Work Text:
“Come on, you moron.”
There was an arm around his waist. His arm was thrown over someone’s shoulders. A burning-hot hand wrapped around that wrist.
“Don’t you dare close your eyes.”
Sucking in a ragged breath, fractured ribs creaking, Kaeya blinked. The world was dark. Too dark. Copper flooded his mouth, ran down his lips. He could—
“Come on, Kaeya.” The world shifted. His knee buckled. Then, he was being pulled upright. There was blood slicking his hands.
Almost lazily, he rolled his head to the side to look. Around him, the trees were dark. Moonlit. Their scraggly branches knifed the starry sky. Next to him, tucked into his side and holding him up, was Diluc. There was blood spattered on the side of his cheek. Red eyes flicked from the street to him constantly. His mouth was drawn into a thin, grim line, expression dark.
A root tangled around Kaeya’s foot. He tripped.
Diluc caught him, hefting him back up.
“Still with me, Kaeya?” Diluc asked, looking at him again. Gasping, Kaeya spared him a glance. He managed a weak smile.
“Somehow.” Staggering again, he just managed to catch himself. The world blurred. His head dropped forwards. Dimly, he heard Diluc bark his name.
When he cracked his eyes open again, he was on Diluc’s back. His chin was nestled in the fur of Diluc’s cloak. Huh. When did he get this? Black fur rubbed against his cheek.
“Thought you hated fur farming.” He mumbled.
“It was in Crepus’ attic. I won’t purchase anything new, but it would be a disrespect to the animal that died not to use it.” Diluc replied. “We had some old wolf fur stuff, too.”
He shifted his grip on Kaeya’s legs, hiking him up higher, “Really? Did you give it to Razor?”
“Kid needs some warmer stuff. It gets cold in the winter.” With a shrug, then a murmured apology at Kaeya’s wince, Diluc continued, “I think the pack appreciates it. He said something about returning the fur. I don’t know what it means.”
Kaeya huffed, closing his eyes. His arms were around Diluc’s neck, but he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore. They were smudged with red. Some dripped from his fingertips. Where had his gloves gone?
“Stay with me, Kaeya.” Diluc said, voice tinged with…something else. Warning, maybe? Dimly, he remembered the last time that Diluc had carried him that way.
(They were thirteen and twelve.
Kaeya had broken his ankle. They’d been playing not too far from Wolvendom. It had been raining recently. When he’d fallen, Kaeya hadn’t even made a sound. Diluc wouldn’t have known it had broken if it hadn’t been for the loud wet-snap that had echoed around the clearing and the way Kaeya’s breathing had hitched.
That led to Diluc carrying him back, Kaeya clinging to his back like a very large baby opossum. If this were a funnier situation, if he weren’t carrying him because he was hurt, then Diluc would have told him he looked like one, too. On the walk back, it had started raining again. Diluc had put him down for the brief time to shuck off his jacket and throw it over Kaeya’s head. Kaeya had managed to stretch the hood so it could cover them both. Quiet raindrops pattered on the waterproof fabric. It was almost like rain against the window in the upstairs room.
Chin resting on Diluc’s shoulder, Kaeya looked at the path ahead. It was swarmed by darkness. The rain thundered down around them. Somewhere, lightning cracked. "Diluc.” He croaked weakly.
“Yeah, Kaeya?”
“I don’t like the dark.” Turning to him, Diluc cracked a smile.
“Don’t worry, Kaeya. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.” He replied. “Except—“)
“—home.” Diluc finished.
Blinking languidly, Kaeya sucked in another ragged breath. “You might…have to repeat that.” There was blood soaking through the bandages around his middle. Already, he could feel something settling in his lungs. There was copper in the back of his mouth. Gasping, he rasped out, “I don’t…think I heard all of that.”
“We’re going home.” Diluc repeated. Again, he hiked Kaeya up on his back.
Flinching, Kaeya tightened his arms around Diluc’s neck, burying his face in that fur ruff of his coat.
“Sorry.” Diluc mumbled, glancing over his shoulder at him.
The night air was cold, too cold. Rasping in a breath, Kaeya shook his head. He pushed his face further into the ruff. Soft black fur pressed into his cheek, his nose.
