OH MY~ ! ᵈⁱˡᵘᶜ ʳᵃᵍⁿᵛⁱⁿᵈʳ ˣ ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ

𝘹𝘹𝘪. 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥

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"We're here!" Paimon exclaims. She turns around to speak to everyone.

Before she could catch what the two were up to, Diluc let's go of Kaeya's collar, as if he wasn't about to throw his fist at Kaeya's face. Kaeya has gathered enough to know that Diluc wouldn't dare to cause a scene, especially in front of you.

"Everyone take a seat," Paimon says. You all were going to eat outside at the back of the tavern, for better privacy. Plus, the tables were round and bigger.

As you sit down, Kaeya makes his way to sit next to you without hesitation. He purposely bumps past Diluc's shoulder, making him stumble a bit. Diluc quickly catches on to Kaeya, resulting him in also rushing to sit next to you.

Seriously? They're acting like children.

Well, Kaeya beat him to the seat. He gives Diluc a prideful smile as Diluc glares at him.

"Master Diluc, are you going to take the seat?" Aether asks.

While the two were engrossed in the silent competition, Diluc was too distracted to notice there's a was another open seat next to you. Satisfied, he sits down.

You stiffened. You don't know if the traveler could sense it, but there was still heated tension between Diluc and Kaeya. And for you to be in between them again, made you uncomfortable.

-

All of you patiently waited for your food. It was rather...awkward, since no one has a said a thing.

"So...uhh," Paimon speaks up. All eyes advert to her, which makes her tense up.

"Traveler, help me out here!" She whispers to him. Aether thinks for a second, until he manages to come up with something.

"Y/n, do you plan on moving back to Inazuma?"

Diluc and Kaeya's attention quickly switch to you, waiting for your answer. The sudden attention on you makes you nervous.

"U-Uhm, I haven't really thought about that..." you say. Your response makes Diluc slightly upset. I'm all honesty, there was no reason for you to move back. Maybe you would visit one day for the nostalgia, and say hi to the few who were actually nice to you.

"You're not thinking of leaving me here, are you
Y/n? At least a kiss goodbye before you do." He teases, putting an arm around your chair.

Aether and Paimon were not surprised to find Kaeya openly flirting with you. He had a reputation, after all. But of course, you didn't know of this.

Not knowing how to respond, you awkwardly chuckle as Diluc let's out an 'ugh', which was only heard by you.

As you, the traveler, and Paimon talk while Kaeya also invites himself in, Diluc stays quiet, staring at nothing. Everyone else found it normal for him to not want to involve himself in chatter, yet he seemed to be thinking about something.

Perhaps it was the question whether if you were to move back to Inazuma or not, but a realization suddenly hit him like a slap to the face. Unless someone really payed attention, nobody could see how in just a mere of 1 minute there was a war of emotions and thoughts right behind those eyes through that stoic face of his that he was so good at pulling.

But no matter the circumstances, his silence worried you.

Kaeya was irritating Paimon from his mindless responses. They were bickering about something, and Kaeya replied as if he wasn't bothered at all, which got on her nerves. Aether only stared dumbfounded at their stupid argument. Since they were all distracted, you took this chance to ask Diluc.

"Are you okay?" You whisper, as you place a comforting hand on his shoulder. Diluc stiffens; you interrupted his thoughts. A light hue of pink tinted his cheek, the fact that you cared enough to express worry for him made his heart flutter. But he quickly shut these feelings down.

He straightens himself up and lightly clears his throat."Don't worry.." he says rather coldly whilst turning his head and looking away. The sudden distancing shot a twinge in your heart.

You didn't respond. Anxious thoughts flooded through your head while you removed your hand, but everyone soon stopped talking once the food was placed on the table.

── •✧• ──

The air between you and Diluc felt...weird. Something was definitely off, and it made you uncomfortable.

"Y/n, your dish looks quite appealing, do you mind if I take a bite?" Kaeya asks you as you were holding a fork with a bite of your food.

"U-Uhm..."

"If you wanted some, you would've ordered your own. I'll gladly pay extra for you to order the same plate." Diluc chimes in as he looked daggers at him.

Now you were confused. Just a second ago, Diluc was being more withdrawn from you. And now, he was acting a bit...jealous. Its like this man is toying with your feelings.

"You really shouldn't invite yourself into our conversation, it's quite inappropriate, Master Diluc." Kaeya states hypocritically.

Before Diluc could respond, Aether also says something. "How about we let Y/n go order you a plate?" Paimon nods her head, agreeing with the traveler. You let out a mental sigh, relieved that he helped you escape from the situation.

So in the end, Kaeya didn't get his way.

"R-Right! I'll go order for you..." you said. You stood up, pushing your chair back, and scurried away. You were also glad to finally be away from Diluc's presence. Unfortunately for you, as you were walking to the back door of the tavern, Diluc's voice makes you halt.

"Don't fall for Kaeya's mischief, he's up for pure spite, only."

"Ah - Of course..." you turn around and avoid eye contact, nervously rubbing the back of your neck. The both of you still. The only sound being heard were the muffled voices and drunken laughs coming from the tavern. "What're you-"

"We need to-"

You and Diluc speak up and stop at the same time. You look at each other, before quickly adverting eyes, both blushing.  It was pretty difficult to properly converse with one another, considering in the last circumstances...where you were both...exercising.

"Apologies, I- "

"Sorry, you shoul-"

. . . 

Before he could, you quickly apologize first, insisting that he should talk. Diluc looks away, contemplating whether if he wants to go through with his decision, but he does.

"Y/n...I'd like for you to stay for a moment after all of this is done." He says. His face is serious; it intimidated you. "Okay, is there a reason why?" You question. He briefly pauses.

"We need to talk." He says.

Your heart nearly jumped out of your chest once those 4 words left his mouth. Your thoughts raced, and your heart did too. You did not like where this was going.

"A-Alright." You said, trying to sound as normal as possible, as if you weren't panicking on the inside. Yet, Diluc was able to see through it.

He doesn't reply, and returns back to the table.

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