Chapter Text
The Black Bulls base’s office room was one of the quiet places in the base. At this time, there were sounds of frantic scribbles and paper rustling from tall stacks of paper.
Finral sat at the desk against the window, a hand in his hair and another holding a feathered pen as he read a document. The words were starting to become mundane and he was finding himself reading the same line twice or thrice over. The flickering candle nearby was not much help.
After dinner with everyone, Finral had gone up to the office to try to get some work done that needed to be submitted later in the week. However, maybe he should have declined the glass of wine from Vanessa at dinner or maybe the stress of thinking about the work was getting to him.
“Finral,” came a voice close behind him.
Finral jumped, nearly falling out of his seat. He spun around. “Vice Captain Nacht!”
Nacht held his usual pensive expression. “What are you doing?”
Finral felt his eyes water, “I’m doing mission paperwork that we’re supposed to have in by this week! We’re so behind they were only nice enough to give us until then!”
Nacht took the document Finral was holding and scanned it. He hummed. “Move,” he said.
Finral blinked at the older man, but quickly stumbled out of the chair.
Nacht replaced him and began scribbling on the document. Finral quietly watched him for a minute.
Finral cleared his throat, “Well… since you’ve got it covered now…”
“Stop,” Nacht said. “You need to tell me about these missions so I know what to document.”
Finral sighed and slumped against the wall.
Nacht peered at him. “Does no one else do this?”
Finral ran a hand through his hair, “I’m sure you’re aware of the personalities of the members in this squad. Not that it matters, this is supposed to be the job of the Captain and Vice Captain anyways.”
Nacht narrowed his eyes at him.
Finral straightened up, “Uh, I mean! Captain Yami did his best!”
Nacht turned back to the papers. “...I’m sure.”
“...I mean Nero helps out, sometimes. Gordon too. But usually it’s me and Captain Yami.”
“Alright,” Nacht said.
Silence fell between the two again.
Finral slumped down to crouch on the ground as he waited for Nacht to ask him about the documents. They really needed to get another chair in the office. Then again, that would mean he'd have to be in there too. Probably best not to get the extra chair. He hoped Nacht would take over his duties, to be honest.
“Hm,” Nacht hummed, flipping through some of the documents Finral had finished. “You’re a lousy flirt who struggles on missions most of the time,” he said.
Finral's jaw dropped. Was Nacht seriously insulting him right now? Was his work that bad?!
“But,” Nacht continued, “you do a good job handling these tasks.”
Finral's frown fell. He stared at the side of Nacht's face in shock. “R-Really? Thanks… I think.”
“I'll take over the documenting from now on,” Nacht said. “Perhaps you can assist me in the future.”
Finral continued staring at Nacht in surprise. “I… yeah I wouldn't mind helping you out…” He stood and looked around the room. “Oh, I know how I can start!” He went to one of the shelves and pulled a notebook out. He brought it in front of Nacht and plopped it on the table over the other papers.
“What is this?” Nacht asked.
“It's a collection of notes of all our members!” Finral declared, pulling the cover open. “Everyone's got their own section, see?”
There indeed was a section for each member, some thicker than others.
Finral began flipping through the pages, “Here's a few. Like Gauche, do not take his pictures of Marie to motivate him to work. Trust me, it will not work and he destroys the place instead of doing his job.” A few more pages. “Oh this is Luck's list of allergies, he's kind of got a lot of them... it’d be good for you to memorize them just in case. Charmy knows this too since she does most of our cooking.” More pages were flipped. “Vanessa’s got a whole list of favorite wines, this is useful during the holiday season, to be honest.”
Nacht’s eye twitched as he stared
“I recently added yours, too!” Finral announced, pulling a tab that indeed had his name on it. It only held a profile page which was empty except for his name and ranking in the squad.
Nacht shut the file. “There is no need for that.”
“Oh,” Finral blinked. “I guess we don't know you that well yet, anyways.” He shrugged. He straightened the binder and left it in front of Nacht. “You can keep this, I have it practically memorized anyways. You'll find it useful for some of our more troublesome members.”
Nacht pushed the file back to Finral. “I will not have a need for this.”
Finral stopped, realizing what Nacht meant. “Ah, I see…” He folded up the file carefully and returned it back to its place on the shelf. “I’ll just leave it here as usual…” He stared at the file on the shelf as Nacht turned back to the documents to finish. “I just… got caught up making them because everyone became like a family to me and I wanted to do my best to take care of them. I'm sure you'll become a part of us as we spend more time together.”
Nacht was quiet. He put a document on the finished pile and grabbed another from the pending pile. “Why don't you go rest for today,” he finally said.
Finral's face fell. “Yeah… okay.” He turned away from the bookshelf and headed for the door.
“Finral,” Nacht said again.
“Yes sir?” Finral turned his head back.
“Thank you for your dedication to the squad.”
Finral's face brightened. “Yessir!”
With that, Nacht was left alone in the office room. He worked on the documents, the sounds of paper and ink scratching the only sounds accompanying him.
Several minutes passed before he paused and turned to the bookshelf. The binder stood out, being much thicker than other books on the shelf. It was also well worn from use, rather than age compared to the neighboring books.
With a sigh, Nacht stood and took the binder. He found it to be well organized.
Finral’s passion for getting to know the members really did come through. He found a section for every member with details about their habits, likes, dislikes, and motivating information. Like the younger man had mentioned, there was even a new section for Nacht.
There was no information in it, other than his title as Vice-Captain.
The feather pen next to him, Nacht lifted it and started writing on the next page.
“What are you writing, Mr. Nacht?” Gimodelo appeared to speak right at that moment.
Nacht was not surprised. “I’m writing about you,” he answered truthfully. He wrote the names of his accompanying devils, and their likes and dislikes. He didn’t know when this would ever be relevant.
“I like Mr. Nacht and peanuts!” Gimodelo supplied.
Nacht hummed. He would only write down peanuts for his likes.
After writing some things about his devils, he put his pen down. They’d have to figure out the rest of his own likes and habits. He would be curious to see what Finral could find out.
At that, Nacht noticed no section for Finral himself. Holding back a sigh of disbelief of what he was doing, Nacht flipped to the back and added Finral’s name.
He formatted it similarly to the other members’ sections. He didn’t know much about the young man, so most of it was left empty. At the end of the page, he scribbled down a single line, then shut the binder. He would look over each member’s sections over time. For now, he would go back to the documents.
Gimodelo popped away and Nacht was left in silence again to work on the pending documents.
Deep inside the binder, that now sat on its spot on the shelf again, was the newest page with the small message, ‘ A hard working young man. ’