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Kaeya sighed, looking out at the snowy lands of DragonSpine before him. He was stuck in Albedos cave with Klee, Albedo and none other than his own brother, Diluc. He had been trying to linger around him, since he was radiating heat, but the other ended up yelling at him for it. After some time, Klee started jumping around, yelling about how she wanted to go outside and have a snow day. Albedo immediately agreed to go with his younger sister, wrapping a scarf around her neck with a big fuzzy coat put onto her. Kaeya smiled softly as Albedo also wrapped a scarf around his neck, it was soft and pink, Kaeyas favorite color (even if he didn’t even need one since the cold never bothered him anyways). Diluc didn’t need a scarf, he always ran hot, and had that heavy coat on him all the time, anyways.
As soon as the snow crunched under Kaeya’s boots, he felt old, short memories flood into his mind. Memories of him, Crepus and Diluc all playing together in the snow at the Dawn Winery. It was Kaeya’s first Christmas and first snow in Mond, so it would always be an important memory to him. Both him and his older brother played in the snow until their noses were red and they were shivering, bound to catch colds. Crepus had only laughed, Making some warm milk with honey and mint in it and giving them it to warm them up. The boys thanked their father, giggling as they sipped the warm milk and played together, before falling asleep in each other’s arms.
Kaeya was 6. And Diluc was 9. But, even if Kaeya was young at the time, he’ll never forget it. It would always be his favorite memory of him and his brother, no matter how far apart they may grow.
While Kaeya would love to stay in the back of his mind, remembering the best he can about every memory he had with his adoptive father and brother, he’s headspace was pulling at him over it, and, Klee had just screamed out snowball fight.
He ducked suddenly as a snowball hurled towards his head, he looked over and saw Klee, giggling like crazy as she ran around with poorly made snowballs in her arms, throwing them at him, Albedo and Diluc as hard as she could, which was actually super hard. He sighed, picking up some snow and making a ball with it, weakly tossing it at Klee or Albedo each time. Diluc even played with them, throwing the occasional snowball.
Sooner than later, Kaeya ended up making a snowman in the midst of the snowball fight chaos, any snowballs thrown at his snowman he just patted into it, making it bigger. He had to say, he was quite proud of his work, and he was very focused, and of course, only when he looked away from his project and at Klee, he got to see her nail Diluc in the back of the head with a large snowball. And it was by no means a soft throw, oh, no, it almost knocked the other off balance. And an angry Diluc whipped around, eyes flaming red with a snowball in his hand.
“He did it!” Klee squealed, pointing a finger at Kaeya. Oh. Fuck. Kaeya immediately put his hands up, shaking his head. “No! No! I didn’t! I’ve been building my snowman! I promise it wasn’t me, Brothe-“ and just as Kaeya was about to finish his sentence, a very large snowball, that was half ice slammed into his face. He heard a small squelch, and then when he looked down, he saw the blood dripping down onto the snow.
His fingers slowly moved to his nose, immediate nausea and panic washing over him.
Kaeya had always been afraid of blood, usually when it was his though. He remembers the first time he, Crepus and Diluc found this out. He was 9, Diluc was 12. They were running around outside, when Kaeyas foot got caught under a grape vine, causing him to fall and cut his leg open. As soon as he smelt the iron of blood, and saw the crimson red pouring steadily out of his leg, he wailed loudly, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. Diluc picked him up, trying to shush him and comfort him as he ran back towards the winery. Kaeya had always been tall and lanky, and underweight, no matter how much he ate, he never seemed to get bigger. Crepus had cooed to him, kissing his cheek as he helped clean and bandage the cut. It was actually so deep that it left a permanent scar, one Kaeya will never forget.
Kaeya started panicking as soon as he tasted blood in his mouth, and saw it on his fingers. Tears immediately threatening to spill as he looked up, seeing Diluc standing over him. “What did I TELL YOU? Do NOT call me brother!” Diluc shouted at him, not yet picking up quite on the panicking.
Kaeyas brain immediately stopped, and his headspace crashed into him as the other continued screaming at him, telling him off for hitting him in the head and calling him brother.
Kaeya didn’t understand why his big brother was yelling at him, weren’t they just having fun? Wasn’t it Klee who threw it? He didn’t know, but as soon as Diluc raised his hand to point at the other, he burst out into wails. It surprised Diluc so much that he went frozen, staring down at the Calvary captain, who was crying so loud he was afraid it might cause an avalanche. And Kaeya definitely wouldn’t stop, bawling as his arms wrapped around himself, nails digging into his skin to try to ground himself weakly as his vision glowed, ice slowly spreading out. It always acted out when he was emotional.
