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Kaeya Alberich ([personal profile] icepatch) wrote2021-08-16 07:29 pm

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phoenixblessed: (149)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-02 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[Diluc watches the line of Kaeya's spine as he leans over the bed, and reaches over to lightly run the back of one fingernail up the length of it from the base right up to the back of his neck. In the next moment he's catching the tossed cigarettes, looking at the pack in surprise.

The two of them did smoke now and then - Kaeya more often than himself - but he hadn't expected a pack of them to be so readily to hand.
]

... Mm.

[He fiddles with the cigarette packet, flipping the lid open and closed, then slides out of bed and pushes his free hand through his hair, ears twitching while his deep red wolf tail swishes idly back and forth.]

Come on, then. I'll make the tea before we go into the garden.
phoenixblessed: (040)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-05 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[That's a mental note to keep while he grabs some clothes and pulls them on, settling for some soft-waisted trousers that won't be irritating while he has a tail, and a haori to keep the chill off. With as warm as he is naturally he hardly needs anything else.

He can still feel his tail swishing in simple pleasure at his current company as he follows Kaeya out of the room, and he links their hands together as they walk across the house.

His tail curls against the back of Kaeya's thigh. He doesn't notice.
]

Which tea shall we have? Something strong might be too overpowering this early.
phoenixblessed: (148)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-08 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Sure.

[When these features emerge, it's easier than ever for them to read one another. Not that Diluc has ever found it hard to read Kaeya, even when their relationship was at its lowest. He sends a smile his way as he answers and nods, and fruit tea would be far easier to put together anyway.

He doesn't waste time standing around in the kitchen. Diluc heats some water up quickly with a little application of pyro energy and sets the teapot and two cups on a small tray, ushering Kaeya out to the garden door and the engawa outside.

When they're settled on the edge of the porch, he sighs and hands the cigarette packet back over to the other man after pulling one out for himself.
]

Lean in. [Diluc murmurs, and he gently lights the ends of both of their cigarettes where they touch.] Mm. Been a while.
phoenixblessed: (041)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-09 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[Always so efficient.

Diluc draws on his own cigarette, hissing in through his teeth as he lets it linger and burn in his chest. He probably should be coughing, but he lets the smoke out in a steady stream and watches it drift away on the light breeze of the early morning.
]

Sometimes. [He murmurs in quiet agreement. Like Kaeya, Diluc is not interested in making this a habit... but it's nice to just sit and indulge in it once in a while.]

Remember sneaking out into the vineyard to smoke so father didn't catch us? [He asks after a few silent moments pass, tilting his attention towards the younger man with a small smile.] And the one time Elzer did?
phoenixblessed: (063)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-11 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I'd bet the winery on it.

[Elzer, along with the rest of the staff, had always been indulgent of the two young man growing up around their feet. Diluc had been aware of this to the point of occasionally taking advantage, though he never pushed it to a point that he would cause any disappointment to his father.]

Nothing happens around the winery that Elzer doesn't know about. [And though Diluc might not say it now, he knows that he could not run the place without him. He smiles, gently bumping his shoulder to Kaeya's.]

Been thinking we could open our own place here.
phoenixblessed: (134)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-15 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[Diluc makes a show of thinking about it. He hums in soft consideration and spends a few moments in contemplative silence as he takes another draw on the cigarette and flicks a little of the ash over the edge of the porch.]

Good question.

[He doesn't give details about what he has in mind because he is sure that Kaeya knows. There's really only one thing that it could be.]

I think I could manage it. The real question is, could you handle working so closely with me?
phoenixblessed: (014)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-22 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[He shoots Kaeya a deadpan look at that. It's been so long since he moved past simply tolerating the man, and poorly, that the way he chooses to bring it up now verges on jarring. Besides, as much as Kaeya likes to joke around and act the brat he knows full well that he would take business with as much seriousness as he took his work for the Knights.]

You know I had my reasons. Even if they weren't very good ones. [That's something he can at least admit now. Keeping Kaeya at arms length for so long had only served to hurt them both, when the other man's only real crime was poor timing.

Diluc rolls his eyes and takes another drag of his cigarette, sighing out a breath.
]

And if I didn't want you to do this with me, I wouldn't have asked. I just don't want you to feel you have to spend so much of your time stuck to my hip if you have other things you want to do.

