Work Text:
He woke up in a completely white room. The bright lights made him wince, so he immediately sat up. He was no longer wearing his darknight outfit or mask, but they were replaced by a pristine pair of paints and a button up shirt—both of which were completely white. His vision was nowhere to be seen.
Diluc tried to shake off his headache and stood up. Upon further inspection, the room he was in was small. Clearly it was a cell of some sort except this one had no bed or mattress. A small toilet was in the corner as well as a sink. All the surfaces were smooth, including the door which didn’t even have a window for him to look out of. He banged on the door and yelled something reactionary. It was then Diluc realized just how quiet it was. He couldn’t hear a single thing except for the slight hum from the overhead lights. Was the room soundproof?
Diluc cursed and tried ramming himself into the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Once it was clear the door wasn’t moving, the defeated young man sat down with his back against one of the walls.
He had no idea where he was or how he could get out of here. It wasn’t the first time he was captured and held somewhere as a prisoner, but this place was uncomparable to his prior experiences. He wasn’t just in some cell waiting to be tortured or interrogated; this room was the torture.
Diluc sighed.
He wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary before he’d been captured. As was routine, he was clearing out a camp with abyss mages and hilichurls. It was a little tougher than normal, but Diluc was used to taking on large numbers by himself. Everything had been going smoothly until an abyss lector showed up which definitely wasn’t a normal experience. Bushwhacked by an abyss lector…and then electrocuted by an abyss mage (it didn’t help that it was raining). So much for being the mysterious protector of Mond.
Diluc sat down and mindlessly ran his fingers through his hair.
Now that he thought about it, his hair wasn’t even wet. Just how long had he been here?
*****
The redhead sat there for what felt like a long time, ruminating on how he might possibly escape when a small hole at the bottom of the door opened up. A white bowl containing some sort of food slid through before closing. Diluc got up and walked over to it. It was a bowl of rice. No spoon or fork—just a bowl of rice. It was then the captive realized just how hungry he was.
Mumbling something rude about the abyss, Diluc succumbed to his circumstances and started eating the rice. It was blander than anything he’d tasted before. Perhaps that was part of this asinine design as well. He couldn’t be picky though. He needed to eat to try and retain his strength…even if it only was rice.
When he finished the unsatisfying “meal,” he left the bowl where it was. He walked around the small perimeter of the room once more. There were no cracks nor openings of any sort–nothing that Diluc could use to help him get out of the room.
This wasn’t good.
How long had he been here? Have Elzer and Adelinde started the protocol for when he doesn’t come back?
How long is he going to be here?
*****
It was impossible to determine how much time passed. The food, which never failed to be bland white rice served in a white bowl, was slid through the hole sporadically. Sometimes it would feel like a whole day went by without him eating anything. Other times it seemed as if the food came shortly after he had already eaten. It was unreliable on purpose.
The lights never went off. At first it was difficult for Diluc to fall asleep, but eventually exhaustion overtook him. The first few times were difficult, but he slowly became accustomed to the uncomfortable floor and the room’s insufferable lighting. It took a short while for the redhead to notice that the lights were positioned in a specific way to make sure nothing could cast a shadow—not even him himself.
The only color beside white that Diluc was allowed to revel in was his red hair. He wasn’t sure how long it took, but he eventually picked up his childhood habit of playing with his red locks, even going so far as to braid it, undo it, and start all over again. It was one of the few things he could do to entertain himself.
At first he started doing routine exercises to keep up his body strength, but after what was days, possibly even weeks, of eating only rice, his body lost the strength it once had. It was also harder to stay awake. He had such little energy that it was pathetic, but what could he do?
Nothing.
Diluc couldn’t do anything.
Sometimes he would sing to himself. He even tried talking to himself to try and remember what it felt like to talk to another person. Sometimes he would play with his hair, though it was very tangled from being unbrushed and disgustingly greasy, and sometimes it hurt, but he did it anyway. At least the pain was some sort of stimulation.
He wasn’t sure how long it had been when he had his first hallucination. Logically, Diluc knew this would happen. A human could only stay sane under such conditions for so long, but actually experiencing the hallucination was a whole other monster. It felt so real.
“The usual please, Master Diluc.” It was Kaeya’s voice, and though it sounded as if it came from right in front of him, when Diluc snapped his head up to look for the cavalry captain, no one was there despite hearing it plain as day.
Diluc slapped himself.
“Stop. Just stop. You’re just stuck in a room. There’s no reason to hallucinate,” Diluc mumbled to himself. Maybe it helped, but only for a short while, because Diluc soon heard it again.
“Another, Master Diluc!” Kaeya’s voice chuckled. This time, Diluc ignored it, not even bothering to look around for its source. “Another, Master Diluc!” The voice repeated. The prisoner continued to hide his face on his knees. “Another, Master Diluc!” His arms which wrapped around his legs tightened. “Another, Master Diluc! Another, Master Diluc!”
Diluc let out a ferocious yell and jumped up, his eyes darting all around the room. He panted in anger, searching for something he could take his anger out on, but there was nothing.
It was just him and this white room
*****
Once in a while he would hear voices, often when he was more tired than usual. Sometimes it would be Kaeya or Adelinde. Sometimes a voice he never recognized. If he tried to ignore it, it would just repeat itself, so Diluc started talking over the voices. It worked for a while until he finally had his first visual hallucination. It started with a sigh.
Diluc heard that sigh before—on nights where his father went to his study instead of his bedroom, and times where a storm would be just strong enough to ruin some of the vineyards. Diluc never liked hearing his father sigh, but it never caused the dread he felt now when he heard that familiar sigh come from behind him.
