Alhaitham chuckles, barely an inch from Kaveh's lips, and he mouths something unintelligible before closing Kaveh's fingers around the pencil before walking away.

Kaveh stands frozen in place. He touches his lips gingerly as heat rises to his cheeks.

/Oh./

-until Alhaitham's lips press firmly against his, the last remants of his laughter silenced in Kaveh's mouth.

It's only as long as it takes him to place the pencil on Kaveh's open palm, and when Alhaitham pulls away, Kaveh's first impulse is to chase after.

-walks up to him, still laughing, and reaches out to pluck one of the pencils from the haystack that is Kaveh's hair.

"Huh? How did that get th--"

Too busy following the path of the pencil in Alhaitham's hand, Kaveh fails to notice teal eyes getting closer--

Alhaitham tries to hold it back. He really does. He tries so hard to swallow it back he almost chokes on it.

It is futile. Laughter erupts from the depths of his chest, louder than he can ever remember himself sound.

Kaveh stares at him, bewildered, as Alhaitham

Kaveh about as disastrously unkempt as he can get, dark circles under his eyes, graphite smears on his cheeks, hair frizzy and disheveled...

...and half a dozen pencils sticking out in all directions, held precariously by the unsightly knots littered across that blond head.

"I keep misplacing pencil after pencil and now I can't find any of them. I've lost at least three in the last hour!!"

Alhaitham is about to ask if he's sure he's not holding them in his hand (has happened before), but when he does finally look up, he finds

It takes a moment, but as soon as it clicks, Thoma finds himself rushing back to the Kamisato estate, a pair of brand new earpicks in his bag.

"Ah, I always forget you're not from around here!" Genichiro chortles, and proceeds to explain how in Inazuma, cleaning each other's ears is considered a very intimate act of care that is especially common between married couples.

Thoma tries to brush it off, but something about how genuinely upset Ayato looked nags at the back of his mind for weeks. Then one day, walking by Netsuke no Gen, he sees a sign for "couples'💗 earpicks ". Unable to withold his curiosity, he asks Mikoshi Genichirou about them.

Not that his attempts at hiding it from Kaeya are of any use. And maybe, some other time, he'll tease Diluc about it, just a little bit. Tonight, though, he'll let Diluc grab his hand and drag him to his bedroom without another word. They've both waited long enough.

Diluc huffs and turns away to hide the little smile that pulls at the corners of his mouth. He shouldn't feel so pleased, he thinks, to learn that Kaeya /hasn't/ been in bed with half of Mondstat in his absence; yet he can't help the childish giddiness that comes with the knowledge

"And if they don't get what they were expecting /after/ they're done singing, well, that's their own fault for believing 'baseless rumors'." and he shrugs, like he didn't just admit he's been playing the city of Mondstadt like a fiddle

The smirk on Kaeya's lips grows sly. "People get terribly loose-lipped when they think they'll get something out of it." he says, matter-of-fact-ly.

Kaeya snorts "Why, i'm glad to hear that, i've been spreading those rumors for years."

"Hah?"

Diluc rolls his eyes "Please, spare me the dramatics. All of Mondstat knows the Cavalry Captain trades sexual favors for intel." he tries to act like it doesn't bother him, but pointedly looks away from Kaeya's face, avoiding the knowing smirk on his face

After they reconcile Diluc dismissively comments "how will your information network survive if you stop fucking your sources?" and Kaeya gasps in fake offense "Master Diluc, do you truly think so lowly of me?"

It's the way they can't bring themselves to have a proper conversation so they try to express their feelings of regret and love through their little actions.