Chapter Text
“But Dad… I dont want to go to this meeting. I have books to read” Azul didn’t look up from the page he was currently annotating. Pantalone adjusted his gloves as he walked in front of Azul
“And you will continue reading,” Pantalone said smoothly, “after you learn how the world is built”
Azul just sighed as he highlighted another line on the page, “I’m guessing Father is already there?”
“Correct. He was the first to arrive after all.” Pantalone replied calmly as they finally reached the door to the meeting. Of course he’s already here… Azul paused for a moment, preparing himself for whatever headache awaited him on the other side as Pantalone opened the door and gestured for him to enter first.
“Good. You brought him,” Dottore commented quickly from where he was seated near the head of the table.
Azul glanced around the table, Ten of the Eleven Harbingers were present. Only one seat remained empty. He noted this as he walked in and took the seat beside Pantalone, earning several strange looks from the other Harbingers. “Why is there a child here?” One of them sneered, Scaramouche, Azul assumed. The absurdly large hat was difficult to mistake for anyone else.
“He’s observing,” Dottore answered without looking up, fixing the collar of his coat.
“Without my consent. I never wanted to attend this anyway,” Azul added, sending a small glare to his Father. Suddenly the door burst open, revealing the missing harbinger.
“Sorry I’m late, I had a lot of paperwork!” Tartaglia, Azul assumed. The bright orange hair was difficult to miss, “Who's the new kid?”
“Mine and Dottore’s son. Azul” Pantalone shot Dottore a smug look. Dottore merely rolled his eyes. Several of the Harbingers visibly froze. Whatever comments they might have made died immediately under a single look from Dottore.
“Shall we begin this meeting then? I believe we were on the topic of the Geo Gnosis?” Pierro—Azul knew from the way he spoke, calm but chilling. Giving no room to speak back.
“Yes, we should. We’ve received word from the Tsaritsa, Tartaglia, you will be the one to steal the Geo Gnosis,” Capitano slid a sealed letter across the table to Tartaglia. Capitano was also quite easy to tell, who else walks around wearing full armour, “This letter contains the exact information you need.”
Tartaglia picked up the letter and placed it within his coat, “So we’re here to plan how I’m proceeding I’m guessing?”
“Correct, if anyone would like to contribute an idea, please do so,” Capitano nodded, affirming Tartaglia’s assumption. Azul glanced up silently, meeting Scaramouche's glare.
“Since Tartaglia’s so bloodthirsty, why doesn’t he just fight the Geo Archon and take the Gnosis,” Scaramouche scoffed, glancing away from Azul to glare at Tartaglia.
“First of all, I’m not blood thirsty, I’m battle hungry. There's a difference. And second I’m not suicidal,” Tartaglia glared back at Scaramouche.
Arlecchino, as Azul noticed, looked up from where she was reading over some papers, “The Geo Archon rarely makes public appearances. We could identify his movements, isolate him, and retrieve the Gnosis by force if necessary,”
“Finally, someone's speaking my language,” Tartaglia smirked, seemingly happy with that plan. I swear to the Tsaritsa, there's at least one other way that is seemingly more thought out…
“Subtle as always,” Scaramouche rolled his eyes.
Capitano nodded thoughtfully, “Well thought Arlecchino,”
“The success rate is acceptable,” Dottore stated as he nodded.
Azul flipped the page, "Wouldn't that create unnecessary resistance?”
Everyone turned to stare at him while Pierro looked to Azul curiously, "Please, elaborate,”
“You're attempting to steal something from the Archon, correct?” Azul looked up to see them all nodding before he continued, “Then surely the logical approach would be to convince him you're trustworthy.” Everyone was stunned silent.
“Gain his trust. Learn his habits. Let him lower his guard” Azul highlighted another line in his book, “Then take it”
All the harbingers except Pantalone and Dottore were stunned silent.
Dottore gave his signature calm smile and nodded once, “As expected,” while Pantalone just sighed tiredly, already used to Azul.
“Is this… Is this normal?” One harbinger asked, possibly Signore from that tone of voice.
“Yes. This is normal,” Pantalone pinched the bridge of his nose, “I've learned not to ask where he gets these ideas.”
While Dottore smirked and immediately responded, “I know exactly where he gets them…”
The room fell silent again. Even Scaramouche looked speechless.
