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"I can do whatever it is you need," Kaeya says. "It's just a cold." Granted, it was one that had slammed into him like a Mitachurl's shield this morning, leaving him exhausted and vaguely dizzy, with a headache and a cough and a nose running so constantly that going into the next room without a handkerchief was a daring move... but he didn't have a fever.
Jean still rests the back of one hand against his forehead while she checks her own with the other. "You look terrible," she says regretfully, then draws back. "But fine. You know how there's been all that runoff around Dragonspine this summer, and the lake above Springvale keeps flooding?"
Kaeya nods.
"There's a massive storm incoming, and the lake is already overflowing," Jean says. "We need a flood wall. Albedo's too far up Dragonspine for a runner to get to him in time, and Eula is out in Stormterror's Lair. I thought about asking Noelle or Diona, but-"
"They're children-" Even just raising his voice slightly is enough to launch him into a violent fit of coughing, which he muffles into his arm. "Excuse me. But they're children, Noelle doesn't have the skills to create strong enough Geo constructs, and Diona isn't even affiliated with the Knights." He clears his throat. "I can freeze off enough water for a flood wall. Easy enough."
"You're ill," Jean says, checking his temperature again, as if it would have made some dramatic shift in less than a minute.
"You're making it sound like I'm dying," Kaeya says.
"You sound like you're dying," Jean says.
"I'm sure it sounds worse than it is," he tells her. "Really. It's just a cold."
"You're going on bed rest when you're done with this."
They'll see about that, but Kaeya just nods. "I'll get it done," he promises.
Jean shakes her head. "Take care of yourself," she says.
"Of course," Kaeya replies, stuffing his pockets with handkerchiefs. "When have I not?"
"You sure you want to have that discussion?" Jean asks him, eyebrows raised. "Please, Kaeya."
"I'll be fine," he says, putting on his best smile. It seems to win her over, at least enough to get her to stop staring at him and leave his office. He lets his shoulders drop with relief and rubs at his temples. This is not going to be pleasant.
---
It is miserable. The rain is falling in nearly horizontal sheets that render umbrellas useless and immediately soak through Kaeya's clothes. His handkerchiefs are already damp before he can even remove them from his pocket, leaving him struggling to keep his face from ending up a mess from a nose that won't stop running. His head throbs in pain constantly, with a particularly harsh throb every time thunder booms.
There's no one else who can do this. He's the only thing standing between Springvale and enough flooding to kill crops or even destroy homes.
It would be quite a bit easier to hype himself up if his nose wasn't chafing from the constant rubbing.
Finally, drenched and shivering, Kaeya arrives at Springvale. He trudges up the path, thick mud tugging at his boots. When he glimpses movement up ahead, he pauses and forces himself to cough again, hoping that will hold him over for the time it will take to get this done. It's a noticeably wetter cough than it was before, but everything about him is wetter now, so what's one more thing?
Jean's threat about bed rest seems considerably less like a threat.
He scrubs at his nose with one last handkerchief, sniffles hard, and proceeds forward. The motion he was seeing turns out to be a few villagers with sandbags. There are not enough sandbags to make a particularly meaningful difference here, but at least they were trying something.
And- oh. Diluc is here with them. Of course he is, he treats Springvale like it's part of his own property in cases like this, but Kaeya wasn't expecting to have to waste energy dealing with him today.
It doesn't change anything. Kaeya clears his throat until he can produce sound. "It's all right, everyone. Stand back. I'm going to handle this."
Diluc turns on his heel in a motion that is frankly too elegant for this amount of rain and mud. "What are you doing?" he asks.
"Dealing with this," Kaeya says, waving his hand at the lake. Does he really need to spell this out? "Unless you want to be part of the flood wall, you'll want to move away from the lake, Luc." Oops.
Diluc seems to miss the slip, at least. "You look like you're about to pass out."
"Do you want to be part of the flood wall?" Kaeya asks. He really doesn't need this right now. "Honestly, Diluc, I know you overheat in the summer, but I didn't think it was quite that bad."
