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“I can see the look you’re giving me from over there.” Diluc wipes the counter before giving his idiot brother a look over his shoulder. “The answer is no, you’ve had enough for tonight.”
“Oh, come now, brother. It’s just another glass!” Kaeya pleads with a frown, putting his chin in his palm.
“No more drinks, Kaeya,” Diluc sighs like a tired mother, holding the rag under the sink to rinse it with water.
“Then you leave me with no choice,” Kaeya huffs and then tries again, “give me another glass, please, brother?”
Diluc doesn’t know what’s coming. “For the last time, I will not–” He turns to look at Kaeya and immediately purses his lips. Harshly. To hold in what is to come but he fails and escapes a–
A laugh.
A loud one. Rather short, but one that came from deep inside his chest. Then he covers his mouth with his glove and looks around, making the most awkward eye contact with every single patron in the tavern.
If Diluc preferred to be crushed to death by a meteorite, then right now would be the best time.
Before proceeding with damage control (to lessen the burden of embarrassment on his brother's shoulders, which is the least he could do for him), Kaeya watches him attempt and struggle to comprehend the reaction he just made. If he squints his eye a bit, he can see Diluc’s lips twitching at his own response.
“Now, now, Diluc I know the joke was funny but it wasn’t that funny.” Kaeya rolls his eye for everyone around to see, easily earning smiles and giggles from the patrons. “Please, everyone, return to your drinks before I urge you for more!” He shifts the attention to himself, lifting his glass of wine for a collective cheer.
He then returns his attention to his brother, who now looks like he’s holding something in his throat–Archons, his face has gone completely red!
He gives him a puzzled look. “Diluc, what on earth–”
Diluc inhales shakily before speaking, body shuddering in amusement. He removes his gloved hand from his mouth to reveal–to Kaeya’s surprise–a grin. A look he hasn’t seen on him in so long. “The–” A burst of laughter. “–face you made just now…” He tries to regain his composure but that frank and unrestrained smile is undeceiving. “That’s uh–that’s what made me laugh.”
Kaeya’s eye is wider than ever. He gives him the most incredulous look because Diluc is somewhat… giggling? He’s still giggling right now! He doesn’t know what to think of this. What was wrong with the look he gave him just now? He was only giving him that look from the time in their childhood that would make him holler at the sight of it.
Oh. That was it.
But now Kaeya’s left even more confused. Why did it work? How did Diluc still react the same way he did when the last time he was given that look was many many years ago? And after that fateful night… his body is still able to reach into the depths of his memories and conjure up the same reaction prior to it?
Kaeya doesn’t think he can believe it. But his heart interrupts his thoughts, whooshing them away because clearly this is a sign.
A sign of what, exactly? Kaeya doesn’t really know. But the warmth that lands in his chest when his brother loosens up in front of him–comfortably–is something he thinks he can’t let go of anymore.
So Kaeya, being the menace he is, will do it again.
He turns to his brother, whose face is still dusted in red and gives him a single look. Diluc hasn’t caught on yet but that changes when he watches the childishly menacing grin appear on his face.
“N-no no, Kaeya, stop–don’t you da–” His words are interrupted with the sound of his own laughter.
“What, Luc? Don’t I dare what?” Kaeya presses on with that ridiculous expression on his features.
Diluc holds onto the counter for support, his sides aching. The smile on his face is unfaltering. He can’t even muster up a reaction at the use of his childhood nickname.
“Kaeya, I swear if you don’t–” He makes a mistake by sparing his beloved brother a glance and his incessant laughter erupts from his throat once more, unending.
“If I don't, what?” Kaeya is unable to maintain the expression on his face as it cracks to reveal a smile, enjoying how his brother acts when humoured.
The expression he makes is undeniably hilarious, yet adorable at the same time. “Archons, Kae–” He can’t even finish his sentence when his voice cracks from just laughing so much and suddenly Kaeya is sharing the same level of laughter because of it.
“Your voice just cracked!” Kaeya gasps in disbelief, smacking his brother’s shoulder repeatedly, completely losing it.
Diluc smacks his brother back (not too hard though or else he’d be smacked through the wall) and scoffs with a toothy grin, “Shut up!”
The brothers share a hearty laugh, unbeknownst to them that the entire tavern has set their eyes upon their heartwarming interaction.
How long has it been since these brothers have shared such an interaction like this in public? How long has it been since Mondstadt’s most eligible bachelor graced the people with that gorgeous smile of his? And how long has it been since Mondstadt’s most charming Cavalry Captain showed such an honest expression?
Too long. Far too long.
But bygones are bygones and the brothers are working themselves into each other's lives again. A glance is thrown from one side of the room to the other, they nudge their drinking buddies to stir up conversation and distract them. The pair of siblings are left to their own devices, so enthralled in their chatter that they never notice the shift of attention in the tavern.