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Kaeya had been living with the Ragnvindr's for about three years and feels a strong love and connection with the two redheads.
Crepus was the father he always wanted. He was kind and gentle, never really losing his temper even when he should've lost it over something like someone breaking a thing he liked. The only time he ever lost it was when he would become defensive over his kids, almost threatening to make that persons life a living hell if they even bothered to hurt his children.
But besides that, Kaeya was proud to call him his parent.
And Diluc was the perfect brother. Kaeya never had siblings growing up, since his mother hated the process of making children and his biological father never was fond of the idea of having kids unless they prove to be useful.
But besides that, Kaeya considered Diluc perfect. He was Kaeya's first ever real friend and whenever Crepus was never around, Diluc would always protect his younger brother. He was always filled with such pride and warmth that it started to infect Kaeya as well.
He was so happy to be in this family.
Although...there were obviously some who weren't to fond on the idea at all.
For starters, some Mondstadtians still can't seem to understand that Kaeya is technically Crepus' son, not a servant.
Even some of the maids would say things about Kaeya in secret, only to be heard by Adelinde and get scolded by her for what feels like eternity.
Suffice to say, there are people still displeased with Crepus' choice, but by now Kaeya doesn't care anymore.
Except for now.
For some reason, one comment about his hair was enough to make Kaeya feel insecure like he was before.
"I still don't understand why Master Crepus even took that kid in." One of the maids whispered, the same two maids being the ones who never seemed to like Kaeya.
"I know, right?" The other maid answered, her too whispering to the other maid. "Especially with that darker skin of his. Oh, and don't even get me started on that monstrous hair of his! Blue does not fit with red whatsoever!"
"You're right, he should feel ashamed if he even thinks he's a Ragnvindr! Blue and red just aren't meant to mix. I hope Master Crepus realizes the mistake he made and gets rid of that brat before he regrets it."
"If I'm going to be honest with you, it makes a lot of sense why his father abandoned him. I mean, look at him! If I had him as a son I too would abandon him! I just wish he had been abandoned somewhere else instead of here."
Kaeya didn't wish to continue listening to the conversation. He was so taken in by what the two said that he didn't notice how his hand went to his long hair and started stroking it. He could feel a tear run down his cheek as he dashed upstairs and into his room, throwing himself on his bed as he cried into the pillow.
Why was something so little about someone making one rude comment about his hair something to make him tear up and start to feel insecure about himself?
But suddenly, Kaeya ended up getting an idea that could help him fix his situation.
Before he left, his mother had given him her notebook filled with all sorts of ways to make potions that could change a person hair color permanently.
Wiping away his tears, Kaeya hopped off the bed and bent down, reaching far underneath to search for a specific thing. Once his small hand came in contact with a box, he grabbed it and dragged it out.
The box contained some things he seemed to like a whole lot. A few crystalfly cores, a few seashells him and Diluc had collected, and other things that meant a lot to him.
He finally found the notebook and took it out, opening it to find a certain page. It talked about how to turn one's hair red, making Kaeya smile as he examined his mothers handwriting.
Red, a rather interesting color. I don't necessarily love it, but some of it's shades are rather pretty and worth taking a look at. The color red can mean a lot of things: anger, love, passion, warmth, creativity, life, and courage.
Red does not exist in Khaenri'ah except only in the form of the blood that runs through our veins. Red is also an interesting color as it is seen as a contrast from blue and when mixed together can create a beautiful shade of purple depending on how much of both colors you add to the mixture.
But anyway, lets get on to the ingredients.
First up, like the rest, a bowl or a cup, or just about anything that can hold a liquid, is required.
Next would be to grab something that could emit any sort of light. Since that thing might be a solid, make sure you grind it up until it looks very similar to that of dust.
Afterwards, make sure you add a petal of your favorite flower to the mixture. Don't ask why, but I have gotten the best results by adding flowers to the mixture.
Then add in any sort of liquid, but make sure it isn't anything like wine or juices, as that messes up the mixture and adding such liquids will give you undesirable outcomes. Doing so may cause either your hair to fall out or for you to contract any sort of sickness or get the color you don't desire.
