Family Ties (Chiluc)

Two

Diona seems to consider for a moment, eyes flitting between Diluc and Adelinde. "I don't want to stay," she says, gaze dropping back to the table and voice barely above a whisper, "but," her voice breaks a little, "I really don't have anywhere else to go anymore." Her shoulders fall like she's admitting defeat. "So I guess I'll stay."

"I'm glad you've decided to remain with us." Adelinde gives Diona's shoulders a brief squeeze before her eyes are back on Diluc, burning a hole through him. "Now," she says, and he winces again, "go get yourself cleaned up, and please get some bedrest. I haven't seen you in such bad shape in ages."

"But-" Diluc's argument was cut off.

"I'll bring your dinner to you, but you're to stay in your room until you've recovered. No more of your business trips for the foreseeable future."

He shakes his head. As much as she covers for him, Adelinde has never liked him sneaking out to pick fights with the Abyss Order and the Fatui. 'Can't run the winery if you're dead' she had told him the first time she found him beaten, bruised, and bloody on his own doorstep. Of course, that was after the tears and patching his wounds to the best of her ability. He had begged her not to tell the other maids and lashed out when she suggested asking for Kaeya's help.

He remembers falling asleep with his head in her lap that night as she hummed to him a song he could vaguely recall his mother singing and she brushed the dirt from his hair. He'd felt so guilty to have put her through that.

He still does.

"Fine," he says, pushing to his feet once again. "When you have a moment, take Diona out for anything she might need. Clothing, pyjamas, snacks she likes for the pantries. Charge it all to me. If she's going to be here for a while, she may as well feel at home."

"Of course, Master Diluc."

With a polite nod in the direction of the manor's guest, he excuses himself and makes his way to his own room.

-

Diona hadn't interacted with Diluc often while working in Mondstadt despite him being the main rival of the bar she works for. He was rarely there, instead preferring to leave things to Charles. He's far more soft spoken than she had expected.

"You can go to your room, or roam around the grounds," Adelinde says once Diluc is out of sight. "I'll prepare dinner for the master and yourself."

The last thing she wants is to share a space with the person indirectly responsible for her father's death, but she has raised herself to be more polite than this, so she nods and stands. She tries to remember what direction Diluc had turned as she makes her way up the Manor's stairs.

"Mister Diluc?" she calls out, and follows the muffled sound of a reply.

Diluc sits on the edge of a bed in a room a little bigger than her own, but almost just as plain. He has what's left of his shirt pulled aside just enough to allow him access to a still healing mass of ugly and knotted scar tissue that's trying to stitch back together what was left of the flesh in his side. It's clearly not the first time he's taken a hit like that.

"What sort of business trip leaves you looking like that?" Diona wonders.

She realises that she had spoken her thought out loud when Diluc replies. "Client didn't like the prices," he says dryly.

Her eyes land back on Diluc's face, wide with surprise. "I didn't mean-" Diluc shakes his head, cutting her off with a short laugh. Oh. He'd been trying to lighten the mood.

"I didn't expect to see you again so soon. Didn't really expect to see you at all before I left again."

She takes another look at the gash in his side before giving him an uncertain look. "You're leaving again? Looking like that?"