Chapter 1: Mirrored Wards
Chapter Text
Monica had tried, really tried, to be reasonable.
She wasn’t overreacting.
She knew she wasn’t.
Three days ago, Louis had come home with a bandage around his ribs, brushing it off with a lazy, “Got caught off guard. Nothing serious.”
He said it like he hadn’t been one unlucky inch away from a punctured lung.
Two days ago, Nero had walked in with a split lip and bruised knuckles from breaking someone’s jaw. “They insulted you,” he’d said, as if that explained everything.
And yesterday?
They had both come home quiet.
Neither hurt, neither bleeding — just tired. Unusually tired. The kind of tired that spoke of too much blood on their hands, even if it wasn’t theirs.
They didn’t tell her what happened.
They didn’t ask for help.
And it started when Louis and Nero started protecting her with their complex assortment of wards and protections.
She understood why.
She had scared them.
She even scared herself sometimes.
But still—She was one of the Seven Sages.
She wasn’t just someone to be defended.
And that bothered her more than anything
So here she sat, cross-legged on her bed, brow furrowed, with chalk in hand and a dozen half-finished glyphs hovering in the air above her palm.
She wasn’t breaking any wards.
She wasn’t altering the existing ones.
She wasn’t removing safeguards.
She was simply… adding them.
Rule #3 warns them when I am in danger., but why shouldn't it warn me when they are too?
If either Louis or Nero are in danger — notify Monica and activate teleportation protocol.
She sealed the final glyph with a satisfied smile.
There, a ward to protect them, like they did for me. Now we're even.
The chalk glowed faintly, activating the new formula, her mana seeping into the amulet carefully placed in the center of her glyph.
She didn’t know — couldn’t have known — that the moment her magic branched into the system, it categorized her new ward under the existing ‘’Rule #3’’, interpreting her actions as an alteration of the existing rule, silently triggering a series of warnings.
Chapter 2: Nuclear Failsafe
Chapter Text
They were close — Nero could feel it.
The idiots that had tried to kidnap Monica.
They had targeted her— a mistake they would pay for with their lives.
All but one rat had slipped through the cracks. The prisoner eventually gave way under interrogation, revealing valuable information: the name of the organization behind it all.
Frankly, Louis didn’t like to leave loose ends.
Nero didn’t either.
Together, they moved swiftly on the lead, determined to strike before the group realized they were compromised.
“I’m picking up movement inside,” Louis murmured, lowering himself until his face was level with Nero’s. He kept his voice clinical, the way he always did with dangerous data.
“Five people. At least one with a high mana affinity. One of them carries a signature—” he paused, hands tightening, “—like the intruders who tried to take Monica.”
Louis let the sentence hang for a moment. “Do you think they’re planning another attempt?”
Nero’s jaw went hard. A shadow passed across his features, and something in his posture tightened—muscle, breath, wrath. His mana answered the thought like coiled steel beneath skin.
“I dare them to try,” he said, low and dangerous. “Let them see what happens if they even fucking think about it.”
“We end it tonight,” Louis said.
Before they try again.
Nero nodded in silent agreement.
That was the plan.
Until—
PING
Both of them froze—the alert slicing clean through the concentrated silence of the alley.
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Critical Alert: Unauthorized Alteration of Rule #3
Target: Monica
Protocol: Self-Destructive/Ward Interference
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Nero felt the blood drain from his face.
That wasn’t a normal alert.
That was the nuclear failsafe.
The one that only triggered if she was tampering with protections meant to keep her alive.
Fuck.
Chapter 3: False Alarm
Chapter Text
Louis teleported first, mana burning so hot the air warped around him.
Failsafe primed. If she so much as twitches wrong, I’m triggering it.
Nero landed a heartbeat later — magic coiled at his fingertips like a blade.
Did she take advantage of us being gone?
If she did something stupid—if she hurt herself—
Monica froze mid-turn, chalk still dusting her hands, like a rabbit caught in a storm. The wards around her room hummed erratically, too active, too unstable.
Shit.
Nero moved forward first, voice soft — too soft. “Monica.”
Louis followed, eyes already analyzing, sharp and clinical, darting to the chalk lines, the active glyph still pulsing faintly.
No visible wounds. Mana stable. But wards don’t lie. And if the wards say danger, then—
Louis’s voice was razor-edged, low and deadly calm. “Monica. Step away from the glyph.”
Nero’s pulse spiked at the tone — that deadly calm meant Louis was only one heartbeat from detonating the failsafe.
Not yet. Nero thought sharply. Give her a chance to speak.
“I—It’s not—it’s not what you think!”
Louis didn’t soften. “Then tell us exactly what it is.”
Don’t make me find out the hard way, Monica.
“I—” she stammered, brain short-circuiting under their intensity.
Gods above, why did I rehearse spells but not conversations?
Her silence only deepened their panic.
“I… just… added something.”
Both men went still.
Louis’s gaze was fixed, unblinking, every inch of him screaming to activate the failsafe.
Her chest tightened. “Not for me. For you.”
Louis blinked. “…What?”
“I just… mirrored it. If either of you are in danger, I get notified. And I can teleport to you.”
Silence.
Monica’s throat tightened. She looked down at her hands.
Quietly, she whispered, “…I was just trying to protect you. Like you protect me.”
Another silence — longer, softer.
We’ve been so focused on keeping her from harm that we didn’t see she was trying to protect us.
Nero moved before Louis could — crossing the space between them in two strides. And before she could react, he pulled her into his arms, holding her tight enough that she could feel his heartbeat hammering against her cheek.
She stiffened. “N-Nero?”
His voice was rougher now, not the controlled blade of before. “You scared the hell out of us.”
Louis exhaled slowly, tension bleeding from his shoulders. He sat beside them on the bed, reaching out to gently wipe chalk from her fingers.
“You should have told us,” he said softly.
“You would’ve said no.”
“Yes,” Nero replied bluntly. “But we would’ve explained why, instead of thinking you were about to—”
His voice cracked — just a little.
He didn’t finish.
He didn’t need to.
Monica swallowed. “I didn’t… I wasn’t…”
“We know,” Louis said quietly.
Nero pulled her closer, tightening his arms around her.
“Next time,” he whispered, voice raw, “don’t make us think we’re losing you.”
A long silence.
Then Monica shifted — still caged gently in Nero’s arms.
“So… are you going to delete it?”
Louis and Nero exchanged a glance.
“…No,” Louis said finally. “But we are fixing the loophole that let you add wards without telling us”
Monica scowled. “You can’t stop me.”
Nero snorted into her hair. “We absolutely can.”
She pouted. “…You’re keeping it though?”
Nero rested his chin atop her head. “Yeah.”
Louis sighed. “But if it drags you face-first into danger because Nero stubs his toe, I’m revoking your chalk privileges.”
Monica managed a grin despite everything.
“Deal.”