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Kaeya Alberich has had a very long day. Not that long days were uncommon, exactly, but that didn’t mean that the captain had to enjoy them. Kaeya was awoken at the crack of dawn to banging on his door, barely having time to throw on some decent clothing before flinging the door open. A cowardly knight that looked even more exhausted than Kaeya quickly informed him that a pack of hilichurls had wandered too close to the city’s gates and were nearly inside of Mondstadt. Kaeya followed the knight to the city’s center, and just up ahead, Kaeya could make out the night–shift guard fending off the hilichurls on the bridge. Once Captain Kaeya joined the fight, however, it was over in a matter of minutes.
Already up for the day, Kaeya decided that there was no point in going back to bed. Instead, he clocked in early to work, hoping to at least get some paperwork done and be ahead of schedule.
Kaeya didn’t even make it through one stack before a knight came with orders to clear out two Abyss mages west of Springvale.
Kaeya’s day is spent running around Mondstadt fighting monsters, writing off paperwork, and helping the occasional citizen in distress. The captain can’t remember the last time he’s had such a busy day at work; perhaps over a year ago, the day a mitachurl woke up and chose violence the same time a rifthound appeared seemingly out of nowhere in Wolvendom.
By the time the sun begins to set, Kaeya is ready to clock out and pass out. He heads for his office with an ache in his sword-swinging muscles, gathering his reports to submit to Jean.
He doesn’t even get to reach the Grand Master’s office when he’s suddenly informed of a bomb-related incident in the Whispering Woods, and suddenly the cavalry captain is in the forest disarming adorably deceiving dodocos before an unfortunate soul meets their demise.
The moon is high in the sky once Kaeya is finally, finally, able to clock out for the day. As the knight wanders down the cobblestone streets of Mondstadt, there is only one thought that comes to mind, one that is already easing the tension in his shoulders and relaxing his weary legs; a cold glass of fine wine and the melodic stringing of a bard’s lyre. Before he knows it, Kaeya is swinging open the door to the Angel’s Share, sauntering in as if it is his own home. (It wouldn’t be far off, considering how often the knight stops by.)
“Charles! A glass of your finest Death After Noon, please.”
Kaeya does not plan on leaving tonight until he drinks himself silly.
———
Diluc Ragnvindr does not often work shifts at the Angel’s Share. Rather, he spends most of his time working at Dawn Winery, traveling on some days for business. But tonight, the man is personally delivering a crate of fine wine after being informed that treasure hoarders were in the area. Diluc thinks that once he makes sure of the crate’s safe delivery, he can return to Dawn Winery and turn in for the night. Instead, he finds himself being roped into an impromptu shift after a large group of adventurers have just returned to Mondstadt and are looking to celebrate.
It’s only once most of the adventurers have left the tavern that Diluc finally realizes Kaeya had been here the entire time. Usually, Kaeya would’ve greeted Diluc the moment he saw him, no doubt scheming new ways to nab some free wine. But while Diluc is wiping the rims of freshly cleaned mugs, he notices that Kaeya is passed out face first against the counter.
Of course, he drinks himself into oblivion, Diluc thinks with a sigh, setting the mugs down in the cabinets. While it comes as no surprise to Diluc that Kaeya would do something like this in his tavern of all places, he cannot actually remember the last time he had seen Kaeya so thoroughly drunk like this. For all the man loves to boast about his high tolerance, tonight just doesn’t seem to be his night with the way the scent of alcohol oozes from his being.
“Charles, I’ll be heading out now. Don’t forget to lock up once you leave,” Diluc announces. He grabs his coat, swinging it around to pull it on.
“And you…”
Diluc pauses in front of Kaeya’s slumped figure. The blue lump shifts, head turning around to peek a bleary eye at the red-haired man.
“...Go home already. Archons know how late it is already.”
Diluc turns around. As he heads for the door, he starts to find himself wondering whether he should help Kaeya back to the Favonius dorms. It’s a silly thought, one that he normally wouldn’t bother to entertain, but he convinces himself that he just wants to make things easier for Charles.
Diluc doesn’t notice it as the man behind him straightens up, turning around to watch Diluc’s retreating back. Kaeya, vision unfocused, squints at the man’s blurry figure; his lips fall open to speak.
“…Crepus?”
Diluc freezes in his tracks.
The man doesn’t dare move as silence fills the space between the two.
