Archive of Our Own ^beta

The visitor

A Black Clover fanfiction.

For once in their lives, it seemed the Black Bulls found themselves torn apart from each other because of irreconcilable differences. In spite of the fact members of the squad couldn’t have been any more different from each other, they had always gotten along. Up until their recent arguments, which -to be honest- couldn’t have been any dumber. And dumb they were because a single conversation and bit of honesty would have cleared everything up but none of them wanted to take the risk. The most singular thing, though, was how the Black Bulls had had a falling out but still regrouped into two smaller groups: boys and girls. And the most extraordinary part about this whole ordeal relied on the fact that despite the squad members often came an inch close to throwing hands, there was a tacit agreement between the two battle fronts to conceal it from their captain, who was unaware there was an ongoing silent war within the premises. Yami was not informed about the state of affairs in his squad because he was the reason behind it.

It all started because Gauche commented Yami had taken a shower and tidied himself up before going to the capital on one of the most random and uneventful days ever: absolutely out of character for him to take his time before heading to dreaded affairs that involved the work the captain refused to do. It was during dinner when the man brought it up since Yami was nowhere to be seen. Finral replied by saying something could be up, since Yami did not ask him to take him anywhere and had rather gone on a broom. Gray, who had just come back from who knows where, then said she had seen their captain and that he had bought flowers from a street vendor. Vanessa and Noelle instantly raised their eyebrows at that and shared an understanding look. For some reason, Magna decided the flowers were a gesture of kindness because someone must have died and Yami was going to their funeral. Charmy butted in and complained because had there been a funeral, Yami wouldn’t have taken the delicacies he had paid her to make. For the second time, Noelle and Vanessa frowned and shared the same look that told they both suspected something. Gordon thought the delicacies were out of place but agreed with Magna since his parents had told him Yami went looking for a special tea to control anxiety, which was an expected emotion at a funeral.

Things went downhill from then on. Obviously, Vanessa and Noelle were not having it: how could everyone think about a funeral no one heard about instead of going for the most plausible reason? The rest of the members stared at them in complete loss. A girlfriend, they had exasperatedly replied. A heartbeat later, it was obvious something clicked: Gray and Charmy agreed and wondered how long a woman had been in their captain´s life. On the other hand, the boys refused to believe it and started arguing. Their usual physical brawls turned into what seemed like a philosophical discussion, with both parties providing reasons as to why it was possible and impossible for Yami to be dating. Unsurprisingly, things got heated up and they fought until they were all tired enough to call a truce so they could go to sleep. It had been hours and Yami was yet to make an appearance.

Weeks passed by before the subject was brought up again. It had almost been forgotten until a letter unexpectedly came. The sender was unknown but there had been Yami´s name written on the envelope with perfect penmanship. Elegant and feminine penmanship. That detail did not escape Vanessa´s eye. Neither did the fact of how the Black Bulls captain rushed to get it out of Luck´s hands and read it at once, regardless of how there was a gigantic pile of unread mail waiting for him at a nearby desk. However, Vanessa kept it in the low and only had a word with Noelle about it. Gray overheard and told Charmy as well. Days later, Yami went on a mission by himself, after Julius had personally asked him to deal with the issue at hand. The captain was out for about a week and came straight into the squad premises to demand Finral take him to the capital. The space magician, later on, noticed Yami´s cigarettes stunk less and realized it was because they were of far better quality -and more expensive- than the ones he usually had, so he casually commented to his squad mates Yami´s mission must have paid very handsomely for him to have been able to buy such expensive cigarettes. Asta agreed with him since he had seen a large bulk of packs of that particular cigarette brand in his captain´s room. But Yami loved gambling his money away and hated spending too much on his addiction to nicotine, so it was not like him at all to buy expensive cigarettes.

However, the strangest part was the fact that after weeks and weeks, the supply didn’t seem to be running low. What had reduced a lot -like, A LOT- was Yami´s losses at gambling. And why? It wasn’t that he was earning much more, either. He had stopped gambling altogether. Magna was absolutely heartbroken over it. Something else that had been growing was a little plant nursery Yami had settled with Charmy´s help. It was exactly the short chef who had ratted him out to the other girls, about the plants he had been growing: flowers. Flowers of all kinds. Charmy was upset most of them were inedible but at the same time, she was impressed someone like Yami would put effort into flowers. Noelle was the first one, months after that first discussion, to bring up the possibility of Yami being head over heels for whatever girlfriend he was dating because, obviously, he had a girlfriend. Gray recognized in the nursery the same kind of flowers she had seen him buy months before.

