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“Ah! It’s the weird grown-up!”
Klee points at him accusingly with one hand, the other on her hip. She draws herself up to her full height… which is barely up to Diluc’s waist. His neck hurts looking down at her.
“Hello, Klee,” he says stiffly, slowly closing the door behind him.
He shrugs his wet coat and shoes off as quickly as possible while Klee continues to stare him down.
“How’d you get in here? Klee didn’t know you were coming!”
Her face is scrunched up in a frown. He shouldn’t laugh, but the expression looks so out of place on her.
“Kaeya gave me a key,” he says. “What are you doing here?”
The tiny knight had been eyeing him suspiciously until now, but the mention of Kaeya seems to alleviate all her concerns. “Me and Kaeya were going to have a picnic, but then it started raining, so now we’re having a picnic at home, but then he had to go get food so now I’m waiting for him.”
A picnic, huh? Diluc wasn’t aware that Kaeya did that sort of thing with Klee. Or with anyone.
There’s still a lot he has to learn about his brother.
“What about you? Why did you come here? Did Kaeya invite you on a picnic too?”
“No, not really…” he trails off. He didn’t have a real reason to stop by, now that he thinks about it. Today had been more taxing than usual, and his feet had led him here as if it were only natural. “I simply happened to be in the area.”
He pats her on the head awkwardly as he moves past her into the living room. Before he has a chance to look around, a small ball of fur hurtles towards him with frightening speed – he barely manages to stretch his arms out to catch August before she collides with his chest.
“I missed you too,” he says as he cradles her.
He scratches under her chin, causing her to purr louder and nuzzle against his hand enthusiastically. His heart melts all over again. It hasn’t been that long since he last saw her but she seems to get cuter and more affectionate every time.
Klee is staring at him with her mouth hanging open. “I didn’t know Kaeya had a cat,” she says in a loud whisper.
She climbs onto the sofa – careful to remove her shoes first – so that she can be at eye level with them, though she still wobbles on the tips of her toes.
“Can I hold it too? Pretty please?”
Diluc hesitates, pulling August closer for a moment. He doesn’t really know much about Klee other than her somewhat destructive tendencies. And if even August, the most outgoing cat he’s ever met, had decided to stay hidden, he should probably trust her instincts.
He looks at Klee. Her eyes are wide and practically sparkling with curiosity, a gleeful smile on her face, her small hands already reaching out to touch August.
If Klee doesn’t get her way, she might just start crying, and Diluc has no idea what to do with crying children. He certainly doesn’t know how he’d explain it to Kaeya, who would probably berate him for letting Klee cry over a cat.
…Surely she can’t be that bad, right? August will be fine. Probably.
“You have to be gentle with her,” he says. “She’s not a toy.”
“Don’t worry! Klee will be very careful, promise!”
“Alright, alright, sit down first.”
Klee obeys with an eager nod. She’s so small that her feet don’t even touch the ground when she sits on the sofa. With a deep exhale, Diluc slowly lowers August into her arms, and Klee is quick to latch onto her, tucking her tightly against her chest.
The girl looks down at the cat with awe, a bright smile blooming on her face. In her tiny arms, even August looks big. Satisfied that neither of them are going to panic, Diluc sits down on the sofa next to Klee, watching as she pets August with unprecedented care.
“She’s so soft and fluffy, just like Dodoco,” she says in a hushed voice.
She presses her face into August’s fur, and the cat responds with a quiet purr. Diluc chuckles softly at the sight.
Her head snaps up to look back at him. “You laughed! I’ve never ever seen you laugh. You’re so grumpy all the time.”
He coughs and looks away. “That’s not– I’m not always grumpy.”
“You’re just in denial.”
He snorts. “Do you even know what that means?”
“Yup! Kaeya told me it’s when someone tells you the truth but you don’t believe it. He said Master Jean is in denial about working too much, and that’s why Klee has to be good and not cause more trouble for her.”
…He’s not sure Kaeya should be saying such things about Jean around the impressionable young knight, but at least she seems to have taken his words to heart.
“You and Kaeya are pretty close, aren’t you?”
She grins at him, a proud sparkle in her eyes. “Kaeya’s the best! He always looks after me when Albedo and Master Jean are busy and helps me get out of trouble too.”
Of course he enables her. Kaeya wouldn’t be Kaeya if he didn’t cause a little chaos.
He ruffles Klee’s hair instinctively. “You don’t get lonely without your parents around?”
“It’s okay, I have lots of friends! All the Knights are very nice to Klee, and there’s also Bennett, and Razor, and Mona, and… and lots of other people that Klee can’t remember right now… and Dodoco!” She nudges Diluc with her elbow to draw his attention towards the little toy hanging from her backpack. “Dodoco’s always with me no matter what.”
