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Today wasn't anything grand or extravagant, and (thankfully) nothing explosive, much to the disappointment of Klee.
"Oh, but fireworks would have been so cool..." The red-clad girl held a deceptively cute bomb in her hands, which she carefully tucked back into her backpack.
Kaeya patted her hair. "I know they would. You make the best fireworks. But I just want today to be calm, alright?"
Klee nodded her head in understanding, though a pout was present on her face. Kaeya had to resist the urge to pinch her cheeks—she wouldn't like that, insisting she was too old for it. She made it so hard to believe that was true.
"Klee!" Amber called from the second floor of the tavern. "Wanna help me with the balloons?"
And just like a newly inflated balloon, the little girl perked up and trotted to the stairs to help.
Kaeya stood back up, shaking his head briefly. Kids. How did they have so much energy?
Actually, how did any of them have so much energy?
Kaeya watched as his friends prepared a small celebration for a day he insisted didn't need one. They had been adamant about it, and he was in no position to say no—he was greatly outnumbered.
Upstairs, Amber and Klee were blowing up—not the explosive kind—balloons, while Noelle arranged them in an orderly fashion up on the walls and the stairs. Jean headed for Sara's to check on the ordered food with Lisa, and even Rosaria was here. She was in charge of making sure everyone had enough to drink for the festivities tonight, accompanied by their music-maker, everyone's favorite bard.
"A round of drinks on me!" Venti cheered with a strum of his lyre.
"Should you really be drinking already...?" Rosaria swiped the pint from the bard's hand, earning a bark of joyous laughter.
Kaeya would have to join him later. For now, he opened the door to take a step outside.
Outside stood an unexpected visitor.
"There he is!" Laced with a twinkle unique only to her, the lilting voice of the Traveler's companion Paimon threaded through the wind. The bright little pixie waved with a smile from ear to ear. "The birthday boy! Happy birthday, Kaeya!"
Next to her, the Traveler gave an equally disarming smile. "Happy birthday, Kaeya."
To Kaeya's surprise, they held out a small, rectangular box, no bigger than his forearm, wrapped in an icy blue paper that smelled faintly of the sea.
"Oh my? You really didn't have to, my friend." The Traveler had always been thoughtful, and it would be remiss of Kaeya to turn down anything they had brought back from their arduous journey. "Thank you. You always know how to make my heart flutter."
"Oh, please. We're immune to your charm," Paimon said, turning away with a smirk on her face. The Traveler mirrored her.
"Is that so? I suppose I should brush up on my charisma." Kaeya chuckled at the way Paimon huffed and puffed, and the way she always bantered with the Traveler. They truly were quite the pair.
His eye swept over the perimeter for one such pair, only looking back when there was no one of the sort.
It was silly of him to look forward to such a presence, but a man could hope.
"Everyone is already inside." Kaeya smiled once more, gesturing to the tavern. "They were just about looking for you two."
"Ooh, a party! Ah, this is exactly what we needed after all that, huh, Traveler?"
Kaeya tilted his head. "All that?"
At this, Paimon heaved a sigh and kicked the air. "Oh, we've been put through the wringer! Slogged through the dregs and then some! It's a miracle we've even come out of it alive..."
"Then you must tell us all about it, perhaps over a glass of dandelion wine." Kaeya's smile warmed.
"Great idea! C'mon, Traveler! Paimon's thirsty! Oh, but, no wine, not for Paimon."
"Whatever you say, Paimon..." The Traveler, rare in their speech, sighed in fond exasperation.
Kaeya shook his head, watching the pair bicker their way into the tavern. The gift in his hand was a pleasant weight, and carefully shaking it to listen to what was inside, he couldn't wait to open it along with the others he received.
—
The sun had set over Mondstadt, painting the city in an orange hue, casting molten gold onto the rooftops and flecks of starlight on the cobblestone.
Rays of warmth radiated from the windows of the tavern, the festivities only just beginning with songs of celebration and new beginnings, and more years of birthdays to come for the Knights of Favonius's cavalry captain.
Kaeya, miraculously, drank lightly (well, as light as you could call it, as Paimon still condemned him and Rosaria for drinking too much), waiting up for one guest to arrive, as unlikely as that was.
He took a sip of wine, head resting on his hand, his eye glued to the door of Angel's Share. The noise around him faded to a pleasant buzz as he tried to will the presence of a certain frowning tavern owner.
To have a party held in his own tavern and he wasn't even here. How unprofessional.
"He'll be here."
Snapped from his thoughts, Kaeya turned to his drinking buddy. "Ah... Was I that obvious?"
Rosaria rolled her eyes, a small smirk playing on her lips. "As obvious as blood on freshly fallen snow."
A chuckle. "A pretty grim analogy, wouldn't you say?"
"Blood, wine... They're the same, are they not?" Rosaria downed her glass. Perhaps she, too, had one too many.
"Blood and wine, you say..." Kaeya sloshed his drink around in the glass. The red stained the rim, trickling off one end to stain his gloved fingers.
"Everyone!"
Amber excitedly waved for the tavern's attention, waving what looked like a piece of Fontainian technology in her hands.
"The Traveler brought a Kamera! We have to take a picture!"
Amber herded all of her friends in front and behind the counter and Kaeya had to hide the spike of alarm in his chest. A picture... To stop this moment of time in a piece of paper. But someone was still missing.
Amber set up the camera on a stool, smiling proudly at herself.
"Alright... I've set the timer!"
Kaeya, smack dab in the middle, hoped he wasn't too obvious to anyone other than Rosaria as he looked longingly at the tavern door.
"Ready! Three..."
He pried his gaze away, looking instead into the camera.
"Two..."
Maybe he wasn't coming.
"One!"
That was fine. It was nothing new—
The door creaked open.
—his gaze darted back, and, unmistakably, there he was.
"Master Diluc!"
Amber went out of formation to usher the flame-haired tavern owner into the group. Diluc grunted and frowned and looked everything like he didn't want to be here, but he settled in his place next to Kaeya without so much as a complaint.
He had crossed his arms, but the crease between his brows wasn't nearly as deep as usual.
Kaeya took that as a good sign.
"You're here." He couldn't pass up the opportunity to tease. "And here I thought Master Diluc was too wrapped up in his ever-important affairs."
Diluc scoffed, averting his eyes. "Do you consider me so heartless as to miss your birthday?"
It had a hint of teasing, and the usual dry sarcasm laced in every one of his words, but underneath it all is the fact that he was, undeniably, here.
Kaeya's smirk softened, and if Diluc still knew him as he used to he would notice.
"Alright, everybody's here, finally! On three!"
"One..."
Kaeya glanced to his left. Diluc was no longer frowning.
He didn't glance back, but Kaeya, letting himself believe he still knew him as he did before, noticed Diluc's icy expression melt, if only faintly.
"Two..."
"You know," Kaeya, in a rare display of sincerity, whispered, loud enough only for the man beside him. "I'm glad to have you here, Diluc."
Diluc's eyes closed, and he let out a sigh through his nose. A small hum was his reply.
Kaeya was fine with that.
"Three!"
"... As am I."
It was as faint as the wind through the boughs of Windrise, a whisper of a reply for his ears alone.
"Happy birthday, Kaeya!" Everyone cheered. A flash went off at the same time the tavern erupted in confetti and music.
It wasn't anything extravagant or fancy, and definitely not explosive. Just a day Kaeya was grateful to have lived long enough to witness—from dawn to dusk, from worlds afar or a walk away, with every one of the people he cared about.