Trials of the Heart

Chapter 22

it's the heart that's meant for him.

all this time you had been making him what he wanted the most, a heart that could fit perfectly inside his puppet body. it was his idea of humanity, that was what you were bringing into reality.

he had a hunch that the project was a large one, seeing how many late nights you spent awake and working on it tirelessly. but this? this was the last thing he expected.

"can we use this? it's some sort of heart," he clarified. "one of Y/N's friends managed to find this in her office and thought we could use it."

"yes," siegewinne said with surprise, immediately grabbing the mechanical heart and observing it. "everyone, clear the room!"

scaramouche and wriothesley immediately left, giving siegwinne the time to work. in front of the door to the infirmary, scaramouche was pacing, clearly stressed.

his thoughts were spiraling, and his love for you seemed to grow more. who the hell is crazy enough to try and make an artificial heart?! that was almost unheard of.

well, unless you were dottore, but even he struggled for years to make one.

and yet you did it in a matter of months.

even though he was panicking, scaramouche had to hand it to you: you were unmatched in terms of dedication and care.

"hey."

his pacing momentarily stopped, and he looked over at wriothesley who was leaning against the wall. "... she'll be okay. siegewinne is one of - if not - the best nurses in all of fontaine. Y/N is in good hands."

scaramouche nodded in recognition. he had known about melusines, and their unique properties. even though he had a distaste for humans (that weren't you) and gods alike, he knew he had to give it some hope.

"... right," scaramouche replied.

and so he waited...

and waited...

and waited...

and waited...

and waited...

at that point, 12 hours had gone by without a single word of your condition. wriothesley had decided to turn in for the night, but scaramouche was still awake and leaning against the wall. he was stressed, he would not leave until he saw you alive and walking out that door.

otherwise even more dire consequences might come to fruition.

you were his sanity, his last string holding him together. if that string was gone... well let's just say that his whole declaration for starting new would be for nothing after the shit he would pull.

then, moments later, siegewinne interrupted his brooding. "uhm... sir?"

scaramouche looked down at her, "... yes?"

be nice, kuni. she's helping Y/N right now.

"i need your assistance with something," she said, gesturing for him to follow her.

scaramouche walked inside, seeing you on the table. you looked lifeless as if you were clinging onto the last rope of life before tumbling into death. you were like this because of your own creation and this only made him want to fly back and re-break the mekas.

but he couldn't.

he had a job to do.

siegwinne had managed to place your heart inside your chest, but there was one thing she needed. "can you use some of your anemo here?"

she gestured at a small opening, where an anemo particle was to be placed for it to work. scaramouche understood what it was meant for: the heart was to be powered with his own vision.

this made him feel even more crushed inside, seeing how you really did think of everything to make sure it would work.

he immediately placed an anemo particle inside the small opening, and the heart whirred to life. the bleeding stopped, and siegewinne wiped her forehead in relief. "it's working. thank you."

scaramouche nodded and she grabbed a sterile needle. "now to stitch her up!"

siegwienne stitched you back up, and looked happy with her work. "Y/N will be alright."

those were the words he needed to hear, and he almost collapsed out of relief if it weren't for his dignity. "... thank you."

the small melusine smiled at him, "of course. i'm going to retire for the night, but just stay by her so we can monitor her condition."

she walked off to get some rest, leaving you and scaramouche alone. he held your hand in his, rubbing your knuckles with his thumb.

he couldn't help but cry, realizing how much you had to go through because of him.

you had to make his shouki no kami to defeat a god that you worshipped.

you had to go through his selfish memory wipe.

you paused your aging for him.

and now you were lying here because of him... because he wasn't fast enough to get help.

because he left you there. he made the wrong choice.

he placed his head down on the table near your body, crying into his forearm. who would have thought he could ever feel this week? the balldeer, the artificial god, crying over a damn human. no. his damn human.

scaramouche didn't care if that heart was for him. if it would save you and ensure you'd be alive, then that's all that mattered.

to hell with his hopes for reaching humanity.

at some point, scaramouche fell asleep next to you, sitting in the stool that he pulled while crying into his forearm and holding your hand. he was hoping and praying to gods of all beings that you would be awake and this was all some horrible dream.

but deep inside, he knew it wasn't.

a/n: ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh can you all believe that this book is slowly coming to an end??? i can't believe it either lol- it felt so short but then looking back i wrote a lot hehe

this book will end officially within 1-3 chapters (aCcoRdIng tO thE orAtRiCe mEchA-) so buckle up!