[ Oh no. He should have known this would happen when he sent those letters to Lumine in a fit of drunken pique. But their Honorary Knight is so popular and busy, he'd been really hoping the date would just slip through her memory amidst all the other birthdays he's sure she must keep track of. Is this going to happen every year? Is he going to have to be reminded that there's at least one or two people out there in the world who care enough about him to remember his birthday every year? This is the worst thing that could ever happen to him. ]
Ah, but how could I possibly have the happiest birthday if I don't get to spend it with my favorite Honorary Knight? I'd invite you for a drink, but unfortunately we're rather short on the neccessities in this town, so...want to go see if we can fish out a lake monster?
[ Boy, these 'phones' sure are handy for letting him sound smooth when he's really a hot birthday denying mess! ]
[ yes, this will happen every year. yes, it will happen to everyone. no, no one's exempted. archons, stop being a lonely little shit during your birthdays, kaeya. ]
Is that really how you'd want to spend your birthday?
[ diluc's already up and gone by the time kaeya rouses this morning. however, there's the smell of something both salty and sweet wafting in from the kitchen. any eventual inspection will reveal a simple plate of what looks like seared meat from an earlier hunt, something akin to an oatmeal they'd scrounged up from the abandoned lots. however —
tucked under the plate and off to the side are several items that were not upon the table before. the first (and most notable) is a roughly whittled approximation of a peacock. touched in spots with stains that could be blood, it perches upon a simple box. the dimensions should tell kaeya it would be a perfect fit for his gem, the cover seared with the delicate curl of a calla lily and the inside lined with the fur of some catch.
and nearest the fork? a note. ]
K.,
Saved you some breakfast. Don't worry too much about doing more than stretching your legs.
[ Should there be a time where Kaeya finds himself alone following the meeting...perhaps somewhere still around the residential area's outskirts, closer to the trees, he will find himself in the sudden company of another who makes himself known by stepping upon a branch purposefully. ]
I had never thought I would see another familiar face from the homeland.
[ Yet, unlike the others, Kaeya has not sustained such horrid changes. ]
I suppose you may be thinking the same.
[ 'That is, if you recognize me.', Is the implied follow-up. But he is certain the other does, based upon at least one of the reactions he has shown to him during that. ]
[ It's pretty easy to find Kaeya lingering in an isolated area near the forest after the meeting - almost too easy, as if he'd known this was coming and exerted what little control he had to at least choose the venue of this conversation. At any rate, he doesn't look surprised to see Dainsleif approaching him, the usual amiable smile pasted firmly on his face though his eye is guarded. ]
I can't say I was expecting this, no.
[ An understatement, to say the least. It's a core belief that's been a foundation of his entire life - that everyone from his homeland aside from himself has suffered a fate worse than death. To have it upturned so easily...even now, he still can't put a finger on how exactly he feels about it. ]
But I'm glad to see you're looking as handsome as ever, Twilight Sword.
[ The flirting is automatic, his usual tactic of using charm as both an attack and defense, but there's something buried deeper behind the flattering words. After all, the fact that Dainsleif's appearance has remained for the most part unchanged shouldn't even be possible, for all that he knows. ]
[ Well then. At the very least his appearance doesn't happen to be a surprise. If it means anything good by the end of this, only time will tell.
Regardless, it is still a far better option than confronting Kaeya in front of everyone, even if the meeting is an uneasy one. As for him, he looks just as unflappable as he appeared in the meeting with no obvious indication of appearing just as guarded as Kaeya.
When he goes on the attack, he lets the words sink in. Dainsleif is not an oblivious man, after all. ]
...Empty flattery aside, you also appear to be relatively young, despite how long ago we had once seen one another.
[ Which Dainsleif still recalls. But as time passes here, he wonders if that too will slip away. ]
But, I'll consider it a pleasant surprise, more than anything. Even if we had not the opportunity to know each other all that well. It is only unfortunate that we're meeting again, but in a place like this.
