as soon as satoru comes home, you can tell that something’s troubling him.

he greets the three of you quietly, pressing a kiss to the top of your head and telling you to start dinner without him.

when he turns away, you quickly catch his hand. “you haven’t eaten since lunch. just have a little—”

“i’m not hungry,” he excuses quickly, offering you a weak smile. “i’m just going to lie down for a bit.”

he gently pulls his hand from your grasp, heading toward the bedroom without another word.

“something’s wrong with him,” tsumiki murmurs, picking up her chopsticks as you and megumi watch him go.

“he’s just tired,” you assure her. “he’ll be okay.”

you hope they don’t notice the worry behind your easy expression. you know that satoru is strong and that he’s powerful beyond measure, but strength means nothing when you give someone a piece of your heart. the worry just never goes away.

diluc’s infatuation with you begins at the angel’s share.

it’s the last day of the work week, shopkeepers and knights and civilians alike gathered at the tavern to unwind and socialize. diluc knows everyone here by name, whether it’s through his winery business or his under-the-table reports.

he responds to kaeya’s greeting with a grunt and a jerk of his head towards a table at the far side of the tavern. he’s soon joined by eula, and diluc sends charles over with a couple of bottles of wine, noting them on his brother’s tab.

all his regulars are now accounted for, the evening rush dying down as everyone nurses their drinks. he’s about to head into the back office to escape the din of the bar when the bell above the entrance draws his attention.

diluc’s not naive. he knows attraction. knows he instantly feels it for you and perhaps something a little more complicated the moment you step into the tavern’s haze of cigar smoke and lantern lights and meet his gaze. but just as you open your mouth, already curved into a smile, kaeya calls you over.

The days that follow are nightmarish blur. What was a celebration of the one you love, has turned into something you could only stand by and watch in abject horror as Diluc loses everything around him.

But not you, never you.

And still, he leaves. He can barely look you in the eye when you take his hand with a sob, and tell him to be careful and you will miss him. That you love him.

You know not to write him, it’s much too dangerous. You believe that he will return to you, and Diluc looks up at the pale moon each night — whether through blood soaked lashes after a fight or above the snow capped mountainside and thinks of you.

Those 4 years pass by slowly and then all at once, your little house nestled in outer skirts of Springvale where you sit outside on a blanket and look at the shapes in the clouds that pass by overhead. You still thought of Diluc, who you no longer knew if he was alive or dead, but it was hard not to be reminded of him in your daily life.

So when you’re standing outside and hanging your freshly washed laundry on the line, laughing at the way the wind blows your bedsheets every which way — you then find yourself startled at the shadow cast behind them, but you cannot look away.

A breeze flutters softer then, lifting the sheets away like a curtain to reveal Diluc Ragnvindr standing in front of your house.

Your fingers grasp at your skirts, blinking rapidly in confusion, you’d thought you had stopped hallucinating him a long time ago. He steps forward, you gasp at the crunch his boots make in the dirt, he says your name. Your body shakes as your hand comes up to your mouth, a sob behind it when he reaches for you and the boy you fell in love with is here, taller and broader and covered in scars and hair wild when he touches your face.

He exhales an apology, searching your face with pain in his eyes, your heart aches in your chest as you cup his face in return. Your knees wobble and he catches you when you collapse in his arms, crumbling to the ground while holding onto his jacket.

It’s all short lived then, his forehead coming to rest against yours, when you hear a small voice coming from your doorway. A tiny hand grasping a toy, a head of red hair swept to the side with a clip, and a small heart that has kept your own beating since the day you found out she was in your belly.

“Mama, who that?” she says curiously. Chubby, bare feet padding through grass and coming to tug on your arm. Diluc stares for a long time as she tilts her head at him and grins, sunsettia juice on her chin,

for your ask game! could i pls have phainon + stubborn love hehe

𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐁𝐁𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

modern au, comedy, meet ugly, annoyances to lovers

🌊🐚🩵 Wriothesley x fem mermaid! reader

in which wriothesley knows when he’s hopelessly lost to your charms

warnings: fluff, essentially non sexual nudity, pining ~ HAPPY MERMAY! MINORS AND BLANK/AGELESS BLOGS DNI

After you've come to know the man that is Wriothesley, the Duke of…whatever a “Fortress of Meropide” is, a little more after he saw you swimming around a window one evening while making the rounds, to now meeting him in a small cove near the shore close to the Fortress on occasion. He has come to the conclusion he is incredibly enchanted by you. One summer day with his pants rolled up to his knees and his legs placed in the soft lapping waves, he allows you to bring him under water with you.

