Chapter Text
“Can you believe him?” Diluc scoffs, his grip on Kaeya’s hand tightening as he pulls them along the hall and away from Father. “It’s like he thinks we’re still children or something!”
Kaeya stumbles a step as Diluc’s pace quickens. “We are thirteen,” he says quietly, trying not to let his voice shake with exertion. “Keep it down, Luc, or he’ll drag us back for another lecture.”
“Exactly – we’re thirteen. We’re knights. He can’t control us forever.” Diluc scoffs again. “It’s perfectly legal for us to drink with parental supervision! Just because we can’t buy alcohol ourselves doesn’t mean we can’t at least have a taste.” He lets go when they reach the stairs only to turn around and cross his arms over his chest, glaring into the distance past Kaeya. “It’s the family business. Our family business. How long does he expect to keep us away from it?”
“There’s still a long time before either of us will be ready to take over–”
“And how are we ever going to be ready if we can’t even familiarise ourselves with our own– mmf–!”
Kaeya only pulls his hand away from Diluc’s mouth when he feels the pale jaw beneath his palm fall open in preparation to bite. He sighs silently to himself, and then it’s his turn to drag his brother along, albeit more gently. “Luc, seriously. Father’s already not in a great mood. Don’t make a scene.”
“Oh, come on, Kae.” Diluc’s voice softens in the way it only does when he’s trying to convince Kaeya to join him in another bout of mischief, because he thinks it’ll be fun and he hasn’t thought for a single second about the consequences. “Aren’t you curious?”
“I don’t get why you’re so curious. It’s just wine.” And it’s completely unlike Diluc to go against Father’s wishes with such fervour. Even if Diluc tends to get the two of them into trouble more often than not, it’s never with the express intention of displeasing Father. He must have seen the look on Father’s face: the rigid, stern lines in place of a normally sunny disposition, the shadows over those blood-red eyes. He must know how furious Father will be if he’s disobeyed today.
“We’ve never had a drop of alcohol in our whole lives. Today could’ve been the perfect chance.” Diluc sighs, mournful. “Even if it wasn’t the family business, it’s our nation’s most prized export. Isn’t that enough to make you even a little interested?
Ah.
Our nation.
Yes. He’s supposed to care about this sort of thing. Patriotism, national pride. Honourable virtues that any decent knight should uphold. Any decent citizen of Mond. He has to care, or else–
Or else they’ll all see right through him, and then–
Or else– and then–
“Gods, Kae. When did you get so boring?”
Kaeya catches himself on the blunt edge of Diluc’s words. “I just don’t think it’s that big a deal.” He folds his own arms across his chest, mirroring his brother, fidgeting with the cashmere of this too-luxurious suit for some cold comfort. “When Father says we can drink, maybe then I’ll–”
“Well, if you’re not interested, that’s your problem. I’m going to get myself some wine, and no one’s going to stop me, not even you.” Diluc turns and stands taller, tightens his ponytail, and starts down the stairs, each step punctuated by the sharp click of polished shoes on polished wood. He shoves one hand in his pocket and throws the other up in casual wave without looking back. “Have fun talking to old people, or whatever.”
Frozen by some unseen cold, Kaeya stands helpless at the top of the stairs – until reality hits him square in the back and sends him stumbling down after his brother. He grabs Diluc by the collar of his equally luxurious suit like he’s some unruly kitten and yanks him upwards so viciously he yelps.
“Ow– Kae! What the hell–”
“Shh,” Kaeya urges, slapping his hand over Diluc’s mouth again, pulling him back until they’re both standing at the top of the stairs once more. “Keep your voice down, dummy. It’s like you want to get caught.”
“Why do you care? It’s not like you’re helping–”
“Maybe I am.”
There it is. The sparkle in Diluc’s eyes, like sunlight hitting a wineglass. “Finally come to your senses, have you?” he whispers conspiratorially, the pout flipping into a grin before Kaeya can blink.
