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Diluc genuinely can't believe they're working together with Kaeya. Not even years ago, but months ago the thought of ever going back to simply having a civil conversation without it ending in cold glares and harsh words sounded far-fetched. Now, Kaeya called him to ask him if he wanted to help him investigate some Fatui sightings.
Yes, the civil conversation part has yet to happen, but Diluc remains hopeful.
Kaeya apparently has acquired reading-mind powers, because in that same moment, he starts speaking. "It's said there's going to be a storm today," then, with a sigh, he adds, "while we're at this damned valley, too."
"Are you still scared of big storms?" Diluc can't help himself and he chooses the teasing route before he can give it a second thought. His little question makes Kaeya snap his head in his direction, slowing down his walking pace.
"And why would I fear some rain water?" Kaeya says with a scoff, crossing his arms. "If anything, it's useful to my elemental bursts."
While that's true, Diluc can't help but smile at how defensive his brother has grown in a matter of seconds. "But then again, you said storm," he says with a shrug, almost curious to see how far he can tease Kaeya before this turns into a proper argument.
"Did I, now?" Kaeya finally smirks back at him, so Diluc counts this whole thing as a win. "Oh, there they are," he announces, nodding his chin at the Fatui camp ahead of them.
"Good intel," Diluc comments with a court nod, readying his claymore. "How do you wanna go?"
"Oh? Mister Lone Wolf here is asking me how to procceed? Count me impressed," Kaeya says, with an amused smile. However, he looks utterly shocked when he sees Diluc chuckling at his comment. And perhaps Diluc's a bit surprised too– a few months ago, this exchange might've ended on a heated fight.
"Well, you're a cavalry captain, I hope you can plan a surprise attack, at the very least," Diluc shrugs with an innocent look.
There's a beat of silence where Diluc realizes he might've pushed it an inch too far, and fears he might've ruined all their progress.
"Someone ate a clown as breakfast today, I see," Kaeya then answers with a roll of his eyes– eye, but there's a friendly smile on his lips. Diluc internally sighs in relief.
"Well, I suppose we can't use the "injured one plan"," Kaeya says, and Diluc almost chuckles at the mental image of either of them acting, well, injured to distract the enemy, "since everyone and their mother in Snezhnaya knows your face," he holds his chin, deep in thought, while oblivious to Diluc's raised brows at his words.
"From what I've gathered, they usually camp in groups of four, with a healer," Diluc gives up what little info he can provide Kaeya with. After all, he's speaking merely out of experience, but he could be wrong.
"That knows how to kill," Kaeya adds with a sigh.
"Correct," Diluc nods, pursing his lips into a thin line.
"Okay, we burn their camp, incapacitate the four of them and we question them," Kaeya says, massaging his temple with his hand before he runs that same hand through his tied hair, moving away the stray bangs off his forehead.
"We don't kill them," Diluc repeats, just for clarification.
"No."
"Alright, is there anything in particular that you wanna know?" Diluc then asks, so that these questions can be dealt with now and not right before the interrogation itself– it would make them seem like amateurs, and that would certainly not intimidate the men they would be about to question.
"How to retrieve Venti's gnosis," Kaeya tells him without meeting his eyes and in a lower tone of voice, like it's a secret to keep– speaking of which, it's weird to hear it put so plainly, given the fact Venti being an archon was supposed to be one.
"You... you knew?"
"Of course I knew, I'm his friend," Kaeya sounds almost offended, "and I've seen him passed out drunk," he explains further with a shrug, before leveling Diluc with a look. "And how do you know?"
"He always jokes about it, but after Stormterror, it was quite obvious," Diluc admits with a shrug of his own. "Wait, what do you mean by retrieve-?" Then, he realizes that they should really continue this conversation after they're done with the job.
Apparently, Kaeya reaches the same conclusion as him. "That's a story for another day. Right now, let's burn this thing down before the storm comes," Kaeya then says, and, right on cue, a thunder is heard above their heads. "And let's make it fast."
"On it," Diluc mutters, before he runs towards the camp and grabs his claymore once again, calling for his pyro. "Burn!" His ultimate ability makes a phoenix fly straight towards the two tents, making quick work of setting them both on fire.
