Chapter Text
Mona had been occupying the bathroom in the three girls' apartment for so long that one of her tenants, Lumine, whom she had known since high school, decided to knock on the door of the room. However, from inside she heard no answer, which made her even more worried about her friend's health. Had a young woman suddenly caught some terrible flu and was practically tied to a toilet bowl?
It was half true, because Mona was actually sitting on a closed toilet bowl, hugging her stomach, staring wide-eyed at some blind spot on the tiled floor. Archon knows how much time she spent in this position, she herself didn't know how much she was sitting there, what time we have, what day of the week, what month, what year. She had just realized that she had ruined her own life, so mundane things like time didn't matter to her.
"Mona, are you okay?" Lumine's concerned voice reached her like she was in a fog.
The brunette didn't lock herself inside, she didn't barricade in any way, but her friend was so kind that she didn't go inside without permission. Which she couldn't get anyway from Mona, who only bowed her head more and took a deep breath. She is pregnant.
Unfortunately, although she wanted to pretend that time did not matter and that it did not exist, she was afraid that she would not be able to take it back and erase from her memory this very small detail, that had currently lost her chances of a happy life with the man in whom she had been in love for over six years. Their paths parted after high school, but they magically met again a few months ago at one of the art exhibitions at the local gallery. He always wanted to be a famous artist and she always supported him as the most faithful fan.
He hadn't changed in any way, except maybe his blonde hair had gotten a little darker, a bit longer, reaching to his shoulders, and he was always tying it in a sloppy ponytail at the back of his head. His fringe fell over his eyes, and although they hadn't been in a relationship yet, Mona had always tenderly pushed back the blonde highlights while staring at his pale, pleasant eyes. And he was giving her that graceful, gentle smile that heralded nothing but good things to come in her life.
It certainly wasn't a good thing to get pregnant and to ruin all the plans she had so carefully made up in her head. It was with him that she was to have a child, he was to be the father of their daughter, who would have her hair color and his eyes, who would embody goodness, had artistic talent after her father and love for the stars after her mother. Now she could no longer be sure of anything, could no longer expect anything from her future.
So she slowly got up from her rather unusual and painful seat, to look again at the sink next to it, to make sure that the pregnancy test had not magically disappeared. Be it showed a different result this time. Unfortunately, the two dashes were still there and Mona felt all her insides twist inside her.
"You can come in," she muttered with difficulty, resting her hands on the sink, her eyes lingering on the object she wanted to get rid of at all costs.
However, she knew she would have to keep it in order to have evidence for the child's father. Which she would have to find. Because she didn't even know who he was.
Lumine entered the bathroom as soon as she heard permission, then walked over to her friend, whom she grabbed by the arms, peering at her with concern painted on her face. More and more she thought that it was not just some food poisoning. Mona literally looked as if she had just seen a ghost, and that didn't bode well.
The blonde looked at the sink, expecting the worst, blood stains, because maybe her friend started to spit it or vomit, maybe even the remains of food from "normal" vomiting, but she found nothing disturbing there. Only when she followed the brunette's look did her eyes widen to comical dimensions, and a merry squeak escaped from her mouth, which scared the slightly taller woman. The smaller one grabbed her dearest friend by the shoulders and started jumping cheerfully, hoping that Mona would join her soon, but that didn't happen, which caused Lumine to slow down her crazy jumps until she finally stopped completely and tilted her head to the side, as if quietly asking what it was really about.
"Why aren't you happy? " There was surprise and concern in her voice, she did not even know what was happening with Mona, who immediately looked away, this time gluing her eyes to the white tiles on the bathroom walls.
How could she be happy to miss a chance for a wonderful future with the man she had dreamed of for over six years? She didn't even feel confident enough to tell Lumine what the problem was. She hoped the blonde wouldn't dwell on it or question it too much, but, as usual, it had to turn out that her hopes were deceptive.
"Albedo already knows about this? Sure he'll be happy, even if it was a slip-up, you can tell you love him, he doesn't seem to be the type to run from responsibility, so everything's gonna be okay, keep your head up, Meg."
