Work Text:
It would be. Rather foolish for Diluc to ever put a normal label on his relationship with the Eleventh Harbinger. He supposes the closest thing he could think of was that they both were engaged in a game of Cat and Mouse but the roles would (surprisingly to many) constantly swap between them.
Some days the Harbinger was hunting him down for a fight, other days Diluc was knocking on the other’s door in order to gain information. Their encounters honestly more often than not did not include any physical fighting, but it would be naïve to say there wasn’t any conflict whatsoever.
Diluc knew that despite them seeming polite on the surface, there was more to their interactions. Words that sounded light and neutral were truly ones that were dripping with hidden venom, smiles from the Harbinger always being a bit too sharp and Diluc’s own eyes concealing an amount of rage that would surprise most. They were more subtle fights, but they were still fights nonetheless.
Still, Diluc would also admit that the Harbinger, despite their game that had spanned for years by now, was usually more harmless than anything else. Verbal sparring is very different than if he were to waltz into Mond and start destroying the place.
Honestly, hearing stories from the Travler and their little floating friend, Diluc thinks it could be forgiven if someone thought the Harbinger was just a powerful wandering fighter and not a member of the Tsaritsa’s closest followers.
Like honestly, the whole story with the ginger trying to conceal his identity from his younger brother would’ve felt made up if Diluc didn’t know how strange the other could be (as well as how much he cared for his family).
Diluc scowled as that thought came to his mind. He hated to admit it, but he did respect the Harbinger’s dedication to his family (which also made shame curl in Diluc’s gut. He and Kaeya had reconciled, but he still feels guilt over it. They shouldn’t have had a need to reconcile in the first place.)
Anyway, why bring this all up? Well, Diluc’s crimson eyes locked onto the letter sitting in front of his desk and skimming over the scratchy handwriting again.
It’s been a while! Why don’t you come and greet your old friend?
Resisting the urge to burn the paper to ashes, Diluc just settled on pinching the bridge of his nose and letting out a sigh.
He’s as infuriating as ever, the winery tycoon thought, Friend? Really? Then again he’s around the other Harbingers all the time and they’re far, far more dangerous than even him. His definition of the word is probably more than a little skewed.
As much as Diluc didn’t want to bother seeking the other out, he knew from having been through this song and dance multiple times over the years that it was just easier to go and meet the other. If he didn’t, well, then he could expect the ginger haired nuisance to pop-up at the worst possible times.
Getting up, he grabbed his coat and briefly told Adelinde that he was going out to meet an…associate (calling the other even an acquaintance was too much for him). He didn’t even need to send out a letter with his falcon or anything else, he knew where the other was going to be waiting.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Is there perhaps a reason why you always choose the most inhospitable location in Mondstadt every time you send your cryptic letters to meet up,” the other only smiled, his eyes crinkling but not looking particularly mirthful with their lack of light.
“It reminds me of home is all. I’m in Liyue so often but there are no places quite like this that are accessible to me,” he gives Diluc a look of mock hurt, “Are you saying I’m not allowed to miss my home every once in a while?”
Diluc didn’t even both giving a verbal response, just the flattest look he could muster. At this, the other chuckled.
“You’re still such a grump. What happened to all that fight you had in you when you visited my dear nation?”
“I came home and learned to move forward,” Diluc’s eyes changed to give the other a more pointed look, “Unlike some people who choose to keep contacting me.”
At this, the ginger let out another chuckle and gave the other a smile that was a little too twisted to be considered friendly or even pleasant, “You know how it is, chasing ghosts and things from your past. I find it hard to let things like that go, especially when they’re ones who are fighters as fine as you.”
Diluc fell silent, his gaze turning towards the divine nail that the Traveler had activated. It was beautiful in a strange twisted way. He knew that it was a punishment from Celestia, the reason why the mountain was forever covered in eternal frost. But with how it looked in the sky, the floating debris around it, the redhead couldn’t help but find beauty there.
It reminded him of Shneznaya.
While he had been to the populated parts of the nation, he had honestly spent more time travelling through the wilderness there. And it was a cold, unforgiving place in a way that he imagined the Tsaritsa herself was similar to.
His time there had been terrible, constantly on the run and looking over his shoulder. He knew that as soon as he set foot in the nation, the Harbingers were constantly watching him no matter the time of day or night. How could they not, when he had slaughtered so many of their soldiers?
Nights spent running and running, finding places to briefly rest before he had to get going again. Howling winds and wild animals and creatures that stalked his movement as well. Frost always biting at his his body as he travelled without the warmth of his Vision.
