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Diluc’s seventeenth summer brings with it a heatwave like Mondstadt has never seen before.
The townsfolk all gather mist flower corollas and plant them inside their homes, spending their days sitting huddled around the cold plants until night falls and the heat fades. If Diluc could, he’d plant himself alongside the flowers, curl himself around the cool roots, and sleep until summer ends.
He’s always been particularly weak to hot weather, especially after he’d gotten his Vision. His father told him that one day he’ll be able to manage his newfound power in order to not feel the heat all the time, but right now, he’s sweating .
All the time .
Especially now, walking through the forest to collect mist flower corollas for the winery, the noon sun high in the sky and beating down on them. He feels as if his internal organs are boiling alive in heat like this.
Kaeya strides along ahead of him on his longer legs. Even if he’s not as sensitive to the heat as Diluc, his shirt is plastered to his back with sweat and his hair sticks to his neck in damp curls. As Diluc watches, he pulls the hair away from his throat and ties it up in a sideways bun at the top of his head before bending down to unearth another mist flower corolla.
Diluc briefly wonders if the nape of his neck would taste sweet under his tongue.
He shoves that thought to the back of his mind, where it tumbles into all the other partly hidden thoughts that involve Kaeya and Kaeya’s body and Kaeya’s body under his hands and mouth.
“Let’s go for a swim, yeah?” Kaeya asks. He tugs the flower, roots and all, out of the ground and tucks it quickly into the satchel slung over his shoulder before the frost can burn his skin. When he stands, he flashes Diluc a grin. “I’ll race you there.”
And despite the heat, Diluc would never back down from a challenge against Kaeya.
Their bare feet pound against the worn dirt path as they run. Tendrils of sweat seep into Diluc’s eyebrows and burn their way into his eyes, and the heat is making him so light-headed he thinks he may actually faint, but then he hears the sweet sound of Kaeya’s laughter ahead of him. It’s enough to spur him on, running and running until his feet meet blessedly cool water.
“That was a horrible idea, wasn’t it?” laughs Kaeya, panting as he collapses to the ground with his body halfway in the water. Diluc, on the other hand, is already up to his hips in the lake and wading even farther out.
“Worst idea you’ve ever had, I think,” Diluc says once the breath has returned to his lungs. He cups the water in his palms and splashes his face, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to tame the curls gone frizzy with heat.
“Worse than the time I suggested we open that bottle of wine and drink on the roof?”
Diluc immediately shudders at the memory. “I suppose all of your ideas are the worst then.”
Kaeya chuckles and sits up to remove his shirt. His hair falls out of its bun in the process, causing long, midnight strands to spill over his bare shoulders. He stretches like a cat then, back arching and exposing the tanned skin of his stomach to sunlight, and Diluc has to avert his eyes and sink lower into the water.
“Does the sun ever make you tired?” Kaeya asks suddenly. His one eye flutters shut and he throws an arm across his stomach as he tucks his other arm under his head. “I want a nap.”
His breathing evens out almost immediately, and Diluc cannot tell if he’s pretending to be asleep or not. He climbs out of the water anyway, cringing at how the heat meets his skin with the same intensity as before, erasing the water’s efforts in cooling him down, and pads his way back to shore.
Kaeya does not stir as Diluc perches himself on a low rock beside him, nor when he wrings out the water from his hair and the droplets make a pitter patter noise against the dirt.
So Diluc thinks he’s safe enough to look.
He looks at Kaeya too often these days, and not in the same fascinated way as he had when he was a child. Rather, he looks at him now with hunger, as if his eyes were a mouth and Kaeya’s body a magnificent feast laid out before him. This hunger burns inside of his stomach, as hot as the sun, and itches at his fingertips.
Diluc is not sure when it had become like this. He only knows that once he started looking, it became nearly impossible to look away.
He thinks, maybe, it had started around the time Kaeya went through a growth spurt. Diluc remembers his own, how in the span of a single spring he’d shot up in height and his biceps grew wide as a result of throwing a claymore around every day. He remembers Kaeya teasing him about it, about how the girls in the city look at him as he walks by, and he remembers thinking it odd that he does not care whether girls stare at him or not.
Kaeya’s own growth took a while for Diluc to notice, but the switch in his brain happened like a flash. One day Kaeya was shorter than him, thin and lanky, and the next he’d become both taller and fuller. His legs had become more curved around the calves and thighs and the thin, almost frail line of his shoulders had grown wide. Diluc distinctly remembers the night he noticed, while Kaeya was changing into pajamas, and he’d caught the fleeting glimpse of a hip, no longer bony but rather full and looking particularly malleable, and Diluc’s breath had caught in his throat.
Yes, that must’ve been when the thoughts started.
He looks at the same hip now, clad in damp cloth, and thinks about how he wants to dip his fingers past the hem of those pants and squeeze the pliable warmth he finds there.
Diluc sighs softly and leans forward, propping an elbow against his knee and lowering his chin to his palm. His eyes rake across Kaeya’s form as he gives himself permission for one fleeting moment to truly give in and look .