Slowly, Diluc turns around. Kaeya is staring at him with squinted eyes, blinking dazedly at Diluc but not quite looking at him. It’s like the man is seeing something else—someone else—instead of the red-haired man before him.
Diluc feels a deep, burning well of rage stir within him. His hands clench into fists, and for a second it’s like he’s back to that night again, vision blazing at his side like his scorching fury as he swings his claymore at Kaeya–
Diluc blinks, and all he sees before him is a pathetic, drunken man, cold and miserable and very much confused.
It takes a moment for Diluc to calm down and slowly release his grip on air.
Diluc turns back around. He doesn’t want to face Kaeya right now, not when his emotions are a mess and he feels like he’s about to explode.
“Get out, Kaeya,” Diluc growls, his words nearly a whisper. He doesn’t wait for the man to answer, or do much of anything at all. With those final parting words, Diluc strides out of the tavern and slams the door behind him.
———
Kaeya thought that the busy day was over, but suddenly it’s become a busy week, and Kaeya is starting to miss his bed a little. The captain finds himself out and about every day as well as the other knights, constantly answering to monster sightings around Mondstadt.
Something is definitely wrong, Kaeya thinks on his third day without ample rest. His arms are sore and his head feels heavy, but the captain refuses to rest when there are citizens out there in danger of these frequenting monsters.
Kaeya had started a side investigation while still aiding the rest of the knights in battle. Jean insisted that he focus on one at a time lest he collapse of exhaustion, but Kaeya assured her that he would be fine. (Four restless days later, and Kaeya is quickly thinking himself a liar.)
After what seemed to be countless hours spent scouring for clues, Kaeya finally receives a lead; the origin of the monsters seem to be somewhere in Dragonspine. The captain isn’t very pleased to hear that he’ll have to venture into the icy land, but no matter; it is his duty, and he will stride in with pride to end this threat on Mondstadt.
At the edge of Dragonspine, Kaeya glances up at the snowy peaks, a chilly breeze tangling snowflakes into his hair. Kaeya steps forward, braving the cold as he marches onward, eyes peeled for any abyss mages or hilichurls around.
Kaeya makes it halfway up the mountain when he finds a secluded clearing; three abyss mages convened in the middle. Kaeya quickly presses himself against a tree, crouching down and peering towards the group. They seemed to be discussing something, but it was a little difficult for Kaeya to hear from here.
Just a little closer, he thinks, glancing around to make sure no one was looking in his direction before he shuffled forward, making sure to stay hidden behind the bushes.
“...wait for our next orders,” one mage was saying to the others.
“Why can’t we just ambush the city with all our forces now? It’s not like we’re lacking in numbers,” the second mage huffs. Kaeya feels himself tensing up at its words.
They plan on attacking Mondstadt?
“Fool, if we recklessly charge in, that pesky anemo archon is sure to intervene. We must wait for the Abyss Herald to create a sufficient distraction for the archon before we can move in.”
This isn’t good. They’re prepared to take out Mondstadt any day now. But… Why? What are their goals?
Kaeya shakes these thoughts from his head. Questions later, he reminds himself. First and foremost, he must stop the Abyss Order before it is too late; Mondstadt and their citizens were at risk.
Kaeya lunges before any of the mages can react. He shatters the shield of the nearest one, the other two quickly turning around in alarm.
“It’s the knights again!”
“Take him out!”
Kaeya slashes at the mages, his fight a dance as he sidesteps cryo spells and icicles. He’s at a disadvantage in both numbers and elements, he knows, but he has no other choice. If he doesn’t stop them now, they could attack Mondstadt at any given moment.
The captain doesn’t know how long the battle lasts, but by the time he slices through the final mage, his chest is heaving and ice coats his arms and throat. He thinks he feels frostbite numbing his fingers, but it’s hard to tell when you’re… well, numb.
“I must report back to Mondstadt immediately, then discover where their army is located,” Kaeya mumbles to himself, sorting out his thoughts. First, he is in no shape to take out the army himself, however he should have bought enough time after taking out the abyss mages. He can return to Mondstadt, inform Jean of the situation, then take the knights with him to find the abyss army. Oh, but before that, he should probably somehow find a way to inform Barbatos of this as well. He has a suspicion that the green bard is very likely to be the anemo archon, though he doesn’t want to act on that if he turns out to be wrong.
