A/N: Sorry, this chapter is kinda pretty long ahahhfdhsjbds 😅
"Here we are." Y/N and Ida step into the Angel's Share tavern. Despite the sun just beginning to set, the tavern is bustling with patrons, most of which have just arrived like the two sisters.
"Ugh." Y/N groans as she spots a head of flame-red hair behind the bar. Her eyes land on another familiar figure sitting at the bar. "Oh, Kaeya!" She smiles and walks over, Ida following close behind.
"Good evening, Y/N." His silver-blue eyes flicker towards the white-blonde woman next to Y/N. "Who's this?"
Y/N's smile falls. "This is my older sister, Ida."
"Pleasure to meet you." Ida says, taking a seat on the right of Y/N who is in between Kaeya and her sister.
"Kaeya. And the pleasure is all mine." Kaeya replies, taking a sip from his wine glass. "Fatui?"
Ida nods. "Knight of Favonius?"
"Captain."
"Ah." Ida hums thoughtfully, meeting Kaeya's gaze.
"And what is a lovely Fonatine woman like yourself doing in Mondstadt?" Kaeya asks.
"I came for work-related purposes." She responds.
"You must be quite the capable woman." Kaeya smirks into his drink. Y/N knows his flirty attitude is just part of his personailty, but her sister will no doubt match it.
"Oh? What's that supposed to mean, Captain Kaeya?" Ida quirks a brow at him.
"What would you like it to mean, hm?" He doesn't break their eye contact.
"Whatever it is, I'm sure your intentions are nothing but innocent." Ida grins.
"Oho, is that right?"
Y/N shifts in her seat as a moment of silence passes. "Alright!" She abruptly exclaims, interrupting their banter. "I came here to get you some wine, not watch my sister flirt with my coworkers."
What sounds like a quiet snicker comes from the bartender who has, without a doubt, been eavesdropping on their conversation while taking orders and making drinks.
"Two sparkling Dandelion Wines." Y/N orders.
Ida takes a look at Diluc tending the bar. "Is this the guy you were with earlier?" She asks Y/N.
"Unfortunately." Y/N mutters.
"Does he work here?" Ida questions.
"Not exactly." Y/N replies. "He's the owner of the Dawn Winery. He's only here rarely. Hopefully, less often." She whispers the last bit.
"I can hear you." Diluc says before placing two glasses of dark wine in front of the sisters.
Ida laughs lightly before taking a sip of the drink. "Wow," She says before taking another sip. "Rich and smooth." Y/N takes a sip of her drink as well.
"I never got your name." Ida says, looking at the redhead working behind the bar.
He doesn't respond as he continues to prepare drinks, likely not realizing Ida was referrring to him. "Tomato-head, she's talking to you." Y/N says.
"Ah, Diluc Ragnvindr." Diluc replies, turning to face her and shaking her outstretched hand.
"A gentleman." Ida hums thoughtfully as Y/N watches her sister warily. I guess I can get some information out of her once she's a little tipsy. Y/N thinks.
"So, Diluc Ragnvindr." Ida starts. "If I remember correctly, my sister mentioned you have women 'fawning' over you? I can see why." She mumbles the last bit. "Do you have a wife?"
Y/N's eyes go wide, turning to her sister in shock. "Ida!" She hisses.
"No, I don't." Diluc states.
Kaeya lets out a chuckle. "I wouldn't try if I were you. He doesn't particularly like Fatui." He warns with a smirk.
"Ah, are you also a Knight of Favonius?" Ida asks.
Diluc clicks his tongue, Kaeya and Y/N suppressing a laugh, though Kaeya is unsuccessful. "He doesn't particularly like the Knights of Favonius, either." Kaeya responds.
Ida chuckles. "Ha, turns out Y/N is a future Fatui, from a Fatui family and a Knight of Favonius Captain." Y/N's heart sinks at being called a future Fatui. "How do you and Y/N get along?"
"We don't." Diluc and Y/N state in unison.
