Chapter Text
A soft ticking sound echoed around the room. The source, a tall, grandiose grandfather clock, had been there for as long as any of the Knights of Favonius could remember. It towered over the desks and tables in the library, an intimidating figure for the children who often took their exams in this room. Yet Kaeya was no child, and he still found the clock intimidating.
He had become somewhat of a regular visitor to the library in the headquarters of the Knights of Favonius in recent days. Lisa didn’t mind his presence all that much, but her librarian instincts caused her to observe and follow him a little more than anyone else, making sure he didn’t cause any trouble or take any books without permission. His reputation preceded him in most places he went.
Kaeya sat with his head resting on his arms, staring blankly at the stack of books and papers before him. His leg automatically bounced underneath the table. He didn't like being alone for too long in the quiet; it made him feel more anxious than relaxed. In an attempt to tear himself away from alcohol and his newly discovered fetish for pain, he had taken up reading and researching. The Captain found it quite boring, in all honesty; the topics that Lisa and Jean had picked out were not in the least bit interesting to him.
Worship through the ages, history of the Knights of Favonius, most famous Mondstadters of all time.
Nothing was really sweeping him off his feet as he had expected it to. Kaeya was unable to recognise that his standards for how quickly something would intrigue him were almost impossibly high given how his brain worked. He rubbed his head in slight frustration. He had tried everything he could think of to avoid the Angel’s Share, other than leaving Mondstadt completely. If he left, he’d only be drawn to the crystal again.
He produced a small flask from a pouch attached to his belt. It was only half full. In some strange attempt to wean him off of alcohol, Diluc had granted Kaeya access to a selection of the lowest quality wines the Dawn Winery had ever produced. If Kaeya associated alcohol with being a bum and grew to hate the taste, then he would obviously become sober again. Kaeya uncapped the flask and sniffed the contents, pulling a face of disgust in response. It truly was some of the worst product from his brother he’d ever tasted. Holding his nose, he went to take a swig.
However, before he could, the flask was gently taken from his hand. Kaeya blinked in surprise, turning to look up at the culprit. He was about to yell before he realised who it was, and his face flushed. Lisa, the beautiful Electro Vision holder and head librarian, was standing over him with a disappointed expression on her face. She was tall and completely gorgeous; every man—no, every one —who was blessed by her presence was immediately smitten.
"Kaeya, darling, I’d appreciate you putting the drink away for now, okay? We can’t have you spilling wine all over the books now, can we~?" she said, pinching the flask by the throat and swinging it gently, reprimanding Kaeya for drinking in the library in her usual strangely gentle manner. His eyebrows furrowed, and he gave Lisa a small, sheepish smile. She cocked an eyebrow, holding the flask up.
"Sorry." Kaeya apologised, standing up and fidgeting with the hem of his vest subconsciously, "I was trying my best not to make a mess."
Lisa sighed softly, handing the flask back to Kaeya, who was quick to tuck it back into the inside pocket of his vest. She eyed him, hands on her hips, and quickly turned to the desk he had been resting at.
"I appreciate that, honey," she replied, gathering all the books sprawled across the dark mahogany surface. Kaeya attempted to help, leaning over to pick up the book closest to him, but Lisa was quick to swat his hand away. "I thought you had stopped drinking."
Kaeya held his hand to his chest, "Yes, I have." he responded, "Or, well, I’m trying my best. Master Diluc is encouraging me to drink bad wine in the hopes that it’ll ward me off." Lisa chuckled, putting each book into a neat pile according to thickness. She closed Kaeya’s personal notebook, which had been filled with worthless notes on worthless subjects, and placed it gently atop the thickest pile.
"Master Diluc has good ideas - you two are somewhat similar in that regard, you know~" she smiled, looking up at Kaeya again. He avoided her eyes, fingers twitching with the need to fidget, "Oh, don't look so nervous, darling. I'm only teasing. " There was something about talking to her that embarrassed him; he wasn’t sure whether it was just the fact that she was pretty or that she was even more of an unashamed flirt than he was. And that's saying something.
Kaeya smiled again; suddenly he felt like his face was burning. "Thank you, Lisa," he replied, reaching over and grabbing his notebook. There were a few small tabs poking out from particular pages. Kaeya wasn’t sure what exactly they marked; he had long forgotten, but he didn’t fancy revisiting those pages any time soon. All he wanted to do with the wretched leather-bound thing was throw it in some faraway lake, never to be seen again.
"Now, off with you." Lisa scooped up one of the piles of books sitting on the desk, holding them against her chest, "I have to clean all this, and then I promised I’d help Noelle with giving the library a good dusting. I’m sorry, but you’d only be an obstruction, darling~" She shot a heartbreaking smile at him.
