Archive of Our Own ^beta

“What did you just call me!?”

“A prissy bitch?”

“Yuno–!” Asta tries to intervene.

“Oh, you think I’m a prissy bitch?”

Mimosa squeaks, “Noelle–!”

“That’s why I said it.”

“Have you, I don’t know, looked in a mirror recently?”

Yuno shrugs, preening a bit. “No need.”

Noelle whips out her grimoire before anyone can stop her. A powerful stream of water comes flying toward Yuno that, at the last second, is deflected by an opposing blast of wind. The spray of water slams into the cave wall behind him and comes raining down on Asta, who yells out in surprise, “GUYS!”

“I don’t know how anyone can stand you!”

“Could say the same about you.”

Mimosa clings to her elbow. “Noelle, please–!”

“STOP IT!!!” Suddenly, Asta’s voice overpowers them, deadly serious. 

His uncharacteristic behavior stuns the bickering mages into silence. The tension fizzles out in midair. 

The anti-mage takes a deep breath to collect himself, then adds, “We need to finish our mission. Without fighting.”

Mimosa is the first to recover from her stupor. “Right,” she agrees, letting her hand fall. “Let’s try to be civil with each other for the mission.”

Yuno and Noelle exchange heated glares. A nonverbal agreement to lay off for the time being – or at least until the other breaks – is tentatively established between them. For the sake of the mission. (And Asta).

Noelle shuffles over to stand beside her fellow Black Bull. Yuno resolutely stays where he is, several meters away from the group with his arms crossed.

“I knew you two could do it!” Asta looks pleased if the smug grin on his face is anything to go by. He turns determinedly to Mimosa and asks, “You still have the map thingy?”

The plant mage startles when she realizes he’s talking to her. “Oh, sorry!”

She mutters a Magic Flower Guidepost and summons the transparent dungeon map. A bright golden blurb indicates an area somewhere ahead of them with a high magic concentration, presumably where the horde of magic items they were tasked with retrieving is.

“Looks like it’s still a straight shot for a while,” she announces after a brief re-analysis of the map.

“Perfect,” the anti-mage decides with a satisfied nod. “You can lead us then.”

Shuffling footsteps accompany the Magic Knights as they make their way through the dimly lit dungeon. Mana-activated torches laden with unfamiliar magic illuminate thick dust particles in the air and cast long shadows across ancient stone.

No one has been down here in a very long time.

“What do you think we’ll find down here?” Asta asks them all excitedly.

“A horde of magic items, hopefully,” Noelle quips.

“Yeah!” He pumps his fist in the air. “But whatd’ya think will be in it? A cool new grimoire? A crystal ball? A… huge mana-sucking dragon?”

“You’re the only mana-sucking creature down here.”

Suddenly, there’s the sound of rumbling somewhere above them. A continuous noise like a stampede of angry bulls charging forward, the heavy clomping of hooves on stone. The mages are immediately alert: Mimosa holds out her hand to stop them.

Dust trickles down from the ceiling. The stone floor trembles helplessly beneath their feet.

“The hell is that?!” Asta demands, craning his neck upward. “A dragon?”

Mimosa finds nothing out of the ordinary on her map. “I don’t know!” she exclaims.

“Is it… above us?” Noelle asks frantically.

“I don’t know!”

Whatever it is, the sound is a lot closer now. And much louder.

“I think we should run,” Yuno says.

“I don’t– Huh?!” Mimosa whirls around on him in confusion.

Much louder this time, wasting no more time, he screams at them all to “RUNNN!!!”

A moment too late, his words seem to register with his companions. Only several seconds later and without warning, the crumbling ceiling suddenly caves in on itself. The sound is deafening and it throws them all off balance.

There are only a few moments to react:

Asta somehow manages to pull both himself and Mimosa (the closest in proximity to him at the time) out of the way of the falling debris.

Yuno, too, dives out of the way at the last second. Noelle attempts to do the same.

…

…

…

He must’ve blacked out for a minute or two because the next thing he sees is the dust-covered floor beneath him. Completely still.

Pushing himself onto his hands and knees with some effort, he finally notices the mountain of rocks and debris in front of him, entirely blocking off the other end of the corridor.