Obviously, the men in the squad were absolutely clueless despite them all noticing their captain´s repeated absences. No one ever saw him leave the base but, from time to time, Yami would just disappear. It wasn’t done regularly but often enough for the dumbasses to pick up on, especially because they had learned which disappearances not to question Yami about since the menacing aura and the chewing-outs they got from him because of those escapades were far from desirable. So, yeah. The men were in denial and the women were pissed at them for being dumbasses and because they were curious about Yami concealing his secret from everyone. Fights had ensued nonstop ever since the suspicion arose and there was always a brawl whenever new evidence was brought up for discussion. But it all came to a halt when Luck, visibly enraged, commented he had been unable to fight the person who had flown out of Yami´s window. It had been a blessing their captain was not in the base during that particular dinner when Luck confessed it was the third time he noticed someone leaving the base flying on a broom.  

“They have been at it right here and none of us noticed!”, Vanessa slammed her hands on the table.

“You know who the intruder is?”

“Of course! It´s the captain´s girlfriend!”

“What girlfriend? Captain Yami doesn’t have a girlfriend”

“He does, dumbass”

“He doesn’t!”

“He does”

“No”

“Yes”

“NOOOO”

“YESSSS”

“Oh, come on. The flowers? Captain Yami, of all people, growing flowers? You all have seen him these past few months taking care of that nursery as if it was his child. The expensive cigarettes? He wouldn’t buy those unless he had a fortune and he has stopped gambling!”

“Since he isn’t losing money, he´s got more chance of buying whatever brand of cigarettes he likes”, Magna replied.

“What about the missing flowers?”

“He could be selling them. Extra money that would contribute to him buying those stinky sticks”, Gauche argued.

“I can´t with you all being this dumb, for real. Have you guys seen the size of the nursery? If he were selling flowers to make money, he would be working us all to death to grow flowers in every available space on the property and the surrounding forest. And he doesn’t! Besides, it´s not like he´s growing particularly singular or unique flowers, so it´s not like this imaginary business you´ve come up with would be of any competition to the Roselei family´s flowers. He´s not selling them: the missing flowers captain Yami doesn’t complain about are for bouquets he makes for his girlfriend”

“In any case”, Finral interrupted because he had grown tired of their endless fights about Yami´s dating life, “what has a girlfriend got to do with the intruder?”

“Intruder!”, Noelle indignantly answered, “Three times Luck has seen this person leave captain Yami´s room. Three, three different times. There´s been one person that has been in his room at least on three different occasions and there hasn’t been an incident about it. Do you honestly think our captain wouldn’t have noticed? He hates his sleep schedule being interrupted and his room is like a dragon lair no one is allowed to venture into. Aside from Asta who has to wake him up, of course. Had it been an intruder, we would have had a murder scene as soon as they had gotten an inch close to that room. Three times! And nothing happened, nobody even knew about it. Do you know what that means? Exactly, that person was willingly allowed into the room by no other than Captain Yami himself”

“Why a girlfriend, though? It could have been a man. Luck said the person was shrouded with a cloak so it could be just about anyone”

“Not that it would matter, right? I mean, if it´s a woman or a man captain Yami is dating”, Gray said and all the girls agreed.

“No. Of course, we don´t mind a woman or a man as Yami´s significant other”, replied Finral, “But let´s be honest, no one would harbor romantic feelings for our captain so that´s out of the question. That person wasn’t his date!”

“Why would captain Yami conceal it, then?”

“Important business”

“Of exactly what kind?”

“I don’t know! Perhaps captain stuff. Secret missions the Wizard Emperor can only discuss with him in private”

“Out here? Of all places?”

“We all know Yami hates going to the capital so it makes sense for people to come over here instead”

“Oh, yeah. It does. I mean, knocking on the door and being welcomed as a guest is completely an irrational thing to have done. Coming at night and getting into the base without anyone noticing makes perfect sense”

“Indeed. It´s actually brilliant”

At this point, Noelle and Vanessa were fuming. Gray was holding Charmy back so she wouldn’t attack Magna, who was the one doing mental gymnastics to deny the possibility of Yami having a girlfriend. At some point, Finral and Gauche and even Gordon joined forces with Magna and it felt like they were arguing just to antagonize the women. They had had similar arguments before so it was obvious they were going nowhere and it always ended up with the two battle fronts about to destroy the building -when Yami was out because no one dared to bring up this matter when he was around. Instead of just asking Yami, they had been bickering for months. Their captain would have most likely not told them the truth but reading into his expressions or hesitance would have put their minds at ease for a while, at least.

