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“Come...”
“It is time…”
“To claim your destiny…”
“You are our only hope…”
The vicious voices from the dark that surrounds Kaeya’s small body ooze through his fingers and crawl into his skull, pulsing and pounding against his head. Their shadowy hands latch to his arms and pull him into an even deeper darkness, it’s depth unfathomable and appalling.
The Abyss.
Dread fills young Kaeya, but no matter how much he cries and struggles, he is powerless.
“Come…”
“It is time…”
“You are our only hope…”
Their faces encroach on him as they push him into the swirling darkness, his father’s among them, and their echoing voices smother Kaeya’s pleads. A piercing cold envelops him as he gets closer, but the more his small body quivers in fear, the harder the voices hold him.
Before being swallowed up by the darkness, however, a warm touch drives out the dark forces and guides him back to the light.
Then he wakes up, shaking from head to toe and sweating buckets.
“Kaeya!”
Hearing his name right at his side startles him, “Diluc?” He rubs the sleep from his eyes to see Diluc there with a deeply worried expression, “What are you doing here?”
“You were crying just now,” Diluc replies, “I came to see if you were okay.”
“Oh,” Kaeya looks away, “It’s nothing.”
“Was it a bad dream?”
“Something like that. I’m fine.”
“But you’re shaking...”
“It’s just a little cold, Luc,” Kaeya turns to Diluc with a playfully smile, “What, do you want to keep your little brother warm?” He giggles as he reaches out to pinch Diluc’s flushed cheeks, “Of course you wouldn’t. I’m only teasing. You should go to bed before father finds out.” Then he rolls over his side, away from Diluc, and pulls the bedsheets over his body. He’s still shaking.
After a few seconds of silence, Kaeya feels a dip on his bed, and when he looks over his shoulder, he sees Diluc’s back.
“Diluc…?”
“Go to sleep, Kae,” He says, and even though he can’t see his face, Kaeya knows he’s blushing, “I’ll keep you warm.”
Kaeya closes his eyes and focuses on Diluc’s warmth, letting it swaddle his cold body as he slowly sinks into the sleeping world. The shaking stops, freed from the cold that trapped him, and he sleeps soundly with a genuine smile on his young face.
When they wake up, they find themselves in each other’s arms.
The nightmare comes back years and years later.
“You cannot run from your fate...”
“It is time…”
“You are our only hope…”
The voices grow louder, their hold more bruising, the darkness more bottomless, and the colder harsher. Every night he’s closer to being completely swallowed, closer to becoming a Kaeya he doesn’t want to be.
But it never happens.
The same hands that saved him countless times guide him back to the light, and when he opens his tearful eyes, Diluc is there. Like he always is. He quietly wraps his arms around Kaeya’s naked body and squeezes him, channeling his heat to him until the shaking subsides and the tears dry up.
They lay snuggled to one another in comfortable silence for a moment, with Kaeya’s head and hands on Diluc’s chest while Diluc tucks an arm under Kaeya’s body, fingers running through his hair and caressing the skin of his temple and cheeks. He sweeps the tip of his fingers across his arm to his ruddy hips, where he rubs his hip-bone before taking his hand and bringing it to lips, sowing a warm kiss over the knuckles.
“You okay?”
“I am now.” Kaeya sighs through his pleased smile.
“Same one?”
Kaeya closes his eyes, “... yes.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really, but,” Kaeya sits up. The silky sheet around his shoulders drops and reveals a sea of purple blotches and bite marks on his tanned skin, “I suppose I do owe it to you.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Diluc mimics him, leaning back against the bed’s backrest and luring Kaeya onto his lap, “You don’t owe me anything.”
“Modest to the core, aren’t you, Luc?” Kaeya pecks Diluc’s lips before resting his head on his shoulder, “Remember what I told you about the Abyss?”
“I do.”
“Well, I hear voices. The voices of… Khaenri’ah, or what’s left of it,” Kaeya’s voice falters, “They’re pushing me towards it. Towards the Abyss. My father is there and he keeps telling me I’m their last hope…”
Diluc holds him tighter, “Kaeya…”
“The Abyss… it pulls me in. I hear it whispering to me, trying to corrupt me. To turn me into… a monster,” His voice breaks into a shattered sob, “It’s dark and cold. So cold it’s unbearable. I’m scared, but I can’t do anything…”
“Kaeya,” Diluc tilts his chin down to kiss Kaeya’s head, “You don’t have to keep going.”
“Oh, but I do,” Kaeya smiles against Diluc’s neck, “This is the best part, after all.”
“It is? What happens next?”
“You save me,” Kaeya looks up with a starry shimmer in his eyes, “You bring me back. Every time.”
Diluc snorts, “You mean I wake you up.”
Kaeya chuckles, “That too, but you know,” A dark semblance settles on his features as he looks away at the far corner of the room, shrouded in shadows, “It makes me wonder… if the Abyss find me and take me away… what would you do?”
“I’d go after you, as far as I have to,” Diluc doesn’t hesitate nor does his voice waver, “And bring you back where you belong.”
“Where I belong, hm?” Kaeya closes his eyes and lets the beatings of Diluc’s heart lull him, “And where would that be…?”
Diluc squeezes him again.
“In my arms.”