"Shut up," Diluc grumbles, walking away. Good.
Kaeya walks closer to the lake edge, instead. The water level is already noticeably higher than it should be--much of the shrubbery is drowning. He'll need to make this quick.
It's easy to freeze water in place. What's going to be difficult, particularly with this headache, is shaping the ice. But he knows how to do this. He just needs to concentrate.
He slips into elemental sight. Hydro everywhere, thickest in the lake. He grips the hilt of his sword. His Vision pulses and shivers, and Cryo flows through him, through his sword, through the air, freezing droplets of rain as it reaches the lake.
Freezing over all of this will take energy he does not have. He just needs the borders, and he can skip those in the places where the cliffs are tall enough...
Archons, it's cold...
Kaeya's concentration wavers as wracking coughs shake through him. He feels his legs buckle, and he falls for a tiny fraction of a second--and then something is supporting him, taking most of his weight. He doesn't dare shift his focus enough to see what it is or he's not going to finish.
Forming crystals out of Cryo, pulling them toward the shore and up over the rest, forming walls... thickening them, so they'll stand up to enough water...
Someone shakes him by the shoulders. "Kaeya. Kaeya, that's enough."
Is it?
Kaeya drops his elemental sight, but everything is blurred and gray. He blinks and tries to draw up his elemental sight again--but he can't. It's too much.
"It's okay, Kae. Let go."
He trusts this voice, he thinks. He lets his sword fall from his hand. A moment later, consciousness falls away, too.
---
"Well, you've seen him. Now leave."
"I need to take him back for treatment. He's-"
"You think I'm going to entrust his care to you?"
"When you make a show out of how much you hate him?"
"You sent him out alone, like this, in this weather-"
Kaeya manages to open his eyes just slightly. "What..." He bursts into a fit of coughing that rattles in his chest. Someone props him up and rubs his back. Someone warm, and he leans into them, shivering, even after the coughing tapers off.
"Do you want some water?"
Kaeya blinks. He realizes the question was directed at him after his foggy mind has already forgotten what it was. And anyway, it doesn't matter, there was... he was... "Springvale?" He was doing something in Springvale...
"It's fine. No flooding. Kaeya, please..."
He did his job. That's good. He burrows closer to the warmth next to him and immediately goes back to sleep.
---
The next time that Kaeya opens his eyes, his surroundings are a little clearer. He's in Father's room, tucked into Father's bed, covered in warm blankets. Like Father does when he's really and truly worried about one of them.
But...
Father... is dead.
Father's room shouldn't... be like this, should it? And Kaeya doesn't live here, anymore...
He must be dreaming, he supposes. It's not a great dream. His entire body aches, with particular pressure throbbing behind his eyes. But he feels warm and safe.
"Kaeya. You're awake." Someone sits him up. Someone with blazing red hair, someone-
"Father?" Kaeya asks, voice coming out a hoarse croak. A cool hand rests against his forehead, and he leans into the familiar touch. Work-callused skin, but gentle, careful, like he's something soft enough to be worth the caution...
Father takes a shuddering breath. "Drink this."
Before Kaeya has the chance to question it, a glass is held to his lips. The liquid inside is clear, but it's bitter, and he grimaces and tries to shift away.
"I know. It's medicine. You'll feel better afterwards."
Kaeya nods reluctantly and slowly drinks. He manages to get about halfway through the glass before the need to cough hits him square in the chest. He gasps and hacks and shudders as the pounding in his skull intensifies. Everything hurts. Involuntary tears spring to his eyes.
"It's okay, Kae. You're going to be okay."
There's an edge to that voice that isn't quite right--at least not if it's Father. As his body stops shaking, he blinks and squints. "You're... Luc," he says, hoarse and breathless.
"I am," Diluc says. "I'm sorry. Finish the medicine."
