Work Text:
The disaster starts, as it usually does, with Mondstadt’s one and only own pint-sized knight with a penchant for arson.
Kaeya has always thought that Klee seems to be in possession of way more than the normal amount of explosive devices that an eight-year-old should have free reign over- which, by the way, is zero- because even he knows that you don’t give bombs to small children with no impulse control and an insatiable desire to cause chaos. However, separating Klee and her bombs is an utterly fruitless effort, because she just spawns more into existence with her Vision, which- well, if it wasn’t sacrilege to separate a person and their Vision, Kaeya would have had Klee’s locked up in a safe years ago and saved them all a lot of headache.
If he hadn’t sort of formed a mutual bond with Venti over the fact that they were both incredibly, astonishingly talented at riling up Kaeya’s estranged brother beyond belief, he’d wring his neck for blessing an eight-year-old kid with a Vision. Why does a child even need a Vision, anyway? Maybe Kaeya should get Venti to babysit one day and confront him with the horrors he unleashed onto the world when he, in a characteristic lack of judgment, gave a child arsonist the power to set literally anything on fire, anywhere, anytime, anyplace, with a wave of her hand.
So far, he and Jean have had to settle three reports of angry fruit stall merchants demanding compensation for Klee’s little ‘experiment’ blowing up a week’s worth of wares, organize the repairs for the now-broken fountain in the middle of the market that had the misfortune to attract Klee’s attention, and finally a gaping hole in someone’s house that Klee thought would be excellent target practice for her to chuck her bombs at. And with the new Abyss Order mages roaming all over Wolvendom and Brightcrown Mountains, encroaching steadily into the heart of Mondstadt, Jean has been stretched to her utmost limit trying to keep everything under control. Kaeya genuinely thinks another mishap from Klee would push her over the edge into a mental breakdown right then and there.
Which is why he doesn’t tell her that Klee has been missing the entire day. Jean waves him off with a distracted but grateful smile as he tells her how he’s managed to keep Klee under control by letting her tire herself out in the Whispering Woods before tucking her into bed for an afternoon nap- lies, all lies- and says that she’s relieved Kaeya has been stepping up to do his duties, and how grateful she is that he’s always so reliable when she needs him the most.
So. Well, after that speech, Kaeya would rather eat slime secretions than admit to Jean that he has not even so much as seen Klee in a little over twelve hours. This is fine. This is alright. He just needs to find her, bribe her with sweets to get him to agree to his story, and let her go fish-bombing to seal the deal. It’s not like she could have been captured by the increased number of Abyss mages wandering the countryside. Or hilichurls who might find a tiny girl an easy target. Or whopperflowers, who pop out of nowhere at the most annoying times and are just big enough to send her flying. Klee may be small, but she’s one of their best fighters. She can… probably handle herself. She’s levelled mountains. There’s no way… anything bad could’ve happened to her.
A few seconds later, Kaeya is swinging himself onto a horse and riding out of Mondstadt. Klee may be powerful, and prone to causing explosions, and a definite force to be reckoned with, but she’s still only eight years old. For all he knows, she could’ve been taking a nap beside a tree and gotten snatched up by hilichurls the moment she closed her eyes. Before he goes, he quickly gives Amber the rundown on the situation. She’s as worried about Jean overworking herself as the rest of them are, and she probably has more faith in Kaeya than is warranted, so she agrees to cover for him when he goes out and tells him with absolute certainty that she knows he’ll find Klee- comforting words, but the amount of trust she places in him sends shivers down his spine- and then pats the horse, and he’s off.
He searches Windrise first. Klee leaves burnt grass everywhere she goes, which Kaeya would normally find to be a pain, but he couldn’t be more grateful for it now. She had been to Windrise, it turns out, because some of the fish in the lake are floating on the surface belly-up and charred marks are left all around the grass- a sure sign that she went fish-bombing here. He breathes a sigh of relief. At least now he has a trail to follow… a trail that leads to Springvale.
He asks around Springvale if anyone’s seen Klee- they all know her quite well, as he brings her on expeditions here all the time. Brook says that she’d given Klee something to eat upon spotting her wandering here by herself, before Klee had gone on her way in the southwest direction.
The southwest direction… which would be where Dawn Winery is. Great.
Well, Kaeya just hopes Diluc’s not home, or else he’d have a lot of questions as to why a Knight of Favonius was running around near his property, and Kaeya really doesn’t have the energy to deal with that at the moment. He hasn’t really talked to Diluc since he came back from his four-year-long voyage nearly a year ago- the entirety of the conversations they’ve had can be summed up by Kaeya ordering a drink from Diluc at Angel’s Share, which can go three ways- Diluc either begrudgingly mixing him one, declining on the grounds that he is too drunk already, or outright ignoring him completely. They have literally never had a conversation in the past year that doesn’t fall into one of the above three patterns, and they didn’t talk at all the four years Diluc was gone. The only time this pattern broke was when Kaeya sent the ugliest vase he could find over to Dawn Winery with Diluc’s vision inside with a note attached that said ‘this belongs to you’. And that wasn’t even a conversation. That was a slip of paper bearing four words. So all in all, Kaeya presumes that it’s been five years since he last had a real conversation with his older brother. And… well, they both know how that last conversation went.
