Shards of memories

Shards

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"Kaeya!"
  The sound of childish laughter.
"D- diluc?"
  A moment of uncertainty.
"Diluc!"

Then a hug, fiery hair in his eyes his mouth his nose. Dirty overalls rubbing against his legs his stomach his arms.

"Hellooo?" Diluc giggled, looking into his brother's bewildered eyes. "Whopperflower got your tongue?"

Kaeya looked around, taking in the fields and ruins around him. The statue, the chests, the barrels, the winery, the... the winery?
  He pulled back from his brother.

  "Luc, where are we?" He asked shakily.
  "What do you mean?" Laughed Diluc, showing that gap tooth he'd gotten by falling from the winery's balcony. "We're at home!"

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  Flames licking at the walls of a fireplace, the smell of  fresh bread in the air.

  "...you plan on studying?"
 
He blinked his eyes.

  "I... what?"

The man sat in front of him sighed and smiled wearily.

  "Where do you plan on studying Kaeya? You can't be a kiddo forever, despite how much I wish you to." He laughs.

  "Yes Father I-" Kaeya stopped, bewildered. Father? But it felt so natural... "I don't know if I want to take up academic studies."

  "That's alright. Are you going to follow in your brother's footsteps, become a big ole knight in shining armour?" Father laughed, leaning back in his armchair, swiping his fiery red hair from his face.

  "Oh don't poke fun at him Master Crepus, you're a knight too in your spare time!" Said a teasing voice behind Kaeya.

  "Ah Elzer, only when they need 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 desperate backup!" Crepus laughed heartily. Then he lowered his gaze to look Kaeya in the eyes. "Well, no matter what you choose to be, you'll always be welcome here at the Winery."

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A storm, soaked clothes, hair sticking to the fabric of his impeccably clean uniform.

The statue, the chests, the barrels, the Winery.

Regret, pity, anger, fear.

The path to the grape field, the way to the door.

The steps.

1...
2...
3...

A hand lifted, a fist formed, a fleeting look into the panels of the window; he'd taken off his eyepatch for the first time in years. He needed to look at his brother with both, flawed, eyes.

He knocks.

1...
2...
3...

Footsteps approach the door, they open one latch. Two. Three. The door swings open.

  "Kaeya."
The steps speak. No, not the steps, something more. A broken man, a shell, a ghost.
  "What is it you want?"
Hollow words, hollow eyes, hollow cheeks.

  "Diluc, I want you to know that I-"
Kaeya's speech is cut short.

  "I don't need your pity, nor your apologies." A bitter sentence, like the pain left by the slash of a blade.

  "That's not what I'm here for." He leans against one of the wooden pillars, weary despite the minimal physical exertion. A sigh, a slow blink. "There is something I should've told you, told Father, a long time ago."

Tears.
Thunder.
Eyes.
Hands.
Memories.

Then finally.
"Follow me." Breaking the silence, the fear, the air. Diluc walks past Kaeya, down the steps, down the path, into the once familiar field.
And Kaeya follows, distraught, confused in his brother's steps, just as their Father had said he would all those years ago. He stands in front of his best friend, eyes pleading for an explanation he feels the right to have.

"Diluc I-"
"Have said enough." Icy words without an ounce of understanding for the lost soul receiving them: as if he were a stranger.
Then a flash if light, of warmth and he'd drawn his sword, a great claymore his brother had always admired. He raises it above his head with a guttural scream of anguish, and looks on as Kaeya retreats like a scared dog, his own sword drawn in a defensive position in front of his face.
Diluc brings the claymore down, releasing a burning phoenix of flames from it's tip; the grass withers away beneath it as it flies towards Diluc's kin, his brother, his friend, his ally, the only one he has left in this cruel world.

And Kaeya screams.

He 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴.

Icy pain flows through his veins, his head, down his face in long golden tears from the eye he clutches so tightly. His right eye.

"No no no no no... Kaeya can you hear me? Kaeya! Answer me! Kaeya!"
Diluc's wet hands on his shoulders, his knees, his face the thunder the rain the the... drunken screams?

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