[He might joke about it later, but it seems he's looking for a serious answer first.]
phoenixblessed: (078)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-28 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[At the time his reasons had felt perfectly valid and even after they had managed to patch things up with each other he would have still had trouble with admitting that he wasn't justified in how he had reacted that night.

He does see now, though, that it had mostly been the result of a grieving teenager being pushed utterly to his limits by a perceived betrayal of all the values his father had died for.
]

Maybe. [Probably. He had always known he would take the winery when his father wanted to retire, though they had both no doubt thought that would be some years in the future when his best years in the Knights were behind him.

He finishes the last of his own cigarette and shakes his head, holding it up for Kaeya to snuff it out as he exhales the smoke.
]

Do you think you would have joined if I hadn't?
phoenixblessed: (095)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-29 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[They don't often talk about their time spent in the Knights even now, but Diluc listens quietly while Kaeya speaks. Knowing what he knows now, how much of a risk it was for Kaeya to follow him into the Knights and always be at his back was truly a risk... and he had never really thought about it before.

He settles next to the other man, placing his hand close enough to Kaeya's that their pinkie fingers can link together.

Back then, Kaeya had been his best friend, his confidante, always in his shadow but never complaining, always supporting him in everything he could have ever needed. Diluc had been the confident one, charming, always smiling, while Kaeya had always been slightly more eccentric in manner... but none the less well-liked.
]

I wouldn't have it any other way. [He replies with a gentle warmth, softly bumping their shoulders together.] And I know... it's not the most pleasant of topics... but did they ever tell you why I resigned?
phoenixblessed: (018)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-29 06:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Gods, I was so angry.

[He breathes out the words, almost sighing, and despite what he says he doesn't sound particularly angry now. Of course Kaeya knows already either way, thanks to Amber's excited explanation of her youthful eavesdropping during the Black Fire Incident (something Diluc himself had not been present for, but had inevitably heard about later from Lisa), but he had always wondered if he had been let in on any of it back then. It's no surprise that the resourceful man had worked it out for himself.

Hearing that Eroch had been expelled as a traitor while he was gone had done little to soothe the sharp sting of being betrayed by the Order he had put so many years of his life into.

Diluc smiles, soft and bitter all at once. What would Crepus have thought if he had known that the Knights of Favonius, who he had always regretted never being a part of, had been able to turn their back on him so easily? He could still get angry about it now if he let himself, and perhaps Kaeya might be able to see it coming, but instead of those barbed emotions welling up Diluc simply takes a breath, holds it for a moment, then sighs it slowly out again.
]

But thank you, Kaeya... for keeping it safe for me. And for not pushing it into my hands at the first opportunity. [His smile turns wry.] I don't think I would have been able to accept it if you had.
phoenixblessed: (036)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-06-30 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
I hate that damn vase... [The redhead says wistfully, looking up at the slowly brightening sky. He hated it, yet he had never thought to throw it away and it was still sitting on its plinth in the entrance hall of the winery along with a few other slightly out-of-place ornaments.]

It doesn't look good no matter where you put it.

[And yet!!

He's sure Adelinde found the Vision tucked inside the thing long before he did. Diluc wasn't going about cleaning the place after all. She hadn't told him, and eventually he had found it himself. Some consideration had been given to simply tossing the thing right at the man, but by then it had been so long that doing so felt ridiculous to do that. And besides, he'd missed the warm weight of it at his hip.
]

Why a vase of all things? It's hardly subtle.
phoenixblessed: (063)

[personal profile] phoenixblessed 2022-07-03 05:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Tch.

[Not the first time Kaeya has expressed such a sentiment, though Diluc rarely denies it. When it comes to him one must be a little forceful, particularly if trying to get him to do something that he might not wish to. Back then he wouldn't have wanted to have his Vision presented to him and he would not have wanted to feel like he owed Kaeya a debt for keeping it safe as he had, so the younger man had chosen the right course of action in the end.

His own tail swishes from side to side, occasionally bumping against Kaeya's as the movements synchronise.
]

I expect that Adelinde found it before I did. She never told me, one way or the other. [The winery's staff had always respected Diluc's wish to not speak about the past and they did not mention it, at least not in front of him.] I actually discovered it in there myself in the end.

[His expression turns thoughtful for a few moments, then he leans a little of his weight against Kaeya's side.]

I'm still tired.

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