[ The placidity in which Dainsleif regards him only sets his teeth on edge even more. He'd imagined against his will sometimes, those nights when the alcohol didn't flow freely enough, what it would be like if by some impossibility he'd ever come face-to-face with another Khaenri'an one day. Would they be furious and disgusted with him abandoning his duties to while away his days in the city of the enemy? Relieved to find that they were no longer alone in this god-touched land? Burning with a need for vengeance for the fate of their people?
Polite acceptance had not been his list of reactions to prepare for - and for someone who likes to plan and predict for everything as much as Kaeya does, the inscrutability is unsettling. He isn't used to feeling like his opponent holds all the cards in the deck while he's bluffing on nothing, and he can't say he particularly enjoys it. ]
Haha, I'm surprised you recognize me at all. I only came up to your knees the last time we met. How long has it been again...?
[ A pointed question, for all that Kaeya laughs it off as though it's simply casual small talk. That Dainsleif even remembers him is already curious enough, considering the erosion and corruption of the mind all their other brethren have undergone. ]
The pleasure is all mine, truly. And who knows? Perhaps it's fate that brought us together in this town.
[ Unfortunate? Hardly, at least for himself. For the first time, he's relieved to have been abducted to this strange inescapable town - better this reunion takes place here, away from Mondstadt and all the complications and prying eyes that would bring. ]
[ Hope Kaeya has his phone on because Diluc's texting him for once. It's a brief, as usual. ]
Do we have spare cloths?
[ No need to tell him he's actively bleeding on his phone from his opposite hand because his knife slipped. It's fine. He just wants to wrap it and be done with it without staining the floorboards. ]
[ This is the greatest present Kaeya has ever received, and he's including his Vision on that list. This is absolutely worth dying over. Congrats Rinne, you've just shot all the way up to the top of his favorite redheads list. ]
you are my hero how on earth did you convince the good captain to wear such...unique attire?
[ Ugh, finally. He doesn't care about being The Nest's hottest right now. Someone is enjoy his magnum opus. ]
it's the power of love, kaekae these cards say we gotta catch fishies yeah? but there's no fish in the boiling lake we had to improvise you need to catch one too? i'll trade u
( sometime after kaeya's epic sulk following diluc's death. )
[ it isn't a hard statement to make. not at all. he knows he should have. now, that is. he knows he should have relayed what he planned to do that evening, but it had been a desperate bid. it still is. outside this apartment complex, tucked into a shallow alcove, he'd deserved the earlier comments. he'd deserved the barbs, the finer point of kaeya's words. he knows.
he discards what remains of his cigarette, grinds out the ember beneath his heel. and then — he pauses, assesses. he turns, curls his hands about kaeya's. he anchors himself as much as he anchors him. kaeya's willingness to hear him had been gift enough. he'd have waited even longer to struggle with the shape of his own words as he is. ]
In the moment, I thought: if I can prevent this from happening again — [ for all that he keeps his gaze steady, he can't quite meet his eye. it's all he can do, to think of anything else. to not think of kaeya in the square. to not think of him awash with the red of his own blood, the painful angle of his fingers. but here he is. his brow knits, mouth pulling. ] If I can prevent them from attempting to finish what they started, then my actions would be worth it.
[ he glances up again, after a beat. for all that he speaks to him softly, diluc's hands hold his tightly. ]
[ anger is not an emotion that comes easily to kaeya, if at all. it runs too hot for him, too outward, when his immediate instinct towards any flicker of heated emotion is to condense it into a ball of ice, compacting it smaller and smaller until he can swallow it back down, numbing everything it touches along the way.
so he's not angry, he thinks, when he finds out about diluc's suicidal offering, though perhaps storming off to a separate apartment gave the wrong impression. he's not angry when he finally opens the door, tired of the stench of nicotine and smoke filtering through the cracks. he's not even angry at the ridiculous excuses spilling from diluc's lips, as if dying for his sake could possibly have any sort of worth or rationale in it at all. he's pretty sure anger doesn't feel like this: cold all the way through, with only the familiar bite of bitter resignation seeping in.
there does seem to be a moment when diluc grabs his hands that kaeya seems to waver just slightly, a hint of thaw in his impassive face as he glances down at the touch, weak as always to the warmth of physical reassurance. but not weak enough - and at diluc's final sentence, he instantly yanks his hands away as if from a sudden scalding fire. ]
Don't worry about it, Master Diluc. [ his tone is casual if distant, his smile polite - but he takes two steps back, putting himself out of range. ] No need to go out of your way for my account, I'm quite used to it by now.
