Happy birthday, Diluc! Time for more angst!

I do not own Genshin Impact.

No beta on this chapter. Please pardon my errors.

Three weeks passed before Kaeya returned to the city of Mondstadt. The entire journey should have only taken two or three days, but after he had left the Adventurer's Guild camp at Dragonspine, he had taken a more circuitous route, skirting along the coastline and staying off the main roads. The Guild had been kind enough to supply him with enough provisions for a direct trip to Mondstadt. When he had run out, Kaeya had fed himself with what he could plunder from the hilichurl camps that he found tucked away in seaside caves.

He had spent those three weeks living as far outside of his oath to Ordo Favonius as he possibly could. The hilichurl camps that he dismantled were small, the monsters within them nowhere near strong enough to stand against a warrior of his caliber. But Kaeya sought them out and cut them down anyway, relishing in the feeling of their hot blood splattering across him as they fell. Then he'd take their weapons, Mora, and food before using their cooking fires to set their camps ablaze. He didn't stay to watch the fire burn. Just the sight of it made his heart ache. Instead, he set a ring of ice around each camp to keep the fire contained, allowing him to move on to the next camp.

If anyone had seen him out in the wild during that time, Kaeya doubted that they would have recognized him. He had barely recognized himself when he'd caught sight of his reflection in a shallow tidal pool one morning. He was filthy. His hair was disheveled and greasy from neglect, his skin was caked in dust and dried hilichurl blood, and his normally pristine clothing was several shades darker. Kaeya had stared down at himself through deadened blue eyes, wondering if he would ever feel alive again.

It was at that moment that he turned to travel inland again, hiking south until he'd reached the trailhead that led to the peak of Starsnatch Cliff. His legs ached as he climbed the steep path. The wind picked up as he climbed higher, buffeting his hair about and blowing apart the dandelions that covered the hillside, their seeds dancing around him before dispersing in every direction. The rays of the rising sun caught them, reflecting off the fine white silk that kept them airborne and making them glitter. The scene was reminiscent of a starshower, and Kaeya wondered for a moment if that was how the cliff had gotten its name. Then he shook his head. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. He focused all of his attention on his goal instead, pushing himself to move more quickly up the steep slope. Soon, the trees and underbrush gave way, leaving nothing but the tall grass and dandelions framed by a bright blue sky. When still in the midst of the climb up, the peak of Starsnatch Cliff was like looking over the edge of the world. The grass waved as it caught the wind, but beyond it was nothing.

Kaeya was out of breath when he finally reached the peak. He walked to the edge, the toes of his boots sticking out over it, and took in the view. The ocean sparkled below, stretching out for what seemed like an infinite space until it blended with the horizon. It was beautiful and terrible, a place he could disappear into, never to be found again. Kaeya clenched his jaw.

Don't be stupid.

He didn't want to disappear-that wouldn't solve anything. No, he wanted to scream. He could feel it building up inside of him, expanding in his chest and making it hard to breathe. Before he could stop himself, Kaeya opened his mouth. The wind rose in that moment, ruffling his hair and clothes, stealing the words as they left his throat and carrying them out to sea. Kaeya screamed until he ran out of breath and his ears rang, his vision growing blurry as the effort of sustaining the sound made him dizzy. When his energy was spent, he wobbled before finally falling backwards into the tall grass.

Kaeya stared up at the sky, looking for any sort of detail and finding only endless blue. He let himself get lost in it, ignoring the feeling of the tears that rolled from the corners of his eyes, over his cheeks, and back into his ears as he let his mind go totally blank. It was safer in oblivion. No one could disappoint him there. He remembered escaping in the same way after he had first been taken in by Crepus. Even with a mission given to him, it had been hard for his young mind to understand why his own father had left him. In the end, Diluc wasn't the first to abandon him, and Kaeya doubted that he would be the last.

"Get over yourself, idiot," he muttered after an incalculable amount of time had passed, his voice coming out in a tired rasp. Kaeya sniffled and dragged the back of his hand across his face. "You have a job to do. Just move on."

