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Diluc was being excluded.
Not maliciously , of course. But kind of maliciously.
He’d made the decision, for whatever reason, to accompany his brother and the Chief Alchemist to investigate some ruins up on Dragonspine. Of course, they turned out to be Abyssal ruins, with writing in Khaenri’ahn.
It wasn’t the translating that was the issue-- especially considering that the ruins had actually held very little information and they had two available Khaenri’ahn speakers. No, it was the fact that the two jackasses he was with had decided to just… not switch back to Mondstadtian or Common Teyvatian. Leaving Diluc walking down a mountain with two bastards speaking a language he only knew, like, two percent of, per his younger brother’s efforts to teach him.
He sighed, his breath puffing out in front of him, disappearing as they wandered down the path to the base of Dragonspine.
Albedo nudged Kaeya’s side with his elbow, catching his attention. “Beru sie? Ettir ko kaldr pu e bróoir?”
“Eh?” Kaeya huffed a laugh. He almost sounded offended. “Sie ko happ, ko Cryo ehn eldr pȗ dintr.”
Diluc sighed, resigning himself to only getting bits of pieces of the conversation. “I heard… Cryo. And fire, I believe?”
Kaeya barked a laugh again, clapping his hands together. “Hah! Bróoir bittr eh-himn Khaenri’ahn, eh, Ielbedoh?”
Albedo let out a soft smile of his own. “Ja, Kaei-yah.”
Diluc blinked, bewildered. “What was that one?”
“Which one?” Kaeya asked.
“That last one. Kai… something.”
Albedo crossed his arms, gesturing with a hand. “That’s just… Kaeya.”
Diluc raised his eyebrow. “I didn’t realize he got a whole word to himself in your language.”
Kaeya shook his head. “Oh, brother dearest, you’re hilarious. It’s seriously just my name. Kaeya. Kaei-yah” He gave a sharp grin. “That’s how you say it.”
“Wait, seriously?” Diluc looked bewildered, glancing between the two. “Everybody has been mispronouncing your name this whole time?”
“Well, yeah.” Kaeya shrugged, carefully maneuvering down a slippery slope of jutting rocks and ice. “That’s what happens when you grow up in a different nation.”
Diluc paused, considering this. After a few moments, he blurted: “Say it again.”
Kaeya raised an eyebrow. “That’s what happens when you grow up in a different nation?”
“No-- what? No.” Diluc groaned. “Your name , you buffoon. In Khaenri’ahn.”
“Don’t trouble yourself, brother dearest.” Kaeya hummed, walking down the beaten path. “It doesn’t bother me, really. Don’t spare the effort.”
There was a pause in conversation. Brief, a bit strained.
“ Kaei-yah .” Albedo said suddenly, almost forgotten in the exchange.
Both brothers whipped their heads to look at him, Kaeya a bit red in the face. “You really don’t have to--”
“Kaiya.” Diluc mimicked, rather poorly. “Wait, no, you strained the ‘ eee ’ sound a bit more. Kaeiya?”
“Stress the yah .” Albedo instructed. “It’s almost more of a ‘ jah ’ sound, and is actually the stressed syllable in his name, rather than the ‘Kae’ part.”
Kaeya shook his head. “You two, honestly--!”
“Kaeiyah? Wait, no-- like Kaei-yah?”
Albedo nodded in satisfaction. “That’s it.”
“Kaei-yah. Kaei- yah . Ka…ei…yah…” Diluc chewed on the name for a bit, looking pensive. “Huh. Good to know.”
“Hey, wait! You can’t just, just-- just do that!” Kaeya huffed, looking rather frazzled, a stark contrast from his usual, put-together, image.
Diluc hid his smirk behind his glove. “Hush, bróoir Kaei-yah.”
Kaeya sighed, deflated, before suddenly perking up again. “Wait, when did you even pick up ‘brother’?”
Finally, Diluc allowed himself to bark a laugh.
---
“So,” Diluc remarked, as Kaeya, in thanks for helping them with the ruins, helped clean up Angel’s Share. “If your name is actually pronounced Kaei-yah, how do you spell it? In Khaen’riahn, I mean.”
“Oh, it’s actually pretty simple.” Kaeya remarked, leaning against the bar. He produced a piece of paper and pen from seemingly nowhere, scribbling something down.
After a few moments, he held it up to Diluc.
ÔEAVVE
“...”
“...”
“That’s not simple at all.”
“What?! I’m offended.” Kaeya bemoaned, setting the paper down. “You’d abhor your own brother’s name?”
Diluc leaned over the paper again. “There’s no way that’s how you spell it. Are you pulling my leg?”
“I’m not!” Kaeya exclaimed, hands raised in mock surrender. “That’s bona-fide Khaen’riahn right there. It says Kaeya .”
“Archons, no wonder it was so hard for you to learn Mondstadtian.” Diluc sighed. “Does that really say Kaeya ?”
“Yup.” Kaeya replied, popping the ‘p’. “Maybe the gods struck us down for our terrible phonetics, who knows?”
Diluc let a smile to his face, pocketing the paper. Well, at least Kaeya was past it enough to make jokes.
Still, he’d have to study harder.
---
“--like this. So strange, right? I’m trying to decode how the letters are translated, at the moment.”
Kaeya paused from where he was walking to Master Crepus Father’s grave, a bottle of wine in his grasp. Somebody was already there, it seemed, and was talking.
Peering around the tree he hid behind Kaeya caught of ruby curls and smiled. Of course it was Diluc.
His older brother was holding that little piece of paper from earlier up to the grave, pointing out the letters, carefully sounding out the name. “--ei- yah . We’ve been stressing the wrong syllable this whole time.” Diluc chuckled. “I’ll have to ask Albedo to help me some more, on the alphabet.”
So he was practicing on his own! Sly bastard. How much of Kaeya’s conversations with Albedo could he actually understand?
“Still, I thought you’d like to know, Father. He is your son, after all. I-- I wish you were here with us still, but it’s gonna be alright, I think.” Diluc let out a soft little laugh, and Kaeya started to feel embarrassed, like he was intruding on something he shouldn’t be. “We’re figuring it out.”
Tired of hiding, Kaeya walked out from where he stood, bottle of wine still in hands. “Hey, ‘luc.”
“Hey, Kae.” Diluc replied, not looking up at him. He hadn’t dropped the nickname, even after he’d learned Kaeya’s ‘real’ name. A small part of Kaeya was grateful for that.
Popping open the bottle, Kaeya took a swig. He jokingly offered it to Diluc. To his surprise, Diluc took the bottle, taking a short drink too. “Terrible stuff.”
“Oh, just admit you have the palate of a ten-year-old.” Kaeya sighed, taking the wine back. He poured a bit into the ground in front of the grave. “Getting the old man up to speed?”
Diluc nodded. “I think he would’ve liked to know.”
Kaeya leaned against his brother, ruby curls ticking his face. The sinking sunlight cast a warm glow over the cemetery, painting the scene in shades of red.
“Yeah.” Kaeya murmured, watching a pair of sparrows fly past. “I think he would.”