《Your POV》

You slowly opened your eyes, still very tired from your long day. To your surprise, it was still dark out. You looked over to Scaramouche, who of course, still had his arms around you. Waking him up wouldn't have been ideal, after all he was probably more tired than you were.

Gently moving his arms off of you, you quietly slid to the floor. Now would've been a good time to do some more brainstorming. You and Scaramouche had hit a dead end in the meteorite investigation, and if you wanted to speed things up, you needed to put in the work to do so.

You opened your bag, taking out a few books and other supplies, trying to be as silent as possible so you didn't wake Mr. Sleeping Beauty over there.

Obviously that didn't work, because you felt a hand on your shoulder, "What are you doing?" His voice was audibly exhausted.

"Sorry.. I'm just trying to gather all the information we have. Maybe we'll find something different." You explained, "Just go back to sleep."

You could hear Scaramouche sigh as he took a seat right next to you. He gently took one of the books from you and started examining it.

"What are you-"

"I'm helping," he replied, even before you could finish your sentence, "I'm not just going to let you do this by yourself. I too, was given the job to research these meteorites, so I will."

You looked at him and smiled, returning back to your research.

♢♢♢

After a while of reading, taking notes, rereading, then taking more notes, you could tell the sun was going to rise soon, which meant it was time to move onto the next location.

You packed up all of your books, with the help of Scaramouche, and set out.

Scaramouche had the map this time. You found it kind of cute how hard he was trying to be helpful. It was almost as if he wasn't used to it.

"It says the next one shouldn't be too far from Liyue Harbor," He informed you, "Seems like it's near Dunyu Ruins."

You turned to look at him, "How many more are there?"

"Hm.. 2 more. Though, the last one is on some sort of island off the coast of Mondstadt."

The weather was really nice that day. Although it was a bit cold, it was bearable. After all, is was still pretty dark out. The sun hasn't risen yet. The two of you walked by one of the statue's of the seven. To your surprise, Aether was standing there talking with Paimon, his companion.

"Aether?" You questioned, surprised to see him there, especially this early in the morning.

The blonde boy looked up, his eyes meeting yours, "Oh, Y/N! Fancy seeing you here!"

You awkwary smiled at him. It was nice to see so many familiar faces, but nerve racking at the same time. You walked up to him and Paimon, leaving Scaramouche standing in the road by himself.

"What brings you to Liyue? I thought you were stuck doing work in Mondstadt?" Aether asked,

"I was sent to look into the meteorites. Though, we've kind of hit a dead end.." you answered. It was true, the two of you haven't been able to find any new clues.

Aether looked confused, "We..?"

You almost forgot to introduce him to your companion, "Oh, this is-"

"Hi, I'm Y/N's travel partner." Scaramouche cut in, holding his hand out to Aether.

Aether nervously laughed, shaking his hand, "Nice to meet you..? Anyway, what a coincidence, I was told to look into them as well!"

"You.. were?" You weren't told that anyone else would be working the investigation. So many thoughts were going through your head. Did the guild not trust you? Did they send out their honorary knight to do the job because they thought you wouldn't be able to? You started feeling dizzy and your knees started feeling weak. You thought it was stupid to overreact like this, but to you, it meant all your hard work went to waste.

Scaramouche however, noticed your reaction, "Well, if you excuse us, we have lots of work to do," he grabbed your shoulders and started walking away.

"Hey! Since we're both working on the same investigation, we should-" Aether started, only to be interrupted by Scaramouche.

"That won't be necessary," he didn't even look back.

Aether and Paimon watched as you two left. Paimon folded her arms, "Well that wasn't very nice!"

Aether just stared at you, probably wondering what that was all about.

♢♢♢

After you got far enough away, Scaramouche sat you down on a nearby log, "What happened back there?"

You looked down, fidgeting with your clothes. The whole ordeal made you contemplate why you were doing any of this in the first place.

"I worked hard to get where I am now. While I'm not a super high rank, I'm still higher than most. I guess.. my abilities weren't enough, so they sent Aether to do the things I couldn't do."