Tartaglia blinked, “That’s actually a really good idea,”
Scaramouche clicked his tongue, “Why is the child more useful than half of you?”
“I didn’t hear you give any useful ideas,” Tartaglia gave Scaramouche a smug look. To which Scaramouche glared at him.
Azul flipped to the next page and sighed tiredly. He finished the book and forgot to bring a spare. Today is not going well at all… “Dad, Father, can I go back to my room now? I finished this book,”
“No. You are still needed here to observe,” Dottore flicked his gaze to Azul.
“I agree with your Father.” Pantalone turned to face Azul now, giving him a serene smile, “The meeting has already benefited from your presence.”
Azul just leaned back in his chair and sighed, why cant this day be over with already…
“Hmm Azul was it?” Pierro began with a cryptic smile, only continuing when Azul begrudgingly nodded, “If I gave you a report to read, would you annotate it?”
Azul hummed for a moment before glancing towards Pierro with mild interest, “Would it keep me busy this whole dumb meeting?”
“I beleive it would,” He nodded, “And if it doesn’t I always have another,”
“Sure, I’ll do it,” Azul shrugged reaching for the report from Pierro. As he flicked through the pages, his expression brightened slightly. A moment later, he had already begun highlighting sections and scribbling notes in the margins.
Azul drowned out the rest of the meeting as he was very into the report he was given. The report itself was quite interesting, it was a report made by one of the Harbingers. Azul wasnt able to know which one as the name was blacked out.
The report was about the promotion of an ‘Ajax’, a normal Fatui footman to a Harbinger. Given the profile of ‘Ajax’ Azul could clearly tell it was Tartaglia. But that wasn’t the interesting bit. Apparently Tartaglia survived the Abyss, which is the one place both of Azuls parents forbid him to explore.
According to it, the Tsaritsa utilised Tartaglis ‘battle hungriness’ to help with her schemes and so he became the eleventh. But what made Azul frown was the extensive spelling and grammar mistakes, one of the sentences didn’t even make remote sense.
Azul could not believe his eyes, these harbingers are all much older than him. And yet him, Azul, an eleven year old had to correct their grammar, punctuation, spelling and almost the entire structure of their report.
He sucked in a sharp breath as his current red pen ran out of ink. He was only on the third page of the report and it ran out of ink.
Azul had to know who wrote this, it was horrifying, and so he spoke up, “Who wrote this report please?”
It was Capitano who replied, “Hmm, that would most likely be Scaramouche,”
“Scaramouche,” Azul closed his eyes and took a breath, pinching the bridge of his nose, “This report is a crime of its own.”
“You survived becoming a harbinger and yet punctuation defeated you.” He held up his dead red pen, “I’m only on page three. Page three.”
Scaramouche only scoffed, “It’s legible”
“Barely” Azul shook his head before turning back to the crime of a report.
Azul noticed a few reactions of the harbingers, Tartaglia was trying hard not to laugh but was horribly failing. His dad was trying not to look proud around the other harbingers and his Father looked visibly delighted.
~
Azul went back to ignoring the adults as he finished with Scaramouches ‘report’ if you can even call it that. Luckily it had only five pages so his second red pen was spared.
“—and that concludes this meeting.” Capitano announced as Azul finally tuned in, “Tartaglia, I trust you know the plan now.”
“Yup, I do” Tartaglia nodded, looking quite happy.
Pierro was the next to speak, facing towards Azul, “Is the report finished Azul?”
“Yeah it is…” Azul sighed, happy that he saved that poor report. He quickly scribbled something down on the front page before handing it to Pierro.
Azul heard Pierro chuckle as he looked at the front page of the report. The other Harbingers looked to Pierro in shock, having never heard the director laugh, mush less chuckle before.
Pierro luckily enlightened the Harbingers at what he laughed at, “26% is an understandable grade for this report,”
Tartaglia lasted approximately three seconds before completely losing it. While Scaramouche was torn between glaring daggers at Azul or Tartaglia.
“Azul please stop grading reports…” Pantalone only sighed, “I think it’s time to go,”
Dottore looked quite happy, “Adequately graded son, and yes it would be smart to leave. I have a few… experiments to check up on,”
“Finally,” Azul breathed out as he stood up along with his parents and left the harbingers to continue laughing or wondering what happened.