"Morning, everyone!" I said cheerily, sliding down the stairway railing.
"Morning, (n/n)." Kaeya smiled, waving briefly. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yup." I confirmed. "I guess I do have to thank you for sending me to bed last night, heh."
"No problem." Kaeya smirked.
"(y/n)?" Sasha asked, confused, looking up from the stove in the kitchen. "Shouldn't you be leaving for work right now?"
"Nah, I called in sick." I waved her off, settling down on one of the bar stools lining the outside of the kitchen counter. "Can't have me contaminating the evidence."
"Are you sick?" Jean asked worriedly, cupping my face and pressing a hand to my forehead.
"No, no, I'm fine, Jean." I chuckled, bringing a hand up to wrist and leaning into her touch slightly. It felt nice. "I just didn't wanna go to work today. And, I wanted to help you guys. Thanks for the concern, though."
"Oh." Jean said, smiling sheepishly and retracting her hands slowly. "I'm glad you aren't sick, but shouldn't you go to work? It's an important job, right?"
"I mean, yeah, but it requires a lot of patience and concentration, and I doubt I'd be able to focus. At least, not with all this going on." I said. "So! I get another off day!"
"I think Kaeya's been a bad influence on you." Diluc muttered, glancing at me. He was in the kitchen, helping Sasha make breakfast, and I gotta say, I was excited to taste his cooking.
"What makes you think this is my doing?" Kaeya asked defensively, his tone betraying elements of passive aggressiveness. I glanced nervously between the two of them. I didn't want a fight breaking out in my house.
"Y'all, do I have to remind you every five seconds not to fight?" I sighed.
"They're exactly like Jean and Eren." Sasha giggled.
"Hm?" Jean looked confused. "Who's Eren? I don't recall fighting with him..."
"Oh, not you, Jean!" Sasha amended. "We have another friend called Jean. He and our friend Eren fight all the time. Although, their fights tend to be more violent..."
"Don't give them any ideas." I muttered. "I don't need them punching each other. We don't have Mikasa here to break up their fights. Anyway, let's get down to business-"
"To defeat the Huns~" Sasha sang, giggling like a five year old.
"No." I said, playfully smacking her. "We should get them back to their world...somehow."
"This would be a lot simpler if we had Aether or Lumine here." Kaeya sighed, his earlier almost-fight with Diluc seemingly forgotten for now.
"I know, right?" I agreed. "I don't know how the hell they manage it. I mean, do they say some magic words? Is it an ability they were born with? Do they do some ritual or something??"
"Now there's an idea." Sasha laughed. "We'll summon a demon using a ritual and demand that they help us."
"Absolutely not." Xiao cut in. "You said they don't even exist in this world."
"He's right." I said, getting up to make myself coffee. "They don't exist here. Or...? I don't know actually..."
"What?" Xiao snapped. "You don't even know? This is your world, isn't it? Shouldn't you be aware of such things?!"
"Damn, calm down, honey." I said, raising my hands in surrender. "I don't think demons are real, based on many past experiences, but I also didn't think fictional characters would be living with me, so..."
"What past experiences?" Xiao questioned, crossing his arms. I seemed to have ticked him off, apparently.
"Oho, you should have seen her during high school." Sasha chuckled. "She was so into all this occult, supernatural stuff. She even messed around with a Ouija board once."
"You did what?" Zhongli asked, setting his tea down. Oh crap-
"Uh..." I blanked.
"Those things are dangerous, (y/n)." Zhongli said, looking at me with concern. "The border between the realm of the living and the dead is not to be tampered with. At least tell me you didn't attempt this alone?"
"Of course I didn't do it alone." I said quickly. "I knew that much even back then. I did it with Sasha and Mikasa. And besides, it didn't even work. Nothing happened."
"How is this topic important right now?" Diluc deadpanned.
"Wow, so eager to leave me, huh? Am I that bad?" I teased, taking a sip of my coffee. Well...I said it teasingly, but it did hurt a little bit that they wanted to get away so badly. I didn't have any right to be upset, considering they've only known me for three or four days. I mean, they didn't know me as well as I know them. I've been attached to them for months now. I could hardly expect them to be at the same level.
"That's not what I meant, and you know it." Diluc said. "This world is certainly wonderful in its own right, but we have responsibilities in our own world. We can't be gone for so long."
"You have a point, I guess..." I sighed. "Alright, fine. Time to gather some intel. Could someone close the curtains please?"
