Chapter Text
the next morning was a very lonely one for heizou, even lonelier than all the ones proceeding kazuha’s original kidnapping. scaramouche had left some time after the agent had fallen asleep, and now he could feel that absence. he could feel the hole that it left in him. it would’ve eaten him alive if he didn’t have to go to the agency today.
oh, archons, the agency.
heizou was quick to check his phone, and sure enough there were at least five missed calls. one from sara herself, two from aether, one from gorou, and one from yelan. he went through the voicemails left by the four of them, and each were just asking for updates on how he was doing. chief kujou’s was a tad more formal than that, but still essentially the same message.
he sighed, setting his phone down and looking up at the ceiling above his bed for a moment. he had to get up. he didn’t have much of a choice. so he did, making his way to his closet first to grab fresh clothes and then his bathroom. he chose to forgo a shower, but still washed his face to help freshen up after he had changed.
then he made his way to the kitchen, rummaging through the fridge for something easy to make. he settled on a sandwich, despite the fact it was about eight am. anytime was a good time for a sandwich in his mind.
as he was eating his sandwich, he made his way back to his room to start getting his shoes on. he left the sandwich hanging in his mouth for a moment as he put his shoes on, grabbing it again once he was done. he then grabbed kazuha’s bag, checking to make sure nothing he needed was missing before he grabbed his keys and making his way out of the house.
the walk to the agency was as uneventful as always, but he could feel scaramouche’s eyes on him this time. it was comforting, knowing someone was watching over him during such a difficult time. he hoped he could keep that comfort as long as possible.
all he got when he finally made his way through the agency doors were pitiful looks. he could feel all the eyes on him and it made his skin crawl. he frowned, his body shrinking in on itself at the attention. usually he thrived with attention, but this kind? it tore him apart. he knew what they were all thinking, too. they were all just waiting for him to break, and that made the stares that much worse.
he was quick to make his way to chief kujou’s office, knocking once. she was quick to respond with a simple ‘come in’, heizou immediately opening the door and leaning against it once it was closed again. he let out a soft sigh before forcing a smile.
“i’m told you wanted a report on my… mission?”
“shikanoin, you don’t have to pretend with me.”
he sucked in a breath.
“don’t say that.”
her expression shifted to one of confusion for a split second before she nodded, seeming to understand something about what she said affected him negatively.
“i suppose you can say that, then. i expected you to return last night with an explanation that aether couldn’t give, but it’s alright that you didn’t.”
“i got… busy. but i’m here now.”
heizou went on to explain everything that happened in the past three days he was gone, from all the searching, to finding kazuha on the brink of death. he left out anything including scaramouche, knowing that if he did he would risk his career entirely. so he kept his mouth shut about that part, but went into as much detail as he could handle about everything else.
if he was truthful, by the end of his explanation he was in tears again. sara didn’t give him a pitying look, though. she simply listened, nodding along to his explanation where she felt she needed to, and kept her expression rather stoic. it was rather refreshing, honestly. though, she did extend an offer he didn’t really expect from her.
“shikanoin, would you… would you like a hug?”
his eyes widened, but after thinking about it for a moment, he nodded once. she wasted no time in standing from her chair and walking around the side of her desk. she stood just off to the side of her desk with her arms out, waiting for heizou to come to her. and it didn’t take long for him to stand as well and rush into her arms, sobbing like a baby all over again.
the past few months had honestly served as a great way to grow closer with her, what with everything he was going through right now. from sango’s death, to now kazuha’s, she had been extending as much comfort as she was comfortable with as she could. there weren’t many moments like this since sango’s death, but every moment they had like this brought them closer together. every time chief kujou let herself be vulnerable with heizou and he did the same, she became more and more like a mother to him.
it didn’t take long before heizou sniffled, pulling away from the hug and wiping his tears. he smiled softly at sara, breathing out a soft sigh of relief.
“...thank you, chief kujou.”
“don’t mention it.”
once his mission report was fully given and finished, he left her office and returned to his desk. there was no paperwork on it anymore, but what was there was a vase with flowers. he looked over the flowers with a sad look, as he recognised some of the flowers. immediately he recognised the poppies and crysanthemums and marigolds, but the last one he wasn’t as familiar with the name of.
“poppies, crysanthemums, marigolds, and sword lilies. they all have something to do with death and remembrance and… yeah.” came aether’s voice from behind him.
when heizou turned he saw every other person working on this case all standing there with sad smiles, like they understood what he was going through right now. even if they didn’t, the sentiment was there and he appreciated it.
“we thought you’d appreciate it, especially since sango’s been gone for a bit now.” gorou spoke up second, giving him a melancholic smile. “most of us have lost someone too, so we get it at least somewhat.”
heizou nodded, understanding what they were getting at.