It also took Diluc a second to realize exactly why Kaeya was bawling like a small child, acting as if they were wrongly accused and about to be hit.
Oh.
Diluc dropped to his knees, putting his hands on Kaeyas knees and shushing him. “Kaeya, Kaeya, Kae, baby? It’s okay.” Diluc comforted softly, watching as the other slowly came down to hiccups and sniffles. Diluc cooed, bringing a warm hand to cup Kaeyas cheek, wiping the tears off of it as he smiled. “It’s okay, my calla Lilly, I know it hurts, let’s go get some medicine, okay?” Diluc smiled as Kaeya nodded, standing up with his help and slightly hiding behind him as he help his hand. Diluc only sighed, walking back to Albedos cave.
Albedo rushed in with Klee a few moments later, frowning, and slightly teary eyed, Klee ran up to Kaeya, hugging him as hard as she could. “Im sorry, Mr.Kaeya!! I shouldn’t have blamed you!” Diluc looked down at Klee. “Blamed him for what?” “For hitting you with the snowball! It was me!” Klee sobbed, tears falling from her eyes as Albedo picked her up, letting her cling to him as she cried. Albedo could only bounce his sister, kissing her head and telling her it was okay and that Diluc wasn’t mad.
Diluc immediately frowned, moving over to Kaeya and softly kissing his cheek. “I’m sorry, little calla lilly, I shouldn’t have hurt you..” Kaeya just smiled softly, nuzzling into the other and hugging him. Diluc wrapped his arms around him, too. Big Kaeya may be horrible and annoying, but little Kaeya was his true nature, insecure, scared, easy to overthink and panic, and very shy. It was the Kaeya few people got to see.
It didn’t take long to get back to Mond. Kaeya holding Dilucs hand shyly as Diluc led the way to Angels Share.
As they were walking, Kaeya tugged on Diluc coat, making him stop and look over at his baby brother, who blushed and looked away before stammering out softly, “Can.. can we g-gets a calla lilly pease, Luc..?” Diluc cooed at him, rubbing his hand. “Of course, come over here.”
Diluc walked Kaeya over to where Flora was supposed to be, but she was nowhere to be seen. Just as Diluc was about to break the news to his baby brother, he heard a woman gasp, footsteps and then the voice of none other than Donna. “Here! Let me help! Flora said I can! What can I get you, Diluc?!” Diluc took a step back, looking at the woman cautiously. “Just one calla lilly, please..” She grinned at him, before her smile faded and turned into a sneer.
“And, what’s the Calvary captain doing. Why is he holding your hand? Is he dragging you around by your hand? How shameful! I’d feel horrible if I dragged you, a fine, strong man around like that! I mean, who do you even think you are!-“
“ENOUGH.” Diluc yelled at her, making her squeak and shut her mouth finally. Diluc felt the other shaking, he knew he was crying again, and it made him infuriated. He threw a pouch of mora down and snagged the closest calla lilly from its pot, sticking his nose up at Donna. “If you think you can call MY baby brother names and harass him, think again on ever talking to me, let alone have me look at you, woman!” Diluc growled out, making the woman’s eyes shine over before she burst into tears. He immediately dragged his own crying Kaeya away from her, all the way to Angels Share and then upstairs, where he sat the other down on the bed and handed him the calla lilly, humming a soft melody to him.
“Luc..” Kaeya whined, sniffling softly. Diluc cooed, kissing his head as he dropped down to his knees in front of the other, before looking under the bed and pulling a box out from under it. It was little items, and clothes.
Diluc picks out a simple outfit, pastel blue shirt, gray leggings and socks for the other, along with a blue pacifier. He let the other suck on it, before helping clean his nose. He then picked the other up, pulling back the sheets and blanket to lay Kaeya down softly, then climbing in from the other side after he pulled his coat and shoes off, throwing them somewhere.
He smiled as Kaeya curled up against him, kissing his head and rubbing his back. “Good night, Kae, my lovely little calla lilly.” He yawned as Kaeya giggled, closing his eyes. As he slowly drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
When Kaeya woke, he was alone in the bed, but his reminder that it wasn’t actually a dream was that there was a note from Diluc, telling him to go by and see him sooner or later so they could talk and catch up. It made The Calvary captain grin, shoving the note into his back pocket to remind himself that it wasn’t a dream, that it was real and his brother still loved him.
Kaeya was happy the rest of the day. The news spread even to Diluc, and when he heard, he smiled so hard he thought he’d die.