Chapter Text
Tall rising flames protruded from a two-story building, hissing and crackling echoed against the building's surroundings, a scary sight. Following the sharp smell of smoke was the actaul billowing grey clouds themselves. After a few moments of the unfolded seen playing out, another sound started to near, the sound of a high pitched siren. Hope.
Hope to calm the evasive hot orange fire. Hope to save any of those left behind to fend for themselves against the unrelenting inferno. Hope for the familys of the people trapped inside the blazing building.
Hope.
As the red and blue flashing lights, blurred from the large amount of smoke, shone through, it became clear that the damage was beyond saving. Gloom.
Gloom that the grim memories of this event would come to haunt every victim's dreams, to feast on any happy memories conjured in this very burning building. Gloom that would leave long lasting traumatic effects on the mental health of each person involved.
All those souls inside, never getting a full chance at life, to die so young, to die at all. A tragedy. Death is always followed by a checklist of events, being tallied off one by one. The first of those is grief, the sorrowful cries of intense heartbreak as someone so close to you has suddenly gone, nothing you could've done to prevent something of this magnitude, still you feel guilt. Then as those recover and move on they forget, the news of the tragedy is lost and burried under the current story of pity being shared and gossiped about. Soon, no one remembers those that left this plane of existance.
There is nothing to prevent that, change is good. Though some souls would disagree with that sentiment, and when that arrogant mindset comes into play things prove to get messy.
--------------------------About 25 years later---------------------------
An indigo haired boy sat in a spacious room, the bed he had seated himself on was a full size, and had dark purple and red designed sheets. His walls were barren and other then a shelf empty of books, a small computer desk, and a few unpacked boxes waiting for him the room was vacant. The boy wore an oversized jacket and some black sweatpants, his hands were busy petting a small white and black cat curled on his lap.
"Scaramouche!" A sharp angry voice carried all the way over to the boy's room. Responding with a bitter sigh he stood up, the cat once comfortable now leaped to the ground in elegance trotting away on light paw steps. "I'm coming mom!" Scarmouche yelled back in response. He walked out of his room rushing down the small flight of stairs soon coming face to face with a tall mature woman, long braided purple hair hanging over her shoulder.
"I told you to take the rest of your belongings upstairs, and especially to get them ready for school tommorow." Ei, his mother, huffed out folding her arms across her chest and giving him a disappointed shake of her head.
"I told you I would, I was just busy." Scara responded in a snarky tone, picking up his backpack and littered folders with a slight attitude. He wasn't particularly beaming with joy for the upcoming school day, after all this was a complete new school, with complete new people, other than Kazuha. Oh Kazuha. Just another stress on top of another, only if his mom didn't choose to move halfway through senior year.
"Dont take that tone up with me." She asserted, uncrossing her arms and placing them against her hips, whipping around and walking out, the clicking of her shoes carrying down the hallway she dissapeared into.
"I didn't even have a tone." He muttered under his breath, taking everything back up the stairs and to his empty room. "I am not unpacking right now." He complained throwing the school supplies onto the floor without a second thought and collapsing onto the warm inviting comfoter. His cat, rook, speedily returned to his owner's side, snuggling close against him, emanating low rumbles.
If there was one thing that could help him back into an optimistic outlook, it was his cat. Scaramouche lazily reached a hand over brushing his knuckles under the small felines chin, earning a loud purr. "Ah you had a little itch there didn't you buddy?" He commented, flipping over to face his furry companion. "You have no idea just how much tommorows gonna suck, you just eat, play, shit, and sleep. What a relaxing life, if only I could switch places with you. Then I wouldnt have to interact with any sucky humans." He grumbled out the last part, sitting up and staring at the multitude of boxes stacked around his room like a dangerous game of jenga. Pulling out his phone to check the time he noticed a notification from an unknown number.
[Hey Scara, I know its been a long time, but if you wanted to I thought it'd be a great idea to set a time for you and Kazuha to hang out, just like old times. -Beidou]
Hell no, that was not going to happen, not in a million years. The last time he met up with his old friend Kazuha didn't want anything to do with him, why would he want to now? He decided to just ignore the text message, easily gliding his fingers across the screen and swiping it away. If the rest of the school year was going to be like this he might as well drop out. Now that he could actaully focus he glanced at the time 11:43 PM, it was getting a little late, if he wanted school to be atleast bearable he'd better get some shut eye, and soon.
He slid his phone on the sheets next to him and wrapped his arms around his cat pulling the fuzzy little animal closer. Scaramouche's eyelids slowly fell while his brain soon drifted to rem sleep, his dreams consisted of nothing important, a couple nightmarish like moments, but other than that it was normal.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
He shot up, grabbing his phone with a tight grip and hitting the off button all within a couple seconds. Scara groaned loudly, out stretching his arms behind him and bringing them back after he deemed himself loose enough. Rook was still curled by his side, but was wide awake staring back up at Scara with large round eyes. "Hungry, huh." He offered, slowly lifting himself off of the bed and onto his feet. Rook loudly meowed in response repeating Scaramouche's actions by jumping down and rubbing himself against Scara's legs.
Scara grabbed his phone and hurried to get himself ready for school, after doing the important things like brushing his teeth, eating, and feeding his cat he was pretty much ready, now just waiting on his mother Ei to get her belongings in order. While waiting at the table he noticed another unknown text, opening it he saw it was from the same person.
