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weekends in Mondstadt is usually the most calmest days in the tavern, Diluc specifically enjoys it, even though one of the Knights of Favonius is there drinking her usual, she's the only one he tolerates. How this all started was a dumb drunken suggestion made by Venti and Amber, in her wasted state, agreed leaving Diluc to grumble to himself.
even if he didn't want to admit it, he has grown attachment for the pyro users in front of him chatting the night away about their nations or whatever that comes to their minds really. The redhead turn around before putting the glass he's been cleaning down onto the counter as he listening in to the conversation behind him, from what he heard Thoma must've had a very interesting story to tell the others as he calls for Diluc to refill his goblet.
the bartender hummed before getting the wine and refilling Thoma's goblet as Thoma said a quick 'thanks' then begin to sip on the burning liquid before continuing his story.
"So as i was saying, Amber" the Outrider hummed into her cup, "you should really consider putting a leash on that your archon" ah, that's what they were talking about.
"I would, IF, his boyfriend wasn't an Adeptus that is" Amber replied nonchalantly as if dating an Adeptus is a normal thing in Teyvat nowadays.
Thoma doesn't know who Xiao is and looked towards director and the lawyer for answers, Yanfei seems to notice his confused face as she then replied with, " 'Xiao' is the name of the Adeptus in question, he's the actually conquer of demons believe it or not." That didn't help Thoma's confusion however but he made a mental note to visit and meet this 'Xiao' guy on his visit to Liyue.
Diluc tuned out the other pyro users' conversation for a moment to be drowned in his own thoughts as he tries to recall back the times where Venti went to Inazuma and gets in trouble in one way or another, Diluc could really care less about Venti's relationship with his other archon buddies but curiosity got the best of him and took control over his mind for a moment.
"What's all this talk about Venti and Baal?" Diluc said without really thinking resulting in Thoma putting his goblet down before chuckling, "I was just talking about the time where Venti and Zhongli decided to pay Baal a visit that ended in a very, interesting way to say the least"
"Did Baal have to pay for Zhongli's expenses!? PLEASE, for the love of Morax tell me yes!" Hu Tao laughed as Yanfei just smiled and shook her head at her girlfriend's usual antics before lifting the goblet's mouth to her lips. "Why of course! Baal had a hard time understanding the fact that Zhongli is literally poor despite having named the Teyvat's currency after his very own name"
"That's the fucking same as Venti," Amber laughed making the other pyro users turned their heads towards her, "basically, despite being the literal Anemo Archon themselves, the man's secretly scared of heights" receiving a surprised "WAIT WHAT?!" from the director.
"I cannot tell you the amount of time i have to bring the dude down from his statue because his stubborn ass decided to float up there at five in the morning to play his lyre for all of Mond to hear, only for him to started sobbing for someone to get him down" The Outrider put down her cup before jerking her thumb towards her, "that someone is me, me, me, anddd.. me"
Diluc just cringed at the mere memory of Venti climbing his statue at five in the morning to just wake everyone up from their slumber then sobbing for Amber to come and get him down. Although he does got a good laugh while remembering the times where the Outrider had to climb up Venti's statue or the Windrise tree just to get the Anemo Archon down on the ground safely.
"How many time has he done this" Yanfei join in.
"Seven times a week" Diluc chimes in casually while cleaning a new cup.
"How the hell did you guys not kill him yet?" Thoma hollered while grinning from ear to ear.
"Believe us when we say that we COULD kill that damn bard but he's our fowl collector"
"We need a more normal way to collect fowl, not mascara half of Teyvat's bird population, Outrider"
"Can't help it! Timmie kept crying about how his dad left him looking for the milk and yet yall don't see ME sobbing about my old man!" Amber retort, "Aiya don't lie Ambs," Hu Tao giggled.
"From what I've seen, Amber often uses jokes while talking about her grandfather" the redhead said, even if he wasn't looking, the Outrider is burning holes into the back of his head.
"Ayo don't fucking out me you asshat" Amber replied while taking her cup to sip on the liquid.
