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Art Imitates Life Imitates Art
Kaeya misses his father.
Crepus has been dead three months now, and that knowledge still hurts just as much as the day he died.
So, Kaeya buries himself in his work. It’s all he has, really. His work, the few earthly possessions he needs for his work, and a rented room. Diluc left for parts unknown, but not before disowning Kaeya, so he doesn’t really have a home anymore.
If there’s one good thing about Jean’s promotion to Master of Knights, it’s that there’s no shortage of tasks to lose himself in, even without their little side project. Between reports, surveys, and spying on Eroch, Kaeya barely has time to think about anything not work related. Like how beautiful Dawn Winery looked that first day he saw it after the storm, when Crepus took him outside to show him it was safe again. The way the Crystalflies floated serenely over vines laden with fruit . . .
“That’s really pretty, Kaeya. I didn’t know you liked art,” Hertha says one day, when she is dropping off some papers for Jean and sees Kaeya doodling while reading.
“Oh . . . thank you.” Kaeya hadn’t realized he was drawing, but his sketch of grapevines and Crystalflies actually isn’t half bad.
“Seems like your hands are recovering better than expected.” Hertha looks genuinely pleased. “I’m glad.”
“Yes . . . me too.” For a while he’d thought Diluc might have permanently crippled him, after scorching his hands during their duel. Aside from some ugly scars that are prone to tightening up without ointment, his right hand seems like it’s going to fully recover. His left hand not so much, but he’s coping. He can write with it again, at least. It seems he can even draw again too.
“You know, I actually wanted to get a tattoo of grapevines once,” Hertha divulges.
“Oh?”
“Yes.” Hertha looks mildly embarrassed. “I was sweet on the son of one of your competitors. Oh! I mean –”
“It’s alright,” Kaeya is quick to tell her. Most people seem rather quick to forget Kaeya was an adopted son of the Ragnvindr family. Kaeya’s well aware, however, that Hertha’s not most people. She’s one of their top lieutenants for a reason. She’s also never been anything but kind to Kaeya. She isn’t trying to rub it in his face that he’s no longer affiliated with Dawn Winery now.
“Sorry,” Hertha says anyway. “Just, the boy I liked was always bragging about how his family’s vines were the best. I was young, and foolish, and convinced that if I got a tattooed necklace of grapevines, he’d fall in love with me. I’m very glad my mother stopped me.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. I’m sure you would have made that tattoo classy.”
“Careful with that sweet talk. You’ll rot your own teeth out,” Hertha teases. Then she glances at Kaeya’s sketch again. “That is really pretty, though. The Crystalflies are a nice touch.”
“Maybe I’ll get a tattoo of it,” Kaeya jokes . . . except . . . after he puts those words out into the universe, they suddenly become more real.
He ends up spending a lot more time thinking about it than he actually should, and he doesn’t know why. Maybe because if he gets it tattooed on his skin, no one will be able to take it away from him again . . . Even if, someday, the truth about him comes out and his life here comes crashing down, it will still be a part of him. It will be something he can keep . . .
It’s four murder investigations, one traitor bagged, and a whole damn serial killer family arrested before Kaeya actually pursues that idea any further.
He alters his sketch from the original . . . augments it, actually. The grapevines, and Crystalflies he draws in a reversed arc. They become a lower frame for the piece. Above them, Dawn Winery, and Dragonspine Mountain looming behind it. They go together, in Kaeya’s mind. He always used the mountain for navigation. It let him know which way home was.
He wants it big, so that the details are clear, and the only place he’s sure they will be is on his back. So, that’s where he gets it. Such a large piece takes multiple sessions. It bleeds a lot, and hurts worse than Kaeya thought it would, but he’s more than used to pain. Jean worries at first, since he doesn’t tell her what he’s doing. She sees him cringing, since his whole back is raw from the needles. Kaeya kills two birds with one stone by asking her for help applying the ointment his tattoo artist recommended. He can see her relief when she learns that it’s just a tattoo causing him pain, not a back injury. He also sees the trepidation in her eyes after she realizes what his tattoo is of, but she doesn’t comment on it.
