Chapter Text
Kaeya had not been particularly cute as a small child. Oh, don't get him wrong, as it currently stands he knows he is an exceptionally handsome man and the only reason that he's not hogging the spot of Mondstadt's most eligible and sought after bachelor is because of what a kick he gets watching Diluc suffer under the weight of yet another obnoxious and unwanted title.
And so it has been for quite some time. As a teenager nearing adulthood, he'd loved how the city gossips had compared Kaeya and his sworn brother to a pair of fairy tale princes (in those days they'd spent so much time together people really only talked about them in comparison or as a set). In the younger half of those teenager years, he'd smugly gone through puberty with unblemished skin and an easy grace that earned him the the jealous ire of quite a few of his peers.
Even before that, when it had only been around two years Kaeya had lived in Mondstadt, he'd developed a charming smile and playful nature that had wrapped the staff of their manor in the city and the Winery around his finger to such an extent that no matter what mischief he pulled, all Kaeya had ever gotten was a gentle admonishment and an affectionate ruffling of his hair.
At the age of eight or nine (Kaeya honestly wasn't sure of his exact age, it hadn't been important enough for the adults in his early life to mention, and it wasn't like he could ask them now) though,
He'd been unnaturally small with the bony skinniness any half-starved thing acquires. His nails had always been a little too long and chipped from scratching at whatever came near, and his hair had been an oily mess of uneven cuts and splits ends.
Not exactly the cherub cheeks and cute pudgy hands that had the whole Order cooing over Klee, even when she'd gone fish-bombing for the third time that week. Nor the soft fluffy hair and adorable wide eyes that had made Diluc at that age resemble a baby bird and sent the mother henning instincts of every adult in the vicinity into a tizzy.
(Well it wasn't like Kaeya blamed his caretakers up to that point, for this at least. It was hard to raise a child when you lived between a fear of death and a fate worse than, though some had shown an exceptional kindness in trying. He vaguely remembers what might have been an aunt or a cousin with almost nothing human left of her face that always made sure his hair was combed and his clothing warm. Another, so far gone to their curse all that could be said was that they were probably very old, who often slipped him any extra food they came across.)
The way he'd been as a child was not something that a haircut and several weeks of eating his fill could fix. After all, past Diluc's cuteness had also been in his shy, gentle politeness that had him clinging to Crepus's leg while giving sweet, little "Thank you, Ma'am"s to the enraptured maids, and a large part of the near universal love Klee (rightly) received was her bubbly, earnest kindness.
As for Kaeya, even after he'd been cleaned up and fed he had not been an easy thing to feel affection for. Constantly squinting in the harsher light of Mondstadt gave him a nasty expression; skittish to the extreme from being surrounded by unfamiliar-looking strangers so he'd scratch or push at anyone that came near out of fear; coming across as sullen and unfriendly because at first it had been so hard to understand the Common tongue in these people's harsh, rolling accent and worse if they spoke in their native Mond which he hadn't known at all.
Not that this had led to his younger self being neglected or scorned. Child Kaeya may not have had the younger staff practically starting fist-fights over who got to babysit, as they did for their Young Master (Elzer still threw a pretty mean right hook to this day), but neither Master Crepus nor the previous Head Maid were shallow or cruel enough to ever deny a child care or attention. One could even say he had been near spoiled with affection by his new sworn brother who had loved Kaeya with the immediate inexplicable ferocity of a parent holding their child for the first time, and doted on him with the over-the-top, sappy, thoughtfulness of a newlywed to their spouse.
It was simply a fact in the timeline of Kaeya's life. There was a time when he had been a vicious, ugly child, and there was now when he was the Order's beloved Calvary Captain who couldn't walk through the city's streets without some little old lady pushing gifts into his hands or some lovesick admirer sighing in adoration. There where times when every fear or uncertainty in his heart could be banished by seeking the comfort of Diluc's company, and times when those fears and doubts felt like they would eat him alive in his loneliness. There was a time in his life when he was Mondstadtian, and a time he was Khaenri'ahn.
Kaeya knew which times he had preferred.
"By Barbatos's non-existent beard, I forgot how awful it was playing chess with you."
Kaeya smirks as he stares at the chessboard and smugly sips his Death Afternoon. He'd managed to lose that last game in four moves. Not a record, but it was nice to know he hadn't lost his touch.
Watching as Diluc grumpily resets the pieces, he can't help but tease, "Don't be like that, maybe I'm just out of practice. Come on, don't you want to play again?"