Kaeya blinks again. "But this is... Father's room." This jaded, tired Diluc cannot exist in the same world as Father's comfortable, safe bedroom.
"Drink," Diluc insists.
Kaeya supposes it's not worth trying to understand when he's so tired. He sips at the drink, still unpleasantly bitter, until it's all gone.
"Do you think you can eat something?" Diluc asks.
Kaeya can't think that far. "Tired..."
Diluc lays Kaeya down. "That's all right." He brushes the hair away from Kaeya's forehead. "We'll try again later."
Kaeya nods and closes his eyes.
---
Things are better the next time Kaeya wakes. The aching has faded back considerably, and he feels much more awake.
Awake enough to be entirely certain he's in Father's old bedroom. Exactly the same as he remembers it, almost as if it had been frozen in Cryo until mere moments ago.
And Diluc is there, too. And not some ghost of his teenage self, but the same Diluc who no longer owns a single article of clothing that isn't suitable for a funeral. He's sitting in a chair next to the bed, reading something, a faint smile on his face.
Kaeya really doesn't want to disrupt him, but his body doesn't care what he wants. He coughs into his arm, and Diluc immediately looks over at him. Kaeya tries for his usual smiling mask, but he thinks he falls short of the mark.
"At least you're well enough to try to fake it," Diluc grumbles, setting his book aside and checking Kaeya's temperature. "Though, honestly, Kaeya. What were you thinking, going out in that storm with the flu?"
This is unfair. Kaeya's thoughts are clearer, but it still feels like swimming through mud to get from one to the other. "There was no one else who could do it," he says, displeased to hear how hoarse he is. "And... it was just a cold. No fever."
"You have a Cryo Vision," Diluc says. "You're supposed to run colder than everyone else. Did you take that into account?"
Kaeya stares at him.
"Of course you didn't." Diluc sighs. "You idiot." Despite his words, he sounds more fond than angry, once again brushing the hair from Kaeya's face. "There's more medicine. And Adelinde made soup for you. You're going to eat this time." He sits Kaeya up.
This time, Kaeya is lucid enough to take the glass on his own, though he finds his hand shakes when he holds it. He grips it with his other hand, too, and carefully drinks. "I apologize for... imposing on your hospitality?" He's not sure whether this is the appropriate phrase. Just sitting up is eating away at his energy, and that's not making thinking any easier.
"It's fine," Diluc says. "I wasn't going to send you back to the Knights when they got you into this mess."
"I'm... a Knight," Kaeya complains faintly.
"If you think you're going somewhere, feel free," Diluc replies.
Kaeya frowns down into his glass. "I don't... understand," he says. He still can't wrap his head around all of it. Diluc being so gentle and looking so tired at the same time, grousing about Kaeya and the Knights being stupid while stroking Kaeya's hair. This perfectly preserved room with Kaeya sweating all over the sheets, drooling on the pillow because he can't breathe through his nose. He shouldn't be here. More than that: this moment can't exist.
"It doesn't matter," Diluc says. "Just take your medicine."
"Am I dying?" Kaeya presses.
Diluc sighs. "No. Just ill." He presses a finger against the glass, pushing it slightly closer to Kaeya's mouth. "Do you really feel up to having this conversation right now?"
...No. No, he doesn't. Kaeya returns to the bitter medicine.
After he's finished with the medicine, Diluc gives him a bowl of soup, and watches him pick at it far too intently until he seems to realize what he's doing and looks at the wall. "I didn't want to touch Father's room," he says. "That's why it still looks like this. If that answers one of your questions."
Kaeya... doesn't know how to respond to that.
"If you really can't stomach more, I suppose that's fine," Diluc says. "You need rest more than anything."
Kaeya nods, and lets Diluc settle him back into bed.
---
"First you won't let me take him back to Headquarters, and now you're insisting that I have to do it?"
"You are both legally and morally obligated to maintain the health of-"
"Did you have an argument or something?"
"No, I just- He'll be happier with you. With people he trusts."
