Growing up, Diona had only one parent in her life. Her father was the sole breadwinner of the family of two, always needing to leave his daughter to hunt for money and food. Despite that however, Diona never misses her mother and she loved her father as a daughter would. There was one thing that she could do without though, and that is her father's alcoholism.
"Why does he keep drinking? It's not fair!" Diona ranted as she mixed a non-alcoholic cocktail for Aether.
"What's not fair?" Aether asked as he listened to Diona pour the mixture into a glass. She kept quiet as she shoved the glass in front of Aether before pulling herself up and over to sit on the wooden counter.
"It's not fair that he pays more attention to his drink than me…" she sobbed. The bar was empty, Paimon was asleep on Aether's lap and yet, even if she knew Aether was blind, she wanted to hide the tears that she could not stop from flowing out.
For as long as she could remember, her father had always been drinking. Whether he was in the house preparing for dinner or out hunting, there would always be a bottle of alcohol in his hands. At first, it had not been too bad, only a drink at every dinner but over time, it escalated until almost every memory of her father had been him drinking or being drunk.
(What happened to the father who would read her bedtime stories? What happened to the man who would carry her over his shoulders when she begged him to?)
"It's all the fault of the alcohol! If that thing didn't exist, then daddy would go back to normal!"
"I don't think that's the fault of the alco-" Paimon said before she was interrupted by Aether silencing her by hugging her and shushing her.
Diona had tried many methods to break her father out of his alcoholism but not a single one had succeeded. She had tried destroying the alcohol but for every bottle she destroyed, there would be a new one in her father's hands the very next day. She had tried hiding the drink mixer but he would get a new one every time. She had tried asking her father's friends to stop him from drinking but they would laugh and pat her head, reassuring her that her father was doing fine. No one took her seriously and all her cries for help were lost to the wind.
"No one believed me! Everyone kept saying that daddy was okay, that he's from Mondstadt so he drinks often! Why won't anyone take me seriously? Are you going to tell me that everything's fine too?"
"No, I believe you," Aether answered without hesitation.
Despite all the setbacks however, Diona refused to give up on her mission to return her father back to normal. Unfortunately, Alcoholism had seeped too far into her father to stop him from being affected so the only solution left was to destroy the very source of the corruption. If there was no more alcohol, then her father would no longer be affected by it and he would go back to normal!
"How should Paimon put it? This is a...very childish way of thinking."
"Paimon, I may be blind but last I checked, Diona is a kid," Aether refuted with a sigh.
Sadly, there was a problem with the plan. In order to destroy the alcohol completely, Diona would have to completely destroy the entire alcohol industry. And what better way than to infiltrate the business by becoming a bartender?
(She wished that her father would praise her when she served him a non-alcoholic drink that she mixed herself for the first time instead of complaining about the lack of alcohol in it.)
Despite her personal war against alcohol, Diona was not against the prospect of working as a bartender. There was so much creativity and finesse that was required for the job and surprisingly, Diona had fun coming up with new creations...at least until she was exposed to the dunkards begging for a drop of the alcoholic cocktails she makes.
She had thought that by making the worst tasting alcohol she could create, people would be put off drinking alcohol which would lead them to quit (which also means that it would work on her father). However, no matter what she did or what disgusting ingredients she used, the drink she created in her hands would always taste delicious.
"I've tried everything! Everything! Slime condensate, raw carrots, and even fish guts! But everything always turns out delicious!"
"Diona, let me introduce you to this adventurer named Bennett…"
What the people of Mondstadt called a 'blessing' or even 'a gift from the gods', Diona calls it 'a curse'. Getting a Vision that compliments her inability to make a terrible drink was not helping matters either.
(She never forgot the day she obtained her Vision. She never forgot the panic she felt when her father almost never came home.)
"Daddy never stopped teasing me about the first time I made him an alcoholic drink. It-It's not like I wanted to! It was supposed to help numb the pain!"
"Do you want to make him a drink though?"
Diona's expression shifted to one of deep thought as the silence between her and Aether continued to linger. Eventually, she looked up at Aether to give her reply. "I want to...but not when he's addicted to alcohol. Not when the praise he would give me is related to the drink and not my skills."
The first time Diona met the Traveller, she had already heard the tales of the hero, accompanied by a fairy, who saved Mondstadt. She had wanted to inform Margaret that they had run out of ingredients but that was promptly pushed aside when she noticed the Traveller who had been chatting with Margaret outside of The Cat's Tail. After introductions were exchanged, Diona was drawn into a conversation with Aether and Paimon until she remembered the reason why she had left the bar.
(Aether had not looked surprised like other people do when they first laid eyes on a Kätzlein, perhaps he had met her father before? However, her father had never once spoken about meeting the hero of Mondstadt.)
"You have cat ears and a tail?" Aether asked, dumbfounded.
"Eh!? It's quite obvious!" Diona retorted. "Doesn't it show up in your Elemental Sight?"
"It's...difficult to see specific things even with Elemental Sight. I can't see mouths, eyes or anything that is too close to clothing. Rather than that...Paimon, why didn't you tell me?"
"Paimon thought it was quite obvious too!"
