#call them brothers. (relations: diluc) ✧; inblazes

[glacialswordsman-a]

"Yaya, did you know that you have stars in your eyes?"

Diluc peers at Kaeya's visible eye with wide-eyed, innocent curiosity -- and pulls his brother's face in closer to get a better look. Honestly, he'd been avoiding looking at this strange boy good and proper up until this point, but now that the two young masters are growing close, he's becoming bold and fearless.

"...They're so pretty. I want them too!"

“Stars...?” the younger boy asked, blinking owlishly.

Ah, right…stars. Those lights that shone brightly in the night sky. It’s still such a foreign concept to the Khaenri’ahn boy, after living in a place where the sky was empty. A small gasp left him as he was pulled in close by the redheaded boy, his brows furrowing upwards as he looked at his brother timidly, sheepishly. It’s taken Kaeya some time to get used to his new brother being so touchy with him. Even now he still had some difficulties trying not to flinch away, but he found that the older kid was never doing it in a way to hurt him. In fact, it was always to comfort him, or help him.

When Diluc mentioned that he, too, wanted stars in his eyes, Kaeya would look at him with much confusion. “… Why? Your eyes—are pretty,” he stated, his common still a little rusty. “Warm... like fire? Or red like berries. No need for stars.”

[glacialswordsman-a]

The Captain’s eye squinted towards the Ragnivindr warily, chewing on the inside of his cheek as his eye flickered all across the other man’s face. He did not look well at all, and honestly it had Kaeya’s stomach beginning to tie itself into knots.

“Where?”

He was quick in his question after Diluc mentioned needing to be somewhere. Where could he possibly need to go that has him looking wan? He didn’t appear to be in any condition to even Go anywhere. Granted, the other was strong—arguably much stronger than him in strength and constitution, yet if he was looking this bad, then surely it was serious.

Though, when the other spoke up and asked him for help of all things… Well! It alarmed Kaeya, making sirens go off loudly in his head.

“… Alright.”

Clearly this was only to prove that the Knights of Favonius are capable, unlike what Diluc thinks of them, of course! Yes, that’s all there is to this. It’s certainly not to help his brother him out of worry and nothing more.

“I’ll be right back,” he assured, standing quickly from his seat and practically flying out of the tavern—in the most professional and composed way possible. Obviously.

His gaze was sharp as he looked around for the brunet man, eye sweeping along the people that lined the streets. He made a beeline towards Charles’s place first, figuring it’d be a good place to start.

Indeed, it was the perfect place to start, as he saw the lights on inside. There was a small twinge of irritation despite the relief of knowing the man was okay, but now Diluc was waiting for him. With a few quick raps against the door, he offered a smile towards Charles that was a little strained at the corners. It’s certainly no fault of Charles at all that something’s going on with Diluc, yet his nerves were a little high-strung right now.

Explaining the situation to the bartender, Charles was quick to leave his home with Kaeya and head towards the tavern. Once they both arrived, Charles apologized to Diluc and ushered him to leave so he can do what he needed to, whatever it was. Kaeya did tell Charles that the man wasn’t looking well, but Charles made no indication of it and just left it open-ended in case others were to listen in.

@glacialswordsman | tee hee

"I just have somewhere to be."

Namely anywhere but here. He feels as if he's suffocating on the spot. It's hot, stifling even -- and as keen as Kaeya might be to have a go at playing bartender, it wasn't an option.

Neither was closing early, which would require him to lose business for the rest of the night and draw unneeded attention to himself. People would definitely talk.

Diluc leans against the bar, willing himself to stay upright, and gently nurses a glass of water left to the side.

It takes a lot to make him ask for help, and he doesn't exactly want to cause Kaeya any trouble either, but...

"Do you think you could find him?"

[glacialswordsman-a]

"Kaaaaaaaeya! Kaeya, hey!"

The young master is positively beaming. Rosy-cheeked, and with hair sticking to his forehead with sweat, Diluc scurries through the vineyard as though his life depended upon it, desperate to rejoin his sibling.

A toothy grin spreads across a rounded, chubby little face (a face that still clings onto bits of baby fat in his boyhood) and he practically skids onto his knees, scraping them on the dusty ground. But he doesn't care none about the sting of the pebbles cutting into his skin, far too excited to share ... whatever it was that he had grasped between his hands.

"Look what I've got. Are you ready?"

He knows exactly what will cheer up his little brother from his gloom -- and opens his palms to reveal a glimmering anemo crystalfly that flutters on up, up, up... And then disappears into the warm, summer wind.