“Stop. Stop. Stop. Just shut up. You’re not here, you’re not—” Diluc saw something out of the corner of his eye—something that wasn’t white. He spun towards it quickly, gasping when saw his father’s backside.
“Father?” Diluc asked quietly. His father sighed again. Slowly, Diluc got off of the floor and approached the apparition. As soon as his hand was about to touch his father’s shoulder, it disappeared in the blink of an eye. Diluc froze, unsure of what to do or think. He knew it wasn’t really his father. He knew that it was just his mind playing tricks on him.
But it felt so real…
*****
When was the last time he spoke to another human being? Diluc tried to recall. He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see Adelinde who stood in the corner of the room.
Before he went to clear the camp…did he take a shift at the Angel’s Share that night? He had a memory of doing so, but he couldn’t remember when he last worked at the tavern. Everything that happened outside of the room…it didn’t even feel real anymore. Was there even anything out there? Maybe there never was. Maybe he’s always been here and everything he’s thought he’d done…everything that he was…maybe it was all just a dream.
“Kaeya will come,” Diluc’s father told him. “He’s the cavalry captain now. I’m so proud of him.” Diluc didn’t say anything, nor did he bother opening his eyes.
“Would you like some tea, Master Diluc?” Adelinde this time.
“Camomile and lavender sounds nice,” the redhead said. Diluc could hear the sounds of tea being poured into a cup, but when he opened his eyes all he saw was the white room.
*****
The rice stopped coming. Diluc waited by the door for a long time and even begged Adelinde to get him some, but the food never came. His stomach hurt…or at least he thought it did. He wasn’t sure if the feeling was real. Even the sounds his body made, the way his stomach grumbled, could all be hallucinations. After what could have been hours, or days, or weeks, or seconds, Diluc gave up on even getting a bowl of rice and returned to his favorite wall of the cell. He laid down and closed his eyes. Sleep was fun. It passed the time and allowed him to experience things outside of the white walls.
*****
Five days. Diluc was missing for five days. The first 24 hours of a missing person’s case are the most crucial, yet there were few leads anyone could find. The Knights of Favonius hadn’t stopped searching for any clues as to the missing wine tycoon’s whereabouts, especially Kaeya. Though at one point he felt like giving up, Kaeya persistently followed up on any small lead or possibility which allowed the knights to finally discover Diluc’s location. He was being held in a strange domain that had popped up only a week prior. Kaeya led a rescue team and together they pillaged the domain until they found the abyss lectors who had planned this whole ordeal from the beginning.
It wasn’t easy, but the lectors were overwhelmed by the sheer ferocity of the fighters, all hoping to bring back their beloved wine master. Kaeya reclaimed a very familiar pyro vision from one of the lectors who was bearing it like some trophy before setting off and searching the rest of the domain for his estranged brother.
A heavy black door door stood between them now. Using the key dropped by one of the enemies, Kaeya pushed the door open, nervous to see what awaited him.
Diluc was sitting against one of the walls with his knees pulled up to his chest. Kaeya didn’t even need to see the redhead’s face to know that Diluc had lost a lot of weight and muscle.
“Diluc!” Kaeya exclaimed as he fell to his knees alongside the prisoner. Gingerly, the cavalry captain brushed some of the matted hair away so he could try and see Diluc’s face. The redhead jolted and immediately scooted away. Kaeya was momentarily stunned. Diluc stared at him owlishly, almost reminiscent of when Master Crepus had first brought Kaeya home all those years ago.
Besides that, Diluc looked extremely tired. Dark bags hung under his eyes, and his gaunt skin was paler than normal. Along with his matted hair and much thinner physique, Diluc was almost unrecognizable. On all accounts, he looked as though he escaped a mental illness facility. Lisa had warned him that if Diluc was being held in a domain, then the passage of time would be much different. Though it had only been five days in the real world, Lisa surmised it could possibly have been months for anyone stuck inside.
Kaeya tried not to let his anger show as he attempted to soothe his brother.
“Diluc…I’m sorry it took so long, but I’m here. Let’s go home, hmm?” Diluc’s eyes flickered between Kaeya and the open door.
“Are you real?” Kaeya barely heard the whisper.
“Of course. Can you stand?” Diluc stood up slowly, never taking his eyes off of Kaeya. The blue-haired man tried not to stare at how the clothes hung off of Diluc. The unhealthy young man stood up but used the wall for support. He was shaky. Kaeya bit his lip but kept up his calm demeanor.
“Maybe you shouldn’t be standing. Can I carry you?” Diluc nodded. Kaeya picked him up and carried him bridle style, trying not to think about how incredibly light Diluc was and how incredibly wrong this all was.
Diluc wrapped his arms around Kaeya’s neck. The once younger brother didn’t say anything as Diluc ran his hands along Kaeya’s skin and fur cape. Diluc also grabbed a bit of the blue hair and just stared at it.
None of the other knights dared to say anything. The walk back through the domain had been completely silent…for the most part.
“Everything alright?” Kaeya asked as looked at Diluc in his arms. The redhead brought one of his hands up to the captain’s face.
“You’re real.”
“Of course.” Kaeya’s forced smile was tight, but Diluc didn’t care. He strengthened his grip around the man carrying him and hid his face in Kaeya’s neck.
“You’re real…” Diluc’s voice wavered, and shortly after Kaeya felt a wetness on his neck.
It was the first time any of the knights had seen Kaeya without his public mask. No smile or sly remarks. No swagger in his walk. Instead, Kaeya walked with a steady rhythm, enough to put the person he was carrying at ease, but intimidating enough to keep everyone out of his way. However, none of the knights accompanying him even considered doing such a thing. After all, the expression Kaeya wore was one of pure ferocity. One that man instinctively knew meant certain death to anyone who dared cross him.