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Chapter Text

“Ahh finally some peace and quiet!”
You sighed, stretching your arms while lazily walking down the streets of liyue harbour, ‘your temporary home’ as you like to call it since your stay here only has to do with your training.

The stretch gave you a sharp pain in your arms so you decided to go back home and put some ice on them. That was until you smelled something delicious coming from the restaurant nearby.

‘I guess eating dinner outside won’t hurt..’

You decide to go eat at wanmin restaurant, one of your personal favourites, and the closest to your house too! The staff was always super nice to you and you enjoyed going there so you thought it was the best choice.

As soon as you get there you plop down your usual seat, ordering your usual dish.
As you were waiting for your order a really strange figure sat in the seat next to yours.
Strangely enough, they didn’t order anything, but just kept on looking around them as if they were searching for someone.
You take a closer look and notice that their..no.. his face was fairer than what you usually see here.

His outfit being rather eccentric, black with hints of red purple and white, a golden ornament laying on his chest.

And..

..a really big hat.

You have to admit that though that hat looked kind of weird to you it was also really beautiful, especially with that veil.
The small bells attached to it sounded really soothing too.

‘Must be someone from inazuma’
you shrug, recognizing the style of the clothing he’s wearing, not thinking much of it and turning around to wait for your meal.

That was until the stranger decided to talk to you.
“Excuse me, I’m looking for someone. Could you help me?” He sounded really friendly, although you noticed the smile on his face didn’t seem so genuine, as if he was faking it.

You turn to look at him and now that you have a better angle, you notice that he’s really pretty. You think he almost looks like a girl, which is a pretty funny thought considering his voice was the exact opposite of feminine.

“Ah no worries, sure I can help you! Describe them to me, I know everyone around these parts” you give him a warm smile, awaiting for some sort of description.

“He’s tall, has light blue hair, always wears a mask to cover his eyes..” the eccentric stops before going into further detail and looks at you, expecting an answer with a raised eyebrow.

You think about it for a while “mhhh..I don’t think I’ve seen anyone like that before, you should ask around a bit more if you want to find your friend. Sorry I couldn’t be of any help.” You look at him and his face seemed rather pissed, though he calms down immediately, getting up from his seat and starting to walk away before throwing a small bag on the counter.

“Thanks for the information, you can keep that, pay your meal with it. I’ll be leaving”

You take the bag curious to see what was inside, shocked to see mora, and lots of it too. You snap your head back to where he was standing just a second ago to see him walking off in the distance.

“WAIT-.. I couldn’t even thank him..” you reach out your arm to no avail, the sudden action making you hiss in pain.

You look at the figure slowly disappearing in the crowd, when suddenly a plate was put in front of you.

“Ah, thank you”
You turn to the waiter and hand him the mora that guy just gave you, a small smile on your face.

You start eating eagerly when you suddenly realize that stranger hasn’t even introduced himself to you, so even if you wanted you wouldn’t be able to ask around about him.

and so you finish your meal, leaving to go home, hoping to see that stranger again to be able to properly thank him.

Chapter Text

It has been exactly two weeks since you last saw that weird guy, too busy with your training to look for him.

“Too slow”
It was your mentor, the last remaining yaksha.
Adeptus xiao.

Being an immortal being yourself, your master thought it was for the best for you to train with the yaksha and after a really long talk with the geo archon, he finally agreed to teach you.

And you really thought it was going to be child’s play..

Oh how you were wrong.

It almost seemed like he was making you pay for wasting his time like this, making you do the most impossible tasks and fight the biggest monsters you could find.

“Are you that weak that you can’t even slay this lowly demon?”

You fell to the ground, exhausted from the long day behind you, snapping your head up to look at him, a displeased expression on his face, looking down at you with his arms crossed.

“Shut up! I’m not weak”

You quickly get up, a newfound strength making you kill the monster almost instantly letting all your frustration out.

You look up to where your teacher was standing, proud of your new achievement and sticking your tongue out to him like a five year old.
He looked down to you, a small smile appearing on his face.

“Good job. Seems like pushing your buttons works wonders”
Seeing him smile made you even happier than before, grinning like a child who was just given candy.

“We’re done for today, you can rest now”
He gets down to your level and starts leaving to work, meanwhile you start cheering because you can finally go home and rest.

Walking home, you decide to stop by wanmin restaurant to get something to eat as a treat for your new record.

There you find, once again, the same stranger from two weeks ago.

“Lost your friend again?”
You decide to approach him, sitting next to him and giving him a playful smile.

“Not this time”
he didn’t seem startled by your presence, turning to look at you, his gaze was inspecting your figure, noticing how some spots of your clothes looked dirty and how you had small injuries all over your body.

“You look pretty beat up.”
He states, looking you up and down as if judging you.

“Oh you know, part of my training”
You say with a smug expression really proud of your achievements, wanting to see his reaction.

The stranger just hums In response, waiting for his order as you ask for yours.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?”
You say, pretty annoyed by the fact that he didn’t seem amazed in the slightest.

“What should I say?”
He seems genuinely confused, his head slightly turning to the side with a questioning look.

“Something like ‘wow! You know how to fight? So cool!!’”

He looks at you with a horrified face at your impression of him, and that makes you quickly shut up muttering a small ‘sorry’.
You both stay quiet for a while until you decide to speak again.

“Thank you by the way, for the mora”
You smile

“It was nothing”
He quickly shuts down the conversation, an awkward aura surrounding the both of you, eating you alive while he seemed to enjoy the silence.

“I’m [y/n] by the way, and you are?”
You stick your hand out to greet him, he looks at you hesitantly and turns to look in front of him.

“There’s no need for me to introduce myself.”
His order arriving the moment he finished that sentence.
He whispered something in the waiter’s ear while paying, taking the bag of goods and walking away without even saying goodbye.
You were really annoyed at the insolence shown to you just now.

‘What’s with that guy’

After a while your order arrived too, you take out your wallet to pay and just as you do so the waiter stops you in your tracks.

“Miss, your meal has already been payed by the kind sir that left a while ago.” The waiter smiled politely, handing you what you ordered.

You thank him and walk away, contemplating what just happened.

“Maybe he’s not that bad after all”

Chapter Text

“I shall take my leave now, have fun with your little mission”

Scaramouche could only nod in response as he watched dottore leave for the ships sailing to shnezhnaya, guards following swiftly behind him.

It was his first solo mission, nothing too crazy, just some investigation from the inside.
This was sort of a test, to see if he would be fit as a leader, and he couldn’t fail.

All he had to do was gain enough info about the whereabouts of the gnosis and that was it, he would become the sixth harbinger.

He kept watching dottore leaving on the ship, now all alone with nothing to do except roaming the streets
until his agents find some useful info, then file a report to the headquarters and back to shnezhnaya we go. Easy.

He started walking in the city, looking at shops, trying to find something to entertain himself with, until a certain someone caught his eye.

He saw you sitting on a table with a really tall man, listening to a storyteller while drinking tea, both in a religious silence, you looked more tense than when he met you the first two times.

Scaramouche watched you from afar, not sure if he should approach you or not.
You didn’t know eachother, it was only logical to not do it, so he started walking again, thinking about going back to the northland bank to see if there were any news about the gnosis.

That was until he caught your eye.

As soon as you saw him you spat your tea in shock, profusely apologizing to zhongli and running off to stop him.

‘I need to thank him before he disappears again’

“Hey! You-“

He seems to stop in his tracks as soon as he hears your voice, turning around with a questioning look.
You stop right in front of him, breathing heavily from all the running you just did.

“Ah, it’s you again, what do you want?”
He crosses his arms and looks at you, an aura of arrogance never leaving him.

“Well. first of all, thank you for paying for my meal, again..” you try to put a hand on his shoulder but he avoids it.
you mentally scoff as you keep talking.
“Second of all, could I at least know your name?”

The man in front of you rolls his eyes
“I guess I could let you know my name”
He sighs loudly.

‘Jeez there’s no need to be so dramatic’
you think as he opens his mouth to speak again.

“I am Scaramouche, pleasure to meet you…uh..”

“[y/n], I told you my name before”
you give him an annoyed look, but quickly recompose yourself

“Nice to meet you too Scaramouche”

You smile at him, happy to finally know the name of the person that payed for two of your meals for no apparent reason.

You stare at eachother for a while, then he speaks.

“Uh, was that all you wanted to say?”

He looks at you confused as to why you’re still there.
You flush from embarrassment realizing that you forgot to say the most important thing.

“Oh- right sorry. I wanted to ask if I could treat you to dinner sometime? To repay the favor” you smile

He looks at you baffled, not expecting such a thing,

‘I only payed for her meals because I pitied her, and now she wants to repay the favor? Hahah’ he mentally laughed at your stupidity, amused by your weird personality.

“There’s no need for such things”
He tried to turn around to leave but you grabbed his wrist
“Wait!”

“What now?”
He snapped his head back, really annoyed at the way you just nonchalantly touched him. He looked like he was about to kill you but you held his wrist even harder.

“I insist, let me pay for at least one of your meals”
You looked pretty determined about this, he looked at you with an unamused expression.

‘Humans and their weird beliefs, tsk’

“Fine, I’ll let you treat me to dinner. Once.”
You let his wrist go and clapped your hands happily

“Great!! I’ll see you tomorrow at wanmin restaurant! Around 7pm”
That’s all you said before saying goodbye and running off to where you were sitting before.

“Whatever.”
Scaramouche turned around, walking towards the northland bank, holding his temples with his hand.

‘This girl will give me a headache’.

—-

The day after your encounter passed faster than expected, being already almost 6pm.

As usual you were training with the adeptus.
He finally thought you were worthy of fighting against him, so the whole day you prepared for your big fight.

Of course that didn’t end well, because not even five minutes into the sparring you were already rolling on the floor.

“Can’t you hold back a bit?!”

