Chapter Text
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"Ah…looks like a storm is brewing. I should hurry back to the city soon." The blue haired man smiles and crosses his arms.
"After all, only bad things happen during storms..isn't that right, Master Diluc?"
Diluc's response is delayed. His mind seems elsewhere, his eyes focused on the tiny raindrops tapping against the window.
"I wouldn't say that... Hey. I'm not forcing you to leave right now. Might as well stay until it stops raining."
His fiery red eyes land on the other, looking as tired as ever. "This..brings me back..."
✦
✦ Midnight ✦
Light flashes, casting stretched shadows of trees onto the walls of the bedroom. An ear splitting sound erupts from above just seconds later. That was a loud one.
Diluc sat up in bed, eyes wandering around the room and finally stopping at the shaking window. Just this morning, he had helped the servants with carrying tools and boxes into the cellar so they wouldn't fly away in the storm. That meant nothing was going to destroy his window, though he couldn't shake the nervousness building in his chest every time a blow of wind shook the walls of the manor.
Sometimes he wished he didn't have to be alone at times like this. His tired eyes were watching the hypnotizing river of rainwater on the glass. He was so tired, but falling asleep now would be useless. The next thunder was just going to wake him up again.
A faint noise grew louder outside, overpowering the rain for a moment here and there. Drunk with sleep as he was, Diluc couldn't quite make out just what this wailing and screeching was supposed to be.
…
…..
Footsteps out in the hallway. Immediately, the boy was on his feet, pressing his ear against the wooden door.
Father. Another voice was talking as well, both too quiet to make out. He grumbled to himself and peeked out into the hallway.
"Young master Diluc! What are you doing out of bed?" Adelinde stepped closer with worry. She was in her nightgown, unlike his father, who was in the middle of putting on his raincoat. However, his messy hair was a sign that he had also just woken up.
"I couldn't sleep..It's impossible with all that noise. But- what's going on? Father?" Diluc looked towards his father worryingly. The man returned a warm expression that quickly grew somewhat serious.
"The chicken are making a lot of noise, I'm going to take a look if everything's alright out there. Don't worry, just go back to bed. Both of you."
Diluc watched him leave. Although still wearing a concerned expression, Adelinde stepped back inside her room a moment later, peeking through the door to make sure the young master was going to do the same.
And he did… for about three minutes.
His nerves were killing him. Not because he was scared, but because he was full of curiosity for what was hiding outside in the storm. In a hurry, he slipped on his boots and coat, then excitedly grabbed the shiny object on his nightstand.
It still felt unreal sometimes. Not too long ago, Diluc had been blessed by the Divine with a tool so powerful he couldn't quite grasp it himself yet.
The vision's warmth traveled up his arm as he held it. It pulsated with power, like a second heartbeat. Nothing was going to stop him now that he had this .
Diluc held onto the rocky wall, stopping himself from slipping as he ran onto the grass and mud. The rows of grape plants did little to stop the wind from blowing in his face and messing up his hair, still he sneaked between them. The henhouse was down and near the river.
Now that he was closer, he noticed that there was no sound of chicken screaming.
There was nothing. Nothing except for the sounds of the violent wind, swaying treetops and rain. And with everything shrouded in darkness, an unsettling mood began to grow in his chest.
He was alone.
Swallowing dryly, his left hand grasped the vision in his pocket and held onto it, the warmth calming him down somewhat. He held out his hand with cramped fingers.
Though unsure, he was determined, and soon a growing flame birthed from his palm. A giddy smile spread across his face. With the fire lighting the way, he ran out into the open with newfound confidence.
Upon approaching the henhouse, a sudden subtle movement in the darkness stopped the boy in his tracks.
Lanky and unmoving, the figure was nearly invisible as it peeked around the corner of the building.
It was watching him.
A cold chill ran down Diluc's back. Though he was only frozen for a few seconds, before he promptly charged towards the figure with flames engulfing his hand.
"YOU! What are you doing here?!"
The thing immediately took off. But that wasn't enough for Diluc.
"HEY!!"
This was gonna be so easy.
All he needed to do was catch the chicken thief before his dad did. His fire burned wildly as he watched the figure slide down a muddy slope.
Diluc didn't hesitate to jump down instead, catching up immediately. As he wrestled them to the ground, both of them clumsily slipped around in the mud. A wet and dirt covered hand hit Diluc right in the face, his shoes kicked into something and he fell back to his knees trying to stand up. He could see the person next him getting up and sprinting towards the river.
Hah. A dead end.
Triumphantly, Diluc carefully got to his feet and approached the shore with steady steps. By now, the rain and mud had soaked through his pants completely.