Does Kaeya think about the five year fact often and fall into a violent state of depression that can only be solved by drinking it away? Yes. Would he give anything to have a normal conversation with Diluc like they did when they were kids again? Also yes. So will he ever talk to Diluc and ask if they can be brothers again? Not even if he had a spear to his head.
But there’s no use dwelling on the past. Right now, he has a kid to find. He spurs his horse on faster, spotting some patches of burnt grass here and there, before he finally arrives near the lake just south of Dawn Winery. He hopes Klee hasn’t gone any further, or else he’d have to cross the border all the way into Liyue. The trail seems to end here though, so Kaeya disembarks his horse and leaves her near a tree, and not even a moment passes before a large explosion completely rocks the ground underneath his feet and leaves his eardrums ringing. The horse startles and takes off in the direction of Mondstadt- and that’s Kaeya’s ride back gone, it seems- but he doesn’t spare a single thought about that now. Bombs. Explosions. Klee.
Kaeya has never been so grateful to hear the sound of bombs before. He immediately starts sprinting at full speed towards the source, through bushes and leaves, aware that he looks like a mess with rumpled clothes and twigs in his hair and dark undereye circles, but eight-year-olds don’t care much about other people’s appearances so he figures it’s fine. What’s more important is that he finds her first- he’s so close, it doesn’t even matter that she probably blew something up, he’ll recompense the poor soul who was unfortunate enough to be a victim, it’s fine-
Finally, finally, he spots a little blonde girl all in red standing on the shore of the Dawn Winery lake, happily blowing up some fish.
‘Klee!’ Kaeya yells, overwhelmed with relief.
Two things happen. One: Klee turns around with a gleeful smile on her face and waves to Kaeya, gesturing for him to come closer.
Two: a man with all-too-familiar red hair standing next to Klee turns around, and Kaeya sees Diluc’s mouth part in surprise before he almost immediately regains composure and closes it again.
Kaeya stops in his tracks, looking between Diluc and Klee- Klee and Diluc, Diluc and Klee-
‘Big Brother Kaeya!’ Klee exclaims. ‘Come join us! We’re blowing up fish!’
It’s amazing how Kaeya feels more fear when he’s about to face his estranged brother in what might turn into- gods forbid- a real conversation, than the time he battled a Ruin Hunter and Treasure Hoarders at the same time in an enclosed space. Diluc is eyeing him warily, probably taking in Kaeya’s dishevelled appearance and coming to his own conclusions. Kaeya feels a spurt of annoyance rise in him at that, and strides over to Klee, who greets him happily.
‘Klee, where have you been?’ Kaeya snaps, unable to keep the exasperation out of his voice. He’s tired and sore and stressed out, not to mention this place reminds him uncomfortably of where he and Diluc used to go fishing when they were kids, and now when said brother is staring at him silently reminding him of how much their relationship has deteriorated since then- well, it’s getting on his nerves. And forcing him to acknowledge his feelings. And Kaeya doesn’t do the whole feelings thing. He’s perfectly fine repressing his feelings until they manifest in deeply unpleasant intrusive thoughts that he then tries to forget by drinking them away. ‘I was looking for you everywhere. You know Master Jean told you not to run off, right?’
Klee has the decency to look a little contrite, at least. ‘Sorry, Big Brother Kaeya,’ she says. ‘I wanted to test out my new bombs, but Master Jean told me not to do it in the middle of Mondstadt, so I went here instead. And I found a new friend!’ she exclaims, gesturing to Diluc, who nods awkwardly. ‘He has a Pyro Vision just like me, and he helped me modify my bombs to blow up even more fish!’
Kaeya can’t help the exasperated glare that he shoots towards Diluc, who clearly isn’t expecting Kaeya to so much as acknowledge his existence. This is a great start to their brotherly reconciliation arc. ‘Thanks for the help, Master Diluc, but we should be going now,’ he says flatly, steering Klee away by the shoulders.
Klee stares at him, wide-eyed. ‘How do you know my friend’s name?’ she asks. ‘I never told you that! Do you guys know each other already?’
Kaeya stares awkwardly at Diluc, wondering how to explain to a small child, ‘Well, if you count ‘knowing each other’ as how we used to be brothers, but not really because I was sent here as a spy from an enemy nation and spent years growing up with him only to break the news to him literally hours after his father was killed, which resulted in him trying to kill me- understandable, really- and then he fled the nation and we haven’t talked since, but now you guys are apparently blowing up fish together and I have to pretend to talk to him like I am not deeply hurt that he apparently still has affection left in his heart for people that aren’t me, then sure, yeah, we know each other. I really wish we didn’t have a tragic shared past that ensures that we alone will be able to understand what the other went through and no one else! But we do.’
