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“Every time I see our band name, I’m reminded of how fucking stupid it is.”
“Come now, Diluc ~! It’s not that bad. I think it worked out perfectly. Besides, the fans love it.”
The redhead rolls his eyes in response, head dropping back down against the armrest of the sofa. He returned to his prior activity of scrolling through his twitter feed while Kaeya nursed a glass of wine at the kitchen counter. Group housing had proven to be both a blessing and a curse, at least in Diluc’s eyes. It made meeting up with their manager easier since they were all in one place, but it also meant that he was stuck living with Kaeya again. Diluc tried not to think too much about it, their falling out had happened years ago, and if they were going to make this god forsaken group work then he had to get over himself.
“Where are Ajax and Zhongli? They were supposed to be back 20 minutes ago.”
“What are you, their mother?”
“Keep talking and I'll send you to yours.”
Diluc could hear Kaeya’s momentary silence loud and clear followed by a click of the tongue.
“Ouch, someone’s still a little tender ~ What happened to daddy's little boy?”
“Dead, just like him.”
Before the air could get any more tense the apartment's door swung open and the late arrivals strolled in. Childe let out a loud whistle, feeling the awkward air get cut through with a blade; and coming in behind him was Zhongli with two armfuls of groceries to add to the ones Childe had. Kaeya turned away to set his glass down while Diluc sat up and tossed his phone gently onto the table to stand up and help the others. It wasn’t long before the bags were all on the counter and the group started to organize the contents in their proper places.
“Seems like we came back just in time, any later and well...we may have come back to the two of you trying to kill each other ~”
“It’s been nearly a year since we started, would it trouble the two of you that much to get along?”
“We do.” Came Kaeya’s reply as he put a pack of pipeline punch monsters in the fridge.
“Not.” Diluc responds as he hands Kaeya the case of water to put away.
Childe couldn’t help but snort under his breath while Zhongli just shook his head. All things considered, the estranged brothers were doing significantly better than when they started. Initially, they couldn’t be in the same space for more than 3 minutes before commenting on something out of pocket. After they’d put everything away, it was time to discuss the rest of the evening, something that Diluc had personally been loathing all day.
They had been invited through their manager to the release party of another group that was contracted to the same company as them. It was the 2nd album that 4NEMO had created since their debut two years ago. The idea was to officially introduce the two groups to each other since they would be going on a training camp together in the upcoming months. Diluc had never liked parties, even when he had to attend them with his father when he was younger he would always try and avoid them. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to conduct himself, no, Diluc was ever the perfect gentleman. However, he wasnt fond of the attention it brought him, and he considered himself rightfully traumatized by the one time his aunt and her friends had spent 15 minutes cooing at him and tugging on his cheeks.
“Remember boys ~ We have to look our best. Lets go!” Kaeya mused, clapping his hands together once or twice.
Diluc rolled his eyes and turned on his heel with the intent to head towards his room; and it wasn’t much longer before the other three turned tail to follow him. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night for him.
·.¸¸.·♩♪♫ DCKZ ♫♪♩·.¸¸.·
Two hours in and Diluc was beyond ready to blow the joint and go home. Unfortunately, he was also the DB, short for ‘Designated Babysitter’ for any who weren’t already enlightened. The initial introduction had gone well, and the two groups were getting on fine enough. Some more than others, Diluc notes, as Xiao and Zhongli knew each other outside of work. However, along the way Venti had convinced Kaeya to have a drinking contest and the blue haired dancer had never been someone to turn down a test of tolerance. This left Diluc to monitor the two while the others were off dancing or whatever else they wanted to do. He didn’t trust Kaeya to not make a fool out of himself in front of all these people, and it appears that Xiao felt similarly towards Venti. The two of them shared a momentary stare of understanding before nodding their heads.
An arm slung itself over his shoulder and the red head was suddenly pulled close to a certain ginger's side. He knew well before he looked over that Childe was feeling a buzz; he could smell it on his breath.
“Diluc! What’re you doing hanging over here like a vulture? There’s drinks a plenty and the music is great. Don’t tell me you plan on being a wallflower all night?”
Diluc tried to shrug him off but his grip just got tighter, so the man decided it wasn’t worth the effort and settled for just responding to him.
“Someone has to make sure our resident alcoholic doesn’t make a mockery of us because he decided a drinking contest was a good idea.”
He’d raised his voice given how loud the music was, and Childe threw his head back in jovial laughter.
“You’re right about that one, ‘luc! But come on, surely you can take your eye off of them for a minute or two right? The dancefloors open, why don’t we give em a show?!”
Dilucs eye twitched at the suggestion. He knew what Childe meant by ‘give them a show’ and it usually involved playing up their relationship more than necessary. It was one thing when the four of them did it as a group, as that was part of the companies push to appeal to the female fans; but Childe was basically asking Diluc to risk exposing their own personal relationship.
