Grounded

12

Este yawns and glances at the clock, that tells him it's around ten in the morning. His mother should be at work already by this hour.

He walks downstairs, and a weird smell hits his nose. Este furrows his eyebrows and heads where the smell is coming from, the kitchen.

He walks in and happens to witness the bizarre scene of Diluc pouring a bag of grapes to a boiling pot. Este can see from this angle that there is already ham and gingxin flowers in the pot, and just as he thinks it can't get worse, Diluc grabs a bundle of lamp grass and throws it into the pot.

Just then Diluc turns around, and comes face to face with Este. His expressions pales faster than lightning, and Este is reminded of a kid caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

"Este I can explain-"

"No. Get out of the kitchen, Now."

"But Este-"

"Diluc, you are banned from the kitchen. Purely for this."

"Wha- that's unfair! Kaeya has done far worse things than this!"

"I don't care about what Kaeya did right now. All I'm concerned with at this very moment is that I just saw you stuffing a bag full of grapes and two lamp grasses into the pot. Diluc, lamp grass can be poisonous if used improperly-"

"Wait it can?"

"Yes Diluc, now get out of the kitchen. I want to see if we can salvage whatever ingredients you've put in the pot."

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad-"

"Also, who let you in the house?"

"Your mother, just before she left for work."

Este shoots him a glare, and out of pure spite blows a raspberry at him. He knows it's exceedingly immature of him, even Diluc's unimpressed stare at him tells him so, but Este could not care less right now.

He quickly grabs a ladle, and starts scooping out the problematic things first. Lamp grass is out, next is the Qinxing flowers, which clearly haven't had their stems removed.

The lamp grass had indicated he was making either sunshine sprats or pile em' ups but the Qinxing contradicted both choices. Was Diluc just throwing random ingredients in?

Este throws another unimpressed look over his shoulder at the 16-year-old.

He sighs when he at last gets most of the ham out. It still looked fine enough to be used in something else.

"So, why were you messing in my kitchen?" Este turns to the other occupant in the kitchen, who hadn't left like he was supposed to.

Diluc looks surprised for a second, then he grins a little.

"You need someone to feed your bottomless pit of a stomach."

Este flicks his forehead, and gives him another probing glance.

"I do not eat that much," He grumbles while crossing his arms. "So? What's the real reason?"

Diluc blinks, looking a bit baffled again, then he starts out slowly.

"You do remember it's your 14th birthday today?"

Este pauses.

No he didn't remember.

Birthday is an arbitrary date to Este. Veera's birthday had been two months ago, and Nicolas would have his in about four months or so from today. Este honestly forgot the one he had now.

"I was trying to make you a birthday feast... I didn't really thinks this trough though." Diluc gains a sheepish look as he continues talking.

"Kaeya would have done a really good job. I'm only good at making simple dishes. I only thought about what would make an extravagant dish. I didn't even look up a proper recipe."

"Yeah that was stupid of you..." Este mumbles, and keeps his eyes locked on the floor.

"Este? Wait are you embarrassed? Are you blushing?" Diluc asked with the volume of his voice increasing with each word. Este squeezes his eyes shut, and tries to fight down the flush creeping up his skin.

"NO, I am nOT." His voice cracks. An unholy grin comes onto Diluc's face.

"Aww, Este-"

"Shut UP!"

"That's so cute of you!"

"I am NOT blushing!"

"Denial!"

"I am NOT!"

Their bickering continued on for  along time before they settled down.

Diluc's present was a small dagger, the older had smelted himself.  Diluc gave him a look and told him he would never have to rely on his pocket knives anymore.

Apparently in Diluc's opinion Este's precious pocket knifes had betrayed their trust a few too many times to be reliable anymore.

Este immediately strapped the dagger to his belt next to his vision, and promised to himself to never go out without it.