Work Text:
Even before Diluc rose into adulthood, the redhead felt isolated from his peers when he was a teenager.
While typical young teenagers were worried about their crushes, their hairstyles and clothing, and grades, Diluc as a teenager worried about his pyro vision prowess with his blade work and studying more fighting techniques, as well as the balance between clocking in shift after shift in the Knights of Favonius and his never-ending thick textbooks of academic studies. One time, as he practically felt himself dragging his sluggish self into the Knights’ Headquarters, he overheard a teenager the same fourteen years of age as he was bemoaning dramatically over how messy his hair was today and how he spent nearly two hours trying to fix it to his liking.
Oh, how Diluc wished he had it as easy as those teenagers did.
How the young fledgling had grown into a phoenix quite too fast.
Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he acknowledged that deep down, he did feel an ever-so-slight twinge of envy towards those teenage peers of his. How they had it so much simpler, free of standards and worries that should be reserved for only older-aged adults. How the scarlet-head knight teen wanted to join those other fellow teenagers of his in their menial struggles and way of life. Even Kaeya was free of those standards and such and was able to partake in those menial teenage worries for the most part.
Whenever those feelings would arise within his heart, he’d do his best to set those feelings at bay, away from his focus. This was all for his father, to uphold and carry out what he wasn’t able to. To carry out his dreams and hopes, to be the knight that his father was never able to become. To make him proud.
Most of the time, it would work.
If anything, Diluc loved Mondstadt and had a genuine desire to protect the nation and its people. To keep them safe and happy, maintain the freedom and the good winds, and keep the scenery vibrant and free from the clutches of monsters outside of the city walls.
Most importantly, he wants to protect the citizens and their dreams. He wants them all to be able to keep on dreaming.
Diluc recalls years ago, when he was a younger child, and his father was gently stroking his hair as they talked about protecting Mondstadt and its people. The older man had constantly drilled the notion of becoming a protector of its people over and over, ever since he was little. Sometimes, it would be mind-numbing, especially for his younger self. Yet, on that very certain day, Diluc could recall with much clarity as his father told him in his soothing baritone voice of his:
“Someone has to wake up to face the darkness before dawn so that others may continue to dream.”
This line alone sparked his passion and wanting to protect his dear nation.
How those words ignited the desire like a candle kindling a fireplace.
Yes… He will be the one who will face the darkness so that others can dream freely from the clutches of such evil. He will be the beacon of light for his beloved people.
The next day, Diluc had awoken to a pyro vision. The vision was as bright and red as his eyes, glimmering with hope and dedication.
The redhead, at the innocent and tender age of ten, managed to obtain the fiery and passionate allogene of flames. The perfect presentation of his devotion to knighthood. To his father and his dreams. To Mondstadt.
Even through those long years, no matter how tiring each day was, those lines of his father alongside the memory of receiving his beloved pyro vision still come into memory. They never fail to remind the young Ragnvindr of the purpose of his early knighthood.
He will be the one who will face the darkness so that others can dream freely from the clutches of such evil. He will be the beacon of light for his beloved people.
Even if it meant sacrificing his childhood for it.