Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Oh dear.”

These are the first words out of the mage’s mouth. Not Kaeya’s favourite thing to hear by any means, particularly when he’s been hit in the chest with a powerful blast of magic. In his defence, Kaeya had only sprung out at the sorceress because he’d thought she was a suspicious figure - Who goes around melting cliff sides, anyway? Save for their dear Spark Knight, that is.

Kaeya’s body aches fiercely all the way down to his toes and he groans. It comes out as a high pitched whine-- definitely not a sound he’s ever made before. When he moves to push himself upright, his clothes get trapped around his limbs for some reason. It takes a second of struggling to work out what the problem is; Kaeya’s hands are gone and in their place are two long, claw-tipped paws. 

He lets out a shocked cry and a loud bark erupts from his mouth.

Oh no, he thinks as panic shakes through him. OH NO!

He spins in a circle and nearly falls over for his efforts because being on all fours is weird and archons, is that a tail?! Kaeya wobbles to his feet-- paws--  again and tries to clamp down on his emotions best he can. He takes stock of what he can see: Grey fur, quadrupedal, tail… Ears, too, now he can feel them swivelling atop his head. On top of all that, there is an overpowering scent of ozone filling his nose. Like magic but dialled up to eleven. Kaeya sneezes loudly.

“Oh dear, dear me,” comes the mage’s voice again.

Kaeya squirms free of his discarded clothing and glares up into the face of none other than The Grand Sorceress Alice herself. A yelp of pure surprise escapes him as he abruptly sits down on his-- Fuck, he’s got haunches. 

She turned him into a dog!!

Kaeya has only met Alice once before, briefly, when she’d swept into the Favonius headquarters and deposited Klee into the lap of a very anxious, freshly appointed Jean. She’d been larger than life then and she is now, too. Kaeya has to squint at her because the sheer power radiating from her aura is making his eyes water.

“Come now, Captain Kaeya, don’t look at me like that,” Alice chides, pressing a hand to her heart. “You were the one who decided to startle me. I was merely defending myself, dear.”

“Change me back!” Kaeya cries. It comes out as a garbled, growling bark, and he groans in frustration only to emit the same pathetic whining as before. Archons, this is humiliating.

Alice frowns at his spectacle. “Well that’s certainly not very helpful, I imagine.” She flexes her fingers, magic sparking at the tips. “But please don’t panic. Just give me a moment to change you back and then you can-”

A loud ringing noise interrupts her, and Alice turns her attention to the small pouch she’d left on the nearby boulder. It’s shaking like a bell tower at noon.

“Oh dear,” she says again, and Kaeya decides that’s his least favourite combination of words. In any language. “Apologies, dear Captain, but this requires my immediate attention. I’ve been cultivating moon-charged glaze lily roots for the past year and there is but an hour long window to harvest them. You understand.”

Kaeya absolutely does not understand until Alice delicately snatches the pouch off the rock and draws herself a portal in midair. 

Realising what’s about to happen, Kaeya leaps to his feet, barking out a woeful sounding, “You can’t leave me like this!”

“There’s no need to fuss,” Alice dismissed his wailing with a wave of her hand. “It’ll wear off in a few hours. Or a few weeks, I’m never really sure with basic transformation spells. You’ll be just fine!”

He will NOT be fine!! Kaeya bounds forwards the second Alice takes a step towards the portal, diving for the hem of her robe. His paws pass straight through it as the Grand Sorceress vanishes into thin air, the portal shimmering out of existence in her wake. Kaeya lands snout first on the ground and WOW does that hurt. His nose is far more sensitive in this form, it seems. In the solitude of the glade, Kaeya covers his snout with both paws and whines until the worst of the pain has passed.

Well. 

This is just wonderful.

Having sulked for as long as he can justify, Kaeya climbs ungainly to his feet. It takes a few minutes to work out the coordination of walking on four legs; the brush of his fluffy new tail keeps making him jump and his balance is all over the place. When he’s confident he can walk more than ten paces without tripping, Kaeya pads over to his abandoned clothing.

It’s comedically laid out in exactly the shape of a man. Kaeya moves to pick it up and ends up pawing at it quite uselessly, forgetting he has no opposable thumbs available to form a proper grip. In the end, he manages to drag the garments behind a larger boulder, followed by his boots with a little effort. The cryo vision tied to his belt glints at him, its frosty surface swirling in cool hues like a taunt. 

Kaeya hesitates; he can hardly use it as a dog, but it feels wrong to leave it behind. 

He briefly wonders what that says about him. Diluc hadn’t hesitated to abandon his vision before taking off to Snezhnaya with nothing but the claymore on his back and the fury in his heart. After another second of hesitation, Kaeya closes his jaws around the vision. It takes a sharp bite to free it from the belt before he starts back towards the city. The vision feels cold in his mouth, mildly stinging his tongue and filling his nose - It’s weird that he can smell ice now. The scent is indescribable in human language, but somehow it makes sense to his canine brain. 

The journey back is far longer as a dog. He finds a shallow pool and curiously peers over the edge at his reflection. A large, slate grey dog stares back at him with piercing, cobalt blue eyes. A thick scar slices across one of them, pale and hairless. Kaeya is fascinated by the novelty that he can flex his ears and see them twitch atop his head. As far as dogs go, he’s a rather handsome beast, if he does say so himself.

An hour of decently coordinated walking convinces Kaeya to attempt a light trot, and another hour of that gives way to a controlled lope. It’s…strangely freeing. The earth smells so rich around him, pine and firwood flooding his senses, bright and sharp and green. It’s a novelty to think he can smell the colour of the leaves. The dirt shifts satisfyingly beneath his toe pads, and Kaeya indulges in a moment to simply roll around in the long grass. It rubs his fur all kinds of pleasant. Kaeya had forgotten what simple joy tasted like. It’s kind of nice to know he can feel it at all.

Perhaps this isn’t so bad, really. Kaeya can spend a few days as a dog, free from his responsibilities as the Cavalry Captain. Free from the mask he’s so carefully woven around everything he does. He could even go to the Angel’s Share and annoy Diluc by barking at the door.

At the thought of Diluc, Kaeya stops rolling about in the dirt. He lies on his back, staring up at the fading sun and suddenly feels small and silly. 

Diluc wouldn’t want to see him like this. If he’s honest with himself, Kaeya knows that Diluc wouldn’t want to see him at all. He’ll probably be relieved at Kaeya’s absence. At least it will mean he stops losing so much mora on all the free drinks he serves Kaeya when he’s in a good mood. The gesture is something that Kaeya has been holding onto with both hands since Diluc slid that first glass of Death Afternoon over to him after he returned. 

There was a time when he thought they’d be… more. Diluc has always been gorgeous, but as a younger man he’d had a certain charm to him. All smiles and “yes sir”s that were frozen out with the frigid winds of Snezhnaya. Kaeya had wanted every scrap of his attention and didn’t understand what that meant until the day they were alone in the Knight’s quarters.

Diluc had stepped close, one hand finding Kaeya’s waist whilst the other curled around the back of his neck. His charming smile had drifted into something slack and open-mouthed, and Kaeya hadn’t been able to look away from it. He still holds a private grudge against Huffman for interrupting what might have come next. It has left them the most ragged loose end in both of their histories.

Kaeya isn’t stupid. He knows that whatever Diluc feels for him, it’s all wrapped up in pain and grief and violence. But at his core, Diluc is a good person. Of course he was going to serve Kaeya a drink if pestered enough. And Kaeya has been shamelessly taking advantage of that fact to pretend that they might reconcile things. 

It’s a nice thought for a rainy day.

Before he can really become morose, Kaeya’s stomach growls loudly. Oh, that’s right. He hasn’t eaten since breakfast. It’s tempting to gnaw on his cryo vision, but Kaeya doesn’t want it to burst in his mouth or something worse, so instead he rolls lazily to his feet and keeps moving. The blades of Mondstadt’s windmills are circling just over the ridge so he picks up the pace a bit, hunger clawing through his belly now home is within sight.

The guards at the city gates are napping by the time Kaeya makes it over the bridge. If he wasn’t carrying his cryo vision in his mouth, Kaeya would bark at them for sleeping on the job but right now he has other priorities. His stomach growls on command. Kaeya hadn’t really thought about how he might get food or water. Or where he was supposed to sleep tonight. He’d been so preoccupied with making it to the city in the first place, after getting distracted by the smells and the grass.

He smells Diluc before he sees him. Kaeya twists around just as the Darknight Hero lands quietly in the small alleyway. Truly, Kaeya will never know how he keeps his alter ego a secret; everything about Diluc’s disguise is patently transparent, from his claymore to his dark coat. For a moment Kaeya just stares at him, eyes tracing the curve of Diluc’s jaw. Somehow, being a dog makes everything feel uncomplicated - he’d been thinking of Diluc, and to Diluc he had gone.

Diluc stares back, his expression unreadable behind that ridiculous mask. He smells of smoke and whisky, probably from clearing out a treasure hoarder camp. Kaeya watches with rapt attention as he kneels down and slips off one of his gloves.

“Hey there,” Diluc calls softly and oh. That’s a voice Kaeya hasn’t heard in years. Gentle. Coaxing. 

Diluc holds a hand out towards him and suddenly Kaeya is a child again, soaked to the bone from the rain and staring at the most beautiful young master he’s ever seen. He takes a step forward without thinking, caught in the pull of Diluc’s gravity. It’s only years of disdainful looks that make him stop there.

Diluc sees the hesitation and lowers himself even further. He’s so tall that he has to hunch. “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”

Kaeya kind of wants to laugh at that. The feeling has a strange effect on his vocal chords, a quiet whine slips out of him.

“You hungry, boy?” Diluc asks. He’s either a mind reader or he’s done this enough times to guess. Knowing him, it’s the latter; Diluc could never resist a stray. That’s why they’d gotten along so well.

Kaeya wavers for just one more moment. After all, he’s not about to turn down something so freely offered, even if it is selfish of him. He approaches warily, extending his nose towards the proffered hand. The tang of alcohol and aged wood tints Diluc’s fingertips. Kaeya licks at it automatically before realising what he’s done. Embarrassment swells in his chest but by that point, Diluc’s fingers have already made their way up to scratch between his ears and oooooooh…

That is a feeling Kaeya could get used to.

“There we go,” Diluc says warmly as Kaeya melts under his touch. He’s doing something absolutely magical with his fingers, scratching behind Kaeya’s ears and bringing up his other hand to do the same under his jaw. “That’s it. You’re a good boy, aren’t you?”

Kaeya nearly falls over. The words hit something inside him that he wasn’t even aware of, but he’s chalking it up to dog brain right now. He can feel his tail wagging and he focuses on the novel sensation rather than the weird feeling going through him.

“No collar, huh?” Diluc asks as he scrubs his amazing, brilliant, perfectly callused hands through the thick scruff around Kaeya’s neck. A small smile curls the corner of his mouth. “Or did you lose one? Surely someone’s looking for a handsome guy like you.”

Kaeya nearly chokes. Unfortunately, it makes his teeth clack loudly against the vision still clamped tightly in his mouth. Diluc’s smile drops into a frown.

“What have you got there?”

One of those hands reaches towards Kaeya’s muzzle and he panics, skittering away faster than Diluc can grab him. A cryo vision in the mouth of a dog with a scarred eye has too many things in common with a certain persona non grata. He doesn’t bother looking back as he bolts. 

Diluc calls out behind him, “Hey!”

He could probably catch up if he really tried, but even though Diluc opens his door for strays, it’s unlikely he’s going to chase after them. Kaeya doesn’t stop running until he’s outside the Favonius headquarters, where the guards at the door are awake this time. One of them catches the other’s eye and nods towards Kaeya as he approaches. He stops a few paces short and sits back on his haunches.

