Chapter Text
“At least, wait til the morning comes?” her voice was a plea.
He shook his head, donning on his signature hat by the exit of a familiar house in Mondstadt. “You know our arrangement,” he said plainly, flatly; feet stepping down the staircases, away from her.
She gritted her teeth. An angry sigh escaped her mouth as she slammed the door closed with a loud bang; a blaring disturbance at the silence of midnight. “Don’t ever come back, scumbag!”
He tilted his head, wondering what happened to the woman he’d been seeing on and off for the past few months. This was what they had always done. He returned to her embrace only to disappear again whenever the Tsaritsa required him. He never figured her out completely but why was she so mad tonight?
Nevertheless, he went away, he left without looking back, unknowing he would lose the spot by her side.
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
Eight years passed by.
The weather was sunny and windy with sakura petals flying while a pair of sandals was clanking against the stone staircases leading to the biggest shrine on top of Mt. Yougou.
Scaramouche, the sixth of Fatui Harbinger, was holding his round hat against the ambush of the sudden gust.
Damn this eternity dwelt land, he never liked the taste of the air in this land. He seethed while looking over the land of Electro Archon from the highest peak.
"What took you so long, Kuni-kun," the pink-haired miko greeted him.
"I came here as soon as I received your letter. Explain yourself."
Yae Guuji snickered, a befitting sly one of a fox. "I meant exactly what I wrote, word by word, literally."
Come to Inazuma now. The things you've been looking for are here.
He cocked his head to the smiling fox. There was nothing he was looking for at the moment, neither for work nor for himself. He once looked for a heart and snatched the gnosis. But it was all in the past, a bygone event that held zero significance to his current self.
He was quite disturbed by the word " things ", as it signified not only a single thing.
He clicked his tongue. Whatever scheme she was cooking, he did not want any part of it. He would not entertain her further. Just coming here was enough of his foolishness.
"I'm leaving if you are not gonna explain yourself."
Scaramouche would go back to Snezhnaya and resume his work. He had rushed to Inazuma the moment he received that letter, with a big " urgent" written on it. Shame on him for believing in his auntie fox for a fraction of seconds.
The pink fox was still snickering with a cryptic look and her fluffy ears were twitching playfully. "Good luck, Kuni-kun! Don't mess up the second time." She waved her hands enthusiastically to his back.
The Balladeer left the noisy priestess and passed through the rows of torii leading to the bottom of Mt. Yougou. Honestly, why did he even bother climbing these tedious staircases despite knowing she liked to play pranks on him? Why did he even bother coming here in the first place? What was he hoping for?
The sudden gust blew a stray sakura petal to his nose. When he plucked the pink petal away, his eyes took in the entire view of Narukami Island that stretched towards the Tenshukaku.
I heard that Inazuma is in a predominantly pink purplish hue because of the sakura trees. I'd like to see it with my own eyes someday. I bet it looks magical.
Sure, I'll take you there someday.
An unkept promise. A broken promise. An empty promise.
Scaramouche found himself scoffing at a certain imaginary figure, the one clad in the glimmers of the stars and donned the grace of the moon. He remembered her so vividly that she still haunted him be it awake or asleep until this day.
Even though the time they spent together amounted to only an insignificant portion of his long life, he found himself remembering the moments with her in lucid details than any other events, especially of the betrayal he felt.
"Geh!-"
His melancholic moment was cut abruptly.
He looked down to find a boy staring up; not at him, but at his hat. From his get-up, the little boy might be a tourist hailing from Mondstadt, though he bore some Inazuman features on his face.
The boy was pulling his shorts trying to reach something above his grasp.
The Harbinger was irked because his beautiful moment was interrupted, he was headbutted in the stomach, and his shorts were in danger of slipping down.
Holding onto his shorts, Scaramouche noticed the purple bug on the edge of his hat. As he reached for the onikabuto, the little boy squealed in delight.
"Purple demon king beetle!"
Haha, gotcha.
He waved the beetle in front of the little boy's face and promptly retracted his hand before the boy could grab the docile insect. Then, he munched the beetle because he could and because he could. He's not Scaramouche if he's not being a menace , quoted from someone.
The horror look on the boy's face was priceless as a haughty smile replaced his prior annoyance. That, little boy, was the reason you should not mess with a Harbinger.
"Why would you do that?" The boy was sobbing while hitting him with his small fists.
It had zero effect on a seasoned fighter like him, of course. Scaramouche only needed to flick a finger on his forehead and the boy recoiled.
"Purple demon king beetle is an endangered species! Why did you kill it?" The boy was wailing now.
Endangered? These bugs were everywhere in Inazuma.
The menace of harbinger just smirked. "Guess they're now gone from the world," he taunted like a little brat.
