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“Klein?” Leonard asked, voice soft.
Merlin Hermes looked back at him, confused. And then a slow smile spread across his face.
“Leonard!” He said, a bright grin on his face. “It’s been a while since we’ve talked face to face, no?”
And then Leonard, ever impulsive, blurts out the first thought in his mouth.
“You’re not Klein .”
Because– because it was wrong . Because Klein wouldn’t smile like he didn’t have a care in the world even using an identity because Klein would always care, has always cared too much and–
He instantly slaps his hand over his mouth, but the damage is done.
The Miracle Invoker looks at him and laughs, the tinkering sound slightly too off to be clocked as human– that is understandable; Klein had become an angel, after all.
But no matter how hard Leonard tried to hear, there was no undercurrent of emotions to his laugh, no matter how muted it may be.
“No,” The Miracle Invoker agreed. “I’m not Klein.”
And the next second Leonard is choking on thin air. His thoughts become… slow…? What was…
Distantly, he can hear Old Man trying to do something, but the Miracle Invoker laughs and snapped his fingers.
“You’ve grown weak, Pallez~” the Miracle Invoker sighed. “This is less fun than I thought it would be.” There is something inhuman in the way He looks at Leonard– or rather, Old Man. His face was entirely human, and yet there was a distinct quality missing from it. He tilts His head to the side, as though listening to something– or someone.
Perhaps this was what Leonard looked like when he didn’t care about people seeing him speak with Pallez.
“I wish Leonard Mitchell returns to the state he was two minutes ago.” the Miracle Invoker says, tone flat. He snaps His fingers.
Leonard can breathe again, and he immediately steps away. Not that it would be useful against an Angel, but it was the thought that counted.
Old Man is quiet, but his franticness is felt. And then, he says, slowly, with resignation in his voice:
“You might have met the original Merlin Hermes.”
He prays to the Evernight Goddess under his breath. The Miracle Invoker just seemed amused, so Leonard quickly tacked on one to Mr Fool as well.
Merlin Hermes– not Klein, Klein wouldn’t smile like that, even though they should be smiling the same way with the sequence 8 Clown’s powers, reached a hand into the Historical Void, sighing dramatically.
“I suppose I must help facilitate your meeting, as a responsible senior.”
And out comes Klein Moretti, his face blank, wearing the same clothes as he had been as a Nighthawk in Tingen, still as youthful as the day they had met, and Leonard is drowned in the memories of what had been and what could have been and–
Klein Moretti’s face goes from disturbingly blank to mildly confused. He looks at Leonard and–
Immediately takes on the face and clothing of Gehrman Sparrow. Leonard is not disappointed. Not at all.
“ Merlin, ” Klein hissed, his face flushed.
Merlin Hermes sniffled. “What?” He asked, a hand over his heart. “Shouldn’t I help my only junior to resolve his–”
Leonard never manages to find out what the next word is, because Klein leans over and slaps a hand over Merlin Hermes’ mouth.
Leonard watched as Klein’s face flitted through a number of different expressions before settling on one that could be called positively mild.
“Hello, Leonard.” He said, quietly. His demeanor was the same as when he had just joined the Nighthawks and still felt awkward greeting everyone.
This– this Leonard was familiar with.
“Hello, Klein.” Leonard said, a stupidly wide grin on his face he couldn’t tamp down.
(Nor did he want to.)
Distantly, Leonard feels Old Man retreat into nothingness in his mind.
That might be a problem if the Miracle Invoker turns out to be hostile.
Merlin Hermes winks at Leonard, and then the next second–
Klein yanks his hand away from Merlin’s mouth.
“What is wrong with you?” He cried in indignation, waving his spit covered hand. Leonard greedily drinks in Klein’s loss of composure. It was a rare sight, after all.
“And what junior?” Klein said, angrily. “We could be counted as equals now! Equals! We’re both Miracle Invokers!”
“You are also at least half a millenia younger than me~” Merlin Hermes said, His voice tinkering like bells. Of the ominous variety. The mild echoing His voice left behind was… perhaps not as frightening as Blasphemer Amon, but something close.
Klein stared at Him for a while. And then he turned to Leonard.
“Ignore him,” he said. “He doesn’t mean any harm; at least not consciously.”