He doesn’t say any of that out loud, of course, but the way Diluc is scrutinizing him makes it seem like he knows every thought that’s running through Kaeya’s head. They used to be able to read each other’s minds, once, but that understanding has long ago faded with time. But Diluc’s dark red eyes are still on him, and it’s annoying and prickly and makes him feel uncomfortably seen and- ‘What is your problem?’ Kaeya snaps instead.
Diluc stares back at him. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Why are you staring at me?’
‘You mean why am I looking at you?’ Diluc enquires incredulously. ‘When you’re right in front of me? Where else am I supposed to look at, the fucking sky?’
‘Don’t swear in front of Klee,’ Kaeya says, as a means to divert the conversation. It’s fruitless- Klee has heard far too many curse words, growing up in the barracks of the Knights of Favonius, and judging by Diluc’s unimpressed face, he knows it too. ‘Also, no, you weren’t looking at me, you were- you were scrutinizing me. There’s a difference.’
‘I was scrutinizing you,’ Diluc repeats flatly. ‘My apologies.’
‘Five years too late,’ Kaeya mutters.
‘Oh, we’re going to talk about this now?’ Diluc exclaims, eyebrows raised.
‘No we’re not,’ Kaeya says hastily. ‘Come on, Klee, let’s go-‘
‘But Klee wants to stay with Big Brother Diluc!’ Klee exclaims. Kaeya freezes.
She calls him Big Brother Diluc. She calls him Big Brother Diluc. Kaeya is torn between thinking that’s the most adorable thing in the world and tearing himself apart limb by limb. He shouldn’t feel like a mitachurl knocked his head in with an axe. He has no right to feel that way anymore, like a cart hit him in the chest at full speed and knocked all the breath right out of him. It’s not even supposed to be nostalgic, because he’d never called Diluc ‘Big Brother Diluc’, even when they were growing up- they were only five months apart in age anyway, so it wouldn’t have made much sense. Also, it was a mouthful to say. But the fact was- he used to be the only person in the world who might have once been able to call Diluc that. And now there’s someone else, and he doesn’t even get the chance to say it because the opportunity passed him by and now they aren’t brothers anymore, and Diluc- Diluc is still just standing there awkwardly like a stiff mannequin.
‘Well… you need to take a nap,’ Kaeya says unconvincingly. ‘You’re tired.’
‘No I’m not!’ Klee protests. ‘It’s three in the afternoon! And Big Brother Diluc was just showing me how to infuse more Pyro energy into my bombs?’
Kaeya sends Diluc a silent, incredulous look. ‘Why would you do that?’ he hisses. ‘You know she’s blown up like, six houses already, right? You’re making my job ten times harder.’
‘It’s not my fault the Knights are too understaffed to even properly babysit a five-year-old,’ Diluc shrugs. ‘Plus, she needs to have a better grasp on her Pyro powers.’
‘What she needs is to stop blowing up innocent citizens’ houses,’ Kaeya snaps. ‘And if you’re so willing to make her even more explosion prone, why don’t you sacrifice your own house, Master Diluc? It’s only fair.’
‘Sure,’ Diluc shrugs. ‘I have a few empty sheds that don’t serve any purpose. Which I can happily spare. Because I’m richer than you since you declined your share of the inheritance,’ he adds, because of course he does, because he’s an asshole.
Kaeya is not dealing with this today. ‘You do remember you wrote me out of it, right?’ he says, as evenly as he can muster.
‘I don’t remember that at all,’ Diluc says calmly, even though that’s exactly what happened. ‘Well, since you’ve given me your permission to take Klee to the winery, we should be heading off now. Have a nice day doing… whatever it is you Knights do in place of getting any work done, Sir Kaeya.’
‘Shut your bitch mouth, Diluc,’ Kaeya says in retaliation. Not one of his finest comebacks.
Diluc makes a show of covering Klee’s ears. ‘Don’t swear in front of Klee,’ he says, with a small smile on his face that would be equivalent to a shit-eating grin on anyone else.
‘Oh, for Archons’ sake-‘ Kaeya exclaims. ‘I don’t trust you. And I especially don’t trust you with Klee,’ he adds, lying through his teeth. He knows full well that Diluc is the kind of person who is hopelessly awkward around children but genuinely loves them anyway, the sort of person that screams reliable babysitter material whose idea of fun is educating the child on the three hundred different species of turtles, but he can’t think of any other excuse to extricate Klee from the situation as fast as possible so he can stop talking to his ex-brother.
‘Why not? Klee is sure Diluc could be a great big brother!’ Klee points out.
Kaeya awkwardly clears his throat so that he doesn’t have to address the… everything of that statement. He deliberately does not make eye contact with Diluc, because Archons only know what he’s thinking about. Probably about how Kaeya turned his entire childhood into a lie or something, because he’s dramatic like that. He has to be when a quarter of his personality resolves around being an emo nighttime vigilante with a shitty mask. ‘…Anyway. I thought you didn’t like to spend time with Knights of Favonius, Master Diluc. Do I actually hear you willingly offering to let one blow up your property?’