Water droplets glisten like stars on his brown skin, skin that has caramelized under the bright sunlight. The water pools into his belly button and Diluc wants oh so badly to place his mouth there, to suck the wet away until he can feel his stomach muscles contract under his tongue. He wants to drag his palms across sun-warmed flesh, to brush his fingertips along the soft, dark hair of his forearms. He wants to slot himself in between those parted legs and grab handfuls of plush thighs, bare forward onto him until—
“Luc?”
Diluc blinks, briefly stunned by the voice, and tears his eyes away from Kaeya’s lower half to find his eye is now wide open.
“Are you angry?” Kaeya asks. He props himself up on his elbows and the water trapped in his belly button spills over dark skin to disappear into the hem of his pants.
And, oh, Diluc did not mean to look there again.
“No,” says Diluc. “Why would I be angry?”
Kaeya shrugs. “You furrow your nose when you’re mad.”
Diluc reaches up and touches his nose self-consciously. It makes Kaeya laugh.
“If the heat is making you grouchy, we can just go back,” says Kaeya as he stands. He pulls his shirt back on in the process and, like a light has been put out, the heat in Diluc’s chest disappears. “We probably have enough flowers.”
Diluc hums in agreement, following Kaeya as he leads them back down the winding path. He does not look at Kaeya as they walk, keeping his eyes locked on his own feet as he follows behind him.
And then Kaeya pauses on the trail, waiting for Diluc to catch up with him so they can walk side by side. The back of his hand brushes Diluc’s. He smells like mint.
Diluc does not think he is strong enough to survive the heat of this summer.
One night, later in Diluc’s seventeenth summer, Kaeya enters his room.
Diluc wakes partly when he hears his bedroom door creak open, only to be startled into full alertness when he feels cool fingers skim his hairline and down behind his ear.
He opens one eye to see Kaeya’s figure, dark in the night, leaning over him. Technically, it’s too dark in the room for him to see if it’s truly Kaeya, but the smell of mint on his skin is enough for him to know. The calluses on his fingertips against his skin were familiar too, as he recalls what those calluses feel like pressed to his shoulder, his own hands, always brief but enough to be seared into Diluc’s memory.
His fingers are still in his hair.
“What?” Diluc asks sleepily. He fleetingly considers that this might be a dream. It’s not unfamiliar for him to be dreaming of Kaeya, of Kaeya’s hands on him. If it is a dream, then Kaeya should be swinging a leg over his lap next, or maybe sliding a hand into Diluc’s pants.
“We should go outside,” says Kaeya.
Not a dream then.
Diluc groans and sits up. The movement causes Kaeya’s hand to fall away from his head, and Diluc tries not to mourn it too much.
“Why?” Diluc asks.
“It’s too hot in here.”
Diluc snorts.
“I need fresh hair,” Kaeya continues. “And I, uh, had a nightmare.”
Diluc frowns. “Was it bad?”
Kaeya’s silence is answer enough. He does not tell him what his nightmares are about, and Diluc does not ask (despite how curious he may be) but he’s seen Kaeya in the midst of them many times before. How his fists clench in the sheets, how his face will twist up as his mouth opens in silent screams. It never gets easier seeing him like that, with Diluc unable to do anything but helplessly hold his hand through it.
“Okay,” agrees Diluc, swinging his legs out of bed to get dressed.
They sneak out into the night together, laughing loudly when they make it to safety in the forest. It’s just as warm outside as it was inside, the air humid and clinging hotly to Diluc’s bare skin as they trek deeper into the dark woods. Small lamp grass lights their way and highlights the angles of Kaeya’s face beautifully. It reminds him that he’d missed looking at him, and he curses his body’s need for sleep, for depriving him of precious hours of looking at Kaeya, being with Kaeya.
Diluc leads the way, chattering away about absolutely nothing in particular. Kaeya listens diligently, as he always does, quiet and smiling and oh, Diluc wants to kiss him so badly.
He’s going to, he realizes, when stops abruptly on the trail and turns to grab Kaeya by the shoulders. He’s never kissed anyone before, has never wanted to kiss anyone except for Kaeya, and he’s so nervous but if he doesn’t kiss him he thinks he might—
“Do you hear that?” Kaeya whispers fiercely, right when Diluc is about to lean in.
“Huh?”
All of a sudden, a giant boar bursts out of the bushes to their right.
Diluc thinks he lets out an unflatteringly loud scream as the boar, followed by another two, rushes at them. He’s momentarily frozen to the spot, only gaining the ability to move when Kaeya grabs his hand and yanks him away.
He leads him to the nearest tree, shoving him forward, and together they clamber up it. Diluc scrapes his knees against rough bark, feels splinters weasel into the skin of his palms, and receives an accidental kick to the forehead from Kaeya above him, but they eventually reach a branch sturdy enough to hold them both.
Once they’re sitting and a safe distance away from those wretched animals, the two of them burst into laughter.
Diluc reaches out to steady Kaeya when he nearly topples sideways off the tree branch from laughing too hard. “Careful. Hold onto me.”
Still chuckling and a little out of breath, Kaeya scoots forward until his knees bump Diluc’s. His hands grip his shoulders for balance. On the ground at the base of the tree, the boar grunt as their hooves beat at the ground angrily.
“Oh, my stomach,” Kaeya says as he continues to giggle, clutching his stomach as his body is wracked with laughter. He dips his head forward, pressing his forehead to Diluc’s chest. “It hurts!”