You must kiss him of course, after he shucks his heavy coast and vest and tie from his form — cupping his cheeks with an enthusiastic little smile to bring your salty, water chilled lips to his for a fleeting moment that makes his chest warm and his fingers twitch. Wriothesley might have forgotten about the fact that as a Fontanian he can already breathe underwater, and he does wish the kiss had lasted longer — but he's now fully submerged under the water and he can truly see you. All of you.

Only, he seems to have never noticed the fact that besides your tail, you're completely bare. Beneath the glimmering sunlight filtering through the softly rippling waves, your hair floating elegantly around you barely conceals your breasts. Wriothesleys bright blue eyes dart away from the curves of your body and he looks to the side, suddenly finding a collection of beryl conches to glance at only for your face to pop up in front of him with a curious tilt of your head.

He clears his throat, arms and legs moving to keep him in place under the water as he turns his head the other way and you do the same thing, following his gaze and tilting your head at him with laughter as if you believe he's playing a game with you. He can't fight the smile on his face as you continue to swim around and twirl yourself around his legs and torso, swishing your iridescent tail gracefully through the water.

He ends up swimming with you for awhile, allowing your hand to tug him towards pretty shells and hiding behind him when you get close to the Fortress and you hear the metal groan as he chuckles while ensuring you it’s no beast. He hoists himself back out of the water later on, laying on the sun warmed rocks with exhaustion. You pull yourself from the ocean to rest beside him too, enjoying the sunshine while you pull all of your hair to the side to wring out the water as Wriothesley's gaze fleetingly lowers to your breasts that wobble from your movements, droplets of water falling from the slopes of your nipples. He tries not to groan from where his thoughts want to go, and runs a hand his across face, hearing you hmph! under your breath when he does.

"Is there something wrong with me, Wriothesley?"

The Duke glances over at you quickly, making sure he casts his eyes directly to your face and sees you pouting, awfully exaggerated and childlike. It's adorable how your cheeks puff out too.

"Am I…ugly?" you question with a sniffle, making Wriothesleys eyes widen. You shift on the wide rock where you both are perched, scooting yourself closer to the brawny man who has caught your attention just as much as you've caught his.

"Not at all, it's just...ah," Wriothesley rubs the back of his neck, the man can be a brute as some might think, rough and can fight just about anyone or anything with bloodied knuckles and a smirk on his face but he does...attempt to be a gentleman. That includes not gawking at a mermaid mademoiselle who is half naked according to his own human nature.

And ugly? Definitely not.

"You're beautiful." he breathes.

Then, Wriothesley feels you against his side. Your arms are pushing your bare breasts together and against his bicep, the soft, bouncy flesh squished by the rough and soaked material of his shirt as you peer at him intently with a pleased smile. Curiously, you touch the scar under his eye — and when he leans back in a moment of surprise at your closeness, he falls right back into the water.

The man who commands an entire population of people in the underworld, floundering in the presence of a pretty mermaid.

You're strong, incredibly so when you're able to pull Wriothesley back onto the rocks again, this time hovering over him with the sunshine acting as a halo over your head. You reach up to move the wet tendrils of hair from his forehead, your fingers delicate against his skin. You're nearly laying on top of him in this position, bare chest against his, with your long and luminous tail happily splashing along the glittering waters.

"You're being awfully strange today." you giggle when you rest your chin atop your folded hands that lay on his chest, easily becoming lost in the bright sapphire oceans that are his eyes.

Wriothesley accepts his fate, yielding himself to you and your bewitching smile. He knows when he's lost to an opponent, and here he feels like he's won too — with you in his arms.

He copies what your fingers did and places a lock of your hair behind your ear, watching fondness shine in your gaze, laughing softly as you lean into his touch.

Mmhh