“i do appreciate the gesture, i’m just… not one for flowers most of the time.” he forced a laugh, shaking his head. “i’ll take care of them anyways. it’d be a shame to let such a beautiful ensemble die so quickly.”
and he did. over the course of the next few days, he had taken the flowers home and proceeded to keep them filled with water and a special powder he had found to help with bouquets of flowers like this. scaramouche helped too, as he had begun to stop by and actually enter his home on more than one occasion.
and that’s what kept him sane, really. they had their days where heizou had nightmares and scaramouche would have to come back to his apartment just to help him calm down, but they also had their days where heizou could live in tandem with the ghosts that haunted him now and the balladeer only really had to remind him that he wasn’t alone anymore.
a day came about two weeks later when heizou finally had enough of doing nothing but paperwork and sleeping.
“scara?”
the man in question hummed in response from where he was in the kitchen.
“what can you tell me about the two that caused kazuha’s death? the knave and the damselette, right?”
scaramouche stiffened at the mention of the two, but answered nonetheless.
“i really shouldn’t just be giving you information.”
heizou groaned.
“how else am i going to get anywhere with this case? your coworkers aren’t really giving us anything else to go off of. i can just say i’ve been getting anonymous tips, it’ll be fine!”
scaramouche sighed, walking into the living room with their dinner for the night.
“fine.” he took a breath in before continuing. “the knave would be arlecchino. i don’t know a whole lot about her, besides the fact that she’s ruthless in her actions and has killed more people already than you realise. the fact she hasn’t been caught yet is a miracle. she also has three adopted children that are old enough for her to have roped into the fatui as well. there’s even less that i know about the damselette, but her name is columbina. as far as i understand, her and arlecchino are together. i don’t quite know how it works, but it does.”
heizou nodded along with everything he was saying, his brows furrowed in concentration.
“and what about the one who kidnapped kazuha and takeo in the first place? that blue haired one we caught on the cameras.”
scaramouche shivered slightly.
“you mean dottore, or the doctor. his title gives away a lot, but it’s more than that. he dabbles in all kinds of experiments, to the point that he’s killed people in said experiments. we’re lucky we have plenty of fatui agents at our disposal right now, because that man is nothing less than insane.”
“has he… experimented on you?”
“he’s not allowed to on other harbingers, thank the archons for that. otherwise most of us harbingers probably wouldn’t have survived this long. the most he’s allowed to do is administer performance enhancers, similar to things that racers might take, only they’re much stronger than that. it’s what keeps most of us stronger than you guys.” a pause, then a sigh. “the only reason you caught me that day was because there wasn’t enough time to administer my enhancer, so i was slower than usual. otherwise i would’ve been dead just like signora.”
heizou frowned.
“well i’m glad that’s not the case. i don’t know what i would’ve done if you hadn’t survived until now, honestly.”
“don’t think about it.”
scaramouche grabbed his plate from where he had set them both on the table in front of the couch, heizou doing the same. they both decided to dig in and avoid the conversation for the time being, and it helped.
until heizou got a call from the agency.
the second he saw the caller id show up as yelan, he panicked. what if she heard scaramouche in the background, or somehow already knew he was here? this was bad.
“it’s yelan. keep your voice down, and just… don’t give her any indication im not alone.”
scaramouche nodded, getting up to move to another room for the time being just as heizou picked up the call.
“yelan! it’s been a while since i last heard from you. what’s up?”
yelan took in a breath before letting it out in a sigh.
“we’ve got news on a new harbinger. one named the marionette. she’s been leaving dolls at every single one of her crime scenes, whether it be the scene of a murder or at a pettier crime.”
heizou frowned, his brows furrowing again as he stood up.
“how soon do i need to be at the agency?”
“now. we need all the manpower we can get to find this girl.”
“i’ll be there in ten.”
and then he hung up, sighing loudly.
“scara, you’re in the clear.”
the man in question was quick to come out of heizou’s room, leveling a questioning look at him.
“one of your little friends just made herself known. the marionette? what can you tell me about her?”
“that’s sandrone. she’s… interesting, to say the least. i don’t know much about her personality, but i do know she crafts dolls. she leaves them all over the place in our hideouts. it’s really creepy, all things considered.”
heizou nodded.
“that makes sense. yelan just told me she’s been leaving dolls at crime scenes, so i guess it doesn’t seem very out of character.”
scaramouche nodded in response, before getting up and scraping the remains of his dinner in the trash.
“i guess i should be leaving now.”
“yeah, i have to get to the agency. i won’t tell them everything you told me for now, but… thank you. i’m going to do everything i can to apprehend your coworkers, if you don’t mind.”
“go ahead, they’re all insane anyways.”
heizou laughed softly, before walking to scaramouche. he gently turned his face towards him with one hand so he could plant a chaste kiss on his lips.
“thank you for everything you’ve been doing for me recently. i really do appreciate you.”
scaramouche’s face grew slightly redder than usual, but he nodded again.
“i… care a lot about you. i wouldn’t be doing this if i didn’t.”
heizou smiled at him for a moment, then turned to go grab kazuha’s bag. he turned around to say something else before he left as he approached the door, but the other man was already gone. he sighed, but shook his head and left nonetheless.