The younger one, Athos if Kaeya recalls, cocks his head. “Pretty well behaved for a stray, isn’t it?” 

The other guard gives Kaeya a dismissive look. “Just ignore it and it’ll go away. We’re on duty.”

Diluc would like this one. Total stick in the mud.

Kaeya makes a short chuffing noise in his chest. Or tries to, anyway. It takes a few tries to get right and probably sounds like he’s choking, but once the guards’ eyes are on him, he unceremoniously spits out his vision. The Ordo can keep it safe until he changes back, if nothing else. The guards baulk at the vision glowing dimly against the cobblestones.

“Is that… Captain Kaeya’s Vision?” Athos asks.

Kaeya doesn’t wait to hear the reply. He bounds off into the city once again to the shout of the guards after him. Now that that’s out of the way, his hunger makes itself known with a vengeance, the gnawing ache in his gut pushing an involuntary whine out of him.Without any way to get into his apartment, Kaeya finds a cluster of barrels to use as a fort and curls up into a ball to sleep. He can only hope Alice’s spell wears off quickly and he won’t be stuck like this for the rest of the week.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Kaeya is stuck like this for the rest of the week.

The first two days were a much appreciated reprieve from the pressure of his duties, even though the guilt at increasing Jean’s workload pinches behind Kaeya’s sternum. He’d indulged the abundant instinct to chase after squirrels and cats, snapping at them playfully until Diona had stormed out of the Cat’s Tail to yell at him. 

The animals in the wild are more aggressive, but Kaeya is surprised to find he can understand the ones that live in the city. Ellin‘s dog that’s always in the Ordo training grounds is gentle and polite, wagging his tail and bumping up at Kaeya. It’s a strange language of barks and gestures that Kaeya likely won’t understand when he changes back, but it makes sense to his hindbrain. The cats around the bar eye him warily, but will approach if Kaeya lies still long enough. They’re a little more imperious than the city dogs, but they show him where to get the best scraps and which patrons will cave to a strong set of puppy eyes.

It’s nice until the fourth day when the tension in the city palpably rises. For all his slyness, Kaeya is still a significant figure in Mondstadt. His disappearance is noticeable by the third day, the off-duty guards sitting outside the Good Hunter chatting about it in hushed voices.

“Apparently some mutt just dropped the Captain’s Vision outside headquarters. Dead suspicious if you ask me. Probably some treasure hoarder’s attack dog.”

“As if a couple o’ treasure hoarders could take down the Captain! I reckon something terrible ‘as happened.”

Kaeya rolls his eyes internally. One side effect of having a nation of drinkers is that they’re cynical. It’s one of the reasons he’s been trying not to hang around the city too much. 

The other is that he’s avoiding Diluc’s areas of operation: A big grey dog suddenly appearing out of nowhere is going to attract a lot of attention. If Athos and Porthos shared his description after dropping off his vision, it wouldn't take a genius to put two and two together. Not that Kaeya is hiding, but the anonymity of being a stray grants him an advantage he doesn’t often have in his day job. So he’s been prowling the streets at night and spending his days out on the prairie, tracking Fatui and hilichurls. It’s far easier when he has a sense of smell that can pick out what colour a squirrel is from half a mile away.

Today however, Kaeya has business to attend to. He has tracked a Fatui agent carrying the smell of explosives all the way to the Angel’s Share. The man in question lounges on a table outside, swigging one of the cheaper brews. His sharp gaze belies his lazy posture. He probably thinks his plain clothes are a good disguise, but his speech pattern is fooling absolutely no one. Kaeya is so wrapped up in watching him that he takes a second to notice Diluc stepping out of the tavern. 

Today he’s donned a plain white shirt, sleeves rolled up to reveal his strong forearms. He glares at the Fatui agent for a moment, unfooled, before his eyes fall on Kaeya tucked in the alley across from them. Diluc’s lips part as if he’s going to call out when he’s interrupted.

“Master Diluc,” the Acting Grandmaster herself calls. Kaeya’s attention snaps to her; for Jean to make a personal call rather than summon Diluc must mean bad news.

“Grandmaster,” Diluc replies evenly. They’re both clearly aware of the Fatui agent not-to-subtly eyeing them.

Jean straightens her back. “I wonder if I might trouble you for a moment of your time?”

For as much as he detests the Ordo, Diluc would never deny Jean a direct request. He holds open the tavern door to let her through. Kaeya trots around the back of the tavern, leaping up onto a stack of crates closest to the window he knows sits above Diluc’s back office. He has his heightened hearing to thank for the private conversation sliding between the wood beams.

“What’s this about?” Diluc asks curtly— for as much as he won’t deny Jean, he still detests the Ordo.

Jean replies bluntly, “Kaeya is missing.”

Diluc huffs. “He’s probably passed out behind a tavern in Springvale. Give it a day and he’ll drag himself back to his duties.”

Kaeya has half a mind to be offended, except that exact thing had happened back when they were junior Knights. 

“Master Diluc.” Jean’s voice cuts through the disdain like the crack of a whip. She must really be worried. “Kaeya has been missing for four days.”

In the silence that follows, Kaeya can imagine Diluc’s exact expression. How his brows would furrow and his mouth would squeeze into an unhappy line, because he knows Kaeya can be irresponsible, but not three days absent kind of irresponsible.

“What happened?”

“He was following a trail out at Stormbearer Point and hasn’t returned,” Jean informs him crisply. “I sent out a scouting party but they haven’t found anything. There’s no trace of elemental energy, either.”

Diluc is quiet for a long moment before asking in a flat voice, “I’m not sure what you want me to do about this.”

“Diluc,” Jean sighs, dropping the formalities. “Is there anywhere you can think of that he might be? He hasn’t reported to any of the outposts. It’s like he disappeared into the winds.”

“I already said Springvale. If not there then that idiot’s probably gotten himself into something that he shouldn’t have.”

“If this is a search and rescue, then I need to first rule out the possibility that Kaeya simply doesn’t want to be found.”

There’s a sound like a chair leg scraping on the floor. “You think he just left?”

“I don’t know what to think,” Jean replies diplomatically.

“He wouldn’t do that,” Diluc snaps, but he doesn’t sound so sure. Only Kaeya would catch the way his voice wavers. He can’t even pretend to be insulted; some days he’s not so sure himself.

“I would hope not,” Jean agrees, sounding even less certain. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

There’s a pause in which the Acting Grandmaster sucks in a breath. “It means that wherever he is, he didn’t take his Vision with him.”

Diluc makes a noise somewhere between a gasp and a growl. “And you think that’s less of an indication of kidnapping?”

Jean replies cooly, “I think it indicates that the Captain isn’t half as good at hiding his true feelings from those who really know him.”

Kaeya wants to bolt at those words. A chill goes through him to think that he’s so transparent to anyone looking, and he has to remind himself that this isn’t anyone. This is Jean and Diluc. They’ve known him since before he could wield a blade. 

A surprised huff of laughter from Jean snaps his attention back to the conversation. “You really haven’t noticed how lonely he is?”

Diluc’s ensuing silence speaks volumes. Tragically for this revelation, the smell of explosives thickens in Kaeya’s nose at that moment. He leaps off the crates, racing around to the front of the tavern in time to see the Fatui agent reaching for something in his coat. Kaeya barks at him, making the diplomat jump in his seat. His lip curls at the sight of the dog growling at him.

“Scram, mutt! I’m a little busy at the moment.”

Like hell he is - Kaeya keeps barking at him, loud as he possibly can. It works. There are people stopping in the street to stare at the commotion he’s causing. The man’s eyes dart around nervously, and he makes another attempt at shooing Kaeya with a hiss of, “Stop that right now! Stupid creature!”

The Tavern door bursts open to reveal a fiercely glaring Diluc, backed by Jean in all her Grandmaster Regalia. 

“What’s going on out here?” Diluc demands.

The Fatui agent blanches at the sight of them. He reaches back into his coat and that’s all Kaeya needs to leap forward and sink his teeth into the man’s arm. Blood bursts in his mouth, hot and metallic. The man shouts in pain. It scratches something deep and primal in Kaeya’s mind, making him bite harder against the attempt to shake him off.

“Damn wild animal!” the man growls. In the crush of chaos, Kaeya doesn’t see him winding his arm back until a punch hits him squarely in the face.

He yelps, involuntarily loosening his jaw in response to the pain, and the man takes the moment he lands on the cobblestones to kick Kaeya in the flank. He lunges for another kick when a fist to the jaw knocks him clean off his feet. Through the pain, Kaeya squints up to see Diluc’s furious face scowling down at the Fatui agent. His knuckles are sparking with the telltale sign of his Vision and suddenly Kaeya forgets the pain in his side. He springs forward and closes his jaws around Diluc’s wrist as gently as he can to stop him blowing up the entire square.

“What th--” Diluc grunts more out of pain than surprise, doing his best to dislodge the eighty pounds of stray dog now hanging off his arm without further violence.

The man scrambles to pick himself up when his coat falls. Several rolls of bombing gel fall out of the inner pockets, scattering across the cobblestones. He stops dead when the point of a sword brushes his nose.

“Carrying Class Two explosives without a licence or regulation safety protocol is a violation of Mondstadt law, sir,” Jean says as she towers over the Fatui agent. Without turning, she calls, “Master Diluc.”

Kaeya releases Diluc’s arm immediately, allowing him to carefully collect the scattered explosives. His face is thunderous as he scowls at the agent, but it melts into something curious and a touch bewildered when he turns back to Kaeya.

“Clever dog,” he remarks.

Kaeya tries not to preen at that, yawning widely instead before dropping to his butt and scratching himself behind the ear. Y’know, typical dog stuff. The nearby guards have clustered from their various posts and Jean sheathes her sword with a flourish that nearly takes the Fatui agent’s ear off.

“Gentlemen, if you wouldn’t mind escorting this man to a cell. I have a couple of questions for him that I believe are better addressed in private.”

Jean has always been so poised in public - a necessity of carrying a family name like Gunhildr -  that Kaeya kind of wants to lick her hand and break that composure. He’s seen her after a few glasses of dandelion wine when she actually allows herself to have fun. He keeps that image in mind when Jean turns her regal gaze on him.

“Does this dog belong to someone?”

“I believe it’s a stray,” Diluc replies. “Would make a good bomb hound. Seemed like he could smell the explosives.”

Jean eyes Kaeya curiously and he yawns again. If he hangs around, they might feed him.

Jean says, “Perhaps we should take him back to the Ordo until someone claims him.”

“Isn’t Lisa allergic?” Diluc reminds her. 

Kaeya knows Lisa isn’t allergic; she just holds a grudge from when Ellin’s hound had gotten into the library and eaten a half dozen first editions of Yae Publishing’s light novels. Still, Jean’s expression wavers.

“I can take him,” Diluc says suddenly. It surprises Kaeya so much that what would have been a gasp jumps out of him as a small yip.

Jean chuckles. “I think he likes that idea. If it’s not a problem for you, Master Diluc?”

Diluc hands the explosive gel to her gingerly before crossing his arm. “It’s fine.”

Kaeya would argue, but it would just sound like he’s excited, so he gets up and darts away before anyone can make more decisions for him. He hears Jean call out after him and Diluc’s answering rumble, but he ignores both.

Staying with Diluc would be a nightmare, really. Diluc would be kind and sweet, and Kaeya would be weak and let him, even though he knows he’s taking advantage of the situation. Even though he knows that Diluc wouldn’t touch him or call him things like good boy if he knew who he was speaking to.

It stings briefly, as it always does, until Kaeya folds it up and tucks it away like he’s grown adept at doing. He makes a fervent resolution to stay away from the Angel’s Share and from Diluc until he’s changed back. But of course, Kaeya’s luck being what it is, the heavens open around the end of the day and don’t stop even when evening darkens the sky.