"They don't." Kaeya chimes in at the same time.
Ida's eyes widen in a bit of surprise. "Really? I thought you two had a bit more than that going on."
Kaeya is the only one to crack a laugh. "The day Diluc brings Y/N home is the day Celestia will fall."
Well... Diluc and Y/N both think of Y/N spending the night at the winery last night, but choose not to comment on it.
Y/N takes a sip of her wine, Ida doing the same and emptying her glass. Diluc refills Ida's glass. "Speaking of falling..." Y/N internally cringes at her horrible segway. "That building in Springvale and the flower shop collapsing was definitely something."
"Did you figure anything out?" Kaeya asks.
"I have my theories." Y/N responds before turning to her sister. "What do you think?"
Ida shrugs. "I'm not the one who's the Captain of the Investigative department, am I?" She says, drinking her wine.
"Even so, it's a curious case, don't you think?" Y/N pries, trying to ease into asking why her sister's footprints were in the collapsed house in Springvale, or trying to get any information out of her at all.
"I guess it is." Ida replies. "Is that what you were investigating when we bumped into each other?"
Y/N nods. "Yeah, it was. What were you doing, though? I totally thought you were some creep watching me from the trees."
Ida lets out a small laugh. "Top secret Fatui business. You don't need to know."
"I'm just curious." Y/N hums taking another sip and watching her sister do the same.
Kaeya and Diluc are beginning to sense Y/N's intentions of getting her sister to spill whatever information Y/N is prying for. Diluc continues to refill Ida's drink, assuring her it's free for first-time patrons.
"You know," Ida starts, her words beginning to slur a bit from the effect of the alcohol. "Your hair looks really good in that high ponytail." She says to Diluc.
"Oh, thank you." He responds, his tone making his statement sound almost like a question.
"That reminds me, what possessed you to bleach your hair?" Y/N asks her sister. Usually, Ida's hair is a much darker shade of brown than her current white-blonde hair that's almost glowing under the warm tavern lights.
"Oh right, you haven't seen me in a while." Ida responds. "I've been changing my hair colour quite frequently in the past year or so." She swirls her drinks around in the glass.
"Can't believe mom and dad let you." Y/N mutters. "Usually they're so strict with everything."
"Believe me, it took a lot of convincing." Ida says. "But how could they deny a small request from their dutiful daughter?"
Y/N rolls her eyes. They didn't have a problem denying the smallest things for me. It took months and months of persuasion to let me go to Mondstadt. Then again, Ida never broke half as many rules as Y/N and is the family favourite.
Ida sips on her drink before shrugging. "It's therapeutic. Changing my hair is." She says. "I guess you can consider it cathartic. Stress-relieving."
"Stress from work?"
"Definitely." Ida's expression changes to one of irritation. "Managing all these people while doing your own stuff is tiring as hell!" She takes a gulp of her drink. "Today, one of my subordinates needed to complete part of a mission we're working on together. He completely screwed up and broke the most important piece of our mission!" She downs the rest of her drink.
This is it. Y/N doesn't say a word, urging Ida to go on.
"It's not something easily replaceable, either! It took so much time to manufacture, it was costly, and it came all the way from Liyue! The week where I had to constantly travel back and forth from there was the worst week of my life!" She complains.
The shattered shard of Cor Lapis we found in the flower shop. Y/N thinks. "How expensive could it be?" She fakes a scoff. "You can't just buy another one?"
Ida gives Y/N an incredulous look, her cheeks dusted pink from the alcohol. "Of course not! Where would I find technology like that?! It took me so long to find the right camera manufacturer."
"A camera?"
"Well, it's not really a camera like the ones back in Fontaine. I don't know, I left it up to the camera expert, Ji Tong." Ida responds.
"What? Is your mission to become the next biggest photographer?" Y/N half-jokes.
Ida chuckles. "Of course not."
"Care to enlighten me?"
Ida stares at Y/N before grinning. "Ah-ah, I told you. This is top secret Fatui stuff. You aren't allowed to know, and I won't be spilling."