Heaving a loud sigh, Kaeya forced himself to sit up. He still felt numb, but at least he could breathe again. He needed to go back to Mondstadt. He had been avoiding his more boring, desk-related responsibilities for too long. But he couldn't exactly walk into the city looking the way that he did. He was already going to face some questions regarding his long absence, he didn't want to add ones about his appearance or mental state to the list. Kaeya heaved another sigh and stood, sparing one last glance out over the ocean before turning and heading back down the path. He followed it for the better part of the day, only stopping when he found himself at the edge of Starfell Lake late in the afternoon.

If he looked up, he knew that he would be able to see Mondstadt rising in the distance, but Kaeya was more concerned with the cool, clean water in front of him. Kaeya walked forward until the water had risen to his chest, his eyes never leaving the statue of the Anemo archon that stood on the small island in the center of the lake. Then he kicked off the bottom and began to swim, relishing the feeling of the water eating away at the dirt that was caked onto his skin. When he reached the island, he paused for a moment, his feet kicking up sediment at the bottom as he treaded water. In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have swum fully clothed with his sword still strapped to his hip, but he really couldn't bring himself to care.

When he finally climbed out, Kaeya peeled off his clothes, now at least a little cleaner, and spread them out at the base of the statue, leaning his sword beside them. Then he walked back into the water, now completely naked.

Kaeya allowed himself to waste away the afternoon at Starfell Lake. He alternated between swimming laps around the small island and diving to the bottom of the lake, holding his breath until his lungs screamed for relief before returning to the surface. Each time he did this, he would recover his breath by floating on his back, staring up at the sky. Kaeya had repeated this process several times and was looking up at a sky streaked with orange, pink, and purple, when he heard a voice call out to him.

"Have you been swimming here all this time?"

Kaeya righted himself and turned toward the voice, finding a bard that he had frequently seen in the city standing on the island near the Anemo archon statue. Kaeya squinted at him. What was his name again? Venti?

"It's a nice day for it, but it seems a little cold, if you ask me," said Venti, smiling down at him amiably.

"How the hell did you get there without me noticing you?" asked Kaeya. He swam back to the island and climbed out, wringing excess water from his hair as he walked over to the bard.

Venti shrugged. "I just came from the other side. You seemed like you were having fun, so I didn't want to disturb you."

Kaeya frowned. Then why the hell isn't he wet?

"You know, people have been wondering where you were," continued the bard. He pulled out his lyre and plucked the strings. "Angel's Share has felt empty without you."

"You just miss me because I tipped you well," Kaeya grumbled, brushing past him and picking up his pants, which had now dried.

"Maybe…"

Kaeya huffed. "Why are you all the way out here anyway?"

Venti hummed, playing a few chords and watching Kaeya dress himself before answering, "I like these old statues. They remind me of my favorite songs."

"Sure they do." Kaeya rolled his eyes, shrugging on his shirt but not buttoning it. When he moved to pick up his sword, he caught Venti staring intently at him. He frowned. "What?"

"Something seems to be bothering you, but I can't put my finger on it," said the bard. "Which is weird, because I'm usually good at figuring these things out. I don't know...it's like you've lost something."

"Don't worry about it," Kaeya muttered. He finished dressing himself, turning to find Venti still watching him. He huffed. "Look, if you really want to hang around, then you're going to have to make yourself useful."

"Useful, hmm," Venti hummed, tapping his chin with a slender finger as he followed Kaeya to the edge of the island. "I could sing you a song. Keep you entertained while we travel."

Kaeya pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He got the sense that Venti was going to sing whether he liked it or not. "Fine."

Venti laughed softly and plucked a few chords on his lyre, launching into a song about the Anemo archon and the ever-changing nature of the wind while Kaeya created a bridge of ice for them to cross. The ballad was long. It lasted them well into their journey through the Whispering Woods, Venti's voice echoing off the thick canopy above. Kaeya had to hand it to the bard, he was skilled at his trade. Even as they climbed over knotted roots and overturned carts, Venti never missed a note and his pitch remained even, rising and falling where it should. Toward the end of the song, Kaeya even managed to forget his troubles for a little while.