What Kaeya’s senses are telling him is that Diluc will continue this foolish pursuit with or without Kaeya – and if he goes without, he’ll definitely get caught, and Father will be furious, and then Diluc will be miserable for who knows how long, and Adelinde will have to mediate but it won’t work because deep down she’s too gentle and they’re too stubborn, and Kaeya won’t be able to do anything because he never knows the right thing to say and the only thing that might help would be admitting that it was all his fault for letting Diluc do something so stupid in the first place but then Father will be furious with him and then–
And then Father will–
Father will–
“You don’t get to leave me alone at a stuffy party like this. If you’re really going through with this, the least you can do is let me in on it,” Kaeya says.
Diluc hums. “They do say that drinks taste better shared.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
“Father, for one. That’s the whole point of taverns, isn’t it? And we’ve never seen Father drink on his own – even here, it’s always with Addie or Elzer, at least.”
He doesn’t ever drink except for business reasons – but Kaeya keeps that to himself. “So you’re listening to him on this, but not on the other thing,” he mutters instead.
Diluc rolls his eyes so hard it’s audible. “A little wine won’t hurt us. Father won’t even have to know if we’re stealthy enough. And if he does find out, then we can prove that we’re perfectly capable of drinking and there’s no need for him to worry so much. That he can trust us.”
“You want to convince him to trust us by… breaking his trust and doing the exact opposite of what he told us–”
“Kae, you’re overthinking it. You always overthink everything,” he says, rolling his eyes again. “Don’t worry! Like you said – it’s just wine, right? We’ll be fine. All we need is a plan to get into the wine cellar without anyone noticing. We’ll grab a bottle or two, and then we’ll leave like nothing happened, and it’ll be fine.”
Kaeya looks down the stairs. The party is in full swing now, the bustle of the crowd loud enough to mask even Diluc’s boisterous ramblings. He looks past Diluc, at the room they left their father in – the door is only slightly ajar, and yet more chattering filters out from that gap, drowning out Kaeya’s conscience and better judgement. Father’s silhouette – his starch-stiff suit and slicked-back hair – flashes across the sliver of space in the doorway, and Kaeya goes ramrod still – but it’s gone not a second later, and Kaeya remembers how to breathe again.
“A plan,” Kaeya echoes, shoulders slumping, tongue bitter with the foretaste of defeat. “I don’t suppose you already have one in mind, do you?”
There it is. The sparkle in Diluc’s eyes, like moonlight hitting the edge of a blade. “That’s where you come in, baby brother.”
This is a terrible plan.
There’s no way it’ll work. There’s no way they’re getting away with this. Father’s going to kill them both – if Adelinde doesn’t beat him to the draw, that is. It’s a wonder she hasn’t already killed them, given her uncanny powers of premonition when it comes to their antics. Maybe this is all too out of character and it’s thrown her off, just a bit. He can only hope.
Elzer is preoccupied at Father’s side, as ever, and all the other staff are busy playing their various parts, attending to the guests’ every beck and call – all except Adelinde, who’s the only one with a third eye at the back of her head and a sixth sense that tells her when something is even vaguely awry in the winery that is more her domain than Father’s, if everyone’s being honest.
She’s standing guard on the ground floor of the manor, watching over the party with a serene smile and a perfect view of the corridor leading to the stairs that go down to the wine cellar in the basement. So all they have to do is distract her and they’ll be fine – or so Diluc believed. Face to face with her, Kaeya’s growing less sure by the second.
“Young master,” she says, smiling sweetly, too sweetly, “what are you doing here, all on your own? Shouldn’t you be socialising with the guests?”
“They’re boring,” he says quickly, too quickly. He tries to smile back with the same sweetness as her and hopes it isn’t cloying. “I’d much rather talk to you, Addie.”
She smiles a little wider at that, eyes crinkling around the corners. “Not your brother?” The glint of her emerald eyes in the chandelier’s light when she glances around shouldn’t be as terrifying as it is. “Where is he, by the way? It’s not like him to leave you by yourself. Is everything alright?”
Perfectly alright – he’s just gone to steal the keys to the cellar while you’re not looking. Nothing to worry about!
“Young master?”