"Yes, uh, okay." Kaeya immediately obeyed her order. He cleared his throat as he fixed his clothes, "Have a good day, Lisa." He nodded at her, and she just smiled back.
"You too, Kaeya."
Now he was alone. Kaeya made his way out of the library and out of the Favonius Headquarters. He was supposed to be on duty in around half an hour, but he convinced Jean to let him off for a while. He was avoiding leaving the city for now. He felt as if being outside would draw him towards that thing. It was like a magnet.
Despite trying his best not to think about it over the last two weeks, the Captain’s thoughts had been plagued by the Electro crystal. Certain things reminded him of it, particularly anything purple. His encounter with Lisa, who was an Electro herself, only made him worse. He let out a ragged breath as he stepped out of the building. He felt as if he’d been holding it in for their whole exchange.
"Shit…" he couldn’t help himself. Kaeya felt as if he’d been smacked in the head with a brick; his whole world was suddenly centred around trying to circumvent the idea of going back to that damn crystal. He should be focusing on his job, not that . He looked down, eyeing the view of Mondstadt from his position.
He needed something a little more interesting to occupy himself. He took a moment to think as he made his way down the steps of the Headquarters and walked absent-mindedly up towards the Cathedral. Something to do... Usually, these things would just come upon him whenever he was bored, but they seemed to be avoiding him the more he thought about them.
Kaeya paused as he reached the statue of Barbatos in front of the Cathedral, looking up at it. Hands outstretched, a peaceful expression. He’s never envied a bunch of special stones more in his entire life. He rubbed his head in frustration. How could the Knights be so shorthanded yet half of them have nothing to do?
Then it hit him. The Knights of Favonius were famously shorthanded, and yet he was sitting here doing nothing to help. He quickly turned on his heel, speed-walking towards the main city. If he helped out in other areas, he would not only be occupied, but he would also technically be doing his job! It was a brilliant idea, and he couldn’t help but let a small smile creep onto his face.
He was standing beside Hertha, Captain of the Knights of Favonius’ 6th Company, faster than his thoughts could catch up with him. Before he could even begin to think about his own personal duties and how this might affect them, he had already taken on various bounties and a few backed-up requests for the week. He wasn’t sure if his payment would be added to his wage or given to him directly after completion, but he was too caught up in the moment to care.
Kaeya sped out of the city, too preoccupied with the thought of making himself useful to remind himself why he hadn’t left the walls, and began reading the markers that Hertha had hastily scribbled on his map about his targets. A strange machine, an Abyss Mage, and a Lawachurl. He wondered what exactly was meant by ‘strange machine', but he was confident that he’d be able to defeat it in the blink of an eye.
Within a few hours, the Captain had taken quite the beating. He was sitting, resting, on a rock just beside the Adventurer’s Guild’s camp outside of Dragonspine. He sniffled as he wiped the blood dripping from his nose with a handkerchief. Taking on a huge Lawachurl in sub-zero temperatures on his own was possibly a bad idea. Upon stumbling off of Dragonspine, beaten and bloody, he had been approached by one of the Adventurers from the camp and given some sort of homemade salve and told to rub it on his wounds. He did as he was told.
He had come down from his little high and realised that this was a lot of work for one man alone after defeating the Lawachurl with more than a few bruises. He hissed as he rubbed the salve onto the scratches and cuts along his arms and face. Kaeya wasn’t sure exactly what was in the salve; it smelled very strongly of something sterile and mint. It was an unfamiliar, harsh smell that seemed to pierce his entire head whenever he got a whiff.
He was such an idiot. Kaeya was well aware that, at this point, he wouldn’t be able to go back to Hertha like a beaten dog. He pulled himself up. At least he got the biggest enemy out of the way first. An Abyss Mage shouldn’t be too much trouble for him, and he didn’t really know what a ‘strange machine’ exactly was; he assumed it would also be nothing too troubling. He brushed himself off before limping his way away from Dragonspine.
The Captain wanted to fulfil his promise. He said he’d complete these bounties and the requests so he would. Upon checking his map, he noticed a lot of the requests were in between him and the next bounty, which at least made things a little more convenient. As he approached the people who had made the requests, they took notice of his state and tried their best to help him. However, Kaeya was famously stubborn. He refused any food or offerings that came his way on his journey unless they were literally force-fed to him.
He had thought he was safe on this journey. While being occupied by work did wonders for him in trying to avoid thinking about his problems, there were long walks between jobs that left him alone with his thoughts. As he walked, eyes downturned, along a forest path in Wolvendom, he was suddenly hyper aware of his surroundings. He felt as if he could hear the individual heartbeats of the birds in the trees, and his head was suddenly throbbing. He stopped in place, blinking and trying to focus his now blurry vision.