[ it's a cruel and certainly passive aggressive statement, but he also genuinely means it, twisted as it is. how utterly repulsive, to have anyone but especially diluc take his feelings into consideration. how revolting, having anyone be aware of his feelings at all, let alone keeping them in the forefront of their mind. ]
diluc and kaeya and kaeya and diluc, waiting in the stretch of the other's shadow for all they might later cool or thaw. he'd known from the beginning that there would be no other that might temper him, no other who might stoke the bright idealisms that boiled through his blood. with him, diluc thought he might have once done anything. with kaeya, who grew in the absence of all that diluc was, he thought perhaps they both might yet be able to. and now?
he knows this shape, this form. he knows the way it rests along a knifepoint, the soft skin at the ribs. that it stings is no surprise to him. but, it was meant to. and for all that he thinks he's deserving of it, kaeya isn't. kaeya isn't, as much as he thinks he must be and should be and (mistakenly, always) is.
diluc doesn't grab for him. he knows the distance is another way, another barrier, another wall. but, it doesn't mean that his hands don't linger in the residual warmth. it doesn't mean that his fingers don't curl in against his own palms as if to hold what remains — as if to steady himself against what kaeya will say, his gaze flicking up.
and for all that diluc attempts to piece together language, it crowds up. it trips over his teeth in the sudden onslaught of absolute refusal. kaeya can't insist on that. he won't let him. not this time. ]
You shouldn't! [ you idiot, he wants to say. you absolute moron. why do you always — he takes a breath, mouth twisting about the heat of his own assertions, but knowing it won't get him anywhere. his nails bite against the rough flesh of his palms. ] You shouldn't be.
[ why do you always get to decide for me? he wants to ask. but, he knows. he knows and so — he takes a half-step forward.
his voice comes firm and low and devastatingly sure. ]
When I came upon you like that — I would have done anything. [ wasn't it obvious by now? isn't it? look at me, he wants to say. but, he doesn't. he knows the line, where not to cross it. no matter how tempting, he knows the consequence. ] I still would.
And so, you can rebuff me. You can ignore me, you can do whatever it is you need to about it — but, how couldn't I? [ how couldn't i worry? do you think you mean that little? he takes another breath. ] What value you hold with me, you can't decide it.
[ the heat from diluc's palms lingers on his hands long after he pulls away, burning like a benediction. almost instinctively, he lets slip a coin from his sleeve into his palm, running it through his fingers over and over again in hopes of the cool metal leeching away the flame - a nervous habit long ingrained since childhood, an effort to channel the urge to run and bite and claw into harmless motion.
of course he knows that diluc cares for him. even at their lowest, even in the deepest mires of his self-loathing when his closest companions had been a drink in one hand and a pyro vision in the other, that had never been in doubt. diluc cares for near everyone he comes across who isn't an outright monster, after all; his kindness has always blazed like a bonfire, unquelled still even after the raging storms of tragedy and betrayal swept through his life. and hasn't kaeya been taking advantage of that very same kindness since the moment they met? too clever by half even as a child, he'd recognized that desperate need to be of service and fashioned himself into the perfect companion to take shelter, parasitic tendrils latching on tight until they'd grown too much into each other to ever be separated. whatever this - this nameless all-encompassing thing that is between them, dilucandkaeya kaeyaanddiluc, he knows it's become far too uncontrollable a monster to be sent back cowering into the dark.
