LOYALTY. | diluc x reader

thirteen - the past has teeth

time was like gambling; either you get lucky or you lose it all. and some get addicted to it, the rush of never once turning to face the seconds until it drips out like every pint of sand in the hourglass.

boy was the sand dripping steadily yet painfully. just like the water droplets that fell from the edge of your chin and onto the concrete floor.

of course, you never once doubted this would happen. when you get roped up into such a business like the one you left in the past - or at least, thought you did - there's no doubt the consequences would come back to slap you in the face.

–"i'll ask again, who do you work for?"

the voice of the unknown man echoed into the giant, empty room as your half lidded and tired eyes stared at the ground until it didn't even look like the ground. it was a dark concrete color, no reflection in the mattness of it.

it was cold, so unbelievably cold.

there were pale blue lights above your head which made the room seem even colder than it already was.

–"and i'm telling you again, the knights of favonius" you said blankly for the third time that hour.

the rope your hands were in behind the awfully creaky wooden chair stung your wrists, you could already feel a bruise the color of your veins forming.

the man sighed once again as he rubbed his temple with his thumb and pointer finger. he approached you once again, and thinking he was going to throw yet another bucket of water on you or dunk your face into it to water board you, you turned your head to the side swiftly.

instead, he put his gloved hand around your neck and searched for the necklace. he took it into his hand and scoffed.

you looked him straight in the eyes from the borders of your hair as he smirked lazily at it.

–"look at yourself," he started, "you wouldn't have been caught in this position if you were the same as back then" he said.

you simply looked back down to the floor where your sight had been glued to. every once and again you looked to the vision that was knotted to your waist belt, thinking of ways to get out of this situation using electro.

unfortunately though, if you used electro now you would electrocute yourself due to the fact you were soaked in water.

–"and what? all because of a man?"

a wave of panic washed your face over and you stopped breathing for a second.

–"you're not using me to get to the knights," you inhaled hoping the butterflies in your stomach would fly away with it but to no avail, "you're using me to get to diluc"

the man clapped his hands slowly, crossing them once he was done. the way he crossed his arms made the familiar sign of the button on his dark turtlenecks' sleeve clearer to you.

–"scum" you thought out loud, though you didn't regret it from the look on his face.

–"pardon?"

–"you heard me. you're scum"

–"oh yeah?" he poked.

though you would not answer that, you would not give him the satisfaction of an answer as it would only rile him up.

–"huh, no answer?" he mirrored your act of throwing your head to the side and you internally smiled, "answer me this then. do you love him?"

to be fair, you did not expect such a question. like the devil who's name can only be mentioned for him to appear, the intense red hair appeared behind the man who had been interrogating you the entire day. no more did you contemplate your answer, you knew exactly what it had to be.

–"no, i don't" you replied, lying.

–"ah so you're using him to get information as well?" his eyes widened in expectancy as a smile appeared on his face.

–"i don't love him, but it doesn't mean i can't be loyal to him" you smiled back at the man who's face turned again.

–"oh you little shit-" he began, never finishing that sentence as his head hit the floor sharply.

–"the damn fatui" diluc whispered as he looked back to you.

his eyes were red with violence, a type of hatred he could never let go for the life of him. you observed as they turned to not a red of anger but a red of passion, his shoulders dropped at the sight of you drenched in water.

he cut the rope your hands and legs were tied with to the chair and you immediately got up to stretch your entire body out. diluc started to take the dark coat off to place it on you and you held onto the necklace under your shirt.

–"are you alright, love?" he asked with his eyebrows still furrowed and you only now realized how messy his hair had been.

–"other than the fact i'm soaked yes i'm fine," you said as you kicked your legs around to get as much water from your pants out, "what took you so long?"

–"i got caught up by some ginger telling me about his ice fishing journey" he scratched the back of his neck.

you exhaled with a smile and an eyebrow raised, looking at his dark undercover fatui outfit. the hood leaned over his upper back and the adequate fatui mask stood on the side of his head.

–"you look good" you said.

–"don't say that" he said with his nose scrunched up.

–"why not? it's not like i'm lying" you raised your arms by the elbows and shrugged your shoulders.

–"cause then i'll want to wear it again" he said with a straight face.

you laughed at him, doubling over to hold onto your stomach. you looked back up at him with a wide grin still on your face just to see his face still blank as if he were dead serious.

he stood like that with his arms crossed until you snorted and it made him smile a little bit then look away from you.

–"oh you big teaser" you said before the giant doors opened once again and you both cursed under your breath before finding a place to hide in.

after turning your back to the bunch of boxes placed randomly in the room, you turned your head to face the men who entered the room talking among themselves. they stopped mid-walk, facing each other in a panic.

they left the room in a hurry at the sight of the passed out man next to a chair with cut ropes.

–"they escaped!" was all you heard (with the sound of many footsteps running around) before turning back to diluc who had already been looking at you.

he did some kind of sign with his hand, pointed to his left then did a number four with his fingers.

–"what?"

–"we leave on the count of four" he said, facepalming whilst sighing, "did you forget about this?"

–"no, i was just teasing you"

his face turned to a poker one, as he shook his head.

you both left the room with steps as silent as the wind, steadily making your way out of the building after picking up some papers in an empty room. you assumed they were for the fatui hideaways, either way you didn't doubt what diluc was doing. all you knew was that this would not be over yet.

🔺🔻🔺

a/n: haha you thought i was done with this book? lol no i just died. anyways you know the drill leave a like and comment if you enjoyed this chapter cause i'm bringing more action and angst into this, there's still just a few more chapters but i'm leaving the book under "completed" since i'm not sure when the next update will be, i'm a bit burned out from putting my all into this story and juggling my other works as well as my own personal life.

on another note i would like to express how absolutely grateful i am for all of your (140k) reads, votes and all the lovely followers i got from this story. it makes me more than happy to know you enjoyed this book and it makes me even happier to know this story made you feel something. so thank you once again :,)

have a great day!