#ccrepus

( was there something a bit ... off about the grapes he'd used for this latest batch of wines ... ? )

crepus leans in and lifts the lid off one of the platters on the table, revealing a wide assortment of treats: sufganiyot, apricot-filled hamantaschens, rugelach, and mandel bread, among others --- then grins conspiratorially at kaeya.

"--- we'll just have to eat his share for him, i suppose," he says with a wink, "no sense in letting it go bad, and we can always make more later. it's been awhile since i've made any of these, but ... well. i think they've turned out all right. old family recipes. try a few --- tell me what you think ! dessert before dinner can be our little secret, no ?"

          “   oh.   ”   it escaped him before he’d been aware of it. yes, he had heard about diluc falling ill. gossip travelled fast amidst the knights, but he hadn’t managed to see him before news he’d been escorted back to the mansion had reached kaeya. quite honestly, he was a bit intimidated. diluc had entered into the knights early, while kaeya had taken his sweet time deciding whether he wanted to be a knight at all. he would have much rather opted to become a merchant like father   —   but time spent away from diluc and jean wasn’t appealing either. he wondered whether or not crepus meant to ask him how knight training was going, now that diluc wasn’t between them, buffering them with his own exploits.

          the trepidation seemed to vanish as soon as crepus revealed the spread before them, kaeya inching towards the edge of his seat. he looked warily around for adeline, or another one of the kitchen staff just to check if it was okay. normally one of them was wrangled with the duty of making sure young master kaeya ate all his vegetables. was this a trap ? it seemed to good to be true. father prompted him to try, and immediately kaeya was there with a piece of mandle bread in his mouth, quiet sounds of delight followed immediately by kaeya eagerly reaching for a hamantaschen.

          “   our secret ?   ”   kaeya parroted, completely forgetting all his young gentleman etiquette lessons by speaking with his mouth full of pastry. in his mind, he’d already been concocting a way to sneak a few of the pieces away, sneak them up to diluc’s room after bedtime. he’d see how many were left at the end of their meal. he gulped comically, remembering himself as he washed the sweets down with a cold glass of grape juice.   “   they’re so good, papa. can you show us how to make them ?   ”   kaeya said “ us ” primarily because diluc was the only one to retain and culinary knowledge, but the idea of the three of them being together for once sounded nice. far off, with how busy their schedules were, but nice.

kaeya finally talks the fucking truth

our family.

those words were always foreign to kaeya, he always saw himself the reject heir the dawn winery's owner had picked up and took in. if he was not worthy to die in the cataclysm as a child, why was he allowed a chance to be happy in mondstadt? what blessing is that?

looking down, how could he answer this with hostility against the man who was so selfless, he picked him up and gave him a loving childhood. despite kaeya running off out of fear, or hiding away out of shyness, he wasn't scared of crepus. he just... wanted answers to his past.

"i was never completely happy... i will be honest. i lost my nation and... it still haunted me. you and diluc gave me happiness... but it would never replace the pain of my heritage. i was an outcast, an outlier, a... monster."

a sigh, he couldn't avoid the truth now... how did crepus even make him feel?

[ you just know crepus lost like 10 years off his life when baby kaeya ran away to sumeru sdfsdkf ]

@ccrepus | inbox call

"I-... didn't think. I didn't mean to worry you."

Kaeya had thought-.... he'd thought-.... well. He remembered his mother's stories. Her people had been from Sumeru. He remembered watching her fingertips tracing the branches of a tree in a book she held close. And did you know, my little darling? Your father's city used to extend beneath the surface of my homeland.

He'd thought he might be able to learn something, anything.

He'd intended to come back. The merchants came and went from the winery often, and there surely would have been another ship that could have taken him back just as easily.

Kaeya did admit he was hungry. A little tired, from sleeping fitfully amongst the crates in the belly of ship. (And he missed Diluc-) But he didn't feel particularly strongly of either with Master Crepus looking at him like that.

