omg yes this is SO my life. I'm a gemini sun and my best friend is a scorpio and honestly we had to have a whole sit-down conversation about this like two years in.

the thing that helped us most was me asking him to TELL me when something bothered him instead of going silent. took a while for him to actually do it but once he did it got so much better

This is one of the most classically misaligned communication styles in the zodiac. Looking at this from an astrological perspective:

Gemini is ruled by Mercury - the planet of communication, quick thinking, and verbal processing. Geminis literally think OUT LOUD. Words are exploratory for you, not commitments.

Scorpio is a water sign ruled by Pluto (and traditionally Mars). They process internally, deeply, and they take words seriously because they mean every word THEY say.

So when you say something offhand, he's analyzing it for layers of meaning that weren't even there. And when he goes quiet, he's actually communicating - just in a Scorpio language (withdrawal = I need to process something).

What tends to work: tell him upfront when you're just thinking out loud vs when you mean something seriously. A simple 'I'm just rambling here, don't read into it' can save a lot of silent treatment situations.