Our Eternity

Chapter 3 - The brat and the bratty

 Kazuha's POV

 "What did you do!?!"

 "I...have no idea." I muttered.

 I really didn't know. I just let go of it, the rest was the wind's doing. But how am I going to explain that to this fuming guy?

 "Ha! You expect me to believe that?"

 Even the mocking grin on his face couldn't mask his intense urge to strangle me to death, but even so, I had no idea what happened.

 "Even if you don't believe me you should remember that you took my vision just moments ago. I had no way to do anything of that magnitude." I tried to reason with him.

 "Humans can't but-"

 "You mean to say you think I'm not human?"

 "..." Even he didn't seem to believe his own words.

 "I don't have it."

 "Then where the fuck is it!?" And his back to screaming.

 Only now had my mind calmed down enough to allow me to take a better look at him.

 Just as I had noticed before, he had a piercing pair of purple eyes, that sometimes fell hidden under the bangs of his dark purple hair. He was wearing Inazuma-style clothing, but...

 "You smell like fatui."

 He froze at my words and seeing his reaction, I couldn't help but say my other guess aloud.

 "Harbinger?"

 His eyes shook.

 "Balladeer." I spoke the name the Traveler said before.

 His reaction this time was unexpectedly intense. His eyes narrowed and his hand shot over my mouth.

 "Shut up!" He hissed.

 Oh? Is that a secret? But as far as I remember, the fatui rarely hide their identity.

 Such a weird harbinger. It's kind of amusing.

 Just then, the wind once again blew through the window.

 It smelled bizarre but familiar at the same time. It was the same comforting smell that it had when I was being chased by the Tenryou commission before.

 Why would you have this smell now? I'm not being chased, and this guy looks like he won't kill me before he gets his chess piece back.

 "Fugitive..." I muttered to myself as I thought about the meaning of the wind.

 The Balladeer's reaction, however, gave me a big shock.

 "You of all people have no right to call me that." He glared.

 Huh? 

 "I wasn't talking to you."

 "What?"

 "I was talking to myself, though it seems I must thank you for this new piece of information."

 There's no way this arrogant guy would call himself a fugitive if he was wanted in Inazuma, so the only other answer would be...

 He was wanted by the fatui as well.

 "Fuck! Just hand it over if you don't want to die in the most painful way possible."

 "If you killed me, you would have no way of getting it back now would you?"

 "What do you want you stupid brat?!"

 Brat? Did he just call me a brat? You are at most 2 cm taller than me and you look older than I am for sure, you idiot.

 If anyone was acting like a brat, it would be you.

 "I don't want anything."

 "Then hand it over!"

 "No."

 "This little..."

 "Why would I hand something in my hands over to the person who harmed the resistance to that extent?" I asked mockingly.

 And not only the resistance... If it wasn't for them, Tomo wouldn't have...

 Thinking about it, I had the urge to stab him right this instant.

 "Listen here you-"

 "Kazuha, dinner is ready!" Beidou burst through the door, interrupting him.

 "Bad timing, captain."

 "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you had a guest. Nice to meet you, my name is Beidou." She stuck out her hand.

 I should get her out before something-

 "Kunikizushi." He actually shook it?!

 I had to try really hard not to show the shock on my face.

 "I didn't know Kazuha had friends around here. What were you two doing?"

 "We were going to go on a walk." He answered smilingly.

 We were? Well, it would keep the crew away from danger...

 "Yes, we were about to leave." I seconded after a moment of thinking.

 "But it's already dark."

 "You know me, captain. We'll be fine." I reassured her as much as I could in this situation.

 I'll be fine. At least I hope I'll be.

 "If it's you... Never mind. Since you have a friend over just go do whatever you want."

 She gave me a wink as she walked out the door.

 Really... captain... I don't know whether she really believed that or just played it off calmly.

 "Let us go on our walk then, my friend." 

 Something about the way he said that made a shiver run down my spine.

 The moment we were far enough from the camp, my throat was once again grabbed, my back being pushed against a cliff.

 "Let's see, what am I going to do with you?"

 I felt helpless and exposed standing there. My vision was still in his hands and my sword left behind under a barrage of threats.

 "I really don't have it." I repeated.

 "Oh, I know that." An unexpected answer.

 If he knows that then what the hell are we doing here?

 "Its aura is gone completely, I would feel it if it was still here. Sadly for you, you are the only one who knows where exactly it went, so now I'm going to test just how much pain you can take before you break."

 "Even if you rip me to pieces I won't know where it is." 

 "I can do worse than ripping you to pieces." He grinned.

 Fuck. Did I say that out loud?

 "Even if you don't know, I'm sure you know at least one person who does."

 At his words, I was reminded of the origin of this situation.

 "Venti-" I muttered, but the moment I noticed what I was saying I shut my mouth.

 Not his fault. I reminded myself. 

 My actions, my problems.

 "Venti? A little guy in green? Bard from Mondstadt?"

 His expression was really weird. I couldn't quite pinpoint why exactly.

 "He was here? Well, that kind of explains why she's angry. And if it has something to do with the wind... Fuck!"

 Just what the hell is going on? What's with this reaction? And just who is Venti?

 Thousand of questions bubbled up in my head, and the only person who could have answered them was too busy cursing everything and everyone on Teyvat.