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Another night, another outing for the Darknight Hero and his new companion. Much like the night Huffman tried to catch Diluc in the act thanks to a plan by a certain calvary captain the Traveler had been in the area and ran into Diluc while he was dealing with some abyss mage that had made their way to Mondstat to once again challenge the Darknight Hero that caused them so much trouble.
“Seems like Master Diluc is still at it, huh?” Paimon smiled mischievously. “Playing hero in the cover of night just like last time.”
“I’m not ‘playing hero’ I’m doing what needs to be done since the Knights of Favonius don’t.” The usual tinge of annoyance was heavy in his tone as he responded to Paimon’s prodding. The traveler couldn’t help but smile. Yes, Paimon could be irritating but Diluc played right into her prodding a little too well.
“Anyway, I have to get going. I can’t have those useless knights catching me.”
“Well we’re coming along with you.” Diluc crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the floating annoyance before looking at the traveler. Aether nodded, he had something he wanted to ask Diluc about which is why he was out looking for the man.
“Fine, let’s not waste any more time then.” Diluc started to make his way away from the charred scene he had left behind from his fight with a hydro abyss mage that was trying to challenge him. Proving once again the abyss mages were no match for him.
They walked for a while, in the direction of Angel’s Share. It was the only place in the city Diluc could think to go but on the way, Aether stopped him. He still had a burning question to ask.
“Hey, Master Diluc-.”
“Diluc is fine, Aether.”
“Alright then, Diluc, I know this might not be something you can give me a straight answer on but it’s been eating at me for a while now. What exactly is the issue between you and Sir Kaeya?”
“Where did that question come from?” Diluc couldn’t believe the traveler would suddenly ask him that sort of thing out of the blue. Perhaps Kaeya’s sense of timing was beginning to rub off on them. He had heard that Aether had gone by the Knight’s HQ to visit that man many times lately.
“What does it matter where it came from?” Paimon inserted herself, yet again, into the conversation and completely overshadowed Aether’s beginnings of a response. “Are you gunna tell us or not, Master Diluc?” Diluc let out an exasperated sigh. He wished she wouldn’t interject while Aether was trying to speak. He preferred that Aether answer for himself.
“Kaeya, you can only trust half of the things he says if you’re lucky.” Diluc started to answer, turning his gaze towards the dark night sky. “Kaeya has in the past and still does lie as frequently as he breathes. My issue with him is that I’m not even sure if anything he’s ever said has been the full truth since the day we met.” Accusing Kaeya of being a liar since childhood was a pretty big accusation but that’s the truth he was left with after their fight shortly after the death of his father. Kaeya had been lying to them the whole time and he hadn’t stopped since Diluc returned to Mondstat.
“The one time he was honest with me revealed this and that’s all there is to it. Until Kaeya can be honest my issue will persist. I have no tolerance for liars after all and he's the biggest liar in Mondstat right now.” His voice lowered towards the end of his sentence and so did his gaze. He hated to say it but it was true. In the past they were inseparable, the two of them were unstoppable, but it all ended when Kaeya finally came clean. Diluc had felt betrayed already with what the knights did to cover up the truth of his father’s death. Then Kaeya revealed he had been lying about why he was in Mondstat the whole time. He couldn't take being surrounded by lies any longer.
Aether’s expression soured. He almost looked like a pup that had been punished. Diluc wasn’t giving all the details and he couldn’t push for them, this was Diluc after all, but it didn’t hurt any less. Aether considered himself friends with both Kaeya and Diluc. To know that such distrust was between them made him really upset. Aether was aware of Kaeya’s habit of putting forth half truths though. He wasn’t a fool. He vividly remembered how Kaeya tricked him and Paimon into doing half of the work finding those treasure hoarders he wanted to arrest by giving them a false story of his grandfather and a magical sword. Still there had to be a reason for it, right?
“If that’s it, I’ll be going back to Angel’s Share. If you wish to see me you’ll know where to find me. Good evening, Traveler .” Diluc abruptly turned and left Aether wanted to follow but was too busy trying to process what he had learned.
“Hey! Paimon doesn’t think it’s very nice for you to run off like that Master Diluc!” Diluc just threw a hand up and waved her off. Paimon put her hands on her hips and huffed angrily. “Can you believe that guy? Taking off just like that, he didn’t even say good evening to Paimon!”
“I’m sure it’s because we pushed him to think about something that hurts him.” Aether looked to his small companion with a rather big frown. “I shouldn’t have brought it up, but Jean had me thinking.” He sighed.
“You think if we gave him a sticky honey roast he’d feel better?”
“Not sure, but I’m going to make it up to him somehow.” Aether had some thinking to do on a lot of things already and he now had given him one more thing to add to the pile. A way to make it up to Diluc for upsetting him. He was tired just thinking about it. “For now, let’s get some rest, Paimon. We’re probably going to get bombarded with commissions tomorrow.”
“Such is the life of a member of the adventurers guild.” She grumbled, floating besides Aether as the two headed back to rest for the night. Diluc on his way to Angel’s Share taking another short stop in his walk once he was far enough away from the others to feel alone again, speaking to himself.
“If Kaeya would stop lying, I’d stop pretending I’m still mad at him.”