“Be quiet so the boar leave,” says Diluc despite the grin rising to his face. He loves when Kaeya laughs like this, how his face will light up brilliantly. Kaeya does not usually lose himself in his laughter—Diluc is the one who laughs loudly, needing a quietly grinning Kaeya to elbow him in the ribs to remind him that an official dinner with his father and the Knights is not a proper place to be overcome with giggles. So it’s nice, watching happy tears spring to Kaeya’s eye as he huffs in breathless gasps.
Happiness looks so good on him.
Eventually Kaeya’s laughter dies down. He sucks in a breath and moves forward, parting Diluc’s legs further so he can get a better grip on him. The movement sets off a tiny fire in Diluc’s gut, burning happily at having Kaeya in between his legs, pressed almost entirely to his chest.
“Ah, Luc,” says Kaeya. He looks up at him, wide grin still in place, eye sparkling in the light of the moon. “I have so much fun with you. Did you know that?”
Diluc takes a breath, and the oxygen he receives in response does nothing except make the fire inside of him grow larger. “Kae…”
“Hm?” Kaeya tilts his head to the side as he looks at him.
He’s so beautiful.
Diluc kisses him.
Kaeya releases a muffled gasp against Diluc’s mouth and Diluc immediately takes the opportunity to lick inside of him. His body is on fire, magma swimming in his head, overcome with the need to touch and kiss and lick this boy in front of him. He brings his hands forward, cups the back of Kaeya’s head, and kisses him deeper.
It’s fleeting, ends as soon as realization crashes over him like freezing water, dousing the flames in his stomach. He pulls back, slapping a hand over his mouth, panic building in his chest.
“Oh, Kaeya, I’m sorry—”
Kaeya reels him back in by the arm, harshly tugging his hand away from his mouth. Lips pressed to his, Kaeya murmurs, “Don’t stop kissing me, Diluc, or I swear to—”
Diluc does not give him the chance to continue speaking. He pushes forward, placing his hands on Kaeya’s thighs, warm under his palms just like he’d imagined, as he kisses him hard. He’s overwhelmed, frantic as he positively devours Kaeya. Overwhelmed knowing that he wants this too, that he’s returning Diluc’s kiss with a fervor, that he tastes just as good under his tongue as he’d imagined.
And as Kaeya whimpers into his mouth when Diluc’s hands slip to the insides of his parted thighs, Diluc thinks he might truly, actually pass away from how absolutely arousing that sound is.
He pulls back, sucks in a breath of hot air, says, “We need to get out of this tree. We need to go back, find a fucking bed—are the boar gone? Can we—”
Kaeya tugs Diluc’s face back so he’s looking at him again. His one eye glitters with amusement. His lips are slick and pink.
“Easy there, firefly, you’ve got flames in your hair.”
Soundlessly, Diluc watches as Kaeya pulls his hair out of his ponytail and shows him a lock of it. Tiny flames flicker amongst the red, slithering through his curls like serpents. It’s happened to him before—during practice, while fighting. But it’s never happened like this. He supposes it makes sense that finally getting to kiss Kaeya would be enough to quite literally set himself on fire.
“You’ll burn yourself,” says Diluc as he removes the hair out of Kaeya’s palm.
Kaeya shakes his head, smiling, and leans back in to press his mouth to Diluc’s jaw. “Wouldn’t mind being burned by you, Luc.” His tongue teases a spot just underneath Diluc’s ear. “If it’s you, it’s okay.”
Diluc inexplicably wants to cry. It’s not uncommon for him to get teary-eyed during particularly emotional events in his life, whether they be happy or sad. His father says it’s an admirable trait; to feel things so strongly. Kaeya once told him that it was cute, after he’d spotted Diluc crying over the calla lily he’d gifted him when they were very young, inevitably dying in its vase on Kaeya’s bedside table.
“It’s okay, Diluc, you can just bring me more flowers.” Diluc distinctly remembers Kaeya wiping his tears and under his breath whispering, “Cute.”
He does not cry now.
Instead he kisses Kaeya again, gentler this time. Kaeya’s hands slip into his hair, uncaring of the flames, and when his nails graze his scalp Diluc hums pleasantly. He feels content in this moment, just kissing and being kissed, wrapped in warm summer heat.
Chest pressed against Kaeya’s, he wonders if he can feel the warmth of his heart burning.
Once they finally manage to pry themselves away from each other, they climb down from the tree and return to the winery. Diluc keeps his hand in Kaeya’s the whole way back and continues to keep it there when they find themselves locked away in Diluc’s bedroom. He only removes his hand when he needs to use it for other things, and needs to touch Kaeya in other places. In places he’s only ever dreamed about until now.
The morning sun washes over them by the time they’re finished, and the hot summer day is already slipping through the cracks in the walls and the gaps of the windowsill. Kaeya’s head rests on Diluc’s bare chest, hair spilling across his pale skin, and Diluc is so in love.
He needs to tell him.
“I think…” Diluc takes a deep breath. “I really love you, Kae.”
And something flashes across Kaeya’s face. If Diluc knew any better, which he does, he’d think that look would be something akin to guilt.
But then his face evens out, a smile blossoming across his face.