“That would not be beneficial for your training.”
The yaksha looked at you, his stare as cold as ever.

“Get up, we still have some time left before it gets dark.”

You begrudgingly get up, holding firmly your polearm, ready to be thrown on the ground again.

“Let’s make this quick”

That’s all you say before leaping forward to try and catch him by surprise.
Of course he saw it coming, calmly dodging with a spin.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

You grab your polearm tighter, preparing to throw it when suddenly he’s standing behind you.
You quickly turn around to counter whatever hit he was going to inflict on you, managing to slightly bring him off balance.
You see your opening and you bring your leg forward to make him stumble, then trapping him to the ground with your weapon.

“Heh, didn’t expect that now did you?”

You say as you wipe your sweat from your forehead, helping him up.

“I see. You’re improving faster than expected”

If it weren’t for the fact that you were right in front of him, you would’ve never noticed the small smile on his face.

“Well, I guess that today we’ll end our training session earlier. As a reward.”

Your smile grew bigger and your eyes brightened at the news. Cheering for the small victory you just achieved.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, have a good evening”
And just like that, he disappeared in thin air.
Still as happy as a few minutes ago, you run back to the city.

——

‘I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that human’
Scaramouche mentally scolded himself for trusting you’d be there.

“Sir is there anything you would like to order?”
His thoughts stopped by the waiter, a polite smile on his face while he waits for the (almost) harbinger to answer.
He’s been sitting there for quite a while, getting weird stares from people walking by.

He held the bridge of his nose with his right hand, shooing away the waiter with the other.

“No, I’ll be le-“
“Scaramouche!!”
The puppet turns his head to see you running towards the shop, waving his way.
When you reached your destination you were exhausted, the hours of training finally catching up to you.

“Sorry I’m late, I was training”

And he could see you were not lying.
Some parts of your clothes looked dirty, like you were rolling in the mud (which you were) and your hands were littered with scratches, not to mention that cut on your cheek.

“I see. Well then, are you going to keep your word?”

He looks at you expectantly as you get the seat next to his, turning your head to smile at him.

“Ah yes, what do you want to eat?”
You call the waiter over as you both order a nice meal, now waiting for your dinner.

“How was your day?”
You were the first to break the silence between you two, resting your head on your hand.

“It was normal.”
He immediately cut off the conversation, preferring silence over small talk.

Although some minutes later, he decides to speak again.

“What do you do in your training to look so beat up afterwards?”
Judging by his tone of voice you figured he was curious about wanting to know more about fighting.
He didn’t seem like a fighter, so you just assumed he wanted to be one. What a mistake you made.

“It’s really hard, if you’re thinking about following my training routine don’t, focus more on the beginner stuff”
You seemed pretty confident saying all that, a smug smile on your face.
That smile fell immediately after seeing the face the puppet next to you was making.

“Oh I can fight all right. in fact, I think I’m definitely stronger than you”
He looks at you with a smirk, obviously challenging you.

“Is that a challenge?” You get closer, just as interested in whatever was going to happen.

“It’s not a challenge, it’s a fact”
He says matter of factly while he keeps looking at you with that same smirk, waiting for your next move.
Suddenly, you step away from his face and clap your hands.
“Well then, I invite you to a sparring match. Whenever you’d like”
Your voice not failing to sound just as excited as you were feeling.
Scaramouche pondered for a while, then opened his mouth to speak

“In that case, we’ll fight in a week. All you need to tell me is where we’re going to have our little match.”

“Great! We can meet eachother here and walk all the way to my training grounds. My mentor will be the judge.”

“Good. I’m looking forward to our fight”
And just as he said that, the waiter left both your dishes on the table.

“Seems like our food has arrived, well then let’s eat!”
You get your chopsticks and start eating really eagerly, needing to restore your energies after the hard training you endured.
Meanwhile the fatui next to you was eating really elegantly, following all the proper etiquette, he was acting as if he was royalty to which you roll your eyes, focusing on the delicious food.

After you both finished eating, you payed for everything and started walking back home with scaramouche, trying to start conversations from time to time but getting no response from him other than a hum.

“It was nice having dinner with you, it’s always better eating with friends”
You smile and he frowns, looking away from you.

The last time someone considered himself his friend he was betrayed, the memories from tatarasuna flooding back in his brain.
He realised he was letting his guard down around you and he hated it, that’s why he mentally cursed himself for allowing himself to enjoy spending time with someone.
His expression changed from a calm one to a furious one, clenching his fists he looks away from you.

“We’re not friends.”
That’s all he said before fleeing the scene, leaving behind a really confused you.

‘What’s up with that’ you think, while opening the door of your house, shrugging it off as soon as you enter your home.

Chapter Text

The week passed fairly quickly, the both of you occasionally meeting multiple times.
On those times you managed to get more information about him. For starters he confirmed he’s from inazuma, and that his stay in liyue won’t last long, you frowned at that, hoping he could still come and visit you sometimes.

He also told you he doesn’t like sweets, and at that you immediately gasped looking at him disappointed, that was until he started lecturing you on how bitter dishes taste better and went on with his ramble until you begged him to stop.

You got to know eachother more, and even though scaramouche was still as arrogant and annoying as ever, you could manage to have a nice chat together.
He didn’t want to admit you were slowly becoming friends.

And now it was finally the day of your friendly sparring match.
You both seemed excited about this, meeting at you usual spot at wanmin restaurant and starting to walk towards your training grounds, where xiao was waiting.

Ah that’s right, you told xiao about you wanting to train with your new friend that claims to be better than you, he seemed pretty intrigued and agreed to your match, saying it would benefit you to fight with someone different from time to time.

After a while of walking you finally got there, scaramouche looked around to see a really big space, supposedly where you were going to fight, and someone in the middle of it.

The place was an open field, he could see some weird training machinery made by cloud retainer on the sides, and lots of training dummies laying around half broken.

“So this is where you train” he adjusted his hat while turning to your direction, seeing you suddenly really focused.

Your whole demeanour drastically changed, you didn’t seem like the outgoing and energetic person you were before, the atmosphere around the both of you got more intense every minute that passed.

Scaramouche didn’t say anything, he only smirked in anticipation of your fight.
‘This will be interesting’

You walked towards the adeptus and he greeted you, telling you both to get ready to fight.

“Don’t get too mad when I win this”
You say, your words pretty confident as the harbinger in front of you got into his fighting stance.

“Ha, as if you would be able to lay a finger on me”
His smirk never leaving his face, excitement filling his body, he really was itching to fight.

Xiao gave you the signal and your sparring match started.

The fight was intense, both of you really focused on winning against the other, you managed to land some hits and get him off balance, but scaramouche quickly regained it and attacked you back, going back and forth.

This went on for a while, both of you growing tired. Realising this was never going to end if you just kept hitting without thinking, you make a quick plan. Hoping it would work.

Suddenly you get behind him, trying to distract him with your kicks hoping he wouldn’t notice as much the polearm in your hand, you held it firmly and you made him trip, causing him to fall to the ground.

What you didn’t notice is that he was pulling you to the ground with him, suddenly slamming you to the floor with his body on top of yours.

“See, I win”
He was panting really hard, sweat forming on his forehead, a smirk appearing on his lips.

You smirked too, and suddenly pushed him off of you with a kick, causing him to fall on his back. You took the opportunity, quickly getting up and throwing your polearm next to his head and trapping him to the ground with both your body and your weapon.
You were stepping on his left arm, holding your polearm firmly to not fall from exhaustion, panting heavily and letting out a laugh.

“You jinxed it for yourself”

He looked at you, wide eyes filled with shock. He didn’t think you’d be able to even land a hit on him, let alone win. He has to admit he’s pretty impressed with your skill.

Xiao appeared in front of you both. Still in the same position, you two turn your heads.

“It appears [y/n] is the victor”
He then turns completely towards you.

“You did well, you may rest now. Come tomorrow to resume with your training”

He then disappeared in thin air.

When you regained your strength, you moved away from scaramouche, trying to extend a hand for him to grab, but instead of grabbing it he ignored it and got up on his own, dusting off his clothes.

“That was fun, we should do it again”
You said, seemingly really content with your achievement.

“Next time I won’t go easy on you”
He snapped his head your way, his strong gaze meeting yours.

“I’m looking forward to that.”
You gave him a smile in return.

You decided to go back to liyue harbour together and have dinner at the restaurant, it almost became a habit now.
Getting your usual orders you talked about everything and anything, exchanging fighting tips occasionally.

You started to eat and noticed scaramouche suddenly got quieter than usual, he seemed in deep thought.

‘This human is really interesting, she managed to beat me in a fight, but she seems so weak and frail. Her personality is really obnoxious but I guess I could put up with that…if I can keep sparring with her.’

After eating, he payed for your meal again, saying something about you winning your fight, and you both went your separate ways, planning to meet again the next day.

——

“My lord! We have news about the gnosis”
A fatui agent appeared out of nowhere while scaramouche was reading the files about the mission inside of the northland bank.

He raised his head from the papers to look at the solider kneeling in front of him, as if to allow him to continue.

“We know the geo archon is disguising himself as a citizen of liyue harbour, supposedly going by zhongli”

Scaramouche gave the soldier an angered look, his eyes shining dangerously.
“Tell me about the whereabouts of the gnosis, that information alone isn’t enough.”

“I…sir- we haven’t found anything ye-“

“Then don’t come to me unless you have actually useful information. Now go.”
He waved his hand to shoo the agent away, and he disappeared again, kneeling one last time before leaving.

Scaramouche sighed in annoyance at how incompetent his men were, pinching the bridge of his nose.
He lowered his head again to keep looking through the papers that were all over his desk.
He’d rather do anything else but he knows how important this is for his mission, convincing himself to work once again.

Chapter Text

“I’m fucked.”
You stare at the five or six ruin guards in front of you, getting up from their slumber as you hold your weapon firmly in your hand.
How did it even get to this point?