There are no patron drinkers out in this weather, and therefore no food scraps for Kaeya to beg off them. Even the wild animals have burrowed away from the storm, making catching dinner a trial he doesn’t care to embark upon. The felines at the Cat’s Tail are all shut up inside their cosy tavern,  so it’s not like he can ask them for tips in the strange not-quite-words but not-quite-not-words of animal language.

Kaeya trawls under the verandas in search of an abandoned crate to curl up in until his paws ache, shivering and sneezing. His fur is soaked all the way through and it makes him feel heavy and sticky.

Sighing, Kaeya curls up miserably behind the first stack of barrels he finds and resigns himself to getting sick. Is this what strays have to deal with all the time? Kaeya is building an animal shelter as soon as he can skim the funds off the Ordo.

He’s so wrapped up in sulking that the wooden creak of a door right beside his ear makes him jump out of his skin. Golden light spills across the cobblestones, cleaving a path straight through Kaeya’s hiding place. Diluc stands in the doorframe, haloed by the soft glow of the tavern after closing. In his hands are two bowls, one full of cooked game and the other with fresh water. He freezes when he sees Kaeya, brows lifting in genuine surprise.

“I wasn’t sure you’d be back,” Diluc says coolly. 

Kaeya eyes the bowls in his hands. On cue, his stomach growls, but when Diluc takes a step towards him, Kaeya flinches. He promised himself he wouldn’t do this, but that was before the rain and the hunger both made a home of his body.

Diluc pauses, watching him curiously before he leans back against the door to hold it open.

“It’s warmer inside.”

Kaeya looks at the open door, and then at Diluc’s open expression. An awful, overwhelming feeling is swelling within him, too big for his canine body to handle. Isn’t this everything he’s ever wanted? Diluc welcoming him in again? Kaeya is on his feet before he can argue with the answer to that question.

Still, Diluc lowering the bowls to the floor makes Kaeya twitch anxiously, backing up. He extends a hand carefully. Kaeya moves forward, yelling at himself every step that he isn’t going to do this. He promised himself he wouldn’t do this exact thing. Promised Diluc, too, in a way. But every step has the canine part of his mind overriding the logic with instincts that yell food! Warm! Diluc! 

When he’s close enough, Diluc leans forward, trying to close the last few inches. Kaeya rears back, fear jolting through him like Electro.

“Are you hurt?” Diluc asks gently. “Is that why you’re scared?”

Scared?? Kaeya has never thought of it like that before. Not on purpose, if he’s truthful. Which is never. 

“It’s okay,” Diluc tells him softly. And Kaeya knows it is, really. It is and it isn’t, because he knows Diluc wouldn’t hurt a sad, rain-drenched, stray, and this is Kaeya’s second time fitting that profile. It’s not okay because Diluc doesn’t know that.

There are fingers brushing his snout, moving along his jaw and behind his ears, and Kaeya doesn’t so much take the last few steps as he does fall through them. The warmth from Diluc’s touch is pure bliss after the chill of the downpour.

“Or did someone hurt you before?” Diluc continues, taking Kaeya’s proximity as licence to use both hands, sinking them into the thick fur by his jaw and scratching in a way that feels heavenly. The hand between his ears moves down until his thumb just grazes the scar over Kaeya’s eye. “Is that what happened here?”

The reminder sinks through Kaeya like a cryo blast. He shivers so hard his entire body twists out of Diluc’s grasp, a high whine whistling out of him so loud it sounds painful, even to his own ears.

Diluc’s hands are raised in surrender immediately, palms out and spread wide. “Sorry,” he says calmly. “I’m sorry. It’s okay. I won’t do it again.”

It’s not hard to believe him; Diluc is good. But Kaeya isn’t. That’s why he shouldn’t do this. To either of them.

When it’s clear that Kaeya isn’t coming any closer, Diluc sighs and stands back up, giving Kaeya a lingering look before stepping back into the tavern. He leaves the door open behind him though, the invitation clear. The bowls remain by the door, so Kaeya fills himself on those at least. With every bite, the pull of the warm and dry tavern grows, until his reasons for not entering become threadbare.

He could take the offer for one night, couldn’t he? Until the storm has passed? Diluc has threatened to kick Kaeya out in the cold before, after he’s deliberately come to the winery though there are clouds darkening the horizon and the hour is too late to make the return trip to the city, but he’s never actually done it. Kaeya noses around the doorframe to peek inside and is met with the image of Diluc’s broad shoulders stacking inventory. 

He’s alone, probably having let Charles leave before closing. Kaeya snorts, horribly fond. Unfortunately, the noise attracts Diluc’s attention. He half turns, catching Kaeya’s eye. There’s a moment of stalemate between them, neither party moving, and then Diluc goes right back to stacking boxes. But not before Kaeya sees the smirk at the corner of his mouth. Cocky bastard. He must be so proud of himself for tempting a street animal with food and the prospect of a cosy place to sleep.

It’s working, though. Kaeya sullenly pads into the tavern, ignoring the smugness radiating off Diluc as best he can whilst accepting his offer.

Kaeya gets his revenge when Diluc finally turns to say something and Kaeya shakes himself, spraying water over everything but especially the young master’s trousers. Diluc splutters, looking so offended that laughter leaps out of Kaeya in a victorious bark. He’d pulled that exact expression when he’d won their first spar and Kaeya had kicked his shin in petty retaliation.

“Make yourself at home,” Diluc sniffs, and then goes to fetch a mop. Kaeya feels a tiny bit bad about making a mess until Diluc fixes him with a look and says, “I’ll get to you.”

And get to him he does. Kaeya nearly jumps right out the window when Diluc approaches him with a warm towel, until it wraps around him and he instantly submits to the sheer bliss of being toasty and cared for. It’s a nice illusion he can indulge in whilst he’s exhausted and clearly not thinking straight. Only when Diluc beckons him upstairs does Kaeya hesitate once more. This time, Diluc doesn’t bother coaxing him; he leaves the loft apartment door wide open after disappearing through it, and Kaeya huffs exactly once before following.

The space is cramped, but not unliveable, being above an entire tavern as it is. There’s a couch nestled in the corner that Kaeya wants to tread all over but he’s taken enough liberties tonight already. The apartment even has a small washroom, complete with a one person sized tub stuffed next to the sink. Diluc strips off his coat and grabs a couple of blankets, plus the cushions on the couch, arranging them into an approximation of a dog bed.

“This is as good as I can do for tonight, sorry,” he says, as if he’s offering less than Kaeya would’ve had in the rain. 

Kaeya pads towards it fully intent on passing out now that he’s thawed and full of food. Except that Diluc takes that exact moment to start stripping.

Growing up as close as they were means of course Kaeya has seen Diluc naked before. In all various stages of teenage gangliness, right through to filling out his frame when they’d become knights together.  Kaeya used to take a wicked sort of delight from watching their garrison gawk at Diluc in the changing rooms, and then quickly turning away when they caught Kaeya’s vicious grin from over Diluc’s broad shoulders.

It’s just that-- Well, he hasn’t seen anything above the forearms since before Diluc left Mondstadt and took the hope of ever seeing more with him. Sure, Kaeya is curious, but he has manners. 

When it matters. 

Like right now, for example.

The second the white dress shirt falls away, Kaeya yelps, falling backwards over his ass in a fantastic sprawl of limbs before scrambling to his feet and darting out the bedroom. He hardly has anywhere to go in the tiny apartment, but anywhere that isn’t in direct view would be better.

“What’s wrong?” Diluc’s voice comes from far too close behind him.

Kaeya turns to see him leaning against the door frame, one forearm propped up against the wood in a way that flexes the oblique muscles in his side. He’s not even trying to look like a wet dream, he just does . That’s not what makes Kaeya stare though; Diluc’s body is littered with a patchwork of scars. It’s as if his journey through Snezhnaya has been carved into his skin. Marks ranging from dark and blurry to raw pink and mottled map the years of his absence. The more Kaeya looks at them, the worse he feels.

He suddenly wishes he wasn’t here. The rain would have been better than selfishly indulging in the kind of comfort he’d robbed Diluc of. Kaeya drops his head pathetically and backs up until his flank touches the door.

Diluc frowns. “Do you have to pee?”

Kaeya snorts, which Diluc seems to take as a no.

“You can sleep out here if you want,” Diluc tells him. “But it’s warmer in the bedroom.”

And then he disappears back through the door frame. Kaeya listens to the rustle of clothing being folded from where he is, followed by the swish of bedsheets. When Diluc’s breathing has evened out, Kaeya finally pads into the bedroom. 

Diluc looks so much younger in sleep; the constant frown pinching his features has flattened out, and his loose hair curls around him in snarls. Kaeya used to brush them out for him because Diluc was impatient and would drag the brush through his hair and tear half of it out in the process. He probably does that now, too, and there’s no one to stop him.

Kaeya takes a moment just to look at him. He’s always liked looking at Diluc, even when they were younger, because Diluc was beautiful, and he used to look back like Kaeya was, too. Once upon a time. Now Kaeya gets nothing but sharp looks and barbed comments, and he does every provocative thing he can to pretend that it’s annoyance and not deep, valid, betrayal.

Like this, Kaeya feels ten years old; sneaking into Diluc’s room after lights out and sliding under the covers until they were close enough to share body heat. Diluc always made room on the bed for him, conscious or not, and it would make Kaeya feel electric and giddy back when he thought that’s how brothers were supposed to feel about each other.

He unlatches the door with his nose and disappears into the landscape before Diluc has even started the day.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Horribly noble as he is, Diluc wastes good mora on printing FOUND: LOST DOG posters and plastering them on every available wall in Mondstadt, and even a few in Springvale. Kaeya eats all the ones he can reach and does his best attempt at scratching down the ones that are a little too high.

He’s in the middle of chewing through the latest round of flyers when, naturally, he’s caught by none other than Mondstadt’s Honorary Knight. Kaeya hasn’t seen Aether in months; he’s gotten stronger, and he looks wearier, but those golden eyes and braid would be recognizable anywhere. Aether rounds the city gate with his little floating companion in tow, eyes falling on Kaeya, and he stops. Kaeya stops too, gingerly letting the chewed up paper drop wetly out of his mouth.

“What a weird dog,” Paimon comments, eyeing Kaeya with concern.

Aether just laughs, and the gentle sound of it dispels the tension. Kaeya trots over to him, uncaring that his tail is wagging like crazy. Things feel bigger now that he’s smaller, and truly he has missed their little knight. Aether pets him immediately, dropping to one knee and indulging Kaeya’s butting into his hand. He even smells like sunshine, which is a scent Kaeya doesn’t have human words to explain. 

“Don’t want to be found, huh?” he asks, eyes drifting to one of the posters Kaeya resentfully couldn’t reach. His kind smile slips a fraction. “I know someone that’s the same way.”

“Aether…” Paimon says from above them.

Aether’s smile is back in place before he turns around to grin at her, but Kaeya saw it; the split second he’d let the mask fall. Kaeya gives into the urgent emotion filling him and leans up to lick Aether on the cheek, except Aether turns at the movement and Kaeya sort of ends up licking him right on the mouth. Ah well, it’s worth it for the way Aether topples backwards on his butt, spluttering. Kaeya pounces on him, nosing demandingly at his hands until Aether gives in with a chuckle and resumes petting him. At least the smile he’s wearing looks a little more genuine now.

“You shouldn’t spoil the strays so much. They’ve got good memories when it comes to petting,” comes a voice from behind.

“Diluc!” Aether calls, scrambling to his feet. Kaeya wishes he could scoff at that advice, since he’s had warm meals and a soft bed to sleep on every night this week.