Mona lowered her head, feeling the tears appear under her eyelids as they tried to spill out, creating rivulets on her cheeks, taking the remnants of her dark mascara. She knew Lumine would interpret it differently, and she would want Mona to be happy with the situation as well. After all, almost a month she was chasing after (neither of them has officially asked if they are a couple, so it can be considered that they are at the lapping stage) Albedo, who invites her on dates, treats her like a princess, shows her new works, asks for her opinion about color, she listens to Mona as she shares with him interesting facts about the stars or astronomy that she read in her favorite astronomer magazine.
"It's... not his baby." she said after some time of standing in the deathly silence, where the only sound was the quiet music coming from Amy's room (which everyone else was calling Fischl anyway) and the sniffling of Mona. "I haven't slept with Albedo, this. This must have happened sooner… do you remember? At our meeting, I left the bar because I felt like I wouldn't drink anymore... I think I met someone there. I woke up in a hotel." Mona grabbed her head, taking a deep breath. "I completely blacked out, so I don't remember anything exactly... but I know that. I was with the guy for sure, we."
She paused for a moment to check Lumine's reaction, but Lumine was staring at the brunette with no visible emotion on her face, making Mona blush even more. She never told her in great detail what had happened the night after their high school reunion. Even though the blonde knew that her friend had a good night, since she came home the next day, around noon, with a crumpled dress and teeth marks on every part of her body, her hickeys were visible even on the inside of her thighs, so you could only think what a freak she spent that night with.
Lumine decided, however, to give Mona time to cool down, remember more facts, while at the same time taking her to their tiny living room to sit on the couch. As soon as they were both seated on the small brown couch, Mona grabbed one of the cushions and hugged it tightly, as if in this way to get away from the subject or completely hide from the world. However, she knew that the blonde was waiting for further explanations, which she only confirmed with her loud grunt that was supposed to force the brunette to speak.
"So you did it with some strange guy you met after you left the bar?" the blonde's voice was soaked with something like a judgement, but she knew herself that she should watch Mona more then, instead of walking around the bar with her twin brother and embracing every friend from high school who caught their eyes.
"No," Mona's answer was low, uncertain, but at the same time spoken in such a way that one could swear that she was sure of what she was saying. "I don't know how to explain it, but he seemed so… familiar. Strangely, strangely delicate."
Lumine laughed, then put her hand to her mouth, but it was enough for Mona to look up from her decorative pillow and pucker her lower lip.
"Delicate? Please! You came back bitten, as if some dog had attacked you! I heard you sit in the tub and moan in pain, the guy almost ripped you in two and you say he was gentle?!"
Mona's blush intensified even more until she decided to hide her face in the pillow she was holding. She knew Lumine wouldn't understand her, but there was something strange about the man's whole demeanor. On the one hand, she should be afraid of someone who accosts drunk girls after leaving the bar, but on the other hand... she didn't remember feeling threatened in any way.
"I have the feeling that I know him from somewhere, but I don't know... I just don't know where from." She sighed aloud, slowly leaning back against the couch to sit more comfortably. "He kind of accosted me in front of a bar, but even when I was drunk, I wouldn't go somewhere with someone I don't know. So it had to be an acquaintance, even someone I had seen once or twice with my eyes."
The blonde only listened to her friend's argument, a little (but only a little) calming down after learning that it was not a complete stranger to her. It could always be worse, now maybe (with an emphasis on maybe) it will be easier to track down the future daddy.
When Mona was about to open her mouth once more to say something about the destroyer of her dreams and the child's alleged father, a scream rang out all over the apartment. The music in Fischl's room stopped playing, and both women could immediately hear their younger tenant trying to get up from the bed without throwing anything off it.
Unfortunately, she clearly failed to do so, because right after that you could hear a loud crack and a bunch of curses that spilled from her mouth. However, the girl did not give up and after a while she ran out of the room, holding her phone in her hand, which was already bruised on every possible side, due to the number of times it had a close encounter with the floor. Amy took a deep breath as she tweaked her loose blonde hair, then placed her hands on her hips and announced:
"Scaramouche will be back in our city!" and immediately after that she started squealing like a frisky teenager, as if she hadn't already turned twenty.
Mona and Lumine looked at each other, then looked at Fischl, who had just started to dance some fancy dance of hers. Her cartoon pajamas, soiled from food and drink, which she kept hiding in her four walls, swirled with her. Only when the older blonde decided to grunt, the youngest of the three bent (because she was currently standing with her back to them) and muttered as a sign that she was listening.