His time in Shneznaya had been one of turmoil.
But at the same time, just like looking at the wretched tool that had brought Dragonspine’s ruin, Diluc had seen beauty while being there.
When the winds weren’t so violent and he had moments of peace, Diluc would sit and enjoy the quietness of the land. Snow always muffled the world, and he found himself relishing in the tranquility that it brought where he could just. Be. Where he could just exist as a nameless person. He wasn’t Diluc Ragnvindr, heir to the Dawn Winery. He wasn’t the man who had been slaughtering Fatui agents all across Teyvat. He wasn’t a target for the Harbingers.
He was just a man enjoying the peace that the snow could bring.
On those nights, he would look up in the sky and see the stars shining brightly as the heavens were illuminated with multicolored lights that wove through the dark. He would look and see the constellations he knew, and then the ones that were only visible so far in Snezhnaya.
Those nights, when he could just sit in the snow, were the ones that he saw the beauty of the nation that was usually nothing but a nightmare.
A nightmare that he thought only existed in his memories, but with how often this one particular figure kept returning, Diluc knew that that was wishful thinking.
Crimson eyes glanced back down at the Harbinger, seeing as the other had mirrored his actions and was looking up at the nail. He wondered if the ginger could make the same comparison of the divine instrument to his own home.
“Ajax.”
A blue eye that looked as cold as the depths of Teyvat's oceans darted over to him, amusement flickering in it, “Hmm now that’s a name I don’t hear so far from home.”
“You told me your name, I might as well use it.”
A laugh this time, “True true, I did introduce myself to you with that name at first.”
Another brief moment of silence, before Diluc broke it again, “How’s Tonia doing.”
The other froze, his eye turning sharper until it looked like a shard of ice as the other seemed to examine Diluc’s soul. He withstood the scrutiny, expression placid as he waited for any sort of response.
Finally, the other let a more genuine smile tug at his lips, “She’s doing well, helping Anthon and Teucer with school and helping our parents as much as she can. Still, she’s young so I always hope that she remembers she doesn’t need to be a grown up yet. To enjoy her childhood.”
Unless it be taken from her like mine was.
It’s unsaid, but Diluc knows that those words are implied. He only nods, thinking about his own history with the Ordo and how he had been forced to grow up faster than he should have.
To this day he wasn’t sure if he resented his father or not for the pressure that the older man had placed on him to rise through the ranks of the Ordo, but Diluc did know for a fact that the main reason he did it was to please his father.
“She also asks about the red haired stranger from years ago.”
At this, it was Diluc’s turn to examine the other critically, looking to see if there was any sort of trick lying behind those words. But, when he found none, he only hummed slightly, “Tell her I’m doing well and that I hope that she is too, but unfortunately I cannot visit.”
A laugh, “I’d imagine not! Being banned from Snezhnaya isn’t something to take lightly.”
At this, the Harbinger fully turns to the young tycoon, a catlike smile on his features, “It’s honestly amazing, the fact that you were enough of an issue that the Tsaritsa banned you.”
Deadpan, “I’m honored.”
“You should be!” at this, the other waved his hands in the air similar to a young child that was trying to defend their opinion and it made Diluc really question how he switched through so many varying emotions at such rapid speeds, “Usually people of high danger get executed but you! You were a high threat but you only managed to get banned! Honestly it’s such a rare decree that me and my fellow Harbingers were shocked.”
“It was probably to avoid any diplomatic issues in regards to Mondstadt.”
“Still, with the mess you’d created in your time travelling from nation to nation, you could’ve easily been given a more severe punishment than simply being banned.”
Crossing his arms, the ginger pouts and looks rather similar to a small child who was sulking from having their toy be taken away, “And you can’t come back for any fights! I have to travel all the time to see you.”
“Congratulations that sounds a lot worse now that you’ve said it out loud,” Diluc again deadpanned, thinking that the conversation was getting more and more bizarre with each passing second.
“It’s a shame! I really wanted to see how you’d do if you were in Snezhnaya’s weather with your actual Vision there to help you,” Childe makes direct eye contact, this time an rather feral grin slowly appearing on his face, “You were already simply incredible with just a Delusion in my nation’s harsh storms, I can’t imagine how you’d fight with everything at your disposal.”
“Well unfortunately you’ll never find out,” Diluc was becoming closer and closer to just smacking the other, but he did add in a softer tone, “Still, it is a shame I can’t enjoy the nights there when the winds died down.”
