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Again, flowers on the balcony of his room.
Childe didn't really know what to think of this now common occurrence. It's not like he hasn't had admirers in the past, but that was really mostly exclusive to Snezhnaya. The Fatui didn't have a good reputation in other nations, so he was met more with scorn than flattery. Not that he really minded, but it turned this turn of events confusing.
Who in Mondstadt could possibly be sending him flowers?
Asking his fellow Fatui members in Goth Grand Hotel didn't yield any clues, whoever left the flowers did so directly to his balcony, avoiding any pair of eyes. Which made it more confusing - it made sense to avoid his fellow Fatui if you wanted to remain anonymous, but it’s not everyone that can climb buildings like those in Mondstadt without being seen by anyone.
Ah, well, it didn’t make much of a difference. Childe didn’t think he could entertain someone’s affections for him. He had to think about his family, the Fatui, and… he miiight have someone else already in mind anyway.
This is extremely stupid, Diluc tries to reason, but he keeps doing it anyway. He chalks it up to impulse. There’s no other explanation.
He was trying to cope with this… Flushing? Erratic heartbeats? Feelings ?? While walking through Wolvedom and doing so, he happened to walk through bushes of Small Lamp Grass. Without thinking, he plucked some, arranged it into a bouquet and (unknowingly) smiled at it.
It’s still unbelievable that this is all because of that eleventh Fatui Harbinger, Tartaglia.
Diluc was on his way back home when he’d realized he couldn’t just come home with a bouquet. But it was a waste to throw it away… That’s the only reason he was giving it to the man who was plaguing his thoughts all afternoon. That, and impulse. His feet just took him there and under the cover of the night it was easy to abandon said flowers in the balcony he knew was from the room Tartaglia resided.
How he knew that was irrelevant.
Either way it was… foolish of him in the first place. It's not like it was productive to send anonymous flowers to Tartaglia, it was stupid and he should not do it again, but he did. And he kept doing it.
It made him extremely annoyed at said man. Irrationally so, maybe, but the entire situation is irrational. Tartaglia was a Fatui Harbinger! Diluc shouldn't be here thinking how happy the other man looked when reading his siblings letters, or how flushed he looked when drunk, much less when he honestly spoke his mind with a serene sort of expression while they were alone watching the sunrise.
… He really had it bad and no amount of denial and reasoning was going to save him from this heartache.
They met in the streets of Mondstadt again. Childe wasn't sure why the Traveler preferred to come to Mondstadt to do his shopping, but it's not a problem for him. It meant he ran into Diluc often, which could usually mean a fight or having fun teasing him.
"Comrade! Did you hear from the Traveler about our next commission?"
Diluc, as expected, frowned at the sight of him. Childe didn't take it to heart, though.
"Yes. It's not urgent, if I recon, so why are you here already?"
"Oh, you know, just bored." Childe finally caught up to Diluc's pace - the other refused to stop for him - and walked alongside him. "I also thought to take a look at the smith's…"
Childe paused, confused. There was something… something in the air that smelled familiar. Maybe out of confusion, Diluc stopped, turning to him with a raised eyebrow.
"What?"
"Hang on," and then, without any shame or decency, he started to sniff the air much like a dog would.
Childe knew the smell was familiar, but where was it coming from? He turned to Diluc, and like realization hit him at once, invaded his personal space completely to take a sniff way too close to Diluc's clothes.
"Oh, it is coming from you!" Childe smiled in satisfaction at pinpointing the issue. "Have you been handling flowers, Master Diluc?"
When he did turn to take a look at Diluc's face, however, he was surprised to find the man as red as his hair, shock evident in his face. He didn't say anything back but after a moment of shock, quickly shoved Childe away from himself, trying to recompose himself.
"Oww, what's that for?"
"What's wrong with you!" Diluc half yelled, before turning away and almost sprinting in a different direction he was originally going.
He didn't spare a glance back, and by the time Childe tried going after him, he lost him to the streets of Mondstadt. Not very easy to find a local when you're not familiar with the place.
"What was that all about? I just thought it was strange he smelled of flowers…" Childe mumbled to himself, genuinely confused.
It's been a little while since he joined the Traveler's group, which already consisted of Diluc. At first, the man hated him with a passion that was hard to contain, even by the Traveler. With time, he kept his temper in check, and Childe thought maybe they were getting to amiable terms recently… Did something happen to set him back? Hmm.
Before little smoke came out of his head from thinking too much, he just shrugged and went on his way to the Smith's as he originally planned to.
