Work Text:
Diluc breathes heavily, claymore hefty in his hands. Maybe he shouldn’t have rushed after his brother blindly.
Wasn’t fire supposed to be stronger than ice?
“I should’ve killed you when I had the chance, you dirty traitor!”
Kaeya, with all his cyro power he had supposedly been hiding, almost looked like an archon. Small bits of ice swirled around him like a miniature snowstorm, and Diluc could feel the cold radiating off of him.
“You wouldn’t. I’m still your brother after all. Even if you won’t even call me that.” Kaeya replies, all of his usual joking demeanor gone.
“You stopped being my brother a long time ago.” Diluc coughs, preparing another attack.
The air feels unnaturally cold compared to the usual warm air that he was used to.
Nothing compared to those cryo abyss mages.
“When was that? When I told you I was sent here as a spy by my kingdom? Or was it when I finally betrayed the knights, Mondstadt, everyone really?
Diluc attempts to hit him with his fiery claymore, only to be blocked by a thick icy shield.
Seeing the frost forming on the blade and no other options, Diluc jumps back, the sound of the large sword hitting the ground almost echoing in his ears.
A few pieces of ice cut his arm and cheek, but other than that he’s alright.
At least his didn’t loose his weapon, that could have put him at an even worse disadvantage than he is in now.
He underestimated Kaeya.
“Father never should have trusted you.” Diluc spits out, the words leaving his mouth before he can truly think about them.
He can see Kaeyas expression change for a second, before it goes back to his icy demeanor.
“Father was generous enough to take in a child after his father left him outside, all alone. A child who was expected to devote his own youth to becoming a spy and climbing his way up, all to destroy the ones who took him in!”
The cold energy around Kaeya wavers before becoming stable again.
If Kaeya won’t face the truth, Diluc will make him.
Diluc will make him face everything he has done. Everyone he has hurt and betrayed, every reason Diluc ran to face him alone.
He hefts his claymore back, the familiar hot energy of his vision flowing throughout his body.
“Father was a fool for letting some stranger he didn’t know into his home!”
The fiery phoenix lets out a cry, heading towards Kaeya.
And yet the once brother now enemy seems unfazed.
Diluc looks up, steamy fog hiding Kaeyas figure.
Other than some burnt clothing, he seems fine.
Diluc is starting to wonder just how much time and effort he put into training his vision.
“Father is dead. Is he a fool for that as well Diluc? Or are you still blaming yourself for his actions and wishes?”
Diluc grits his teeth.
“I doubt father was even proud of you! I was the one he passed his hopes and dreams onto! I was the one in the knights at a young age, I was the one who he trusted! Unlike you, he loved me!”
Diluc really has messed up now.
The aura of Kaeyas power is becoming unstable and Diluc can see the shape of the floating ice changing.
“I don’t care if he was proud of me or not! He did more for me than my real father ever has done! My father left me for the so called sake of our nation! Me, a child! A child who actually grew to love this land! I doubt you know what it’s like being conflicted so long! You were the only one I considered family after father passed on, and you just threw me away!”
Kaeya drops to his knees, the frost around him dissipating away.
“I have nothing! All I had was a stupid crush on an alchemist who probably doesn’t care about me and my captain rank! All that means nothing when I have no one! So what do you say when your father comes back after years of disappearing from your life, to tell you that it’s time to attack? Who do you turn to about what to do when you have no one who will understand? Don’t I deserve to be loved too?”
Diluc can see tears falling, tears that aren’t freezing the second they hit the barely cool air.
He finds himself walking to the crying man.
Diluc kneels down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry. By the archons, I’m sorry. I wish I could go back and understand you. I wish I had been able to save father. I would change so many things Kaeya.” He whispers, holding back tears of his own.
Kaeya doesn’t respond and Diluc can hear his heavy breathing.
All that power had to have some sort of drawback. Especially when it was powerful enough to hold off Dilucs fire.
Maybe he was overexerting himself with his vision, the same way their father had done too much with that delusion.
Diluc wonders if his brother was hurting himself, all for the sake of beating him.
“I’m sorry you had to become this way. I played a part in this twisted story, I’m the one who kept trying to drive you away, even after everything you kept trying to do for everyone.”
Kaeya whirls around to pull Diluc into a hug.
“I never had much of a choice, did I? Either way, I was betraying someone. Someone always gets hurt.” Kaeya sobs.
Diluc feels something cold go through him.
“I’m so sorry Diluc. I’m so very very sorry!”
Diluc pulls back and looks down, hands already shaking.
It’s a very sharp long piece of ice. Through his abdomen.
Kaeya had stabbed him.
He feels numb and week. The ice is already slowly turning a fresh shade of crimson.
Why had he tried to console him one last time?
Maybe Diluc really thought there might be some shred of good that hadn’t been purged from his brother.
“Kaeya...you...why?” Diluc chokes out.
“When you see father, tell him that I love him. And tell him that I’m sorry.”