“Ajax,” He started with a warning tone. “ I really dont think that’s a good idea.”
A glint in the others eye and easy going smile told Diluc that this wasn’t entirely a drunken request. He was more sober than he was letting on, and that didn’t make Diluc any more or less willing to comply. The ginger detached himself from Diluc’s side and moved to stand in front of him, holding his hands out.
“C’mon ~ It’ll be fine! I promise I won’t do anything outside of the usual, you know I wouldn’t put us in danger like that.”
Childe never promised anyone anything, only swore, and his swears were a coin toss on being kept; so Diluc had to admit it was a convincing line. Diluc glance behind the man to Xiao who made a ‘shoo’ gesture and mouthed ‘i got this’ back. A sigh of resignation escaped him and he held his own hands out to the other.
“Alright, lets steal the spotlight.”
Hearing the older mans approval he broke into a wide grin.
“Been doin’ it for years, ‘luc!”
Then they were off to the dance floor, and Diluc began to treat it like he would any other public performance. There was no room for doubt or nerves on a stage after all, and this one was set for he and Childe alone. Diluc almost felt bad for going all out at someone else's release party but the moment the two were in each others grasp it didn’t matter. The eyes of the strangers didn’t matter, the look of disbelief on the young maple themed 4NEMO members face didn’t matter, and the whistles and hollars from his drunk estranged brother and his equally wasted partner in crime sure as fuck didn’t matter either.
All he could find himself focused on was the movement of his boyfriend and the absolute look of elation on his face as they danced remixed choreography of one of the 4NEMO boys new songs. Their manager had sat them down to watch a few of their taped practices since by technicality 4NEMO was their seniors. None of the DCKZ members were slow on the uptake when it came to choreography so it wasn’t too abnormal for them to have picked it up. Of course it wouldn’t do to upstage them at their own choreography so some modifications and additions were in order.
By the time the song had ended, both he and childe were vaguely out of breath, breathing in each others air almost. Just when Diluc was considering kissing the man right then and there, the clapping started and the trance was broken. Diluc jerked his head to his right, breaking eye contact and finding himself looking at a rather amused Zhongli and a snickering drunk Kaeya. The man felt his face flush and he hurried off the dance floor; that was enough attention for one day he’d decided. Childe watched him go with a lazy smile from behind and a hand on his hip.
“Think I was too forward with him?” he asked Zhongli and Kaeya offhandedly as he watched Diluc appear to vanish out of the club followed by their frantic manager. She would no doubt struggle to get the embarrassed redhead to return to finish out the last couple hours of the party.
“No actually, I think you could have stood to embarrass him even more~”
Zhongli gently smacked the back of Kaeya’s head, making him hiss softly.
“I think you were just forward enough, he would’ve never let himself go otherwise. Though, i’m not sure how great it would’ve been if the crowd hadn’t snapped him out of it when they did.”
Childe scratched the back of his head nervously in response, his own face flushing a light shade of pink that didn’t come from the alcohol.
“Yeah, that was a bit of a close one wasn’t it? Especially after I promised him it would be nothing more than the usual.”
·.¸¸.·♩♪♫ DCKZ ♫♪♩·.¸¸.·
Unfortunately, despite their managers best efforts, Diluc departed from the party shortly after his little spotlight dance with Childe. It helped that Aether, 4NEMO’s center, assured the woman that it was fine for him to leave. Once he’d returned to their apartment he was quick to get himself out of the sweat drenched party clothes and into a shower. He’d calmed down on the ride back, but thinking about the fact that he’d almost kissed Childe in front of all those people caused him to fluster yet again.
“What in the world was I thinking?” He mumbled under the spray, moving through the lengthy routine of taking care of his hair and washing his body. He’d made Childe promise to keep it to a normal level and then almost went and crossed the line himself.
Diluc was already in bed by the rest of the time the others came back, and only blinked himself awake when he heard his bedroom door open. Drowsily he sat up, squinting at the door as if the light filtering in had offended his mother.
“Just me, ‘luc~”
Diluc watched as Childe closed the door, leaving it open a crack so he could still see before wandering over. A hand reached out to ruffle his hair and Diluc let out a soft grunt of annoyance, gently swatting it away.
“What do you want…? I was sleeping Ajax”
“You sound like it; but don’t worry, I just dropped in to say good night.”
Diluc had what the others liked to call a ‘sleepy time voice’ , and ever since Kaeya had brought it up Diluc had made sure to work his voice up in the morning before getting breakfast.
“Yeah? Well good night I guess…?”
Childe hummed and bent over, pressing his lips to the top of Dilucs head. His face flushed again and he was actually thankful for the lack of light. After the brief show of affection, Childe walked back to the door, slowly closing it behind him with one final comment.
“Good night, Diluc.”