Once the liquid is added, take a strand of your hair and drop it in.
Once all the ingredients are added, make sure to stir it up real well, as you want to make sure it is mixed thoroughly and that there aren't any chunks in it.
After you stir it up real well, grab a syringe or anything that can hold the mixture and apply one drop on your hair. Once the drop is applied, you should be able to see the results immediately.
Quickly, Kaeya grabbed all the ingredients required for the mixture. He grabbed a mortar and pestle from once of the cabinets. Then he grabbed some water, a petal from one of the Calla Lilies he had in the vase in his room, a syringe and then last but not least one of the crystalfly cores from the box.
Following the instructions, Kaeya placed the crystalfly core in the mortar and used the pestle to grind it up until it looked like dust.
Then he added the Calla Lily petal to the mortar.
He soon added the water and then a strand of his hair.
Once all the ingredients were in, he used the pestle to mix everything up, the process coming to an end as he finished mixing it all up.
The result...wasn't how he expected. The mixture looked rather pink than red, not at all what he was hoping for. But maybe it was supposed to look that way. Maybe it would actually turn his hair red rather than the pink color it had.
Taking the syringe, Kaeya used it to hold the mixture, soon going in front of the mirror in his room and watched as he pushed the plunger part down, a drop landing on the top of his head.
He waited a bit until he saw the result, his smile fading as he hair was quickly going from blue to pink in a heartbeat, dropping the syringe as he brought his hands to his mouth.
By now his hair was completely pink, no more blue was left on his head. Even the strand of light blue he had was turned to an even lighter shade of pink. The only thing that was still blue was his eye, but that still didn't seem to calm him down.
Kaeya immediately ran over and grabbed the notebook, trying desperately to find a page that could tell him how to change his hair back to his original color. Of course, he couldn't find a single page on how to make a solution that could turn a persons hair blue or how to change your hair color back to what it originally was. And the ones he did find showed how to make mixtures for blue that wasn't close to his original blue hair.
Forgetting about everything else, Kaeya went onto his bed wrapped the covers around him to cover his entire body including his hair, and started crying.
<------->
Diluc couldn't help but feel very worried. He hadn't seen Kaeya all day and the worriness was starting to get to him.
Diluc approached two maids who were chatting away instead of doing their job.
"Miss Stella, Miss Odalia," Diluc began, getting the attention of both maids. "Do you know where Kaeya is at? I've been trying to find him, but I haven't been successful. So I was wondering if you could help me."
Odalia scoffed as she adjusted her headpiece, "And why should we? We have no reason to."
"Because he's my brother! And my dad won't be busy if he comes back and finds out Kae is missing." Diluc explained, causing Stella to cross her arms as she gave a deep frown to Diluc.
"And? I'm sure Master Crepus will be glad that he would have one less nuisance to deal with. And besides, if that blue haired brat is truly gone, it's not like anyone will miss him."
Diluc clenched his fist as he glared at the two maids, his Pyro Vision glowing just a bit. How dare they say such foul things and think they can simply get away with it like it never happened.
"Is that true?" Diluc knew that voice. Stopping next to Diluc was Adelinde, her presence making the two maids visibly feel uneasy. "If Young Master Diluc can't simply find his brother, then that should be something we should help aid him with. Not simply standing around and saying such hurtful things about a child! Master Crepus will be very disappointed to hear about this once he gets back from his trip."
The two maids said nothing, instead they walked away, making Adelinde let out an annoyed sigh.
"So...what's this I hear about you not being able to find Young Master Kaeya?" Adelinde asked as she bent down to Diluc's level, the ten year old crossing his arms.
"I just wanted to hangout with him but I couldn't find him. I searched everywhere and I still couldn't find him."
"Well, did you check his room?"
Diluc's eyes went wide as he finally realized he did not, in fact, check everywhere. "No..."