Oh right.

You were just completing a commission for the adventurers guild, it was supposed to be an easy task, just clear out an abandoned temple from any possible Hilichurls that might reside in it.

You cleared it out in no time and decided to play with some of the mechanisms, really bad decision.

You opened a hidden door and decided to explore a bit more.
The inside seemed like that of a laboratory, though it was completely empty.
There were some tables with blueprints all over, weird machinery hanging from the walls and tubes on the floor, some of them seemed old and ruined while some were completely broken.
You decide to give the blueprints a closer look, on the papers you see…intructions on how to create ruin guards? You guessed from the drawings on them.

“How did these get here?”
You grab the blueprint and stare at it closely, you look at it for a bit longer, trying to understand it’s contents but everything was written in a language you didn’t seem to understand.

You leave the paper on the table, inspecting the other strange things on it.
You see nothing interesting, just a bunch of ruin guard parts and other things you didn’t recognise.
You walk around that abandoned lab for some time until you notice another door, you decide to enter it.

The room you were in was dark, though it felt like a really vast space.
Suddenly the lights in the room turn on and you squint your eyes at the sudden bright source of light, when you open them fully you’re met with a bunch of dormient ruin guards.

Your immediate instinct was to grab your polearm, holding it so tightly you thought it was going to snap any minute, cold sweat dripping down your forehead.

You were about to charge in the fight when you noticed the machines weren’t responding, you let out a shaky breath in relief and assume they were just broken.
You start leaving the room when your weapon falls from your hands, they were still shaking from the scare you got before, you turn around to get it when you hear it.

They were moving.

You widen your eyes and quickly get your polearm off the floor, holding it in your shaky hands again, preparing to fight.

“I’m fucked.”

——

Scaramouche was in his office pacing around the room, he seemed really upset while muttering something under his breath.
“That human, I haven’t seen her the whole day. She promised we would train together yet she disappeared in thin air.”
He doesn’t want to admit it but he was looking forward to seeing you, so much so he searched the whole liyue harbour and when he couldn’t find you he stomped back to his office.
He couldn’t quite explain this feeling towards you, he felt as if he needed you around at all times, sometimes he caught himself letting his guard down around you and he mentally cursed himself, repeating to himself that humans can’t be trusted.

His muttering was interrupted by a soldier rushing in the room.
“My lord! There’s an emergency!”
Scaramouche stopped his pacing to glare at the man, he looked like he was about to shock his poor agent into next week.
“Talk fast. I don’t have time for this”
He kneeled in front of his superior.

“My lord, someone entered lord dottore’s old laboratory, there was a signal of the ruin guards awakening, should I send any of my men to investigate?”

Scaramouche sighed, this seemed like the perfect distraction from your disappearance.

“No need to, I’ll go myself. No one follow me.”

“Yes sir!”
The stressed out solider kept his head low.

Scaramouche walked out of his office, pleased to finally have some ‘fun’ today.
——

You were exhausted.
Turns out, there were more than only five ruins guards, and you managed to only kill four of them.

You didn’t have the strength to fight anymore, so you were just dodging the attacks and hoping you would find a way to flee the place.

Your plan seemed to be working because you finally found an opening to run away from, you rush to it with all you’ve got but you barely get there.

One of the ruin guards managed to hit you during your escape, so you fell to the ground, hissing in pain and holding your side. You look at your hand to see blood.

“Shit”
You manage to hiss out when you see the hoard of machines that was about to kill you any moment now.

You try to get up, using your weapon as a support and decide there’s no other way out other than fighting.
You charge forward but your body falls to the ground almost immediately, too hurt to keep fighting.
You were about to close your eyes when you hear a voice, and a really familiar one too, walking in the room while clapping his hands.

“Well well well who do we have he-“
He stops in his tracks when he sees you on the floor, holding your side while blood was flowing out of you, a bunch of ruin guards ready to attack you.

“You…what are you doing here?!”
His voice is angry yet relieved, a really vague hint of concern.
He was angry at you for getting yourself in this situation, but a side of him was also relieved you didn’t ‘betray’ him.

“Scaramouche?”
Your voice was barely audible for him. But that’s all he needed to hear.
He leaped forward and stood in between you and the monsters.

“Since you’re so weak you can’t even defend yourself, I’ll help you.”
His face was rather confident, and he was content he could finally kill something, his hands had been itching for a fight all day.
“Such a nuisance, I’m embarassed you were able to defeat me during our sparring match.”

The ruin guards got closer to him ready to attack, though they didn’t have the chance to do so since scaramouche managed to strike them all down in one go, the air feeling so electric you were almost starting to faint. You didn’t know whether it was the blood loss or the amount of electro that filled the room.

He laughed maniacally at the sight of the broken ruin guards in front of him, pleased to see them destroyed in front of him.
Then suddenly he remembered you were behind him and he turned around, walking towards you.
Even though he was trying not to show it, he was deeply concerned for you, he thought you were about to die in his hands, just like..

“Are you okay?” He kneeled in front of you, trying to help you up. His voice was softer than usual, concern visible in his eyes.
He was being really gentle in this moment, careful not to hurt you more.

You cough a bit, spitting out blood, you couldn’t even stand up right now ‘I’m so pathetic’.
“That’s your answer” you let out a chuckle that makes you spit out more blood.
You still manage to be as annoying as ever even as you’re dying.
He rolls his eyes and carefully grabs you, now carrying you bridal style.

“If you die I’ll kill you”
You lean a bit more into him, still holding your side to stop any more blood from spilling out. You were relishing the warmth from his body, feeling yours gradually get colder, your eyes feeling strangely heavy.

You manage to get back to liyue harbour really fast and scaramouche brings you back to your house, gently placing you in your bed as he gets whatever is needed to patch you up.

He comes back in the room with the materials he needs, getting a chair to sit next to your bed.

“Take off your clothes”
He says that with the most serious tone ever, and you can’t help but get embarassed, your cheeks slightly turning pink while you looked away from him. He seems to notice you getting flustered because his cheeks also turn red, and he furrows his brows scoffing at you.

“Don’t get the wrong idea. Do you want your injury to get more infected than it already is?”
He sounds more concerned now, looking at your side almost completely teared out, some blood still spilling out. The sight gave him chills, he had risenti that seeing you almost dead in his arms brought back some unwanted memories, but he shrugged them off quickly deciding to worry about those things later.

You turn back to look at him, now a bit more embarassed than before.
“I can’t take them off on my own”
And at that he sighs in annoyance, gently helping you move your clothes out of the way of your injury.

He then started to slowly disinfect your wound, you hissed in pain as soon as the medicine made contact with your flesh.

“Shit, that hurts!”
You try to yell at him, he just rolls his eyes at you

“It’s your fault for getting hit in the first place, who knew you were this weak.”
He put more medicine on your teared out flesh making you curse under your breath again.

Even though he was complaining the whole time he still went out of his way to help you, which stunned you to say the least. You didn’t expect him to be so soft and caring.

After he finished removing all the shards and dirt that were stuck to your wound, he started to bandage it, making sure not to make it too tight for you.

“Thank you”
You whispered, a faint smile on your face.
On his cheeks the smallest hint of pink, adverting his gaze from yours.

“There’s no need to thank me. And if you don’t mind, I’ll stay with you for a bit longer, the wound might get infected again if I don’t treat it every once in a while.”
He said all that while taking away the tools he used to aid you, bringing them back to their original place.

“It’s okay, there’s food in the kitchen if you’re hungry.”
And his eyes widened at that.
‘she is worrying about me when she’s the one that almost died…what a foolish human.’
He didn’t say anything in response, deciding to just walk in the kitchen and cook something for you to regain some of your strength.

He went for some simple soup, knowing that it would be too hard for you to eat anything else. He walked into your room to see you sleeping peacefully with your head slightly turned to the side, your breathing steady as you seemed to be in a deep sleep.

He put the soup on the desk in your room and sat on the chair he positioned near the bed, looking at your sleeping figure.
He felt as if he was in a trance, as if you put him under a spell, he couldn’t quite explain what he was feeling.
he looked at your face, your expression so calm it seemed surreal, your mouth was slightly open, lips curving into a small smile.
‘She must be having a good dream’
He smiles as the sight of you being so comfortable around him, and decides not to wake you, admiring your features a bit longer instead.

That’s when he realises you’re still half naked in front of him.
It’s not like you weren’t wearing anything, it’s just that it was really indecent, the clothing on your upper half was just enough to cover your chest.
His ears went red from embarrassment, just now remembering he took your clothes off to clean your wound, and he couldn’t cover you with the bedsheets either because you were sleeping on them.

“You stupid-“
He murmured under his breath, trying not to wake you up, because if you did you were going to be greeted by a vulnerable and weak scaramouche and he definitely didn’t want that.

He decides to quickly grab a blanket from your closet, carefully putting it on top of you, he starts to panic again when he sees your eyes fluttering, just for you to move your head the other side.

Scaramouche sighs in relief, slumping in his chair, deciding it would be better if he just tried sleeping aswell. Since he couldn’t leave you unattended.

Chapter Text

Scaramouche sighed in frustration on his chair

He was still looking over to you even after a few hours, unable to fall asleep, looking at your sleeping figure instead.
He couldn’t seem to get his eyes and mind away from you, it was eating him alive.

‘What is wrong with me, I’m not supposed to feel like this’

He looked down to his hands, lowering his head to hold it in his hands and letting out a frustrated groan.

He didn’t know what he was feeling, it was weird, it was foreign. Something he never felt before.
It wasn’t anger nor any negative feeling, it was something he felt years ago, when he met his first friend, and it scared him.
He couldn’t let himself be attached to a human again, he knew that it would end in failure.

‘humans are frail, they break apart so easily and they deceive you..they can’t be trusted…so why do I care so much?..’

