Freedom in Servitude - Diluc x Reader

Laughter

You strolled through the streets of Mondstadt, breathing in the sweet summer air that almost blew your hood off your head. You reached up to grab it and pulled on the brooch that held it together which contained your bright blue cryo vision.

Diluc had sent you into the city to buy ingredients for the chef while he attended a meeting about a charity event. You say he sent you, but in reality, you told him you would do this while he was in that meeting to be more efficient as long as he promised to write down everything important from the meeting.

"One year..." you mumbled, reminiscing. This city had won your heart extremely quickly. It had allowed you to grow in more ways than one. You were stronger physically, you had friends, and you no longer were haunted by your past. Well, mostly.

You tugged on your vision brooch so your face was as shrouded as it could be when walking by the Goth Hotel which was now crawling with Fatui. You felt nauseated just seeing them. Their ideals and their activities disgusted you and were not in line with the happy life you had found in your self-assigned homeland.

You relaxed a bit walking up to Good Hunter, greeting Sara before ordering lunch for you and your boss. "That will be ready in about fifteen minutes!" Sara told you. You nodded and told her you'd be back before walking over to get groceries at Mondstadt General Goods.

By the time your order was ready, Diluc had met you and sat across from you at a table, reading off his notes from the meeting. You retrieved the food and set it in front of him before sitting down yourself and chomping down on your fisherman's toast. Diluc suppressed a laugh at your gluttonous display before reading off the last bits of his notes.

"Then I have, 'Wagner's mustache twitches when he talks,' 'this meeting could have been a letter,' and then in big letters at the bottom "Charity ball-slash-auction at church two weeks from Saturday'." You chuckled at the goofy comments and wondered how he kept a straight face through his jokes.

"I think you're available then," you said and pulled your small, leather-bound calendar pocketbook out of your cloak. You checked the aforementioned date and saw a blank. "I was right. What a shocker. I know your schedule so well you should start calling me Donna." Diluc choked on his food, trying to play it off as clumsiness, but the wide grin on your face signified that you saw right through him.

"That's not funny," he said flatly, giving you a side-eyed gaze.

"Then why'd you laugh?" you replied, still smiling a knowing grin.

"I didn't," he shot back fake-harshly, which, when you saw it this time, you realized no other person in the world would know he was kidding. That's how close you two had become in the past year. You knew everything about him. You knew his every movement, every expression, every opinion. In such close proximity, how could you not? You spent nearly every hour together since the moment he shook your hand that night. That was the night everything changed.

"Well, you have fun at that talking to a bunch of old rich people," you said and waved a hand dismissively at him.

"Actually it will be open to the public as more of a community event so you can go if you want," Diluc replied before quickly adding, "Saturday IS your day off."

You picked up your drink and used it to hide your grin as you said "Oh so I'll finally get to go to an event without you." Immediately a pang went through your chest. You had made a mistake.

"I didn't realize you hated going to events with me so much," he answered. You lost your ability to read him in an instant.

"Oh, you know that's not what I meant," you tried to recover, "I just meant I'd get to go not as your assistant." You prayed you had done enough to clear the air as he continued to look you in the eye. It was silent for a second, and then another, and then another.

"Hey, Y/N!" The voice of your friend Amber's voice popped the bubble of the world that you and Diluc inhabited and brought you back into reality. You broke your eyes away from his to smile and look at her.

"Gosh, why can I never catch you when you're without this guy?" another voice asked as an arm draped itself around you.

"Hi, Kaeya," you said to the owner of the arm who looked at you sympathetically.

"You know you're way too cool for him, right, runaway?" He released you and relaxed into the chair between you and Diluc.

"Why are you here?" Diluc interjected, sounding a slight bit irritated. Kaeya laughed a bit.

"Why am I here? Why are YOU here? I live in the city. You're the one who's a hermit that has an icy badass as an assistant." He smirked at you, and you laughed lightly.

"Very creative," you replied sarcastically, "The Icy Badasses. We should start a band." Kaeya leaned towards you, doing the thing his brother was best at, leaning in an almost undetectable amount of too close.

"Should we?" he asked quietly, giving you slight goosebumps. Diluc's glare deepened.

"Why do you two make each other even more insufferable than you already are?" he interjected gruffly.

"I don't know man, it's a Cryo thing," Kaeya replied nonchalantly, leaning back in his chair.

"Well, I bet Master Diluc and I have Pyro things too!" Amber said cheerfully. Diluc looked at the brunette with a blank expression.

"Do I know you?"

"M-Master Diluc! I'm Amber! We've met a million times!" your friend exclaimed sheepishly. While you tried to suppress your laughter, Kaeya allowed his to ring out across the main square of Mondstadt.

"I was joking," Diluc replied plainly. Amber blushed, seeing her friends laugh.

"Maybe if you ever laughed, I'd be able to know when you were joking because then I'd know you had a sense of humor!" Amber said in all one breath, cause her to inhale at the end of her sentence.

"Well he's only had a sense of humor since Y/N got here," Kaeya chuckled. Diluc's face became bright red in an instant.

"Aww..." you cooed out and clutched your heart dramatically, "that's so true." You wiped a fake tear from your eye before bursting into laughter with Kaeya and Amber.

"Oh, about that," you expertly segued into a new topic of conversation before things got too personal, "today is actually one year of me being in Mondstadt." Amber's eyes lit up.

"Aw, it's you two's anniversary!" she squealed, smiling brightly. The heat rushed to your cheeks and you glanced at Diluc who met your gaze, causing you to immediately divert your eyes elsewhere. "His face is so red!" you thought as you tried to hide your smile. Kaeya laughed out loud.

"Good one, Amber!" he said happily.

"Oh, wait! That's not what I meant!" Amber said, slightly deflated.

"And that's our cue to leave," Diluc said and stood up.

"Agreed!" You concurred and gathered your things.

"Okay, well, I'll see you tomorrow, Y/N!" Amber called after you as you both swiftly walked away.

"See you tomorrow!" You yelled back and waved over your shoulder.

"What's tomorrow?" Diluc asked as you exited the gates of the city.

"Patrol day," you responded. "The only day you let me out of the cellar to see the light of day!" He rolled his eyes.

"Please. That's the day I'm literally in the cellar doing quality checks all day so you can go off and do whatever you want. I can't believe you chose to consistently spend it with a Knight of Favonius." Diluc spat the last three words out judgmentally.

"Oh come on," you replied, "Amber's an extremely good friend. You're so busy she's one of the only people I get to hang out with on a consistent basis." Diluc hummed as a response, looking stoically forward. His lack of response caused a bit of insecurity in you following the blindness of your Diluc-reading abilities earlier.

"Are we still hanging out tonight?" you asked as you got on your horse. Diluc almost allowed himself to grin but caught himself in a smirk.

"Of course," he replied and mounted his, "If you can beat me home." You laughed, knowing the one thing you and Diluc were competitive about was horse riding. You grinned.

"Then I'll see you after my shift," you shot back and took off.