Work Text:
dust motes dance in the air as light and breeze pour in from an opened window, the remaining choosing to settle on yet another layer.
two instruments were laid side by side, covered in years of unuse. the glossy black coating on the piano was barely visible by now, a note diluc took into consideration as he reluctantly drags a finger across, displeasure evident in his features, grey collecting onto the red underside of his gloves. but he doesn't, instead choosing to remain still, a myriad of thoughts and emotions present on his visage -- longing, affection, frustration, wishing that if he could redo things somehow, he'd take it in a heartbeat.
if, if he played the same tune. the song of the winery. would he return? would they return? to old times, filled with laughter and joy, where their main problem is who fell asleep first, who got to have the better side of the bed.
( kaeya kept crawling into his bed at first -- he kept saying he was afraid of the dark, but diluc knew better. he was simply lonely, and if he ever left the other alone while he was asleep, the nightmares would come catch him. )
crimson eyes travel down to the casing that contains a violin, one he remembers to be signed with D.R. on the side, haphazardly discarded on the side -- it was the night they fought, he remembers vividly as day, where after he had lost himself in grief and anger, after kaeya had left the winery for good, his eyes were dry, as he began methodically breaking down things he held dear to the both of them. the piano and violin were among the last two, and though he couldn't bring himself to destroy the piano, the same couldn't be said for the stringed instrument.
he doesn't want to open the case, doesn't want to acknowledge that it was him who singlehandedly destroyed everything in a night.
flipping up the fallboard, he drags the bench into place before sitting down, choosing to ignore the cloud of dust that appears and pressing down on a single white key. the sound it makes is still as clear. slowly, with one hand, he goes through the tune, mentally keeping note that it may have to be tuned. or was that simply his abysmal playing? kaeya was always a better piano player than he was. that was why he chose to take up the violin. to compliment his music.
but now they were gone. chosen separate ways.
all that was left was an abandoned piano and a broken violin, to collect dust.