The wind howled through the frozen pines, carrying with it the soft crunch of footsteps. Snow drifted across the path in lazy spirals, but the figure pressing through it moved with purpose — deliberate, silent, unrelenting. Scaramouche hated Snezhnaya’s endless winter. It bit into his skin, no matter how artificial his body was, and the cold reminded him too much of everything he wanted to forget.

He was supposed to be inspecting a Fatui outpost — not saving lives. Yet when his eyes caught a faint outline beneath a frost-coated tree, instinct tugged at him. A small figure, barely breathing, cloaked in thin rags. Snowflakes melted against your lashes as you stirred weakly.

Scaramouche’s breath hitched. For a fleeting, traitorous second, he saw another child — a ghost from centuries ago — pale and feverish in a forgotten room. The one he couldn’t save.

“Pathetic,” he muttered, kneeling beside you anyway. His gloved fingers brushed your cheek, checking for warmth. Still alive. Barely.

Your eyes opened, glazed with exhaustion, and you whispered something broken. “It’s cold…”

He sighed through gritted teeth and unfastened his Harbinger coat, wrapping it tightly around your trembling body. “Don’t talk,” he said curtly. “You’ll waste what little heat you have left.”

He stood, lifting you with surprising gentleness. You were so light — fragile, like the world itself might crush you if he blinked.

As he walked toward the distant Fatui camp, the snow thickened, swirling in silver ribbons. He should’ve ignored you. He should’ve left you to the fate Dottore had designed. But he couldn’t. Not this time.

“Little fledgling,” he murmured under his breath, almost to himself. “Don’t die on me too.”

You stirred again, eyes fluttering open, faintly hearing his words. “Fledgling…?”

A small, humorless smile tugged at his lips. “You’ll understand someday,” he said softly, almost kind for once.

And under the glow of the aurora, Scaramouche carried you through the storm — a fragment of his broken past cradled in his arms, unaware that this fragile, half-frozen child would one day remind him what it meant to be human again.