still, he's not going to go about making the mistake of thinking it matters. not again. diluc would lay down his life for just about anyone in mondstadt. it stings a bit, realizing he's no different - that for all of diluc's pretty words about his value, it still wasn't enough to put pause on his determination to martyr himself. ]
My apologies, but I fail to see how choosing to die does anything for me. [ and perhaps he's being a tad hypocritical here - he's fully aware that were the roles reversed, there would have been no limits to the things he would have done to keep diluc safe. but his death and diluc's death are two entirely different matters as far as he's concerned, and besides, a reckless plan that has a great chance of getting him killed is nowhere near the same as passively going to his own death like a cow walking into a slaughterhouse. ] Are you sure it's my value you're holding so highly, and not your own lust for vengeance? Because I don't recall ever asking for you to fight my battles for me.
[ another cruel barb, but truer than the rest. of course he would very much like to find out who did this to him, but he would never ask that of diluc - nor would he ask for promises of retribution or protection or sacrifice. there's only been one thing he's ever wanted from diluc, after all, and that's the promise to stay.
[ a handful of days after their individual quarrels, kaeya will find a delicately made calla lily on his nightstand. the material is paper, but the individual who "mysteriously" left it seems to have invested much time and attention into it. the oranges and yellows and reds are perfectly gradated, the white bell of its body without visible flaw. even the stem and its associated leaves are pressed and curled neatly - lovingly formed.
if kaeya picks it up, he'll find a small package tucked underneath. wrapped in plain wax paper and done up with twine, he'll similarly discover a familiar looking ruby strung along a golden chain inside. the pitting on the links will reveal it is handmade, but the clasp lets it sit where he'd like about his throat.
there is no accompanying note, but there is diluc's usual morning correspondence on the small desk tucked at the corner of their room. he's off re-racking the maple wine this morning, it seems. he'll be busy with that if he'd like to come find him to make breakfast, but there's no mention of anything else. ]
[ about a day or two after he's left his fair share of mysterious gifts about for windblume, diluc sends along a short clip of what sounds to be... music? it's a jaunty sort of a tune, the sort they both prefer.
there shouldn't be any mistake who is playing it, but what might be considered surprising is how diluc managed to finally figure out how to work his phone enough to send a recording to begin with. maybe he's been watching kaeya a bit more than he's let on. ]
[ he's not sure what to be more impressed by, the fact that diluc can still flawlessly play the fiddle despite having given up lessons for his increasing responsibilities even before his four year sojourn, or the fact that he's somehow managed to be able to find the recording function on his phone.
just kidding, it's definitely the latter. there's no surprise in diluc being a prodigy at anything he sets his mind to, but mastering the basics of technology after only six months? how did he even know the phone could record and send sound anyway? suspicious.... ]
An audio recording that isn't the sound of your pocket because you accidentally sat on your phone again? Who is this and what have you done with Diluc? [ he's only half-joking.... ]
[ listen. just because he sent kaeya no less than five recordings from the inside of his pocket, it doesn't mean that he's incapable of learning! either way, he'll tap back something quick. ]
Good question. Shall I send you another one to prove my identity?
[ so dry... ]
I'm not completely illiterate with technology, you know.
how have you been adjusting to the new heart? are you aware of the potential signs of organ rejection? that's my oversight, for not assuring that earlier.
Much as I would love to say 'hold on, what's that first one?' and go on a fascinating digression to learn about yet another foreign world's holiday - genuinely! - I assure you that you WILL very much want me to have the answer to that question.
I have attached a list of common symptoms of rejection to this message.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
un: traveler
May you have the happiest birthday, Captain.
un: coolit
Ah, but how could I possibly have the happiest birthday if I don't get to spend it with my favorite Honorary Knight? I'd invite you for a drink, but unfortunately we're rather short on the neccessities in this town, so...want to go see if we can fish out a lake monster?
[ Boy, these 'phones' sure are handy for letting him sound smooth when he's really a hot birthday denying mess! ]
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Is that really how you'd want to spend your birthday?
