Chapter Text
The audacity that certain people held was a truly baffling phenomenon that was worthy of Albedo's studying.
It's a rather loud night at the bar; the spring harvest had only just concluded a few days ago, and Mondstadt's citizens are eager to get their hands on Dawn Winery's renowned product. Much to Diluc's dismay, not many people at all were interested in trying the non-alcoholic drink menu he'd been so carefully creating. Though, if he ever asked, Kaeya would gladly sample various sparkling juices; he was always the better one at being able to tell what flavors did and did not go together, anyway, and the older chalks that up as a small win.
Speaking of Kaeya, he was perched at his usual spot tonight, at the far corner of the bar counter and sipping on the Death After Noon that Diluc had mixed him without a word. The redhead spares a few glances to him as he easily converses with the other citizens of Mond, both intoxicated and sober alike, an inviting smile on his lips the entire time.
He'd grown a lot, since Diluc was away. It was humorous, in a way, to think about how both their personalities had drastically flipped to mirror each other's as kids; even as teenagers. The older can't help a small, proud smile as he watches Kaeya easily keep up conversation; and Kaeya's eye briefly flicks to Diluc, catching that smile, and there's a genuine sort of pride twinkling in his starry eye.
"Hey!"
Diluc flinches, gripping the wineglass in his hand. Immediately, his smile and calm thoughts fade, replaced with a barely concealed scowl as someone stumbles to the counter. A Knight, Diluc notes as the insignia on his armor comes into view, and even in the man's drunken stupor, he and the redhead make eye contact. Kaeya's previous lighthearted conversation fades into the background, the Captain suddenly alert and narrowly eyeing the Knight with a dangerous protectiveness.
"Can I help y—"
Diluc doesn't get the chance to even finish his question. "You left us," the Knight spits, slamming his own empty glass onto the wooden counter. "All this pride and talk about the youngest Calvary Captain leadin' a bunch of seasoned Knights twice your age, and you couldn't even stand by us when tragedy struck."
The various conversations within the entire tavern fall to a quiet murmur, more and more eyes falling onto the commotion. Kaeya's eye widens, a bit, brow raising as if his mind is doing somersaults to comprehend this Knight's sheer audacity. The younger opens his mouth to speak, but Diluc makes a subtle gesture at him with a hand, briefly making eye contact. Kaeya doesn't relax even a little, though he's quick to close his mouth if the older was so determined to handle things on his own.
"There were several factors at hand pertaining to what you're referring to," Diluc answers, setting down the glass he'd been wiping. His voice is steady and clear, and Kaeya bites down onto his tongue. The older didn't owe an explanation to anyone, even a Knight. "It's none of your business—"
"Oh, but it is." The Knight — which Kaeya now recognizes, he'd been a rookie when Diluc had sparred circles around the man even as a fourteen year old. "'Cause I had to be the one under some rich kid's command, and I kept my mouth shut about it. Told myself that Varka knew what he was doing, letting some little brat order us around."
Kaeya's hand curls into a fist around his glass. Diluc looks unfazed, besides the way his eyes narrow. "And that era is long behind us—"
The Knight bares his teeth, once again cutting the winery owner off. "But when things got bad, you folded. Couldn't fight off Ursa without your precious father coming to the rescue, and you couldn't even save your own men from death. I had childhood friends on that platoon! They all had faith in you!"
Several gasps fill the room. Kaeya looks to Diluc, and the younger doesn't miss the way his jaw tightens. There are embers dancing at his hands, threatening to roar to life. Once again, the younger opens his mouth to speak — to demand the Knight to cease berating his brother, because how dare he— but once again, Diluc shoots him a pointed look before taking a deep breath, a clear attempt at extinguishing the fire rising in his mind.
"I am deeply sorry for your losses," Diluc says, and he genuinely sounds remorseful in a way that makes Kaeya want to kick this Knight's teeth in. "I did what I could, everything that I could to—"
"But you failed," the Knight drawls, every syllable laced with hatred and venom as he steps forward, jabbing a finger into Diluc's face. "You were a little brat way in over their head, tryin' to meet expectations you could never live up to. And their blood will always be on your hands. My friends, and your father's. You couldn't even be man enough to stay at our sides. You ran off like a whiny little bitch who just wanted his dead mommy and daddy."
