Archive of Our Own ^beta

Weird things happen sometimes when with the traveler, Diluc knew. He shouldn't be surprised that they were in a random domain, seemingly showing their friends things they needed to see… 

For Kaveh, they'd shown his roommates' thoughts, revealing the man actually did care about him. A lot. 

For Xingqiu and Chongyun, they'd shown each other's thoughts, showing them that yes, they both had a crush on the other, and yes, they both wanted to be together. 

He really shouldn't have been surprised to be thrown into Kaeya's memories. The first glimpse he saw was the first time he and Kaeya met. His thoughts had obviously been translated, considering he could understand them. 

He remembered the day, he'd caught a glimpse as his father led Kaeya in the house, but the maid that Adelinde had asked to help him get ready for bed led him away. He'd snuck into the bedroom that Kaeya was in early the next morning. 

Kaeya's thoughts had started with a bit of fear, but quickly through Diluc trying to figure out how to communicate with him he grew relaxed. Hopeful. By the time his father came to check on the boy, he'd learned Kaeya's name and gotten him to say his own. That started his journey of teaching Kaeya the language in Mondstadt. 

As the traveler worked through the puzzles, there were little glimpses showing Kaeya falling harder and harder for him. He felt dread growing in the pit of his stomach.

The next big scene was when Lisa had first come to Mondstadt, taking the position as Librarian. Diluc had been busy that day, and Kaeya had offered to help her move in. They saw one of the books drop, and Kaeya picked it up when he was distracted by something on the page. 

Elemental overload. 

Elemental overload is a thing that can happen in times of strong grief. Very few cases have been documented, but we do know of the signs in those. 

A vision holder can get so far into grief that they lose hold of themselves, potentially eventually losing hold of their physical body. Elemental Overload is the process that can lead to this. 

-

Signs to look for.

Quickly pulsing vision, letting out elemental energy without consciously trying to. 

Uncontrolled emotions, tending to be anger instead of sadness. 

If you're able to use elemental sight, their elemental aura will go haywire. It will seem to expand, but pulse with the vision. Can also obstruct the person, leading to an illusion of a monster. 

Especially common in pyro users. 

Lisa looked over, seeing him reading the passage. "Something catch your attention?" 

"Oh, it just fell open to a page on Elemental overload? I'd never heard of it…" 

"Oh yes, it's a difficult situation, from what I know. I've never personally dealt with it, though we did do a case study back at the Akademiya. A little under 500 years ago, a woman had come from Mondstadt to study at the Akademiya, leading to her and her lover having a long distance relationship. Some fights had broken out, and her lover was killed. She was so racked with grief that she turned into basically a pure pyro elemental being, burning her way through monsters. No one knows exactly what happened to her, she eventually just disappeared. But for a while…" 

The two spoke a bit more as he helped Lisa shelve the books, but they were soon moving on. 

The next memory was the day of his birthday. He'd taken the day off, but Kaeya had gone to work, letting him and his dad have some time just the two of them. They saw him kiss Kaeya off, but he was surprised by the man stopping by Lisa's office before anything else. 

"Oh, hello Kaeya." 

"Lisa! Do you have the potion ready yet?" 

She nodded. "It's right here. You just need to pee in this and mix it through. If it stays yellow, it's no. If it turns red, it's yes." 

She handed him a vial with a clear liquid in it. He gave her a small smile, thanking her. 

Soon they cut to Kaeya washing his hands, looking at the Vial in the bathroom off what used to be Diluc's office. He seemed nervous, but excited, and soon sat down to wait. After a few minutes he looked again. It was red. 

"Holy fuck, I'm actually pregnant. Diluc and I are gonna have a kid." He laughed a bit to himself. "Crepus will be so excited, I really hope Diluc will be, too…" 

The traveler looked over at him, worriedly, and Diluc knew he was getting pale. What was about to happen?

