"They're getting better," Scaramouche affirmed, eyeing half-lidded at Kazuha as he skated towards Scaramouche. His feet were performing a miniature version of his free skate program, every second to him was worth a million.

"Thank you, Senior Scaramouche." Kazuha beamed, brushing hair from his face, "I've also incorporated quad lutz into my choreography, since I've been practicing my lutz as well." he chuckled.

"Cool," Scaramouche brushed off, face turning away from Kazuha. His feet dancing on the ice, he focused himself on his miniature choreography instead of Kazuha's face.

He had to compromise with Childe for him to let Scaramouche go to the rink to practice. It took a lot of screaming and yelling, but Childe eventually couldn't manage to beat Scaramouche. Scaramouche still felt a little dizzy, but it was significantly better than yesterday.

"Senior Scaramouche," Kazuha breathed, snapping Scaramouche out from his thoughts, "you haven't been skating much today, yet you seemed to be exhausted. Is there something going on? Not to mention, your face looks red." he inquired, bending down to inspect Scaramouche's face closer.

Scaramouche jolted backward at the sudden approach, averting his stare somewhere else other than Kazuha's. 

"Ah... it's nothing." Scaramouche responded monotonously, "I just didn't get a good night's sleep yesterday, that's all." Scaramouche squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. His eyes were always getting blurry today, he has no idea why.

"Are you sure?" Kazuha asked, not removing his gaze off of Scaramouche, "But your face looks awfully red. Did something happen?" 

"I told you, I'm fine." Scaramouche hollered, slapping away Kazuha's hand that was inching towards his forehead, "I don't need your caring, so go back to practicing your routine. The free skate is coming up in two days, shouldn't you be worrying about how to up your score instead of me?" he scowled, furrowing his eyebrows at Kazuha. His eyes defocusing; becoming blurry yet again. 

He shut his eyes, expecting his eyesight to return to normal once again. 

But they didn't. 

The last he saw of anything was his name being spoken over and over by that voice that irritated something within him, and sharp pain on his nose bridge. 

.

Stirring awake, he felt warmth wrapped all around him. It wasn't the cool, dry air of the arena. He rubbed his eyes, the usual cold lighting of the rink was instead replaced by rays of warm orange light penetrating his receptors. The usually quiet rink was instead replaced by bustling noises of talking. He couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, since conversations stacked atop of conversations; making it difficult to decode.

A euphoric smell drew his attention, making him just begin to wonder where the hell he is right now. A second before he swear he was on the ice, practicing his choreography. Then, he was magically brought to this place full of people and the smell of fresh coffee.

Was this a dream? Was he in a coma? His thoughts wandered, thousands of possibilities flew through his mind. Was he kidnapped? he speculated, each theory sounding worse than the other. 

"Are you awake?" A familiar voice captured his attention. He snapped his head right around, but hitting his face in the shoulder of someone. 

He had his head laying on the other's shoulder. Still feeling the buzzing pain of the impact on his face, he lifted his head. Ready to face the "kidnapper" of his speculations. 

"Oh! You are awake. Welcome back to earth, Scaramouche." the other chuckled, eyes forming an arc. 

Scaramouche stared at the other for a while, expressionless. Then, a hand smacked across the other's face. Not as harsh as the last time he had punched him, but they still would've hurt at least somewhat. 

"Owww..." he winced, covering the cheek that had been slapped across.

"Should've woken me up before you kidnapped me, Kaedehara." Scaramouche snapped, glaring at Kazuha. 

"Sorry," Kazuha apologized, flashing Scaramouche a smile, "you were sleeping, I didn't have the heart to wake you up from your sweet dreams." 

Scaramouche sneered, "Who told you I was having a great dream? And who gave you the permission to lay my head on your shoulder?" getting up from his uncomfortable position awfully close to Kazuha.

Kazuha put his index finger up to his chin, tilting his head in a thinking way, "I don't remember, but I do remember a certain someone moaning my name when I tried to leave them in peace." he giggled, taking a sip from his coffee cup. A faint smell of coffee trickled from his cup.

Scaramouche whipped his face away from Kazuha, his face turning back into a shade of red. At least now he was wearing his mask, so half of his face would be covered.