Diluc has always liked strategy games. Chess was his favorite, but checkers, Xiangqi, Go, or even poker were also well-received. It went without saying of course, that he was also near unbeatable at all of them, the prodigy. It had driven Kaeya half-insane as a teenager because even if he forced himself to pay attention to the boring games and try to win, he'd still end up losing nine times out of ten (or more accurately, ninety-nine times out of a hundred). Even on the rare occasion that Kaeya had won, Diluc hadn't even had the grace to be properly upset. He'd just nod at the board thoughtfully and be even harder to beat the next time they played.
Seeing how fast Kaeya could throw a game or pull some ridiculous stunt like trying to arrange the piece in a funny shape however, drove Diluc crazy. He could never seem to decide whether to press the advantage and take a win handed to him or to mulishly try to reverse the prank and force Kaeya into a win. Either way, the mild psychological warfare was far more entertaining than staring blankly at some black and white little figures.
Board reset, Diluc grumbles, "I am not falling for that", then shoots Kaeya a slightly pouting look of concession as if to say he can pick what they do next since Diluc wasted his turn.
Kaeya leans further back into the over-stuffed Fontaine style armchair he's sitting in. They'd decided to play with the rather scratched up wooden chess set in Diluc's room instead of the fancy crystal and Cor Lapis set in the slightly sterile drawing room downstairs, which meant they didn't have to worry about accidentally being overheard so, "How about some gossip?"
Diluc looks up from where he'd been trying to tempt one of the Winery's cats over for pets (how that man's clothes were so neat when he loved every feathered, furred, or scaled beast in Teyvat to point of letting them into his rooms was either a miracle or a testament to his staff's super-human prowess).
"Gossip gossip or work gossip?" he asks warily.
Kaeya wonders briefly if he can get away with sticking his feet in Diluc's lap since he'd interrupted his sworn brother's attempt to lure over a furry beast. Eh, Diluc had already made him a cocktail and kindly refrained from chucking a chess board at his head, might as well continue to push his luck.
Kaeya stretches out his legs so that his heels are resting on Diluc's knees and responds, "Gossip gossip, you workaholic. You said you were taking a break tonight."
"Don't put your feet on the furniture, or me for that matter, with your shoes on." Diluc says with exasperation, shoving Kaeya's feet back onto the ground.
Well, it's not a no. Maybe next time.
"As for gossip, mmm. I can't think of anything too interesting to tell you." Diluc continues flatly.
More like the spoilsport wanted Kaeya to switch the topic to work gossip. Like that was going to happen. Diluc might be able to out-maneuver him on a chessboard or a battlefield, but in conversation Kaeya always had the upper hand.
After taking a obnoxiously large sip of his drink to set the tone, Kaeya cheerfully began his attack, "Oh, don't worry. I have plenty to talk about. How about something lighthearted to start? You're aware of the fruit-seller near the front gate of the city, Quinn?"
Diluc narrows his already half-lidded gaze in suspicion, "Yes. He seems a decent young man."
Kaeya nods, "An exceptionally straight-laced young fellow, yes." He takes another large sip of his drink and continues in a false mournful tone, "So exceptionally straight-laced that even though Beatrice has recently incorporated leaning over unnecessarily in a low-cut top to her daily routine of flirtily asking for free goods, he still hasn't noticed her interest."
Kaeya gives a dramatic sigh, then looks straight into Diluc's eyes, "Some poor young men really are oblivious to innuendo aren't they?"
Diluc stares, obviously taking a second to consider whether that was a back-handed insult about their recent debacle with Dainsleif, before he remembers who he's talking to, and lunges over to snatch the drink out of Kaeya's hand.
"Confiscated." he declares flatly. What a pitiless man!
Though, "It's fine, I already drank it all." Kaeya replies smugly.
Diluc sighs, though the corners of his mouth are ticked up slightly, so he must be more amused than annoyed by Kaeya's latest verbal ploy.
Putting the empty glass on the table that held their abandoned chessboard (on top of a coaster of course, neither of them were foolish enough to risk Adelinde's wrath or Elzer's nagging), Diluc finally accepts his fate and begins contributing some gossip of his own, "Speaking of your drinking habits, Charles actually asked me yesterday if we'd had a fight since you seem to have given up on coming to Angel's Share on nights I bartend?"
Kaeya snorts at the irony, not bothering to turn the sound into something more attractive since Diluc is the only one here. It's true he's been heading over to Cat's Tail on nights that Diluc bartends, but only because he's not sure he can currently interact with his sworn brother (his best-friend, his only family, who loves him, who says that Mondstadt will always be Kaeya's home if he wishes, that he's so sorry and that of course he forgives Kaeya) without turning into the embarrassingly honest pile of genuine affection and clingy pleas for attention he's being right now.
