i want to breathe, for one second more - kazuscara (原神)

chapter 9 - audentes fortuna iuvat

NOTE - Heyoo! How are you doing? Hope you're doing well!! :D And also, hope you're safe! Sorry (again, unfortunately) for not updating so much... :") Luckily, the school holidays have finally started so I hope to be writing more and ultimately complete the story before the end of the summer! (wooo productive~) Anyways, I hope you like this chapter!! :DD

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"Hey, hey, wake up...!"

At the break of dawn, Scaramouche stirred. He had heard the soft voice calling his name multiple times already, but decided to ignore it. But no, he wasn't asleep. He hadn't been asleep in a long time. He was simply, as humans would put it, mentally drained from the past weeks.

Could anyone really blame him, though?

Despite this, he still responded to his soon to be travelling companion's voice and rolled over in the bed. The other was already awake, sitting upright on his pillow. "Whew," Kazuha exclaimed. "That took you long enough! ...You weren't even asleep, were you?"

"Yeah, actually. You're right for once," Scaramouche replied, unaffected. "Why would you ever wake someone up so early, even if they were sleeping, anyways?" To this, Kazuha giggled.

"Oh, I wouldn't normally. I would just go out by myself and let them rest! But we're in a foreign land, so why wouldn't we wake up earlier to appreciate the view? And also, in this scenario, it was you who acted as my travelling companion- ...oh."

Kazuha sniffed and shifted slightly. "Never mind, I forgot what I was going to say," he glanced away. And obviously, Scaramouche knew this was a huge lie. And he knew that Kazuha probably knew that he knew. This said, the harbinger still wouldn't question his practices. After all, it was easy for him to sympathise with someone who had once lost a loved one too.

"Ahahaha, right! I knew I was forgetting something. Hey, do you want to get something to eat? Personally, I'm not very hungry, but if you are, I'm always willing to go down."

"...I'm not. If you are, I don't mind going down either."

"Don't be like that...! Help me decide, at least. This is supposed to be a 'learning experience'. And, well, also because I don't want to make it seem like I'm 'in charge' of this trip."

"I wouldn't mind if you were, actually."

"Oh, stop it! I'm not too good with 'leadership' roles," he explained as he laughed. "Whatever, you do what suits you. I need to decide on where we're going today."

Well, Scaramouche thought resentfully, why would you ask in the first place? Again, he told himself that he didn't necessarily care. He just liked picking arguments with annoying people. He stepped off the bed, it wasn't as if anyone working at the inn would know anyways, and walked towards the door. If they could finish journeying around Liyue within a day, Kazuha would surely ask him if he wanted to return to Inazuma, to which Scaramouche would say yes. It was a simple plan, and he intended to start it as soon as possible.

"Are you coming or not?" Scaramouche asked in an annoyed tone, holding the door so it was only slightly ajar. Really, he should have explained where he was going. But, he didn't want to.

"Ehh?" Kazuha stared back at him. "Where are-"

"You woke me up early for a reason, though, right? So come on... honestly, I wouldn't consider myself an impatient person but you're slower than a snail..."

"Oh, right! Ahah, looks like someone finally came to their senses."

"You can compliment yourself however much you want. Since you're so self centred and stupid, I'll give you a pass for self flattery, but I'm still holding the door open and my arm is tired."