Taking over the Abyss

6- Give me a drink, bartender

By the time your group had gotten back to Mondstadt, it was already nighttime. Thankfully, most of the people of Mondstadt were either too drunk to think straight or inside their homes, so the chance of a civilian going bonkers upon seeing you was drastically lowered. That didn't stop a certain Nimrod from thinking you were the funniest thing ever and pinching one of your ears, though.

Hmph. What a jerk. If you could, you'd pinch his ears back, but your claws were too sharp and your arms to short. For now, you'd pout and huff to yourself.

Angel's Share was a bit emptier, thanks to Charles diligently booting any and all who became too drunk to talk straight. Upon seeing you, he was about to question what the hell Aether thought he was doing, but noticed Diluc and thought best not to question it. A wise decision, you thought.

"Charles, take the rest of the night off," Diluc said, already making his way back behind the bar. "I promised these three drinks on the house."

Charles looked like he wanted to protest, giving Aether a suspicious glance before accepting it, wishing Diluc well, and taking off. He seemed cool in all his appearances, and he seemed cool here. Gently, Aether set you down on one of the wooden bar stools, before sitting down on the one next to you. Diluc placed a wine glass in front of you before grabbing a fancy looking bottle of adult grape juice off of a shelf. Were you finally going to be able to taste the wonderous dandelion wine?

Sure enough, Diluc poured the wine for you, as you trembled with excitement. Once he was done, you lifted the glass with both hands before taking a sip of it. Diluc watched you with modest interest in seeing how you were able to drink in the first place, along with wanting to know whether or not you'd like the wine.

The taste was nothing like you expected. Although it kind of tasted like grapes, the flavor was rich and bitter and coated the inside of your mouth with a tart, somewhat sweet aftertaste that made you want to drink more of it. You guessed that the sweetness was the dandelions at play.

"Is it really okay if (Name) drinks alcohol?" Paimon inquired, a skeptical look on her face. Diluc raised an eyebrow, arms crossed over his chest, making Paimon scramble to come up with a reason, "I- It's just...! (Name)'s... um... small?"

As annoying as it was that Paimon was putting your enjoyment at risk for basically no reason, you were a bit curious as to why Diluc gave you alcohol in the first place. Sensing that Paimon would badger him endlessly, Diluc explained his thought process to you, "I'm going off the assumption that non-humans don't have the same tolerance that humans do. I'm taking this as my apology for earlier, and an opportunity to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of the Abyss."

Yep, you should've guessed there was a reason he was suddenly treating to you something expensive like dandelion wine. Still, the whole 'non-human' stung, just a bit.

"Wow, leave it to Master Diluc!" Paimon commented, giving Aether a wide-eyed look, "He's on the job even when he's apologizing!"

"I don't really mind though. It tastes really good, so that's all I care about," you said, taking another sip. You totally got why Venti only wanted to be paid in this stuff. You totally got it. Seeing that Aether was giving him an expectant look, Diluc went to the shelves and pulled off a purple glass bottle, pouring what smelled more like grape juice than wine into a glass for Aether.

Aether looked at it like it insulted him, then looked over to you, then back at Diluc. "Um..."

Diluc said nothing, just poured himself a glass of grape juice too. Paimon got upset for Aether's sake, "Grape juice?! What's that doing at a bar?"

"I like grape juice," Diluc replied, proving his point by taking a long sip of his juice. You felt Aether staring at you gloomily, upset that he was reduced to grape juice territory. You kept quiet and kept drinking your wine.