Cross-posted on AO3
Day 10: "I'm Sorry, I Didn't Know"
To say that Diluc was irritated by what he was seeing would be an understatement. It was no secret that he and Kaeya weren't getting along very well recently. Their arguments had been increasing and one time had nearly come to blows. Diluc had to walk away before he used his Vision on instinct because things had gotten so heated.
But now?
He was watching from behind the bar as his ex-brother knocked back glass after glass of their most high-concentrated alcoholic beverages. He had even gotten something stronger than his usual order of Death After Noon. Diluc had refused to serve him after their earlier fight, but Charles dutifully brought him his drinks. However, the bartender was looking more and more concerned with every glass Kaeya ordered. He kept giving Diluc worried glances, but he ignored both of them.
Or at least he tried to.
He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't at least a little worried about Kaeya's recent drinking habits. When he had first come in tonight, Charles had looked surprised to see him, but also alarmed, like he had been hoping he wouldn't show up. When he had noticed Kaeya at the table, he had immediately scowled, but his glare only got darker when he noticed how many glasses were on his table. He had been about to stomp over and kick the man out, but Charles had stopped him, telling him that Kaeya would leave quietly after only a few more drinks.
Diluc seethes as he asks if this happens often and Charles tells him that it only happened twice a year. Diluc is angry but decides to avoid confrontation and work behind the bar. As the night grew on and the number of glasses on Kaeya's table piled up, he decided that he couldn't just sit and watch as his former brother destroyed his liver.
A few more drinks, his foot.
He sharply put down the glass he was washing as he went around the counter and made his way towards the table. He could hear Charles trying to whisper and tell him to come back, but he ignored it.
When he reached the table, he gave Kaeya's chair leg a sharp kick, startling the captain (how out of it was he that that was even possible) before he turned to look at him. He smiled when he noticed him, but something was off about it. It was off-kilter, too wide. It made his anger shift to weariness.
When Kaeya opened his mouth, Diluc wished he had stayed away from the tavern tonight.
"Master Crepus! When did you get here?" the captain slurred, sounding genuinely happy to see him. Well, apparently happy to see their deceased father.
Diluc feels a little dumbstruck, the anger flushing out of him and replaced by a bone-deep chill.
"Are you mad at me?"
Diluc remains silent, still stunned.
"I tried to keep looking out for Diluc, I swear I did." The other's face descends into a melancholic smile, an expression that looked so out of place on the usual exuberant man's face. "But I screwed up and now my big brother doesn't want me around anymore."
All the energy that the blue-haired man had left seemed to drain right from him as he slumped against the table, resting his head on the surface as he kept his lone eye focused on Diluc.
"I told him the truth as you asked me to. It didn't go so well. He kicked me out." His face scrunched up in a grimace. "Though I suppose that I could have picked a better moment to say anything."
Diluc felt like something had punched him in the gut.
His father had known?
He had known and was the one who had encouraged Kaeya to confess?
He felt like his entire world had been knocked off-kilter. Diluc had always felt guilty for how he reacted to Kaeya telling him the truth. While he had been dropped as a spy, there was only so much a child could do. Kaeya couldn't have faked everything and – somewhere deep inside him – he had known that. But to hear that Kaeya had confessed, that he had been planning on telling him before their father's death shook the very foundations of his anger?
He felt all the fight drained out of him.
He remembered his father looked like he wanted to tell him something else.
Had this been it?
He could only watch as Kaeya passed out at the table, the drinks having finally caught up with him. He had been the one to screw their relationship up and now he had to be the one to fix it.
He leaned down as he pulled Kaeya into an awkward half-hug.
"I'm so sorry, Kae," he whispered apologetically. "I didn't know, but I swear I'll do better."
A/N: Draft originally written on the 1st of February and the final draft was written on the 12th of February. I just wanted to write Kaeya sloshed and mistaking Diluc for Crepus. Cue an emotional talk and a truth that Diluc is most definitely not ready for.
One of my headcanons is that Crepus knew who Kaeya really was and that Kaeya eventually confessed to him himself. Sadly, he died before he and Kaeya could do the same with Diluc, and guilt eventually made Kaeya confess to him too anyway.