the last remaining customers too began to make their way out of Angel’s Share, waving thanks to Diluc as they left.
Diluc gathered the glassware from the tables that were occupied and washed them. When he finished, he tucked a chunk of his hair behind his ears, adjusted his gloves and reached below the counter at the lower cupboards to put the glasses away.
While he was occupied kneeling down, Diluc heard the tavern’s front door open from across him. The chimes and the creaking of wood signaled a customer’s entrance.
A familiar face walked slowly towards the counter. It was Kaeya, quietly taking his usual seat on one of the stools, peering as Diluc carefully closed the cupboards before he stood up to greet him. The usual smug smirk on his face was absent and for a moment Diluc considered that his brother likely had an important message to deliver.
Kaeya did try not to appear so serious. A tight grin appeared on his face and he waved at Diluc but Diluc was observant enough to see that his brother's eye looked less sharp than usual... Kaeya was never the one to let his guard down at all times.
"You were here just this morning," Diluc pointed out, grabbing a wine glass from a shelf as he did so. “Nothing to do at work today?”
"Not so much," Kaeya combed his hair up from his face and it fell back in place, obscuring his eye. Diluc would have noticed the sweat glistening on his forehead if his hair hadn't fallen back down. "Give me one of the usual."
No work and yet the Cavalry Captain was dressed in his full uniform. However, he wasn’t equipped with a sword, a detail that Diluc missed at first. The latter shrugged off his curiosity and went on to make the drink ordered.
Despite his questions and Kaeya being painfully vague at the moment, Diluc knew how stressful being a captain could get, so he gave his brother the benefit of the doubt. After all, happenings around Mondstadt hadn't been peaceful as of late, perhaps Kaeya wasn’t having the best day and a cold glass to drink would aid his troubles. Whatever they were...
"Just in time," Diluc gathered the ingredients needed and glanced at Kaeya from behind his shoulder. "It'll be out of season soon."
"One Death After Noon, please," said Kaeya monotonously, almost impatient. “Ice cold.” His voice was muffled with his head buried in his arms.
The exhaustion in his voice couldn't be heard from Diluc’s position.
“Alright, alright. Here’s your Death After Noon, ice cold.”
Diluc glanced at Kaeya again quickly before looking back at the drink he was mixing. He sliced a piece of fresh fruit and garnished it on the glass rim. He turned around to see his brother still resting his head on the table, evidently fatigued.
His shoulders rose and fell subtly with each silent, ragged breath, so quiet that Diluc thought he fell asleep.
"Here's your order," He tapped his brother on the shoulder to which Kaeya responded with a grunt before looking up at him with a worn-out look on his face.
Diluc simply gave him a smile. Remembering that it was a gesture they used to do when they were younger whenever either of them were feeling down. A hand on the shoulder and a smile, this time holding out a glass of his brother’s favourite drink.
"Thank you,"
"Bad day?" asked Diluc. "I can make more if you like."
The blue-haired young man gently took the glass and stared at it before giving Diluc a smirk with his eyebrows raised.
“Fine. It’s on me, but only for today,” Diluc shook his head and chuckled, “Kaeya, you drink too much.”
“Get something to drink too,” Kaeya spoke.
“But I’m… in the middle of working?” Diluc replied and Kaeya looked around the room, shrugging in response, another tight lipped smile formed on his lips. Diluc slumped his shoulders with a hand reaching for his forehead. Nobody else was in the tavern anymore besides the two of them.
Hesitantly at first, Diluc grabbed himself a bottle of grape juice.
“You and your stupid passion for grape juice,” Kaeya teased.
“Not very different from you and Death After Noon,” he replied.
Diluc let out a light chuckle as he turned around and poured the drink in his cup. Kaeya laughed along with him though it was interrupted by a sudden cough.
The sound of two glasses against each other chimed through the vacant tavern, The young men sipped on their drinks and were silent for a while, breathing in the atmosphere. Kaeya drank and tilted his head upwards, watching the lights in the room with a contented smile on his face and the taste of Death After Noon setting in his mouth. The flavour was delightful.
“I have a lot of things I want to tell you, Diluc,” he said.
Diluc replied, raising an eyebrow, “Hm? Go right ahead.”