"NO!!" The boy's scream might have pierced Scaramouche's eardrums. "Beetle thief! Beetle killer! Beetle genocider!"
Scaramouche had no patience to listen to each insult the boy's limited vocabulary could muster. He took springy steps downwards the stone staircases. He must say, he was quite impressed that the boy knew some difficult words.
"Disgrace to humanity! Degenerate!!!"
"What?" He stopped in his tracks and glanced back. Irritation was visible both from his face and his tone.
What did his parents teach him?
His inner question was immediately answered.
"Mommy said people like you are degenerate!"
"You little-"
Scaramouche stopped suddenly, thinking this whole interaction was stupid from the get-go. he lost interest and he'd rather be back to Snezhnaya as soon as possible.
He flicked a small electro to jolt the boy and he sobbed louder. "Go whine to your mommy and learn that life is unfair."
"I demand reimbursement for the beetle!" The boy's shout echoed in his ears.
Yada yada. Scaramouche did not want anything more to do with a little brat and so he resumed his descent down the mountain.
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
"My Lord… We didn't know you have a son…?"
The nosy brat was still clinging onto his shorts, after persistently following him down from Grand Narukami Shrine. Also, despite everything, Scaramouche protected the boy for a safe descent.
Still.
"Are you blind or stupid? Are you gonna link any Inazuman kid to me?"
Under their superior's piercing glare, the Fatui agents cowered in fear.
"N-no, my lord. He's an exact replica-"
Scaramouche clicked his tongue and all sound ceased.
"He's not my son," he said.
His tone was a true horror to all Fatui agents present at this basecamp, who unanimously decided the grass looked interesting, unable to meet his violet glare.
"He's not my dad!" The little boy suddenly spoke up, loud and clear to every agents' ear. With all eyes on him, he continued with a finger pointing to the harbinger, "My dad is not a degenerate like him!"
That took him by surprise. Scaramouche swore he heard chuckles from his subordinates, although they stifled it when Scaramouche glared again. This whole ordeal with the brat was a big waste of time. Scaramouche commanded his subordinates to deliver the kid to a lost and found center if there's any. (There wasn't).
Upon the mirror maiden coaxing him with dango, the boy proudly introduced himself.
Rey, 7 years old, from Mondstadt, here on a vacation with his mother.
All the while he was still clinging to the Harbinger's shorts.
"Okay, Rey. Let's go find your mother," one Fatui agent approached him and tried to peel him away from Scaramouche's shorts.
The boy clung tighter, hiding behind Scaramouche.
"Goddamnit, brat, let go of my shorts. You're ripping them."
"No!" Rey suddenly kicked Scaramouche's shin and it sent a surprise jolt to his spine and when he lost his balance, Rey also headbutted his chin.
"You haven't reimbursed me, beetle thief!!"
Perhaps, little Rey had never been taught not to mess with an adult, especially a Fatui Harbinger with a short fuse and bad temper.
Electro crackled on the Balladeer's hands as the air surrounding them turned bleak as if a storm was approaching. He could forgive the previous transgressions, but his patience was running low.
Yet, the little boy showed no fear as his round navy eyes stared back at him, as round as the moon, with long lashes that sprinkled the stardust.
Scaramouche knew who they belonged to.
The violent thunder on his hand ceased in an instant as the same hands cupped Rey's face to take a closer look, to inspect the exact curves forming his eyes. They glowed a different hue, but Scaramouche would never-could never forget the pair of jade-green that once looked at him.
"Is your mother's name Mona?" He asked almost in a trance for uttering the hallowed name.
Rey nodded, pride in his tone. "I am the son of the great Astrologist, Mona Megistus!"
Mona Megistus.
She was here. She was near. They might have passed by each other at the Shrine before. His heart was palpitating furiously inside his rib cages, threatening to burst out.
And,
Rage was boiling inside him. While he had not met her for eight years, he did see her seven years ago. The last time he visited Mondstadt to go back to her warmth, she was cradling a baby. How could she abandon him and get knocked up by some random man in just the few months he left?
His eyes were visibly darker with murder as he took more and more resemblances to her in the boy.
So this is the baby she was cradling at that time. The year matches.
"M-my Lord, please don't be rash in your judgement. You should confirm the truth about Rey's father-"
"Silence!" The violet streaks bolted towards the agent, just missing his throat by a hairline.
The boy, Rey, was truly his mother's son, as he had no fear in facing him, only defiance and stubbornness to get what he thought was right. Though, the Balladeer must admit his subordinate's statement made some sense.
"So, where's your father?" He faked a smile.
"Dunno, mommy said he dropped dead somewhere."
Oh?
A genuine smile crept up his lips.
"That's interesting." He couldn't help the glee that came from knowing there was no pest roaming near his possession .
Rey gave him a disapproving look.
