Opposites Attract | Diluc x Reader

The Melancholy of Ice

Diluc lifted your unconscious body into his arms. Glaring at the Tsaritsa, he pulled you closer to his chest to form a barrier around you using his body in hopes to protect you from the archon.

“What did you do to y/n! What's going to happen to her!”

“Leave now before I change my mind,” the Tsaritsa interrupted Diluc and waved him off, ignoring his question.

“No,” Diluc growled, holding your body even tighter.

He couldn't forgive the Tsaritsa or any of the other Fatui for what they did to you. Hurting one of their own kin, forcing you to complete a cruel and unfair challenge. Forcing you into a life that you didn't want. He just couldn't bear watching all this and not doing anything. You were the only person he genuinely cared about. You had been there to wake him up in the mornings, you served him breakfast, you helped him in his work. And most of all, you showed him your beautiful smile.

The weeks that the two of you had spent together had made a lasting impact on him. The wall that he had built around himself was cracking and it was all because of you. You didn't do anything big or grand. It was simply being genuinely there for him. You had helped him of your own volition and never really asked for anything in return. The days that he had spent with you had made his heart grow warm, a feeling that he had never felt since the death of his father, the role model he had looked up to.

"Leave or else all three of you will suffer the consequences."

The Tsaritsa stood up with her Fatui agents standing on her sides. The temperature in the room drastically dropping, Lumine brought out her sword. Snow flurred around the room causing it to get even colder.

Her lips turning blue from the cold that the archon was creating, Lumine whispered, "Diluc, I think we should go now. There's no way we can fight her as we are now."

Clenching his fist and knowing that Lumine was right, Diluc turned his heel and walked out of the throne room while trying his best to ignore the cold that was plaguing him. Now was most definitely not the time to show weakness. He needed to be strong. After all, you were strong and fought to change your fate. He couldn't let you down. He couldn't let the determination that you gave during the fight be for naught.

Rushing to the teleport waypoint, Lumine looked up at Diluc, "Take care of yourself and y/n. I should get going now before Paimon starts to get worried."

Turning his head, Diluc nodded, "Thank you for your assistance."

Setting a destination on the teleport waypoint, Lumine disappeared into sparkling particles. Soon after she left, Diluc too started to set a destination on the teleport waypoint. 

"Wait," Childe shouted as he ran up to Diluc. "Wait please."

"What do you want," Diluc glared at the archer that you had fought earlier and the one who had nearly fatally injured you. "Why should I wait?"

"All I want to say is to take care of y/n," Childe huffed, catching his breath after running after Diluc. “She’s like a little sister to me. Make her happy. She deserves it. Give her a new life, a life full of joy that I was never able to give her after ignoring her hidden pain."

Anger calming down as he listened to Childe's confession, Diluc nodded and turned his heel before disappearing into particles of light.

“Lady Tsaritsa,” Childe suddenly kneeled as soon as the cryo archon appeared from the shadows.

The archon stared at the teleport waypoint that had whisked you and Diluc away with a melancholy gaze. She had lost the daughter-like person she took under her wing and raised. Was this what it felt like to lose someone you regarded as family? Was this the painful feeling of losing someone you cared about?

"Was I too harsh on her Childe?" The Tsaritsa's voice broke as didn't know what else to say. "Is it my fault that she left? Did I do something wrong? Did I act like a good mother to her? Why was she so determined to leave me?"

Childe didn't know how to answer her. Although he constantly shared how the Tsaritsa was a kind-hearted archon who was someone you would be willing to follow, she still had her own issues and faults. As someone who didn’t understand the meaning of being a parent but rather only understood how to be superior, Childe was starting to see the reasons for your decision to leave. She was an archon, a being who had never walked the path of humans.

It must have been hard on you to be faced with a situation where the one who raised you taught you to grow up exactly like her. She was someone who had eons to refine who she was and she was training you to become like her despite only being young in age. What must have been going through your heart and mind?

Childe looked down and contemplated what to say before taking a painfully neutral stance, “All we can do now is wish her the best of happiness.”

"There are some moments that I think back on and regret," the Tsaritsa started as she thought back to the days when she had trained you. "I molded her into the perfect picture of who I am and didn't think of how she would feel. I thought that this would be the perfect way to protect her. But now, I'm not so sure."

Childe watched the archon of his nation look longingly at the teleport waypoint. Who knew that the so-called cold queen of Snezhnaya could make such a melancholy look. It was clear how much you had meant to her and how much she regretted her choices when raising you that had caused this situation. All she could do now was watch you from far away and not disturb your life to let you live happily. The 11th Harbinger without a doubt pitied her especially since she too would have to watch you face the consequences of the things she forced on you. 

The consequence of having you use a Harbinger delusion.