Diluc looks at him, in the most confused expression Kaeya has ever seen since they were teenagers, before it sinks in. He turns back to Klee with a horrified expression. ‘She’s a Knight of Favonius?’ he demands. Klee nods innocently, and he glares at Kaeya. ‘Are you seriously so understaffed that you’re recruiting child soldiers now? You know that can ruin her for life, right?’
‘Oh, because you’re one to talk, Mr-Youngest-Captain-in-Ordo-History,’ Kaeya snorts. ‘Weren’t you on the frontlines at fourteen?’
‘Yes, and look how spectacularly I’m doing now,’ Diluc says monotonously, gesturing to how every aspect of himself screams ‘I am a depressed 23-year-old who doesn’t know how to cope with the death of my only parental figure and pretends that extreme violence against Fatui agents is a valid form of therapy.’
Kaeya has to bite his lip to stop from laughing, feeling surprise well up in him that Diluc can still make him laugh. The trauma jokes delivered with the driest, straightest face possible- it’s such a Diluc way of talking that it makes him want to laugh and cry all at the same time.
However, he is a Knight of Favonius who absolutely does not do any of those things in front of the person he still- despite everything- loves the most in the world, so he swallows the laughter and pulls out the last card up his sleeve- the one that will get Diluc to guiltily agree to anything he wants. ‘Jean is worried sick about her,’ Kaeya lies.
Technically, it would be the truth, if Jean actually knew that Klee was missing. She’s always worried about Klee in some way or another. And Kaeya can see it- the way Diluc guiltily bites his lip, the way his expression crumbles, because he still feels bad for the way he unceremoniously broke up with Jean the morning after their father’s death- not even in person, but through a letter . That he made Adelinde deliver to the Gunnhildr estate. Not even because something was stopping him from doing it or anything, but simply because he was too much of a coward to tell her in person. Kaeya, who had gone to Jean’s place the night of their father’s death, was there to watch her read the letter and see her try to hold back tears, and it was the only moment he truly resented Diluc. Of course, that’s one of the many things that Diluc resents about himself, too, so he’s always extra nice to Jean each time they cross paths as if that will make up for him being the worst boyfriend in the history of boyfriends ever. He’s pretty sure Jean is over it, because she did date Lisa for a while there before things just ended up not working out, but from what Kaeya can deduce, Diluc is definitely still sort of in love with her because no one who has ever dated Jean will ever get over her. And also, Kaeya will take any opportunity he can get to guilt-trip Diluc, because he is first and foremost a menace.
‘Well, if Master Jean wants her back,’ Diluc says reluctantly. Kaeya silently pumps a fist of victory in his mind. ‘I’ll escort her to the Knights’ Headquarters.’
The mental fist-pump fizzles out. ‘What?’ Kaeya coughs. ‘Uh, you don’t- you really don’t have to do that-‘
‘But Klee wants Big Brother Diluc to come with us,’ Klee protests. ‘Please, please, Big Brother Kaeya?’
If Diluc comes back, he will almost certainly go into the headquarters and somehow reveal to Jean that Klee has been missing this whole time and that Kaeya blatantly lied to her face about their little Spark Knight’s whereabouts for the entire day, something which has literally led to the reformation of entire mountains. But… surely, Diluc won’t actually go inside the headquarters, right? Kaeya vividly remembers when Diluc had sworn never to step foot inside that building again. Surely, he’ll just drop Klee outside, and everything will be fine, and the only sacrifice Kaeya has to make is taking a thirty-minute walk with his ex-brother. Everything will be fine.
Everything is not fine. Klee chats about her bombs for a full ten minutes, with Diluc listening and nodding intently and then giving her more advice on how to improve them, and when Kaeya- as apparently the only sane adult here- has to put an end to that conversation, Diluc looks more betrayed than when Kaeya had actually told him he was a traitor to Mondstadt. Add that to the fact that Klee is on the verge of bursting into tears, because now he’s become mean adult Kaeya instead of fun big brother Kaeya. Apparently, there can only be one cool adult around, and anyone who has solid reasoning would have obviously picked Kaeya over Diluc, but Klee is someone who had once thrown bombs into her bathwater to heat it up and then ended up making the entire floor unusable for a week, so she’s obviously not the pinnacle of good judgment. Kaeya tries not to take it too personally when Diluc is the one who gets to carry her on his shoulders and tell her about the three hundred and fifty different species of turtles- which, what the fuck, no one should even know anything about turtle species besides the fact that there are turtle species. Kaeya can’t even reliably tell the difference between turtles and tortoises most of the time. Who cares about what patterns they have on their shells?
When he voices this question out loud, Klee glares at him and claps her arms over Diluc’s ears from where she’s perched on his shoulders, and says, ‘Klee cares! You shouldn’t hurt Big Brother Diluc’s feelings like that! He loves turtles very much!’
‘…Right,’ Kaeya says, thinking that insulting Diluc’s superhumanly extensive knowledge of turtles is so laughably far from the worst thing he’s done to hurt his feelings that it probably wouldn’t even make top twenty on the list. ‘Well, we definitely wouldn’t want to hurt Big Brother Diluc’s feelings.’
