come and feel the love (like a sinner)

all will be washed away with the rain.

When Captain Kaeya Alberich received word of a tragic accident between Diluc Ragnvindr, an unfortunate teenager, and a unit of the Fatui, he had set near Dragonspine in a visible craze. They say the Cavalry Captain sent a whole quarter of his company to aid in the search for Diluc once Bennett cried for help in Springvale, and, scared as they were of Alberich's furious state, they all rushed out the gates without another word.

He wasn't worried. It's just that he knew there were talks of the Fatui setting camps, near where the winery master was reported to go missing (the camps he was supposed to investigate tonight), and, well.

Forgive him for being a bit prudent.

Now Kaeya halts at the sound of a painful choke and exhale, and he spins around, trying to locate the source of the noise (he didn't allow his eyepatch to hinder him, but the lack of depth perception did occasionally disorient him, even so).

He soon finds who he's looking for, and his face goes pale.

"Diluc."

But Diluc barely registers him. He's a mess of scarlet hair and dark blood seeping through the gaps in his fingers, and Kaeya's intermingled thoughts all morph into a lone, wretched one.

He looks just like Crepus. 

"Diluc," Kaeya says again, willing his voice to carry firm, neutral. He kneels by his former brother, trying to pry his hands from the wound. Diluc's missing a glove, and blood on the whites of his outfit makes the injury seem fatal.

It's not fatal, Kaeya reasons with himself, hesitating when he hears a quiet groan from the man in front of him. There's an attempt to move being made, now, but it is fruitless, seeing as it only seems to worsen the bleeding.

"Don't move," Now Kaeya's already taking off his furs and jacket, trying to create something with the fabrics to staunch what was bleeding. He would have applied cryo to freeze the wound, but that would not benefit Diluc unless his most urgent wound was attended to swiftly.

Of course, then Kaeya would need to find a way to transport him to Mondstadt and the Cathedral to ease any concern for infections or internal haemorrhaging, but that would have to wait until he could determine the extent of the injury. Transporting Diluc in such a state would certainly be asking for a generous amount of trauma on his body, and naturally the young master would be horribly stubborn as to leaving Charles alone in the Angel's Share while he recovers. Diluc was an idiot like that, and Kaeya–

"Kae."

The voice is broken. It isn't complete, and it is disgusting to hear his name be called out in such a distorted and shattered uttering. It makes the man sound mightless, and weak.

Kaeya knows that nothing of Diluc could ever be considered weak. He severs the thought instantly.

Careful not to overstep – whether it was sentiment that inspired the childhood nickname, or the fewer syllables – Kaeya responds smoothly nonetheless. "Yes?"

Just protecting a citizen of Mond. It's a captain's duty, after all.

There is a pause. Diluc coughs weakly, and Kaeya just knows that there's more blood. He waits a moment, as Diluc's eyes brighten in a bout of terror–

(He can't speak. He can't say anything. Diluc does not want to go out silently, not when he has this many regrets-) 

–and then somehow composes himself to look half-put together again. He takes a sharp, shuddering breath just as Kaeya presses down on the wound, and he speaks low on the exhale to ease the pain.

"Don't waste your time," he says, all ragged and unstable. Kaeya resists the urge to punch Diluc in a sudden bout of anger, and keeps calm.

"What? Of all ways, don't tell me you were bested by Fatui, Diluc," he says sourly, "Isn't that a bit redundant?"

Diluc's face pinches, in pain and possibly in annoyance, and Kaeya realises he's said the wrong thing again.

He is growing afraid. 

"The boy," Diluc continues weakly, trying his best to remain strong even as Kaeya tries his best to make sense of his wounds. "Bennett. Where–"

"Safe," Kaeya responds, trying to be confident of this one thing, at least, "Swan was to make sure Bennett was intercepted at the gates and treated quickly. Diluc, hey, can you hear me?"

Diluc doesn't even bother glancing at Kaeya, eyes shining dully and taking on an all-too familiar glassy gaze. Kaeya sucks in a sharp inhale.

"Diluc. Don't go to sleep. I'll get you back to Mond, but you need to stay awake, otherwise–"

Diluc sighs in pain, as if the previous sentence was unheard completely. Kaeya's eyes light up in worry.

He can't just be helpless. Not again. 

"I'll carry you once I staunch the bleeding," he quickly offers, "Charles can take your shift at the tavern. I'd rather you recuperate as I have to fill out the lengthy incident reports, reckless as you are."

He feels a warm, barely recognisable sensation prick his eye, and Kaeya stubbornly wipes at his face, before realising his hands were covered in blood.

He was late again. He was fucking late again. 

Diluc seems to pour all his effort into his next words, breathy and quiet. "You were just...just a boy."

Tears shone in Kaeya's eye, barely processing the words before hitting him like an axe. No, this wasn't how they were supposed to reconcile. No! 

"Kaeya, don' cry. I wish," he pauses, panting a breath and then laughing weakly and humourlessly, "I wish we had more time.." His words are slurring together, and it just sounds so broken.

"I don't want to say goodbye."

The confession is honest (for once) . Diluc stops talking for a moment, and Kaeya's heart sinks,

  (this cannot be the end. Not when he wasted all of this time–)

and Diluc says his final utterance.

"Sorry...s'it raining?"

Kaeya knows when he's gone. The scarlet vision brightens and near roars once, as if trying to desperately break free from the glass, and then it's silent.

Kaeya can't help the stream of tears that pour down his face, mingling themselves with the rain that suddenly seemed to pour around themselves around the one alive and the one not.

"It marks three times I was bested by you," he spits at the stormy sky. Even he can't recognise his own voice, filled with blades of grief and fury.

A strong gale blows its own anger down, and Kaeya knows the Archons mock him now. What a fool he is.

He knows better than to avenge Diluc. A cursed man from a cursed land deserves nothing but the misery being thrust at him all his life. 

Instead, he cries onto the silt, wondering to himself if they'll ever meet again. 

(Likely not, where he'll be going.)

-
Cross-posted to Ao3 around a year ago. Thanks for reading - more content soon to come!