“I didn’t know you were coming back to Mondstadt,” Diluc says, pushing off the wall he’s propped up against. “I would’ve taken time off work.”

“We’re not planning to stay long,” Paimon tells him. “We just came by to drop something off for Captain Kaeya! He requested it in one of his letters.”

Ah. That must be the Harra fruit Aether wrote to him about. Kaeya had been wondering when he would be returning.

Diluc frowns. “Kaeya writes to you?”

He does a rather poor job of not sounding jealous. Kaeya sits back and wags his tail smugly. 

“When he has a chance,” Aether explains, clearly picking up on the tone. Ever the little diplomat.

Diluc’s frown deepens. “I assume no one has told you yet: Kaeya is missing.”

It’s rather touching to see genuine concern in Aether’s face. Paimon rears back, clutching her tiny hands against her mouth.

“Missing?! What do you mean missing?”

“He disappeared on a mission eight days ago and hasn’t been seen since.”

Kaeya stops wagging his tail; Diluc’s expression has grown pinched, and he’s folded his arms over his chest defensively.

“We can help look for him.” Aether says immediately. 

Paimon chimes right in to say, “He must be somewhere. If he’s in Mondstadt, the Traveller will find him! And maybe we can find this dog’s owner, too?”

Kaeya glances at Aether curiously, only to see Aether already staring back, his golden eyes watching keenly. He’s always been smarter than he looks.

“When did the dog first show up?”

Diluc narrows his gaze at the dog in question, which Kaeya takes as his cue to promptly leave. The last thing he needs is suspicion, especially when there’s nothing he can do to turn himself back. 

“Hey, come back!” Paimon calls out indignantly, but Kaeya is already rounding the corner into the alleyway. 

He flops down on his stomach, intent to laze about for a few hours, until lunchtime when the drinking starts and the gossip flows quicker. A few minutes pass before Kaeya hears footsteps approaching. He’s not surprised when Aether steps into the alley, and stops in front of him. Aether kneels down, pulling a pouch of dried meat from his pocket. He deftly unwraps it and places it on the ground in front of Kaeya. It’s such a genuine and kind gesture that Kaeya can’t help but lean forward to lick his fingertips before they retract. Aether lets him, scratching under Kaeya’s jaw with a quiet breath of laughter.

“Oh, you found the dog!” Paimon cries, floating into view over Aether’s shoulder. “If no one in the city has responded to the posters, where are we even supposed to start looking for clues? Maybe Springvale?”

Aether doesn’t reply, as expected of their reticent and enigmatic Traveller. But a small, knowing smile is tugging the corner of his mouth as he stands.

“Is it okay to just leave him here?” Paimon asks, eyeing Kaeya warily. He makes a show of yawning, dropping his snout on his crossing paws. Aether’s smile grows.

“We can find him when we get back,” is all he says before leaving the alley. He’s a clever boy. Kaeya thanks Barbatos that Aether is kind to the core and not a storm in disguise.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

The lunchtime chatter is rarely fruitful - small cities breed small problems - but the mongrels trailing the gates are just as chatty. 

Bad things on the prairie, they say with twitching hides and snapping jaws. Bad smells. Not animal.

Kaeya wanders the surrounding area and doesn’t catch a whiff of whatever malevolence they tell of, though he does run into several hilichurl camps. They’re all low threat, as far as he assesses, and Kaeya knows their history well enough to leave them alone.

Night has drawn around the city by the time Kaeya makes it back, contemplating how they might incorporate scenting dogs into the Ordo for stolen goods. He makes it around to the back door of the Angel’s Share after the stragglers have been kicked out, knowing it’s been left open for him once again. By now, Kaeya’s all but given up lying to himself about whether or not he’s going to take Diluc’s help. That was always a losing battle, anyway.

It’s so quiet when he enters that Kaeya thinks perhaps Diluc has already gone to bed until he noses open the door and sees a dim light emanating from the bedroom.

Diluc is sitting on the edge of the bed already dressed in his sleep clothes, his red hair falling loose around his shoulders.

He’s holding Kaeya’s Cryo vision.

Kaeya thought Jean had kept it tucked away in her office. The sight of Diluc staring down at it cooling his palm is so close to the years Kaeya cradled Diluc’s each night, praying against the day it went grey and dull, that it’s borderline hilarious. If Celestia wrote jokes, this would be the damn punchline. 

He doesn’t look up when Kaeya approaches, only reaching out to bury his fingers in Kaeya’s fur.

“He’s still alive, at least,” Diluc grunts. He doesn’t sound any particular way about it, until he adds, “I don’t know what I’d-”

Kaeya’s heart lurches in his chest; he’d give his good eye to hear the end of that sentence. But Diluc just sighs, swiping his thumb over the sigil before depositing it on the nightstand.

“That idiot,” Diluc huffs, turning to scrub both hands behind Kaeya’s ears. “If he dies, I’ll kill him.”

It sounds like a joke, but Kaeya’s stomach swoops sickeningly. He’s starting to miss the flat disdain; the things Diluc says when he’s alone are far more complicated than that dull tone of voice. Just as well that Diluc doesn’t say anything else, rolling back on the mattress to sleep whilst Kaeya takes up his usual residence on the makeshift bed in the corner.

It’s halfway through the night when Kaeya wakes to the sound of something in distress. The fogginess of sleep still clinging to him means it takes a few seconds to work out where it’s coming from. The sound comes again, and Kaeya realises with a start that it’s Diluc. He’s twitching and whimpering in his sleep, his features contorted like he’s in pain.

“No… No… ” 

Kaeya leaps up onto the bed and noses at Diluc’s hand. It’s gripping the sheets hard enough to make the veins pop out.

“S-stop…”

Kaeya licks him, and when that doesn’t wake Diluc, he barks loudly. It makes Diluc flinch so hard that Kaeya doesn’t attempt it a second time. He’s shaking so hard the bed frame is creaking.

Diluc gasps, “Kaeya!”

The name tears out of his mouth, ragged and misshapen, but unmistakable. Kaeya freezes. For a fleeting moment, he thinks impossibly that he’s been caught. But Diluc makes an awful whimpering noise and his eyes scrunch tight in fitful sleep. Whatever nightmare he’s having, Kaeya must be the feature. It cuts a little deeper than Kaeya is expecting; Diluc’s distrust of him stains even his dreams.

Kaeya barks at him again, as loudly as he can, and then nips Diluc’s exposed forearm. It works a little too well. 

Diluc jerks upright with a snarl, unleashing a crackling arc of pyro from his hands. Kaeya yelps and tumbles backwards, gripped by a wave of terror he hasn’t felt in years as the fire licks at his face. It swallows the concern for the nightmare, pure flight instinct taking over, and he scrambles into the far corner of the room, pressing back against the wall until his back aches.

“Shit!” The fading glow of the flames reveals Diluc’s face, ashen white and split with despair. Kaeya didn’t think he was able to even use those facial muscles anymore, but his face crumples further when he spots Kaeya cowering in the corner. “Sorry,” he gasps, voice cracking. Diluc lowers his head into his hands. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean— I’m sorry. ”

His shivering is visible even from Kaeya’s refuge in the corner. The silence fills the room, swelling into the rafters like a hydro slime until it feels hard to breathe. Kaeya inches warily towards the bed. When it’s clear Diluc isn’t going to be igniting anything else, he hops back up onto the mattress and noses at Diluc’s hands. They instantly find his fur, fingers winding tight whilst Diluc presses his face into Kaeya’s neck.

Small mumbled apologies break through in hiccups, but his trembling slowly stops. Kaeya leans harder into him and goes willingly when Diluc lies back down, tugging Kaeya’s weight onto his chest. He’d done this when they were children, too. When Kaeya had been haunted by things he couldn’t speak aloud and Diluc’s worry was so heavy it sat between them like a physical thing. He would tug Kaeya against his chest, closing the distance until their hearts beat in sync, and the weight and warmth would soothe them both.

Kaeya wonders if Diluc is thinking back to that now. If he’s done this with anyone else and if it reminded him of Kaeya then, too.

“Did you know I killed my father?” Diluc says suddenly, puncturing the heavy silence. “And I nearly killed my best friend the same day.” His fingers tighten in Kaeya’s fur and the next words come out as a hiss. “What kind of person does that?”

Someone without a choice, Kaeya thinks. Someone who’s been backed so thoroughly into a corner that the only way out is through. 

“He’s still here. In the tavern every damn night. And I—“ Diluc goes so still, Kaeya has to strain to hear him breathing. “I miss him.”

Three words; that’s all it takes to makes Kaeya’s heart snap like spun sugar. To know that ache he’s been feeling for years is not something he’s borne alone. 

Diluc misses him.

Diluc misses him.

“Sometimes I think it would have been better if I’d just died in Snezhnaya.” 

The complete untruth of the statement has Kaeya tensing up; does Diluc not understand how desperately, agonisingly loved he is? But Diluc’s fingers are shaking against Kaeya’s fur, and his next breath is ragged, ready to crack on a sob. Kaeya might actually chew through his own leg if Diluc starts crying so he does the only thing he can think of; he sits up and lets out the loudest, most stupid sounding howl he can.

Diluc jumps at the volume. He pushes up onto his elbows and shushes him immediately. “Hey, hey! You’ll wake up the whole city!”

Kaeya bellows out another howl and flops sideways dramatically, rolling around like an absolute nuisance in his best impression of a theatrical tragedy. Diluc stares at the performance in utter bewilderment until Kaeya lets his tongue loll out in supposed death, and then he chokes on a laugh.

“Who taught you that?” he asks, reaching out to rub Kaeya’s tummy and chuckling again when Kaeya kicks one leg joyously. “Weird way to cheer someone up.”

He does look happier, though, the threat of a dark spiral no longer looming. Kaeya hops up and gives him a slobbery lick on the face. Diluc squawks and pushes him away, but he still lets Kaeya nuzzle close to him as he drifts off again.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Two weeks of the Cavalry Captain being absent is longer than the Ordo can keep it a secret. By now, Kaeya has begrudgingly accepted Alice's estimate of three weeks before the spell wears off as the true number. Though knowing what little he does about her, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was three months at this point. What a ruckus that would cause.

His disappearance has bled through the city in shocked whispers and speculative guffaws. The people seem divided on whether he’s been kidnapped, killed, or has simply run off with a pretty thing that’s captured his untameable heart; honestly, Mondstadters are so dramatic. What’s surprising is that Diluc doesn’t escape the generalisation, even if he’s better at hiding it.

His vigilante patrols become more frequent and cast further, out beyond even the Dawn Winery. Kaeya doesn’t always see him, but he can smell Diluc’s trail out on the prairie, or the stinging scent of Dragonspine that lingers on his clothes when he returns. It seems like an awful lot of effort just to check if Kaeya’s alive.

When he does see Diluc out in his ridiculous disguise, Kaeya joins him. Surprisingly, Diluc doesn’t shoo him away.

He loses a slippery treasure hunter in a chase and trail immediately crouches down beside Kaeya, one hand settling on Kaeya’s back as he sniffs out the trail. When Kaeya finds the man, he’s crouched behind a hard to spot outcrop of foliage with a hammering heart and hastily stuffed pockets of loot. Diluc knocks him out with one hit.

“Good dog,” he tells Kaeya with a smirk, and Kaeya preens.

They work well together. They always have, which is one of the reasons they continue to do so. For as much as it pains Diluc, even he won’t deny that the two of them are inextricably tangled. Something about their thorny relationship is integral; when you grow up learning all you know in tandem with another person, the discomfort of removing them from that process is a greater evil than the discomfort of keeping them in your life, even with the pain of past grievances.

That, and the fact that neither of them do things by halves; Kaeya wonders if they’re both left unsatisfied by the loose end of their almost kiss. How it simmers beneath every interaction like a pot that’s close to boiling over but never does. 

