Chapter Text
It was late at night, almost eleven o'clock. Crepus managed to get home late yet again, much to his disliking. He had two six year old boys to take care of, one soon turning seven soon. And as a father who loved his sons with all his heart, it hurt him to be away from them for so long.
Taking off his coat, Crepus made his way upstairs and towards his sons bedroom. Kaeya was adopted shortly after he turned six, and after his adoption they decided to have him and Diluc share a room. Once they started sharing a room, it was later discovered that Kaeya struggled with nightmares, most of them being based around his original family.
Of course Crepus would be there once he heard Kaeya crying, but it was nice knowing that Diluc would always be to soothe Kaeya just in case Crepus wasn't there for him.
Crepus let out a sigh as he saw the empty bed, understanding that his sons were somewhere else. He soon made his way into his room and saw two young boys sleeping peacefully in his bed. He knew he shouldn't disturb his sons, but he needed to get some sleep and it was going to be difficult to sleep when you have two kids sleeping in your bed, especially in the middle.
Crepus turned on the light and immediately he heard groaning coming from his kids, Kaeya immediately waking up while Diluc continued to take a long while to wake up.
Kaeya's eyes went wide when he saw Crepus, immediately jumping off of the bed and running towards his father, the redhead picking up his second son.
"Papa you're back! Diluc and I waited for you! But we ended up falling asleep by accident. Please don't be angry that we slept in your bed!"
Crepus chuckled as he sat down on his bed, soon rubbing Diluc's hair as the younger redhead rubbed his eyes. "Of course I'm not angry at you boys. Why would I be angry over such a little thing? Falling asleep in my bed is harmless, I'm not angry but I'm not surprised either."
Kaeya let out a tired yawn as Crepus placed him down, the young bluenette soon putting the heavy covers over his small body. Crepus was too tired to put his sons back in their room, so having them sleep in his room was harmless.
He got back up and turned the lights off, soon going back into his bed, too tired to change out of his work clothes. As soon as he put the cover over his body, Diluc immediately snuggled up against him as Crepus held both of his sons close as all three drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
At least, it was peaceful until a few hours later.
Kaeya immediately shot up as he heard something weird...almost as if someone was walking through the halls of the manor late at night. The door was opened just by a bit, and Kaeya could've sworn he saw something moving outside in the hallway.
Immediately, Kaeya put his entire body under the blanket, the sudden movement made Crepus start to wake up. Kaeya felt his heart stop as he realized he had woken up his father. If he was still living with his biological father, he would've been in a lot of trouble for waking him up.
"Kaeya...is everything okay?" Crepus asked, still tired.
"I-I think there's something outside..." Kaeya whispered, soon gripping on to Crepus as the redhead pulled the cover off to reveal Kaeya's terrified face.
"It's probably noth-" Crepus stopped as he heard some sort of movement coming from downstairs. "Stay here." Making sure to watch out for his sons, Crepus got off the bed and made his way downstairs, waking Diluc up in the process as Kaeya moved close to the confused and tired Diluc, wrapping his arms around his older brother.
As Crepus walked downstairs, he couldn't help but feel uneasy about something. He soon saw a figure of a person wandering around, lazily hitting into things as it started groaning just a bit.
Crepus gave the figure a confused look as he managed to figure out who it was.
"Elzer? What are you doing up? Don't you know what time it is?"
Elzer didn't respond, instead he went quiet and in a flash he swiftly turned around to face Crepus and shrieked at him. Crepus moved back, only for Elzer to run at him and pin him to the ground, quickly trying to claw away at the wine maker.
"What has gotten into you?!" Crepus was struggling to keep Elzer off of him. Since when did he manage to get stronger than Crepus?
With all of his strength, Crepus managed to kick Elzer off of him, the butler quickly getting back on his feet and soon charging back at Crepus, who had just managed to get back up.
Crepus tried his best to hold Elzer back, trying not to bring any harm to his friend. Elzer tried to bite him, at one point getting close to the neck only for Crepus to harshly shove him.
What he did next, he purely lost control. Crepus managed to get a tight grip on Elzer's head and bashed his head into the side of a table multiple times, soon letting the head go once there was no movement.
He watched as the body fell to the ground, the blood staining the hardwood floor. Crepus looked at the blood on his hands in pure horror, almost terrified by what he did to his friend. Or was it the fact he had his friends blood staining his hands and some of his attire?
He quickly wiped the blood on his clothing, not giving a damn how much this would cost to fix. He soon laid his eyes on his right arm and wiped the blood off of that, eyes growing wide as blood continued to gush out of it.
He noticed a bite mark was on his right arm, heart stopping as he didn't truly know what to do.