Soon enough, there are Fatui heads escaping from their tent like ants, getting right in place for Diluc to–
"Diluc, behind you!" Kaeya warns him from his spot somewhere behind you, and Diluc trusts that he'll cover his back as he deals with the other three coming out of the tent. "Bad intel you had, damn it!" Kaeya then shouts, and that tells Diluc there was more than one coming at him from behind. Damn it indeed.
"I told you it was usually that way!" Diluc argues as he's done with two out of three men– the last one, that has a mask covering his face, is fast and agile, and he's definitely giving Diluc what one could call a hard time. Once he got bored of swinging his claymore back and forth, Diluc dismissed it and started throwing punches.
"Damn it all! Freeze!" By how frustrated Kaeya sounds, Diluc figures he's also got his hands full.
"I can't believe I'm fighting the most dangerous threat to Snezhnaya," the Fatui agent Diluc had been fighting abruptly starts speaking, and it takes him completely off guard because he's been fighting a girl, a young girl. She can't be past sixteen.
Of course, young girl or not, she's Fatui, so as soon as Diluc gets distracted, she uses it to her advantage and gives him a right hook straight on the jaw, making Diluc fall to the ground. He saves his face from the mud only by inches, fortunately being quick enough to put his arms up to cushion his fall.
"It's kind of disappointing, to be honest," the girl shrugs her shoulders, looking down at him; and while Diluc can't see her face, except her hazel eyes, something tells him she's smirking.
Mustering most of the strength of his legs in one single kick, Diluc hits the girl's ankles and makes her lose her balance and fall. Before she can get up again, however, he stands up, calls for his claymore again and points it at her. "You were saying?"
"Stop flirting with her, Diluc," Kaeya scolds him from behind, but Diluc doesn't look at him. He's not as naïve as to lose sight of such a sneaky little worm.
"I'm not," Diluc argues, while he gets a rope out of the little bag he keeps at his waist – fanny pack, Kaeya had called it. "Try anything funny and I'll kill you," he warns the girl, who flashes him an unreadable look.
"Good thing I brought plenty of handcuffs with me," Diluc hears Kaeya comment. "And that you gave me that pretty little intel after I did that."
At some point it started raining, Diluc then notices, when he feels his shirt soaking wet and sticking to his back and shoulders.
"Okay, I was wrong I get it," Diluc rolls his eyes, as he ties the girl's wrists together– all of a sudden, she drops her back to the ground and kicks him on the balls, making him choke out a gasp, as his hands fly to cover the area.
"Diluc!" Kaeya cried out, "freeze!"
Then, there's a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Diluc answers with a heavy breath.
"Now, what exactly were you thinking? You're supposed to knock them out before you tie them down," Kaeya takes a step back, making some distance between them as he crosses his arms over his chest. "Or at least you tie their wrists behind their back... have you not done this before?"
I never question them so nicely, Diluc doesn't say. "She was just a kid..."
"Yeah, a young soldier, but a soldier nonetheless," Kaeya narrows his good eye at him.
"She doesn't have a delusion," Diluc finds himself explaining, for some reason. "She used no elemental attacks at all."
"So what? I still knew how to fight before I had my vision," Kaeya says, and when Diluc finally turns to face him, he finds that certain look in Kaeya's face that his brother always gets when he's really growing angry. But his anger is nothing like Diluc's; Kaeya's anger is piercing cold and lasting, just like his vision, opposite to Diluc's explosive and immediate.
However, they aren't able to keep fighting – Diluc really wishes they would have used their argument slot earlier when they were out of danger – because, all of a sudden, something Diluc could've never seen coming happens: Kaeya gets hit by a lightning. There's no guttural scream, no cry of pain– there's not even a shocked gasp. It all happens so quickly, and Diluc thinks that if he hadn't been look in Kaeya's direction, the only telling detail would've been the sound of electro hitting the ground.
The next second, Kaeya collapses to the ground, like a puppet that's gotten its strings cut off. "Kaeya," Diluc gasps, throwing himself on his knees and picking him up by the shoulders, as gently as if he's a fragile porcelain cup that will break at any given moment.
