Chapter Text
“I almost got frozen outside!”
Diluc stopped stirring the wild boar stew on the stove and looked over his shoulder, finding a blonde-haired girl who stood in the archway connecting the kitchen and the living room, still with her overcoat on. She didn’t seem to lie since her body trembled, making her look like a lost puppy who just got saved from an uncharted woodland in the dead of night. He didn’t know why after two months of living in Snezhnaya and some weeks spent in Dragonspine, she still couldn’t get used to the frosty weather.
“Lumine, are you okay?” Paimon, who had just set three bowls on the dinner table, flew to her friend. “There’s a bit of snow on—”
“What do you think? I’m definitely not okay!” Lumine yelped, patting the top of her head to remove some white flakes before glancing at Diluc. “The stew smells so good from here. Is it not done yet?”
“It might need a few more minutes,” he answered.
“I’m sorry, but I need to sit by the fireplace, or else I’ll die,” she dramatically said. “Will you call me once it’s ready?”
“Dry your hair first.”
With a single nod, she fled with Paimon, who was always worried about her. The desperation made Diluc snicker as he went back to check the boiling food. The broth should be thicker, so while waiting for it to do its job, he shoved aside the ivory curtain covering the window next to him. The night sky was at its brightest. The snowfall had gotten heavier, although not dangerous. If only the books they had borrowed from the town library didn’t need to be returned today, Diluc would have given Lumine another penalty for losing the hunting bet they did several hours ago.
“The one who caught the first wild boar must do what the winner wants!” Lumine had announced when they passed by Yenisei Forest, Snezhnayan’s largest hunting ground in the southern side of the nation.
Diluc huffed and went in the opposite direction of Lumine and Paimon. Not even five minutes later, he appeared with two wild boars in one hand; both were slightly burned from the fire that he could emit from his claymore. Lumine got upset and called him unfair for being too powerful, to which he only replied with a proud snort. They had gone through a similar game many times before, and he always came out as a champion. He didn’t understand why Lumine couldn’t just give up.
“You’re too perfect to the point of being annoying. There’s nothing I can do better than you. It must feel wonderful if I can defeat you in something. One day, I will make that happen!” Lumine declared on their way home, and Diluc chose not to say a word. What was important for him was that they had fun, and the day ended with their bond growing deeper. Those were the only reasons he kept accepting the silly requests that could be wasted on going to the local markets and picking the ingredients they actually wanted to eat.
Once the stew’s consistency reached his standard, Diluc held the pot with one hand and used the other to ladle it out into each bowl prepared on the table. He gave the same amount of fillings for two bowls and added a bit more to the last one. The latter was meant for Paimon, a tiny person who was probably only as heavy as his head yet never had trouble consuming twice his portion. Between the depth of Paimon’s stomach, lunar eclipses, and natural disasters, he wasn’t sure which phenomenon intrigued him the most.
After putting the pot back on the stove and extinguishing the firewood with water, he grabbed two bowls and walked to the living room. Choosing such good woods was one of the smartest things he had done since his bare palms could barely feel the heat coming from the stew. He placed them on the rectangular table near the blazing fireplace where Lumine and Paimon had sat cross-legged on the floor. It must be difficult for Lumine to be separated from her coat because she didn’t even bother changing it to a blanket from her bedroom.
“Are we going to eat here?” Lumine asked.
Diluc stared around. Even when they were very close to the source of warmth, the place did feel chillier than usual. “Yes,” he said, eyes riveted back on Lumine. “Because you’re cold.”
The gentle smile she gave him was something that made him turn away because he didn’t want her to notice the foolish look he might have displayed. He could blame the red cheeks on the month, but how about the softening of his face upon witnessing her contentment over the most frivolous thing? Quickly, he took the remaining bowl from the kitchen and got together with the two girls. By the time they began eating around the table, the pace of his heartbeat had gone back to normal.
“We’re so lucky to have Master Diluc with us. He cooks, he fights, he has the solution to every problem we face—he really does everything right!” Paimon gushed about the quiet man after her third spoonful of meat.
“Mm-hmm.” Lumine beamed with delight, giving Diluc a look of trust and adoration before grinning at Paimon. “I still can’t believe that he’s kind enough to stay with us.”
“Master Diluc, please don’t ever leave us,” Paimon cooed, pouting slightly. “Lumine isn’t a bad cook, but she can’t even chop carrots uniformly. I don’t need to tell you that—”
“Hey!” Lumine shouted as she slapped Paimon’s arm.