A cave-in.

His first instinct is to assess the situation, as per his Magic Knight training. His dive sent him further than he expected, several meters away from the newfound wall bisecting the tunnel.

People are shouting, he realizes after a moment. The voices are muffled and he strains to make out what they’re saying.

Eventually, the ringing in his ears clears out just enough for him to distinguish what he thinks is the sound of his name…

“Yuno!”

And someone else’s, too.

“Noelle!”

It’s Asta and Mimosa. They must’ve ended up on the other side of the debris. But where is Noelle?

As the de-facto leader of this mission due to his ranking, the others are technically his subordinates. If he loses someone under his command it wouldn’t bear well for him or the Golden Dawn. The fact that this ‘someone’ just so happens to be Noelle Silva of the House of Silva is also quite concerning…

All at once, the sheer gravity of the situation dawns on him and he stumbles to his feet.

“Noelle?” He calls out, panicked. Frantically, he begins searching the debris for a shock of bright silver hair.

Asta must’ve heard him because he calls out in alarm, “Y-Yuno? Is Noelle okay?!”

A heavy pit of dread settles in his stomach as he scrambles down on his hands and knees and begins sifting through the piles of rubble around him. He uses his wind magic to occasionally, and very haphazardly, move the heavier rocks out of his way.

There is more shouting through the wall, he thinks, but he doesn’t hear it over the sound of blood roaring in his ears.

It isn’t long before several areas of rubble have been fully cleared out, revealing nothing but the stone floor underneath. Exhaustion clings to him and, after nearly ten minutes of searching, he struggles to manifest even the smallest amount of mana.

Still, he persists.

Somehow, the sound of Asta’s voice – now thick and heavy with emotion – manages to countermand the cacophony in his head. “Noelle,” he pleads, and it sounds like he’s pressed up against the wall.

Yuno doesn’t search for long after that before he finds it, as if summoned: illuminated in soft torchlight, a pale hand peeking out of the rubble. His heart stutters. An audible gasp leaves his lips before he fully realizes it and Asta shouts something loud and incoherent through the debris.

After a minute or two of frenzied excavation efforts, he uncovers her face in the rubble and his breath catches. His hand is shaking uncontrollably as it settles on her pulse point.

Unconscious. At least he knows now why she never responded to any of their earlier shouting.

The wind mage falls back onto his ankles with a heavy sigh of relief. “She’s here,” he calls out weakly to the others, prompting the sound of what he thinks is Asta collapsing onto the floor.

Mimosa still seems panicked when she asks, “Is she hurt?”

Yes. A massive boulder covers most of Noelle’s lower body.

After further excavation efforts aided by wind magic, he can deduce with his limited medical knowledge that a) she has a concussion (see: blood pouring from open headwound) and b) her leg is broken (see: exposed tibia).

He sucks in a breath and relays, “Um. Yeah, her leg is definitely broken.”

“Definitely?” He can almost hear the curious tilt of Mimosa’s head.

“I can see the bone.”

Asta lets out a high-pitched yelp. “We need to do something then!”

“She’s unconscious,” Yuno says, eyeing the slow rise and fall of her chest. “And I doubt any of us could breach the wall without bringing the whole ceiling down on our heads.”

“Maybe there’s another path?” Mimosa doesn’t wait for confirmation as she casts another Magic Flower Guidepost.

“Seems like our only option–”

“Yuno,” Asta suddenly cuts him off, “Can you wake her up?”

“I don’t know if I should–”

“Please, just try!”

Mimosa doesn’t stop him, so he figures it must be okay. Noelle is likely concussed, and he knows from experience that losing consciousness while concussed is not ideal. Maybe waking her up will help? Asta seems to think so.

It certainly doesn’t take much. He shakes her shoulder once, twice. When she does wake, however, eyes shuttering, it is with a wince and a confused, “Wha…?”

“She’s awake,” Yuno relays through the wall.

Asta calls back, “‘Nell, can you hear me?”

Nell? The wind mage’s lips pucker in amusement. That’s new.

Her frown deepens. “Loud,” she complains.

“Sorry, sorry.”