‘Exactly,’ says Klee, satisfied, and takes her tiny hands off of Diluc’s ears, as if covering them somehow did anything to prevent Diluc from hearing their conversation.
But instead of continuing to converse with Klee about how the weather temperature can sometimes decide whether turtles turn out to be male or female, Diluc’s eyes can’t stop flickering to and away from Kaeya as they walk towards Mondstadt. After a few moments of this, Kaeya feels a little too on edge. ‘What?’ he snaps.
‘Nothing,’ Diluc says, after a too-long pause. ‘It’s nothing,’ he repeats, clearing his throat uncomfortably. Kaeya starts to miss when he was just ranting about turtle facts, so like the Diluc he had known in his youth that it made him ache for the past. Although he would never admit it, Kaeya knows quite a fair bit more about turtles than the average person, thanks to passively absorbing Diluc’s excited blabbering about the animals when they were young. In fact, so does Jean, because the three of them were all childhood friends once upon a time who had to accompany Diluc to go turtle hunting in the nearby lakes because he wasn’t allowed to go by himself, thanks to an incident where he fell in and got stuck in the mud, only narrowly escaping because Jean dashingly rescued him with her strong eight-year-old arms that were already putting on more muscle than both the brothers’ combined. Kaeya thinks Jean might even know more about turtles than him, because she later had girlfriend obligations to listen to Diluc while Kaeya could just skip out the room and laugh.
‘What is it,’ Kaeya says flatly. ‘Did it finally catch up to you that you’re engaging in willing conversation with two Knights?’
‘I don’t consider a little eight-year-old girl a Knight, so no,’ Diluc says. He looks at Kaeya again, with that same indiscernible expression. ‘I just… didn’t think I’d hear you say that again.’
‘Say what?’ Kaeya says, even though he knows perfectly well what Diluc means.
Diluc narrows his eyes. ‘Don’t make me say it. It sounds stupid when I say it.’
‘Everything sounds stupid when you say it,’ Kaeya snickers under his breath, just because he can’t help himself. ‘Also, I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ he adds innocently.
Diluc shifts uncomfortably. ‘You know. The whole… big brother Diluc thing…’ he trails off, the tips of his ears flushing red.
Oh, no. Kaeya is not ready for this conversation at all. It’s time to emotionally shut down. ‘I was just repeating what Klee said,’ he says, aiming for mockery and falling so far off that his voice sounds almost robotic.
‘I know you were,’ Diluc says, sounding annoyed now. ‘I mean, you never called me that when we were… before…’
‘Before you kicked me out of the house and wrote me out of the will?’ Kaeya says, voice as devoid from emotion as a Ruin Guard.
‘I didn’t- I wasn’t- Archons, Kaeya, what the fuck was I supposed to do, after you’d just told me you were-‘ Diluc begins, and snaps his mouth shut, remembering that he still has a little girl perched atop his shoulders. Kaeya’s not sure if it’s because Diluc doesn’t trust Klee from spilling Kaeya’s secret if she were to accidentally overhear it, or if it’s just because he doesn’t want to involve a child in this mess, but in any case, he presses his lips together and walks faster to the gate.
‘Klee wants to be let down now,’ Klee says in a small voice.
Diluc sighs guiltily and puts her down. ‘I’m sorry, Klee,’ he tells her.
‘That was scary,’ she tells him. ‘I don’t like to see you and Big Brother Kaeya fighting. You should just tell him more turtle facts if you can’t think of anything nice to say.’
Kaeya’s mind helpfully supplies him with a brief scenario of Diluc that day in the rain, standing over him with a flaming claymore, and pausing his onslaught of attacks to educate Kaeya on how a turtle’s shell is not actually an exoskeleton like most people would assume but actually a modified rib cage that’s part of the vertebral column.
‘You’re right,’ Diluc sighs. ‘I shouldn’t have lost my temper at Sir Kaeya.’
Klee nods understandingly. ‘Now you need to say sorry to him.‘
Diluc blinks. ‘What?’ he says, and Kaeya is barely holding back laughter at Diluc’s look of hopeless confusion.
‘You need to say sorry to him,’ Klee repeats. ‘That’s what Master Jean always tells Klee to do when Klee says something that hurts people. And Klee is sure that Master Jean would be very, very upset if she sees Big Brother Kaeya and Big Brother Diluc not getting along.’
There’s no way. There’s no way this kid is playing the Jean card on Diluc already. Kaeya stares at her in awe. It took him weeks to figure out that dropping Jean’s name into a sentence would make Diluc agree to literally anything, and that was after he’d known Diluc for literal years. Meanwhile, Klee gets it in literally less than an hour after her first time talking to Diluc. This kid is genuinely something else. He bites down on a laugh, but Klee sees him and narrows her eyes. ‘You should apologize to Big Brother Diluc too,’ she tells Kaeya firmly. ‘You insulted his turtles. That’s very serious.’
