Chapter Text
It was really starting to piss Diluc off. Wiping down glass, after glass, occasionally scanning through the crowd of drunk and rowdy patrons looking for a mop of blue hair. It was as if any moment now, the Calvary Captain of the Knights of Favonius would waltz through the doors of Angel's Share, with all his swagger (as Kaeya liked to call it).
It wasn't that Diluc wanted to look for Kaeya, nor did he want anything from him — It was just... Diluc hadn't seen Kaeya in a week and it was throwing Diluc off. Kaeya was usually the one who would show up at Angel's Share ribbing him, trying to rouse a reaction out of him but now, it was Kaeya's absence that unnerved Diluc.
It made Diluc's eye twitch, the uneasiness, the niggling feeling that something was wrong. Diluc had tried, he busied himself and took on more tasks than usual in at an attempt at distraction. 'Kaeya is fine, he's probably off frolicking somewhere.' Diluc had told himself.
Needless to say, it did not work.
Diluc only grew more irritable by the day, snapping at people and being in a generally foul mood. Worse of all, Diluc didn't understand why he felt this way. It wasn't like Kaeya was incredibly important or close to him. (He was the only family Diluc had left.) Maybe once, a long time ago, but now they merely existed around each other; dancing around their fragile past.
Unless Kaeya was avoiding him... Someone had to know right, if he was? It prompted Diluc to fish around for information about Kaeya around the city. He'd asked Jean ("I'm not sure where he is either, it's about time he took a break though. Anything urgent, Si- Diluc?"), Rosaria, who only shrugged, and he even asked Klee who was excited about the prospect of going on 'an adventure to find big brother Kaeya' that Diluc had to quickly shut down.
As it turned out, no one had seen Kaeya in the past week.
Diluc sighed, stalking back to Dawn Winery, rain drenching his clothes and wet mud squelched beneath his boots. He was done with this wild goose chase, all it had done was led him in circles. It wasn't until much later when Diluc sat down in his study, going through his mail, when an unsuspecting letter turned out to be a lot more.
It was a simple little thing, no insignia and nothing written on the envelope; it must've been hand-delivered. Inside was a plain piece of paper with a simple message:
'Been looking for me have you, Darknight Hero? Come and find me, and come alone. South-west of Stormterror's Lair, tomorrow at midnight. Don't be late!
Yours truly, K.'
The first thought that came to Diluc's mind was that this was some kind of joke. The eccentric hand-writing was definitely Kaeya's or at least a good forgery of it, but the message didn't sound like it was written by Kaeya in the slightest. Whoever had sent the letter must've been watching him closely to even know he was looking for Kaeya, much less know that baiting him this way would tempt him to bite.
Despite this, the choice was obvious. It was clearly a trap of some sort but Diluc didn't have any other leads, and if the sender was really holding Kaeya captive... Diluc couldn't just leave him in their hands could he? Besides, Diluc wasn't exactly known for being careful, impulsive and headstrong would be better descriptions.
Forgoing his nightly vigilante activities, Diluc gathered what little intel he could in a day's time and prepared for the mission. He'd vaguely told Adeline about it too, though he made it sound like another one of his nightly vigilante activities. She only pressed her lips into a thin line, disapproval at the tip of her tongue but she knew she couldn't win an argument with him over this.
Diluc set off early to survey the area, Storm Terror's Lair was a good place for an ambush. Mist carried by gusts of passing wind clouded the fields and the skies, shrouding the land ominously as the gleam of moonlight covered the land. Only the whistling of the wind could be heard, this place was well and truly abandoned.
Diluc wandered around the area given in the letter, guarded and tense as he crept around prepared for an ambush. It never came. It was only when Diluc caught a glimpse of a person's silhouette dashing behind some rocks up ahead, that Diluc gave chase. He scrutinised the silouette before him, nimble but not fast enough and too short to be Kaeya.
The distance between them closed quickly and Diluc reached out to grab the person's billowing cloak, only for the ground below him to tremble and give away. Diluc inhaled sharply, wind whipping past him as he fell, helplessly glancing up at the person that watched him through the hole in which he fell.
The ground approached him much quicker than he thought, Diluc braced for impact and tumbled foward as he rolled to break the fall. It still hurt, the solid ground digging into his back, his ribs and his shoulders. Clearly though, the fall wasn't meant to kill him; it was too short of a fall for that.
