✧༺Bond | Scaramouche༻∞

17: ̗̀➛ Recovering

He's at his outside work station with a small pile of paperwork, ink and feather on the side. I listen up closely from where I woke up and hear him burst into a fit of slight laughter, banging the desk with his hands.
"My Lord, this is a serious thing that must be dealt with as soon as possible!" His self-conscious subordinate pleaded, ashamed of Scaramouche's laughing. "You don't have a say in this, otherwise I will lessen your pay for this year."
He crossed his arms tutting, "I think you understood based on your little heart-wrenching face, go cry another time ; here isn't the place for your little sobbing."

I flinched and the subordinate was taken aback and wiped his eyes with his back towards him, "toughen up, I thought you were used to me." Scaramouche says annoyed. Without thinking I march up behind him putting my hands on one of his shoulders, then I see two letters on the table with delicate wax seals imprinted on top and notice my name written on both.

I go close to grabbing them but his hand snatches the letters away and he stands up, he grabs my chin tightly and says, "Now who said you could go off and start touching anything that you want... I must say, you looked very eager to take them but I'm afraid you have to learn some manners before attempting to do that."
"Why does it matter, they're for me! Who are they from?"
"Fine." He lets go of my chin and looks at the sealed envelopes, "The adventurers guild and someone I presume is your friend, Xiangling."

My eyes widen, Xiangling? I haven't been in touch with her in a few weeks. The guild probably sent me a letter to reassure me or to check up on me so it's not a surprise but what would she really want to say to me that she needs to send a letter. "Hand them over right here right now."
"Anytime, princess." He smiles delicately and goes back to checking reports. Disgusting.
I stand back and start reading the first one,

Y/n,
Hello, this is from Katheryne from Mondstadt, I've been notified that you have arrived safely in Inazuma and that you're doing the commission at the time I'm writing this. You should have received this after finding out what the fatui have been planning and I would like you to write me a letter back if you can, telling me how you are making of the situation. Once you've been escorted back to Mond, I'm promised to hear what happened.

Sincerely,
Katheryne - The adventures guild

The next ones reads:

To Y/n,
Hey, I recently heard you have been picked for doing a commission in Inazuma and me and Xingqiu wanted to let you know that we cheering on you, it's actually quite great since at the moment we are very busy with work and clubs too so when you come back, you're always free to visit us or us visit you. If you just want to send letters or not even chat at all for a period of time, that's ok too, everyone has their bad days and sometimes people just don't feel like talking to somebody, I get we are in a bit of an awkward point right now but I want to go back to when we always hung out and all of that, you don't have to feel obliged though.

All our love,
Xiangling & Xingqiu

I cripple both pieces of paper up and throw them at a random place, they aimlessly rolled down. "What's the matter? Go pick them up."
"Why don't you since you're so obsessed with some pieces of paper."
He grunts in annoyance, "Soldier, go pick it up now." He commands and the hurt subordinate nods and does as he's told, I finally feel like we are at an equal level and not me being worth less than him.

So after all this, we still are destined to meet each other one way or another. I cannot be here at all, I'm supposed to be with Aether back at the shrine where we agreed to meet afterwards but no. I would've ran away but what good will that bring me? Absolutely nothing, I'm lost in a region I have no idea about with no map and I don't know if any of these plants and fruit are dangerous to eat.

I'll just stay with him for a little longer to gain his trust and hopefully set off on my own back to the city at least.
"La Signora is dead." He said.
"She's been slain... by that wicked traveller..." He says in a monotone voice, I'm instantly confused not knowing anyone with that name.
"One of our harbingers has been slain by a mere mortal, how pathetic. I always knew she was weak in combat and here we are."

"Signora?"
"A duel before the throne, in the end one must always die and she was the one who lay in ashes."
"Is it really as catastrophic as you describe it to me or are you over-exaggerating it."
"Who knows?"

He pulls the side of my arm and I steady my breathing for a second, he points to a written document signed by a fatui, it says the same thing as what he explained but in greater detail with many apologies left, right and centre. He only looks neutral when looking at it and all I can think of is what the traveller must be feeling, absolute guilt fills me, I should be there helping him get rest, I don't know what to do now.

"Now that it's just us I can tell you."
"Huh? If it's a silly dull sorry then you can save that for later."
"If we move back to the beautiful Liyue landscape or go camping on another Inazuman island, we can run away now and stay away from everything. The thing is, La Signora is finally gone. I've been wanting her gone since the beginning. Her dirty little mouth, I dislike her, no – I hate her. She heard from a recruit that we were together and I thought it would all be fine except when we accidentally met, she had a small chat with me and forced me to say that to you, all those words were lies, alright? Before you blame me for the disaster of Inazuma, wait. I think I see someone spying on us, quick!"

He squeezes my hand and forcefully pulls me so we start sprinting away from the site, all our stuff was left there including his hat and I try my best not to stumble, the purple smoke from the factory still has a bit of a drowsy effect on me however it's mostly worn off.

"Who was spying on us?!"
"No one you need to worry about, just focus on what's in front and I'll tell you when we can stop!"
"Do we need to be holding hands though, I can run just fine!"
"Um.. it was just so we can stay at the same pace, I'll let go though."
"Next time don't start touching anything you want, learn some manners before attempting to do that!" I mockingly joke making him groan quietly.

It wasn't long before we stopped and we meet a small obstacle in front of us – a group of bandits.