“Me too. I love you too, Luc.”
They kiss again.
Many Years Later
Diluc tops Venti off with more wine, watching apprehensively as he throws back nearly half the glass in two large gulps. His cheeks are flushed when he sets the glass back down in front of him, his whole body leaning forward as he says, “Master Diluc, you’ve seemed upset lately. A certain cryo user occupying your thoughts, mayhaps?”
Unable to keep himself from bristling, Diluc snatches the glass away before Venti’s fingers can even touch it. “My thoughts are mostly concerned with your rapidly building tab. When did you say you would be paying that off again?”
Venti laughs nervously, eyes flitting to the ceiling. “Ah, you know, about that—”
Before he can continue, the door to Angel’s Share slams open. It brings with it a gust of wind so powerful and cold that it makes even Diluc shudder and forces Venti to brace himself against the bar with an unsteady hand. One of the posters on the wall comes unhinged and flutters to the ground at the feet of the person who’d just entered.
Diluc opens his mouth to reprimand the rude guest, only for his jaw to snap shut when he notices who it is.
“I could use a drink,” Kaeya says. His words are slightly slurred.
And he is covered in blood. It absolutely drenches the white fur of his cloak, staining his sleeves and collar crimson. His sword dangles from his hand, and Diluc watches as a line of blood runs down the shimmering blade and drips off the sharp tip to the floor.
The next few moments are a blur. Diluc knows he says something to Venti as he moves out from behind the bar to walk—no, run —to Kaeya, managing to reach him just in time to catch his cold body before he can collapse to the ground. His heart pounds in his ears as he lifts him into his arms, pushing past the patrons that Venti is urgently ushering out of the tavern. Diluc does not recall much after this, remembering only the sight of a smear of blood on Kaeya’s high cheekbone and how his skin is layered in frost.
Diluc comes back to himself as he scrambles through the medicine cabinet of the bedroom on the top floor of Angel’s Share. Reality comes rushing back into him, along with the sound of Venti’s voice, frantic.
“Master Diluc, we should really get him to the Cathedral, there’s so much blood —”
“Tell them to come here ,” Diluc snaps as he grabs several bottles from the cabinet and deposits them onto the table beside the bed. The bed that Kaeya currently lays limp on. Blood is already staining the white sheets and Kaeya is shivering, even while unconscious.
He’d been so cold in Diluc’s arms.
Grateful for the excuse to release some of the energy currently storming through his veins, he throws out a hand towards the unlit fireplace at the corner of the room. Flames roar to life in the hearth, a little too violent and hot, causing Venti, who’s standing across the room, to flinch back.
“Bring me everyone you can find,” Diluc continues, “I’ll take care of him here in the meantime, but locate Jean and have her tell you exactly what he’d been doing to end up like this—”
“Now there’s no need for the lovely Jean to be involved.”
Diluc whips his head around, only to find Kaeya moving to sit up in bed and struggling greatly in the process.
With a single hand, Diluc presses him back against the pillows.
Kaeya chuckles, wincing in pain immediately afterwards. “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I imagined myself in your bed, Master Diluc.”
Venti clears his throat from behind them.
“Ah, Venti, I didn’t see you there,” says Kaeya. At least he has the decency to look a little embarrassed. “Anyway, Jean was not aware of my activities this evening, so there really is no need to concern her.”
“Venti,” says Diluc. “Please let Jean know of what has transpired and that I will bring Sir Kaeya to the Cathedral if needed. Tell her not to worry, as he seems well enough to…make jokes.”
Kaeya flashes him a toothy smile.
There is still blood on his cheek.
Kaeya continues his struggle to sit up after Venti leaves the room. Diluc pushes him back down again.
“Really, Diluc, if you’re not going to be serving me alcohol while I’m here then I really don’t see any reason to stay.”
Anger burns under Diluc’s skin, mingling with the worry and adrenaline that still has not completely worn off. He flashes Kaeya a glare. “I distinctly remember you bleeding all over the floor of my tavern just moments ago. You can barely move—I don’t think you could leave if you tried.”
“It’s not even my blood,” Kaeya mutters. Then, “Most of it, anyway.”
“What happened?”
Diluc moves closer to the bed, organizing the vials of medicine on the bedside table. There is a tremble in his hands, and droplets of blood lay drying on the back of one of his gloves. He clenches his fists together upon noticing.
“Just some Skirmishers.” Kaeya hooks a finger in the front of his shirt and tugs the fabric, wet with blood, away from his chest with a grimace. “Dragonspine.”
Ah, so that explains the frost on his skin.
Without really thinking about it, Diluc angles his hand towards the fire and wills it to grow a little bigger in the hearth.
“Will you let me assess your injuries?” Diluc asks.
Kaeya shrugs and, before Diluc can stop him, swiftly sits up and shrugs out of his cloak and shirt. Bare skin meets the warm glow of the room, the flickering flames dancing along Kaeya’s chest. Diluc’s mouth goes dry briefly, memories of having that same chest pressed to his own rising to the forefront of his brain. The memories are quick to disappear, however, when Diluc takes in the large gash spreading from Kaeya’s collar bone down to his navel.
Laying back against the pillows, chest heaving, Kaeya releases a breathless laugh. “Little dizzy.”
