Into Madness [Scaramouche x Fem!Reader]

Chapter 5 - Makoto

Like streams of water that ran beside you in the cave, time seemed to slip by. Endless exploring and walking along the dark stretches of the caverns were all you knew, as well as anxiety and nervousness to your surroundings and quickly depleting resources.

It had been five days, a week, perhaps since you'd both entered the cave, and every step was harder than the last. 

Most days, you felt weak, as if you were being drained every second, the powers of your vision slipping from you ask you constantly cast pyro and dendro, your delusion, too, eating you up.

Scaramouche fared better, but seemed to strangely avoid you after that night, not that there was much he could do since you carried the only light source, it felt as if he was being more skittish, and turning down your conversational attempts. This made journeying much less pleasant, which you hated to admit, but you also found yourself glancing more and more at the boy, which he sometimes caught you doing and dodged your gaze.

It baffled you, but you shrugged it off and focused on the path before you. You hadn't met any other threats after the rifthounds in the first cave, and it felt odd, but you were glad for it. Somehow, you couldn't shake off the feeling that this cave wasn't exactly normal, and the pathways felt too intricate, too winding yet beautiful way to be natural.

Focused in your thoughts, it took you a while to notice the glittering trails of deep amethyst along the sides of the path. You stopped, kneeling down to inspect them as you placed your makeshift torch nonchalantly beside you, noticing too late as it fell over in the mud and the flames strands of dendro helped the flames spread.

You watched it all in slow motion, pyro lighting up the stones and spreading as they exploded violently, sparks of crimson and indigo all mixed together. They expanded in a fascinating sort of way, and you didn't even try to run as the first waves of the explosion advanced, intertwined with the near certainty of death.

"Watch out!"

A flash of darkness filled your vision as you felt yourself knocked back, hitting the ground with a thud. There seemed to be something shielding you as overload rushed overhead, torrents of the explosion, nearly sweeping you away if not for the shield above. Shutting your eyes against the noise and colors, you clung on desperately, your senses drowning in the overload until everything unraveled, abruptly yet softly.

You opened your eyes, and felt your shield collapsing beside you.

"Scaramouche?" You struggled to his side as the realization hit you, assessing if he was okay.

"...Some harbinger you are...with those...reflexes." A thin trail of blood ran down from a cut on his lips, and patches of blood bloomed like silk flowers along his body.

"Hold still." You said, realizing how much you sounded like Childe as you carefully checked over him, and he winced in pain when you touched a wound.

They weren't deep, luckily for him. The explosion was huge, and very well couldn't killed both of you, so how did he make it without major injuries? Scanning around you, you noticed his hat, lying charred and blackened but somehow intact just a few inches away. 

Scaramouche must've shielded you both with his hat, you with himself, and for some wild reason, it had worked?

Makes total sense for the former sixth harbinger prototype electro archon to also have a magic hat. You rolled your eyes internally, but the bigger part of you was glad he was okay.

"Hey, what's your hat even made of?" You asked him, getting a scowl and no direct response. The wounds, although none too deep were still temporarily crippling because of their proximity, and after checking that they wouldn't deepen from movement, you helped him up to a sitting position, and let both of you catch your breath for a few seconds.