Soon they cut to Kaeya and the group of knights arriving, too late, to see Crepus dead. Kaeya had led him back to the winery, crying himself, and Diluc remembered refusing to go inside. He couldn't. So Kaeya had sat him under a covered area, and gone in to get him some water, and something else to put into his stomach. 

He realized Kaeya never came out with them, as he watched the man hurriedly filling the glass and making a sandwich. But as he composed himself, he caught a glimpse of Diluc out the window. Of the vision pulsing. I… I hate using this, but I have to… Diluc realized Kaeya was using elemental sight. His aura was exactly what the book has said. 

"Fuck!" The book… That book said the only way to stop it was to shock the person to their core… I… what do I do? I… It's Diluc… the only thing that would truly shock him this fast… if I betrayed him… 

Kaeya gave himself only a second to throw together the honestly flimsy story. 

He watched himself get furious at Kaeya, but his Aura seemed to calm, his vision just matching his own energy then. They watched him hurt Kaeya, Kaeya receiving his vision, leading to him telling Kaeya to go, not to come back. Kaeya looking at the sky, his thoughts begging everything to be okay… soon a knight had come to check in on the situation, and saw Kaeya. He lifted him, hurrying to bring him to the cathedral. 

Diluc watched, not knowing what his expression must have been like, as Kaeya was checked over, everything in a blur as if Kaeya was only partially conscious. Then it showed him as he laid awake and Jean's father stepped in, looking sad. 

"I've… They're gone, aren't they…" The man nodded, apologizing, and Kaeya wept. Diluc was pretty sure he himself was crying, too. 

When Jean and Varka came to him, to ask him the situation, he told them everything. That Diluc had been about to lose himself to overload, that he remembered the only way to stop it from happening is to shock someone. What he'd claimed to be. Then he told them the truth of where he'd come from. 

"I… I'm not sure if you've heard of Khaenri'ah. It's been destroyed for around 500 years now. But that's where my family came from. We were one of the few families that survived the incident that wiped it out. My… My family had actually taken power a few weeks before the end, but they were too late to fix things. Apparently there's some kind of prophecy, that I'm a part of? That I'm the last hope. I don't know what it means, but my mother decided it meant I needed to be sacrificed. That's why my father brought me here, to Mondstadt." 

"Okay. You've been and will still be under our protection." Seeing the slightly confused look Kaeya shot him, Varka continued. "Let's be real, If you did betray Mondstadt, I would have no choice but to strike you down. But Kaeya, I've known you for years. We've all known you for years. I don't think you'd do that. And if Diluc was able to think clearly about it, I know he'd agree." 

Jean nodded. "Plus you've had opportunities that you would've taken if that was your actual goal." 

"Exactly. I mean, you turned me down when I offered you the role of Cavalry captain before it went to Diluc. You'd have been more than able to fight your way into power, but you didn't." 

Diluc blinked at that. Kaeya had never told him that, no one had. 

"I… I couldn't do that to Diluc, anyways… He'd been aiming for it for years, trying to make his father proud…" Kaeya had tears down his face, but he ignored them. "I really thought things would go differently today… that by now, I would've told him I was pregnant and we hopefully would've been having a bit of a celebration…" Kaeya scrubbed at his face. 

The three spoke a bit more, but the memory started fading away. Diluc remembers that Kaeya wasn't around the bit before he finally decided he needed to leave, but he hadn't asked back then. He wondered how long he was hospitalized… 

Soon the memories went quickly through Kaeya being told Diluc had left the knights, and seemed to be planning on leaving. Him being offered the position of Cavalry captain. The Eroch investigation, him finding out what the man had done. 

He'd been told that Varka let Jean take care of the man as she saw fit, but no one told him that she let Kaeya decide. It was the first time Diluc had seen Kaeya that angry, the first time he had watched Kaeya kill someone. (He did not want to acknowledge that he was a bit turned on by it, not at all.) 