"I was actually fist fighting you in my dreams," Scaramouche said, "and just to set the record straight, I won against you. You were too weak so I was taunting you." he lied, glaring back at Kazuha with an 'I-told-you' stare. 

"See?" Kazuha beamed, "I told you you were having a good dream, that's why I didn't dare wake you up." he hummed, shaking the coffee in his hands. A grin grew on his face.

"Okay, whatever. Enough about kidnapping situations," Scaramouche scoffed, "tell me about how you managed to carry me inside this coffee place without waking me up. I'm a light sleeper, just to let you know." 

"Easy! You were pretty light, so I was able to carry you inside pretty effortlessly. The only hard part was taking your skates off before waking you up, since you kept kicking when I tried to take them off. They felt like they were an extension of your legs, you simply can't remove them without inflicting pain on you." Kazuha joked, his light laughs amplified when he went ahead to take another sip of his coffee. Half of them were mostly gone, making Scaramouche wonder how long they had been here.

Scaramouche crossed his arms, but it was pretty hard especially due to the large coat Kazuha had put on him. They were stuffed with feathers around the arms, so he felt a bit of restriction of movement around his limbs. 

"Whatever," Scaramouche rolled his eyes, "go fetch me a cup of Latte, I'm in dire need of coffee to excite my nerve systems," he coerced, pointing his index finger towards the counter, glaring at Kazuha to order for him.

"Okay," Kazuha agreed as he set his own coffee down, "make sure no one takes my coffee, alright? I'll be right back," he asked Scaramouche, to which he nodded in response.

.

Yawning, he was left with nothing and no one to talk to. Instinctively, he took out his phone to check if he's gotten any notifications. It was a bad habit of his, to check his phone despite knowing he just checked it a few minutes ago. But in this case, he hadn't checked his phone in a good while, so he allowed himself to indulge in the realm of social media once again.

His Instagram was private, so he had few notifications. He almost never checks his Facebook, so it'd be futile to check it either way. 

But his Twitter had been BOOMING. 

Notifications almost were appearing at an alarming rate, he couldn't even catch the usernames before it was replaced by another notification. 

It was the first time in eternity his Twitter had been so active. His phone was buzzing so constantly in his hands he had to turn his ringer off. He wondered what the hell could be flourishing furiously on Twitter for his user to be mentioned so much. 

His curiosity grew greater than his self-control, he checked his Twitter notifications. He expected one of his recent tweets to be roaring with Twitter likes, but he digresses. Most of them were mentions of his Twitter user directing him to a different Tweet, which his insides boiled with irritation that they weren't paying attention to his Tweets. They'd rather spend their time on different posts.

"@MonaLeMegistus to @Moucheonice MY DEAR BROTHER WHAT IS THIS?????" 

"@Lumine to @Moucheonice HOLY SHIT????? THIS... LMFAO IM GOING THROUGH SECOND-HAND EMBARRASSMENT IM SORRY AUTHOR"

"@VentiUrGod to @Moucheonice IMAGINE GETTING CAUGHT RED-HANDED BY SCARAMOUCHE HIMSELF LMFAO KARMA EHE"

What the hell are they talking about? Scaramouche furrowed his eyebrows, squinting at his screen. Even more confusion crashing onto him, he navigated his notifications. Too embarrassing to admit, he still has yet to grasp the gist of Twitter's User Interface. Usually, he wasn't the one to deal with Twitter posts himself. Normally it would be one of his staff posting his practice pictures sometimes.

Scrolling up from a random subtweet he clicked on, the main Tweet came into view. It had around 50 thousand likes, Scaramouche squinted his eyes a little at the huge number.

It was the post he has had the fate of encountering yesterday while on hid way to COVID testing with Childe. He didn't think much of it at first. Plus, he's received way more concerning Tweets to the point this one would—unsurprisingly—be considered mildly worrisome.

Then, it hit him. Like a bullet to the head.

He had been way too accustomed to liking every Instagram photo he comes across. At this point, he would like any post that flashes across his eyes.

He can't help it, it were as if his hands had been coordinated to like every post he spends the time reading.

He smacked himself harshly in his head once, then twice. He wanted to throw his phone onto the ground, smashing and stepping it into smithereens with the heels of his boots.