Recognition flickers in her eyes when she notices Yuno sitting patiently above her, but she cranes her neck to look around her for the source of the other voice. “A-Asta?”

The anti-mage inexplicably reads her mind. “I’m on the other side of the wall,” he tells her calmly. “There was a cave-in. Mimosa is trying to find another path to get to you. Then she’ll heal you.”

She’s blinking slowly. “Don’t need healing.”

“Yes, you do,” Asta says in a calm voice. “Yuno will help you while we figure this out. Just hang in there.”

She hums in acknowledgment, then turns to the wind mage and pouts. “What’re you doing here?”

“Believe me, I didn’t ask for this,” he quips in return.

After some time, Mimosa is eventually able to locate a useable detour. She and Asta discuss in low voices. It is lengthy and will take some time to navigate properly, but overall less risky than gambling on the chances of another cave-in.

“Try it,” he says when she proposes the idea to him.

“But will you two be okay?”

“Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine.” He hopes he sounds more confident than he really feels. His knowledge of medicine is about as extensive as his understanding of people, which is to say not at all. All he knows comes from Sister Lily.

A shuffling sound indicates Mimosa’s begrudging acceptance. Asta, too, audibly clamors to his feet. There is a familiar determination in his voice when he promises through the wall, “I’ll see you soon.”

Mimosa adds, “Stay safe, okay?”

The two head off in some unknown direction. Before long, the sound of their (hastened) footsteps dwindles and then fades completely. In the eerie silence, Yuno chances a look at Noelle.

Her face is fully contorted in pain. He isn’t surprised when she finally vocalizes it now that the others aren’t here. “Hurts.”

“What does?”

She hums in consideration. “Mmm. Leg.”

“No wonder. I can see the bone.”

Her brow twitches a bit when she says, “Not helping.”

“Fine, I’ll help. Let me reposition you.”

He takes her silence as an affirmative. There are still small rocks covering parts of her body, her arms are twisted, and her head is starting to lull awkwardly to the side.

To his surprise, she doesn’t protest when he moves her.

He is apprehensive about her broken leg and, very carefully, elevates it across a chunk of debris in an attempt to prevent her from moving it.

There is also the unfortunate matter of her head…

“Hey. Does your head hurt?”

“Mmm,” is her sleepy affirmative response.

“No sleeping.”

He grabs her face to try and keep her awake, smushing her cheeks together. Asta used to do this all the time when they were kids – he knew intimately how annoying it was.

Her eyes eventually shutter open and she looks up at him, frowning. It takes a long time for her to respond, but when she does, it’s relatively coherent and Noelle-sounding. “Don’t be boring then,” she quips.

“Fine.” He leans back a bit, not bothering to mask his amusement. “What’s with the nickname?”

“Huh?”

“You know.”

She looks lost.

“The one Asta called you.”

He can see the exact moment it dawns on her. Her cheeks darken with embarrassment. Nell.

“You like him,” he says, matter of fact.

She sputters, “W-What?”

“You like Asta. He’ll never realize unless you tell him.”

Her face is beet-red. “No way,” she insists weakly, several octaves above convincing.

He smirks. “I don’t believe you.”

An idiot would. No doubt Asta.

“I don’t care.”

“Yes, you do. He called you that stupid nickname.”

She frowns at him and says in a soft voice, “He’s never called me that before.”

He expects her to ask him what that means, whether he thinks he likes her or not. He wouldn’t know the answer anyway – Asta’s an enigma when it comes to that kind of stuff. (And so is Yuno).

When she doesn’t and silence stretches out between them, he wracks his brain for something to say. Suddenly, he remembers their last interaction (prior to the mission) at the Royal Knights Exam. “Can… I ask you something unrelated?”

Noelle hums. “Maybe.”

“Why didn’t you join the Silver Eagles?”

Her eldest brother was the captain. At the exam, he met her other brother Solid – royal bastard, by the way – and he knew there was another sister, all part of the Silver Eagles.

From the surprised look on her face, this clearly wasn’t the question she had been expecting. She answers it anyway, “Nozel didn’t let me.”

“Why’s that?”

The eldest Silva, Nozel, stood between Yuno and the title of Wizard King. For that reason, he hated the braided bastard.