"Alright, I'm feeling generous. Reimbursement? How much do you want?" Scaramouche was smiling from ear to ear, he could not contain the excitement in knowing that whatever replacement she tried to get could never replace him.
Rey blew air from his nose as he crossed his arms to give a decree, looking as pretentious as his mother.
"As reimbursement for the beetle, you have to escort me to retrieve Sango pearls on Watatsumi Island!"
The boy was only 7 years old, but he was using many difficult words; with the information that that witch was his mother, it made more sense than ever.
"You're using obnoxious words for a brat," he replied.
"Sango pearls!!" Rey whined, now sounding more like his age.
Scaramouche tilted his head to look at his pocket watch. Watatsumi Island was on the other end of Inazuma and he certainly did not want to journey that far just to retrieve some pearls.
"Go buy some sango pearls in the market and give it to this boy," Scaramouche commanded his subordinates.
Knowing that the woman who kept him awake on most nights was nearby, he could not help wanting to leave this land even sooner, to avoid her and to proceed with his original plan, burying himself in work so his mind would not wander back to her.
He wanted to hold her accountable for the misery he'd gone through, but he had no right. Their relationship was one of convenience, one of indulgent flesh, one of empty warmth.
They were never meant to last.
There were never "them" in the first place.
But, his feelings persisted and he only had himself to blame. As much as he longed for her, he did not want to see her.
Because he did not want to be abandoned twice by the same person.
"No!" Rey clung to his shorts again; he might need to order a new one soon. "I don't want the ordinary one! I need the biggest, brightest, and shiniest Sango pearl!"
"How many times must you try my patience, brat?!"
"Mommy only deserves the bestest!"
Scaramouche, the sixth of the Fatui Harbinger, was a transcendent being, divinely created, standing above any mortals, surpassing any humans. A powerful force that did not bat an eye to bloodshed. A condescending executive commanding with strict dictatorship.
Yet, anything involving a certain star-loving truthseeker, he kept making exception after exception.
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
"General crab!" The little boy was running after the purple-colored crab; it promptly went into hiding by burrowing itself into the sand.
What the hell am I doing?
That question crossed the electro wielder's mind numerous times over the course of the last few hours.
A sunny day with no trace of cloud in the sky. The breeze carried the smell of sea salt and faint sakura blossoms as they traced the perimeter of Natsui Beach.
"I know that weird blue thing, too! Sea Ganoderma!" Rey was running all over the place, too excited to put the name onto every living thing he encountered.
Scaramouche followed him from behind, just a few steps away to observe whatever shenanigans the brat was doing. Rey kept bouncing from one thing to another thing with the familiar sparkles that the older man missed so much.
"That's just a sea grass, dumb kid," he corrected the rambunctious ball of energy.
"Not this one, that one!" He pointed to a sea ganoderma just a few meters ahead.
"Ah-" Scaramouche was the dumbass apparently. He forcefully coughed to mask the embarrassment creeping up his cheeks. "Why are you so excited seeing these creatures? They're everywhere."
The boy huffed. "I've only seen them from books. This is my first time seeing them in the wild."
Well, that made sense. Rey must have spent his entire life in Mondstadt with his mother. Inazuma must look foreign and new to him despite the blood running through his veins.
Scaramouche cocked his head to the side and clicked his tongue to dampen his jealousy of the years she had lived happily without him. This was one of the reasons he was now traveling alone with the son of the hydromancer because he did not want his subordinates to witness his one-sided feelings.
The other reason was, his subordinates could not shut up trying to convey how similar little Rey must be to his father.
Would you look at his soft dark blue hair? Little Rey's dad must have the same shade of color!
And those deep blue eyes! I know a certain Inazuman man who has exactly the same pair!
Rey's scowl and haughty attitude must be genetic as I experience similar things since I joined this squad!
Ahh, if only someone is not so blinded that he cannot see the blaring evidence in front of his eyes.
After he shot them a death glare, they all shut up and he abandoned them at the Narukami Island port.
How dare they twist his open wound? He did not want to imagine what some random pest did for the brat to be born into the world.
Shit.
He decided not to entertain that thought further. At the very least, Mona broke up with the pest now. That important bit held his sanity together.
No, seriously, it's just you —was probably what his subordinates wanted to scream.
Scaramouche directed his attention back to the boy poking his hands at the sea ganoderma.
“C’mon, get moving, kid. We need to move fast if we want to reach Watatsumi Island before dark.”
Rey whined a bit, still staring at the sea ganoderma. He tried to pluck it but his feet slipped instead, drenching all of his clothes.
Scaramouche sighed, questioning once again why he was babysitting a kid. “What are you doing?”
“I want to bring this home,” Rey stood up again and tried a different stance to pluck the curious fungus-like plant.