“Archons, Kaeya,” Diluc swears. He stands to rummage again through the cabinet, removing materials to clean up and bandage the wound. He mutters to himself about Kaeya’s stupidity, just loud enough for the man on the bed to hear him.
And then he turns back towards the bed, and is met with the sight of a fast asleep Kaeya.
Diluc sighs and sits beside Kaeya’s slumbering form. He looks peaceful like this—the long lashes of his eye fanned across his cheek bone, chest rising and falling steadily, not a single distressed wrinkle to be found between his brows. Without thinking, Diluc reaches out and swipes his thumb lightly over his cheek to wipe that bothersome bloodstain away, only to jerk his hand back when Kaeya unknowingly leans into his touch.
Ignoring the burn of something in his chest, Diluc shucks off his bloody gloves and focuses entirely on cleaning and bandaging Kaeya’s injury.
He does not allow his eyes or his hands to linger on Kaeya’s exposed torso, meticulously washing out the gash before layering a strong-smelling herbal medicine to it and wrapping it up with gauze. Afterwards, because Diluc did, in fact, find himself fixated on how the light danced across the smooth expanse of Kaeya’s stomach, Diluc gets up to find him a shirt.
There is only a single shirt in the dresser, one that Diluc recognizes as his own. The fabric is worn and smooth against his palms as he gently pulls it over Kaeya’s head.
Diluc removes his shoes and socks next, dropping his sodden boots to the floor with a muted thump. Removing Kaeya’s pants brings back too many heated memories, and Diluc is ashamed of what he feels as he drags them down Kaeya’s legs. Kaeya is hurt and unconscious yet Diluc’s mind still floods with thoughts of the past, of the last time he’d had Kaeya in a bed underneath him.
Grimacing at his selfishness, Diluc wraps the thick blanket around Kaeya’s body. He’s shivering again, little jerks of motion that shake his entire frame and causes the bed to creak. On a particularly rough shiver, Kaeya wakes with a small gasp.
“Are you cold?” Diluc asks, even as his hand slides up Kaeya’s arm, warm fire simmering under the skin of his palm.
“I thought I dreamt you.” Kaeya grins. “Should’ve known it was real. You’re nicer in my dreams.”
“I’m being…nice.”
Diluc ignores the implication that Kaeya (frequently?) dreams about him and turns back to the table to grab a vial of medicine.
He uncorks the bottle a little too harshly, causing droplets of purple liquid to splash onto the back of his hand. He brings the bottle to Kaeya’s mouth, nudges his plush bottom lip with it when Kaeya makes no immediate move to comply. “Open your mouth.”
“ Oh ,” Kaeya drawls, “I had no idea you could be so direct, Master Diluc.”
“Kaeya—”
Kaeya's lips skim the rim of the bottle when he speaks. “Would you like me to get on my knees as well?”
“Stop talking now.”
Fortunately, Kaeya willingly drinks some of the medicine that Diluc provides for him. He stares up at him as he does it, making a show of swiping his tongue over his lips afterwards. He’s teasing because he thinks Diluc won’t do anything about it, but what he doesn’t know is that Diluc has to clench his fist against his thigh to stop himself from sliding two of his fingers into that mouth.
And then Kaeya coughs suddenly, a harsh shiver wracking his body, and the heat in Diluc’s chest disperses as he’s reminded of the situation at hand.
“Easy,” Diluc soothes, guiding Kaeya onto his back. “Are you still cold?”
“Why?” Kaeya asks, that teasing lilt still in his voice despite his condition. “Gonna warm me up?”
Diluc gives him one solid stare, then stands to remove his coat.
He takes pleasure in the look of utter shock on Kaeya’s face.
“What…?” Kaeya’s eye is wide.
“We should get your body temperature back up,” says Diluc, matter-of-fact as he lays his coat over a chair before kicking off his boots.
“I’m a cryo user, Diluc, I’m no stranger to the cold—oh.”
He stops speaking when Diluc smoothly climbs into bed with him. Concern washes over Diluc when Kaeya’s frigid skin meets his body, and he instinctively curls an arm around his torso to tug him closer. Kaeya makes a quiet oof sound at Diluc’s strength, but says nothing when Diluc begins rubbing pyro-charged hands up and down his bare arms.
It’s only when the silence lengthens—an unfamiliar occurrence whenever Kaeya is involved—that Diluc realizes just how awkward this is. Kaeya is rigid in his arms, head craned so far away that the tendons in his neck stand out. It’s as if he’s trying very hard not to yank his body away from Diluc’s touch, his jaw clenched and hands curled into fists where they rest against his chest.
Diluc immediately releases him.
“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable—” Diluc begins, moving to put some space between them on the bed, but Kaeya’s snort interrupts him.
“It’s a little late for that, isn’t it?” Kaeya’s voice comes out cold, mean .
Diluc frowns and starts to climb out of the bed. “I was just trying to help you, Kaeya, do you think I enjoy seeing you like this? So cold—”
“You’d rather see me burn, right?”
Diluc spins around to look at him.