Kaeya is suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when he hears heavy footsteps crunch snow behind him. The captain whirls around and just barely ducks before his head is cut clean off by a large claymore.
“A single human was all it took to defeat those fools? Useless, they are.”
Kaeya feels the air become even colder, if that’s even possible, as his eyes meet a towering, armored abyss herald.
The captain is already exhausted. Bruises are starting to make themselves seen along his skin, his muscles aching all over, and his breath coming out heavy. Now that he is faced with an abyss herald, his body only seems to scream more at him.
I’m… not going to make it out of this alive, am I…?
———
Diluc does not see Kaeya again for the next few days. Despite his recent regular trips to the tavern (to check on the cargo and watch out for treasure hoarders, not because he’s waiting for Kaeya’s arrival), Diluc sees no sign of the blue-haired man ever stepping foot in the Angel’s Share lately.
Diluc eventually overhears a guest’s conversation with another, and the man finds out that monsters have been getting closer to Mondstadt’s walls these past few days. Diluc quickly realizes that Kaeya must be busy as the cavalry captain, which would explain why he wasn’t popping in like usual. (Again, Diluc was not waiting for him. He just happened to be wondering why he wasn’t so stressed lately, that’s all.)
It’s on the fifth day since that certain night when Diluc hears the news; a mitachurl had gotten into Mondstadt’s walls. Apparently, the Knights of Favonius were able to keep all nearby citizens unharmed while Kaeya and Jean took down the monster together. Even though there were no casualties, this was a concerning incident that needed immediate investigation. Kaeya had supposedly left shortly after the attack, not even bringing along any knights with him.
That idiot. Does he think he can figure this out on his own? Diluc finds himself thinking. Clearly, the knights were as ineffective as he thought; it was time for the Darknight Hero to take action.
It’s not difficult for Diluc to track down Kaeya’s whereabouts, his familiarity with the man being like the back of his hand. Diluc follows the trail all the way to the edge of Dragonspine, the icy breeze biting against his skin. Diluc ignores the chill and trudges through the snow, slowly making his way up the mountain.
The more that Diluc walks, the more apparent it is that some sort of major fight had taken place nearby. Hilichurls lie dead with broken shields and clubs, and Diluc even spots the corpse of an abyss mage half-buried in the snow. Diluc isn’t entirely worried, considering that Kaeya had gotten himself out of far more dangerous situations before.
It’s only when Diluc sees scattered strands of dark blue hair in the snow that he starts to become a little concerned.
He’s fine. He’s just an idiot that snagged his insufferably long hair on his sword, like I said he one day would. Diluc continues to march forward, pushing down the miniscule concern he allowed himself to feel.
The man sees red stains in the snow and suddenly distress is crashing over him like waves.
Diluc starts running at some point, ignoring the freezing wind that slices against his face, jumping over the corpses he doesn’t spare a second glance at. Diluc doesn’t hear any fighting up ahead, so surely Kaeya must have finished them off by now, right? He’s probably just sitting in a cave like an idiot, hiding away from the cold as he rests from the exhausting battle.
Diluc turns the corner into a clearing of snow. He skids to a halt as his eyes land on a humanoid figure in the snow drenched in red.
Kaeya Alberich lays still in the cold snow with a shattered sword and closed eyes.
Diluc doesn’t know when he moved; all he knows is that suddenly he’s kneeling in the snow, eyes unable to tear away from Kaeya’s too-still face and shaky hands reaching for him, slow, as if afraid he will shatter what remains of his brother.
Contrary to popular belief, Kaeya’s skin is warm and Diluc’s skin is cold. If he wasn’t adopted, one would say that Kaeya had inherited his warm hands from Crepus himself. In their young winter nights, Kaeya and Diluc would cuddle close together in bed, Kaeya’s warm arms enveloping Diluc’s colder body.
Now, on this icy winter night, it’s Diluc who wraps his arms around Kaeya, sobs that he didn’t even know were coming from him wrangling out of his throat.
But no matter how much heat Diluc’s body could offer, no one could bring back warmth to a lifeless corpse in crimson-stained snow.
Kaeya Alberich was dead.
Diluc’s little brother was dead.
Kaeya would never be able to hear that his older brother had long forgiven him.
And Diluc Ragnvindr would never again be able to tell his little brother that he loved him.
