Very rough luckae angst thoughts w/ major character death bc I hate my class rn

Just thinking about an omegaverse au where Kaeya was pregnant with Diluc's child when he left Mondstadt

He gets taken in by Jean's family to help support the child when they're born but Kaeya feels as if he reputation is tarnished with how he refuses to name a father. Paired with how his brother disowns him just a few months ago, gossip spreads and kaeya is helpless to stop it

One day, while heading home from Springvale on a grocery errand and carrying his child in his arms, they are ambushed by thieves.

Kaeya fights back of course, but against numbers and accompanied by a vulnerable child that he constantly shifts his attention to to defend--

And protect, he slips up several times.

Fortunately, he manages to slip away with his child. Unfortunately, he suffers from a fatal wound that he continuously bleeds out from

He makes it as far as seeing the bridge leading to Mondstadt in the near distance before he collapses of blood loss. His child starts crying, and beneath the sadness he feels towards not being able to spend more time with the light of his life...

He mourns and regrets leaving his kid to live the same fate as him, abandoned and alone.

In his mind's eye, he remembers hair as red as the most vivid sunset in Mondstadt, a warm gaze that speaks of trust (an expression he knows he'd never see again)

With what voice he has left, he shushes his crying child and offers words of comfort, saying it's gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay

You're gonna live

You're gonna grow up so much better than me

You're gonna fine, mama will protect you

Mama will be with you always

In his mind, he apologizes to Diluc, and mourns over the list opportunity to reconcile and maybe introduce him to their beautiful child, his starlight who brightens up his darkest days and gives him the strength to live for one more day

They are found by a patrolling knight hours later, drawn to the sounds of crying.

Kaeya is cold and lifeless, still curling up against his wailing child, a mother protecting their kin till the very end

(Diluc arrives years later, and receives the news. He's in denial at first-- Kaeya wouldn't die, no, he's too stubborn to do that. He wouldn't. He wouldn't leave him alone in this world.

Except he sees their child. No one else but Kaeya knows who the father is, but Diluc /does/

Their child has Kaeya's coloring; navy blue hair and eyes like the early evening sky, but those are /his/ features.

He stumbles towards them, clutching their shoulders. They tilt their head, confused, but something about this man's scent comforts him so he stays unmoving

Diluc breaks down right there and then, despaired over how he wasn't there for his mate when he needed him the most-- wasn't even there for his last moments. He wails over the could-have-beens, and second chance of a family Kaeya was able to give him

He misses Kaeya and regrets, so much.

He takes in their child of course, on the pretense that this was his way of remembering his brother's memory despite him disowning Kaeya

Family is still family of course.

He raises them with so much love and care, refusing to ever make them feel unloved in their lives.

But once a year, he visits a grave, lays down a bouquet of calla lilies and lamp grasses each time, and remembers.)

End if thread!