It takes time to heal, since magic would purge the ink from his skin at this stage, but finally, the pain and swelling fade, and Kaeya’s left with the image of the first place that ever felt like home on his back. He can’t see it without the help of mirrors, but he knows it’s there.
Then something strange starts happening. Strange and damn annoying. It’s like every fifth enemy is deliberately trying to ruin his hard gained tattoo. Until now, Kaeya’s never once taken an injury in the back . . . not counting the time he went up against that rogue Dendro allogene whose thorns kind of ran him through. Suddenly, however, he can’t seem to stop getting back-attacked.
First it’s a Hilichurl Berserker who comes out of nowhere right outside Mondstadt’s gates. The damned thing lights the back of his shirt on fire. Also leaves a nice big bruise from its club right in the middle of Dawn Winery. Kaeya’s lucky this time. The bruise fades and his scorched skin heals. It only needs a little touching up to make it good as new.
Two months later it’s a Fatui Cryogunner . . . and a lot more touching up required. Then he fends off a couple dozen or so more Hilichurls, Treasure Hoarders, and Fatui who want to ruin his ink before a Geeovishap Hatchling at the base of Dragonspine manages to shred his shirt and rake its claws through his flesh, tearing out stripes of his tattoo. The others with him at the time are surprised by how brutally Kaeya put the beast down . . . until they field dress his back and see the damage it caused to the ink they didn’t even know was there.
It takes a generous donation to reserve a good chunk of Sister Barbara’s time, but she’s the best at healing without leaving scars, and Kaeya’s invested too much in his back to let it get ruined now. After the requisite healing time has passed, he lets his tattoo artist stick him full of inky needles all over again.
“See you next month,” she jokes, after painstakingly filling in the blanks and slapping some bandages over them.
Kaeya gives her a rude gesture, good naturedly, and she laughs.
She also gives him a 50 percent discount next month when Kaeya’s back on her table for another touch up after a run in with a Cryo Abyss Mage.
His luck finally runs out in Wolvendom. The Abyss Order’s trying to get a foothold in the forest and that feral boy Varka’s fond of ended up getting hurt . . . and getting a Vision, but that hardly matters. The Abyss Order doesn’t get to hurt kids in Mondstadt, and Varka pulls out all the stops to root them out.
Kaeya catches five Pyro Hilichurl Shooter bolts in his back after his squad’s sentry nods off and they get ambushed in their camp. He blacks out and wakes up to Jean apologizing to him. Her healing magic leaves more traces than her sister’s and she had to work fast to save him. Kaeya’s left with five oblong scars amongst the grapevines and Crystalflies.
“I can tattoo over them, but they’ll never look the same as the rest of the work,” his artist says, after she inspects the damage. “Ink doesn’t look the same in scars. They’ll always stand out.”
“Can you turn them into something else, then?” Kaeya asks.
“Yes . . . I could. Did you have something in mind?”
“Calla Lilies.” They grow wild along the river below Dawn Winery, along with Small Lamp Grass, but that’s Diluc’s flower. He probably wouldn’t be happy if Kaeya puts them on his skin.
“Calla Lilies should work. The shapes are right . . . the coloring too . . .”
Funnily enough, they’re also the flower that will increase Kaeya’s strength, if he ever manages to collect a bunch of other, rarer materials and accumulate enough battle experience, but chances of that happening aren’t exactly likely.
Then the Traveler comes along. Right after Kaeya has a bit more bad luck. He has somehow managed not to damage his tattoo anymore until then, but when Stormterror appears near Springvale and Kaeya rides out, he gets hit in the back by some debris swept up in the dragon’s wake. It leaves a bloody gash right above Dragonspine, that scars in a vertical line, and there’s no covering that up with something relevant. At least not for a few months. Then the Traveler raises the Skyfrost Nail over the mountain . . . after helping Kaeya fully ascend, and providing him with six (six!) fabled Stellar Fortuna for his constellation, making him stronger than he ever even dreamed he could be.