Heat fills the tavern, as if a bonfire had been ignited right where Diluc stood.
But Kaeya moves first.
The Calvary Captain stands up so quickly that his chair falls behind him. But Kaeya can't hear anything over the roaring in his ears, heart racing and eye wide with such a wild rage he doesn't think he's ever felt in his entire life. Frost gathers at his fingertips and coalesces up his hands as he grabs the Knight's shoulder, forcing him to meet his eye — before reeling back and swinging. His fist connects with the aggressor's face with a sickening crunch, his nose breaking immediately and blood spraying onto Kaeya's hand, onto the floor. Dimly, the Captain is aware that his wrist is aching, throbbing in time with his drumming heart, but he shakes it off. A group of three Knights gathered at a far table all seem to sober up in unison, eyes going wide as they surround both him and the very-soon-to-be former Knight's side.
"C-Captain —" one stammers as the other two haul the limp aggressor to his feet, eyes wide with fear. Distantly, Kaeya realizes that no one has likely ever seen him so furious before, including himself. "What would you like us to—"
"Take him to the interrogation room and have one of the sisters see to his nose," Kaeya musters, his breath visible in the open air — as if he were outside on Dragonspine. "I'll see to informing Grandmaster Jean. If anyone asks about his nose — well. Let's go with, 'our little intoxicated friend here got into a scuffle and ran off like a whiny little baby.'" Kaeya's voice rises a half-step in pitch on that last statement, mocking and wholly unprofessional, but he couldn't care less right now. "Am I clear?"
"Sir!"
Within moments, the three Knights are gone, hauling off their defeated comrade back to Favonius Headquarters — and leaving the rest of the tavern staring directly at both himself and Diluc. Kaeya huffs out a laugh, stifling the hiss as he moves the arm that had swung on the Knight.
"Now, now. You've all had your performance. Back to what actually matters, hm?"
After another moment of uncomfortable silence, the patrons slowly return to conversation, a rising murmur once again filling the bar. Kaeya sighs, adrenaline draining out of him and sagging his shoulders — but then he gasps, turning sharply to face Diluc.
Diluc is still there — physically, at least — though his gaze is entirely somewhere else. His breathing is slow, halted, his eyes staring through the bar counter rather than at it.
"Diluc—" Kaeya tries, his breath still visible in the air. The frost has spread to his elbows. "Are you—"
"Outside," Diluc says, his tone leaving little room for argument. "Now." And with that, he turns, grabbing his coat before making his way out the back door. Kaeya swears under his breath, bringing his hands up and digging the heel of his palm into his eye; was Diluc angry with him? He'd just made a rightful mess in his brother's tavern, his anger splitting in a way he didn't know he was capable of. Now Diluc was furious, ready to snap on him just as he had all those wretched years ago —
"Shut up," Kaeya hisses out quietly to no one in particular, forcing himself to take a step. Then another, and another, until he's made it to the back door and his hand is on the knob. Taking a shuddering breath, he pushes it open — and immediately finds Diluc leaning against the railing, overlooking the rest of town from the second floor, his arms folded on top of each other. There's something held in between his pointer and index finger, softly glowing; when Diluc exhales, smoke fills the open air.
"Are you alright?" Kaeya asks.
"Come here," the redhead says after a moment, avoiding the question entirely, turning and tilting his head towards the chair next to him. "I needed you away from prying eyes. Let me take a look at your wrist."
Some invisible force pulls Kaeya forward, walking until Diluc gently guides him to sit down. He's still shaking with adrenaline and fury, he realizes; and though Diluc has clearly noticed, he blissfully doesn't make any comment on it. The older takes a final drag of his cigarette before turning his head away from the younger and exhaling, dropping and crushing it under his boot.
"You're not mad," Kaeya says, only a little surprised. His nose wrinkles at the scent of tobacco; he'd never been able to pick up the scent on Diluc until now. ".. Since when do you smoke?"
Kaeya's voice is small as Diluc kneels down in front of him, carefully taking his frost-bitten hand into both of his own. The redhead rolls his eyes and lets out a huff, almost as if he's amused. "Of course I'm not upset. Not with you, at least. And since we're asking idiotic questions — when did you start drinking as if your bloodstream consists of wine?"
