#hands u some ragbros angst happy new yeARS.

[dawnswine]

what if ... what if, to start the new year off on the right note ... what if diluc let kaeya cook for him and they had dinner together and talked about anything and everything, like brothers do ... what if ...

( kaeya showing up to the angel's share with some homemade bamia that smells like heaven on earth and a hopeful look on his face is mere coincidence, of course ... )

angel share’s patrons had forsaken the warmth of the tavern for the eventide chill of cobblestone and moonlight, the festivities had reached their crescendo and tempered to a soft hum of stragglers as they decided it was time to also head home.  home , it had always been a raw sentiment when it came to times like these. diluc ascertained to keep himself busied, lest he be towed into rumination of a past that could not be changed. instinctively his eyes dart to the door as the bell chimes and in strolls the cavalry captain. there should have been that customary sliver of annoyance that simmered within him when their eyes met and yet, on this night, it’s absent.  perhaps, he has grown weary with the sentimentality of others or perhaps - he is as lonely as adeline had surmised he was.   there would always be a vacuous aperture where family had once resided, a wound that could not entirely heal ; the sort that ached when his brother would laugh or smile things that invoked memories of a past lost to them. “  it’s late kaeya.”  he said,  his voice a soft reprimand.  then he allows himself a moment of silence to truly witness his brother. to stand in that door, a solitary plastic bag hanging limp upon his wrist and a smile -  that felt so unlike the confidence he mantled himself with - it made diluc hesitate.                                                      he had made them dinner.

a long time ago they had shared evenings like this often, banter of youth sonorous through the halls as their father would chide them, reminding them that the more they spoke the less they would eat. family,  how much it had meant to the both of them.  

“  shall we eat together.”   It’s an olive branch that both had always wanted to extend yet neither could muster.  from behind the bar he secures a bottle of mondstadt’s finest wine, brewed at the very place their father had called home.   “  for the sake of the festivities.  this will be the only one.”

to return home once more with kaeya in tow felt familiar. to get to speak finally over what seethed in the dark water between them, to begin to heal that which had festered for far too long - if only in the capacity of a single evening.