Chapter Text
When Thoma had shown up at the winery’s doorstep - unsure after two wrong doors; dripping wet and freezing cold from the early-spring midnight-rain - Diluc had looked him once over and pushed out onto the dark patio to kiss him. So warm against Thoma’s numb lips. He had pushed one hand through Thoma’s hair and one arm around his waist to pull him in close.
Thoma and Diluc first crossed paths at eight years old. Led in opposite directions through the busy Mondstadt city they met eyes for just a second. Neither one remembers this exchange for obvious reasons.
They met again at age ten under the pale blue light streaming in from stained glass cathedral windows. Briefly. Scattered in a gentle arc before young sister Grace and even younger sister Jilliana, who had seemed so grown at the time. There must have been fourteen or fifteen of them. Children ranging from those who had just begun to speak to those who would soon be expected to go off and make their way in the world. But momentarily housed under the safety of their archon, they learned of his words. The words of Lord Barbatos, his promise of freedom. They hadn’t spoken to each other. Only sat in proximity. Dipping their fingers in the same paint. Reading from the same books passed around. Diluc sounding out hymns, letting Kaeya follow the syllables with his finger.
The first time Diluc heard Thoma’s name and remembered it was at age fifteen.
“This is my son - Thoma.”
A smiling boy, tall and thin, with yellow-blond hair. He stuck out his free hand for Diluc’s father to shake, his other arm holding his wide eyed baby sister. Drool running down her chin and two pale blonde little pigtails sprouting from either side of her head.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Thoma. Will you be a knight too?”
‘Too’, like his mother, Ulrike, standing by him. The winery had been hosting an event. A social gathering for the Knights of Favonius and their families. Thoma’s mother was tall and blonde like her son. They shared the same long straight nose and high cheekbones. The same rosy cheeks, although that may have been the effect of the wine in his mother’s case. Thoma’s mother was a fine knight.
Thoma shook his head and his mother placed her hand over his shoulder.
“Thoma prefers a quieter line of work.”
And that had been that. Diluc had joined them then, Kaeya in tow. His father had confessed to Diluc the evening prior that, while it wasn’t the purpose of the event, it would be a fine opportunity for Diluc to make good first impressions to the knights. ‘The real knights.’ He had said. ‘Not the men from basic training.’ ‘Shake a few hands. Charm a few daughters. Like Jean, Now there’s a smart girl.’ But Diluc had no intention of charming Jean. Could Jean be charmed? She didn’t seem the type. She seemed to be doing all the charming, as she made her way around the room shaking hands and laughing politely. Jean was sixteen and had no doubt received a similar talk from her mother the night before.
Diluc had shook hands with Ulrike and introduced himself. So sure of himself and charming even so young. My name is Diluc, I am going to be a knight. This is my little brother Kaeya and he’s going to be a knight too. Kaeya had nodded, but if Diluc had announced This is my little brother Kaeya and he’s going to be an elephant. Kaeya would still have nodded. And the day rolled on in a similar fashion.
But when the sky began to glow orange, barrels began to drain faster and empty wine glasses began to gather in clusters on tabletops quicker than they could be swept away by frazzled maids - Grandmaster Varka, young and jovial and full of wine, had urged Frederica to let Jean loose from her mingling duties. Frederica, newly pregnant and therefore sober, gave Jean a brief and rare smile. The children were sent to play. Jean and Diluc had, of course, protested the title of children, but Keaya had tugged their hands regardless. Into the vineyard. Kaeya loved the vineyard. It was always a treat when their father would bring the boys to the winery and Kaeya would sneak off to pick grapes from their bunches and fill his cheeks like Diluc had taught him to.
Sitting together beneath a tree near the waterfront was Thoma and his baby sister. He had looked to them and waved as they made their way down the dirt pathway.
They sat beneath the same tree with childlike absence of hesitation. Diluc had spoken first.
“Thoma?” and although he had known, he asked it like a question.
They had introduced themselves to him and vice versa. Thoma had met Kaeya. A shy boy who didn’t have much to say to him at first. All he wanted was to sit near Diluc. To exist with Diluc within an arms length.
Thoma had introduced baby Amy, his younger sister, who did little more than drool and coo and put things in her mouth. And then Kaeya had suggested they play knights, and they did. Each found a trusted stick and in turn they defended baby Amy from the others. Knight Kaeya with Knight Diluc at his side bravely fought off both Jean and Thoma and made his way to baby Amy before revealing that he himself was working for the evil forces and baby Amy was now under his ward. A betrayal Diluc had never predicted. No knight ever wants to turn on his brother, but sometimes, good knights must.