His lips are curled up into a cruel smirk, contrasting the otherwise beautiful features of his face. There’s a glint to his one eye, emphasized by a raised eyebrow that immediately insights anger in Diluc’s chest. This look of his is taunting, a development of the Kaeya he knows now and certainly not belonging to the Kaeya he’d known when they were younger.
“Fuck you,” Diluc hisses.
“Ah, but you already have, haven’t you? Fucked me, that is. Or have you forgotten?”
Diluc begins to angrily retort with something equally as vile, but closes his mouth almost immediately. He looks away from Kaeya’s face and instead glances at his hands. His hands betray him, countering the blank, smirking face he has conjured. They’re still clenched into fists around the blankets, yet even that cannot hide how they tremble slightly. And Diluc knows that trembling is not due to the cold.
“Why do you do that?” Diluc asks. “You always know exactly what to say to make me angry, don’t you?”
“It’s rare to see you so angry nowadays. I suppose I should be proud to be the only one capable of making you furious.” Kaeya grins. “Will you hit me, Master Diluc? Just like you did that night?”
Diluc hides a flinch. He’s aware that Kaeya is only trying to get under his skin, a task that he seems to enjoy performing more and more often lately. And although Diluc often rises to that bait, he will not do the same tonight. Not when the man had just been bleeding and unconscious in his arms, not when Diluc had thought for a moment that he would lose Kaeya again .
“Why do you do that?” Diluc asks again, noticing the barest flicker of surprise cross Kaeya’s face, presumably because he’d been expecting Diluc to become angry. “Some sort of defense mechanism, perhaps?”
Kaeya’s hands twist in the blankets, brow furrowing.
Diluc interrupts him before he can get a word out.
“Or maybe you think you deserve it? You want to make me angry enough to hate you, to hurt you, is that it?”
The words taste foul on his tongue—the mere thought of Kaeya thinking he deserves to be hated and to be hurt makes pain blossom somewhere between Diluc’s lungs
And yet Kaeya does not answer Diluc’s question. He looks away, towards the fireplace, and remains silent. It gives Diluc his answer.
Something in Diluc’s chest crumbles.
“Kaeya…”
When Kaeya throws back the blankets, it makes Diluc jump.
“Thank you for having me, Master Diluc,” says Kaeya, voice stiff, devoid of emotion, “but I really must be going.”
It appears the determination alone is the only thing that keeps Kaeya from falling over, his gait wobbly as he walks towards his discarded clothes. His face pinching in surprised pain as he bends to tug on his boots is what shakes Diluc out of his shock. He grabs Kaeya by the arm just as he reaches the door.
“Kaeya,” Diluc says again, “Please. Stay.”
“ Stay ,” Kaeya repeats sardonically. “Like you stayed all those years ago?”
“I’m—”
“Oh, that’s right!” Kaeya yanks his arm away from Diluc, levels him with an even, seemingly uninterested stare, and says, “You didn’t, did you?”
Diluc’s hands lay limply at his sides. Behind him, the fire in the hearth fades into embers.
Kaeya opens the door and strides out, his hunched shoulders the only indication that he’s feeling something other than anger, and leaves Diluc standing numb in the doorway.
The Knights of Favonius get loud when they are drinking.
It’s just another reason for Diluc to dislike them.
Across the bar, Jean flashes him an apologetic smile when a cacophony of laughter rings out loudly from the group of men sitting at the table behind her. Diluc brushes her off with an understanding nod, knowing that if she were allowed, she’d be just as loud as them.
The Knights were welcoming new recruits, as well as celebrating a certain long term mission finally wrapping up successfully earlier that day. They’d all tumbled into the tavern just before the sun had set and now, well past midnight, they were still as loud and as thirsty as when they’d first arrived. Even Jean had helped herself to a few pints of beer, leaving her cheeks flushed and shoulders uncharacteristically loose as she speaks with Lisa.
Of course, Diluc’s gaze does not linger on them for long, his eyes instead favoring the man sitting at the table beside the door.
Diluc has not spoken to Kaeya for weeks now, not since the night he’d shown up at the tavern bloody and injured. The following night, however, Diluc had returned to the bedroom above the tavern to find the shirt he’d lent Kaeya neatly folded on the bed, along with a formal note thanking him for his help and hospitality.
When Diluc had brought the shirt to his face, it had smelled like mint.
A Knight sitting across the table from Kaeya says something to make Kaeya grin around the rim of his wine glass. He seems to be fully healed after his lone Dragonspine excursion, and the happy glint in his eye appears authentic. Diluc is glad he’s having a good time.
“Are you going to be staring at him all night again or will you actually speak to him this time?”
Diluc barely spares a glance to where he knows Venti lays reclined on the floor behind the bar when he says, “If you’re going to be back here, I may as well put you to work.”
Venti hiccups. “My dear Diluc, I could not stand right now if I wanted to.”
The bard strums a jagged, cheerful tune on his lyre and takes a swig out of a half empty bottle of wine before cradling it against his chest. Diluc gently kicks his leg, earning him a kick in return, but doesn’t bother him further.
Charles returns from his break a few moments later, and Diluc takes the opportunity to escape outside for some fresh air.
He leans against a table outside of the tavern, muted laughter behind him. The streets of Mondstadt are vacant this late at night, save for a cat darting out from behind a building and disappearing around the corner. Over the years, he’s grown more comfortable with silence. With being alone. It’s a stark difference from how he was as a child, always craving the accompaniment of others, scared of the night’s darkness. Now, it seems like being alone is the only time he can truly breathe.
