Cross-posted on AO3
Day 11: Hallucination
Diluc doesn't know when he fell asleep. He remembered chasing some cases of theft going on in Mondstadt. The crook had been stealing priceless things from people; family antiques, childhood pictures and the like. The criminal had apparently been aiming to steal items that would hit the hardest, regardless of market value.
He could vaguely recall cornering the thief and confronting them with their latest haul; a photo of him, Kaeya, and their father stole from Kaeya's old room. While he and Kaeya had not been on the best of terms in the past few years, the thief's audacity to break into his home and take something from his ex-brother's room had left him infuriated.
Especially since it was that particular photo.
He had tracked the crook through Mondstadt and eventually got him near their new resident astrologist's house. The confrontation itself was fuzzy, nothing coming to mind but fire and the trading of attacks from both sides. At some point, the crook had taken some powder and blown it in his face.
He blacked out after to the sound of the culprit fleeing.
When he had opened his eyes again, he lay alone in his childhood bed. He could hear the familiar rustle and bustle of activity around the manor that signaled it was still early morning.
Leaving the room had him running into familiar staff that definitely looked older than they had before. It was almost like watching ants hustle about in their nests. He would have found it amusing if he hadn't been so freaked out.
Hurrying down the stairs, he was met with the sight of his father sitting at the table near the fireplace in the foyer, Kaeya tucked into his side.
He pulled up short at the sight.
Kaeya looked about ten to twelve, not much older than when he had first arrived. Crepus had a book open and appeared to be reading to him – probably even teaching him to read their language. Kaeya had always been a quick study, but he seemed to learn faster when their father gave them lessons.
It probably didn't help that the tutors were usually nice to him, but berated Kaeya for almost every little thing he did wrong. They hadn't lasted long after their father found out. The man had fired them on the spot. It had made Diluc viciously happy to see them flee with their tails tucked between their legs, suitcases heavy with their belongings.
But that was then. Diluc was no longer a child that he had once been. He knew how unfair the world was now, how unforgiving it can be. The sight before him was nothing but a hazy memory of times long gone.
But if this was all he had, then he would gladly indulge.
Walking over had quickly gained him his father's and brother's attention. They smiled as soon as they noticed him, but the man still felt like a lump had formed in his heart. With his father long gone, he had already known that he would never see that smile again. But somehow, that wasn't what had his eyes turning misty as tears threatened to block his vision.
The grin that Kaeya was giving him now was one that he hadn't realized he missed. Kaeya had changed so much when he had come back that it was like he couldn't recognize the boy he grew up with. It had been like talking to a stranger. The child smiling at him now was very different from the man whose expression he could never read.
Crossing the foyer didn't take long before he found himself burying his face into his father's side. His coat still smelt like the wine in the cellar and he could still smell his shampoo. It was a comforting scent that almost completely distracted him from the tormented thoughts in his head.
He felt a large hand settling on his head, but didn't dare to look up, knowing that he might start crying if he saw his father's face again so soon. He wound up looking back up anyways, however, when he felt a small hand settle over his own. Kaeya was looking at him with open concern that was far too genuine to be fake. It had him wondering when Kaeya began to take his role as a spy seriously.
"Are you okay, Luc?" he asked softly. Diluc almost hated how worried he sounded.
"I'm just tired, Kae," he found himself saying.
His father gave a rumbling chuckle before his hand began to run through his hair. That age-old trick did wonders on his troubled thoughts, silencing them as a calm he hadn't felt in years settled over him.
He had missed this.
The next few days passed in a haze. If Diluc could describe it in one word, he would say that he was definitely in Celestia. He spent those days feeling like he was on cloud nine.
Mornings we're spent watching breakfast with his father and brother before lessons started. Since he still remembered everything from being an adult, he used that knowledge to excel in his studies, stunning his tutors. Even though Kaeya didn't say anything about it or bring it up, Diluc took time to teach Kaeya everything he knew so that he wouldn't feel jealous.
Not that he was sure if Kaeya was even jealous in the first place.
After lessons, he and Kaeya would play around the manor and in the vineyards. If Kaeya noticed that he didn't brag about wanting to be a knight anymore, he didn't mention it. Instead, they had switched to pirates and just generally made menaces of themselves until their father got home from work. By then, the boys would have gotten most of their hyper energy out and would be ccconsiderably calmer.
By the time dinner came around, they would talk about their day and Crepus found himself chuckling at their mischievous endeavors. Sometimes, he would even encourage them as long as it was harmless to them and the staff.
They would then end the day with a story from their father as they tucked into their beds.