Once again, the childlike conversation between them caused him to smile. Although he hadn’t done it as often as scolding them for being reckless when venturing into the unknown, Lumine and Paimon seemed to have gotten used to his happier side. But how could they not when two years had passed since the day he decided to leave his safe haven in Mondstadt and accompany the peculiar travelers on their journey? It wasn’t too much to say that they were the people who had molded him into a better person.
That winter evening, Adelinde, the family’s head housemaid who had raised him up, rushed to his office with a message about Lumine and Paimon’s arrival at their manor. Before going to Liyue, he did tell them that they could seek his assistance every time they lacked something, be it financial or something more substantial. Since they hadn’t seen each other in more than six months prior to that visitation, he had thought that his help was never needed. Their faces hadn’t even crossed his mind in a long while.
Welcoming the guests in the office, he had assumed they would want information instead of mora or anything replaceable. His speculation was proven correct when Lumine immediately talked about meeting a mysterious man called Dainsleif. First, it happened in Mondstadt—at Angel’s Share, to be precise, and Diluc remembered it well since he saw the heavily-dressed man in black and deep blue who ordered a sophisticated mix of rum and red wine. His patrons weren’t required to disclose their backgrounds, so he didn’t learn Dainsleif’s name until then.
Lumine’s second encounter with Dainsleif was three days ago when she investigated the rumors about the Abyss Order’s movement in one of Liyue’s ruins. The next thing she knew, she met Aether, her older brother and the reason why she had been restless for what felt like an eternity, and found out that he was the ruler of the enigmatic legion. Aether claimed that Dainsleif was one of Khaenri’ah’s royal guards who received an immortality curse as a punishment for failing to protect the last dynasty’s downfall. The monsters from the Abyss were also Khaenri’ah’s people who got turned.
Diluc’s head hurt a little after Lumine finished telling her recollection. More than anything, he didn’t expect to hear such a personal and tragic story that elicited woeful emotions from him. Poor Lumine, he remembered thinking. He had always acknowledged how special the girl was—it was as if she was born to save the world like a lead character in an adventure book—but nobody would have ever guessed that her brother would be the person leading one of humanity’s biggest threats. He couldn’t imagine how awful it must have felt to be in her position.
“Master Diluc, you don’t seem surprised. As expected, a clever man like you must have caught the connection between Khaenri’ah and the Abyss Order before everyone else,” Paimon said when Diluc kept his mouth sealed for a while.
“Some Abyss Mages can speak human language. Let’s say that I’ve had my own theories.” After another pause, Diluc finally responded, followed by a long sigh. “It’s pretty late, so what if you rest so we can go through it again in the morning? Where will you stay tonight? Let my maids prepare a room for you.”
“If you phrase it like that, then there’s no way I can refuse, is there?” Lumine asked.
Diluc shrugged. “You can stay wherever you like. I’m just giving you an option.”
“I’ll take it. I’m not in the right mood to see anyone in the city, so… thank you.” Lumine gazed down and clenched her skirt like she didn’t want him to see the convoluted face she was making. “I don’t mean to burden you, Diluc, but besides Paimon, you’re the only person I can trust with this secret. That’s why I came all the way here to see you.”
Instead of being flattered, Diluc sympathized with her. Their relation ended on good terms, so six months without speaking didn’t mean that he had forgotten the time they spent fixing Mondstadt’s crisis. Khaenri’ah. The Abyss Order. As much as he didn’t want to overanalyze without more proofs, he couldn’t help but recall a few crucial things from the past. Until his dying day, he would never forget when Kaeya came home six years ago and told him that he originated from a small, secluded group who survived Khaenri’ah’s destruction.
But unlike Dainsleif, Kaeya grew up properly. If those monsters were indeed Khaenri’ah’s inhabitants, Kaeya clearly wasn’t doomed like them. Could it be because he was born in the newer generation? I’ve long forgotten what I was told to do! Believe me! My loyalty lies to Mondstadt! Kaeya, only sixteen years old then, had screamed at Diluc as he threw his half-broken sword on the hallway’s floor. Why did they even have to fight and scare their workers? Funnily enough, the clearest thing Diluc could remember was how theatrical the setting got because of the downpour outside.
“I’m interested in this case,” he stated, watching the ceiling for a moment before looking back at Lumine. “May I come with you on your upcoming journey?”
Lumine seemed taken aback, so she sounded very hesitant when she replied, “That… I don’t mind it, but how about the winery? You can be very selfless, Diluc. I don’t want you to tag along just because you feel bad about my situation.”