“Enough!”, Noelle yelled, “We need someone, an impartial judge to determine who´s in the right and who´s in the wrong here. Asta, what do you say?”

Thing is, Asta was dumb when it came to pretty much anything. So, when these arguments took place, he just sat somewhere, absolutely dumbfounded and thinking both parties were right. To him, Yami dating someone was as plausible as the man doing some sort of sketchy business, so he had no opinion about it. And at that moment, with Luck´s revelation that would have certainly made his brain explode considering a new possibility, Asta was as absent as his captain.

“Asta´s gone. He went to Hage to visit his friends”

“Then, another judge”, Vanessa said, “And I´ve got the perfect one: Henry. Even if the captain tried to conceal it, Henry certainly knows there was someone here. Perhaps even knows who it was”

“No, but. Why are we even having this conversation? Does it really matter?”, Gordon said and the other men took his side

“Because of gossip! This is the kind of tea that once spilled will give us life for a long time. Are you not interested in the kind of person that dates our captain? Or, by defect, the kind of secret matters that leads them to keep us in the dark? Wait, no. We´ve had this conversation over and over again and it´s until this very moment you all are having qualms about it?”

“Actually, we just want to prove you wrong. We know there´s no special person for Yami, so we´ve been trying to make you understand”

“Then why as soon as this intruder is brought up you decide to wonder if it does matter at all or not? That sure does sound like cowardice to me”, Noelle retorted.

“Ok, let´s bet. Henry must have the answer and definitely, he won´t betray the bro code and will side with us”

“You´ve never had any luck at gambling, Magna. Why should this time be any different?”

“Is that fear of losing what we are hearing?”

“Alright, then. Let´s bet. Whoever loses will have to confront Yami about it. There was an intruder after all. If we women lose, we´ll ask him about the business he´s dealing with behind our backs. If you dumbasses lose, then we´ll have you asking him about this significant other. Call?”

“It could be a hook-up, you know?”, Finral whispered, not actually willing to admit he had considered the possibility of multiple one-night stands.

“There´s children present!”, Vanessa smacked the back of his head, “It´s a possibility we must take into consideration but that we will not discuss in front of them. Unless you want to explain the flowers and beetles to Luck, Asta, Magna and I bet Charmy as well”

Finral stared at her in horror and Gray and Noelle blushed beet red.

“Call”, Magna said and defiantly stared at the women.

They were the Black Bulls, so obviously there was a great deal of fighting before they finally resolved to go and ask Henry. As usual, they ran together and kept fighting, slowing themselves unnecessarily. And they would have miserably failed had Gauche not reminded them Yami would be back any minute and then they would miss their chance of one-upping the other. So, they called a truce and rushed into Henry´s room. The man felt their presence and was very welcoming… until Noelle asked him about the intruder. Henry freaked out, said he had no idea about Yami dating a beautiful woman, and basically kicked them all out by rearranging the building multiple times, keeping them far from his room as soon as they tried to approach it. It goes without saying everyone was stunned. And suspicious.

“We got no answers from him. So I guess it´s a stalemate”

“Stalemate? You better be prepared to ask captain Yami about his girlfriend, Finral”

“How stubborn can you girls really be? Henry literally said he knows nothing”

“About Yami dating a beautiful woman. If you remember, we asked for an intruder. Never said anything about no one dating. The words ´beautiful woman´ were never brought up until Henry got nervous”

“Hey, gotta admit that was honestly odd phrasing of him”, Gauche conceded.

“So, the verdict is…”

“No! I refuse to accept it!”, Magna said.