He reaches out to hold the toy when Klee continues to watch him expectantly. It looks a bit worn, and as he runs his fingers over the soft fur, traces of soot and ash coat his gloves.
“Hello… Dodoco?” What a bizarre name.
“Does Diluc like Dodoco? Dodoco is all fluffy and cute just like a cat and she has a tail too, so if you like cats you have to like Dodoco!”
“Um, yes… Dodoco… is great.” Heat rises to his cheeks. If Kaeya were to see him right now he wouldn’t shut up about it for a month; he’d probably use it as blackmail.
“Yay! Dodoco is my bestest friend, so you have to be nice to her, okay?”
“Of course…”
Klee giggles, and he can’t help but crack a smile at that pure, innocent sound. August seems to be smiling too, purring contentedly away in Klee’s careful embrace. She’s surprisingly gentle with the cat. Perhaps he should’ve given her more credit.
“Well, this is a pleasant surprise.”
Diluc almost jumps at the sound of Kaeya’s voice. He looks up to find his brother standing in the doorway, bags of food in his arms and a smirk on his face.
“Kaeya, you’re back!”
“Hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long, Spark Knight,” Kaeya chuckles. “I see you found the cat.”
“You never told me you had a cat,” Klee says, pouting.
“I haven’t had her for too long.” Kaeya places the food on the low table in front of them, before sitting on the floor beside it and stretching out his legs, not entirely unlike a cat. “Besides, it was all Diluc’s idea in the first place.”
“Wow, Master Diluc really likes cats, huh?”
“I like them a normal amount.” His face feels very, very warm all of a sudden. He coughs into his hand and stands up abruptly. “Well, I should probably get going– you two enjoy your lunch, or picnic, or whatever–”
“What’s the hurry?” The smirk fades into a more genuine smile. “There’s enough for you too, if you want to join us. Klee doesn’t mind – right, Klee?”
She turns to him with a bright smile. “Diluc’s going to join us for a picnic?”
He glances at Kaeya out of the corner of his eye. His brother looks incredibly smug – had he planned this somehow?
“This is all just a happy coincidence, I swear.”
Damn Kaeya and his mind-reading abilities.
He sighs. “If it’s no trouble… I guess I can join you.”
“Excellent!”
With that, Kaeya sends Klee away to wash her hands, and August uses her newfound freedom to jump at the table and start investigating the food, sticking her head in the bags curiously.
“I hope Klee wasn’t too much trouble. If I’d known you were coming, I would’ve warned you.”
Diluc scoffs. “Don’t be dramatic. A little girl is hardly something to be warned about.”
“She isn’t just any little girl, though. You know what she’s like.”
“…You’re not wrong.”
“I’m never wrong. Now help me with this.” Kaeya shoves a soft red-and-white blanket in his direction.
Diluc stares at it blankly. “What do we need a picnic blanket for if we’re eating indoors?”
“Because,” Kaeya says slowly as if he’s talking to a child, “it’s not a picnic without a picnic blanket. And I promised Klee a picnic so that’s what she’ll get.”
Diluc can’t argue with such infallible logic. He spreads the blanket out on the floor, doing nothing to stop August from crawling underneath it and making herself comfortable in one of the corners. Kaeya rolls his eye at them.
“Klee has you wrapped around her little finger,” Diluc says.
“As if you’re one to talk. Look at you and August. I can only imagine how bad you’d be with a child of your own.”
…Him, a father? That could only end in disaster. He isn’t anything like their father, in fact–
“Hey, snap out of it.” A warm hand on his shoulder halts that train of thought. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I– I know,” Diluc stutters.
“Did something happen? You seem off today.”
Diluc opens his mouth to reassure him that he’s perfectly fine, but Klee chooses that moment to come running into the room, nearly toppling over in her excitement. His brother forces a smile, and she giggles as she makes herself comfortable next to Kaeya.
“I brought your favourite, Fisherman’s Toast,” he says, handing a box to Klee. She takes it with eager hands and digs in immediately, mumbling thanks with her mouth full. “I hope you’re alright with chicken skewers, Diluc.”
“Thanks,” Diluc says quietly.
He chews on his food in silence, tossing chunks of chicken towards August, as Klee starts talking Kaeya’s ear off about all sorts of things – most of them involving explosives. He raises his eyebrows at Kaeya, only to see that his brother is completely unfazed by it, simply encouraging her to keep talking with a cheerful smile. Diluc should probably be the voice of reason here, but just a few minutes in her company have left him exhausted.
“Klee always thought Kaeya didn’t like Diluc. Are you guys friends now?”
That startles him back to attention. His gaze darts towards Kaeya who almost chokes on his food. There’s a flash of concern in his eye before the smile slides back in place and he ruffles Klee’s hair with a laugh.
“Diluc’s my brother. Of course we’re friends.”
