Those Who Dream of Freedom (Scaramouche x fem!reader)

Chapter 11 ☆ Outdoor training

☆ y/n

We're at Starfell Lake, near the Statue of the Seven. This morning when I woke up, I thought it might be more enjoyable for both of us if we trained outside, so we walked to the woods and stopped here. He followed me without arguing, although he kept asking me where we were going and what we were going to do. When we arrived, however, he immediately sat down on the blanket I had brought and hasn't gotten up since.

"To train," I say. "The forest reassures me."

"And I thought this day couldn't get any worse."

"It's only eight in the morning. What could have happened already?"

"You," he replies sharply.

"You never change," I say sighing.

"I was expecting you to make a retort."

"And I was expecting you the past few days to behave as usual, but it didn't happen."

He flinches.

"The past few days..."

"Yesterday for example you've been zoned out all day, you didn't even pay attention to what the Knights were telling us, you wandered around and made fun of everyone in the village."

"You imagined it."

I take the notebook out of his hands as soon as I see him look down. We came here with a purpose and I'm not going to let him do what he wants anymore. We'll train here, even if it bothers him.

"Don't open it."

"Open what? This? Is this your diary?"

"It's none of your business what it is."

"If you say so..." I say and throw it in his lap.

But he doesn't open it again. He puts it down next to him and gets up from the blanket, looking at me expectantly. I know for a fact that even though the way he's acting is giving me a hard time, something has changed nonetheless. Maybe I've just become more accustomed to his presence, but I certainly don't feel the need to talk back to him anymore.

"Come on, let's get to work," I say.

"Okay," he says. "The sooner we finish, the sooner I can get rid of you."

"A few days ago you didn't seem willing to do it."

He reaches into his shorts pocket. I know that whatever it is he's looking for clearly can't be good.

"Better save that energy for the fight. I'd like to see a real fight this time. It'd be good practice."

"If we'd fought for real by now, you'd have been dead a long time ago. As you can see, I'm not as weak as you thought."

It's true that I noticed it then, but that doesn't mean I'm any less.

"If we'd fought for real by now, you wouldn't stand a chance against me."

After all, I'm much stronger than he could ever be. I'll never reveal that to him, though, even if I were to die.

"Hmm? I can't wait for the day we fight to the death."

"Me too, Scaramouche," I say. "I can't wait either."

So we get to work. I unsheathe my training sword, and he picks his up off the grass. I'm sure today's fight is going to be pretty epic, especially since we've started to coordinate better after the last few practices. We usually came out even in fights, and even if we argued based on the methods we used, at least we knew we were making progress.