“He’s– um–” Shit. This is all Diluc’s fault for forcing him into this without giving him time to prepare. Kaeya throws a quick glance over his shoulder for something, anything– “He’s talking to a girl.”
Adelinde’s smile grows even wider, her eyes lighting up with pure amusement. “A girl, you say?” If she’s trying to keep the mirth out of her voice, she’s failing miserably, and Adelinde so rarely fails at anything. “She must be a very interesting young lady indeed, to pull him away from you.”
Kaeya’s cheeks must be red as the wine they’re about to steal. He needs a change of topic and fast because this was a disastrous idea. He’s going to kill Diluc after this if Adelinde and Father haven’t already done the job for him. “Well, uh– he’ll probably forget all about her once the food is served. You know how he is. Speaking of food,” he says, coughing to clear the lump of awkwardness in his throat, “what’s on the menu today?”
If he were truly of this nation, he would thank Barbatos that she permits the blundering segue without comment. She rattles off the various dishes of each course, from appetisers to dessert, and he nods along at a hopefully natural-looking tempo, humming in assent every now and then as if he’s actually listening and not letting her gentle words go in one ear and right out the other.
“Once the banquet is over and everyone’s gone home,” she says, and he snaps to attention once more, “I was thinking some steak for dinner would be nice. It’s been a while since I had the chance to make it for you.”
Kaeya blinks, and the smile this time isn’t forced at all. “I’d like that,” he says, “that sounds–”
Diluc appears, a flash of bleeding red in the corner of his eye, around the corner of the corridor, and Kaeya stutters.
“Perfect,” he finishes before Adelinde can ask what’s wrong, unable to look away from his brother’s mischievous grin or the fiery warmth in his eyes. Perfect timing.
“I’m glad to hear it, young master–”
And then her head spins round like an owl’s, looking right at the spot where Diluc was just now, and Kaeya’s heart stops beating entirely.
“Something wrong?” Kaeya squeaks.
Adelinde stays there for a moment, before turning back with glacial calm. “Not at all, young master.”
Diluc pokes his head around the corner again, and flashes him a too-cheerful grin.
Kaeya waits for Adelinde to blink, then glares at him. Idiot! She’ll see you!
Diluc sticks his tongue out. Not as long as you’re distracting her, right?
Kaeya very nearly returns the gesture until he registers the weight of Adelinde’s ever-observant gaze, and stutters again. “Um– so– steak, huh–”
“Did you know that steak pairs rather nicely with red wine?” Adelinde says, the sweet smile returning. “It’s a shame you two aren’t old enough for that yet.”
We’re so dead.
“But I do look forward to seeing you experience such things in the future. I’m sure your father will have much to teach you about picking out the right wine for any meal.”
She’s onto us, and we’re so dead, and she’s writing our epitaphs as we speak–
“All in due time, of course. There’s no rush. You’re still children.” Suddenly she’s reaching for him, and Kaeya startles back on instinct – but her hands land on the lapels of his suit jacket, smoothing them out, and he stills. She fixes him with a look both stern and soft when she’s done. “I’m sure you wouldn’t dream of trying alcohol before the time is right, now would you, young master?”
“No– of course not,” he says after a nervous, broken laugh.
Diluc’s still sticking his head out where anyone can see him, the damn idiot, and when Kaeya meets his eyes he jerks his head towards the stairs. Get her out of here already.
In lieu of shaking his head wildly, Kaeya glares harder. How do you expect me to do that?!
Diluc looks around, then finally points at himself.
Kaeya stares.
Diluc nods, and disappears down the corridor.
Kaeya wants to fucking explode.
“But– uh– I think Diluc might,” Kaeya says. Just as she’s about to open her mouth to reply, he grabs Adelinde’s hand and tugs her deeper into the horde of guests, away from the perfect vantage point she’s been occupying too fastidiously. He gestures vaguely towards a corner where a small crowd has gathered. He can’t send her upstairs, that’s where Father is – but of course Diluc is too short-sighted to think about things like that. “I think he’s probably trying to convince someone to let him drink with them. Maybe even dragged that girl into it too. You should probably talk him out of it, because he always listens to you.”
