𝐇𝐀𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃, scaramouche

04.

"I WONDER if the tsaritsa carves the snowflakes into shapes in her spare time…” you murmured, your breath forming small clouds in the crisp air. a snowflake floated down, landing softly on the tip of your nose. you blinked in surprise, then let out a small, amused chuckle.

scaramouche watched you from a short distance, trailing behind at his usual measured pace. he wasn’t sure why he bothered to follow you out here. yet here he was, trudging through the snow after you, as he had done countless times before.

“that’s such a childish thought,” he replied, lifting his hand and allowing a snowflake to settle on his palm. he watched it with disinterest as it quickly melted against his skin.

maybe it was your naive, almost childlike view of the world that kept him coming back. you didn’t recognize him as one of the harbingers. to you, he was just a wanderer with a sharp tongue, an aloof, sarcastic “friend.” your ignorance to his true nature, his power and cruelty, let you look at him with an innocence he hadn’t encountered in so long.

or maybe it was the quiet amusement he found in your company, the way you said whatever came to mind without fear of repercussion, how you laughed at things he didn’t understand. you treated him as though he were a simple puppet, an individual with quirks and flaws just like anyone else.

he felt torn, the conflict gnawing at him from within. your innocence, your unfiltered kindness—he couldn’t decide if they were an irritation or something else entirely. yet, even as that inner battle simmered, he found himself falling into step behind you time and again.

you laughed softly, brushing the snowflake off your nose with a gloved finger. "maybe, but it's nice to imagine, isn’t it?" you glanced back at him, your eyes filled with a lightheartedness that felt foreign to him.

scaramouche scoffed, his gaze shifting to the snowy expanse around you. "imagining something that ridiculous will get you nowhere," he muttered, more to himself than to you.

but you only grinned, unaffected by his dismissive tone. "i think it just makes the world a little better. don’t you ever feel that way?"

he stayed silent, unwilling to admit that he didn’t understand what you meant. maybe that was part of why he trailed after you, day after day. your words, your warmth, everything about you was so incomprehensibly different from his world.

it was pathetic, he knew. allowing himself to be drawn into your foolishness, your childish way of seeing the world. you were nothing but a distraction, someone to pass the time with.

yet here he was, following you into the snowy wilderness, letting your innocence lead him through a path he’d never imagined for himself.

he watched you with narrowed eyes, his gaze sharp and unyielding as your laugh echoed through the snow-laden forest, breaking the silent, icy air that had always felt like his comfort. he told himself he was only here because he was bored or because your childish outlook was laughable enough to keep him entertained.

yet, in that silence, something stirred—a faint, unwelcome feeling, like an ember that had been buried under the frost, glowing against his will. it was a sense of warmth he’d tried to banish long ago, an ache that made his hands clench tighter.

“you really are foolish,” he muttered, the bitterness slipping into his voice. “the world isn’t some fairy tale. it’s nothing like that.”

but you just smiled at him, soft and undeterred, as though his words couldn’t scratch the surface of your hope. “maybe not,” you murmured, your voice gentle, “but that’s why people like us have to make it better, don’t you think?”

he felt a pang—a sharp, unfamiliar pain that clawed at his chest as he stared at you, searching your face for some sign of deception, some hint that this was a trick. but all he saw was sincerity, an unguarded openness that felt foreign, even absurd.

and in that moment, he wondered what it was about you that left him feeling so exposed, as if you’d reached some part of him he didn’t know was there.

A/N: apologies for the late update, i ran away from home LMAO