"Right." Y/N smiles back at her sister. Guess that's all I'm going to get out of her. Y/N isn't complaining, though. She got quite a lot of information from that.
Ida finishes her glass, resting her head lazily in her hand as she leans on the bar. Her gaze is on Diluc who's focussed on tending said bar at the moment. "How old are you, by the way?" She suddenly asks him.
"Twenty-two." Diluc curtly replies.
"No fiancées, no girlfriends, no possible love interests?"
Y/N and Kaeya exchange a glance. "Is she...hitting on him?" Kaeya whspers to Y/N who merely shrugs.
"I don't believe so." The redhead responds to Ida.
Damn, poor Donna. Y/N thinks to herself. Not even considered a love interest.
"None of those women over there?" Ida points to a table of women on the other side of the tavern who have been staring at Diluc and whispering amongst each other. "That's truly a pity. Well, I'm not into younger guys. I'm almost seven years older than you." A sly grin makes its way onto her lips. "But, my sister is single- wait, are you?" Ida quickly turns to Y/N whose face is flushed a light pink.
"Yes, but I'm not interested." Y/N hisses at her.
"Aw, c'mon! He's hot!" Ida hisses back, making Kaeya burst out laughing and Diluc nearly choke.
Y/N's face only grows redder. "Ida! I know, but we're not.....like that." Y/N carefully words her sentence.
"You know?" Ida raises a brow. "So you admit it?"
At this point, Y/N is sure her face is as red as Diluc's hair. "W-Well, yeah! Come on, anyone with eyes can tell that he isn't ugly!"
"You realize I'm right here, right?" Diluc asks, his tone still his usual annoyed tone. "I would tell you two that it's rude to talk behind someone's back, but you're quite literally in front of me."
"It's all compliments." Ida responds. "Anyway, I should get back before I'm totally blackout drunk." She tries to stand up, but stumbles drunkenly. Y/N quickly catches her by the arm.
Y/N lets out a sigh. "I'll walk you home." She gets up as well, letting her older sister lean on her as they exit the tavern.
The moment the door shuts behind them, Y/N turns to her older sister furiously. "Why did you say all that?!"
Ida lets out a hearty laugh. "What? I could totally tell you like him!"
Y/N glares at her. "Did you miss the part where we explicitely said we don't get along?"
"Yeah, yeah, but that's just you say." Ida waves her sister's irritation off. "You talk the talk, but you don't walk the walk, you know?"
"Huh?"
"Your body language was saying something completely different than what your mouth was." Ida states. "You were blushing so bad!" She cackles, ironically causing Y/N's cheeks to start heating up. "You looked directly at him when he spoke and you had this look on your face when I was talking to him."
"You're drunk." Y/N snaps as she basically tosses her sister off her shoulders and towards the front doors of the Goth Hotel.
"Whatever. Goodnight, Y/N." Ida snickers as she slips into the hotel, the doors shutting behind her.
Y/N's hands fly up to her cheeks, giving herself a light slap. "I don't like him like that." She says out loud, whether she's still arguing with her sister or reassuring herself, she doesn't know. However, what she does know, is that Diluc definitely doesn't feel that way towards her. She also knows that Donna is head over heels for him and Y/N definitely isn't the type to steal her man. Y/N is only close enough with Donna to call her an acquaintance, but Y/N would still feel horrible nonetheless.
However, Y/N also can't deny that what her sister said is true. She knows the way he makes her blush, the way he runs through her mind all day, the way she felt comfortable sleeping on his shoulder at the winery. She knows that that's the truth.
But what can she do? She'll be leaving Mondstadt in a few months, quitting the Knights, and joining the Fatui. Y/N isn't some main character of a romance movie or novel- something her life has proven to her time and time again. She's always pushed down to second place and now that she does have something, it will all be ripped away from her soon.
Y/N lets out a groan of frustration.This is all too much for one day. I just need to get some sleep. Everything will be better after a good night's rest.