#i feel like i could’ve executed this idea better but my tummy hurts so bear with it

[abyssruler]

summertime sadness

scaramouche x gn!reader

you meet a man with strangely familiar eyes and a voice that makes you long for something you never even knew you missed.

light angst, uhh spoilers for 3.3 archon quest? warning: i haven’t done the latest interlude quest so may not be accurate on some aspects but canon has and always will be just a blueprint for me to stomp on

For as long as you can remember, there’s always been something missing in your life, a piece in your heart that’s lost and can never be recovered. Like an ache in your body that you can’t quite place, something lingering on the edge of your mind but always just out of reach.

It’s like stepping into a room, fully prepared to do what you’d been planning to do, only to stop and stare as your mind blanks and you forget what you were even there for.

Aether has always advised you to steer clear of Sumeru. He never elaborates more than an apologetic smile and half-baked excuses, says that the weather there is too humid, you wouldn’t like it, and there’s all sorts of bugs and insects, the kind that’d make your skin crawl at the sight. Liyue has good views and sceneries, why don’t you travel there instead?

So you’ve refrained from going there, even though you don’t quite understand why beyond not wanting to make your friend worry.

But then he came to you, all hesitant eyes and imploring words as he asked you to accompany him to Sumeru to see a friend—and you’re unsure whether you were imagining the way he grimaced at the word friend.

You think you know a little more now, sitting at a table in one of Sumeru’s many restaurants and having to endure Aether’s constant reassurances about how his friend is definitely gonna come, even though it’s been two hours since the designated meeting time and you’ve seen neither hide nor hair of his ‘friend’.

And the way Aether talks about said friend to you, an almost expectant look in his eyes that turns into barely concealed disappointment at your lack of a reaction beyond polite hums and nods of your head—you don’t know what to make of it. He seems so sure you’ll like this friend of his that something suspicious rears its head in you.

“Are you setting me up on some sort of blind date with this friend of yours?”

Aether splutters, quickly coming up with denials that make you even more convinced that this is some sort of date. He startles when you stand up from your seat, having had enough of waiting for this friend of his who didn’t even have the decency to arrive on time.

“I’m leaving,” you say, just as another voice pipes up—

“I half expected you to have run off by now. It’s rather pathetic to…” The voice trails off, sounding like the air has just been knocked from their breath.

You turn around.

The loveliest pair of eyes are the first thing you see, your gaze drifting up to dark indigo strands and further up to the large hat the man before you wears. His face looks carved from porcelain, all fragile angles and delicate features set in a face so angelic, yet so…

Nostalgic.

Something tugs at the back of your head. Fond and tender and something about the slant of his eyes and the set of his lips that makes your heart yearn, like returning to your old childhood bedroom and only just realizing how much you’ve missed it.

Missed him.

“Have…” You lick your lips, feeling uncharacteristically out of depth by the mere presence of a stranger. “Have we met before?”

There’s a moment’s pause, his eyes crinkling at the edges before he turns his head away, bringing a hand up to tug his hat down. And your heart leaps, mind grasping at something to put a place on where you’ve seen such a sight before—but there’s nothing. Nothing to explain the way your breath hitches and chest twist with a strange sort of emotion you can’t name.

“No,” he says after a short length.

You ignore the way your heart wilts in disappointment.

“I… I see,” you respond, not quite sure what to say but feeling something in you begging to fill the silence, urging you to engage him in conversation, smile, talk, laugh—anything.

Anything to hear his voice again.

“For a moment, it just felt like I knew you.” Something in you grimaces at how you delivered it, but it’s overshadowed by the warmth that spreads through your chest when he looks up and meets your expectant gaze with surprised eyes.

He looks hesitant, not outwardly, no, but something about the way he purses his lips and narrows his eyes makes you think he is—though you’re unsure why you’d even think so.

And perhaps it’s that urge in you that makes you say what you’re about to say, clawing in your chest and spreading through your veins to the tips of your fingers like an itch that won’t go away. But you can’t bring yourself to care, not when he’s watching you with unreadable eyes that speak of so much yet so little, your hands twitching with an inexplicable urge to grab his hand, hold his face, wrap your arms around him and never let go.

“Do you want to get to know each other?”

You smile—

And it’s like something in him shifts, looking at you with an emotion you could almost call longing. How strange, how lovely, how very dearly missed.

His lips part, voice sounding like everything you’ve been yearning for and more, “Yes.”

(“Why do you keep asking me questions?”

You grinned, an almost happy note in your voice—though he couldn’t hope to understand the reason for it. “Because I want to get to know you better, Scaramouche.”

“And you think being a pest would make me more amenable to indulging your laughable attempts at small talk?” He crossed his arms.

“If being a pest means I’ll get to hear you speak more, then I’ll be the most annoying insect in the world,” you laughed, letting out a buzzing sound not unlike that of a fly.

He looked at you with unimpressed eyes. “I would’ve had you electrocuted for your insolence.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

His eyes narrowed before he turned away from the sight of your stupidly annoying smile that made his chest feel uncomfortably tight. “I’ll let it slide, just this once.”)