It sends a chill down his spine (pun intended, because he’s fully ascended, and powerful enough to intend his puns) when he realizes how perfectly that new scar fits into the picture he so painstakingly drew over four years ago now . . . Then he shakes his head and puts the thought out of his mind, because despite what people say about the stars of Teyvat, Kaeya doesn’t believe in fate.
Irony however . . . well, Kaeya’s not sure what else to call it when his tattoo of his old home gets permanently scarred, essentially because of the same person who threw him out of his old home.
They’re in the Spiral Abyss, descending to depths Kaeya really would rather not . . . but too many people he cares about are here for him not to come if they say they need him.
Twelve floors down they run into enemies that most of the party’s never even heard of. Abyss Lectors. Nasty fanatics who cooked their brains with their own Electro. Their shields are no joke, even with plenty of Cryo and Pyro to throw at them, and Kaeya and Diluc end up fighting back-to-back. For a few minutes it’s like old times again. Like when they were best friends and trusted each other completely. They just know what the other’s going to do without saying a word, without even looking at each other, and no one they’ve ever faced ever had a chance against them when they were like this.
The Abyss Lectors go down. Not without a fight, but still, they go down.
Once they do, Diluc sinks to one knee, panting.
“Worn out, just from that?” Kaeya teases, though he feels like passing out himself. “Getting old, Diluc?”
“Just tired from picking up your slack,” Diluc returns.
Movement behind Diluc catches Kaeya’s attention. Then he lunges on instinct and crashes into Diluc, knocking him out of the way of the apparently not-yet-dead Lector’s attack. He’s not fast enough to get out of the way himself. Not completely. And, since the Lector attacks with Electro, which the human body conducts, the fact that it nearly missed him means absolutely nothing.
The Electro strikes his back, right on the ridge of his spine. Kaeya can’t even scream as his body arcs from the current. Then he goes down.
He’s already passed his limit, no Frozen Kiss shield to save him. His vision darkens and his consciousness slips away. He thinks he hears screaming. It sounds a lot like Diluc. Who sounds mad, for a change. Nothing new there, so it doesn’t really matter if Kaeya just . . . sleeps.
He awakens as he’s being carried into Dawn Winery.
“Are you sure you shouldn’t bring him to the cathedral?”
“I’ve been assured he’s stable. So, he can recover at home.”
Home . . .
Kaeya tries to speak. Ends up coughing instead.
Diluc, who is carrying him, quickly gets him onto a couch and gets him a drink. Water. The cheap bastard. Kaeya gulps it down, coughs twice more, then looks at his brother.
“What, no wine?” he rasps.
Diluc’s mouth quirks. Then, to Kaeya’s surprise, he tells Adelinde to decant a bottle.
“The others?” Kaeya asks next. Because none of their party members are in sight.
“They’re fine. They dropped us off, then went to get Barbara. Jean thinks she’s gathering berries in Wolvendom today, so finding her may take awhile.”
Which is why everyone else must have gone. Still . . .
Kaeya sighs. “It’s a wasted effort. Even Barbara can’t get rid of Electro scars.” Only time will make those fade, and only so much. In short, Kaeya’s tattoo is probably ruined.
“They’re bringing her here to double check your heart, not assuage your vanity.” Diluc snorts. “Any scars are on your back anyway, so they shouldn’t matter. No one’s going to see them.”
“That’s not the point,” Kaeya says irritably. “The point is I’ve had several hundred-thousand Mora worth of work done, and I’m pissed off that I just ruined it, so no, it doesn’t matter that no one sees it. What matters is that I lost it. Again.”
