Chapter Text
The sky thundered as Diluc trudged his way towards Dawn Winery. The rain had started since before his father had taken his last breath to Diluc's own knife, and it mocked Diluc with its worsened intensity. He held his claymore tighter as the drops slowly cleaned the blood on its blade; hopefully, it would be all gone when he reached the house. Diluc could see it already, the lights coming from the vineyards and the house, tantalizing him with their warmth as ire was the only thing crossing the eighteen-year-old's mind.
That morning felt like a lifetime ago. Diluc had woken up to have breakfast with his father and bro- Kaeya on his birthday, before they started the trip to the winery to spend a day celebrating, before returning to the city to have his first drink at the Angel's share. That had been the plan, the perfect idea Diluc had had on how his first day as an adult would play out, but not even twelve hours later here he was finishing the trip to the winery alone and on foot, not father or so-called brother with him, both of their blood staining the blades of his knife and claymore.
"You are no longer my brother, you spy scum!" The words he had yelled at his brother from behind the newly appeared wall of ice rang inside his head again and again, a broken record player of hurt and betrayal. "Dont you dare go to the winery or the manor, you are not welcome on Ragvindir property, Kaeya. If I see you again, no vision will save you!"
He hadnt seen the other teenager, didn stay long enough to hear his reply. Diluc simply turned around and walked in the direction of the Winery that they had both once called home. Except not, because appearnetly to Kaeya it had all been nothing more than a lie, a trick to take advantage of Diluc's father's kindness while he spied on Mondstadt, just a countdown until the day he betrayed the people who had treated him and nothing but family since the day he arrived at the Ragvindir home.
Diluc didnt think about the terror directed at him after he first swung his claymore, before his brother could finish his tale. How his wounds were all from the fight with the drake because, even while Diluc himself was attacking him with a blazing Claymor, even if one with dampened pyro due to the rain, Kaeya hadn't replied with his own sword and simply ran and begged up until the sky itself came to the rescue.
Didn't extend a single thought to the fact that Kaeya was only fifteen years old and would have nowhere to go to find shelter from the rain and wind.
The door felt heavier than usual as he entered the winery, but it didnt register in Diluc's mind as much as the sound of cries from the living room to the side. Diluc looked to his left and saw Adelinde, now standing from the seat she had clearly just occupied and quickly driying her tears as she walked to greet him.
"Master Diluc! Welcome home sir, I was starting to worry the news just arrived from the city." Diluc didn't know how to reply as he accepted her help to take off his drenched coat. The house was warmth, he could see the central fireplace roaring in the living room, but Diluc could only feel the cold as Adelinde freted over him. "Master Kaeya hasn't returned, is he with you?"
"Kaeya is no longer welcome in this house." Diluc didnt move, couldnt bring himself to walk another step into the empty home, but he wasn't going to allow Adelinde to fret over someone who wouldnt be crossing that door ever again if he could help it. Watching her worry over the traitor breaking his heart much more than the abcsense of his suposed brother beside him. "He is not a Ragvindir any more and should be treated as such."
Adeline was halfway to the kitchen to fetch him a towel and something hot to warm her ward up, stoped in her tracks when she heard those words. The maid almost wanted to believe she had misheard him, that Master Diluc's words just hadnt reached her quite right and shed gotten confused in her grief over master Crepus. Because there was no way that Diluc was speaking about Kaeya with such vitrol in his voice, the very notion was unconceivable.
But when she turned and looked at the boy (because despite it being his eighteen birthday, Diluc was still just a boy) his furious eyes confirmed it.
"I see." Adelinde measured her words, slowly walking toward the entrance and the coats, around Master Diluc who hadnt moved an inch since hed arrived at the Winery not even five minutes prior. She was glad it hadnt rained that morning, so Kaeya had left his coat right there on the hook. Diluc seemed to notice the diirection of her steps, moving ever so slightly as to block her from the door. As if he would be able to.
He grabbed her wrist as she walked past him anyway, "I'm serious, Adelinde."
"I am sure you are master Diluc. Now, if you'll excuse me, we will discuss it when I return, there's soup on the stove, sir." Adelinde levelled a glare toward the boy trying to hold her, the boy she had helped raise. And she had never been one to lose her patience with the kids, but she was sure by the speed at wich Diluc let go of her wrist that every inch of her disappointment toward him was clear on her face. "I need to hurry, after all, Master Kaeya has always been prone to sickness; this weather cannot be good for him."