“Well, tough. You guys lost. There is a woman Yami has been seeing. So you better be ready to ask him about it once he´s back. And by you, I mean you all, all the men that belong to this squad. Since you all acquired a debt of honor, you must honor it”

“Ok, fine. But you girls must admit you´ve gone crazy. Just because of flowers and you all knew right away captain Yami was seeing someone. That´s very psycho”

“Uh? I can´t quite hear you, you virgin delinquent”

“Come on, guys”, Noelle said, “You must have noticed our captain actually has been looking after himself more. You didn’t hear this from me, but there was perfume in his room. Perfume! And those absences he gets so annoyed to be asked about can be no coincidence. And the flowers. Captain Yami legitimately built his own orchard and with Charmy´s help has been taking care of his colorful plants. He puts so much effort into it and, in spite of plenty of flowers going missing, he never complains about it. If one knocks on the bathroom door while he´s in, one immediately sees their life flash before their own eyes just by feeling the menacing aura caused by captain Yami´s annoyance. Do you honestly think he would let slide someone steal the fruits of his arduous labor without any repercussions? It means he is the one making the flowers disappear. Call it pyscho behavior if you want, but just put two and two together. The fact that he´s done this much can only mean he´s utterly in love with someone. That level of devotion is only reserved for the purest of feelings”

“Now I´m feeling bad”, replied Finral, “If you put it like that, I wonder why he has kept it a secret. Is it perhaps that he doesn’t trust us?”

“Well, some of us are very noisy, we must admit”

“Some?”

“Fine. We all are”

“Maybe his special person is someone we know”

“Henry mentioned a beautiful woman”

“That doesn’t tell us much. Aside from the Blue Rose captain, it could be about any woman”

“What do you mean “aside”?”

“Oh, come on. She´s the most beautiful woman in the entire kingdom. Even Yami has voiced his confusion about how much she hates him. And she loathes men.  What I mean to say is that our captain can be dating any beautiful woman except for the most beautiful one”

“I wonder why, if they want to keep it a secret, they would come here. It´s not like it´s 100% impossible for one of us to catch them. Luck alone has noticed she´s been here on three different occasions”

“Let´s not get too worked up on here. You guys still need to confront our captain about it”

“Wait, there comes Asta. I bet we can trick him to do it”

“That´s mean. Besides, we agreed it would be all of you. Cowards!”

“That´s not fair! We don´t want to die”

“Ah-huh! But you made a bet”

“Do you still need confirmation, though? We are all certain now”

“About Yami dating. We still need to figure out who it is. And that, my dears, is your job”

“Ok, but wouldn’t that be a breach of privacy?”

“Says the one that suggested captain stuff being handled at these premises and still bet on us having to ask captain Yami about it. Breach of privacy my as…tounding impatience to see what you guys are going to do”

Against all the Black Bulls girls´ desires, the men decided to sacrifice Asta and tricked him into asking their captain about the special woman in his life. They waited a few days and meanwhile they kept making casual remarks to the loud mage: they were about how much Asta loved a certain nun from his village, so Gauche decided to convince him into asking Yami for love advice. It was devious, yes. But none of them wanted to die. At first, Asta was obviously unconvinced but then one of his friends commented about Yami being the oldest man amongst the Black Bulls, then another said that maybe captain Fuegoleon would be a far better option but because of his duty-only mindset perhaps he didn’t have much time for romance, then the other argued that it was possible the girls were right and Yami had been seeing someone so it meant anything was possible: if Yami could get a girlfriend, then not all hope was lost. And if there was still hope then… it was still possible to surpass one´s limits. That basically did it for everyone.

Unsurprisingly, it all went south.

“Say, captain, do you have a girlfriend?”, thoughtless Asta asked him one night they were all together eating dinner.

To say all the Black Bulls´ hearts stopped in unison was an understatement. The atmosphere dropped and everyone froze as though time had stopped still. To their utter horror, an eerie calm washed over Yami as he slowly turned his face to look Asta in the eye.

“Say, little twerp, where is this question coming from?”

“I wanted to confess to sister Lily and I wanted your help”

“I believe you´ve been told before nuns cannot get married. Why are you still pushing this?”

“Because there´s still hope! Since you…”

Noelle started violently coughing, having caught up on what was about to happen. Vanessa stared accusingly at Finral and Gauche, who obviously couldn’t meet her eye. Charmy was debating about the easiest way to cause food poisoning to her fellow squad mates. Asta tried to help Noelle, but Yami grabbed him by the head and lifted him so the two of them could face each other at the same eye level.

“Since I what, brat?”

