Chapter Text
It was two hours past midnight and Diluc was in serious need of some sleep. Instead, he was drying off glasses behing Angel Share's bar counter.
“Your laughter keeps ringing all throughout the tavern, don't you think you've finally drunk enough?”
“Oh, come now Diluc! After all I am a paying costumer so do I fail to see what the issue is”, said Kayea and tipped his glass towards Rosaria before taking another big sip of wine.
“Just because you refuse to let alcohol get in your system doesn't mean the rest of Mondstadt has to remain as miserable” said Rosaria, equally if not more intoxicated, and rested her head on Kaeya's shoulder.
Kaeya tipped his glass once more, this time towards Diluc and pointed his index finger at him.
“How about this? You drink whatever remains in our bottle and we shall call it a night.”
Rosaria raised her head to look at him. “I suppose we'll be here till closing time then.” she said and they both burst out laughing again.
Diluc shifted his attention from the glass he was drying to the almost full bottle of wine on the bar top. The tavern was unusually loud and he could feel his head starting to ache. That's what you get for playing hero in a city under constant attack by the abyss all night long. He had started to get agitated.
“Fine” he said and grabbed the bottle before Kaeya had any time to react.
Kaeya's eyes widened. “I didn't actua-” It was too late. The blood-red liquid was long gone.
Diluc placed one hand on the bar top and leaned on it. The other one, still holding the now empty bottle, pointed at the door. “Get out.” His voice came out coarse.
Kaeya was still looking at him in disbelief. He'd taken things too far, he realized. He felt a tug at his arm and looked to see Rosaria, standing and gesturing him towards the door. “Right, yeah we... uh.. we'll be on our way now.” Somewhere in the background, the sound of a lyre playing had stopped. Thankfully most of the Mondstaders were long drunk by now so they didn't seem to notice anything.
Diluc still had his eyes locked on the door when he said “I can feel you staring at me.”
“I never doubted it. Now this sure is an interesting turn of events. A certain someone's absence is making you more irritable than usual.” The green-dressed bard winked at him and then laughed while making his way towards him, his every move being as soft as a light breeze.
“Shut it, Barbatos.”
“My, my! What would the poor Mondstadt folk say should they realize the god they so adore is among them,” he reached a hand across the bar, “drinking wine. This wouldn't look good for my image, yaknow?” He grabbed another bottle of dandelion wine, clicked his tongue and moved backwards.
A slight gust of wind reached Diluc's face and before he had time to reply the bard was gone. He had no interest in guessing was Venti was up to this time.
He brought his attention to his body, his senses. His head was aching from the noise of the tavern combined with the lack of sleep. A horrible taste of alcohol was lingering in his mouth and as his body was trying to metabolize the wine he'd start getting more and more dizzy. He tightly closed his eyes, then slowly opened them hoping to make the feeling go away. He knew better. Still worth the try. His gaze was now looking for the tavern's other bartender.
“Charles, take over for me will ya?” he said while making making his way towards the stairs leading to the second floor.
“Yes sir.” As Diluc was passing by him he leaned towards him and whispered in his ear “Yaknow, it's not very wise to chug down a whole bottle of wine just to get to your brothers nerves, especially if you're not used to drinking. Trust me when I tell ya that hangover ain't gonna be fun.”
Diluc chose not to answer. Mostly because deep down he knew his friend was right. He was also starting to lose the ability to form coherent thoughts so that might've also played a part too.
He slowly made his way up, then towards the door in the back that led to the stairs leading to the third floor. At times like this he felt grateful he decided to turn the old storage room into a bedroom.
His hand reached into the left pocket of his coat, then his right, then into the pockets of his pants.
“Looking for these?”
Not again.
Behind him his most beloved bard was leaning against the wall, twirling a pair of keys around his finger.
“You little-”
“Now that's one way to thank me. You must've dropped them when I reached over to get that bottle of wine, exquisite as always by the way. Be careful with your stuff master Diluc. Catch!”
The keys landed before Diluc's feet. Under any other circumstances he wouldn't have let Venti off but right now the only thing on his mind was his bed. His heart was pounding and his legs were starting to feel less stable than usual as he bent down to grab his keys.
“Aren't you gonna ask where I went after I took your wine?”
Diluc was struggling to insert the key into the keyhole. Was this even the right key?
“Stole you mean. And my keys. And no. Don't care.”
“Fine. I'm gonna tell you anyway.”
Of course you are. Wrong key. He tried the other one.
“I took a short trip to Inazuma to pay a mutual friend of ours a visit.”
Diluc froze.
“What?” His voice was less sharp than he intended it to be. His head was hurting more by the second and he just prayed the alcohol was causing him an auditory delusion.
“What?” echoed Venti with innocent eyes looking up at Diluc. With a swift motion he reclaimed the keys. Normally, even he would've had a hard time snatching something out of the hands of Mondstadt's hero. Not today. He unlocked the door and pushed it forward, keys still on it.
“Have a good night master Diluc. The wind whispers to me that I won't be your only unexpected visit.”
He gave him a sly smirk and once again vanished out of this air as Diluc's hand was reaching out to grab him.
No. No.
Acting so childishly in front of Kayea and getting drunk were already bad enough. He couldn't bear the thought of her seeing him in such a state. Especially after how they'd parted ways.
He prayed to all six archons that the words of the seventh were only spoken to upset him and made his way up the final flight of stairs only to realize that his keys were still on the door of the second floor and make his was back down again, despite his vision starting to blur.
After a long effort to not lose his balance he made it to the top and felt his shoulders less tense as his gaze fell on his bed. He removed his coat and let it fall, not caring enough to hang it on the coat hanger right next to him. He was one to take well care of his clothes but right he could only think of his head touching his soft pillow and the horror of the person he loved seeing him drunk because he wanted to get rid of his brother.
His limps fell heavy on his mattress and as he laid down his whole body started feeling numb. He hadn't realized how tired he was. After she left he was once again alone in defending the city from the abyss and that was taking a toll on his body.
As he was drifting off to sleep, a zap of electro echoed across the room.