Chapter Text
“That’s the third time,” Kaeya mutters, squinting at the backdoor of Angel’s Share.
“Hm?” Rosaria looks at him out of the corner of her eye, but continues to take a hearty swig from her pitcher of beer.
“C’mon, Rosa, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed,” he whines, setting his glass of Death After Noon down on the counter and rubbing at his temple. “That’s the third time tonight that Diluc’s just disappeared out the back without saying anything.”
Rosaria looks unimpressed. “So? It’s not like he’s a talkative guy.”
“It’s not like him to be so distracted either. What could be so important that he’d slack off on the job? And he has the audacity to accuse me of being a slacker. Hmph.”
“Are you worried?”
It’s Kaeya’s turn to look unimpressed. He laughs a bitter laugh before taking a long sip of his drink. “It’s just curiosity. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Right.”
“Don’t– ugh, whatever. Forget I said anything.”
“If it’s bothering you that much, you know you can just go and check on him, right?”
“That’s… no. That’s too easy.” That’s the best rebuttal his far-from-sober mind can come up with.
“The two of you always make everything more complicated than it has to be.” She somehow manages to look even more unimpressed than before. With a long-suffering sigh, she puts down her drink and shuffles off the barstool, making her way towards the door. “Fine then. I’ll go check on him myself and tell you what he’s up to, and maybe then you’ll finally stop brooding–”
“Wait, no!” Kaeya grabs her arm and wrenches her back, and she slides back into her seat all too easily. “I’ll do it. You’ll just scare him off or something.”
Rosaria smirks as she turns back around to her drink. Kaeya tries to brush off the helpless feeling of having lost to the indomitable sister once again.
He pushes through the crowd, waving at Patton as he exits the tavern, and quietly walks around the side, sticking close to the wall until he can peer around the edge.
Diluc is crouched on the ground, his hand outstretched towards a cat.
Kaeya blinks.
A small cat with grey and white fur and black streaks – a Northland cat, if he remembers correctly – pushes its head insistently against Diluc’s ungloved hand. He’s smiling softly at it, murmuring something too quietly for him to hear.
When was the last time he saw Diluc smile like that?
The sight is so mundane yet extraordinary that Kaeya can’t help but laugh.
At that, Diluc’s head snaps up and the smile instantly vanishes, replaced by a familiar cold glare.
“My, my, Master Diluc,” Kaeya says, moving closer to the pair of them, “I was wondering what pressing matters could’ve been diverting our beloved bartender’s attention from his very important duties tonight.” He smirks, leaning against the wall and looking down at his still-glaring brother. “To think it was something as ordinary as a cat. How cute. You always have had an affinity for animals.”
“Do you need something?”
He laughs breezily, waving a hand dismissively. “Not at all. I was just curious. They say curiosity kills the cat, but I suppose that doesn’t quite apply here, does it?”
Diluc looks at him blankly for a moment before going back to petting the cat who’s taken to winding itself around Diluc’s legs. “If you’re done sticking your nose in my personal affairs, why don’t you go back inside and leave me be?”
“So cold. How do you maintain a business with such awful customer service?”
“The business is doing just fine, thank you very much. Now if you’ll excuse me–”
“Does it have a name?” Kaeya cuts him off, nodding towards the cat.
Diluc stares at him, narrowing his eyes. “August.”
“…August.”
“Is there a problem?”
“How’d you come up with that?”
Diluc shrugs as if the answer should be obvious. “We’re in the month of August right now.”
Kaeya wants to strangle him.
His next words spill from his lips like wine, accompanied by his trademark mocking smile. “You really don’t have a single creative bone in your body, do you? Looks like all of Father’s art lessons went to waste. I can’t imagine how disappointed he would be.”
His brother visibly tenses at the mention of their father, jaw clenching and shoulders rising. August also tenses, the quiet purring that Kaeya had barely noticed suddenly ceasing.
“You just don’t know when to stop talking.” Diluc spits out, not looking him in the eye. “Don’t speak about Father.”
He’s gone this far. Might as well keep pushing his buttons, it’s not like he has anything better to do.
“Why not? He was my father too.”
“I said–”
The low growl as Diluc rises to meet Kaeya head-on startles August, and they both watch like helpless children as the cat scurries away with an anxious yelp and vanishes into the night.
Diluc glares at Kaeya, but it lacks the usual fire. Kaeya doesn’t dare move for fear of his carefully crafted smile faltering.
He’s definitely crossed one of their many invisible lines tonight – unfortunately for the both of them, he’s decidedly not sober and thus even more stubborn than usual. Besides, backing down now would just anger the man even further. Probably.
Their staring contest ends when Diluc tugs his gloves back on, his lips tightly pressed together in a thin, stern line. Kaeya can practically see all the cutting words that Diluc wants to throw at him right now, and silently applauds his brother’s self-restraint. At least there’s one thing he’d improved in the years he’d been away.
“Goodnight, Sir Kaeya.”
Diluc opens the door and slams it behind him without looking back. Kaeya winces as the door shakes in its frame, the heavy thud resounding in the dimly lit alleyway.
With no audience, Kaeya’s nonchalant facade slips and he slumps against the wall, ignoring the pang in his chest as the image of Diluc’s weary face burns itself into his mind.
“Sorry about that, August,” he calls out into the darkness. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m rather good at fucking things up.” He chuckles to himself, his smile sardonic and cold.
“But Diluc seems to like you, so… please don’t leave him alone, okay?”
A few nights later, Kaeya wakes to a shrill noise just outside his window, and he leaps out of bed before he even has the chance to process what said noise could be.
Furiously rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he stumbles over to see a familiar cat clawing at it.
“August…?” he mumbles, voice still groggy, and unlatches the window for it to jump inside. He shivers a bit at the cold night air that rushes in, but he doesn’t have time to process that as August quickly shifts her focus to scratching at his leg instead.
“Ow ow ow, hold on a second,” he mutters, lifting the cat by her scruff and cradling her against his chest–
But she easily squirms out of his grip and jumps back out onto his balcony.
“What on earth…?” He’s fairly certain this is all some sort of fever dream. What reason could a stray cat that he only met a few days ago have to wake him in the middle of the night?
Luckily for the cat, he resigns himself to another sleepless night and steps out onto the balcony, allowing a soft smile as August rubs her face against his leg. He looks out over the city of Mondstadt, slumbering and blissfully unaware. He’s never quite gotten used to just how lovely the city looks illuminated in pure moonlight.
August meows loudly, drawing his gaze just before she launches herself from the balcony and onto the next roof. He lunges forward with a panicked yell, his arms outstretched to catch her, but she’s a cat – of course she lands with grace and triumph.
The cat looks back at him, eyes widening expectantly, and Kaeya briefly entertains the thought that she wants him to follow.
“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s a cat.”
He scoffs and turns to go back inside, but August’s insistent growl stops him in his tracks.
She really does want him to follow her, doesn’t she?
It’s comical. A Knight of Favonius traipsing along the roofs in the middle of the night, chasing after a damn cat of all things.
He may well have done that sort of thing with a certain ex-knight many years ago, but those days are long behind him. He is a grown man now, a Cavalry Captain, not some overgrown child playing vigilante.
“Let me get dressed at least?”
August rakes her claws against the roof tiles, and he takes that as a sign to hurry up.
Tugging on the first clothes he can find and grabbing his Vision from the nightstand, he heads back out into the night and climbs onto the roof. August’s tail flicks back and forth and she gives him barely a second to reach her before she’s leaping away.