Honkai Star Rail x Reader

Sampo

- female! reader
- word count: 893

Things are changing, you can tell. You can tell that the winds are less jarring, the cold not biting as harshly. Taking off your coat, you exhale, a breath of warm air leaving your lips. Most everyone had been at the ceremony where Bronya had announced the overworld to reunite with the underworld.

Finally.

You tie your coat sleeves around your waist and catch a glimpse of a poster. Upon further inspection, you realize it's a wanted poster. The picture looked familiar but you couldn't pinpoint a name. Just kidding, there's no way you wouldn't recognize that blue hair.

"Hey!" A head popped out from behind your left shoulder. You smile, immediately knowing who it is. When you turn your head to the left, the head switches sides and appears on your right.

"Sampo," you snicker and place a hand on his face to push his head away, regaining some personal space. You could feel his grin from under your palm when he grabs your wrist to move your hand away, then holding it tight with his.

"How's my treasure~" he sings as he tugged on your hand to have you face him fully. You pause at his grin, awed that he doesn't need to hide and sneak around any longer (but he'd probably continue anyway) and you mirror him.

Yanking him by your connected hands, you pull him into you for a hug, surprising him. "Safe and healthy," you giggle.

"I— uh, woah! You can't just—... uhhh," he sputtered, pulling away, cheeks dusted pink. When he composed himself, he held out his fist. "Here, my gem, a gift!"

You tilt your head to the side and reach to uncurl his fingers. Guess what was in his palm.

Guess.

"A rock?"

"Yes, from the underground! Consider it a souvenir," he took your hand to shove the rock into your palm and then closed your fingers over it, before patting your hand as if to set it.

You don't say anything but stare at your closed hand, viewing the bits of the stone that wasn't hidden under your fingers. Soon enough, your lips turned upward and you look up at him.

"Thank you," you purr, "I've missed you."

"Of course! I'm Sampo Koski, after all! Annnnd I'm back from the underworld, so I've got lots to tell you about!" You have to agree.

You walk a few steps ahead of him before turning your head back and signaling for him to follow. "Yes, Sampo. We've got lots to discuss."

The two of you walk around stopping once in a while to look around, conversing about Sampo's journey with the trailblazers.

"Yes! And then I ran away—which sounds kinda pussy of me— BUT! I left to get help! Sooo I kinda saved the day~" he chirped. You only nodded and hummed, listening to him while pulling him away from any distractions such as poles or puddles.

"Oh! You see that balloon? It reminds me of you! Floating around, destined to reach high goals and destinations!" He pauses his rant to open up another conversation before returning to the previous. "And like yeah, I probably looked pretty cool bring backup~"

He went on and on, changing topics, getting distracted, ranting, and—

He paused and peeked at you, you were still watching him, a little confused at his halt.

"Is something wrong..?" You ask. His brows furrowed then he looked away to cough into his hand awkwardly. "Ah—um..." he then reaches a hand down to you and you freeze, a hard blush surfacing.

"Uh..?" You blink when you feel the pressure around your waist disappear.

Sampo's head is above yours when he drapes the coat — that was previously around your waist — over your shoulders. He leans down so that his head is only a few inches away from yours. You could feel his warm breath, "I'm— well you looked cold! So..." he quickly moves away hands shielding his face from your gaze. He takes a peek around before settling his eyes back on you. Your stunned face reddens and you bite your lower lip slightly. He gulps hard nervously, his face matching yours.

Geez, the tension.

You redirect your gaze to nothing in particular and pout. "I wasn't really.. all that... cold.."

He froze for only a second before recovering. "Yeah well, I saw goosebumps! I don't know if it's my vision or something..." he lied. You huffed, "you're like the string to a balloon." He makes a weird face, "what's that supposed to mean?"

Humming, "remember what you said earlier about me being a balloon?" His face keeps morphing. "Uhh, no?"

You scoff. "Yeah, well if I'm a balloon, your the string that hangs onto me."

Nothing.

Fidgeting with your fingers, you sigh, "I'm trying to say that you keep me from getting lost."

Sampo stares at you, the longer he looks, the more tinted with red his face becomes.

"A-ah well, you can always count on Sampo Koski, haha..." he laughs awkwardly and pats your shoulder. You smile at his nervousness when you realize something.

"Sampo, do you know where we are?"

He looks around.

"...yes...?"

He's lying.

Not the first time he lied to you. He lied when he thought you were cold, he only caught another mere npc staring at your exposed shoulders.