And this cycle seemed to repeat itself, day after day until – finally - something changed. Diluc had started to hear a voice in the back of his head. Usually, it was a quiet whisper that he couldn't quite make sense of. At first, he had panicked, not knowing where it was coming from or what was happening. As time went on, he found himself not bothered by it anymore. There was something familiar about the voice; like he had heard it before.
As days went by, the voice got louder until he could finally make out some words.
"Wake. . . up," it sometimes whispered.
"Di. . . luc," a frantic, but distant call.
He wondered why it sounded so upset, almost like it had been crying. It concerned him more than it probably should that a disembodied voice had apparently been crying. Sometimes, he would even think that he would see something out of the corner of his eye, but when he would look, it would be gone.
While the calls no longer worried him, he wondered who it could possibly be. Who could be so desperate to want him back? It could be Adelinde. Maybe even Elzer or Charles. But the voice didn't really sound like any of them. It was soft and not quite as deep as Elzer and Charles, but it also wasn't high enough to be Adelinde.
One day, while playing with Kaeya, he heard it again.
"Luc. . . come back. . . please."
The voice sounded like it was reaching its limit, like something in it was going to break. It sent every alarm Diluc had in his head blaring warning signs. That voice – so familiar, yet so foreign – was distressed and something told Diluc that it was wrong. That it should never sound like that.
Not ever again.
A hand in his had him jolting and spinning around. Kaeya – sweet, young Kaeya – was looking at him with something akin to fear on his face. And that just wouldn't do.
He tried to give his brother a smile, reassurances just on the tip of his tongue, when the voice changed again. It no longer spoke, but it did something that had Diluc freezing on the spot.
It sobbed.
The voice had never cried before. It had always sounded like it was close to doing so, but it had always held fast and refused to break. It had finally reached its limit.
The revelation made something in Diluc turn cold.
Turning his head back to the sky, he desperately tried to find the voice. He could hear Kaeya behind him asking him what was wrong, but he ignored the other as he continued to frantically look for the voice.
He knew his father was dead.
That this Kaeya was not his brother.
That none of this was real.
But that voice was. It was someone who was real crying. And they were doing it because of him.
The world swam around Diluc as he desperately tried claw his way back to consciousness. He could feel the dream melting away, the memory of his past slowly and giving way as he tried to make his way back to the present.
Finally, the swirling colors gave way to darkness.
When Diluc pealed his eyes open, he found himself starting at an unfamiliar ceiling. He could feel a pounding in his head, but ignored it in favor of taking stock of the room. He was in what looked like a private room. While there weren't any windows, there was a single door on the far side of the room.
He's brought out of his observations by the feeling of something squeezing his hand. Shooting up into a sitting position – ignoring the dizziness that followed – Diluc turned his head to look for the source of the feeling.
He's met with the sight of his brother leaning over the side of the bed, clutching his left hand in one of his own. There were shadows under his eyes that spoke of a prolonged period without any sleep. His heart ached when he noticed the dried tear tracks on the younger man's face, his expression warped into grief as if something precious had been taken from him.
Diluc hated that expression.
When he shifted to move his back against the headboard of the bed, the hand holding his tightened before Kaeya's face scrunched up. It reminded him of when he used to come to his brother's room earlier in the mornings of their youth and try to convince him to go play. While the other had tried to put up a token argument, they had always wound up sneaking away from the manor at dawn, giggling like little fools.
Slowly, Kaeya raised his head, his other hand raising to wipe at his eyes in an effort to clear his sight. When he turned to look at Diluc, his face was blank before it changed to shock upon seeing the other awake. Diluc opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when Kaeya flung himself forwards and threw his arms around the other, crying historically.
"You're awake!" he cried. His voice was filled with relief as his tears soaked the sleeve of his brother's patient uniform. "Thank Barbatos, you're awake!"
Diluc felt like something in him finally shattered as he hugged his baby brother back just as fiercely. It suddenly hit him about how close he was to throwing everything away; how close he had come to never seeing Kaeya again, leaving his only family alone to fend for himself.
The very thought led to him crying along with Kaeya, his grip tightening as he crushed the other to his chest. He knew Kaeya wouldn't complain.
He heard the sound of the door open and the sound of shouting, but he couldn't have cared less.
He and Kaeya just kept clinging to each other.
A/N: This story actually didn't have a draft and was written from scratch out of desperation to catch back up on prompts. This story is four days late. I still have a lot to go.
I hope you will take some more Kaeya and Diluc fluff as an apology for my tardiness.