The beginnings of a smile tug at his lips. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get tired of hearing their brotherhood acknowledged out loud.
“Klee didn’t know Kaeya had a brother!” she says, almost dropping her food, and then frowns. “Why did you keep it a secret from me?”
“Ah… Sorry, Klee. It wasn’t meant to be a secret, it’s just a bit complicated. I’ll tell you when you’re older, okay?”
She crosses her arms and pouts. “That’s what Albedo always says. Klee’s a big girl, you know.” She’s about to take another bite of her food, but then she speaks again. “Wait, if Diluc’s your brother, then why do you always seem so sad when people talk about him?”
…Is that true? The mere mention of Diluc is enough to upset Kaeya?
It’s not surprising. In fact it’s exactly the sort of thing he should’ve expected, given how much he’d hurt the man – he would’ve noticed it, too, if he’d spent any time paying attention to his brother instead of being stuck in his own head with his own stupid problems – or maybe he had noticed, and he just hadn’t cared enough–
Kaeya laughs, but even Diluc can hear how forced it is. “Aw, c’mon, that’s not true–”
“I’m not lying! Everyone even told me not to talk about him around you unless it was important.”
Of course other people had noticed. Other people care about Kaeya, other people were there for him when Diluc wasn’t. They had tried to protect him when Diluc had done nothing but hurt him. No matter what happens between them, people will always remember him as the one who hurt Kaeya and they will be right.
His head hurts.
“Klee, look, we just– we had a bit of a fight, but things are all better now, okay? I won’t be sad anymore. Promise.”
“Oh.” She takes a bite of her toast, looking between them with round, sad eyes. “Klee would be sad too if me and Albedo had a fight.”
They fall into an awkward silence, but Diluc can barely register it above the thoughts racing through his head. The guilt that’s always there, bubbling under the surface, threatening to overflow at any moment–
Kaeya places a hand on his back. “Hey Klee, there’s some dessert in the kitchen, why don’t you go and pick something for us to eat?”
He’s not present enough to hear Klee’s answer. He tries to focus, leaning into the cold touch at his back.
“Diluc?”
“Sorry–” He bites his lip, trying to hide its tremble. “I’m fine, I swear–”
“You don’t need to pretend to be fine around me.”
Shit, when did he become so sensitive? What is he even doing right now, letting a kid’s words affect him so much? He should be apologising to Kaeya for all the trouble he’s causing – all the trouble he had caused for him and everyone around him – but he’s just using his brother once again.
“Don’t take her too seriously.” Kaeya’s smile is apologetic. “She’s just a child. Children always say things without thinking.”
“Children don’t lie.” He wraps his arms around himself, backing away from Kaeya.
“Do you realise who you’re saying that to?”
Diluc inhales sharply. His throat feels tight. “That’s not– that’s different. You know what I mean. Klee wasn’t lying, was she?” He swallows. “Everyone knows how awful I’ve been to you. How much I’ve hurt you.”
It’s embarrassing, really, just how public their whole mess is. No one knows the full truth, but everyone around them knows just enough, and he knows exactly how he must look in their eyes even if they’re too polite to voice it. An overgrown, spoilt child, too arrogant and proud to fix things with the only family he had left.
The thought makes him recoil in shame.
“All of that is in the past. We’re doing better now, aren’t we?”
“I’m still sorry.” He takes a deep breath, looking away from Kaeya. “I waited so long, all that time when I could’ve done something–”
Kaeya wraps his arms around Diluc tightly, cutting off the rush of apologies. “No more blaming yourself, alright?” His voice is so soft, so gentle in a way that Diluc doesn’t deserve, expertly unravelling the knots of guilt in his chest. “Everyone could see you hurting too. I always had the choice to try and make things right, but I didn’t, and I’m sorry for that too. Don’t think that you alone have to be responsible for everything.”
Diluc returns the hug slowly, burying his head in Kaeya’s shoulder. “I’m the older one. I’m supposed to be responsible,” he mumbles.
Kaeya laughs. “We don’t even know for sure if you are older. That’s a stupid argument.”
He smiles despite himself. “You’re too forgiving, Kae.”
“I think I’ll be the judge of that, Luc.”
His arms tighten around his brother, savouring the comfortable warmth for a few moments longer until Kaeya speaks again.
“You know my friends don’t hate you, right? And before you ask how I know that, it’s because they’re my friends, they’re good people. They’re not going to hold the past against you.”
That gives him pause. “They would if they knew the truth,” he says quietly.
“If you’d just talk to them, you’d see that they’ve been more worried than anything else,” Kaeya says, voice tinged with frustration. “Other people care about you too. It’s not just me.”
“I don’t–”
“You do deserve it, Diluc. You deserve it as much as I do.”
The mere idea of the people in Kaeya’s life feeling anything other than resentment and anger towards Diluc seems laughable, but Kaeya says it so earnestly, his eye all wide and sincere, that he doesn’t have the heart to argue this time.