[ she calls bullshit on this invitation :\ ]
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Well, as I said, there aren't any drinks in town...anyway, not a fan of the lake? If you have any other ideas, I'm all ears.
[ no, he's not deflecting by completely avoiding an actual answer to her question, what makes you think that.... ]
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any eventual inspection will reveal a simple plate of what looks like seared meat from an earlier hunt, something akin to an oatmeal they'd scrounged up from the abandoned lots. however —
tucked under the plate and off to the side are several items that were not upon the table before. the first (and most notable) is a roughly whittled approximation of a peacock. touched in spots with stains that could be blood, it perches upon a simple box. the dimensions should tell kaeya it would be a perfect fit for his gem, the cover seared with the delicate curl of a calla lily and the inside lined with the fur of some catch.
and nearest the fork? a note. ]
K.,
Saved you some breakfast. Don't worry too much about doing more than stretching your legs.
I'll be out weeding the garden.
- D.
action | sometime before the church is on fire
I had never thought I would see another familiar face from the homeland.
[ Yet, unlike the others, Kaeya has not sustained such horrid changes. ]
I suppose you may be thinking the same.
[ 'That is, if you recognize me.', Is the implied follow-up. But he is certain the other does, based upon at least one of the reactions he has shown to him during that. ]
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I can't say I was expecting this, no.
[ An understatement, to say the least. It's a core belief that's been a foundation of his entire life - that everyone from his homeland aside from himself has suffered a fate worse than death. To have it upturned so easily...even now, he still can't put a finger on how exactly he feels about it. ]
But I'm glad to see you're looking as handsome as ever, Twilight Sword.
[ The flirting is automatic, his usual tactic of using charm as both an attack and defense, but there's something buried deeper behind the flattering words. After all, the fact that Dainsleif's appearance has remained for the most part unchanged shouldn't even be possible, for all that he knows. ]
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Regardless, it is still a far better option than confronting Kaeya in front of everyone, even if the meeting is an uneasy one. As for him, he looks just as unflappable as he appeared in the meeting with no obvious indication of appearing just as guarded as Kaeya.
When he goes on the attack, he lets the words sink in. Dainsleif is not an oblivious man, after all. ]
...Empty flattery aside, you also appear to be relatively young, despite how long ago we had once seen one another.
[ Which Dainsleif still recalls. But as time passes here, he wonders if that too will slip away. ]
But, I'll consider it a pleasant surprise, more than anything. Even if we had not the opportunity to know each other all that well. It is only unfortunate that we're meeting again, but in a place like this.
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Polite acceptance had not been his list of reactions to prepare for - and for someone who likes to plan and predict for everything as much as Kaeya does, the inscrutability is unsettling. He isn't used to feeling like his opponent holds all the cards in the deck while he's bluffing on nothing, and he can't say he particularly enjoys it. ]
Haha, I'm surprised you recognize me at all. I only came up to your knees the last time we met. How long has it been again...?
[ A pointed question, for all that Kaeya laughs it off as though it's simply casual small talk. That Dainsleif even remembers him is already curious enough, considering the erosion and corruption of the mind all their other brethren have undergone. ]
The pleasure is all mine, truly. And who knows? Perhaps it's fate that brought us together in this town.
[ Unfortunate? Hardly, at least for himself. For the first time, he's relieved to have been abducted to this strange inescapable town - better this reunion takes place here, away from Mondstadt and all the complications and prying eyes that would bring. ]
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un: retribution
Testing a firewall. At the church.
[ that's it. ]
un: retribution.
Do we have spare cloths?