"Papa?" Crepus quickly turned his head to the stairs and was met face to face with his sons, both not knowing who to look at, him or the body of the person who used to care for them whenever Crepus was busy.
"Boys..." Crepus moved towards his sons, stopping as he saw them both try to back away, clearly terrified of him.
"Y-you killed him." Diluc spoke, fear in his voice as he stared at his father.
Crepus didn't know what to say or how to word what he did. I'm mean, how do you explain to a couple of kids that your butler wasn't acting like himself but more like a threat? How does a father tell that to his kids?
"Look, he wasn't in his right mind. I don't know what was going on with him, but something wasn't right and I can't explain what it was."
That was true, he couldn't exactly explain what happened. Maybe Elzer ended up catching some sort of dis-
"W-was he sick?" Kaeya asked, starring at the body in full fear. "I-I saw on the news that some peo-people in the city were ge-getting sick..."
"Hm, Elzer did go into the city yesterday to visit his family."
"And he was coughing earlier today..." Diluc spoke, his voice easing just a bit.
"Do you think he got sick from being in the city?" Kaeya asked, a hint of worried in his small voice.
"I don't know..." Was all Crepus could really say, clearly confused by the situation.
Diluc's eyes widened as he saw his fathers arm, his eyes resting on the still bleeding bite mark. "Yo-your arm, what happened?"
Crepus looked down at his arm and immediately covered it up with his hand, the blood staining the palm of his hand and his fingers. "Nothing you need to worry about, I'm completely fine."
He was anything but fine, he was scared. He didn't know if he too would become sick like Elzer. He didn't know what was happening.
Quickly, Crepus went towards one of the bathrooms and turned the light on, grabbing some medical equipment. He first ran some water on his arm, then cleaned off the water, only a little blood was seen coming out. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed a rag and put it in his mouth so he could have something to bite down hard on.
Then, he grabbed the rubbing alcohol and put some on his wound, immediately biting down on the rag. Once he cleaned the wound, he grabbed some bandages and wrapped his arm up, soon taking the rag out and taking in a few deep breaths.
Tonight was surely becoming a pain, and it only grew worse.
He heard his phone ringing, running towards the sound. He found his coat and grabbed the phone from it, seeing that Varka was trying to call him.
"Varka," Crepus spoke, a hint of worry in his voice, "Is everything okay?"
"Oh thank Barbatos you picked up Crepus. And if you count some random person acting all feral and trying to kill me as okay, then yes, I am okay. Of fucking course I'm not! I have no clue what's going on, but you're lucky you aren't in the city, it's utter chaos over here."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Just...just turn on your tv and make sure it's on Mondstadt News. You'll see what I mean...the sight is just a bit too much for me to discuss.
Following Varka's orders, Crepus turned on the tv, both of his sons watching as the news reporter started talking.
"We are unsure about what has happened, but we can inform you the army is trying their hardest to figure out this situation." The reporter was standing in front of a hospital, a few dozen soldiers were outside of the building with her. "The soldiers are trying to get everyone out as we speak. There have been reports of people going crazy and biting other people. We don't know what is-"
"Hey ma'am," One of the soldiers spoke as he walked up to the reporter. "You need to leave now."
The reporter didn't budge, choosing to ignore the soldier as she continued speaking. "Once the military learns what is happening, they wil-"
Suddenly, the hospital blew up, killing all of the soldiers as well as the news reporter too. Crepus could hear the explosion from outside, as his mansion was not too far from the city. Varka, on the other hand, got to witness the explosion first hand as he watched it blow up.
Kaeya forcefully closed his eyes as he buried his face into Diluc's shoulder, the redhead holding his baby brother close. Crepus placed a hand over his mouth, unsure as to what to say.
"By Barbatos..." Crepus whispered as the only thing appearing on the tv was static, it's noise could be heard from all around the manor.
"What the FUCK is going on?!" Varka was now enraged. No one had the answer, no one knew why this was all happening.
"I-I don't kno-"
"Shit they're here!"
"W-wa-wait who's there?!"
"The sick people! Look, once I get myself out of this I'm gonna come straight for you, okay? Please stay safe."
And with that, Varka hung up, leaving Crepus all alone to think about all that has happened.
"Papa?" Crepus' eyes went wide when he heard Diluc's voice, realizing his sons where still here. No child should've seen something like that, especially those who were far too young to understand what was going on.
Crepus made his way to the stairs and sat down in front of them, wrapping his arms around his two boys. "Hey, it's okay, I'm here, I won't let anything happen to you two."
"Promise?" Diluc asked, burying his head into his fathers shirt.
"I promise."