Chapter Text
Diluc is so unbelievably fucked.
“Kairos.”
She tilts her head, orange eyes casting an appraising glance over Diluc's suit, her gaze resting on the throwing knives at his side. “You sound scared little vigilante, am I someone to be scared of?”
See, this is the problem with interacting with Kairos, she's fucking terrifying and she knows it. Kairos takes Diluc's silence as an answer. Her smile - stretching across her face unnaturally, as though her features are unused to forming such an expression - grows even bigger.
“Well darling, shall we?”
***
Diluc has worked with the Lady of Thousand Winds before. Something something: The Doctor being an ass (before his lab caught on fire four years ago burning him and multiple of his workers alive), and - despite their last in person interaction being over six years ago - Kairos had not changed in the slightest. Despite the unhinged smile that had graced her face before, Kairos had quickly settled back into her mask of perfect neutrality.
Walking behind Kairos as she travels deeper and deeper into the compound, Diluc takes notice as the bright walls become more and compressed, paint peeling off the walls, tiled floor turning into cold stone and the bright fluorescent lights get replaced by sparse work lights hanging precariously from the ceiling. The clicking noise of Kairos’ shoes on the floor replacing the blaring sound of the alarms she had set off is the only sound Diluc can hear as the Lawrence compound fades away. Tensing, Diluc opens his mouth to ask the white haired woman where they are going, but she beats him to it.
“The Lawrence responsible for this compound has been dealt with; however, the one who injured your little informant is still hiding. I also have reason to believe the Order member who orchestrated this is here. There is also a chance they may be related to that child you have been taking care of recently.”
Diluc stops dead in his tracks. Kairos turns back to him and smiles, the stone walls seeming to press in as she speaks again, amber eyes glittering with cold amusement.
“Oh, you didn't think I didn't know about that little girl, did you?”
It's an unpleasant feeling, having the Queen of the Underground giving you her undivided attention; but: “She's a child. What could she have possibly done to be involved with any of this?”
The amusement fades from Kairos’ eyes as she stares at him. “Do you take me for a monster darling Darknight? If that child had been actively part of any of this-” Kairos gestures around them, at the walls and to both of them, “- she would have been removed long ago. For her own sake.
“Children have no part in this conflict.”
Kairos’ voice is cold, some inscrutable emotion dripping from her words.
Unbridled, a younger Kaeya makes his way to the forefront of Diluc's mind. Before they knew anything about where he came from. Looking back on it, Diluc understands now why the younger was always so scared.
Does Diluc keep pushing Kairos for answers?
Nope. He values his life, thank you very much.
Luckily, as Kairos turns around to continue walking forward, she keeps talking, “No, your child is related to this entire mess through someone else. It’s highly likely that she does not even know she has connections to the Order, and I intend to keep it that way.”
This entire time Diluc has felt… rather useless. He waited helplessly for Vile, unsure if she was even alive; followed Kairos’ trail of destruction without being able to even lift a finger, not that he would have but it needs to be said; and now he’s physically following her down to who knows where to root out someone who may or may not be related to Diona. So, it’s been a lovely past twenty-four hours.
Diluc is quite rudely shoved out of his thoughts as Kairos physically shoves him against the wall as the sound of shouting carries down the hallway. Wincing in pain, Diluc takes in their surroundings. About ten metres in front of the two, the hall splits into two, veering opposite directions; the shouting originating from the one on the left.
Glancing at the older woman, Diluc notes how she has both hands on her gun and he hears the distinct click of the safety turning off.
As the source of the shouting (three people, all around 175 cm, two visible guns, unarmed has a slight mutation: mottled grey skin, probably stone. Diluc takes note of this quickly, eyes scanning over the people in front of him) enters his field of view, Diluc activates his quirk and lets go of the chokehold he had on his anger.
The rage, fear, rage, confusion, rage that the vigilante has been holding under layers of forced apathy come pouring out, leaving the chain summoned forth wreathed in a brilliant orange flame. Rushing towards the people ahead, Diluc throws his quirk forward. As the chain wraps around the stone man’s arm, Diluc grabs on, smelling the burnt fabric of his right glove as the fire claims it, and pulls back towards himself and down to the ground.
