For The Honor Of The Archons
Venti and Kaeya both chug the cups of Vodka before Childe brings out shot glasses from the cabinet.
By the time they get through ten shots, Kaeya's swaying in his seat. Venti can see it.
Diluc's disappeared, or so Venti thinks. He stands just behind Kazuha and Xiao, still holding onto Mona tight.
"He's doing really well." Kazuha smiles. There's no way he can out-drink Venti, not with how he's swaying, but he'll get close.
"I've never seen anyone last this long," Childe says, also smiling while pouring them another shot.
"That's my brother," Venti can hardly hear Diluc, but he can still tell that Diluc doesn't say it with pride.
Another five shots go by and Venti can't see clearly. He's swaying too at this point, barely staying in his seat. He's almost done, though if he was standing he would have collapsed three shots ago.
The room has lost interest, all except Venti's friends and Childe, who still looks at Kaeya with a slightly sadistic look in his eyes. It almost makes Venti a little weary, but he knows that if Childe did anything Zhongli would make him regret it.
Another shot down and Kaeya falls out of his seat. "Alright, we have a winner!" Childe calls while Diluc and Kazuha help Kaeya up.
The room starts cheering, congratulating Venti. "For the honor of the Archons!" They call, making Venti's head spin.
"Let's get him to a bathroom, he's gonna have a hell of a hang over." Xiao smiles dispite the seriousness of his words.
It's Diluc who keeps Kaeya on his feet, one arm around Diluc's shoulder. Kazuha does the same for Venti, who is still swaying in his seat.
"So, how'd he do?" Mona scowls, having not approved of the challenge in the first place.
"Better than most, I wouldn't have lasted another two shots." Venti slurs, holding onto Kazuha and reaching for Xiao.
Xiao smiles, helping Kazuha lead the group to the bathroom.
When they get there, Kaeya barely makes it to the toilet before he's throwing up.
Maybe the cup of vodka before hand was a bad idea, Venti thinks, holding back his own nausea.
Diluc holds Kaeya hair back and Venti starts to feel a little jealous, though he can't understand why.
It being a dorm bathroom, there's multiple stalls, Kazuha and Xiao lead Venti over to a diffrent toilet, clipping his braids back.
"We're going to be here all night, aren't we?" Diluc asks, rubbing Kaeya back.
"Depends on Kaeya, Venti will be good in about an hour." Mona sighs, running her hand through Kaeya's ponytail to try and soothe the puking boy.
"Like we said, Venti holds alcohol extremely well. Well have to help him stumble back to our dorm, and he'll be hungover in the morning, but he'll still make it to class in the afternoon." Xiao frowns, he thought that this would be a good bonding moment, but Diluc and Mona don't seem thrilled with the situation at hand.
Sighing, Diluc stands from his crouching position, "Kaeya will be out of commission for at least tomorrow, but after that I don't know."
Kazuha nods, holding onto Venti when he finally starts violently throwing up, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.
"Are you sure he'll be alright? That was a lot." Kazuha knows Diluc is talking about how Venti's shaking, kneeling over the toilet and almost crying, but he smiles anyway.
"He'll be fine, usually he'd be ready to start drinking again in about two hours, but no one's ever lasted that long. Venti surpassed his personal best trying to outdrink Kaeya, we're lucky he fell, Venti wouldn't have lasted another shot." Kazuha speaks fondly of the situation, which drives Diluc crazy.
Venti can't even think straight, the only thing crossing his mind is trying to stay upright. It makes Diluc a little worried for the boy, even if they don't know each other well.
The beat of the music feels like shock waves in Venti's chest. He can hear the people still cheering downstairs. It makes him sick, all of the simulation.
"We need to go." Venti finally says, whispering before spiting the left over puke that's left in his mouth.
Kazuha nods, helping Venti up before turning to Diluc. "Are we leaving together, we can go back to Venti's place in the city?"
Mona scoffs, turning to shake her head at Diluc, trying to convince him to say no.
But some defiant part of Diluc thinks it's a good idea. The part of him who wanted to be a fun person, the part who wanted to party, the part that didn't want to be scared.
"Sure, what would we do?" He asks, lifting Kaeya into a standing position.
"Continue the party, I guess. We can get high if you want, watch some tv?" Xiao is the one to speak, playing to his boyfriends specialty.
"Yeah, I've got some great stuff stashed over there, we could play video games to, ya'know." Kazuha smiles, he's starting to get excited.
Venti gives a drunken nod, making his friends smile. Getting high would mellow out him out a little bit. Definitely help with the nausea.
"Are you sure you should be offering Venti's place up like that? We're strangers." Mona sighs, worried. Venti doesn't like her, she doesn't want to go to his place without his sober permission.
"'S fine," Venti slurs, trying to move towards the door.
Finding that he didn't mind Mona that much right now, she was being protective of her friend and Venti respects that. But some part of him wanted to get to know Diluc better.
Venti wants to know everything, why he seemed to hate being at the party, why he held on to Mona so tight, why he didn't find pride in Kaeya almost out drinking an Archon.
Did Diluc know that Venti's an Archon? He didn't seem to notice, and if he did he didn't care. Venti hopes he noticed and didn't care.
