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Teaming up with Lumine means that whatever objective they have will be accomplished in an exceptionally satisfying way.
Both of them alone are already exceptional strategists and fighters, (Lumine leagues ahead of him) usually few things are able to stop them, and more often than not they find a way to work around them; but when they work together they are truly and unstoppable force, their strengths multiplied and their weakness now covered by one another.
To work with Lumine is assuring victory, this Diluc knows, and after so many team-ups between them it has become something of a universal truth to him.
But working with Lumine, also sometimes means going out of his comfort zone, and following plans that he would have discarded.
And right now it meant that for the past days they had been impersonating a pair of treasure hoarders that had found a big loot hidden in dome ruins in Stormterror Lair, but because of both location and the number of monsters in the zone they had been in search of a group of people that were willing to do the dirty work.
As they were Treasure Hoarders they clearly couldn’t ask for help in places such as the adventurers guild, so their only option: the Fatui.
Were they playing too much into the ‘dumb Treasure Hoarders?’ Yes, yes they were, and it didn’t take a genius to know that once the Fatui had agreed to help them they planned to have them guide them to the ‘treasure’ and then get rid of them.
But as much as Diluc hated the plan at the beginning he now had to admit that the results were way better than his initial plan.
Currently, they were camping out of Stormterror Ruins, the Fatui had accepted them into their camp, and the plan was to go tomorrow early to the place where the treasure was.
Everything was going well, they had already gotten the information (and more) that they initially wanted, and they were in the position to take out the Fatui, right now they just had to wait.
The night had just begun, and right now they were sitting side by side in the middle of the camp. Some Fatui were doing rounds around the perimeter but the majority of them were also sitting in the same place as them.
He should feel nervous, surrounded by all sides, no escape routes left and far away from the city and any kind of help that could come.
Yet he wasn’t.
He knew he was capable of getting out, and asides from that, Lumine was right here at his side. Even if the plan went sideways the chances of them failing were almost none existent.
He had to admit it, the plan was a good one. And as advanced as they were the only thing that could mess it up was external influences.
And then the alcohol was brought out, and as cheers and toasts were shouted and a bottle of fire-water was left in his hands and another in Lumine’s he knew that the plan had just been foiled.
Maybe he could simply pretend, at least Lumine had started to drink hers and some of the pressure around them disappeared. But he could still fill eyes on him.
And just minutes after, more and more voices join, all of them throwing remarks about how his drink is still untouched.
Some of them are playful, nothing more than harmless banter, but the alcohol has already started to affect some, and soon angry and agitated voices join, he knows, and if the way that Lumine’s arms tenses where it is interjoined with his is any indicator, then she also knows that soon they will start to take offense.
Words transform in almost shouts, and followed are shoves and pushes, the must drunk ones are getting angrier and he can already feel the fight that is about to start if he doesn’t act.
Without thinking, he opens the bottle and downs it.
And it’s not until he finishes drinking that he processes the cheers, his throat is on fucking fire, and the taste is horrible, and slowly and with an already numbed mind is that he realizes that he fucking drank all of the bottle, not even a drop left.
The last thing he sees is a grimace on Lumine’s face and then the world goes dark.
***
His head is killing him, it throbs and aches, and through barely coherent thoughts it remains him of the time a horse kicked him in the head.
He can’t, won’t, open his eyes, even with them closed the light is incandescent and his eyes burn.
His mouth is dry and his throat burns as if he had tried to eat ashes, and it feels like something crawled inside it and died.
There are steps at the distance, and he barely makes out the sound of the wooden floors being stepped on, every step that sounds echoes inside his head, and brings pain and discomfort. Even with his eyes closed the pain and light combined are enough to make them want to start leaking, and he throws his arm over them in an attempt to shield them from the light.
His abrupt movement was done with enough force that he slightly bounces over what he now recognizes as his bed.
The steps get closer and when his door is opened the sound is so aggravating to his headache that he blanks out for some seconds.
He doesn’t know what happens during that time but something that he did made the person that just entered aware that he’s already awake.
“Diluc?”
He hisses, while Lumine’s voice is low his altered senses register is as loud as thunder.
“Sorry, sorry.”
It’s a whisper now, and while still irritating to his headache it is now more bearable.
“Do you want me to close the curtains?” His answer is nothing more than an incoherent guttural thing, but she is able to understand it and she goes to close them.
The amount of light in the room decreases, and slowly he removes his arm from his eyes.
‘The mission’ is what he intends to say, instead what comes out of his mouth is a blur of sounds that sounds more like a buzz, instead of actual words.
He takes a little offense at the snort the Lumine lets out, but right now even the sole thought of holding on to his grudges is exhausting and doesn’t help with his headache.
“Don’t worry about the Fatui, at the end everything worked in our favor.” When he attempts to hum he finds himself lad that at least he can manage to do the sound.
“Apparently the thought of treasure was enough to generate conflict and clashes amongst the group, the alcohol just fanned the flames. But what really helped was your collapse, apparently, there was a poison maker amongst them, when you fell they saw it as them making a move before the rest and everything went down. By the time they finished their fight I just had to deal with the last 5 of them. So I guess I got to thank your lack of common sense for the success of the mission.”
If his throat didn’t feel like it had a thousand needles in it, he would have already refuted her last statement. It was a calculated risk made in a high-stakes moment.
“Let’s just avoid future repeats okay? Having to drag your unconscious body from there to here in the middle of the night and hoping that none else saw us was nerve-wracking.”
Another hum leaves him, and exhaustion takes hold of him once again, around him the world slowly starts to disappear.
“I’ll leave you to rest for now, if there is anything you need I’ll be in the next room, the camp had more than the initial documents that we found.”
Even as everything around him dims he still feels her lips against his forehead.
And with that being the last thing he is aware of, sleep once again reclaims him.