Two Birds on a Wire (A Diluc and Kaeya fanfic)

Part 5

Yep, Kaeya was officially freaked out.

"Tell me you're seeing this too," he whispered to Adelinde, who was standing in the doorway next to him.

"For the tenth time, Master Kaeya, yes, I see him too," Adelinde replied with a sigh.

"Then how are you so calm about this! Does this not completely weird you out?"

"Oh, it does, but after years of dealing with you boys, I'm more than used to staying calm in stressful situations."

That...Made sense, actually. Sure, Adelinde liked to fuss over them, but she was always there for the two of them whenever there was trouble. There was that time Diluc broke his arm when he was eight, or the time Kaeya almost drowned in the lake, and of course the whole mess that happened when Crepus died. The Winery was only still standing because of the combined efforts of Adelinde and Elzer.

The two looked over at the bed that the now-much-younger Diluc was currently sleeping in. Whatever spell the Abyss Mages cast on him must have taken quite the toll on his body, because he was out like a light the moment his head hit the pillow.

Though Adelinde was acting calm now, she was understandably very shocked when Kaeya knocked on the Winery door, a much shorter, much scrawnier version of Diluc at his side. Once they were in the light, Kaeya noticed how much of a mess his brother was. His hair (now about shoulder-length) was wild and all tangled up in its tie. He had dirt smeared across his face, and his clothes were almost comically hanging off his too-small frame.

But Adelinde, bless her soul, didn't even question it after seeing the frantic look on Kaeya's face. She just whisked Diluc away to get him some better-fitting clothes. Luckily, she never got around to throwing out the boys' old things, and kept them in storage.

"We should leave him be for the night," Adelinde whispered as she quietly shut the door to Diluc's bedroom. "Come downstairs; I'll make you some tea. And you're staying here tonight, by the way. I won't have you going back into the city at this late hour, and it's been too long since you last visited."

Kaeya nodded, not even bothering with arguing. To be honest, he wasn't really keen on leaving anyway. He didn't want to leave Diluc alone right now.

The two of them headed to the kitchen, where Adelinde started preparing some herbal tea to help both of their nerves. Then she poured them each a cup, and sat across the table from Kaeya, not bothering with formalities at the moment.

"So, Master Kaeya," the head housemaid started, a concerned look on her face. "Are you going to tell me what happened? Or will I have to keep guessing?"

"Right," Kaeya breathed out, crossing his arms. He let out a low sigh and slumped his shoulders. "I have no idea, to be honest. Whatever happened to him happened before I got there. It must have been some sort of spell cast by the Abyss Mages I saw fleeing the scene. I would've gone after them, but..." He looked down into his tea cup.

Adelinde shook her head. "Don't blame yourself for what happened, Master Kaeya. It's enough that you were there to help him before anyone else found him like that."

But was it? Was it enough? Kaeya should have taken the rumors more seriously, he should have trusted his theory more, he should have left sooner...If he'd only been there, the two of them could have fought the Abyss Mages before they got the chance to cast their weird ritual.

"I know that look," Adelinde said, raising an eyebrow at him. "You don't know how to process this, so you're trying to blame yourself for everything that went wrong. But you need to realize that he's still alive--he's hardly even injured--it's only the...well, his age that changed."

Kaeya only hummed in reply. Adelinde was right, as always. Things could have turned out a lot worse. And...well...Was this even all that bad? Kaeya missed his brother, he missed him so much it hurt. He wanted him back, he wanted his once closest friend back.

Maybe, just maybe, if Diluc stayed like this...Maybe things could go back to the way they used to be.

Was it selfish for him to think that? Probably, but Kaeya thought he had every right to feel a little selfish about this.

---

When Diluc awoke the next morning, the sun was already high in the sky. That in itself was odd; he was typically an early riser. He was in the habit of getting some knight training done before breakfast, and if for whatever reason he didn't wake up by himself, Adelinde would rouse him.

So why didn't she do that today? The head housemaid was always so on top of things. And even if she wasn't, if he really did sleep in this late, Kaeya at least would have woken him up. He and Kaeya did everything together, and whoever was up first would go bother the other until they were out of bed too. Usually, Diluc was the one to barge into Kaeya's room first, but--

Oh. Oh wait.

Things were a bit...different now, weren't they?

Right as Diluc stepped out of bed, his memories of last night hit him all at once. Not much happened, but what little he remembered was so overwhelming that he had to quickly move to sit on his bed to keep from falling over. His head was spinning like mad. He usually didn't get so wired up like this, but this...this was just too much.

Calm down, calm down. Maybe it was all just a bad dream. That made much more sense than it actually happening. Because there was no way this was real.

Yeah. Yeah, all of that was just a dream! It was just a dream. He'd get dressed and go downstairs, and everything would be normal. Everything would be just like it usually was.

Everything was fine.

Still, it took Diluc a minute or two to calm himself down. He placed a hand against his chest, his eyes wide with panic as he tried over and over to take deep breaths.

"It's okay," he whispered to himself, one hand digging into the folds of his nightshirt. "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay."

He let out one more deep breath, then forced himself to steady as he stood up. He glanced at his window, where strips of sunlight were streaming through the curtains. This was going to be a good day, and he was going to face it confidently like he always did. He could do this; all he had to do was walk downstairs. He could do this.

A neatly folded pile of clothes that Adelinde must have gotten ready for him were sitting on a chair by the other side of his bed. He took them and got dressed, not making any hurry to do so. His fingers trembled as he buttoned up his shirt, and by the time he got to his hair, his hands refused to cooperate with him, so he decided to just leave it down instead of in its usual tail.

When he was all done, he bit his lip and looked at himself in the mirror. Even though he slept in late, shadows were under his eyes. His hair was hardly brushed and was kind of all over the place, but he didn't have it in him to care much right now.

"Well," Diluc said, staring at his bedroom door. "Here goes nothing." With one hand, he turned the knob on his door and pushed it open. With every step it took to walk down the staircase, his mind kept chanting, it was just a dream, it was just a dream, it was just a dream.