“Klee couldn’t choose between mint jelly and cake so Klee brought both!”
Her entrance saves him from having to respond to Kaeya. She’s carrying a tray far too big for her, balancing three plates full of jelly and large slices of cake. Kaeya bolts to his feet to take it from her precarious hold.
“Thanks Klee, that’s perfect.” He smiles at her and she beams at the praise.
Diluc doesn’t miss the sigh of relief that escapes him when Klee finally sits down again. Her not burning down the kitchen while unsupervised is probably a feat worth celebrating.
Klee tries to feed August bits of dessert. Diluc has to talk her down from it – truthfully he’s not sure if they actually pose that much risk to cats, but better safe than sorry… and throughout this ordeal, Kaeya is distinctly unhelpful, a thinly veiled smirk on his face as he watches Diluc flounder.
“But it’s not fair if the kitty doesn’t get dessert too!” Klee looks close to tears.
“Cats don’t like dessert like we do,” Diluc says again in a placating tone. Are all children this stubborn?
Klee pouts. “Okay then… she can have Dodoco to play with instead! Dodoco can’t eat dessert either, so she won’t feel left out.”
“I’m sure she’ll love that,” he nods, exhaling deeply. Kaeya snickers next to him.
Klee doesn’t seem to mind as August sinks her teeth into the toy, batting it wildly back and forth between her tiny paws. He wonders how many times Dodoco has been repaired if this is how Klee treats it.
“I never found out the kitty’s name,” she says around a mouthful of cake.
Kaeya looks at him with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Go on, Diluc. Enlighten her.”
“…Her name is August.” It’s not that funny. Kaeya’s just being weird as usual.
“Do you know how he came up with it?” Kaeya leans in with a sharp grin and a conspiratorial whisper. “He named it after the month when he found her.”
Klee turns to Diluc, and the look in her eyes is full of palpable disappointment. “That’s… kinda lame. Poor kitty,” she says, petting August sympathetically.
Why does it feel like he’s just been stabbed?
“I– You– It’s a perfectly fine name. I don’t get what everyone’s problem is.” He huffs, looking away from both of them.
Kaeya slings his arm around Diluc, almost pulling him into a chokehold. “What was it you said before? ‘Children don’t lie?’” He’s not even trying to hide his laughter anymore.
Diluc shoves him off, ignoring the boisterous laugh that follows. “You’re the worst. I regret coming here.”
“Love you too, brother.”
Diluc definitely doesn’t smile at that.
He receives a letter not long after that ‘picnic’, which had ended with Klee falling asleep and Diluc escorting Kaeya back to headquarters with the sleeping knight on his back. The envelope has Kaeya and Klee’s names on it, and it’s sealed with a proper Knights of Favonius seal.
He’s seen them a couple of times around the city since then, but with harvest season approaching, he’d been too busy to stop and talk properly, barely managing a passing greeting. He hadn’t even been able to work at the tavern as much as usual.
Enclosed is a drawing of three figures among what looks like grapevines, rendered in bright green crayon with purple and blue circles haphazardly dotted among them. Two of the figures are tall, blue and red respectively, with a tiny red figure between them. On top of the smallest figure is a grey blob with two triangles that look like ears. A yellow sun in the corner with a wide grin beams down on them, and the stray triangles and lines across the page look like they could be crystalflies.
He turns the drawing over to find a surprisingly long letter, the script round and wobbly but legible enough.
Dear Diluc,
I had a lot of fun at our picnic! Next time we should have one outside because those are way more fun. Kaeya said we could go to Dawn Winery and drink grape juice because that’s your favourite. I’ve never had grape juice but Kaeya said the winery has the best grapes. He said we could catch crystalflies too because they’re very pretty and maybe useful for making cool bombs! I also want to go fish-blasting but you can’t tell Master Jean about that because it’s super duper secret and I don’t want to go in solitary confinement again.
Everyone says you’re really busy but Kaeya says taking breaks is important so you have to listen to him okay? Also Dodoco misses you and she’s my bestest friend so you have to listen to her too.
Lots of love,
Klee
There’s a small doodle of Dodoco next to her name, and a postscript underneath all that in smaller, more elegant font.
P.S. Don’t worry, I’ll talk her out of the fish-blasting. Please consider the rest of it. She keeps asking me when I’m going to hang out with my brother again.
Diluc smiles, tucking the letter into his coat. After such a lovingly crafted invitation, he’d have to be heartless to refuse.
Even if the guests have pretty much invited themselves over.
Glancing out the window, he admires the rolling fields of green that stretch for miles and miles, glittering in the afternoon sun. Truly a perfect picnic spot. Their father had taken them out there enough times for Diluc to be sure of that.
He picks up his pen, and begins to write a reply.