Chapter Text
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“I met someone interesting today,” Kaeya says, swirling his glass of wine.
Diluc finds it interesting that no matter how much he changes up his schedule and no matter how much he tries to make his visits to Angel’s Share unpredictable, Kaeya is always at the bar waiting for him. You’d think a captain of the Knights of Favonius would have something better to do than bother him at his bar.
Today his drinking partner is Rosaria, the most tolerable of Kaeya’s companions. She’s not much for conversation, something Diluc appreciates, but he’s found over time that her icy personality tends to drive away customers. Her sharp words and bad attitude, her bad habit of glaring at patrons that come too close, and the chilling aura that surrounds her as she sits at the counter tapping her glass with sharp fingernails...it’s just bad for business. At least she’s better to deal with than the drunkard bard that stumbles in with them from time to time.
“Good for you, not interested,” Diluc says flatly.
He tries to ignore him, opting instead to distract himself with taking inventory of the remaining bottles of wine, calculating how many bottles he’ll need to bring on his next visit to the city.
Two on this shelf…10 stored underneath…
“He’s from Inazuma,” Kaeya continues, undeterred. “Now that travel has opened from the island, he’s come here on the behalf of the Kamisato clan to set up some trade networks with Mondstadt. I think you’d benefit from meeting him.”
3 up top…wait, what?
“Trade networks?” Diluc says, looking up at Kaeya from behind the bar. “You think he wants to do business with the winery?”
He immediately regrets saying anything, frowning at the smug grin appearing on Kaeya’s face from successfully getting his attention. Dammit.
Kaeya laughs, waving a hand. “Oh no, you’ve misunderstood my intentions…though I’m sure he might be willing to dabble in some business with you—it’s what he’s here for, after all.”
He takes another sip from his glass before leaning forward to prop his chin up with a hand. “I think he’d be good for you to meet. He’s a cheerful fellow. If anyone could, he might be able to do something about that dour personality of yours.”
Diluc clicks his tongue, turning away from Kaeya. He should have known better than to give the knight any of his attention in the first place.
“Why don’t you send him Rosaria’s way, then? Maybe this fellow can help her to stop scaring away all of my customers,” Diluc says, earning a glare from the woman.
“Hmph,” Rosaria says. She downs the rest of her drink, knocking it back flat onto the wooden counter with a clunk. “Are you forgetting that I work closely with Mondstadt’s most lovable, cheerful, sociable idol? You think some random man from Inazuma is going to change anything?
“Besides,” she continues. “At least I have frr…ah, social connections in the city. I think Kaeya’s right—you’d probably benefit from spending time with someone like that.”
Diluc rolls his eyes, returning to his work. There’s no need to make friends. There’s too much work to be done between managing the winery and his late-night work as the Darknight Hero—where would he ever find the time to waste on friendships? Certainly not with some foreigner that he’ll likely never see twice.
Nonsense, complete nonsense from both of them.
---
After wrangling the two into paying their tabs and kicking them out of the bar, Diluc gets to work closing up the shop. It doesn’t take long—just some tables to wipe down, dishes to clean, floors to sweep and mop, moving bottles from storage to the shelves behind the bar. Finishing his final task, he wipes his brow, taking a moment to admire his work.
He’s not…the best…at these types of things. Diluc isn’t quite sure how, but Charles always manages to leave the bar in a much cleaner and more organized state. On top of that, the man finishes his work faster, locking up the bar and leaving around midnight as opposed to 1am like Diluc.
Tonight is no exception. Locking the doors behind him, inventory logs from the day in hand, he begins his trek back to Dawn Winery.
His eyes ache. It’s no more than usual, but he’s desperate to get home and catch a few hours of sleep before having to wake up early once more to check the batches of fermenting wine and begin working on the large stack of paperwork waiting for him at his desk.
Eyes heavy with exhaustion, he rounds a corner without fully paying attention, colliding suddenly with something on the other side.
“Oof!!”
“Shit—"
The force causes Diluc to stumble back, inventory logs falling out of his hands and scattering across the ground in front of him.
Just perfect.
“Oh geez, I’m so sorry!”
Looking up, Diluc sees the culprit kneeling in front of him, desperately scrambling to collect the fallen papers. The first thing he notices is the mess of blonde hair tied back with a red cord and a strange headpiece adorning his forehead. The man looks to be about Diluc’s age, maybe younger.
“No worries, I should have been paying more attention to where I was going,” Diluc reassures him. He’s a little annoyed by the inconvenience, but it’s not like he’s without fault.
He crouches down to collect some of his papers as well, grabbing at pages just before a gust of wind attempts to send the final remaining sheet flying into the air. On reflex, Diluc darts out an arm to catch it, hesitating as another hand grabs it before him.