The Tweet—in his memories—had been trending since yesterday. So why on earth would he be getting the waterfalls on notifications just now? Unless the phone he'd just bought half a year ago was in need of a replacement once again, he couldn't imagine any other reason.

"LMFAO OMG SCARAMOUCHE LIKED THE TWEET IM CRYING ON THE FLOOR RN"

"Scaramouche...? The figure skating legend? Is my Twitter broken or do I need to replace my glasses again?"

"I HOPE THE AUTHOR OF THE TWEET STILL LIVES TO SEE ANOTHER DAY LMFAO THEY BOUTA GET SMACKED BY SCARAMOUCHE BIG TIME" 

Tweets overflooded his feed, most of them bickering about the fact Scaramouche had liked the original Tweet. He exhaled, head burried deep in the crevasse of his arms.

Not realizing when Kazuha approached their table once more, placing his cup of Latte he requested on the table in front of him. Kazuha patted Scaramouche gently on the head, ruffling his short hair, seeing as Scaramouche had stuffed his head in his arms.

"Sir, the Latte you have requested." Kazuha bowed sarcastically, presenting the medium-sized coffee he had asked for. 

Scaramouche chuckled a little at the formality, taking off his mask to finally take a sip from the cup. He didn't like Latte that much, 

"I see you've seen the Tweet as well?" Kazuha giggled as he peered at Scaramouche's phone, yet to be turned off. 

"What Tweet?" Scaramouche asked, separating his lips from the rim of the cup. Foam stuck onto the top of his lips, giving him a white foam mustache.

"Don't act silly, your phone is still on the Tweet with the tag Kazuscara." Kazuha smiled, placing his hand under Scaramouche's chin, his thumb wiping off the foam mustache. 

Scaramouche snapped away instinctively, almost dropping the cup of Latte on the floor. Luckily, he was fast enough to latch onto it before it flew out of his hand. So no nasty coffee spills for today. 

"What the fuck, Kaedehara?" Scaramouche choked out after swallowing the Latte that was still in his mouth, his face red from almost dying from choking.

"What?" Kazuha beamed, grinning triumphantly. 

Scaramouche tsked, "Whatever." he stifled, "It was nice hanging out with you, I guess." he rose from his seat, took off the extra coat that was on him, and grabbed his own.

"Same goes to you!" Kazuha exclaimed.

"I'll be leaving now, it's 1 P.M., and I'll have to get back to skating." he notified Kazuha as he took his skating bag with his free hand.

Kazuha smiled, "Are you sure you'd be okay going alone? You still have your fever."

Scaramouche's eyes widened, "How the hell did you know?" 

Kazuha shrugged, "Your forehead was literally on fire on the way here, I had to feed you water and put something cold on your forehead to calm it down." he played with the cup of coffee in his hands.

"Stop worrying about me. I'm fine with or without you, Kaedehara." Scaramouche growled, "See you at the free skate, then. I look forward to your performance." 

"Alright, don't be afraid to give me a call whenever you want!" Kazuha smiled, waving a little at Scaramouche.

"I don't have your number?" Scaramouche inquired, scrolling through his contacts to look for Kazuha's number. Surprisingly, he does have him saved in his contacts. 

"Oh, yes you do." Kazuha grimaced, "I entered it on your phone when you were sleeping." 

"That is so creepy, I hope you know that." Scaramouche's expression morphed into disgust, judging Kazuha with concerned looks.

"Sorry, I care about you too much." Kazuha laughed, "See you at the free skate!" 

"Yeah, sure." Scaramouche rolled his eyes.

"... see you." he whispered lightly, putting on his mask so Kazuha doesn't pick up on it. 

Only when he knew he wasn't going to be observed by anyone, the blush that he tried so much to suppress flush across his face. His irises had trouble concentrating on the road he was walking on anymore, his entire mind was plastered with an image of Kazuha. Like a computer virus, he might've taken over his entire being. 

He had no idea where his feet were taking him. He had no idea of the way back home. He had no idea where he is.

His emotions were complicated, and he so wishes he never had them. 

----

I wrote this in class but dw it wasn't an important class anyway lmfao gay.
Also I almost always push myself to write more than 2k words per chapter are u guys liking this or not is it too long for a single chapter

2384 words