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The cat was small and black. Probably very fluffy, though right now looked like a wet rat because well, it was wet – the animal stood in the rain and its meows sounded like pure misery. The walking and breathing image of the most pitiful creature in all of Teyvat.
Not that Wanderer cared.
He had to visit Mondstadt because the research materials required for his thesis (curse that wicked Dendro Archon for making him do this!!) could only be found in the library of the Knights of Favonius. What an irony, right? As a Harbinger he tried to sneak into that damn building many times, but now he just walked right through the front door and nobody batted an eye. It took a few hours before he managed to leave, though.
The sun had already set by the time Wanderer dragged himself out of the stone fortress. Finding and borrowing everything he wanted wasn’t easy, especially with that witch of a Librarian watching him like a hawk.
...maybe some weird sixth sense told her he wasn’t just an ordinary scholar from Sumeru? Maybe the woman could intuit his non-human roots or deeply hidden secrets? Well, even if that was the case, she ended up ignoring the clues and letting him go. Her scrutinising gaze took its mental toll on the guy, though.
"And now it’s raining, just great," he mumbled into the night, grimacing at the shitty weather. "I get it already, Mondstadt, you hate me. And you know what? The feeling’s mutual."
But apparently, that was only the beginning of his misfortune.
A few minutes later, as he was making his way to the Good Hunter to grab some food before heading to the hotel, something started following him around.
It didn’t try to hide its intention or interest, instead marched on its wobbly legs determined to keep up with the man's pace. When the Wanderer sped up, so did the creature. When he slid down the stairs’ railing to gain an advantage, clumsily so did the unwanted stalker. And lastly, when the man jumped over the stone balustrade lightly landing near the fountain, so did the accursed cat.
Asahi moved on instinct. He didn’t want to save the kitten, don’t even presume such an outrageous thing. It just happened. The animal was falling down like an idiot, blindly heading straight towards its doom and the next second the wet furball, safe and sound, was shamelessly snuggling into Wanderer’s arms.
"Hey," the ex-Harbinger poked the cat between the eyes, "what do you think you’re doing? I’m not your bed and I’m sure as hell not your mother." But the animal only meowed cutely in response ...it had no intention of moving from the comfortable spot, didn't it?
"I will drop you."
"Meow."
"I really will."
"Meow?"
"You don’t believe me? Well, just you wait—HEY!"
Before the threat finished forming on Wanderer’s lips, however, the kitten wiggled its nose and slipped out of his arms gracefully landing on the ground. Considering the tasty scent wafting through the air it was no surprise the animal trotted towards the nearby restaurant; even Asahi’s mouth watered a little.
"Damn it," he cursed pinching the bridge of his nose.
Eat and then sleep – that was all he dreamt about right now. Chasing stray cats was, on the other hand, definitely not in his plans for the day.
Honestly, he should have just ignored the fleabag and headed straight for the hotel, but something stopped him. A weird sense of, Archons’ forbid, duty? Maybe sympathy too for the young and helpless abandoned creature left in the rain? But for a being condemned to such a wretched fate, its eyes were still hopeful and bright. Full of wonder and curiosity. Trust in humanity and in... him.
And for that reason alone, no matter how much he hated it, no matter how fervently he cursed the Dendro Archon for turning him into such a sorry loser, Asahi still chased after the cat towards the Good Hunter. Spied it sitting on one of the chairs in the restaurant’s outdoor area.
The kitty had company, though.
Wanderer froze.
"Mona..!" The name involuntarily slipped past his lips and he immediately wanted to slam his head on the wall for making such a stupid mistake. Foolish, silly, dumb slip of a tongue.
"Huh?" The dark-haired twin-tail girl in a big witch hat frowned at him absentmindedly scratching the chin of the black kitten. "Who are you and how do you know me?"
It was truly the blunder of a lifetime. Because in this reality the paths of Asahi the Wanderer and the famous astrologist Mona Megistus never crossed. He didn’t try to attack her. She didn’t trick him. Their relationship became a blank slate. A white page in the book of Teyvat. And he never quite decided if he felt grateful or disappointed about it.
"I wasn’t talking to you," Wanderer schooled his features and defiantly crossed his arms.
The girl’s eyes narrowed. "Do you see another Mona, the great astrologist, around here?"
But this time he didn’t even grace her with an answer, instead pointing at the cat.
"What?!" She jumped to her feet with an offended huff, her palms slamming the table. "You named your cat Mona?!"
"I did." It was absolutely beyond the point that it wasn’t even his cat to begin with.
"Mona? Really?! How could you give such an elegant name to such a"—she flailed her arms, almost unable to come up with a fitting word—"pitiful creature?! Not to mention, have you no shame as an animal owner? This poor cat is drenched to the bone, trembles like a leaf from cold and judging by how it eyes my salad, is probably starving!"