His time in Snezhnaya gave him some the worst memories in his life, but he had to admit that there were some things that he wish he could go back and enjoy. The nights of peace were just on the top of his list.
“A pity then, that it is unlikely you can ever return.”
Silence, again. It wasn’t uncomfortable and honestly Diluc preferred it to the other’s rather nonsensical chatter, but he had to know.
“Ajax, what’s the real reason for why you wanted me to be here,” suddenly becoming very aware of how isolated the two of them were from any other living being, Diluc mentally planned for the worst possible outcomes as he continued, “Surely you didn’t ask me to be here just for small talk.”
This time, the Harbinger’s face was the one to be neutral, “And what if I wanted that and nothing more.”
“Then you could’ve at least chosen a better location than this one.”
A laugh this time, before the Harbinger lunged forward.
At least this time I was ready, Diluc thought without mirth as he sidestepped the attack, sourly remembering a time when the other had managed to surprise him which resulted in a few cracked ribs.
Looking at the other who didn’t summon his bow or any hyrdo weapons, Diluc got into a fighting stance. Fistfight it was then.
“Aw man you know me too well I guess,” this time, it was a vicious kick to the head that Diluc managed to block, his expression stony as he looked into the Harbinger's eyes that glinted somewhat manically, “And you don’t want to call me your friend? You who knows my family and uses my real name? Harsh, I feel wounded even.”
“I’m pretty sure friends don’t randomly try to kill each other.”
“And how would YOU know? Didn’t you leave them all behind?”
Diluc grit his teeth, sending his own kick towards the other which landed and would most likely leave the other with a very nice bruise for a while, “For someone who insists on reappearing in my life, you don’t know anything.”
“Well, what can I say,” a laugh before a hit nicked Diluc’s shoulder, forcing him to move with the force of the small hit, “I am who I am and I admit that I’m certainly not what most would call ‘normal’. Who can blame me when I just want to look for a fight?”
“I can,” Diluc grabbed the other’s wrist and pulled him forward, using the momentum for a grapple, “Especially since it’s a time of relative peace and I could get into a LOT of trouble for fighting someone who has so much power in Snezhnaya.”
As they both went down in the snow, the Harbinger could only give a laugh, “Friend you’re already in enough trouble technically with being banned from a whole nation. The more you think about it the funnier it is.”
At this, Diluc twisted the other’s arm and pressed his knee into the ginger’s spine, effectively pinning him, “Yes, well, to you it’s funny. To me it’s a headache.”
More laughter, and Diluc had to question the other’s mind for laughing while being pinned down in the freezing cold. But then again, it was Ajax after all so he couldn’t say he was super surprised.
With memories of a time filled with snow and blood…Diluc definitely knew that a fight in the snow could be a lot, lot worse.
Still, he sighed and twisted the other’s arm even more while applying more weight, “If I let you go will you concede this fight?”
A muffled, “I will, I promise. This little brawl while too short was the most fun I’ve had in weeks so do not worry, so I'll behave.”
More pressure and twisting was added as a warning (and Diluc entirely ignored the other’s flinch of pain) before he stopped, moving to sit next to the downed Harbinger.
The two of them sat in the snow, the ginger for some unknown reason choosing to lay facedown for a little longer than what Diluc thought was acceptable before he finally rolled over onto his back. A laugh escaped his lips, his breath fogging in the frigid air.
“Man, fighting with weapons is fun and all but sometimes there’s nothing quite like a fistfight.”
“It still amazes me how you’re somehow the most normal of the Harbingers despite everything.”
Cobalt eyes flicker over as a good natured smile breaks out on the other’s face, “You and me both, but I know that you know how. Interesting my fellow Harbingers are.”
“Hmm.”
Pushing down vivid memories of more blood and fights and malicious laughter and eyes that seemed to glow like a wolf’s in the night stalking its prey, Diluc just sighed again.
“You really are something.”
Chuckles, but no reply this time. They fell into silence, just enjoying the snow and scenery around them. Diluc had to admit, it wasn’t the same truly, but it did remind him of those serene nights in Snezhnaya.
He didn’t know what to call this relationship he had with the Eleventh Harbinger, there was a lot of history between them stained with blood but there were also memories that were neutral, some even okay such as the one being made now as they sat in silence in the snow.
So despite their incredibly complicated and twisted history with Diluc more often than not wanting to wring the other’s neck, he couldn’t help but enjoy this moment of peace between them.
They’d probably try to kill each other at another time, but for now, he thought that this time together admiring the snow was going to be a memory that he’d look fondly on.