Chapter Text
The man standing across the room is not one who Kaeya has ever seen before, and yet he is familiar all the same. Sweeping bangs brushed to one side, not quite blue, but not quite black either. A single sapphire earring hanging from the left ear in the shape of a diamond. Eyes a muted blue, with stars inlaid in their center. Kaeya stares at this man who he does not know and yet feels he ought to know all the same, and cocks his head to the side.
“Should I know you?” he asks, for his head and his heart are both giving vastly different responses.
The man shakes his head. “I died before your time,” he says. “Yet, you may recognize my name.”
Kaeya raises an eyebrow. “If you’re already dead, then how are you talking to me?”
The man merely sighs, a defeated expression crossing his features. “Since I died, I now exist only in artificial memories planted by the Loom of Fate.”
Kaeya stands up suddenly, and the air snaps cold as his vision reacts to his ire. “I don’t know who you are, but you need to get out of my head. Now.”
“Caribert.”
Kaeya blinks. “Excuse me?”
“Caribert Alberich.”
A sharp intake of breath, followed by a plain gesture of understanding. “That’s why you feel so familiar, then.”
Caribert nods. “We’re family.”
“Oh.” Kaeya sits back down on the edge of his bed, avoiding Caribert’s gaze. “So, why are you here? To remind me of my duty?” He says the last sentence with more than a hint of venom, causing Caribert to wince.
“No, I—” Caribert sighs. “Kaeya, look. I don’t agree with what they did to you either, okay? I just…honestly, you’re the only member of our family who I actually feel some sort of kinship with.”
The tension in Kaeya’s shoulders immediately relaxes. “Oh. So you just want to…”
“I want to know you.”
“I haven’t talked to any of my family in years,” Kaeya says, his voice barely a whisper. “The last person I talked to was my father, and that was when he left.”
“I know.”
“My connection to our family—”
“I know.”
“So you’ll understand if I don’t want to make an exception for the artificial memory of a dead man I never knew.”
Caribert shakes his head. “Dead boy,” he corrects. “I died when I was eight. This man you see before you…it’s just what I imagined myself to look like, if I had been given the chance to grow up.”
“Oh.” Kaeya blinks. “Oh.”
Taking a hesitant step forward, Caribert rests a hand on Kaeya’s shoulder. It’s surprisingly warm. “Let me know you, Kaeya. Please.”
Kaeya raises his head to meet Caribert’s gaze, diamond locking with diamond. Then, he nods.