Cross-posted on AO3

Day 2 ALT: "I Can't Lose You Too"

To say that things between Diluc and Kaeya had been more than usual was an understatement. The two had been snapping at each other more than usual and both have had a quicker temper during the past month.

Diluc himself didn't know why Kaeya had such a bad attitude recently, but he wasn't in the mood for his ex-brother's stupidity. Not with the anniversary of his father's death just around the corner.

He had already taken some time off so that he could stay home and visit his father's grave. When he had arrived that morning, though, the last person he had expected to be there was Kaeya.

The man had set a small bouquet of calla lilies in front of the tombstone and appeared to be praying.

However, all Diluc saw was red. How dare Kaeya come here and have the nerve to defile his father's grave. Kaeya seemed to hear him stomping towards him because the man rose to his feet to meet him. Kaeya's face looked disturbingly blank, but Diluc didn't falter, marching right up to the captain.

He didn't give the man a chance to say anything before he cocked his arm back and let his fist fly. He was stunned when the other made no move to dodge and his fist collided solidly with his cheek, his head snapping to the side with the force.

He could only stare as Kaeya silently walked away; his head bowed.

For an instant, he felt regret but didn't follow the man as he left Dawn Winery once more.

Diluc hadn't thought things could have gotten this bad.

He had just joined the Traveler on an adventure to the Thousand Winds Temple to take down a Ruin Guard, but they had ended up running into Kaeya along the way, but Diluc remained silent, still a little off-put by their last encounter.

Aether had asked the knight to come along, but Kaeya had hesitated, giving the Pyro user a wary glance that somehow escaped the young man's usual sharp eye. However, the Traveler's pleading eventually won him over, saying that the fight would be so easy with the three of them there. The rest of the journey after that was spent in uncomfortable silence.

Diluc didn't miss how Kaeya refused to look at him on the way there.

When they reached the Thousand Winds Temple, they weren't greeted by the usual Ruin Guard. In its place were four Fatui Skirmishers; an Anemoboxer, Electrohammer, Pyroslinger and a Geochanter.

The fight had actually been going well at first. They had managed to take out most of them out and the only one that had refused to go down was the Electrohammer. Diluc and Kaeya had taken turns trying to use Elemental Reactions to bring him down, but the man had stubbornly remained on his feet and they were running out of stamina.

With exhaustion setting in Diluc made a fatal mistake of losing focus and dropping his guard. He heard a deep, distorted voice before he looked up to see the Electrohammer charging directly at Aether. He could only watch in muted horror as he knew he wouldn't make it in time and that the boy was too tired to dodge.

Suddenly, Aether was saved at the last second by a shove from the side that sent him sprawling to the ground and out of the way. Both he and Diluc looked up in time to see the last member of their group fell to the ground and began to convulse from an Overload reaction.

"Kaeya!"

Diluc pushed past his fatigue as he jumped to his feet and rushed to the fallen cavalry captain's side. He could hear the Traveler engage the Skirmisher again before it could try to attack again, but at the moment, he could have cared less.

All he could focus on was his dying brother in his arms.

"L-Luc-," Kaeya choked out.

"It's gonna be okay," he murmured frantically. "We'll get you to Barbara right away. There's a waypoint nearby, so just hold on."

All the other could do was sputter in response, hacking on the blood building in his throat.

"Just hang on, Kae," he found himself begging. It couldn't possibly end like this, right?

"Diluc, hurry this way!"

Looking up from his brother, he could see Aether looking a little worse for wear but clearly victorious. The young man was pointing in the direction that he could only guess was the direction of the waypoint. He shifted to pick Kaeya up but froze when he noticed that the other had gone completely limp and he couldn't tell if he was breathing.

Scrambling to check for a pulse, Diluc felt himself go numb when he realized how thready it was, almost completely gone.

Bundling his brother into his arms, he rushed over to Aether as the two found the nearest waypoint and teleported straight into Mondstadt. They rushed to the cathedral, but something in Diluc's mind told him that he was too late.

By the time made it to Barbara, they could barely breathe enough to tell her what happened. The young woman tried to get to work on healing him, but grew frantic when she realized her magic wasn't doing anything. She tried several more times, getting more desperate with every failed attempt until she finally gave up.

She looked up at Diluc with tear-filled eyes and reality finally seemed to crash into him, the man falling to his knees as he pulled Kaeya into his chest and screamed.

His brother was gone.

A/N: The original draft was written on the 26th of January and I may not be able to upload this when I would have liked. Before the 1.3 update, my Wi-Fi hotspot had been lowered from 30 BG to 12 GB. Sadly, I was relying on that hotspot to play the game on my PS4 and I won't be getting any more until the 9th.

I guess I'll have to get used to playing the game a lot less and relying on the internet for lore.