"Not that you would get full with that pile of grass, either," he commented, inviting himself to the table and gruffly lifting the kitten by the skin on its neck; sat down taking its place. A part of him knew it was a mistake to get further involved with this weird girl, but another just couldn’t let it go. She was so infuriating! Every. Single. Time. They had the displeasure of running into each other. Self-righteous, arrogant, thought she knew it all.
Mona, horrified, snatched the dangling cat from his hand and placed it on her lap. The animal curled up in a ball, clearly satisfied with its new seat.
"Hey, boss." Asahi waved to the lady behind the counter. "Give me a meat dish, I don’t care what it is, as long as it’s filling and..." He glanced at the yawning kitten. "Add something for the cat."
"Thank you for the order, sir, coming right up~!" Sara called with a smile, not realising that the time required for her to whip up the dishes would also be the most awkward twenty minutes in the life of her mismatched clients.
Their eyes tried to look everywhere but at each other yet it was hard to do surrounded by a thick curtain of rain. What’s more, the downpour made the whole situation feel even more intimate and if Asahi didn’t know any better, he would say it was just another way of Teyvat telling him "fuck you."
"So..." Mona finally cracked, unable to stand the uncomfortable silence. The kitty lifted its head startled by the sudden noise but quickly settled down again and purred under her gentle touch. "You’re a scholar, right? Are you planning to stay in Mondstadt for long?"
Wanderer sighed and leaned back in his chair. The pitter-patter of the rain hitting the umbrella stretched above their table was, however, strangely soothing, heightening his sleepiness after the tiring day of leafing through countless dusty old tomes.
"And why would you care?" he shot back with a yawn of his own.
"I don’t. But I’m clearly making an effort with the small talk so that we won’t suffocate here," she grumbled averting her eyes. No joke, though. The atmosphere was so tense it was almost hard to breathe. "If you don’t wanna talk you can always change your seating, there are plenty of open tables around."
"Sorry, no can do. Not when you’re keeping my cat hostage." He smirked.
"Excuse me?!"
It was clear she wanted to stand up again, but the kitten peacefully nestled on her lap effectively kept the girl from making any sudden movements.
The internal conflict was written right on her face and despite serious efforts, Wanderer just couldn’t hold in a chuckle.
"Relax," he snorted shaking his head. "You’re really easy to mess with, you know that?"
Mona immediately glared. Sadly his laugh, even if in some rare cases happened to be sincere, still always sounded like a mockery.
"I don’t want to hear that from some ruffian barging in on a lady eating her dinner."
The argument, or maybe it should have been called banter, fortunately, didn’t have the opportunity to escalate as the waitress finally delivered Wanderer’s order. The big portion of Sticky Honey Roast was exuding an appetising aroma, a lot tastier than the ex-Harbinger expected, to be frank. Mona’s loud gulp didn’t escape his notice either.
You just couldn’t cheat a human body no matter how hard you would try.
"And here’s the milk for the little one." Sara placed a small bowl on the table and giggled watching as the food got instantly attacked by the clumsy kitten chucking his whole head into the dish. She was about to leave, but Asahi stopped her and nodded at the meat.
"Can you cut it into pieces? And give one to her." He pointed at Mona.
"W-what? I don’t need your charity!" the girl protested.
"And I don’t do charity. I don’t like being indebted to anyone, you, miss astrologist, included. Consider this a payback for your"—he again glanced at the cat now happily slurping milk—"advice."
"Well, if you put it that way... Fine," she composed herself into a picture of elegance, "I accept. Thank you."
"Good."
It was another scenario Wanderer would have never imagined, much less thought it had a chance of coming true – especially not when he was still Scaramouche, a persona non grata all over the world. But becoming Wanderer, becoming Asahi, opened for him many doors and many possibilities.
Like freely beating up people who were once considered his "comrades," and dining with someone brave enough to, in another life, call him her enemy and live to see another day.
"I still think you should rename the cat," Mona broke the silence again, wiping her mouth with a frilly blue handkerchief. "I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s a boy and using a feminine name is just silly."
"It doesn’t matter, a name is a name."
"I... disagree," she spoke out after a short pause. He could sense that her earlier complaints were nothing more than just a roundabout way of saying she simply didn’t like sharing a name with an animal; quite a normal response for someone as prideful as the famous Mona Megistus. But... this time her tone lacked any traces of deception. "What is your name, then?" the astrologist asked.
Some weird stubborn part of him didn’t want to say it out loud. He tried to avoid using it as much as possible – the name the Traveler from another world gave him. One who has beaten him time and time again. It was like a reminder of a debt he had. That the outlander not only saved his life but also graced him with a gift even his own "mother" never saw fitting to bestow upon a discardable puppet.
