Autumn

It was getting cold but it's not as if he wasn't used to it. Kazuha was sitting on a perched tree and rethinking about his life when he suddenly heard a loud boom. At first, he didn't want to check because it wasn't any of his business but after a while of listening, he decided to get off his tree.

As he walked near the waterfall where he guessed the sound came from, a very sharp and cold object blocked him from walking further as it was two centimeters near his throat. No need to turn around to guess who it was, he already knew with the slight breeze of wind that grazed him.

"What do you want?", he asked with a monotone voice, not surprised by this event.

"For you to be gone."

There was a moment of silence before Kazuha hummed in agreement. Not even a second passed after that sigh they were already in an attack stance, ready to strike each other down. At first, their swords only clashed a few times before Kazuha decided to speak again.

"Why did you come all the way here again?"

"..."

Scaramouche didn't want to respond, he wanted to finish this as quickly as possible. Being assigned to assassinate his own best friend was kind of a hard task but the Tsaritsa personally ordered him to do so. He had no other choice but to obey.

[...]

"Kazuuu, you're so mean. I just wanted the ball and you didn't let me play for the whole afternoon." a younger version of Scaramouche whined as he sat down on the grass and pouted, not wanting to look at his friend.

"Pfft, you're so funny Scara, you never let me play so here's a taste of your own medicine." he chuckled before sitting down next to Scara but not too close in fear of getting beaten up by a pouting child.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while and didn't feel like doing anything. The light wind blowing on their faces and the sound of rustling grass felt somewhat comforting. Honestly speaking, neither of them wanted to leave and go home but they had to, eventually.

That was the last day they would see each other too and it was saddening. Kazuha was leaving with his sister to another territory that day and he himself did not know until Beidou had to announce it only when he went back home. He didn't have the chance to say goodbye.

The sudden question of "What will you do when you grow up?" came up once and it might've been one of the only conversations Kazuha remembered so vividly. It was that specific day that he realized Scara wasn't like him and thus why they would probably end up as enemies in the future. Scara's parents never really revealed what they did for a living but him being the sneaky little kid he was, overheard their conversation one night and decided that he would become one of the members of the Fatui after hearing all about the 'good' deeds they did under their ruler, Tsaritsa. It fascinated him how his parents worked under someone with such loyalty and that was the day he swore to himself he would work hard to become one of the Harbingers since they were strong. He thought he knew all about it but he clearly didn't. The next day, they were hanging out together again and that's when Scaramouche decided to tell Kazuha about his dream job. The latter decided to stay neutral about it but deep inside he knew that it wouldn't work out because of how they actually worked.

"Scara, are you sure about that? Like, 100% sure?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

"Mhm okay."

"What's with the frown?"

"Nothing, nothing, don't worry about it. Let's go play ball!"

"Oh. Okay then."