You let out a small groan and he raises his head immediately, looking at you with wide eyes as you tried to get into a sitting position and failed, falling back into your bed cursing.

“You’re still injured, don’t force your body too much”
He rolled his eyes, quickly regaining composure as you were still confused about what had happened.

Then your memories came flooding in and you widened your eyes, snapping your head back at him
“Scaramouche! Are you okay? Sorry I was such a burden I should’ve been able-”

“Don’t stress your pretty little head about it, it’s fine”
He looked back at you with serious eyes, waving his hand as if dismissing what you just said.
At that you calmed down a bit, sighing in relief when suddenly your stomach grumbled.

You let out a breathy laugh, looking over to him while he scoffed at you, rolling his eyes and grabbing the soup he made you.

“It’s cold because you fell asleep, deal with it”
He shied away from your curious gaze, a small smile forming on your lips muttering a small ‘thank you’.
You try to grab it but your arms won’t respond to you, too exhausted to move.
That’s when you realised you couldn’t eat it while laying down, so you look up to your friend with pleading eyes.
“Can you feed it to me? I’m still too weak to do it myself” you give him the best puppy eyes you could make and he widened his eyes, looking offended you even asked him something like that.

“How dare you-“ he stopped when he saw your expression, he let out a groan and grabbed the spoon, giving in to your request “only this once.”

He approached your face with the spoon full of soup, you opened your mouth and started eating slowly.
Your eyes lit up at the taste, quickly finishing the first sample of it.

“This is delicious! Did you make this?”

He rolled his eyes at your stupid question
“Of course I did? Did you expect me to be a bad cook or something?” He said that while filling the spoon again and feeding you it a bit more aggressively this time, almost making you choke.

“Hey!!”
You looked at him annoyed and he just shrugged
“You deserved it”

He kept feeding you until there was no more soup left, every time stealing small glances to your lips, a hint of blush never leaving his cheeks.

“Thank you scara” you smiled and he gave you a puzzled look

“Scara..?” He questioned while putting the plate back on your desk

“It’s a nickname! Your name is too long anyway”
You grin at him and he looks away, embarassed by all the attention and kind words you’ve been giving him, secretly relishing everything you said to him.

“By the way..” scaramouche started, his head still turned towards your desk “you should wear something to cover up” he says nonchalantly, and that’s when you realise your shirt barely covered your chest, you get flustered for the millionth time today and quickly ask the harbinger to pass you a clean shirt from your closet.
He obliged and gave you the clothes, putting it on for you since you weren’t able to do it yourself.

“Thank you, for everything”
Your smile as bright as ever, he just turned around, not saying anything and leaving the room.

——
It has been two weeks since your incident and things have been going pretty smoothly, your wound was recovering really fast thanks to scaramouche’s help.
He’s been coming around from time to time, checking on you since you had no one else to take care of you while zhongli left temporarily to go to monstadt.

Aside from lots of embarrassing moments, like when you asked him to wash your hair for you (which he did after a lot of persuading), your bond with the puppet was surely becoming stronger, he even started calling you by your name!

“Y/n, did you take the medicine I told you to?”

“Haha…look at the birds outside…”
You tried to ignore the question but failed miserably, scaramouche then proceeded to shove the medicine in your mouth, forcing you to take it.

“Archons how are you so stupid? If you don’t take the medicine you won’t be able to recover you little-“
He was about to start with his ‘friendly’ insults again, but before he could you stopped him by asking for food.

He begrudgingly agreed to cook for you and half an hour later he was back with a plate of rice with some meat next to it. You snatched the tray of food from him and started eating like a starved man.

“How can a human eat so much…”
He was baffled at how much you were eating, shoving the food in your mouth and swallowing it without even chewing.

“Wahf?”
You said with your mouth full of rice, he gave you a disgusted look and left without saying anything. You shrugged, knowing he would probably be back in a bit.

You noticed he was acting nicer than what you were used to, was it because you were injured? You figured that was the answer, he seemed to be really skilled in taking care of people, you wonder what his past was like.

He didn’t tell you much about his past or his line of work, just saying he’s still working to get an important role in this weird organisation. You didn’t care much about it anyway, as long as he kept paying for your meals.
You laughed at the thought, finishing the rice he made you, thinking about what you were going to do after recovering fully.

Just as you expected, scaramouche came back in your room, two cups of tea in his hand, he placed one next to you while taking a sip from the other

“I made some tea, drink it if you’d like”
You take the cup in your hand, looking at it and then at the figure standing in front of you. He let out a sigh already knowing what you were going to ask.

“It’s sweet” he assured you and you finally took a sip, enjoying the taste.
You both sat in comfortable silence until you decided to speak

“You’re really good at taking care of people, I’m thinking about hiring you as a personal maid”
You tease and he gives you an unamused look, deciding to just keep drinking the tea and ignore you.

After a while you feel like dozing off but scaramouche jolts you awake almost immediately, reminding you he has to change your bandages.

You both go to the bathroom, and while he goes to get the bandages you sit on the sink, lifting your shirt enough for him to see the wound that was recovering.
He comes back with some cream he got from bubu pharmacy a few days before and bandages.

“Stay still”
He orders and you follow, hissing in pain from time to time at the bandages sticking to your wound.
He gently takes them off, putting on some of the cream and bandaging you up again in no time.
After he’s done you walk to your room again, him following after.

“I’m so tireddd”
You yawn as you carefully get in the bed, trying not to hurt yourself.

“Then sleep?” he says matter-of-factly, his face the same as ever.

“Ah! Great idea! I would’ve never been able to think about that!!! Thank you for enlightening me good sir”
Your voice dripping with sarcasm as he rolled his eyes at you, a playful smile plastered on your face.

Soon after you fall asleep, and scaramouche sits on the chair next to your bed, silently watching your relaxed expression.
It became a habit now, he was fascinated at how you could lower your guard so easily around him, it still baffled him how you felt so comfortable with him hanging around in your house almost everyday.

Suddenly your eyes flutter open, and you see scaramouche still by your side, you smile lazily and look up at him through half lidded eyes.

“Aren’t you tired too?” You yawn and he dismisses your question, that was until you start scooting over and tapping the empty side of your bed.

“I know you’re not the type to do this, but if you want you can always sleep here..” you say, a small smile on your face.

His eyes widen at your statement, his ears starting to burn in embarrassment and you notice, smirking slightly.

“Come onnn…I know you’re tired” you reach out for his arm and drag him towards you, he surprisingly lets himself get dragged and decides to sit on your bed.

You look at him confused
“Why are you sitting? Lay down stupid”
You say in a playful manner grabbing his shoulder and making him lay down.

It was truly an amusing sight for you, he was as stiff as a wooden trunk, his eyes concentrated to look at the ceiling and his face getting more and more serious.

You laugh a bit, feeling your eyelids get heavier and heavier, drifting to sleep once again.

When scaramouche finally noticed you fell asleep, he relaxed his body a bit, turning to the side to look at you.

He hated this feeling, yet he couldn’t stay away from you.
‘Am I really growing that attached to his stupid human…’ he thinks while unconsciously moving a stran of hair out of your face and tugging it behind your ear, he blushed as the realisation of his gesture hit him, embarassed to have done something like that.

He tried to fight the feeling of his eyelids closing, even though your steady breathing and the coziness of your bed weren’t helping at all. And so he slowly started to drift off to sleep, his last thought before loosing his consciousness being you.

Chapter Text

“Scara!!”

You said, turning to him with a big smile on your face.
You were sitting in an open field, flowers surrounding you while you held something in your hand.

“I made you something” you said, your grin never leaving your face as you got closer to scaramouche and sat next to him, holding up your gift.

“It’s a flower crown! I made it just for you”
And you put it on his head, looking at him with a blush on your face.
He blinked his eyes a few times, processing what was happening and admiring your smile.
‘Is this a dream?’ He thinks to himself, looking down to his hands and noticing he was wearing his old clothes, more precisely the ones ‘kabukimono’ used to wear.
His eyes still fixated on his hands, thinking about the meaning behind this dream.
You snap him out of his thoughts by holding his hand, slowly raising it up to give it a small kiss.

His face flushes almost immediately, his thoughts all over the place trying to form a coherent sentence that doesn’t involve him screaming his lungs out in embarrassment.
The you in his dreams doesn’t seem to notice his visible embarrassment and giggles slightly, still holding his hand gently.
“You’re really cute you know that?”
You say, looking at him with the flower crown on his head, blush still covering his face.

After a while he gains some self control and tries to speak, but as soon as he opens his mouth his dreamscape starts disappearing, slowly bringing him back to the real world.

Scaramouche flutters his eyes open, slightly squinting them from the light coming from your window, feeling something warm against his body.
That’s when he notices he was hugging you in your sleep while you nuzzled up to his chest, your cheeks covered with a hint of blush as you slept peacefully.

At the sight he forced his eyes closed again, using his free hand to stop himself from speaking (screaming more precisely), feeling his cheeks warmer by the minute.

That’s when you decided to slowly raise your head so that it was directly facing his neck, your breath fanning on his skin sending goosebumps all over.
He tried to recompose himself, his thoughts still all over the place from everything that was happening.

First that dream and now this?

‘What is happening to me…’ he sighed, the hand that was on his mouth was now playing with your hair subconsciously as he lowered his head to glance at you for a while.
He then placed his chin on your head, sighing again in defeat
‘there’s no use in denying it anymore..I got attached..”
he was scared to be close to someone again because of what happened in the past, he thought he didn’t need friends, but seeing you be so comfortable around him, teasing him and joking around so much, made him realize that he in fact, wanted this.
No, wanted is not the right word..he needed this.

It’s been so long since he last felt like he could let his guard down with someone, it was a scary but pleasant feeling. It almost made him feel..human.

Suddenly you start slowly moving around as your eyes open slightly, scaramouche stopped playing with your hair and instead decided to fake being asleep to avoid the embarrassment for the both of you.