“I’m afraid I simply don’t have enough time to,” said Kaeya. “Maybe next time.”
Once more, the tavern fell silent with Kaeya’s response leaving Diluc without a reply. Diluc drank his grape juice again before speaking.
“How are you really doing, Kaeya?” He repeated his question from earlier, more direct this time.
Before saying anything, Kaeya shuddered and reached one hand to his stomach, “Oh, I… Just a little tired. Today was... a lot.”
“Are you alright...?” Diluc leaned over the counter and tried to reach out to his brother, a gesture that the latter dismissed while shaking his head and turning away. Perhaps Kaeya was feeling unwell, Diluc thought as an attempt to explain Kaeya’s behaviours to himself.
Kaeya took a long sip from his drink, looking down to avoid the crimson red eyes awaiting his reply. Diluc knew that his brother preferred to bottle his emotions instead of talking them out and it takes time and effort before one could get Kaeya to speak about himself but Diluc also knew that he could use someone to talk to so he continued with his questions.
At least he tried.
"Would it help if you talked about it?" Diluc asked.
Without a word, Kaeya stared at his drink and said nothing but a groan. He watched as the reflection of his tired face sat on the surface of the drink. Death After Noon… how he wished he could savour it better without the taste of blood in his mouth.
"Diluc, I just..." He gulped, his vision was starting to fade. "...need to get some rest."
"Well," Diluc said matter-of-factly but still with good intention. "You should have headed home instead of-"
Kaeya set his drink down, there was a soft thud from the glass hitting the hard wood countertop. Eyes closed and taking a deep breath, he rested his head on his forearm. A bead of sweat formed and dripped down the side of his face. Then, he exhaled.
"-...Going here in Angel's Share… Kaeya?"
The frail rising and falling of Kaeya's shoulders as he took in a breath slowed down into nothingness, his arm falling to his side weakly. His wearied face grew a calmer and rested expression.
The half empty glass of Death After Noon sat on the table beside him. The alcohol reflected the colours of dark blue from his hair mixed with the warm colours of the tavern giving it a sort of glimmer. Diluc sighed in silence thinking that his brother had fallen asleep.
Placing down the glass of grape juice, he made his way from behind the counter to where Kaeya sat. He smiled to himself and exhaled lightly at the sight of Kaeya at rest.
All was well and the cozy air in the tavern lingered around until Diluc finally noticed the dark splotches all over the ground where Kaeya sat. His eyes trailed them and found smaller droplets coming from the entrance all the way to the front of the wooden stools. Now fully alert, Diluc’s first move was to check on his brother.
He grabbed Kaeya’s forearm in a failed attempt to wake him and soon enough both of his gloved hands gripped Kaeya by the shoulders, shaking him intensely. And still, Kaeya did not move. Diluc finally stopped to examine Kaeya who, at that point, still had his head leaned on the countertop which obscured his torso from view.
Quite frankly, Diluc did not want to further examine him but he had no choice. With one hand, he held Kaeya’s shoulder and with the other, he grabbed his forearm to move him back away from the table. Diluc shook his head as his eyes met the harrowing sight.
At the left side of Kaeya’s torso was a gash, as deep as it was huge. The blood that came flowing out of it stained his clothing. A portion of the hair hanging down on his left side was freshly drenched by it as it flowed down to his belt, his left leg and onto the wooden floorboards.
The image of his brother’s lifeless arm hanging by his side and his head resting on the table engraved itself painfully inside Diluc’s head and for a short few moments that felt like eternity, he was petrified. He was once faced with a familiar situation before but the familiarity of the event brought him no comfort at all.
Hurriedly he tried to cover up the open wound. Unable to support the body of his brother properly, Diluc laid him onto the wooden floor carefully. Diluc’s gloves were drenched with the warm red liquid while he tried all he could to stop the bleeding. In a haze of denial and shock, he continued trying to wake Kaeya to no avail.
“No, no, Kaeya…” At a certain point, Diluc’s panic subsided and was replaced by a great feeling of dread that washed over him. He held his brother closely and he remembered what it was like when he lost his father.
That helpless feeling overflowed from his mind, flooding his chest as his heartbeat increased while his hands trembled. His wide open eyes were fixed on Kaeya who was in his arms, lifeless and unmoving.