The door of the tavern opens, momentarily spilling golden light and loud voices across the cobblestones ahead of him before closing again. Diluc does not address the person, assuming they are a patron either returning home for the evening or relieving themselves in the bushes behind the tavern.
And then the person stops at Diluc’s side.
“Master Diluc,” Kaeya greets him.
“Sir Kaeya,” says Diluc in response, pretending that his heart had not immediately quickened in pace at the sound of his voice.
“It’s terribly loud in there, isn’t it? The Knights certainly know how to have a good time.”
Diluc hums in agreement. “Shouldn’t you be with them?”
“I prefer the quiet too, sometimes.”
Diluc finally turns to look at him.
Diluc wonders if there will ever be a moment where he’ll look at Kaeya and not be struck with his beauty. He feels out of breath, whenever he looks at him, especially when Kaeya’s startlingly pretty eye flicks to him.
He’s standing too close, so close that Diluc could count Kaeya’s many eyelashes if he wanted. He’d done that, once before—counted his eyelashes as he ran a thumb across his cheek bone, only pausing in his task whenever he felt like leaning in for a kiss.
Diluc clenches his fists at his sides. His chest burns .
Kaeya smiles softly, as if he’s just remembered something fond, and asks, “Would you like to take a walk with me?”
And when Kaeya begins walking, of course Diluc follows, as if Kaeya holds a rope in his hand with the other end tied around Diluc’s neck, beckoning him along.
They weave their way through the city of Mondstadt together in silence and Diluc continues to watch Kaeya from where he walks half a step behind him. Moonlight bathes his face and turns his hair into cold waves that spill across his forehead, down to his sharp cheeks. It is obvious he’s been drinking—obvious in the way that he isn’t smiling yet his face is evened out in genuine contentment. This look on his face is familiar, reminding Diluc of their youth when he’d look over at Kaeya during parties or dinners with his father. He would always see this face, not the one with the fake grins and the flirtatious curls of his eyebrow that he so often wears today.
They end up circling back around the front gates, drifting towards Wagner’s where a fire still flickers in the fireplace. Kaeya holds his hands out in front of him, warming his palms in the glow of the flames.
“Cold?” Diluc asks.
Kaeya hums. “The winds from Dragonspine drift down here this time of year.”
Without thinking, Diluc shrugs out of his long coat and offers it to Kaeya. “Here. I’m not cold.”
Kaeya’s eyes briefly flick down to Diluc’s forearms. The corner of his mouth twitches. “Silly Diluc, the cold does not harm cryo users.”
“That does not make you immune to it.” Diluc sighs and, stepping boldly forward, wraps his coat around Kaeya’s shoulders. He pulls it snuggly around his front, fingers lingering momentarily before he moves away.
Kaeya looks down at himself and snorts. “This is far too big for me.”
“You look…” Cute , is what Diluc wants to say. He looks so cute in Diluc’s big, clunky coat that makes him appear much smaller than he actually is. “...Warmer.”
Kaeya hums and smiles at him. “I am. Thank you, Diluc.”
In that moment, Diluc feels like he could single-handedly take on all the Archons in a fight and win.
The two of them lapse into a comfortable silence. Kaeya idly rolls a coin between his knuckles as he looks up at the sky, and Diluc watches him. Like this, standing beside Wagner’s fire that feels like summer sunlight on his skin, Diluc aches for the past, nostalgia clogging his throat. He wants desperately to return to that summer from so long ago that his fists clench, the memory of warm skin and breathless laughter and the smell of mint swirling through his head.
He’s so overcome with it, he doesn’t even notice when he steps forward into Kaeya’s space.
Kaeya’s eyes flick from the sky to Diluc’s face, and Diluc doesn’t miss how his gaze flits down briefly to his mouth before moving back up to his eyes.
“I miss you,” says Diluc, and the admission feels like he’d just cut open his own chest, tore his bloody heart out of the wound, and handed it out for Kaeya to take.
Kaeya sucks in a sharp breath, one eye searching Diluc’s. “I’m right here.”
“You’re not.” Diluc takes a step closer, the heat of Wagner’s fire washing over him. “You’re always here but you’re never… here .”
“And you are?” Kaeya counters, but his tone is without bite. His hand comes up, thumb meeting the spot just beside the corner of Diluc’s mouth. “You used to smile so much, Diluc. Always smiling.”
Kaeya’s thumb drifts further in, and Diluc’s entire body shakes when it brushes over his lower lip. “Used to get up every morning just to see that smile.”
“We’re different now,” says Diluc. Kaeya’s hand drops from his face. “Everything is different now.”
“Everything?”
Kaeya crosses that final, short distance between them, chest meeting Diluc’s. “I don’t know about you, Master Diluc, but for me there are some things that do not change. No matter how hard I try.”
“Me too.”
It’s Kaeya who kisses him this time.
He doesn’t surge forward like Diluc did all those years ago. Instead he moves hesitantly forward, as if shy, lips grazing Diluc’s before he picks up the courage to press his mouth fully against his.
