Two Birds on a Wire (A Diluc and Kaeya fanfic)

Part 6

As Diluc looked the now-much-older Kaeya in the face, he realized that this was, in fact, not a dream.  He wanted to say something, but his mind suddenly went blank, so all that came out was, "Oh."

"Good morning to you too," Kaeya said from his seat at the table.

It was too late to turn away now. He had to sit down or Kaeya would know he was avoiding him.

"Were you able to sleep well, Master Diluc?" Adelinde asked, voice as calm and sturdy as ever. She was acting as though this was perfectly normal, having a much older Kaeya and a now much younger Diluc in the same room. To be honest, Diluc was grateful for the act. He wasn't usually one to overreact and panic, but this was just so...weird, that if Kaeya and Adelinde were panicking too, it would've made it worse.

"Yes," Diluc replied as he sat down a few seats away from Kaeya. Usually, he would sit directly across from him or right next to him, but the less he had to look his older-younger brother in the eye right now, the better.

Adelinde walked over to the table carrying two steaming plates of tea break pancakes and fried eggs.  She set a plate in front of each of them, but neither picked up their utensils. Out of the corner of his eye, Diluc noticed Kaeya repeatedly glancing over at him. He looked like he wanted to say something, but no words came out of his mouth. The Kaeya he was used to had always been shy. It seemed like a part of that shyness still stuck, even if he was quite a bit older now.

Not that Diluc was doing much better in this situation.

It was rare for him to be at a loss of words, but in all fairness, he was still having trouble convincing himself that this was really Kaeya. He wondered if Kaeya was quiet because he was thinking the same about him.

After another minute passed though, Diluc decided that this was silly. Even though this was a bit awkward (okay, a lot more than a bit), they couldn't just keep ignoring each other like this. So he picked up his fork and knife, cut into his pancakes, and then looked Kaeya straight in the eyes. "Are you going to eat?"

Kaeya stared at him blankly for a moment and then cleared his throat and shook his head. "You know, I find that I'm not terribly hungry this morning. You eat though. We're going to go to the city in a little while."

"To see Jean?"

"Mm hm," Kaeya hummed in affirmation. "And a couple others, possibly."

Diluc raised his fork up to his mouth and took a rather large bite of pancake. "'Ike foo?" he said, mouth still full.

Kaeya raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Diluc swallowed. "Like who?" he repeated, this time much more intelligibility.

"Oh, just a friend of Jean's. She's a very smart librarian. And potentially a genius alchemist as well. It all depends on how difficult your little problem is to solve."

"Hm. Okay." Diluc took another bite. Adelinde's food tasted the same, at least. It was still just as tasty as ever. "You're really not going to eat anything at all?"

Kaeya shook his head again and pushed his chair back, before standing up. "No, I have a few things I need to get done before we leave."

"Oh. Um...See you in a little while then, I guess." Diluc found himself feeling a little disappointed by Kaeya not deciding to join him for breakfast. It would've been a nice opportunity to break some of the awkwardness between them. But maybe that time would come later, when they went into the city.

The redhead heard footsteps behind him and assumed it was Kaeya leaving the dining room, but was surprised when he felt a hand pat his head and gently tousle his hair. He quickly whipped around to see his attacker as Kaeya held his hands up in surrender and turned his head innocently to the side.

"What?" Kaeya said.

"Why did you--"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kaeya replied with a slight smirk as he started to stride out of the room, whistling.

Diluc just stared at him.

"Oh, your hair is a mess, by the way," Kaeya called out as he vanished from view.

"No thanks to you!" Diluc called back, grinning.

"Believe me, what I did was an improvement."

Hm, maybe this wouldn't be so awkward after all. If his brother was in a joking mood, then things couldn't be too bad, right?

He wondered though...If Kaeya wasn't hungry in the first place, then why did he bother sitting down at the table? Adelinde even brought out a plate for him.

Did he make him uncomfortable at all? Did he...not want to be near him?

No, Diluc told himself. Kaeya really just wasn't hungry. If he didn't want to be near you, then he wouldn't offer to go into the city with you.

Yeah. Yeah, everything was fine. He was fine, Kaeya was fine, and this whole day would be fine. Just fine.

---

Kaeya was lying when he said he wasn't hungry. Perhaps he truthfully didn't have much of an appetite right now, but his stomach was rumbling. And it was rare for him to have breakfast here now. Very rare. So he'd planned to sit down and eat whatever Adelinde brought out, but as soon as Diluc came down those stairs, Kaeya froze.

Anyone who didn't know Kaeya very well would probably think that he was a very confident person. And maybe he was, on some level, but he was also a bit shy. After Diluc sat a few chairs down from him, Kaeya knew he couldn't do this. He just...needed a moment to clear his head, and then he'd be fine.

As soon as he stood up to leave though, he noticed the slight frown on Diluc's face. Adult-Diluc was excellent at masking his emotions, aside from his grumpiness, but seeing Diluc like this now brought back memories. He'd almost forgotten how easy his brother used to be to read. His little baby face was so easy to read.

And right now, Diluc's face was telling him that he was feeling a little down, so Kaeya forced himself to put on a smile and walk up behind the redhead to ruffle his hair. Funny, he'd always wanted a younger brother to do that to, and now he technically had one. He tried to ruffle adult-Diluc's hair before, but that did not end well.

Kaeya almost laughed. Diluc's hair was wild right now. It always had been unruly in the morning, but Diluc was usually better groomed by the time he made it downstairs for breakfast. Last night must've really put a number on him.

"Oh, your hair is a mess, by the way."

"No thanks to you!"

"Believe me, what I did was an improvement."

He wouldn't admit it outloud, but Diluc looked almost cute right now, with his mussed hair and sleepy boyish features. Ah, if only he had a kamera on hand to moment this strange occasion.

Anyway, despite that little bit of fun, Kaeya really did need to step away for a minute. He'd probably end up spending the better part of the day with Diluc in Mondstadt City, and he really, really needed to figure out how he was going to explain this to Jean.