Puppet

Chapter 4

He woke up.
This time he wasn't on the floor in a domain.
He was in a white and red bed, wearing more comfortable clothes, with a cold, wet cloth on his forehead, which he felt burning.

"Gods are like children. They're stubborn with what they want, and they throw tantrums if they don't get it."
Her again
"In some ways, you're like her.
I am not saying that you are 100% Ei, but... You two share some similarities..."

He was breathing heavily, but still decided to try and get up, failing.
A hand pushed him back down.

"Ei too, when sick, used to either hide it, or try to do her things even if she knew perfectly she would have gotten worse."
He didn't know what to say
"Now do me a favor and lay down, you're obviously not ready to get out."

"Why.. Am.. I... Here?"
"Because you're stubborn like a child. And you don't know when to refuse a challenge."
"What... Happened?"
"What I feared and warned you about. You forgot how this... Devilish piece of chess... Made you feel in the past, both physically and mentally."
"Why.. Are you..."
"Helping you? Oh I don't know. Maybe because you're Ei's creation? Maybe because she cares about you and so do I?"

'Caring about me? Why...'

She took off the cloth, almost dry, and replaced it with a colder one.
"Sometimes, what makes us human, is being wrong, making mistakes..."
She paused
"And accepting help"
She looked at him right in the eyes, he looked away.

"Ei cared about you. She could have killed you in the first place, but no. She left you to live your life. To choose what you could have been.
She could have left you with that thing inside you, but she didn't.
Because it was obvious that you were suffering.
Now tell me. What would have happen if I didn't find you?"
He was at loss of words

"Exactly. You would have not said anything anymore. Because you would have been dead."

He felt useless. Imperfect, a nothing.
He suddenly felt a hand on his face.
Yae was wiping some tears from it.
He was... Crying?

"You... Are like a teenager."
She started to stroke his hair
"You're a teenager whose parent didn't teach you how to live, nor give you any tips.
She just left you alone, in a cruel world, while you were forgetting why you were there."

He looked at her, speechless

"You can keep the Gnosis, if you promise to not use it anymore for your own good, but listen to some advices first."
He weakly nodded
"You're allowed to feel weak and helpless.
You're allowed to cry.
And most importantly, you're allowed to seek help from who cares about you."

And she hugged him, leaving him without any word.

"Why?"
"You looked like you needed one like it was the only thing keeping you from exploding."
They both giggled

"Now, now... I won't tell Ei that you've been here, if you stay here for a little longer while you recover from what that thing did to you."
He agreed, nodding
"Now, let me show you what parental affection means."
And she hugged him again

For the first time, he really felt loved.
He didn't feel imperfect, because there was nothing else to compare himself with.
He didn't feel weak, because she showed him that weakness is part of strength.
He didn't feel like he needed to prove something, because sometimes, the only thing you need to prove, is that you love someone.
And he didn't feel alone, because right now, he had Yae, probably the most experienced adult in Inazuma, with him.

So he gave up.
He let her take care of him.
And of course, some time later, it was really time for him to go back.

"Where were you all this time, Balladeer?"
Childe, the Eleventh, was looking down at him.
"I was... Testing something. With this."
And he showed him the Gnosis.

"At least one of you two managed to get back with that thing... You heard? Signora is dead now."
"Yeah... But no. I was just testing if this thing really worked. Don't you think Signora, after getting Morax and Barbatos's Gnoses, wanted to have a bit of fun with those?"

"Shut up. We gotta get back now. Her Majesty is already pretty nervous, and she wants another Harbinger to go to Sumeru, where the Traveler is headed. She wants to know if one day Traveler will be able to actually stop us from getting a Gnosis."

"In their dreams"

And they returned to Snezhnaya, with Tartaglia who ignored the beautiful lessons of Life that Yae had gave his fellow Harbinger all that time.

[Author's Note

For the people from that one Pinterest comment, THANK YOU]