“Just a little further, Kaeya. I promise.” Diluc’s voice wavered, fading in and out. “Just a little bit further…”
The world faded out.
He didn’t expect to open his eyes.
When he did, he found himself lying on a bed. Sunlight shone through the window. He’d been changed out of his usual clothes, into a light sleep shirt and pants that were not his. If he had to guess, they were—Diluc’s? Thumbing the ties at his collar, he huffed out a laugh. Didn’t know we were back to hand-me-downs again.
Slowly, he pulled himself upright, wincing. The left side of his ribs twinged with pain. Hand darting to the wound, Kaeya froze. His fingers were cleaned of blood, the smaller scrapes and bruises bandaged. Even the older wounds he’d gotten were bandaged, gauze wrapping around his right wrist from his thumb to his elbow. Huh. Kaeya pulled the collar away from his chest, looking at the damage that he had to recover from.
Bandages wrapped around his stomach, were plastered to his chest, and he could feel where more were wrapped around his right thigh. At least the stab wound didn’t kill me, he thought, remembering how frantically Diluc had patched up that wound. He’d been unlucky—three stab wounds over the course of a few seconds. His right thigh, right flank, and left side had all been the targets. I don’t remember coughing up blood, he skated a hand over the left side of his ribs, but those weren’t broken, so I have a nasty feeling that knife punctured my lung.
There was a glass of water next to him on the bedside table. Settling back in the bed, Kaeya sighed. When he ran a hand through his hair, he found his eyepatch missing. There was a simple medical patch in its place, at least.
Humming, he mused, Big Brother Diluc strikes again. Making sure I don’t give anything away even when my usual patch is messed up. There was a knock at the door. Turning, he looked over. The door opened, and Diluc walked in. Well, really, he more shouldered the door open than just…walked in. In his arms, there was a tray of food. Slowly, he turned around.
Their gazes met, and Kaeya cracked a smile. “Hey, Diluc. Please tell me I didn’t steal your bed.”
Diluc snorted. “As if I would let you steal that. Adelinde’s been making sure your old room’s stayed clean. Someone might as well use it.” He walked over and set the tray down on the bedside table by the glass of water. Now that Kaeya got a good look at him, he looked…odd. His hair was tied back in a higher ponytail than usual, and he’d skipped out on wearing his jacket and vest. Instead, he was just…standing there in a fancy, button-up shirt with ruffles at the collar and dark trousers.
Kaeya squinted at him, grinning, “Are you wearing a poet shirt?”
“Maybe.” Diluc crossed his arms, turning to face him. “Are you judging my fashion sense when I dragged your moronic near-corpse all the way from Wolvendom? And after I brought you breakfast?”
“If I showed up last night and begged Adelinde for a bed and breakfast for the night, then you would be doing the same thing. Almost.” Kaeya replied. Both of them went quiet. Then, softly, touching the temporary eye patch, he added, “Thank you, Diluc. For everything.”
Huffing, Diluc rubbed the back of his neck. Then, he turned away, gesturing to the food. The tray had a simple stack of pancakes, a glass of milk, and an apple on it. A few slices of bacon. Nothing too difficult to eat, nothing specific. When Kaeya took a drink of the water, there was an overly sweet, almost saccharine taste to it.
He must have made a face, because Diluc snorted softly.
“Laughing at my pain? How heroic of you,” Kaeya teased, like Diluc hadn’t just hunted down some kind of healing potion for him.
Dragging Kaeya’s old desk chair over to the bed, Diluc sat down while Kaeya started eating. “They don’t call me a vigilante for nothing.”
“Ooh, telling the Cavalry Captain to his face now, are we? Bold move.” Sipping from the milk to wash away the overly sweet taste, Kaeya braced the back of his hand against his temple and dramatically fell back against his bed. “But I fear I may be terribly feverish, I’m afraid that I can’t remember a thing you said. Perhaps it’s the blood loss.”
He and Diluc shared a glance. Snorting, Diluc rolled his eyes and gently shoved Kaeya’s left knee, getting up to leave. Pausing at the door, he added, “Just eat your pancakes, Alberich.”