Make me Yours and Yours Alone

That Night We Met

     Rain poured against the windows of the cafe, it was nearly empty with one or two patrons remaining when a near young adult with purple hair noticed the familiar ring of bells chime and an upset face stepped in holding a bag close to their chest under an old umbrella that just barely shielded them from the rain. 

"You seem quite out of sorts, need a coffee?" asked the purple haired boy from behind the counter. Y/N busied themself with folding their umbrella and shoving it into the side of their bookbag before sparing the owner of the voice a glance. The Cafe felt pleasantly warm, a stark contrast to the cold wetness outside that Y/N had just emerged from. Many wooden tables and chairs filled the main dining space of the cafe, most of them already with chairs flipped upside down on the tables, evidence that it was nearly closing time. "uhm, yeah... I'll just take a small black coffee." Y/N placed the mora to pay for the drink on the counter after searching their pockets and the purple haired boy gave them an all too genuine smile upon handing them their requested drink.

Retreating to one of the untouched wooden tables with their drink and bag, Y/N readied themselves to work until forced to leave. To their surprise however, when the boy walked around the cafe to clean the now empty tables, he stopped to look over at the work in front of Y/N. "Social economics? looks like Mr.Vahid's class. I have him in homeroom" The voice behind them nearly made Y/N jump out of their seat, earning a laugh from the boy. 

"Crap! ah, yes, he's my last class..." 

"You're the transfer student, aren't you? I'm Scaramouche" The purple haired boy introduced himself, and it didn't take long before both Y/N and Scaramouche were sitting down working on homework. Scaramouche managed to be the one friendly person Y/N encountered that day, and maybe that's why they so easily lowered their guard around him. 

The next day, Y/N nearly jumped out of bed in fear of being late. They nearly slept in after staying up so late at the cafe, it had been almost an hour after the cafe's actual closing time when Y/N and Scaramouche exchanged social media information and parted ways. Realizing they didn't get to say thank you, Y/N hoped to catch Scaramouche at his homeroom class. 

Large pine doors and tan painted columns marked the entrance of the school building. The amount of concrete used for the foundation alone made Y/N think they'd hired Morax himself, lining the walls were trimmed bushes and flower beds matching the ones Y/N had seen outside the window when they'd looked over to the gardening club's field. Just like any high school, it looked somewhere between a retirement home and a jail house, making Y/N wonder if they should really care if the place ever burned down. 

However, the calm moments Y/N felt before walking through the previously mentioned doors would be very soon replaced with anxiety and overwhelming dread, the same as it did yesterday. Rummaging through their pockets, the tangled bundle of wires Y/N hoped to use as headphones were nowhere to be found. Leaving Y/N without a defense for the noise of students in the halls, they almost didn't hear Lumine shouting their name. Looking up, their eyes landed on the familiar blonde with brunette and lavender following close behind. 

"Great- was yesterday a fever dream?" Y/N could only think to themselves in confusion at the way Lumine and Amber behaved nothing like they had the day prior. Guessing Keqing wasn't in the loop about the events they played along with the duo.

Amber's voice spoke up first, noticing the anxious transfer student propping their bag up with their knee and sifting through their belongings "What are you looking for? need help?" Y/N lowered the bag and fixed it back onto their back after closing the zipper again and walking to close some of the distance between them and the rest of the group. "Just my headphones, I must've dropped them on the way in" Y/N spoke in false dismay, well, only half false. The lack of headphones was surely an inconvenience, however not as much an inconvenience as it was to fake interest in the already bland conversation.

"Such a shame, it can't be helped, I guess. The bell is about to ring, we should get to class" Kqing's voice nearly threw Y/N for a loop, they hadn't heard her talk much and even then, her voice came off blunt and calculated. However, it wasn't aggressive like the other two had been the day before. A darker shade of purple passed by the group before the quadrant broke up to their respective classes, Y/N walking with Lumine, Amber and Kqing heading into separate directions. Just as Kqing had said, the bell rang loud amongst the now quieting students in the hallways moments after Y/N sat down at their desk.