But none of that mattered, because he was going to catch this criminal.
Diluc could make out a shadow of a person climbing onto the rocks near the water. He followed shortly behind and swiftly grabbed the person's ankle with his still searing hand, forcing a shriek out of them.
The sudden, loud noise made him recoil and seconds after, he felt their weight tumbling down on top of him. They were..surprisingly light.
"PLEASE- JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"
The hurt voice moved away from him, there was a splash in the water.
Waving his bright flames closer, he was able to make out the face of…a boy?
"P-Please,, don't hurt me! I-I'm just- I-..I don't know what this place is!"
Diluc took a step back instinctively and lifted both hands, trying not to intimidate him further. His confidence to catch a weirdo breaking into their chicken coop had immediately depleted.
"..Who are you?"
No response. Just the sound of rain mixed with the boy's nearly inaudible whimpering. He was so quiet, Diluc thought he imagined the sound.
"..O-Okay,, hey, uh. I- I'm gonna get my dad and we'll…you weren't…trying to steal anything, right?"
The boy let out a choked sob and shook his head weakly. He was sitting in the shallow water, shaking. Now Diluc was able to see the all the cuts and bruises on his exposed skin. He was in a very bad condition.
✦
"Okay, I'm pretty sure I remember us both falling in the water."
"No way. You were the one who kept falling over every few steps."
Diluc stares at him with an unimpressed expression.
"Ah, but Master Diluc, we both ended up on the couch covered in blankets and drinking tea, don't you remember?"
✦
Diluc was sitting on the living room couch across from the peculiar stranger, who seemed to refuse looking at him. His eyes were fixed to one spot on the table and he looked to be on the verge of tears.
Diluc sighed. His father had found the two by the water shortly after the encounter with the boy. He had given Diluc a stern look and had asked him to change out of his wet clothes before requesting that he warm up by the fire for a bit.
Diluc could tell his father was currently more concerned about the state of this strange boy than he cared about scolding him. And Diluc couldn't deny it…he was concerned as well.
This guy looked to be about the same age as him, and he seemed terrified.
He hadn't allowed anyone to touch him on the way here and had refused to change into different clothes.
Now he sat wrapped up in blankets, his steaming hot tea untouched. And he hadn't spoken a word since then.
It was a little awkward.
Maybe he speaks a different language.
No, that didn't make sense. Diluc had heard him talking perfectly fine earlier. Although he didn't look to be from Mondstadt, his clothing gave that much away.
His father entered and looked back and forth between the two for a moment. He was fiddling with his beard– something he tended to do when stressed or deep in thought.
"It's very late, you two. I'll make sure to keep the mansion heated tonight. Diluc."
He perked up.
"I hope you can fall asleep. As for you.."
His father's eyes lingered on the other boy.
"You may stay in one of our guest rooms. We'll take care of everything tomorrow. For now, I think it's for best if we all rest."
✦
"I'll never forget that night, hah...a boar nearly mauled me to death before I tried to break into that henhouse, you know!"
"...I'm surprised you're laughing about it."
✦
✦ Dawn ✦
This was it. Kaeya knew he couldn't keep this up for much longer.
The terrible snarling and screeching of the creature was still echoing through the storm close behind him and his legs were going to give in soon.
His pants and stockings had been ripped apart by the underbrush of the forest long ago. And with adrenaline being the only thing that had gotten him this far, the boy could feel that his body was at its limit.
Panicked, Kaeya fell forward with an "Oof", right over a short wooden fence, ripping off a button from his jacket in the process.
His head went numb for a minute as he stumbled forward and examined his forehead with his hands for any injuries.
Something was right in front of him that was blocking the wind.
A splinter caught in his skin…a wooden building?
Still following solely his survival instinct, he crawled through a small opening at the bottom and inside the pitch black.
This felt weird. For some reason, he was finding it hard to breathe. When his arm brushed the wall, Kaeya suddenly knew what was wrong.
The room was shrinking around him.
Or was he growing?
Either way, something was seriously off. His body didn't feel like itself. His clothes tore away and revealed a thick coat of fur, the air smelled like rotten meat, a stench so unbearable Kaeya felt like he was about to throw up.
A horrible jolt of pain spread through his entire convulsing body then as it changed into something unrecognizable.
The curse.
Eyes wide open, Kaeya looked up at the ceiling with his heart beating out of his chest. A dream. It was just a dream.
The first sensation he felt when finally coming to was the aching in all of his limbs with every move. And slowly, yesterday's uncomfortable memories were returning to him. The storm, his ruined clothes and the injuries weren't even the worst part of this whole situation.
No, it was the fact that he had no idea where in the world he actually was.
