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The wind rustled up the leaves and the grass under their feet, making for a calming song. And even though it was the middle of the night, they could see each other bright and clear in the light of the moon. Scaramouche sighed and dropped his gaze from the round object that hung in the sky to the woman standing on the summit of the mountain doing her divinations. He had already watched her for a while now, leaning on one of the many trees that grew there.
The way her hair moved in the wind seemed calm yet lively to him. Alive. Much like the element she was wielding. She then stopped the movement of her hands, thus pausing her hydromancy, which made him perk up. "Say," she began quietly after what seemed like at least half an hour of silence and turned her head to him, "You won't stay no matter what I say, will you?"
"What?" he laughed mockingly, "Are you going to miss me or something? Hmm? Mo-na ?"
Mona shot him a glare. He was always like this. She really couldn't make out what he was thinking most of the time. When they first met almost a year ago, she couldn't stand him and his guts precisely because he was behaving like this. Arrogant, rude, and obnoxious.
Back then she was still deciding whether she wanted to meet him again to make him take back what he said or to never have to see him again. But fate would have it that they met again by chance after all. And while she was still fuming about his outrageous claims about the stars, she couldn't help but be intrigued by his need to find out.. more.
The moment she realized he hadn't cared about her presence and had no intention of harming her, she finally let her muscles relax.
"You are simply boring me, witch. Be away, will you?" he had said with a dismissive move of his hand.
How dare he..!? She wanted to explode then and there. But when she caught a glimpse of a rather interesting trinket he carried around, all was forgotten.
She huffed indignantly. " You carry an astrolabe around?" It was a small, portable one.
His eyes narrowed and he shot her a quick look. "Just because I know that they are fake doesn't mean that I can't still extract information out of them." The emphasis he put on the 'know' irked her up again. He was arrogant beyond compare. And as much as she wanted to slap him across the face with some water, she couldn't bring herself to when she saw all the books he carried as well. He's a researcher… she thought to herself.
That was the beginning of their occasional meetings. Though those meetings were never 'planned', they were never really surprised to meet. They just saw each other and went up to the other to check on their research. At first, Mona felt bad for revealing her findings to him, but she soon realized that he shared equally important research with her.
Scaramouche didn't care. "All knowledge is good knowledge," he had said and narrowed his eyes in contemplation on her research, "I don't care what the Fatui say. I won't deny myself anything because of them. And if the condition you set is knowledge in return, I shall oblige."
Mona glanced up at him as he was looking over her shoulder down at her work. She understood. If the traveler and Mondstadt found out that she frequently met up with a dangerous Harbinger, she had no doubt she wouldn't hear the end of it. She was only thankful that, when they met, he came alone as well.
"The moon…" he sighed softly, "is beautiful tonight, isn't it?"
Mona turned around to look at him and blinked. "Yes.." she agreed and followed his gaze up to the jewel hanging in the sky, "But having you, who claims that the stars are fake, say that, is funny to me."
"Hmpf," he chuckled, "Doesn't mean that they don't hold beauty."
"Well…" Mona hummed and smiled, "I guess you're right."
"I am," he confirmed and locked eyes with her grinning, which made her face flush. She couldn't shake the feeling off, that there was more he meant to say. Or maybe did say more, but she didn't get it?
Ah, whatever it might be. The moon truly was beautiful tonight.