“Why couldn’t you tell me?” whispered Diluc, though no one was there to hear. “What...what happened? I could have helped you… I could have… Oh, Kaeya.”
He held Kaeya’s head to his chest and hugged him tightly, as if he wasn’t planning on letting go. The exact same… It was the exact same as when he had to watch his father die before his very eyes and he couldn’t do a single thing.
It all happened within less than thirty minutes but Diluc wasn’t paying attention to the time. For all he knew, he could have spent hours inside the empty tavern cradling Kaeya’s lifeless body. Soon enough, there were rushing footsteps that approached the closed doors. With haste, people busted through the doors - knights who were under Kaeya’s command.
As quickly as they entered, the knights knew the exact situation that greeted them. They stood there in silence, staring at the two who were on the ground, not knowing how to properly react. After their long pursuit, they finally found their captain but it was already too late.
“Master Diluc-...!” One of them spoke upon entering.
Diluc sat there with Kaeya, confusion slowly creeped up on his distressed face as his eyebrows furrowed with anger and frustration. How come they were so late? Why did these men, Kaeya’s subordinates, arrive only then? He was about to explode at them. With so many emotions brewing up inside him at once, Diluc simply stared back at the knights who towered over him and the body of his brother.
“You…” He tried to speak, to question them. “Why…!?” But he didn’t know what question to ask first.
With evidence of discomfort in his voice, one of the subordinates finally spoke.
Earlier that day, a five-man team led by Kaeya himself set out for an investigation north-east of the city. There were a handful of reports of suspicious events occurring around the area and the small team went on a mission only to confirm the case before taking any action, however, upon their arrival they were met with neither a trace nor any other evidence of enemies. Finally, after securing the area, Kaeya ordered the men to head back and nothing was amiss until they were nearing the northern city gate.
A miscalculation on the Cavalry Captain’s part or perhaps a mere coincidence fueled by misfortune, the group was ambushed by members of the Fatui. Under the heat of the sudden attack, half of the members of the knights were injured - one of them being Captain Kaeya himself.
Two of the knights were badly wounded by the time they had almost finished fending off the Fatui. Kaeya told them to get to the city and get medical attention since they could no longer fight. According to the knight relaying the details, Kaeya fought the last of the Fatui as he ordered them to go.
Putting complete trust on their captain, the men left, expecting him to emerge victorious against the enemies.
But the morning passed and Kaeya hadn’t returned to the headquarters, and soon the noontime had passed too. Kaeya’s subordinates were starting to worry and so the other two notified a handful of other knights and went out to look for the Cavalry Captain.
They were running out of ideas as to where Kaeya could have been within the city, unable to locate where he was until they reached Angel’s Share. Truly, it was the last place Kaeya should have been with a wound like he had, yet he went to the tavern and spent his final moments there.
Though unexplained, leaving Diluc and the rest to wonder why he did what he did, only Kaeya knew that the gash on his torso was too deep and from his position by the northern gate he wouldn’t reach the headquarters in time for help. So he made a decision between falling unconscious and dying alone on the street or somewhere closed, somewhere familiar to him. He chose the latter.
As he walked through the gates of the city, concealing his wound from those he passed by, his eyes made their way to the sign that said ‘Angel’s Share”.
Diluc isn’t going to like this one.
He attempted to make himself laugh as he made his ascent onto the stone staircase leading up to the tavern. Every step was excruciating along with each breath. He could have fallen at any given moment but he persevered until the moment he reached the doors of Diluc’s tavern.
He made his way inside, seeing that the place was miraculously empty except for someone busy, crouched down behind the counter. He met eyes with his brother before making his usual order for the last time.
“You were here just this morning. Nothing to do at work today?”
He could barely pay attention to what Diluc was asking. Through a clouded mind, Kaeya had almost forgotten about the previous events of that day. Upon his arrival, he realized that he didn’t know how to tell his brother properly about what took place just a few minutes ago.
The last thing Kaeya wanted was to see Diluc, or anyone at that, distressed upon the revelation that he was nearing death so decided not to say a thing, wishing to enjoy his last moments with a familiar face and the taste of his favourite drink.
Death After Noon.