An idea flashed in Scaramouche’s mind. “Don’t you know, in Inazuma, the souls of children who died young are being punished—”
“By absorbing the elements within the sand and the sea to form a sea ganoderma. I know that folktale,” Rey replied nonchalantly, still trying to pluck the slippery plant.
Scaramouche tilted his head, trying to process what just happened. What the heck. This kid just accepted the folktale as it was, not afraid of it because it was an unverified truth. That was just Mona all and all. Then, he chuckled, amused by a mini replica of his beloved star. Scaramouche approached him and easily plucked another sea ganoderma near there.
“That one is not ripe for harvest yet, scholar,” he stated, grabbing a plastic bag from his pouch and bagging the fungus inside. “Why would you want this, really.”
Rey’s eyes sparkled as he grabbed the sea ganoderma from Scaramouche’s hands. “Inazuma’s local specialty!” Rey opened his rucksack and put some things on display. “Here, look, I collected sea grass from Ritou, sakura bloom and naku weed from Narukami Shrine, a lavender melon and weird stone from the city.”
Unknowingly, the contagious spread into the older man too, as he found himself smiling at his excitement. “Is this your first time coming to Inazuma?”
“I’ve spent all my days in Mondstadt. This is the first time mommy takes me outside of Mondstadt,” Rey answered quickly. “My first trip abroad,” he proclaimed proudly.
“Heh, probably because your mother prefers spending her money on books and astrology stuff.”
“You know?! Mommy always takes me to stargaze on Starsnatch Cliff and together we draw the starry sky. Mommy also built me my own bookshelf for all my encyclopedias and picture books,” the little boy harrumphed.
Scaramouche chuckled, “Figures. Even after all these years, she’s still the same.”
Scaramouche would not admit that he had been religiously subscribing to the Steam Bird just to see what she wrote. He would especially look forward to the writer’s comment section, where she would sometimes write what she’s been up to. He remembered her writing something about building a bookshelf maybe two years ago.
Rey did not respond to his comment. Silence was hanging between them when Scaramouche finally looked at the boy’s face, his excitement was clouded by a question that strained his throat.
“Hey—”
Their conversation was interrupted by a slash of electro energy. The seasoned harbinger’s swift reflex instantly grabbed Rey in his hand as he leaped sideways to avoid the sudden attack. Holding the boy in one hand, Scaramouche observed the enemies surrounding them, four wandering samurais, to be more precise three nobushi and a kairagi, a common thug in this land of electro.
“Let me try my blade,” the purple samurai leader taunted him.
To a harbinger, they were but a pest that was not worth his time.
“My collection… The sea ganoderma…” Rey’s devastated voice echoed in the older man’s ear. The previous slash struck and destroyed the boy’s rucksack and precious collection. The sea ganoderma that Scaramouche gave him was burnt into crisp by the electro imbued slash.
A catalyst manifested from the harbinger’s free hand. Violent violet was wrapping the floating weapon and gleaming on his dark blue eyes.
“You picked the wrong opponent, trash.”
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・
The rogue samurais were decimated in a blink of an eye by the Balladeer’s powerful electro strikes. There was no retaliation as they were done in one strike, much like Rey’s precious Inazuma’s collection that was left helplessly by the beach of Tatarasuna.
It should not be his problem. Those common items were easy to be replaced and held no value at all. Yet, Scaramouche found himself feeling guilty for failing to prevent the damage.
“The sea grass was the first one I saw when I arrived in Ritou…” Rey started talking after being dead silent for quite long. “The lavender melon was given to me by a kind lady who made pizza in the city.”
Scaramouche was feeling even more guilty. Rey collected those items because they held sentimental value.
“And the sea ganoderma was the first…” Rey did not continue.
“Those things are everywhere, you can collect them again in no time,” was Scaramouche’s way of comforting the boy. What a terrible job he was doing here. The older man was scratching his head, trying to come up with something that was unusual for the usual him; some kind, comforting words for the son of his beloved.
“Kid, I can help you collect them again,” he offered, though he himself thought that was not a really great offer as the sentimental value was not equal to what was lost.
Contrary to what he expected, Rey actually beamed at his proposal. “Really? That’s a promise!”
Scaramouche found himself smiling in relief as Rey regained his mood back.
“You’re pretty strong, uncle.”
“Don’t call me that, I’m not your uncle. And I’m not only pretty strong, I’m hella strong,” Scaramouche replied.
“Where’s your electro vision? Mommy wears it on her back,” Rey’s curious eyes asked him.
“I’ll buy you dango if you can guess it correctly,” Scaramouche smirked, knowing Rey could never guess it right.
Still in the older man’s hold, Rey swayed his legs as Scaramouche walked towards their destination.
・・・━━━☂★━━━・・・