Sighing a breath of relief, the man turns to Diluc, smiling as he passes over the stack of pages in his hands. “Here you go!”
Diluc’s not sure if it’s just the lack of sleep getting to him, but once they’re face to face, he can’t help but notice how attractive the man is. Diluc finds himself drawn to the deep emerald eyes staring back at him, framed by wild golden locks and shining with a twinkle of the moonlight that illuminates them from above.
Wow, Diluc thinks, finding himself a little dumbstruck by the person in front of him. Blinking, he shakes himself out of his stupor, feeling ridiculous for thinking such a thing, and takes the offered pages.
“Thank you,” Diluc says. He stands, offering a hand to help the other man up.
It’s not until the man is standing, that Diluc catches the sight of something shining at his hip, something framed in gold metal and tied to his waist by a tasseled golden cord. It’s red—a gemstone of some kind, and a pyro symbol glows brightly from its center.
A vision holder?
Diluc narrows his eyes in confusion. How is it that he’s never met this person before? He’s certain that he knows all of the vision holders in Mondstadt—A number of members of the Knights of Favonius, some of the clergy, a few other odd individuals around town and venturing in the wilds…so who is this?
The man’s clothes are strange too—definitely not fabrics and armor found in Mondstadt. A foreigner maybe…?
Either way, if the man is a vision holder, Diluc needs to quickly evaluate if this person might be a friend or foe of Mondstadt.
“I’m afraid that I’ve not made your acquaintance before,” Diluc says. “My name is Diluc. I hail from the Ragnvindr clan. Might I get your name as well?”
“Oh!” The man exclaims, offering a curt bow. “My name is Thoma. I represent the Kamisato clan of Inazuma.”
Inazuma? Diluc thinks. It clicks in his mind as he’s reminded of the information that Kaeya gave him earlier that night “You must be the guest of the Knights of Favonius that I’ve heard so much about. I hear that you’re establishing a trade network with Mondstadt.”
“Yeah…ha ha that would be me!”
Thoma laughs, rubbing the back of his head. Diluc’s heart skips at the sound, plucking at something soft inside of him. Thoma’s laugh…it carries softly through the air like a delicate harmony, dancing with a soothing lightness the travels through Diluc’s ears. He relishes the sound, absentmindedly hoping that he might hear it again.
Diluc coughs. What’s gotten into him tonight? It must be the lack of sleep.
Focus…trade network, right. Now would probably be the time to bring up business.
“It’s fortuitous that I happened to run into you tonight,” Diluc says as he puts on a polite and professional smile. “I was looking to meet with you while you’re here. I manage the winery that supplies Mondstadt’s signature dandelion wine. I’d like to look into exporting some of our products to Inazuma.”
Thoma excitedly clasps his hands together at Diluc’s words. “That’s wonderful! That sounds exactly like the type of thing I’d like to start bringing into Inazuma. I know residents of the island would love to taste some of Mondstadt’s finest offerings.”
“But…ah…” Thoma falters, laughing nervously. “I suppose this probably isn’t the appropriate time to talk business.” He gestures to the darkness around them.
“Why don’t you come visit,” Diluc offers quickly, blinking as he realizes how the words rolled out of him without thinking.
“I mean,” he corrects himself, standing straighter. “How about you come to Dawn Winery for a tour? We can talk business then. Do you have time to spare tomorrow?”
Diluc isn’t sure why he recommends that Thoma come out to the winery so soon. It’s not convenient—not in the slightest bit. There's no shortage of work to get done for the next day. With all the paperwork, quality checks, and delivery preparations, it’ll be difficult to carve out time for a visitor. Especially if he’s offering a tour of the property.
It’s quite foolish. The smart thing to do would be to take back his words and offer another day.
“You could come around lunchtime, if you’d like,” Diluc offers. He wants to smack himself.
“Hmm…I’ll have to check with Jean to make sure she doesn’t have anything scheduled for me. Although…” Thoma hums, pressing a finger to his chin. He pauses to look at Diluc, a smile coming to his face. “Even if she’s got something planned, I’m sure I can move some things around to make enough time to properly visit.”
Something about it has Diluc’s insides stirring. There’s a tone of playfulness in Thoma’s voice that holds his attention, makes the words echo in his head on repeat, makes him think on the meaning more than he should.
There’s just something about this man—something about his presence—that strangely holds Diluc’s attention. He’s never been a fan of talking with others, but with Thoma…something about it feels rather pleasant.
“Great,” Diluc smiles with more sincerity than expected. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
---
Diluc is nervous.