‘Right,’ Kaeya says. He turns to Diluc with a mock-exasperated look in his eye, ready to silently convey that they should just apologize for the sake of placating Klee, but he doesn’t expect Diluc to turn to him with such an intense gaze. Nevertheless, Kaeya goes on with the apology. ‘I’m… extremely sorry… for saying, ‘Who cares what patterns turtles have on their shells’? I now realize that how deep a transgression that was.’
Diluc shifts his feet, before making direct eye contact with Kaeya. ‘And I’m sorry for kicking you out of the house and writing you out of the will,’ he says, and Archons, what the fuck? This was not part of the script. Diluc was supposed to make a show of apologizing that he fought with Kaeya, drop Klee off, and then go back to silently judging Kaeya for drinking so much in the bar because that was the only time they ever saw each other unless Kaeya bumped into the Darknight Hero on nightly patrols. He is not supposed to do- whatever this is. ‘Kaeya, I… I’ve wanted to tell you this for a long time now. I don’t know why you had to tell me… your news… on Father’s death, but-‘ his voice cracks- ‘you’re my family, and I-‘
Diluc is crying. Fuck. Kaeya’s favourite person is crying and he doesn’t know what to do about it. And this was completely out of the blue, too, what the fuck, what the fuck? This is- this is great, this is brilliant, he needs to get Jean, he needs to- not be here- what is he supposed to do, Archons-
‘Big Brother Kaeya, where are you going?’ Klee shouts, and Kaeya doesn’t even realize that his legs are moving until he’s past the gates of Mondstadt, with the guards yelling confused greetings at him as he rushes past, past Good Hunter and the fountain, past the steps and the windmills, to arrive at the headquarters of the Knights of Favonius.
He bursts into Jean’s office unceremoniously, where she’s buried under a mountain of paperwork. ‘Jean,’ he says breathlessly. ‘Jean, please, help-‘
Jean looks up, alarmed. ‘What is it?’ she exclaims, rushing over to his side immediately. ‘What’s going on? Are you hurt? Are there hilichurls? Slimes? A breach in the defences? Archons forbid, Fatui?’
‘Worse,’ Kaeya informs her gravely. ‘Diluc is crying and I don’t know what to do.’
Jean blinks at him. ‘Diluc?’ she exclaims, strangled. ‘Crying?’
‘I know,’ Kaeya exclaims. ‘He was trying to apologize to me and I just- I didn’t know what to do, so I went to get you-‘
‘You ran away from him while he was in an emotionally vulnerable state?’ Jean demands.
Kaeya winces. ‘I wouldn’t say ran away,’ he says, even though that’s exactly what he did. ‘I would say that I assessed the situation, made an accurate judgment that my being there would only make things worse, and- Jean, come on, he was your boyfriend, you know what he’s like-‘
‘And he is your brother,’ Jean groans, rubbing her temple. ‘Kaeya, you’re impossible. Is it so hard to have one emotional conversation that you don’t just literally run away from?’
‘Yes,’ Kaeya says.
Jean glares at him. As the only person who knows exactly what transpired between Kaeya and Diluc that night, Kaeya thinks she should treat him with a little more understanding, but instead she takes his wrist and drags him out of headquarters- only to find Diluc and Klee, both with matching red-rimmed eyes and downcast expressions.
‘Master Diluc,’ Jean says, a little breathlessly, before her eyes land on Klee. ‘Klee!’
‘Master Jean!’ Klee exclaims happily, running to her and latching onto her leg. ‘Master Jean, I had so much fun today, I got lost but then Big Brother Diluc came and found me, and we were blowing up bombs in the lake and then Big Brother Kaeya came and found us and said he was so worried because he was looking for Klee all day and then they both walked me back to Mondstadt but then they got into a fight and it was super scary, and did you know that sea turtles have three-chambered hearts?’
Having faced down a Ruin Guard and a group of Treasure Hoarders all at once, Kaeya can honestly say that the former is infinitely more preferable than facing Jean’s death glare as she looks at him and connects all the dots in her head.
‘In my defence, you looked very tired and overworked,’ Kaeya says weakly. ‘I was being considerate by not telling you she was missing.’
‘Kaeya,’ Jean says dangerously. ‘Klee has levelled mountains. Do you have any idea the dangers she could have gotten herself up to unsupervised?’
‘It’s alright,’ Diluc interjects, his voice still a little hoarse from crying. ‘Master Jean, you need not trouble yourself worrying. Klee was perfectly well-behaved when she was with me. And… I know how much you overexert yourself working tirelessly for Mondstadt’s safety, so I am perfectly happy to take care of Klee if you’re stretched too thin sometimes. Archons knows your subordinates are incapable,’ he mutters, shooting a glance at Kaeya, who feels actual whiplash. Wasn’t Diluc just saying he still considered them family like, five minutes ago?
Jean blinks. ‘Master Diluc, I… that’s very generous of you, but…’
‘Klee likes Big Brother Diluc!’ Klee exclaims. ‘He tells me so many cool things about turtles! And he taught me how to pet the turtles in the lakes too! And… on the way back, Klee was thinking… Klee doesn’t want to go fish-bombing anymore if it hurts the turtles…’
Jean stares at Diluc like they’re seventeen again. ‘You got her to stop going fish-bombing,’ she breathes.