"Your affection for the Anemo archon shows," Kaeya said when the bard finished his song. He glanced down, noting the Anemo Vision that hung from Venti's hip. "That actually wasn't bad."

Venti smiled. "Thanks! The wind is very important to me."

"Is that why you style yourself after the statues?"

Kaeya heard Venti's footsteps pause for a moment and then the bard laughed, the sound almost musical.

"What? What's so funny?" Kaeya stopped and looked back at Venti, who was clearly trying to pull himself back together.

"Nothing. It's nothing," said Venti, breathing heavily as he regained his composure. "It's just that no one's ever said that to me before."

Kaeya narrowed his eye at him. "That seems unlikely."

"Anyway…" Venti trotted a couple steps to catch up to him. "...did you like my song? It's a new one."

"It wasn't bad."

"It has a moral to it, which I'm particularly proud of," explained the bard. "Did you hear it?"

Kaeya side-eyed him as they walked. They were nearly at the bridge that led into Mondstadt.

"It's about how everything is always changing, just like the wind," said Venti. "If there's anything you should have faith in, it's that things will be different tomorrow."

As they reached the edge of the bridge, Venti skipped ahead, stopping and turning to look at Kaeya once he was a third of its length away. For a moment, Kaeya thought he saw the ends of the bard's braids glow in the moonlight. Venti smiled brightly.

"Kind of like that thing you lost, don't you think? If you're patient, it'll come back to you. Nothing bad is permanent, after all."

Then he waved at Kaeya and dashed away, disappearing into the shadows cast by the high walls of Mondstadt before the knight could say a word. Kaeya stared after him, shaking his head. What a strange guy…

Luckily, he was able to make it to his apartment without being stopped or noticed. Kaeya knew how to avoid attention when he needed to. He stuck to the shadows and alleyways, moving as silently as any of the criminals that he hunted. When he finally reached his apartment, he found several notes attached to his door. Kaeya pulled them down, dropping them on his dining table without reading them as he headed to his room. He pulled off his bag and sword as he made his way to his bed with singular focus, leaving them scattered across the floor, and fell face first on the mattress fully clothed.

Kaeya treated himself to a slow start in the morning. He slept until it was nearly noon and then took his time bathing and eating. It was early afternoon before he made it to his office in the Knights of Favonius Headquarters. Jean caught him on his way in, but was kind enough to keep her lecture short. He sighed as he settled into the chair behind his desk. The pile of paperwork on top of it was significantly taller than it had been when he'd left.

He leafed idly through the various reports. Being the Cavalry Captain meant more than going on dangerous missions and battling monsters. He was also responsible for gathering intelligence, training recruits, and tracking trade within the city. It put Kaeya in a unique position to know everything that happened within Mondstadt's walls. He huffed and propped his chin on his hand as he picked through the accumulated information. Much of it was either irrelevant or boring. Kaeya ended up pushing a decently-sized stack into the wastebasket beside his desk. He was about to toss another pile when a familiar seal caught his eye. Kaeya froze.

Dawn Winery.

It was a trade report detailing what the winery had imported and exported in the last month. Kaeya scanned the lines carefully until he found what he was looking for: Death After Noon was coming into season again.

For the first time in his adult life, Kaeya found himself avoiding Angel's Share while his favorite drink was available. He found excuses not to go, telling himself that he would visit the tavern the next night. A week passed and his office was tidied, his paperwork was up to date, and every informant, criminal, and lowlife in the city had been properly pressed for information. He was leaving an alley after one such encounter when he felt a pair of hands wrap around his arm.

"Come and have a drink with me!" Venti smiled up at him.

"I...uh-" Before Kaeya could formulate a decent response, he found himself tugged out into the street and toward the entrance of Angel's Share.