———
Jean arrived on the scene with the rest of the knights long after they had received the tip that Diluc was seen near Dragonspine. She had been informed that a very distressed and very angry looking Diluc was striding towards the iceland, claymore in hand, looking ready to murder someone.
When Jean reaches the clearing, she sees flaming red hair in the crisp white snow; the figure kneeling and hunched over a familiar blue-clad body.
“Kaeya…?”
Jean doesn’t realize that the name slipped out her mouth until Diluc turns around. His face—it’s unlike any expression Jean has ever before seen on the stoic man. Anguish; deep, twisting anguish that looks as if it is killing him alive, battling against fear and guilt and regret and more.
Jean immediately assumes the worst and runs over to Diluc without thinking.
“Kaeya, is he–?”
A hand comes up and swats away Jean before she can come close.
“Don’t touch him.”
Jean, eyes slightly widened in surprise, looks down at the Darknight Hero. Diluc’s arm is wrapped protectively around Kaeya, so tight it’d be impossible to separate the two. His other arm is holding up his claymore with one hand, trembling under the weight but refusing to go down. Diluc looks as if he is staring at a threat, as if anyone that is not Diluc himself will hurt Kaeya; as if he can already be hurt more, if what Jean assumes is true.
Lohen jogs up to the pair, gaze quickly going from Jean to Diluc and Kaeya and then back.
“What happened to the captain?” he asks, for once keeping his tone more gentle. He seems to have read the room quite quickly, fortunately.
Jean can’t bring herself to answer, her eyes locked on Kaeya now that she was close enough to see him. The amount of blood soaking the front of his shirt is alarming, almost to the point that she goes dizzy. But then her gaze goes to his face, zeroes in on him, and–
“Wait.”
Lohen stiffens at her words, clearly having picked up on the slight tremor in her voice. He follows the Grand Master’s gaze, glancing over at Kaeya. He stares for a moment, not noticing anything at first, but then–
A twitch.
So small, it almost seems like a hallucination, but Lohen continues to stare and it happens again.
“He’s alive,” Jean breathes. Subconsciously, her body pulls forward, reaching out towards the Cavalry Captain, but once again she is stopped by Diluc.
“I said don’t touch him,” Diluc growls. Lohen directs his gaze towards the man, and sweet Barbatos does he look like sh!t.
His eyes are wide and feral like an animal’s, clearly high on adrenaline, and he looks like he’s this close to murdering everyone if Kaeya is so much as breathed on.
“Diluc. We need to get Kaeya medical help immediately. He won’t last out here,” Jean pleiades, but words don’t mean anything to a man that's as territorial as a mother tiger.
Lohen steps in front of Jean, and Diluc’s murderous gaze quickly shifts to the shorter man.
“Do you want your brother to die? Or will you let us take him? I know you’re more sensible than this, Darknight Hero.”
Lohen’s words seem to bring a sliver of consciousness back to Diluc, his gaze losing just a pinch of intensity.
As soon as the knight spots Diluc’s grip loosening on the captain’s body, he bends down and shoves Diluc against the floor.
“Grant Master! Take the captain!” he shouts, and Jean in her surprise involuntarily finds herself moving.
“No! Don’t you dare touch him!” Diluc struggles to get up, but Lohen keeps him pinned down.
“Sorry, Darknight Hero. But I noticed right away that you seem to be afflicted with abyssal energy. It won’t have lasting effects, but it’s causing you to become unreasonable and panicked.”
Diluc ignored Lohen’s words in favor of grasping at the snow for his claymore. Lohen shoots out to push it away before the man can get his hands on it.
“Sorry in advance, Sir Diluc. But once you wake up, you’ll understand why I had to do this to you.”
There’s a sudden pressure against the side of Diluc’s head, and the world blurs for a moment before it goes black.
———
Diluc wakes up to the familiar sound of church bells and soothing melodies in the distance that sound somewhat like Barbatos’ lyre. He opens his eyes to find cream-colored pigtails bouncing in front of his face, and when he blinks it becomes big gray-blue eyes blinking back at him.
“Sir Diluc, you’re awake!”
Diluc blinks again, and Barbara is gone, her voice becoming distant as she announces Diluc’s awakening. The man hears footsteps, and soon the deaconess is back with the Acting Grand Master and Lohen.