"What the...? Hey! Come back!"

Somewhere in the vineyards of the Dawn Winery sat a boy with midnight locks beneath the grape leaves. He was curled up tightly into himself, his small head buried into his thin arms that rested on his bony knees, sinking into himself and attempting to keep the world out. He was silent as he was still, refusing to make a sound as his starry eye welled over with tears that refused to spill.

He had been lightly scolded over something inconsequential, such as getting his hand much too close to the burning stove. It was such a gentle admonishment, yet one that still set the boy off and made him profusely apologize, saying that he would never do it again.

Anything that could keep him from being abandoned again.

Though, hearing the familiar call from the boy with flaming hair, Kaeya tensed up and blinked his tears away, slowly lifting his head from the barrier of his arms. “Lulu?” he called out oh-so-softly, wary and surprised that he was being searched for so soon. Aren’t they all mad at him right now?

Seeing Diluc come into view, the smaller of the two gave a few owlish blinks as he skid on his knees to a stop right before him. At the question, he nodded his head meekly, his eye big and wide and curious.

As the other opened his hands to show off his catch, Kaeya’s eye shimmered from the gentle glow of the anemo crystalfly. His tension began to leave him as he watched the creature begin to fly, fly away from the two boys that had been so curious over its mere existence. It was only when Diluc called out for it again that Kaeya blinked a few more times before looking back at the boy before him for a few moments until an amused smile broke out as he giggled at the sight of his brother annoyed that his prized catch had gone and left.

Already, his troubles have been forgotten.

He laughed and laughed, his body unwinding from its tight coil as his eye shaped into a crescent that had brilliantly lit, his shoulders shaking just a bit from the force of his laughter. Only after a while did he calm down, reaching out to Diluc afterwards and gently grabbing his hand, holding it within his own. “Where’d you find it?” he asked, his voice a little rough from laughing while a strange accent still lingered in his Mondstadtian. “Let’s go find some more!”

⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺

Staring down at his empty glass, Kaeya’s eye shifted minutely before he came back to himself, his star dilating into a diamond for just a moment as he recalled where he was.

The Angel’s Share.

Looking up, he gazed at the man with flaming hair silently. With a faint, somewhat strained smile that tugged at a corner of his lips before forcing it a bit bigger, he tapped the bar with his knuckle once before slowly standing up.

“I believe that will be my last drink for the night, Master Diluc. As always, you know exactly how to make it to my tastes. Thank you.”

… Kaeya, cutting himself off for the night, rather than by the rigid bartender before him? Well, perhaps this would be a welcome change for the man he always caused so much grief, even if for just tonight.

[glacialswordsman-a]

It isn't often that Diluc is one to read the newspaper, but...

Well, one of the patrons left one behind earlier in the day and never came back for it. He may as well. So it goes that he's flipping through it during a particularly quiet part of the night, stuck behind the counter as he focuses upon a passage from Fontaine, and the accompanying image of a certain Warden.

His eyes are glued to the page as he holds it closer to his face, brows furrowed in deep concentration. When Kaeya speaks up to grab his attention, his voice hardly registers for a beat or three -- after which Diluc looks up at long last, face flushed with the embarrassment of being caught ogling.

"Sorry, what were you saying?"

( Happy pride month! Your brother is a flaming homosexual. 😘 )

“—and he had the absolute gall to bite my arm, Lulu! What kind of feral man would do that?! Like, honestly, if you’re visiting Mondstadt and there’s something sketchy about you, of course I’m going to try and figure out if you’re a threat! Oh, and don’t even get me started on the consultant from the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. That damn old man may be drop-dead gorgeous but he can also be so infuriating! There’s something different about him, I just know it!”

Unfortunately for Diluc, Kaeya was now officially off duty for the night, and that meant he had been hanging out in the Angel’s Share ever since he knew his brother would be starting his shift. What better way to spend his time with his brother than by complaining about all the men in his life? He never once complained about Lumine—well. No, that was a lie. He complained about her all the time when they first met, going on a tangent on how he knew she was wearing masks and she was a liar, blah-blah-blah. Pot calling the kettle black, as you know.

However, he eventually realized his darling brother was not listening to him. In fact, he seemed to be rather engrossed in the newspaper for some strange reason. It made him pause in his tangent and instead look at the older man with a quirked brow, waiting for him to notice him. Only when the other finally remembered his little brother was here, pouring his heart out, did Kaeya’s expression shift to petulance. Although, seeing the other’s face get so red…

Hmm.