“Is that so?” She still sounds faintly amused. “Well then, I suppose I’d better find him as soon as possible, shouldn’t I?”
Kaeya nods. He must look jumpy as all hell, but Adelinde has yet to do anything about it, so for the sake of his sanity he allows himself to believe that this stupidity is somehow working. “And I– um– I’ll” – he looks over his shoulder, but he can’t see that godforsaken corridor from here because of all the people in the way, thank fuck – “look for him upstairs, just in case.”
“It’s good that he has you to keep him out of trouble,” Adelinde says, sighing softly, and the amusement in her eyes transforms into something he’s not sure he’s allowed to name.
“That’s me,” he says weakly, nudging her a little deeper into the crowd while stepping back. “Uh– so– I’d better–”
“If you find him first, you’ll bring him to speak with me, won’t you?”
“Yeah, definitely,” he says, breathless, and good grief does his head hurt from all this frantic nodding. “I’ll see you later, Addie,” is all that he leaves her with, a rushed farewell cutting off any more chances for her to figure out what’s actually going on, and with that half-hearted promise he weaves his way out of the crowd as soon as she turns her back.
“Diluc, if you don’t hurry up we’re actually going to get caught–”
“Stop talking, I’m getting there– it’s not my fault none of these keys are labelled–”
“How is this taking so long–”
The cellar door unlocks with too loud a click and Diluc shoves it open in an instant. Kaeya, who’d been pressing himself up against it as much as he could in a poor attempt at invisibility, stumbles inside and grabs onto the nearest shelf to stop himself from hitting the floor headfirst. All the bottles clang violently – hopefully the cellar is deep enough that the clamour won’t reach the oblivious guests upstairs. The first thing he does when he manages to pull himself upright again is glare at the back of his brother’s head while he locks the door behind them. Diluc, impervious to Kaeya’s ire, turns around and greets him with an indelible, insufferable, utterly infuriating grin.
“See, what did I tell you?” He puts one hand on his hip while jangling the keys in the air, the sound as bright and loud as his damn smile. “We did it!”
“Barely,” Kaeya mutters. “Adelinde’s totally onto us, you know.”
“So? You distracted her. We’re fine. And she’s not a snitch, so–”
“I told her you were probably going to try and sneak a drink.”
Diluc’s grin falls away and he narrows his eyes. “What– why on earth would you tell her that?”
“The best lies are based in truth.”
“Isn’t that a little too close to the truth?”
“What’s done is done,” Kaeya says, looking away. “Now hurry up and get your drink so we can get out of here before she finds us.”
Diluc pouts, but shakes it off and smiles again like nothing’s wrong. “We’re getting you a drink too,” he says. “Come on, help me pick something. What do you think you’d like?”
“I don’t know,” Kaeya mutters. “I don’t really want anything.”
“Loser,” he says, cuffing Kaeya lightly on the head as he skips past him. He stops at a shelf at the opposite end of the cellar and pulls out one of the bottles with a flourish. “Ooh, dandelion wine! That’s a good one to start off with, isn’t it?”
“Sure, I guess.” Dandelion wine is one of the winery’s most popular products – but if it were up to Kaeya, they wouldn’t be ‘starting off’ a lifetime of drinking like this.
Every time a shadow twitches under the flickering lamplight, Kaeya can’t help but shoot a worried glance over his shoulder towards the door. Every time, he expects to find blood-red eyes shining back at him through the darkness, aflame with unadulterated anger.
The door’s locked, he reminds himself, but somehow that doesn’t make him any less uneasy.
“You don’t seem very enthusiastic about this.”
“What did you expect?” He slinks back into the shadows, hiding behind a shelf and out of sight of his brother, so that he doesn’t have to see that self-important smirk as Diluc admires the wine he was oh-so desperate to get his hands on. And so that he can keep an eye on the door that could be broken down at any moment. “This whole thing was your idea. Just get me another dandelion wine and let’s go already.”
Instead of the scraping of glass against wood as another bottle is pulled out, Kaeya hears a very distinctive pop.