[ No need to tell him he's actively bleeding on his phone from his opposite hand because his knife slipped. It's fine. He just wants to wrap it and be done with it without staining the floorboards. ]
un: AMAGIBIGDICK69
Welcome back from the dead? He can look at this whenever he's alive again.]
un: coolit
you are my hero
how on earth did you convince the good captain to wear such...unique attire?
no subject
it's the power of love, kaekae
these cards say we gotta catch fishies yeah?
but there's no fish in the boiling lake
we had to improvise
you need to catch one too? i'll trade u
( sometime after kaeya's epic sulk following diluc's death. )
[ it isn't a hard statement to make. not at all. he knows he should have. now, that is. he knows he should have relayed what he planned to do that evening, but it had been a desperate bid. it still is. outside this apartment complex, tucked into a shallow alcove, he'd deserved the earlier comments. he'd deserved the barbs, the finer point of kaeya's words. he knows.
he discards what remains of his cigarette, grinds out the ember beneath his heel. and then — he pauses, assesses. he turns, curls his hands about kaeya's. he anchors himself as much as he anchors him. kaeya's willingness to hear him had been gift enough. he'd have waited even longer to struggle with the shape of his own words as he is. ]
In the moment, I thought: if I can prevent this from happening again — [ for all that he keeps his gaze steady, he can't quite meet his eye. it's all he can do, to think of anything else. to not think of kaeya in the square. to not think of him awash with the red of his own blood, the painful angle of his fingers. but here he is. his brow knits, mouth pulling. ] If I can prevent them from attempting to finish what they started, then my actions would be worth it.
[ he glances up again, after a beat. for all that he speaks to him softly, diluc's hands hold his tightly. ]
I didn't consider how you would feel.
no subject
so he's not angry, he thinks, when he finds out about diluc's suicidal offering, though perhaps storming off to a separate apartment gave the wrong impression. he's not angry when he finally opens the door, tired of the stench of nicotine and smoke filtering through the cracks. he's not even angry at the ridiculous excuses spilling from diluc's lips, as if dying for his sake could possibly have any sort of worth or rationale in it at all. he's pretty sure anger doesn't feel like this: cold all the way through, with only the familiar bite of bitter resignation seeping in.
there does seem to be a moment when diluc grabs his hands that kaeya seems to waver just slightly, a hint of thaw in his impassive face as he glances down at the touch, weak as always to the warmth of physical reassurance. but not weak enough - and at diluc's final sentence, he instantly yanks his hands away as if from a sudden scalding fire. ]
Don't worry about it, Master Diluc. [ his tone is casual if distant, his smile polite - but he takes two steps back, putting himself out of range. ] No need to go out of your way for my account, I'm quite used to it by now.
[ it's a cruel and certainly passive aggressive statement, but he also genuinely means it, twisted as it is. how utterly repulsive, to have anyone but especially diluc take his feelings into consideration. how revolting, having anyone be aware of his feelings at all, let alone keeping them in the forefront of their mind. ]
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diluc and kaeya and kaeya and diluc, waiting in the stretch of the other's shadow for all they might later cool or thaw. he'd known from the beginning that there would be no other that might temper him, no other who might stoke the bright idealisms that boiled through his blood. with him, diluc thought he might have once done anything. with kaeya, who grew in the absence of all that diluc was, he thought perhaps they both might yet be able to. and now?
he knows this shape, this form. he knows the way it rests along a knifepoint, the soft skin at the ribs. that it stings is no surprise to him. but, it was meant to. and for all that he thinks he's deserving of it, kaeya isn't. kaeya isn't, as much as he thinks he must be and should be and (mistakenly, always) is.
diluc doesn't grab for him. he knows the distance is another way, another barrier, another wall. but, it doesn't mean that his hands don't linger in the residual warmth. it doesn't mean that his fingers don't curl in against his own palms as if to hold what remains — as if to steady himself against what kaeya will say, his gaze flicking up.
and for all that diluc attempts to piece together language, it crowds up. it trips over his teeth in the sudden onslaught of absolute refusal. kaeya can't insist on that. he won't let him. not this time. ]
You shouldn't! [ you idiot, he wants to say. you absolute moron. why do you always — he takes a breath, mouth twisting about the heat of his own assertions, but knowing it won't get him anywhere. his nails bite against the rough flesh of his palms. ] You shouldn't be.