“Honestly, Lulu, you can’t even spare a few minutes for your dear little brother? What has you so distracted that you weren’t listening to me?” he inquired, leaning his cheek boredly on his palm. He made no sudden movements…not until a few seconds later when he snatched the newspaper out of Diluc’s hands.

Straightening the papers, he looked through the articles, crossing one leg over the other—until he noticed a particular headline and photo.

“… Oh. Oh, Lulu, don’t tell me… The Duke of Meropide?” he chimed in utter glee, giving the older man a shit-eating, devious grin.

[glacialswordsman-a]

Oh, so not only did Diluc plant Kaeya behind the bar, but now he was laughing.

LAUGHING, of all things! This isn’t his brother, this is a demon in disguise.

Scowling towards the other (out of embarrassment), he continued to keep his hands hovering at his sides. He looked like a baby deer learning how to walk, or someone beginning to learn how to ice skate. He was unsteady and nervous, terrified of taking that first step and risk face-planting against the counter and shattering a bunch of glass.

“Hey, remember all those times I offered to man the bar for you? Yeah, I expected you to never even entertain that thought because you knew how much of a bad idea it was, yet here you are wanting to suddenly teach me? Why? Are you dying? Is there some sort of terminal illness you need to tell me about? Am I on the will? Please tell me I’m on the will.”

He’s yapping, he knows he is. He’s trying to Not do whatever Diluc wanted him to do. He will never live down the lifelong humiliation of messing any of this up, especially if one day he may have to do this in front of regular patrons of the tavern. Oh, the mortification of breaking a glass in front of someone or spilling cocktails onto himself while trying to mix them—he thinks he’d rather be struck down by Celestia here and now than possibly deal with that in the future.

He whined—WHINED—when Diluc told him he was more than likely going to break something. Okay, when Charles or Diluc do it, they look dignified and immediately know how to recover. Kaeya doesn’t. This is uncharted territory for him and he hates knowing he’s not going to be perfect at it immediately.

With a slow, deep sigh that he expelled from his nose, he very carefully began to move, his hands shaking just a little. Okay. Sparkling berry juice…he can do that. He saw Charles make it many times before, as well as Diluc.

He paused, though. Where do they keep everything again? Archons, his mind was scrambled eggs.

Rummaging around, he eventually found the valberries for the drink as well as the sparkling water. Alright…step one of finding the ingredients, check. Now came the scary part of finding and grabbing a glass. Fortunately it didn’t take long for him to find one appropriate for this drink, nor did he break it! … This time.

“… Um.”

He was trying to remember the steps from watching the two other bartenders, but he was still a bit of a jumbled mess.

Putting the berries in the glass, he used a spoon to mash some of them while leaving others intact before pouring sparkling water over them. He mixed very, Very cautiously and slowly, squinting all the while as he concentrated on this one task. Once the water was sufficiently tinted red, he stared at the drink before him.

… Should—should he garnish it?

Ugh, fuck it, he can do that much.

Bringing out a lemon slice, he cut a small wedge into it before placing it on the rim of the glass. With a somewhat proud huff, he passed it over towards Diluc.

“Here, sir. One sparkling berry juice.”

@glacialswordsman | HEHE

"Hey. I'm being entirely serious."

Has he gone mad? Possibly.

Soft laughter bounces off of the walls of the empty tavern, and Diluc has to cover his mouth to compose himself. In this moment, he wishes he had a kamera on his person so that he could keep and frame the image of Kaeya stood dead-stiff behind the bar, refusing to jut an arm out either side for fear of ... breaking something, he supposes.

"Don't look so terrified. I thought this kind of thing would be right up your alley."

Any tavern worth its salt gets a steady supply of glassware sent in, and losses are so common that it's nothing to be all that ashamed about. Either they end up dropped, get a chip that makes them unsafe to drink from, shatter while cooling down from a hot wash, or they go walking across the city to someone's home. Sometimes they just spontaneously explode with as little as a look, just because.

But he doesn't expect Kaeya to know any of these things, nor how hard the job could actually be, at times.

"Not to terrify you, but you're probably going to break something."

Possibly several things.

"Comes with the job, but it's fine. I'll walk you through it."

Lounging back on the barstool, a gloved hand cradles his own chin as he contemplates something easy to start off with... For the both of them. It would be awkward if he drank too much immediately.

They'll move onto the harder stuff once Kaeya starts feeling a little more human again.

"Okay, here's a simple one: one sparkling berry juice, please."