Scaramouche didn't know what to say, after all he wasn't good with talking about his feelings, and you knew that. You didn't expect him to give you advice, all you wanted was for him to listen.

"By putting Aether onto this investigation, the guild was basically telling me that I'm not good enough, right to my face," you stood up, Scaramouche was starting to get worried. You felt a bit of anger building up inside you, "I'm sick of people like him just showing up out of no where and making people like me feel inferior."

Scaramouche had never seen this side of you before, which was a given. After all, this was a side to you that even you didn't know existed.

He finally spoke, "Well, what will you do about it?"

"Huh?" You looked up at him with your angry, teary eyes.

"What are you going to do about it? Are you going to just sit here and accept it, or are you going to prove to them that you're good enough?" Scaramouche advised.

You'd never seen him give such wise advice, "If only it were that easy.." you looked back down.

You could feel Scaramouche's fingertips under your chin, lifting your head up, "I'll train you. You have a vision right? I'll train you to use that sword you're always carrying around, as well as how to use your vision."

"What about the meteorites-"

"That can wait," Scaramouche said, "Well? Do you accept?"

You stood up, wiping away your tears. You had to admit, even after everything that happened, you were glad you had someone by your side all this time. You knew you could trust him.

Nodding, you took your sword, "I accept."

♢♢♢

《Scaramouche's POV》

After finding a place to stay for the time being, Scaramouche sent Y/N off to calm themselves down while he sharpened their sword for them. It was quite dull, after all, it had never been used before. At least, not to his knowledge.

As he worked, he glanced over at Y/N who was standing near a small creek, probably to get their mind off of things.

If someone had told past Scaramouche that he would purposefully slack off on the job, simply because he had a soft spot for someone, he would've been laughing uncontrollably.

He had to admit, Y/N changed him. He didn't know how or why exactly, but they did. He'd never met anyone like them before. Instead of being in a constant state of rage, Scaramouche started feeling.. warm. Even though Y/N had no combat abilities, they made him feel safe and comfortable.

It was his first time ever having someone like that. He smiled at the thought, but immediately stopped after realizing how weird it was.

Yet, somehow because of that, Scaramouche disliked Y/N. It was weird, being able to like someone so much but dislike them at the same time. The one reason he had for disliking them was simply because they made him feel strange. Everytime Y/N touched him, his whole body seemed to get chills. And everytime they smiled, it felt like his heart was about to be ripped out of his chest.

Of course, being a Fatui harbinger, all he thought about was his job, he never thought about other people, not even once. Y/N being around was interfering with his longing to get work done. He wished that he could just hate them but he couldn't.

Maybe it was a sign that he needed someone to be the light to his darkness. Like Y/N.

Thinking about all of this was making his head hurt. He set the sword down, only to find Y/N standing there.

《Your POV》

Coming back from your little break, you walked up to Scaramouche. You were so thankful to him for sticking by you, despite your helplessness. You wanted to go thank him.

You finally made it to where he was sitting. As you stood there, he looked up at you. You smiled, "I just wanted to say thank you.. I know I can come off as annoying or helpless sometimes. I'm sorry you have to put up with me, but I really appreciate it. You made me realize that I don't have to care about what other people think of me."

Scaramouche stood up, sighing. He seemed almost.. mad? You braced yourself, thinking he was about to lash out at you or something.

Suddenly, you felt his hand gently brushing away a piece of you hair. You opened your eyes to see him staring at you. You didn't find it creepy or weird, but somehow, it was comforting. At that moment, the sun was visible over the horizon, making the sky a beautiful pink color.

He placed his hand on the back of your neck, causing your heart to practically beat through your chest. Though you had no experience, you knew exactly what he was about to do. And quite honestly, you didn't want him to stop.

Scaramouche leaned in, finally pressing his lips onto yours. You saw it coming, yet somehow it still surprised you.

He slowly pulled away, looking you in the eyes, and you stared right back. Your heart was beating so fast that you were practically speechless. Scaramouche chuckled at how awkward you were. You couldn't help but slightly cringe at yourself because of it.

Scaramouche cleared his throat, turning around to grab your sword and then placing it in your hands, "Ready to start your training?"

✨✨