The Red Haired Man (Diluc x Reader)

13. Deliveries

"Nice!" I exclaimed, lunging over to grab his backpack and pulling the notebook and pencil out.
"Alright just stay still then," I said. As much as I wanted to make this drawing good, I kept getting distracted, and surprisingly enough, the distraction was my subject in question, Diluc. The way he seemed so at peace but happy piqued my interest. And whenever he would look at me and lock eyes, I had to stop drawing, feeling paralyzed by his stare. It wasn't in a bad way though, it was more of a wow type of way.
Finally though, I got my drawing done. Of course, everyone will find everything wrong with their own art, which of course I did do, but to be honest, it wasn't that bad, and it was something I was proud of.
"Let me see," Leaning over trying to get a better view. I turned it toward him and his eyes softened.
"I love it, thank you,' he said, smiling at me.
"Yeah, no problem," I replied softly. We kept eye contact for a while before fatigue began to hit me. My eyes became droopy and my body weak, and I wanted nothing more than to just sleep. It was a late night and we woke up pretty early. So it made sense that I was tired. I didn't want to go all the way in the back though, so I placed my backpack to my left, and lied down across the bench at the front of the cart, just right of Diluc.
Diluc POV

The drawing was really something else. They managed to perfectly catch my expression, while still keeping the calmness of a sketch. Nothing was too detailed, but nothing was too simple, it was truly pretty. I was lucky I got to keep that In my notebook.
"Thank you, I love it." I said to them, smiling. They returned the smile and replied, ''No problem," as we held eye contact, in that mystical, heart clenching way. After finally forcing myself to focus on the road and look away, I heard them shuffling around and looked out of the corner of my eye, only to see them lying down right next to my thigh. I tensed up, afraid that I might accidentally brush them, but forced myself to relax and look straight ahead. It was difficult though, I loved admiring them. I couldn't pick a favorite part and I didn't want to. I wanted it all. I waited until I was certain that they were asleep. Then began to brush my thumb across their cheek. With as little force as possible. There wasn't a specific reason for this, or at least, that's what I told myself.
Y/N pov
I woke up in the same position I had fallen asleep in, lying down at the front of the cart. Adjusting my eyes to the light, I pushed myself upward and my face was met inches away from Diluc's, who I forgot was there.

