The Winery was abuzz with hushed whispers that spread like wildfire, igniting curiosity and speculation among the maids and servants who scurried past Kaeya and Diluc's door. Inside their room, the atmosphere was tense, "You just had to slam him into the cupboard," Kaeya muttered laying on the ground with his hair splayed out.

Diluc was slouched in the corner hugging his knees. He always was such a crybaby whenever he got in trouble. They technically hadn't even gotten a punishment yet… They were just stuck in their room for an undetermined set of time.

Kaeya let out a snicker, a gleeful amusement danced in Kaeya's eyes, though he tried to hide it as he cautioned himself against provoking Diluc further, remembering Diluc crashing himself into Eroch making him land flat on his butt though always made him laugh. If only it hadn't given away his own hiding position. "Don't start again, Kaeya,"

Diluc buried his face more into his hands, Kaeya shot him his best smile regardless, "Cheer up, Father never stays mad for long."

Diluc gave his ever familiar scowl, lifting his head up, "That's easy for you to say, you never get in trouble," Diluc paused, studying him carefully, "What were you doing in there anyways?"

Kaeya's smile faltered briefly as he hesitated. The truth was undeniable now; this wasn't the same Diluc from his past, no matter how much he wished it were. He had to come to terms with the fact that his incredible gift came with a price, "The same as you I suppose."

"Hmph," huffed Diluc, turning away, although there was a hint of something other than disdain in his eyes.

Kaeya now felt like he wanted to curl in on himself as well, things would go back to how they were. Kaeya couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment in himself. He knew he didn't deserve such warmth and tenderness from Diluc and yet he still longed for it. He was foolish for ever believing that this would last.

The door opened and the head of the Ragnvindr household walked in, "Inspector Eroch luckily didn't suffer a concussion because of your actions, what were you thinking, Diluc? He's a representative of the Knights of Favonius… how am I supposed to explain this? You could have just jeopardized your whole future."

Diluc didn't respond, casting his gaze away to find the wall as the most interesting part of the room. Despite the lack of response Master Crepus just crossed his arms and stood there disappointment practically radiating off of him.

After a couple more minutes of tense silence Master Crepus rubbed his brow and sighed, "Kaeya, Diluc, if anything has happened between you and Eroch I need you to tell me-"

"Nothing has happened," Diluc interrupted, his voice wavering with emotion.

"We'll talk more about this tomorrow… I don't want to see either of you out of this room unless you are coming to talk to me," Master Crepus said, his voice firm yet filled with concern. "I'll be in my office if you need anything,"

He paused for a second glancing back at them before turning to shut the door once more. "I love you." Diluc's voice cracked so pitifully as the door closed it made Kaeya want to hug him tight and never let go.

Diluc wouldn't want that though, but at the same time… he couldn't ignore the feeling of longing that surged through him.

Kaeya crawled over bracing himself to be shoved away as he wrapped his arms around Diluc. "I love you," he said before realizing what he was doing. Surprisingly enough he felt warm arms reciprocate tugging him closer.

Kaeya placed a hand on his chin staring at his notes, "We need a diversion, a big one, and since you got us into this mess thank you for volunteering for my project!"

Diluc raised an eyebrow, intrigued by Kaeya's plan. "Your project? What do you have in mind?"

"Yes, I know you're still reveling in the moment of punching Eroch but try to keep up," Kaeya lightly teased. Although it was true, they couldn't afford to stay here much longer. Whatever was responsible for this situation probably was trying to target the winery and with Diluc and him gone...

Diluc shot a glare at him, "Don't go getting yourself in trouble."

Kaeya stuck his tongue out at him. Diluc would never be able to prove this happened anyways, "Go apologize to Father, but we need him out of his office.

Diluc sent him a questioning gaze, "Why would we need him out of his office?" he asked slowly.

Kaeya gave a wink, one of the infuriating ones that Diluc would always have to double guess if he was winking or just had something stuck in his eye. After a bit of back and forth Diluc disappeared down the hall, now whether it was to apologize or just wished to stop talking to him…

As Diluc left to apologize to their father, Kaeya felt a mix of anticipation and anxiety. The winery had secrets, and he had a hunch that Master Crepus's office held the key to their predicament. Although he had only gotten a sneak peak before footsteps had come to the office.

Earlier that morning Diluc and his father had left the manor leaving the house completely open for fiddling with, the homework that he remembered agonizing on throughout the day now took less than an hour. A lot of it was still basic skills that even an 8 year old would know.

The world he had found himself in was incredibly detailed, he had a knack for sensing disturbances and even his senses couldn't detect anything wrong, how intriguing. That was when an idea popped up in his head, there was Master Crepus's office left completely unattended, very few people knew of all the secrets hidden in that room.

Many of them the old master took to his grave not even telling his heir of their existence… Kaeya crept closer, nobody was watching, it would be a quick in and out, even if he was found there didn't mean that he would get in trouble… just as long as he wasn't caught red handed.

When interfering with leylines everything got messy, it was a headache even the Traveler had, they usually were minor outcrops that caused elemental disturbances, occasionally they would even run deep into the earth causing even more problems in domains. In his homeland there was rumors that their powers ran far greater than that though.

It was a magnificent study, books from all manner of places lined the shelves, Kaeya carefully took a slanted blue one off the shelf, its cover glistening like a sapphire, pressing an ear to it and jangling it. He was greeted with a metallic noise.

He then gently traced the walls,feeling the familiar grooves of locked compartments along the wall, evidence of secrets that had been kept from even Diluc, the heir to the Ragnvindr household. He didn't examine those though, the majority of them were either false leads or just the genuine creakings of an old building.

There was still one place he wanted to go before exiting though, he slunk inside a cupboard facing opposite from the door, he remembered the day Crepus had decided to meld it as part of the wall, claiming that he was worried it would fall on one of them. Diluc had happily dragged planks through the house making Adelinde nearly faint at the marks in the rugs.

However Kaeya knew better, they were never allowed to play in this room. As soon as he shut the door and began fiddling around he heard footsteps, "The Master should be up momentarily, I'll fetch you some drinks."

"Ah thank you, Adelinde, but there is no need."

He peered through the crack, seeing the figure of Eroch standing there, great, now he was trapped. The time ticked by, Eroch getting more impatient by the moment if the tapping of his shoe was anything to go by. Eventually Eroch reached inside the freaking chair, (Kaeya was definitely stealing it for his own office one day) glancing around for a second before grabbing a stack of papers and shuffling them.

He leaned forward trying to get a better look at them. "Who's there?" said Eroch suddenly, Kaeya's eyes widened, moving his face away from the edge.

Before his eyes could fall upon the slightly cracked open cupboard the sounds of Diluc and their Father began getting closer.

That was when he thought he'd finally learn some answers and they began talking about the Fatui… Diluc ran back in slamming Eroch back into his hiding space.

How troublesome.

He could hear Diluc and Crepus's whispers as they walked by towards the stairs, after being sure they were downstairs by the sound of Diluc's shouting he took it as a sign that the coast was clear.