[Scara, I know that you might think Kazuhas really angry, but he's not. He rethought everything and hes ready to talk again. -still Beidou]
Ugh. Not again, he couldn't beleive Kazuha would want to talk, not after everything that happened.
"Hey sweetie! I'm ready to go." Ei said pacing down the hall with a purse in hand and her car keys in the other.
"Are you excited?" His mom had this big grin across her face, she was clearly much more excited than he was. Scaramouche merely shrugged in response slinging his backpack over his shoulder and striding next to Ei as they walked to her car. "You should try making some actaul friends this go around Scara." He couldn't help but scoff at that, like she ever gave him the time to with all this moving. He opened the car door seating himself in the passenger seat and buckling himself in, he already got a schedule, that he didn't get a choice in making. Pulling it out of his pocket he did a quick once over, every elective was one he'd never imagined himself doing, art, anatomy, and theater? Wasn't it too late in the year for him to join something like that, whatever, he could probably just change around what he didn't like anyway.
Shoving the small paper back into his front jean pocket he pulled the backpack sitting on him closer, till it rested on his chest, and stared outside the window, watching the passing unfamiliar scenery. Not many buildings or houses were in between the route from his home to the school, not that where they lived was very populated anyway.
Once Scaramouche finally reached the school he got to realize just how small it really was. One-story tall and not a lot of ground was covered with that one-story building, at least not as much as it should be for a normal school. He opened the car door about to close it when his mom practically yelled out "Have a good day at school Scara, I love you!" He didn't respond instead pacing off to the building as fast as he could walk. He was not going to have a good day.
When he actaully entered the building the familiar smell of learning hit his nostrils, a mix of sweaty kids and books and such. It didnt give him very happy memories, but he dealt with it, reaching the front office he explained the situation getting a couple of sympathetic quips here and there about starting again at a new school, especially so late in the year. He then got told a basic understanding of where everything was, taking the slip of paper from his pocket again and walking around to his first class, algebra 2. No one really interacted with him through most classes, probably because of his resting face, not that he minded though.
By the time 8th period rolled around he was getting tired, not to mention the amount of homework he already managed to wrack up on the first day. He was just hoping this class would be easier then his others, he opened the door and was immediately greeted to a few kids practicing lines for the play. The teacher he knew as Mr. Kamisato was idly writing something on a piece of paper every so often, seemed pretty chill so far. Scaramouche forwarded himself over to the desk, tapping on it lightly to catch the light-blue haired man's attention. "Hey I'm the new kid." He said adducting his hand back to the side of his body. The man looked up to Scaramouche with an unamused look, "Yeah, mhm go ahead and sit down we'll get a script for you soon, in the mean time watch over what the other kids are doing and take some notes." The teacher the reached under his desk like he was looking for something.
Scaramouche took that as his queue to leave turning around and sitting in a seat. His eyes wandered over the small group of kids talking, no wonder he got signed up with this elective, they didnt have enough actors. A specific student then caught his eye, she had deep brown hair and wore pyjamas, she had this certain level of care free attitude with her that attracted his interest. She seemed to have way too much energy though, putting everything she had into her lines, not taking it as serious as she should've. "And then with the help of my knights, we will take what belongs to us!!" She screamed, her closed fists jutting into the air like she had already won this imaginary war on the script paper.
The partner she was working with had a small smirk on his face, "Why yes ofcourse, if us two kingdoms merged we'd be unbeatable." The shorter boy, with two small braided strands of hair on either side of his head, concurred.
The door then opened, but before Scaramouche could switch his gaze to the call of attention Mr. Kamisato was at his side holding a script up to him. "Ever since the kid before you got expelled we've needed a Kunikuzushi actor." His voice seemed tired and not all there, "Just try your best, not asking for too much." He sighed moving back to his desk to fiddle with more papers. Scaramouche held the script up to his face reading everything, he was about to look back up when a hand landed on his shoulder. Scara launched back in suprise quickly looking over and seeing Kazuha, the same guy who told Scaramouche that if he ever saw him again, he wasn't sure that he'd be able to hold back from punching him, just standing there with an awkward smile across his face.
"Huh?" Scara couldnt help but let out in confusion.
"Hi, scara." Kazuha retracted his hand resting it on the back of his neck and shifting his gaze to the floor. "I know its been a while, but..." He trailed off sighing and starting up again. "Could you stay behind after school andd come over to my place? I want to talk some things through with you. If your ok with that ofcourse." He added defensively raising his hands. "I won't force you or anything."
Scaramouche's facial expression turned from confusion to irritation. "But?" He couldnt find the right words.
"Please, I'll explain everything to you soon." Kazuha was begging, begging Scara? Wow.
Scaramouche crossed his arms and upturned his face slightly. "I uh, suppose, maybe." He muttered. Though it didn't seem to deter Kazuha he was practically beaming with joy. "Ok, ok after class I can bring you to theater tech where I do things like paint sets and work on lights, and we can stay there till I finish this one piece of work i have to get done. Sound good?"
Scaramouche was in amazement, Kazuha was acting like they hadn't so much as gone without a day of talking between the two of them since freshman year. Scaramouche nodded with uncertainty, why was he like this, was this all some ploy to beat him up after school? If so he would make sure to stay ready in case.
This would be one long first day.