Bed and Silken Chains | Hiatus

Zehn

As Diluc carries the girl inside his home, thoughts run through his head. Once he opens the door, he hears her give a loving sigh at the warmth embracing her icy skin. He closes the door behind him and heads towards the stairs leading up to his bedroom.

"I never asked... What is your name?" Diluc says in a hushed voice, careful not to fall over with the girl.

He then realizes just how light she is; he's able to feel the bones of her body just my lightly brushing his fingers against her back.

"I... don't remember."

"You don't remember? What do you mean by that?"

"I was given a name, but I forgot it. I forgot it because no one has said it to me in a long time."

"How about I give you a name to use for now?" he says, opening the door to his bedroom.

"Okay. I'll try to remember that name."

"How about the name... (Y/n)?"

She raises her head up to look at Diluc, staring at him with intrest.

"I like that name. I'll try to respond to it when you say it."

Diluc smiles and puts the girl down onto his bed. He lifts her leg and expects her foot.

"There's no glass that I can see..." Diluc says.

"Inside."

"What?"

"Glass... inside my foot. My body healed over it... It hurts to walk."

Diluc's eyes widen at her words. He brings a lamp closer to her foot and notices the hard lumps underneath the callouses of her feet. Diluc bites his lip, scared at what he might have to do. He runs his thumb over the bumps only for (Y/n) to hiss in pain.

"Apologies."

She hums in responds.

"I'll be back in a moment. Please, don't move too much, there is likely a lot more damage than we can see."

"Okay..."

Diluc quickly turns and leaves his room, heading towards a little bathroom that's filled with bandages, medicines, ointments, tweezers, and...

Scalpels

The servants sometimes would injure themselves some things, especially around the wine presses and refiners, so Diluc kept some things around to help with injuries. He quickly grabs a few things and places them on a metal tray.

Diluc makes his way back to his room where the sound of soft humming reaches his ears. He can't quite make out any familiar tune, but it still feels oddly nostalgic. He opens the door with a careful hand and steps inside the dark room. The only light is a single burning oil lamp.

(Y/n) looks over at Diluc, eyes shining with the candle flame dancing in her eyes' reflection. In her arms is a single stuffed rabbit, tiny enough to fit into her pocket.

"Who's this?" Diluc says with a light chuckle.

(Y/n) cocks her head to the side, unsure of what he's talking about.

"Who do you mean?"

"Your little rabbit of course. What's their name?"

(Y/n)'s eyes look back down to the raggedy rabbit with a torn leg and ear.

"His name is Lion."

"Lion? Hello Lion, I'm Diluc. It's nice to meet you."

(Y/n) gives a cute giggle at Diluc talking to her bunny.

"Lion, can you make sure (Y/n) is comfortable while I help her feel better?"

(Y/n) giggles like a child again and makes the stuffed toy nod it's head.

"Very good. Now what I want you to do is hold onto her as tight as you can."

(Y/n) immediately takes the small toy into her arms in a giant bear hug.

"Now, I know this is going to hurt, but it will be a lot better than with the glass in your feet, okay?"

The young girl nods her head, shoving her face into the small rabbit toy.

"Okay. Just hug Lion as tight as you can."

Diluc carefully grabs the scalpel and touches it to her skin, right on one of the glass lumps. She hisses in pain already, not liking the swollen lump to be touched.

"Shh... it's okay. I promise you're going to be okay."

(Y/n) nods her head quickly and shuts her eyes tight. Diluc smiles solemnly at the cute girl's behaviour. Quickly and carefully, Diluc presses the blade in and down across the lump. She hisses once again, tears springing from her eyes. Diluc carefully folds open the flesh and, with the pair of tweezers, plucks out the large piece of glass. He moves the bloody glass over to the tray and drops it. Diluc continues to do this process over and over, removing every last piece of glass carefully from each foot. After all of it is removed, he takes off his gloves and scoops out some medicinal ointment, gently applying it to her cuts. Finally, he takes the bandages and wraps her feet in the clean cloth.

"There," Diluc says with a relieved sigh, "all done. You were so brave."

(Y/n) nods her head, shoving her tears into Lion's body. Diluc studies the small toy, noticing all the fluff of it's skin matted down with mud and some patches just gone, as if a razor had gotten to them.

"Thank you... Mister Diluc."

"Of course."

(Y/n) moves to get up but Diluc quickly stops her.

"H-Hey! There's no reason you have to leave. You're feet are still healing and it's very dark outside. How about you stay here, with me, for a while while your feet heal up?"

(Y/n) looks away bashfully but nods her head. Diluc smiles. He takes the blanket of his bed and brings it up and over her freezing body.

"Tomorrow, I'll give you a bath. But tonight, I want you to sleep well."

"Okay... Thank you."

Diluc nods as watches as her body almost instantly falls asleep from exhaustion. Diluc chuckles and undresses himself. He turns off the lamp and slides into the bed next to the girl. He stares at her figure with dreamy eyes, letting them get heavy. Soon, he drifts off to sleep with a smile on his face.

-- End of Part ONE --