as old as time the idea of body swap but it's ragbros for them to truly understand what each of them carries every day and be at least a tad more compassionate and caring towards each other. Alice cannot stand anymore the way they carousel around each other, scared of hurting one another more than they've already done.
she spells the magic to switch the physical and mental loads between them. they're not technically switching bodies, but the shifted sense of balance or the lazy eye or the scars. and oh. the pain. of all the stiff muscles, overworking hours, sleepless nights, cold tiles. the mental pain transfers as well, the fatigue, the brain fog. goodness, the whole bunch.
Kaeya wakes up to heavy, settled heat in his bones and thinks he's having a fever, which wouldn't be a new way to start the day, in fact. but still annoys him. then he sits up and eyes a scar he didn't remember receiving but definitely remembers seeing on Diluc's knee. scraped badly, white spot with blotchy edges. he sits for a moment. then he stands up and he's swaying.
Diluc's body is filled with fatigue so heavy it makes moving an arduous task. lifting a leg and getting himself to basically stomp towards the bathroom feels like carrying years of grief on every inch of his skin. he gets to the mirror and lifts his head up, seeking for the scar on the chin. and it is there.
Kaeya buries his hands in his hair and heavily flops on the tiles, too exhausted to carry the weight Diluc shoulders himself every day. he feels himself slightly empty as if never ever really rested enough. brain fog thick and a different kind than his own. Diluc's smells of ashes and settles into a heavy mist, humidity hitting crazy numbers inside his mind.
Kaeya recollects what he knows and what's he heard from the rumors and what Nefer had told him after he got in a contact with her. he slowly strips, but only to the belt, eyes landing on the deep, ugly scar, embedded in upper abdomen, inches from heart. Kaeya traces the edges of the scar and sighs, old memory vividly standing in front of his eyes. he looks at his arms, looking for scars or cuts, but finds some scratches he is sure are from the cats at Cat's Tail, which settles his racing heart back to the track of relief.
he really doesn't need to know more than he's learned already.
Diluc wakes up hours later than Kaeya does, his mind fuzzy and sharp at the same time and he thinks he wants to throw up from the feeling of such coexisting contradiction. he turns to the side, his body feeling lighter, but stiff and rigid in places he is sure he didn't sustained any injures the night before for them to feel this way.
he realizes his neck is killing him, his back is screaming at him which is weird because he never complained about back pain, but Kaeya did, being lankier and taller and having to crouch from time to time to compensate for the height. it was probably the reason Kaeya settled for the archery and sword classes, while Diluc with his brute force and steadily planted feet had chosen claymore and shields.
he also notices how blurry his vision is, and blinks a couple of times, trying to clear the view, but it doesn't help, so he brings his hands to rub his eyes. his fingers graze against the imperfection of the eyelid, and he jolts awake, thunder of horror coming in the second place.
he inspects his face, fingers cradling the features in a way the mirror never could. it's his face, undoubtedly, but the scar, the lazy eyelid, the blurry eyesight, and a couple of scars along his temple, the consequences of chickenpox, are all telling that something is off. not wrong. just off.
Diluc moves his shoulder and feels the tugging, a heavy one, the resistance of burned skin, and he sits in bed, his hands on his face, but with the scars and pain belonging to Kaeya. he is terrified at the idea of absorbing with his own eyes what damage he had done, but the curiosity wins, and he places his hand on his nightgown, pressing fingers into the skin of his shoulder and upper chest.
the burn scars are big and swollen despite it being years since the first contact of the fires and the skin cells. they're aching, dully, and numb his side to the point he isn't really sure he feels a light touch or touch whatsoever. he moves his hand and the sleeve slides to his elbow, and Diluc is blinking at the sight of one scar, almost invisible if it wasn't slightly raised above the surface. it goes from the wrist to the elbow, and Diluc is puzzled at what could be the initial wound.
there's also the feeling of hopelessness.
it's hard to pin down exactly, wavery and shaky, but it makes Diluc queasy. there's a reason Diluc refused to let go. this could be the reason why Kaeya lets go of pretty much everything and forgives the sins committed against him with such ease. not against others. Diluc still remembers the crimson glistening, covering deep blue ice, and gulping sounds of torn throat.
Diluc rests his hand flat against the surface of the scar and thinks of how soothing it could be to apply a gentle heat to the knotted, irreversibly damaged muscles and tissue.
the spell doesn't last long. Alice knows how much such simple spells can exhaust the receivers. she sees the understanding settling down in both of the brothers and ceases her spell, returning the pain to the original vessels.
it bears its consequences.
Kaeya cares twice as much to get Diluc the intel he can be sure about and works closely with Nefer, making sure Diluc is useful and relatively safe or has someone to reinforce him. he brings Diluc painkillers, from time to time, and settles for a simple talk about old times for the sake of halting the hurricane on his feet from burning the wick out completely. he also makes sure to cool the apple cider Diluc drinks, unnoticed and subtle. Diluc notices, but keeps quiet. Kaeya, learned the way scar looks and what damage had been done exactly, asks Barbara for best ointments to soften the stubborn, scarred skin. for the brain fog, Kaeya makes sure to lessen the load of the Darknight Hero. even if a little bit.
Diluc backs up with random pat here and there, hand on burned shoulder, fingers brushing against the arm, every touch slightly Pyro infused to lessen the knots and ache. he stays with Kaeya even at the darkest of the nights, even in the scariest of storms, praying it helps to see that Kaeya's not alone and doesn't need to shoulder everything on his own.
the first time they cross their paths after the spell, they have the same look in their eyes. sorrow, finely crushed 'sorry's, turned into paste with unshed tears for the sake of their past, and applied to the wounds they never showed to anybody. it still stings.
but they wash it, after the healing is done, with water of simple 'come over, the dinner's getting cold' and 'sit down, you busy bee, and let's share a drink; my treat'.