Kaeya looked down at his hands. They were shaking. What was wrong with him? He had been fine all day before this point. Did he catch a cold from Dragonspine? How could it have taken such a strong hold on him so quickly? He reached out, grabbing for something to hold onto. He could have sworn there was a tree right next to him, but as he reached out to grab it for support, he fell.
It happened so fast that Kaeya barely had any time to process it. Before he knew it, he was lying on the floor, retching. This sudden change in his health was definitely for the worse. He didn’t vomit; he only dry-retched and curled up on the ground, covered in dirt and dust. He held himself, pressing on his stomach in some attempt to stop the sudden shooting pain infesting his abdomen. He closed his eyes, resting for a moment. When he opened them, everything was dark.
The Captain blinked upon opening his eyes, looking around in confusion. After a moment, it hit him that it was suddenly the middle of the night. He could barely see the light of Mondstadt over the horizon. Had he fallen asleep here? He felt his arms quiver as he tried to hold himself up. How had he managed to get this sick in such a short amount of time? His head was filled with a storm of thoughts; he didn’t know what to do.
Eventually, he managed to pull himself up off the ground. Had he hit his head? There was no blood or bump when he checked. He looked around. He was somewhat familiar with the area, but it was still terrifying to wake up out here. Had no one seen him? Kaeya gathered himself, rocking on his feet, and started to make his way to the only place he could clearly remember how to get to at the moment.
*
Diluc had only just managed to sit down to rest in the Dawn Winery. He had considered staying in the Angel’s Share for the night after standing in for Charlie, the bartender, for the best part of the day. He groaned as he set his head on his desk. He was tired; having to deal with drunken adventurers was far from a pleasant experience. At least he hadn’t had to deal with Kaeya all day.
Something struck him at that moment. A burning worry formed in the pit of the man’s stomach, and he raised his head to look at the clock. It was nearing 11 o’clock. Why hadn’t he seen Kaeya today?
Diluc stood up from his seat, an anxious frown replacing his usual composed expression. On average, Kaeya popped into the Angel’s Share at least twice a day to get a refill of his flask. The fact that he had been completely absent today was concerning at best. Diluc felt his gut twist as he headed towards the door of the winery, his mind flooded with worst-case scenarios.
As he reached the main hall, he heard a knock echo throughout the building. His heart skipped a beat as he lunged forward to open the door himself instead of letting his servants, who were pretty taken aback to see Master Diluc himself in such a state, do it for him.
The red-haired man swung open the ornate doors of the winery and was met with the sight of Kaeya leaning on a much smaller person, groaning in what sounded like pretty intense pain. He recognised Y/N L/N, a somewhat well-known researcher in Mondstadt, as Kaeya's temporary attendee.
In an effort to support Kaeya's weight, Y/N grunted and shifted Kaeya's arm up onto their shoulder.
“Hello, Mr. Ragnvindr. I found him wandering around near the Statue of the Seven outside," Y/N said, grinning sheepishly as he turned to face Diluc, “Could I come in?"
Diluc awoke from his shock and hurriedly moved forward, shifting the majority of Kaeya's weight onto himself. The other man sighed and moved his arm away from Y/N's shoulder to loosely hold his own stomach.
"Mm... Diluc?" he muttered, lifting his head to look up at his brother. Kaeya was sweating profusely, and Diluc could see it on his face in the light of the winery's chandelier. The red-haired man grumbled as he lugged the other towards a nearby chair, sitting him down with a sigh. He turned his attention towards Y/N, who was looking down at Kaeya with a concerned expression.
“Thanks.” he said, grimacing down at them, “You said you found him near the Statue of the Seven?”
Y/N looked up at Diluc and nodded quickly, his hands clasped together at his waist.
“Yeah… He was sort of just wandering around as if he didn’t know where he was. When I came up to him to ask if he was okay, he just weakly asked for you before basically collapsing right on top of me.” they explained. Their eyes shifted between Kaeya and Diluc as they spoke. It was almost as if they didn’t want to let the man leave their sight — as if he would disappear at any given moment and go wandering blindly into the wilderness again.
Diluc grunted in response. He approached Kaeya, taking a knee in front of his younger sibling, and reached out to press his hand to his forehead. Kaeya was searing hot. So hot that it shocked Diluc into retracting his hand. The man groaned at the sensation of touch and wearily opened his eye. His pupils were much too dilated and his eye looked glossy and absent, as if he was awake but not entirely there.
“What’s wrong with him?” Y/N chimed, voice laced with concern. Diluc had almost forgotten that he was there and jumped at the sound of his voice. He looked up to meet their eyes and sighed.