After explaining that she was heading out to gather more ingredients, Margaret invited Aether and Paimon to accompany Diona. Before Diona could stop them, they agreed. In return, Diona promised to make Aether a cocktail (non-alcoholic of course) with the ingredients they gather later.
...At least that was the plan until she heard from Allan, along the way, that her father had yet to return from his hunt. Aether and Paimon volunteered to help Diona find her father even before she asked them. Though worried for her father, Diona assumed that he must have been drunk and wandered off to fulfil some drunken-induced fantasy mission again.
(She hoped that this time would be different but as time went on and nothing changed, her hope began to diminish.)
Diona led the party through Dadaupa Gorge, the other two insisting that she take the lead. It was only when they reached the top of the hill overlooking the hilichurl camp that it was finally revealed, the reason why, when Aether almost walked off the edge of a cliff.
"Sorry, I didn't use my Elemental Sight," Aether apologised after Diona and Paimon had to grab hold of him and yank him back from certain death.
Aether explained his disability, how he could only see with Elemental Sight. Diona listened as he spoke, Paimon adding on things that he neglected to say.
"It's not that I was hiding it but I didn't want to burden you with this on top of everything."
At the end of it all, what could she say? What should she say? Did it matter? Diona knew that the revelation is significant but she did not know how to judge the significance of it.
"But Aether is Aether right? Just leave it to me to show you the way!" Diona said, puffing out her chest and immediately forgetting that Aether would not be able to see the gesture.
As they approach the hilichurl camp where Draff, Diona's father, was last seen heading towards, Diona began to worry about her father. She had not openly expressed her worry but as she continued to fidget with her clothes and the way her tail tensed up, even Paimon began to take notice.
"Your father will be fine. This isn't the first time it happened right? Though I don't support his lifestyle based on your stories of him, I think that he'll be fine," Aether said, his voice calm and Paimon nodding her head as she floated beside him.
(She still remembers when her father almost never came home. What if this time was different? However, Aether had no reason to lie to her so he has to be right! Her father will be fine!)
Eventually, they did manage to find her father deep inside a large and (thankfully) empty hilichurl hut. The reunion would have been sweet and enough to shed a few drops of tears...if it was not for the fact that they found the man drunk and chasing an imaginary creature. Rather than the joy of finding her father, Diona found anger seeping into her heart. Why had she expected it to be different every time she went out to search for her father when he never came back after a hunt? Why had she believed that her father would change just because he promised her, even though he had broken the promise so many times?
(But she kept hoping because she remembers a father who read her bedtime stories, a father who would give her piggyback rides because she asked. She kept hoping because she loved her father.)
Aether managed to manhandle the drunk man enough to carry him awkwardly over his shoulder, while Paimon helped him navigate his surroundings as Diona led the party out of the camp. The man fell asleep the moment Aether lifted him up, much to Diona's chagrin. When they reached an empty clearing, far from the hilichurl camp and empty of any enemies, Aether lowered Draff to the ground. Diona spent close to an hour waking up the sleeping man, even going as far as to pour water on his face. However, the man continued to sleep even with Diona screeching in anger.
In the end, after discussing with Aether and Paimon, Diona decided that the party should return to Mondstadt where she can whip up something to wake her father up from his drunken sleep.
The way back was quiet. Paimon was in front, leading the way this time while Diona walked beside Aether who was carrying Draff on his shoulders. Diona dragged her feet as she walked, her ears and tail drooping in accordance to her sadness. Today was supposed to be a day where she could go out and have fun looking for new ingredients and come up with new ideas for a drink. She was supposed to show the Hero of Mondstadt her skills and he would praise her, maybe even agree with her that alcohol is evil. But this? This was not what she wanted today!
Diona sniffed, wiping away the tears that rolled down her cheeks. Why was she crying? This happens all the time! Grown ups do not cry! She is a big girl now! She had to be in order to take care of her father!
"I know you didn't want it to happen but there was nothing you could have done to stop it," Aether said as Diona wiped away her tears again. Paimon floated along ahead, pretending that she had heard nothing.
"I wished daddy would stop doing this," Diona sniffled. "I wish that he wouldn't keep getting drunk like this. I wish that he would hold my hands. I wish that he would be the daddy I know."
At the sound of clothes rustling, Diona looked up at Aether to see him stopping in his tracks and adjusting her father in his hold to hold the body easier with one hand. He then looked down at Diona, his eyes not meeting hers but his hand was offered to her.
"I know I can't be a replacement for your father, but do you want to hold my hand?"
Instead of a verbal reply, Diona grabbed his hand with hers and intertwined her fingers into his. Aether's hand was warm despite the glove and Diona no longer felt the ice cold sadness and anger in her heart.
Many weeks later, Diona would find out that her friend, Klee, had claimed Aether as one of her big brothers and end up fighting with her friend over it.
"That's not fair! You already have Albedo as your big brother! Aether is my big brother!"
"I want Aether as my big brother too!"
As the two children fought, Paimon looked over Aether and Albedo standing at the side before asking, "Aren't you going to stop them?"
Diona will never tell anyone how happy it made her when Aether answered, "They aren't wrong. I am both of their big brothers."