"Kaeya," Jean called as she turned the knob and entered the captain's office. "I was thinking-" she hesitated as she saw the tanned man's scarred back bereft of shirt. "Sorry, I should've knocked," she blushed, turned again to leave.

"No problem, I'm not shy," Kaeya joked, turning toward her as he slid on a half buttoned replacement garment. "I just had a run in with Klee and a lot of grape juice." He gestured toward the discarded shirt as he sat down and rummaged through his desk drawer. "I'm sure Noelle will know how to get that out, but for the life of me I can't remember what to wash it with."

"Right. I'm sure she will."

Kaeya found the gloves he was looking for and had nearly slid them on when Jean noticed his burn scarred hands, instinctively reaching out with healing magic.

"It's too late for that," Kaeya said, removing his hand from her gentle grasp, eager to hide them under his gloves.

So much for not shy.

"Who did this?" she asked. "They deserve-"

"He deserves nothing of the sort," Kaeya said defensively before she could even finish.

He? That narrowed the pool of suspects considerably. He said the injury was old, so most likely not the unlucky young adventurer…

"Was it an accident?" If it was an accident she could understand him not seeking restitution. Otherwise….

"It's not important," Kaeya returned, dancing around the subject. "Anyway, what did you come in here for? Did you need me to do something?"

"I think we need to add additional patrols around the Stormbearer mountains," Jean replied automatically, her focus obviously elsewhere.

Narrowing down the list of Kaeya's possible attackers in her head, she finally uttered the only name she could come up with. "Diluc." It was as much of a question as a statement though, she couldn't quite wrap her head around the idea that her warmhearted and protective childhood friend could do something like this to Kaeya, of all people. She pondered when she had last seen Kaeya sans gloves, when she had last seen Diluc at all, and the timing fit. Diluc had suddenly left the city with no prior notice. Could he be guilty?

"I had it coming," Kaeya said aloud, breaking her ruminations. "So don't go off planning vengeance on my behalf."

"But-"

"He's not here. We don't even know if he's coming back," that pained him to say. "And what he did wasn't totally undeserved on my part. My hands have healed," as much as they ever will," and I'm not bothered by it anymore. So please, just drop the subject."

He set out a paper map and pen on his desk. "Now, the patrols. How many more do we need to add?"

Back at home, or at least the little rented house he pretended felt like home, Kaeya sat at his desk, patrol routes laid out across the surface in front of him. A half empty glass of wine sat to his left, his gaze drifting just beyond it, old memories stirred up by Jean's inquiry earlier in the day.

"Traitor."

The greatsword made its first strike, nearly cleaving him in half as he backed out the door, frantically trying to draw his own sword.

"Lies. All you do is lie."

It was true, wasn't it? He knew Diluc would be mad. He hadn't counted on this mad, but he knew….

He was a failure and traitor, deserving of death. His defense was half born of an automatic sense of self preservation and half trying to save his brother from any more regret. He had already had the worst birthday imaginable, he didn't need the added pain of having to live with himself knowing he killed his only remaining family member. Not that Diluc necessarily viewed him as family anymore.

Wish as he might, he couldn't go back, couldn't change the harm that had already been done. Maybe he ought to face his fate.

An inferno of flames came toward him.

"You deserve this."

He didn't even remember whether those were his brother's words of judgment or his own thoughts as he was granted a life-saving vision, and the realization he would have to live under the heavy burden of lies. Either way, it was fair.

He deserved this.