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Sweet tea

Summary:

While other nations swear that tea can bring people together, there seems to be no such tea culture in Mondstadt, much to Diluc's regret. Perhaps that doesn't mean, however, that you can't simply establish a new tradition and fix some very important things along the way.

Notes:

Happy Birthday to my dearest Cavalry Captain Kaeya! ♥

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

It was a warm and sunny evening in Mondstadt when Diluc was enjoying a delicious cup of tea. He was all alone, sitting on the stone wall which separated his mansion from the surrounding grape fields and watched the familiar area around his home. 

The harvest of the grapes was already done for the year, so the most stressful weeks were over, granting Diluc the chance for such a calm tea break. 

Although it was sunny, he was wearing his black cloak. As usual, the wind was blowing out here, and it already carried the smell of the approaching autumn. The sun was no longer as warm as it used to be while they had all been working on the fields just a few weeks ago, and Diluc felt a sudden little pang of melancholy when he thought about the passing of yet another summer. 

Diluc would have never admitted it, but in the past, he had been just as fond of the summer as a certain blue-haired knight. With school and other duties on hold, it had been the time to just enjoy life. The time for long days of playing hide and seek between the grapes, of picnics under the Statue of the Seven or of swimming competitions in the nearby river. Later, with childish innocence slowly fading, also the time for sneaking out in starry nights, for carelessly making out between the Small Lamp Grass and for secretly sharing a bottle of wine - although Diluc never grew fond of the taste, it admittedly tasted better from Kaeya’s lips.

Even the tea he was sipping right now was part of his summer memories, for even if Mondstadt did not hold a special tea tradition, the Ragnvindr family certainly did - and the particular black tea with the subtle bergamot flavor he was enjoying right now clearly tasted of summer evenings in the mansion. 

During his travels through Teyvat in search of answers to what had led to his father's death, Diluc learned that most of the places he visited indeed had their very own tea culture. In Liyue for example, there was a whole region with an economy solely based on tea production, and the meaning of the beverage was obvious everywhere he went. In Liyue Harbor, deals were made over a good cup of tea, and sharing a pot of tea was a clear sign of trust and friendship. The people loved their storytellers, and a lot of people preferred listening to their stories over a good cup of tea rather than a strong glass of liquor. The tea houses in Inazuma on the other hand had been much more secretive. They had only been open to invited guests, and maintained an air of grace and nobility. Sumeru’s tea houses had been the complete opposite, crowded and loud, but very fascinating in their own liveliness. Even Fontaine, where people often preferred fancier drinks like coffee, had its own tea culture, displaying elegance with beautifully prepared tables with fine china and assorted cakes. In Natlan, the tea culture had been as diverse as the life of the different tribes living there, while in Snezhnaya, people enjoyed their heavily sweetened tea with their closest friends in their own homes. All of this has gotten Diluc thinking: what about Mondstadt?

The answer had seemed obvious - there was no tea culture in his home nation. There was, however, one exclusive to the Ragnvindr family, and it was very precious to Diluc.

Ever since realizing all of this, Diluc would have loved to have someone to talk about it. Unfortunately, it seemed impossible. Although he had never paid it much attention as a child, he knew that the tea tea service of the family had been brought by his mother. Was it her who had introduced tea to his family? He liked the idea. Diluc had still been a baby when his mother had died, and he had no memory of her at all, so the thought that this might have been an impact she had made on his own habits felt comforting. Unfortunately, the only one who would have been able to tell him more about this had been his father. Since he was gone, too, this would probably always stay up to Diluc’s imagination. 

There was, of course, another person who shared his memories, and Diluc had to admit that he was indeed curious: how did Kaeya recall those memories? Did he also think of beautiful summer evenings when he smelled bergamot? Of the feeling of returning from the river, hair and skin smelling of water and sun, exhausted and a little frozen from staying in the water for too long? Did the taste of sweetflower tea bring back memories of their father visiting them with a cup of tea when they were in bed sick? What about mind-refreshing green tea after a long day full of work and studying? Or of birthdays with black tea nicely sweetened with rose petal jam to go well with the birthday cakes? Those should all have been memories they shared, but Diluc had no idea what they meant to Kaeya. If they still meant anything to him at all. This was something he had stopped being certain about the night they fell out, and it had become a topic he had no idea how to address. 