People tended to want to hang around Venti and his siblings for their status rather then to actually be his friend. Xiao and Kazuha were exceptions.
"Cool, let's go. This party is starting to hurt my ears." Diluc says, hoisting Kaeya up by the arms
They weave their way through the strangers in the dorm, who all think it's their right to clap Venti on the shoulder or back as a congratulation, despite the fact that he's holding onto Kazuha for dear life.
When they get outside again, the fresh air does wonders for Venti's anxiety and his nausea, but Kaeya pukes again, leaning over in Diluc's arms.
Hoisting Kaeya back up, Diluc whispers words of encouragement to his brother. "Come on Kae, you got this."
It makes Venti smile a bit. It reminds him of his siblings. Ei and Zhongli used to scold him for getting drunk, but they always bring him water in the morning.
"I will warn you, though. Nahida will probably want to hang out with us." Venti tries to stand on his own, but he falls back into Kazuha's arms a moment later.
"Who's Nahida?" Kaeya asks, still leaning over in Diluc's arms.
"Venti's little sister. Though she shouldn't still be up." Xiao smiles at the thought of Nahida. She's a sweet little girl who's already skipping grades in the Akademiya's elementary schools, which is unheard of.
"What about Ei?" Mona asks,
"She's out with Miko tonight." Venti sighs. "But she did tell me not to bring anymore guys home."
Kazuha smiles at this, doing his best to give Diluc, Mona, and Kaeya a reassuring smile instead of an unhinged one. "We don't count. I was there. She doesnt want him sleeping with anyone there because Nahida still lives there full time."
"Fair," Kaeya manages to slur, still feeling the effects of the vodka.
Hoisting Venti up into a piggy-back position, Kazuha starts leading the group in the direction of the apartment Venti shares with his family.
/////
"This place is huge." Kaeya's sobered up a little bit, enough to gawk at the apartment building.
Kazuha smiles, leading them into the lobby. The person at the counter looks at them f=before smiling.
"Hi Kazuha." She calls, placing her hands on the counter in front of her.
"Hey Kathryne, we're just heading up. Do you know who's home?" Kazuha smiles as if there's not an entire group of people with him. If Venti's parents saw him coming home this late with more than just Xiao and Kazuha, they would flip out.
"Just Nahida because she should be sleeping, I think you guys will be good as long as most of you are gone by noon. That's when Ei said she would be back." Kathryne smiles at Kazuha, waving them off as Kazuha nods and starts heading towards the elevator.
When they get to the apartment at the top floor, Mona, Diluc, and Kaeya can't help but gawk at the sheer size of the living room.
"How many people live here again?" Diluc asks, pulling his sleeves down to cover his soulmarks.
"Technically Venti, his six siblings and his parents, but Nahida is the one is here the most. His parents are obsessed with their business and his other siblings usually spend half their time at their dorms or the dorms of their friends. L:ike Ei is hanging out with Miko Right now, back at her dorm most likely." Xiao shudders at the thought of Ei, who terrifies him even though she's nice most of the time.
"Oh, cool." Is all Diluc says, too overwhelmed to think of anything else.
"So you wanna get high?" Vent, who's sobered up, asks, looking at Diluc more than Mona or Kaeya.
Diluc looks nervous, the idea of not being sober triggering him a little bit.
"Um..." Diluc looks to Kaeya, who's standing on his own now, for an answer, but it's Mona who answers Venti.
"Lets start with something that's not super strong, I don't think that Diluc or Kaeya have ever gotten high." Venti nods at this leading them to his childhood bedroom, where he keeps his weed.
The room is full of light blues and greens, dandelions painted on a accent wall. Diluc thinks that it's pretty, something about the paint makes him think that Venti did it himself, rather then having someone else do it. He is an artist after all. Diluc wouldn't be surprised if there was nothing that Venti couldn't do.
"Sorry it's crowded," Venti apologizes, thought he room isn't a mess, just cluttered. There's instruments in the closet, a walk-in closet, Diluc notices. Pictures of Venti and friends cover the walls that dont have the dandelions.
"You're fine," Kaeya says, looking up at the ceiling, which is covered in painted constellations. "This is actually really cool. Pretty too."
"Thank you, I've been working to perfect it for a really long time." Venti smiles, walking over and in to his closet, reaching for a small step stool to get a medium sized chest from the top shelf. "I'm thinking a mix of head high and body high, what do you think Mona?" Venti puts the box on his bed, opening it to pull out a smaller box, presumably full of weed.
"As long as it's small I think it will be fine." She answers, looking at Diluc who still looks nervous.
"What do you think Diluc?" Kazuha asks, attempting to look Diluc in the eyes, but he's staring down at the floor for the first moment after Kazuha asks.
Finally making eye contact, Diluc admits something he didn't want to. He wanted to seem cool for what he hoped were his new friends, but in all honesty he's scared. "I don't know, I've never gotten high before."
"That's cool, we can babysit, make sure you don't have a bad trip." Xiao smiles, glad that Diluc felt comfortable enough to tell them instead of pretending.
Though Diluc just seems like a honest person.
And so, they all start smoking.