Kaeya wasn't supposed to be back here again.
He had just finished his patrol in Springvale. He didn't want to go back to his empty apartment again, and he had enough of visiting bars to get drunk again. He continued roaming endlessly and without thinking, his feet led him back to his old home.
Gravel and dried leaves crunched beneath his feet as he arrived at the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the Dawn Winery. The view was picturesque. Lush greenery all around, and at its center, backdropped with rolling mountains and a crystalline lake, was the proud two-storey mansion. The terracotta tiles on its roof were even redder from the glow of the setting sun. The pink and purple clouds against the vermillion sky looked like an artist's paint palette.
The romanticism struck a melancholic chord in Kaeya. He hadn't been back here in so long. The few times he came here, the experience was… uncomfortable at best.
Kaeya sat down on the grass with a sigh. At least he was far enough away to avoid any awkward encounters. He even chose to patrol the areas outside the city all day for that purpose.
"What expression should I wear when I face him again?" Kaeya mused.
"So you're here."
"For Archon's sake!" Kaeya whipped his head in surprise to the direction of the soft baritone that sounded behind him. "Didn't know you have a habit of sneaking up on people, Master Diluc."
"A Captain of the Knights of Favonius should have enough awareness to not be surprised by an ordinary citizen, " Diluc drawled in response.
"Ordinary citizen, my ass," Kaeya retorted.
Diluc wordlessly ambled to his side and offered a hand. Kaeya raised a brow skeptically but took the offered hand and pulled himself up on his feet. Their hands clasping together were warm, firm and lingered a second too long before parting.
His skin prickled with the tension around them.
Kaeya brushed the stray blades of grass clinging to his pants, avoiding Diluc's pointed stare. "Alright. Have a good night, Master Diluc."
He turned to leave and didn't see Diluc's outstretched hand which he then reluctantly retracted back to his side.
"Kaeya." Diluc called from behind. Kaeya turned halfway to look back. The curious absence of the honorific 'Sir' rang loudly in the air. "If you're not busy right now, I'd like to come with me."
Kaeya fully turned to him and feigned a smile. "Master Diluc, if you wish so, my schedule will be at your convenience," he uttered with his silvery tongue. "Though, if you wish me to travel far, you'll have to give me some time to pack a few drinks."
"I'm sure you don't need an excuse to travel to pack yourself several of my wines," Diluc grumbled, "But for now. I just need you to follow me back to the winery."
Kaeya stilled, he looked at Diluc for an unguarded moment. The latter might as well have told him something equally unbelievable like journeying to the ends of Teyvat. "My, my, my... How surprising." Kaeya struggled to not let his emotions show. "A tour of the old winery, eh? Are you going to be my guide? It has been a while since I was last there."
"Kaeya." His name was said in warning which Kaeya purposefully ignored.
"When I told you to have a good night, I was actually planning to have one of my own. Preferably somewhere else."
"Kaeya," Diluc said his name again, this time laced with determination. "It would mean so much to me if you… If…What I mean to say─" Diluc swallowed as if his throat was too tight to speak. His stare pierced Kaeya, expressing more with his eyes than his jumble of words could manage.
"Alright," Kaeya interrupted, agreeing without a trace of mischief in his voice. As much as it was fun to tease Diluc, this didn't seem the time to push someone who looked close to unravelling.
Diluc sighed in relief, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.
Since they were on the edge of a cliff, they used their wind gliders to smoothly drop down just outside the winery.
"Let's go straight from here," Diluc said as they took off their wind gliders.
Kaeya looked at him in amusement.
"Right… You know where the house is. "
The walk was silent but strangely enjoyable despite the tense undercurrents between them. The night had fallen and their paths were lit by several crystalflies flittering around. The windows of the cottages they passed shone with warm light and they could hear muffled talking and laughter from inside.
As they neared the winery, his mind's eye could picture two children playing behind the bushes, two teens sharing a kiss behind the lush grapevines. Two red heads and a blunette waving their last goodbyes on the front steps.
Once they arrived at the mansion. Diluc pushed open the heavy pine doors and gestured for Kaeya to step inside. It was then that Kaeya noticed something brightly colored and out of place was proudly displayed on a pedestal.
"You kept it," Kaeya whispered in awe as he stared at the strange vase he used to deliver Diluc's vision back.
"Huh?" Diluc turned his head to the direction Kaeya was looking. Upon realizing the object of Kaeya's fixation, Diluc flushed. His cheeks turned red in embarrassment. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I?"
"Because it's ugly."
"But you picked it." Diluc grimaced.
Kaeya's smile was soft. "Indeed, I did. "
"Nevermind that." Diluc then gestured for Kaeya to follow him. Their footsteps echoed around them as they climbed up the carpeted wooden staircase.
A shadow crossed Kaeya's face when he realized too late where Diluc was taking him. Master Crepus' old office. It was where they used to play together, with the older man watching over them. The office where Crepus often called for them whenever he had something important to say.
Diluc ushered him inside and closed the door with a click. The room looked like a time capsule with the way everything inside remained the same. The deceased Ragnivindr's presence encompassed the whole room.