Lately, the two of them had not even been on bad terms, at least for their standards. They occasionally worked together, and not so long ago, he had finally managed to invite Kaeya to a shared meal in the winery. But it still was hard for him to figure out his own feelings towards this person who once had been so important to him. During the many years they knew each other, they had been so much to each other. Companions, in the very beginning. Best friends. Lovers. Sworn brothers. But now, Diluc did no longer know where they stood. Ex-lovers, that was for sure. But what about the rest? Sworn brotherhood was supposed to be a lifetime oath, and Diluc just knew that Kaeya was just as unwilling to break this connection as he was. However, it was complicated. There was a crack in the trust they used to share, caused by Kaeya’s lies as well as by Diluc's act of violence against him in the aftermath, and at least Diluc had no idea how to fix all of this.

Or maybe, in the end, he had one without realizing it, and it all started with a cup of tea in the Angel’s Share. 

Diluc had watched Kaeya the whole evening. He was used to keeping an eye on him anyway, unwilling to let him go overboard with his alcohol consumption at least during his shifts, but on that particular night, the man got him worried while still being relatively sober. He looked pale, and Diluc caught him clearing his throat several times. It made him remember the old times, right after Kaeya’s arrival at the winery, where he would always play down his symptoms until his body just broke down. Back then, it had not taken Diluc long to learn the signs he had to pay attention to, and now it turned out that Kaeya's habits had not changed at all. 

Diluc waited until all the other patrons had left his tavern before he quietly placed a cup of steaming hot sweetflower tea with honey in front of Kaeya who had already seemed to be half asleep by then. 

The look Kaeya gave him when he noticed and understood was hard to read for Diluc. There was thankfulness, but also something else. A mixture of fondness and sadness, maybe? Was it melancholy? Nostalgia? Those were all feelings Diluc was not particularly prone to, and he found it hard to read them, even in someone he once knew so well. 

They did not talk much that evening, but Kaeya drank the whole cup of tea and allowed Diluc to walk him home. He made a little fun of the situation, sure, mocked Diluc for being too much of a gentleman, but he did not refuse anyway. It was like a first step into the right direction.

A little later, for his birthday, Diluc received a surprising gift from Kaeya. It was a jar of jam, made to sweeten tea, and it was obvious that Kaeya had made it himself. There was a label attached to it, wearing Kaeya's unique and beautiful handwriting, and it wished him a happy birthday and named the ingredients of the jam. Sweetflower and Calla Lily. Refreshing and sweet at the same time. Perfectly catered to Diluc's taste.

It was delicious, and Diluc was very sure that it was a chance. Like a message from Kaeya who had not dared to speak his mind about how he actually felt since the day they clashed in front of the winery. It told him that he still remembered - and obviously also cared. 

And deep down, there was nothing Diluc wanted more than to tell him that he got it and felt the same, but it was… complicated, at least for him. He wanted to share the gift Kaeya gave him, but how was he supposed to invite Kaeya to this? Once again, he felt sorry about being in a place without a proper tea culture. Meeting Kaeya in one of the bustling tea houses would have been so easy, and he might even have managed to invite him if there was a place like those tea houses in Liyue he had visited, since they felt more private, but still offered the services of a storyteller to distract them from being alone with each other.

But unfortunately, there was nothing like this in Mondstadt. In the end, there was only one place here fit for an invitation to tea - and Diluc felt it incredibly hard to express such an invitation to Kaeya after everything that had happened. While he had never told him - and had never intended to tell him in the first place - that the winery was no longer his home, the man no longer treated it like it was. Most of the time, he only came back for business. There were very rare occasions when he revealed his true heart, like that one year he had walked all the way out to the winery on his birthday, all alone and too lost in thoughts to even notice that Diluc had seen him right until they were standing face to face in front of the Statue of the Seven. Kaeya’s expression had been so sad back then that it had made Diluc’s heart ache. Still, he had not dared to ask him about it, nor had he invited him in. They had only lingered in each other’s company for a while before parting ways. Not many words had been spoken, and although Kaeya had looked less sad when he had left, Diluc had felt many regrets.

As summer went by, Diluc wondered if he could act differently this time, and he felt that it might be possible. However, he did not even get the chance to invite Kaeya in the end. He understood that when he overheard a conversation between him and some other members of the Knights Of Favonius while he was working in the Angel’s Share a few weeks prior to Kaeya’s birthday.