Diluc turns pink. ‘Well, I suppose…’
Jean throws her arms around Diluc. ‘Please take her off my hands,’ she mumbles into Diluc’s shoulder, quietly enough that Klee can’t hear her and close enough to Diluc’s ears that he flushes a full-body red. ‘I love her dearly, but I have so much work to do, with the Fatui delegations coming into town, and the whole thing with Liyue and their Archon, and the Sakoku Decree being repealed all at once which means we have to open new trade routes again…’
‘Rest assured, she’ll be safe with me,’ Diluc says, drawing his arms around Jean.
They stay like that for a moment, before Jean pulls back, bright pink. ‘Right,’ she says and turns her attention to Kaeya, the smile instantly dropping. ‘Now you.’
Kaeya sends a silent prayer to Venti, wherever he is, but he has a sneaking suspicion that the bard is probably just getting drunk in Angel’s Share right now and can’t even hear Charles in his ear demanding him to pay his tab, much less distant prayers passed along by the wind.
‘How could you run off like that?’ Jean exclaims. ‘Treating your own brother like that? Really, Kaeya?’
‘It’s fine,’ Diluc says, although a blind person could see that he’s hurt. ‘It takes two to reconcile. If Kaeya doesn’t want to, I’m sure I can’t force him-‘
‘Klee thinks Big Brother Kaeya is being very mean right now,’ Klee announces, with the authority of a Millelith guard. ‘Big Brother Diluc told Klee all about how you were his little brother. And then you said you didn’t want to be his little brother anymore, which hurt him very much. So you should say sorry again.’
‘Again?’ Jean enquires.
‘Yes,’ Klee says, sounding very disappointed. ‘Big Brother Kaeya had to say sorry to Big Brother Diluc for asking if anyone actually cares about what patterns turtles have on their shells. So this will be his second time today apologizing. Even Klee doesn’t make so many mistakes in one day,’ she adds, sounding grave.
Jean stifles a laugh. ‘I see,’ she nods seriously. ‘Well, Kaeya, you heard Klee.’
‘I…’ Kaeya begins, feeling the weight of everyone’s eyes on him. It’s too much, doing this in public, even if it is just the four of them around. He struggles to acknowledge his emotions when he’s completely alone inside his room, for Archons’ sake. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says abruptly. ‘I can’t. I… fuck, Diluc. Why couldn’t you just have ignored me for a little while longer?’ he says weakly, only registering the fact that there are tears flowing down his face when he sees tiny wet splotches hit the ground. ‘I don’t know what to say. I feel like you’ve prepared for this conversation, and I’m just… completely blindsided. This is the only time we’ve really… talked, in like, five years.’
‘Kaeya,’ Diluc breathes.
‘I don’t know,’ Kaeya shrugs helplessly. ‘I’m... I love you,’ he says quietly, voice cracking. ‘You know I do. Or maybe you don’t. But I guess you do now. It’s just hard,’ he explains. ‘I don’t know what to say to you. You kicked me out. You said I was never welcome at Dawn Winery again. You said to never call me your brother again, and, and- I know it’s my fault, it’s all my fault, but I-‘
‘Just shut up,’ Diluc says, and pulls Kaeya into a fierce hug. Kaeya freezes, before reciprocating the hug gently, as if afraid it’s just a hallucination of what he wants the most and his arms will sink through Diluc if he gets too attached. He feels solid fabric on his palms, though, and soft red hair on his neck. ‘You’re so stupid,’ Diluc mutters. ‘Does it kill you to talk about your feelings?’
‘Of course it does,’ Kaeya laughs, through tears. ‘You know me.’
‘Yeah, I do,’ says Diluc, and the simple admission sends a warm feeling spreading through Kaeya’s body. ‘You’re my baby brother. Nothing you say will change that. I’m sorry if I ever made you think otherwise- or that anything was your fault. You don’t have to say anything to me now, because I know you’ll just end up running away if I force you to talk about your feelings again. But-‘ he pulls away, looking Kaeya in the eyes. ‘Just… meet me for a drink at Angel’s Share sometime, alright?’
Kaeya nods. ‘Yeah,’ he says thickly. ‘But I expect the drinks to be on the house.’
‘I mean, you do own half the bar,’ Diluc shrugs. ‘It wouldn’t make sense if we charged you just for the money to go back into your own pockets.’
‘Wait,’ Kaeya says, through blurry eyes. ‘Perks of reconciliation is that I get unlimited free drinks? Why didn’t we do this sooner?’
Jean groans. ‘Master Diluc, please don’t go giving him ideas,’ she says.
‘Don’t worry, as long as I’m bartending, I’ll never give him more than the appropriate amount,’ Diluc assures her.
‘Your appropriate amount is like, one drink,’ Kaeya whines, because it’s easier to fall back into their banter than talk about emotions for even one second longer. If they have another tear-filled conversation again, Kaeya thinks he might just spontaneously combust on the spot. ‘You drink grape juice for fun when you own the biggest winery business in Teyvat, Diluc, you’re killing me.’