“Since you could give me advice”

Yami narrowed his eyes at him, obviously suspecting something foul. While the men had sighed in relief because Asta had been smart enough to backpedal from his blunt approach on the subject they all wanted clarification from, the women had pouted because not only they wouldn’t be getting an answer anytime soon but also their fellow squad mates had breached their deal and instead put all the responsibility on Asta. Their captain pondered briefly and it felt as if he was considering actually killing Asta or not.

“I believe this sister Lily has already given you an answer. Multiple times. How about you try to move on? It´s harsh, but she doesn’t consider you as a potential romantic partner and if she did her religious vows would prevent her from it. It´s not like you to give up, but in this case, this is a battle you cannot win”

There was wisdom in Yami´s words and it surprised everyone else since normally their captain would have shrugged Asta off by telling him not to bother him about it. Or Yami would have laughed about the comic aspect of a teenager and his puppy love for a woman dedicated to serving her god, only to smile after in pride for Asta´s tenacity. But to actually assess the matter in a serious manner without an ongoing death-or-life situation felt completely out of place. Asta, however, became agitated as he often did when people told him his efforts regarding sister Lily were futile, so he tried to play it cool.

Only to mess up again.

“But, captain! I cannot give up on sister Lily. If it were you, would you be able to give up on your girlfriend?”

This time, no one was quick enough to react so as to make a distraction.  Dumb Asta didn’t even realize his mistake, trying to get his point across.

“I don´t have a girlfriend. Never had one, either. So I can´t give you an answer, aside from the fact that I wouldn’t be falling in love with an unreachable woman”

“Not even the Blue Rose captain, who is the most beautiful woman in the kingdom?”

Yami tightened his grip on Asta´s head. Just for a second, though. Still enough to make him see his -brief- life before his eyes. After that, the Black Bulls captain let go of him and sat back down to remain his meal. There was absolute silence.

“Now, that´s a great example so you can finally understand. Let´s use the Spiny Prickly Queen. She hates men, right? We all know that. So, if she´s made clear her stance on romance, why would someone keep offering for her? You guys are too young, but when she was about your age even older creepy dudes kept trying to get her to marry them. And she turned them all down. She hates men, does not want to get married. Say, brat, if you were in love with her, would you ask her to marry you?”

“Well, no. She would absolutely kill me”

“So, even if there´s a romantic interest in one of the parts involved, it doesn’t necessarily mean the other has to reciprocate those feelings, right?”

“Right”

“But it is mandatory to respect both parts´ decisions and wishes”

“Absolutely”

“So, if you wouldn’t propose to the Spiny Prickly Queen, why do you still want the nun from your village to marry you?”

“I get your point, captain, but sister Lily doesn’t hate men”

“No, but she has made a vow of celibacy: she doesn’t hate men, but she voluntarily renounced romantic involvement so she could help children. And it is mandatory to respect everyone´s decisions, remember? Even if you are interested, you cannot change the path of life sister Lily has chosen. And, most importantly, she has rejected all your proposals in the past. You have your answer. Don´t you think your persistence in spite of her giving you an answer means that you only care about your feelings?”

Asta seemed to ponder for a moment. Yami had struck a nerve. The rest of the Black Bulls were seeing their captain in a new and different light: could that drunkard, lazy big brother who always made jokes about everything and they all loved to no end be actually that wise? Yami shared tough love with pretty much everyone but he didn’t really have a way with words so it was a big -but heartwarming- surprise Yami could have this heart-to-heart with Asta, and assess the matter in an adult, mature way.

“You are right, captain. But I still want sister Lily to marry me”

“What are you? Finral, who can´t take a no for an answer?”

“WHAT! I do nothing and still get involved?”, the spatial mage replied indignantly.

“For the record, though, considering how many times he´s been turned down, Finral does understand rejection. It is because of how often he “falls” in love that we know no sane woman wants to put up with him”

“Ok, that´s enough. Sorry for making you the butt of the joke, Finral. Now, Asta. I have no other advice for you. Normally I wouldn’t encourage you to give up, but this is for your own good”

It goes without saying that, despite Asta´s sulking, he was still not letting go of sister Lily. He was naïve like that. But the Black Bulls indeed seemed to agree Yami´s words hid deeper meaning: he was absolutely right but they all suspected there was a reason why only now, after months and months of listening Asta go on and on about his desire to marry the nun that had basically raised him, that Yami decided to lecture him about it. Pretty much everyone knew Asta was in the wrong and everyone had told him why he would never get sister Lily to accept him, but it had only been Yami who had seriously confronted him about it. And given Yami´s personality, he had been far gentler than they would have expected. Not that it was something bad, but it made them all suspicious.