When you finally realise the position you were in you turn bright red, trying to recollect your thoughts while you scoot away gently, trying not to wake scaramouche up.

As soon as you get up from the bed you take a minute to admire his features, he really did look breathtaking.
Without his usual grumpy expression, you’d dare say he looked even more attractive than he already was, his features softer than what you’re used to see.
You noticed his bottom eyelashes were pretty long, and you don’t know why you found that so appealing.
You don’t seem to notice the pink appearing on his cheeks the more you analyze his face.
You flush when you realise you’ve been staring at him for quite a while, thinking that it must be creepy.
Instead you decide to walk to the kitchen and try to cook some breakfast.

You weren’t the best of cooks yet you were willing to try, you felt a bit guilty about scaramouche having to take care of you these past few weeks so you thought the best way of making it up to him was by making breakfast!

He usually didn’t sleep in with you, preferring to go back as soon as it got dark outside and coming back to see you after lunch. So it was quite rare for you to have breakfast together.

You decide against cooking something sweet, since you knew he didn’t enjoy it, opting for something salty instead.
You set your mind on making some scrambled eggs with bacon, and so you get whatever was needed for your breakfast and get to cooking.

——

“Shit-“
You were coughing like crazy as the kitchen was filled with smoke from the burnt eggs.
Scaramouche walked to the room after hearing the commotion, leaning on the doorframe and watching you with an unamused look.

“What do you think you’re doing?”
He seemed annoyed by your lack of cooking skills, walking up to your coughing figure and opening the window next to you.
“You can’t fight, you can’t cook…is there anything you CAN do?”

He started listing the things you couldn’t do on his fingers, rolling his eyes at you while grabbing the pan from the stove.

“I‘ll take care of this, just sit down and maybe try to learn something for once”
That’s all he said before skillfully making breakfast for the both of you, putting the plates on the table after a little while.

Your eyes lit up at the sight in front of you, happily grabbing your chopsticks and eating every last bit of the food. Scaramouche watched you as you ate everything, a small hint of pink covering his cheeks at the thought of you enjoying his cooking so much, he shook his head quickly and dismissed the thought as he started eating as well.

‘What the hell am I even thinking..” he mentally cursed himself as he looked at his plate, not noticing how quiet you’ve gotten all of a sudden.

“Scara, can I ask you something?”
You said looking up from your plate, your voice sounding more serious now. You seemed in deep thought, your attitude changing quickly from happy to serious.

Scaramouche just hummed in response, and you took that as an opening to keep speaking
“I know you don’t talk about it often, but I’ve been really curious. You don’t have a vision do you?”
You asked, turning your head to the side slightly and he looked up at you with a confused face.

“I don’t, what’s this about?”
His expression didn’t change at all as you began to speak again
“Well, remember when you saved me a few weeks ago? I remember you using the power of electro, yet I’ve never seen you have a vision on you before..”
you think back to that moment, you were about to pass out because of the amount of electro filling the air, you know you weren’t imagining it.
He looked at you and his eyes widened slightly, though you didn’t notice.
His eyes looked at anything but you and he fidgeted with his hands, looking lost in his thoughts for a moment.
“I…l’d rather not talk about it.”
That’s all he says before eating the last bit of his breakfast and getting up from his seat.

His expression was quick to change as he raised an eyebrow at you.
“Did you get your medicine? I swear to all of the archons that if you didn’t I’ll shove it down your throat myself.”
He glared at you, completely changing the subject in a matter of seconds and leaving you speechless on your seat.

You awkwardly laughed at the statement, evading his questioning look.
“Haha…of course I- wait wait I’m sorry I’m sorry! I’ll take it I swe-“
Your lie was interrupted by a really pissed scaramouche walking towards you with some pills in his hands, holding them as if they were weapons and he was about to beat the shit out of you.

Unfortunately for you your pleas didn’t reach his ears as he forced you to take your medicines.
You gagged at the taste they left on your tongue, fake coughing to make him feel bad but he just rolled his eyes at you.

“They’re for your own good. Stop acting like a child”

“Maybe if you were a bit more gentle I wouldn’t act like this!”
You pouted, looking away from him as a small smile formed on his lips.

“Well, since you seem so full of energy today I guess you won’t need my help anymore. I’ll be leaving now, I have work to do”

Ah right, he still had a job here..you almost forgot.

“I can take care of myself all right thank you very much, have a nice day”

He hummed and just left, closing the door lightly behind him.

You never really cared enough to ask about his line of work and he didn’t seem to want to tell you either.
You didn’t mind at all, in fact, whatever job he had didn’t change the fact that he was still your friend.
You figured it had to be something illegal, yet you didn’t care all that much neither you wanted to make assumptions.

——

Scaramouche made sure to come and visit you everyday, sometimes reminding you to take your medicine and sometimes to change your bandages since you couldn’t do it yourself (he complained about you being incapable of doing anything yet he still did it for you).

You found it rather cute how much he cared for you, you both acted like you were old friends, you kept teasing him and he insulted you, though you didn’t miss the small smile on his face everytime you joked around with him.

After another couple of weeks you managed to fully recover from your incident, finally back to doing small commissions.
You tried to reach out to the yaksha and explained what happened, he didn’t seem mad or anything, instead he just told you to take it slow and that you’ll start training again when you’ve gained enough strength back.
You were quite taken aback from him being so understanding and caring, it actually moved you that he was worried about you.
Zhongli was still not back from his trip to monstadt, you were wondering for how long he will be gone.

Meanwhile your bond with scaramouche grew quite a lot, all the time you spent together while you were injured payed off, he was finally more relaxed around you and smiled quite often, though if you ever tried to address it he would call you “delusional” or some other insult that you just brushed off with a giggle.

You were having lots of fun with him but, all good things must come to an end.

Chapter Text

But all good things must come to an end.

You were finally finished with your commissions for the day, only simple tasks really.
it’s been 10 days since you’ve fully recovered and you’re getting back on track with your training and work at the adventurers guild.
Of course you had your daily run ins with scaramouche that almost always ended up at the restaurant. He’s been acting softer than usual, you figured it must’ve been because of the few weeks you passed together.

It was late at night and there was no one out, the shops were closing and the lights in the houses were shutting off.
You enjoyed the gentle breeze on your face and walked back to you house when you heard a familiar voice.

“Really? Almost getting caught by the milileth?!? How much worthless can you be?”

It was..scaramouche? And he was screaming at some people?
You knew it wasn’t right but curiosity got the best of you, and so you leaned over to see what was happening.
Your friend was standing in front of three people, arms crossed and giving you his back while there were three people in front of him, they were kneeling down and even though you couldn’t see their faces they seemed pretty tense. You realised they were fatui soldiers and you gasped slightly.

“M-my lord..if I may be so b-“

“Don’t speak back to me. You waste of space.”
His voice was cold, the words he spat out filled with venom.
You widen your eyes in shock, you’ve never seen this side of scaramouche. He was kind of intimidating, you would’ve been scared if you didn’t know him better.
You didn’t notice that he suddenly freezed on the spot, trying not to look to where you were standing.

“Go back to the headquarters and file a report on what happened. Do your job correctly or next time you won’t be so lucky.”
His voice softer than before.

He sighed and the three people disappeared, you were trying to figure out whether you should confront him or not, but he seemed to decide for you because you could feel his gaze on your figure.

“I know you’re there. You can come out now..”
his voice was different than before, he seemed softer…you’d dare say he even sounded rather worried.

You walk out of your hiding spot and went next to him, he didn’t dare look at your face.

“How much did you hear?”
He was careful with his words, his voice almost inaudible and he kept looking away from you.

“Uhh…almost everything? I don’t know honestly..”
you were pretty confused by his behavior, what was he so scared about?
He let out a sour laugh that died down almost immediately
“I guess now you won’t be my friend anymore? Since I’m a big and scary fatui harbinger?”
You didn’t know what to say, you were rather shocked but honestly, you didn’t care.
Since you took way too long to reply, scaramouche took that silence as a ‘yes’, beginning to walk away from you really fast.

“I won’t bother you anymore. Goodbye.”

You were trying to process everything that happened, you were even more confused than before but when you heard him speak those words you froze.

“Wai-“

“It’s okay I get it, you wouldn’t want to be involved with the fatui. I’ll be leaving liyue soon anyway.”

He didn’t give you time to speak and left. You scoffed at him ‘that’s a bad habit he’s got’ and started walking back home, knowing it was no use trying to follow him (you’ve tried many times but never managed to find him, so at some point you just gave up).

You thought of a plan to speak to him again, it was rather annoying how he just assumed things out of nowhere. You figured you’d see him again while strolling around liyue but that didn’t happen.

A few days passed and every day you went out looking all around liyue harbor to find him, and every day you failed.

You were really starting to lose hope remembering what he said that night

“I’ll be leaving liyue soon anyway”

You were growing anxious, thinking about the possibility of him already being gone, you thought about all the time you spent together and smiled slightly, your smile turning into a frown when you realised you might never get the chance to see him again.

That was until you heard some elderly woman speaking to a lady next to her.
“Did you hear? There’s a fatui harbinger in town! My son said he saw him with his own eyes! I’m so worried for him.”

The lady next to her gasped
“Oh my…should we report it to the authorities?”

“My son already did, he’s in the milileth.. yet I don’t think we have to worry, I heard that the fatui scum here would be leaving today”
The old lady seemed rather pleased with the last statement and as soon as you heard that your head snapped towards her and you made your way to the two women sitting on the bench.

“Uh..excuse me ma’am, I heard you were talking about the fatui?”
You try to sound as polite as possible to get more info out of her. She smiled at you and started speaking again.

“Ah yes, don’t worry though, that harbinger will be leaving today. I saw that cursed boat with the fatui symbol down at the harbor, so no need to panic”
She tried to reassure you but as soon as you heard about the location you started running as fast as you could.
The only thought in your mind was finding scaramouche. Find him. Talk to him. You needed to clear this up before he left for archons know how long.