What was wrong with Tartaglia? What was wrong with him ? Fleeing from the other man like a shy maiden in love?? Shameful, truly, but his feet did the thinking for him. Diluc really needed to reevaluate his instincts because whenever they took over they only did stupid things.
Having the other man invade his personal space wasn’t even anything new, they sparred often after all, it was just so unexpected and he smiled so close that his brain seemed to shut down.
And now he was far away from where he was heading in the first place. Ugh. Maybe he should focus on the fact that Tartaglia didn’t notice where he was coming from in the morning in the first place.
Trying to push the topic aside for now, he searched on his coat for a note he wrote earlier to remember the exact address for a delivery… only to come empty handed. Diluc stopped walking and searched his pockets further, but there was nothing. He must have forgotten it at the state… groaning, he made haste to return to the winery to pick up the address.
Diluc didn’t know yet he’d fail because didn’t forget the paper at the state. He just lost it along the way of another kind of ‘delivery’ he just made. By the time he realized, though, it’d be too late.
“Oh, there’s more of them again.” Childe mumbled when he returned to his hotel room later in the day, to drop off the bow he had had refined, spotting another bouquet in the balcony. “What are those called again? Pinwheel Astrids?”
He dropped the bow on its place and went to get the flowers. Despite not really minding getting flowers one way or another, he wasn’t the kind of asshole who just ignored them or threw them in the trash. He’d put in a vase in his room until they wilted naturally. They were nice to look at, at any rate.
Once he held the bouquet in his hands, though, he noticed there was something else on the floor under the flowers. Must be why it didn’t fly away, though, as it was a small slightly crumpled paper. That’s a first - would it be a signature? Curiosity spoke louder and he picked it up… only for it to reveal an address.
Okay, he wasn’t expecting that.
What did it mean? Should he go to that address to find out? He wasn’t sure of the specifics of the note - it could be a trap for all he knew - but most importantly… He didn’t know where it was.
So Childe did what any no self preservation fool would do and decided to ask a local about it.
Just his luck, if good or bad he wasn’t sure yet, once he left the hotel he was greeted with none other than the city’s own Cavalry Captain. Seeing Childe, Kaeya approached him immediately.
“Well, if it isn’t the Eleventh Harbinger, I thought you were off with the Traveler?”
Childe shrugged “Doing some commissions for them in Mondstadt right now. You know how it goes - spread and conquer! Conquer work at any rate, it’s kind of amazing how much the Traveler tries to do all at once. So, what brings you here?”
“Errands,” he waved his hand, vague as hell. “Still receiving flowers, I see?”
That’s when Childe realized he forgot to drop the bouquet off in the vase of his room. Ah, well, it’s not like Kaeya didn’t know, he might have slipped it while they were both drunk at Angel’s Share one time.
“Yeah, I guess. I forgot to put those back- oh hey, would you happen to know an address?”
Kaeya seemed intrigued. “An address?”
For Childe’s observation, he didn’t seem to really know, so not a note from the Knights… Well, given Kaeya’s connections through the Knights, asking him further might not be a terrible idea, so he picked the note and showed it to him. “I found that under these flowers, I was wondering where it was.”
Now, the interesting thing is while Kaeya liked to mask his intentions and emotions behind a Know-It-All mask of a smooth manipulator, he just comically failed right now. His face sported a quick succession of shock, disbelief, confusion, realization, mirth and then amusement. Even as he handed back the paper to Childe, it’s like he was trying really hard to not let out a laugh.
“So, you know where it is or who wrote this.” Childe stated, and as Kaeya was still trying to suppress a grin, he squinted at him. “Maybe both.”
“Maybe,” it was the most likely yes he’d get from Kaeya. “You know what, I’ll do you a little favour. I’ll show you exactly where it is.”
Huh, he didn’t expect him to be so ready to help. “... I don’t expect it to be for free.”
“I’ll give you a friend’s discount,” nevermind that neither of them really considered each other friends. “All I’ll want for this favour is for you to tell me how that goes, in as much detail as you can give.”
...There was something up with that and that definitely meant Kaeya knew who it was from. But as Childe didn’t think that would result in anything, he decided why not?
“Sure. Lead the way, then.”
The whole way, Childe was thinking about how he could possibly turn this person down. He agreed to go out of curiosity, but he really didn’t think it’d work out at all. Considering he doesn’t know a lot of people in Mondstadt yet, it might be someone he doesn’t know, which might make things easier… But he still had to know how to have tact around the subject. Once they were close, Kaeya pointed him at the specific place of address before turning to a different direction.