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

“Anything?” Diluc asks Jean when she next drops by, his voice low even though the bar has mostly emptied at this hour.

Jean shakes her head, her mouth flattening unhappily. She looks so weary that Kaeya hangs his head with guilt, watching the exchange from a mat in the corner. “Is he--”

“He’s alive,” Diluc cuts her off before she can say the words, and Jean lets out a shaky sigh of relief. They don’t broach the topic again that evening.

Up in the loft apartment, Diluc swipes Kaeya’s Vision off the nightstand. He stares at it so fiercely that Kaeya goes over and drops his head on Diluc’s knee to distract him before he can give himself a migraine.

“You’re good at tracking things,” Diluc says, an idea blooming across his face. “Can you get anything from this?”

He holds the Vision out under Kaeya’s snout. The nights spent with the metal casing denting Diluc’s palms have all but smothered Kaeya’s scent on the cryo sigil. There’s a lingering thread beneath the smoke and wine smell of him and the strange biting coldness. But beside that, there’s something else. Something lingering on Diluc’s skin that would be impossible to catch if Kaeya were human right now.

Kaeya knows that Diluc spent the last two nights hunting leads across Windrise. The aroma of Windwheel Asters and autumn hangs around his wrists and ebbs with his pulse. If Kaeya really focuses, he can probably guess where Diluc’s been down to the mile, but that’s not what he’s looking for. He’s focusing on a new scent, hot and sour. A thing that smells exactly like the explosive gel that Fatui agent had been carrying. There’s no way Diluc picked this up on purpose.

Kaeya sprints to the door, nosing at the latch clumsily until Diluc’s hand opens it from right behind him. No sooner has Diluc opened the tavern’s back door than Kaeya is sprinting out of the city gates and across the bridge ignoring the footsteps pounding after him.

He’ll probably feel bad about it when he transforms back, but his instincts are so much louder in this form, yelling at him Danger! Protect! Attack!

The scent grows as he enters Galesong Hill. Kaeya chases it even though his legs ache and his lungs are heaving. He’s trembling from exhaustion by the time he finds what he’s looking for.

Treasure Hoarders.

Around twenty of them. 

They’re holed up around an old mine shaft that the Ordo definitely cordoned off, day drinking and making crass comments at each other. Kaeya wrinkles his nose at the tang of cheap alcohol. It mixes with the scent of explosives so pungently that it makes him feel dizzy. The exhaustion is likely contributing to that, too.

Which is the only excuse Kaeya has for why he doesn’t notice one of the men appear behind him until it’s too late.

Rough fingers snatch the scruff of his neck, yanking Kaeya off his feet and startling a loud yelp out of him. He struggles wildly, legs kicking uselessly in the air. 

A muscley treasure hoarder leers down at him. “What have we here? Guys, look! I always wanted a puppy!”

It’s a testament to his strength that the man can lift a squirming German Shepherd with one hand. Kaeya twists, fervently trying to crane his neck at an angle where he can bite the hoarder’s wrist. A meaty hand clamps down around his muzzle, forcing it shut, and squeezes. The pressure makes Kaeya go cross-eyed.

“Settle down, Fido,” the hoarder tuts with a toothy grin. “Don’t make a fuss, or I’ll have to get nasty with ya.”

Treasure hoarders are an opportunistic bunch, lacking any real fighting skill beyond brawling. He doesn’t  want to find out what this musclehead defines as ‘nasty’. Still, he wriggles valiantly when another treasure hoarder loops a rope around his neck and cinches it too tight.

“Good doggy,” he says, giving Kaeya’s head a patronising few taps. Kaeya growls back as threateningly as he can with the hand still crushing his snout shut.

Once the rope is secure, the musclehead drops him unceremoniously on the ground. Kaeya has barely landed when he’s launching to his feet and darting fangs first at the man. The leash spectacularly throttles him, pulling him up so short that Kaeya’s legs swing out in front of him before he lands back on his side.

The musclehead skips back a few steps with a hearty laugh. “Woooah! Snappy, aren’t ya? “

Kaeya snarls at him, making sure to show every one of his pointed fangs. 

“Archon’s sake, Vince! Whatcha want a dog for?” calls a wiry archer from the fireside. He looks three sheets in the wind already. Kaeya would be surprised if he could point a crossbow straight.

The brawler, Vince, shrugs. “Could train it to sniff out treasure, couldn’t we?”

“Yeah? What does treasure smell like?”

“He wouldn’t know!” jeers a pyroslinger, and the camp bursts into raucous laughs.

Vince scowls at them, and then at Kaeya, like it’s his fault. “We could always eat it if we get hungry.”

It takes more effort than Kaeya would like not to shudder at that. Of all the ways to go, being roasted over a spit was never one of them. Tittering murmurs of both agreement and disgust answer Vince’s suggestion, but then Kaeya is left alone whilst the treasure hoarders resume lazing about. The rope choking him is too thick to chew through, the rough fibres maddeningly sturdy despite their frayed appearance; Kaeya gnaws on them until he tastes blood and then concedes he’s not escaping that way.

He takes a moment to survey the scene; a crate sits squat outside the mouth of the mine, the telltale green packaging of explosive gel peeking out from beneath one corner of the burlap covering it. No doubt the hoarders plan to blow up the mine in search of some barely rumoured prize. It’s hardly a risk to Mondstadt’s citizens, but the location is principle - it’s close enough to the city that if they score a hit, they’ll feel emboldened to get closer.

Kaeya eyes the end of the crude leash. He’s been lashed to a tree, one thick enough that there’s no hope of pulling it from the ground. His best bet is either burning or cutting the rope. With the criminals drinking since noon, Kaeya may have a chance to dupe one of them into a sloppy sword swing. He lies down, dropping his head onto his crossed paws and closes his eyes to listen. 

It takes an hour or so for the night to creep in, but then Kaeya hears stumbling footsteps approaching. He cracks open one eye to see Vince swaying over, tipping his head back to catch the last few drops of wine from his empty bottle.

“Heeeere, doggy doggy!” he slurs. “Sit! Stay! Roll over!”

Kaeya doesn’t grace him with a response. He yawns widely to drive the point, but it just makes Vince snicker.

“Good dog,” he coos, crouching down with a lazy grin. He slaps a heavy hand on top of Kaeya’s head, scrubbing his ears hard enough to sting.

Kaeya sinks his teeth into Vince’s arm.

Blood fills his mouth as Vince topples sideways with an alarmed shout, and Kaeya digs his fangs in harder until he sees the glint of a knife. He unlatches his jaw, skittering back just as the man lunges at him. The timing is crucial; Kaeya waits until the dagger is close enough to graze and then darts sideways as far as the leash will allow. It slices through the rope with one swing.

Kaeya doesn’t hang around to see what happens next. He springs into motion, making a mad sprint for the mouth of the campsite around alarmed shouts.

He’s almost clear of the treeline when something heavy lands on top of him. Kaeya lets out a surprised bark as his legs crumple awkwardly beneath his body. A hand grips his scruff and yanks ruthlessly.

“Got ‘im!” the drunk archer cries victoriously. 

Kaeya writhes ferociously against the man flattening him, craning to try and bite the hold in his fur when two hands snap his mouth shut. The force of it makes him feel nauseous.

“Hold it down!” Vince’s voice roars.

Several pairs of hands join the archer’s, pressing down on the back of his head and pinning his scrabbling limbs. A rope is strung around his snout and tightened into a vicious muzzle. The rough weave is already cutting friction burns into his skin. Kaeya snarls glaring at whoever is in view, and that’s when he gets steel-toed boot to the ribs. 

Pain explodes in his side, agonising enough that Kaeya nearly blacks out. He’s barely managed a gasp when a second kick lands right over the first and it’s so much worse. When the third kick lands, it’s with the vivid, sickening crunch of bone breaking.

Kaeya whines weakly, the sound a thin, defeated thing. He might just pass out from asphyxiation, but then the weight of multiple treasure hoarders is lifting off his damaged body leaving only Vince. He’s smirking down at him like Kaeya’s abused body is something to be proud of.

Vince brandishes his bloodied arm. “Won’t be trying that again now, will we?”

Kaeya flexes his jaw with the urge to snap at him again out of spite. The rope muzzle bites into the sensitive skin of his nose in harsh reminder, and he ends up simply whining again.

“Good dog,” Vince chortles. “Oi, do we still have that trap cage?”

Someone snorts from behind them. “Right here.”

A fresh leash hooks around Kaeya’s neck and drags him mercilessly across the dirt. He kicks weakly when hands grab at him again, but the pain of his shattered ribs is making black spots burst across his vision. By the time Kaeya has blinked them away, he’s been stuffed into a cage clearly made for a smaller animal. His back leg is bent awkwardly and he’s curled so tight that the metal bars are digging into his spine.

Kaeya growls and someone kicks the cage with a laugh. The vibrations assault his ears and tender muzzle. He feels sick.

“That’ll keep you comfy ‘til you behave,” Vince snarks, and with one booted heel he gracelessly shunts the entire cage back behind a large rock, away from the fireplace.

Kaeya would have preferred to be eaten. If he’d waited for Diluc to follow him, maybe they could have taken out this camp together. But of course he hadn’t; waiting for Diluc is, and always has been, a hope in vain. From tentative fingers curling around his nape to an honest conversation that’s never happening.

Kaeya whines long and low, feeling like one giant bruise, and submits to the exhaustion blanketing his battered body.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

He is awoken to the sound of frantic shouting. His entire body feels like one huge cramp now that he’s conscious, muscles spasming from being bent wrong all night. Beyond the boulder, he hears the shriek of wood splintering along with the inimitable smell of elemental magic. One treasure hoarder falls flat on his back, his eyes meeting Kaeya’s for a heartbeat before he’s dragged screaming back into the fray by some unseen force.

Kaeya remains as still as he can. If the camp is being raided by hilichurls, they’ll eat him for sure. The shouts fall away into quiet, strained groaning and light footsteps. Two sets, large and small.

“Are you sure the dog is out here?” A familiarly squeaky voice queries, and Kaeya’s heart leaps. “Maybe he just really wanted to chase some squirrels and then went back to the city?”

Kaeya yips, jerking against the tiny cage enough to make it rattle. They’re so close!! If they just peered around the rock, he’ll be saved!! He can’t move his trapped legs, but he digs his claws into the cage bars, hoping to make enough of a racket that he’ll draw their attention.

Then Diluc’s blessed voice is saying, “He was headed in this direction. Maybe he smelled them?”

Kaeya barks as much and as loudly as he can  with the rope crushing his muzzle, thrashing against the cage bars even though the pain makes him want to throw up.

“What is that noise? ” Paimon grouses.

Kaeya barks again, wriggling through the pain of his broken ribs until the cage rattles.

Aether’s boots step into view and he hears, “Is that--”

“The dog!” Paimon yelps, and - Archons, bless her - swoops down to fuss over the lock with her tiny hands.

“What the fuck?” Diluc’s voice is a kind of flat that sets alarm bells ringing in Kaeya’s head. He never swears.

Aether squats down, waving Paimon out of the way so he can make quick work of the lock with his sword. As soon as the cage door is open, Kaeya squirms out and jumps on him despite the fierce pain in his side. He’d lick every inch of that sweet face if he could open his muzzle; he’s just so happy to see Aether!

“Whoa, hang on a moment!” Aether says, chuckling as he gently tries to bat away the massive dog pouncing on him.

Kaeya recedes, the broken ribs and the pain in his snout and muscles making themselves suddenly known. He whines when Aether’s fingers touch the rope, but remains still as the Traveller finds the knot at the back of his head and unties it. Once the rope is pulled free, he goes right ahead and licks Aether on the cheek like he wanted to.