You reached the ship the old lady was talking about in a matter of minutes, you were panting like crazy, leaning your body on a nearby pole.
That’s when you heard someone talk behind you.

“Lord scaramouche, the ship is ready to sail”

You turned your head around, relieved to finally see the friend you cared so much about after so many days. You have to admit you missed him a lot.

He was walking slowly, his head low and he didn’t say anything in response, the agent silently following behind him.

You weren’t thinking straight so you did the first thing that came to mind.
Scream.

“Scaramouche!”
As soon as that name left your mouth he raised his head in shock, his eyes widening as you were stomping his way. The fatui agent behind him was ready to fight you off but the harbinger stopped him with his arm.
“No need to interfere”
He barely whispered and the soldier nodded taking a step back.

Your stomping figure stopped right in front of him.
You were feeling so many emotions at the same time, anger, frustration, relief, worry, happiness and something else you couldn’t quite catch…
He looked back at you with his poker face, though you could see the worry in his eyes.

You remembered the events of that night and anger got the best of you, resulting in you hitting him straight in the face.
Not expecting that his head was launched to the side as he held his cheek, he didn’t seem surprised in the slightest by your act though, and then when he looked back at you you grabbed him by the shoulders and hugged him tightly.

Scaramouche was left speechless by your actions, his eyes widened in shock and his cheeks flushed red, after a while he reciprocated the hug, tightly holding you in his arms.

“I..[y/n], what is this?!”
He sounded panicked and confused, you giggled a little and parted from the embrace wanting to look at him in the face.

You were standing in front of eachother, his cheeks were tinted pink and his eyes looked anywhere but in your direction, you grabbed his shoulders and sighed.

“You should really let people speak before you make assumptions and just leave..”
you sounded like a disappointed mother, scaramouche the decided to look at you, a puzzled expression on his face as he tried to decipher what you meant by that.

“I don’t und-“

“Shut up and let me speak for once you little shit”
That made him shut his mouth immediately, even though he glared at you for saying that.

“As I was saying” you resume your monologue pleased about his obedience
“Scaramouche, I really care about you. You’re the first close friend I’ve ever had here- maybe even back in my hometown! You’ve been so nice to me ever since I met you, did you really think I would care about you being a harbinger? Don’t think so lowly of me mister”

“Wha-“
You put your finger on his mouth, successfully shutting him up again
“I’m telling you, I don’t care what you do. You’re still my friend and that won’t change. Even though you’re insufferable most of the time” you giggle and look at his expression.
At first he seemed rather shocked to hear you say that but then his eyes softened and a small smile crept on his face.
He was looking at you like you were the only person in the whole of teyvat and that action alone made a flustered mess out of you.

“Thank you..”
that’s all he said to you and you smiled back at him, hugging him one last time.

“Promise to come and visit?”

“Promise”

You part from the hug and look at eachother for a while.

“Ah and before you leave..”

He gives you a questioning look and your face starts getting significantly close to his, scaramouche’s eyes widen as you place a kiss on his cheek.

“As a thank you for everything that you did for me”
You smile at him and his face becomes that of a tomato.
He didn’t know how to react so he covered his face with his hat, starting to walk away really fast with the fatui agent following behind him shocked by the scene that displayed in front of him.

He got on the ship and after a while it started moving, the harbinger looked back to the harbor where you were standing, waving at him with a grin on your face.
He frowned when he looked at you, knowing that he couldn’t keep his promise to you.

“Goodbye.. [y/n]”

Chapter Text

-Present day-

You opened your eyes to see the ceiling of your room in wangshu inn.
You had decided to move in here a few months after scaramouche left, since rumors spread about you working with the fatui after you bid your goodbyes to the harbinger.
Of course after almost a century everyone forgot about you (‘more like everyone who knew died’ you thought) yet you decided to stay there since your bond with xiao grew to the point it is now.

Suddenly he walks in the room to wake you up and when he notices your eyes are open he gives you a weird look.

“Are you going to keep staring at the ceiling the whole day? Verr told me to come and get you to eat breakfast”

You lazily sat up from your bed, yawning and rubbing your eye slightly
“Okay, I’ll go see if the guild has anything I could do in my spare time”

Xiao looks at you baffled, usually when he mentioned breakfast (or anything food related really) you’d be all happy and excited for the day.

“Are you okay [y/n], you seem upset?”
He was quite unsure on how to act, since you’ve always been the outgoing one out of the two

“I’m fine, just tired..”
you yawn again and get up from the bed, ignorning xiao and walking all the way to the kitchens of the inn, sitting at your usual table and eating your breakfast.

After that you got ready and started going towards liyue harbour.

You reached the city’s gates when you saw someone familiar, they seemed to notice you too because they started waving at you and running in your direction.

‘Why him of all people’
You rolled your eyes ready to ignore the tall man now next to you

“Comrade! Fancy meeting you here, mind if we-“

You put your hand in front of his face to stop him from talking.
“No I won’t spar with you, even if I did you’d end up like last time. And please stop obsessing over fighting with me…it’s kinda creepy..”
you look at him with a disgusted look, in which he responds with a dramatic gasp

Last time you fought…let’s just say it wasn’t pretty for Childe. You still remember his shocked face when you managed to beat him even in his foul legacy form.

“[Y/n] you wound me! How could you be so cruel”
He put his hand on his heart dramatically.

“Shut up”

“So feisty even in the morning! Haha”

He kept following you and you just sighed in defeat, finally seeing Katherine again you wave your hand to greet her and you start asking about some commissions.

“Ah sorry [y/n] there’s no commissions as of today, you might want to check again tomorrow”

You sigh and turn on your heels, noticing that Childe was long gone, you were happy about that.

Though you see another figure through the corner of your eye.
It was the traveler and Paimon.

You guessed you could go and greet them, you didn’t know much about them but they were xiao’s friends so why not go and introduce yourself right?

“Hello? Are you the traveler? And…what was it again..ah! Paimon! Right?”
You walked up to them and saw the both of them turn to you with a questioning look
“Yes, it’s us..what do you need us for?”
Paimon was the one to speak, you found her voice rather high pitched.

“I don’t need anything! I was just going to introduce myself since we haven’t gotten the chance to know eachother! When you two were travelling in liyue I went back to my hometown in sumeru”
You smile at them and they reciprocate, though they still seemed to have lots of questions.

“Uhh so who are you exactly?”
The blonde boy next to Paimon spoke, you’d say he looked quite attractive, though in your opinion everyone looked good.

“Oh I’m xiao’s best friend! You could say I’m like a sister to him”
You grinned and their eyes widened
“Xiao has friends?!?” Paimon blurted out but quickly covered her mouth with her hands.

“Sorry Paimon didn’t mean to say that out loud!!!” She sounded so panicked you started to laugh, the boy next to her quietly giggling too.

You walked around liyue together, talking for a bit and getting to know eachother more.

“So what brings you back to liyue? Missed the amazing food?” You joke a bit and the traveler laughs

“I came to visit a friend, I’m actually staying in sumeru right now, we were just about to go back”

Your eyes light up at the mention of sumeru, it was your home, and even though you loved staying in liyue you couldn’t help but miss your beloved region.

You kind of started distancing yourself when your mentor died..she was like a mother to you and you still kept telling yourself it was your fault she died in the first place. Because you were too weak.

‘It’s your fault she’s dead’

‘You couldn’t protect her’

‘You’re useless’

You dismiss the thoughts that were flooding your brain and got back to the conversation.

“Could I come with you?”
Your eyes were fixated on the boy in front of you, he smiled and nodded quietly.

“We were just about to leave anyway, we should take a teleport waypoint to make this faster though”
He said calmly, while walking towards the entrance of the city to a floating teleport waypoint.

You almost forgot about them, you facepalmed remembering you had walked all the way here when you could’ve just teleported.
The fact that he didn’t have a vision piqued your interest, usually only vision holders could use those.

“Sorry if I seem rude but, you don’t seem to have a vision? How can you be able to use teleport waypoints?”

He awkwardly laughed and looked at Paimon, letting her speak instead of him.

“The traveler here can use the elements without a vision!!” She seemed really proud, a big grin plastered on her face as the traveler looked at her unamused.

You laughed a bit at the scene, though you were really surprised about the new information. You moved quickly to the teleport waypoint and in a matter of seconds found yourself in the avyidia forest.

As soon as you saw the scenery you sat on the grass, enjoying the warmth of the sun in your face and the feeling of the soft grass caressing your figure. You breathe in the air and relax completely earning a giggle from the traveler.

“You seem to have missed sumeru a lot”
He sat beside you and relaxed aswell

“I did, when I came here last time I had work, though this time I can completely enjoy my stay here”
You laid on the grass and enjoyed the moment fully, though it was quickly interrupted by a voice getting closer and closer.

“Traveler! Paimon! Long time no see” you raise your head to see who that voice was and we’re shocked to see..ears..? And a tail??

You looked at the man approaching the three of you and stopped right in front of the traveler.
“Tighnari! It’s been a while”
The traveler smiled as he got up, Paimon following his every move. You decide to stand up aswell not wanting to seem rude to the stranger.

“Oh, you brought a friend with you?” The fox turned around to look at you, not missing his inspecting gaze when he started at your figure. You started to sweat a bit.

‘Does he recognise me?’
You started to question yourself though your thoughts were interrupted by Paimon speaking again.

“Yep! She’s originally from sumeru and wanted to come it’s us!”
Her cheery mood made you feel less panicked than before.

“I see… well then, my name is tighnari pleasure to meet you..uh..”
he stopped and you figured you had to introduce yourself
“I’m [y/n], delighted to meet you aswell tighnari”
You both smiled politely as eachother and after a while started walking together.