“Diluc, how are you feeling?” Jean asks, her voice sighing with relief. Lohen stares curiously, as if the sight of Diluc in the church’s bed is the most interesting thing in the world.
Diluc opens his mouth to reply, and then immediately shuts it with a pained groan as yesterday’s memories come flooding in like a wave. Before any of the knights can react, Diluc is pushing himself up, ignoring the aching in his head and the soreness in his arms.
“Sir Diluc, please be careful–!”
“Where’s Kaeya?”
“Ah…”
The church goes quiet at Diluc’s words, and when no one replies he repeats himself.
“I said– where is Kaeya.”
The threat in his voice is made ineffective by the pathetic state Diluc is in, which is made painfully obvious by Lohen’s unamused expression.
“The abyssal energy that possessed you has drained you of your strength. You should worry about yourself right now.”
Diluc faces Lohen when he speaks, his dead-tired eyes locking with Lohen’s nonchalant gaze.
“I can manage. Now bring me to him.”
“Jeez, you’re one stubborn guy, aren’t you?” Lohen sighs. He steps closer to Diluc, leaning forward to better meet his eyes.
“You don’t believe me, do you? I’ve seen the signs before; shortness of breath, feral glances, unreasonable ideas. You thought Sir Kaeya was dead when you found him because the abyssal energy heightened your feelings of doom and gloom. If it weren’t for that, maybe you would’ve noticed that Sir Kaeya was still letting out slow, faint breaths.”
At Lohen’s words, Diluc’s eyes widened slightly.
“He– he’s alive…?”
There’s more vulnerability in his voice than he’d normally let out, but after he thought he had just lost everything, lost the one person he had left (that he didn’t even manage to treat right), nothing seemed to matter as much anymore as the man he had wronged.
“He’s unconscious, but Barbatos has blessed us; he’s asleep next door.”
Diluc doesn’t wait to hear anything more; he’s out of bed and shrugging Barbara’s hands off of him before anyone can react and he dashes out the door.
“Diluc–!” Jean starts, but stops when she realizes the man is long gone.
“Let him go. I doubt he’s going to rest until he gets to see for himself that Sir Kaeya is alive.”
———
Kaeya was cold. He was so, so, cold. Wrongfully cold. All his life, Diluc had known Kaeya to be a warmth by his side, one that would never leave him despite all they’ve been through. In Diluc’s mind, there was no way Kaeya could be alive anymore when he felt the freezing temperatures his brother’s body had fallen to in Dragonspine, paired with the concerning amount of blood coating his skin.
And yet…
“If it weren’t for that, maybe you would’ve noticed that Sir Kaeya was still letting out slow, faint breaths.”
That knight had said otherwise. He had said that Diluc’s mind was playing tricks on him.
Could he really be alive…? Do I… really have the chance to speak to him again?
Diluc flung open the door near him, ignoring the way his arm seemed to hiss with soreness. The feeling was quickly forgotten as Diluc’s frantic eyes searched the room, and then landed on a bed.
Kaeya lay with his eyes closed, skin cleaned of blood; and his chest slowly rising and falling.
Diluc stumbled forward a step, then two, then five as he clumsily made his way over to Kaeya’s side.
The image of Kaeya laying in crimson snow with pale skin and closed eyes doesn’t leave the Darknight Hero’s mind even as he stands before Kaeya, who is now so clearly alive. Asleep, but alive.
His little brother was alive.
Diluc hadn’t messed up after all.
He still had a chance to set things right.
Diluc, lost in his thoughts, doesn’t notice the slight shift in movement beneath the sheets until something grazes against his hand, and Diluc flinches. The red-haired man looks down to find a familiar tanned hand weakly grasping his, and Diluc can’t help but glance towards the Cavalry Captain.
Kaeya’s eyes are open ever so slightly, unfocused, but gazing in Diluc’s general direction.
“Kaeya?” Diluc calls, almost whispers, as if afraid he will hurt the man if he speaks too loud. Kaeya blinks and stares at Diluc for a moment, and the red-haired man isn’t sure if his words had made it to Kaeya’s ears.
But then tears begin to fall from the blue-haired man’s eyes, and his eyebrows scrunch just the slightest bit as a quiet sob escapes his lips.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, voice rough with lack of use. “I lied to you.”
Diluc suddenly finds himself shooting forward, wrapping his arms around the tear-stricken man. The movement is familiar and automatic, an old habit that Diluc’s body had apparently never forgotten.