“There are about thirty loyal workers who have been with this winery since my late father was a young lad, and I can always go home whenever I want to,” he assured. “Most importantly, the Abyss Order has intervened with my life quite a handful of times. I want to find out the truth about them as well.”
“Traveling with the mighty Diluc Ragnvindr! Won’t that be good for us? We should do it, Lumine!” Paimon chimed in, clenching both hands in front of her chest and smiling widely. Lumine curled her lips, but it didn’t long before she nodded her head and agreed with the offer.
Diluc had never felt like it was a wrong decision to make. Except for Lumine’s curiosity that often put her in dangerous states and Paimon’s tendency to be rude to people she just met, they never made stupid decisions that infuriated him and caused him to regret everything. Lumine, unlike many people, was the embodiment of perseverance. She hid her injuries because she didn’t want to worry him and kept going with their commissions from the Adventurer’s Guild. In the beginning, Diluc had to reprimand Paimon for allowing that behavior.
Before long, they had celebrated six birthdays and met Dainsleif a few more times. Diluc had seen Lumine cry on different occasions because she thought she would never be reunited with her brother and hugged her once a while to soothe her anxiety. After all the miseries, blitheness, and secrets they had shared with one another, Diluc wondered if he could go back to being alone. He didn’t know if he could survive in a world where Lumine didn’t exist. How would his life become with a hole that could never be filled with someone else?
“Diluc. Look.” Lumine’s voice was tender when she lifted a purple book that she had been keeping in her pocket. Just like him, she was almost done with the stew. “I know you still have a book to finish, but I saw this from your favorite Sumeruan author. The librarian said that it just got released yesterday,” she explained.
Diluc dropped his spoon and took the book. “Wintergreen, a fantasy story about the world’s richest family who must go into hiding because people find out that they’re the descendants of fallen angels who can connect the world with the afterlife. An oxymoron, huh?”
“Oxymoron?” Paimon tilted her head.
“It’s when two contradictory words are put together. For example, bittersweet, passive-aggressive, or silent scream.” Diluc put the book on the table and pointed at the cover. “In this case, ‘winter’ means white, yet ‘green’ indicates summer. The colors and seasons are contradicting each other. Therefore, it’s an oxymoron.”
“Haha! Master Diluc is indeed well learned in all subjects!” Paimon remarked, making Diluc feel embarrassed by his own speech. The girls did get familiar with his more talkative approach, but he was the one who hadn’t gotten used to rave about his passion aloud. Maybe he would never reach that level of comfort since it should have something more to do with his innate personality.
“Anyway, thank you, Lumine. I really appreciate it.” Diluc pushed the book away from the bowls to prevent it from getting stained before holding his spoon again. “Hurry up and finish your food so we can wash up before it gets colder.”
“Okay!” Lumine and Paimon said simultaneously, obeying what Diluc had told them.
When there was nothing to do, the nightfall would always be spent calmly inside their rented house. Lumine and Paimon used to stay in a cheap inn, but Diluc, with his boundless wealth and generosity, decided to get them a proper place with a private kitchen and bathroom. After cooking and eating dinner together, they would clean the kitchen and taking turns in the bathroom—when the weather wasn’t too friendly, they wouldn’t take a full shower. Then, they would play chess or read some books before going to bed.
What would Diluc do if Lumine disappeared from his side? The thought sprang to his mind when the girl gathered the three empty bowls and went to the kitchen. Like he feared for losing the sight of her flowing hair, he trailed behind her and helped her do the dishes when it was supposed to be her duty. She talked about what they should do the following day. He was about to say that nothing mattered as long as they did it together and she could laugh by the end of it, but what slipped out of his mouth was only the first part of the sentence.
“The water isn’t even fresh, but it still made my fingers numb,” Lumine grumbled again as she dried the bowls with a new towel that she got from one of the side drawers. Paimon was busy wiping the counter while Diluc took the trash out through the backdoor. He came back quickly so Lumine wouldn’t whine more about the wind that might soon turn into a blizzard. It wasn’t rare to happen in Snezhnaya.
“How if we sleep next to the fireplace?” Paimon suggested once Diluc closed the door behind him and locked it.
Lumine frowned, placing the last bowl on the rack beside the backdoor. “Won’t it be colder in a big space like that?”
“We can all sleep together,” Diluc said, surprising not only Lumine and Paimon, but also himself. “Um, I was just saying. Sharing body heat is one of the most effective ways to—”
“It sounds fun!” Lumine decided with a smile as her forefinger pointed toward Diluc. “Since you’re the strongest, you should be the one moving the mattress to the living room. I’ll wash up with Paimon. Good luck, Diluc.”
