Diluc x Reader

49

you reached your hand out to one of the many papers on the table and held it between your index finger and thumb while you brought the paper closer to yourself.

the blonde boy who was still sitting down spoke up again, "after that, we were sent to the jade chamber." he continued saying, his head tilting up to look at you while he spoke.

you listened to aethers words while you let your eyes scan the words from the paper, you opened your mouth, "the jade chamber?" you commented on aether, not knowing what it was.

"yea! paimon thinks its one of the prettiest places she has seen ever!" paimon answered you as she bounced up and down excitedly in the air.

she continued her rambling, now explaining it to you, "its a place build by lady ningguang. she is the richest in teyvat!" she said as you turned your head at her to make eye contact with her.

you nodded at here and spoke up, "i see, that was probably important." you commented. aether and paimon both nodded at your words.

you turned your gaze back to the paper in your hand, "and this here is a bill or some kind?" you asked aether after you read the words on the paper, you noticed some mora related business on it as well.

paimon now answered for aether, taking the question and answering it, "yep! its mainly just bills from childe." she said as she peered over your shoulder from behind.

"he gave us so much mora we had to note it down!" she continued saying while a smile was evident on her features.

"just imagine all the liyue dishes we could buy with this!" paimon commented again, now almost drooling as she imagined all the delicious meals she could taste soon.

a small smile made its way on both yours and aethers face as you two heard what paimon said. diluc was silently listening to the conversation as he was continuing to write letters to mondstadt with all the information he obtained during the journey.

paimon floated around you while you still had the paper in hand, she appeared on your other side and continued to speak, "anyways, look at this" she said and floated to the table to grab a certain piece of paper.

"we found this in the jade chamber." she said and grabbed the older looking piece of paper between her fingers, now bringing it up to you by floating your way.

you noticed her coming your way and set down the other paper you had in your hand back on the table, your hand touching the wooden table as you set the paper back on its previous position.

paimon extended her smaller hand to you in a way of giving the paper. you retracted your hand and reached towards what paimon was holding, you grabbed the new piece of information and let your eyes read every word written on it.

aether followed the interaction closely and knew exactly what you were holding, he spoke up for you, "that piece of paper shows that a qixing spy discovered traces of classified fatui research on the sigil of permission." he said and put both his palms on the table, standing up slowly.

your eyes widened a bit when you heard aether mentioning your organization, it seemed like the fatui was getting more and more involved with this mission than you knew.

paimon nodded and added to aethers words, "ningguang did say that the fatui have been up to all kinds of mischief in the shadows of liyue..." she said as a worried look spread over her features

"spreading rumors, wanting to get their hands on the archons body and what not..." she added to her rambling while her she held her hands between her back as she looked down.

diluc spoke up too, his eyes still on the work in front of him, "they have been up to no good. as always." he said and you could hear the bitterness in his voice.

you furrowed your brows and felt a wave of nervousness and sadness wash over you, you felt slightly bad for hiding your identity for them. you inhaled deeply and tried to get rid of those feelings, collecting your calm nature again.

luckily it worked, no one suspected a thing about your nervousness and paimon continued talking, her mood almost doing a full 180, "so! we know now that the fatui is mainly behind this all." she said and held her chin, thinking hard in a way.

"we want to directly confront them. tomorrow." aether said as he was now standing up from his sitting position, his palms still on the table while his chair was shoved backwards behind him.

aether then pointed to a certain map that was also spread on the table as he was standing, "we already know where childe is." he said as he pointed to the most south side of liyue on the map.

he furrowed his brows, "we confront him here. in the golden house." he spoke up with a determined look on his face.

diluc put down his pencil and leaned back in his chair, looking at you and aether while he too spoke up, "i will be going too." he said calmly, wanting to confront the fatui too.

suddenly all eyes were on you, as if they were waiting for you to say you would go too. your mouth slightly parted as your mind was racing, trying to think off an excuse quickly.

unconsciously, you looked downwards to the map in a way of avoiding their stares, a million thoughts were in your head.

you knew that if you went there with them you would obviously side with the fatui, meaning you would have to betray them in front of their eyes.

a part of you didnt want to do that, you wanted to stay traveling with them and go on more missions with them, especially diluc.

'should i reject?' 'i could say i have other things to do.' 'maybe if i just...' 'i cant... this is the main goal of the mission...' all your thoughts were contradicting each other, none of the excuses would work.

another part told you it was part of your work, if you had to betray them in their face then so be it.

you inhaled once again, trying your best to not show your panicked mood. you lifted your head up from the map and displayed the calmest look you could muster.

"i will go too." you said as the corners of your mouth curled upwards into a small smile.