That was the most horrifying statement Leonard had heard all day.
Of course Angels wouldn’t think of causing harm consciously. Of course. If Old man were still listening, perhaps he would scoff in his head.
After all, when one was an angel, merely being close to one of Their battles could cause a normal human to implode instantly.
“...Alright.” Leonard said.
Klein seemed to have at least calmed down a bit, because he was no longer letting too many of his emotions show.
“Why did you even call me here?” He complained.
Merlin Hermes rolled His eyes. “Your friend ran all the way over here when he was probably looking for you~ shouldn’t you make it up to him by at least meeting him? I can’t let my junior commit blasphemy and not carry out Mr Fool’s principle of equivalent exchange, after all.”
Klein looked at Leonard, unimpressed.
…Leonard suddenly felt a need to defend himself.
“T-the Church sent me here! An assignment on studying what Merlin Hermes was doing ‘this time’...? And how long He would be staying.”
Klein opened his mouth.
He closed it.
He opened it again.
“...Was this what you meant when you said borrowing your identity would have… ‘consequences’?”
Merlin Hermes beamed.
“The good news is that no one will really dare to bother you while you act, since I, your favourite senior, have decided to reappear. It’s a good thing you made that Automatic Wishing Machine~ They’ll give priority to it, but only once they realize the name of the person inviting people to wish.”
He even clapped His hands a bit for the extra flair.
Klein’s eye twitched. “If you knew I was going to make that damn thing,” he hissed, “you could have told me while I was still figuring out where the feedback was going .”
Leonard had no idea what he was listening to. Helplessly, he looked at Klein.
The two Miracle Invokers in front of him seemed keen to ignore him. While also naming him the reason they were there.
Merlin Hermes sighed. “Well, it was a harmless prank~ what’s the worst that could happen? You needing an extra year or two to digest that potion?”
Klein turned around and looked at Leonard. Gritting his teeth, he moved forwards and grabbed Leonard’s wrist.
“Let’s go.” He said, his tone final. “We can talk elsewhere.”
“K-klein??” Leonard’s face flushed, but he made no move to take his wrist out of Klein’s grip.
“Where do you plan on going anyways?”
Klein glared at him.
“Away from Him .”
That was the first time he had touched Klein in a few months!!
…And isn’t that thought depressing to think about. Leonard savors the warmth of Klein’s hand on his wrist and smiled softly.
“There’s a nice cafe around the corner. Do you want to go there?”
Klein slowed down a bit, before nodding his head.
“Okay.”
Leonard beamed, pleased that Klein had decided not to mask his expressions as deeply as he had the last time he had seen him. Perhaps this guy had decided to drop it after the disastrous Hall of Truth incident…
It was a nice day, if one ignored how it started.
Leonard wasn’t sure how a Historical Projection could eat, but Klein was really packing down those sweets.
It was almost like they were back in Tingen, where Klein would quietly watch but always be there for Leonard.
Leonard loved–
Ahem.
“How long are you going to stay anyways?” Leonard asked, completely prepared to be disappointed by Klein leaving soon.
Klein looked at him, his mouth still munching around a cake. Leonard wasn’t sure how he fit a whole cake into his mouth in one bite but he managed.
Klein swallowed. Leonard did not track the move.
“Perhaps until I finish the drinks.” He said, softly. “You said this place had good Iced Tea, did you not?”
Leonard beamed.
“Okay!” He said, happily. That meant more time to catch up with Klein!
“Tsk,” someone else said. “I was hoping you’d stay longer than that.”
Leonard turned his head around so fast something would have cracked had he not been a demigod; meanwhile, Klein jumped out of his seat and was visibly considering vaulting out of the building entirely if not for Leonard being stuck with–
“Amon??” Klein said, completely flabbergasted.
Blasphemer Amon smiled, leaning over the seat of the stall behind them.
“That would be me,” He agreed. “It’s not often I get invited to parties, only to find the participants on a date.” He complained.
“Old Man!” Leonard immediately shouted, considering how fast he could escape.
Klein pulled out his gun and started chanting the Fool’s honorific name under his breath.
“The Fool that doesn’t belong to this era,” he mumbled, his finger hovering over the trigger like he was forgetting to pull it, his eye twitching.
Amon smiled.
