Opposites Attract | Diluc x Reader

The One Called Mother

You walked through the dimly lit hallway to the throne room of the cryo archon. Following the two guards who were ordered to guide you, the door opened and you saw the one who had raised you. Dismissing the guards as soon as you stepped in the room, the doors closed behind you leaving you and the Tsaritsa.

“Y/n,” the beautiful and elegant white haired woman said as she opened her arms and walked up to you to give you a hug.

“Lady Tsaritsa,” you bowed your head in reverence as you were always taught to do when meeting her majesty after she released you from her usually comforting cold arms.

After giving a bow, you looked up at her cold and indifferent face, a face that you learned from her. A face that she expects you to always wear as you were trained. 

When she had first brought you under her wing, her first lesson to you had always been to chain your emotions to the very bottom of your heart. Emotions held you back and made you weaker so there was no need for them. It was useless in her line of work. You needed to be as strong as possible so you couldn’t let anything hold you back.

“Call me mother,” the cryo archon hummed as she walked back to her icy throne, a chilling smile resting on her face.

The Fatui diplomats who had brought you back to Snezhnaya had immediately informed the Tsaritsa of your return, so now here you are. All alone with the Tsaritsa herself in her throne room.

“Your majesty,” you lowered your head the moment you decided to talk. “Forgive me for my actions.”

Placing her hand on the armrest of her throne and resting her chin on her fist, the Tsaritsa looked at you with a glare of something combined with hate, anger, and frustration, a change from her earlier smile. You lowered your head even more to show submittance.

“I clearly told you never to leave Snezhnaya without my permission,” Tsaritsa's voice echoed throughout the room. “Yet you still disobeyed my order.”

“Forgive me,” looked up at her with the face of indifference that she had pounded into you.

“Do you know how worried I was of you?” she told you with soft eyes that you rarely saw.

You clenched your fist behind your back. You could never read the archon in front of you despite growing up under her. She always said those sweet words, those kind words but you never knew if it was real or not. 

This was all because her training was another story. Cold eyes full of cruelty, not even holding back one bit on your training. The moment you made a mistake, she pounded the lesson into you without hesitation. Not even giving you a chance to properly process it, she taught you ruthlessly.

She had started training you the moment that you had recuperated in her palace. As an orphan with nowhere else to turn to or go, living under the Tsaritsa no matter what happened was your only option. It was a fight of survival.

First with the chaining of your emotions. Next with the art of fighting. Finally with the gifting of a cryo vision. And all the while, the grooming of loyalty and submission. This was what your life had consisted of when you were under the wing of the archon of Snezhnaya. 

“I humbly ask that you punish me for my wrong doing my queen.”

It was the most logical thing to say. You were in the wrong for running away even though you had your reasons. You were one of her direct subordinates and it was a crime that was done. You prepared yourself for the punishment that you were about to receive. Though, even though you were shaking in fear, you didn’t feel any regrets in your heart.

Seconds went by and soon enough, a minute passed. Silence enshrouded the room. She didn’t reply and you didn’t say anything more. Maybe she was still thinking of the punishment that she would give you.

“Y/n,” the Tsaritsa said after a while. “What do you want? What is it that you desire?”

You couldn’t help but widen your eyes after hearing that question. To say you were surprised was an understatement. You had expected a cruel punishment to come out from her mouth but rather, it was a question that you were all too familiar with.

You thought of the question that she had asked you. You heard it many times before and had become desensitized to it but now, you were starting to understand the meaning of desiring something.

For years, no rather for as long as you could remember, your answer had always been to serve the Tsaritsa no matter what. It was all that you had known. Your life revolved around the Tsaritsa. Your training had been to protect her and be her left hand. Your life was pounded to be her sword and shield the moment that she decided to take you under her wing.

Now however, a new desire was blooming in your heart. Like the moment a flower blooms after soaking in sunlight, you too have found your sunlight and are blooming. It was something new that you had never experienced before and you never wanted it to disappear.

Ever since you had started spending time with Diluc, you were put in an usually relaxed feeling. When you were with him, you felt warm and soft inside which in comparison to when you were the archon you served was a big thing. You never wanted that feeling to leave. It was the blooming of the flower of growth and discovery that you were feeling.

"I want freedom," you answered. "I want to find my own path. I want to walk my own path."