Cross-posted on AO3

Day 3: Imprisonment

Kaeya felt like he was in a haze.

Ever since he was placed in solitary, he had refused to eat any of the meals they had given him and it was starting to take a toll. His stomach felt like it was trying to eat itself and each hunger pang left him curling in on himself, hoping that if he just made himself smaller, he could escape it. He was almost constantly nauseous and it usually ended in him spitting up stomach acid.

Regardless, he wasn't sure how much longer he would last like this.

He heard his door open and looked up to see a lower-ranked knight looking smug as he brought him his daily rations.

"Well, well," the man taunted as he sauntered over. He was one of the newer knights who had been recruited at a later age. The man was single, but was known to hit on women and get harshly rejected. If only his good looks weren't tarnished by his horrible personality, maybe the man could have gotten a wife by now.

"How's the ex-calvary captain doing, now," he continued. "Must be a lot different than your big cozy office, huh?"

Kaeya's face remained blank, refusing to give the man any kind of reaction.

With his taunting having failed to get a reaction, the knight seemed to drop the act as anger quickly set in. He roughly grabbed Kaeya by the hair and forced him to look at him and Kaeya was careful to keep his face blank and disinterested.

"What's with you, huh?!" he shouted threateningly. "You still think you're better than me even locked up like the traitor you are?!"

Knowing full well that it would get him in trouble, Kaeya merely smirked at the man, not saying anything.

This seemed to push the man over the edge as he began to punch Kaeya in the face.

The other two knights standing guard outside didn't move from their posts. They could hear the sounds of the beating and it definitely sounded brutal, but they still refused to move and stop the hot-headed rookie knight. They couldn't be bothered with feeling any need to help a traitor.

The two were alerted, however, to the sound of footsteps walking in their direction.

Sharing alarmed looks, one guard told the other to go inside and stop the knight before he got all of them in trouble. The other nodded as he scrambled inside to do just that.

Turning to their new arrival, the knight almost felt himself relax.

Master Diluc of Dawn Winery was walking towards the room alone.

It was a widely known fact that Sir Kaeya and Master Diluc did not get along. Every time the two spoke to each other, the words had felt stilted and all compliments double-edged. It was clear to anybody with eyes that the two despised each other.

Maybe they were safe from being ratted out to the Acting Grand Master, after all.

That was the last thought he had before he was taken out with a sharp blow to the abdomen and everything faded to black.

Diluc scoffed as the knight was taken down with a single blow.

The knights were as inefficient as always. He had taken worse hits than that during his travels and it would have taken a lot more to knock him out. Summoning his claymore, he stepped over the body and through the doorway.

What he saw set his blood on fire and had him seeing red.

The two knights inside were arguing back and forth and hadn't noticed that Diluc had even come in. But what had Diluc's attention was the body on the ground between them. Kaeya laid on the floor on his side, a small pool of blood forming around his head. For there to be that much blood meant that the injuries must have been serious.

The two knights finally turned to look at him when his claymore caught fire. They both paled and didn't even have a chance to scream before Diluc rushed forward. By the time he was done, both knights were unconscious on the ground with third-degree burns. He knew better than to kill them because it would then make proving Kaeya's innocence even harder.

Ignoring them, Diluc turned his attention to Kaeya, moving to lift the unconscious man into his arms. He was bleeding from the temple and his both of his lips were busted. Most of the blood appeared to be coming from the head wound as well as his broken nose.

Diluc was brought out of his thought by the sound of footsteps coming towards the room. Before he could pull his claymore back out, he was met with the sight of Outrider Amber in the doorway.

She looked shocked by the carnage – no – by Kaeya's state. She moved forward and started to take Kaeya from his arms.

Instinctively, Diluc tightened his grip as he pulled Kaeya further into his chest.

"Whoa, whoa," she was quick to reassure, "I'm not taking him from you, but we need to get a move on." She gave a quick nervous glance towards the doorway before turning back to Diluc. "If I heard that and came running, there's a chance that other knights will too.

Stunned, Diluc stays still as he let Amber move Kaeya onto his back. She waited until the unconscious man was secure before checking to make sure the hall was clear.

"We may need to run for it, but I'm sure we can still make it to Jean if we hurry."

She doesn't wait for him to respond before she rushes out of the door at a sprint. The older man was quick to follow her, easily keeping up even with the dead weight of his brother on his back. But even as he followed her, he felt a tension in his chest that still hadn't gone away.

"Why are you helping us?" he asked uneasily. The last thing he wanted was to run into a trap

since he had come here fully intent on saving Kaeya himself.

Amber gave a hum, not stopping in her sprint as she talked over her shoulder, "Kaeya may be a pain, a slacker and a huge headache," Diluc felt a little surprised at the blatant insubordination, "but he's also my superior." The young woman threw a wide smile over her shoulder.

"He's our one and only Calvary Captain, ya know?"

Stunned into silence, Diluc tightens his grip on Kaeya as he silently thanks Barbatos for giving his brother such good friends.

A/N: The draft was originally written on the 27th of January. I wanted to see some Diluc and Amber interactions and have Diluc realize that even if there might still be corrupt people in the knights, that there were still some good people too. Amber only thinks that Kaeya is a slacker because she never actually sees how much work he does. Neither Diluc or Kaeya bother to correct her.