"...Asahi," Wanderer finally muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Asahi, huh? That’s a pretty name," Mona decided, her finger lazily tracing the rim of the steaming teacup. Their teas, hers full of sugar and his bitter like life itself, arrived just a second ago. The warmth soaking into her fingertips helped the girl finally relax amidst the falling rain. Even... in such a peculiar company. "If I recall it’s in Inazuman and means... 'the morning sun?'"
"Something like that," came the half-baked answer.
"It’s not 'something like that' but a beautiful message. Whoever named you, certainly wished for you to rise brightly every day like the sun."
"Brightly?" He snorted. "Have you seen me?" Because you could describe Wanderer with many words, but 'cheerful' wasn’t one of them.
"The significance of a name is nothing to joke about," Mona responded calmly ignoring the jab; with a few efficient gestures summoned the scrying circle, scratched her chin lost in thought. "And... sunny days are the best. When the weather’s clear you can watch the stars on the nights that follow. The sun rising in the morning is the sign of a new, hopeful beginning, so..." she fearlessly challenged his blue eyes and didn’t look away, "walk bravely forward, just like the name wants you to do."
Wanderer flinched. These kinds of conversations... he wasn’t used to this type of treatment. When was the last time anyone besides Nahida and that weird duo cared what he will do with his life? Probably so long ago it wasn't even worth remembering.
"Is this what you tell all your clients? Or did I earn the special pep-talk because my fortune looks so bleak?"
"Huh?" Mona lifted an eyebrow and took a slow sip of her tea. It smelt of lavender. "You’re not very nice, you realise that, right? I don’t do charity," she copied his own words enjoying the fleeting surprise that flashed across Asahi’s face. So satisfying.
Could he believe that, though? Trust in pure goodwill that in any other case Wanderer would simply call, well, bullshit?
When the weather’s clear you can watch the stars on the nights that follow...
But the sun is destined to set before the stars appear in the sky – and the same way his and Mona’s paths were fated to pass each other by.
Asahi rose from his seat to the piercing sound of a chair sliding back; grabbed the cat by his neck again regardless of the pitiful meows and milk still dripping from its chin.
"Come on, fleabag, dinner’s over."
Her good intention aside. His fascination with her power and her arts aside. Some things are simply not meant to be – Wanderer’s goal was to fade in the shadows, not bask in the light. Staying any longer would only put weird ideas in his head, thoughts that had no right to exist.
"Hey!" Mona’s hand grabbed him by the arm and held him in place before he managed to escape, though. And how the heck was this girl so strong?! "I just told you to be gentler with him. And..." She let go and squeezed the bridge of her nose instead. "Hotels around here don’t accept pets. I-I'm not saying I’m particularly eager to help you but I can't let the kitty end up on the street again now that he's finally found an owner."
"Huh?"
"Oh, come on, did you really think I didn’t know you just literally picked it up? Who do you take me for, exactly? I’m Mona Megistus, the greatest astrologist of this generation, and you, sir"—she suddenly poked him in the chest, a light blush warming her cheeks—"are coming home with me."
Asahi stared. It might have been the first time a human being managed to leave him at an absolute loss for words.
She baffled him. Plain and simple. Both back then when her piercing blue eyes first fell on the Sixth Harbinger and she vanished into thin air right after, and the same now, when instead of running away, Mona had done the exact opposite and offered him a place to stay.
Always headstrong.
Always unpredictable.
This girl was just—
"—crazy," he murmured and then repeated louder with a burst of mocking laughter. "You, lady, are absolutely crazy. Who the hell invites some random guy they met five minutes ago to sleep in their house? Do you have a death wish?"
"I do not," the astrologist answered crossing her arms. "I simply chose to trust the stars."
"And what did they tell you, exactly?"
Many things, actually, though most of them Asahi probably wouldn't believe in stubbornly clinging to his misconceptions.
That their paths would often split and cross.
That there was and will be much knowledge gained from these encounters.
That... their souls were intertwined whether they liked it or not. Forbidden to be nothing. Destined to be something. Enemies? Allies? Foils? Banes of each other’s existence? Partners in crime? ...friends? All of it, none of it? Maybe even—
"To save the cat, of course, what else?" She snatched the kitten from Wanderer’s grip again and cuddled it to her chest. The animal meowed in satisfaction immediately earning himself a heated glare. Cheeky bastard.
"Come on, or I’ll leave you behind," Mona called, already walking away. Stopped after a few steps and grinned over her shoulder. "If I remember correctly, a certain someone said he won’t leave me alone as long as I’m keeping his cat hostage, isn’t that right?"
And a cheeky bastard number two.
Asahi’s lips twitched.
He couldn’t exactly say he disliked that about her. Not now and not back then, in another life.
Before the man realised, his legs followed the girl into the rain as if having will of their own. And this time the droplets falling down didn’t feel as cold as before.