Diluc forced himself swiftly up to his feet, staggering up and left arm instinctively gripping his right shoulder. Sharp pain made Diluc grit his teeth as he tried to move his right arm, it seems he'd sprained his shoulder. Troublesome, but Diluc's had worse so he squared his stance and surveyed the area.
Only some soft streams of moonlight shone through, reflecting off the jagged edges of the rocky walls. He seemed to have been led into some kind of cave, it was spacious though and weirdly unobstructed. 'Perfect fighting grounds,' his brain supplied. The air felt damp and mossy, unusual in a place as dry and windy as Stormterror's Lair.
Footfalls echoed throughout the cave, forcing Diluc to summon his claymore and whip around to face whoever it was. He briefly cast a glance up at the hole he's fallen from, the silouhette was gone.
Diluc tightened his grip on his claymore as the figure strode into the view, their loud footfalls ricocheting off the cave walls in their wake. The cave was poorly lit, only when the figure stepped into the area illuminated by said light did they stop in their tracks.
'That can't be right.' Diluc thought, eyeing the figure that now stood in front of him. They stood in a peculiar way, hand loosely holding onto a sword as they stared coldly, mercilessly at Diluc. Diluc's resolve faltered as his gaze met those of starred pupils, one a dark blue and the other a striking yellow. An ugly scar stretched across the skin around the yellow eye, the eye's glow a contrast to the mottled skin surrounding it.
Kaeya.
Kaeya's cold gaze didn't change, instead he held up his sword and pointed it at Diluc. "Draw your weapon." It was a simple utterance but it shook Diluc all the same. The voice, the face, the person standing before him was Kaeya but the words felt foreign.
It was foreign coming from Kaeya's mouth.
The same words had once fell from Diluc's lips on that fateful night that changed both their lives. Diluc shaking with rage, pent up with misdirected grief and sorrow, harshing out the same words: "Draw your weapon."
The claymore that Diluc held now loosely remained in his hold by his side, he made no move to pick it up. This scene had plagued his nightmares on numerous sleepless nights, facing what he had done; Kaeya getting retribution for what Diluc had done to him.
Kaeya took a few steps foward, closing the distance between him and Diluc slightly. "I said, draw your weapon." His gaze was more steely this time, narrowed and unrelenting. Diluc's own pupils shook as his heart thrummed loudly in his chest, flashes of his nightmares lapsed with the Kaeya that was now standing in front of him.
Flashes of a much younger Kaeya, cowering before him, terror marring his expression as his face was illuminated by the firey sword that was about to come down upon him. Then, a gutteral scream as Diluc took a swing and Kaeya curled on the ground, a long gash of burnt and bleeding skin striking across his body.
Diluc couldn't do it. He couldn't find it in him to pick up his claymore, and it seemed that Kaeya had come to the same conclusion. Kaeya pressed his lips into a thin line, giving one last pause before he leaped towards Diluc. Diluc, met with an approaching sword, leaped away, fueled by only his instincts and the adrenaline.
The claymore felt heavier and heavier in his hold as he continued to avoid Kaeya's blows, he was going for the kill. The claymore physically and metaphorically weighed him down, as if it carried all his guilt, his sorrow and everything within.
With Kaeya circling him, eyeing him carefully, Diluc let go. A loud clang reverberated through the cave as the huge piece of metal fell to the ground, in that moment it felt like part of Diluc fell and died with it. Kaeya snarled, as if angered by Diluc's lack of fighting spirit, and lunged foward again.
Diluc inhaled sharply as he narrowly managed to dodge the blow, Kaeya's sword forcefully piercing the space where Diluc once stood. Kaeya had always been faster than he was, the smarter and more nimble of the two of them. Diluc didn't know what had set off Kaeya's unbridled rage and bloodlust but some part of him knew he deserved it.
For the first time since this dance of swords started, Diluc spoke; his eyes wide, uttering only a single word: "Kaeya." Kaeya didn't seem to respond, in fact he stood back preparing to give the next blow. He seemed irritated that Diluc wasn't making any move to fight back.
Kaeya made sure his attack was much harsher this time, he ran straight at Diluc and knocked him off his feet. He too had forgone his sword, tossing it in favour of wrestling Diluc to the ground instead. Under normal circumstances, Diluc would have been able to overpower Kaeya easily but this situation was far from normal.