Yanfei was about to say something before Diluc just lifted his hand up to stop her, "Jean also ask her to not joke about his grandfather's disappearance but she ended up failing and got traumatized at the same time"
Thoma and Hu Tao burst in laughter as Yanfei face palmed before asking for a refill in which Diluc does so reluctently.
"Diluc! Refill if ya' don't mind?" Amber said, it was clear to Diluc that she's drunk. 'She's going to regret this in the morning' Diluc thoughted to himself before turning around to face the pyro users in front of him, still laughing the night away and chatting while Amber traces the rim of her cup, waiting for Diluc to refill said cup.
"You do realized that tomorrow morning you have work, yes?" the redhead seemed to be satisfied with the embarrassed expression taking over the Outrider's face. If Kaeya was here he wouldn't let her live this one down. That's for sure.
Amber just shook it off with a chuckle, "Man.. do ya always got that stick up your ass or somesthin?"
"I don't. However, I'm just not in the mood to be involved if Mondstadt's one and only Outrider is out of commission due to her hangover in the morning" Diluc explained, he knew just how much Amber loves her position as an Outrider and being the second youngest, the first being Klee, member of the Knights Of Favonius whilst swore to protect Mondstadt with her life, but yet the same Amber is here drinking. But he shouldn't be surprise, because even the Acting Grandmaster herself sometimes join them to get away from the office.
"Ya won't, I could handle myself, now pour me the fucking wine" she's definitely going to regret this.
Diluc sighed, no way persuading this girl, he ended up refilling her cup, at least he's getting pay for this, that's something that Venti never do.
the rest of the night was spend with the pyro users chatting with the bartender chiming in whenever he could, this is the one and only time he'll be glad to be the bartender for the night. Still Venti, Kaeya and Rosaria are his regulars while Amber, Yanfei, Hu Tao and Thoma are his weekly's. He doesn't want to admit it but he's slowly growing some attachments for these people and he'll never be able to hear the end of it if the words got out.
Diluc went back to cleaning the glass while still listening to the conversation and apparently Thoma was asking the others for their personally weird experiences from each nations. Each one gets weirder and weirder to the point where Diluc was wonder what they've been through label these stories as the weirdest out of them all.
Hu Tao's one was about how this couple came in to rent, or borrowed, one of the larger coffins they have, specifically one that could hold two people in. At first Hu Tao didn't think much of it, business is business after all, so they signed a contract stating that they'll return this coffin and will pay in full price or more if any damage has been done to it. The next day came along and Hu Tao should've realized that the couple could have borrowed it for their sexual intercourse because the coffin smelled like it's been washed just this morning.
Yanfei's one was about a very confusing miscommunication between a white iron seller from Snezhnaya and a very ignorant customer. Long story short, the other white iron merchant and the manager got involved while quickly adding more stress to the half adeptus. Thank the archons the lawyer managed to solve the situation, turns out it was one of the white iron seller who caused the confusion.
The Outrider didn't need to tell hers because Diluc was there when it happen and she had already told her friends from Liyue about this story. But the story was about how this one guy came into the tavern and asked for Everclear, the alcohol is known to be the literal definition of poison and it didn't help the fact that the alcohol was 95%. Nobody- not even Diluc himself could forget about that man who asked for Everclear. Safe to say that the man was safe with the help of Kaeya and Amber dragging him out of the tavern and consoling him on a bench.
Diluc didn't think his story would be that weird compare to the other stories but apparently everyone though so otherwise. Instead, it made everyone laugh, it even gave himself a chuckle or two, so apparently the story was about how three stray cats had got into his tavern and made him do more work in the morning by chasing after them and capturing them while also receiving a lot of scratches with his fur covered coat.
After Diluc sadly had to tell them that the tavern's closing the respond was only Hu Tao calling the redhead a 'joykill' before paying for her's and Yanfei's drinks while Amber and Thoma payed for each others. Amber ended paying for Venti's unpaid drinks since she had a lot of mora to spend.
Now Diluc just stood there collecting the mora before putting them into the safe that's located underneath the counter. Smiling to himself as the fresh memories of him somewhat bonding with the other pyro users lingers in his mind.