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It’d been a week and five days.
One week of being stuck in a cell, beaten to within an inch of consciousness. Beaten until his eyes were blurred with tears and blood, until the taste of iron was as familiar as the wheeze of his lungs. Beaten until he didn’t have the strength to lift himself out of the pool of his own sick and spit. They’d forced water down his throat every two days. No food, though. His stomach had been growling for the first three days until it eventually stopped. Now it just ached. Even when he had been retching and gagging, nothing came up.
Apparently, they figured out beating him wasn’t going to work, because they switched tactics after that. He’d been strung up by his wrists, stripped of his shirt, and left kneeling on hot stone in the sun. That was where he was currently, knees still pressed to hot stone and arms spread out to either side of him in the middle of the camp. During the day, he practically baked like the pastries Barbara and Klee sometimes made. At night, he froze half to death, just to thaw out the next morning and do it all over again.
They didn’t stop the questioning, either. He was just in a different spot and a different state. His weapons were gone, his Vision was three feet from him in a spot where he could see it but not reach it, and he probably wouldn’t be able to move even if he was free.
His spine hurt. Badly. There were knife wounds across his shoulders, scabbed up and sunburned and probably infected. Barbara and the other medical staff were going to have a field day with him once he got back.
He would get back.
He knew it full well. As soon as a week had passed and he hadn’t checked back, Jean probably sent out patrols to look for him. Sure, he would be late sometimes, but he was never late without at least a letter. He always figured out a way to send something. Beyond her, Diluc claimed to hate him, but he wouldn’t let Kaeya die whether that was true or not. He couldn’t lose half of his paycheck.
Shaking, Kaeya shut his eyes and dropped his head. He’d been looking at his Vision for the past hour, hoping that there was some way for it to just…teleport to his hand. Maybe he was just hallucinating from the exposure. Curling his fingers where they were shackled, he shifted how he was sitting. The wire cut into his wrists.
It could have been worse. He’d seen the fences used for livestock, and the barbs on the wire to try and keep the sheep in and predators out. Had it been barbed wire, he would have been lucky to get away with the use of his hands at all. As it was, he still had wire cutting into his hands. It still hurt. It just wasn’t as bad as it could be.
For that, he was grateful.
He just also wanted to be home, which he imagined any of the Archons would find it difficult to blame him for. He had no worries about Venti—well, the God of Freedom, but he knew which name he preferred. It was hardly his place to question why Venti went by such a name.
When he coughed, Kaeya felt more iron and copper join the familiar taste in his mouth. Shoulders shaking, he slumped forward. His wrists screamed. He could feel the wire scissoring deeper into his skin. Weakly, he coughed again. It didn’t clear his throat very much. A wheeze left his lungs.
His chest and ribs hurt.
Diluc was going to kill him when he got back. They had just started talking civilly again, after actual years. When Kaeya had taken this commission, he had promised Diluc he would come back. He’d show up at the Angel’s Share. They had—he couldn’t even remember what plans they had.
Maybe he was concussed. His jaw ached. It’d been hit multiple times due to his snarking his interrogators and playing dumb when they spoke in Khaenri’ahn. If it were broken, well…he wouldn’t be that surprised. His interrogators weren’t exactly kind. After all, what drove someone to leave another sitting under hot sun and freezing cold wind for days on end?
Honestly, Kaeya didn’t even know how Diluc was going to act.
Either he wasn’t surprised that Kaeya hadn’t shown up to their meeting, or he was already looking for him.
Coughing, Kaeya squeezed his eyes shut.
There was blood in his chest. He had seen the same thing happen in multiple cases, and he’d held the same poor folk’s hands as Barbara and Albedo cared for them. It was one of the worst privileges that the Ordo could possibly have. He’d comforted dying people—civilians and soldiers both. There’d been a few times where the fight had just been too deadly, the victims had lost too much blood, and Kaeya would send the younger Knights along to continue the fight while he stayed behind to give what little comfort he could.
He knew how to identify what it sounded like when someone’s lungs were filling with blood. At least, he knew what fluid sounded like, and guessed from the taste in his mouth at what it might be. Broken ribs, possibly a collapsed lung…Barbara was going to have a field day when it came to treating him back at home.
He and Diluc would definitely have to put a raincheck on their plans to talk again.
Maybe they could chat while Kaeya was stuck in the Cathedral.
His sternum hurt, pain radiating up his shoulder to his throat.
Groaning, he took a slow breath. Okay, Kaeya. Just hold on a little bit longer. Honestly, Diluc’s probably making his way over right now. Probably has some informant or something sending in fake information? Who knows. I’m sure he’s got this handled, though.
More than I do, anyways. He left his head hanging. After hanging so long by his wrists, he had managed to figure out how to sleep that way. Not well. If he had to guess, he was severely sleep-deprived and was going to spend half his recovery time just recovering lost sleep. It was more of a doze than it was actual sleep.
Still, all he could do was wait.
+
Time passed.
He could guess roughly how much. A couple hours. His skin still burned, but not as much as when the sun was beating directly down on him. Deeper in the cavern, there were footsteps. He recognized them.
They weren’t those of his captors.
Groaning, he moved to crack his eyes open. They just did. All around him, the white stone that he’d been sitting on for days now was beginning to turn purplish in the dusky sunset light coming from above his head. The wires were still cutting into his skin. Some of the wounds on his back had cracked while he was asleep, stinging and weeping blood on his skin.
