•°•❀•°•𝙎𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙘𝙝𝙚 x 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧 •°•❀•°•

𝟚𝟛. 𝕎𝕒𝕚𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕄𝕖

GUYS IM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING IN LIKE IDK HOW LONG!!!! </3 SKOOL IS CURSING ME WITH EXAMS AND TESTS AND PROJECTS AND EVENTS. IM GONNA SHRIVEL UP IN A HOLE LIKE A SMALL RASIN AND WRITE MORE I PROMISE!!!! THANK YOU FOR STICKING AROUND!

This will be the 2nd to last chapter, the last being kinda a chapter but I think I'll call it the epilogue.

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

The air around swirled with deep gray dust, the lights drifting in and out. [Y/N] felt so dizzy. So, so dizzy. She grabbed blindly in the heaps of rumble and loose stones, trying to reach for something. Someone. 

"Kabukimono!" She yelled, holding a hand up to swipe away at the dust.

Then her eyes, blinking rapidly, spotted the small shape curled up on the ground. It was the Balladeer. He looked so pitiful. [Y/N] ran towards him, taking his shoulders and hauling him up.

"Scaramouche...," she murmured softly into his ear.

The tubes connected to his back were all empty now, just little holes in a stringless puppet. When his eyes slowly fluttered open, the emotions there were of such anger, regret, sorrow, and sadness, they seemed to make up a giant sea coated in ice, about to shatter. And when it does shatter, may the world finally meet its end.

However, the complex hues of dark azures and purple seemed to calm as they fixed upon another pair of eyes, those that were [e/c] and glazed with tears.

"I'm sorry!" [Y/N] wailed, her head landing on his shoulders as she apologized. "If I had maybe changed your mind... you wouldn't be like this now!"

The [h/cnette/blonde...] glanced up as she heard a weak chuckle escape from the boy's lips. Through his injuries, he smiled.

"You little moron," he murmured as he flicked the girl's head. "How did you expect to convince me then? Stubbornness is one of my key defects..."

"It's not a defect! I-I would have... I would  have taken your hat!" [Y/N] sat angrily on her legs, shocked and offended to see the boy smiling.

This was the first time ever she has had even the smallest of glimpses of the Kabukimono smiling with his mouth wide open. But it looked so painful. Although it seemed so genuine, [Y/N] was smart enough not to be fooled. He was probably on the brink of crying or even world destruction.

"Stop smiling like that," she grabbed his face. "You're not really happy, are you?"

He turned his head away as she retracted her fingers. "Do you think it's worth it?"

"What's worth it?" The gradual anticipation of his next words built like droplets of water in an empty bucket, yet soon, the droplets were replaced with heavy rain.

"Trying," he murmured, ashamed of himself. "Trying to be together even after however many times we were separated."

"Of course," [Y/N] cried. "When you fucking love someone so fucking much, of course it's going to be worth it!"

Her voice then grew quiet, "What are you saying...?"

"It feels pathetic to cling to what's never going to happen," Scaramouche stared at her, eyes showing that he was serious. "It's no fun to continue a chess game when all you have is your queen and the king and the other side has every single piece."

[Y/N]'s chin trembled. It felt like a million small silver needles were spearing her jaw as her heart shattered, the porcelain pieces bleeding in red.