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“Here, take my coat.”
“Umm…? I think it’s too big.”
Klee nodded sagely, appraising the offered coat with scrutiny even while still shivering. Diluc did not have time for this.
“Just take it,” he insisted again, this time making the move himself to wrap it around the child’s body like a large blanket, bundling her up. She was clearly suffering from sheer cold, and it would take some time for the fire they just made to warm her sufficiently.
Diluc eyed the entrance of the Dragonspine cave they found shelter in, watching the blizzard continue to rage. He wondered how long it was going to last. He too felt the fierce sting of the cold, but he did his best not to show his discomfort, lest Klee try to give him his coat back. Obviously, she needed it more than he did. She was just a child—she would be far more susceptible to hypothermia than he was. She really didn’t need to be wandering around Dragonspine at all, even without the snowstorm, but that was another matter. At least both of them had a bit of an advantage in this weather, both being Pyro-wielders. They could generate their own heat and easily make fires on demand. Diluc certainly remembered well how convenient that was, back during his days traveling through Snezhnaya as part of his three-year trek for answers. Granted, technically, he wasn’t using his Vision then—he was using a Delusion that just so happened to be the same element as his Vision, but it worked, still. Mostly. It was a lot more violent than a Vision was, much harder to use with any measure of fine-tuned control. You couldn’t simply make a small fire with it—it was a raging blast or nothing with that thing. It made Diluc, on multiple occasions, miss the convenience of his Vision, if he were being honest. Not that he would tell anyone else that, of course. (Kaeya especially.)
“Do you think Albedo is okay?” Klee asked, looking up at him with her face now well buried in the collar of Diluc’s large black coat. “Should we go find him now?”
Diluc glanced once more at the storm and wondered how to answer. “He’s likely still in his camp. He should be safe until the storm stops.” Or so he hoped. “It’ll be too dangerous for us to look for him now. We’ll have to wait.” Perhaps, if he was alone, he would consider braving the snowstorm to search for him. However, now he had Klee, and there was no one else around. It was literally just the two of them, and Diluc couldn’t just leave her alone, nor could he do something as ludicrous as to bring her into the snowstorm, again.
Diluc had been in the area of the Dragonspine Base Camp by chance, taking a detour from his winery work to talk to the people there and see what he could get out of them concerning Fatui activity in the area. However, not long after he showed up, the snowstorm came rolling in, shrouding the whole mountain as if stemming from its peak. He overheard a few of them startle in concern, as Klee had just showed up in the camp half an hour earlier, asking if they’d seen Albedo. They thought she might have gone up on the mountain, but they didn’t know if she would actually make it to the research camp in time.
Honestly, Diluc wasn’t sure why they let her run off alone in the first place. Again, there were Fatui around. It was dangerous. So, of course, he volunteered himself to go look for her. He was obviously the best suited to the job.
(Granted, Diluc was reminded with those thoughts that he also ran around many places, Dragonspine included, alone as a kid. Well, not always alone. Once Kaeya came into his life, he usually was there with him for whatever harebrained thing they got it in their heads to do. Sometimes, Jean would be with them, as well.)
“Hmm…” Klee thought about it, seeming uncertain. “Okay. We’ll wait. Albedo is strong and he also didn’t mind the cold all that much. I still want to find him, though…”
“Well, I’m sure Albedo will also want you to be safe, as a priority.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” she agreed with a resolute nod. “Albedo’s my big brother, so he likes to make sure I’m safe, because big brothers are like that. But I make sure he’s safe, too! Before Mommy left, she said ‘look after your brother, okay?’ So I’m doing that! I make drawings with my crayons to make him happy and I come to watch him do science things sometimes so he isn’t lonely. Oh, Mr. Diluc! I have a very important question to ask. Who’s the big brother?”
“The…what?” Diluc blinked a few times. What was she talking about?
“I mean, you and Captain Kaeya! I know you are brothers, but who’s the big brother and who’s the little brother?”
“Ah. Right.” That’s what she meant. “It’s me; I’m older.”
“You are? That’s really neat; you must keep Kaeya really safe, right?”
“Ah, well…” Diluc cleared his throat loudly, rubbing his arms to stave the cold. “We are both adults now. It’s not quite the same. He doesn’t need me.”
It was true; however, he didn’t expect Klee to appear so downtrodden when he said it. “What do you mean? You don’t need each other anymore? But Albedo is an adult, and we still spend time together. Why don’t you spend time with Kaeya?”
“Wait, that’s…not what I meant.”
“Mommy said that family is really important, and Mommy’s always right. That’s why we have to spend time together and make sure they’re safe. Mommy is really busy with adventuring things now, so I can’t see her often, but that’s okay, because I know that she’ll come back once she’s done! Wait, is that it? Are you too busy, Mr. Diluc?”
“No, that isn’t—”
“Is this why you never smile?”
Diluc stopped a little at that one. Never…smile? Was that so? “Well, I…” He took a deep breath. This was getting quickly out of hand. The problem was, he wasn’t sure what he could say. “Please, don’t get the wrong idea. I do care about Kaeya, very much. Our relationship is just a little complicated, that’s all. It’s a long story. I just—”
Diluc cut himself off abruptly when Klee started coughing. He kicked himself mentally a little for getting distracted from the matter at hand. When she removed her hand from her face, he saw that her nose and cheeks were a bright red.
“Klee, are you alright?” he asked, moving to sit down next to her and check her over. He wasn’t quite sure what to do about if she was sick, though. At least they were somewhat warm from the fire now.
Klee nodded. “I’m okay. Actually…can I sit in your lap? It’ll be warmer. The coat is really warm, though.”
“Oh…yes. Sure.”
They sat together in front of the fire, then. Klee seemed pleased as she got herself settled, but she quickly turned melancholic, again. “Jean said the same thing,” she said without context.
“What? About…me and Kaeya?”
“No, about it being a long story. I was curious. See, Master Jean has a last name, and her sister Barbara has a last name too. I don’t have a last name, because last names are for big families like yours or Jean’s, but I realized, they’re supposed to be for families. So, I asked her why she and Barbara had different last names. She said it was because their parents come from different families, so it wasn’t actually that strange at all because you have to pick one of them, but she mentioned that her parents were separated and I asked what that meant, and it was because they don’t love each other anymore. But, I don’t know why? And why did Jean and Barbara have to separate too? But she didn’t want to talk about it. Diluc, you and Kaeya have different last names. But…your parents are dead. So, what happened?”
“It isn’t anything much,” Diluc assured her. “Kaeya simply took the name of his birth family, that’s all.”
“Ohhh…I see. That makes sense; it’s just like with Albedo. Me and Mommy are Albedo’s second family, too. His first family was with his master, who was Mommy’s friend. But then his master went away and now he’s with us! Which is sad…I hope she comes back so that Albedo isn’t sad, but I also still want him as my brother now. Is that okay?”
“It’s…fine, I’m sure.” Was she asking for advice? Diluc could not fathom why she would be asking him, but… “It is as you say. You are family regardless. Sometimes it’s just complicated.”
Klee nodded, seemingly satisfied by the answer. “Okay! That makes sense. You will always stay family.”
She then looked back at him with a knowing smile. “And that means you shouldn’t worry about it, either! No matter how old you are or what happens, you and Kaeya would still be family, too!”