Elzer has been looking at him strangely all day, watching with curiosity as Diluc flutters through his mansion, fidgeting and overthinking every aspect of the interior and the general preparations for his visitor.
“Does this picture look level to you?”
“Why is it so dusty over here? Someone send a maid to get this cleaned.”
“How’s the lunch preparations coming? Where’s the wine? No—not that one, go get the properly aged bottle.”
He’s not sure why he’s so nervous. He’s been hosting guests at Dawn Winery for years—today should be no different. They’ll do a walk of the property, take a look at the wine cellar, sit down for lunch, and finish out with some sampling of the wine. Easy.
Maybe it’s because the preparations for this visit have left the heap of paperwork on his desk unfinished. He was supposed to log away last month’s invoices, calculate revenues for the current month, and sign off on payroll expenses, among other things. Diluc doesn’t like falling behind on completing administrative documents—it’s always a pending headache for later.
He’s messing with a vase, shifting it left and right to position it perfectly center, when one of the housekeepers finds him. She tells Diluc that there’s a fellow outside waiting to meet with him, someone from Inazuma.
Taking a deep breath, he moves to follow her. Pausing his movement, he turns around once more to shift the vase to the right just one more time, nodding with satisfaction.
Turning down another hallway, Diluc catches his reflection in one of the mirrors hanging in the corridor, noticing some strands sticking awkwardly out of his tied hair. He stops, smoothing out the strands before looking at his reflection from different sides a few more times. It’s not until he notices the housekeeper looking at him with a confused expression that he forces himself to move away from the mirror to continue his walk towards the entryway.
“You seem nervous,” the housekeeper comments.
Shit. Is it really that obvious?
“It’s nothing,” he lies. “Just tired from the late night yesterday.”
Soon Diluc is standing in front of the entry to the mansion, staring at the door like he’s waiting on an answer. He reaches to grab the handle, swallowing before he pushes forward. The sun catches him by surprise—it’s brighter than he thought it might be. Being inside all day, he hadn’t yet had time to consider the weather.
His eyes scan down the pathway to the road, settling on a figure standing patiently at its base.
It’s Thoma. He perks up at the sound of the door shutting with a loud creak and a heavy thud, looking up to catch sight of Diluc. When he sees him, Thoma smiles, waving at him with a gentle hand.
Diluc finds himself holding his breath at the sight.
In the sunlight, Thoma looks completely different. The darkness from the night before had concealed a number of his features, shrouding them in shadows. Today, every part of Thoma shines as bright as the sun itself.
His golden hair is truly golden. It rustles and sways with the light breeze, strands catching dazzling hints of sunlight with every winding curve. A particularly strong breeze brushes past, and Diluc watches as Thoma tucks a lock of hair behind his ear, squinting at the wind.
Diluc notices his full ensemble of clothing and armor now clearly visible as well. The red fabric around his waist and shoulders show a red as bright and saturated as fire itself against the dark neutrals of his shirt and pants underneath. In the sunshine, Diluc can appreciate the intricate designs on his armor that he couldn’t see before.
He has to remind himself that he’s supposed to be moving down the path to greet Thoma instead of standing by the door like an idiot.
“We meet again,” Thoma greets with a smile, tucking his hands behind his back as Diluc approaches him.
“Indeed we do,” Diluc replies. “I’m happy to see that you had some spare time for a visit.”
Thoma laughs, waving a hand, and the familiar noise is like a sweet melody in Diluc’s ears. He can’t help but smile, grateful to hear it once more.
“Well…technically right now I’m supposed to be meeting with the librarian. She was going to give me some books on Mondstadt’s trade laws,” Thoma says sheepishly. “This seemed like a much better time, so I slipped out before anyone noticed.”
Diluc feels his heart flutter again. Thoma came to see him even though he had somewhere else to be…?
He shakes himself out of the thought. He’s probably reading into it too deeply—of course, most people would appreciate a tour of the Dawn Winery complete with complimentary samples of the wine over sitting in a library reading books about trade laws. Thoma is probably no exception.
“I’m honored,” Diluc says, smiling. He moves to the side, gesturing down the path with an arm. “Shall we?"
"We shall," Thoma says, stepping to walk forward.
They start with a tour of the vineyard, zigzagging down the rows of grapevines, stopping occasionally for Diluc to talk about the grape varietals. Thoma seems to be fascinated, taking frequent breaks to crouch down and closely observe the hanging grapes.
Apparently, there aren’t any vineyards in Inazuma. Wine is typically made from rice on the islands, and as a result, Thoma has never seen grapevines like this. He asks a collection of questions, marveling at how Diluc answers each one easily and thoughtfully with his years of experience in the trade.