Aether lets out a shout in faux disgust. He plants one hand on Kaeya’s side to push him back, and the frightening yelp that Kaeya lets out makes everyone jump.

“He’s hurt!” Aether assesses, placing one hand on Kaeya’s ruff and drifting the other featherlight over where he’d just pushed. Kaeya fails not to flinch at the touch, even though Aether is being stunningly careful not to apply any pressure.

“We can take him to Barbara when we’re back in the city,” Diluc says. He’s glaring at the treasure hoarders when he speaks.

Paimon gives an exasperated sigh. “Well, that’s one missing dog we’ve found. Now we just have to find one missing Kaeya.”

At the sound of his name, Kaeya barks, making Aether jump. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

“We’re out of leads on Kaeya,” Diluc replies.

Kaeya barks again and twists to lick Aether’s gloved hand.

“Diluc,” Aether says carefully. Mildly. Like this is some fantastic joke but he’s too polite to laugh. “Does transformation magic exist in this world?”

Kaeya barks a yes! Even going so far as to nod his head just to make sure. Aether does laugh, then. A disbelieving breath that jumps straight out of him. Diluc, by comparison, looks a bit like he’s going to be sick. Slowly, he steps over and drops down to one knee. 

“I swear to Celestia, Kaeya, if that’s you…?”

Kaeya barks again, sitting down and wagging his tail happily.

“Oh dear,” Aether says, smiling. It sounds so much better coming from him.

Diluc’s mouth does something complicated. He reaches out, carefully, like he’s done so many times before, and runs a finger parallel to the rope-burned lines across Kaeya’s snout.

In a voice Kaeya’s never heard before, he asks, “Are these the people that did this to you?”

Kaeya glances at the treasure hoarders behind him, tied up with the same rough rope they’d used on him, and then back to Diluc’s terrifying expression. He nods his head.

“I see.”

Diluc stands and turns towards the treasure hoarders cowering in their bonds. Aether doesn’t move to help, except to cover Paimon’s eyes. 

When Diluc has finished and strapped his claymore to his back, he returns to stare down at Kaeya.

“Can you walk?” 

Kaeya can, despite the pain, but Aether steps forward before he can respond. “I’ll carry him.”

Diluc looks like he has something to say about that. Whatever it is will probably be hilarious, since he looks so thoroughly perturbed by the fact that they’re talking about carrying Kaeya. 

Who is a dog.

And has been sleeping in Diluc’s bed for the better part of three weeks.

And since this is all one great big joke, Alice’s spell takes that exact moment to wear off. Kaeya yelps through a gasp, his body expanding with a nauseating crunch of bone and sinew, and then he’s lying on his back in the dirt, very winded and very naked.

Paimon lets out a squeak before Aether covers her eyes once again. He’s turned a delightful shade of pink that clashes with his golden hair. 

“Ouch,” Kaeya wheezes. Three weeks of not speaking human language means his throat has to jumpstart the mechanics. It’s a titan effort to get to his feet, trying and failing not to wince at the grind of his ribs. “Many thanks for the assistance, gentleman. And Paimon,” Kaeya croons. Or tries to; he’s out of practice and sounds a bit like a delivery balloon failing to start.

Something shoves his shoulder, and Kaeya turns to see Diluc glaring at him. He’s holding his coat out in one fist.

“For the love of Barbatos, put this on ,” Diluc growls. He’s keeping his eyes very sternly on Kaeya’s face. As is Aether, Kaeya is delighted to notice. He’d have thought their elusive Honorary Knight would’ve turned away by now. It takes him a second to realise he’s not wearing his eyepatch.

Ah.

Well.

He goes ahead and shoots the boy a wink. Aether’s delicate blush ascends all the way to fevered scarlet. 

Kaeya takes the coat, only grimacing a little at his broken ribs as he slides it on. It’s saturated with Diluc’s smell, even with his inferior human senses. 

“So this is where you’ve been for the past three weeks,” Diluc spits. “Shirking your duties, gallivanting around in the hills.”

“Not that I had much of a choice,” Kaeya says lightly. Diluc knows exactly where he’s been these past three weeks, an awareness that’s making itself known by staining the tips of his ears red. It takes most of the sting out of his glare. “And I resent the implication that I was shirking my duties. I’m out here on official business.”

Kaeya nods towards the crate of explosive gel. Diluc and Aether follow his gaze.

“You got caught on your way back to the city,” Aether says in understanding. Such a clever boy, he is.

Kaeya rewards him with a fond smile. “Fortunately, it seems our Honorary Knight and resident vigilante were able to take care of matters for me. Much appreciated! It’s rather difficult to diffuse explosive charges with paws, you see.”

Diluc makes an interesting noise. He’s decidedly not looking at Kaeya; instead, he’s glaring so hard at the gel explosive that he could probably ignite it through glaring alone.

“So the dog we kept seeing around the city was really you the whole time?” Paimon surmises, her eyes as wide as saucers.

Aether tilts his head, eyes flicking to Diluc and back with a curious expression. Whatever he’s thinking remains a secret, as he asks, “How did this happen?”

Kaeya fiddles with the buttons on Diluc’s coat. They’re built more for fashion than function. A bit like Kaeya, really. “I had a rather interesting encounter with our Grand Sorceress.”

Paimon hums. “You mean Alice? What was she doing out here?”

“Archon knows, but she didn’t seem to appreciate me sneaking up on her. I’m rather thankful she didn’t blow me to ash.” Kaeya waves his hand dismissively and instantly regrets it, pain flaring in his side.

Diluc glares daggers at his wince like it personally offends him. “You need medical attention.”

“I can still carry you, if you need,” Aether offers, his smile a light, innocuous thing. He’s far more smart-mouthed than people think; a fact that delights Kaeya to no end.

“No,” Diluc says flatly. “We’ll teleport.”

It’s the fastest method of transport for certain, but Kaeya can’t help wondering if it’s just so no one has to carry him naked on their backs. A trip to Barbara’s magical singing sounds divine right now though, so Kaeya resists the urge to be contrary. 

“Lead the way, Mister Hero.” 

Kaeya takes one step forward, a smirk rising halfway up his face right before the world spins violently and goes dark. The last thing he hears is multiple shouts of his name.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Waking up from transformation magic is rough. 

Kaeya doesn’t know if magical hangovers are a thing, but this is comparatively worse than the first year he’d attended Windblume festival and drunk enough that his entire stomach had tried to eject itself from his body. He opens his eyes with a groan and immediately squeezes them shut again when the light makes his head bang.

“Oh good. You’re awake.”

It’s hard to place which direction Rosaria’s voice is coming from. Somehow the infirmary room is spinning even behind Kaeya’s closed eyes.

“Wish I wasn’t,” Kaeya croaks out.

“I hope you know that no one ever finds that funny,” Rosaria says curtly. “Disappearing like that worried a lot of people.”

“Wasn’t exactly planned.”

“I heard Master Diluc was a particular thorn in the Ordo’s side these past weeks. Demanding answers and complaining about the lack of efficiency.”

At that, Kaeya cracks his eyes open, squinting through the ache in his sockets. His eyepatch has been replaced, making the whole ordeal vaguely disorienting. 

Rosaria stares down at him with her perpetually flat expression. She dips her claw tipped fingers in a small ceramic bowl and flicks a few drops of water at him. “There. You’ve been cleansed by the spirit of the winds.”

“It’ll take more than that to purify me.”

“I shall dump this entire bowl over you.”

“Would you fill it with wine first, Sister? Barbatos would approve.”

Rosaria sighs and does neither. In a rare flash of compassion, she helps Kaeya into a sitting position, jabbing those claws into his uninjured side. Barbara has done a wonderful job healing his ribs but they still ache sharply. 

“You’re had half the Knights searching for you.”

“So I’ve heard.” Kaeya winces as Rosaria deliberately stabs a claw against his spine before withdrawing. “The explosives-“

“Safely retrieved and the area cleared.” Rosaria sits back and crosses her arms, somehow making her humourless stare even less impressed than usual. “Anything else?”

Of course Kaeya wants to ask about Diluc. Rosaria undoubtedly knows this too, which is exactly why he doesn’t. With a smile, Kaeya says, “Please inform the Acting Grandmaster that I’ll be back at work tomorrow, I’m sure I have plenty to catch up on.”

“You’ve been given the rest of the week off.”

“Not necessary.”

“No. Mandatory.”

“Ah.”

He feels itchy under Rosaria’s piercing stare. Usually, Kaeya waves it off with a smile and a quip that makes her mouth twist in what could equally be mirth or distaste. But he’s nursing a magical hangover and hardly feels in best form, so the scrutiny sits on him like silt he can shake off.

Rosaria opens her mouth to say something just as the infirmary door swings open to reveal Diluc standing in the doorway. His hair is pulled back loosely at the nape of his neck, strands flying loose like he’d only remembered to tie it last minute. The circles beneath his eyes are stained a shade darker than usual. He freezes when he spots Kaeya sitting upright in bed, eyes widening.

Kaeya stares back, all his smart comments about clandestine meetings drying up in his mouth for once. Rosaria daintily clears her throat.

Diluc jolts minutely at the sound. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“I was just leaving,” Rosaria informs him, standing up as if they weren’t in the middle of a conversation. 

Diluc steps aside to let her pass, his brows tugging into a frown. “I’m not staying long.”

“Naturally,” Rosaria replies, ignoring the way that makes Diluc’s frown deepen. She flicks her wrist blithely at him as she strides from the room. “May the Archon bless you.”

Kaeya shakes his head. Rosaria’s faith always feels oxymoronic; he’s heard her say things so unholy it’d make Captain Beidou’s crew mutter reverances. Diluc’s fingers flex in what Kaeya recognizes as a nervous habit from when they were teenagers. The urge to curl his hand around a weapon, because he only knows one way to fight and it doesn’t fit the situation.

“You’re awake, then,” he says. Archons, Diluc has always been appalling at small talk. That’s what Kaeya was good for; to save him at formal functions.

“In the last five minutes, yes.”

“Good.” Diluc says the word fiercely and then his mouth twists like it hasn’t come out right. Astonishingly, he sinks down into the chair beside Kaeya’s bed. “Now you can stop leaving all your work for Jean to do.”

Kaeya sighs, abruptly tired. His entire body aches down to his bones, which he reminds himself have just undergone rapid regrowth. The prescriptive arguments he and DIluc have to justify conversing with each other suddenly feel like an awful chore, the shine of Diluc’s attention dulling in comparison to the gentleness Kaeya tasted in the last weeks. The kind he thought he’d forgotten.

“I already told you it wasn’t on purpose. Though, tracking threats was much easier as a dog, I’ll grant. Maybe we’ll implement a canine unit into the Ordo, what do you think?”

Diluc looks abruptly uncomfortable, his gaze shifting to something just beyond Kaeya’s shoulder. “So. You remember what happened when you were… indisposed.”

It doesn’t sound like a question, which is the strange thing. Diluc never hesitates to cut to the heart of the matter, especially when it comes to Kaeya. They used to balance out that way, since Kaeya would spin circles around the truth until the whole thing became a game.

Kaeya watches a muscle in Diluc’s jaw leap when he doesn’t answer immediately. He could lie, which is his first instinct. He could draw this out like some terrible private joke; tease Diluc about the unfairness of divulging all his dirty secrets to a Kaeya that doesn’t remember and they could resume their familiar stalemate from before.

Maybe it’s the lingering effect of giving into every playful doggy instinct, but Kaeya doesn’t want that. He wants to sink his words into something and pull.

“Most of it, anyway,” Kaeya confesses, watching with rapt attention how it makes Diluc’s fingers curl into a fist. “The parts about chasing squirrels get a bit hazy. Canine brain, and all that.”