“Traveler I almost forgot, I was looking for you because lesser lord kusanali wanted to see you”
Tighnari says calmly, and you freeze on the spot at the mention of that name.

‘He knows lesser lord kusanali..?’

You shrug the pain you felt in your chest off and keep walking with them, seemingly unphased.

“Nahida was looking for us? Did something bad happen?”
Paimon barged into the conversation, though the traveler didn’t seem to mind. You figured he wasn’t a really talkative person.

“Nothing bad happened Paimon, she said it had something to do with someone? Though she didn’t say who”
Tighnari seemed confused, and kept thinking about the conversation he had with the small archon. Paimon and traveler gave eachother a knowing look and quickly thanked tighnari, leaving you alone with him.

The walk was awkwardly silent and so the man next to you decided to break the ice.

“So..where do you plan on staying?”
He looks at the road in front of him and you start thinking about it.

“I guess I do have a house in sumeru city, although I’m not sure if it will be in good condition..I guess I’ll have to do some housework haha”
You giggle and the man next to you smiled, after saying goodbye to eachother, you find a teleport waypoint to get to the entrance of the city.

You breathe in the air around you, smelling the amazing food and starting to walk towards your house, slowly so you could enjoy the scenery.

You decided to quickly go to the bazar to get some food and supplies to clean your house, when you get there you get distracted by a beautiful girl in clothing that resembled that of the god of flowers.

You don’t see where you were walking until you bump into someone that was running your way, the impact making you fall to the ground.

The hat the man had on his head fell on you, and he quickly went to grab it, holding a hand out to help you up.

“My apologies I should’ve-“
He stops mid sentence, his eyes widening

You look up at him and your eyes widen aswell, he seemed just as shocked as you were while you were trying to form a coherent sentence.

“Scaramouche?..”

Chapter Text

“Scaramouche?..”

His face looked even more surprised at the mention of his name. You couldn’t help but be confused.
After all these centuries you thought he died, yet he was in front of you, his face still the same as you remembered, though his outfit changed drastically.

All that black and purple he used to wear was gone, replaced by white and blue, you also noticed an anemo vision on his heart.

“How..?”
That was the first sentence that left his mouth after centuries. You scoff at him and get up by yourself, rolling your eyes.

“THAT’s what you’re going to ask me after so many years? Not ‘[y/n] I missed you so much!! I’m sorry I never came back’” you gave him a glare while emphasising the last sentence.
He could tell you were quite upset about that and his face distorted in guilt, though your eyes softened when you looked at him.
He seemed different, you didn’t know what made you think that but you knew he had changed.

“I…”
He was unsure what to say, many different emotions he thought he would never feel again resurfacing. You noticed that and went for a gentle hug.

“I missed you”
You whispered and he reciprocated the hug after mere moments, holding you so tightly you couldn’t breathe.

“Scara!! You’re crushing me-“
You giggled and he let go of you, slightly embarassed after apologising to you.
You smiled at him again, he was the same as ever, even after so long.

“By the way, I like your new style. It suits you a lot”
At the compliment he flushes and covered his face with his hat. Behind him in the distance you see the traveler running towards the both of you.

“Wanderer! Wait up!”
You recognised Paimon’s voice immediately, and you peeked from your friend’s shoulder as he turned around too.

As soon as his eyes laid on the blonde boy, he turned around immediately, grabbing your wrist and running away with you.

“Come with me, let’s find a more private place to speak”
You cursed at him for pulling you so suddenly but he ignored you, running even faster.

After a while of running he came to a stop, not knowing where to go. He let go of your wrist and you lightly hit him on the shoulder while still breathing heavily.
“What do you think you’re doing!”

He turned around and looked at you with a serious face
“I apologise, I didn’t want to be interrupted…although I don’t really know sumeru city all that well. So I don’t know where to go now”
He was so blunt with admitting he got lost it startled you giving him a blank stare until you burst out laughing. He looked at your laughing figure puzzled, not knowing why you were laughing in the first place.

“What’s so funny?”
He still looked confused as you were trying to recompose yourself, your stomach starting to hurt from how much you laughed.

“Ahh, sorry sorry- I just missed spending time with you. Come with me, we can talk in my house”
You smile and start walking with him

“You have a house here?”
He looked to se side where you were looking at the street in front of you two, wanting to know more.

“Of course stupid! I lived here”
You giggled and he rolled his eyes at the name you called him, lightly elbowing your arm.
You laughed at his reaction and he slightly smiled, turning his head so that you couldn’t see him.

Soon after you finally got to your house, opening the door to reveal a really dusty and old living room.
It almost seemed abandoned, you were kind of embarassed at the state your home was in, but the man next to you didn’t seem phased at all.

“Sorry it’s messy, I haven’t been around for a long time”
You shy away from his inspecting gaze and he just walks in with you.

“It’s fine, I don’t care as long as we can talk”

You tried dusting off the couch and failed, deciding to go sit on the table in the kitchen.
You sit down facing eachother, scaramouche looking at you with a serious face now, he didn’t seem to be wanting to joke around so you get serious too.

“I suppose you know we need to talk, right?”
He says and you nod, he sighs.
“First of all, how is it possible that you’re still alive?”

At that you roll your eyes playfully.
“I could ask you the same question. But really, I thought you would’ve figured by now that I’m not a mere mortal, nor human” you smirk.
He seemed happy to hear that, though he started questioning you again.

“How do you remember me?”
His face was serious now, staring deeply into your eyes trying to read your every thought. In return you give him a confused look.

“Am I not supposed to..? What is going on?”
You stare at him with an expectant look, he sighed and reluctantly explained how he had deleted himself from the irminsul.

“You WHAT? Do you know how dangerous it is to play with stuff like that? How did you even get that deep into the irminsul in the first place? Why would you do something like that..”
Your thoughts were getting louder and louder, not knowing what do do or say anymore so you lower your head, holding it in your hands trying to recollect yourself.

“It doesn’t concern you why I did what I did.” He pauses for a bit, seeming in deep thought.
“It appears you’re an exception, just like the traveler..” he mumbles to himself and you look up at him when he mention of the traveler

“Mh? You know the traveler too?”
You tilt your head to the side, and he stares at you.

“Yes. Speaking of, I was with him before running off with you. We should probably head back before he thinks I’m committing some atrocities..”
he scoffs and gets up, you swiftly follow after him and close the door behind you.

“Oh, does he think that because you were in the fatui?”
He only hums in response, walking side to side towards the bazar until you hear a familiar voice coming from behind you.

“Wanderer!! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
It was Paimon, and her voice sounded really angry.
You and Scaramouche turn around and you wave at them, while he just scoffs and looks to the side.

“Seriously? I can’t even have some alone time? What are you, my babysitter?”
He sounded pretty annoyed and that made you laugh, earning a glare from him.

The traveler and Paimon stop in front of you two, looking confused.

“[y/n]! Why are you with him?”
Paimon sounded genuinely confused

“That doesn’t concern you. Let’s go back now.”

Scaramouche stops you before you could speak, grabbing your wrist again and walking towards the sanctuary of surashtana. The two travelers left behind quickly followed you two until you reached the front door of the palace.

You reluctantly entered the home of the archon, with your friend still holding your wrist.
The traveler and his floating companion managed to reach you two and were now walking slightly behind, still looking really confused.

Scaramouche brought you to a small platform in the center of the palace, where the small archon was reading some papers.

He quickly got her attention and you peeked from his shoulder, the god slightly surprised to see you.

“She remembers me”
He quickly says and the lesser lord lets out a small giggle.

“Huh? You knew eachother?? What is going on”
Paimon’s confused voice echoed in the room, and the traveler looked at you seriously.

“Well first of all, hello [y/n], it’s been a long time”

You shyly wave at her and scaramouche looked at you surprised

“And I think I know why she remembers you, dear wanderer.”

Chapter Text

“And I think I know why she remembers you, dear wanderer.”

All the people around you looked clueless as you started to panic a bit from all the attention being on you. Nahida looked at you as if to ask for your consent to speak, you gulped and nodded slowly, causing her to give you a reassuring smile.

“[y/n]’s mind isn’t technically connected to the irminsul. Though she seems to be from this world because of the records about her, unlike the traveler”

You sweat drop and look away from the piercing gaze of the three people looking at you. Feeling as if you were a child who just got in trouble with their parents.

“So what does this mean? How can she not be connected to the irminsul if she’s from this world?”
Paimon asked in confusion expecting an answer from nahida. She just looked back at Paimon and shrugged.

“Even I don’t have that kind of knowledge, I think only our dear [y/n] can give us this answer. Although I think she’s not ready to share that information with us just yet.”
She looked back at your panicked figure and walked over to pat your arm, you calmed down slightly and sighed.

“It’s just- You’re all going to look at me differently after I tell you, and I definitely don’t want that to happen..”

Scaramouche’s gaze softened at your words, understanding the feeling you were going through and sympathising with you.

“It’s fine, take as much time as you want”

That’s all he said and nahida quirked an eyebrow at the act of kindness he just showed looking at him intently. He notices and scoffs, looking away hurriedly.

“Just- don’t let us waiting too long you worm”

You giggle and hit him lightly at the nickname to which he rolls his eyes.
“Thank you.”

nahida then claps her hands, going back to her initial position and sitting back in her chair.

“Now that this is settled, [y/n], have you made up your mind about my offer?”

You gazed in the small god’s hopeful eyes, and then you nodded.

Last time you’ve been here, before leaving the archon proposed something to you.

——

“[y/n], are you willing to take back your position as the god of wisdom’s helper?”
She spoke directly into your mind, during the time she was still trapped by the akademyia.

“I…I don’t know.., I could not be able to do much anyway since you are basically being held hostage. It’s so frustrating not being capable to help”

The god giggled inside your consciousness.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure a certain someone will free me soon enough. When the time comes, you’ll give me your answer in person.”

That’s all she said before fleeing your mind scape, leaving you to your own thoughts.