They never got to talk about it, though. As soon as Yami went to bed that night, all the Black Bulls exchanged murderous glares, and then, since the next morning Yami left for the capital by himself, they started fist-fighting each other. Considering the men had contradicted the women only to be utterly wrong and even had the audacity to trick Asta into asking Yami about his girlfriend without a carefully thought-out plan, one can only bet they took a beating from Noelle and Vanessa, while Gray shyly supported them from afar and Charmy refused to feed them and taunted their appetites making delicious food but keeping them outside their reach. A silent battle then started, since women refused to talk to their squad mates after the stunt they had pulled. Even Yami seemed to take notice of the situation but was a bit of a loss at why there were now two ruckuses inside the premises: one made by the men trying to one-up the women and one made by the women about random gossip. But when he asked, both parties answered he was imagining things.

But one fateful night, things took a turn for the unexpected. Back when they had made a bet about who´d have to ask Yami about either a significant other or his secret visitor being part of some secret stuff, Asta had been at Hage, so he was completely unaware of the visitor Luck had seen leaving Yami´s room. And no one had told him about it. Yami had gone on a mission and left the base for several days, so their fights had been uninterrupted day and night during his absence. And Noelle was beating the shit out of Asta that one night when all of a sudden Asta loudly announced that Yami was back. They all stopped dead in their tracks since their captain was nowhere to be seen and would absolutely not be pleased about the mess they had created: in fact, they weren’t expecting him until two days later so pretty much they all knew they were done for.

“But wait. There´s someone else with him. It´s a familiar ki but I can´t recall whose it is. And I believe they went to captain Yami´s room. Why, though?”

All the Black Bulls, aside from clueless Asta, missed a heartbeat.

“IT MUST BE HIS GIRLFRIEND!”

“But he said he doesn’t have one”

“And you are the only fool that believed him”

“This is our chance to see who it is. Come on, let´s go to his room right now”, Magna said.

Vanessa grabbed him by the collar and prevented him from sprinting off.

“Yeah, no. It´s just a hunch but that´s probably a bad idea”

All the women agreed. After a few seconds, some of the men understood as well and agreed.

“Then what?”

“Let´s wait outside so that we can catch her when she flies out”

Their past ongoing war came to a sudden truce as they all went outside at once. On their way out, they agreed for Finral to take Asta to whatever place -down on the ground or up in the air- he could use his antimagic on the woman to prevent her from leaving before they could see her. Luck was ready to fight her, Magna couldn’t wait to confront her so she could promise she wouldn’t break Yami´s heart, Vanessa really wished she had something to capture the moment so she could spread the word… they all were excited about it, imagining they would need to wait a long time before their curiosities were satisfied.

But it didn’t take long at all. In fact, they were barely outside when they saw a cloaked figure flying out Yami´s window. So they all panicked and Gordon, who had snatched an apple from Charmy´s hand, used all his strength to aim and hit the unlucky person, who ungraciously lost balance and became tangled in their own cloak and fell miserably into some bushes. Asta, who now had quickly reacted, had his swords ready and ran after the poor victim, followed by most of the Black Bulls. But before he could do anything, he was immobilized by some briars and those closest to him found they were about to be squeezed to death by the tightening briars as well. There was movement from the bushes and there came, with a murderous glare on her face, no other than Charlotte Roselei herself, all covered in dirt and leaves, her cloak still restricting her movements, her hair disheveled and her eyes glimmering in the most menacing blue fire. At lightning speed, all the Black Bulls fell victim to her briars and were now prisoners, with their bodies completely unable to move. The Blue Rose captain brought Asta close to her face and not even Yami had scared the loud mage as much as she did then.

“You little runt”, she said, “Attacking me from the back and using such a projectile to take me down? You will not see another day. Nor any other of you rascals”

It was only Gray who found the courage in herself to say a few words.

“Are you captain Yami´s girlfriend?”

That got a reaction from Charlotte, who turned to look at her with surprise replacing the horrific gesture of anger on her face.