It was like his dear father had purposely withheld that information from him before leaving in a hurry. Maybe this meant… he was coming back for him after all.
Outside, the sun was slowly rising. It had to be early in the morning, but Kaeya knew he wasn't going to fall back asleep. Without sound, his feet moved across the wooden floor.
Eeeeeeeeh.
Kaeya nearly jumped.
This building…it was probably ancient. The floor was squeaky and bent slightly under his steps.
But he had found what he was looking for.
The boy examined himself in the tall wall mirror. His eyes were sunken in like a corpse, his hair and torn clothes still caked with dirt.
Kaeya would feel embarrassed to confront the master of this house looking like this.
The man from last night.
He had introduced himself as Crepus. He was tall, wide and sort of rough looking, but his presence felt warm.
He had been very careful with treating and bandaging his wounds. Kaeya wanted to believe his intentions were good, but right now he also knew not to trust anyone.
Kaeya was still in a lot of pain, but he figured that now would probably be the perfect time to scout this place out. Just in case. If something bad were to happen he would know about all the escape routes.
Stepping out into the dark hallway, he began to memorize every painting and piece of furniture he passed.
Damn. These people were loaded!
Everything looked fancy and expensive.
Kaeya especially took notice of the swords and hunting crossbows hanging on the wall for display. Hm..
Several photographs and paintings lined the wall around the corner. All of them of presumably family members with Crepus being inside most of them, the red haired boy from yesterday in others.
Though…Kaeya did notice something unusual about these pictures..
"Oh! Well, hello! I didn't think you'd be up so early!"
Kaeya whirled around and tensed up. A blonde woman in a long maid dress was waving at him, a broom in her other hand.
"Ah- I'm sorry if I startled you." She smiled reassuringly and kept her distance.
"You can call me Adelinde. I'm the head housemaid of this manor."
Kaeya nodded slowly.
He probably wouldn't have to worry about her. The maid looked him up and down with pity in her eyes..he didn't like it.
"Hey…would you like me to prepare a warm bath for you? I'll bring you some fresh clothes from the young master as well."
Of course Kaeya agreed to the offer.
Although he was feeling very vulnerable like this, he knew he had made the right decision as soon as his skin made contact with the hot water.
Weightless, painless, thoughtless.
All of it was temporarily flushed out of his mind. He floated like this for a while. The heavy scent of lavender swept over him like a warm comfortable blanket.
Dirt particles stuck to his nails as he dragged his fingers through his long dark hair. The blue hue of it was slowly starting to shine through the filth. Kaeya's heart stung.
He would have to wear it open today…
A short knock on the door, an unexpected voice called out to him.
"Hey, uhhh. Got your clothes, Adelinde asked me to- actually, I wanted to bring them to you. Hello?"
Kaeya's eyes widened.
No. No one could see him like this.
His head shot underwater, seconds later the door opened and Diluc peeked inside.
✦
"It was kind of rude of you to enter like that."
"Oh, please. For years you always snuck up on me to scare me at random times. How's that any different?"
"Hah! You just made it too easy!"
Kaeya giggles to himself and hides his face of Schadenfreude.
"I never found it funny. I shouldn't need to have my guard up in my own house when I'm trying to read a book."
"Well, you must be happy that I don't live here anymore then…"
✦
It took Kaeya a while to bandage and reapply everything to treat his wounds all by himself. He had never done something like this before, but felt too embarrassed to call for help.
Though he admittedly felt like his world was spinning at the sight of some of the worse cuts, even though they weren't bleeding anymore.
Without making a sound the boy was able to sneak back into his room.
That other kid had disappeared.
Can't avoid him forever though , he thought to himself as he nervously viewed his new look in the mirror.
Seeing himself with his long hair open, he felt uncomfortably girly looking. The other boy's pants were a little too long for him, his blue eyes moved, dull and without their usual shine. They had always reminded him to wear a smile in public, that way you'd cheer up everyone around you as well. But his face was stuck like this as tears began to well up in his eyes.
He didn't know what was going on. But deep down he knew he would never see any of them again.
His father wasn't going to come for him.
Kaeya knew, he knew every time he remembered the finality of those words.
"This is where you must stay. You are our only hope. Forgive me, Kaeya."
✦
No one speaks a word for the next few minutes. The sound of pouring rain fills the silence like a somber melody.
Diluc knows that if Kaeya is speaking about it, all he wants is for him to listen.
It's rare for either of them to open up like this. There are things they will probably never be able to discuss, which both of them are more than okay with.
Kaeya is the first to interrupt the rhythm of the rain. "It's a shame. I was so out of it that day, I don't remember anything else that happened."
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