circuitice | CALL ME OUT

No, I just wanted to hear you say it.

[ he opens his eyes, and looks at how Diluc leans, hiding behind the glass. Hididng, but not running. ]

But it's long enough to say that Mondstadt is my home.

[ surprise carves through him. diluc looks. his fingers stay their lilt along the precipice of his glass. his eyes search kaeya's - a burning brand in the night, for the hint of hoarfrost. for a lie. ]

... Adelinde still sets the table for two.

[ there's a flustered look that crosses his face, similar to the Weinlesefest. Ah... Another outreached hand. He isn't quite sure what to say to that, like there's a block. There's a catch somewhere that he isn't sure of. ]

Still, after so many years...?

It's Adelinde. [ with the weary humour of someone sharing a joke passed down since childhood, from hand to hand, year to year, tale to tale - ] Could anyone stop her?

No, I suppose you're right.

[ a sincere smile crosses his face, as he looks over Diluc again, studying his demeanor with a thoughtful quiet. ]

I'm sure it would make her happy.

[ her. Just Adelinde. ]

Is her happiness not enough?

[ and he leans back, pushing away from the bar, thoughtful. ]

I will always give her my regards when I visit the winery, of course.

[ kaeya leans - first forward, then back, as if balancing on the edges of a childhood seesaw. kaeya is hardly so benign.

he takes another drink. it is as miserable as the first. ]

She has never mentioned your regards. They must not have been memorable.

Perhaps she knows they are a matter of pain for you. Who can say.

It would do you well to lighten up.

[ his voice is light, but there is distance between them now. he knows, instinctively, he should push past his reservations and admit what he wants. And yet, he can't.

Not for Adelinde, regardless of how much he adores and loves her. Still, he notes... Diluc looks a touch more miserable than he intended. But, perhaps it is a trick of his eye. ]

[ a weighted beat. and then: ]

When have I ever said that they are a matter of pain to me?

...

[ he considers. To irk? to annoy? to play this off, this brief moment of honesty? there's a certain sorrow there, knowing that his inclination is to deny Diluc again. ]

Well, I suppose it was the inference after you left. Though, I am glad you came back as well.

For whatever reason you eventually did.

[ slowly, diluc shakes his head. ]

I didn't leave because of you. [ and, level, as burning brands are: ] I didn't come back for you, either.

I'm not so self obsessed that I would have thought that.

And if you tried to tell me it was so, I would think you were lying.

[ no, he knows he is not the reason for anything. And yet, they walk back and forth around the subject, never quite saying anything. Kaeya stands from his chair. ]

[ diluc, who has never lied to kaeya, thinks - it isn't the whole truth. kaeya rises. diluc looks. ]

... leaving so soon?

Well, you are closed.

Do you want me to linger, Master Diluc?

Are you known to do things based on what I want, Cavalry Captain Kaeya?

Is that a no?

[ he laughs softly ]

Now, I'm tempted for one more drink.

Hmph. Incorrigible.

[ here, however, diluc shakes his head. ]

Stay another moment. I have something to say to you.

Something to say? Oh, I'm curious now.

[ he raises his eyebrows, allowing that curiosity to shine through. ]

[ like peering through hoarfrost, diluc thinks. you only see what it wishes you to see; and what you see is no guarantee that it is all that lurks beneath the surface. but he has known that about kaeya. kaeya has allowed him to see such. diluc has seen further then perhaps he had been allowed. in a way, it's a moment's grace with a wild animal, a wolf in starving winter, teeth bared, wending past your legs for the rabbit behind the snowdrift. a hunter would remember the feel of that brittle fur. kaeya has always starved. diluc, who only knows how to burn, can only watch.

it's why he looks at kaeya. these words should not need to be said. these words ought to be said.

and yet -

kaeya, who had snuck to sumeru when he was young. kaeya, who shook with terror as crepus dragged him back by the ear. kaeya, who shared with diluc his one and only secret. kaeya, who saw sumeru for the second time, and who chose, after all, to come back.

kaeya, kaeya, kaeya, kaeya.

diluc stills. he does not look away. ]

Do go further into your search for Khaenri'ah. [ is what he says first. it is a wood block against an unstoppable lancelet; it could not even be called a shield. a prayer is no source of protection. it is a plea. but that's why he goes on: ] When you choose to do so regardless, do not go anywhere that I cannot follow.

[ he's looking so intently at him, and if Kaeya were younger, less experienced, his cheeks might have pinked at the suggestion behind those words. And there is an impulse to take what is being offered, and run much farther with it than he knows he should. After all, where did they go from here?

