Chapter Text
It was a relatively quiet night at Angel’s Share, which was fine in Diluc’s book. Charles was off the whole week, meaning Diluc would be covering all shifts, so he didn’t mind starting a long week off slowly. He was very self-aware that his social skills weren’t wonderful, and though interactions with bar patrons were usually fairly formulaic and thus not overly stressful, he also knew that this many days at the tavern in a row would wear on him. So slow was okay.
The night passed uneventfully and pleasantly until a couple hours to closing when Kaeya arrived. Kaeya showing up at the tavern in and of itself wasn’t an issue generally—Archons knew he was there often enough—but something was off tonight. Kaeya seemed upset about something and when Diluc prepared his usual order without comment, Kaeya only murmured a quiet thanks. Which was definitely out of the ordinary. Because usually Kaeya would never pass up the opportunity to make some form of sarcastic comment. It was what they did. They maybe weren’t on perfect terms, and Diluc had serious doubts that they ever would be again, but they had their routines and ways of interacting with one another. Scripts, so to speak. And Kaeya wasn’t playing along tonight.
Diluc tried his best not to think about it too much as he found himself busy with other patrons. Kaeya’s problems were no longer his problems, after all. Unless his brother decided to get truly drunk in a misguided attempt to cope with… whatever was going on. Because though Kaeya was good enough company while tipsy, he was a sad drunk and occasionally a mean one. Or… mean wasn’t quite the right word, because all of his jabs were aimed at Diluc with precision and very obviously came from a place of hurt… but still, for his own sanity and his younger brother’s liver, Diluc hoped that that wasn’t Kaeya’s plan.
He kept an eye on Kaeya the rest of the night. Kaeya stayed to himself for the most part, only speaking to the other regulars in passing, and only barely managing to maintain his usual carefree affectation. But, to his credit, he wasn’t actively attempting to get shit faced.
At closing time, as the other patrons filed out, Kaeya lingered. Ah. He wanted something from Diluc. That explained some of his behavior. Diluc began wiping down the bar but gestured the other man over.
“What’s wrong?” Diluc asked without looking up.
“Who said anything was wrong?”
Diluc sighed heavily, finally glancing up. “You can lie to everyone else, but not to me. You know that. Now what is it? I’d like to finish closing at a somewhat reasonable hour tonight.”
“Ohhhh. Do you have other plans?” Kaeya gave a half-hearted attempted at getting a rise, an almost believable mischievous grin beginning, but when Diluc gave him nothing in return, the smile died. His gaze dropped. “It’s… nothing super important, I don’t think. Nothing for the ‘Darknight Hero’ to concern himself with anyways.”
Diluc crossed his arms and waited. He wasn’t going to let Kaeya leave without giving him at least a clue as to what was wrong. As much as he liked to think that he’d killed his older brother instincts long ago, he knew deep down that he hadn’t, and the fact alone that Kaeya was upset was upsetting to him as well.
“I just… are you going to be around the next couple of days?” Kaeya asked finally, glancing up almost shyly.
“I’m always around,” Diluc responded, frowning.
Kaeya’s gaze dropped again. “Not always…”
“Well, I will be now,” Diluc asserted firmly, choosing to ignore the deeper implications of that particular comment. “Why?”
“I… just need to know that there’s someone in Mondstadt who has my back.”
“Are you planning on doing something stupid?” Diluc asked.
“Probably.”
“Dangerous?”
“Not… physically, I don’t think.”
Not physically dangerous? So what? Emotionally? Because when had Diluc ever been good at that? This whole situation was only getting stranger.
“I’m not going to get any more out of you, am I?” Diluc asked finally.
Kaeya shrugged. “But you promise to be here?” he mumbled quietly, staring pointedly at the wood grain of the bar top.
“I… yes. I promise.”
Kaeya nodded. By the time he looked up again he had regained his usual composure. “Great. Thank you.” He pushed some Mora across the counter—Diluc had forgotten that he hadn’t paid yet—and made his way to the exit. “Good night, Master Diluc.” With a sloppy two fingered salute, he was gone into the night.
It wasn’t until Diluc had finished cleaning up that the true oddity of Kaeya’s question dawned on him. Sure, Diluc had his back and arguably always had (well, almost always). But so did Jean, Amber, the other knights, the traveler… A lot of people had his back. Unconditionally, as far as Diluc could tell. So why had Kaeya sought out Diluc specifically?
The realization hit Diluc rather suddenly, his stomach dropping with a mix of emotions he couldn’t even begin to untangle and moreover didn’t want to. There was one thing that Diluc knew about Kaeya that all those other people he’d thought of didn’t….
But surely, if Kaeya’s past had caught up with him, he would have just openly come to Diluc for help, wouldn’t he?
No, Diluc thought bitterly. No, he wouldn’t. He came to you once already when it all got to be too much… and that’s how we got here…
Diluc froze, unsure of what course of action to take now. Part of him wanted to follow his brother, to demand further explanation, but a larger part of him knew that that course of action wouldn’t likely be appreciated. And besides, what if he was overreacting? Kaeya had always been somewhat vague with his intentions, even before… everything… so it was possible that Diluc was reading the situation wrong. If it was any other person that Diluc was curious about, he would have found it easy enough to tail them or to gather information, but this wasn’t any other person, this was Kaeya. And Kaeya would know if Diluc took a sudden interest in his affairs. And he would likely read such interest as a form of mistrust and…
Archons above, why are we like this?
But if Diluc ignored the situation, things could go very wrong. If this whole situation was truly about Kaeya’s past, about Khaenri’ah…
Diluc took a deep breath and tried to stop his thoughts from spiraling. Lisa had once told him that he was prone to ‘catastrophizing’, and though Diluc had made sure to let her know he didn’t appreciate her psychoanalyzing, he couldn’t deny that she was right.
For now, he would leave well enough alone, he thought. Hopefully that was the right choice.