"Why…" Kaeya's voice shook. A maelstrom was erupting in his chest─ so many emotions that he didn't know which one was the uppermost. Anger. Sorrow. Hurt. Guilt. The huge desk sat empty at the end of the room, reminding Kaeya of what they had lost. "Why would you bring me here?"
Diluc approached him slowly, as if he would break at the slightest touch. Or run away at an opportune moment. Kaeya wasn't sure he wouldn't. To be here again, sharing this with Diluc, was too much.
"We needed a place to talk after… after what happened." Diluc spoke carefully. He stared at Kaeya with a painful intensity.
Kaeya swallowed, desperately grasping for equilibrium. He found none. Control had always been in short supply around Diluc. "Which one are you referring to? When I drunkenly kissed you? Or that night I got banished from my second home?"
Diluc winced. His face paling. "Kaeya, I want to apologize. If I could go back in time and undo my actions, I would. What I did to you was unbelievably cruel."
Kaeya still remembered the devastation he felt when they fought, and when Diluc abandoned him afterwards. He had never blamed Diluc for that. Kaeya broke him first and Kaeya only had himself to blame for the hurt they both felt.
Kaeya walked towards a large window and leaned his hands on its frame. "It's not that unbelievable. You had every right to hate me. I had lied to you ever since we met… I knew it was only a matter of time before you banished me from your life."
Diluc placed a hand on his arm and turned Kaeya to face him. "Did you? Then you knew more than me. Because all I wanted was for the two of us to be together. Always. Even now I-" Diluc lowered his gaze.
Kaeya tried to quell the flame of hope flickering from his unspoken words.
Diluc continued, "I brought you here because whenever we fought, he- Father always made us apologize to each other and talk things out. After he was gone, we haven't really talked have we?"
Kaeya swallowed a lump of emotion clogging his throat. "I suppose we haven't"
The two of them glanced at the worn and empty office chair at the end of the room. It's presence, a reminder of their shared grief.
Kaeya exhaled a breath he was holding. "I'm sorry too. I sprung that on you even knowing that you were grieving."
Diluc responded, his voice the softest Kaeya has heard in years, "You were grieving as well. He was a father to you too." It was the first time after they fought that Diluc acknowledged how much Crepus meant to Kaeya. "You know he would have never hated you no matter what you would have told him. He loved you." Kaeya felt tears welling up in his eyes. "He would have listened. Unlike me."
"Diluc, I forced us into this situation. There were so many ways I could have told you better or done things better. And even after you've returned, I tried to provoke and hurt you for abandoning me. For not trusting me."
Diluc raised a hand and wiped Kaeya's tears with a thumb. Kaeya leaned into his touch.
"For three years, I feel like I've sleepwalked through hell. I roamed Teyvat to stay out of your orbit yet I still gravitated back to you. But I held so much regret and anger inside me that I didn't know how to approach you."
Hearing Diluc echo his own feelings shattered the last of Kaeya's icy shell. He removed his soaked eyepatch and tears fell freely from his bright mismatched eyes. "I missed Master Crepus. And I missed you."
Worriedly, Diluc spoke, "I was wrong to leave you alone. I have no words to express how much-" Kaeya held up a hand, stopping Diluc from another round of apologies.
"I just need to know..."
"What?"
Kaeya gazed at Diluc with endearing vulnerability, a sad smile on his face. "I know I've given you every reason to hate me. But can I come back home to you?"
"Kae…" Diluc swept him in his arms.
"Can you still love me, Luc? As I love you?" Kaeya's voice shook. He held on to Diluc as if letting go would break him.
Diluc's heart spasmed. His voice was hoarse with emotion. "I never stopped loving you, Kae."
Diluc's kiss was both an answer and a benediction.
0o0o0
A month later…
Diluc pushed aside a stack of documents he had just finished signing. He sat back on his chair and stretched. He glanced at his watch and got up. It was getting dark and he had someone waiting for him for dinner. Diluc couldn't help the satisfied smile that tugged at his lips.
He glanced around the office. He had redecorated the room. Added personal touches here and there. He didn't want the room to become some sort of shrine for his father. He knew his father would not appreciate it. He would have wanted both of them to carry his legacy by moving forward.
A knock sounded at the door and Diluc opened it. Adelinde stood there smiling. "Master Kaeya wanted to ask if you could let me cancel the dinner reservations because he wants to eat at home." The woman all but sighed blissfully. Adelinde had shed a happy tear after he had told her that Kaeya would be moving back to the estate.
"That's fine." Diluc nodded and turned to go down the stairs.
"Excuse me, young master but he's waiting for you in the master's bedroom." Even without turning to face the head maid, he could hear the grin in her voice.
He cleared his throat. "Thank you, Adelinde. We'll go down later to eat."
"Understood. I'll have the staff prepare your dinner for you."
Diluc walked towards their bedroom, his ears red. When he opened the door, Kaeya was standing by the fireplace. The bluenette turned his head to him with a welcoming smile.
Diluc approached him and wrapped his arms around him from behind. "Cold?" he asked.
Kaeya faced him and returned his embrace. "Not anymore."
