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Slamming in from every direction, rain drowned Kaeya whole. Fat droplets hurled themselves into his soaked clothes and chilled bones. As cruel wind sliced through the air, he weakly stumbled back. It sung a song of vengeance.
—
His blade dulled in comparison to the scarlet flames his brother’s claymore was soaked in. Shaking, he desperately tried to push back.
He hated it. Kaeya hated everything right now. He didn’t want to be here, feeling the sting of heat prick his eye or hearing the first drops of rain fizz out on Diluc’s sword. He resented the ground he stepped on and the dark clouds swirling above his head. He hated the fabric wrapped around his skin, hated the hair framing his face, and hated the blood running through his veins. But even more, he despised the hurt and anguish that crawled under his skin. Kaeya had been the one who decided to walk up to the mansion. The one who felt like he couldn’t keep it in anymore and thought he could run feral out of the cage of his heart. He had been the exact one to hesitate, before the snakes of guilt and deep buried secrets came tumbling out in a tangled, hissing mess. Kaeya should have been prepared. What did he think would happen if he told some, drowning in the pits of grief, that he had been born and placed so that he could betray everyone and destroy the world?
The onslaught of emotions crawling under Kaeya’s skin was making him stumble one step behind. His hands trembled under his brother’s blows. His feeble attempts at counter attacks missed a beat. Kaeya was quickly losing ground. As huge waves of hot air hit his face, he started to grow desperate. Faltering, Kaeya tried to dodge around the blazing crimson flames whilst his hands shook so much he thought he would drop his sword. Despite it all, Diluc was eerily silent. His darkened eyes were fixed on Kaeya in a daze, as if he didn’t believe he was real. He brutally swung his sword, unrelenting with powerful gusts of fire.
Out of nowhere, blazing deep red, Diluc swerved and swung up his burning claymore under Kaeya’s feet. He was thrown off his feet and he skidded onto the ground, curled to one side. He could barely reach his sword. As his brother thundered towards him, Kaeya hugged his sword to his chest. The air shimmered and warped as Diluc stared down hard. Gratingly slowly, he picked up his claymore over his head.
“How could you?”
His blank face started to contort in disgust and rage as he snarled at Kaeya. “How could you do any of this to someone?”
His heart dropped. Diluc saw nothing else of Kaeya apart from a cruel, Khaenri’ahn monster.
The truth of his fury crawled up Kaeya’s skin and dug its claws deep. Would Diluc ever see him as a brother again?
Did this one night mean they would never be brothers ever again?
Chilling calm descended onto him as he climbed onto his feet. Oh, how foolish of Kaeya, was it? To blindly hope that there would be something truly warm in Diluc’s heart? To drop everything and trust this cold and cruel man, who was caged in a wall of burning rage and pain?
Everything felt distant. A faint breeze echoed and rattled through Kaeya. Finally, he raised his chin to meet Diluc’s glower. He could barely feel any of his limbs anymore. A final trial. Devoid of emotion, Kaeya stood and waited. Time trailed to an almost slow, sticky stop. The whoosh of the sword being swung. The blur of hot air and burning inferno as Diluc’s rage materialised.
Something cracked in Kaeya. Pure anguish slammed into the very fibre of his being and seeped into his skin. His heart finally dropped, deep into the never ending depths of dark.
A faint clatter sounded as Kaeya swung up to meet Diluc’s blade. Shards of glistening ice rained down onto Diluc, instantly putting out the rising flames. Both of them reeled back. In between them, a single gem lay on the floor. Inlaid onto a small gold plate, it winked up at them with a frosty blue glow. Kaeya’s vision had manifested from the heavens.
Before he could think, he scooped up the vision and spun the opposite way. Kaeya was lightheaded with shock and confusion. The nerves in his body were alive with crackling static. Fear engulfed his being and without thinking twice, he ran.
—
Kaeya stumbled across the sopping grass towards a small tree. Collapsing into a heap of soaked clothes and tangled hair, he took in long, shaky gasps. He didn’t know why he ran, but he was glad he did. Either of them could have died. And that thought chilled Kaeya to the bones, more than the onslaught of rain or a cryo vision could ever. His lashes fluttered as he stared up at dripping leaves, as if the tree held all of the answers he wanted to the racing emotions in his head. Everything he had ever known had shifted and warped. He felt hazy, like the hot air wrapped around Diluc. Diluc. Could he call him a brother anymore?
As the breeze whipped through the branches of the tree, Kaeya looked out into the grey fields. He only had one question left.
Does a song of vengeance calm the storm in the heart?