Diluc x Reader

39

aethers eyes opened at your response and he gave you a genuine smile, glad you were joining him on the journey anyways.

unbeknownst to you, diluc felt relieved too but wouldnt show it on his face. he kept his stoic expression as he held his cup still in his hand, listening onto the conversation.

suddenly paimon spoke up again, granting you all with more information about their long journey, "after discussing everything with childe again, he gave us more information about rex lapis!" she said and bounced a little in the air.

"he said rex lapis his vessel is being hidden by the qixing!" paimon continued and her eyes widened even more. you found it truly suspicious that they were hiding a body of one who had already died.

with shock evident on your features you motioned paimon to keep going, and she did. "the exuvia is hidden in the golden house." she said finally and you figured that would be the next destination of the mission.

aether commented as well, "if we cant find the geo archon, then our journey will be over..." he said with disappointment laced in his voice, letting both of his arms fall to his sides.

diluc stood straight and took a step away from the wall, towards aether as he saw the blonde boy in his slumped state. "dont get discouraged now." he said as he set his cup down on the counter besides him.

the cup made a soft clinking sound as it was set down on the stonen counter, "we will find the geo archon, whether he is dead or not." he said sternly and folded his arms in front of his chest.

both paimon and aether lit up from dilucs reassurance, they almost seemed to lose their motivation.

"but first!" paimon said and jumped a little higher in the air as she made her way to the couch, landing face first into the soft material.

aether followed her but unlike paimon, stayed standing in front of the couch and turned around to face you. "we have been up all night." he confessed.

you could see that now he said it, his eyes werent as wide as usual, they were almost half lidded. he was getting faint eyebags under his eyes as well, but they were barely noticeable.

besides his eyes was his posture slumped too, the fatigue explained his discouragement earlier too. you nodded and spoke up what was exactly on aethers mind.

"the bedroom is behind you, just open that door." you said as you pointed at the wooden door behind him, which was almost identical to the front door.

he gave you a smile, one that was showing his tiredness this time. he turned back around and opened the door in one swift motion.

pushing the door further open, he stayed still in the doorframe and noticed something, he spoke up, "the bed is still made..?" he stated and questioned at the same time. he wondered where you two would have slept then.

diluc turned around from what he was doing and opened his mouth, "that means you can sleep immediately." he said as he completely evaded aethers statement.

before aether had the chance to speak up again, you interrupted him, "ill get some food so you can both wake up with a fresh meal." you said as you walked over to the couch to grab your bag where your mora was.

grabbing one strap of the bag, you lifted it up and swayed it on your back. with your other free hand you waved at aether and spoke up before you turned to the front door, "sweet dreams."

aethers sleep deprived self decided to leave the matter alone and responded before he went to take a short nap, "thank you, see you later." he said and shut the door, disappearing into the bedroom.

you were about to grab the handle of the door but diluc beat you to it, his hand was a few inches away from yours, resting on the door handle.

with your arm extended to the handle, you looked at diluc in confusion and he spoke up immediately before you could ask what he was doing, "let me go with you." he said while looking straight at you.

"oh, sure." you replied without hesitation. you retracted your arm and took a step back from the door, allowing diluc to open it and step outside.

you followed right after, now standing in the morning dawn of liyue, the sun was up already, giving the entire place a light tint.

diluc shut the door behind you and you looked around as you appreciated liyues scenery more. the branches of the trees were hit by the wind, making a few leaves fall down occasionally.

at the bottom of the trees you saw a few glaze lillies in full bloom, they looked beautiful, the light blue flower petals matched perfectly with the lighter scenery around you.

the red haired man accompanying you locked the door from the outside, making sure aether and paimon would sleep unharmed. he followed your gaze and his own eyes landed on the glaze lillies too.

he spoke up, snapping you back to reality, "lets go." he said in a soft voice, he didnt want to disturb you honestly.

your eyes darted from the precious flowers to diluc, slightly embarrassed he had caught you in a daze like that. you averted your eyes to look anywhere but to him.

"yes, where should we go first?" you said in an instant and acted like nothing just happened. you started walking already which resulted in diluc walking behind.

after no response from him, you turned around to see where he could have gone, only to find him standing straight, he was crouching down before but you only caught a glimpse of it.

your eyes locked and he started making his way to you, you wondered what he was doing but decided to leave the matter alone. for now.

and so, you two started walking through liyue city in search of a restaurant or some shop that sold food.

diluc soon spotted a small stand with various food related stuff. "look over there." he said in his usual calm voice, pointing in the way of the shop.

you tilted your to where he pointed at and walked with him to the food shop. you were immediately greeted by the friendly merchant, "welcome, welcome to second life."

he locked eyes with both you and diluc and spoke up once more, "what would you like to buy?" he continued and you looked at the nourishment in the crates in front of you.

your eyes landed on the crates and spotted almost immediately some fresh almond and tofu, "how about we make some almond tofu for them?" you asked as you kept your eyes on the food in front of you.

diluc nodded and spoke up, "sounds good to me." he agreed without hesitation. you gave the said mora to the owner, bought the ingredients and were about to bid farewell to the owner of the stand.

you were about to speak up untill you found a hand on top of your shoulder, stopping your train of thought.

you wondered who it was since diluc was standing on your other side, so it was unlikely that it was him. glancing over your shoulder where the touch lingered, you spotted an unknown male from around your age.

immediately on guard now, you furrowed your eyebrows and tried to be polite as possible, "can i help you...?" you asked him and wished he could let go off your shoulder already.