As Stone gets a face full of floor (Diluc gives it a few seconds before the heat starts getting to him), the two beside him stop shouting at each other to shout at Diluc in surprise. The vigilante winces slightly behind his mask at the sound before ducking down as Kairos scoffs under her breath and the two standing Order members go completely still.
Diluc crouches down, barely sparing a glance for the incapacitated operatives (just because he's worked with Kairos before doesn't mean he knows how the fuck her quirk works), trusting that the Lady of Winds has them covered, and directs his full attention to the stone man as he starts screaming at the fire burning on his arm. Stone tries to sit up and pull away from Diluc in pain, tugging Diluc forward as well, but the chain on Stone’s arm tightens through his struggle and he cries out in pain - thrashing harder and tightening the chain even more.
Silently mourning the loss of his glove, Diluc wraps the chain around his hand to steady himself as he yanks his arm towards his chest, pulling back against the attempts of the Abyss Operative to escape. The flames dance along his skin and start creeping up Stone’s arm. This is all the evidence Diluc needs to be able to gain a proper characterisation of the man’s quirk: a durability enhancer causing his skin to take a stone-like appearance (likely texture and composition as well) and some degree of heat resistance. The vigilante sighs, rights himself, and walks over to the crumpled up man releasing his quirk.
Stone has tears running down his face and the fire has caused the mottled skin of his arm to welt and deform. Diluc can't help but wince in guilt at the damage he's wrought before he steals himself and reforms his mask of impartiality.
“Does this need to bring all of us more inconvenience or will you cooperate?” Diluc doesn't generally like how little emotion is usually in his voice, but sometimes it is quite useful. His mask, keeping Diluc Ragnvindr safe while the Darknight Hero damages, seems to grow ever heavier.
Stone nods quickly, clutching his burnt wrist close to his chest. Two gunshots ring out followed quickly by the sound of the other two Abyss Operatives hitting the floor and Stone shrinks even further into himself.
Kairos walks towards the two of them, her gun holstered back at her side, orange eyes nearly glowing in the flickering light. “Wonderful darling. So be a dear: where is the woman known as Callirhoe?”
~~~~~
Never let it be said that Diona backs down from her promises.
The moment that she told (read: forced) Darknight to go help his friend, she changed her system. After finding Daddy not drinking for once, Ms. Margaret was finally added to Diona’s contact list! So, for the past week, Ms. Margaret has been picking Diona up from the end of school in her beat up red hatchback before work and then Diona gets Ms. Margaret’s house all to herself! Well, not really… Ms. Margaret drops her off and then turns around really quickly to go to work and Diona is not really allowed to go into Ms. Margaret’s room (but she isn’t allowed in Daddy’s room either, so it’s probably an adult thing).
But it’s fun!
Yesterday, Ms. Margaret took Diona out shopping right after school to get brand new boots for her birthday - well a week after her birthday, but new boots are better than the baby toy Daddy got for her, again. When they got back Ms. Margaret revealed that she had another gift for Diona. The two of them then proceeded to play a full round of Settlers of Catan (Diona’s second birthday gift) before Ms. Margaret ordered pizza and then they watched Lionfang Rising, the entire thing.
Daddy didn’t come to pick Diona up though so that kinda sucked.
Anyway, now that Diona is staying with Ms. Margaret more and more, Daddy has been showing up really late to take her home; Ms. Margaret told Diona that she wasn’t really surprised. Diona doesn't really know why, but Ms. Margaret doesn't like Daddy very much (not because of booze though, which makes Diona even more confused). So, Ms. Margaret seems to be quietly happy about Daddy being around less.
Diona doesn't know what to think about that, honestly. She wants to be mad at Ms. Margaret because that's mean to Daddy but Ms. Margaret is helping Daddy take care of Diona so… maybe she knows something that Diona doesn't?
“-ona. Diona!”
Diona startles and sits up straight as Ms. Beatrice’s face appears right in front of her. “Ah!”
