Second Lead Syndrome || Diluc R. x Reader

Twentieth

Every year, Y/N became increasingly impatient for her eighteenth birthday.

On her eighteenth birthday, she would finally be of age to join the Fatui. She wouldn't be a nobody anymore and maybe she would get the same recognition her parents give her sister.

Y/N doesn't agree with Fatui ideals. She hears every word of malice and sees every controlling action her family displays. Y/N hates how dark and unjust Fatui ways are, but why would that stop her? She would choose feeling out of place but wanted over constantly feeling not enough, any day.

So, as the years passed and her twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth birthday passed, the opportunity to finally be someone and be good at something was becoming brighter and brighter.

Then, a week after her sixteenth birthday, Y/N heard of a place called "the City of Freedom". Mondstadt. Freedom. That's exactly what she needed. Like the surface of the ocean finally coming into view after years and years of floating in the dark, a hope burned in her chest. A life full of opportunities where she could escape the shackles of her family's expectations and her own.

Y/N is used to being second and she wanted to escape that curse.

So, Y/N fled to Mondstadt after making an agreement with her parents. She would stay in Mondstadt until she hit twenty years-old. A brief sample of freedom before she would return back to Fontaine and follow in her family's footsteps. 

Four years is a long time. Y/N thought. Therefore, she sought out the life she always wanted and joined the Knights of Favonius. Time passed and birthdays flew by as Y/N settled deeper into her life at Mondstadt. 

Every year, Y/N's memory of the agreement faded, lingering in the back of her mind. Only for the dark ocean she left behind to drag her back into its waters with a single envelope.

Four years is not a long time. Y/N sits, nineteen years of age, in the chair of Jean's office while reading the letter within the envelope. She becomes aware of how she has to give her up the only thing she is number one at. A week after her twentieth birthday, Y/N is expected to return to Fontaine and join the Fatui. Her twentieth birthday comes too soon. The year stands at the end of summer, Y/N has until the first breadth of the new year. January first.

The letter shakes in Y/N's hand as she slips it back into the envelope. She quickly puts on a fake smile, looking up at Jean. "Four years really flew by, huh?" Her voice cracks.

Jean doesn't respond as the two share a moment of sorrowful silence.

Y/N quickly wipes any tears welling up in her eyes before they spill. She gets up from her seat. "Well, I should get back to work. Afterall, I only have so much time left to do my job." She chuckles ruefully.

Jean nods. "Good luck, Captain Y/N."

Y/N leaves the office, the door shutting behind her. Y/N walks up the stairs to her own office in the Investigative wing to grab the papers containing her work for today.

She smiles when she her eyes land on an acutal case for her to work on. No hilichurl fighting today. Looks like we're investigating a building that mysteriously collapsed in the middle of the night. Y/N folds up the papers and heads off, trying to focus on her work for today to keep her mind away from thinking about her limited time. 

-----

The chattering grows louder as Y/N gets closer to the crowd of people surrounding the remains of what appears to be a building near the outskirts of Springvale. It looks as if a tornado had hit the house. The entire front of its structure has been smashed to pieces of wood, glass, and stone.

Y/N pushes past the crowd as her eyes land on a woman and her young daughter standing near the demolished building. Almost everyone had their eyes on them as a few consoled them.

"Captain Y/N of the Knights of Favonius." Y/N states as she approaches the middle-aged woman with short, light brown hair and forest green eyes. Her daughter looks to be about six or seven years old, face resembling her mother quite closely. "Can I get your name and what happened?"

"Hello, my name is Dagna and this is my daughter, Bluma." The woman says. "We were visiting a friend in the city and came home before sunrise. When we got to our house, I saw a tornado ripping up our home."

It does look similar to the destruction caused by a tornado. Y/N thinks. But there's no way the tornado only attacked this building specifically.

"The funny thing is," Dagna starts again. "My daughter saw something completely different."

Y/N quirks an eyebrow in curiosity. "Oh?" She beckons the woman to continue.

"There was this huuuuge dragon that was ripping up our house with its claws." Bluma explains, opening her arms wide to show just how big she meant.

How could a dragon arrive here unnoticed? Y/N thinks. And how did the two see something so different? Y/N raises a hand to her chin in a thoughtful motion. "Alright. Do you two have somewhere you can rest?"

Dagna nods. "I plan to go back to my friend's house in Mondstadt's walls."

"Alright. For now, please head to the Knights of Favonius Head Quarters and ask for someone in the Investigative department. Tell them I sent you." Y/N tells them as they nod. 

Y/N turns to the crowd. "Did anybody see what happened here last night?" Nobody speaks up.

"I only saw the aftermath. I woke up because of the sound of destruction." A lady responds. The crowd hums in agreement.

No witnesses? Y/N chews on her lip. That's impossible! Not a single person saw? Though this did happen before sunrise. Everyone was most likely asleep.

This is turning out to be an interesting case. Y/N thinks to herself before dismissing the crowd. "If any of you witnessed what happened last night, please speak up. You should all get back to work." She says, thoroughly confused. What confuses her even more, is that she passed by Springvale this morning on her way back from Dawn Winery. Why didn't she see a tornado or dragon?

As the crowd slowly disperses, Y/N walks towards the building- or what's left of it.

She notes that the door had flung off of it's hinges, burried somewhere in the rubble. This doesn't look like the work of a dragon or tornado. Y/N goes deeper into the scene, careful not to trip on any debris or pieces of furniture. Looks like the inside is in pretty rough shape, too. Y/N glances at the stairs that are now broken in the middle. Most of the furniture is either damaged or covered in debris.

As Y/N glances around the crumbled building, she doesn't notice anything unordinary- until her eyes land on a footprint in the dust. Her eyes narrow on the large, pointed shoeprint. It's too large to belong to Dagna or Bluma and it definitely isn't hers. Y/N whips out a notepad from her pocket and quickly jots down an estimate of the shoe's size and a brief sketch.

None of the evidence is matching up. Y/N doesn't know of any tornados or dragons that wear size eight women's boots. Someone has been here before.

Y/N quickly checks the surroundings around the house for a possible tornado's path before concluding this isn't the work of a natural disaster or giant dragon.

Why did Dagna and Bluma see those things- which are very different? How did nobody else see what happened? Why didn't I notice anything this morning? And who was here? 

Although Y/N has several unanswered questions about the case, two things are for certain;
This case is turning out to be more interesting than Y/N initially thought, and this case is proving to be a very good distraction for Y/N as the clock ticks towards her twentieth birthday.