Bard? | Venti & Diluc | Angst | One-Shot

Bard?

Sorry for character/story inaccuracies, and grammar/spelling mistakes

Warning: ANGST & CRINGE

Quotation marks on a separate line from normal text is speaking, quotation marks in a line are quotation marks

If confused: Diluc finished his work and went to help out at his tavern, only to find the only bartender not on vacation ill, so he sent him home and took his place.  But when it hit closing time (2am, on this day, a monday) Diluc let his employees to go, expecting he could handle it, but people weren't compliant so it took a lot of work to get them out (a few people stayed to help), the people who couldn't move at all and for some reason couldn't get picked up were just left under supervision, if they didn't get up in a hour or after various methods then they are placed in guest rooms to spend the night

Their are 2 shifts of relevance:

 Early Afternoon Shift - they prepare for the next shift and do other stuff (av 8am - 5pm )

Afternoon Shift - they serve people ( av 6pm - 2 am)

It was about four am, all the action had already died down, Diluc was busying himself with cleaning off the bars countertop. Diluc's work work was finished a while ago but he still had a business to run, so he came to help out, he was not that heartless to make his afternoon (starting at 6pm) shift employees work later than 2 am (thankfully some stayed to help out for the unplanned extra hour or two of clearing people out). To Diluc's annoyance the one bartender that was not away on vacation got sick, forcing Diluc's stay... Looking around Diluc found one- or ten (to many) people strewn across the floor, earning a sigh from him, couldn't they wake up already? Diluc poured himself a glass of grape juice to ease the unwelcome stress (What do you take me as? a heathen! no wine for me thank you! although he was starting to think a drink might be nice...) Diluc was spooked from his thoughts by footsteps approaching him, a member of the band he hired for the night poked his head out from behind a door

"Boss- were leaving now, well see you later."

Diluc nodded his head in response, about a minute passed before he heard the back door creak closed. Putting down his drink and exiting the bar Diluc began to check on the passed out guests, hoping all were alive and ok, the last thing Diluc needed was a lawsuit.

"Regular #1 check"

"Regular #2 check"

"Regular #3 check"

"Regular #4 check"

"Regular #5 check"

"Regular #6 check"

"Regular #7 check"

"Regular #8 check"

"Regular #9 check"

Diluc slowly brought all that didn't wake up with his calls to extra guest rooms, leaving five rooms occupied with sleeping beauties and dazed drunkards, five people managed to get awake (and sober) enough to stumble home

Diluc walked back into the main area and finally approached his "Favorite" guest, the bard clad in green, hooray. As Diluc came closer to the bard he heard faint- sobbing noises? Diluc bent down to the bard, he was indeed sobbing...at least he was still alive? Venti suddenly looked up, tears streaming down his flushed face. Venti stared for a second, before bursting into more tears wailing about something being gone and how Diluc looked like someone and rolling so his back was turned to Diluc, curled in a ball, his cape being oddly pulled and smushed underneath him.

The bard probably couldn't see well with his tears, that solved the second part... did he run out of wine? possibly, but he wasn't the type to cry pitifully in a corner about it, he would've gotten up and stole some...it was...Venti was shaking, wracked with sobs. Diluc was not good with feelings, he repressed, denied, hurt himself over them to try and stop them, you could say he was the worst best expert of all time, and he knew immediately the bard was running, just like him.

It suddenly clicked in Dilucs head, the reason for the bards acting, he, after all, was doing it himself. Both boys had a traumatic event, a subpar upbringing, a way to cope, and both denied each other because they both, always, knew, they saw themself in the other, and they hated it.

Diluc pulled Venti into his arms, while they might be old in age, they were just little kids inside, the two sat there, holding each other till dawn.

Its said you can sometimes see Diluc and Venti having chats after dusk, both enjoying tea to the starry night skys memories.

Its also said Diluc never hears the end of his "frating" with the little bard from Kaeya, thoes dam snitches! Diluc was sure they where out cold...

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Im using "frating" in the sense of like "playing around" with another person, in a romantic way.

If I used "frating" wrongly i'm sorry, I did a quick search and it should roughly mean that.