Diluc wasn’t allowed a say when Lumine ran from the kitchen with Paimon, exactly like what happened when she came home an hour ago. Even if she hadn’t done it, he wouldn’t have the heart to refuse her. Within five minutes, he had dragged the mattress from Lumine and Paimon’s room and his own and spread them nicely in the middle of the living room. If that wasn’t enough, he also grabbed their pillows and blankets and added more firewood to the fireplace so they would be safe until morning came.
He opted to wait for the girls to be done by reclining on the couch and inspecting the ceiling. In his house, the maids would get rid of the dust and dirt up there every month, so he might also need to apply the same rule here. He wasn’t sure for how long they would stay in this town. It was impossible for him not to miss Mondstadt, but if he could stay forever with Lumine, then anywhere should be fine. Wouldn’t it be beautiful to have a simple house in the countryside like this one, with their own children and several pets?
“Diluc, you’re the most dependable person I’ve ever met in my entire life.”
Lumine’s voice surprised Diluc, causing him to blush over the wishful thinking he just had. He muttered a “thank you” before going to the bathroom, not even meeting Lumine’s eyes like he always did. Splashing water a few times on his face didn’t really help to lessen the shame rising in him. That never occurred before. He never thought of settling down with anyone for his whole life, so why now out of all times? His heart heartbeat raced as his breathing quickened. Sometimes, he was concerned with how ridiculous he could be.
When he got back to the living room, as if attempting to entice him into her deadly trap, Lumine was nestling under the blanket and staring languidly at him. “Can’t you believe it? Paimon’s already asleep,” she whispered, motioning her hand toward the snoring figure behind her. “How about you, Diluc? Are you going to sleep now?”
“Uh. Yes. Maybe,” Diluc said as he noticed the only space left for him to stay was next to Lumine. There was enough distance for them not to touch each other even if they stretched their legs out, but she pulled the unoccupied pillow closer to hers.
“What are you doing there? Come here.” She patted the empty spot beside her until they made a little sound.
He gulped down before slowly walking to her and sitting down on the mattress. “Lumine, I think I’ll read the book—”
“Diluc, it’s freezing,” she said, raising one arm up toward him as if demanding to be embraced. “Will you read after I sleep?”
He took a deep, shaky breath. “All right.”
She smiled, and maybe someone was possessing him when he tucked himself under his own blanket and put his arm around the petite girl. Don’t be weird. Please don’t be weird. You can’t be weird about this, he warned himself over and over again. His heart was in disarray when she pressed her face against his chest and slid a skinny arm between his bulkier limb and waist. For a second, he didn’t know where to put his hanging hand, and he ended up placing it on her upper back, careful not to touch places that would anger her and ruin this intimacy.
“I didn’t ask you to hug me,” she mumbled out.
“Oh.” He flinched. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know—”
“I was just kidding!” she said, tightening her grip when he was about to release her. “Hmm… You’re so big and warm. Your hair is nice and fluffy. I envy you.”
“Don’t be,” he awkwardly replied, closing his eyes when her fingers began fiddling with his hair that almost reached his bottom. He didn’t know how to feel when she caressed him like he belonged to only her. Was it allowed for him to be thrilled about her next touch?
“How could someone not get jealous of you?” The sound of her giggle was muffled by his chest, but it made it more adorable than usual. “Have I told you, Diluc? Every time my brother and I went to unbearably cold places, he would hold me in his arms like this until we both fell asleep. I thought you would hate the idea, so thank you for bringing it up. I’m grateful to have you around.”
“That’s great.” The words tasted bitter in his mouth as his chest felt a sharp pain.
Even after two years of being the best of friends, her brother was still the most important person in her life. Diluc had always known and accepted it, but this wasn’t the first she had unintentionally compared him to Aether. It constantly wrung his heart, and it only got worse each time. So, he counted the moments she had casually said that she would leave this world as soon as her brother snapped out of any craziness he was plotting with the Abyss Order and returned to her side. There were probably hundreds of them.
How long will it take for you to forget about me? Have you ever considered me as someone more than a mere companion that you can replace with other people? A few times, he wanted to ask but always decided not to. It wasn’t because he was afraid. It was more because he was sure of the hurtful answer that he would receive. Of course, she would choose her brother over this world and anything in it, including him and the memories they had made. With this in mind, Diluc had spent the last two years hiding his feelings away.