Chapter 2
"You're not my brother," Diluc spat, a harshness in his eye that made Kaeya freeze. The world was alight with flaming rain, as it fell down from the heavens and drenched everything in red.
The red of blood, the red of burns, the red of blazing hatred.
Even Kaeya's tears were red, trailing down his face as he stared up at his brother and cradled his wounds. It hurt. It hurt so much. His throat was tight, and despite opening his mouth to try and plea, he couldn't make a sound.
All Kaeya could do was choke on his sobs as the claymore was hefted up and then-
It cut through Noctua- Diluc. His mask falling to the floor as he fell to his knees. It didn't make any sense but none of that could run through Kaeya's head because there was too much red.
Kaeya hates the colour red. Hates the way that vibrant, ugly colour burns into the back of his mind and strips away everything else. No blue, no green, nothing but red.
When you go into a mindless rage, they say all you see is red.
But Kaeya's mind is clear as crystal, and his vision filled with crimson as he is filled with sorrow and pain and tears that won't stop falling.
"A life willingly given from one born of flame,"
Diluc's blood is everywhere, but Diluc stands above his own corpse with a cruel smirk and Kaeya just can't think. Mind crystal clear yet unable to process anything. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.
It hurts and his throat feels aflame and Kaeya can't make any sound and Kaeya can't make sense of this.
The tree of Saeradr blooms, consuming both Diluc's and rising high. It fills the area with its gold and silver roots. The sky was blocked out by the giant leaves and flowers.
But then it wilts, and the one thing that runs through Kaeya's head is he failed.
Failed to save Mondstadt and Liyue and Snezhnaya. Failed to bring Diluc home. Failed to prevent his father's death, his brother's death, his own death-
"Kaeya," He spins around, the blood still pouring from his wounds as he spots the man who abandoned him. "You just can't save anything, can you? Not your homeland and certainly not your home," Alberich sneers, glaring down at Kaeya and he feels so small. Like when he was a child, left in that pouring rain, that raging storm where the lightning always struck too close for comfort.
He thought he was going to die, that Barbatos would strike him down with the stormy winds for daring to enter his land, for daring to try and become a spy for Khaenri'ah.
Perhaps things would have been better if the Anemo Archon had.
Diluc would have never fallen into the Abyss. Without Kaeya there to take up Crepus's attention, maybe Diluc's eyes wouldn't have gone so dull. If Kaeya had died that night then Diluc might be happy.
"Kaeya,"
Who knows, maybe Barbatos is just waiting for Kaeya to get caught, waiting to make an example of what happens when you turn on the Land of Freedom.
Diluc's throat tightens when he hears his brother's choked sob. Diluc's journal is immediately dropped and forgotten as he turns to his brother. The stray beams of sunlight break through the curtains, casting the room in a dim light that is still so much brighter than that of the Abyss.
Kaeya's shoulders shake, they tremble and quiver as though he had been on Dragonspine without a fire for all too long. Yet it's subtle and small, hidden. The tears that fall down do so silently, and the only vocal indication that Kaeya is crying is the occasional slightly too loud breath or a muffled, choked sob.
Seeing Kaeya like this hurts, and Diluc slides off the bed, sitting on the mattress beside Kaeya.
A memory pops into his head, of back when Kaeya had barely been with Diluc and Crepus for a month.
A memory of Kaeya crying just like this, hiding it and flinching when Diluc who had been walking past the bluenette's room to steal a few biscuits had opened the door after hearing one slightly too loud choked sob.
"Are you crying?" Diluc asked, hanging near the door and peering in at the kid. Apparently, Kaeya was the same age as Diluc but he was tiny. Smaller than Jean, and a little bit smaller than Barbara too.
"...No," Came the weak reply, and Diluc slipped into the room.
"Nightmare?"
"...Maybe," Kaeya was hugging his knees, leaning into the corner of the wall and bed. Diluc slowly walked over, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Kaeya shook his head and Diluc nodded in return. He pulled his legs up, hugging his knees as he sat next to Kaeya.
"Okay,"
...Diluc's pretty sure that night ended with Father scolding Diluc for eating all of the biscuits and leaving him none.
"Kaeya," He reaches his hand out, running his fingers through Kaeya's hair. Diluc can't tell if it's damp because it hasn't dried after Kaeya's shower or because what must be a nightmare has left Kaeya in a cold sweat. It could be both.
"Oh gods the baby bird's crying!" Aym suddenly squawks, landing on Diluc's shoulder and looking down at Kaeya. Why Aym is calling Kaeya a "baby bird" Diluc is unsure... Though he did get called that for the first hundred years or so in the Abyss.
"Waking him up to screaming isn't going to help, Aym," Diluc shoots a glare at the firebird, who glares right back, hopping down and perching next to Kaeya. Diluc continues to run his fingers through his brother's hair, hoping to offer some level of comfort without waking him harshly. How often had Diluc been awakened from nightmares he could not remember to Aym's screeching, eye wide in panic and fight or flight going into overdrive?
"It's cause of the nest, isn't it? Bad nest, bad dreams, it's so obvious!" Aym's small firey talons grip the blankets, pulling them around Kaeya more while Diluc facepalms.
"That's not how it works,"
"Shut up! I'm trying my best okay?! Humans are so weird!" Diluc almost takes personal offence to that comment, being the main human that Aym interacted with for the last five-hundred years to them... Then again there was that one time Ajax and Scaramouche summoned Aym with an Ouija board...
Kaeya let out a gasp, a choked breath as he suddenly shot upright, a hand reaching to clutch at his shirt as he panted. Aym let out a noise of surprise, and Kaeya's eye darted around the room before landing on Diluc.
"You're alright, Kaeya, it was just a nightmare," Diluc reassures his brother, placing his hand on Kaeya's shoulder. Kaeya closes his eye with a shaky breath.
"Right, right..."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Diluc asks, and Kaeya shakes his head, leaning into Diluc's arm and dramatically falling onto Diluc's chest.
"I'll just die, thanks- OW!" Aym pecks Kaeya's shoulder, making the shivering man smack the firebird. Of course, Kaeya's hand passes right through the flames, and Aym just glares at him.
"What the fuck was that for?!"
"You don't seem very dead, bitch!" Diluc would probably facepalm if his hand was not currently holding Kaeya, and his prosthetic laying on the bedside table. Though, Aym's idiocy does seem to get Kaeya to forget about the nightmare as he attempts to strangle the avian.
"Diluc, I'm killing your bird,"
"Nah uh! I'm already dead, bitch!"
...Should Diluc try to intervene?
No, no, he should probably save his energy for when Crepus no doubt asks about the Delusion... That will be a talk Diluc certainly won't enjoy.
"Well, then you'll be double dead!"
"That's not how it works!"
"I'll make it work, you little shit!"
Kaeya will get along swimmingly with Ajax and Kunikuzushi, won't he?