“If my lesson is so boring that you ignore me when I'm calling out to you, you should have no problem answering the question on the board, right?” The vitriol dripping off of Ms. Beatrice's voice was strong enough to cut through the silence hanging over the classroom, causing the rest of Diona's classmates to either bore their eyes into hers or avert their gazes awkwardly.
Diona winces, ears pressed back on her head at the unexpected noise. Glancing back at the whiteboard, Diona sees what is probably the question Ms. Beatrice was talking about. The question on the board, - some random math equation that Diona can't focus on - feels like it’s peeling off the board, mocking her for her inability to focus. “I-I'm sorry,” she whispers, voice cracking.
A murmur runs through Diona's classmates as Ms. Beatrice turns around to head back to the board. When the infamously irritable math teacher picks up her whiteboard marker again, the class goes back to silent, “And this is why we pay attention during a lesson; so, who can tell me what the answer is? Sage?”
With her classmate's voice ringing out in the room, Diona slumps back into her chair in shame. Her ears pressed flat against her skull as Ms. Beatrice's answer becomes nothing more than static.
***
The rest of the day passes in a blur and Diona barely notices as the bell rings to signify the end of the day, with the rest of her classmates filtering out of the room in excitement. Diona feels herself get up and follow everyone else outside. Walking out in front of the school, Diona sees Ms. Margaret’s car parked down the road with its owner leaning on the hood.
Stumbling at first, then making her way to a run, Diona races towards her caretaker; nearly tripping on the uneven concrete in her rush. She feels Ms. Margaret lets out an ‘Oomph’ as the full weight of the now eleven year old barrels into her chest
Diona buries her face in Ms. Margaret's shirt and wraps her arms around Ms. Margaret like she never wants to let go again.
Generally speaking, Margaret has come to understand Diona and her various habits. She’s gotten used to their new (significantly better) routine very quickly; she ignores the glances from a handful other parents (those she recognises as patrons of the Cat’s Tail), fights back grins matching those gracing Diona's face at the end of the day, and contemplates going through the process to get Diona officially out of Draff’s ‘care’ (potentially illegally, this child has too much of a future to be dragged down by her deadbeat of a father). Margaret has also seen what marks Draff has had left on his daughter; Diona’s hesitancy, her anger, her fear, her silence, her independence; everything that Draff unknowingly taught Diona to be, to do.
Baring her first interaction with the Darknight Hero, all those months ago; Margaret has helped Diona through many a shutdown and she will continue to do so for as long as Diona is willing to let her help. At this point, Margaret can confidently tell someone exactly how Diona starts to act when she’s slipping into, or already in, a dissociative state; when she’s not quite all the way there.
So, Margaret takes one glance at the child shivering into her chest and kneels down on the grass (fumbling for her keys to lock the car sitting behind her, something tells her they’re going to be here for a bit). Reciprocating Diona's death grip, Margaret speaks into her hair “You wanna talk about it Schatzi?” Diona shakes her head “You just wanna head home?”
Diona answers by hugging Margaret even tighter.
“Alright, we're just gonna stay here for a bit then?” Margaret feels Diona's head move up and down in response, “Wonderful, just let me know when you're ready to head out.”
The entire drive back to her house, Margaret's car is silent. Diona still hasn't said a word, and something tells Margaret that she's not going to. Sparing a glance back at her, Margaret can see Diona wringing her hands and staring out the window, deep in thought. Whatever thoughts are flying her away from the present don't seem to be keen on bringing Diona back down to Earth anytime soon.
Letting out a sign of relief - losing tension she didn't even realise was building - Margaret turns into her driveway and kills the engine. She leans back in her seat and just breathes in the silence; she's not built for kids, she's known this since before she even took on the weight of Diona's well being.
Margaret knows herself, she knows that she may be able to be good and attentive in the short term - when help matters in the moment - but she isn't able to do the same over longer periods of time. There is a certain amount of patience required to take care of a child, patience that Margaret cannot promise full time.
Margaret isn't good with kids, but she's damn well going to try.