He held his breath as Venti pushed through the door, dragging him along. He let it out in a sigh of relief when the regular bartender Charles greeted them.

"Captain Kaeya, it's been awhile!" The bartender smiled brightly and waved him over to the bar.

"Yeah, sorry. I've been busy," said Kaeya as he slid onto one of the polished wooden barstools.

Charles, friendly as ever, waved off the apology. "I'm just glad to have you around again. You're one of my best customers. Anyway, what'll it be?"

Kaeya opened his mouth to answer, but paused when he heard the door behind the bar open and saw Diluc emerge from it. Four weeks of convalescence at Dawn Winery had done the man well. Were it not for the sleek black cane that he was leaning on, Kaeya wouldn't have been able to tell that Diluc had been injured in the first place. As their eyes met, Venti struck up a song, his empty wine cup placed on the floor in front of him for tips. Kaeya regarded Diluc cooly, looking for any sign of emotion and finding none. His estranged foster brother was as emotionless as ever.

"You know what, Charles?" Kaeya finally said after several uncomfortable seconds had passed. "I think I'll let Master Diluc decide what I drink tonight."

Diluc simply stared at him for a moment and then limped over to the bar. Bending, he reached under it and pulled out a bottle, setting it on the bartop in front of Kaeya. Kaeya forced himself to keep his expression neutral as he read the label: Death After Noon.

"The first bottle's on the house," Diluc said flatly.

Then he turned and headed upstairs. Kaeya heard the door to the second-floor office open and close. He shrugged.

"Well, you heard the man," he said, picking up the bottle by the neck. "Can I get a glass? I think I'll drink away my troubles in the corner booth, other there."

Kaeya could tell that Charles was using every ounce of experience that he had in customer service to avoid prying into the exchange that had just occurred between his boss and his patron. The bartender wordlessly nodded and handed Kaeya a glass before directing his attention to a couple that had just entered.

Feeling weirdly heavy, Kaeya made his way over to the corner booth and sat down. He turned the bottle of Death After Noon in his hand, watching as the dim lights in the tavern reflected off the dark liquid.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" asked Venti.

Kaeya startled slightly, his grip tightening around the bottle of wine. "What?"

Venti slid into the bench across from him. "Are you going to drink all of that yourself?"

The bard overturned his own cup, letting a handful of Mora fall onto the table, and then tapped the wine bottle with it.

"Will you share some with me?"

Kaeya deadpanned at him. "Are you even old enough to drink?"

"Absolutely!"

Kaeya squinted at him and then shrugged. "Whatever."

"Thanks!" Venti chirped, holding out his cup as Kaeya filled it.

Kaeya filled his own glass, taking a moment to let it breathe and savor the scent before he took a sip. He closed his eyes and sighed. It was as good as he remembered.

"So?" Venti stared intently at him over his cup.

"So, what?"

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

Kaeya frowned, swirling the wine in his glass. "I'm not sure yet."

Venti hummed. "Give it time. He'll come around."

"What?"

The bard grinned and swallowed what was left in his cup in one go. "Well, I had better see if I can convince anyone else to buy me a drink. You enjoy the rest of that bottle. Take your time. This is a vintage that'll taste better later in the night."

Venti slid out of the booth, scooping the Mora back into his wine cup, and wandered off to other parts of the tavern before Kaeya could get a better explanation. He watched the bard flit from table to table, offering to sing a tune in exchange for a drink. Kaeya snorted. He was reading too much into Venti's words. The musician had probably just had a drunken slip of the tongue.

But as the night wore on, Kaeya couldn't stop thinking about it, nor did Diluc's absence the entire evening go unnoticed. As he slowly worked his way through the bottle of wine, Kaeya constantly found himself looking at the stairs that led up to Diluc's office. Each time he would catch himself, he would shake his head and take another drink of wine. Within a couple of hours, Kaeya had repeated the process enough times that the bottle was nearly empty.