"Diluc, what happened?"
Kaeya struggles to get his hands under himself, trying to push himself up. "I can hear you," he croaks out.
"Oh!"
Suddenly there's an arm behind him, helping him sit and stuffing pillows behind him. Jean is, of course, all business even with these sorts of things.
Kaeya doesn't know why she's here at all. Surely she has more important things to do than come check on him personally. None of this makes any sense.
"You were... fighting," he says. He's not really in any shape to mediate, but maybe if he looks tired enough they'll settle whatever it was out of sheer guilt. It did sound like it was about him.
"Sorry," Jean says. "We didn't mean to wake you." She shakes her head. "You really are doing poorly..." She glances over at Diluc. "I don't think it would be wise to move him."
"I've been informed I'm not dying," Kaeya says. "So... so... I can leave, if that would be better." He doesn't make any move to actually do so. It sounds terrible. But he could.
"It's still raining," Jean says.
"Do I need to fix-"
"No," Diluc and Jean say in unison.
Kaeya stares at them, uncomprehending.
Diluc sighs, resting a hand against Kaeya's forehead. "You're right, Jean," he says. "He shouldn't be moved."
"I'm right here," Kaeya mumbles. "And I... really can go, if it's... better...?"
"Kaeya," Jean says. "Please let us take care of you."
"Why?" Kaeya asks. He can't quite convince himself to do what he should--pull away from Diluc's hand and sit up straight, at the very least. But he forces his eyes open a little wider, dragging what alertness he can out of the depths.
Jean gives Diluc an extremely frustrated look before turning back to Kaeya. "Because we care about you," she says. "And we're worried. And it will make us happy to know that you're safe. Why do you think Diluc insisted on dragging you here?"
Kaeya has no idea, actually.
And then Diluc is... blushing? "I just wanted to ensure that you got the best care possible," he says.
"Because he was worried about you," Jean says. "Worried enough that he wanted to take care of it personally."
"I can hardly trust the Knights of Favonius to take care of someone ill," Diluc says. "You thought it would be fine to let a sick man go out in that storm-" He gestures at Jean. "-and you went without a second thought," he finishes with his eyes on Kaeya.
That's... not a denial.
That... might make it make sense, that he's in Father's bed, even though this room is kept like a shrine. Because that's... where Father put them when they were sick enough that he was worried. And Diluc is worried, and... that means that... he doesn't hate Kaeya, after all...?
"You made him cry," Diluc says, wiping tears away from Kaeya's cheek. "Jean, I told you-"
Kaeya is too tired, too overwhelmed, too sick to fight the need for comfort. He rests his head on Diluc's shoulder and sobs.
And the strangest thing happens: warm arms wrap around him and draw him closer.
Feverish and exhausted, he's dozing off before the tears even stop. The last clear thing he hears before sleeping is Diluc, grumbling: "I didn't even get him to eat."
---
So Kaeya stays at the Winery, tucked into Father's bed. Most of the time, he sleeps. When he's awake, Diluc is always there: reading in a chair, changing out cold compresses, coaxing Kaeya into taking another dose of medicine or eating something or drinking a glass of wolfhook juice. They don't talk about what it means, or how things are going to be later. There's just a silent understanding. In some ways, that's better.
There's only one moment of uncertainty.
The flush of a fever doesn't show on Kaeya's face until it's well and truly set in, but Diluc's complexion is paler than buttercream frosting. It's impossible to miss the red splotches on his cheeks. Even if it were possible, though, Kaeya is very familiar with the way his own cough rattles in his chest, and he can recognize it coming from someone else.
His own fever still hasn't broken. He's not ready to talk about it, not for real, but:
"Luc," Kaeya says. "Come to bed."
Diluc's expression is impossible to read.
Still.
"Come to bed," Kaeya repeats. "You're exhausted." He shifts over to make sure there's enough room.
"I don't want to hear that from you," Diluc mumbles--but he crawls under the covers all the same.