He steps out from behind the shelf just in time to see Diluc tossing the cork and corkscrew aside and pouring the first drops of wine down his waiting throat. He gulps eagerly, licks his lips with a satisfied sigh, and holds the bottle out to Kaeya. “Try some!”
“Luc, what are you–”
“It’s kind of weird, but… not that bad, I don’t think?” He shakes the bottle. The wine sloshes about hypnotically inside, the olive green glass gleaming bright even in the dim light. “C’mon, I thought you wanted to be a part of this.”
“I thought we were just going to grab a bottle and leave – why are you drinking already? Can’t we save that for later? When we get out of here?”
“What are you so worried for?” Diluc reaches into his pocket where he’d hastily shoved the keys and makes them jingle again. “The door’s locked, remember?”
“Even if no one can get in, that won’t stop someone from figuring out that we’re in here, and we’ll still get in trouble–”
“Everyone’s busy with the party, they’ll never even realise–”
“Adelinde will–”
“Adelinde’s not a snitch–”
“She doesn’t exactly approve of this either–”
“We’ll leave soon,” Diluc says firmly, “but we might as well make the most of it while we’re here. Who knows when we’ll get a chance like this again? Don’t worry so much, Kae. We’re not going to get in trouble. I promise.”
Before Kaeya can protest, Diluc tips his head and the bottle back, and gulps down even more wine. It’s–
It’s already a quarter empty.
Kaeya doesn’t know much about wine, or alcohol in general, but he’s pretty sure it’s not supposed to be consumed so quickly. Right…?
“Luc, I really think we should go now,” he says quietly. Maybe a softer approach will convince his brother, if nothing else. “You– we can find a better spot to drink outside, you know, in the sunshine or something, in one of our old hiding spots–”
“We’re not leaving until we’ve got you a drink. And I’m not just getting another dandelion wine, because that’s boring. We need variety!” Diluc skips past him again, lifts the bottle to his lips again, and lights up more lamps with the power of his Vision – lights the way for Kaeya to follow.
Kaeya could still get out of this alive. He could swipe the keys from right under Diluc’s nose and leave, he could turn himself in to Adelinde and Father and receive his due punishment, and maybe they’d go easy on him for his honesty. At the very least Diluc would be caught, and he’d be forced to stop whatever this is, and maybe Kaeya will feel a little less guilty for letting this go as far as it has, because he’ll know that he didn’t let it go as far as it could’ve gone.
Kaeya could do all that. Maybe in another lifetime, he does.
This Kaeya doesn’t.
This Kaeya swallows the anticipation of regret burning on his tongue, and follows his idiot brother deeper into the cellar.
It’s hard to tell how much time has passed in this windowless room, but he does know that it’s far too much for his liking.
The only way to measure the passage of time is the ever-decreasing level of wine in Diluc’s bottle.
Half-empty.
Kaeya hasn’t had a single drop – has jerked his head away every time Diluc’s shoved the bottle against his lips with a gleeful laugh – and yet he feels sick.
If Diluc feels anything remotely like sickness, he hasn’t commented on it. Anything makes people sick if consumed in excess, and Kaeya’s certain that all this is excessive at best, but Diluc’s always had inhuman endurance to all manner of things and he doesn’t fall ill nearly as often as Kaeya, so this is no surprise, really.
Still. Something about this is profoundly wrong in a way that Kaeya can’t verbalise without Father’s voice reverberating like a funeral march through his skull, and that’s a sound he’s all too eager to push away before it eats him alive.
“The reserve collection,” Diluc says, reading off the metal plate on the wall in front of him with undisguised awe. His voice is far too loud in an enclosed space like this, bouncing off every wall and back into Kaeya’s head until he can’t think. “That’s the really good stuff, isn’t it, Kae? Hey, why don’t we take one of these?”