Speaking of, Kaeya once again kicks up his feet (which have been surreptitiously de-booted) into Diluc's lap, who sighs but seems to accept his new position as a footstool.
Kaeya's heart gives a warm little flutter that his causal affection was so well received. Archons, he's acting worse than the first time Klee called him "big brother" and he'd had to lock himself in his office for an hour because he couldn't stop smiling.
"Why would I bother you at the tavern when I can visit you at the Winery instead? Not only are the chairs more comfortable, but I don't have to wait in line to speak to the bartender and every drink is on the house." Kaeya half-lies with a laugh.
Well by every drink, he meant the one cocktail Diluc was willing to give him when he visited, but now that he knew that was out of concern for his liver rather than out of spite, Diluc's reluctance to give him free alcohol was rather endearing. More than a decade later and he was till the same mother hen as the little boy that kept pushing his portion of all the snacks and candy they received onto Kaeya out of loving childish worry that his new little brother wasn't eating enough.
Diluc, far less honest than he'd been as a child (whose fault was that), rolls his eyes, "Why do you care if the drinks are free? You're rich."
Kaeya blinks confusedly, Diluc usually has a pretty good idea of what things cost for a man wealthy enough to buy out his own nation if so desired, "How much do you think Jean pays me?"
He's well-off, sure. He could probably live more extravagantly than his current easy going lifestyle or support a family if so desired on his current pay, but he's not rich.
Diluc looks equally confused, "Who cares about your salary? I mean the money Father left you in his will? I don't remember the exact amount, but it was quite bit and also included some land and a few cases of expensive vintages. I think he thought you'd prefer that to a villa since you already had rooms at the Manor, the barracks, and the Winery, so ..."
Catching sight of Kaeya's dumbfounded face, Diluc trails off.
"...And you didn't know about this." he concludes, with a sigh. "Did you not go to the will reading or, I don't know, answer any of your mail that year?"
"You basically said I was disinherited. I thought it was just legal notice of the same and threw it away!" Kaeya defends, feeling a bit hysterical.
Diluc looks even more exasperated, "The oath Father took to be recognized as your guardian and the will he wrote that included you were both his legal decisions not mine, so me changing them them would require a very long court battle, not just some ill-advised shouting in the heat of the moment."
Kaeya blinks again in what is probably a very unattractive manner. This is somehow far more surprising, yet also more underwhelming than learning his room at the Winery was intact and lovingly maintained or that all his childhood trinkets and treasures from the sold off Manor had been carefully tucked away in storage rather than tossed in the trash.
"Honestly, you're a Knight shouldn't you know how Mondstadt's laws work? Or are the Knights of Favonious just arresting people on gut instinct these days?" Diluc asks judgmentally.
Kaeya's still too busy staring into space to care about the dig. What does one even do with several cases of vintage wine worth more than their weight in Mora? Drink them? Sell them to buy more wine?
Diluc aggressively squeezes one of Kaeya's ankles to get his attention, "I'm taking you to the bank tomorrow, you're probably going to need help with the paperwork given that you haven't touched the account in years and you apparently know nothing about financial law despite working for our government." He states matter of factly.
... really, promising to help Kaeya with hours of boring busy-work with the excuse of wanting to see it done right, much like he used to help Kaeya fill out his mission reports when Diluc had been his captain. This whole last week since coming back from that uncomfortable debriefing with Dainsleif and the Traveler at Angel's Share has felt like it was lifted from some pathetic wish-fulfillment dream Kaeya had cried himself to asleep to when he was 18.
Well if it is, he's certainly not pinching himself awake.
Deliriously happy, Kaeya responds, "I forgot all the law information I studied for the Knight's exam as soon as I passed, as you well know, so I would greatly appreciate the help of the man who studied so hard he can probably still recite the city's legal code ad verbatim."
Diluc rolls his eyes again, "Fine, but it will have to be early in the morning before either of us has work, which means we should got to bed now. So shove off to your own room."
His room where Diluc will wake him up far too early in the morning, and he can have breakfast where the chef will overstuff his plate out of habit, and Adelinde will attack them both with a lint roller before they walk out the front door.
Kaeya laughs out loud as he stands up to gather his boots, "Alright, alright. Good night, you grump.", and then, just because he can, "I love you, sleep tight."
Looking a bit thrown off, Diluc's eyes glance to side shyly, but he responds quietly in kind, "Goodnight to you too. I love you as well."