——

You kneeled in front of her, lowering your head completely.

“I’m ready to be back as your helper, lesser lord kusanali”

Paimon seemed completely shocked at the revelation, meanwhile the traveler and scaramouche looked rather unphased, having figured that much already by the stories circulating around and how close you seemed to be with the god just now, they just put together the puzzle pieces.

“Great! Then you can stay in your old r…”
She pauses, turning her head slowly towards scaramouche that was standing next to you, laughing awkwardly.

“What? Did something happen to my room here?”

Scaramouche’s eyes widened at the realization and he covered his face with his hat, coughing.

“Um..I think I might’ve taken your room”

“Oh..”
——

After a while the traveler left to finish some errands, and you were left with nahida and scaramouche.

You decided that you would stay in the same room as him until you could settle in your house, and since the room was really spacious, you didn’t complain much.

Nahida already settled arrangements for another bed for you to sleep in, and soon enough you three entered the room.

You look up to the enormous ceiling that looked like that of a church, mesmerised by the work that was done in this room.

“It sure has changed a lot since I last was here..”
you gasp, your eyes wandering all around as scaramouche glanced your way, not taking his eyes off of you.
Nahida seemed to notice and she nudged him, breaking him out of his trance and making him blush in embarrassment.

“You can stay in here for the time being, I’m sure you’ll get along just fine with our dear wanderer”
You nodded but still had a confused look on your face

“Wanderer..even the traveler called you that name…”

Scaramouche hummed
“I‘ve decided to let go of my past, one way of doing that is changing my name. There’s no need to call me wanderer, just choose a name to your liking for me.”

You understood what he meant, your mouth making an ‘o’ shape
“I get it…is it okay for me to still call you scara?I can call you wanderer from today on if you’re uncomfortable w-“

He stops you putting a hand in front of your face
“It’s fine”

He says and you settle in the room (more like house, since it had a bathroom and also a kitchen)

“By the way, aren’t you going back to liyue to get your stuff?”
He says while sitting on his bed, peeking from the door as you explore around the kitchen.

“I’ll go tomorrow, xiao is used to me not being home for days anyway”
You say, grabbing some kitchen tools and inspecting them.

“The adeptus? You live with him?”
He seemed pretty curious about your life, you found it rather cute.

“Yes, he was the one that trained me, and well we grew closer”
You say happily, coming back in the same room as him and seeing him comfortable on his bed, he had taken off his accessories and outer clothing,leaving him only with his sleeveless turtleneck and shorts.
You blush a bit when you saw him, looking away in embarrassment as you let out a strangled cough.
You were feeling like you just saw something you shouldn’t be seeing.

“What are you doing standing there like a dumbass?”
He looked at you with an unamused face, his voice sounding kind of annoyed at your shyness.

You realise you were making this more awkward than it is and let out a small apology, sitting on your bed aswell and chatting for him for hours.

You pretty much caught up with you lives, you were the one doing most of the talking, telling him funny stories and anecdotes of your life after he left.
All the Wanderer told you about him was that he left the fatui and that now he’s trying to be a better person to amend for his sins.
You also talked about the fatui for a while, he explained all the ranks of the harbingers and even shit talked them a bit, which made you chuckle.

Then the conversation went to your visions.

“[y/n], I’m quite curious about your vision. If I recall correctly you didn’t have one when we first met, am I right?”
You nodded and gave him a content look while he stared at your dendro vision.

“Yep!! I got it while saving a kid, all I could think about in that moment was ‘I have to protect them’ and poof! It appeared in front of me. I do have to say it took me a long time to get used to it, I even had to adapt my fighting style”
He gave you a disappointed look at your poor explanation, sighing and shaking his head lightly.

“You’re still as childish as ever. And here I thought you had matured a bit”
You give him an offended look and then quickly glance at his anemo vision.

“Then how about you tell me how you got your vision huh?”

He glared at you but spoke anyway.
“I got it while saving the traveler. Though that wasn’t the reason why it appeared..”
He said and you could visibly see he wasn’t too keen in talking about it, so you quickly let it go.

“How about we eat something?”
You say, trying to lighten up the mood as you happily get off the bed and walk towards the kitchen, the wanderer following behind.

You glance at all the ingredients and tools and you look so lost that your friend next to you wants to laugh at your stupidity.
“Uhh..how about you cook, and I…uhh watch?”

“You still don’t know how to cook? Still as useless as ever”
He mocks you and quickly gets to work, cooking some sumeru specialty that you didn’t quite recognise.

You ate in silence together, remembering the dinners you used to have at wanmin restaurant and smiling at the nostalgic feeling.

After dinner you went to the main room, ready to sleep.

You were quite happy to meet again with your old friend, your heart skipped a beat everytime he smiled or even joked around with you, you could feel the everlasting warmth on your cheeks and the way you felt so giddy to be around him.
You think maybe you’re too happy to see him, though you dismiss the thought immediately, your eyes feeling heavier and heavier as you fall asleep soundly.

Chapter Text

You woke up the next morning and the bed next to yours was already empty, a delicious smell coming from the kitchen.
You got up and walked over and although there was no one there, you could see some food on the table and a note next to it.

You sat on the chair and took the note in your hands, it said:

‘I made you breakfast so that you don’t burn the whole place down. You better eat all of it.’

You smiled to yourself as you took a bite of your breakfast, eyes lighting up as you ate all of it eagerly.
This reminded you of all the times he would cook for you while you were injured, your cheeks warmed up remembering how nice and caring he was back then, he still seemed to be the same as centuries ago.

After finishing up your meal you sighed in content, pleased to start the day in such a nice way.

You decided to get ready and get back to wangshu inn, to get your stuff and also inform zhongli and xiao of your departure.

They both didn’t seem to mind, Zhongli only said something along the lines of
“it was bound to happen, you had to go back to your original duties eventually. Although I have to admit that I will miss you, friend”
that actually made you tear up a bit, after all this time you started seeing zhongli as more of a father figure than a colleague of your mentor. You hugged him and then it was xiao’s turn to say goodbye to you.

You knew he wasn’t good with his words, and that even though he seemed annoyed he was actually hurt by your departure.
So he didn’t get the time to say anything, you just hugged him tightly and he reciprocated the embrace, mumbling a small “come visit often” as you parted from him and waved a last goodbye to them.

Back in sumeru you settled in your stuff in the shared room you had, when suddenly you heard a voice in your mind.

“[y/n] can you hear me?”

“Yes, lesser lord kusanali”

“Great! I need you to do something important for me, could you come meet me as soon as you can?”

“Of course, I’ll be there in a minute”

The mental connection cuts out afer your last words and you swiftly get out of the room, searching for the center of the palace.

You reach it rather quickly and see a small figure with a screen made of dendro powers that you thought was used to control the akasha system.
You walk slowly and make your presence known to the god, she turns around and smiles politely at you, causing you to smile back.

“[y/n]! How is your first day back going so far?”
Her smile never leaving her face as you chuckled.

“It’s going really well, what did you call me here for lord kusanali?”

At that her demeanor changes, causing her to sigh and then signaling for you to sit next to her.
You were starting to get worried and she caught up onto that, immediately reassuring you with a smile.

“It’s nothing serious, I just need you to do me a favor”
You nod slowly as she begins to speak again.

“Could you look after the wanderer for me? He’s been through a lot recently and he still seems to be shaken by it. I thought you’d be the perfect fit for this, since you two seem to be really close”
She smiles innocently and your face flushes a bit at the last sentence, feeling embarrassed by her comment.

You take a deep breath to recompose yourself and nod
“I’ll do it. I only have one question, where is he right now?”

“He’s with the traveler, I think they were headed towards port ormos for some commissions, you can wait until he comes back”
You hum in understanding and get up, mumbling a small “I’ll be leaving now” and leaving the archon back to her work.

While waiting for your friend to come back you decide to clean the room, opting to hang out with him afterwards.
While you put your clothes in the closet you started thinking about him.

‘I wonder what happened for him to be so shaken about it..’
You frown a bit, curious to know more but not wanting to pry into his business.

‘He seems to have changed slightly..
Speaking of that, blue really suits him’
Blush spread on your cheeks after realizing what you just thought of, accidentally slamming your head on the wardrobe.
You cursed under your breath and then felt a presence behind you.

“What are you doing?”
It was Wanderer, he gave you a puzzled look while a really concerned traveler and Paimon stared at you.

“We just came in and saw you slam your head! Are you okay??”
You thought Paimon’s screaming could be heard all around sumeru in that moment, giving her an awkward smile while you held your head.

“I’m okay..sorry i made you worry haha..”
scaramouche sighed and walked up to you, helping you up and making you sit on your bed.

“Let me see.”
His tone was rather annoyed, though he touched you so gently you didn’t care to reply back.

He inspected your forehead for a while and he was so close you could almost feel his breath fanning your head.
‘He could kiss my forehead if he wanted to..’
You flush again and it took Avery thing you had not to scream and run away in embarrassment.

Quickly enough he lets go of you, scoffing in disappointment.

“What were you thinking? Slamming your head like that. Pray the gods you don’t get any more stupid than you already are.”

“Aww I didn’t know you cared about me that much scara”
You smirk and he glared at you, a faint blush on his cheeks.

“I guess someone won’t eat lunch today”
And you gasped in shock while looking at his pleased expression.

Paimon and the traveler were confused about your interaction just now, having never seen this side of the infamous balladeer.
They gave eachother a puzzled look and left, saying goodbye to you and your friend.

After their departure you explain to scaramouche what you were doing, and he decided to help you out.
While folding your last shirt a thought crosses your mind:
‘What are the aranara up to these days..’
and then an idea hits you! You quickly turn towards the wanderer that was putting your folded clothes in the wardrobe, he seemed to notice your gaze and turned around aswell.
“What?”

“Wanna come with me somewhere?”