That class period was once again spent drawing between notes and staring out at the garden, Y/N mentally kicking themself for not finding Scaramouche's homeroom, nor had they asked about the rest of his schedule. The rest of the day had been the same, although now Y/N had been more mentally prepared for what they'd guessed would be a recurring theme of whispers and antagonizing encounters with Lumine and Amber. 

"Are you in this class Y/N? we didn't see you yesterday." Math. Y/N scowled inwardly as they remembered how the deceptive duo had kept them from the room and dragged them away to the stairs. Shit, so it wasn't a fever dream.  "Yes, I apologize for my absence yesterday, it won't happen again" The teacher dismissed Y/N and let them find their seat next to someone who they'd noticed was eying them down with interest. A regrettable decision as the boy with no noteworthy appearance soon began trying to converse with them. 

"Hey, transfer student, my friend said I could ask you for answers on the homework. you have it?" came the hushed question from the boy. Of course Mr.Late-Night-Cafe-Worker would mention Y/N to his friends, it seemed like everything to know was wide spread information all across the school by this point. Y/N wouldn't deny him however, they felt that at least this way they would be even and it would make up for not saying thank you. By the time class was over Y/N was ready to go to their last class and be done, only glancing at their classmate as he walked down the hallway to meet up with a certain purple short hair.

Mr.Vahid's class was on the far side of the school, giving Y/N time to look at the social media notifications they had been ignoring from the first day of school. Waves of disappointment hit Y/N for each hateful comment they read about the fatui. The only somewhat optimistic message Y/N read was a private message from their classmate. "YO! Transfer student, I got your social from my friend, I noticed you were getting some pretty bad comments about the Fatui on your page, my friend had some similar issues. He was actually discharged from the Fatui! maybe you could talk to him some time lmk" The fucking cafe worker used to be IN the Fatui??? It was as if everywhere Y/N turned there was some way they were getting more involved with the Fatui than they wanted to. 

Y/N arrived at their social economics class moments before the bell and sat down in the empty seat closest to the door. Thinking about Scaramouche's behavior at the café as the teacher circled the class collecting homework, Y/N searched for any telling signs that he'd deceived them. Maybe he didn't, maybe it was a different friend. Maybe Y/N didn't spend the entire class thinking about him to the point that they wanted to speak to him after school had ended. Maybe then Y/N wouldn't be sitting at a table in the cafe with Scaramouche sitting across from them.

"Do you plan to show up here every night? I don't work here on weekends you know" Scaramouche's voice sounded half of amusement and half of uninterest, that was until Y/N spoke next. "Just on days I don't want to go home." The boy raised an eyebrow as he picked up the small coffee Infront of him to take a sip from it. "Oh? and why's that?"

Y/N spoke with distain "My father wants me to join the Fatui, and it's all everyone at school is talking about" They lay their head down on the table, emotionally exhausted by the idea of returning home to find their father passed out on the couch for the second night in a row. It was evident he'd been waiting for Y/N to return in hopes of furthering the discussion. There was a moment of silence before Y/N spoke again. "My father got my mom to sign off on the papers to override my disagreement and wants to put me in the cincin unit..." 

"Cincin mage?" Scaramouche's voice sounded quizzical, and he sighed "while I was in the Fatui for a time, I've been discharged... Did Farin tell you to talk to me?" Y/N nodded "if you mean the friend you told to ask me for homework questions from in math, then yes."

Y/N thought for a moment and hummed. "I don't remember telling you my class schedule, nor did you tell me yours save for when we had social economics" Scaramouche paused for a moment and then turned to look at the cafe's "we're closed" sign. "Farin and I have almost every class together, he mentioned a new student in the class, and I guessed it was you"

"I wouldn't mind rejoining the Fatui if it meant you were with me"