Rolling in dirt, Kaeya dissolved into giggles. Newly breathless and tired of playing, he sat with Thoma and baby Amy, who he assured he would never really betray. He took her little pinky in his to swear it and she soon fell into soft sleep. Jean and Diluc showed Keaya their fighting formations at his request, stances he had seen a thousand times before. Diluc’s shining vision hung by his hip, the soft red glow illuminating Keaya’s awed expression. Thoma looked on fondly. Its only as he was squinting to see the pair of duellists in the night, he had realised how dark it was. And cold. Amy stirred in his arms and he pushed himself up, looking towards the yellow glow of the winery. The others had followed him inside.
When asked about Mondstadt, Thoma tells people about the city. The bells that chimed every hour. The fresh air and the windmills. The ever-present music. But when Thoma reminisces, it’s the rolling hills and the shallow water-banks that come to mind. The late nights atop city roofs. Afternoons spent working are hardly memorable when he had a new adventure waiting each evening.
When Thoma was sixteen, he spent most evenings with Diluc and Jean. Kaeya joined them on occasion. And the rare nights spent lingering in the city, they even brought baby Amy and Jeans new baby sister Barbara; who made baby Amy look fully grown.
He remembers the blazing sun that sparkled across the Cider Lake in the day and set the shallows of the Dawn Winery lake ablaze in the eves. He remembered Diluc similarly. Ablaze. White sun on the water while they dipped their feet. Orange fire when they’d roll their trousers up to their knees and wade in. Splashing. Jean always so conscious of the time. When the sky glowed pink she knew it was time to make her way back to the city. Drying her legs off with Anemo as she got out of the water. ‘Shameful, a gift from Lord Barbatos used in such a menial way’
And then Jean and Diluc became knights. On the first evening afterwards that she wasn’t on patrol she met them as usual by the water and stood arms crossed to tell them she wasn’t allowed to stay out in the evenings anymore. Her mother had insisted that as a Knight she couldn’t be seen cavorting around Mondstadt. As a Gunnhildr. She could meet with her friends at a sensible time in a sensible manner, if at all. That was what was best for Mondstadt. As always, Jean listened. Jean added quietly that her mother had suggested Diluc do the same and would be telling his father as much.
That evening was solemn after she left. They had offered to walk back with her, both of them splashing out of the water towards her. She had turned them down; but it hadn’t felt right to stay without her, so they wandered through Springvale instead, then down past the winery and almost to the Liyue border. Diluc told Thoma of the Gunnhildr clan and their role in the history of Mondstadt, why Jeans mother was so tough on her.
“But when she’s Grand Master, She’ll get to relax.” Diluc had said, sliding down the trunk of one of the thick shade-trees. “We’ll all be following her orders, and she’ll get a little peace.”
That had brightened the mood, at least. Jean hadn’t known peace a day in her life. But she would know soon enough. All of this would pay off. Diluc had told him he was as sure of it as anything else in his life. As sure as his fathers word. As sure as Kaeya’s dogged loyalty. As sure as the knights were fair and just.
Thoma remembered the swans in the water that evening. He often carried around dried fish and beef for times like these, usually for the wandering cats and dogs in the city, but for this too. He threw in what seemed to be a mackerel cut in half lengthways. The swan extended its neck and caught it in the air. Diluc’s eyes lit up at this. The Ragnvindrs, Thoma knew, owned a large and lovely tortoise, as did Jean. But Diluc had often confessed he’d have loved to own a bird. It led to a rather involved discussion between the three if birds were creatures that should be owned. Winged like Lord Barbatos it felt rather sacrilegious to keep them caged. Then I wont keep her caged.. I’ll just keep feeding her and hope she comes back to me.
Diluc leaned over to Thoma’s bag and rummaged through. He split the fish in half and threw the halves for the swan himself. Then again, nearer and nearer each time. Soon the swan was padding out of the water towards them. Thrilled, Diluc took a whole fish and held it pinched between his fingers for the bird. The swan, in the efforts to receive the whole fish, bit him - as swans tend to do to teasing teenage boys. Diluc gave a panicked and boyish shout and the swan dashed back and hissed at the pair. Thoma, who had been watching with rapt attention, laughed so hard hot tears had dripped down his face and a red flush overtook him. His sides had ached and when they met eyes again Diluc’s own face too had a rosy tinge, although he had not laughed nearly as hard.
They basked in the last hours of light, wet ankles and shoeless they ran along the shoreline. Alternating between chasing and chased. Sweet flower yellow and blazing red becoming a blur of orange that smudged into the setting sun.
Despite his views on the Knights of Favonius, Diluc remembers the day he became Cavalry Captain fondly. The youngest Cavalry Captain in the history of the knights at seventeen years old. His father had been so proud. When the Grandmaster had told him of his promotion, he had gone straight to the Angels Share where his father had been tending the bar. He had burst through the door, warm yellow light spilling into the blue evening, and had announced his position to the room full of patrons. The room had erupted in cheers and he was quickly surrounded, hands ruffling his hair and clapping him on his back. But he had looked only to his father.