I started up my PS4 as Venti obliged and closed the curtains for me. The natural light reflected off the screen weirdly, so it was better to play with the curtains closed.
"Thanks, Venti. Okay, so my plan right now is just to talk to everyone in Mondstadt and Liyue to see if they've noticed anything out of the ordinary. I'm not sure if it'll turn up anything, but here we go." I said, directing my character, which was Beidou, towards Mondstadt's gates.
"Who're you talking to first?" Kaeya asked, settling down beside me on the sofa.
"Uh..." I shifted my gaze around the screen at all the NPCs. "Well, I think Donna would be a good first choice. The woman is practically obsessed with Diluc, so she'd notice for sure if he went missing."
"I'm sorry, what?" Diluc asked, leaning on the kitchen counter, looking confused as heck and a little disturbed.
"Oh, you didn't know about her?" I laughed. "This is gonna be fun."
I ran up to Donna, near the flower stand and pressed on the dialogue option. Her dialogue had changed majorly. The things she said out loud were the same, but her internal thoughts were very different. Normally, she'd be day dreaming about meeting Diluc, but now her thoughts seemed rushed and panicky, and full of concern for him. Apparently, she'd noticed his disappearance and was losing sleep over it.
"Uh..." Diluc stared at the screen with mild horror visible on his face. Kaeya, on the other hand, was trying so hard to keep it together. He looked like he was about to collapse of laughter.
"I'm...flattered...?" Diluc trailed off. At this point, Kaeya didn't even bother holding it back anymore. He burst out laughing.
"Someone's got a secret admirer~" He teased in between giggles.
"Shut up." Diluc scowled. "At least someone cares about me. I'm willing to bet that you don't have anyone like that."
"I-I care about him." I said playfully, leaning into him, trying my best to look like an innocent anime girl.
"You see." Kaeya said smugly, slinging an arm around my shoulders.
"Whatever. Back to the topic at hand." Diluc deadpanned. "So they've noticed we're gone. What are we meant to do with that info?"
"I just wanted to confirm it." I said. "Uh...I'm not really sure where to go from here..."
"The best person to figure out how to get us home would be Albedo." Kaeya said, the playfulness in his voice earlier now gone. "We should find him."
"I know where his workshop is, but the chances of me actually finding him are extremely low." I said.
"Check anyway."
"Yes, sir." I hummed, teleporting to Dragonspine and making my way over to Albedo's workshop. "Not here." I sighed.
"That's odd." Jean commented. "He's almost always there."
"Check the Knights of Favonius HQ." Kaeya said, eyes transfixed on the screen.
I repeated the cycle and teleported to Mond, making my way to knights of Favonius HQ. "Right, like I said earlier, I only have access to the library and Jean's office. I'm not allowed further in." I said, as I promptly checked both places thoroughly.
"Well...I'm not sure where else to look..." I trailed off.
"Can you...Can you go check on Dawn Winery please?" Diluc asked. "You probably won't find Albedo there, but I'd like to make sure it's okay."
"Sure thing, love." I said absent-mindedly. Wait. WAIT-
"Love...?"
"Uhh..." I blanked, again. "What, you don't like it?" I asked teasingly, to cover up my momentary panic.
"I-It's fine." Diluc said, crossing his arms and looking away. "Just go to Dawn Winery."
"Ehe, I think you made master Diluc flustered." Venti murmured playfully.
"I'm never giving you Dandelion Wine again." Diluc responded immediately.
"I TAKE IT BACK!" Venti exclaimed, raising his hands in surrender.
"Too late." Diluc said.
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•
Approximately four hours later, I'd talked to nearly everyone in both Mondstadt and Liyue, but I'd gotten nowhere with any of the info. They'd noticed that people were missing, but they weren't exactly giving me any info on how or why. Sasha wasn't here anymore either, as she had gone for work. She worked as a chef at a restaraunt on Chiswick high street.
"Okay, this is starting to feel pointless." I said, leaning into Kaeya's side. "Maybe we sh-"
I got cut off, but it wasn't because of anyone speaking over me. Nope. It was a loud bang and the lights went dark. You already know where this is going.
"Oh hell, not this again." I whispered, instinctively holding on to Kaeya's arm.
"What's-" Kaeya began talking, but was immediately interrupted by the appearance of that same purple glow-y portal.
"This is what happened the night you came here." I answered quietly, not taking my eyes off the portal for a moment.