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Crepus Ragnvindr is a father of two.
His oldest is a boy that looks like a copy of him, who enjoys basking in the sunlight and has big, bright dreams, but has a hard time understanding social cues and hates the texture of some types of clothing and gets sick when he eats bananas. His name is Diluc, the first and last gift his mother could give him before she passed, and he was for many years the only light of his eyes.
There’s his second son too, a younger and smaller boy, who starts to rub his right eye when there’s too much light, who hates wool so much he will cry and doesn’t like red meats unless it is cut in very small pieces and served with sauces. His name is Kaeya, and although he isn’t Crepus’ by blood, he is his son as much as Diluc.
The first 9 years of Diluc’s life was only Crepus and him, Crepus doing his best to be like his own father never was. He wanted to Diluc to make what made him happy, and to follow his dreams, supporting everything he showed interest in. Crepus always had time for him, no matter what the people in the Wine Guild might say.
Then came Kaeya. Small, scared, scarred (a survivor) Kaeya. Kaeya was around a year younger than Diluc as best as he could guess. When Crepus found him in the beginning of a storm, he was ankles deep in the mud, shaking with a cold that seemed to cling to his very bones, no parents or adults to be seen. (Once out of the storm, Crepus could see the clothes Kaeya was wearing, embroiled symbols he couldn’t understand, an eight pointed star on his chest, clothes in a style he couldn’t recognize.) And he didn’t know what or where Kaeya was from, but he knows he had seen horrors he couldn’t wish on any kid.
And Kaeya stayed. Diluc was delighted to have a brother, dragging him along to every class, meal, and reunions. They seemed to be joined by the hip, always together, and Crepus couldn’t be happier with that.
A second child was a challenge in many ways. Crepus hadn’t realized how much he had assumed every other kid was like his Diluc. He had to relearn how to learn what made Kaeya happy; he had to learn Kaeya should be given small and more meals, unlike Diluc who ate three big ones; he had to learn Kaeya would flinch away when he was scolding him and reached to grab his shoulder; he had to learn this new world his second son was.
Diluc had a vision too, and that was an extra challenge. Diluc had gotten it when he was ten, little from a year since Kaeya had appeared in their lives. He had a pyro vision that reacted to his emotions, who would flare up when he was angry and make small explosions when he was happy. Crepus had to learn to breath deeply and think before jumping to scold Diluc from burning things, trying to use other methods to teach Diluc. He started asking what they could do to solve things instead of reminding Diluc it had been his fault. Kaeya had to learn with Diluc having a vision too, although not in the way Crepus had expected. Crepus expected him to become jealous of Diluc, but instead he became wary. Not of the fire, he didn’t mind it besides the obvious precaution of not getting burned. No. Kaeya was wary it was a vision. His nose would wrinkle every time the vision was brought up or he had to stand close to the side where Diluc’s vision has hanging. At first Crepus though this was jealousy (the same way he himself was jealous his son had achieved what during all his life he had wanted) but soon realized it was something else entirely, something he couldn’t understand.
His boys were growing up too, they wouldn’t stay little kids forever, even if Crepus would like that. Diluc became the youngest person to ever become captain in the Knights of Favonius at the age of 14. Kaeya started to form connections with well off people from several regions, and Crepus was sure one day he would handle the family business like he was born to do that. And at sixteen, Kaeya joined the Knights as well. Crepus was fine with that, he wasn’t that old yet and could allow his boys the freedom all youngsters needed to discover themselves.
The years were going by oh-so fast, Crepus could still remember when he first held Diluc and when he first saw Kaeya, and now his oldest was about to turn eighteen. He was an adult already. Crepus sighed, and he knew it was time to tell Diluc a truth. He looked at the box where there was the thing that granted him the power of a vision holder, and couldn’t believe it was already the time he had promised himself he would tell Diluc the truth in the family. Putting the box in a bag he was going to bring to the city to meet with his children, he went out to the carriage that was waiting for him. This was Diluc’s eighteenth birthday and he has the make sure it was perfect for his eldest son.