With that last parting lingering heavy and warm in his chest, Kaeya slips out to walk to his childhood room just a door down, for the the first time in years wishing time would stop instead of rewind.
Walking out of the only bank in Mondstadt, - which was actually just the city's treasury office that pulled double duty, as the citizens of the city of freedom rarely had any use for banks besides a convenient place to hold Mora - hands aching from the many, many documents he had been made to sign, Kaeya spots the Traveler and stops so suddenly Diluc, who was walking behind him looking through the paperwork Kaeya had been given, nearly runs into him.
Now, normally Kaeya would saunter over and say hi. He likes the Traveler, and she's always involved in some fun over-complicated mess or another for him to stick his nose into. However, the last time he'd seen her had been the rather ... uncomfortable debriefing they'd had at Angel's Share with Dainsleif.
Honestly, no. Uncomfortable was the conversation he'd had with Diluc an hour before that meeting at the tavern where Kaeya had finally gotten to say sorry for lying all those years and then confessing in what was probably the most hurtful time and manner imaginable, while Diluc kept trying to interrupt with his own apology for, "blaming you for a situation you were forced into as a child" and "rejecting and turning my blade on someone who I had sworn to always care for and protect."
Then trying to deal the revelation that Diluc hadn't even still been angry with Kaeya when he'd first returned to Mondstadt; he'd just thought between Kaeya's behavior the night of Crepus's death and his seeming nonchalant teasing in the present that Kaeya had felt their family had been nothing but a role he was forced to play and was glad to finally be rid of.
The very idea that Kaeya hadn't loved those warm childhood days, happy and well-fed with the freedom to wander and play in safety, that he hadn't cherished late nights talking about wine or politics or literature with Crepus as the only morning bird in their family half-dozed on the couch, too sleepy to contribute but too enamored with their company to leave, that Kaeya didn't love Diluc so much that he thought he would die of loneliness after his best friend and only family left seemingly to never return, had left Kaeya blinking back tears.
Well anyway, the point was that Kaeya had shown up to that meeting with Diluc, the Traveler, and the mysterious Dainsleif already awkwardly red-eyed and shaky. It became even less enjoyable once Dainsleif started interrogating him; especially since Kaeya himself had so few answers.
When asked where the other humans left of Khaenri'ah were, he could only say somewhere dim and dark, where few green things grew and the air was always cold.
When asked why these people needed a spy in Mondstadt, Kaeya could only shrug. He knew nothing except they had all hated the "the traitorous lands of the Seven", so he could only assume it was for something unsavory that Kaeya had no interest in doing (if he could help free them and himself from their curse it would be one thing, but Kaeya would abandon any duty that called for him to hurt the people he loved in the name of some long-dead nation's revenge in a heartbeat).
When asked how these few Khaenri'ahns had saved themselves from their people's curse, Kaeya could only laugh and say they hadn't, they'd only slowed it down. Their curse still spread. Always starting from their starry eyes, cruelly often first taking away their face and human voice, till they where no different than any other abyss creature. Often before it finally consumed a person completely, they'd ask a loved one to end their life; no one wanted to end up so gone to the Abyss they'd share the same fate as the hilichurls and Abyss heralds who if killed would simply reform from the darkness, denied the ability to regain their humanity even in the afterlife.
Kaeya's father had been "lucky" in that the curse had confined itself mostly to one side of his body, easy to hide away with a cloak. Kaeya who had never been any more affected than single eye was seen as something of a miracle.
He and Dainsleif had both ended up needing a lot of alcohol to get through that conversation.
Afterwards at least Kaeya had gotten to go back to the Winery (and cry when Diluc hugged him, and then cry some more when he realized his childhood room was still unchanged - it had been a long day and he was more than a little drunk and that was his excuse for the leaky eye), but he can't say he really wants to see Dainsleif ever again, and the Traveler seems to run into the man quite a bit.
Unfortunately,
"Look, Lumi, over there!!" Paimon shouts excitedly, "I see Master Diluc and he's got Kaeya with him, so we don't even have to hunt him down later!"
Caught, Kaeya leans back on his heels and relaxes his shoulders, before smiling flirtily at the pair as they run over (does the Traveler ever walk?). Next to him, he sees Diluc disappear the documents he was holding into the sub-space of his Vision for safe-keeping.
"Why hello there, what sends you two on the hunt for Master Diluc? Perhaps you seeks the aid of the notoriously shrewd Wine Tycoon of Mondstadt in finally hunting down the Darknight Hero?" Kaeya asks disingenuously.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees said tycoon and vigilante manfully resisting the urge to dead-leg him for name dropping those stupid titles.