Diluc has a moment of such intense euphoria he feels like he might fall forward, only to realize he does exactly that when Kaeya lets out an oof of surprise as his back meets the side of the fireplace. His ensuing grin against Diluc’s mouth is exhilarating.
Pulling back briefly, Diluc looks at Kaeya. His face is flushed, his mouth curved into a silly smile, his eye twinkling like sunlight’s reflection on water. Diluc, in awe, brings up a hand to cup his cheek. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Please.”
They meet again at once, frantically, years worth of desire, of longing shattering between them. Diluc’s hand slides into the hair at the back of Kaeya’s head, loosening where it’s tied, as he kisses him deeper. He revels in how Kaeya’s mouth blossoms under his, lips parting for him like petals in the sun. Even after all this time, he still goes pliant under Diluc’s hands and mouth, just like when they were younger and Diluc would press him into a mattress as he kissed him just to feel how his body would go limp under his. He still makes the same noises too—little sighs of pleasure that spill across Diluc’s tongue and down his throat.
It all sets Diluc ablaze .
Diluc presses in, sucks on Kaeya’s tongue once, and moves away. Kaeya falls back against the stones behind him, his chest heaving and his lips slick.
“You’re just as…overwhelming…as you’ve always been,” says Kaeya, but it doesn’t seem like he’s reprimanding him. “Can’t ever seem to be able to catch my breath with you, Master Diluc.”
“And you still like it, don’t you, Sir Kaeya?”
Diluc realizes vaguely that he can’t seem to stop touching him, hands sneaking past his own coat wrapped around Kaeya’s shoulders, palms pressed to his lithe waist. Archons, he loves his waist, wants to touch the bare skin there, pin him down, hold him around the hips as he presses in—
Diluc takes a shuddering breath. He has known restraint now for many years, but this is too much.
“Still just as eager too.”
Kaeya cups Diluc’s cheek, redirecting his attention to his face. He leans in, pressing a kiss to Diluc’s cheek bone, the corner of his eye, his mouth.
“‘Luc,” he says, and Diluc is crumbling , “take me home?”
“ Yes .”
They do not sleep together, even though it’s quite clear both of them want to.
They do, however, divest themselves of their clothes save for their undergarments, lay down in Kaeya’s apartment bed, (and, Archons, is it uncomfortable—Diluc considers briefly buying him a new one) and hold each other. Holding Kaeya like this, Diluc can’t help but remember when he used to do this when they were younger. Kaeya’s skin is much colder to the touch now, cryo infused in his veins, and it briefly makes him recall that night weeks ago when he’d been shivering under his touch.
Diluc tightens his grip on him and splays his hand across the still healing wound on his chest.
And, as always, Kaeya knows. He cranes his head back and places a lingering kiss on Diluc’s jaw. “I’m warm, Luc. You’ve always kept me warm.”
Diluc sucks in a shuddering breath. “I thought…For a moment I thought you were going to die that night, Kaeya, I can’t—”
Words fail him suddenly. He doesn’t like thinking about what had transpired that night; Kaeya’s limp body in his arms, the sharp tang of his blood in Diluc’s nostrils, Kaeya’s anger as he left him alone in the bedroom above the tavern. It feels so long ago, but yet…not.
A cool hand cups Diluc’s cheek, redirecting his gaze so he can look at Kaeya’s face, serious and somber in the low light of his apartment.
“I apologize for how I acted that night, afterwards,” says Kaeya earnestly. His eye is bright, wide. “I was confused…thought you hated me up until then.” He releases a humorless laugh. “I still think you do, if I’m being quite honest, that this is a dream or—”
Diluc swoops in, chest aching, and kisses him hard, just once before pulling back. “I do not want you to think for even a second that I hate you. I don’t hate you, Kae, I never have even if I once thought I did…I—”
“Say that again,” Kaeya interrupts.
“What?”
Kaeya presses himself closer and, underneath the blankets, his ankle hooks around Diluc’s. “‘Kae.’ Say it again.”
Diluc grins, a sort of giddiness settling in his chest, urging him forward until he’s hovering over Kaeya, pressing him into the mattress. “ Kae .”
Kaeya’s eye flutters closed, a pretty, authentic smile gracing his lips. “Missed that,” he murmurs and, with his eye still shut, reaches up to twine fingers through Diluc’s hair as he pulls him down for a kiss.
At that moment, Diluc is seventeen again, kissing Kaeya for the first time high up in a tree late at night.
When they separate, Kaeya tugs once at Diluc’s curls and chuckles. “Glad to see that hasn’t changed either.”
It’s then that Diluc notices the orange glow around them, highlighting all the beautiful features of Kaeya’s face. He’s confused for a moment, wondering where the light is coming from, and then he remembers.
“My firefly,” says Kaeya fondly, running gentle fingers over the fiery strands of Diluc’s hair. “Beautiful.”
Diluc eases Kaeya’s hand away from his head and presses it against the pillow above his head instead. Even if by accident, he will never burn Kaeya again.
“Love you, Kae.”
“I love you, Luc.”
Diluc bends to kiss him again and thinks, Fuck, what took us so long?
And then Kaeya curls a hand around the back of his neck, licks at the seam of his mouth, and Diluc thinks of nothing at all.