“I couldn’t control my magic.”

“Bullshit. You can control it now.”

The look on her face is indecipherable.

He frowns. “Why you? Why you and not your siblings?”

Matter of factly, she says, “Because I remind him of my mother.”

”Oh.” A beat.“Is she alive?”

Her expression immediately darkens. “I’m not answering that, you tactless idiot.”

“I’m an orphan,” he says, like that makes any sense.

Noelle responds with ice-cold silence.

Admittedly, words of comfort aren’t his thing. He thinks he might’ve upset her, so he decides it’s best to move on. She’s injured and unable to fight back – it wouldn’t be fair to aggravate her while she’s incapacitated.

“Um, how’s your leg?”

She stares at him in disbelief. “Still broken?”

He confirms this for himself. Yes, her tibia is still very much visible. It had not miraculously fixed itself over the past few minutes. “Asta broke his leg when we were kids,” he tells her instead, seemingly out of nowhere. 

Her curiosity gets the better of her. “H-He did?”

He nods. “Fell out of a tree, I think. It took Sister Lily a whole week to heal it because she didn’t have enough mana. He was scared of that tree for months after. ‘Course it didn’t take long before he was back up there like nothing happened.”

Yuno smiles fondly at the memory. He was scared of that tree, too, after what happened. Until Asta somehow managed to convince him to climb it with him again.

“Mm,” she hums wistfully, letting her eyes fall closed. “I wish I fell out of a tree.”

He frowns. “Don’t sleep.”

“M’not tired,” she says unconvincingly.

“The others are on their way.”

“I know.”

“So you should know to stay awake.”

He needs to keep her talking, but he’s never been very skilled at conversation.

So he asks her the first thing that comes to mind, a staple in his limited repertoire of conversation starters: “What, uh… is your favorite color?”

Her brow furrows. Still, her answer is honest: “Blue. Like the ocean.”

“I like blue, too. Like the sky,” he tells her. “How about your favorite food?”

The corners of her eyes crinkle a bit when she says, “Strawberry shortcake.”

“Mine is chocolate. Favorite season?”

“Spring.”

“Winter. Favorite… flower?”

She thinks this over for a moment. Eventually, she decides, “Hyacinths. The purple ones.”

He doesn’t hesitate when he says with a small smile, “Edelweiss.”

The sound of fast-approaching footsteps thankfully puts their attempted small talk to an end. Yuno nudges her shoulder, reminding her to open her eyes. She does, and the two crane their necks to look down the corridor.

Asta skids on his knees beside them. He’s half-breathless and a little scraped up. “You okay?”

“Yes,” the wind mage answers for them both, but when he looks at Noelle for confirmation, he suddenly isn’t so sure.

She’s crying, tears streaming freely down her face. Without hesitation, the anti-mage moves to wipe them away. “You’re crying?”

"Hurts,” she whispers. “Glad you’re here.”

"Me too," he says softly.

Yuno watches this intimate moment unfold in stunned silence.

Suddenly, Mimosa is kneeling on their other side, crying softly and mumbling something. With an elegant swish of her hand, a bed of bright yellow flowers sprouts up from the debris to cradle Noelle in its embrace, encircling her in an emerald-golden glow.

She finally lets her eyes fall closed and, tears dwindling, welcomes unconsciousness with open arms. It’s well-deserved, that’s for sure.

Asta slowly withdraws his hand and stands. To Yuno, he asks, “You okay, too?”

“Yes.” 

Smiling, he helps the wind mage to his feet. “Thanks,” he says, clapping him on the shoulder.

Yuno nods. I appreciate your help, it meant. He helped, sure, but she had made it so easy for him.

Noelle was strong. Damn strong.

She was brave and determined and reminded him too much of Asta sometimes.

But she was also different. So, so different than he imagined.

She was unbelievably witty, even half-concussed. Her stubbornness could rival even his, but she remained considerate and patient nevertheless.

Most of all, she was a total prissy bitch. Then again, so was he.

He’ll never admit it (not to anyone, especially not to Asta), but he gained a newfound respect for the water mage in the short time he spent trapped with her underground in a cave-in.

He can only hope it’ll last.