Chapter VII

Idril: Thank you!

SewaTheOtaku: Thank you so much and here you go!

I don't own Genshin Impact.

Kaeya was sitting across from him at the bar, a drink in his hand and a familiar smirk on his face. Diluc didn't remember what Kaeya said, or if he said anything at all. All Diluc knew was that he had to apologize, for everything, right here and now, while he still had the chance. He didn't know why he had this very strong urge to apologize to Kaeya tonight of all nights, but for once, he wasn't going to ignore it.

He missed his brother.

"Whatever is the matter, Master Diluc?" Kaeya asked as he swirled his drink. "You look like a cat has gotten your tongue."

Diluc felt a natural retort move to his lips but at the last second, the redhead shook his head. No, no retort. Apologize. For all the physical and emotional pain he caused Kaeya, his brother. Now.

He opened his mouth but before words could come out, he heard a small noise.

And before he knew it, he was lying on his bed back at the Dawn Winery.

Diluc stayed still, confused as to why his head hurt, why his throat slightly ached, and most importantly, why he wasn't at Angel's Share, apologizing to his brother.

But that confusion only lasted for a second. Then everything came back to Diluc all at once, causing his eyes to tear up as the hole where his heart once resided cried out in fresh pain.

He hadn't even been able to apologize to Kaeya in a dream.

Diluc choked on a sob as he dug his face into his pillow, wondering how he was going to do this. How he was going to live with knowing that not only was his brother dead, but also the fact that Diluc had wasted these last few years by pushing Kaeya away. He was tempted to leave Mondstadt again, but this time focus his rage, hatred, and grief on the Abyss Order.

After all, if it wasn't for them, Kaeya would still be alive.

But just as a familiar, heart-breaking rage started to boil within his gut, he recalled Adelinde's worried face from earlier today and Elzer's soft smile before he went home last night. After these faces of his precious staff ran through his mind, his rage died before it could really ignite.

Because Diluc couldn't leave them again. They didn't deserve that. And besides, it was ultimately a lightning bolt that had killed Kaeya. The Abyss Order just got lucky. What was Diluc going to do, fight the Raiden Shogun?

The absurdity of the idea would have made Diluc chuckle if he wasn't overwhelmingly depressed.

But as it was, remembering his staff reminded Diluc of the small noise that had woken him up from his dream. Diluc wasn't sure, but it sounded like...a squeak?

Well, it was probably nothing but since his staff was all Diluc had left, he might as well check to make sure it was nothing.

Diluc then tilted his head so that he was actually looking at his bedroom, and not his pillow. This small movement proved to be a much greater effort than he thought it would be, but luckily for Diluc, despite the semi-darkness in the room, he quickly found his answer.

There, on his bedside table, laid a plate of steak, probably already seasoned to his liking. And next to that plate, was a tall glass of grape juice.

Adelinde. Even though Diluc had made it more or less clear that he didn't want to celebrate his birthday anymore, Adelinde would still leave out one of his favorite meals for him. Diluc never protested because not only did Adelinde make no fuss about leaving him food, but in the end, it was just steak and grape juice. Definitely not something to blow a gasket over, especially if eating the food made his head housemaid happy.

However, this time, Diluc ignored the birthday meal and closed his eyes. It wasn't out of spite for Adelinde accidentally waking him up by leaving him the food.

He just had no appetite.

And maybe, just maybe, if he went back to sleep, he could back to dreaming about Kaeya again. Maybe Diluc would even be able to apologize this time.

Something touched his left foot.

GI

Diona's hand went to her bag and after making sure she could feel a certain object in it, she looked up the ladder leading up to Diluc's window.

It had been a few hours (probably, she lost track of time a while ago) since Kaeya asked her if she could go to his office, grab the package in the top left-hand drawer, and sneak it into Diluc's room. Diona had instantly agreed, and not just because she still felt like she owed Kaeya. Though, that was a big part of it.

The other big part was imagining the look on the head of the wine industry's face when he realized he got pranked (granted, she didn't know what was in the package per se, but Diona was sure whatever it was would annoy Diluc to no end).

And even if somehow this prank didn't annoy Diluc, she would at least know how to sneak into his room now.

"Ready?" Diona tore her gaze away from the ladder to see Razor standing on the other side of the ladder, his hands firmly on it as he wore a determined expression. When Kaeya asked her to do this, he had made sure to tell her to enlist Razor for help, since the ladder was much bigger than her. Diona was honestly a bit offended at first before she realized that because of the rain, it would be a good idea for someone to be at the bottom of the ladder to prevent it from slipping.

Luckily, Razor had been very easy to recruit (granted, she omitted the pranking Diluc part), and not only that, Jean had eventually asked if Diona would be fine if Razor took her back to Springvale. To make things even better, when Diona asked if they could go into Kaeya's office to get something for him (she would have sneaked in but she didn't know which office was Kaeya's), Jean even guided them to his office herself. Diona had been a bit nervous that Jean would ask questions, but thankfully, Jean didn't say a word when Diona brought the package out of the drawer. In fact, she seemed to even smile a bit. Diona wasn't sure why, but she wasn't going to question it. She was just glad that everything seem to fall into place.