“What? Absolutely not”

“Then why are you leaving our captain´s bedroom?”, Charmy said

“Yes, why? You´ve been here before. I´ve seen you”, Luck replied.

Charlotte glared at them for a few seconds. Then she released her powers and her briars disappeared.

“I´ll take this attack on me as self-defense from you all, for thinking I was an intruder invading your premises. For your own good, I will not believe you knocked me down because you thought I am Yami´s girlfriend”

“Thanks, I guess?”, Gauche said.

“And to answer your question, miss, I am not your captain´s girlfriend. And as for the other question, yes, I have been here before. Would you mind if we discussed this over a cup of tea? And some antiseptic, I did get a pretty bad cut from the fall”

Charlotte had regained her composure and graciousness and her murderous intent had vanished, but the Black Bulls were still shaken up about the whole surreal experience. And certainly, they didn’t want to expose themselves a second time to the Blue Rose captain´s wrath. So, in an unusual silence, they all went inside the base, and Vanessa and Noelle helped Charlotte to clean her wounds. Charmy gave her a few cupcakes so that they would ease her pain and Gordon went to make some tea. It felt so surreal having the Blue Rose captain, who even while dirt covered, seemed so flawless compared to the absolute mess the premises were that suddenly everyone felt shy. She didn’t seem to mind, though. But it was still strange, since her beauty made her seem as if she were glowing. It was late at night, so the lights were dim but they reflected in a beautiful way against her shiny hair.

No one spoke until the tea was served and Charlotte took a sip.

“So”, Noelle started, “I guess an apology is in order”

“And an explanation from me. Does anyone have a question? It´ll be easier this way, I believe”

“Same ones as before”, Luck resolutely said.

“Fair enough. I am not Yami´s girlfriend and wonder why that was your first question, but I am not the one asking the questions. I came here because Yami got drunk and couldn’t even form a coherent sentence, so I felt bad and I came to drop him off since otherwise he would have slept… anywhere but on a bed. The Wizard Emperor likes to hold drinking contests from time to time and I feel obligated to attend, despite my being a lightweight. Recently, those drinking contests, in which only captains are allowed, have been held more often, so that´s why I´ve been here multiple times. Most of the time, Yami covers for me and drinks the booze I was supposed to drink, which makes him have extra alcohol and leads to drunkenness more easily. So, to make it up to him, if it gets too bad, I come to drop him off. Your squad mate, Henry, confronted me the first time I came and when I told him my motives, he said that from then on I would be allowed to sneak into the base”

“That makes sense”, Magna said, “But, lady, wouldn’t be easier to just come to the front door and knock? Why are you sneaking into our captain´s room?”

“That was my initial plan, but during that first night I had to deal with drunk Yami, when we approached the base, he recognized his room´s window, so I decided to just drop him on the bed and leave, but Henry found me and was not pleased with the intrusion. Besides, I believe it will hurt Yami´s ego if he finds he can´t even walk straight after those drinking contests, and Jack would hold that over his head forever. Your captain has actually bragged about how he doesn’t know how he does it but he always finds his way back and I don´t think he´ll believe if I said it´s because of me”

“Hold up. Does that mean you actually care about captain Yami?” Noelle said, “You don’t want him sleeping outdoors, you don´t want his ego hurt and you don´t have it in you to tell him you are the one bringing him home so that means…”

“I don´t. Thing is, he gets extra drunk because of me. You know him better than I do, so you are aware he can hold his liquor. But taking double the amount he normally does obviously has repercussions, leading to him being unable to even ask for help. Me hating his guts does not prevent me from being thankful, so this is all I can do for him without bringing him shame”

“Is that it?”

“No. In the past, Yami saved my life and I am forever indebted to him for that. He probably doesn’t remember but I still need to repay my debt. The two of us don’t get along at all, but I don´t want my debt to him growing any further”

“So… I guess that´s all that there´s to it”

“Say, Blue Rose captain, do you know about Yami´s girlfriend?”

Charlotte furrowed her brows.

“He´s got one?”

“We all think so”

“And you thought I was the one?”

“We might have”

“But we´ve cleared that up already, have we not?”

“Indeed”

“So, why are you asking?”

“You see, we know he has a girlfriend but we don´t know who she is. So I thought that perhaps you know her”

“Right. Yami certainly would tell me, of all people, about his relationship”

“No, I mean. Maybe you´ve seen them?”