“Nooo, what do you mean, Captain, you won’t be here to treat us for your birthday?” one of the Knights whined. Diluc recognized him as Huffman Schmidt, a knight who had caused his family a lot of trouble in the past by enjoying his stay in the tavern far too much for quite some time. Kaeya answered the man with a chuckle:

“Well, as a Captain, I cannot just take a day off whenever I want. We’re still short on people, so I’ll work on my birthday.”

It was a lie, Diluc knew. Neither Varka, who had been the Grand Master of the Knights when Diluc was still in service, nor Acting Grand Master Jean would ever ask one of their Captains to work on their birthdays. It was just Kaeya who stubbornly refused to take the day off.

However, this time, Diluc did not want to give up so easily. The day before Kaeya’s birthday, he secretly went to meet Jean and told her about what he was planning to do. She seemed to be a little surprised, but pleased at the same time, and happily gave him her permission. She even offered her help, and after thinking about it carefully for a moment, Diluc accepted it, turning her into his co-conspirator.

It was a simple plan, and Diluc felt his own embarrassment grow as he thought about the high chance of Kaeya seeing right through it - after all, he had always been the grand schemer among them, not Diluc. However, there was no turning back now, so on his birthday, Kaeya received a letter personally sealed by Jean, with the urgent request to deliver it to the winery in the evening.

It was a cold day. The usually so gentle wind was blowing mercilessly, letting Kaeya arrive at the winery half-frozen, his cheeks red from the cold, providing Diluc with the perfect opportunity to ask him in to warm up over a cup of tea. For a moment, Diluc felt himself wondering whether it was possible that Venti - quite literally -  had somehow got wind of his plan and decided to support it. Thinking about the cheeky “bard”, it would not have been something Diluc had considered completely impossible.

So, after thanking Kaeya for the delivery of the letter, Diluc mustered his courage and asked him in:

“I was just about to have a cup of tea. Would you like to join me? You look like you could use some time to warm up anyway.” he suggested, trying to sound casual.

And Kaeya - cursed be Diluc’s luck - hesitated, a conflicted look on his face. It made Diluc remember his conversation with Jean from a day ago.

“But what if he turns the offer down because he is on duty?” she had asked him, and Diluc had understood that it was a reasonable remark. While Kaeya loved to act like he was a slacker, he was far from it. He was a diligent man who worked hard for Mondstadt, even if his ways might sometimes seem questionable.

Diluc had found nothing to dispel her doubts, so she had taken the matter into her own hands:

“I think I have an emergency plan for this case.” she had told him with a smile which seemed uncommonly mischievous for her usually so serious character. 

“If the worst case scenario really happens, let him read the letter.”

Let him read the letter , Diluc thought now. Should he really be doing this? He had no idea what exactly it was Jean had written, but in any case, it would mean that he was exposing his plan.

He sighed. If he did not once again want to be plagued by regret, there was no turning back now, so he handed the letter back over to Kaeya who looked him over with a questioning look on his face.

“Read it.” was all Diluc said, and he really hoped that Kaeya would blame the cold wind outside for the way his cheeks started to grow redder by the second.

For a moment, Kaeya seemed to be in doubt, but then, he nodded briefly and opened the letter. The silence while he read through the content felt unbearable.

Then, a little laugh - the one Diluc loved so much but had not been able to hear for himself in so many years.

“Well, somehow my orders just changed, so I’ll happily take you up on the invitation.” Kaeya told him, his voice audibly amused and pleased at the same time, and Diluc did not manage much more than to step aside and let him in. He did not trust his own voice. Emotions like nervousness and embarrassment easily made him sound angry, and that was the least thing he wanted to express right now.

Once Kaeya had come in and made himself comfortable in one of the cozy armchairs of the library, close to the fireplace, Diluc brought over the tea, unobtrusively sweetened with the jam he had received from Kaeya. It was the last bit of the jam he had left, and he had kept it just for this occasion. He had been pretty nervous that it might get bad before Kaeya’s birthday - after all, there was more than half a year between both of their special days. Adelinde had assured him that this would not be a problem, and he knew that he should have trusted her superior knowledge about how to store food properly, but ever since the day he had left Mondstadt, he always found it hard to place his trust in others instead of taking care of everything by himself.

Kaeya did not address the matter, but Diluc noticed how his visible eye grew wide upon tasting the first sip of the tea, and how a pretty smile spread over his features just a moment later.

“It’s delicious!” he said, his voice ever so gentle.

