Chapter Text
It had been a few months since Diluc had adopted Diona, and his inexperience was palpable, he had no idea what he was doing. His father had been close, and to some degree, he was overbearing, though he had always meant well in the end. Being the heir to the Winery had expectations, and Diluc was a child at the time. He slipped up and had jam on his face or mud on his boots every so often.
He hadn’t gotten to the point where his privacy was being invaded, but the maids and butlers that raised him past that point did. Even so, who could blame them? They were barely older than he was and the responsibility of raising both him and Kaeya was dumped on their lap.
All that aside, he had picked up a book on parenting after having the door slammed in his face one too many times. He figured the book might hold the secret to keep Diona from being so abrasive all the time. Maybe even tell him how to get her to open up more to him.
“ Chapter One: How to Respect your Child’s Boundaries and Bond at the Same Time”
Diluc raises an eyebrow but assumes it’s just going to tell him not to look through her teenage diary. He's proven wrong only a few words in when he’s told to stay away from a myriad of things that he had already been doing. Forced-bonding? Hovering?
He holds his head in his hands, pushing out his desk chair, having finished the entire book with renewed vigor. upon realizing just how much he was screwing up. He groans and stands, glancing outside and noticing that the sun was falling, it had to be close to time for dinner.
“ Make sure to never force any sort of bonding activity, it can come off as controlling and cause your child to distance themselves from you! Try to relate and do things with them that they want to do and that they enjoy!”
He walks to his daughter’s room, knocking lightly on the door. Diona opens with that same pout he’s been seeing for months, and he almost spits out the same dribble as he usually does. He stops himself in his tracks, mouth hanging open for a long moment, realizing he had no idea what to say to her.
“What do you want…?” Diona asks, sipping on a drink she must’ve made herself while she was in the kitchen.
That was it! Diona loved cooking and so did he, in his spare time, “I just came to ask you if you would like…to cook dinner together.”
The girl furrows her brows, looking up at her father, not that she had called him that yet, “Um…I guess?”
“Alright then, I was just about to start if you want to come now, you can finish your drink on the way if you’d like. I’ll make you another when we get to the kitchen.” Diluc crouches and Diona hesitantly hops into his arms, though she makes a bit of a face as if she wasn’t used to the gesture.
Diluc grabs all of the ingredients, pulling down the family recipe book, deciding a Sweet Madame would do for tonight. “What do you think?”
She shrugs, pulling up a stool so she was tall enough to reach the top of the counter, though she wobbled just a little.
“A parent should strive to never hover around their child, physically or emotionally, it can make your child rely on you too much. It can also cause a parent to become overly cautious or even anxious about their child or what they are doing.”
His hand nearly flies to her waist to hold her up, and a reprimand for her careless clumsiness rests on his tongue. He takes a deep breath, putting his hand down and offering a smile, “What part of this would you like to do? I’ll do the parts you don’t want to.”
Diona sits perched, tilting her head as she thought, tail swaying behind her as her ears flattened. “I want to prepare the fowl, you can do the sauce and garnish stuff.”
Diluc raises his finger and opens his mouth, but stops himself once again, she’d probably been cooking longer than he had, she could deal with this. “Ask me for help if you need it, okay?”
Diona nods, grabbing the tools to prepare the fowl while Diluc turns to go grab what he needs from the pantry.
When he returns, Diona is tying a string around the legs of the fowl nearly finished. She's brushing it with a baste of butter and the few seasonings that she had sitting on the counter. Once again, Diluc had to stop himself from saying something he’d regret.
The Sweet Madame recipe they were using was one that his family had been using unaltered for generations. But after a few moments of thought, he remembered that Diona was now a member of his family. A few recipe modifications might make his ancestors roll over in the grave, but it made his daughter happy.
Diluc decides to read a novel while dinner is cooking, as the fowl would take about an hour to cook. He’s halfway through when he hears a yawn, a sleepy Diona is walking towards him, lifting his arm to snuggle beside him.
“What are you reading?” She asks, small hands gripping at his dress shirt, “Looks boring.”
Diluc raises an eyebrow, “So you don’t enjoy fantasy? Adventure?”
“No, not really, I like fairytales more.” She says, as if it’s something he should’ve already know, it strikes him at that moment that he should know that.
Diluc fluffs her hair as he stands, setting his book down on the side table, picking up his grape juice glass, “Stay right there, I’ll be right back okay?”
She nods, but seems a little angry that he was getting up, he supposed the cuddles she offered were likely just because he was as warm as any given fireplace. He tries to shake the thought from his mind, trying to keep a little hope that she wanted to bond with him as well.
He walks to the library, fingers brushing against spines until he finds the books that he’s looking for, located on a small bookcase so that a much younger version of himself could reach them. He returns a few moments later with a few rather thick books containing dozens of fairytales in his arms, “Pick one and we’ll start.”
Diona raises an eyebrow, as if not understanding what he meant, though she grabs a blue one with an embroidered spine. “I haven’t read this one before.”
Diluc sits down in the chair next to her again, setting his refilled glass on the side table and cracking the book open, flipping to chapter one, and starting to read to Diona, just as his father had once read to him.
He has no idea how long he’s been reading when he takes the last sip of his grape juice, looking beside him to find that Diona had fallen asleep curled into his side, hands still clinging to his shirt. Diluc sighs, pulling her onto his chest, shifting to rest his head against the armrest of the love seat.
Diona squirms, trying to get into a comfortable position now that she’s been rustled, “Mn...Dad, stop moving…”
Diluc stops, though it’s hard to keep himself from wrapping his arms around his daughter, “Alright…Would you like me to put you in bed?”
“No.” She says, resting her head against his chest, right above his heart.
They forget about the Sweet Madame, which Adelinde thoroughly scolds him for when he walks into the kitchen the next morning. Thankfully, she had managed to save it from charring, though the meal ended up being tossed anyways since cold meat wasn’t good for much.
Normally Diluc wasn’t one to waste, but he’s able to wave this off with relative ease, he didn’t really waste anything in his mind, since Diona had run up to him this morning, asking if they could cook again that night.
He was going to need the next volume of that parenting book…