“I thought dandelion wine was made from dandelions. Is it really just still made from grapes?”
“All of the wines we produce are made from grapes. The dandelions are used in the fermentation process, which is what creates the unique flavor of our dandelion wine.”
“Wow, you seem to know a lot about this stuff!”
“I do manage a winery, after all.”
At one point, Thoma reaches over to one of the trellises, shuffling his hands into the vines to pull a branch of grapes from the plant. Diluc isn’t sure what he’s doing with it until he sees Thoma pluck one of them off from the bunch and put it to his mouth.
“Wait, don’t—” Diluc starts.
He steps close to Thoma, reaching over and grabbing the grape before it manages to drop into his mouth. As he takes it, their fingers brush against each other. Feeling the touch of skin, Diluc pulls his hand back quickly, feeling the thumping of his heart jump to his ears. He stops, realizing just how close he is to Thoma.
Just like the night before, he’s staring into Thoma’s wide eyes, only this time he’s still as a statue, not daring to move. They’re so close—faces only a short distance apart, and they stare at each other in silence for a brief moment, Diluc’s hand still hanging in the air with the offending grape.
Coming to his senses, Diluc pulls away, coughing into his hand as a light dusting of color rises to the tips of his ears.
“This variety isn’t good to eat on its own. They taste bitter,” Diluc says, reaching over to take the remaining bunch from Thoma’s hand. “I can take you to the ones that are better for eating. Though…they might be sweeter than you’d like.”
“Hmm,” Thoma hums. “I like sweet things.”
“Although,” he continues, laughing under his breath and scratching the back of his neck. “Maybe I’ll let you pick them out for me next time…”
“I’d love to,” Diluc says, the corners of his lips turning just the slightest bit upwards. “I’ll make sure to pick the sweetest ones for you.”
“How sweet of you, hehe” Thoma says, grinning.
It makes Diluc’s heart flip at the sight.
They continue their walk across the vineyard, making their way to the wine cellar before finally arriving at the mansion. Thoma is enamored with the inside of the building, commenting on all the interesting styles of design he sees, contrasting them with the designs within the Kamisato estate. He’s fascinated by the local variety of cedar wood. Apparently, Inazuma has cedar trees as well, but they’re Aralia varieties as opposed to the fragrant varieties of Mondstadt.
Diluc has to admit that he finds himself quite interested in Thoma’s knowledge of Inazuma. He doesn’t know much about the country—it’s been closed off for quite some time and there’s a surprisingly long list of things exclusive to Inazuma that he would have otherwise never learned about if not for Thoma’s vivid descriptions.
They eventually settle into the dining room after finishing the full tour of the estate. It’s all too easy for Diluc to forget that Thoma needs to sample the wine before agreeing to any sort of negotiation for exporting his products to Inazuma.
“Would you like to sample the wine while you’re here?” Diluc offers. He had the maids set out three bottles for them—some of their best batches. “I’m sure you’d want a taste before deciding on whether you’ll do business with me.”
“Er…” Thoma suddenly trails. He scratches the side of his head. “I’ll be honest with you Diluc—I don’t particularly care for alcohol myself.”
Diluc is shocked, to say the least. Thoma is the first person he’s met in years outside of Diona who doesn’t like the taste of alcohol. Sure, managing a winery and bar is going to offer sort of a selection bias in terms of the people he interacts with, but Thoma’s confession still leaves him surprised.
“That’s no problem,” Diluc says, setting the bottle in his hand back down onto the table. “If I’m being honest as well, I don’t particularly care for it either.” He offers a reassuring smile along with the words.
“Although…” he continues. “I have to wonder why you decided to come to Dawn Winery if you had no intention of trying the wine.”
Thoma hums, putting a finger to his chin in thought. “Well…I’ve already heard amazing things about the dandelion wine you make. I already made a decision before I came here to do business with you.”
Diluc blinks in confusion, tilting his head. “So then why did you…”
“I guess I was just curious,” Thoma says, shrugging. “I actually knew quite a bit about you before we met in person yesterday. An associate of mine in the Knights of Favonius suggested that I might find your company interesting. I think he was right—I learned quite a lot from you! You’re very knowledgeable about wine.”
An associate in the Knights of Favonius. Someone who recommended Diluc specifically?
Kaeya.
Dammit.
More than being annoyed at Kaeya for recommending him to Thoma (which he is, for the record), he finds himself truly pinching the bridge of his nose at the thought that Kaeya was right.
And he hates when Kaeya is right.
Looking at Thoma smiling up at him from one of the chairs, head tilted and propped into one of his hands from the table…
Diluc finds himself quite affected by the man in front of him.
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