Kaeya buries himself further into the red-haired man, hands coming up to weakly return the hug. Diluc pretends to not feel the way Kaeya nuzzles against his shoulder, pretends not to remember the many times he’s held his little brother just like this when he woke up crying in the middle of the night. Back then and now, he pretends to not feel the tears that soak his shirt, knowing that stopping the tears is the only thing that’s on his mind at the moment.
“I’m sorry I lied,” Kaeya repeats, his words quiet and muffled against Diluc’s clothes.
“It’s okay. I knew.”
Diluc whispers the words, hoping that they come across as comforting rather than accusatory. With the way that Kaeya continues to stay in his arms without much movement, thankfully it seems to have gone the way Diluc hoped.
“I should’ve told you from the start, I should’ve- should’ve told Diluc.”
…What?
Diluc pulls back, not so fast that it startles Kaeya, but enough to gain a reaction out of the man. Kaeya glances up at Diluc, and Diluc returns the stare.
“Are you… going to leave me, Crepus?”
Something familiar rises in Diluc’s stomach. Something deep and hot and uncomfortable that quickly rises to his chest, burning its way up to his throat, to his tongue, his lips-
“What are you going to do from now, Kaeya?” Diluc asks, before the burning can force something else out. Before it lashes out unfairly at the man before him who deserves at least a chance to explain himself. (He deserves all the chances the world can give, after Diluc had treated him the way he did all these years.)
Kaeya blinks at the question, as if perplexed, hesitating to answer.
“I’m going to find Diluc,” he starts.
“And… I’m going to tell him the truth. If he doesn’t forgive me… then I won’t stop him from leaving me.”
The burning in Diluc’s chest dies down, now smothered by an icy cold much like Dragonspine’s air.
“He won’t leave you,” Diluc says. Kaeya glances up at that.
“Even if he leaves Mondstadt for a few years, even if he acts cold towards you, even if he never talks to you the same way again, he will never leave you. Diluc will always love his little brother, no matter what. He’s long forgiven you, Kaeya.”
Kaeya is silent for a few moments, replaying Diluc’s words in his head over and over, his eyes starting to glimmer at the realization that Diluc… doesn’t hate him.
“Diluc is too kind to me,” Kaeya laughs, eyes going downcast with guilt but also immense relief.
“Diluc wasn’t kind enough to you,” Diluc retaliates, and Kaeya laughs again at that.
“I miss you, Crepus,” Kaeya whispers.
“I want to… see you again…”
Diluc waits for Kaeya to continue. But no more words come. Diluc looks up at Kaeya and sees that the man’s eyes have closed, returned to a peaceful slumber.
Footsteps sound from behind the red-haired man, and he almost isn’t able to hide the visible jump of surprise his body makes. Lohen and Jean come to stand at his sides, and Diluc can’t help but wonder, how long had they been here??
“Seems like Barbatos has used alcohol to numb Kaeya instead of regular painkillers,” Lohen scoffs, his grin much like that of a mischievous cat.
Diluc wants to ask them if they had seen everything just now, but Jean puts a hand on his shoulder and gives him a look and he knows they’ve been here long enough.
“You were never a terrible brother, Diluc,” Jean says, quiet. The red-haired man looks down, eyes landing somewhere on the sheets Kaeya is buried in.
“But I could’ve been better,” he mumbles. Another hand comes to rest on his head, though it’s more of a shove with the carelessness of the motion.
“Then just start being better now. After all, there’s no point in dwelling on what’s already passed.”
Lohen’s words, though coming out much like a father’s scolding, are oddly comforting to Diluc. Perhaps the man’s masochistic nature was starting to rub off on the Darknight Hero.
“Get some rest, Diluc. Tomorrow, you’ll have plenty of time to catch up with Kaeya.”
Jean flashes a gentle smile at Diluc. The man can’t quite muster up the energy to return the gesture, so instead he nods, slowly standing up from his seat.
As the knights and Diluc make their way out of the room, the red-haired man can’t help but glance back at Kaeya, sound asleep in his bed.
A small, familial warmth tugs his lips up into a faint smile.
Tomorrow, he would talk to Kaeya. Tomorrow, he would tell his brother everything he never had the chance to. And perhaps, if it wasn’t too late, they would slowly go back to the way things were before.