Kaeya stradddled Diluc, hands tightly wrapped around Diluc's throat as Diluc thrashed around. He clawed at Kaeya's arms, eyes watering as he stared up into the crazed yet unseeing eyes of someone whom he used to know. "Kaeya..." Diluc rasped out, mustering the last of his strength to shove and throw Kaeya off.
Diluc gasped for air, watching Kaeya tumble to the side only for him to get up again, fixing on Diluc with bloodlust radiating off him in waves. It wasn't Kaeya, Diluc knew that now — at least, not fully Kaeya. That gaze of his, it wasn't Kaeya behind those mismatched eyes.
Kaeya barrelled towards him again but this time Diluc was ready, gritting his teeth Diluc blocked Kaeya's punches and blows. He... He couldn't find it in him to return a blow. They tousled on the ground, Diluc's physical strength holding out against Kaeya's hatred and desperation.
It was only when Diluc caught a glint in Kaeya's eyes, a shift of some sort, that he knew something was coming; by then, it was too late. A grunt escaped his lips, a piercing pain in his abdomen, Kaeya triumphantly leaning over him in the midst of their tousle.
Diluc let out a loud gasp as Kaeya pulled the dagger out, its blade dripping with crimson blood. Without a second thought, Diluc gave a blow to Kaeya's head out of instinct more than anything else, knocking Kaeya out cold.
He sat up in a crunched position, pressing his hand against the wound, feeling warm blood flowing and coating his fingers. His breaths came quickly and heavily as he looked down at the wound and then back at Kaeya who now lay a mere metre away. Kaeya would probably make it out alive, maybe with a nasty concussion but he would live.
Diluc didn't know if he was the same. Any and all movement made him writhe in agony, feeling his back to find the same wound gushing out blood; it was a thorough cut, through and through. He braced himself for what was to come, Diluc had been in worse situations before, he knew what to do if he wanted a chance to live.
Diluc braced himself with one hand against the floor and another pressed aginst the wound at his back before he called upon his vision, fire grew from his palm and the soon came the smell of burning flesh — the torturous pain came before it. Diluc screamed through gritted teeth as he cauterised the wound in his back. It hurt like hell.
Blinded by white hot pain and dizzy from the reprieve, Diluc slumped onto the ground in a sprawl. Exhausted, he weakly brought a hand up to his front wound, bundling the shirt cloth around the wound and pressed into it. He turned to face Kaeya, now they were both laying on the ground only that Kaeya was still unconcious to the world.
It all happened so fast, it almost felt like a fever dream or a nightmare. It was then that Diluc took in the sight of Kaeya's tattered linen clothes that seemed to once be white, now stained with scruffs of dirt and splatters of blood. Kaeya also wasn't wearing his eyepatch, the one he hadn't seen Kaeya take off since he returned to Mondstadt. It was all quite unlike Kaeya.
Though... It didn't matter now did it? Diluc looked down at the wound, blood still sluggishly flowing from it; the bleeding wasn't stopping. He was going to die here. Diluc didn't have the energy to get up and stagger all the way to the city, and if you asked him honestly, nor did he particularly feel the need to save himself.
Eyes half-lidded, hand now pressing only lightly on the wound, Diluc was losing strength and he could only look at his brother who laid facing him. His mind was growing more muddled by the second, blood loss catching up to him and the adrenaline wearing off. All he could think about was Kaeya.
Why Kaeya had done it? Why now?
'Now's a good a time as any.' His brain supplied, 'It's about time you got retribution for almost killing him that day.' Diluc found that he agreed, he pried his eyes open, taking more effort each time be blinked.
Diluc reached out a hand towards Kaeya, holding Kaeya's in his own. There were so many things he hadn't said, there was simultaneously too much to say and not enough words to express what he had to say. (Sorry. I don't hate you. You're all I have left.) These words were heavy, he didn't know if he deserved to say them.
The real Kaeya or not, Kaeya had every right to do what Diluc had done to him. Diluc supposed he'd made peace with that a long time ago. Once the resentment and hurt had subsided after their big fight, Diluc had been left with the horror of what he had done. Diluc was more surprised that Kaeya didn't come after him when he stepped back into Mondstadt.
Diluc gave Kaeya's hand a light squeeze, if he died here today, at least he had broke it even with Kaeya; that at least gave him some strange semblence of peace. Diluc's breath slowly evened out, closing his eyes for what would have been the last time. Everything was going to be okay.