The younger can't help but laugh, though hollow, fucked as their situations are. "Touché," he mutters, and immediately hisses in pain as Diluc maneuvers the younger's glove off. Ice has encased his fingertips, spread in wide maze-like arrays down his hand, his mangled looking wrist, and down his arm.
"Your wrist is broken," Diluc announces, flatly.
"Is it? I suppose that Knight was a lot more hard-headed than he sounded," Kaeya replies, though he can't quite fully manage a lighthearted tone. Diluc holds the hand in both of his, gingerly, staring down at it as if it held every secret in Teyvat.
"Hey," Kaeya says. "I can hear you overthinking."
"You didn't need to do that," Diluc says, and his voice wavers slightly. "He wasn't worth it. If anything, he wasn't. . . very far off from the truth."
The older's lips pull into a grimace, gaze drifting off to somewhere Kaeya couldn't quite reach again. The Captain squeezes his brother's hands as much as he can manage.
"Maybe he wasn't worth it," he says, voice soft, "but you are, 'luc. And if you ever tell me that you're actually taking to heart what that idiot said, I'm going to toss you headfirst into Cider Lake."
Diluc looks up at him, eyes conflicted as if he has difficulty believing that. Then, he sighs, rising but yet gentle warmth spreading from his gloved hands and outward, onto Kaeya's injured one. The ice begins to melt, and the crescendoing pain in his wrist dulls. Kaeya lets out a relaxed sigh, shoulders sagging once again.
"You'll need to switch sword hands for a few weeks," Diluc continues, manifesting a roll of bandages from the same Vision-created space his claymore rested. "As long as you aren't reckless, it should heal fine."
"Reckless? Me?" Kaeya sounds more offended than he actually feels, and Diluc rolls his eyes. "I'd do nothing of the sort."
"Uh-huh," Diluc replies, sounding entirely unconvinced. He begins wrapping the injury, and Kaeya grips the chair with his other hand, frost spreading across it; Diluc apologizes, softly, trying to be quick but thorough. "Just try to take it easy for a little while."
Once Kaeya's injury is tended to, he carefully slips his glove back on, flexing the hand and his fingers; the movements are slow, and he winces. His saving grace was being ambidextrous, and if he shared his paperwork load with Albedo, he could probably manage. . .
He looks up. Diluc is back on the railing again, one hand close to his mouth. When Kaeya approaches, he watches as the older lights another cigarette, a controlled ember flickering at his thumb.
"That's doesn't do wonders for your lungs, you know," Kaeya says, leaning against the wood next to his brother.
"Neither does exuberant amounts of alcohol for your liver," Diluc retorts. And, honestly, he has him beat there.
They linger there for a while, Kaeya flicking up a golden coin every so often and easily catching it. Something he did when he was anxious, Diluc had noticed; an effort to keep his hands busy. Eventually, it's Diluc who breaks the silence, to Kaeya's surprise.
"I should get going," he says, pushing himself away from the railing and turning to walk away. "You're welcome to stay after closing."
"Unfortunately, I have an incident report to write," Kaeya replies, flicking his coin higher into the air at the memory of the Knight's vile words. "And someone to relieve of their position within the Knights of Favonius."
Diluc hums. He runs a hand through his hair, turning his head to look back at Kaeya.
"If you need a witness, let me know. I'm open to explaining everything to Jean, as well." Kaeya looks up from where he's maneuvering his coin between his fingers, and Diluc looks entirely serious. "She'll. . . well. I can at the very least take the blame for the trouble—"
"As if she wouldn't have done the same thing I did," Kaeya replies, offering Diluc a wry grin. "After enough glasses of wine, of course."
Diluc blinks at him, then snorts, unable to hide the amused smile that spreads across his face. Kaeya chalks that up to an even bigger win than breaking the jerk's nose.
"Goodnight, Captain," Diluc says, opening the door back into the tavern. "And. . . stay safe, yes?"
"Of course," Kaeya replies, giving a small bow. "As you wish, Master Diluc."
Diluc rolls his eyes, stepping back inside and closing the door behind him. Kaeya smiles, turning around to remain on the roof for just a little longer, under the full moon and array of stars.
At least this time, he was here to show his brother that there were still those who would stand up for him.