A/N: Some depictions of graphic violence due to Diluc's intrusive thoughts.

Enjoy~

In the royal palace, there was wicked people and pathetic people. There accompanying them was the emperor, who was neither of those things, because he was worse than them both combined.

A schemer had a goal that was worth achieving, which they were capable of achieving. A coward at least was capable of running. What about an emperor, duty-bound to the throne with no wings in his sails and too much pride to admit he was lost? His rule was a weak one, maladied by the people around him who saw the gaping void in his chest and sought to fill it. Fill it with mora. Fill it with blood. Fill it with dark magic.

But he was not an emperor by birth. This was not a disadvantage in the least. In fact, it was three extra moving limbs that strangled his unwary opponents, when they took for granted that the power he wielded was not one that he inherited. He took it. With bloodshed, dignity, and respect, he took the throne Mondstadt, and having shed the kinder two of those things, he took what else he needed through force.

Cries of jubilation following the tenth anniversary of Emperor Ragnvindr's reign sounded more like the whispers of the dead once they echoed all the way into the royal palace gardens. Combine that with the hellish statues of strange spirits, which the architects of two hundred years ago probably found very deep and thought provoking, but were actually just creepy. Lamp grass glowed against the trunks of trees heavy with fruit. A legend spoke of a fruit that was said to have seeded all life—the very same kind Diluc had growing in the garden. The light cast from the lampgrass gave the illusion the statues were reaching for the fruit. Grasping for life.

All in all, the garden felt like a fae trap to lull unsuspecting passersby to sleep, where they would remain forever.

The crowning jewel of this arrangement stood at the end of a sandstone walkway: Kaeya Alberich. Clad in silvers and blues, a gauzy white outer robe draping over the ground like frost, he was not what first came to mind when one thought of prisoners.

And yet.

"I didn't know you came here," said Emperor Diluc. Or just Diluc, in his head. He never really stopped being just Diluc. His jobs simply became higher profile, his productivity under more scrutiny. Worker complaints zeroed out, so that was an improvement.

He stopped short of the fountain, a glittering spire of circular sheets of ice that entwined around a statue of a pair of dolphins, wrapped in a dance.

Kaeya didn't immediately respond, and Diluc wasn't inclined to wait for an answer.

"Why are you out here unaccompanied?"

Kaeya slanted a look at him. One eye was covered with an eyepatch. Plain and black, ringed in gold. Diluc bought him a nicer one, but he never wore it. The other eye was visible. Piercing blue, gleaming like dark ice under a cloudy sky. Diluc wondered what right he had to look like that, thunderous and dangerous, only to crack a smile like lightning at a moment's notice. Diluc's heart simply could not take it. He would rather hate the man, or feel nothing. It would have been easier.

"I am accompanied," said Kaeya, giving Diluc's arm an arch look. "My guest is being terribly rude."

"I am not your guest," said Diluc, offering his arm. Kaeya took it graciously. They didn't move, and it was like hugging a corpse. He felt disgusted. "And you are not a guest. Why were you out here unaccompanied?"

Kaeya waved his other hand flippantly. "Don't you know that fresh air does wonders for the soul? You could use some fresh air, yourself."

He always aimed as though to make Diluc laugh, which made Diluc wonder at what point Kaeya was going to realize he was never laughing. That none of this was a joke, and Diluc was operating under a thin veneer of patience on the account that Kaeya Alberich was well known—a war hero, a beloved captain, a friend to many. People would notice if he just… disappeared.

Some part of Diluc loathed it. The longer he was emperor, the more betrayal he faced, the more he wanted to take what little scraps of more innocent times and hoard them away. Even if those memories were built around lies, he wanted to treasure them. And most treasure stayed locked in vaults.

"Do you even feel the wind under that mask?" said Kaeya, reaching over with a bold hand to poke the mask on Diluc's face.

Diluc swatted the hand away and shifted his arm so that he was gripping Kaeya's forearm tightly.

It was tradition for the emperor to wear a mask from the day of their coronation to the day of their death. The mask was always buried with the emperor upon death, but never on them. It was said to be a leader, one had to cast aside their identity to represent the minds of all their people. The mask was meant to represent that, in good deed and foul alike. So, when the emperor died, the mask was cast aside—as though to say, let death's court judge the wearer, and not the mask of the emperor.

Touching the mask of the emperor was a taboo, even for wives, let alone a glorified prisoner. Kaeya was officially under house arrest, pending an investigation that not going to go Kaeya's way, and certainly was not in the position to go around feeling up the emperor's mask. And yet, what did Kaeya do? Touch, touch, touch!

Diluc's fist clenched harder and harder around Kaeya's forearm.

Undaunted, Kaeya brushed a thumb over Diluc's hand. "Did someone offer you alcohol? Getting so worked up, really, it's like nothing has changed…"

He wanted to rip that hand off, but he didn't want to let on that he was bothered by it. Kaeya's wrist was thin, his fingers long and slender. Diluc couldn't look at them for too long, because lately all he could see was himself breaking those hands. Taking each finger, one by one, and bending them back until snap, snap, snap. No more music floating up the tower to Diluc's office, no soft touch on his skin, no bite of ice to swallow his rage.

A cool breeze lifted a lock of slightly damp crimson hair off Diluc's forehead. The sudden change in temperature made him blink in surprise.

Kaeya looked up at him, dark lashes fluttering around his eye. The faint blue light of the lamp grass glowed off his brown skin and blue hair. Paired with features that were deceptively delicate, only Diluc knew the same mouth that smiled so softly also bit the lips that kissed him.

"You aren't well."

As if Diluc didn't know.

The guards arrived to take Kaeya back to his quarters.

Standing alone in the garden, Diluc's skin burned from Kaeya's touch. As soon as Kaeya left the garden, the ice melted on the fountain. A surplus of water overfilled the basin, splashing over the ground. Diluc stood there for a long while, lost in thought.

Eventually, the water on the ground settled. He saw himself in the reflection, ghastly pale, eyes like dark pits in his skull. He was a handsome man on most days, prominent cheekbones and wildly curly red hair, full lips and a strong jaw. But lately all he saw in the mirror was a ghoul.

He hated. And the frightening thing was that he didn't even remember why.