“I am sorry, kids, but I am just as clueless as you are. Even more, since this is my first time hearing he´s got a girlfriend. However, if you all suspect about it, why haven’t you asked him directly?”

“Well, our captain isn’t… very open about his feelings”

“And yet you are discussing this with someone he´s not particularly close with. Besides, what was your plan? Since I was the one who got knocked down, I am very curious about what you were going to do had I not defended myself the way I did”

“Now that you mention it, we never got to discuss that part. We only planned to wait until you left, but by the time we went outside you were about to leave, so we panicked”

Charlotte said nothing. But there was a scary look in her eyes.

“Which reminds me. Who was the one who threw the apple?”

…

…..

…….

……….

Yami woke up with a massive headache. Judging by the sunlight, it was mid-morning. He was super hungry but there was something more urgent on his mind: why was it so quiet? Not a single sound was heard. He found a bottle of water on his nightstand and drank it in one gulp, then went to the bathroom, a massive headache hitting like a speeding train. Absolute deafening silence gave him chills. But on his way back Yami met Henry, so he asked him where everyone was. “Outside” was the only word he got as an answer, aside from his subordinate pointing to the window. Yami took a look and blinked many times in astonishment, unable to speak for a few minutes.

“So, I take that scene outside is the Spiny Prickly Queen´s doing. Why was she here?”

“She came to drop you off”

“Nah, I came here by myself. Just like I always do”

“Captain, I wouldn’t lie to you. It was lady Charlotte who brought you home… same as all those times before. If you get too drunk, it is she who makes sure you are safely back”

Yami thought for a second.

“I guess that explains why I ain’t never slept under a tree. Why hasn’t she said anything?”

“Well, I did hear her conversation with the others so I know, in more or fewer words, that she tries to help you out since you prevent her from pushing herself too hard during those drinking competitions”

“Wait. Her conversations with the others?”

“Yes, more or less that´s the reason why you can see what´s outside right now. They attacked her and then questioned her about her presence here, so that´s why they are like that”

“Which is weird. I would have expected her to kill them. I guess she´s grown soft”

“I think she was going to let the apple go, but once they confessed they ganged up on her without a plan she got mad and did that”

“The apple?”

“Oh, someone used an apple to knock her off the broom and she fell on the bushes”

“An apple? They thought she was an intruder and instead of using their magic powers they just threw an apple at her? These kids really are dumbasses, for real”

“They didn’t think she was an intruder. They thought she is your girlfriend”

“Don´t fuck with me”

“Lady Charlotte cleared that up, don´t worry. She said she only comes to drop you off when you are too drunk”

Henry explained the whole thing to Yami, who grew more and more stunned as the other man went on.

“I guess that explains why Asta asked me a while back if I had a girlfriend. Why would they suspect, of all people, of her thorn sulkiness, though?”

“Because she was unlucky enough to be caught leaving your bedroom. They actually came to me asking me about your girlfriend”

“Which I don´t have”

“Only because you chicken out when it comes to asking lady Charlotte out. Considering what the two of you do when you are on missions I don´t understand how both of you get shy when it comes to actually start dating”

“Hey, hey. I won´t have you speak to me like that. Jeez, I woke up to a massive headache, all my subordinates on the verge of death, and also a lecture? I´m so much older than I can take. But are you saying they suspect something?”

“They are certain you have a girlfriend. Which isn’t so far from the truth”

“Hmm, that reminds me. You never told me about those times she dropped me off and never corrected me about coming home by myself. I think you are playing a double agent here”

“Perhaps. But can we take a second here to appreciate she did a very nice gesture and I helped her by not ratting her out or exposing her? She does care a great deal about you, so I didn’t want to betray her trust. Since you have brought her here before, I knew you trusted her around the base, and seeing she wanted to make sure you were okay after binge drinking I saw no problem keeping her secret”

“I guess it´s time for me to man up and formally ask her out. I´ll think of a way. Maybe I´ll grow some extra flowers for her. Thanks for not ratting us, by the way”

“Anytime, captain”

“I´ll have some breakfast. Want me to bring something for you?”

“I´m good, thanks”

Yami started heading down to the kitchen.

“Uh, captain?”

“Yes?”

“What about the others?”

“Let them be. I´ll go help them once I am done eating”

Outside, all the Black Bulls were hanging upside down from the trees, wrapped around in green cocoons covered in roses.