They were no longer children. There was no more Crepus to drag him back by the ear, there were no more secrets and with them no more whispering and conspiring with each other, letting Diluc's light eclipse his shadow. the mask of amusement doesn't have much place here.

for once, it's just the two of them, no onlookers with expectations in any way. do not go anywhere that I cannot follow.

Kaeya... could almost laugh. ]

Master Diluc, if I may permit a bit of indiscretion?

[ kaeya does not, in fact, laugh.

there has only ever been one answer to that. ]

Since when did you ever need my permission, Kaeya?

[ Another need to laugh, because Diluc just doesn't get how much Kaeya used to thrive off of Diluc's permission. His allowances. Since when has he needed his permission? Since the first time he allowed himself to kiss Diluc back, for every little nudge forward they took.

for every time he took in the lines of his body, let his breathe linger on his lips, for every sound they've ever drawn out of each other. but of course, Diluc would think it as a matter of course.

how Kaeya wishes he could share that same self confidence in his place here.

but still, he tracks around the bar. he doesn't want to wear out his welcome-- and this move will certainly be a step forward from where they've been. a potential unwelcome move. but as he crosses the layer of the bar, he lifts his hands, framing Diluc's face lightly, and brushes his lips across Diluc's. it's brief, he has no desire to linger there, afraid of the reaction that could still come. ]

Then, I could say you should do the same.

[ it's not the first time they've kissed.

it should be like the first, is the thing. the chasm of years cannot be spanned by a single gesture. trust broken takes longer to reforge than that of the pointed edges of a sword. and diluc and kaeya ceased to be diluc and kaeya that line outlined in rain, and autumn, an early winter that settled and never quite left. mondstadt has yet to see another spring. not for diluc. that disparate people can perceive the same seasons and take away something so different is a matter of course. they don't know what diluc knows - the taste of kaeya after a ravishingly beautiful spring, the puff of his laugh against your neck, the warm weight of his trust as he slips into your bed. they don't know what diluc knows - that diluc had lost this so many years ago, and in return, gained clarity.

clarity - that kaeya will never stop pursuing the khaenri'ans, no matter how mondstadt has settled into his bones and marrow. that kaeya's words can only ever be believed half the time. that kaeya, after all that time, kept his vision alive.

today, kaeya is a live wire, a sliver of hoarfrost on a midsummer's evening. he crosses the space between them. his hands lift. diluc allows it. the skim of his hands, which have always run cool, leave traces of winter's frost like ephemeral patterns of rime, outlining translucence in a way that the naked eye could never parse. it's been a long time since kaeya has touched him. it has been a long time since kaeya has kissed him.

diluc looks. of course he does. something in him bruises at the sight of the distance between them. kaeya kisses him and steps back, and diluc's instinct is to press forward. nine words in the span of a heartbeat, and diluc crosses the distance again to let their lips meet once more. he tastes alcohol. he tastes winter. his hand finds purchase in the wild mane of kaeya's hair, sliding down to his nape where neck meets shoulder. he anchors himself there. kaeya, moorless, is moored through diluc alone, the substantial weight of diluc's focus paring down to this one, singular motion.

diluc kisses him. of course he does.

it is, after all, not the first time. ]

[ there are always multiple possibilities for what the eventual outcome of a decision will be. Kaeya has always found it interesting to weight and plan, and let them surprise him. This bit of indiscretion, he thought, would end with that one tease.

Maybe Diluc would sit with conflicting feelings for a few days, and then, Kaeya would see the end result. Like a seed planted that he could watch grow in the future, and smother just as quickly. And yet, the possibility that he had not weighted, that Diluc would respond immediately, is what he's left with.

His heart stutters, lodging in his throat, and his form goes rigid. the familiarity. and yet, the unknown. Kaeya hadn't allowed himself to hope for this, comfortable in that distant dance because at least it was a dance.

diluc was not the one for indiscretions. And yet, Kaeya's feelings war with him, trapped between surrendering, and scolding him. But his hands, always so warm, anchor him. His breath, sweet, and tantalizing, drags his mind deeper into a dream.

And he closes his eyes, savoring. his hand goes to his wrist, holding lightly, never wanting Diluc to feel trapped and yet, not wanting to let go.

he doesn't deserve this.

and yet, he is savoring it. ]

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tagging when exhausted means i missed a wholeass word in that tag, face in hands

I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE so you good

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