Diluc nodded at him to thank him. Since he felt like he should also say something, he then added: “It’s a perfect day to enjoy… to share … a cup of sweet tea, isn’t it?”

Kaeya seemed to agree: “Brings back a lot of memories.” he replied, and there was genuine fondness in his voice.

Although their words only circled around each other, they did little to hide what it was they actually wanted to express.

So Kaeya had missed this just as much as Diluc did. It was a relief, and the realization made Diluc feel warm inside.

The evening they spent together in the winery like this became a very pleasant one. They talked a lot, and Kaeya seemed to be less on guard than he usually was around Diluc, making it possible for him to get an insight into Kaeya’s life. It felt nice.

All this time, Diluc was really curious about the letter Jean had prepared for Kaeya, but he did not dare to ask him about this. However, Kaeya had always understood him a little bit better than anyone else, and obviously, this had not changed over the years. So when he now got up to go to the bathroom, he left the letter on the table, putting it right in front of Diluc’s eyes with a smirk. Like this, it could not even be considered prying if Diluc read it while Kaeya was away and so, in the end, his curiosity got the better of him and he just took a glance.

Dear Kaeya , it read.

Since you are reading those words I must assume that you insisted on putting your own wishes behind once again. Allow me to remind you that, whatever happens at the winery, please make sure to remember that I never asked you to work on your birthday. So if - by any chance - you happen to not make it back to the headquarters tonight, rest assured that it will be fully sufficient if I receive your daily report tomorrow.

Happy Birthday,

Jean

Upon reading those words, Diluc once again felt his blood rushing to his cheeks. The night. He had not spared a single thought for the night. It was pretty late by now, and still very cold, so should he really ask Kaeya to go home? Should he accompany him, at least a part of the way? Or should he just do what Jean had assumed he would do and ask Kaeya to stay? And why had she thought about something like this while he had not?! He felt like an idiot.

When Kaeya came back from the bathroom, Diluc was sure that his distress must have been obvious for him.

“It has gotten late, I think I should leave now.” he told him, and Diluc could have sworn that there was a suspicious sparkle in his eye. It reminded Diluc of the fact that, as much as this man meant to him, there was a slightly sadistic side to him which loved to put people to a test. It was a part of his character Diluc had always found hard to deal with.

So he put on his most dead-panned face to give him a reply: “You’re right, it has gotten late. I think you should just stay here for the night.”

He said it just like this, as if it was nothing, just a minor thing - but on the inside, he was trembling. Now it was Kaeya who was put to a test, and his answer might decide a lot about the way their relationship would develop from that moment on.

Kaeya seemed to be aware, for he carefully thought about his words before speaking up once again:

“Then, I’d be happy to.”

It was nothing but a start. Nothing but a man finally coming home to spend a night in his own childhood room, but to Diluc, it meant so much. He even escorted Kaeya to his room, which was ridiculous for somebody who knew this mansion just as well as he did, but he could not help himself.

“Good night, Kaeya…” he told him. 

“and… Happy Birthday!” he added, just a brief moment later.

A week later, Diluc found a new jar with jam in front of the door. Attached to it was a handwritten note: “Thanks for the hospitality. K.”

This time, he did not hesitate to take this gift as the opportunity it was and just invited Kaeya over to share it with him. It did not take long for them to establish this as a new routine. Whenever Kaeya was around, he got treated to a cup of tea, and whenever it happened to get late, he just stayed for the night.

In the beginning, all of this happened only occasionally, maybe once in a month, but as time passed, it almost became a weekly habit, one Diluc really missed when they did not manage to make it because their busy schedules did not allow it.

Just like this, they grew closer and closer again, until it became normal for Kaeya to come over, and until they no longer had to talk about whether he should stay for the night. So maybe it was only natural that, one day, they did no longer just wish each other a good night, but shared the bed like they had done so many times in the past. And maybe it was just as natural that it never stopped after this one night.

Whatever it was, thinking about how all of this had started with a simple cup of tea felt wondrous to Diluc. Never again would he complain about Mondstadt lacking an own tea culture when obviously, the perfect one had been with him all along.

Notes:

Thank you very much for reading! ♥

I have not written those two in such a long time now, and I was not even aware how much I missed them! I really wished we would get more Mondstadt content in game. T_T

I had the idea for this fic ages ago when I was applying for a zine, but of course I got rejected, because I always do (...haha...haaaa -.-). Since I really liked the idea, I still decided to write it, but in the end, it took more time than I had expected.

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