Diluc beaming. His fathers lip wobbling.
“A round for everyone!”
Diluc wasn’t often allowed to drink with his father. It doesn’t do well for young knights to waste their evenings in taverns, but this wasn’t an evening wasted. It was an evening celebrated. Two ciders in, Diluc had tipped his head up from the foamy head of his pint. He licked the white, bubbling moustache.
“I need to go tell Thoma.”
And his father had gazed knowingly down at him.
“Thoma will still be around tomorrow morning, Diluc.”
“No. He’s working tomorrow morning. I have to go tell him tonight.”
And he pushed backwards on the bartop, his stool scraping divots in the wooden floor
He slid from the seat and made his way out into the night, giving a rushed wave to everyone who tried to intercept him.
Thoma lived near the Mondstadt gates. Just around the corner from the Adventurers Guild. It didn’t take Diluc long. Knocking on the wooden door watching for movement in the house’s small textured windows.
He heard a distinct “I’ve got it!” from behind the door before it creaked open only slightly, and Thoma poked his head out.
“Diluc?”
And Diluc had grinned and motioned to tug Thoma out into the night - but before he could speak, he heard disgruntled babbling from bellow. Amy, shining blonde and talkative, was trying to pry the rest of the door open so she could squeeze through the gap.
Thoma scooped her up.
“Wait a minute, Diluc. I’ll get my cloak.”
The door had closed briefly and then Thoma had emerged with shoes and his cloak. Diluc had forgotten his cloak in his haste. It didn’t matter, he was warm from the cider; and with his pyro vision, he ran warm regardless.
“Come on.”
And they ran through the empty streets; Thoma still pushing his arms through each cotton sleeve as he went. They quietened down as they passed behind a row of houses, candles aglow inside and fragrant steam escaping from the tops of tilted windows. Diluc had braced one foot on a large wooden planter laden with daisies and hoisted himself up onto the balcony above them. Then he lay flat to pull Thoma up too. Then one after the other they climbed a flowering lattice to reach the house’s tiled roof. Diluc had motioned for Thoma to stay put, which he did with no protest, and hopped from the roof over to the great grey mondstadt walls. Thoma watched as he kneeled down and wiggled a brick from it’s foundation. He kept several things in that little nook in the wall. He hadn’t needed to, he had nothing that needed kept secret, but he had liked the idea of secrets. Before he reached what he was looking for, Diluc pulled out a small wooden trinket box which had contained no trinkets and a few letters that had gone cold and slighlty damp from being stored in a wall. Then three bottles of cider. One for him, one for Thoma, one for Jean. But Jean wasn’t here. He took all three and then re-slotted the brick into the wall.
Then he hopped back over onto the red tiled roof to pass one of the bottles to Thoma. Thoma had a knack for opening cider bottles with ease, so when he was finished with his own, Diluc passed his bottle to Thoma too. Just to watch as Thoma used the spackled surface of a chimney to pop the cap clean off. Thoma handed the cider back to Diluc as he took a swig of his own. They lay down, knees bent, and looked up at the stars.
“Amy’s getting big…” Diluc started.
Thoma snorted so hard bubbles poured from his nose and he had to sit up. “What did you actually want to talk about, Diluc?”
And Diluc turned his head from the sky and smiled at Thoma.
“I got promoted to Cavalary Captain.”
Thoma beamed at him, cider still kind of seeping from his nose.
“That’s amazing!”
Diluc had been hearing that all night. ‘Congratulations, Diluc.’ ‘We’re so proud of you, Diluc.’ ‘We knew you could do it.’ But hearing it from Thoma’s lips is different. Thoma lay back down and rolled to face him. The cool night and the cider had painted a lovely flush in a stripe across Thoma’s face. In the dark it looked as though he was blushing navy, but Diluc knew what it looked like in the sunlight.
“Are you going to celebrate properly?”
“My Father said we should celebrate at the winery. Apparently there’s some five-hundred year old bottle he wants me to open. The barrel was blessed by Lord Barbatos himself during the brewing.”
“That sounds awful. You don’t even like wine.”
Diluc grinned. Neither does Thoma. Early on in their friendship they found each other at a winery windblume celebration and snuck off to the wine cellar to do some light thieving. As it turns out, Mondstadts primary export and Diluc’s family livelihood is pretty disgusting. Gritty and bitter. They each drank a mouthful with screwed up faces and were more than happy to let Adelinde take the bottle from them and scold them right back up the stairs.
“I know. But he’s so happy that I don’t mind smiling through it.”
Thoma rolled back to face the stars, smiling. Thinking. “Wow… Cavalry Captain.. So, do we call you Captain Ragnvindr?”
Diluc, too, rolled away quickly; feeling his face heat up at the title. “Of course not. I hardly even feel like a knight.”