[ big brother privilege is getting scolded for all your baby bro's ill-advised misadventures, even when they're not your fault sdfsdk ]

" Yes, fath--- " Seeing Crepus' face, the well tucked away displeasure behind it, makes something within Diluc's chest leap. It has him straightening his backside, providing both his father AND his younger brother his full, undivided attention, as if daring to be distracted even a LITTLE bit may result in a scolding. Slowly, do bright, doe eyes pivot betwixt the head of the Ragnvindr household, and the deflated, shivering boy just nearest him, lingering a tad too LONG on the younger male, before returning to that of their father's creased face.

" Trip to . . . n-no, father, I . . . I promise, I did not. " And, never, would he LIE to his beloved dad. ESPECIALLY not if it meant it may encourage Kaeya to do this again. The way he looks now, dripping with water, likely to catch a cold from whatever had possessed him to sneak out by his lonesome . . . it CONCERNS Diluc. There were far nastier, grizzlier things lying in wait out there that could take him out swifter than a body of water.

Diluc would rather his brother not meet so grim a fate.

" Next time, take me WITH you, Kae ! You could have gotten even more hurt ! " Probably not what Crepus wants to hear--- they shouldn't be wandering so far from the winery by themselves, REGARDLESS of whether they travel as a unit or solo, but Diluc, at heart, was still a CHILD despite how quickly he'd matured, compared to most children his age.

Marking his place in the book he'd been reading, Diluc hops from the couch and disappears into his bedroom, returning with the blanket his mother had woven for him just before her untimely death. It joins the other spread of linen upon Kaeya's shoulders, adjustments made so it would not slip off. " You can borrow this, but ONLY if you promise me you won't do this again, 'kay ? Knight's honor. "

"this is for you, kaeya."

crepus kneels in front of his son, hand outstretched, the look in his eyes gentle.   he's holding a package; it's wrapped simply, but inside it is perhaps the softest, warmest cashmere wool scarf imaginable, woven in a color that very nearly perfectly matches kaeya's good eye.   from the doorway, diluc is watching with eyes as wide as dinnerplates, his shy smile growing and growing as he waits to see how his baby brother will react.

crepus' voice is warm, his expression warmer still.   "winters here can get cold, and i don't want you to get chilled.   try it on, see what you think."

His shoulders slightly lifted as the young boy fought the urge to cower before Crepus. As the youngest and newest addition to the Ragnvindr estate, he was told he’s safe, that he is going to be treated well, and that he could trust them. And yet, despite the countless reassurances, he still felt nervous around them. Perhaps, it is just a matter of getting used to, and that he would have to get used to it. 

Little and shaky hands balled at the hem of his handed-down and overly-sized shirt. It looked odd and baggy on his small figure, but his clothes wasn’t because of the lack of new and perfectly fitted set of clothes available to him. It was simply because Kaeya had preferred to wear his old clothes within the first few weeks of his stay. The weathered garbs were now carefully cleaned and patched. It served its purpose for travel albeit barely for the chill, — it also wasn’t hard to figure it was a far cry from the scarf presented to him. 

“ Thank you.. sir. ” The boy stutters shyly, his foreign lilt still heavy in his tone. He follows the older man’s words as if it was an order, awkwardly wrapping the scarf around his neck. The thick fabric had piled up as he clumsily wrapped it a little tighter than it should. He would have to hold and bunch it down so he could peek above it. 

Kaeya felt himself blush. It’s been a while since he had been hugged, but it felt exactly just like that. He confined his glee somewhat behind the scarf, but he had instinctively cupped the soft fabric so that he could feel it against his face. So warm and soft, he could sleep in it. In fact, he looked forward to do so as soon as he can. 

🔥 random dialogue prompts.

" ... i- "

   no, he will not be tricked again.

   his worst recurring nightmare is when crepus is still alive, and when it's time to get in bed, he wakes up in his dingy apartment, bedsheets wrapped so tight around his limbs, sweaty and in frantic tears.

   he will not be tricked again.

   no, he will not.

   except... except that this is really crepus, and the voice of his father alone is enough to undo him like a ball of yarn: a simple pull at the string, and everything falls apart.

   there's a sob, and then another; he has no control over those as he can only speak a cracked, tear-filled ' father? ' and wraps his arms tight around what's supposed to be a ghost, an imaginary torture he made up in his mind, for he's worthy only of the finest night terrors.