Diluc doesn’t say anything. The silence stretches so thin that Kaeya begins to regret the provocation, but then Diluc is uncurling his fingers with a sharp breath.

“I see.” He fixes Kaeya with a familiar scowl, but it’s off by a degree. Pulled over his face like a safety blanket. “And of course you immediately weaselled your way back into the hospitality of the winery.”

“Would you have preferred I sleep in the rain?” Kaeya asks honestly.

“Sincerely,” Diluc replies, sounding so far from sincere it’s laughable.

“I shall remember for next time then, Master Diluc.”

“Are you planning to make a habit of turning into a dog?”

There is no suppressing Kaeya’s eye roll. Diluc stands suddenly, the chair legs scraping viciously across the floor.

“I only came to return this.” He shoves his hand out, nearly punching Kaeya in the nose. 

Kaeya’s Cryo Vision is nestled neatly in his palm. The filigree casing has dented Diluc’s leather gloves. Kaeya takes it from him gently, trying not to notice the way Diluc tears his hand away like it's burned him.

“Thank you. For keeping it safe.”

For keeping me safe.

The look Diluc gives him is one part sour to two parts wary. He opens his mouth to speak and Kaeya holds his breath; he has a feeling that what Diluc says next is going to really hurt.

But nothing comes. Diluc presses his lips together, giving Kaeya a firmly ambiguous nod before he strides out of the infirmary.

The Vision is cool when Kaeya presses it against his temple; there’s a headache building behind his eyes.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

A week of mandatory rest and a thorough talking to about no drinking until you have completely recovered, Captain! and Kaeya is back at work. The buildup of tasks from his absence is just as bad as he’d anticipated, but Noelle kindly insists on helping him with matters until the work is manageable. Kaeya quietly gives her a raise on her next paycheck. He deftly ignores the reports about increased Darknight Hero activity within the city. What Diluc does with his evenings is no longer Kaeya’s business. Hasn’t been his business since he changed back.

By the end of the first week, he’s so wrung out from his duties and dried up from the forced sobriety that it’s a godsend when Barbara announces him fit to drink again. Kaeya is already halfway to the Angel’s Share when he pauses. Diluc is working tonight, he knows. They haven’t seen each other since that day in the infirmary. 

Not that silence between them is anything new. Their entire relationship now is defined by things left unsaid, and though it’s not comfortable, it is functional. But now Kaeya has heard Diluc saying the things they’ve both silently agreed never to voice, and it’s toppled the pieces off the board. 

Kaeya thinks about when they were Knights, and Diluc curling one hand around his neck. Looking at his lips.

Kaeya thinks about Diluc’s fingers trembling as they clutch the fur of a stray dog he’d been kind to.

Kaeya turns on his heel and goes to drink at the Cat’s Tail instead.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

“Diluc was asking about you.”

Kaeya looks up from desk to see Jean lingering in the doorway. She’s wearing the expertly neutral mask she saves for dealing with diplomats. It’s a warning sign that she’s here to talk to Kaeya about things he’d rather leave well alone.

“Is that so? What complaints about the Knights’ conduct does he have this time?”

“He wasn’t asking about the Knights,” Jean says, stepping into the office and closing the door behind her. Kaeya briefly considers jumping out the window. “He wanted to know how you were.”

Kaeya goes back to perusing his correspondence. “Is that what he said?”

“In so many words. He actually said that he hoped the Cavalry Captain’s injuries weren’t ‘so severe as to further hinder an already inefficient workforce’.”

The thought of Diluc stiffly poking around for information on Kaeya’s wellbeing is fairly amusing; cunning wasn’t his forte even before he’d left the Ordo.

Kaeya needlessly shuffles his papers. “Oh? Well I hope you reassured him that the Knights are just as ineffectual as ever and thanked him for the feedback.”

“Actually, I told him that he could ask you himself if he was concerned.”

Kaeya barks a laugh; he always forgets how frank Jean can be sometimes. “I’m sure he was thrilled at the suggestion.”

“Kaeya.” The stern drop in Jean’s voice makes him look up. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but Diluc gave the Knights a lot of intel to aid with the search effort. Places he’d personally ruled out and dead end leads. He was quite adamant that the search take priority.”

The statement takes a moment to process. Too many contrasting things clashing together at the same time, like Diluc working with the Knights and Kaeya is priority.

“I don’t know what happened between you two,” Jean continues when Kaeya remains silent. He understands now why she’d shut the door. “And I don’t imagine I ever will. But I suppose… I always thought that whatever it was, you’d work it out.”

Kaeya raises his eyebrows at her. Jean doesn’t meddle on principle; she’s the exact opposite of him in that regard. “And whatever made you think that?”

There’s a pause in which Jean folds her fingers together, evidently searching for the right words. “Back when we were in the Ordo together, you would often call Diluc your brother. Mostly in front of other people. But you never seemed like family to me.”

Kaeya gives her a wry smile. “Just as well we’re not.”

“I’m not saying you two weren’t close,” Jean corrects. “I just mean, it seemed like something else. Something just as deep.”

The words tighten around Kaeya’s heart like a tourniquet. He has to work very hard to breathe normally. It was so long ago - the fleeting touches, the lingering stares when Diluc wasn’t looking - but Kaeya thought he’d been careful. He believed no one else would notice if he was hiding it from even himself.

Quietly, Kaeya says, “I thought we were more subtle than that.”

“You were,” Jean gives him a gentle smile. “But you forget that I was with the two of you almost as much as you were with each other. It seemed clear to me.”

Kaeya rolls that over in his head for a bit, testing the edges of it. It seems strange and novel that someone knew something about him that he had barely begun to know about himself. Maybe that’s why he’s held onto this fractured semblance of a relationship with Diluc; the roots had been growing deep for longer than he was aware.

Jean watches him for a moment before she says, “My father always taught me that love makes you brave.”

Kaeya can’t help his scoff. Love? Is that the name of the feeling within him that twists until he can’t bear it and then twists some more?

“Personally, I disagree.” Jean looks perfectly neutral when Kaeya blinks at her. It’s the closest to mutinous she’s ever sounded. “I think love makes cowards of us all.”

“Are you calling me a coward, dear Grandmaster?” Kaeya says, throwing her a wan smile.

“I’m saying it would be entirely normal if you were.”

This line of conversation is hardly making Kaeya feel better so he changes track. “Is that what you think this is, then? Love, in all its ghastly glory?”

The corner of Jean’s mouth curls in a rare smirk. “If it’s not, you should have no trouble being brave. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Kaeya’s smile drops. The trap had closed so neatly around him that he hadn’t even felt the bite of its teeth. Check-bloody-mate. He shakes his head as an excuse to turn away from Jean’s smug expression; it’s not often she bests him at wordplay. Kaeya can either concede it’s love or concede to being a coward. The latter is easier— bravery does not become a liar— but it doesn’t feel right.

At the very least, Jean knows to stop fighting when a battle is won. She takes in Kaeya’s folded up form with a nod and steps towards the door. “I have some matters to attend to, so if you’ll excuse me, Captain Kaeya.” She pauses in the doorway to throw him a gentle smile. 

“Perhaps you’ll join me at the Angel’s Share for a drink sometime.”

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Granted, Mondstadt City is one of the smaller capital cities. And with Kaeya and Diluc’s mutual pool of contacts, they can only avoid each other for so long.

He hadn’t taken Jean up on her offer for a drink, partly because he knows she can handle a single glass of dandelion wine at best, but mostly because he would like to claim cowardice for just a few more days. Jean won’t push him for dragging his feet, but Lisa will.

It’s the habit of three weeks on paws that has Kaeya’s feet taking him to the back alley behind Angel’s Share. The lights are still on, though it’s past closing. Charles must be tallying the evening’s profits before leaving for the night. Kaeya is turning to leave when the back door springs open and Diluc steps out holding two bowls of warm game.

He freezes when he sees Kaeya, eyes widening a fraction. Kaeya glances at the bowls and then at Diluc and— Diluc looks terrible. The skin below his eyes is stained a ruddy purple and his hair is the kind of wild it used to get before Kaeya taught him how to brush it properly.

They stare at each other for a drawn moment until Kaeya can’t tolerate it a second longer. He pulls on his smirking, provocative persona like a coat.

“Hoping to catch another stray? Barbatos’s Beard, Master Diluc, you look an absolute sight.”

Diluc’s scowl is ten times more ferocious with the dark smudges beneath his eyes. He sets the bowls down beside the back door.

“I see you’re back to your usual self.” He clearly means it as an insult, but the squeeze around his eyes slackens with relief. 

Kaeya hums dismissively. “And you’re far too young to be giving yourself wrinkles.”

“You’re older than me,” Diluc snaps. He must be exhausted if he’s resorting to childish comebacks.

Kaeya shoulders right past him into the tavern. “Yes, so I have authority. And I’m announcing that it’s past your bedtime.”

“Kaeya!” Diluc follows him with a growl. He fails to swipe Kaeya’s arm as he heads up the stairs to the living quarters.

“There. You see that terrible attitude? That’s because you haven’t slept enough, and you wouldn’t want to be crabby with the patrons, would you?”

“Depends who patronises the tavern,” Diluc snaps, giving Kaeya a heavy side eye.

Kaeya unlatches the door to the loft, stepping into the small space before Diluc can pull him back. Diluc follows him looking like he’s tasted something sour.

“I never gave you a key.”

Kaeya gives him a pitying look. It just makes Diluc narrow his eyes, so Kaeya marches forward and starts yanking at the buttons on his waist coast. Archons, how does he fit into something this tight? Diluc slaps his hands away. Kaeya slaps his right back, eliciting an incredulous growl, and then returns to stripping him.

“Do you deliberately buy these a size too small?” He asks, just to fill the silence. 

“I have a tailor,” Diluc says, and Kaeya rolls his eyes. Diluc forgets just how rich he sounds sometimes. 

“He must still have your measurements from when you were fourteen.”

“If you have a complaint, Captain Kaeya, you would do well to voice it clearly.”

“And deprive Mondstadt’s people the sight of you bursting out your shirt? I would never.”

Diluc scoffs and says bitingly, “Of course not.”

Kaeya covers his reaction to the barb by yanking the waistcoat down Diluc’s arm perhaps a little more aggressively then he means to. 

“Pants,” he orders. The look Diluc shoots at him is unwarrantedly scandalised. Kaeya rolls his eyes. “Oh, please. I’m not going to swoon at the sight of your knees.”

Diluc mutters something about privacy but obligingly strips off his pants. Kaeya rolls his eyes over the pale valleys of muscle and sinew before turning away. It’d be horribly embarrassing to actually swoon at the sight of Diluc’s knees. He turns away to grab a pair of sleep pants from the cramped dresser and chucks them over his shoulder, earning him a disgruntled snort when they hit Diluc in the face.

“Don’t you have anywhere else to be?”

“You’re being rather ungrateful,” Kaeya says blithely, turning to see that Diluc has thankfully pulled on the sleep pants. “And here I thought you missed me.”

Diluc freezes. The reply shocks both of them; this is a deviation of their script, where Diluc says something that cuts to the core and Kaeya preens and pouts and says something both obnoxious and truthful about Diluc breaking his heart. 

He lunges forward, snatching the front of Diluc’s shirt to begin viciously tackling his buttons. When Kaeya feels afraid, he runs straight at the thing that scares him. Why else would he provoke Diluc for exactly zero gain? 

Diluc makes a face at the rough handling. The next words out of his mouth are a low, threatening growl. “Don’t think for a second anything has changed.”

“Naturally.”

The flippant tone has Diluc rearing back, and he actually has the audacity to look insulted. 

Kaeya scoffs. “Don’t look so surprised, Master Diluc. You’ve made your stance perfectly clear.”