They watched as Lisa and Jean surprised him with a small headstone, right close to Crepus'. He'd noticed it, but never thought of it. It was a small thing, no name, no body. Just a year and a poem, expressing hope for a better future. He'd thought one of his father's friends or business partners had put it there, but now? Now it had much more meaning. 

He was surprised when they reached the end, and saw Kaeya looking at Diluc. It was still a memory, though Diluc realized it was just a few days before he'd set off on this trip with the Traveler. Kaeya was looking at him, and his thoughts were sounding out over the noise of the tavern. 

"I wish he still loved me. Even after everything… there's never been anyone else. Any time I even think about it, he's back in my mind." 

When they were finally out of the domain, the traveler and Paimon asked him if he was okay. The only reply he could give was "I need to talk to Kaeya. As soon as possible." 

–

The Traveler managed to convince him to let them warn Kaeya of the situation first, so that he knew what conversation he was getting into. That just meant though, that they had to figure out how to tell him. When they got to the Knights headquarters and asked to talk to Kaeya, they were led to his office. It was the first time they'd seen it, and they were surprised by how cozy it was. 

The office was at the corner of the building, letting Kaeya place his desk where he'd have a nice view out the window. There was a couch across from it, and surprisingly a few desks against one of the walls. If they looked, they could notice that one of them seemed to be Amber's, another seemed to be set up for Klee to draw. The last one seemed to be more flexible with who used it, but it was obviously something that was commonly used. Amber having a desk somewhere made enough sense, as while she wouldn't need a permanent office, she'd need somewhere to have the option for any paperwork she needed to do. 

"Oh, Traveler. Come on in. What brings you here?" 

They sighed. "There was something that happened in a domain on the trip we just got back from, that I wanted to talk about." 

Kaeya blinked. "And it has something to do with me, I'd assume. If it didn't, and you were just curious on how you'd have gone to Lisa or Albedo. So… it has to be something with either me, or…" He didn't speak the word, though they knew what he was getting at. Khaenri'ah. 

"So, sometimes there will be domains we come across that have to do with the people we're with. Like when we went to the golden apple archipelago this last summer, there was a whole island for each of the friends we were with. This, I'd guess, is similar, but…" 

They sighed. "It was more to show them something they needed to see. One of the guys we were with was shown that his roommate actually does like him, and probably is even in love with him? The other two both had crushes on eachother, and it was showing them that they both did like each other. Diluc's…" 

Kaeya paled a bit. "I'd… I'd assume it was about the two of us." 

The traveler nodded. "It was definitely the longest, and the most intense. It was like being guided through your memories, really." They explained the parts they saw, but didn't go into too much detail, knowing Kaeya had a hard conversation about it all already coming up. "Diluc… Diluc is devastated. I've never seen him cry before this." 

Kaeya nodded, his body still frozen. He was clutching the pen he had been using tightly. "I… I'd be a little worried if he hadn't, honestly. That's… You guys just watched my biggest trauma's in less than a day. If that hadn't affected him… If that hadn't affected him I'd have to assume that everything was for nothing. That it didn't work, and he still wasn't…" 

They came over and hugged him. They could tell it surprised him, but he sagged into the hug, letting himself cry a bit and calm down. After a while, he pulled away, steeling his face. 

"So is he wanting to talk right now?" 

They nodded. "Paimon is distracting him. I think they went up to the graveyard behind the church." 

Kaeya nodded. "Okay. Let me warn Jean that I've got to go, and then we'll go find him."

After a quick discussion with Jean where Kaeya assured her he'd tell her and Lisa what was going on afterwards, the two were off. It obviously didn't take long for them to reach them. Kaeya couldn't help but be a bit surprised though seeing Diluc focused on the small stone next to Crepus' much larger one. 

He looked up as he heard them approach, and Kaeya kneeled down next to him. 

"I… I never knew what this was. I just… assumed someone who knew my father wanted to do something…" 

Kaeya sighed. "Jean and Lisa had it made. There were a few things they had said, but one was that he'd have wanted to be around his grandchild if at all possible." 