"Oh, hey," he said.
"What's up," I said in a jokingly smug voice. He seemed slightly confused, but smiled all the less as I started laughing. I backed away toward my seat, and leaned on the side of the cart.
"So, how much longer?" I asked. The clouds were still grey and the air wet.
"Maybe about 15 minutes, we're almost there," Diluc replied. I began to see some houses slightly distanced from each other which confirmed what Diluc said.
"When do you think we'll be back in Mondstadt?" I asked.
"Well, it should only take us an hour in the harbor, then to go to wangshu inn will be another hour plus the actual delivery.." He said thinking out loud, "Hopefully we'll be able to get in by midnight, but that all depends on the weather, if it's rainy we might have to stay somewhere."
"Ah, I see," I replied, putting my head between my knees to hide my flushed face. Hopefully this time we will have separate rooms or at least two beds.
Minutes later, we curved around the corner of a mountain and the harbor came into view. What was surprising to me was the amount of different colors I could see and the palace-like building on the side of a mountain. Numerous ships were in the harbor and some were even being built. I leaned forward amazed, as if doing this would get me a better view.
"It's really pretty, " I said, standing up and holding onto the side of the cart to get a better view. I could tell Diluc agreed with me from the soft smile on his face. We pulled in closer towards the city, going on a bridge to get to the main city. The stone tiles on the road made the cart bump around, disrupting my balance which led to me falling out of the cart. I yelped and then felt tugged back by something, to which I found Diluc's hand on my wrist.
"Thank you," I said embarrassed.
"No problem," he replied, but the slight smirk on his face made my face feel hot. I sat back down, observing the city from the safety of the cart. Even from far away, I could see that most of the buildings had some shade of red on them, and had upturned edges, lined with gold. The harbor shined blue and the many boats added even more to the atmospheric feel. We crossed over a large bridge, above a small canal and were finally inside the city. There were small ponds adjacent to the road, lotus flowers and fishes inside. We got some weird looks from people, probably because of our attire and the fact that we were getting around with this obtrusive cart.
We went further down the path and reached the middle of the city, crowded with people and beautiful buildings. They had connected bridges above to get from one side to another, something I couldn't even fathom before arriving here. The smell of food enticided me to jump out of the cart and start exploring right away. We came to a stop as we arrived in front of two large doors, a large decorative fan above them. A young lady dressed in a black and red dress was standing at the doorway. Diluc slung his backpack on and jumped off the cart, which was my queue to grab my things. I turned around and reached over to get my backpack and when I turned back around, I saw Diluc waiting in front of me, hand outstretched to help me down. My eyes flickered from his eyes to his hands for a moment, before I took them and jumped off of the cart.
"Thank you." I said.
"Anytime" He replied. It's the small things that he did that really got my heart going. He walked up the steps to the lady, who stood with her hands crossed in front of her.
"Hello, we're here to deliver some goods, wine from Mondstadt," Diluc said, bowing in greeting.
"Hello, welcome to Liyue Pavillion," The lady said, returning the bow, "We've been expecting you, please come in." She propped open the door with rocks and gestured with her hand for us to enter.
"Over here," Diluc said, walking back toward the cart. "These four boxes," he said, stacking two of them and picking them up. I went up to a box and experimentally lifted it up, testing the weight. Needless to say they were exceedingly heavy. I doubted I could lift two. So I picked up the one and followed Diluc inside. The inside was even more elegant than the outside, wooden bookcases, chairs and tables decorating it. I saw another waiter inside dressed in blue, staying near the corner and smiling at me. I returned the smile as we walked into the kitchen.
"If you could unpack them in that store room, that would be most appreciated," the lady said, pointing toward a door across from where we were. Surprisingly there were no chefs inside, which to me was good, because I wouldn't want to disturb anyone. We walked over to the storeroom and opened up the door, revealing an unnecessarily small room. There were four empty shelves available, which I assumed we were going to use. I put the crate on the ground and began to take out the wine bottles and place them on the shelves. I got to four before Diluc spoke.
"Ah no, that area's for hard alcohol, like the whiskey right there. We'll put wine over here," he said.
"Oh, my bad," I replied, reaching over to grab two bottles at their base. I heard footsteps behind me, coming closer. I felt something go flush against my back and saw arms creep around me toward the shelves, grabbing all four wine bottles, two in each hand.
"It's alright," Diluc said, so soft it was almost a whisper and so close I could feel it. To what was actually a second seemed to be an eternity for me, with his arms wrapped around, and his head peeking over my shoulder. I completely froze, and I was grateful for the darkness which hid my red face. He pulled back and walked toward the other side of the room, placing down the wine bottles, and continued to unload, completely unphased.
I couldn't move any part of my body, and my heart felt like it was going to combust. Was that on purpose? Or was it just his lack of social awareness that compelled him to do that. His voice interrupted my thoughts, making me jump.
"Could you bring the other crate?" He asked.
"Oh, yeah sure," I responded, as cool as I could and leaned down to grab the crate. I put it next to the others by the wine shelf, and we began to unpack in complete silence. Occasionally, I would get flustered thinking about it again, and would just stop moving, to which Diluc questioned, and which made me even more on edge. The way he was so calm left me dumbstruck. Now it seemed that everything he did was just some form of seducing. Even the way he stood had me staring for much longer than I should have.
Once done, we went back into the main room of the restaurant, where the waitress was standing.
"We're done," Diluc said.
"Thank you for your service." The lady said. Handing over a bag of jingling coins with two hands. After Diluc took it, she walked toward the door and held it open for us, gesturing for us to leave. We walked through, got onto the cart, and rode not even 15 meters away to our next stop. Diluc jumped off first, to which I immediately followed. As kind as it was of him to help me down in the past, I was too flustered now for that kind of affection. There was a lady at the front, dressed in brown. With her hand in front of her stomach, she welcomed us.
"Welcome to Xinyue Kiosk, how may I help you?" She asked.
"Delivery from Dawn Winery." Diluc responded. Her eyebrows perked up at the name, and she led us inside. She gestured toward the storage room. Where we would be delivering the wine. We went back toward the car and each grabbed two crates. As much as I struggled, I needed to prove to myself for the sake of my own dignity, that I could lift two. We went inside the storeroom. Which to no surprise was just as dark and cramped as the last, and began to unpack the crates. Unfortunately, this one was dirtier than the first restaurant and it seemed like the room was rarely used. There were cobwebs dawning the ceilings, dust on every surface, and I swear, I heard something squeaking. Pushing away my discomfort, Diluc and I kept unloading the bottles.
"Y'know, it's nice not having to do this alone," Diluc said. I looked up to him.
"Not only does everything go quicker. But the company is nice," he said, meeting my eyes and smiling. Even in the darkness, his eyes had a certain light to them that wasn't there when I first met him.
"Anytime." I responded. We held eye contact for a moment longer before going back to our job, however our hearts kept the warmth.
Placing the last bottle,we both stood up, proud of our tedious work.
"Alright where to next-" My question got interrupted by Diluc's hand on my hair, touching it.
"Uh," I said. A moment later, he drew his hand back.
"There was a cobweb," he said, and sure enough, in his hands was a small wisp of web.
"Ah. Thank you." I said, ruffling up my hair, just in case there were any spare ones he didn't catch. This was another one of those situations where I didn't process what had just happened, until after it happened. And the cycle continues, of my facing turning hot and red, much to Diluc's unknowingness.
I asked once more, "Where are we going next," as we were walking out.
"Hmm.." Diluc looked at his watch. "I hate to do this, but I think it's best if we split up for these last two deliveries. It would be troublesome to travel during the night, and it would be quicker if we each went to one area and delivered alone.
"Ah, that makes sense." I said, but my heart still had a sinking feeling. "I'll go to the tea house, and you can go to the third round knockout. Is that okay with you?" He asked, looking in my eyes.
"Yes. No worries." I responded.
"Alright then. The teashop is just right here so I'll take the crates and then you take the wagon down that road. Go over the bridge and just ask around for a third round knockout. You'll find it eventually."
"And if I don't," I asked jokingly, smirking.
"Then I'll come find you," Diluc said, chuckling. And there goes my heart again.

sadksjdafls;fjkf  lmao I am so sorry for how long this chapter took. School started up again and I've been super busy. Also usually when I write these it's at night and I just close my eyes and type, and I proofread before I post but if there's ever a missing quotation or weird capitalization I'm sorry and just disregard anything like that. Anyways thanks for reading, all the support makes me so happy

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