The Adventures of a Mushroom | Genshin x Child!Reader

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲

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I like rain.

You smiled to yourself as you drew pictures in the mud with a stick. The rain plastered your hair to your face, but you didn't care. Your drawing was way more important!

First, you drew a picture of yourself: a small child in an oversized raincoat. Then you drew a picture of your favorite dessert. Finally, you drew your parents, except instead of shouting at each other, they were hugging you.

A happy family... and dessert. Life would be perfect.

You heard heavy footsteps on the sidewalk and quickly scrambled into the hedge next to you. If any grownups found you, they would make you go home. You didn't wanna go home!

You peeked out at the grownup, but they were staring at their phone and didn't see the pair of big (e/c) eyes watching them.

The leaves in the hedge felt scratchy on your face, and you were happy when the grownup left. You tumbled out of the hedge onto the ground.

However, you had barely picked up your stick to start drawing again when you heard a lady's voice call your name.

"(Y/N)!" she called. "(Y/N), is that you hiding over there?"

"No!" you lied. Before you could dive in the hedge, you heard footsteps running towards you.

It was your kindergarten teacher, Miss Ivy. She had warm brown eyes and a large red umbrella. Even though you hated most grownups, you liked Miss Ivy because she never shouted at you.

"Oh, (Y/N), what are you doing still at school?" Miss Ivy asked. While she spoke, she opened her red umbrella and held it over your head. "All the other kids went home hours ago! Come on. I'll walk you to the bus station."

"Don't wanna go home. Wanna draw," you pouted.

"(Y/N)... your parents will be worried about you. I bet they're calling the police right now!"

"No, they're not. They're probably sleeping," you informed Miss Ivy.

"Come on, (Y/N). Let's go to the bus station together. I'm worried you'll get kidnapped if you stay here alone..."

"Won't go!" you insisted for the second time. "Wanna stay here and live with the squirrels." At first, you were afraid that Miss Ivy might get angry and hit you, but she only nodded patiently, accepting your explanation.

"I can understand that. But even squirrels need to go home sometimes." Bending over, Miss Ivy noticed your soaked hair and wet face. "You'll catch a cold if you stay out here. Here, at least take my scarf, okay?" With her free hand, she unwound her thick yellow scarf and wrapped it around your shoulders.

"It's fluffy!" you exclaimed, bundled up in Miss Ivy's scarf.

Miss Ivy smiled. "That's right! Now, why don't we walk down to the bus station together? You can pretend you're a little yellow duckling following its mama!"

"'Kay!" you agreed happily, following Miss Ivy.

As you raced down the sidewalk, your short legs struggling to keep up, Miss Ivy said, "Now, my little duckling, why don't I tell you a story on the way home?"

You nodded excitedly.

Miss Ivy began: "Once upon a time, there was a duckling who wanted to fly. But the duckling's wings were too short and small, and couldn't catch the wind."

That poor duckling! you thought, feeling sorry for it.

"However, the duckling didn't give up. Day after day, the duckling climbed tall trees to practice. Because it couldn't fly, bigger birds like owls and hawks had to catch the duckling before it fell to the ground. All the other animals laughed at the duckling for its efforts."

Those meanies! Why don't they just mind their own business?

Miss Ivy paused. "Looks like the bus is arriving."

You hadn't even noticed that you were at the bus stop already. Now that it was really time to go home, you felt sad. Suddenly, you had an idea.

"Miss Ivy, can you be (Y/N)'s new mama? Then you can tell (Y/N) the story when we get to your house!"

"I... I wish I could." Miss Ivy looked sad, too. "Tell you what. If you can promise that you'll come to school tomorrow, I promise I'll tell you the rest of the story then."

"Okay, it's a deal," you said, smiling at her.

She hugged you, and you trudged up the steps to the bus, flapping your long sleeves like wings.

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You rode home by yourself, as always. This time, though, you felt less scared because Miss Ivy let you keep her scarf.

At the front door to your house, you pressed your ear to the door and listened.

"—never asked for you to go and spend that money on their birthday present! (Y/N) has all the junk they need! You wanna bankrupt me?"

"Me? Me? I'm the one who wants to bankrupt the family? Well, I'm not the one who goes out and—"

As usual, your parents were fighting again. You didn't wanna go in through the front door, because they might start yelling at you, too, so you climbed under the garden fence.

You sat under the tall maple tree in the garden, hidden by the thick weeds surrounding it. Like most things in the garden, the maple tree was dead because no one took care of it.

As you listened to your parents shout, you wished you could fly away. You closed your eyes and tried to imagine that this wasn't real.

This isn't my real home. I'm a lost duckling, and my real mama lives far away. I'm gonna climb this tree and fly to her! She'll be so happy to see me!

You had never climbed a tree before, but how hard could it be? Rolling up your long sleeves, you wrapped one hand around a low branch and heaved yourself upward.

"Ow!" The tree's branches were prickly.

Eventually, after lots of hard work, you made it to the top of the tree. Perched on a branch, you looked around, scanning the city for your real mama.

Far away, in a crowd of people heading for home, you spotted a red umbrella. Was it Miss Ivy? It had to be! You waved at her, but she didn't see you.

Your foot slipped. For a moment, you were suspended in the air like a feather, a beautiful yellow feather.

Then you fell.

You had always wondered what it was like to be a raindrop, but now you knew. It was like falling, falling, falling... and hitting the ground and becoming nothing.

Before the world faded to black, you had one final regret.

I never got to hear the end of Miss Ivy's story!

I'm sorry, Miss Ivy...

I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise.

I've been... a bad child, as usual.

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