Adelinde smiled a bit as she messed with Diluc's hair, "Well that's fine. Maybe check there and if you can't find him in his room then come inform me, okay?"
Diluc nodded as he soon ran up the stairs, ignoring Adelinde as she told him not to run.
He stopped in front of Kaeya's door and knocked on it. He didn't hear anything at first and was starting to grow worried.
After what felt like forever, Diluc opened the door and saw some stuff on the ground, confusing him. He soon saw something covered in blankets as what sounded like crying was coming from it.
Making sure not to knock over what was on the ground, Diluc went to Kaeya's bed and jumped up, sitting down next to his little brother.
"Kae...is everything okay?"
"Luc...please go away..." Kaeya spoke softly as he continued crying, refusing to even look at Diluc.
Of course, being the stubborn kid he is, Diluc refused to leave. Instead, he remained on Kaeya's bed, wanting to find any sort of way to comfort the boy. "Kae...I'm your brothers, you can tell me if something's wrong."
"I...I made a mistake..."
"What does that mean?"
"I...heard some maids talking about my hair...and how I don't match you or dad. So...I decided to change it. But...it didn't turn out how I wanted it to."
Diluc was confused by this. How does someone simply change the color of their hair? "Can I see."
Although he was hesitant at first, Kaeya soon got up in a sitting position and took of the blanket, revealing his pink hair to his brother.
Instead of hearing Diluc laugh or ridicule him or lash out, he was met with a warm hug from the redhead, the older of the two stroking Kaeya's hair.
"I think it looks good!" Diluc remarked with a smile almost reaching his crimson eyes.
"Are you...are you sure?"
Diluc laughed a bit as he held Kaeya tighter. "Absolutely! No matter what hair color you have, you will still be Kaeya! You'll still be my little brother and I'll always love you no matter what!"
Kaeya couldn't find the right words, he truly didn't know what to say. So instead of speaking he simply hugged Diluc back and started crying, which caused Diluc to start rubbing his back in a soothing motion.
The crying came to a stop only a few moments later, Diluc still soothing Kaeya. But as he was continuing to keep his brother calm, he ended up getting an idea.
"Hey, I got an idea. It may sound stupid at first, but you'll need to trust me on it!"
<-------->
After only a few hours, it was now dark and Adelinde had prepared dinner for the two brothers. Yet while their food was getting cold, Adelinde was starting to grow impatient.
Knowing where the two boys would be, she went upstairs to Kaeya's room, noticing how there was light coming from his room.
"Young Master's, I made dinner and it's starting to get cold-" Adelinde stopped talking as she saw the two brothers sleeping on the same bed, both holding one another. Although she would've found the scene adorable, she was rather confused.
She didn't understand why Kaeya was now sporting pink hair and why Diluc was now sporting purplish blue hair. She was also wondering how Crepus was going to react once he got back.
She soon looked around and saw a notebook with a mortar and pestle near it with some weird liquid in it.
Instead of waking the two up and questioning them, Adelinde decided to let them rest, considering they both needed it.
It took some time for people to get used to the brothers new hair, and also the fact that their new colors were considered permanent.
Crepus had returned and, although very happy to see his kids again, was very confused as to why they had different hair.
He had asked Adelinde what happened and she explained what she could. She told him how Kaeya was insulted because of his hair and he tried changing it, only to turn it pink. So, Diluc decided to change his hair color so Kaeya wouldn't feel upset and alone. She had also informed him that the new colors were permanent.
Instead of Crepus getting angry and infuriated, he was instead proud that Diluc would go that far to make sure his younger brother felt better. And he would be speaking to a couple of certain people.
But what was weird was later in the day, Crepus had come to Adelinde asking if she could dye the bottom half of his hair blue.
She swears she doesn't get paid enough for any of this.
But she did it anyway and Crepus would go on to thanking her.
Soon, Kaeya started to love his new pink hair, as Diluc would start to take pride in his new hair as well. Diluc didn't really mind one bit that he changed his hair color. If it meant he got to see his little brother be happy and love himself, then Diluc would sacrifice anything for that.