‘I’ll tell Charles to keep an eye on Kaeya’s orders too,’ Diluc says unrepentantly. Jean smiles at him, and oh, there it is. Kaeya knows he can’t win against anything Diluc does when it gets the Jean smile of approval. He’s practically besotted.
‘Thank you, Master Diluc,’ Jean says warmly. She gathers Klee in her arms, who looks seconds away from falling asleep. ‘I think it’s time we put her to bed.’
‘Bedtime story,’ Klee yawns. ‘Klee wants a bedtime story from Master Jean.’
‘Right, bedtime story,’ Jean says, and looks over at Kaeya.
‘On it,’ Kaeya nods. ‘I’ll go to the library and pick something up from Lisa. Diluc, I…’ he trails off. ‘I’ll see you around.’
Diluc nods. ‘Well… I’m bartending tonight,’ he says awkwardly. ‘If you want to stop by, then…’
‘Right,’ Kaeya says, and waves a hand at Diluc as he walks to Angel’s Share.
‘So,’ Jean says. ‘You and Diluc, huh?’
Kaeya shoots her a look. ‘So, you and Diluc, huh?’ he parrots back at her, and takes immense pleasure in watching her cheeks go red.
‘That’s different,’ Jean says quickly, clearing her throat.
‘Archons, I sure hope so,’ Kaeya snorts. ‘No one should look at their brother the way you looked at Diluc.’
‘So you admitted he’s your brother,’ Jean grins.
‘So you admitted you still have feelings for your ex-boyfriend who dumped you in a one-page letter that he had his maid send over because he was too much of a coward to do it himself,’ Kaeya deadpans. ‘One of us should be embarrassed, and it’s not me.’
‘Your father had just died, Kaeya,’ Jean says flatly. ‘Forgive me if I’m willing to show him a little leniency.’
‘Well, I guess it wouldn’t be so bad having you as a sister-in-law,’ Kaeya says casually, and watches Jean nearly trip over thin air, only barely catching herself so as not to drop a peacefully sleeping Klee. ‘I would be your best man, but we all know Diluc has no friends aside from like, Elzer and Charles, but they’re also his employees so they don’t really count. So I guess I would have to make the sacrifice and stand on Diluc’s side instead, but know in my heart that I’ll spiritually be next to you.’
‘I would ask Barbara, but thank you for offering,’ Jean says, rolling her eyes, but he knows she’s teasing. ‘Meet me in Klee’s room upstairs once you’ve finished getting the book. I’ll put her in her pyjamas first.’
Kaeya fetches a book about turtles, aptly enough, from Lisa, but it turns out to not even be necessary because Klee falls asleep midway through the first page. Jean slinks off back to her office to finish up the day’s paperwork- honestly, she should really get an assistant for that, because Kaeya knows she’s running on coffee and fumes at this point- while Kaeya himself takes the book and goes over to Angel’s Share.
‘Did you know that turtles don’t have teeth?’ Kaeya says casually to the man in front of him, meticulously polishing a glass. ‘A lot of people think they do, but they mistake the sharp, serrated keratin border that lines their jaw for real teeth when the only time turtles actually have anything resembling a tooth is when they’re babies, and an egg-tooth called a caruncle develops on their snout that helps them break through the eggshell and then falls off later.’
Diluc looks at him, amused. ‘I did know that, but thank you for telling me,’ he says. ‘I assume you want a glass of Death After Noon?’
‘Actually, no,’ Kaeya says. ‘Just grape juice for me, please.’
Diluc stares at him. ‘But you hate grape juice.’
Kaeya shrugs. ‘It’s just a different form of wine, right?’ he says, even though his heart literally hurts saying those words. ‘Plus, it’s always good to try new things,’ he says, and they both know it’s not the grape juice he’s talking about, but them, sitting here and having a civilised conversation.
‘Also, I have something for you,’ Kaeya adds, and pulls out the book about turtles. Predictably, Diluc’s eyes widen in an adorably excited way that Kaeya hasn’t seen since they were kids, and his arms itch with the urge to hug him.
‘Wait,’ Diluc says, upon seeing the ‘Best-selling Kids’ Books from Liyue’ sticker on the cover. ‘Was this supposed to be for Klee?’
‘Do you want it or not?’ Kaeya says.
‘I want it, I want it,’ Diluc says quickly, holding it to his chest as if Kaeya’s going to take it away from him. Kaeya stifles a laugh as Diluc gently places the book high up on a shelf, safe from any accidental spills- because Archon only knows what Lisa would do to them if she found out her book was damaged in any way- and starts pouring some grape juice for him.
‘Diluc,’ Kaeya says.
Diluc hums. ‘Yes?’
‘Why are turtle shells shaped that way?’
Diluc’s eyes light up like stars. He launches into an explanation that Kaeya honestly couldn’t care less about, but he listens to every word with the utmost attention just so that he can keep a conversation with Diluc going that ensures the stay of that excited smile on his face.