[ why do you always get to decide for me? he wants to ask. but, he knows. he knows and so — he takes a half-step forward.
his voice comes firm and low and devastatingly sure. ]
When I came upon you like that — I would have done anything. [ wasn't it obvious by now? isn't it? look at me, he wants to say. but, he doesn't. he knows the line, where not to cross it. no matter how tempting, he knows the consequence. ] I still would.
And so, you can rebuff me. You can ignore me, you can do whatever it is you need to about it — but, how couldn't I? [ how couldn't i worry? do you think you mean that little? he takes another breath. ] What value you hold with me, you can't decide it.
no subject
of course he knows that diluc cares for him. even at their lowest, even in the deepest mires of his self-loathing when his closest companions had been a drink in one hand and a pyro vision in the other, that had never been in doubt. diluc cares for near everyone he comes across who isn't an outright monster, after all; his kindness has always blazed like a bonfire, unquelled still even after the raging storms of tragedy and betrayal swept through his life. and hasn't kaeya been taking advantage of that very same kindness since the moment they met? too clever by half even as a child, he'd recognized that desperate need to be of service and fashioned himself into the perfect companion to take shelter, parasitic tendrils latching on tight until they'd grown too much into each other to ever be separated. whatever this - this nameless all-encompassing thing that is between them, dilucandkaeya kaeyaanddiluc, he knows it's become far too uncontrollable a monster to be sent back cowering into the dark.
still, he's not going to go about making the mistake of thinking it matters. not again. diluc would lay down his life for just about anyone in mondstadt. it stings a bit, realizing he's no different - that for all of diluc's pretty words about his value, it still wasn't enough to put pause on his determination to martyr himself. ]
My apologies, but I fail to see how choosing to die does anything for me. [ and perhaps he's being a tad hypocritical here - he's fully aware that were the roles reversed, there would have been no limits to the things he would have done to keep diluc safe. but his death and diluc's death are two entirely different matters as far as he's concerned, and besides, a reckless plan that has a great chance of getting him killed is nowhere near the same as passively going to his own death like a cow walking into a slaughterhouse. ] Are you sure it's my value you're holding so highly, and not your own lust for vengeance? Because I don't recall ever asking for you to fight my battles for me.
[ another cruel barb, but truer than the rest. of course he would very much like to find out who did this to him, but he would never ask that of diluc - nor would he ask for promises of retribution or protection or sacrifice. there's only been one thing he's ever wanted from diluc, after all, and that's the promise to stay.
more fool him, for hoping he would ever listen. ]
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( right around windblume. )
if kaeya picks it up, he'll find a small package tucked underneath. wrapped in plain wax paper and done up with twine, he'll similarly discover a familiar looking ruby strung along a golden chain inside. the pitting on the links will reveal it is handmade, but the clasp lets it sit where he'd like about his throat.
there is no accompanying note, but there is diluc's usual morning correspondence on the small desk tucked at the corner of their room. he's off re-racking the maple wine this morning, it seems. he'll be busy with that if he'd like to come find him to make breakfast, but there's no mention of anything else. ]
( voice note. )
there shouldn't be any mistake who is playing it, but what might be considered surprising is how diluc managed to finally figure out how to work his phone enough to send a recording to begin with. maybe he's been watching kaeya a bit more than he's let on. ]
no subject
just kidding, it's definitely the latter. there's no surprise in diluc being a prodigy at anything he sets his mind to, but mastering the basics of technology after only six months? how did he even know the phone could record and send sound anyway? suspicious.... ]
An audio recording that isn't the sound of your pocket because you accidentally sat on your phone again? Who is this and what have you done with Diluc? [ he's only half-joking.... ]
no subject
Good question. Shall I send you another one to prove my identity?
[ so dry... ]
I'm not completely illiterate with technology, you know.
[ just mostly. ]
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un: Kujaku. this month last month WHATEVER WORKS
how have you been adjusting to the new heart? are you aware of the potential signs of organ rejection? that's my oversight, for not assuring that earlier.
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I have attached a list of common symptoms of rejection to this message.
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