...... “Diluc? Are you in here?” You called out into the empty room, the sun spilling through the windows, steam from the cup on the desk rising into the air before disappearing. You stepped further inside before noticing something strange with a row of bookshelves. Curiously, you made your way toward it, fingers slipping over the surface before finding their way into space that shouldn’t be there.
Pulling on it, you did your best to ignore the strain in your arms until the secrets were revealed to you. Inside was a dark room, only a few items were seen as the light front the study spilled into the now open space. Peeking your head in you scrunched your nose at the musky smell and bravely made your way into the darkness.
“What in the world is th-AH!” Something touched your shoulder and made you scream so loud you were sure people outside the winery heard you. Wiping around and grabbing onto whatever touched you, you were met by a silhouetted Diluc who housed an amused expression on his face.
“What are you doing?”
“What are you doing?!” You threw the question back at him, hand covering your heart as you tried to breathe.
“I went to gather a few things only to find you poking around in places I didn’t expect.” He glanced at your hand which was still tightly gripping onto his arm and smiled.
“You almost scared me to death.” Easing back to your own personal space, you glanced into the darkness again. “What is this anyway?”
“It’s a corridor, it’ll take you just outside the winery grounds.” Diluc leaned back, his hands finding hold of a particular book on the shelf. You noticed it was already leaning as if it were going to fall, but when he pushed it back into place there was a sturdy click. His hand lifted and in a flame began to pulse to life, its gentle flickering and steady heat filling the dark space behind you. “Would you like to see?”
The flame reflected off his features, rich shadows danced across his face and became lost in his hair. Your heart beat but not from the fear you felt earlier and, when you nodded your head, he took your hand in his and led you down the dark path unknown to you........