“It’s right at that house, but I suggest you wait outside. Good luck!” The Cavalry captain grinned, before disappearing from sight. How… odd.
Either way, Childe approached the house. It was… a shop of some kind? It had a little sign and everything, but as he read the paper near the door, it seemed like it was closed today for restocking. Hmm. Why would someone who sent him flowers continuously send him a note with this address?
As he was pondering, he heard a door opening, followed by a familiar voice.
“Thank you very much for your patronage.”
“It’s an honour, Master Diluc!”
Childe looked to the front of the store to see none other than Diluc Ragnvindr leaving it. Huh…? He exchanged farewells from whoever was inside the store, closed the door, and turned to be faced with none other than Childe.
They stared at each other for a confused moment. Neither sure what to make of the other being there.
“What are you doing here?” Diluc was the first to attempt normalcy and squinted at the Fatui. “They’re closed.”
Childe was still so confused that the meeting place was a store, and then he found Diluc, that he just shrugged and blurted out “I just followed a note? I’m kinda lost here to be honest.”
“A note?” Diluc furrowed his eyebrows, having a terrible feeling about this.
Childe just showed Diluc the note and, well, much like Kaeya, Diluc had a serie of expressions. First, there was shock, then, his face started to burn much like earlier in the day. After, his eyes widened more as if realizing something again and all the colour drained from his face. Meanwhile, all of this was slowly making Childe puzzle together some pieces in his brain.
First, it wasn’t a note asking to meet somewhere, it was just an address. Kaeya recognized the note right away, and there was also… Diluc smelling of flowers - the same pinwheel astrid flowers he left in his room earlier. Childe would like to defend himself that while pretty obvious, the fact the truth was so strange in the first place made the realization take a long while to load in his brain. But once it did, he widened his eyes.
And, seeing that, Diluc proceeded to do what he has been doing a lot lately.
‘Think, think!’ Diluc tried to reason with himself. ‘ Panicking, can’t think. Leave it to instincts.’
Diluc started running away.
INSTINCTS BAD.
It was a fruitless endeavour, as Childe started running after him and well, they were more or less equally matched depending on the terrain. Diluc had the advantage of knowing this city on the back of his hand, but Childe really didn’t give up this time. He fell a little bit behind, but he eventually found Diluc - running right out of the city. Once on the bridge and thus outside the city, Childe was left with no other choice as Diluc was halfway to the other side of the bridge. He summoned a blunt water blade and without hesitation, yeeted that on the back of Diluc’s head.
It made Diluc falter a bit, and as he tried to keep running, the water made him slip and trip, which allowed Childe to finally catch up to him. Childe then first grabbed his arm to make sure he wouldn’t run again, and then tugged to make sure he wasn’t dead. Because he sure looked like he gave up on life once he tripped, facing the opposite direction as Childe.
“Diluc, what the hell- are you okay-”
“Leave me to die, Harbinger.”
“Nope,” Childe merely said, then, without any of the tact he planned on using, cut to the chase, “were you the one sending me flowers?”
Diluc didn’t answer, but the way the tip of his ears were burning told it for him anyway.
Childe couldn’t help feeling terribly smug right now “Okay but, why leave them there? You could have given them straight to me instead. Did your pride get in the way that much?”
“Shut up,” Diluc mumbled, before seemingly losing patience with the whole ordeal, turning to glare half-heartedly at Childe. “That was stupid, this whole thing is stupid, you’re stupid, I’m fucking stupid!”
“Aw, wouldn’t that mean we’re perfect for each other, then?”
“Shut up! Gods!” Diluc tugged his arm away from Childe to bury his face in his hands. Was he embarrassed? That was too cute. Childe kneeled down next to him. “I can’t fucking believe that note fell on your stupid fucking balcony!”
“I’m glad it did, otherwise how long would I be getting flowers from you without knowing? I was fortunate enough Kaeya told me where the address was-”
Diluc’s blushing subsided, Childe noticed, as he lowered his hands from his face. The expression did not bode a good future for Kaeya at all, and Childe almost felt bad for saying who (kind of) snitched Diluc to Childe.
Fortunately, Childe’s instincts were much smarter than Diluc’s - or maybe it was just a matter of him being better at handling his own emotions - and so he decided right away that the best way to keep Diluc from murdering a Favonius Knight was to kiss him right then and there. It worked, thankfully, as Diluc seemed to slowly untense his shoulders.
Although, he remembered Kaeya asked him to tell all the details of how it went, and he kinda regretted letting him live. Ah, he’ll figure out what to say without having Diluc murder the both of them.