“Your friends are incredibly rude,” Amon said, tilting his head, a smile on his face that was eerily bereft of any semblance of human emotion.
“Klein’s usually well behaved,” Merlin Hermes said, dramatically appearing and leaning over the divider next to Amon. “Maybe they’d treat you better if you, oh, weren’t crashing their date.”
We’re not on a date! Leonard wanted to half protest, except Leonard also wanted it to be a date.
Horrifyingly, Amon turned to look at Leonard.
“You know, perhaps if you had this thing called ‘courage’--”
“What is going on,” Old Man said, alarmed. Leonard had never been more relieved to hear him in his life.
Amon paused in his sentence and nudged the monocle on his right eye.
“Oh, Pallez.” He said, amused. “You were giving them privacy on their–”
He looked upwards, His face contorting into a smile.
“Uncle Zhou!” He said. “How unexpecte–”
There is an explosion of light. Leonard thinks his eardrums might have burst.
Leonard does not catch how much time had passed, but when he comes to Klein is above him, maggots squirming as his face rebuilt itself. He decides on going back to Klein Moretti’s face instead of Gehrman Sparrow’s eventually, and rolls off of Leonard.
Leonard sits up, slowly. It really is a miracle he hasn’t imploded yet.
“He’s gone.” Old Man grumbles, and vanishes back into his mind.
He looks around; the ground is charred, and a good portion of the building is completely gone.
“Couldn’t you have gotten along? It’s not often I can talk with Amon about interesting things. It was supposed to be a fun outing!”
Leonard looks up. Merlin Hermes is completely unscathed, and he brushes off a piece of ash from his clean shoulders. He’s fairly certain it’s more for the act of doing it than actually cleaning his clothing.
Leonard has a very, very strong urge to punch Him. He probably wouldn’t survive doing that, so he turns to Klein instead.
Klein gives him a shaky smile. He seemed to have completely abandoned any mask he had started the day with.
“Merlin,” Klein says, his voice deceptively soft. “Clean this up.”
Merlin Hermes stomped his foot. “I really just wanted the both of you to get along!” He said. “I know Monny was a bit mean to you in the Forsaken Land of Gods, but you really don’t have to–”
There is a bang of a revolver and a crumpled paper figurine where Merlin Hermes was standing in the next moment. He appears 5 steps to the left of where he had just been standing.
“Really,” He says, “Since when were you so rebellious? You’ll have to get along with Him eventually! Is it that glove you lost? I can get him to give it back!”
The worst part, Leonard thinks, is that Merlin Hermes seemed to genuinely mean everything he was saying.
Klein pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand, and took in a deep breath, pointing to the charred remains of the building.
“Clean it up.” He said again, his tone final.
Merlin Hermes pouted. “Why should I–”
His smile froze on his face, and then he tilted his head upwards.
“What? Really?!” He considered, and then sighed. “I even took all the civilians outside the building and I’m still getting grounded for two months?”
Klein looked like he was about to explode.
“You knew that was going to happen?” He hissed through his teeth, looking a second away from lunging at Merlin Hermes and grabbing him by his throat.
It was sort of–
Leonard shakes his head. Nope, not thinking that thought right now.
“I'm an Angel of the Seer pathway,” Merlin Hermes said. “Like you are.” He turns to the remains of the building.
“I wish this place reverted to how it was five minutes ago.” He said, cheerfully, snapping his fingers to fulfill his own wish.
The next second, the building reappears. The sudden smell of the pastries contrasting the lingering smoke in the back of Leonard’s lungs throws him off.
He opens his mouth.
He closes it.
He thinks he understands why every other high ranking member was complaining about Merlin Hermes and giving him pitying looks while he was leaving.
“I’m afraid I must go now,” Merlin said, sighing. “Mr Fool is rather disappointed in me, you see.”
The next second, he’s gone.
Leonard looks at Klein.
Klein looked back at him, and then shook his head softly.
“The Desi Pie was nice,” Klein said, smiling. He waved, and then vanished as well, disappearing back into the Historical Void.
Leonard’s heart did not skip a beat because of Klein’s genuine smile. Not at all.
“You’re both hopeless,” Old Man complained in his head.
“What do you mean?” Leonard exclaimed, helplessly. Old Man refused to answer his questions.