“Have I?” Diluc’s red eyes glint like hot coals in the half light, burning a hole right through Kaeya’s carefully constructed mask.

The fact is that throughout their entire lives, Kaeya has been, in some capacity, Diluc’s subordinate. A charge to Crepus’s only son. A lieutenant to the Ordo’s youngest Captain. Diluc leaving the Knights and taking up vigilantism alongside the winery business may be the first time they’ve ever really stood on equal ground. But it doesn’t mean Kaeya has unlearned how to be his right hand, nor does it erase the fact that Kaeya grew up deferring to Diluc.

That’s why their relationship has existed in perpetual stalemate since Diluc’s return; Kaeya has always followed his lead, and Diluc has never taken a single step to bridge the gap between them.

Until now.

“You could have run.”

Kaeya blinks at him. “What?”

Diluc is staring back so intensely that he instinctively wants to hide. 

He’s a shadow. He exists in shadows, and this is like having a light shined directly upon him. “When you were— When Alice changed you. You could have run away and no one would have ever known. But you stayed and protected Mondstadt.”

The surprise smarts, even knowing how little Diluc thinks of him and his loyalties.

Kaeya winces through a smile. “Yes, well. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

“Why?”

The word is so small, but the force Diluc puts behind launching it turns it into a projectile. Kaeya has to take a moment after it lodges in his chest. “Why did you hold onto my Vision?”

He’s met with stony silence and a muscle leaping in Diluc’s jaw as he grinds his teeth to powder. 

This is the one topic they’ve mutually been avoiding. The greatest game of chicken they’re both intent to win. And Kaeya has spent four years waving off these brittle moments, so he pins his usual lazy smile in place and doesn’t meet Diluc’s eyes as he steps towards the door, abruptly tired.

“I’m sure you’re quite capable of getting yourself the rest of the way to bed from here, Master Diluc-”

“Don’t call me that.”

“-I’ll tell Adelinde if you don’t!”

“Kaeya.”

Kaeya stops dead-- reflexive deferral-- and it gives Diluc enough time to step between him at the door. This loft is getting to him. He feels jittery and off kilter. A wild, familiar urge to sink his teeth into something and Diluc is closest.

He shoves Diluc in the arm. Irritatingly, he hardly sways. “Move.”

“Why should I?”

“Because if we’re going to have this conversation then I’m going to need a drink, and we’re conveniently above a fully stocked bar.”

“I don’t want to do this drunk. ”

“I concede that I don’t tell you everything,” Kaeya interrupts, speaking to Diluc’s collarbones. “But I have done nothing short of devoting myself to Mondstadt’s safety, and I don’t need your validation to make that true.”

He should have been careful in wishing for Diluc’s full attention; Kaeya isn’t sure how to handle all of it now that he has it.

“None of that changes what you did. You lied to me,” Diluc growls, and for a second he sounds just as tired as Kaeya feels. “To me, Kaeya.”

And isn’t that the crux of it in the end? That they had always shared everything with each other, except this one thing that wasn’t even Kaeya’s to give.

The grin that splits Kaeya’s face feels manic. “What a double standard you set.” Diluc opens his mouth to argue but the thread is already unspooling so Kaeya grabs it with both hands and pulls . “You brand me a traitor and then hide away for four years-”

“I didn’t hide away- ”

“-leaving Mondstadt entirely at my mercy. And I don’t think for a second you’d have done so if you thought me any real threat. You helped the Knights search for me. Charles revealed that you don’t even keep a tab for the drinks you serve me. So tell me, Master Diluc, which one of us is the real liar?”

There is nothing satisfying about the way Diluc’s frown falls, leaving only naked surprise.

“I hurt you. And I’m sorry,” Kaeya says plainly, and the tension inside him that’s wound tight enough to snap releases, just like that. He takes a slow breath that feels easier than it has in years. “That’s the truth.”

Testing their boundaries was a mistake, and he needs to get out of here right now. Maybe find equilibrium in the bottom of a bottle of Death After Noon back at his apartment. Except that Diluc stands firm in front of the door.

When he finally speaks, he does so slowly, carefully, like a needle pressing into a vein. “I kept your Vision, because you kept mine.”

It’s deceptively simple. But if that’s all the answer Kaeya is going to get, he’ll take it. “I suppose that makes us even.”

“I don’t want to be even.”

“Better start a tab for me then.”

“I don’t want to be keeping score in the first place.”

“You’re not still sore that I beat you at Genius Invokation, are you?”

“Kaeya, shut up! ”

Kaeya closes his jaw with a click when Diluc’s hand fists the front of his shirt, eyes blazing. “You’ll say your piece but you won’t let me speak mine? And you complain about double standards.”

His grip on Kaeya’s collar tightens until it threatens to tear, and then he exhales slowly, furrowed brows smoothing out. His breath ghosts over Kaeya’s lips. It’s hard not to stare at him; like this, Diluc resembles everything Kaeya had loved about him-- does love about him. Righteous and fearless and the only person who’s ever taken his breath away.

Diluc’s hand finds his waist. The fingers holding his shirt curl around Kaeya’s nape. It’s so close to back when they were Knights. He’s so close.

They’re so close.

“Don’t lie to me,” Diluc says. He’s looking at Kaeya’s mouth. “And I won’t lie to you.”

How quaint. A pact for them to share, since they shared everything. 

Kaeya huffs a laugh. It comes out as barely more than a wheeze. “Are you saying you’ll make an honest man out of me? Careful, ‘Luc, you’ll give a boy all sorts of ideas.”

Diluc doesn’t say anything. It’s singularly more terrifying than if he’d said ‘no’, and it knocks the smile right off Kaeya’s face. His searing gaze doesn’t deviate from Kaeya as he presses their foreheads together. Not moving. Just watching.

They’re so close.

And Kaeya runs towards things that scare him the most.

It takes nothing at all to tilt his head up and close the space between them. Kaeya’s lips brush featherlight over Diluc’s before he pulls back.

Not moving.

Just watching.

Diluc’s eyes have blown wide, a blush staining his pale cheeks. The satisfaction Kaeya feels at that wanes when he continues to stare, and for one horrible second he wonders if he’s read this catastrophically wrong.

And then Diluc surges forward, crashing their mouths together. He belts his arm around Kaeya’s waist, pulling their bodies flush in one fused line. His fingers coil around Kaeya’s neck to hold him in place as he kisses hungrily. It’s a bit of a mess, really-- Kaeya has a thought about Diluc being inexperienced that makes his stomach swoop dangerously, and then he slots his palm around the bolt of Diluc’s jaw to guide his head into a better position. 

It clicks them into place, like they were always meant to fit together this way. Kaeya coaxes Diluc’s mouth open with the press of his jaw and dips his tongue inside. The noise Diluc makes is a breathless groan, and he digs his fingers so hard into Kaeya’s waist that it aches with the promise of bruises. Fuck, Kaeya hopes that it bruises. He wants to be able to map the exact shape of Diluc’s hands on him.

Diluc licks into his mouth, and it instantly changes the kiss from rough to something hot and filthy. They stumble back through the tiny loft until Diluc makes the executive decision to pick Kaeya up like he weighs nothing. Fucking claymore users. Kaeya automatically wraps his legs around Diluc’s waist and they stay there, even when Diluc lowers him onto the bed. His hands are everywhere, taking on a feverish movement whilst he tries his best to remain fused to Kaeya’s mouth.

“Are you always in this much of a hurry?” Kaeya laughs when Diluc finally leaves his mouth in favour of ravishing his neck.

Diluc pulls back to stare down at Kaeya, his cheeks a sinful shade of pink. “Sorry. I-- I shouldn’t have-”
“Diluc.” Isn’t it lovely how Kaeya is the one reassuring him for a change, Diluc’s naked want crowding every inch of his face. “Like this.”

Kaeya leans up carefully, one hand threading into the red shock of Diluc’s hair and pulling him down until their lips meet. He goes slow, testing the warmth, the pressure of their mouths. How he can nip at Diluc’s bottom lip and then soothe it with a swipe of his tongue to earn a glorious, full-body shudder from the man above him.

Diluc learns quickly, matching the pace Kaeya sets, drawing the touch of his roaming hands into something sacred and delicious. One thumb skims the bottom of Kaeya’s eyepatch the way he used to when they were kids.

“Will you take this off?”

A whispered request, so fragile Kaeya is scared to breathe. They both know of the jagged scar that lies underneath. Diluc is already beginning to look like he regrets asking, but Kaeya just curls a finger around the collar of his shirt and peels it back an inch. 

“Only if you take this off.”

Diluc tilts his head, assessing. “Hardly seems like a fair trade.” 

It’s not a ‘no’, and Kaeya can work with that. He pushes up on one elbow so that he can attach his mouth to the exposed column of Diluc’s throat. When he suckles on the skin, Diluc hisses out something that could charitably be his name.

“I’ll make it worth your while,” Kaeya promises.

“Why do I feel like this is turning into one of your games?”

“Still saying you don’t trust me?”

Diluc groans when Kaeya’s teeth find his collarbone. “I don’t trust you to behave. ”

“Rest assured, ‘Luc, I am quite capable of controlling myself.”

Heat pools in Kaeya’s gut at the way Diluc’s cheeks explode with red at the long used nickname. “And yet here you are, stripping me.”

“I don’t see you complaining.” Kaeya recedes, lying back down against the mattress. He yanks off the eyepatch and hurls it into the corner. “And here I am completely naked.”

Diluc traces the scar with his eyes, mouth pinching for a brief moment before his gaze wanders down the rest of Kaeya’s body. It makes Kaeya’s veins sizzle . “You are nothing of the sort.”

“Agree to disagree. Shirt?”

In a stunning display of acquiescence, Diluc pulls his shirt off in one smooth motion, tossing it in the same direction as the eyepatch. His flush travels all the way down to his chest.

“Now you,” Diluc grunts.

“Oh dear, it seems I cannot reach.” Kaeya sighs dramatically. He hasn’t seen this brand of obedience from Diluc before and he wants to see how far he can push it. Give a dog a bone, etc. etc. 

Diluc gives him a flat look. “You can’t reach your shirt?”

“Sadly not.”

“The one you’re wearing?”

“Tragic, I know. Affects five percent of the population.” Kaeya folds his arms behind his head in a way he knows makes his chest look good. “If only some mysterious local hero were willing to help me.”

‘Help’ from Diluc looks like him none too kindly snatching Kaeya’s shirt by the collar and yanking it as gracelessly over his head as possible. Kaeya squawks, squirming to free his limbs from the bunching fabric.

“Ass,” he spits out once Diluc liberates him with a particularly aggressive tug.

“Brat,” Diluc shoots back, and then descends upon him with mouth and hands and the gratifying weight of his body.

Kaeya’s answering laugh twists into a throaty moan just as Diluc does something experimental with his hips.

The headboard scrapes against the wall, dislodging several chips of plaster and denting one of the support beams. Kaeya thinks longingly of the king size he knows Diluc has back at the winery. “As much as I enjoy where this is going, perhaps it would be prudent to wait until we’re in a more… accommodating bed?”

Diluc honest to gods pouts like a spoiled young master . “The bed is big enough for two.”

“One and a dog, maybe.”

“I prefer cats,” Diluc says. 

Kaeya smacks him in the arm and receives a tug on his ponytail in retaliation until Diluc pulls Kaeya against his chest. The steady, reassuring thud of his heart is at once nostalgic and brand new.

“We still need to talk, don’t we?” Kaeya sighs, mindful not to puncture the delicate newness settling around them.

Diluc’s arms tighten around him. “Tomorrow. Not tonight.”

Kaeya exhales. One hand buries itself in his hair.

“Not tonight,” he agrees.