~ The Cold Truth ~

Healing

Hello im back! I hope that you enjoy this chapter!

T/W:  Description of wounds and scars

3rd Person POV (Following Diluc):

"Ugh-" Diluc groaned, his head was killing him and it felt like every bone in his body was broken. He slowly opened his eyes to see that he wasn't outside.

Were am I?

Oh the Church.

Why am I in the church?

Who brought me here?

A million questions raced through Diluc's mind as a young girl walked in.

"Oh, Master Diluc, you're awake!" She said happily, Diluc recognised her as Barbara, Jean's younger sister and a sister who works at the church.

"What-why am I here?" He asked, his tone raspy from not speaking all day.

"Sir Kaeya and Mr Albedo brought you here, they said that you got hurt doing commissions."

Commissions?

What commissions?

"Oh-yes ok..." his voice trailed off as he looked around the hall. His eyes landed on a sleeping Kaeya on a chair in front of him.

"Oh yes! Sir Kaeya refused to leave you alone here, im not sure if he didn't want you to be alone or something like that..."

Diluc's heart warmed at the thought of his brother caring for him even though what happened in the past had almost destroyed their relationship.

"Is he ok?" He asked, he remembered the hoard of monsters that had attacked him earlier that day.

"He said he was, but he looks uncomfortable and in pain. I don't want to invade his privacy though..." Barbara said, her voice unsure whether she made the right decision.

"We should probably check now, just to be sure." He said, annoyed that Kaeya's pride stopped him from getting help.

"Alright...its just that...since there isn't any visible wounds...we are going to need to take his shirt off..." she hesitated.

"I can do it if you are uncomfortable." Diluc offered.

"Thank you"

Diluc got up, he felt a bit lightheaded, but it would wear off. He began to take off Kaeya's corset then unbutton his shirt. There was blood on it. The crimson liquid had seeped into Kaeya's white shirt, making it a deep shade of red.

Diluc had unbuttoned the rest of his shirt and was greeted with a horrifying array of scars and burns. Diluc knew were the burns came from.

"Oh my gosh!" Barbara exclaimed. Kaeya awoke, his eye shot open in alarm.

"Whats the-" He was about to say until he realised that his shirt was undone. He drew his shirt over his bare,scarred chest and winced in pain.

"Kaeya. Let us help. Please." Diluc pleaded, his tone soft and saddened. A flash of anger sparked Kaeya's eye, but it was quickly replaced with one of sorrow.

"...f-fine" He hesitated. "Just...don't tell anyone...ever." He said, making the two promise that they wouldn't tell a soul.

"I won't." Barbra and Diluc said in unison. They wouldn't dream of giving away Kaeya's secret, it was his to share, and only his.

Kaeya nodded and hesitantly took his shirt off again. He looked at the ground as Barbara treated the cut on his hip, examining his scars as she did so. Diluc was sitting on the bench that he had been on before, he was looking at Kaeya's eye. He wanted Kaeya to look up so badly, he wanted to say sorry and give his little brother the biggest hug that he could muster. But he couldn't do that with Barbara watching.

"Done! You should change those every day until its healed, until then, you should expect some uncomfortableness and irritation, but thats normal as long as you keep it clean" She said, handing Kaeya his shirt.

"Thank you, Barbara." He said quietly while taking his shirt and putting it back on, Diluc had only seen him like this when he first came to the Dawn Winery. When they were kids.

"You two can go home now, its getting late and I need to pack up." She said as Kaeya stood up off of his chair.

"Thank you again Barbara." Diluc said as he walked out of the doors of the church hall with Kaeya following close behind, still looking at the ground.

The air was crisp and chilly, the usual for the nights of Mondstadt. Kaeya began to walk off, probably to his house.

"Kaeya wait-" Diluc said, gently grabbing Kaeya's wrist.

"What?" He asked, his voice colder than what he wanted it to be.

"I understand that I made you uncomfortable and im sorry. But I also wish to say sorry for the past, I was so nieve and reckless, unsure of what to do and riddled with grief for father. I know that I don't deserve to be forgiven with the way that I have treated you-" Diluc was cut off by Kaeya wrapping his arms around him.

"Im sorry too. I chose the worst time to tell you things because I thought that there would never be a right time. I was selfish for what I did. Instead of helping, I ran off. I felt so helpless that I didn't do anything right for years, I couldn't even fix my relationship with you, my own brother!" He had tears slipping out of his eyes now and so did Diluc.

"I forgive you Kaeya."

"I forgive you too, Diluc."

The two gave each other one more brotherly hug, they were both so happy that they were brothers again that all traces of their exhaustion had disappeared.

Diluc wiped his eyes as he pulled away from Kaeya, he was still smiling, a warm, genuine smile that no one in Mondstadt had seen in many years.

Kaeya wiped his tears too, his blue eye gleaming like a thousand oceans in the moonlight, it was as if the moon reflected his feelings onto the glowing blue orb.

"We must get going now, I will see you tomorrow, brother." Diluc waved to Kaeya and walked off, his smile never faltering and his eyes never stopped gleaming. He had fixed the burden that he had carried with him since his eighteenth birthday. He had rekindled his relationship with his younger brother.

He walked back to the winery, almost glowing and most of the maids noticed it.

"Master Diluc looks ecstatic! This is a pleasant change of pace!" One of them said.

"Its good to see him happy again, I hope that he feels like this for a long way to come." Said another, more politely than the other.

Diluc had walked up to his room, he quickly took his boots, jacket and vision off. He couldn't be bothered to get into night clothes tonight, he would be confortable like this.

The glow of his vision calmed him as Diluc lulled into a quiet sleep, his head on a pillow and mouth hovering slightly open. By the time Diluc was asleep, the maids and butlers had packed away, leaving him in peace for the night. Diluc continued to sleep as the happy memories of today flooded through his dreams...

/~~~~~~\

1176 words!

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, sorry for the late upload, but school work is a bit messy rn so I fixed it.

Have a lovely day/night!

-Just Some Monarch.