“He’s sick.” he responded, using the arm of the chair Kaeya was slumped in to help himself up. He brushed off his knees and fixed his gloves - a nervous habit. “He needs good rest.” Y/N couldn’t help but bring their hands to their mouth and begin chewing their nails.
“Do you think he needs medical treatment?” he suggested. Diluc’s expression shifted from concern to surprise at this.
“Medical treatment?” he repeated Y/N’s statement as if he hadn’t considered this. Of course, it had crossed his mind in the brief time Kaeya had been in his care, but he didn’t really like taking Kaeya to see the doctor. Nothing personal against his brother, but because Mr. Alberich was infamous for being a doc-knocker. Diluc narrowed his eyes as he weighed the pros and cons in his head. “Possibly. I can have him supervised during the night and if he doesn’t get any better then that’s when I’ll have him see a doctor.”
Y/N didn’t seem to like this answer. His expression transformed into a semi-judgemental scowl.
“I understand that it’s late, Mr. Ragnvindr-”
“Please, call me Diluc.”
Their face flushed at the correction. “I understand that it’s late, Diluc , but this is serious. What if something happens during the night?”
Diluc grumbled. He grumbled a lot.
“You’re welcome to observe him for the night if you’re so concerned.” Diluc said as he folded his arms across his chest, “Opening my home to you would be the least I can do for you. Consider it thanks for retrieving him in this state.”
Y/N’s eyes widened at this response. He stuttered for a moment before collecting himself.
“A-Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to be a burden on you.” he asked. Despite his overbearing politeness, there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Almost as if this was important to him in some way. Diluc gave a short nod.
“I’ll help you get him into bed and have someone come to set him up with some basic treatments we have here. If he’s no better by the morning, we can both escort him to the nearest clinic. I have enough room here to support you for the night.” Diluc approached Kaeya again, who muttered incoherently under his breath. At least he was still somewhat conscious. He grabbed the man’s arm and lifted him, supporting him. Kaeya wasn’t heavy but he wasn’t exactly a dainty princess either.
It was definitely a tedious process in attempting to get Kaeya to climb the stairs by himself. Several servants and Y/N asked if they could help multiple times but Diluc was intent on carrying Kaeya himself. In his head, it was his fault that Kaeya was this way. The only reason that Diluc could think of for the other man’s state was some kind of intense withdrawal symptoms.
He had seen Kaeya have similar fits in the past but never this bad. All of his previous attempts to quit drinking had only spiralled and led him back to square one. But, this time, he had really pulled up his panties and tried his best and look where it got him. In truth, the liquid Diluc had been providing Kaeya wasn’t wine, it was grape juice. He had thought that if Kaeya was under the assumption that it was alcohol, it would somehow trick his body into thinking the same. He was clearly wrong. It was all in his best interest but Diluc had felt a huge pang of guilt rock his entire body as he opened the front door.
With some struggle and a lot of forceful dragging, Diluc finally managed to lug Kaeya to the nearest bed. He curled up in pain once laid down and shivered pathetically in a little ball of self-pity.Y/N tapped Diluc on the shoulder, calling the man’s attention.
“Do you have any spare blankets?” he asked, looking at Kaeya rather than the person he was speaking to, “I would put him in bed properly but I’m a little scared to move him.” Diluc hummed and gestured to the large wooden cabinet just behind Y/N.
“The guest room is just next door. Breakfast is at 7. Make yourself at home.” and, with that, he left. The door creaked shut behind him, left only slightly ajar. The sound of servants walking up and down the hall echoed throughout the room.
The room itself looked as if Kaeya had stayed here in the past. There were things that definitely didn’t look like they belonged here - various items of clothing that weren’t fitting within Master Diluc’s usual black and red theme laid out atop a dresser against the other wall; a half full crate of Dawn Winery product hidden under the bed and only slightly visible; a sword tucked away neatly into a sheath stood against the wall next to the door.
Y/N took a few moments to observe and take notes of these things before they turned and retrieved some blankets to cover Kaeya. They didn’t know him personally but when they found him rambling to himself in some sort of daze alone at night, they couldn’t just leave him there.
After covering him with what looked like some sort of fur sheet, they walked over to the chair tucked into the corner of the room and finally had a moment to sit down. They hadn’t actually rested since they left the gates of Mondstadt. They sighed and loosened their stance, trying to get some of the tension to release from their muscles.
He undid the strap holding a small brown satchel to his body and placed it on the floor beside the chair. A notebook peeked out of the corner of the bag temptingly. He contemplated the thought of continuing his notes. A few more pages wouldn’t hurt, he needed to get his section of his research finished anyways. Plus, he had nothing else to do besides just sit and observe Kaeya.
Upon coming to a decision, Y/N reached into their satchel and retrieved their notebook and a pen and opened it to the most recent page.