Diluc frowns. “What are you talking about?”
Belatedly, Kaeya realizes Diluc hasn’t seen his ink.
“Nothing.”
“You had work done on your back? Did you . . . throw it out? Or . . . worse?”
“It’s nothing,” Kaeya repeats, but Diluc is already behind him, lifting his shirt, and Kaeya’s too damn tired to struggle.
“You have a tattoo . . .”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted it,” Kaeya snaps.
“ . . . You wanted the tattoo? Or you wanted Dawn Winery?”
“Fear not, brother. I’m not after your inheritance.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Diluc lets Kaeya’s shirt fall, then stands, moving so he’s in front of Kaeya. While Kaeya sits. Not fair.
“I’d be taller than you if I was standing,” he reminds Diluc.
Diluc doesn’t take the bait. “You . . . didn’t lose it, you know. Well, maybe you did for a while but . . . you can come back whenever you want now.”
“Until you decide I can’t.”
“Kaeya . . .” Diluc looks like he wants to argue, but instead sighs and changes tack. “Your tattoo’s actually not in that bad of shape. The Electro struck your spine . . . that’s what had Jean so worried, but it missed the ink.”
“But Electro scars spread.”
“Yes. It spread, but mostly over the mountain and empty space above the winery. I actually don’t think it looks that bad. It looks like lightning. Like that storm that – never mind.”
“ . . . Do you have a mirror?”
Diluc was telling the truth, Kaeya sees when Diluc helps him to the bathroom with double mirrors, and his breath nearly catches. For a moment he’s a child again, staring up at the mansion in front of the mountain, as lightning rends the sky.
“I guess it’s not that bad.”
If Diluc wants to say anything, he misses his chance. The rest of their party returns, with Barbara, who spends the next hour channeling her healing power into him, mending minor internal damage.
Sometime during the treatment, Kaeya nods off . . . and stays asleep for the rest of the day. He wakes in the evening, to the sound of thunder . . . and a greenish white glow.
He’s still at the winery. In his old room. Diluc’s pulled up a chair beside him. Resting on his hand is an Anemo Crystalfly.
“It flew in right before I closed the window,” explains Diluc, seeing he’s awake.
“Seeking shelter from the storm, I suppose.”
“Well, I kind of doubt it’s a Khaenri’ahn agent, sent to spy on me . . .”
“Ouch.”
“ . . . but if it is, it’s not like it’s done anything unforgivable.”
“So . . . you’re not going to throw it out in the storm?”
“No. I try not to make the same mistake twice.”
Kaeya looks away. “It’s not like you weren’t justified.”
“Maybe.”
“I don’t want to talk about this.”
“ . . . Alright.”
Thunder crackles overhead again. Kaeya swears he can feel it in the Electro scars on his back.
“Your tattoo,” Diluc says, fishing for another subject, “probably looks exactly like it does right outside now . . . Did you draw it yourself?”
“Yes.”
Diluc hesitates for a moment, then asks, “Could I commission the same design on canvas from you?”
Kaeya looks at him in surprise. “Why would you want to? Surely you don’t mean to displace any of Father’s paintings with my clumsy attempts at art.”
“There’s a lot of wall space here,” Diluc says. He hesitates once again, then asks, “Perhaps you could alter it a little . . . maybe add the two of us –”
“I can’t draw people,” Kaeya says quickly. “Sorry.”
“Well . . . maybe add some Small Lamp Grass amongst the grapevines and Calla Lilies?”
“ . . . Yes. I could do that.” Then it’s Kaeya’s turn to hesitate before asking, “Do you mind if I add them to my tattoo as well?”
“I don’t mind,” Diluc says. “They go together, after all. Both grow wild around the winery . . . and I think Father would be amused.”
“How so?”
“We always knew Small Lamp Grass was my flower. I think he’d find it fitting that his other son got the winery’s other wildflower . . . and ended up drawing both together, to hang up in our home.”