“Sure, I guess,” he says for the dozenth time. Diluc’s inspected practically every shelf by now, has gone off on a dozen tangents about all the exotic and limited-edition wines they’ve come across, speculating on their flavours and making and why Father chose to produce them and why Father won’t let them try any of it even though they’re definitely mature enough by now–
Diluc grabs at him clumsily, but even his uncoordinated grip is strong enough to drag Kaeya closer, forcing him to stop leaning against the wall and pretending he doesn’t have any part in this. “Don’t be such a killjoy, Kae,” he says with an irredeemably lopsided grin. “I’m trying to make this fun for you, too.”
Kaeya wants to snap back at him, but when he looks – really looks – at Diluc, the words die in his throat before they can even form.
The sparkle has dimmed to a dull, glossy sheen over those normally sun-bright eyes.
Kaeya’s definitely going to be sick. He’s indulged his brother for long enough. That’s not even his brother looking back at him anymore, is it?
This needs to end, now.
“Yeah– yeah, okay. Reserve collection, sounds great.” Kaeya turns for just long enough to slide a bottle out, and holds it up to his brother without even stopping to look at the label. “This one looks great. Now can we please go already–”
Diluc snatches the bottle out of his hand and hugs it close. “Nope. I can tell you don’t mean that. Again. Back to square one, then.”
“Diluc, seriously–”
“I just want to get an extra-special wine,” he says, and now his words are slurring together, and he sounds half-asleep and those dull eyes are fluttering shut, “for my extra-special brother–”
“I don’t care what wine we drink, okay?!” Kaeya reaches for the bottle, but Diluc holds it high above their heads, grinning. “I just want to leave because we’re definitely going to get caught like this and–”
“I promised we wouldn’t–”
“Luc, please.” Those eyes are losing focus. Can Diluc see the look on Kaeya’s face? If he could, would it change anything? “I don’t know what’s gotten into you but you’re being weird and I don’t–”
“What’s gotten into me? What about what’s gotten into you? You’re not usually this much of a baby, baby brother.”
Kaeya grits his teeth and lunges for the bottle this time – and this time, Diluc stumbles.
Diluc’s foot twists as he lurches back and he stumbles, lets both bottles drop from his once vice-like grip and crash violently to the stone floor, gasps out as his back collides with the edge of a table. He starts to slip – but Kaeya’s reflexes are trained for this, and he dances around the glass at their feet to catch him by the elbows before he can fall. The pounding of his heart in his chest is more than enough to drown out the lingering echoes of shattering glass.
He shakes his brother desperately, trying to get those eyes to open again. “Luc? Luc, are you okay?”
Diluc collapses against him, burying his head against Kaeya’s shoulder, and groans. “Mm. Fine, Kae–”
“Like hell you are,” Kaeya whispers, panicked. The eyes at the door are burning into him from the future. “Come on, we really have to get you out of here–”
Then a sharp banging on the door stops his heart from beating entirely.
“Diluc! Kaeya! I know you’re in there – open up at once!”
That voice is enough to reach even Diluc, lost as he is in wherever it is the wine has taken him, and he straightens up, clinging to Kaeya for support. “Father…?” he mumbles, disbelieving.
“Adelinde, fetch the master key,” Father says, slightly muffled, before his voice grows nearer, sharper, and he continues, “Boys! Open the door this instant!” The doorknob rattles again. It’s going to fall off at this rate. “Diluc!”
Kaeya rushes forward, but Diluc pulls him back and covers his mouth with one too-warm hand, his other arm wrapping around his back and holding him close, keeping him terrifyingly immobile.
“What are you doing?” he hisses against Diluc’s palm, but Diluc only presses down tighter.
Right by his ear, the rasp as Diluc tries to breathe, to swallow down his building panic, that scrape of a wine-soaked tongue over chapped lips–
But the door is thrown open with a thunderous bang before Diluc can say a thing.
Father watches them, white-knuckled hands gripping either side of the doorframe, jaw hanging open in horror, blood-red eyes shining through the darkness.
Diluc opens his mouth to say something – but all that comes out is vomit.
Kaeya stands frozen at his side, watching as Diluc crumples to the ground and drenches those crisply-pressed trousers in his own sick, and he gets as close as he ever will to praying:
I wish we were actually dead.