"Kaeya," Diluc repeats his name in a whisper, as he stares at his brother's limp body in his arms. If it weren't because Diluc has just seen the whole scene happen before his very eyes, one could even think Kaeya's simply taking a nap.
As soon as Diluc checks whether his heart is beating or not, by leaning his ear against his chest, he's met with the worst possibility. "No," he gasps, horrified. Then, Diluc lowers Kaeya from his lap and lays him on the ground, with his mind racing as he racks his brain for an answer on what to do.
"You need to give him chest compressions to restart his heart."
Diluc's head snaps up in the direction of the voice: it's the girl's, because apparently the ice structure she's stuck in has left her head free, while the rest of her body's been left in the same position she had been when Kaeya's attack hit her: running away from them.
While that sounds reasonable, it's still odd that the enemy's helping him revive Kaeya. Still, Diluc follows her indication, puts his hands together, sits right next to Kaeya and starts doing the chest compressions. "One... and two... and three..."
"I could give him an electro shock," the girl then adds, making Diluc frown at her. There it is, that's why she was helping. "What? We're all as good as dead if you lose your little buddy," she nods her chin at Kaeya, and it makes Diluc actually consider her offer.
"Come on, man, we don't have a lot of time!" The girl shouts, and she sounds sincerely worried.
"But you ‐ and seven - don't even - and eight - have a delusion," Diluc finally finds a reason to doubt her intentions.
"I have it on the tent! I forgot about it because everything around me was burning!"
"I'm - and eleven - not - and twelve - letting you - and thirteen - free," Diluc weakly argues, but he can feel his resolve vanishing.
"Come on, he will stay dead if you don't!"
That's the last push Diluc needs to stop the compressions and sprint towards the tent – or what's left of it, anyway –, while mentally calling for his pyro to melt the ice structure that has the girl trapped. He knows it really isn't the smartest play, but he really is desperate and Kaeya's heart has stopped beating so he'll take anything.
Thank the archons visions glow, because otherwise he wouldn't have found it amongst all the rubble. "I've got it!" Diluc shouts, sprinting back towards Kaeya and the girl. "Here," he hands the electro vision to the girl and she instantly hooks it on her belt. "Please save him," despite himself, Diluc finds himself begging.
"Thunder clap!" the girl raises his hands in the air and then takes them to Kaeya's chest, as if she were about to pull another lightning– she isn't about to do that, right?! Diluc, of course, keeps his worries to himself as he watches her work, praying it works.
And it does, because, soon enough, Kaeya jolts awake, taking a deep inhale. "Archons," he whispers right after a harsh cough escapes his throat, hugging himself as he shivers.
"Kaeya," Diluc smiles, feeling his shoulders relax. Then, he can't help himself and goes to hug his brother, holding him close as if he's going to slip and vanish.
Diluc also notices the row of hurried footsteps behind him, but he doesn't move. After all, she is just a girl. Young soldier, Kaeya called her before, but Diluc differed. Now, she's free to choose her own path.
"What the heck happened?" Kaeya says in a shaky exhale. Then, sounding almost indignant, he adds: "you let her escape?"
"You just died and came back and that's your main concern?" Diluc asks him, honestly amused.
"I guess you're right... it's a problem for later," Kaeya chuckles, but he sounds breathless. "What about the others?"
"Tied down and passed out."
"Then we could question–"
"Kaeya, it's still raining, and, in case you need another reminder, you just came back from the dead," Diluc pulls apart from the hug to level his brother with a look. "We should get back."
"And if they escape?" Kaeya's still looking uncertain, while he's pale, shivering and a second away from fainting.
"We'll catch them again," Diluc assures him with a shrug, as if it's the easiest thing in the world, because he knows that's what Kaeya needs right now.
"Next time, let's avoid this stupid valley," Kaeya says with a wet laugh, looking around them.
"That's for sure," Diluc gives him a court nod before he gets back on his feet, offering Kaeya his hand, "come on, let's get you back to safety."
Kaeya gladly takes his hand and he stands up, before he hooks one of his arms around Diluc's shoulders. "Come on, my knight in shining armor, take me back home."
Diluc rolls his eyes at the harmless comment, and can't imagine a better outcome of such a sticky situation. Besides, they have yet to argue!