Cross-posted on AO3

Day 25: Car Accident

Diluc tried to wrench his eyes open as the sound of loud beeping filled his ears. The sound was annoying and certainly wasn't helping with his headache. The world around him was blurry, but he could tell that he was in a white room, completely different from his room with dark brown walls.

He felt like something was very much wrong with the sight.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement that looked like it was also dressed in white. His head felt too heavy to move, so he tried to strain his eyes to catch a good look at the stranger. It wasn't his father or one of the employees that he had hired to do work around the house. He was surprised to see that it was a doctor.

"Hello, Diluc," he said kindly. The man looked like a nice guy, if a little sad.

"Where's Father?" Diluc rasped. "Where's Kaeya?"

His voice raised in along with his panic. He couldn't remember what could have possibly happened for him to have ended up in the hospital.

"Okay, son," the doctor started calmly. "Can you tell me what you last remember?"

Diluc tried to wrack his brain for anything he could possibly be missing. It mostly just gave him a headache, but some things did start to click.

"We were going for a ride in the car," he started, gulping in trepidation. "We weren't really planning on going anywhere, just going out for a ride around town. Kaeya wanted ice cream, so we started heading for an ice cream parlor –" he suddenly cut himself off.

The sound of crunching metal was ringing in his ears. He could hear someone screaming, but it hadn't been him. Father's eyes were closed and his side was covered in blood. He wasn't moving.

Following where he had heard the scream, he found Kaeya clutching his right eye as blood poured out between his fingers. His other hand was reaching towards Diluc and his mouth was moving like he was saying something that Diluc couldn't hear.

He looked so desperate.

The young boy snapped back to the present and looked at the doctor with wide eyes.

" Where are they?!" he shrieked. He was passed trying to be calm.

He moved to get up, ignoring the doctor asking him to stay laying down. He ignored him, rising into a sitting-up position despite the pain flaring in his abdomen and his leg. Kaeya and Father weren't here. They had been hurt too, right? Where were they?

Before he could move to actually get up, he felt two firm arms push him back onto the bed. He looked up, ready to attack whoever was keeping him from his family, but he pulled up short when he was met with the sight of Adelinde. Her face was as calm as it always was, but her eyes were red.

She had been crying.

Diluc felt his heart drop.

"Now, Diluc," the doctor tried again, "you really need to be more careful. You'll rip your stitches." When all he received was a cold stare, he sighed. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but. . ."

Another sigh, sadder.

"Your father passed away at the site and your friend was in critical condition."

" What?"

His voice was little more than a squeak, his heart going from dropping to being in his throat. He turned to look at Adelinde, but all he was met with were teary eyes. Something passed between them in that moment, something that only they could understand.

With Crepus gone, everything was now going to fall onto Diluc's shoulders. It wasn't that Diluc had neglected his studies to one day take over the business, but he was only fourteen. He was too young to take over the business and neither knew what to do with everything having been ripped right out from under them.

In a state of shock, Diluc let his head fall into his hands. His entire world had just been torn apart, everything he thought would always be there was ripped away from him.

Then he froze.

What about Kaeya?

Kaeya wasn't dead. He was alive somewhere in the hospital and was in critical condition. Was he scared? Were they able to have his eye? Was he hurting right now or was he put under with anesthesia? Was he scared? Or was he blissfully unaware in his dreams?

Diluc raised his head as he finally came to a resolution.

He would take over the business like he knew he had to. He would watch over and take care of Kaeya until and after he woke up. All they had were each other and Adelinde. While there were other employees they trusted, Adelinde had always been that female figure they had both needed in their life, so Diluc had no doubts that she would help with all of this.

He knew he needed to step up and take responsibilities that he probably wasn't ready for yet, but he knew Adelinde would have his back.

He also knew that he was going to need a lawyer.

A/N: This story took me the rest of my afternoon and evening to write, but it was worth it. I kept stopping because I wasn't sure how I wanted to proceed and finally finished close to seven o'clock. It felt like forever.

The reason Dilic doesn't correct him about Kaeya being his brother is because he's still in shock from the news he just received. The second his head is on straight; he's most likely going to correct anyone who says otherwise. (In this story, Kaeya is thirteen and just a few months shy of turning fourteen himself.)

Diluc is going to have a lot on his plate from now on. Not only does he have his own injuries to worry about, but he and Kaeya are now orphans and he knows Kaeya is going to be dependent on him from now on. He's gonna need a lawyer because he's going to take the person who crashed into him to court for all the damages and funeral costs (mostly out of principle since he has more than enough money to pay for it himself).

Why must I traumatize my favorite characters so?