Diluc nodded. "He really would've. On some of the worst days I've had I've had to mourn never seeing him as a grandfather. On worse days than that…. I've had to mourn never having kids with you. Never marrying you…" 

Kaeya looked up, past the graves, over the wall. "I had to decide quickly. Risk you hating me forever, but you still be alive? Or to lose you completely. I… I wouldn't have chosen differently, no matter the pain. I'd rather live in a world with you in it, than lose you like that…" 

Diluc didn't say anything, not knowing what to say to that. Because honestly? He was still just wishing that that day had never happened. That they could go back in time and find a way to have not been there that day. 

Kaeya laid a hand on his shoulder. "We can't change anything. But we can move forward. We can live like they would've wanted us to… maybe even try and find that happiness we were hoping for?" 

Kaeya sounded a little shy, and Diluc couldn't help but smile. "I'd like that… We'll probably have to learn to communicate with each other again, but…" 

"But for another chance to have you in my life?" The two smiled at each other. 

The Traveler and Paimon also smiled at each other and left, leaving the two to themselves. 

–

They had lasted. They had made it last. Just before the last battle of the war that had broken out, they had gotten married. They wanted to make sure their friends were there, that Kaeya was still there. They needed to be married before the end just in case one or both of them didn't make it. Luckily they both had survived, and thanks to some last minute revelations the casualties were minimal. 

The first few months afterwards all of the nations were swamped trying to help the Sneznayan refugees settle in. They'd luckily managed to evacuate them before the Tsaritsa sacrificed herself and the nation, letting the traveler and their sibling finish Celestia off. But that just meant Kaeya and the knights were very busy dealing with those that ended up in Mondstadt. 

Things did eventually settle down, though, leading to Kaeya and Diluc being able to spend more time together again. Diluc remembered the day that things were finally calming, he knew it right away when Kaeya came into the tavern with Jean, Lisa, Eula, Aether, and Albedo. The captains were the busiest ones through all this, obviously, and so seeing them all able to take some time off together confirmed to Diluc that things were calming down. 

Luckily Charles was also working that night, so Diluc had gone over to them, obviously to take their orders, but mostly to chat for a bit. He was pleasantly surprised when Kaeya immediately pulled him in for a kiss, but they smiled at each other when they broke apart. 

"Oh, get a room!" Eula joked, actually smiling at the two of them. She'd mellowed out a bit, and by now the people had more than accepted her presence. Her family? Not so much, but she was more amused by that than anything. 

Diluc chuckled. "This is our Tavern, we can kiss if we want to." 

"I for one think it's cute." Lisa giggled, and Jean nodded next to her. 

"It's a nice reminder that no matter what is thrown at us, some things can't be taken." The group agreed. 

"Amber volunteer for Klee duty?" 

Eula nodded. "She wanted to give those two some time alone." She gestured at Aether and Albedo, the former of which was blushing. 

Kaeya laughed. "I think it's nice. I'm really happy that we're all still here, and able to watch everyone find their own happy." 

The group agreed, and Diluc pulled Kaeya closer in his side. 

That night, after everyone had gone home, Kaeya was cuddling with his head in Diluc's lap. 

"Luc?" Diluc hummed. "What… what do you think about starting to try and have a baby?" 

Diluc froze, but forced himself to recover quickly. "If you're ready, I'm ready." 

Kaeya grinned, sitting up and kissing him. "The only reason I wasn't ready by time we moved back in together was the situation we knew would come. We've gotten past it. There's nothing stopping us now." 

Diluc laid his hands on Kaeya's hips, his thumbs resting on his stomach. "You're sure? Even after…" 

Kaeya grabbed his face. "Diluc, I want to have your baby. Potentially more than one, though we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves." 

Diluc didn't bother replying, he just moved one of his hands up to pull Kaeya into a kiss. When they pulled apart he smiled at his husband. 

"Let's have a baby." 

The next time they went together to Crepus' grave was when they confirmed Kaeya was pregnant again.