The Traveler shoots him an equally unimpressed stare, as if she is also resisting the urge to kick him. Between the two's cute reactions, it is very hard for Kaeya to keep his face in a smirk instead of giggling.
Paimon points at Kaeya accusingly, "Hey, no teasing! Besides aren't you and Master Diluc getting along now? You should be nicer to him."
Diluc sighs, "Good day Traveler and Paimon. You are correct, we are getting along. Unfortunately this is also what his personality is like when he's being friendly."
"And yet you love me enough to do my paperwork for me anyway." Kaeya half sing-songs back mockingly and is secretly thrilled when Diluc just gives an annoyed huff instead of denying it.
Paimon squints at Kaeya, "You need a new nickname then, how about Captain Jerkface?"
Kaeya is vaguely sure he once called Diluc something to that effect when they were 15 and his then captain was dragging him out of bed at dawn for morning practice, "Mmm, what happened to Captain Pasty Eye-patch?"
Paimon stomps her foot, or well makes the motion as the fairy child is floating as always and has nothing to stomp against, "N-nothing, Paimon just thought your personality was so bad you needed two mean nicknames!"
"Why then I suppose.."
"Sorry to cut you off, but I actually came over here for a reason." The Traveler interrupts him, obviously not willing to let Kaeya rile up her companion anymore than he already has today.
"Is there something you need from either of us?" Diluc asks. To a stranger he probably sounds a tad dispassionate, but from experience Kaeya knows that just the fact Diluc asked means he plans to help to the full extent of his considerable resources and abilities, affectionate under a cold exterior just as Kaeya is cold beneath a friendly smile.
The Traveler nods, " I was hoping to investigate those half-broken Ruin Guards in Dragonspine we saw last time, you know the ones that just say a string of numbers?"
Ahh, yes the many expeditions to Dragonspine that Diluc has joined the Traveler for that he knows near nothing about. It's not that Kaeya has never been cajoled into coming along on the Traveler's adventures to every death-trap from Stormterror's Lair to Gunyun Stone Forest (after all fighting a Pyro Regisvine beat filling out paperwork), but rather that the Traveler has an uncanny ability to form traveling parties that, while odder than Benny's Adventure Team, had very few personality clashes. Which is to say that, given their inability to not antagonize each other, she has not gone adventuring with Kaeya and Diluc at the same time. And that given Diluc's use as both a convenient fire-starter for damp wood and a walking death sentence for anything with Cyro attribute or a Fatui mask, it really only made sense the Traveler picks him for all her Dragonspine adventures.
Diluc hums thoughtfully, "Give me two days to clear out my schedule, then I can head out with you for about five. I'll need to be back next week however for a business meeting with one of the Qixing."
"Given that Paimon said you where looking for me as well, I suppose I'm also invited on this little expedition?" Kaeya asks with a raised eyebrow. He can't say he's looking forward to the temperatures on Dragonspine, but going on an adventure with Diluc sounds fun, especially if it isn't a mission for the Knights so he doesn't have to fill out paperwork after the fact.
"That's right! It's gonna be a super-fun bonding trip so be on your best behavior Captain Jerkface." Paimon says triumphantly.
Bonding trip? Was that why the two had specifically requested Kaeya instead of whatever other Cryo user they typically took along to Dragonspine?
However, before Kaeya can pry the Traveler suddenly gives a fake cough and looks at her feet, "And one more thing..."
She pauses, Kaeya watches in fascination as her ears turn a bit red, "If you two want, you can call me Lumi, since I guess we're pretty close friends now."
Kaeya's mind grinds to a halt for a few seconds as he remembers when the Traveler had first come to Mondstadt, trailing warily behind Amber. She'd refused to give her name, sometimes quite strongly, before finally explaining that where she was from, "Family called one by a name bestowed by family, friends by a name picked for oneself, and all others by one's title." Since then, with the exception of her floating companion, he's only seen her answer to whatever "titles" she had been given be it "Traveler" by Amber, "Honorary Knight" by Jean, or even "Sweetie" by Lisa.
It really does seem to be a remarkable display of trust and affection to offer this, and it is thus desperately tempting to play it off with a joke and preemptively kill any hope the Traveler has of trusting Kaeya on an emotional level.
Luckily or unluckily, Diluc has retained his near pre-natural sense of when Kaeya is about to cause problems and he pinches the back of Kaeya's arm surreptitiously before answering for them both, "If that is what you would prefer we'd be honored to address you by your chosen name then Lumi, and we will be happy to accompany you to Dragonspine."