Adelinde grabbed Kaeya's coat and hers as well. When she opened the door, Diluc did not try to stop her a second time.
Kaeya had forgotten what the cold felt like.
It was such a silly thought, after all, he had gone on more than one mission to Dragon Spine with the nights and spent the cold Mondstat winters marvelling at the snow. It wasn't as if he had spent the last ten years in a heated desert. And yet, holding the cryo vision that saved his life and huddling in the alley behind the Angel's share, Kaeya realised he'd forgotten how the low temperatures felt on his skin and inside his bones. How lonely the rain felt when there weren't fellow knights to banter and complain about it with, and with no warm towel and bath waiting for him to return home.
Home, how weird it was, after a decade, to no longer have a place to call that word.
He had been foolish enough to think it would last forever, then the warmth the Ragvindir's seemed to have for him would never run out, and Kaeya would be able to be happy forever with the simple life he had decided to choose in Mondstadt, despite the weight of the guilt that decision had caused him. The lives he was costing his people had haunted him since, but now the only nightmare that he couldn't escape when closing his eyes was the ghost of Diluc's hate-filled eyes as he lifted his sword. Kaeya had thought of going to the cathedral to get help, but the idea that his older brother could have gotten the news of his banishment there before he made it made Kaeya hesitate. The same thing happened as he considered going to the Knights headquarters to get help from Jean or uncle Varka.
In the end, Kaeya had managed to stop the bleeding from his injuries with handmade bandages created from his tattered shirt and decided to just find someplace to bear the storm. He would leave Mondsadt in the morning, hopefully early enough as to avoid the knights on guard who would surely be looking to arrest him. His plan to rest at the angel's share was thwarted by the realisation that with his father Crepus's death, no one was left waiting for him at the tavern either, and Kaeya had no way of getting inside.
The alley between the tavern and the exterior walls ended up being his choice of shelter, where the extended roofs managed to protect him slightly from the downpour. Only a little bit, only enough so that he wasn’t getting drenched with every second, but not enough as to not get his clothes slightly wet.
it was fine though, if this was his punishment, Kaeya would gladly take it over his brother’s blade.Althought, could he really call Diluc his big brother anymore? He was right, Kaeya was scum, a traitorous ticking time bomb who would be acting in Mondatadt’s best interest by just dieyng already. He couldn’t blame Diluc, not really, not when he had just lost his father and Kaeya decided that it was the perfect time to reveal himself. (He ignored the voices screaming that he’d lost his dad to, that he had been scared, that he had thought Diluc would be able to help him carry the load that had only become heavier on his shoulders when he unceremoniously chose the side of Mondstadt.
Kaeya wasn’t even really sure when that had happened, or if it had been a conscious desition at all. Maybe it had been during his adventure in Sumeru, when despite having been with the Ragvindirs for only a short time at that point Crepus had left everything to go get him, to show Kaeya how much he was wanted and loved in their family. Or perhaps it had been a few months prior when he had finally been able to join the Knights of Favonious and Diluc, Adelinde and Crepus had organized him a great party to celebrate his achievement.
Maybe it has been slowly over time, every time his looking for affection was regarded with care instead of rods, his facade slowly desintegrating each time he was enveloped in his father's warmth.
Not that it mattered anymore, he had lost his home all the same, yet Kaeya couldnt even consider returning to Khaenriah a posibility. Hurt as it may, it didnt matter how much Diluc hated him now, Kaeya would always love his big brother and the city of freedom that allowed him to break his chains of guilt and responsibility. No matter how cold those streets were to him now as he shivered in the cold and rain, Mondstadt was and would now forever be his home, and if he was lucky, it would shortly become his grave as well.
His eyes felt heavy and Kaeya could no longer feel the cold that had quietly settled inside his bones. He knew from his training that it didnt spell a nice picture, but at least the numbness was a nice anesthetic. He just wanted to listen to his body, fall asleep and maybe, hopefully, join Crepus or at least his mother in the place that lay beyond. It would be easy, just a nice little nap and Kaeya knew he would never wake up anymore, not with his injuries and the cold.
He allowed the cold to envelop him as a faint voice started to call his name.
.
.
.