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Crepus found it close to impossible to say no when his pair of 12-year olds snuck into his office one night and begged him to go horseback riding. Despite it being the busy season, it had been a while since Crepus had a day out with his kids. When he agreed to the request, Diluc and Kaeya jumped for joy. Seeing their delight almost made the head Ragnvindr tear up. He’d been too emotional lately with his thoughts lingering toward his late wife. Before he could get lost in thought, he sent the two boys to bed with promises of all the fun they’d have later that week.
*****
As Kaeya and Diluc waited eagerly for their father to join them outside, two servants brought the horses around to the front of the winery. The boys approached their beloved riding companions. Diluc’s white mare seemed a little distracted and not really interested in the boy who was petting her, but Kaeya’s black stallion affectionately nibbled at one of the bluehead’s pockets. He pulled out a sugar cube and gave it the horse.
“Did you take one of the sugar cubes meant for Father’s coffee?” Diluc asked. Kaeya shushed him.
“He needs to cut back on his sugar anyway.”
“Who told you that?” Kaeya and Diluc stiffened before sheepishly turning around to find their father standing right behind them with his arms crossed. Kaeya looked down and fidgeted with one of his gloves.
“Um…Addy.” There was silence for a moment before Crepus let out a bark of laughter.
“Well, I suppose she is right about that, but next time you want a treat for Schwarz just say so.” The horse’s ears pricked up at the name.
“Yes, father.”
“Now, it’s about time we set out, don’t you think?” That returned the boys’ smiles to their faces. Kaeya quickly hopped up on the back of Schwarz. Crepus mounted his buckskin stallion and patted its neck.
“C’mon Weiss, what’s with you?” Diluc groaned. The mare pranced around every time Diluc went to mount her. Diluc’s horse had a bit of a stubborn streak, but she usually adored the small redhead. Her out of character actions should have been taken as a warning, but the trio were excited for the day ahead of them, especially Diluc. He was determined to race Kaeya at some point and finally put an end to their feud of mares vs. stallions.
Anticipating Weiss’ movements, Diluc readied himself and slipped his foot into the stirrup, pulling and swinging himself over onto the horse’s back. As soon as he sat down, the horse whinnied before bucking. Crepus and Kaeya’s horses moved away on instinct.
Diluc somehow managed to stay on Weiss’ back, but then she reared up further than any horse the trio had seen before. The boy couldn’t hold on. He fell off of her back onto the dirt road. Crepus had shouted his son’s name and quickly dismounted. The mare thrashed around a bit, narrowly missing the stunned preteen on the ground, before Crepus grabbed her reins and attempted to calm her down.
The commotion got the attention of some staff members who came running when they noticed what was going on.
“Easy, Weiss! Easy!” Crepus attempted to sound calm, but he was nervous that Diluc hadn’t moved from his spot on the ground. The horse jumped around a bit before shaking its head and finally coming to halt. A servant grabbed the reins of Weiss and tried to lead her away from the boy on the ground. Thankful for the aid, Crepus immediately ran over to his fallen son.
Diluc appeared to be unconscious. His father gently felt around his son’s neck and head, discovering the boy had hit his head on a rogue stone in the road. The gash wasn’t too deep but it bled profusely.
“Is he alright, Father?” Kaeya asked from somewhere behind, but Crepus couldn’t answer. Instead, he continued to call out Diluc’s name, hoping to rouse him. One of the nearby servants saw the situation and announced he’d call for a healer immediately.
Crepus gently shook Diluc’s shoulder, still calling out to him.
“Perhaps we should take him inside, sir,” a servant suggested. Crepus was about to agree before Diluc opened his eyes. The man only needed to take one look to see that the boy was dazed.
“Can you hear me, Diluc?”
No response. Diluc didn’t even appear to hear the question. Crepus cursed under his breath before asking the servant to help bring him inside to one the rooms at the winery.
*****
“I feel fine,” Diluc slurred. The preteen had no idea his brother was the only thing keeping him sitting upright as his father tried to stow the bleeding from his head injury.
“You’re not ‘fine,’ ‘luc.” The redhead didn’t respond to Kaeya. Instead, he continued to sit there with a blank expression. “I wish the healer would get here already…” Kaeya groaned.
“The healer won’t be able to heal his concussion. I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone our day out.” Kaeya nodded understandingly. He tried to hide his disappointment, but he clearly wasn’t doing a good job. Crepus freed the hand he was using to hold Diluc’s head still and ruffled Kaeya’s hair.
“Chin up, son. These things happen sometimes.”
Diluc took the opportunity to stand up while the other two were distracted.
“Hey! Diluc, what do you think you’re doing?” Crepus lightly chastised him. He quickly grabbed his son who started swaying and gently guided him to sit back down on the sofa.
“I wanna go!” Diluc whined.
“Go where?” Crepus decided to indulge his son’s delusional behavior. Diluc continued to look somewhat shell-shocked before furrowing his brow in confusion.
“...dunno.” At that moment someone knocked on the door. Crepus granted them permission to come into the room and was delighted to see one of the staff followed by a healer.
“I hear someone fell off of his horse,” the healer said.
“Yes, the horse reared, but he hit his head on a rock when he landed.” The healer acknowledged Crepus’ rundown on the situation as she took his place on the sofa next to Diluc. She let out a low whistle as she looked over the wound.
“Well, it’s certainly not the worst I’ve seen, but I can tell just by the way he’s acting that he’s got a nasty concussion.”
“I have to go to work tomorrow,” Diluc stated. Crepus ran a hand down his face as Kaeya gently reminded his brother that he didn’t have a job.
“Yep. He’s going to need plenty of rest,” the healer said matter-of-factly as she began to heal him with her hydro vision. Diluc visibly relaxed as the healer did her business. When she finished, she gently turned Diluc’s head towards her to look at his eyes. She summoned a small but very bright orb of hydro. The redhead let out a groan and pulled his head away. The healer sighed before getting up off of the sofa and rubbing the creases out of her clothes.
“His head is all healed, but that concussion will take a while. I’m going to leave some standard headache relief medication, but what he really needs is rest. A lot. Keep the shades drawn, he’ll be pretty sensitive to light for a while.”
“Thank you, sister,” Crepus said as he bowed slightly. The healer just nodded before she turned back to the concussed preteen.
“You need to stay in bed. No going to ‘work,’ got it?” Crepus chuckled quietly while Diluc just looked at her bewilderedly.
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t go anywhere,” Kaeya spoke up. The adults in the room smiled.
Crepus saw to the healer’s departure while Kaeya and one of the staff helped Diluc into bed. When he closed the winery’s door, he took a deep breath as he thought about the day’s events.
There truly never was a dull amount with his sons around.