"And who is this.. Scaramouche?"
Mona could have sworn that in the year she had lived with these two, she had never seen Amy like this before. The outraged blonde pulled up her short pajamas theatrically, and then quickly walked to the couch to fall on it between her tenants. Lumine only winced as she heard the couch creak under Fischl's weight, telling her so many times that she should be careful when sitting down, all the furniture would be repaired soon.
"Scaramouche is an actor, one of the best of our generation. He's always playing some assholes, smugglers, bad guys, but I know that deep down there, he's very caring and it's all just acting!" older friends began to regret this question, they will probably hear a shortened, or not, version of the actor's biography, about which they have never heard before. "He comes from Inazuma, but he spent a long time in Mond, he went to school here, and then he flew to Sumeru to study there, he got into the acting school and in the first year he started acting in series and movies. Many people admire his voice and appearance, he was even nominated for the most handsome face of Teyvat, but he lost to Diluc, will you believe it?" Fischl laughed while searching for something on the phone. "Look, this is my favorite line from his latest movie, which just premiered last week and now the entire cast is touring to major cities to promote the movie."
Lumine only smiled indulgently, she liked to hear Amy talk about her favorite artists, such as 4NEMO or DCKZ, although she didn't smile about hearing her tenant drool at the thought of her twin brother in tight clothes. But once in a while, it doesn't hurt to please her and listen to what she has to say. Both friends even moved closer to her when she finally turned on the said material.
"Barely two words in and you already look like you want me dead. You're getting all worked up over nothing... You've changed, you're getting weak."
Fischl started screeching and kicking her legs again, and Lumine just nodded her head gently, as if thinking about something.
"Indeed, he has a very… pleasant voice, one that suits the dark character, what do you think, Mona?"
Mona again fell into the state in which Lumine found her in the bathroom, which automatically made the blonde worried. She moved closer to the brunette, grabbing her icy hands in hers and staring at her until her awareness began to return.
"It's… that voice. It's that guy."
"What guy? Scara? "Fischl looked at Mona over Lumine's shoulder, clicking again on the phone to immediately put it under the brunette's nose. "He's handsome, isn't he? I knew you would like him just by the voice, but this much?"
Amy laughed happily, and the other blonde took the phone from her, which displayed a photo, apparently taken at a movie premiere. The man on him did not look old, on the contrary, he was bursting with youthful energy, dressed in a black suit, with one hand raised, apparently waving to the crowd. His hair was dark purple, with lighter highlights that were only visible when you looked at him closely, his eyes were indigo, piercing, but there was something about them that would keep you from taking your eyes off them.
It took Mona a moment before she decided to look at the screen to see what attracted Lumine so much, but she didn't think it would make her even more dizzy. She practically snatched Fischl's phone from her friend's hands, looking at one photo all this time, zooming in, zooming out, staring at every little detail until she came across what she feared so much. Yes, it was him, it was one hundred percent him.
"Lumine." The blonde looked at her friend, then looked at the photo, which currently only showed the man's hand, with something around the wrist that looked like a deep scar. "It's him. You know what's the funniest thing about it all?"
Mona wasn't laughing at all, but she didn't think her bad luck was that great. All she could do was cry and curse her life. Lumine looked at her with concern.
"It was me who made this scar. Because it's not the first time I see him. And the previous one... it wasn't the first time either." The woman gritted her teeth as if not wanting the words to leave her mouth. "This is the boy I went to high school with, whom I wanted to forget, because he was always disturbing me in dating Albedo, he was always following me, accosting me, scaring other people away. I wanted to forget about him, I hated him so much."
Fischl blinked several times, trying to figure out what the conversation that she had obviously missed was about.
"I am to understand that you... know Scaramouche? This actor? Super popular? The handsome man from the magazine covers?"
Mona answered each question with a nod of her head, wiping the tears, that she didn't even know when started to run down her face.
"I know him as Kuni. At least that's what we called him in school, his name was Kunikuzushi and his name had a terrible meaning in Inazuman, maybe he changed it because of that. But yes, I know him. And worse" Mona paused for a moment, staring at both blondes who were watching her with excitement. "I'm probably expecting his baby."