Well, almost everything. Diona had planned on fulfilling Kaeya's favor as soon as Barbara came back from treating him but as soon as the Deaconess told them that Kaeya just needed to rest for a couple of days, Klee dragged both her and Razor in to see Kaeya. Diona hadn't protested, since she figured a few minutes staying at Kaeya's bedside (who had fallen back asleep at this point) wasn't a bad idea. But before she knew it, Diona found herself drooling on Kaeya's mattress, with one of her hands holding Kaeya's. Diona had lost quite a few hours sleeping.

Oh well, Kaeya had just wanted the package delivered today. He didn't give a specific time.

"Ready," she replied, with a smile full of anticipation. Diona then climbed the ladder and despite the rain making climbing a bit more miserable and slippier than usual, she had no trouble getting to the top. When she got to the window, she knocked on the middle of the wooden baseboard, just like Kaeya told her to do. And just like he said, the window opened slightly outwards, causing her to cackle softly before she carefully opened the window without knocking herself off the ladder.

In just a few moments, upon Kaeya's request, Diluc would get…oh shoot.

Due to Diona's excitement over pranking Diluc, she had neglected to actually check inside the room.

For her enemy was lying practically face down on the bed, and even though he made no sign that he heard Diona, that didn't mean he hadn't. Diona stayed at the edge of the window for several moments, her heart in her throat as she tried to not move an inch.

But when Diluc continued not to move, Diona realized that he really was still asleep, causing her to sigh silently in relief. Though, as she carefully climbed into the room, Diona couldn't help but wonder why Diluc was asleep during the middle of the day, on top of the bed covers no less. Diona doubted that he was sick...there wouldn't have been steak and wine on his bedside table. Perhaps her enemy was actually just a lazy bum?

Safely in the room by now, Diona decided to store this information away for later as she turned around to close the window, to lessen the chance of the rainstorm (thankfully, the lightning stopped a while ago) waking up Diluc.

However, for whatever reason, the window chose that moment to squeak.

Diona's back stiffened as she turned her head back to Diluc. For a moment, he didn't move, making Diona believe that he was still asleep. But then, out of nowhere, a...broken noise came from the adult as he snuggled more deeply into his pillow. Diluc didn't make any other movement after that, nor did he make any further sound. And while it seemed like Diluc still hadn't noticed her, Diona stayed still, her eyes wide as she continued to stare at him.

That...that sounded like a sob. Had Diluc, her worst enemy, been crying? But...why? No...what could make the stern and stoic man cry? Was it a bad nightmare? She had plenty of those, they were never fun. She kind of felt bad now for-

Wait, what was she thinking? Diona quickly shook her head to shake any guilt about pranking Diluc out of her mind. Diluc was the reason why there were so many disgusting booze hounds and the reason why Daddy didn't play with her that much anymore. He...he was probably having a dream about the wine industry finally getting destroyed. Yeah, that's it! Diona had absolutely nothing to be guilty about. Especially since she wasn't even sure Diluc really had been crying. She could have just been hearing things.

And besides, Kaeya asked her to do this. Diona had to do it.

So with a silent sigh, Diona decided to leave the window exactly how it was (mostly closed, it should be fine) before turning around and tip-toeing to Diluc's bed. When she got there, she quietly and slowly opened her bag and took out a brown package wrapped in red ribbon (it wasn't a present, the ribbon is just there to make sure it didn't fall apart!). Diona then started to debate where the best place to put it was.

Just then, Diluc moved his head. Diona's heart skipped a beat when she saw that Diluc's eyes were open. She quickly ducked down behind the bed and prayed to Barbatos that he hadn't seen her. Moments passed and Diona couldn't hear any sign telling her that he had seen her. Gulping quietly, Diona cautiously peeked her head up over the bed and saw that not only had Diluc made no further movement, but his eyes were closed.

Relieved but wanting to get out of there before anything else happened, Diona decided to just place the package near the foot of the bed, which was right in front of her.

However, in her haste, Diona accidentally touched Diluc's foot with the package.

For a brief second, Diona hoped that Diluc hadn't felt that. Only for that hope to come crashing onto the ground when Diluc whirled his head around and landed his gaze right on her. They stared in silence at each other, as Diona felt like a cat caught in the streetlight while a bewildered expression reigned supreme on Diluc's face.

"Di-"

"Eek!" Diona couldn't help but squeak as she left the package on the bed and raced to the window. Once there, she threw it open and hastily started to climb down.

"Razor, we gotta-" Diona started to warn her friend when, suddenly, her foot slipped.

"Diona!" she heard Razor cry out as she began to slide down the ladder. However, before she could slide very far, a hand caught her by the back of her shirt. Diona slowly looked up to see that Diluc was indeed the one who saved her from falling, though he had to lean heavily over the windowsill to do it.

And to her surprise, instead of being angry, Diluc actually looked...relieved.

"Oh, thank goodness," Diluc sighed. Then, to her surprise, he carried her back inside with one hand. Diona uncharacteristically stayed silent as Diluc gently placed her on the ground. Even when Diluc folded his arms and raised an eyebrow, Diona could only stare at the man.

Because while she may have been too panicked or too far away earlier to notice, Diona could now clearly see the red patches on his cheeks as well as how his eyes were redder than usual.

Her enemy really had been crying.

I was actually planning for this chapter to be longer but...I don't know, it just felt good to stop here. That and I didn't want to jump POVs too much at this point in the story.

So what did you guys think? Please review on your way out and I will update shortly. Until then, have a good and safe day/night!