Death After Noon was an easy wine to drink, given how strong it was. Many didn't have a taste for it, but Kaeya enjoyed the balance of sweetness and bitterness. However, as much as he loved it, Kaeya typically didn't drink an entire bottle himself. That combined with the inescapable sobriety caused by wandering the wilderness for three weeks, and the knight soon felt the effects. Kaeya had never been a loud or sloppy drunk unless he was putting on an act for the benefit of some poor fool that he was trying to coax information from. Instead he found himself lost in thought as he observed the other patrons of Angel's Share through a warm haze. He watched as a couple-clearly on a first date-shooed Venti away from their booth beneath the stairs. The bard whined and pouted before moving on to a group that was just intoxicated enough to be amicable to his company and loose with their money. Venti laughed and leaned in close to take the whispered request from one of the men, aware of but not commenting on the hand that rested on the small of his back.

As the bard plucked the first notes of an epic ballad, Kaeya's chin slipped from his hand. He let his head fall to the table with a dull thud. He was so tired, and the wine had made him more relaxed than he had been in a month. Venti's song filtered through the tavern, rising above the cacophony of conversations to reach the lonely corner where Kaeya sat. He felt his eyes grow heavy as he got lost in the bard's song.

Kaeya didn't realize he had fallen asleep until he felt a gentle touch to the top of his head, slender fingers threading through his hair. The contact was comforting...and familiar. Kaeya mumbled softly and lifted his head, blinking blearily. Diluc stood beside the table, still leaning on his cane, his expression unreadable.

Kaeya frowned and furrowed his brow, his mouth feeling dry and fuzzy from sleeping with only wine in his stomach. "What are you doing here?"

"In case you forgot, I own this establishment," answered Diluc, looking annoyed. He set a glass of water in front of his face. "Here."

With a heavy hand, Kaeya dragged the glass closer and tilted it against his lips to take a sip, watching as Diluc hobbled over to the bar and then made his way back with a bottle and two clean glasses. Looking around, Kaeya realized that the tavern was totally empty except the two of them.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his voice flat.

Diluc set the bottle and glasses on the table and slid into the bench across from Kaeya.

"Isn't it obvious?" answered the redhead. He uncorked the bottle and poured them each a glass. "I'm having a drink."

Kaeya huffed and rolled his eyes. "With me? And here I thought you didn't want anything to do with me."

He watched Diluc's jaw clench as he held back a retort. The other man was silent for a moment before he finally sighed. "I've...I've given it some thought, and…"

"And?" Kaeya raised his eyebrows. Outside the window, the breeze shifted, spinning the little pinwheels that were nestled in the flower box on the other side of the glass.

"Remember the deal you suggested up on Dragonspine?" Diluc asked after an uncomfortable beat of silence. He swirled the drink in his glass. "Well, I thought that maybe we could talk. Just talk."

"Yeah?" Kaeya couldn't help but lean forward, his curiosity piqued. "Talk about what?"

"About…" Diluc cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. He picked up his glass and clinked it against Kaeya's. "About whatever you want."

When Diluc raised his glass to his lips, Kaeya followed suit, nearly choking as the dark liquid passed his lips.

"Grape juice?" choked Kaeya, coughing to clear his throat. "Why didn't you tell me it was grape juice?"

Diluc stared at him intently, his brows slightly raised. Kaeya stared right back. He knew Diluc was trying to make some sort of point but he...wait. Oh...OH.

Kaeya smiled hesitantly and took another drink, feeling more alive than he had in weeks as he put the pieces together. "Alright. I think I can come up with at least a couple of topics. How long have you got?"

"As long as you need," answered Diluc.

Kaeya's smile grew into a grin. "Good. I'm glad to hear it…"

It wasn't perfect-nothing with them ever was-but at least it was a start.

That's it! I must say, I had a lot of fun writing these two idiots. I have some more ideas tumbling around. I might have to try my hand at it again.

What did you think? Please feel free to review. I live for your feedback!