Louder footsteps approached. One of his kidnappers. Eventually, boots came into his limited view. The smell of cooked meat wafted over him. “Heard you liked jerky. If you give us some information, I’ll give you a little bit.”
They’d feed him eventually, anyways, unless they wanted him to die. But damn, maybe he was just hypoglycemic. As much as he hated to admit it, he was pretty close to losing his nerve.
He didn’t.
Letting his head hang still, Kaeya closed his eyes when the bowl was placed in front of him. It was fried bacon. Right in front of me? Nice interrogation technique, I’ll admit that. Almost makes me not want to hate you right now.
The other, quieter footsteps approached. In front of Kaeya, his captor noticed. Suddenly, he was behind Kaeya. The familiar sound of a sword being dragged from its sheath rang across the cavern. Metal flashed in the corner of his vision. “Your allies are dead. Release the Cavalry Captain now, or you will join them.” Diluc ordered. Beside him, Kaeya’s captor hummed.
Fingers curled in his hair and ripped his head back, forcing Kaeya to look at the people meant to rescue him.
Pain shot through his ribs and down his stomach. Wincing, he stared down at them. His gaze met Diluc’s. Red eyes narrowed. Yeah. Can’t imagine this is pleasant. His eyes darted over the others. He could see Amber, and Jean, and Lisa. Paimon and Aether. Shaking, Kaeya gritted his teeth and did his best to flash a grin at them all.
“Hey. Nice to have some company—these guys aren’t—” Kaeya was forcefully cut off by the man punching him in the stomach. Gasping, he doubled over as much as he could. The wire tore at his skin. If he’d had any food, it would have made a return performance then and there. It was made worse by the fact that the bacon was sitting right there.
I’m taking that bacon with me when we get out of here.
And he was taking the bowl, too! His now, they owed him because they kidnapped him, he deserved a souvenir to look at while he was forced to sit there and do nothing while recovering. He didn’t even care if it had poison on it.
Dimly, he realized that his captor was still talking to him. Or, above him? Something.
Gasping, Kaeya pulled himself upright. There was blood running down his wrists now. Gritting his teeth, he sucked in a breath. There was copper in his mouth. Maybe he’d bitten his tongue, but he had a feeling there was another problem going on. Perfect. Just perfect.
Lisa was fiddling with a book in her hands, eyes narrowed as she studied the man standing next to him. I have a feeling this is going to end poorly for him. Should I warn him? He paused for a second. Nah. It’ll be funny. And he kind of deserves it. He studied the others, their expressions. Diluc was as filled with emotion as ever. Jean and Amber both had the same determined expression, and the Traveler was standing in front of Paimon. Or, more accurately, Paimon was hiding behind Aether.
The man standing above him struck him across the back. His shoulders split with pain. Gasping, he met Diluc’s gaze. Something in his eyes changed. Disappointment? Fear? He didn’t really know.
Everything went white, Kaeya’s head dropped forward, and he knew nothing more.
+
When he woke up, Diluc was sitting right next to him, he was lying in a bed in the Cathedral infirmary, and he was holding the bowl that Kaeya had planned on grabbing for himself.
“Hey.” Kaeya croaked out. Nodding at the bowl, he asked, “Any chance there’s still bacon left in there?”
Wordlessly, Diluc helped him up and handed him the bowl of bacon. When Kaeya offered him a strip, he held up a hand and then settled back in his chair. Both of them were quiet for a little while, Diluc allowing Kaeya to eat without the pressure of conversation weighing him down. It was a small grace. One he could have expected of Diluc, but a grace nonetheless.
A bigger surprise was the bottle of water and the plate of toast Diluc handed him afterwards. Startled, left blinking several times as he tried to process what had happened to his adopted brother, Kaeya turned and studied him. “It’s from Jean. She and the Traveler send their well wishes, but someone had to handle the people who captured you since you’re not around to help. As for Amber, she’s helping Lisa and some other Ordo members keep up with the duties you usually do. We’re having a talk about that, by the way.”
With a huff, Kaeya turned back to the food.
Still Diluc.
Neither man spoke while Kaeya wolfed down his breakfast. Second breakfast? He really didn’t care. He had, like, twenty meals to catch up on before he was back to what he preferred.
In the end, Diluc broke the silence. Reaching over, he pulled Kaeya’s hand away from his side, looking at his nails. “Your fingers have a bluish tint to the nails. You should replace the anemo mask.”
“Sure, sure.” Kaeya shrugged him off, but listened anyways. Despite the odd smell to the thing, even with the herbs Albedo and Barbara had tried using to dilute it, he held it to his face anyways. He watched Diluc out of his peripheral vision. “So, what do you think?”
“What do I think of what?” Diluc prompted, raising a brow to look at him. Watching him, Kaeya tilted his head to the side and then hummed, debating whether or not he should tell him.
“Still think everyone’s going to say I’m ‘grandson-in-law’ material?” Kaeya replied. “Or do you think the mask is a little too much?”
“I think everything about you is saying ‘hospital patient’, not…whatever just came out of your mouth.” Leering at him, Diluc deadpanned, “Are you struggling with hypoxia? Do I need to fetch Barbara?”
He was joking. There may not have been a tone to his voice, but his eyes gave him away. There was a certain spark to them that Kaeya recognized from their teenage years. Flashing a grin behind the mask, Kaeya slowly pulled one of his legs up so he could prop his arm on his knee. “So, Luc—”
“Don’t call me that,” Diluc said, giving him a scolding look.
Kaeya ignored him. “I heard from a little purple bluebird that you checked out one of the romance novels from the library. Want to talk about it?”