Thoma frowned at that. “You’ve worked just as hard as everyone else. Harder even. The Grandmaster clearly sees it.”
Diluc sighed and sat up, drinking the dregs left in his bottle. Thoma sat up to mirror him.
“I’m serious. You’re all I hear about at work. Even when I’m not cleaning the Headquarters.”
Diluc laughed at that. “Who else is talking about me?”
Thoma made a little ‘mm’ sound, like thinking was a bit too tiring. “Goth can’t shut up about you.”
Diluc barked a laugh that sounded frightfully like Varka’s, he realised.
“And I know the ladies at the church speak highly of you. Lord Barbatos and their close second favourite, Diluc Ragnvindr.” Thoma goes on, Diluc’s laughter encouraging him. “And his hair as red as our lady Vennessa. His name beginning with a D like our great dragon Dvalin.”
Diluc handed Thoma Jean’s designated cider and gestured for him to open it. Then they’re pouring a little off the top for jean. A little for Barbatos too, Thoma laughed. Diluc snatched it from his hands, Dont waste it. And they passed the bottle between themselves, sip for sip. Thoma’s lips on the bottle. His lips on the bottle. It must have gotten colder throughout the night, the way their breaths condensed in the air. But Diluc felt warmed through.
“So. Captain Ragnvindr-” Thoma was just about to pass back the nearly empty bottle when-
“You! Up there! Get down here!”
“Shit.”
One of the knights on patrol, It was too dark that night for the knight to have seen their faces, but if they caught a glimpse of Diluc’s red hair there would’ve been hell to pay tomorrow. The Grand Master might even revoke his new promotion.
Diluc grabbed Thoma’s wrist and pulled him downwards, flat against the roof-tile. But before Diluc could think of what to do Thoma was untying his cloak and draping it over Diluc.
“I’ll lead him the other way.”
“You’ll get caught.”
“But you wont. C’mon, Diluc, you’re a knight now. Use your brain.”
Thoma whispered that last part, knocking gently on Diluc’s forehead with his knuckles.
“Now go.”
And Thoma had gotten unsteady to his feet; facing away from the knight and making his way swiftly across the rooftop and leaping to the next house. Diluc heard the Knight curse and take off following him. He waited a moment, pulling Thoma’s cloak up over his head and listening for the quickly receding footsteps. Once they were gone, he slid his way down to the trellis, carefully slotting his feet in each diamond and making his way down the side of the building.
Thoma and Diluc both spent Diluc’s eighteenth birthday working. Bright and early Thoma had made his way to Goth Grand Hotel to begin turning the rooms over for more guests. Around the same time Diluc was riding into the city, already thinking of what needed to be done that day; what he should delegate and what he could handle himself.
When the evening fell, Diluc had traded his day-armour for an apron. Tending the Angel’s Share with his father for the specialist of occasions. Most of the drinks he poured came with a “-and pour yourself one too.” Who was Diluc to deny his fathers loyal patrons? As the bar filled up he excused himself for a moment. Giving himself the opportunity for a breath of fresh air and some clarity. He was in the middle of some very important gazing off into nowhere when Thoma appeared in his line of sight.
“Diluc.”
And Diluc would have traded a million quiet moments for Thoma to keep showing up like he did.
Thoma was carrying a small wrapped box which sported a bow gently tied in red ribbon.
“You can open that later. What are you doing out here?”
“I just needed a minute away from.. people.”
Thoma tilted his head. “Do you want me to wait inside for you?”
Diluc shook his head back at him. “No. You’re not people.”
Thoma scoffed like that was some great insult and crossed his arms, but only for effect. He knew what Diluc meant.
Diluc reached out and pulled Thoma closer. There was a moment of quiet in the air, the noise from the bar still rumbled on, but between their faces, there was an eternity of words unspoken.
A whisper. “Happy birthday, Diluc.”
A kiss. Gentle. New. Neither of them had done this before. It wasn’t very good, objectively and looking back. But at the time it was everything. Soft and warm and so timid. Thoma had never known Diluc to be timid. Diluc was the loudest thing in the room. The biggest thing, not by size, but by presence. Diluc was the only thing in the room that mattered to him. He took Diluc by the elbow. Diluc held him close.
They traded small presses of lips in the glow of the hanging lantern, eyes closed. Diluc’s lips tasted like grape-juice. Thomas lips tasted like cold air.
When they met each others eyes again nothing had really changed. Another kiss. Pressed to the corner of a mouth. It didn’t really matter who was who, there and then.
Diluc’s father had come out into the cold and they had stepped away from each other. “Come say goodbye to everyone, Diluc.” He had looked to Thoma. “Oh, good evening, Thoma. Would you mind tacking up the horse for us?”
When Diluc had left for home soon after, driving their carriage, Thoma had given him a small wave that Diluc had returned with a smile. Then they had parted.